Self ... um ... love will make you gay?
Boy do I wish I'd been at last weekend's Values Voters Summit. I crossed it off my calendar because I was sure it would be a snore, but now I see I shouldn't have prejudged the event. It was full of interesting sociology theories by right-wing nutjobs thinkers.
For example, Michael Schwartz, chief of staff to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), talked about pornography at a session called "The New Masculinity." The Washington Independent has a story and a video. It's a blight, a disaster, a disease infecting society, he said. Well, so far so good. He gets no argument from me. That's what I think too.
But just when I expected to read his thoughts about the new masculinity's role in degrading and objectifying women and the contortion of heterosexual relationships, Schwartz proved he was an original thinker. No, pornography's chief sin is that it will make boys gay. (I speak in terms of male-female relationships because I am certain that not in Schwarz's dizziest daydream does he realize there is such a thing as actual gay pornography.)
According to Schwartz, a friend once told him that "All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inward."
So if we just tell little boys that pornography will make them gay, he reasoned, then they're bound to stay away from it. Because no one is as homophobic as a 10- or 11-year-old boy.
Well, I don't know.
Didn't we used to tell boys that indulging in, say, an inward sexual drive would make them go blind? Now it's gay?
I'm so confused.
-- Lisa Richardson
Yes, folks, it's true. And by this time next year, the wacky religious right will take this and run with it. We'll be hearing stories about how Gay men buy young boys Playboy mags to turn them gay.
Stay tune, cause you know it only gets better.
Posted by: Dale | September 21, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Why all the focus on boys? I assume that Mr. Schwartz provided ample evidence from countless double-blind studies to prove his point. So what is it about boys in particular that has them "turning" homosexual upon watching straight pornography. What about little girls? Do they also "turn" gay?
I get the sarcasm from your opinion, but seriously, aren't there enough people making things up with absolutely no justification? Do you really have to repeat outright lies?
Posted by: Daniel Marthaler | September 21, 2009 at 04:52 PM
uhm...who's on first and what's on second so that must mean where's on top, er, why's on bottom...the original abbott & costello routine is so much better than this guy's 'theory'.
Posted by: Tara | September 21, 2009 at 06:05 PM
Yeah - porn will cause people to become gay ...........
Like matches cause arson,
Guns kill people,
Alcohol causes accidents,
And all that other blah, blah, blah!
-charles
Posted by: charles | September 22, 2009 at 05:04 AM
Well, it is odd to say that all pornography is homosexual, but I think there may be something to the claim that it turns your sexual drive inward. On a folk psychology level, I'd say he's right about that part. My relationships seem much healthier since I stopped looking at porno all the time.
Posted by: Ben | September 22, 2009 at 05:52 AM
It is not a sin to be gay, but I doubt that pornography turns you in that direction. Our natural inclinations and choices do not change with such temporary viewing. It is good that most of us are heterosexual; only this will help bring more of us in this world, I mean reproduction.
Our motto should be to remain true to our natural ways, without banning homosexuality.
Posted by: Sharif Lone | September 22, 2009 at 06:23 AM
That Michael Schwartz may have children, or even the ability to have children proves the in-existence of God.
I'll bet he's a sensitive and caring lover, too.
Posted by: Chris | September 22, 2009 at 07:25 AM
This means that the oft-repeated statistic that "10%" of the population is gay should be more like 90%, and likely 100% among Republican "values voters" and politicians.
There's a big problem with the porn theory -- I am 110% gay, yet in my formative years, I had zero interest in hetero- porn and no access (or even awareness of) to homo- porn.
Posted by: Mark | September 22, 2009 at 09:53 AM
Holy cow, you straight people are so weird sometimes.
Posted by: Michael | September 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM
And an inwardly-turned sexual drive (assuming it is true that pornography does that) causes one to become homosexual how? I am, by the way, another completely gay male who had no exposure to pornography (gay or straight) before coming to realize, and accept, and appreciate the fact that I am gay.
No one is as homophobic as a 10 or 11 year old boy? How old is Senator Coburn?
Posted by: Tom | September 22, 2009 at 01:14 PM
If porn makes men gay, it's because the men tend to be better-looking than the women, and what they have is real (unlike the "done" faces, processed hair, and balloon breasts of the female porn stars).
Posted by: Ironman Carmichael | September 22, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Seriously? And we're the ones that are "queer"?!!
Posted by: Sloppy Joe | September 22, 2009 at 05:17 PM
Hetrosexual men and the worst sex offenders and perpetrators in the world. Being that 75% of all people arrested for sex crimes in America are Straight and 87% are men. It's straight men that do the crimes. Womyn and girls are 98% of the victims of sex crimes in America. So this opinion has no basis in fact. But hate rarely does. virginia Hull
Posted by: virginia hull | September 23, 2009 at 08:40 AM
umm. when he said "he had experiences with pre-adoloscent boys", I almost thought I was listening to a Catholic confession.
Thank God for conservatives/republicans. Life would be so boring without them around.
Posted by: Plugnpillai | September 23, 2009 at 11:29 AM
@Virginia -- Not trying to pick a fight here, but what's the source of those numbers? I suspect you're talking about *reported* crimes, which is a very different statistic from actual crimes perpetrated -- a statistic that's virtually unknowable, given how many sex crimes never get reported. I also wonder what point you're trying to make about Lisa's post or the views of its subject, Michael Schwartz....
Posted by: Jon Healey | September 23, 2009 at 03:50 PM