From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,ca.politics,ba.politics
Subject: The Mother of All Flame Wars, Part 2 of 4
Date: 5 Oct 92 16:00:28 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA


The Results of Childhood Sexual Abuse
-------------------------------------

Identifying With The Abuser

What are the consequences of childhood sexual abuse?  One sur-
prising result is "traumatic bonding," similar to the well-known
"Stockholm Syndrome," where hostages over time sometimes develop
a sense of identity with the terrorist:

    The final component of victimology we note is that of 
    traumatic bonding, described by Don Dutton and Susan Painter
    (1982).  This refers to the development of strong emotional
    attachment under conditions of intermittent maltreatment.
    Experiments with dogs showed that those who were treated
    intermittently with indulgence and punishment showed higher
    degrees of bonding than dogs who had been consistently 
    either indulged, punished, or isolated....

    This explains the strong attachments many abused children
    have for their parents (Kempe and Kempe 1978) and the 
    tendency of many sexual abuse victims to deny their own
    hurt in sympathetic understanding of their abuser.[Bagley &
    King, 109-110]

We should not be surprised at the number of net.homosexuals who
have related accounts of molestation by adults, and who insist
vigorously that THEY were the aggressor, not the adult, and that
the experience of being used by an adult as a sexual plaything 
at 12 was a positive experience.


Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are also a common nonsexual response to 
childhood sexual abuse.[Bagley & King, 114, 117, Faller, 150,
Everstine & Everstine, 18]  Significantly, soc.motss is a group
where many members identify themselves as "bears" (overweight
and hairy) as distinguished from "twinks" (those with more
normal body shapes).


Promiscuity

Not surprisingly, a child's sexuality frequently becomes severely
distorted by the experience of molestation, with all three sources
agreeing that "Children so traumatized may cope by becoming
promiscuous or developing an aversion to sex.  Each type of
reaction represents a failure to develop normal sexual relation-
ships."[Bagley & King, 115, 119, Faller, 147-148]  This promiscuity
"frequently represents a lack of inhibition against and sometimes
a compulsion toward sexual behavior of all sorts, including
sexual abuse."[Faller, 209]

    We have observed that some persons (men as well as women)
    who are promiscuous or who appear to be unable to "attach"
    by establishing trusting love relationships may have been 
    victimized as children.  These people may easily involve
    themselves in sexual encounters with strangers, but have
    tremendous difficulty in forming and maintaining healthy
    partnerships.  They may enter therapy with the complaint
    that they feel adrift and alienated from life.  Many appear
    socially adept but in fact lead solitary lives, devoid of
    close ties or committments.[Everstine & Everstine, 153-154]

Of course, the resemblance to the gay bath house, sex club,
gay bar scene, and public restroom activities of homosexuals
should be obvious.  How typical are these stereotypical behaviors?
Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny include a table titled, "Sexual
Partners Among Homosexuals."  The results of the survey are
fascinating, and nicely dovetail with reading soc.motss:

                         Homosexual Males           Homosexual Females
                         White  Black               White   Black
                         N=574  N=111               N=227   N=64
    Lifetime number of
    homosexual partners  
      1                      0%      0%              3%      5%
      2                      0       0               9       5
      3-4                    1       2              15      14
      5-9                    2       4              31      30
      10-14                  3       5              16       9
      15-24                  3       6              10      16
      25-49                  8       6               8      11
      50-99                  9      18               5       8
      100-249               15      15               1       2
      250-499               17      11               1       2
      500-999               15      14               0       0
      1000 or more          28      19               0       0

    Proportion of partners
    who were strangers
      None                   1%      5%             62%     56%
      Half or less          20      43              32      38
      More than half        79      51               6       6

    Proportion of partners
    with whom sexual activity
    occurred only once
      None                   1%      4%             38%     41%
      Half or less          29      59              51      55
      More than half        70      38              12       5
    [Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny, 404]

Read this chart carefully.  More than half of the white male
homosexuals had 250 or more lifetime homosexual partners, as did
44% of the black male homosexuals.  Just like the rest of us?
How many heterosexuals do you know that have 250 different
sexual partners in one lifetime?  How many do you know with 1000
or more?

