Are Same-Sex Parents a Good Vote for Children?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
J. Michael Sharman
 
When Mark Foley was a thirteen year boy, the priest of the church where Foley was a parish school student and altar boy[1] took him on overnight trips, and joined him in nude saunas[2].
Despite admitting to "light touching" with Foley[3], the Rev. Anthony Mercieca (who is now retired and living on the resort <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />island of  Gozo in Malta) says there was nothing wrong or sexually inappropriate with his overnight trips and nude saunas with a young teenager. "Everybody does that," Mercieca said when  a reporter asked if that wasn't unusual behavior for a priest and a young boy. "I wonder why 40 years later he brought this up."[4]
Mark Foley is now staying in the treatment center he retreated to after revelations of his sexually explicit emails with teenage Congressional pages caused him to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Foley probably brought up his victimization by a priest 40 years ago because it is directly connected to his own sexual problems with teenage pages, says psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman.
"Mark Foley is 'identifying with the aggressor'. Because Foley felt helpless, ashamed, overpowered, and sexually stimulated as a young teen, when the priest seduced him, he has been unconsciously reenacting the same seduction scenario on his teen victims. The essence of pedophilia is the adult uses his power to psychologically or physically molest a child. Foley was doing the same thing." [5]
On Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 voters in eight states (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee Virginia, Wisconsin) will be deciding whether to ban homosexual marriages and civil partnerships. Supporters of legitimizing same-sex relationships say that homosexual couples should have the same rights as other couples to raise, foster and adopt children.
If they do, how many more Mark Foleys will we have 40 years from now?
What the voters need to keep in mind is that the issue on election day is not whether homosexuals can live with a same-sex partner, the issue is whether or not they can marry that partner. And "marriage is not primarily about adults," Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in an October 15th speech to support the marriage amendments, "marriage is about the nurturing and development of children."[6]
Ian Wathey and Craig Faunch  were the first homosexual couple in Yorkshire, England to be allowed to act as foster parents They had a civil partnership ceremony in May 2006. On June 23, 2006 they were both sentenced to prison for having sexual activity with the four foster care boys in their care, and having the children watch explicit homosexual pornography.
Judge Sally Cahill told the men when she sentenced them that they had been placed in a position of trust when they were allowed to foster, but that: "You abused that trust in respect of your victims most horribly. It is quite impossible to know what the long term effects will be."[7]
For many victims, one of the effects of Child Sexual Abuse is an increased likelihood that they will become a homosexual, and, unfortunately, like Mark Foley, that they may repeat the cycle of their abuse.
A research study done in 2001 said that while only about one in every twelve heterosexual men had been molested by a person of the same sex, nearly one in every two homosexual men were molested by a person of the same sex. For women, almost one in four homosexual women endured a same-sex molestation, but only one in a hundred heterosexual women reported being molested by a person of the same sex.[8]
The impact of this prior abuse history becomes even more serious in light of studies showing that males who have been sexually abused are more apt to act out aggressive, hostile behavior, and to victimize others, because they are, as Dr. Lieberman mentioned, identifying with the aggressor.[9]
When we cast our votes, we need to be very aware that homosexual parents are much, much more likely to sexually victimize their children than other couples.
Mark Foley suffered pain and caused pain. Let's not multiply the opportunities for that same pain to happen to millions more children.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[1] "Priest Admits to Relationship with Congressman", By MaltaMedia News, Oct 19, 2006

[2] "Priest Acknowledges He Went Naked with Foley as Boy Decades Ago", The Associated Press, October 19, 2006.

[3] "Priest Acknowledges Intimate Contact With Foley", Washington Post, October 19, 2006.

[4] "Priest Acknowledges He Went Naked with Foley as Boy Decades Ago", The Associated Press, October 19, 2006.

[5] "Foley: Pedophile, Ephebophile or Priest Molestation Victim?", http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=14213

[6] Anti-gay marriage activists rally in Boston Conservatives say same-sex unions threaten religious freedom, 10/19/2006, http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_4515348

[8] Marie E. Tomeo, Donald I. Templer, Susan Anderson, & Debra Kotler, "Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons," Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2001, Volume 30, Number 5, page 535.

[9] Jay P. Paul, Joseph Catania, Lance Pollack, & Ronald Stall, "Understanding childhood sexual abuse as a predictor of sexual risk-taking among men who have sex with men," Child Abuse and Neglect, 2001, Volume 25, page 559.