>From: Justin >Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 08:54:28 -0500 (EST) Dear friends at Duke LGB: This came up on the Net somewhere, and I though it might interest you to know what the opposition is saying about us. it is forwarded from GLAAD (obviously). Make whatever use of it you will. This is dated July 93 but this is the first we at GLAAD/LA have been aware of it. On the stationery of the "Family Research Council" Gary L. Bauer, President, 700 Thirteenth St., NW Washington, DC 20006 (202) 393-2100 Fax (202) 393-2134 THE SIX FALLACIES BEHIND "PROJECT 10" By Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D. Project 10 is a public school counseling program staffed by gay counselors. Its purpose is to identify high school students who are struggling with same-sex attractions and "support them in developing a postitive homosexual identity." Although it purports to give students "accurate information on gays and lesbians," Project 10 is actually based on several fallacies underlying the homosexual activists' agenda. The program's very name is taken from the discredited 1948 Kinsey estimate that 10 percent of the population is homosexual - a claim so fraudulent that it is now being dismissed even by some gay activists. Although Project 10's aims may be humanitarian, its message is destructive to the very people it claims to help. As a psychologist who has professionally treated approximately 200 adults struggling to be free of homosexuality, I have grave concerns about this program's effect on teens who are confused about their sexual identity. I believe it is a profound mistake to encourage adolescents with homosexual feelings to identify themselves as "gay"--and thus to make a lifestyle decision with long-term and potentially deadly implications. Yet this is precisely the goal of Project 10 and similar pro-gay programs, which are being instituted in scores of public high schools across the country. Project 10 is founded on the highly dubious assumption that there are "gay" youth who must be supported AS GAYS. This ignores the formative factors behind homosexuality. The adolescent is torn by intense sexual and romantic feelings. At the same time, he is very unsure of his personal identity. These adolescent years serve as a transitional phase when affectionate, emotional and sexual patterns can be formed during youth. Later in adult life, if this same person attempts to pursue a heterosexual lifestyle, he will find the transition very difficult. He already labeled himself "gay," and will have established deep-seated sexual behavior patterns. In effect, Project 10 initiates troubled youth into the homosexual subculture--which due to extreme sexual risk-taking is one of the most diseased segments of society. Furthermore, the program stresses only the "positive nature" of homosexuality. I will examine Project 10's seven main fallacies below: Fallacy #1: Ten percent of the population is homosexual. Project 10's name perpetuates the myth that 10 percent of the population is gay. This statistic is derived from the 1948 report by the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey--which has since been debunked by numerous studies. Kinsey used "preselected abnormals," and over-represented some groups such as prison inmates, including incarcerated child molesters, in his statistical samples." Though many gay activists still use his 45-year-old study to claim they make up one-tenth of the population, a recent national survey reports gays comprise only two to three percent. And in 1990, the National Opinion Recearch Center at the University of Chicago did a national survey that reported no more that 1.6 percent of the American population as homosexual. Similar findings have been reported in Great Britain, France, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Australia and other countries. Taking the average of these many studies, and then giving the gay movement a generous extra percentage point, the general consensus is that in reality at most 2 percent of the population is homosexual, and the number is lower in all probability. There is political power in using inflated percentages. Further, such exaggerated numbers lend psychological power to the gay movement; the 10 percent figure confers the normalcy and desirability for "gay" life that gay activists wish to promote to society at large. But if proponents of Project 10 were truly interested as they say in imparting "accurate" information to youth, the first thing they would do is change their organization's name. Fallacy #2: Homosexual thoughts, feeling, fantasies, or behaviors make one a homosexual. Some youngsters will prematurely and erroneously label themselves homosexual. Many factors can lead a "straight" youngster into homosexual behavior--such as curiosity, undifferentiated needs for affection, loneliness, need for attention, and desire for a sense of belonging. Many teenage boys are flattered by the attentions they receive from older teen or