From Pfox

Demand Ex-Gay Tolerance Training for Staff and Students

In response to media reports that Montgomery County (Maryland) Superintendent Joshua Starr called ex-gay flyers distributed to high school students as “reprehensible and deplorable” with a “really, really disgusting message,” Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is calling for the Board of Education to reprimand Starr. PFOX’s flyers provided information to students with unwanted same-sex attractions, discouraged name calling and labeling, and urged tolerance for former homosexuals.

“We call on the Montgomery County Board of Education to enforce its Nondiscrimination Policy and censure Starr immediately,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX. “The Policy mandates that schools provide ‘an atmosphere where differences are understood and appreciated, and where all persons are treated fairly and with respect in an environment free of discrimination and … abuse.’ Clearly Superintendent Starr has violated the Board’s Policy,” said Griggs.

“Starr’s verbal abuse, disrespectful behavior, and slurs against the ex-gay community amount to hate and illegal sexual orientation discrimination, which are all forbidden by the Policy.”

According to media reports, Starr is discussing with his staff how to turn the flyers into a learning experience for students. “Starr does not respect diversity and is creating an unsafe school environment,” said Griggs.

The Board’s Nondiscrimination Policy also mandates training for students and staff to ensure its implementation. “Starr’s flagrant violation of the Policy demonstrates that all tolerance training and diversity education must include ex-gays, which is the only sexual orientation discriminated against in Montgomery County Public Schools. Its Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality lessons promote tolerance of gays, bisexuals, transgenders, cross-dressers and the intersexed, yet fail to include ex-gays, which explains the appalling lack of respect for former homosexuals. The Board must act immediately to remedy this blatant discrimination and include ex-gays.”

Read here

The social sciences cannot settle the moral status of homosexuality.

Many religious and social conservatives believe that homosexuality is a mental illness caused exclusively by psychological or spiritual factors and that all homosexual persons could change their orientation if they simply tried hard enough. This view is widely pilloried (and rightly so) as both wrong on the facts and harmful in effect. But few who attack it are willing to acknowledge that today a wholly different, far more influential, and no less harmful set of falsehoods—each attributed to the findings of “science”—dominates the research literature and political discourse.

We are told that homosexual persons are just as psychologically healthy as heterosexuals, that sexual orientation is biologically determined at birth, that sexual orientation cannot be changed and that the attempt to change it is necessarily harmful, that homosexual relationships are equivalent to heterosexual ones in all important characteristics, and that personal identity is properly and legitimately constituted around sexual orientation. These claims are as misguided as the ridiculed beliefs of some social conservatives, as they spring from distorted or incomplete representations of the best findings from the science of same-sex attraction.

Read here

Read the paper in its entirety here

Greg Quinlan is President of PFOX (Parents and friends of Ex-Gays)

"Homosexuality is not a civil right. Civil rights are based on innateness, whether or not you were born that way. To date, there is zero evidence that anyone is born a homosexual. Zero. In fact it's homosexual researchers and scientists that are proving that homosexuality is not innate and has no biological ideology. Homosexuality is not immutable. People do change. People have a right of self-determination. They can choose to change from being gay to straight. Why can't they choose to change from being straight to ga?

"People do it all the time. There are many ex-gays. Anne Heche, to name one. Sinead O'Connor. And myself. I left the homosexual lifestyle almost 20 years ago. Lived as a homosexual activist for 10 years of my life. I'm a registered nurse. I watched 100 of my friends and acquaintances die of AIDS before I stopped counting. I've seen lots of things but homosexuality does not deserve to be codified or recognized as marriage in any state."
 
“I want to talk first of all about something I heard from the very beginning by people of this Legislature that we are bigots as people of faith, because we do not hold that homosexual marriage should be codified. That somehow we are bigots and we are ideologues because we are people of faith. I want to address that hate. Everyone in this room who is a person of faith deserves an apology from one of the sponsors of this bill for calling us bigots.”

ALMOST anybody can get help for anything from psychotherapists in this country except apparently gays who do not want to be gay.

A man who wants to be a woman will receive not only the necessary operations but also a huge amount of psychological support and counselling.

So will the infertile who desperately want children. Yet the unhappy homosexual should, according to gay activists, be denied any chance whatever to investigate any possibility of seeing if he can be helped to become heterosexual.

Lesley Pilkington was found to have broken the ethical code of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy when she agreed to a request from Patrick Strudwick to help him become a heterosexual.

