Dear Editor,
I refer to the letter by Vidyaratha Kissoon captioned ‘Colonial homophobia’ (SN, May 4) and would appreciate the opportunity to comment.
Mr Kissoon’s vapid treatment of Gaiutra Bahadur’s fishing expedition is as mesmerizing as it is insufficient. We are again faced with the necessary task of bring focus, fact, truth, detail and evidence to the ongoing debate. What Mr Kissoon calls “homophobia” the CDC calls “very necessary medical and scientific awareness.”
Mr Kissoon’s are tired arguments, and now Gaiutra Bahadur is being used and abused in a process which we had thought was already settled via the online article ‘Universal Periodic Review: Open letter to Guyana’s Parliamentarians September 2010 (Up-dated)).’ The evidence remains undisputed.
Mr Abu Bakr had previously addressed via letter to SN debunking Mr Kissoon’s premise that a negative reaction to homosexuality stems from “colonial prejudice.” We had considered more practical, and thereby less speculative, reasons why the Surgeon Superintendent may have reacted the way he did in the online summaries ‘Christopher Carrico, Collateral Damage, and Britain: Feeding the Beast of Deception on Gay Rights’ and ‘Same-Sex Lifestyles: Is Ralph Ramkarran out to Embarrass Guyana’s PPP & Donald Ramotar…?’
Yet again, we had pointed the Special Select Committee, in 2013, to a very lucid presentation by Dr Charles Socarides on the factual details of a “gay rights” hoax of stupendous proportions in the online article ‘Sexual Politics and Scientific Logic: The Issue of Homosexuality.’ (Gaiutra Bahadur will not research this article any time soon!)
Dr Jeffrey Satinover at Table 7 in his acclaimed book Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth points to 15 different outcome studies that have shown measurable and extensive success in the treatment of persons affected with same-sex-attraction-disorders, but Ms Bahadur will not research these any time soon, nor will she assess what the ‘Surgeon General’ (as distinct from the ‘Surgeon Superintendent’ on her fishing boat) has offered on the issue in the online article ‘The Case Against Pancap and the Decriminalization of Homosexuality.’
We can easily conclude that perhaps what really matters are the facts, and truth, detail and evidence that relates to the ‘modern age’ rather than Mr Kissoon’s “colonial” obsession and his hapless regurgitation of such trivia.
What, exactly, do Mr Kissoon and Ms Bahadur disagree with in the online article written by a Registered Nurse ‘Why Isn’t Homosexuality Considered A Disorder on the Basis of its Medical Consequences?’ It is a sad fact that neither Vidyaratha Kissoon nor Gaiutra Bahadur will address the facts, truths, detail or evidence therein.
Dr Satinover at page 27 of his aforementioned book in discussions with persons of the same outlook as Mr Kissoon and Ms Bahadur, is forced to come to the following sobering conclusion that they are “possessed of a denial so intense that self-examination is completely precluded.”
Now the concept of ‘transsexualism’ advocates transformation into a different sex. That’s only one reason why the soundest possible way forward for the Guyana government is to focus on medical/psychiatric therapy rather than legislating the condition into acceptance.
In the online article ‘Surgical Sex’ Dr Paul McHugh is forced to come to the inescapable conclusion: “We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it.”
For Guyana’s Special Select Committee, that’s the reality of medicine that should inform public policy, not Merseyside fishing trips hosted by Mr Kissoon and Ms Bahadur.
Yours faithfully,
Roger Williams
