Glenn Sunshine's brief essay explains a lot. The excerpt below is only a small part of the argument. It is important to read the whole thing. (HT: Charles Colson) Emphases in the original.
. . . Freud believed that psychological illness was a result of social repression of our sex drive. Although Freud himself had a generally conventional lifestyle and developed psychoanalysis as a means of dealing with problems arising from sexual repression, the implication of his theory was clear: to enable people to live happy, fulfilled lives, society needed to drop restraints on sexual activity. Hence the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies.
This idea is deeply embedded in the American worldview. This explains the vehement opposition to abstinence-only sex education despite the studies that show it is more effective in reducing sexual activity than “comprehensive” sex education. The real object isn’t to reduce sexual activity, but to minimize the consequences. Why would you even want to reduce sexual activity if that’s the route to freedom and fulfillment?
Unfortunately, Freud was wrong. Sexual “freedom” has resulted in an epidemic of depression among young women, an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, rampant out of wedlock births and the associated poverty that comes from single parent households, a sky-high divorce rate, and on and on and on. And it has not made people happier or better adjusted. None of which makes any difference, of course, because as is all too often the case, ideology trumps evidence.
The primary human right
Since in this worldview salvation comes through sex, and since personal fulfillment and happiness is fundamentally about sexual expression, the freedom to express whatever you think of as your sexual identity is our most essential human right. (more . . .)