"One comment, not from a legal perspective but from a public health perspective, the risk of congenital anomaly is much less if you have — if you have a medical abortion than if you decide not to have an abortion and go to term — so although there will undoubtedly be test cases and problems, in fact you are averting most congenital anomalies by having an abortion."
—
James Kahn, speaking in a panel entitled "Preparing Your Clinic for Medical Abortion," at the 20th Annual Meeting of the National Abortion Federation, March 31 - April 2, 1996, in San Francisco, California.
Kalb, Marvin (CBS and NBC)
"Cut off the funding for NPR, or gradually reduce its funding to the point where it becomes a mere shadow of its usually robust, sensible self, and the American people may find themselves left with nothing much more than Rush and dozens of his mini-clones for information about the world. For Limbaugh's 'dittoheads,' this may be the most splendid of tomorrows, but for other more thoughtful listeners, it may be the bleakest of forecasts."
—
Marvin Kalb, former CBS and NBC reporter and current Director of the Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, reviewing three books on talk radio, May 21, 1995 Washington Post.
Kaplan, David A. (Newsweek Magazine)
"Even the velociraptors of the far right found little to lament, besides her apparent support for at least limited abortion rights."
—
Newsweek's David A. Kaplan and Bob Cohn on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg, June 28, 1993.
"Around the global village, women cheered and grown men wept. At his press conference, [Gold medal-winning speed skater Dan] Jansen paused to take a call from the President, the man who's made America safe again for tears."
—
Newsweek Magazine Senior Writer David A. Kaplan, February 28, 1994 news story.
Karady, Jennifer ('artist')
"Every [woman has a] right to choose motherhood as well as her right to control her own sexual identity."
—
Jennifer Karady, explaining the meaning of her piece of 'art' entitled "The Annunciation," which consisted of a woman dressed as the archangel Gabriel handing a wire coat hanger to a pregnant Mary. They are standing in a decaying church. This garbage was shown in the Slowinski Gallery February-March, 1996, in New York City. In the gallery was also a postcard which showed a nun as a pig in the forefront and barebreasted nuns beating children in the background; it was called "Demon Nun." Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1996 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
Karl, Jo Ann ('channeler')
"We traveled widely with Jesus, teaching with Him. After He was crucified, we continued to teach and travel for several more years, until we were caught by the Romans. Peter was crucified, and I was raped, pilloried, and thrown to the lions. Now I understand why I've always been afraid of large animals."
—
'Channeler' Jo Ann Karl, who claims to speak for the Archangel Gabriel, and who says that she was married to St. Peter. Quoted in Todd Ackerman. "Channeling the Dead for Fun and Profit." National Catholic Register, January 15, 1989.
Katz, Nancy (openly lesbian Cook County judge)
"I'd been in Traffic Court about five months when a judge came up to me and said, 'You know, a few months ago, I would have said I wasn't prejudiced against lesbians and gays but that would have been a lie. I didn't even know any. But you made me see things in a different way. For him, now I'm the person next door. There are six of us now and our little tentacles are all over the court system, just doing what we do, meeting people, forging relationships with people."
—
Openly lesbian Cook County Judge Nancy Katz, quoted in Abdon M. Pallasch. "Gay Judges Open Eyes in Judiciary." Legal Affairs Reporter, April 28, 2003 [NOTE: Now just try to imagine how the homosexuals would react if a Christian judge boasted about their "little tentacles all over the court system." This article also says that, when Katz was confronted with a court case involving a husband who was upset with his wife leaving him and starting a lesbian affair, Katz thought "Good for her." Incredibly, all lawyers running for judge in Cook County are now required to appear before the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association, which evaluates them based on their "sensitivity to handling cases that involve lesbian and gay litigants." Once again, try to imagine what would happen if a Christian group demanded to evaluate all judges based on their sensitivity to Christians!].
Kauffman, Jonathan (Boston Globe)
"For many East German women, living in a country where abortion on demand has been legal since 1972, the debate over abortion in worrisome. Many fear it is the first step in stripping away their rights in everything from pregnancy to child care to jobs to sharing household chores."
—
Boston Globe reporter Jonathan Kauffman, September 30, 1990.
Kearns, Michael
"I have a friend facing a possible jail sentence for having sex with a couple of 15-year-olds. I love my friend; he is a good person. At the preliminary trial, it became evident to me that the "victims" were the seducers, who had already repeatedly had sex with each other. But in the eyes of the court, their age is the sole determining factor to be weighed. ... From tea room to drag queen, I applaud every gay subculture. ... Discrimination among ourselves is profoundly self-destructive. NAMBLA deserves to be heard and respected."
—
Michael Kearns in "Men Loving Boys." Edge [Los Angeles homosexual magazine], August 31, 1988. This quote was downloaded from the Web site of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) at http://www.nambla.org on April 15, 1998, under the section entitled "What People Are Saying About NAMBLA and Man/Boy Love."
Keeton, Kathy
"For all the noise and violence we're hearing from the antiabortion forces today, it's clear that these people do not represent the majority and should have no right to force their opinions on others."
—
Kathy Keeton. Woman of Tomorrow [New York City: St. Martin's Press], 1985, pages 172 and 173.
Keillor, Garrison (author, "Lake Wobegone")
"[Clinton] can get in high dudgeon about mean-spiritedness, and when the Republicans get feverish and clammy and speak in tongues and handle snakes, he can go out to Omaha and Houston and be charming and graceful. ... The Republicans are going to be the Party That Canceled the Clean Air Act and Took Hot Lunches from Children, the Orphanage Party of Large White Men Who Feel Uneasy Around Gals."
—
Time Magazine commentary by public radio host Garrison Keillor, March 13, 1995.
"The Endowment made the mistake of embarrassing itself on 20 occasions, and I wish it would do so more often. I don't regard those 20 'controversial' pieces as errors. I wish there were more — 30 to 50 at least. The lesser number is testimony to how timid and repressed the arts are."
—
Garrison Keillor, commenting on obscene 'art' funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Quoted in Alan K. Ota. "Arts Endowment Chief Fights Back." The Oregonian, March 30, 1990, page A16.
Kelley, George L.
"Stephen Mumford's impressive work is in the highest tradition of investigative journalism. He has succeeded, through careful documentation, to demonstrate how the Catholic Church, through the offices of its Pope, has undermined over 200 years of democratic process in the United States by suppressing meaningful dialogue at the highest levels of government on the most vital issue of our age — world population control. This book would make great fiction if it were not true. The sad conclusion is the Vatican's own internal acknowledgment that its interest in preserving the myth of Papal infallibility overrides whatever humanitarian values it may seek to promote."
—
George L. Kelley, attorney and social activist, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, favorably commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
Kelly, Gary F. (sex educator)
"Sado-masochism may be very acceptable and safe for sexual partners who know each other's needs and have established agreements for what they want from each other. ... Some people are now saying that partnerships — married or unmarried — should not be exclusive. They believe that while a primary relationship is maintained with one person, the freedom for both partners to love and share sex with others should also be present."
"A fair percentage of people probably have some sort of sexual contact with an animal during their lifetime, particularly boys who live on farms. There are no indications that such animal contacts are harmful, except for the obvious dangers of poor hygiene, injury by the animal, or guilt on the part of the human."
—
Gary F. Kelly's high-school sex education text Learning About Sex: The Contemporary Guide for Young Adults. Barron's: New York, 1968, pages 61 and 136. Quoted in Gene Antonio. "America's XXX-Rated Sex Education Curricula." New Dimensions Magazine, September 1990, pages 72 to 77 [NOTE: Dr. Patricia Shiller, founder of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), says that it is "... a must for all young people"].
Kelly, Sean
"O bloody bloody Jesus, I love your blood so red,
I love the bloody corpuscles streaming from your head;
O bloody bloody Jesus, I love thy crimson tide,
I love the bloody Roman spear that got stuck in your side;
O rare and bloody Jesus, I love thy hands that bled,
I love the nails that pierced them O Jesus red and dead;
I'd love to drink the blood O Lord that drips from off thy feet,
and wash my hands and brush my teeth — O Lord would that be sweet!
O bloody bloody Jesus, I love thy blood so red;
I loved you when you were alive, but I love you better dead!"
—
"The Book of Psongs," set to the lyrics of "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," in Sean Kelly and Tony Hendra's Not the Bible, published by Random House. As described in "Random House Likes Jesus Dead." National Federation for Decency Journal, May 1984, page 3.
Kennedy, Patrick (United States Congressman, D.-RI)
"I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a f***ing day in my life."
—
Representative Patrick Kennedy (D.-RI), at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Acropolis bar in Washington, DC, June 25, 2003. Quoted in "Quote of the Week." Human Events, the week of July 14, 2003, page 1.
Kennedy, Ted (United States Senator, D.-Umb)
"The legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old."
—
1971 letter written by Ted Kennedy, quoted in Daniel P. Coyne. "Another Souper Candidate." The Wanderer, May 15, 2003, pages 4 and 10.
"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.
—
Senator Edward Kennedy (D.-Umb), during Judge Robert Bork's 1987 Supreme Court confirmation lynching, quoted in "The Prince of Hacks." National Review, July 31, 1987, page 15.
"People can have a difference on public policy issues, but when we have a national organization like Operation Rescue that has as a matter of national policy firebombing and even murder, that's unacceptable."
—
Senator Ted Kennedy's statement at a news conference after a November 15, 1993 fund-raising luncheon in Boston.
Kent, Margaret ('sexologist')
"If the relationship continues to be nonsexual after an extended period of time, the man may not be normal ... Virginity is looked upon favorably by some religious fanatics, recent immigrants from tradition-bound societies, and men who have never had sex. The typical male views virginity in the mature female as a curse, not a blessing. If an adult woman tells her male that she is a virgin, he is likely to wonder why no man has wanted her before."
—
Margaret Kent. How to Marry the Man of Your Choice: The Marriage Manual for Single Women (Matrimonial Press Report). 167 pages, $95.00.
Kessel, Elton (population controller)
"If overpopulation is an acknowledged grave security threat, and if the [Catholic] Church is opposed to population growth control and is indeed the major organized obstacle, then it is obvious that the Church is a grave national security threat to all nations."
—
Stephen D. Mumford and Elton Kessel. "Role of Abortion in Control of Global Population Growth." Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynecology, March 1986 [Volume 13, Number 1], pages 19 to 31.
