In Scientology, homosexuality
is considered an expression of "1.1
tone", an emotional tone midway between "fear" (1.0)
and "anger" (1.5). The implication is that homosexuals prefer
anonymous and indirect contacts to more open emotional involvement and
responsibilities. The other implication is that, through Scientology
"auditing", one would gain a more "normal" sexual
behavior.
Scientology, however, does not dictate strict sexual behavior
at this level, nor assigns blame for deviant behavior. The principle is
that through the heightened awareness auditing is supposed to procure,
each one will be more able to make his own decision of what he really
wants and doesn't want.
It is true, however, that the
tone of L. Ron Hubbard's writings on the subject is basically
homophobic, even if, later on, he tried to balance his own statements.
Even the implications above, that homosexuality is the result of a "low
tone", and that gays would become "normal" as they proceed with the
Scientology "therapy", may be considered as offensive to gays.
Scientology critics, however,
have taken this legitimate criticism far beyond what it deserves and
have turned it into a myth of their own, going as far as claiming
Scientology advocates gays should be
exterminated in concentration camps.
While fanatical interpretation of some of
L. Ron Hubbards's writings
in an hypothetic future Scientology-controlled society is of course
always possible, critics omit to mention subsequent writings by Hubbard that pretty much cancel these
statements. They also ignore the way this issue is actually being
tackled with in the present-day Scientology.
This is what the letters below, written by a
Scientologists in answer to a negative press article, points out.
As for anti-cultists, they
have made a living demonstration of what would be THEIR "solution" to
"deviant" behavior. In 1981, they kidnapped
a lesbian girl and subjected her to debilitating treatment for no
better reasons that her parents disapproved of her relationship and
claimed she was therefore under "mind-control". This didn't
happen in some hypothetic future society, but right here in our current
western world.
Fab! Magazine Los Angeles, CA. November 24, 2000 - Vol. 6: 142
http://www.gayfab.com
I'M HERE, I'M QUEER, I'M A SCIENTOLOGIST! WE'RE NOT A CULT!
Keith Relkin, a gay Scientologist from West Hollywood, responds to
Patrick
Tsakuda's article in Fab! last month on the organization.
by Keith Relkin
Well it's about time someone noticed Scientology is "invading"
West Hollywood
("Scary Scientology Saga, Fab! issue 140)!!! I just wonder why it
took so long
for you to realize WE are here!
That's right, I'm a Scientologist living in West Hollywood. I'm also
openly
GAY, very involved in the GAY community, GAY civil rights and AIDS
activism...
in case you were interested.
In fact, there are quite a few of us happy little Scientologists here.
And
considering that this community is confronted by the same problems of
drugs,
unhappy relationships and the stress of living which all communities are
faced
with, Scientology is likely to continue to catch on here... because
those are
the things Scientology addresses and has answers to.
But I just don't recognize the Scientology you describe in your
imaginative
article, Patrick! Of course, you are probably more familiar with it than
I
am... after all, I've only worked for three Scientology organizations,
two in
Seattle, one in Los Angeles, and I volunteer at the center in Beverly
Hills.
Most of my family are Scientologists. My "ex" is a
Scientologist and a staff
member in Beverly Hills. Many of my gay friends have taken Scientology
and
staff courses and been greatly helped with their relationships.
By contrast, we have the "facts" cited in your article...oops!
I can't see WHY!
The "quote" you attribute to L. Ron Hubbard is from a book
that doesn't exist
and the "Cult Awareness Network" you "quote" went
bankrupt years ago from
lawsuits. (Apparently they tried to deprogram a Catholic nun and the
Pope wasn't
too happy about that. But you should also be aware that deprogramming is
often
used on homosexuals in the form of "aversion therapy" and
"conversion therapy."
I guess anyone who doesn't agree with the maintstream is a "cult
member" in
certain parts of this country!)
The IRS ruled favorably on the religious nature of Scientology and
its
tax-exempt status years ago. Not sure how Fab! managed to miss that
"minor
detail" in their not-so-fab "fact checking department."
Let's face it, YOUR
story reads like science fiction.
So, just for fun, here's a REAL quote by L. Ron Hubbard, you know
Patrick, from
an actual book he wrote (can we say "library" Patrick?).
We Scientologists read this at the beginning of every Sunday service in
every
Scientology organization across the world: "Nothing in Dianetics
and Scientology
is true for you unless you have observed it and it is true according to
your
observation. That is all."
On a personal note, it was Scientology that got me off drugs. It was
counseling
from a Scientology chaplain that helped me deal with coming out as a gay
man and
how to handle that with my family and friends. It was a Scientology
Communications course that gave me many of the tools to rebuild my
personal and
family relationships, and also greatly improve my dating life! But most
of all,
Scientology has given me the opportunity to handle the effects of the
oppression
that all gay people grow up with, and to regain self-confidence and
self-respect.
What's more, Scientology has the most iron-clad, non-discriminatory
policy I've
ever come across regarding sexual orientation. Have there been abuses of
this
policy by people in the church who are ignorant of it, or who were
raised in the
Midwest? (Sorry, bad joke.) Yes! Of course! I mean, what planet are you
living on? But whenever I have personally written reports on policy
violations
to church management, my reports were acknowledged and the offenders
were
untimately corrected. That's more than I can say for our U.S.
government's
record handling civil rights abuses of gays.
