# Ex-Gay Watch

> Monitoring the ex-gay movement since 2003.


## Posts

- [Kernel of Truth About AIDS-Chasers](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/02/kernel-of-truth/): The Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation demands that Rolling Stone magazine publish a lengthy correction of a seriously flawed article on a niche of promiscuous gay men who actively seek to become infected with HIV. However, GLAAD overstates its case. The group cites “shoddy journalism with no factual evidence to support it.” Unfortunately, responsible gay and mainstream media outlets have accurately reported on “bug chasers” before. While Rolling Stone exaggerated and distorted the facts, the magazine article’s sources maintain that bug-chasers do exist. The evidence is there. There is concern among some doctors. The issue should continue to be addressed...
- [Confused News Reports From Ex-Gay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/02/confused-news-r/): Notes from yesterday’s Exodus news briefing. 1. Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays), misportrays the reasons why station KBYU pulled a program by reparative therapist Jeff Robinson. Instead of addressing the radio station’s actual concerns, Griggs launches into the rhetoric of victimhood that is so common among culture warriors of all sorts. 2. Exodus member ministry leader Rob Taylor offers the puzzling observation that adult comics and dolls are made for kids. Truth is, kids generally don’t read comics anymore, and adult-oriented comics with sexual overtones have always held an important niche in the comic book...
- [Against Violence, But in Favor Of… What](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/02/against-violenc/): An Exodus media spotlight acknowledges and opposes antigay violence in U.S. schools. That’s a good thing; religious-right organizations regularly deny the existence of antigay violence and discrimination, so it’s encouraging to see an ex-gay organization acknowledge violence after it happens. Here’s a suggestion: It’s all too easy for advocacy groups of all kinds to say they’re against something after the fact. But what are they for? How do they intend to prevent injustice? Whether the topic is bullying, the war against Iraq, or nuclear power, advocacy groups tend to be better at saying they are against something than at offering a...
- [The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Enemy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/the-enemy-of-my/): I don’t understand the tendency among some partisans to defend someone only because they claim to be fighting the same enemy. The religious right’s defense of an enemy of gays — who also happens to be an enemy of compassionate Christian conservatism — is a case in point. Pat Ware is the African American head of the presidential advisory commission on AIDS. She was placed on the commission by President Bush in recognition of her ties to a conservative AIDS policy think tank, the Family Research Council, and other conservative family-policy groups. An oddity among the colorblind Bush administration, Ware reportedly...
- [Postscript: Christian Newspaper Revisited](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/postscript-chri/): The Charlotte World interviewed two people: one who, as previously noted, felt homosexuals should not be permitted to use public pools, and another who felt no club should identify itself as gay, since any mention of “gay” is “in your face.” No doubt the second individual feels the same way about ex-gay groups. Achhem. At any rate, the World interviewed no other sources offering less extreme points of view. One may surmise the newspaper feels it has presented a balanced “Christian” viewpoint.
- [Christian Newspaper Opposes Gays in Public Pool](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/christian-newsp/): The Charlotte World, a self-described Christian newspaper in Charlotte, N.C., published an article suggesting that a gay group shouldn’t be allowed to use a local public swimming pool because of health and moral concerns. This sounds like a great opportunity for North Carolina ex-gays to educate their conservative allies about the modern miracle of chlorine, the demographics of STD rates, and the ugly American legacy of discrimination in public facilities.
- [Campus Crusade Official: Parents, Invade Your Coaches’ Sex Lives](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/campus-crusade/): Revised Feb. 16, 2005 The Washington Post ran an article Jan. 24 (2003) depicting the state of affairs in colleges’ recruitment of student athletes. Some antigay coaches for women’s teams are apparently running amok, telling prospective students that rival coaches are lesbians bent on "recruitment" of the non-sporting variety. Parents in some cases are lapping up the propaganda, exerting heavy pressure on their 18-year-old children to avoid — or quit — schools with coaches who are alleged to be lesbian. Unfortunately, the head of a division of Campus Crusade for Christ is quoted as if to encourage parents’ preoccupation with coaches’...
- [Ties That Bind Some Gays And Christianity](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/ties-that-bind/): When someone asks why gays would be attracted to Christianity, I have to ask: Which Christianity? Which gays? Same-sex-attracted folks who reject their sexual status-quo are attracted to fundamentalist and conservative Catholic institutions. (Though some very satisfied gays are also attracted to those churches’ traditions and authority.) Spiritually and socially inclined gays are attracted to the healing, social service, peace, and contemplation churches — Catholic hospitals, Catholic Charities, United Church of Christ, Quakers, Thomas Merton. Activists seeking to liberate church and society from authoritarianism and economic violence are attracted to Catholic Worker houses and the Maryknolls — those are the folks...
- [Fundamentalism Hurts](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/fundamentalism/): Great stuff from the Real Live Preacher blog: If you want to know about the Taliban, ask an Afghani woman. If you want to know about Christian fundamentalism, ask a Christian. Fundamentalists are more than interesting television for us. They are people with real power who harm our churches, destroy good ministers, and sully our name. We’ve been in the cages with these cats, and they go for the jugular. They are always on the prowl, circling the campfires of the followers of Christ, howling the name of Jesus and splattering our heritage across their banners of hatred. Watching fundamentalism do...
- [Celibate But Not Ex-Gay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/celibate-but-no/): “For religious reasons, I no longer have sex with men and don’t plan to. … Homosexuality is a choice.” –David Bianco, founder of the gay-press syndication service Q Syndicate, in his “Over The Rainbow” column, Dec. 16. Source: Rex Wockner Comments about this message, submitted to Ex-Gay Watch’s former blog location: What Bianco should have said is “homosexual behavior is a choice,” just as heterosexual behavior is a choice. No one knows all the determinants of sexual orientation. There is strong evidence for at least a significant, genetic, inheritable component to sexual orientation. As far as I know, there is no...
- [Satan Does Not Assault Ex-Gays; Exodus Assaults Itself](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/satan-does-not/): Randy Thomas is a friendly, good-natured, nonviolent fellow who happens to be a spokesperson for Exodus International. His personal weblog offers a frank view of the disarmingly ordinary activities at Exodus offices in Orlando. It’s worth a look. Recently, Randy said: Now, to be sure with all the great things happening at the office, the adversary of our souls is not at rest either. Of course satan seeks to stop all of this so please support Exodus with prayers for protection and wisdom. This is definitely trench warfare in some aspects and it must not be forgotten that we win the...
- [Hospitality](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/hospitality/): “I don’t hate you. I just think that you’re being a pervert … God is angry with your kind of moral behavior.” –The Rev. Jerry Falwell to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Dec. 2 on CNN. Falwell receives his training in Christian hospitality toward gays from the ex-gay Kerusso Ministries. Source: Rex Wockner
- [Exodus Fights for Discrimination in Orlando](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/01/exodus-fights-f/): From the Interfaith Working Group: The Orlando City Council passed a non-discrimination ordinance 4-3. As part of its coverage, the Orlando Sentinel published a long article about Alan Chambers, the President of the ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International and a leader in People for a United Orlando, the organization opposing the ordinance. The article says Chambers “became involved in the City Hall fight as an individual, not as a representative of Exodus,” but a prominent note on the Exodus web site encouraged people to write to the Sentinel for a copy of the article. The Orlando Sentinel article by Nancy Imperiale...
- [Ex-Gay Ministries Not Incapable of Respect for Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2002/07/ex-gay-ministri/): Ex-gay minister Tom Cole remembers being gaybashed as a child. I was called a fag, a queer, or a sissy. Although I did not fully understand the meaning of these terms, I began to identify with them. School became a dichotomy; wanting and loving to learn, yet fearing the daily harassment and violence. I was chased from school and beat up nearly everyday of my elementary school life. Now the executive director of an ex-gay group in Michigan, he offers a religious ministry to individuals struggling with sexual addiction, fixation and compulsion. Outspoken about his successful transformation from same-sex promiscuity to heterosexual...
- [A Bit of Narcissism From Exodus Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2002/07/a-bit-of-narcis/): In its June 13, 2002, press release, the ex-gay network Exodus International reflected on recent meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention: Prayer & Action for the Catholic Bishops in Dallas and for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in St. Louis is needed now as both groups are receiving persecution from the homosexual community. You wouldn’t know it from the press release, but the SBC was being pressured by devout Catholics and Protestants, as well as Jews and other people of faith. Several were heterosexual, others were celibate, and one in particular had been “married” to his gay partner for almost 30...
- [Threats to Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/threats-to-marr/): Ken Connor of the Family Research Council today describes his support base as “fellow defenders of family, faith and freedom around the country.” Divorce rates reported by the Census Bureau and Barna Research Group tell a different story. It’s a widely reported fact: Among all states, divorce rates are highest in the Bible Belt. Among the reasons cited by think tanks and conservative clergy are: poor educational system; low incomes; and young adults pressured into marriage at too early an age. Divorce rates are far lower in the Northeast and West, where public schools are better-run and -supported, incomes are higher,...
- [Which Side Can’t Think Or Listen?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/which-side-cant/): On May 28, I said: Some day perhaps I’ll understand my fascination with attempting to dialogue with folks with limited ability to listen or think critically. In an online forum, someone innocently interpreted “folks with limited ability to listen or think critically” as a description of people who believe homosexuality is immoral. Not so at all. The statement applies to people who regularly spew presumption and bitterness against rival sides in the culture wars. People who believe, act, and react according to strawman arguments, when they could instead attend to disagreements with appropriate accuracy, clarification, respect and humility. Culture warriors come...
- [False Fly-Over](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/false-fly-over/): From The Orlando Sentinel: Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has become the first to welcome folks to Gay Days at Disney, saying “I’m the first mayor to attend this event, and I promise this won’t be my last.” It would be a kind gesture of Christian hospitality for Exodus officials Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas to welcome gays to Orlando — unconditionally. They ask nothing less of gays. An Ex-Gay Watch reader comments on the Family Policy Network’s planned flyover of Gay Days, which would violate federal restrictions on Disney’s airspace. Seemingly from another planet, the Family Policy Network has declared itself...
- [Young Gay America](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/young-gay-ameri/): Knight Ridder Newspapers reports on a web site that records a social shift in the journeys of gay youths. Younggayamerica.com features hundreds of stories that counter the stereotype of gay kids as harassed and suicidal. There’s 17-year-old Liz, launching her Colorado town’s first gay pride event; 15-year-old Emily, in Pipe Creek, Texas, happily counting herself among more than a dozen gay kids at her school; Nathan in tiny Waverly, Neb., talking nonchalantly about being the only out gay person at his high school. Says Nathan about his peers’ unruffled reaction: “Being gay was just something else about me.” It’s good to...
- [Civil Rights Based on Choice?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/civil-rights-ba/): Ex-Gay Watch reader Rev. D.L. Foster appeared on CWFA radio, discussing his life and his concern that the push for civil rights for gays demeans African-Americans. Foster and the CWFA host differentiate between civil rights based on race and orientation by noting that orientation is sometimes fluid but race is not. In 1970, though, Roger Mills and Berta Johnson sought a simple marriage license but had to take their request to a federal judge before a Mississippi county circuit clerk would comply. Mills was white and Johnson was African-American. They later received hate mail urging them to abort their daughter, calling...
- [Exodus Spokesman’s Battleships](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/exodus-spokesma/): From Randy Thomas’ blog two days ago: At church today Pastor Clark Whitten said “The church needs to get out of the cruise line mentality and into the battle ship mentality.” I stifled a big amen to that! This consumer mentality toward church has got to go. Ironically, the religious-right alliance that includes Exodus opposes democratic restraints against big-business commercialism. And it is arguably the religious right that commercialized American Christianity via: Pray TV direct-mail fundraising patriotic merchandising the disposal of Jewish and Christian history and tradition predating fundamentalism and World War II cut-throat competition against mainstream, traditional Christianity. In this...
- [Amos And the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/amos-and-the-re/): Very interesting commentary by Bob Griffith: If those of the Christian Religious Right are looking expectantly for the second coming of Christ as vindication [against their enemies], they should take the prophetic admonishment of Amos to heart. I’m studying for my OT final and am reading Amos. Amos 5:18-20 deals with the expectation of the inhabitants of Israel, the northern kingdom, the Israelites, as piously expecting to be vindicated against their enemies at the “day of the Lord,” but in reality it will be a very dark day for them because of their own injustice and sin – their own self-righteousness....
- [Presbyterian Speaks on Ex-Gay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/presbyterian-sp/): Cleveland K. Evans, Ph.D, developed an overview of research involving ex-gay sexual conversion therapy. This summary might prove handy the next time one hears an activist vaguely referencing scientific studies about sexuality in order to justify a political viewpoint. Critique of Sexual Conversion Therapy, May 27, 2003 Given at the More Light Presbyterians Luncheon, 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, at Denver , Colorado
- [California Domestic Partnership](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/california-dome/): Exodus sister organization Focus on the Family urges Californians to contact their legislators to stop a domestic partnership bill. The bill would give partnerships rights and responsibilities comparable to civil marriage. Focus on the Family provides contact information for key lawmakers, but avoids providing its grass-roots activists with the actual text of the legislation. Here is the text as it stands this week. (For updates and other information about the bill, visit the legislature’s bill information page and enter bill number 205.) Focus on the Family offers no material evidence that the legislation would harm either the civil or the religious...
- [Philadelphia Boy Scouts](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/philadelphia-bo/): Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America oppose local autonomy for Boy Scout councils, such as one in Philadelphia that professes tolerance of gay scouts or troop leaders. …What’s most troubling to [Peter LaBarbera of CWFA] is the fact that gay activists seem to be the only ones demanding that the Boy Scouts include homosexuals. “I don’t hear a big clamor across America of parents wanting homosexual Scout leaders,” LaBarbera said. It is likely that LaBarbera knows otherwise. Groups of Philadelphia parents, Unitarians, and agnostics protested the national Boy Scout leadership’s intolerance at its convention, and held a vigil...
- [Anti-Islamic Double Standard](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/anti-islamic-do/): Exodus ally Focus on the Family and Gary Bauer warn that the term “Judeo-Christian” is under assault from Muslim groups. “The country was built on Judeo-Christian values, and Islamic values in many, many ways are inconsistent with the very ideals of the American public,” Bauer said. I’ve noted before that the term “Judeo-Christian” is, by some accounts, a post-World-War-II phrase used by some politically conservative Christians to imply that their unorthodox values have much in common with Judaism, the non-rightist mainstream of Christianity, or U.S. history. He added there are millions of peace-loving Muslims, but added that there are plenty of...
- [‘FRC Criticizes ‘Amazing Race’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/frc-criticizes/): Wherever CWFA’s Robert Knight treads, other religious right groups usually follow.
- [Fund-Raising for Ex-Gays Via Gay Days](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/fund-raising-fo/): The Virginia-based Family Policy Network says it will “turn ‘Gay Days’ into ‘Hope Days.'” Sponsors needed for Christian outreach to homosexuals The press release certainly starts badly, assuming gays aren’t Christian, and implying that they’re going to hell. One also wonders, why does the religious right go out of its way to convey messages in inordinately costly and impersonal ways? If prospective ex-gays are looking for hope in antigay religion, they will look to CBN or find an antigay church or religious book. People attend Gay Days looking for fun, not impersonal and overpriced ads for religious-right web sites. Every year...
- [Know A Good Comic Strip?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/know-a-good-com/): James Asal is an exceptional comic-strip artist. Adam and Andy finds light humor in ordinary gay life. I’ve looked around, and I’ve yet to find an ex-gay comic-strip artist, someone who finds nonthreatening humor in ex-gay life. Know of an ex-gay comic strip? Tell us about ’em.
- [‘Married’ Gays on CBS](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/married-gays-on/): Submitted by an Ex-Gay Watch reader: WorldNetDaily, a religious-right publication edited by Joseph Farah, and Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America are teaming up against the appearance on CBS of a gay couple that calls itself married. Publicity for the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race 4” does not say how the pair is married. But WorldNetDaily and Concerned Women want to know how — and they want to destroy this marriage, or at least hide it from public view. If they can’t bury the marriage, they at least hope to punish the show’s sponsors, including American Express, Kodak, Royal...
- [‘You Don’t Have to Change’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/you-dont-have-t/): This is something that gays have never heard clearly from Exodus. Exodus and its religious right allies declare, “You can change.” But in the presence of discriminatory laws, and the absence of any declaration of tolerance, what the public hears is, “You must change.” If there are any ex-gays who believe change is possible but not required, they would be clearing up a tragic miscommunication if they came forward and said so publicly.
- [Traditional Values Coalition Needs A Shepherd](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/traditional-val/): An Ex-Gay Watch reader sent me this item from The Washington Post. The article is about the upcoming gay-dating reality show, “Boy Meets Boy”: Among those additional viewers are sure to be members of the Traditional Values Coalition, whose executive director was already alerting its 43,000 member churches about the series so that they could protest it, the Associated Press reported. “What’s next,” Andrea Lafferty asked, ” ‘Boy Meets Sheep’?” TVC has, for many years, cited the existence of ex-gays as a reason to pass laws discriminating against gays — and to donate to TVC. For all its statements, I have...
- [Concerned Women Vs Horowitz](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/concerned-women/): Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America has added a new chapter to his string of arguments against conservative David Horowitz and other defenders of small government and family privacy. Knight seems to redefine the term “Christians” to refer only to those who agree with Sen. Santorum and the antiprivacy movement. Jewish law is similarly redefined. Omitted from Knight’s portrayal of the Old and New Testaments are the books that distinguish among various Jewish moral codes and the more relaxed Gentile moral codes.
- [Gay Pride Parades](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/gay-pride-parad/): Item 3 on this week’s news release from Exodus seems remarkably balanced, both in its assessment of sexual minorities’ different attitudes toward the parades and in appropriate nonviolent reactions by exgays.
- [Dizzy Yet? Exodus Spin on Columbine](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/dizzy-yet-exodu/): Item 2 from this week’s Exodus news release protests the Gus Van Sant film Elephant. The film: comes from a gay filmmaker, dramatizes the chronic bullying endured by the eventual killers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., plays out a “What if?” scenario involving the rumor (started by Matt Drudge and quickly fueled by the Family Research Council) that the killers were gay or bisexual. In fact, the killers’ ties to the Trench Coat Mafia were weak; and the school bullies on the Today Show were the only Columbine students who believed that the TCM or the killers were gay....
- [Tolerance = War?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/tolerance-war/): Highlights from the response to my note to the ex-gay activist: I was deemed to have a confused notion about genetics vs innate characteristics because “They both mean the same thing.” The activist cited a dictionary definition but ignored the nongenetic meanings for “innate.” I pointed out that, per OneLook, innate is often defined as “present at birth but not necessarily hereditary; acquired during fetal development.” On the suggestion of widely-accepted behavior change, the activist suggests “you are off because there are many who believe they are born this way,” ignoring the behavior/attraction distinction and implying gay Christians may also be...
- [Render Unto Caesar](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/render-unto-cae/): Conservative David Horowitz strikes back against Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America: Render Unto CaesarBy David HorowitzFrontPage magazine Last week, Horowitz criticized the religious right over its harassment of Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot. In Knight’s reply to that column, Horowitz now finds instances of: intolerance anti-Semitism strawman argumentation a “systematic confusion of ethnic, gender, or sexual groups with leftwing political agendas.” Horowitz’s belief about the exgay movement: The conversion movements have been miserable failures. They have recruited a highly motivated and extreme minority among homosexuals — people so unhappy with their condition that they are desperate to change...
- [Discussion with An Ex-Gay Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/discussion-with/): Janet is a regular participant on the Ex Gay Discussion Board, where a number of ex-gay ministry leaders discuss the war against homosexuality. When on a particular occasion she misstated the views of gays (as she often does), I initiated a discussion with her via e-mail. This is a transcript of that discussion.
- [FRC Official’s Misstatements on Sodomy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/frc-officials-m/): Robert P. George, board member for the Family Research Council, says Rick Santorum Is Right in the National Review. George starts with a lie — the myth that sodomy is a non-marital sexual act — and proceeds into strawman arguments against the critics of sodomy laws. Under prevailing law, the marriage relationship enjoys constitutional protection;… This is false. In several states, sodomy laws do not exempt married couples. And crimes committed by married couples enjoy no special constitutional protections — nor should they. Crimes are crimes regardless of who commits them. …Not only sodomy, but also fornication, adultery (e.g., spouse swapping,...
- [Ex-Transsexual](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/ex-transsexual/): From the Straits Times, Singapore: The ex-transsexual has thrown the dresses – together with a few skeletons – out of his closet. Religion, he says, was his saviour. It was a relief to me that, if this individual found it necessary to reverse course, he was able to do so before surgery. ‘Well, I’m really not in any physical relationship with anyone,” he says. “Chastity is a word we all hate. But I see it as being responsible to myself. I have made a choice and whether I find women or men attractive is irrelevant.” I wish more ex-gay ministries would...
- [Good Gesture](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/good-gesture/): Pastor D.L. Foster of witnessfortheworld.org wrote last week: Your ideology is truly modern, but over 2,000 years ago Christ said “render to Caesar things that are Caesar’s and unto God things that be God’s.” Actually the basic philosophy of this blog — rational reflection on spirituality, sexuality, and individual rights — dates to the Renaissance. Fundamentalism, on the other hand, is modern, dating mostly to World War II with certain strands dating to the late 1800s. Christians are not excluded from the political process, rather encouraged to get involved. I totally agree. You have false assumptions that just because LWO speaks...
- [Mature Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/mature-ministry/): An Ex-Gay Watch reader found this item on Yahoo’s exgaydiscussionboard group. Someone there had asked whether an ex-gay should “minister” to gays at a gay pride festival. The response: I would say that an ex-gay better be fully equipped with armor… he/she better be really grounded in who he/she is before taking on such a task… One would be walking in on their turf… they are going to be at the peak of their “belief” are in the depth of their sin if you will…. and it would take some really strong people to address them at a parade! I would...
- [Foley’s Privacy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/foleys-privacy/): Nick at morons.org defends Rep. Mark Foley’s right to privacy, which seems to have been violated by both the Christian Coalition and Florida Democrats in a column by Bob Norman of the New Times of Broward-Palm Beach. A supporter of Ex-Gay Watch writes: Foley’s life points to the complexities of privacy. Despite being at least somewhat cautious about revealing himself, he’s out of the closet regardless of denials — a telling reflection of the pressures and risks faced by glbt servicepeople under DADT. It shows the vulnerability of single folk to innuendo and rumor regardless of orientation. Foley’s run in public...
- [Antigay Dems, Progay GOP?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/antigay-dems-pr/): From today’s Orlando Sentinel: U.S. Senate candidate and Florida GOP congressman Mark Foley blames unnamed Democrats for circulating a rumor in the media that he is gay. Foley’s legislative record has earned high ratings from gay-rights groups, and negative ratings from the religious right. Nevertheless, seeing House and Senate seats at risk, the normally antigay U.S. House majority leader Tom DeLay and Rep. Tom Feeney are jumping to Foley’s defense. Foley says: “I will not be entertaining questions about my personal life,” Foley said. “I think I am entitled to a personal life, and that is my statement. People may not...
- [Freedom to Lobby](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/freedom-to-lobb/): Thoughts of blogger Bob Griffith on PFOX and Ex-Gay Lobby Days. Thoughtful reading — respectful of the right to lobby, stating that some gay activists engage in “mind-bending justifications,” but disagreeing with PFOX’s use of flawed reasoning to take away others’ civil rights.
- [PFOX-Approved Racial Strife](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/pfox-approved-r/): Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX, approvingly shares confused strawman arguments, racial stereotypes, and conspiracy theories about those she claims to minister to. Read about it in her Wednesday night entry on Yahoo’s exgaydiscussionboard. The message archives are open to the public — no membership required.
- [Overgeneralization](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/overgeneralizat/): As often as ex-gay political leaders emulate the anger and the strawman arguments of the religious right, I believe it’s important to avoid overgeneralizing. I have noted over the years (long before this Salon blog) that there are ex-gay ministers who remain focused on genuine person-to-person fellowship with people who, for whatever reason, find homosexual identification or attraction completely unworkable in their own lives. These ministers eschew the bitterness and self-defeat that inevitably accompany affiliation with the political religious right. I’m not sure these ex-gay ministers would want to be named in this blog, since the ex-gay political activists would harass...
- [Micro-morality](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/micro-morality/): From an article in today’s Denver Post: “American society is good at focusing on micro-morality but it misses the larger morality,” media historian Robert McChesney said. The quotation is directed at the trendy obsession with fake news at the New York Times, but it applies to the religious right in particular. The narrow media preoccupation with the Times occurs at a time when Americans are more disenchanted than ever with the narrowness, shallowness, and sloppiness of news and entertainment in the mass media in general. Yet Republicans in the FCC are pushing to consolidate those media even further, so there is...
- [Mockery?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/mockery/): From today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution: An African cardinal and leading candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II disrupted a Georgetown University graduation ceremony when he used his commencement speech to mock homosexuals and unmarried couples in the audience. Ironically, the cardinal complained that it was he being mocked by gay students and family members who sat silent and stunned in the audience.
- [Religious Right Vs YWCA](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/religious-right-2/): The New York Times reports today on the religious right’s declaration of financial warfare against the Young Women’s Christian Association. The Traditional Values Coalition is seeking to bar federal funding to the YWCA because Ireland’s hiring does not conform to the religious right’s definition of Christianity. YWCA organizations receive $114 million in grant money now under federal review, according to the Times. Patricia Ireland, the YWCA’s new chief executive, “emphasized that while the group had Christian roots it now focused on empowering women and ending racism.” Both goals are arguably more in tune with Christian morality than the sexual witch hunts...
- [Exgay Faceoff](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exgay-faceoff/): Love Won Out and Love Welcomes All will face off June 21 in Portland, Ore. Love Won Out is a touring political rally organized by Exodus and Focus on the Family. The audiences, numbering several hundred per event, are treated to tightly controlled lectures by political activists who view rigid gender roles, discrimination, and religious threats as valid methods to save gays from despair and damnation. The common theme: Only certain conservatives’ view of God is valid; the conservative god’s love is somewhat conditional upon political affiliation and sexual conformity. Focus on the Family charges substantial admission fees for LWO, and...
- [Comparing Moralities](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/comparing-moral/): Focus on the Family publishes a daily newsletter of political propaganda called CitizenLink. CitizenLink is worth a look, if only to observe the organization’s extraordinarily small moral scope — its lack of vision. Eight out of 12 items on Tuesday’s page relate to sex and reproduction. The rest relate to fund-raising and gambling. This is perverse. Contrast Focus’s softcore fixation to Sojourners, where evangelical Biblical morality encompasses war, hunger, poverty, cultural and religious prejudice, globalization, racism, violence against women, sexual equality, nonviolence, materialism, free speech, family matters, humility, prayer, historically rooted reflections on Christian religious writings, and the list goes on....
- [Conservative Defends Racicot](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/conservative-de/): Invoking the Sermon on the Mount, David Horowitz criticizes Gary Bauer and Paul Weyrich over their threats against Republican Party official Marc Racicot — and their intolerance toward gay conservatives.
- [Muslims on Judeo-You-know-what](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/muslims-on-jude/): Last week, I objected to the phrase “Judeo-Christian” as something of an oxymoron and a myth. Since then, Mark O’Keefe of the Religion News Service has written on the subject: Leading Muslim organizations say it’s time to drop the term Judeo-Christian to describe the values and character that define the United States. O’Keefe mentions a 1984 scholarly article by Mark Silk, tracing the very short history of “Judeo-Christian.” Google lists 35 references to the Silk article. The Muslims and the National Council of Churches say “Abrahamic” is a better choice. This sounded reasonable enough to me. But Osama Siblani, publisher of...
- [Wayne Besen’s Ex-Gay Quotes](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/wayne-besens-ex/): The web site for Besen’s upcoming book offers “Loving Ex-Gay Quotes” suggesting that ex-gay messages are far from loving. I’ve already ordered the book on the strength of its synopsis, and I hope the book is well-documented. However, the online quotes are not independently sourced (footnoted). I’m curious to know, for example, whether — and in what context — Exodus executive director Alan Chambers really said, “But as a property owner of Orlando, I wouldn’t rent to someone who is gay any more than I would rent to a person who is a practicing witch.” Besen tends to be thorough in...
- [Call to Renewal](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/call-to-renewal/): Christian evangelicals nail down an agenda for 2003 and 2004 that focuses on genuine social-morality issues. Of interest to those who are committed to legitimate moral concerns, not exgay culture wars.
- [Positive Message](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/positive-messag/): From the questions and answers page of the exgay Reconciliation Ministries: What does Reconciliation think of the homosexual? “We must reach out with a clarion call. We must stand up and voice our opposition to violence and hateful words. We must be clear that the lives of gay people are worthy of respect, dignity and honor as those created in the very image of God.” — Tom Cole (executive director)
- [Focus on the Family: Word Game](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/focus-on-the-fa/): Focus on the Family agrees with the Human Rights Campaign: Gays are making progress toward equal rights in localities across the United States. Pro-family activists agree, unfortunately, homosexual activism is making strides. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council: “I would not say we are losing the battle but I would say we are losing ground, Sprigg said. “The pro-homosexual activists have been very skilled and very successful in the way that they have framed the issue.” While Focus on the Family frequently links to web sites belonging to the far right, it declined to offer readers a link to the...
- [Exodus on MSNBC](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-on-msnbc/): Alan Chambers, executive director of Exodus, appeared on MSNBC’s “Buchanan & Press,” co-hosted by Pat Buchanan and Bill Press, last Friday (May 16). Read the full transcript. Here are edited excerpts. Exodus: I believe [gays] can choose to go straight if that’s what they choose to do. Homosexuality is a choice. The behavior is a choice. I didn’t choose to feel gay, but I did choose to behave that way, and for me what I live today is a choice. I chose to be heterosexual, and I am today, and that for me was a choice. Bill Press, cohost: Let me...
- [Media Coverage of Ex-Gay Lobby Days](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/media-coverage/): A search of Google News finds only one article about Ex-Gay Lobby Days. The Harvard Crimson reports about Larry Houston, an ex-gay chef who went to D.C. with unnamed ex-gay activists from Massachusetts. “We’re not anti-gay, we’re pro-choice,” Houston said. “Whenever someone has questions [about sexual identity], we’re asking, ‘May we be there, too?'” The article does not ask independent sources about antigay public-policy positions adopted by PFOX. Houston says he feels discriminated against at Harvard because of others’ “negative sentiments toward his lifestyle,” and because Harvard investigated complaints that he was proselytizing students. (Houston says Harvard took no action against...
- [Religious Right Protests YWCA](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/religious-right/): The American Family Association accuses the Young Women’s Christian Association of promoting “homosexual indoctrination” and its new leader of promoting teen-age sex-change operations. Before resorting to poorly substantiated paranoia, AFA gets off to a bad start — calling Patricia Ireland both a lesbian and a bisexual, confusing cross-dressing with transgender living, and calling the quaint old National Organization for Women a “radical” feminist group. (I think most American women today feel that NOW is behind the times.) If we overlook AFA’s initial sloppiness (and we shouldn’t), the AFA still does not offer any evidence of “indoctrination” (which some readers equate with...
- [Defeat in Baghdad?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/defeat-in-baghd/): From the New York Post via Andrew Sullivan: Having won the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration is throwing the victory away. According to a pro-war correspondent, conditions in Baghdad are far worse than before the war — and getting still worse.
- [God And George W. Bush](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/god-and-george/): Bill Keller’s essay in today’s New York Times helps to explain Bush’s response to Sen. Santorum — a response called “tepid” by the Family Research Council. I’ve been talking to people who think seriously about religion, including some who know Mr. Bush, and I’m convinced that the notion of a White House powered by fundamentalist Christianity badly misses the point. The critics are right that Mr. Bush’s religion is both the animating force of his presidency and one of his greatest political assets, but not in the ways they assume. Keller believes Bush’s faith “enjoins him to try to do the...
- [Listen, Don’t Lie](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/listen-dont-lie/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas repeats his earlier remarks about the ex-gay agenda, in the context of promoting Ex-Gay Lobby Days and an appearance by Exodus executive director Alan Chambers on MSNBC. Instead of listening to what gay people are actually saying about ex-gays, Exodus seems to be persisting in the lie that gay people want ex-gays to engage in homosexuality. What gay people want, and have said all along, is for ex-gays to stop using discrimination and misrepresentation to bully others into adopting the religious right’s unethical sexual and religious practices. What ex-gays wish to do with their own lives is,...
- [Ex-Gay Lobby Days](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/ex-gay-lobby-da/): PFOX’s key points in its press release today, copied below, are representative of the spin that I’ve been seeing lately from the ex-gay umbrella group Exodus. I see little effort by the better-known ex-gay ministries to minister to gays anymore. They seem to have diverted their resources into almost full-time opposition to antidiscrimination laws and support for constitutional amendments against gay civil unions. Their message seems to be that ex-gays cannot succeed or feel free to speak, unless gays are discriminated against. Here are some of the most noteworthy quotes: “Of particular concern are laws regarding hate crimes and sexual orientation...
- [Conservative Tammy Bruce on Sen. Santorum](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/conservative-ta/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas (yes, the ex-gay guy) spoke highly of conservative lesbian author Tammy Bruce. Now Bruce speaks out on Santorum.
- [Focus/Family Again Seeks to Mandate Funding for Boy Scouts](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/focusfamily-aga/): A “news brief” from Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink today: Boy Scout Funding Pulled The United Way of Miami-Dade County has pulled its yearly grant of $480,000 from the Boy Scouts of South Florida because the Scouts refused to submit their leaders to pro-gay diversity training. Spokesman Gregg Shields said it’s the latest attempt to control the Boy Scouts of America. “I don’t think sensitivity programs that they talk about is really what the United Way wanted,” Shields said. “I think the United Way and the board want nothing less than for us to walk away from our values. And that’s...
- [The Real Gay Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/the-real-gay-ag/): Required reading for aspiring, ex-gay political activists. By Andrew Sullivan.
- [Marvin Olasky’s Muddle](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/marvin-olaskys/): FRC praised Marvin Olasky’s defense of Sen. Santorum. Olasky says: Good politics, good theology, and good constitutional law go together here. Good politics? Santorum made a highly divisive policy statement having nothing to do with Republican goals in 2004. Gays and small-government advocates from both major parties merely held him accountable for his remarks. Is it good politics for one of the nation’s highest-ranking Republicans to issue gratuitious, divisive, and poorly reasoned attacks on voters at the beginning of a campaign season? Good theology? Olasky mashes together two theologies that could not possibly be more different: Christian fundamentalism, which is utterly...
- [FRC Opens Fire on Bush Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/frc-opens-fire/): The Family Research Council ratchets up its threats against President Bush’s new 2004 campaign chief, Marc Racicot. In today’s Washington Update, FRC president Ken Connor asks, “Is Bush Campaign Chief Fit for the Job?” Marc Racicot is so out-of-touch with George W. Bush’s most loyal and committed voters that his qualifications to serve as chairman of the president’s re-lection [sic] campaign must be seriously questioned. This act of brazen disloyalty to the GOP presidential campaign is the latest in a series of incidents in which the religious right adopted a public “do-as-we-say-or-else” approach to the Republican Party. A recent Gallup poll...
- [Gallup Poll: Recognize Gay Relationships, Majority Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/gallup-poll-rec/): From The Gallup Organization: May 15, 2003Six Out of 10 Americans Say Homosexual Relations Should Be Recognized as Legal But Americans are evenly divided on issue of legal civil unions between homosexuals giving them the legal rights of married couples. The Gallup site includes a detailed breakdown of the demographics. But my guess is that the slight majority opposing the legality of civil unions feels far more strongly about the subject than those who are in favor. Meaning they vote out of proportion to their prevalence in the population.
- [Exodus Vague in Defending Discrimination, Slapping ‘Gay Elite’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-vague-in/): Exodus News reports that ex-gays and religious-right activists will visit their congressmen and senators in Washington. They will be exhorting our leaders to hear more than the lopsided viewpoint of the gay elite with regards to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Exodus avoids specifying the “lopsided viewpoint” that it opposes, and who the “gay elite” is. Instead, Exodus implies that nondiscrimination in employment and family policy somehow represents a threat to the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of ex-gays. Exodus does not explain how this is the case. We are entering a new time. A time that recognizes...
- [PFOX Right to Privacy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/pfox-right-to-p/): In regard to the PFOX webmaster’s personal web site: Is it appropriate to hold PFOX partly responsible for the public (albeit anonymous) actions of its webmaster, particularly when a PFOX official offered moral support for those actions? Alternatively, is the PFOX webmaster entitled to some form of off-hours, out-of-the-workplace privacy regarding whatever he says on his GeoCities website? Is he entitled to an exemption from public scrutiny even as PFOX shares Sen. Santorum’s opposition to a right to privacy? Comments submitted to XGW’s former blog location:
- [Is PFOX Webmaster’s Hateful Parody of Hate, Hateful?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/is-pfox-webmast/): An old acquaintance of mine, Johanna, notes in fairness to the PFOX webmaster that his lengthy 1/10/2002 death threat against homosexuals is a parody or spoof of this 1987 battle cry by Michael Swift. I wish to thank Johanna for providing the link to Swift, since I’d lost track of it long ago. But how obvious is the parody? And shouldn’t the PFOX webmaster make clear that it’s parody? And is this kind of parody appropriate for a ministry of parents and ex-spouses that publicly claims to seek tolerance and support for ex-gays? I welcome feedback. Comments submitted to XGW’s former...
- [FRC: White House ‘Gay Strategy’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/frc-white-house/): Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council, expresses dismay in today’s FRC Washington Update. He’s upset about the meeting of White House senior aides with 200 members of the Log Cabin Republicans last week. One Log Cabin member quoted in The New York Times said Sen. Santorum’s views are “not really representative of what the Republican Party is moving toward. I think we are the future of the Republican party, people like us.” Do the political strategists in the Bush White House share this belief? Despite repeated assurances, both public and private, that the party has no intention of abandoning...
- [Sen. Santorum’s Department of Sexual Security](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/sen-santorums-d/): A safer, less private America, by cartoonist Mark Fiore.
- [The ‘Judeo-Christian’ Oxymoron](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/the-judeo-chris/): The term is an offense to many Jews, and a blending of incompatible ethical and spiritual beliefs. Some would argue that this blending amounts to heresy against both Judaism and Christianity. Here is a conservative Christian criticism of the myth of Judeo-Christianity. Here’s a free online book that discusses the topic. This essay succinctly notes: that, as with fundamentalism itself, the phrase “Judeo-Christian” has only existed since the late 1800s, and gained common usage only upon World War II; that, contrary to Christian assumptions, the two religions have very little in common; that those who use the phrase honor Christian beliefs...
- [AFA’s One-World Empire](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/afas-one-world/): From the American Family Association: …Where America’s influence is exerted in the world, we see living standards rise, human rights honored, well-being increased. The question is: Why, if this is true, are those on the Left so opposed to American “empire building”? Because if American-style democracy and Western institutions of law and culture work, then people will come to believe that the ideas upon which these institutions are founded just might be true. And these ideas derive from the Judeo-Christian tradition. In other words, from Scripture itself. But the reality is this: Certain ideas are true and others are false. Cultures...
- [FRC Threatens Gays Working in Bush White House](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/frc-threatens-g/): AgapePress, a religious-right propaganda service frequently cited by Exodus as a source of accurate Christian news, reports that FRC is pursuing a witchhunt to root out gay-tolerant aides at the White House. A spokeswoman vows to publicly expose and harass the aides ASAP. AgapePress also reports that Gary Glenn, a non-Michigander paid by the American Family Association to promote discrimination against gay Michigan residents, wants the state’s gross indecency law to continue to be enforced disproportionately against gays.
- [Exodus Steers for PFOX-GOP Shipwreck](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-steers-f/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas says he’s glad that Republican National Committee is going to meet with ex-homosexuals. Does Randy believe that PFOX reflects well on the ex-gay movement? If this is the case, then my first reaction is, The ex-gay movement is a ship headed yet again for a reef. PFOX’s subsurface rocks are churning up waves, driftwood and old skeletons, all crashing on the movement’s horizon. But the gospel music on board this ship is turned up loud, and the crew isn’t listening for the danger. On second thought, I wonder if the ship’s crew sees the reef on its...
- [Ex-Gay Spokesman Likes A Lesbian: Tammy Bruce](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/ex-gay-spokesma/): Randy Thomas, Exodus spokesman, reviews the Tammy Bruce book The Death of Right and Wrong. Surely for an Exodus official to discover diversity in lesbian politics is a good thing. I haven’t read Bruce yet; nevertheless, at this early stage, I still see a tendency by Thomas to believe that “because the gay Left is wrong, we on the Right must be right.” I think we have a classic case of two wrongs here: the sins of the Left and the sins of the Right. Each issuing “screeds” blaming the media for not covering the other side’s wrongs. Each pointing to...
- [PFOX Webmaster’s Violent Web Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/pfox-webmasters/): His online handle is Burning Black Triangle, or BBT for short. BBT is a Straight Pride advocate who has told PFOX’s online support group about his prolonged bitterness, since high school, that a one-time girlfriend dumped him and later identified as lesbian or bisexual. His web site depicts a graphic: “How Dare You Assume I’m Non-Violent?” Here’s the PFOX webmaster’s new year’s resolution for 2002: Heterosexual Activist Outlines Goals of Heterosexualist Movement by the Burning Black Triangle, “Straight Revolutionary” “We shall destroy your sodomite sons and sapphite daughters, emblems of feeble sexuality, of shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall expose...
- [Kerusso Offline](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/kerusso-offline/): For many weeks, the web site for Kerusso Ministries has been offline. Kerusso is a political organization rather than an ex-gay support group. It is (or was?) run by Michael Johnston, a close associate of Jerry Falwell. If anyone knows why the site has been down, or whether they have moved, please let me know. Comments submitted to XGW’s former blog location:
- [Christian Satire Against Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/christian-satir/): In response to my note about evangelicals who criticized anti-Islamic bigotry among the religious right, Jayelle pointed me to LarkNews.com, a Christian version of The Onion. Good satire! Human shields in Iraq switch attention to blocking Franklin Graham Ministry changes name to Campus Jihad for Christ
- [GOP Snaps Back At Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/gop-snaps-back/): Following a stormy meeting with the leadership of the religious right, senior White House aides conferred with 200 gay Republicans, according to the New York Times. WASHINGTON, May 9 — At a time of intense debate over the relationship between gays and Republicans, 200 members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group, met today with senior White House officials. The name of Senator Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican whose impolitic remarks about gays prompted the current debate, did not come up. Instead, participants said, the session was devoted to education, judicial nominees and AIDS. The religious right’s leadership didn’t help...
- [PFOX to Threaten the GOP?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/pfox-to-threate/): Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, tried to blackmail Home Depot into making a $3,000 donation to PFOX, after the retailer donated to $2,500 in gift certificates to PFOX’s gay-tolerant rival group, Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). It is doubtful that PFOX learned anything from this episode. Will they fire threats at the GOP next? If they do, the GOP reply will be no more favorable than Home Depot’s. See my entry, “GOP Snaps Back at Religious Right.”
- [GOP to Meet with PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/gop-to-meet-wit/): Concerned Women for America reports that Republican National Committee Chairman Marc Racicot will meet with Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays, an organization whose online support group (as has been noted elsewhere) encourages parents to reject and harangue their adult gay children and, if necessary, to isolate or institutionalize their underage gay children. Racicot offered this concession to an angry crowd of religious-right leaders: Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America; American Values President Gary Bauer; Family Research Council President Ken Connor; Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Life Issues...
- [PFOX Secret Agent](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/pfox-secret-age/): A recent letter to the editor at the Fredericksburg, Va., Free-Lance Star: A recent letter by Cris Elkins seemed to express a phobia of former homosexuals [“The ‘ex-gay’ movement is flawed in its premise,” April 17]. Contrary to Elkins’ assertions, gender-affirming therapy is advocated by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a scientific organization of medical professionals who practice sexual reorientation therapy. Moreover, Dr. Robert Spitzer’s recent Columbia University study of former homosexuals shows that same-sex attractions may be overcome. Ironically, Dr. Spitzer is the psychiatrist who initiated the removal of homosexuality from the psychiatric diagnostic manual in...
- [Immoderate Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/immoderate-benn/): William Bennett has swung from defending gambling losses of something like a million dollars a year, to a promise of total abstinence from all gambling. I have little doubt about his ability to abstain. But I do think he’s failed to learn much from the “outing” of his gambling hobby. This article addresses Bennett’s alleged hypocrisy but moves on to a more important lesson that I stressed last week: Moderation is not a bad thing. Bennett’s all-or-nothing approach indicates, to me, a weak grasp of virtue.
- [Dissenting Evangelicals](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/dissenting-evan/): From AP: …Leading evangelical Christians condemned derogatory statements about Islam by the Rev. Franklin Graham and others among their fellow religious conservatives. They also pledged to improve relations with Muslims. The evangelicals meeting Wednesday said the derisive comments endangered Christian missionaries in the Muslim world, strained already tense interfaith relations and fed the perception in the Mideast and beyond that the war on terrorism is a Christian crusade against Islam. All excellent points — made by conservative Christians who had the courage to dissent from an extreme, ideological party line that threatens Christians and non-Christians alike. Exodus could learn a great...
- [Sports Fans At Exodus?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/sports-fans-at/): Denver Rockies reliever Todd Jones stands by his threats last month against gay baseball players. Jones’ original remarks, as reported by The Denver Post: Colorado Rockies pitcher Todd Jones, a 6-foot, 3-inch pitcher from Marietta, Ga., said an openly gay player would create a hostile locker-room environment, and that opposing pitchers would likely throw intentionally at his head. “I wouldn’t want a gay guy being around me,” Jones said. “It’s got nothing to do with me being scared. That’s the problem: All these people say he’s got all these rights. Yeah, he’s got rights or whatever, but he shouldn’t walk around...
- [Exodus on Hospitality: What New Testament?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-on-hospi/): Exodus News defends churches that kick out not only homosexuals, but anyone else who treats them with Christian hospitality. The defense makes repeated reference to “scriptural authority” — yet it contains only one out-of-context reference to the Bible, and no references to the New Testament. This does not surprise me. Exodus has subscribed to a community within Christianity that believes itself to be repentant of all sins — and therefore, in little need for forgiveness. This community is viewed with contempt by outsiders who believe its sins — economic, social, spiritual, sexual — are public, blatant, and unapologetic. Doctrinally impure and...
- [Exodus Blames the Messenger (Again) Over Santorum](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-blames-t/): Exodus News again blames the media, this time for presenting one side of Sen. Rick Santorum’s meeting with parents. Exodus overlooks the key fact that Santorum’s office refused to comment, thus leaving only one side of the story to report. When antigay and antiprivacy advocates decline to comment, they have only themselves to blame for imbalance in resulting media coverage. It’s worth noting here that Exodus continues to mislead its audience about Santorum’s intended message. In complaining that his message has been taken out of context by the media, Santorum has said that his original remarks were directed against privacy, not...
- [Church Expelled for Welcoming Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/church-expelled/): Religion News Service, May 3, 2003 A Southern Baptist church was been expelled from a regional group of churches after its pastor baptized two gay men and welcomed them into the congregation. The Rev. Randy Wadford, missions director for the association, read a statement after the vote in which he said, “The homosexual lifestyle is contrary to God’s will and plan for mankind. … To allow individuals into the membership of a local church without evidence or testimony of true repentance is to condone the old lifestyle.” The Rev. Steve Ayers, pastor of the 800-member church, responded: “The kingdom of Christ...
- [Exodus: Speaking for God](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-speaking/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas reports: Evelyn Reilly of the Massachusetts Policy Institute invited Alan Chambers and I to share our testimonies as a panel before the Massachusetts state judiciary committee. Not quite true. Evelyn Reilly works for the Massachusetts Family Institute, a public-policy organization affiliated with the Family Research Council. However, it may be true that the institute lobbies for “policy,” not the family. We were joined by Jeffrey Satinover, Dawn Videto and other pro-family representatives from around the country. For reasons unclear, Exodus assumes we know who Vedeto is. Dawn Videto is an ex-gay political activist in Massachusetts. … pro-family...
- [Bruce Bawer: In Santorum World, Where Gay Couples Are Illegal](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/bruce-bawer-in/): Conservative American author Bruce Bawer points out how Sen. Rick Santorum [who now has support from Exodus] has sought to make it illegal, wherever possible, for couples like Bawer and his partner to live in the United States. They now live in Norway.
- [No, Antigays Are Not Nazis](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/no-antigays-are/): But I encourage conservative Christians opposed to privacy to see the movie, “The Pianist,” which depicts the government invasion of privacy and home, followed by government prosecution of Jewish family traditions and relations, followed in escalating fashion by massive social injustice. Government invasion, harassment and prosecution against any household of alleged “sinners” can have devastating consequences, even without a Final Solution. Families are wounded and destroyed, while conservative Christians are discredited and further separated from God. As I’ve said before, sodomy laws in 10 states apply to everyone — including heterosexuals. In several states, the laws even apply to married couples,...
- [Santorum Claims Right to Privacy for Himself](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/santorum-claims/): Four parents of gay children visited with Sen. Rick Santorum — and Santorum verbally abused them for 30 minutes. More puzzling, Santorum’s office declined to discuss the meeting, saying it was private. So, constituent meetings are private, but sex in the bedroom isn’t?
- [Why Don’t Gay Crowds Like Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/why-dont-gay-cr/): Randy Thomas, spokesman for Exodus, testified in favor of a ban on gay marriage in Massachusetts. Here’s his account: Dr. Satinover mentioned that homosexuality was reversible and the room erupted in laughter. That angered me. Context is important: 1. Satinover’s research is not widely accepted by the professional community; his methods are flawed and his conclusions do not flow logically from the evidence. Calling homosexuality “reversible,” without even defining what one means by “homosexuality,” would be worse than laughable — it would be thoughtless and simple-minded. Exodus should have invited a reputable doctor to speak on its behalf. 2. Sexual behavior...
- [Homeless Christian Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/homeless-christ/): I encounter many ex-gays online who call themselves “born again” and “Christian.” But when they pray aloud, in some cases I do not hear them praying to an objective Christian God. At times, their newborn “personal relationship” seems to be less with God, more with their inner selves and with the joyous secularism foreseen by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The religious right is no way neo-Nazi, but its faith in America (and the almost apostolic Founding Fathers) does mirror various Christian nations’ religious idolization of fatherland over the centuries. In stark contrast to joyous secularism, here’s a homeless bishop whose Christian values and...
- [Exodus: Mum’s the Word on Adultery](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/exodus-mums-the/): Two Exodus officials took the time to fly to Massachusetts and support a ban on marriage. Marriage for gay couples, that is. No word on when Exodus officials will be flying around the country to ban adultery, divorce, and the various other things that do actual harm to marriage. No word, either, on how tearing apart families makes gays any more likely to accept and love the religious right.
- [Evangelizing Those You Misunderstand](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/05/evangelizing-th/): A survey of U.S. evangelical leaders finds that they: are grossly misinformed about Islamic beliefs and practices; and are determined to evangelize and convert Muslims anyway. It was good to see, at least, that 54 percent of those surveyed believe dialogue is important. But I thought it was odd to see 60 percent of respondents favoring Israel over Palestinians, while almost as many (52 percent) support the free and independent Palestinian state that Israel is waging war to prevent.
- [FRC: Bush “Tepid” on Santorum, Sex Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/frc-bush-tepid/): President Bush says he supports Sen. Rick Santorum, but not necessarily Santorum’s verbal attacks on privacy and same-sex couples. — CNN In response, FRC escalates its retaliation against the White House and GOP. FRC President Ken Connor and Focus on the Family President James Dobson defend Santorum’s remarks and criticize the GOP in Dobson’s online radio show.
- [Exodus: Few Blacks in This Glass House](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/exodus-few-blac/): Exodus News favorably quotes an antigay African-American who’s very upset at gay groups for playing tokenism with racial minorities. Well, some gay groups play that unjust game. Regrettably, many political groups play that same game. Including Exodus. Exodus makes a point of putting minorities in its online photography, yet its board of directors and regional representatives are white. Over at Focus on the Family, which is the key underwriter for Exodus political rallies, one finds the same situation: Much of the Focus web site’s stock photography features ethnic minorities. But according to Focus on the Family co-founder Gil Moegerle in his...
- [Exodusism: Ex-Gay Turns Sexual Attraction Into an Ideology](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/exodusism-ex-ga/): From Exodus News, April 23: Christine Sneeringer of Worthy Creations ministry in Fort Lauderdale Florida wrote “All We’re Created to Be” and describes her personal story of overcoming lesbianism…. I’m happy that Christine’s happy. Everyone should be happy, if they can. And I wonder, how she (or Exodus) ever came to believe that sexual orientation is an “ism” — an ideology or religion?? Anytime some activist for any political cause comes at me with jittery nonsense about some dangerous “ism” to be overcome, I do two things: I ask where I can join up with that persecuted “ism,” and I point...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Re: Bush Silence on Santorum](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/exodus-ex-gays/): Over the past three days, the Family Research Council has harshly criticized the GOP for not defending Sen. Rick Santorum. It has done so not only in its own publications, but also in the mass media. As reported by countless media outlets, Santorum has stated that the American family’s right to privacy should be eliminated in favor of surveillance and prosecution by Big Government, particularly when relationships inside the home — gay, nonmarital or extramarital — offend local or national bureaucrats. The White House and GOP leadership have been understandably silent, thus far, about Santorum. Bush and Republican Party officials have...
- [Ex-Gay Culture War: Where It’s Not Easter Just Yet](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/ex-gay-culture/): Our Christian traditions tell us that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead today, victorious over sin that had enslaved humankind. Faithful Christians are thankful for that gift, which was liberation from death, injustice, and spiritual oppression. Sadly, there are still some Christians in our world who are not so thankful. On both the Left and the Right, they seek to deny other groups of people access to liberty, peace and salvation. There are still Christians who promote job discrimination, harassment in the schools, censorship online, and perhaps worst (from a Christian standpoint), diatribes in the very churches that should be...
- [Do Exodus Ex-Gays Support Enforcement of Sodomy Laws Or Not?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/do-exodus-ex-ga/): Is Exodus playing a bit loose with the truth when it says it supports sodomy laws? The possibility does exist. In the legal case Lawrence & Garner v. State of Texas, two Texans are battling Big Government after an antigay neighbor had them arrested for sexual intercourse in the privacy of their own home. The neighbor was later convicted for filing a false police report in order to lure police into the men’s home. In the Texas case, the men were fined just $200. However, in Florida, where Exodus is based, both heterosexuals and homosexuals can be jailed for 60 days...
- [Connect the Dots, Ex-Gay Spokesman](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/connect-the-dot/): Randy Thomas is the spokesman for Exodus, but he also operates his own personal blog. In polishing and extending his April 9 mini-reviews of two books, I hope he will finish connecting the dots that he has drawn. After all, if one puts dots in one’s blog, it makes little sense not to connect them. Right? About the first book, Randy writes: After The Ball by Kirk and Madsen this Book … oh my … well I am about 100+ pages into it and had to put it down for a bit. I got really upset by it. Some times I...
- [Fewer Journalists Say They’re Democrats](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/fewer-journalis/): More from the American Journalist Survey, as reported at Poynter: Compared with 1992, the percentage of full-time journalists who claim to be Democrats has dropped 7 percentage points in 2002 to slightly above 37 percent, moving this figure closer to the overall population percentage of 32 percent, according to a July 29-31, 2002, Gallup national telephone poll of 1,003 adults. This is the lowest percentage of journalists saying they are Democrats since 1971. This does not surprise me at all. Most of the editors that I know and work with are relatively apolitical. They are drawn to journalism by its creativity...
- [Journalists Far Better Educated?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/journalists-far/): From the American Journalist Survey at The Poynter Institute: U.S. journalists are much more likely to have earned college degrees than the overall adult population in the United States (89.3 percent vs. 25.6 percent) and the overall U.S. civilian labor force (30.4 percent). That statistic is very difficult for me to accept at face value. I am a journalist. Of the dozens of people that I know, only four ended school before college graduation. Does this mean that the survey finding is misleading or inaccurate, or does it mean that journalists live their lives and careers befriending and reporting about people...
- [Of God, Man And the Oval Office](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/of-god-man-and/): This is an old op-ed — the column appeared Feb. 28 in The Washington Post, and I’ve been busy moving for the past 40 days so I never posted it. But I think the column is still relevant, as the religious right rides a wave of euphoria over victories in central Baghdad. The Rev. Fritz Ritsch commented on what he views as the heretical militarism and idolatrous nationalism of the religious right. Bush’s religious supporters are his greatest cheerleaders. Rather than his spiritual guides, they are his faithful disciples. He is the leader of the America they think God has ordained....
- [Exodus: Gays, Be Noisy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/exodus-gays-be/): The exgay umbrella group Exodus now protests when gays are silent. (Of course, the organization objects when gays speak out, too.) In recent years, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has advocated for self-determination and safety among gay and straight students by means of a day of silence in the schools. GLSEN asks students to respect one another’s religious viewpoints. Exodus feels differently. Exodus draws a false distinction between gays and people of faith, implicitly denying that gay-tolerant people comprise a large and valid part of the nation’s religious faiths. It urges antigay activists to speak out, to stop...
- [Exodus: Stop Tolerance in Florida Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/exodus-stop-tol/): Exodus is alarmed at tolerance in Florida. Legislation being considered by a Florida senate panel targets harassment committed in public schools on the basis of basis of real or perceived identity or expression of race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, sex or gender, disability, or sexual orientation, on the basis of stereotypes of persons identified by these categories, or on the basis of association with others identified by these categories. Legislation text and summary are online. Exodus erroneously states that the legislation singles out homosexuals and transgendered individuals for protection. The organization also states erroneously that transsexuals are cross-dressers. Strangely,...
- [Fox News: Blame the Liberals](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/04/fox-news-blame/): How would Fox News report the Hindenburg, the JFK and MLK assassinations, the Last Supper?
- [Ex-Gays to Gays: Get Out of the Military](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/ex-gays-to-gays/): Love Won Out conference organizer Focus on the Family warns ominously that the Supreme Court ruling against sodomy laws may encourage gay servicemembers of the armed forces to demand fair treatment. Focus uses its warning to market a political book by ex-gay movement psychiatrist Jeffrey Satinover.
- [Does Ex-Gay Therapy Work?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/does-ex-gay-the/): This was passed along by Christopher of Chronotope and safersex.org: Two therapists explain the counterproductive outcomes of reparative therapy. I’ve mentioned periodically that I know both gay activists and conservative same-sex-attracted Christians who are happily celibate. I also have met a couple of ex-gays who experienced an overall shift in sexual attraction from same-gender to opposite-gender. But these individuals’ successes were not, to my knowledge, the result of reparative therapy. These folks took responsibility for their thoughts and goals, and chose disciplined courses of action — not the ideological rigidity, parent-blaming, religious stereotypes, sexist role-modeling, self-deprecation, discrimination, and proselytization advocated by...
- [Christian, Jewish Clergy Affirm Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/christian-jewis/): Colorado Christian and Jewish clergy members condemned Colorado’s ban on gay marriage. The clergy will battle an effort led by Colorado U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave to mangle states’ and churches’ rights with a Constitutional amendment making gay marriages and domestic partnerships illegal in all states. Musgrave and her supporters in Focus on the Family misidentify amendment opponents as “homosexual activists.” Musgrave adds, “Today’s meeting by the very liberal clergy only strengthens my resolve to protect marriage” by making church marriages illegal when they are not performed in accord with the religious right. Colorado State Rep. Shawn Mitchell excuses interracial marriage from...
- [Gay Dating, Straight Marriage: Comparing Apples to Oranges](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/gay-dating-stra/): The Washington Times, Concerned Women for America, and Family Research Council are timid in reporting on the flimsiness of heterosexual relationships. So when a recent Dutch study showed that gay twentysomethings in that country dated eight people per year and that the average longevity of gay dating relationships was 18 months, the religious right didn’t compare those numbers to heterosexual twentysomethings. It instead compared the statistic only to married heterosexuals who had long since given up dating.
- [Why Is Gary Bauer Losing the Culture War?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/why-is-gary-bau/): Gary Bauer tells Focus on the Family: Marriage has been, for thousands of years of Judeo-Christian civilization, the uniting of one man and one woman. Once you say it’s two men, as Sen. Santorum warned, then why not make it one man and several women, or one woman and several men? The whole idea of monogamy breaks down. Actually, for better or worse, polygamy has always been legal; such relationships simply are not recognized by federal and state governments. They become illegal only when an individual seeks a marriage certificate for multiple simultaneous marriages. The Old Testament of the Bible not...
- [Finding Obscenity in Sodomy Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/finding-obsceni/): Knight Ridder columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote last week: Five years ago, in an apartment in Houston, an obscene act was committed. And it wasn’t sex. Pitts finds the obscenity in an antigay bigot’s filing of a false police report in order to secure the arrest of two gay men. And in the complicity of the government of Texas in the invasion of a private home. Pitts asks whether the religious right only favors small government when lax regulation serves “Judeo-Christian” interests.
- [Taking the Court System Out of Marriage?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/taking-the-cour/): Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, told Fox News’ Brit Hume on June 30: The [Federal Marriage Amendment] says two things. Marriage in the United States is between a man and a woman and let the people of the states democratically decide who gets the benefits of marriage. It is designed to take the courts out of the business of deciding these questions for the people.” Has Daniels really considered the implications of using public opinion polls to define the rights and responsibilities of long-term relationships? And does Daniels really believe committed relationships should be haphazardly subjected to the...
- [Focus on the Family’s Cheap Marriage Certificates](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/focus-on-the-fa-5/): In a July 2 news brief e-mailed to CitizenLink subscribers, Focus on the Family gripes that the Chicago area has begun to treat gay domestic partnerships fairly — charging gay couples the same $30 certificate fee that married couples are charged. In my view, if government is going to be involved in marriage at all, and if we really want to put teeth in public policy toward marriage, then the government should charge all couples far more to ensure a strong commitment. Perhaps the fee — say, $10,000 — could be refunded at the 10-year anniversary, with much smaller amounts returned...
- [Focus on the Family’s Moral Relativism](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/focus-on-the-fa-4/): Claiming that most Americans oppose gay “marriage,” Focus on the Family promotes moral relativism with a definition of marriage based on the whims of public opinion. A recent Gallup Poll found 55 percent of Americans oppose same-sex “marriage”, while only 39 percent said gay relationships should be given the same rights and privileges as traditional marriage. Actually, the poll did not ask whether respondents supported equal benefits. Focus on the Family confuses two separate issues. Jan LaRue, legal policy director at Concerned Women for America, said this issue is a matter of common sense. “This is morally repugnant to most thinking...
- [Vacation](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/vacation/): Remember the Go-Gos song? Vacation All I ever wanted Vacation Had to get away Vacation Meant to be spent alone I’ll be back Sunday night, hopefully with messages utilizing all the helpful e-mails that I’ve been receiving from readers this week. Have a peaceful Independence Day. Remember this easy web address for Ex-Gay Watch:www.exgaywatch.com
- [GOP’s Frist Follows Democratic Mentors?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/gops-frist-foll/): Democratic Socialist Thomas Scott Tucker has penned the following. When Bill Clinton signed the vindictive Defense of Marriage Act under cover of darkness — I have always agreed with the critics of Clinton that cowardice and opportunism mark both his character and his politics — he thereby added direction and momentum to the current proposed constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage. Yet another convergence between the Demopublicans and the Republicrats. Senator Frist responded to the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Bowers v Hardwick by suggesting that a bare defense of the right to privacy is an erosion of privacy in “our...
- [Frist Faces Opposition Over Federal Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/frist-faces-opp/): Here are some of the organizations that have criticized Senate majority leader Bill Frist for supporting an antigay Federal Marriage Amendment that would undermine states’ and churches’ rights. Human Rights Campaign Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Log Cabin Republicans
- [Musical Ex-Gays And Churches That Hate](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/musical-ex-gays/): In “Musical Ex-Gays” earlier today, I neglected to note how Chambers meant well. I was referring to his appeal to ultraconservative churches not to damn gays to hell outright. But if a church is so judgmental toward any group, then it has bigger issues than homosexuality to address. I’m with one of the Ex-Gay Watch readers on this particular concern: Why do some targets of hate choose to belong to hate-oriented congregations in the first place?
- [Ill.  Church Split Over Gay Music Director’s Firing](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/ill-church-spli/): In Christianity, there are thousands of sins over which a church could perform litmus tests, firing or evicting anyone who fails the test. An Illinois conservative Roman Catholic church tolerated sins of wealth, power, greed, sloth, and marital breakdown among its leaders and parishioners. In fact, it demanded that its longtime music director sin — that he divorce his gay partner. The man, who was quiet about his orientation, refused to divorce his partner. So the church that tolerated so many other sins fired the music director. And the choir and much of the parish revolted.
- [Churches Need Musical Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/churches-need-m/): The executive director of Exodus apparently means well. From ReligionJournal: Ex-gays are one of the most gifted groups of people in the areas of creativity and leadership, said Alan Chambers, executive director of Exodus International . Their talents, when used to glorify God, bring “something amazing” to the church. Many former homosexuals are actors, musicians and speakers, he said. The church is “missing a significant part when healed homosexuals are not there.” Of course, the same positive stereotypes are much more frequently attributed to gay Christian laity. So what exactly is Chambers saying? Is he saying… “Churches, if you are firing...
- [Senate Majority Leader Supports National Ban on Gay Marriages](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/senate-majority/): From KIRO TV, Seattle: Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” [Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist says he’s concerned that legalizing gay sex could lead to such activities as prostitution and drug use being allowed “in this zone of privacy.” The Tennessee Republican says he would “absolutely” support a constitutional amendment that would ban any marriage in the United States except a union of a man and a woman. Such an amendment has been introduced in the House. Additional coverage from the Associated Press and Reuters. The Federal Marriage Amendment violates states’ rights, as well as the ability of tolerant churches and synagogues,...
- [New Web Address for Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/new-web-address/): You may now visit us here: www.exgaywatch.com No need to remember a complicated Salon.com address — exgaywatch.com will find this Salon blog for you.
- [Blame the Media? Ex-Gays Can’t Find One Another](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/blame-the-media/): Exodus International and Focus on the Family refuse to say how many ex-gays there are, who they are, or where they are. They offer only a handful of testimonies from individuals who, on cross-examination, reveal they’re still gay (attracted to the same gender) but consider themselves “saved” because now they believe all homosexual attractions and behaviors are sin, no exceptions permitted. The refusal of the leading ex-gay organizations to offer specific numbers or testimonies of success doesn’t stop ex-gays from blaming the media for a shortage of inspiring success stories. Says one Mormon ex-gay on the exgaydiscussion group at Yahoo: There...
- [Love Won Out’s Ex-Gays: Still Attracted to Gays, But Celibate — Sometimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/love-won-outs-e/): Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, head of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, reportedly displayed sexism and an insensitivity toward child abuse at the November 2002 “Love Won Out” conference organized by Focus on the Family. Even before the meeting, Nicolosi’s organization was known for advocating therapies that worsen children’s struggles with gender roles and self-esteem. The conference offered a veneer of extreme politeness toward gay visitors who were assumed by ex-gay activists to be going to Hell. Behind the smiles, the speakers and sponsors were on public record supporting discrimination in education, employment, housing, government services, insurance benefits, and...
- [Sodomy-Law Proponents’ Hypocrisy on States’ Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/sodomy-law-prop/): The organizations listed below have accused the Supreme Court of violating “states’ rights” to set their own policies toward “sodomy.” However, the same organizations favor a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment violates states’ rights to set their own policies toward marriage. American Family Association Concerned Women for America Exodus International Family Research Council Gary Bauer Liberty Counsel Liberty Legal Institute
- [Ex-Gay Group Launches African-American Media Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-gay-group-la/): From WitnessForTheWorld.org: Asserting that America’s black gay and lesbian community needs to come home to God, members of a group of African American former homosexuals today released an national open letter asking black gays to realize their need for God. Rev. DL Foster, an Atlanta area pastor who is Founder and President of the group “Powerful Change” said, “Our hearts are broken for so many men and women who like we were, are floundering in a sea of unwanted same sex issues. We wanted them to know that there’s hope and a choice to have freedom from a way of life...
- [Religious Right Obstructs Parents’ Rights Over School T-Shirt](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/religious-right-4/): With her parents’ approval, a lesbian teen-ager in New York wore a T-shirt to school that said “Barbie is a Lesbian.” The school suspended her, the girl’s mother sued the school, and now a religious-right group is defending the school. It seems to me that Barbie has always been a less-than-ethical role model for women, and so I welcome a T-shirt that pokes fun at the doll. However, the T-shirt does not seem to to convey a clear and constructive message. Nevertheless, the religious right is displaying some hypocrisy. It routinely champions free-speech and parents’-rights causes on behalf of conservative Christian...
- [Janet Parshall on Apostasy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/janet-parshall/): According to Agape Press and former Family Research Council spokeswoman Janet Parshall, Christians who dare to disagree with them on such matters as abortion and gay clergy are guilty of “apostasy.” Parshall says absolute truth is found only in her interpretation of Scripture, and that interpretation must be obeyed by all.
- [Focus on the Family: Doomsday for Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/focus-on-the-fa-3/): Ex-gay movement underwriter and convention organizer Focus on the Family continues to blame “homosexual activists” for broad public opposition to sodomy laws. And it continues to blame these activists for the high divorce rates, career stresses, infidelity, and rigid gender roles that strain U.S. marriages. According to Focus on the Family, doomsday is at hand for marriage, and homosexuals are almost solely responsible. And Focus further maintains that marriage is undermined when gays can no longer be selectively imprisoned for “sodomy.” Focus uses the sodomy ruling as an opportunity to sell its guide on “lesbianism” written by activist Anne Paulk (wife...
- [Traditional Values Coalition Battles Transgender Americans](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/traditional-val-2/): The Traditional Values Coalition seems to view unimprisoned gays and the “transgender agenda” as threats to its vision for the United States. Here’s what TVC is up to. Given how much is happening this week, I don’t have time to analyze TVC. I invite volunteers to do so. Supreme Court Overturns Texas Homosexual Sodomy Law Summary: “On June 26, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Texas law against homosexual sodomy was unconstitutional. The 6-3 decision claims that laws against sodomy ‘demean’ homosexuals and that homosexuals are entitled to ‘respect for their private lives’ according to Justice Kennedy.” GenderPac/HRC Face...
- [FRC Redefines Civil Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-redefines-c/): FRC dictates “The Meaning of Marriage.” Colin Stewart, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, pens a comparison between marriage and Humpty Dumpty. However, some might argue that reducing marriage to a children’s fable poses a greater threat to marriage than allowing gays simply to live without fear of imprisonment. Everybody knows what the meaning of marriage “is” (ala Bill Clinton). It is written in our hearts and consciences. In short, marriage is a “self-evident truth” derived from the “laws of nature and nature’s God,” which human governments are required to recognize and protect if they are to retain their...
- [Gay Teenager’s Prison Term Voided](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gay-teenagers-p/): In 2000, 18-year-old Matthew Limon was sentenced to prison in Kansas for having voluntary oral sex with someone three years younger. Both teen-agers were developmentally disabled. Heterosexual teen-agers would have been sentenced to a maximum of a year and three months, and possibly just probation. But because Limon and his sex partner were both male, Limon was sentenced to 17 years, two months. This disproportionate sentencing was a basic element of sodomy laws. And ex-gay umbrella group Exodus refuses to oppose harsh sentencing. Today the Supreme Court threw out the 17-year sentence and returned the case to Kansas courts.
- [NYT Doesn’t Know What A Conservative Is](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/nyt-doesnt-know/): An article in today’s New York Times interviews “conservatives” who are uniformly angry at the Supreme Court ruling against sodomy laws. However, all the interviewees appear to be Big Government moral conservatives employed by the religious right. No economic, small-government, or libertarian conservatives are interviewed.
- [Ex-Gay Difference of Opinion on Sodomy Ruling](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-gay-differen/): Two top Exodus officials seem to be saying very different things, in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling against Texas’ sodomy law. Mike Airhart offered an optimistic assessment earlier. However… While spokesman Randy Thomas avoids moral absolutism and echoes Clarence Thomas, executive director Alan Chambers echoes Trent Lott and Jerry Falwell. ALAN CHAMBERS: We don’t live in 1953 Christian America anymore. And we don’t live in 1953 segregated, sexist, KKK-tolerant America, either. RANDY THOMAS: States have every right to draft statements declaring what they deem appropriate moral behavior for the good of the society they govern. In other words, Randy supports...
- [Focus on the Family: Sodomy Ruling A Loss for Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/focus-on-the-fa-2/): In a Focus on the Family article, moral conservatives argue that the Supreme Court ruling on sodomy laws is a loss for gay activists. They say the ruling leaves gays without a key political tool — equal protection — that had been sought. However, equal protection being too boring, Focus’s experts invent a string of bizarre and imaginative goals for the gay rights movement. Ya gotta love creativity.
- [White House: No Comment on Sodomy Ruling](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/white-house-no/): Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer, June 26, 2003: QUESTION: And on the Texas sodomy case, does the President believe that gay men have the legal right to have sexual relations in the privacy of their own home? MR. FLEISCHER: I think on this decision, the administration did not file a brief in this case, unlike in the Michigan case. And this is now a state matter. QUESTION: So he has no position on this? MR. FLEISCHER: It’s just as I indicated, the administration did not file a brief on this — as, I think, you know.
- [Salon.com Commentaries on Sodomy Ruling](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/saloncom-commen/): The next war: Bush and the Supreme Court With William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor considering retirement, activists on all sides are preparing for a firefight over Bush’s next high-court nominee. By Tim Grieve “Caving in to the ‘homosexual agenda'” Justice Antonin Scalia blasts the sodomy ruling, saying the Court improperly ventured into the legislative domain. A great day for liberty In his dissent from the Supreme Court’s historic decision in the Texas sodomy case, angry Antonin Scalia was right about one thing: The next step is gay marriage. By Andrew Sullivan Protecting “the most private human conduct” Justice Anthony Kennedy...
- [Supreme Court Ruling on Sodomy: Activist Quotes Pro And Con](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/supreme-court-r/): Public-domain quotes from the Associated Press: “This is a giant leap forward to a day where we are no longer branded as criminals.” – Ruth Harlow, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case and legal director at Lambda Legal. “If the people have no right to regulate sexuality then ultimately the institution of marriage is in peril, and with it, the welfare of the coming generations of children.” – Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family. “We still have a long way to go in achieving full equality, but the court’s recognition that all women...
- [Gays in Military: Sodomy Ruling May Affect ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gays-in-militar/): From Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, June 26, 2003: In 2001, a blue ribbon panel of military law experts called for repeal of the sodomy statute on the fiftieth anniversary of the UCMJ, calling its enforcement “arbitrary, even vindictive.” The armed forces have discharged almost 9,000 service members for being lesbian, gay or bisexual since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was adopted ten years ago. The reason for each discharge has been homosexual conduct. “An open question,” according to SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn, “is whether future courts will invoke the doctrine of military deference and avoid the underlying issue of the...
- [Episcopalians: No Major Denomination Supported Texas Sodomy Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/episcopalians-n/): From Integrity USA, June 26, 2003: We would point out that no major US Christian denomination supported Texas in this appeal. The days of Christian-supported legal discrimination against gay and lesbian people in the United States seem to be waning, and for this we give thanks to God. We also give thanks that no longer can opponents of the public celebration of same-sex unions in our Church use the argument that such unions are “illegal” in many states. The Supreme Court today put an end to that reality.
- [Libertarians on Sodomy Ruling: Constitution Restrains Government](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/libertarians-on/): From the Cato Institute: In a 6-3 decision delivered today, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law prohibiting consensual sex between partners of the same sex. The Cato Institute filed an amicus brief in January in support of the plaintiffs, arguing that the Texas anti-sodomy law violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. The Court today cited Cato’s brief. … Roger Pilon, vice president for legal affairs and director of Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies, released a statement after the ruling: “I’m delighted that the Supreme Court did today what it should do in all cases —...
- [Ex-Gays Say Gays Feel Unfairly Singled Out By Sodomy Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-gays-say-gay/): From Exodus, June 26, 2003 Exodus encourages fellow Christians to respond with compassion and reason on this historic turn in public policy regarding homosexuality. While many Christians and conservatives express shock and dismay over today’s ruling, ex-gays are not surprised. Executive Director Alan Chambers succinctly states, “We don’t live in 1953 Christian America anymore.” Sodomy laws were drafted by political leaders in an effort to punish what they defined as immoral sexual acts. Ministry and Media Relations Manager Randy Thomas says, “States have every right to draft statements declaring what they deem appropriate moral behavior for the good of the society...
- [Joke: Why Do Straight Men Die Earlier?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/joke-why-do-str/): This PowerPoint presentation file asks the question.
- [FRC on Sodomy: Give Us Self-Government on Our Terms Only](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-on-sodomy-g/): From the Family Research Council: By extending legal protections to homosexual behavior, the court majority not only struck down the 1986 precedent in Bowers v. Hardwick that upheld Georgia’s anti-sodomy law; the court also demolished the legal foundation of marriage. The ruling does not “protect” homosexual behavior; it states that the Constitution never gave state and federal governments the right to regulate private consensual behavior in the first place. It is truly bizarre that the FRC would define sodomy laws as the legal foundation of marriage. With reasoning like that, it’s no wonder divorce rates in the Bible Belt are the...
- [Soulforce: After Sodomy Ruling, Maybe Some More Churches Will See the Light](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/soulforce-after/): From Soulforce, a national interfaith organization: “This is a fantastic day for all people because the Supreme Court has recognized that our government has no place in our bedrooms, nor a right to selectively single out people of minority sexual orientation for criminal punishment,” said Rev. Mel White, founder and director of Soulforce, Inc. “Maybe some churches that alienate and degrade us will see the light after today as well.” … “I’m free, I’m free, I am no longer a criminal for who I love, I am free to be who God created me to be,” said Karen Weldin, Soulforce Director...
- [Family Research Council Insults the U.S. Supreme Court](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/family-research/): FRC’s Ken Connor describes the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, including no less than five conservatives, as “judicial activists” and “unelected warriors wearing black robes.” “Once again judicial activists have used their fertile imagination to create rights that simply don’t exist in the Constitution. In doing so, they have imposed their own moral judgments in place of state legislatures and have thereby undermined the democratic process. Unelected warriors wearing black robes become the chief architects of public policy. “If the hallmarks of the test are consent and privacy, then that throws the door open to any sexual behavior. The radical...
- [Clarence Thomas: Texas Sodomy Law ‘Uncommonly Silly’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/clarence-thomas/): JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting. I join JUSTICE SCALIA’s dissenting opinion. I write separately to note that the law before the Court today ‘is … uncommonly silly.’ Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479, 527 (1965) (Stewart, J., dissenting). If I were a member of the Texas Legislature, I would vote to repeal it. Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources. Notwithstanding this, I recognize that as a member of this Court I am not empowered to help petitioners and others similarly...
- [NGLTF: Sodomy Case Showed Sorry State of U.S. Legal Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ngltf-sodomy-ca/): From the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: This court case epitomizes the sorry state of legal rights for gay people in this country. In 2003, it’s appalling that states would still argue that there’s nothing wrong with the police kicking down the bedroom doors of a gay or lesbian couple and arresting them for having intimate relations with the person they love.” Does the NGLTF ever issue a press release without finding a way to insult the United States?
- [Family Pride Coalition: Texas Sodomy Law Obstructed Gay Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/family-pride-co/): From the Family Pride Coalition: “Today, the Supreme Court ruled for fairness for all Americans,” said Aimee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition. “After years of this antiquated law being applied with prejudice to gay and lesbian Americans, it can no longer serve as an unjust barrier to lesbians and gay men maintaining custody of their own children or becoming foster or adoptive parents.” This year, the Family Pride Coalition was deeply involved in efforts to defeat three anti-gay foster care and adoption bills in Texas. The sodomy law was used as a reference point in arguments against allowing...
- [Reform Jews: Sodomy Laws Violate Equal Protection](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/reform-jews-sod/): From the Religious Action Council of Reform Judaism: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis are committed to the belief that all citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law and, therefore, oppose discrimination against homosexuals in any form, including discriminatory governmental statutes and practices of law enforcement agencies.
- [Amnesty: Sodomy Laws Violate International Human Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/amnesty-sodomy/): From Amnesty International USA: Even as we celebrate today’s decision we must not forget that some 70 countries still have laws prohibiting homosexual relations and that conviction under these statues can range from lengthy prison sentences and fines to torture, and in several countries, the death penalty.
- [Americans United: Criminal Law Can’t Be Based On Religious Beliefs](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/americans-unite/): From Americans United for Separation of Church and StateJune 26, 2003 “This decision is a strong reaffirmation of the principles of secular government and personal freedom,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The court made it clear that religious belief cannot serve as the basis of criminal law. “This sends a strong message to the Religious Right and its allies that our Constitution does not permit government to enforce religious dogma or ride roughshod over the rights of minorities.” Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court majority, observed, “Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom...
- [Presbyterians: Supreme Court Ruling ‘One More Step Toward Equality’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/presbyterians-s/): From More Light Presbyterians (mlp.org): In the 1960’s all 50 states had sodomy / anti-gay laws. In 1986 when the Hardwick decision was made upholding the Georgia anti-gay laws, 25 states had anti-gay laws. Yesterday, 13 states had such anti-gay laws. Today, they have all been overturned! — Michael J. Adee., M.Div., Ph.D., National Field Organizer
- [Dignity USA: Supreme Court Ruling Promotes Justice, Fairness for All](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/dignity-usa-sup/): Marianne Duddy, Executive Director of DignityUSA: “The best news is that Judeo-Christian values are no longer being used to uphold clearly discriminatory laws.” Duddy also called the decision a “leap forward for all Americans who = support basic justice and fairness in our laws.”
- [Agape Press: Supreme Court Exchanges Truth of God for A Lie](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/agape-press-sup/): From Agape Press, a religious-right propaganda service: In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul says men whose “foolish hearts were darkened” exchanged the truth of God for a lie. His warning about man’s wisdom has apparently gone unheeded in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down an anti-sodomy law in Texas — effectively telling states they can no longer punish homosexual couples for engaging in activities the Bible says are “unnatural” and sinful. The article quotes the American Family Association, the National Clergy Council and the Liberty Counsel. No mainstream Christian, interfaith, or nonsectarian sources other...
- [Quakers: Ruling Against Sodomy Law Good, But Falls Short](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/quakers-ruling/): From the American Friends Service Committee, June 26, 2003: “We regard this as a victory in the struggle for justice, not only for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, but for all people,” said Mary Ellen McNish, AFSC general secretary. “At a time when we are witnessing rapid erosion of basic constitutional rights, political assaults on the legal framework of civil rights, and intrusive use of law enforcement authority in this country, this ruling is particularly welcome.” However, the AFSC is disappointed that the Court stopped short of affirming the bedrock principle of equal protection under law, although the decision states that, “Equality...
- [Falwell: Pedophilia Is Consensual, Too](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/falwell-pedophi/): From Falwell Confidential, June 26, 2003: Mathew Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel called the [Supreme Court] decision [overturning a Texas sodomy law] a “wakeup call” to the majority of Americans who believe in traditional marriage. “The goal of the radical homosexual agenda is to eliminate any and all laws regulating consensual sexual conduct,” Staver said. “This would mean the elimination of laws banning polygamy as well as those that ban sex between adults and minors.”
- [United Church of Christ Favors Ruling Against Sodomy Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/united-church-o/): In a statement released today, the Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, the church’s Minister for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns and HIV/AIDS Ministry, says, “With the support of the UCC General Synod and a variety of UCC agencies and organizations, I stand here today in solidarity with these actions affirming that sexuality is a gift from God to be shared with love and responsibility and without government intrusion.”
- [Texas Sodomy Law Overturned](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/texas-sodomy-la/): CNN offers a report that’s being updated periodically, with details added. The legal aspects of the ruling are discussed today on Fox News Channel’s DaySide program. The official ruling will eventually be posted here on the Supreme Court web site. Earlier oral arguments are available in this PDF document from the Supreme Court web site. The text of the Texas law that was struck down is located here.
- [A Bit About Your Ex-Gay Watch Blogger](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/a-bit-about-you/): I should have plenty to report about the Supreme Court ruling tonight. In the meantime, check out this discussion at GayChristian.net. To what extent does physical attractiveness influence one’s choice of friends or potential partners?
- [Bulletin! Gay And Ex-Gay Christians Get Along!](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/bulletin-gay-an/): An Ex-Gay Watch reader points out calm, thoughtful discussions among Christian gays and ex-gays at GayChristian.net. The tone of the talk is wonderful to see.
- [Gay Marriage, Conservative Values: Win-Win Scenario](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gay-marriage-co/): Steve Chapman writes an excellent opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune. While I excerpt key points, the whole article is worth reading, even if one must register at the Trib site (no charge). Life is full of zero-sum games, where one person can’t win unless another loses. If I get the last piece of pie, you don’t. … The battle over gay marriage is as bitter as you would expect in a zero-sum game between two groups with incompatible desires. Conservatives want to preserve traditional marriage as the foundation of our society. Homosexuals want the legal recognition, rights and duties that...
- [Antigay Flyover Sponsor’s Win-Lose Scenario](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/antigay-flyover/): Scott Lively is the director of Abiding Truth Ministries and its political lobby. ATM is co-sponsoring the antigay flyovers of Gay Days at theme parks around the United States. In a letter to the editor of The Washington Times on June 22, Lively condemns conservative National Review writer Jonah Goldberg for his commentary, “Time to face facts, gays gain victory.” In that article, Goldberg says conservatives should not surrender their values, but rather make the best of a situation that they have allegedly lost. Lively, however, insists that “the” homosexual sexual ethic and that of the “family-based society” can never peacefully...
- [FRC, HRC Duke It Out Over Antigay Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-hrc-duke-it/): On MSNBC’s “Buchanan and Press” on Monday, FRC’s Ken Connor seemed to be unable to move beyond stereotypes about homosexuals as AIDS-ridden sex workers all dying by age 45. If the Federal Marriage Amendment’s other supporters were uniformly as crass and stupid as this, it wouldn’t stand a chance. But they know that public sentiment these days is ruled by fear — of terrorism, the economy, foreigners — and scapegoating over the nation’s ills. That fear can be exploited in many ways.
- [Jeffry G. Ford’s Ex-Gay Journey](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/jeffry-g-fords/): He was the head of the Twin Cities ex-gay ministry Outpost, a national speaker for Exodus, and for 10 years a former homosexual. His parents raised him in a fashion that NARTH director Dr. Joseph Nicolosi would have applauded: He was coached (disastrously) in manly hobbies and sports. Jeffry G. Ford went on to navigate the tortured contradictions of personhood, sexuality and faith that were required within certain ex-gay belief systems. His gradual resolution of these contradictions reads a bit like a born-again experience, but his thoughtful and independent reasoning, and the family that emerged, are not quite what the political...
- [One-Way Conversation with An Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/one-way-convers/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas recounts a conversation with a gay-tolerant professor. The woman apparently couldn’t stop talking to herself about ex-gays long enough to listen to a real ex-gay activist.
- [Hopeforhomosexuals.com: False Advertising?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/hopeforhomosexu/): The Family Policy Network advertises hopeforhomosexuals.com as a place where real ex-gays offer testimonies about the success of “change” in their lives. Yet the ex-gay page offers no ex-gay testimony. It merely features antigay activist Reggie White complaining that some gays have been intolerant of his intolerance. The page repeats the vague claim by Exodus that thousands of unnamed people have changed in ways that are not specified. Meanwhile, the web site’s ex-lesbian page, strangely separate from the ex-gay page, offers just one testimony — that of Exodus board member and political activist Anne Paulk. The testimony is a reprint, verbatim,...
- [FAQ on Antigay Theme-Park Fly-overs](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/faq-on-antigay/): The Family Policy Network has published an FAQ regarding the group’s fly-overs at Gay Days. Q: “Is this a protest?” A: “No. It is merely an attempt to share the same hope and joy we have found in the forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ. While FPN supports and promotes protests and boycotts of companies and entities that promote immoral and/or unwholesome activities, “Project Hope Days” is simply not that kind of activity.” However, the project’s own web site promotes discrimination against gays “in schools, government, business and the workplace.” Q: “Is ‘Project Hope Days’ an attempt to ‘proselytize’?” A: “No....
- [Opportunity Missed By Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/opportunity-mis/): Stephen Bennett has posted a transcript of his CNN appearance to his website’s discussion forum. He and Elizabeth Birch of the Human Rights Campaign were interviewed by anchor Anderson Cooper about the Southern Baptist Convention’s initiative to support ex-gay ministry. Bennett misses a tremendous opportunity to speak intelligently and sensibly to the public about the potential role of ex-gay ministry and the value of Southern Baptists’ support. He contradicts himself by saying he was happy and in love with his male partner, yet refuses to acknowledge that gays can be happy and content. The balance of his contributions dwell on his...
- [Blundering Toward Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/blundering-towa/): Scholars quoted in The New York Times argue that North America is rushing into gay marriage with far too little public discussion of definition, ethics, and tradition.
- [A Ministry of Name-Calling](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/a-ministry-of-n/): The folks at the exgaydiscussionboard frequently exhibit a bad habit. Hobbled by addictions, absolutisms, co-dependencies, and low self-esteem, many of them failed to form healthy relationships during the years (often in their twenties) when they considered themselves gay. Instead of taking responsibility for their own struggles or youthful immaturity, they accuse any well-adjusted and stable gay couple of being “liars” who fantasize in futility about perfect households with white picket fences. Such namecalling and strawman argumentation makes for poor ministry. Unfortunately, it seems to be common among conservative evangelicals.
- [Discrimination Good for Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/discrimination/): As reported by Wayne Besen, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers has promoted discrimination by “Christians” against gays. A new study by the Human Rights Campaign documents the impact of employment discrimination against gay couples.
- [FRC: Tax the Unmarried](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-tax-the-unm/): I’m catching up here. Earlier this week, the Family Research Council blasted Sen. Bob Graham, presidential candidate. Graham wants to offer federal tax breaks, which already are enjoyed by married couples, to gay domestic partners. FRC asserts that marriage is undermined unless the federal government taxes unmarried couples.
