Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 14:25:39 -0800 From: Paradise Cowgirl x5930 Subject: Oregonian's Response to HOPE This was written in response to the recently announced OCA-sponsored program, HOPE, Help One Person Escape, a group that is out to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality. --- Forwarded mail from "Darci L. Chapman" Subject: Oregonian Editorial re OCA (long) - pnw.motss #730 In article , hansenr@ohsu.edu (Robert Hansen) writes: |> A WARM RESPONSE TO A WARM OCA OFFER |> |> By David Sarasohn, Associate Editor, the Oregonian |> (1/9/94, reprinted without permission) |> |> As we set off on another year of battling over the Oregon Citizens |> Alliance's certainties over who's entitled to rights, it seems that some OCA |> members may have gotten the wrong impression. They may feel that other |> Oregonians, resentful over the bitter division of their communities to |> thwart a gay conspiracy not previously noticed in Estacada, don't really try |> to understand OCA activists as people. |> |> Actually, of course, all we want to do is help. |> |> That's why we need a loving, supportive counseling program to help people |> get out of the OCA lifestyle. |> |> Although there's an argument over whether people become OCA leaders out of |> choice or by genetic disposition - there's some thought that it's caused by |> the wrong kind of high school phys ed program - they can be helped. With |> just a little encouragement, they can be gotten away from those OCA Pride |> parades, and led gently away from other people's bedroom windows. |> |> Soon, they could even enter libraries without the urge to throw out some of |> the books. |> |> The idea is inspired, of course, by the OCA's recent heartwarming offer to |> set up a counseling group for gays, to help them "escape homosexuality" and |> provide support for their families. The project is to be called HOPE - |> which stands for Help One Person Escape. |> |> Up to now, the OCA's image has been of not wanting a single gay Oregonian to |> get away. |> |> According to OCA chairman Lon Mabon, the program would answer "those who |> portray us as a spiteful, mean-spirited organization." |> |> Replying to those people individually would have taken up a lot of postage. |> |> What's interesting about the OCA's offer to counsel homosexuals is that it |> could build on the organization's experience in dealing with them. Few |> statewide groups have had as much direct contact with gays, at least not |> without getting a reputation as a spiteful, mean-spirited organization. |> |> In a political fight over Springfield's gay-rights measure, for example, an |> OCA spokesman called the head of the city's human rights commission "a |> practicing homosexual." As a result, the commissioner received a large |> number of harassing phone calls at home, and his son was taunted at school. |> |> Up to now, there isn't much research on the therapeutic effects of |> threatening phone calls. But it gives the new OCA program something to |> build on. |> |> It turned out, in fact, that the man in question wasn't gay - counseling is |> not an exact science - and OCA leaders defended themselves in a lawsuit by |> shrugging that hey, they'd been wrong. |> |> Still, the experience provides the new program with a useful tip: Before |> working with gays, try to find out who they are. |> |> Over the past year, the OCA has had other experience in counseling gays. It |> helped out in a Clackamas County child-custody case, after joint custody had |> been awarded to a gay man and his ex-wife. The OCA distributed a flyer with |> the man's HIV-status and his phone number, urging people to call him and |> demand that he give up his custody rights. |> |> Telephone calls from strangers seems to be the key to the OCA's counseling |> approach. So far, no word from the American Psychological Association about |> the therapy. |> |> In fact, that organization, along with the American Medical Association and |> the American Psychiatric Association, keeps saying new things about |> homosexuality, such as that it isn't a medical or emotional problem. That |> kind of thinking now shapes most of the professionals working with gays, in |> the kind of programs that the OCA regularly disdains: How can you work |> effectively with gays if you don't think they're dangerous people? |> |> But the new OCA gay-guidance program, HOPE, provides a clear invitation for |> a support group to enable OCA leaders to escape their conflicted lifestyle. |> In open conversations with others who have made the same journey, they can |> deal with questions such as: |> |> When did they first discover they were unsettled by anybody different from |> themselves? |> |> Does direct-mail fund raising work better if you put the leather-chain |> picture on the outside or in the inside? |> |> Can I borrow the San Francisco Gay Parade tape after you're done with it? |> |> Is this better than getting a job, or what? |> |> Veterans of the OCA life can be helped with these questions, in a sensitive |> seminar series called GROWUP: Get Rid Of Weirdnesses about Unknown People. |> |> Weekly, its members could get together and talk about how many times they'd |> stayed out of other people's business. Over time, with some effort, they |> could even manage to develop lives of their own - although some of them |> would be allowed to keep their mailing lists as a souvenir. |> |> Think of it as a hate-loss program. |> |> |> ROBERT HANSEN - Oregon Health Sciences University - Portland, Oregon USA |> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |> "If you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain. And, honey, |> I surely do not want to give up my right to complain, no sir." |> (Bessie Delany) |> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- ------ Darci L. Chapman - Northwest Natural Gas - dlc@gasco.com \ --/--- Oregonians spent over $3 million on the last statewide OCA-sponsored \ \/ / anti-gay rights measure. Their measures are divisive and unnecessary. \/\ / Don't sign the OCA's latest petition! \/ (I do not speak for the Gas Company, and They do not speak for Me) --- End of forwarded mail from "Darci L. Chapman" -- ------ Darci L. Chapman - Northwest Natural Gas - dlc@gasco.com \ --/--- Oregonians spent over $3 million on the last statewide OCA-sponsored \ \/ / anti-gay rights measure. Their measures are divisive and unnecessary. \/\ / Don't sign the OCA's latest petition! \/ (I do not speak for the Gas Company, and They do not speak for Me)