[net.religion] desperation and homosexuality

rlw@wxlvax.UUCP (Richard L. Wexelblat) (06/22/84)

Pardon me if I'm restating things others have said, but Rich has made one
serious error of fact, when he said (words to the effect of): "Homosexuals
are only that way by choice.  If they wanted to change, they could."

Unfortunately, this is not the case.  I am friends with a person who has 
worked in a professional counseling agency/service.  Among the people who
come in are persons who are homosexual in tendancies, but desperately do
NOT want to be.  Some would give anything to be rid of feelings that they
think are "evil" or "sinful" or "degenerate."  Some of them even have
lovers (MOTSS and MOTOS) who are kind, caring, and so forth, but whom they
secretly hate.

Needless to say, these people have serious problems, but foremost among those
problems is the inability to master their feelings.  These people have tried
psychoanalysis, group therapy, religious counseling, drugs, you-name-it.  And
they simply seem UNABLE to change.  

(BTW: the reason I became interested in this is that these people appear to 
put a serious hole is Sartre's "freedom" hypothesis, something I'm not too
happy about.  But that's a topic for another newsgroup.)

--Alan Wexelblat (Who's Afraid of?  The Art of Noise!)
mail to ...decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!rlw  Please put "For Alan" in mail headers.