A Made Up Disorder

(Keywords: politics, religious right, How gay is Mark Alexander?)

You don't have to read beyond the first paragraph to see where this one's going. Mark M. Alexander's column at TownHall.com, titled There's nothing "gay" about gender-disorientation pathology reads like what it is - a paranoid screed written by a rightwing crazy.

It's that time of year again, when many unsuspecting American families travel to one of the nation's favorite family-theme parks only to find themselves at the epicenter of cultural degradation. This week, hordes of extroverted homosexuals congregated in Orlando at Disney's Pleasure Island for the annual exercise in societal entropy they call "Gay Days at Disney." Fortunately, the gaudy and lurid displays of sexual deviance at Disney are not typical of the public etiquette maintained by most homosexuals.

Yeah, one of those guys. You'd think that gays were having sex in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Skip a few paragraphs of "Eek! Freak out! Freak out!", and you come to the meat of the article.

...The Patriot [Alexander's blog] has just published The Homosexual Agenda and The Christian Response online, a comprehensive yet concise review of gender-disorientation pathology. It's an essay that anyone, inside or outside the Church, making a psychological, theological or social argument concerning homosexuality, should read.

Man, is this guy ever full of himself. Let's go to this blog post that he describes as a 'landmark'.

In order to understand how to respond to the homosexual agenda in the Church and society, it is helpful to understand the underlying pathology.

In 1952, the first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the official catalogue of mental disorders used by mental health professionals, listed homosexuality as a sociopath personality disturbance. In 1968, the revised DSM II reclassified homosexuality as a sexual deviancy. But in the midst of the sexual revolution, homosexual protestors began picketing the APA's annual conventions, demanding that homosexuality not be identified as a pathology. In 1973, under enormous pressure from homosexual activists, the APA remove homosexuality from it's the DSM III edition to the dismay of about 40 percent of psychiatrists -- particularly those who specialized in treating homosexuals.

In case he didn't know, 40% is a minority - I don't know where he got that number anyway. And not only doesn't the APA consider homosexuality a disorder, but the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Royal College of Nursing all agree.

Besides, there's no such thing as 'gender-disorientation pathology'. It seems to be a term he pulled out of his ass. A quick google search for the term shows a lot of copies of his post and no mention of this made up 'disorder' on any site that has anything to do with medicine or psychology.

So who is Mark Alexander? Info from his bio suggests that he's a professional blogger, although a degreed one.

Alexander's family has a proud military heritage, and includes veterans of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the War Between the States (the "right" side of each, of course). He is also the descendant of WWI (Army) and WWII (Navy) aviators. Placing a high premium that heritage, Alexander volunteered for military service in 1979, but his aspiration to become a Marine Aviator was cut short due to an injury.

That disappointment notwithstanding, Alexander went on to earn graduate degrees in both psychology and public affairs, and he is the recipient of prestigious national certifications from both military and civilian professional advancement programs. From 1983 to 1993, he served as a security advisor to executive levels of government, and provided consultation to Russia, the former Soviet Republics and states in the Middle East regarding the democratization of their military and law enforcement sectors.

The problem is, I can't find a single paper he's written about his new 'gender-disorientation pathology' theory. We're just supposed to accept his hypothesis as fact - without peer review. He may have a degree, but judging from his bio, he's never practiced or published. What few sources he cites are all discredited by psychologists, NARTH and Exodus International jump right out. They're both organizations who advocate the idea that sexual orientation can be 'corrected'.

It's not like he hasn't had time to make his new disorder known to the psychiatric community; a lot of this new, landmark post isn't new at all. A quick check through his archives shows that he lifted a lot of it from an earlier post, "Gay Days"? The reality of gender-disorientation pathology, written one year ago to the day. That earlier post ends, "In the final analysis, there is nothing 'gay' about being afflicted with gender disorientation pathology. Nor is there anything redeeming about those who would use a family theme park to advance the homosexual agenda."

In the final analysis, Alexander's column is horseshit.

--Wisco