Homophobic? Maybe You’re Gay

I've noted several times the new study that concluded that many of the most vocal homophobes are actually struggling against their own conscious or unconscious attraction to members of the same sex.  Much of the struggle derives from religious brainwashing and rigid, anti-gay family upbringings which make the idea of one being gay simply too horrible to contemplate.  To me, the study findings underscore the psychologically damaged and emotionally disturbed nature of most homophobes.  Now, one of the authors of the study, Richard M. Ryan, a professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester, has an op-ed in the New York Times that further elaborates on the findings of the study which seems to describe individuals like Tony Perkins, Peter LaBarbera, Greg Quinlain, Robert Knight and a host of other professional Christians/"ex-gay" proponents to the last detail.  Here are some highlights:

WHY are political and religious figures who campaign against gay rights so often implicated in sexual encounters with same-sex partners?

One theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being stifled. Even Mr. Haggard seemed to endorse this idea when, apologizing after his scandal for his anti-gay rhetoric, he said, “I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war.” 

It’s a compelling theory — and now there is scientific reason to believe it. In this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we and our fellow researchers provide empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same-sex desire.

Our paper describes six studies conducted in the United States and Germany involving 784 university students. Participants rated their sexual orientation on a 10-point scale, ranging from gay to straight. Then they took a computer-administered test designed to measure their implicit sexual orientation.

 

Using this methodology we identified a subgroup of participants who, despite self-identifying as highly straight, indicated some level of same-sex attraction (that is, they associated “me” with gay-related words and pictures faster than they associated “me” with straight-related words and pictures). Over 20 percent of self-described highly straight individuals showed this discrepancy. 

Notably, these “discrepant” individuals were also significantly more likely than other participants to favor anti-gay policies; to be willing to assign significantly harsher punishments to perpetrators of petty crimes if they were presumed to be homosexual; and to express greater implicit hostility toward gay subjects (also measured with the help of subliminal priming). Thus our research suggests that some who oppose homosexuality do tacitly harbor same-sex attraction. 

What leads to this repression? We found that participants who reported having supportive and accepting parents were more in touch with their implicit sexual orientation and less susceptible to homophobia. Individuals whose sexual identity was at odds with their implicit sexual attraction were much more frequently raised by parents perceived to be controlling, less accepting and more prejudiced against homosexuals. 

Not all those who campaign against gay men and lesbians secretly feel same-sex attractions. But at least some who oppose homosexuality are likely to be individuals struggling against parts of themselves, having themselves been victims of oppression and lack of acceptance. The costs are great, not only for the targets of anti-gay efforts but also often for the perpetrators. 

Mark Morford: Homophobes Need (Gay) Love Too

Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, writes some great columns which while poking fun and those who deserve derision also hit upon many kernels of truth. In a column that reflects on the University of Rochester study that not surprisingly concluded that many extreme homophobes are actually self-loathing closet cases who secretly, whether consciously or not, yearn for the very same gay sex about which they shriek condemnation so often. Interestingly, Morford seems to get the same read on Rick Santorum as I do - the guy's a closet case and all those children are a manifestation of Santorum's quest for self-denial. One of the things I did during my 37 years in the closet was to throw myself into Catholicism in the hope that it would make the gay go away. Of course, it doesn't - a fact that Santorum and those like him will perhaps someday acknowledge. Morford also notes the harm done individuals raised in homophobic and often unloving Christianist homes. Here are some column highlights:

And then came the headline that surprised exactly no one and delighted a great many, even as it openly terrified countless thousands across the deep south and also Utah and Kansas and pretty much the entire GOP. The poor dears.

"Homophobes might be secretly attracted to people of the same sex," is what the headline read, I mean obviously, I mean of course you already know what the researchers discovered, you and every conscious human within a 10,000 mile radius who also snickered, rolled her eyes and then sighed heavily with the obviousness of it all. It is not always the way?

Who among us with the slightest acumen toward self-reflection doesn't fully understand that the more you wail against something, the more violently outspoken or hateful you are against this or that perceived indiscretion, sexual proclivity, perversion, deviance, expression, delight, taste sensation, the more certain it is that said deliciousness secretly attracts you, turns you on and makes you enormously, terrifically scared?

Case after case, priest after priest, GOP senator after megachurch pastor after spittle-flecked Tea Party zealot -- all suddenly caught pants down in a bathroom stall, in a leather bar, gay chat room, in a Grindr hookup app, living out their real and honest selves even as they rail and oppose and thump their Bibles everywhere else. Hypocrisy, thy name is homophobe.

Which is, essentially, exactly what the study found. One's level of homophobia lies, quite frequently, in direct proportion to one's own brutally closeted desire for homosexual sex. Result: self-denial, self hatred, wailing and thrashing and Prop 8-ing against an unfair world.

Behind the humor and the sarcasm, there's a sadness, a brutal truism common to the human melodrama. Shall we have a glance? It goes something like this: Perhaps nasty homophobes are, the study gently suggests, to be empathized with, to be offered a modicum of compassion and understanding, due to the abject tragedy of their ignoble fate. And perhaps this offering, particularly in light of hateful trolls like Rick Santorum and his dark coven, perhaps this is one of the most difficult challenges you can name.

Hatred is, we all know, a learned experience. Someone teaches you that blacks are scary, Muslims are evil, women are lesser. Someone force feeds kids the vile falsehood that gay love is an abomination, as opposed to something obvious and common across every species of animal on the planet. I say 'force,' because kids will never believe it otherwise.

Does this all excuse the homophobe's acts, their nasty legislation, their bilious congressional votes? Does it give Rick Santorum, Rick Warren, Rush Limbaugh some sort of pass? Hell no. Does it give it a hint of understanding, and perhaps empathy, as we all recognize those places in ourselves where we have been similarly programmed, lied to, horribly misled? It might. Depends on your whisky.

