[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 125 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10922-S10923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS NEED CLEAR AND DIRECT DEBATE

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, an effort is underway to demand that 
Congress enact legislation to grant rights to homosexuals that other 
Americans do not have. I cannot believe that such legislation will be 
approved by either the Senate or the House, but there's no way to be 
certain that either or both 

[[Page S 10923]]
bodies won't cave in to political pressures being exerted.
  One thing appears certain: The liberal media will likely get behind 
such an effort.
  In any event, Mr. President, the Kinston, NC, Daily Free Press 
published an excellent article on July 16 written by a gentleman who 
knows whereof he speaks--Dr. Richard G. McDonald of Kinston who for 
more than 50 years has been working with homosexuals. Dr. McDonald has 
a clear understanding of what is going on even if the vast majority of 
U.S. Senators do not.
  In any event, Mr. President, I want Dr. McDonald's observations to be 
made available to Senators and others who may have concerns about the 
obvious powerplay going on among U.S. homosexuals. Therefore, I ask 
unanimous consent that the published comments of Dr. McDonald be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Kinston Free Press, July 16, 1995]

             Homosexual Rights Need Clear and Direct Debate

                      (By Dr. Richard G. McDonald)

       There has been an ongoing debate about gay rights, but the 
     parameters of tolerance have not been addressed. This needs 
     to be discussed clearly and directly.
       There are tolerated limits and moral bounds to all human 
     activity. There is a legal maxim that states, ``Your right to 
     swing your fist ends where my jaw begins.'' Self-explanatory. 
     This is a line beyond which you may not proceed without dire 
     consequence.
       For over 50 years during and since WW II, I have been 
     associated with, observed, supervised and counseled 
     homosexuals; mostly male. Civil rights is something to which 
     all people are entitled, regardless any other factor, i.e. 
     jobs, housing, credit, etc., as a legal and moral right.
       Most of us live our lives quietly and privately. Most 
     homosexuals do also and enjoy successful lives interacting 
     with society, in general, peaceably. There is a large number 
     who, recognizing the inherent difficulty of their state, are 
     involved in a serious effort to break away from what is 
     unarguably abnormal and unnatural. They work closely with 
     groups to this end; Exodus, nationally (with a N.C. unit) and 
     Homosexual Anonymous, as in Maine (one of the groups with 
     which I work).
       These are troubled people who want to escape the clutches 
     of their condition, knowing that it is a one-way road to 
     nowhere; a nothingness to a tragic end and a sad death--if 
     AIDS infected, a death sentence.
       The state of their general equanimity, emotionally and 
     psychologically, is disturbed, disordered, distressed, 
     disabled; regrettable but largely correctable. In 1970-71 at 
     two national conventions of the American Psychiatric Assoc. 
     in San Francisco and Washington, homosexuality as a mental 
     illness was removed from the Diagnostic Directory of Mental 
     Illness under circumstances of coercion and intimidation that 
     to this day are shameful and a professional disgrace. If you 
     wonder why it was removed as a defined illness, you have only 
     to read of the circumstances under which it was removed to 
     realize that it never should have been.
       There is, however, a radical and vociferous element within 
     the homosexual community who want it their way in all 
     respects--such is their disturbed state, sadly. They press 
     this agenda with an ``in your face'' approach and with 
     scandalous public displays such as the parades and gay 
     parties at Clinton's inauguration in D.C. and the gay pride 
     parades nationally in general. (Pride in what?)
       What this disturbed group wants is acceptance of their 
     ``lifestyle'' with federal government blessing and protection 
     as a ``civil right'' to promote their actions; to teach in 
     our public schools that homosexuality is both natural and 
     normal; to convince our youth that their lifestyle is merely 
     an ``alternative choice.'' To so convince and corrupt our 
     youth would inevitably lead to a major breakdown in our 
     social and moral order. Debauchery undermines the public 
     moral fiber and the strength of people as a community and 
     nation. this is precisely what led to the fall of great 
     nations of the past; e.g. ancient Greece and Rome.
       The moral reason for its rejection we all know. Causation 
     is unknown to this day, scientifically. Predisposition to 
     homosexuality is, no matter the cause, and will still be 
     humanly abnormal and unnatural and should not be advanced to 
     a government protected right. From time immortal, it has been 
     rejected as unacceptable on the wisdom of thousands of years 
     of human experience from the knowledge of consequences.
       Because of their small numbers, despite their attempts to 
     claim a large population, they are on a constant ``recruiting 
     campaign'' to have a replacement base for their own purposes 
     and to have available partners for their gratification. This 
     applies to both genders though lesbians tend to have more 
     personal, ``caring and committed'' relationship of longer 
     duration.
       But for both, their general attitude as it relates to human 
     relations differs from that of the heterosexual majority 
     significantly, in that it is inwardly directed in a self-
     centered matrix around gratification and the almost 
     hysterical fear of aloneness without ``partners.'' Sexual 
     gratification is the motivating drive without the 
     interconnectedness of ``person,'' with the male. Most of the 
     time, it is anonymous sex. The ``bath houses'' of San 
     Francisco in the Castro district are the national hotbed of 
     deviant gay sexuality and the center of the highest per 
     capita AIDS infection rate in the nation. This is another sad 
     consequence of homosexuality which is leading rapidly to a 
     national epidemic; a fact that the AMA is ignoring and the 
     Center for Disease Control does not want to admit; a serious 
     warning to the American public is overdue.
       Homosexual Congressman Steve Gunderson and his Gay 
     Republican Caucus are solidly behind passage of the ``Gay 
     Bill of Rights'' (H.R. 382 and Senate S. 25); further, they 
     are busy lobbying for millions to fight for passage. To live 
     their lives quietly and privately is one thing; to have a 
     protected and special legal status is to give legitimacy to 
     one of mankind's scourges. It must not happen for reasons 
     that are indisputable; now you know what you must do.
     

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