It's interesting to note that the letters calling for my head on a platter do in no way represent the mainstream thinking. I have spoken to many people from all walks of life this past week on this very subject. While some found amusing the 'knee jerk response' to myself daring to think and even write something contrary to popular GLBT propaganda that so proliferates in all the media, most just want to live their own lives and not have to be subjected to constant 'down your throat' coverage of every aspect of this lifestyle in all of the media outlets.

I would also like to remind readers that the tone of my letter was not an incitement to hatred of the dear souls that have become entangled in the GBLT lifestyle, but rather a warning of the incredible risks (physical and mental) that go hand in hand with it.

On the other hand the tone of the letters from those that have the opposite opinion is full of hatred and ire against myself! This seems strange for a section of society that wants everyone to have the freedom to express themselves in any way they desire - as long as you don't disagree with them. Come on now, you can't have it both ways!

God does have compassion but this is a real compassion - not the shallow 'do what ever you want I will accept you anyway compassion'. A compassion that warns of the dangers and consequences of a lifestyle or course of action, that provides all the information and allows the soul to make up their own (fully informed) mind.

As to religion being a vehicle for social control, this writer is absolutely right. I do not subscribe to man's way of getting to God (religion). I am interested in God's way of getting to man - Christianity!

I am amused at the double standards that so proliferate in the lives and minds of those in the GBLT lifestyle. We are to embrace the diversity in the modern world, but seemingly only as long as it doesn't include God's word or those that believe in it.

There's a lot of research over the past few decades which speaks of the risks and problems associated with the GBLT lifestyle.

Health problems

According to a study in the Netherlands where homosexuality has been accepted and mainstreamed for years, homosexual behavior significantly increases the likelihood of psychiatric, mental and emotional disorders, negating the mindset that society's lack of tolerance of homosexual behavior and lifestyle produces these psychoses. Youth are four times as likely to suffer major depression, almost three times as likely to suffer generalized anxiety disorder, nearly four times as likely to experience conduct disorder, four times as likely to commit suicide, five times as likely to have nicotine dependence, six times as likely to suffer multiple disorders, and more than six times as likely to have attempted suicide. (Study of 5,998 Dutch adults) Theo G.M. Sandforte et al., "Same-Sex Sexual Behavior and Psychiatric Disorders: Findings from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence," Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 10 (2001): 85-91.

A co-twin study found that men with same-sex partners were 6.5 times as likely as their cotwin to have attempted suicide. The higher rate was not explained by mental health or substance abuse disorders. R. Herrell et al., "A Co-twin Control Study in Adult Men," Archives of General Psychiatry 56, 10 (1999): 867- 874.

Researchers found "an elevated suicide risk for homosexuals" even in tolerant Denmark. Ping Qin, Esben Agerbo, and Preben Bo Mortensen, "Suicide Risk in Relation to Socioeconomic, Demographic, Psychiatric, and Familial Factors: A National Register-Based Study of All Suicides in Denmark, 1981-1997." American Journal of Psychiatry 160 (2003): 765-772.

A study by Harvard Medical School of 4,159 high school students (grades 9-12) found that "GLB youth report disproportionate risk for a variety of health risk and problem behaviors. engage(ing] in twice the mean number of risk behaviors as did the overall population." More than 30 health risks and problem behaviours were identified, including an increased use of cocaine and other illegal drugs, use of tobacco, marijuana, and cocaine before age 13, sexual intercourse before age 13, and sexual intercourse with four or more partners. R. Garofalo et al., "The Association Between Health Risk Behaviors and Sexual Orientation Among a School-based Sample of Adolescents," Pediatrics 101, 5 (May 1998): 895-902.

Homosexual or bisexual teenagers are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide as their heterosexual peers. R. Garofalo et al., "Sexual Orientation and Risk of Suicide Attempts Among a Representative Sample of Youth," Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 153 (1999): 487-493.

Psychological health problems including multiple drug use, partner violence, history of childhood sexual abuse, and depression interface to sharply increase high-risk sexual behaviour and HIV infection rates among homosexual and bisexual men in the U.S. L. Linley, R. Stall, and G. Mansergh, "New CDC Studies Shed Light on Facts Underlying High HIV Infection Rates Among Gay and Bisexual Men," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9 July 2002, (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r020710.htm).