Of course, it's not universal. Not all hardcore conservatives secretly wish for a gay romp or ten. Many just act out of purely poisoned souls, or from the unconscious demon telling them that if they're not allowed to express their deepest selves, if they can't live life at a more honest frequency, no one can.

We are taught to ignore our deeper selves in favor of the collective group-think, codified programming, a wrathful and disconnected God. This is the lesson: Do not ask deeper questions. Do not tap into your own genuine needs, sexuality, fierce spiritual magma. Do not dare suggest that most fundamentalist notions of Christian God are sort of detestable and gloomy, the exact opposite of what Jesus actually intended. Do not, most of all, dare to define it all for yourself, as your sex, your soul, your internal ethical slut see fit. What the hell do you think you are, free?

Homophobic Conservative Flip Out About New Homophobia Study

It has been entertaining to watch the conniptions and spittle spraying reactions for the professional gay haters and likely closeted professional Christiansists over the new study out of the University of Rochester that links extreme homophobia to the latent and repressed same sex attractions of homophobes. The finds that these folks "doth protest to much" has caused some - Brent Bozell for example who is pictured at left - to just about blow a gasket. I have often maintained that rather than railing against gays, these folks need to seek serious psychiatric help and the new study finding bear this analysis out. One can only hope that increasingly in the eye of the general public the immediate reaction to these folks is to automatically consider them to be self-loathing closeted gays. As for the spouses of these folks, they might be wise to ask themselves what's REALLY going on with their homophobic spouse. Here are some highlights from the New Civil Rights Movement on the exploding heads of the far right:

Brent Bozell is really angry about the recent study examining the causes of homophobia, which found that homophobes — people who hate homosexuals — hate “the gays” maybe because they are gay, and their authoritarian parents may be largely to blame. Several other studies, too, have come to exactly the same conclusion.

Bozell . . . . discounts and denounces the new homophobia study as “intellectual intimidation and political bullying,” “laughable,” “psychobabble mumbo-jumbo,” and a “wheelbarrow full of nonsense.”

What Bozell, who, by the way just days before Christmas last year went on Fox News and called President Obama looks like “a skinny, ghetto crackhead,” doesn’t quite get is there’s a difference between a religious opposition to homosexuality — however misguided and anti-Christian that is — and virulent homophobia. Bozell is an extremist and doesn’t understand degrees.

Bozell is also a board member of the Culture And Media Institute (CMI), the folks who one year ago went off the deep end over J. Crew head Jenna Lyons pink toenailed little boy. Bozell, who is also a board member of the Catholic League and owns the sleazy faux journalism site, NewsBusters, is an extremist.

No one is so hysterically anti-gay in my view unless they have serious psychological issues of their own that cause them to so loudly over react. As for Mr. Bozell, one can only wonder when he'll find himself having a "wide stance" moment or some other incident that ends his charade.

From climate change to evolution to President Obama’s birth certificate, today’s conservatives, unlike their predecessors, are in denial about a great many scientifically-proven facts. It’s called willful ignorance, and it’s killing America — and LGBT children, who are forced to see and hear anti-gay hate day in and day out.

Is Homophobia Actually Self-Phobia?

I've often noted that the extreme homophobia displayed by some of the leading anti-gay Christianists - and I'd include GOP presidential want to be Rick Santorum in this group - suggests to me that these individuals doth protest too much. Now, a new study from the University of Rochester tends to support the premise that the loudest homophobes hysteria really comes from their own deeply repressed homoerotic feelings. These findings are in line with past findings that homophobic men were most aroused by watching gay porn. As I suggested to Robert Knight years ago, perhaps he simply needs to hire a hot gay escort and face reality. Needless to say, he wasn't amused. But seriously, Knight, Tony Perkins, Matt Barber, Peter Sprigg, Bryan Fischer, and a number of others need to focus on their own screwed up psyches rather than attacking others who are merely living their lives as these men apparently only fantasize about. First some highlights from USA Today on the study:

A new study suggests intense hostility toward homosexuals may be linked to a repressed same-sex attraction, combined with an authoritarian upbringing.

Though such factors are not the only cause of homophobia, the findings suggest those "who have a discrepancy within themselves about their expressed vs. unconscious sexual attraction find gay and lesbian people more threatening and are more likely to express prejudice and discrimination toward them," says University of Rochester psychology professor Richard Ryan, co-author of the study, which is published in the April Journalof Personality and Social Psychology. Also an author is Netta Weinstein of the University of Essex, England.

The blocking of unconscious desires by adopting an opposite view is a well-known psychoanalytic concept, suggested by Freud and others. The new study uses "modern methods that allow us to more reliably peer into these less explicitly available parts of peoples' psyches and see what's arising," Ryan says.

The findings suggest participants with accepting parents were more in touch with their innate sexual orientation. But, Ryan says, "if you come from a controlling home where your parents do have negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians, you're even more likely to suppress same-sex attraction and more likely to have this discrepancy that leads to having homophobia and feeling threatened."

Ryan says the study may help explain the personal dynamics behind some bullying and hate crimes directed at gays and sheds light on high-profile cases in which public figures who have expressed anti-gay views have been caught engaging in same-sex sexual acts. "Some people who are threatened by gays and lesbians and are most vociferous in their opposition to them are suffering internally themselves," he says.

More details on the study findings are available at Newswise.com. Here are a few more details:

Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates.

The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies.

“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” explains Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study’s lead author.

“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.

People in denial about their sexual orientation may lash out because gay targets threaten and bring this internal conflict to the forefront, the authors write.

“In a predominately heterosexual society, ‘know thyself’ can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying,” explains Weinstein. These individuals risk losing the love and approval of their parents if they admit to same sex attractions, so many people deny or repress that part of themselves, she said.

In addition, participants who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on the reaction time task indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others, the studies showed. That incongruence between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, . . . .

