Thoughts in a Haystack

Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, presented a paper entitled "The Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality" to a United Methodist Church's committee studying homosexuality in January 1991, at a time when the church was considering changing its precept that homosexuality violates Christian dogma. Included in Dr. Holsinger's paper was this gem:

[T]he logical complementarity of the human sexes has been so recognized in our culture that it has entered our vocabulary in the form of naming various pipe fittings either the male fitting or the female fitting depending upon which one interlocks within the other.

June M. Reinisch, Ph.D., director emeritus of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender & Reproduction, said Holsinger presented faulty arguments, including criticisms of sexual acts that many homosexuals do not engage in but as many as 40 percent of heterosexuals do.

It's a totally faulty paper. The man doesn't know anything about human sexuality. There's clearly a political agenda in this paper. This is not a scientific paper.

It figures Bush would try to appoint someone to be surgeon general who knows more about plumbing supplies than he does about either human sexuality or science.

The funny part is that Holsinger's confirmation hearings will be heard by the Senate Health Committee, chaired by longtime gay rights advocate Sen. Ted Kennedy, and which includes three Democratic presidential contenders -- Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, and Barack Obama -- who will doubtless be vying to out-outrage each other for the benefit of the gay and lesbian community and rational people everywhere.

Under the circumstances, I think it's the Bush administration that doesn't know which end is which.
.