- [Illogical Analogy to Racism](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/illogical-analo/): The Analogy War’s latest salvo: Task force calls churches to help gays abandon lifestyle “There is no such thing as a gay Christian,” Wilkins said. At least one task force member disagreed with that assertion. “Neither I nor the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission believe it is impossible to be a homosexual and a Christian,” said Land. But as with Christian racists, Land said, it is impossible to be gay and live a life consistent with the gospel. Are they saying, then, that gays are like racists because Christians within both groups have misunderstood the Bible? — Steve B.
- [Religious Freedom](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/religious-freed/): Southern Baptists resolve “to oppose steadfastly all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate or legalize same-sex marriage or other equivalent unions.” And they also scold: “We remind the international community that religious liberty is not merely the right to remain in the religion of one’s birth, but includes the right of anyone to change his religious loyalties without fear of persecution.” Apparently the right to live without fear of persecution stops short of gay-affirming Christians who still think of themselves as Baptists. My friend Steve Schalchlin recently described worshipping at Lake Avenue Baptist Church this way: Lake Ave....
- [Freedom of Association](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/freedom-of-asso/): Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice writes in The Washington Post that while conservatives defend freedom of association for the Boy Scouts, they oppose freedom of association for gay people. Bolick is fair about the issue, however: He notes that many liberals oppose freedom of association for the Boy Scouts, while supporting same for gays. According to CNS News, Regina Griggs can’t quite make up her mind where her group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays stands, regarding employees’ freedom of association: On the one hand, PFOX demands equal time at the FBI for ex-gay employees, though no ex-gay FBI employee...
- [Canadian ‘Homosexual’ Group Opposes Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/canadian-homose/): From Friday’s Calgary (Alberta) Herald: It is “selfish and rude” for the gay community to push for same-sex marriage legislation and “redefine society’s traditions and conventions simply for our self-indulgence,” says a national homosexual group. John McKellar, executive director of Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism, said Thursday that the organization is in agreement with the Alberta government’s opposition to sanctioned same-sex marriages. … “Within that two to four per cent minority, less than one per cent are interested in same-sex marriage or even domestic partnership legislation,” said McKellar. “In other words, federal and provincial laws are being changed and traditional values...
- [Focus/Family Markets Gay-Marriage Scare](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/focusfamily-mar/): If a conservative three percent of the population were gay, then there would be roughly nine million gay people in the United States. As of Tuesday, according to CBS, three U.S. gay couples had obtained marriages in Ontario. Six people — out of 9,000,000 gay people and 300,000,000 Americans overall. Focus on the Family uses this massive “attack” on marriage to sell antigay recordings valued at $50 or more to its outraged supporters, and to lobby for an antigay amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- [Exodus Targets Churches](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/exodus-targets/): An Exodus press release today declares “Exodus Conference Targets Broader Audience.” Exodus emphasizes its outreach this year to churches; outreach to gays is not mentioned. Exodus executive director Alan Chambers is quoted: Our mission this year is to strengthen the Body of Christ by providing the best information available on homosexuality. We are taking what we have learned and equipping the worldwide Church to act as an army set on restoring the sexually broken and building the Kingdom of God. There are people dying to find God’s grace, mercy and healing. We are here to give them living and hopeful examples...
- [Ex-Gay Video At So. Baptist Convention](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-gay-video-at/): “The Way Out,” an ex-gay video, was to be presented June 17 by Exodus and Southern Baptist Convention leaders at the SBC convention in Phoenix. From Exodus News: Alan Chambers, Executive Director of Exodus and attending the convention, states, “The SBC is the world’s 4th largest denomination and they are promoting the fact that homosexuals are important to the Lord and important to the church. The SBC is encouraging the messengers to accept that homosexual people should be reached with the love of Christ.” Alan continues, “These courageous leaders are underscoring the fact that God loves every homosexual person too much...
- [FRC Rewrites Rivals’ Agendas](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-rewrites-ri/): The Family Research Council falsely links the “gay agenda” to Hillary Clinton’s support of benefits for heterosexual partners of federal employees. As this National Review article demonstrates, Clinton has drawn criticism for her opposition to gay marriage, while gay conservatives have opposed domestic partnerships as a weakening of marriage vows.
- [We’re On Vacation, You Don’t Have to Be](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/were-on-vacatio/): Ex-Gay Watch is on leave until Wednesday, June 19, 2003. But you can still participate. Please leave feedback about the blog’s first two months of full-time existence. Is the blog too hard on ex-gays? Too easy? Does the blog overgeneralize? Are there additional topics, organizations, activities, or belief systems worthy of analysis? Sound off now, by clicking on the “comments” link. If you wish to comment privately, e-mail me; there’s an e-mail link at the bottom of this page. See you in a week!
- [Philly Boy Scouts Go Back on Their Word](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/philly-boy-scou/): From The Philadelphia Inquirer: Shortly after enacting a nondiscrimination policy, the Philadelphia Boy Scout council has kicked out a gay scout. Under pressure from the national Boy Scouts leadership, the council says that it didn’t really intend nondiscrimination; it actually intended “don’t ask, don’t tell.” First, the Boy Scouts of America redefined “morally straight.” Now they appear to have redefined “Scout’s Honor.”
- [Focus/Family’s Hometown Gay Pride](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/focusfamilys-ho/): According to The Denver Post, Focus on the Family calls its home city’s support of Gay Pride Week “shameful.” Gay Pride Week is an opportunity for gay-tolerant people to speak their minds freely. Focus on the Family opposes the public display of free speech with which it disagrees, and it opposes elected officials’ expressions of support for their constituents. Instead of fingerwagging, a more constructive approach might have been an alternative pride event for ex-gays that affirms civil rights for gays.
- [FRC Calls for War to Save Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-calls-for-w/): The Family Research Council expresses outrage at Canadian judges for honoring that nation’s constitution and expanding the pool of marriage candidates. FRC claims that marriage is only 5,000 years old and asserts that it is “the (only) foundational institution of civilization.” FRC avoids discussing what other conservatives have found to be the actual threats to marriage across America’s Bible Belt. And FRC blasts “unelected judges” for defending constitutional rights that have appropriately been immune to majority whims and rages. The protest against “unelected” judges is puzzling, since public opinion polls in Canada find high support for gay marriage. From the Toronto...
- [Exodus, Self-Marginalized on Radio?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/exodus-self-mar/): Alan Chambers will be a guest on the moral-conservative radio show “Janet Parshall’s America.” Parshall is a longtime spokeswoman for the Family Research Council. Her for-profit radio show is carried by the conservative Salem Radio Network. She has also hosted a conservative women’s radio program for Focus on the Family. For a variety of reasons, the folks who appear on Parshall’s program and other religious-right programs develop credibility issues — as do the guests on the leftist Pacifica Radio Network. With the possible exception of Fox News, the mass media don’t like to put political extremes on the air. Chambers’ appearances...
- [Principles Behind Ex-Gay Lobby Days](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/principles-behi/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas spells out the “core principles” of Ex-Gay Lobby Days. CHOICE: Many people who experience same-sex attractions choose not to act on those feelings and instead work to affirm and actuate their heterosexuality. We exist to help those people. This principle avoids a simple acknowledgement that people experience “homosexual” attractions. It also distorts heterosexuality. People do not possess heterosexuality or homosexuality. They possess heterosexual or homosexual attractions. AWARENESS: We do not seek to impose our viewpoint on anyone, but we work to spread awareness of positive and life-affirming alternatives to same-sex attraction, homosexual identity and homosexual lifestyles. This...
- [Talking with Stephen Bennett Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/talking-with-st/): Here are the criteria for participation in the discussion forum at Stephen Bennett Ministries. What can get your post/topic deleted? Since we are devoted to opposing the gay agenda and helping the struggler in becoming who he/she was meant to be, that according to their birth gender, glorifying the Lord in actions, word and deed, it would stand to reason that we would tolerate: Nothing that would be counter to God’s desire. No sexual inuendos, no talk about remaining in homosexuality and trying the dating of the opposite sex, no conversations that tend to give glory to homosexuality and it’s various...
- [Sullivan on Ontario Gay Marriage Ruling](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/sullivan-on-ont/): Andrew Sullivan comments on the Ontario gay marriage ruling: Gay marriage strengthens straight marriage; and marriage will help integrate gays into society and the family more effectively than anything else could. I agree with this, but I don’t believe marriage should be sought for social or family reasons. It should be sought simply because two people are pledged before their God to commit the rest of their lives to one another.
- [Antigay Movement Miniscule Among AT&T Shareholders](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/antigay-movemen/): The antigay movement lost its latest battle to encourage antigay discrimination at AT&T. Focus on the Family sought to rally AT&T shareholders to vote for a resolution permitting antigay discrimination. But the resolution won only 3.3 percent of the shareholder vote, according to CNSNews.com. The head of Focus on the Family’s antigay political unit is Mike Haley, board member of the ex-gay political network Exodus International.
- [Ex-Gay Leader Criticizes Gay Tolerance At Avis](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-gay-leader-c/): Exodus board member and Focus on the Family activist Mike Haley thinks Avis should shut up and turn back the clock — way back — when it comes to domestic partnership. Focus accuses Avis of “pushing the homosexual agenda” because of an ad by Avis in The Advocate. The ad states that Avis has, for the past 10 years, automatically included domestic partners as additional drivers in its policies. Haley, manager of the gender issues department at Focus on the Family (which opposes women’s rights), believes it is wrong for Avis to treat domestic partners better than business partners. “(I was...
- [Intolerance for Mormons](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/intolerance-for/): Over at the exgaydiscussionboard, several of the Yahoo group’s most active ex-gay participants are insulting two ex-gay Mormons and threatening them with damnation. I find just a few examples of hospitality toward Mormons in the group. The discussion begins here.
- [Gay Left, Religious Right: Who’s More Wrong?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gay-left-religi/): Steve Miller, neoconservative blogger for the Independent Gay Forum, writes in David Horowitz’s FrontPage magazine: Take the charge hurled by gay activists that the Bush administration is irredeemably “anti-gay,” and compare it with accusations by religious conservatives that the administration has been “pandering to the homosexual lobby,” and it can leave you feeling like you’ve taken a tumble through Alice’s mirror. Miller even-handedly repudiates the slanted rhetoric of both the gay left and the religious right.
- [FRC: Marriage Under Challenge](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/frc-marriage-un/): From the Family Research Council: Speaking on behalf of the Family Research Council, Allan Carlson will deliver a lecture, “Marriage on Trial,” on Capitol Hill at 11 a.m. EDT, Thursday, June 12. The lecture will be web streamed live on www.frc.org. Responding to Dr. Carlson’s remarks will be Dr. Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Maria Echaveste, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. Marriage today is under unprecedented challenge, from rampant cohabitation, divorce and the campaign to redefine it to allow so-called same-sex marriage. Dr. Carlson will address the need to preserve and protect...
- [Gay Marriage in Ontario](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gay-marriage-in/): The Ontario high court opinion is here in PDF format. Reuters, June 10, 2003 Toronto Starts Issuing Gay Marriage Licenses CBC Ottawa, June 10, 2003 Ontario court endorses same-sex marriages CBC News British Columbia, June 10, 2003 B.C. gay couple’s wedding plans up in the air Canadian Press, June 10, 2003 Court backs same-sex unions Ottawa Citizen, June 10, 2003 Gay couples can marry: Ontario Court
- [Religious Right to AT&T: Fire Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/religious-right-3/): Ex-gay movement underwriter Focus on the Family wants AT&T to discriminate against gay employees in the name of “family values.” This week, AT&T shareholders have an opportunity to retract “sexual orientation” from the company’s employment clause. Pro-discrimination activist Chris Stefan helped write the shareholder ballot proposal. “We believe there’s a growing consensus among the shareholders to try to stop this type of behavior on the part of the company,” Stefan said. It is, perhaps, ironic that Stefan and Focus classify a nonbehavior — nondiscrimination — as a “behavior.” “AT&T and other companies are promoting lifestyles that are inappropriate. They’re trying to...
- [Withered Tolerance](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/withered-tolera/): Last weekend, The Gazette in Colorado Springs published an article on tolerance, written by Kamon Simpson. Unfortunately, the article is not online. America is full of bickering and backbiting, bullying and browbeating, and devoid of patience with people who disagree. Just ask anyone who stood on either side of the war debate in the months leading up to Iraq. In part, I blame the ever-shrinking amount of information contained in broadcast news. Americans have less and less information with which to weigh decisions. Instead, they have more and more sensational hype. That ugliness (public incivility and threatening remarks) is apparent everywhere....
- [Gay Partner Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/gay-partner-abu/): From Salon.com: Abuse and NeglectBy David Tuller Domestic violence occurs as often among gay couples as among hetereosexuals, according to a new study, but victims of same-sex battering do not have equal protection under the law.
- [Life Complicated for Gay Mormons](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/life-complicate/): From the Tri Valley Herald of Northern California: Gay Mormon supportive of his faith It’s not easy being a gay Mormon. Just ask Nick Lee. “The choices are simple,” Lee said. “You can either choose to live a celibate life, you can leave the church behind or have the church leave you behind.”
- [CWFA Passes Judgment on Presbyterians](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/cwfa-passes-jud/): Concerned Women for America labels as “sin advocates” anyone who disagrees with its support for discrimination against gay Presbyterians. CWFA claims it was a bad week for tolerance. But it overlooks setbacks for the antigay side, as church officials sought to slow down the schismatic, antigay Confessing Church movement. CWFA notes that only 20 percent of Presbyterians belong to the Confessing Church movement, which CWFA endorses. Are the remaining 80 percent of Presbyterians who oppose schism “sin advocates”?
- [Mock, Then Play Victim](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/mock-then-play/): Concerned Women for America joins an African Catholic cardinal in mocking gay graduates and parents at a Georgetown University graduation ceremony. Then CWFA plays the victim of homosexuals’ dignified response. Not content to play victim, CWFA accuses Georgetown University of turning its back on Jesus Christ because some of its students, faculty, and parents disliked being mocked on one of the most important days of these students’ lives.
- [Knight V. Horowitz, Part VI](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/knight-v-horowi/): If Robert Knight ever calls a truce in his battles against other conservatives, it is not presently apparent. Here is Knight’s latest reiteration of earlier blanket generalizations. CWFA helpfully includes links to earlier rounds in the debate.
- [Socially Conservative Pediatricians](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/socially-conser/): The religious right has formed a small organization of pediatricians who espouse socially conservative, patriotic values. The “American College of Pediatricians” screens its membership according to a pro-life philosophy spelled out on its “Core Values” page and an anti-gay philosophy spelled out here. The organization’s Bible Belt membership and mission, values, and vision statements are summarized here. The “College” offers no evidence that adoption by gay parents is harmful to children, but proceeds nevertheless to accuse the pediatric profession’s leading organization, doctors, biological parents, and courts of “social experimentation.” The ACP, based in eastern Tennessee, blends religion and patriotism into its...
- [Ex-Ex-Gay Speeches](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/ex-ex-gay-speec/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas responded June 3 to news that former Exodus ministry leader Jeremy Marks is giving speeches with the gay-affirming group Evangelicals Concerned, criticizing “reparative therapy” and encouraging gay Christians to find a more secure path to faith in Christ. While I disagree with Thomas’ observations of certain ex-gay therapies (I believe non-professional counselors are problematic for the ex-gay movement), for once I feel believe Thomas’s response is rational, methodical and respectful. Thank you, Randy. I also applaud Randy’s effort to link to both sides of the debate between conservatives Robert Knight and David Horowitz. Readers can judge for...
- [Bombers Not Extremist?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/06/bombers-not-ext/): The Anti-Defamation League reports that white supremacists, anti-Semites, and clinic bombers are rising in praise of Eric Rudolph. Some of them are vowing to retaliate against Rudolph’s arrest by committing acts of violence in his name. ADL quotes numerous individuals in detail, calling them extremists. CNS News, frequently cited by the religious right and Exodus as a source of balanced (conservative) news, doesn’t comment on the domestic terrorists. It cites the ADL report without offering the specifics, then puts “extremists” in quotation marks, as if bombings and murder should be described in a more genteel fashion. (The CNS page is updated...
- [Rumor: John Paulk Criticizes Christian Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/rumor-john-paul/): From a message posted to the Silt blog, and mentioned briefly in comments at XGW some time back: John Paulk called into Mike Signorile’s radio talk show last week. It was truly amazing radio. Paulk said he was a fan of the show. He went on to make some startling admissions about still fighting gay lust and disagreeing with many on the Christian Right. He even said that the Christian Conservatives need to “admit they don’t love gays and start from there.” He made other comments about when he went to the gay bar in DC and said he felt more...
- [Conservative Churches Not Growing After All?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/conservative-ch/): “Conservative” Christian church leaders occasionally boast that their churches are growing like gangbusters while so-called “liberal” denominations (mainline and orthodox Christian denominations, or any denomination that veers from the given church leader’s ideology) are shriveling due to the non-conservatives’ alleged accommodation with the broader culture. The Associated Press cites an internal report by the Southern Baptist Convention that finally admits what some mainline churches have known all along: The unbridled growth of conservative churches may be a myth — financially speaking, at least. Since 1968, donations by Southern Baptists to the church have steadily decreased to just 2.03 percent of their...
- [Exodus Reflects on Being Associated with KKK](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/exodus-reflects/): Exodus International executed a political stunt in July when it asked an Orlando city councilwoman to proclaim July 21 “Exodus International Day.” When some Orlando council members — one of whom, Patty Sheehan, was lesbian — protested, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers singled out the lesbian councilwoman and accused her of exploiting the proclamation for political purposes. The proclamation was indeed an affront to gay Orlando residents, because Mr. Chambers and Exodus national chairman Mike Haley use their positions in Exodus to promote discrimination against gays in employment, housing, and government services, among other categories. To be sure, Ms. Sheehan’s effort...
- [Exodus Spokesman on Freedom of Speech](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/exodus-spokesma-3/): The Exodus national office displayed a selective respect for freedom of speech and self-determination in its news release for Sept. 16. Exodus promotes “freedom from homosexuality,” without defining what that means, and it defends freedom of speech — for ex-gay advocates, but not necessarily for gay people of faith. To be fair, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas shows respect for Mormons despite pressure from judgmental Christians. So, one naturally wonders, where is the respect for gay people — specifically, their homes, jobs, families, and places of worship? Mr. Thomas tries to explain his perspective on freedom, but not very successfully: For some...
- [CWFA Gives Texas Rangers Fans A Bronx Cheer](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/cwfa-gives-texa/): Texas Rangers Gay Day received a modest turnout of gay sports fans — but Concerned Women for America apparently has its cities mixed up: It greets gay sports fans with a Bronx cheer. CWFA said: The 8 by 4 foot neon green sign outside the Texas Rangers’ Arlington stadium near Dallas on Sunday night proclaimed the outcome: “Christians 300, ‘Gays’ 200, Jesus wins.” That was the final score as Christians rallied outside the stadium in protest of what was billed in the media as “Gay Day at The Ballpark.” Those 300 protesters included members from two local churches on hand to...
- [Marriage Is…](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/marriage-is/): Anti-gay-marriage advocates commonly portray marriage as unitary and monolithic, capable of being nullified if stretched too far. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), for example, describes it as: faithful, exclusive, and lifelong… intimate partnership of life and love… a living image of the way in which the Lord personally loves his people… a relationship of persons and an institution in society… a unique, essential relationship and institution… If the real-life experience of couples preparing for it are any indication, though, it defies stereotypes. Pastor Richard Seim, of Trinity Baptist Church in Renton, WA told the Seattle Times: The vast majority...
- [Kansas AG Distorts, Misleads, Inflames](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/kansas-ag-disto/): Matthew Limon was convicted of having consensual but criminal sex with a nearly-15-year-old boy when he was 18 and both lived at a group home for the developmentally disabled. He was sentenced to a 17+ year prison term despite a Kansas “Romeo and Juliet” statute — which sharply reduces penalties for sex between a sub-16-year-old and a partner within 4 years of his/her age — because it applies only to opposite-sex activity. Limon’s case has been returned to the Kansas Court of Appeals in the wake of Lawrence v. Texas, where Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline held a news conference to...
- [Factoid: CBN Rakes In $200 Million](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/factoid-cbn-rak/): The antigay Christian Broadcasting Network/700 Club, which represents only a portion of Pat Robertson’s corporate empire, reported $199 million in income in the year ended March 31, 2002. However, the organization violated several widely accepted standards of accountability for charitable organizations, so the income calculation may be inaccurate, or its distribution of funds unorthodox.
- [Dr. Dobson Ignores Marriage, Scapegoats Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/dr-dobson-ignor/): Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson writes “from [his] heart” that the institution of marriage is failing. He points out the conditions he perceived which led to his founding of FOTF: in the late 1960s and early 1970s, no-fault divorce laws, radical feminism and a sweeping sexual revolution combined here in the United States to rip open the fabric of the family. They left it shaken and wounded. And he says that, in the 26-year lifetime of FOTF: There have been times of hope and times of despair during this struggle, but overall, the family has been steadily losing...
- [Invisible Ex-Gays in Orlando?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/invisible-ex-ga/): The controversy surrounding Orlando city council member Vicki Vargo’s proclamation of Exodus International Day on July 21 was noted in an earlier Ex-Gay Watch item by Mike. He mentions that activists have challenged the proclamation, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel. It is worth noting that voices of protest include one of Vargo’s city council colleagues, as described by Orlando Weekly (OW): Commissioner Patty Sheehan … wrote the mayor an e-mail expressing disgust at Vargo’s proclamation. “As an openly gay public official, I am personally and professionally offended by this action,” Sheehan wrote. Protester Royce Mathew has created a satire page...
- [Ex-Gay Flyover Ban At Walt Disney World](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-flyover/): Focus on the Family is again flouting national security — and the private-property rights of Disney — as it protests an FAA ban on planes carrying ex-gay banner ads over Walt Disney World during Gay Days on Oct. 4. Focus says Disney is getting special treatment. But would Focus on the Family support the rights of gay groups to fly over Focus on the Family’s campus in Colorado Springs? And does Focus feel that flyovers are cost-effective or constructive? Does Focus ever ask, “Is this what Jesus would do?”
- [Ex-Gay Ads And TV Appearances](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-ads-and/): Focus on the Family celebrated on Sept. 12 with the announcement that its lawsuit against a Florida bus company, over ex-gay ads that the company refused to post in February 2000, would go back to court. From CitizenLink: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — the same court that this summer ruled against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in his Ten Commandments battle — found that a lower court judge was wrong to throw out Focus’ lawsuit against the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA). Unfortunately, Focus on the Family employs a selective defense of the First Amendment. “This is a...
- [Ex-Gay Day in Orlando](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-day-in-o/): Orlando gay rights activists are challenging Orlando’s proclamation of July 21 as an official ex-gay day. City Council member Vicki Vargo proclaimed July 21 as Exodus International Day to honor the faith-based group that claims it can turn homosexual people straight. The proclamation, signed by Vargo and stamped with the official city seal, included several Bible passages and commended Exodus for “providing ministry to hurting people in our community.” Activists are still angry about the document, which appears to muddy the separation between church and state. Last week, [Mayor] Dyer ordered his legal team to review the City Council’s process for...
- [Montana “Christians” on Gay Reality TV](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/montana-christi/): Julie Millam, executive director of the Montana Family Coalition, says “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” should not be on TV: “To me, that’s not a reality show about gay people,” Millam told the Billings Gazette. “A really good reality show for gay people would be five gay men dying of AIDS.” This comment was carried, without criticism, by the Exodus news clipping service.
- [Jesus And Miracles](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/jesus-and-mirac/): Off-topic: Here’s a worthwhile reflection from Joel Sax about Christians’ modern-day, heretical preoccupation with “miracles.” Do some conservative Christians lash out at “paganism” in part because their own individual overdependence upon miracles is rooted in low magic?
- [Input Welcome From Ex-Gays’ Family, Friends](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/input-welcome-f/): Reading the life stories any of us write about ourselves, whether gay or ex-gay, family or friend, it’s not always easy to get a sense of context and nuance. Having perceptions and memories of others can help fill in the blanks. I was thinking of that as I read Suzanne Cook’s story at the Portland Fellowship site about being raised by a gay dad. She mentions: I was 9 years old and in my heart I hated my Dad’s new same-sex partner. I didn’t want to be with him. I didn’t want him in my home or in my father’s life....
- [Gay Terrorists: Misguided Generalizations](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/gay-terrorists/): 365Gay.com reports a bomb scare at a Lutheran school near Cleveland. It was evacuated after a caller threatened to blow up the school unless the pastor announced on TV that he supported gay marriage. No bomb was found. A parent, understandably shaken but making a misguided generalization, spoke afterward: “It’s a shame that if someone has a disagreement on doctrine, that they wouldn’t be more tolerant,” Linda Krecic, parent, says. “They would want tolerance on their end, and to threaten children is just unthinkable.” Of course, she is right – terrorism, including threatening children, is unthinkable. But the “they” who work...
- [Ex-Gay Minister’s AIDS-Cure Appeal](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-minister-2/): Previous discussion of this ex-gay ministry. From: “Matthew C. Manning” Reply-To: newsletter@matthewcmanning.com Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 04:06:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: MatthewCManning.com FREE VIDEO COUPON Free Video Coupon Would you like to receive Pastor Matthew C. Manning’s video documentary for FREE? Dear ____, We have run into a major conflict that hinders the completion of the video documentary “Truth Behind the Lie”, which presents Pastor Matthew’s incredible testimony of Jesus Christ completely delivering him from homosexuality and totally healing him of H.I.V./A.I.D.S. (including verified medical documentation) via interviews and realistic drama reenactments. We need to raise $2,000 to repair and replace...
- [Hidden Updates At Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/hidden-updates/): I have added new material to these messages: Queer Eye vs. Shmomosexuals Musician A Possible Role Model for Ex-Gays
- [Prof. Throckmorton’s Stereotypes](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/prof-throckmort/): Warren Throckmorton, an antigay psychology professor at a small Pennsylvania conservative-Christian college, is a prolific writer on behalf of the ex-gay movement. (Google search.) Unfortunately, Dr. Throckmorton sometimes bases his commentaries upon his own stereotypes about gay activists. He even gets their names wrong. For example, on Sept. 1 he wrote an op-ed, quoted by an ex-gay Yahoo group, that begins with false assumptions about a D.C. gay activist group, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, and proceeds to issue further assumptions built from his original mistakes. Gay activist groups must really want to avoid ex-gays. Now that’s a bold statement...
- [Ex-Gay Spokesman’s Lost Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-spokesma-2/): XGW readers have already noticed that Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas discontinued his blog on Aug. 28. Eventually the blog is likely to be purged from the Internet. In the interest of preserving some of his key statements, I will post a few excerpts here. Here, for example, is his message of December 18, 2002, expressing a mixture of confusion and support for the criminalization of sodomy. This particular blog entry was purged from its original location some time ago, but an archived copy is available courtesy of archive.org’s Wayback Machine. Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Feedback at Exodus This Exodus Spotlights Report...
- [Simply Being, Sans Labels](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/simply-being-sa/): Tom McGeveran names himself a “shmomosexual” and frets over the work of the Fab Five becoming more prominent in public consciousness than that of the supreme nine. The stories of chiseled hotties on Boy Meets Boy labor under the weight of a mediocre production which drowns its audience in repetitive pathos. (If you missed it, you can get the same effect by spending a week chanting, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done” – while facing no life-or-death issues – and obsessing about whether each person in your life is good or bad, sincere or manipulative, gay or straight.) So,...
- [Malaysian Condemns Lipstick Ex-Lesbians](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/malaysian-conde/): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reminded the world of how much the Islamic nation of Malaysia dislikes gays. Same-sex acts in Malaysia are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a flogging. Mahathir warned that “if there are any homosexuals in Malaysia they had better mend their ways,” or face the maximum prison terms. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Opposition leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat declared that women wearing perfume and lipstick could arouse impressionable men and provoke rape. Perfume and lipstick are already banned in other Muslim nations and frowned-upon in some Orthodox Christian cultures. Perfume and lipstick,...
- [Ex-Gay Finances: Double-Talk?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-finances/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas says that while two of the largest gay-rights groups, Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, reported a hypothetically combined income of $27 million in 2002, Exodus received $640,000. Mr. Thomas neglects to mention that Exodus outreach depends heavily upon Focus on the Family for: 1) its “Love Won Out” road show, 2) the public advocacy of Mike Haley, who both chairs the Exodus board and heads Focus/Family’s antigay advocacy department, and 3) Focus on the Family’s marketing and distribution of Exodus-affiliated publications, such as Exodus board member Anne Paulk’s new book on “lesbianism.” In 2002, Focus on the...
- [Ex-Gay Group Pans Madonna-Britney Kiss](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/ex-gay-group-pa/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas says: Madonna’s special performance was to passionately kiss Britney and Christina on stage. This caused only a brief and not very vigorous uproar as a culture has come to expect such behavior it pays good money to see. Hmmm… “a” culture? Which one? Not American culture as a whole. It may come as a surprise to Mr. Thomas that he is a part of American culture, as are the two-thirds of Americans, gays included, who couldn’t stand Madonna even when she was fashionable. (Disclaimer: I like Madonna’s music insofar as I enjoy well-crafted, catchy, and moody pop...
- [Queer Eye Vs. Shmomosexuals](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/queer-eye-vs-sh/): Like Jody at Naked Writing, I’ve discovered I’m a shmomosexual. Someone please inform Randy Thomas before he refers to us unpaid shmomos as the “gay elite” again. Addendum: Baptist Press News and the Traditional Values Coalition have reprinted Mr. Thomas’ skin-deep review of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” The reprints repeat Mr. Thomas’ extreme oversimplification of the Old Testament. Mr. Thomas offers hasty slaps at gay men who dare to criticize men’s bad habits or manners: Using flippant comments as the rule, the Fab Five exploit an individual’s image concerns and personal insecurities for laughs as they “makeover” this person....
- [Labor Day And Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/labor-day-and-e/): Exodus, Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and Pat Robertson were essentially silent — near as I can tell — on the meaning of Labor Day this year. But the Bible isn’t silent, says Joel Sax: The Christian Right, which has been the biggest sell out when it comes to Labor Unions by its glorification of wealth and virulent attacks against workingmen’s organizations should recall the words of James to the rich: Labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them — listen to the wages that you kept back calling out; realise that the cries...
- [Musician A Possible Role Model for Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/musician-a-poss/): Musician Rufus Wainwright tells the New York Times about his journey to “Gay Hell” and back. Wainwright is blunt about his recent-past drug abuse and casual sex with strangers. His method of recovery was quite practical. Hold your breath, now: He entered rehab. He did not blame his abuses on same-sex attraction, scapegoat any particular set of political enemies, demand allegiance to one particular religious sect, or count on “Jesus alone” for a miracle healing. He did not ditch his music career and adopt a “masculine” career pursuit such as coal mining or corporate embezzlement. He simply got the help that...
- [The Human Face of Schism](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/the-human-face/): It’s tempting to use war language to describe the politics that affect gays and ex-gays: Battles, attacks, retreats, wins, and losses. In the end, much of it becomes more personal than that, though. The issues play out in families, in marriages and divorces, in nurturing and estrangement, neighbor-to-neighbor, friend-to-friend. In the Episcopal Church, property is owned by the dioceses, not by the parishes. When a part of a congregation splits off, some have fought to keep their church building while others have moved on. That is the story of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in Cordova, Tennesse, as told by...
- [“Right Christians” Eye Family Values Vs. “Christian Right”](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/right-christian/): The Rev. Allen Brill spent a week in June contrasting family values with the political goals of the religious-right organizations. He also examined how politically non-rightist people of faith fall short in marketing their message. Well worth a read.
- [Exodus Spokesman Flip-Flops on Sodomy Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-spokesma-2/): In an interview with Christianity Today, Exodus spokesman and ministry manager Randy Thomas warns that the Supreme Court ruling against sodomy laws will shape public policy. “This ruling gives validity to the gay community,” Thomas said. In addition to potentially redefining the family, it further solidifies their position as a political and social force.” Earlier this month, Mr. Thomas told XGW: … Sodomy as a criminal statute was going too far. In my response to Mr. Thomas, I noted that he had in fact flip-flopped. And now, in warning Christianity Today of the consequences of the ruling, he flip-flops again. If...
- [Former Ex-Gays Await Stephen Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/former-ex-gays/): Stephen Bennett, who heads the ex-gay ministry named after him, was scheduled to preach and market music to gays in Provincetown, Mass., last weekend. A reporter for the Cape Cod Times interviewed both Bennett and former ex-gays living in P’town. Bennett claims to remain close to his former gay lover and gay friends, but unfortunately they are not interviewed. Bennett blames his father for his homosexuality, but says they have reconciled. Again, Bennett’s assertions are not confirmed through an interview of the father.
- [Exodus Chairman’s Day Job: Doomsday Warnings](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-chairman-3/): Exodus board chairman Mike Haley’s day job is the management of antigay activism at Focus on the Family. In Focus’ CitizenLink newsletter, Haley’s operation warns that gay equal rights will mean the end of civilization. The article consists of resentful complaints about the equal rights being achieved by same-sex-attracted individuals, but one section in particular is worth noting for Focus’ unusual recognition of a non-Christian: Nationally syndicated talk-show host Dennis Prager, who approaches the issue from both a Jewish and a conservative perspective, said by embracing homosexuality our nation is teetering on the precipice of an abyss. Worse still, the vast...
- [Preview: Ex-Gay Minister Matthew C. Manning](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/preview-ex-gay/): XGW reader David B. points out ex-gay minister Matthew C. Manning. Mr. Manning’s web site states that he has miraculously received and maintained an HIV-negative diagnosis after suffering from full-blown AIDS. A story at CBN goes further, asserting that Mr. Manning was cured through prayer alone — even though Manning declined to provide documentation from his military doctors or an independent review of his complete medical records. Mr. Manning’s testimony is primarily one of low self-esteem driving him to participate in casual and impersonal sexual activity. He inaccurately describes this as a homosexual lifestyle. To his credit, Manning’s web site does...
- [Exodus on ‘How to Be Gay’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-on-how-t/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas earns a one-thumb-up approval rating for accurately describing — albeit momentarily — the Michigan university class, “How to Be Gay.” Unfortunately, Mr. Thomas demonstrates some persistent ignorance about gay opinions regarding the origins of same-sex attraction. And he concludes by contradicting his earlier, accurate understanding of the course. The core difference is Exodus believes that sexual orientation is determined by environment. Gay ideology assumes, without any scientific backing, that the environment is a manifestation of an innate orientation. Many people who identify as having moved beyond homosexuality realized that what under girded their previous pro-gay convictions was...
- [Exodus Chairman Protests the Hospitable Workplace](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-chairman-2/): A Human Rights Campaign study found that most Fortune 500 companies have policies opposing discrimination against same-sex-attracted workers. And a rising number of top companies reportedly offer some limited benefits to the families of gay workers or advertise to gay audiences. That upsets Exodus chairman Mike Haley. Speaking on behalf of Focus on the Family, he says: “The gay issue is one that’s not going away,” Haley said. “We see it in the media, we see it in the military, we see it all throughout every walk of life. When you see major organizations and companies throughout our country endorsing this,...
- [Ex-Gays Might Enjoy “Queer Eye”](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/ex-gays-might-e/): In the Aug. 26 Exodus media spotlights report, Randy Thomas frets that the Fab Five on the hit TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are making straight guys into their own gay images. He sounds concerned that the five may have felt shunned by Christian churches or that their creative gifts somehow led them to be gay: Unfortunately, the men on this show may have and are indirectly told by a few that there is no place for them and their gifts in the Body of Christ. They may have been labeled “strange” or sissy and only given one...
- [Civility And Thoughtfulness Amid the Culture War](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/civility-and-th/): I’ve been very busy doing technical work for the IGF site and, for this blog, researching the facts behind Exodus’ all-too-frequent misstatements and political diatribes. That hasn’t left me with much time to recognize venues where one’s opposition to homosexual behavior does not necessarily require one to become an intolerant ideologue. Sed Contra, linked from the left navigation menu, is one such venue. David Morrison is opposed to homosexual behavior, but his approach is simultaneously contemplative, prayerful, rational, non-ideological, and — I believe — realistic for those same-sex-attracted Christian folks who choose celibacy. He’s no gay rights hero by any means....
- [Exodus Chairman’s Misquotes on Gay Demographics](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-chairman/): Mike Haley, chairman of the board of Exodus International and a spokesman for Focus on the Family, fumed at CBS Aug. 21 for “The Amazing Race,” a show that had the gall to include among its contestants a gay couple that considers itself married for life. Haley wrote: “Why can’t they say they’re married?” a CBS spokeswoman said when conservative activists protested the show’s premiere. “What’s the difference?” The difference, of course, is that they aren’t really married. At least not in any sense that any U.S. court or state recognizes. Despite Vermont’s civil-unions law, despite some outside-the-mainstream churches that perform...
- [Biblical Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/biblical-marria/): Alex Frantz at Public Nuisance discusses how the Bible defines traditional marriage: Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen. 29, 17 – 28; II Sam. 3, 2 – 5) Marriage shall not impede a man’s right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam. 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21) A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut. 22, 13 – 21) Marriage of a believer and...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Speak the Bible. But Do They Read It?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-ex-gays-2/): In an Aug. 12 news statement, the Exodus national office cites Matthew 18 as a guideline for Episcopalians responding to the naming of a monogamous gay bishop. The Exodus national office neglects to consider that, in the view of many Christians (conservative and liberal), antigay Christians are sinning brothers. The widely published tirades of antigay Episcopal priests like Steven R. Randall, who equates gay-tolerant Christians with the Sept. 11 terrorists, exemplify the antigay movement’s refusal to hear the church — in other words, its insistence on being “like a heathen and a tax collector.” Exodus reflects: The difficult part will be...
- [Wayne Besen: Ex-Gay Group Can Blame Itself for NEA Lockout](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/wayne-besen-ex/): PFOX Can Blame Itself for NEA Silence By Wayne Besen The audacity was breathtaking. The same week ex-gay poster boy Michael  Johnston was revealed as a fraud, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays filed a frivolous complaint with the District of Columbia’s Office of Human Rights against the National Education Association. PFOX is accusing the NEA of discrimination because they will not allow the right wing group set up an “information” booth at the NEA’s annual convention. “They most definitely are discriminating,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX. “They will not allow another voice. They literally have silenced ex-gay schoolteachers and...
- [Wayne Besen: Groups Concealed Unsafe Sex By Ex-Gay Leader](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/wayne-besen-gro/): From the Express Gay News in South Florida: The ‘Ex-Gay’ Coverup, Aug. 18, 2003 Besen, the author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, told The Express that Johnston’s behavior is typical of ex-gays’ “cycle of sin and repentance.” “They abstain from sex for months and then something snaps,” Besen said. “The dam bursts and there’s a tidal wave of irresponsible behavior. Instead of saying, ‘Well, let’s have sex and use a condom,’ it’s like, ‘Well, I’m a terrible sinner anyway, so we may as well do it without a condom.'”
- [Coming Up At Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/coming-up-at-ex/): I’ve been busy elsewhere the past several days, but there’s plenty of material to be posted tonight: News from Exodus and Wayne Besen, draft principles of accountability for the ex-gay movement, and a bit more. During XGW’s down periods (normally about three days per week) please take a moment to check out the other site that I manage: I’m the deputy webmaster at the Independent Gay Forum. See you all here later…. — Mike A.
- [Exodus: Failures Not So “Minute”](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-failures/): Alan Chambers spoke to Orlando Weekly reporter Jeffrey Billman: By Chambers’ estimate, only 30 percent of those who seek to switch orientations succeed. Fifty percent abandon the program. The other 20 percent, he says, go back and forth. “I would say it’s like [Alcoholics Anonymous],” Chambers says. “It’s in the 30-percent range [that] find a great degree of healing and move into heterosexuality, single or married.” Not quite a month later, BPNews, the Southern Baptist daily news outlet, quotes Chambers in a story about Michael Johnston’s fall: The percentage of people who change but then fall back into homosexuality is “minute,”...
- [Lawyer for Alleged Victim of Ex-Gay Activist Speaks](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/lawyer-for-alle/): The attorney for one of ex-gay activist Michael Johnston’s alleged victims wrote to XGW today: I wanted to say that I appreciate your web site and have been following the commentary on Michael Johnston’s “moral fall.” As the attorney who contacted Wayne Besen to help get this story out, I have been very disappointed by the lack of coverage the story has received. No local newspapers in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area have carried the story whatsoever nor have prominent gay web sites and online services such as gay.com and 365gay.com mentioned the story. In bringing the story public my client...
- [Gays Vs Ex-Gays: Slander?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/gays-vs-ex-gays/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas protests XGW’s reflections on the Michael Johnston tragedy here. My response: Thomas neglects to mention that, after he blogged about his personal reservations over the criminalization of sodomy, he reversed himself: Sodomy Law Challenge set before Supreme Court When I first mentioned this in the Spotlights last year, I wrote that I was concerned about Christians picking up this battle without remembering the human side of those they oppose. The concern was that the war of words would get in the way of presenting the gospel and respecting individuals dignity. After much reflection and more research it...
- [Prosecute Michael Johnston on Sodomy, HIV Charges?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/prosecute-micha/): We are unlikely to see ex-gay activists call for that. Because, despite the desire of Exodus leaders and the religious right to see the nation’s homosexuals made prosecutable on sodomy charges, it appears they do not wish for their own activists to be held accountable to the same laws. (Nor do Exodus and the religious right apparently wish to see Johnston prosecuted under a Virginia law that forbids the intentional transmission of HIV. According to The Washington Blade, such an act would constitute a Class 6 felony, punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years, and a fine of no...
- [Exodus: Not Ministering to Gays, But to Antigay Churches](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-not-mini/): At a news conference in late July, reported by religionjournal.com, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers publicly acknowledged that the national office has shifted away from its already feeble efforts to minister to gays. Instead, Chambers says Exodus intends to work even more closely with antigay churches “to proclaim a clear message of the power of Jesus to change lives,” religionjournal.com reported. “Our desire is … to equip an army of believers to really attack this issue head-on.” Some might view Chambers’ appeal to attacking armies as an admission that his goal is culture war, not ministry. Former Exodus leader Joe Dallas...
- [Coral Ridge Ministries Shortchanges Repentance](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/coral-ridge-min/): I received a press release, not posted online, issued by Coral Ridge Ministries. It was forwarded to me by Wayne Besen. Here is the full text: The recent moral failure of Michael Johnston — for which he has reportedly repented — is a great disappointment to all of us who know Michael and regard him warmly as a friend and Christian brother. We are praying for Michael and heartened that he is seeking restoration. The lapse of one Christian into sin of whatever kind does not negate the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ offers freedom from sin-including the sin of homosexuality....
- [Exodus Confuses Discussion of Ex-Gay “Change”](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-confuses/): A Baptist Press interview with Exodus executive director Alan Chambers: misrepresents popular debate about the origins of homosexuality attempts to distract public attention from the potential criminal offenses of ex-gay leader Michael Johnston; and obfuscates discussion over whether homosexuals can “change” The article begins by asserting that the “homosexual community” claims homosexuality is “genetic.” This assertion is demonstrably false. There is widespread disagreement among gays, and the general public, over the extent to which environment, upbringing, maternal biology during pregnancy, and genetics interact to define a person’s affectional and sexual attractions toward others. Few, if any, gays claim the origins of...
- [Followup on Ex-Gay Michael Johnston](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/followup-on-ex/): Excellent, sad, gloat-free commentary by journalist Natalie Davis.
- [Groups Cook the Books on Gay Domestic Violence](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/groups-cook-the/): In March 2001, Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan declared that upwards of 50 percent of gay relationships are beset by domestic violence — and that, each year, 650,000 incidents of same-sex domestic violence occur. In order to find that statistic, Glenn had to overlook 12 years of developing research that suggests a gay domestic violence rate not much higher than among heterosexuals. Instead, Glenn cited a 1991 book, "Men Who Beat The Men Who Love Them: Battered Gay Men and Domestic Violence," by Patrick Letellier and David Island. The book was written before any substantive research on...
- [Exodus: Sadly, Not So Compassionate After All](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-sadly-no/): Last Wednesday, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers issued a responsible and compassionate response to news about ex-gay ministry leader Michael Johnston’s efforts, deliberate or incidental, to infect gay men with HIV. Sadly, by 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas had largely unraveled and contradicted Chambers’ message. In a “clarification” that was sent via e-mail to Exodus watchers and appended to the end of the online copy of Chambers’ original message, Thomas said: Many have emailed wondering who Michael Johnston is. Please visit a compassionate and truthful article to learn more about Michael. Michael’s brief relationship in the early nineties...
- [Opportunity for Exodus to Promote Accountability And Responsibility](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/opportunity-for/): I share Natalie’s thoughts and prayers for Michael Johnston. It’s tough when I find myself acting contrary to my deeply held values and beliefs, and I can only imagine the same is true for him. I need to point out a secondary issue, though. In speaking of Johnston, Peter LaBarbera notes: Homosexual activists will surely charge that this latest falling “proves” that homosexuality (“sexual orientation”) cannot be changed, and that ex-“gay” ministry is a failure. Of course, such reasoning is fallacious, and is tantamount to asserting that Alcoholics Anonymous is a fraud because some of its adherents slip back into drinking....
- [Author Wayne Besen Comments on Ex-Gay Ministry’s Collapse](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/author-wayne-be/): Read it all right here.
- [Exodus Prays for Safety of Michael Johnston’s Partners](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-prays-fo/): Exodus executive director Alan Chambers expresses concern for former ex-gay ministry leader Michael Johnston — and for those who might have been infected in the course of Johnston’s unsafe sexual activities. Chambers’ statement contains no generalizations or gratuitous remarks; his message is focused and on target. I’d like to recommend an action Johnston could take that would show a sense of responsibility and compassion for his past sexual partners: He could offer to pay for their HIV testing and, if necessary, a portion of their treatment. That course of action would set a positive, constructive, Christian example at a time when...
- [Exodus Poetic But Misleading Over Bishop Robinson](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/exodus-poetic-b/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas waxes sweetly poetic with his subhead about the Episcopal Church in today’s press release: “Pro-homosexual advocacy cracks a denomination’s scriptural foundation by choosing social blindness instead of eternal truth” As someone with lifelong connections to the Episcopal Church, I think it’s worth remembering what just happened there. Merriam Webster says that to “advocate” is “to plead in favor of”. The implication that confirming Bishop Robinson’s election came as a result of a few within the church pleading in favor of it to the majority is misleading at best. The relationship between Robinson and his partner Mark Andrew...
- [‘Moral Failing’: Michael Johnston, Kerusso Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/moral-failing-m/): The American Family Association confirmed that Michael Johnston, the ex-gay HIV-positive head of Kerusso Ministries, had closed his ministry after numerous unsafe sexual encounters with other men. Johnston was the star of an ex-gay TV ad, ex-gay video, and a raid upon a meeting between Jerry Falwell and the interfaith gay rights group Soulforce. Comment and prayers — especially for the men he may have infected — forthcoming. Peter LaBarbera of Concerned Women for America commented on the matter. LaBarbera declined to cast stones at Johnston — but he proceeded to cast stones at homosexuals. Many thanks to XGW reader Richard...
- [Overgeneralizing](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/overgeneralizin/): Several people have told me that I’ve been overgeneralizing about ex-gay ministries lately. I believe they are right. This blog works best, I believe, when it sticks to the facts, good and bad, about different ex-gay ministries. And I’ll make a concerted effort to do that. Not just for accuracy, but because it’s impossible for one person to keep up with the all the propaganda pouring out of the religious right these days — and difficult to read all the venom of the culture wars while maintaining one’s own sanity. Current Exodus national leadership has connections, well documented here and elsewhere,...
- [Apology](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/apology/): I retract what I said Friday about Ron B. of Courage Seattle. I am sorry for associating Ron with ex-gays. I have deleted the remark from the main blog, but it is still available in the Friday entry’s comments field.
- [Gay Sexual Liberation Movement, R.I.P.?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/gay-sexual-libe/): Here is a Boston Phoenix article by gay progressive Michael Bronski, published this week. Bronski criticizes the mainstream gay population and the major activist groups for having abandoned, quite some time ago, the “sexual liberation” movement and Seventies-era interpretations of feminism. Speaking for myself, I don’t miss those days much. But I was only 10 in the mid-Seventies, and the “sexual liberation movement” meant that my mother was running through boyfriends at the rate of at least one a year. I’m certain others have fonder memories and can explain whatever advantages the era and its goals had over today. Bronski remembers,...
- [Dependence Vs Co-Dependence on God](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/08/dependence-vs-c/): Ex-Gay Watch reader Johanna strongly disagreed with my message about co-dependent expressions of the Christian faith. I don’t believe I said that evangelicals promote a cycle of repentance and sin; I said that Metanoia did, and that ex-gay ministries tend to do so. This blog, the ex-ex-gay movement, and the various online ex-gay message boards have documented this fact. As for dependence on God, again, I see a distinction between mature evangelicals, born-again Christians, and celibate same-sex-attracted persons, and those “some” or “many” people whose testimonies of redemption blanket the blame for their own past behaviors upon Satan or upon homosexuals...
- [Concerned Women, Focus on the Family Escalate the Paranoia](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/concerned-women-3/): Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family have steadily increased the volume of their antigay press releases this week. One item in particular seems brazen in its defamation of author Judith Levine. At this point, I can’t keep up with all the propaganda. I’ll tackle what I can over the next couple days. But under the current circumstances — a massive backlash resulting from sodomy-law repeal and growing recognition of gay couples seeking marriage — it would be nice if Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Human Rights Campaign, or People for the American Way made...
- [Gay Christians in An Evangelical World](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/gay-christians/): For two years as a teen-ager, I was a born-again Christian and an evangelical. By age 18, however, my faith had matured toward a politically independent Roman Catholicism. Later, my faith would be challenged further. Whether I qualify as a Christian today depends on whether the person requesting my religious affiliation presumes to define “Christian.” To issue any single definition of the word, in my view, risks blasphemy. While the evangelical peers of my teen years swiftly discredited themselves, I still feel some admiration for friends who, somehow, maintain an evangelical faith, moderate it with a spirit of hospitality and humility,...
- [Focus on the Family: Fear Instead of Facts About Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/focus-on-the-fa-7/): From the July 29 CitizenLink newsletter, there’s plenty for me to comment on later today. Focus on the Family seems to have taken its conspiracy theories, strawman arguments, sexual putdowns, stigmatization, and affirmations of antigay discrimination to a new low for the year. NYC to Open First Gay Public High School“School comes despite the fact that NYC and public schools are under budget constraints.” Gay Relationships Short-Lived, Dutch Study Says“Findings underscore that marriage isn’t what gay activists are really after.” What is the gay agenda, and what can Christians do to stop it?“A Q&A on the homosexual agenda.” The last article...
- [The Unwelcome Mat At Exodus’ Front Door](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/the-unwelcome-m/): As recently as the mid-1970s, television confined its depiction of homosexuals to suicidal whimperers and psychopathic lesbians. This bizarre caricature has faded from mainstream culture and from many if not most places of worship. It remains alive and well, however, in some quarters. According to Exodus chairman Alan Chambers, antigay 1970s popular culture was already too tolerant of non-evangelicals. Some weeks ago, Chambers spoke favorably of the 1950s — a time when black, Hispanic, Catholic, female, and Jewish “lifestyles” were fair game for (evangelical) Christian moralizing that, in Chambers’ view, blissfully permeated American culture. Then Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas unapologetically defended...
- [Author: ‘Gays Reclaim Jesus’ Words’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/author-gays-rec/): Fenton Johnson, author of “Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey” (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), reflects thoughtfully and deeply upon his own faith journey in a Los Angeles Times commentary. Johnson applies his observations on faith and tradition to gay Christians’ quest for equal treatment before God as well as civil law — and to the Christian Right’s battle against both faith in Jesus and Jesus’ message. Johnson’s thoughts occur within the context of efforts by antigay Episcopalians to cause a churchwide schism over two recent trends toward fairness for gay church members.
- [Portland, Ore., Newspaper Covers Bases on Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/portland-ore-ne/): In a July 27 commentary, Portland Oregonian associate editor David Reinhard wrote that gays should be content with a tattered patchwork of half-baked legal rights instead of fairness in civil marriage. Reinhard also said that any comparison of racial discrimination and antigay discrimination “confuses an immutable trait (race) with a behavior (homosexuality) whose nature and origin are, at the least, in dispute. The analogy also ignores the clear, longstanding religious and moral objections to homosexuality.” Steve Swayne, an assistant professor of music at Dartmouth College and a contributing writer at the Independent Gay Forum, responded that gays should not have to...
- [N.Y. Media Ignore Violence Prompting Gay School](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/ny-media-ignore/): Both the editorial board and columnist Steve Dunleavy at the New York Post call the New York City public schools’ announcement of a predominantly gay high school “un-American,” “insane,” “idiotic, socially wrong, morally wrong and politically suicidal.” Dunleavy says several times that he has “no problem … with a person being gay.” But in the next breath, he says, “But you in that crippled Department of Education – together with Mayor Mike – are institutionalizing a way of life which has been roundly condemned by the Bible, the Koran and the Buddhist scriptures.” So it appears that Dunleavy does have a...
- [American Family Association Defends Bias, Harassment At Pa. School](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/american-family/): Having already helped remove harassment-free zones from a northwestern Pennsylvania high school, the American Family Association is battling to silence a Gay-Straight Alliance that has formed at the school. In April, allies of the AFA cornered and taunted a student who participated in a Day of Silence vigil organized by tolerance advocates. The AFA also is battling the local school board’s decision to bar discrimination against gay and transgendered teachers and school workers.
- [Concerned Women: Daily Propaganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/concerned-women-2/): Concerned Women for America has issued its daily selection of propaganda. The headlines below are verbatim from CWA; the summaries are mine. In Their Own Words: Homosexual Activists Redefine Marriage And FamilyCWA presents misquotes of countercultural gay leftists as if they represented the values of mainstream and conservative gays seeking to get married. How odd: One does not find the CWA representing the National Organization for Women’s marital values as its own. What’s Perverse About Lawrence?CWA’s Chief Legal Counsel Jan LaRue repeats the historical errors and medical myths that damaged the religious right’s defense of sodomy laws before the Supreme Court....
- [Antigay TVC Seeks Bailout From Retirees, Drug Companies](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/antigay-tvc-see/): The July-August 2003 issue of the AARP Bulletin reports about financial troubles at the antigay Traditional Values Coalition. According to the article, “Christian Crusaders? Or Not? Fledgling Group Purports to Represent ‘Christian Seniors,'” a new TVC front group called the Christian Seniors Association may represent a latch-ditch effort by conservative fundraiser Richard Viguerie to raise money for the TVC. In fundraising appeals that he says are being mailed to more than 5 million older Americans, [TVC founder Louis] Sheldon portrays his new organization as a “Christian alternative to AARP” and promises anyone who joins it, for dues of $12.95 a year,...
- [Anti-Gay-Marriage Movement’s Difficult Predicament](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/anti-gay-marria/): Lee Bockhorn, associate editor at The Weekly Standard, summarizes the predicament of the anti-gay-marriage movement: In the upcoming battle, defenders of marriage must find a public voice–someone (probably, though not necessarily, a politician) who isn’t afraid to suffer the disdain of the cognoscenti or be smeared as a “homophobe”; someone both able and willing to set forth the reasoned arguments and crucial distinctions that a successful defense of marriage will require; someone with the patience and fortitude to argue tirelessly that we can respect the dignity of homosexuals while still maintaining the institution of marriage as the union of one man...
- [Response to Jeff Jacoby on Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/response-to-jef/): More old news here (I promise, I’m almost caught up). Jeff Jacoby argued July 3 in The Boston Globe that 40 percent of Vermont gay civil unions involved a partner who had previously been heterosexually married. He concluded that stigmatizing the gay spouse in a straight marriage might compel the couple to remain married, thereby (supposedly) strengthening marriage as an institution. Steve B. of Ex-Gay Watch wrote to Jacoby: How does my committed gay relationship threaten your marriage? I encourage you to examine all of the facts. If it is jarring that 40 percent of Vermont civil unions involve previously married...
- [Pat Robertson’s Bad Supreme Court History](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/pat-robertsons-2/): Useful for future reference: Last week, Linda Campbell of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted historical and mathematical inaccuracies in Pat Robertson’s “prayer offensive” against the Supreme Court. In other words, the man can’t count or remember. The Supreme Court ruling, however, was based in no small part on an amicus brief citing the absence of any historical precedent for 20th-century laws singling out homosexuality for proscription.
- [Public Gay Sex in the Hamptons](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/public-gay-sex/): A small number of presumably wealthy gays in the Hamptons are complaining after a crackdown by police and neighbors against public sex on the beaches. But there is no indication that the local laws are being applied unfairly. Now, some libertarians might argue that there shouldn’t be laws against public sex in the first place. But as it stands, the law does not discriminate against gays. And some gay neighbors are as grossed-out by the activity as the non-gay neighbors. Gay men have healthy social options available to them: They can meet people in a bar (gay or otherwise), bookstore, gay-affirming...
- [Antigay Group Markets Flawed Testimony Against ‘Lesbianism’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/antigay-group-m/): Concerned Women for America profiles Valerie Pegues’ victory over “lesbianism.” To be lesbian means to be attracted to women. But Pegues says she was always attracted to men, and while growing up, she never had any thoughts of being intimate with women. She didn’t kiss a woman until about age 20. Even after that, the article offers no indication that Pegues felt strongly sexually attracted to women, though it appears she did have sex with some, anyway, mainly because she had issues with men, which she chose not to resolve. So it seems that Pegues had sex with women not because...
- [Support for Marriage Amendment Stalling?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/support-for-mar/): There has a been a rapid public diversification of conservative views on gay marriage. Religious Right Rethinks Strategy as Agenda Stalls By Mark O’Keefe Religion News Service …A growing sense of frustration is enveloping the leadership of the political movement that began nearly 25 years ago when the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority burst onto the national scene. A generation later, most Americans don’t stand with the Christian Right. Its big agenda items have fizzled. Frist backpedals on support for amendment to ban gay marriage Associated Press Jonah Goldberg’s reverse slippery slope: I think opponents of gay marriage sometimes misunderstand that...
- [Lipstick Graffiti: The Ex-Gay Theme Park Flyovers](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/lipstick-graffi/): Ex-Gay Watch reader Jayelle Wiggins lives in Orlando, operates her own blog, and dialogues with ex-gays in various venues. Here’s her thoughtful and respectful commentary on the flyovers.
- [Pat Robertson’s Cure for Aging (and Retirement)](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/pat-robertsons/): Are you an aging Supreme Court justice? Feeling your heart skip a beat now and then? There’s no need to retire — Pat Robertson’s age-defying antioxidants can help! As Advertised on the Front Page of PatRobertson.com: “Pat’s Age-Defying Antioxidants“ “Pat Robertson’s Age-Defying Shake“ “Pat Robertson’s Age-Defying Protein Pancakes“ From the Age-Defying Shake page: Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it? Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman? One of Pat’s secrets...
- [Antigay Group’s ‘Dark Obsession’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/antigay-groups/): Family Research Council Senior Analyst Tim Dailey has written “Dark Obsession: The Tragedy and Threat of the Gay Lifestyle.” FRC recommends the book for its portrayal of homosexuals as uniformly destructive to their families and friends and always prone to child abuse (pedophilia). Balanced or constructive portrayals of gay people are said to be “false depictions” engineered by wily TV producers and gay people, all of whom are guilty of deception and “lies.” In other words, if you disagree with the FRC or claim to know any decent gay people, then you’re “deceived” or you’re a liar. With rhetoric like that,...
- [Antigays Say Government, Not Church, Should Control Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/antigays-say-go/): In a column praised by the Family Research Council, antigay columnist Maggie Gallagher argues that marriage should not be privatized and given to the churches to administer. In other words, a religious moral conservative makes the incredible assertion that the sacrament of marriage must be controlled and manipulated by the government. Sheesh. Michael Kinsley’s case for privatization is sounding better and better.
- [Antigay Group on the Military: Gays Get Out, Dunno Why](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/antigay-group-o/): Concerned Women for America warns that gay-equality advocates want to end the U.S. armed forces’ aggressive campaign to dismiss gay servicemembers. [The] law states, “The potential for involvement of the armed forces in actual combat routinely make[s] it necessary for members of the armed forces involuntarily to accept living conditions and working conditions that are often Spartan, primitive and characterized by forced intimacy with little or no privacy.” Given those conditions, the law says that homosexual activity creates “an unacceptable risk to the armed forces’ high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of...
- [Focus on the Family Wants White House to Lock Out Gay Conservatives](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/focus-on-the-fa-6/): From today’s Focus on the Family newsletter, CitizenLink: One of the leading homosexual activist groups in the country said that the White House consults with the organization almost every week on a broad range of topics. Pro-family groups are not pleased with that arrangement. Is there a reason why a conservative White House shouldn’t meet with conservative supporters? And should the White House really meet, periodically, with the pro-discrimination movement?
- [Boy Scouts: Antigay Discrimination Required to Be Christian?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/boy-scouts-anti/): Concerned Women for America reports that a federal court has sided with the state of Connecticut against the Boy Scouts of America. The BSA was ousted from state workers’ payroll deduction program for charities, and the court upheld the state action. Robert Knight of CWA and Richard F. Collier Jr., an antigay New Jersey attorney, fear that soon “no Christians need apply” for participation in the public square. Implicit in their statement is the odd assertion that one isn’t Christian unless one uses public facilities and taxpayer subsidies to discriminate against gay people of faith. Meanwhile, the United Church of Christ...
- [Pat Robertson Rationalizes About Prayer Against Supreme Court](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/pat-robertson-r/): In an interview with CNN, Pat Robertson rationalizes about his prayer that three Supreme Court justices — only one of them liberal — will retire. If he didn’t intend for the justices to develop health problems, then it’s logical to surmise Robertson would not have identified the justices by health problem (rather than name) in the first place. And would he not have prayed against all the justices in the sodomy-ruling majority, rather than the ones known to have recent health issues?
- [Misuse of Prayer At Ex-Gay Discussion Board](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/misuse-of-praye/): The gay son of antigay PFOX executive director Regina Griggs is said to be ill with a heart problem. No doubt prayers for good health would be appreciated by the son, his partner, and his family. However, is it appropriate for the exgaydiscussionboard to pray for the son’s father to compete against the son’s partner for attention and affection?
- [Exgay Declaration of Independence?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/exgay-declarati/): In June, I analyzed the principles espoused by the ex-gay movement during Ex-Gay Lobby Days. This week, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs changed her description of the principles. She titles them: Ex-Gay Declaration of Independence. Independence from what, Griggs does not say. The “awareness” and “policy neutrality” principles clearly spell out an ongoing dependence upon discriminatory policies in church, government, schools, media, and the often-limp punishment of violent criminals when their victims happen to be gay. And the organizations that signed the principles express ongoing alignment with conservative Christian political groups: Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, the Family Research...
- [Prayer Offensive: Pat Robertson’s Sin of Idolatry?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/prayer-offensiv/): Dr. Rembert Truluck, a Christian preacher, blasts Pat Robertson’s “prayer offensive” against the Supreme Court justices, calling it a form of idolatry. Truluck argues that Robertson’s actions represent a form of magic, not Christianity. As a layperson, I read this perspective and recall Hollywood movies’ imaginary worlds of wax-doll curses, often falsely labeled voodoo. Since I’m not an expert on pagan religions, I asked Ex-Gay Watch reader Dale to comment on Truluck’s essay. Dale writes: Looking at this quote: “This makes prayer into a form of idolatry, not spirituality. The chief characteristic of idolatrous religion in the Hebrew Bible was the...
- [Santorum Turns Deaf Ear to Antigay Bullying](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/santorum-turns/): Susan Wheeler, mother of seven, is touring the Philadelphia area, sharing her documentary video, “Jim in Bold.” The video brings together stories about gay youth across America, weaving them with the tragedy of her son Jim, who was severely tormented by bullies in high school. In one incident, teen-agers threw him in a shower and urinated on him. Five months after graduation, Jim killed himself. Wheeler attempted to share the documentary with her senator. However, Sen. Rick Santorum refused to meet with her or watch the program. Instead of condemning bullying, it was reported today, Santorum puts the burden back on...
- [Rev. Flip Benham Wages Tactic of ‘Terror’ Against Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/rev-flip-benham/): Rev. Carol Anne Lawler writes in The Charlotte Observer: To the Rev. Philip "Flip" Benham: Who died and left you God? Benham’s group, Operation Save America, is holding rallies this week in front of abortion clinics, churches and mosques to denounce abortion, the Muslim faith, and the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the Texas sodomy law. In May Benham attended Charlotte’s annual Gay Pride Festival and screamed throughout an entire commitment service. He makes the words "Most people have enough religion to hate, but not enough to love" ring true. Lawler boils down Benham’s "lifestyle" pretty well. Benham told fellow protesters with...
- [Books Analyze Pat Robertson’s Misuse of Christianity](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/books-analyze-p/): Journalist Natalie Davis has collected an Amazon user-friendly list of books that critically analyze Pat Robertson’s decades-long exploitation of Christianity. Browse the book list at blogcritics.org. Four years ago, Davis wrote an excellent feature story on ex-gays for the Baltimore City Paper. This was by no means a predictable, fill-in-the-blank gay-activist screed; her article thoroughly researched and compassionately reported on ex-gay ministries and strugglers.
- [Pat Robertson to Supreme Court: Get Sick And Retire](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/pat-robertson-t/): Pray-TV evangelist Pat Robertson is sending prayers of ill will to Supreme Court justices who flout his ill will toward gays and the American right to privacy. Robertson urged his television audience yesterday to embark on a 21-day “prayer offensive” to make three justices resign. Instead of naming the justices, he alluded to their identities via alleged health problems, which he presumably hopes will worsen. Robertson’s latest media stunt comes just days after he was criticized by other conservatives and evangelicals for defending Charles Taylor, dictator of Liberia. Taylor is a notorious violator of human rights, accused by the U.S. and...
- [Town Bullied for Not Discriminating Against Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/town-bullied-fo/): The Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which was an ally of Exodus executive director Alan Chambers in the battle to promote antigay job discrimination in Orlando, is now taking on a smaller target. The small town of Montverde has just 12 employees, but that hasn’t stopped Liberty Counsel from suing over the town’s decision not to discriminate against gay applicants for city jobs. The high costs of waging a legal battle may force the town of less than 1,000 people to settle out of court.
- [Exgay Leader Joins with Christian Reconstructionists](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/exgay-leader-jo/): Exodus executive director Alan Chambers will speak at the Center for Reclaiming America’s 2003 political conference.
- [Additional Information on Ex-Gay Coalition](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/additional-info/): Earlier today, Mike A. noted that an ex-gay coalition has launched a web site, PATHinfo.org. At this point, there is no evidence to suggest that this coalition is more than a shell with, at best, high hopes, and in reality thus far, little substance. PATHinfo.org, a 2-page website, offers no contact details apart from those of its member organizations. None of the websites of its signatories currently list press releases about it or link back to the PATHinfo.org site. Folks looking for it on the web won’t find it via Google, either. A Google News search produces a single hit, a...
- [Exgaywatch.com Is Back in Service](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/exgaywatchcom-i/): I was called out of town on emergency business on Monday. Sorry for the absence of new content. New items were added overnight, and more content is on the way.
- [God to Punish America for Legalizing Sodomy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/god-to-punish-a/): Gary North is one of the leaders of Christian Reconstructionism. In a commentary on the Supreme Court ruling on sodomy laws, he writes: I have already said that sodomy has been going on for a long time. Perversion has been universal. But God’s wrath isn’t universal because most societies in the past have had laws against sodomy and have tried to stop the sodomites. So, God acknowledged that they were doing the best they could. He did not bring His judgment against those societies because they were at least trying to stop this terrible practice. The problem comes when communities decide...
- [Ex-Gay Statement of Principles](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/07/ex-gay-statemen/): This web site: P.A.T.H.: Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality reiterates the agenda spelled out by ex-gay organizations who lobbied on Capitol Hill last month. Nice agenda in some respects, except that the ex-gay organizations have already violated most of the principles.
- [Support Our Boys in the War on Terrier!](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/support-our-boy/): Joel Sax reports from the front.
- [Ex-Gay Clarification on Gay “Culpability” for AIDS](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/ex-gay-clarific/): On his personal blog, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas today issued a clarification to his official comments, quoted by Focus on the Family, blaming gays as a class for apathy and irresponsibility in the battle against AIDS. Thomas says he was quoted out of context by Focus on the Family. Is he surprised? I do not understand why an Exodus spokesman, if acting from a balanced perspective and thoughtful mind, would provide interviews to an organization that quotes everyone out of context and that casts all issues as pawns in a religious war against the enemies of Focus on the Family.
- [Classical Values: A Homosexual Morality?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/classical-value/): Eric at Classical Values adds to an already lively debate on morality: Are gays amoral souls who need monitoring by heterosexual morality police, or have many gays been acting morally and preaching personal responsibility all along? Late last week, Randy Thomas of Exodus International joined the religious right in the generalization that, no, gays as a class do not act responsibly — and that they need antigay conservative Christianity to reach out to them.
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Neglected By Gay Media?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/exodus-ex-gays-4/): The Washington Blade, Dec. 5, offers a he-said-she-said between gay activist and author Wayne Besen and Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas. “What I can say is that gender-affirming role modeling is way simplistic. I don’t think that is an elemental part of the ex-gay ministry,” said Thomas of the 125 ex-gay ministries dotting North America. However, in October, acting on behalf of Exodus and other founding members, the PATH ex-gay movement coalition made “gender-affirming” role modeling a prime objective of the movement — threatening to sue schools that do not promote “traditional” gender roles (men play sports, women wear lipstick) as a...
- [Finding Humor in Ex-Gay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/finding-humor-i/): From The Spectator, Seattle University, Dec. 4: “Straight” uses humor to express views “Straight” is the name of a one-man comedy written and played by David Schmader. The play examines conversion therapy. Schmader made fun of views of religions and individuals that most would consider to be misguided. This play, however, did not attempt to attack these views but rather wanted to find meaning in them. In order to find meaning in issues such as accepting homosexuality, Schmader portrayed all the characters in positive ways, when it would have been easy to show them as ignorant and biased. … The stand-up...
- [Collaboration Cuts Park Cruising By Utah Gays & Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/collaboration-c/): Salt Lake City police, frustrated that constant arrests did not noticeably deter men cruising public park restrooms for sex, collaborated with public health officials, gay community leaders, and government officials. The results, as told by Deseret News, are worth a read. Reporter Derek Jensen notes that the men don’t fit simple stereotypes: Many are married with children, some are leaders within their churches and some, like former state Rep. Brent Parker [arrested in a February prostitution sting and charged with soliciting a male undercover officer], are leaders in the community. Behind their clean-cut, family-man facades, however, lies a complex inner conflict...
- [Analysis:  Balance, Objectivity of WaPo’s “Bad Wurd” Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/analysis-balanc/): Washington Post Staff Writer Laura Sessions Stepp wrote yesterday about the dispute between Sharon Huff and officials at her 7-year-old son’s school in Youngsville, Louisiana. On the whole, the article reports objective, verifiable events and statements. In addition to reporting facts about and quotes from directly-involved parties, it brings in reactions from the local community. Its opening paragraph, though, suggests that assumptions are being made about the reader and the issues: If you harbor any doubt how deeply troubled some Americans are by the idea of same-sex couples, especially couples with children, ask Sharon Huff. For that matter, ask her 7-year-old...
- [Conflicting Statements By School That Harassed Son of Lesbian](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/conflicting-sta/): Via Morons.org: According to The Advertiser, a Louisiana public school district is unapologetic in its punishment of a boy after he explained to a classmate that his mother is gay. The school said the boy was punished for being disruptive. But the school’s defense conflicts with the boy’s disciplinary records. Documents sent home to the mother, which were prepared by teacher Terry T. Bethea, stated that the boy told another child his “mom is gay” and explained that meant “when a girl likes a girl.” She wrote that it was not acceptable in her classroom. In a section asking the teacher...
- [Matthew Limon Update (17-Year Sodomy Conviction)](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/matthew-limon-u/): XGW has previously commented on the Matthew Limon case: June 28: Gay Teenager’s Prison Term Voided Sept. 17: Kansas AG Distorts, Misleads, Inflames Oct. 1: Focus/Family Wants Gay Kid Imprisoned 17 Years On Dec. 3, the Lawrence, Kan., Journal-World reported: Judge ridicules underage sex law State’s harsher sentences for homosexual partners criticized in appellate hearing A three-judge appeals panel heard arguments in the case of Matthew R. Limon, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for engaging in homosexual sex with a minor. Limon was 18 years old when he was convicted in 2000 of having oral sex with a...
- [Focus on the Family Offers Abstinence Alone — Not Accurate Information](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/focus-on-the-fa-9/): A followup on two XGW messages on AIDS earlier this week. Focus on the Family asserted on Tuesday that homosexuals should fight HIV/AIDS through abstinence alone. Focus frowns on the use of condoms as a fallback when abstinence fails. In “Gay Group Admits AIDS Culpability: Homosexual community grapples with consequences of lifestyle,” Focus on the Family misidentifies the Seattle task force as a “gay group” (it isn’t) and misquotes the lead researcher, paraphrasing Quinten Welch as saying AIDS is the result of “the dangers of the [homosexual] lifestyle.” Focus on the Family avoids telling its readers where to find the actual...
- [Ex-Gay Flames At Illinois Conservative Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/ex-gay-flames-a/): On Nov. 21, the conservative Illinois Leader published a review criticizing gay-affirming Hollywood celebrities and alleging inequity in media coverage of antigay hate crimes and crimes committed by people who happen to be gay. On Nov. 26, Todd DuFresne of Schaumburg responded with a rambling diatribe against the media, Hollywood, and homosexual pedophilia. In a moment when he is speaking rationally, he says: I have worked over the years with gay men who struggled with their broken hearts and lives. Without exception, every man was hurting from past influences. It was never a genetic issue. After perseverance and dealing with their...
- [Dr. Throckmorton’s Web Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/dr-throckmorton/): Warren Throckmorton, outspoken pro-ex-gay associate professor at a small Christian college, has launched his own independent web site, DrThrockmorton.com. The site is useful for its demonstration of reparative therapy advocates’ (re)interpretation of scientific data. Throckmorton has been discussed before by XGW. We will no doubt be seeing a lot more coverage of his advocacy.
- [Public-School Harassment: Exodus Vs ACLU And GLSEN](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/public-school-h/): PlanetOut reports that “a 7-year-old Louisiana boy was scolded by his teacher, sent to the principal’s office and required to attend a discipline session after he told a classmate his mother was gay.” How is this relevant to Ex-Gay Watch? Exodus International frequently alleges, without much documentation, that the nation’s public schools are under the control of the “pro-homosexual agenda.” But the Louisiana school was public, and the case is just one of many documented and fought in the courts — ultimately at taxpayer expense — by the ACLU and GLSEN on behalf of harassed students and their parents. From PlanetOut:...
- [FRC Promotes Closets That Contribute to AIDS](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/frc-promotes-cl/): In browsing Google News today, I found a handful of articles linking high risk of HIV infection to closeted and homophobic same-sex-attracted populations (and their spouses) living in isolation from openly gay communities and safer-sex education efforts. In other words, populations most likely to join ex-gay programs. Here are some of the articles: HIV-AIDS Staggers African-Americans Upsurge in infections among closeted New Zealanders AIDS/HIV infection cases on the rise in Tennessee So, of course, it was a little ironic today (but not surprising) that FRC promoted re-stigmatization of homosexual behavior, whether a given behavior is safe or not. While it is...
- [New Zealand Ex-Gays At High Risk of HIV/AIDS?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/new-zealand-ex/): A New Zealand news site reports on a survey finding that men resembling the ex-gay profile — “men who were isolated [from other gays] or too scared to come out and identify as gay” — were highly likely to practice unsafe sex. Subsequent surveys have found the HIV infection rate doubling in the nation’s southern rural communities. Kerry Price is gay men’s health manager for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. Mr Price said the surge in infections in the South Island was fuelled partly by “deeply closeted” men who have sex with men living in isolation from any identifiable gay community,...
- [Credentials of International Ex-Gay Therapist Challenged](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/credentials-of/): Melvin W. Wong was the lead speaker at a group of ex-gay seminars organized by Focus on the Family in Singapore last week. Wong is affiliated with the Exodus International referral network. A blogspot blogger, Rabelaisian Rebel, uncovers professional criticism of Wong’s credentials. Here is an e-mail sent by a group of gay-affirming psychologists, explaining its discoveries regarding Wong: To: “AFFIRM Network” Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 6:41 AM Subject: [affirm] RE: HELP!: Reparative Therapy Seminar in Singapore Psychologists Affirming their Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Family Hi and thanks to all who weighed in on this issue and contributed facts and...
- [Focus Expands Ex-Gay Campaign to Asia](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/focus-expands-e/): Focus on the Family extended its ex-gay political campaign to Singapore late last week with seminars marketing “recovery therapy.” And already the lead speaker faces professional criticism for misstating his training and credentials. The Focus on the Family campaign consisted of several seminars. A three-hour seminar for “Christian professionals” titled “Preventing Homosexuality” is described as follows: Homosexuality – Is it learned, biological … or both? Many would have us believe that nothing can be done to foster the development of healthy heterosexual orientation in children. But clinical evidence and experience indicate otherwise. This seminar aims to help concerned educators and youth...
- [Antigay Christians’ High Divorce Rates (cont’d)](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/antigay-christi/): Continuing the selective morality discussion: Froma Harrop of The Providence Journal wrote an excellent commentary Nov. 26 on the extremely high divorce rate among Bible Belt Christians — 73 percent in Mississippi, she says; 79 percent in Oklahoma. (Those numbers sound a bit high to me; I’d like to know the data source.) Divorce rates are far lower in Connecticut and in Europe. Harrop notes that Focus on the Family — by far the best-funded organization leading the ex-gay culture war — comforts its divorced followers while threatening gay-tolerant judges and condemning gay couples to hell. Divorce used to be socially...
- [Judgment And Unbelief From Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/judgment-and-un/): On Oct. 31, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas accused people who disagree with his opinion on homosexuality of worshiping “personal interest” and having “compromised the integrity of the scriptures to condone homosexuality.” Unfortunately the eternal souls of those dealing with homosexuality are placed on the back burner to affirm or condemn their temporal sexuality. Most homosexuals understandably look at the church “battles” and think, “I want ‘none’ of that.” But what some people find offensive is Thomas’ insistence on putting the souls of other people on the front burner — or any burner at all. Earthly arguments convince them to walk way...
- [How Other Fla. Private Schools Handle Gay Students](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/how-other-fla-p/): The Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) asked different Florida private schools how they might handle a gay student differently from Jupiter Christian, which allegedly demanded the student enter ex-gay therapy or leave.
- [Columnist Brent Bozell Joins Ex-Gay Campaign Against ‘Law & Order:SVU’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/columnist-brent/): Exodus International launched a campaign last week against ‘Law & Order:SVU’ over an episode that it apparently didn’t watch, or only saw parts of. Conservative writer and activist Brent Bozell apparently didn’t watch the full episode, either, but that didn’t stop him from joining the campaign today. In doing so, Bozell misstates the mission of Exodus; the organization does not merely seek to change individuals’ sexual behavior. And Bozell conceals the role of Focus on the Family in the campaign, hiding it behind the name of one of its publications: Family News in Focus. Bozell operates the Media Research Center, which...
- [Ex-Gay Greg Quinlan Warns Against Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-greg-qui/): Pro-Family Network is a Dayton, Ohio-based project of ex-gay activist Gregory Quinlan, who periodically uses ConservativePetitions.com to promote antigay political measures. ConservativePetitions.com collects $1.95 for each fax sent by an individual to lawmakers — and $3,000 from organizations having a petition hosted by conservativepetitions.com. The following e-mail was distributed today by Quinlan. People who sign the petition are automatically signed up to receive political propaganda from William J. Murray’s Religious Freedom Coalition, which is cosponsoring the petition with Quinlan.
- [Ex-Gay Asks Lesbian Advice Columnist for Help with Fiance](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-asks-les/): Meryl Cohn, a.k.a. Ms. Behavior, today advises an ex-gay man on his lack of honesty with his (female) fiance about his gay past, about their “not-so-exciting sex life,” and whether acting straight really makes one straight. Instead of telling the man to become ex-ex-gay and dump his girlfriend, the columnist thoughtfully encourages the man to talk to a therapist, be honest with his fiance, and see where things go.
- [Ex-Gays And the Sin of Gluttony](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gays-and-the/): Further to our ongoing discussion of selective morality among antigay activists, the Dallas Morning News reports today on the complete failure of America’s clergy to confront the nation’s most obvious and pressing health-related sin: Gluttony. (The link requires a free subscription.) I’m not joking about this. I really do consider overeating a major ethical matter as well as a health issue.
- [Celibate Catholic Gays Dismiss Co-Existence](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/celibate-cathol/): Conservative Catholic celibate gays in Providence, R.I., say that if God allowed it, they would like to be in monogamous relationships. But a Nov. 23 Providence Journal story (free subscription required) describes the local Courage chapter as a “12-step program” in which participants say the rising acceptance of gay marriage and civil unions only makes their sexual struggle harder. “It’s wrong,” a participant named Richard said. “These people in the gay agenda are trying to rationalize, legalize, and make a certain lifestyle choice look good and even holy.” Separation from, and opposition to, gay couples and gay-affirming celibates seems to be...
- [Deb Price Profiles Anti-Exgay Activist Wayne Besen](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/deb-price-profi/): On Nov. 17, Creators Syndicate columnist Deb Price profiled Wayne Besen’s first experience with an ex-gay ministry and his subsequent encounters with people who felt victimized by the movement. Some money quotes: Besen’s mother gave him an audiocassette that promised to turn gay people into heterosexuals. He listened three times to the tape of “weird music, self-hypnosis exercises and laughable psychobabble theorizing that distant parents cause homosexuality. ” “Afterward, my parents asked, ‘How did it go?’ I answered, ‘They blamed you for making me gay.’ They were incredulous. They knew they were good parents. They didn’t want me to listen to...
- [Ex-Gays And “Bourgeoisie Religion”](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gays-and-bou/): Extending earlier discussion a bit: Lars Gaardfeldt of Sweden wrote a 1998 lecture, The Bible as Medicine: Bible and Prayer as Miraculous Cure Against Homosexuality. The lecture begins with a summary of base assumptions that are common in the "reparative therapy" movement: There is no such thing as homosexuality Homosexuality is never a genuine part of a persons identity No one is homosexual. You should not let anyone say that she or he is homosexual. Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas repeats a variation on this mantra in his weekly press releases. Gaardfeldt analyzes the work of author and reparative therapist Leanne Payne,...
- [ExGayWatch Categories](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/exgaywatch-cate/): (Updated Nov. 24) I have added Categories to the sidebar. Thus far, the site’s entries are indexed by category from July 25 to the present. So the search results will be incomplete for the time being.
- [ExGayWatch E-Mail Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/exgaywatch-e-ma/): Ex-Gay Watch’s main e-mail address, editor @ exgaywatch.com, has apparently been bouncing messages for more than a week. We believe the problem is fixed. If you recently sent mail to us, please resend it.
- [Antigay Teacher Could Have Used Ex-Gay Lessons](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/antigay-teacher/): 365gay.com reports that a Bronx high school teacher was fired for “15 specific incidents of discrimination, harassment and misconduct during the 2001-2002 school year.” Other incidents dated as far back as 1985. Teacher Terence Brunson, 44, demanded the transfer of lesbian students out of his classroom. He also ordered “all homosexual students in his [class] to raise their hands and publicly identify themselves.” And he told a lesbian student, “I could get a guy to turn you straight.” This was apparently Brunson’s notion of ex-gay counseling. Teachers like Brunson make life (and education) difficult for sexually struggling students. Ex-gay organizations could...
- [Does Ex-Gay Contempt for Gay Couples Help Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/does-ex-gay-con/): In the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, Exodus could have informed its membership of the diversity of thoughtful, faithful and impassioned Christian opinions on the subject. Instead, Exodus on Nov. 21 replayed the propaganda of five antigay political organizations: the Alliance Defense Fund, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Liberty Counsel, and the Massachusetts Family Institute. Exodus helpfully reminded readers of the ex-gay leadership’s own political activism against Massachusetts gay couples: Alan Chambers’ testimony Randy Thomas’ testimony Dawn Videto’s testimony Exodus and its political allies are on public record in favor of discrimination against...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays: Accountability = Persecution?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/exodus-ex-gays-3/): In a Nov. 10 “media spotlight,” Exodus cites actions by a British law enforcement and a Colorado family court as proof that U.S. homosexuals (“the perceived oppressed”) as a class are out to oppress, silence and punish anyone who disagrees with them. In the first case, a bishop was interviewed by British authorities after he declared that gays need to get psychiatric help. Exodus does not quite explain how this qualifies as oppression or censorship, nor does it explain how the bishop’s action qualifies as Christian hospitality. In the second case, previously discussed at XGW, a court ordered an ex-gay woman...
- [Noted Elsewhere: Moral Tunnelvision Among Some Evangelical Protestants](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/noted-elsewhere/): Camassia nicely weaves together some recent debate across the blogosphere over a tendency among evangelical Protestant churches to scapegoat homosexuality for their own declining commitment to family values. (Previous XGW discussion about this.)
- [ExGayWatch Profile: Michael B. Hamar](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/exgaywatch-prof/)
- [Ex-Gay Advocate Throckmorton Gets TV Facts Wrong](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-advocate/): Prof. Warren Throckmorton, an advocate for ex-gay politics, admits he didn’t see Law and Order: SVU last week. (Original XGW entry on L&O:SVU). But then Throckmorton proceeds to get the plot wrong — and then he blasts the show for not portraying positive examples of ex-gays — even though it did include some good ex-gays. For the record, the plot was about a doctor whose career and family resemble that of Charles Socarides. (Google search.) The doctor found an ex-ex-gay man in bed with the doctor’s closeted, gay, young-adult son. The doctor then murdered the man and severely beat his son...
- [Profile: Ex-Gay Activist Carlton Quattlebaum](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/profile-ex-gay/): Carlton Quattlebaum (e-mail) operates as the Healing Choices Ministry in Canton, Mich. He is hosted by Tri-City Christian Center. Quattlebaum formerly worked for Reconciliation Ministries in Detroit. Profession: Minister Denomination: Assemblies of God Links: Google search on Carlton Quattlebaum From a Christian parenting site: QUESTION: If parents discover that their teen is struggling with homosexuality, what should they do? How should they handle this delicate issue? QUATTLEBAUM: I think that one of the things that parents have to do as they enter into this is be careful not to transfer anxiety that they may have about themselves onto their children. If...
- [Numerous Exgays Support Ohio Ban on Gay Partnerships](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/numerous-exgays/): Go read the Gay People’s Chronicle, Cleveland, Nov. 21. Note, Aug. 22, 2004: The remainder of this message was a short excerpt from the article; XGW made no additional comment. For the sake of brevity, I’ve deleted the excerpt because the complete article is still online. Prof. Warren Throckmorton’s response to the article, mentioned by Steve B. below (last December), is worth reading for what it disputes — and what it doesn’t dispute.
- [Child-Porn Charge Dismissed Against Ex-Gay Counselor](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/child-porn-char/): Relayed to XGW by Wayne Besen: The Dallas Voice reported two weeks ago that an ex-ex-gay man, Mark Hufford, has dropped a lawsuit against Texas ex-gay counselor Christopher Joe Austin, and is seeking to drop criminal charges of sexual assault. [Hufford] says he has now come to grips with his sexual orientation and forgiven the psychologist. “I’ve just come to a place where I’m fine with who I am,” said Mark Hufford, who filed a civil suit against the psychologist in 2002 in connection with the alleged assault. “I don’t need to change. I’m not going to try to fix something...
- [Wayne Besen Commends Law And Order: SVU](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/wayne-besen-com/): Press release from Wayne Besen about last week’s Law & Order: SVU episode: AUTHOR ON EX-GAY MYTH COMMENDS NBC’S LAW AND ORDER FOR HIGHLIGHTING SCIENTIFIC VOODOO BEHIND EX-GAY PROGRAMS Focus on the Family’s Own Failed Ex-Gay Leader Proves That Law and Order Was Right, Says Anything But Straight Author, Wayne Besen WASHINGTON – Wayne Besen, author of the controversial new book ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHT: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, today commended the NBC show Law and Order: SVU for presenting an accurate portrayal of the harmful, failed programs that unsuccessfully try to turn gay people straight through...
- [Ex-Gays for Reform](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gays-for-ref/): Ex-Gay Watch is launching a “brother blog,” Ex-Gays for Reform. If you believe homosexuality is a sin, but you are displeased with antigay and ex-gay groups’ conduct of the “culture war,” then please consider writing for the Reform blog. Contact Ex-Gay Watch via e-mail, or use the comments area below, if you have any thoughts or questions.
- [Poll Tracks Churches’ Impact on Acceptance of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/poll-tracks-chu/): The Pew Research Center released a poll yesterday correlating attitudes toward homosexual persons with religious affiliation. The poll data reflect an apparent backlash: opposition to gay marriage among evangelical Protestants has risen nine percentage points, from 71 percent to 80 percent, since July 2003 the belief that acceptance of gays would be bad for the nation has risen eight percentage points since 2000, from 23 percent to 31 percent the belief that gay themes and characters are too prevalent in entertainment media has risen from 37 percent to 48 percent since 2000. The data may also reflect moral tunnelvision among some...
- [Updates on Bush And the MCC](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/updates-on-bush/): See the comments section of last week’s XGW entry about Bush congratulating the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church for updates: 11/12: XGW reader Rich sees consistencies between recent statements and the president’s previously stated ambivalence 11/13: The Family Research Council calls the Bush letter an “apparent gaffe” 11/14: Scott McClellan responds to reporter’s question 11/17: The Houston Voice, via Washington Blade reporter Joe Crea, adds fresh quotes
- [Ex-Gays in Cleveland](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gays-in-clev/): Relayed from Wayne Besen: ‘Ex-gays’ to be focus of three Cleveland events By Anthony Glassman, Gay People’s Chronicle (Cleveland), Nov. 14, 2003 “Ex-gays” will be the center of attention in Cleveland over the next week, with a nationally-known author coming to the area to speak against reparative therapy and two competing events at the campus of Baldwin-Wallace College.
