Wayne Lela
Contributing Writer
Regarding the controversy over the GSA at Franklin County High School: Contrary to “politically correct” propaganda, it is pretty obvious that male minds in female bodies, female minds in male bodies, and homosexual minds in heterosexual bodies, are all sure signs that something went wrong somewhere (in nature and/or nurture), are all clearly mind/body mismatches or disorders (a commonsense position taken by the American Psychiatric Association for years before it became infected with political correctness).
And what is the rational thing to do with physical and psychological disorders? We try to fix them, if possible. But even if we can’t fix certain disorders (e.g., we may not have enough knowledge yet), rational people do not deny reality and maintain they are NOT disorders, which is exactly what pro-homosexual and pro-transgender people are doing. The whole movement to normalize the abnormal, to define deviancy down, is a real threat to the psychological well-being of our nation.
You may not be aware, but some colleges like Harvard now fund student groups devoted to promoting the acceptance of BDSM—bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism. That’s right. If you are a, for example, psychologically disturbed student who gets sexual thrills from hurting people, some colleges like Harvard now have groups for you! Is that bizarre or what. That’s the slippery slope the “logic” of the “politically correct” is taking us down.
Reality check for the left: normalizing sickness does not make a society less sick, and normalizing disorders does not make a society less disordered. The movement to normalize transgenderism and homosexuality should be opposed.
Too, thinking people like Plato and many other intellectuals have known for centuries that homosexual activity is immoral and a bad legal precedent. We shouldn’t let heterophobic homosexuals impose their irrational values on our society.
Wayne Lela
Pro-family Activist
“Pro-family”
Concerning his sweeping statements about nature and nurture, let others comment, but as a classicist, I imagine Mr. Leyla will want to re-read Plato and his thoughts on homosexuality as “immoral and a bad legal precedent.” Throughout the Symposium there is full acceptance of same-sex love as a normal, even admirable, form of behavior; I will grant that Plato takes a different view in his less influential book, The Laws.
I would hardly call being queer a “disorder,” neither has the APA for several decades. This isn’t about political correctness, this is about letting those who are queer or into BDSM express their identities (which I’m not quite sure how that affects you as a privileged, white, man– so privileged, in fact, that you were able to found your own anti-gay hate group!). Who ordained you to define deviancy and police it?
Your normalization of hatred, bigotry, and outdated follies is far more concerning and harmful than any “normalization of homosexuality.”
http://www.thedepauw.com/news/view.php/864298/LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR-Response-to-Wayne-L
Wayne Lela is misquoting the American Psychological Association and using his biased beliefs to continue and perpetuate harm to the GSD (Gender and Sexual Diversity) individuals. He ignores all research on sexual health and well-being to justify his uninformed, damaging, and abnormal beliefs. He is also the founder of the website, Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, which he has the right to create. In a study by the University of Georgia, and published in the “Journal of Abnormal Psychology,” indicates that homophobia is associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies. Mr. Lela’s obsession with the normal sexual behaviors of others, particularly the GSD community, truly reveals what is on his mind. The journal reveals that homophobia is an abnormal and psychological disorder, and not the sexual orientation of others.
To the Editor,
I was troubled to read the inaccurate and deeply reactionary letter to the editor in the April 7th edition of The Sewanee Purple by “contributing writer” Wayne Lela who describes himself as a “pro-family activist”. A quick Google search of his name will reveal that Mr. Lela is the founder of the Illinois-based group Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, an organization that has the unfortunate distinction of being listed as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As journalists, I’m sure you are aware that the First Amendment entitles Mr. Lela to his opinions. It even grants him the right to misrepresent the position of the American Psychological Association in attempts to rationalize the opinions expressed in his letter. But neither The Purple nor any other publication is under any obligation to give him a platform for his opinions. You have done your readers a disservice by uncritically publishing Mr. Lela’s letter without informing your readers about the organization he is clearly representing. Not to mention the inaccuracy of his repeated suggestions that anything other than heterosexuality is “deviancy” and a “psychological disorder”, false statements that further discriminatory and hateful attitudes towards LGBT people.
Another contributing writer in the same issue, Mr. Arthur Jones III, wrote an article on the experience of being black in America. I hope that The Purple will not be publishing a response to Mr. Jones’ article from a KKK leader who uses the discredited pseudo-science of phrenology in an attempt to support the position that black people are genetically inferior to white people.
Sincerely,
Charles Whitmer
Executive Director
Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace
Sewanee, TN