Homosexuality and Scientology
Encyclopedia
Scientology views of homosexuality
are based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard
, the founder of the Church of Scientology
. His statements about homosexuality have given rise to assertions from critics that Scientology
promotes homophobia
. These allegations are disputed by some gay Scientologists.
, introducing his "science of the mind," Dianetics
. He classified homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion, citing contemporary psychiatric and psychological textbooks to support his view:
Hubbard further defined perversion in his 1951 book Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior
. Here he introduced the concept of the "tone scale
", a means of classifying individuals and human behaviour on a chart running from +40 (the most beneficial) to -40 (the least beneficial). Sexual perversion, a category in which he included homosexuality, was termed "covert hostility" and given a score of 1.1, "the level of the pervert, the hypocrite, the turncoat, ... the subversive." Such people were "skulking coward[s] who yet contains enough perfidious energy to strike back, but not enough courage ever to give warning."
He characterized "promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices" as well as "Free Love
, easy marriage and quick divorce" as being undesirable activities, "since it is non-survival not to have a well ordered system for the creation and upbringing of children, by families." Sexual perverts engaged in "irregular practices which do anything but tend toward the creation of children" and "efforts [which] tend not towards enjoyment but toward the pollution and derangement of sex itself so as to make it as repulsive as possible to others and so to inhibit procreation."
Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears likewise classified homosexuality as "about 1.1 on the tone scale", along with "general promiscuity". He set out what he saw as the cause of homosexuality: a mental "aberration", with the result that "an individual aberrated enough about sex will do strange things to be a cause or an effect. He will substitute punishment for sex. He will pervert others. Homosexuality comes from this manifestation and from the manifestation of life continuation for others." The "aberration" was caused by a child trying to "continue the life" of a dominant parent of the opposite sex.
Hubbard's views on homosexuality were given a fuller explanation in a 1972 book by Scientologist Ruth Minshull, How To Choose Your People, which was published through the Church of Scientology, copyrighted to Hubbard and given "issue authority" by the Scientology hierarchy. Scientology churches sold the book alongside the works of Hubbard until 1983. Minshull described the "gentle-mannered homosexual" as a classic example of the "subversive" 1.1 personality, commenting that they "may be fearful, sympathetic, propitiative, griefy or apathetic. Occasionally they manage an ineffectual tantrum." They were claimed to be social misfits:
Homosexuals had no redeeming "social value," in Minshull's view. She cautioned that "homosexuals should not be abused or ridiculed. But a society bent on survival must recognize any aberration as such and seek to raise people out of the low emotion that produces it."
Jon Atack notes that L. Ron Hubbard's son Quentin Hubbard
was homosexual. According to Atack, L. Ron Hubbard had repeatedly announced that his son Quentin would succeed him after his death, but Quentin died of an apparent suicide in 1976.
homosexuality. In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression
, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality," and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test.
In Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears, he set out instructions for Dianeticists to "cure" homosexuality. After claiming that the cause of homosexuality was a fixation on a dominant parent of the opposite sex, he advised: "Break this life continuum concept by running sympathy and grief for the dominant parent and then run off the desires to be an effect and their failures and the homosexual is rehabilitated."
Hubbard urged society to tackle the issue of sexual perversion (including homosexuality), calling it "of vital importance, if one wishes to stop immorality, and the abuse of children." In Science of Survival, he called for drastic action to be taken against sexual perverts, whom he rated as "1.1 individuals":
In later years, Hubbard sought to distance himself from efforts to regulate the sexual affairs of lay Scientologists. In a 1967 policy letter, he declared: "It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt to regulate the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not resulted in any improved condition... Therefore all former rules, regulations and polices relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists are cancelled." Members of the Sea Org
remained under strict rules according to a 1978 order.
, the legislative move to ban gay marriage in California
. This had prompted director and writer Paul Haggis
to leave the organization in October 2009, with Haggis writing to Tommy Davis
, the Church's spokesman, and requesting that he denounce these statements; when Davis remained silent, Haggis responded that "Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."
A 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Church defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
Melissa M. Wilcox, writing in the five-volume Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, notes that while present-day detractors of Scientology accuse it of homophobia, government suspicion in the early days of Scientology apparently included accusations of homosexuality. In response to a query by her about the Church's current position, the Church of Scientology in 2005 responded as follows:
Celebrities and Scientology
Gay Scientologists speak out
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
are based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
, the founder of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
. His statements about homosexuality have given rise to assertions from critics that Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
promotes homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
. These allegations are disputed by some gay Scientologists.