Unbeknown to her it was a bogus request designed to entrap her, or as he would put it, to discredit counselling which tries to help an individual change sexuality.

Lesley Pilkington was found to have broken the ethical code of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy when she agreed to a request from Patrick Strudwick to help him become a heterosexual.

That of course is rot because no therapy will work unless the person receiving it is committed to the outcome.

Read here  (Some interesting comments at the end of the article)

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside eleven senior Anglican Bishops and others from public life, are among seventy figures who have expressed public support for a Christian psychotherapist, ahead of an Appeal hearing this week. 

A letter written in support of Lesley Pilkington, the psychotherapist at the centre of this case – which involves, among other things, unwanted homosexuality and therapy – has been co-signed by people from five countries. In addition to the Bishops, there are other Christian leaders of churches and organisations, various experts and mental health practitioners. 

Text of letter and 70 signatories

Lesley Pilkington is a practising psychotherapist who distinguishes very carefully between her non-directive counselling and the biblical and pastoral counselling which, as a Christian, she also offers. She was approached at a conference by a man who said he was unhappy being homosexual, and wanted her to help. Lesley explained to him that she only works in this area within a biblical Christian framework, after which he claimed that he was a Christian. 

After two sessions he announced that he was in fact a gay journalist, wanting to ‘expose’ her and people like her. He then lodged complaints against her with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). He objected to the biblical Christian values used in this case of therapy, and also to the claim that ‘change is possible’ even though he had expressed his willing agreement to undergo this therapy. 

Psychological care for those who are distressed by unwanted homosexual attractions has been shown to yield a range of beneficial client outcomes, especially in motivated clients. This is supported by recent empirical evidence from Byrd, Nicolosi, Shaeffer, Spitzer, Jones and Yarhouse. Such therapy does not produce harm despite the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and others maintaining the contrary. In this area, the RCPsych seems to be guided by the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Mental Health Special Interest Group, and could therefore be partial to one view. 
 
We believe that people who seek, freely, to resolve unwanted same-sex attractions hold the moral right to receive professional assistance. Whether motivated by Christian conscience or other values, clients, not practitioners, have the prerogative to choose the yardstick by which to define themselves. Not everyone stakes their identity on sexual feelings. 
 
If practitioners reject or challenge a client’s right to self-determination, they risk causing potential harm to that client’s well-being. They would also be violating professional ethical codes which, among other things, call for respect for client autonomy. 
 
The mental health profession, which professes to be sensitive and respectful towards diversity and equality, should be aware of taking a paternalistic line that says, effectively, ‘Not all clients know what is best for their lives.’ Furthermore, competent practitioners, including those working with biblical Judeo-Christian values, should be free to assist those seeking help. 
 
LIST OF SIGNATORIES in alphabetical order: 
 
The Rt Revd Michael Baughen, former Bishop of Chester; former Member, House of Lords; former Rector, All Souls, Langham Place

The Rt Revd Colin Bazley, former Primate of the Southern Cone; former Bishop of Chile

The Rt Revd Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes

Revd Mario Bergner, President, Redeemed Lives Inc.; author, “Setting Love in Order”

Elaine Silodor Berk, Co-Director, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH International), New Jersey, USA

Prebendary Richard Bewes OBE, former Rector, All Souls, Langham Place

Anthony Busk, Elloughton cum Brough

The Rt Revd Ken Clarke, Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh

The Rt Revd Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury

Rev Fr Paul Check, Executive Director, Courage International

Revd Graham Cotter, Vicar, St Andrews Church, Buckland Monachorum, Devon

Quentin Cross, Guildford

Dr Mike Davidson, Co-Director, Core Issues Trust, Northern Ireland

The Rt Revd Timothy Dudley-Smith, OBE, former President, Evangelical Alliance; former President, Church of England Evangelical Council; former Bishop of Thetford

The Rt Revd John Ellison, formerly Bishop of Paraguay; Hon. Assistant Bishop, Winchester

Mrs Sarah Finch, Member, General Synod, Church of England

The Lord Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Peter Forster, House of Lords

Dr Robert A. J. Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Author: “The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics”

Revd Francis Gardom, Hon. Secretary, Cost of Conscience

Arthur Goldberg, President, PATH (Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality), New Jersey, USA. Author: “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality and the Power to Change”

Regina Griggs, Executive Director, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX)

Miriam Grossman MD, psychiatrist and author, Los Angeles, USA. Author: “You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child”

Janelle M. Hallman LPC, Author: “The Heart of Female Same-Sex Attraction”