- [Exodus Condemns NBC’s ‘Law And Order:SVU’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/exodus-condemns/): Like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Exodus regrettably sees far-reaching evil conspiracies behind those who disagree with it. The organization this morning issued a condemnation of the ‘Law and Order:SVU’ episode about an ex-gay murder. Instead of merely discussing the humanity or nonviolence of ex-gays, or noting that the episode was overly simplistic (as all television is), Exodus executive director made sweeping generalizations about anyone who is gay-tolerant: “Truly the oppressed have become the oppressor”, notes Executive Director, Alan Chambers. “The pro-gay contingent is out to absolutely obliterate the truth about biblical sexuality, annihilate those who challenge their views and destroy any opposition...
- [School Defends Expulsion of Gay Christian Student](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/school-defends/): I have updated the original XGW story. In addition to accusing the student of having bad grades, the school continues to assert that the student is guilty of sexual immorality when there is no indication that the student has been sexually active.
- [Ex-Gay, Ex-Ex-Gay: Two Women’s Stories](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-ex-ex-ga/): From Natalie Davis: Two Roads Diverged is an excellent feature story, originally published November 2001 in Mademoiselle, about two women’s paths through the ex-gay movement. Both women’s stories are told with sensitivity, and without judgment.
- [Baffling? Intriguing? You Decide!](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/baffling-intrig/): Dear ex-gay supporters, Didja hear about this? President Bush sends this note: I send greetings to the members of the Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles as you celebrate your 35th anniversary. Faith plays an important role in the lives of many Americans, offering strength and guidance for the challenges of each new day. By encouraging the celebration of faith and sharing the message of God’s love and boundless mercy, churches like yours put hope in people’s hearts and a sense of purpose in their lives. This milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on your years of service and to rejoice in...
- [Ex-Gay Murder on ‘Law And Order:SVU’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-murder-o/): The Tuesday night episode was about the murder of an ex-ex-gay man. It eventually became apparent that one suspect was a reparative therapist of the Charles Socarides or Paul Cameron variety — and another suspect was the therapist’s closeted ex-gay son. I thought the show navigated family dynamics, “gay panic” issues, and the torment of a young ex-gay man with some thought and sophistication. Ex-gays won’t be a bit happy seeing one of their scientists cast as a quack and potential killer, and one of their ex-gays as someone who finds salvation by becoming ex-ex-gay. I can’t say I blame them...
- [Change Your Religion with ‘Plug ‘n’ Pray’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/change-your-rel/)
- [Ex-Gays See Ally in Lesbian](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gays-see-all/): Exodus International executive director Alan Chambers and spokesman Randy Thomas frequently publish broad accusations against “radical” and “elite” gays without identifying specific individuals or citing specific statements or events. This tactic sometimes raises questions over whether the activists, statements or events really exist. While this tactic has proven unprofitable for Exodus, lesbian author Tammy Bruce appears to make a successful living doing the same thing. Perhaps not surprisingly, Messrs. Chambers and Thomas use Ms. Bruce’s arguments to justify their own. According to The Providence Journal, Ms. Bruce — author of “The New Thought Police” and “The Death of Right and Wrong”...
- [Ex-Gay Mom Fights Ruling Against ‘Homophobia’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-mom-figh/): The conservative Christian legal group Liberty Counsel is aiding a Denver ex-gay adoptive mother in a battle against the woman’s female former partner, who had joint parenting rights and retains visitation rights with their eight-year-old adopted daughter. As a condition of receiving sole custody of the child, the mother had been warned by the judge to “make sure that there is nothing in the religious upbringing or teaching that the minor child is exposed to that can be considered homophobic.” It isn’t clear from the media coverage what was meant by “homophobic.” Now, in addition to defending the mother’s freedom of...
- [Ex-Gay Ads: Throwing Out Baby with Bathwater](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/11/ex-gay-ads-thro/): The ex-gay group PFOX may no longer be able to post ads for free in the Washington, D.C., subway system. One of the city’s gay newspapers reports that Metro may stop giving free ad space to non-profit groups. The policy change was prompted by the transit system’s budget deficit and by controversy generated by ex-gay, pro-marijuana, and Catholic pro-condom ads. Two D.C. gay-rights groups — the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance and PFLAG of D.C. — oppose the ad ban, saying that banning nonprofit ads does more harm than good. GLAA’s Rick Rosendall: “We of all people have nothing to fear...
- [Blogwatch: Biological Factors in Sexual Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/blogwatch-biolo/): Rich Blinne summarizes the findings of the recent study of sexual “identity” reported by Reuters.
- [Ex-Gays Spell Out Planned Legal Threats](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gays-spell-o/): Here is the memo from ex-gay activist Arthur Goldberg announcing the ex-gay movement coalition’s detailed plan to sue schools, counselors, insurers, doctors, and organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters if they act in ways contrary to ex-gay ideology.
- [Rembert Truluck on ‘Ex-Gay Wars’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/rembert-truluck/): Former Southern Baptist pastor and gay Christian speaker Rembert Truluck offers a positive review of Wayne Besen’s new book, Anything But Straight. An XGW review of the book is forthcoming, probably within two weeks. One can often count on Dr. Truluck to write about ex-gays with a tone of righteous indignation.
- [Activist Dares Ex-Gays to Sue Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/activist-dares/): Gay activist Wayne Besen responds to a threat by an ex-gay political coalition to sue school districts that do not promote ex-gay claims, or that suggest homosexuality may have a biological component.
- [Comments on Eviction From Pro-Ex-Gay School](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/comments-on-evi/): Camassia points to worthwhile comments about the eviction of a gay Christian student from a pro-ex-gay school (XGW story). Read the discussion at Joshua Claybourn’s blog.
- [Ex-Gay Coalition Seeks One-Way Freedom](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-coalitio/): Cybercast News Service reports today that a political coalition representing numerous U.S. ex-gay organizations, including hundreds of local affiliate groups, “is developing a legal strategy to litigate on behalf of people who challenge the proposition that individuals are ‘born gay.'” First, some background: The coalition web site claims to support “personal choice,” “right to know,” “tolerance,” “policy neutrality” and “equal access” — but only for antigay and ex-gay choices, information, and policy. Several member organizations have lobbied for discrimination against gays in employment, housing, and public services against social and religious tolerance of homosexuality against the availability of pro-tolerance or “pro-gay”...
- [How to Prevent Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/how-to-prevent/): Author and gay activist Wayne Besen, to Express Gay News, Oct. 6: Besen concedes that the gay community is partly to blame for the ex-gay phenomenon. “Gays could be more supportive of their own,” Besen said. “Gay bars can be cruel places. They go to the gay bar one night and are treated terribly, and then they go to the ex-gay ministry and are hugged and treated well. The ex-gay people tell the person, ‘You don’t have to go to this smoky, dark place and be treated like shit anymore. In larger communities, people don’t have to go to the bars;...
- [Exgay Media Notes: Alleged Death Threats By Coral Ridge Speakers](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/exgay-media-not/): Besen: Coral Ridge Gang Trying to ‘Reclaim the Dark Ages’ Express Gay News, Oct. 10 At an Oct. 10 rally hosted by a South Florida church, author and gay activist Wayne Besen protested the Rev. D. James Kennedy’s “Reclaiming America for Christ” conference, scheduled for Oct. 25 at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale. Kennedy’s conference was to include two speakers who, Besen said, have advocated executing people for homosexuality. Besen cautioned that groups such as Coral Ridge Ministries ignore science as they cling to backward, extreme ideologies. “Thanks to Coral Ridge Ministries, there are people in our community who...
- [Media Notes: Ex-Gay Workshop, Oklahoma City](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/media-notes-ex/): Online media coverage of the ex-gay “Love Won Out” conference in Oklahoma City, and related protests, seems to be sparse. If you have seen articles published since the event occurred, please let XGW know. Thanks! Pre-event coverage: Op-ed by Wayne Besen at GayOKC.com: “Love Won Out? The Selling of False Hope to Vulnerable People“
- [PFOX Ex-Gay Ads: History Repeats](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/pfox-ex-gay-ads/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays promotes job discrimination against homosexuals. A past webmaster promoted the killing of gay people and arson against gay-tolerant churches. PFOX-guided discussion boards periodically protest the availability of gay-tolerant messages in public venues, and encourage parents to believe their gay children are possessed by demons. This month the organization renewed its 2002 pro-ex-gay ad campaign in Washington, D.C., subway stations. Naturally, some people are upset. A city councilman is seeking a means for the transit system to reject ads deemed untruthful — but deemed untrue by whom? PFOX executive director Regina Griggs sees truth in...
- [Catholic Sexual Abuse: Bishop’s Moral Relativism?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/catholic-sexual/): The Raving Atheist and Arthur Silber offer thoughtful commentary on Bishop Wilton Gregory’s alleged appeal to moral relativism. Rev. Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned this week of “startling” data in an upcoming study on 50 years of sexual abuse in the church. He asked the public to view the study relative to other categories of potential offenders. You may ask, How is this blog entry relevant to XGW? Exodus last year issued what I considered a blanket defense of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ crackdown on gay priests even as the bishops were protecting sexual abusers. All...
- [Pro-Exgay School Outs, Expels Gay Christian Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/pro-exgay-schoo/): A few hours’ drive south of the Exodus national office, an 18-year-old gay Christian student and his mother are suing his Jupiter, Fla., private high school after it outed and expelled him. From the Sun-Sentinel: Jeffrey Woodard said Jupiter Christian School expelled him three days after his instructor pulled him out of Bible class on Aug. 15 and asked him in confidence if he is gay. When Woodard answered “yes,” a school official called his mother and demanded that Woodard submit to ex-gay counseling, withdraw from school, or face expulsion. “It was just completely wrong,” said Woodard, who had attended the...
- [Ex-Gay Fears on Display for Oklahoma City](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-fears-on/): On Sept. 29, Exodus chairman and Focus on the Family operative Mike Haley accused gay people of intolerance for daring to disagree with his message at the “Love Won Out” conference in Oklahoma City, scheduled for Oct. 25. “The opposition being displayed by gay activists in Oklahoma City is really quite indicative of the myopic application of tolerance being displayed by liberal activist groups nationwide,” said Mike Haley, a former homosexual and Love Won Out conference host. … “Gay activists continue to force-feed their message to our culture while attempting to silence any opposing viewpoint,” Haley concluded. “But people continue to...
- [FRC: Bigotry Is ‘Truth,’ Gays Are Sick, Change Is Simple](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/frc-bigotry-is/): The Family Research Council today defended Lt. Gen. William Boykin’s assertion that Muslims are idolaters and that the Iraq conflict is a war by Christians against infidels. FRC described its (and Boykin’s) bigotry as “a Christian perspective.” FRC proceeds to link Boykin’s prejudice with antigay prejudice and ex-gays. Similarly, Rep. Zack Wamp (R-TN) is being attacked for speaking the truth about homosexuality: that it is an unnatural, unhealthy lifestyle which homosexuals have the power to leave. With HIV/AIDS rates once again rising among homosexual men, shouldn’t we be praising a member of Congress who has the courage to speak the truth,...
- [Ex-Gay Finance: Dire Straits](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-finance/): The following text is from The Exodus Impact (print newsletter), October 2003. XGW commentary forthcoming. “From Alan’s desk” [Exodus executive director Alan Chambers writes:] Dear Friends: This is a season of desperation. Personally, I am desperate on a number of levels from wanting God’s answer about Leslie and I having children to being desperate as I pray for God’s provision for Exodus. I know that Exodus is desperate as it moves into the vision that God has for it as a Kingdom ministry and in these days of lack, Exodus is desperate for a solid financial base and generous givers. And...
- [Ex-Gay Group Concedes Possible Gay Link to Biology](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-group-co/): From Exodus News: The Exodus subheadline reads, “Media spin reaches new pseudo-scientific heights.” But the spin isn’t coming from the media; it comes first from the scientists. With this minor miscue, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas and executive director Alan Chambers proceed to open a small crack in the position that homosexuality is purely a result of choice and childhood experiences. Exodus begins: Exodus has always held to the Biblical view that men and women are created differently to glorify God uniquely: … But that view is not traditional or Biblical; it is feminist. … it is about time science started catching...
- [Followup: YWCA Fires Patricia Ireland](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/followup-ywca-f/): …according to the New York Times via Amy Welborn. Back in May, I said the YWCA had a right to redefine its mission, though the presence of the word “Christian” in its title was puzzling; and I suggested that reactionary religious groups were neither entitled to monopolize the meaning of “Christian,” nor hold federal funding hostage to their standards of ideological correctness. Circumstances now make it appear that either the Y didn’t think through its hiring of Ireland very carefully in advance — the ensuing controversies were predictable — or it has reconsidered its change of direction.
- [Ex-Gay Group Calls Culture Warrior ‘Balanced’](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-group-ca/): In a “Breaking Praise Report” sent via e-mail today, Exodus says: Greetings! During this historic season of gay rights legal victories, Exodus has been called upon by the world to add its redemptive voice to the heated debate concerning homosexuality New friendship emerges on the air waves While the Lord has seen fit to offer Exodus unprecedented media opportunities one of our favorites is the growing friendship we are enjoying with Janet Parshall of Janet Parshall’s America; a nationally syndicated radio program that reaches millions each day. Since early summer Alan Chambers has been delighted to join Janet on 6 occasions...
- [Wayne Besen, Ex-Ex-Gay in Miami Herald](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/wayne-besen-ex-2/): Steve Rothaus of The Miami Herald wrote Oct. 11 about an ex-ex-gay Christian man, Jerry Stephenson, who is featured in Wayne Besen’s new book, Anything But Straight. Rothaus contrasts Stephenson’s depressing experience as an ex-gay with that of Randy Thomas, spokesman for Exodus International. ”Just as I wasn’t ashamed to be a gay man, I shouldn’t be ashamed to be ex-gay,” Thomas said. “I want people to know that if they want to overcome homosexuality, they can.” If the quote is accurate, then Mr. Thomas vastly overstates the success rates found in the ex-gay movement’s own studies. “If they want to...
- [Exodus Opens Door to Insubordination](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/exodus-opens-do/): The Exodus Spotlight for Oct. 14 says this letter from an “anonymous high school counselor” is “very moving”: I am currently a high school counselor in a public school in the Midwest. I am seeing first hand the students dealing with their homosexuality in the public school. It saddens me the harassment that does take place. I have received quite a bit of persecution from my fellow coworkers because I am not willing to endorse the homosexual lifestyle as the best lifestyle choice. They tell me that because I am not in favor of a GSA and because I refused to...
- [Ex-Gay Fatigue](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-fatigue/): From Exodus Spotlights, Oct. 14: The Exodus staff has been working overtime to get the message out that freedom from homosexuality is possible through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Exodus declines to acknowledge that the ex-gay movement’s own studies (Spitzer, in particular) do not identify Christian faith as a requirement for shifts in sexual orientation. Exodus also begins its Spotlight on a tired note, complaining about overtime in an age when overtime is routine. With crowded schedules, persecution, secular media taking us out of context and angry activists: This job can appear to be a little over the top and we...
- [C.S. Lewis on Marriage Protection](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/cs-lewis-on-mar/): From Mere Christianity, Chapter 16: Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question — how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that. At...
- [Ex-Gay Ally Demands Virginia Discriminate](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-ally-dem/): Family Policy Network, known for its ex-gay theme-park flyover campaign during Gay Days last summer, is again seeking headlines. FPN criticized Virginia Attorney General (and conservative Christian) Jerry Kilgore this week for declaring that he would not discriminate in hiring based on sexual orientation. From The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk: Joe Glover, president of the Bedford County-based Family Policy Network, chastised the attorney general this week on a Christian Web site, crosswalk.com, saying Kilgore’s actions leave Christians “scratching their heads,” wondering when Kilgore’s “conservative Christian nature … is going to come out.” … In an interview, Glover said Kilgore should not have...
- [A Visit to the Homo No Mo Halfway House](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/a-visit-to-the/): If I had to pick one glaring, gaping, horrifically, horrendously obnoxious hole in the vast majority of conversations about being gay or lesbian or ex-gay or Christian or Wiccan or DollyPartonian or what-the-flip-ever, it would be this: What the heck happened to our collective sense of humor? When did the world get so all-fired serious that we forgot how to laugh at ourselves? Saturday night I rediscovered my tickle button. Let loose a guffaw. (Or 43, give or take a dozen.)
- [MAFS: Mentally Anguished Fence Sitters](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/mafs-mentally-a/): Rich Blinne, thoughtful XGW reader and commenter, found this article intriguing like I did: Supporting gays, but not gay marriage For many, equality is one thing, but an institution’s sanctity is quite another. They have accepted the gay man next door, the lesbian couple down the street. They have agreed that gay Americans should not be discriminated against. But same-sex marriage is something else… I posted my long-winded thoughts at the Blinne Blog.
- [Alternatives to Fundamentalism: Two Glimpses](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/alternatives-to/): Having grown up in the Episcopal Church, it seems to me the press struggles to get its arms around recent events. Coverage of the gathering of the American Anglican Council (AAC) in Texas last week left a distinct impression that global church war and fracture were imminent. As I write this, it is still possible. As Desmond Tutu’s successor, Cape Town Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, noted recently though, there is often a gap between TV-worthy sound bites and substance: “GAY BISHOPS: for or against?” asked a South African current-affairs programme. Reducing issues to stark polarisations may make good television, but it is...
- [XGW: Status Report](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/xgw-status-repo/): I received Wayne Besen’s book from Amazon today. I’ll read it as soon as possible. Steve B. is still working on Part II of his analysis of the Spitzer study. Exodus keeps releasing embarrassing public statements that require attention — I am now backlogged — so my effort to review some of the sunnier, less harmful ex-gay ministries keeps getting pushed back.
- [Ex-Gay/Religious Right Financial Power](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gayreligious/): I’ve been busy the past two weeks planning a high school reunion, so my postings have been rare and Steve B. has been filling in. Tonight I was participating in an online debate about whether equal-rights proponents should waste their time challenging the propaganda of the political religious right, or allow their own dignity, intelligence, love for American liberty, and family values to do the talking. My response was relevant to XGW, since Exodus and its political allies periodically complain about how poor they are. So I’m pasting my response here…. The comparative political power of the religious right can be...
- [Spitzer Study I: A Micro Target](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/spitzer-study-i/): Dr. Robert Spitzer’s study of 200 self-identified former homosexuals is back in the news. The Archives of Sexual Behavior, the official journal of the International Academy of Sex Research, published it, along with 26 peer reviews and a response from Dr. Spitzer, in its October issue. Titled “Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation? 200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation” (abstract), it has garnered fresh attention from Focus on the Family, Exodus International (as noted earlier on XGW), and NARTH. (ReligiousTolerance.org offered a thoughtful analysis after the study was first published in May 2001,...
- [FRC’s Cookie-Cutter Antigay Sermon](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/frcs-cookie-cut/): The Family Research Council is mass-distributing this antigay sermon to thousands of churches for use by pastors during “Marriage Protection Week.” Comments welcome.
- [Exodus on Violence in Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/exodus-on-viole/): From Tuesday’s Exodus Spotlights: Today’s youth are bombarded with conflicting messages concerning sexuality and identity. The culture war has created such a clamor that it can place inordinate pressure on an already “pressurized” time in young people’s lives. Very true, but the Exodus spotlight overlooks its role in fueling the culture war against same-sex-attracted youths and tolerant people of faith. This public obsession coupled with quiet times of inner turmoil can be unbearable when being harassed at school or pressured to “come out.” Exodus Spotlights ignores a key source of pressure to “come out”: antigay youths, parents, and school employees whose...
- [Exodus And Dr. Laura](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/exodus-and-dr-l/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas periodically blasts critics of Dr. Laura, broadly associating them with terrorism. Exodus should be more careful of who it defends, as well as how. Journalist Natalie Davis cites news sources reviewing Dr. Laura’s new book, in which the author assigns wives the role of sex slave pandering to a husband’s lust on demand. Exodus undermines its own message and credibility when it defends snake-oil merchants, like Dr. Laura, who undermine femininity and marriage for personal gain or attention; and when it broadly smears the integrity of the merchants’ critics. Dr. Laura’s critics are liberal and conservative, gay...
- [Ex-Gay Petition](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/ex-gay-petition/): Ex-gay Gregory Quinlan of Pro-Family Network says all gays can not only change their orientation, they can all become lockstep, politically correct, social conservatives too. Hence this petition — a series of insults and strawman arguments wedded to an online marketing and fund-raising campaign. In addition to marketing Quinlan’s ideology, an e-mail announcing the petition also marketed these ex-gay propaganda items: –Homosexuality and the Bible A must for your library! One of the most complete, chronological and exhaustive resources available! Covers every verse in the Bible, chronologically, from Genesis to Revelation, dealing with homosexuality, heterosexuality, sexual behavior, sexual perversion, gender creation,...
- [Privacy And Civilization](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/privacy-and-civ/): From an article by Chris Matthew Sciabarra at Free Radical, a libertarian publication: “It is a tragic, ironic twist that some conservatives have posed as the guardians of capitalism and civilized culture in their fight against moral decay. But in failing to grasp the inextricable link between privacy and civilization, they are no friends of either.”
- [Focus/Family Barks At Gay Sportswriter](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/focusfamily-bar/): In its CitizenLink newsletter for Oct. 1, Focus on the Family questioned Boston Herald sportswriter Ed Gray’s motive for acknowledging his sexual orientation. From the newsletter’s “news briefs” section (not online): Gray exploited the attention Bostonians are giving to the sports pages as the Major League Baseball playoffs get under way to write a piece called “Out and Proud.” Focus cites Gray’s concern about “homophobia,” but does not detail the verbal threats and intimidation that Gray has witnessed. The Focus reader is left to assume that “homophobia” merely means what Focus has previously said it means: courageous and outspoken Christian conviction.
- [Gender: Relevant in the Marriage Debate? How?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/gender-relevant/): Lynn at Noli Irritare Leones offers insightful analysis of the big debate over gender — whether and how it relates to the definition of marriage. Cheers also go to Eve Tushnet for attempting to think through the marriage debate with some depth and balance. Ms. Tushnet wrote a National Catholic Register article last year about a flawed ex-gay ad campaign.
- [Religious Scientists on Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/religious-scien/): Courtesy of Rich Blinne, the American Scientific Affiliation, a somewhat diverse range of articles on homosexuality by scientists who are Christian. This is mainly a note to myself for the moment.
- [Focus/Family: Stop Gay Monogamy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/focusfamily-sto/): Focus on the Family is known for its opposition to gay marriage. In California, however, the organization doesn’t want gays to be monogamous and responsible, either. Focus cheers lawsuits filed by Christian Right groups to stop a new California law that increases the responsibilities and rights of domestic partners. Focus seems to be a big fan of excessive litigation — when it’s on the side of those doin’ the suin’.
- [Focus/Family: Dunno What Gays Say, We Disagree Anyway](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/focusfamily-dun/): Focus on the Family will be conducting an ex-gay political rally in Oklahoma City on Oct. 25. Focus has heard that gay-tolerant counterprotesters will be stationed outside the rally. Exodus chairman and Focus antigay issues manager Mike Haley doesn’t know who exactly those protesters will be, or what they’ll say… in fact, searches of Google and the Daily Oklahoman metro newspaper find no formal counterprotests. (Yes, I searched the fee-based archives.) But Mr. Haley blasts the unidentified gay activists anyway. “The opposition being displayed by gay activists in Oklahoma City is really quite indicative of the myopic application of tolerance being...
- [Focus/Family Wants Gay Kid Imprisoned 17 Years](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/focusfamily-wan/): XGW commented two weeks ago on the case of Matthew Limon. Last week, Focus on the Family reminded its CitizenLink readers that it wants the kid locked up for 17 years because he had sex with a male three years younger than him. Limon had just turned 18; his partner was almost 15. Had Limon’s partner been female, the maximum sentence would have been 12 months. While defending the prison sentence, Focus joins the Kansas attorney general in a sloppy effort to score political points against the ACLU, accusing the group of attacking morality by opposing the harsh sentence. Focus also...
- [Focus/Family: Married Abroad? Stay There](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/focusfamily-mar-2/): Focus on the Family declared gay Canadian couples unwelcome in the United States on Monday. Focus joined Concerned Women for America in demanding that foreign couples lie on U.S. immigration forms, stating that they are single when they are not. It also used the occasion, illogically, to rationalize a need to amend the U.S. Constitution.
- [Evangelical Ex-Ex-Gay Reflections](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/evangelical-ex/): Christian evangelical ex-ex-gay man Mike Williams offers a testimony of emotional pain, faith and reconciliation toward the ex-gay minister who harmed him as a young adult. Gospel Revolution The site looks like a fantastic resource for Christians exploring the lives and faith struggles of ex-gays and re-gays.
- [Christians Fighting Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/christians-figh/): A quick reflection: A while back on XGW, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas objected to the expectation that Exodus should publicly criticize its political allies when they threaten or lie about gays and ex-gays. Mr. Thomas’ point was that Christians are already infamous for bashing one another, and he did not wish to contribute to that. Unfortunately, he overlooked a very basic fact: Exodus is publicly blasting Christians — gay-tolerant ones — all the time. And it is defending allies such as Concerned Women for America and the Traditional Values Coalition, which are arguably among the most un-Christian organizations in America. Certainly...
- [Anything But Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/anything-but-st/): Haworth Press set today as the release date for Wayne Besen’s book on the ex-gay movement, “Anything But Straight.” The unveiling will be accompanied by a 55-city book tour. An extended excerpt from the book is available here. The book-release announcement follows. It lists 51 of the 55 cities and says they are “tentative.” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sunday, Sept. 28, 2003 Contact: Wayne Besen Mobile: 917-691-5118 E-Mail: Wbesen@aol.com LANDMARK BOOK DEBUNKING THE EX-GAY MYTH TO BE UNVEILED OCTOBER 1 AND WILL INCLUDE A MASSIVE 55-CITY BOOK TOUR Anything But Straight, by Wayne Besen, Disproves the Controversial and Politically Charged Notion That...
- [Exodus Ensnares Itself in Anti-Gay-Marriage Week](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/10/exodus-ensnares/): In yesterday’s Exodus commentary on reparative therapy, spokesman Randy Thomas appears unwilling to read or accurately summarize the literature that he cites — so he issues strawman arguments about homosexuals and the media instead. World-renowned researcher Dr. Robert L. Spitzer states that change in sexual orientation is possible. While respected as much as anyone, Dr. Spitzer is not quite world-renowned, and his research states that change is practical in only a small minority of gay individuals. 1) Respected Doctor featured in Archives of Sexual Behavior saying that some Gay Men and Lesbians can change their sexual orientation. There are two articles...
- [Focus on the Family Mocks Marriages](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/focus-on-the-fa-8/): Exodus chairman and ex-gay activist Mike Haley runs the antigay politics division of Focus on the Family. Today, Focus reminded its CitizenLink newsletter readers that Focus and its Christian Right allies are the sole defenders of marriage. Focus notes that an antigay coalition presumes to “educate the public about the societal benefits of marriage and the liberal-led attacks to redefine it” during Marriage Protection Week, Oct. 12-19. But the public already appreciates the societal benefits of marriage, perhaps more so than Focus on the Family. And it is not “liberals,” “conservatives” or homosexuals who have undermined or redefined marriage, either now...
- [Antigay Group Censors Itself](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/antigay-group-c/): This afternoon, Concerned Women for America removed from its web site an article, discussed at XGW here, that described a gay Canadian couple as “domestic terrorists” for attempting to cross the U.S. border as a couple. Google has a cached copy of the CWFA article. Here is the complete text of the article: Homosexuals Pose New Threat to U.S. Border Security9/24/2003By James Kimball Canadian homosexual couple fails to cross Canadian-U.S. border as a “family.” For years now, many have feared that lax border security would allow terrorists to easily enter the United States from Canada. However, U.S. Customs officials at Pearson...
- [Gays = Terrorists?](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/09/gays-terrorists/): Is it terrorism when a gay couple from Canada wishes simply to cross the border as a couple? Concerned Women for America now labels them “domestic terrorists.” CWFA appears to have stooped to a new low in the trivialization of terrorism. However, a Google search finds countless examples of isolated gay or antigay threats of violence being counted as “terroristic.” For example, on Sept. 2, Exodus described angry gay individuals’ death threats against Dr. Laura as “terrorist.” At a glance, none of the examples found by Google seem (to me) nearly as trivial as CWFA’s desperate rant against gay foreigners. But...
- [Can’t Afford A CD Burner, Huh?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/cant-afford-a-c/): Somebody is attempting to save Ex-Gay Watch pages to floppy disk and then view the pages from the disk. Bud, I think your disk is too small. And isn’t surfing the Internet from a floppy disk slower than molasses? Gawd, I hate it when that happens.
- [Focus on the Family: ‘Be Intolerant’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/focus-on-the-fa-11/): An April 2004 newsletter of Focus on the Family declares that God will destroy the United States and Western civilization will crumble if life-long gay couples are allowed to marry or celebrate civil unions. Dobson accuses the undefined “homosexual activist movement” of having a 40-year “master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family.” Dobson continues with another 3,600 words of largely unsubstantiated accusations, insults and threats. He expands upon statements earlier this month, in which he listed 10 reasons why gay couples in love post a mortal threat to God and humanity — the last...
- [Exodus Voices Anger At Methodists — And ‘liberal’ Churches](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/exodus-voices-a/): After a "lesbian identified" Methodist minister is acquitted in an official church trial, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers criticizes the church leadership before launching into a tirade against "liberal" churches as a class. Chambers begins by accusing the Methodist jurors of honoring an imaginary manual of homosexual politics rather than the Bible, but he offers no quotations from the jurors to substantiate his ridicule. Chambers then dictates that same-sex attraction ("homosexuality") is punishable by death, according to the Bible. So why doesn’t Chambers obey the Bible on this matter? Chambers does not answer this obvious question. Instead, he further asserts that...
- [Ex-Gay Network Changes Its Mind on Massachusetts Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ex-gay-network/): On Monday, Exodus applauded a Massachusetts constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage but permit civil unions. Quite likely the Exodus leadership overlooked the whole civil-unions clause, or perhaps it was pressured overnight by its political partners, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, to take a tougher stand. In any event, on Tuesday Exodus issued a revised opinion titled, “Massachusetts amendment still undermines marriage.” Exodus joins the religious right in calling the plainly worded compromise amendment “legislative trickery.”
- [Ex-Gays, FRC Initially Disagree Over Mass. Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ex-gays-frc-ini/): Proclaiming “Beacon Hill not bullied by judicial tyranny,” Exodus International applauded the Massachusetts legislature’s approval Monday of a constitutional amendment that would ban marriage for gays and legalize civil unions instead. The Family Research Council, however, accused the legislature of “blackmail” against the state’s voters for not giving them the option to vote on gay marriage and civil unions separately.
- [Comparing Antigay Speech And Anti-Jewish Speech](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/comparing-antig/): Michael Hamar points out one of John Aravosis’ sites, HateCrime.org, which compares the factoids used by Nazi German propagandists to justify discrimination against Jewish people, with the soundbites used today by Robert Knight (formerly of the Family Research Council, now with Concerned Women for America) to justify discrimination against gay people. The comparison has been online for a few years, and I’m usually hesitant to draw connections between any political cause and the convenient bogeyman of Nazism. But I think the propaganda comparison is worth noting at the moment, since Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas recently associated gay equal rights with Nazism....
- [Village Voice Writer Seduced By Ex-Gay Activist on Geraldo? Ugh.](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/village-voice-w/): Village Voice writer Michael Musto accused an unnamed ex-gay activist of making overtures to him, when both happened to be in the green room for a taping of Geraldo Rivera’s show. (Thanks to Jim Barber for the link.) Actually, Musto didn’t exactly use the word “overture.” What he did say isn’t printable in a family-values blog such as XGW. Who was this ex-gay activist? The only ex-gay that I find among Geraldo’s recent guests is Stephen Bennett. However, there could have been others. The creepy-crawly, somewhat dubious scenario painted by Musto reminds me of my own unsettling invitation onto Geraldo’s show....
- [Ex-Gay Media Blog: ‘Gay Marriage’ Leads to Incest](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ex-gay-media-bl/): The Exodus media blog yesterday promoted a WorldNetDaily item categorically accusing gay parents, who seek marriage to protect their kids, of promoting incest. Exodus claims that it does not endorse the items on its blog. The purpose of a media blog, after all, is (sometimes) to cover the media without comment. But as I have said before, impartiality is undermined in Exodus’ case by the extreme selectivity of the blog’s sources. Exodus appears to spend at least an hour or two per day excerpting angry and ill-informed articles from antigay movement sources such as WND, AgapePress, Baptist Press, and ex-gay activists...
- [The False Link Between Gays, NAMBLA](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/the-false-link/): I’m mainly noting this for future reference. Lynn at Noli Irritare Leones remembers attending a San Francisco gay parade decades ago. NAMBLA isn’t welcome among gays now — and it wasn’t then, either.
- [Writer Looking for Ex-Gays, Ex-Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/writer-looking/): Jody at Naked Writing is looking for people who have been in the ex-gay movement. He is writing an article about the movement for a young men’s magazine and would like to hear from people with first-hand experience in ex-gay groups or therapy. If you think you might qualify, visit Naked Writing and contact Jody.
- [Anniversary: Archbishop Oscar Romero](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/anniversary-arc/): Jeanne D’Arc of Body and Soul remembers Archbishop Romero, who was an outspoken advocate for El Salvador’s population. He risked (and lost) his life defending human dignity and justice at a time when thousands of liberal Salvadorans were being slaughtered by an anticommunist Salvadoran government receiving heavy military and financial support from the U.S. government under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Some key leaders of the U.S. religious right aggressively promoted the undemocratic Salvadoran government, that nation’s far-right Arena Party, the contra terrorists in Nicaragua, and the genocidal Rios Montt in Guatemala because of their "anticommunism" and "patriotism" — both...
- [NARTH Defends Dishonored Transgender Book](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/narth-defends-d/): From PlanetOut: The Lambda Literary Foundation withdrew J. Michael Bailey’s book “The Man Who Would Be Queen” from award consideration. Even the relatively conservative authors at the Independent Gay Forum criticized the book for poor science, stereotypes, and moralizations against gender variance. Naturally, when a book like this appears, the ex-gay science organization NARTH will defend it: Among the book’s endorsers is the National Association of Therapy and Reparation of Homosexuality (NARTH), a leading proponent of “ex-gay” reparative therapy. A reviewer on the NARTH Web site “absolutely” recommends the book and said it would be useful for gay men dealing with...
- [Gay Activist Wayne Besen Visits Rapid City, S.D.](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/gay-activist-wa/): The Rapid City Journal reported Mar. 17 on Wayne Besen’s appearance Mar. 21 at the Midwest Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Resource Conference. The article discusses how Besen’s work on the subject began: An ex-gay ad campaign in 1998 prompted mail to HRC from ex-ex-gays and their families. “These [ex-gay] groups did incredible amounts of damage,” Besen said. “I realized how many people had been affected by this, how many families had been destroyed in the name of ‘family values.” Key quotes: When reparative therapy doesn’t work, Besen said, supporters blame the person’s lack of faith. and Besen warns against people...
- [Reality Check: Gay Youth, Young Adult Blogs](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/reality-check-g/): As a mid-40-something, it’s easy for me to lapse into hope that the world is a much better place for gay teens and young adults than 25-30 years ago. Maybe all the talk about gays and ex-gays isn’t impacting them as much as I worry it is. Wandering around a few blogs, it becomes rapidly apparent that the challenges remain. Here’s a sample. (Note: Bits of strong language ahead.) Alex talks about childhood hopes and dreams and today’s realities: So this is where I am. I’m 17, and I drive my own Mustang just got my permit. I’ve been dating my...
- [Ex-Gays Could Model Tolerance to Antigay Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ex-gays-could-m/): David Morrison, in Sed Contra: And They Wonder Why Parents Homeschool Their Kids, says: Parent’s are rightly protective of their kids and the ideas and concepts to which their children are exposed. General opposition to same sex marriage will crystalize into voting against it if it becomes clear that its being forced on their kids in the schools. (David’s a sweet guy, by the way. I had the pleasure of a couple hours of talking and walking with him a few weeks back. He is not ex-gay, but rather pro-chastity.) Tom Cole, director of Living Hope Ministries in Arlington Texas, noted...
- [Minnesota Republican Suffers for Ties to Holocaust-Denying Ex-Gay Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/minnesota-repub/): From Michael Hamar: 365gay reports that Minnesota state Rep. Arlon Lindner has lost the state GOP’s endorsement to run for another term of office. In recent years, Lindner has reportedly called Jews irreligious, insulted Buddhists, and jointly blamed African-Americans and HIV/AIDS patients for turning the United States into “another African continent.” Lindner’s views on the Holocaust are drawn from the claims of ex-gay activist Scott Lively. Both assert that not only were homosexuals not persecuted in Nazi Germany, but that the Nazi leadership was homosexual. The pair’s Holocaust-denial theories are dissected by Stephen Feinstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and...
- [Extortion Against Southern Gospel Singer Kirk Talley](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/extortion-again/): Find the most recent XGW coverage of Kirk Talley here. March 23, 2004 This page’s original post is below, heavily revised. The links have also been updated.
- [GOP Official: Orientation Can Be Punished; Ex-Gays Fair Game?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/gop-official-or/): The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is charged with investigating allegations of discrimination by federal employees. The 1978 Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) created the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and defined systems for managing the federal workforce. Its provisions included 5 U.S.C. Section 2302(b)(10), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect job performance. According to an article published yesterday by the Federal Times: OPM has held since 1980 that discrimination based on sexual orientation is covered as a prohibited personnel practice under the 1978 reform act and can be appealed to OSC. The...
- [Focus/Family Defends Secularism, Fears End to Antigay Culture War](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/focusfamily-def/): Focus on the Family and the Eagle Forum today admitted key objectives motivating their war against gay couples: Preserve secular control over marriage, and its related tax breaks and other privileges; and Preserve the culture wars. James Dobson lists a total of six reasons why gay couples will bring doomsday to the family. The first three reasons, predictably, assert that marriage somehow causes homosexuality to break out globally, creates chaos for gay couples’ children and their friends’ children, and compels heterosexuals to throw away all self-discipline. Nonsense — marriage maintains discipline and safety for heterosexuals and homosexuals — and their children....
- [Gay Marriage, Pro-Chastity Advocates Debate Over Stanley Kurtz](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/gay-marriage-pr/): I am debating gay marriage at David Morrison’s pro-chastity blog, Sed Contra. Addendum: In a May article in Slate, Prof. M.V. Lee Badgett thoroughly refutes Morrison’s hero of the moment, Stanley Kurtz, who had claimed that gay marriage is somehow to blame for a (non-existent) collapse of the traditional family in Scandinavia.
- [N.Y. Gay-Tolerant Clergy Charged for Performing Marriages](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ny-gay-tolerant/): USATODAY.com – New York clergy charged for marrying gay couples My first thought: This is going to fan the so-called wildfire. My second thought: Charges will be dropped within 24 hours. It points out a too-often neglected angle in the public sector, though — that the civil rights sought by gays who wish to marry are interwoven with their freedom of religious expression. Conservatives who support ex-gay options as the only valid choice for folks with same-sex attractions are right about one thing: Choice is an essential part of the picture. I don’t particularly care for analogies, given that it’s easy...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Rip Youth Antiviolence Group, Condemn Gay Activists to Hell](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/exodus-ex-gays-7/): I’ve been dismayed and discouraged at the Exodus national office’s March 5 defense of antigay bullying in schools, and its condemnation of gay people to Hell. I’ve been too upset, in fact, to write much for the past 10 days. Antigay violence and harassment in the nation’s schools are well-documented by Lambda Legal, GLSEN, and the Safe Schools Coalition, among other groups. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by parents and students across the nation against schools that tolerate or encourage violence against students perceived to be gay. Most of these lawsuits have been successful, and taxpayers have been burdened by...
- [Usenet Flamewar Over Ex-Gay Polemicist Stephen Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/usenet-flamewar/): E-mail rebel Ace Fumigators started a flamewar in Usenet’s alt.censorship group on March 1 by posting Stephen Bennett’s press release, “Former Homosexual: ‘Gay Marriage is a Counterfeit and Fraud.'” The flamewar begins here. Ace’s own messages consist of references to “the Homosexual Lie” and butchered Bible verses. Flamewars on Usenet are nothing new. Unfortunately, Stephen Bennett’s outreach consists of precisely this sort of flame-bait, instead of thoughtful and compassionate ministry.
- [Lobbying Your Elected Officials to Protect ALL Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/lobbying-your-e/): The Human Rights Campaign makes it easy to contact your state and federal elected officials. Whatever our beliefs about sexuality may be, lawmakers need to hear from you that the “Federal Marriage Amendment” (the Musgrave Amendment) would harm American families and American politics. The Amendment would alter the U.S. Constitution, the nation’s founding document, to bar states from permitting same-gender marriages AND bar states from recognizing any marriage-like benefits (“legal incidents” of marriage) through civil unions. Furthermore, many argue, this amendment: abuses the Constitution to legislate highly controversial social policy, cheapens marriage by turning it into an election-year political stunt, imposes...
- [Paul Cameron As Bob Dole?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/paul-cameron-as/): Samantha Bee did an investigative news parody on Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Is it a problem, she asks, to publicize the relationships of Silo and Roy? Dr. Dan Wharton, Director of the Central Park Zoo also known as Dr. Love, assures her, when she prods him about unnatural love, that this is nature by definition. For another perspective, she quizzes Paul Cameron. They talk first in an office setting. Bee cites Chip ‘n’ Dale as examples of gay animals, and questions Garfield‘s orientation, noting that he’s a confirmed bachelor, picky about what he eats, who hates...
- [Beside the Point: ‘You Don’t Have to Be Gay’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/beside-the-poin/): Posted today to Ex-Gay Watch’s former location at blogs.salon.com: From: Frank Blakely I will get straight to the point. This entire controversy of homosexuality exists solely because of a basic lack of understanding of Man and his basic purposes and goals. The argument that homosexuality is not a choice and that homosexuals are equal to, say, blacks (slavery) or women (suffrage) is a lie. Just because you don’t remember choosing proves nothing. Do you remember every choice you ever made; particularly the ones for which you didn’t want to take responsibility? I’m not trying to make you wrong. What is right...
- [Ex-Gay Book Review: Wayne Besen’s ‘Anything But Straight’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/ex-gay-book-rev/): Writing for Vermont’s monthly Out In The Mountains, Robert William Wolff praises gay activist Wayne Besen’s book about the ex-gay movement, Anything But Straight.
- [Celibate Catholics Respond to Antigay Polemicist](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/03/celibate-cathol-3/): David Morrison and Ron Belgau are members of Courage, a group of same-sex-attracted Roman Catholics who believe homosexual behavior is sinful and therefore choose to be celibate. On Feb. 29, Morrison dissected the sloppy theology, stereotypes, and inhospitality of Barbara Kralis, a writer for Alan Keyes’ Renew America web site. Belgau joined in the discussion. The pair’s reaction to Kralis is understandable: Kralis demands that celibate homosexuals be driven out of the priesthood, referring to them not by their humanity, but by their “stench.” Morrison is far from perfect. For example, his December 2003 associations of same-gender sex with cannibalism struck...
- [Ex-Gays for Bush: Turning Away From Christianity?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gays-for-bus/): Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas have frequently expressed support for President Bush’s re-election in 2004 — most recently they did so on Janet Parshall’s radio program. (Parshall is also a Bush supporter.) But as Christian evangelical Jim Wallis noted last September in Sojourners magazine, Bush’s theology is not orthodox Christianity; it is, arguably, American civil religion.
- [‘Gestapo’ Language And Ex-Gay Tolerance](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gestapo-languag/): Andrew Sullivan is widely regarded among conservatives as an example of tolerance and accommodation. He addresses antigay individuals and arguments on a case-by-case basis. He limits his generalizations and makes an effort not to resort to sweeping insults. Is it these qualities that prompt Tammy Bruce to label Sullivan a member of the “gay elite” and “gay gestapo”? And why does Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas cheer such namecalling?
- [Celibate Catholic Praise for Randy Shilts, Dorothy Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/celibate-cathol-2/): Catholic pro-celibacy blogger and Courage participant David Morrison remembers gay journalist Randy Shilts, who died ten years ago this month. Shilts was among the first journalists, and surely the most thorough, to track government and corporate callousness, and intransigence among activists (both gay and antigay), in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Every year in February, oddly enough, though I have never known the date of Shilts’s death until just now, I read Band again. I re-read it for myself and for my friends who have died. I read it so that, whatever might have happened in the rest of...
- [Catholic Sexual Abuse: Crunching the Gay Numbers](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/catholic-sexual-2/): From The Washington Post: A Catholic lay panel found that 4 percent of the nation’s Catholic priests who have served since 1950 were at one time or another accused of sexually abusing minors. Let’s crunch some statistics, and see whether the crisis can be blamed on homosexuality per se: 20 percent of those alleged or reported abuses were male-female. Eighty percent were male-male. In other words, 3 percent (80 percent of 4 percent) of priests allegedly abused minors of the same gender. Of these same-sex offenders, some were gay and some were not. Conservatives including Bishop Gregory periodically complain that far...
- [Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett Criticizes Bush, Civil Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gay-stephen/): In his State of the Union address, President Bush popularized a misunderstanding of the Federal Marriage Amendment. He said, more or less, that he supported a constitutional amendment banning marriages for gays, but he did not wish to ban civil unions. The White House press office and the press corps marketed Bush’s position as an endorsement of the one well-known measure now in Congress, the Federal Marriage Amendment — which explicitly prohibits state laws from being construed as requiring civil unions or other “incidents” of marriage such as property, inheritance, visitation and custody rights. The web site for Canada’s Christian Heritage...
- [Ex-Gay ‘Passion’ for Mel Gibson Flick](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gay-passion/): Eric Scheie at Classical Values nicely summarizes pundits’ up-and-down votes for ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ Hopefully, Exodus ex-gay spokesman Randy Thomas will broaden his own perspective in the coming days. His review demonstrates some humble insights, but also suffers from serious oversights. In focusing narrowly on sin and obsessively on sadism against one man, many reviewers say, the film buries Jesus of Nazareth’s radical faith and politics — views that were at odds with the conservative orthodoxy of his time, views that prompted his torture and execution.
- [Exodus Praises Bush, Slaps Marriage for Gays on Janet Parshall Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-praises/): Janet Parshall, former spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, operates a Christian Right radio show that appears to uphold themes of joyous secularism. Exodus executive director Alan Chambers and spokesman Randy Thomas eagerly appeared on Parshall’s show yesterday to support the antigay Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They preceded their appearance with an enthusiastic e-mail promoting the show to Exodus supporters. Thomas later said “it went really well I think. Didn’t say a whole lot. She took a bunch of callers.” Thomas neglects to tell his readers what the callers said, or how he responded. He also offers unconditional...
- [Background Memo: PFOX Webmaster’s Calls for Antigay Violence](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/background-memo/): PFOX was instrumental in the recent formation of the NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus. PFOX’s history of support for discrimination and opposition to antibullying programs in the schools is summarized at Ex-Gay Watch under the PFOX category. To develop an understanding of PFOX’s hopes for the nation’s schools, it may be worth knowing both PFOX’s official history, and the background of its staff. Here is some background. From 2001 through mid-2003, PFOX’s webmaster was a man operating under the pen name “Burning Black Triangle” or BBT for short. Over the course of 2002, PFOX vice president Estella Salvatierra was notified several times,...
- [Attracted to the Same Sex: Am I Gay Or Not?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/attracted-to-th/): People often come to realizations about themselves — as well as changes in their perspective — as they approach middle age. What happens when someone develops serious doubts about their sexual orientation, especially as they approach midlife? Must they be either homosexual — or ex-gay? In my opinion, neither the decision nor the orientation are either/or, black/white. I respond to this here on Rich Blinne’s blog. I probably said way too much — more than the person asked for — but I felt it was important that someone thinking of “coming out” step back from hastily labeling themselves, and instead broaden...
- [Gay Marriage And Ambivalent Conservatives](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gay-marriage-an/): An excellent article from Tech Central Station. I’ve been looking at it since yesterday, and will try to comment further by this weekend. Advance feedback welcome.
- [Gay Marriage Licenses in New Mexico — And Cambodia](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gay-marriage-li/): From an Associated Press story: Apparently unprompted by activists, the county clerk in Sandoval County, N.M., said she will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying she could find no reason not to. [Postscript: State officials later stepped in and stopped the issuances.] And in Cambodia, according to the BBC, King Sihanouk decided that gay marriages would be permitted. Here, in French, is what I’m told is Sihanouk’s declaration.
- [Bloggers, Ex-Gay Eye Where the Marriage Debate Stands](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/bloggers-ex-gay/): Animator Mark Fiore comments on the Attack of the Gay Agenda. Bill (and Kent) tally the mayors that have said they support marriages for gay couples. So does Tom Balkin, who cites a Washington Post article and discusses how activism shapes public opinion, which in turn reshapes constitutional norms. Greg Valiga cites coverage of DearMary.com by Newsweek. John Kusch writes: I’ve been spending a lot of time arguing the gay marriage issue on moderate-to-conservative websites, trying to figure out what is so threatening about the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. He passes on some of what he has learned in a...
- [Overlawyered: No to the FMA](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/overlawyered-no/): Overlawyered summarizes numerous conservative legal arguments against the Federal Marriage Amendment.
- [The Battle Isn’t Between Gays And Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/the-battle-isnt/): XGW participant Raj commented to Rich: “So do you really believe that your side wouldn’t do that elsewhere?” I’m not sure what sides are being referred to. At Ex-Gay Watch, the sides that I see (or try to see) are not a “gay-friendly” side vs. an “antigay/exgay” side. Nor is this blog a manifesto against exgays who decide that celibacy is best for them but who also refrain from legislating everyone else’s relationships and religious beliefs. I’ve got no problem whatsoever with the “God wants celibacy for me” philosophy. The sides that concern me are those who are respectful and tolerant...
- [NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus Formed](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/nea-ex-gay-educ/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) appears to have played a key role in organizing the caucus, but its current role in the caucus is unclear. As past XGW messages indicate, PFOX has lobbied in favor of discrimination against gays and opposed antibullying programs in schools. Until last year, its webmaster (operating under the pen name “Burning Black Triangle”) also operated a personal web site that parodied old gay-revolutionary literature by advocating death to homosexuals, the burning of gay churches, and the immolation of gay activist Wayne Besen. CNSNews.com says: “We regard it as their right to lobby the NEA,” said...
- [Ex-Gay Official Criticizes ABC for Showing Married Gays Kissing](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gay-official/): In his first action since banning and erasing all comments on his blog, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers wrote an open letter to ABC on Feb. 17. He says he is “outraged” that ABC News subjected him, his wife and kids to the sight of married gay couples kissing. He considers kissing “Rated R” and concludes: If ABC World News Tonight is going to be a program that exposes children to things that they don’t need to know about, needs an R rating and promotes controversial (at very best) sexuality on it’s show then maybe you should move it to a...
- [Correction About Ex-Gay Activist Larry Houston](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/correction-abou/): On Feb. 7, I wrote about Massachusetts ex-gay activist Larry Houston. Mr. Houston wrote me on Feb. 14 to politely request a correction: I was under the impression he was celibate; Houston says he is in an intimate relationship with a woman. I have gladly provided the correction. In a separate message, Mr. Houston also provided a long list of sources that he says document or challenge the belief among some homosexual activists that people are “born gay.” But as I’ve noted before, there is no agreement among scientists, activists, or anyone else for that matter, about the origins — genetic,...
- [DearMary.com: Antigay Constitutional Amendment Sparks Backlash](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/dearmarycom-ant/): I commented here and here that President Bush’s effort to write antigay discrimination into the U.S. Constitution had sparked a creative backlash. In San Francisco this weekend, the backlash took the form of longtime gay couples from across the nation formalizing their commitment by obtaining long overdue marriage licenses — in apparent violation of a California state law denying government recognition of gay citizens’ marriages. In cyberspace, that backlash became personal on Friday. John Aravosis and Robin Tyler on Friday launched DearMary.com, a warning shot at the family of Vice President Cheney. Question: Are either or both forms of backlash constructive?...
- [Exodus Director, Frist Misunderstand Impact of Marriage Ban](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-director-4/): On his “Just Think!” blog, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers reprints statements by Sen. Bill Frist supporting a nationwide constitutional ban against marriages and civil unions for gay people. XGW encourages Chambers to think about issues, as his blog title suggests, before posting others’ commentaries verbatim. As the massive civil disobedience in San Francisco made clear, it is a federal ban on gays obtaining marriages or civil unions that risks causing marriages to spread like “wildfire” among gays — through civil disobedience against an unjust ban, if necessary. Unfortunately, Chambers and Frist misunderstand or ignore much of the context in which...
- [Exodus Ex-Gay Position on Adoption](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-ex-gay-p/): Exodus executive director Alan Chambers spells out his opposition to adoption by gay people, as well as his preference that gay biological parents either give up custody or keep their same-sex attraction (and their life partner) a secret. Chambers calls gay parents “selfish individuals” and says that “punishing homosexuals isn’t what this is all about–the whole world doesn’t revolve around you.” Chambers concludes one message by saying, “Live your life, love who you want to love, do everything that is legally afforded to you but leave children out of it.” But Chambers often strives, in his public statements, to minimize or...
- [Exodus Explains Ties to Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-explains/): On his blog, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers explains the organization’s political advocacy on behalf of Focus on the Family this way: My trip was paid for by the Massachusetts Family Institute. I gladly spoke for free, although I would have accepted an honorarium, too. MFI is an autonomous organization that serves as a Family Policy Counsel for Focus on the Family–an organization that we are wholeheartedly partnered with on numerous projects. We are not, however, the recipient of funding from Focus on the Family and we would never ask for funding from them. Focus’ friendship has had a positive, professional...
- [Exgay Darryl L. Foster on Exgay Politics](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exgay-darryl-l/): Updated July 20, 2004 D.L. Foster operates Witness for the World, an ex-gay ministry. On his web page, Understanding Exgays: People or Politics, Foster shares his stereotypes of gay people with readers. Among his first sweeping generalizations:
- [Exodus Spokesman: ‘A Lesser Love’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-spokesma-5/): In his essay, Sacrificing A Lesser Love, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas attempts to explain why, based solely on his own life experiences, he presumes to declare (and legislate) the loves of other people as “lesser” than his.
- [Exodus Spokesman on S.F. Marriages: ‘Judicial Activist Mayor’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-spokesma-4/): Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas must be at a loss for words about the marriages of gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco. Judicial tyranny, activist judges…now judicial activist mayors? Then he tosses in the topic of “checks and balances” and “left leaning politicians” with little explanation or foundation. (Left leaning? Mayor Gavin Newsom is what San Franciscans consider a centrist, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.) Hobbled by a choice of antigay propaganda as his primary information source, Mr. Thomas’ misunderstandings and guesswork persist throughout his message. I wonder if the state can punish him? If Mayor’s are allowed the judicial...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Launch Media Synopsis Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-ex-gays-6/): Mixing literalist meditations on unrelated (prooftexted) Bible passages, news story leads, links, and religious right propaganda, Exodus International launched a political news blog yesterday (Feb. 13). While I find the smug partisan politics offensive and un-Christian in spirit, the Exodus blog does offer a decent collection of links to current news stories in the mass media, sorted by date and category.
- [Gay Teen Can Sue Pro-Exgay Florida School](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gay-teen-can-su/): Last October, XGW briefly covered the case of Jupiter Christian School in Central Florida. The mother of Jeffrey Woodard, a Christian, accuses the school of breaching contract and expelling her son after he confided that he was gay and declined to enter ex-gay therapy. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports today that a state court judge has cleared the way for the case to move forward.
- [Ex-Gays Say Again: No Marriages for Mass. Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gays-say-aga/): Exodus sent the following press release yesterday: Breaking News! Exodus International, North America * P.O. Box 540119 * Orlando, FL 32854 Internet: www.exodus-international.org Media Inquiries: Randy Thomas – P (321) 274-0982 Email: rthomas@exodus-international.org For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 12, 2004 Massachusetts Congressional Convention Considers Landmark Amendment on Marriage Exodus representatives testified in favor of today’s amendment and are ready to respond to final vote ****** Orlando, FL- Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas testified before the Massachusetts Judiciary Committee on April 28th, 2003 concerning the Marriage Affirmation and Protection Amendment (MA & PA) up for consideration today in Massachusetts.  Exodus calls on...
- [The Right Christians: ‘Hiding Behind Hatred’ Over Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/the-right-chris/): From Allen Brill today: Having problems with your credibility on issues like war and peace, the economy and the military record you try to flaunt? No problem. Just find a group to pick on and try to distract enough of the American public using hatred and fear to pull off an election victory. Brill is talking about Democrats and Republicans exploiting the marriage issue, of course. Read more at The Right Christians.
- [Ex-Gay Spokesman Lobbies Against ‘Special Rights’ for Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/ex-gay-spokesma-4/): While in Nashville for Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out,” Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas took the time to lobby 25 state lawmakers: I am going to share from the heart but I want to get across this one theme right out of the gate: When it comes to public policy regarding homosexuality say no to special rights or preferential empowerment but say yes to grass roots respect and equal enforcement of current law.
- [Vanderbilt Experts, Former Ex-Gay Put Ex-Gay Leader on the Defensive](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/vanderbilt-expe/): When Focus on the Family announced that “Love Won Out” — its one-sided program promoting ex-gay ministries and antigay therapies — would come to Nashville, the Vanderbilt Divinity School responded with a program featuring credentialed experts in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and faith. The Vanderbilt program, which included gay-tolerant Christians and at least one former ex-gay, put ex-gay activist Mike Haley on the defensive.
- [Classical Values: Conservatives, Feminists Bureaucratize Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/classical-value-3/): Eric at Classical Values wonders whether the ever-growing role of government — driven by conservatives and feminists — is helping to crush marriages and families.
- [Gay Teens And Marriage: XGW Responds to Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gay-teens-and-m/): I have responded on Exodus executive director Alan Chambers’ blog to his public complaint against the Boston Globe. In case he deletes my response, here is a copy. [To Alan Chambers:] Your readers should read the Boston Globe article for themselves. Your readers will see that the teen-agers in the story do not even consider marrying before graduation. None is considering dropping out of school. Their parents are supportive. They are dreaming of marriage just as heterosexual teens do. Your readers will also notice that you have not documented your claim that gay relationships last two months. Your claim lacks credibility...
- [Exodus Leaders Inspire Massachusetts Antimarriage Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-leaders/): Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas testified in Massachusetts last year, encouraging lawmakers to outlaw gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships. According to the Boston Phoenix, their efforts inspired a Massachusetts ex-gay, Larry Houston, to make weekly visits to the State House to teach lawmakers that: homosexuals “choose” to be gay, therefore, gay couples’ life relationships should be subjected to severe legal and financial disadvantages compared to heterosexual couples. Houston asserts, without offering examples, that unnamed homosexual activists claim people are “born gay.” Then, based on that strawman argument, Houston accuses these activists of lying. Houston seems to contradict...
- [Gays And Ex-Gays: Broken Friendships](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/gays-and-ex-gay/): Exodus executive director Alan Chambers was a guest on gay activist Michelangelo Signorile’s satellite radio show Jan. 27. He posted his reaction to his guest appearance on his blog, which is open for reader comments. Several gay-tolerant individuals responded. And Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas said that 11 years ago, all his gay friends shunned him, “not the other way around.” But often it takes two people to break a friendship.
- [Exodus Director Mystified By Gay Teen Couples](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-director-3/): On his personal blog, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers shares his letter to the Boston Globe, responding to a Jan. 20 article (archive fee required) about monogamous gay teen-age couples’ aspirations for getting married someday. Chambers accuses the Boston Globe of promoting underage teen marriage, encouraging teens to drop out, excusing underage marriage when the partners are the same gender, encouraging the spread of HIV/AIDS among teens. Chambers’ accusations are puzzling. None of the teens plans to marry before graduation. None is considering dropping out. Their parents are supportive. None of the teens is depicted as engaging in the unsafe or...
- [Exodus Director: Think What of the Liberty Counsel?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/exodus-director-2/): On his personal blog yesterday, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers reprinted, without criticism, a press release by the Liberty Counsel, an organization that files lawsuits around the nation in favor of antigay discrimination and sodomy laws with harsh sentencing. (Previous XGW coverage of Liberty Counsel.) The press release accuses the Massachusetts supreme court of “judicial tyranny” for deciding that “civil unions” are separate and unequal to marriage. The Liberty Counsel advocates a federal constitutional amendment that bans both gay marriage and civil unions. Does Chambers have any critical thoughts about the LC press release, or does Chambers expect readers to agree...
- [Janet Jackson: Ex-Gay Spokesman’s Oversight](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/janet-jackson-e/): Was he so distracted by a woman’s breast that he overlooked the obvious? On his personal blog, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas says: Tammy [Bruce] is so good. She goes on about the show but also highlights Gov. Dean’s response…and *why* he might have responded that way…. Exposing Viacom’s Indecency Thomas thinks Bruce is good because she points out that Time Warner contributed handsomely to two Democrats’ campaigns, and somehow that is supposed to explain why Howard Dean believes there are more important issues to American voters than Janet Jackson’s boobs. Had either Thomas or Bruce sought to convey nonpartisan or logically...
- [NYT Pans ‘Latter Days’ Depiction of Ex-gay Treatment](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/nyt-pans-latter/): In a movie review of “Latter Days” for the New York Times last Friday, Dave Kehr praises the film for charting one man’s journey — with the help of a Mormon — from youthful promiscuity to “more responsible, more mature, more stable relationships.” According to the review, however, the movie’s credibility is undermined when the adult Mormon’s mother pitches him into an electroshock-and-icebag exaggeration of exgay therapy.
- [CSIndy Publishes Feature on Denver Ex-Gay Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/csindy-publishe/): John Dicker of the Colorado Springs Independent has penned a level-headed and sensitively written feature story about Where Grace Abounds, an unusual ex-gay ministry located in Denver.
- [PFOX Cheers Ex-Gay Testimony on Faith-Based Funding](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/pfox-cheers-ex/): The antigay parents organization PFOX issued a press release Jan. 30 praising Exodus chairman and Focus on the Family exgay activist Mike Haley. Haley had testified before a congressional panel addressing taxpayer funding of faith-based organizations. But just two paragraphs into the press release, PFOX forgets about Haley.
- [Focus on the Family Cheers Imprisonment of Gay Teen-Ager](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/focus-on-the-fa-10/): In the news briefs section of its Feb. 2 CitizenWatch electronic newsletter, Focus on the Family cheered the Kansas appellate court ruling against Matthew Limon. Focus describes the 18-year-old, developmentally disabled Limon as a “man who sodomized a minor,” ignoring the voluntary (statutory) nature of the offense, and inaccurately asserts that the court rejected “a request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to overturn a law protecting minors from sexual exploitation by adults.”
- [Conservatives Opposed to Federal Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/02/conservatives-o/): Citizen Outreach has launched a web site, Leave Marriage to the States, at lawfullywedded.com. The site consists of conservative voices — many of them antigay — that oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment because, they say, the amendment undermines states’ rights. Among the arguments made is a comparison between the FMA and Prohibition. Advocates for both constitutional amendments wielded the false claim that their amendment banned only an extreme — gay marriage, or hard liquor. It later turned out, of course, that both amendments quite clearly and intentionally banned all forms of alcohol, and every legal form of recognition of a gay...
- [Kansas Court Keeps Matthew Limon in Prison](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/kansas-court-ke/): Following its decision in Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Kansas Court of Appeals to reconsider the conviction of gay teen-ager Matthew Limon. (Previous XGW coverage. Focus on the Family defended the sentencing.) In a ruling published today, the Kansas Court of Appeals upholds the state’s discriminatory sentencing of gay teen-agers and dictates that the young man will remain in prison until he is 35. ACLU response Addendum: From an AP article in the Dodge City Daily Globe: Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who defended the 17-year prison sentence for Matthew Limon, now says the state’s “Romeo and...
- [CWA: Marriage Amendment Intended to Abolish Civil Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/cwa-marriage-am/): In an interview with Human Events, Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America maps out the organization’s strategy on gay marriage. Specifically, CWA believes the Federal Marriage Amendment to ban gay marriages in every state is too weak, because the antigay Alliance for Marriage was able to market FMA as if it allowed civil unions. Alliance for Marriage did this even though one of the writers of the amendment language, a Professor Robert George of Princeton University, specifically crafted FMA to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships forever in every state. Rios claims not to be confident that FMA can pass...
- [Exodus Director: Prosecute Michael Johnston?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/exodus-director/): On his blog “Just Think!” on Jan. 7, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers says those who knowingly transmit HIV should be prosecuted, regardless of sexual orientation. But that was not Chambers’ public position in regard to Michael Johnston when the scandal broke — nor does Chambers clarify his position on Johnston now. To the best of XGW’s knowledge, Johnston remains in hiding.
- [Why Ex-Gays Must Oppose Gay Couples?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/why-ex-gays-mus/): In the Jan. 23 issue of Spotlights, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers attempts to explain why Exodus lobbies ex-gays and Christians to discriminate — and to promote government-mandated discrimination — against gay couples: Had same-sex marriage been legal in 1990 I am almost certain that I would have tested that option. I met men who I wanted to “marry”. Yet, as I look back as a mature adult, I realize that I wasn’t searching for a man as much as I was searching for an answer, a drug if you will, to numb the pain and make me feel better about...
- [Anne Paulk: Re-Stereotyping TV Lesbians](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/anne-paulk-re-s/): Ecclesiastes 1:9 has nothing to do with “lesbianism” or the Showtime cable network, but that didn’t stop Exodus from cutting-and-pasting a random Bible verse into its Jan. 23 issue of Spotlights. Exodus board member Anne Paulk ridicules ‘The L Word,’ the Showtime network’s new weekly drama about lesbian characters. After accusing the show of invading her home and threatening her children (why does she have cable, and why does she pay for erotic channels?), Paulk says: Instead, I measured it against the truth I know. Most of the women with same-sex attraction I have known, surveyed, or interviewed have had considerable...
- [Exodus: Either/Or Politics](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/exodus-eitheror/): Commentator Deroy Murdock wrote an op-ed for Scripps Howard, reminding heterosexuals that their non-monogamous straight peers — not homosexuals — are the ones with a track record of undermining marriage. In the Jan. 16 edition of Spotlights, spokesman Randy Thomas responded.
- [Courage Founder: Blame Imbalanced Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/courage-founder/): The conservative Roman Catholic media agency Zenit published a lengthy interview Jan. 24 on the alleged parental and social origins of homosexuality. The sole subject of the article is John Harvey, founder of the pro-celibacy group Courage, who offers no scientific studies to substantiate his views. Harvey asserts that people with predominant same-sex attraction are predisposed from an early age due to environmental factors in the home — namely, an imperfect or unbalanced relationship with mother or father. He blames parents for failing to interrupt the predisposition, but blames homosexuals and the mass media for causing youth to be “seduced into...
- [Chambers Vs. Signorile: Ex-Gay on Gay Radio](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/chambers-vs-sig/): Exodus executive director Alan Chambers was a guest on gay author and activist Michelangelo Signorile’s radio show Jan. 27. Chambers’ blog entry about the show If anyone has a link to transcripts, media coverage, or comments by Signorile, please share.
- [Courage: Ron Belgau on Catholicism And Chastity](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/courage-ron-bel/): Ron Belgau of Courage Seattle gave a talk at Georgetown University last week: “The Love That Does Not Count the Cost: A Biblical Reflection on Same Sex Attraction and Christian Love” Belgau is a vocal advocate for chastity outside of heterosexual marriage.
- [Morons.org on Taxpayer Handouts to Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/moronsorg-on-ta/): Nick of Morons.org doesn’t appreciate Focus on the Family’s effort last week to steer federal funding of faith-based initiatives.
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Overlawyered](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/ex-gay-watch-ov/): Overlawyered.com is a blog that tracks the high cost and the threat to liberty posed by Americans’ habit of suing one another instead of discussing disagreements and respecting differences of opinion. According to Overlawyered, XGW is just one of many blogs threatened in recent months with litigation from individuals objecting to public criticism.
- [Ex-Ex-Gay Takes Comedy on the Road](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/ex-ex-gay-takes/): Performer Peterson Toscano takes his one-man show, “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House — How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement!”, to Washington, D.C., this week. The show is being hosted locally by Westminster Presbyterian Church. The Washington Blade reviewed Toscano’s show, consisting of comedy and Biblical inspiration, on Jan. 23. Religion also still plays a major role in Toscano’s life, though he graduated from the Love in Action program in 1999 — but remained gay. He is now a Quaker and says he harbors no ill will toward church members. “I am not angry at the conservative church...
- [Wayne Besen on Faith-Based Prisons](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/wayne-besen-on/): In an op-ed column for The Tallahassee Democrat, anti-ex-gay activist Wayne Besen warns that Florida’s plan for a faith-based prison may lead to favoritism for fundamentalists. Gay activists such as myself will be watching closely to make sure our tax dollars are not illegally used to teach a right-wing view of religion or homosexuality. We consider such extreme religious views dangerous and bad for society. True freedom of religion requires Bush to fully embrace the value of all faiths represented in the prison system. This includes equal treatment and a full array of services for Eastern religions, such as Buddhism and...
- [Private Ad Firm Rejects Ex-Gay Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/private-ad-firm/): Stephen Bennett Ministries says it merely wanted to post an ex-gay billboard in Albany, the capital of New York state: The Stephen Bennett Ministries billboard Bennett had little difficulty finding a privately owned ad firm to reject the ad (for reasons unknown). His response was not exactly discreet or diplomatic. He named the agency, provided links to pressure groups, and complained to WorldNetDaily: “It never ceases to amaze me how biased and unfair the media really is,” he said. “Sharing my story has given thousands of people hope – homosexual men and women who are unhappy with their same-sex attractions.” Bennett...
- [Focus/Family: How to Treat Gay Loved Ones?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/focusfamily-how/): Blogger Jayelle Wiggins attended Love Won Out in Orlando in November 2001, then wrote up her experience. Recently, Focus on the Family surveyed her on the long-term impact of LWO in her life — and enclosed a tract advising how to treat gay loved ones. Of the tract, she says, “Some of the advice is actually pretty good. But a lot of it, especially the stuff that relates to kids, shocked me! I shouldn’t be shocked, but I was anyhow. They ask people to treat their kid’s coming out practically like the kid is dead!” Jayelle didn’t answer the survey, but...
- [Taxpayer Handouts to Ex-Gays — Yes Or No?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/taxpayer-handou/): The following media outlets cover an uproar over Focus on the Family ex-gay activists’ appearance at a Congressional hearing on funding of faith-based initiatives: The Advocate The Denver Post Rocky Mountain News PlanetOut 365gay.com The following activists issued press releases in response: Americans United for Separation of Church and State Anything But Straight PFLAG Another Rocky Mountain News article notes that some faith-based organizations are opposed to President Bush’s handout plan, while others like Focus on the Family support the plan but say they will refuse funding that requires them not to proselytize. The Colorado Springs Gazette, located in Focus’ home...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Reopens](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/ex-gay-watch-re/): The boxes are unpacked in D.C., and two very helpful Comcast representatives finally connected us to the ‘Net today, after the company bureaucracy had spent three weeks stalling. Special thanks go to Jason for swiftly reporting recent attacks on XGW by a hacker-pornographer — one of those sleaze merchants who posts a comment that causes your browser to redirect to ghastly nekkid photographs when all you wanted to see was the undersexed and artless pages of XGW. I asked Six Apart (maker of MovableType and host of TypePad blogs, including XGW) if we could ban the range of Internet addresses used...
- [Greed Is Good? Focus on the Family Agrees…](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/01/greed-is-good-f/): … with an author who praises profit motive and self-interest as Christian motives to advance society.
- [Blogging And Libel](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/blogging-and-li/): For our fellow bloggers out there, a brief primer on libel and blogging. The Libel Defense Resource Center has an FAQ page. Here’s an excerpt: What is Libel? Libel and slander are legal claims for false statements of fact about a person that are printed, broadcast, spoken or otherwise communicated to others. Libel generally refers to statements or visual depictions in written or other permanent form, while slander refers to oral statements and gestures. The term defamation is often used to encompass both libel and slander. In order for the person about whom a statement is made to recover for libel,...
- [Ex-Gay Minister Threatens Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/ex-gay-minister/): The first threat occurred here. The second threat occurred here in response to an earlier posting. XGW discusses the legalities of blogging and libel here.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Moving to D.C.](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/ex-gay-watch-mo/): Readers have noticed activity slowing to a trickle. The reason is that XGW is moving to Washington. We’ll be moved in, and ready to blog regularly, on Jan. 2. Until then, I hope ex-gays behave themselves. And Steve and I wish everyone happy holidays.
- [Ex-Gay Spokesman: No ‘Division’ From Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/ex-gay-spokesma-3/): On Dec. 9, Ex-Gay Watch observed that Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas had complained publicly about being quoted out-of-context by Focus on the Family. The next day, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas offered a near-apology to Focus on the Family. Thomas associated my observation with efforts by “the Adversary in the spiritual realm” (Satan). Thomas seeks to avoid any “appearance of division” between Exodus and Focus on the Family. Thomas means religious division. However, what distinguishes Focus on the Family from traditional, evangelical, and mainstream Christian organizations, including gay-tolerant ones, is its obsessive antigay politics, not its spirituality. Note that Thomas is not...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Say Rosie Exploits Children](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/exodus-ex-gays-5/): Exodus International spokesman Randy Thomas accuses homosexuals of exploiting children. Specifically, he says Rosie O’Donnell is exploiting children by helping the bullied gay youths at New York City’s predominantly (but not exclusively) gay Harvey Milk High School. Press reports like this one have not explained the purpose of the room, so Thomas assumes the worst. He also asserts that the school, which hosts a small fraction of the city’s gay-youth population, is “segregated.” In the case of the Lafayette, La., child who was reprimanded by his school because his mother is lesbian, Thomas criticizes the reprimand but then says the public...
- [Redesigning Ex-Gay Watch (cont’d)](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/redesigning-ex/): As you can see, I’m gradually putting back the past design features that worked well — wide fluid columns, black sans serif type. More to come.
- [Classical Values: Rufus And Emo-Sexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/classical-value-2/): Eric at Classical Values expands on our comments about Rufus Wainwright. Eric offers a hilarious definition of “emo-sexual.” The depression, lack of self-esteem, and binges of drinking and hustling are things that Eric’s emos may have in common with unhappy ex-gays. But those emos’ hatred of conformity and phoniness make them poor candidates for ex-gay recruitment.
- [Gay Group to PFOX: Fight Fire with Fire](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/gay-group-to-pf/): The Human Rights Campaign is launching anti-exgay ads in the Washington, D.C., subway system, according to 365gay.com. The action is in response to ads in October by PFOX, an organization of antigay parents. WorldNetDaily misquotes HRC as saying exgay conversion is “impossible.” For more information: Human Rights Campaign announcement Anti-exgay ads Photo by HRC / Fredo Alverez
- [Exodus Slaps GLSEN, Promotes ‘Gender-Affirming’ Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/exodus-slaps-gl/): Yesterday, I noted that Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas said ex-gay ministries don’t emphasize “gender-affirming” role modeling. Here’s an indication to the contrary: A statement by Exodus executive director Alan Chambers in the organization’s July 2003 newsletter (PDF document). I know that the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is targeting our nation’s young people with a one sided message that homosexuality isn’t changeable and doing so with force, a lot of money and even more public support. And, that makes me mad. Why is it that GLSEN can raise more money to teach our children to hate God’s word, encourage them...
- [Updates on Gay Louisiana Mom](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/updates-on-gay/): The situation surrounding Sharon Huff, the mother of the 7-year-old who was reprimanded for mentioning that he had two moms, will be considered during a special session by the Lafayette Parish School Board tonight. (Administrators assert that Marcus was reprimanded for being disruptive, not for what he said, and that school documents published by the ACLU do not tell the whole story.) Speaking to Lafayette’s primary newpaper, The Advertiser, Sharon sounds reasonable and thoughtful. “We will live our lives like we did before,” Huff said. “I am ready to get back to work and let everybody else deal with what is...
- [Designing Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/designing-ex-ga/): The columns are too narrow, the text is too small, the colors are all wrong, the writers are too friendly to ex-gays… These are just a few of the suggestions we hear. (To be fair, most of the feedback is positive, but that’s not the point of this message.) Here’s your chance to pick the colors, fonts, and layout of the blog. Submit your comments, including links to blogs whose design you do like. Keep in mind that any designs should be viewable by folks with visual impairments such as colorblindness. Also let us know how you feel about adding more...
- [Romantic Comedy to Feature Ex-Gay Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2003/12/romantic-comedy/): The film “Save Me” is in pre-production and may appear in art houses in 2005, according to the Windy City Times.
- [Kids, Clowns, And Prayers Confound Ex-gay Stephen Bennett in P’town](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/kids-clowns-and/): Paul of Gay Christian Network provides a first-hand account of activist Stephen Bennett’s ex-gay leafletting effort in Provincetown, Mass.
- [Off-topic: ‘Are Liberal Christians Phony?’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/off-topic-are-l/): David Batstone is the executive editor of Sojourners, an evangelical Christian magazine with a history of pro-life, pro-human-rights, antipoverty and antiviolence activism rooted in the Bible. (Disclosure: I worked for Sojourners in the late 1980s.) When he’s not on tour speaking on faith and culture, Batstone writes a regular newsletter distributed via e-mail. In May, he answered the title question of this XGW entry, in response to angry mail from a dispensationalist. I often hear non-Christians ask: How can a person who identifies with Jesus Christ espouse actions that run so counter to peace and justice? This theological device [the mail...
- [Off-topic: Morality of the Cherry-pickers?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/off-topic-moral/): Tommy Tomlinson of The Charlotte Observer (free subscription required) comments on Catholic bishops who pick and choose which Biblical moralities to uphold and which to ignore: Bishops who single out the abortion strictly enforce sexual and reproductive morality. They then deny communion to abortion-tolerant politicians. But moral issues such as economics, just war and criminal justice make these particular bishops uncomfortable; after all, upholding Biblical morality in these areas tends to offend conservatives. Instead of standing firm on moral principle, the bishops grant communion to (conservative) political candidates who violate Biblical and Catholic moral mandates. Meanwhile…. In Texas, Bible Belt heterosexuals...
- [‘Hate Crime’: Kirk Talley’s Extortionist Sentenced](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/hate-crime-kirk/): Find the most recent XGW coverage of Kirk Talley here. August 6, 2004 The antigay Southern Baptist who attempted to extort money from southern gospel singer Kirk Talley was sentenced Aug. 4 to 20 months in prison and ordered to pay Talley $100,000 in restitution. According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel (free subscription required), Talley lost as much as $420,000 in canceled concerts, commissions and merchandise sales when it was publicly disclosed that Talley had been struggling with sexual orientation. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. William Mackie said Walbert K. Farmer, 39, targeted Talley because Farmer “saw Mr. Talley as a vulnerable victim...
- [Missouri Votes Against Existing Families with Gay Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/missouri-votes/): Jason Kuznicki of Positive Liberty sums it up, adding that single parents are starting to turn against Bush.
- [Ex-gay Stephen Bennett in P-town on Saturday](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-stephen-3/): Time to follow up on Stephen Bennett’s plans to bring Bible gift bags to gay and lesbian families and their children in Provincetown Massachusetts this coming Saturday. In May, we noted that Stephen Bennett Ministry’s (SBM’s) $50K fundraising target could have supported a ten-fold increase in participants (from 50 to 500) as well as in Bible gift bags (from 600 to 6,000) compared to a similar effort last year. By early July, that the target had been halved, to $25K, and the outreach to be supported with the funds was beefed up:
- [Lutherans Concerned: ‘Is Ex-gay a False Hope?’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/lutherans-conce/): Lutherans Concerned is selling this 15-minute video for $12 (plus $3 for shipping and handling). At $1 per minute, I think I’ll wait for a more thorough description of the product before I buy. If anyone else has seen the video, please let us know what you think of it.
- [Promise And Problems At Portland Fellowship](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/promise-and-pro/): XGW reader Norm notes that John Paulk is no longer listed on the staff of Portland Fellowship. And the Fellowship’s founder, Phil Hobizal, remains on a leave of absence due to “an unhealthy emotionally entangled relationship” mentioned in the Fellowship’s April 2003 newsletter. These issues are overlooked in a new feature article by the Portland, Ore., weekly Willamette Week Online. Update: John Paulk notes below that he is attending graduate school full-time. Thanks for the update, John; good luck in your studies. The article’s coverage of ministry assistant Drew Berryessa and executive director Jason Thompson is fair and insightful. But it...
- [Latest Victim of ABC’s John Stossel](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/latest-victim-o/): Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) reminds us that antigay activists like Alan Chambers aren’t the only victims of ABC commentator John Stossel. This time, the victim is no less than trial lawyer and vice presidential candidate John Edwards.
- [ABA Reports on Virginia Ban on Civil Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/aba-reports-on/): The American Bar Association reports on legal expert reactions to a Virginia law, enacted July 1, which voided gay civil unions — and, some say, most other legal contracts signed between gay partners. The ABA points out serious problems caused by the vague wording of the law. The ABA takes no position on gay marriage or civil unions, but opposes efforts to pre-empt the states from defining marriage. Thanks to Michael Hamar for the heads-up.
- [Gay Intolerance of Christians in Sweden?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/gay-intolerance/): Numerous culture warriors in July pointed to Sweden’s enforcement of laws against antigay defamation as proof that all gay activists are intolerant of antigay Christians. (Google search of news articles and rants.) Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas was quick to judge gay activists in general, citing WorldNetDaily as his sole source. Bad idea. Gay-spirituality columnist Joe Perez was more resourceful. Initially he condemned Sweden’s alleged intolerance for antigay sermonizing, but he went a step further: He wrote to the Swedish gay activist group. The group replied, and on July 19 Perez posted a fuller version of the story — deflating some (but...
- [Who’s Politicizing Gay Parenting? Certainly Not (ahem) FRC](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/whos-politicizi/): The Family Research Council takes issue with the American Psychological Association again over gay parents. The FRC declines to link its readers to last week’s APA resolution on gay marriage and parenting, or to the APA position’s clinical underpinnings. (XGW found APA’s press release and resolution here.) Instead of methodically researching and weighing the APA’s evidence, FRC counters it with two isolated factoids — distorting a study of lesbian parents (PDF file) in the process. While arguably biased in the opposite direction, ReligiousTolerance.org‘s analysis of same-sex parenting is more clinical and less political than FRC’s. Focus on the Family’s analysis is...
- [Focus/Family Criticizes Democrats for Abstaining on Gay-marriage Policy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/focusfamily-cri/): A couple weeks ago, Christianity Today reported that Focus on the Family is blurring the line between its tax-deductible operations and its partisan political advocacy for Republican candidates. The magazine noted that the two operations share the same staff members, offices, and workplace benefits. This blurring of Focus’ religious and political operations is borne out in an article published by Focus’ tax-deductible arm on Friday. Democrats of good conscience disagree strongly over the issues of homosexuality, gay marriage and amending the U.S. Constitution. Instead of acknowledging this, the Focus article overgeneralizes that the entire party is pro-homosexual and criticizes the Democrats...
- [Christian Libertarians? Sometimes Not](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/christian-liber/): Jon Rowe comments that Christian Reconstructionists have infiltrated libertarian circles by labeling themselves “Christian libertarians.” Unlike real libertarians who wish to eliminate big government, however, the relabeled Reconstructionists seek to replace government with theocracy. Dispatches from the Culture Wars elaborates further, with insight into the writings of Andrew Sandlin.
- [Illinois Church Sign Sparks Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/illinois-church/): The church sign lacked both originality and insight: “God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” and “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” It is the sign’s thoughtless sarcasm, not just its antigay sentiment, that raised debate in Clinton, Ill. Senior pastor Roger Cox defended the sign at First Baptist Church, saying it was “biblically based” and that “people should love the person but hate the sin.” But where does Cox find support, in the Bible or in any definition of love, for a public, flippant declaration that “Steve” was not made by God? Cox does not say....
- [Big-government Resolution to Support Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/big-government/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays is rallying support for U.S. House and Senate resolutions supporting tolerance for “former homosexuals and lesbians.”
- [Scary Places Frem 20,000 Feet](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/scary-places-fr/): Aerial view of Washington’s Dupont Circle. I see upscale shoppers and workers sipping chais or chowing on wraps. Ben claims to see a place where he can’t walk without being accosted by gay men. What different people see — I guess it’s a Rorschach sort of thing. Aerial view of the operational Reactor 1 and surrounding infrastructure at Three Mile Island. You can see steam rising toward you from two cooling towers. Among other terrorist targets, Microsoft’s TerraServer site also displays aerial photos of nuclear waste disposal sites, vast oil tank farms, and dams. Here’s an aerial view of the World...
- [Psychotherapist Joe Kort on Ex-gay ‘extreme Makeovers’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/psychotherapist/): In late June, web site and the Gay Spirituality blog, Michigan psychotherapist Joe Kort offered his own lengthy clinical and personal assessment of reparative therapies. Kort disputes 10 “myths” generally promoted by reparative therapists. While ex-gay programs differ, I think each program is likely to promote at least some of these myths. Most glaringly, the programs avoid the obvious reality that vast numbers of heterosexual youth suffer from the alleged causes of homosexuality — parental absence and sexual abuse — without turning gay. Addendum: In May, Joe Kort discussed his personal and professional journey with Psychotherapy Networker. Kort’s story is a...
- [Wayne Besen Responds to Ex-gay Ad Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/wayne-besen-res/): Here is activist/author Wayne Besen’s press release.
- [Andrew Sullivan: Christ-centered Faith Vs ’subordination’ of Women](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/andrew-sullivan/): Responding to an e-mail defending the subordination of women, Andrew Sullivan writes: The strength to be subordinate! And this comes from a religious tradition that began with a man who defied almost every social convention of his time and treated women — even single women — as his equals; who never married and broke up the families and marriages of his disciples; who told his own parents as a teenager that they had no final control over him; and whose best friends were a single woman and a single man who is described in the Gospels as resting his head on...
- [L.A. Times Publishes Full-page Ex-gay Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/la-times-publis/): Exodus announces the second ex-gay ad, published today in the L.A. Times. (Here’s other XGW coverage of the Exodus ads.)
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Discussed Elsewhere](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/ex-gay-watch-di/): Dalai Banana discusses the allure of spiritual regression (OK, this is my own spin) — the temptation to limit oneself to an immature, beginner-level spirituality that sells trite answers to life’s questions. In time, some people discover the answers were inconsistent or factually, historically or scientifically erroneous, or they find that the wrong questions were being asked to begin with. Their faith matures. Those who don’t mature — who continue to use their faith as a crutch to justify their own prejudices — become embarrassments and political liabilities to their respective religions. The liberal Catholic blog In Today’s News reacts, in...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Site Updates](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/ex-gay-watch-si/): Bit by bit, I’m updating old sections of the site. Here are updated entries and their revision dates: July 20, 2004 Exgay Darryl L. Foster on Exgay Politics
- [Cincinnati Background Info](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/cincinnati-back/): I figured I’d dig around for a little background info on Cincinnati Ohio, where Exodus published a full-page ad in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Thursday.
- [Exodus Ad: Question Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/exodus-ad-quest/): Exodus International has launched an ad campaign starting with a full page in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Headlined, “I Questioned Homosexuality,” its theme is also reflected in a new entry page to the Exodus website titled “Question Homosexuality… Change is possible. Discover how.” To their credit, the graphic layout and copy are lean and fresh.
- [Discussion: Fluidity in Sexual Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/discussion-flui/): I really appreciate the depth and range of insights coming through the comments on the flexibility and fluidity post. For those who follow new posts via the RSS feed, or haven’t had a chance to follow the comments, here is a synopsis.
- [Flexibility And Fluidity: Personal Reflection](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/flexibility-and/): A good discussion has ensued under the Gay Story With an Ex-Gay Theme post. I want to continue that with my thoughts on the flexibility or fluidity of sexual orientation. Kinsey may have put orientation on a single scale from gay to straight, but I’m more inclined to think there are at least two relevant scales. The second one is the fluidity/flexibility scale. While we find it most fitting to describe our baseline as gay, straight, or in between, the tendency to flex and bend also has a baseline and may shift at times over the course of a lifetime. There...
- [Stephen Bennett Updates](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/stephen-bennett-3/): Two months ago we took a look at Stephen Bennett Ministry’s (SBM’s) fundraising efforts for an evangelism trip to Provincetown MA. At that point, the $50K fundraising target looked like it could support a ten-fold increase in participants (from 50 to 500) as well as in Bible gift bags (from 600 to 6,000) compared to a similar effort last year. Some time between then and now, things shifted a bit:
- [A Gay Story With an Ex-gay Theme](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/07/a-gay-story-wit/): The July issue of Instinct Magazine (on newsstands only, not online) includes a piece titled “Meet The World’s Most Boring Homo,” by Parker Ray. It opens: For the fourth Friday night in a row, Jack (not his real name) is curled up on his IKEAfied couch, in his apartment in a non-gay part of San Francisco, and just about to watch a New Release from Blockbuster. It’s a movie he’ll probably forget about the next day when he wakes up early — around eight a.m. — to take his dog, Theo, for a walk in the park just a few blocks...
- [Gay Marriage Helps Taxpayers? FRC Skips A Heartbeat](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/gay-marriage-he/): The Congressional Budget Office said gay marriage would, on the whole, benefit U.S. taxpayers. The Family Research Council responded, as Scott Lewis notes, with non sequiturs.
- [Liberal Catholic Analysis of Courage Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/liberal-catholi/): A liberal Catholic blogger thoughtfully and methodically analyzes the recent and sometimes stereotypical reasoning of Ron Belgau, who is an activist in Courage, the Catholic antigay, pro-chastity movement. (Note that I describe Courage as both antigay and pro-chastity. In fact, I recognize there are individuals in Courage who affirm gay rights to a limited extent while affirming a preference for chastity. Unfortunately, Courage as a whole tends to oppose tolerance and political, social or religious equality for gays.)