Bottom line, the next time you hear a professional Christian engaged in a homophobic rant, we all will know what is likely really going on. I just wished they would focus their self-hate on themselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Montgomery County, Maryland Schools to Reconsider Flyer Policy After Backlash to PFOX Flyer

One of the most disingenuous things that the Christianits do - and there are many, many such things - is to work to perpetuate the myth that sexual orientation is a choice, that it can be changed and that "ex-gays" exist. Even Exodus International and former proponents of the change myth such as Warren Throckmorton and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University now concede that any real change is extremely rare assuming it happens at all. Yet we see the Christianist ministries continuing to brainwash tortured and conflicted LGBT individuals and their families - often charging large amounts of money for their witch doctor like therapy. One of the worst proponents of the "change myth" is Parents and Friends of Ex-gays ("PFOX" whose board of directors is a who's who of some of the worst professional homophobes in the nation (e.g., Peter Sprigg and Robert Knight) some of whom are affiliated with registered anti-gay hate groups. Among PFOX's many activities is seeking to disseminate false information to school students - something which, if allowed by school divisions, in my opinion sets the stage for lawsuits against schools stupid enough to allow PFOX to disseminate its lies. One school division that fell for PFOX's snake oil is the school system in Montgomery County, Maryland, adjacent to Washington, D.C. The Washington Post reports on that division's rethinking of allowing false and untrue information to be sent out to students. Here are highlights:

The Montgomery County Board of Education is reconsidering its policy on distributing community flyers, following protests over an announcement sent home with students last month that many found potentially harmful to gay people.

The flyer, which was distributed along with report cards to students at five high schools, came from Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays (PFOX), a Virginia-based organization that advocates that gay people can change their sexual orientation — a view that several national medical organizations contest.

The existing school system policy permits any nonprofit to send flyers home with high school students four times a year, unless the message is considered hate speech. The right was upheld in a court case several years ago.

To remain viewpoint neutral, the school system has to allow any nonprofit — or forbid all nonprofits — from sending home messages. The school board voted Monday night to refer the matter to its policy subcommittee to review and recommend any changes to the full school board this spring.

David Fishback, an advocacy chair for the Metro D.C. chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, applauded superintendent Joshua Starr for speaking out against the flyers. Starr called the actions of the group “reprehensible and deplorable” at a town hall meeting with students.

Peter Sprigg, a member of the board of directors of PFOX, told the board members that it would be “reprehensible, deplorable, and disgusting” if they ultimately decided to “punish” all nonprofits in the county because they disagreed with the messages of some.

Rather than spread medical and mental health lies and untruths, PFOX members and advocates would, in my view, be much better off seeking mental health treatment to help them escape from the emotional and psychological damage they have suffered from their religious upbringings. One can put such baggage behind them. Of course, many of the PFOX crowd seem to have made a profession out of being "ex-gay" for pay. Money apparently means more than objective scientific and medical truth. No one lies as much as the Christianists.

Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?

I've written before about this question before and based on my personal interactions with some of the professional Christian set and subsequently "outed" members of the GOP, I'd answer a definite yes. And this conclusion was confirmed by a study more than 15 years ago at the University of Georgia. Here's the synopsis of the study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

Abstract

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

The study is most relevant in the wake of the Christianist hysteria over Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's steps to ratchet up pressure on anti-gay nations and Rick Perry's latest ad that glorifies anti-gay political positions (is a coincidence that gay rumors have swirled around Perry for years?). PoliticusUSA has some fun commentary on the closet cases within the GOP and the Christian Right. Here are some highlights:

Darn penises (or peni as The Donald would no doubt say). The Republican Party flees in terror.

I haven’t seen additional studies on this, and one would want to see these results duplicated, but this study does differentiate from arousal that can result from anger and specifies the arousal measured as sexual. I think we can all agree that the penis doesn’t lie as often as a politician or demagogue con artist raking in millions by appealing to hate.

This theory has been out there since Freud posited it. It is predictable that the Republican Party suffers reliable and consistent public humiliation after their most ardent anti-homosexual puppets get busted in public bathrooms doing the dirty deed.

Many theories in psychology account for this other than the homoerotic enlarged penile circumference. There’s projection that allows the person to distance themselves from what they most fear and despise in themselves. There’s denial leading to all kinds of machinations meant to assist in avoiding facing the truth.

And then there’s just common sense. How much energy does it take to hate an entire segment of people, to work tirelessly in order to deny them the right to serve in the military, to marry, to get access to healthcare and the pension of their spouse, even the right to visit their partner in the hospital?

Most people simply don’t care what strangers do with their life. It’s beyond telling when a political party and so called religion come together in service of this kind of hate. Fear often drives the individual; fear of their own desires and fear of their own choices. But the agenda of the political religious group is much more suspect. What do they stand to gain from focusing on something quite irrelevant to most of our daily lives? And more importantly, what are the results of their efforts?

The groups who perpetrate such ugly hate on a national, macro level are not much different from the childhood bully; they’re afraid, they’re attempting to put themselves in a position of power and authority over another group for their own benefit, and they are attempting to pull their group together by singling out those who don’t belong – a tactic often used by weakened groups whose only hope at survival is to divide and conquer.

I've often said that Robert Knight, Tony Perkins - and likely Brian Brown as well - who are just too hysterical about homosexuality need to go out and hire rent boys, satisfy their suppressed desires and move on in their lives and let the rest of us live our lives as we choose. Ditto for all the tortured "ex-gays" for pay.

Christianists Still Shrieking Over DADT Repeal

Tortured, self-loathing closet case Robert Knight is so hysterical over the repeal of DADT repeal that one can't help but wonder if he'll wet himself or go into a convulsion. Knight and I had multiple e-mail exchanges some years back and the guy is simple "too hysterical" on the issue of homosexuality if you get my drift. Add to that the fact that he's a pathological liar when in comes to anti-gay batshitery - he admitted in one e-mail to me that his statements on a particular topic were not true yet not two days later he was disseminating the exact same lies - and the only possible conclusion is that guy is a real piece of work in need of serious mental health care intervention. In a rant on OneNewsNow - a Christianist faux news site - Knight hyperventilates as follows:

"This is huge. This could have generational impact,” explains Knight. “And it can't stand. It will wreck our military. People of good conscience will have to leave the military and in fact many have already said they're going to."