Epidemiologists estimate that one out of two men who have sex with men will eventually become HIV positive. Men who begin to engage in sex with men at an earlier age are more likely to become HIV positive and to become HIV positive earlier. N. Hessol et al., "Prevalence, incidence and progression of human immunodeficiency virus infection in homosexual and bisexual men in hepatitis B vaccine trials, 1978-1988," American Journal of Epidemiology 130, 6 (1989): 1167-1175. D. Hoover et al., "Estimating the 1978-1990 and future spread of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in subgroups of homosexual men," American Journal of Epidemiology 134, 10 (1991): 1190-1205. M. Morris and L. Dean, "Effects of sexual behavior change on long-term human immunodeficiency virus prevalence among homosexual men," American Journal of Epidemiology 140, 3 (1994): 217-232.

HIV/AIDS is rampant in the homosexual community. Epidemiologists estimate that 30 percent of all 20-year-old homosexually-active men will be HIV positive or dead of AIDS by the time they are 30. E. Goldman, "Psychological Factors Generate HIV Resurgence in Young Gay Men," Clinical Psychiatry News, Oct. 1994.

HIV infection rates more than doubled from 1997 to 2000 as safe-sex practices were abandoned. In Los Angeles and five other major cities, one in ten young homosexual or bisexual men is infected with HIV. "L.A. Studies Show Increase in Risky Sex by Gay men," Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 2001.

Among homosexual African Americans, the HIV infection rate is one out of three. "Young Gay Black Men Suffer High HIV Rates," Associated Press, 6 Feb. 2001.

Domestic violence

A U.S. Justice Department study found an epidemic of violence between homosexuals: an annual average of 13,740 male victims of violence by homosexual partners and 16,900 victims by lesbian partners. Callie Maire Rennison, "Intimate Partner violence and Age of Victim, 1993-99," Bureau of Justice Statistics: Special Report, Oct. 2001, (http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub /pdf/ipva99.pdf). By contrast, the 1999 statistics for hate crimes based on sexual orientation totaled 1,558 victims. Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Federal Bureau of Investigation, (www.fbi.gov/ucrucr.htm).

A survey of 1,099 lesbians found that more than half reported that they had been abused by a female lover/partner. This includes verbal, emotional, psychological, and physical abuse. Gwat Yong Lie and Sabrina Gentlewarrier, "Intimate Violence in Lesbian Relationships: Discussion of Survey Findings and Practice Implications," Journal of Social Service Research 15 (1991):

41-59. Researchers found that 90 percent of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to this study, with 31 percent reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse. Lettie L. Lockhart et al., "Letting out the Secret: Violence in Lesbian Relationships," Journal of Interpersonal Violence 9 (December 1994): 469-492.

Among lesbians, "rates of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse were all significantly higher in their prior lesbian relationships than in their prior heterosexual relationships: 56.8 percent had been sexually victimized by a female, 45 percent had experienced physical aggression, and 64.5 percent experienced physical/emotional aggression." (A 1991 survey of 350 lesbians, 75 percent of whom had been in a previous relationship with a man.) Donald G. Dutton "Patriarchy and Wife Assault: The Ecological Fallacy," Violence and Victims 9, 2 (1994): 167-178.

Women are four times more likely to be victims of domestic violence in a lesbian household than in a married household. Claire Renzetti, Violent Betrayal (London: SAGE, 1995). Married women in traditional families experience the lowest rate of violence compared with women in other types of relationships. "Violence Between Intimates," Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings, (Nov. 1994): 2.

The incidence of domestic violence among homosexual men is nearly double that in the heterosexual population. D. Island and P. Letellier, Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them: Battered Gay Men and Domestic Violence (New York: Haworth Press, 1991), 14.

Relationship violence was found to be a significant problem for homosexuals. Forty-four percent of the gay men reported having experienced violence in their relationships; 13 percent reported sexual violence and 83 percent reported emotional abuse. Levels of abuse ran even higher among lesbians: 55 percent reported physical violence in their relationships, 14 percent reported sexual abuse, and 84 percent reported emotional abuse. (Study of 499 ethnically diverse homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered teenagers and adults) Susan C. Turrell, "A Descriptive Analysis of Same-Sex Relationship Violence for a Diverse Sample," Journal of Family Violence 13 (2000): 281-293.

Genetics & Homosexuality

Research studies on homosexuality by Drs. Dean Hamer, Michael Bailey, Richard Pillard, Simon LeVay, Laura Allen, and Roger Gorski have failed to show proof of a gay gene. There is no scientific evidence that shows that homosexuality is genetic. The media has sensationalized and perpetuated the myth of a homosexual gene. Jeffrey Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,1996).

