Apparently still concerned about their media image, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is resorting to threats concerning the use of their actual images. Consider the following introduction to video clips of their latest conference:
Video on this web site cannot be copied, reproduced, downloaded or used in any way other than for viewing on the NARTH web site. Any violation thereof will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
The warning also appears at the beginning of each video. Apparently the concept of fair use does not agree with NARTH’s need for control. One can sympathize to some extent, considering the rather sad impression an unvarnished look at their main personality, Joseph Nicolosi, can make.
Among the videos (we assume NARTH hasn’t yet figured out a way to keep others from discussing them) there is Dr. Stanton Jones, co-author of the ex-gay study for Exodus, accepting some sort of award. He talks so fast that one can only wonder if even he wanted to escape the conference as quickly as possible. We also assume the rather anemic applause reflected the less than 50 people in attendance, and not any disdain for Dr. Jones.
It’s hard not to find some humor in a character like Nicolosi, but this truly is a silly thing to do. Like the process by which reparative therapists form their claims, hording information and discussion like this is really the antithesis of what scientific thought is all about. If they truly believe their claims will hold up under scrutiny, well then let others scrutinize freely.
What might they do next, ban the use of written transcripts? Insist that viewers purge their web cache upon leaving their site? How much control are they willing to exercise to prop up a flawed concept, not to mention Nicolosi’s considerable ego?
At the beginning on the video Stanton Jones says sexual orientation change = behavioral chastity or complicated heterosexual behaviour. That’s the best NARTH can offer? That’s not change in sexual orientation, that’s only change in behaviour.
narth has such an ugly sound to it … it sounds like a swear word to me … so I am going to advocate that we all use the word “narth” as the new swear word … Go to narth! Shut the narth up! What the narth?
Yeah, I think it might work!
(Just trying to have some fun)
how about, “he narthed it up.” “he totally narthed that one.”
good one emily 🙂
Yeah, the first thing I thought of was Fair Use, which is a fairly respected idea by the courts. As an instructor, I am free to use any material for the purpose of education, and that is an awesome right. Screw NARTH–I will show their videos in class to examine critical thinking. Why? Simply because they don’t want people to.
Rather than a meaningless swear word, why not one with meaning – something that actually refers to Narth’s methods.
NARTH will publish the rantings of ANYONE who agrees whith their condemnations of gay folks, even if it involves justifying slavery or mocking children. They will distort studies and make entirely baseless claims. They are entirely driven by their conclusions and will twist anything to come up with that conclusion.
Thus to “narth it up” would be to run with a story based on the conclusion and care nothing about the facts.
For example, Peter LaBarbera claimed that gays were introducing MRSA to straights and that it’s the new HIV. It turns out that the exact opposite is true – MRSA has been mostly in straight communities like sports teams and the military and has only recently been seen in two gay communities in SF and Boston.
Pete really narthed it on that one.
Did anyone else notice that Julie Harren, the new President-elect, made no presentation – or at least not in their video clips?
Also, interestingly, their site still lists Nicolosi as President when Byrd has been in place for over a year.
The resources on the Day of Truth website had a much smaller legal disclaimer stipulating they could only be used for purposes consistent with the mission of the Day of Truth, even more absurd and unenforceable than NARTH’s statement.
Narth Narth Narth Narth… Narth Narth Narth Narth… Hey Hey Hey… Goodbye!….
I seriously get the impression that NARTH and Pete, even PFOX literally scramble all across the news to see any negative things to report in regards to the LGT community… facts with truths or LGTs making good, even real positive potrayals of LGTs seem illusive to them… then they went on hammering through their media and sites as that their ‘information’ is SO ‘exclusive’ and ‘important’ like what NARTH is showing here; I admit that really irks me….
Dan Savage had a contest a while back to attach a definition to the word Santorum. He came up with…well, you know what he came up with…so to speak. Delicacy, for the lack of which I have been chided a few times, forbids me.
However, Dan’s campaign worked and santorum is forever more associated with, well, you know.
I think a little imagination could come up with something for narth. I actually have one… shares more than just poetical consonance with barf… but delicacy, etc….
Your avoidance of the specifics on that is much appreciated 😉
HAHAHAHAHAH!
None of the videos will play.
I thought of both Santorum’s “association” and an episode of “The Office” (US) where Andy Bernard tries to turn boss Michael Scott against his loyal suck up, Dwight Schrute, by turning “Schrute” into a negative expression. To “Schrute It” means to mess it up beyond repair. It never caught on.
the success of the “santorum” campaign hinged very much upon the success of Savage’s website explaining the definition of santorum – which I believe at one point surpassed the senator’s own personal website in search engine results.
Isn’t this the group that has certified wacko Richard Cohen, self proclaimed sexual reorientation specialist (he certifies himself, can you believe it!) as a member?
Another consequence of their lame attempt to keep them locked down is that the are in Windows Media Video format only. Some people will have issues playing those.
One other reason that narth profanity will not catch on is that NARTH is little more than an obscure pseudo-academic oddity. Essentially an in-joke that isn’t funny.
