Homobigot Holsinger: A Little Background

When I first read about Surgeon-General nominee James Holsinger and his history of anti-gay extremism in the United Methodist Church, my first thought was: I'll bet my folks know him. For 25 years or so, they've been tireless activists for gay equality within the UMC; odds are pretty good, I figured, that at some point they've clashed with a guy like Holsinger.

I wasn't wrong.

My dad got a call from a Senate staffer last week asking about Holsinger. It turns out he served on the UMC Committee to Study Homosexuality with him--the one for which Holsinger wrote his notorious paper (the focal point for efforts to sink the nomination). It's no surprise to anyone already familiar with Holsinger's wingnuttery, but my dad confirmed that the guy was obsessed with the mechanics of gay sex--which, in his own mind, was synonymous with homosexuality. When Holsinger saw that the committee wasn't going to adopt his prejudices, he stormed out, swearing he would do everything within his power to undermine the committee and block their recommendations. Which, in fact, he proceeeded to do. (As a member of the UMC Judicial Council, Holsinger has continued to do everything possible to attack gay people in the church.)

My dad stressed that personally, Holsinger was a 'nice guy'--'nice', that is, on a purely personal level. When my dad mentioned a medical issue he was dealing with, Holsinger offered to take a look, and made some helpful suggestions. Unfortunately, Holsinger is the sort of 'nice guy' who never stops to think about the destructive nature of his own prejudices.

The big question the Senate committee is dealing with is whether Holsinger can separate his personal beliefs from his role as Surgeon General. Holsinger says he can (and has been backpedaling furiously from his 1991 paper). My dad says he can't; he stresses the point that Holsinger was supposedly serving on the UMC committee as a doctor, and his 'medical' opinion was purely a matter of obsessive personal prejudice.

Which is pretty clearly just what we could expect if through some travesty of the process he actually becomes the Surgeon-General.