March 8, 2008

Breakaway Magazine “Clears up Confusion” About Gays.

The current issue of Breakaway Magazine, a Focus on the Family publication targeted at teenage boys, attempts to “Clear up the Confusion” about gays. As can be expected their treatment of the subject is highly biased and manipulative. The bulk of it takes on a Myth vs. Fact format, and they of course are providing the “facts” as they see them.

Myth No. 1: Ten percent of the population is homosexual. Although Alfred Kinsey’s research methods have been found to be pretty biased, homosexual advocates for years have quoted his book from the 1940s, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male , as the ultimate authority, proclaiming 10 percent of the population is homosexual.

Fact No. 1: A series of recent studies indicates that only 2 to 3 percent of sexually active men and 1 to 2 percent of sexually active women are currently engaging in same-gender sex. …..

Why It Matters: What’s the big deal about how many people are gay or straight? By saying 1 in 10 people in the United States is homosexual, some gay activists are knowingly promoting a lie and are declaring that homosexuality should be accepted as normal. Yet even this reasoning is lame. For instance 10 to 15 percent of Americans suffer from alcoholism but we don’t accept this behavior as normal or healthy.

First of all, does it really matter if gay people count for ten percent of the population, five percent or even just one percent? Does that make them less valuable or worthy of Human Rights? Before anybody says yes, be aware that only two percent of the population has green eyes, 4.6% of the US is of the Lutheran denomination, and only 1.3% of Americans are Jewish. Are we to say these people aren’t worthy of rights and protections because their percentages are too small?

Second, the comparison of gay people with alcoholics is yet another inappropriate and derogatory association that the RRRW likes to make. Being gay is not an affliction, illness or a crime as much as homophobes might like to think it one. Being gay or being bisexual are simply natural sexual orientations just like being straight.

Myth No. 2: Homosexuals are born gay. In 1993 a respected research journal, Science, published a study that ignited a “born gay” myth, claiming that science was “on the verge of proving that homosexuality is innate, genetic and therefore unchangeable”. The media went ballistic, heralding stories suggesting scientists had discovered a “gay gene”….

Fact No. 2: There is no evidence to support the claim that a person can be born homosexual. The studies just don’t prove it! …. Dr. Joseph Nicolosi… comments, “Homosexuality is much more complex than mere behavior and includes many complex dimensions including thoughts, feelings, fantasies, specific attractions and identity”.

Why It Matters: Why is it so important for homosexual activists to prove this issue? If homosexuality were genetic people would not be able to change their orientation. If society was convinced that people are indeed born gay, then many people would be convinced that there is a need to protect homosexuals by the government as a designated minority class, such as African or Native Americans…

Discount the research all you want. While the jury is still out, research strongly suggests that homosexuality is an inborn trait. Nonetheless, does it really matter whether or not it is? Since when do we make genetics a requirement for protection under the law? Here in the US people are afforded protection from hate-crimes based on their chosen religion. Yet many of these same people turn around and claim that LGBT people shouldn’t be afforded the same protections because, allegedly, their orientation/gender identity is “a choice”. Where is the disconnect?

I find it interesting that Breakaway includes the quote by Dr. Nicolosi. The RRRW expends so much effort focusing on the “behavior” of gay people to reduce us to nothing but a sex act. To include an opinion by a professional that indicates that we (just like straight people) are complex individuals with thoughts, feelings, attractions and identities. In other words, we’re ordinary people.

The remainder of the article is just as biased, then concludes with the expected hate disguised as love shtick. Readers are provided a heaping dose of God and Bible talk and another lecture about how tolerance is bad when it comes to gay people. They’re nothing if not predictable.

I feel for any Christian LGBT teens who come upon this magazine and are beaten down by the blatant propaganda. It will have done what it’s intended to do. Hopefully, however, at least a few of them will have the power to see through the hate and nonsense to realize that they are not evil or defective.

Posted by: Buffy