Therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation of minors who say they are gay has been outlawed in California, the first state to adopt such legislation. California Gov. Jerry Brown announced he had signed the bill on Sunday.
The bill’s sponsor, Calif. State Sen. Ted Lieu, said the so-called “conversion therapy,” “sexual orientation therapy,” “reparative therapy,” or “sexual orientation change efforts” — amounts to “psychological child abuse.”
“No one should stand idly by while children are being psychological abused, and anyone who forces a child to try to change their sexual orientation must understand this is unacceptable,” Lieu said in a statement released Sunday… Photo
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Jerry Brown, California Governor, Signs SB 1172, Bill Banning Gay Conversion Therapy for Minors - 9/30/12
California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a historic bill that will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) minors from "reparative" therapies administered by mental health professionals aimed at altering sexual orientation or gender identities and expressions.
Senate Bill 1172, which the National Center for Lesbian Rights notes was co-sponsored by the NCLR, Equality California, Gaylesta, Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal, and Mental Health America of Northern California, and supported by dozens of organizations, is the first law of its kind in the United States and will become effective on January 1, 2013.
"Conversion" or "reparative" therapies include a wide variety of techniques from counseling to shock therapy to -- in extreme cases -- exorcism, used in an attempt to "cure" individuals of their homosexual and transgender orientations and identities. However, in recent years, even those who once championed the idea that someone can convert to heterosexuality have admitted that viewpoint is flawed…
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California bans gay "conversion" therapy for minors – 9/30/12
(Reuters) - Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill banning a controversial therapy that aims to reverse homosexuality in minors, his office announced on Sunday, making California the first state to ban a practice many say is psychologically damaging.
The move marked a major victory for gay rights advocates who say so-called conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy, has no medical basis because homosexuality is not a disorder.
Brown said in a short message on Twitter that he supported the bill because it "bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide."…
Read more:
VATICAN CRACKDOWN - Gay Catholic Priest 1997 - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz “Coming Out” for “Protection of CHILDREN from Antigay Social & Religious Norms”- to be Permanently Remove & Silence | Vatican Ordered REPARATIVE THERAPY | – World Health Organization 2012 Calls REPARATIVE THERAPY Serious Threat to Health &Life – 8/17/12
GAY RIGHTS – US President Obama 8/28/12 - Appreciate Perspective Gay (LGBT) Rights – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz – Gay (LGBT) Rights Begins with CHILDREN --- | GAY RIGHTS – Supported by Catholic Clergy – Benedict XVI/Ratzinger 30 yrs. Attacks, Silences & Removes - 1983 Archbishop Hunthausen of Seattle
As SCIENCE moves forward on Research & Understanding Homosexuality -- RATZINGER/BENEDICT XVI Ignoring Science - Sanctions Ignorance & Silence Promoting discrimination of Homosexuality – A Timeline – 9/06/12
Vatican’s Antigay Teachings are UNSUBSTANTIATED - life-threatening to very young children globally - Vatican needs to immediately RENOUNCE all their antigay teachings, because they are NOT based on truth -- Kids Are Being Hurt!!! – 9/07/12
Impending Rules on Gay Priests Create Catholic Divide - October 8, 2005
…Rev. Martin Kurylowicz came out to his Sparta parish eight years ago, he said he had struggled for years with his homosexuality…
…the struggle would be made harder for many others if the Vatican issues new rules that reportedly would ban gays from becoming priests…
“Kids as young as 4 or 5 know they're DIFFERENT," said Kurylowicz, a psychotherapist… "They grow up with this pervasive guilt, which sabotages their growth and motivation." The result is thousands of dollars in therapy to accept their natural orientation, he said, adding, "DOES THE VATICAN WANT TO TAKE THAT ON, LIKE THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY HAD TO TAKE ON FOR THE DAMAGE IT CAUSED CONSUMERS?”… - 10/8/05
Parishioners Supportive Of Gay Priest - By Charley Honey - March 29, 1997
The Rev. Martin Kurylowicz got lots of hugs after Good Friday services at Sparta's Holy Family Catholic Church…
He spoke up after attending a national conference on gay issues and the Catholic Church in early March. He was disturbed by accounts of homosexual CHILDREN feeling isolated and parents feeling they did something wrong. "I just couldn't walk away from it," he said. "I couldn't deny the pain." He hopes his admission will raise awareness of violence against homosexuals…
Kurylowicz Comes Out - By Charles Honey - June 28, 1997
…A spokeswoman for the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference said Kurylowicz's coming out to his congregation, first in a newsletter then from the pulpit on Holy Thursday, is "UNPRECEDENTED." "No one knows of anyone who has spoken of this from the pulpit," said Sister Mary Ann Walsh…
"It was one part [being gay] of myself that was just closed off," says the youthful-looking 47-year old. But the feelings persisted.
"Just like any heterosexual, those feelings are always there," explains Kurylowicz, who speaks with a nervous but friendly intensity. "You're shamed by it every time they come up. Then you (start) running away.
You stop being who you are. You become something that you think others will find more acceptable." Kurylowicz became a workaholic…
But he thought the source of his growing depression was overwork. He went into counseling, where in time he opened up about his sexuality.
