Mental Health’s LGBT Blind Spot

The Federalist ^ | 05/24/2015 | Joseph Turner

[SeekAndFind]

A scene stands out to me from my graduate program in social work. A lesbian professor visited our class to tell about her experience of being same-sex attracted in a small, Midwestern, devoutly Protestant town in the latter twentieth century. As expected, her story was heart-rending.

Afterward, during the Q&A, a black woman in her 40s raised her hand. “I’ve noticed that the high school girls today go through phases where they say that they like girls, and then change their minds and say they like boys again, like it just goes back and forth. And I don’t know if they think it’s cute or what, but it seems to happen a lot these days. Do you have any thoughts on why that is?”

Before the speaker could offer a response, a young, outspoken lesbian student piped up. “I think a girl should be able to like whoever she wants to! If Susie wants to say she likes Joe one week, then Julie the next, then Bobby the week after that, that’s her choice and nobody else’s business!” No more was said on the topic. Apparently satisfied, the class moved with Q&A.

What makes this exchange so troubling is that it occurred in a social-work classroom. Social workers are regularly tasked with diagnosing and treating people’s mental health issues. How can we do that effectively if we accept the dogma that all same-sex attraction is healthy and normal?

Mental health treatment requires close analysis of every aspect of a person’s life. We put together the puzzle pieces that make up a human being. We inquire how many hours someone slept last night and how often he woke up. We form theories around their precise level of eye contact, rate of speech. We ponder how closely they were held as infants.

[tired&retired]

“She was telling someone how sorry she was that she “ chose” the lesbian lifestyle because it had left her lost and alone. She was physically very unattractive, under 5 feet tall and weighing at least 250 pounds. Not a woman that a man would be attracted to now that she was middle aged.”

“I had never given any thought that “ being gay” was a choice for some.”

Actually it is very much a choice. If a woman is dominant masculine, she could also be very comfortable with a feminine man. If a man is feminine, he would be very comfortable with a masculine woman.

Just as a masculine man would not be comfortable with a masculine woman and a feminine woman would not be happy with a feminine man.

While our masculine or feminine persona is not a choice, but is a function of our environment, the gender we choose to be paired with to balance our own spirit and feel whole is a choice.

[JoeFromSidney]

Social workers are regularly tasked with diagnosing and treating people’s mental health issues.

This is part of the incredible arrogance of social workers. Do they think they are trained psychiatrists?

[SaraJohnson]

With the teens described here, it’s all drama and attention whoredom. When this attention whore fad passes, it won’t be cool anymore. Sooner or later this society will get serious again. It might take a tragedy.

[citizen352]

Posting for all - I have seen some material that I have no citation for the written material. A Discovery channel video explains that some children are born with male and female characteristics and the Doctor and parents must decide the sex of the child soon after birth. Information about genital birth defects is available as well. The show was on the Discovery channel and the show takes the side of the “traumatized” gay or lesbian child.