Periodically the AgapePress, WorldNetDaily or some other wingnut press will quote James Hartline, ex-gay of San Diego.
Hartline can be counted on to provide some outrageous statement which the rightwing press never questions.
CityBEAT of San Diego wrote an interesting and illuminating article on Hartline in their October 5 issue which gives some of his history and how he views himself. What emerges is a picture of a tortured man, physically and mentally ill. Hartline looks to the extreme excesses in his past and finds some conspiracy of depravity of which he is always the victim.
(thanks Autumn)
Though he spent many years having unsafe sex and abusing drugs, he believes that he was deliberately infected with HIV while having a sex and drug binge at a bathhouse. He also believes God is going to miraculously cure him to give credibility to his cause.
Although it’s tempting to be angry at this man and all of the damage he does, I find myself reacting with pity. Here’s a man that has destroyed his own life as well as that of his family and the people around him. Like so many ex-gay activists, he’s unable to see that he is the cause of all of his problems. Instead he sees conspiracies and death plots and evil homosexuals as the cause of his misery.
Naturally, he believes his sexual orientation was caused by his parents’ abuse and, get this, his father’s stack of straight porn. And although he spent nearly all of his life either high or in jail (sometimes in a mental hospital) he somehow knows that “there is an evil conspiracy afoot in Hillcrest—an organized effort among homosexuals to lure individuals into the gay lifestyle, drugs, prostitution, and pornography, and to intentionally spread the AIDS virus.”
And yet the wingnuts are so anxious for another “ex-gay” that they give him credibility, even when he gets the Bishop of San Diego to cancel the funeral of a gay man or when almost suceeded in getting San Diego Pride cancelled. This poor man. Instead of the church providing comfort to the mind and soul of this terminally ill, emotionally scarred, and mentally ill man, they are using him to further an agenda.
You’re welcome Timothy. Sadly, he lives here in my hometown of San Diego, and he’s every bit the pain in the ass that CityBeat describes him as.
Hartline appears to be another one who is playing a gig. I’m always amused at the number of these noisy people who can’t seem to be able to get an honest job.
raj,
Nah, I don’t think Hartline’s playing a gig. I think he just has a fried brain. He isn’t (as best I can tell) making any money off his campaign – he’s living on disability so he has plenty of time to rant, rave, and be a general pain in the ass.
James hartline is a troll the fact that he has to harrass us just proves that he isn’t over his homosexuality. James is nothing more than a pathological liar.
James is nothing more than a pathological liar, he lied about death threats against him, so his sordid past doesn’t surprise me, he still continued being gay after becoming born again, he blames gays for getting himself infected, only he doesn’t mention that he chose to go on a meth binge for 10 days as well as frequent a gay bathhouse, so really he only has himself to blame for getting aids, If and I mean IF he ever takes responsibility for his own actions as it seems that no former homosexuals ever take responsibility for their actions when they were gay which is why they are NEVER HAPPY. I predict that James will die a grouchy lonely old man and no one except right wingers will attend his funeral.
Two San Diego CityBeat letters to the editor regarding the James Hartline article:
– Would die for God
– Pay up, James