Surgeon General nominee wants to "cure" gays

As part of his ongoing war on science and reason, Bush nominated James W. Holsinger for the post of Surgeon General last week.

BarbinMD has some fun facts about the man who could be America's next top doc:

– Holsinger founded Hope Springs Community Church, which “ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian.” Holsinger said that he sees homosexuality as “an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle.” [Lexington Herald-Leader, 6/1/07]

– In serving on the United Methodist Judicial Council — the “court” that resolves “disputes involving church doctrine and policies in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination” — Holsinger “opposed a decision to allow a practicing lesbian to be an associate pastor, and he supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church.” [Lexington Herald-Leader, 6/1/07]

– In the early 1990s, Holsinger resigned from the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality “because he believed the committee ‘would follow liberal lines.’” He also warned “that acceptance of homosexuality would drive away millions of churchgoers.” [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 5/26/07; Time, 6/24/91]

Frank Lockwood of Bible Belt Blogger reports:

When surgeon general nominee Dr. James Holsinger was serving on the board of the Confessing Movement of the United Methodist Church, the board issued a statement accusing the "radical homosexual/lesbian lobby" and those who support homosexuality of precipitating "a crisis in the United Methodist Church."

Dr. Holsinger also served as the medical director of the Department of Veterans Affairs under the former president Bush. During his tenure the department was forced to accept blame for the deaths of six veterans in a large VA hospital:

"Mistakes were made," said the Veterans Affairs Secretary, Edward J. Derwinski. "The medical care was clearly not what it should be."

The agency's announcement came a week after department investigators questioned poor supervision and delays between diagnosis and surgery, among other things.

After an extensive review of 15 deaths between June 1989 and March 1990, the agency acknowledged blame in six, said Dr. James Holsinger Jr., the agency's chief medical officer.

Dr. Holsinger and an agency spokeswoman, Donna St. John, said they would not discuss the six deaths that were linked to poor care until family members were notified.

The agency said it would invite the families to meet with its lawyers to discuss a financial settlement. [NYT]

A date for Holsinger's confirmation hearings has not yet been set.
   

Comments

[Lesley]

I'm almost desensitized to the horrors of the Bush Administration now. My jaw's hit the floor so many times it's got nerve damage. It's like, ok, what is the asshole going to do next?

The only worse nominee would be Fred Phelps and let's face it, this guy is a light version of Fred anyway.

[Bruce/Crablaw]

I am not clear that the quotes and cited listed by Think Progress re: Dr. Holsinger indicate that the nominee seeks to "cure" gays or that he considers gayness to be a "disease." Indeed, the quotes cited suggest the opposite, that he views homosexuality not as a disease or orientation to be cured, but as a lifestyle requiring not "cure" but a rejection on moral grounds.

It is not self-evident that Holsinger's rejection of homosexuality within his church translates to hostility to gay and lesbian people at a policy level. While I would be skeptical and mistrusting, of course, one could argue that an Attorney General whose Catholic or other faith leads him to oppose his church performing a marriage for civilly divorced members of his church could likely enforce the civil rights of divorced and remarried citizens, including his fellow churchmen. John Ashcroft was theologically and morally very conservative and outspoken as such, probably more so than the current Attorney General, but I would take the former over the 1atter any day.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

He believes that people can be relieved of homosexual urges through his brand of pastoral counseling.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Holsinger is the founder of Hope Springs Community Church, which operates what it calls a Celebrate Recovery ministry.

Here's the key blurb:

Men’s Sexual Integrity: Offers an opportunity for men to heal from sexual brokenness and find strength to overcome unhealthy sexual behaviors in a safe and confidential environment. Find the support and accountability you need and develop a closer relationship with the one who can heal, Jesus Christ.

There are strong clinical overtones in this language. The promise is for healing, and overcoming "unhealthy" behaviors. Granted, this is faith healing and nothing resembling respectable medicine.

[Windypundit]

the board issued a statement accusing the "radical homosexual/lesbian lobby" and those who support homosexuality of precipitating "a crisis in the United Methodist Church."

Yes, it's an open secret that the gay agenda includes causing a crisis in the Methodist Church. I thought everyone knew that.

[Uncle Kvetch]

It is not self-evident that Holsinger's rejection of homosexuality within his church translates to hostility to gay and lesbian people at a policy level.

Maybe, maybe not, Bruce/Crablaw, but look at it from another angle. If you found a church whose mission is to "minister[] to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian," it's pretty obvious that you believe that sexual orientation can be changed through sheer willpower and/or prayer and "ministry," such that once-gay people can become "no longer gay." Not only is the very premise of such a church inherently homophobic--it flies directly in the face of the consensus of the mental health profession.

