Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth

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Summary: Great Book. a must read!
Review: This is a must read, its a great book, explains in detail why this book is a must read.

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Summary: A thinking person's delight
Review: If you're tired of media and activism feeding you lies in the belief that plain repetition will make a believer out of you, this book is for you. If you believe that mere opinions don't add up to facts, read this. If you are fed up with efforts at intimidating you rather than allowing you to inform yourself and practicing scientific and critical thinking of your own, this book will delight you. Don't let the "political correctness" thugs get you down--be your own wo/man.

This book is excellent on many different levels. Yes, it debunks a lot of purposeful misinformation on the subject of homosexuality. But, better yet, it is a tour-de-force at exposing how propaganda and politics warp our minds. Fact: no breakthrough medical or psychiatric discoveries have been made on this subject ever since h/s was correctly understood as neurotic. What has changed are the politics with which the subject is treated. Fact: the h/s gene is a myth, a media and activist fabrication. "I've just been born this way" just doesn't cut it! Fact: looking open-mindedly at the factual basis of this controversial subject does not make a person a "hater" or "homophobe" (whatever that even means). Remember, only the dead fish swim with the stream!

This book is immensely well-researched and presents its conclusions objectively, dispassionately and compassionately. No matter which side of the h/s debate you may find yourself on, if nothing else you will find yourself admiring the scholarship and forthrightness of this book (even if you wish the author had come to different conclusions).

If the best you can come up with is disparaging this author of impeccable academic credentials as a religious zealot or member of the religious right (incidentally, the author is not even of Christian background), or respond with generalities such as "bad science" or "flawed logic," you are proving his point! A book of this caliber can not be avoided by broad accusations or the typical intimidation and name-calling tactics. Nothing short of a specific and detailed refutal of facts will do. With a book this well researched by an eminently qualified professional, containing conclusions this persuasively presented, that will be quite a challenge!

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Summary: Get some critical thinkings skills, people, please!
Review: An earlier reviewer equated homosexuality with "other sexual atrocities such as adultry, rape, or pedophilia." One has to wonder about the critical thinking skills of someone who cannot distinguish between rape and consensual sexual activity between two adults of the same gender. In fact, one has to wonder why anyone would spend so much time worrying about other people's private sex lives. What's the big deal? Most people are attracted to members of the opposite sex, but some people are attracted to members of the same sex. This has always been the case and always will be. So what? It's not hurting any of you. Why do you spend so much time trying to make sure that people who are different from you have no legal rights? Believe me, your kids are not going to turn out gay just because we live in a society that doesn't persecute gay people. And if your religion teaches that homosexuality is wrong, fine. But in America we don't force religion on people. You believe what you believe; I believe what I believe. Why can't the law just treat us equally, even though we view life differently? Why is that such a hard concept for some people to understand? Somehow, if I insist upon having the same rights as everyone else, I'm asking for "special rights"? What kind of bizarre reasoning is that?

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Summary: The bottom line > based on research, not opinions.
Review: This is an excellent book! Somewhat complicated for the average reader but worth the extra effort. Dr. Satinover presents the facts according to the research, leaving opinion and defensiveness out of his presentation. His gentle, non-condemning approach to explaining this politically delicate subject is admirable. There is more useful information in this book than in many textbooks combined. Thank you Dr. Satinover for accumulating the scientic research and presenting it in such a fair and well-written manner.

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Summary: Here's how to read this book.
Review: Everytime you see the word "homosexual," substitute the word "Jew." Whenever you see "homosexuality," substitute the word "Judaism."

Then close your eyes and pretend you are in Nazi Germany and you're listening to a lecture about "the Jewish problem." Then go home and read your bible, "Mein Kampf." After all, isn't it the revealed truth?

Not too pretty a picture, is it? When authors write attack books that purport to tell the "truth" about one group, no group is safe.

This author's position is not so secure that he can afford to throw rocks at gays. Some day, he and other homophobes (Dr. Laura, William Kristol and the grand rabbi of Brooklyn) may find themselves being marched off to a labor camp by the same Christians they now so avidly court.

History has a persistent way of repeating itself.

I borrowed this book out of curiosity. I found little to admire.
Read it if you want, but follow my suggestion about substituting words.
Got my drift?

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Summary: propoganda and nothing more.
Review: propoganda and nothing more. He uses "gods word" to declare homosexuality immoral and evil...