Kessell, Jennifer
"There's different definitions [of pregnancy] depending on where you live. Most doctors would say pregnancy begins at implantation. Only 'anti-abortionists' would say life begins 'when the sperm meets the egg. Period ... Pregnancy begins when a woman is comfortable with its beginning. It depends on your own personal views and what you want to believe."
—
Jennifer Kessell, a spokeswoman for Roberts Pharmaceuticals, the Canadian manufacturer of Preven, quoted in Celeste McGovern. "Marketers of the Preven 'Morning After Pill' Are Engaged in Re-Defining Pregnancy." The Report Newsmagazine, at http://www.report.ca, December 6, 1999. Also quoted in the December 9, 1999 issue of American Life League's Communique.
Kestenbaum, David (NPR)
"Two of the anthrax letters were sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats. One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release criticizing the Senators for trying to remove the phrase 'so help me God' from the oath. The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them. But investigators are thinking along these lines. FBI agents won't discuss the case, but the people they have spoken with will."
—
NPR's David Kestenbaum, during the January 22, 2002 "Morning Edition." Media Research Center Press Release. "NPR Must Apologize for Tying Traditional Values Coalition to Terrorist Attacks." January 31, 2002 [NOTE: NPR admitted that the report was "inappropriate" but did not apologize. Kestenbaum interviewed Planned Parenthood's head of security, Ann Glaser, during the show].
Kevorkian, Jack ("Doctor Death")
"Religious dogma has become part of the marrow of humanity. We can't get rid of it. There should be absolutely no connection between medicine and religion, but there is, and it's paralyzing. ... Religion has fouled up medicine for centuries."
—
Jack Kevorkian, quoted in Joseph Sobran. "Washington Watch: Abortion Lingo." The Wanderer, August 3, 1989, page 5.
"They are dictating how medicine should be practiced. You know the court is dominated by religion ... 'Life is sanctity, this and that ...' The problem with medicine today is that it's under the Dark-Age mentality of mystical religion, which has permeated medicine to the core since Christianity took over."
"The so-called Nuremberg Code and all its derivatives completely ignores the extraordinary opportunities for terminal experimentation on humans facing imminent and inevitable death. Intense emotionalism engendered by the concentration camp atrocities of World War II has unfairly stigmatized this honorable concept and cloaked it in silence ..."
"What I'm talking about is inevitable. The people who are opposing this [euthanasia] are gonna lose eventually, just like they lost in birth control and everything else that happened in medicine. It's an obstinate, futile opposition. The future, well, it comes eventually."
"The origin of the ethics, however, must come from the situation as it exists. And the code must fit the situation. And the ethics must change as the situation changes. That's the way to keep control. Not by an inflexible maxim that applies for two thousand years, but an ethical code that will change a decade later. It's ethical conduct within the framework of time and space. Ethical codes should never be set in stone. They can't be, they must change constantly ..."
—
Jack Kevorkian, quoted in Sarah Sullivan. Kevorkian: The Rube Goldberg of Death." Cornerstone, Volume 19, Issue 93, pages 14 and 15. Also see Jack Kevorkian. "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death." Medicine and Law 7 (1988).
"What is morality? It is doing and thinking right. And that changes with time. So in rule ethics vs. situation ethics, I go by situation ethics. You try to solve the situation at that time. You can't use some idea two thousand years old!" [emphasis in original].
"Allowing someone to starve to death and to die of thirst, the way we do now, is barbaric. Our Supreme Court has validated barbarism. The Nazis did that in concentration camps ... It took her [Nancy Cruzan] a week to die. Try it! You think that just because you're in a coma you don't suffer?"
—
Jack Kevorkian, quoted in "Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death. An Interview With Dr. Jack Kevorkian." Free Inquiry ["An International Secular Humanist Magazine"], Fall 1991, pages 14 to 18.
"Everyone has a right for suicide, because a person has a right to determine what will or will not be done to his body."
—
Jack Kevorkian, quoted in "House Committee Votes to Force Doctors to Kill Unborn Children in Latest Version of Child Murder Bill." American Information Newsletter, March 1991, page 4.
"It seems more compassionate and logical to have a certain number of wealthy persons dying of renal disease buy kidneys from a supply greatly expanded by their purchasing power and thus survive while a certain number of dying poor individuals succumb because of the inequality of affordability. ... wealthy donees might prefer to buy very expensive, "high-quality" kidneys from donors in the upper strata of society and leave most or all of the freely donated or very low-priced, "low-quality" organs from "skid row" donors to the poor — thereby actually enhancing quality."
—
Jack Kevorkian. "The Last Fearsome Taboo: Medical Aspects of Planned Death." Medicine and Law 7 (1988).
"Let me put together a small [euthanasia] team called the Untouchables. I guarantee, under my supervision, it would be incorruptible."
—
Jack Kevorkian, M.D. "A Fail-Safe Model For Justifiable Medically-Assisted Suicide (Medicide)." American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, February 1992. Also quoted in Associated Press. "Doctor Asks Suicide-Aid Network." The Oregonian, January 23, 1992, page A11.
"The pope has his hands on our neck. He's wringing it. I think he has a grip on the government, and I know he has a grip on the Michigan Supreme Court."
—
Jack "The Dripper" Kevorkian, during his October 1996 trial for murder. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1996 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
"Well, let's take what people think was a dignified death. Christ — was that a dignified death? Do you think it's dignified to hand from wood with nails through your hands and feet ... slowly dying, with people jabbing spears in your side and people jeering? You think that's dignified? Not by a long shot! Had Christ died in my van, with people around Him who loved Him ... that would be far more dignified. In my rusty van ... Is the fecal material in your intestine sacred? ... you bleed when you're cut and when you die you stink — now what's sacred about that?"
—
Jack Kevorkian, quoted in "Dr. Kevorkian's Scalpel." Washington Post, July 30, 1996, pages E1 and E9.
"Applications are being accepted. Oppressed by a fatal disease, a severe handicap, a crippling deformity? Show him the proper compelling medical evidence that you should die and Dr. Jack Kevorkian will help you kill yourself free of charge."
—
Jack Kevorkian's advertisement in the March 18, 1990 Detroit Free Press.
Jack Kevorkian, M.D.
Bioethics and Obitiatry
Special death counseling
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
—
Jack Kevorkian's business card.
"This is probably the first time that this august body [The American Humanist Association] has been addressed by someone under indictment on two counts of first-degree murder.
"The Inquisition is still alive and well. The only difference is that today it's much more dangerous and subtle. The inquisitors don't burn you at the stake anymore; they slowly sizzle you. They make sure you pay dearly for what you do. In fact, they kill you often in a subtle way. My situation is a perfect example of it.
"This is not self-pity, understand. I don't regret the position I'm in. I'm not a hero, either — by my definition, anyway. To me, anyone who does what should be done is not a hero. And I still feel that I'm only doing what I, as a physician, should do. A license has nothing to do with it; I am a physician and therefore I will act like a physician whenever I can. That doesn't mean that I'm more compassionate than anyone else, but there is one thing I am that many aren't and that's honest.
"The biggest deficiency today and the biggest problem with society is dishonesty. It underlies almost every crisis and every problem you can name. It's almost inevitable; in fact, it's unavoidable as you mature. We feel that a little dishonesty greases the wheels of society, that it makes things easier for everybody if we lie a little to each other. But all this dishonesty becomes cumulative after a while. If everyone were perfectly honest at all times, if human nature could stand that, you would find many fewer problems in the world.
"When we (my lawyers, sisters, medical technologist, and myself) first started this work [physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia], we didn't expect the explosion of publicity that followed. The mainstream media tried to make my work look very negative — they tried to make me look negative — so that they could denigrate the concept we're working on. They said I should not be identified with the concept, yet they strived to do just that. They insulted and denigrated me and then hoped that it would spill over onto the concept. It didn't work, however; according to the polls, people may be split 50-50 on what they think of me, but they are three-to-one in favor of the concept, and that's never changed.
"Now isn't it strange that on a controversial subject of this magnitude — one that cuts across many disciplines — the entire editorial policy of the country is on one side? Even on a contentious issue like abortion, there is editorial support for both sides. And our issue — death with dignity — as far as we're concerned, is simpler than abortion. So why is every mainstream editorial writer and newspaper in the country against us on this? Not one has come out in wholehearted support of us, even though public opinion is on our side.
"As I surmise it, they're in a conspiracy, which is not a revelation to many people. But with whom? Well, let's take a look at who's against this: organized religion, organized medicine, and organized big money. That's a lot of power.
"Why is organized medicine against this? For a couple of reasons, I think. First, because the so-called profession — which is no longer a profession; it's really a commercial enterprise and has been for a long time — is permeated with religious overtones. The basis of so-called medical ethics is religious ethics. The Hippocratic oath is a religious manifesto. It is not medical. Hippocrates didn't write it; we don't know who did, but we think it's from the Pythagoreans. So if you meet a physician who says "Life is sacred," be careful. We didn't study sanctity in medical school. You are talking to a theologian first, probably a businessperson second, and a physician third.
"The second reason that organized medicine is against physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia is the money involved. If a patient's suffering is curtailed by three weeks, can you imagine how much that adds up to in medical care? And a lot of drugs are used in the last several months and years of life, which add up to billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
"This is what is so dismaying to me, what makes me cynical. You have to be cynical in life when you read about a situation that's so terrible and so incorrigible. There are certain ways to deal with it: you can go along with it, which is hard to do; you can go insane, which is a refuge (and some do that); or you can face it with deep cynicism. I've opted for cynicism.
"In responding to the religious issues, I ask this: Why not let all the religious underpinnings of medicine apply only to the ethics of religious hospitals and leave the secular hospitals alone? The doctors who work in religious hospitals can refuse to do abortions, they can refuse assisted suicide or euthanasia, they can do anything they want. But they have no right to impose what they call a universal medical ethic on secular institutions.
"Besides, what is ethics? Can you define it? My definition is simple: Ethics is saying and doing what is right, at the time. And that changes. Seventy-five years ago, if I told you that for Christmas I was going to have a truck deliver 10 tons of coal to your house, you would have been delighted. If I told you that today, you would be insulted. Doing the right thing changes with time.
"That's true of human society also. There is a primitive society — I don't know which one exactly — whose members were shocked to learn that we embalm our dead, place them in boxes, and then bury them in the ground. Do you know what they do? They eat them. To them, it's ethical and moral and honorable to devour the corpse of your loved one. We're shocked at that, right? It's all a matter of acculturation, time, where you are, and who you are. If I visited this primitive society and I was a real humanist, I'd say, "Oh, that's interesting." And if the so-called savage in turn said "Gee, that's interesting what you do," then he or she would be a humanist. I used to define maturity as the inability to be shocked. So I guess in some ways we're still immature. But if you're truly mature, and a true humanist, you can never be shocked. If they eat their dead, so be it — that's their culture. But you know what our missionaries did, don't you? That's immoral action.
