Make America Straight Again!

There has been a whirlwind of emotions swirling around our heads and hearts since the shock of Tuesday's election hit us like a sledgehammer to the temple. Many fears and concerns have arisen since Trump wrapped his meaty little hands around the title of President Elect, including the fears of his purported wall, the ban on Muslims, immigrants, and refugees, degradation of the Black Lives Matter movement, and of course, his promise to repeal Marriage Equality. Hand and hand with his VP Mike Pence, the GOP elected candidates have sworn to work together to set the human rights clocks back 75 years.

While I am terrified at all of these prospects, I know there are pitfalls, legislative loops, protests, and filibusters that can stop many of Trump's proposed bills from being passed, in spite of the Republican control of Congress. However there are issues beyond the power of Congress that are in far more danger than the promises Trump will eventually break.

In June of 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States voted for Marriage Equality, securing equal rights to homosexuals throughout the nation and barring any future president, Senate, or House of Representatives from overturning the ruling. Only SCOTUS can undo their own decisions, and we felt secure under the steely protection of the highest court in the land. What we hadn't anticipated that when SC justice Antonin Scalia died, Congress would not permit Obama to nominate a replacement, which is the right of the sitting president. They reserved the right of the nomination to the future president, confident that the GOP would manage to regain control of the presidency. Now that Trump has taken the crown, he has presented a long list of conservative justices that he will nominate for the job. And all he needs is a Republican dominated Congress to get his nomination elected, which he now has.

Now Scalia was a conservative, but as the court had a liberal majority at the time, replacing a conservative with a conservative was not an immediate threat. Unfortunately many of the justices are elderly: Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 83, Anthony Kennedy is 80, and Steven Breyer is 78. Both Bader Ginsberg and Breyer are liberal, whereas Kennedy is a balanced Republican who maintains an objective approach to most issues. As time marches on for these justices, rumors and reports of retirement are looming in the air, along with legitimate concerns for eventual passing-ons given their chronological progression in life. The loss of these justices during the Trump Administration will undoubtedly secure a 6-3 or a 7-2 (god forbid an 8-1) court imbalance tipping the scales of justice in favor of the conservatives. This, of course, is just the first step in a lengthy process that could eventually endanger the Marriage Equality ruling, but all Trump really needs is one more justice to retire or die to accomplish the platform he and VP Pence have promised to the country.

From the get-go, Trump had been utilizing his platform to speak out against all laws passed that have permitted the LGBT community to progress to some semblance of normalcy in a heterosexist and heterocentric society. This includes the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, DOMA, Marriage Equality, and many other laws and bills that guaranteed protection against job discrimination and hate crimes. Trump and Pence argued that these laws infringe upon the rights of Americans to practice their own religions without fear of persecution. They have vowed to force transgendered individuals to use their "biologically appropriate bathrooms" or their birth-gender bathrooms, and have backed laws that would permit discrimination based on religious beliefs. Pence himself has vetoed and amended laws against generalized hate crimes because they included language that protected LGBTs in the past. In a move more frightening, Pence cut funding to an HIV treatment facility, arguing that federal dollars should not be given to "organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that spread the HIV virus", and stated more money should be spent on treatment to assist individuals "seeking to change their sexual behaviors."

So let's dissect that last statement for a moment, because some may argue it can be interpreted in many ways. Changing sexual behaviors could have met that people could change their behaviors by practicing safe sex, or getting tested for HIV before engaging in sexual relationships, or consulting with their doctor about leading a healthy and safe sex life with an uninfected partner. But that tiny line preceding this statements sets it pretty clear for us, because no HIV treatment organization "celebrates" behaviors of unprotected sex, sharing needles, refusing to get yourself tested, or screwing your partner without any precautions or cares about infecting them. Not one. So we can only assume these behaviors are really referring to gays, and teaching them how not to be gay in order to avoid HIV (because straight people can't carry this disease). So essentially, Pence was refusing to help HIV inflected individuals unless they were willing to undergo treatment to stop gay behaviors, aka Conversion Therapy.