Classification of homosexuality
In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental HealthDianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is a book by L. Ron Hubbard which sets out self-improvement techniques he developed, called Dianetics. The book is also one of the canonical texts of Scientology. It is colloquially referred to as Book One...
, introducing his "science of the mind," Dianetics
Dianetics
Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body that was invented by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is practiced by followers of Scientology...
. He classified homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion, citing contemporary psychiatric and psychological textbooks to support his view:
- "The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i.e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of EllisHavelock EllisHenry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...
and Krafft-EbingRichard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing-Bibliography :* Heinrich Ammerer: Am Anfang war die Perversion. Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychiater und Pionier der modernen Sexualkunde. Styria premium 2011 in der Verlagsgruppe Styria GmbH & Co KG, Wien-Graz-Klagenfurt, ISBN 978-3-222-13321-3....
) is actually quite ill physically... he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society..."
Hubbard further defined perversion in his 1951 book Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior
Science of Survival
Science of Survival is a book published in 1951 by L. Ron Hubbard, extending his earlier writings on Dianetics. Its original subtitle was "simplified, faster dianetic techniques", although more recent editions have the subtitle "Prediction of human behavior"...
. Here he introduced the concept of the "tone scale
Tone scale
In Scientology, the tone scale or emotional tone scale is a characterization of human behavior. It is based on the idea that some people appear to be more lively and alive than other people. Author L. Ron Hubbard spelled the idea out saying, "just draw a horizontal line on the page...
", a means of classifying individuals and human behaviour on a chart running from +40 (the most beneficial) to -40 (the least beneficial). Sexual perversion, a category in which he included homosexuality, was termed "covert hostility" and given a score of 1.1, "the level of the pervert, the hypocrite, the turncoat, ... the subversive." Such people were "skulking coward[s] who yet contains enough perfidious energy to strike back, but not enough courage ever to give warning."
He characterized "promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices" as well as "Free Love
Free love
The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...
, easy marriage and quick divorce" as being undesirable activities, "since it is non-survival not to have a well ordered system for the creation and upbringing of children, by families." Sexual perverts engaged in "irregular practices which do anything but tend toward the creation of children" and "efforts [which] tend not towards enjoyment but toward the pollution and derangement of sex itself so as to make it as repulsive as possible to others and so to inhibit procreation."
Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears likewise classified homosexuality as "about 1.1 on the tone scale", along with "general promiscuity". He set out what he saw as the cause of homosexuality: a mental "aberration", with the result that "an individual aberrated enough about sex will do strange things to be a cause or an effect. He will substitute punishment for sex. He will pervert others. Homosexuality comes from this manifestation and from the manifestation of life continuation for others." The "aberration" was caused by a child trying to "continue the life" of a dominant parent of the opposite sex.
Hubbard's views on homosexuality were given a fuller explanation in a 1972 book by Scientologist Ruth Minshull, How To Choose Your People, which was published through the Church of Scientology, copyrighted to Hubbard and given "issue authority" by the Scientology hierarchy. Scientology churches sold the book alongside the works of Hubbard until 1983. Minshull described the "gentle-mannered homosexual" as a classic example of the "subversive" 1.1 personality, commenting that they "may be fearful, sympathetic, propitiative, griefy or apathetic. Occasionally they manage an ineffectual tantrum." They were claimed to be social misfits:
- "Homosexuals don't practice love; 1.1s can't. Their relationships consist of: 1) brief, sordid and impersonal meetings or 2) longer arrangements punctuated by dramatic tirades, discords, jealousies and frequent infidelity. It could hardly be otherwise since the tone is made up of suspicion and hate, producing a darling sweetness interspersed with petty peevishness. Their "love" turns to deep contempt eventually."
Homosexuals had no redeeming "social value," in Minshull's view. She cautioned that "homosexuals should not be abused or ridiculed. But a society bent on survival must recognize any aberration as such and seek to raise people out of the low emotion that produces it."
