That's Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council. He routinely makes pronouncements about homosexuality that are exactly backwards and wrong-headed. Now he has gone a step too far and is endangering gay teens with his anti-gay misinformation.
True, what he's saying is what many psychoanalysts believed 50 years ago, even 30 years ago. It's what psychoanalyst Charles Socarides was still preaching 20 years ago. But we've come a long way since then.
Here's what Perkins told NPR in a discussion of the recent gay teen suicides, some of which clearly seem to be linked to bullying (as reported by HuffingtonPost):
Perkins told NPR that gay rights groups were exploiting the concern over anti-LGBT bigotry to build momentum for their movement, an argument that he has made before.He's right that there is a higher tendency to depression and suicide in gay teens -- but the internal conflict is socially-induced, not inherent in being gay. It comes from people like Perkins telling them they are abnormal -- and unfortunately it reinforces kids' tendency to believe that being different means being abnormal."There's no correlation between inacceptance of homosexuality and depression and suicide," Perkins told NPR. Here's how Perkins explained the issue:
"These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict," he says.
Homosexuality is "abnormal," he says, and kids know it, which leads them to despair. That's why he wants to confront gay activism in public schools. For example, his group supports the Day of Truth, when Christian high-schoolers make their case that homosexuality is a sin.
What if Perkins is wrong (which I know he is). What if a guilt-ridden, shame-immersed 15 year old with no family support, who gets teased and bullied at school and preached against on Sunday, listens to such stuff? Even more likely, what if the parents of that teen listen to him and carry that message home to their troubled son or daughter?
There's bullying by obvious bullies; and then there is reprehensible misinformation coming from those taken to be authorities, which may do even more harm. I wonder if Tony Perkins ever thinks about the number of gay teens he has encouraged to kill themselves? It's probably quite a few.
This is a dangerous man.
Ralph
For example, his group supports the Day of Truth, when Christian high-schoolers make their case that homosexuality is a sin.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they have a day of truth for murder? or stealing? maybe graven images? Wonder why they have to have a day for something that requires a close reading of Leviticus or some letter Paul wrote about hedonism to even qualify? - instead of those sins that are clearly marked as such in their biblical sin list?
... he wants to confront gay activism in public schools
I wonder what gay activism in public schools he's talking about? any examples? When I google gay activism public schools all I get are Christian Right sites [conservapedia, exgay, exodus, narth, etc.]...
I wonder if Tony Perkins ever thinks about the number of gay ...
I wonder if he ever thinks, period...
I think the "gay activists in public schools" he's referring to are the Gay-Straight Alliance clubs promoted by GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) -- student led groups to provide gay students with allies to combat discrimination, harassment, and bullying and provide a positive and safe atmosphere in public schools.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same group that Michelle Malkin refers to as a "radical gay rights advocacy group," and she raises insinuating questions about "who is funding this radical movement?"
Well, here are some of the sponsors who contribute: American Federation of Teachers, Goldman Sachs, PepsiCo, Ford Foundation, IBM, TimeWarner.
The only listed contributor that even sounds possibly gay-related is the Human Civil Rights Organizations of America.
Gosh, we really ought to be scared of these folks.
Lordy, Lordy. By those criteria, the science club would be a radical atheism advocacy group. On a serious note why are the people doing this so into gay-bashing? What's the point?
ReplyDeleteIt's the same desperate grasping that led Nathan Dean to trash Gay Pride to smear Karen Handle in the primary runoff.
ReplyDeleteGay people, especially gay youth, are easy fodder for politicians and other bigots to attack. I was hoping it would backfire on Deal -- and in another state, it might have.
Things like Family Research Council are on the way out. Notice that Dobson's empire at Focus on the Family has lost its influence. After this election cycle, I expect that they'll all be toothless tigers, if they survive at all.
correction: Nathan Deal
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify: I don't think that Tony Perkins wants gay teens to kill themselves or that he, himself, thinks that he is encouraging them to do so. I think what he thinks is that they are doomed and he is offering salvation in the form of Jesus and forgiveness for the "sin."
ReplyDeleteSo he would probably think of himself as the most compassionate of us all. That doesn't make him right, of course.
Now, who knows what his deeper, unconscious motives are? I won't speculate -- at least not in print.