Sexual orientation - Internalized Homophobia - “Auschwitz – Benedict XVI - Christmas 2008 -A flashback far more severe than in Brokeback Mountain” GAY TEENAGE SUICIDE - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

Sexual orientation

is less about sex and more about love, being one with another human being

Attachment Theory - LOVE & RELIGION – Gay Marriage
GAY TEENAGE SUICIDE

Attachment Theory

Attachment theory has been researched by John Bowlby M .D. (video), and Mary Ainsworth Ph.D. observing infants beginning at about 1o months of age discovering the significance of the formation of early childhood attachments having lasting effects throughout a person's life. Photo

Attachment is an emotional bond to another person. Psychiatrist, John Bowlby was the first attachment theorist, describing attachment as a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings" (Bowlby, 1969, p.194). Read more

Nothing in life is more precious than the intimate relationships we have with love ones. Healthy love relationships delight us give us confidence to take on challenges and support us in difficult times. These close emotional bonds what we call love were the focus of Mary Ainsworth's work. Her work can be described as the scientific study of love and how it develops. Her primary focus was on the infants developing love for its' primary caregiver. She saw this as the early form of a lifelong emotional bond. (quote from the video clip) Additional resource the International Attachment Network

A Kiss To Build A Dream On - KD Lang 94,375

Developmental Narratives

From developmental narrative studies growing up gay of Jack Drescher, M.D., Richard Isay, M.D., and Sidney H. Phillips, M.D., we learn that the expression of sexual orientation begins very early in life, as it does for heterosexuals, in the form of expressing love to another human being and the need to be loved. Gay adult men who were raised in social environments influenced by antigay social and religious norms retrospectively remember being 4 or 5 years of age feeling "different" not gay but "not fitting in."

For the heterosexual boy at the same age in early childhood years has hopes and aspirations of wanting to marry his mother. These innocent childlike expressions of love for his mother are affirmed and are experienced as acceptable to the mother and the other adults in the child's life at the time. The child is told that he cannot marry his mother but that some day he can meet someone like his mother who he can marry. Today I met the boy I’m gonna marry - Father of the Bride 1

1,30

A Child's Life Growing Up Gay

This same situation for a gay male child, who is raised in a social environment that is influenced by antigay social and religious norms, his signs of affection for his father will be in a number of ways rejected, even scorned. In addition, not only will this boy be suffering from this kind of emotional abuse but he could also be physically abused, as well. When this male child expresses his desire to marry his dad he is likely to be told most emphatically in a shaming tone of voice that he cannot marry his dad that boys do not marry boys. The shock of this unforeseen forceful rejection of this male child’s most authentic and sincerest desire to express his love for his father can be quite traumatizing for him. Because it is an attack on the core of a human being most basic need to love and to be loved. This male child’s hopes and aspirations are not affirmed as acceptable, in fact they are considered unacceptable and offensive. Any child of either sexual orientation at this early age in childhood development will experience this kind of rejection as confusing and depending on intensity even traumatizing.

This male child throughout his early childhood years is likely to experience this kind of rejection multiple times having different levels of severity because he does not understand what he is doing wrong. To a gay male child this kind of reaction is not only extremely hurtful but at the same time it is most confusing, it does not make sense to him. There is no one who can help explain the overwhelming flood of emotions he experiences every time he reaches out to love. Ultimately a child will realize that he is not to trust his inner feelings to love and to be love that in fact as for many, he will come to the conclusion that he is "always wrong" about love. This is one of many defenses any child would enact as a form of protection from what is experienced in a child’s mind as a horrific onslaught of rejection. This leaves the child living in an "implicit" form of isolation from human connectedness or bonding.

They’re writing songs of love - But not for me ...A lucky star's above, but not for me,... With love to lead the way I’ve found more clouds of gray… Gershwin,1960 Grammy Award Listen 753

Read more:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-sexual-orientation-is-less_3483.html

Internalized Homophobia

American Psychoanalytic Foundation Public Forum

Ralph Roughton, M.D. 1999

…When we speak of internalized homophobia, we refer to the shame, denigration and anger turned inward onto the self of the homosexual individual either as a re-internalization or from the absorption of homophobic attitudes in the environment and then identifying with the hated and feared object. The primary emotion is shame, but a whole gamut of inhibitions, loss of self esteem, depression and self-destructive behavior often follow.

Read complete address:

http://www.cyberpsych.org/homophobia/roughton.htm

Annie Proulx, Fiction,

“BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN,”

The New Yorker, October 13, 1997

Excerpts:

ABSTRACT: Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, herding sheep together on Brokeback Mountain in 1963, develop a close friendship that quickly turns into a sexual relationship. Their foreman, Joe Aguirre, sees them one day through his binoculars. After the summer ends, Ennis marries Alma, settles in Riverton, and has two daughters. Jack moves to Texas, rides rodeo, marries Lureen, and has a son. Four years later, Jack writes to Ennis to tell him he will be in town. Jack goes to Ennis's house, and they embrace violently. They go out to a motel, where they have sex and discuss their powerful attraction and bond. Jack wants them to be together, but Ennis knows that people like them get killed: when he was a boy, his father took him to see the corpse of a man who had been beaten with a tire iron and castrated for that reason. Jack gets Ennis to take a few days off and go away with him. They begin taking occasional fishing trips together… Photo

…On a trip in 1983, they talk about their affairs with women and their children. Ennis tells Jack he will not be able to see him again until November (it is May) and Jack is furious, frustrated by the impossibility of their situation. He feels that they could have had a good life together; now all they have is Brokeback Mountain. He is sick of the scarcity of their time together. Things unsaid and now unsayable rise around them, but nothing is resolved. The moment Jack remembers and craves is when, at Brokeback Mountain, Ennis came up and embraced him from behind: the only artless and charmed moment in their difficult lives. Months later, Ennis's postcard to Jack saying that November still looks like the first chance comes back stamped "DECEASED." Jack's wife Lureen tells him that Jack was pumping up a flat on his truck on a back road when the tire blew up. The force of the explosion slammed the rim into his face; he was knocked unconscious and drowned in his own blood. Ennis can't decide if it was really an accident, or if it was the tire iron. Jack had wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. Ennis travels to meet Jack's parents, who have the ashes, and decides that it was the tire iron, after all.’… photo

