Homosexuality and Scientology
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The Church of Scientology is based upon the writings of author L. Ron Hubbard. His writings about homosexuality have given rise to assertions that Scientology promotes homophobia. These allegations are disputed by some gay Scientologists.
[edit] Context of Hubbard's writings
In the 1950s many people in western countries trusted mainstream psychiatry and psychology, and agreed with psychiatrists' assertions that homosexuality was a mental illness. However, while research by such people as Dr. Evelyn Hooker paved the way for mental health organizations to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the 1970s, critics claim that Hubbard never revised his basic premise that being gay was a perversion.
Hubbard's writings which are critical of homosexuality do not appear in Scientology, but appear only in his early works which are part of Dianetics.[citation needed]
[edit] Homosexuality as an illness
In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. In the book, Hubbard makes it clear that he views homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion:
Book 2, Chapter 5, Page 120 says, in part:
- "The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically."
Within his theology the normal Dianetics refers to a human urge to procreate. Hubbard went on to describe homosexuals as very low on his tone scale.
[edit] Homosexuals 1.1 on Scientology's "tone scale"
In 1951 he published Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior. In the book Hubbard created the Tone scale which classifies individuals and human behavior. The scale runs from -40 to +40. As he classified homosexuals as dangerous sexual perverts, he rated gay and lesbian behavior at a 1.1, a level which he termed "covert hostility". Book One, Chapter 18, Page 116 says:
- "At 1.1 on the tone scale, we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism and irregular practices."
In Book One, Chapter 27, Page 163, Hubbard writes:
- "From 1.3 down to 0.6 we have the general area of the subversive, who promises a people freedom and equality and gives them a slaughter of their best minds and cultural institutions, to the end of a totalitarian dominance."
[edit] Homosexual segregation, institutionalization and rehabilitation
In Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior, Hubbard argues that homosexuals should be segregated from the rest of society and institutionalized to prevent their illness from spreading to the rest of the population.
In Page 89-90, he writes:
- "Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics...No social order which desires to survive dares overlook its stratum 1.1's. No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst."
At the time of the writing of Science of Survival, Hubbard did offer his own auditing process that allegedly would cure homosexuals of their sickness as an alternative to concentration camps.
[edit] Hubbard's later writings
Gay Scientologists argue that Hubbard rejected his original viewpoint on homosexuality and they point to the various tape recordings of his lectures (primarily The State of Man Congress) and a 1967 policy that Hubbard initiated. The quotes that arise from the lectures range from Hubbard saying that homosexuality is no worse than sneezing, to discussions about how amazing it is that people are able to remain heterosexual in the current society. The 1967 document reads, in part, "It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt to regulate the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not resulted in any improved condition... Therefore all former rules, regulations and polices relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists are cancelled." [1]
Gay Scientologists also point out that Hubbard wrote a book in 1980 about ethical behavior that was silent on the subject of homosexuality, and offered a gender-neutral ethical guidelines about being faithful to one's partner and avoiding promiscuity. This has prompted a contemporary debate as to what the current Church of Scientology feels about homosexuality.
[edit] Scientology celebrities
In the 1990s certain Hollywood celebrities who belong to the Church of Scientology were rumored to be gay. These rumors arose at the same time as accusations that Scientology, especially the Sea Org, seeks to control nearly every aspect of members' lives. As a result, Scientology and its handling of issues involving homosexuality began to come under some scrutiny.
In 1998 Michael Pattinson (former member of the Church of Scientology) sued the organization, claiming that the organization's leadership lied about their ability to cure him of his homosexuality and engaged in various other nefarious activities such as kidnapping and invasion of his privacy. The lawsuit also argued that the Church of Scientology had often told Pattinson that actor John Travolta was proof that Scientology can transform a homosexual into a happy heterosexual. Travolta's lawyer asserted that his client was not gay, and is happily married to a woman.
