Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human

Rating:
Summary: A babel of irrelevant arguments and mistaken conclusions
Review: 1. Take everything you don't like in modern society.
2. Attribute it solely to cultural conditioning.
3. Assume that whatever doctrine you're espousing is truth, because based on #2 all else is mere tradition.

This is the philosophy and recipe of Dr. Minor's poorly argued condemnation of any worldview that doesn't accept the GLBT lifestyle as equal (or even superior) to the 'straight role' he portrays as the failing point of modern culture.

This book adds nothing to the existing psychological Nature v. Nurture debate, nor does it even acknowledge that such a debate exists. The text barely bothers to make an argument for the lifestyle and moral worldview it propogates - it simply condemns the 'standard' worldview as tradition without origin, leaving a valueless system of absolute moral relatavism.

The text is so full of absurdities that I don't believe anyone not already enamored with its belief system could take it seriously. The argument is inpenetrable because of its basic assumptions, however.

When 4-5 year old boys take dolls and use them as guns, its not because there's a natural element to that behavior even at a young age, it only serves to demonstrate the strength of cultural conditioning at such a young age.

When GLBT express dissatisfaction with other members of their GLBT community, in terms of finding and maintaining love and happiness, it's not because of the moral vacuum and selfish sexuality of the community, it's because of the 'victim' mentality the 'straight role' has enforced upon the GLBT community.

When drug addiction is massively more prevalent in the GLBT community than in the 'straight' community, it's not because there's something wrong with the GLBT lifestyle, its because of the culturally conditioned guilt system of the 'straight role.' Similarly, when GLBTs feel a sense of guilt/wrongness about their lifestyle, its impossible that such guilt is a natural conclusion of the feedback loop of their lifestyle, but again, is only a result of the false god of cultural conditioning.

At every turn such evidence is stated as fact without the deep argument that needs to occur behind the scenes to justify such statements. Based on the axioms of the text, anything which is standard in culture is there only because of cultural conditioning, and has no basis in moral or natural law.

The biblical interpretation in the text is reprehensibly misguided, self-serving, weak, and without any of the context, historical analysis, and theology such attempts at interpretation deserve.

The book promotes even as it attempts to dispel the victim mentality among homosexuals. It sets up a very clear us vs. them framework where everyone who is straight is a victim of the cultural conditioning which forces them to condemn homosexuality as well as choose (or not be given a choice, in Dr. Minor's words) heterosexuality. Homosexuals are thus another victim group of both the cultural conditioning on themselves and the response they receive from the non-GLBT community.

What is particularly sad is that a great deal of what Dr. Minor says has significant elements of truth to it, and I suppose this is what cons people in to buying his agenda. The point where he fails however is where he takes the reality of conditioning and leaps to literally every conclusion the book makes on the topic. To some extent the logic of the text is circular, but for the most part it doesn't even reach this level, assuming he's preaching to the choir he doesn't even need to justify his case, he simply needs to slam everything the GLBT and ultra-liberal community doesn't like (such as the teaching, aka cultural conditioning, of democracy in school; or the authority of parents to teach their YOUNG children) and then immediately jump into a statement of fact without connecting the two pieces.

Towards the end the book becomes extremely repetitive and focuses on fear as the primary driving force of humanity (except for the GLBT community, of course, who are martyrs in pursuit of truth and love in Dr. Minor's eyes).

The books statements on such 'gay conversion' groups as Exodus International blatantly disacknowledge the real life testimony of thousands who have changed their lifestyle and believe in the unholiness of their previous gay lifestyle. The text implies that the frequency homosexual recidivism implies that all success stories are false, people forcing themselves into lifestyles they don't fit - despite the testimony of those very people of how miserable their lives were until their conversion. If the same logic were applied to alcoholic recidivism after AA treatment, we would have to conclude both that alcoholism both that alcoholism is good, and that it is the natural state of that person.

