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 lobbyDecember 31st, 2011
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Is Homosexuality Normal or Not?: 1971. That was the burning question that Life magazine tried to tackle. They tackled it pretty much the way everyone tackled the question back then: by talking to a lot of straight people about gay people, but without quoting from a single gay person. Featured in the article was noted anti-gay therapists Edmund Bergler, Lawrence Hatterer (who conducted electric shock aversion therapy), Irving Bieber, and Charles Socarides — who would later go on to co-found the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The article tried to present a rundown on what makes gay men gay (there was virtually no mention of lesbians in the article), and then without quoting from a single “homosexual militant”, asserted that these “homosexual militants” opposed all research on homosexuality. All of this led to the article’s final two paragraphs:
Whether liberationists choose introspection, militancy, or violence as a course of action, the basic stumbling block remains the same: heterosexual antipathy to homosexuality. Will this ever change? Dr. Hatterer has observed that society’s tolerance of homosexuality is increasing but he doubts that we will ever accept it as a desirable “alternative lifestyle.” Nonetheless he and virtually all other psychiatrists advocate repealing the laws that violate this minority’s civil rights.
On the question of “normality,” much remains to be learned. In opposing all inquiry, the militants expose fears of what science might find out about them. Dr. (Evelyn) Hooker’s task force on homosexuality makes the sensible recommendation that the National Institute of Mental Health fund a center for the study of all sexual behavior. “It is essential,” says the report, “that a study of homosexuality be placed within the context of the study of the broad range of sexuality, normal and deviant.”
You can read the article here.
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Donny D.
December 31st, 2011
Life magazine always was kinda reactionary….
Cory Sampson
December 31st, 2011
“Dr. (Evelyn) Hooker’s task force on hoosexuality”
All the Hoos down in Hoo-ville liked buttsex a lot…
(Sorry, that typo just came across as incredibly hilarious at this time of year.)
Jim Burroway
December 31st, 2011
Sorry ’bout that. It’s fixed
StraightGrandmother
December 31st, 2011
Jim at the close of 2011 which was a fantastic year for the advancement of civil rights for sexual minorities, which was preceded by an also banner year in 2010, I want to deeply thank you for your, and Tim & Rob’s and the other contributors, work at BTB, for ALL of your WORK.
I am certain this takes an enormous amount of each contributors time and I want to thank you for that. Thank you also for being accurate and digging deeper and getting to the bottom of actions and activities that concern sexual minorities. You all do an excellent job of exposing and reporting on issues. I do see BTB as a leader, someone I look up to. Not being a sexual minority I need to visit places who teach me, and you are truly a great teacher in that regard.
For all of you personally, I hope you personally look back at 2011 with contentment and satisfaction that you made a difference. For 2012 I wish for you personally, and for all sexual minorities, that our government finally stops Discriminating against you. That you will finally enjoy all rights of citizenship in every State that I enjoy.
XXOO
StraightGrandmother
Jim Hlavac
December 31st, 2011
It’s normal for us, much as blue eyes are normal for blue eyed folks, and being Jewish is normal for Jews, being short is normal for short people — it’s not a lifestyle, it’s an Is — it just is. Like autism Is, like blindness Is — and no one debates whether those are “acceptable lifestyles” — ergo the very premise is flawed — for these people then and now still view this as a choice, like picking chocolate over vanilla. No one would choose Blindness as an “acceptable alternative lifestyle,” but there’s still blind people — and they are not condemned or argued over the propriety of their very existence.
As for “militancy” and “violence” — not a shred of that has occurred by gay folks since the inception of the “Rights for Gays” movement (Aka, gay rights — for the right to publish anything about gayness was itself abridged, in direct violation of our First Amendment Rights, which belong to all Americans — our fight has been for rights exercised by all Americans, not some “special rights” which is oft claimed.) Of course, all gays are “militant” and “radical” in the eyes of our detractors. Instead we’ve had 40 years of ever growing worldwide peaceful political protests — the likes of which no other group of humankind has ever had — 40 years, now on every continent — and these fools still think it’s some American political issue. The only violence involved is that directed at us.
