(1) Canada: basic freedoms lost since same-sex marriage came to town (2) Gay Gene (3) How I went from committed lesbian to a happily married mother of four (4) Ultra-Orthodox Jew stabs Gay pride marchers in Jerusalem (5) Surrogate mother refuses to let Gay parents take baby (6) Walt Heyer became a Woman, then realized his mistake & Detransitioned back to be a Man (7) Paper Genders, by Walt Heyer (8) UN's Androgynist agenda wants all women in the workforce. No full-time mothers (1) Canada: basic freedoms lost since same-sex marriage came to town Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2015 22:54:25 +0000 (UTC) From: Eric Walberg <walberg2002@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Businesses fined under anti-discrimination law for not servicing same-sex weddings > Boy Scouts of America ends ban on gay and lesbian troop leaders > http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/27/boy-scouts-gay-troop-leaders-ban-gay-marriage hi peter, interesting compromise in scouts. > Canada: basic freedoms lost since same-sex marriage came to town > http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=57042 disgusting legal viciousness and blindness in canada. shame on us. eric (2) Gay Gene Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2015 23:04:12 +0000 (UTC) From: Eric Walberg <walberg2002@yahoo.com> > http://www.dailywire.com/news/445/study-no-theres-no-evidence-gay-gene-pardes-seleh re 'gay gene'. that is primitive. but the most convincing study i read about argued that the hormonal develop of the fetus gets mixed up when the brain is being programmed. the article here doesn't mention this. (3) How I went from committed lesbian to a happily married mother of four Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2015 23:21:04 -0800 From: blissentia <blissentia@gmail.com> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1289652/How-I-went-committed-lesbian-happily-married-mother-four.html By Jackie Clune for MailOnline Updated: 09:14 EST, 26 June 2010 As Chris Huhne leaves his wife for a mistress who was once in a gay partnership, JACKIE CLUNE talks candidly about her own emotional journey Looking at my four children racing around the garden with their father, it seems almost impossible to believe that only a few years ago I never imagined having a family. Or rather, when I did stop to think of myself as becoming a mother, I imagined the only way I'd do so would be through an anonymous sperm donor. Today, with five-year-old triplets, Thady, Frank and Orla, and a seven-year-old daughter, Saoirse, a husband and a home in a leafy London suburb, I could be viewed as the archehtypal wife and mother, even if - as a stand-up comedian and actress - I don't have a conventional career. But through my 20s and 30s, I cut a very different figure altogether: I was a lesbian. So, what turns a woman like me straight? Did I simply cave in to conventionality later in life? Was my biological clock too deafening to ignore the desire for a child? Do some women simply play at lesbianism because it appears cool? Or are some gay women much more flexible about who they fall in love with? These were certainly the questions on many people's lips this week, when it was revealed that Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne's mistress, Carina Trimingham, had dropped her female partner of a number of years in favour of a man. For some, this fact was more shocking than the betrayal of Huhne's wife, which is a familiar enough yarn in the world of politics. Of course, I can't speak for another woman, but I do arrive at this story with baggage - of a very personal nature. For 12 years, between the ages of 22 and 34, I was in several long-term lesbian relationships. From 1988 until 2000 I lived in lesbian households, drank in lesbian pubs, went on gay rights marches and viewed my long-term future as being exclusively with women. In fact, I was convinced that - having made what seemed at the time as a very certain leap into lesbianism - I would never again have cause to go out with a man. Of course, that's not how I saw my life panning out when I was a child. I was brought up in Essex by very traditional Irish Catholic parents and attended a Catholic comprehensive school. As a young girl, perhaps as a result of my family background and education, there was no question I'd ever be anything other than heterosexual. It never occurred to me that there was anything else to be. The only time I ever heard the word 'lesbian' was as a term of abuse towards tennis ace Martina Navratilova, and it certainly never occurred to me to desire anther woman. I fell in love at 17 with Tim, a hugely attractive pupil at the local grammar school. It was a very intense relationship and I believed I would be with him for ever. We talked about getting married and having children. We carried on dating even when we went to separate universities - he to Cambridge and I to Kent. Tim was incredibly bright and extremely good looking. He was my first love and we had a passionate physical relationship. But as I reached 22 I realised that the people I liked best were all women and in truth