Similar accusations have been circulated regarding the most prominent Scientology celebrity, Tom Cruise. Cruise has denied he is gay, in interviews going back to the 1990s. He has expressed a fairly liberal view on gay rights since the beginning of his career, and in a Vanity Fair interview for the film Interview with the Vampire, Cruise said that he disliked being asked the question because it implied that there was something wrong with being gay and that in his opinion there was nothing wrong with it. However, in the late 1990s Cruise began to bring lawsuits against men who claimed to have first-hand knowledge of his homosexuality. In 2001 Cruise sued Chad Slater, a gay porn star, for $100 million after Slater had given an interview in Actustar in which he stated that he had been having a relationship with Cruise and that Nicole Kidman divorced Cruise after she walked in on the two men in bed together. In 2004 a rumor began to circulate on the Internet that Tom Cruise and matchbox twenty lead singer Rob Thomas were having an affair. Both men denied the rumors, although Thomas humorously responded to the rumors by saying that he was more upset at the suggestion that he was a Scientologist than that he was gay. "If I were gay," Thomas said, "Tom wouldn't be on the top of my list...It would be Brad Pitt."[2]
In 2006 the animated television series South Park made reference to the rumors of Cruise's sexuality with an episode called "Trapped in the Closet". In the episode, when Cruise receives a lukewarm appraisal of his acting ability from Stan Marsh (whom he believes to be the reincarnation of Hubbard) he gets upset and locks himself in the closet of Stan's bedroom. Through the rest of the episode, Cruise resists the pleas of other characters to "come out of the closet", and to ex-wife Kidman, even denies that he is in the closet. John Travolta (also a Scientologist celebrity who has denied rumors that he is gay) arrives to try and get Cruise to leave the closet, but ends up joining Cruise in the closet instead. The episode was pulled from the re-airing schedule of the program for several months, reportedly at the demand of Cruise, but was later nominated for an Emmy Award and returned to the schedule.
[edit] Mark Foley and Scientology
According to an article in the October 4, 2006 issue of the New York Post, the Church of Scientology had a close relationship with Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who was ousted for his inappropriate behavior toward male pages in the Mark Foley scandal. The article states:
The controversial cult-like church has major operations in Clearwater, Fla., which just happens to be in Foley's district. The group also hosted a fund-raiser for Foley in May 2003 when he was considering a Senate run. It posted photographs of a smiling Foley posing with key Scientology officials who presented him with a copy of founder L. Ron Hubbard's tome "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." That book defines "homosexuality" as a "sexual perversion." [1]
However, Foley represented Florida's 16th Congressional district, whereas Clearwater is in Florida's 9th Congressional district.
[edit] Current Church of Scientology viewpoints
In the early part of the 21st century, the Church of Scientology and some of its gay members have claimed that the Church is not homophobic, and has a tradition of advocating for the human rights of all people, including gay men and women. [citation needed] However, the public face of endorsing human rights often seems to conflict with the early writings of Hubbard and the refusal of the Church of Scientology to take any sort of public position on gay rights causes.
In October 2003, a Yahoo! e-mail list was created for gay and bisexual Scientologists called Clear Rainbow (or ClearRainbow). Its group members strongly disagree with the assertion that the Church is homophobic and one of its members wrote a pamphlet titled Straight Dope: About Gays and Scientology [2]. The pamphlet claims that Hubbard abandoned whatever homophobia he once had, and that the Church's dedication to human rights and clinics designed to fight drug and alcohol addiction should be supported by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. The pamphlet calls the accusations that the Church is a homophobic cult the work of "hate groups" spreading lies, and that the fact that the Church does not take a position on gay rights issues is not a contradiction to its support of human rights. The members of Clear Rainbow are not alone among Scientologists in making such arguments.
In 2002 the American Church of Scientology published a press release on its website quoting gay activist Keith Relkin as saying, "Over the years I have worked with the Church of Scientology for greater inclusion of gay people like me, and today represents a milestone in that progress."[3]
In 2005 an article in Source (an official magazine published by the Church of Scientology) featured a man and his partner in a success story about their WISE consulting business.
In 2005 an article in the New York Daily News suggested that the homophobic writings of Hubbard might have come from his own embarrassment over Quentin Hubbard, his gay son, who committed suicide in 1976. The article cites a spokeswoman for Scientology, "Mr. Hubbard abhorred discrimination in all its forms," and that the Church encouraged relationships that are "ethical".[1] The spokeswoman said also that the Church had not taken an official position on gay marriage, and that members prefer not to talk about it.
However, a 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times claims that the Church defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.[4] This also suggests that gays must remain celibate if they want to be part of the group's clergy.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Widdicombe, Ben, Piazza, Jo; Rovzar, Chris. "Homophobia claims dog Scientology", New York Daily News, 2005-04-04. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
- ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/thomas%20slams%20reports%20he%20seduced%20cruise
- ^ (archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20030425104544/http://www.scientology.org/en_US/news-media/news/2002/021211.html).
- ^ "About Scientology", St. Petersburg Times, 2004-07-18. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
[edit] External links
[edit] Scientology and gay rights
- Affinity International - Organization of GLBT Scientologists
- Group of LGBT Scientologists "Clear Rainbow"
- Keith Relkin Says Church of Scientology Wants Gays
- "liveandgrow.org: Scientology and Gays (PDF)
- Bernie on Gays and Scientologists
- The Church of Scientology® & homosexuality Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
- Scientology and Gay Rights
