Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 3rd, 2008
A while back, Belinda Jensen, the president of the American Fork High School PTSA in Utah became impressed with Standard of Liberty, an LDS-oriented anti-gay organization. So she invited the group to make a presentation.
Standard of Liberty, and it’s co-founder Stephen Graham, are passionate, but not particularly accurate or logical.
Q: You say homosexuality is physically harmful. How?
A: Homosexual sex (sodomy), causes chronic illnesses and life-threatening disease (HIV/AIDS), shortening life by an average of 20 years. The human body is simply not made for this behavior. In addition, adopting the “gay” identity often masks dangerous psychological problems that need attention.
Q: Doesn’t heterosexual sex carry the same physical risks as homosexual sex?
A: No, none, if there is abstinence before marriage, and fidelity and healthy, normal sexual intercourse in marriage.
Because, of course, he thinks fidelity is by definition missing from gay relationships.
And my favorites:
Q: Should even those privately struggling with SSA, who have not “acted out,” be chastened, offered help and correction, and held accountable by the church?
A: Yes. The church should be concerned with the person’s soul. People with this problem have become involved in perverse and sinful lust to the detriment of their eternal salvation.
and
Q: How many really change from unwanted homosexuality?
A: A new study reports a 38% success rate. An additional 29% had made progress and were committed to continuing their efforts. That’s a combined total of 77% experiencing success. (Jones and Yarhouse, 2007) In the mental heath profession, this rate of success is considered very high.
You may recall that the Jones and Yarhouse study revealed little to no statistically measurable change in orientation in the prospective sample. The much touted “successes” were either in recollection (which again were quite small) or were those who had decided to no longer call themselves “gay”. However, they still identified their orientation as homosexual (“I’m not gay but my attractions are”).
In short, the Jones and Yarhouse study was funded and fully supported by Exodus and conducted by two researchers who were avid supporters of ex-gay ministries. They wanted to study 300 participants, but after more than a year, they could only find 57 willing to participate. They then changed the rules for acceptance in order to increase the total to 98. After following this sample for 4 years, 25 dropped out. Of the remainder, only 11 reported “satisfactory, if not uncomplicated, heterosexual adjustment.” Another 17 decided that a lifetime of celibacy was good enough.
But for some reason Jensen thought that Stephen Graham had just the presentation that she wanted for the Parents, Teachers and Students Association. The principle of the High School was not so convinced and canceled Graham’s presentation.
Undeterred, Graham shifted the forum to a local library. In his speech his anti-gay activist motivations became clear.
Standard of Liberty co-founder Stephen Graham began with an account of how his son overcame gay tendencies after counseling, then screened individual film segments detailing the “gay agenda,” “gay demands” and “gay agenda in schools.”
Graham relied heavily on NARTH materials:
Graham presented statistics from www.narth.com, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Some of the most common concerns for gay men, he said, include HIV/AIDS, marijuana, Ecstasy, amphetamines, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide, heart disease, anorexia, anal warts and anal cancers.
“These things do occur in normal population, but not nearly at the rate as in people troubled with homosexuality,” he said.
Along with some unidentified 1993 video, Julie Harren-Hamilton’s 2006 DVD, Homosexuality 101, starring Alan Chambers, Julie Harren, Mike Ensley, Christine Sneeringer, and Jack Harren, was featured both on his site and in his speech.
Various representatives from the Utah Pride Center were at the presentation to counter Graham’s propaganda.
The Utah Pride Center will hold another meeting to offer information on resources for parents and youths at the library at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9.
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Boo
April 4th, 2008
Wow. Guy can’t even add. 29+38 is 67, not 77.
Don’t you hate it when junk math messes up perfectly good junk science?
Fannie
April 4th, 2008
Since all of these (misused) “statistics” pertaining to how “homosexuality is physically harmful” refer to gay men and butt sex, it’s clear that there is no problem with being a lesbian.
Yessss!