"I think you get the gist of my position."
—
"A Modern Inquisition: Jack Kevorkian Talks Back." The Humanist, November/ December 1994. This is the adaptation of the speech given by Kevorkian when he received the 1994 Humanist Hero Award from the American Humanist Association (AHA).
Khalid, Sunni (National Public Radio)
"I think there's a big difference when people told [Haitian President] Father Aristide to sort of moderate his views, they were concerned about people being dragged through the streets, killed and necklaced. I don't think that is what Newt Gingrich has in mind. I think he's looking at a more scientific, a more civil way of lynching people."
—
National Public Radio reporter Sunni Khalid on C-SPAN's "Journalists Roundtable," October 14, 1994.
Kilpatrick, James J.
"[President] Bush fears that if Congress were to permit fetal research with tissue taken from induced abortions, some idealistic women might deliberately get pregnant just to have an abortion. Such fears are fatuous. So farfetched a scenario strains credulity past the breaking limit..."
—
Syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick. "Fetal Tissue Issue Will Haunt Bush." The Oregonian, April 26, 1992, page B4.
Kimelman, Don
"As we read these two stories [about NORPLANT and Black poverty], we asked ourselves: Dare we mention them in the same breath? To do so might be considered deplorably insensitive, perhaps raising the specter of eugenics. But it would be worse to avoid drawing the logical conclusion that foolproof contraception could be invaluable in breaking the cycle of inner city poverty — one of America's greatest challenges."
—
Deputy Editorial Page Editor Don Kimelman. "Poverty and Norplant: Can Contraception Reduce the Underclass?" Philadelphia Enquirer, December 12, 1990 [NOTE: Kimelman continued by suggesting that welfare mothers could be implanted with NORPLANT for free and perhaps receive increased welfare benefits as a reward].
Kincaid, James
"It is possible that the pedophile's marginal position alerts him not only to self-interest but the pains suffered by all the outcast. This is not a necessary consequence of pedophilia, of course, any more than virtue is of poverty. Still, that passion for helping the child is so strong in pedophile relations that even the police acknowledge it."
—
James Kincaid, professor of English at the University of Southern California, in Child Loving [New York City: Routledge], 1992. This quote was downloaded from the Web site of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) at http://www.nambla.org on April 15, 1998, under the section entitled "What People Are Saying About NAMBLA and Man/Boy Love."
King, Coretta Scott
"Capital punishment is racist in its application. ... it should be banned because it makes irrevocable any possible miscarriage of justice. ... the lives of innocent people are threatened by capital punishment. ... it can never produce genuine healing. ... allowing the state to kill its own citizens diminishes our humanity."
—
Pro-abortion syndicated social issues columnist Coretta Scott King, expertly summarizing the pro-abortion double standard in her May 24, 1989 column, without the slightest sense of irony.
King, Florence (lesbian writer)
"Today's politicized lesbians gather in caucuses, swap childhood molestation stories, and lock themselves in the bathroom with a turkey baster full of somebody's brother's semen to take a shot at New Age parthenogenesis."
—
Lesbian writer Florence King, quoted in Insight on the News, September 17, 1990, page 16.
King, Jerry (ABC)
"The economic and political turmoil that has swept the former Communist East Bloc has hit women the hardest. There's been a strong backlash against the idea of women's equality...Under the communists, women in the workplace were glorified. And if they needed time off to give birth and raise families, they got it at full pay."
—
ABC reporter Jerry King, April 6, 1992 "World News Tonight."
King, Larry (CNN)
"I saw a Hillary Clinton that I'd never seen before. She was funny, charming, sexy — yes, gang, sexy. We are both Scorpios, which tells you a lot. She's informal — called me 'Larry' and told me to call her by her first name. ... Meanwhile, she's earned the respect of everyone except the wackos with her handling of the health care issue. Indeed, she has gotten everyone except the wackos to agree that we need health care for everyone. This is a very formidable idea, ladies and gentlemen."
—
CNN/Mutual Broadcasting talk show host Larry King on his October 2, 1993 interview with the First Lady, quoted in an October 4, 1993 USA Today column.
"When I heard the quote it sounded to me like it was Limbaugh or Liddy or Ollie North. It was like wacko talk radio. It didn't sound like Brinkley. In other words, Brinkley's always been irreverent, but always kind of classy."
—
CNN's Larry King on David Brinkley's election night comments that Clinton is a "bore" and his speech delivered "more goddamn nonsense," November 7, 1996 "Larry King Live."
"All right. So what if we made this case — OK, he's pretty tough with fundraising. But there's no proof that the Chinese had any in, except they gave money. He did a bad deal for you. And he has turned on his friends maybe a little. But nobody made big money in Whitewater. It was years ago. He was in Arkansas. He's a good President. I am happy. No boy is dying overseas. Country seems to be coming around. Supreme Court is pretty good. Are you better off than you were four years ago? Yes. What I if I made that case?"
—
Larry King to Jim McDougal, April 21, 1997 CNN "Larry King Live."
"What-if department ... What if President Clinton announced a cure for cancer developed by the National Institutes of Health? What would critics say? Would Bob Barr want him impeached for failing to tell us the study was going on? Would Rush Limbaugh decry the President taking credit while admitting getting rid of cancer wasn't a bad thing? Would Pat Buchanan insist that no nation other than America be given it? Would The Wall Street Journal worry about its effect on pharmaceutical stock prices? And so it goes...."
—
CNN's Larry King in his USA Today column, February 15, 1999.
Kini, Pravin
"Stephen Mumford's latest book makes extremely disturbing reading. In our daily life here in India, we see the impact of the campaign by the Vatican — the misery of life in the urban slums and the starvation of the rural poor. All of this cries out at the injustices of religious politics, and is a far cry from what Jesus preached! We fully agree that it is the politics of religion that have derailed population control programs here in this country. The Vatican, either directly or through its proxies, has seen to it that population programs do not get ahead. China and Indonesia have done far better in curbing population growth, because there is minimal influence of the Vatican except through the WHO. India has a Catholic population with influence far in excess of its population percentage. Their greatest influence comes from the wonderful charity work done by the good nuns and padres. However, such profoundly humanitarian service obscures the ways the Vatican has crippled our population programs. The nuns and priests are not at fault — they are merely innocent pawns of the Vatican. I will be making The Life and Death of NSSM 200 available to policy makers throughout our population programs."
—
Pravin Kini, MD, obstetrician and gynecologist, Chief Investigator for South India, International Federation for Family Health, Bangalore, commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
Kinsey, Alfred ('sexologist')
"At the risk of being repetitious, I would remind the group that we have found the highest frequency of induced abortions in the group which, in general, most frequently uses contraception."
—
Famous sex researcher Dr. Alfred E. Kinsey, at the April 1955 Conference on Induced Abortion, sponsored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).
"It was recognized by conference participants that no scientific evidence has been developed to support the claim that the increased availability of contraceptive services will clearly result in a decreased illegal abortion rate."
—
Concluding statement signed by the leading sex researchers of the day at the April 1955 Conference on Induced Abortion, sponsored by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Cosigners included Alan Guttmacher, M.D.; Alfred E. Kinsey, M.D.; Christopher Tietze, M.D.; John Rock, M.D.; and Abraham Stone, M.D.
"There is little evidence of the existence of such a thing as innate perversity. There is an abundance of evidence that most human sexual activities would become comprehensible to most individuals if they could know the background of each individual's behavior. I have myself come to the conclusion that homosexuality is largely a matter of conditioning."
—
'Sexologist' Alfred Kinsey, quoted in Wardell B. Pomeroy. Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research [New York City: Harper & Row], 1972, pages 247 and 273.
"Extreme tension with violent convulsion, often involving the sudden heaving and jerking of the whole body ... gasping, eyes staring ... mouth distorted, sometimes with tongue protruding ... whole body or parts of it spasmodically twitching ... throbs or violent jerking of the penis ... masochistic reactions ... more or less frenzied movements ... groaning, sobbing, or more violent cries, sometimes with an abundance of tears (especially among younger children) ... extreme trembling, collapse, loss of color, and sometimes fainting of subject ... panicked or frightened ... will fight away from the partner and may make violent attempts to avoid climax ..."
—
Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male [Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company], 1948 [NOTE: According to the infamous Table 31 of the Male Report, "Preadolescent Experience in Orgasm," children as young as two months were manipulated, and infants as young as 5 months "achieved orgasm." Many of the younger children had to be masturbated for more than ten minutes, according to Table 32, "Speed of Preadolescent Orgasm." Table 34, "Examples of Multiple Orgasm in Preadolescent Males," alleged that an 11-month old achieved 14 "orgasms" in 38 minutes, a 4-year old experienced 26 "orgasms" in 24 hours, and a 13-year old had three "orgasms" in one minute. Such intense physical stimulation appeared to be agonizing to the youngest children, as evidenced by the above description of their reactions when being "manipulated"].
"I will add that about 87 per cent of all the induced abortions that we have in our records were performed by physicians. It is only about 8 per cent that were self-induced, and if you were to throw out all those, it would not materially change the over-all picture of induced abortions."
—
Alfred C. Kinsey, Sc.D., speaking at the 1955 conference on induced abortion held by Planned Parenthood. Quotes in Mary Calderone, M.D., Medical Director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (editor). Abortion in the United States [New York City: Paul B. Hoeber, Inc.], 1956.
Kiperchuk, Helen
"What the so-called "pro-life" movement is about is a course of deliberate imposition of their will (power) over others. A misnomer — a deliberate deceit, the "pro-life" label carries the weight of emotional meaning nobody could disagree with — after all who is against LIFE? The reality is that the "pro-life" movement is against LIFE. Waging a battle designed to intimidate others and cloud the issue, they are propelled by a sole objective — to impose their will regardless of the consequences.
"With a total disregard for the complexities involved in a decision to have an abortion, they exhibit an immoral view of life that is unprecedented in its hypocrisy. ... If they had any regard for human life they would be working to eradicate the enormous problems of child abuse, poverty and the plight of single mothers ..."
—
Helen Kiperchuk. "Editorial." Humanist in Canada, Autumn 1989, page 2.