Jon Atack notes that L. Ron Hubbard's son Quentin Hubbard
Quentin Hubbard
Geoffrey Quentin McCaully Hubbard , was the son of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and his third wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. He died at the age of 22 in an apparent suicide....
was homosexual. According to Atack, L. Ron Hubbard had repeatedly announced that his son Quentin would succeed him after his death, but Quentin died of an apparent suicide in 1976.
Attempts to cure homosexuality
There is some evidence that Hubbard's Dianetics movement sought to use Dianetics to cureSexual orientation change efforts
Sexual orientation change efforts are methods that aim to eliminate a same-sex sexual orientation. They may include behavioral techniques, cognitive behavioral techniques , psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, religious and spiritual approaches.The longstanding consensus of the...
homosexuality. In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality," and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test.
In Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears, he set out instructions for Dianeticists to "cure" homosexuality. After claiming that the cause of homosexuality was a fixation on a dominant parent of the opposite sex, he advised: "Break this life continuum concept by running sympathy and grief for the dominant parent and then run off the desires to be an effect and their failures and the homosexual is rehabilitated."
Hubbard urged society to tackle the issue of sexual perversion (including homosexuality), calling it "of vital importance, if one wishes to stop immorality, and the abuse of children." In Science of Survival, he called for drastic action to be taken against sexual perverts, whom he rated as "1.1 individuals":
- "Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics; here is the fodder which secret police organizations use for their filthy operations. One of the most effective measures of security that a nation threatened by war could take would be rounding up and placing in a cantonment, away from society, any 1.1 individual who might be connected with government, the military, or essential industry; since here are people who, regardless of any record of their family's loyalty, are potential traitors, the very mode of operation of their insanity being betrayal. In this level is the slime of society, the sex criminals, the political subversives, the people whose apparently rational activities are yet but the devious writhings of secret hate."
In later years, Hubbard sought to distance himself from efforts to regulate the sexual affairs of lay Scientologists. In a 1967 policy letter, he declared: "It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt to regulate the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not resulted in any improved condition... Therefore all former rules, regulations and polices relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists are cancelled." Members of the Sea Org
Sea Org
The Sea Organization or Sea Org is an association of Scientologists established in 1968 by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer and founder of Scientology. Its members are found in the central management organizations of the Church of Scientology as well as in individual churches...
remained under strict rules according to a 1978 order.
Current Church of Scientology viewpoints
Although Hubbard's views on homosexuality remain unamended in modern editions of Scientology books, gay Scientologists have argued that Hubbard and the Church have set aside any anti-homosexual views expressed in the past. In 2002 the American Church of Scientology published a press release on its website quoting gay activist Keith Relkin as saying, "Over the years I have worked with the Church of Scientology for greater inclusion of gay people like me, and today represents a milestone in that progress." This has contrasted with public statements made by the Church, notably by its San Diego branch, which had supported Proposition 8California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
, the legislative move to ban gay marriage in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. This had prompted director and writer Paul Haggis
Paul Haggis
Paul Edward Haggis is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.-Early life and education:...
to leave the organization in October 2009, with Haggis writing to Tommy Davis
Thomas W. Davis
Thomas W. "Tommy" Davis is the head of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, California.-Celebrity Centre:...
, the Church's spokesman, and requesting that he denounce these statements; when Davis remained silent, Haggis responded that "Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."
A 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Church defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
Melissa M. Wilcox, writing in the five-volume Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, notes that while present-day detractors of Scientology accuse it of homophobia, government suspicion in the early days of Scientology apparently included accusations of homosexuality. In response to a query by her about the Church's current position, the Church of Scientology in 2005 responded as follows:
- "The Church of Scientology does not dictate sexual preferences. Scientology is a practical method of improving conditions in life and works to increase a person's abilities, give higher IQ and better reaction time, greater ability to solve his problems in life – things of this nature."
External links
Scientology and gay rights- Keith Relkin Says Church of Scientology Wants Gays Note: Link goes to Scientology related site, and information presented has no attribution as to where published.
- The Church of Scientology & homosexuality Ontario Consultants on Religious ToleranceOntario Consultants on Religious ToleranceThe Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance are a small group in Kingston, Ontario dedicated to the promotion of religious tolerance through their website, ReligiousTolerance.org.-History of the group and its website:Bruce A...
- Scientology and Gay Rights
Celebrities and Scientology
Gay Scientologists speak out