Conversion Therapy is, at its core, treatment to reprogram the homosexual brain to either suppress its natural urges toward the same sex, or to even teach the brain a sexual appreciation for the opposite sex. Historically, this has been attempted in many ways, including chemical castration, physical castration, electro-shock aversion therapy, medicinally induced aversion that made patients physically ill when having a biological response to sexual stimuli (think A Clockwork Orange), and other forms of physical abuse. Conversion Therapy has been denounced by the American Psychiatric Association and is banned in five states in America, but never fear, because our Vice President has argued for these interventions in the past and withheld HIV treatment from people who refused to get themselves "fixed."

So here's the main concern: after years of fighting for equality, our next President has vowed to repeal every single act that has affirmed our position as human beings in this nation allegedly built on equality. The Vice President is essentially a proponent of violent and aggressive therapies to cure the gay out of America. Once the conservatives dominate SCOTUS, only a few more steps need to be taken to ensure we're never equal again. First someone must bring a lawsuit against the state arguing that their religious beliefs have been infringed upon by allowing some flaming queen in San Francisco to get married. Because this is Post-Trump America, they will not have to prove much. Once this lawsuit gradually gets elevated to the Supreme Court, the court has to decide whether or not they will hear the case. Given that they owe their careers to this extremely anti-gay administration, I doubt they will refuse. At this point, they will vote, and gay marriage will be no more.

This is of course a lengthy process which could take years, but if Trump is able to deliver a conservative ruled Supreme Court, he doesn't have to be president if and when a new lawsuit finally gets to SCOTUS, Until another justice retires or dies and the next president is able to elect a liberal, we're in trouble, and I believe that while this will be difficult to achieve, it is by no means impossible. With an administration that is so geared toward and amped up on hatred, bigotry, homophobia, heterosexism, and just plain ignorance, I am scared for myself and my fellow gaybugs and butterflies (that's LGBs and Trans, respectively).

And this America, is why the Rainbow movement is terrified today.

Trump supporting the LGBT community just days before the election 

because he realized he needed us.

Exorcise the Gay Away!

June is LGBT pride month, which essentially means there will be a month long drought of rainbow décor and glitter in craft stores everywhere that will make the California water shortage look like Waterworld. And they certainly have something to celebrate: gaybugs have made immense amounts of progress in the last year, really within the last few months, given that the majority of states that had bans on gay marriage were challenged and the bans were overturned. It would appear that the scales have finally tipped in favor of the human rights movement, though the progress treads dangerously close to the borderline, and the percentages of proponents and opponents are sometimes varied by a few points. Public opinion obviously shifts depending on where you stand in the hemispheres of America, as seen in this unpleasant video on ABC's WhatWould You Do. There are still those who think it’s a sin, there are still those who think it’s disgusting. Most importantly, there are still those who think it’s a choice with a cure.

Conversion Therapy, once known as Gay Aversion Therapy, has lost popularity in mainstream mental health services gradually since homosexuality was eliminated as a mental disorder in the DSM in 1973. Prior to that, aversion therapies ranged from talk therapy and prayer to catatonia-inducing medications, shock treatment, and even lobotomies. Being gay was viewed as an unnatural diversion from the evolutionary, biological, spiritual, and moral norm; a disease that must be treated and cured alongside polio and leprosy. But even as early as the 1920s, individuals were starting to recognize the folly in this belief. One being Sigmund Freud, who was never really a particular favorite of mine, but scored bonus points with me when I uncovered this quote about conversion: “’in general to undertake to convert a fully developed homosexual into a heterosexual does not offer much more prospect of success than the reverse.’ Success meant making heterosexual feeling possible, not eliminating homosexual feelings.” And so many of these therapies focused on the latter; shock that was administered in pairings with “inappropriate visual stimuli”, if successful, only created a negative association to homosexual feelings. Heterosexual feelings were never fostered, and most “cured” gays were expected to live the life of a celibate or fake orgasms with their heterosexual partners. Documentaries focusing on these so-called ex-gays usually depicted men with plastered smiles on their faces, perched on a couch next to their wife, holding a bouncing baby, and seething with self-hatred and distaste for life. Some of these men eventually “regressed” back to their homosexual lifestyles once they found self-acceptance.