"Every time I faced it, the better I felt," he recalls. He smiles often, furrows his brow frequently as he describes those days. Eventually he attended support groups for gays, which helped him shed layers of shame and fear. "It was the first time I saw more positive images of (gay) people," he says.
"I thought, 'What was I running away from?' "
…Kurylowicz says his decision was triggered by a report that homosexually oriented CHILDREN as young as 4 realize they're DIFFERENT. He was moved by the pain those CHILDREN feel…
"Then I realized they don't have a voice, and I'm the one [a CATHOLIC PRIEST] that's supposed to say something," Kurylowicz says. "That's why I couldn't walk away from it."…
______________ The letter _______________
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Thalamus Center - Early Childhood Psychological Development Growing Up Gay
Martin S. Kurylowicz, M.Div., M.S. fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com
July 2010
President of the United States
United States Congress
United States Supreme Court
United States Department of Justice
50 United States Governors
Dear -- --------,
My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Grand Rapids Michigan ordained June 16, 1979.
In March 1997, after attending a National Symposium of the New Ways Ministry that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different. This feeling "different" is only identified in their adult years as being gay. However, the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms -- in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings -- are severe and last throughout a child’s lifetime. The harmful effects are not isolated only to these children who grow up to be gay, but also affect their families, siblings, friends and anyone whom they might consider special in their lives. They are a prescribed societal sentence of implicit isolation, which place at risk of suicide so many innocent adolescents and young adults. They stifle an enormous amount of human potential in the world that otherwise could be put to use for finding cures for diseases, offering better ways of maintaining peace among people and improving the quality of life for everyone in the world.
After the New Ways Ministry National Symposium in March 1997, in good conscience I felt intensely morally obligated to "come out" as a gay Catholic priest to my parishioners at Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan USA, to draw public attention to this implicit form of child abuse. This abuse is caused by the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms, in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. My background study in this area is extensive, far beyond that of the average person. However, since I have come out, I have been subjected to overt as well as covert retaliation coming from the Vatican through the bishops of the Diocese of Grand Rapids. I was ordered to be sent away to be re-educated regarding sexual orientation, to subject myself to conversion or reparative therapy--not a lobotomy, but similar. I refused to consent to this inhuman treatment because of the obvious clinical research data. And because I did so, in retaliation I lost my regular priest salary for the past 13 years, my earned sabbatical terms and my status for any future assignments in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
At the same time, an insider to the Vatican warned me that I could really get hurt severely by people in the Vatican. And even though this person was dead serious, I passed this warning off as being someone’s overactive imagination that was a bit bizarre. I thought, "After all, this is the USA, what do I have to fear?" However, this covert retaliation has been substantial. My car was repossessed in July 2009 and on June 26, 2010, I lost my home to foreclosure…
Read complete letter:
My Perspective on LGBT Rights Begins with Children
1997 Fr. Marty Kurylowicz “Coming Out” Focus on Science & Bible | PROTECTING - CHILDREN Growing up Gay - Lifetime harm caused by Ignorant Antigay Social & Religious Norms
1997 – FOCUSING ON CHILDREN was a dramatic focus shift from public focus of homosexuality exclusively limited to adult sexual behavior
(a) Caused an Immediate Resonating almost calming effect with people
engaging deep interest eliciting serious pertinent questions
(b) – Nullifies Unsubstantiated Traditional Immorality of Homosexuality,
e.g. Vatican Antigay teachings,
(c) Major Threat to blindly accepted, unchallenged, ignorant – antigay social
& religious norms
*****************************
(1) Research - Antigay religious norms – life threatening to children -
as young as 4 and 5 years of age
My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, I came out March 1997 to my parishioners at Holy Family Parish, Sparta MI to draw public attention to help protect children, as young as 4 and 5 years of age who grow up to be gay – from the life long harmful effects and for many life threatening effects of being raised in antigay social environments made up of ignorant antigay social norms that are primarily influenced by unsubstantiated religious norms, e.g. the Vatican unsubstantiated antigay teaching, a major world religion. The Vatican antigay teachings are unsubstantiated, because they are not based on facts from either the bible or science.
(2) Scripture scholars - Bible does not condemn homosexuality
(3) Science research – homosexuality – natural human development
The bible does not condemn homosexuality anymore than the bible condemns Galileo. There are many passages in the bible that clearly state that the earth does not move, instead the sun moves. However, Galileo explained that it was the exact opposite, the sun does not move and the earth rotates round the sun. The Vatican condemned Galileo as heretic and placed Galileo under house arrest for 9 years. Nearly 400 years later, Pope John Paul II in 1992, stated that the Vatican was wrong and that Galileo was right. In 1997, from science through research and clinical studies of both the major medical and mental health associations it is overwhelmingly accepted that homosexual orientation is a natural part of human development.
(4) Facts - Science & Bible - Nullify all the Vatican antigay teachings
These facts alone nullify all the Vatican antigay teachings because like Galileo they are not based on credible facts from a variety of many different disciplines of study and research. Therefore it is imperative the Vatican immediately renounces all their antigay teachings because they are unsubstantiated and cause severe harm to very young children growing up gay around the world. The Vatican and in particular Benedict XVI will not face the truth about homosexual orientation and has relentlessly and obsessively after being elected pope - publically spoke against homosexuality - simply and arbitrarily discrediting any and all credible scientific facts regarding the truth about homosexuality. This behavior of Benedict XVI - begs the question, why? This is even more puzzling that being a great intellectual academic scholar and author of many books, he has not been able to give any details or credible documentation to explain his reasoning about homosexuality. Publically, this is a glaring discrepancy because at his intellectual level he expounds on numerous subjects, but with the frequency that he touches on more than any other that is the defining subject of his papacy, homosexuality he has the least to say about.
