A study appearing in the September issue of the Journal of Homosexuality suggests that negative ex-gay and antigay attitudes — not homosexual behavior or same-sex orientation — worsen mental health and sexual health.

Science Daily reported on Sept. 20:

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have published a study showing that the degree of internalized homonegativity (negative attitude towards homosexuality) among homosexual men is what predicts poor mental and sexual health — not the act of being homosexual.

Simon Rosser, Ph.D, is the study’s principal investigator and a researcher of the university’s School of Public Health.

“Given the debates in many religious denominations about homosexuality, and in society about homosexuals and civil rights, it’s also timely,” Rosser said. “In particular, the old advice to gay men to fight, deny, or minimize their homosexuality likely only increases depression, greater isolation, and poorer sexual health. In short, viewing homosexuality as a disorder is not only inaccurate, it may be harmful as well.”

This research, which is part of the HIV prevention program — funded by the Minnesota Department of Health — has also been shown to be effective in reducing unsafe sex.

The anti-life, religious-rightist LifeSiteNews last week distorted the results of a British study that came to the same conclusion. LSN falsely associated depression and self-destructive behavior with “a homosexual lifestyle” despite findings to the contrary, and cited the discredited work of antigay activists Paul and Kirk Cameron for additional support.

Meanwhile, a new paper in Science, Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits, finds that social conservatives may be more biologically predisposed to respond to fear and threats than the general population. Might these conservatives then assume, wrongly, that everyone else will (or should) react to fear and threats in a manner consistent with their own reaction?

ScienceBlogs provides detailed analysis of the paper. One take-home point:

For example, consider if the “conservative” psychology is typified by a heuristic & bias which orients toward conformity to current norms. In contrast, the “liberal” psychology has a more relaxed heuristic and is less biased toward current norms. That means naturally that liberal personality types would “random walk” out of the the central tendency of the population more often, so that you would see average differences between the two groups. But, that doesn’t define the distribution itself. What is conservative in 2008 might very well be rather liberal in 1950. For example, arguing against gay marriage but accepting the possibility of civil unions.

Visit Skipping to the Piccolo for pro-tolerant religious reaction to the Journal of Homosexuality study.

Justice finally came to Diane Whipple yesterday.

Seven years ago, she was brutally and fatally attacked by two dogs in her San Francisco apartment hallway.

The dogs’ owners were originally convicted of murder, but a judge subsequently reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter. But on Sept. 22, Marjorie Knoller, dog owner and present at the attack, was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Superior Court Judge Charlotte Wollard reinstated the second-degree murder conviction. She noted that Knoller’s complete disregard for Whipple’ well-being, awareness of the dogs’ violent temperament, not calling 911, not coming to her aid, disregarding warnings to train them, and actually blaming Whipple for her own death, constituted the willing taking of a life.

Whipple’ life partner, Sharon Smith, addressed Knoller at the sentencing and characterized her relationship with the two dogs as “perverted.” Judge Wollard noted, “She has blamed the victim and held her dogs in higher regard than humans.”

Now that is perverted!

Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen (left) appeared in Dallas for Gay Pride on Sunday, September 20. He was joined by ex-gay survivor Brian Nesbitt (Right).

Once again, “ex-gay” propaganda has been used to keep gays from achieving equal rights. The New York Times reported on a gay activist in Nepal, Sunil Babu Pant, who is the only openly gay member of the newly elected Constituent Assembly. He is working to convince this conservative society that homosexuals are just like any other people.

According to the article, merely a decade ago gay life was difficult in Katmandu because the police were brutal. People were driven from their homes, and others endured torture in police custody, said Pant. “I thought nothing would improve unless we organized,” he said.

He tried to found an advocacy group to fight for the rights of gay men, lesbians, the transgendered and others. But government officials said they would register the group only if it devoted itself to converting homosexuals into heterosexuals.

To get around that, Mr. Pant said only that the group was dedicated to defending human rights in general and working on health issues and H.I.V./AIDS. Today, the group, the Blue Diamond Society, has offices in 20 districts and has 120,000 registered members.

