http://www.danbymp.com/index.php?article=333

Good on Mr Danby for showing the guts to openly stand up to one of his senior colleagues on this matter. The sheer incompetence of Mr Garrett’s handling of this matter is bewildering. I believe he made a dreadful mistake. Now he should admit he was wrong and keep the Australian National Academy of Music open.

For those of you who are not aware, there is an online petition to keep the ANAM open:

http://www.petitiononline.com/saveanam/petition.html

I read your link btw, but think it just may be a beat up/misunderstanding by the AGE.
From what i can see the authors are not saying all people who are gay have what they term Gender disorientation pathology, just some people who are, do.
If thats the case, its a very important distinction.

“Gender disorientation pathology, as in the form of sexual addictions, is often a symptom of family dysfunction, personality disorder, father absence, health malfunction or sexual abuse,” the paper states.

From a psycho-analytical POV i have no prob with that statement any more than I would have about describing compulsive heterosexual promiscuity as a pathology at times (if i was one to pathologise things – which is debatable).

I happen to subscribe to the spectrum idea of human sexuality. Some people are polarised at either the straight or gay end, most of us are in between.

The number of lesbians i know who have experienced hetrosexual abuse in their formative years is striking, and some of these people are pretty messed up in a number of ways, including in their own subsequent parenting, lifestyle and substance abuse issues. I think it may be possible to say some people in this cohort may not be hard wired lesbian, had they not suffered past abuse at defining points in their development. Which is quite different to saying all people who are lesbians have experienced sexual violence, or that people who have experienced sexual violence are necessarily same sex attracted.

I think (without reading the paper – always dangerous i know) what the authors were possibly getting at is more along the lines of Sinead oConnor coming out as lesbian, then not, before her diagnosis of bi-polar disorder? Or those people who have had gender reassignment, then deeply deeply regretted it?

So i think it is possible to say that perhaps a number of people who are same sex attracted, are not biologically/genetically gay (if you subscribe to that idea) or actively choosing to be gay as a gender preference, but are acting out of a place of damage, which may not necessarily a healthy and constructive choice for them and their same sex experience in fact be may be symptomatic of dysfunction. I dont think that is the same as being a gay-hater is it?

However, that is absolutely NOT to say that it is necessarily different for hetrosexual relationships, and there is no doubt a larger number of people who find themselves in hetro relationships for a myriad of problematic and compulsive reasons, quite apart from what may be developmentally healthy for them. (Just watch Jerry Springer).

Am i gonna regret this comment?

Now as it happens, I don’t particularly like cats. Don’t hate them, just prefer not to share a bed with one. Is that evidence that I suffer from “furry feline attachment failure” {FFAF}?

He did an interesting speech in 2006 – Peacemaking for Christians in the 21st Century at one of the Anglican colleges as i recall – its on his webpage, as well as linked around different blogs. (Sorry i cant post the link here, as the site wont let me for some reason without sending me into the spaminator).

Speaking of Rudd, my daughter is getting the ‘Kevin Rudd award for LOTE’ (chinese) at her school next Monday. How cool!

I have been DEFORMED!…gads.
That was actually hannah’s dad @68, Liam.