- [Focus/Family Smears Moderate Evangelicals As Leftists](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/focusfamily-sme/): Focus on the Family attempts to smear two leading evangelicals — Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis — as New Age leftists. Both evangelists have spent decades battling poverty and racism in America, but both evangelists also have strong records of upholding Biblical authority, emphasizing conservative belief in salvation through Jesus Christ, and maintaining a conservative sexual ethic. Focus joins a Southern Baptist ideologue, Albert Mohler, in mischaracterizing the religious beliefs of Campolo and Wallis. Focus illogically implies that because Campolo and Wallis are less politically extreme than the SBC, Campolo and Wallis are somehow part of some nefarious leftist movement that...
- [Exodus Ex-Gays Agree: Constitution’s Defenders Are Anti-Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/exodus-ex-gays-9/): Exodus, the Orlando-based network of ex-gay activists, joins the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and other anti-tolerance organizations in inventing a remarkably blatant lie about Congress: Congress is poised to make homosexual marriage the law of the land. In fact, no proposal to legalize marriage is before Congress or in effect in any state besides Massachusetts. Instead of accurately reporting the situation, Exodus joins amend-the-U.S.-Constitution activists in asserting that anyone who votes against a Federal Marriage Amendment — in other words, anyone who opposes hasty changes to the U.S. Constitution or who opposes a religious-right attack on states’ rights...
- [Attack on Antigay Preacher: Focus Twists Facts](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/attack-on-antig/): Focus on the Family, which opposes unfettered free speech for gay-tolerant viewpoints, digs up a 2001 incident in Britain, in which an antigay street preacher was assaulted and arrested. Focus views the arrest and conviction of the preacher as proof (somehow) that gay tolerance is a threat to free speech. Focus’ angry recollection of this dated incident is sketchy — intentionally, perhaps, because in this story it turns out that a gay activist prominently defended the incendiary preacher’s free-speech rights.
- [Focus on the Family Profiting From Son of Sam?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/focus-on-the-fa-13/): David Berkowitz murdered six people and severely injured others during a 1970s killing spree. Now ex-gay movement marketer and underwriter Focus on the Family is marketing audiotape and CD recordings touting mass murderer Berkowitz’s conservative-Christian moral virtue — for a $9 “donation” per recording. The Focus web site offers a “listen now” link where listeners might presumably listen to Berkowitz for free. But the link leads to a radio program archive where Berkowitz, at this writing, is nowhere to be found. According to the New York Daily News, authorities will seize the proceeds from Focus and Berkowitz — if it is...
- [Some Things Never Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/some-things-nev/): This month, my job changed, my salary rose, my office moved… but ex-gay activists remain as committed to conflict, resentment, and tired old refrains as ever. I must admit: Covering their pessimism, their isolationism, their lack of faith in themselves and God is unrelentingly depressing. There’s gotta be a way to encourage positive thinking, promote constructive engagement, maybe even evoke just a trace of independent accountability in the movement. Thoughts?
- [Former Ex-Gay Returns to NYC with One-Man Satire](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/former-ex-gay-r/): Former New Yorker Peterson Toscano, who endured 17 years of ex-gay reparative therapy in Manhattan and elsewhere, returns to the city to present his one-man comedy, “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House,” for one night only at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 14, 2004, at Marble Collegiate Church, 29th and Fifth Ave. Admission is $6.00 or $15.00 with dinner and is sponsored by GIFTS, the GLBT group at Marble Collegiate. XGW has previously reviewed Toscano’s show: Ex-Ex-Gay Takes Comedy on the Road, Jan. 25, 2004 A Visit to the Homo No Mo Halfway House, Oct. 16, 2003 A press...
- [The Politics of Science: Distinguishing Between Love And Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/the-politics-of/): If love and sexual desire are distinct experiences with distinct and separate biological underpinnings, then what does that mean for the ethics and politics of same-sex love and same-sex genital behavior? What relationship, if any, should exist between the two? Jason Kuznicki of Positive Liberty explores that question for both “liberals” and “conservatives,” after reading a recent article in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
- [Reagan’s Loose Cannon: Ex-Gay Leader Stands By Oliver North](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/reagans-loose-c/): Founded as a day for Americans of all faiths, the National Day of Prayer is now closely tied to Focus on the Family. It is headquartered in Focus offices, James Dobson’s wife is the chairman, Focus is compensated for “services rendered,” and the NDP’s prayer list (political agenda) is a watered-down version of Focus’ joyous secularism. Both Focus and the NDP promote a so-called “Judeo-Christian” order that more closely conforms to a mystical American patriotism than to mainstream, nonpartisan, global Jewish or Christian belief. What’s the ex-gay connection, you may ask?
- [NYT Columnist on GOP Convention’s Gay-Aversion Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/nyt-columnist-o/): New York Times columnist Frank Rich comments today on the GOP convention organizers’ floundering effort to administer “gay-aversion therapy” to the city of New York.
- [FRC: Getting Straight the Research on Homosexuality?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/frc-getting-str/): Someone recently wrote to XGW, requesting a copy of Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About Homosexuality. FRC’s description of the booklet is not encouraging: It begins by claiming to refute homosexual “myths” that were never advanced by many homosexuals in the first place, or that haven’t been advanced in a decade or more. The description deteriorates from there — grabbing politically expedient factoids out of context from a hodgepodge of medical and professional journal articles, some of which are 16 years out of date. At first I wondered how the authors of these journal articles would feel if they...
- [Briefly: Remembering Patrick Cusick](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/briefly-remembe/): Patrick Cusick, 72, a longtime gay rights activist and an active participant in the 1960s black civil rights movement, died May 10. The June 4 Washington Blade article retraces Cusick’s life from pro-slavery family to pickets and sit-ins for civil rights.
- [Psych Advice for Gays And Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/psych-advice-fo/): Psychotherapist Joe Kort wrote a book, published last year, titled 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives. What smart things does Kort recommend?
- [Wayne Besen: ‘Doom’ for Gay Republicans](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/wayne-besen-doo/): Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight about the ex-gay movement, comments in a June 4 op-ed in The Washington Blade about the difficulties facing gay Republicans. The Blade also ran a front-page news story.
- [Throckmorton Tells Mental Health Pros to Host Antigay Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/throckmorton-te/): Warren Throckmorton, a professor at a Bible college in Pennsylvania, is frequently cited as a scholar by PFOX and other ex-gay political activists. In an essay reprinted June 2 at the antigay michnews.com web site, Throckmorton criticizes the professional National Mental Health Association for denying a conference table to the antigay parents’ political group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX).
- [Scattered Words: Ex-Gay Blogger](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/scattered-words/): Twenty-two-year-old D.C.-area blogger Ben at Scattered Words exemplifies the agreeable ex-gay Christian: Someone who pursues an ex-gay sexual and spiritual path primarily because it’s right for him, and not because of any obvious desire to promote discrimination or impose one’s own lifestyle and political ideology upon everyone else.
- [Ex-Gay Anne Paulk: Who Owns Traditional Values?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/ex-gay-anne-pau/): In a June 1 op-ed column in The Oregonian (Portland), Exodus board member, author and Focus on the Family associate Anne Paulk reacts to an earlier LA Times column by Max Boot. (Free subscriptions required.) Paulk does not directly address Boot’s reasons for believing conservatives (antigays, actually) can’t win the battle against marriage for gays. Instead, Paulk simply explains that conservatives still play an important role in public policy. It may surprise anti-ex-gay cynics when Paulk acknowledges something that James Dobson, Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas have not said publicly in a long time: Conservatives don’t have the corner on traditional...
- [Pediatricians, Sexual Orientation, And Adolescence](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/pediatricians-s/): The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association on June 2 applauded the publication of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, “Sexual Orientation and Adolescence,” in the June 2004 issue of Pediatrics.
- [Mel White on Falwell, Bush, And Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/mel-white-on-fa/): Pridesource.com today published an interview with the Rev. Mel White, head of Soulforce, the U.S. network of gay-affirming, faith-based, nonviolent activist organizations. White has much to say about having ghostwritten autobiographies of religious-right leaders; about living as a gay man across the street from Jerry Falwell and attending Falwell’s church; about the religious-right takeover of the Republican Party; and about ex-gays: “For 40 years I tried to get over it — being gay — with exorcism and electroshock and aversive therapy and ex-gay therapy,” he remembers. “My marriage lasted 20 years, and we were in therapy almost all of that time....
- [Ex-Gay Activist Seeks Mutual Respect in the Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/ex-gay-activist/): Chad W. Thompson is a rising individual in the ex-gay movement. Formerly a media specialist for the Iowa Family Policy Center, Thompson is the founder of Inqueery.com, an ex-gay advocacy project targeting public schools. His vision for ex-gay inclusion in public-school curricula is a bit unusual: He seeks mutual respect for gays and ex-gays, and supports antibullying policies… with some constraints.
- [‘Anything But Straight’ Book A Finalist for Two Awards](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/anything-but-st-2/): Chicago’s Windy City Times interviewed gay activist Wayne Besen on June 2. Besen’s book about the ex-gay movement, Anything But Straight, was nominated for the Lambda Literary Awards in two categories: LGBT Studies and Spirituality.
- [Focus/Family Invites Anecdotes on Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/focusfamily-inv/): James Dobson of Focus on the Family is releasing a new antigay/exgay book, “Marriage Under Fire,” in mid-June.
- [Robert Knight’s One-Eyed View of Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/robert-knights/): In a May 29 essay at the WorldNetDaily web site, reprinted four days later at Concerned Women for America, Robert Knight blasts a newly proposed federal hate crimes measure that enjoys bipartisan support.
- [Ex-Gay: Visibility ‘Glorifying the Homosexual Lifestyle’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/06/ex-gay-visibili/): Ex-gay quote of the day, from Focus on the Family’s daily CitizenLink e-mail, regarding MTV’s new gay cable network: Melissa Fryrear, gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family, said there are several problems with the creation of a gay-themed TV channel, not the least of which is the likelihood of it glorifying the homosexual lifestyle. Fryrear said that in these days of so-called “reality television,” when it comes to pro-gay programming, you’re not always seeing reality. “I’m concerned at the misrepresentation of men and women living homosexually,” she said. “What I mean by that is that you often never see...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: A Glance At the News](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gay-watch-a/): Democratic Catholic Lawmakers Warn Bishops From The Washington Post: Forty-eight lawmakers, including several who are anti-abortion, warned the bishops not to harm the church by denying Communion based on partisan political biases. [The lawmakers] questioned how the bishops could limit the denial of Communion to abortion, noting that Pope John Paul II and many U.S. bishops have condemned the death penalty and the war in Iraq. “All of us firmly believe that we can be good Congresspersons and Catholics and we respectfully submit that, while sometimes difficult, each of us has the responsibility and the right to balance public morality with...
- [Exodus Double-Speak on Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/exodus-double-s/): In his early movie, Bananas, Woody Allen’s character Fielding Mellish complains: This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. The vocabulary has been adapted recently by a Miller Beer ad which spoofs a political debate in which the exasperated candidate has exhausted his time: Candidate: This whole thing is a travesty and a sham and a mockery! It’s a TRAVISHAMOCKERY! Moderator: No making up words. Candidate: Burgleflickle! (You can watch the commercial here after supplying age information.) In its press release marking the...
- [Exodus Leader: Gay Elite Kidnapped Brown Anniversary](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/exodus-leader-g/): Exodus International‘s executive director, Alan Chambers, writes a personal blog titled Just Think! Encourage it in others. Demand it of yourself. In an entry yesterday, he blames an undefined “Gay Elite” for: Hijacking “a legitimate civil rights triumph with their battle for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts[, thus] trump[ing] Black Americans for coverage.” “Commandeering” the word gay. Stealing the rainbow symbol from Christian and secular folks. Co-opting the term “family”
- [Ex-Gays And the (Right-Wing) Morning News](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gays-and-the-2/): Oliver Griswold of The Morning News did for 30 days what some ex-gay activists do for their entire adult lives: Live solely on an all-reactionary media diet. The results were as toxic as a McDonald’s super-size meal.
- [MinistryWatch Analyzes Finances of Ex-Gays, Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ministrywatch-a/): The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability monitors the financial integrity of evangelical Christian ministries on an annual basis. Christianity Today notes this week that ECFA’s standards are a bit rudimentary: Participating charitable ministries, for example, are permitted to pay most of their income in lavish salaries to executives and fund-raisers. The magazine says 30.9 percent of ECFA member organizations pay more than 25 percent of the income on fundraising, and four ministries spend more than 50 percent. CT notes that another organization, MinistryWatch, goes a step further: It “provides ratings and detailed analyses of the financial and doctrinal particulars of more...
- [Ex-Lesbian Staffer At Focus on the Family to Debate Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-lesbian-staf/): Via e-mail from Focus on the Family today: Former lesbian Amy Tracy and Focus anti-marriage activist Glenn T. Stanton will debate against marriage for gay couples in a “Townhall Meeting” program on the Total Living Network from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. tonight. On the other side of the debate will be marriage rights proponents Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, and Camilla Taylor, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. More about Glenn T. Stanton: According to his Focus staff bio, in addition to his work supporting antigay discrimination, Stanton is “serving the Bush Administration...
- [Ex-Gay Tim Wilkins: Bridge-Builder?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gay-tim-wilk/): Ex-gay activist Tim Wilkins of Wake Forest, N.C., spotlights an effort that he made to establish friendly rapport with gay activists in Tucson, Ariz. His effort and his hospitality are admirable; his uncharitable characterization of the equality activists as “militant” suggests that his dialogue skills need improvement. Might Wilkins possibly benefit from further engagement, through groups such as the Quakers?
- [Ex-Gay Greg Quinlan: Homosexuality A Personality Disorder](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gay-greg-qui-2/): Ten speakers with diverse perspectives on gay rights debate before high school honors students in the Toledo area on May 10. Among the speakers was ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan of Dayton, Ohio, who frequently lobbies in defense of discrimination against gay people. His decision to attack the mental health of gay people does not appear to have been very persuasive, for many students said they knew someone who is gay.
- [Christians Seek Mutual Understanding About Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/christians-seek/): While the leadership of the Exodus International ex-gay network opposes dialogue that might lead to mutual understanding between gay and ex-gay people of faith, especially regarding marriage, other Christians support dialogue and are actively promoting it. The Quakers, for example, are hosting “Peace Building Dialogues” this month — and inviting the online public to participate:
- [Ex-Gay Selects CD Partner with Ties to Racism, Anti-Semitism](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gay-selects/): Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett enthusiastically promotes his antigay CD as a joint project with World Net Daily. As it happens, the current issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report cites World Net Daily’s role in the publication of racist, anti-Semitic talk-show host Michael Savage’s most recent book, The Enemy Within. A World Net Daily official makes no apologies for the organization’s role in promoting Savage’s propaganda. Does Stephen Bennett care whether his business partners are racist or anti-Semitic? Does he conduct proper research on his contracts, or does he simply hire the loudest antigay voice that limited money can...
- [Survey Casts Doubt on Ex-Gay Protests of ‘Liberal’ Media](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/survey-casts-do/): Greg Valiga notes a Media Matters survey finding that “a plurality of the American electorate has concluded that conservatives have the most power and influence in today’s media.” The survey also finds a plurality of Americans who say the media have been too soft in reporting on the Bush administration. Exodus and Focus on the Family officials frequently complain of “liberal” bias in the news media, but they neglect to point out that the few surveys supporting their claims redefine “liberal” and “conservative” in order to achieve the desired poll results. Yes, the news media are more “liberal” than the religious...
- [Ex-Gay Spokesman Pans Sexual Abuse in Iraq](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gay-spokesma-5/): U.S. military intelligence officials broadly and systematically authorized or tolerated abuse against Iraqi detainees. That much is made clear by the International Committee of the Red Cross — and corroborated by detainees and scapegoated soldiers and contractors who were involved in the abuse. Media reports indicate that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has known of the abuse for at least eight months, that he has done little or nothing to stop it, and that — like Ronald Reagan in the Iran-contra affair — President Bush made no effort to monitor or second-guess the work of the most important White House officials....
- [Stephen Bennett Plans $50K Evangelism Trip to Provincetown](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/stephen-bennett-2/): Last year Stephen Bennett Ministries (SBM) chartered a bus and took 30 Christians from Connecticut to evangelize gays and lesbians vacationing in Provincetown, MA for four hours. “Several” more folks from out of state joined Bennett there. Six hundred gift bags (printed with “You are truly precious in God’s Eyes” in pink, because it is the “symbolic color” of glbt folks) were distributed. Inside each gift bag was a Bible, two gospel tracts for homosexuals and a special Bible insert which contained all the verses on salvation and what God says about homosexuality. Also included was a 25 minute CD with...
- [Bureaucrats And Bathhouses Vs. AIDS](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/bureaucrats-and/): While Los Angeles bureaucrats and bathhouses drag their feet, the pro-gay AIDS Healthcare Foundation is demanding that city bathhouses either clean up or shut down. Despite my libertarian sympathies, I applaud the AHF for its vocal stand, and I wish it success.
- [Aversion Therapy Survivor Reports on Love Won Out in Vancouver](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/aversion-therap/): Toronto Star reporter David Graham reports from the Love Won Out conference over the weekend, comparing and contrasting it with his experience as a voluntary electric shock aversion therapy patient 30 years ago. Analysis coming up.
- [Tradition Vs. ‘Traditional Values’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/tradition-vs-tr/): Dalai Banana offers a wonderful reflection on tradition. Genuinely traditional cultures offer some extreme advantages — and disadvantages — over the largely traditionless cultures of the industrialized West. People in traditional cultures may feel rooted in a social fabric that possesses origin, connectedness, and direction. For better or worse, they also contend with conformity as well as the unhealthful risks of some traditions. In the West, “freedom” and “liberty” mean an individual can believe or do whatever one wants — but such unrestrained individuality unravels tradition. Tradition and personal freedom are not opposites — but they do not mix well, either.
- [Dr. Satinover Politicizes Science to Advocate Discrimination](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/dr-satinover-po/): CPT_Doom provided a lot of the info and some of the writing for the following. Thanks, CPT. — Mike A. == Jeffrey Satinover, one of the leading ex-gay therapists, testified to the Massachusetts legislature against the movement to recognize gay marriage or civil unions. (Strangely, Satinover dates the testimony April 28, 2003, but NARTH and a Catholic antigay site date the testimony April 28, 2004.)
- [The Way of the Cross…](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/the-way-of-the/): … is not culture war. A long, thoughtful post from a progressive Christian, Catholic perspective. (Upon opening the page, you may need to scroll up a bit, to The Way of the Cross on Apr. 7.)
- [Bulletin! Most Evangelicals Are Not Evil](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/bulletin-most-e/): Few Christian evangelicals are culture warriors. This is a fact, though one might hear otherwise from reactionaries (like James Dobson and Alan Chambers) who claim to speak for all of “true” Christianity. Rich Blinne notes this in his blog, citing a New York Times article by Nicholas D. Kristof and an ensuing forum discussion. Dave Does The Blog concurs.
- [University of Minnesota Staffer’s Ex-Gay Testimony: A Work in Progress](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/university-of-m/): Minnesota’s Six Foot Pole pointed me to the ex-gay personal story of Michael David Wallen, an athletics staffer at the University of Minnesota. If Wallen is happier practicing celibacy, then good for him. Celibacy is the best choice for some people. Unfortunately, Wallen’s testimony misdefines homosexuality as a lifestyle and avoids numerous other issues that he will eventually find it necessary to confront. Wobbly understandings of sexuality, and stereotypes about non-exgays, have an unfortunate tendency to unravel with time, causing confusion and pain for ex-gays that often go unaddressed by the movement.
- [Stephen Bennett Markets WorldNetDaily Antimarriage CD](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/stephen-bennett/): Ex-gay and antigay movement leaders see profit in the battle against marriage and civil unions for gay couples. As Stephen Bennett sees the situation, one way to make money from cultural anger, fear, and hate is to host and sell CDs with the help of reactionary media outlets such as WorldNetDaily.
- [Randall Terry And Gay Son Jamiel Revisited](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/randall-terry-a/): I finally found a newsstand copy of the May issue of Out magazine, featuring an interview with antiabortion activist Randall Terry’s gay son Jamiel. I’ll have more to say about the Out article early next week. You will recall that Randall pressured Jamiel to turn himself in to Love In Action — or Jamiel begged Randall to send him to LIA, depending on who you believe. LIA is a live-in therapy program which is considered by many of its survivors to be a fanatical cult. Among those survivors is singer Jallen Rix. Here’s Jallen’s story of endurance, courtesy of Evangelicals Concerned....
- [Ex-Gays Used As Weapon Against Tolerant Students in Illinois](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/05/ex-gays-used-as/): Students who contemplatively or prayerfully honor a “Day of Silence” in protest against antigay violence and harassment in the schools should be punished, according to Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois Family Institute. Ten days ago, LaBarbera threatened Illinois schools and teachers, saying they are endorsing “pro-homosexual protest” if they permit students to honor vows of silence for a day. In cooperation with the antitolerance group “Concerned Citizens-Safety of Students,” the Illinois Family Institute says it mailed thousands of postcards to rally parents in favor of the status quo in Illinois: Unpunished physical violence and verbal harassment against students who are perceived...
- [Bigotry Toward Berkeley: Lessons Not Learned By Ex-Gay Director](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/bigotry-toward/): Earlier this month, Exodus executive director Alan Chambers charged into Berkeley, Calif., determined to thwart hordes of hateful and violent liberals. What he found, but still fails to acknowledge, is that his stereotypes about “liberals” and Northern Californians are untrue.
- [Exodus Exgays Bend the Golden Rule in Tennessee](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/exodus-exgays-b/): Rhea County, Tenn., made headlines a couple weeks ago when it sought to pass laws to arrest the county’s homosexual residents and run them out of town. Ex-gay activists saw the news, and found an opportunity to promote a kinder, gentler form of discrimination and prejudice.
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Administrative Note](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-watch-ad/): I spent the weekend catching up on matters at “the other site” that I work on. I’ve got plenty of XGW e-mail and news to catch up on tomorrow. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out John Aravosis’ new blog, AmericaBlog.
- [Focus on the Family’s Battle Against Research on Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/focus-on-the-fa-12/): Focus on the Family must be satisfied with what little scientific study has been done on gays and ex-gays. What makes me say that? Well, Focus on the Family has been lobbying for the shutdown of federally funded and hosted research into sexual orientation. It has also sought recently to halt studies into the means and extent to which sexually transmitted diseases spread among high-risk populations, such as male truckers who have unsafe sex with other male truckers. Here are some of the recent Focus on the Family public appeals to stop scientific research that might result in sexual knowledge, public...
- [Antigay Math on Gay Couples Doesn’t Add Up](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/antigay-math-on/): The Exodus media blog cites a new press release promoting the Gay and Lesbian Atlas, an almanac of facts and figures about gays in America. The information contained in the Atlas, derived from the U.S. Census, reminds the public that exgay facts and figures do not add up. Here’s why. Exodus and its allies periodically assert that barely one percent (or 3 million) of the U.S. population is same-sex-attracted, or “gay.” But the 2000 U.S. Census counted 594,000 gay couples and 59,000,000 heterosexual couples. The gay couple count coincidentally happens to be 1 percent of the heterosexual couple count. This suggests...
- [Ex-Gay Network’s Favorite ‘Secular’ Newspaper](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-networks/): That newspaper is The Washington Times, of course. And Kevin Drum notices that something is amiss with the policies on accurate reporting at Exodus’ favorite newspaper.
- [Exodus Ex-Gay Director Insults Lutheran Presiding Bishop](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/exodus-ex-gay-d/): In an April 8 news release, Exodus International executive director called upon the “true Body of Christ” — fundamentalists — to sign a petition demanding that ex-gays be included on a Lutheran task force on sexuality:
- [Berkeley Marriage Symposium Features Ex-Gay Director](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/berkeley-marria/): Exodus International executive director Alan Chambers appears today at a symposium on same-sex marriage at the University of California-Berkeley. The symposium program places Chambers on a panel of “legal scholars, practitioners, and experts exploring the legal and constitutional issues associated with same sex marriage.”
- [Exodus Ex-Gays: Outlaw Homosexual Parenting](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/exodus-ex-gays-8/): In an April 16 issue of “Media Spotlights” that contains numerous errors of basic grammar as well as fact, Exodus International says: 1) The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) published a position statement titled, “Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time For Change?  From the ACP statement:
- [Focus/Family Sees Gay Marriage As Evil Conspiracy to Silence All Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/focusfamily-see/): A couple months ago, Focus on the Family exgay operative and Exodus chairman Mike Haley begged a gay-tolerant, largely Christian audience at Vanderbilt University for acceptance. He admitted that people can be gay and Christian, and said, “It is not a hateful message, we are not saying you don’t have a right to be gay.” Unfortunately, a string of Focus articles published last week serves as a reminder of the organization’s inability to defend its paranoia rationally, to maintain a logically consistent message, and to convey love toward rival people of faith. In Gay ‘Marriage’ Only the Beginning, Focus spends 800...
- [Bob Enyart Interviews Gay-Marriage Author](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/bob-enyart-inte/): Gay author Jonathan Rauch is touring the nation to promote his new book, “Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America.” Christian Reconstructionist talk-radio king Bob Enyart interviewed Rauch on April 9. Listen to the half-hour interview (MP3 file). Always fair and even-tempered in real life, Rauch kept his cool on the radio show as well. Some of Enyart’s questions assumed, strangely, that heterosexuality is always moral, and he also seemed to presume that gay guests are not entitled to any privacy in their personal lives. XGW, its primary author, and certain readers have...
- [Ex-Gay News Brief: Wayne Besen Book Tour Visits Charleston, S.C.](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-news-bri/): The Charleston Post and Courier on April 14 briefly noted gay activist/author Wayne Besen’s then-upcoming speech April 15. Besen is touring the country to promote his book, Anything But Straight. His talk in Charleston was sponsored by the Alliance for Full Acceptance. Two weeks ago, The Daily Mississippian published a full-length story about Besen’s visit to Oxford, Miss. A copy of the article is available here.
- [Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett, Feature Writer for Far-Right Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-stephen-2/): My mind is getting slow — time for me to pop some Paxil. I knew that Stephen Bennett has been publishing articles about his victimization by liberal homosexual sympathizers like Bill O’Reilly. What I didn’t know, until Google told me, was that Bennett has been hired as the official feature writer for the American Family Association’s Homosexual Agenda page. AFA is also advertising Bennett’s one-minute radio show, “Straight Talk.” Bennett’s articles for AFA date back to July 2003. Stephen, positioning your message on AFA takes your credibility down a couple more notches from Geraldo. Just FYI. But congratulations, in any event.
- [Anti-gay Parents Say Satire = Evidence](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/anti-gay-parent/): The Thames Valley District school board in London, Ontario was considering expanding its safe schools program to include gay and lesbian students. A parents group, STOP (Simply Truths Our Priority) objected by presenting a 300-page compilation of Internet “research”. One of the pieces of evidence cited was “’98 Homosexual-Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal” from well-known satire source, The Onion. An excerpt: “Straight people don’t have any fun,” said Teddy Nance, 11, after watching Breeders Are Boring!, an anti-heterosexual filmstrip, in his fifth-grade class at Crestwood Elementary School in Roanoke, VA. “Gay people get to do whatever they want.” The photo from The...
- [New Science Study Directed At Therapists of Ex-Gays, Change-Seekers](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/new-science-stu/): The April issue of the APA journal Professional Psychology: Research & Practice (Vol. 35, No. 2) includes an article, “Treating Patients Distressed Regarding Their Sexual Orientation: Clinical and Ethical Alternatives,” by Jon Lasser & Mike Gottlieb (pages 194-200). Abstract: “Homosexuality and bisexuality have not been considered psychopathologies for many years, and recent research has suggested a wide variety of etiological considerations, many biologically based, to account for same-sex desire. Nevertheless, many patients still present with questions and distress regarding their sexual orientation. The authors address the question of how practitioners may manage these situations. To this end, the authors briefly review...
- [Exodus Says Gay Couples Costly to Co-Workers’ Health Premiums](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/exodus-says-gay/): The spokesman for much of the ex-gay movement wants America’s workers to resent gay couples because, he says, they’re AIDS-infected and will cost their co-workers a fortune in health premiums. In an April 16 article, Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ to Drive Up Health-Care Costs, Focus on the Family quotes Exodus International spokesman Randy Thomas: Said Randy Thomas, of Exodus International: “The (health-care costs) of homosexual males and homosexual females, when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases and other issues, run a lot higher in those communities.” Thomas says to mandate “spousal” health coverage for those communities is to mandate higher bills for us...
- [Former Catholic Priest Assesses Ex-Gay Science Studies](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/former-catholic/): Writing for the Southern Voice, former Roman Catholic priest Daniel A. Helminiak compares the Robert Spitzer narrow survey of “change” among ex-gay activists with Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder’s broad study of reparative therapy patients. This is a nicely written summary of the actual science, and the misuse of Spitzer’s work by Exodus, PFOX, and Focus on the Family — though Helminiak does not mention these organizations by name.
- [Randall Terry Learns Anti-Family Lesson From Ex-Gay Role Models](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/randall-terry-l/): Rewrite, April 17: When I started this entry last week, I said simply that I was busy putting out a technical wildfire at another site, and I invited folks to talk in my absence. In response, Chuck Anziulewicz launched a provocative discussion about antigay and antiabortion activist Randall Terry, whose adopted son Jamiel identifies as gay in this month’s Out magazine.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Profile: Mario Bergner](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-watch-pr/): This has been sitting in my outbox for days now. I’d hoped to write a longer item; instead, I will start this entry now, and extensively refine it later. Comments are welcome; they will help me refine the information. Both Exodus’ media blog and Ted Olsen at Christianity Today point me to this Leadership Journal article by ex-gay therapist Mario Bergner. It’s worth reading for its message that some people like Bergner (obviously) find themselves more able to make responsible choices in behavior and ethics when they change their social identification or affiliation from one grouping to another. Unfortunately, Bergner is...
- [Guardian Report on Ex-Gay Expo’s Use Or Abuse of Science](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/guardian-report/): Wayne Besen and James Barber both point me to an excellent Apr. 3 article in the Guardian (London). Using Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay expo in Nashville as a focal point, Going Straight explores the conflicting views of ex-gay researchers Ariel Shidlo and Robert Spitzer, and the confused arguments of ex-gay therapy guru Joseph Nicolosi. The whole article is well worth reading. Here are key quotes and my reactions…
- [NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus Seeks Funds, Members](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/nea-ex-gay-educ-2/): Exodus today issued a call for support by Jeralee Smith of the NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus. The caucus goal is to inject ex-gay activists into the nation’s schools, and to prevent intolerance toward them or their beliefs. But what the caucus considers intolerance is unclear. Does Smith believe public school employees should be permitted to proselytize in the classroom? From the caucus agenda: Work with NEA to develop policies that recognize the needs of ex-gays in our education system? Unfortunately, some ex-gays like Alan Chambers of Exodus say their “needs” — their insecurities and temptations –require that gays not be present...
- [GLAAD Protests Univision Segment on Ex-Gay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/glaad-protests/): E-mailed to me by Jayelle: GLAAD protests a segment of the Univision talk show “Casos de Familia” that aired March 25. GLAAD says: The program was insensitive, unfair and unbalanced. During the taping, the hostess, Judith Grace, insulted the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community by making statements such as: “Would it be that all [homosexuals] have been abused, hence their sexual preference?” — and — “Let’s stop our relatives from touching/abusing our own children so they do not end up like this.” GLAAD responds by asking people to tell the producers “that their sensationalistic and unscientific presentation of reparative...
- [Ex-Gay Rally At Illinois State Capitol](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/04/ex-gay-rally-at/): The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., reports today on an ex-gay rally at the state Capitol, sponsored by Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera’s group, the Illinois Family Institute. Stephen Bennett said: “I’ve had both worlds, I’ve been in love with a man and with a woman,” Bennett said. “I was not born gay. I realized that my relationship with my partners was really a fraud; it was not the real thing.” Mr. Bennett does not say that gay relationships in general are fraudulent — or rather, he is not quoted saying that. He says his relationships were a fraud....
- [Quaker Remembers Fundamentalism And Two Exgay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/quaker-remember/): Beppe (Joe G.), a Quaker blogger, shares some of his journey through two exgay ministries. One of them, OutPost, was led at the time by Jeffry Ford, who is now ex-exgay.
- [Antigay Parents Group Asks Why the Lack of Support From Kerry/Edwards](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/antigay-parents/): Aggrieved-antigay-relatives group PFOX complains that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has been strangely quiet on the issue of equal treatment for former homosexuals. Said [executive director Regina] Griggs, “What about ex-gay rights? Does Kerry support equal access to the public forum for ex-gays? Does he support the inclusion of former homosexuals in the hate crimes bill that he would pass as President?” PFOX says that in May it asked the Senate offices of John Kerry and John Edwards “to support a resolution on tolerance for ex-gays. Its proof: A photo of John Edwards posing with Jewish exgay activists. PFOX offers no...
- [Catholic Antigay Teaching And Heterosexism](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/catholic-antiga/): Gay-spirituality blogger Joe Perez discusses Catholic moral theology and homosexuality with chastity advocate, Courage member and author David Morrison. Joe’s reflections are remarkably civil. I agree with much of what Joe says. My only negative reaction, offhand, is that someone has got to invent a better word for heterosexism than, well, heterosexism. And I personally try to reserve the word “supremacy” for contexts where it is clearly established that an individual favors broad, harsh and specific forms of discrimination against a class of people.
- [On the Consistency of Abstinence And Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/on-the-consiste/): Pro-feminist Christian blogger Hugo Schwyzer comments on a consistent ethic of desire that supports both abstinence and gay marriage.
- [Irrational E-mail](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/irrational-e-ma/): The recent e-mail message was short, and completely devoid of substantiation: Mr. Editor Person- Umm… yes… I know you will dismiss me as a conspirator from the “Religious Right” as you hippie liberals so love to call it, but I think you are very disturbed by the ex-gay movement because you know what you are doing is NOT normal. You hate ex-gays more than straight people hate homosexuals, and your assumptions that homosexuality is normal are biased and obviously for purposes of self-acceptance. And I know you would say I’m homophobic and blah blah blah, but I have a few gay...
- [Houston Weekly Profiles Ex-gays, Ex-exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/houston-weekly/): The news and entertainment weekly Houston Press profiles exgays in its Oct. 14 issue. Sometimes sarcastic, often serious, the article balances the journeys of several exgays and exexgays through religious struggle, sexual maturation and moderation, and conflicting therapeutic worldviews. The article’s balance of sincere anecdotes is marred by the politics of activist Randy Thomas. Despite Exodus’ outspoken lobbying for discriminatory laws and constitutional amendments, Thomas claims to be a victim of gay misinformation and misunderstanding: “It’s not our goal to make anybody do anything,” Thomas says from Orlando. “We present our lives and our opinions and, you know, people will come...
- [Vote ALL Your Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/vote-all-your-v/): People of faith remind us to vote ALL our values, not just hot-button issues.
- [Citing Extremes, Exodus Protests Diversity And Tolerance in General](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/citing-extremes/): Writing for Exodus, exgay activist Nancy Brown complains that gay-tolerant and antigay activists were treated unequally at two separate events in two different states. Tolerance activists were tolerated, Brown complains; antigay activists allegedly were not. From her example of the Philadelphia OutFest, in which antigay activists seeking to disrupt a block party were arrested, Brown then generalizes that all pro-tolerance activists are intolerant. Brown further implies that antigay activists are as uniformly well-behaved as the ones she accompanied at a Texas State Capitol rally. At no point in her article does Brown defend mutual tolerance; instead, she objects to tolerance in...
- [Wayne Besen Says Cheney Family Humiliated Daughter Mary](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/wayne-besen-say/): Gay author/activist Wayne Besen comments on the contrived hullaballoo over Mary Cheney, the openly lesbian daughter of the vice president who formerly served as gay community liaison at Coors. Besen says that the Cheney family and GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes have humiliated Mary both before and after presidential candidate John Kerry reminded the public, albeit a bit rudely, of Mary’s public gay advocacy. Gay conservatives, on the other hand, have criticized both the Bush campaign and Kerry.
- [Ex-gay Pastor Promotes Georgia Ban on Gay Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/ex-gay-pastor-p/): The Southern Voice reports that a Georgia state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and domestic partnerships is causing division among the state’s churches. Among the culture warriors: Ex-gay activist Darryl Foster, who claims to speak for God in promoting discrimination and asserts that anyone who votes otherwise is unrighteous: Many black pastors throughout the state are also using their pulpit to advocate for the amendment, according to Rev. D.L. Foster, a pastor at Restoration Church in College Park. “There’s a lot of behind the scenes activity and a very strong resolve among African-American pastors in the greater Atlanta area to...
- [Exgay Comedy Show Continues National Tour](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/exgay-comedy-sh/): “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House — How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement,” the original one-man comedy by Peterson Toscano, continues to tour the United States. Performance schedule for the next few weeks: Sunday, Oct. 17: Burlington, Vt. Tuesday, Oct. 19: Bangor, Maine Saturday, Oct. 23, 24: Austin, Texas Saturday, Nov. 6: San Francisco, Calif. Saturday, Nov. 13: San Jose, Calif. Sunday, Nov. 14: Stockton, Calif. For full performance schedule with details Previous XGW coverage of the show
- [Focus/Family Overcounting Antigay Rally Attendance?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/focusfamily-ove/): Focus on the Family mobilized a political rally against gay couples — and in favor of antigay politicians — on the National Mall in Washington yesterday. Gay observers (two friends of mine) counted approximately 25,000 attendees — far short of the 140,000 to 170,000 that organizers said were in attendance. And a reporter for The Washington Post found the crowd comfortably spaced out over just three city blocks; past rallies of 100,000 or more people have packed a space of 10 to 14 blocks. Several people in the crowd were quoted saying they would vote for President Bush solely because of...
- [Thanks, Advocate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/thanks-advocate/): I wish to extend my appreciation to Etelka Lehoczky and The Advocate, for talking with me and mentioning Ex-Gay Watch in Lehoczky’s article on gay bloggers.
- [Exgays Claim Kerry ‘born Gay’ Remark Insults Them](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/exgays-claim-ke/): According to CNSNews.com, exgays across the spectrum are “enraged” at John Kerry’s debate remark that people could be born gay. Kerry said: “I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as,” Kerry said. “I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not choice. I’ve met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it.” Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas of Exodus;...
- [Tolerance in Southern Gospel Music Land](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/tolerance-in-so/): Southern gospel singer Kirk Talley has opted to downplay the antigay extortion committed against him early this year — and to go silent about the details of his exgay restoration, perhaps fearing retaliation by those in the Southern gospel community who harshly criticized Talley rather than the extortionist. Amid the silence and the hate, however, Southern gospel music blogger Avery points out that there are also voices of people like Bill Gaither, who “has fought the toxic hatefulness of so much contemporary evangelicalism and offered a corrective alternative to that toxicity” with his welcoming comments about songwriter and inspirationalist Marsha Stevens,...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Profile: Michael Marcavage of Repent America](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/ex-gay-watch-pr-5/): On October 10, 11 antigay activists affiliated with Repent America, a pro-exgay religious group, were arrested for disrupting a gay-pride festival in Philadelphia. AgapePress and religious-right legal outfits accuse the city of Philadelphia of "continually denying [antigay group leader Michael Marcavage] his constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of religion." AgapePress declines to tell its readers the actual language of Repent America’s propaganda and signs, instead describing the materials vaguely as "biblical messages and gospel literature." AgapePress describes the Philadelphia gay-pride festival’s security force, the Pink Angels, as "a militant group … whose main objective is to silence outspoken...
- [Wayne Besen Criticizes Ex-gay Ad Ruling](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/wayne-besen-cri/): Focus on the Family this week won the right to post exgay ads on Tampa Bay, Fla.-area bus shelters, according to 365gay.com. Gay activist/author Wayne Besen responded with a press release this afternoon: “AUTHOR CRITICIZES DECISION TO LET FOCUS ON THE FAMILY PUBLICIZE EX-GAY HOAX IN PINELLAS COUNTY” This Is The Equivalent Of Allowing Cigarette Companies To Advertise to Youth, Said Author Wayne Besen FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Author Wayne Besen today criticized an out of court settlement in the Tampa-area allowing divisive hate group Focus on the Family to advertise their ex-gay hoax. The settlement will let FOF promote a...
- [Science Study Boosts Asexual Pride Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/science-study-b/): “LONDON, England (CNN) — About one percent of adults have absolutely no interest in sex, according to a new study, and that distinction is becoming one of pride among many asexuals. … “It was published in the latest issue of The Journal of Sex Research and is the focus of a report in this Saturday’s issue of New Scientist.” The New Scientist report notes that the percentage of asexuals is comparable to the percentage of people who are gay — three percent — though quantification of gays varies depending on whether sexual attraction, sexual behavior, or sexual self-labeling are being surveyed....
- [Study Links Genes, Male Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/study-links-gen/): “LONDON, England (Reuters) — Genetic factors, along with cultural and early experiences, influence male homosexuality, Italian scientists said on Wednesday.” One study is by no means conclusive proof. This particular study evaluated 198 men and 4,600 relatives. Few exgays, even those who successfully “change” their behavior, seem to be able to change their same-sex sexual attractions. I would like to see a great deal more study of non-genetic, biological factors.
- [Wayne Besen Debates Author of Exgay Book](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/wayne-besen-deb/): Gay activist and author Wayne Besen debates Talbert W. Swan II, editor of the exgay book “Closing the Closet: Testimonies of Deliverance from Homosexuality.” (Previous XGW coverage.) The interview will be broadcast tonight at 10 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. PDT) on the Al Rantel Show on KABC, Los Angeles. Streaming Internet radio feed available here.
- [Kirk Talley Restoration Team Leaves Key Questions Unanswered](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/kirk-talley-res/): Southern gospel singer Kirk Talley has the backing of his “restoration team” to resume a concert/ministry, according to an e-mail newsletter from the singer dated Oct. 6. The restoration team’s announcement is vague about both the team’s goals and requirements and Talley’s progress. As XGW has said before, Talley is entitled to some privacy. But the team decided to go public, and its public statements are entitled to scrutiny: The team declines to state whether Talley considers himself gay, exgay, or same-sex-attracted. The team declines to state what specific progress has been achieved. And the team declines to state any goal....
- [Ex-Gay Watch Begins Discussion Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/ex-gay-watch-be/): On an experimental basis, I am opening a Yahoo group to discuss exgay and ex-exgay news, politics and science. Join the XGW e-mail discussion group at Yahoo here. Like the exexgayministry discussion at Yahoo, the Ex-Gay Watch discussion is for those who question the effectiveness and safety of some “ex-gay” ministries and therapies. While the exexgayministry discussions address a variety of exgay-related topics, often from a Christian perspective, the XGW discussion list will focus on exgay current events, science claims, and standards of accountability. Discussion is encouraged, but please respect others’ views and refrain from: strawman argumentation, unsubstantiated accusations, posting of...
- [Washington Post Series on Gay Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/washington-post/): I have updated my original entry on Parts I and II of the Washington Post series on gay youth struggles. I’ll comment here later on Part 3 and Part 4. Exodus president Alan Chambers’ reaction: Honestly, I was very disapointed that a mother would let a reporter follow her under age kid around and expose him to the kind of scrutiny that he is now exposed to. A 17 year old in high school doesn’t need this kind of pressure. I think Anne took advantage of a single mom and a vulnerable kid. Tragic. October 1, 2004 08:56 PM
- [‘Real Manhood’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/real-manhood/): Anabaptist/Episcopalian consistent-life blogger Hugo Schwyzer thoughtfully discusses the subject, which sadly tends to be addressed with unrealistic and counterproductive stereotypes by religious-right activists.
- [Wayne Besen Keynotes March for Matthew Shepard](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/wayne-besen-key/): Gay activist and author Wayne Besen keynotes the Chicago Matthew Shepard March, a commemoration today of the sixth anniversary of the antigay murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard.
- [Antigay Illinoisans Rally for Discrimination; LaBarbera Rebukes Peaceful Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/antigay-illinoi/): Exgay activist Stephen Bennett lent his support Sept. 26 to an Oak Park, Ill., antigay church’s rally against marriage and civil unions for gay couples. He claimed to “love” gay people because he “was once gay,” but he nevertheless supported the denial to gay couples of basic partnership rights — in employment, taxation, health and family law — that are granted by default to married heterosexual couples. In response, some Chicago protesters planned a loud protest, while gay equality advocates from Oak Park planned a silent sit-in and prayer vigil. According to the Chicago Tribune, one antigay onlooker “started yelling at...
- [Exodus Confuses the Sex-ed Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/exodus-confuses-2/): Speaking for Exodus on Oct. 1, exgay activist Nancy Brown collects unrelated factoids from the ideologically antiliberal publication Human Events and assembles an illogical case: That sex education promotes depression, confusion, anger, homosexuality, pregnancy, and pornography. Brown draws no logical relation between the assorted factoids and sex education. Her source, Human Events, is home to decidedly unscholarly and ideological individuals like Ann Coulter, Robert Novak, and Judith Reisman. And like these pundits, who rarely strive to light a candle in the darkness that they complain about, Brown offers no recommendations to reform sex education. The reader is left to assume that...
- [PFOX Sees ‘red’ Over Vandalized Exgay Billboard](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/pfox-sees-red-o/): Aggrieved-relatives group PFOX complains to the religious-right media that its exgay billboard in Richmond, Va., has been vandalized. But a closer look at the billboard finds faded streaks of red ink. The billboard is mostly unharmed. (Hat tip: John Aravosis.) Whether this is a case of vandalism or poor workmanship and rainy weather, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs claims to be able to read the vandals’ minds. She boasts of the red ink as proof that exgays are persecuted and that "gay activists" are uncomfortable with the "truth" that any gay person can become heterosexual. Griggs’ absolutism about sexual orientation —...
- [Nice But Irrelevant: Exgays Exist](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/nice-but-irrele/): Prof. Warren Throckmorton and TownHall.com editor Ryan Zempel want antiliberalists to know that exgays exist. According to Zempel, Throckmorton’s exgay video I Do Exist demonstrates “that change is possible for those with same-sex attractions.” Change is always possible, Zempel implies; he acknowledges no exceptions. To their credit, Zempel and Throckmorton acknowledge — albeit briefly — that “no specific psychosocial (or life circumstances) or family dynamics cause for homosexuality has been identified.”
- [Antigay AFA Activist Compounds His AIDS Error](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/antigay-afa-act/): Activist Gary Glenn, of the American Family Association-Michigan, talked the religious-right news service AgapePress into distorting HIV/AIDS statistics on Sept. 22. Glenn inflated the incidence of new HIV/AIDS cases in metro Detroit by one-third by confusing new cases with a cumulative total of all cases. He defended and compounded his inept handling of HIV/AIDS data, right here at XGW, this morning.
- [Even NYC Schools Unsafe for Same-sex-attracted Students](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/even-nyc-school/): I just stumbled across a story in today’s New York Daily News. The bottom line: Even in “liberal” school systems like New York’s, teen-age students are being denied access to websites about gay and lesbian youth issues. And educators are failing to discipline antigay bullies, because of ambivalence, fear of job loss, or embarrassment from being associated in any fashion with homosexuality.
- [Exgay Leader Comments on Swaggart Death Threat](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-leader-co/): After 12 days of silence about the subject, Exodus president Alan Chambers on Sept. 24 criticized Jimmy Swaggart’s Sept. 12 death threat against gay people. The emphatically antifeminist Chambers borrows (strangely enough) from the same line of thought as profeminist Christian blogger Hugo Schwyzer, questioning Swaggart’s masculinity: It never ceases to amaze me how insecure some men are with their own manhood and masculinity that being the object of same sex attraction threatens and frightens them to the point that they would consider murder. Unnatural as same-sex attraction is, it is as repulsive to God as every other sin and just...
- [Open Thread: Does Kerry Hope to Lose?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/open-thread-doe/): Does anyone else wonder whether the Democratic Party leadership might — through intent or apathy — be forfeiting the presidential election? Kerry/Edwards have offered no details about his plans to: repair the Bush foreign-policy catastrophe; wage the war in Iraq differently; improve our nonexistent port security; prevent nuclear terrorism and proliferation; utilize our European allies, who happen to have almost no armed forces; slash the Bush deficit without slashing spending and Social Security; or fix the broken and corrupt election systems in Florida and other states. The Dems are airing no ads in several contested states. They are not defending Kerry’s...
- [I Read You Loud And Queer!](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/i-read-you-loud/): I Read You Loud and Queer! by Joe Kort, MSW Coming out is a very hard thing to do. National Coming Out Day is October 11, 2005. When you come out, or when you did, are you are turtle or a hailstorm? Coming out is a relational experience, in that to come out to other people, you need to be involved. You must feel closely attached to those you tell. Safety is of utter importance, without which we’ll use our instinctive defenses to protect ourselves. The closer you are to someone the more you will either turtle or hailstorm. I believe...
- [Eugene Volokh: Who Are the Real Moral Relativists?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/eugene-volokh-w/): Eugene Volokh (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars) challenges the myth that liberals are moral relativists while conservatives are paragons of moral absolutism.
- [Oklahoma Schools: Gay Hell, Recruiting Ground for Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/oklahoma-school/): Some exgay political activists like Prof. Warren Throckmorton accuse the nation’s schools of promoting “homosexuality.” They imply, usually without evidence, that pro-tolerance advocacy in education comes from political activists, not from the struggling students, their parents, and a few concerned faculty. (Here are past examples at XGW of the exgay battle against tolerance in schools.) A Sept. 25 article in The Washington Post challenges the religious-right claims, promoted further by Exodus and its media blog, that same-sex-attracted students are tolerated in middle America; that violence is virtually nonexistent; and that antigay students are oppressed.
- [Citing Gay Boycott for Equality, Exgays Allege Elitism](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/citing-gay-boyc/): Speaking for Exodus, exgay activist Nancy Brown scolds gay people today for wanting the same things that heterosexuals take for granted: marriages, kids, trustworthiness, jobs, scholarships, and notoriety on TV. And she wags her finger at Atlanta activists for announcing a Boycott for Equality to achieve what Brown relabels “elitism.” Brown rhetorically asks, “Are heterosexual persons really offered these same advantages based on the fact that they are not gay?” Actually, yes, they are. If she had one to spare, would Brown offer a job, an orphaned kid, or a scholarship to a homosexual? Of course not. Surely Brown would not...
- [PFOX Erects Exgay Billboard in Virginia](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/pfox-erects-exg/): Aggrieved-relatives group PFOX has launched an exgay billboard on Interstate 64 near Richmond, Va. The billboard, an enlarged and repurposed version of its 2003 Washington, D.C., subway ad, declares that “Ex-Gays prove that change is possible.”
- [Evangelist Colson Agrees with Radical Muslims About U.S. Decadence](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/evangelist-cols/): Read Chuck Colson’s article at Christianity Today.
- [Exgay Cure for AIDS: Ignored Condoms And False Stats](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-cure-for/): (Updated Oct. 18, 2004 to reflect Gary Glenn’s assignment of blame for uncorrected factual errors in the AgapePress article.) From the religious-right propaganda service, AgapePress: A Michigan pro-family activist says the single best way of preventing the spread of the virus that causes AIDS is to help get men to leave the lifestyle that accounts for most new cases of the disease. Thousands of AIDS activists recently held a “walk-a-thon” in Detroit, aimed at raising money supposedly to find a cure for the disease. Gary Glenn, president of the American Family of Michigan, sponsored the flying of a banner over the...
- [Conservative Discovers Danger in Gay-marriage Ban](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/conservative-di/): Daniel A. Crane of Yeshiva University writes in Christianity Today that giving the government increased authority over marriage may seriously harm the family: “If the church not only abets but actively furthers the notion that marriage owes its legitimacy to the state’s approval, then the battle for the family is all but lost.”
- [Gay Bloggers Defend the Freedom to Discriminate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/gay-bloggers-de/): Gay libertarian bloggers Jason Kuznicki and Jonathan Rowe have been thoughtfully debating a constitutional freedom to discriminate.
- [Wayne Besen Details Virginia Newspaper’s Exgay Bias](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/wayne-besen-det/): On September 15, gay author and activist Wayne Besen accused the Norfolk, Va., Virginian-Pilot of suppressing disturbing news about Michael Johnston (an exgay with AIDS who was accused of having unsafe sex orgies) and later publishing a bland promotional feature about ex-gays instead. In a column today for Outlet Radio, Besen offers an extensive chronology of the Michael Johnston scandal and the Virginian-Pilot’s persistent refusal to provide its readers with unpopular truths about exgays — and gay Virginians. Besen also has a new website, waynebesen.com, featuring recent columns and information about his book, Anything But Straight.
- [Exgay Video Update: Relaunch During National Coming Out Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-video-upd/): I have updated the I Do Exist video page. The video has been available since June but is being relaunched as a challenge to National Coming Out Day. Churches, schools and exgay advocates in more than 30 cities have scheduled public showings. A writer to Ex-Gay Watch suggests that pro-tolerance advocates: Contact local gay-straight alliances about the video Contact school systems directly Seek an injunction against showings in public schools unless opposing videos such as One Nation Under God are also shown.
- [Exgay Mother Violates Vermont Custody Order](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-mother-vi/): Exgay mother Lisa Miller-Jenkins, who fled her Vermont civil union and took her daughter to the antigay state of Virginia, again refused to comply with her former partner’s Vermont court-ordered visitation, paving the way for a large fine or incarceration, according to The Washington Blade. Frederick County, Va., Circuit Court Judge John R. Prosser thwarted Vermont law, and Joseph Price, president of Equality Virginia and attorney to Lisa’s former partner Janet Miller-Jenkins, is confident a contempt-of-court order against Lisa will be enforced. Update, Sept. 29: A Virginia county court continues to violate Vermont family court orders on behalf of Lisa, according...
- [Exgays Silent As Celebs Issue Death Threats Against Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgays-silent-a/): Reggae stars Beenie Man and Capleton and televangelist Jimmy Swaggart have all made front-page news with death threats against gay people. While independent and conservative Christians have condemned the threats, exgays and the religious-right media remain eerily silent. Addendum: Hugo Schwyzer says Swaggart’s comments and non-apology reflect an adolescent and immature form of masculinity.
- [Slanted Tolerance: Exgay Official Reviews Gay-marriage Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/slanted-toleran/): Conservative gay law professor and columnist Dale Carpenter debated gay marriage with Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family on Sept. 16 at the University of Minnesota. While providing support to Focus on the Family’s exgay “Love Won Out” road show, Exodus official Randy Thomas attended the debate and offered his reaction on his personal blog. Thomas says he was “surprised” when “liberal” students stood up for Stanton’s free-speech rights and shouted down a disruptive gay member of the audience. (XGW finds nothing surprising about this.) Thomas also compliments Carpenter for defending tolerance of antigay views — but Thomas does not...
- [Exgay Ad in Search of a Willing Billboard](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-ad-in-sea/): An outdoor advertising firm confirmed that it refused to post exgay activist Stephen Bennett’s billboard. The ad, sponsored by the New York Christian Coalition, would have appeared on a state highway in New Paltz, N.Y., just north of New York City. According to the Daily Freeman of nearby Kingston, the ad company explained that it steers clear of hot-button issues. However, Ed Evans, general manager of Clear Channel Outdoor, said that his company would have no problem with the proposed advertisement as long as it could review the content.
- [Exodus Reiterates Support for Constitutional Bans Against Gay Civil Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exodus-reiterat/): Exodus president Alan Chambers participated in a Sept. 19 antimarriage simulcast sponsored by the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Southern Baptist Convention. The simulcast was part of the religious-right alliance’s We Vote Values campaign, which falsely asserts an absence of strong moral values among people of faith who tolerate or affirm gay couples.
- [How Are ‘gay Rights’ Not ‘civil Rights’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/how-are-gay-rig/): Bose (in collaboration with Mike) here… The Washington Blade has begun a series “examining similarities and differences between the African-American civil rights movement and the gay rights movement.” The first installment is titled Pro-gay blacks a ‘disgrace’ to civil rights movement? Comparing two movements draws ire of some.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Profile: Frank Worthen](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/ex-gay-watch-pr-4/): Frank Worthen is a grandfather of the exgay movement. He is profiled (and criticized) at length by former ex-gays in Wayne Besen’s book, Anything But Straight. In his web site essay What Is Homosexuality, Worthen acknowledges, "In helping people overcome homosexuality, we’ve found that many are in confusion about what homosexuality actually is." But as we’ll see, some of that confusion is generated by exgay activists. As Worthen notes, "There is no agreement among either the scientific community, religious groups or homosexual people themselves as to the definition of homosexuality." But then Worthen proceeds with a long list of unfounded, one-sided...
- [Exgay Pastor Criticizes Gay Author Wayne Besen](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-pastor-cr/): In a Sept. 10 press release, exgay activist D.L. Foster defends the GOP’s exgay convention entertainer, Donnie McClurkin — and criticizes gay activist Wayne Besen, who has “suddenly found himself at the epicenter of a new career playing CIA with the lives of formerly gay men and women.”
- [AFA, Focus on the Family Boycott Procter/Gamble](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/afa-focus-on-th/): Focus on the Family yesterday joined the American Family Association in a boycott against Procter & Gamble, which is headquartered in Cincinnati and supports a repeal of the city’s discriminatory Article XII.
- [Activist Says Virginia Newspaper Suppressed Exgay Scandal](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/activist-says-v/): From today’s press release by Wayne Besen: ACTIVIST CHARGES THAT THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT SUPPRESSED INFORMATION ON EX-GAY LEADER FOR IDEOLOGICAL REASONS Puff-Piece Shows That ‘Virginian-Puppet’ Can’t Decide if it’s a Church Bulletin or a Legitimate Newspaper, Says Wayne Besen VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Author Wayne Besen today accused the Virginian-Pilot of suppressing damaging information on a nationally known HIV-positive ex-gay leader who allegedly had unsafe sex with several Virginia Beach-area men.
- [Uncloseted? Rep. David Dreier, Televangelist Paul Crouch](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/uncloseted-rep/): From Daily Kos via Chuck Currie and others: BlogActive, Raw Story and Hustler magazine (ugh) have apparently outed antigay Republican Rep. David Dreier of California. I’m not happy with with the warfare that has consumed the nation’s political scene. I see limited benefit in outing secretly gay, but very stridently antigay, lawmakers. I am uncertain whether voters come to view the antigay hypocrisy as shameful — or whether the outing fuels feelings of shame about the sexual orientation itself. There is also a risk that the Republican replacements for any outed congressmen will exhibit even greater prejudice. While some justification may...
- [Ex-gay Assesses C.S. Lewis, Freud](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/ex-gay-assesses/): Randy Thomas reviews a PBS program, The Question of God, about the perspectives of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud on science and religion. In part two of his review, Thomas says of science: Nutshell: Scientific worldview will always be incomplete and often inaccurate. The Christian worldview is already complete and bringing all things back into harmony with the Creator. Of Freud, the man whose theories form the core of reparative therapy, Thomas says: Freud becomes his own god and is himself his only source of understanding. Is that stated explicitly in the PBS program, or does Thomas say this about atheists,...
- [Hugo Schwyzer on Well-balanced Masculinity](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/hugo-schwyzer-o/): Few of my friends or acquaintances consider “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity — soccer dads and cookie moms — suitable for role modeling in the modern world. Perhaps that’s to be expected; a lot of my friends are masculine pro-feminist men. While my friends at Men Can Stop Rape favor a redefinition of masculinity, blogger Hugo Schwyzer offers what may be a broad, balanced, and healthy alternative to machismo on the one hand, and gender-role revolution on the other. Schwyzer is not sexually or romantically attracted to men, but his post is aptly titled, “I Love Men.”
- [Nature Vs. Nurture Debate At Evangelical Outpost](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/nature-vs-nurtu/): Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost launched a “gay gene” discussion that satirically touches upon the difficulties facing heterosexual couples when one partner suddenly identifies as gay. Some of the commenters appear reasonably balanced in perspective; others adhere to the strawman that belief in a gay gene is fervent and widespread among gay people. And some commenters are focused squarely on Biblical ramifications of the debate — as they should be, at an evangelical blog. Randy Thomas of Exodus chimed in to the discussion, declaring he is no longer gay. Great, I responded — except for the redefinition of “gay.” I...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: In the News, Sept. 14, 2004](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/ex-gay-watch-in-4/): Hugo Schwyzer and his commenters thoughtfully analyze the Barna Research Group’s findings on high divorce rates among born-again Christians. A three-time divorcee and religious convert, Hugo adds his personal experience, and compares the ease of his divorces with the difficulty of a gay couple seeking to marry in the same churches. Exodus on the Family — I mean, Exodus and Focus on the Family — are leading a who’s who of religious-right political activists in an Oct. 15 “MayDay for Marriage” rally in Washington. Christianity Today quotes rally leaders: Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Wash., has a...
- [The Face of Gay Americans](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/the-face-of-gay/): By Joe Kort, MSW Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News, September 2004 I am a Gay American too, just like New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey who came out as one in July, 2004. And for two days I felt like one after my partner and I were legally married in Massachusetts on August 19, 2004. We were finally admitted into the adult fraternity of the officially married, and for two days, we were legal kin. For two days, I didn’t have to worry that should a medical emergency happen while on vacation, that one of us would be shut...
- [Exodus Ex-gays Say California Child-abuse Bill Promotes Pedophilia](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exodus-ex-gays-10/): Exodus on Friday accused the California professional therapy community, volunteer organizations, a task force on child abuse, and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl of “promoting pedophilia.”
- [McGreevey’s Struggle Compared to Exgay Life](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/mcgreeveys-stru/): In The Psychology of the Closet: Governor McGreevey’s New Clothes, psychotherapist Jack Drescher, M.D., contrasts New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey’s struggle to come out as same-sex-attracted, with the psychological complications faced by those who choose to remain closeted, to dissociate from their sexual orientation and to claim outwardly to be heterosexual.
- [Biblical Morality May Be Tougher Than Exgay Pols Say It Is](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/biblical-morali/): United Church of Christ seminarian Chuck Currie and the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice offer a timely Bible study and litany, “On Labor Day We Know God Hears The Cries Of The Poor.” This Christian economic moral code seems to be absent from the ethic of Exodus and Focus on the Family.
- [Exodus Spokesman Randy Thomas Comments on Zell Miller](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exodus-spokesma-6/): On his personal blog, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas defends Democrat Zell Miller, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in New York:
- [Exgay Chad Thompson Seeks Moderate Course on Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-chad-thom/): Exgay youth advocate Chad W. Thompson wrote a Sept. 1 article for Christianity Today, declaring “Banning Gay Marriage Is Not The Answer.”
- [Kirk Talley’s Southern Gospel Music Comeback: What Others Think](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/kirk-talleys-so/): Averyfineline.com commented a couple weeks ago with the usual insight and sensitivity, as well as some concern, about the comeback of Southern gospel music singer Kirk Talley. Talley announced Aug. 21 (in an e-mailed newsletter that was not made available online) that he has concluded a six-month period of retreat and redemption. He is resuming concerts, attending Maranatha Church of the Harvest in Lenoir City, Tenn., and continuing counseling. He thanked a long list of people, including people who happen to be his ex-gay counselors.
- [‘I Do Exist’: New Exgay Video By Prof. Warren Throckmorton](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/i-do-exist-new/): Prof. Warren Throckmorton of the conservative Christian Grove City College has produced a new exgay video. The 48-minute program, “I Do Exist,” features interviews with researchers Robert L. Spitzer and Mark Yarhouse and testimonials by five exgay activists, including Noe Gutierrez and Greg Quinlan. Prof. Throckmorton’s web site quotes several pro-exgay activists praising the video, and the religious-right news service AgapePress features a full story about the program. Addendum, Sept. 13: The AgapePress story quotes Throckmorton objecting to an American Psychological Association resolution that advocated the legalization of gay marriage. It does indeed seem strange that the APA, a professional organization,...
- [Activist Wayne Besen Criticizes New Ex-gay Book](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/activist-wayne/): Activist/author Wayne Besen today criticized a new exgay book, “Closing the Closet: Testimonies of Deliverance from Homosexuality.” The book, edited by pastor Talbert W. Swan II, includes a foreword by exgay religious activist D.L. Foster and an afterword by antigay doctor John R. Diggs Jr., M.D. (Google search).
- [Ex-Gay Watch: In the News, Sept. 4, 2004](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/ex-gay-watch-in-3/): In today’s New York Times, an op-ed by Michael Hout and the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley finds that Christian evangelicals are “remarkably pluralistic in their political and social attitudes.” The authors, both sociologists, suggest evangelicals constitute a swing vote that won’t march in unanimity behind George W. Bush or the fundamentalists: We are repeatedly told they form the president’s unshakeable electoral base. But in truth, this claim is vastly simplistic: the fashionable image of masses of white evangelical voters, stirred up by the tricks of Karl Rove and led by Bible-thumping clergymen, marching in lock step to deny rights to women...
- [Exgay Advocates Appeal to Anglican Church of Canada](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgay-advocates/): In August a Canadian exgay coalition wrote a letter to the Anglican Eames Commission. The letter complains of feeling victimized and oppressed by advocates for tolerance — but no examples of anti-exgay discrimination are provided, except one pro-exgay amendment defeated for reasons that the letter does not share.
- [Liberal-conservative Wars Distract Us From the Real Enemy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/liberal-conserv/): This is what I’ve been thinking about lately: The failure of the United States, and the West, to take substantive action against real terrorism.
- [Handling Homophobia: Gay Rights Or Children’s Needs?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/handling-homoph/): Handling Homophobia: Gay Rights or Children’s Needs? By Joe Kort, MSW Copyright © 2004 When people think about children, rarely is their focus on how homophobia can hurt them. Usually it is raised when talking about a gay parent and how they may “impact” their offspring, or how the behavior of gay and lesbian adults will influence them. But even more rarely do people concentrate on how homophobia impacts children, gay and straight alike—which is far worse than anything a child might be exposed to in a gay pride parade or in observing gay relationships.
- [Exgay’s Big Night At GOP Convention](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/exgays-big-nigh/): Tonight’s highlights (lowlights?) at the GOP convention: Bishop Keith Butler, Southfield, Mich. Outspoken opponent of marriage and civil unions for gay people (Google search) Ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Previous XGW coverage Christian singer Michael W. Smith, whose admirable talent is tarnished by dirty GOP politics Three retired Olympic athletes and a retired football player
- [Ex-Gay Watch By the Numbers](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/09/ex-gay-watch-by/): Curious to know a little about XGW’s readership relative to other weblogs? Here’s what I have found: TruthLaidBear counts 30 unique incoming links to XGW, ranking this site a lowly No. 2,876 among blogs ranked by links. However, XGW’s daily traffic ranking is much better: No. 416. Among blogs with “gay” in the title, XGW is No. 1. BlogShares counts 11 incoming links to XGW. Google page rank is currently 5/10 in what Google defines as “importance.” XGW receives an average of 450-500 visitors and 900 pageviews per day, according to SiteMeter. Alexa counts only one web site linking to Ex-Gay...
- [Off-topic: CNN Rejects Log Cabin Republican Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/off-topic-cnn-r/): BoiFromTroy reports: Cable news channel CNN is refusing to air the new “Hopes not fears” ad by the Log Cabin Republicans because images in the ad, such as pictures of Jerry Falwell, Senator Rick Santorum and the Rev. Fred Phelps holding a sign that says “God Hates Fags” are “too controversial.” “Liberal” has never been the word I’d use to describe CNN. “Bland,” “shallow,” and “spineless” are the adjectives that I had in mind. Superficial. Watching CNN is like watching The Today Show: Glamorous models stripping away the vital details and context of a story, leaving behind digestible bits of human...
- [GOP Convention Opener Compares Gay Unions to Nazism](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/gop-convention/): I noted some time ago that the exgay network Exodus and some of its political allies periodically associate gay equality under the law with Nazism. I briefly connected this habit of the religious right with a web site by John Aravosis that compares religious-right speech with anti-Semitic speech. My own gut reaction was that while analysis of propaganda techniques is useful, Nazi-baiting tends be counterproductive for those who practice it.
- [Is That Edible? FRC ‘fortune Cookies’ At GOP Convention Contain Spitballs](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/is-that-edible/): At the political organizations steered by James Dobson — Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and Exodus, among others — insults seem to have become part of doing business. The latest indication of this: FRC says it will distribute fortune cookies at the GOP convention. Among the “fortunes”: Real Men Marry Women: Support a Constitutional Amendment to Protect Marriage So now FRC is insulting single men and priests as well as same-sex-attracted men. Save the Constitution! Impeach an Activist Judge Non-activist judges, presumably, favor smashing gay persons’ equality under the law, mandating conservative-Christian prayers in public schools and government offices,...
- [Psychotherapists Debate “change” Via Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/psychotherapist-2/): Psychotherapist Joe Kort wrote “Queer Eye for the Straight Therapist for the May/June issue of Psychotherapy Networker. The article traces Kort’s winding road from struggling same-sex-attracted college student; through ex-gay therapy, which negatively impacted him and his parents; onward through a futile effort to re-closet himself; his initial struggles working with gay client-patients; and his efforts to overcome professionals’ opposition to gay-affirmative therapy.
- [Exodus Applauds GOP Convention’s Exgay Entertainer](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/exodus-applauds/): Updated Aug. 27 to include reaction by the ex-gay network Exodus. John Aravosis first pulled together the news Aug. 26 that an antigay ideologue will provide entertainment at the GOP convention: “I’m not in the mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children.” — Donnie McClurkin, GOP Convention entertainer speaking about gays. Donnie McClurkin, one of the just-announced entertainers to be performing at the GOP Convention in NYC, thinks homosexuality is a “curse,” that it’s caused by men raping small children, that being gay is a choice, that it can be cured, and most explosively, that gays...
- [Focus/Family Takes the Low Road As Cheney Defends His Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/focusfamily-tak/): By Dan Gonzales, www.modern.prosaic.nu for Ex-Gay Watch I was baffled by the Family News in Focus audio program (Windows Media, Real) even more than normal Aug. 26. Rather than taking the moral high ground and criticizing Cheney’s remarks from a Jeffersonian (states rights) approach to gay marriage, the two guests quoted both dealt exclusively with Cheney’s “undermining and hurting the president.” Focus and the day’s guests also seemed unsure of how to react to Cheney’s statement, “freedom means freedom for everyone” and failed to formulate a rebuttal. Apparently we’re supposed to ignore this freedom statement and get all worked up that...
- [‘People Can Change’: Ex-gay, Ex-exgay Mormons](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/people-can-chan/): The Deseret Morning News profiles Glenn Wyler, founder of People Can Change, an online ex-gay ministry. The article gives due attention to Wyler’s journey, his claim to be completely heterosexual, and his scheduled weekend retreat. The article gives more-than-equal time, however, to psychology and psychiatry professionals that believe reparative therapy is sometimes or often harmful. Salt Lake City psychologist Lee Beckstead is quoted at length discussing his own studies. He found that while ex-gay therapy harmed some study participants, it actually helped some people adapt to life as a mature same-sex-attracted (gay) individual. None of his Mormon study participants apparently reported...
- [Ex-gay Noe Gutierrez And the Matter of Mushrooms](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-noe-guti/): I’ve got bigger stories than this to report, but I’ve been busy. A couple folks gave me a gentle push about this item, though, so here it is. Jon Rowe notes an interesting thing about ex-gay ex-tolerance activist Noe Gutierrez, who was mentioned by XGW a couple days ago. The interesting thing here is that this fellow‘s “born-again” experience, which in turn lead to his “change” away from homosexuality, was facilitated or even wholly caused by a trip on magic mushrooms. Rowe’s assessment of Gutierrez is a bit harsher than mine: I simply acknowledge that some people come to religion in...
- [Evangelizing Homosexuals: Right Way, Wrong Way, Or No Way?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/evangelizing-ho/): XGW recently banned one antigay activist who disrupted the site. She felt that threatening people, making false statements, refusing to substantiate her accusations, posting off-topic messages across multiple pages, shouting down people’s responses, and intentionally reposting the same identical message over and over were appropriate forms of online conduct and evangelism. “Friend of Observer,” also someone with an evangelical spirit, responded by posting a much more civil message, but reposted the same identical message across several pages. I tried to ask Friend via e-mail to refrain from cross-posting the same message, but the given e-mail address was invalid. I posted a...
- [Gay Male Relationships: Toads And Princes](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/gay-male-relati/): Some gay relationships are looked up to, with admiration, by gay and nongay peers alike. And like heterosexual relationships, some gay pairs serve are fodder for tales about drama queens, bipolar disorder, f-buddies, cheaters and beaters. Some pairs live in natural sync, others have to fight hard to make the relationship work. With his usual sensitivity and insight, Dalai Banana reflects, from his own experience and those of his friends, on all these types of pairings.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Profile: Mark Yarhouse](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-watch-pr-3/): A quick glance at Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D
- [‘It’s Elementary’: Noe Gutierrez Turned Ex-gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/its-elementary/): Here’s an old story, well-known among ex-gays for a long time now; not so well-known among gays. Noe Gutierrez, a star of the safe-schools/pro-tolerance video “It’s Elementary,” is now ex-gay. At his web site, Gutierrez says that upon coming out as ex-gay, the video’s producers were intolerant and narrow-minded: I called Women’s Educational Media. I explained how my change had come about very ‘naturally’ and how I felt as though this change should be given the same recognition as my initial “coming out of the closet” (i.e. from straight to gay). I figured that if the aim of Women’s Educational Media...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Profile: Prof. Warren Throckmorton](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-watch-pr-2/): A quick overview of Warren Throckmorton
- [Ex-Gay Watch: In the News, 21-22 August 2004](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-watch-in-2/): No Milk Please offers a parody today of what makes gay people unhappy, and why people “change.” Jon Zuck of the normally peaceful and meditative Wild Things of God blog comments on “ayatollah” Pat Robertson’s latest “fatwa”: On Aug. 19, Robertson announced a death sentence against Iraq’s Muktada al-Sadr. How might a contemplative person of faith respond? Zuck offers a simple answer, and it’s not this: BlogActive attempts to “out” Rep. Ed Schrock of Virginia, representative to Pat Robertson’s district, because of the lawmaker’s support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. BlogActive offers no evidence, however. Earlier in the week, BlogActive attempted...
- [Hypersensitive Over the Word ‘homosexual’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/hypersensitive/): Sean Kinsell comments today on persnicketiness over the identification of people as “gay” or “homosexual.” Both gay and antigay people can become very touchy when they disapprove of the adjective being used. In court, antigay lawyers called gay attorney John Rawls “homosexual.” Rawls protested. Naturally, the religious right goes nuts, warning that one gay lawyer’s sensitivity to being called “homosexual” means no gay activist on the planet can be trusted to support free speech. The American Family Association is quoted, accurately defining homosexual as someone who is sexually attracted to the same sex. Blogger Dan Gonzales of www.modern.prosaic.nu wrote an e-mail...
- [One Quaker’s Thoughts on Ex-gay Stephen Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/one-quakers-tho/): Joe G. of beppeblog yesterday added his own fresh thoughts on Stephen Bennett’s pro-apocalypse article for the American Family Association.
- [Exodus Announces Third Recent Ex-gay Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/exodus-announce/): Exodus announces its third recent ex-gay ad claiming “freedom” from “homosexuality.” This time the ad appears in the conservative Christian men’s magazine New Man. In commenting on the ad, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas says, “After all, it is within the church that thousands have found relational freedom, which leads to sexual wholeness.” Unfortunately, the press release makes no effort to define “relational freedom” or “sexual wholeness.” And — without telling the reader — the ad seems to redefine “homosexuality” to mean only some forms of homosexuality, not those forms that are experienced and practiced by ex-gays. Exodus says, “Three more ads...
- [Ex-gay Stephen Bennett’s Assistant Vents Against Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-stephen-4/): This morning, Janet Hensley — a volunteer for Stephen Bennett Ministries and an online "researcher" for Yahoo’s exgaydiscussion board — resumed spamming Ex-Gay Watch with a half-dozen posts in a row, all blindly accusing all same-sex attracted individuals of every evil that she, Bennett, or James Dobson apparently could imagine. Ex-Gay Watch is a place on the web where exgay activists are evaluated and discussed. It is not an appropriate place for someone who listens to no one while posting lengthy, sweeping, unsubstantiated accusations and verbal tirades consisting mostly of cut-and-pasted, boilerplate religious-right hate propaganda. Nor is XGW intended as a...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: In the News…](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/ex-gay-watch-in/): George W. Bush told Larry King last week that states can provide gay civil unions. Never mind that his Federal Marriage Amendment would have (depending on the wording) either banned civil unions outright or made them unenforceable in court. Ralph Blair of Evangelicals Concerned reviews the antigay book “The Truth About Same-Sex Marriage” by Erwin W. Lutzer. Blair concludes that Lutzer abuses Bible passages, discards science, ignores the history of traditional marriage, and turns a deaf ear toward gay people while expecting them to listen in return. Dr. Charles Wibbelsman of Kaiser Permanente credits gun control and gradual destigmatization of sexual...
- [Sojourners: ‘God Is Not a Republican… Or a Democrat’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/sojourners-god/): Blogger Chuck Currie reprints yesterday’s press release from Sojourners for takebackourfaith.org. How has the love of Jesus, the Prince of Peace – and his good news to the poor – been distorted by the pro-war, pro-rich political agenda of the Religious Right? Our faith has been hijacked, and it’s time to take it back! Click below to sign our petition and send a message to America that God is not a Republican or a Democrat, and that the Religious Right does not speak for you. Remind America that Jesus taught us to be peacemakers, advocates for the poor, and defenders of...
- [A Silent Protest: How Gay-tolerant Families Might Respond to Ex-gay Talk of God’s Hate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/a-silent-protes/): Stephen Bennett defends his hostility to gay parents, their families, and supportive straight parents during his Aug. 7 protest in Provincetown, Mass. Other online coverage: A pro-exgay Yahoo group discusses Stephen Bennett’s antigay protest starting here. One of the group moderators is Janet Hensley (saltnlight). In addition to excluding gay-tolerant and gay-affirming individuals from the Yahoo group, Janet’s responsibilities include web research. Congratulations, Janet. Blogger Stacy L. Harp, a Southern California chapter leader for Concerned Women for America, blasts Paul Keith’s report for XGW on Stephen Bennett’s protest. All I can say to this “report” is that Paul apparently enjoyed being...
- [Pro-exgay Prof Defends Ad, Blasts GLAAD](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/pro-exgay-prof/): The Exodus web site features a press release penned late last week by Warren Throckmorton. Instead of explaining or defending the odd language and overly optimistic claims of the LA Times ex-gay ad, Throckmorton singles out two of the ad’s sloppiest critics — LAT columnist Steve Lopez and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Both critics trivialized the content of the ads and retreated instead to tired cliches. I could have written better criticisms of the ad than those of Lopez and GLAAD; in fact, I did. Instead of addressing some very real problems with the ad, Exodus takes...
- [Gay Blogger to Kerry Supporters: Wake Up!](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/gay-blogger-to/): Patrick Connors is guest blogging at the Gay American blog. Like XGW, he is becoming unhappy with John Kerry. It is the will of the politicians — local and federal — that prevent us from having our Constitutional protections. We are allowing this discrimination to continue. It becomes even more legitimate when we let Kerry congratulate state after state for enshrining discrimination without responding. We are watching the country make LGBT Americans less than full citizens. This is similar to believing that slaves are to be counted as 3/5 of a man. This is taxation without representation. We pay into a...
- [Reflections on Gay Family Week in Provincetown](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/reflections-on/): Paul E. Keith wrote about Stephen Bennett’s demonstration in Provincetown, Mass., over the weekend. Since then, Paul has reflected some more, and writes: My original post was concerned, of course, with what I saw in Provincetown on Saturday that was specific to the Steven Bennett Ministries demonstration – if one could call that flop by such a term. That was the reason I went out to P’Town, after all. But I want to add something else I saw that, I believe, is of far greater importance to all of us, gay or straight, with or without kids of our own. Both...
- [New Study: Male Sexual Orientation Influenced By Prenatal Factors, Birth Order](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/new-study-male/): A newly published study suggests sexual orientation in males is influenced by prenatal development. Blanchard, R. (2004). Quantitative and theoretical analyses of the relation between older brother and homosexuality in men. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 230, 173-187. ABSTRACT Meta-analysis of aggregate data from 14 samples representing 10,143 male subjects shows that homosexuality in human males is predicted by higher numbers of older brothers, but not by higher numbers of older sisters, younger brothers, or younger sisters. The relation between number of older brothers and sexual orientation holds only for males. This phenomenon has therefore been called the fraternal birth order effect....
- [Soulforce Local Group Confronts Antigay Catholic Group Courage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/08/soulforce-local/): Virginia Stephenson of Soulforce Albuquerque provides a first-hand account of her group’s encounter with Courage, a Catholic organization that promotes chastity among same-sex-attracted individuals. Courage does not call itself "ex-gay." But: Courage favors NARTH reinterpretations of current science; Courage misdefines "gay" as a “socio-political position,” encouraging people not to identify as same-sex-attracted, instead advising these people to move "beyond" homosexual attractions; Courage asserts that homosexual and Christian identities are separate and distinct, with homosexuality representing incompleteness. Courage’s founder blames the Catholic sexual abuse scandal on gay priests generally, while expressing measured tolerance for priests who abused teen-agers in the distant past....
- [Ex-exgay Artist Announces ‘Burning Bush World Tour’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/ex-exgay-artist/): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gay performance activist Peterson Toscano announces his 2005 “Burning Bush World Tour” which brings his original one-person ex-gay satire, “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House,” and other comedic social justice presentations, to venues throughout the U.S. and internationally in Canada, England, Scotland and Cameroon, West Africa. [The press release continues….]
- [Peterson Toscano: Ex-exgay Artist Announces Winter Tour Dates](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/peterson-toscan/): Ex-exgay performance artist Peterson Toscano, whose show "Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House" has been reviewed previously by XGW, announces winter tour dates. A press release is forthcoming. January-February dates Special presentation, Jan. 19, Hartford, Conn. "Doin’ Time…", Jan. 22, New Haven, Conn. "Doin’ Time…", Jan . 29, Huntsville, Ala. "Doin’ Time…", Feb. 8, Madison, N.J. "Talking Trash in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House –Language, Life and Lies in the Ex-Gay Movement," Feb. 12, Washington, D.C. "Talking Trash in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House –Language, Life and Lies in the Ex-Gay Movement," Feb. 15, West Hartford,...
- [Exgay Blogs And Accountability](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/exgay-blogs-and/): Commenters have noticed that I removed the direct navigation links to the few active exgay blogs on the Net. First, a reassurance: I will continue to discuss fresh exgay blog entries that seem pertinent, and I welcome unsolicited tips or comments about them via e-mail. However, two web traffic monitoring services indicated to me that some of the exgay blogs received a disproportionate share of their visitors via XGW. And none of the blogs returned the favor.
- [Antigay Parents to Catholic School: Evict the Kids](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/antigay-parents-2/): Imagine a group of Catholic parents demanding that their church school throw out the children of parents who are divorced or employed as usurers, death-row executioners, or manufacturers of weapons of indiscriminate slaughter. Unlikely, right? So why the outrage when a Catholic parish school in Orange County, Calif., admits the children of gay parents?
- [700 Club Profiles Exgay Phillip Tucker](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/700-club-profil/): The 700 Club spotlights the journey of one exgay man, Phillip Tucker. Can a single man’s anecdotes substantiate the exgay political movement’s stereotypes about same-sex-attracted individuals? Tucker tells the television program’s audience that his gay civil union was loveless, but does not indicate whether he made any effort to establish and maintain love in a relationship. He blames his father for both his sexual orientation and his behavior, but gives his father and family no opportunity for a rebuttal. Sidestepping his obvious struggle with low self-esteem, Tucker instead misdefines masculinity and reinforces the myth that gay men are not good at...
- [The Gay Disease? Why Couples Don’t Show Public Affection](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/the-gay-disease/): In his column for Jan. 5, 2005, gay activist/author Wayne Besen examines the possible reasons why gay couples in nearly all of America remain afraid to hold hands or show affection in public. In Besen’s view, the rationalizations of the antigay movement — that there are too few homosexuals, or that homosexuals are emotionally diseased — do not survive even basic scrutiny. The well-documented rise in violence against gay people remains an undeniable cause for fear among gay couples.
- [Exgay Expert Fails to Defend Arkansas Ban on Gay Foster Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exgay-expert-fa/): From 365gay.com: Finding that children are not harmed by living with gay or lesbian parents, an Arkansas court Wednesday struck down a state regulation that banned gay people and anyone living in a household with a gay adult from being foster parents in the state. Circuit Court Judge Timothy Fox "found that being raised by gay parents doesn’t increase the risk of psychological, behavioral, or academic problems for children and that children of lesbian and gay parents are just as well adjusted as children of straight parents," according to 365gay.com. The state’s expert witness in the case was George A. Rekers,...
- [The Academic Freedom — to Be Ignorant?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/the-academic-fr/): Liberals often fight for the academic freedom to study topics deemed taboo. Now, CNN reports, some conservative students are battling for the academic freedom not to study books and topics, such as the Qur’an or peace studies, which they prejudge as "offensive," often without knowing anything about the topic. Perhaps it is better to hate one’s enemy in ignorance than to understand why the enemy is disagreeable?
- [Family Values Ploy? Harass Gay-tolerant Employers](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/family-values-p/): John Aravosis, ImpossibleMike, and Big Muddy IMC comment on the latest Alan Keyes/Larry Klayman political fundraising scam: A national shareholder campaign to force major employers to bar gay-straight employee groups and to deny benefits to gay workers and their families. (Hat tip: James B.)
- [Reasons Why Exgays Should Support Civil Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/reasons-why-exg/): This is an "open draft" — meaning that I welcome input in creating the list of reasons why exgays should support civil unions. I’ll be out of town on vacation for a week, which means I might have time to help work on this — or I may be unable to access the Internet, in which case the content of this post is entirely up to you. Reason 1: Gay life partners are united in love and commitment, not lust. (Substantiate.) Reason 2: Civil unions are not marriage. (Explain.) Reason 3: Same-sex retirement benefits lag (Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 2004) Reason...
- [Lesbian Mom? Antigay Group Vouches for Violent Dad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/lesbian-mom-ant/): Dispatches from the Culture War continues to perceive dishonesty and outright brutality in the political religious right’s battle to split up some families where the gay parent appears to be the better, safer choice to raise the kids. Who wudda thought a wife-murdering, daughter-molesting father is a better parent than a lesbian? From Dispatches: Dec. 28: Alliance Defense Fund intervenes in Utah family Dec. 27: Florida and Alabama families under antigay legal assault From Overlawyered.com: Dec. 20: Overlawyered.com tracks the Vermont-Virginia ex-gay custody battle.
- [Ex-gay Myth Disputed: Do Gay Men Have Body Image Hangups?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/ex-gay-myth-dis/): From Reuters: Both gay and heterosexual men are equally likely to aspire to an unattainable body type, or to harbor a distorted image of their actual body, new research indicates. This finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that gay men have more "hang ups" about their appearance than straight men, study author Dr. Armand Hausmann told Reuters Health. This assumption stems from a wide range of stereotypes, Hausmann noted, including the belief that gay men are more likely to adopt a "feminine gender identity," that gay culture places a high emphasis on body image, and that gay men have generally lower self-esteem....
- [Judge Bans Anti-exgay Testimony in Gay Marriage Case](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/judge-bans-anti/): 65gay.com reported Dec. 28: San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer … has told the city it cannot include arguments countering the assertions made by conservative groups opposing same-sex marriage that gays can be cured and that children are better off with opposite-sex parents. Among the documents submitted by the Alliance Defense Fund are statements by Princeton University psychiatrist Jeffrey Satinover that gays misled the American Psychiatric Association into removing homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973. Satinover regularly promotes so-called reparative or aversion therapy’ for gays. Another document submitted by the group was from "ex-gay" leaders Alan...
- [Religious-right Criticisms of Scandinavia Disputed (again)](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/religious-right-8/): The journal Issues in Legal Scholarship published a full issue not too long ago on single-sex marriage. Among the articles is "Nordic Bliss? Scandinavian Registered Partnerships and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate." From the abstract: The proponents of same-sex marriage have long argued that committed lesbian and gay couples should have the same legal options as committed straight couples, including marriage. Same-sex marriage opponents have shifted from one argument to another in an effort to find one that can appeal to the increasing number of Americans open to equal rights for gay people. Since the 1990s, opponents have argued that allowing same-sex...
- [Religious Right’s Failure of Action: Orthodoxy Vs. Orthopraxis](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/religious-right-7/): Episcopal seminarian Bob Griffith comments on the divide between Christians who, like the fabled Pharisees, demand "right belief" and wage war against independent thinkers and feelers — and those who live out Christ’s mission to love thy neighbor.
- [LA Times Profiles Concerned Women for America](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/la-times-profil/): Richard T. Cooper and Johanna Neuman of the LA Times profile the obsessively antigay religious-right outfit Concerned Women for America. While it cites conservative critics of the CWFA’s ideological extremism and incivility, the article at no time balances its coverage with viewpoints outside the religious right.
- [Official Christianity Vs. Authentic Christianity](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/official-christ/): Bishop Yvette Flunder of the United Church of Christ finds hateful rhetoric, redefined “moral values,” fear, intolerance, exclusion, racism, sexual bigotry, zeal for war, and anti-Islamic prejudice growing among the leadership of America’s “official” Christian churches. Flunder contrasts this fraud with the peacemaking, poverty reduction, and bridge-building done by “real” Christians.
- [Columnist Finds Apostasy Among the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/columnist-finds/): From numerous other blogs: Liberal columnist Jennifer Barnett Reed of the Arkansas Times demands the return of her Christian faith, stolen by amoral, greedy, hypocritical, and idolatrous forces within the religious right. Well done. Reed’s commentary methodically spells out examples of the political religious right’s apostasy.
- [UCC Blogger: ‘Christian’ College Kicks Out Top Student for Sexual Honesty](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/ucc-blogger-chr/): United Church of Christ seminarian Chuck Currie links to this Washington Times story about Trinity Christian Academy in Texas. The Academy apparently admits political idolaters and white-collar thieves from the religious right, but kicks out a top student and varsity athlete for being honest about his sexual orientation and for supporting other students who are honest about theirs.
