The Myths & Lies about Gay Rights

If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.

--Harvey Milk

In the United States of America we have a rich history of oppression and an even richer history of civil rights movements. We the people fought our government to end slavery, to give women the vote, to give non-whites the vote, to end segregation, and to end the ban on interracial marriage. Yet here in America there are still groups which are systematically left out in the rain and denied civil rights, the Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender community.

In the United States there are laws designed to protect a person from workplace discrimination or even violent action if you are African American, handicapped, or female. If however, you are not attracted to the opposite sex you are fair game. Every year in this country men and women are fired from their jobs for no other reason than their sexual orientation and the law offers them no protection and no recourse. Every years hundreds of gay men and women are savagely attacked because they are different than their straight attackers, yet the law offers them no redress or recognition. Gay teens across this great land are bullied and harassed while the education system looks on with cold indifference. Many same sex couples are denied the right to take in a needy child and give them their love and devotion. Untold numbers of gay men and women who love one another and live together are denied the right to visit their loved ones in the hospital, seek financial redress after accidental death, claim insurance, or be given the legal and fiscal protections of a married heterosexual couple.

The United States is not an evil tyrant when it comes to gay rights, only backwards. It was once illegal for homosexuals to be served alcohol or for two same-sex partners to kiss in public. It was once illegal for two consenting adults to engage in sexual intercourse if they were of the same gender. Hell, decades ago the American Psychiatric Association recommended shock therapy in order to “repair” homosexual men and women. The United States is making progress, albeit slowly. It is up to the progressive and caring masses to unite in a push for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights.

In order to do my part in the fight for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights I have included a number of links to the right that will direct you to the leading Civil rights organizations. Also I am going to explore the myths and lies about the gay rights movement and hopefully use my words to aide the fight against religious zealots and mistaken bigots who are fighting against the rights of Gay United States citizens.

Myth: Homosexuality is a choice…

This is one of the biggest public opinion campaign slogans for the religious right and anti-gay bigots. There are those that believe that same sex attraction is a choice and that Gay men and women can simply stopping being gay at any time and as such should not receive civil protections.

In 1973 homosexuality was evaluated by national psychological associations and found to be a personality trait an not a mental illness as previously believed. Today a majority of psychological institutions including the American Psychiatric Association, have come forward with damning rebuttals of the so called ex-gay movement that claims to change a homosexual person into a heterosexual one.

On top of this we have scientific studies pointing to the fact that homosexual men and women are physically different from heterosexuals. Simon LeVay was responsible for a study examining the size and composition of the Hypothalamus between gay and straight individuals. Leading biologists and physicians have identified the womb as the place where the foundation for sexual orientation is laid. Androgen, which affects handedness and finger length among other things, has been shown to have a significant impact on sexual orientation. Then there is the interaction of H-Y antigens in the womb with the developing fetus.

In the end the scientific evidence outweighs the anecdotal evidence given to us by the religious right. Homosexual men and women respond to different pheromones, have different neuron-chemical reactions to sexual stimuli, and there is no scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be altered. Those who claim otherwise seek to dehumanize gays and lesbians as diseased or sexual deviants. However, one of the simple truths is that homosexuals are simply aroused by their own gender and not the opposite sex, a fact that cannot be denied no matter what the underlying cause. So why discriminate against a gay man or lesbian woman? They can no more be straight than a black man can be white.

Myth: Homosexuality is unnatural…

The anti-gay lobby would have you think that homosexuality is against the laws of nature and a perversion of the natural order. Of course this ties into the above argument on whether homosexuality is a choice or not. If homosexuality is not a choice, then surely we would see some evidence of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. Almost 1500 species of animals have been documented to contain homosexuality. Of course there is the world renowned gay penguins, gay big horn sheep, and numerous gay animals across the animal kingdom. What does this mean? That homosexuality is a natural phenomena for mammals, including us human beings. Homosexual men and women have existed in the human culture since the beginning of recorded history. So how can we make laws against gay men and lesbian women? How can we condone discrimination of people who are simply living their lives in accord with their natural urges and biochemistry?

Lie: Same-sex parenting harms a child

The Christian conservative think tanks Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and others are often hastily creating documents that supposedly show a correlation between homosexual parents and child abuse or mental illness. However, the American Psychological Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the American Bar Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all support same-sex parenting as just as healthy to a child as a heterosexual household.

The Human rights Campaign, the Public Broadcasting System, and American Psychological Association all highlight peer reviewed scientific studies that debunk the slanderous and false correlations between same-sex parents and abuse, or false correlations between same-sex parents and dysfunction. As has been pointed our again and again, there is no scientific evidence that same-sex parents are in any way detrimental to a child’s mental or physical health.

Lie: Same-sex marriage destroys the American family…

This is the classic example of a straw man argument. Supposedly American marriage is a religious institution based on the ancient cornerstone of western society. However, up until the medieval period the family was usually composed of one man and many women. To claim that the modern nuclear family is the cornerstone of society is laughable. In America the number of single parents is at an all time high and the divorce rate is steady. The nuclear family is now and \never has been the basic unit of our society. The nuclear family is not a stable and widely adopted method. So to baselessly claim that somehow allowing two consenting adults to enter into the civil bonds of matrimony will damage our society or the American family is a facetious argument at best and a straw man at worst.

The point of this exercise is to bring to light the ignorance and misunderstanding that fuel the anti-gay agenda. I did not address the issue of religion and homosexuality today because I am an atheist and feel that it is not my place to try and find theological arguments for a behavior.

You can find part 2 of "The Myths and Lies about Gay Rights" here.