Kirby, Douglas (Director, Center for Population Options (CPO))
"We find basically that there are no measurable — I want to underline that word and put it in boldface — there is no measurable impact upon the use of birth control nor upon pregnancy rates or birth rates. This is all based upon the survey data ... School-based clinics have no measurable impact on teen pregnancy rates ... In the absence of knowledge of whether or not young women are getting abortions, we really can't say whether or not the school clinic program is preventing pregnancy. And since abortions are usually underreported in personal interviews, pregnancy rates are difficult to measure."
—
Douglas Kirby, Director, Center for Population Options (CPO). Session on "Education," speech given at the 16th annual meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), Washington, D.C., March 2, 1988. Quoted in Richard D. Glasow, Ph.D. "SBC Advocate Admits Clinics Fail to Reduce Number of Teen Pregnancies." National Right to Life News, March 10, 1988, pages 4 and 5. Also see: Joy Dryfoos. "School-Based Health Clinics: Three Years of Experience." Alan Guttmacher Institute, Family Planning Perspectives, July/August 1988.
Kirk, Marshall (homosexual activist)
"Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers. In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be cast as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to assume the role of protector ... jaunty mustachioed musclemen would keep a very low profile in gay commercials and other public presentations, while sympathetic figures of nice young people, old people, and attractive women would be featured (it goes without saying that groups on the farthest margin of acceptability, such as NAMBLA [the North American Man-Boy Love Association], must play no part at all in such a campaign: Suspected child-molesters will never look like victims.
"Now, there are two different messages about the Gay Victim that are worth communicating. First, the mainstream should be told that gays are victims of fate, in the sense that most never had a choice to accept or reject their sexual preference. The message must read: "As far as gays can tell, they were born gay, just as you were born heterosexual or white or black or bright or athletic ... they are not morally blameworthy.
"Straight viewers must be able to identify with gays as victims ... To this end, the persons featured in the public campaign should be decent and upright, appealing and admirable by straight standards ... spokesmen for our cause must be R-type "straight gays" rather than Q-type "homosexuals on display" ...
"Make the victimizers look bad. At a later stage of the media campaign for gay rights - long after other gay ads have become commonplace - it will be time to get tough with remaining opponents. To be blunt, they must be vilified ... Our goal here is twofold. First, we seek to replace the mainstream's self-righteous pride about its homophobia with shame and guilt. Second, we intend to make the anti-gays look so nasty that average Americans will want to dissociate themselves from such types.
"The public should be shown images of ranting homophobes whose secondary traits and beliefs disgust middle America. These images might include: The Ku Klux Klan demanding that gays be burned alive or castrated; bigoted southern ministers drooling with hysterical hatred to a degree that looks both comical and deranged; menacing punks, thugs, and convicts speaking coolly about the "fags" they have killed or would like to kill; a tour of Nazi concentration camps where homosexuals were tortured or gassed ...
"These images should be combined with those of their gay victims by a method propagandists call the "bracket technique." For example, for a few seconds, an unctuous, beady-eyed Southern preacher is seen, pounding the pulpit in rage about "those sick, abominable creatures." While his tirade continues over the soundtrack, the picture switches to pathetic photos of badly beaten persons, or to photos of gays who look decent, harmless, and likable; and then we cut back to the poisonous face of the preacher, and so forth. The contrast speaks for itself. The effect is devastating. ...
"Give protectors a just cause. Few straight women, and even fewer straight men, will want to defend homosexuality boldly as such. Most would rather attach their awakened principle of justice or law to some general desire for consistent and fair treatment in society. Our campaign should not demand direct support for homosexual practices, but should instead take anti-discrimination as its theme ... The homophobes clothe their emotional revulsion in the daunting robes of religious dogma, so defenders of gay rights must be ready to counter dogma with principle."
"Make gays look good. In order to make a Gay Victim sympathetic to straights, you have to portray him as Everyman. But an additional theme of the campaign should be more aggressive and upbeat: The campaign should paint gays as superior pillars of society. Yes, yes, we know - this trick is so old it creaks. Other minorities use it all the time in ads that announce proudly, "Did you know that this Great Man (or Woman) was [gay]?
"But the message is vital for all those straights who still picture gays as "queer" people - shadowy, lonesome, frail, drunken, suicidal, child-snatching misfits. Along the same lines, we shouldn't overlook the Celebrity Endorsement. The celebrities can be straight (God bless you, Ed Asner, wherever you are), or gay. ...
"You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that homosexuality is a good thing. But if only you can get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders, then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won. ...
"Well before the next elections for national office, we might lay careful plans to run symbolic gay candidates for every high political office in this country. Our candidates could ... demand equal time on the air. They could then graciously pull out of the races before the actual elections, while formally endorsing more viable straight contenders (with malicious humor, perhaps, in some states we could endorse our most rabid opponents). It is essential not to ask people actually to vote Yea or Nay on the gay issue at this early stage: Such action would end up committing most to the Nay position and would only tally huge and visible defeats for our cause. ..."
"The first order of business is the desensitization of the American public concerning gays and gay rights. To desensitize the public is to help it view homosexuality with indifference instead of with keen emotion ... At least in the beginning, we are seeking public desensitization and nothing else ... You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that homosexuality is a good thing. But if only you can get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders, then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won ... Gays as a class must cease to appear mysterious, alien, loathsome, and contrary ... A large-scale media campaign will be required in order to change the image of gays in America.
"Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible. The principle behind this advice is simple: Almost any behavior begins to look normal if you are exposed to enough of it at close quarters ... As long as Joe Sixpack feels little pressure to perform likewise, he soon gets used to it and life goes on ... Constant talk builds the impression that public opinion is at least divided on the subject, and that a sizable segment even practices homosexuality.
"And when we say talk about homosexuality, we mean just that. In the early stages of any campaign to reach straight America, the masses should not be shocked and repelled by premature exposure to homosexual behavior itself. Instead, the imagery of sex should be downplayed and gay rights should be reduced to an abstract social question as much as possible. First let the camel get his nose inside the tent - and only later his unsightly derriere!
"Where we talk is important. The visual media, film and television, are plainly the most powerful image-makers in Western civilization. The average American household watches over seven hours of TV daily. Those hours open up a gateway into the private world of straights, through which a Trojan horse might be passed ... So far, gay Hollywood has provided our best covert weapon in the battle to desensitize the mainstream.
"Without access to TV, radio, and the mainstream press, there will be no campaign ... While we're storming the battlements with salvos of ink, we should also warm the mainstream up a bit with a subtle national campaign on highway billboards. In simple, bold print on dark backgrounds, a series of unobjectionable messages should be introduced; "IN RUSSIA, THEY TELL YOU WHAT TO BE. IN AMERICA WE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE OURSELVES ... AND TO BE THE BEST," or "PEOPLE HELPING INSTEAD OF HATING - THAT'S WHAT AMERICA IS ALL ABOUT," and so on. Each sign will tap patriotic sentiment, each message will drill a seemingly agreeable proposition into mainstream heads - a "public service message" suited to our purposes. And, if their owners will permit it, each billboard will be signed, in slightly smaller letters, "Courtesy of the National Gay Task Force" - to build positive associations and get the public used to seeing such sponsorship.
"For openers, naturally, we must continue to encourage the appearance of favorable gay characters in films and TV shows. Daytime talk shows also remain a useful avenue for exposure. ...
"When conservative churches condemn gays, there are only two things we can do to confound the homophobia of true believers. First, we can use talk to muddy the moral waters. This means publicizing support for gays by more moderate churches ... Second, we can undermine the moral authority of homophobic churches by portraying them as antiquated backwaters, badly out of step with the times and with the latest findings of psychology. Against the mighty pull of Institutional Religion one must set the mightier draw of Science and Public Opinion (the shield and sword of that accursed "secular humanism"). Such an unholy alliance has worked against the churches before, on such topics as divorce and abortion. With enough open talk about the prevalence and acceptability of homosexuality, that alliance can work again here."
"The first order of business is the desensitization of the American public concerning gays and gay rights ... You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that homosexuality is a good thing. But if only you can get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders, then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won ... A large-scale media campaign will be required in order to change the image of gays in America.
"In the early states of any campaign to reach straight America, the masses should not be shocked and repelled by premature exposure to homosexual behavior itself. Instead, the imagery of sex should be downplayed and gay rights should be reduced to an abstract social question as much as possible. First let the camel get his nose inside the tent — and only later his unsightly derriere!
—
Marshall K. Kirk and Erastes Pill. "The Overhauling of Straight America." Guide Magazine, October and November 1987 [emphasis added].
"This book ... proposes a practical agenda for bringing to a close, at long last, the seemingly permanent crisis of American homosexuality" [page xv].
"Without apology or even qualm, American hates and eats its own. Generation after generation, it savagely chews apart at least one homosexual child for every nine heterosexual children, and feeds it to them. The nine lucky enough to be born and raised as heterosexuals usually grow up proud and strong, an eager brood of young American Aryans. The one — representing millions born or raised as homosexuals — is forced to cower and skulk like a German Jew of the '30s" [pages xvi and xvii].
"This, of course, is what straight America really demands: that, one way or another, come hell or high water, gays just cease to exist. The easiest means of dealing with a problem is to deny that there is one. And so, the nation squares the burden of upholding the Big Lie — that gays are rare freaks — on the backs of gays themselves" [page xx].
"... we will use our knowledge to consider, first, why the tactics used so far by the gay community to combat homophobia and homohatred have proven either weakly effective, ineffective, or disastrously counterproductive, and second, what the implications of our knowledge are for the structuring of a truly effective plan of action against antigay bigotry [pages 133 and 134].
"If one can spread arguments based on facts and logic among the intelligentsia, these will tend to form the nucleus of a general consensus, spread in turn through magazines, newspapers, and television broadcasts, as to what it is politically correct to believe. As the 90% become aware of the position of the intelligentsia, two things tend to happen: first, some weak bigots, though emotionally unswayed, shut themselves up out of fear of being thought Neanderthals. Keeping quiet out of embarrassment makes these bigots feel hypocritical; in some cases, this weakens the prejudice; they tell themselves, 'I'm not keeping quiet because I'm a coward, but because I don't really hate these people, anyway' [page 138].
