Bush Surgeo-Gen'l Nominee a Homophobe: Gay Rights Groups
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Bush Surgeo-Gen'l Nominee a Homophobe: Gay Rights Groups
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Democracy Now - Jun 15, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/15/1428217
Bush Surgeon General Nominee a Homophobe: Gay Rights Groups
In Washington, opposition is growing [to] President Bush’s nominee to be
the next surgeon general. Leading gay rights groups are calling on
senators to reject the confirmation Dr. James Holsinger. Holsinger has
argued that homosexuality is unnatural and dangerous and that sexual
orientation is a lifestyle choice. In 2000, he helped form the Hope
Springs Community Church which has a special program that it claims to
�€~cure’ gay men and lesbians. If confirmed as surgeon general, Holsinger
would become the country’s chief health educator.
Holsinger is a cardiologist who has served as secretary of the Kentucky
Cabinet for Health and Family Services and as chancellor of the
University of Kentucky Medical Center. He is also a former medical
director at the Veterans Health Administration. Already two Senators
who will review his nomination -- Barack Obama and Chris Dodd -- have
expressed concern. In a statement Obama said: “I have serious
reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay
ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our
nation.”
Much of the criticism centers on a paper Holsinger prepared in 1991 for
the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality. The
document titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality” tries to make
the medical argument that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy. In
it, Holsinger writes “the logical complementarity of the human sexes
has been so recognized in our culture that it has entered our
vocabulary in the form of naming various pipe fittings either the male
fitting or the female fitting depending upon which one interlocks
within the other. When the complementarity of the sexes is breached,
injuries and diseases may occur.”
The White House has declined to address criticism of Holsinger.
Spokesperson Tony Snow was asked about Holsinger’s views at a White
House news conference on Wednesday.
SoundBite: White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.
While the White House refused to address the issue, a spokesperson for
the Department of Health and Human Services, defended Holsinger saying
his 1991 paper “was a summary of scientific, peer-reviewed studies at
the time.”
Guests:
* Max Blumenthal. Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation
Institute. His work has appeared in The Nation, Salon and many other
publications. His website is MaxBlumenthal.com.
* Jim Burroway. Runs the website Box Turtle Bulletin. He has
written an extensive critique of Holsinger’s 1991 paper.
Transcript:
AMY GOODMAN: In Washington, D.C. opposition is growing [to]
President Bush's nominee to be the next Surgeon-General. Leadings gay
rights groups are calling on Senators to reject the confirmation of Dr.
James Holsinger. Holsinger has argued that homosexuality is unnatural
and dangerous and that sexual orientation is a lifestyle choice. In
2000 he helped form the Hope Springs Community Church, which has a
special program that claims to cure gay men and lesbians. If confirmed
as Surgeon-General, Holsinger would become the country's chief health
educator. Dr. Holsinger is a cardiologist who has served as secretary
of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and is
chancellor of the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He's also a
former medical director at the Veterans Health Administration. Already
two Senators who will review his nomination, Barack Obama and
Christopher Dodd, have expressed concern. In a statement Senator Obama
said, "I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would
inject his own antigay ideology into critical decisions about the
health and well-being of our nation." Much of criticism centers on a
paper Dr. Holsinger prepared in 1991 for the United Methodist Church's
Committee to Study Homosexuality. The document entitled
"Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality," tries to make the medical
argument that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy. In it,
Holsinger writes, "the logical complimentarity of the human sexes has
been so recognized in our culture that it has entered our vocabulary in
the form of naming various pipe fittings, either the male fitting or
the female fitting, depending on which one interlocks within the other.
When the complimentarity of the sexes is breeched, injuries and
diseases may occur.” The White House has declined to address criticism
of Dr. Holsinger. Spokesperson Tony Snow was asked about Holsinger's
views at a White House news conference Wednesday.
REPORTER: The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post both
report that Dr. James Holsinger, the President's nominee for
Surgeon-General, has been denounced by homosexual activists, as well as
by Presidential candidates Edwards and Clinton because in 1991 Dr.
Holsinger wrote that sex between people of the same sex, especially
men, could lead to many sexual serious health problems. And given the
medical accuracy of the doctor's statement what is the President's
reaction to such attacks on this physician who is his nominee?
TONY SNOW: You know what, I haven't asked him about that so I
don't know.
REPORTER: The National Organization of Parents and Friends of
Ex-Gays and Gays has issued statement that the denunciations of Dr.
Holsinger are bigoted. The President in supporting him would not
disagree with this, would he?
TONY SNOW: I can't speculate on that.
