Rick336
03-11-2007, 07:31 PM
James Dobson, child psychologist, family counselor, and founder of Focus on the Family wrote a parenting book in 2001 called Bringing up Boys.
In chapter 9, The Origins of Homosexuality, Dr. Dobson describes homosexuality as being about "loneliness", "rejection", "self-hatred", and "gender confusion". He says, "This explains why the homosexual experience is so intense - and why there is such anger expressed against those who are percieved as disrespecting gays and lesbians or making their experience more painful."
But there is something obviously missing from this chapter. What Dr. Dobson never mentions in his book are the millions of gays and lesbians who live stable, productive, fullfilling lives. In fact, he completely ignores us.
As far back as 1978, gays and lesbians were reported to live happy, stable lives. According to a study among 979 gays and lesbians from a cross section of the San Francisco LGBT community, the authors of the study came to this conclusion:
"The authors concluded that homosexuals who came to terms with their homosexuality did not regret it, and those who functioned effectively sexually and socially were no more distressed than were heterosexuals. They said that it was mostly the dysfunctional and asexuals who were worse off psychologically than heterosexuals, but that there were equivalent groups among heterosexuals" - Minneapolis Tribune 7-10-78
And more recently was this study:
"A University of California study shows that gays and lesbians are just as likely as their straight counterparts to say they are happy in life, a change from previous studies that reported homosexuals were less likely to feel satisfied than heterosexuals.
The U.C. Los Angeles survey, which was conducted in 2000, asked about 2,000 people the question: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days?" Respondents who said they were very happy or pretty happy were classified as "happy," while people who said they were very or pretty unhappy were classified as "unhappy."
The report classified people as gay or straight depending on whether or not they had had sex with someone of the same gender over the previous five years.
In studies done about a decade before, gay men fell into the happy category about 72 percent of the time, while 92 percent of straight men felt the same way. Approximately 79 percent of the women who had same-sex encounters reported being happy, while straight women reported happiness rates at 91 percent.
The 2000 study found gay or straight, men or women, the happiness rate was about the same, with all groups hovering around 90 percent.
"Obviously, there has been an increase in levels of happiness" among gays and lesbians, study author and UCLA professor of public health Dr. Susan D. Cochran told Reuters Health. "But why, we don't know."
There are any number of possibilities for why the numbers are higher now than they were 10 years ago. Cochran noted that improved treatments for AIDS has helped curb the epidemic in the gay community, where the despair of death around gay people has subsided considerably. Political and social changes that have made life easier for out gays and lesbians could also play a big role in overall happiness.
"Anti-gay stigma and discrimination is a fact of life, but somehow these folks manage to achieve equivalent levels of happiness as other people," Cochran said to Reuters. "Perhaps it's a better environment in which to be gay than it used to be." - Advocate News
Dr. Dobson completely ignores the evidence that most LGBT people are just as likely to live happy, satisfying lives as heterosexuals and that an accepting social environment for gays and lesbians can help produce happier gays and lesbians. After all, if gays and lesbians can live happy, satisfying, productive lives then there's no need for "prevention" or "reparative therapy."
It calls into question the credibility of a child psychologist and family counselor who ignores such important information. To claim to be an expert on a subject without presenting all the facts appears irresponsible and misleading.
Rick Hunter
In chapter 9, The Origins of Homosexuality, Dr. Dobson describes homosexuality as being about "loneliness", "rejection", "self-hatred", and "gender confusion". He says, "This explains why the homosexual experience is so intense - and why there is such anger expressed against those who are percieved as disrespecting gays and lesbians or making their experience more painful."
But there is something obviously missing from this chapter. What Dr. Dobson never mentions in his book are the millions of gays and lesbians who live stable, productive, fullfilling lives. In fact, he completely ignores us.
As far back as 1978, gays and lesbians were reported to live happy, stable lives. According to a study among 979 gays and lesbians from a cross section of the San Francisco LGBT community, the authors of the study came to this conclusion:
"The authors concluded that homosexuals who came to terms with their homosexuality did not regret it, and those who functioned effectively sexually and socially were no more distressed than were heterosexuals. They said that it was mostly the dysfunctional and asexuals who were worse off psychologically than heterosexuals, but that there were equivalent groups among heterosexuals" - Minneapolis Tribune 7-10-78
And more recently was this study:
"A University of California study shows that gays and lesbians are just as likely as their straight counterparts to say they are happy in life, a change from previous studies that reported homosexuals were less likely to feel satisfied than heterosexuals.
The U.C. Los Angeles survey, which was conducted in 2000, asked about 2,000 people the question: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days?" Respondents who said they were very happy or pretty happy were classified as "happy," while people who said they were very or pretty unhappy were classified as "unhappy."
The report classified people as gay or straight depending on whether or not they had had sex with someone of the same gender over the previous five years.
In studies done about a decade before, gay men fell into the happy category about 72 percent of the time, while 92 percent of straight men felt the same way. Approximately 79 percent of the women who had same-sex encounters reported being happy, while straight women reported happiness rates at 91 percent.
The 2000 study found gay or straight, men or women, the happiness rate was about the same, with all groups hovering around 90 percent.
"Obviously, there has been an increase in levels of happiness" among gays and lesbians, study author and UCLA professor of public health Dr. Susan D. Cochran told Reuters Health. "But why, we don't know."
There are any number of possibilities for why the numbers are higher now than they were 10 years ago. Cochran noted that improved treatments for AIDS has helped curb the epidemic in the gay community, where the despair of death around gay people has subsided considerably. Political and social changes that have made life easier for out gays and lesbians could also play a big role in overall happiness.
"Anti-gay stigma and discrimination is a fact of life, but somehow these folks manage to achieve equivalent levels of happiness as other people," Cochran said to Reuters. "Perhaps it's a better environment in which to be gay than it used to be." - Advocate News
Dr. Dobson completely ignores the evidence that most LGBT people are just as likely to live happy, satisfying lives as heterosexuals and that an accepting social environment for gays and lesbians can help produce happier gays and lesbians. After all, if gays and lesbians can live happy, satisfying, productive lives then there's no need for "prevention" or "reparative therapy."
It calls into question the credibility of a child psychologist and family counselor who ignores such important information. To claim to be an expert on a subject without presenting all the facts appears irresponsible and misleading.
Rick Hunter