One of Dennis Hastert’s alleged victims was a gay man who died of AIDS in 1995. Peter La Barbara, the homophobic director of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, wrote a post about this man, suggesting that Hastert “made” the man into a homosexual. Here’s what LaBarbara had to say:
“The is a gripping aspect to this story that most media would dare not cover or investigate: the sad reality that there are many “gay” “Steve Reinboldts” out there: victims of adult homosexual predators–victims whose “gayness” was effectively chosen for them by alleged abusers like Hastert. The media and the powerful LGBT Lobby want us to believe that men and women are “born gay,” or at least that this is a “natural” sexual identity. Yet the many testimonies of homosexual men and women who recall being sexual abused as a child–they might not call it ‘abuse’–by an adult or an an older teen or a sibling, suggests otherwise. Common sense tells us that such predatory abuse scars and confuses the victim and influences his choice to embrace a deviant and immoral sexual lifestyle. And common sense also tells us that homosexuals who acknowledge childhood sexual abuse in their past yet assert that it has nothing to do with their out-and-proud “gay” identity are in deep, deep denial.”
Now, let me change a few words:
“The is a gripping aspect to this story that most media would dare not cover or investigate: the sad reality that there are many “heterosexual ” “Steve Reinboldts” out there: victims of adult heterosexual predators–victims whose “heterosexuality ” was effectively chosen for them by alleged abusers like Hastert. The media and the powerful Heterosexual Lobby want us to believe that men and women are “born heterosexual ,” or at least that this is a “natural” sexual identity. Yet the many testimonies of heterosexual men and women who recall being sexual abused as a child–they might not call it ‘abuse’–by an adult or an an older teen or a sibling, suggests otherwise. Common sense tells us that such predatory abuse scars and confuses the victim and influences his choice to embrace a deviant and immoral sexual lifestyle. And common sense also tells us that heterosexuals who acknowledge childhood sexual abuse in their past yet assert that it has nothing to do with their out-and-proud “heterosexual ” identity are in deep, deep denial.”
See how easy that was, Peter LaBarbera?
If what La Barbara says is actually true, then one of my best friends should be a lesbian, because she was sexually molested by a female babysitter when she was little. Funny thing about that – she’s not. In fact she has been very happily married to a man for over a decade. Maybe the difference between her and La Barbara is that her parents actually took her to a counselor (a *real* counselor, not a Christian quack) after she told them what happened.
I’m starting to feel kind of bad for guys like La Barbara. It’s painfully obvious that they are either extremely self-loathing closet cases, or they were themselves sexually abused as children and never got the help they needed (or, sadly, both.)
Open letter to Mr. La Barbara: I am sorry that you were hurt, and/or that you were never allowed to be honest about your sexual orientation. Please, come out of the closet, or admit what happened to you, (or both) and get some real, actual therapy from a qualified, educated psychologist or other mental health professional. It’s okay.
Dear Mr. La Barbara, you are hateful, sex-obsessed twit. If your head was not quite so far up your own ass, I would suggest you look to the light.
I think the driving force behind the fundamentalist fear of homosexuality (at least theologically) is the fear of reconciling a potential biological/genetic connection or explanation with the traditional, unambiguous understanding that homosexuality is a sin of choice. It’s not so easy to assign sin to a genetic trait one is born with, therefore it is important that some other reason is necessary. To me the issue is similar to the quandary of young-earth creationists…they must defend their “bible-based” teachings at all costs, even in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence.