Good News

Via Andrew Sullivan, a report on a study that is really good news.

The study also found that, across all race/ethnic groups, younger cohorts of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (those in age groups 18 – 29 and 30 – 44 as compared with 45 – 59 years old) had lower prevalence of almost all mental disorders categories, and the difference was statistically significant for mood disorders. Younger cohorts also had fewer serious suicide attempts than did older cohorts (but this was statistically significant only for the middle cohort).

“The finding regarding younger cohorts of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is consistent with social stress theories that predicted that the liberalization of social attitudes toward homosexuality over the past few decades can lead to a decline in stress and related mental disorders and suicide among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals” said Dr. Meyer.

Sulivan's comments are, I think, a little off base.

Why some want to prevent this improvement, why they actively want to promote depression, anxiety and low self-esteem among gay people - and why they think this is better for society as a whole - remains a mystery to me. But that is currently the position of the Republican party. My best guess is that they're simply afraid of what they do not know or understand. And so they seek to persecute it.

I think that the phenomenon is a little more complex than that, particularly when dealing with the official positions of political parties and those who control them. I don't dispute that many social coservatives fear gays because they don't have first-hand experience of them, but I think the ultimate answer to the Republican position is somewhat more pernicious: those who have major influence on the party on social issues, such as James Dobson, the Wildmons, and their ilk, have a ready-made "other" to use as the enemy -- and they do need an enemy to stir up those fears. It's the classic authoritarian tactic: find the fears, find an enemy, and exploit it to hell, and forget about factual accuracy and reasoned discourse. That's not the point. Ultimately, it's not about gay men and lesbians (or immigrants or Muslims or Jews or any other group). That's just the target. The real issue is power.

Sullivan is too inclined, I think, to judge the leaders of the anti-gay right as being as sincere and honest as he is. I've seen no evidence to support that idea, and a great deal that denies it. I'm all in favor of the large of soul, but we're playing hardball here.