Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
UPDATED: It is the position of the American Psychological Association that homosexuality is not a choice or a mental illness, but rather a normal variant of sexual orientation for a certain percentage of society. They came to this stand based upon scientific research that showed no connection between homosexuality and psychopathology. In addition to considering homosexuality a normally occurring human behavior, the APA does not support therapies to change sexual orientation and points out that there is no reliable science to suggest such therapies are effective. The APA also issued a resolution opposing discriminatory legislation and initiatives aimed at LGBT people.
In addition, geneticists have also found a link between genes and sexual orientation. While the ongoing studies have not been definitive is establishing genetics as the sole determining factor in human sexual orientation, they do indicate that both genes and environmental factors do play a role in determining sexual orientation. This comports with the research upon which the APA used to set their policies.
The stance of the country’s most recognized psychological professional association and the psychological, sociological and genetic research goes right to the heart of what’s going on in Anoka, Minnesota. Suicide, like sexual orientation, has environmental components influencing the behavior. Research has shown that ambient temperature and duration of sunlight are the dominant environmental influences on suicide, but that social cohesion, socioeconomic status, and social support are also important influences. The situation in Anoka involves students, teachers, school policies, religiously based politics and the suicides and attempted suicides of teenagers. It is not a pretty story.
Over a little less than the last two years, the Anoka-Hennepin school district has had seven student suicides, four of which involved students that were either gay or perceived to be gay and two of those cases involved direct anti-homosexual bullying. Since January of this year, seven Anoka Middle School students have been hospitalized for attempting or threatening suicide. Considering that studies since the 1990’s indicate that homosexual teens have a suicide rate at least twice that of heterosexual teens, this becomes a greater concern when the Anoka-Hennepin school district has been identified by Minnesota public health officials as a “suicide contagion” area due to their abnormally high numbers of suicides and attempted suicides.
Without question, Minnesota is a region with a higher risk for suicides given that it is in a high enough latitude to experience lower average ambient temperatures as well as shorter days on average than regions closer to the equator. But what about the other factors that influence suicide; social cohesion, socioeconomic status, and social support? Anoka is a fairly well to do suburb of Minneapolis, so socioeconomic influences aren’t likely contributors to the abnormally high suicide rate. Social cohesion and support are another matter all together.
Over the last two years, students in the Anoka-Hennepin school district have faced a concerted campaign degrading homosexuals that is driven by local religious and political leaders, but the issue dates back to the mid-90’s when the district instituted a policy known as “no pro homo”. Under this policy, teachers were forbidden to discuss homosexuality, even in the health terms of HIV/AIDS education, and told they could not teach that homosexuality was a “normal, valid lifestyle.” Later the policy was amended to order teachers to remain neutral on the issue of homosexuality. A policy change that only created confusion in the staff by contributing to their uncertainty on how to address bullying and reasonable questions students might have had. Both of these policies were driven by religious conservative activist groups like the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), and its local affiliate, the Parents Action League (PAL). These groups went so far as lobbying to put discredited “reparative therapy” materials in schools. The MFC is also behind a seven year battle to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban gay marriage. The amendment comes up for vote next year.
If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, these are the kinds of “therapy” discredited and disapproved of by the APA, but are reportedly practiced by Marcus Bachmann (husband of politician Michelle Bachmann) at his Bachmann & Associates mental health clinics. That is not the only connection the Bachmann’s have to the MFC. Before entering politics, Michelle Bachmann served as a consultant to the MFC. She continues in this role today. Last May, she headlined an MFC Annual Dinner along with Newt Gingrich. As far back as 2004, Bachmann was a proponent of creating an intentionally hostile environment for teen homosexuals in Minnesota schools. As a state representative, Bachmann joined demonstrators seeking the amendment to ban gay marriage, telling the crowd in her now infamous “irrational leaps in logic” style that “In our public schools, whether they want to or not, they’ll be forced to start teaching that same-sex marriage is equal, that it is normal and that children should try it.” Michelle Bachmann, like a lot of people, obviously doesn’t understand what a false equivalence is. Teaching that homosexuality is a normal variant in human sexuality is just good science, teaching that homosexual pairs deserve the same respect as heterosexual pairs is just good civics if you believe that all people are created equal, and nobody is saying that schools should endorse any kind of relationships – heterosexual or homosexual. Endorsement and education about are not the same things. Education is about providing information (and logical skills) so that people can make informed decisions. Endorsement is about pushing a specific agenda; whether it be “buy this product”, “choose this God” or “hate people for no other reason than they are different”. Endorsement of any kind has no place in education. If you think it does, you are free to send your children to religious or other indoctrination based private schools. The drive to oppress homosexuals is not scientifically or legally valid in its basis. The drive to oppress homosexuals is a religious doctrine, specifically a right-wing Christian conservative doctrine. The answer is simple: If you don’t like homosexuality, don’t be one, but you cannot force your religious beliefs on others via state run institutions like public schools without running afoul of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment.
