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Selling Homosexuality to America
Regent University Law Review ^ | Spring 2002 | Paul E. Rondeau

Posted on 02/07/2004 2:26:21 PM PST by quidnunc

I. Introduction

Among America's culture wars, one of today's most intense controversies rages around the issue alternatively identified, depending on one's point of view, as "normalizing homosexuality" or "accepting gayness." The debate is truly a social-ethical-moral conceptual war that transcends both the scientific and legal, though science and law most often are the weapons of choice. The ammunition for these weapons, however, is persuasion.

This article explores how gay rights [3] activists use rhetoric, psychology, social psychology, and the media — all the elements of modern marketing — to position homosexuality in order to frame what is discussed in the public arena and how it is discussed. In essence, when it comes to homosexuality, activists want to shape "what everyone knows" and "what everyone takes for granted" even if everyone does not really know and even if it should not be taken for granted. [4]

The first strategy of persuasion is to establish a favorable climate for your message so that the communicator (marketer) can influence the future decision without even appearing to be persuading. Pratkanis and Aronson refer to this as pre-selling. [5] This is at the heart of the homosexual campaign: to get consent via social construct today to determine whose idea of personal freedoms will prevail in our legal codes tomorrow.

Part II of this article provides a brief overview of the social climate and politics that ultimately led to the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) imprimatur of homosexual behavior. The declassification of homosexuality as a disorder by the APA provides context for the propaganda war proposed by Kirk and Madsen's homosexual manifesto fifteen years later. The section ends by reviewing the main elements of the campaign including the call to specifically discredit, intimidate, and silence opponents with particular attention paid to conservative Christians.

Part III presents the connection between persuasion and democratic processes. Rhetoric, persuasive communication, propaganda, and social psychology theories are foundational to the concept of selling homosexuality as presented in this article. The purpose of this section is to provide a greater understanding of why persuasion works in order to strengthen the later discussion of how it is applied in the mass persuasion techniques evidenced in today's "gay rights"-style marketing.

Part IV moves to the "4-P's" of the traditional marketing paradigm — Product, Price, Place, and Promotion — to deconstruct and to illustrate how homosexuality is packaged and sold as a competitive product in the marketplace often through education [6] and through positive media coverage. "What is pitched is different — a product brand versus an issue — but the method is the same. In each case, the critical thing is not to let the public know how it is done," [7] states Tammy Bruce, a self-described lesbian feminist and ex-president of the Los Angles chapter of the National Organization for Women. [8]

Part V presents several real examples of how this strategy is employed in five important markets of social influence. The areas examined, which touch every citizen in America, are government, education, organized religion, the media, and the workplace.

Part VI concludes by recapping some achievements of the gay rights campaign and discussing what these may portend for their opponents and American society in the future.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at regent.edu ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: homosexual; homosexualagenda; prisoners; regentu
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To: SerotoninBlocker
I asked for peer reviewed and accepted study. That piece is interesting, as far as it goes, but it's not very good science. It manipulates science to fit into a preconceived outcome. That scares me. It doesn't help create a better understanding of what's really going on, and that's not very useful.

Up until 1973 the American Psychological Association considered homosexuality to be a mental disease. Since then they have been over-run and infiltrated by gay political apologists and the radical left. Since the title "Nurse practitioner" is a comparatively new one, the reader could reasonably suspect you were educated by some of the latter-day possibly even post-1973 high priests of psychobabble.

As you claim, you are a nurse practitioner. But merely a "nurse practitioner: a glorified RN who likely can prescribe and dispense... ritalin - maybe. You are neither a doctor, nor a clinical scientist.

Politics aside, lets talk science, shall we? Exactly what scientific peer reviewed homo"factual" study(s) can you cite which refutes the pre-1973 position of APA? Better yet, what clinical studies have you designed and conducted that have been subjected to peer review which support your current view of the medical status of homosexuality? Are you currently on a peer review board vested with evaluating clinical studies for quality of publication, quality of study design, and statistical interpretation of the data submitted to support the findings? If so please name it, or them, as the case may be.

Absent evidence which you can provide to conclusively substantiate your credentials with something more weighty and credible than what you have to this point, you are not in anyway qualified to speak on behalf of anything involving scientific or clinical "merits" of "studies" used to support the current political thinking of the APA. You are nothing more than a useful mouthpiece for parroting the political pap and psychbabble you were weaned on in what ever trade school you went to somewhere.

For those of us with such credentials and experience in interpretation of both scientific and clinical data in other areas, you will have to show us something far more convincing than what you think about...