homosexual men. Other boys retreat into homosexual behavior out of fear that girls will not accept them. Over the past few years, I have dealt with a number of men in their mid-20s who erroneously thought they were homosexual. Many today are living contently as heterosexuals. One 27-year-old man had intense dependency conflicts with women which he unconsciously resolved by convincing himself he was homosexual. Another young man, a 22-year-old aspiring actor, received flattering attention and narcissistic gratification by becoming sexually intmimate with an older man in the movie industry. One 33-year-old man I counseled had been so severely emotionally neglected and sexually abused that he had serious doubts about being accepted by females--even though he was attractive to women. Another 26-year-old man I counseled had been so emotionally neglected that he had a very fragile sense of his own personal identity. In frustration he once said, "If someone tells me I'm gay, even though to me that's a putdown, at least I'll know who I am." Interestingly, despite the obvious traumas that contributed to the homosexual thoughts and feelings of these men, two of the four were previously told in therapy by counselors that "yes, you are gay." Such a diagnosis is intended to provide answers and comfort to men struggling in their condition--and in fact contributes to it. We have been talking about young adults here. Imagine the comparative vulnerablitiy of troubled adolescents such as those told by Project 10 counselors to accept (and be proud of) their homosexual orientation. It is not difficult to see the dangers of such a counseling program that promotes homosexuality as a normal and "positive" condition rather than one caused by a troubled past. To make matters worse, a 1991 study found that homosexual-oriented teenage boys are much more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to attempt suicide. This study has been used by gay activists to push for more pro-gay programs like Project 10. In actuality, it lends credence to calls for a discontinuation of all programs that seek to confirm youth in a gay lifestyle. This study found that among "gay" youth, one-third of the first suicide attempts occurred in the same year that the boys FIRST IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES as bisexual or homosexual. And like the men above, the suicidal "gay" teens were more likely to have been sexually abused, have abused drugs, or have been affected by other traumas, according to the study. Project 10 bills itself as the answer to gay teen suicide, but in reality it is the gay lifestyle itself that breeds despair--not society's condemnation of it. Fallacy #3: If a person is homosexual, it means he is gay. "Homosexual" is a sexual orientation--a psychological condition, nothing more. In contrast, "gay" is a chosen socio-political identity. To be gay is only ONE WAY of responding to a homosexual proclivity. Gay activists would have us believe that to be homosexual is to be gay and vice versa. In fact, there are many, many homosexuals who reject the label of "gay," which they find too radical an option and one with enormously negative personal, social, and religious consequences. We know the importance of self-labeling. Labels determine our behavior and how we interact with the world. This is true for all people but particularly so for the adolescent, whose identity is fragile and open to outside influences such as peer pressure. It is a grave injustice to direct a struggling youngster into a sexual "identity" that has lifelong emotional and social repercussions he cannot begin to understand--not to mention life-threatening health consequences for which he may pay a price later. The health risks associated with gay sexuality are so thoroughly documented they are irrefutable. Gays as a group account for an overwhelmingly disproportinate number of cases of the most serious sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, gonorrhea, hepatitis A and hepatitis B. According to the American Medical Association, homosexual youths are 23 times more likely to contract sexually-transmitted diseases than are heterosexuals. Lesbians and homosexual men are 19 times and 14 times more likely, respectively, to have had syphilis than heterosexual men and women. Such high rates of disease are the direct result of gays' promiscuity and their unnatural sexual practices that expose them to fecal bacteria. They also suffer from special diseases tied to the nature of male-to-male intercourse, such as a group of parasites known collectively as "gay bowel syndrome." Although gay activists openly acknowledge the dangers of practices like anal sex, they offer only the hollow hope of "safer sex" through condoms. Why would any program want to ENCOURAGE youth to become a member of this unhealthy and unhappy subculture? A recent study of 6,400 obituaries in 16 gay newspapers found that the average age of men dying from AIDS is 39. Moreover, the study of homosexual