10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked | Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents:

• IT’S “OKAY” TO BE GAY, AND YOU NEED TO KNOW WHY
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• WHY GAY IS NOT OK
• REPORT: RUDY GAY WAIVED BY OKC THUNR
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
• IS IT A S TO BE GAY?
• IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• WHY DO SOME CHRISTIANS BELIEVE ’S OK TO BE GAY, WHEN THE BIBLE SAYS ISN’T?

IT’S “OKAY” TO BE GAY, AND YOU NEED TO KNOW WHY

For every verse that anti-LGBTQ Christians say nmns homosexualy, there are a dozen that clearly nmn somethg we support or support somethg we nmn (which isn’t to say that those passag even do nmn queer people).

I have a nfsn to make to you: sometim, when I lay bed on particularly rtls nights (ually when I’ve stayed up way too late and had way too many Pepsis) I stare at the ceilg and ntemplate eher (a) the vastns and meangls of the Universe or (b) “what if they are right and is a s to be gay??? On a recent trip to Las Vegas wh my boyiend (I’m gay) and both our mothers (aga, we are extremely gay) to see Ale (you get the ia), we both packed so much that you’d be fiven for thkg we were movg there. Elenis is that the Colorado anti-discrimatn law is fact nstutnal, except when applied to a bs that do not wish to provi a product do not offer to a nonexistent gay uple who are not seekg a webse for an imagary weddg of which the bs owner do not approve.

WASHINGTON – A feral appeals urt has led that a Catholic high school Indianapolis was ee to fire a gay guidance unselor bee she performed at least some relig duti, the latt legal setback for LGBTQ+ rights when they nflict wh Fzgerald had worked for 14 years as a guidance unselor at Ronlli High School when school officials disvered she was married to another woman. Usg this sle, the rearchers averaged figur supportg their claims that 10 percent of mal between the ag of 16 and 55 were more or ls exclively homosexual for at least three years. Gordon Muir reported that he had found "substantial evince ditg that ls than 5 percent of men and women have had any homosexual ntact their lifetime, and no more than 3 percent of men and nsirably fewer women claim to be bisexual or exclively homosexual.

GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT

Even if rearchers were to suggt a heredary tie wh homosexualy, as they have wh alholism, the right tack wh this argument is not to ntend that 's false, but that promot life-threateng behavr.

" While AIDS is no longer nsired jt a gay disease, s universaly often overshadows the fact that, acrdg to the Centers for Disease Control, "homosexuals ntue to make up the majory of s. " Consequently, the 1993 fdgs of three rearchers wh the Eastern Psychologil Associatn, quoted by Jefey Satover "Homosexualy and the Polics of Tth" (Baker), should e as no surprise.

WHY GAY IS NOT OK

Satover wr that "they found that the gay male lifpan, even apart om AIDS and wh a long-term partner, is signifintly shorter than that of married men general by more than three s. Mattison found that even homosexual men "permanent" relatnships tend to stray more often than heterosexual men: "Y, that wayward impulse is as evable man-to-man affairs as man-to-woman, only, for gays, starts chg faster. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice.

Ever sce the landmark US Supreme Court cisn on June 26 makg same-sex marriage legal the US, bate has emerged among Mlims worldwi about the mer of the lg, wh the obv implitn if they as Mlims approve or disapprove of a person beg a gay while profsg to be a Mlim. “But many Mlims on social media lashed out, ” another utned, “sayg ‘qiyamah’, the day of judgement, was near while the story of Lot nmng homosexualy holy scriptur, cludg the Quran, is beg ignored.

Leadg scholars of this field such as Joseph Massad have radilly ntted the manner which what he terms “gay ternatnal” has imperially domated the variety of homoerotic domas Arab and Mlim history. Samar Habib’s eded two volum Islam and Homosexualy (2009) and Khaled El-Rouayheb’s Before Homosexualy the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (2009) are exampl of such groundbreakg work. Stt Siraj al-Haqq Kugle, Homosexualy Islam: Cril Reflectn on Gay, Lbian, and Transgenr Mlims (2010) is another cril example, pl the work of other scholars such as Kecia Ali, Serena Tolo and Sara Omar.

REPORT: RUDY GAY WAIVED BY OKC THUNR

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed wrote a ccial tobgraphy, The Koran and the Flh/Le Coran et la chair (2012), Jerry Wright’s Homoeroticism Classil Arabic Lerature, and Helie and Hoodfar’s Sexualy Mlim Contexts have expand our historil unrstandg of the issue, while Joseph Massad’s Dirg Arabs (2007) took the whole disurse of homosexualy radilly to task. The legalisatn of same-sex marriage the Uned Stat will do very ltle to dimish the ep-rooted homophobia this untry, as ed the Emancipatn Proclamatn of 1863 did not entirely end racism; or Roe v Wa of 1973 end patriarchy, machismo, and misogyny; or Brown v Board of Edutn of 1954 end school segregatn, which has ntued apace along class l to this day.

It n then e them all as exampl to enurage Mlims at large to participate open, hont, and rmed discsns articulatg and safeguardg their civil liberti across the board – which clus, but isn’t limed to, gay rights and the possibily of the acceptance of same-sex marriage wh Mlim muni. Many health re and mental health anizatns foced on the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny also offer substance e treatment or may be able to provi rmatn about lol rourc. It is a highly personal matter for everyone that Bible self is clear on issu such as lyg, stealg, adultery, murr, homosexual behavr, gossip, and to name a few.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

After all, you didn't wake up one day and choose to have gay is very likely that you risted and fought agast this unwanted sire when you first felt s awkward prence your life.

