The Myth of Sexual Orientation

Now, Religion in the News—a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from The World, February 19, 2005, with the headline, “From Mental Disorder to Civil Rights Cause—Doctor Jeffrey Satinover, author of Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, is a graduate of MIT, Harvard, and Yale, and received an MD from the University of Texas Medical School. He argues that today’s popular idea of ‘sexual orientation’ is a fiction. A nationwide University of Chicago study of sexuality in America in 1994 concluded, ‘It is patently false that homosexuality is a uniform attribute across individuals, that it is stable over time, and that it can easily be measured.’ Studies across the globe that have now sampled over 100,000 individuals have found the same. The proportion of people who adopt a homosexual identity and the length of time they persist in holding on to it are affected primarily by environmental factors such as social networks, education, early sexual experiences, childhood sexual abuse, and cultural beliefs. He notes that the American Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from its list of psychological disorders, not on the basis of any scientific evidence, but due to political pressure and the civil rights argument. Homosexuality has entered the courts from the point of view of civil liberties. Dr. Satinover characterizes the legal approach fostered by mental health professionals: ‘You see, your Honors, we in particular, who are the very experts of what constitutes a mental disorder, proclaim that sexual orientation should not be discussed as a condition that is problematic and changeable. It is a normal and immutable state of the human being, and therefore should be discussed in civil rights terms like ‘race.’ He concludes that there is no basis for defining homosexuals within the legal concept of ‘suspect class status,’ which is a necessary requirement for discrimination cases.”

 Tom: Dave, there are plenty of opinions out there about homosexuality and so on, but it does make you a little bit angry when you see that this so-called—which is false—“sexual orientation” has now moved up to the level of civil liberties and race, comparative to a person being black, or Asian, or whatever it might be, and now they have convinced the courts—Supreme Court—that they have a legitimate gripe with regard to their civil liberties. Sexual orientation? Come on!

Dave: Well, Tom, I mean, it’s a big subject—we don’t have time. The first commandment that God gave was not “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” There’s a commandment before that. It was not “Don’t eat of this tree.” There was a commandment before that: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” Homosexuals, lesbians, do not multiply this earth; they do not bear children, okay? Now, they have thumbed their noses at God on this very, very first commandment, okay? It has always been called “the crime against nature.” It is something that is unnatural, all right? Now, I don’t know how they can have “gay pride” parades and boast about the civil liberty to be gay when, if everyone adopted that life style, it is the end of the human race! Now, how can you think that way?

Secondly, I don’t think the courts or anyone else is concerned—you want to be a homosexual? Go ahead, but don’t push it on me, and don’t claim that this is a natural, normal way of life and that you are, therefore, a persecuted minority. That’s the problem! Now they are even, I mean, forcing themselves into the public schools—tell the kids to give it a try; you know, see what your orientation is. That’s one of the problems—maybe you have an orientation in this direction, but how do you know until you give it a try? So they are pushing themselves on society, demanding to be called normal, and so forth. Then they want special rights as a persecuted minority. Tom, I get just a little bit angry.

Tom: Well, this is a fraud, Dave.

Dave: It is a fraud. Now, we have had cases now—I mean, it’s the big thing in the courts, and the Catholic Church—what have they spent? More than one billion dollars in out of court settlements. We didn’t used to hear about this, okay? How is it that so many priests are homosexuals? Somehow your sexual orientation caused you to want to be a priest? There are some Catholic seminaries—this is not me as a critic—they themselves say—70 percent homosexuals! You’ve got to—somehow—sexual orientation causes you to want to be a Catholic priest. No, it’s because they are put together as men or as women alone. They have this law of celibacy, so there is no natural, normal outlet for the sexual drive, which is normal in human beings.

Or you could read Fatal Shore, the story of the beginning of Australia. It began…it was a penal colony. They sent them there—even little kids, eight years old, stole a handkerchief—off to Australia, and so forth. You can read the stories that these men wrote home: “I hate myself! I hate this thing that I have fallen into, but we are being pushed in to it by these bullies, and what can we do?” And so forth.

So, you had almost all of Australia, to begin with, was homosexual! Was that because their genes—happened to be that their genes, homosexual genes, caused you to be a criminal, which therefore caused you to get sent to Australia? No, that isn’t true; that is nonsense, and the psychiatrists recognize it, and this article says they were forced into it.

San Francisco—the homosexuals were outside and said, “If you don’t vote this in as a normal behavior, we are going to cut your power off,” and so forth. They were threatening them. This is not science and it’s not true, and, Tom, I’m sorry, I’m getting a little bit heated here.

Tom: Well, again, Dave, people say, “Well, you’re—you hate homosexuals.” Listen, we deal with a lot of issues here—people that we love. We wouldn’t do this if we weren’t concerned about the truth and people being set free by the truth.

Dave: Right.

Tom: It has nothing to do with our attitudes, and we can get a little out of joint because of fraud, because of lies, because of things that have kept people in either perversion or kept them in bondage to these things.

Dave: And there are many people who have been delivered from this, contrary to what they say, and the homosexuals don’t want to hear about that.

Tom: Well, that’s the basis for the lie here. That’s why it is in the courts. Because the courts have become to believe that people cannot be changed. But just look at the research; the research tells you, “absolutely yes!”

Dave: Amen. Changed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.