Well, folks, there you go. The repressive ideas promoted by Exodus International and Exodus Global Alliance have spread around the world and they are being used to persecute people everywhere. Harmful notions are loudly broadcast by these sexual engineers (with no record of success) and they have a way of filtering down to bullies, whether on school yards, Congress or in foreign nations. The primary purpose of the “ex-gay” myth is to allow people to rationalize and justify despicable behavior and discriminatory actions that keep gays “in their place.”

Sexual engineering groups, such as Exodus, would argue that they don’t approve of some of the more extreme actions in foreign nations – and this is true, yet irrelevant. They simply cannot deny the deleterious effects of their message, that are heard throughout the world or easily accessed on the Internet.

In short, the “ex-gay” message causes much pain and suffering worldwide. What is tragic about this, is that for all of this drama and trauma, no one is going from gay to straight. It is a cruel hoax that is perpetuated for the sake of an extreme political agenda, where people are cast aside, as if their lives hardly matter.

It is time that Exodus stops burying its head in the sand and admit the misery it has brought to so many good people.

The Anchorage Press, wrote a large feature story on the so-called “ex-gay” ministries. It did so after TWO and local Alaskan activists squared off against Focus on the Family, which brought its “ex-gay” road show to town last week. TWO Executive Director, Wayne Besen, flew to Alaska to help organize a response. The anti-gay symposium took on national interest after GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s house of worship – the Wasilla Bible Church – promoted the event. Besen spoke at the Anchorage Metropolitan Community Church with local clergy and mental health experts to counter Love Won Out.

“The Anchorage Press article was in-depth and did a very good job of getting to the essence of the ex-gay industry – which is politics,” said Besen. “Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out road show is a political vehicle used to make people feel better about themselves when they vote for anti-gay legislation. Other than that, the glitzy event has no practical purpose.”

Thanks to E. Ross of the website Bent Alaska and Edie Bailey of the Metropolitan Community Church and PFLAG, there was a powerful response to the “ex-gay” road show.

The Roman Catholic Church generally does not fire church music directors for presumed premarital sex, usury, moderate gambling, smoking, or countless other vices.

But when a Verona, Wisconsin, church fired music director Charles Philyaw for being honest with the congregation about having a gay partner who was also a member of the church, the hypocrisy of antigay parishioners and an ex-gay advocate became apparent. The June termination at St. Andrew Catholic Church was reported Monday by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Parishioner Jo Ellen Kilkenny said, “We are all sinners, but when you hold a leadership position, you’re held to a higher standard than people in the pews.” She may be right to hold leaders to a higher standard — but that’s beside the point: Kilkenny tolerates sinful church leaders — she just doesn’t tolerate homosexual Catholics. In particular, she could not stomach receiving the Eucharist from someone (Philyaw’s partner) whom she knew to be gay.

Another self-deluded parishioner, Mark Heyde, incomprehensibly believed that laying the groundwork for Philyaw’s termination would somehow save Philyaw’s soul. Two other antigay parishioners, Kevin and Julie Keyes, fled responsibility for their actions, deflecting blame for Philyaw’s termination to church officials.

The diocese refused to comment — but made its unfortunate moral double-standard clear by referring media to a vocal ex-gay activist: (Read More)

Exodus International executive vice president Randy Thomas commented today on the revelation that Christian singer Ray Boltz has always been gay.

Let me explain, I feel awful for him that he felt so isolated and suffered from shame. It’ sorrowful that he didn’t feel like he could be honest and transparent with others unless it was to embrace a gay identity and worldview.

Nonsense. Boltz did not “embrace a gay identity and worldview,” he acknowledged the truth that he has always been same-sex-attracted. Thomas’ politically correct chatter about “identity” and a nonexistent “gay worldview” is a reminder that Exodus leaders too often behave like the heads of an elitist cult — or worse, like press-release writers for a slick politician. They certainly do not present themselves as trustworthy counselors in a safe, sincere, or truthful refuge for Christians such as Boltz who are same-sex attracted.

According to The Washington Blade, Boltz tried to be ex-gay for decades:

It got to the point by the early-to-mid ’00s that keeping his homosexuality hidden had become an increasingly wearying notion.

“You get to be 50-some years old and you go, “This isn’t changing.’ I still feel the same way. I am the same way. I just can’t do it anymore.’”

