Debra Rae -- It's Their Way, Or No Way: Institutional Leftism

IT'S THEIR WAY, OR NO WAY: INSTITUTIONAL LEFTISM

By Debra Rae

July 5, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Gay Pride, A Presidential Proclamation

Yes, roses are blooming, summer vacation is upon us, and gasoline prices have soared, but there was much more to think about in June. Just ask the Lesbian/ Gay/ Bisexual/ Transgender community. You see, this is their month. June of 2000 marked the first annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Month�this, by Presidential proclamation. William J. Clinton encouraged all Americans to observe the month of June with programs, ceremonies, and activities that recognize gay and lesbian Americans.

I�m at a loss as to why any pride day is necessary for all to observe; however, if there is a boys� pride day, then it stands to reason that a girls� pride day is in order. If there is Norwegian pride, why not Swedish pride? Given African-American pride, why not Norwegian-American pride? How about Yankee-Dixie pride? Red coats-blue coats pride?

Along these lines, the fitting question, �Why is there no straight pride?� is posed in a lusty internet newsletter, Your Guide to Lesbian Life. If gays are free to be proud, certainly straights are. Not according to Kathy Belge. This would-be �Miss Manners� of lesbianism reasons that countering gay- with straight-pride events is �usually nothing more than thinly veiled anti-gay protest, a backlash against gay rights.�

In Belge�s view, gays exclusively are compelled to be here, proud and celebrating self. For non-gays to follow suit purportedly is vindictive. Simple as that.

Institutional Leftism

A study released by the Center for the Study of Popular Culture revealed what David Horowitz calls �institutional leftism.� Polls conducted even by liberal newspapers like The Boston Globe reveal opposition to gay marriage by as much as a 2-1 margin, yet public universities, colleges, high schools, and grade schools openly champion politically-correct diversity coupled with alternative lifestyles. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of our high school seniors polled favor legalization of homosexual marriage. Even more favor homosexual adoptions, and fully 90% favor �hate crimes� laws that exceed protections afforded other groups�e.g., the religious right.

A Zogby-GLCensus Partners poll identified legal recognition of same-sex marriage as a primary goal of the gay movement. To the contrary, ninth-grade civics taught me that the traditional family serves as basic unit of every healthy community. Fossil that I am, I believe it. It may be that you disagree, accepting instead that gays join the ranks of blacks and Native Americans in need of emancipation. After all, in 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Court advanced the sentiment that gay marriage serves to extend civil rights to disadvantaged groups (Goodrich v. the Massachusetts Department of Public Health).

I give you that; however, even authentic advocates of the civil rights movement (Alveda King, for one) disagree and, for that, are met with intensifying hostility. Free exchange of ideas is silenced by means of speech codes and anti-harassment laws. We�re talking a one-way street.

Believe it. The National Endowment for the Arts funds Terrence McNally�s Corpus Christi, retelling the Passion Play from a gay perspective offensive to some 70,000 Christian churchgoers (and then some) whose taxes fund it�like it or not. Tax dollars likewise support the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Lesbian Visual Arts, and the San Francisco Gay Men�s Chorus. While these events generate a ton of business for merchants, thus returning tax money to the cities, this is not a monetary matter. To Christians, it�s a matter of faith and the free exercise thereof.

Western Culture�s Extreme Makeover

Most agree that Western culture is undergoing the ultimate �extreme makeover.� Homosexual marriage is now legal in British Columbia and Ontario, Belgium and Holland. Additionally, countries having ratified The Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are compelled to conform to a radical feminist agenda inclusive of legalized lesbianism.

Activists from ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and OUT (Oppression under Target) chant, march, and invade businesses and government offices all the while angrily thrusting their oft-vulgar signs into the faces of �intolerant� traditionalists. While fringe anti-gay advocates are known to act in similarly unseemly fashion, media portrayal more often than not favors the politically correct.

Answering Dr. Phil�s signature question, �How is this working for you?� a 1998 Psychological Reports article shaves an estimated twenty-to-thirty years off life expectancy for the average homosexual. Executive director of Exodus International, Bob Davis suggests that gay men are six times more likely than straight ones to commit suicide. True, STDs and suicide visit the ranks of heterosexuals. To a Christian, however, the issue isn�t so much hetero- as opposed to homo- sexuality. It is rather the upholding of Biblically-mandated heterosexual monogamy confined to holy wedlock. It works for me, so (believe as you will) please allow me my convictions.

Who Hates Whom?

