Police continue to investigate multiple death threats against Montgomery County, Maryland, council member Duchy Trachtenberg.

Trachtenberg has been threatened because of her support of a bill opposing discrimination against transgender county residents. Letters to her have allegedly varied in tone, from outright threats to profane language to haughty messages parroting ex-gay and antigay memes unrelated to transgender issues.

One of those letter-writers is Sharon Kass of Silver Spring, Md., an increasingly prolific enemy of civility in public discourse about gay and transgender equality.

In 2005, Kass commented:

Same-sex attraction and transgender feelings are psychopathological, preventable, and treatable. The present culture immerses the public in falsehoods. See www.narth.com, www.gaytostraight.org, and www.peoplecanchange.com.

In 2006, Kass said:

A great weakness of the Democratic Party is its unrealistic stances on gender and the family (and, to some degree, work). It is an uncontrovertible fact that homosexual attraction and transgender feelings are psychopathological, preventable, and treatable, developing in early childhood due to a failure of the same-sex parent (figure) to affirm the natural gender identity of the child. See www.narth.com, www.gaytostraight.org, www.peoplecanchange.com, www.pfox.org, and a Jewish web site, www.jonahweb.org. You disregard this at the Party’s, and society’s, peril.

In December 2007, Isabelle St. Pierre remembered a strange woman who parroted phony mental health advice:

Sharon Kass of Silver Spring, Maryland, though a stranger, is concerned for my welfare. She first emailed me in March 2006 with links to several “ex-gay” websites. In September 2006 she wrote, “When you heal your early emotional wounds, you will be able to assess present danger more realistically and respond to it more effectively.” She knows nothing about my childhood; she merely recites the ex-gay dogma that homosexuality results from early childhood trauma.

When Kass learned of a D.C. community forum on civil marriage equality set for Dec. 6, she sent a message to several gay activists and city officials. She wrote that “marriage is an institution specifically dedicated to the relationship of man and woman,” and that “homosexual and transgender feelings are symptoms of emotional disorders….”

At this time, Kass wrote to Washington, D.C., activist Rick Rosendall and to most of D.C.’s elected leaders. Her letter was a laundry list of phony medical diagnoses, pet peeves, and automotonous rhetoric lacking any substantiation or tangible connection to reality:

“Sexual orientation” is a euphemism used by gay-egalitarians; homosexual and transgender feelings are symptoms of emotional disorders, ones, at this point in history, which are preventable and treatable. The conditions of homosexuality and transgenderism indicate gender self-alienation stemming from unfavorable early life experiences. More information on this is available at www.narth.com, www.gaytostraight.org, www.peoplecanchange.com, www.pfox.org, and www.jonahweb.org.

The irrationality and bias of the health care, educational, legal, and media establishments have done much to interfere with citizens’ pursuit of well-being for themselves and their families, and have undermined the American political process with false authority and coercion. The concentrated force of so much narcissism has made GayScam a unique phenomenon.

Nationwide, the ex-gay movement is rising and will prevail. The 2008 presidential race may well occasion its decisive victory. I caution you against allowing “marriages” that will within a few years be rendered null, thus throwing the lives of couples and families into disarray.

Kass even had time that same month to publish a hate-based white paper, Jews and Gay Rights: How Social Approval-Seeking Has Led to the Betrayal of Judaism and the Fueling of an Insane Movement. The white paper repackages anti-Semitic propaganda into a tirade against gay Americans.

A few weeks ago, Kass authoritatively declared:

McCain has narcissistic personality disorder. This is common among politicians, and several recent U.S. presidents have had it. We need to vet our candidates better. (Hillary and Bill have it, too.) If Mitt Romney is smart he’ll deliberately trigger an emotional meltdown in McCain, so we can all see what the latter is made of.

and

I have urged Romney to support the EX-gay movement and stop the gay-egalitarian madness that has made hash out of our system of popular government and kept many Americans from getting proper therapeutic help for themselves or their children. Accurate information on homosexuality/transgenderism, and on GayScam, as I call it, can be found at www.narth.com, www.gaytostraight.org, www.peoplecanchange.com, and www.pfox.org.

(An emotional disorder is the furthest thing from freedom.)

America must address its threats, from within as well as from without. A sound mental health policy would strengthen us enormously in every way.

Which brings us to the current battle by PFOX and other D.C.-area antigay organizations to defend and affirm discrimination against transgender residents. Already notorious for her harassment of antidiscrimination advocates at work and home, Kass has now been quoted twice by the Montgomery County Sentinel:

[Trachtenberg] said Kass suggested in one letter that Trachtenberg should worry about handling her own family before taking on these other issues. Trachtenberg has a son with schizophrenia.

According to a follow-up story:

Some of the threats were signed, some were left anonymous and others were signed with obviously fake names, Trachtenberg said. Sharon Kass sent letters to Trachtenberg and Dr. Dana Beyer, a senior policy analyst on the councilwoman’s staff, Trachtenberg said.

When asked for comment, Kass responded by sending e-mails with anti-gay literature to The Sentinel. One contained a pamphlet titled, “You Don’t Have to Be Gay!: Real Answers to Questions about Homosexuality,” and an article titled, “The Desire for a Sex Change: Psychiatrist says sex-change surgery is a collaboration with a mental disorder, not a treatment.”

Kass then sent another e-mail to The Sentinel in response to last week’s front-page article about Trachtenberg receiving death threats. “The ex-gay movement will prevail. We have the facts,” Kass said. “Superficial and biased reporting is routine in the press. You and your profession will be called to account.”

Kass’s behavior exemplifies why the ex-gay movement becomes disliked by some of those that come to know it. Kass’s demeanor closely resembles that of PFOX’s Estella Salvatierra and former Exodus blogger Nancy Brown. Their modus operandi:

  • mindless repetition of soundbites
  • blind acceptance of Freudian pseudoscience
  • authoritative but incompetent diagnoses of total strangers
  • commingling of different conditions (sexual orientation and gender variance)
  • phony cures
  • refusal to listen to anyone who offers accurate information or contrary viewpoints

Is there a psychological diagnosis for people like Kass?