Inspired by this photo from Quest, a Wisconsin gay news site, I invite all our readers to submit similar photos of themselves to be posted on the upcoming Day Of Silence. Gay, ex-gay, ex-ex-gay and everstraight are all welcome. Just take a photo of yourself (one person per image) in the “silenced” pose and email it to me as a reasonably sized JPEG (at least 200×200 pixels). I will not publish names or emails with the photos, this affords a degree of anonymity to those for whom it is a concern. And for our Exodus readers, I promise not to use any photos you submit for future infographics.
Talk about being silenced is welcome here? Hmmm…we shall see.
LOTS to read here. Not only was this man basically told to “shut up,” but he was falsely accused of sexual harassment by two gay professors.
How come there is no post about that incident over here?
Oh yeah…now I remember why:
Excerpt from “Ironies abound” written by FWPeretto:
“What really makes this case stand out in my mind is that the Kupelian book, which Savage’s persecutors most loathed and set out after him for, describes precisely the sort of tactic they used against him as a principal weapon in homosexual activism. The operative term is jamming: “Psychological terrorism meant to silence expression of, or even support for, dissenting opinion.” (Paul Rondeau, Regent University) This tactic is explicitly recommended to homosexual activists by “After The Ball,” Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen’s seminal book on strategy and tactics for the homosexual movement.
Plainly, these folks don’t want anyone blowing the whistle on their little game.”
Christine, it true. You have found us all out.When we (The Gays) are recruited into this lifestyle we all receive a copy of After The Ball. That, and a toaster oven goes to the person who recruits us.You have no idea what you are talking about. Kupelian has constructed a complete work of fiction, and you wouldn’t even know it. Go back to reading him over at WorldNutDaily and stop bothering people.Mike, given this above post is more in the nature of an advert for an anti-gay blog (and the piece of tripe from Kupelian) rather than a post on topic…?
Wow, Christine, you’re certainly displaying some hostility, aren’t you?
The real reason we’ve not discussed your issue here is because, until now, I’ve not heard of it. I’ll try to read up and give you my opinion (which, incidentally, will be just that: my opinion – not that of some “homosexual movement”)
In the meanwhile you might wish to chill out with your accusations of “jamming”. This is not the sort of site where you can post wild accusations or use an incivil tone.
I have read After the Ball and I believe I met Madsen once, but neither he nor Kirk write here (as best I know) and so they don’t speak for us. You may also be surprised to learn that the “homosexual movement” is not so homogenous as you may suppose. We have neither a “Gay Agenda” nor have we adopted After the Ball as a manifesto.
But if you can be polite and want to have dialog you are certainly welcome here. Just try to keep it factual, supported, and civil.
OK, folks, I read up a bit on this one…
And the reason, Christine, that we didn’t discuss this here when it happened is because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the ex-gay movement. Generally, we pretty much limit ourselves to stories that have some connection with the ex-gay movement or those involved with the ex-gay movement (eg this thread is about Day of Silence, a program targeted by PFOX).
– And, by the way Christine, your site was not informative about the subject. I had to go elsewhere for the fact pattern. So folk wishing to link to Christine’s site, don’t bother –
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
Some librarian named Scott Savage recommended four books be added to the “First Year Reading Experience” at Ohio State. Two of the books are decidedly anti-gay: Kupelian’s “The Marketing of Evil” (guess who’s evil), and Santorum’s “It Takes a Family” (guess what that one’s about).
Some professors got offended and overreacted a bit and filed a sexual orientation harassment claim. The school looked into the situation and decided that there had not been harassment.
End of story? Of course not. Savage is talking of suing.
I have no idea what else is on the reading list. If it is comprised of only – or significantly – left-leaning literature than I don’t fault Savage for including right-leaning literature. If, however, it is stuff like Twain, Orwell, Dickenson, Keats, and Browning then Savage had no place trying to push his particular political agenda on students, be it rightist or leftist.
Since Kupelian is significantly related (owner?) to WorldNetDaily, and since this isolated incident feeds well into the persecution complex that some conservative Christians share, WND whipped this up into a froth of anti-gay venom.
They lumped all gay people together in such phrases as “homosexual community is the first to cry intolerance at the slightest perceived indignity”, “radical homosexual groups”, “the radical homosexual lobby is pushing its lifestyle on American society and using intimidation tactics”, “the aggressive intentions of the radical homosexual lobby”. The usual.
And the simple existence of an isolated incident gives folks like Christine endless hours of pleasure decrying the Evil Homosexuals who are Trying to Silence Good Christians who only want to Spread the Word of how EVIL those Nasty Homosexuals are.
