Dr. Lra Gay, Fay Medice | Durham, NC | WebMD

Contents:

• DR. LRA APOLOGIZ TO GAYS
• DR. LRA IS WRONG ABOUT GAYS
• WHAT ABOUT DR. LRA’S VIEWS ON GAYS?
• DR. LRA CONE GAY
• DR. LRA S. GAY (CONE)
• LRA SCHLSGER GIV GAYS FULL-PAGE APOLOGY

DR. LRA APOLOGIZ TO GAYS

11 (RNS)--Two days after Yom Kippur, Judaism's holy day of atonement, embattled TV and rad talk show host Lra Schlsger issued a prted apology to gays and lbians, askg for fivens if her on-air ments have offend the gay muny. "I eply regret the hurt this suatn has ed the gay and lbian muny, " wrote Schlsger, host of Paramount Televisn's new syndited "Dr. Lra" talk show, a four-paragraph letter verg the back page of Daily Variety, an entertament tra advertisers have been persuad to stay away om the show by gay and lbian activist groups that have targeted Schlsger bee she has scribed homosexualy wh words cludg "viant" and "blogil errors" on her separately n, natnal rad ll- advice show.

"While I exprs my opns om the perspective of an Orthodox Jew and a stnch fenr of the tradnal fay, talkg about gays and lbians, some of my words have been poorly chosen. "While the Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn dismissed Schlsger's apology as too ltle, too late, Rabbi Denise Eger, of the predomantly gay and lbian (Reform) Congregatn Kol Ami Wt Hollywood, Calif., scribed Schlsger's ntrn as a first step.

It was supposedly wrten rponse to Dr Lra’s claim that the Bible specifilly nmns Homosexualy Levic. When someone tri to fend the homosexual liftyle, for example, I simply remd him that Levic 18:22 clearly stat to be an abomatn.

DR. LRA IS WRONG ABOUT GAYS

11:10), is a lser abomatn than homosexualy.

Last week, The New York Tim reported that gay groups are prottg Paramount's cisn to air a syndited Dr. Lra, who cled to ment for the Tim article, has lled homosexualy "viant" and rivative of "blogil error. " While she has also said that gays are "as entled to love and rpect as all human begs, " her many other remarks have undoubtedly ed harm and hurt to gay people.

WHAT ABOUT DR. LRA’S VIEWS ON GAYS?

I personally grew up wh a close relative who is a gay Orthodox Jew, and I've seen his torment and sufferg when pronouncements of this kd are ma by people of fluence. Lra c the Hebrew Bible to bolster her antigay views, and she do so erroneoly.

Relignists like to isolate homosexuals for special opprobrium bee the Bible lls homosexualy an abomatn. " Now, given that all the thgs are an abomatn, we really have to ask why relignists don't nmn liars wh the same vehemence that they nmn homosexuals.

Though I'm not a posn to speak for her, one jtifitn that she uld theoretilly offer for her vehement antigay stance pronouncements is that 's a s agast nature. But as Profsor David Greenberg of the Universy of Chigo monstrated his landmark 1988 study, "The Constct of Homosexualy"--easily the most methodil soclogil study ever of homosexualy throughout history-- every era, and pecially ancient tim, homosexualy has been for those who say that human begs are blogilly nstcted for heterosexual sex--nstcted, effect, so that we n be uful and multiply--let's remember that is (hopefully) a very small part of sex between a man and a woman. Those who employ the natural-law argument agast homosexualy would logilly have to prohib anythg but missnary-posn sex between men and women (which many religns do anyway, though Judaism is certaly not one of them).

DR. LRA CONE GAY

Lra's error is to treat the biblil prohibn agast homosexualy as the latter rather than the former. Gay sex (though not gay orientatn) is prohibed the Bible on relig grounds only and is analogo to the prohibn that a Jew may not smoke a cigarette on the Sabbath. Relig people should stop treatg gay men and women as if they're blogilly viant or distant om G-d.

Ined, the relative I spoke of earlier, although gay, is, I believe, closer to G-d than I am. In our equent discsns about his relatnship wh another man, I nsistently tell him that while I n't ndone homosexual unns--the are G-d's laws and are outsi my abily to modify--he should unrstand that the Bible nsists of 613 mandments.

As a man who believ G-d's laws, I n't embrace or endorse gay marriage. If this statement offends or hurts my many close iends who are gay, then I apologize. As a matter of fact, the Bible the s of transgrsg the Sabbath is treated far more serly than homosexualy is.

DR. LRA S. GAY (CONE)

Yet Sabbath secrators are hardly cried by relig lears wh anythg like the same vehemence as gay men and women the product of a broken home, wh a wonrful mother who has been by herself for more than 20 years now, I have wnsed the pa of lonels. So while I n't ndone gay marriage, I will absolutely nmn the cel lie that says that gay relatnships are abhorrent and should be fought tooth and nail.

Relig people should fally get over their all-too-apparent homophobia and reverse the discrimatory policy that holds homosexualy as an aberratn marked by G-d for special censure. Like heterosexuals, gays are G-d's children, pable of brgg light and love to a pla whose darkns is ed not only by s but also misguid judgment. Lra’s posn on homosexualy [ my article “Why Dr.

Lra’s perspective on homosexualy was changg, and I hoped that her views would bee more and more biblil. Several years ago, she listened to the rhetoric and followed the party le, proclaimg that people are born gay.

LRA SCHLSGER GIV GAYS FULL-PAGE APOLOGY

Some rearchers tried (unsuccsfully) for a to prove a geic ponent, if not a e, for homosexualy. Apparently believg this explanatn for same-genr attractn, she said that she thought somethg go wrong somewhere along the way, producg unnatural homosexual sir.

She got blasted for llg homosexuals “blogil errors, ” which was a twistg of what she actually said.

It’s tertg to me that she was jt takg the geic-basis-for-homosexualy theory to a logil ncln, but she got nailed for her polil rrectns.