…Ennis goes up to Jack's room. In the back of the closet, on a nail, he finds Jack's shirt stained with Ennis's blood, from when Jack had accidentally slammed Ennis's nose when they were grappling. Placed inside it is another shirt, Ennis's own, which he thought was missing. Jack's father refuses to let his ashes go. Ennis orders a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. In his trailer, he pins it up and, beneath it, the two shirts on a hanger suspended from a nail. He begins to dream of Jack as he was; he wakes sometimes in grief, sometimes in joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, and sometimes the sheets. There is a gap between what he knows and what he tries to believe, but "if you can't fix it you've got to stand it." Photo

Read complete abstract: The New Yorker, October 13, 1997

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/10/13/1997_10_13_074_TNY_CARDS_000379463

Brokeback Mountain (2005) Movie

http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com/home.html

Auschwitz - Christmas 2008

A flashback far more severe than

in Brokeback Mountain

Excerpts:

Ennis's Flashback

An example of this is most vividly portrayed in the movie "Brokeback Mountain." It takes place when Ennis and Jack are together again for the first time in 4 years, after first meeting on Brokeback Mountain. They are sitting around a campfire in the evening and Ennis is relaxing reclining back starring up at the stars. Jack looks over at Ennis and says to him, "Is there anything interesting up there in heaven?" Ennis replies with a very pleasant smile on his face "I was just sending up a prayer of thanks." This is a very tender moment in the film, which Jack is in a way proposing to Ennis. Jack tells Ennis that "... it could be like this always, just like this, always." Ennis's face loses its smile becoming strained as he turns his face away from Jack, looks down at the ground. Ennis then begins to soberly tell Jack about this vivid flashback he is having to his early childhood days growing up. Ennis describes for Jack this disturbing scene from his past how his father took him and his brother along this pathway in the country to show them the kind of violence that happens to adult men who lived together. The traumatic psychological effects from this event with his father appear to have remained vivid throughout Ennis's adult life. It is shown in Ennis's inability to form and be in a relationship, any kind of relationship, but particularly the one with Jack, to go with Jack, and build a life together.

Read more:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2008/12/homosexuality-coming-out-of-confusion_11.html

Auschwitz - Christmas 2008

A flashback far more severe than in

Brokeback Mountain

December 26, 2009

…I am a priest and a clinical psychologist (MS). And for one of my research projects I chose to do a qualitative research project of the recorded verbal accounts of survivors of the Holocaust, 50 years after the event. It was a difficult research project, because I could not make sense of one of the accounts of the survivors.

For example, one survivor was describing what it was like riding the train to AUSCHWITZ, but he was describing how he was trying to make conversation with a girl on the train. I listened and wrote out this one account almost 30 times but I just was not getting it. I could not understand how this man could be talking about wanting to make conversation with this girl on the same train to AUSCHWITZ!?! Photo

Because I had taught high school religion classes for nearly 20 years, it hit me hard, like a flash of lightning. Instantly, all the pieces came together, so fast. Though this survivor was in his late 60’s when he gave his account of his story on audiotape, he was remembering the events that took place, but naturally they were recounted through the mind of a teenager, the age he was on the train to AUSCHWITZ. That is why the dialogue wasn’t making any sense. I was thinking of him as an old man because the voice on the audiotape was the voice of a 68-year-old. As shocking as a bomb going off, all the different aspects of the psychological developmental stages of a teenager kicked in. I realized only too fully that he was just a young normal teenager on that train!!! And so was the girl he was trying to make conversation, and their moms and dads were there with them!!! There was no way to pretend I did not realize what I discovered. It kept hitting me: this is not some script from a movie or TV miniseries on the Holocaust. No; as much as I wished it were. The reality of this horror hit me all at once, on so many different levels of consciousness: what an unbelievable horror it was!!! How could we treat human beings like this! I remember when the realization of the magnitude of this horror first hit me, like an instant reflex. I threw down the transcript I was holding as if it were a blazing hot poker. It kept hitting me over and over again that this is not a movie script or some kind of play – this really happened! It really happened! Oh, my God, how could this have happened!?!!!

My supervisor told me at the time that I was traumatized by the oral content. Qualitative research is an attempt to understand the complexity of emotions, the kinds of emotions, and the degree of intensity involved. Our emotions are what allow us to connect with other human beings. We identify with the non-verbal quality of emotions more immediately and strongly than with the words used to express them. The non-verbal qualities include tone of voice, eye contact, facial expression, body posture, and gestures, all of which express emotions. Emotions are why we can connect with people through time, across cultures, and individually. It is the expression of human emotions in the arts that makes some works of art timeless, because they continually speak to all people through the ages. Photo

And when I heard what Pope Benedict XVI said about homosexuals and transgendered human beings at Christmas 2008, I felt that same trauma all over again. Because in some way, somehow, he was conveying in a non-verbal manner the horror of the Holocaust, in what appears to be a traumatized, trance-like, accepted social norm from that period of time dictating that some people just don’t count, aren’t important, and can be easily disposed of. And if you rock the boat, you could be next to be disposed of.

I truly have to believe that a person in his position would not be doing this consciously or intentionally. The horror of the Holocaust is like an atomic bomb with fallout so extensive that it spreads over a radius of more than 150 miles. The horror of the Holocaust began in 1933 and ended in 1945. The psychological fallout would have been far more extensive and more deadly, especially when it is not identified as such. Photo

It hit me the way it did when I realized that the research I was doing about a Holocaust survivor, a man 68 years old telling his story, who was remembering what it was like to be on the train to AUSCHWITZ, from the perspective of a young teenage boy who just wanted to talk to a girl. It seemed like the same kind of horror, a tacit assumption that some people don't count and can be disposed of without remorse. Could it be that Benedict XVI is unconsciously repeating Hitler's crime against humanity by taking on a long-accepted social attitude from that period of time?

The question I asked myself was: what would it have been like for someone growing up gay during the Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933 -1945?