- [Exodus Again Buries Some Facts About Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exodus-again-bu/): Last week I discussed the Exodus media blog’s distortion of hate-crimes statistics — and its unapologetic republication of violent threats against gay people. On Friday, Exodus blogger Nancy Brown — speaking for the organization on its main web site — once again distorted FBI hate-crimes statistics. Brown jumbles the hate-crimes data, throwing physical assaults, robbery, vandalism, and death threats into the same category as mild insults and “a friendly pat on the back,” as if to dismiss the entire subject of antigay violence. She argues that such crimes are innocent or "at worst" non-violent — and therefore, it stands to reason,...
- [BigFib.com Parodies PeopleCanChange.com](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/bigfibcom-parod/): BigFib reports that People Can Change has launched two websites: MostPeopleChangeBack.com and ChristiansCanChange.com I wish! The world could use some exgay activists who are broad-minded and honest enough to launch such sites.
- [Sfweekly.com Profiles Three Unnamed Exgay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/sfweeklycom-pro/): Sfweekly.com lampoons a trio of Northern California ex-gay ministries. One group helps parents reinforce their own stereotypes about “the gay lifestyle” that they imagine their adult children to be living. Group leader Carol has no qualifications in counseling or medicine, so it’s no surprise when the parental support talk runs amok. The parents condemn their children to hell, outright. They imagine their children to be pedophiles. They collectively reinforce their own namecalling — lobbing exactly the sorts of insults and stereotypes about their children that, Carol claims, cause homosexuality: “People call them sissy-boy or queer or fag, and they begin to...
- [Christianity Today Redefines Secularism](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/christianity-to/): Based on a single unidentified survey, writer David Klinghoffer helps Christianity Today redefine “secularist” as irreligious and unethical. Secularism, as I see it, is a separation of church and state that acts as religious Americans’ single strongest shield against one religious sect or denomination using government to suppress all other faiths — as well as science. Secularism is not a religion. It is a defense of religions — more specifically, a defense of religious expression that differs from that of one’s neighbor. It is a defense of each individual person or group’s relationship with God. Secularism, as the self-deluded religious right...
- [Testing BlogJet](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/testing-blogjet/): I have installed an interesting blog client for Windows — BlogJet. Let’s give it a whirl….
- [Gay Adolescence: Does Your Gay Age Match Your Chronological Age?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/gay-adolescence/): Gay Adolescence: Does Your Gay Age Match Your Chronological Age? By Joe Kort, MSW Ex-gays love to point the finger at lesbians and gays "bad behavior" and state that acting out behavior such as promiscuity, being overly vocal about being gay, too much partying and too much chemical use exemplifies what gay life is all about. They further say this is why they became ex-gays to avoid living that type of lifestyle. However, what they are referring to is a stage of coming and has little to nothing more to do with gay life than it does heterosexual life. The stages...
- [Questioning Exgays About Hate Speech](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/questioning-exg-2/): The Christmas message reprinted below is directed at the leadership of the Anglican Communion. But it is perhaps even more applicable to the U.S. exgay movement. While some Anglican leaders have at least acknowledged that hate speech sometimes leads to hate crimes, neither Exodus nor numerous independent exgay activists have acknowledged this. Exodus continues to resort to antigay church leaders’ rhetoric — unsupported by mainstream science — that gay people are, with little or no exception, mentally defective. In its press releases, Exodus is silent about antigay violence. The "crimes" section" of Exodus’ media blog largely denies that some crimes are...
- [Focus/Family Blends Love Won Out with Politics](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/focusfamily-ble/): Dan Gonzales wrote last week: The Dec. 2 broadcast of Focus On The Family Radio features the testimony of an ex-lesbian at a Love Won Out conference. The ex-lesbian oddly enough, admits to working for a legislative division of FOTF, which clearly goes against Dobson’s claims Love Won Out is just trying to spread love/healing to gays and does not have political motives. (Kind of like how Exodus newsletters are entirely political in nature and not actually written for exgays to read.) The most damning and contradictory evidence is when the ex-lesbian claims homosexuality is a combination of genetics and life-experience....
- [Exgay Mother in Utah Fights Visitation](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exgay-mother-in/): Another Vermont civil union has ended in an exgay custody battle. According to Boston.com, exgay mother Cheryl Pike Barlow is asking the Utah court system to become judicial activists by reversing the visitation rights of her former partner, Keri Lynne Jones. Sharon B. provides a link to WorldNetDaily’s version of events. The Alliance Defense Fund is helping Barlow tear up her family; in a Vermont-Virginia case, the antigay "Center for American Cultural Renewal" is helping exgay mother Lisa Miller tear up her family.
- [Exodus Reacts to Methodist Trial of Lesbian Minister](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exodus-reacts-t/): Exodus regularly tells gay people to closet their sexuality, and suggests that to do otherwise lacks sexual and spiritual integrity. But for the church trial of lesbian United Methodist minister Beth Stroud, Exodus changes its definition of integrity. In a Dec. 10 Exodus press release, the antigay Rev. Karen Booth challenges Stroud’s integrity because she allegedly did closet herself. Booth also asks numerous leading questions but denies readers the answers provided by Stroud. Booth and Exodus, which has turned Focus on the Family and the far right into spiritual idols, accuse Stroud of "idolatry" — after redefining the word, accusing Stroud...
- [Blame Ex-exgays for Exgay Therapy Failures?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/blame-ex-exgays/): Important update, May 8, 2005: Read here. In Southern Voice (Dec. 10), Gareth Fenley comments on the exgay video "I Do Exist," developed by Warren Throckmorton. A showing was hosted by exgay activist Darryl L. Foster in Atlanta earlier this fall. The movie is called “I Do Exist,” and it makes no mention that successful identity changes based on religious convictions are rare, nor does it tell us the truth that ex-gay ministries cause great harm to many people, including some suicides. It only talks about five happy people who say they are now straight. "I Do Exist" was created by...
- [Around the Block: Exgays in the News](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/around-the-bloc-2/): Focus on the Family cheers killers’ change of story in Matthew Shepard murder (Dec. 6) Focus’ press release, misquoting Katie Couric, is here. AgapePress helps Gary Bauer hop on the ABC/religious-right bandwagon promoting leniency and sympathy for Shepard’s killers. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are taking the public debate over hate crimes even lower — calling Christians the victims of "hate crimes" because holiday displays on public property are required to reflect the diverse faith perspectives of the taxpayers. Rio considers funding ‘gay conversion’ therapy (Dec. 8) (Hat tip: James B.) Hostility toward gay youth rises post election, Lambda Legal says...
- [Holiday Ripoff? Phantom Rebates At Roxio](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/holiday-ripoff/): Easy Media Creator 7 burns music, movies and data onto CDs and DVDs. I use it to back up data from my computer. The software works well for me. Unfortunately, the company’s outsourced $20 rebate program appears to be a scam. RebatesHQ.com is rejecting valid rebate requests, claiming that valid UPC barcodes aren’t valid. This happened to me, and it seems I’m not alone. I’m curious to know whether other shoppers have been ripped off by Roxio or its contractor. If you opt to buy Roxio EMC7, be forewarned that the inflated shelf price ($99.99) may be exactly what you’ll pay...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Administrative Note](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/ex-gay-watch-ad-2/): Here is an automatically updated list of new web pages mentioning ex-gays, courtesy of Google. This is a possible future addition to XGW. I need to figure out where this would go, how big it should be…. Suggestions are welcome, especially if you know how to configure IFRAMEs or inline OBJECTs for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
- [New Focus/Family Campaign Against Tolerance in Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/new-focusfamily/): Exodus membership director Randy Thomas’ blog on Thursday identified Exodus’ new spokeswoman: Julie Neils, who was a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family during the John Paulk scandal in 2000 and 2001. Thomas discloses neither this pertinent fact nor whether Focus on the Family continues to employ Neils. Discussing his trip to visit Neils in Colorado Springs, Thomas discloses the development of a new antigay, religious-right program for U.S. public school systems: The part I didn’t mention yet was about going to Focus On the Family to discuss the development of a grassroots conference to equip and help communities combat the...
- [The Heterosexual Questionnaire, Provided By Joe Kort, MSW](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/the-heterosexua/): The following is a tongue-in-cheek questionnaire designed to illustrate the heterosexism implied in these same questions asked of lesbians and gays. Imagine as you read them if this were real and straight people were asked these questions. Gays and lesbians experience these questions in the same way a heterosexual would. When people say that living gay is an "alternative" lifestyle I always tell them that for me living straight is an alternative lifestyle. What Gloria Steinem did wish sexism is said, "What if we do to men what is done to woman?" She writes that if men were given lower paying...
- [Exodus: ‘When Being Gay Is Not So Merry And Bright’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exodus-when-bei/): In a Dec. 3 news release riddled with boldface print worthy of an amateur fundamentalist Bible tract, Exodus criticizes honest depictions of "gay life" and ridicules unconditional love. Exodus denies that "monogamous partnerships exist"; makes the baseless assertion that media depictions of happiness, loneliness, success and failure constitute a "Utopia"; and backs that with another baseless assertion, that diverse depictions of gay people from different sources are really just a united and nefarious "PR campaign" funded and orchestrated by conveniently unnamed entities. Exodus then blames honesty, not Exodus’ own efforts to ostracize gay people, for the "young people [who] break ties...
- [Are You a Homosexual Masochist?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/are-you-a-homos/): Are you a Homosexual Masochist? by Joe Kort Since writing my book, “10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do To Improve Their Lives” in August, 2003 I have had the opportunity to travel across the country meeting gay men. I have to admit I was taken by surprise that my book sold so well in places like Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. As a Mid-western man from Detroit Michigan, I thought my book would be more helpful to gay men in more conservative areas. However when I was at the Different Light Bookstore in the heart of San...
- [Draft Comment Guidelines for Exgay Discussions](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/draft-comment-g/): Analysis of the latest Exodus press release (posted to their web site on most Fridays) is forthcoming. In the meantime, some draft guidelines for comments posted to Ex-Gay Watch. I hope this will give visitors an indication of what types of comments I feel are most constructive. 1. XGW is primarily about ex-gays — their sexual orientations, therapies, politics, and impact on other people. Discussion for and against exgays is on-topic. One-sided antigay screeds are off-topic. Pro-gay discussion is only marginally on-topic; it should ideally relate to the various choices that mature and responsible exgays have available to them, and the...
- [Administrative Note: TV Ban Against UCC Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/administrative/): Rather than post fresh entries here, since this issue is off-topic, I am directing interested people to UCC seminarian Chuck Currie’s weblog for updates, as the controversy gets bigger by the day.
- [PAX-TV Tonight: Exgay Says Gays Can’t Be Christian](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/pax-tv-tonight/): Exgay activist Stephen Bennett will debate whether people can be gay and Christian on PAX-TV’s Faith Under Fire tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT, 9 p.m. CT/MT. (Bennett says it is impossible.) Other debate participants: Ron Poindexter, who is ex-exgay, and Duke Holtz, who is gay and celibate. Other debates on the program: Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily.com will "argue" with the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State about "removing faith from the public discourse." Gretchen Passantino of Answers in Action will debate Leah Hanes over the gender of God.
- [Religious Right’s Sen. Frist: An Unwise Investment](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/religious-right-6/): According to the Associated Press, Senate majority leader Bill Frist invested a fortune in campaign funds in lousy stocks since 2000 — and ran up a loss of $524,000. Now Frist — a likely GOP candidate for president in 2008, who is promoted on 79 pages of Focus on the Family’s web site — owes $360,000 to U.S. Bank. The bank appears to have granted Frist special favors by rolling over the loan until 2007. In other off-topic news: The liberal Christian-led Americans United for Separation of Church and State has sued to stop U.S. taxpayer dollars from being wasted by...
- [Religious Right’s Awkward Christmas Boycotts](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/religious-right-5/): Dan Gonzales wrote last Friday with an update on the American Family Association and Concerned Women for America. Knight, of CWFA, claims three times in an AFA/AgapePress release that the United Way is supporting "pro-homosexual groups" but Knight does not name them. Were he to name them, Gonzales notes, public scrutiny of Knight’s bizarre claims would be possible: "it openly supports numerous pro-homosexual groups with its money." "a major portion of the money the charity collects is being given to pro-homosexual groups." "the organization’s ongoing financial support of the homosexual agenda." Knight further justifies his boycott against the United Way and...
- [Christian Blogger Mourns Defrocking of Lesbian Minister](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/christian-blogg/): United Church of Christ seminarian Chuck Currie writes: I have a great deal of love for the United Methodist Church and the local congregations that really live by the slogan “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” It is sad that those doors are increasingly labeled “For Straights Only.” Conservatives opposed to the UCC commercial are claiming that gays and lesbians are welcome in all churches. This proves that statement is inaccurate. Gays and lesbians are excluded from the life of the church and far too many Christians are proud of that exclusion. The Kansas City Star had this quote today about...
- [Anti-gay-marriage Activists Broaden Efforts Against Churches, Libraries, Colleges, Science](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/anti-gay-marria-2/): Focus on the Family and its political allies failed this week to convince the Supreme Court that marriage is imminent danger from a relative handful of gay couples who, under Massachusetts state law, cannot export their marriages to states where the marriages would be invalid. Focus on the Family seems to argue that the court’s absence of hysteria is proof of the need for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages (and, ideally, civil unions and any other shared benefits enjoyed by heterosexuals). According to the Washington Blade, pastors in Maryland plan a similar challenge to the religious freedom of churches that...
- [20/20 on Matthew Shepard: No Comment From Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/2020-on-matthew/): Responses to ABC’s 20/20 program revising history in the case of Matthew Shepard: Chris Matthew Sciabarra: God hates fags… But Shepard’s killers don’tChris Bull: Antigay slayings that have been ignoredColoradoan: Shepard’s killers piece pandered to audience GLAAD Q&A Jon Rowe: More than meets the eyeMichael BronskiNational Coalition of Anti-Violence ProgramsStatement from Judy and Dennis Shepard American Family Association: No responseExodus: No responseFocus on the Family: No responseStephen Bennett: No response Hmmm.
- [Focus/Family Honors Group Accused of Felonies](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/focusfamily-hon/): Michael Marcavage and his antigay Repent America group await a Dec. 14 hearing on several felony and misdemeanor charges related to their raid against OutFest, a Philadelphia gay street festival. Marcavage has not drawn headlines recently in the Philadelphia newspapers or gay media. But his efforts (covered here by XGW) drew praise yesterday from Focus on the Family. Predictably, Focus portrays the disruption of entertainment festivals as heroic when done by antigay activists, but "militant" or "intolerant" when done by gay-affirming faith groups like Soulforce. Focus stereotypes the OutFest attendees as "shirtless gay men in leather." It remains difficult for observers...
- [Thanks, And an Apology: Red/blue Moral Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/thanks-and-an-a/): Apologies to Avery at southern Gospel music blog averyfineline.com for letting down my guard against the red/blue-state myth that the major media pundits seem to thrive upon. (Keep in mind, though: I gratefully noted here the data showing that the United States is divided into shades of purple, not red and blue.) Avery offers a more thoughtful assessment than my original, of the dichotomy between fundamentalist moral values and non-fundamentalist moral values in the Kirk Talley case. But I do not believe that non-fundie values are necessarily secular, nor any less pietistic. If anything, I’d say the opposite might sometimes be...
- [Double-talk on Civil Unions And Benefits](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/double-talk-on/): According to PrideSource, throughout the campaign to constitutionally ban marriage for gay couples in Michigan, antigay advocates said that Proposal 2 was "only about marriage….this is not about rights or benefits or how people choose to live their life." But the Associated Press reports that a state representative said Monday he was working on a measure to oppose health benefits for gay partners of state employees in new contracts for state workers that have already been agreed to by the state and five labor unions. Michigan’s governor, apparently no role model for courage or principle, responded by hastily revoking the benefits....
- [Commentary: Gospels Say the Religious Right Is Wrong](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/commentary-gosp/): Rick Mercier of the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., pens a thoughtful commentary, too rarely seen in larger news media. Introductory paragraphs: I cracked open my Bible and started rereading the Gospels. And you know what? I can’t see what all this sanctimonious [election moral] values rhetoric has to do with Jesus. I’ve compared what I read in Gospels with what I’ve been hearing from the Religious Right, and I’ve concluded that the holier-than-thous must have traded in their red-letter editions of the Good Book for red-state versions that omit most of Jesus’ teachings. The truth is, if you depend on...
- [Focus on the Family Vs Kinsey Expert: You Decide](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/focus-on-the-fa-15/): Focus on the Family bases its campaign against Alfred Kinsey upon a foundation of hearsay. It may be refreshing, then, listen to NPR’s Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross, and hear the film director of Kinsey base his movie on something called research. If you don’t do the Internet radio thing, then Tim Hulsey provides a film review; Wayne Dynes provides intellectual and historical analysis.
- [Congressman Alleges Inaccuracies in Abstinence-only Programs](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/congressman-all/): This morning’s Washington Post reports: Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found. Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted information" in the programs’ teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy...
- [Exodus ‘elitism’: Gays Who Break the Exgay Mold](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/exodus-elitism/): I have quoted little from Exodus leaders Randy Thomas and Alan Chambers recently, because they repeat the same ludicrous, unimaginative, thoughtless, unresearched mantra that has been playing, like a scratched vinyl record, for several years now: According to Exodus HQ, gay people are, without exception, "liberal," intolerant, and "elitist." What Chambers, Thomas and the Exodus media blog don’t say explicitly, but clearly intend, is that they support intolerance and elitism when either one is antigay. And they seem to define "liberal" to mean, conveniently, almost anything that they happen to disagree with. Exodus and Focus on the Family are open about...
- [Media Refuse Gay-inclusive Religious Ads](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/media-refuse-ga/): CBS, NBC, and UPN Major broadcast TV networks have refused to run an uncontroversial Christian ad campaign that emphasizes the United Church of Christ’s welcome to all people, including gays. (The ad has been accepted by a handful of cable networks, including ABC Family.) From 365gay.com: "Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on...
- [Former APA Chief Defends Exgay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/former-apa-chie/): NARTH reports on Robert Perloff, former president of the American Psychological Association. Perloff keynoted the annual NARTH conference in mid-November. Excerpts from Perloff: I am here as the champion of one’s right to choose … It is my fervent belief that freedom of choice should govern one’s sexual orientation … If homosexuals choose to transform their sexuality into heterosexuality, that resolve and decision is theirs and theirs alone, and should not be tampered with by any special interest group — including the gay community… And: The individual’s right for self-determination of sexuality — or sexual autonomy — is, I am happy...
- [WT: Antigay Parents Battle Mutual Tolerance](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/wt-antigay-pare/): Mutual tolerance means, "You don’t have to agree with one another, but you do have to get along." The Washington Times reported Nov. 30 that hundreds of antigay parents and students in northeastern Kentucky and Charlotte, N.C., are lashing out against their schools’ efforts to help gay and antigay people get along.
- [True Moral Mandate Vs Religious-right Mandate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/true-moral-mand/): Recent responses to religious-right distortions of American voters’ moral mandate: ABC reported, with no opposing viewpoints, that Coral Ridge Ministries sees the election as a mandate for a fundamentalist takeover of the United States. Media Matters for America challenges the ABC report’s bias and antigay bigotry. As an editorial in the Plainview Daily Herald in Texas notes, even some Southern Baptists agree that morality is far broader than James Dobson’s personal sexual obsessions. So does Tavis Smiley’s audio program on NPR. Revs. Jim Wallis and Al Sharpton talked back at cafeteria-Christians Jerry Falwell and Richard Land on Meet the Press. And...
- [How Many Gays Are There? A Lot, GQ Poll Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/12/how-many-gays-a/): From journalist Rex Wockner (link is not permanent — visit this week): Intriguing results in a survey conducted for GQ magazine and reported in its December issue… A scientific poll by Benenson Strategy Group found that 2 percent of 1,000 American men questioned said they were gay but 23 percent of unmarried men said they’ve had gay sex. An additional 8 percent of unmarried men said they fantasize about having gay sex. Wockner comes to a different conclusion than I. As I see it, there is a huge number of gay and bisexual men who don’t describe themselves as gay or...
- [Report: HRC Fires Its Executive Director](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/report-hrc-fire/): Updated below. According to Christian Grantham at OutletRadio: Cheryl Jacques, the Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign, has been fired. According to sources that wish to remain anonymous, HRC’s Board of Directors voted to replace Jacques with Hilary Rosen as interim executive director. The vote took place in an emergency conference call Monday night. Read OutletRadio for the developing details. Here’s my own initial reaction: Rosen is the former recording-industry lobbyist who crushed Napster and ordered onerous lawsuits against thousands of music-sharing youths and their parents. She is, quite obviously, more experienced in successful lobbying and corporate relations than Jacques....
- [How the Grinch Stole Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/how-the-grinch/): How the Grinch Stole Marriage by Mary Ann Horton, Lisa and Bill Koontz (with apologies to Dr. Seuss) Every Gay down in Gayville liked Gay Marriage a lot…… But the Grinch, who lived just east of Gayville, did NOT!! The Grinch hated happy Gays! The whole Marriage season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right. It could be, perhaps, his Florsheims were too tight. But I think the most likely reason of all was His heart and brain were two sizes too small. "And they’re buying their...
- [Red-state Morality? Kirk Talley Testifies At a Southern Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/red-state-moral/): From Kirk Talley’s e-mail newsletter today: Sunday morning I sang in Kilgore, Texas at the First Bapt Church of Danville. Pastor Freeman Pierce invited me to share my testimony and sing. The church is a new church, only been established 9 weeks. Freeman shared with me before the service how the church was started and the outreach and the vision of the people there. I was blessed to be there already. I shared my testimony that morning and I noticed lot’s of people wiping tears. After I concluded, Freeman came to the stage and shared with me that in the audience...
- [New PFOX Ally on Maryland School Board? Not Quite Yet](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/new-pfox-ally-o/): We’ve previously addressed PFOX’s undiplomatic statements against public officials who are skeptical of exgay ideology. In the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., PFOX fought unsuccessfully for the inclusion of exgay propaganda with the school system’s proposed sex-education curriculum. The curriculum, sans PFOX literature, was approved unanimously for a test run by the school board. The Washington Times notes Nov. 18 that the proposed curriculum has a potential opponent in a newly elected member of the board who will take office Dec. 1. Stephen N. Abrams says the curriculum may overstep the boundary between tolerance and advocacy. The Times gives no clue...
- [Exgay Mom’s Custody Battle Continues in Va.](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/exgay-moms-cust/): Lisa Miller and her partner, Janet Miller-Jenkins, exchanged vows in a civil union ceremony four years ago in Vermont. Through artificial insemination, Lisa conceived and gave birth to Isabella in Virginia in 2002. In 2003, Lisa adopted an exgay sexual identity, took Isabella and fled to Virginia, where she found a judge willing to violate Vermont custody orders. From Vermont’s perspective, Lisa is now a law-breaking fugitive who has turned her daughter into a political pawn in the culture wars. (Previous XGW coverage. Washington Blade article, Nov. 26.) Last week, Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen named Janet as a legal...
- [Ad Policy Under Fire At Washington Post](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/ad-policy-under/): The Washington Post included an antigay "magazine" insert in last Friday’s edition of the newspaper. The insert was loaded with disputed statistics, some from discredited researchers, according to critics. John Aravosis brings us up to date today (Nov. 24) — providing links to the insert and weak responses from the Post, and urging letters and phone calls to the Post. Wayne Besen challenges the integrity of insert editor Derek Grier and writer James Canady. Besen also notes that Focus on the Family was a major contributor to the magazine, which features articles by Focus chairman James Dobson and Focus staffers Glenn...
- [You Belong To Me: The Truth About Sexual Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/you-belong-to-m/): “YOU BELONG TO ME” The Truth about Sexual Abuse By Joe Kort, MSW This article’s title reflects the perpetrator’s belief, that the victim now belongs to him/her, to do with as he/she desires; that his or her sexual needs, wants and sexuality overrules those of the victim’s. The victim will spend a lifetime unconsciously reenacting their original sexual abuse or, hopefully, working on healing it and removing the ill effects of the perpetrator’s abuse. For sexual abuse survivors, the nightmare is that they are forced to keep a sexual secret. Their tormentor threatens to harm them or someone they love if...
- [FBI: 1,200 Hate Crimes Based on Sexual Orientation in 2003](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/fbi-1200-hate-c/): CNN reports that the FBI knows of six homosexuals reportedly murdered in 2003 because of their sexual orientation. The 1,200 hate crimes committed due to sexual orientation amount to about one-seventh of the total for the year. The FBI counts are no doubt artificially low for all demographics, due to underreporting by victims and poor recordkeeping by authorities. Of 11,900 law enforcement agencies reporting, only about 16 percent reported hate crimes of any kind in their jurisdictions, according to CNN. The category of hate crimes includes acts of intimidation, vandalism or property destruction, murder, assault, robbery, burglary, theft, and arson. I...
- [Dispute Over Tolerance At the University of Maryland](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/dispute-over-to/): Kevin Rector, a student at the University of Maryland, writes in an op-ed about the bigotry of a university physics department staff member, Bill Norwood, who sent out a mass e-mail to students and faculty who had listed themselves in an ad as "allies" of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. Rector ably disputes Norwood’s prejudices, up to a point. He says: Norwood argued students wishing to "dissociate themselves from AIDS-connected identities" would feel discriminated against because of this list [of allies]. He also claimed support for the LGBT community would deprecate the use of "ex-gay" programs. This is an aggressive...
- [Around the Block: Exgay Headlines](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/around-the-bloc/): Half-truth = whole truth? Exodus reprints Prof. Warren Throckmorton’s recent article of half-truths about the failure rate of exgay ministries. Exodus’ headline for Throckmorton’s article is "The Whole Truth." Slapping the other cheek: The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd comments on the religious right’s angry-mob response to the re-election of George W. Bush. Politics, hate corrupt the faith: Michael Crowley, a senior editor at The New Republic, writes at length about James Dobson — "the religious right’s new kingmaker" — at Slate. PFOX mom: Betty DeGeneres, mother of comedian Ellen DeGeneres, advises a 24-year-old male on what to do about a...
- [Exgay Stephen Bennett to Debate Gay Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/exgay-stephen-b/): Exgay activist Stephen Bennett will debate the topic "Gay and Christian" on PAX-TV’s Faith Under Fire on Saturday, Dec. 4. Other debate participants: Ron Poindexter, who says God didn’t expect him to give up his sexuality, and Duke Holtz, who is gay and celibate. (Hat tip: Ray Whiting)
- [Exgay D.L. Foster to Debate Gay Parents on PAX-TV](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/exgay-dl-foster/): Exgay activist Darryl L. Foster will appear on Lee Strobel’s Faith Under Fire program Saturday evening, Nov. 20, on PAX TV. He will debate gay parenting. From the web site: "The controversy surrounding gay marriage and parenting is a polarizing issue for people of faith.  Debating the issue are Darryl Foster, who lived single and gay for 11 years but is now married with four children and pastors a church in Atlanta, and Jeff Lutes, a family psychotherapist who with his gay partner started a family by adopting a son four years ago.  Both Darryl and Jeff self-identify as Christians." PAX...
- [A Response to ‘Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/a-response-to-l/): From songwriter/inspirationalist Marsha Stevens via the southern gospel music blog averyfineline.com: I like Mark Lowry‘s take on the old saying. He says, "What if we said ‘Love the sinner, hate MY OWN sin?’ Wouldn’t that be a good thought?" Learn more about Marsha Stevens at Balm Ministries. Postscript: Rich Blinne assesses what the Bible says about the cliché.
- [Kirk Talley Sings On, Despite Resistance](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/kirk-talley-sin/): The place: Calvary Baptist Church, Hazel Park, Mich.The source: Kirk Talley’s e-mail newsletter, Nov. 15, 2004:Excerpt: I was standing backstage ready to sing when Victor (the promoter) came back to speak to me. He told me that he had fought lots of opposition to my being on the program. One Baptist Church had faxed him, saying they wouldn’t support any more of his concerts if he booked me on the program.  Another Baptist preacher had told him that "God forgives everything but that." He had received some mail that was meant to deter him from having me there. But he said,...
- [Ex-Gay Or Sexual Anorexic?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/ex-gay-or-sexua/): Ex-Gay or Sexual Anorexic? By Joe Kort, MSW The term sexual anorexia isn’t a common term. Anorexic usually describes people with an eating disorder who can literally starve themselves to death. Similarly, many people think that sexual anorexia means sexual starvation, or depriving oneself of sexual pleasure. They link it to having a low sex drive. In his book, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred, Patrick Carnes — who coined the term sexual addiction — writes about sexual anorexia as a disorder that parallels sexual addiction and compulsivity, based on childhood sexual trauma. He describes it as "an obsessive state in which...
- [Target of PFOX Threat Responds](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/target-of-pfox/): PFOX this month issued implicit threats against the Montgomery County, Md., school board and a committee assigned to update the school system’s sex-education curriculum. In its press release and letter, PFOX also made a public, personal attack against committee chairperson David Fishback, who has two gay sons. Fishback responded today to Ex-Gay Watch:Mike, Thank you for your posting. You certainly provided a correct analysis of the PFOX attack on me in my role as Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Board of Education. In fact, I have gone out of...
- [Homo for the Holidays!](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/homo-for-the-ho/): Homo for the Holidays! By Joe Kort, MSW We gays and lesbians are still recovering from the trauma of the recent political elections; the passing of the bans against marriage for gays and lesbians. With the holidays approaching, my clients talk about how they dread the further trauma of going home to their families and not being able to — or feeling able to — be out and open with them about being gay. They call it depression, but I say trauma because it better expresses something emotionally charged and distressing that happens, leaving you nowhere to release and express the...
- [Questioning Exgay Claims About Gay Health](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/questioning-exg/): Discredited researcher Paul Cameron’s rigged reports on gay health still get passed off as fact by a variety of exgay web pages, including Exodus archives. But smart exgay activists like Talbert W. Swan and Stephen Bennett have shifted their focus to other antigay researchers, like John R. Diggs Jr. (Past XGW references.) Thankfully, other researchers are catching up with Diggs and challenging Diggs’ distortion of the medical data. At theologywebsite.com, medical researcher and theology student Jeramy Townsley offers detailed refutations of a Diggs study attacking gay health.
- [Hugo Schwyzer: Straight Man, Gay Bar](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/hugo-schwyzer-s/): While heterosexual women often feel unsafe in straight bars, heterosexual male blogger Hugo Schwyzer reports no discomfort and no harassment while dancing in gay bars. Secure in his masculinity, most of Hugo’s role models during adolescence were… gay.
- [Wayne Besen: Democrats Betray Gays At Their Own Risk](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/wayne-besen-dem/): From Wayne Besen’s latest column: The gay movement is the canary in the coalmine for the future of the Democratic Party. If party leaders move right and abandon basic fairness and equality, it is a strong signal that they will capitulate and surrender their other core principles too. This may lead to widespread disillusionment and the creation of a powerful third party that will shake-up American politics.
- [Exgay Pundit Throckmorton Criticizes Wayne Besen](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/exgay-pundit-th/): At the social-conservative website MichNews.com, Warren Throckmorton editorializes against gay author/activist Wayne Besen. Comments about Prof. Throckmorton’s criticisms began at XGW here but should continue here instead. My own reaction: I’ve discussed the dispute over who founded Exodus before. It’s old news. Analyzing Exodus founders tells us only part of the story — a half-truth, not the whole truth. For almost 30 years, many Exodus member ministers across North America have launched, operated and finally abandoned local ministries as they became ex-ex-gay. The ex-ex-gay movement is now comparable in size to the ex-gay movement, though the former is neither as well-organized...
- [Antigay Protests Against ‘Kinsey’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/antigay-protest/): I mentioned briefly here that Focus on the Family has been orchestrating a national smear campaign against legendary sexuality researcher Alfred C. Kinsey — and against the new movie Kinsey. The Focus campaign appears to be bearing fruit: Protests are ready for launch against theaters that dare to show the film, according to 365gay.com. The Liam Neeson movie apparently portrays Kinsey as a troubled man — but not as the "Josef Mengele" that Robert Knight and James Dobson demand. Dobson and Knight’s message to modern-day sex researchers: Obey us, or be likened to Nazis and harassed accordingly.
- [PFOX Threatens Suburban D.C. Sex-ed Panel](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/pfox-threatens/): PFOX complains in a Nov. 5 press release that exgay propaganda is being excluded from sex-ed school curricula in suburban Washington, D.C. The press release suffers from a long list of shortcomings: PFOX operative Jackie Rice, ex-gay representative to a sex-ed committee for the Montgomery County, Md., schools, gratuitously cites her African-American racial identity as if to discredit the sex-ed committee’s claim to a different kind of diversity: The sexual kind. Rice says the committee "rejected any mention of ex-gays in the school curriculum and resources unless it was something negative about us." But she declines to quote the committee’s rejection,...
- [Media Coverage of Exgays And Marriage: Imbalanced?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/media-coverage-2/): Has news reporting about gay marriage been imbalanced in favor of tolerance for gay people — or are the critics and ombudsmen giving more weight to antigay activists’ wobbly claims than is merited by fact, faith, law or science? Liberal watchdog group FAIR argues the latter case. Touching on the antigay movement’s exploitation of exgay issues, FAIR says: [Chicago Tribune ombudsman Donald] Wycliff provided another story suggestion, offered by Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute. LaBarbera, who Wycliff said argued that the media fail "to tell what he considers interesting and convincing stories that argue against gay marriage,"...
- [Wayne Besen: ‘Piranha in the Fish Tank’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/wayne-besen-pir/): From activist/author Wayne Besen’s column for this week: Perhaps the left is guilty, as Neo-Puritans claim, of denying religion a more prominent space in the public square. But the right is at greater fault for its cavalier dismissal of legitimate concerns over religion’s unique combustibility in the civic realm. Simply put, thousands of years of history show us that dogma can be deadly. Religion and secular society can happily coexist and prosper, as they traditionally have in America. But this delicate balance can only succeed if faiths are constructive, rather than destructive. A constructive faith makes rules for which it expects...
- [Why Don’t Gays Condemn Pedophilia? Actually, They Do](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/why-dont-gays-c/): I received this message over the weekend: From: Nina & Buzz Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:38 AMTo: editor@exgaywatch.comSubject: Your statement requested.Dear Editor,Child sex abuse, as you may be aware, is increasing in America. Why don’t homosexual writers and activists make a statement about it? It is a natural "public image" makeover for your contribution to society. Let me know if I’m off here.  Only trying to help bridge the hurts on both sides. My mom was a bi-sexual and then a lesbian.  Really miss her.  (She passed on in 1998.) Best regards, Nina Joe Kort’s article had already answered Nina’s...
- [Post-election Briefs From Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/post-election-b/): From the New York Times, Nov. 9: Researchers say the religious right continues to suppress research into human sexuality. The research is aimed at reducing the incidence of abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. Focus on the Family is waging a related campaign against research and comprehensive sex education, timed to coincide with the new movie Kinsey. One of Exodus official Randy Thomas’ favorite talk-radio hosts is Rush Limbaugh. Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group notes: In a November 5 discussion with a high school English teacher about her openly gay students, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed that...
- [Poll: Voters’ Moral Values Are Not Conservative](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/poll-voters-mor/): The Washington Post last week published an exceptionally sloppy article that imagined the nation’s churches spontaneously and miraculously rebelling from the grassroots up — against gay couples and in favor of the religious right’s moral tunnelvision. The article by Dana Milbank reported solely from a social-conservative viewpoint, offering no balance of moderate or liberal views. And it buried the roles played by Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council in inciting anger and coordinating political activities among the nation’s conservative churches. I saw little improvement in the Post’s coverage until yesterday, when columnist E.J. Dionne finally pointed out that...
- [Exgay Tim Wilkins: ‘I Still Love Homosexuals’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/exgay-tim-wilki/): Exgay testimonies have a way of circling the Internet. As they move around, they are re-dated and passed off as new. Tim Wilkins’ web site explains (a bit poorly) how he loves homosexuals. Baptist Press republished this testimony Jan. 28, 2003, and an online pastors’ toolbox picked up the testimony from there. PFOX republished the testimony, dating it April 17, 2004. And most recently, conservative Richard Mullenax copied the testimony from Baptist Press, redating it Nov. 9, 2004. With all this republication occurring, presumably by permission, one might expect Wilkins to improve on the original product. Sadly, he does not. Portraying...
- [A Look Back: Switch to Canada?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/a-look-back-swi/): Since the election, Canada’s immigration site has enjoyed a sizable increase in traffic from worried [or interested] Americans. Should one consider emigration? Is Canada really any better? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but the situation brings back memories. In 2002, Apple launched a "Switch" ad campaign encouraging Windows users to switch to the Mac platform. John Bender, an American married to a Canadian, launched a parody web site encouraging Americans to "switch" to Canada. His web site, no longer online, featured an amusing QuickTime commercial ad that is still available here (click on "parody"). Bender’s ad angered the...
- [Focus on the Family Keeps Doomsday Threat Handy](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/11/focus-on-the-fa-14/): Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson threatened the United States with doomsday while campaigning for the re-election of George Bush. (Previous XGW coverage.) According to the New York Times (Nov. 4), the threats have not stopped despite the narrow Bush victory. Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and an influential evangelical Protestant, said he had issued a warning to a "White House operative" who called yesterday morning to thank him for his help. Dr. Dobson said he told the caller that many Christians believed the country "on the verge of self-destruction" as it abandoned traditional...
- [Jewish Religion Supporting Gays And Lesbians](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/jewish-religion/): Jewish Religion supporting Marriage for Gays and Lesbians When I read anything about those suggesting or demanding that they use their faith to change their sexual and romantic orientation because religion does not validate homosexuality, I always point out that, being Jewish, that is not true for me. In Michigan we are about to have a proposal voted on to ban marriage for gays. We already have DOMA which bans gay marriage and yet we are one of many states to have proposal two which would be a state constitutional ammendment. I am always amazed when people use religion against gays....
- [The Straight Dope on Pedophilia](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/the-straight-do/): The Straight Dope message board debates antigay activists’ claim that pedophilia is linked somehow to homosexuality. In linking to XGW’s article on the subject by Joe Kort, two discussion participants describe Ex-Gay Watch as “this not too gay friendly site” and an “Ex-Gay group.” I find that amusing. Nevertheless, I welcome feedback from people who believe this site is antigay.
- [Ex-gay Meet-ups Online](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/ex-gay-meet-ups/): Ex-gays have their own meet-up section for support and companionship at ex-gay.meetup.com. No need to visit right now — no one has joined.
- [How Do You Define ‘gay’ And ‘homosexual’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/how-do-you-defi/): The discussion here about the false link between homosexuality and pedophilia drifted into a debate about how different people define “gay,” “homosexual,” and “heterosexual.” I consider the first two words synonymous with primary or exclusive same-sex attraction, but obviously there is disagreement. But how do you define the words? I welcome further discussion here about how we define and delineate the language of sexual orientation and behavior.
- [From James Dobson: Doomsday Threat And the “L” Word](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/from-james-dobs/): According to The Oklahoman, Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson last week accused Oklahoma Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Brad Carson of lying. The reporter does not include the charge in quotation marks, so it’s unclear whether Dobson used the "L" word: "He may very well be a nice man, and I’m not attacking his personhood, but there’s a gap between who he says he is and what he does," Dobson said, criticizing Carson for votes on partial-birth abortion and in support of same-sex marriage. But it appears to be Dobson who is misinforming his audience.
- [PFOX Asks Cheneys to Support Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/pfox-asks-chene/): Wayne Besen’s commented last week on the furor over John Kerry mentioning Mary Cheney’s sexual orientation — a public disclosure that was based on her history as a gay advocate at Coors. And PFOX issued a press release criticizing Kerry. XGW mentioned both these events. However, PFOX also wrote an impolite open letter — not to Mary Cheney, but to the Vice President and his wife. (Apparently, lesbian daughters are to be talked about, not talked with.)
- [‘Gays Are Heterosexuals with Homosexual Problems’](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/gays-are-hetero/): Oct. 21, 2004, on the PFOX Yahoo group (closed to non-members, and not archived): “No one is gay to begin with. We are all born heterosexual. Gays are heterosexuals with homosexual problems, and some overcome their problems.” — Estella Salvatierrez, PFOX
- [Exodus: Vote for Absolute Right Vs. Absolute Wrong](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/exodus-vote-for/): Here are some excerpts from the October 2004 issue of the Exodus newsletter. Unfortunately, Exodus does not make its newsletter available online. Boldface print was bold in the original.
- [Plain Dealer Skims the Surface of Exgay Science Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/plain-dealer-sk/): In reporting on the scientific debate over sexual orientation — what causes it, can it be changed — Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper interviews an Ohio exgay ministry leader, a pro-exgay counselor, gay author/activist Wayne Besen, and two researchers. The article’s overview of the debate is balanced, but a bit shallow and plagued by misspellings (Dean Hamer, Joseph Nicolosi). In the interest of providing some missing context, I present a profile of the exgay ministry, Prodigal Ministries of Cincinnati.
- [Wayne Besen Questions Exgay Stephen Bennett’s Ties to Demon-deliverance Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/wayne-besen-que/): Here is a press release dated today from Wayne Besen. Author Calls on Ex-Gay Leader to Explain Involvement with Bizarre, Backwoods Demon Deliverance Cult Stephen Bennett’s Association With Demon Group Highlights The Weird Techniques Used By Extremist Ex-Gay Leaders, Says Wayne Besen
- [Homosexuality And Pedophilia: The False Link](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/homosexuality-a/): By Joe Kort, MSW Originally published in “In the Family” magazine, Fall 2003 I thought I would publish this here on this site as I know that those involved in the ex-gay movements often believe that homosexuals are pedophiles. In my research I found useful arguments for those who wish to speak up and teach the truth to those who misunderstand. Q: I’ve heard therapists say that a male adult who sexually abuses a boy isn’t necessarily ‘homosexual.’ This seems confusing: If he isn’t homosexual, then why would he sexually molest boys, instead of girls? This is a very good question,...
- [‘How an Ex-gay Ministry Set Me Free’ to Be Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2004/10/how-an-ex-gay-m/): Credibility suffers a bit whenever identity can’t be verified, but this person’s anonymous testimony at GayHealth.com is still worth reading, because it exemplifies a common ex-exgay observation: Ex-gay ministries often (inadvertently) help gay people accept themselves and live healthier lives.
- [Taking Responsibility for Our Lives](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/taking-responsi/): It’s encouraging to see the spate of recent articles like this opinion piece from the Palm Springs Desert Sun, talking honestly about certain kinds of reckless behavior in the gay community (in this case, use of crystal meth) and how we can combat them. I question the emphasis on low self-esteem as the scapegoat for the gay community’s ills–I’d rather we emphasize self-control and personal responsibility–but we’re clearly going in the right direction in taking up this conversation.  I bet you’ve already guessed how I’ll link this back to the ex-gay question, right?  If you read the testimonials of famous ex-gays...
- [Evangelical Warns of Movement’s Materialism, Worldliness](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/evangelical-war/): Christianity Today interviews evangelical Ron Sider, who for decades has preached — better than I can — against the anticommunity individualism, legalism, materialism, worldliness and general hypocrisy that seem to be not only consuming the religious right, but hobbling U.S. evangelicals and born-again Christians as well. The conservative CT doesn’t often spotlight well-balanced Christians, but I give the magazine some credit now — Sider appears to be one of them.
- [PFOX Scores Near-Miss on Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/pfox-scores-nea/): They’ve opposed the inclusion of sexual orientation in hate crimes laws. Now they’re calling for the inclusion of former homosexuals in a Maryland hate-crimes bill that would add "sexual orientation" to an existing state hate-crimes law. Antigay parents group illogically PFOX claims, as it has before, that heterosexuals and exgays aren’t covered by "sexual orientation." And they decline to tell the public why, exactly, their benign-but-superfluous amendment to a hate crimes bill was rejected. PFOX goes on to misstate the reasons why its literature was declined by Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools. The literature and its rejection are detailed at teachthefacts.org....
- [Ex-Gays Join ADF’s “Day of Truth”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/ex-gays-join-ad/): Given the smashing success [sarcasm] that was “National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day” the religious right has created “Day of Truth” this Thursday following GLSEN’s “Day of Silence.” What does this have to do with ex-gays you ask? Well if you go to ADF’s page “Partners in the Day of Truth” you’ll see Stephen Bennett Ministries is listed as a partner organization. Further down that page the ONLY TWO references which appear under the header “Related Information” are a link to “Read the testimony of former homosexual Stephen Bennett” and a link to Love Won Out. I’m not sure what conclusions,...
- [A Brief History of Daniel Gonzales](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/a-brief-history/): After finding myself sending Mike numerous emails to the effect of “please post this” (including the one below) I’ve decided to join the team here at XGW. I’m Daniel Gonzales, a single 24 year old apprentice architect in Long Beach, California. I grew up in the youth group at my American Baptist church where we were told “gay sex” was sin but when honestly inquisitive kids asked, “how can to men who don’t have vaginas have sex?” it went unanswered by the adult leadership. Our church bulletin regularly contained propaganda instructing us to boycott Disney for giving benefits to it’s gay...
- [Exgay Teen Radio Program a Prisoner of Its Own Rhetoric](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/exgay-teen-radi/): By Dan Gonzales Last Saturday, "Life On The Edge Live," Focus on the Family’s two-hour teen radio show, dealt exclusively with homosexuality and the guest was Scott Davis of Exodus Youth. Davis contributes little more than a few poorly chosen, inflammatory quotes; plugs Alliance Defense Fund’s Day of Truth and claims "tens of thousands of people have been helped" out of homosexuality. Real Audio / Windows Media Hosts Susie Shellenberger and Steve Russo typically take even-tempered and compassionate stands on social issues compared to other Focus outlets. But tonight I believe Shellenberger said the word "hell" more than any other program...
- [My XGW Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/my-xgw-agenda/): In case anyone is curious, I’d like to fill you in on how I came to be an XGW contributor. It actually started with a negative review I wrote of XGW over at my own blog, questioning the notion that there is a need for a site such as this. That post initiated a conversation between Mike and me which led me, ultimately, to change my mind:  I now firmly believe in the important work of sites like XGW.  I think I can speak for Mike in saying that we are here not to bash individual ex-gays, but to call attention...
- [Support for Gay Marriage Declining?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/support-for-gay/): I’m not sure if it’s true, but it has the folks at the Conservative Voice all atwitter. The press release comes complete with an approving quote from Exodus rep Randy Thomas. It’s a good reminder that the real agenda of the Ex-Gay movement is to halt advancing civil rights for gay people. We at XGW fully support the right of ex-gay people to live as they wish and to define their sexuality in whatever way they choose.  We respectfully request that they not try to deny us that same liberty.
- [Another Study on Gene Theory](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/another-study-o/): Covered by Agape Press and followed, of course, by the requisite bleating press release from Warren Throckmorton, denouncing the reported findings. Blah, blah, blah. On a philosophical level, getting bogged down in the genetics debate will get us absolutely nowhere.  Is homosexuality genetic?  I believe it to be, but until someone proves (or disproves) it definitively the argument is a dead end.  For now, who cares? That conversation is fruitless because it’s simply hair-splitting about how we got here.  I’m far more interested in the fact that we ARE here…and now that we are, what everyone is going to do about...
- [Apologies From Mike](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/apologies-from/): My real-world partner Steve and I are hosting out-of-town relatives this week. A handful of XGW readers has been sending helpful news tips via e-mail; I’ll catch up with these messages as soon as I can.
- [Exgays: What Are They Good For?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/exgays-what-are/): I’m just musing here, but it occurs to me that in some ways the existence of the ex-gay movement does the gay movement quite a bit of good. Consider: there was a time when the leaders of the Religious Right would sooner cut off their hands than admit to having a friend who is homosexual.  Now, ex-gays are bona fide Prodigal Sons for the fundies.  Whether they mean to or not, ex-gays are our ambassadors–to some degree–reaching the hardest hearts in Christendom in a way we never could.  Because of them, the fundies are at least considering gay issues, and having...
- [Gay Writer Keith Boykin, Readers Assess Exgay Darryl Foster](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/gay-writer-keit/): Gay writer Keith Boykin says that he has been receiving considerable criticism via e-mail in response to an old article criticizing exgay activist Donnie McClurkin. Among the critics: another ex-gay activist, Darryl L. Foster. Participants in Boykin’s discussion forum are discussing Foster’s mail — and his web site. (Previous XGW coverage of Foster and McClurkin)
- [Conservatives And Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/conservatives-a/): One thing that always strikes me when discussing gay rights with conservatives, is their underlying wish (sometimes expressed explicitly) that the whole issue will just "go away." I understand that impulse to some degree. We humans like ordered systems, and we tire of dealing with issues which defy clear classification. It would be easier if everything were black and white, if women were women and men were men, etc. Nevertheless, gay (and intersexed, and bisexual, and transgendered) people do exist, as a small but consistent subpopulation. To have any kind of adult conversation addressing that reality, we must force conservatives to...
- [Leaving Fundamentalism](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/leaving-fundame/): David L. Rattigan launched LeavingFundamentalism.org in mid-March, according to WHOIS. Already, Leaving Fundamentalism has numerous thoughtful articles of interest to Christians who are recovering from the ravages of fundamentalism. Well worth a look.
- [About Joe Kort](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/about-joe-kort/): Joe Kort, psychotherapist, has been in practice since 1985. He specializes in Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy as well as IMAGO Relationship Therapy. Joe also specializes in sexual addiction, childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse, depression and anxiety. He offers workshops for couples and singles. He runs a gay men’s group therapy and a men’s sexuality group therapy for straight, bi and gay men who are struggling with specific sexual issues. His therapy services are for gays and lesbians as well as heterosexuals. He graduated from Michigan State University with dual majors, in Psychology and Social Work. At Wayne State University, he earned...
- [About Steve B. (Bose)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/about-steve-b-b/): Steve B. is a writer on alcoholism-awareness and alternative-treatment issues. He specializes in moderation management.
- [About Mike Airhart](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/about-mike-airh/): Mike Airhart is a business news editor, online content specialist, and free-lance writer. He has a B.A. in Communication. In college, he specialized in the study of human rights violations committed against Latin American Christians by conservative dictatorships in the 1980s. He has worked for Sojourners magazine and the World Bank. He has volunteered for Whitman-Walker Clinic and Men Can Stop Rape. He currently volunteers for the Independent Gay Forum. Mike has a B.A. in Communication from the University of Dayton. Politically, he is an independent — neither liberal, nor conservative.
- [A Constructive Alternative to Exgay Road Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/a-constructive/): "Love Won Out" had an unintended but positive effect on the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Straight and Allies organization at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Burdened by heavy religious-right surveillance, strict ideological correctness, spiritual conformity, and political partisanship, the "Love Won Out" antigay road show in Houston left some conference attendees feeling as though they were subjected to a police state. The UTMB group responded to the Exodus-Focus on the Family conference with a public forum (scheduled for yesterday) in which, unlike LWO, "a healthy, positive, loving view of gays and lesbians can be shared." According to the Galveston County Daily...
- [Media Cloud the Picture of Boy Scouts Child-porn Offender](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/media-cloud-the/): The Washington Blade’s Steve Koval notes that several news media outlets have been squeamish about discussing the nature of the child porn that was discovered in the possession of former Boy Scouts national program director Douglas S. Smith Jr., who was found to be in possession of child porn. The latest word: Smith is a married, antigay, heterosexual man <u>with children</u>, who was found to possess sexually explicit depictions of pre-pubescent boys. Smith has pleaded guilty. Addendum: Au Waipang of Singapore analyzes the association (actually, the absence of one) between homosexuality and pedophilia. A note to XGW commenters: Links to other...
- [Exgay Network Launches School Antitolerance Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/exgay-network-l/): Exodus has launched Groundswell 2005, a campaign that declares: Homosexual activists are using the public schools to promote dangerous life policies. How will you respond? confront gay activism and promote good school policies reach all students with truth and compassion answer theological and social questions while ministering in love share your powerful story in public arenas (or) ignore it and hope it goes away?? The campaign is a series of one-day antigay conferences planned, starting in May, for Boston, Louisville, Orlando, and Seattle. The campaign web site neglects to disclose Exodus policies: supporting antigay discrimination supporting the restoration of antisex laws...
- [Pro-exgay Pundit Criticizes Dear Abby](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/pro-exgay-pundi/): On March 30, pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton criticized Dear Abby, who in a recent column told a parent: "It is not uncommon for the parents of a gay child to feel guilt or shame, when in truth, it has nothing to do with the quality of their parenting and everything to do with genetics." Throckmorton’s objection to an overemphasis on genetics is understandable. But Throckmorton also objects to the columnist’s referral list for parents with gay children: He says the parents’ group PFLAG and the D.C. Children’s Hospital "perpetuate the belief that homosexuality is an inborn identity with no words of...
- [Gay Quaker Calls Anti-exgay Protests Counterproductive](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/gay-quaker-call/): Stop the counterprotests against ex-gays — or at least rethink them, says Michigan-based Quaker (Christian) gay-issues director Michael Gibson Faith.  In an article today at PrideSource.com, Gibson Faith says gay counterprotests tend to: reinforce the biased language of antigay activists divert gay resources from community-building subtract from lobbying for pro-tolerance legislation exhaust time that would be better spent building ties with communities of faith In other words: Act, don’t react.
- [PFOX, Pro-exgay Pundit Seek Special Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/pfox-pro-exgay/): AP reported today (via Newsday) that Prof. Warren Throckmorton had been "removed" from a national advisory board of Magellan Health Services. That much appears to be false: Previous media reports said that Magellan had rethought its decision to renew Throckmorton’s board position when his contract expired. And nothing is reported to have changed at Magellan since then. The new article does not quote Magellan on any "removal." What qualifies as "developing news," but is buried in the AP story, is not a "removal"; it is PFOX’s accusation that Magellan discriminates against exgays. On March 24, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs —...
- [Bisexuality, Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/bisexuality-ex/): Jon Rowe has been blogging recently on the nature of bisexuality.  Jon’s a very smart guy and his posts always provide interesting reading–and there are some implications there for the gay/ex-gay conversation. Even the most optimistic ex-gay proponents and researchers acknowledge that reparative therapy has a modest success rate. Few ex-gays report a true "conversion" experience; the remainder simply learn to cope by maneuvering around their natural sexuality. Following Jon’s breakdown, it’s possible that some Kinsey 4’s and 5’s (people who ordinarily would not "flourish in any other relationship than a homosexual one"), are able–through force of will–to suppress their natural...
- [Who Killed Terri Schiavo?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/who-killed-terr/): 1. Terri Schiavo. She killed herself when her bulimic behavior led to a persistent and, in time, irreversible persistent vegetative state. 2. Michael Schiavo. He removed the artificial feeding system that either kept Ms. Schiavo’s body alive, or prolonged her death, depending upon one’s perspective. He deserves conditional public sympathy. 3. The Schindlers and the religious right Instead of arguing their case based on traditional bioethics and convincing lawmakers to amend Florida law, the Schindlers and the religious right took the low road: They publicly distorted Terri’s medical condition, waged a campaign of character assassination against Michael Schiavo, and sought out...
- [About Joe Riddle](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/about-joe-riddl/): Greetings, Everyone! Thanks very much to Mike for giving me the chance to guest-blog on his site. XGW is a great resource, and I’m excited by the challenge of being part of it. I was hoping to get a post up before now, but work has (unexpectedly) been intense this week. First, a bit about me: as Mike mentioned I am a gay Mormon and I was involved with the Mormon ex-gay group, Evergeen, for several years. I’m also one of 13 children. Of my brothers and sisters I’m the only one who is out as gay (I have one brother...
- [Researchers: Don’t Trouble Us with Exgay Facts](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/researchers-don/): "Atheist psychiatrist argues that gays can change," reports Christianity Today. That subheadline, a misquote, is refuted by the story’s first paragraph — which acknowledges that only "some" people can sustain significant change in sexual attraction after undergoing various exgay programs. In the interview that follows, Columbia University professor Dr. Robert L. Spitzer acknowledges the following: Spitzer submitted a summary of results during his 2001 study of exgays to the head of NARTH, Joseph Nicolosi, as a price to obtain Nicolosi’s further assistance with the study. Spitzer misrepresents the clearly explained objections of his colleagues to the methodological weaknesses of his study....
- [Ex-Gay Watch: A New Author, a Small Shift in Direction](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/ex-gay-watch-a-2/): Please welcome Joe Riddle as an author for Ex-Gay Watch. Joe has first-hand experience with the exgay movement, as a former participant in the Mormon exgay organization Evergreen. Joe will be writing on a variety of topics, including the healthy moral, social and political territory that lies somewhere in between extremes of drunken bareback barfly promiscuity (remembered with disgust by some exgays), and the religious right’s own unethical conduct and cultural warfare. Welcome, Joe! Also, this website will be undergoing some design changes. Long overdue: An FAQ for commenters, and prominent links to past articles that, given greater prominence, would make...
- [Biased About Bias: Exodus, Focus on the Family Rant At Magellan Health](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/biased-about-bi/): TO: Ex-Gay Watch (via e-mail) CC: Focus on the Family (via e-mail) RE: Focus on the Family broadcast, 3/22/05 It’s somewhat odd that today on FNIF, Alan Chambers is whining about discrimination by a private corporation, Magellan Health Services, saying quote, “people are trying to tell others what to do,” and “everyone should have the right to self-determination.” This obviously reeks of hypocrisy: Exodus and FOTF are consistently telling happy and healthy gay Americans exactly what they should do and of course promoting discrimination against them, such as recently with Procter & Gamble. It is odd they’re crying against discrimination, when...
- [Exgay Pundit Threatens U.S. Judiciary Over Terri Schiavo Case](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/exgay-pundit-th-2/): Most bloggers and pundits have taken sides in the Terri Schiavo debacle, and a few have actually contributed constructively to the debate. Among them: Charles Krauthammer. You may count Exodus official and part-time FRC pundit Randy Thomas among the "most" but not among the "few." His recent finger-wagging string of insults and threats embarrasses the cause of those who believe in providing basic sustenance (but not extraordinary life support) to the severely disabled or the not-quite-brain-dead. Thomas’ subject line: "Mike Schiavo, his lawyer Felos and the Judiciary should pull up a chair next to Scott Peterson." How Christian of him: An...
- [Reacting to Scandal, PFOX Changes the Subject](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/reacting-to-sca/): In a March 18 op-ed in The Washington Blade, aggrieved-parents group PFOX responds publicly to the disclosure (months ago) that its president, Richard Cohen, had been expelled from the American Counseling Association for ethical violations in 2002. Speaking for PFOX, Cohen responds not by directly addressing his loss of professional credentials, but by questioning unrelated claims by activist Wayne Besen. Here is Besen’s response, as e-mailed to Ex-Gay Watch:
- [Are Exgay Groups Ever Worthy of Support?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/are-exgay-group/): Jackie asked: Suppose Exodus changed their beliefs to be in line with what you described. But suppose that they continue to assert that "SOME people can and do change their orientation to certain degrees, and we would like to help those who want to change change." Would you still frown upon Exodus? I used to be an active participant at Bridges Across the Divide. From 1997 to 2001, in the Bridges online discussion forums, I occasionally boasted that if Exodus would stop bullying and smearing gay people (and shouting down science and non-fundamentalist faith)  as a means of advancing itself, then...
- [Factoid: American Medical Association Position on Exgay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoid-america-3/): American Medical Association position on reparative therapy and health care for the homosexual The AMA: opposes, the use of "reparative" or "conversion" therapy that is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation. In other words, the AMA does not reject exgay therapy per se, but opposes therapists who equate homosexuality with sickness or who assume, regardless of the individual patient, that orientation should be changed.
- [1997: Focus on the Family Co-founder Apologizes to Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/1997-focus-on-t/): PRESS CONFERENCE A statement to the press on August 15, 1997 at the Gay and Lesbian PrideCenter, 125 N. Parkside Drive Colorado Springs, Colo., Offices of Ground Zero Colorado Springs A Public Apology and Appeal by Gil Alexander-Moegerle Co-Founder of Focus on the Family (909) 592-6660 Contact: Frank Whitworth or GMoegerle@AOL.COM Julie Cooper 719-635-6086 Gary Boetchner 719-535-0320 Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I have a statement and then I am happy to take questions. My name is Gil Alexander-Moegerle. I live in Los Angeles with my wife Carolyn and I’m the proud parent of three great young people and the grandfather of...
- [Factoids: Critiques of Antigay Researcher Paul Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoids-critiq/): Dr. Gregory Herek:The facts about Paul Cameron Mark E. Pietrzyk, The New Republic, October 3, 1994:Queer Science Rainbow Alliance:Paul Cameron: The conservative Christian art of misrepresenting statistics Press Complaints Commission (United Kingdom), July 15, 1997The commission upheld a complaint against a media report. The report had called Paul Cameron’s fraud and misrepresentations "not opinion, it is fact."
- [Factoids: Political Assessments of Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoids-politi/): Political Research AssociatesCalculated Compassion: How the Ex-Gay movement Serves the Right’s Attack on Democracy National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, PRA, Equal Partners in FaithChallenging the Ex-Gay Movement: An information packet (PDF format) HRC comments on NARTHMission Impossible: Why reparative therapy and ex-gay ministries fail(PDF format) Finally Free: How Love and Self-Acceptance Saved Us from the Ex-Gay MinistriesPersonal ex-exgay testimonies, hosted by HRC (PDF format)
- [Factoid: Pediatric Policy on Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoid-pediatr/): American Academy of PediatricsHomosexuality and Adolescence, American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, October 1993 Confusion about sexual orientation is not unusual during adolescence. Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.  
- [Reviews: Research on the Effectiveness And Safety of Reparative Or Conversion Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/reviews-researc/): Dr. Gregory HerekAttempts to Change Sexual Orientation Douglas Haldeman, Ph.D. The Pseudo-Science Of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy(PDF format) Jeramy TownsleyBibliographies: Assessments of evidence for change of sexual orientation Reparative Therapy: Statements by professional associations and their leadersReligiousTolerance.org
- [Factoid: American Psychological Association Exgay Q&A](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoid-america-2/): American Psychological Association exgay Q&A The Q&A answers questions including: What Is Sexual Orientation?What Causes a Person To Have a Particular Sexual Orientation?Is Sexual Orientation a Choice?Can Therapy Change Sexual Orientation?What About So-Called "Conversion Therapies"?Is Homosexuality a Mental Illness or Emotional Problem?Can Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals Be Good Parents? Also of interest:American Psychological AssociationGuidelines for Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients
- [James Dobson’s False Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/james-dobsons-f/): Soulforce is an interfaith organization that organizes nonviolent resistance to spiritual violence against gay and gay-tolerant individuals. In conjunction with its prayer vigil this year at Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, Soulforce is distributing a booklet on Focus co-founder James Dobson. The booklet is free online; hard copies are available for a donation. A FALSE FOCUS ON MY FAMILY: Why every person of faith should be deeply troubled by Dr. James Dobson’s dangerous and misleading words about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community  By Jeff Lutes, M.S., L.P.C. Table of Contents: Foreword: Mary Barber, M.D., President of...
- [Factoid: American Psychiatric Association Position on Exgay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/factoid-america/): The American Psychiatric Association position paper (PDF format) on reparative or conversion therapiesMarch 2000 The potential risks of "reparative therapy" are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient. Many patients who have undergone "reparative therapy" relate that they were inaccurately told that homosexuals are lonely, unhappy individuals who never achieve acceptance or satisfaction. The possibility that the person might achieve happiness and satisfying interpersonal relationships as a gay man or lesbian is not presented, nor are alternative approaches to dealing with the effects of societal...
- [Throckmorton Interviews Mrs. SpongeBob](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/throckmorton-in/): Pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton "interviews" Mrs. SpongeBob. Throckmorton joins James Dobson in accusing the We Are Family Foundation, without substantiation, of promoting "gay rights causes." (Previous XGW coverage.) Not that XGW thinks there’s anything wrong with including gay people in a call for tolerance among children…. (Hat tip: Regan DuCasse)
- [Health Provider Removes Pro-exgay Pundit From Advisory Panel](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/health-provider/): From Focus on the Family’s "Family News in Focus" radio broadcast and an accompanying article for March 3, 2005: Magellan Health Services, the largest health care provider in the United States, has dropped Dr. Warren Throckmorton from an advisory panel after five years. According to Focus on the Family, Throckmorton was dropped because he believes homosexuality is not a fixed condition. But in the radio interview, Throckmorton refers only vaguely to unspecified "views" that Magellan allegedly found objectionable. In fact, some of Throckmorton’s controversial views have little to do with the mutability of sexual orientation. Scroll to 6:07 for the broadcast:...
- [British Exgay Group Defends Death Penalty for Homosexuals](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/british-exgay-g/): British gay human rights group OutRage is criticizing London mayor Ken Livingstone criticism, after the mayor thanked the anti-gay Islamic StraightWay Foundation for supporting his embrace of antigay cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi. In addition to promoting al-Qaradawi, the Islamic exgay group defends fatwas, of “scholars” and Islamic political parties, that advocate the death penalty for public displays of homosexuality. Google finds several U.S. exgay web sites, including Courage, NARTH, and Richard Cohen, that offer referrals and favorable reviews for StraightWay.
- [Exgay’s Funeral Stunt Embarrasses Catholic Diocese of San Diego](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/exgays-funeral/): Revised Mar. 23, 2005 Earlier this month, American Family Association propaganda service AgapePress profiled James Hartline, an HIV-positive exgay activist. Hartline claimed to be battling "taxpayer-funded gay bathhouses" in San Diego, but AgapePress offered no substantiation for the accusation. As portrayed by AgapePress, Hartline seems to have nothing balanced or constructive to say about gay people. Instead, he says, "I’m very much involved in going around and educating churches and civic groups on the destruction within the homosexual community and how that’s affecting our families and our children." Instead of blaming his own, specific, unsafe activities for his illness, Hartline says...
- [Wisconsin Group to Gays: Tolerate Imprisonment](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/wisconsin-group/): Without a trace of criticism, Exodus exgay media blogger Nancy Brown promotes AgapePress’ March 4 defense of Wisconsin Christians United as a group of martyrs assaulted by the "violent heart" of gay Americans. First, some context: WCU papered the homes of Burlington, Wis., with tracts that demand the prosecution and punishment of gay people, and that (based on "studies" by discredited activist Paul Cameron), define same-sex-attracted people as diseased pedophiles and cannibals. (AgapePress obscures the issue, euphemistically describing the literature merely as "a biblical message about homosexuality.") In response to the threatening tracts, WCU says, one man began "assaulting" the antigay...
- [Activist Calls PFOX Leader Richard Cohen ‘dishonest’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/activist-calls/): In correspondence published in January 2005 by Teach The Facts, the professional American Counseling Association said it found merit in six specific ethical-misconduct charges against ex-gay activist Richard Cohen. ACA said it approved the charges, which were sufficient for membership expulsion for life. Cohen ‘s expulsion was made final in May 2002. (Previous XGW coverage.) From The Washington Blade, March 4, 2005: Wayne Besen tells the Blade that Cohen has, for three years and counting, failed to disclose his expulsion to the public through the religious-right media that he uses to promote reparative-therapy activism. "This speaks to the very base of...
- [Focus/Family: ‘Satan Uses’ Equality Activists](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/focusfamily-sat/): News from Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay road show in Houston, Feb. 19, 2005. From the Galveston Daily News: Bill Maier, child/family psychologist and vice president at Focus on the Family, led a special session on same-sex marriage, encouraging attendees to push for a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. “Satan uses the activist movement to further his goals here on earth,” he said. “If our government redefines marriage, Satan will be laughing all the way to the bank.” Efforts to promote discrimination were reportedly not limited to marriage: Besides “Someone I Love is Gay” and “Reaching...
- [The Ban Has Been Lifted!](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/03/the-ban-has-bee/): The Ban Has Been Lifted! By Joe Kort, MSW I am not talking about the government’s "Don’t ask, don’t tell" policy on gays in the military. I’m talking about my walking down the Barbie aisle at my local toy store. My sister recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl — her first, after three boys over the last eight years. My eldest nephew is all boy and not interested n anything pink or "girly" in any way — despite my best efforts! Believe me I tried. When he was three, I steered him into the Barbie Department to see if...
- [Vigil Against Alleged Untruths At Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/vigil-against-a/): The faith-based, gay-affirming organization Soulforce is gearing up for a May 1 vigil at Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. Soulforce contends that Focus on the Family resorts to numerous untruths against gay and lesbian people and their families. Soulforce has created deardrdobson.com to advocate nonviolent opposition to James Dobson’s antigay bigotry. Soulforce invites concerned people of faith to travel to Colorado Springs and join in the vigil.
- [Exgay Trackback Spam](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/exgay-trackback/): A few weeks back, I got fed up with Scattered Words’ repeated insertion of duplicate trackbacks, or links to Scattered Words, into pages at Ex-Gay Watch. I eventually went back and deleted Scattered Words’ old link insertions on XGW pages. I also blocked Scattered Words from posting new links, and last week I complained to SW blogger "Ben." As readers will see from the linked discussion, I indicated to "Ben" that his duplicate link insertions were unwelcome. But if he had any objections to Ex-Gay Watch posts, I said, he was welcome to comment on-site at XGW. Instead of responding constructively,...
- [Exgays in Houston: Which Side Is Being Intolerant?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/exgays-in-houst/): In a Feb. 15 American Family Association article that is reprinted as a Feb. 18 press release, exgay umbrella group Exodus accuses unnamed "homosexual activists" of intolerance toward Focus on the Family’s "Love Won Out" exgay road show this weekend. Chambers quotes no actual gay activists; instead, Chambers offers strawman arguments, claiming that unidentified gay people view Focus on the Family’s ideology as "hateful" and alleging that "many people involved in or supportive of the homosexual lifestyle don’t want the truth to be told." But Chambers offers no evidence of an effort to obstruct the event. He seems unable distinguish between...
- [Oops. Exgays Hand HRC a Valentine, Thanks to Dolly Parton](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/oops-exgays-han/): A member of Southern gospel singer Kirk Talley’s exgay restoration team sang backup on a song Dolly Parton recorded a few years back, when he worked for her at Dollywood in eastern Tennessee. Parton has since given that song, Sugar Hill, which appeared on her 2002 project Halos and Horns, to the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign for a Valentine’s Day compilation CD for sale on the HRC website. Read all about it from Southern gospel music blogger Averyfineline. There’s no indication that Parton’s backup singers approve of HRC family values — and exgay Melissa Fryrear of Focus on the...
- [Facts Vs. Bias in Media Coverage of Maryland Sex Education](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/facts-vs-bias-i/): David Fishback, chairman of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Board of Education’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development, responds in the Washington area’s new Examiner newspaper to exgay movement claims against the school district’s comprehensive sex-ed curriculum. The misinformation was reprinted, apparently without fact-checking, in a Feb. 7 Examiner editorial. Re: "Even Kinsey fans value different ideas" editorial, Feb. 7. Welcome to Washington. It’s good to have another newspaper in the area. But before characterizing the actions of local governments, it’s essential The Examiner check the facts — not simply rely on press reports or Internet blogs. Unfortunately, the...
- [Documentary Seeks Brothers: One Gay, One Antigay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/documentary-see/): Allan Johnson wrote to Ex-Gay Watch with an update to the original post that appeared on this page. I have deleted the earlier comments, simply because they were based on older information. Allan Johnson is working on a documentary series entitled "Thirty Days" with Morgan Spurlock, the producer/writer/star of "Super Size Me," which is currently nominated for an Oscar. The project also includes R.J. Cutler, who won an Oscar for his documentary, "The War Room." For one segment of the documentary, Johnson seeks pairs of brothers — one brother gay, the other antigay. The intent is to move the antigay brother...
- [Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/free-speech-for/): Demanding free speech for themselves, antigay parents in inland California on Feb. 11 angrily protested free expression by high school students who chose to support gay marriage by acting out such ceremonies as a form of political protest. While many may view the students’ tactic as counterproductive, it is arguably less offensive — and more solidly protected as a form of free speech — than Michael Marcavage’s efforts to shout down speakers and disrupt celebrations at a gay entertainment festival in Philadelphia. Years ago, Exodus official Randy Thomas might have counseled such parents to reflect the love and compassion of Jesus...
- [Dr. Jeffrey Satinover: Sexual Orientation Is a ‘fiction’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/dr-jeffrey-sati/): In an interview with Marvin Olasky for World magazine, longtime exgay movement pundit Dr. Jeffrey Satinover argues that because: homosexuality is not a uniform attribute across individuals, sexual attraction fluctuates, and homosexuality cannot easily be measured therefore sexual orientation is a fiction and it is, Satinover argues, ludicrous to allow civil rights for a group of people whose condition does not exist. Satinover asserts that some homosexuals’ attractions drift in a heterosexual direction, but does not acknowledge that the opposite also happens. Satinover also injects his own political biases into a recollection of the American Psychiatric Association, and accuses the professional...
- [Alan Keyes Sets Bad Example for Antigay Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/alan-keyes-sets/): Some 69 times, the web site of exgay movement marketer and financier Focus on the Family promotes antigay politician and commentator Alan Keyes. So did this cached page from exgay activist Stephen’s Bennett’s web site — until someone very recently deleted the page. And Keyes was the keynote speaker for the 1999 conference of aggrieved-parents group PFOX. Yesterday The Washington Post confirmed that Keyes and his wife have kicked 19-year-old daughter Maya out of the house, denied her support for college, and stopped talking with her, due in part to Maya’s decision to be publicly honest about her sexual orientation. Money...
- [Uniform Hate Crime Statistics Are Not So Uniform](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/uniform-hate-cr/): Uniform Hate Crime Statistics Are Not So Uniform By Jim BurrowayUpdated version, March 29, 2005  "Gay-slaying verdict: guilty." This was the top story on the Jan. 28 front page of the Arizona Daily Star. It was good to see another blow for justice, and it makes me proud to live in a community that takes these things seriously. □■□ Anti-gay activists are eager to point to the FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics as evidence that gays and lesbians are not particularly "oppressed" compared to anybody else. But as is always the case in such contentions, there is more to the story...
- [Ex-exgay Peterson Toscano’s ‘a-musing’ Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/ex-exgay-peters/): Peterson Toscano, gay Christian (Quaker) creator of the sensitively written one-man comedy, "Doin’ Time in the Homo NoMo Halfway House," has resumed blogging. Check out A Musing, a blend of poetry and personal reflection.
- [Exgay Testimonial: Roberta Laurila](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/exgay-testimoni/): Exodus seems to be updating its web site’s exgay testimonials — several pages of the Exodus web site have been added or changed, according to Google. Among the updates is a testimonial by Roberta Laurila, who says she left "lesbianism" in 1969 after a dear friend, whom she had betrayed, committed suicide. Laurila’s testimony seems sincere and heartfelt. I’m glad she’s happier now than in her younger days. At the same time, however, she avoids addressing several obvious questions: 1. What is lesbianism? 2. Is Laurila still attracted to other women? Is the attraction sexual, or romantic, or both? Why does...
- [Gay Penguins Reject Exgay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/gay-penguins-re/): Six gay male German penguins rejected advances from four hot Swedish penguinettes. From 365gay.com: "The males pined for their mates until they were reunited." In related news, 365gay notes that exgay therapy thus far has failed to make New York’s gay penguin couple Roy and Silo behave heterosexually, though the pair has apparently split up. Roy experimented with a female penguin, then stopped. (Hat tip: ExExGayMinistry Yahoo group) Ananova reports: The zoo has said that it will try again in Spring 2006, because the penguins are an endangered species and need to be encouraged to breed.
- [Antigay Swedish Pastor Wins Appeal in Defense of Hate Speech](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/antigay-swedish/): From The Washington Post, Feb. 12: A Swedish appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction of a Pentecostal pastor found guilty of violating the country’s hate-speech law. The court ruled that the Rev. Ake Green had a right to preach "the Bible’s categorical condemnation of homosexual relations as a sin," even if that position was "alien to most citizens" and if Green’s views could be "strongly questioned," according to news-service translations of the court’s ruling. The appeals court ruled that Sweden’s law was never intended to stifle open discussion of homosexuality or restrict a pastor’s right to preach. But, contrary to...
- [700 Club Implies Former NFL Player Is Ex-gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/700-club-implie/): Former NFL player Roy Simmons came out as gay in 1992. (Google search.) After disappearing from the public eye for a decade, he now tells The 700 Club that he lived out a prolonged nightmare of childhood molestation, drugs, prostitution, and sex with men and women — and he blames homosexuality as much as, or instead of, his own behavioral choices. Sometime after discovering he was HIV-positive, Simmons was born-again spiritually. The 700 Club wishes for its audience to believe Simmons is a former homosexual: Roy has learned much from his pastor about his former lifestyle. "We spoke on and learned...
- [Zoo Attempts Exgay Therapy on Penguin Couples](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/zoo-attempts-ex/): 365gay.com, Feb. 8: A German zoo is trying “to cure” three gay penguin couples using a form of aversion therapy. The Bremerhaven Zoo is splitting up the couples, and has imported four female penguins from Sweden which it will use to try to “turn” the penguins “straight”. According to 365gay, New York has its own gay penguin couple, Roy and Silo — and a Japanese professor, Keisuke Ueda, has counted 20 same-sex pairs at 16 major aquariums and zoos.
- [Ex-gay Promotes Indiana Ban on Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/ex-gay-promotes/): From Dan Gonzales: Advocate OutQ News, which is broadcast on Sirius satellite radio, features a short clip of exgay activist Brad Grammar speaking in favor of an Indiana anti-gay-marriage amendment.  Near the end of the Windows Media Player broadcast, Grammar says that gays — not marriage — should change. Grammar directs Hope and New Life Ministries in Indianapolis.
- [Wallis: Democrats Must Rediscover Pro-life Moral Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/wallis-democrat/): In an interview with Christianity Today, progressive evangelical Jim Wallis — who has argued for many years that religious fundamentalists have too much influence in the Republican Party and secular fundamentalists have too much influence in the Democratic Party — advises Democratic leaders to reclaim the political high ground of drawing policies from underlying values and principles. Specifically, Wallis advises the leadership to build bridges with pro-life Democrats to devote more resources to preventing unwanted pregnancy, rather than simply defending the tragic last resort of abortion. Wallis: The pope opposed John Kerry on abortion and opposed George Bush on the war...
- [Throckmorton Offers Exgay Spin on Study of Gay Genetics](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/throckmorton-of/): Pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton issued the press release "New Genetics Study Undermines Gay Gene Theory" on Feb. 9. Exgay activist group Exodus International reprinted the press release on its own web site on Feb. 11. In the press release, Throckmorton — who lacks professional expertise in genetics — apparently misconstrues the findings of a study, "A Genomewide Scan of Male Sexual Orientation," published in the March 2005 issue of Human Genetics. Brian Stanley Mustanski, lead author of the study, has published a copy of the report online along with a non-technical summary and Q&A that clarifies the scientific jargon and responds...
- [Gay Web Sites Delink Ex-gay ‘crisis’ Line](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/gay-web-sites-d/): From the Houston Voice (Feb. 11): Four gay and lesbian Web sites that unknowingly listed the National Youth Crisis Hotline as a resource have deleted referrals to the hotline in response to a recent Houston Voice story that exposed the hotline’s gay bias. The hotline, also know as 1-800-HIT-HOME, recently referred Houston teen Jeffry Faircloth to Exodus, which claims it can change sexual orientation. Faircloth said he called a few years ago as he was beginning the coming-out process. The person who answered the phone told him that homosexuality was a sin, read him scripture and referred him to the ex-gay...
- [Demand for Virginia Schools to Showcase Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/demand-for-virg/): In suburban Virginia, the Fairfax County school board censured Stephen M. Hunt for using his authority as a board member to pressure principals into inviting ex-gays into the district’s classrooms. Highlights in the media: DCist summarizes. 365gay.com, Feb. 3: School Board Official Tells Schools To Bring In Ex-Gay Speakers 365gay.com, Feb. 4: School Board Censures Official Over ‘Ex-Gays’ Letter. In his apology, Hunt “said he does not want the school’s curriculum to change but added that he is concerned that students who believe homosexuality is wrong cannot express their opinion without being considered discriminatory.” The Washington Times, Feb. 9: The Moonie-owned...
- [Keith Boykin: 10 Things You Should Know About the Down Low](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/keith-boykin-10/): Keith Boykin skillfully separates facts from media hype and political propaganda.
- [The Old Design Is Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/the-old-design/): Until I find time to implement the new one. I welcome constructive criticism.
- [Hate Crimes: After 15 Years, What Progress?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/hate-crimes-aft/): In late 1989, I wrote the following article about hate crimes statistics. The article was published by Sojourners, a progressive Christian evangelical magazine that publishes economically liberal and socially conservative views consistent with the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s "seamless garment" ethic of life. The purpose of this article was not to address the magazine’s low-key disagreement with homosexual behavior, but rather to put the magazine boldly on record against spiraling antigay violence in the late 1980s. Largely because of opposition from Sen. Jesse Helms, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act did not pass that year; it passed in 1990 and was signed...
- [First They Came For Bert And Ernie](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/first-they-came/): By Joe Kort(Corrected Edition) As the years go by, a growing number of cartoon characters have been forcibly "outed." I am amazed that anyone would be concerned about the sexual and romantic orientation of any imaginary two-dimensional figure? First it was poor Bert and Ernie of "Sesame Street". These two beloved American figures were minding their own business, taking baths together, singing silly songs together (probably Broadway tunes), sleeping in the same twin beds — with a picture of them both together over the headboard. Best buds they were! Bachelors at best. And then in 1990, the Reverend Joseph Chambers, a...
- [Protecting Maryland Marriage, Pastor Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/02/protecting-mary/): Alas, A Blog comments today on DefendMarylandMarriage.com — another one of those antigay web sites that names none of its authors, but lobbies for discrimination against people who happen to have real names and real families. As blogger Ampersand (Barry) notes, the web site’s home page now says: We want to be perfectly clear. We do not hate those who live the homosexual lifestyle. Those who would label the defenders of traditional marriage as homophobes or with any other mean spirited word should know that we love and pray for all men. This passage’s claims may be seen by some as...
- [What Did Dobson And SpongeBob Have in Common?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/what-did-dobson/): Religious-right organizations, including the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, launched a media frenzy last week when they criticized a pro-tolerance video starring SpongeBob and numerous other children’s TV cartoon characters. From CNN: "A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality," wrote Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association…. "Their inclusion of the reference to ‘sexual identity" within their ‘tolerance pledge’ is not only unnecessary, but it crosses a moral line," James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement released Thursday. Confronted by the...
- [Ex-ex-gay Profiles](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/ex-ex-gay-profi/): Sept. 26, 2000, The Advocate: Wade Richards, associate of Peter LaBarbera Nov. 24, 1998, The Advocate: Clint Trout Chris Ponticelli Mark SatterleeSame article with pictures  
- [ExGayWatch Profile: Jeremy Marks](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/exgaywatch-prof-4/): Jeremy Marks Leader of the British evangelical Christian group Courage This organization was formerly Britain’s leading ex-gay organization, but Marks has since declared ex-gay ideologies a failure and steered the organization to aid gay Christians in reconciling their faith and sexuality. To be continued…
- [ExGayWatch Profile: Wade Richards](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/exgaywatch-prof-3/): Wade Richards Advocate story Worked with Peter LaBarbera Now ex-ex-gay. Featured prominently in Wayne Besen’s book, Anything But Straight To be continued…
- [ExGayWatch Profile: Anne Paulk](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/exgaywatch-prof-2/): Anne Paulk Husband: John PaulkLocation: Portland, Ore. Author: In a 1998 New York Times full-page ad, Paulk proclaimed, "I’m living proof that Truth can set you free." In the ad she says, "… Even though I had a lot of male friends, I just wasn’t attracted to men sexually." Yet, in Love Won Out, a book she co-wrote with John, Anne acknowledges she felt sexual desire for a man named Mark. "He appealed to me sexually," Anne writes. "We were drawn together by sheer animal magnetism. … I came to see I could be physically attracted to a male, but I...
- [Prof. Throckmorton Launches Exgay Internet Radio Station](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/prof-throckmort-2/): Exgay pundit and PFOX ally Prof. Warren Throckmorton launched Identity Radio on Jan. 24. By "identity," Prof. Throckmorton means the exgay political "identity" that defines what one supposedly is not, rather than constructively describing one aspect of what a person is. From his Jan. 23 note to supporters: Here are the programming highlights [for Jan. 24]: 9 – 10am – Interview with Dr. Robert Spitzer concerning sexual orientation research10 – 11am – Two talks by Jeniece Learned, Director of Pregnancy Services of Western PA with a pro-life theme.11am – 1pm – Music programming1 – 2pm – Repeat of Interview with Dr....
- [PlanetOut Reports on Exgay Richard Cohen](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/planetout-repor/): In a Jan. 26 report on the professional decline of PFOX president Richard Cohen, Tom Musbach of PlanetOut interviews Ex-Gay Watch participant "Rick from Fredonia, N.Y." Rick commented Jan. 25 on his experience with Cohen’s therapy here at Ex-Gay Watch.
- [Maryland Educators Challenge Exgay Claims](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/maryland-educat/): A group of suburban Maryland educators and parents continues to challenge claims being published by exgay pundit and PFOX ally Prof. Warren Throckmorton via the Washington Times. (Previous XGW coverage.) The media blitz by Prof. Throckmorton and PFOX seeks to overturn a comprehensive, abstinence-inclusive sex-education program in the high-profile public schools of suburban Washington, D.C. Point by point, David Fishback of the district’s sex-ed panel disputes Prof. Throckmorton’s latest rationale for the politicization of exgay therapy. Addendum: JimK of TeachTheFacts.org wonders why PFOX just launched one of its pricey billboards featuring exgay Christopher Delaney on a suburban thoroughfare near the Montgomery...
- [Counselors Group Confirms Exgay’s Expulsion](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/counselors-grou/): TeachTheFacts.org is a web site that defends comprehensive sex education in suburban Maryland public schools against a recent campaign by exgay and political religious-right organizations including PFOX. In response to Wayne Besen’s press release, TTF asked the American Counseling Association to confirm details of its expulsion of PFOX president and exgay activist Richard Cohen. ACA confirmed Cohen’s expulsion for ethical violations in May 2002. The counseling association’s letter is posted on TTF’s Vigilance blog.
- [What Were You Doing During Inauguration Week?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/what-were-you-d/): Exgay leaders Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas spent the week in Washington celebrating with a who’s who of the religious right. Thomas met, saw, or had his picture taken with: Coral Ridge Ministries leader D. James KennedyFMA co-sponsor Rep. Marilyn Musgrave ("wise and brave woman")Focus on the Family’s Bill MaierFRC’s Genevieve Wood Janet Parshall, former FRC spokeswoman and radio show host Jay Sekulow of Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and JusticeJohn Ashcroft ("who is hilarious")Karl RoveStu Epperson of Salem Radio NetworkTBN’s Jan CrouchTraditional Values Coalition’s Andrea Laffertyand many other hard-line conservatives. Thomas reserves a separate page for a picture of...
- [Evangelical Opposition to Protest Group Repent America](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/evangelical-opp/): Earlier this month, Exodus exgay leader Alan Chambers joined Concerned Women for America in offering support for antigay protest group Repent America — specifically, for its disruption of a gay entertainment festival in Philadelphia. A few other evangelicals, however, are a bit more reserved in their moral reflections. Take, for example, evangelical blogger Bad Christian, who states the obvious: Repent America failed in its stated goal — and, he says, betrayed Christian values in a quest for fame. Other news about Repent America: Judge: Anti-gay activists permitted to demonstrate at gay events (Jan. 22, AP) Gay Protest Ban Lifted For Homophobic...
- [Exgay Review of ‘Anything But Straight’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/exgay-review-of/): "Unmasking the lies of Wayne Beeson [sic]" — that’s what more-or-less-anonymous exgay blogger Ben aspires to do. But then he doesn’t do it. He and other commenters complain that Besen’s anti-exgay expose, Anything But Straight, is at times rude, sarcastic, snarky. All true, though the book has many strong points as well. Among them: Depth, factual detail, and compassion for ex-ex-gays. Neither Ben nor his commenters disputes the actual facts raised by the book.
- [Counseling Professionals Expelled PFOX President for Ethics Violations](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/counseling-prof/): Update: The American Counseling Association confirms that Richard Cohen’s expulsion occurred in May 2002. Press ReleaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETuesday, Jan.  25, 2005 website: www.WayneBesen.com ANTI-GAY P-FOX PRESIDENT RICHARD COHEN EXPELLED FOR LIFE FROM THE AMERICAN COUNSELING ASSOCIATION Revealing, Never-Before Seen Document Is a Devastating Blow For Outdated Pseudo-Science That Tries To Turn Gay People Straight, Says Besen    NEW YORK – Author Wayne Besen today released an explosive, never-before seen letter he uncovered from the American Counseling Association that "permanently expelled" reparative therapist Richard Cohen in 2003 for serious ethics violations. The ACA document can be viewed at www.rawprint.com/besen/012504_aca_letter.php. As the outspoken...
- [G-d Is Not Homophobic By The Rev. J. Alton Cressman, 1995](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/g-d-is-not-homo/): G-d is not homophobic by The Rev. J. Alton Cressman, 1995 The following article originally appeared in the Port Huron, Michigan Times Herald as a "Guest Opinion" column in 1995 The Rev. J. Alton Cressman has been a member of the Port Huron clergy since 1949. As a pastor and counselor of more than 40 years in Port Huron, I have followed with interest TalkBack and letters, which have since appeared, on your editorial page. Some were positive and supportive, some negative and judgmental. A number of the anti-gay replies used the Bible to try to make a point. These arguments...
- [Gratitude And Frustration](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/gratitude-and-f/): I’m grateful to folks like Dan Gonzales and averyfineline, who send me factoids and tips via e-mail — or who post them directly to the site. I regret that I frequently lack time to follow through with these worthwhile suggestions. I’m also thankful that some antigay folks (Trevize, Prof. Throckmorton) are willing to communicate periodically at this site. At the same time, I’m feeling frustrated by anonymous hit-and-run commenters, who mindlessly parrot talk-radio and religious-right bigotry having little or no foundation in the gospels. Before they can be held accountable for their accusations — poof, they’re gone. I also remain concerned...
