Case
Closed!
As a general rule,
we do not include complete book reviews in our newsletters. Robert
Minor's booklet, Case
Closed!, is an excellent resource that
deserves promotion, so we are including a review of
this booklet in our newsletter.
Robert Minor is a prolific, and insightful
author. When you read his books, be prepared to be
challenged. He authored the books Scared
Straight, Gay
and Healthy in a Sick Society and When
Religion is an Addiction. Minor wrote
a series of concise and readable booklets for The Fairness
Project. Case Closed! is one of The Fairness Project
Series booklets.
Robert Minor notes that people who
are not prepared to do the hard work required to
understand the source of their strong dislike of
gay people tend to look for religious and scientific
support for their prejudices and hatred. He makes
a very good point. Delving into the familial, societal
and religious factors that caused such deeply held
hatred and dislike is taxing, and, at times, scary
work.
This booklet quotes information from
the American Psychiatric Association, the American
Psychological Association, the American Counseling
Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
Council on Child and Adolescent Health, the World Health
Organization and the American Medical Association that
support the position that homosexuality is not a mental
illness, that mental illness is not associated with
homosexuality and that mental health professionals
should not attempt to change the sexual orientation
of their clients.
Minor makes the point that discrimination
against gay people can cause psychological problems. Case
Closed! discusses
the controversial case of ex-gays (gay people who claim
they have become straight).
Robert Minor cautions against getting into psychological
arguments with people. He makes the valid point that
answers to the psychological arguments used against
homosexuals are easy to obtain. There is little need
to become the defender of the gay community. We have
the right to indicate we disagree with the anti-gay
psychology and then to walk away from the discussion.
Case Closed! is
an excellent booklet. There is a good balance between
providing information to show that mental health professionals
do not consider homosexuality to be an illness and
providing practical advice that can help prevent gay
people from getting caught up in potentially painful
and damaging arguments about psychology. This book
should be in the resource library of every gay community
center, of every affirming church and every mental
health professional.
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From
CreatedGay.Com,
July, 2008
When
You're Having a Religious Argument
Robert Minor is a prolific, and insightful author.
When you read his books, be prepared to be challenged.
He authored the books Scared Straight, Gay
and Healthy in a Sick Society, and When
Religion is an Addiction.
Robert Minor makes applications for the queer community
in When You're Having a Religious
Argument. Because
religious discussions relating to the queer community
tend to be very emotion-laden and irrational, and often
lack civility, the booklet is a very important book
for queer people of all religious backgrounds, even
if they are no longer active members of a faith community.
Sexual minorities are often targeted for spiritual
attacks and abuse. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-identified
people need to have a good sense of the dynamics that
are often at play during religious discussions, so
they are less likely to feel freshly injured when religious
discussions turn to topics regarding queer people.
What started as a peaceful exchange of ideas can quickly
deteriorate into an angry argument, as the fear of
having one's belief system challenged becomes stronger
than the desire to have a rational discussion. This
booklet helps address the serious problem of over-heated
religious discussions.
Robert Minor reminds us that we bring our experiences
- hurt, guilt, and anger - into religious debates.
Baggage is very powerful and threatening in religious
discussions of homosexuality. For gay, lesbian, and
bisexual people, these arguments can bring up fears
and emotions of rejection, and eternal condemnation.
Straight people find themselves facing the fear of
a different sexuality, combined with the fear that
if they are wrong and God loves queer people, perhaps
they were wrong about much more important theological
issues. People may wonder, "Could I be wrong about
something which might result in my going to hell?"
When You're Having a Religious
Argument encourages
us to dig deep inside ourselves, so we understand what
needs are met through religious debates, why it is
difficult to drop the discussion, and why a person
remains in a church with which they disagree. Showing
real insight, Minor asks if we are staying in a church
for the same reasons abused partners stay in a bad
marriage.
The booklet helps people recognize many claims made
by conservative religious people, which cannot be supported
by history. Two common claims discussed are the claim
that religion does not change, and that the position
a person is taking is what the Bible says or what God
says. Anybody who disagrees with somebody in the religious
right may find themselves branded with insulting labels.
Robert Minor makes many very good points we need to
remember when entering into religious discussions.
In this review, only three of those very important
points will be listed. Religion involves emotional
and spiritual conviction, more than logical convictions.
Beliefs are rarely formed or changed due to logic.
Emotional issues may prevent a person from changing
his or her opinions. Changing opinions is not easy,
because it can require public humility and repentance.
This review will conclude with one of the most important
points Minor shares. There is no rule saying you must
win the argument. You can feel free to walk away from
the discussion at any time.
