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| Austin Ruse demonstrates how some Catholic leaders disguise homophobic lies. |
Austin Ruse is the leader of C-FAM (Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute), an anti-lgbt group which lobbies the United Nations. SPLC has it listed as a hate group. This is probably because of the myriad of times Ruse has denigrated the lgbt community or outright lied about us, such as when he called us "Satan's minions" or when he said "left-wing university professors taken out and shot."
That last controversy led Ruse to intensely dislike me because of the work I did to aggregate his words. He even sent me a message last year to let me know that he was still blocking me from twitter, which was a mystery because it came from out of nowhere and I really didn't give a #@!.
Still our paths unfortunately tend to cross, like today.
This morning, I read a column he published in late January in a religious (Catholic) magazine called Crisis. The column, Their Sexual Proclivities Are Killing Them, is something I haven't seen in a while - "good old fashioned" fear mongering about how homosexuality is supposedly a "dangerous lifestyle." And the more I read Ruse's article and where it comes from, the more I get disappointed at a certain religious belief:
It is clear from their relatively tiny numbers—only a few million in a total population of 318,000,000—that men who have sex with men (MSM)* are not “everywhere” as MSM insist they are. It is also clear from their sexual activities, particularly related to anal sex, that their sexual practices also set them apart from the normal population.
. . . Independent researcher Dale O’Leary published a hair-raising paper in The Linacre Quarterly two years ago called “The Syndemic of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) among MSM” that tells a plethora of uncomfortable truths about MSM.vNote her use of the term “syndemic.” This is beyond both an epidemic and a pandemic. A syndemic is two or more diseases in a population “in which there is some level of positive biological interaction that exacerbates the negative health effects of any or all of the diseases.”
Ruse admits that he is talking about an article which was published in 2014. But here is what he doesn't tell you. The Linacre Quarterly is not necessarily a credible magazine:
The Linacre Quarterly is the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association. Continuously published since 1934, The Linacre Quarterly is the oldest journal in existence dedicated to medical ethics. The Linacre Quarterly provides a forum in which faith and reason can be brought to bear on analyzing and resolving ethical issues in health care, with a particular focus on issues in clinical practice and research.
The Catholic Medical Association has a negative and very inaccurate stance on homosexuality as evidenced by a pamphlet it offers:
CMA’s pamphlet Homosexuality & Hope: Questions and Answers About Same-Sex Attraction provides clear, sensitive, and updated advice to persons and families who are dealing with same-sex attraction.CMA’s pamphlet Homosexuality & Hope: Questions and Answers About Same-Sex Attraction provides clear, sensitive, and updated advice to persons and families who are dealing with same-sex attraction. Homosexuality & Hope was first printed in 1999 in booklet form as a service to the medical profession, the Church, and society. Later, in 2003, a shorter pamphlet, focused on responding to the most frequently asked questions about same-sex attraction, was published. Later editions of the Homosexuality & Hope pamphlet, in 2008 and 2010, brought a new design and layout, updated citations reflecting new research on same-sex attraction, and a new question on recent attempts to apply the title “marriage” to same-sex relationships.
In other words, The Linacre Quarterly comes from an organization with negative views of homosexuality which are not necessarily rooted in science but faith. One has the question the credibility of any information about lgbts coming from this magazine. Indeed, the article Ruse is talking about does take a negative view of the lgbt community, generalizing about gay men,"bathhouses," "circuit parties," citing many statistics which are over several decades old, and even using the out-of-date term "gay bowel syndrome."
A quick look at another article in a 2011 edition of the Linacre Quarterly is entitled On the Psychogenesis of Homosexuality and its abstract gives inaccurate information on the causes of homosexuality and expresses support for the fraudulent "ex-gay" or "reparative therapy":
The best-established facts in relation to homosexuality point to developmental-psychological, not genetic or physiological, causation. The efforts of the last few decades to find evidence to support a biological theory have made it more doubtful than ever that such evidence will be found. In contrast, many studies have shown that the most significant factor which correlates with homosexuality is "gender nonconformity" or same-sex peer isolation. Another factor closely associated with homosexuality is an imbalance in parent child interaction, notably forms of over-influence of the opposite-sex parent in combination with a deficient relationship with the same-sex parent. The third well-established correlation is with inherent, rather than discrimination-produced, "neuroticism" or emotional instability/immaturity.Structured around this pivotal evidence from statistical as well as clinical research, homosexuality is explained here as a character neurosis. Characteristics of this neurotic character syndrome include personality immaturity, self-victimization, and self-centeredness. This syndrome affects not only the emotional but also the moral and spiritual dimensions of the psyche and if indulged leads to generalized personality deterioration. Therapeutically, a holistic approach, simultaneously addressing the emotional, moral, and spiritual components of the psyche, offers the best opportunity for overcoming homosexuality. De-egocentrization and personality maturity, including the development of mature manhood/ womanhood, are the goals of therapy.
Several medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, all say that "reparative therapy" does not work and can actually cause harm.
The more I research Ruse's column, it becomes less about him and more about some Catholics leaders. No disrespect intended to anyone of the Catholic faith, but I can't help wondering just how else are these leaders masquerading inaccurate information via science.
And just how involved is the Catholic Church itself?
3 comments:
You know what pisses me off most about this kind of crap. I don't care what they say about me, but how dare they say my parents did something wrong with me. Most people with my level of learning disability don't finish high school, let alone get two degrees. They need to leave our parents out of this.
That asshole doesn't have very good math skills. First off the population of the United State's is on the order of 330,000,000 people - and even 2.5% being gay would yield 8.25 million Lesbian and gay people. That also translates to 4.12 million gay men, and the same number of gay women.
Gallup did a poll of 120, 000 people and came up with a 3.4% figure of LGBTs in America, however, that depends on the demographic:
“6.4 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 identified themselves as LGBT … [as opposed to] just 1.9 percent of those over 65.”
We’re in the millions to be sure, a figure that comes in handy when talking about our tax dollars being used against us such as with so-called "religious freedom" laws.
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