Speaking Up and Speaking Out: What Mr Blair Didn’t Tell the Nation
Mike Davidson, Dermot O’Callaghan, Core Issues Trust
“It is important that we are prepared to speak up and speak out from the position of faith and say we are not afraid to say this is what we believe and why we believe it.” Tony Blair
The gay lobby has much to thank the Labour Party for: repeal of Section 28, lowering of the age of consent for gay sex and the Sexual Orientation Regulations. More recently Mr Blair has confirmed that he “strongly supports the Prime Minister’s proposal” for imposition of gay marriage by the coalition government. His legacy has helped shape the views of Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. Mr Blair converted to Catholicism in 2007 and now has begun his campaign to modernise the church. Just in time, perhaps, to rescue David Cameron from his dilemma regarding protections for mainline churches who won’t bow the knee – protections which clearly won’t hold.
Gay is not the new black
But are the churches really so wrong? “Gay marriage” began its journey to legitimacy as mental health professional bodies replaced science with ideology. In 1974 homosexuality was removed from the American diagnostic manual of mental disorders – by vote rather than by science. Influential research by Evelyn Hooker (1957), is now shown (Marriage & Family Review 2012: 48:491–523), to be deeply flawed. Nevertheless the world bought the story and the American Psychological Association (APA) website claims “Being gay is just as healthy as being straight” – an untruth.
Psychological explanations for homosexuality were sought until the early 1980s, when the focus switched to ‘born gay’ theories. Likening homosexuality to skin colour allowed activists to write off opposition as comparable to racism.
A Royal College of Psychiatrists paper (2007) denied any causal role to childhood experiences, proposing that sexual orientation is “biological in nature”, determined by genes and hormones. They offered no substantive evidence for this, ignoring contrary evidence from twin studies.
A Church of Scotland study (2010) said: “Is there strong scientific evidence that homosexuality is inherited? … probably not … the scientific community is moving from a position of confidence to one of more dubiety.” It noted that in 2008 the APA changed from stating that “…biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person’s sexuality,” to saying that although “much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor(s).”
Speaking out
The importance of early life experience in shaping sexuality is forcing its way back on to the agenda, despite the mental health guilds. In a book entitled Destructive Trends in Mental Health, three former APA presidents have voiced strong concerns
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about the Association. Psychologists are “trampl(ing) patients’ rights to treatment in the interest of political correctness” (R Perloff); “I lived through the McCarthy era and the Hollywood witchhunts and, as abominable as these were, there was not the insidious sense of intellectual intimidation that currently exists” (N Cummings); there is a need to challenge “the permeation of mis- and disinformation being foisted on the public …” (J Wiggins).
One co-author of this paper has asked the UK Council for Psychotherapy for evidence supporting its claim that there is “overwhelming evidence that undergoing [therapy to reduce same-sex attraction] is at considerable emotional and psychological cost.” No evidence has been offered. Therapists now live in fear of their own professional body and clients are denied the help they desire – even to keep their families together.
Mr Blair is right. We must speak up and speak out.
