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A boy once asked King about how he should deal with his homosexuality. King replied:
"Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it."
I disagree with Martin Luther King, Jr. here:
King thought this was a mental illness and that it wasn't likely a type of attraction that was inherent from nature or birth. I don't believe homosexuality was "culturally acquired" back when King was alive because it was so suppresed and taboo back then. Homosexuality was never then (to the best of my knowledge) represented in film released to the broad general public, on television, in public education, in song, in art, on radio or in the press. King had to have been indoctrinated as a Christian clergyman that was "againt God" and "unnatural". King was pushing for civil rights on the basis of race and color, not on sexual orientation.
Homosexuality in itself is not a "problem". Unhealthy social attitudes about it are. Was King's solution to go to a shrink to be "de-gayed" so to speak? You cannot convert sexual orientation by any clinical magic wand. Sexual attractions of all kinds are natural and inherent indeed.
I don't think the LGBT community ever had a "Martin Luther King" type spokesperson and civil rights leader of their own.
This following black-and-white police educational film from the late '50's or early '60's (the American automobiles look like early 1960's models) "criminalizes" homsexuality as something that older white men do to hit on young boys. Homosexuality was only stigmatized as a serious "mental illness" in the rare older media footage about it.
Religious viewpoints tend to be very conservative and hence slow to change, so I suppose it's not that surprising. Likewise, scientific study of non-traditional sexualities has long been hindered by biases. But viewpoints are starting to shift, albeit gradually. It would be interesting to see what society is like in a hundred years from now. We might not be able to recognize it.
Oh no-MKL was a homophobe. I guess we better tear down all those statues to that evil man and rename all the road and schools named after him.
You think that's bad? Get this - Martin Luther King actually believed that people should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. When the progressives hear that one, the statues and schools don't stand a chance!
Civil rights for none-whites was his battle. The sexuality issue was for a different era. Often times one battle for equality inspires another one. Hell, I hear that alot of homosexuals are transphobic. So that’s another battle.
I'm bi and trans is not my cup of tea. Anybody who thinks they are the other sex is crazy, mad as a hatter. Have you ever seen a dog climb a tree and go MEOW?
Religious viewpoints tend to be very conservative and hence slow to change, so I suppose it's not that surprising. Likewise, scientific study of non-traditional sexualities has long been hindered by biases. But viewpoints are starting to shift, albeit gradually. It would be interesting to see what society is like in a hundred years from now. We might not be able to recognize it.
There are a lot of two-legged things today I can't even recognize as human.
Oh no-MKL was a homophobe. I guess we better tear down all those statues to that evil man and rename all the road and schools named after him.
Just imagine what we could learn about homosexuality and, by extension, all humans if some types of research and the answers produced weren't predetermined to be wrong and the questions that might be investigated, unethical.
We are in a truly dangerous place when the most important question, why, is out of bounds.
A boy once asked King about how he should deal with his homosexuality. King replied:
"Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it."
I disagree with Martin Luther King, Jr. here:
King thought this was a mental illness and that it wasn't likely a type of attraction that was inherent from nature or birth. I don't believe homosexuality was "culturally acquired" back when King was alive because it was so suppresed and taboo back then. Homosexuality was never then (to the best of my knowledge) represented in film released to the broad general public, on television, in public education, in song, in art, on radio or in the press. King had to have been indoctrinated as a Christian clergyman that was "againt God" and "unnatural". King was pushing for civil rights on the basis of race and color, not on sexual orientation.
Homosexuality in itself is not a "problem". Unhealthy social attitudes about it are. Was King's solution to go to a shrink to be "de-gayed" so to speak? You cannot convert sexual orientation by any clinical magic wand. Sexual attractions of all kinds are natural and inherent indeed.
I don't think the LGBT community ever had a "Martin Luther King" type spokesperson and civil rights leader of their own.
This following black-and-white police educational film from the late '50's or early '60's (the American automobiles look like early 1960's models) "criminalizes" homsexuality as something that older white men do to hit on young boys. Homosexuality was only stigmatized as a serious "mental illness" in the rare older media footage about it.
I'm bi and trans is not my cup of tea. Anybody who thinks they are the other sex is crazy, mad as a hatter. Have you ever seen a dog climb a tree and go MEOW?
You have mischaracterized what King said.
King: The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency
I would guess your whole argument pivots on this one stipulation (innate tendencies) and that is why you have essentially put words in King's mouth (King thought this was a mental illness).
Even if the attraction to boys is learned behavior, that doesn't rise to the level of serious mental illness and King didn't say it did.
The simple fact of the matter is that there is no reason it can't be both innate and learned.
Those most afraid of learning the truth deal in absolutes because that makes it easier to make it a them vs, us issue instead of a simple question that could be explored with thoughtful, unbiased research.
We should really not be doing this today at all. With that being said, Dr King was a very smart man and he was a lot smarter than I ever was. Thing is in 2021, we have the Internet and many other resources that were not available at the time that display the voices of the LGBT community. In 2021, there is enough information so readily available at the click of a mouse in regards to human sexuality. I am not agreeing with what he said, but many ignorant a-s posters here will take what he said and run with it, ones who do not care about the LGBT community at all!!
Last edited by Beliciano; 06-07-2021 at 01:51 AM..
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