[quote]forlife wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]forlife wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
An organisation doesn’t have to be ‘morally corrupt’ to present findings that are wrong. They could be just wrong or they could be conducted by people who are ideologically predisposed to expect/want consciously or unconciously certain results. They could be fanatics prepared to deliberately distort results. There’s certainly no abscence of this in mainstream science and academia.[/quote]
So prove the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, National Association of Social Workers, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American School Health Association, National Education Association, and Surgeon General are all “just wrong”, or that every single one of them is “ideologically predisposed to expect/want consciously or unconsciously certain results”.
What’s more likely:
Either every single major health organization is under a confirmatory bias, OR
You and others with an acknowledged aversion to homosexuality are under a confirmatory bias?
I’ll put my money on the scientific organizations dedicated to fostering human health.[/quote]
This is boring, lets see whether I can make a better argument.
While it may be true that changing your sexual orientation might make the one changing it less healthy, that does not necessarily mean that homosexuality is not a mental disease.
True, it is no longer classified as such, but it was for a long time and definitions of mental disorders are necessarily ideological/political, especially in a climate of state sponsored medicine and research where the definition of what a disease is can have enormous financial implications.
If we look at it without any label attached, the homosexual mind, just like the depressed, bi polar or schizophrenic mind correlates strongly with other diseases, drug use and suicide, which means at the very least that a strong point can be made that homosexuality should be classified as a mental disorder.
[/quote]
If you actually bothered to read the conclusions of the major health organizations, you would see that unanimously they conclude based on 40 years of research that homosexuality is NOT a mental disease, and that any emotional disturbance can be traced to social rejection.
Want to help gays? Encourage them to be who they are, instead of telling them they are mentally ill and pushing them into crackpot reparative programs that double the risk of suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, anxiety, and depression.
I wasn’t in great emotional health during my years in the closet. Since coming out, I’m much happier and more integrated as a human being. Imagine what it would be like to grow up being told that you are an abomination and mentally ill. Thankfully, this message is changing as society becomes more educated.
[/quote]
What causes what is really just conjecture, there is no such thing as measurable psychological causality as long as you do not get strictly behaviorist.
Also, maybe schizophrenics or bi polar people have additional problems too, because of how their environment reacts to them.
That does not mean though that their mental attitude is not far outside the norm and that it correlates strongly with other diseases.
The same is true for homosexuality.
Just replace homosexual with bi polar whenever you bring up an argument and see if it makes sense to, it makes for a better presentation no matter on which side you fall on this issue.
So:
Fact: Homosexuality strongly correlates with diseases, drug use and suicide.
Interpretation: entirely up to you, but that is just what it is, an interpretation.