Posts 7-11

Post 7

Hello again – I affirm that males who discover themselves same-sex attracted can grow beyond feeling and doing gay. Homosexuality has remained a conundrum and major social issue because it has been misunderstood and responded to inappropriately by both homosexuals and heterosexuals.

Post 8

Through time gays have been viewed generally as willfully errant adults, and societies have ignorantly used severe punishment to dissuade them from pursuing other males erotically. These approaches have not gained their desired ends because force does not change hearts. More often than not clergy, too, have offered cold shoulders and fists rather than hands up.

Post 9

Psychoanalyst who grew up heterosexual are not able to fathom the homosexual soul. In their patients, they saw only adults with a sexual problem, that being not turned on by women. And they established clinical objectives to correct this perceived defect that were destined to fail. Essentially, they sent boys to do men's work. They were unable to understand that homosexuality is the outgrowth of young children's maladaptive response to early trauma.

Post 10

Gays have rebelled against abuse, and activists have fostered the slogans “Born that way, can't change,” and “Once gay always gay.” When legitimately needful men believe these false ideas, they are relieved from searching for ways to healthfully connect with others of their own gender. Thus, they sustain their estrangement and fail to achieve heterosexual identity.

Post 11

Gay men are prisoners of childhood, blocked on their developmental path to psychosexual maturity. Same-sex attraction, if responded to properly, that is non-erotically, can be the motivational engine for growth. It is the soul's urge to get back on track, to experience the nurturing masculine social/emotional relationships, that means spiritual resonance with valued heterosexual men that can bring healing. Better ways of understanding this issue can encourage homosexuals and heterosexuals to move beyond combative positions to healthful resolutions and realize mutual growth and genuine brotherly love.