The author of Canada�s hate-propaganda law, Svend Robinson believes vilifying gays to be reprehensible. I agree; however, those who decline to celebrate so-called diversity are tagged by some as �homophobes,� �breeders,� and �hate-mongers.� Robinson himself freely besmirches Christian leaders as �ecclesiastical dictators.�

Perhaps you know of the worldwide Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who present themselves as a community-service order of �queer� nuns. Theirs is a gay spirituality whose ritual is rooted in faerie paganism and eastern philosophy. Initiates seek �to ruin all detrimental conditions,� including guilt, even for the guilty. This being the case, they �go forth and sin some more� in hopes of expiating stigmatic guilt purportedly placed on them by �right-wing religious and political organizations.�

Note that if any such organization were to use the term �queer� in reference to these would-be sisters of a Guilt-free Gospel, it would meet with certain criticism. Never mind that self-proclaimed sisters proudly call themselves �queer.�

�Hate� evidently travels one way in that it is socially acceptable to vilify the one group, but not the other. Case in point: For opposing Missouri�s efforts to license gays as foster parents, a Christian social worker was outright fired. There�s more. When Dr. Laura Schlessinger was defamed and subsequently ousted from TV for her family-friendly bias, shelters for neglected children actually refused her extraordinarily generous charitable gifts. In both cases, children�not gays�were victimized by diversity.

In a word: Hate is as hate does.

The Movement Mainstreamed

Given that no less than twenty-eight openly gay characters are paraded on primetime TV, it�s only �natural� to feature a boy allegedly trapped in the wrong body. Take, for example, A Girl like Me, featured this June as a new original Lifetime-for-Women movie based on a true story in which Eddie morphed to Gwen. A female licensed therapist (herself born a biological male) fingered not trans-genderism, but rather its repression, as indicative of a mental health problem.

The likeable lead character is held up as courageous, having lived life �more than most� and �having loved too much�more than others deserved.� This touching sentiment of a grieving mother flew in the face of Gwen�s troubled life marked by stealing, lying, underage drinking, and bad-mouthing this single (might I add, heterosexual) parent who selflessly loved her ill-fated son. Sadly, Gwen suffered an egregious, untimely death on the heels of self-engineered deception.

Lifetime�s �commitment� to viewers appears to champion trans-genderism. The unmistakable message is that �good guys� so inclined courageously jump the gender track, come what may; but �bad guys� (tagged repressors) favor finding self within one�s biological gender frame.

How Shall We Then Live?

In view of the natural sympathy evoked by senseless crimes against trans-genders and gays, their groups opportunistically showcase victims to advance political and social goals that are unsavory to many. Two examples are Lifetime�s Eddie Araujo (played by J.D. Pardo) and Teena Brandon (portrayed in Boys Don�t Cry by Oscar nominee Hilary Swank).

In contrast, the film I Do Exist gives narratives of five former gays who made peace with their biological gender, having experienced profound personal transformations. If shifting is an option, as clearly it is, why promote coming out and identifying as gay as the only healthy response to same-sex attractions?

Organizations as Exodus International, Spatula Ministries, and Genesis Counseling are good starts at providing much-needed support for recovering gays committed to finding their way home in these admittedly perplexing times. Even so, those seeking reparative therapy are forced to dodge one-way traffic head on.

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Although instrumental in removing homosexuality from the APA list of mental disorders (1973), Columbia University�s Dr. Robert Spitzer later assumed an unexpected posture. Surprising to some, he contended that reparative therapy counseling serves to shift one�s sexual orientation from gay back to heterosexual. This begs the question, �If it ain�t broke, why fix it?�

We find here yet another example of one-way, all-the-way Institutional Leftism.

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Daughter of an Army Colonel, Debra graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa. She then completed a Master of Education degree from the University of Washington. These were followed by Bachelor of Theology and Master of Ministries degrees-both from Pacific School of Theology.

While a teacher in Kuwait, Debra undertook a three-month journey from the Persian Gulf to London by means of VW "bug"! One summer, she tutored the daughter of Kuwait's Head of Parliament while serving as superintendent of Kuwait's first Vacation Bible School.

Having authored the ABCs of Globalism and ABCs of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike. Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk radio with Sharon Hughes and Friends, and she contributes monthly commentaries to Changing Worldviews and NewsWithViews.com.

Together, Debra and her late husband traveled throughout Africa, Asia, East- and West- Europe, North- and South- Americas--once on the British Concorde. Now remarried, and back from her Mediterranean honeymoon, Debra calls the Pacific Northwest home.

Web Site: www.debraraebooks.com

E-Mail: ABCs@debraraebooks.com�

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