Santorum was about as high profile as they get (although he appears to have just *poof* disappeared since getting smoked in the PA Senate race). People had heard of him, but ask yourselves: How many people do you know who aren’t really knowledgeable about ex-gay issues who would be able to say they had even heard of NARTH?
NARTH seems to be drifting from obscure towards oblivion, so it isn’t likely that NARTH name recognition will increase in the near or long term.
The wierd thing is these videos can be so easily downloaded. I dont get the security issue
Michael,
Depending on the platform, one might even have to download them before being able to view. The security is the warning. They know you can download them, but they are trying to make it seem illegal to do so.
It’s pretty obvious from his actions and the reports of others (even some who like him have said privately) that Nicolosi is an uber control-freak. And regardless of what they say, Nicolosi runs NARTH. The membership doesn’t even vote to elect the figure head presidents. It’s all quite a sham from my view.
To put it bluntly, Nicolosi looked like a spoiled brat in that CNN video where he ripped off his mic and walked away in a huff. They just don’t want to see anyone do the same with the new video. Have your cake, eat it too, and pass the rest around to friends. It’s all fine as long as they don’t actually claim to be a legitimate, professional, scientific organization, but unfortunately they do.
What the narth is that all about? I just propose that we start making light of these organizations that take themselves so seriously that they think their #2 smells like roses.
I have a big problem with imperfect people walking around as if they were perfect and forming organizations that perpetuate their alleged superiority whether it be for race or sexual orientation or both.
It amazes me that, in the ex-gay ministry and the like, they act like God put a crown on their head and said, “Come, sit on my right hand and bash the gay people.” I’m tired of seeing these people act as if they are God.
Like the priest in the movie Rudy said, “Of all my years of studying theology I have come down to two conclusions: There is a God, and I’m not him.” They could take a lesson from those words.
As to the warning of their videos, they also need to add… WARNING: THESE VIDEOS ARE EXTREMELY BORING. DRINKING COFFEE AND TAKING NO-DOZE IS ADVIZED.
I’m still asking this question of the NARTH-ers and any other supporter of ‘change’.
Just EXACTLY why is changing necessary and for whose benefit is it really?
I want them to define ‘freedom’ from it. And what that has to do with fairness in housing, jobs, military service and marriage equality.
Homosexuality isn’t a fatal disorder, a fatal addiction or any thing that threatens an individual’s physical or even mental well being.
So where is the urgency in changing? And what do they define change really is?
It’s not that I’m confused. I think from even a perspective of law enforcement, or even responsible members of the medical and mental health establishments, there are FAR, FAR more human conditions that require urgent attention, funding, research and searches for treatments and cures.
Autism comes to mind. Sociopathy, which is the stealthiest of human emotional conditions, which can also be deadly to the unsuspecting. And any one of us can be unsuspecting.
We are confronted every day with horrific news regarding domestic violence that wipes out whole nuclear families.
We are also confronted every day with corporate greed so profound, our foreign policy is more under the influence of that, than economic loyalty to members of this country.
We are also confronted every day with those who are indigent and dispossessed of any material or creature comforts on the streets. They are obviously mentally ill or addicted to the point of complete disability. To not even be able to wash properly.
Addiction, mental disorder to the point of disability, or lack of human empathy to the point of assault or violence or theft on another human being…should concern those of NARTH, FAR more than homosexuality EVER has to.
The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against the state of California over SB 777. SB777 is anti bullying and discrimination legislation for LGBT students. These are protective measures for obvious reasons.
Assault, violence and arbitrary expulsion are realities for gay children that a compassionate human being should hate and work to prevent.
Not so for the ADF. They consider the legislature without merit.
But they are putting much time and effort and money into thwarting any laws that give gays and lesbians, no matter their age, some peace in the world.
Christian values indeed.
Why would ADF want to see children, whether they are gay or not, treated in any way that’s cruel and unnecessary?
The suicide of Ahmed Nastoh is something perhaps they should be reminded of. A 14 year old that drowned himself after enduring brutal bullying and anti gay epithet.
He didn’t have to actually be gay, just the suspicion is enough. Taught and fostered by the values that ADF espouses.
Something they support. That gay children need constant reminders that their lives have no value.
Every day that I hear that a parent murdered their children, or a gang shooting killed youngsters at a party (such as what happened over the weekend here in LA.), or that another young Hollywood talent died from overdosing, the most I see the folly and utter arrogant stupidity of groups like NARTH and ADF.
To convince me that homosexuality is worse, and worthy of all that ADF puts into their legal work, or that NARTH puts forth as needing to be changed or else the individual or society is doomed, it won’t be hard for me to VERY impolitely tell these knuckleheads they look stupid and are wasting a lot of time in their pusuit of persecuting gay people.
Shame on them all. Seriously.
Regan: all your points are well taken and obvious. But, as i have consistently stated, I really don’t think this is so much about homosex OR religion as it is about how much homosex bothers some straight people, how much some gay people who want to be straight are ALSO bothered by it, how much power and money is associated with it, and how self-righteousness is much easier to handle than self-improvement.
Ultimately, it is easier to mind someone else’s business than it is to mind one’s own.