Dr Julie Hamilton LMFT, President, National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality; Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California, USA

Robert Harris, London

Thaddeus Heffner LMFT, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Tennessee, USA

Benjamin Kaufman, MD, Co-founder, National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, California, USA

Revd Prof Dale S. Kuehne, The Richard L. Bready Chair in Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good, Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire, USA. Author: “Sex and the i World: Rethinking Relationship Beyond an Age of Individualism”

Pastor Peter Loo, Senior Pastor, Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Westminster, London

Dr Alan Loveless, retired GP, Frome, Somerset

Mrs Jill Mans, Greater London

Dr Peter May, retired GP; former Member, General Synod, Church of England

David Matheson LPC, The Center for Gender Wholeness, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Patricia Morgan, Sociologist. Author: “War between the State and the Family”

The Rt Revd Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester; former Member, House of Lords; President, Oxtrad

Revd Prof John Nolland, Academic Dean, Trinity College, Bristol; Visiting Professor, University of Bristol

Dr Lisa Nolland, Co-editor: “God, Gays and the Church”

Dermot O’ Callaghan, Member, General Synod, Church of Ireland

James Parker, EnCourage, London facilitator

Professor David Paton, Nottingham University Business School

Baxter Peffer MS NCC, Counsellor, Connecticut, USA

Revd Paul Perkin, Chair, Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans UK

David H. Pickup, LMFT, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California, USA

The Rt Revd David Pytches, former Bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru

Revd Charles Raven, Rector, Christ Church Wyre Forest; Director, SPREAD. Author: “Shadow Gospel: Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion Crisis”

Revd Lynda Rose, Trustee, LIFE

Dr Christopher Rosik, President-Elect, National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, California, USA

The Venerable Norman Russell, The Archdeacon of Berkshire. Former Prolocutor, Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury

Canon Dr Vinay Samuel, Chairman, Divya Shanthi Trust, Bangalore, India; Exec Secretary, PIM ASIA, Oxford, UK

Jeffrey Satinover MD PhD, Author: “Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth”. Former William James Lecturer in Psychology and Religion, Harvard University

Revd Dr Nigel Scotland, Hon Research Fellow, University of Gloucestershire; Tutor, Trinity College, Bristol

The Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, Former Bishop of Winchester; former Member, House of Lords

The Rt Revd Maurice Sinclair, Honorary Assistant Bishop of Birmingham, formerly Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone of America

David Skinner, Dorset

Dr Trevor Stammers, Author: “Saving Sex”. Retired GP

Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Executive Secretary, Anglican Mainstream. Member, General Synod, Church of England

Dr. Philip M. Sutton LP LMFT, LCSW, Licensed Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker; Director, International Federation for Therapeutic Choice, Los Angeles, USA.

Keith Tiller, Founder-Director, Parakaleo Ministry

Dr Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg, Psychotherapist, Aerdenhout , Netherlands

Robert L. Vazzo MMFT, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Los Angeles, California, USA

Dr Christl Ruth Vonholdt, Director, German Institute for Youth and Society, Reichelsheim, Germany

Professor William Wagner, Professor of Law; former federal judge in U.S. Courts, former, diplomat

Canon Nigel Walker, former Chancellor, Anglican Pro Cathedral, Brussels

Norman Wells, Director, Family Education Trust

Dr Gordon Wenham, Emeritus Professor, University of Gloucestershire

Andrea Williams, CEO, Christian Legal Centre and Christian Concern

Revd Dr Hadden Wilson, Pastor Emeritus, Ballynahinch Baptist Church, Northern Ireland

Dennis Wrigley, Leader, Maranatha Community

Rich Wyler, Founder & Director, People Can Change, Ruckersville, Virginia, USA

Revd Thomas Yap, Anglican Chaplain

A leading activist agrees that homosexual preferences are fluid and changing. If so, why do gays need special treatment?

Many people think that homosexuality is a biological characteristic like race or sex – biologically fixed and genetically determined. They think this because this is the view that has been successfully propagated by the gay rights lobby for decades in order to provide a justification for arguing that ‘homophobia’ is a form of discrimination akin to racism or sexism.

This belief has also been behind moves to treat discrimination against 'practising' homosexuals as a human rights issue by pretending that homosexuals are a biological category like 'women' or 'Asians' whose distinctive features are genetically determined rather than just a group who have simply made a certain life-style choice.

But in fact the strength and direction of erotic attraction, although relatively stable in some people, can be quite changeable in others – it is often not fixed at all.