But these issues were from decades and even centuries ago, right? We’re no longer plagued with such ignorance. The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the American Medical Association have all unanimously spoken out against the practice of gay conversion therapies citing the damage that it can create and the principal of the Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm. Conversion therapy feeds into guilt and shame, which causes depression and suicidal ideations. So why is it that only recently some states are beginning to adopt bans against this harmful treatment?

Just one year ago in 2013, Governor Jerry Brown determined that it was illegal for mental health providers to administer conversion therapy to minors identifying as LGBT given that many of them were being forced into treatment by overzealous parents. New Jersey has a similar law, which means no more straightening camps, no more trivial therapy sessions, and no more private lashings (sadly, this does not apply to religious organizations such as pastors or priests, who are not licensed mental health professionals and always seem to think they can do whatever the hell they want anyways). Illinois is on its way to passing a conversion ban, as was New York, but unfortunately, ongoing passage of these protective legislations has hit obstacles.

As New York prepared passage, they were stalled because these so called ex-gays ventured out to a few meet and greets with law makers, trying to perpetuate the image that there is nothing wrong with degrading and denying your true self. Though I can’t call it a surprise, Texas has also jumped on the bandwagon as earlier this week the Republic party unveiled its anti-gay platform. In addition to claims of gays being the devil and “tearing at the fabric of society,” they argued that they “recognize the legitimacy and value of counseling which offers reparative therapy and treatment to patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy.” Likewise, in spite of the excess of medical and mental health associations noted above who are against conversion, and being one of the first states to ban conversion therapy for minors, the California Association of Marriage Therapists took a subtle stance against bans as well. While acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with being gay, CAMFT refused to go so far as to speak out against conversion therapy, stating, “CAMFT acknowledges that current cultural prejudice about same-sex sexual orientation compels some clients to seek out sexual orientation change due to personal, family, or religious conflicts, or to better fit into some cultural and religious norms[…] CAMFT advises mental health professionals that do provide assistance to those who seek sexual orientation change, to do so by utilizing affirmative multi-culturally competent and client-centered approaches that recognize the negative impact of social stigma on sexual minorities and balance ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence (sic), justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity.”

So yes, we know that being gay causes distress in homosexual individuals. They are constantly faced with adversity, discrimination, bullying, humiliation, and weekly if not daily reminders that their lifestyle is not moral, that they are Hell-bound, that they are dirty and second-class citizens. They are not afforded the same protections and rights as heterosexuals. They have been beaten, they have been shamed, they have been spit on and knocked down. But in what other circumstance would a mental health professional tell someone to change themselves to reduce stress from an outside source? “So your husband berates and beats you? Well let’s teach you how to stop being annoying and getting in his way.” “Oh your mom’s an alcoholic and it bothers you? Well, we’ll teach you to be a better child so she will stop drinking.” “Someone called you the N-word and burned a cross in your front yard? Well let’s start painting your skin white, and then no one will bother you.” “Oh it’s hard to be gay in today’s society? Well then, let’s straighten you out!” The responsibility of change needs to shift away from the client and out into the world.

The cornerstones of therapy are self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-acceptance. When a gay child is distressed or depressed, it is not reflective of some innate internal struggle. It is the crushing dissonance this world has implanted in their small minds. And it grows with them; it consumes them. It is the mental health professional’s responsibility to challenge and destroy these distortions, to strengthen the client, to stand against social stigmas. As a lesbian, I can tell you, being gay is not a walk in paradise, and yes, life got hard, but I got stronger to survive it. I can’t and won’t be fixed; I’m not broken. As a mental health professional, I can tell you it’s not my job to fix anyone else who’s not broken either.