Now, reflect on the fact that a man who has devoted a good part of his life to this snake-oil quackery has been nominated to the position of Surgeon General of the United States.

It's increasingly clear that what's left of Bush's tenure is going to consist of one long fit of pique, a permanently raised middle finger to everyone outside the hardcore Republican base.

[cfrost]

I'm almost desensitized to the horrors of the Bush Administration now. My jaw's hit the floor so many times it's got nerve damage. It's like, ok, what is the asshole going to do next?

I’m appalled, but am also amused and amazed that Bush can actually find these troglodyte, Neanderthal, christofascist clowns whenever he wants one, Every – Single - Time. It’s like a magician pulling twelve rabbits and a couple chickens out of a hat: how the fuck, no really, how the FUCK, does he do that!!??

[greensmile]

Question is, do we have the votes to tell the SonofaBush to stuff his nominee? We have seen that some dems clearly are more afraid of what the Republicans will say about their patriotism than of having years more war. So now we find out how many senators can be blackmailed by Republican sympathizers who will label them homo-friendly and how many have the courage to insist on a competent appointee for a position as vital to the wellfare of US citizens as the Surgeon General....Bush has, is his usual sorry way, given us another clear choice between progress and sucking up to power. How many senators are personally as unenlightened about sexual orientation as this potential nominee? Don't the Republicans have anyone like Mark Foley in the senate who could explain matters to their caucus...oh, never mind.

[Ma'at's Feather]

George Bush, the Energizer bunny of bad-ness!

[mudkitty]

Why is he so interested in being around gays?

[GayAsGayCanBe]

He believes that people can be relieved of homosexual urges through his brand of pastoral counseling.

Ooh, baby! Will he relieve me of my gay urges by a firm, loving touch? Tough love, perhaps? Is Rev. Ted Haggard going to join in?

[gordo]

I don't think people like Holsinger understand why straight men find them so amusing. Holsinger just can't comprehend the perspective of the guys who don't have to pray whenever a man arouses them, because men never arouse them.

[Fitz]

In fact, studies done many years ago demonstrated that merely showing people a phonied -up
paragraph purporting to offer a biological explanation instantly altered their attitudes. K. E. Ernulf, S. M.
Innala, and F. L. Whitam, “Biological Expl anation, Psychological Explanation, and Tolerance of
Homosexuals: A Cross-National Analysis of Beliefs and Attitudes,” Psychological Reports 65 (1989), pp.
1003–10 (1 of 3).20 “heritability” levels of roughly 30 to 35%, which geneticists recognize as the signature for behavioral traits in human beings that are essentially non-genetic and almost completely
determined by environmental influences—to the degree that any human trait enmeshed in a
body can be.33 Hence, if the results of this study were to replace the erroneous explanations
provided by the mental heath guilds, then without introducing value -judgments it could be
expected over time to reduce the prevalence of homosexual identification—sans “therapy.”

33 "This statement does not contradict the presence of “indirect genetic factors” influencing homosexuality.
Most people mistakenly presume that an indirect genetic influence refers to a mere technical distinction.
In fact, the distinction is crucial. Basketball playing shows a very strong, argu ably stronger than
homosexuality, indirect genetic influence, but there are no genes for basketball playing —it is a wholly
“environmentally” influenced behavior subject to a high degree of choice —much higher than same-sex
attraction. The crucial point is that genes that indirectly influence a trait have nothing at all to do with the
trait itself and therefore can’t possibly “cause” it. The genes that influence the likelihood someone will
become a basketball player are self -evident: Those that code for height, athleticism, muscle refresh rate.
There are, at present, even strong racial genetic associations to basketball playing. These associations
are almost entirely socially-determined while the genes themselves are biological (and evolved in an era
before basketball playing even existed), and the associational degree (i.e., with race) fluctuates over time as basketball spreads across the globe."

[Alon Levy]

That's nice, Fitz. The problem is, this model is untestable, at least not without a foolproof way of knowing whether someone is gay or not. So it reduces to making a circular argument: homosexuality is changeable because it's changeable. This contrasts with the mainstream scientific position, which is that it's inborn because there are certain culture-independent brain patterns associated with homosexuality (incidentally, another thing that's just as inborn is gender identity, which may or may not coincide with sex).

[Fitz]

Alon

"This contrasts with the mainstream scientific position, which is that it's inborn because there are certain culture-independent brain patterns associated with homosexuality. "

Just want to kind of slip that in there ..

The old "mainstream scientific position" huh..

http://www.narth.com/docs/nothardwired.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdeoh_ruI0

Its simply not the case. I know the entire gay rights movement is predicated on the end of science, and a false consensus...the fact remains that multiple competing theories exist in a scientific environments politicized predominantly from the left.