- [Subjective Views About the Founders of Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/subjective-view/): It is often reported that two cofounders of Exodus, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, became lovers and left the organization. Bussee and Cooper appear together in the documentary One Nation Under God. In his Amazon.com review of the ex-ex-gay video, pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton tells a partial truth, even as he accuses the documentary of a partial truth: [T]he movie begins with a half truth. The film introduces Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee as the co-founders of Exodus. This is not true. Cooper was a volunteer and never on the board of Exodus. Bussee was among those who were involved in...
- [Profile: Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/profile-exodus/): Board of Directors Mike Haley Tom ColeLiving Hope Ministries in Arlington, Texas Rev. John J. Smid, TreasurerExecutive director, Love In Action, Memphis, Tenn. Divorced and remarried. Licensed Southern Baptist minister. Patti Keator, Secretary Alan Chambers, Exodus President Roy BlankenshipOne Way Addiction MinistryMinister of Communications & Counseling, First Baptist Church Woodstock Phil and Vickie BurressPhil: President, Citizens for Community Values, Cincinnati Vickie: founded American Family Association of IndianaCampaign coordinator, CCV Dan PuumalaExecutive Director, Outpost Ministries, Minneapolis Don and Diana SchmiererHis Servants. Have helped operate several Christian addiction recovery programs Tal ThompsonDirector of Missions, Holston Baptist Association (a region of the Southern Baptist...
- [Profile: Parents And Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/profile-parents/): Family Research Council, a religious-right organization  launched and still guided behind the scenes by James Dobson, founded PFOX in 1996. Press release, 1996Profile at ReligiousTolerance.org FRC founded PFOX under the auspices of exgay activist Anthony Falzarano, who was well-known among gay people for his angry public vitriol. Falzarano was also viewed with apprehension among exgays for his demands that exgay ministries improve their lousy rate of success in converting celibate same-sex-attracted exgays to full-blown heterosexual marriage. Falzarano was ousted from PFOX in 1999 after he accused the religious right of exploiting the exgay movement for political purposes. He was replaced by...
- [The Connections Between Exodus And Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/the-connections/): Mike Haley of Focus on the Family occupies the chairmanship of the Exodus board of directors. His predecessor as Exodus chairman, John Paulk, was also Haley’s predecessor as head of Focus’ antigay political programs. Exodus’ new spokesperson, Julie Neils, was for five years the media manager for the Public Policy division of Focus on the Family before quitting in 2003 to be a stay-at-home mom. While Exodus is based in Orlando, Neils will be working from her home in Colorado Springs, near Focus on the Family headquarters, according to Randy Thomas in Exodus’ "Impact" newsletter for December 2004. Exodus’ regional representatives...
- [Asia Newspaper Promotes Exgay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/asia-newspaper/): The Star, a major newspaper in Malaysia, published a package of stories about exgays on Jan. 12: Helping homosexual persons resolve long-standing issues  Circumstances may lead to homosexuality Homosexuality more about politics than biology Changing sexual orientation through reparative therapy The series relies almost entirely upon anecdotes from anonymous exgays affiliated with Real Love Ministry, an exgay organization in Malacca that is headed by singer-composer Edmund Lawrence Smith. RLM’s web site says it is an offshoot of Choices Ministry (exgay) of Singapore. The RLM exgay counseling program consists of a four-step process — re-education, celibacy, dating, and opposite-gender marriage. While XGW...
- [Religious Right Plans Exgay Campaign in U.S. Public Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/religious-right-9/): The exgay movement’s small publicity coup in an Asian newspaper appears to be part of a growing effort by the religious right to "prevent" homosexuality and gay rights — not by strengthening the movement’s weak and sometimes scandal-plagued treatment programs, but by disseminating biased information. While Asia may serve as one battleground for U.S. fundamentalists, another conflict is being launched much closer to home: U.S. public schools. The front page of the Exodus newsletter for December 2004 (not available online) boasts that Focus on the Family is leading Exodus in a new direction in 2005. Exodus president Alan Chambers says Focus...
- [Falwell/Robertson: Sincere But Misguided — Or Fraudulent?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/falwellrobertso/): Is it "hackneyed, inappropriate, and immature" to call Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "frauds" — particularly when they regularly lie about the positions and activities of the ACLU in defense of religious freedom? Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars discusses this question with Dru Stevenson, an associate professor at the South Texas School of Law in Houston.
- [Christian Nation? Jon Rowe Weighs the Arguments](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/christian-natio/): Is the United States a Christian nation? Libertarian lawyer and college professor Jon Rowe thoughtfully and concisely weighs the arguments (and actions) of the culture warriors. While acknowledging that the ACLU is frequently the target of religious-right "slander" — the word refers to spoken malicious falsehoods — Rowe notes that the organization, and some other secularists, sometimes go one step too far in separating religion and government.
- [Careless Or Complicit? Exodus Director on Ann Coulter’s Muslim-bashing](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/careless-or-com/): One of Alan Chambers‘ favorite pundits is Ann Coulter. She’s at the top of the Exodus president’s blogroll, and his own tone of writing often seems borrowed from hers. The Village Gate notes that Coulter trashed Christmas — and Muslims — in mid-December with this comment:
- [Porn Filters: Blocking the Benign, Sparing the Sleaze](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/01/porn-filters-bl/): Revised for clarity While surfing the ‘Net this afternoon, I stumbled by accident into my firewall’s content filtering application, which disagreed with a site that I visited. I use ZoneAlarm’s security software suite mainly for its firewall, but it also borrows content-filtering technology from a company called Cerberian. The filter allows me to block content by category. So, out of curiosity, I blocked "Gay and Lesbian" content and unblocked every other category, including adult and hate sites. Here’s how various exgay sites fared:
- [Love In Action Statement On Children Sent To LIA’s “Refuge” Ministry Program Against Their Will](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/love-in-action-3/): Love In Action had their press conference today and as of my lunch break here in LA only a few statements had been posted online here. John J. Smid’s statement boils down to, [paraphrased] “Parents who agree with us on homosexuality have the legal right to put their minor child into our program. We’ll take kids who don’t want to be here as long as they don’t prove too disruptive.” Numerous times throughout his statement Smid refers to homosexuality in general as “unhealthy,” “destructive,” “wrong in the sight of God,” and “inappropriate.” Smid states that “We are a ministry whose mission...
- [Love In Action To Hold Press Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/love-in-action-2/): [Update: Press conference has been held, to view analysis click here.] Love In Action has finally announced a press conference for Thursday morning. It will be good to hear their side of the story since this whole situation really started by a blog that hasn’t been updated in almost two weeks now. The press release is worded in a fair tone more typical of NARTH and less like something form a small ministry-based organization. Most notably it acknowledges head on: Controversy over an individual’s right to self-determination and choice in sexuality has recently been the subject of current debate. Click below...
- [Tell The Gay Media To Get Off Their Duff](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/tell-the-gay-me/): Ok folks, I’m sick of the national gay media NOT covering the current Love In Action fiasco. How about we take some of that energy normally used to post comments relentlessly and redirect it to tell the gay media to get off their butts and cover this important story. editor@365gay.com editor@advocate.com I’ve closed commenting for this post. Send your opinion to the media.
- [Friend Or Foe? How Must We Respond to Embarrassing Quotes](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/friend-or-foe-h/): Blogger Mike Ditto confirms that a March 1994 article in We The People quoted former Love In Action participant Tom Ottosen recalling LIA director John Smid favoring suicide over acceptance of one’s same-sex attraction. (Yes, that’s a mouthful.) Case settled? Not entirely. As Ditto notes, the recollection is second-hand. But beyond the potential inaccuracies introduced by one eyewitness’s fallible memory, there is the matter of a given first-hand source’s reputation for accuracy and context. If we accept Tom Ottosen’s recollection at face value, despite the absence of a track record demonstrating Ottosen’s credibility, then shouldn’t we also accept, at face value,...
- [Put Warning Label on Homosexuals, Exgay Ad Sponsor Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/put-warning-lab/): The New York Christian Coalition — which last year sponsored an exgay billboard on behalf of exgay activist Stephen Bennett — now says that gay people should be required to wear warning labels. From 365gay.com, Jun. 13: “We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we ‘celebrate’ a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports,” said Rev. Bill Banuchi,...
- [Comparing ‘Love In Action’ to A Cult](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/comparing-love/): Blogger Mike Ditto itemizes ways in which the Love In Action rules for participants resemble the rulebook of a cult.
- [Censorship? Anonymity Requested Over Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/censorship-anon/): I am moving the comments about this issue to their page of origin here. I believe that concerns over one individual, “Zach,” are a distraction from Love In Action’s history, its stated agenda, and the experiences of those who have benefited, suffered or died as a result of LIA activities.
- [Troy, Michigan High School Gay Poster](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/troy-michigan-h/): There is currently a debate going on in a high school in Troy, Michigan about a poster that hangs in a teachers’ classroom reading, “Gay People Are Everyday People” created by the local LBGT center Affirmations (www.goaffirmations.org). I wrote an article in favor of it that can be read here https://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0506/12/A15-212564.htm and opposition to this is next to the story that can be read here https://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0506/12/A15-212563.htm I long for the day to come where it will be politically incorrect to have a counter argument like this about gay and lesbian articles. If this were a debate about Judaism or African-American issues...
- [Can’t We All Just Get Along?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/cant-w/): I have been reading about Love In Action and all that they are about. Organizations like Love In Action and AFA prey on the gay community’s weaknesses. I work hard to strengthen the areas in our commmunity where we are weak or at least increase awareness of places that we are vulnerable for these hateful organizations to strike. The following article is an attempt to raise awareness among us once again. Can’t We All Just Get Along? By Joe Kort, MSW It’s said that a prophet is without honor in his own country. We gays and lesbians don’t have our own...
- [Questioning Love In Action Director’s Affirmation of Suicide](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/questioning-lov/): In March 1994, according to this second-hand source, a Santa Rosa, Calif., gay periodical called We The People published an article written by someone named Dennis Anderson. The article profiled ex-exgay Tom Ottosen, who alleged that he heard Love In Action Director John Smid say this: I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle. In a physical death you could still have a spiritual resurrection; whereas, returning to homosexuality you are yielding yourself to a spiritual death from which there is no recovery. This shocking quotation has been reprinted...
- [Love In Action Staff Credentials Questionable](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/love-in-action/): After careful review of the “Love In Action” website, it appears there are only TWO, count em TWO staff members listed who even have college degrees in a counseling related field. See for yourself.
- [Blog Of A 16 Year Old Sent To “Love In Action” Live-In Program Against His Will](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/blog-of-a-16-ye/): A 16 year old named Zach in Bartlett, Tennessee recently came out to his parents who reacted by announcing they are sending him to an ex-gay live-in program called Love In Action, the same cult like program Peterson Toscano survived. How do we know all this? Zach has been writing about it on his blog found here on MySpace.com. To view Zach’s main profile click here. On his blog Zach posts program rules given to parents that aren’t supposed to be seen by patients. There are of course several comical rules forbidding any clothing from Abercrombie and Fitch and dining at...
- [Focus To Use “Love Won Out” Conference To Attack Rights Of Those Who Chose To Remain Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/focus-to-use-lo/): FOTF’s next Love Won Out ex-gay roadshow is being held in Seattle on the 25th of June. Focus hasn’t posted a schedule online yet but it’s known that : To address the topic of same-sex marriage and parenting, Focus on the Family Vice President and Psychologist-in-Residence Dr. Bill Maier will present “Straight Thinking on Gay Marriage.”(*) Odd, since Love Won Out is about one’s free will to reject or embrace their sexuality. As we know, groups like Focus keep ex-gays around as cover to promote blanket discrimination against happy healthy gay families. The addition of a speech on gay marriage is...
- [Not Another March on Washington](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/not-another-mar/): Five years after the Millennium March fiasco, veteran activist Robin Tyler calls for an April 2008 March on Washington. (Source: The Washington Blade, June 10) I agree with Tyler that gays should aim their fire at Democrats as well as Republicans. But I also wonder whether folks like Tyler will ever realize that national marches drain vital energy and money from local and state equality efforts — and it is only through the transformation of local voter attitudes and local leadership that any change in Washington will ever occur. No, Robin. We do not need an umpteenth picnic and parade in...
- [AFA’s Ed Vitagliano: Homosexuals Who Identify With Classic TV Lack Intimacy And Connection](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/afas-ed-vitagli/): The TV Land network is airing a special this month called “Tickled Pink” which discusses classic TV shows and characters gay viewers have historically identified with. AFA lackey Ed Vitagliano had this to say: (link) “I watched the show with a deep sense of sadness,” Vitagliano notes. “It made me realize all the more how much Christians need to reach out to gays and lesbians, who are often extremely lonely people.” Not that homosexuals are to be pitied, he adds, “any more than we are all to be pitied by God.” But although many homosexuals may feel they are lacking intimacy...
- [Another Paul Cameron Study…](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/another-paul-ca/): In case anyone is interested, Paul Cameron has come up with yet more “proof” that homosexuality causes an early death. But if the press release is correct, Cameron has merely collected data comparing death rates from AIDS among various populations: showing that AIDS is correlated with a shorter lifespan. This is tragic, of course, but no surprise to anyone. Cameron’s proof that homosexuality itself contributes to shortened life, is that heterosexuals with AIDS, on average, died later in life than gays with AIDS: The CDC reported that 9% of heterosexuals who died of AIDS were at least 65 years of age....
- [1975: LA Chief of Police States He’d Rather Convert Gays Than Participate In Pride](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/1975-la-chief-o/): Los Angeles Pride is this weekend June 10-12 and the parade grand marshall is… Paris Hilton. No, I’m not kidding. Here’s some pride related history for you. In 1975 the president of Christopher Street West, the organization which founded Los Angeles Pride invited then Police Chief Edward Davis to participate in the festivities. Frontiers Newsmagazine*, a Southern California gay publication, has reprinted Davis’ historical response: May 23, 1975 Ms. Sharon D. Cornelison, PresidentChristopher Street West AssociationP.O. Box 3949Hollywood, California 90028 Dear Ms. Cornelison: As you no doubt expected, I am declining your invitation to participate in the celebration of “GAY PRIDE...
- [AgapePress Brutal Attack on Message of Tolerance And Peace for Gay Children](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/agapepress-brut/): Two years ago at Troy High-school in Troy, Michigan a teacher put up a poster that read “Gay people are everyday people.” That’s the full extent of the controversial poster text given by the AgapePress. Controversy backfired on anti-gay protesters and the school has since ordered more posters. Of course the fuss continues, hence today’s article. The only explanation of the poster text quoted in the AgapePress article is from local parent, Tony Cruz: The Michigan father says the posters represent “a very aggressive and, in my opinion, very mean-spirited way of trying to take minor children and imbue them with...
- [Spitzer Quoted in Southern Voice Supporting APA Resolution on Marriage Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/spitzer-quoted/): Alert Reader Regan DuCasse brings a story at Southern Voice titled “Leading mental health group backs same-sex marriage” this to my attention. Yes I know that’s old news, but there’s a twist so read on: Dr. Robert Spitzer, credited with spearheading the movement to remove homosexuality as a disease from the psychiatric diagnostic manual more than 30 years ago, said he is pleased the APA is supporting same-sex marriage. “I think the APA has always been concerned with social issues and how they affect mental health and marriage certainly affects how gay couples live,” he said Tuesday. “It’s hard for me...
- [New Life Church Featured in Harper’s: “Homosexual Deamons Can Leap In Your Bones”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/new-life-church/): Via WORLD Magazine Blog, an excerpt from Soldiers of Christ an article appearing in the current issue of Harpers Magazine: Linda Burton was “specifically called by God” to Colorado Springs seventeen years ago, though at the time she thought that she was only running from a crack-addicted man who beat her. Linda was not a Christian at the time. She had married young and moved west; after her divorce, there had been many men, an abortion. With the man who beat her she fathered a son, whom she named Aaron Michael, the “strong right hand of God.” Linda took the baby...
- [New Documentary Profiles Ex-exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/new-documentary/): PRESS RELEASE Filmmaker Tom Murray is pleased to announce the premiere of his recently completed documentary project, “Fish Can’t Fly.” www.fishcantfly.com The screening will take on June 12th in New York City as part of NEWFEST, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Film festival. www.newfest.org In this timely piece, the filmmaker takes a look at the lives of gay men and women of faith and the manner in which they ultimately put their spirituality and sexuality in harmony after their experiences with “ex-gay” programs. The stories are sad, poignant and yet ultimately inspiring. Two people known for their expertise on...
- [Exodus Loves a Misquote of PFLAG](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/exodus-loves-a/): In a May 9 story about the National PTA’s differing treatment of PFLAG and PFOX, the Washington Times misquoted a key source. This misconduct by the Times is not surprising — former editors at the Times have told me (and many other Washington journalists) that the newspaper’s front-page stories deliberately misquote key sources on a daily basis; top editors rewrite reporters’ Page One stories to change or conceal facts deemed politically inconvenient. By distorting the news, the newspaper’s owners — the Unification Church of self-professed messiah Sun Myung Moon — give the newspaper appeal as a “news” source among allied religious...
- [Good for the PTA](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/good-for-the-pt/): The PTA has turned down a request from PFOX to exhibit at its annual show, while approving a request from PFLAG. Now, why exactly would PFOX want to appear at a K12 Education trade show to begin with? To help all those little ex-gay elemementary school kids escape persecution from people trying to force them to be gay? Probably not. Maybe their purpose was to remind teachers that it’s okay to tolerate discrimination against gay students, because, after all, gay students “choose” to be different. Yep, that could be it.
- [Dust Bunnies in Your Closet](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/dust-bunnies-in/): Dust Bunnies in your Closet By Joe Kort, MSW Recently, a high school in Troy, Michigan made the news when the Detroit area Lesbian and Gay Community Center created a sign depicting people from all walks of life, with the heading, “Gays and Lesbians are Everyday People.” Some parents wanted it taken down because it “promotes homosexuality.” Thankfully, the Troy school board is allowing it to stay up. These parents are sending the message that there’s something wrong with showing gays and lesbians as everyday people. Even if it were “promoting homosexuality” (which it’s not), what’s wrong with that? And how...
- [“One-Sex Marriage” Takes To The Water, Will She Float?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/one-sex-marriag/): I apologize for the high number of off-topic posts this last 48 hours but I felt we could use a new thread on which to discuss this nonsense about “one-sex marriage.” With a simple Google I found Concerned Women For America have made use of this new term(*). Here I’ll get it started; The term “same-sex” might be uncomfortable for anti-family organizations because of it’s flagrant use of the word “same” in proximity to gay people. We all know anti-family organizations like to pretend gay peoples’ marriages are vastly different (aka not the “same”) than real marriages. As for “one-sex,” my...
- [“Gay” Vs. “Homosexual” Affects Gallup Poll Results 10 Percentage Points](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/gay-vs-homosexu/): Advocate.com/Sirius OutQ Radio report today on a new Gallup poll surveying moral attitudes placed onto the lives gay and lesbian Americans. Given that I do not live by other peoples’ moralistic opinion of my life I shall only be discussing one interesting tidbit which concludes the story: Proving the power of language in the debate, survey responses were nine to 10 percentage points higher when the term “gay and lesbian” was used instead of “homosexual.” This of course touches on the right of any minority group to self-determine their own descriptive terminology. Only the most backwards members of society continue to...
- [A Call For Neurological / Physiological Study to Confirm Ex-Gay Claims of Heterosexual Functioning](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/a-call-for-neur/): WorldNetDaily readers all too often exhibit ugly, heinous and hateful worldviews** but published on May 20th, 2005 is a letter of interest. Unfortunately, letters are not archived so I’m reprinting the entire piece here: (google cache) Ex-gay movement a fraud There are two things that have always bugged me about the ex-gay movement. One is I know it’s impossible to change your orientation no matter what they say. Granted, there are self-loathing gays. One only has to read this website daily to see how many otherwise intelligent people believe gays choose to be “that way” and that their choice is evil...
- [Boycott of Disney Ends](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/boycott-of-disn/): The [AFA] is announcing the end of its years-long protest against the Walt Disney Company. For nine years, the pro-family organization has urged its supporters to avoid anything Disney, but the boycott has now officially come to an end… …Wildmon and others at AFA believe some of the initial concerns that caused the ministry to call the boycott have been addressed. “We feel like Disney, in many respects, has made an effort to clean up its act in the last couple of years,” he says, “especially with the resignation of Michael Eisner. He’s been a big problem with Disney. And also,...
- [A Glimpse At PFOX Supporters’ Prejudices](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/a-glimpse-at-pf/): PFOX publicly declares that it favors tolerance for gays and exgays. But PFOX’s own Yahoo-based e-mail discussion and “support” list, advertised on the front page of its web page, tells a different story: In dozens of messages every month, several parents and peers of gays vent their anger at their gay relatives and friends, and claw for ways to make virtues out of discrimination, prejudice, and hatred of all things that they deem “liberal.” PFOX list moderators make no effort to discourage the rants. Here’s a brief, very typical glimpse. Typos were made by the letter-writers. When reading the messages of...
- [Comment Registration/Review](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/comment-registr-2/): Because of a deluge of spam in the past couple days, I’ve turned on comment moderation, which means that readers may comment as follows: 1. You may comment on any post immediately by signing in via TypeKey. 2. You may comment on a post without signing in, but your comment will not appear until someone at XGW has cleared it. Obviously, it’s better if you can sign in via TypeKey, but some people have had difficulty registering or signing in, especially via AOL. If you have any difficulties with TypeKey, please e-mail me at editor /at exgaywatch.com and describe the problem...
- [Another Gay Teen Suicide, Unlikely to Matter to Fryrear](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/another-gay-tee/): Alert reader Scott Hutcheson brought a story of the gay-teen-suicide of Jeffrey Price to my attention. Excerpts: His battle, involving his sexuality and his depression led to two suicide attempts, five stays at psychiatric wards and a constant feeling he let his father down. Just when Jeff seemed to find some comfort within, his life was ended in May 2004 by what police call an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face. [paragraph] Although the existence of a “gay gene” is a battle still fought between the religious, the political, the scientific and the homosexual, many researchers and gay people believe...
- [Update on Booklet in GLSEN Boston Sex-Ed Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/update-on-bookl/): I’ve read Stephen Bennett’s blog entry about an inappropriate booklet found by antigay activists a Boston-area sex-ed program. (Previous XGW coverage.) I’ve read Bennett’s quotations of GLSEN and public officials, the blog comments, and the linked news articles: Boston Herald, May 18 Boston Herald, May 19 Boston Globe, May 19 Some quick observations: The booklet’s wording does seem to be directed inappropriately at youth, despite Fenway Community Health’s claims. As for claims that the booklet is pure pornography, I note that antigay activist Brian Camenker, of the Article 8 Alliance, is only showing the public a few offensive pages from the...
- [This Post Is For SoCal Residents Only](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/this-post-is-fo/): Conversion-therapy themed art film Fixing Frank (2002) will be showing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 for the week beginning May 20th. If you don’t know what the Laemmle Sunset 5 is then you’re either not gay or not in SoCal. Oh and Long Beach Pride is this weekend and yours truly will be staffing the ExGayWatch booth. Ok just kidding we don’t have a booth but I’ll definitely be cruising scampering about all weekend.
- [AFA Describes Bennett Ministries, No Mention of Helping Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/afa-describes-b/): Mike did an excellent job of discussing Throckmorton’s reaction to a GLSEN brochure in his previous post. Today I noticed Stephen Bennett joined the fun at the Agapepress. On first reference Bennett [the individual] is described as a “former homosexual.” On second reference Bennett and his organization, Stephen Bennett Ministries, are described: Bennett is the executive director of Stephen Bennett Ministries, an organization that works to educate the public about the dangers of the radical, extremist homosexual agenda being carried out all over the U.S. I’m not making that up. That is word-for-word the only description of Stephen Bennett Ministries given...
- [Throckmorton Protests GLSEN Sex-Ed Brochure](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/throckmorton-pr/): Exgay movement pundit Warren Throckmorton protests sex-ed literature that was allegedly distributed at Brookline High School on April 30 at an event hosted by GLSEN Boston. Throckmorton calls the literature “pornography” — and it’s not difficult to see why he would call it that: Excerpts from the booklet Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century contain pictures of penises — some exposed for artistic purposes, some to demonstrate the application of a condom. While I have some serious disagreements with this booklet (I will get to that in a moment), I don’t have a problem with explicit pictures and frank...
- [Southern Baptists Consider Public-School Inquisition](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/southern-baptis/): A resolution is being proposed at this year’s Southern Baptist national convention, demanding Southern Baptists investigate their local public school systems and withdraw their kids from any school that allows a gay/straight alliance to meet, discusses sexual orientation in class, or implements an anti-bullying program inclusive of sexual/gender minorities. The resolution organizers imply, but do not explicitly state, that the measure enjoys support from these pundits of the exgay movement: Peter LaBarbera, founder of Americans for Truth and Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute, Linda Harvey, President, Mission America, Columbus, Ohio Robert Knight, program director, Concerned Women for America Dr....
- [AFA to Wal-Mart: Discriminate, Or We’ll Shop At Target](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/afa-to-wal-mart/): The American Family Association is rallying consumers to think twice before their next shopping trip, and then write letters to Wal-Mart demanding that the retailer discriminate against its gay employees. (And, in the same AFA news briefing, PFOX complains that the National PTA keeps rejecting the antigay parent group’s efforts to put scientifically unbalanced literature on exhibit at PTA conventions. PFLAG won the National PTA’s favor with its opposition to bullying; PFOX opposes antibullying programs.)
- [Stephen Bennett Misquotes Gay Journalists](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/stephen-bennett-4/): From an interview in the April edition of the American (Anti)Family Association “Journal.” (Hat tip: Freedom Of….) Exgay activist Stephen Bennett says: But overall, the media ignores our claims to have left the homosexual lifestyle. And this is all based upon the demands of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalist Association, which has provided a stylebook to everyone in the media, telling them what language to use when addressing the issue of homosexuality. And this influential organization tells the media not to give any credence to the claims of ex-homosexuals. That claim appears to be false (and Bennett got the organization’s...
- [OutOfTheCloset.tv Invites Exgay Videos](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/outoftheclosett/): Exgay ministries are invited to post their exgay videos — for free — at OutOfTheCloset.tv. Surely, there must be a catch.
- [Antigays Furious After Judge Preserves Nebraska Couples’ Access to the Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/antigays-furiou/): A Nebraska state constitutional amendment, approved by voters, banned not just gay marriage but any legal agreement between same-sex couples, including contracts to share health insurance, establish hospital visitation and medical consent rights, or make housing and business deals. A federal judge threw out the amendment May 12, saying its unlimited scope: “imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights” of gays and lesbians. He said it also creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs’ right to petition or to participate in the political process. Exodus and its allies are furious. The (Anti)Family Research Council, American (Anti)Family Association,...
- [Exodus Gives Nod to Anti-Education Rant](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/exodus-gives-no/): This rant has nothing to do with exgays — so naturally, Exodus media blogger Nancy Brown gives a favorable nod to it. Traditional morality used to mean the Golden Rule: Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t bully your neighbor. Don’t kill — ever. The rant by the far-right CNSNews.com redefines traditional morality, however, to defend bullying and sectarian religious indoctrination in schools which were originally intended to be shared by all members of a community — not just its fundamentalists. CNSNews even blasts Southern Baptists for being insufficiently conservative. Say again, who’s preaching brutal political correctness?
- [LaBarbera: Your Immorality’s Worse Than Mine](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/labarbera-your/): Conservative Christians may be corrupt — but that’s OK because liberal Christians are worse. So suggests antigay activist Peter LaBarbera in a press release that is subtitled “Says ‘Greatest Corruption to Religion’ Comes from Left, Not Right.” LaBarbera is an ally of Warren Throckmorton and Exodus, which promoted this press release. Politics do make for strange bedfellows: According to PFLAG Detroit and former exgay Wade Richards, LaBarbera has kept large volumes of gay pornography in his office and published graphic descriptions of fellatio, masturbation, and S&M in his antigay newsletter The Lambda Report. Given his personal moral liabilities, it is surprising...
- [Cynical Toward Women: Exodus, Focus Promote Sexism](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/cynical-toward/): In Exodus’ weekly media synopsis, Exodus and Focus on the Family promote this account of God’s plan for men and women. Dorothy Kelley Patterson is a professor in the “women’s studies” program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where her husband, Paige, is president. She appeared on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program May 12: “God started with the home,” Patterson said in a recording of an address she delivered at the annual convention of Concerned Women for America. “He chose that vehicle to reveal Himself to us.” For example, God is found in Scripture as...
- [FDA Sperm Ban: Fear of AIDS, Or Gay Reproduction?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/fda-sperm-ban-f/): Since the mid-1980s, the Red Cross — with FDA support — has prohibited men who have had sex with men, at any time since 1977, from donating blood. That’s right — 1977. Twenty-eight years ago. This prohibition remains in place despite the testing that is already done to ensure that blood is uninfected. FDA medical officer Andrew Dayton estimated that, if 62,300 U.S. gay men were permitted to donate blood, 1.7 additional units of infected blood would slip past screening and enter the public blood supply. As far as I can tell, no comparable review was done to determine the number...
- [National PTA Chooses PFLAG Over PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/national-pta-ch/): The National Parent-Teacher Association has agreed for a second year to feature a pro-homosexual group [PFLAG] at its annual convention while rejecting a group [PFOX] that contends homosexuality is not an inborn and immutable trait. Begins the AgapePress today; Gee that doesn’t sound like a loaded article or anything. This story is a couple days old so if anyone wants to do any analysis or research on this one drop us a line.
- [Bill Maier, As Norm He Wanna Be](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/bill-maier-as-n/): Good times over at Focus today. Four, count em, four of today’s six FNIF stories mention gay issues. That’s quite a preoccupation Bob Ditmer has with our families. As you know HRC recently took issue with a Health and Human Services website, 4Parents.gov. Well HHS revised the site this week and Bill Maier of Focus is all up in a huff. Real Audio / Windows Media Kim Trobee: on the site the term alternative lifestyle was changed to say lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender Bill Maier: I think a variety of different terms could have been used there but the term...
- [Dan Savage Confesses His Sissy Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/dan-savage-conf/): Dobson was whining about the Judicial filibuster again yesterday(*) and I’ll be honest with you, it’s beginning to exhaust me. I need something to listen to as I’m CAD’ing away at a condo tower we’re doing in Vegas so I decided to listen to archived broadcasts of NPR’s This American Life. The topic of this particular broadcast from 1996 is “Sissies.” One of the common themes running throughout is how sissies are often far braver and confident than those who are butch or struggle to appear so. Among ex-gay ministries, opinions vary on wether or not effeminate behavior is acceptable. Some...
- [Christian Schools’ Heterosexism Can Work in Favor of Gay Students](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/christian-schoo/): According to the Seattle Times (via World Magazine Blog) There are still Christian schools here on the “left coast” that won’t allow their male wrestlers to face female opponents. Of course neither the Seattle Times nor World Magazine mention how the logic of this policy would obviously have to be applied to gay students. Instead both articles fall back on heterosexism. This reminds me of my friend Jordan Morris who attended Pepperdine University where a formal code of student conduct forbade visiting members of the opposite-sex from staying overnight in a student dorm room. This heterosexist policy ignored the existence of...
- [Gay Marriage = Social Good](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/gay-marriage-so/): Rick Sincere has a post on his blog today, discussing new research that documents a decline in sexually transmitted diseases with the advent of gay marriage in Europe. Proponents of gay marriage have long argued that the stabilizing effects of marriage could promote responsibility and reduce risky behavior among gays–specifically gay men. Now we’re seeing the first evidence that this is true… It seems to me that anyone who sincerely wants gay people’s lives to be better can only take the position of supporting gay marriage.
- [Studies: Biology Influences Sexual Orientation AND Gaydar](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/studies-biology/): From Medical News Today, there’s news of a biological basis for “gaydar,” the rumored ability of some gay people to identify one another through poorly understood, non-verbal cues: Gay men preferred odors from gay men and heterosexual women, whereas odors from gay men were the least preferred by heterosexual men and women and by lesbian women. Reference: Yolanda Martins, George Preti, Christina R. Crabtree and Charles J. Wysocki. Preference for Human Body Odors Is Influenced by Gender and Sexual Orientation. Psychological Science, September 2005 (not yet published). Meanwhile, the New York Times reports new evidence of biological underpinnings for sexual orientation:...
- [Punish Peds — But What About Their Hosts?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/punish-peds-but/): NGLTF today demanded that (unnamed) people stop extending sympathy to Spokane, Wash., mayor Jim West (because he’s an antigay conservative?), and insisted that West resign and face up to accusations relating to pedophilia. Tough talk — but kinda half-baked, I think. Is anyone demanding sanctions against gay.com for hosting illegal activities? I welcome links to other sites questioning gay.com’s role in facilitating illegal or unsafe sex.
- [‘Family’: Remembering Akili Tyson](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/family-remember/): I pause for a moment to remember my former housemate, Akili Tyson, who died nine years ago today. What follows is a transcript from NPR’s All Things Considered, remembering Akili and acknowledging the family at NPR that cared for him in his final year. And after that, his obituary in The Washington Post.
- [Deal with the Devil? Exodus Call to Political Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/deal-with-the-d/): In The Exodus Impact (April 2005, not available online), a front-page article by Exodus president Alan Chambers: defends his use of the Exodus presidency to support President Bush recalls his testimony to state and federal “judiciaries” about his journey out of homosexuality (at the age of 17) warns that Exodus’ Canadian ministries are at risk of being shut down applauds the militant group Repent America, which used megaphones to shout down a Philadelphia gay entertainment festival, got arrested by choice, and faced trumped-up felony charges (since thrown out) of harassment and intimidation opines that he has “labored long and hard” to...
- [Joe Dallas to Exodus Ministries: Fight Gays. Discriminate.](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/joe-dallas-to-e/): In the April 2005 issue of Exodus’ monthly Impact newsletter (not available online), exgay author and Exodus speaker Joe Dallas joins president Alan Chambers in pressuring Exodus ministries “to become involved in the battle over gay rights.” Following Chambers’ front-page call to action, Dallas frames own his article as an answer for Exodus ministries to the question, “How should we respond (to the pressure)?” Dallas begins with a mix of unfounded accusation and envy:
- [Antigay Mother’s Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/antigay-mothers/): It’s Mother’s Day… a day for phone calls, greeting cards, flowers and chocolates. But what can you do for your mother, when an antigay denomination has convinced her to cut you off? Joe Riddle ponders this from a very personal and refreshingly apolitical perspective. My own, more political reaction: Exgay ministries could play an important role in teaching denominations and local churches to love their gay children… but Exodus leaders would prefer that the ministries spend their time promoting discrimination.
- [Postgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/postgay/): Ex-Gay Watch’s Joe Riddle also has his own blog, Purple America. Over at Purple America, Joe observes that the importance that he assigns to his sexuality has changed as he gets older. He and his friends sometimes “forget” he’s gay, and the fact is, I have observed the same thing in my life. I find myself agreeing the most with Joe here: Part of this ‘forgetting’ I’m gay has to do with the fact that I’m in a relationship, which erases a lot differences. When you’re in a happy relationship, and going out to flirt or get laid is not a...
- [Exgay… Or Ex-sexual?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/exgay-or-ex-sex/): Maria at Daily Dose of Queer has been reading some exgay blogs, and now she, too, is getting the impression that some exgays turn not to heterosexuality, but to asexuality.
- [Report: Spitzer Regrets Role in ‘I Do Exist’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/report-spitzer/): Last fall, Gareth Fenley, a licensed psychiatric social worker, attended the Atlanta premiere of Warren Throckmorton’s exgay video, “I Do Exist.” The premiere was emceed by exgay activist D.L. Foster. Fenley wrote about the event in Southern Voice, and I briefly analyzed her article. More recently, however — in an April 10 entry in her weblog — Fenley points out that her original article declined to mention Dr. Robert Spitzer’s role in the video — in particular, his on-screen criticism of the American Psychiatric Association. Fenley now offers an update on what happened next with Dr. Spitzer. The bold type is...
- [What Goes Around: Exgay Accusations About Canada](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/what-goes-aroun/): In the April 2005 issue of Exodus’ Impact political newsletter, organization president Alan Chambers defends his involvement of Exodus in political extremism by claiming that “the enemy” — homosexuals? Satan? — is encroaching upon “our freedom to minister.” That may be only half-true — and to the extent it is true, it may be for reasons traceable to both gay and antigay activists.
- [If Gay Were Straight, Could You Change? Exodus Doesn’t Answer](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/if-gay-were-str/): Jeff Postelwait is the author of a light-hearted op-ed titled If gay were straight, could you change yourself?, posted April 8 at the Daily O’Collegian. In his opinion piece, Postelwait challenged some antigay activists’ assumption that it is only gays who should “change,” and that only heterosexual affections are legitimate. Speaking for Exodus, exgay advocate and former FRC operative Yvette Cantu Schneider protests Postelwait’s message, but somehow never addresses Postelwait’s key points.
- [Where to Go Next in Exgay Battle Against Maryland Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/where-to-go-nex/): A judge this week issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Montgomery County, Md., Public Schools from testing a revised sex-education curriculum.
- [Focus/Family Sees Bogeymen in Christian Protesters](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/focusfamily-see-2/): On May 2, Focus on the Family offered half-truths and misrepresentations to explain its arrest of a family during a gay-tolerant Christian protest at the organization’s vast Colorado campus last week:
- [Friends of Exodus: Dominionists Dream of U.S. Theocracy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/friends-of-exod/): Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas, and Exodus media blogger Nancy Brown, frequently applaud the political activism of people like Alan Sears (Alliance Defense Fund), the Rev. Richard Land (Southern Baptist Convention), and D. James Kennedy of the Center for Reclaiming America, which acted as lead sponsor of Exodus’ 1998 national ad campaign. In an April 7 article for Rolling Stone, writer Bob Moser uncovers an antidemocratic call to arms by Exodus’ friends at a recent conference at CFRA. The conference is reported to have been awash in the religiosity not of self-sacrificial and peaceful Christianity, but of a violent...
- [Prof. Warren Throckmorton And the Real Issues](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/prof-warren-thr/): In an Advocate.com article posted April 29, Prof. Warren Throckmorton says he doesn’t believe that Concerned Women for America, the Illinois Family Institute, or Stephen Bennett put direct pressure on Magellan Health Services to restore his seat on a national advisory board. “I certainly didn’t ask groups to call or to mount an effort,” he told Southern Voice. But direct pressure on Magellan is not the central issue.
- [Same-Sex Unions May Reduce Sexually Transmitted Illnesses](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/same-sex-unions/): Thomas S. Dee, a professor of economics at Swarthmore College, has released a statistical study of the impact of gay marriage and civil unions in Europe on the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections. From the report’s conclusion: The simple theoretical model introduced here suggests that gay marriage could actually influence STI rates in a number of potentially contradictory ways. However, the empirical evidence presented here is consistent with the view that gay marriage reduces risky sexual behavior. Specifically, panel-based evaluations using data from European countries suggested that national recognition of same-sex partnerships led to large and statistically significant reductions in syphilis...
- [But Remember…He’s Not ‘Gay’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/but-rememberhes/): NY Times is reporting that the mayor of Spokane, Wash., James West (a Republican and outspoken opponent of gay rights), has been accused of molesting two young boys when he was a Scout Master, years ago. West was married to a woman and insists that he is not gay, although he does admit to having sex with other adult men; apparently when he was filling out his gay.com profile (RightBi-Guy) he was “confused.”
- [Tolerant Words From Exgay Stephen Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/tolerant-words/): Stephen Bennett’s blog entry for May 1 is titled Learning to Respectfully Agree to Disagree: Something Impossible for Most Homosexuals?. Bennett’s essay is a model of exgay tolerance — up to a point.
- [Uncovered: Exgay Pundit Throckmorton’s Political Ties](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/uncovered-exgay/): In his May 2 column, author/activist Wayne Besen uncovers seemingly well-established, far-right political affiliations of exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton.
- [PFOX Suing Maryland Schools to Stop Sex-Ed](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/pfox-suing-mary/): The Washington Post reports today that the antigay parents/spouses group PFOX plans to join a Maryland religious-right group, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, in suing the Montgomery County Public Schools. The lawsuits were announced after CRC and PFOX failed to convince the public — through school board meetings and public hearings — to halt the school district’s comprehensive sex-ed curriculum. The new MCPS curriculum emphasizes abstinence, but acknowledges the existence of homosexuality and shows teen-agers how to properly use a condom if abstinence fails. The program allows teen-agers and their parents to opt out of lessons that they might find objectionable.
- [Tolerant Ex-Gays? Gay-Tolerant People of Faith Arrested](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/tolerant-ex-gay/): Six months ago, the antigay militant group Repent America raided a Philadelphia autumn pride festival. According to witnesses, they shouted down the stage performers and berated the crowd with religious-right rhetoric. The militants’ leader, Michael Marcavage, has cited the Bible to rationalize the execution of homosexuals and has commandeered several public events over the years. (Previous XGW coverage.) The festival’s volunteer security team averted further disruption, and police eventually arrested several members of the group. Charges against the group were trumped up by police and by festival organizers, and a court (quite reasonably) dismissed the worst of the charges. Since then,...
- [Showtime Comedy Show Profiles PFOX President](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/showtime-comedy/): Tonight I happened to catch political comic duo Penn & Teller’s latest episode, “Family Values,” in a TV series with a name that can’t be printed on a family web site. (Episode profile and airtimes.) The series airs on Showtime. This episode’s synopsis:
- [Antigay Violence Up Eight Percent](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/antigay-violenc/): From Chuck Currie: On April 26, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released a report documenting an 8 percent increase of violent attacks against people who were perceived to be gay or lesbian from 2003 to 2004. The NCAVP report is derived from victim-assistance groups in just eleven localities. NCAVP says… (emphasis is mine): Each year, the FBI publishes its own report on hate crimes, which includes anti-LGBT incidents, but it consistently contains information on far fewer cases than the NCAVP publication because it relies on law enforcement reports of such crimes rather than victim service organization data. Overall, NCAVP’s report...
- [Focus/Family Gets Special Rights on ABC](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/focusfamily-get/): From Chuck Currie: In December and again in March, ABC television denied requests by the United Church of Christ to purchase airtime for a national ad campaign on behalf of the denomination’s inclusivity. ABC declined the ads, claiming it had a blanket policy against all religious advertising. But now ABC will allow the antigay, religious-right organization Focus on the Family to air two commercials ostensibly advocating so-called “faith-based” parenting. A UCC spokesman asks: “Why is one religious viewpoint continually accommodated by the network elites?” “Focus on the Family may be using a non-sectarian come-on, but what kind of assurances can ABC...
- [Double Speak From Dobson (As If That’s Anything New)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/double-speak-fr/): Today’s broadcast of Focus On The Family featured the previously recorded ex-gay testimony of Mike Haley. For that matter Dobson’s introduction was prerecorded as well since he’s supposedly in DC today helping his wife plan the National Day of Prayer. Analysis of testimonies isn’t my cup of tea and I’m currently getting ready for a trip to Chicago so I’ll let Mike or Joe tackle that one. The national mainstream media has been ignoring Soulforce today so I expected Dobson to do the same; Such was not the case in his broadcast today. Real Audio / Windows Media “and his organization...
- [Focus Closes It’s Doors to Public On Day of Soulforce Planned Visit](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/focus-closes-it/): After being tipped off by a commenter it came to my attention that Focus is closed to the public today. I verified this by calling their guest relations hotline. (Thanks Annika!)
- [FOTF Broadcast to Feature Ex-Gay Mike Haley Same Day As Soulforce Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/fotf-broadcast/): On Monday May 2nd when Soulforce is protesting by taking the public tour at Focus headquarters, the Focus On The Family daily broadcast is scheduled to feature the ex-gay testimony of former prostitute turned Focus staffer and Exodus board member Mike Haley. I’m sure this comes as great relief to “the tyrannical judiciary” which has regularly been in the cross-hairs of Focus On The Family broadcasts for the last two weeks. It’s about time Dobson get back to his preoccupation of obsessing over the lives of gay Americans. For your own spiritual enlightenment, you should know Haley is on record for...
- [Focus Quietly Responds to Soulforce with Nonsense](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/05/focus-quietly-r/): Tucked away on their CitizenLink, Focus On Social Issues, Homosexuality and Gender page Focus issues a rebuttal to various charges made by Soulforce against James Dobson. Soulforce Makes 8 “Charges” Against Dr. Dobson: 1. “Dobson says that homosexuality is a mental disorder caused by family problems and bad parenting.” The truth: Here, Soulforce greatly distorts Dobson’s views on the root causes of homosexuality. In fact, Dobson and many others in the mental health field see homosexuality as a developmental condition stemming from a combination of factors — including, but not limited to, dysfunctional family relationships. Focus, just reiterates exactly what they’re...
- [Lesbian Health Organization Speaks Up Against Throckmorton Reappointment](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/lesbian-health/): Pro-gay groups have been mostly silent on Throckmorton’s reappointment to Magellan Healthcare’s board. [correct me if I’m wrong, I can only read so many sites] One group has finally spoken up, The Mautner Project, a national lesbian health organization. Coverage here at 365gay.com.
- [An Anti-Gay Timeline](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/an-anti-gay-tim/): Some of you might be interested in seeing this 30-year timeline of the anti-gay movement compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center. I consider myself pretty informed about the Religious Right’s war on gay people (and on civil liberties in general); even so, it’s jarring to see the details laid out like this. It also reminds me that those of us who live in safe urban conclaves can’t afford to be too complacent. There are people out there whose goal is to undermine the principles of Liberty and relgious freedom this country was founded on–and we’re their main target. It is...
- [Opinion & Analysis: Soulforce’s Confrontation of Dobson Anti-Climactic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/opinion-analysi/): Reminder, Soulforce‘s two-day rally at Focus On The Family’s Colorado Springs headquarters begins Sunday. (Previous XGW coverage) Soulforce makes little mention of Focus in connection with ex-gays; Nonetheless Focus can’t simply expect people to push happy and healthy gays back in the closet, ergo Focus points to their token alternative "Love Won Out". Wayne Besen makes the case in Anything But Straight that religious right groups such as Focus disingenuously support ex-gay organizations to justify their own attacks on all gays. Groundwork laid, Soulforce’s upcoming confrontation of Focus is unquestionably an ex-gay issue. This post is meant as a change for...
- [‘Things Gay Men Can Do to Find Real Love’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/things-gay-men/): Christmas is eight months away — and so is Joe Kort’s new book, 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Find Real Love. But you can pre-order it now through Amazon.com — or read about Joe’s other books and workshops here.
- [Wayne Besen: Capitulate Or Fight Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/wayne-besen-cap/): In his April 26 column, activist/author Wayne Besen says U.S. gays have a choice: Sequester themselves in their closets, or don boxing gloves. Besen sees corporate America, gays and Jews losing power and facing harassment from a minority of theocrats, while a majority of Americans stands by and allows “our legal rights and our basic humanity” to be stripped away.
- [Exodus’ Alan Chambers Raises Money for Gay Pride](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/exodus-alan-cha/): According to PrideSource.com, Chambers spoke April 6 — Pride Week — at Central Michigan University. Taking a strategy from the playbook of [garble] Bar’s fundraiser/protest of Rev. Fred Phelps when he came to Ann Arbor in 2001, CMU’s Gay-Straight Alliance sent out emails asking LGBT community members and allies to make a monetary pledge for each minute that Chambers spoke. The total raised so far? “Well over $1,200,” for Chambers’ ninety-four minute talk, according to the GSA’s Vice President Phil Reese. Volunteers distributed HRC ex-exgay literature outside the chapel. “We did it in a very respectful, non-confrontational manner,” said Reese. “There...
- [Ex-gay Lutheran Character in Gay Novel](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/ex-gay-lutheran/): Van Gower of Southern Voice reviews the new novel “Sex Camp” by Brian McNaught. Of the many compelling characters, the writer struggled most to fairly flesh out the character of Peter O’Shea, a self-identified ex-gay Lutheran Church worker. :I didn’t want him to be a caricature of what an ex-gay person is,” McNaught says. “It would have been easy to have him constantly spouting Biblical quotes, but I wanted him to be a sympathetic character who is on a journey. There are people out there who are really struggling and claim to be ex-gay because it may be the only way...
- [Ex-gays to Gays: Marry And Be Sexless?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/ex-gays-to-gays-2/): Guided by two unnamed exgay activists, Minnesota state senator Michele Bachmann vowed Apr. 8 to win a constitutional ban against gay unions. Bachmann told them (opponents of a ban), as she has said before, that they can get married just like anyone else — but they have to marry someone of the opposite sex. Evidently, some exgays and their politicians take it for granted that marriages can or should be sexless.
- [At Exgay Speech in St. Louis, Is the Tolerance Mutual?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/at-exgay-speech/): The Journal, at Webster University near St. Louis, profiled exgay Dan Colombo on April 7 following his campus visit. Dan Colombo used to be gay, but after choosing a Christian life, he decided to put all aspects of his life, including his sexuality, in the hands of God. So do gay-tolerant Christians. Colombo, who said he was sexually abused by his male neighbor as a child, is now married to a woman and has a daughter. He said his life began to change when he became friends with a Christian while in the Army. Colombo is only 24 now, and the...
- [Cheated By Tolerance — Or By a Cult of Blame?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/cheated-by-tole/): This is an oldie, but worth bringing up, I think. The December 2004 issue of Christianity Today published this exgay smear against Christians. Hiding behind the name “Anonymous,” and safe from analysis and accountability to those whom he judges, the writer refers to all gay-tolerant churches as a single entity and says they all “cheated” him and “lied” to him. According to Anonymous: homosexuality — not unsafe sex — causes AIDS and STDs; affirming churches caused his addiction to online pornography and tempted him to betray his wife Anonymous says, “I admit my responsibility for believing them (the lies)” — but...
- [Magellan Health Dust-up: A Chance to Sell Exgay Videos](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/magellan-health-2/): I see from PFOX’s April 22 press release that Prof. Throckmorton and PFOX are using their self-generated Magellan Health news story to sell copies of Throckmorton’s video, I Do Exist. Smart move.
- [Falwell University’s Ex-gay Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/falwell-univers/): Soulforce organized a visit by 60 gay-tolerant students to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University on April 25. Inside Higher Ed quotes Jake Reitan, an organizer of Soulforce’s Equality Ride project: “If a professor here wanted to say that God really loves gay students, he would get in trouble,” Reitan said about Liberty. “If a student told a professor he was gay, he would be reported and urged to attend ex-gay programs,” where people are told that they can change their sexual orientation. Reitan’s predictions are based on reports that Soulforce has received from gay graduates and other former students of Liberty University...
- [AFA Reports Stephen Bennett Has Nothing New to Say](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/afa-reports-ste/): Evidently it’s a slow news day over at AFA’s AgapePress, which decided to reprint a fluffy little interview from last month with Stephen Bennett whom, and here’s the big shocker, has absolutely nothing new to say. (Actually I lied, he’s got a new CD for sale on his website and something that huge clearly deserves this 1,300-word AFA lovefest article.) “But these are men and women who unfortunately have been rejected from day one — by their own families, by friends, by their peers.” “There’s no doubt about the fact that the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination.” “One of my favorite...
- [Gays And Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/gays-and-christ/): I’m sure many of you have already seen this article from the Galveston Daily News, highlighting efforts by local Christian groups to counter the anti-gay message fostered by South Houston’s recent "Love Won Out" conference.  Still, I wanted to link to it because it’s great to see moderate Christians responding to the tactics of the extreme right with a more genuine, Christ-like message of love.  It’s also important to remember that the Christian Family is a more complex place than the leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe. Along those same lines, Christian author Jack Hitt has an op-ed...
- [MobyNetDaily](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/mobynetdaily/): “We’re convinced that if we have children, we’re going to do everything in our power to make them gay. [emphasis added] Like maybe drinking a lot of extra soy milk while she’s pregnant, or anything that would work to make that happen. I’d just rather have a really sharp, interesting, smart gay son than some big dumb hetero meathead.” That quote from electronic music artist Moby in a recent (but undated) interview on PlanetOut.com appears to have caught the attention of that paragon of journalistic excellence, WorldNetDaily (view article). I’m not going to try and defend Moby other than to say...
- [Magellan Health Services Invites Throckmorton Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/magellan-health/): Magellan Health Services has invited Warren Throckmorton back to it’s advisory board. (Previous coverage at XGW) Quoting this AP article at Advocate.com: Magellan spokeswoman Erin Somers said Thursday the company was preparing a written statement. She confirmed that the company had offered to allow Throckmorton to return to the advisory board. She would not say why the company decided to allow him to return. Throckmorton had his own theory. “My understanding of the reason for bringing me back is they felt by dismissing me, they created an impression they were not an inclusive company, and in bringing me back they wanted...
- [Comment Registration Troubles](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/comment-registr/): Two people have had difficulty registering to comment via TypePad. If you wish to comment but are encountering obstacles with TypePad, please let me know. For the time being, I have made registration optional, but I still wish to make registration a requirement eventually.
- [The Ex-Gay Watch Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/the-ex-gay-watc/): This old copy of the About XGW page needs a bit of a rewrite. Feedback is welcome from everyone — but especially from exgay readers who may disagree with religious-right politics. Disclaimers This web blog is a personal project by its writers. It is not associated with any organization. An expressed viewpoint is solely the opinion of the person who wrote it, and not the viewpoint of other XGW writers. The writers encourage readers to judge for themselves the credibility of linked sources. A best effort is made to quote sources accurately. Feedback and commentary from blog readers are welcome in...
- [Simpsons Dares to Take The “Straight Pill”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/simpsons-dares/): If there were a pill you could take that would make you straight, would you take it? Yeah, we’ve all heard this question. Tonight on The Simpsons there was a brief reference to it when Smithers appeared on-screen with a woman by his side. Bart exclaimed he thought Smithers was [gay] to which Smithers replied: “I’m straight as long as I keep taking these shots every ten minutes” [Smithers pulls out syringe, injects] [Smithers throws his arms in the air and screams out] “I love boobies!!!” Remember, it’s humor people.
- [Changes At Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/changes-at-ex-g/): Ex-Gay Watch has been located at exgaywatch.com for two years, but some web sites still link to an old address, exgay.blogs.com. That old address eventually will stop working. At the new location (where you are right now), we have replaced the old website software with new software. Comments are working — and registration is now required in order to comment. The registration, through an independent service called TypeKey, requires that commenters be authentic individuals. If you wish to comment, but also wish to remain anonymous, please rest assured that TypeKey registration will protect your anonymity. TypeKey will not disclose your identity...
- [PAX Hosts Peaceful Debate Between Exodus Leader, Former Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/pax-hosts-peace/): Heard on PAX-TV’s Faith Under Fire, hosted by Lee Strobel, a few hours ago: Strobel:  When it comes to gays and God, there are two voices in the Christian community that are promoting completely opposite theologies.  One says that God wants gays to change their sexual behavior, and He’ll help them do it.  The other says God made them gay, and therefore it’s all right with Him if they engage in homosexual relationships.  The question is, which viewpoint reflects God’s agenda? Joining me to discuss this volatile issue is performance artist Peterson Toscano, author of Doing Time in the HomoNoMo Halfway...
- [Exgay Leader Faces Christian Ex-exgay Actor Tonight on PAX](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/exgay-leader-fa/): Peterson Toscano appears tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT, 9 p.m. CT/MT, on the PAX cable network’s program Faith Under Fire, hosted by Lee Strobel. Toscano, a performance artist, is going up against Alan Chambers in a program segment on ex-gays. (Hat tip: Rick) Toscano is the creator of: the one-man faith-based comedy show Doin’ Time in the Homo Nomo Halfway House; Queer 101: "Through this one-man performance piece, Toscano delves into the passion and confusion of internet dating, plumbs the depths of queer history, and humorously exposes the conflicts and contradictions within the queer community today." speeches to students and educators
- [Organizations Refuse to Acknowledge Failure of Attack on Gay Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/04/organizations-r/): Yesterday was the “Day of Truth.” The following news and propaganda sites have no follow-up coverage today: Cybercast News ServiceWorld Magazine BlogSBC Baptist Press NewsFamily News in FocusTownhall.comAgapePressWorldNetDailyAdvocate.com The only site which covered the “Day of Truth” was 365.gay which ran a 200-word Associated Press article. Quote the AP story: Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund, said some participating students had been threatened through “intimidation and potential disciplinary action.” No such evidence is offered up about “intimidation and potential disciplinary action” either in the article or ADF’s own website. Infact, the most recent press release linked on ADF’s main...
- [Is My Child Becoming Homosexual?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/is-my-child-bec/): That’s the sub-title of Focus on the Family’s web page entitled, “Helping Boys Become Men, and Girls Become Women.” The page goes on to offer a checklist of telltale signs to watch out for in determining a child’s (in this case, a young boy’s) developing sexuality: 1. A strong feeling that they are “different” from other boys. 2. A tendency to cry easily, be less athletic, and dislike the roughhousing that other boys enjoy. 3. A persistent preference to play female roles in make-believe play. 4. A strong preference to spend time in the company of girls and participate in their...
- [BBC2 to Air Unhappy Gay Reporter’s Ordeal At Exgay ‘Love In Action’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/bbc2-to-air-unh/): Britain’s BBC2 will broadcast “Sad to Be Gay” tonight at 9 p.m. local time. From the program description: David Akinsanya hates being gay. He has been living as a gay man for 20 years but if he could take a pill to make him heterosexual he’d pop it without a second thought. In Sad to be Gay, David sees if it’s possible to go straight. David believes his homosexuality is learned behaviour, but will it be something he can unlearn? David decides to attend a controversial treatment centre in America that promises “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”....
- [Wayne Besen: ‘The High Calling of the Low Road’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/wayne-besen-the/): From WayneBesen.com: It is the 21st Century and the cover of Time Magazine has pictures of a chimpanzee and God under the bold headline, “Evolution Wars”. I turn on the television and a non-descript talking head is promoting the bizarre idea that tax cuts for the rich lead to increased tax revenue. I flip the channel and an effeminate man is lisping about how he prayed away the gay. How did such weird and scientifically bankrupt ideas find their way into mainstream culture? The answer is at once simple and scary. Besen argues that the far right has for years outfunded...
- [XGW Seeks to Compile Media Contacts List](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/xgw-seeks-to-co/): Recently XGW has been deluged by media interview and referral requests. We do not currently maintain a formal list of individuals willing to be publicly interviewed so I have begun to compile a list. Mike is going to create a new page called Media Requests (or something) containing an inventory of contacts. I created an example based on myself below. How Can You Help? Are you or someone you know willing to be publicly listed and available for interview? Are you willing to be featured in a box like the example below so the mainstream media can accurately represent our point...
- [Fish Can’t Fly: Response Action Planned Against ‘Ex-Gay’ Film](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/fish-cant-fly-r/): NEWS ADVISORY: For Immediate Release August 9, 2005 RESPONSE ACTION PLANNED AGAINST “EX-GAY” FILM In response to an initiative underway aimed against the spirit of National Coming Out Day, members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community and their allies are encouraged to organize nationwide screenings of a new documentary film that shines light on some of the personal stories behind the “ex-gay” debate. Author and activist Wayne Besen, filmmaker Tom Murray, former “ex-gay” participant Shawn O’Donnell and performance artist Peterson Toscano ask LGBT individuals and affirming groups to organize screenings of Fish Can’t Fly throughout the month of October 2005....
- [British Paper Reports One Man’s Reorientation Attempt](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/british-paper-r/): There’s a quite interesting article in The Independent about David Akinsanya, a British man who is seeking to change his sexual orientation from gay to straight. He spent four days in Love In Action before leaving ‘realising that without the religious conviction of the other participants, he could go no further.” However, the article is peppered with terminology that suggesting that in just four days, LIA is able to inculcate their clients with a number of terms and beliefs. For example: “She had me in secret and, hours after I was born, I was taken from the hospital to the children’s...
- [Tolerance OK? Powerful PFOX Rep Overrides Group’s President](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/tolerance-ok-po/): Compare the recent public statements of two PFOX officials regarding public education, and one finds that PFOX can’t make up its mind whether to claim support for tolerance among people of different sexual orientations — or to declare sweeping trench warfare against anyone who veers from PFOX’s notion of straight-and-narrow. During this comparison, keep in mind that PFOX was launched by the Family Research Council (chaired by James Dobson) in 1996, and that PFOX continues to rely on the Dobson organizations (Focus on the Family, FRC, and Exodus) for political support, marketing and fundraising assistance.
- [Hate-Crime Statistics, Penalties, And Enforcement](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/hate-crime-stat/): Patrick Yaeger assesses the impact of hate crime statistics collection and enhanced penalties upon state and federal government activity against violent criminals who previously were ignored by local police.
- [Truth Sets Free: Creating Inclusive Christian Community](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/truth-sets-free/): From Straight, Not Narrow comes word of a well-designed web site called TruthSetsFree.net. Founder Justin R. Cannon, a student at Earlham College in Indiana, says: “My [Bible] study presents the Truth that set me free…not free to do whatever I want, but free to step out of the shadows of lies and self-hate to a place where I can truly embrace myself…” The site’s media coordinator, Jon Gennaro, was raised in a Pentecostal church; Gennaro says he was formerly part of an ex-gay ministry. He commented recently at Ex-Gay Watch about Love In Action director John Smid’s alleged affirmation of suicide...
- [Exgay Stereotypes to Play Advisory Role in Maryland Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/exgay-stereotyp/): The Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education will limit a reconstituted sex-education committee to an advisory role in planning a new sex-ed curriculum, according to The Washington Blade. The antigay parents and spouses group PFOX and the abstinence-only group Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum will each have one representative on the sex-ed advisory committee. PFOX had sought to nominate national antigay activist Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council as its representative. The organizations’ literature claims that homosexuality is caused by bad fathering, modern gender roles, and molestation. The Blade article quotes supporters of PFOX and CRC: Rockville, Md., antigay doctor...
- [Transcript of CNN Debate Between HRC, Warren Throckmorton](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/transcript-of-c/): Joe Solmonese, a longtime Democratic operative who now leads the Human Rights Campaign, debated exgay movement pundit Warren Throckmorton on “CNN Sunday Night,” July 31. Here’s the transcript. The topic: “Converting gays to straight” — same-sex-attracted teen-agers in particular. There were no fist fights, but not many hard facts offered, either.
- [Co-Founder ‘Sickened’ By Exgay Attempts To Rewrite History](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/co-founder-sick/): From WayneBesen.com Reprinted with permission Friday, August 05, 2005 John Evans: I’m Sickened By Attempts To Re-Write LIA History by Wayne Besen The History of Love In Action By John Evans I first met the Rev. Kent Philpott when I owned an art gallery in Sausalito, California. This was in 1973. Kent Philpott was the pastor of the Church of the Open Door in the nearby town of San Rafael. Shortly after meeting Kent, we were sitting in a café in Sausalito, having coffee when he came right out and asked me if I was gay. I was quite surprised because...
- [Recycling Antigay Catholic Stereotypes](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/recycling-antig/): Social-conservative website MichNews.com in mid-July reprinted the boilerplate exgay sales pitch of the Rev. Richard Perozich, who for years has been influential in the U.S. antigay/pro-chastity Catholic network called Courage (no relation to the British ex-exgay Christian group). (Courage historically has emphasized chastity, not a miracle cure from same-sex attractions. But in recent years the organization has fallen at least partially under the spell of the reparative therapy movement, and some in Courage have aligned themselves with an antigay political agenda resembling that of Exodus and Focus on the Family.) In his writings on behalf of Courage, Perozich presumes to know...
- [Book Review Under Fire: What’s ‘Mental Health’ In A Theocracy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/book-review-und/): Mel Sheesholtz, Ph.D, voices skepticism about Destructive Trends in Mental Health (Amazon link), a new book edited by Rogers H. Wright and Nicolas A. Cummings. However, Sheesholtz is much more skeptical of a review written for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality by NARTH member A. Dean Byrd. In his critique of the book and the NARTH review, Sheesholtz: questions the timing of Byrd’s review — the book was published in March, but it was not reviewed until July 5 amid the Love In Action media circus; interprets the book’s call for patient freedom in choosing therapies as...
- [Gay Activists React to Zach’s Post-LIA Statement](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/gay-activists-r/): Memphis, Tenn.-area gay-equality activist Morgan Fox and national actvist Wayne Besen react to Zach today in Southern Voice.
- [Peterson Toscano Cracks the Zach Code](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/peterson-toscan-2/): Through a process of exacting literary and scientific analysis, the Love In Action survivor, performance artist, and comedian deciphers — once and for all — the one true meaning of Zach’s message.
- [Queer Day: ‘Exgays Drive Ratings And A Homophobic ‘View’ ‘](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/queer-day-exgay/): Queer Day comments on ABC’s “The View”: On “The View,” the often annoying morning talk show, the women decided to take a closer look at a program to “straighten out gay teens,” speaking with a formerly gay man who had gone straight. You can read the transcript and expand your annoyance with all four of them to greater and lesser degrees – particularly Star Jones, pictured, and her sex-negative Views like “There’s a consequence to good clean fun.” The View did not present any rebuttal, no pro-gay speaker, no counterpoint to the lies and false statistics their guests provided. I invite...
- [Jim Burroway: ‘Liar Detector’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/jim-burroway-li/): Jim Burroway of Looking for Sam crunches some numbers and discovers that Arizona antigay activists are marketing several statistical lies as “facts.” Among the misrepresentations: The myth that homosexual men have on average eight partners per year The myth that gay relationships last, on average, 1 1/2 years As with propagandist Paul Cameron’s “research,” these numbers appear to have been cooked up by studying HIV/AIDS patients — not average gay men — and by purposely excluding suburban, rural, monogamous, middle-aged, and elderly gay men and lesbians from the survey samples.
- [Writer Seeks to Talk with Exgay Or Ex-Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/writer-seeks-to/): James Hannaham (Google search) is writing a novel in which the main character enters a live-in ex-gay ministry. Hannaham would like to talk with someone who has been through an ex-gay institution, who could explain a typical counseling / “treatment” routine. Hannaham may be contacted via e-mail. Addendum: I received an inquiry recently from a national news outfit asking to speak with a young adult who was considering attending an exgay program. I responded that XGW receives few such inquiries. (Lately, these inquiries have been appearing on my bio page.) I also seriously doubted that an individual seeking to closet one’s...
- [Gus Cairns: ‘I Fell For An Ex-Gay’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/gus-cairns-i-fe/): British psychotherapist and writer Gus Cairns offers advice to a Miami man whose Canadian boyfriend has gone ex-gay on him.
- [Zach Speaks Out: Leave the Guy Alone](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/zach-speaks-out/): Sixteen-year-old Zach’s run-of-the-mill online diary drew unintended global attention several weeks ago when his parents sent him off to several weeks of antigay group counseling at a facility with marginal credentials. Former patients and officials say the facility injures some people emotionally while hindering emotional and spiritual development. The young man’s diary included excerpts of the exgay facility’s regimen. The facility’s rules include strict gender-specific rules of conduct that recall 1950s family TV shows; constant supervision; rules against exposure to any media other than preapproved religious-right sources; and restrictions on what teen clients could talk about with their own parents. Having...
- [Frank Worthen Takes Credit](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/frank-worthen-t/): There has been some posting on this site and around the web about whether or not certain ex-ex-gays were ever involved with the founding of various organizations such as Love in Action or Exodus. In his 1995 testimony, Frank Worthen takes credit for almost single handedly founding Love In Action, Exodus, and even seems to claim co-authorship of Phillpot’s book The Third Sex. At Michael’s suggestion, I made a testimony tape to reach out to people who were trapped in the homosexual life-style. I decided to advertise the tape in the worst sex paper in town. The ad read: “Do you...
- [Boston Globe: Antigay Researcher Paul Cameron Buys His Way to Infamy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/boston-globe-an/): The Boston Globe ran an excellent story July 31 about religious-right researcher Paul Cameron. According to the article, Cameron and his “Family Research Institute” — identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — buy space in the small Montana publishing outfit called Psychological Reports. The Globe says respected professional journals charge no fee and permit peer reviewers to veto submissions with flawed research methodologies and illogical conclusions. But Psych Reports happily prints studies rejected by the pros — for $27.50 per page. And the “peers” may comment but have no veto power. According to the Globe, P.R....
- [Cleveland Gay, HIV/AIDS Services Say Exgay Minister Misled Them](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/cleveland-gay-h/): From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 30, via 365gay.com: The Rev. James Jones is one of two organizers of a July 31 prayer and healing service for people with HIV/AIDS. But in Jones’ mind, the “healing” may have been targeted at homosexuality, not AIDS. Jones told a church publication that he is “ex-gay,” compared homosexuality to addictions, said gays needed to give up their lifestyle to get into heaven, and opposed gay marriage. When a Cleveland HIV/AIDS service agency and the local gay and lesbian community center learned of Jones’ comments, they revoked their prominently advertised sponsorship of the service. Three...
- [Tell CNN To Cover The Facts About “Reparative Therapy”!](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/tell-cnn-to-cov/): Tell CNN to Cover The Facts About “Reparative Therapy”! Joe Kort, MSW This is from the PFLAG 7/28 e-newsletter. Please consider sending an email to the CNN folks listed at the bottom. Last night CNN’s show Paula Zahn Now aired a story on “reparative therapy” organization Love in Action. CNN completely ignored vital information on this issue. Here are some examples: The story did NOT include statements by the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association denouncing “reparative therapy.” The story did NOT talk about the virtually non- existent success rate of “ex-gay” programs. The story did NOT discuss the serious...
- [Love In Action Co-Founder: ‘My Ministry Shatters Lives’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/love-in-action-4/): by Wayne Besen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Saturday, July 30, 2005 CO-FOUNDER OF MINISTRY THAT RUNS TEEN ‘EX-GAY’ BOOT CAMP SAYS GROUP SHATTERS LIVES AND CAN CAUSE SUICIDE Love In Action Co-Founder John Evans Unveils Powerful Letter Rebuking ‘Ex-Gay’ Ministries NEW YORK — Author Wayne Besen released an explosive letter today by Love In Action’s co-founder and former ex-gay John Evans, which rebukes gay conversion groups saying that they “shattered lives”. The group he started has recently made headlines because it runs a boot camp for gay teens called “Refuge” that tries to turn adolescents heterosexual, often against their will.
- [Radio Show Discussion’s 3-to-2 Exgay-Gay Ratio](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/radio-show-disc/): The NPR radio program On Point aired a one-hour discussion of exgay “therapy” on July 29. According to the Making Gays Straight program description, the discussion participants were three exgay advocates, two critics of exgay therapies’ safety and effectiveness, and a reporter who has covered Love In Action’s exgay boot camp. Alex Williams, style reporter for The New York Times (Google search for Williams’ coverage of the LIA story) Christine Sneeringer, Director of Worthy Creations Ministry, which offers support groups for gay people who want to become straight Joseph Nicolosi, Director of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality...
- [Movement Co-Founder Coaches Exgays in Troubled Marriages](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/movement-co-fou/): The Houston Voice and New York Blade follow up earlier reporting with a new story today on Jerry Falwell’s July 21 appearance at the week-long Exodus International conference in Asheville, N.C. Worthy of note: 1. During worship, Falwell summoned an altar call, promising a “miracle.” 2. The reporter was required to be accompanied and monitored by an Exodus representative at all times. 3. Exodus co-founder Frank Worthen coached a classroom of 60 people — many of whom already appeared to be married — on how to achieve and endure an exgay marriage. Emphasis below is XGW’s: “Men are ready for marriage...
- [Exodus Antigay Youth Director to Be on ABC’s ‘The View’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/exodus-antigay/): Received from Exodus International via e-mail just now: Scott Davis, director of Exodus Youth, is scheduled to appear on ABC’s daytime talk show, The View, on Monday, August 1. Exodus says Davis will be joined by Mike Ensley, a “graduate” of an Exodus program located in Southern California. Exodus does not say whether any opposing viewpoints will be aired. The program’s web site does not show the schedule for August 1 yet.
- [Note From Andrew](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/note-from-andre/): FYI, I’m on vacation through Sunday, August 7th. Have a good week, everyone!
- [Exgay Therapy: NPR Show to Air One-Hour Discussion](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/exgay-therapy-n/): The National Public Radio program On Point will discuss Love In Action and “conversion therapy” for a full hour tonight — 7 p.m. Eastern time. On Point’s schedule lists local NPR stations that carry the program, as well as local air times. For those who miss the show: The On Point web site also archives its programs — or portions of them.
- [Friday Moment of Zen](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/friday-moment-o/): In cased you missed the Jon Stewart Show’s hilarious Samantha Bee, in this week’s segment on the “gayification” of NASCAR, click here. The segment includes an interview with an ex-gay NASCAR fan, and…well, it’s just too perfect. Enjoy.
- [Kirk Talley: ‘Out of the Lord’s Closet, Revisited’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/kirk-talley-out/): The August issue of GQ still is not at my local newsstand, so I turn over the mike to southern gospel music blogger averyfineline.com for analysis of the magazine’s story about Kirk Talley: Some of AVFL’s key points: Talley seems uncertain whether he is a victim of a backward religious culture or whether he is a spiritual masochist. Talley chooses neither to affirm same-gender relationships, nor to condemn “homosexuality.” The article title is misguided and false. Within the context Talley has chosen, there is no spiritual closet, nor has he come out of anything. Talley confuses temptation with the full scope...
- [The Good Morning America Segment](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/the-good-mornin/): As reported yesterday, Good Morning America had a segment on Zach’s story this morning. It had many features similar to the CNN story, yet many strikingly different. GMA featured Zach, and had a voice actor readingly directly from the MySpace blog while the words scrolled across the screen. They had a clip from Zach’s father stating his beliefs about homosexuality, and quoted Rev. Smid regarding the Refuge program. They also had Dr. Drescher on the program, but allowed him to speak about the dangers associated with reparative therapy camps, and noted that the APA condemns reparative therapy. The end of the...
- [Note From Daniel](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/note-from-danie-2/): FYI, I’m on vacation through the end of next week.
- [LIA on CNN](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/lia-on-cnn/): Deborah Feyerick covered the LIA / conversion therapy story last night on CNN. She glossed over many of the rules that have bloggers upset, generalizing them as “no flashy clothes” and “no touching.” She prominently featured LIA resident Ben Marshall. Marshall described how he was drug there kicking and screaming, and Feyerick notes that he not only survived the program, but decided to stay eight months. Later in the segment, he says that he is better in control of his lust, and that he hopes to marry a woman. She mentions Zach in passing (and not by name), and relates Zach’s...
- [Seeking Models of Support for Gay-Affirmative Abstinence](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/seeking-models/): I attend a predominantly gay church (although, ironically, the musicians are all straight). In discussion with my pastor this Sunday, I learned that a mutual friend is considering an ex-gay ministry. Although he is not self-hating nor under the belief that being a gay person is in itself wrong, he can’t get beyond the literal interpretations of the Levitical prohibitions against sex between men. Basically, he’s afraid of Hell. In our discussion we identified two areas in which the Church in general, and our church specifically, is failing to meet the needs of gay Christians like my friend. First, there is...
- [Evangelicals Concerned: ‘ABC-TV Debates Ex-gay Myth’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/evangelicals-co/): Press release issued today by Evangelicals Concerned ABC-TV Debates Ex-gay Myth EC Member is Guest on ABC-TV This Thursday Morning Watch this Thursday morning’s Good Morning America (on ABC-TV, check your local listings or the Good Morning America website). Dr. Randy Baxter has been invited to appear on the program to talk about the real side of ex-gay ministries and debunk the ex-gay myth. Randy, a longtime member of the pro-gay ministry Evangelicals Concerned, has personal experiences with ex-gay ministries to share. These experiences are similar to the Tennessee teenager who recently put out a plea for help on the Internet.
- [Zach Featured in NYT](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/zach-featured-i/): A story that rather fell through the cracks here on XGW: Zach’s story made the New York Times. In terms of raw information, it adds a little background into the leadup to Zach’s memorable MySpace post: He was bombarded by phone calls from reporters, he said, as well as by 100 e-mail messages a day from as far as Norway. Zach’s writings, which appeared on his page on www.MySpace.com, were publicized by one of his online acquaintances, E. J. Friedman, a Memphis musician and writer, who read Zach’s May 29 blog entry, “The World Coming to an Abrupt – Stop.” Mr....
- [Why I Believe the Ex-gay Movement Will Fail](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/why-i-believe-t/): It’s about economics. More specifically, it’s about economic sociology. Consider: the social cost of coming out and living openly as a gay person continues to decline rapidly. (In modern America, it’s increasingly rare for a gay person to lose their job, get cut off from family and friends, or be discriminated against in housing for being gay; non-discrimination has not been codified into existing federal law, but the social market is ahead of legislation here. I’m not saying there is no social cost to being out–there is still the prospect of random violence, subtler forms of discrimination, strangers calling you “faggot,””dyke,”...
- [About Andrew](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/about-andrew/): Ex-Gay Watch welcomes its newest writer: Andrew is a web designer, blogger, and citizen media specialist. He is currently attending Purdue University in Indiana, where he has ties to the Queer Resource Center and other gay groups. He has been blogging for a little over at year at Welcome to America; an outlet for ranting with an offhanded focus on gay issues. Politically, he is a moderate, with a bent towards common sense and pragmatism.
- [A Composite Look At Exgay Prejudices And Demands](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/a-composite-loo/): Gay libertarian blogger Jason Kuznicki presents a composite look at the exgay e-mail that he receives several times per year. Kuznicki concisely captures the trickle-down effect of exgay political activists’ mistaken and unflattering assertions about same-sex-attracted people, about diverse individuals’ sexual and romantic attractions and behaviors, about promiscuity, about the nature of prejudice and hate, about love-based same-gender relationships. In contrast to the prejudices collected from exgay e-mail messages, Kuznicki offers photographs of his own relationship and wedding as simple, tangible statements of truth amid exgay stereotypes. Kuznicki welcomes comments.
- [Demonstration July 29 Against Antigay Boot Camp](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/demonstration-j/): The Queer Action Council of Memphis, Tenn., has announced two vigils July 29 at antigay boot camp Love In Action: Please join us for what we anticipate will be the largest peaceful demonstration against the practices of “Love” in Action to date, and possibly the last for awhile. We anticipate major national media present and we hope that all of those who feel strongly about this issue will come show their support at either, if not both of these rallies. Please bring appropriate, non-judgmental, positive signs, banners, and attitudes. Zach Stark, the Tennessee teenager who blogged about his parents’ negative reaction...
- [PFLAG Statement on the Release of Tennessee Teen From ‘Ex-Gay Camp’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/pflag-statement/): 7/26/2005 1:44:00 PM Contact: Taylor Thompson of PFLAG, tthompson@pflag.org WASHINGTON, July 26 — As Zach Stark, the Tennessee teen who recently gained national attention after blogging his fears of being sent to Love in Action, is released from the program this week, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) calls for an ongoing and substantive discussion about the effects of “reparative therapy” on young people and their families.
- [Are Homosexual Men’s Lives 20 Years Shorter? No, Says Exgays’ Source](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/are-homosexual/): The Ex-Gay Watch health section tracks exgay activists’ frequent criticisms of gay individuals’ health and longevity. Exgay literature frequently cites two statistics: 1. Homosexuality takes 20 years off an individual’s life. 2. The average lifespan of a homosexual is 42 years. The new web page The life expectancy of gay men: Does HIV make much difference? analyzes the sources and the math underlying these two statistics: As a general rule: When the term “20 years off your life” or similar is used, the claimant is referring to this work by Hogg and his colleagues. Use of words such as “the average...
- [Falwell: It’s Okay to Force Kids Into Ex-gay Camps](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/falwell-its-oka/): Speaking at a conference of Exodus International, the largest religious group promoting the idea that gays can can change their sexual orientation, Rev. Jerry Falwell endorsed forcing gay kids into counseling designed to change their sexual orientation. Falwell compared allowing a child to identify as gay with allowing children to play on the interstate and dismissed psychologists’ claims that consent is fundamental to a healthy counseling relationship and that parents should not force their gay kids into therapy. Wow. Having been forced into reparative therapy by my parents (while I was still a minor) I’d like to offer my personal testimony...
- [Cruise Control: Gay Men And Sexual Addiction](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/cruise-control/): CRUISE CONTROL: A Book for Gay Menby Robert Weiss, MSW, CAS Review by Joe Kort, MSW July 25, 2005 No, this book isn’t about how to control Tom Cruise—although he needs some, given his ignorant advice that no one should be on prescribed medication for depression. This is a long-awaited and much-anticipated book for gay male sex addicts. After specializing in sexual addiction for over 20 years, finally I have a resource to give to my gay male clients struggling with sexual compulsivity. Twenty-five years ago, Patrick Carnes wrote his book, Out of the Shadows through a heterosexual male lens. Following...
- [Presbyterians To Take Moderate Position On Sexuality. My Prediction: Focus Will Try to Create Chaos](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/presbyterians-t/): “Presbytarians Issue Draft Report On Gay Debate” from the Louisville Courier-Journal: The drafts released so far are heavy on advice on how Presbyterians could learn to live with each other despite deep differences over theology and sexuality — as the ideologically diverse members of the task force itself have been doing. … The task force did reach consensus on some areas surrounding homosexuality, according to the draft report: “It is a grave error to deny baptism or church membership to gay and lesbian persons or to withhold pastoral care to them and their families.” Wow, dare I congratulate the Presbyterians for...
- [WORLD Magazine Attacks United Methodist Church For Tolerating Gay Church Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/world-magazine/): Marvin Olasky’s World Magazine has taken to attacking the United Methodist Church for simply allowing the gay-friendly Methodist group, Reconciling Congregations, to use its facilities. Apparently because Reconciling Congregations holds a differing opinion on one spiritual matter WORLD Magazine deems it “highly inappropriate to rent those facilities.” Perhaps only those Methodists who agree with church policy on all issues and don’t see to create positive change should be allowed to use their own church’s facilities? All I ask is that you take a moment and point out the spiritual hypocrisy, elitism and ugliness of this view to WORLD Magazine by posting...
- [Political Cartoonist: Exgays ‘Teaching (In)tolerance’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/political-carto/): Alarmed by an exgay partial victory in Montgomery County, Md., public schools, Boston Bay Windows political cartoonist Mikhaela Reid illustrates perceived similarities between exgay educational themes, and hate groups’ efforts to recruit children into sexism, racism and anti-Semitism. Click here to view the complete cartoon strip.
- [GQ Profiles Kirk Talley](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/gq-profiles-kir/): Southern gospel weblog averyfineline.com reports that the August 2005 issue of GQ profiles southern gospel singer Kirk Talley. The article is not available online. Talley is attempting to resurrect his singing career after a gay-blackmail scandal. (Previous XGW coverage of Kirk Talley.)
- [Metrosexuality Outpaces Exgay Resistance](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/metrosexuality/): Metrosexuality may be gaining ground — against the wishes of one exgay activist and the leading antigay media organizations. Google finds several articles in the antigay media in which Exodus official Randy Thomas wags his fingers at modern men who practice good grooming and tasteful attire. I briefly assessed some of these prejudices against metrosexuality here in September 2003. (On the following day, my un-metrosexual partner discussed his own aversion to labels.) Thomas, unfortunately, likes to label people. In one particular remark last year, Thomas accused well-groomed men (metrosexuals) and supporters of women’s equality and opponents of violence against women (the...
- [Penn & Teller on Showtime And Richard Cohen’s MANLOVE](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/penn-teller-on/): I was contacted by Penn & Teller last January, 2005, and asked if I conducted Reparative Therapy. I told them no and they asked if I knew of someone who did. Well I sent them to Richard Cohen of course knowing who Penn and Teller are and what they would do by featuring him. Sure enough my partner and I watched Penn & Teller: Bullshit! on Showtime July 18. It featured Family Values and showcased Richard Cohen’s non-sexual MANLOVE advice! They did not refer to Richard Cohen as Richard–but rather Dick. If you know anything about this show it very humorously...
- [Salon.com Tackles the Ex-Gay Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/saloncom-tackle/): I hope you’ve all been catching Salon’s four-part series on the work of ex-gay ministries. In Part I, they cover PFOX’ efforts to prevent anti-bullying measures in schools. In Part II, a straight reporter goes undercover into a “reparative therapy” session. Today’s installment is about the Rev. Grace Harley, who: …used to be a lesbian who posed as a man to marry a woman. Now she has overcome cocaine and “little hot-to-trot women” and is speaking out to save homosexual sinners. The series is definitely worth reading, regardless of one’s perspective on the legitimacy of ex-gay ministries. I found today’s installment...
- [Focus On The Family Adds Podcasting](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/focus-on-the-fa-16/): Family News In Focus and all other Focus programs now offer podcasting. Grab the URL for FNIF here. Advocate OutQ needs to get with it already. Feel free to email The Advocate and tell them feedback@advocate.com.
- [Review of “Fish Can’t Fly” By T Joe Murray](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/review-of-fish/): (OK, so hot boys on the web page movie poster…. Ya not in the actual film. Fred Phelps isn’t mentioned either.) Whereas OutFest LA ignored our request to cover their event, T Joe Murray wants coverage of his film and sent me a screener of “Fish Can’t Fly”. (For the record OutFest didn’t show “Fish Can’t Fly,” I just wanted to bitch about them blowing us off). The documentary was an excellent who’s-who of ex-ex-gays including: Wayne Besen (formerly of HRC, turned “photographer” and author)Wade Richards (“that kid from 20/20”)Shawn O’Donnell (more than just an ex-gay in Exodus’ group photo)Mary Lou...
- [Briefly Noted: ‘Christian’ Adoption Chain Bans Homosexuals, Catholics](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/briefly-noted-c/): Bethany Christian Services is a national antigay adoption chain that advertised (via Google ads) at Ex-Gay Watch until I banned them a couple weeks ago. According to the Associated Press (via MSNBC), Bethany also allows a local Presbyterian-run office in Mississippi to discriminate against Catholics.
- [Thought Toddler Gay, Dad Kills Son](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/thought-toddler/): This article at 365gay.com https://www.365gay.com/newscon05/07/071405childMurd.htm is an illustration of the damage that Reparative Therapy and the ex-gay movement does to children–particularly males. In Preventing Homosexuality by authors and RT’s Joseph Nicolosi and his wife they encourage restrictive gender roles for the children. It is my strong opinion that this is gender abuse to believe that men and women should only act a certain way. It fosters this type of abuse that this father did to this poor child who is now dead! Joe Kort, MSW
- [Antigay Father Outs ‘Zach’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/antigay-father/): “Zach” is real. His name is Zach Stark. A Google search finds that, until today, Zach had only been identified by full name in one obscure blog. However, in an interview for Pat Robertson’s national CBN TV network, father Joe Stark now defends sending Zach to what critics call an ex-gay boot camp: “We felt very good about Zach coming here because… to let him see for himself the destructive lifestyle, what he has to face in the future, and to give him some options that society doesn’t give him today,” Stark said. “Knowing that your son… statistics say that by...
- [Exodus Cancels Tolerant Speaker](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/exodus-cancels/): According to his online calendar, Jay Bakker’s speech to the 2005 Exodus “Freedom” conference has been canceled. (Hat tip: XGW commenter Sarah.) Exodus has not acknowledged the cancellation on its own conference calendar, however. As I see the situation, Bakker’s presence on the conference program might have achieved one of two results: 1) Bakker might have explicitly condemned the respective political empires of James Dobson (Focus on the Family, Family Research Council), Pat Robertson (CBN), Jerry Falwell (Liberty Counsel) and the American Family Association (Agape Press). Bakker might have detailed each organization’s specific efforts to promote discrimination, harassment, stereotypes, scientific and...
- [Can Gays Change Their Orientation?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/can-gays-change/): I don’t know–but you can find out what MSNBC’s readers think by checking out the online poll. It’s live right now, go vote! The accompanying article is a good one.
- [Family & Friends Interviews Love In Action Director](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/family-friends/): Family & Friends magazine of Memphis, Tenn., published an excellent package of articles this month, following the controversy surrounding Love In Action, a regional exgay live-in ministry that permits parents to subject their same-sex-attracted children to less-than-voluntary and uncertified therapies. The main article offers a lengthy interview with LIA executive director John Smid. Family & Friends was gracious enough to permit Ex-Gay Watch to reprint the articles in their entirety. Read on: Introduction Love In Action’s Rev. John J. Smid Talks Openly Three Individuals Offer Advice to Love In Action Protesters, Teen, Parents The Memphis Protest Heard ‘Round the World Update...
- [Love In Action’s Rev. John J. Smid Talks Openly](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/love-in-actions/): By Patricia Pair, publisher with Anita Moyt, managing editor Family & Friends magazine, July 2005 Memphis, Tennessee familymag@aol.com Reprinted with permission In a recent interview, Love In Action International’s Executive Director Rev. John J. Smid spoke openly, honestly and at length with the publisher and managing editor of Family & Friends following a press conference Love In Action held in the wake of a two-week protest outside the organization’s headquarters in Bartlett, TN. Married at age 19 to a woman, Smid admits he knew very little about his own sexuality, much less homosexuality at the time. Six years and two children...
- [Three Individuals Offer Advice to Love In Action Protesters, Teen, Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/three-individua/): By Anita Moyt, managing editor Family & Friends magazine, July 2005 Reprinted with permission Family & Friends asked two individuals knowledgeable about Love in Action what they would say to the protesters, to Zach and to Zach’s parents given the situation at hand.
- [The Memphis Protest Heard ‘Round the World](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/the-memphis-pro/): By Anita Moyt, managing editor Family & Friends magazine, July 2005 Reprinted with permission On May 29, 2005, a set of words appeared on a blogsite that began, “The World Coming To An Abrupt – Stop. Current Mood: depressed.” What followed were the cries of a 16-year-old young man, from Bartlett, who identified himself as “Zach.”
- [Seventeen Magazine Seeks Interview](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/seventeen-magaz/): The Love In Action debacle has caught the interest of Seventeen magazine. Does anyone know any ex-gay therapy survivors under age 23? If so please contact Cara Nissman at cnissman@jkraft.net.
- [New Blog: Straight, Not Narrow](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/new-blog-straig/): Jim Johnson has just started a blog titled Straight, Not Narrow. Johnson has attended a GLBT-affirming church for several months, and says he wants to share what he is learning about God’s love and acceptance of all. He hopes to help the GLBT community by demonstrating that they have straight advocates within the church, and he also hopes to reach straight people who are not as accepting and give them something to think and pray about.
