Being the Change I Wish to See

This article is part 6 in a multi-part series about the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill of 2009, better known as the Ugandan kill-the-gays bill. It is longer than the others to date, so I recommend grabbing a drink before you sit down to read and watch the embedded videos. The first 5 articles can be accessed at the following links:

• Part 1: Born in the USA
• Part 2: Horrific Details
• Part 3: American Silence is Deafening
• Part 4: HIV-AIDS Statistics in Uganda
• Part 5: State Dept Must Make US Policy Clear

This report is where The Family and other Evangelicals such as mega-church pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (an anti-gay ministry) and Scott Lively of Defend the Family International (an anti-gay ministry); and cure-the-gays industry members Richard Cohen and Caleb Brundidge of the International Healing Foundation (a pseudo-psychotherapy cure-the-gays organization) and Don Schmierer of Exodus International (a cure-the-gays through Jesus ministry) diverge in their influence of the Ugandan government to construct an anti-homosexuality bill. This proposed legislation came directly out of the “pray-the-gay-away” March 2009 conference in Uganda where Caleb Brundidge, Don Schmierer, and Ugandan Steven Langa spoke extensively about the ability of gays to be cured. Scott Lively was present to speak on the evils of the homosexual agenda being imposed by outsiders such as the U.S. and Europe, which provide a huge amount of aid to Uganda.

Richard Cohen, author of Coming Out Straight, provided multiple copies of his book to the March 2009 gathering in Uganda. Cohen presented himself and his foundation, along with Caleb Brundidge and Don Schmierer as legitimate experts in the field of curing gay people.

These Americans are not members of The Family and do not represent it. The Family in America is not directly involved in promoting this bill. It is hoped they have enough influence in Uganda and the will to stop the bill.

For the record, no credible medical, psychological or psychiatric professionals believe being gay is a disease, nor that it can or needs to be cured. Being gay is a normal variation in the human species, those who are gay are born that way and one’s sexual orientation is an innate part of one’s being.

Introducing Richard Cohen (video, 5 min.):

Mark Benjamin of Salon.com investigated the “cure the gays” industry and even went undercover, posing as a gay man, to see first-hand what “cures” are being offered by these snake-oil salesmen.

Here is Rachel’s interview with Mark Benjamin (9 min.):

The only people who claim the “cure” works are those with a financial interest in the industry; selling books, doing counseling for money, selling CD and DVD courses and lecturing about it. The industry wouldn’t produce “healed” patients because of confidentiality. Mr. Benjamin could not locate any patients independent of the industry who claimed to be cured.

Mr. Benjamin found a lot of people who are desperate to be cured of being gay, and spent years and thousands of dollars only to remain just as gay as they were before they started. Mr. Benjamin reports many people like this either attempted suicide or told him of others who committed suicide because they couldn’t reconcile their sexual orientation with their religion.

Please take some time to read Mark Benjamin’s series of articles in Salon.com. They are eye-opening to say the least. The links are listed here:

Mark Benjamin – Salon.com 2005 series part 1: Turning Off Gays

Part 2: My Gay Therapy Session

Part 3: Getting Straight With God

Part 4: True Confessions

Rachel’s interview with Richard Cohen (18 min.):

Richard Cohen claims as his professional credentials that he cured himself of being gay and his proof of cure is his 27 year marriage (to a woman) which produced 3 children. He claims to have a Master’s degree in some form of psychology or social work, though he is not a licensed therapist. He teaches that gays are gay because of a number of intertwining factors that occurred during preadolescence and can be cured with different types of therapy. The cure is for those who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Those who remain gay choose to remain gay. He says he insists all people regardless of sexual orientation choice should be treated with love, compassion and respect, but that part of his message was lost on the Ugandans who are using his book to justify the new law.

The flammable mix that seems to have resulted in this bill is the combination of Ugandan homophobia, anti-gay Evangelicals such as Rick Warren and Scott Lively, and the IHF and Exodus International claiming gays are curable. The homophobic conclusion Ugandans drew is that gays can be changed into heterosexuals, and therefore gays are gay by choice. Since gays can be cured, they can avoid the consequences of the draconian law by getting “therapy” and becoming heterosexual. The only people who would be subject to the new law are those who refuse to be cured.

Again, curing gays was debunked by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973, and homosexuality no longer appears in the DSM-IV as a mental disorder. Many other medical and psychological professionals and their organizations have done extensive research which debunks that being gay is a mental disorder of any kind.

Uganda, like many other African and Muslim countries, is extremely homophobic and already has laws against homosexuality, though they are not as far-reaching and punishments are not as extreme as the proposed bill. Other homophobic countries with such laws do use capital punishment against gays.

The difference is the basis for their laws did not come out of the United States in the 21st century from conservative, fundamentalist Christians. The beliefs these conservatives espouse sound nothing like the mainstream Christianity most Americans follow. It is fundamentally un-American and un-Christian for such lies and intolerance to be exported to uninformed societies willing to use any excuse to do whatever they want to rid themselves of a part of their population they don’t believe should exist.

