Toward a Moral Life

(thanks to Dan Savage for the heads-up)

Montgomery County, Maryland, schoolchildren got a little something extra in their report card folders this week. A pamphlet from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), given out legally it would seem, makes some amazing claims:

Societal acceptance does not prevent emotional disturbances felt by homosexuals in their lifestyle. (How would they know? Homosexuality has not been widely accepted by any society since Christianity and Islam took hold.)

Gays pass the following diseases around: HIV/AIDS, Infectious hepatitis (A&B), multiple bowel and other infectious diseases, syphilis, human papilloma virus (HPV), genital warts, herpes, gonorrhea, & other viral and non-viral STDs. (Gee. As I understand, heterosexuals can and do pass all of these diseases around as well, and it’s well documented that lesbians have far and away the lowest STD transmission rate of all straight, gay, and bi groups.)

Change therapy [psychiatric efforts to change sexual orientation] works. (No, it doesn’t. The AMA and the American Psychiatric Association–we’re talking professionals here–unequivocally state that “change therapy” is not recognized as a valid course of treatment.)

There appear to be many dissatisfied homosexually-oriented individuals who seek psychological or spiritual intervention to achieve a goal they identify as a change in sexual orientation. (I’m sure there are gays who seek psychiatric help to change their orientation to straight through medical means. However, I’m also sure there are a number of psychiatric patients who want to be King Ozymandias and wear a shiny hat.)

Here’s the cover of this charming pack of wingnut homophobic lies:

There are a few cases where gays “became” straight, but there are many, many more cases that such efforts lead to psychosis, violence, and death. After all, you can jam a square peg into a round hole, but there’s usually a lot of collateral damage as a result.