This could be one of the most important books about
religion you will ever read. Every gay, lesbian, bisexual,
trans-identified, and straight ally needs to have this
book.
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From
The Gayly Oklahoman, February 3, 2003
Pamphlets
Challenge Grassroots Activists
Kansas City,
MO - “It’s time for new strategies. Everybody
remembers the anti-gay soundbites of the right wing.
Who remembers what we say even though we’ve been
responding to the same old arguments for decades?”
That’s
the basis for the first three of a series of pamphlets
written by Dr. Robert N. Minor. In “The Fairness
Project Series” he intends to change the dynamic
of pro-LGBT arguing for every-day people.
“Even
if we don’t like it, we know: ‘It’s
Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.’ But what do
we remember of our own responses where we weigh the
possibilities, talk to ourselves in conferences, let
the right wing dominate the conversation and set the
language, and respond over and over to the same criticisms
till we’re exhausted?”
“They
have set the agenda. And we’re often stuck. We
need practical, every-day, tips on how to get beyond
their agenda without having to worry about being experts,”
Minor says.
In 2001,
Minor, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University
of Kansas, authored the book Scared Straight: Why
It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It’s
So Hard to Be Human (St. Louis: HumanityWorks!).
Within a month it was named “Book of the Week”
by the premier men’s issues website: www.Menstuff.org.
In 2002 it was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award
and an Independent Publisher Book Award.
His first
three pamphlets published in late 2002 are meant to
be practical, how-to-do-it guides that don’t begin
with a stance he calls “the victim role.”
“We
don’t begun with our own agenda. We respond as
if we have something to apologize for. We don’t
realize that we’re the healthy ones in this debate.
So, we need a consistent, simple approach that will
be remembered. And one that won’t get caught up
in their issues. We need to stop allowing them to use
religion, psychology, and everything else to cover up
their prejudices. And we need to quit arguing the same
things again and again.”
So, the
first pamphlet, When You’re Having a Religious
Argument, begins with asking what it is about religion
that “hooks us” even if we are not religious.
“If we reject religion, our anger at religion
is still a sign we’re hooked,” Minor points
out.
Minor then
outlines issues that need recognition by us as we respond
and then gives seven practical suggestions to “get
down to the real issues beneath religious arguments.”
The second
pamphlet arises out of the workshops for LGBT activists
Minor has conducted for the last three years at the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating
Change Conference. Entitled, Burnout, Blowout,
and Breaking Up: Navigating the Hazards of Activist
Leadership, Minor sets forth principles and helpful
tips to help make LGBT leadership a healthy, growing
experience for the leaders. “In progressive activism,
the leadership principles developed for business and
other institutions that are meant to maintain the status
quo, won’t work. But they will cause burnout and
bitterness.”
The third
pamphlet is meant to change and simplify our responses
to the claims of the ex-gay movement. Case Closed!
Responding to Psychological Arguments Against Gay People
gives seven practical tips for responding to the use
of psychology to cover prejudices. “Don’t
get caught up in arguing psychology,” Minor recommends,
“but do understand the unanimous, quarter-of-a-century-old,
gay-positive conclusions of the major psychological
organizations as well as the psychology of the anti-gay
arguments you face.”
For more
information on Dr. Minor, his seminars and writings,
visit his website at www.fairnessproject.org.
© 2003, Gayly Incorporated.
TOP OF PAGE
From
Midwest Times, Jan 30-Feb 5, 2003
Bob
Minor in the interest of Fairness by
Gaby Vice, Community Editor
Ever been caught in an argument about being gay and
then told that there are "proven" religious
and psychological reasons that the LGBT community is
in the wrong? When you are caught in this situation,
ever wished you had the resources at your finger tips
to deal with these repetitive and pointless arguments
once and for all? Now thanks to the on-going work of
The Fairness Project and their new
series of pamphlets, there is!
The Fairness Project was founded by Dr. Robert
Minor, a Kansas City local and Professor of
Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. Minor
is also active in the local and national LGBT Community
and is president of the Board of the Lesbian and Gay
Community Center of Greater Kansas City (LGCC-KC) as
well as a respected author (his most recent book Scared
Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and
Why It's So Hard to Be Human, was named a Finalist
for both a Lambda Literary Award and the Independent
Publisher Book Award). He leads workshops on gender
roles, homophobia, and racism for universities, colleges,
churches, businesses, government organizations, and
community and religious groups throughout the US as
well as workshops for non-heterosexuals on personal
growth beyond "coming out" and how to be a
healthy activist.
.