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Summary: The straight truth
Review: I have read Dr. Satinover's book and have found it to corroborate with other scientific works that objectively describe the pathology of homosexuality. It is both rigorous and candid in exploding the myth that homosexuality is genetically immutable. This work is an excellent reference for anyone desiring to know the truth about this issue.

Dr. Satinover is merely stating the scientific facts that support that homosexuality is not genetic, but rather a matter of choice just as alcoholism, drug abuse, are as a host of other self-inflicted ailments. Granted choosing to not be gay may be as difficult for an addict to choose not to use drugs, but it is a choice nonetheless.

The reason this is such a hot debate is that the liberal agenda is trying to legally normalize this behavior. I am sure that if a political wind were afoot to normalize other sexual atrocities such as adultry, rape, or pedophilia, the same objective arguments would be raised against it. Sexual deviancy erodes the moral fabric of any society and should certainly not be considered on par with normal sexual function, especially in legislation. This is why Dr. Satinover's work necessarily has political and moral implications.

It is interesting that some reviewers cite that Dr. Satinover has failed to comply with scientific method used by DeCartes' to prove the existence of God. For this argument to carry any weight, the reviewer must believe in God, and if one believes in God, one must believe His word. I wonder if those reviewers have read what God has to say about sexual deviancy as in 1 Corinthians 6:9, Romans 1:26, and Revelation 21:8.

All in all, truth is truth in spite of what man, on his own, feels or thinks is right. The awesome thing is that we have this truth revealed to us in God's Word, the Bible. Dr. Satinover has done an excellent job of affirming the truths of the Bible and providing corroborating, tangible, and scientific evidence that the liberal agenda to normalize homosexuality is just plain wrong.

Read this book.

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Summary: The truth, not the propaganda
Review: I agree with the Congressional Record's rating of this book as "The best book on homosexuality written in our lifetime...", and I have studied the subject,having worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as an RN, and researcher at Stanford University. Sadly, I think we can safely assume anyone who dismisses this book as "junk science" simply does not want the truth about homosexuality to be known. As another reviewer pointed out, the science is a major strong point of the book. Dr. Satinover is highly qualified to deal with this topic. He is a graduate of Harvard, MIT, University of Texas, and a former lecturer at Yale. He is a board certified MD in the private practice of psychiatry for over twenty years with extensive work with homosexuals. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Yale Symour L. Lustman Research award,and past William James lecturer in Psychology and Religion at Harvard, among other qualifications. Gay activists, since the 60's, have waged a relentless public relations campaign to convince Americans that they should overturn 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian moral standards that condemn homosexuality as unhealthy, a sin, and perversion of God's design. The activist's goals (and they are spelled out in such handbooks as "After the Ball, by Kirk and Madsen, 1989),are to convince the public that homosexuality is normal, innate or inherited, and irreversible; therefore gays are not subject to moral choice. Dr. Satinover analyses the extensive evidence to address these claims. Is homosexuality "normal?" Read the facts and decide for yourself. When you compare homosexual patterns with heterosexual patterns, it becomes clear that homosexuality is an addiction, as lethal or more so than alcoholism or drug addiction. Homosexuals have an average of 50 lifetime partners compared to heterosexuals who have an average of 4. One study found that 43% of male homosexuals estimated having sex with 500 or more different partners, and 28% estimated having sex with 1000 more partners. Less than 2% of homosexuals are monogamous, compared to 83% of heterosexuals. 95% of male homosexuals engage in anal intercourse. Even if condoms are used, male heterosexuals are highly vulnerable to a long list of diseases, including Hepatitis B,C, Giardia lamblia infection (Gay Bowel Syndrome), and many others. Dr. Satinover describes the physiology and explains why the life expectancy of typical homosexuals is reduced by a dramatic 30%. Is it innate or inherited? Dr. Satinover clarifies the studies grossly misinterpreted by the press to suggest a genetic cause for homosexuality. If it were genetic, then it would be impossible to recover one's heterosexuality, but clearly this is not the case. Research on biological influences on behavior reveals that homosexuality is highly similar to alcoholism in its characteristic features. There are biological influences, but no one is "caused" by their genes to be an alcoholic, nor a homosexual. Dr. Satinover discusses the "nature-nurture" debate and makes this complex subject understandable to professionals and lay people. Is it irreversible? The fact that there are thousands of individuals (20,000 by one estimate) that have freed themselves of same sex attractions to become functioning heterosexuals proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that homosexuality is indeed reversible. However, Dr. Satinover explains how, as in other physically addicting habits, sometimes the habit becomes so ingrained in the individual's constitution that it triumphs over any will that the person might have had to overcome it. Change takes a high level of motivation and usually God's help in the form of Twelve Step Programs or religious ministries, although secular treatments are also more successful than generally credited. In addition to an excellent review and assessment of the scientific facts about homosexuality, this book is an illuminating discussion of the moral,philosophical and religious implications for our society as well. As he points out, public policy must be based on objective facts and sound moral judgments. Moral judgements must be informed by our religious beliefs, as science can only tell us what is, but not what should be. Dr. Satinover discusses psychiatry's inadequacies in dealing with moral questions. It seeks material "causes" for human behavior, therefore engaging in a dehumanizing reductionism. Man happens to be a moral being however. Psychiatry doesn't know how to deal with syndromes like alcoholism, narcissism, neurosis, homosexuality and others except as "illnesses," but these syndromes have decided moral dimensions. Dr. Satinover has spelled out the solid, rational reasons why we should be compassionate of individuals struggling with this profound problem, yet hold fast to public policies that discourage this destructive compulsion. I highly recommend this book.

