Aliens need to know the names of everyone you've ever slept with, or, Scientology and queers

Remember the Fruit Machine, used to ferret out faggots from the Canadian civil service during the 1950s? It measured pupil, eye and pulse changes in proportion to the kind of porn the victims were shown (a mechanical cousin tracked penis engorgement). Scientology still uses the thing.

"Security officials used this device, the electropsychometer (or E-meter), in the 1950s and 1960s to help ascertain people's sexual orientation, assuming that homosexuality made individuals more susceptible to blackmail by enemy agents. Data from the so-called 'fruit machine' cost more than 100 civil servants their jobs," reads the write-up next to the contraption that's now exhibited in the Canadian War Museum (thanks to museum communications officer Pierre Leduc for forwarding this blurb).

The text continues: "The Church of Scientology still uses such machines to assess the mental state of its parishioners."

Here's a peek at one of the Church of Scientology's internal questionnaires: "In the Medical History section, question 10 states: 'Give a general sexual history of yourself, including your earliest sexual experience of any kind, when you started dating, and the names of all persons involved. Make a chronological list by month and year of all persons with whom you have had sexual relationships and what you engaged in. Approximate the number of times you carried on any kind of activity, and note any perversions you engaged in. Who? What? How often? Be as complete as you can.'"

Or how about this one: "Note any instances of homosexual activity from earliest time up to present time. Give who. What done. And how often?"

These excerpts are from a story written by journalist John Kennedy; it appeared in Toronto's Xtra a few years ago (I can't find it online, unfortunately).

You might think Scientology is overly obsessed with the sexual orientation of its recruits. But at the time PR officials said it was no biggie; the issue was blackmail, and only those with "top security positions -- such as jobs in the treasury -- would be required to complete that questionnaire." And strict sexual morals hold for all members, straight and gay.

The Toronto chapter once filed a complaint with the area's city councillor about the Pride parade's nudity and simulated sex acts.

For years, there have been rumours that Scientology pushes queer members into a straight lifestyle. Certainly the church often rents offices near gay ghettos (such as on Yonge Street in Toronto and near a big gay bar in Washington, D.C.).

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's 1950s book, "Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health," lists "homosexuality and lesbianism" as the practices of perverts. "In Hubbard's 'Science Of Survival, Prediction Of Human Behavior,' he established a 'tone scale' for classifying people and evaluating human behaviour. On a scale of zero to four, 'perverts' such as homosexuals rank 1.1.

"At 1.1 on the tone scale... we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices," wrote Hubbard. "People on this level... are intensely dangerous in the society, since aberration is contagious. A society which reaches this level is on its way out of history, as went the Greeks, as went the Romans, as goes modern European and American culture. Here is a flaming danger signal which must be heeded if a race is to go forward." Hubbard advocated quarantine.

Modern-day spokespeople compared Hubbard's comments to those found in the Bible; old ideas have changed, they said.