Exodus Youth is being all hip now and has set up a profile on Myspace. (Read this if you live on Mars and have never heard of Myspace.) This graphic is from the Exodus Youth Myspace profile, it’s not my work. Photoshop effects aren’t really my thing.
Here are links to various ex-gay and ex-ex-gay people on Myspace.
Lastly Zach Stark’s infamous page is still up and my immediate reaction is that he’s got more photos of himself smiling now. Sadly party-guy Joe Nicolosi does not appear to have a profile yet.
If Zach has changed, his website does not express that. Seems queer as before.
Are there any new photos? I only see one of him with his arm around somebody. Maybe you have to log in to see them. I’m not signed up with Myspace so I can’t log in.
On Mike Ensley’s Myspace, someone asks him about the purpose of the ad against hate crimes laws. This is part of Ensley’s response:
“The legislation is bad because it elevates the worth of someone’s life–and the justice dealt for a crime commited against them–based on their sexual orientation. Matthew Shepherd’s murder was a hideous crime. What you don’t know is that the police found NO evidence that it was indeed a hate crime (the perpetrators were inebriated, and they robbed him). But gay activists have spun this young man’s murder to create sympathy for their cause. Furthermore, they make it sound like the justice system failed Matthew Shepherd because he was gay. The perpetrators were convicted and are now on death row! What additional justice could this legislation provide?”
Yet Matthew Shepherd’s Wikipedia page says this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard#The_trial
“Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999 and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he received two consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole. The jury in McKinney’s trial found him guilty of first-degree murder. As it began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard’s parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney also receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.”
So Ensley talks about what other people don’t know regarding the Shepard case, yet apparently he himself does not know that Shepard’s murderers aren’t on death row.
What worries me is that these sites might cause some of the straight teenagers out there on Myspace to shun or become hostile towards their gay friends or relatives. And then if these gay teens, who are vulnerable to peer pressure, want to figure out how to get their friend back, then they will feel like they have to go along with these ex-gay programs. From the little I know about Myspace, a lot of the gay people on there just have ordinary blogs, they talk about their lives, they don’t push anything. Some of these blogs you linked to seem to be really pushing the propaganda, and I worry about the effect that might have on teens and young people who feel they have no way out. It’s a very alluring prospect, that all they have to do is befriend people online and those people will turn them straight and make all their pain go away.
Well, I left a comment under that 12/14 hate crimes entry. I tried to be polite and respectful, because ultimately that is that person’s blog and I don’t want to try to be bullying or hostile. I just gave my opinion. We’ll see if I get a response or not. You guys can look and tell me what you think of my comment.
https://tinyurl.com/bmrng
I left a comment for Mike Ensley, but all his comments appear in about a 6pt font and his are in a 12pt. It appears that he doesn’t want anyone to read an opposing view. I did mention the whole Matt S. assailants not on death row. I doubt it made a difference, but i did it anyway!
James, it was Matthew Shephard’s mother who intervened and discouraged the prosecutor from going forward with the jury’s deliberation regarding the death penalty. I believed at the time that that was dumb thing to do. They could have gotten the jury’s determination, but the court did not have to go along with it. The court cannot impose a death penalty without the jury’s concurrence, but the court is not required to impose a death penalty that the jury might permit.
I really would be interested in what the jury would have determined.
Ensley and fellow exgay ad participants owe the public an explanation of why they allow for other voluntary traits such as religion to remain covered under hate-crime laws, while less-chosen or unchosen traits such as sexual orientation are not covered.
Absent a full presentation of their views on sex, race, and religion, the ad participants’ excuses for ignoring hate crimes based on sexual orientation seem flimsy and insincere to me.
Their sympathy for the brutal killers of Matthew Shepard emerges now and then in the excuses (based not on sworn testimony but on gossip years later) that the poor killers were just drunk, that the poor souls needed money for drugs, or that the killers are being punished too harshly (though they got off easy, thanks to Ms. Shepard).
Had Ms. Shepard not called for leniency, the killers likely would have been executed Then they might be seen as martyrs by the religious right — like Repent America — or perhaps they simply would have been denied a lifetime of opportunities to smear Matthew and to invent new excuses that contradict the sworn trial testimony.
I just saw your comment, Joe, you make a valid point. I don’t know if the small font size is deliberate or if maybe we just didn’t increase the font size for our messages.
it is deliberate. You can’t change the font size. I tried that. it goes small again.
Thanks for checking, Joe. That’s odd. Some of the other comments on his blog were just as small, even the supportive comments, and one other was a larger size, so I don’t know what causes the difference.
Regarding “text size,” you might not be able to force the comments into a larger font size (although I suspect that you could with the appropriate HTML tag), but you can force your browser to display them with a larger font size. With Internet Explorer, click on the “View” menu item, the “Text size” menu item and select your size. The default is medium, but you can enlarge the font or make it smaller. I’ve read that there are similar strategies with other browsers.
