Last week I was introduced to MN State Representative Glenn
Gruenhagen. I
immediately shared what I learned about Mr. Gruenhagen with all of you,
paying particular attention to his anti-LGBT stance and his attempts at
legalizing discrimination by pretending to care for the mental health of LGBT
people through a misrepresentation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
(DSM).
I have spent considerable time since researching Mr.
Gruenhagen and his colleagues. I’ve
reviewed his website and have
been in contact with a few media outlets who shared with me their experiences
and findings with regard to Mr. Gruenhagen.
Before I continue I want to point out the obvious. I know the vast majority of my readers don’t
live in Minnesota. Heck, I know a lot of
you don’t even live in the United States.
The reason why I’ve decided to devote attention to Mr. Gruenhagen’s
attempts is because his tactics are universal.
Face it, a fear-monger only has one play: Be afraid of those people. The only thing that ever changes from
fear-monger to fear-monger is who the those
people are. Mr. Gruenhagen has a few different those peoples to choose from; I’m simply
going to focus on the LGBT community because of his recently introduced bill
and the heinous actions of politicians in North Carolina. This is becoming a theme again for this
election cycle: Be afraid of the gays
because they’re going to corrupt you with their illness!
You would think that we could start moving past this
considering recently court rulings but some people simply cannot abide progress
or inevitable judgments that permit that progress.
So according to Mr. Gruenhagen’s website, designed to get
him elected every two years, there exist…
over 2500 studies in the social
sciences that confirm the economic and social benefits of traditional marriage,
for both men and women. Studies also confirm that children especially benefit
in numerous ways when raised by a mom and dad.
It was a bibliography of these studies I had requested from Mr.
Gruenhagen. My request was ignored. So, though I can’t speak directly to these
individual studies, their methodologies and institutions of origin, I can speak
to what I know and what I know is this: Absolutely no legitimate institution of
research or higher learning within the educated, academic psychological and
psychiatric community within the United States (and perhaps the greater western
world) would have published such a study within the past two decades for the
simple reason that it defies the science behind identity and sexuality. What this means is that, if these 2500+
studies Mr. Gruenhagen is talking about actually exist they were authored by
pseudo-scientific organizations that are more religion than science,
institutions like the Family Research Council.
The interesting thing about the Family Research Council,
however, is that they actually don’t do
any research. If you review their list of so called experts you won’t find
a single psychiatrist or psychologist in the bunch. What you will find, however, is a bunch of
marketing gurus and lawyers. If you
review their literature on topics like “marriage” and “sexuality,” you’ll find
a few briefs that support their political position some policy publications
promoting that position, and a number of op-eds advocating for that
position. There’s a gaping hole in the
area of actually providing research that support their position and here’s why:
It doesn’t exist.
At least authentic, scientific research conducted morally,
ethically, and appropriately away from underlying bias does exist. It hasn’t existed since the 1970’s when the
scientific community, namely the American Psychiatric Association (APA),
removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973.
In their determination the APA indicated that support for the
traditional mentality that an LGBT sexuality was reflective of disorder,
disturbance, or any similar pathology.
In short there is nothing to be addressed here; take your medieval ideas
of prayer and healing elsewhere. Science
does not support it.
But as anyone with a Republican uncle knows after the topic
of global climate change comes up at Thanksgiving Dinner, some people just can’t
integrate actual science into their belief system. Typically in such cases we see one of two
reactions:
1.
That’s just liberal nonsense trying to figure
out how to run people’s lives and tax the bejesus out of them by using made up
facts that happen to support the views of their campaign donors.
2.
But I read on the Family Research Council’s
website and heard on Focus on the Family or saw on The Seven Hundred Club that that’s not even true. It’s just part of the liberal gay agenda to
let perverts near our children.
Reaction number one ignores scientific evidence. Reaction number two counter scientific evidence
with religious based pseudo-science.
Why do you I say it’s religious based pseudo-science? Look at the institutions that produce these
so called studies. How many of them are
connected to current or former televangelists?
How many of them are connected to institutional denominations running ad
campaigns in neighboring states to beat marriage equality?
