I thought about just blowing off publishing anything today. I didn't have anything about the election after all…and who would possibly want to read anything else?
But my sense of duty got the better of me. I promised a website I would publish on Tuesday evenings, so by God I will do so.
So then I had to come up with a topic. Beauty contests in Thailand and Brazil? Sorry, but I can't work up an interest. The transman in Japan denied the right to be listed as his son's father? Maybe at a later date. The police crackdown on transwomen in Kuwait? Ditto.
I shall write instead about Jeff Johnston, resident expert about all things gay at Focus on the Family. For an introduction to Jeff, here is a link to an interview posted in September. If you have heard about him, you know that Jeff claims to be an "ex"-gay.
There is evidence for a variety of roads into homosexuality, just as God has a number of ways of bringing people out of homosexuality.
--Jeff Johnston
Being an ex-gay apparently conveys upon Mr. Johnston the status of "expert" not only on all things gay, lesbian and bisexual, but also on all things transgender we have discovered recently. Focus on the Family recently has been promoting
resources to aid people in their attempt to climb out of their identities. Those resources were, of course, gathered by Jeff Johnston.
In addition to citing familiar ex-gay ministries, the links also include efforts to convince transgender people that their gender identities are wrong — the result of “confusion” — and that they should try to conform to their biological sex.
…
Given the American Psychiatric Association is in the process of declassifying transgender identities as a disorder, Focus seems to be invested in demonizing trans people and denying them affirmation regardless.
--Think Progress
Mr. Johnson's expertise in trans issues?
Some examples:
[Gender Identity Disorder] is a label usually given to children with same-sex attractions, but it can be given to adults.
--Johnston
No, Mr. Johnston. Transgender is about who we sleep
as, not about who we sleep
with. Some of us are gay or lesbian, some bisexual, some heterosexual, some asexual…and some apply stranger terminology to describe their sexual attraction.
Gender Identity Disorder is treatable. There are therapists who work with kids to help them accept the body they were born into and to embrace it as a good thing. This kind of therapy helps children to stop hating their bodies and to embrace their gender.
--Johnston
We know of those therapists, Mr. Johnston. They are some of the most hated people in our universe.
Let's hear from the real experts:
It is not helpful to force the child to act in a more gender-conforming way.
--American Psychological Association
In the transgender community, sexual abuse seems to be even more common than in the male homosexual community. Sometimes it’s related to issues in the home, like violence. This isn’t something that people grow into in a healthy way. There is trauma involved in producing these disorders. [...] They need healing and growth and renewed thinking — a renewed mind and spiritual help, rather than affirmation of the disorder.
--Johnston
No, Mr. Johnston. You may have been sexual abused. I don't know that. But don't you ever try to extend your own personal experiences on those of us who are transgender. Some of us were probably abused. And that could very possibly have been because it was already known that we were gender-vsriant. But for many of us, the only abuse we suffered was at our own hands…from our own denial of who we truly were.
Kids aren’t trans because they’ve been abused, they’re being abused because they’re trans.
--Zack Ford, Think Progress
Close to a closing statement…right before telling people to vote for Romney/Ryan:
As Christians, of course, we’d say it’s not healthy to encourage or promote recognition of a group based on their behaviors or based on something that’s problematic psychologically. That’s not the same as recognizing people because of their religion or the color of their skin, or things like this. At the same time we want Christians to reach out with love and treat people with respect. That has always been our goal.
Bullshit, Mr. Johnston. Your goal has been to demonize us and bring about our non-existence. That's very different from how a true Christian would act.