Exodus International President Alan Chambers is upset at a TV commercial aimed at encouraging gay teen victims of homophobic bullying.
The ex-gay leader told the Christian Post he found it “disappointing” that the commercial used the character of Woody, the cowboy from the Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story:
Children all over the world, including my two children are fans of Toy Story and to see a character like that endorsing something that at this point children have no need to know about, it’s disappointing.
The ad, a promo for Google Chrome and part of the It Gets Better campaign, aired during an episode of Glee last week. Why would Alan’s five- and six-year-old would be watching a show like Glee anyway? Alan worries that if his kids “happen to see that and ask questions and if they get the full understanding of what the commercial is actually about, we will have to have the conversation. It’s not something I plan to talk to my kids … about.” One wonders why this concern about children having “the conversation” was never a problem with Exodus’s own highly public billboard campaigns.
But, while “it gets better” for targets of anti-gay bullying, Chambers’s message only gets worse:
“For organizations like Exodus International, which has thousands of men and women like me who have lived a gay life, it obviously didn’t get better living a gay life for them. I would say that today it has become radically better,” he said.
“I think that we have to promote the stories of people who have found an alternative to homosexuality but I think that at the same time the church has to do a better job at addressing issues related to bullying and violence and how kids have been treated at public schools.”
Chambers encourages the church and celebrities alike to stand up and be “supportive of our Christian values and to stand up and proclaim that.”
Let’s think about what Chambers is really saying here: He doesn’t want this positive message going out to gays because his ministry depends on homosexuals being unhappy. He pays lip service to “addressing” anti-gay bullying and violence, but his ultimate concern is that if gays are too happy, Exodus International is out of business.
Here’s the nasty, brutal reality of Exodus and “gay cure” organizations like it: They have a vested interest in keeping gays oppressed.
We’ve heard this before. When Chambers addressed his fellow Christians at last year’s Lausanne Conference, he said as much. Exodus accepts gays as long as they know their place. Exodus’s acceptance is for gays and lesbians who are helpless victims, willing to be pitied and then fixed. The more gays become well-adjusted and content, the less there is for Exodus to do — and that’s Alan’s biggest problem.
Watch the commercial for yourself, and see just how inoffensive it really is:
Good article, Dave. But I’d add another thing: IGB is not just for gay kids, but any kid bullied as being gay. This could include a straight but gender-non-conforming kid. Or a sensitive boy who cries “too much.” A girl who has short hair and loves sports.
How exactly would Alan and Exodus “fix” those kids? They’re already straight.
True. Makes the commercial even more inoffensive from an ex-gay POV. It’s like with hate crimes legislation, or so-called “special rights.” Why wouldn’t ex-gays support it? It protects them as much as it protects anyone else.
Exactly. And since Alan and Randy look and act more stereotypically gay than many gay men I know (or AS stereotypically), they better BELIEVE they’re targets just like those of us who are un-closeted.
I felt nauseous and then disgusted as I red Alan’s comments in the CP article. How can anyone bash a program designed to prevent suicide? Exodus does not want a world where gay people are accepted, they want a world where “heterosexuals with homosexual problems” are accepted as long as they know they are in need of change. Anything working against that view, no matter how successful or positive, irritates them. This works on some level only because they can still sell “the Bible says so” to a certain segment of the population. I suspect those days are numbered.
This is just “obviously” wrong. Of course it gets better. I don’t see how any ex-gay who was ever seriously bullied could think otherwise. This shouldn’t be a gay vs. ex-gay issue. Even for those ex-gays who think that [all] gay life cannot fully satisfy…there’s still gotta be an enormous difference between missing out on “God’s best” in opting for a gay relationship on the one hand, and the misery and despair that bullied adolescents and teens often live in on the other. I know that for many ex-gays, their experiences of gay love fell short of paradise, but they didn’t fall that short.
Whatever you think about homosexuality or gay life, it gets better. It gets better in part because the vast majority of bullies and bully-enablers eventually grow up and develop a sense of decency and restraint. And it gets better especially because as you grow up, you have more options and autonomy, more of an ability to choose where you want to be and whom you want to associate with and what kind of life you want. It is vitally important, from both gay and ex-gay perspectives, for a bullied adolescent or teen to realize that there are people out there who will accept and respect and support and love and delight in you and bring you joy, though you may not find them in the first place you look. It is absolutely true, from both perspectives, that it’s worth sticking around to meet them. And it’s also true, from both perspectives, that when you get older it becomes much easier to just ignore the haters and the jerks (I would use far stronger words, but I believe this blog has standards.) I’ve had occasional encounters with such people throughout my post high-school years, but that’s all they are, mere incidents, not an all-encompassing, life-defining, suffocatingly toxic atmosphere. And it’s true, from both perspectives, that your life has all kinds of potential for happiness, joy, love, fulfillment, richness, depth, and meaning that a tormented kid can’t even fathom. It SO gets better. Kids need to know and believe all these things—they can be so hard to see as a pre-teen or teen.
Exodus shouldn’t be trying to cover this up. If anything, they should be extending the message to conservative Christian kids who might not believe it will get better for them, who might watch IGB videos and think “Well, that’s all well and good for Adam Lambert, but what about me?”
I think that at the same time the church has to do a better job at addressing issues related to bullying and violence and how kids have been treated at public schools.
Sounds to me like that’s more about taking a swipe at public schools: “Oh, the problem isn’t anti-gay bullying as such – that’s just a subset of a wider problem of bullying and violence in those awful, godless public schools”.
@John H Or a tacit denial that anti-gay bullying could be a problem in Christian schools.
@Dave Rattigan
Ah, right. Yes, makes sense. “It’s those people, over there.”
A gay boy feels he’s under a curse,
and Alan’s there to make sure It Gets Worse.
It’s all part of his quest,
and he knows he’s been blessed
when the boy rides away in a hearse.
I thought it was beautiful. It actually brought tears to my eyes.
I swear children cannot be children anymore without someone throwing CRAP up in their faces that we as parents have to explain. Why the the WORLD …….would anyone in their RIGHT MIND choose to USE a CHILD’S TV cartoon to advertise being a gay.
This person~ PIXAR~ included must not have small children where you have to explain everything.
Children should NOT be subject to that kind of CRAP until they are old enough to be able to UNDERSTAND the facts. I have two 6 year old twins that was watching the much awaited winner of Survivor last night and there is this CRAP in front of them……
I was SHOCKED!
This was NOT GLEE as you point out…which by the way needs to be off the air…PERIOD.
No wonder our nation is the way it is…..Today people have no COOTH……They air all they know…they have no shut up sense. They have to shove it all down your throat.
I do hope this cartoon is taken out of this ad.
I’m guessing that whoever~ PIXAR~ included……was having a little play on words there with “Woody”….
See now do you get the point!!!!!!!!!!! Disgusting
@Tracey You alone see a double entendre in “Woody,” and you have the audacity to call the gays disgusting?
Interesting you let your six-year-olds watch Survivor, though. Don’t you find yourself forced to explain why a bunch of grown-ups are lying, deceiving and backstabbing each other to get their hands on a million dollars? Or is it just certain sins you dislike having to explain to your kids?