Since the revelation of the higher than normal rate of suicides within the school district, Michelle Bachmann has been curiously silent on the matter. She is, however, on record as opposing anti-bullying legislation. Addressing the state legislature, she said “I think for all us our experience in public schools is there have always been bullies, always have been, always will be. I just don’t know how we’re ever going to get to point of zero tolerance and what does it mean?…What will be our definition of bullying? Will it get to the point where we are completely stifling free speech and expression? Will it mean that what form of behavior will there be—will we be expecting boys to be girls?” Her indifference if not outright hostility to a problem that is related to the unusual number of suicides in her home school district is enough to make one question Bachmann’s willingness to serve all the people of her district and not just the heterosexual conservative Christians she has associated herself with both past and present.
Do we need another state politician that doesn’t represent all of their constituents? Do we need a possible Presidential candidate that has telegraphed that she has no interest in representing the needs of constituents that don’t meet her personal religious standards? When politicians contribute to an environment of intolerance and hatred and this intolerance has a measurable effect on our youth, no matter its basis, should they be held accountable for their misdeeds at the ballot box? Are stronger measures such as Sen. Al Franken’s (D – MN) push for legislation that protects LGBT students necessary? Are the facts of science ever enough to discourage the bad behavior of zealots? What can and should be done to help the youth of Anoka, Minnesota? Bullied and bullies alike?
What do you think?
UPDATE: Civil rights groups the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights plan to sue the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Federal court over their neutrality policy and the Department of Justice and the Department of Education investigating the bullying incidents. CNN will air a special report this Sunday, August 7, at 8PM EST. The following is a CNN story leading up to that special report.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and is considering suicide call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or the Trevor Project Lifeline for LGBT youth at 1-866-488-7386.
The hotlines are free, confidential, and run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Source(s): CNN, Mother Jones, The Guardian, The American Psychological Association, Science Daily, The Anoka-Hennepin School District
Kudos: Liberty and justice for some and Elaine M.
~Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
I am curious as to whether or not there is research on the “the other side of the coin.” Accepting, as most do, that “homosexuality is … a normal variant,” what about those who find it repellant? Is this also a normal variant or is it a choice based on social conditioning (which includes religious indoctrination)?
My question is predicated on the thought that “normal varia[tions]” are based on genetics, and the question could be restated more generally as: if there is a genetic basis “for” something (homosexuality as a normal variant, in this instance), is there also (or even necessarily) a genetic basis for the opposite variation?
Mike S.,
Great post. It is hard to imagine that the psychiatrist community once considered LGBT as a mental disorder or disease. We have come a long way, but not long enough to save those students in Minnesota.
This is a subject close to my heart as a female relative, one year older than I and one of my best friends growing up in the same era as Mike S., is a lesbian. I well remember her coming to terms with her sexuality and the battles, loud and quiet, we who loved her waged on her behalf.
I also remember well the two serious suicide attempts brought on by her genuine belief that her life was not worth living. These attempts are clear in my memory as I was the one who found her both times. I was 13 years old the first time and 18 years old the second time
Today she and her partner of 32 years are happily enjoying the life they built together in California. I visit them regularly and due to my relationship with them and all the homosexuals I worked with during my career I understand the joys and tribulations of the gay and lesbian community. They are normal human beings no different from you and I.
I have zero tolerance for the Bachmanns of this world. I do not tolerate their hate speech or their jokes or their snide dinner party commentary. I speak up immediately and forcefully and then I cut the bastards out of my life and my social circle with no concern for what others may think or say about my social graces.
I am also glad the country seems to be coming to its senses, re: bullying in general. -James in LA
“Bullying” is fast becoming a dominant worldwide ethos from my vantage point. Articles like these offer some encouragement, but the problem is systemic. Bullying has permeated our culture, in ways that many don’t yet realize.
Sad story OS. It is made even sadder that it is happening all too often.
While this article is indeed sad, my hope lies in the fact we’re even having the conversation. So many changes have come in my short years on this earth regarding LGBT issues. The thought of an LGBT support group at my high school was unthinkable when I graduated in 1983 and this would remain true until the late 1990s. In my youth, you did not dare hope.
I am also glad the country seems to be coming to its senses, re: bullying in general. It all begins to change as soon as we talk about it. Kids are sensitive to double standards, so we must be consistent in our positive messaging.
As for Bachmann, this represents such a tiny minority of opinion, it’s only worth the political points. That we do not see conversion centers on every corner of the Old Sooth tells how effective and well-supported the “therapy” actually is.
anon nurse,
Here are some excerpts from the Mother Jones article:
The Teen Suicide Epidemic in Michele Bachmann’s District
Two years. Nine suicides. Why critics blame the congresswoman’s anti-gay allies for contributing to a mental health crisis.
By Stephanie Mencimer
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/michele-bachmann-teen-suicide?