AMY GOODMAN: While the White House refused to address the issue, a
spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services defended
Dr. Holsinger saying his 1991 paper, "was a summary of scientific
peered review studies at the time." Journalist Max Blumenthal has been
following this story. He's a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the
Nation Institute. His work appears in The Nation, Salon and other
publications. He's in our firehouse studio. And on the phone from
Phoenix, Arizona is Jim Burroway. He runs the website
boxturtlebulletin.com, which seeks to refute stereotypes and
misinformation about gays, lesbians and bisexuals, has written
extensively about Holsinger's 1991 paper. Let's begin with you, Jim.
1991, the paper that Dr. Holsinger wrote.
JIM BURROWAY: Yeah. Well, it's an interesting paper I have to say the
least. Because he writes it for the United Methodist Church. He's
trying to provide scientific evidence to support what is essentially a
theological theory where they talk about the complimentarity of male
and female couples, opposite sex couples. He tries to build the case
that science or medicine proves that same-sex couples are pathological.
He uses the term passive physiology. In other words, it's our body that
tell us that there's something pathological about it. So he wrote this
paper--If you just read the paper by itself I could see where you would
be inclined to think, well, gee, there's clearly something going on if
gay men are suffering from all of these terrible diseases and all of
these terrible injuries from having sex with each other. The problem
with the paper though -- I’ve found that in papers like this -- this is
fascinating, this is true with basically all antigay tracts in general,
and I believe that this one kind of qualifies more as an antigay tract
than a scientific paper-- The problem is that you really have to go to
the bibliography or footnotes to find out what's really going on. And
the fascinating thing about it is that the sources that he used to
essentially condemn gay men are all describing injuries that are found
in emergency room settings and sexually transmitted diseases from one
STD Clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. And basically -- and the emergency
room injuries are also sustained by straight people having, I guess
would you say, heterosexual sex. So it's just a strange thing to see
how someone can take, you know, evidence of what straight people are
doing and ending up in emergency rooms for and saying, a-ha, this
proves that gay sex is passive physiologically bad.
AMY GOODMAN: It was reported Rev. J. Phillip Wogaman, the main writer
for the committee, said the report reflected Dr. Holsinger's view of
homosexuality and that when Dr. Holsinger discerned the committee was
preparing a statement that would, "recognize the moral dignity of gay
and lesbian life as practice without promiscuity," Wogaman said Dr.
Holsinger angrily resigned.
JIM BURROWAY: That's pretty amazing. I hadn't heard that. I think it
does fit -- I hadn't heard those circumstances behind his resignation.
I think that fits very well with the tone of this paper. It's described
as a wide-ranging review of the medical literature. Well, it's clearly
not. He had to step around an awful lot of compelling evidence in order
to cherry pick the pieces that he pulled out and to put in this paper.
This isn't a dispassioned review of the literature. It's an impassioned
condemnation of gay people.
AMY GOODMAN: Max Blumenthal, you've been writing about Dr. Holsinger's
record. Put it in a bigger context. What is the Bush administration
doing with this nomination for Surgeon-General?
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, this nomination is another sop to the Christian
Right. They're trying to get their base revved up. I subscribe to
various Christian Right newsletters and they're just bombarding me with
e-mails and newsletters saying this is another case of religious
bigotry by the Democrats. They're forcing Dr. Holsinger to check his
Christianity at the door. So even if his nomination fails they've
gotten the base revved up, they’ve gotten the Christian Right
interested again. The Christian Right essentially controls this
administration so they're doing lot of damage in the process by
nominating someone to a scientific institution who's hostile to
science. Someone who has shown in his career almost as much hostility
to homosexuals as he has to disabled veterans before Walter Reed made
it cool to abuse veterans, Dr. Holsinger as head of the VA was forced
to personally admit blame for six deaths at a Chicago hospital he
administered. 30 hospitals he administered were ruled by a government
investigation to have substandard care for veterans. I think Dr.
Holsinger might argue that he can hold these views about homosexuals
and still be qualified for Surgeon-General. But he can't argue that he
doesn't believe in science. And that's just on the record. It's
established if you believe in ex-gay therapy, which he does, if you
believe you can pray away the gay, which he does, you are rejecting 30
years of science. The American Psychiatric Association, the largest
association of mental health professionals, has stopped listing
homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1974. They have contributed to
virtually every Surgeon-General's annual report. So he's rejecting the
mental health community right there. And this reflects a larger trend
in the administration of hostility to science. You have the NASA chief,
Michael Griffin who doesn't believe global warming exists. You have the
former chair of the President's council on bioethics which rubber
stamped his veto of stem cell science. Leon Kass who says that women’s
natural function in life is to have children. And he's spoken out most
fervently against what he sees is one of the biggest social evils, the
public licking of ice cream cones. Another member of the president’s
council of bioethics, Robert George who I’ve profiled for The Nation,
wants laws enacted to ban masturbation which would sort of create a
vicious cycle once you throw people in prison for that because there's
nothing else to do. Robert Brame, nominated for the national labor
relations board, believes that homosexuals, abortion doctors and
disobedient children should be executed according to biblical law. Joe
McIlhaney, former co-chair of the president’s advisory council on AIDs,
still a member, believes AIDs can be spread by sweat and tears. Current
co-chair Senator Coburn, anti-condemn activist. His chief of staff told
me at a right winged conference I was covering that he thinks liberal
federal judges should not only be impeached but impailed as well. So
you have in charge of scientific institutions sexual troglodytes who
might be qualified to administer tribal regions in Pakistan but they
are just not qualified to be in charge of these institutions. So I
think the nightmare isn't over. We have one year left but the
administration continues throwing these sops to the base. You saw in
your last segment how they fomented a civil crisis in Gaza, well they
fomented a culture war at home.