"It was brought about with junk science, with a misrepresented survey that was leaked to the press for maximum effect -- and that ought to be investigated. In fact, that's one thing Republicans could do right now is to call for hearings into the misuse of that survey of U.S. personnel and see how the results were slanted," says the family advocate.

News bulletin to Knight and the readers of OneNewsNow: the only junk science being peddled is that disseminated by OneNewsNow and Mr. Knight. And yes, DADT repeal will have a generational impact as the younger generation is influenced by accurate knowledge on the issue sexual orientation as opposed to religious based bigotry and Christianist hysteria. All of which will not bode well for Knight, et al, as their market of Kool-Aid drinkers continues to shrink. Knight might do well to hook up with "Marcia" Bachmann and come over from the dark side.

Weddings Begin in New York State! - Robert Knight Has Apoplexy

Weddings began shortly after midnight in New York State. Pictured above are Cheryle Rudd and Kitty Lambert became the first gay married couple this morning with Niagara Falls in the background. Besides ending religious based discrimination in the civil laws in New York, same sex marriage will bring an economic windfall to the state. Bob Witeck has a piece at CNN that looks at why marriage equality is good for business. Read the article here.
*
Meanwhile, Robert Knight who has made a career out of disseminating anti-gay untruths and who strikes me as a self-loathing closet case, recently had a rant in the Washington Times about the left's - read gays - assault on the nation's so-called Judeo-Christian morality. With Knight the quest to force Christianist religious beliefs on all citizens trumps everything else - even the potential default on the national debt. Here are highlights from his screed that likely would have sat well with Norway's mass murder suspect:
*
Over the past 90 years, a relentless campaign has unfolded to overthrow Judeo-Christian morality and replace it with an amorality that says desires themselves validate choices.
*
This campaign has been advanced largely by hijacking the rubric and moral capital of the black civil rights movement and misapplying it to volitional behavior. The changes, which move us closer to barbarism, are enforced via media that pounce on even the slightest hesitation to embrace the new immorality.
*
The current target of this unholy campaign is the perversion of marriage. For the first time, a Republican-controlled state Senate chamber provided the margin of victory for a state law redefining marriage away from the man-woman requirement. Soon, there will be no bride needed or no groom for a New York marriage license.
*
The left is not about to call a truce in the culture war. Sensing disarray, the Obama administration has stepped up its attacks on the moral order even while it runs our economy off a cliff.
*
It’s not too late to save what’s left of marriage and to reorder public policies to strengthen rather than corrode the sanctity of the home. . . . A great reservoir of sentiment for the permanent things is waiting to be tapped. What’s needed first is moral leadership from those who purport to be leaders.
*
Can't you just feel the Christian love?

Homophobic Men Most Aroused by Gay Male Porn

A recent post on Psychology Today brings up a topic that seems proven by some of the worse homophobes of the Christian Taliban that I have interacted with over the years via e-mail debates. What is it? It's the fact that these individuals are self-loathing closet cases that are in denial about their own craving for male to male intimacy. Robert Knight (pictured at right) and Peter LaBarbera are but two such individuals. They are far too hysterical about the issue of gays and strike me as severely conflicted by their religious brainwashing which collides with their repressed inner most desires. One could almost feel sad for such people but for the damage they do to so many others. Here are highlights from the story:
*
Sigmund Freud, theorized that people often have the most hateful and negative attitudes towards things they secretly crave, but feel that they shouldn't have. If Freud is right, then perhaps men who are the most opposed to male homosexuality have particularly strong homosexual urges for other men.
*
One study asked heterosexal men how comfortable and anxious they are around gay men. Based on these scores, they then divided these men into two groups: men that are homophobic, and men who are not. These men were then shown three, four minute videos. One video depicted straight sex, one depicted lesbian sex and one depicted gay male sex. While this was happening, a device was attached to the male participant's penises. This device has been found to be triggered by sexual arousal, but not other types of arousal (such as nervousness, or fear - arousal often has a very different meaning in psychology than in popular usage).
*
When viewing lesbian sex and straight sex, both the homophobic and the non-homophobic men showed increased penis circumference. For gay male sex, however, only the homophobic men showed heightened penis arousal.Heterosexual men with the most anti-gay attitudes, when asked, reported not being sexually aroused by gay male sex videos. But, their penises reported otherwise. Homophobic men were the most sexually aroused by gay male sex acts.
*
An abstract of the referenced study can be found here. The last three sentences of the abstract states: Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

Coven of Gay-Haters Gather at Liberty University

I can think of few more inappropriately named universities - using that term very loosely, of course - than Liberty University, the late Jerry Falwells' institution dedicated to religious extremism and theocracy in Lynchburg, Virginia. The concept of individual freedom and liberty as envisioned by the Founding Fathers is the antithesis of the Christianist dictatorship that Falwell and similar enemies of the U. S. Constitution's protections that extend to all citizens (not just Christianists) want to bring into being. The USA under the folks who gathered over the weekend at Liberty University for "The Awakening" would indeed be a frightening place that would in many ways mirror Afghanistan under the Taliban. It goes without saying that gays are the favorite target for hate and denigration in such circles, with non-Christians, blacks and immigrants close behind. Among the speakers at the coven gathering were the ever obsessed and closeted Robert Knight and Matt Barber who have made careers disseminating lies and untruths about LGBT people. The American Independent has details on the hate fest. (Additional articles can be found here). Here are some highlights (NOTE: the haters decided that describing gays as "anti-Christian" should be a matter of policy)
*
The first step for Christian conservatives to win the war against the gay movement is to rebrand the terms, said a few panelists at this weekend’s The Awakening conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. “‘Gay’ is a left-wing socio-political construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based on] whimsical capricious desires,” said Ryan Sorba, chairman of the Young Conservatives of California. “Gay identity does not exist.” . . . it was suggested that gays should also be referred to as “anti-Christian.”
*
Sorba blamed the Republicans for losing what he calls a “war” promulgated by the homosexual lobby. “Our movement decided to abandon the real issue of homosexual behavior … with our major focus around protecting the word marriage,” Sorba said. For the panelists, the biggest “gay threat” is not just over Christian ideology but over national security.
*
Matt Barber, the panel’s moderator and a dean at Liberty University, said he served in the military for 12 years. Barber made a case that promoting gays in the military presents a national threat because most gay military men will be more focused on their attraction to other men than on their military duties, saying it comes down to the soldier who “has your back or the one who wants to rub it.”
*
“Homosexuality is the greatest threat to the criminalization of Christianity,” said Robert Knight, executive director for the American Civil Rights Union. . . . All the panelists’ arguments over why there’s a war with gays and why Christians must win it goes back to sin.