Some of the victims were gay, or perceived to be by their classmates, and many were reportedly bullied. And the anti-gay activists who are some of the congresswoman’s closest allies stand accused of blocking an effective response to the crisis and fostering a climate of intolerance that allowed bullying to flourish. Bachmann, meanwhile, has been uncharacteristically silent on the tragic deaths that have roiled her district—including the high school that she attended.
Bachmann, who began her political career as an education activist, has described gay rights as an “earthquake issue,” and she and her allies have made public schools the front lines of their fight against the “homosexual agenda.” They have opposed efforts in the state to promote tolerance for gays and lesbians in the classroom, seeing such initiatives as a way of allowing gays to recruit impressionable youths into an unhealthy and un-Christian lifestyle.
*****
The MFC has waged a seven-year battle to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage that will be on the state ballot in 2012. In the Minnesota Legislature, Bachmann was at the forefront of this issue. In 2004, she appeared on the steps at the state capital at a rally supporting a ban on gay marriage and linked the issue to the public schools, telling the crowd, “In our public schools, whether they want to or not, they’ll be forced to start teaching that same-sex marriage is equal, that it is normal and that children should try it.”
Teachers and counselors in the district, as well as civil rights activists, say that Bachmann’s closest allies like the MFC have helped create a vitriolic climate in the wake of the teen suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin area that may have hampered the community’s ability to effectively address what was, at root, a serious mental health crisis. Following the deaths and the publicity about bullying and anti-gay sentiments, the school district became inflamed with nasty infighting over whether promoting anti-bullying efforts was simply a cover for advancing the homosexual agenda in schools.
Great article, Gene. I also agree with Elaine. Hostility is an outgrowth of fear and it begins in the home. When hostility becomes public policy, the results are predictable.
“As far back as 2004, Bachmann was a proponent of creating an intentionally hostile environment for teen homosexuals in Minnesota schools.”
Gene H.,
Could you elaborate and/or provide a source? (Thanks for another great article.)
I got a tip 4 ya if you dont know what am talking bout come’re i show ya!
thats why her kids turned out to be monsters like her! rxample of a rotted sample!
Having been a teacher and a parent for more than thirty years, I found that children learn best by example. If children see the adults in their lives treat everyone–no matter who they are–with respect, they are likely to do the same. It’s sad to see so many politicians and organizations in this country who fixate on issues like banning gay marriage…who fight to deny all people equal rights.
Raff, I worry about the increased suicide risk of those students. There have been both suicides and murders. One kid was killed by another boy who thought the deceased had made a gay pass at him. School officials all to often have a tin ear when it comes to mental health issues anyway.
A colleague of mine was asked to consult with a middle school in Mississippi. When he walked in the front door, he said the whole atmosphere of the place was oppressive. Both kids and teachers seemed anxious, depressed and fearful. The normal loud banter in the hallways between classes was missing, replaced with a sullen murmur of hushed voices and shuffling feet. When he went into the office for a meeting with the principal and guidance counselors, it was the first smiles he saw. They gushed as to how great the kids were and how happy everyone was. My friend left the place in awe of how oblivious those administrators were to the powder keg they were sitting on.
Sometime later, I was in that town waiting to testify in court. While waiting in a witness room, the sheriff found me and asked for help with a suicide that had happened minutes before. A kid had killed himself.
Outstanding response OS! This is a civil rights issue and the civil rights of gay students in Anoka are being trampled upon by local leaders and members of Congress.
Maggie, I have no clue as to what you are talking about. For that matter, if you engage in risky behavior like reckless driving and robbing liquor stores, that is also problem behavior for which you might be arrested. Last time I looked, sexual behavior between straight people did not get people arrested if it was not with minors. On the other hand, if you are gay, you may be thrown out if you hold hands with your partner at the Gertrude Stein exhibit.
http://jezebel.com/5822990/lesbian-couple-ironically-kicked-out-of-gertrude-stein-exhibit
Or you might end up in handcuffs for being at a gay night club.
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-police-raid-gay-136646.html
Great article Gene. It is obvious that Michelle Bachmann is unfit to be a human being, let alone a member of Congress. Her religious zealotry has impaired her reason and logic and she needs to be removed from Congress as soon as possible. Spokespersons for her kind of hate are dangerous and the suicide rate in Anoka is evidence of that.
I’m from Minnesota so I maybe take more of an interest in this than some
others might.. The one aspect that trouble me is this non intervention
policy. Doesn’t the Anoka policy give a certain amount of protection to
those that are showing contempt either with words or actions to those who they perceive to be LGBT? It would seem that this policy is somewhat at
odds with normal policies concerning discipline and decorum. With the
number of suicides it’s evident something more must be done to protect
LGBT students from this kind of behaviour.
to me gay or straight if you have risky sex behavior that causes repeated arrests and disease its mental illness too sorry!!
Maggie,
Phreaks (or Phreakers) are those who engage in Phreaking or phone hacking, so I’m not sure I understand your post.
Listen when a phreak starts messing with you from 2 to age 15 thats all u know so dont give me no bs!