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Summary: Warning: Can Cause Open-Mindedness and Other Defects
Review: John Peteet, M.D., of the Harvard University and the Brigham and Women's Hospital called this book "Courageous, clear and practical." It is that and more. As a research scientist trained in genetics and having published in neuroscience, the chapters on genetics alone are worth the cost of the book. (Another review notes that the book easily could have been two--see below)Because of Satinover's deft hand with language, the book is nonetheless easy to read.

But I especially appreciated the fact that there is scarcely a statement the author makes that is not backed up by numerous peer-reviewed research studies from prominent scientific journals written by researchers with long-established track records. Even if one disagreed with Satinover's overall position, the genral public would be very well-served indeed to absorb his exposition on behavioral genetics in general. That would go a long way to innoculate us against the terrible distortions that are now passed off on us by the press--and, sadly, by unscrupulous scientists with various agendas to press--concerning all matters, not just sexuality. (Incidentally, I decided to follow-up this book with Satinover's newly-released The Quantum Brain. If there were any doubts as to his scientific credentials and reputation in the scientific community, this book will surely lay them to rest.)

Now on to the rest of the book. I'm not as big on religion as I was when much younger, but I've always been an avid student of history. While the first half of Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth is devoted to the science and psychology of sexuality, the second half is devoted to the western religious treatment of it. But it's not at all what you'd think: no bible-belt passage-rattling in the least. Instead, Satinover carefully explains--rather in the mode of a patient anthropologist who loves the tribes he's studying--exactly how the strange and archaic formulations of both Old and New Testaments, and surroundimg commentaries, make remarkably good sense when seen through "their" eyes. He shows how a biblical world-view anticipates a keen modern psychological understanding of human nature that in certain respects remains unsurpassed. I came away from these chapters with no greater desire to attend church (or synagogue) than before, but rather humbled even so: There's clearly alot more here than meets the jaundiced, oh-so-modern eye.

There were certain claims that Satinover made, both in the first part and in the second, of which I was dubious: for instance, that no research study cited popularly as having found evidence for the direct genetic transmissibility of homosexuality ever made such a claim, and that the authors themselves acknowledged the weakness of their hoped-for-conclusions. But sure, enough, when I went to the sources, there it was, again and again. (A colleague pointed out some actual errors, but it turns out these were caught and corrected in later reprints.)

In sum, let me second E.L. Patullo, former chair of behavioral sciences at Harvard in calling Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth "...must reading for the millions who, thinking themselves compassionate, have recently come to endorse homosexuality as a legitimate alternative expression of man's sexual nature."

Rating:
Summary: Bad science, sad writing. Spare yourself.
Review: I was interested in this book as I am writing my own in the same field. I have a Ph.D. in psychology and biomedicine from Boston, trained at Harvard, Tufts, Michigan and UCSF. I have never come across such awful rubbish in my life. If a sophomore were to hand any of this to me as a "scientific paper", I would fail him: the contortion of data is so severe at times that it verges on delusional. Dr. Satinover is on a mission and is unable to admit it; he has provided a case study of how socially moulded fear (homophobia) can be used to impair perception and cognition. His section on genetics, among others, made me bug-eyed in disbelief. Spare yourself.