Category Archives: homosexuality

A lesson for therapists: don’t give people what they ask for

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A man goes to see a counsellor because he is afraid of spiders. The councillor asks the man if he would like to be cured of his fear of spiders; the man says, “Yes”; the doctor asks the man if he was frightened by a spider as a child; the counsellor prays for the man.

After the session, the man, who had been recording everything, complained to the General Medical Council because the counsellor had done what he had asked him to do. The counsellor had failed to take into account that, in the land of the loonies, arachnophobia is a preferred lifestyle choice, a protected human right – and, anyway, there is an arachnophobia gene. The man won and the counsellor was roundly condemned, sanctioned and suspended: the verdict was unanimous.

Preposterous? Of course.

From here:

Two years ago, Patrick Strudwick began challenging therapists who claimed they could change a patient’s sexuality. This week he won his battle against one.

They described her as “reckless”, “disrespectful”, “dogmatic” and “unprofessional”. They said she showed “no empathy” towards her client. Why? Psychotherapist Lesley Pilkington had tried to turn a gay person straight.

In a landmark ruling this week, Pilkington, 60, was found guilty of “treating” a patient for his homosexuality. A hearing of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – the largest professional body for therapists – concluded that the treatment she gave constituted “professional malpractice”.

The unanimous verdict came with heavy sanctions. Pilkington’s accreditation to the organisation was suspended. She was ordered to complete extensive training and professional development. If she does not file a report in six to 12 months, satisfying the board that she has complied, she will have her membership fully revoked: she will be struck off.

The report concluded: “Mrs Pilkington had allowed her personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation to affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial.”

The client Pilkington tried to cure was me. I am an out, happily gay man. I was undercover, investigating therapists who practise this so-called conversion therapy (also known as reparative therapy) – who try to “pray away the gay”. I asked her to make me straight. Her attempts to do so flout the advice of every major mental-health body in Britain.

 

IDAHOT

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No marks for thinking that this means Ida is hot, that it is an exclamation of pain from someone who has a mouthful of superheated baked potato, or that it should simply say “Idaho”.

No, in this day of LGBTQIA, this is an acronym for a contemporary Anglican sexual obsession that people used to think of as aberrant, but are no longer allowed to.

From the Anglican Journal – where else?

The rainbow flag flew proudly over many of the world’s  town squares on May 17, the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). But just a few days later, Australian supporters of same-sex marriage are locking horns with Sydney’s St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral.

Community activists are asking supporters to rally on May 21 in Sydney Square near the town hall and the cathedral to celebrate the eighth marking of IDAHOT. May 17 is the date on which the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases some 21 years ago.

Shocking discovery: children are influenced by their parents

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Including lesbian parents. A recent study reveals that girls brought up by a lesbian couple are more likely to engage in same sex activities than those brought up by a straight (I almost wrote “normal” – horror of horrors) couple.

Now the excuse can shift from “God made me this way” to “my parents made me this way”.

From here:

The study was part of an ongoing study that, at this stage, involved 77 families, “31 continuously-coupled, 40 separated-mother, and six single-mother families,” and 78 17-year-old children (one family had twins). Of the girls, nearly 50% described themselves as at least partly homosexual in orientation, though 30% out of that 50% were “predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual.” (None of the girls, though, identified themselves as predominantly or exclusively lesbian.) Of the boys, a bit over 20% described themselves as at least partly homosexual in orientation, though 13% out of that 20% described themselves as “predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual.” (Two of the boys identified themselves as predominantly or exclusively gay.) “The … Kinsey self-identifications [of the girls in the study] and lifetime sexual experiences were consistent with Stacey and Biblarz’s (2001) and Biblarz and Stacey’s (2010) theory that the offspring of lesbian and gay parents might be more open to homoerotic exploration and same-sex orientation.”

As to actual sexual behavior, 15% of the girls had had sex with other girls, compared to 5% in a sample of 17-year-old girls at large; 54% of the girls had had sex with boys, compared to 63% in a sample of 17-year-old girls at large. The boys showed no greater participation in homosexual sex compared to the sample of 17-year-old boys at large, but showed a markedly lesser participation in heterosexual sex (38% as opposed to 59%). For both the boys and girls who had had sex, the age of first sexual contact was about a year later than in the samples of 17-year-olds at large. All these differences are statistically significant.

h/t Big Blue Wave

How to get thrown out of a Soho pub

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Kiss another man.