Yawn.
There’s zero point in trying to engage Christine on anything. She just brings up the same anti-gay talking points over and over. I’ve gone over several of the claims the book makes on her site in detail showing her where Kupelian is either making wild unsubstantiated accusations or outright lying, and she just doesn’t care. Any stick to beat gay people with seems to be fine.
Your original post stated that all were welcome to post photos indicating people being silenced. Then you stated:
“Gay, ex-gay, ex-ex-gay and everstraight are all welcome.”
I didn’t have a photo to share, I had a story to share. Just as I figured would happen. This story is not welcome here because it doesn’t fit your little ex-gay bashing agenda. Figures…
Christine, this page was for lighthearted self-portraits of people from different perspectives in the “silenced” pose appropriate for the Day of Silence.
We recognize that people from different backgrounds are denied freedom of speech. However, your post is off-topic here — you offered no lighthearted photo and no message compatible with someone who silences oneself for a day.
If you honestly intended a sincere discussion, then:
— you should have posted to one of the Open Forum pages, which are open to any topic
— you should not have presumed that people at XGW are anti-free-speech,
— you should not have lobbed accusations at strangers — unlike you, Jesus loved strangers,
— you could have acknowledged the value of silence as a religious and political means of vigil against injustice, whatever one’s political, religious, or sexual background,
— you should not have attempted to shout down a discussion of the Day of Silence with accusations and erroneous claims that you still do not care to verify or rescind
I have not banned you yet, but you are walking on thin ice due to your incivility and your unwillingness to discuss the facts — admitting any honest mistakes — with your neighbors here at XGW.
If you post again, please post to an Open Forum page. Disruptions of this page’s topic are not permitted.
Christine- has it occurred to you to wonder why you’re pretty much the only one commenting on your blog now? What do you think it is that’s driving people away?
I hope this fixes the bolding problem Christine left the blog. people should take more care with their tags, although it does happen sometimes.
“I didn’t have a photo to share, I had a story to share. Just as I figured would happen. This story is not welcome here because it doesn’t fit your little ex-gay bashing agenda. Figures…”
Actually, I was far more considerate of Christine’s story than I would have been of someone else’s offtopic link. She came here looking for a fight and instead we took her claim seriously, looked into it, and explained why it wasn’t relevant to our site.
We shared the story.
As it turns out, Christine did not want to discuss the story and how WND blew it out of proportion, after all. She only wanted to post here about our “little ex-gay bashing agenda”.
I seems that Christine is suffering from a very serious case of Mote-and-Beam Christianity. We should pray for her.
🙂
Christine, if you have a picture of yourself being silenced, I’m sure Daniel will include it.
Our “little ex-gay bashing agenda” isn’t so restrictive that we can’t include those who disagree with us (it wasn’t written by Madsen and Kirk).
It saddens me that Christine does not want to be tolerated or respected by anyone whom she finds objectionable.
She craves rejection in order to justify her own rejection of people.
What a sad distortion of faith and community values.
(Reminder to Christine: You may not comment on this page — you must locate an Open Forum page and post your concerns there. If you have a pleasant photo to post, please join everyone else in contacting Daniel.)
OH GOOD HEAVENS
One thing I didn’t catch earlier which the WND article conveniently forgot to mention was:
“..as required reading for the incoming freshman class.”
Yep. Savage wanted gay freshmen students at a public school to BE REQUIRED to read how evil they are.
https://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/212006f.asp
Yes Timothy — hence the original complaint. The staff felt that the mere insertion of that spurious work of vicious fiction into “compulsoty reading” by the librarian responsible was “harassment”. Arguably, but not according to the university guidelines; so the complaint was flung.It’ll go nowhere. I think it’s a marketing ploy by Kupelian. If the book had been made compulsory — then there would be a clear case of harrassment. The university doesn’t sound that stupid.
Since it was brought up, just a quick point – the school dropped the “harassment” charge against Scott Savage, which I think is appropriate. Mr. Savage’s recommendation was in totally poor taste, and especially inappropriate as freshman reading, and was properly rejected by the selection committee. However, his recommendation as a recommendation doesn’t warrant a charge of harrassment because all it was is a recommendation or opinion (however wrongheaded.)
Result? The recommendation is rejected, Scott Savage is free to hold his beliefs and everyone’s right to an opinion is protected.
Sorry, I should have read Timothy’s post closer – he mentioned the fact the harassment charges were dropped.