Similarly, identical twins often have different sexual orientations proving that, although sexual orientation may have some genetic influences, it is not genetically determined. There is, in other words, no such thing as the gay gene.

Read here

SENIOR churchmen have backed Lesley Pilkington, a Christian Counsellor whose appeal against the decision of her professional body, The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) will be heard this week. Lesley Pilkington is to appeal and seek to have her disciplinary case ‘struck out’ on the basis that the original hearing was unfair, lacked in due process and discriminated against her Christian faith.

Lesley Pilkington is an experienced counsellor and has, in effect, been barred from her professional register after attempting to assist a homosexual client in a therapy session at her clinic at home. Her client/patientwas actually a ‘gay rights activist/journalist’ and deliberately misled the counsellor by secretly recording the sessions. He then reported her to her professional body. Mrs Pilkington was subsequently found guilty of professional misconduct – despite the claimant’s recordings not being properly disclosed or scrutinised and her world-class expert witness, being refused permission to give evidence on the issue of 'change therapy'. Her expert witness, Dr Dean Byrd, also received threats and nuisance telephone calls which were reported to the Police.

[...]  Andrea Williams, Director of CLC said: “Lesley Pilkington has been the subject of an ongoing, premeditated attack by a homosexual activist whose aim was to remove her from her profession and to make a political point. Her professional body has failed to protect her. She has not had a fair trial and all attempts at making her case have been thwarted. It is time to stand up to a militant homosexual lobby who are unable to tolerate difference of opinion and who seek to coerce behaviour and thought.”

Read here
 
Read also: Former Archbishop of Canterbury and senior clerics back therapist in row on 'gay conversion' by Steve Doughty, Mailonline

Pink News coverage here and comments here

Leading church figures including the former Archbishop of Canterbury have sparked controversy by championing a psychotherapist who believes gay men can be 'cured' of their homosexuality.

Lesley Pilkington was effectively barred from her professional register after attempting to convert a homosexual man in a therapy session at her home.
 
Her patient turned out to be a gay rights journalist, who had secretly recorded the sessions and then reported her to her professional body. Mrs Pilkington, a committed Christian, was subsequently found guilty of professional misconduct.
 
The therapy practised by Mrs Pilkington had been described as "absurd" by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and roundly condemned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
 
But ahead of her appeal against the BACP ruling, Mrs Pilkington has received backing from the Rt Rev Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
 
In a letter to her professional body, Lord Carey – along with a number of senior figures – suggests Mrs Pilkington is herself a victim of entrapment whose therapy should be supported.

His comments – in a letter co-signed by, among others, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester and the Rt Rev Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes – will cause controversy in the gay community and beyond.

Read here

Current discussions of homosexual sexual orientation change are unavoidably occurring within a sociopolitical climate that makes nonpartisan scientific inquiry of this subject very difficult. In light of this reality, a few considerations are crucial for accurately understanding the sometimes contradictory opinions regarding the possibility of sexual orientation change. First and foremost, it is important to recognize that how change is conceptualized has vast implications for our thinking about change. Some of the more ardent proponents and opponents of homosexual sexual orientation change may view change in strictly categorical terms, where change is an all-or-nothing experience. Proponents and opponents with this view differ only in the direction of their desired outcome. Proponents of change understood in categorical terms may view a homosexual sexual orientation as a lifestyle choice that merely needs to be renounced. Opponents who take this viewpoint, on the other hand, may conceive of sexual orientation as essentially hard wired and simply not modifiable. NARTH does not support either of these perspectives.

NARTH believes that much of the expressed pessimism regarding sexual orientation change is a consequence of individuals intentionally or inadvertently adopting a categorical conceptualization of change. When change is viewed in absolute terms, then any future experience of same-sex attraction (or any other challenge), however fleeting or diminished, is considered a refutation of change. Such assertions likely reflect an underlying categorical view of change, probably grounded in an essentialist view of homosexual sexual orientation that assumes same-sex attractions are the natural and immutable essence of a person. What needs to be remembered is that the de-legitimizing of change solely on the basis of a categorical view of change is virtually unparalleled for any challenge in the psychiatric literature. For example, applying a categorical standard for change would mean that any subsequent reappearance of depressive mood following treatment for depression should be viewed as an invalidation of significant and genuine change, no matter how infrequently depressive symptoms reoccur or how diminished in intensity they are if subsequently re-experienced. Similar arguments could be made for any number of conditions, including grief, alcoholism, or marital distress. The point is not to equate these conditions with homosexuality, but rather to highlight the inconsistency of applying the categorical standard only to reported changes in unwanted same-sex attractions. 