lifespans found that the average age of gay men dying from other causes is just 41 years old. Homosexual men are thousands of times more likely than heterosexual men to die from AIDS. (In San Francisco's Unified School District, where pro-gay counseling programs are in place, Health Supervisor Beverly Bradley acknowledged that "the vast mojority of our HIV-positive persons are young male homosexuals.) These harrowing facts cannot be blamed on society or "homophobia," but stem from the libertine sexual mores that define the gay community. By promoting the myth that youth with homosexual feelings have a clearly defined "gay identity" that must befostered and developed, Project 10 encourages impressionable teens to make a decision that may have irreparable consequences. Fallacy #4: The Project 10 counselor is capable of being non-directive in his guidence. According to official Project 10 proposals (Long Beach and San Francisco), there should be a "gay identified staff to reflect gay youth in your program." While we concede that individual Project 10 counselors may have the best of intentions, let us consider this gay volunteer. As a gay man or lesbian, how can this person be neutral? He has made a personal decision to be gay-identified and had chosen this status as his way of dealing with his homosexuality. Now he is paying the price of joining a small minority viewed warily by most of the general population. There is a theory of cognitive dissonance which says that the greater the personal price we pay for our decision, the more strongly we defend it to others. Thus the Project 10 counselor adheres stubbornly to the myth spread by gay activists that 10 percent of the student population is gay like him--and it is his job to find that 10 percent. One thing is clear: this counselor is not qualified to offer impartial information to his students. Fallacy #5: To address the problems of suicide, alcohol, drug abuse, and school dropouts, we need to reinforce the student's gay identity. Project 10 assumes that supporting and affirming gay identity is going to keep the student in school and will reduce teen suicides as well as drug and alcohol-abuse problems. This assumption is particularly ironic when we see that the gay subculture into which the student is directed has a much higher rate of suicide, depression, and substance abuse that heterosexual society. For example, University of San Francisco researcher Ron Stall found a profound difference in drug-use practices between gay and heterosexual men; gays use more and a wider variety of illegal drugs than heterosexuals. Stall found that homoseuxals were much more likely to use nitrates, barbiturates, and amphetamines than their "straight" counterparts. Gay activists attempt to explain away these pathologies by saying that they are a reaction to anti-gay intolerance, "homophobia," and oppression. The fact is, gays suffer greatly from these problems even in geographic areas like San Francisco where they are most accepted. The president of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Foundation recently testified to Congress that among San Francisco homosexuals polled in 1983, between 30 and 50 percent reported problems with substance abuse. Moreover, Project 10 and its allies are manipulating the issue of teen suicide to press their agenda for more pro-homosexual outreach programs to students. These programs are billed as the answer to an epidemic of gay teen suicides, which may be more fiction than reality. Whereas the degree of depression and the number of suicides among homosexual adolescents is higher than among heterosexual adolescents, the number of homosexual suicides does not warrant a pro-gay counseling program. In a 1991 survey on teen suicide by the Gallup polling organization, "problems with sexual orientation" did not even register among the most commonly cited factors leading to attempted suicides. Difficulties like depression and family problems are cited, but homosexuality is not even mentioned in the report. David Shaffer, a professor of child psychiatry at Columbia University, said his own unpublished study of 126 consecutive completed suicides among gay youth in New York between 1984 and 1986 found only four who were openly gay. Shaffer said there is no evidence that gay youth are "particularly at risk" for suicides. Yet suicide prevention is one of the main reasons used to justify pro-gay school counseling programs like Project 10. Fallacy #6: "You're different, you're one of us." Project 10 proposes that its counseling office be a separate room with its own books, pamphlets, and posters. The message is that only gays and lesbians can help a youth struggling with homosexuality. "Only we can understand you. Your parents cannot understand you. Your school counselors cannot understand you. Your teachers cannot understand you. The gay community is the only place you will find acceptance." This is the beginning of the initiation process into the gay lifestyle. Project 