RESPONSE TO LGBT MOVEMENT

 

1.LGBT movement’s positions

• LGBT conduct and relationships should be actively protected, affirmed, and celebrated.
• Social conservatives “hate” LGBT people for “who they are.”
• The only reasons anyone opposes homosexual conduct are religious.
• No debate on the issues of sexual orientation or gender identity is permitted.

 

2.Our positions

• LGBT conduct and relationships should be discouraged or treated as entirely private (that is, neither discouraged nor affirmed). We oppose the forced affirmation of LGBT relationships.
• All people are equal in dignity and value and must be treated with respect. People who identify as LGBT, as individuals, should and do enjoy all the same rights as any other. We do not believe or argue that “LGBT people are inferior”.
• Religion is not the only basis for opposing the forced affirmation of LGBT relationships. It is misguided to argue that the separation of church and state forbids bringing religious values to bear on public policy issues.
• There are legitimate grounds for debate on the origin, nature, and consequences of both homosexuality and gender dysphoria. The debate should continue, with a respect for honest research and for the freedom of thought, speech, and religion.

 

RESPONSE TO HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT

 

3.Our positions

• Men and women are created to be sexually complementary to one another.

 

4.Identity and language

• Sexual attractions or other subjective psychological feelings and sexual behavior do not define a person.
• We do not identify anyone as “gay.” We identify them as human beings, and grieve over a culture that describes the inherent identity of a person on the basis of their sexuality alone. We instead say “people who engage in homosexual conduct” or “people who identify as homosexual.” We do not view homosexuality as an identity, but as a behavior.
• “Sexual orientation” is an umbrella term for 3 aspects:
• Sexual attractions: Is a person sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both?
• Sexual conduct: What sex acts does an individual choose to engage in, and with whom?
• Sexual self-identification: Does an individual think of himself or herself, and/or publicly identify himself or herself to others, as “gay,” “lesbian,” “straight,” “bisexual,” or something else?

 

5.Homosexual movement’s positions

• The 3 aspects of sexual orientation are always consistent with one another.

 

6.Facts

• Same-sex attractions, homosexual conduct, and self-identification as gay are 3 separate (although related) aspects which must be addressed separately. Scientific research into human sexuality has clearly shown aspects of sexual orientation are not always consistent with one another.
• Some people experience same-sex attractions, but do not choose to engage in homosexual conduct.
• Some people experience same-sex attractions and engage in homosexual conduct, but do not self-identify as gay or lesbian.
• In unique situations, people who neither experience same-sex attractions nor self-identify as homosexual may choose to engage in homosexual conduct.

 

7.Homosexual movement’s positions

• Sexual orientation is an innate personal characteristic, like race.
• People are born gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight.
• Same-sex attractions develop because of a biological (and likely a genetic) characteristic that is present from birth and cannot be changed during the life course.

 

8.Facts

1. Homosexuality is not a fixed, genetically determined trait
2. Attempt to find a “gay gene” that would prove homosexuality to be fixed and determined genetically has proved to be a notable failure.
3. The latest research involving identical twins (who have an identical genetic makeup) has shown very low concordance rates (the percentage of cases in which both twins identify as homosexual when at least one of them does).
4. None of the non-genetic biological theories for the origin of same-sex attractions, such as hormonal influences or intra-uterine experiences, have been definitively, scientifically proven.
5. Same-sex attractions are primarily a developmental result of childhood experiences. Some patterns that appear frequently in the life histories of those with same-sex attractions include poor bonding with the same-sex parent or peers or being victims of child sexual abuse.

 

9.Homosexual movement’s positions

• Homosexual people can never become heterosexual.
• Therapy to change someone’s sexual orientation never works and is always harmful.

 

10.Our positions

• While people do not choose to experience same-sex attractions, they do choose whether or not to engage in homosexual conduct (and also choose whether or not to publicly self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual).
• Sexual orientation change efforts are based on the reality that some people do not want same-sex attractions. Such people should have a right to seek therapy to help them change, in accordance with the basic ethical principle in counseling of the client’s autonomy in determining the goal of therapy.

 

11.Facts

• Change of sexual orientation is possible. Not all who attempt changing one’s sexual orientation succeed. The same limitations are true in addressing other psychological issues.
• There is a large body of both empirical and anecdotal evidence of success in treating clients for unwanted same-sex attractions over nearly a century, based on clinical experience and peer-reviewed research of many psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and therapists. Much of this research and clinical experience has been reported in the peer-reviewed scholarly literature for decades.
• Many people have given personal testimonies to changes in any or all 3 aspects of their sexual orientation.
• Research evidence contradicts the charge that therapies to change sexual orientation are harmful.

 

12.Homosexual movement’s positions

1. Being homosexual is essentially no different from being straight, except for the gender to which one is sexually attracted.
2. Gay sex is no more harmful than any other type of sex.

 

13.Facts

• Homosexual conduct is harmful—first and foremost to the people who engage in it, but also by extension to society at large.
• Many of the physical health problems experienced by people who identify as homosexual are a direct result of their sexual conduct.
• • Among men who have sex with men:
  • • The most dramatic of negative consequences is the highly elevated risk of HIV infection and AIDS. Anal sex is the highest-risk sexual behavior, and the tendency of men who have sex with men to have multiple sex partners is more effective at spreading it.
    • Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) have been rising.
    • HPV (Human papillomavirus) is a concern.
    • They are 17 times more likely to get anal cancer than heterosexual men.
• Among lesbian and bisexual women, some STDs are more common and may be passed easily from woman to woman (such as bacterial vaginosis).
• Health risks faced by lesbians that are not as directly a result of their sexual conduct are:
• • They are less likely than heterosexual women to have had a full-term pregnancy.
  • They may have a higher rate of polycystic ovary syndrome, the most common hormonal problem of the reproductive system in women of childbearing age, than heterosexual women.
• Such health problems impose a cost upon society. Expenditure in treating such illnesses, as well as in searching for cures and operating prevention programs, could have been avoided had people abstained from the behavior which leads to such illnesses.

 

14.Homosexual movement’s positions

• Societal discrimination and “stigma” are the only reason for the higher rates of mental health problems among those who identify as homosexual.

 

15.Facts

• The homosexual movement’s claim is not empirically verified.
• There is a correlation between homosexuality and higher rates of mental illness. The nature of and reasons for that correlation are likely highly complex, and are legitimate subjects for research and debate.
• If mental health problems among those who identify as homosexual were caused by discrimination, they would be much more severe in places with higher levels of so-called “discrimination,” and much less severe in places where people who identify as homosexual are widely accepted. Yet this is not what the research shows. Despite the Netherlands’ reputation as a world leader with respect to gay rights, homosexual Dutch men have much higher rates of mood disorders, anxiety disorders and suicide attempts than heterosexual Dutch men. Disparities in rates of psychiatric disorders between homosexual and heterosexual persons have not decreased as acceptance of homosexuality in Dutch society had increased. Even in areas with a more supportive social environment, teenagers who self-identified as gay were five times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual teens.

 

RESPONSE TO TRANSGENDER MOVEMENT

 

16.Our positions

• Every person is defined by his or her immutable, inborn biological sex.
• Redefining sex/gender will be harmful.
• A biological male who asserts that he is female (or vice versa) is asserting an objective falsehood, which the government should not legally force others to affirm.
• There is no rational or compassionate reason to affirm a distorted psychological self-concept that one’s gender identity is different from one’s biological sex.

 

17.Transgender movement’s positions

• Some people are born in the wrong body.
• Gender is not “binary”, and the existence of intersex people proves this.

 

18.Facts

• A person’s sex (male or female) is an immutable biological reality. In the vast majority of people (including those who later identify as transgender), it is unambiguously identifiable at birth. The DNA in every cell in the body is marked clearly male or female. Hormones circulating in an unborn child’s brain and body shape his or her development. The truth about sexual differences is objectively knowable.
• People who experience gender dysphoria are more likely to have been victims of child sexual abuse and to have a history of trauma, loss, and family disruption.
• Hermaphrodites—those in whom sexual anatomy is ambiguous or clearly conflicts with their chromosomal make-up—are rare, estimated as occurring in fewer than 2 out of every 10,000 live births. The vast majority of those who identify as transgender are not intersexed.

 

19.Transgender movement’s positions

• Only subjective distress makes “gender dysphoria” a disorder.
• Transgender people are not mentally ill or prone to high-risk behavior.

 

20.Facts

• Gender dysphoria is inherently disordered. When an adult who is normal in appearance and functioning believes there is something ugly or defective in their appearance that needs to be changed, there is a psychological problem of some significance.
• People with gender dysphoria or transgender identities are more likely than the general public to engage in high-risk behaviors, which may result from or contribute to psychological disorders (or both). Some of the high-risk behavior is directly related to their desire to change sex.
• Negative outcomes associated with transgender identification include higher rates of suicide attempts, completed suicides, overall mortality, and need for psychiatric inpatient care.

 

21.Transgender movement’s positions

• Surgery can change a person’s sex.
• Gender reassignment surgery is proven, safe, and effective.

 

22.Facts

• No one can change his or her sex. Sex change surgery does not actually “change” sex.
• Gender reassignment surgery often does not achieve what patients hope for. The surgical procedures are not always successful and can be extremely painful.
• High rates of suicide exist even among those who have already received gender reassignment surgery, which suggests that suicidal tendencies result from an underlying pathology.
• Medical interventions to block puberty in gender-variant children are child abuse.
• A lifetime of hormone treatments can have profound physical and psychological consequences.

 

23.Transgender movement’s positions

• Gender non-conforming children will grow up to be transgender, and no treatment can prevent this.
• Mental health treatment cannot reduce gender dysphoria.

 

24.Facts

• Even without treatment, the cross-gender behavior generally resolves itself.
• Grief, discomfort, and anger over one’s genetic makeup signal problems that can and should be addressed through counseling.
• The academic literature includes some clinical accounts of successful efforts to overcome gender identity problems.
• Psychosocial intervention is an alternative to surgery in the treatment of transsexualism.