From here:

A man has told of how he was ordered to leave a central London pub after a staff member objected to him kissing a man he was on a date with.

James Bull, 23, said he and Jonathan Williams, 26, were thrown out of the John Snow on Broadwick Street, Soho.

Mr Bull said he was “shaking” after a woman claiming to be the pub’s landlady removed them for being “obscene”.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident, while the John Snow pub is yet to comment.

Samuel Smith’s brewery, the owner of the pub, declined to comment on the incident.

“I felt belittled. I felt physically sick and we were both shaking,” said Mr Bull, a charity worker from Kentish Town in north London.

“It made me feel dirty. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Mr Bull said a man claiming to be the pub’s landlord first raised objection to their kissing shortly after 0945 BST.

“We were kissing and a guy who claimed to be the landlord came over and told us to stop. I don’t want to see that. It offends me,” he said.

“We had just kissed. It was nothing obscene. He said if we didn’t tone it down, we would have to leave.

When I was much younger, I remember being thrown out of a pub for kissing – come to think of it, there may have been a degree of groping, too – my girlfriend. I put the whole thing down to envy; the BBC didn’t report on it. Also, since I found the experience exhilarating, it didn’t make me feel dirty,  I didn’t shake, nor did I feel belittled, physically sick – other than from the after effects of a pub pie – or shocked. In fact, it was a highlight of my university week, and one with which I regaled my friends with considerable relish.

Why has the contemporary pub ejection phenomenon become an occasion for such excruciating angst?

Well, it’s because the kissers were homosexuals and homosexuals are compulsive victims. The actions of a publican who simply wants to sell beer and ejects those who might put his customers off their beer, become headline news, the publican becomes a bigot, the homosexuals become filled with righteous indignation and Tatchell will probably blow a gasket.

Pathetic.

What does book burning look like in the 21st Century?

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This:

A petition has been started to ban a ‘gay cure’ group’s iPhone app.

Christian group Exodus International claims that people can find “freedom from homosexuality” through prayer and practises conversion therapy.

Its iPhone app, which is free and available in the iTunes store, is “designed to be a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders”.

It has received a 4+ rating from Apple, meaning it is deemed to have no objectionable content.

More than 6,500 people have signed a Change.org petition to call on Apple to remove it.

 

Christian florist refuses to arrange flowers for same-sex wedding

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From here:

A florist in Riverview, N.B., is refusing to provide wedding flowers to a same-sex couple, according to the event’s planner.

After agreeing to provide the flowers for a wedding, Kim Evans of Petals and Promises Wedding Flowers sent an email last month to the couple, saying she didn’t know it was a same-sex wedding and would have no part of the ceremony.

“I am choosing to decline your business. As a born-again Christian, I must respect my conscience before God and have no part in this matter,” the email said.

Evans has not returned calls from CBC News to explain her decision.

Mario Bourgeois Leduc, wedding planner for the couple, who didn’t want their names released, said he was appalled by the florist’s email, especially since “you’re celebrating love and you’re going against all of the odds to celebrate what is important in your life.”

“This is going to stay with them for years, because they were again told that their lives are not OK.”

Eldon Hay, a United Church minister in Sackville and a well-known gay rights advocate, said he still sympathizes with the florist.

“The shopkeeper has every right to her own convictions as long as she is a private citizen in her own house,” Hay said.

“But if she opens her doors to sell flowers, then she must be prepared to meet and deal with the public.”

According to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act, anyone doing business in the province cannot refuse customers based on race, religion or sexual orientation.

I suspect that this type of incident is likely to become more common as the decade grinds on.

While, like the United Church minister, I can feign sympathy for what I disagree with – the law in my case – I do wonder whether, in this situation, the law is being misapplied.

Making it illegal for a homosexual couple to walk into, say, a tobacconist and be refused cigarettes, is a little different from compelling a Christian florist to tacitly condone – almost take part in – a “marriage” ceremony which violates her beliefs.

The law usually acts as a blunderbuss, of course, and is indifferent to fine distinctions, so Christians beware: we appear to be entering a time where we have to pay a social and financial penalty for our beliefs.