always had been, if only on a friendship basis. I had studied feminist literature at university and it opened my eyes to the possibility of sexuality as a life choice. I am convinced that while men are usually entirely driven by sex when it comes to choosing a mate, women are often attracted more by the emotional side of the relationship and I was excited by the close bond a relationship with another female could bring. I realise that many gay people will think it sounds absurd that I 'chose' lesbianism. For them, their sexuality is so innate and undeniable that the issue of 'choice' doesn't come into it. But perhaps that's not the case for all women. For I can honestly say that I never felt the need to 'come out' as gay or straight - I simply decided to fall in love with women. My first sexual experience was with a lesbian woman called Gwen. It was an incredibly intense relationship. Within weeks, she went from being a very good friend to someone I wanted to spend all my time with. She was a committed lesbian. Perhaps had she not been, nothing would have happened. But when she made the first move, it seemed totally right. It's not that I stopped liking men, just that I felt a relationship with a woman would be a richer experience. After all, given the choice I would choose a woman over a man for a really great chat, an inspiring conversation or to share emotional problems with. A physical relationship with a woman seemed a logical progression. Perhaps the best analogy is that I had come to see men in terms of 'black and white' whereas I saw women in colour. So I dumped my lovely boyfriend of five years. I didn't tell him the truth at first but when I finally admitted that I had fallen for another woman, he was relieved. It seemed to take away the jealousy. My close friends knew immediately - but I shied away from telling my family for several years. I knew that, as Irish Catholics with a strong sense of family, they would be shocked and upset. Yet when I summoned up the courage to tell them the truth, they were understanding and supportive - after an initial period of concern. Three's a crowd: Chris Huhne, his Wife Vicky Pryce (glasses) and lover Carina Trimingham looks on from the back (far left) on election day last month So I threw myself into the fullblown lesbian lifestyle - gay clubs, bars and pubs - and my relationships with women tended to be long and loving, if a little too turbulent at times. The sheer amount of talking and analysing that went on was exhausting. The women I went out with were by and large more inclined to be insecure and to need reassurance and I found myself in the male role of endlessly reassuring my girlfriends. The subtle mood changes of everyday life would be picked over inexhaustibly. One girlfriend was so insecure that every single time we enjoyed a night out - usually at a bar - we would have a row and have to leave. She would convince herself that I was flirting with another woman and, however much I tried not to catch anyone's eye, she wouldn't believe me. Back home, we would then spend the next four hours arguing about our relationship and my feelings of loyalty, fidelity and so on. It was never-ending. It may sound prosaic but when you add female hormones into the mix, the problems are even worse. Can you imagine waking up beside a woman when you've both got raging PMT? I also believe the very fact of being in a lesbian relationship adds to the problems of jealousy and insecurity. With so few role models and no cultural support, it's hard to know how to behave or what expectations are reasonable. My straight female friends thought my deeply intense relationships sounded fantastic. They envied me the empathy I felt with my girlfriend. Why couldn't they feel as close to their husbands and boyfriends? Unlike most men, women, of course, offer each other endless support and there's hardly ever any lack of communication. But - bizarre as it may seem - I found myself longing for exactly the opposite. I wanted a bit more difference, a little less talking and a bit more edge and my relationships often paid the price. I had been so committed, I even bought a flat with one of my partners. Two years later we split up. We had been together five years and the break-up was excruciating, as all our raging emotions came to the fore. Then in 2000, when I was 33, another seemingly ideal lesbian relationship went badly wrong. We had been together three years and I had honestly convinced myself that she was the one. But, once again, our relationship was destroyed because we got so exhausted with the emotional clashes and jealousy that never seemed to subside. The ironic part is that I have never, ever, been unfaithful in a relationship. But having to constantly placate a jealous partner was wearying - and my relationships often paid the price. As I pieced over the failings, I took a second look at my history. Was I picking the wrong women or was I simply not cut out to be a lesbian? This may sound totally coldhearted, but I made a calculated decision to try men again. I can honestly say that, although I was 34, this had nothing to do with my biological clock. I