“A civil right that conflicts with natural right is no right at all,” Sorba said. “”The [homosexual] behavior is immoral. It divides you from truth and what’s the meaning of life. If you don’t have truth, you have nothing but fake.” Barber called same-sex orientation “hedonism repackaged.”
*
If you follow the works of these "professional Christians," you will not find an ounce of Christian love for LGBT individuals. Likewise, you will see acceptance of legitimate medical and mental health knowledge. Rather, it's all about intolerance and a near violent reaction to anything that threatens their house of cards religious beliefs. I continue to believe that gays terrify these people - Robert Knight is a prime example based on our past e-mail debates - because in their minds if the few Bible passages that are equated with condemning gays are wrong, then their whole fragile construct collapses. Ditto for acceptance of interracial marriage and full equality for women since these issue likewise cut against carefully selected passages that are relied upon to justify the antiquated and bigoted Christianist world view.

Robert Knight Demonstrates More Batshitery

Robert Knight is an old nemesis of mine. We crossed paths and exchanged e-mail volleys in the aftermath of my work with Wayne Besen in exposing high profile "ex-gay" poster boy, Michael Johnston, as a fraud. Johnston - who was part of a national Christian Right anti-gay media blitz in 1998 was sleeping around the Hampton Roads area (he is from the area and operated the now defunct Kerusso Ministries based in Newport News) under an assumed name and having unprotected sex seeking to infect others with HIV. The reaction among the Christianist was not pleasant and, among other things Wayne and I were attacked by name in a rant on the right wing site Townhall.com.

*

Despite admissions in e-mails that the work of Paul Cameron is fraudulent and that gays did not precipitate the fall of ancient Rome, Knight - who has bounced from one anti-gay organization to another like some bad penny (he's currently at Coral Ridge Ministries, which was peddling Michael Johnston's videos even though his "moral fall" was known within the ex-gay industry) - continues to disseminate outright lies and what can only be labeled as hatred towards gays. From our exchanges, Knight is absolutely obsessed with gay sex - particularly anal sex - which sends him into an utter frenzy. Of course, true to form, Knight wraps himself in the mantle of Christianity and religiosity even as he makes a mockery of the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness. Now, with the Senate having voted to repeal DAD, Knight seems posed to go off the deep end. My analysis? Knight is a severe closet case who wants to destroy what he cannot allow himself to experience because of his warped religious mind set. The result is what I view as his transferred self-loathing toward gays who have accepted their God given sexuality. Alvin McKwen takes a look at Knight's hysteria in a post at Pam's House Blend. Here are some highlights:
*
For some, the need to stigmatize the lgbt community based on their constant desire to remind folks about gay sex never goes away.
*
Robert Knight of Coral Ridge Ministries has made a career out of spreading anti-gay propaganda and lies, even to the point of citing the discredited Paul Cameron in front of Congress. And in a recent piece in The Washington Times - one of the only places that will publish his nonsense - Knight is claiming that Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed because Republicans refused to get nasty about homosexuality: Instead of using the military debate to bring to light many suppressed facts that could cripple the homosexual juggernaut if Americans only knew, they played by their opponents' rule book.
*
The irony of Knight's position is the realization that 17 years ago, Republicans and those who didn't support gays and lesbians serving openly in the military did pull out the horror stories. They talked about "gay sex," "the gay agenda," "fisting," and even pulled the "gay assault" card.
*
But things have changed. Homophobia still exists but for the most part, more of us are out and unashamed of who we are despite the efforts of those like Knight. Americans know more of us and the lies about us being an invading horde of Godless creatures just isn't resonating like they used to. The sad thing is that no one told Knight.
*

I would also conjecture that Knight - like many of the Christianists has in fact a weak and shallow faith which gays threaten because, if God made some of us gay as part of Hus natural order of things, that would mean the Bible is wrong in the few passages that are cited as condemning homosexuality. And if those passages are wrong, then the entire fragile house of cards collapses, leaving Knight (and others like him - e.g., much of the Catholic Church hierarchy) facing the fact that they have lived their lives based on a falsehood and suffered needless self-denial and self-hate for no reason. They truly cannot let anything suggest that their lives have been warped and wasted. Thus, in their very sick and frightened minds, gays must be destroyed.

Do Personal Mental/Emotional Problems Drive Gay Haters?