What would be the severity of the psychological effects on a boy who grew up to be gay in Germany during the time of Hitler’s NAZI PERSECUTION OF HOMOSEXUALS 1933 -1945? During the Nazi regime, homosexuals were publicly defamed and falsely accused for the major social problems of that time, which was done to incite massive public hatred and hostility directed against homosexuals. Homosexuals were used for medical experiments, physically mutilated, brutally tortured and exterminated.

Would this child, as an adult, in a severe dissociated state of mind from his own homosexual feelings (Harry Stack Sullivan MD, Dissociative Processes, Clinical Studies on Psychiatry (1956)), unconsciously perpetuate the terrifying horror of the insensitivity he had experienced growing up? If he found himself in a position of authority would he recreate the same social and political environment of violence and terror for homosexuals that he experienced, as a child who grew up to be gay, during the NAZI PERSECUTION OF HOMOSEXUALS?

I think in truth on a much deeper level I was frightened, really frightened, to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas remarks against homosexuals and transgendered human beings and even more frightened by the silence from the larger global community of human beings. What is so frightening is, even if there is agreement that one person does not matter or is not important, in truth then no one matters… Read more:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/06/auschwitz-christmas-2008-flashback-far.html

The Significance of Brokeback Mountain

by Ralph Roughton

Self Psychology News – Fall 2007

"Brokeback Mountain" began as a short story of just 31 pages by Annie Proulx, published in The New Yorker in 1997. Her spare and gnarly prose is thoroughly grounded in the gritty, hard-bitten landscape of Wyoming. At the same time, it has an elegance and economy of expression—like a haiku poem, where every word is necessary and no word is superfluous... 

…What words could have the impact of simply watching Ennis discover the two shirts nestled lovingly in Jack's closet? The realizations unfold in our minds and stir up our feelings. Jack really did love him and held him in his memory. And Jack's mother knew about the shirts and must have understood what their silent embrace meant. In her own unspoken way, she accepts Ennis as Jack's lover. How? By simply suggesting he go up to visit Jack's room, knowing he will find the shirts. By assuming that he will want to take them, silently getting a paper sack for him to put them in, by nodding to acknowledge his gesture of thanks, and by inviting him to visit again. The message is subtle, but powerful. For the first time, Ennis has met understanding and acceptance of his love for Jack. Photo

We can infer that, having felt this acceptance of his love, Ennis can now put his daughter's happiness ahead of his need to work. In the very next scene, she comes to invite him to her wedding, and initially he begins to make excuses about having to be away at the cattle roundup. But then he stops, realizing her disappointment, and says they can just get themselves another cowboy. His "little girl" getting married is more important. It is the first time that Ennis has not disappointed someone who loved him (Jack, Alma, his daughters, the waitress).

The film ends with another wrenching visual metaphor, as described by critic Stuart Klawans in The Nation (Jan 9/16, 2006): 

". . . [T]he closing shot of Brokeback Mountain . . . cuts the screen in half. On the right, glimpsed through a mobile home's window, is a patch of western landscape. On the left is a shadowy closet—a shrine, actually—holding a lover's relic. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could say more."

This final scene is a visual contrast between the confining space of the closet and the freedom of the landscape; between the life Ennis has lived and what might have been. But, as is always true, there is complexity in the tragedy. While the closet stifles and limits, it also provided the safety for Ennis to survive in a hostile, homophobic environment. This was the lesson his father so brutally instilled in him as a boy. Jack, less encumbered by fear and shame, followed his desires. He chose freedom, with its risks; and its lurking dangers killed him.

The closet also holds the memories of love which sustain Ennis in his loneliness. It's conveyed so beautifully in pictures—as we realize that Ennis has reversed the shirts. Ennis now cradles Jack in his arms, reflecting the flashback that was non-verbal in the film but described here in Annie Proulx's words:

"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.

"They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire . . . Ennis' breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat."

The film closes as Ennis lovingly, tearfully adjusts the shirts and the postcard picture of Brokeback Mountain. He can only murmur, "Jack, I swear"—which is probably as close as he can come to saying, "Jack, "I love you." Photo

But Brokeback Mountain is much more than an artistic success. Most importantly, it evoked a national discussion about gender and sexuality, about love and homophobia. Cowboys are an icon of masculinity, and here we have two cowboys in love, challenging the assumption that being attracted to another man unmans you—that you cannot both want a man and be a man…

…We're looking back on a historical period—and it's not over yet. The story begins in 1963—six years before the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village that ignited the gay rights movement; and ten years before the APA decided that homosexuality is not a disorder. We're in the wild, wild west of Wyoming, where men are men; and anyone who acts queer might get worked over with a tire iron. The story covers a 20 year period, up to the mid-1980's. Remember that in 1986, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld a Georgia law that made it a crime for two consenting adult men to have sex with each other in the privacy of their own home. Annie Proulx's story was first published in The New Yorker in 1997, a year before gay college student Matthew Sheppard was brutally tortured and murdered on a fence post—in Wyoming. Despite remarkable progress in many areas, homophobia was alive and flourishing throughout the land.

The film works on different levels for different people. Some will see it as a love story, others as a tragedy. Some will gain a deeper realization of the effects of homophobia, both the kind that killed Jack and the kind that smothered Ennis's emotional life. Some will focus on the effect on the wives and children; others on the thwarted lives of the men. It's also about loneliness and about yearning for what you can't have. Photo

For those of us who lived through the same era as Jack and Ennis, yearning for what we couldn't have, it packs a particular wallop—the loneliness, the longing, the feeling that life has dealt you an unfair blow—and at the same time that it's all your own fault. It's powerful because we feel "recognized" by the film and therefore affirmed.

