The American Psychological Association released a press release yesterday of note, entitled Insufficient Evidence That Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Work, Says APA:
The American Psychological Association adopted a resolution Wednesday stating that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients that they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments.
The "Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts" also advises that parents, guardians, young people and their families avoid sexual orientation treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and instead seek psychotherapy, social support and educational services "that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth."
The approval, by APA's governing Council of Representatives, came at APA's annual convention, during which a task force presented a report that in part examined the efficacy of so-called "reparative therapy," or sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE)...
Well obviously, Focus On The Family disagrees. Through their "news" arm CitizenLink piece Psychologists Consider Treatment of Homosexuality, they give us the scoop:
...The guidelines do allow for difference in religious beliefs, but Jeff Johnston, gender issues analyst for Focus on the Famil y, said they don't go far enough. He said the APA is starting with the false assumption that homosexuality is normal and positive."There are a lot of people out there who haven't just changed their sexual identity or behavior, but their attractions have also changed," he explained. "I'm one of those people."
The document also ignores many pathologies associated with homosexuality, which provide motivation for some to seek change.
Ah. So you gays, lesbians, and bisexuals all have a case of the abnormal and the negative, and apparently many of you have pathologies associated with your homosexuality. We trans people therefore must be the normal, positive ones here at The Blend, er....right? 
Oh. Darnit, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink lumped us in with you darn homosexuals:
...We are deeply concerned about the hearts and souls of those who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or "transgendered." We want those men and women to know that God loves them with an everlasting love. Through salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit, He can empower them to live according to His design and standards for sexuality. He offers the grace to accept their true identity - not as gay, lesbian, or gender-confused - but as His sons and daughters, embracing their biological reality as male or female.We are also concerned about homosexuality's impact on families, the church and our culture. There has been a growing and very successful effort to gain not just acceptance but approval for homosexuality and "transgenderism" in many areas, including the church, the media, business and education. Society and families always do best when individuals follow God's created intent for humanity...
Darn. I was so looking forward to lording my normalcy over you homosexuals, you.
But on the serious side of things, the APA stated it believes that "reparative therapy" won't work. In the non-Bizarro world most of us in the reality-based community live in, what the folk at the APA say about reparative therapy matters a heck of a lot more than what the folk at Focus On The Family say on the subject.
~~~~~
Further reading:
* Truth Wins Out: Commentary: The APA Says 'No Evidence' In Support of Ex-Gay Therapy
* Warren Throckmorton Blog: APA sexual orientation task force report: Analysis
I took a whiff of my right arm underarm this morning, and had no idea that I was smelling what ObamaCare smells like. Or should I say, the armpit of my right "chicken wing" smel ls an awful much like what Taxpayer-Funded Tranny-Care would smell like, and this stinkiness is at the heart of the ObamaCare healthcare reform plan.
And on top of stinking like my armpit this morning, ObamaCare "Obama's Tranny-Care" looks an awful lot like me too...except, umm, circa 2004. Who knew? (Hey -- couldn't President Obama use a more current picture of me? I'm thinner and cuter now, thanks to Bush's "Tranny-Care" healthcare plan!)
And yet apparently, President Obama has been working diligently behind the scenes to fund genital reconstruction surgery -- apparently this was all part of his evil plan from the get-go. From Peter LaBarbera's Americans For Truth About Homosexuality comes an article entitled Taxpayer-Funded Tranny-Care? ObamaCare Could Mandate Free 'Sex-Change' Surgeries
Transsexual activists like Autumn Sandeen (...that's his "female" name -- adopted after leaving his traditional role as husband and father) are caught up in gender confusion. For some, this culminates in body-disfiguring operations to "change" into the opposite sex. No American should be forced to pay for these nature-rejecting procedures with his or her tax dollars. Homosexual groups like Human Rights Campaign boast of their support for taxpayer-funded "sex-change" operations in cities like San Francisco.Folks, you don't have to be very politically sophisticated to predict that GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activists and their liberal allies are going to demand "Tranny-Care" under a federal health insurance system, in the name of "fairness" and "inclusion" - even if it's not passed initially as a "benefit." And yes, the idea of subsidizing body-disfiguring "operations" surely would be considered "queer" by the average tax-paying American. Already, trans activists are strategizing on the best ways to get taxpayers to pay for their gender-confused mutilations
"sex change" procedures-- and Human Rights Campaign and other homosexual lobby groups boast of their support for same in cities like San Francisco.
-- Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com
Mr. LaBarbera then goes off on to highlight the Liberty Counsel's take on HR 3200 where the "sex change operations" are brought up as a red herring, and then he follows up with the Liberty Council piece by his friend Matt Barber (that Pam wrote about yesterday).
Seriously. Personal attacks related to when I divorced my ex-spouse seem a bit much from someone whose Republican and Christian peers include Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator John Ensign, and ex-Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig? And indirectly referring to me and my trans peers by the term "tranny" when he no doubt knows the term is often used as a defamatory term? -- including in how Mr. LaBarbera has used this term as a defamatory term in this very article?
And frankly, what does any of that have to do with healthcare reform?
Let's be frank here. This discussion of my ex-spouse, my children, and sex change operations in regards to healthcare reform are ">red herrings. These discussion points of abortions going to be federally funded by healthcare reform (these won't be), that America's over-65 year old folk are going to have government employees at their homes demanding they make living wills (they won't), and now "sex change operations" are diversionary tactics, which are related to being obstructive with regards to healthcare reform. These opponents to healthcare reform are also being intentionally obtuse on the real issues related to the current unsustainable cost growth tied to American healthcare, insurance reform, and how 47-million Americans currently have no health insurance.
