Minnesota Republican: Gay People Are Mentally Ill, Need Treatment For ‘Unhealthy Sexual Addiction’

[doggie]

what a great guy another stupid GOP republican.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/03/30/minnesota-republican-gay-people-are-mentally-ill-need-treatment-for-unhealthy-sexual-addiction-audio/

Quote

He probably believes “pray the gay away” is the treatment, too.

There is no law forcing straight people to seek such treatment, so this is clearly about stealthily trying to “cure” gay people when they do not need to be “cured” at all.

But Minnesota GOP Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen thinks gay people have an “unhealthy sex addiction” that needs to be fixed.

During an interview on WCCO Radio with Chad Hartman last week, Gruenhagen declared that gay people are mentally ill and should be forced to undergo treatment for their “unhealthy sexual addiction.”

Claiming that he has gay friends and friends who were former homosexuals, Gruenhagen fretted about the number of Americans who have an STD in this country, which the Centers for Disease Control says is about one-third of the population .

Hartman then sought clarification.

“You are telling the millions of people in this country who are homosexual — and the rest of their lives are no different than me or yours — but that the reason they have described themselves as homosexual is because they have an unhealthy sexual addiction?” Hartman asked.

After being given a chance to reverse himself, Gruenhagen didn’t backtrack.

“Yeah,” he replied. “You can go on the Internet and there’s treatment for sexual addictions right here in Minnesota, whether it’s pornography or unhealthy sexual behavior. You can receive treatment for that and be free from those compulsions.”

 

[JesusCampSongs]

I really, truly, effing hate it when the fundies hijack my profession as a means of legitimizing their draconian worldviews. 

Sex addiction is not a diagnosis. 

Neither is homosexuality. 

Nor is being transgender. 

The fact that none of them would darken the door of a legitimate clinician's office just makes it that much more infuriating. Like, okay, you think that psychology is Satan's science and that therapists are his handmaidens, but you get to trot out pseudoclinical bullshit in an effort to justify and bolster your pathological hatred of people who don't conform to your rigid worldview? Yeah, OKAY. 

[47of74]

6 minutes ago, JesusCampSongs said:

I really, truly, effing hate it when the fundies hijack my profession as a means of legitimizing their draconian worldviews. 

Sex addiction is not a diagnosis. 

Neither is homosexuality. 

Nor is being transgender. 

The fact that none of them would darken the door of a legitimate clinician's office just makes it that much more infuriating. Like, okay, you think that psychology is Satan's science and that therapists are his handmaidens, but you get to trot out pseudoclinical bullshit in an effort to justify and bolster your pathological hatred of people who don't conform to your rigid worldview? Yeah, OKAY. 

Yeah last week one of our local conservatives posted a big long screed in the comments section of an article in the town newspaper about how the American College of Pediatricians thought LGBT were harmful to children.  I didn't have the time or energy to explain to this idiot that the American College of Pediatricians is a sham anti gay right wing group that was called out by the SPLC in the past.  (splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2012/american-college-pediatricians-defames-gays-and-lesbians-name-protecting-children) 

[AnywhereButHere]

I think there are way too many people who have an unhealthy preoccupation with others' sex lives. Is there a treatment for that? 

[doggie]

I think there are way too many people who have an unhealthy preoccupation with others' sex lives. Is there a treatment for that? 

Stop being a fundy.

[DaisyD]

Seriously. Why the fuck do they care? 

[Rubaiyat]

22 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I think there are way too many people who have an unhealthy preoccupation with others' sex lives. Is there a treatment for that? 

I would formally like to upvote this, scream it from the rooftops, print it out on a giant sign and march it through a million parades, and nominate it for a nobel prize.  

 

[Sundaymorning]

33 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I think there are way too many people who have an unhealthy preoccupation with others' sex lives. Is there a treatment for that? 

I swear, some of these people more preoccupied with gay sex than I am. And I am gay.

[Hera]

My first thought when I saw the title of this thread was "Of course." Same song, different verse. You'd think that Republicans would have figured out by now that peddling this sort of hateful, bigoted, unscientific crap to inflame the masses is why Donald Fucking Trump is poised to be their party's presidential nominee.  But apparently not.

[Bad Wolf]

Right, because someone being gay is contagious, and we might catch it, then where would the country be? How does your being gay affect my heterosexual marriage? (Saw that on a church billboard. Paraphrased.)