[Flavor Flavius Julianus]

studies done many years ago demonstrated that merely showing people a phonied -up
paragraph purporting to offer a biological explanation instantly altered their attitudes.

Ever had any man-on-man urges, Fitz?

[Fitz]

Only for James Mcgreevey...

Why does that mean something?

[Flavor Flavius Julianus]

So you admit that your hostility toward gay men and women is only the fear of your own desire for men.

[Fitz]

"So you admit that your hostility toward gay men and women is only the fear of your own desire for men."

But all my porns of women?

[Fitz]

Flavor Flavius Julianus

You inadvertently bring up an important point. One of the consequences of the continuing mainstreaming of homosexuality is the pathologizing of (in particular) young men.

This has already occurred in the example of “homophobia” – perfectly natural antipathy toward same-sex relations has been recast as its own mental disorder.

Any aversion to the politics of homosexuality and its demands is recast as the font of deep born sexual dysfunction.

As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked in his immortal phrase “defining deviancy down”
“You cant just make the deviant the normal; you also need to make the normal deviant.”

[Flavor Flavius Julianus]

Ah, Fitz. Porn-addicted and struggling to deny your desire for hot man-on-man with James McGreevey. What a sad case you are.

[Alon Levy]

perfectly natural antipathy toward same-sex relations has been recast as its own mental disorder.

Straightness and homophobia are two separate things. Straightness means not having any same-sex attraction. Nobody's gotten any bad rap for that. Homophobia means being prejudiced against people who do have same-sex attraction.

The old "mainstream scientific position" huh..

The first link says that homosexuality has a biological component, but is not fully determined by genes, which is incompatible with an "We'll cure you of your sins" approach. But that's not the same as saying people can choose to be gay or straight, or that the environment influences that in any obvious way.

First, the environment can influence homosexuality in a non-obvious way. Chemicals in the air and water do influence various mental traits, such as IQ, and can play with hormone levels as to influence sexual desires. So it's plausible they might also influence sexual orientation. This is in contrast to social ideas, like acceptance of homosexuality, which aren't known to influence either.

Second, there is something called developmental noise, which is independent of both genetics and environmental influence. Fingerprints are a good example of developmental noise, which is why identical twins have different fingerprints. Environmental effects sometimes have a saturation point: some improvements in education and nutrition and water and air quality can increase IQ, but beyond a certain point the variation in IQ that isn't genetic is developmental noise. In the US, the entire middle class is beyond that point, so middle-class Americans' IQs are free of any environmental influence.

[Fitz]

Basing his findings on The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States by Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael and Stuart Michaels, Chicago: University of Chicago.

Dr Satinover writes..

{The Laumann study,} was based on a survey of a statistically representative sample of American adults between the ages of 18 and 60, and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Laumann is universally recognized as definitive. Since its publication, numerous large-scale epidemiologic surveys, conducted in all the English-speaking and many other industrialized nations, have repeatedly confirmed and strengthened its findings. One of the major points of the Laumann study, which the authors themselves did not expect, is that “homosexuality” as a fixed trait scarcely even seems to exist” & stating that “[E]stimating a single number for the prevalence of homosexuality is a futile exercise,”

Laumann declares in the first paragraph of an entire chapter devoted to the subject. It is futile not because of bias, underreporting, methodological difficulties, or complexities of behavior, but “because it presupposes assumptions that are patently false: that homosexuality is a uniform attribute across individuals, that it is stable over time, and that it can be easily measured.”

His conclusion echo’s what most people suspect and what every parent fears. The “social milieu” being created by homosexual activists acclimates and inculcates young people to first experiment with, and then adopts a homosexual identity.

But the reality is that since 1994—for ten years—there has existed solid epidemiologic
evidence, now extensively confirmed and reconfirmed, that the most common natural course for a young person who develops a “homosexual identity” is for it to spontaneously disappear unless that process is discouraged or interfered with by extraneous factors. We may now say with increasing confidence that those “extraneous” factors are primarily the “social milieu” in which the person finds himself. Ironically, this “ social milieu” is the family setting and culture being created by, inter alia, the decisions enforced by the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States acting in coordination with the misrepresentation of scientific evidence provided to it by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers.

[Alon Levy]

Satinover is a crank who believes in the Bible code. Do you have any overview of the Laumann study that is written by someone who deserves to be taken seriously?

[Flavor Flavius Julianus]

Fitz, I see that you are "discerning a call to the priesthood." They won't let you bring along your porn collection, you realize. (Or maybe they will. Who knows what the Church permits these days.) Anyway, if you ask me, instead of fleeing to the priesthood with your porn and your lust for James McGreevey, you should just be more honest with yourself. You'll be happier in the long run.