Tony Perkins #homophobia

Tony Perkins #homophobia advocate.com

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins recognized National Coming Out Day by blaming recent youth suicides on the gay community in an online column for The Washington Post.

“Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal — yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are ‘born gay’ and can never change,” he wrote. “This — and not society's disapproval — may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.”

114 comments

old comment by name

"Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal"

The implied statement here is really worrying.
Of course homosexuality is abnormal depending on the definition of "homosexuality" and "abnormal."

Depending on you source and definition, only 1/5 or 1/20 of people are queer. That doesn't mean it's bad. A relatively small percentage of people are left handed.

Tony Perkins and a lot of other right wingers just assume that everyone should be the same and that different and abnormal are bad.

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

old comment by Horsefeathers

"“Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are born gay’ and can never change,” he wrote."

I'll issue you the same challenge I give to everyone who says this: if someone who is gay can choose to not be gay then obviously someone who is not gay can choose to be also. So, be gay for a half hour. Find another man sexually arousing. Don't worry, you can switch back at the end, remember?

If you can't make yourself gay for half an hour then I suggest you shut the fuck up and stop saying homosexuals can make themselves heterosexual for a lifetime.

"This and not society's disapproval may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide."

Oh, of course. Couldn't possibly be bigoted fools such as yourself who heap abuse--both physically and emotionally--onto people until they either kowtow to your demands and, if you'll excuse the pun, "play it straight" or decide they can't take it any more and kill themselves. No, obviously it's other gay people telling them that there's nothing wrong with them that's the problem.

You are a moron of utmost quality.

old comment by dionysus

Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal

Intuitively my ass, it's you fuckers who keep telling them that they're abnormal. It's like filling a kid full of anti-liberal propaganda and then saying "See, the kid automatically knows that liberals are evil!"...oh wait, fundies ALREADY DO THAT!

yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are born gay’ and can never change,”

In other words, they've been told what is actually true. I know you're used to the media lying on regular basis because of Fox News but most other news agencies at least try to tell the truth most of the time.

This and not society's disapproval may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.

So the media telling them the truth and accepting them for who they are leads them to suicide while you telling them that they're abominations who deserve death for their 'sins' and telling them that they can't even marry who they want to doesn't? I suppose next you'll be telling us that war is peace, freedom is slavery, and 2 + 2 is 5. I was going to include "ignorance is strength" on the list too but fundies already follow that mantra. In fact, it could practically be their catch phrase.

old comment by the old firm

Dear Mr Perkins,

here are some questions, which crossed my mind, while reading your drivel.
Where does this feeling "abnormal" come from? Perhaps from society's disapproval? And why should society disapprove in the first place? Whom do we harm, when we love a another man or another woman?
And regarding your unspoken assumption that sexual orientation or identity is chosen: Do you seriously believe anybody would willingly choose to belong to a persecuted or ostracized minority?
And last but not least: How do you sleep at night with all the blood on your hand from your ghoulish exploits, which direct contribute to the deaths of so many teenagers?

Inquiring minds want to know. All you are worth is my deepest disdain.

the old firm

p.s. To all confused LGBT youngsters who may read this: Dan Savage is right. It gets better!

old comment by dionysus

@ His4Life

I don't believe that God makes anyone gay, anymore than he would make a person gluttonous, or guilty of hetersexual sin.

Well tough nuts that you don't believe homosexuality is a born trait there's plenty of evidence to suggest that it is.

1) Archives of Sexual Behavior
Volume 38, Number 3, 393-399, DOI: 10.1007/s10508-008-9381-6

2) American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence (June 2004). "Sexual orientation and adolescents". Pediatrics 113 (6): 182732. doi:10.1542/peds.113.6.1827

Hell, there's even homosexuality present in animal populations:

3)Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999

And do you really think that anyone would choose a life where they are constantly harassed by small-minded bigots if they actually had a choice?

When I do believe is that God loves everyone

Which is why he sends people to hell for eternal torture for simply having sex with the wrong people or not believing the writings of ancient people. What a loving god!

including this young man, that no one is beyond the reach of God's redemptive grace, including homosexuals. I hope that we will meet this young man in heaven, where he will not have to struggle with the shame and embarassment of his sin anymore.

The only embarrassment here is that in 2010 CE people are still using myths from 2000 BCE to justify their mistreatment of others.

old comment by breakerslion

His4Life:

I was raised in a Christian household. I read the Bible cover to cover several times. The amount of time I spent in church and Bible study adds up to years of my life.

I invite you to spend some time learning just why I, and others like me, believe that it is all a crock of happy horse shit, and the world's oldest scam. Religion has been used since the dawn of time to protect and keep the religious and political hierarchy in power. It does so by mass delusion, suppressed knowledge, misdirection, and the forging of little handles by which to wind up believers like you.