- [QNotes: Featured Speaker May Be Too Tolerant for Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/qnotes-featured/): According to David More, editor of QNotes, Jay Bakker (son of Jim and Tammy Faye) is threading a religious and political needle by agreeing to an upcoming speech at the Exodus annual antigay conference in Asheville, N.C. QNotes quotes a phone conversation that he had with Bakker recently: “I think what the church has done to the gay community is horrible and wrong,” he said with a start. “My family went through so much hurt and rejection from the church. I wanna go back and show them how hurtful they’ve been. “There will be people there because they don’t think God...
- [New Religious Liberal Political Group Forms -and- The Conservative Love Affair With Declaring The Left Half Of America “Un-American”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/new-religious-l/): It’s no secret many XGW readers feel religion is disproportionately wielded politically by the right. Jerry Falwell’s column at the WorldNetDaily takes aim at a new group called the Christian Alliance for Progress. Based on their webpage, primary goals focus on: economic justiceresponsible environmental stewardshipLGBT equality“effective prevention” vs. criminalizing abortionseeking peaceuniversal health care Falwell responds by labeling this group un-Christian, (even in the headline of his column) and accuses them of falsely portraying Jesus as a “hippie do-gooder.” (Yes, he used that exact phrase; I don’t just make this stuff up.) I’m sorry, but I grew up in a community where...
- [Exodus Again Refers Supporters to Discredited Statistician](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/exodus-again-re/): Blogger Brady of “Some Guys Are Normal” first noticed on June 14 that Exodus was distributing propaganda by long-discredited “researcher” Paul Cameron. Cameron runs an antigay propaganda service called the “Family Research Institute,” based in Colorado Springs. Cameron was kicked out of several professional scientific organizations for distorting other researchers’ work and for distorting his own research to achieve predetermined antigay outcomes. Since then, his organization’s fraudulent propaganda has grown increasingly incendiary, earning it notoriety as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Exodus and other antigay groups under the Focus on the Family umbrella know that Cameron’s work...
- [One Blogger’s Dialogue with Exgay Live-In Program Director](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/one-bloggers-di/): Blogger Willie Hewes of Free Z. has been dialoguing a bit with Love In Action executive director John Smid. Here is Hewes’s letter and Smid’s reply. Smid’s reply is worth a quick read — it is spoken with the tone of someone who possesses competency in professional therapy, even though few staffers at LIA have actually earned such credentials. Strangely, the letter to Hewes was followed by another message by Smid to someone else, misaddressed to Hewes. That message claims very high success rates at improving youth-parent communications and faith commitment, but the stats are apparently based on a sample of...
- [Falwell, Purported Victim to Speak for Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/falwell-purport/): Exodus, the exgay political network, may be drifting toward the particular fringe of Christianity represented by Jerry Falwell. In fact, Falwell is a Featured Speaker at Exodus’ annual conference, scheduled for July 19-23 in Asheville, N.C. Falwell was a longtime sponsor of HIV-positive exgay activist Michael Johnston — until Johnston was revealed in 2003 to be having unsafe sex orgies with Virginia gay men. (News and commentary by Natalie Davis.) However, among the Exodus conference’s far-right pundits and broken-sexuality proponents, it’s possible there may be an independent political voice among the speakers: I would like to know more about featured speaker...
- [Antigays Repent, But Moral Tunnelvision Persists](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/antigays-repent/): Some antigay Christians are uncomfortable thinking about the world in tangible, rational, measurable, logical terms. These individuals — indeed, whole denominations — may be more comfortable reducing the world to primeval “curses and blessings” — superstitions and ghosts. Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson present themselves as two such individuals. In Owning the Curse: Rethinking Same-Sex Marriage, Jones and Wilson reduce readers’ moral vision to the following flawed, unidimensional assumptions. Wilson, a Calvinist, earns praise from Marvin Olasky. The authors’ assertions are in italics below, followed by my response.
- [PFOX Wants Antigay Polemicist to Steer D.C.-Area Sex Ed](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/pfox-wants-anti/): Teach The Facts is a group of Montgomery County, Maryland, parents and educators that is defending comprehensive sex education from attack by the religious right. In a July 5 blog entry, TTF blogger/parent Jim Kennedy analyzes PFOX’s nomination of Family Research Council pundit Peter Sprigg to help determine the future of sex education in suburban Washington, D.C. Elsewhere (recently) on the blog, Kennedy documents a local religious-right coalition’s onslaught of misquotes against TTF. Here, TTF’s blogger finds PFOX scrambling for new reasons to sue the public school system after the school board gave PFOX a generous settlement. (A Washington Times article...
- [Victim Or Aide? Dr. Spitzer And Those Who Distort His Work](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/victim-or-aide/): When I reviewed recent MSNBC coverage of exgays on July 4, I confess I had not thoroughly read this article: Choosing research to prove your point Both sides in gay-change contest latch onto landmark 2001 study By Alex Johnson, MSNBC, June 29, 2005
- [Comment Difficulties](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/comment-difficu/): Updated July 10, 2005: I discarded many antispam restrictions on July 8, and I hope that commenting is becoming easier. The tradeoff is that I will probably discontinue “trackbacks” — the feature that you may see on some XGW pages, where other bloggers (and spammers) can automatically publish links to their own sites. While my software successfully prevents spammers’ trackbacks from being published, I am still receiving 900 trackback spams per day — and I am being docked for the bandwidth consumed by those incoming spams. The bandwidth theft does not yet exceed my monthly allowance, but things are trending in...
- [Abstinence Or Death? Exgay Battle Against Sex Education](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/abstinence-or-d/): As regular readers know, in the past year Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) has (quite literally) cashed in on a new pet cause: the religious right’s battle to withhold knowledge of safe, secondary alternatives to abstinence from sexually active public-school students in suburban Washington, D.C. I invite people to post links here to resources weighing the health, safety, and effectiveness of abstinence-only, abstinence-plus, and comprehensive sex education. Are PFOX and Warren Throckmorton promoting good health, or subjecting teen-agers to ignorance, unsafe promiscuity, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases?
- [Scientology And Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/scientology-and/): A reader pointed out today that Ex-Gay Watch has no articles on the Church of Scientology’s efforts in the ex-gay marketplace. (We have had comments about Scientology among commenters, but no articles.) The reader offered one article and two discussions as a starting point for an Ex-Gay Watch post: Exposing the Con (Anti-Scientology) Michael Pattinson’s Experiences with Scientology Discussion: Scientology and Homosexuality Another Discussion (Scroll about halfway down.) I Googled exgay Scientology and found a few, very strange links. It turns out that Pattison in 1998 sued John Travolta, numerous Scientologists, and numerous top Clinton Administration officials. The gist of the...
- [PFOX Claims It’s Tolerant](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/pfox-claims-its/): Richard Cohen, M.A. President, PFOX July 6, 2005 Statement to the Montgomery County Board of Education (Statement on behalf of a broader campaign with the religious-right Liberty Counsel, Warren Throckmorton, and a local group of religious conservatives opposed to comprehensive, abstinence-inclusive sex education in suburban Washington, D.C., public schools.)
- [Insurances DO Pay for Reparative Therapy!](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/insurances-do-p/): Insurances DO pay for Reparative Therapy! by Joe Kort, MSW I was recently asked how psychotherapists get paid for providing Reparative Therapy (RT) if most mental health organizations have identified it as an unethical and harmful form of treatment. The way these therapists and treatment centers get around this is by using a diagnosis known as Sexual Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (302.9). This is in the DSM IV which is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition in the mental health field. These therapists also use depression and anxiety disorder diagnoses which insurance companies will pay for. In...
- [Alan Chambers Infographic [Click To View Full Size Version]](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/alan-chambers-i/): Alan Chambers Infographic [Click To View Full Size Version]
- [Math By Alan Chambers, Ex-Gays To Take Over World By 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/math-by-alan-ch/): All of these quotes are from Alan Chambers: [hint, watch the bold text] While the news is being touted in the homosexual community as another sign that homosexuality is genetic, the focus instead should be on the thousands of former homosexuals who have experienced freedom through Christ, the head of Exodus International said.(*) (2003) I am one of tens of thousands of people whom have successfully changed their sexual orientation.(*) (2004) Homosexuals need to know they are welcome at their local church, but they also need to know that hundreds of thousands of us have found freedom from the isolation and...
- [“81 Words” That Changed The World](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/81-words-that-c/): Raj sent this to me a while back. Back in 2002 PRI and NPR’s This American Life ran an hour long show revealing the story of how homosexuality was removed from the DSM. The theme of the story was that change came largely at the request of gay people who formed a secret alliance and helped put sympathetic leaders into power at the APA. It’s EXACTLY the sort of conspiracy theory the religious right is always screaming about but this story also has a pivotal turning point that very much hinged on sympathy of one straight man. Oh but also included,...
- [Question of Bias in MSNBC Coverage of Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/question-of-bia/): Updated July 4, 2005 Two recent articles at MSNBC.com offer fairly well-written primers on recent exgay activism — though, in sticking to the basic issues, the articles are kinder to both exgay and pro-equality activists than is, perhaps, deserved. Two stories cannot reasonably be expected to cover the entire exgay issue. For example, the articles do not mention persistent efforts by organizations such as Focus on the Family and PFOX to obstruct antidiscrimination laws and antiharassment programs in public schools. Nor do the articles mention a recent battle by Warren Throckmorton, the antigay parents/spouses group PFOX, and local and national abstinence-only...
- [Throckmorton Opposes Programs Mixing Ministry And “Treatment”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/throckmorton-op/): In the same Washington Blade article as the post below, Warren Throckmorton weights in on the risk of unlicensed programs such as Love In Action which combine ministry and “treatment.” (Tenn. opens new probe of ‘ex-gay’ facility, Washington Blade, by Eartha Melzer, July 01, 2005.) Oddly the Blade choses to paraphrase and not directly quote Throckmorton even though writer Eartha Melzer interviewed him. I verified this with Melzer and Throckmorton via email today. Article excerpt: [Throckmorton] believes that Love in Action is mixing ministry with treatment and that people can be damaged by sexual reorientation therapies offered by unprofessional practitioners. Throckmorton...
- [New Investigation of Love In Action Launched](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/07/new-investigati/): Last week the Tennessee Dept. of Child Services conducted an investigation of allegations of child abuse at Love In Action. Now the Tennessee Department of Health has launched it’s own investigation. Excerpted from Tenn. opens new probe of ‘ex-gay’ facility, Washington Blade, by Eartha Melzer, July 01, 2005. The Tennessee Department of Health has sent a letter to Love in Action notifying the group that it is suspected of operating illegally, according to Andrea Turner, communications director for the department. Turner said that if the program is strictly faith-based it would not require licensing by the state, but that according to...
- [Have You Seen Shawn O’Donnell?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/have-you-seen-s/): I have scattered reports that ex-ex-gay Shawn O’Donnell was involved in Exodus’ group publicity photo a few years back and has since left the ex-gay lifestyle and is now demanding Exodus stop using his photo. [I repeat, this remains an unverified report.] Most recently I found him mentioned in passing here. But once again, not enough information to base a post upon. If anyone knows Mr. O’Donnell or has any good news stories about him please contact me. Addendum by Mike A.: Press release about Shawn O’Donnell by Wayne Besen:
- [Review of “Bullying Prevention Information: Resources for Schools” By Warren Throckmorton](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/review-of-bully/): Review of “Bullying Prevention Information: Resources for Schools” by Warren Throckmorton, June 2005. In a personal email from Prof. Throckmorton to myself dated June 27th, he stated this package was among the material presented at last weekend’s PFOX education conference opposite the national PTA convention. Throckmorton’s package is generic, bland and almost exclusively deals with the notion of bullying as if it were confined to Timmy having his milk money stolen. Throckmorton fails to specifically mention racial, gender, religious or anti-gay bullying as particularly heinous forms of bullying. Bias motivated crimes are much more dangerous because they seek to terrorize an...
- [AFA Praises Parent Who Stopped Student GSA By Distributing Ex-Gay Literature](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/afa-praises-par/): Alert reader Timothy brought my attention to a very ugly article published at the Agapepress today regarding events last December. (As if the fundamentalist media recycling favorite anecdotes as news is uncommon…) The article is about local parent David Williams who fought the establishment of a GSA at Eisenhower High School in Lawton, Oklahoma by distributing ex-gay literature. Williams, however, used [the equal access] policy to his advantage. He argued that, if homosexual students were free to establish a club that normalizes their lifestyle, then students who believe that homosexuals can change their sexual orientation must also be allowed to start...
- [Note To Commenters, You Must Provide a Source](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/note-to-comment/): Today I had to delete two five comments for failing to provide a source. Whenever a commenter uses a quote, mentions an article or posts a press release it must include a URL or other verifiable citation or I will delete it. Simply saying “this is from HRC” or “I read this at SoVo.com” is not sufficient. I expect to see the entire URL, if followed, takes me straight to the source being quoted in one click. That means the dedicated URL for a specific article, press release, and in the case of blog, a permalink. -Dan
- [State Investigation Of Love In Action Ends](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/state-investiga/): Alert reader Regan brought this story to my attention. The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services has concluded it’s investigation and announced allegations of child abuse at Love In Action are unfounded. The story at SoVo contains little new information except director Smid claims the allegations were never described to him. John Smid, executive director of Love in Action, said the allegations were never described to him but he assumed they involved a complaint of psychological abuse.
- [PFOX Yet To Disclose Anti-Bullying Materials Presented At Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/pfox-yet-to-dis/): Update: Throckmorton emailed me this same evening with the material presented. He directed me to www.respectandthefacts.com. I’ll have a look in the next day or so. “This weekend PFOX will be presenting materials and methods designed to protect all students and ensure safe schools for everyone.” -Warren Throckmorton(*) Well it’s Monday afternoon and PFOX has yet to post any of these methods/materials to their website. I’ve called and emailed asking if these take the form of new lesson-plans or curricula, and if so to please send me a copy. My call and email have gone unacknowledged. If you, the XGW reader...
- [State of Tennessee Announces Investigation of Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/state-of-tennes/): The state of Tennessee has begun an investigation in response to allegations of child abuse at Love in Action, a Memphis facility that advertises homosexual conversion therapy for adolescents, according to the state department of health [sic]. K. Daniele Edwards, a spokesperson for Child Services at the Tennessee Department of Health, confirmed an investigation is underway but declined to comment on the details. She noted that she presumes the Love in Action program would require licensing by the state. Love in Action is not licensed by the Tennessee Departments of Health, Mental Health, Human Services, Child Services or Education, according to...
- [Where’s A ‘Live-In Ministry’ Near You?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/wheres-a-live-i/): Exodus calls them “live-in ministries” and helps market them. Critics call them “ex-gay camps” or compulsory “brainwashing” facilities. Whatever one calls them — we’d like to know where more of them are. Exodus boasts of four — in Georgia, Kansas, Montana and Tennessee. Where are others — the ones nearest you? Let us know, via the comments.
- [AgapePress Quotes Local Bigot Who Offers Substantiation Based On His Collection Of Private Files](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/agapepress-quot/): Today the Agapepress gleefully reports homosexuals have been arrested for public sex at Richfield County Park in Michigan. Gary Glenn, the apparent head of the AFA Michigan has noticed a trend and is quoted: Glenn observes an alarming trend in reports of such criminally lewd behavior. “I went back and looked over the records of the incidents of this kind of thing that I have in my files,” he says, “and it seems in almost every case, there are public school employees who are involved when there is an arrest made in a public park for men soliciting homosexual activity.” Two...
- [Religious Right Slips Up Again](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/religious-right-10/): Shhhush… don’t tell anyone but the religious right’s charade slips up again regarding their motives for supporting the ex-gay cause. (Hint: It has to do with providing them an excuse to justify discrimination against the millions of gay Americans content with their sexuality) Alert reader Timothy sent me “What’s Their Real Problem With Gay Marriage? (It’s the Gay Part)”, by Russell Shorto, an article appearing in the New York Times Magazine dated June 19, 2005. Found about 70% into the article ex-gay theology is very clearly offered as the alternative to gay marriage: Shannon Royce, the executive director of the Marriage...
- [Ex-Gay Ad Policy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/ex-gay-ad-polic/): Several readers have noticed ex-gay ads appearing on the margins of the Ex-Gay Watch home page. This web site does have the ability to filter out ads from specific sources — and I am inclined to do so until those sources agree to host gay-tolerant ads. But before implementing such a policy, I welcome feedback.
- [Why It Sucks to Be a Gay Kid of Fundamentalist Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/why-it-sucks-to/): Reflecting on a June 19 New York Times article about the rapid growth of politically organized, grassroots antigay bigotry, Joe Riddle explains — from his own first-hand experience — some of the ways in which antigay parents “torture” their children in the name of love. Joe’s advice to teen-agers living with antigay fundamentalist parents: “Keep your head down and try to stay out of harm’s way until you’re an adult and you can get away from them.”
- [Note From Mike](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/note-from-mike/): Dear Reader, If you have some writing experience, convey messages with a civil and factual tone, and believe you could improve on our content (such as it is), please consider volunteering for Ex-Gay Watch. Ideal candidates read XGW or similar blogs frequently, support freedom of religion and expression, reject discrimination and censorship as a tool for one’s own political advancement, oppose the religious right, and relate well with both “liberals” and “conservatives.” Gay-tolerant exgays, in particular, are encouraged to apply. I’ve started a new job this week, so please accept my apologies for posting so little about the activities of Exodus...
- [Note From Daniel](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/06/note-from-danie/): Note From Daniel: Please send news, story leads and tips to Mike through this weekend. I really appreciate the flood of helpful emails readers have been sending me in regards to Love In Action. I’m taking a long weekend and heading for the Central Coast to photograph a college friend’s [government recognized] wedding. (Examples of my work [1], [2] and [3].) While I’m gone I want all of you to continue emailing the gay media telling them to cover this story. (Except The Advocate who say they’re doing a story on it already.) Do it, do it NOW.
- [Throckmorton: GLAAD Denies Packing Audience For Taping Of Dr. Phil](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/throckmorton-gl/): On Monday I was forwarded an email supposedly written by Heidi Lee, an officer at GLAAD detailing how the Dr. Phil show was taping a show on “healing” gay teens and GLAAD had a special arrangement with the producers by which they sought to pack the audience with allies. As I do with all forwarded press releases, I wrote to GLAAD seeking verification. Tuesday (10/5/05) Damon Romaine, Entertainment Media Director at GLAAD wrote me back: We have not issued any press release on the Dr. Phil episode so I don’t have any information at this time to pass on to you....
- [Meeting the Fundies](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/meeting-the-fun/): There is an article by Steve Satterwhite in the Texas Observer allowing “some of the more vociferous amendment proponents” a chance to put in their own word the reasons they are supporting an amendment to the Texas state constitution that would limit marriage to a man and woman. Not surprisingly, their objections to gay marriage were primarily objections to homosexuality and had nothing to do with marriage, sanctity, or really anything other than anti-gay bias.
- [Ex-Ex-Gays In Central New York Wanted For Media Interview](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/ex-ex-gays-in-c/): Would any ex-gay therapy survivors in the Central New York area please contact Gaetano Pollice, a student reporter at Syracuse University. gpollice@syr.edu
- [Stephen Bennett All Up In A Tizzy Over Time](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/stephen-bennett-5/): On Monday Exodus sent out an emails proudly announcing the current Time Magazine cover story on gay teens which in my opinion gives a respectable amount of time to advocates on both sides of the issue. Stephen Bennett however is all worked up in a tizzy and today’s Agapepress headlining article is filled with his inane bitching. I refuse to believe someone as whiney, prissy and emotional as Bennett’s conduct in this article can possibly be straight. The evangelist notes, “One of the lines in there that really struck me as just an outright lie — and there are many in...
- [Exodus International Testimonials Blame Homosexuality For Life Problems - Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-internat-2/): Click to enlarge Click to enlarge For documentation and notes click below.
- [GLAAD Seeks Supportive Studio Audience For Dr. Phil’s “Healing Gay Teens”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/glaad-seeks-sup/): I have an unverified report claiming this wednesday Dr. Phil is to tape a show tentatively called “Hope to Heal Your Gay Teen?” GLAAD wishes to pack the audience with supporters. If you are in Southern California and would like to be one of those supportive audience members click below for more info. XGW reader Christine informed me that Justin, the Executive Director of GayChristian.Net will be appearing in the broadcast. Update: Damon Romine, Entertainment Media Director at GLAAD, emailed me denying they have issued any press releases on the taping.
- [Richard Cohen Starbucks Quote Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/richard-cohen-s/): Concerned Women For America are concerned about pro-gay quotes printed on Starbucks coffee cups. We figured some anti-gay quotes aught be suggested to take it’s place. PFOX president Richard Cohen recently had a meltdown following a TV appearance versus Wayne Besen and made this sort of bizarre statement. I think it goes nicely on a cup and is sure to spark fascinating coffeehouse dialectics. This cup is FAKE. FAKE I say! Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge
- [Study Shows Conversion Therapists Rate Well Amongst Clients - Second Analysis](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/study-shows-con-2/): Dr. Warren Throckmorton has written an article called “Sexual reorientation therapy clients rate their experience with psychotherapists” in which he discusses the results of a study he enacted to determine what type of therapy is preferred by people wishing to change their sexual orientation. The premise behind Throckmorton’s study is that some reorientation therapy is harmful and some beneficial. He sought to determine which is which. He found that people who identify as ex-gay were most appreciative of therapy that condemned a gay or lesbian identity as bad, sick, or inferior, among other practices.
- [Ex-gay Quotes on Starbucks Cups?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/ex-gay-quotes-o/): The Concerned Women for America’s Culture and Family Institute has applauded Baylor University for pulling cups from the campus Starbucks that included a quote for Armistead Maupin. Concerned woman, Bob Knight, “says his group has challenged the Starbucks Coffee Company by asking why it has a pro-homosexual quote, but not one from a former homosexual.” In the spirit of cooperation, I thought we could offer Starbucks some options to choose from. I would like to nominate the following quote but please feel free to add your favorite. I’m asking this so I might continue to battle, stand up and crack this...
- [Steven Bennett Opposes Connecticut’s Civil Unions And Gay People in General](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/steven-bennett/): Gadfly ex-gay activist, Steven Bennett, has issued a press release stating his firm stance “in direct opposition to his State’s new law legalizing homosexual civil unions.” He describes himself thus: Stephen Bennett is a man who once engaged in homosexuality for 11 years with over 100 male partners. He completely left the homosexual lifestyle in 1992. Here at exgaywatch, we are still waiting to find confirmation of the existence of any of those 100 male partners. Bennett goes on to clarify that his real objection is something other than civil unions: “This is a very sad day for my home State...
- [Harrier Miers Involved With Which “Exodus Ministries” Exactly?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/harrier-miers-i/): From Bush’s nomination speech: She led by example. She put in long hours of pro bono work. Harriet Miers has given generously of her time and talent by serving as a leader with more than a dozen community groups and charities, including the Young Women’s Christian Association, Childcare Dallas, Goodwill Industries, Exodus Ministries, Meals on Wheels and the Legal Aid Society. It’s ok if your heart stopped there for a second, mine did too. But I was still in my underwear this morning calling every non-exgay “Exodus Ministries” I could google when HRC came to the rescue: During the announcement, President...
- [Study Shows Conversion Therapists Rate Well Amongst Clients.](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/study-shows-con/): Dr. Throckmorton and Exodus Media are touting a new study that shows reorientation therapists rating well amongst their clients. Exodus brags for several paragraphs about how it was published in the Journal of Psychology & Christianity, which they note “is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Christian Association of Psychological Studies” and is “…edited by American Psychological Association Fellow, Peter Hill, PhD.” The study is available for download in Word (.doc) format here. The study is composed of 28 individuals who rated 80 therapists. All the clients rated themselves as more homosexual than heterosexual before therapy, and 82% rated themselves as...
- [Behind the Myths: Sexual Orientation And Pedophilia](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/behind-the-myth/): Jim Burroway analyzes the numbers, the perpetrators, and the survivors of pedophilia. Burroway’s analysis casts doubt upon religious rightists’ efforts to link molestation to gay sexuality.
- [Keith Boykin: Is Exgay Donnie McClurkin Still Gay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/keith-boykin-is/): Keith Boykin analyzes exgay activist and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin in depth. Given McClurkin’s stubborn antigay prejudices and hostilities, Boykin finds reason to doubt McClurkin’s claim to be free of homosexuality. And Boykin wants to hear from people who might know more.
- [Campaign to Defend the Constitution From the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/campaign-to-def/): From Frederick Clarkson via Jesus Politics: Campaign to Defend the Constitution (DefCon) is a new Washington-based online campaign. The group’s mission: DefCon is an online grassroots movement combating the growing power of the religious right. We will fight for the separation of church and state, individual freedom, scientific progress, pluralism, and tolerance while respecting people of faith and their beliefs. Among the advisory board members are: Bruce Alberts, former President of the National Academy of Sciences Francisco Ayala, former President and Chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Ira Glasser, former Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties...
- [Exgay Joe Dallas: (Hoping For?) Destruction And Doomsday](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-joe-dalla/): Exgay activist, author, and former Exodus official Joe Dallas was quoted Sept. 28 by the American Family Association media organ Agape Press (via Jesus Politics): Dallas points out that homosexual activists’ agenda is not only to normalize the homosexual lifestyle, but also to silence all those who oppose that normalization. Dallas offers no evidence whatsoever that gay equality activists have sought to silence antigay activists — nor does Dallas define “homosexual lifestyle.” Dallas urges Christians to “repent of being intimidated” by the voices of tolerance and co-existence. He calls on Christians to commit to a role in Dallas’ dichotomy: a choice...
- [Religious Right: ‘An Unholy Alliance Between Church And State’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/religious-right-11/): From Lee R. Shelton IV via Jesus Politics: The American Empire: An Unholy Alliance between Church and State
- [Love In Action: Christian ‘Fraud’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/love-in-action-8/): From Pastor Dan at Street Prophets via Jesus Politics, in response to this news of the exgay lawsuit against the elected leaders of Tennessee: It’s shameful for a Christian “ministry” to hide behind faith as it provides substandard, if not downright fraudulent services to vulnerable populations. Above and beyond being “subject to governing authorities,” Christians are called to give their best to those in need, not half-assed handouts. And make no mistake about it: “reparative therapy” is a fraud, and a cruel one to boot. To love as Christ loves does not involve making 16-year olds hate themselves in a quest...
- [Focus on the Family: ‘Bearing False Witness’ Against Anglicans](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/focus-on-the-fa-17/): Normally sedate and often conservative, Episcopal blogger Bob Griffith (Hypersync) perceives “blatant mischaracterization, intentional misinformation, and forthright lying” by Focus on the Family in a Sept. 22 media release about the removal of Brazilian bishop Robinson Cavalcanti. Griffith says Cavalcanti was removed due to insubordinate trips to Ohio to participate in secret and irregular confirmations. But Focus thought it would sound nicer if homosexuals were to blame, instead.
- [Exgays’ Extreme Makeover?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgays-extreme/): Focus on the Family — heavily staffed by exgays — participated in this weekend’s episode of Extreme Makeover on ABC. With ample profanity (and a bit of humorous insight), Good As You commented beforehand. But I’m a dry sort — a “just the facts, ma’am” sort of man. If anyone has access to a transcript or excerpts, please comment and let readers know what transpired.
- [Southern Decadence: Exgay Twists Facts to Appear Sensible](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/southern-decade/): Once in a while, Exodus official Randy Thomas says something sensible. On Sept. 12, Thomas had the opportunity to do that — but then spoiled the occasion. On Sept. 12, Thomas called it “astounding” that “organizers” would still hold Southern Decadence while New Orleans lay in ruins due to government ineptitude, global warming, and/or homosexuality (take your pick). Thomas commented: All that money, time and energy to save a party instead of saving lives. Even if you are gay identified or pro gay exclusive (exclusive to any other views) I would hope you would agree that this is utterly selfish in...
- [Exodus Exec Cuts Off British Interview](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-exec-cut/): Exodus International official Randy Thomas explained Sept. 17 on his blog that he had discontinued an interview with British journalists when they asked unspecified questions that Thomas didn’t want to answer.
- [Exgay Executive Hits the Road](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-executive/): Exodus “membership director” Randy Thomas announced his travel plans last week: Wichita — Freedom at Last meeting with “regional leaders” [Sept. 30] and two workshops and a testimony Saturday at the Exodus Mid-Central Regional Conference Ontario, Calif. Washington, D.C. Chicago Boston Upstate New York Thomas does not disclose the propose of these meetings — though Boston is presumably Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out conference.
- [QAC Calls Exgay Live-In Program’s Allegations ‘Lies’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/qac-calls-exgay/): Received via e-mail tonight from the Queer Action Coalition, Memphis, Tenn.: AS OUTLINED HERE: LOVE IN ACTION LAW SUIT DETAILS FILLED WITH LIES ABOUT QAC In the 29-page [PDF] document outlining Love In Action’s lawsuit against the State of Tennessee, the following false allegations have been made: From Item 40) “Members of QAC publicized the blog entries (of an adolescent participant of LIA) to other groups that support the homosexual lifestyle. “ From Item 43) “Many emails sent to Rev Smid from members of QAC and PFLAG stated their explicit intention to restrict LIA’s ministry or cause it to cease altogether....
- [Ex-Gay Therapeutic Facility, Religious-Right ADF Sue Tennessee](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/ex-gay-therapeu/): The Alliance Defense Fund and “Love In Action,” an exgay live-in facility in Memphis, are suing the state of Tennessee. Until recently, LIA claimed to offer therapeutic services. When the state challenged LIA’s failure to obtain a license and hire accredited, college-educated staff members, LIA reworded its web site and marketing materials. LIA deleted its claim to offer licensed therapy and wrapped its mental-health activities in religious language. But LIA continued to provide pseudo-therapeutic services to the mentally ill, including: behavior and thought modification programs; a 24-hour immersion in 12-step treatment geared toward the reversal of unwanted homosexuality; and management of...
- [Concerned Women Declare That 9/11 Priest Mychal Judge Was Not Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/concerned-women-4/): Concerned Woman, Dennis Lynch, has issued an article declaring that Father Mychal Judge was definitely not gay. Judge was the priest who died on 9/11/01 in service to victims of the terrorist attack and the firefighters that were attempting to rescue them and who became known as a hero. Lynch bases the bold assertion on the following: Prior to Father Mike’s death, everyone who knew him for any length of time would never describe him as a homosexual. In fact, never has even one homosexual activist ever provided evidence that Father Mike was “gay.” Yet, in newspapers immediately after the funeral...
- [Funny Word Games But a Sinister Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/funny-word-game/): The ex-gay movement exists, to a great extent, because of its usage of a language that allows them to say one thing and mean another. Sometimes this contorted way of thinking produces comical results. One such example is shown in the Love Won Out press release. In discussing mom-from-hell Nancy Heche’s presentation: …she lost her husband to AIDS after discovering he had secretly lived a homosexual lifestyle during their marriage. Yep. You read it right. The “homosexual lifestyle” is being married and pretending to be straight. Oh… but that’s what the ex-gays do. Darn, this is confusing. On a more serious...
- [Washington Times Champions Ex-Gays… Again](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/washington-time-2/): In keeping consistent with their anti-gay, pro-ex-gay agenda, the Washington Times has another non-news article about the Spitzer report. The excuse for this article was coverage of a forum by teachthefacts.org’s, the group arguing for accurate sex education in Maryland. Nothing at the forum was reported but rather reporter Jon Ward blathers on (incorrectly at times) about the Spitzer report, instead: Interviewing 200 former homosexuals, Dr. Spitzer conducted the study in response to a request by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2000 to determine the risks and benefits of “reparative therapy.” My understanding is that there was no request by...
- [False Tom Cruise Rumor About Exgay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/false-tom-cruis/): Update: Based on a report by the Good As You blog, this XGW post originally cited a press release attributed to Bertram Fields. However, Good As You wrote Fields to confirm the story’s authenticity. Fields wrote back: “Release is a phony. I never issued any such release. Cruise is not giving any lectures.” –The Moderator
- [Dobson Quoted Saying Creationism / “Intelligent Design” Are The Same Thing](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/dobson-quoted-s/): In case you’re ever in an argument and want to prove “intelligent design” is creationism in disguise, here’s the proof from within the religious right: “And creation versus evolution or intelligent design versus evolution, it’s been nuanced, it’s changed a little bit, but it’s the same basic issue.”-James Dobson, Focus On The Family radio broadcast, +25:18 into the program, Sept 27, 2005. I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with exgays but this one was too good to ignore. I encourage all of you to share this with all the cultural/political bloggers you know and see if this can’t get...
- [Ontario High School Contact Info](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/ontario-high-sc/): In case anyone wishes to contact Dianne De Groot, admissions director of Ontario High School, her email address is info@ocschools.org.
- [“Banned Books Week” Focuses on Gay Literature](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/banned-books-we/): WorldNetDaily published this wacky, factless diatribe on Banned Books Week, and how libraries are really banning the Christian view by not including antigay scripture tracts with all their young adult fiction. We also have AgapePress highlighting the efforts of exgay Deb French to remove two homosexual magazines from the Upper Arlington Public Library in Arlington, OH. We also have the month-old story whereby Laurie Taylor is trying to get homosexual literature banned from an Arkansas public library. Go back a couple of months and you find more. I suppose ex-gays like Ms. French would feel awkward about libraries having much more...
- [One Lutheran Family Takes a Stand](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/one-lutheran-fa/): As an anecdotal example of the trauma caused in families by the rigid and literal interpretation of selected scriptures on homosexuality, one woman put her religious dilemma into words for the StarTribune online. Randi Reitan and her family have decided to leave the Lutheran Church. This is not an easy choice for Randi: Our family has been Lutheran for generations and it is hard to leave behind our heritage in this church. Phil’s family has Lutheran clergy in all generations. His great-grandfather preached in Swedish many years ago in Minneapolis; both his grandfathers were pastors here for many years; his father...
- [Dobson’s Half-Truth About CDC Study of Gay Demographics](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/dobsons-half-tr/): Focus on the Family performed a disservice to its readership today when it raised the strawman argument that unnamed gay activists claim 10 percent of the population is gay — only to refute that long-abandoned claim with additional half-truths about a recent CDC survey that was discussed here at XGW. Focus and the Traditional Values Coalition claim CDC support for their assertion that between one-half of one percent, and at most two percent, of the population is gay. But the survey didn’t say that. CDC reported that 2.3 percent of the sampled population identified “homosexual,” 1.8 percent identified as “bisexual,” 3.9...
- [‘Love In Action’ Hangs On](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/love-in-action-7/): The Memphis, Tenn.-based Queer Action Coalition reported Sept. 22 that the exgay live-in “ministry” Love In Action had recruited unnamed antigay lawmakers to assist in its battle to stay open and, if possible, to use its religious affiliation to bypass accountability under laws ensuring the quality and safety of programs for the mentally ill. But the QAC based its report about the lawmakers on a message from an unidentified individual. The report remains unsubstantiated. Today, AP (via the Southern Voice) reports that Love In Action has been granted until Sept. 30 to obtain a license for its mental health programs. The...
- [Do Hate Crime Protections Result in Persecution Of Pulpit Speech?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/do-hate-crime-p/): Focus and the American Family Association are repeatedly claiming that adding sexual orientation to Federal hate crime protections will be used to persecute speech from the pulpit. (ie in today’s broadcast of FNIF) Hate crimes laws protecting gay people have been in place at the state level for years now. Does anyone know of any cases where those existing laws have been used to persecute churches?
- [Besen: PFOX President Richard Cohen Has ‘Meltdown’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/besen-pfox-pres/): PFOX President Richard Cohen appears to have suffered a meltdown following a televised debate with Wayne Besen. Wayne is author of Anything But Straight which devotes an entire chapter to Cohen’s bizarre antics. Following the debate Cohen sent out “prayer request” via email which is excerpted here: MY SOS CALL RIGHT NOW IS THIS: WOULD YOU PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FAMILY AND MYSELF. I FEEL OVERWHELMED BY THE PRESENCE OF EVIL WITHIN AND AROUND ME. It’s hard to ask you for this, I feel a bit selfish, but it’s imperative, and this is war!… …Right now, it feels like I can’t...
- [90% Success Rate???](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/90-success-rate/): There is a nice article in the Columbia Missourian about how churches are increasingly divided about how gay people fit in. The article focuses on a group of Methodist women – mothers of gay men – that decided to change their church. One segment of the article discusses the efforts of the ex-gay movement. Although much of it is the standard general info about Exodus and its 400,000 phone calls, one paragraph caught my attention: Living Waters, an intense 9-month program designed for those who are “sexually broken,” has steadily increased in enrollment. Donna Thornhill, a licensed professional counselor who works...
- [World’s First Exgay Penguin?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/worlds-first-ex/): Fox News reports on the splitting of famous gay penguins Silo and Roy at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Apparently, Silo left Roy for Scrappy, an exotic SeaWorld girl who’s never had chicks. Fox references an article [not free] from the New York Post. What does it mean for the greater cause of gay rights that animals can apparently become ex-gay? Absolutely nothing. This is one case, which certainly hasn’t been studied long-term. But let’s see if the ex-gay echo chambers pick it up that way. Update: Warren Throckmorton obviously wants to bite, but tries to hide it.
- [Focus Reminds Us Bible Condemns Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/focus-reminds-u/): Today’s broadcast (Real Audio) of Focus On The Family is entitled Biblical Perspective on Homosexuality, Pt 1 (of 2). It consisted of a prerecorded sermon by Tommy Nelson overviewing scriptural passages in the Bible. Nelson has two foci: 1)Countering gay-friendly interpretations of passages. 2)Making a variety of Adam and Steve type arguments clearly irrelevant because of what philosophers call the naturalistic fallacy. Furthermore, this broadcast only served to remind us of Timothy’s point last week the Bible makes a stronger argument condemning homosexuality. Timothy reminded us the Bible also makes a stronger case FOR slavery than against it. The broadcast was...
- [Pope Benedict Starts a New Witch Hunt](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/pope-benedict-s/): The Boston Globe has an article explaining the Pope’s latest stance on why homosexuals should not be allowed to become priests, even if they are celibate. Why? Because people with same-sex attractions are pedophiles. The church is looking into the question of homosexuality because some church officials believe there is a link between a high number of gay men in the priesthood and a high incidence of sexual abuse. But specialists say there is no evidence for such a link. ”There is no evidence that a male homosexual is any more risk to a boy than a male heterosexual is to...
- [Students’ Right To Equal Access: AFA Espouses Hypocrisy From Week To Week](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/students-right/): In the AFA’s Agapepress last week: [Linda Harvey of Mission America] warns that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is disseminating information in an effort that is creating confrontational pro-homosexual student activists. A website for the organization’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project offers students a “Know Your Rights” card and refers to laws that purportedly protect homosexual behavior… …The pro-family spokeswoman believes the ACLU, in its effort to educate homosexual students of these so-called “rights,” is setting up a situation in which the civil liberties organization can sue a school on behalf of a student who does not get what he...
- [‘But I’m A Cheerleader’ Goes Song And Dance](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/but-im-a-cheerl/): The campy 1999 movie about a cheerleader who is sent off to ex-gay camp because she’s showing signs of lesbianism (she’s a vegetarian, doesn’t like kissing her boyfriend, and likes listening to Melissa Etheridge) has been made into a musical. Until the musical shows up at a venue near you, rent the movie. It’s cute and pokes fun at the sillier attempts of places like LIA/R to make gay kids straight, while also showing the serious reasons that minors allow themselves to go through those experiences.
- [‘Love In Action’ Exgay Facilities Warned to Close](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/love-in-action-6/): From the Associated Press via 365gay.com: The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities has ordered the closing of what it calls two unlicensed personal care facilities run by a Christian group that claims to counsel gays to give up homosexuality. The state inspected two facilities in Memphis on Aug. 19 and determined Love In Action International Inc. was providing housing, meals and personal care for mentally ill patients without a license, according to a subsequent letter to the organization from the Department of Mental Health. The department gave Love In Action until Sept. 23 to cease operation of the...
- [Anne Heche Forum Message Disavows Mother’s Exgay Activities](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/anne-heche-foru/): Actor Anne Heche’s mother, Nancy Heche, is a speaker for Focus on the Family’s antigay roadshow, Love Won Out. Queerty found an August statement attributed to Anne on a message board of AnneHeche.com. Part of the statement is excerpted below. The “Ex-gay” events that are going on right now make me sick. The fact that my mother is using my name to promote this movement makes me even sicker. I could not disagree more adamanty [sic] with what she and her group of unloving, unaccepting, [sic] Bible preaching hate mongers are doing. I do not believe that homosexuality is something that...
- [Exgay Richard Cohen + Howard Stern = Tawdry Circus](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/exgay-richard-c/): It’s come to my attention some XGW readers and contributors are displeased with Howard Stern’s Sept. 15 “interview” (I use the term loosely) of Richard Cohen. I was unable to listen to the original broadcast so instead I rely on a 20-minute MP3 posted on The Malcontent. Stern neither confronts Cohen on his trail of bizarre misdeeds and claims, nor invites a guest with an opposing point of view. This is what I assume has people so upset. I, however, came to much the same conclusion as Wayne Besen, who begins his blog post so eloquently: Former Moonie and naked cult...
- [American Baptist Church Splits Over Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/american-baptis/): Modern historians tend to couch the Civil War in terms of economic factors. However, I think they overlook the deeply felt religious war that preceded the fighting. The unifying “body of Christ” that could have held different geographic regions together was no longer united. Between 1838 and 1944 the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches all split over the issue of slavery. Both proponents and opponents of slavery used scripture and interpretation of the core of Christianity as the basis for their position. This issue was the greatest threat to protestant Christianity in the history of the country. Although it is tempting...
- [Calling Former ‘Love In Action’ Participants](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/calling-former/): Peterson Toscano, Jeff Harwood and others are pulling together data on all participants who attended the Memphis-based live-in ex-gay program Love In Action from 1995 to present. The list includes first names of participants, how they left the program and current status (gay/ex-gay/unknown). About 40 percent are unknown. If you attended LIA or know someone who did, please visit Peterson Toscano’s web site and contact him via e-mail. Personal information will be kept confidential.
- [Love In Action Stalls for Time](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/love-in-action-5/): The Memphis-based Queer Action Coalition reports: A lawyer for Love In Action/Refuge contacted the State of Tennessee late yesterday [Wednesday?] claiming to have received their letter that day, and thereby requested to still receive the one-week time span in order to apply for licensing, or cease operation. It appears that information will be made available about their decision next Friday. A article about LIA/R in today’s print edition of the Washington Blade appears to be the same article published online two days ago. Neither article cites LIA/R’s request for extra time. Is Love In Action stalling for time; fumbling incompetently with...
- [CDC Survey Provides Percentages of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/cdc-survey-prov/): The CDC has released a report today about sexuality in persons age 15 to 44. The information is based on a survey in 2002 of in-person, face-to-face interview with a national sample of 12,571 men and women. The process involved an interviewer but the sex related questions were entered into a laptop computer without telling the answers to the interviewer. To me, the methodology seems pretty sound and the survey size is impressive. For a quick synopsis, you can look here or the full survey here. The media has focused so far on a trend that suggests that younger persons are...
- [Media Request: Researching Ex-Gay Ministries In The UK](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/media-request-r/): Yet another media request. Feel free to respond if you’re able to help this guy out. I’ll be writing a feature article for a British Christian magazine about homosexual (but not pro-gay) and ‘ex-gay’ ministries in the UK. I’d love to talk to anyone who has had any experience of this kind of thing in the UK, whether positive or negative. I’m trying to get a broad overview of conservative ministries to gays in the UK, especially in comparison to ex-gay ministries in the US. If you can help, or know of anyone who can help, drop a comment underneath or...
- [Audio Of Richard Cohen On Howard Stern](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/audio-of-richar/): From The Malcontent here’s an MP3 of Richard Cohen on the Howard Stern Show. I’ve got work so don’t expect any analysis out of me till tonight.
- [Serial Monogamous Penguins Please Conservatives](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/serial-monogamo/): From Wonkette.com: Today, the New York Times investigates the Christian conservatives’ fifth column: Penguins. Turns out conservatives have become unlikely champions of the documentary “March of the Penguins,” saying, among other things, that the film promotes monogamy and family values. Clearly, no one has told them about the gay penguins (of course, they choose to be gay). It seems like a stretch but, hey, it’s an improvement over talking vegetables. UPDATE: Several readers have called attention to penguin’s not-so-socially-conservative serial monogamy. Also, fathers take off pretty early. Republicans soft on deadbeat penguins!
- [Citizen Magazine: Stupid](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/citizen-magazin/): Family.org’s magazine, Citizen, recently published an article responding to some of Soulforce’s claims of spiritual violence. Their response, however, requires a very illogical manner of thinking to debunk anything. 1. “DOBSON SAYS THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS A MENTAL DISORDER CAUSED BY FAMILY PROBLEMS AND BAD PARENTING.” Facts: Soulforce greatly distorts Dr. Dobson’s views on the root causes of homosexuality. In fact, Dr. Dobson and many others in the mental health field see homosexuality as a developmental condition stemming from a combination of factors—including, but not limited to, dysfunctional familial relationships. The fact is, Citizen isn’t debating anything here. The point of Soulforce’s...
- [From False HIV Test Result, Hope Ministry Operative Coerced Lesbian Into Exgay Religious “Treatment”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/from-false-hiv/): I recently discovered the following decade-old story and thought it should be added to our records at XGW. Quoted text is from a 1999 broadcast of PRI’s This American Life. Numbers indicate location of quotes in the broadcast. In 1988 Charlene Riling, a lesbian, was tested for HIV at the New Haven County Health Department: (+8:30)I was told that I was positive at that time, the councilor then proceeded to go on to a uh, her own little religious um agenda you know, going on to say that Jesus Christ heals all those who repent their sins, referring to my lesbianism...
- [LIA/R May Face Cease And Desist Order](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/liar-may-face-c/): Morgan Fox at Queer Action Network has given us an update on the State of Tennessee’s inspection of Love In Action/Refuge. Coverage prior to this date has been somewhat confusing and there seemed to be no clear answer as to whether Tennessee found LIA/R to be outside compliance with state law. News reports seemed to agree that the drug counseling aspect of LIA/R would be discontinued but it was uncertain whether LIA/R could restrict itself to its ex-gay conversion efforts. However, it now appears possible that the issue related to “mental health supportive living facilities” which, at least to me, sounds...
- [Blogger: Christian, Gay And Confused](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/blogger-christi/): From Brady at Some Guys Are Normal comes word of a new blog by a Christian woman trying to work through her same-sex attraction. Her first post observes a fundamental difference between gay celibacy and the heterosexual wait for marriage. In Brady’s comments, exgay advocate Nathan Sheets agrees that there’s a lot more to being same-sex-attracted than just sex or abstinence. (By the way, whenever Ex-Gay Watch authors are on hiatus, you can find plenty of exgay news and opinion at Some Guys Are Normal. Y’all remember to just come back, y’hear?)
- [Exgay Movement: Mostly White And Male. Why?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/exgay-movement/): Former exgay Peterson Toscano asks why the exgay movement is dominated by white males. One tentative guess among many possibilities: Denied equal power and privilege by conservative churches, some white gay men seek to win back that elite membership in conservative religious communities by becoming exgay.
- [Peterson Toscano: Exgays And the Bible’s Unclean Woman](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/peterson-toscan-3/): Former Love In Action exgay live-in program participant Peterson Toscano compares his past journey as an exgay with that of the unclean woman in Mark, chapter 5. Wandering for years as an outcast, thanks to religious authorities who declare her untouchable due to vaginal bleeding, the woman struggles through a crowd to reach Jesus, who says, “Go in peace. Your faith has healed you.” Exgay activists no doubt will accuse ex-exgays of lacking “faith” — missing the point that (contrary to the claims of Leviticus) the woman was not unclean to begin with.
- [Alan Keyes: As Stupid As He Believes Gays to Be?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/alan-keyes-as-s/): Alan Keyes’ renewamerica.us web site published a rubbish-strewn article by Nathan Tabor on Sept. 8. Without attribution, the article relies upon: ostracized Dr. Paul Cameron’s claims that gay men tend to die by age 42; rightist hate groups’ myth that gay rights advocates say their lifestyle is genetically determined and claim they have no choice over their behavior; the myth that “most homosexuals reject God,”; scientifically illiterate distortions of the theory of evolution. Libertarian blogger Jon Rowe corrects the Keyes-Tabor distortions of science with a link to Edward M. Miller, PhD’s 2000 study, “Homosexuality, Birth Order, and Evolution: Towards a Equilibrium...
- [Sen. Rick Santorum And Anti-Community Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/sen-rick-santor/): Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is facing conservative and pro-life criticism for his new book against community values entitled It Takes A Family — the title being a snide twist on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s pro-community-values book It Takes A Village. Liberal pro-life blogger In Today’s News assesses Joe Feuerherd’s article about the book in National Catholic Reporter. ITN finds Santorum repeatedly creating false choices and mischaracterizing liberal viewpoints in order to make his own extreme proposals seem more palatable than the supposed sole alternatives. ITN also finds Santorum sounding a constant theme of ridicule toward those who seek to reform society for...
- [Harshly Defining Fundamentalism](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/harshly-definin/): Answering those who say “fundamentalist” is too strong a word to describe antigay Episcopal bishops who have aligned with corrupt foreign bishops to destroy the U.S. Episcopal Church, Father Jake borrows from religion expert and author Karen Armstrong to define the term “fundamentalist”: At the outset of their monumental six-volume Fudamentalist Project, Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby argue that the “fundamentalisms” all follow a certain pattern. They are embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis. They are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secular policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion...
- [Exodus Exec Lobbies Against Rights of Gay Couples](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/exodus-exec-lob/): Exodus membership director Randy Thomas planned to speak to Denver exgay ministry Where Grace Abounds on Sept. 1. Thomas also was to meet with an unidentified friend in Colorado Springs, someone likely affiliated with Focus on the Family. Earlier in August, Thomas worked with the antigay New Jersey Family Policy Council and other antigay groups on unidentified initiatives to undermine the rights of gay couples — obstructing marriage and monogamous partnership under the guise, of course, of emphasizing the “importance of marriage.”
- [Exgay Silent on Ties to Antigay Katrina Opportunists](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/exgay-silent-on/): Last month, Pat Robertson blamed unnamed 1970s gay activists for establishing no-fault divorce laws, and accused unnamed lesbians of leading the battle for abortion rights. Robertson also called for the assassination of populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose policies reflect an affinity for Christian liberation theology. Many conservatives (including the National Association of Evangelicals) condemned Robertson’s remarks against Chavez. This month, The Nation and bloggers Max Blumenthal and Orcinus have been examining Robertson’s receipt of Katrina subsidies from the lethally corrupt and inept Federal Emergency Management Agency. While the NAE and others eye Robertson with skepticism, critical examinations of one’s political...
- [Heresy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/heresy/): From certain evangelicals who cheer the destruction of New Orleans, to polls finding that churchgoers are far more likely than the general public to support violence against Iraq and belligerent foreign policy… A Religious Liberal Blog observes that the political religious right may be gradually replacing traditional Christianity with a form of Manichaeism, in which self-righteous worshipers cast themselves as absolute good fighting absolute evil; place a zealous and egotistical trust in their own values at the expense of neighbor and community; make war instead of peace; and ridicule voices of spiritual and ethical reconciliation. Speaking of reconciliation: United Church of...
- [Tennessee Counselor Turns Domestic Partner](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/tennessee-couns/): The Tennessean reports on a woman whose reparative therapy counselor became a “friend” and then a domestic partner to a woman attempting to change her orientation. “Shortly after I went to them, Phyllis Garrison became my friend and said she couldn’t be my friend and therapist both,” Grubb said. “We became friends, and I moved in with her. You never imagine you will be friends with your therapist. I went to her for professional help.” TrueHope is one of two places listed on Exodus International’s Web site as offering counseling to homosexuals in Middle Tennessee. Despite the assertion of the Tennessean...
- [Targeted Hurricane Katrina LGBT Relief Fund](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/targeted-hurric/): From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: [GLAAD Southeastern Update] Targeted Hurricane Katrina LGBT Relief Fund We continue to be encouraged by the outpouring of support from our community to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Please visit GLAAD.org or read the information below for giving opportunities. Best, Rashad Robinson Director of Regional Media GLAAD–Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation 248 35th St., 8th Fl. New York, NY 10001-2505 Phone: 212.629.3322 ext. 617 Fax: 212.629.3225 robinson@glaad.org An Urgent Plea, In Hurricane Katrina, Mother Nature provided an awesome reminder of her power, and the power of the indomitable spirit of our fellow...
- [An Open Letter to My Sixth-Grade Gym Teacher](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/09/an-open-letter/): An open letter to my 6th grade gym teacher which I mailed today. I believe as gays and lesbians we should go back and confront those who harmed us for being different in our childhood when we can and when it is safe to do. This letter is one way to do it. To not do this is to either carry the shame and trauma around from what others gave us or to take it out on others. I know that it is from experiences like my own–one of which is described in this open letter–that can contribute to those who...
- [God Loves the Sinners, Hates the City (other Than the Gay Part)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/god-loves-the-s/): Anti-gay activist group, Repent America, has claimed that God destroyed New Orleans because it welcomes gay visitors. A few choice selections from its press release include: “Southern Decadence” has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an “exciting event”. However, Hurricane Katrina...
- [Pope: ‘Having Children Is a Gift That Brings Life And Well-Being to Society’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/pope-having-chi/): Everyone except the homosexuals; They’re not allowed to help “bring life and well-being to society”. And while we’re at it, we’re not going to let them join the priesthood either. To ban celibate homosexuals requires homosexuality be viewed as an identity separate from actions. So… in this one case we’re going to treat it like an identity. However, in the rest of God’s absolute truth, there remains only “homosexual actions.”
- [AFA Promoting Bible Supplements Deliberately Misinforming Children About HIV](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/afa-promoting-b/): Various arms of the AFA such as OneMillionYouth.com and the AgapePress have been promoting a new bible distributed by Tim Todd Ministries containing comic book style inserts on various cultural issues. Comics can be viewed at the Truth For Youth website including one on safer sex which is factually incorrect: Excuse me, did they just cite a factually discredited SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD ARTICLE? I’m sorry, the notion that latex condoms are porous and allow the transmission of HIV is so factually incorrect I shouldn’t even waste your time providing a link. But you know what? I’m trying to keep things a...
- [Pope to Condemn Gay Priests](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/pope-to-condemn/): From 365Gay.com, a rumor that the Vatican will become even more anti-gay: The Vatican is preparing to bar gays from entering the priesthood and is considering removing those gays who are already priests. Of course, 365Gay.com is quoting “People within the church who are familiar with the workings of the Vatican,” so it is just a rumor at this point. But with this Pope, it is certainly a believable one. The Catholic institution set the new ex-gay guidelines before they became popular: you cannot do anything about being gay, but having gay sex is evil. Catholics have groups like Courage rather...
- [Compiling Quotes For New Exodus Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/compiling-quote/): Word has it you people enjoy my info-graphics. I was thinking of putting one together on illustrating how various Exodus staffers’ definitions of “change” lands all over the map. If anyone has any interesting quotes (you MUST include a source) then please send them my way. Work is getting crazy so I’ll be keeping a low profile for a few days.
- [UK Story About Love in Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/uk-story-about/): An article in a UK paper, The Guardian, about the ex-gay movement. (hat tip Morgan Fox) Although part of the article reads like “aren’t those Americans odd”, there were a few quotes worth noting. The first is a story that I wish the local papers would carry: Jeff Harwood, a gay Christian who spent three years in Love in Action in the 90s, said: “It was very emotional, digging up things you’d done … the more you [could] dig up, the more credit you [got].” Mr Harwood came out of the programme believing himself “cured”. He dated a woman but the...
- [Exodus Agenda to Seduce Children Into Ex-gay Lifestyle](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/exodus-agenda-t/): The Christian Post had an article about Exodus. While it is basically a bland little information piece, there are a few items in it which are worth noticing. First, the article points out the difference in perception relating to orientation origin between the general populace and the Evangelical Christians: Secular society is mixed in its understanding of what some call “the gay gene.” According to a Barna report released in July 2001, about half of all adults believe that homosexuality is a result of the environment. One third of Americans believe people are born gay, and 17 percent are not sure....
- [Falwell Supports Equal Housing](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/falwell-support/): Southern Voice released an article yesterday highlighting Jerry Falwell’s newfound support for equal housing & employment rights for gays & lesbians, as shown on “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.” Says Falwell: FALWELL: But civil—civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or a conservative value. It‘s an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on. Southern Voice credits Soulforce‘s long-term lobbying of Falwell for the turnaround. Falwell says he still “doesn’t agree with the lifestyle,” but supports antidiscrimination laws protecting gays &...
- [Common Childhood Experiences](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/common-childhoo/): I have to admit I enjoy the gay literary genre of autobiographical short stories. In that genre, I’ve found a frequently occurring archetype. (My most recent example is here, fast forward to +42:40) A typical story goes a bit like this: Two young proto-queers become best of friends. Both boys recognize that they are “different” somehow and share that in common with the other. However, neither boy fully grasps what it means to be gay. Their friendship continues to elevate and reaches a level which is frightening to them just short of physical intimacy. Seemingly at the peak of their relationship...
- [Exodus Membership Director Campaigns Against Gay Couples](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/exodus-membersh/): Randy Thomas, the membership director of Exodus, spoke at a press conference by the promoters of a constitutional amendment in Florida to ensure that gay couples are not allowed the same rights as heterosexual couples. As reported by the Florida Baptist Witness: Thomas, a former homosexual, said proponents of traditional marriage forced him to consider the legitimacy of homosexuality and “gay marriage,” which led to his departure from the homosexual lifestyle. “I was not happy with the conservatives back in the 80’s, but what they did was they challenged me to dialogue,” he said. Thomas affirmed the coalition’s repudiation of bigotry...
- [Warning Straight Folks… You’re Next](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/warning-straigh/): The following quotes are from an article about a Focus on the Family forum where an Indiana congressman discussed how religion should influence public policy. The Indiana Family Institute, a nonprofit with close ties to Focus on the Family, invited pastors to discuss how they might move Indiana down from its rank as No. 13 on the list of states with the most divorces. and Rep. John Hostettler told area clergy that divorce on demand is as dangerous as gay marriage, and pastors’ actions will be key to strengthening all Indiana families. and “If we don’t stand for God’s principles in...
- [Reason #9 Why I Despise 365gay.com](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/reason-9-why-i/): The opening shots have been fired by both sides in the battle over a proposed amendment to the Texas state Constitution that would bar same-sex marriage, and the targets are thousands of voters. Governor Rick Perry spammed the internet this week, sending out emails to 10,000 Texans asking for their support for the amendment. In turn, an anti-amendment group sent out 10,000 mailers, stuffing the mailboxes of Democrats accusing Perry and his fellow Republicans of attacking gay and lesbian families. [*] WOW! Look at that complete 180 in tone! Things like this would be why 365gay.com remains so irrelevant in current...
- [On A Lighter Note - Focus Interviews Knight Of Concerned WOMEN For America On Gender Confusion](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/on-a-lighter-no/): Kodak wants to make transgender employees comfortable by giving them their own bathroom. Mara Keisling is with the National Center for Transgender Equality. She commends Kodak for helping America get over its fears. “For some reason Americans don’t like to be in bathrooms with people who are different than them. And we always get past it with a particular group and then we find another group.” She thinks gender neutral bathrooms will keep transgender people from being harassed. Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America is not as ready to praise Kodak and others for their concern. “If companies want to...
- [Fabulous New Term- “Pick And Choose Absolutist”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/fabulous-new-te/): In case you didn’t hear Pat Roberton’s moronic comments about Hugo Chavez: You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United … This is in our sphere of influence, so we can’t let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question,...
- [Washington Times Misquotes the Gay & Lesbian Atlas  (REVISED)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/washington-time/): This entry has been revised to respect the request of the respondent from the Urban Institute. The individual responding thinks it best for the authors of the Atlas to speak for themselves. When I hear from them, I will (with their permission) post their response. I believe the general meaning of the post remains the same. In an article last week called Homosexual groups pursue minorities, the Washington Times stated “Roughly 4 million homosexual adults live in the U.S., according to the Gay and Lesbian Atlas, compiled by the Urban Institute in the District.” This quote seemed a little low, considering...
- [Death Threats Against Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/death-threats-a/): There’s some buzz going about on the right about a death threat being put out against exgay activist James Hartline. Red State forwards this quote: “The moment was never riper for the San Diego (LGBT) community to push for the elimination and suppression of the James Hartline’s (sic) of the world. We currently have an openly lesbian (interim) mayor of San Diego and an openly gay mayor of Chula Vista; PEOPLE….WE are in POWER! WE are IN CHARGE!” The quote was originally published in World Net Daily, who did not deign to link to the source or cite where and when...
- [Homosexual? Well Then Question Exodus - Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/homosexual-well/): Click image to enlarge. Click image to enlarge.
- [WORLD Magazine Fails To “Question Homosexuality” Or Even Exodus.](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/world-magazine-2/): Jamie Dean of WORLD Magazine wrote an article to examine sexuality serve as an unquestioning soapbox for Alan Chambers. I sent WORLD an editorial reply: Ms. Dean composed a cute piece on Exodus but much like Alan Chambers and his organization gave us no reason to believe a word said. No ex-gay organization has ever provided proof change is possible. They can publish weepy testimonials of change but you take a group of people who desperately seek change and OF COURSE they’re going to self-report positive things to people like Robert L. Spitzer who simply took them at their word regarding...
- [Bennett (over)Reacts to Washington Post Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/bennett-overrea/): Stephen Bennett has reacted to the Washington Post article with a press release claiming that it is a “hatchet job.” He says: Bennett no longer struggles with homosexuality whatsoever and is completely heterosexual – the way he was born. The Washington Post released a one-sided article on Tuesday saying “people who are ‘homosexual’ CANNOT CHANGE.” “This article is nothing but a ‘hatchet job,’ one-sided and is simply an OUTRIGHT lie,” said Stephen. Bennett then goes on to say: Bennett ended, “No one is born ‘gay’ and COMPLETE change is COMPLETELY possible.” Stephen Bennett is a gadfly and professional ex-gay and anti-gay...
- [WaPo: The Cohen Addendum](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/wapo-the-cohen/): The Washington Post does a two-fer today in covering the ex-gay agenda. The same Sandra Boodman has another article up that doesn’t quite make fun of Richard Cohen. She skirts the edges of mockery by noting that his marraige was arranged by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the creepy, Kim Jong-Il-esque head of the right-wing newspaper The Washington Times. She describes in a somewhat sardonic tone Cohen’s bizarre practices, which include his hitting a pillow with a tennis racket and screaming “Dad!” and finding a nice man to cuddle with. Boodman also notes that Cohen was permanently expelled from the ACA. She...
- [The Last Zach Update(?)](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/the-last-zach-u/): Zach has updated his journal once again, and unleashed another torrent of support / debate / ranting / etc. on his MySpace account. He reaffirms that the last entry was his, refuting the speculation that it was written by somebody else. He promises not to write anything in conflict with his thoughts, but also says: I really just want to say what I want to say, how I want to say it, but I know that noone will listen if I do that — or get extremely irritated and start to insult me even moreso – and have reason. Zach had...
- [WaPo: Setting the World Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/wapo-setting-th/): Sandra Boodman has an article in the Washington Post discussing ex-gays and the psychology behind the issue. The article is well balanced, in the old sense of presenting the issue and the related facts (as opposed to the new ‘balanced,’ which means presenting lies when the facts don’t back up one side of a debate). She has quotes from Warren and Joe over at NARTH, Robert Spitzer, Jack Drescher, two ex-ex-gays and one ex-gay. She discusses web sites like inqueery and freetobeme, which are designed to indoctrinate teens and other confused individuals into the ex-gay rhetoric. They bring up the Montgomery...
- [XGW Still Needs Volunteers Willing To Tell Their Stories](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/xgw-still-needs/): Reminder, we REALLY REALLY need more people willing to be listed as media referrals! Volunteers are not expected to memorize or recite any sort of “talking points.” What we need you for is to simply tell YOUR personal story to any members of the media who come to ExGayWatch looking for first hand accounts of ex-gay ministries. Email me.
- [Dennis Prager - TownHall’s Theological Trannie Train Wreck](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/dennis-prager-t/): Dennis Prager wrote an article on TownHall.com prescribing his god’s judgment upon the transgendered. Well… most of them, assuming you’re able to follow his bizarre logic. Exodus of course is promoting the story without question. For an organization with the motto “question homosexuality” they sure don’t question much or produce original thoughts themselves. Let’s take a quick tour of Prager’s assertions: T is more “troubling” than GL or B Ok now that’s just insulting. “Transgendered is not the same as transsexual” Wow, someone has a modern dictionary. “In theory, Judeo-Christian values have no problem with a transsexual — someone who has...
- [Dominionists Throw Tantrum Over Lawrence V. Texas Even Though The Country Is Over It](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/dominionists-th/): An interesting snippet from Peter Sprigg of FRC talking about the upcoming hearing on Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court. Peter Sprigg is the man whom PFOX wishes to see on the Montgomery County School Board helping to decide on the new (new) sexuality curriculum. Still, he added, “I would say that we would not want a candidate to say they considered Lawrence vs. Texas to be settled law or beyond the scope of review on constitutional grounds.” [*] A few other interesting little snippets from the usual suspects (CWFA etc) that also show a disturbing intention to re-criminalize homosexuality, if...
- [NARTH To Akinsanya: Failure Is Your Fault](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/narth-to-akinsa/): NARTH has a recent press release on the documentary film maker David Akinsanya. A link is given through to the article in The Independent but NARTH makes no mention of the other aspects of Akinsanya’s life that have been described here and here at XGW. More disturbingly, NARTH categories Akinsanya’s genuine concerns about the environment and techniques of LIA as a mere lack of “religious convictions”. This aspect of the exgay movement — blaming the victim for the lack of success — has long been criticized by other therapists as a prime reason that many exgay participants cycle through self-blame and...
- [Sometimes Pictures Speak Louder Than Words](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/sometimes-pictu/): Yesterday was the second of the conservative Christian’s telecasts called Justice Sunday. Ironically, although there was much denunciation of the Supreme Court’s recognition of some basic rights for gay people, there was almost no mention of John Roberts. The original purpose of this telecast was to push for support of Bush’s nominee. If you take a quick glace at the picture of Tom DeLay speaking at telecast you’ll notice some interesting symbology. A large representation of the Ten Commandments is prominantly displayed behind the speaker. Up, behind, and in the shadows is a cross. This visually reads as a victory of...
- [Globe Article About Theories Re Sexual Orientation Basis](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/globe-article-a/): There is a very good article in the Sunday Boston Globe about the various theories as to the origins of sexual orientation. The author, Neil Swidey, covered most of the ideas floating about relating to what factor may be the determinant as to why a boy may end up gay. Some are familiar, such as hormones in the uterus. Some were new to me, such as the idea of a viral infection in the uterus (back to “it’s a sickness”) or something called “imprinted genes” (genes that are “turned off” but which in the gene-splitting that creates a fetus could turn...
- [Ex-Gay Watch: Agenda Revisited](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/ex-gay-watch-ag/): Ex-Gay Watch is developing both an FAQ and a priority list for future projects. So I turn to you, our readers: What questions are worth including in an FAQ about this site, and about the exgay movement? What exgay and antigay claims are most worth refuting, and not well-addressed by other sites? Discuss. 🙂
- [Gay Rams Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/gay-rams-study/): There’s another article out today about research done at Oregon State University on gay sheep. The researchers found marked differences in the brain anatomy and hormones between male- and female-oriented rams, Stormshak said. In rams who like other rams, the anterior preoptic area of the hypothalamus was about half the size of this part of the brain in heterosexual rams, he said. “This was exciting to us because this area of the brain has been found in many species to regulate sexual behavior,” Stormshak told The Gazette-Times of Corvallis. This study seems to correlate with sexuality studies on humans, many of...
- [Lutherans Vote on Gay Issues](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/lutherans-vote/): UPDATED AT 2:50 PST The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the fifth largest church in the country, is voting today on three provisions relating to its gay congregants. An AP article discusses the provisions and the debate that went on yesterday. The three provisions would: *Affirm the church ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians, but allow bishops and church districts called synods to seek an exception for a particular candidate if that person is in a committed relationship and meets other conditions. This article was defeated 503 to 490 by the delegates. Even had it obtained a majority...
- [NARTH Rapid Response Team](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/08/narth-rapid-res/): NARTH sent out an email looking to form a rapid response team to counter “misinformation in the media or other cultural institutions about reorientation therapy.” Exgay groups have been getting a lot more attention in the media with the buzz surrounding the Zach story, and the exgay story could be in the limelight for a while. Exgay groups already have a lead on ex-exgays, operating through high-level organizations like Exodus and cooperating with groups like NARTH and Focus on the Family. If ex-exgays wanted to form a similar group (cooperating with groups like PFLAG and the APA), it would vastly strengthen...
- [Welcome to AgapePress’ News Source](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/welcome-to-agap/): Oh goodie. Now AgapePress is quoting ExGayWatch for their “news” article about NARTH’s conference. If there was any question as to whether the rightwing anti-gay press read our postings, I guess it’s answered. Incidentally, Chambers is still pushing the “hundreds of thousands” line.
- [Peterson’s Trifecta: A Look At the Love In Action Handbook](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/petersons-trife/): Peterson Toscano has three recent posts he describes as “awesome” he feels have gone unappreciated by Ex-Gay Watch. Said posts are based on principals Peterson was taught in the Love In Action program and include scans of select pages. Who am I to say no to Peterson? Voila, the posts are titled: The Ex-Gay LifestyleHow Ex-Gay Therapies Made Me More Desirable to GAYS!Submission for Bondage Lovers A passage from How Ex-Gay Therapies Made Me More Desirable to GAYS! caused me to laugh out loud and awaken my roommate: Once I began to hang out with “ex-gays”, I received lessons on how...
- [Los Angeles City Councilman Protests NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/los-angeles-cit/): NARTH chose Marina Del Rey as the convention site for their annual meeting. Marina Del Rey is an unincorporated part of the County of Los Angeles that consists of the marina itself and a small segment of land. It is surrounded on three sides by the City of Los Angeles, the fourth being the ocean. The City Councilman for the surrounding area, Bill Rosendahl, an openly gay man and practicing Catholic, protested outside the NARTH convention along with a group of therapists and students. Rosendahl called their research and their methods “unproven, unsafe and abusive,” pointing out that the American Psychiatric...
- [Gay Christian Author Now Ex-gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/gay-christian-a/): In 2002, K. Godfrey Easter wrote Love Lifted Me: In Spite of the Church about his experience as a gay Christian. He has now written Love Lifted Me Because of the Church: Why One Can NOT Be Gay & Christian reversing his position and claiming now to be ex-gay. He explains his reorientation as: “All I can say is that inside me, the instant love cataclysmically collided with wisdom a great separation took place – me from homosexuality. In his second book, Easter continues answering, “God did it! I was drawn back from perdition by love’s long-suffering and wisdom’s seductive allure.”...
- [When Is Someone Exgay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/when-is-someone/): How do you define “exgay”? More to the point, what characteristics describe ALL exgays? Multiple answers are permitted. Definition: An exgay is someone who: (pick one or more of the following) Supports legislation to reduce or withhold legal rights and privileges from gays Supports discrimination by businesses in hiring and customer service Supports discrimination against same-sex-attracted persons by public agencies Subscribes to a conservative Christian ideology Supports the exclusion of same-sex-attracted persons from the media Supports the exclusion of same-sex-attracted persons from childcare and teaching professions Supports the removal of adoptive or biological children from their gay parents Opposes most sexual...
- [Focus Worried Next APA President Might Not Like Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/focus-worried-n/): Focus appears worried openly-gay Jack Drescher is a candidate for the APA Presidency in December. Focus quotes Drescher: “They can mask it in the language of love all they want but it’s about revulsion and hatred of homosexuality.” I wish I could comment further but I simply don’t know anything about Drescher or the APA’s election process.
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Claims Satan Using Gay People to Further His Agenda to “Destroy the Kingdom of God”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/exodus-presiden-3/): [bold] Can you imagine a world where ministries like Exodus International were illegal? [/bold] There is a move not only to silence the voices of the redeemed but to eliminate the redemption. At the core of it all, this isn’t a battle about whether homosexuality is right or wrong, it is a battle between good and evil. One of the many evils this world has to offer is the sin of homosexuality. Satan, the enemy is using people to further his agenda to destroy the Kingdom of God and as many souls as he can. Our job is simple: [underline] wage...
- [God’s Wrath?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/gods-wrath/): News reports today include: Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting “intelligent design” and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck. and Florida-based Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM), one of the largest and most active Christian ministries in the U.S. and the world, is working on repair and recovery in the wake of Hurricane Wilma. Though CRM’s facilities sustained some damage, a spokesman says daily operations are slowly returning to normal. Fort Lauderdale, home to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church,...
- [Focus Self-Identifies Resources on Sexuality with “Fag,” “Dyke” And “Flamer”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/focus-self-iden/): Meta tags are hidden code in a web page written by a webmaster to direct a search engine how to classify that page. Focus on the Family spin-off site Troubled With uses such tags. Blogger GoodAsYou. was curious what meta tags keywords Focus uses on their pages associated with homosexuality and found this. I’m Troubled With Focus’ hidden self-description of their own resources on sexuality. It should be noted the “Contact Us” page of Troubled With affirms the views presented on the site are shared by James Dobson. The approach and perspective offered here reflect the views of the organization and...
- [Congratulations to Exgays of Maine](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/congratulations/): Ex-Gay Watch would like to congratulate the ex-gays of Maine on the results of yesterday’s election. Now, regardless of where a resident of Maine falls on the spectrum of sexual orientation and however they chose to express their gender, they may live their lives as they see fit, free from discrimination. It is truly a great day for the civil liberties, free expression and self-determination of ex-gay and gay Maine residents alike. Mike Airhart, EditorDaniel Gonzales, Contributing Author
- [Some Thoughts on Marriage Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/some-thoughts-o/): Today the California Court of Appeal is hearing arguments on why its opposite-sex only rule for marriage is unconstitutional. Arguments are being proposed that it is discriminatory to limit the marriage rights of gay persons to the opposite sex. However, one compelling argument seems to me to be ignored. Anti-gay activists sometimes smugly claim that gay people can marry, they just have to pick someone from the opposite sex. This isn’t actually true. A marriage by a gay man to a woman is often considered legally to be fraud. Author Terry McMillan in her recent divorce from Jonathan Plummer claimed that...
- [Ex-Lesbian Shares Secret Psychic Insight on WNBA Star](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/ex-lesbian-shar/): Is Exodus handing out special glasses or something cos some select ex-gays have sure been reading minds recently. If anyone attends an exgay conference and is issued a pair of said magic mind reading glasses please mail them to me. Satire aside, here’s an ex-lesbian reading the mind of Sheryl Swoopes for our friends at the AgapePress: [Yvette] Schneider does not see in Swoopes’ recent divulgence any affirmation of the prevalence of lesbianism in society, necessarily. Rather, she says she views it as “more a comment on our sex-saturated society — that if you care for someone and have a strong...
- [Maine Vote](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/maine-vote/): I’m not so curious about Texas, but for those of you following Maine there seem to be coverage on MaineToday.com.
- [New Gay Current Events Humor Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/new-gay-current/): Fans of GoodAsYou.org will love the new site… [drumroll] FAKE GAY NEWS . COM [ta daaa!] Think of it as a gay version of The Onion. Headlines include: Pro Ping Pong Player Lisa Marinara Comes Out With Olivia Endorsement Deal Hitler Youth, Aryan Nation, and Vampires Come Out to Support Prop 2 in Texas “The L Word” to be Renamed “The B Word”
- [How Tony Orlando And Dawn Saved My Life](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/how-tony-orland/): How Tony Orlando and Dawn Saved My Life by Joe Kort, MSW When I was in middle school, I fell in love with a singing trio that protected me for the rest of my school years. Nowadays, I have to wonder how Tony Orlando and Dawn (hereafter, TOAD became such a strong interest of mine and why I was so obsessed with them —and I do mean obsessed– throughout my young school years. The 1970s were a time for iron-on decals pressed onto your t-shirts. I went crazy and purchased every TOAD decal and differently-colored shirt I could find and even...
- [Melissa Fryrear of Focus Still Just Making Stuff Up - Love Won Out Boston](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/melissa-fryrear-2/): We’ve all seen this quote from Love Won Out Birmingham: “I never met a person who aspired to be homosexually challenged,” the gender issues expert noted at one point. “Sexual trauma is a huge piece of the puzzle. Having talked with hundreds of homosexuals, I have never met one that had not been sexually violated in his or her life.” (*) From Love Won Out Boston: “In our experience in talking with women, hundreds of women overcoming lesbianism, and drawing from the experience of Exodus member ministries, again, a strong disproportionate number of women with same-gender issues have been sexually violated...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 11/03/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-7/): (Audio link) Straight talker Stephen Bennett’s program today was comically titled “Cartoons, Children and ‘Gender Confusion’ – Is There a Correlation?” That’s an excellent question Stephen asks; he’s just such a straight talker! I’m being sarcastic of course, Bennett doesn’t address that supposed correlation. Instead the show is a string of anecdotal gripes about children’s programming that doesn’t conform to God’s dress code which he clearly outlines for us in the Bible. Stephen says: (+7:50) His word is very clear on the distinctiveness of men and women, his standards alone set the boundaries for males and females. Too bad God never...
- [Evangelical Leader Supports Lawrence, Opposes Christian Theocracy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/evangelical-lea/): Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was interviewed in ChristianityToday about a new book he’s written. In this book, he argues that the Bible tells the Church not to try to establish a Christian nation. Haggard distinguishes between what his church teaches and what the law should allow. This is good news for those of us who believe in intellectual and religious freedom. Although Haggard cannot let go of his far right biases and language, some of his positions should be welcomed and encouraged. For example, Haggard supports the decision in Lawrence v. Texas. He wishes the process...
- [South Park Takes on Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/south-park-take/): South Park, the irreverent cartoon about a group of fourth graders living in South Park, Colorado, is one of the better satirists of current culture. Unlike many who try to poke fun at society, this show is difficult to pigeon-hole politically; it lambastes the foibles and excesses of both the right and the left. Andrew Sullivan even coined a phrase, South Park Conservative, to describe a younger demographic which questions the political correctness of the current media. Other more social conservatives have glommed on to the description, believing South Park to be at its base socially conservative also. It’s fair to...
- [Hate Crime Hysteria - Focus Continues To Ignore Existence of First Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/hate-crime-hyst/): Focus continues to bury it’s head in the sand over hate-crime protections for gay Americans today. I sent them the following letter: For as much as Focus talks about Constitutional law you sure casually brush aside First Amendment protections of hate speech. Racist sermons have always been protected under the Constitution. There is absolutely no reason why religious speech against gay people would be criminal either. That “slippery slope” is never going to emerge in this country because of that unique little thing called the First Amendment. You know perfectly well the First Amendment is why Focus can air shows in...
- [James Hartline’s Sordid Past Exposed](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/james-hartlines/): 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)
- [Financial Excesses At ACLJ: Jay Sekulow Exposed](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/financial-exces/): From Walter Olson at Overlawyered.com: The Pat Robertson-founded American Center for Law and Justice is ostensibly a religious-right nonprofit legal-advocacy organization. But Tony Mauro of Legal Times reports that Jay Sekulow, head of ACLJ, has “feathered his nest” with perks far out of line for an organization that calls itself either “nonprofit” or “Christian.” Mauro uncovers payments to Sekulow that are extreme for a nonprofit; the use of a private jet; chauffeur-driven cars; several houses; nepotism (ACLJ jobs for family members); and signs of money laundering. ACLJ provides all this and more to a man who in the 1980s was accused...
- [The Revolution Will Be Podcast](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/the-revolution/): Mike is swamped with work and is going out of town till mid next week so I’m seizing control of XGW. Send all important leads/tips/money to your favorite contributing author (you have several to chose from) until this little coup ends upon Mike’s return. (don’t be getting your hopes up, I don’t think any of us have any plans to offer podcasting)
- [NARTH Promotes Racist Column On Townhall.com](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/narth-promotes/): On their website and by email, NARTH endorsed a delightful article on Townhall.com attacking essentially all multicultural studies college classes as evil. I’m not kidding, whoever wrote this article was rabid, foaming at the mouth and willing to go after anyone. Have a read: There’s an emphasis on multicultural studies, and few campuses have escaped the disease — and it’s not yet Halloween. The title of a course taught to undergraduates in American studies at New York University, for example, is called “Intersections: Gender Race and Sexuality in U.S. History and Politics.” You might think this is a strange way to...
- [Love Won Out Boston Protests - Photos And Audio](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/love-won-out-bo/): Local hate group, Article 8, has some excellent photos of the protest at Love Won Out last weekend. Family “News” in Focus (ok let’s face it, I could put quotes around each word individually since they clearly don’t know the meaning of “family,” the show certainly isn’t “news” and given the accuracy of their reports, I would hardly say it’s “in focus.”) Now where was I… Oh yes, “Family” “News” “in Focus” also covered the event and also has excellent audio of what sounded like an impressive protest. Their coverage concludes with an interview with the mother of a gay son...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 10/31/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/stephen-bennett-6/): Mr. Bennett points out there are no definitive studies proving sexuality is genetic. However Bennett deceives by omission. He repeatedly asserts sexuality is developmental but fails to cite any such study to back this up. Instead Bennett provides a pathetic string non-clinically supported claims of “broken father” type stereotypes. Honestly I expected more salient (or at least original) arguments could be mustered for a debut episode.
- [Exodus Media Blog Favors Anti-Gay Propaganda - Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-media-bl-2/): Click image to enlarge For documentation and notes click below.
- [Exodus Official Comments on Boston Globe LWO Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-official-2/): Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas comments on the Oct. 28 Boston Globe interview of him at Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out road show. I criticized the article here for its failure to confirm the accuracy of Thomas’s statements and for overlooking the very public antigay political activities of Exodus and Focus on the Family. In other Randy Thomas news… Earlier this week on his blog, Randy Thomas tried to evangelize an airplane seatmate with his exgay business card. Having already stereotyped the woman as a “nice new age priestess,” he then wonders why the woman becomes a “snarling sarcastic something-or-other.”...
- [Family Research Council, Ex-Gays Gain Power in Suburban D.C. Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/family-research-2/): The Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education has identified the members of a sex-education curriculum development panel. This panel is is being recreated after the previous panel’s work was protested by an abstinence-only group and the antigay group PFOX, challenged in court by the religious-right Liberty Counsel, and subsequently discarded. Among the new panel members is antigay activist Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council. He will represent PFOX. Other panel members include representatives from PFLAG and NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland. What abortion has to do with sex education is beyond me. (That’s an invitation to a food fight in the comments...
- [Toscano: How Sexual Abuse Made Me Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/toscano-how-sex/): Thoughts by former ex-gay Peterson Toscano: Lots of “ex-gay” proponents claim that one of the causes of same-sex attraction is childhood sexual abuse. I don’t think they are lying; they truly believe it. In fact, I imagine that the majority of people who attend their programs have been sexually abused, so in their logic they have concluded that sexual abuse + other factors (family, gender confusion, etc) = GAY. Instead of searching for the elusive root causes of same-sex attraction, I wish they would ask themselves, “Why do our programs attract same-gender loving people who have also been sexually abused?” Read...
- [Are Antigay Bullies Reacting to Their Own Arousal?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/are-antigay-bul/): Alas, A Blog casts a bit of doubt upon the widespread belief that suppressed sexual arousal prompts antigay bullies to act violently against persons assumed to be gay. Citing a study that measured the penis response of homophobic and non-homophobic males to the sight of homosexual pornography, Alas points out that other things besides sexual arousal cause penis size to change. Things like anxiety and fear. You know, the things that make someone phobic.
- [Washington State Subjected to Ex-gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/washington-stat/): Washington state was subjected a little puff piece on the ex-gay movement from KOMO TV news website. The ex-gay ministry, Groundswell, is quoted as saying “Our message is that change is possible for anyone who wants out of homosexuality.” We’ve discussed, ad nauseum, what that sentence means in English so I won’t go into it here. The piece quoted Groundswell at length and the only rebuttal was clearly by people unfamiliar with Christian teaching or language. This, once again, shows a real need on the part of our community for a strong vocal advocate that speaks “conservative Christian” and can be...
- [Warren Throckmorton And the Gay Eunuchs](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/warren-throckmo/): Warren Throckmorton has adopted an interesting take on scripture in Matthew in which Jesus refers to “eunuchs because they were born that way”. Throckmorton’s interpretation seems to be that some men are born without an attraction to women.
- [AFA War Against Walgreen’s / Man Says Priest Didn’t Make Him Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/afa-war-against/): I see below that Dan Gonzales disagrees strongly with one of Wayne Besen’s posts this week. I hadn’t noticed that post, but there are at least two other posts by Besen that are worth a look: The American Family Association is battling wholesome low-wage drugstore chain Walgreen’s because the retailer is one of the many corporate sponsors for the 2006 Gay Games, which promote health, fitness and fairness in athletics. It isn’t too surprising that AFA has chosen to smear professional health-and-fitness advocates and their commercial sponsors, given (as Besen notes) the AFA’s longtime support for antigay activist Michael Johnston, who...
- [Guilty By Location - Wayne Besen Accuses Alive In Christ Ministry Of Politicking](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/guilty-by-locat/): In his blog today, Wayne Besen attacks Brenna Simonds, leader of a small Boston exgay ministry, the name of which he does not give. That ministry’s name is is Alive In Christ and is unlucky enough to be based out of a church located a block from the capital building. In Besen’s eye by virtue of the fact Simonds ministers to exgays and is located near the capital she is surely involved in anti-gay politicking. Mr. Besen provides no substantiation of these accusations Simonds is politically involved. Googling “Brenna Simonds” turns up little more than mention of her ministerial work and...
- [When Reality Out Does Infographics](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/when-reality-ou/): Addendum: The above graphic is REAL. But here are some show topics I would like to suggest for Bennett’s show. Yes, these are JOKES but they are based on real things Bennett has done and said. Stopping The Homosexual Invasion Of The Home And Garden Network So Heterosexuals Like Me Can Learn To Decoupage In Peace Get Your Hair Did! “Gay Christians:” You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too. An Extra Special Rant On Why Time Magazine’s Radical Homosexual Sex-Orgy Crazed Activist Author Should Have Interviewed Me Rather Than One Of The Other “Hundreds of Thousands” Of Exgays Out...
- [Melissa Fryrear Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/melissa-fryrear/): Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge
- [Straight, Not Narrow: Exgay Tim Wilkins A Bit Narrow](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/straight-not-na/): Jim Johnson of Straight, Not Narrow thoughtfully analyzed exgay Tim Wilkins and his organization, Cross Ministry, on Oct. 13. Johnson applauds Wilkins for his openness to healing and for emerging from the heartbreak of youth. But he faults Wilkins for insisting on delivering all homosexual persons from their “lifestyle.” Looking beyond Wilkins’ good intentions, Johnson suspects that Wilkins once identified as homosexual due to psychological trauma, while for many or most same-sex-attracted persons, same-sex attraction is a natural instinct. Johnson also questions Wilkins’ bizarre and illogical association between same-sex attraction and violent crimes such as child molestation, domestic abuse, and rape....
- [Former Exgay Peterson Toscano Performs in Maryland](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/former-exgay-pe/): GayLife of Maryland profiles Peterson Toscano, a former Love In Action live-in client who now performs several spiritual and comedic one-man plays, including “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House” — a personal look into the experiences of ex-gay live-in program participants. Toscano’s upcoming performances include appearances in Boston, Mass.; Huntington and Oneonta, N.Y.; Middletown and Hartford, Conn.; and Madison, N.J.
- [Who Is Silencing the Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/who-is-silencin/): The political religious right, of course. Peterson Toscano explains.
- [Exodus Promotes Allies’ Ridicule of Dr. Phil, Co-Existence, And Antibullying Efforts](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-promotes/): The Exodus media blog promoted the following propaganda pieces by antigay political allies this week, and withheld alternative viewpoints from the Exodus readership. (Exodus does not technically “endorse” what it promotes. But the half-truths that Exodus reprints — and the truths that it neglects to share with readers — are an indication of the integrity of the Exodus national office, or lack thereof.) A LifeSite criticism of TV’s Dr. Phil for “promoting homosexuality.” LifeSite criticizes Dr. Phil’s reliance upon facts to criticize inaccurate claims of success issued by the abstinence-only sex-ed movement. LifeSite also mischaracterizes Dr. Phil’s position regarding Planned Parenthood....
- [Judge Denies Exgay Mental Facility’s Effort to Avoid Licensure](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/judge-denies-ex/): Published today in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. (free subscription required): A federal judge denied a motion Friday that would have permitted Love In Action to treat mentally ill patients who are taking prescription medication. The order does not seem to affect LIA’s ability to counsel emotionally stable patients. Unfortunately, the newspaper article does not ask LIA officials why, exactly, they demand the right not only to house and counsel the mentally ill with poorly educated and uncertified staff, but also to confine unstable patients on LIA property, out of reach of professional help. The newspaper does report: Despite Friday’s ruling,...
- [Exodus Official’s Folksy Agenda in Washington](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-official/): Whatever Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas was doing in Washington and Chicago this week, he isn’t ready to share with the public. Instead, on his vanity blog, Thomas asks for prayers of support for his ongoing mystery activities with unnamed “folks.” Thomas makes his trip sound as innocuous as a hay ride. A Hee Haw cast reunion, perhaps?
- [Conservative WSJ Columnist Finds Dobson Lying About Miers](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/conservative-ws/): Focus on the Family co-founder James Dobson has maintained that White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not give him assurances about how a Justice Miers would vote on abortion cases. But conservative columnist John Fund of the Wall Street Journal (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars) finds that Dobson may have received assurances from two close friends of Miers, both sitting judges, both recommended to Dobson by Rove, in an Arlington Group conference call. The Arlington Group is a coalition of the political leaders of the major religious-right organizations. In other words, Dobson is counting on a technicality...