Another strategy, if you are really interested in a thread (I’m usually not) is to do a “select all” and copy it to a Notepad instance. That is usually all displayed at 12 point font.
the point is that his comments are a 12pt, anyone else who may say something negative is a 6pt. I feel this may be his way of avoiding any opposition to his goofy posts.
Joe Brummer at January 2, 2006 09:53 AM
Could be. I’ve never been there, and the likelihood is that I will never go there.
Michael A, has made the more accurate point.
The Shepard’s actually made their decision on the likelihood of the death penalty being carried out in their lifetimes.
This is a reality, considering the long appeals process.
And a resignation to that on the part of the Shepards.
They would have taken the death penalty otherwise, if they could count on a timely execution.
We have to also understand the real endurance of life without parole penalty and how often that is applied when it comes to crimes against gays and lesbians.
The Shepard verdict was unprecedented for the state of WY.
And it’s rarely applied in other states.
There have been many more short time served paroles of the killers of gays and lesbians, than actual long sentences served for such crimes.
Gays and lesbians are not assured equal justice for crimes set aside specifically for WHAT they are.
You can also look at how punishment is meted to gay and lesbian killers of each other or straight people.
They don’t get paroled, compared to straights who commit the same crime.
Look at the Matt Limon case.
He was given unequal treatment and punishment compared to straight boys who do the same thing on girls.
Those opposed to hate crimes legislation, should be pushing for the assurance of severe and appropriate punishment and that the orientation of the victim doesn’t mitigate that punishment.
I might add, that because Henderson, one of Shepard’s killers, took the plea, he’s now pushing for a trial. His complaint is that he didn’t receive adequate council.
Especially now that the show 20/20 aired a piece that suggested this was a robbery for drugs gone horribly wrong and not a hate crime.
Then what difference really, would or should it make that this unrepentent killer got two consecutive life terms?
We’d expect that if Matt Shepard had been straight and brutalized like that, right?
We wouldn’t even be questioning the appropriateness of the sentence if Matt hadn’t been a gay man out alone in a bar, simply having a drink or two or three.
Everything Matt did that night was only suspect because he was gay. No straight man’s similar behavior wasn’t seen that way.
But, out of Henderson and McKinney’s own mouth, was the defense that Matt Shepard had gotten physically flirtatious with them and enraged them.
And only a gay man would do that, right?
Or is it the ONLY excuse used when a gay man is targeted for violence on any level?
They only used that defense, because it’s worked before to lighten the punishment, if any is imposed at all.
Suggesting that gay men always in some way, deserved whatever violence happened to them.
And that assumption, is hateful in itself.
I am invested in the truth of what justice means.
Justice, after all….has BALANCED scales AND a SWORD in her hands.
Zach, seems to be a boy who can attract a diverse group of friends. I bet he’s a nice kid.
Seems perfectly harmless and stable.
His parents have a better son on their hands than they want to believe.
His future would be better served by their support, not the unrealistic expectations provided by LIA or any other ex gay promoters.
Zach has better things to do, and better things to reach for, than preoccupying himself with trying to be straight.
“Justice, after all….has BALANCED scales AND a SWORD in her hands.”
Posted by: Regan DuCasse at January 2, 2006 03:33 PM
I never noticed the sword, guess one sees only what one wants to. The scales of justice was one of my favourite symbols…
Regan said:
Those opposed to hate crimes legislation, should be pushing for the assurance of severe and appropriate punishment and that the orientation of the victim doesn’t mitigate that punishment.
I would agree we should always strive for this but the nature of human beings suggests that it may never be entirely so. This is one reason for an extensive appeals process, to counter such factors.
Especially now that the show 20/20 aired a piece that suggested this was a robbery for drugs gone horribly wrong and not a hate crime.
Wouldn’t this still be felony murder (murder in the first degree)?
David
Regan DuCasse at January 2, 2006 03:33 PM
I don’t disagree with Mike Airhart, but that is not my issue. My issue is that it would have been interesting to find out how the Wyoming jury would have voted in regards McKinney’s death penalty. The judge would not have been required to accept a death penalty determination by the jury, and Mrs. Shepard could have campaigned for leniency with the judge after the jury made its determination.
Regarding “Lady Justice” there is most definitely a sword. https://www.statue.com/lady-justice-statues.html
BTW, I would be surprised if Henderson’s request for a new trial will go anywhere. Except for discovery of new evidence, such requests rarely do.
Raj said “Regarding “Lady Justice” there is most definitely a sword. https://www.statue.com/lady-justice-statues.html
Thanks Raj, I had been wondering where I could get one of these and the searching I did hadn’t turned one up. I’m not sure I want one now as I never knew “Lady Justice” had a sword, but I’ll think about it.