Here are some good places to start:

http://www.pocm.info/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLD59fK_Iw

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god5.htm

I don't expect to change your attitudes. If you can absorb this information, withholding rebuttal until the conclusion (in other words, with a somewhat open mind), two things might happen. First, you might understand how great is the rift between our respective beliefs. Second, you might be able to understand how religious apologetics appear to be lame excuses to people such as I. If either of these attitudes can be put into perspective for you, I think you will then understand why your trolling of this site is predictably futile.

"The rabbit goes up through the hole, around the tree, and back down the hole again." - mnemonic for tying a bowline knot.

Oral traditions and temple secrets are full of mnemonics. How better to train the ~~next generation of gravy-suckers~~ apprentices?

Have a nice day!

old comment by His4Life

Dionysus, to clarify, I don't think people necessarily "choose" to be gay in the same way they choose what to eat for breakfast. I see more as a mutation or abnormality. as you know, after the fall, everything was thrown out of balance by satan's evil schemes. we are all born into sin, and that sin nature expresses itself different. some people are prone to be gluttons other people like me are lured into drug addition. some people are born with a propensity to engage in sexually destructive behaviors, but that doesn't change the fact that god created men and women to be anatomically compatible with each other anymore than the existence of gluttony changes the fact that god created eating as a way to satisfy hunger.

I do not hate homosexuals. i love them and i pray for them, and I am being sincere when I say that I hope this young man found Jesus as his savior and is in heaven now, restored to eternal life. however, if people choose to spend eternity with satan ogling their heiny, that is their business, not mine. I'm not going to say their behavior is acceptable jsut befcause society says so. Sorry!

old comment by dionysus

@His4Life

Dionysus, to clarify, I don't think people necessarily "choose" to be gay in the same way they choose what to eat for breakfast. I see more as a mutation or abnormality.

Then why is your god supposedly punishing people over a mutation? That's like sending people to hell for having two different colored eyes (like David Bowie).

as you know, after the fall, everything was thrown out of balance by satan's evil schemes. we are all born into sin, and that sin nature expresses itself different.

Evidence please. Otherwise you might as well be blaming homosexuality on pixies. Not that you can't do that; you have every right to say whatever you believe, but why should I care about your explanation any more than I care about the explanation some people give for Stonehenge of it being built by aliens?

but that doesn't change the fact that god created men and women

That's not a fact. Gravity is a fact, atoms are a fact, creation is not a fact.

to be anatomically compatible with each other anymore than the existence of gluttony changes the fact that god created eating as a way to satisfy hunger.

God created eating AFTER creating hunger? Why didn't he just not create hunger. Seems like a bit of an ass-backwards way to do things and a band-aid solution to me. Plus, not being anatomically compatible doesn't make something evil. Humans aren't built to be moving at 200 mph (as racecar drivers do) but the fact that it's unnatural doesn't make it evil.

Yeah, you love them but you're perfectly fine with the idea of them being tortured for eternity. Such wonderful love! And nobody would choose that kind of fate, they'd have to be completely mental. No, they simply don't believe in a god that hates them for something they have no control over. However, that's to be expected as god somehow always agrees with whatever the person talking about him believes (i.e. bigots have a hateful god, liberals have a liberal god, conservatives have a free market god, etc.). It's uncanny.

I'm not going to say their behavior is acceptable jsut befcause society says so. Sorry!

Ah, we agree on something. Just because society has been indulging right-wing Christianity for so long doesn't mean I have to find it acceptable.

old comment by ConcernedRomanCatholic

Mr. Perkins and His4Life, may I humbly refute your rhetoric with my own?

Love in and of itself is not a sin. That was one of the many teachings of the Bible, is it not? God gave human beings to capacity to love each other, same gender or no. He put us here for a reason. We shouldn't judge others harshly since we ourselves don't wish to be judged as harsh.

I see homosexuality as a type of love. By my very logic, homosexuality is, therefore, not a sin, because love, in and of itself, is not a sin.

Perhaps, then, you should rethink your stances about burning the LGBT community at the stake. They are advocating love in the form of homo/bisexuality. Ergo, they are not sinners by default. After all, love is not a sin in and of itself.

To break it down further so that your simple, zealous, fanatical minds can understand it:

love =/= sin

homo/bisexuality = love

ERGO

homo/bisexuality =/= sin

AND SINCE

homo/bisexuals =/= sinners

THEREFORE

LGBT community =/= Satan's troops

Tony Perkins #homophobia advocate.com

114 comments

Confused?