I agree with critic Daniel Mendelsohn, writing in The New York Review of Books, that to call this a universal love story, or even a story about universal human emotions, is to seriously misconstrue its real achievement. Rather, he says, it is a tragedy about the closet. Jack Twist and Matthew Sheppard were each killed by actual homophobic enemies. Ennis suffocates in the closet of his own internalized homophobia. Society's attitudes became part of the matrix of his developing personality and connected his sexual desire with fear and shame, deeply affecting his ability to love; but even more so it robbed him of the conviction that he had a right to the love he desired. To quote Mendelsohn:

"The real achievement of Brokeback Mountain is not that it tells a universal love story that happens to have gay characters, but that it tells a distinctly gay story that happens to be so well told that any feeling person can be moved by it." --------Photo

Read complete review:

http://www.iapsp.org/newsletter/2007/roughton.htm

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/significance-of-brokeback-mountain-by_23.html

“He was a friend of mine” Willie Nelson - Brokeback Mountain soundtrack 54,916

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogjV1nT5WW0&p=02C0F506C5194B86&playnext=1&index=11

A Kiss To Build A Dream On - KD Lang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jygdjphIsWM&feature=related

The Psychology of the Closet: Governor McGreevey's New Clothes

by Jack Drescher, M.D. – August 27, 2004

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20040827.094013&time=10%2018%20PDT&year=2004&public=1

  

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams

Paul Newman & Burl Ives in 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof' (1958) video clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAjaASK6kaE

...If you needed a Big Daddy, why didn't you come to me?

If you wanted someone to lean on, why Skipper? Why not me?

I'm your father.

You should've come to your kinfolk. Those who love you.

You don't know what love means.

To you it's another four-letter word.

You've got a short memory.

- What did you want that I didn't buy?

- You can't buy love! …

Waste! Worthless!

Worthless!

Don't, son.

Please don't cry.That's funny.

I never saw you cry before.

Did you ever cry as a kid?

Can't you understand? I never wanted your place or money.

I don't want to own anything!

All I wanted was a father, not a boss!

I wanted you to love me.

I did and I do.

Not me and not Gooper, and not even Mama.

That's a lie.

I loved her. I gave her...

Things, Papa, you gave her things. Photo

A house, a trip to Europe, all this junk.

Some jewelry.

You gave her things, not love

…

- All of you blame me for everything, huh?

- No, Papa.

We've known each other all my life and we're strangers.

You own acres.

You own ten million.

You own a wife and two children.

You own us, but you don't love us.

- In my own way...

- No, sir.

You don't even like people.

You wanted Gooper and me to have kids.

Why?

I want a part of me to keep living. Photo

I won't have it end with the grave.

Look!

This is what my father left me.

This lousy old suitcase!

On the inside was nothing... ...but his uniform from the Spanish-American War.

This was his legacy to me.

Nothing at all!

And I built this place from nothing.  Photo

And that's all he left you?

Yeah, he was a hobo.

Best-known tramp on the boxcar circuit.

He worked once in a while as a field hand.

I'd tag along.

Sat on my bare bottom, in the dirt, waiting for him.

Outside of hunger... ...first thing I could remember is shame.

I was ashamed of that miserable, old tramp.

I was riding boxcars when I was nine, something you never had to do.

And you'll never have to bury me like I did him.

I buried him in a meadow, alongside a railroad track.

We were running to catch a freight and his heart gave out.

You know something?

That lousy old tramp died laughing.

Laughing at what?

Himself, I guess.

A hobo tramp... ...not a nickel in his jeans.

No future, no past.

Or maybe he was laughing because he was happy.

Happy at having you with him.

He took you everywhere and he kept you with him.

I don't want to talk about that.

Yeah, I loved him.

I reckon I never loved anything as much as that... ...lousy old tramp. Photo

And you say... ...he left you nothing but a suitcase... ...with a uniform in it from the Spanish-American War?

And some memories.

And love.

Did I tell you all them stories about my old man?

About fifty times.

Photo

Read more:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/cat-on-hot-tin-roof-tennessee-williams.html

Is It Possible to Be Against Same-Sex Marriage Without Being Homophobic?

Carlos A. Ball - Professor of Law at Rutgers University

August 24, 2010 – Huffington Post

A CNN poll released earlier this month has received considerable attention because it is the first national survey showing that a majority of Americans believe that same-sex couples should have the right to marry, a rate of support for gay marriage that is double what it was in 1996. The poll was released a few days after federal Judge Vaughn Walker, in striking down California's Proposition 8, concluded that defenders of that law had failed to introduce any evidence in court that same-sex marriages harm either society or individuals.

Now that opponents of same-sex marriage appear to be in the minority and that their allegations about the purported negative consequences of same-sex marriages have been discredited in federal court, it is fair to ask whether it is possible to oppose marriage equality without at some level, whether consciously or unconsciously, being prejudiced against gay people.

Read complete article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-a-ball/is-it-possible-to-be-agai_b_692187.html

Gay marriage -> Restoring "Hope of Love" To Children In Early Childhood -> Marriage Equality – March 23, 2010 – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

Marriage Equality, like Galileo, is the truth about the facts of growing up gay. Marriage Equality will not become a reality until people learn that its most vital purpose is that it restores the “hope of love” to children in early childhood – essential to their development and well-being for life. Without Marriage Equality we teach children how to hate love and how to be mean and indifferent to people as adults. With all due respect, without Marriage Equality we would teach them in much the same way as has been shown by Benedict XVI and the hierarchy, especially in their lack of care and protection of children for decades.

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/03/restoring-hope-of-love-to-children-in_23.html

  

Hating Gays: An Overview of Scientific Studies

by Gregory M. Herek

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

…It frequently is assumed that feelings of personal threat result in strong negative attitudes toward homosexuality, whereas lack of threat leads to neutral or positive attitudes. This perspective often is associated with the term homophobia, and it derives from a psychodynamic view that prejudiced attitudes serve to reduce tension aroused by unconscious conflicts.

Attitudes are likely to serve a defensive function when an individual perceives some analogy between homosexual persons and her or his own unconscious conflicts. Subsequently, that person responds to gay men and lesbians as a way of externalizing inner conflicts and thereby reducing the anxiety associated with them. The conflicts specific to antihomosexual prejudice presumably involve a person's gender identity, sexual object choice, or both. For example, unconscious conflicts about one's own sexuality or gender identity might be attributed to lesbians and gay men through a process of projection. Such a strategy permits people to externalize the conflicts and to reject their own unacceptable urges by rejecting lesbians and gay men (who symbolize those urges) without consciously recognizing the urges as their own. Since contact with homosexual persons threatens to make conscious those thoughts that have been repressed, it inevitably arouses anxiety in defensive individuals. Consequently, defensive attitudes are likely to be negative… - International Day Against Homophobia

Read complete article:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/roots/overview.html

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/hating-gays-overview-of-scientific.html

Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition, 

painting by Cristiano Banti

Holy Office of the Inquisition

Secret Files of the Inquisition

Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New International Version)

5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)

5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again. 