had always rather casually thought that, if I wanted children, I would use a sperm donor. So my decision was not in any way connected to a desire for a baby. And, while I had male friends, I had not even had the faintest flicker of interest in any man for years. But I suspect the simple truth is that I no longer felt I needed to be defined by my sexuality. I had outgrown lesbianism. For more than a decade my sexuality had been a vital part of who I was. When we're young, we all need to belong to a tribe and to have a banner to march under. This may sound absurd, but calling myself a lesbian was almost like calling myself a punk or a goth. I don't want to undermine my relationships - they meant a great deal to me at the time and I look back on them with great affection - and I am well aware that many people will find it shocking, if not downright offensive, when I say that I chose a different path. I repeat, I know many people are totally convinced that they are born gay and have absolutely no choice over their sexual orientation. All I can say is that I believe not every gay person is gay for life. In particular, I believe that many women are capable of feeling attracted to other women - to be with someone who believes it's perfectly normal to talk about how you feel and wants to know every single thought that passes through your head. That feeling of total empathy and togetherness is a very specific bond between two women. Whether women act on these feelings or not depends, of course, on many complicated social and psychological factors. For me, finally shutting the door on lesbianism was rocky. It had been 12 years since I had been out with a man and I was terribly nervous about how to relate to men as anything other than platonic mates. I felt like a teenager again. I would flirt and then back off in alarm like a frightened schoolgirl. Then in 2001 I met Richard, a 35-year-old actor. We started dating and for a long while it was quite casual, but something about his quiet kindness and his lack of neediness started to appeal to me. I felt we were walking alongside each other rather than spending life locked in face-to-face intimacy or combat. It felt natural and not at all scary. He was sanguine about my past and never suffered the insecurities I had come to expect. It was a breath of fresh air. I've always been fiercely independent and felt I could be myself with him. Within a year I found myself pregnant. Our daughter was born and 11 months later I was even more shocked when I discovered I was pregnant again - with triplets, conceived without any form of fertility treatment. We married in 2008 and our life is hectic, to say the least. I could never in a million years have imagined, in the full throes of my lesbian life, that I would one day live such a conventional straight lifestyle. In fact, I would have thrown up my hands in horror at the very idea. And perhaps it was no surprise that most of my lesbian friends were outraged that I had taken up with men. It seemed a betrayal of all they and I had stood for. Diva magazine, the biggest lesbian publication in the UK, voted me Most Disappointing Lesbian Of The Year. And the criticism still continues. There was (briefly) a Facebook group saying People Like Jackie Clune Should Be Taken Outside And Shot. Although the criticism is hurtful, I understand where it's coming from - I've confused everybody. In the gay world some people hate the way many of us believe sexuality can be fluid. The idea of bisexuality is anathema to them. They see it as a mark of indecision or even self-delusion. Actually I have never thought of myself as bisexual. And I certainly don't now that I am married. That would be tantamount to admitting that I am thinking of being unfaithful with a woman, which has never been the case. But then this is an issue that provokes so much misunderstanding and downright anger. For many in the gay community, changing one's sexuality is seen as a heinous act of betrayal. Straight people, for their part, always want to know why I switched sexuality (often with the offensive implication that I was somehow behaving strangely when I was a lesbian but I'm 'all right' now). The idea of a woman being ' converted' back to her proper place - in bed with a man - is somehow still titillating to many people. That is why I have much sympathy for those who find themselves caught up in the middle. Carina Trimingham may be guilty of duplicity and dishonesty for having an affair with a married man. And I feel huge compassion both for Chris Huhne's wronged wife and for Carina's betrayed female partner. But as for blaming her for living as a lesbian and then having an affair with a man? Definitely not. After all, I know only too well how natural it feels to fall in love with people both of the opposite sex - and your own. Jackie Clune is appearing in Love Songs And Hate Mail at London's Soho Theatre July 15 to 17. (4) Ultra-Orthodox Jew stabs Gay pride marchers in Jerusalem http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-31/6-stabbed-as-assailant-repeats-gay-pride-attack-in-jerusalem/6661704 Six stabbed as assailant repeats gay pride attack in Jerusalem, police say An ultra-Orthodox Jew has stabbed six gay pride marchers in Jerusalem, in a repeat of a 2005 attack for which he served 10 years behind bars, police and medics say. Yishai Shlissel was released from jail three weeks ago after having served his sentence for the attack a decade ago when three marchers were wounded, a police spokesman said. The Magen David Adom, the Jewish equivalent of the Red Cross, said two of Thursday's casualties were in serious condition. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly condemned the attack as a "very serious incident". "The state of Israel respects the private freedom of individuals which is a fundamental principle exercised in this country," he said in a statement. "We must ensure that every man and every woman can live in full security in any way that they choose." After police arrested the assailant, participants carried on with the march through streets decked with rainbow flags to a park where a party was planned for the evening. Hundreds of police are deployed to prevent violence breaking out in the highly conservative city during the annual march. In past years, ultra-Orthodox protesters have gathered in their Mea Shearim bastion to denounce what they consider the "abomination" of homosexuality.Organisers of Thursday's march avoided ultra-Orthodox sectors to a bid to prevent incidents. Israel's homosexual community was plunged into grief in 2009 when a gunman attacked a centre for young gays in Tel Aviv killing two people and wounding 15 others. That assailant has never been caught. Israel is widely seen as having liberal gay rights policies, despite the ultra-Orthodox hostility towards homosexuals, particularly men. The Jewish state repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988. AFP (5) Surrogate mother refuses to let Gay parents take baby http://www.familylawexpress.com.au/family-law-news/parental/surrogacy/surrogate-mother-refuses-to-let-gay-parents-take-baby/2961/ Published: August 3rd, 2015 Written By: Letitia Rowlands A couple is stranded in Thailand after their baby’s surrogate mother withdrew her permission for them to take the little girl home. The surrogate, who is not biologically related to the baby, handed over newborn Carmen to American Gordon Lake and his Spanish husband Manuel Valero in January. She then failed to show up at a meeting scheduled for her to sign paperwork allowing Carmen to leave Thailand with her fathers. Lake and Valero say the woman, known only as Oy, refused to sign Carmen’s documentation after she realise the couple was gay. “For the last six months, we have been stuck in Thailand, faced with the possibility of losing our jobs and our house back in the US because we cannot leave,” Lake wrote on a crowdfunding site they set up to assist with their legal fees. “If we leave, we risk the greatest loss of all – our beautiful baby daughter, Carmen. All this because our surrogate doesn’t want Carmen to be raised by gay parents, and the law that should give me full parental powers excludes me from obtaining them because I am gay.” Lake and Valero already have a two-year-old son named Alvaro, who was carried by an Indian surrogate. “We chose Thailand for gestational surrogacy, where an egg donor is used. Our agency seemed reputable. “They never warned us there could be any problem doing this as a gay couple. We certainly would have never started the process if we had known what we know now. “The surrogate was friendly and willing to sign all documents, right up until Carmen was three days old and she met Manuel, my spouse. “When she realised we aren’t an ‘ordinary’ family, in her words, she shut down the process allowing us to take Carmen home.” The couple’s plight is made even more difficult due to a new Thai law banning foreigners from using local surrogates. The new law was enacted in February and was prompted by a series of scandals surrounding Thailand’s surrogacy industry last year. baby-carmenFirstly Australian baby Gammy, who has Down syndrome, was abandoned by his parents, who left him in Thailand when they returned home with his healthy twin sister. Then, in a second controversy, nine babies fathered by a Japanese man using Thai surrogate mothers were discovered in a Bangkok apartment. The couple’s surrogate was already pregnant with baby Carmen when those scandals broke. The new law features a temporary provision allowing intended parents who had already begun the surrogacy process to claim parental rights over their babies, but as the provision uses the wording “husband and wife” it excludes gay parents. “[The words ‘husband and wife’ close] the clear path to exiting the country that Carmen should be eligible for, because we are a gay couple,” Gordon wrote. “We are good people who have gotten tangled up in a big problem. We only want to return home to our families with our daughter.” When baby Carmen’s surrogate spoke to local television station Channel 3 she insisted she had no problem with the couple’s sexual orientation. “But I’m worried about the baby, her future and that she might fall into the hands of human traffickers,” she