Are Josh Duggar, Jared Fogle Sexual Sins Genetic?

Last week, Illinois became the fourth state to ban licensed therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex attractions. Like other "RINO" governors such as New Jersey's Chris Christie, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is beholden to the gay lobby in Illinois, whose legislature contains a solid majority of like-minded Democrats. Sadly, I was not at all surprised to see another Republican sell out conservative social values for the sake of political expediency.

But I was shocked to hear of Subway's former poster boy, Jared Fogle, who last week was preparing to plead guilty to child exploitation and pornography charges. Also troubling was CNN's Dr. Drew, who commented to Anderson Cooper (who happens to be gay-identified) that Fogle's behavior has "genetic" contributions. Later in the week, it was also revealed that former reality TV star Josh Duggar was outed, along with 32 million other users, for cheating on his wife with the assistance of a website called Ashley Madison, which helps adulterers conveniently and discreetly meet other partners for sexual encounters.

Absolutely none of these sexual issues are genetic or biological.

Josh Duggar was not born with a pre-inclination to inappropriately touch his younger sisters. His genes did not pre-dictate his choice to cheat on his wife. For various reasons, Duggar developed what can be presumed to be a heterosexual pornography addiction.

Similarly, Jared Fogle was not born a pedophile. There is absolutely no sound science to support Dr. Drew's commentary that his genetics contributed to this behavior.

In my professional opinion (and I am hypothesizing), Jared developed a sexual appetite for children through various sources of wounding in his early years. Fogle probably experienced a lack of bonding in childhood and adolescence, followed by bullying due to his overweight condition. This most likely alienated him from his peers and caused him to be developmentally stuck where the childhood bullying (trauma) was the worst. If the trauma is not healed, the object that he didn't bond with (childhood peers) later becomes sexualized in adulthood in order to repair the wound.

This is not so different from unwanted same-sex attraction. When boys do not bond with their fathers, they may also fail to attach to their male peers in youth. When puberty occurs, all of these unmet emotional needs for the same sex become unconsciously eroticized. In other cases, sexual, physical or emotional abuse from older same-sex persons may cause a deep wound in a young male, causing him to once again detach from normal bonding with the same sex and then later sexualize these unmet needs for male acceptance and affection.

Last week, Illinois politicians threw these sexually confused youth under the bus by continuing on a destructive path that started in 2012, when gay activists in California introduced a bill to prohibit any type of therapy for individuals (both adults and minors) who were distressed over unwanted same-sex attractions. They later removed the ban for adults in order to better sell the idea that gay children were being abused and "converted" by licensed therapists who were using all sorts of crazy methods, such as electric shock therapy.

Just so we're straight (no pun intended), this bill was intended to outlaw therapy for everyone, not just children, whose sexual identity did not match their unwanted same-sex attractions.

It's important for readers to understand the difference between sexual identity and unwanted sexual attractions.

Sexual identity refers to the core sense of self, or one's own belief, of who they are sexually. As a professional counselor, every day I sit with clients whose sexual identity is heterosexual, but they are conflicted with unwanted sexual attractions of different varieties. Some are conflicted with unwanted attractions for children (often called pedophilia) or hebephilia (if the object of lust is a pre-teen or teenager).

Others have unwanted attractions towards the same sex, or what is also known as homosexuality. Still, others have unwanted desires for the opposite sex, which is sometimes referred to as heterosexual addiction.

Coming back to the cases of Jared and Josh, neither of these young men self-labeled their sexual identities as "pedophile" or "sex addict." This behavior resulted from emotional deficits and deep wounds. In both cases, these men have expressed remorse over their sexual behaviors and are now experiencing the consequences. Both of these young men also could have greatly benefitted from psychotherapy to help resolve their issues. If we continue on our society's current trajectory, the far left will outlaw the chance for young men like Josh and Jared to heal, while at the same time, put other youth at risk of also being victimized. Youth with unwanted same-sex attractions in four states now (and Washington, D.C.) are at risk for similar fates.

Do not be fooled. The far left is not interested in protecting gay youth from "conversion" therapy. Their goal is to completely remove all sexual constraint and restraint from the social fabric of this country, and eventually, the world.

The left opposes abstinence education in favor of so-called "comprehensive sexual education" programs which often teach public school students how to use condoms by placing them over bananas and playing relay races with each other in class to quickly get protection before engaging in underage sex in real life.

Then, when over half of these young people fail to consistently and correctly wear the condoms during sex, the government funds abortion providers to get rid of their "mistakes," while Planned Parenthood makes another profit by harvesting the aborted organs, tissues and body parts, then selling them.

So don't be confused. We need to call this latest attempt to ban sexually confused youth from getting help for what it really is: The far left's attempt to sexually enslave the next generation. They are not protecting anyone. It's sick, and it's bad policy for conservatives and liberals alike.

To support #TherapyEquality in the remaining 46 states, join us for the Third Annual Safe Exit Summit in Washington, D.C. on October 3-4. For more information, visit www.SafeExitSummit.org.