1 Chronicles 16:30 (New International Version)

30 Tremble before him, all the earth! 
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

1 Chronicles 16:30 (New American Standard Bible)


30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. 

Psalm 93:1 (New International Version)

1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; 
 the LORD is robed in majesty 
 and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

Psalm 93:1 (New American Standard Bible)

1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. 

Psalm 96:10 (New International Version)

10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." 
 The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; 
 he will judge the peoples with equity.

Psalm 96:10 (New American Standard Bible)

10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." 

Psalm 104:5 (New International Version)

5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

Psalm 104:5 (New American Standard Bible)

5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/pope-described-as-so-averse-to-anything_920.html

Hate Crime Bill vs Attacks

But No Facts -> Fear And Ignorance

Of The Blind Leading The Blind

October 27, 2009 – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

…So, now we have some priests, ministers and even pontiffs saying that the bible states that homosexuality is evil, in exactly the same way that they condemned Galileo because he said that the earth revolves around the sun. Their freedom of speech psychologically harms for life children who grow up gay, it evens creates a hostile social environment that physically threatens the very lives of these children. And should one of these gay children be singled out and beaten to death, the person who killed the child will be charged with a hate crime, not the preacher, priest or pontiff. Their judgment will be made by God, likely more severe than anything on earth could possibly be, because of their negligence in their duty to protect children. Photo

The bible in fact does not condemn Galileo or homosexuality, which science reveals that are normal elements of nature and human sexuality.

People for whatever reason seem to be using the bible to hide from their own personal sexual issues. This is a sacrilege! It is a total disrespect for the bible to be used to hide and harm innocent people, most especially children. These people do not check out the facts about the bible and science on homosexuality, because in truth they do not want to know the truth. Even in discourse with people who believe that homosexuality is evil because they say the bible states it to be, as with Galileo, they are not interested in a discussion, they do not want to hear the truth. They only want to discredit the truth, in every conceivable way, by whatever means available to them. They are likely doing what they have been doing all their lives regarding their personal fears about the truth of their sexuality. There is nothing to be gain to be in discourse with such people. In fact, they should be avoided, because they are harmful. Because no matter what they say or how violently they say it, it will not cause the sun to revolve around the earth or for homosexuality to be evil. Photo

ATTACKS and absolutely NO FACTS

from the

BIBLE or SCIENCE

It is a waste of time for you and for them, besides being seriously harmed by their "unchecked meanest" towards others. If and when they do their homework and truly study both the bible and the science regarding homosexuality and human sexuality then there could be a productive discourse. Otherwise, there are no discussions with them; only continuous personal attacks on the person who opposes them that are fierce, cruel and hurtful. Likely, in the way they treat themselves, which may have started when they were treated in such fashion, in their past. 

Even Jesus advised leaving them because, as he said, "they are the blind leading the blind" Matthew 15:14. And it is these people who are worried that their freedom of speech will be curtailed, by the new additions to the Hate-Crime Bill. It is only their ability to remain in darkness that is being curtailed, which is greatly more fearful to them, than their concerns about their freedom of speech. They have attacks but absolutely no facts, all motivated by fear and a self-imposed ignorance of the facts. This is the same for Benedict XVI and his hierarchy you never hear any stated facts regarding human sexuality. None!!! They offer absolutely "no" discussion or classes on the topic of human sexuality. None!!! They offer no detailed documentation regarding human sexuality from the bible or science. None!!! Because they know only too well that it would not be approved by scripture scholars or by any scientific studies. Where is the truth, not to mention the LOVE?

Their attacks are likely meant to be distractions to stay off the issue, because any attempts to keep them on the issue are met with fiercer and even more vicious attacks, but no facts, like an obsession. They seem to be like a child throwing a hysterical tantrum, however, unlike a child, they are able to cause serious harm to innocent people. It is this violence that the Hate-Crime Bill is designed to protect people from.

It is the intensity of their forcefulness to attack others without any substantiated facts to support their position that draws public attention to question their sexuality. It is like so many public figures who so forcefully have spoken out against homosexuality and then are found in "public restrooms" engaging in homosexual acts. Today, not only are more people "coming out" of the "closet" but there is an enormous ever growing number of Allies supporting LGBT people and their civil rights. It is the continuous education on human sexuality that keeps this number growing strong. However, it is also becoming more noticeable when someone protest too much against homosexuals with the absence of factual data to support the protesting that catches peoples attention and causes people to wonder, why? What causes this person to protest so strongly, because no valid facts are given?

What should be top priority is the life harm that is caused to children, who grow up LGBT and sadly it is not even considered of any importance. The Bible is about Love the purest form of Love known. The Bible is not about permission to hate, to remain blind or to harm people, especially very young children.

Posted: October 27, 2009

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2009/10/hate-crime-bill-vs-fear-and-ignorance.html

Related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/hate-crime-bill-vs-attacks-but-no-facts_24.html

SEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPIES

Jack Drescher, M.D.

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/sexual-conversion-therapies-jack.html

"Impending rules on gay priests create Catholic divide"

by Charles Honey – October 8, 2005

The Grand Rapids Press

When the Rev. Martin Kurylowicz came out to his Sparta parish eight years ago, he said he had struggled for years with his homosexuality.

The Catholic priest says the struggle would be made harder for many others if the Vatican issues new rules that reportedly would ban gays from becoming priests…

…"I sizzled when I read it," said Kurylowicz, 55. "It's very hurtful, is what it is. In this day and age, there's no reason for it. It sends a message that there's something wrong with gays."

Kurylowicz said he spoke out then to raise awareness of violence against gays and teach others homosexuality is not a choice but an inborn trait. Church leaders still don't understand that and contribute to gays' poor self-esteem, he said…

…"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? "…

Read complete article: by Charles Honey - Religion Editor - The Grand Rapids Press – Archives

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=GRPB&p_theme=grpb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=Impending%20rules%20on%20gay%20priests%20create%20Catholic%20divide%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(Impending%20rules%20on%20gay%20priests%20create%20Catholic%20divide)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

Why Bother About Homosexuals?