This was not the case with Pope John Paul II. As pope John Paul said little to nothing on the subject homosexuality because there was ample research data continuously forthcoming from science and scripture scholars suggesting a new understanding regarding homosexuality, sexual orientation, human psychological development, etc. John Paul II, as we know, believed the truth would be found with faith and science working together to come up with answers. It is noted that John Paul frequently met with the scientists at the Vatican, at least once a week to discuss issues of the day. The committee at the Vatican on the topic of homosexuality was made up of theologians and scientists, as was the case for many committees at the Vatican, at the insistence of John Paul. This was not the case when Benedict XVI became pope, almost immediately all the scientists were dismissed from all the committees in the Vatican and only theologians remained. Sources within the Vatican at the time were shocked and noticeably worried about the future credibility their work because the balance for the search for truth was thrown off giving a very one-sided view on issues, which is not objective truth - truth was lost. This is clearly seen in Benedict XVI’s and the hierarchy’s public statements on homosexuality. This appears to be the same mistake that the Vatican made when the pope then condemned Galileo. And as we know John Paul II apologized to Galileo stating the he was right and that the Vatican and the pope were wrong.
(5) Children 4 and 5 years of age – know “different” - Well Before
“Age of Reason”
Nullify Immorality of Homosexuality
When I came out in March 1997 the focus was on the fact that very young children, as young as 4 and 5 years of age knew in some fundamental way that they were “different” not gay, only later in life would they identify this being different as being gay. This point alone was highly significant because it threw the Vatican focus of homosexuality off of being entirely focused on adult homosexuals and moved it onto children in early childhood psychological developmental years. This switch in the focus immediately, almost in lightening speed, resolves major key issues regarding the morality of homosexuality, because this places our understanding of homosexuality, sexual orientation out of the adult world and places almost at the beginning of life - into the very early years of human development - well before the “age of reason” therefore; (1) homosexuality cannot be considered a conscious and willful choice to commit a terrible intrinsically disordered and evil act, (2) if not a choice, no sin is involved, (3) there is no adult sexual acts of any kind involved at this very young age in a child’s life, (4) sexual orientation at this stage is about the natural development of human attachment essential for survival and growth of a human being, and (5) human attachments are about “loving another and being loved by another” there is nothing intrinsically disordered or evil about love. These facts alone nullify, renounce all the Vatican antigay teachings as unsubstantiated and instead they are labeled as being severely harmful to the lives of children in their early childhood years, something on the order of the ancient practice of “foot binding.” These are research facts over years of study that were available in 1997 and have continued to develop through the years.
This is why my “coming out” 1997 was not a big issue about me personally. Because my reason and focus for “coming out” was on the vital importance of explaining the research data about sexual orientation existing in early childhood, in order to stop the severe harm caused to the children growing up gay by the ignorance of antigay statements that create hostile and violent antigay social environments that threaten a child’s very existence. After I came out the focus was off me and almost immediately forgotten, as I remembered back then to Holy Family Parish, Sparta, MI, when I began to explain to my parishioners these research facts. It did not take much, if any, convincing people because almost immediately they began to identify these facts in what seemed to be a flooding of specific past episodes and memories from their own personal individual lives, about kids they knew and grew up with, about themselves, their children, etc., etc. It was like it brought into focus much confusion in their past lives that seemed at first unsettling, but left them with a better sense of calm and a new more secure understanding about themselves that made sense that answered many old forever nagging unanswered questions – and left them with much less anger. And the fact that I came out was almost forgotten, their questions were not about me but about many various aspects of sexual orientation and early childhood psychological development.
I held for the next 7 to 8 following weeks, 3 classes a week on the topic of sexual orientation, each class running for 2 hours. The classes were open to all parishioners though registering before attendance was required (simply by calling the parish office) in order to limit the classes to only 20 people in each class for the sake of confidentially and we run as many classes along as people wanted to attend. Every class was filled and the classes lasted nearly 8 weeks.
After I came out the parish did not fall apart. There was no great exodus. The weekly and building fund collections did not drop. Maybe we seemed closer more united on a deeper level. I was schedule to be transferred before I came out in March 1997, my 12-year term, as pastor, at Holy Family Parish ended at the end of June of 1997. I must say it was much harder than I realized leaving that parish, so much so that even the thought of going back for a visit seemed unbearable - the joy of seeing everyone again would be great – but leaving them all again seemed unbearable. I think that something wonderful happened there maybe in a very small but significant way we helped to change the world for the better, especially for children. That’s a good thing!