...what somebody thought about...

... what somebody wrote about and prostituted themselves about to get publication in...

...what was at one time a medical journal somebody with scientific interest in psychology even cared to read in a location somewhere out side of the corporate wash room.

Until then....

"Psychology" is the study of the art and power of influence over the minds of others, which, while it can be dressed up with at times impressive if not authoritative-sounding terminology, fails for being anything more than a subject which merely pretends to science.

101 posted on 02/07/2004 8:14:33 PM PST by Agamemnon
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To: SerotoninBlocker; longtermmemmory; All
You can call homosexuality a fetish, if you want.

OK. I'll call it a fetish. I'll go one further and call it deviant behavior! I'll go one MORE and call it disgusting behavior!

102 posted on 02/07/2004 8:18:05 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma (BG (Logan's Personal Mafia Hit Squad))
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To: Brad's Gramma
BTTT! Hi BG!
103 posted on 02/07/2004 8:20:46 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - Now more than ever! Thank you for your support!)
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To: EdReform
Hi Ed!!! How ya been?
104 posted on 02/07/2004 8:22:26 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma (BG (Logan's Personal Mafia Hit Squad))
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To: Hardastarboard
In order to sell something, you have to have a buyer. America ain't buying.

I'm not so sure about that. With "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", the Britany-Madonna kiss etc. it seems that American IS buying homosexuality far more than most of the world.

105 posted on 02/07/2004 8:25:33 PM PST by Jorge
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To: Happy2BMe
Say, what's the URL for your posting?

And is it "peer reviewed?" ;^)

Very interesting post...

106 posted on 02/07/2004 8:27:51 PM PST by Ronzo (GOD alone is enough.)
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To: SerotoninBlocker
Look, I've got issues with Gay Marriage and such, but any piece that apparently advocates for homosexuality to have remained in the DSM is a bit much for me.

Why? If there's no reason for homosexuality to remain in the DSM, what is the problem with Gay Marriage?

If homosexuality is not a disorder, who's to say they can't be married?

107 posted on 02/07/2004 8:35:44 PM PST by Jorge
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To: SerotoninBlocker
In yours posts you said:
1 - I do not fall for junk science ... (post 51)
2 - The DSM isn't just some method of making money. It's a serious, very thoroughly studied diagnostic tool. ... (post 37)
3 - Do you understand how to use the DSM, and how it is actually and the severity that must be obtained for anyone to get any diagnosis? ... (post 43)
4 - Do you believe that the brain is somehow immune to biological disease? (post 43)

For 1, 2, and 3 above I will refer you to Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry is Doing to People by Dr. Tana Dineen who had over 30 years experience in the field of psychology and the collected works of Dr. Thomas S. Szasz .
If that is not enough, please consider a) Past Life Therapy, b) Alien Abduction Therapy, c) Recovered Memory Therapy, and others ad nauseam.

For 4 above again refer to the works of Dr. Szasz as he was the pioneer in noting the difference between behavior and disease.

Finally in reply to your many references to 'peer review' please understand this is not peer review as science generally understands peer review. This is the mumbo jumbo of witch doctors dressed up in suits and ties or dresses and jewelry in the western world - but it is still mumbo jumbo and most practionioners are little different from witch doctors in comparison to those who work in the real sciences where real peer review occurs.

Cheers!

RileyD, nwJ
"It's not what you don't know that will kill you. It's what you do know and it's wrong that will kill you." Will Rogers

108 posted on 02/07/2004 8:36:19 PM PST by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." annon)
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To: Woahhs
It is obviously an aberration of normal sexual behavior, where the sexual interactions not in a natural state. It is not shameful to have a mental illness. Nymphomania is a sexual illness, so why not? Pedophilia is untreatable for the most part, and gays claim they cannot be converted.
109 posted on 02/07/2004 8:44:08 PM PST by FUMETTI (Santorum was right!)
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To: Woahhs
Why are gays so ashamed to say perhaps they are mentally ill?
110 posted on 02/07/2004 8:44:57 PM PST by FUMETTI (Santorum was right!)
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To: SerotoninBlocker
I don't trust a piece that chooses to bash the APA for removing homosexuality from the DSM.

You've got to be kidding. Anyone who looks at the circumstances surrounding the the APA removing homosexuality from the DSM can see that it was politically calculated move made under pressure from the gay rights advocates, and had nothing to do with science.

The APA caved in to the homosexual agenda.

It doesn't take a genious...ANYONE can look at the biological design of human sexuality and see that homosexuality is a disorder and deviation from nature and the created intent.

