Whenever you hear Christianist speakers on television citing statistics on the alleged depravity of homosexuals, they are almost always relying on the "research" of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, a front group for psychiatric theories about the "mental illness" of gays that was debunked three deacdes ago by mainstream psychiatry. But the pathological hatred behind this group has largely been kept under wraps. (My book, "Love Undetectable" devotes a chapter to the serious scholarly claims of the ex-gay movement, if you're interested in more background). But now some of that bigotry has been exposed - by blogs, of course:
At issue are comments by Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger and New York psychotherapist Gerald Schoenewolf.
In a blog on NARTH's website, Berger expressed disgust with a Northern California school that accommodated a cross-dressing kindergartner and other children with "gender-variant" behaviors. Berger said that instead of teaching tolerance, schools should "let the other children ridicule" boys and girls who don't conform.
"It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant and biased busybodies to try to 'counsel' the other children into accepting the abnormal," Berger wrote. "It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick."
Schoenewolf's essay on political correctness not only seemed to justify slavery, it also denounced the gay-rights movement as "mob rule." Using explicit language, Schoenewolf asserted that "the entire planet has now been forced to agree that [homosexuality] is normal."