Slashdot Mirror
Apple's App Store Accepts 'Gay Cure' App
parallel_prankster writes "Apple is under fire for approving a controversial app created by a religious organization — Exodus International. The app seeks to help gay individuals become heterosexual. It received a '4' rating from Apple, which indicates the company considered the app to contain 'no objectionable material.' The new smartphone app was released last week and is now available through iTunes. Exodus International claims to be 'the world's largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality.' A petition has been launched by Truth Wins Out, which describes itself as a non-profit organisation that fights anti-gay religious extremism on the change.org website, asking Steve Jobs to intervene to remove the app."
...But I think this app deserves to stay. Why? Because homosexuality is nothing more than a preference, a preference that some people clearly don't like. You can't force people to not download the app because you disagree with it's position. That's the whole point of free speech. IF the people who approve of homosexuality don't like the app, just don't download it! It's that simple! You can't force people to subscribe to your view of the world by making them approve of homosexuality, and likewise you can't prevent people from disagreeing.
In a completely unrelated point, I find homosexuality disgusting for various reasons; plus, I'm a Catholic and have religious beliefs about sexuality. That has nothing to do with my opinion of the application though (I don't plan on downloading it), so please don't respond criticizing my beliefs and preferences.
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
By that reasoning it is perfectly acceptable to be a pedophile, murderer, rapist, alcoholic, or any other sort of degenerate just because it is who you are deep inside. There is a difference between admitting attraction and acting on it, just as we expect the psychopath not to eat people even though he wants to.
And no, I'm not equating homosexuality with canabalism, just pointing out that everyone is born with certain tendencies or urges, that those tendencies are encouraged or repressed depending on many environmental and personal variables, and that certain tendencies should always be fought against, even if it is what you are "deep inside."
The "I can't help it" excuse is no more valid for homosexuality than for alcoholism. There are plenty of people for both issues who admit problems and consciously struggle against it.
A petition is not censorship. It is a request from customers to remove something very objectionable. Hate speech, in fact.
The petition, and a boycott to follow, is simply the "free market" exerting its influence on corporate behavior. I can't imagine something that is a better example of free market behavior: get together and say you will not purchase a product until the company fixes something.
And don't believe for a second that Apple isn't concerned about losing the gay market share. The gay community is better organized and more aware than most social groups. It's because they've had to be. If there's even a hint of boycott from the gay community, Apple will drop this app like a hot potato. Who's going to buy their products if the gays don't? The people who have time on their hands to be hating gay people probably can't afford an iPhone or iPad.
The fundamentalist Christian community doesn't hesitate to threaten boycotts. A few years ago they threatened to boycott Ford because Ford advertised in a gay publication. It didn't work because there's not nearly as many of the real hard-core religious nuts as we're led to believe, and they don't have the economic power of the homosexual community which has a lot of economic impact, culturally and financially.
What this really shows is the fatal flaw in the "walled garden". The real solution to the "gay-hating app" is to have a hundred apps that present a positive view of variety in sexual preference. Then you can really let the free market work it out. The haters get to hate, and the rest of us can just laugh at them (and hopefully keep a list of their names in a file somewhere in case they decide to raise the ugliness-level). But in a walled garden, where Apple is going to "curate" the experience for us all, then they're going to have to tread very lightly.
I actually always had a feeling that the limitations on free speech would be the ultimate demise of the walled garden. We've always known that technology, like the internet, treats censorship (and hate) like damage and routes around it. There will be more examples of Apple's "curating" that will offend large numbers of people, and those people will start to look for other options (and other options will appear). And to the extent that Android and any other platform tries to pull the same "curating" they too will fall. And to the extent that the telecoms, working with the smartphone manufacturers, try to lock down what's run on their network, I think we're going to see new models for telecommunications arise that will be outside their purview. With the assault on Net Neutrality, and the walled garden approach, it plays right into the hands of what the new corporatist governance wants: complete control over the means of communication: huge corporations make the phones and huge corporations own the network. They both own the government. The result is limitations on freedom. This is an objection to walled gardens that is seldom talked about, and yet is the most important objection of all. I just don't see the technical limitations that require walled gardens existing too far into the future. If they do, that will probably mean that things have gotten really really a lot worse.
You are welcome on my lawn.
And some Christians believe in peace, forgiveness, tolerance, decency, trying to follow Christ's example, and non-judgementalism.
No, those are actually atheists.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
So let me get this straight, this poor boy exhibited gender-inappropriate behaviour and you did nothing to correct it? Parenting is not just about things you do to a kid, it's also about the things you do not do. All kids act inappropriately now and then; when they do, they should be told to stop. A boy should be instructed how a male of the species is supposed to act - he has no gene for that. You did not, so he continued to act weirdly. Boys don't like boys who act weirdly and avoid them. A boy who grows up without having much contact with other boys will not experience any negative feedback about his behaviour and will continue becoming more and more different from them. Then he hits puberty and his alienation and mannerisms influence his sexual orientation. Good going, dad!
Yeah, as if brief violence could overturn 14 years of (unconscious) conditioning. It's like those "gay cure" groups who give gays electric shocks with gay porn. Sick and misguided...
Yeah, why not? When a family member gets sick, do you just ostracise him? Do you insist that there is nothing wrong with him and ignore his problem? Or do you help him get well?
It is not whom they love, it's whom they have sex with. If he "loves" the wrong gender, at least he shouldn't have sex with it. It's not like it's hard. Getting laid is not something that just happens; it requires a great deal of hard work. If he dates women and with experience learns to enjoy sex with them, he won't be gay any more. Of course, nobody will help him do this, since the whole world seems to have declared that being gay is normal and nobody should dare correct this problem. Now that's tough breaks...