said. Meanwhile Lake told Channel 3 he and Valero wanted to solve the issue “peacefully”. “She’s our daughter, we’ll be here as long as we need to be. We’re not leaving Thailand without our daughter,” he said. “From the very beginning we’ve wanted to solve this peacefully. We want her to be involved in her life. We want to sit down and figure out how we solve this situation. “We just want to talk to her … and find a way where she’ll be comfortable knowing we’re good parents and where she’ll be comfortable knowing Carmen is in a good family.” (6) Walt Heyer became a Woman, then realized his mistake & Detransitioned back to be a Man http://www.mercatornet.com/conjugality/view/the-pain-of-transgender-regret/16982 FRIDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2015 The pain of transgender regret BY WALT HEYER At the age of 42, Walt Heyer was married and had two children. But he had felt for years that he was stuck in the wrong gender. So he fully transitioned and emerged as Laura Jensen. After living as a woman for eight years, he realised that he had made a terrible mistake. Now he has detransitioned back to his birth gender and provides encouragement to people who regret their gender change. MercatorNet: Bruce – now Caitlin – Jenner seems perfectly happy with his gender change. Doesn’t his experience prove that a gender change is possible? Walt Heyer: I was also "perfectly happy" with my gender change for about eight years. No one knows if Jenner will remain happy. It has been only a few months and he has had great financial benefit. When the cameras are no longer rolling and reality sets in, things could change very quickly for Jenner. MercatorNet: You have been very harshly criticised for your “transphobia” in the media. Does that trouble you? Walt Heyer: Name calling is hardly a good argument. When people call me names it says much more about them than it does me. The goal of the activists is to silence anyone who disagrees with their agenda. MercatorNet: Why don’t we hear much about people who have “detransitioned”, like yourself? Walt Heyer: There is an important reason. They are so ashamed and devastated about their mistake that they do not want to come forward. MercatorNet: Civil rights for transgender people is the new frontier for human rights, it seems. But barely 10 years ago, it was scarcely a blip on the radar. How did it become so popular? Walt Heyer: Over a decade ago, there were transvestites, drag queens, cross-dressers and sexual fetishes. Today the reason there is such an explosion in the numbers of transgenders is because those categories no longer exist. Everyone who previously would have identified as one of those is now included in the category of transgender and encouraged to transition. I think the expansion of the power of LGBT political and sexual activists, along with political correctness, has moved the cause of civil rights for transgenders beyond what anyone could ever have imagined. In my view this "frontier" ignores the greater need to provide effective and sound diagnosis for transgenders. It is politically incorrect to point out the science that shows transgenders suffer from undiagnosed co-morbid disorders that cause the desire to change genders. The lack of effective diagnosis and treatment of co-existing disorders in transgenders, evidenced by the high rate of suicide attempts, is covered up by the call for civil rights. The politicizing of a medical issue has hindered research and thereby harmed those who suffer from gender dysphoria. MercatorNet: What is known about the origin of gender dysphoria, or the yearning to live as a different gender? Are people born as transgender? Walt Heyer: There is no evidence that transgenders are born that way. There is, however, evidence that they are suffering from untreated mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, dissociative disorder, separation anxiety, schizophrenia, and personality disorder. I go into this in depth in my book, Paper Genders. MercatorNet: Do many transgender people regret their decision? Is suicide an issue? What does transitioning do to their relationships? Walt Heyer: According to a survey published last year by the Williams Institute, a think tank for LGBT issues at UCLA School of Law, 41 percent of transgenders attempt suicide. I believe that attempting suicide is a sign of regret. Transitioning has good and bad outcomes on relationships. Even Jenner is beginning to experience some of his kids wanting to distance themselves from him. Generally, a parent’s transition has a devastating effect on their children. MercatorNet: Nowadays there seems to be an increasing number of youngsters – from prepubescent children to teenagers – who are preparing for sex change operations. Is this wise? Walt Heyer: Studies show 77 to 94 percent of young people who identify with gender dysphoria will not identify as gender dysphoria as adults. In other words, they grow out of it. The media will show the young people as happy early on. Everyone is happy early on. But the media doesn’t show them years after, when their feelings change, which goes back to the point about