The Experts Speak; On Steven Langa's and David Bahati's Quack Psychology

[forgive my crowing. Yes, I am too combative, which kind of makes me an unhealthy person to debate with.
The damned doctors are way too well enscoced in their ivory towers to come out and pronounce on things which concern us mere mortals. But, the South Africans are coming out. Swinging.]

An Open Statement from the Psychological Society of South Africa to the People and Leaders of Uganda Concerning The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009

An Open Statement from the Psychological Society of South Africa

to the People and Leaders of Uganda Concerning

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009

And addressed to:

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

aak@statehouse.go.ug

Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuka

dnuwamanya@parliament.go.ug

Introduction

On the occasion of the proposed legislation in Uganda to greatly expand your country's existing criminalisation of homosexual behaviour, as well as to criminalise those who fail to report even suspicion of it including family members, colleagues and health care professionals;

And given arguments made in the bill itself and from its proponents in numerous public statements that it is intended to achieve the laudable goal of protecting youth, families and communities;

And given that there has been ample critique by civil society including human rights, public health and faith communities addressing a range of serious concerns from those perspectives;

And given that it is good practice that legislation is based not on unsubstantiated opinions, but rather on recognised research findings;

And given that there has not yet been a scientific analysis of the core assumptions and arguments being made to justify the legislation;

And given that the considerable body of relevant international scientific research provides a context in which to assess the assumptions and issues presented by The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009; 

It is therefore incumbent on representatives of organised psychology, as leaders in the field of mental health and well-being, to offer such an analysis and recommendations as follows[1]:

The Nature of Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation refers to one's emotional, romantic and sexual attraction to men, women, or both sexes.  It can also refer to a person's core sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviours, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions.

Research and clinical experience have found no relationship between sexual orientation and someone's ability to contribute to the community and to influence children to become responsible members of society.

Research and clinical experience further concludes that for most people sexual orientation is not "a choice" or "voluntary."  The core aspects of sexual orientation, whether heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, typically emerge by early adolescence, even though the individual may not yet have become sexually active.

While "causes" for any of these sexual orientations remain unclear, they are highly resistant to change.  Further, there is no reliable evidence that sexual orientation is subject to redirection, "conversion" or any significant influence from efforts by psychological or other interventions. 

Research and clinical experience concludes that homosexual or bisexual orientations are naturally occurring minority variations of normal human sexuality. They are also documented widely throughout nature.

The Sexual Orientation of Adults Does Not Adversely Affect Children in Their Care

A common manifestation of prejudice against homosexual people has been the allegation that gay men in particular pose a danger to children.  Yet, all available reliable research data and clinical experience concludes that gay men are not more likely than heterosexual men to sexually exploit and abuse children.  Claims to the contrary seriously mischaracterise the research and rely on suspect sources.  The presumption that homosexual men are paedophiles also is not supported by respected, peer reviewed research.

South African-based as well as other international research has found that there is no difference between children who are raised by homosexual versus heterosexual parents regarding matters such as sexual orientation, gender identity, sex-role behaviour, likelihood of being sexually abused, self-concept, intelligence, personality characteristics, behaviour problems, peer relations, parental separation and divorce, general adjustment and accomplishment of developmental tasks.

Effects of Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation

Both international and South African research has found significant negative effects of exclusion and other forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Sexual orientation-based discrimination presents the same risks of psychological and other harms as discrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender.

Notably, among youth who identify as homosexual or bisexual or who think they may be, research concludes that family rejection and exclusion, as well as bullying by peers, correlates highly with a range of high risk behaviours and outcomes ranging from truancy to substance abuse to attempts at suicide.

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, homosexuality is firstly interpreted as "foreign," portrayed as "un-African" and a "white import."  In some traditional African beliefs, those of a same-sex sexual orientation are considered cursed or bewitched; that is, damned by the forefathers and the gods.  In primarily Christian and Muslim African countries alike, gay men and lesbian women are confronted with religious condemnation. 

Much evidence points to this stigmatisation leading to deep-seated and widespread prejudice, discrimination and violence toward those who are not heterosexual.  A session on homosexuality at the 2^ndAfrica Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, hosted in Kenya in 2006, noted that fear, hatred and abuse at the hands of largely intolerant and unsympathetic peers and elders hampers the personal growth and well-being of African homosexuals.

Also widely documented among the outcomes of prejudice and discrimination are consistently high rates of anti-homosexual harassment and violence, both state sanctioned and extrajudicial.  Furthermore, criminalisation on the basis of sexual orientation has been found to exacerbate social discrimination and, in particular, leads service providers to discount, ignore and neglect the needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, thus compounding their vulnerability.