Rather than pigeonholing homosexual sexual orientation change into categorical terms, NARTH believes that it is far more helpful and accurate to conceptualize such change as occurring on a continuum. This is in fact how sexual orientation is defined in most modern research, starting with the well known Kinsey scales, even as subsequent findings pertinent to change are often described in categorical terms. NARTH affirms that some individuals who seek care for unwanted same-sex attractions do report categorical change of sexual orientation. Moreover, NARTH acknowledges that others have reported no change. However, the experience of NARTH clinicians suggests that the majority of individuals who report unwanted same-sex attractions and pursue psychological care will be best served by conceptualizing change as occurring on a continuum, with many being able to achieve sustained shifts in the direction and intensity of their sexual attractions, fantasy, and arousal that they consider to be satisfying and meaningful. NARTH believes that a profound disservice is done to those with unwanted same-sex attractions by characterizing such shifts in sexual attractions as a denial of their authentic (and gay) personhood or a change in identity labeling alone. Attempts to invalidate all reports of such shifts by presuming they are not grounded in actual experience insults the integrity of these individuals and posits wishful thinking on an untenably massive scale.

Finally, it also needs to be observed that reports on the potential for sexual orientation change may be unduly pessimistic based on the confounding factor of type of intervention. Most of the recent research on homosexual sexual orientation change has focused on religiously mediated outcomes which may differ significantly from outcomes derived through professional psychological care. It is not unreasonable to anticipate that the probability of change would be greater with informed psychotherapeutic care, although definitive answers to this question await further research. NARTH remains highly interested in conducting such research, pursuant only to the acquisition of sufficient funding. 

To summarize, then, those who are highly pessimistic regarding change in sexual orientation appear to have assumed a categorical view of change, which is neither in keeping with how sexual orientation has been defined in the literature nor with how change is conceptualized for nearly all other psychological challenges. NARTH believes that viewing change as occurring on a continuum is a preferable therapeutic approach and more likely to create realistic expectancies among consumers of change-oriented intervention. With this in mind, NARTH remains committed to protecting the rights of clients with unwanted same-sex attractions to pursue change as well as the rights of clinicians to provide such psychological care.

Many people think that homosexuality is a biological characteristic like race or sex – biologically fixed and genetically determined.

They think this because this is the view that has been successfully propagated by the gay rights lobby for decades in order to provide a justification for arguing that ‘homophobia’ is a form of discrimination akin to racism or sexism.

This belief has also been behind moves to treat discrimination against 'practising' homosexuals as a human rights issue by pretending that homosexuals are a biological category like 'women' or 'asians' whose distinctive features are genetically determined rather than just a group who have simply made a certain life-style choice.

But in fact the strength and direction of erotic attraction, although relatively stable in some people, can be quite changeable in others – it is often not fixed at all.

Similarly identical twins often have different sexual orientations proving that, although sexual orientation may have some genetic influences, it is not genetically determined. There is, in other words, no such thing as the gay gene.

Read here

Dr Reynolds has insisted he just wants to improve relations between the church and the gay community. But Mr Gillan was sceptical, saying: "You don't come all the way from America to a church in Tunbridge Wells to tell Christians how to love a homosexual."

Vicar of St John's Church Giles Walter said: "Dr Reynolds had a free slot in his programme and we were asked whether we would like him to be our preacher this Sunday morning, and we said that we would be. "We are certainly aware of his link with the Core Issues Trust and we will listen carefully to what he has to say."

Read here

As governments, celebrities, and activist groups declare “gay is good” to stave off teen suicides, some brave souls in Quebec are breaking ground as they launch the first group in the province dedicated to helping men and women overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.

Michel Lizotte, the journalist who founded Ta Vie Ton Choix, said bullying is not the only reason that those inclined to homosexuality consider suicide. “Some of these people who did their coming out and experienced the gay lifestyle, are feeling so bad after a while that they have suicidal ideas,” he told LifeSiteNews. “They will make suicidal attempts and they will commit suicide.”

Lizotte’s group, which launched a website in October at TaVieTonChoix.org, aims to connect those hoping to overcome their unwanted attractions, refer them to competent therapists, and offer sound – but often ignored – scientific information on same-sex attraction.

Read here

A LEADING gay rights campaigner who attended a controversial Christian conference on homosexuality in Belfast at the weekend says there was a significant difference between how the event was initially perceived compared to the actual reality of its content.