AMY GOODMAN: New York Times Max, New York Times was the one that quoted
Wogaman as saying that when the committee was preparing the statement
that would recognize the moral dignity of gay men and lesbians, if
practiced without promiscuity, Holsinger angrily resigned. They also
quoted Maria Kemplin, a lesbian who works as a Budget and Policy
Analyst for Dr. Holsinger when he was chancellor. Saying he never
expressed anything but acceptance and fairness in the workplace. And
the Louisville-Kentucky Journal reports more than a dozen Kentuckians
who's have worked with the former secretary of the state Cabinet for
Health and Family Services and the chancellor of the University of
Kentucky Medical Center say he is not bigoted and deeply committed to
providing healthcare for all.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: I’m sure he's a very nice man and that was the argument
in favor of Samuel Alito, too. That's their argument all the time. He's
disqualified by his rejection of established medical science which is
required to be Surgeon-General. Even C. Everett Koop, Reagan's
Surgeon-General, who is a fervent anti-abortion activist believed in
science, recommended sex education to stop the AIDs crisis that was
brewing during the 1980's. He was forced out because of the same
right-winged activists who have demanded Holsinger's confirmation. We
have a really dangerous situation. This is a guy, Holsinger, who's
donated $16,000 to George w. Bush. He's extremely compromised. He's a
right-winged activist. When he wrote this sickeningly lurid paper for
the United Methodist Church he was engaged in a sophisticated and well
funded right-wing effort to undermine the historically progressive wing
of the United Methodist Church. At the time they were liberalizing
their policy towards homosexuals to allow homosexuals to serve openly
in the clergy. Dr. Holsinger was the point man for the right to make
sure that didn't happen. And his paper was not a scientific review of
homosexual sex. It was actually an effort to smear homosexuals to make
way for this right wing effort.
AMY GOODMAN: And as Chancellor at the University of Kentucky he once
faced down two conservative state senators who threatened to with
withhold funding from a lesbian health care seminar at the University
of Kentucky in 2002.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: He's accused of embezzling $20 million from a
foundation which he took over in Kentucky when he was in charge of
Kentucky's health services administration. Kentucky sank to the bottom
of the country. And some of his peers accused him of driving their
health care system to third world standards. Not only is he a failure
but he's a dedicated cultural warrior who's extremely compromised and
doesn't believe in science.
AMY GOODMAN: The last less than two years of the Bush administration,
what do you see this -- this choice, how does this fit into these two
years? What kind of effect do you think Bush will have in these final
two years?
MAX BLUMENTHAL: As I said before, the nightmare isn't over. The Bush
administration is going to continue to try to maintain the base and the
coalition that Karl Rove has created through his strategy of
establishing a majority of the majority, going for the base. This base
is the Republican party. And they're going to push the Republican party
even further to the right. They control the nominating process. People
like James Dobson, people like the characters I spoke about are the
ones who are defining the domestic policy of this administration. And
they're on an international level people like Elliott Abrams are
creating conflict abroad. They substituted --
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think Bush's power is diminished at this point?
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Bush is essentially irrelevant at this point. And what
they're trying to do is hold the Republican coalition together by
throwing these various sops to the base. It's not about policy, it's
about politics. And that's what Holsinger represents. Whether he gets
confirmed or not I think the Bush administration has accomplished its
aim of holding the Republican coalition in place for Bush's successor.
AMY GOODMAN: Last comments as you not only write about Dr. Holsinger,
but write about these individuals who populate the Bush administration
right now.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, these individuals were in the Bush
administration. It's hard to identify who they are. But we've seen
through the attorney general scandal, for instance, Monica Goodling,
one of 150 graduates of Pat Roberts Regent University in the
administration. These people become former White House officials once
this is over.
AMY GOODMAN: We're going have to leave it there. Max Blumenthal, thanks
for joining us and thank you to Jim Burroway.
*
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