The Major Problem “Coming Out” 1997 not Parishioners –
Was The Vatican
The major problem I faced in 1997 was not from the parishioners – it was from of all places the Vatican. It was 4 years prior to my “coming out” I had been enrolled at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI taking one class a semester, including the spring/summer semester, in psychology. I did this all while I was still being a pastor at Holy Family Parish in Sparta, MI commuting twice a week to Ann Arbor. I had to give-up all my free time and watching TV to study at the U of M. And believe me TV cannot compare to the excitement of learning, at the U of M. It was at the University of Michigan that I studied the research data about sexual orientation, psychological human development, etc., as well as, at attending the yearly American Psychological Association conventions and attending regular meetings at PFLAG, Affirmations, Ferndale, MI and workshops/lectures sponsored by the U of M LGBT Office. My point is that I truly professionally studied the issues of sexual orientation thoroughly and was very well versed on much of the latest research data. Now after “coming out” to my parishioners and teaching 8 weeks of classes on sexual orientation - it was reported as being quite successful handling and educating people on the issue of sexual orientation.
I met with my bishop (which was not the present bishop Hurley) in May 1997 to hear the directives that were coming from the Vatican. I was, at first, quite shock, later I was even to the point of being somewhat frightened after hearing that I was to be sent away for several months (the location not having been disclosed) to be reeducated about sexual orientation and homosexuality. This was equivalent to reparative therapy, which is based on the concept that was debunked in the 1970’s by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association that homosexuality was a mental disorder. Reparative therapy’s main objective is to attempt through intensive psychotherapy to change a person’s homosexuality. It was and is considered unethical because it has never been proven effective, instead it posed more serious, even dangerous threats to the psychological well-being of the person, even placing for some at even greater risk of attempting suicide. It has been noted that the mental disorders associated with homosexuals are primary those due to the stress of not being accepted, of being ridiculed and being under constant vigilance of being attacked verbally or physically and at times violently. It has been amply and duly noted that homosexuals who grow up in safe accepting social environments, experience no more mental disorders than their heterosexual counterparts.
Reeducated on Homosexuality - Reparative therapy
Reparative therapy by 1997 still had no evidence scientifically that proved it worked, in fact it was found to be harmful and it was being considered unethical and unsafe. The fact that the Vatican was unaware or dismissive of ample research data regarding homosexuality was deplorable, because the Catholic Faith is all about truth. Since, 1973, the term “homosexuality” was removed from the list mental and emotional disorders by American Psychiatric Association stating that sexual orientation is not a disorder; therefore, it does not need to be cured. The American Psychological Association stated. In 1990 that scientific evidence shows that reparative therapy does not work and that it can do more harm than good. “In 1991, Gerald Davison, a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, argued that conversion therapy (is the same as reparative therapy) is ethically improper and that its existence only confirms professional and societal biases against homosexuality.” In 1993, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "The psychosocial problems of gay and lesbian adolescents are primarily the result of societal stigma, hostility, hatred and isolation." In 1996, the National Association of Social Workers adopted a policy statement on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual issues. “…Sexual orientation conversion therapies assume that homosexual orientation is both pathological and freely chosen. No data demonstrate that reparative or conversion therapies are effective, and in fact they may be harmful.”
Therefore, Vatican’s directive was such a drastic contrast drop from the height of the intellectual level I was operating out of that (explained above) this news from the Vatican was startling – it was an unimaginable gigantic leap back in time passing even beyond the dark ages intellectually. While in my bishop’s office I did not say much at the time, I only wished that some of my colleagues from the APA, the U of M and news media could have heard this directive coming from the Vatican. I honestly could not even imagine what a sabbatical for several months on reeducating someone on homosexuality and sexual orientation would be like. It seemed like unnecessarily cruel and unusual treatment of all places by the Vatican.
My two earned sabbaticals including the funding were all canceled, which I was hoping to use up before accepting a new parish assignment. My possible future assignments in the Diocese of Grand Rapids that were offered to me before I came out were all eliminated. In a matter of one meeting, months after I came out and the news media hype had died down, my whole status in the Grand Rapids Diocese was gone. I no longer felt safe in the Grand Rapids Diocese, only the anxious pressure about what would happen next. At 47 years old, for me it seemed to be the beginning of the end.
Needlessly Already Spending a LIFETIME and Enormous Expense in Ineffective Reparative Therapy
Vatican directives were to send me back
No Civil Laws to Protect Gay Priests – From - Vatican Hostile & Inhuman Treatment
The thought of my being sent away to be reeducated about homosexuality and sexual orientation was disturbing to me on two counts: (1) it was then as it is now considered by the vast majority of professionals from both the medical and mental health fields as ineffective and dangerous to the individual well-being and (2) it seemed a most unnecessary and extremely cruel even inhumane ordeal for a place like the Vatican to be ordering a priest or anyone to submit to. It was for me even more unsetting, because I had already spent well over some 20 years trying through psychotherapy to reeducate myself on my being a homosexual – in attempts to be heterosexual. I learned only too well, at the age of 47, from the grueling experience of those past some 20 years in my deep earnest commitment faithfully believing what I had been told that reeducation/reparative therapy would work but it most assuredly does not. It had only compounded my depression in addition knowing I wasted those some 20 years for absolutely nothing. Even more unsetting was the fact when I learned that this was not my own personal bias, but that major medical and mental health associations agreed.