regretters not wanting to go public. The media will not talk about the alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness, poverty and suicide as the real picture of the transgender life. MercatorNet: What do you think of the ethics of the surgeons and psychiatrists who manage the sex change? Walt Heyer: The staggering statistics on attempted suicide prove that sex change isn’t working. Long-term follow-up to assess the effectiveness of this so-called “treatment” is non-existent. They are experimenting on hurting people. The ethics get lost. The psychiatrists neglect to assess and treat co-morbid mental disorders. And then there’s the money and prestige. Surgeons make over a million dollars a year for performing the sex change surgery. MercatorNet: Why don’t we hear much about people who have “detransitioned”, like you. Walt Heyer: I hear from them every week. They contact me because I understand and am willing to listen and help. You yourself pointed to the treatment I get from the media because I have detransitioned and have the audacity to talk about it publically. The ones who contact me are hurting, often to the point of suicide, about the magnitude of the devastation they have brought upon themselves. They wouldn’t withstand the harsh criticism. They know that the activists will treat them with disdain and worse. Walt Heyer is an author and public speaker with a passion for mentoring individuals whose lives have been torn apart by unnecessary gender-change surgery. For more information visit his blog or his website, www.sexchangeregret.com. (7) Paper Genders, by Walt Heyer http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Genders-Pulling-Transgender-Phenomenon/dp/0615468594 Paper Genders by Walt Heyer 44 of 56 people found the following review helpful Thanks Walt! I wish doctors and psychiatrists had your courage to speak out against this booming trend of medical disfigurement. By breakingnice on November 20, 2013 I admire the courage that Walt had to write this book and tell the sad story of how doctors, psychiatrists, and therapists have either out of personal agenda or political correctness colluded to destroy the lives of confused children, teens, and adults through gender hormones and sexual reassignment surgery. The dirty little secret is that professionals would lose their licenses or be boycotted to the point of ruin by speaking out against the booming trend of transgenderism. Money is driving the transgender train -- either because of the means to financial gain or the fear of financial loss. What's even sadder is that this has moved into the world of pediatrics. Doctors such as Dr. Spack of the Children's Hospital in Boston and Dr. Olsen of the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles are administering hormones to children to change their bodies so that they appear more like the opposite sex. This process can begin as early as age 9 and renders them sterile by 16 years old! Following a few years of hormone therapy, many patients are given "gender reassignment" -- breasts and/or genitalia are surgically altered or removed. This is happening at CHILDREN'S hospitals! These doctors are paid handsomely to do it!!! Children are truly in the hands of mad scientists. Where is the outcry? Who will protect these children? The FDA is supposed to protect us from harmful medicine, yet doctors are able to administer hormones and hormone blockers to children? We won't let kids drink alcohol until their 21, but we'll pump hormones in their bodies without any consideration for what the long-term effects may be. I hope, I really hope, that doctors and psychologists will read Walt's book and find the courage to step forward.Read more › Comment Was this review helpful to you? 53 of 70 people found the following review helpful A must read for anyone involved in transgender By Parent on June 17, 2012 You will probably love or hate this book, but the facts and ideas should not be ignored when people, many of them very young, are butchering and mutilating their bodies without complete disclosure. This is so serious a topic! The author is himself an ex-trans and has had the surgery--he deserves a voice no matter what the GLBT do to ignore what he says. Our 22 yr old child is on the transgender path. The GLBT insists that transgendering is the ONLY option, and it is like our child is brainwashed. Every person who deals with trans professionally, is a lawmaker, has a loved one doing trans, or cares where society is headed needs to read this book as a voice for sanity. I am one of many parents I know who is dealing with the heartbreak of seeing a child attempt trans as the answer to issues that won't be solved by transition. There is an alarming suicide rate for those who DO transition; so to say transition, as radical as it is, is the answer, is misguided. There is no going back after surgeries, and there is no way to replace the missing body parts. Mastectomies, hysterectomies and penectomies are only the beginning of surgical obsession in many to become what they were not born. To think that a person will have to take a lifetime of strong hormones, and damage