"Finally, there is yet another reason why argument can be dangerous to gay rights. Insofar a our opponent advance reasons for their homohatred, these tend to center around assertions like 'Homosexuality is disgusting,' or 'Homosexuality is sinful.' While phrased as apparently legitimate statements about an aspect of the world, they are actually statements about the one making the assertions. Logically speaking, nothing whatever is either disgusting or sinful, except as one feels it to be so — which is to say, such assertions mean nothing more than 'I really dislike that.' Our opponents' arguments have nothing to do with reason, and cannot be refuted by reason. Moreover, we cannot disprove the validity of the Bible, or of other authoritative sources of moral judgment, nor even attempt to do so without arousing tremendous antagonism. For us to attempt to argue with homohaters is to risk carrying the argument onto their turf, which gives attention and, implicitly, credence to many of their basic assumptions. Thus, if we're going to enter into arguments with them, we'd better have a strong emotional appeal in our back pocket [pages 139 and 140].
"When you're very different, and people hate you for it, this is what you do: first you get your foot in the door, by being as similar as possible; then, and only then — when your one little difference is finally accepted — can you start dragging in your other peculiarities, one by one. You hammer in the wedge narrow end first. As the saying goes, Allow the camel's nose beneath your tent, and his whole body will soon follow.
"By the same token, allowing advocates of legalized 'love' between men and boys to participate in gay pride marches is, from the standpoint of public relations, an unalloyed disaster. For the purposes of our argument, it is irrelevant whether pederasty is good or bad; what is relevant is that arguments against it, not easily refutable, can be made and are associated with widespread abhorrence, not to mention universal — and severe — legal sanctions [page 146].
PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS: HALTING, DERAILING,
OR REVERSING THE 'ENGINE OF PREJUDICE
"In the past, gays have tinkered ineptly with the engine of prejudice. Is it possible to tinker more favorably? We present (in order of increasing vigor and desirability) three general approaches — very nearly the opposites of the three tactics described above. These approaches, once understood, will lead us directly to the principles upon which a viable campaign can be erected.
1. DESENSITIZATION
"... If gays present themselves — or allow themselves to be presented — as overwhelmingly different and threatening, they will put straights on a triple-red alert, driving them to overt acts of political oppression or physical violence. If, however, gays can live alongside straights, visibly but as inoffensively as possible, they will arouse a low-grade alert only, which, although annoying to straights, will eventually diminish, for purely psychological reasons. Straights will be desensitized. Put more simply, if you go out of your way to be unendurable, people will try to destroy you; otherwise, they might eventually get used to you. ... We can extract the following principle for our campaign: to desensitize straights to gay-related advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible. If straights can't shut off the shower, they may at least eventually get used to being wet [pages 147 to 149].
2. JAMMING
"The engine of prejudice can be made to grind to a halt not only by Desensitization, in which it is simply allowed to run out of steam, but also by the more active process of Jamming. As the name implies, Jamming involves the insertion into the engine of a pre-existing, incompatible emotional response, gridlocking its mechanism as thoroughly as though one had sprinkled fine sand into the workings of an old-fashioned pocket watch. Jamming, as an approach, is more active and aggressive than Desensitization; by the same token, it is also more enjoyable and heartening [page 150].
"The trick is to get the bigot into the position of feeling a conflicting twinge of shame, along with his reward, whenever his homohatred surfaces, so that his reward will be diluted or spoiled. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, all making use of repeated exposure to pictorial images or verbal statements that are incompatible with his self-image as a well-liked person, one who fits in with the rest of the crowd. Thus, propagandistic advertisement can depict homophobic and homohating bigots as crude loudmouths and assholes — people who say not only 'faggot' but 'nigger,' 'kike,' and other shameful epithets — who are 'not Christian.' It can show them being criticized, hated, shunned. It can depict gays experiencing horrific suffering as the direct result of homohatred — suffering of which even most bigots would be ashamed to be the cause. It can, in short, link homohating bigotry with all sorts of attributes the bigot would be ashamed to possess, and with social consequences he would find unpleasant and scary. The attack, therefore, is on self-image and on the pleasure in hating [pages 151 and 152].
3. CONVERSION
"Desensitization aims at lowering the intensity of antigay emotional reactions to a level approximating sheer indifference; Jamming attempts to blockade or counteract the rewarding 'pride in prejudice' (peace, Jane Austen!) by attaching to homohatred a pre-existing, and punishing, sense of shame in being a bigot, a horse's ass, and a beater and murderer. Both Desensitization and Jamming, though extremely useful, are mere preludes to our highest — though necessarily very long-range — goal, which is Conversion.
"It isn't enough that antigay bigots should become confused about us, or even indifferent to us — we are safest, in the long run, if we can actually make them like us. Conversion aims at just this.
Please don't confuse Conversion with political Subversion. The word 'subversion' has a nasty ring, of which the American people are inordinately afraid — and on their guard against. Yet, ironically, by Conversion we actually mean something far more profoundly threatening to the American Way of Life, without which no truly sweeping social change can occur. We mean conversion of the average American's emotions, mind, and will, through a planned psychological attack, in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media. We mean 'subverting' the mechanism of prejudice to our own ends — using the very processes that made America hate us turn their hatred into warm regard — whether they like it or not.
"Put briefly, if Desensitization lets the watch run down, and Jamming throws sand in the works, Conversion reverses the spring so that the hands run backward [pages 153 and 154].
"... We've now outlined the three major modes by which we can alter the itinerary of the engine of prejudice in our favor. Desensitization lets the engine run out of steam, causing it to halt on the tracks indefinitely. Jamming, in essence, derails it. Conversion — our ambitious long-range goal — puts the engine into reverse gear and sends it back whence it came [page 156].
GOOD PROPAGANDA: THE IDEA BEHIND 'WAGING PEACE'
"We have in mind a strategy as calculated and powerful as that which gays are accused of pursuing by their enemies — or, if you prefer, a plan as manipulative as that which our enemies themselves employ. It's time to learn from Madison Avenue, to roll out the big guns. Gays must launch a large-scale campaign — we've called it the Waging Peace campaign — to reach straights through the mainstream media. We're talking about propaganda [page 161].
"... The purpose and effect of progay propaganda is to promote a climate of increased tolerance for homosexuals. And that, we say, is good. ... First, propaganda relies more upon emotional manipulation than upon logic, its goal is, in fact, to bring about a change in the public's feelings [page 162].
"... In February 1988, however, a "war conference" of 175 leading gay activists, representing organizations from across the land, convened in Warrenton, Virginia, to establish a four-point agenda for the gay movement. The conference gave first priority to "a nation-wide media campaign to promote a positive image of gays and lesbians," and its final statement concluded: "We must consider the media in every project we undertake. We must, in addition, take every advantage we can to include public service announcements and paid advertisements, and to cultivate reporters and editors of newspaper, radio, and television. To help facilitate this we need national media workshops to train our leaders ... Our media efforts are fundamental to the full acceptance of us in American life."
"Recognition is dawning that antigay discrimination begins, like war, in the minds of men, and must be stopped there with the help of propaganda [page 163].
"... Conversion is more than merely desensitizing straights or jamming their homohatred: it entails making them actually like and accept homosexuals as a group, enabling straights to identify with them [page 168].
"... One of the special advantages of a media campaign is that it can — and should — portray only the most favorable side of gays, thereby counterbalancing the already unfairly negative stereotype in the public's mind. When this is done, the picture labeled 'queer' is aggressively painted over; prior images of dirty old queens or coarsened dykes are overlaid with pleasing new images of all-American and Miss American types [page 170].
"... Instead, activists have concentrated their efforts on politics, meaning efforts to secure gay rights by conspiring with liberal elites within the legal and legislative systems [pages 170 and 171].
"... The goal here is to forge a little entente of conspiracy with the power elite, to jump ahead of public sentiment or ignore it altogether. Sometimes the tactic works: Many executive orders (which sidestep the democratic process) and ordinances passed by city councils now protect certain limited civil rights for gays in selected cities [page 171].
THE STRATEGY OF 'WAGING PEACE:' EIGHT PRACTICAL
PRINCIPLES FOR THE PERSUASION OF STRAIGHTS
"Generally speaking, the most effective propaganda for our cause must succeed in doing three things at once.
•
Employ images that desensitize, jam, and/or convert bigots on an emotional level. This is, by far, the most important task.
•
Challenge homohating beliefs and actions on a (not too) intellectual level. Remember, the rational message serves to camouflage our underlying emotional appeal, even as it pares away the surrounding latticework of beliefs that rationalize bigotry.
•
Gain access to the kinds of public media that would automatically confer legitimacy upon these messages and, therefore, upon their gay sponsors. To be accepted by the most prestigious media, such as network TV, our messages themselves will have to be — at least initially — both subtle in purpose and crafty in construction.
"Guided by these several objectives, we offer eight practical principles for the persuasion of straights via the mass media [pages 172 and 173].
PRINCIPLE 1. DON'T JUST EXPRESS YOURSELF: COMMUNICATE!
"... think of yourself as an explorer cautiously approaching a spear-wielding tribe of suspicious, belligerent natives in New Guinea [page 174].
PRINCIPLE 2. SEEK YE NOT THE SAVED NOR THE DAMNED; APPEAL TO THE SKEPTICS
"... At the other extreme prowl the denizens of bigotry's darkest realm — say, 30-35% of the citizenry — so vehemently opposed to homosexuality that they would not permit one of its adherents to utter a single word in their community. Between our professed friends and our implacable foes — between the saved and the damned (or damnable) — are found the ambivalent remainder (35-45%), those who are basically skeptical about homosexuality but unwilling to nail gays to the wall [page 175].
"... Some Intransigents fight desperately to suppress their own homosexual proclivities; others, for complicated reasons, feel compelled to adhere rigidly to an authoritarian belief structure (e.g., an orthodox religion) that condemns homosexuality. Our primary objective regarding diehard homohaters of this sort is to cow and silence them as far as possible, not to convert or even desensitize them [page 176].
PRINCIPLE 3. KEEP TALKING
"... At least at the outset, we seek desensitization and nothing more. You can forget about trying right up front to persuade folks that homosexuality is a good thing. But if you can get them to think it is just another thing — meriting no more than a shrug of the shoulders — then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won.
"Application of the keep-talking principle can get people to the shoulder-shrug stage. The free and frequent discussion of gay rights by a variety of persons in a variety of places gives the impression that homosexuality is commonplace. That impression is essential, because, as noted in the previous chapter, the acceptability of any new behavior ultimately hinges on the proportion of one's fellows accepting or doing it. One may be offended by its novelty at first. ... Open, frank talk makes gayness seem less furtive, alien and sinful; more aboveboard. Constant talk builds the impression that public opinion is at least divided on the subject, and that a sizable bloc — the most modern, up-to-date citizens — accept or even practice homosexuality. ... The main thing is to talk about gayness until the issue becomes thoroughly tiresome.