Conclusion

The scientific fields devoted to mental health and well-being, including psychiatry, psychology and sociology, do not consider homosexual orientation to be a disorder, but rather view it as a naturally occurring variation of normal human sexuality.  Research and clinical practice indicates that homosexual people have an overall potential to contribute to society similar to that of heterosexual people and that they pose no greater risk to children than do heterosexual people.

While the proposed bill cites "…the need to protect the children and youths of Uganda…" as justification, there is no credible, reliable evidence that the measures contained in the bill will achieve that outcome.   Research and clinical practice instead indicates that the abuse of human rights and fundamental freedoms embodied in the bill, and the state sponsored discrimination and affronts to basic human dignity it mandates, would instead result in profound physical and psychological harms to the already vulnerable lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in the very population the legislation claims to protect.

On the grounds outlined in this statement, the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) therefore joins the international community in strongly opposing the proposed anti-homosexuality legislation.   The PsySSA joins in the call for Ugandan leaders to abandon or defeat the bill, and instead to join the trend in the international community of decriminalising homosexuality.

Call to Action

The Psychological Society of South Africa invites other organisations and professionals dedicated to mental health and well-being, particularly throughout the African continent, to join us by endorsing this statement and forwarding notification of endorsement to the President of the Republic of Uganda and the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament at the addresses above as we will do upon release of this statement.  We further ask that organisations and individuals so doing also kindly copy their endorsement to PsySSA so that we can monitor the response.

• Psychological Society of South Africa notification address: nelja@unisa.ac.za

The Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) is the professional body representing psychologists in South Africa. PsySSA has since its inception been dedicated to making a significant contribution to solving the pressing human development problems in South Africa. PsySSA is committed to the transformation and development of South African Psychology to serve the needs and interests of all South Africa's people. PsySSA advances psychology as a science, profession and as a means of promoting human well-being.

The Psychological Society of South Africa is a member of The International Network on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns and Transgender Issues in Psychology.

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[1]  Note, list of references available on request.

Sex

Oh, that topic.

I have been having fun. Blogging about sex, and the restrictions that we do face as Ugandans in talking about it.

Oh, it was certainly not a ‘girlish’ topic. But a very serious problem according to my twisted thinking. In Uganda, despite the fact that we have passed through the HIV problem, there is this funny hangover. We cannot discuss sex. Not openly, not frankly, not between the sexes.

We pride ourselves on being a ‘moral’ society. So we sweep everything about sex under the rug and admire how clean and pure we are.

I could not imagine, that 26 years since HIV started, our government refuses a meeting of prostitutes. Because it is immoral. Because it is against the morals of the vocal few. Yet the ladies of the night are such a pervasive feature of Kampala that it is impossible to live here and not know that quite a number earn their living in that way. They are very visible. Extremely visible.

Downtown, they line Speke Road, flood Rock Garden Bar. Even where the blogloren meets for its Bloggers Happy Hour, at Mateos. The blogloren decided to meet at an unfashionable hour. Early evenings on Thursdays. Pop in Friday, Saturday evenings, and you will have no problem identifying the ladies of the night. In the bars, ‘bufundas’, they ply their trade openly, and their clients are as open about the business.

The gentlemen of the night are more discrete, but they frequent the same places!

But the huge frustration is that we cannot actually talk about these things. Not openly, not frankly, not in Uganda. We are hypocrites of the first order, and we are quite confortable as we are. They have problems, which they cannot solve, because they cannot organize. They are prevented from organizing. Imagine this bit of hypocrisy; why would the government of Uganda stop a meeting of prostitutes to talk about HIV prevention? Oh, the government did.

Yet in recent years the problem has become worse. Before, we did not talk about sex openly. But now, it is fashionable to condemn sex in all its guises. Sex is evil. Sex is sin. Sex is bad.

That is the message that is being forced down our throats in the name of HIV prevention, and ‘morality’. It doesn’t matter that the greater majority of the population does not agree, or acts in a different way. That majority is a silent majority. They will listen as people talk about the ‘No Sex’ ideals and think how stupid it is. But few will talk up against it. Oh, the politicians will go to church and listen to the summons on Sunday, and go back and pick a sex worker off the streets. Sex is also an intensely private thing, and the taboo on talking about that extends to that. The big man may have more than the officially recognized 4 wives. But that is ok. His ‘official’ wife can talk about the values of abstinence and being faithful, and say that condoms promote promiscuity. Pullllleeeeeesssssse!

It is my problem too.

