Gay acceptance … it is just a matter of time

Spectrum/by Rev. Howard Bess

In 1950, the opinion was unanimous. Gay persons were sick. Their sexual activities were illegal and immoral. Gay persons were a special category of sinner that is automatically excluded from the Kingdom of God.

Gay people suffered through harmful psychotherapy; they were fired from their jobs; they were thrown out of the military; they were arrested for gathering as a group; they were beaten for no reason other than who they were.

In the mid-1950s Dr. Evelyn Hooker, psychology professor at UCLA, met gay people on the campus and detected no pathology. She successfully applied for a grant to study gay people. She studied gay men and a randomly selected group of heterosexual men. She found no significant differences in the mental-emotional health of one group over the other. Hooker's study was the first broad-based study of its kind. Her study was of enormous importance.

Twenty years later the American Psychological Association took homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses. The cause of gay acceptance has continued to gain momentum. In 1950, no one could have anticipated that recognition of gay marriages would be a core issue in American society in the early years of the 21st century.

The general population needs to be updated on what is happening.

Recently, I attended the biennial meeting of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Salt Lake City. PFLAG is the largest chapter-based gay-rights organization in America.

PFLAG has more than 500 local chapters. It is not a gay organization. Rather, it is an organization of parents, family and friends of gay persons.

The mayor of Salt Lake City welcomed us to his city.

Over the three days of the gathering, I listened to bright, educated, dedicated people, who are leaders in the movement for full acceptance. I heard a lot of up-to-date information.

Families led by same-sex couples have always existed for a long time. They were tightly sealed in their closets. Now they are coming out in huge numbers. Having come out of their closets, gay families can now be objectively studied.

Gay couples are embracing children for their households at the same rate as heterosexual couples. While some of the children in gay households are from previous heterosexual marriages, the larger numbers are coming from adoptions and artificial inseminations. Being gay takes nothing away from the desire of a person to parent and procreate.

Gay couples have been rearing children long enough so that studies can now be made of children who grow up with same-sex parents. Broad-based studies show that children raised by two same-sex parents are in every way just as healthy and just as normal as children raised by heterosexual couples.

In 2004 the only barrier to full legal recognition and acceptance of gay marriages and gay families in the United States is religious prejudice. Churches can be just as prejudiced and bigoted as they would like. Our laws and American traditions allow religious people to set their own moral standards within their religious communities. Trying to write their standards into law, however, is unacceptable. Their prejudices are contrary to the very best research and facts available.

On this past Nov. 2, 11 more states voted to ban gay marriages. This result does not faze longtime gay-rights activists like me. We have learned to fail forward. Defeat provides the energy for eventual establishment of justice. The U.S. Supreme Court, no matter whom President Bush may appoint to our high court, will eventually overturn the gay-banning initiatives in individual states, including Alaska.

Twenty years from now we will look back and see how absurd our denial of gay rights has been.

One last note. PFLAG and others involved in the justice struggle have learned that we succeed young. Young people from 18-30 are overwhelmingly supportive of gay rights. Over the next 20 years a lot of opposition will die off and will be replaced by the more accepting young.

The Rev. Howard Bess is the pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist Church in Palmer. He is the author of "Pastor, I Am Gay."