GOP Declares War on Modern Sexuality...... Why conservatives declare porn a public health crisis

According to today’s reports, the ongoing GOP convention has endorsed a declaration that “internet pornography is a public health crisis…destroying the life of millions.” In this, the
GOP follows in the footsteps of Utah, and embraces the religious conservatives who view pornography as a greater social issue than either gun violence or racism.

In addition, the GOP has included an endorsement of what is called “conversion treatment," allowing parents to choose to have their children undergo treatment explicitly intended to make people stop being homosexual – despite ample evidence that such treatment is harmful, ineffective, and connected to adolescent suicides. Such treatment has been banned in several states, and the GOP is here following the Texas Republicans, which also last year endorsed the right to treat homosexuality as though it is a disease.
Finally, the GOP’s platform explicitly states that they do not accept the US Supreme Court’s decision regarding gay marriage, and that the US government should endorse only heterosexual marriage.
It’s no accident that these platform components came largely from religious groups in the GOP. The anti-porn amendment was allegedly pushed by a North Carolina delegate, on behalf of the conservative Christian group, Concerned Women for America. The conversion treatment amendment was supported by Tony Perkins, from the Christian advocacy group, Family Research Council.
In the United States, religious people, leaders and communities are struggling with a tidal wave of changes to sexual attitudes and behaviors. They feel that these changes are being forced upon them, and that they are weakening their control over their children, their communities, and perhaps even their own sexual behaviors. Research with religious individuals has found that they view pornography as a greater social issue, posing greater danger, than even gun violence or racism.

Internet pornography IS attacking religious control of sexuality. People who watch pornography tend to become less religious. They tend to reject conservative attitudes and biases about sex, and are more accepting of sexual diversity, egalitarian and nonsexist ideals. People who are religious, and who watch porn, struggle more than other people who watch even more porn, but are not religious. Religious people who watch porn, experience greater doubts about God, and struggle with crises of faith. All of these statements are based on voluminous recent research. But Internet pornography, so easily accessible on our phones and computers, is easier to access sometimes, than it is to follow religious rules that were written for a world very different than our modern one.
I’ve trained and supervised therapists around the country about how to support children who are questioning their sexuality. At this point, I can’t count how many therapists I’ve known who were told they were “Satan” by parents who wanted the therapist to stop telling their child that it was okay that they might be gay, or transgender, or bisexual, or anything other than heterosexual. These parents are scared of the world today, where teens can be told by therapists, television, Youtube videos, schools, friends and teachers, that it’s okay that they might not be straight.

The GOP’s embracing of these highly conservative religious values about sex will touch a chord in many people across our country, who are afraid that our society is simply changing too fast, when it comes to sex. Unfortunately, these tactics are ultimately doomed to failure, and unlikely to result in any substantive changes. In Utah, the resolution that porn is a public health crisis has generated no funding, no laws, no research and no changes. The First Amendment protects free expression and information, which includes pornography. Laws against conversion treatment, especially in adolescents, are based upon excellent research, and in response to horrific tragedies and lost teenagers.
These modern sexual changes affect every one of us, because sexuality is a part of each of us. Those of us who live in communities not yet affected by gun violence and racism can see the effect that the sexual changes are having, in our own families, in our children and our marriages, while we may only see gun violence and racism in the media. Sadly, blaming porn, or therapists, for these changing values is only a distraction, pointing the finger at these symptoms of change, instead of helping people, religious communities and religious leaders, to help foster explorations of how people can deal with the impact of these changes, in themselves and their loved ones.
Rather than blaming porn for these struggles, the GOP, and all politicians and religious leaders, should be calling for increased sexual education, dialogue and research. In this way, we can better help all people, including those in conservative religions, to deal with the modern world of sexuality that we have – rather than the one they wish we had.
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