Part 7 is located at this link.

Technorati Tags: Caleb Brundidge, Chuck Grassley, Coming Out Straight, Don Schmierer, Exodus International, International Healing Foundation, kill-the-gays bill, Mark Benjamin, Rachel Maddow, Richard Cohen, Rick Warren, Salon.com, Scott Lively, The Family, Uganda

written by joubess \\ tags: Caleb Brundidge, Chuck Grassley, Coming Out Straight, Don Schmierer, Exodus International, International Healing Foundation, kill-the-gays bill, Mark Benjamin, Rachel Maddow, Richard Cohen, Rick Warren, Salon.com, Scott Lively, The Family, Uganda

I don’t know what the Republicans are smoking these days, but they’re acting crazy enough for it to be LSD. And by crazy I mean psychotic and certifiably insane. When you can’t get anywhere by just saying no, you have to make up lies to scare people so they’ll feel okay about it when you screw them royally.

GOP Health Care Reform Myths

Health care reform with a public option won’t save money and is a secret plot to make the elderly sign papers on their choice of how they want to be euthanized. The money for taking care of everyone else will be paid for by the early deaths of our elderly citizens, since end-of-life care is usually very expensive. Oh, and it will encourage more women to have government-paid abortions. — GOP Wing-Nut Deathers

Reality

The deathers are putting forth such a big lie it’s ridiculous! Euthanasia of humans is illegal. There is nothing in any legislation to make it legal.

The only thing everyone is encouraged to do is to make a living will so their families don’t have to make really tough, heart-wrenching decisions when a patient can no longer speak for him or her self. Just like everyone 18 and over should have a will, everyone 18 and over should have a living will and appropriate powers of attorney.

An overwhelming majority of Americans want real reform. What pisses me off the most is nearly all Republicans are sitting in Washington NOT representing what their constituents want and need. That’s not why they were elected and not what we’re paying them to do.

The President demands the following on health insurance coverage for all Americans:

• No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
• No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
• No cost-sharing for preventive care
• No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
• No gender discrimination
• No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
• Extended coverage for young adults
• Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid

Bills being worked on in the House and Senate have these items and will also include help for many middle class families to pay premiums and will continue to make sure millions of children remain covered under SCHIP.

The cost of all health care for everyone is increasing at alarming rates. Only 38% of Americans are covered by employer health insurance plans today. Forty-eight million Americans are uninsured and the number of uninsured increases by 14,000 people per day. Another 35-40 million Americans are under-insured. These people are one serious illness away from financial disaster.

The U.S. population is currently about 306 million people. The number of uninsured and under-insured consists of roughly 1/3 of the American population. We are the richest country in the world and we can’t afford to take care of our peoples’ health care? Bullpuckey.

We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have universal health care. We spend far more on health care than any other country and we are not getting our money’s worth. We have far more negative outcomes compared to other industrialized nations. Our people live sicker and die younger than they have to because they can’t afford adequate preventive and managed care, along with better care for sick people.

In 1993, 68% of people were insured by their employers with better benefits and far fewer Americans were uninsured than today.

If we require everyone to be insured, costs will decline and risk will be evenly spread through the entire population. It would be illegal to deny coverage, and a public option along with non-profit options will control insurance premium costs and keep the private insurance companies from making a killing off the American people like they are now.

Government-run health care is so horrible and so expensive that all Senators and Representatives, federal employees, the President and his family, the elderly, and veterans are well covered by it and very much like the cost and the benefits they have. The VA costs 2/3 of what private health care costs and provides better outcomes. These government-run plans cost less because they are non-profit. They also have more streamlined delivery of health care to its members, which lowers costs.

Elderly people have written President Obama letters against government-run health care, and say by the way, don’t mess with their Medicare! Uh…Medicare is a government-run health care plan.

Why aren’t the rest of the American people entitled to the same benefits as our Senators and Representatives, federal employees, elderly, veterans and President? Because the private insurance companies who are in the wallets of the GOP would lose a ton of money if they had to compete with a government-run plan that doesn’t buy politicians, pay its executives huge salaries and shoulder the costs of marketing and advertising to get the few people they are willing to insure.

The system is broken and we either fix it now or it will be kicked down the road for us to fix in 5 or 10 years when we may be in a far worse economic crisis. Without health care reform, insuring everyone and reducing costs, our economy won’t recover as much as it needs to. When 5-10 years gets here with no changes, we will spend $1 out of every $5 on health care costs. If we get a plan like the President wants, we will save $2-$3 trillion over the next decade.

While you mull that over in your mind, remember these bozos who are debating your health care future and spreading lies and myths have great insurance paid for by YOU!

At least Harry and Louise are for health care reform this time…

Sources: Healthcare Reform Myths
Who’s behind the attacks on a health care overhaul? McClatchy

Technorati Tags: deathers, GOP fearmongering, health care reform, living will, right-wing nuts

written by joubess \\ tags: deathers, GOP fearmongering, health care reform, living will, right-wing nuts