Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

Risky Behaviors Cause Concern (Byrd. 2010).
In the June 2003 edition of the Journal of the American Public Health, health risks
associated with homosexual practices were highlighted. Bad news was reported in one article
after another. Dr. A. Dean Byrd, Vice President of NARTH, summarized these concerns .
Beryl A. Koblan and associates reported on alarming data from Boston, Chicago, Denver, New
York, San Francisco and Seattle involving HIV-negative homosexual men who reported
engaging in anal sex with one or more partners in the previous year. Among 4,295 men, 48%
reported unprotected receptive anal sex and 54.9% reported unprotected insertive anal sex.
Unprotected anal sex was significantly associated with drug and alcohol use.
A study by Daniel H. Ciccarone and associates indicated that sex without disclosure of HIV
status is common among persons living with HIV. Their study reported 45,300 gay or bisexual
men, 8,000 heterosexual men and 7,500 women who were HIV infected, were also engaging in
sex without disclosure of their HIV status.
David J. Malebranche reported on a US metropolitan study of six sites that reported 93%
of African American men who were HIV infected did not know they had the virus.
Malebranche’s study contradicted the view that ‘coming out’ is associated with better mental
health, responsible behavior and lower rates of HIV infection. African-American men who
disclosed their homosexuality had a higher HIV prevalence (24%) and engaged in more
unprotected anal sex (41%) than those who did not disclose (14% and 32% respectively).
In 1999, J. Michael Bailey commented on the research on homosexuality and mental illness
in the Archives of General Psychiatry. He concluded “Homosexual people are at a substantially
higher risk for some forms of emotional problems, including suicidality, major depression and
anxiety disorder”. This conclusion was corroborated by a large, well-conducted study from the
Netherlands that was published in Archives of Psychiatry, 2001. The Dutch society is recognized
as one of the most gay tolerant in the world. Yet the risk for mental illness by those engaging in
homosexuality is significantly higher than among heterosexuals in that country.
Dr. Byrd, in response to the above research, expressed concern that the authors failed to
conclude that ” homosexuality is neither innate nor immutable,” that” homosexual men and
women have a choice in how they respond to their attractions,” and “that homosexuality
represents an adaptation – not an identity.” Byrd criticized many of the authors for being
preoccupied with ‘homophobia’ without allowing room for other hypotheses. Byrd stated,
“Perhaps it is not homophobia but misquided activism that is responsible for the current health
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
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