Note that these aren't close, loving relationships of relatively
short duration -- majorities of both black and white male homosexuals
had more than have of their sexual relationships with strangers.
The number of partners with whom sexual activity "occurred only
once" is really astonishing.  Long-term, emotionally satisfying
relationships?  Don't let this lie continue to be told.  There may
be homosexuals for whom this true, but it would appear that they
are very few and far between.

The female homosexuals figures are considerably closer to self-
restraint -- which may be one of the explanations for their 
relatively low levels of AIDS infection.


Powerlessness

Bagley & King describe one traumatic effect of childhood sexual
abuse as a sense of powerlessness[Bagley & King, 115-116] -- 
which certainly describes the continual whining in soc.motss
about being an oppressed minority in a heterosexist world.


Self-Mutilation & Piercing

Both Bagley/King and Faller mention self-multilation as a response
of childhood sexual abuse victims.[Bagley & King, 117, Faller, 152,
306]  The obvious parallel to "piercings," in which homosexuals
(though not exclusively homosexuals) have nipples (male and
female), scrotums, and the labia pierced, should be obvious.  As
a female victim of childhood sexual abuse who had taken to burning
herself with cigarettes and pulling out her hair told my wife, 
"It's a different kind of pain.  It takes your mind off the other
things that hurt."


Chemical Dependency

Alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse are repeatedly
mentioned by all three sources, as a method of deadening the
pain of childhood sexual abuse.[Bagley & King, 117, Faller, 103,
152, 306-307, Everstine & Everstine, 153]

I'm reluctant to quote secondary sources (especially postings), 
but I have been unable to locate the original documents, and
while Arthur Hu received substantial namecalling and insults,
I don't recall anyone questioning the validity of the data
presented:

    The taboo on criticizing lifestyles means that means you
    can't explain about massive numbers of sexual partners, or
    the unhealthy level of drug and alcohol use, which was well
    documented in a recent report for the Lesbian & Gay
    Substance Abuse Planning Group in San Francisco. [EMT] The
    report got just the barest 2 inch mini-article in the
    Chronicle, and was extremely difficult to track down even
    after calling the San Francisco AIDS office.
    
    The study found that while some earlier studies may have
    exaggerated the degree of drug use among gays, one quarter
    of gays were recovering from alcohol or drug use. 33 to 42
    percent of lesbians and gays were using drugs and alcohol at
    dangerous levels, much higher than the general population.
    
    In addition a strong link was established between combined
    sex and drug use and unsafe sex practices, even without IV
    drug use. Though Kaposi's Sarcoma is a skin condition
    commonly associated with AIDS, it is most probably caused by
    use of nitrate inhalants, often used by gays during sex.
    [EMTC p. 42]  One quarter of gay men and half of lesbian
    women had been sexually abused as children.

    EMT: San Francisco Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Substance Abuse
    Needs Assessment, Executive Summary(A), Anonymous Survey(B),
    and A Review of the Literature(C). Prepared for the Lesbian
    & Gay Substance Abuse Planning Group, San Francisco by EMT
    associates, 3090 Fite Circle, Suite 201, Sacramento CA
    95827. Contact San Francisco Department of Public Health,
    Community Substance Abuse Services, 130 Howard Street, Suite
    400, San Francisco CA 94103 (free)
	[Arthur Hu, Arthur_T_Hu@cup.portal.com, <50357@cup.portal.com>]

As you can see, a lot of homosexuals not only have chemical
dependencies, but were sexually abused as kids -- more than
you would expect, if there were no connection between their 
sexual abuse, and their current behavior.

