AMERICAblog reader RickBoston alerted us to this actual content from the Web site of the extremist gay-hating organization Focus on the Family:
Dr. Dobson's Newsletter: June, 2002I'll bet you were.
Can Homosexuality Be Treated and Prevented?
Dear Friends:
Chapter 9 of my latest book, Bringing Up Boys, provides a definitive explanation, I believe, regarding the origins of homosexuality. Let me quote the following excerpts, which should be of extreme importance to every parent who is raising one or more boys. I pray that this discussion will be helpful in that context.... The letter that begins this excerpt contains some disturbing expressions from a 13-year-old boy. Please read with discretion.
The Origins of Homosexuality
A few years ago, I received the following scribbled note from a very troubled youth. He wrote:Dear Dr. Dobson:I was deeply touched by Mark's letter.
I've been putting this off for a long time so I'm finally writing you a letter. I am a thirteen year old boy. I have listened to your tapes [Preparing for Adolescence] but not the complete set. I did listen to the one on sex though.
Getting to the point, I don't know if I have a serious problem or a passing? (I don't know the word for it). All through my life (very short) I have acted and look much more like a girl than a boy. When I was little, I would always wear finger nail polish, dresses, and the sort. I also had an older cousin who would take us (little cousins) into his room and show us his genitals. I'm afraid I have a little sodomy in me. It was very hard for me to write what I just did. I don't want to be homosexual but I'm afraid, very afraid. That was hard to write too. Let me explain further.
Through my higher grades in school (I'm in seventh grade) kids have always called me names (gay, fag etc.), and made fun of me. It's been hard. I have masturbated (I guess) but gone too far. When I was little (not that little) I tried to more than once to suck my own penis (to be frank). That sounds very bad and looks even worse to read it. I pray that nothing is wrong with me.
Very recently I have done such acts as looking (maybe lusting, I pray so hard that I wasn't) at myself in skimpy underwear. Whenever I wear it I feel a like sexual sensation. Yesterday in the bathroom (in front of the mirror), I wiggled my body very rapidly, making my genitals bounce up and down. I get a little bit of that feeling mentioned above as I write this. After I did this, I immediately asked forgiveness of God, went in the shower but did it again there....
I'm afraid if I am not straight (that's much easier to write) I will go to hell. I don't want to be not straight. I don't try to be not straight. I love God and want to go to heaven. If something is wrong with me, I want to get rid of it.
Please help me.
Mark
Then we learn the following lesson on how to keep your son from becoming a homosexual - Dobson quotes an anti-gay "doctor" who says he"cures" gay people:
Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.
