On its website, NARTH reprints a disturbing article, The Myth of the Gay Gene, written by Father Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, Ph.D. It was reprinted from the December 2003 issue of HPR. In his tirade, Austriaco seems to compare homosexuality to rape:
Gay activists often assert that homosexuality is natural because homosexual behavior has been observed in non-human animals. Recent research has also shown, however, that rape – called forced copulation by socio-biologists is common in nature. [31] For instance in wild orangutans, most copulations by immature males and almost half of all copulations by adult males occur after fierce female resistance has been violently overcome by the male. [32] According to the revisionist argument, the common occurrence of rape in other animal species would suggest that rape even in human societies should be considered natural. But this is false.
Human sexuality involves free acts of self-giving which are best manifested in the complementary union of bodily persons that occurs during marital love. Regardless of what happens elsewhere in the animal kingdom, both rape and homosexual behavior are incompatible with an authentic understanding human personhood. They are unnatural because both are violations of our natures as embodied spiritual creatures. Both fail to realize the total self-gift of persons that ought to accompany every sexual act. We are persons and this makes all the difference in the world.
Although this article is from 2003, it underscores NARTH’s barbaric and backward view of homosexuality. Clearly, the group agrees with its contents or they would never have posted this offensive article. NARTH takes clients as young as three years old. In my view, it is child abuse to expose LGBT youth to such ideas or to disseminate such messages to the parents of these children.
California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative bodies in other states that are considering banning reparative therapy for minors should be aware of what such groups are saying about LGBT people. Once legislators are fully educated on this issue, there can be no doubt that reparative therapy is not really a form of legitimate therapy at all, but a clumsy effort to wrap medical language around homophobic opinions. The goal is not to help — but to harm LGBT people and their families. This is precisely why these charlatans must be put out of business.
