Before the COVID crisis took center stage, public health was one of many aspects of life that usually occupied the background. The public health bureaucracy’s primary task was to collect information that politicians would use—or ignore.
However, a recent article from the Daily Caller focuses on how the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) politicizes its programs to promote many unhealthy and immoral behaviors under the guise of “advocacy” for “sexual minorities.”
Polio, Smoking and AIDS
The process from non-political information provider to activist enabler spans decades.
For most of the last century, the germ counters rarely impinged on daily life. Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine made big news in 1954, defeating a deadly disease that often targeted children. In 1964, the Public Health Service published Smoking and Health, which connected smoking to an individual’s chances of dying from lung cancer. The report, which had almost thirty years of research behind it, stunned millions. However, “public health” soon faded into the background on both occasions.
The polio vaccine and Smoking and Health were fundamentally non-political. Both events were widely acclaimed. The young and old, liberals and conservatives, men and women, Democrats and Republicans heralded these breakthroughs.
The significant shift (and Jesuit-trained Anthony Fauci’s career) came in the early eighties when AIDS took center stage. Unlike polio and lung cancer, AIDS—except for blood transfusion errors and newborns who got the disease from their mothers—focused mainly on a specific population. Most AIDS patients were sexually promiscuous, and homosexuals contracted the condition far more often than heterosexuals.
Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand on Homosexuality, Homosexual “Marriage” and Transgenderism
As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin, gender dysphoria or otherwise.
We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weaknesses and strive to overcome them and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride, and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for them too.
According to the expression attributed to Saint Augustine, we “hate the sin but love the sinner.” And to love the sinner, as the same Doctor of the Church explains, is to wish for him the best we can possibly desire for ourselves, namely, “that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm)
Since these populations were overwhelmingly liberal, AIDS became a political issue. Conservative President Ronald Reagan became a scapegoat for those who yearned for political solutions to biological and moral problems. Speaking obvious truths about a deadly disease made one a social pariah.
Leftist Priorities
The AIDS crisis enabled liberals to flood the public health bureaucracy, and they did.
Learn All About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times
Promiscuity has always been unhealthy. Often presented as adventurous and liberating, it leads to despair, depravity, disappointment and—ultimately—damnation and the torments of Hell. The victims of the sexual revolution are everywhere.
However, the “do-your-own-thing” lifestyle is so popular that many people—even those who live responsible lives—shrink from speaking these obvious truths. Those who supposedly guard public health now promote physically unhealthy and soul-destroying behaviors. Of course, they use taxpayers’ dollars to write, print and promote their indiscretions.
Released During the Holidays
Daily Caller points out that part of that onslaught is the CDC’s LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool. Although work began in 2020, the CDC released the finished document on December 27, 2022. The timing is curious. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a slow period for media and a time when the general public would not notice the CDC release.
However, the report on LGBTQ Inclusivity did get some notice. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) commented about it on Twitter.
“Just when you think the agency couldn’t lose any more credibility, Biden’s CDC is urging schools to avoid the words “male” and “female” in sexual health education. With this type of politicization, parents are going to be rightfully skeptical of everything the CDC says.”
What Does the Document Say?
Among other things, the document is packed with pictures of presumably happy young people, selling the notion that homosexuality is good for you. The display is eerily reminiscent of antique magazine ads, which feature smiling medical men over captions that say “More Doctors smoke (Brand Name) than any other cigarette” or “20,679 Physicians say (Brand Name) are less irritating.”
The first two sentences in LGBTQ Inclusivity spell out the tone of the whole document.
10 Razones Por las Cuales el “Matrimonio” Homosexual es Dañino y tiene que Ser Desaprobado
“Schools play a critical role in supporting the health and academic development of all youth, including the success of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/ questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Creating and sustaining inclusive school environments, policies, programs, and practices that include LGBTQ youth is one strategy for improving the health and academic success of all youth.”
In other words, the CDC asserts that not promoting homosexuality et al. harms these children. Their health will decline, they won’t learn as much, nor will they be happy and well-adjusted without the attitudes that the CDC promotes. Of course, those nasty and uncaring conservatives are responsible for all those dire consequences.
Biased From the Beginning
Of course, the CDC needs to assert that they are impartial experts.
“This self-assessment tool was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NORC at the University of Chicago, an objective non-partisan research institution, in partnership with LGBTQ health experts, school health experts, and non-governmental health and education agencies.”
It takes only a few minutes of research to discover just how impartial NORC is. Going to the NORC website and searching LGBT reveals twenty-six results. The first is a description of a NORC leader.
“Michelle M. Johns is a senior research scientist in the Academic Research Centers at NORC at the University of Chicago. Johns has over 15 years experience serving as a researcher, educator, and champion of LGBTQ+ health equity. Johns’ career has unfolded across multiple institutional settings and sectors, including the federal government, universities, and non-profit organizations.”
That begs the question, who wrote and supervised LGBT Inclusivity, the “objective non-partisan” researcher or the “champion of LGBTQ+ health equity?” The answer is a relatively easy one.
Teachers as “A” Students
LGBT Inclusion is mainly for school teachers and administrators, and is full of the academic jargon that makes most such documents unreadable. Its prescriptions are organized around three “Continuum Categories.”
Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law
- “Mostly Cs is for “Commit to Changes”—(Minimally Inclusive)—You are not yet well prepared to provide inclusive and supportive environments for LGBTQ students. Commit to making changes, and you will move up the continuum in no time!
- “Mostly Bs is for “Beginning to Break Through”—(Moderately Inclusive)—You are working on the building blocks of inclusivity, doing some things that encourage supportive and LGBTQ-inclusive environments, but you still have room to grow. Work on broadening your horizons further, address your barriers, and expand your efforts further towards being an ally.
- “Mostly As is for “Awesome Ally”—(Highly Inclusive)—You are doing great work. You do a lot to support LGBTQ students and work toward an inclusive environment. Keep up your good efforts, while also recognizing there is always more you can do. Like all good allies, you will want to continue exploring and learning and share your knowledge with others.”
Of course, all teachers who take this seriously will want to be “A” students. After all, that is the way that they became teachers.
Photo Credit: © Tada Images – stock.adobe.com