[Cleopatra7]

24 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Right, because someone being gay is contagious, and we might catch it, then where would the country be? How does your being gay affect my heterosexual marriage? (Saw that on a church billboard. Paraphrased.)

It's my understanding that some fundies believe that simply knowing that there are gay couples out there is an existential threat to straight couples, because gay couples are inherently non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, and shallow, and putting such couples up as equivalent to "traditional marriage" will cause heterosexual relationships to suffer accordingly. Because no heterosexual couple was ever non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, or shallow before openly gay couples influenced them with their bad behavior.

[pook]

nope, not reading, and nope

[iweartanktops]

1 hour ago, daisyd681 said:

Seriously. Why the fuck do they care? 

You know, this was something I asked when I was growing up. I was raised conservative Christian, and part of that was, homosexuality is a sin. I heard it often. As I grew into adolescence, this was one of the first beliefs that started to really bother me. Aside from making friends who were LGBTQ, and noticing that they were no different than anyone else, I also started to wonder why anyone even cared. I decided that as long as I can marry whoever I want, everyone else should be able to do the same. It doesn't change anything for me except people I care about can marry who they love! 

Sorry, I know I just went off on a tangent, but this just made me think back a little. I was never taught that homosexuality was a mental illness or anything, but the notion of it as a sin feels similar to me. 

[samira_catlover]

59 minutes ago, Sundaymorning said:

I swear, some of these people more preoccupied with gay sex than I am. And I am gay.

We've got a cure for that. *fires up the electroshock generators, and calls in a Hallelujah Chorus to Spread the Word.*

DAMN, my second "sarcasm-on" switch for the week just melted down. Anybody know how to set up a PayPal or GoFundMe account?

19 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

It's my understanding that some fundies believe that simply knowing that there are gay couples out there is an existential threat to straight couples, because gay couples are inherently non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, and shallow, and putting such couples up as equivalent to "traditional marriage" will cause heterosexual relationships to suffer accordingly. Because no heterosexual couple was ever non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, or shallow before openly gay couples influenced them with their bad behavior.

Good cats, hon, have been married to the same (cis-het) man for 37-plus years (FWIW, I identify as a cis-het female)...and if the sexual behaviors of whatever flavor/type of other consenting adults are gonna trainwreck our state-and-church sanctified bond, we are in SERIOUSLY deep doo-doo.

[Toothfairy]

1 hour ago, daisyd681 said:

Seriously. Why the fuck do they care? 

It's like they think about this all the damn time.

[47of74]

1 hour ago, Cleopatra7 said:

It's my understanding that some fundies believe that simply knowing that there are gay couples out there is an existential threat to straight couples, because gay couples are inherently non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, and shallow, and putting such couples up as equivalent to "traditional marriage" will cause heterosexual relationships to suffer accordingly. Because no heterosexual couple was ever non-monogamous, promiscuous, violent, or shallow before openly gay couples influenced them with their bad behavior.

 

[samira_catlover]

All dear Deities, I SOOOOOO love that sign!

[Cleopatra7]

To clarify what I said earlier, professional scold Rod Dreher has a concept called the Two Rocking Chairs thesis, which states that traditional Christian monogamy puts forth the ideal of a heterosexual couple growing old together (i.e., two rocking chairs on the porch), whereas the gay commercial has the idea that there can be multiple chairs on the porch, coming and going at will. By allowing gay marriage, heterosexual marriage will invariably be influenced by gay ideas about non-monogamy and promiscuity. Dreher claims he has gay friends who all seem to sound like stereotypes of promiscuous gay men, circa 1979, which makes sense since he himself appears to be stuck in the past (unsurprisingly, Dreher makes no mention of lesbians or the Uhaul stereotype which would contradict his own stereotypes). This causes me to wonder if Dreher's gay "friends" aren't just sockpuppets, since he has a reputation for that as well. The obvious problem with the Two Rocking Chairs thesis is that heterosexual couples are often not monogamous either, nor do they last until old age. Until recently, it was considered quite normal for upper class men to have mistresses in separate households and the legal wife simply had to put up with it because she had no other option. We simply can't know what goes on between any couple just by looking at them, and professing Christianity certainly is no guarantee of a successful marriage, as Josh Duggar illustrates.