I personally feel great regret for anyone who buys into the belief system of this book. The whole text is so awash in victimization that it suggests to me that GLBTs who use this text to justify their lifestyle are merely seeking to repel their own guilt feelings over that lifestyle choice. This is _not_ the text of the happy homosexual, gay and full of life. This is the text of the guilt-obsessed, culture-hating, straight-hating, morally vacant victimized homosexual.

If you're gay and reading this, and if you fall into the first category you don't need this text, it will only weaken your self-reliance and increase your blame mentality. If you fall into the second category, you definitly don't need this book, you need to seriously analyze the causes of your feelings and the causative factors in your lifestyle choices. For those in the second category, this book will only give justification for you to continue to be miserable and world-blaming for all your problems.

Rating:
Summary: A book for Gays & Straights, Conservatives & Liberals ...
Review: From the criticism of our universities as purveyors of hopelessness to the dynamics of "getting laid," Scared Straight is an eye-opening and penetrating analysis of U.S. culture, explaining why accepting the full humanity of gay people divides people and organizations.

Dr. Minor shows how homophobia is a major ingredient in our way of defining the world. Without sparing any of our cultural institutions, Scared Straight identifies our culture as fear-based and in denial. Like software installed in a computer, our system's messages install a "straight role" in us which actually has little, if anything, to do with sexual orientation. In the end it has little to do with religion, tradition, or the Bible, and everything to do with maintaining quite limiting definitions of a "human being," a "real man" and a "real woman."

People of all sexual orientations are hurt by the "straight" role, torn from their full human potential, and squeezed into the molds which support our dominant institutions. Human relationships with either sex are incomplete and unfulfilling. Chapters on "How to Be Straight" and "How to Be Gay" describe the roles straight and gay people are conditioned to live in order to maintain this status quo. Yet, not content to merely identify the problem and its depth, in the final chapter Dr. Minor describes the dual elements of healing that this cultural disease requires.

An insightful analysis for anyone interested in gender studies, religious studies, queer theory, feminism, and cultural critique. Though it was only released a few weeks ago by HumanityWorks! and PersonalEnrichment.Org, this book is receiving much attention at many religious conferences and gay pride festivals all over the country! Find out what all the buzz is about!

Rating:
Summary: Scared Straight
Review: I was fortunate enough to attend Mr. Minor's workshop on homophobia and gender conditioning when he was here in Chicago in the early spring. There is nothing new in the book that hasn't been written about before. In fact, Mr. Minor reiterated the fact several times during the workshop however, Mr. Minor takes a lot of research and condenses it down into an easy, resourceful text. A must for scholars interested in gender conditioning and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered studies.

Then again, everyone can benefit from this book (and I don't often say that about books.) Minor shows that homophobia hurts everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. In fact, as Mr. Minor points out, the actual issue of sexual orientation has very little to do with the oppression than the issue that someone is perceived "different." Which also means that gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people must stop playing the "victim role" when dealing with the oppression. His last chapter on being human is one that I will have to go back and re-read time and time again, because it is a revolutionary light and insight into an age-old way of thinking.

Rating:
Summary: Scared Straight
Review: I was fortunate enough to attend Mr. Minor's workshop on homophobia and gender conditioning when he was here in Chicago in the early spring. There is nothing new in the book that hasn't been written about before. In fact, Mr. Minor reiterated the fact several times during the workshop however, Mr. Minor takes a lot of research and condenses it down into an easy, resourceful text. A must for scholars interested in gender conditioning and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered studies.

Then again, everyone can benefit from this book (and I don't often say that about books.) Minor shows that homophobia hurts everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. In fact, as Mr. Minor points out, the actual issue of sexual orientation has very little to do with the oppression than the issue that someone is perceived "different." Which also means that gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people must stop playing the "victim role" when dealing with the oppression. His last chapter on being human is one that I will have to go back and re-read time and time again, because it is a revolutionary light and insight into an age-old way of thinking.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Book!
Review: This is a brilliant book. It ought to be required reading for every human being--and certainly every gay or lesbian human being.