"And when we say talk about homosexuality, we mean just that. In the early stages of the campaign, the public should not be shocked and repelled by premature exposure to homosexual behavior itself. Instead, the imagery of sex per se should be downplayed, and the issue of gay rights reduced, as far as possible, to an abstract social question [pages 177 and 178].
"... Yet, two things can be done to confound the homohatred of the moderately religious. First, gays can talk to muddy the moral waters, that is, to undercut the rationalizations that 'justify' religious bigotry and so jam some of its psychic rewards. This entails publicizing support by moderate churches and raising serious theological objections to conservative biblical teachings. It also means exposing the inconsistency and hatred underlying antigay doctrines. Conservative churches, which pay as much lip service to Christian charity as anybody else, are rendered particularly vulnerable by their callous hypocrisy regarding AIDS sufferers.
"Second, gays can undermine the moral authority of homohating churches over less fervent adherents by portraying such institutions as antiquated backwaters, badly out of step with the times and with the latest findings of psychology. Against the atavistic tug of Old Time Religion one must set the mightier pull of Science and Public Opinion (the shield and sword of that accursed 'secular humanism'). Such an 'unholy' alliance has already worked well in America against churches, on such topics as divorce and abortion. With enough open talk about the prevalence and acceptability of homosexuality, that alliance can work for gays.
"... For instance, in the average American household, the TV screen radiates its embracing bluish glow for more than fifty hours every week, bringing films, sitcoms, talk shows, and news reports right into the living room. These hours are a gateway into the private world of straights, through which a Trojan horse might be passed [page 179].
PRINCIPLE 4. KEEP THE MESSAGE FOCUSED: YOU'RE A HOMOSEXUAL, NOT A WHALE
PRINCIPLE 5. PORTRAY GAYS AS VICTIMS, NOT AS AGGRESSIVE CHALLENGERS
"In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. If gays present themselves, instead, as a strong and arrogant tribe promoting a defiantly non-conformist lifestyle, they are more likely to be seen as a public menace that warrants resistance and oppression. For that reason, we must forego the temptation to strut our gay pride publicly to such an extent that we undermine our victim image.
"The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable; that is, to jam with shame the self-righteous pride that would ordinarily accompany and reward their antigay belligerence, and to lay groundwork for the process of conversion by helping straights identify with gays and sympathize with their underdog status.
"... Persons featured in the media campaign should be wholesome and admirable by straight standards, and completely unexceptional in appearance; in a word, they should be indistinguishable from the straights we'd like to reach.
"In practical terms, this means that cocky mustachioed leathermen, drag queens, and bull dykes would not appear in gay commercials and other public presentations. Conventional young people, middle-aged women, and older folks of all races would be featured, not to mention the parents and straight friends of gays.
"... it cannot go without saying, incidentally, that groups on the farthest margins of acceptability, such as NAMBLA, must play no part at all in such a campaign. Suspected child molesters will never look like victims.
"Now, two different messages about the Gay Victim are worth communicating. First, the public should be persuaded that gays are victims of circumstance, that they no more chose their sexual orientation than they did, say, their height, skin color, talents, or limitations (we argue that, for all practical purposes, gays should be considered to have been born gay — even though sexual orientation, for most humans seems to be the product of a complex interaction between innate predispositions and environmental factors during childhood and early adolescence). To suggest in public that homosexuality might be chosen is to open the can of worms labeled 'moral choice and sin' and give the religious Intransigents a stick to beat us with. Straights must be taught that it is as natural for some persons to be homosexual as it is for others to be heterosexual: wickedness and seduction have nothing to do with it. And since no choice is involved, gayness can be no more blameworthy than straightness. In fact, it is simply a matter of the odds — one in ten — as to who turns out gay, and who straight. Each heterosexual must be led to realize that he might easily have been born homosexual himself.
"Second, gays should be portrayed as victims of prejudice. Straights don't fully realize the suffering they bring upon gays, and must be shown: graphic pictures of brutalized gays, dramatizations of job and housing insecurity, loss of child custody, public humiliation, etc. [page 184].
"... For some critics, it isn't so much the idea of victim imagery that offends, but whom we will present as victims: all-American types so starchily conformist in appearance that they can barely bend their knees, let alone stoop to fellatio.
"... Our ultimate objective is to expand straight tolerance so much that even gays who look unconventional can feel safe and accepted [page 186].
"... In time, as hostilities subside and stereotypes weaken, we see no reason why more and more diversity should not be introduced into the projected image. This would be healthy for society as well as for gays.
PRINCIPLE 6. GIVE POTENTIAL PROTECTORS A JUST CAUSE
"Thus, our campaign should not demand explicit support for homosexual practices, but should instead take antidiscrimination as its theme. Fundamental freedoms, constitutional rights, due process and equal protection of laws, basic fairness and decency toward all of humanity — these should be the concerns brought to mind in our campaign.
"It's especially important for the gay movement to hitch its cause to pre-existing standards of law and justice, because its straight supporters must have at hand a cogent reply to the moralistic arguments of its enemies. Homohaters cloak their emotional revulsion in the daunting robes of religious dogma, so defenders of gay rights must be ready to counter dogma with principle. Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just [page 187].
PRINCIPLE 7. MAKE GAYS LOOK GOOD
"In order to make a Gay Victim sympathetic to straights, you have to portray him as Everyman. But an additional theme of the campaign will be more aggressive and upbeat. To confound bigoted stereotypes and hasten the conversion of straights, strongly favorable images of gays must be set before the public. The campaign should paint gay men and lesbians as superior — veritable pillars of society.
"Yes, yes, we know, this trick is so old it creaks. Other minorities have used it often in ads that proudly exclaim, 'Did you know that this Great Man was Thuringian (or whatever)?' But the message is vital for all those straights who still picture gays as 'queer' losers — shadowy, lonesome, frail, drunken, suicidal, child-snatching misfits.
"... Famous historical figures are especially useful to us for two reasons: first, they are invariably dead as a doornail, hence in no position to deny the truth and sue for libel. Second, and more serious, the virtues and accomplishments that make these historic gay figures admirable cannot be gainsaid or dismissed by the public, since high school history textbooks have already set them in incontrovertible cement. By casting its violet spotlight on such revered heros, in no time a skillful media campaign could have the gay community looking like the veritable fairy godmother to Western civilization.
"Along the same lines, our campaign should not overlook the Celebrity Endorsement. The celebrities in question can, of course, be either straight or gay (and alive, for a change), but must always be well liked and respected by the public. If homosexual, the celebrity jams homohatred by presenting a favorable gay image at odds with the stereotype. ... In either case, the psychological response among straights is the same, and lays the groundwork for conversion:
I like and admire Mr. Celeb;
Mr. Celeb is queer and/or respects queers;
so either I must stop liking and admiring Mr. Celeb, or else it must be all right for me to respect queers [pages 187 and 188].
PRINCIPLE 8. MAKE VICTIMIZERS LOOK BAD
"The real target here is not victimizers themselves but the homohatred that impels them. Understand this point clearly: while it will be a sheer delight to besmirch our tormenters, we cannot waste resources or media access on revenge alone (indeed, the media will not allow us to do so). The objective is to make homohating beliefs and actions look so nasty that average American will want to dissociate themselves from them. This, of course, is a variant on the process of jamming. We also intend, by this tactic, to make the very expression of homohatred so discreditable that even Intransigents will eventually be silenced in public — much as rabid racists and anti-Semites are today" [NOTE: As all anti-'gay rights' activists know so well, everything they do, from opposing special rights for homosexuals to voting against 'gay rights' initiatives, is instantly labeled "hatemongering" and "bigotry." If you do not give the homosexual activists everything they want right away and without comment, they will attack you in this way. Note how Kirk and Madsen, throughout their book, allege that there are only two alternatives: To fully accept and embrace homosexuality, or to be "homohaters"].
"The best way to make homohatred look bad is to vilify those who victimize gays. The public should be shown images of ranting homohaters whose associated traits and attitudes appall and anger Middle America. The images might include:
•
Klansmen demanding that gays be slaughtered or castrated;
•
Hysterical backwoods preachers, drooling with hate to a degree that looks both comical and deranged;
•
Menacing punks, thugs, and convicts who speak coolly about the 'fags' they have bashed or would like to bash;
•
A tour of Nazi concentration camps where homosexuals were tortured and gassed.
"In TV and print, images of victimizers can be combined with those of their gay victims by a method propagandists call the 'bracket technique.' For example, for several seconds an unctuous beady-eyed Southern preacher is shown pounding the pulpit in rage against 'those perverted, abominable creatures.' While his tirade continues over the soundtrack, the picture switches to heart-rending photos of badly beaten persons, or of gays who look decent, harmless and likable; and then we cut back to the poisonous face of the preacher. The contrast speaks for itself. The effect is devastating.
"The viewer will ordinarily recoil from these images of victimizers, thinking automatically 'I don't like those maniacs, don't want to be like them, and would be ashamed if others thought I was like them. Surely I'm more compassionate and sophisticated, because I don't share their irrational hatred of gays.' Every time a viewer runs through this comparative self-appraisal, he reinforces a self-definition that consciously rejects homohatred and validates sympathy for gay victims. Exactly what we want.
"A campaign to vilify victimizers will only enrage our most fervid enemies, of course. Yet the shoe surely fits, and we should make them try it on for size, with all America watching. ... At least at the beginning, the broadcast media — which have not yet permitted gays even to say nice things about themselves on the air — certainly not will allow any direct attacks on archconservatives. On the other hand, they just might permit some mention of Nazi atrocities, the pink triangle as a symbol of victimization, and so forth. If so, the Nazi story alone will be a significant opening wedge into the vilification of our enemies. After all, who on earth would choose to be associated with the Nazis? [pages 189 and 190].
GETTING INTO THE MAJOR MEDIA: CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE
Step 1: A Loaf of White Bread, a Jug of Ink, and Thou.
"It will be easiest to approach the print media first, encouraging magazines and newspapers to accept gay money by showing them ads whose messages are pure white bread — that is, completely unobjectionable and only obliquely concerned with homosexuality. At the same time, however, these ads must manage to get the word 'gay' into the headline or tagline. Ideally, straight Americans will begin to see them everywhere: small print ads (and, if we have the money, large highway billboards) that earnestly propound appealing truisms, the safer and more platitudinous, the better [page 207].
IN RUSSIA, THEY TELL YOU WHAT TO BE.
IN AMERICA, WE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE
OURSELVES ... AND TO BE THE BEST
— The National Gay & Lesbian Community proudly joins America in celebrating July 4.