Homophobia and Sexual Politics in Nazi Germany (2002)

by Geoffrey J. Giles

Why should the Nazis bother about homosexuals? After all, some of the most loyal supporters of the Nazi movement were homosexual, and Hitler refused to condemn the sexual preference of Ernst Röhm, even after it featured prominently in the opposition’s campaign against the Nazis in 1931. Tolerance for homosexuals had increased in Germany during the first three decades of the twentieth century to the extent that an open gay culture flourished in cities such as Berlin in the 1920s, and parliament seemed well on the way to abolishing §175, the clause of the penal code dealing with homosexual offenses.2 So why bother about them? First, because Nazi opposition to this emancipation sought to appeal to the conservative backlash that the Nazis wished to co-opt.

http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/publications/occasional/2002-04/paper.pdf

Roman Catholic - hierarchy child sexual abuse “cover-ups”

ordered by Benedict XVI

to avoid public outrage & criminal charges

- falsely accused gay priests - WATERGATE?

No “Checks and Balances” 

A major problem with the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is that there are no “checks and balances.” When the necessary “checks and balances” are not in place to protect any organization, it leaves “not making waves” the rule that governs the hierarchy and opens the way to many devastating mistakes harmful to everyone and allows corruption to grow.

The following statements are harsh statements, but unfortunately they are heavily documented. (1) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades. (2) They mistreated and intimidated the victims and their families who came to report the child sexual abuse, in order to cover up publicity of any child sexual abuse. (3) They failed to protect children by repeatedly reassigning the child sexual abusers to assignments where children would be present. (4) When the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children became public, globally, in 2002 they shifted the blame wrongfully onto gay priests. 

(5) By falsely, against known research to the contrary, blaming gay priests they implicated the entire LGBT community and how they are fighting against Marriage Equality. When the scientific facts known for decades about human sexuality have been discounted with no substantiated facts given to explain why, it causes many questions whether Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s fight against Marriage Equality is more a fight to maintained the cover-up of the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children? Benedict XVI and his hierarchy need to clearly offer substantiated reasons why they are against Marriage Equality. This statement needs to be spelled out in great detail and follow Pope John Paul II’s test of truth of not separating science and religion. (6) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous public propaganda against homosexuality encourages public intolerance towards LGBTQ&I adults and children. They continue to do this even though this summer 2 major Christian denominations approved LGBT singled and partnered people for all forms of ordained ministries. (7) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous promulgation of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings that are harmful to children in their early childhood psychological developmental years, harm that is crippling throughout their lives. They have continued this even after the beginning of the year, 2009, the Family Acceptance Project research studies had shown the negative effects caused to youths, when their sexual orientation is not accepted, having health problems, suicidal ideation, etc. They ignore all the major medical, psychiatric, psychological and social workers national and international professional associations regarding their findings regarding human sexuality and sexual orientation. WHEN DO WE START PROTECTING CHILDREN?!?!

Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/03/rc-hierarchy-child-sexual-abuse-cover_21.html

Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation

Dr. Gregory Herek,

University of California at Davis &

Yale University &

City University of New York

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/HTML/facts_molestation.html

Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests

by RACHEL ZOLL

ABC News – 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=9108269

New Catholic Sex Abuse Findings: Gay Priests Are Not the Problem

by DAVID GIBSON

Politics Daily - November 18, 2009

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/18/new-catholic-sex-abuse-findings-gay-priests-not-the-problem

NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THESE [homosexual] STEREOTYPES

Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling

California Prop 8. August 4, 2010

Related Links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/no-evidence-supports-these-homosexual.html

July 2010  

President of the United States

United States Congress

United States Supreme Court 

USA Governors (50) 

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.

Gay Marriage - “SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE” Does Not Give Churches Or Benedict XVI - The Freedom To Abuse Children or Adults. July 2010 - By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz  http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/gay-marriage-separation-between-church.html

Unsubstantiated] --- RELIGIOUS BELIEFS that gay and lesbian relationships are SINFUL or INFERIOR to heterosexual relationships

HARM gays and lesbians.

Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling

California Prop 8. August 4, 2010

https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/files/09cv2292-ORDER.pdf

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-religious-beliefs-that-gay.html

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid

By Lisa Bloom

CNN.com

and related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-prop-8-its-evidence-stupid-by-lisa_18.html

UNIDENTIFIED - Internalized Homophobia – Devastating, and Horrific Consequences On Innocent Children - PERPETUATING GENERATIONS HATRED & VIOLENCE ---

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/unidentified-internalized-homophobia.html

California Prop 8, Aug, 4, 2010 - Deep misunderstanding - "We the People" means - US Constitution – DANGERS of majority rule - a reflection of prejudice, intolerance, ignorance, panic and crude self-interest…

by Geoffrey R. Stone - Chicago Tribune

"Who does he think he is, anyway? Thirty-one states have put the issue of same-sex marriage to a vote in recent years, and every single one of them has rejected it. Now, here comes another activist judge blatantly disregarding the will of the majority and holding that 'We the People' can't do what we want. It's an outrage, I tell you, an outrage." Photo

This more or less captures the tone of much of the criticism of Judge Vaughn Walker's decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, holding California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional. This criticism is based on a deep misunderstanding of what "We the People" means. The United States Constitution is premised on the notion of majority rule, but with a very important caveat. 

The framers of our Constitution fully recognized the dangers as well as the strengths of majority rule. They understood that THE MAJORITY will sometimes act in ways that are not truly public-regarding, but are instead a reflection of prejudice, intolerance, ignorance, panic and crude self-interest. A profound puzzle the framers encountered was how to deal with this danger.

The idea of a Bill of Rights that would forbid the government (the majority) from depriving individuals of certain fundamental liberties without good cause had appeal, but as James Madison acknowledged, these "parchment barriers" could not meaningfully restrain the majority from doing what it wants, if the majority has the final word on what those liberties mean.