Dr. Simon LeVay's research (1991) centered on finding the difference between homosexual and heterosexual brains. The brains studied were from 41 cadavers; 26 of these from people who had died from AIDS related diseases. What may have been measured was nothing more than the effect of AIDS upon the brain. LeVay admitted: "My study doesn't actually even address whether one is 'born that way.'" Simon LeVay, "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men," Science 253 (1991): 1034- 1037; Quote from Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Winter 1997.

In the Bailey/Pillard study, 52 percent of the identical twin brothers were homosexual; 22 percent of the fraternal twin brothers and 11 percent of the adoptive brothers were homosexual. If sexual orientation is genetic, then each set of identical twins, which both possess identical DNA, would share an "orientation" much closer to 100 percent of the time. What the Bailey/Pillard study actually proves is that homosexuality is not purely genetic. J. Bailey and R. Pillard, "A genetic study of male sexual orientation," Archives of General Psychiatry 48 (1991): 1089-1096.

In 1993 Dr. Dean Hamer announced to the world that Xq28, found on the maternal X chromosome, is the genetic address for the newly discovered GAY-1 gene. Hamer also found that 18 percent of the homosexuals he studied did not inherit that same portion of the Xq28, nor could Hamer identify any kind of sequencing in that region whatsoever. The numbers studied (40 families that included at least two homosexual brothers) were so small and the means of determining who was homosexual so unreliable that the results cannot be said to have "proved" anything. The results of subsequent studies casting doubt on the Hamer study have not received the same amount of attention in the media. Dean H. Hamer et al., "A Linkage Between DNA Markers on the X Chromosome and Male Sexual Orientation," Science 261 (1993): 321-327.

The homosexual advocacy group PFLAG ("Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays") acknowledges that there is not a "gay gene": "To date, no researcher has claimed that genes can determine sexual orientation. At best, researchers believe that there may be a genetic component. No human behavior, let alone sexual behavior, has been connected to genetic markers to date...sexuality, like every other behavior, is undoubtedly influenced by both biological and societal factors." "Why Ask Why," Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Pamphlet addressing research on Homosexuality and Biology.

"Like all complex behavioral and mental states, homosexuality is neither exclusively biological nor exclusively psychological, but results from an as-yet-difficult-to quantitate mixture of some genetic factors, intrauterine influences, postnatal environment (such as parents, siblings and cultural behavior), and a complex series of repeatedly reinforced choices occurring at critical phases of development."

Jeffrey Satinover, "The Gay Gene?" The Journal of Human Sexuality (1996), (http://www.leaderu.com/jhs/satinover.html).

Homosexuality is probably caused by multiple factors. Genetic and pre-natal hormonal influences may predispose or place people at greater risk for developing homosexual attractions. However, current research indicates that post-natal environmental influences must also be present in order for the homosexual attractions to be manifested. Some environmental and psychological factors that may play a causal role in the development of homosexuality include: (1) cross-gender, effeminate behaviour in childhood, (2) gender-identity deficits, (3) hostile, detached, or absent fathers (which leads to "defensive detachment" from the father and other males), and (4) overly close, controlling or dominating mothers. P. Scott Richards, "The Treatment of Homosexuality: Some Historical, Contemporary, and Personal Perspectives," AMCAP Journal 19, 1 (1993): 36.

"The removal of homosexuality from the DSM 2 (American Psychiatric Association) was all the more remarkable when one considers that it involved the out-of-hand and peremptory disregard and dismissal not only of hundreds of psychiatric and psychoanalytic research papers and reports but also of a number of other serious studies by groups of psychologists, psychiatrists, and educators over the past 70 years. It was a disheartening attack upon psychiatric research and a blow to many homosexuals who looked to psychiatry for more help, not less." P. Scott Richards, "The Treatment of Homosexuality: Some Historical, Contemporary, and Personal Perspectives," AMCAP Journal 19, 1 (1993).

Incidence of Homosexual Behaviour

A study of the sexual behavior of men in the United States based on the National Survey of Men (a nationally representative sample comprised of 3,321 men aged 20-30), found that "2 percent of sexually active men aged twenty to thirty-nine . . . had had any same-gender sexual activity during the last ten years. Approximately 1 percent of the men (1.3 percent among whites and 0.2 percent among blacks) reported having had exclusively homosexual activity." John O. G. Billy et al., "The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States," Family Planning Perspectives 25 (March/April 1993): 58.