I am gay. And that is a label, and catalogue which the thinking puts me in. Because I am gay, I am bad. Doesn’t matter that I can write like an angel. Doesn’t matter that I am supporting my brother through school, that I have a family that I love a lot, that I am a Ugandan, and that it is a tiny small bit of the whole who is me. I am gay, so I am bad.

Yeah, it is a wall against which we have to bang our damned heads against. Can you imagine how hard it is realizing that you are gay, growing up and realizing that your sexual orientation is different in such a society, where ‘officially’ sex is a taboo subject, demonized. And on television and radios, and in school and rallies that is what you hear? Knowing that you are gay, yet the very ‘thought’ of sex is being condemned as evil? That is, sexual thoughts are sinful thoughts, the very expression is more evil. Oh god, people pray for deliverance from the devil of masturbation!

Small wonder that they would consider me and my gay sexual orientation a devil incarnate. And I must say that a kuchu who does understand him or herself gets a priceless gift. Coming to terms with ones person. No wonder many of us fail to.

Yeah, I understand us, Ugandans, in a way. But I don’t understand also. Logic and illogic seems so finely mixed that I do not know how to tackle that problem!

GayUganda

A Gay Ugandan and Religion 1

(Wrote this some time ago. One thing led to another, and I did not post it. Today I have to post it. Will update in the next post.)

Its official.

The Church of Uganda, Anglican, has confirmed that they will not sit together at the same table as the Episcopal Church of America.

The issue is my sexuality. Homosexuality.

The Church of Uganda believes that my sexuality is unnatural. And that it is a sin. They believe that it is sinful to encourage a person like me to salvation in Jesus' name.

The opposite point of view is held by the Episcopal Church. Homosexuality is taken, not as a choice, but as a fact of life. There are people who are homosexuals. And these people have a right to the call of Jesus. They also have a right to be called to minister in the name of Jesus.

So, the Episcopal church ordained a homosexual as Bishop. Gene Robinson. Starting off the schism.

The Church of England? Well, they are in the middle (apparently), believe that homosexuals exist, and they are natural, but we are called to be celibate(?). So that we do not sin. The idea, I believe, is that since we are all made by god, and homosexuals were also made by god, then we are children of god. But we sin when we have forbidden, sinful sex.

That is what the Catholic Church also believes.

Hold.

Before you begin bashing me for my opinions, I must affirm that this is what I have picked up from a constant awareness of what is going on. Not a study of the religious views.

I was 'born' in the Church of Uganda.

True. My dad was very shocked when I told him that I don't believe. When I made the mistake of casually mentioning it to Maama, her distress nearly made me take back my words. But it has been a long journey. No, I cannot state, truthfully, that I believe. And my parents distress does not take away my 'faith' in no faith.

So what do I think about the COU move?

Curiously, I don't have the restrained anger I once had. Don't even remember clearly why I was angry at them. Something about being duped and having to consider something important when in actual fact it isn't. At least not to me, at the moment.

I see the same anger in my lover. He does believe.

He has changed, from a daily 'prayer' to a once in a blue moon. He is angry at the way the church seems to consider him a sinner simply on the basis of sexuality.

My lover, I believe, has a right to faith. To believe. I have no doubt about that. Just as I have no doubt that I have a right to not believe.

What is the general reaction in the country?

Uganda is a very homophobic. And the fact that the debate was actually going on amazed people. They could not believe that homosexuality was compatible with Christian beliefs. And to be told that there was a Church, which had ordained a homosexual as a Bishop? That, to them, was a long stretch of the credulous.

When I listened to the language of the bishops here, I knew it would come to that. Slowly, very slowly, the schism has widened, to breaking point. When the guys here said that they could not sit on the same table as the Anglicans, I knew it was just a matter of time. Cultural considerations. You don't share the table with an enemy! (Or an inferior)

To the man in the street, it is good riddance.

To the homosexual Ugandan, the kuchu, the gay Ugandan?

I made my peace with my faith. I don't know how the others are going to.

Have a friend, a kuchu, forced to marry, very involved in the schism and whole dialogue issue. Cant say I know how he is taking it. Remember, when I used to visit him, he had a sticker affirming his faith in his room.

Funny, the whole idea of Jesus eating with sinners. The COU are so hostile to us that they have refused any dialogue, except the monologue when they condemn us from the pulpits. When we came out last year, they were at the fore front of the 'Rainbow Coalition against Homosexuality'. They were instrumental in making sure that we did not have a say at the Peoples Space during CHOGM.