Read more –

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-oped-0808-stone-20100808,0,2223308.story

Geoffrey R. Stone is a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Same-Sex Marriage: A Selective Bibliography of the Legal Literature

by Paul Axel-Lute

Rutgers School of Law–Newark

http://law-library.rutgers.edu/SSM.html

Homophobia Is Killing Our Youth

by Jason Mannino

April 17, 2009 - Huffington Post

Today is a significant day for silence, youth, and our schools. Today, across the country schools will participate in a National Day of Silence to protest the homophobic bullying that is killing teenagers and honor those whose lives have been taken by the barbaric hands of hatred.

In less than two years there have been four brutal teenage deaths resulting from homophobic bullying. Just last week Carl Walker, an eleven year old in Springfield, Massachusetts , who never actually identified as gay, hung himself with an extension cord from the 3rd floor landing of his home. This was after his mother repeatedly implored his school to do something about the homophobic bullying he experienced. Last summer a transgendered teenager, Angie Zapata, was brutally murdered in Greeley, Colorado. Last February Eric Mohat, a 17-year old student from Ohio, who also never identified as gay, committed suicide after being repeatedly harassed with anti-gay epithets such as "fag" and "homo." His school went to trial last month as a lawsuit was filed by his parents, not because they want the school's money, but because they want to know why the school didn't respond to several requests for action. Also, last year, Lawrence King, a fifteen year old who identified as gay, was shot in the head twice in his English class. He died a few days later. His heart was donated the day after Valentine's day.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-mannino/homophobia-is-killing-our_b_188042.html

Prayers for Bobby (2009) (TV)

…Prayers for Bobby is the amazing true story of a mother torn between her loyalties, challenged by her faith, and moved by a tragedy that would change her life, and the lives of others, forever.

Bobby Griffith (Ryan Kelly, Smallville) was his mother's favorite son, the perfect all-American boy growing up under deeply religious influences in Walnut Creek, California. Bobby was also gay. Struggling with a conflict no one knew of much less understood Bobby finally came out to his family. Despite the tentative support of his father, two sisters, and older brother, Bobby's mother, Mary (three time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Sigourney Weaver, Avatar, Working Girl), turned to the fundamentalist teachings of her church to rescue her son from what she felt was an irredeemable sin. As Mary came closer to the realization that Bobby could not be "healed," she rejected him, denying him a mother's unconditional love, and driving her favorite son to suicide. 

Anguished over Bobby's death, Mary finds little solace in her son's poignant diaries, revelations of a troubled boy fighting for the love of his mother and God. Finding it difficult to reconcile her feelings of guilt, her conflicted emotions over religious teachings, and her struggles with understanding her son's orientation, Mary finally, and unexpectedly, reaches out to the gay community as a source of inspiration and consolation. For Mary Griffith, it's the beginning of a long and emotional journey that extended beyond acceptance to her viable role a vocal advocate for gay and lesbian youth. In 1996, twelve years after Bobby's death, she was invited to address the Congress of the United States, establishing her as a major force in the fight for human rights.'

Read more:

http://www.prayersforbobby.com/synopsis.php

Watch video clip:

http://www.prayersforbobby.com/

“What the Pope Knew”

Gary Tuchman

September 25, 2010

CNN & CNN International (Investigative documentary)

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-pope-knew-gary-tuchman-september.html

White-Hot 'Outrage'

Over The Capitol Hill Closet

May 9, 2009

National Public Radio (NPR)

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/white-hot-outrage-over-capitol-hill.html

Churches and Gay Youth

 February 19th, 2010

PBS

LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: A personal moment of prayer for Joey Heath, a Master of Divinity student at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. There was a time it seemed very unlikely he would be where he is today, a time when he was praying for God to make him whole, make him so he wasn’t gay.

JOEY HEATH: At the time I believe that it was something I needed to be healed from, and so I would pray every day that God would just heal me of this, this evil part of me, and that this would be just removed and I would be cleansed and made whole again.

SEVERSON: Today, Joey says he feels whole, but he’s still gay and still facing the kind of condemnation he faced in his United Methodist church when he first came out.

HEATH: I was involved somewhat in the leadership of the campus ministry, and then my campus minister said I can no longer speak on behalf of the ministry because it’d be an endorsement of my lifestyle, which for me was devastating.

SEVERSON: Pastor Heidi Neumark says that condemnation has led to outright discrimination. She says too many churches have created an environment where it’s okay to bash gays or lesbians or bisexuals or transgenders, known collectively as LGBTs.

Read more/video:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/february-19-2010/churches-and-gay-youth/5722/

Homophobia & Suicide: A Wake Up Call for Parents and Educators -

by Elizabeth Meyer, Ph.D. – September 30, 2010

Psychology Today

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/homophobia-suicide-wake-up-call-for.html

'We hope our tragedy will serve as a call for empathy': Parents of sex film student who killed himself break their silence – October 2, 2010

Mail Online

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-hope-our-tragedy-will-serve-as-call.html

Suicide - Gay Teenager - New Jersey Gov. Christie Says Rutgers Suicide 'Unspeakable Tragedy

ABC News

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/suicide-gay-teenager-new-jersey-gov.html

Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's final days before suicide emerge in online posts

by Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/tyler_clementis_death_is_mourn.html

Private Moment Made Public, Then a Fatal Jump

By Lisa W. Foderaro, September 29, 2010

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/nyregion/30suicide.html

Five believed to be gay US teens take their own lives in just three weeks – October 3, 2010 - PinkNews.co.uk

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/10/03/five-believed-to-be-gay-us-teens-take-their-own-lives-in-just-three-weeks/

Campus Pride: Openly gay Johnson & Wales student Raymond Chase commits suicide

 Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida

News release from Campus Pride:

Campus Pride Demands National Action to address LGBT Youth Bullying, Harassment & Suicide

In the wake of two college suicides Tyler Clementi of Rutgers University & Raymond Chase of Johnson & Wales, Campus Pride reissues findings and recommendations from the "2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People" released last week at a U.S. congressional briefing on Capitol Hill.

(Providence, RI) Campus Pride, the nation’s leading non-profit organization working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally college and university students, offers its condolences and support to the family of Raymond Chase who reportedly hung himself in his residence hall room this past Wednesday, September 29, 2010 on the campus of Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI.