The title of the conference, “The Lepers Among Us: Homosexuality and the Life of the Church”, caused heated debate last week across the Province, with some gay rights activists saying they found it hugely offensive.

However, chairman of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, PA MagLochlainn, attended the conference to find out first hand what it was about.

The event was organised by Northern Ireland group, Core Issues, and took place at Orangefield Presbyterian Church.

Mr MagLochlainn said there was a huge difference between “the perception and reality” of the conference message. Its title came from a book by the keynote speaker, the Rev Jim Reynolds, a pastor and lawyer from Texas.

Mr MagLochlainn said: “Rev Reynolds was arguing that churches must offer a much more welcoming approach to gay people. The conference had a panel on Friday with a representative of the gay perspective sitting on it, which was most welcome to see.”

Referring to Rev Reynolds, Mr MagLochlainn said: “I really liked the guy.

Read here

The social sciences cannot settle the moral status of homosexuality.

Many religious and social conservatives believe that homosexuality is a mental illness caused exclusively by psychological or spiritual factors and that all homosexual persons could change their orientation if they simply tried hard enough. This view is widely pilloried (and rightly so) as both wrong on the facts and harmful in effect. But few who attack it are willing to acknowledge that today a wholly different, far more influential, and no less harmful set of falsehoods—each attributed to the findings of “science”—dominates the research literature and political discourse.

We are told that homosexual persons are just as psychologically healthy as heterosexuals, that sexual orientation is biologically determined at birth, that sexual orientation cannot be changed and that the attempt to change it is necessarily harmful, that homosexual relationships are equivalent to heterosexual ones in all important characteristics, and that personal identity is properly and legitimately constituted around sexual orientation. These claims are as misguided as the ridiculed beliefs of some social conservatives, as they spring from distorted or incomplete representations of the best findings from the science of same-sex attraction.

Read here

January 20, 2012 (Catholicsistas.com) – One of the most controversial teachings of Catholicism is its teaching on homosexuality. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. (2357)

For most of us, this teaching is challenging, especially if someone we love is gay or lesbian. But what if you are the Catholic struggling with these desires? Is it possible to be faithful to the Church’s teachings and still be happy?

Yes, it is.

I am a 37-year-old Catholic woman who has been happily married for nearly 15 years. We have five children that I homeschool. I also struggle daily with same-sex attraction.

The Torah Declaration is a public statement signed by 180 Rabbis, Community Leaders, and Mental Health Professionals

Societal Developments On Homosexuality

There has been a monumental shift in the secular world’s attitude towards homosexuality over the past few decades. In particular over the past fifteen years there has been a major public campaign to gain acceptance for homosexuality. Legalizing same-sex marriage has become the end goal of the campaign to equate homosexuality with heterosexuality.

A propaganda blitz has been sweeping the world using political tactics to persuade the public about the legitimacy of homosexuality. The media is rife with negative labels implying that one is “hateful” or “homophobic” if they do not accept the homosexual lifestyle as legitimate. This political coercion has silenced many into acquiescence. Unfortunately this attitude has seeped into the Torah community and many have become confused or have accepted the media’s portrayal of this issue.

The Torah’s Unequivocal And Eternal Message

The Torah makes a clear statement that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle or a genuine identity by severely prohibiting its conduct. Furthermore, the Torah, ever prescient about negative secular influences, warns us in Vayikra (Leviticus) 20:23 “Do not follow the traditions of the nations that I expel from before you…” Particularly the Torah writes this in regards to homosexuality and other forbidden sexual liaisons.

Read here

Read also:  Amsterdam’s chief rabbi suspended over gay cure declaration

A lesbian couple in the US have told the Church of Ireland that there are more important issues it should be concerned about than same-sex relationships.

Writing in a supplement for the Church's magazine, Rev Jan Nunley and her partner Susan Erdey argue that no-one would question their relationship if one of them was male.

[...]  The Church of Ireland Gazette's special supplement on same-sex relationships intends to inform debate on the issue as it prepares for a conference on human sexuality next month and a crucial General Synod debate in May.

Gazette editor Canon Ian Ellis said: "The supplement is intended as a contribution to the wider discussion on same-sex relationships. It is a difficult debate, as our extensive letter correspondence has shown, but it is one that simply must take place. There has to be a mutual understanding."

It also contains an article by an abstaining gay male who is a member of the Church of Ireland, and conservative Anglican Rev Melanie Lacy.

Read here