The APA should have never removed homosexuality from the DSM.

111 posted on 02/07/2004 8:45:21 PM PST by Jorge
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To: quidnunc
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Saw it for the first time after the Super Bowl debacle. 2 men kissing. Base comments about wanting to watch the straight guy take off his pants and shower. Saying he could get a make-out session from them if the woman turned him down. Afterwards the "straight" guy is always ACCEPTING and thankful for the "help." If this isn't indoctrination, I don't know what is.
112 posted on 02/07/2004 8:49:07 PM PST by Libertina
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To: SerotoninBlocker
New Study Confirms Higher Level of Psychiatric Disorders Among Men and Women Engaging in Same-Sex Behavior

"Two recent studies published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found higher rates of psychiatric disorders among homosexually oriented men and women than among the heterosexual population (Herrell 1999 & Fergusson 1999). Those articles mentioned that a third study, not yet published, had confirmed their findings."


New Zealand Study Suggests Higher Rates Of Self-Harm And Suicidal Behavior For Same-Sex Attracted Individuals

"A study appearing in the March 2003 issue of The American Journal of Psychology found higher rates of non-fatal suicidal behavior among those with homosexual attractions than among the heterosexual population."


113 posted on 02/07/2004 8:57:20 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - Now more than ever! Thank you for your support!)
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To: quidnunc
Thought Reform and The Psychology of Homosexual Advocacy

Invasion of the mind snatchers - The homosexual blueprint to change America's mind

114 posted on 02/07/2004 8:59:09 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - Now more than ever! Thank you for your support!)
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To: FUMETTI
Many professionals - mostly university professors - have made tentative and not-so-tentative moves in the direction of normalizing "cross generational sex" (barf).

Peter Singer, the infamous Princeton ethics professor, has made statements in favor of it, as well as bestiality and of course, infanticide. Within the last year or so some female prof at a midwestern university (I never can remember her name or school) wrote a book supporting child+adult sex, that was printed BY the state supported university, and it ran into at least two printings. So this evil crap is being pushed by the anti-moral absolutist crowd.

For anyone to deny this is conscious fraud. And for anyone to claim that the "gay" agenda does not include sex with minors is also consciously lying. The original 1972 "Gay Rights Platform Demands" included the demand for repeal of all of consent laws.
115 posted on 02/07/2004 9:11:56 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: FUMETTI
It is obviously an aberration of normal sexual behavior, where the sexual interactions not in a natural state.

Be that as it may, it begs my original question. Is social deviance synonymous with mental illness?

I think perhaps another categorisation is called for in this instance.

116 posted on 02/07/2004 9:14:32 PM PST by Woahhs
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To: SerotoninBlocker

You do realize that all the hullabaloo about pedophilia was abouit one article in an American Psychological Acadamy publication in 1998 that was roundly debunked by the entire psychological and medical community?


Research Studies and Journal Articles of Interest

The Pedophilia Debate Continues --And DSM Is Changed Again

International Academy of Sex Research Joins the Debate: Is Pedophilia a Mental Disorder?

American Psychiatric Association Symposium Debates Whether Pedophilia, Gender-Identity Disorder, Sexual Sadism Should Remain Mental Illnesses

The Problem of Pedophilia

On Positive Reports of Adult-Child Relationships: Taking a Closer Look

On the Pedophilia Issue: What the APA Should Have Known

117 posted on 02/07/2004 9:15:27 PM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - Now more than ever! Thank you for your support!)
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To: SerotoninBlocker
SerotoninBlocker
Since Jan 19, 2004

Seminar poster. Gay Mau-Mau.

Adios, nice of you to drop by.

118 posted on 02/07/2004 9:15:29 PM PST by lentulusgracchus (Et praeterea caeterum censeo, delenda est Carthago. -- M. Porcius Cato)
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To: Libertina; EdReform
[Libertina] Afterwards the "straight" guy is always ACCEPTING and thankful for the "help." If this isn't indoctrination, I don't know what is.

Absolutely.

Do you suppose there's an "action central" someplace, a gay skunkworks where someone is field-generaling this sewage?

119 posted on 02/07/2004 9:18:11 PM PST by lentulusgracchus (Et praeterea caeterum censeo, delenda est Carthago. -- M. Porcius Cato)
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To: lentulusgracchus
I would assume so. He/she/it hasn't posted since the big guns stopped in. The sohpistry, word juggerly and circling-around-the-ankles yipping and snapping seems to have stopped for the nonce.
120 posted on 02/07/2004 9:21:47 PM PST by little jeremiah
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