I have personally interacted with a number of the leading anti-gay mouth pieces such as Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera (I still have our e-mail exchanges) - who strike me as extreme self-loathing closet cases who have transferred their almost violent self-hate to other gays who have resolved/accepted their sexuality - and closeted politicians like former Congressman Ed Schrock who I outed to Mike Rogers. The boyfriend and I even had a face to face confrontation with Operation Rescue nutbag Randall Terry (who has a gay son) at the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., in October, 2009. In every case, these individuals have displayed a bizarre level of hysteria over homosexuality and same sex relationships that suggest that they all have serious emotional/psychological issues that that need resolution. Unfortunately, rather than seek appropriate mental health treatment, they cling desperately to simplistic, rote religious dogma that causes them to lash out and attach others. It's a case on their part of doing anything else rather than deal with their own screwed up emotional/psychological issues. Maggie Gallagher (pictured above) - the former unwed mother, now married to a non-Christian - who has decided to wrap herself in the garb of the Christian guardian of marriage (enriching herself financially in the process). Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has an interesting take on Gallagher which may explain some of her irrational aversion to gays and gay marriage. Here are some highlights (Read Jeremy's full post for numerous Gallagher quotes):
*
I recently heard a theory about Maggie Gallagher, which suggested that the the National Organization For Marriage doyenne is super-obsessed with marriage matters because she believes, based on her own personal experience, that men are generally/ genuinely terrified of marriage. The theory went on to suggest that since Maggie has her own Catholic views on homosexuality, and since she holds a belief that most straight men are repulsed by gay sex, she in turn surmises that same-sex unions do and will serve to further alienate heterosexual men from matrimony.
*
The theory could be right or it could be off-base. But it does actually make a lot of sense. Maggie has talked at length about how the father of her oldest child, a fellow Yalie who Maggie describes as having had a "troubled past", abandoned her and her unborn son in 1982. . . . Maggie directly ties this recollection in with her burgeoning Catholic faith and conservative consciousness, so there's no doubt that it was all highly formative. . . . It seems a focal point was born right alongside the son.
*
Then couple this view with what we know to be Maggie's views on gays in general (or at least the view she wishes to stir up among her supporters). ...and you'd seem to have a perfect storm for turning conservative game-playing into a career. A perfect vehicle for making good money as a public intellectual. A perfect scapegoat for Maggie's own experiences with marriages and straight men. A perfect psychological catharsis, played out at the expense of gay people's own lives and loves and associated rights.
*

Maggie, please do us all a favor and get some serious, legitimate mental health treatment and stay out of our lives (we will gladly steer clear of yours) and stop trying to conflate your own psychological/religious demons into the nation's civil laws.

Anti-gay Quotes From the Family Research Council

Even as the gay haters at Family Research Council are shrieking that they have been wrongfully labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, John Aravosis who edits America Blog has reactivated a shortened version of a web page he did some years back that documents the MANY lies and hate driven statements FRC promulgates to create anti-gay hatred. It is worth a read and if one takes the time to read all the quotes, it becomes absolutely clear that FRC is a hate group and its claims of being a Christian organization is merely a smoke screen to hide the organization's main agenda and make it more palatable to politicians and lazy newscasters who never bother to look behind the smoke and mirrors. I wish some major newspapers would do a hard hitting piece on FRC and run lengthy quotes from its poisonous lies so that no sentient person could doubt that SPLC has 100% on the mark. Here are a few samplings from John's work:
*
Gays are pedophiles, and want to promote youth promiscuity. "There is a strong undercurrent of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture. Homosexual activists want to promote the flouting of traditional sexual prohibitions at the earliest possible age....they want to encourage a promiscuous society - and the best place to start is with a young and credulous captive audience in the public schools." - Robert Knight, Family Research Council, http://www.frc.org/insight/is93f1hs.html
*
Gays hate God. "[Homosexuality] is the opposite of love for God. It is a rebellion against God and God's natural order, and embodies a deep-seated hatred against true religion." - THE ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS BY THE MILITANT HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT, by Steven A. Schwalm, Family Research Council, http://www.frc.org/podium/pd98j2hs.html
*
Gays oppose Christianity. "Militant homosexuality is fundamentally opposed to religion, family, and anything that presupposes a natural moral order, a transcendent God, or something else higher than ourselves. The activist homosexual agenda and worldview are fundamentally incompatible with Christianity or any form of true religion, because homosexuality is ultimately narcissism" - THE ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS BY THE MILITANT HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT, by Steven A. Schwalm, Family Research Council, http://www.frc.org/podium/pd98j2hs.html
*
Gays are diseased, die early, and are less productive than heterosexuals. "homosexual behavior is extremely unhealthy, contributing to the spread of AIDS, hepatitis A, B and C and other sexually transmitted diseases….A study of more than 6,400 obituaries in homosexual publications reveals that homosexuals typically have far shorter life spans than the general population. Other reports indicate that homosexuals are more likely to have drug and alcohol abuse problems. It is unfair to force businesses to pay the extra insurance expense and lost productivity that inevitably results from homosexual behavior." [Editors note: the source for this "research" is the discredited Dr. Paul Cameron - see below for extensive information about his extreme beliefs] - Robert Knight, Family Research Council, testifying at ENDA Hearings, July 29, 1994 - committee on Labor and Human Resources, US Senate.
*
Gays only pretend to oppose pedophilia. "In the United States, homosexual activists are more circumspect about their efforts to gain access to children...homosexual activists publicly disassociate themselves from pedophiles as part of a public relations strategy"- "Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys," FRC publication, July 1999, http://www.frc.org/misc/bl057.pdf

Gays are 33% of child molesters. "they constitute about a third of child molesters." - "Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys," FRC publication, July 1999, http://www.frc.org/misc/bl057.pdf
*
The examples go on and on and are clearly NOT statements of religious belief or dogma. The sole intent is to malign and denigrate a whole segment of society and to engender hatred. When will the MSM get off its ass and start exposing FRC and its allies for the hate mongers that they are?

What Homophobia Says About the Homophobe

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Closet Cases LaBarbera and Knight Launch "Truth Academy"

The disingenuousness - OK, the outright lies - of Peter LaBabera truly know no limits. If there are two individuals who would not know the truth if it slapped them repeatedly in the head, it's Peter LaBarbera and fellow loon Robert Knight. Both men have bounced from one lunatic Christian Right organization to another, always making a living off of the teet of gay bashing and fleecing the ignorant and religiously brainwashed who continue to fall for the myth that sexuality is a choice and something that can be "changed." I have had e-mail exchanges with both over the years and when caught in outright lies they feign ignorance, state that they will never make the untrue statement again, and then in the next breath start disseminating the same lie via a different forum (I have the e-mails to document this fact). Indeed, from my personal interaction with them, both are far to hysterical about gays and gay sex and - in my opinion - are in the same camp as George Rekers.