It was after further study and then learning the research facts that sexual orientation begins in early childhood, which struck me like bolt of lightening that March 1997 at the New Ways Ministry National Symposium listening to Dr. Richard Isay’s (just recently deceased) opening address explaining that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different and that it is only as adults do they realize that being different was in fact being gay – that it all became the relentless motivating force that led to the moral obligation, as a Catholic priest to “come out” for the protection and well-being all children growing up gay. In good conscience I could not remain silent – I knew too much from my own personal experience to allow children suffer what I went through.
Character Assassination – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Being Punished and Humiliated For Being Faithfully Following
Vatican’s Unsubstantiated Antigay teachings
In a breach of confidentially the present bishop of Grand Rapids Walter Hurley (who had been working closely with then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI discriminating against gays as far back as 1987) disclosed to a news reporter from the Grand Rapids Press, May 2006, in an attempt that seemed to further discredit my reputation, the huge sum of money spent on my psychotherapy. However, this breach of confidentiality of Bishop Hurley backfired on him, because this huge sum would have been completely non-existence, as the documentation will prove, if I never had been raised in a Catholic antigay social environment that stressed the Vatican antigay teachings that are unsubstantiated. Also, this huge sum of money would have been greatly reduced, to far less than even 10% if I sought psychotherapy treatment outside of Catholic mental health agencies. The Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings have been proven to continuously perpetuate psychological harm. It took me an enormously long time to find this out – nearly enduring 4 decades of psychological harm because I blindly obeyed and believed them to be true and I can say emphatically that they are not true, but instead they are extremely harmful and even life threatening. I can say this after working endlessly acquiring a well-informed conscience based years of prayer, the needless years spent in psychotherapy and when I decided to no longer to follow blindly but on a postgraduate level of university academic studies to search for the truth, I found that the Vatican’s antigay teachings are unsubstantiated – instead they are life threatening.
Bishop Hurley Disclosure of Gay Priest Reparative Therapy
Psychological Expenses
CHARACTER ASSASSINATION – Vatican’ MO
Vatican Published Psychological Documentation of Ex-Bank President
It is interesting to note that Hurley’s confidentially disclosure of my psychological expenses appears to be the regular modus operandi of the Vatican. Because it is quite similar to the recent Vatican Bank scandal – where the Vatican published the psychological documentation of their ex bank president, which it is believed was meant to further discredit him because of threatening inside information he is believed to have would expose even more serious corruption in the Vatican.
Vatican’s - Vindictive Hostile Retaliation
In my letter above I explained I did not go away to be reeducated about my homosexuality and sexual orientation. I asked permission to study psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI – if I paid for it on my own, however, to do so I was told that I had to give up my regular priestly salary and find my own living arrangements including paying for it myself. But it must be explained that a priest salary is considerably lower because room and board is included. This presented an additional hardship for me. However, I thought given such a life threatening order by the Vatican - to be sent away to be reeducated on homosexuality and sexual orientation was so extreme – Needless to say, I was worried if I stayed – what other inhumane atrocities would I be subjected to. I guess you could say I was fleeing for my life. To get me to leave the priesthood was likely what the Vatican was attempting to force me to do. Again, the whole reason why I came out was because “I was a priest.” It is a priest’s duty to be willing to lay down his life for others, at least that is the theology of priesthood. True I had always hope the living up to that duty would not directly fall into my lap – but it did. I gave up everything I had to be a faithful priest – I realize that this does not mean much to many people – they can barely understand the concept, except for parents. And now Benedict XVI and Bishop Hurley simply want me to give up my clerical state, so much so that Hurley sent these important letters to me for my response but he sent them to the wrong addresses that are not my mailing addresses, even though I receive all other diocesan mail at my correct address. If wasn’t the recent Vatileaks and Vatican Bank scandals and Benedict XVI’s 30 years of child sexual cover-ups – people would be willing to give Hurley the benefit of the doubt – but in indeed we now know that this kind of deception is this rule of the Vatican and not the exception. I have absolutely no recourse – the only recourse I have if I still have it - is to make this all public and kill the secrecy of the Vatican – in hopes that people’s awareness will in some way reform the Vatican – make the protection of children the highest priority.
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Read more:
VATICAN CRACKDOWN - Gay Catholic Priest 1997 - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz “Coming Out” for “Protection of Children from Antigay Social & Religious Norms”- to be Permanently Remove & Silence | Vatican Ordered REPARATIVE THERAPY | – World Health Organization 2012 Calls REPARATIVE THERAPY Serious Threat to Health &Life
First posted on August 7, 2012
Revised and updated on August 9, 2012
Final revision on August 17, 2012
World Health Organization 2012 Calls REPARATIVE THERAPY Serious Threat to Health &Life – May 17, 2012
Press Release
"THERAPIES" TO CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATION
LACK MEDICAL JUSTIFICATION
AND
THREATEN HEALTH
Washington, D.C., 17 May 2012 (PAHO/WHO) — Services that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual orientation lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a position statement launched on 17 May, the International Day against Homophobia. The statement calls on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity.
Twenty two years ago, on May 17, the World Health Assembly removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders when it approved a new version of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).
"Since homosexuality is not a disorder or a disease, it does not require a cure. There is no medical indication for changing sexual orientation," said PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago. Practices known as "reparative therapy" or "conversion therapy" represent "a serious threat to the health and well-being—even the lives—of affected people."
