Regarding the humorous email posted by Susie below, it's easy to misquote (or distort the original intention of) even the US Constitution for a few quick laughs! It gets tougher, however, to credulously ridicule the document as you learn that the basis of your joke is actually just a myth or misconception. Same goes for the Torah.
The whole letter consists of straw man arguments that the author knocks down, generating a few laughs for people who don't know any better. (Interestingly, no one has commented on the posts debunking the myths in that joke email).
The following is an examination of exactly what Dr. Laura said and meant.
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Excerpt from Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/drlaura.asp
In early October 2000, Dr. Schlessinger, ran a full-page ad in Variety offering an apology for what she called "poorly chosen" words about homosexuality. She had previously referred to gays as "biological errors" and "deviants," as exemplified by her remarks of 8 December 1998:
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I'm sorry — hear it one more time, perfectly clearly: If you're gay or a lesbian, it's a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex — it is a biological error.
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(Note: I do not see “deviant” in any of her remarks, making Snopes a facilitator of the original lie)
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Excerpt from Chapter 3 - THE NEW THOUGHT POLICE by Tammy Bruce C 2001
WHAT SHE REALLY SAID:
Dec. 8, 1998:
I’m sorry; hear it one more time perfectly clearly: if you’re gay or a lesbian, it’s a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative, and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually, intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex. It is a biological error. People who are gay or lesbian are not to be hated or attacked. I spent most of my career supporting groups like Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays because I didn’t want families to throw out their children simply because they were gay or lesbian. They are still decent and functional human beings – or maybe they’re not, because that indecency goes everywhere. A bunch of guys having sex after leaving bars with each other is indecent. Likewise, a bunch of heterosexuals leaving bars with each other and having sex with each other is indecent. I don’t care which way it flies.
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Here in context, it is clear that what Dr. Laura was referring to as a biological error was homosexuals’ sexual orientation and not homosexuals themselves. In fact, as you can see here, she makes some of the more balanced statements about gays heard on talk radio. If your tactics include lifting single words and short phrases out of sentences, however, you can twist someone’s comments into just about anything you like.
Much has also been made of Dr. Laura’s supposedly referring to gays and lesbians as “deviants” on her radio program of September 8, 1998. (Update 2006: I call this her “Pope” moment) Let’s take a look at the actual comments she made that day. She starts by reading aloud a letter printed in the Los Angeles Times. The letter says:
What hypocrisy! The Catholic Church holds that homosexual orientation is objectively disordered, and that homosexual acts are intrinsically evil. Yet it claims to condemn bigotry in any form, as well as violent malice in speech or in action. I wonder what portion of that jargon gay-bashers listen to.
Dr. Laura then comments on the letter:
I read the entire report from the Catholic Church, and that’s exactly what it said: that people with a homosexual orientation are to be loved, nurtured, helped, protected, not hurt in thought, word, or deed. I’m paraphrasing, but they say that it is quite possible to believe that a sexual behavior is deviant and disordered and not wish to have any harm come to that person; moreover, to have spiritual and psychiatric help come to that person. But the radical activists do not allow that; they just jump on the bigotry word. And that is so offensive.
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Where, exactly, does Dr. Laura call homosexuals deviants? I don’t see it, do you? The word comes up in a discussion of the position of the Catholic Church, and even then it is used in relation to behavior, not individuals.
THE INTOLERANCE OF GAY TOLERANCE
As a gay woman, I am greatly concerned when people come to conclusions about homosexuality that I feel are wrong. Not only is some of what is said personally hurtful, but also I find some opinions about gays downright juvenile or simply mean. It is even more troubling, therefore, when actual supporters of gays and lesbians, such as Laura Schlessinger, are used as scapegoats because the real problems can’t be addressed.