*

In any event, now these two truth challenged individuals are advertising a "Truth Academy" via Americans for Truth About Homosexuality ("AFTAH"), La Barbera's latest scam organization. The "Truth Academy" alleges that it will "train youth on hw to fight the ‘Gay Agenda." Here some of the lunacy found on the AFTAH's web site about this fraudulent endeavor:
*
Robert Knight will draw on his extensive pro-family experience to teach youth how to debunk the myths surrounding the "gay" movement. Knight is the featured keynote instructor at the Americans For Truth Academy August 5-7.
*
This August 5-7, AFTAH will bring together some of the country’s leading pro-family experts on homosexuality to teach both young and old how to answer the lies and myths that so readily emanate from the “GLBT” (“gay”) camp. I am very excited about this new project’s potential to reverse years of pro-”gay” brainwashing in the schools and popular culture — corrupting the hearts and minds of our young people.
*
AFTAH is stepping up to train a new generations of activists to contend with the sexual sin movement that has fooled so many Americans into treating a human wrong — changeable same-sex behavior — as a “civil right.”
*
SPECIAL SPONSORSHIP OFFER: Anyone who sponsors a young person (age 14-25) to attend the ‘Americans For Truth Academy’ August 5-7 for $99 will receive your choice of one of two excellent books exposing the homosexual agenda (see book descriptions at bottom of page):
*
- - - “Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far,” by the late Dr. Charles Socarides, [hardcover: 312 pp]; or
*

- - - “Out from Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting,” by Dawn Stefanowicz [Softcover: 245 pp.]

*
To reserve a spot, see below and go online to www.americansfortruth.com/donate (designate whether you will be attending the AFTAH Academy or providing a youth sponsorship at $99/student on the form). Or send your donation to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. For more information, contact americansfortruth@gmail.com.

*

I hope that not too many people are duped into attending or sponsoring this scam operation. Obviously, the only beneficiaries of this "Truth Academy" will be LaBarbera, Knight and others making a buck off of the ignorant and uninformed.

Wingnuts Hyperventilate Over DADT Vote

From monitoring various "pro-family" and "Christian" organizations for more than a decade, one common theme with these groups is that the truth has nothing to do with the deliberately false and denigrating information they disseminate. Be it non-Christians, immigrants - or the favorite target of all, gays - there truly is no limit to the lies and viciousness of these self-congratulatory bigots. Standing amongst the most homophobic of these blowhards is Robert Knight who has bounced from one Christianist organization to another, generally holding some title that helps maintain his faux expert image. Indeed, from my personal interactions and exchanges with Knight, I will not be the least surprised when he gets exposed as the next George "Rentboy" Rekers. No one is THAT hysterical about TEH GAYS unless they've got some truly serious issues going on in terms of their own sexuality. Needless to say, the recent DADT repeal vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee has Knight in hysteria overdrive. Here are some highlights from Knight's rant at OneNewsNow:
*
Barney Frank and his friends are rolling their tanks through Congress while everyone is talking about something else. As we reel from one crisis to the next, homosexual activists and their allies are muscling through their agenda, with nary a peep from the nation's conservative talking heads.
*
This week, their target is the military. Soon, it will be passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would criminalize traditional morality in every workplace with 15 or more employees. After that, they will try to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Finally, they aim to pass an "anti-bullying" law that will threaten schools with losing federal funds if they refuse to force kids to read Heather Has Two Mommies and Gloria Goes to Gay Pride. The agenda is breathtakingly ambitious, and would be unimaginable to previous generations.
*
These radical laws would be a watershed moment for socialists, who are at war with family and religion as impediments to a growing state. The pansexual Left senses triumph now for two reasons:
*
First, the Obama-manufactured crisis-a-day has people terrified about where the economy is headed. The sheer magnitude of government takeovers and spending is dominating the Tea Party movement, and in fact, everybody.
*
Second, homosexual activists and their media enablers have "jammed" the public debate. Hollywood, educators and the media continually deny the truth about homosexuality – that while all people are made in God's image and are entitled to basic human rights – homosexuality is not in-born, is changeable, and is dangerous to the health and well being of individuals, families and communities. The militant advancement of gay activism poses the greatest threat to the freedoms of religion, assembly and speech within our borders.
*
The gravity of allowing open homosexuality in the military cannot be overstated. It has the potential of destroying the all-volunteer force by discouraging recruitment and retention and shattering unit morale. Chaplains would find themselves muzzled on basic questions of morality and many would leave the services. Recruits would undergo pro-homosexual "sensitivity" training. The already troubling problem of sexual misconduct would increase.
*
From misreporting junk science about non-existent "gay genes," to bashing people who believe that some behavior is simply wrong and unhealthy, the media are a fully owned subsidiary of the gay activist movement.
*
Note how Knight projects the Christianist agenda onto the LGBT community. If any group using "junk science" and is a threat to the freedoms of religion, assembly and speech it's Knight and his fellow Bible beating brethren. My advice to Knight - which I have shared with him before: rent and escort, have some hot gay sex that you want so badly, and get over it.