It is a fierce battle, apparently, for the faith. And until last year, mid August, it seemed as if they were shadow punching. There seemed to be no homosexuals in the country.

Oh yes, now they accept that we are there. That there are Ugandans who are gay. But still, no dialogue, except 'Repent Sinner!'

If I tell them that this kuchu is Gay and Proud, they will not understand it, will they?

Anyway, it is official. Cant be gay and in the Church of Uganda, since it is the cause of the modern day reformation. Will be interesting how it is written up 100 years from now. Reformation 2 or 3?

GayUganda

To my friends

I am dedicating this post to my friends. All my friends, known and unknown, knowing and unknowing.

Writing this blog, I use the experiences of my life. My gay life. And I am ever talking about being gay, and being what I am, a Ugandan, an African. Yet I realise that many of my Ugandan friends simply do not know what I mean when I use some of these terms.

Sexual Orientation is what the scientists call our attraction to another sexually. One is most commonly attracted to those of the opposite sex. That is the heterosexual orientation. But one can be attracted to the same sex, the homosexual orientation. Or to both: bisexual.

I am a homosexual. I was born that way, far as I know. For a long time I denied it. I said and thought that it could not be true. Then I did accept it. Accepted that I was a homosexual, attracted to other men.

I am also gay.

Yes, one can be homosexual, and not gay. For example, Senator Craig insists he is not gay. Of course he is not. But there is a lot of evidence that he may be homosexual. Pastor Ted Haggard too.

To be gay or kuchu is to accept your sexual orientation. To accept that one is different. To go ahead and affirm that being homosexual does not decrease your worth as a human being.

I am gay. And I have taken it a step further. I have raised the rainbow flag, decided to embrace the struggle for equality of the gay community in my country. Uganda.

Once I did not think this way, but now I do. I am homosexual. Gay, and that does not make me any less a Ugandan. Or un-African. However much other people may insist that my sexual orientation is ‘un-African,’ ‘immoral’, ‘against culture’, that I learnt it from the decadent west.

Yet, I could have stopped at being homosexual. I could have accepted the majority view that because I was born homosexual, I am bad, less than human, a sinner, and worse.

I could have tried desperately to change. Doctors say it is impossible. I tried. There are many homosexuals who try to change. I am thankful I failed, and accepted myself. Some do not.

I could have walked the straight path. Gotten married. Had children. And maybe had my lovers on the side.

My lover believes in monogamy. He would not have accepted being on the sidelines. I know it happens a lot.

What actually started me off on this was this story. From Israel. Click the link and read it.

Guy like me. Homosexual. Took the straight path. Got married, 20 years! Had 4 sons, was an ultra-orthodox Jew. He tried his best to be straight, and failed. He got a lover, a male lover. But still he was not happy in his marriage.

He talked to his wife. Told her a partial truth; that he was transgender. Maybe to him it seemed a ‘lesser evil’. The lady took it well, but later, went on to seek a divorce. Marriage broken down.

The guy killed himself. His family was rejected by his community. Hypocrites, but then, that is society.

That could easily have been a script for my life. Because 95% of my country men disapprove of my sexuality.

But I cannot change my sexuality. Ssempa says that he can do that for me. I am a bit dubious of his claims. He is not a medical doctor. Maybe he is a witchdoctor.

I will not hide, because I am a man attracted to men, in Uganda.

I will say that I am me, a homosexual, a Ugandan, an African, and a human being.

I will pray desperately that my friends understand me. But I will not be less than what I am, because they disapprove.

GayUganda

My Gay Identity

I am a homosexual. And I am so much more than a homosexual, so much more than just my sexual orientation. But the world sees me as a homosexual. And that lens colours everything else that I may be, at least in the eyes of the world.

True liberation for the gay person may lie not only in embracing his or her gay persona, but also in realising that they are more than just that part of their identity. That they are fully human, with the faculties, strengths and weaknesses that all other humans manifest. I don’t have to be special because I am gay. I am special because I am what I am. I don’t have to be burdened with more special consideration because I am a homosexual. Because my sexual orientation is other than heterosexual. I just have to be accepted for what I am, a human being who is homosexual. A part of my identity, not the entirety of my identity.

Yet the world will not see this. Most of the world will not see this. Even my friends who are gay will not see this. To my friends, being gay has become a badge of honour, and that I welcome. It is a badge of identity that they welcome. To my detractors, it is the devil’s horns revealed in their glory. The essence of evil that they are fighting to exclude from their pristine world. It even affects those who may be neutral. Unconsciously, subconsciously; that I am of this sexual orientation, different from them.

Yet I am just that, a human being who is gay.

GayUganda