[samira_catlover]

 Look, FWIW, I know of a number of cis-het couples (like the labels REALLY matter) who are kinda doing rather unconventional relationshipy stuff. You have a dearly loved partner (any flavor/model)? Great. But some people are kinda complicated, and still manage very nicely within a Responsible Polyamory model (e.g., no dirty little secrets, and nobody's primary relationship gets tanked). 

Back when women had, uuuh, maybe one chance in seven of dying in each childbirth, and when a primary relationship might last 20 years, it might have been different.  "Till Death Do Us Part" was a very real situation, given mortality statistics in the Western world.

FWIW, and YMMV, it seems a little...dreamy idealistic...to think that one might find a Perfect Life Partner and spend the next 40-50 years together and get all of your needs met (but if you can, ROCK ON!--and brings out the cheering pompoms!).

Also FWIW: het conventional people who are into marriage as a Lifetime Commitment (religiously, socially, or whatever) are very not likely to dump their conceptions just because the neighbors are Doing Interesting Erotic Things.

[Jingerbread]

What's unhealthy is the fundy obsession of what other consenting adults do in their own bedrooms.

[Hera]

4 minutes ago, Jingerbread said:

What's unhealthy is the fundy obsession of what other consenting adults do in their own bedrooms.

This really is weird.  I can honestly say that I don't spend my time wondering what other people are doing sex  wise. I just don't have the time or inclination.  I don't understand how anyone gets as emotional as these people do about strangers' sex lives. 

[Terrie]

People like this are an embarrassment to my home state.

[47of74]

14 minutes ago, Terrie said:

People like this are an embarrassment to my home state.

Yeah I love Minnesota.  I seriously considered moving there after Sen Joni "Breadbags" Ernst got elected  and Governor Brainfart got re-elected in 2014.  And yeah guys like this f--k nugget are definitely an embarrassment.

A question, if I may dear readers: Would anyone else besides me not be surprised if someday this clown is arrested after making a wide stance in a public bathroom stall like a certain former Senator was? 

[Runningfromreality]

17 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Yeah last week one of our local conservatives posted a big long screed in the comments section of an article in the town newspaper about how the American College of Pediatricians thought LGBT were harmful to children.  I didn't have the time or energy to explain to this idiot that the American College of Pediatricians is a sham anti gay right wing group that was called out by the SPLC in the past.  (splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2012/american-college-pediatricians-defames-gays-and-lesbians-name-protecting-children) 

One of my relatives is a very conservative Catholic drifting towards fundiedom and he posted a link to an article by the American College of Pediatricians saying that allowing your children to be transgender is child abuse, saying that he was glad the medical community was finally talking sense about the issue. My eyes almost rolled out of my head and I was so tempted to comment that what he thought was the medical community was actually a hate group and that I sincerely hope that none of the eleventy children he's planning to have now that he's decided birth control is evil are gay or transgendered. People who can't accept other people who are doing nothing to harm themselves or others drive me insane and being related to one is infuriating.  

[47of74]

1 minute ago, Runningfromreality said:

One of my relatives is a very conservative Catholic drifting towards fundiedom and he posted a link to an article by the American College of Pediatricians saying that allowing your children to be transgender is child abuse, saying that he was glad the medical community was finally talking sense about the issue. My eyes almost rolled out of my head and I was so tempted to comment that what he thought was the medical community was actually a hate group and that I sincerely hope that none of the eleventy children he's planning to have now that he's decided birth control is evil are gay or transgendered. People who can't accept other people who are doing nothing to harm themselves or others drive me insane and being related to one is infuriating.  

And the American College of Pediatricians named themselves this on purpose to confuse people into thinking they were a respectable group.  They did this so people would think, oh, this is the main body of pediatrcians in this country, so if they're saying this about LGBT people it must be true.

One time back in my Catholic days I was locking up the church after Mass and I overheard an elderly lady as she was walking out complaining that ever since girls started wearing pants they and the boys were all now confused and becoming homosexual.  I clamped my mouth shut and continued getting the church all secured like I was supposed to but if I had done a facepalm then I would've probably gone through my face and out the back of my head.  Both of my Grandmas wore pants quite regularly even back when they were growing up and I think this lady was the same age as my paternal Grandma.