Australia has a law that allows private schools to expel homosexual students

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It comes as no surprise that an Anglican bishop is at the forefront of those who are appalled by the law.

A SENIOR Anglican bishop calls it “appalling” and a gay and lesbian rights group condemns it as “deeply offensive”, but the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, backs a NSW law that allows private schools to expel gay students simply for being gay.

Through a spokesman, Mr Hatzistergos, described the 30-year-old law as necessary “to maintain a sometimes delicate balance between protecting individuals from unlawful discrimination while allowing people to practise their own beliefs”.

Even though the very existence of the law is enough to give Anglican bishops an attack of the vapours, in practice it seems unlikely that the law would be administered in a draconian way:

Brigadier Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby has no qualms about the law. The head of the influential Christian pressure group said a church school should have the right to expel any openly gay child.

“But I would expect any church that found itself in that situation to do that in the most loving way that it could for the child and to reduce absolutely any negative affects.

“I think that you explain: this is a Christian school, that unless the child is prepared to accept that it is chaste, that it is searching for alternatives as well, that the school may decide that it might be better for the child as well that he goes somewhere else. I think it’s a loving response.”

In such a case, why should a Christian school not have the authority to expel the student? Why would the student want to attend the school in the first place?

Seven-year-old donates to LA gay centre

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From here:

A seven-year-old has donated $140 to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC) because he doesn’t think it’s right for gay people not to be treated equally.
The child, called Malcolm, was given $140 by his parents to donate to the charity of his choice. He chose to split the money between the gay centre and the HRC.

The cheque was accompanied by a hand written note that read: “I am sending you this money because I don’t think it’s fair that Gay people are not treated equally,” Malcom writes on the check [sic].”

When I was seven, the concept of homosexuality was something to which I was completely oblivious: had someone attempted to explain it to me, I would not have believed them on the grounds that it is both emotionally and mechanically too improbable.

Not so for today’s seven-year old; no doubt some see that as progress.

Rowan Williams: "words have results"

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He’s right: it’s a shame that Rowan so often employs words to obscure what he is thinking rather than clarify it, though.

Rowan Williams places the blame for David Kato’s murder squarely on those in Uganda who routinely vilify homosexuals with – words.

From here:

Dr Williams said Mr Kato’s murder illustrated the fact “words have results”.

“You cannot go around sharing information about the identity of proposed lesbian and gay persons and urging people to ostracise them or worse ‘Hang Them’ as in the headlines of one of the Ugandan newspapers,” he said, speaking to the media at the Emmaus retreat centre in Swords, Co Dublin.

“You cannot do that without taking responsibility for the consequences. Language which demonises gays and lesbians has consequences.”

As it turns out, it is quite probable that Kato’s murder had less to do with inflammatory anti-homosexual newspaper articles than it did with a criminal whom Kato paid – not enough apparently – to have sex with him.

From here:

“We have taken him to Mukono Magistrate’s Court to record an extrajudicial statement,” the source said. “He told us that he killed Kato after he failed to give him a car, a house and money he promised as rewards for having sex with him,” the source said.

Kato is alleged to have bailed the suspect out of Kawuga Prison on January 24, where he been remanded on charges of theft of a mobile phone. The suspect told police that he stayed with Kato for two days. He accused the deceased of having sex with him and promising to pay him during the period.

The suspect allegedly told the police he got tired of having sex with Kato but the latter would not have any of his excuses. “The suspect said he left the bedroom, went to a store and picked a hammer which he used to hit him [Kato] while he was still in bed,” the source said.

Rowan’s statements aren’t particularly surprising: at the Dublin Primates’ meeting no-one was allowed to talk about homosexuality at all, so the subject had to be introduced somehow.

Katharine Jefferts-Schori laments:

His murder deprives his people of a significant and effective voice, and we pray that the world may learn from his gentle and quiet witness, and begin to receive a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.

Not only that, of course: those imprisoned for stealing mobile phones have one less person to bail them out as a gentle and quiet witness – or for sex.

The Ugandan murder rate is around nine people per day which means that on the day Kato was killed, eight other people were too. There were no denunciations from prominent Anglicans for the other eight murders; so much for inclusion.