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11/30/2010

Because it's about more than our ring fingers: NOM affiliate backs 'Reorienting sexuality'

by Jeremy Hooper

Some "ex-gay" promotion from National Organization For Marriage affiliate The Ruth Institute:

"Everyone has had the experience of being sexually attracted to someone, and then having the fires doused upon learning that the object of their affections has odious habits or holds an offensive set of beliefs. Most people have also had the experience of finding someone physically unappealing at first, and of coming to feel differently as an emotional relationship develops.

To a certain degree this is the result of natural change, but it is also influenced by one’s choices.
Emotional relationships develop because of the choice to spend time with another. Ideological positions are a collaboration between the intellect and the will. Aesthetics can change as a result of deliberately seeking or eschewing certain types of beauty. Human personality is not fixed; it is malleable. It may not be possible to make radical changes all at once, but the will is much more powerful than the rhetoric of biological determinism gives it credit for.

This is just as true on the level of classes of people as it is on the level of individuals. A man who is originally repulsed by people of different races can teach himself to see the beauty in those who do not resemble him. A woman who finds men frightening or off-putting can develop an increased understanding of, and respect for masculinity. These changes are not only possible, they happen all the time – and they can happen to people who think that they are incapable of having a sexual relationship either with women or with men."

Reorienting sexuality by Melinda Selmys, columnist at National Catholic Register and author of Sexual Authenticity: An Intimate Reflection on Homosexuality and Catholicism [The Ruth Blog]

Homosexuality presented as an obstacle to overcome, like racism or gender-based fears. Same-sex attractions likened to misplaced attractions for the wrong suitor. Oh, and "change" positioned as the life goal, when self-acceptance would be the more natural choice. Credible science be damned all around.

These NOM folks can say it's all about "protecting marriage" until they're blue in the faces. When it comes to gay marriage, there's more than enough evidence of them warring against the first word in that phrase, not just the last.

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