The PAHO statement notes that there is a professional consensus that homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality and cannot be regarded as a pathological condition. However, several United Nations bodies have confirmed the existence of "therapists" and "clinics" that promote treatment intended to change the sexual orientation of non-heterosexual people.
The document notes that no rigorous scientific studies demonstrate any efficacy of efforts to change sexual orientation. However, there are many testimonies about the severe harm to mental and physical health that such "services" can cause. Repression of sexual orientation has been associated with feelings of guilt and shame, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
As an aggravating factor, there have been a growing number of reports about degrading treatments, and physical and sexual harassment under the guise of such "therapies," which are often provided illicitly. In some cases, adolescents have been subjected to such interventions involuntarily and even deprived of their liberty, sometimes kept in isolation for several months.
"These practices are unjustifiable and should be denounced and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation," said Dr. Roses. "These supposed conversion therapies constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements."
To address the problem, PAHO makes a series of recommendations for governments, academic institutions, professional associations, the media, and civil society, including:
· “Conversion” or “reparative” therapies and the clinics offering them should be denounced and subject to adequate sanctions.
· Public institutions responsible for training health professionals should include courses on human sexuality and sexual health in their curricula, with a focus on respect for diversity and the elimination of attitudes of pathologization, rejection, and hate toward non-heterosexual persons.
· Professional associations should disseminate documents and resolutions by national and international institutions and agencies that call for the de-psychopathologization of sexual diversity and the prevention of interventions aimed at changing sexual orientation.
· In the media, homophobia in any of its manifestations and expressed by any person should be exposed as a public health problem and a threat to human dignity and human rights.
· Civil society organizations can develop mechanisms of civil vigilance to detect violations of the human rights of non-heterosexual persons and report them to the relevant authorities. They can also help to identify and report people and institutions involved in the administration of “reparative” or “conversion therapies.”
PAHO, which celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, is the oldest public health organization in the world. It works with its member countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.
Read more:
World Health Organization
“CURES” FOR AN ILLNESS THAT DOES NOT EXIST
Purported therapies aimed at changing sexual orientation lack medical justification and are ethically unacceptable
"REPARATIVE THERAPY" or "CONVERSION THERAPY"
Reported violations of personal integrity and other human rights
As an aggravating factor, “conversion therapies” have to be considered threats to the right to personal autonomy and to personal integrity. There are several testimonies from adolescents who have been subject to “reparative” interventions against their will, many times at their families’ initiative. In some cases, the victims were interned and deprived of their liberty, sometimes to the extent of being kept in isolation during several months.6 The testimonies provide accounts of degrading treatment, extreme humiliation, physical violence, aversive conditioning through electric shock or emetic substances, and even sexual harassment and attempts of “reparative rape,” especially in the case of lesbian women. Such interventions violate the dignity and human rights of the affected persons, independently of the fact that their “therapeutic” effect is nil or even counterproductive. In these cases, the right to health has not been protected as demanded by the regional and international obligations established through the Protocol of San Salvador and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Read complete position statement - May 17, 2012
Spitzer Issues Apology for Study Supporting REPARATIVE THERAPY - 6/15/12 - Robert Spitzer, M.D. - has now RENOUNCED the findings that “REPARATIVE THERAPY” could help gay people change their sexual orientation
Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing GAY ‘CURE’ – 5/18/12
Spitzer's Apology Changes 'Ex-Gay' Debate – 5/21/12 – NPR -- …CONAN: Do you think homosexuality is a choice? SPITZER: Is a choice? No, for sure, that's the one thing I have no doubt about, it's no choice. CONAN: And in a distinguished career, this has been, I guess, an unfortunate last chapter. SPITZER: Well, it's unfortunate in one sense, but I feel very relieved and very grateful to the many people who have told me or written to the New York Times that I Did The Right Thing, and I think I did.