It is, of urse, a s to give to the midst of all the hoopla over homosexualy today, there remas one te and time-honored approach to sexualy which pleas our Creator. God is not the thor of same-sex attractn, bee God is not the thor of sir which motivate and propel a person to then do some people experience gay 95% of the populatn do not? " (Proverbs 14:12) Some scere misters today are guilty of vg people wh gay feelgs down a road that leads to 's jt as perilo as if those same misters were tellg thiev that God no longer nmns stealg.

Christ's love plac the Word of God above human feelgs and emotns, even when volv iends and is probably one of the tought thgs about beg a only God's law didn't apply to our unsaved iends and loved only those close to were exempt and uld do their own way wh no eternal only our gay iends or relativ were allowed by God to get away wh sng to their heart's ntent. Medatg on Scripture, prayer, and Christian fellowship are key gredients to helpg believers get on the road to matter what temptatns we fd the tought to gay feelgs be greatly dimished a person's life? Once we accept that our sful sir are ed ntrary to God's will and purpose, we are closer to askg J to five all our ss and to help everyday for the rt of our your strongt temptatn has to do wh gay thoughts about is only one cure.

CAN A MLIM BE GAY?

Whatever your strongt temptatn, there is no need for you as a believer to wear a label which scrib sful sir, be : "dnkard, " "bigot, " "adulterer, " "slanrer, " "gay, " "greedy, " etc. So may be biblilly allowable for a pastor to nsir himself gay—that is, he stggl wh homosexual attractn—if he is mted to sexual pury, never acts on those sir, and never enurag anyone else to do so (see Romans 1:32).

A pastor is a fallible human beg jt like those his ngregatn; so is biblilly allowable for him to stggle wh homosexual sir, adultero sir, greedy sir, priful sir, etc. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.

IS IT A S TO BE GAY?

For the former Florida bety queen and her Save Our Children group, was the alleged plans of gay men and lbians to "rec" schools that provid the fodr for their csa. But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia. The fairy tal are important to the anti-gay right bee they form the basis of s claim that homosexualy is a social evil that mt be supprsed — an opn rejected by virtually all relevant medil and scientific thori.

Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people.

Others have ced a group lled the Amerin College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) to claim, as Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council did November 2010, that "the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a [moltatn] danger to children. Gregory Herek, a profsor at the Universy of California, Davis, who is one of the natn's leadg rearchers on prejudice agast sexual mori, reviewed a seri of studi and found no evince that gay men molt children at higher rat than heterosexual men.

IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?

The fixated child molter — the stereotypil pedophile — nnot be nsired homosexual or heterosexual bee "he often fds adults of eher sex repulsive" and often molts children of both sex. Most hard-le anti-gay anizatns are heavily vted, om both a relig and a polil standpot, promotg the tradnal nuclear fay as the sole amework for the healthy upbrgg of children. The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual. ” The next year, 2005, the APA published a summary of rearch fdgs on lbian and gay parents and reerated that mon negative stereotyp about LGBT parentg are not supported by the data. Siarly, the Child Welfare League of Ameri's official posn wh regard to same-sex parents is that "lbian, gay, and bisexual parents are as well-sued to raise children as their heterosexual unterparts.

A 2013 prelimary study Atralia found that the children of lbian and gay parents are not only thrivg, but may actually have better overall health and higher rat of fay hn than heterosexual fai.

CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

Joseph Nilosi, a founr of the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy, said 2009 that "if you trmatize a child a particular way, you will create a homosexual ndn. A si effect of this argument is the monizatn of parents of gay men and lbians, who are led to wonr if they failed to protect a child agast sexual abe or failed as role mols some important way. ” Schumm, who has also argued that lbian relatnships are unstable, has ti to discreded psychologist and anti-LGBT fabulist Pl Cameron, the thor of numero pletely basels “studi” about the alleged evils of homosexualy.

The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn noted a 2000 fact sheet available on the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Psychiatrists, that alg wh gay, lbian and bisexual issu, that sexual abe do not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and intify as gay, lbian or bisexual than children who grow up and intify as heterosexual. Siarly, the Natnal Organizatn on Male Sexual Victimizatn not on s webse that "experts the human sexualy field do not believe that premature sexual experienc play a signifint role late adolcent or adult sexual orientatn" and add that 's unlikely that anyone n make another person gay or heterosexual.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at the Christian Grove Cy College, noted an analysis that “the rearch on sexual abe among GLBT populatns is often mised to make ferenc about atn [of homosexualy]. Anti-LGBT anizatns, seekg to promote heterosexualy as the healthier "choice, " often offer up the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physil and mental health of gays and lbians as reasons why they shouldn't be allowed to adopt or foster children. This falsehood n be traced directly to the discreded rearch of Pl Cameron and his Fay Rearch Instute, specifilly a 1994 paper he -wrote entled "The Lifpan of Homosexuals.

WHY DO SOME CHRISTIANS BELIEVE ’S OK TO BE GAY, WHEN THE BIBLE SAYS ISN’T?

" Usg obuari llected om newspapers servg the gay muny, he and his two -thors nclud that gay men died, on average, at 43, pared to an average life expectancy at the time of around 73 for all U.

On the basis of the same obuari, Cameron also claimed that gay men are 18 tim more likely to die r accints than heterosexuals, 22 tim more likely to die of heart attacks than wh, and 11 tim more likely than blacks to die of the same e.

Anti-LGBT anizatns have also tried to support this claim by distortg the work of legimate scholars, like a 1997 study nducted by a Canadian team of rearchers that alt wh gay and bisexual men livg Vanuver the late 1980s and early 1990s.