And frankly too, Mr. LaBarbera is trying to engage in the fallacious argument of needling by directing personal attacks at me and using defamatory language regarding all trans people.
What Mr. LaBarbera doesn't seem to be aware of is that I'm already on the President Bush "Tranny-Care" system. In 2002, I was declared to be a service-connected, disabled veteran. I spent years serving America in the United States Navy, and am officially listed as a Persian Gulf War veteran (although I never was involved in combat operations); I retired from the military with 20-years of service to my country in 2000. Currently, my Veterans Administration (VA) disability rating is 100%.
When I had my Gastric Bypass in February of 2008, American taxpayers paid for it. The point I'm trying to make with that is that healthcare for most trans people -- including me -- does include medical treatments related to being trans, but more importantly we have health issues of the types that the broad swath of Americans have. The shape of my peers' and my genitalia shouldn't place treatment for our basic healthcare needs out of many Americans' reach, my trans peers' reach, and my reach.
Let's keep in mind what those who are bringing up "sex change operations" don't really care that much about whether or not I personally get genital reconstruction surgery paid for by the government; what these folk really want to do is derail all healthcare reform -- and if badmouthing trans people like me is how they believe they can derail it, then they're going to badmouth trans people like me.
Peter is just being a tool, but what's new.
~~~~~
Further Reading (and a big hat tip!):
* Good As You: The Autumn Of Pete's Discontent
... appear to be greatly exaggerated indeed.
Here's the deal: A few days ago, the New York Times' Brian Steltert reported on the front page that a closed-door meeting between the heads of GE and Fox had occurred, with a final result of ending the Olbermann/O'Reilly feud.
At an off-the-record summit meeting for chief executives sponsored by Microsoft in mid-May, the PBS interviewer Charlie Rose asked Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of G.E., and his counterpart at the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, about the feud.Both moguls expressed regret over the venomous culture between the networks and the increasingly personal nature of the barbs. Days later, even though the feud had increased the audience of both programs, their lieutenants arranged a cease-fire, according to four people who work at the companies and have direct knowledge of the deal.
In early June, the combat stopped, and MSNBC and Fox, for the most part, found other targets for their verbal missiles (Hello, CNN).
The reconciliation - not acknowledged by the parties until now - showcased how a personal and commercial battle between two men could create real consequences for their parent corporations.
The parent companies declined to comment directly on the details of the cease-fire, which was orchestrated in part by Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, and Gary Ginsberg, an executive vice president who oversees corporate affairs at the News Corporation.
Mr. Olbermann, who is on vacation, said by e-mail message, "I am party to no deal," adding that he would not have been included in any conversations between G.E. and the News Corporation. Fox News said it would not comment.
Well, let's watch KO address this now, in his own words:
OLBERMANN: Tonight's special comment on the politicians of both parties holding up health care reform and the health sector companies to whom they have sold their souls. This's next, but first time for COUNTDOWN's number two story, tonight's worst persons in the world, brought to you tonight by Fixed News, celebrating six days without having fired Glenn Beck, even after he called the president of the United States a racist, and even after they basically claimed he didn't really work for them.The bronze to Brian Stelter of the "New York Times." Front page story front page story Saturday about a, quote, deal in which, as the headline read, voices fromes from above silence a cable TV feud. Problem, Mr. Stelter asks me at least twice last week if there was such a deal, and I told him, on and off the record, there was not. And told I rather obviously would have to be a party to such a deal. And I told him that not only wasn't I, but I had not even been asked to be by my bosses.
And he printed it anyway. And I had even written to him that this was merely a misinterpretation of an announcement I made here on June One, that because Bill Reilly at Fox News had abetted the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, he had become too serious to joke about, and I would thus stop doing so, an announcement that would obtain unless and until, of course, I felt like changing the rule again later since this is not the US Constitution here. It's a half baked television news cast and I make all the rules.
So-tonight's runner-up, Bill-O the clown. After the arrest of Professor Gates, the Frank Burns of news went back to his excursion two years ago to meet some black people. "Remember when I went up to Sylvia's and had dinner with Al Sharpton and said on my radio show, you know, Sylvia's is just like any other restaurant in America. It's a nice place with nice people. I got served great. Then the left wing turned it into I was denigrating, saying oh, he didn't think Sylvia's was going to be nice."
Yes. That's not what you said. Bill-O on September 19th, 2007: "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was-it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks. Primarily black patronship. It was the same. That's really what this society is all about now. There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, MFer, I want more iced tea. You know, I mean everybody was-it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all white suburb, in the sense that people were sitting there and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."
Bill thought there might be a human sacrifice between the salad and the entree. Racist clown. Imagine dinner shade Bill-O, I'm happily surprised you haven't stabbed me with the steak knife, dear.
But our winner, Rupert Murdoch. How would you like to be Roger Ailes right now, or Bill Reilly, or anybody else who thinks they decide what goes on, even for a minute, on Fox News Channel? Rupert Murdoch, according to the "New York Times" piece, has muzzled Bill-O, kept him from speaking his mind because, as the Times put it, what Bill-O said, quote, could create real consequences for Fox's parent corporation."
How dare you muzzle Reilly, Mr. Murdoch? How dare you, sir? This is the essence of corporate interference in the marketplace of ideas, and it is shameful. Abast, ye mate; solidarity, Brother Bill. Free yourself from your corporate shackles. Solidarity! Rupert Murdoch, who could never get away with that here, today's worst person-aargh-in the world!
"Good night... and good luck!" INDEED.
www.GayTalkRadio.org
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