GAY CONVERSION THERAPY DEVASTATED MY FAMILY - CHANA WILSON – 6/25/12 - REPARATIVE THERAPY, which attempts to make gay people straight, is not just futile -- It often causes serious harm, including increased depression, self-hatred, and even suicide. It can devastate not just a gay individual, but entire families…
Gay Baby Boomers Waiting for More Apologies - Jeffrey Sharlach – 6/01/12
Facing the Truth About Reparative Therapy and America's War on Gay Teens - Tomas Mournian – 5/22/12 …The reparative therapy described in "Hiding Out" and my later related reportage chronicled torture practices that were coercive and, in many ways, the same as what was happening in the Iraqi torture sites. Reparative therapy or torture? Humiliation, isolation, extreme physical positions, and forced confessions were as common at Teen Help (a now-defunct umbrella organization that referred parents to reparative-therapy facilities that has been exposed on WWASPS Survivors Network) as at Abu Ghraib…
California Senate Votes To Ban Gay ‘Conversion’ Therapy – 5/30/12
The Lies and Dangers of Reparative Therapy – HRC - May 2012
Many right-wing religious groups promote the concept that an individual can change his or her sexual orientation, either through prayer or other religious efforts, or through so-called "reparative" or "conversion" therapy. The limited research on such efforts has disproven their efficacy, and also has indicated that they can be affirmatively harmful. Beyond studies focused solely on reparative therapy, broader research clearly demonstrates the significant harm that societal prejudice and family rejection has on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, particularly youth. Furthermore, there is significant anecdotal evidence of harm to LGBT people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation. Based on this body of evidence, every major medical and mental health organization in the United States has issued a statement condemning the use of reparative therapy…
Research on the Impacts of Reparative Therapy, Harms Caused by
Societal Prejudice
Organizational Positions on Reparative Therapy
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Medical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American School Counselor Association
National Association of Social Workers
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO): Regional Office of the World Health Organization
Obama Gay Marriage Endorsement Is 'Political Bravery'- RACHEL MADDOW (VIDEO) & Obama Lets Go of Fear – “…I think of all the GAY KIDS out there who now know they have their president on their side…” By ANDREW SULLIVAN - NPR – May 9 & 10, 2012
First Lady Michelle Obama recently appeared on ‘Access Hollywood’ and reflected on the changes she’s noticed over the past four years. After highlighting the president’s historic support for marriage equality and the implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, the First Lady spoke about the positive message these advancements send to youth:
“I'm probably more hopeful than I've ever been because I can see the changes and I can see it in our kids,” she said. “I get to see so many great signs of this country's growth. Kids who now feel like, for the first time, if they're gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, that they feel like they have a place. … One kid came up to me yesterday on the photo line and he said, I would have committed suicide if it wasn't for what your husband did.” … Read more & view video
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SALLY FIELD - Receives HRC's Ally For Equality Award, Delivers Emotional Speech On Gay Son Sam – 10/07/12
…She went on to note, "But Sam was different, and his journey to allow himself what nature intended him to be was not an easy one. As his mother, I consider it one of the great privileges of my life to be part it."
"There are so many children who struggle to understand and embrace their sexuality in families who do not welcome them, with parents that somehow find it acceptable to shut them out their hearts and their homes, and that I find unacceptable." Photo
But she drew the biggest cheers after she told the HRC crowd, "You've changed and are changing the lives of little boys and girls who realize somewhere along the way they're just different from their other brothers and sisters...
Read more/view video clip:
GAY MARRIAGE – Propaganda Tactics|B16’s Naturalistic fallacy & Homosexuality - Dehumanizing, Depriving Civil Rights, Silencing Gays - Covering Up B16 Crimes Against Children 30+yrs? |PART 5
'Less Than Human'
by David Livingstone Smith 2011
Excerpts:
Dehumanizing Homosexuals -
Depriving Civil Rights – Human Rights
…We dehumanize our fellow human beings when we convince ourselves (or allow ourselves to be convinced) that they are less than human and come to believe that, although these people appear to be human beings like us, this is merely a façade. Beneath the surface they are really subhuman creatures, fit to be hunted down and destroyed. The immense destructive power of dehumanization lies in the fact that it excludes its victims from the universe of moral obligation, so killing them is of no greater consequence swatting a mosquito, or poisoning a rat. If dehumanization is a key factor in war and genocide, we ought to be working very hard to prevent it.
Read more:
Psychology of Violence - David Livingstone Smith 2010
The way that Benedict XVI and the hierarchy are able to maintain this false notion about homosexuals is by publically dehumanizing homosexuals. It is their relentless condemnation of homosexuals using anti-gay propaganda trying to convince the public that homosexuals are less than human, are subhuman and therefore, homosexuals can be “excluded from the system of moral rights and obligations that bind humankind together ('Less Than Human' - by David Livingstone Smith 2011).”
What is it that enables one group of human beings to treat another group as though they were subhuman creatures?
…A rough answer isn't hard to come by. Thinking sets the agenda for action, and thinking of humans as less than human paves the way for atrocity. The Nazis were explicit about the status of their victims. They were Untermenschen — subhumans — and as such were excluded from the system of moral rights and obligations that bind humankind together. It's wrong to kill a person, but permissible to exterminate a rat. To the Nazis, all the Jews, Gypsies and others were rats: dangerous, disease-carrying rats…
Dehumanizing the enemy allowed German soldiers and officers to agree with the Nazis' new vision of warfare, and to fight without granting the Soviets any mercy or quarter."
…The Holocaust is the most thoroughly documented example of the ravages of dehumanization. Its hideousness strains the limits of imagination. And yet, focusing on it can be strangely comforting. It's all too easy to imagine that the Third Reich was a bizarre aberration, a kind of mass insanity instigated by a small group of deranged ideologues who conspired to seize political power and bend a nation to their will. Alternatively, it's tempting to imagine that the Germans were (or are) a uniquely cruel and bloodthirsty people. But these diagnoses are dangerously wrong. What's most disturbing about the Nazi phenomenon is not that the Nazis were madmen or monsters. It's that they were ordinary human beings…
NPR book review:
'Less Than Human': The Psychology Of Cruelty
Benedict XVI Fights Against Homosexuals Civil Rights
Read more:
3. Gay teen suicide – Family Acceptance Project - shows relationship between a lack of family acceptance of a gay child and the rate of substance abuse, suicide and others problems
References:
Groundbreaking Study Finds Family Acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Adolescents Protects Against Depression, Substance Abuse and Suicidal Behavior in Early Adulthood – by Caitlin Ryan, PhD, December 6, 2010 - FAMILY ACCEPTANCE PROJECT.