For, as Scared Straight explains in exacting detail, indoctrination into the way of thinking it argues against is, in fact, "required" of every person living in modern human society.

Robert Minor, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, describes the process of conditioning into conventional gender roles that dominates and directs our lives. He uses an interesting bit of computer terminology that helps make his argument clear: he refers to gender conditioning as being "installed" the way a piece of software is installed. A small program analyzes your computer and determines what needs to be where for a desired application to work, and then inserts whatever pieces of code are needed.

Now in the installation of gender role conditioning what's needed are a set of beliefs, opinions and unverifiable assumptions about the nature of human life and sexuality that support and explain the existing system. Using the familiar story about the fish who observes "I've been swimming in it all my life, but all I know about it is it's water," Minor shows how in fact we're all "wet" with the tenets of male dominant gender conditioning but can't realize it because we can never--or at least seldom--get out of the water enough to see what it is.

What it is is the installed beliefs that male is better than female, that males should compete with other males to prove they're "real men" and not like females, that females should effectively be victims to males' desires and priorities in order to be "real women," that men should want to "get laid" and women should want to "get a man," and that nobody should question these beliefs lest the males demonstrate they're like women and the females demonstrate they're unworthy to be men--thus proving the assumptions.

In a way, of course, this is a further reiteration of the original feminist critique. It's not new. But in this book it is brilliantly and exhaustively argued and explained.

The consequence of this installation of gender roles is unquestioning acceptance of male dominance, hierarchical ordering, competition, scarcity and dualistic thinking--especially the notion of right and wrong--as though these were "God-given." Even the idea of that "God" is a self-serving, self-verifying artifact of the male dominant conditioning.

Minor shows how heterosexuals are forced into being "straight" at the cost of men's emotional well-being and freedom and women's self-respect, autonomy and intelligence. He very insightfully explains that being straight is not at all the same thing as being heterosexual, that "straight" means acquiescing to the gender role conditioning, and that because the conditioning suppresses natural responsiveness to feelings, it in fact disempowers real heterosexuality. People don't respond to their actual heterosexual feelings as much as they react to and obey gender conditioning. No wonder straight marriage is under seige.

Minor then shows how gay people are taught to be gay by a system that demands everybody be "straight." Thus we see the notorious terms applied to gay people: "straight-looking, straight-acting." Even homosexuals try to be "straight."

The reason homosexuality is so scorned by the system is because the very choice of "coming out" means choosing to be true to one's own feelings instead of buckling under to conditioning. In order to be gay, at least on the surface level, one has to decide to violate the conditioning, that is, to jump out of the water. This, in turn, threatens the system because it shows that human beings can survive without agreeing to the tenets of male dominant heterosexism.

On a deeper level, of course, gay men and lesbians continue to struggle with the installed program of conditioned expectations, values, and self-assessments. But at least we're potentially aware of what's going on. And with our struggle we call the "straights" to wake up and be aware.

The gay and lesbian rights movement then is not just another attempt by one group to compete with and dominate another (that's how the conditioning would portray it and that's why straights feel threatened, why, for instance, they think that gay marriage threatens their relationships). Our movement is about the human race waking up from a set of assumptions about the nature of life and God that (maybe!) made sense at the start of agrarianism, when our ancestors were coming down from the trees and moving into villages, but that don't fit modern, technological, egalitarian, psychologically-enlightened society.

To pursue the computer analogy, we're part of the "deinstall" routine. And deinstalling the conditioning promises to make heterosexuals and homosexuals alike happier and more responsive to their natural humanity. Reading this book, itself, is a kind of routine for deinstalling the conditioning. For what activates the deinstallation is precisely the awareness of the installation process itself. Every one of us would benefit from running that routine.

Reviewed by Toby Johnson in White Crane Journal #50

Rating:
Summary: An eye opener
Review: This is a great book for anyone who wishes to gain a proper perspective on society.