10 literature proposes referring students to "appropriate community services." But such services are merely pro-gay organizations like the Project 10 Information Service, the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, Information Hotline, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Parental involvement is kept purposely ambiguous. This approach fosters a coming-out-of-the-closet process that creates an "us versus them" (gays prefer non-gays) perspective--i.e., a separationist mentality. This fallacy corresponds with what is referred to in gay literature as "reacculturation." The coming-out process is not simply a matter of making the declaration that you are gay; rather, it involves the gradual process of surrendering any heterosexual identity and forming ever closer bonds of identification with the gay community. Reacculturation means mourning your heterosexual self and giving up any hope that you can be married and have a family in the traditional sense. For an adolescent with low self-esteem this whole process can be very appealing. It can feel like a welcoming embrace by an entire subculture. Fallacy #7: The "Gay Adolescent" Project 10 presents itself as "a program to counsel the gay-identified adolescent." This leads us to the biggest myth of all: the idea that THERE IS such a thing as a gay adolescent. WE PROPOSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GAY ADOLESCENT. The teenager is too immature to claim a personal identity that defines his relationship to society at large. THE PROFOUND CONSEQUENCES OF CLAIMING THIS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IDENTITY MEAN THAT THIS SHOULD BE AN ADULT DECISION TO BE MADE IN ONE'S 20s. Moreover, a homosexual identity is not inevitable; thousands of people who at one time identified themselves as homosexuals have changed their orientation and now lead normal heterosexual lives. It is the height of irreponsibility to CONFIRM a teenager as a member of the gay community with all that this entails. All the adolescent can know is that he may have homosexual thoughts and feelings or has experiene homosexual behaviors--nothing more. More questions remain about Project 10. While it may be emotionally appealing, its proposals suggest a "package deal." Project 10 will: * prepare a reading list and insure that instructional material "reflect the value of sexual diversity and the gay lifestyle." It is one thing to teach students to TOLERATE diversity--but why must students be taught to VALUE sexual diversity? Moreover, by glamorizing the gay lifestyle, pro-gay programs like Project 10 may actually attract young people to experiment with the gay lifestyle, breaking down their traditional beliefs that homosexuality is really wrong. * implement in-services for faculty, staff, students and teachers. We must ask--what sort of in-services? Will these have an appopriate influence on our children? * liaison with community agencies and refereal services. What agencies? Will teens be sent to pro-homosexual organizations like the Gay Community Services Center, where standards for sexual behavior are extremely permissive? * use developmental services which "support gay-affirmative goals." What are these goals"? Do they require that students view homosexuality as EQUAL to heterosexuality? "Project 2-1/2" Because of these negatives and the seven fallacies discussed above, I would like to propose my own alternative to Project 10, which is what I call "Project 2-1/2." While not wishing to minimize the genuine needs of students struggling with homosexual feelings, I would like to make a sensible "let's get real" proposal. This project would work with already existsing counseling staff. It would specifically include--rather than exclude--parents. It would incorporate Project 10's proposal of an anti-slur campaign to teach tolerance, WHILE NOT ACTUALLY TEACHING STUDENTS TO "VALUE" SEXUAL DIVERSITY. Counselors should address any alcohol and drug abuse or other behavioral difficulties, and affirm the student as a person, without labeling him gay or homosexual. There is no denying that the needs of students struggling with homosexual feelings are real. But we believe that the established school counseling services can meet these needs, and that programs such as Project 10 endanger those youths who suffer from sexual-identity confusion. We can respond in a caring way to such teenagers without allowing ourselves to be intimidated by the demands of gay activists. And we must never join with those activists in providing false information to youth that might encourage them to make long-term decisions that may harm them physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Dr. Nicolosi is a licensed psychologist in Encino, California and author of REPARATIVE THERAPY OF MALE HOMOSEXUALITY (Jason Aronson, Inc., 1991) and HEALING HOMOSEXUALITY: CASE STORIES OF REPARATIVE THERAPY (Jason Aronson Inc., to be released September 1993). Uploaded by wasmith@eis.calstate.edu (waugh smith)