Finally, I find it hysterical that Charles Socriades is a co-founder of NARTH, which is a group which posits that a weak or absent father is the cause of gayness — while Mr. Socriades is still happily married to the Mrs, and their son is gay. His own reality refutes his own arguments. The man is as big a charlatan now as he was when he was the Dean of Harvard’s school of psychology.
And so have a Happy New Year — and welcome to 2012 — the Big Fat Gay Election year — for not a politician in this land will escape the question: “What about the gays.” And the answer will be resolved in our favor ere the end of the next presidential term.
Richard W. Potts
December 31st, 2011
What’s being ignored is the rapidly growing evidence in the field of neuroscience that there really are valuable psychological differences between men and women and that gender complementarity is something to be supported, not ignored. For instance, a woman’s progesterone, a hormone, multiplies 40X during pregnancy, making her better equipped to nurture a baby than any man who ever existed. Vive la difference!
Priya Lynn
January 1st, 2012
Mr. Potts, you’re ignoring the certainty that some men are better equipped to nurture a baby than some women (i.e. Brittany Spears). In regards to same sex couples each male complements the other male far, far better than a woman could ever and the same is true for female/female couples.
Richard W. Potts
January 2nd, 2012
“In regards to same sex couples each male complements the other male far, far better than a woman could ever and the same is true for female/female couples.” — Lynn
How could that be unless each is just one half of a man or a woman?
Priya Lynn
January 2nd, 2012
A gay or lesbian is a different person from a heterosexual. Just as a heterosexual woman and a heterosexual man may complement each other two gay men or two lesbians may equally well compliment each other. Certainly a gay man or lesbian doesn’t at all complement an opposite sex person.
Richard W. Potts
January 2nd, 2012
If in a heterosexual union two sexual halves unite to constitute a sexual whole, the logic of a homosexual union, by analogy, is that two half-males unite to form a single whole male; or two half-female unite to form a single whole female. A half unites sexually with its complementary half. To regard one’s self, if male, as completed sexually by another male is to make an implicit statement that one does not regard one’s particular gender as being intact apart from such a union. The same goes for a female-female sexual union. This is both sexual self-deception (one’s maleness or femaleness is already intact) and sexual narcissism (one is erotically aroused by one’s own essential sex).
Priya Lynn
January 3rd, 2012
LOL, Mr. Potts. That was one of the most hilarious pieces of desperate rationalization I’ve ever heard. Let’s hear more of your pseudo-psychology.
Timothy Kincaid
January 3rd, 2012
Richard W. Potts,
By whom is this evidence being ignored? Certainly not by Box Turtle Bulletin. But what we know (but you seem not to have considered) is that this research does not result in sitcom stereotypes.
To better understand why your hypotheses are getting a chuckle, you need to know two things:
1. Studies which reveal “difference between the sexes” do not find binary dichotomies. They do not find “all men are like x, all women are like y”, but rather they find averages.
To use common stereotypes, women like to buy shoes and men like to watch football. And if researchers were to create a scale of those characteristics, they could scientifically measure and conclude that men are statistically more inclined to enjoy watching football than women and less inclined to enjoy shopping for shoes.
But that says nothing about any specific man or woman. Some men find watching football to be boring beyond belief while some women are glued to the tube screaming for their team. And some women have no interest in the latest footwear while some men need a closet dedicated to their collection.
(And don’t let my example selection throw you, the real research works the same way, be it spacial orientation, click response, or many other studies.)
2. The same studies that identify differences between the sexes ALSO find differences between the sexualities. Gay men and straight men are different. On a number of measures, gay men – on average – are more similar to women than heterosexual men (and the same is true for gay women, though to a lesser degree). On other measures, gay men and straight men are statistically similar but both different from women.
In other words, research in differences between the sexes found four groups, not two.
My question for you, Mr. Potts, is this: Are you interested in what the science really tells us, or are you just looking for something that agrees with your presumptions? Because if you really are basing your views on studies, then you just changed your mind upon reading what I wrote.
Priya Lynn
January 4th, 2012
Nicely done, Timothy.
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