But seriously, disregarding for a moment the reprehensibility of NARTH’s use of junk science to spread lies about gay men, what’s the “problem” with lesbians? Has NARTH forgotten us, or are we just not as “threatening” as gay men?
Loki
April 4th, 2008
Fannie,
It’s funny you ask because I came up with a theory recently after reading Townhall and other anti-gay news sites and the comments left by their readers. I think they have a hard time with lesbians because as straight males, lesbians mainly do what they would do sexually to a women, although according to my lesbian friends, not as well. It is hard to condone a sex act when it is one you would do yourself if you could, while easy for them to see two men and say, I would never do THAT.
The commenters easily condemn gay make sex, but are OK with lesbians as long as they are only “experimenting” and end up married to a “real” man or are willing to include them.
Just my thoughts on the subject.
TJ McFisty
April 4th, 2008
“Has NARTH forgotten us, or are we just not as “threatening†as gay men?”
Oh no, Fannie…what you laaadies do is hot hot hhhhhot! Yowza!
Well, that’s what they think.
Fannie
April 4th, 2008
“Oh no, Fannie…what you laaadies do is hot hot hhhhhot! Yowza!”
Yeah, as long as it’s not two butch lesbians. They would probably have to be cured.
;-)
TJ McFisty
April 4th, 2008
They have no idea what you’re talking about.
“Oh, you mean that dude that came over and did that bang up fixit on my sink/car/train? Man, he was something el–OH! A woman! Huh! Wow. Well, she sure knew her way around a belt sander…that’s fer sure! Heh, heh.”
There ya go! Butch lesbians don’t have sex. They bowl and fix things. Don’t even register a blip on their radar.
bls
April 4th, 2008
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about anyway. Women get infections from ordinary intercourse all the time – and of course until quite recently in history they often died in childbirth.
These arguments are totally without foundation – and always from the male point of view, please notice.
Joel
April 4th, 2008
Miss Republican Kern is a female bls…
I know of another title for this post that might just work:
“Another personal experience fuels the propagation of NARTH”
Does his son aid his father in this quest?
bls
April 4th, 2008
“Stephen Graham” is, I’m sure, a man – and he is the topic here. I don’t see anything about Kern here, so I’m not sure why you’re bringing her up. I’m referring to this post, no other.
grantdale
April 5th, 2008
SoL: The objective of the “gay†lifestyle is easy, quick, shallow, fake sex with no strings attached.
Damn. I sure messed that up, didn’t I? I’ve got more strings attached than a, urgh, umm, sticky string thingy in a string factory on string day.
And I’m not sure how one measures such matters… but… no “deep sex” allowed. That’s a rule?
I don’t remember it being on the form when I joined up but, then again, I never do read the fine print. It’s probably buried, but not deeply buried, somewhere from about page 42 onwards.
Unfortunately I’ve already given the toaster away to a homeless shelter, but where do I send the membership badge and uniform back to?
(all I’ve got is the P.O. Box in Michigan that they posted my copy of “The Gay Agenda” from.)
Yuki Choe
April 5th, 2008
“Q: Doesn’t heterosexual sex carry the same physical risks as homosexual sex?
A: No, none, if there is abstinence before marriage, and fidelity and healthy, normal sexual intercourse in marriage.”
This is strange. I am sure any gay can abstain from sex before marriage, be faithful and healthy, and have normal sexual intercourse in marriage too. But it cannot be proven, and we all know why, homosexuals are not even ALLOWED to look forward to marriage. Talk about risks when there are none.
Stephen
April 8th, 2008
“… what’s the “problem†with lesbians? Has NARTH forgotten us, or are we just not as “threatening†as gay men?”
Women don’t count, as they’re not really human … (/sarcasm)
blob
June 11th, 2008
You should know. Belinda Jensen is Stephen Graham’s sister-in-law.
Timothy Kincaid
June 11th, 2008
thanks blob… that does make this easier to understand.
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