The Gay Agenda

Incidence of Homosexuality

The complexity of the homosexual condition, and the desire to keep it hidden (in spite of pro-gay organizations), make it impossible to obtain reliable statistics on the percentage of male and female person with SSA in the total US population. It is usually conceded that there are twice as many men with the SSA as women, and that the incidence of male SSA ranges from 2 to 3 percent of the total male population. No doubt, in the permissive spirit of our times more individuals admit their homosexual lifestyle: but in itself this admission does not furnish a reliable count, since a significant number of persons presumably prefer to keep their condition hidden. In some urban areas, however, like San Francisco and Denver, there are unusually high percentages of people with homosexual tendencies. From a pastoral point of view it is sufficient to know that there are millions of people with SSA in the country who are searching for more creative help than they have received in the past. But this aid will not be forthcoming unless society and people with this condition acquire a deeper understanding of homosexuality. This, in turn, depends upon the attitudes that exist in people with SSA and in society. It will help to reflect briefly upon the interlocking dispositions and emotions found in the person with SSA and in society.

Attitudes

The gay agenda has promoted the idea that "gay is good" and that the homosexual way of life is simply an "alternative lifestyle." This agenda also asserts that the homosexual condition is just as psychologically neutral as being left-handed or blonde, and that "gay marriages" should be equivalent in legal and societal status to a marriage between a man and a woman. Despite these claims, people with SSA continue to feel alienated from society in general and from family members and co-workers in particular. The gay agenda cites the source of this alienation "internalized homophobia" - that is, the non-gay sentiments and ideas one absorbs in normal society (and which naturally conflict with SSA).

More often, accusations of homophobia are hurled by gay activists at those taking exception to the gay agenda. Then, unfortunately, moral arguments are recast as political contests and serious moral discussions are avoided through the gay activists' claim of victim status - a well protected strategic position on our political landscape.

In its sad and easily verifiable reality, the often-embraced "gay" lifestyle is one of gay bars and bathhouses, a promiscuous subculture spread across the country. Various gay organizations and periodicals publish lists of such baths and bars in all the major cities, and while the propaganda speaks of integration into "straight" society, many active gay men seek only the companionship of other gay active men. Here they believe that they are free to put aside facades, revealing themselves as they understand themselves to be. At the same time, however, they drift further apart from the mainstream heterosexual society.

In general, heterosexual people do not understand those with persistent same-sex attraction. (It took me years to understand the nature of this condition.) Society clings to myths about the hyper-sexuality of persons with SSA and of their unreliability; moreover, the isolation of many with SSA tends to engender mutual distrust. Although our society has become less hostile to persons with SSA, the man who understands himself as "homosexual" continues to harbor self-hatred. He hates himself profoundly, often drowning himself in alcohol or contemplating suicide. (The reasons for this self-hatred will become clearer later in this chapter.) In turn, this mood of self-condemnation begets bitterness toward society and toward God, which is manifested in various ways: in isolation and loneliness, in flight to the subculture of th baths and bars, in joining militant gay groups who believe that visibility is the key to political clout.

Much gay activity is at cross-purposes. On one hand, there are strident demands that persons with homosexual tendencies be integrated thoroughly into the larger society; and on the other hand, gay clubs are developed as a refuge from "straight" society, impeding integration. Persons with SSA, however, readily regard themselves as a minority struggling for civil rights. The mainstream media, unfortunately, has become complicit in this political maneuvering, and commonly likens the situation of persons with SSA to that of blacks in the American South prior to the civil rights movement. The tendency to accept people in the homosexual lifestyle as a victimized minority has gradually led many to regard same-sex unions as a civil right.

While isolation from society and participation in the gay subculture are characteristic of many who struggle with SSA, there are untold others who integrate their lives into the pattern of ordinary society without revealing their sexual tendencies. This is not surprising when it is remembered that people with SSA differ as much among themselves as heterosexuals: "To say, for example, that a certain man or woman is homosexual is by no means to characterize his or her motivation. There are myriads forms of homosexual behavior: overt, covert, active, passive, compulsive, sublimated, diffuse, specific,...esthetic, intellectual..." (Gordon Allport, Pattern and Growth in Personality, New York, 1961, 371-2).

(Source: Same Sex Attraction: Catholic Teaching and Pastoral Practice by Fr. John Harvey, O.S.F.S.)