Fact: Approximately 60% of the population of California voted FOR the
Knight
initiative. We have alot of work to do! But just because Dr. Laura is
Jewish
doesn't mean all Jews are against us. Similarly, we have many allies in
the
Church of Scientology, many of whom are my dear friends.
I believe that we in the gay community have a responsibility to: (1)
Educate and
(2) Set a good example in what a gay is and does. It has been and
continues to
be my mission to forge stronger ties within the Church and to increase
communication and understanding about who gay people are. The Church of
Scientology of Beverly Hills is totally welcoming of the gay community,
for
example, and has frequently invited me to lead Sunday services there.
As to L. Ron Hubbard himself, he wrote hundreds of works over half a
century on
the subject of mind, education, drug rehabilitation and related
subjects. If
you, Patrick, pick an isolated quote from 1950, you will NOT understand
what
Hubbard had to say about homosexuality. Remember, in 1950, the American
Psychiatric Association had homosexuality labelled as a "Mental
Disorder." It
took the work of Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society many years to
get them
to change that finally in 1963. Yet, in 1967, two years before the
Stonewall
riots and only four years after the American Psychiatric Association
stopped
calling us mentally ill, and long before any other major church
instituted
policies of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, L. Ron
Hubbard wrote
the non-discrimination policy I referred to BELOW in bold capital
letters:
"It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt
to regulate
the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not
resulted in any improved condition... Therefore ALL FORMER RULES,
REGULATIONS
AND POLICIES RELATING TO THE SEXUAL ACTIVITIES OF SCIENTOLOGISTS ARE
CANCELLED."
There are several points on which Scientology and the gay community
totally
agree: (1) Human Rights. There is zero tolerance in Scientology for any
violation of human rights and you always have recourse in the Church if
you feel
that your rights have been violated. As I've said, I've used these on
more than
one occasion myself; (2) The committment to fight the drug problem in
our
communities. This is obviously not just a problem of the gay community,
and
pharmaceuticals are offenders as well as recreational drugs. Scientology
has
solutions to not only drug abuse, but to the toxic residuals which stay
in the
body for years afterward and can cause lasting physical and mental
effects.
There are many gay Scientologists and there will doubtless be many more
in the
future, right here in West Hollywood, because Scientology's popularlity
and
visibility keeps growing. This is in no small measure due to the fact
that
Scientology upper management has made huge efforts in recent years to
standardize all organizations so that they are uniform in their
application of
polcicies and procedures, which means that we, in the gay community, can
expect
the increased compliance with policies that affect us.
We're not living in the 50s or the Stonewall era. As a gay community, we
should
remember our past, but let's not live there. We've made incredible
strides and
it wasn't always due to our lack of skill in battle, but our diplomacy
and skill
in forging alliances. Haven't we had to do that all of our lives? Maybe,
just
maybe, it's time for a "reduction of hostilities."
For example, as a point of etiquette, calling someone's religion a
"cult" is
like yelling "faggot" out a car window while speeding down
Santa Monica
Boulevard. It does not promote a sense of compassion or tolerance. I
suggest
that we continue to be vigilant but also set an example of the tolerance
we
ourselves as gay people expect, and move into a better future for all of
us, gay and straight.
(see:
http://on-line.scientology.org/cntinent/namerica/USA/florida/r.htm;
and
http://www.heal-la.org/alive.cgi?page=about&sub=thanks (link deosn't
work anymore) |
Fab! Magazine
Los Angeles
November 24, 2000
http://www.gayfab.com
PATRICK TSAKUDA RESPONDS TO GAY SCIENTOLOGIST KEITH RELKIN
Vicki Aznaran, one of the church's former leaders, told TIME magazine
that
Scientology is a "criminal organization, day in and day out. It
makes Jim and
Tammy (Bakker) look like kindergarten."
While I'm delighted that Keith has found that Scientology answers all
his
spiritual needs, the many accounts of those who have suffered severe
psychological abuse (and financial ruin) at the hands of this cult,
oops, I
mean, church, are overwhelming.
For more information on this subject - check out the following website:
http://www.xenu.net
Regarding the quote from the book that doesn't exist - Hubbard wrote
hundreds of
bizarre books. I may have gotten the title mixed up. My bad.
However, in his book entitled "Science of Survival," L. Ron
Hubbard penned the
following little tidbit about homosexuals: "...such people should
be taken from
the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for
here is
the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of
ethics."
According to the
website
I took this quote from,
this pearl of wisdom, and many others, appears in "Science of
Survival," Book
1, Chapter 13, page 102.
Page numbers may differ in various editions due to gradual changes being
made to
the original works of L. Ron Hubbard.
Can we say "library" Keith?
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Fab! Magazine
Dec. 8, 2000 issue
LETTER TO EDITOR:
Dear Fab!