There was some exploration of “ex-gay” therapy though Boltz never attended an “ex-gay” camp or formal seminar.

“I basically lived an “ex-gay’ life ‚Äî I read every book, I read all the scriptures they use, I did everything to try and change.”

Indirectly, this spilled out into his songwriting. Boltz says even though he never told his fans the specifics of his struggle, it added a dimension to his lyrics that resonated.

Thomas’ current advice to same-sex-attracted Christians is the same advice that ex-gay books and therapists gave to Boltz: Hide your sexual orientation. Falsely claim to be heterosexually attracted. Only relate to people and only read books that are “Biblically appropriate” as redefined by James Dobson, Coral Ridge Ministries, or the American Family Association.

Such advice betrayed Boltz, and it continues to betray the spiritual and social well-being of people of faith. It sells out the truth for the sake of correctness, conformity, and authoritarian political interests.

Thomas presumes to pray down to Mr. Boltz and his family, but perhaps it is Thomas who needs prayers.

Christian contemporary music singer Ray Boltz (pictured) recently emerged from decades of effort to be “heterosexual” and honestly declared that he is same-sex-attracted. His story of sexual and religious struggle was reported last week in The Washington Blade. In short order, New Jersey ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan and the American Family Association’s “OneNewsNow” lied about Boltz’s action.

The AFA falsely stated that Boltz “has publicly announced he’ living a homosexual lifestyle” and falsely characterized a person’s honesty about sexual attraction as a “decision to engage in homosexuality.”

Quinlan went further — misquoting established science regarding the biological impulses that define sexual attraction and the psychological impulses that define romantic attraction. In particular, Quinlan misquoted Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project:

When he says he’s born that way, we know now for a fact that that’s false. In fact, just last year in March, the director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins, said this: homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality.

Quinlan’s fiction, however, was exposed as such sixteen months ago. After the ex-gay pseudoscience outfit NARTH also misquoted Collins, Collins told Ex-Gay Watch in May 2007:

It troubles me greatly to learn that anything I have written would cause anguish for you or others who are seeking answers to the basis of homosexuality. The words quoted by NARTH all come from the Appendix to my book “The Language of God” (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.

The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality ‚Äî the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.

Your note indicated that your real interest is in the truth. And this is about all that we really know. No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.

Sidestepping any discussion of science, the Gospel Music Association mischaracterized Ray Boltz’s honesty, saying, “We do not comment on the lifestyle choices of people in our community.” (Emphasis is TWO’s.)

For more insight into the (mis)handling of sexual orientation by the Christian gospel music scene, check out averyfineline.

Addendum: Good As You notes that Francis Collins is — contrary to any forthcoming ex-gay smears — an evangelical Christian.

From The Daily Dish at The Atlantic:

There is no way that a person who is indifferent to the question of whether homosexuality is a choice or genetic can support a conference of crackpots, psychological renegades and far-right Christianists seeking to “cure” gay people. Palin is on record seeking to strip gay couples of all rights in their relationships, although she was forced by constitutional mandate to grant equal benefits to gay couples who are employees of the state government in Alaska. She supported a non-binding referendum for an Alaskan constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples:

Ultimately, she said, she supports denying those [health and retirement] benefits through a constitutional amendment, if that’s what the public wants.

For at least a decade, the antigay political organizations Focus on the Family and Exodus International have promoted the myth that their opposition believes sexual orientation is determined by a single “gay gene.”

This claim has never been true of most researchers nor of most equality advocates, but that lie — a strawman argument — is useful to ex-gay scam artists because it distracts potential supporters of the ex-gay movement from three unpleasant facts:

• No reputable scientific survey has found sexual orientation to be either chosen or changeable in most persons
• Most persons who claim to be ex-gay later admit they were always attracted to the same sex and had never “left homosexuality.”
• Ex-gay programs injure their participants, give false hope to spouses, poison parental relations, and divide families.

On Top magazine touches on the ex-gay strawman argument about a “gay gene” in an article that spotlights Truth Wins Out’s role in weekend protests against an ex-gay roadshow in Anchorage, Alaska. (Read More)