their body medically over time (there is no question about that) is frightening. Read this book, and look at the whole picture. You won't hear what is said in this book from the GLBT. United Nations’ Beijing Conference on Women - differences between men and women are artificial constructs (8) UN's Androgynist agenda wants all women in the workforce. No full-time mothers http://www.mercatornet.com/conjugality/view/twenty-years-of-the-gender-agenda/17041 WEDNESDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2015 Twenty years of the gender agenda BY DALE O'LEARY Twenty years ago I attended the United Nations’ Beijing Conference on Women. The focus of the gathering was the definition of “gender”. The word appeared at least once in almost all of platforms over 300 sections. While many people believe that the words “sex” and “gender” are interchangeable, the goal of the Beijing conference was to change radically the definition of both. Until then, sex had described to the totality of what it means to be male or female, and gender was a grammatical term. But gender theory downgraded sex to the biological level only. In normal usage sex was to be replaced by gender, and gender would describe socially constructed roles that could be changed. A male could have a female gender identity. According to gender ideology, all the psychological and cultural differences between men and women are artificial constructs that not only can, but should be eliminated so that men and women participate in every activity of society in statistically equal numbers. The obvious enemy of this agenda is motherhood. If two people have sexual relations, only one gets pregnant and it’s always the woman. When the conference was over I wrote a book, The Gender Agenda: Redefining Equality. The following are quotations from the conclusion of my book. The UN is inhabited by people who believe that what the world needs is: 1) Fewer people 2) More sexual pleasure 3) The elimination of the differences between men and women 4) No full-time mothers These people recognize that increasing sexual pleasure could increase the number of babies and mothers. Therefore, their prescription for world salvation is: 1) Free contraception and legal abortions 2) Promotion of homosexuality (sex without babies) 3) Sex education courses, which encourage sexual experimentation among children; which teach them how to get contraception and abortions, that homosexuality is normal, and that men and women are the same. 4) The elimination of parental rights so that parents cannot prevent children from having sex, sex education, contraception or abortion 5) Fifty/fifty, male/female quotas 6) All women in the workforce 7) Discrediting all religions that oppose this agenda. This is the ‘gender perspective’ and they want it mainstreamed in every program at every level in every country. . . . The Gender Agenda cannot be defeated until people are willing to stand up and say, “No more inclusive language, no more politically correct speech.” We must refuse to say “gender” when we mean “sex”. Those who are offended by reality and human nature will just have to live with it. During the Beijing conference, at a meeting sponsored by pro-family, prolife NGO’s, two lesbians spoke up. They were crying and said that all they wanted was to get married. The pro-family, pro-life spokespersons had no compassionate answer and I knew that this would be next major challenge. It was obvious then that we were in the midst of a culture war and the issues before us were inextricably linked. In the intervening years things have gotten worse. People who should know better use gender when they mean sex. Others go along with the fantasy that a man can become a woman, or that the relationship between two people of the same sex is a marriage. Selling unborn baby parts is defended on the floor of the US Senate. Just when it felt like the world had gone over the edge, Africa’s Catholic bishops stood up and refused to be blackmailed by UN bureaucrats and western gender activists. Having cowed the Western nations into submission with accusations of sexism and homophobia, the gender activists turned their attention to Africa and demanded that, as a condition of receiving development aid, the African nations adopt the gender agenda. However, the African bishops saw through the ambivalent language of “reproductive rights” and in a Common Statement rejected, as a new form of slavery, the “so-called ‘gender perspective,’ according to which motherhood, the filial and nuptial identity of the human being and the family based on marriage between a man and a woman would be ‘discriminatory stereotypes.’” Let us hope that people of good sense will follow their lead, wake up, realize they have been conned, and stand against gender theory in all its forms. Dale O’Leary is a US writer with a special interest in psychosexual issues and is the author of two books: One Man, One Woman and The Gender Agenda: Redefining Equality. She blogs at What Does the Research Really Say? -- Peter Myers Australia website: http://mailstar.net/index.html |
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