“The loss of Raymond this week is the second college LGBT-related suicide in a week and the fifth teenage LGBT suicide in three weeks. The suicide of this openly gay young man is for reasons currently unknown; however, the recent pattern of LGBT youth suicides is cause for grave concern,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director and founder of Campus Pride. “Campus Pride demands national action be taken to address youth bullying, harassment and the need for safety and inclusion for LGBT youth at colleges and universities across the country. We must not let these tragic deaths go unnoticed. Together we must act decisively to curb anti-LGBT bias incidents, harassment and acts of violence.”

Read more:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2010/10/campus-pride-openly-gay-johnson-wales-student-raymond-chase-commits-suicide.html

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/about.html

John Nienstedt's anti-gay marriage crusade draws another protest

by Hart Van Denburg,

September 29, 2010 - Minneapolis City Pages

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/john-nienstedts-anti-gay-marriage.html

Catholics Face Vocal 'Mutiny' Over Teachings On Gay Marriage

By Daniel Burke - October 1, 2010

The Huffington Post

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/catholics-face-vocal-mutiny-over.html

“EQUALLY BLESSED” UNITES CATHOLIC VOICES FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY, JUSTICE - DignityUSA

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/equally-blessed-unites-catholic-voices.html

Joseph Palacios: Keeping faith in the fight for gay rights

by Sean Quigley, September 23, 2010

The Georgetown Voice - Georgetown University Photo

http://georgetownvoice.com/2010/09/23/joseph-palacios-keeping-faith-in-the-fight-for-gay-rights/

Catholics in support of gay rights - Georgetown Professor Launches Catholics for Equality

By Alice Maglio | Sep 28 2010

The Hoya – Georgetown University

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/georgetown-professor-launches-catholics.html

Overturning Catholic Moral Teaching on Homosexuality:

Are Salzman And Lawler Right?

By Phyllis Zagano,

9/29/10 – The Huffington Post

Excerpts:

…So the question is: what's "natural" or "unnatural?" That, in turns, leads to a more overarching question: Is homosexuality a status or a choice?

Some thinkers, including several members of the Supreme Court, seem to reason that homosexuality is an inborn status.

Catholicism--and, indeed most religions--teach that while homosexuality exists, homosexual activity is a "disordered" choice against the laws of nature.

If homosexuality is indeed a status rooted in biology or genetics, then homosexuals, like left-handed people, act according to their nature. But if homosexuality is a choice rooted in behavior, then homosexuals act against nature…

In terms of civil rights, individuals deserve and are afforded protections for both status (say, skin color) and choice (for example, religious affiliation).

In terms of morality, status is neutral, while choice has implications and consequences.

Catholicism argues that homosexuals deserve legal protections, but not because homosexuality is a status. Catholicism says homosexual activity is a choice. So while bishops support non-discrimination policies, they won't agree that homosexuals are protected because of their genetic makeup.

Catholic thinkers have grappled with this question for ages. Creighton University professors Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler are the latest voices on the Catholic circuit, Their 2008 book, "The Sexual Person,"…

Salzman and Lawler's dense academic argument turns traditional Catholic teaching on natural law on its head…

Salzman and Lawler argue that what is "natural" for a heterosexual is not "natural" for a homosexual, and therefore homosexuals and heterosexuals must act in accord with their personal "natures".

Read complete article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/overturning-catholic-mora_n_744641.html

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/overturning-catholic-moral-teaching-on.html

The Sexual Person: Toward A Renewed Catholic Anthropology

By Todd A. Salzman, Michael G. Lawler 2008

http://books.google.com/books?id=p8nrAR3Oi1QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Todd+A.+Salzman+and+Michael+G.+Lawler,+%22The+Sexual+Person,%22&source=bl&ots=GO9aPON40w&sig=DHIE7CBUEz7DKeqCNdlN_tktVhc&hl=en&ei=QA-lTOSJFMOjnAe9mdGQAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"For Richer, For Poorer:

Same-Sex Couples and the Freedom to Marry as a Civil Right,"

DMI E-Journal, by Wolfson, Evan,

(Drum Major Institute for Public Policy) 2003

Excerpts:

Introduction

On the historic, horrific morning of September 11, 2001, John kissed his wife, Rosa, goodbye before heading to his job as an office-cleaner in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Rosa never heard from her husband again. After searching frantically for days, Rosa accepted the reality of his disappearance. She filed for a death certificate and arranged her husband’s memorial service. Rosa received Workers’ Compensation from the state and a small Social Security death benefit from the federal government. She contacted John's former employer, who arranged for receipt of his pension. Because John and Rosa had few assets, they had never seen the need for a will, nor did they have the financial means to hire a lawyer to prepare one. Nonetheless, John's assets, which included a small savings account, their home and a car, were given to Rosa by law.

That same morning, Juan kissed Ryan, his partner of 21 years, goodbye and headed to his job as a file-clerk in that same North Tower. Like Rosa, Ryan never heard from Juan again. Ryan applied for Workers’ Compensation and Social Security, but, unlike Rosa, he was told he was not eligible for those benefits because he was not Juan’s legal spouse. Even though Juan and Ryan had taken some precautions to protect their commitment -- such as registering as domestic partners, designating one another as beneficiaries on insurance policies, and executing health care proxies and powers of attorney -- and even though Juan paid the same taxes as John, Ryan was not automatically entitled to any of the compensations given to Rosa. In addition to his emotional devastation, Ryan was financially devastated as well.

Why did Rosa have an economic safety net, while Ryan did not? The answer can be summed up in two words: “I do.” ... 

Marriage Makes Life Together More Affordable

Marriage makes almost every aspect of a relationship less expensive. Without money, a lawyer or any forethought, married couples receive the benefits of a complex set of legal rules that create default choices most couples would select anyway. Thus:

Spouses are allowed to make life-saving decisions for each other without drafting powers of attorney or other complicated legal documents;

Spouses presumptively inherit each others' estates without the need for intricate wills; …

Read complete article:

http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=5518

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-richer-for-poorer-same-sex-couples.html

“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.”

Erik Erikson

Sexual orientation - Internalized Homophobia - “Auschwitz – Benedict XVI - Christmas 2008 -A flashback far more severe than in Brokeback Mountain” GAY TEENAGE SUICIDE - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/10/sexual-orientation-internalized_03.html