THREE THINGS MAKE AMERICA GREAT:
DIVERSITY, FREEDOM, AND COMMUNITY
America, You Make Us Proud Too
— Your National Gay & Lesbian Community
PEOPLE HELPING INSTEAD OF HATING —
THAT'S WHAT AMERICA IS ALL ABOUT
— Your National Gay & Lesbian Community
"And so forth. Turns the stomach, doesn't it? But remember, mainstream Americans have been raised on a diet of precisely this sort of corn, to which they have the fondest of associations — so corn is what we'll feed them. ... each brief message should tap public sentiment, patriotic or otherwise, and drill an unimpeachably agreeable proposition into mainstream heads — 'a public service message' suited to our purposes [page 208].
Step 2: We Interrupt This Program to Announce ... PSAs.
"... But if you turn on the TV in Philadelphia, you may also encounter PSAs deploring discrimination against homosexuals. If you spin the dial on a radio near that city, you might, on any of several channels, hear a one-minute gay-history segment or the phone number of an antigay violence hotline. Likewise in New York City, you'll see PSAs trumpeting the number to call if you've been attacked for being gay.
"Surprised? So are straights who see these spots for the first time. But surprise soon passes as these modest PSAs begin to desensitize viewers toward homosexuality, even as they seek to sensitize them to the dangers of homohatred. These New York and Philadelphia PSA are an entering wedge in several respects. The major TV stations that air them gradually commit themselves to more open support for gay rights. Meanwhile, the very appearance of these PSAs on a regular basis heartens gay viewers and suggests to millions of
other that the protection of gay civil rights is now a valid and generally accepted goal of society [pages 209 and 210].
Step 3: When All Else Fails, Homosexuality for President.
"What if Intransigents kick up such a fuss from the outset that broadcasters and publishers adamantly refuse to play ball? Gays will then have to consider a bold stratagem to seize media attention forcibly, without full media cooperation.
"Well before the next national election, we might lay contingency plans to run symbolic gay candidates for every high political office. ... Candidates running on a gay slate probably couldn't win a single government seat, unless West Hollywood were suddenly declared the fifty-first state. (In a national poll taken by Roper in 1983, more than half the public stated categorically that it would not vote "for a generally well-qualified person for president if that person happened to be a homosexual.") But electability is not our concern. Indeed, we think the slate definitely should not ask the public to vote yea or nay on the gay issue at this early stage: that would only end up committing most to the nay position, and tally huge and visible defeats for our cause. So we recommend that gay candidates, having broken the ice, graciously pull out of the race before the actual elections, while formally endorsing more viable straight contenders. ... Our enemies would brew a thunderstorm of vitriol and violence, of character assassination — and even, perhaps, the other kind. ... It's just conceivable that a courageous and respectable performance by gay candidates in the face of savagery from the far right could win them a new measure of legitimacy, and even become a cause c‚lŠbre [pages 212 and 213].
Step 4: The Gloves Come Off: A Portfolio of Progay Ads.
"By now — several years down the road — our salami tactics will have carved out, slice by slice, a large portion of access to mainstream media. What next? It will finally be time to bring the Waging Peace campaign out of the closet. We will launch media messages of open support for the civil rights of gay people, in ads that work directly to jam homohatred and convert straights to feelings of greater tolerance [page 213].
IF YOU GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO PICK ON GAYS,
PSYCHIATRISTS HAVE A NAME FOR YOU ...
... LATENT HOMOSEXUAL.
There was a time, years ago, when people could hide their own
homosexual tendencies by loudly attacking other gays in public.
But not anymore. These days, when you harass gay people,
it just puts the spotlight of suspicion on you.
So maybe you'd better mind your own business, unless you want
others to think that homosexuality is your business!
— A message from YOUR NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY [page 220].
2. THE REJECTION OF MORALITY
"The explicit, root-and-branch rejection of morality by gays has been real, pervasive, and baleful in its effect on both the quality of life that we create for ourselves within the community, and our p.r. with straights.
"... Once a youth has confronted his gayness, he has two choices. He can (1) accept the received values of conventional morality and hate himself, or (2) step outside the conventional way of looking at things, begin to think for himself and form his own values, realize that the Judeo-Christian prejudice against homosexuality is arbitrary, absurd, and evil, and, by rejecting it, replace his self-hatred with self-esteem" [NOTE: The authors first say that the rejection of morality has been "baleful," and then go on to give two false choices that preclude the possibility of living a moral life while struggling against our fallen nature].
"The necessity of lying is, for many, the first crack in the wall. It forces upon them the realization that morality isn't a take-it-or-leave-it monolith, but has parts, which are more or less arbitrary. If you needn't accept the part forbidding lying, then why should you necessarily accept the parts forbidding anything else? If accepting or rejecting the parts of morality is up to you, then accepting or rejecting the whole is up to you. And if such decisions are up to you, why pay attention to anyone else's morality at all?
"... Some gays, of course, can't decide what to think or do and oscillate between vicious behavior and churchgoing guilt. Often given to genuine altruism, and prey to veritable convulsions of piety, they swing with equal ease to the opposite pole and lie and cheat with abandon. Rather as with Roman Catholic mafiosi, the link connecting these behaviors is habit and sentiment: their religiosity has nothing to do with considered ethical standards, it just makes them feel good. Sometimes [pages 290 and 291].
'But That's a Value Judgment!'
"In short, many gays reject morality, offering any one of a variety of reasons, rational and emotional, for doing so. But there's a simpler, darker reason why many gays choose to live without morality: As ideologies go, amorality is damned convenient. And the mortal enemy of that convenience is the value judgment.
"When we first delved into the gay urban demimonde, we assumed that they held, if not our values, at least some values. We were quickly disabused of this notion. On several occasions, we were incautious enough to express, before a gay acquaintance, dismay at the selfish and hurtful behavior of third parties. Our friend's response was invariably the same: he'd clutch his drink, widen his eyes, flare his nostrils in grave disapproval, and exclaim, "But that's a value judgment! You can't say that!"
"We were staggered but edified. It quickly became clear to us that urban gays assumed a general consensus to the effect that everyone has the right to behave just as he pleases, and that no one must judge anyone else's behavior — a sort of perversion of the injunction to "judge not, lest ye be judged." The exception to this rule, of course, was everyone's right to judge swiftly and harshly anyone else's appeal to any system of morality. We were thought to be 'beyond all that archaic thinking.' Everyone was to decide what was 'right for him' — in effect, to make up the rules as he went along.
"Curiously enough, although gays talked as though this were a superior system, the rules they made up seemed remarkably self-serving. In fact, they boiled down to a single axiom: I can do whatever I want, and you can go to perdition. (If it feels good, I'll do it!)
"The upshot was inevitable. Nature, which abhors moral vacuums as much as any other, quickly filled this one with a toxic vapor of uninhibited pernicious impulses. If a gay man felt like 'dishing' a homely fellow guest at a party, he could be a cruel and hateful as he liked, and pass it off as 'an amusing manifestation of the gay sensibility.' If he felt like seducing a trusting friend's lover — thus conspiring in old-fashioned 'adultery' — he'd do it, justifying it as an act of 'sexual freedom' — and the friend be damned. If he felt that his cash would be more pleasurably spent on an alligator belt than on the alleviation of other people's problems — like AIDS — then an alligator belt it would be. (Without morality, there can be no compelling basis for responsibility to others.) If, ultimately, he felt like destroying himself with drugs and alcohol for the sake of temporary thrills, why then, down the hatch! All these misbehaviors, and many others equally endemic in the gay community, resulted in part from the rejection of morality, and will be discussed in their proper place.
"We found that in the gay press this doctrine had hardened into stone. Any and every aspect of the gay lifestyle — defined, apparently, as the sum total of whatever is, in fact, being done by all people who happen to be gay — was to be accepted, even embraced with open arms, however questionable it might seem to a dispassionate outsider. The more outrageous the behavior, the more it was to be seen as 'celebrating our unique sensibility and culture;' the less ethically defensible, the less one was to feel entitled to speak out against it, lest one be accused of attempting to resurrect that bugbear 'traditional morality.' Whatever objection one might make, and however well founded it might be, the counterattack was sure to be swift and stern, and to depend on the ready-made — and essentially unanswerable — ad hominem argument that gays who object to the gay lifestyle are actually incapable of accepting their own gayness and simply projecting their own self-hatred on the community around them" [pages 292 and 293].
I Have Everything I Want, Yet I Feel That Something Is Missing ...
"Ironically, many gays who abandon the traditional religions find that the religious impulse itself isn't so easily ignored. (What, after all, is the entire New Age phenomenon but urban humanity's response to the implosion of the organized religions?) ... What gay men want, without knowing it, is a return to a sense of the sacred, and a framework of ethics within which they can begin to trust and believe in one another" [page 294].
So Where's Our Beef?
"Rejecting morality leaves the apostate with no inarguable shoulds and shouldn'ts to constrain his behavior, and no guide to follow in controlling his own impulses but situational ethics. Situational ethics is undesirable because its adherents are tempted to rationalize their decision to do what they feel like doing anyway. What gays, like anyone else, feel like doing often includes lying; selfishness, self-indulgence, and self-destruction; cruelty; insult and injury; and adultery. ... Destruction without reconstruction won't go. Gays do the first part of their job, but not the second; using their newfound independence of though and evaluation to construct their own system of morality. Without such a conscientious effort, self-centered behaviour and self-indulgence become inevitable" [page 295].
"Unlike the majority of his straight counterparts, the stereotypical urban gay man has left his parents' family far behind, has no wife or family of his own to 'do' for, and, naturally enough, has an unusual amount of time, energy and disposable pin money to devote all to himself. ... Relatively few of them have the kind of major financial commitments that tie down most straights — supporting a wife and children, family health insurance, the children's education, a family-sized apartment or house, etc. Therefore, it stands to reason that, on average, gay men must have many times the discretionary income of straight men — each of whom himself disposes (at minimum) of several hundred dollars a year on nonessentials. Shall we say that the average employed gay man has at least $1,000 a year to spend on pure luxury? If so, they gay men in this country spend a good $7 billion per annum on themselves ... and that money is certainly in evidence. We don't have too many gay friends who don't dress well, eat well, drink well, drink well, and live well — a hefty share of them in apartments overdecorated to the bursting point with the proverbial Marikekko, chintz, deep-pile carpeting, track lighting, and hi-tech iridium-plated electronic gewgaws" [pages 298, 300 and 301].
'It's Our Orgy, and We'll Die If We Want To!'