Hyde also confirms the use of amyl nitrate by homosexuals as
an aphrodisiac, and because it relaxes the anal sphincter muscles
to allow sodomy.[Hyde, 242-243]


Suicide

The high rate of suicide among homosexual teenagers has long 
been shown as "evidence" that the heterosexism of our society
is destructive.  But a characteristic of childhood sexual abuse
victims is abnormally high levels of suicide attempts and 
successes.[Bagley & King, 121, 123, 141-142, Faller, 152, 306-307, 
Everstine & Everstine, 13, 153]  Perhaps homosexuality isn't
the reason for the suicides, but both are symptoms of the same
underlying pain?


Interesting Parallels

As should be obvious from the list of symptoms described
above, there is some astonishing parallelism between the char-
acteristics of childhood sexual abuse victims, and homosexuals.
Perhaps the most interesting of all is Faller's description of
the characteristics of child molesters:

    A fourth and related pattern to look for in evaluation is
    unusual or bizarre sexual practices.  Sometimes these are
    encounters in which the perpetrator is very regressed.
    Other times they are patterns of sexual deviation such as
    transvestism, sadistic or masochistic activities, copro-
    philia and coprophagia, zoophilia, fetishism, or certain
    kinds of homosexual encounters.[Faller, 212]

Why, that's just a normal month in soc.motss!  Some of you may
recall the postings there discussing what parts of the human anatomy
they would like changed to an animal part, to make sex more 
"interesting."[George Dalton Madison, Furr@cup.portal.com,
<56410@cup.portal.com>, Mark Manning, mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov,
<1992Mar27.203415.23453@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>]

What are these deviant sexual behaviors called?  Masters, Johnson,
& Kolodny define these as "paraphilias": 

    Recurrent, intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies 
    usually involving either (1) nonhuman objects, (2) the suffering 
    or humilation of oneself or one's partner, or (3) children or 
    other nonconsenting persons.[Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny, 418]

"[V]irtually all the paraphilias have their origins in a person's 
early sexual history."[Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny, 426]  This also 
fits in with my hypothesis that homosexuality is a result of childhood
sexual abuse -- and the connection of dominance, pain, suffering,
and the various fetishs, to an adult dominating a child, causing 
pain in connection with the sexual organs, or tying a child up,
should be obvious.


Differences In Response Between Men & Women

"So why don't lesbians go molest little girls?  Huh?  Huh?"
is the usual response of the homosexual community.  The answer
is straightforward:

    Halliday (1985) identifies migraine headaches, back problems,
    stomach problems, infections (27 per cent of her sample
    had hysterectomies because of infections), anorexia, obesity,
    asthma (especially among male victims of oral sex), epilepsy,
    multiple personality, addictions, severe depression, self-
    multilation, and increased acceptance of pain, as long-
    term sequels.  She found that male victims tend to be more
    aggressive or externalizing of their distress, while females
    tend to be more internalizing and self-destructive.[Bagley
    & King, 119; also see Everstine & Everstine, 387]


"I've Always Been Gay"

This claim is made frequently -- one email correspondent related
getting started having sex at seven, and suggested that homosexuals
just get started younger than straight people.  The parallel
to molested children expressing a precocious knowledge or interest
in sex is obvious -- but can we trust the claim, "I've always been
gay"?  In spite of Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny being so very 
Politically Correct about homosexuality, they discount this claim:

    Some homosexuals say that they were aware of being gay as early
    as age five or six, while others don't make the discovery until 
	sometime in adulthood.  However, it is not very likely that the 
	young child has a real sense of homosexual orientation.  The 
	sense of being "different" during childhood that some homosexuals 
	recall as adults is not always an accurate barometer of later 
	sexual orientation, since many "straight" adults also feel 
	"different" as children.  Furthermore, adult recollections of 
	childhood feelings and behaviors may possibly be influenced 
	by social expectations of what homosexuals "should" have felt 
	(Ross, 1980).[Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny, 399]



-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Lesson learned from Gov. Wilson's signing of AB 2601: if you don't get 
your way, have a riot.  Next time, Gov. Wilson will cower appropriately.
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:49151 alt.politics.perot:1790 alt.politics.elections:14958