Here’s the other source for anti-LGBT propaganda: Other scientific disciplines. For example, two sociologists who have
become champions of the conservative anti-LGBT campaign are Dr. Mark Regnerus, a sociologist from the
University of Texas, Austin, and Father Donald Sullins, a
Roman Catholic Priest and Sociology Professor at Catholic University of America
in Washington, DC.
Just to be clear, let me offer simple definitions of the
disciplines we’re discussing here.
Sociology is the study of social behavior or
society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and
institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical
investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social
order, disorder, and change.
Psychology is the study of behavior and mind,
embracing all aspects of human experience. It is an academic discipline and an
applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by
establishing general principles and researching specific cases.
Psychiatry is devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study and
treatment of mental disorders. These include various abnormalities that are
affective, behavioral, cognitive and perceptual.
Do you see the difference here? Whereas psychology and psychiatry focus on
the inward processes of health and well-being and the behaviors that may stem
from the internal, sociology focuses on the outward behaviors of society. So when an individual looks at a sociology
study that may seem to indicate that children in the home of two non-LGBT
parents are more successful than children in the home of two LGBT parents, the
factors that contribute to this success lie outside of the individual and within
society itself. We are no longer talking
about mental health and identity. We are
now talking about the ability of an individual to matriculate into society
without prejudice. Contrary to the opinions
of Dr. Regnerus and Father Sullins, there are far too many variables in such research
to make conclusive arguments. Which, of
course, they should know since they are sociologists whose job is to remark on
the behavior of society and not identify the development of individual identity
and how to influence it.
If sociology discovers that social behavior and society
struggle with the integration of LGBT individuals with regard to respect and
equality and even fundamental human rights, their discovery does not indicate
something faulty or defective with the LGBT mind and/or development. That is not their area of expertise. If the psychiatric community, in 1973,
determined there is nothing detrimental to the quality of life of an LGBT
person when that LGBT person embraces their identity, a sociologist cannot come
back, fifty years later, and declare that the whole field of psychiatry is
wrong because our study of society shows society can’t deal with LGBT people.
It should be noted as well that these two scholars along
with their work have been soundly criticized by their colleagues.
So why am I sharing this with you? I mean, it’s not like you’re ever going to
have a conversation with that uncle at Thanksgiving Dinner and convince him
that science is real and that there is a right way and a wrong way to do
it. Ours is not a society in which we
have conversations that lead to change anymore.
Ours is a society in which we don’t have conversations, we no longer
seek to learn as much as to teach, to be changed as much as to change.
The first reason I share this with you is so that you know
that when someone like Glenn Gruenhagen, an elected official of the State of
Minnesota, stands up and tries to convince you of certain facts based on 2500+
studies that he’s apparently unwilling to share—you need to know where those
facts came from and how they are interpreted.
People like Mr. Gruenhagen have anchored their arguments in a body of
work but the body of work is as accurate and appropriate as the user’s manual
from an old VHS player. I could make a
sound argument for forcing women into subservient roles, too, but it would mean
taking the Bible out of context and relying on archaic research and cherry
picked contemporary studies. Not unlike
Mr. Gruenhagen and his colleagues have done with LGBT equality.
The second reason is more difficult than the first. Armed with the knowledge that homophobes like
Glenn Gruenhagen use bad science and no science to bolster their argument means
that the people who fight for LGBT equality need to be equipped with actual facts
and research for when they find themselves in a position to have legitimate conversation. Google advocacy and support groups and learn
truth to combat misinformation and ignorance.
The third reason is:
I don’t want you to feel bullied by law makers, teachers, or parents
when they throw this pseudo-science at you while you struggle with your
identify. Do not let anyone ever tell
you that because you identify as LGBT or question whether you identify as LGBT
that you are somehow inferior or sick or that you need to change to integrate
better with society. You are a gift to
this world—absolutely everything about you.
Don’t let others zero in on one thing that in the grand scheme of things
is just one part of who you are and let them destroy you because of it. Again,
the problem isn’t within you. The
problem is with how society might see you and that never going to change until
society gets to know you.
Share it forward!
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