The mission of The Fairness Project is to promote fair
and positive understanding of all human beings regardless
of sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, nationality,
race, ethnicity, age, or abilities, by educating and
advocating for fundamental structural change and personal
healing. "I am convinced that all issues of fairness
are related, that all oppressions are connected, and
that all discrimination must end so that every human
being can live and flourish as a full human being,"
Minor explained. "I have the belief that if we
want to eliminate oppression of LGBT people, then we
need to eliminate all oppression because it all goes
together, and to end one oppression we have to end them
all," he added.
The Fairness Project has just released three pamphlets
"When You're Having a Religious Argument,"
"Case Closed! Responding to Psychological Arguments
Against Gay People," and "Burnout, Blowout
& Breaking Up - Navigating the Hazards of Activist
Leadership." Minor wrote the pamphlets and is making
them available as a resource to the LGBT community because
he has found that the LGBT community has for many years
been put into the victim role and is often expected
to explain itself with a victim's response.
"We
are treated as if we have something to explain,
defend, and catch up to, when in fact we are ok and
need to break out of the victim response. We need to
take a proactive stance, beginning with how we feel
about ourselves and our leadership. We must show the
institutions around us that we have nothing to apologize
for. We need to get out of the habit of wanting to be
liked by straight society. The issue is not if we're
liked but how to get our rights and live our lives on
our terms", Minor explained passionately. He hopes
that these pamphlets will be a valuable resource in
taking that proactive stance and living our lives on
our terms
.
"In Burnout, Blowout, and Breaking Up: Navigating
the Hazards of Activist Leadership", Minor says:
"Decide not to wait for someone else to take the
initiative in stopping something in the dominant society
that is hurting us. When we take the lead, we are stepping
out of a victim role that is stuck in repeatedly pointing
out one unmet need after another, complaining about
things not getting done, and deferring action to others.
We no longer act as if our lives depend on whether others
do or do not take the initiative."
Minor's vast religious education and knowledge also
gives him the insight to take on religious bias against
the LGBT community and in "Case Closed: Responding
to Psychological Arguments Against Gay People"
he takes a direct hit at those who say being gay is
psychologically wrong. He says:"It's not that "ex-gay"
"experts" don't know that they are acting
like enemies of mainstream science. They just refuse
to change the prejudices upon which they've built their
self-image."
Minor gives us all some excellent advice on how to deal
with a religious argument in "When You're Having
a Religious Argument" saying: "Anyone growing
up in our culture receives widespread and general religious
abuse. The most pervasive form of American religion
is that of tele-evangelists, right-wing ministers, and
conservative religious authorities who confront people
with threats, humiliation, negative and demeaning self-valuation,
subordination to others, denial of our own insights,
and a variety of tactics meant to protect religious
institutions. Even people who did not identify with
the religious position grow up with such abuse in our
culture because it is constant, widespread, dominant
and multi-dimensioned."
"I honestly believe there is something sick about
US society. This is reflected in the fact that it won't
accept us as LGBT people. We are regarded as inhuman
and unhealthy. Society's sickness is reflected in the
way they treat us and the way they deal with sex, gender,
race, consumerism, and even war. People who want to
discriminate against us
will use any excuse. The good thing is they have used
all the excuses, and we as a community must now move
on. The question for us is how can I gain my life and
my freedom, whether they like it or not. All the objections
have been heard over and over again, through these pamphlets,
all the answers to the same old questions are readily
available if society as a whole has a desire to hear
them, and in the mean time we need to get on with our
lives", Minor explained.
For more information about Dr. Minor, The Fairness Project
or his book or pamphlets, visit his website at www.fairnessproject.org.
Robert N. Minor, Ph.D., will be the featured speaker
at the First Friday Breakfast Club on February 7, 2003.
For more information on this event, please contact ffbckc@hotmail.com
Location: Four Points Sheraton at 45th and Main
Cost is $8 per person for first-time attendees and $15
for non-members. © 2003, Diverse Media Group.
TOP OF PAGE
From
Liberty Press, November 2002
Tips
on religious arguing offered in new series
by
Trent Koland, staff reporter
LAWRENCE
— The famous South African playwright Athol Fugard
once said: "We compound our suffering by victimizing
each other." That self-victimization, visible in
the LGBT community, is the same concept Dr. Robert Minor
hopes to eradicate by publishing his series of pamphlets
entitled The Fairness Project Series.
The Fairness
Project was created by Minor in 2001 to coincide with
the release of his book Scared Straight: Why It's
So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to
Be Human.
The mission
of these educational pamphlets is to "promote fair
and positive understanding of all human beings regardless
of sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, nationality,
race, ethnicity, age, or abilities, by educating and
advocating for fundamental structural change and personal
healing," according to the Project's website.