Studies indicate that homosexuals comprise between 1 to 3 percent of the population. R. Herrel et al., "A Co-twin Control Study in Adult Men" Archives of General Psychiatry 56, 10 (1999): 867-874. Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). John O. G. Billy et al., "The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States," Family Planning Perspectives 25 (March/April 1993): 58. Milton Diamond, "Homosexuality and Bisexuality in Different Populations," Archives of Sexual Behavior 22 (1993): 300. J. Gordon Muir, "Homosexuals and the Ten percent Fallacy," Wall Street Journal, 31 March 1993.

Contrary to estimates claiming that 10 percent of the American male population is homosexual, only "a very small number" of respondents reported that they were homosexual or bisexual. "Ninety-eight percent of the sample reported that they were heterosexual." Barbara C. Leigh, "The Sexual Behavior of U.S. Adults: Results from a National Survey,"

American Journal of Public Health 83 (1993): 1400-1406.

In a survey of studies on homosexuals in different populations, the Archives of Sexual Behavior reported a random sample of Hawaii state residents interviewed by telephone. The study found "just about 3 percent of males and 1.2 percent of females as having engaged in same-sex or bisexual activity." Milton Diamond, "Homosexuality and Bisexuality in Different Populations," Archives of Sexual Behavior 22 (1993): 300.

The percentage of men claiming to be homosexual is far less than Alfred Kinsey's 1948 claims that 10 percent of American males were homosexual and that 37 percent of men had some homosexual experience during their life. The National Survey of Men reports that "2.3 percent of men, age 20-39, have had 'same gender sexual activity' during the preceding ten years" and that "1.1 percent have had such activity exclusively." In addition, the "majority of men who have had homosexual contact report that such contact occurred 'once, twice, or rarely' for less than 2 years." Stuart H. Seidman and Ronald O. Reider, "A Review of Sexual Behavior in the United States," The American Journal of Psychiatry 151 (1994): 330-339.

Two percent of the sexually active men (aged 20 to 39) reported some homosexual activity within the previous 10 years. 1 percent reported sexual activity that was exclusively homosexual during that time period. (3,321 men, 1991) John O. G. Billy et al., "The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States," Family Planning Perspectives 25 (1993): 52-60.

A coalition of 31 leading pro-homosexual activist groups submitted a friend of the court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Lawrence v. Texas case in 2003, claiming that 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 percent of women are homosexual.

"Homosexual Groups Back Off From "10 Percent" Myth, but Still Exaggerate Numbers," Culture Facts, 4 April 2003, (http://www.frc.org/get/cu03d1.cfm).



I trust these will be of use.

Lastly I would like to address the claims that it is because of the things which I believe and preach that discrimination and hatred has been levelled against those in the GBLT lifestyle.

The Word of God many time condemns all sexual practises outside of marriage between a man and a woman - in some cases in the old testament even calling for the death penalty.

The sexual practises pursued by those in the GBLT lifestyle are quite explicity mentioned in Old and New Testament and called Sin!( Romans 1:24-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) The Bible calls the indulgence of our natural sexual urges (David O'Reilly) outside of marriage between a man and woman sin.

But what many today fail (quite conveniently it seems) to remember is that Christ Jesus came into the world to fulfil the payment required by this and every other sin.

He did not abolish these Old Testament teachings - he fulfilled them all. (Matthew 5:17) He suffered death on the cross for us so that we would not have to suffer eternal punishment in Hell and the Lake of fire for our sins.

In closing I would like to re iterate that I am not your enemy because I tell you the truth - even if it is hurtful and I wish there was a way that it wasn't - the real enemies to every soul that is tempted down the homosexual/lesbian road are those that fill their minds with propaganda and don't warn of the things already mentioned. That never tell of the incredible risk to mind and body because of going against what the manufacturer (God) says in His manual (the Bible)

These truths of the Word of God (not a religious institution) have held societies together for thousands of years and it is only when they are abandoned that individuals, families and societies fall into ruin (like right now).

Finally there is a man I know that is looking for a lifelong, fulfilling, satisfactory, and peaceful relationship with any man or woman- His name is Jesus Christ and all those that come to Him shall be saved.

Yours,

Pastor Mark Bradfield