In his reply to Keith Relkin ("I'm Here! I'm Queer! I'm a
Scientologist," Fab!
issue 142), Patrick Tsakuda quotes Vicki Aznaran, one of the church's
former
leaders, who told TIME magazine that: "Scientology is a criminal
organization,
day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy (Bakker) look like
kindergarten."
Unfortunately for Mr. Tsakuda, Vicky Aznaran
happens to have made a 180 degree turn-about later on and retracted her
previous allegations. Her retraction, together with her explanation on
how apostates come to distort facts can be found at:
http://bernie.cncfamily.com/Aznaran.htm
The quote Mr. Tsakuda then uses to refute Keith Relkin's argument is
taken from
"Science of Survival," a book written in 1951 - thereby
completely ignoring
Hubbard's quote of 1967 cancelling all former rules, regulations, and
policies
relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists, which Mr. Relkin
used as a
core of his argument.
Be fair to at least balance this anti-Scientology resource with more
neutral
ones such as:
http://bernie.cncfamily.com/ars.htm,
or
http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol.htm.
As Keith Relkin rightly pointed out, what counts is what the group is
actually
doing, more than whatever out of context paragraph is being quoted by
the
group's enemy. To take an example from another field, the Bible said in
Exodus
35:2 - "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there
shall be to
you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work
therein
shall be put to death."
What is the best way to assess the truth of the situation? This quote or
the
fact that nobody is being put to death for not respecting the sabbath?
If Mr. Tsakuda has actual examples of homophobic incidents on the part
of the
Church of Scientology, maybe his time would be better spent documenting
these.
If all he has are unsubstantiated allegations, anti-cult cliches, and
out of
context quotes, his work may may find a better place on the xenu.net
website
mentioned above rather than in a magazine which, I suppose, is set out,
at least
in part, to defend homosexual rights.
BERNIE
Bernie@bernie.cncfamily.com
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Below is a post to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup made by a Scientology critic. It
describes a Scientology stand during the 2001 San Francisco Gay Pride
Parade - confirming Keith Relkin's affirmation that there are gay
Scientologists activists in this area. You have to take into account
that the event is reported through the critics' bias and therefore
strongly distorted. Note how the critic refers to Scientologists as
"clams", to L. Ron Hubbard as
the "fat dead white guy", and to his writing as
"hubspew".
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While walking along the sidewalk at the SF Gay Pride Parade this
Sunday, I was surprised, given the Keystone Kult's views on
homosexuality ("out-2D" and all), to find a couple of body
routers out
with E-meter, OCA test, and paperback Hubspew (including
"Dianetiki" in Russian).
Since we were at Pride and all, I started out asking the (young and
rather cute) body router whether Scientology held any doctrines about
the acceptability of homosexuality. (My quotes are paraphrases; I
wasn't expecting to run into a clambed and didn't have my Gandhi Tech
surveillance devices with me.)
He weaseled and waffled and finally admitted that church doctrine
considered homosexuality "less good" because it doesn't
produce any
children. Where is the next generation going to come from if
everybody is off having non-procreative sex? (like that's going to
happen!)
I tried the cans for the first time. He ran through a list of a few
"problem areas" and asked me to "think hard about each
one without
answering". I found that I could control the needle on the meter
easily (and invisibly, as far as I could tell) by gently adjusting the
pressure with which I held the cans. I triggered "reads" on
disease
(which I figured would push some of his clam buttons), career, and
"suppression".
Then we went over the results. When he asked me about
"suppression" I
mentioned that a friend of mine was having legal troubles, in fact
he's a political refugee. When I mentioned that his name was Keith
Henson, clamboy said "I think I've heard of him". At that
point I
pretty much just wandered away.
Looking forward to my first picket on July 7th...
--
Love and encouragement,
The German Paymaster
(well, half-German... on my father's side)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/
"The purpose of the lawsuit is to harass and discourage
rather than win." -- some fat dead white guy
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AAAARRRRhhhhhh! They were at the Pride Parade? My cod! I've never seen
'em at the one down here. This year I'll give away the rest of the
"Scientology Hates Gays but Loves their Money" fliers at the
event. Zinj
and I gave out 500 of them two years ago with the come-on line,
"Find
out how Scientology abuses the gay community!"
Bunker, we're still waiting for that XenuTV...
--
Barb
Chaplain, ARSCC
http://members.home.net/bwarr1/index.htm
http://www.geocities.com/bwarr_2000/ mirror site
"Every week, every month, every year, every decade and now
every century, Scientology does weird and stupid things
to damage its own reputation."
-Steve Zadarnowski
"Comparing Scientology to a motorcycle gang is a gross,
unpardonable
insult to bikers everywhere. Even at our worst, we are never as bad as
Scientology."
-ex-member, Thunderclouds motorcycle "club"
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Related pages:
Gay Rights and Scientology
The above link, part of a leaflet of "information"
distributed by Scientology critics, gives the darkest possible
interpretation of LRH's writings on homosexuality. Note how the
author tries to project this hypothetic (and improbable) future in
the present by stating: "since Dianetics was first published in
1950, perhaps "some distant date" is ... today?"
(note 26 September 2003: this web site does not exist anymore. I use
the archived link)
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