Dr. Caitlin Ryan: Reducing Risk and Promoting Well-Being for LGBT Youth: The Critical Role of Family Support – 2009 – podcast
Dr. Caitlin Ryan: Commitment, Intentionality, and Hard Work: What It Takes To Do Culturally Competent, Ground-Breaking Research 2010 – podcast
Family Acceptance Project™ website:
Dr. Caitlin Ryan – Mental Health Matters: How does the “Family Acceptance Project” work? – 2011
Family Acceptance Project™ - Helping diverse families understand how to support their LGBT children – videos
Family Acceptance of LGBT Youth Protects Against Suicide, Depression & Substance Abuse and Predicts Better Health & Self-Esteem
School Victimization of Gender-Nonconforming LGBT Youth Linked with Depression and Quality Of Life In Adulthood
Best Practice Guidelines for Serving LGBT Youth in Out-of-Home Care
Family Acceptance Project™ Resource Links:
San Francisco State University Related Programs
LGBT Family-Related Organizations
LGBT Youth Organizations
School-Related Resources
Gender-Related Resources
LGBT Legal Advocacy Organizations
Online Resources for LGBT Youth
Hotlines
Adolescent Health
National LGBT Organizations
LGBT Health-Related Organizations
Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling - By Caitlin Ryan and Donna Futterman
UA professor Stephen T. Russell to Explore LGBT Suicide Risk – 2008
Homophobic families harm gay teenagers, study claims - 2008
Internalized Homophobia and Relationship Quality among Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals - David M. Frost and Ilan H. Meyer - 2009
Journal of Counseling Psychology 2009, Vol. 56, No. 1, 97–109
New Report Shows Inequalities for Children with LGBT Parents
Talking About Suicide & LGBT Populations - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Preventing Suicide among LGBT Youth by Effie Malley - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Homophobia Is Killing Our Youth – 2009
Gay Bullying Deaths and Religion: Are Believers the Problem or the Solution? 2010
For Many Gay Youth, Bullying Exacts a Deadly Toll – 2010
Gay bullying and Catholic responsibilities – 2010
Homophobia in the Church: What Catholics Are Doing About It, and What Still Needs to Be Done – 2010
“Most religious denominations continue to condemn homosexuality as sinful and
provide a rationale for marginalizing LGB people.” - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Social Environment - Although the social environment itself has not been defined as a risk factor for suicide, widespread discrimination against LGBT people, heterosexist attitudes, and gender bias can lead to risk factors such as isolation, family rejection, and lack of access to care providers. Risk factors may interact in unhealthy ways—for example, internalized homophobia or victimization may lead to stress, which is associated with depression and substance abuse, which can contribute to suicide risk. This risk may be compounded by a lack of protective factors that normally provide resilience, such as strong family connections, peer support, and access to effective health and mental health providers…
Herek and colleagues (2007) describe a framework to understand the social environment for sexual minorities. The framework integrates the sociological idea of stigma with the psychological idea of prejudice. Through stigma, society discredits and invalidates homosexuality relative to heterosexuality. Institutions embodying stigma results in heterosexism, and heterosexual individuals internalizing stigma results in prejudice. The United States legal system has faced challenges by sexual minorities and sympathetic heterosexuals that have led to significant changes. However, the legal system continues to reinforce stigma through discriminatory laws and the absence of laws protecting sexual minorities from discrimination in employment, housing, and services. A minority of states had antidiscrimination laws as of 2005, and most of these only referred to employment and not to housing or services. Most religious denominations continue to condemn homosexuality as sinful and provide a rationale for marginalizing LGB people…
See no Race, See no Gay: What Proponents of a Gay-Blind Approach to Bullying in the Schools can Learn from Race Relations - by Kira Hudson Banks, Ph.D. and Nestor L. Lopez-Duran PhD,
2010 - Psychology Today
Bullying, gay teen suicides, and a need for a solution – 2010 - Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, PhD. - clinical child psychologist and researcher, University of Michigan
Bullies and Victims: Boys will be boys or a symptom of distress? 2009 -Child Psychology Research
http://www.child-psych.org/2009/10/bullies-and-victims-a-risk-for-psychopathology.html#comment-47375
The cruelties of STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE on CHILDREN are often subtle, unspoken, unrecognized, and even normalized, regarded by many people as natural or “just the way things are.” Daniel J. Christie - Peace, Conflict, and Violence:
Peace Psychology for the 21st Century.
Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims -122110
Related links:
John Jay Report: On Not Blaming Homosexual Priests – 51711
"No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict" 112611
The New John Jay Report on Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church – “The researchers conclude that there is no causative relationship between either celibacy or homosexuality and the sexual victimization of children in the Church.” 51811
Facts about Homosexuality and Child Molestation - Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D.
Roman Catholic Hierarchy child sexual abuse “cover-ups” ordered by Benedict XVI to avoid public outrage & criminal charges falsely accused gay priests, WATERGATE? – January 2, 2010
Read more:
All tyranny needs
to
gain a foothold
is
for people
of
good conscience
to
remain silent.
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to
Justice everywhere
Martin Luther King
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964
Martin Luther King Jr.
What you cannot do is accept injustice.
From Hitler – or anyone.
You must make the injustice visible
– be prepared to die like a
soldier to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6
Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
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