Minor says
he was tired of seeing gays and lesbians corner themselves
into the role of sufferers.
"I
wanted LGBT people to get out of the victim role --
that's the position which starts with the idea that
WE have something to explain and justify," Minor
said. "We don't. They need to get over it and we
need to stop taking the defensive position."
The first
pamphlet in the series is entitled "When You're
Having a Religious Argument" and describes strategies
for keeping cool and refuting common arguments against
homosexuality.
There are
three major points the pamphlet discusses. They include:
advising people to confront their own shortcomings and
relationships with religion; understanding the inaccurate
claims used by many theologians; and confronting the
real motives and issues hidden under the veil of religious
argument.
Minor says
the LGBT community needs to be more focused in its presentation
to mainstream society.
"[I]
want us to develop our own set of sound bites,"
Minor said. "We've not been good about our public
presentation. We've been right but not as effective
as we could be. We're good at talking to ourselves while
conservatives dominate talk radio. People remember the
conservative sound bites, 'It's Adam and Eve, not Adam
and Steve,' but what do they remember from liberals
as we weigh the various opinions and issues and lose
our audience?"
There are
several other pamphlets on the way according to Minor.
The second in the series will be titled "Burnout,
Blowout and Breaking Up: Navigating the Hazards of Activist
Leadership" and will deal with the pressures LGBT
advocates face by being at the head of the activist
movement. Two more pamphlets are in the making but are,
as of yet, untitled.
Ultimately,
the series is about the empowerment of the LGBT community,
Minor says.
"The
truth is LGBT people are fine," Minor says. "Society
and its prejudices are sick. Let's believe that and
act like we believe that."
Pamphlets
are $2 apiece. To order any of the series send a check
to The Fairness Project, PO Box 45604, Kansas City,
MO 64171.
© 2002, Liberty Press.
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From
the Rainbow Center, Seattle, WA, June, 2003
God &
the Gays: What I learned from shared
ideas at the Rainbow Center Coffee Talk Discussion Group
by
Paula Bennett
Religion alone is a pretty hot topic for many, but add
in the queer factor and it's guaranteed to ruffle more
then one feather on a loud few. More people have died
horrendously in the name of religion then any other.
It is also the main reason why some will not acknowledge
acceptance of us in the GLBT community. Getting drawn
into an argument can be frustrating enough, but its
ten times worse when you are arguing with sincere religious
people who are quoting traditions and scripture from
religious authorities to back up their anti-gay stance.
Using Dr. Robert N. Minors' pamphlet "When You're
Having A Religious Argument" as a tool, we came
together to share ideas about how to express our own
spiritual opinions without forcing them onto others
and how to openly accept others ideas.
He talks about how an effective response to these types
of people requires four key elements. One, clarity about
what we are doing when we argue, two, recognition of
some key dynamics of religion we'll face, three realization
of certain basic facts behind religious arguments and
four, willingness to affirm personal responsibility
for the positions we hold.
At times religion has been a strong force for the liberation
and affirmation of people. When it supports justice
for the oppressed, it is liberating for many. But at
other times, it is used to support the biases, prejudices
and oppressions found in societies. The bible, in particular,
has been used for centuries to justify slavery, apartheid,
inquisitions, and the subjugation of women. In our own
time it continues to be used to condemn those who identify
as lesbian or gay and even in some sects to approve
violence against them.
Dr. Minor states that changing cultural prejudices should
be our goal. Calling on people to face their own prejudices
requires recognition that arguing religion is a way
not to have to face deeper issues. He talks about how
everyone needs to step back and decide why they feel
the way that they do. Prejudices, fears, and other insecurities
are often hiding behind religious arguments. We all
need to take responsibility for the opinions and positions
that we hold, without having to rely on support from
so called authorities. When we do this, we not only
affirm our own worth but we call on others to be accountable
for their own prejudices towards GLBT people.
Fun Fact: If we were to follow the bible strictly
as written we would all be burning bulls as weekly sacrifices,
Leviticus 1:9, selling our daughters into slavery Exodus
21:7, not working on the Sabbath, or else being put
to death Exodus 35:2, or lastly no more playing football
without thick gloves as touching the skin of a dead
pig makes one unclean Leviticus 11:6-8.
Suggested Reading: Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists
by Winston Leyland, Faith Beyond Resentment
by James Allison Darton, Religion is a Queer Thing
by Elizabeth Stuart, Twice Blessed: On being Lesbian,
Gay and Jewish by Christine Balka & Andy Rose,
Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature,
and What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality
by Daniel A. Helminiak.
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