The So-Called "Therapy" Promoted by NARTH and George Rekers

My fellow Bilerico blogger Alex Blaze has a great post on The Bilerico Project that helps to underscore the insidious poison that Rekers and similar self-loathing closet cases have inflicted on so many over the course of their efforts to transfer to others their own feelings of sinfulness and to stigmatize others who have done nothing more than accept the sexual orientation that God gave them - I like to think by intentional design. As I have noted before, we will never know how many LGBT individuals were driven to suicide because of the work of Rekers and his Christianist allies. Likewise, we will never know how many lives and families were damaged by the faux science knowingly and deliberately peddled to the gullible and ignorant by Rekers and his minions. Suffice it to say, the numbers are likely not insignificant on either count. Here are some highlights from Alex's summary of some of the garbage disseminated by NARTH and George Rekers - all in a quest to feel good about themselves and for political gain - and the toxic results therefrom:

*
It looks like media outside of Bilerico and Zoe Brain's blog decided to take a little stroll down Memory Lane and revisit George Rekers's work at UCLA, where he told parents to spank their boys for being too femmy and to psychologically torture them as young as age 4 (which actually isn't that hard) in order to make real men out of them.
*
What we know now is from a passage in Phyllis Burke's Gender Shock. I'm sure that a plucky LGBT journalist working for an LA or a national publication could find out a bit more about how far Rekers's experiments at UCLA's Feminine Boy Project went. Were children hit by the researchers themselves? What were parents told and promised? How did they secure their government grant? And how many of children they experimented on ended up committing suicide?
*
Consider this from Rekers in 1977 on whether psychiatrists should help people accept their homosexuality or try to overcome it (remember, this is several years after the DSM removed its entry on homosexuality when it became apparent it was there for no reason other than to stigmatize gay people):
*
For example, it has been suggested that the only appropriate goal of the psychotherapist dealing with a homosexual individual is to help him adjust to his homosexual orientation and behavior. Some critics go so far as to suggest that a referral to a "Gay Counseling Center" is even more appropriate, with the goal of placing the individual in contact with others like himself. We find this line of argument to be totally unacceptable and irresponsible.[...]
*
The non-neutrality of "gay counseling" imposes further limitations on the individual's growth potential, and unnecessarily sanctions a debilitating pattern of personal adjustment.
*
Of course. And spanking boys for being to girly is completely neutral. This isn't anything that we haven't seen before, of course. Queer people don't need to be told that there are plenty of people who will punish sexual and gender non-conformists with poverty, humiliation, violence, and death.
*
What's often interesting about homophobia is that it isn't rash or enraged. Lots of times its violence is calm and cloaked in the language of science, law, philosophy, or religion. . . . it's therapeutic for society at large, especially people insecure in their own genders and bodies and sexualities, and especially people like George Rekers who devote their entire lives to researching ways to cure themselves, to see gender variant people get punished.
*
[T]heir persistence, after all these decades, in punishing gender variance and homosexuality, shows that it's about something quite different. It's about making these people feel good in their own skin. Unfortunately, it isn't just a few troubled individuals who experience this pain in quiet; it's the force that drives the movement against us.

A Delusional Cristianist Attacks the Washington Post for Exposing Bob McDonnell

Over the last 6 or more years I have crossed swords with Uber-Christian and hysterical self-hating closet case (that's my assessment) Robert Knight on a number of cases and we have had some battles royal via e-mail. For example, in one exchange where Knight claimed that the Roman Empire fell because of its acceptance of homosexuality when pressed with the real historical facts behind Rome's fall, Knight recanted and admitted that his heated rhetoric was not correct. Yet literally within days he was again making the same false statements to history ignorant audiences. Personally, I believe that Knight, being a self-hating closet case, just cannot handle the thought of gays accepting their God given sexual orientation and having happy, normal lives. The envy just drives him over the top.

*

Knight's latest rant over at OneNewsNow - the alleged "news" arm of American Family Association - involves the Washington Post's August 30, 2009, story that brought to light Bob McDonnell's 1989 Christianist thesis written when McDonnell was a 34 year old graduate student. Knight is so over the top and factually off base that one might nearly expect him to wet himself in the midst of his spittle flying frenzy. As is the norm for Knight, he never lets facts and reality get in the way of his demagoguery. Indeed, goes so berserk that he alleges every possible conspiracy other than claiming it was gay rights activists responsible for the thesis coming to light. In truth, it was McDonnell's own remark to the Post reporter that lead her to review the thesis. But then, facts and the truth have never held much sway with Mr. Knight. Here are some highlights of his foaming at the mouth:

*

The Washington Post's behavior lately goes so far beyond mere bias that it looks like a caricature cooked up by a comedian or saboteur. The paper's bid to fix the Virginia gubernatorial election is right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

*

The Post has launched a bald-faced attempt to "freeze" GOP candidate Robert McDonnell. It would be funny if it were not such a serious breach of journalistic ethics. The campaign began on August 30, with a top of the page, single column headline, "'89 Thesis a Different Side of McDonnell: Va. GOP candidate Wrote on Women, Marriage and Gays."

*

As a grad student at what became Regent University, McDonnell penned a paper in 1989 that focuses a biblical lens on public policy. A Post reporter doing opposition research turned it up. Perhaps the most egregious assertion in the Post's eyes is McDonnell's use of the term "fornicators" to describe people who engage in, well, fornication. He didn't think the law should give those folks the same marital rights as those of folks who take a marriage vow.

*

Now, it's not bad per se to be a culture warrior. It's okay if you want to redefine marriage, teach children that "safe" fornication and sodomy are fun and inevitable, oppose partial-birth abortion bans, ensure an onslaught of pornography and illegal immigration, expand government and redistribute income as fast as possible. But if you believe that God's plan for natural marriage should be reflected in the law, that sex outside marriage should be discouraged for everyone's benefit, especially children's, then you are a "culture warrior" of a different sort.

*

Unless McDonnell wants to go down Allen's trail, he might consider giving a bold defense of the importance of Judeo-Christian values to the founding and continued success of our free republic.

*

As I have suggested before, Knight needs to get himself a cute rent boy, satisfy his inner most secret longings, and stop trying to force his extreme religious views on the rest of the citizenry. He might also do well - as would Bob McDonnell - to read the preamble to Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Virginian Statute for Religious Freedom and then look in a mirror and understand that Jefferson was condemning people exactly like Knight and his Christianist allies.