"Of all the misbehaviors we decry, self-indulgence is perhaps most characteristic of gays, and of the gay community as a whole. Indeed, it was institutionalized, long ago, by the gay media and arbiters of Political Correctness, as a central tenet of gay liberation. (Remember the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence"?) In a community in which every gay wants to be 'p.c.-er than thou,' any self-restraint is, itself, suspect of being a sign of self-hatred and blue-nosery — so one virtually must act out one's most fleeing impulses in order to prove that one isn't a hung-up, judgmental old poop.
"These attitudes, combined with youth, energy, spare cash, and lust, flowered, in the 1970s, into the so-called fast-lane gay lifestyle. For a supposedly creative community, the results were hardly anything to be artistically proud of. Primarily urban, and centered around discotheques, bathhouses, and condo shares on Fire Island, the fast-lane lifestyle, for most, meant dressing in eccentric and sexually titillating clothing, traveling 'round and 'round the world, buying very expensive personal possessions, staying up to party as late, and long, and with as many people as possible, having as much, and as varied, sex as possible, and seeking out every new experience one could possibly find in order to press every harder upon the nerve of physical sensation. Except for the sex part, this is pretty much what one would expect if six-year-old boys were to take over the world" [pages 302 and 303].
"... As a matter of straightforward, practical observation, the fast-lane lifestyle leads to exhaustion and dissatisfaction, loudly expressed, by gays who feel that 'something is missing,' that their lives are 'empty' — as indeed they are: Of health; of peace of mind; of contentment; of love; of genuine interconnection with others. This lifestyle is unworkable, unnecessary, and devoid of the values that straight society, with such good reason, respects: Moderation and service" [pages 305 and 306].
—
Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear & Hatred of Gays in the 90's. [New York City: Plume Books], 1989 [NOTE: This book is an expansion of the article by Marshall K. Kirk and Erastes Pill entitled "The Overhauling of Straight America," published in the October and November 1987 issues of Guide Magazine].
Kirkendall, Lester (co-founder of the Sexuality Information and Educational Council of the United States (SIECUS))
"Sex education programs of the future will probe sexual expression with same-sex [partners] and even across generational lines. With a diminished sense of guilt, these patterns will become legitimate. The emphasis on normality and abnormality will be much diminished with these future trends."
—
Lester Kirkendall, co-founder of the Sexuality Information and Educational Council of the United States (SIECUS). "Sex Education in the Future." Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, Spring/Summer 1985.
"But as the rigid [sexual conduct] code relaxed, new concepts evolved. At the same time vocabulary was altered: Perversions became abnormalities, abnormalities became deviancies, deviancies became variations, variations became options, options became preferences, preferences became choices, and choices became life-enhancing experiences."
—
Lester A. Kirkendall and Michael E. Perry. "The Transition from Sex to Sensuality and Intimacy," in Lester A. Kirkendall and Arthur E. Gravatt (editors), Marriage and Family in the Year 2020 [New York City: Prometheus Books], 1984, page 161.
Kirkman, Alice L. (National Abortion Federation (NAF))
"Our media strategy is to project ourselves and our patients in the most positive way. Hence, we named our coalition of abortion providers the "Coalition to Protect Health Care" ... We salute the courage and bravery of women patients who endure this type of harassment and invasion of privacy ... Actually the experience has brought us more support than ever. These [rescuers] are bullies, who try to terrorize women patients. They seek coercion: they force others to bear children ... clinics should stay open for deterrence reasons ... to promulgate the appearance of being open during such anti-abortion campaigns."
—
Alice L. Kirkman, Public Affairs Director of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), in two 1988 memorandums. Quoted in "Abortionists Choose Media Words Carefully." American Family Association Journal, April 1989, page 19.
Kirstner, Robert (birth control pill developer)
"About ten years ago, I declared that the pill would not lead to promiscuity. Well, I was wrong. The birth control pill has been a major causal factor in the rapid increase in both V.D. and cervical cancer among adolescents by stimulating higher levels of promiscuity" [emphasis in original].
—
Dr. Robert Kirstner, Harvard Medical School, one of the original developers of the birth control pill. Quoted in Barret L. Mosbacker. Special Report: Teenage Pregnancy and School-Based Clinics. Washington, D.C.: Family Research Council, 1986, and "In Brief." ALL About Issues, June 1981, page 5.
Kissling, Frances (President, 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC))
"This kind of action by individual parish priests does not help reconcile Catholics with the Church. If this priest wants to deny sacraments to Catholics who have anything to do with family planning, then his parish church is going to be empty. ... There are probably more people who have a higher opinion of Planned Parenthood these days than have a high opinion of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly given the enormous sex scandals. It seems one can continue to be a priest and marry and officiate at weddings if one is an abuser of children, but one cannot be a Catholic woman and provide men and women with contraception and be treated by this Church with respect. ... These are matters of conscience. Catholics have a right to make a conscientious decision to participate in Planned Parenthood, in family planning activities even if they feel they are correct in the provision of abortion services, and be Catholics in good standing."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in "Church Cancels Wedding Over Bride's Politics: Medicine Hat Woman Works for Planned Parenthood." Thestar.com News, August 28, 2002, and in Julia Necheff. "Church Out of Step and Driving Members Away: Catholic Pro-Choice Advocate." Downloaded from the Web site of The Recorder & Times, Brockville, Ontario, Canada, on August 29, 2002 [NOTE: Kissling is referring to the situation caused by Celina Ling, the co-ordinator of volunteers for the Medicine Hat chapter of Planned Parenthood. Father David Meadows of St. Patrick's Church in Medicine Hat, Alberta, canceled her wedding when he learned that she worked for Planned Parenthood. Ling whined that "I was baptized, I went to Catholic school ... I feel just because I disagree with them that they're taking that out on my wedding. I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice"].
"As recently as 1974, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a definitive paper on abortion. While it condemned all abortions as immoral, it admitted that Church teaching is neither definitive nor unchanging on this subject."
—
Frances Kissling. "Opposition to Legal Abortion: Challenges and Questions." Planned Parenthood Challenges, 1993/1, pages 3 to 5.
"The assumption that the fetus is a person, currently a matter of lively debate in Catholic theological journals, is by no means a constant moral teaching. Even the Vatican Declaration on Procured Abortion, published in 1974, states that "there is not a unanimous tradition on this point, and authors are as yet not in agreement."
—
Frances Kissling. "Bishops and Abortion." Boston Globe, August 17, 1984.
"Since no bishop or pope — and I am reasonably sure that these authorities know who I am and what I believe — has chosen either to pronounce me excommunicated or declare that I have automatically excommunicated myself, I am confident that I remain in good standing with the Church.
"People already do what they feel is right, so in a sense there would be little change in behavior. We are Catholics, and we use contraception, we have abortions, we get AIDS and we need help. The Church is not listening, and it's not even a case of benign neglect. This is a case where we need a Church that speaks out to prevent these tragedies, and currently the Church contributes to them.
"Sometimes what I say to myself is that those of us who are Roman Catholic feminists, who work to change this institution, are actually providing it with the safety valve to continue to be an oppressive, patriarchal, evil institution. As for the people who come and tell me, "I'm so glad you're doing this because you make is possible for me to be a Catholic," I say to myself, "Maybe I shouldn't be making it possible for anyone." Because this institution is fatally flawed, and I might have more success in the Episcopalian church, where it's not quite so bad, but there are so few Episcopalians, it's not worth it.
"I do think that it [women's ordination] will be much longer in coming, perhaps forty or fifty years. First we need the married guys; then we need to get the sex stuff taken care of — then maybe there will be women priests. I hope that by the time the church is ready to ordain women priests, that we would have overturned the priesthood — that we would have a more egalitarian church. A church in which we are not talking about who is the priest, not talking about a permanent, elitist priesthood — but a more democratic model of church leadership."
—
Frances Kissling, quoted in an interview by the sex magazine Nerve and in Kathryn Jean Lopez. "Aborting the Church: Frances Kissling & Catholics for a Free Choice." Crisis Magazine, April 2002, pages 20 to 26.
"I've never felt that by taking money from someone indicates that we support them."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), when questioned about Playboy Magazine funding of CFFC. Quoted in "Playboy Funds Pro-Abortion Group." National Federation for Decency Journal, February 1985, page 16 [NOTE: Kissling also stated that CFFC would never accept money from Hustler magazine, because, as she put it, "There are boundaries of good taste"].
"What I am doing is not just dealing with the issue of abortion or reproduction, but with the structure of the Catholic Church. ...I do not agree with the Catholic Church's position on sexuality. Nor do I think there is any sense to the position in which a person who chooses not to marry is expected to lead a chaste life. ... I don't think God cares very much about our sexual activity. I think he cares about how we treat each other. ...
"That's [having children] not part of my personal life plan. [I used contraception] because I knew I didn't want to get pregnant. ... I would arrive at the [abortion] clinic at 8 o'clock in the morning and the parking lot would be filled with cars from Kentucky, Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, with young kids, boyfriends and girlfriends who drove all night because they didn't have any money or families. Most people I saw knew what they were doing. It was a hard [abortion] decision, but given their circumstances, it was the best decision they could make [NOTE: Notice how Kissling makes this blanket statement, as if none of the thousands of women who aborted in her abortion mill had made a decision that was not the "best"]. ... I felt that what we were doing [opening an illegal abortion mill in Rome] was correct, that abortion goes on whether it's legal or illegal. The question was what kind of abortion is a woman going to get. ...
"I don't consider myself in any way, shape or form pro-abortion. I think it depends on the circumstances. I think there are women who have been raped — they are few and far between — who would be better off carrying the pregnancy to term. I also think there are many, many reasons for which abortion is justified. ... I don't believe that God created me to bear children. I think that God had a whole other plan in mind for Frances Kissling. ...
"However, the fact that I value fetal life doesn't mean that the value of the fetus, is absolute, or that I value it in precisely the way as [a grown] women's life [NOTE: This is an understatement! Kissling and CFFC frequently talk on and on about the "value of fetal life," but this value never rises to the point that an abortion would not be justified. So this statement is pure window-dressing, meant to make her look compassionate]. ...
"The Catholic religion makes the fetus into an icon, a figure of religious veneration, which I think is sick, really sick. ... I'm challenging the boundaries of the pro-choice movement in the same way that I'm challenging the boundaries of the Church [NOTE: What nonsense! CFFC and Kissling relentlessly and directly attack Church teachings and call the bishops and even the Pope all kinds of filthy names — but they only gently chide the pro-abortion moveme