- [Longer Prison Terms for All Sex Crimes?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/longer-prison-t/): Exodus President Alan Chambers doesn’t say what the proper sentence for a teen-age consensual sex offender should be. But — given Exodus’ past support for sodomy laws — one may reasonably suspect that Chambers’ opposition to unequal prison sentences for homosexuals might coincide with support for tougher prison terms for all sex offenders. And at least two liberal bloggers support such a crackdown. But are these Big Government, law-and-order taxpayers willing to pay higher taxes to support ever-growing prisons — or will they continue to borrow trillions from future generations to build the prisons of today?
- [Cause of Homosexuality Found: It’s Hip Hop](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/cause-of-homose/): Self-appointed youth “minister” G. Craige Lewis has found the cause of homosexuality: Hip-hop music. Lewis operates a profitable livelihood under the alias EX Ministries. His web site claims that Lewis is one of God’s authorized spokesmen, and Lewis accuses those who disagree with him of being inspired by the devil. The devil is trying to convince you to change your moral values and push your boundaries back by causing you to see the “popular” ministers, singers, etc. do it. When you see them doing it, it makes it look like EVERYONE is doing it because TV and radio has such a...
- [Critics of Lesbian Cleric: Follow the Money](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/critics-of-lesb/): United Church of Christ seminarian Chuck Currie follows the mammon money underwriting Republican activists’ two-pronged effort to divide mainstream churches with partisan misinformation over hot-button issues, and then to convert the wreckage into taxpayer-subsidized Republican front groups with religious-sounding names. A recent case in point, Currie says, is the battle against United Methodist minister Beth Stroud, who is lesbian and whose sermons sometimes read like the words of Biblical prophets. The warfare waged by the “Institute for Religion and Democracy” and other Republican religious front groups against liberal churches may seem recent. But these same groups have been smearing and dividing...
- [Bloggers Dissect Maggie Gallagher](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/bloggers-dissec/): While guest-blogging at the conservative Volokh Conspiracy, anti-marriage activist Maggie Gallagher’s intellectual and moral shallowness were laid bare as she persistently declined to offer coherent responses to reasoned criticisms, and resorted to scare tactics and a quack history lesson instead of legitimate debate with her critics. Alas, A Blog traces the process by which Gallagher’s evasiveness and lousy grasp of history upset even fellow opponents of marriage for same-sex-attracted couples.
- [Focus Broadcast Blames Absent Fathers For Causing Something Besides Homos For A Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/focus-broadcast/): The last three days of Focus On The Family broadcasts have been an panel of apologetics experts (apologeticists?) lamenting how few Evangelicals share their particular correct “biblical worldview.” Since my Friday afternoon was filled with mindless AUTOCAD work I had plenty of time to listen to all three broadcasts for yet more gems from Focus. So what’s the newest scourge for which we can blame absent/distant fathers? No, not homosexuality. Oh please, that’s so passé. Atheism. That’s right, Wednesday’s Focus broadcast (10/19/05) blames distant fathers for causing some of history’s greatest athiests. Panelist Lee Strobel: There’s other kinds of barriers that...
- [Exodus President Agrees with ACLU Against Kansas Sex Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-presiden-2/): Today at Ex-Gay Watch, Exodus President Alan Chambers agreed with me that homosexual and heterosexual sex crimes deserve equal punishment, and that the Kansas Supreme Court was right to overturn laws to the contrary. As it happens, that position is shared by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has a long history of upholding both religious and personal freedom. My compliments to Chambers on his support for some degree of equality under the law. Whether we agree on a reasonable prison sentence for teen-age sex in general remains to be seen….
- [Kansas Bars Harsher Sentences for Gay Teen-agers](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/kansas-bars-har/): At age 18, Matthew Limon — a developmentally disabled young man — engaged in voluntary sexual activity with a 14-year-old male. This followed two prior cases where Limon was prosecuted as a juvenile for having sex with someone younger than 16. A heterosexual Kansan of his age would have been sentenced — at most — to just 15 months for crossing the line of age of consent with a fellow post-pubescent teen-ager. But because the sex was same-gender, Limon was sentenced in 2000 to more than 17 years in prison. Focus on the Family reacted with glee last year when the...
- [Slippery Slope Story Was All Wet](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/slippery-slope/): Last week the far right news sources were exulting that their predictions had come true. They claimed that gay civil unions had led to a polygamous civil union in the Netherlands. This, they said, is proof that if we allow gay people to have any rights as a couple we’ll have polygamy here as well. Even Bill O’Reilly, who – though opposed to gay marriage – has taken on Steven Bennett and others about their ex-gay claims and extreme anti-gay tactics, took the story further and claimed the three had gotten married. Now it turns out they were wrong after all....
- [Does Harriet Miers Attend a Pro-gay Church?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/does-harriet-mi/): Much of the brouhaha surrounding the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has centered on her attitudes about homosexuality. The extremist on the right find her unacceptable partially because she has not made it her mission to deny rights to gay people. Gay groups have taken a wait-and-see approach and certainly do not consider her an ally in the fight for equality. Much has been made of her attendance at an evangelical church in Dallas (or actually a splinter group of that church that is less modern in worship style). However, today I learned that Miers attends St. John’s...
- [Dr. Phil Episode On Gay Teens Air Date](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/dr-phil-episode/): According to Wayne Besen the recently taped Dr. Phil episode on gay teens will air Wednesday (tomorrow).
- [Bruce Garrett Cartoons Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/bruce-garrett-c/): Queer cartoonist Bruce Garrett takes on Love In Action. Click on image to view Garrett’s page and scroll down for full size cartoon. Via Peterson Toscano.
- [Protecting the Children](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/protecting-the/): In an article oddly titled First Person – Homosexuality, child sexual abuse, and foster care, Alan Sears, CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, is riling up the Baptists again with fear mongering about letting gay people adopt. The argument? That gay foster parents are more likely to sexually abuse children. Here’s how he comes by this: The results of an Illinois study released in March revealed that 34 percent of child sexual abuse cases by foster parents in the state were committed against children that were the same sex as their molesters. He quotes Concerned Woman Robert Knight: “Since one-third to...
- [TVC’s Sheldon Accepted Big Bucks to Support Gambling, Mislead Followers](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/tvcs-sheldon-ac/): The Washington Post reported Oct. 16 that the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, accepted at least $25,000 in direct funds, and perhaps thousands more in indirect support, from an online gambling company and indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a 2000 campaign to block federal legislation that would have banned online gambling. Furthermore, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed reportedly acted as a financial, political and marketing go-between, channeling (laundering) funds in a $2 million pro-gambling campaign involving former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s office, the gambling industry, and Christian rightists allied with Reed and Sheldon who...
- [For the Record: ‘Boot Camp’ Director Remains Vice Chair of Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/for-the-record/): Given John Smid’s numerous dubious claims — about his ordination, his education, his qualifications, and the mental-health activities of Love In Action — I just thought his ongoing vice-leadership of the Exodus board was worth noting.
- [Viacom/CBS Again Refuses Gay-Inclusive Church Ads](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/viacomcbs-again/): From Queer Day: CBS has again refused to air United Church of Christ’s gay-inclusive television commercial saying it amounts to “advocacy” and therefore cannot be aired because it runs counter to a network policy against advocacy ads. UCC president Ron Buford said, “We told them that the United Church of Christ commercial was not advocating anything; rather, we are letting people know that no matter who they are, or where they are on life’s journey, they are welcome,” Buford said. “The executives said that it would have to become commonplace across the United States for churches to welcome gays and lesbians,”...
- [Are You Sexually Compulsive?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/are-you-sexuall/): From Patrick Yaeger of Queer Visions: Are You Sexually Compulsive? Many in the gay community still equate sexual promiscuity with gay liberation in general. Irresponsible nonsense. Within the gay community, sexual addiction runs rampant. The reasons are obvious given the history of our treatment and ostracization by society. Nevertheless, now that we are gaining inclusion and being welcomed as equals, we need to face it as the chronic serious problem that it is. While antigay activists con exgays into believing same-sex attraction and addiction are synonymous, some advocates for equality are constructively educating people about compulsion and offering them the practical...
- [Rescuing Jesus From the Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/rescuing-jesus/): Here are recent writings by others on the growing corruption and apostasy of the religious Right, and efforts at renewal offered by other Christians who haven’t sold their souls to lobbyists.
- [Defining Anglican Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/defining-anglic/): Courtesy of blogger Father Jake: Andrew Linzey is one of the editors of Gays and the Future of Anglicanism: Responses to the Windsor Report (Amazon link). He is also a member of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. In defining “homophobia,” Linzey attempts to delineate which forms of antigay belief and expression qualify as homophobic — and which ones might not. Linzey also lists ten “tangible signs of homophobia” within the Anglican Communion. For the discussion of homophobia, and Linzey’s list, visit Father Jake.
- [Two Views of Exgay Speech in Milwaukee](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/two-views-of-ex/): When exgay activist Tim Wilkins spoke to a forum at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Oct. 4, two campus newspapers offered two differing accounts of what transpired. Joe Riddle has already reviewed Bradley Wooten’s article in the UWM Post. By comparison, the UWM Leader offered an unanalytical and one-sided soapbox for Wilkins on Oct. 12. The latter article left numerous obvious questions unanswered.
- [Exodus to Lobby in D.C., Chicago](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-to-lobby/): The not-exgay-but-something-like-it Exodus official Randy Thomas says he is traveling to D.C. again today.
- [Religious Lobby Uses Ex-Gay Lore](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/religious-lobby/): The Boston Globe has a story [free registration required] on Richard Land, the Souther Baptist Convention’s lobby in Washington. Gay leaders are particularly alarmed about Land’s promotion of ”reparative therapy” to transform sexual orientation. At the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June, Land unveiled a video in which former gays and lesbians attribute their life paths to childhood sexual and physical abuse. (The men and women also condemned the intolerance of many religious figures they encountered.) More than 300 copies were distributed to churches as instruction on how to minister to gays and lesbians. The article covers some of the...
- [XGW Seeking Other Patients Told By Their Therapists To Lie In Spitzer Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/xgw-seeking-oth/): In one of my last therapy sessions with Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH he asked me to participate in a self-reporting study on ex-gays being conducted by a guy named Spitzer. At the time I believed my sessions with Nicolosi had given me the ability to continue living a healthy life and I would eventually function as a heterosexual. Nicolosi told me it would be great if I could represent the positive/success side of ex-gays in this study. Joseph Nicolosi asked me to lie to Spitzer when I called in for my study interview by denying Nicolosi had referred me. Turned off...
- [TVC Claims Change Is Always Possible](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/tvc-claims-chan/): Last night Lou Sheldon of the TVC issued possibly the most nonsensical response to Time’s recent article on gay teens I have seen yet. (Yes, even farther out there than Stephen Benett’s tantrum. [Time’s author] also carefully smears ex-gay ministries like Exodus International and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) by pointing out that some individuals struggling with same-sex attractions lose the battle to overcome these life-controlling behaviors.[*] Really Lou? When has it ever been shown any sort of ex-gay ministry has a 100% success rate? The TVC’s statement on the gay teens article is one of the most painfully irrational...
- [Blame the Priest, Ask for Cash](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/blame-the-pries/): New York Socialite “J. David Enright IV says that Father Joseph Romano sexually abused him at a Christian youth camp in the early 1960s, when he was seven years old,” and that made him gay. And now he wants $5 Million. He goes on to explain his lifestyle: Mr Enright, a scion of two of New York’s most aristocratic families, who made his millions as an advertising executive for the Broadway production of 42nd Street, said that for years he kept his homosexuality private, dating women in the 1980s but secretly trawling for male companions. “I had a straight life in...
- [I Hereby CHOOSE to Be Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/i-hereby-choose/): I laughed reading this account of ex-gay minister Tim Wilkins’ talk to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Apologetics Association, a student-led organization that exists to “promote the literal word of the Bible as logical and reasonable” (a dubious goal, in my estimation, but there it is). It’s pretty funny that even among a group of die-hard Bible believers (who, I presume, accept that Jonah actually dwelt in the belly of a whale) Mr. Wilkins encountered this much skepticism over his ex-gay claims. It speaks volumes about how the cultural debate has evolved–in our favor.
- [A Look Back: Past Commentary on Fundamentalism](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/a-look-back-pas/): Almost three years ago, Ex-Gay Watch complimented Real Live Preacher regarding a thoughtful post on the difficulty that both Christians and people of other faiths face when attempting to relate to fundamentalists. In comments at Ex-Gay Watch, RLP responded: I tried to be careful in saying that fundamentalism is not a set of beliefs. I bear no anger to those who differ from me, nor will I treat them unkindly. Fundamentalism is a way of relating to people who do not share your beliefs. Fundamentalism is that very attitude that says, “I am right, you are wrong, and I WILL confront...
- [Coming Out Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/coming-out-day/): Today is National Coming Out Day. Ex-gay activist Warren Throckmorton accurately identifies the purpose of Coming Out day in a Focus on the Family article: Warren Throckmorton, a professor of psychology at Grove City College, says this kind of “celebration” is a very well-calculated media move. “The more that people know about homosexuality, or know somebody who has come out, they’re less inclined to oppose gay rights. Their mission with National Coming Out Day is to extend that to the widest possible audience.” Dr. Throckmorton, of course, sees that as a bad thing. Joe Nicolosi, in a moment of sheer lunacy,...
- [Exgay Battle in Montgomery County, Md., Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-battle-in/): Due to time constraints, I have been unable to cover this issue recently — a shame, since I live nearby and my best friends’ daughter will attend school in Montgomery County. But there is a lot happening, and news (admittedly biased) is readily available — directly from Teach the Facts. TTF is worth monitoring daily for a look at how antigay parents, FRC and Warren Throckmorton join with abstinence-only activists, using exgay and “parents’ rights” rhetoric to suppress comprehensive sex education in a school district whose parents are predominantly liberal and well-educated.
- [Unintentional Self-Parody: Inter-Varsity Guide for Parents](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/unintentional-s/): The Grace Pages briefly reviews A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, authored by Joseph Nicolosi and published in 2002 by Inter-Varsity Press. The examples of sappy, saccharine prose and badly dated gender roles leave me feeling embarrassed to have been an Inter-Varsity chapter co-leader. To whatever minimal extent that sexual orientation might be influenced by early childhood parenting, Nicolosi’s introductory advice will no doubt create more confused people wondering if they are gay — and therefore more high-paying clients for his industry group.
- [Prof. Throckmorton’s College Rated Unsafe for Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/prof-throckmort-3/): The blogosphere noted this long ago; I’m posting this mostly for archival purposes. The Princeton Review rated Grove City College, home of exgay movement pundit Warren Throckmorton, fifth-worst school in the nation for students who happen to be attracted to members of the same gender.
- [Catholic Pro-Chastity Blogger on Sex Abuse And the Purge](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/catholic-pro-ch/): Sed Contra, written by Courage participant and chaste Catholic David Morrison has offered a great deal of nuanced thinking on this topic. More antigay than gay-tolerant, perhaps, but better than the incendiary rubbish circulating among the religious right. Recent posts: Against the church’s tolerance of predators Against the church’s potential ban on gay celibate seminarians Tentatively upbeat toward celibacy enforcement and antigay political correctness among seminary candidates
- [Seventeen Magazine Profiles Former ‘Love In Action’ Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/seventeen-magaz-2/): Seventeen, the teenage women’s magazine, profiles Love In Action survivor Wade Richards in its November 2005 edition. Richards also was featured in the documentary Fish Can’t Fly. For first-hand information about Richards and more info about the article, check out this guy’s blog.
- [Bennett to Gays: Get Off the Home And Garden Network!](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/bennett-to-gays/): Exgay activist Stephen Bennett, like a number of feminists and conservatives, would like to rid the television airwaves of pornography. Of course, Bennett defines pornography differently from your average Andrea Dworkin or Betty Friedan. From the American Family Association/Agape Press release protesting gay couples’ civil unions in Connecticut: Bennett observes with marked exasperation that, in today’s pro-homosexual mainstream culture, one “can’t even watch the Home and Garden Network” without running into pro-homosexual affirmation. Nowadays, he says, even the once innocuous home improvement reality shows “feature gay and lesbian couples, where they come in and make over their homes.” (Hat tip: Good...
- [Oregon Christian Coalition Leader Accused of Molesting Girls](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/oregon-christia/): Lou Beres, the longtime chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition, faces molestation accusations from three female family members who were preteens at the time of the alleged incidents. Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said officials are investigating the complaints. Beres blames “personal and political enemies” — in other words, homosexuals — for the accusation. Family members are supporting the women’s claims, however.
- [Exodus Media Blog Upholds Kentucky Schools’ Antigay Bullying](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-media-bl/): The Exodus media blog on Oct. 4. promoted an antigay tirade by Richard Mullenax of TheRealityCheck.org. By failing to check the facts behind the polemics, and by reprinting others’ misinformation without comment or counterpoint, Exodus put itself in the position of defending a Kentucky school district with a history of unmitigated violence toward students who are perceived to be gay.
- [Gay Teens Closer to Exgays Than to the Gay ‘Movement’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/gay-teens-close/): Once in a while, the Exodus media blog posts something that might conceivably be true — at first glance. “I don’t think the gay movement understands the extent to which the next generation just wants to be normal kids,” says Michael Glatze, the editor of YGA magazine (a lifestyle magazine for teen and twentysomething gays). “The people who are getting that are the Christian right.” — Michael J. West, Oct. 4, 2005 The full story, however, is much more complex — and less political — than Exodus would like for readers to believe.
- [Focus Admits Exgay Program’s Agenda: Undermine Gay Couples’ Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/focus-admits-ex/): In a press release for its Boston “Love Won Out” conference, Focus on the Family briefly acknowledges that attacking gay couples’ partnership and marriage rights in Massachusetts is a key purpose of the program.
- [Focus/Family Misreports About ‘Love In Action’ Spokesman](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/focusfamily-mis/): In a story today on its CitizenLink web service, Focus on the Family reported (emphasis is XGW’s): Gerard Wellman, who joined the staff of Love in Action after completing its program and leaving homosexuality, said the group helps hundreds of young men each year. He said those who come looking for help often bring other issues, such as depression. But spokesman Wellman did not leave homosexuality. Instead, he (and Focus) silently redefined sexual orientation to refer solely to behavior, not sexual and romantic attraction. Wellman has told ABC, CNN, and The Guardian that “change” and “homosexual” describe behavior, not people. Focus’...
- [“Preachin’ the Good News” in Philly](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/preachin-the-go/): Philadelphia had its gay pride festival, Outfest, this weekend. They were preached at by Repent America (the same good folks who told us God sent hurricane Katrina to stop Southern Decadence). From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
- [James Dobson’s Cronyism And Harriet Miers](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/james-dobsons-c/): Has Harriet Miers agreed to act as a High Court crony, obeying the wishes of George Bush and James Dobson no matter the facts of a given court case? Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter apparently wants to know. From Bloomberg (via AmericaBlog): Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said he wants to know whether presidential adviser Karl Rove privately assured a conservative activist of how Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers would rule on the court. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he will would look into a statement by James Dobson, president of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based advocacy group Focus on...
- [Nature AND Nurture, ‘Gay Gene’ Geneticist Dean Hamer Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/nature-and-nurt/): Dean Hamer is the geneticist whose groundbreaking 1992 research is periodically misused by exgay activists to conjure up an imaginary belief (among unnamed and impossible-to-find gay people) in a solitary “gay gene.” Hamer was profiled Oct. 3 in The Philadelphia Inquirer. (Hat tip: Queer Day.) Money quote: “Many straight people have the ‘gay’ version of the [X chromosome] marker as well. Scientists now know sexual orientation can’t be detected from testing any single gene – it’s set by a complicated combination of genes and environmental factors.”
- [Exgay Leaders: If Not the Enemy, Then Who Is?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-leaders-i/): Former exgay Peterson Toscano finds reasons not to view the leaders of Exodus, “Love Won Out,” and Love In Action — people like Exodus board member and Focus on the Family official Mike Haley — as enemies, even though these leaders impose their own agendas upon young people and then manipulate the Bible and psychology to give themselves a semblance of credibility. Toscano points to forces within the gay “community” that give sexual strugglers reason — or at least an excuse — to seek help from exgay organizations.
- [NARTH Announces 2005 Conference Speakers - Denies Media Access to XGW](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/narth-announces/): NARTH has announced a speakers list for this year’s conference November 11-13 here in LA. The majority of listings are names I don’t recognize and have clinical sounding titles such as “Perceptions and Experiences of Sexual Conversion Therapy Clients: A Qualitative Study.” However the following listings are of possible concern: Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. – “Judicial Abuse of Scientific Literature on Homosexuality by the American Mental Health Professional Organizations” Arthur Goldberg, J.D. – “Carrying the Homosexual Agenda into the Public School Systems” Nancy Heche, Ph.D. – “It’s All About Me” Konstantin Mascher – “Is Sex a Private Matter Only? Sex, Sublimation, and...
- [Speaking Truth And Reconciliation to Exgay ‘Boot Camp’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/speaking-truth/): Former exgay Love In Action participant Peterson Toscano has been thinking about appropriate and inappropriate tactics toward the Tennessee exgay inpatient therapeutic facility, Love In Action: In June I learned some very powerful lessons in Memphis from watching the QAC in action. Morgan, Cale, Suzie, Alex and the others strove to “speak truth to power” without hurting anyone, especially Zach and the other LIA/R victims/participants. They also made it clear from the beginning that their intentions were never to shut down LIA, rather to speak out against an injustice that was being done to young people. I remember when a cameraman...
- [British Ex-Gay Movement: Down But Not Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/british-ex-gay/): People in the United Kingdom may have assumed that the exgay movement there was effectively crippled when the head of Exodus’ British flagship organization, Jeremy Marks, acknowledged that no one had really changed from gay to straight, and that Christians were being damaged by efforts at so-called “change.” But former exgay Peterson Toscano suggests that the movement — still alive — may have gone underground, using British evangelical and pentecostal churches and piggybacking on a rising trend of “Christian counseling.” Toscano quotes British blogger Contemplative Activist, who believes that by working out of sight, the antigay movement can be more poisonous...
- [Christine: From Unhealthy Straight Lifestyle to Clean ‘Gay Lifestyle’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/christine-from/): From ex-ex-gay blogger Christine: One of the things that bothers me about many ex-gay testimonies is that they often talk about how horrible the “gay lifestyle” is, and how shallow and drug-, alcohol-, and sex-filled it is. I guess they never consider the fact that there are queer folks who don’t live like that. I was amused recently by the realization that most ex-gays’ characterizations of the “gay lifestyle” fairly accurately describe my former “straight lifestyle.” In the years prior to my coming out, I had a drinking problem, slept with people I didn’t know, and used drugs when I partied...
- [Catholic Bishops: Beware of Biblical Inerrancy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/catholic-bishop/): Biblical inerrancy has always been rejected by mainline Christian denominations, including the oldest of them all: the Roman Catholic Church. Tradition, history and science have always served as filters that moderate Biblical claims, while providing insight into the underlying circumstances and intent of Biblical authors as they struggled to use imperfect and since-forgotten languages to express what they understood to be God’s concerns. The Church’s faith in these filters has — ever since the Reformation — placed the Church at odds with conservative Protestants. In a teaching document called The Gift of Scripture, the Catholic bishops of England, Scotland and Wales...
- [Focus on the Family Equates Gay Couples, Donkey Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/focus-on-the-fa-18/): From Media Matters for America: Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson predicted on his radio program [MP3 file] that allowing same-sex marriage in the United States would lead to “group marriage,” “marriage between daddies and little girls,” or “marriage between a man and his donkey.” Dobson called this vision of the future “more or less a prophecy,” though, he stressed, not a “divine prophecy, but a prediction.” He said that his specific examples, as well as “anything allegedly linked to civil rights,” will be “doable, and the legal underpinnings for marriage will have been destroyed.” Prophecy? Prediction?...
- [Coming Out — Not As A Label, But As Oneself](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/coming-out-not/): Exgay activists affiliated with Exodus, Focus on the Family, and the American Family Association frequently attempt to shoehorn sexual strugglers into smallminded and unhealthy stereotypes. If you are “gay,” they insist, you must conform to one stereotype; if you are “Christian,” you must conform to another. In an article about National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11), GayHealth.com reminds readers that it’s best — emotionally, physically and spiritually — to be yourself and not a label. “Identifying yourself as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something else is your own choice,” says Dr. Stephen Goldstone, Medical Director of GayHealth.com. “It’s important not to...
- [One Weapon Removed From Anti-Gay Arsenal](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/one-weapon-remo/): Reports suggest that a vaccine has been found that is 100% effective at preventing certain strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). These strains are primarily associated with cervical cancer in women and anal cancer in gay men. The virus has not been tested on men so, though it is likely to be effective, we cannot be certain at this point. For some years now, anti-gay activists have been screaming about how “homosexual behavior” causes “gay cancer” such as this bit from our friends at Focus on the Family: Solid, irrefutable evidence proves that there are lethal consequences to engaging in...
- [Exgay Offers ‘Complete Healing From Homosexuality’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-offers-co/): A message received via e-mail today from exgay activist Chad Thompson: Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that I just got back from California where I recorded a series of talks that I presented during a conference at Westgate Church in San Jose. In the first talk, “Bringing Christian Love Out of the Closet,” I explain and expand upon the ideas that I first wrote about in my book Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would. In the second talk, called “Strategies for Success,” I speak directly to those who are struggling with homosexuality and I unfold a blueprint for complete...
- [Antigay Opposition to Violence Reduction in Iowa](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/antigay-opposit/): From the Des Moines Register via Gay News Blog and Good As You: Exgay activist Chad Thompson’s former employer, the Iowa Family Policy Center, opposed an anti-bullying program scheduled for Oct. 6 in Cedar Rapids. IFPC argues that efforts to reduce antigay violence are really just a hoax designed to promote a (conveniently undefined) “political agenda.” Brad Clark, executive director of the GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force, said the forum’s purpose is to make schools safer for gay students, who he said face frequent harassment and bullying. “All that we’re talking about here is making sure kids are safe,”...
- [Did CNN Cover ‘Concerned Women’ on Gay Youth?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/did-cnn-cover-c/): Good As You provided a heads-up Oct. 6 that Concerned Women for America spokesman Robert Knight was to appear on CNN’s Paula Zahn NOW program that evening, to condemn the trend of youths identifying themselves as same-sex-attracted at earlier ages. But a transcript for the program suggests that the gay-youth segment may have been pre-empted by news of the New York terror alert. Anyone with additional information about the planned segment is invited to come forward.
- [Exgay, Abstinence-Only Parody of ‘Basic Instinct’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exgay-abstinenc/): Those of you over age 35 may remember a 1970s youth program called “Scared Straight.” The idea of the program was that, by sending delinquent youths on a prison tour to meet violent, foul-mouthed prisoners in hellish surroundings, the teen-agers would be “scared straight” and become model students. Videos of these raw encounters were periodically shown on TV and in high schools, in the hope that other youths would be scared straight, too. Blogger Bearnaked Joe offers a convincing update to Scared Straight — a parody ad against “lesbianism” that slices through all the religious right’s prettified prejudices and cuts straight...
- [In Miers Media Confusion, Exodus President Sees Proof of Media Bias](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/in-miers-media/): In the same week that a Time magazine cover story granted substantial print space to the Exodus exgay outreach program to youth, Exodus president Alan Chambers cited media confusion over Harriet Miers as proof of media bias against exgays. After several media outlets thought Miers might be connected to Exodus International, Chambers says: One friend on Capitol Hill said, “At least we now know the press’ lack of reporting on the “ex-gay” community is willful resistance and not just lack of knowledge whatsoever.”
- [Exodus President Trusts Bush on Miers Nomination](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/10/exodus-presiden/): On his personal weblog, Exodus President Alan Chambers on Oct. 4 stated his disappointment that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has not expressed the clear bias that he seeks in judicial candidates. Chambers also names “two of my most trusted political (unbeknownst to them) mentors” — Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins. Ultimately, Chambers follows the lead of Exodus’ lead benefactor, Dr. James Dobson, and says he trusts a U.S. president who — as it happens — has misled the nation about Iraq WMD and reconstruction, small government, deficit reduction, and compassionate conservatism. Most puzzling.
- [Net Access Outage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/net-access-outa/): As long as I’ve lived in my current apartment some unknown neighbor has been providing me with wireless internet. Their signal has been down for a couple days so I’ve been unable to get to my XGW email account which I can only access from my home computer. This outage has no effect on other authors here. I apologize for not responding to correspondence I’m sure I’ve received the past couple days. -Dan
- [Are You Ex-Gay? How Did You Break Free?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/are-you-ex-gay/): In response to some advice that I posted for an exgay reader, another reader recently wrote to ask whether I am exgay, and if so, how did I break free of homosexual desires. Here’s my response (slightly edited). I’m not ex-gay 🙂 … your second question is kinda broad, and requires a bit of examination: a. Different sexual desires have different causes. The desires do not break down neatly into heterosexual and homosexual categories. The causes are not squarely biological or environmental. And some desires are less sexual than others. b. Any given desire can have different levels of intensity —...
- [Locations for XGW Local Meetings](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/locations-for-x/): If you are interested in meeting other Ex-Gay Watch readers in Southern California or the Northeast Corridor (Washington-Boston), please sign up here. No dates for local casual get-togethers have been chosen, but we’d like to know who’s where and how many are interested. If you live outside these regions but wish to drum up local interest, by all means please do so. If you’d prefer to let me know privately, feel free to do that. Thanks!
- [Seeking Participants for Joe Nicolosi Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/seeking-partici/): I’m preparing a new infographic on Joe Nicolosi. Does anyone have any high-resolution photos of him? Also I’m looking for former clients of Nicolosi willing to be quoted in my upcoming infographic. Please email me.
- [Homosexuality - Biggest Problem of the Inner City According to Lou Sheldon](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/homosexuality-b/): Sometimes it’s nice to know we queers aren’t the only ones who find Lou Sheldon creepy; Tucker Carlson does too. My editor had just assigned me a story about religious revival in the inner city. The idea was, black churches might be better equipped to help the urban poor than government aid agencies. Someone suggested I talk to the Reverend Lou Sheldon, the head of a group called the Traditional Values Coalition. Apparently he was an expert on the subject. So I called him. Sheldon came to my office for the interview. We sat across from each other in my cubicle...
- [How Straight Boys Made Me Stop Trying To Be Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/how-straight-bo/): I occasionally have inquiries about my own experience with ex-gay / reparative therapy. I was a client of Joseph Nicolosi for about a year between 1999 and 2000. What I’m most frequently asked about is not why I entered therapy but why I stopped trying to become straight. My effort and desire to become straight continued after my last session with Nicolosi which is why I phrased the previous sentence “why I stopped trying to become straight” and not “why I left therapy.” Maybe someday I’ll sit down and write about things that happened before and during therapy but for now...
- [Infographic - Love In Action Advertises Help For “Sexual Sin” Parody](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/infographic-lov/): Click Image To View Full SizeClick Image To View Full Size It appears from Love In Action’s newest advertisment they now offer treatment for sexual sins above and beyond homosexuality. However the reader is left to wonder what exactly is considered a sexual sin. I thought I should have some fun with that. Huge thanks to Peterson Toscano who wrote at least half of it and and to Wayne for being a good sport and letting us use him. A high-resolution PDF of the graphic can be download here.
- [MyExGaySpace](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/myexgayspace/): 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. Myspace: Exodus Youth Myspace: Chad Thompson Myspace: Peterson Toscano Myspace: Daniel Gonzales Myspace: Mike Ensley 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...
- [Fred Phelps Vs. Repent America: Exgay Doublespeak](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/fred-phelps-vs/): On Dec. 27, Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas prided himself on his rejection of “false prophet Fred Phelps.” Phelps is the patriarch of a Kansas fundamentalist cult that travels the country, threatening families with young children, in public settings, with foul language and graphically depicted death threats against homosexuals. Compare Phelps’ attitude to that of Repent America, a Philadelphia-area group that shouts down families and officials in public places and supports the execution of homosexuals. How is it that both Thomas and his employer, the exgay network Exodus, endorse Repent America but oppose Fred Phelps?
- [The Moral Lessons of Brokeback Mountain](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/the-moral-lesso/): Even before they had seen the movie, exgay network Exodus and its prime benefactor Focus on the Family feared that Brokeback Mountain might prompt conservative Christians to rethink how they treat homosexual family members. And upon rethinking their own role in the homosexual problem, Christian movie viewers might realize that the culture-war tactics of Exodus and James Dobson are self-serving, sinful, counterproductive, and sometimes dishonest. Whatever the intent of its makers, the movie is neither liberal nor revolutionary — unlike an Oliver Stone or Michael Moore flick, it does not beat the viewer over the head with some dumb Hollywood agenda....
- [Ex-Gay Tim Wilkins Agrees To Take Lie Detector Test](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/ex-gay-tim-wilk-2/): I recently learned blog Good As You has made offers to ex-gays asking them to appear on The 700 Club and take a lie detector test. Earlier this week Tim Wilkins of Cross Ministries accepted Good As You’s challenge. The 700 Club hasn’t been involved in the offer so I emailed them yesterday asking if they’re interested in having this event take place on their show. I’d like to congratulate Tim Wilkins for having the balls to stand up for what he believes. Honestly, I’m impressed. Update: In answer to reader comments, as well as my own initial thoughts, Good As...
- [New Advertisement From Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/new-advertiseme/): I’m open to ideas on how to infographic-ize this newest advertisement from Love In Action. There will be no comments on this post, please email me your ideas privately. Update: Check back Monday for the spiffy new LIA infographic!
- [Mobile Access to Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/mobile-access-t/): If you own a mobile phone or handheld computer with a JavaScript-enabled web browser, you may now visit the most recent entries at Ex-Gay Watch here: https://exgaywatch.com/blog/mobile.html This page is condensed and simplified for easy mobile viewing. Here are some tips for mobile viewing: 1. On Blackberrys, the “Internet Browser” may not display Mobile XGW, but the “Blackberry Browser” should.
- [Exgay Blog Nominations](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/exgay-blog-nomi/): Quite some time ago, I withdrew exgay personal web sites from the XGW indexes of worthwhile web sites (located in the column to your right) because: 1. Permanent links that lack any explanation might send unsuspecting visitors to sites that advocate unhealthy or self-destructive attitudes. 2. Some exgay blogs turned out to be anonymous fronts or gossipy echo chambers for defamatory and theocratic political organizations. 3. The listed blogs were not linking back to Ex-Gay Watch. 4. One-third of exgay blogs that I surveyed are rarely updated. XGW avoids linking to inactive web sites. 5. XGW does not provide permanent links...
- [Socarides And the Use of ‘Mental Health’ to Enforce Social Norms](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/socarides-and-t/): The death of Charles W. Socarides reminded libertarian lawyer Jonathan Rowe of opposing social factions’ efforts, over the decades, to misuse the concept of “mental illness” to enforce the factions’ preferred moral or social norms. Rowe says: [P]roperly understood, categorizing something as a “mental disorder” cuts against the moral and social stigma of that condition, and cuts in favor of social neutrality and civil rights protection of the underlying “disorder.” Those who would today classify homophobia as a mental disorder might want to reconsider. As should those who resent the removal of homosexuality as a disorder from the DSM. They forget...
- [Love In Action Associate Director Nathan Bell Gets Sacked](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/love-in-action-9/): Peterson Toscano reports Nathan Bell, associate director of Love In Action, has been terminated by the ministry. Peterson has extensive contacts associated (past and present) with LIA. Bob Painter, former participant and staffer, was among 195 recipients of a mass email from Bell announcing the termination and forwarded it to Peterson. Good Morning, I am writing to communicate a couple of important things. First, thanks to all of you for your support of me throughout my years at Love in Action. Unfortunately I have been terminated from my position after 8 years of cooperative work. It is important for me that...
- [Socarides Dies: A Grandfather of Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/socarides-dies/): Charles W. Socarides, a grandfather of the reparative therapy movement and co-founder of the antigay National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, died Dec. 25 in New York. He was 83 years old.
- [Exodus Earnings Jump; Exgay Network Gets ‘C’ for Transparency](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/exodus-earnings/): Exodus financial results for 2004 are now available, courtesy of MinistryWatch: Contributions to Exodus rose 36 percent, from $454,000 in 2003 to $617,000 in 2004. In the prior year, contributions rose 40 percent, from $324,500 to $454,000. Other revenue sources rose more than 50 percent, from $200,000 to $308,000. In the prior year, other revenue sources plummeted from $352,000 to $200,000. Total revenues rose to $925,315 from $654,653 in 2003 — an increase of 41 percent. In the prior year, revenues fell slightly, from $677,125 in 2002. Expenses were down only slightly in 2004, at about $660,000, after a massive cut...
- [Disconnect in Fund-Raising By Parents Critical of Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/disconnect-in-f/): Conservative Christian Blogger/journalist Justin McLachlan disagreed took issue with recent calls for an investigation of Focus on the Family’s tax-exempt status. In response, McLachlan researched the status of Teach The Facts, a suburban Washington parents group battling the religious right over the local school district’s sex-education curriculum. McLachlan concluded that TTF began advertising the tax deductibility of online donations without disclosing (initially) that its application for 501(c)3 status remains pending with the IRS. Good detective work, Mr. McLachlan. I still question whether the premature fund-raising of a relatively new parents group is comparable to the machinations of a $120 million fundamentalist...
- [Are We Hypocrites?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/are-we-hypocrit/): We here at exgaywatch have been recently criticized for not applying the same standards to those that oppose the ex-gay ministries as we do to those who support them. Specifically, we have been called hypocrites for not condemning a website put up by the Michigan Quakers called exgaymichigan.org.
- [Old Handouts From My Time In Therapy With Joseph Nicolosi](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/old-handouts-fr/): (Click to download packet in Acrobat) I was sorting through my old NARTH files at my parents’ place over Christmas and found some old handouts Nicolosi gave me on one of the two occasions I saw him in person for therapy. My first session was held at his home office (where I was probably given the handouts) and the second occasion was a father-son session held in his Encino clinic. Most of my sessions were via telephone since I was in San Luis Obispo for school. I know they came from Nicolosi since he’s the only ex-gay therapist I ever saw...
- [When You Just Can’t Say It](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/when-you-just-c/): Resource available for those people unable to bring themselves to purchase a book with “HOMOSEXUALITY” on the cover. Well I’m assuming the “H…” is for homosexuality, it could stand for any number of things, I mean for all I know it could be for Hindus who wish to convert to Christianity. Get it here.
- [More Coverage on the Coverage](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/more-coverage-o/): In addition to the article in Christianity Today previously discussed here that addressed religious media coverage of Brokeback Mountain, an article in the New York Times by John Leland addresses the same topic.
- [Christmas Roundup: Dan’s Hometown Gay Bar & How Christmas Made Peterson Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/christmas-round/): Christmas greetings from Ventura, my hometown as well as home of the only gay bar between Santa Barbara and LA County. That bar, Paddy’s, serves an important role as a sort of community gathering center during holidays when boys return home [like myself] and others less fortunate can find “family” to spend the day with. Paddy’s has served free Thanksgiving dinner to the needy [and I don’t mean monetary wealth] for years. I went to Paddy’s Friday night and I’ll go again tonight, Christmas, because it will be packed with people I haven’t seen since highschool. I’ll just try and forget...
- [Christianity Today Looks At Christian Media Response to Brokeback](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/christianity-to-2/): Christianity Today has an article today that reflects on the movie reviews given by Christian media for Brokeback Mountain. Author Jeffrey Overstreet doesn’t pay attention to the gadflys like Stephen Bennett but instead focuses on more reputable sources. His review shows that most Christian reviewers recognize the technical brilliance of the film along with the moving character development. The interesting aspect of this article is the wide range of response given by reviewers who start with the premise that “homosexuality is considered a sin”. For those interested in the nuances now seen in certain Christian influences, this can be a thought...
- [Feedback](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/feedback/): I’m gone (I hope) for five days. While I’m out, please offer constructive feedback about the James Dobson baseball card, XGW’s other infographics, and features that you wish to see added or changed at XGW. I wish everyone a happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Jesus of Nazareth Symbolic Anniversary Day.
- [Focus Dismisses Biblical Truth About Christmas](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/focus-dismisses/): The Chicago Tribune reports on true conservative churches — in other words, churches that reject trees, Santa, carols, consumer merchandise swapping, and other unbiblical icons of the ancient seasonal holiday currently known as Christmas. I respect these churches’ efforts to remain focused on the true faith, free from material and spiritual distractions. At Focus on the Family, however, moral relativists dismiss the Bible. They rationalize that it’s OK to borrow non-Christian idols and associate them with Christ’s symbolic day of birth because all these particular idolatries didn’t exist when the Bible was written:
- [Hard Times At Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/hard-times-at-l/): Hard times, and rumors of such, are circulating around the Memphis, Tenn.-based antigay therapeutic outfit Love In Action. The Memphis-based Queer Action Coalition observes declining activity at LIA headquarters, talk of internal conflict, and the possible closure of one of two live-in facilities. QAC briefly recalls the harm done to Mid-South families by LIA’s obstinate tunnelvision, its aversion to familial love and unity, its poorly trained staff and unprofessional handling of patients. But instead of wishing for the organization’s demise, as some other activists have done, QAC extends holiday greetings to the organization with the hope that LIA’s chilled hearts will eventually be warmed, and...
- [Infographic - Focus Claims ‘Evangelical Community’ Hasn’t Said Anything About Gays That Jesus Would Apologize For](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/infographic-foc-2/): Click Image to Enlarge.
- [Anti-gay Catholic “Interview” Posted At NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/anti-gay-cathol/): In reviewing NARTH’s posting of Zenit’s interview with Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons (described as “a psychiatrist, author and contributor to the Catholic Medical Association’s document “Homosexuality and Hope.””) it quickly became clear that an analysis of the content would be lengthy, cumbersome and boring. Dr. Fitsgibbons does not add anything new to the debate but instead simply restates a litany of stereotypes, myths and lies. So why is NARTH posting the article? Surely they have some purpose. So I will attempt to see if we can identify the reason both for the article and for the posting. The article was issued by...
- [Open Forum](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/open-forum/): So saith a conservative judge: “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose” behind a pseudo-science. U.S. District Judge John Jones was referring to the now-ousted Dover, Pa., school board, which rooted its case for the teaching of creationism in false claims of secularism, false claims about the theory of evolution, and self-contradictions about “intelligent design.” Whatever the merits of intelligent design, during the course of the trial it became apparent that the school board intended...
- [Watch Interview Today of Former Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/watch-interview/): Peterson Toscano will be interviewed live today for the Seattle public access TV program “Being in Seattle.” Toscano will be asked to speak about his exgay experience and the film Fish Can’t Fly. The one-hour program will be available via online streaming video beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern time, 2 p.m. Pacific. Visit www.scantv.org.
- [NARTH: Analyze This](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/narth-analyze-t/): Ex-Gay Watch seeks writers to critically analyze the following recent NARTH antigay propaganda items: Researcher Studies How MSMs Organize Sexual Culture In Public Parks New Book On Transgender Clinical Practices Urges New Paradigm For Treatment The Psychology Behind Homosexual Tendencies (Parts 1-2) The Research Of Charlotte J. Patterson While the items obviously fixate upon, and exaggerate, prurient and kinky aspects of small subcultures within the scope of same-sex-attracted individuals, we’re looking for analysis that goes beyond that. How are NARTH’s demographic samples rigged? What clinical and political biases can be documented? To whom is this information marketed? By whom was the data...
- [With Ears Closed, Hearts Hardened, And Morals Compromised](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/with-ears-close/): The culture war over homosexuality is not, primarily, a battle between liberals and conservatives. It is often a war between those who refuse to discuss the issue, and those who call for the issue be addressed honestly in a community setting. At the Christian Alliance for Progress web site, the antigay screed “The Gay Invention: Homosexuality Is a Linguistic as Well as a Moral Error,” by R.V. Young, was recently up for discussion. Young explicitly denies the existence of sexual orientation — and therefore the existence of same-sex-attracted persons, and therefore the constitutional rights of such persons. Young deems oneself to be...
- [Exgays Silent on Bush Espionage Against U.S. Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/exgays-silent-o/): To my knowledge, exgay activists Alan Chambers, Randy Thomas, and Stephen Bennett — all unabashed supporters of President Bush — have yet to comment on Bush’s vow to continue spying (without authorization or restraint) against American citizens. I also find no comment on Focus on the Family’s web site. Who are those citizen “terrorists” whom Bush has stalked at taxpayer expense? Specifically, Quaker Christians, the ACLU and Greenpeace and any other U.S. citizen selected at the whim of senior Bush yes-men. Are there exgay activists, anywhere, who have maintained their integrity and political independence by protesting the runaway cronyism and despotism of the Bush...
- [Is There Red-State Demand for ‘Brokeback’?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/is-there-red-st/): Wayne Besen observes some resentment brewing over the unavailability of “Brokeback Mountain,” thus far, outside of a few major cities. Is America nearly as red-state as Hollywood seems to think? Besen says no, based on his own observations. An article in the Sunday New York Times finds real gay cowboys in Wyoming both identifying with the struggles of the movie’s characters, and asserting that there has been improvement in their lives since the early 1980s. Among these cowboys, and in gay-tolerant urban pockets, the demand for “Brokeback” exists. But according to these cowboys, unholy prejudice and discrimination remain the rule, not...
- [Brokeback: But What About the Wives?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/brokeback-but-w/): Perhaps I’ve missed it, but I have yet to see substantive, civil public discussion about the wives and children who were also harmed in the tragedy depicted by “Brokeback Mountain.” Were the wives and children harmed by: the mens’ effort to suppress their relationship via marriage, the mens’ adultery, post-marriage, the wives’ pre-marital ignorance of sexuality, the wives’ marital absence of options until divorce became socially tolerated How can exgay ministries contribute to, or prevent, such tragedies? (Links to other discussions of this issue are welcome.)
- [Brokeback: Good Questions From Christianity Today](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/brokeback-good/): If anything, Christianity Today’s questions for conservative-Christian viewers of “Brokeback Mountain” may be a bit too tolerant: 1. The tagline for Brokeback Mountain is, “Love is a force of nature.” Do you agree? Do we get to choose whom we fall in love with? Do we get to choose our sexual orientation? Why or why not? 2. Scripture says homosexual sex is sinful (Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). How should the church engage those who hold different beliefs about homosexuality? Should Christians expect all people to be heterosexuals? Why or why not? What does this mean for how...
- [TVC Repackages Exgay Message on ‘Brokeback’ Into Homo ‘Assault’ on Christmas](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/tvc-repackages/): ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘Capote’ constitute a sinister homosexual “assault” on Christmas, according to the “Traditional Values” Coalition. Need proof of the assault? TVC’s Andrea Lafferty (who hasn’t seen the film) suggests one look no further than weeks-old quotes by exgay activists Stephen Bennett and Alan Chambers — who also hadn’t seen the film. On Dec. 8, Chambers appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and blamed liberal acceptance of homosexuality for the “unbridled obsession and painful oppression” and “hopeless desperation” that — according to Chambers — gay people experience. Chambers claimed to speak from experience — but according to his own exgay testimony, Chambers only lived a...
- [Focus: “Evangelical Community” Hasn’t Said Anything About Gays Jesus Would Apologize For](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/focus-evangelic/): In today’s Family News In Focus broadcast propaganda reader Steve Jordahl stated that the “Evangelical community” hasn’t said anything about gay people Jesus would want them to apologize for: “I think there’s probably a feeling among AIDS activists that the evangelical community has not been a partner and certainly may have contributed to some of the sense of stigma and discrimination.” “We have not been there. We should have been helping in this much, much, much sooner. And so if we’re going to have a Christ-like ministry we’re going to have to treat people the way Jesus did, and that means...
- [Fox Snubs Brokeback](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/fox-snubs-broke/): At the risk of annoying you all with more news about Brokeback Mountain… Fox News has released Roger Friedman’s the top 10 movies of the year (actually it is 12) and their number 1 is Munich. Capote and Transamerica are both included but guess which critic favorite Golden Globe nominee didn’t make the top 12. Maybe, unlike Munich, Brokeback can’t be described thus: …a superb hero, easy to follow as he is drawn by loyalty to God and country into a thankless assassination plot. Oh, but the movie wasn’t entirely ignored. The comments for the number 8 movie: 8. “Broken Flowers”...
- [AIM’s “Quit Gay Sex” Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/aims-quit-gay-s/): Did anyone else catch this Cliff Kincaid op-ed from the ironically named, “Accuracy in Media” news site? After praising ABC News for prompting people to quit smoking, in the wake of Peter Jennings’ death from lung cancer, Kincaid goes on to urge ABC to launch a campaign urging people to Quit Gay Sex. Here’s the best part: We would suggest that ABC News take on another dangerous practice—homosexuality. The latest reports indicate a rising pattern of sexually transmitted diseases nationwide. The 2005 estimate for syphilis cases is the highest in a decade, and the number of gonorrhea cases will exceed any...
- [Jim Venice And Pure Heart Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/jim-venice-and/): In an article in the St. Lewis Riverfront Times called Pray the Gay Away by Chad Garrison, Jim Venice expounds about his ex-gay counseling for Pure Heart Ministry. Much of Venice’s message is the familiar one about how gay people don’t truly identify with their own gender. As a rather bizarre example, Venice says: “At age five or six, a boy will tell himself, ‘My pee-pee is not like her pee-pee, and my pee-pee is like Daddy’s pee-pee, so I must be like Daddy,” Venice explains. “At this time boys start learning from Dad what it means to be a man,...
- [Ford Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/ford-update/): It appears that Ford has taken an about face on advertising with gay press. After meeting with representatives of the community, Ford has issued a statement correcting the “misperception about [their] intent”. Specifically, they state that although the reason Jaguar and Land Rover dropped ads was because of “business decisions”, Ford will now advertise all eight of their brands in gay specific publications. It had been reported that Ford would no longer use imagery that reflects our community it their advertising. Ford disavows that report and requests that we judge their commitment by the content of their advertising. They stated that...
- [The Southern Baptists Join the Anti-Brokeback Parade](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/the-southern-ba/): Not to be left out of the lunacy, the Southern Baptists have now decided that Brokeback Mountain will destroy friendship between boys. Their logic is based on the idea that any demonstrations of affection between males will be viewed as gay and therefore good wholesome straight guys will avoid them. Quoting Anthony Esolen, professor of English at Providence College in Providence, R.I. and author of A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution: “Open homosexuality, loudly and defiantly celebrated, changes the language for everyone,” Esolen insists. “If a man throws his arm...
- [Stephen Bennett On Brokeback: A Porn Parody Come To Life](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/stephen-bennett-15/): So there’s this porno movie called “The Hole” which is a parody of “The Ring.” Story goes there’s this videotape you watch, and upon finishing it the phone rings and this creepy voice declares “you’re gay” and sure enough all the attractive men with no body-hair turn gay. Enter Stephen Bennett, whom I’m guessing has not seen The Hole. Stephen’s tale too involves a mysterious film, a creepy phone call and men turning gay: “I just spoke with a married man on the telephone who is contemplating leaving his wife and children,” says host Stephen Bennett. “He says he’s gay, and...
- [Concerned “Women” for America Attack Brokeback](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/concerned-women-5/): Although the conservative christian movement was resolved not to protest Brokeback Mountain lest it raise visibility and increase sales, the men over at Concerned “Women” for American can’t help themselves. CWA’s Ben Frichtl contrasts Chonicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Brokeback Mountain and tries to draw some cultural relevance from the projected disparity in box office: “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in contrast to Brokeback Mountain, is not only a ripping good story, but its heart is the basic Christian theme of Divine sacrifice and redemption,” Knight said. “That’s why it will make zillions...
- [Brokeback Free At The New Yorker Magazine Archives](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/brokeback-free/): I was unaware Brokeback Mountain, the original short story, is available for free online at The New Yorker. Big ole thanks to Stephen Bennett for the link.
- [Queer Quotable](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/queer-quotable-3/): “He may have gay friends but he doesn’t want me as one of them.” -Peterson Toscano Peterson has tried unsuccessfully for the last five weeks to get fellow Connecticut resident Stephen Bennett to simply meet up and share testimonies. (There isn’t a published source for today’s quote, it’s just from an email he sent me this morning.)
- [HRC: ‘Inflammatory Ads Mislead Public on Hate Crimes’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/hrc-inflammator/): NEWS from the Human Rights Campaign For Immediate Release – Tuesday, Dec 13th, 2005 Contact: Steven Fisher | Phone: (202) 216-1547 | Cell: (202) 431-7608 Contact: Brad Luna | Phone: (202) 216-1514 | Cell: (202) 812-8140 “Your readers are not immune from hate crimes that affect thousands of Americans every year,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign released the following letter today in response to full-page ads placed today by right-wing extremist groups in opposition to hate crimes laws. The ads (one and two) ran in the Orlando Sentinel, The Indianapolis Star, The Nevada...
- [Ex-Gay Ads Oppose Hate-Crime Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/ex-gay-ads-defe/): Gay rights activist and author Wayne Besen comments on a newly launched exgay ad campaign (ad in PDF format): The “ex-gay” ministries launched a new, misleading ad campaign today that mocks hate crime victims. It ran in the Orlando Sentinel, The Indianapolis Star, The Nevada Appeal, and Roll Call to harass senators concerned about stopping hate violence. The ad features four “ex-gays” and reads: “Hate Crime Laws Say We Were More Valuable As Homosexuals Than We Are Now As Former Homosexuals.” This abusive ad is disgusting and vomit-worthy – and I must say, I’ve never used those two adjectives in the...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 12/12/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/stephen-bennett-14/): In numerous previous broadcasts, Stephen Bennett claims to have numerous unnamed gay and lesbian friends. In today’s program (12/12/05) Bennett claims he doesn’t know a single person who intends to see Brokeback Mountain. I’m not saying this is contradictory but it’s somewhat doubtful.
- [Queer Quotable](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/queer-quotable-2/): “If I spent as much time thinking about lesbian sex as they do, I wouldn’t have time to do my real job.” [*] Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights regarding the TVC’s newest obsession, mannequins at Victoria’s Secret.
- [All Things Brokeback](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/all-things-brok/): Happy Brokeback Mountain Weekend, The movie is now out and the blogosphere, along with the media, is going crazy. In jumping on the bandwagon, I offer you some of my favorite Brokeback stories (I’m not providing links because they are abundant – google it):
- [Gay Christian Response to D.C.-Area Exgay Ads](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/gay-christian-r/): The Washington Blade reported last week on an exgay TV ad campaign by a Washington, D.C.-area church. According to the report, critics including Wayne Besen say the ads link adult homosexuality to childhood sexual abuse. At Straight, Not Narrow, writer Jim Johnson republishes a well-written outreach letter by Sharone Belt, who is a lesbian Christian, to the Arlington Assembly of God in Arlington, Va., which sponsored the ads. I have not seen the ads, so I have no opinion about them.
- [Focus/Family Protests Victory of Community Values Over Obstructionists](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/focusfamily-pro/): From Teach The Facts (Montgomery County, Maryland): In early November, a three-judge panel ruled in favor of Palmdale, Calif., schools and the local community regarding a survey of student sexual mores: Parents do not have “a right to compel public schools to follow their own idiosyncratic views as to what information the schools may dispense. Parents have a right to inform their children when and as they wish on the subject of sex; they have no constitutional right, however, to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise, when and as...
- [Suburban D.C. Parents Monitor Antigay, Exgay Ideologues](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/suburban-dc-par/): In predominantly liberal Montgomery County, Maryland, the suburban D.C. public school district’s sex-education program is guided by a panel of education and health experts and parents recruited from across the political spectrum. Despite being offered positions on the panel, two antigay, abstinence-only organizations have been battling to stymie the panel and its development of a comprehensive sex-education curriculum. They have been aided by the Family Research Council and by the Liberty Counsel, a well-funded legal-assault force supported by most of the nation’s major religious-right organizations. Teach The Facts (TTF) — a local group of concerned parents battling the assault by religious-rightists —...
- [Themes Contained in Brokeback Mountain Shared By Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/themes-containe/): Stephen Benentt and Exodus have issued statements condemning Brokeback having never indicated if they have so much read the original literary work or seen the current film. Statements from both organizations were issued prior to today’s release date and I sorta doubt they held a special preview-screening for the religious right. I shall be upfront, I too have not seen the movie yet so my commentary is based on the original short story, which I HAVE ACTUALLY READ and will quote from to back up my assertions unlike Bennett and Exodus. A paperback of E. Anne Proulx’s orginal story is sold...
- [Throckmorton: Youth Depression Could Be an ‘STD’ Spread By Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/throckmorton-yo/): From Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink web site: COMMENTARY: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEPRESSION — THE NEW STD?Research reverses the thought that teen depression leads to risky behaviors.
- [Focus/Family Calls Brokeback ‘Twisted,’ Warns of ‘Ick Factor’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/focusfamily-cal/): Posted today on Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink web site: REVIEWERS CALL ‘BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN’ TWISTED Gay love story carries a high “ick” factor.
- [Brokeback Mountain - Video of Alan Chambers on Good Morning America](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/brokeback-mount/): Click For Video From the report: Not everyone agrees. Exodus International, a Christian group that works to “cure” gays, is urging people not to see the movie. “It’s something that’s absolutely being marketed towards kids who will take away: ‘Oh, I can be like Jake Gyllenhaal; I can be like Heath Ledger. That’s what our relationship can be like,’ ” said Alan Chambers, Exodus International’s president. Incidently the press release Exodus just issued is 370 words, which sort of dwarfs Chambers’ sound bite on GMA. Update: MSNBC.com to the rescue with an article perfect for Alan if his wife drags him...
- [After Melee, Repent America Objects to Being Treated the Way It Treats Others](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/after-melee-rep/): Repent America is a southeast Pennsylvania antigay organization whose leader, Michael Marcavage, hopes a future fundamentalist federal government will make homosexuality punishable by execution. Repent America members have been arrested numerous times for commandeering and shouting down city council meetings, public festivals, even baseball games. (Previous XGW coverage.) According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, an organization of avowed pro-violence socialists called Philadelphia Anti-Racist Action apparently decided Dec. 6 to give Marcavage’s group some of its own medicine: Seven PARA members caused a disturbance outside the home of Repent America activist Linda K. Beckman, who had spent 10 days in jail for her own...
- [Ex-Gay James Hartline Goes After Adult Businesses, Hasn’t Provided Evidence](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/ex-gay-james-ha/): San Diego’s very own and extra special ex-gay, James Hartline threw a press conference / tour of local adult businesses he claims violate city zoning laws. Hartline contends adult businesses on the tour are located within 1,000 ft of residences, churches, schools, parks, or public-service facilities. Hartline even invited the SDPD’s vice unit which didn’t show up:
- [PFOX Thought for the Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/pfox-thought-fo/): In early autumn 2000, I joined the PFOX Yahoo group to learn how PFOX parents cope with same-sex orientation in their families. Many of the group members were mothers who were unsuccessfully pressuring their adult children to adopt an exgay identity and ideology. One parent of a teen-age girl was outraged that another teen-ager had “seduced” her innocent daughter and turned her into a monstrous lesbian. It seemed apparent from the discussion that someone — either the mother or the teen-ager — was doing quite a bit of blame-shifting.
- [Ford Dumps Gays for AFA](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/ford-dumps-gays/): For years, Ford Motor Company has been supportive of the gay community. Much of this support was generated in 2002 when Ford desperately needed Allan Gilmour, a vice president who had retired, to return to return to rescue them from a financial nightmare. After retirement, the VP had come out publicly. Some support has been more about target marketing included gay specific ads in community papers for Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo. Other support was more specific, such as sponsorship of events (such as GLAAD’s media awards) in exchange for prominent placement. This allowed them, for a relatively small expense, to...
- [Soulforce Plans Summer Roadtrip - Equality Ride](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/soulforce-plans/): Soulforce** has announced a major event for next summer, a traveling protest called Equality Ride. At military and religious colleges around the nation, bans on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender enrollment force students into closets of fear and self-hate. These bans devalue the life of GLBT people and they slam the door on academic freedom. The Equality Ride empowers young adults to challenge these college bans. Scheduled to take place in the spring of 2006, the Equality Ride will take 25–30 young adults on a seven-week bus tour to confront seven religious and/or military colleges that ban the enrollment of GLBT...
- [Rocky Mountain Methodists Are Angry](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/rocky-mountain/): The United Methodist clergy in the Rocky Mountains are displeased with what they view as an anti-gay decision made by the church’s judicial body. The judicial decision was one allowing a Virginia pastor to refuse church membership to a gay man. Although lauded by anti-gay activists, it appears to have shocked the leadership of the church. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the ministers in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are so displeased that nearly half of the area’s clergy, including its bishop, signed a protest statement and each contributed money to run ads in area newspapers.
- [PFOX President Gloats That Most Ex-Gays Not Eligible for Priesthood](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/pfox-president/): As has been discussed here, the new Vatican policy on seminarians excludes ex-gay Catholics that have “deep-rooted homosexual tendencies”. Regina Griggs, president of PFOX, claims to this a victory for the ex-gay movement. Ignoring the actual wording of the proclamation, Griggs says: “If you have not been involved in over three years, which means to organizations like ours, that you have become ex-gay. You’re not, you don’t identify as a homosexual. And I think that is important. And I think all churches need to recognize that. I’m hoping this will set an example for other churches.” [my emphasis added] Griggs has...
- [Author Demands American Family Association Pull ‘Fraudulent Video That Promotes HIV’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/author-demands/): From Wayne Besen: Press ReleaseTuesday, Dec. 6, 2005 AFA’s Video Features ‘Ex-Gay’ Leader Caught In HIV Scandal, Says Wayne Besen NEW YORK – Author Wayne Besen called on The American Family Association today to immediately stop selling a video featuring an HIV positive “ex-gay” leader who allegedly had unsafe sex with several Virginia men. The video, “It’s Not Gay,” features Michael Johnston who once said he had gone from gay to straight through the “power of Jesus Christ.” The “ex-gay” leader stepped down in 2003 after credible allegations that he was meeting men online and having unsafe sex.
- [Randy Thomas Makes [Unintentionally?] Hilarious Comment About ‘Fringe Group’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/randy-thomas-ma/): Exodus’ Randy Thomas recently blogged: Based also on minimal information, [Robinowitz] is far less an activist than Drescher. Drescher supports fringe activist groups [Randy’s link] and it has been reported by someone on that groups mailing list he has asked this group for help in promoting his APA candidacy. Isn’t that cute? This coming from a guy who’s boss proclaimed gays are doing the work of Satan two months ago. And Soulforce is being called the fringe group… I honestly want to know, has Soulforce done anything that outrageous? Please post a comment for all to see. As always I expect...
- [HRC, Just Wondering](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/hrc-just-wonder/): Does HRC have any policy analysts watching the threat ex-gay “ministries” pose to civil equality of gay Americans? Using HRC’s search page with keywords “exgay” or “ex-gay” didn’t turn up a single document more recent than 2000.
- [Stephen Bennett’s Radio Program to Do Call-in Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/stephen-bennett-13/): Announced on Straight Talk Radio’s website today: I would SO call in today and join the fun but alas I have work. Call In to Straight Talk Radio and Be Heard Worldwide! Call Toll-Free 1-800-832-3623 Today, Monday Dec. 5th, Between 12:00 Noon – 5:00 pm EST (*Time Has Been Extended for STR’s West Coast Listeners who Don’t Hear the Broadcast Until Late in the Afternoon. Studio Lines Will Be Open Only During That Time.) Our Producers Will Screen the Calls and if Selected, You’ll be on Wednesday’s Broadcast. Stephen and Irene Look Forward to Speaking with You! Update 12/07/05: Today’s broadcast...
- [Complaint And Petition Ask IRS to Investigate Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/complaint-and-p/): Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Nov. 28 with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service against James Dobson’s Focus on the Family.
- [The Vatican’s Gay (and Ex-gay) Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/the-vaticans-ga/): The contorted thinking behind the Vatican’s decision on seminarians is raising questions all along the political spectrum (other, of course, than the reactionary anti-gay activists). Conservative columnist, William F. Buckley Jr., in an article called The Vatican and Gay Problems analyzes the position of the Vatican. He does not answer the base question of whether gay people are intrinsically gay. This question does not need answer for him to point out the inherent problems with the Vatican’s proclamation: One of the planted axioms of sexual equality is that homosexual inclinations are congenital. One can be skeptical about this assertion while still...
- [QUEERTY Freedom of Speech Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/queerty-freedom/): Sent them a little email to make sure I was reading things correctly: I’m sorry I might have misread your post but are you actually displeased the people of Sweden are allowed freedom of speech? -Dan Got this reply: In my view, a progressive society, and for that matter, a progressive individual, would not count hate speech against an entire group as one of those forms of speech deserving of protection, and to the contrary, would have measures in place against it. Cordially, Scott Rose Until now I used to think the religious right was insane when they claimed us homos...
- [Advice to An Exgay Survivor of the ‘Gay Scene’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/advice-to-an-ex/): Here is a message that I recently wrote to an anonymous exgay individual who said it was “the gay scene” — which, he said, seemed to consist of sad, lonely, self-centered, manipulative people — that made him pursue reparative therapy. It was apparent to me that he was still lonely and weighing his options.
- [Wells Fargo: Focus Closes Their Account, I Open One](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/wells-fargo-foc/): Basically all of today’s Focus On The Family broadcast was spent discussing how Focus chose to leave their old bank, Wells Fargo, for being too gay friendly. Until Dobson brought it to my attention I had no idea Wells Fargo was that cool so on my morning break I walked into the branch next to our office and opened an account.
- [Chad And Dan Go to Dinner](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/12/chad-and-dan-go/): Chad Thompson is in Orange County speaking at a church conference on HIV/AIDS and we met for dinner. Until recently I haven’t followed Chad’s work closely but proved to be a fascinating, thoughtful and surprisingly centrist person to enjoy a great discussion with over dinner. I don’t really plan on doing a big post laying out everything we talked about but XGW readers can expect me to reference his ideas in future posts. Oh and I promised Chad I wouldn’t use this photo for any infographics.
- [The Only Queers I’ve Found Actively Unhappy About Sweden?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/the-only-queers/): From gay culture blog QUEERTY: A Swedish court convicted him under hate crime legislation but the ruling was appealed; Sweden’s Supreme Court has now utterly disgraced itself by overturning the conviction. Is it even imaginable that if a preacher had said the same words against Jews, he would not be punished by a civil, secular society? We fear, actually, that it is imaginable. Someone over at QUEERTY appears genuinely disgusted the freedom of speech has been unanimously upheld by Sweeden’s Supreme Court. Am I reading this incorrectly? Feel free to read QUEERTY’s original post for yourself and email them. Please let...
- [Don’t Just Read About the Religious Right…](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/dont-just-read/): …instead, take action. Visit Religious Right Watch, then consider becoming involved in Talk To Action.
- [Mother Jones: Where the Christian Right Is Leading Us](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/mother-jones-wh/): I still haven’t had time to read the December cover story and related articles thoroughly. Among the items of interest are stories about the Founding Fathers’ intent on religion in government, Christian Reconstruction, the religious right’s growing “orbits of influence,” a conservative-Christian media empire, and a questionable charity. So I invite reviews and comments by others. Is MJ just spouting liberal anxiety toward conservative religiosity? Exposing religious-right power and corruption? Stereotyping conservative religious beliefs? (Need free subscriber access to MJ? Visit Religious Right Watch for assistance.)
- [Bitter Spirit: ADF Pollutes Biblical Teaching About Homosexual Persons](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/bitter-spirit-a/): While I congratulate Swedish pastor Ake Green on his acquittal by his country’s supreme court, I reject the Alliance Defense Fund’s assertion that calling homosexuality a “cancerous tumor on all of society” represents “the biblical view of homosexual behavior.” Freedom of speech aside, ADF’s redefinition of Christianity as a religion of venomous hate speech is “radical” — and repulsive. The religious right reaps what it sows: Such utterances, utterly devoid of grace or good will, constitute a disease that infects and debilitates these Christians’ message — and the message of exgay activists who affirm and parrot ADF’s unholy works.
- [Open Forum: Discrimination](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/open-forum-disc/): Facts solicited: Do same-sex-attracted persons suffer from discrimination? (Cite current examples and provide links.) Opinions solicited: Should it be illegal for private individuals or organizations to discriminate? Should it be illegal for government agencies to discriminate?  
- [Gays? Be Accountable. Exgays? Change the Subject](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/gays-be-account/): On his personal blog, Randy Thomas of the Exodus national office cheers Brown University columnist Carman McNary for protesting alleged “drunken orgies” organized by the campus “Queer Alliance.” Thomas says he wants “these folks” — the “gay identified community” — “held accountable” for failing to speak out against sexual irresponsibility. McNary self-identifies as a proponent of equality and equal rights, and Thomas applauds this supposedly rare instance of accountability in the equal rights movement. Thomas’ perception that gay people generally do not uphold accountability and responsibility is based not in fact, but in Thomas’ practice of intentional ignorance. AIDS clinics and gay newspaper columnists of...
- [Calling Oneself ‘Godly’: Self-Flattery Or Blasphemy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/calling-oneself/): Both Exodus president Alan Chambers and Exodus lobbyist/political organizer Randy Thomas have gotten in the habit, lately, of calling themselves, and fellow conservative Christians, “godly.” Latest example: Thomas’ otherwise innocuous promotion of GodlyCreativePeople.com, a site that no doubt has good intentions but immediately flags itself, by name, as overflowing with ungodly self-pride. Is this choice of language among some Christians mere self-flattery, or an elevation of oneself to the status of demi-god?
- [Exodus Lobbyist’s Rant Against Freedom-Defending ‘Jihadists’](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/exodus-lobbyist/): Neither liberals nor the ACLU have espoused “compassion” for Islamic terrorists, nor sought to ban Christmas. But Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas apparently needed someone to grumble about yesterday. So, on his blog, he reprinted far-right agitprop without checking the facts or identifying any examples of “every liberal mantra” that he claims to oppose. It is Thomas’ usual practice — and that of his religious-right political movement — not to verify whether any specific liberal has ever said what he claims they say. This deliberate (and sinful) ignorance permits Thomas to foster contempt for his neighbors without the pangs of guilt that might result from knowledge and...
- [Agapepress States Consequences of Homosexual Sin “more Grievous” Than Other Sins](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/agapepress-stat/): These less grievous sins of course include the time Agape editor Jody Brown thought herself too busy to bless a staff writer after they sneezed. [ok I made that up] But in all seriousness, the religious right usually has the courtesy to pretend as though homosexuality is no different than other sins and shouldn’t be singled out. The Agapepress had a lapse in judgment today after imbibing too much eggnog at the AFA Thanksgiving potluck. Let’s read, shall we? Few sins in the Bible are described with the same harshness or urgency of language as homosexuality. Genesis 18:20… [bla bla bla,...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 11/25/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-12/): Stephen Bennett seems to have different numbers than “mister not-so-straight mathematics” Alan Chambers. Perhaps Bennett’s numbers are from 2003 since that was the last time Chambers claimed ex-gays numbered in the “thousands.” (+22:28) I am one of thousands of men and women who have made that choice and who have made that choice for Jesus Christ. Listen, let me be blunt, you don’t have to be a Christian to come out of homosexuality just as you don’t have to be a Christian to come out of drug addition, or alcoholism, or adultery. But the truth of the matter is, what the...
- [Queer Quotable](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/queer-quotable/): “You can’t promote homosexuality. You only can acknowledge it.”[*] Garrett J. McAuliffe, Professor, Old Dominion University. McAuliffe produced the DVD, Counseling Gay and Lesbian Youth, designed to help people who for counsel gay teens.
- [Press Release for Joe Kort’s New Book, “10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do To Find Real Love”](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/press-release-f/): It is my hope that this book might be used to challenge those who use the “gender impaired” argument to promote the ex-gay movement. Yes gay men have issues around gender but that does not make them gay–or ex-gay for that matter! This book turns the expression “a man among men” into a love story. For Immediate Release: December 2, 2005 Contact: Jeff Theis, Publicity Manager 212-242-8100 ext. 38 / jtheis@alyson.com 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Find Real Love Release date: January 2006 Softcover • ISBN 1-55583-898-7 Alyson Books Do you always end up with Mr. Wrong? Are...
- [26 Gay And Transgendered People Arrested in Emirates Could Be Given Hormones](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/26-gay-and-tran/): More than two dozen gay Arab men — arrested at what police called a mass homosexual wedding — could face government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, authorities said Saturday.[*] Stephen Bennett’s Straight Talk Radio must be a big hit in the Emirates since just last week Bennett mentioned “heterosexual hormones.”
- [Stephen Bennett Befriends Homosexuals, Flatters Self](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-11/): “Straight talking” Stephen Bennett explains precautions listeners should take when evangelizing to “the homosexual.” (11.23.05 Real Audio / Windows Media) (+11:25) Stephen: I believe homosexual men need rock solid Bible believing Christian men to show them what real Christian male non sexual love is all about and Godly male Christian affirmation and encouragement through God’s word. Lesbians in turn need a Christian female to show them what real nonsexual Christian love is all about as well. However I always encourage these friendships with homosexuals if possible be with a husband and wife for precautionary measures. Many homosexuals can perceive this love,...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 11/23/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-10/): “Straight talker” Stephen Bennett gets in the spirit of Thanksgiving on today’s show. (11.23.05 Real Audio / Windows Media) (+7:47) Stephen: Homosexuals are desperately looking for acceptance and they will do everything and anything possible to force you to give in to them. You may do the slightest act of kindness toward them and they will immediately misconstrue that as you are giving them full approval now of their homosexuality. Let me give you a final word on this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having your child there for the holidays, you should show that unconditional love, allow your child...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 11/22/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-9/): After just a couple weeks on the air “straight talker” Stephen Bennett seems to be running out of things to say and so it now appears as if he’s resorting to making things up. Here are a few highlights from today’s show. (11.22.05 Real Audio / Windows Media) (+7:35) Stephen: It was not a logical choice you made to be attracted to the opposite sex, god and his plan took it’s natural course and your heterosexual hormones kicked in as they should have. In a distorted way, the same is somewhat true with homosexuality, though it’s unnatural, it is not a...
- [Infographic - Focus on the Family Pretends the First Amendment Won’t Protect Them](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/infographic-foc/): Click cartoon to enlarge I would really like to thank queer cartoonist Bruce Garrett for his time and ideas to generously shared with me in getting to the final cartoon you see today.
- [A Very Agape Thanksgiving](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/a-very-agape-th/): Actual headline: Thanksgiving: Thanking God for That Dead, Liberal Church The Agapepress helps spread some holiday spirit. Let’s face it though, no article can ever hope to live up to a headline that outrageous.
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 11/21/05](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/stephen-bennett-8/): “Straight talker” Stephen Bennett launched into a bizarre tirade against virtually the entire modern mental health profession in today’s program. (Real Audio / Windows Media) (+4:00) Irene: According to these so called respected professionals in their field, homosexuality is just as natural and normal and heterosexuality, though just not as prevalent. Stephen: Irene, let me jump in here, as far as I’m concerned I suggest these psychobabblers abandon their practices and get a job working literally in the fields, pardon the sarcasm. [Irene laughs] Stephen: Listen, according to them, simply put, we are the ones who need psychological counseling from the...
- [A Parable](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/a-parable/): It seems that ya’all want to talk a bit about religion lately. So, I’m posting a little parable I’ve written. If you aren’t into parables, ignore it.
- [Curse the Fundamentalist Darkness, Or Light A Candle?](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/curse-the-funda/): Few uses of prayer are more cynical than the Family Research Council’s weekly voodoo-doll ceremonies in which white male fundamentalists in Washington pray that God will see the light, agree with their self-serving ideologies, and smite their political foes. XGW could simply whine about that and set the record straight — but there’s already too much whining within the exgay activist movement, and exgays (and those who care about them) would be better served by some constructive role models. “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” So I’d like to either start a prayer blog, or identify an...
- [Jimmy Carter Protests Fundamentalist Egotism And Hate](https://exgaywatch.com/2005/11/jimmy-carter-pr/): (Week-old news. I’m posting this for the XGW archive.) Exodus President Alan Chambers likes to accuse his conscientious critics of being the agents of Satan, while presuming that he enjoys God’s special favor. Former President and Baptist Jimmy Carter has said some words that happen to describe Chambers’ immoral and egotistical worldview, which also consumes other U.S. fundamentalist leaders and, to some degree, the current White House. From CBS via Christian Alliance for Progress: “Fundamentalism exists in religious circles and now very overwhelmingly in Washington,” he says. “A fundamentalist believes, say, in religious circles, that I am close to God. Everything...
- [Alan Chambers, Semantics Dancer](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/alan-chambers-s/): Alan Chambers is quite adept at the semantics-dance as evidenced by a recent Exodus press release: “While there are some who may not agree with our message, we ask for their consideration and welcome their presence at this event,” said Chambers. “We continue to share our message of hope knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of lives who have been changed by this truth [emphasis added] and there are many more who are longing to hear it.” Take careful note of the condition Chambers adds this time; he’s a slippery one! Chambers used to claim ex-gays alone numbered in the...
- [‘Love Won Out’ Parodies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/love-won-out-pa/): Last weekend’s Love Won Out has set off a rash (relax, it’s a good kind of rash) of infographics but also some people took it beyond the realm of civility and vandalized the Exodus billboard. Mike Tidmus has a pretty good roundup. My favorite however is from Justinsomnia. Note: Due to a legal dispute, the parody above was removed from this web site from March 1 to March 24.
- [Sign Maker’s First-Hand Account of ‘Love Won Out’ Vigil](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/sign-makers-fir/): Read NancyP’s commentary on the Feb. 25 St. Louis vigil at Pam’s House Blend.
- [Peter LaBarbera, Illinois Family Group Promote Racist Constitution Party](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/peter-labarbera/): Peter LaBarbera’s Illinois Family Institute identifies itself as an independently financed partner of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Alliance Defense Fund. His career has been spent protesting against communism, leftist Latin American Christians, liberal freedoms, and supposed antifamily values. In the 1980s, he supported “contra” terrorist attacks against liberals and leftist civilians in Nicaragua. During his tenure with Robert Knight at the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, LaBarbera actively promoted the exgay movement — for example, offering favors to Jerry Falwell and his handpicked exgay spokesman, Michael Johnston, at a forum with Soulforce...
- [‘Love Won Out’ to Parents: Discriminate With A Smile](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/love-won-out-to/): The St. Louis Post-Dispatch follows up on yesterday’s “Love Won Out” exgay road show. The newspaper counts more than 350 vigilers peacefully protesting the conference from outside. (Previous XGW coverage, including photos by Colleen Keating.) The Post-Dispatch notes that a handful of career exgays dominated the stage inside — and some charged distraught parents an exorbitant $50 (in addition to the $50-60 admission fee) for a few $7 exgay books [see addendum below]. According to the Post-Dispatch, there were few if any exgays apparent among the 1,700 attendees:
- [Blame Game: PFOX/FRC’s Peter Sprigg Passes the Buck Over Creationists’ Court Loss](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/blame-game-pfox/): Peter Sprigg is the representative of aggrieved-parents and exgay-lobbying group PFOX on the citizens’ sex-education advisory committee of the Montgomery County school district in suburban Washington. He is also an antigay activist working for the Family Research Council in Washington. When he isn’t trying to turn Maryland sex-ed courses into exgay abstinence-only recruitment camps, Sprigg has apparently been battling the teaching of evolution.
- [Vigil’s Message to Exgays: ‘Love Needs No Cure’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/vigils-message/): St. Louis-area gay-equality advocates conducted a peaceful vigil today outside the exgay political road show “Love Won Out,” which is sponsored by Focus on the Family and serves as the primary marketing tool for the exgay umbrella network Exodus International. According to KSDK-TV, Focus on the Family said 1,700 attended the event. The station reported “as many as 400 protesters.” Writer Colleen Keating, who wrote a preview of the event, has provided Ex-Gay Watch with photographs of the vigil. Neither KSDK nor a Feb. 12 story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provide much context for the event. In particular, both neglected...
- [Mike Tidmus: ‘Cash Won Out’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/mike-tidmus-cas/): Mike Tidmus has posted a slick infographic to his web site. I agree with Tidmus that John and Anne Paulk were once antigay profiteers — but they seem to have retired from that line of business. Tidmus also has some colorful observations on Focus on the Family’s odd choice of Melissa Fryrear, one of two exgays who replaced the Paulks as spokespersons for the exgay movement. (The other replacement was Mike Haley, who was promoted to replace John Paulk as head of Focus on the Family’s exgay office and as chairman of Exodus.)
- [James Dobson: What Goes Around](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/james-dobson-wh/): Focus on the Family is supporting a watered-down reciprocal beneficiaries bill in Colorado that was discussed previously at Ex-Gay Watch. The bill offers little or nothing that Colorado gay couples don’t already have. Nevertheless, antigay activists claim to be angry at James Dobson for supporting the legislation. Blogger Nathan Henning zeroes in on one quote by James Dobson, in which the man pities himself for being criticized by antigay conservatives. Naturally, if he were less narcissistic, Dobson might see that he treats same-sex-attracted persons the same way that activists such as Paul Cameron and Alan Keyes are now treating Dobson. Is...
- [‘Ex-Gay Research’: New Book Due Summer 2006](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/ex-gay-research/): Ex-Gay Research:Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics and Culture By Jack Drescher and Kenneth J. Zucker
- [Nominated As Best Single-Issue Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/nominated-as-be/): Ex-Gay Watch has been nominated for the 2005 Koufax Awards in the category of Best Single Issue Blog. Daniel Gonzales and Timothy Kincaid deserve most of the credit for this accomplishment; they have greatly expanded the site’s activities in the past year while I’ve been busy with a new job. I also wish to thank the people (whoever you are) who nominated this site. Thank you. We have great things planned for this year, as we grow our commitment to truth, accountability, freedom of speech and spiritual diversity in some new directions.
- [Open Forum: The ‘Me’ Generation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/open-forum-the/): At someone else’s suggestion, I thought that after 3 1/2 years at the helm, I’d take a moment to say just a little about myself. Not enough for readers to stereotype me, I hope, but something more than a blank slate. Read on:
- [Exodus, Proclaiming Freedom To The Straights](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/exodus-proclaim/): After posting my recent open letter to Alan Chambers I was privately contacted by an Exodus staffer regarding my seemingly logical, but incorrect assumption Exodus is trying to minister to gay and lesbian people. I’m not alone in assuming Exodus is trying to reach gay and lesbian people, since blog Some Guys Are Normal said the exact same thing recently. The Exodus staffer who contacted me wished to remind me their mission statement says nothing of ministering to gay people. Sure enough if you go to Exodus’ web page their mission statement reads: Proclaiming to, educating and impacting the world with...
- [New Study Supports Genetic Basis to Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/new-study-suppo/): A new UCLA study of chromosomes in 97 mothers of gay sons and 103 mothers without gay sons shows a difference in the occurrence rate of the way certain cells behave. The cells in women each have two X-chromosomes, one of which is activated, and one of which is not. Usually, these activations are random so that on average half of her cells have one active chromosome and half have the other. In rare instances, all of the cells will have activated the same chromosome. This study looked at the mothers of no gay sons, one gay son, and two or...
- [First Hand Reports From “Mr. Hetero”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/first-hand-repo/): A couple first-hand reports from Mr. Hetero yesterday have begun trickling in. Peterson Toscano’s “part I” is up and so is an account written by Mike Benedetti posted to Indymedia. Update: Peterson’s “Part II” is back up.
- [How Being Ex-Gay Made Me Appreciate Fetishes](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/how-being-ex-ga/): I have a confession, until Thursday I had failed to properly live out “the homosexual lifestyle.” My gay-card had only been provisional. You see, Thursday I went to The Hollywood Spa. Not that it’s the business of XGW readers but my mother reads this site so I’ll offer this information for that reason; No I didn’t go to “hook up” as the boys say, I went because I’ve never been before and it was something I wanted to see first hand. I once went to a pyramid-scheme meeting just for the life-experience. What does a bathhouse have to do with my...
- [Jerusalem WorldPride Condemned By Ex-Gay Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/jerusalem-world/): AgapePress reports that Jerusalem WorldPride 2006 is scheduled for August 6-12, 2006. The event was planned for last year. However, the pull-out of settlers from Palestinian territory occurred during the scheduled time and the organizers recognized that coinciding events would be a strain on security and so rescheduled. James Hartline, a “former homosexual” anti-gay activist in San Diego, has this to say about the planned event: He cannot understand “why anyone would want to engage in sodomy and pornography at the holy sites of our religious heritage.” Hartline says that people in his church are heartbroken about the news of this...
- [Bishop V. Gene Robinson Checks Into Rehab: AFA Responds By Pimping Out Stephen Bennett](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/bishop-v-gene-r/): From the Agapepress: However, the former homosexual says he was not surprised at the news of the Episcopal bishop’s problems with alcoholism, as homosexual men often turn to alcohol and drugs to fight off a life of pain. “Alcohol and drug abuse is part of a lot of individuals who are involved in the homosexual lifestyle,” Bennett asserts, “and it’s also part of individuals who are involved in heterosexual promiscuity and other things. Alcohol is a way to alleviate the pain that a person is going through. It’s a way to cover up things.”[*] The AFA’s article did not go on...
- [Anti-Gay Activists Debate Who’s Not Hateful Enough](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/anti-gay-activi/): In Colorado, there is a bill before the legislature to create a Domestic Partner registry allowing couples to become domestic partners and have some of the rights and benefits accorded married couples. In an effort to pull support from the Domestic Partners bill, Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, introduced Senate Bill 166, which would offer far fewer rights and benefits but would be open to any two people who wanted to declare themselves as reciprocal beneficiaries. Mitchell’s bill, which has been assigned to the Business, Labor and Technology Committee, would allow a wide range of partners – including same-sex couples, adults who...
- [The XGW 11,000 Award Goes To… Singer/Songwriter Steve Schalchlin](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/the-xgw-11000-a/): Congratulations to singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin for posting the 11,000th reader comment at Ex-Gay Watch. Schalchlin and his partner Jim Brochu are the co-writers of the 1998 off-Broadway musical The Last Session and the musical comedy The Big Voice: God or Merman?. Schalchlin (pronounced Shacklin) is one of the Internet’s first bloggers. He began his online diary The Bonus Round in March 1996 as a “goodbye letter to the world” from a man who was then dying of AIDS. Later, when he wasn’t busy creating fabulous musicals, Schalchlin was instrumental (pardon the pun) in the formation and growth of Bridges Across the...
- [Mission America And Concerned Women Team Up to Defame Gay Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/mission-america/): For Valentine’s Day, the religious extremists have ratcheted up their barrage of hatred. Linda Harvey of Mission America, a rabid anti-gay organization, has a new story about 13 year old Josh, a fictional compilation of what she envisions to be a vulnerable youth susceptible to the homosexual agenda. This listing of imaginary horrors can be found on the website of Concerned Women for America (Robert Knight’s organization). In it, Harvey argues (without any substantiation whatsoever) that homosexuality is a learned and avoidable condition: Can people, children in this case, become homosexuals by exposure to certain ideas and behavior? In other words,...
- [Concerned Women Oppose Burial Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/concerned-women-7/): Sometimes I’m shocked at the degree to which anti-gay activists will go to bring pain and harm to gay people. This is one of those times. The State of New York overwhelming voted to allow domestic partners to make decisions relating to the burial of their loved ones. The Republican governor, George Pataki, signed the bill. This was not a partisan issue or even a controversial issue. Today the AgapePress has an article about the act which claims it “damaged the roll of the traditional family”. They quote Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois...
- [AFA Radio Hosts Gary DeMar Who Has Advocated Executing Homosexuals](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/afa-radio-hosts/): From Media Matters For America: Far-right Christian author and American Vision president Gary DeMar was the guest on the February 2 edition of American Family Radio’s Today’s Issues. In the past, DeMar has advocated the installation of a theocratic government in the United States in which homosexuals, adulterers, and abortion doctors would be executed. Read the full Media Matters article. Link to the Media Matters audio clip.
- [A Contrast in Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/a-contrast-in-f/): In Ohio, a bill was introduced to ban children from being placed for adoption or foster care in homes where the prospective parent or a roommate is homosexual, bisexual or transgender. State Rep. Ron Hood, the Ashville Republican sponsoring the bill, said he believes children raised by gay parents have increased risk of physical and emotional problems and might question their own sexuality. “Studies have shown that the optimal setting to raise children is in a traditional setting with a mom and a dad,” Hood said. The bill would not apply to single men or women seeking to adopt. However the...
- [Melissa Fryrear Makes Up More Numbers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/melissa-fryrear-3/): From today’s (02/13/06) broadcast of Family News In Focus: Love Won Out is a ministry of Focus on the Family that proclaims same-sex attraction doesn’t have to be a life-sentence and uses conferences around the nation to convey that message. Pastor Gene Moniz is with the Evangelical Free Church of St. Louis County. “My take is that the two words that homosexuality is ‘curable’ and ‘preventable’ angered some people.” Melissa Fryrear, one of several former homosexuals on the Love Won Out team, confirms that gay and lesbian activists don’t want their message that homosexuality is genetic and impossible to change contradicted....
- [Open Letter To Alan Chambers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/open-letter-to/): Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International was recently quoted by Salon.com saying, “lifelong homosexual relationships are not possible.” Ex-Gay Watch’s own Timothy provided analysis in his own previous post but I felt the need to pen a letter to Chambers himself. Alan, This letter is in regards to your statement at the (February 2006) Conservative Political Action Conference, “lifelong homosexual relationships are not possible.” Your organization, Exodus International, relies almost entirely on personal testimonies to provide substantiation of your claims changing one’s sexuality is possible. In your very own print-ad published by Exodus titled “I Questioned Homosexuality” you are quoted, “I...
- [Exodus President: Lifelong Homosexual Relationships “Not Possible”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/exodus-presiden-5/): According to Salon, Alan Chamber spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference: A 1:30 p.m. session on “Marriage in the States,” which was supposed to include Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, featured instead a self-described former homosexual named Alan Chambers. He said sodomy was like fast food: “It will kill you.” He was an expert because he had lived through the torment of gay lust, enduring “a never ending cycle of cravings and nourishment … an endless treadmill of faceless encounters, broken hearts and unmet dreams.” His research on the gay lifestyle had also taught him that gay people do not really...
- [Former ‘Love In Action’ Patient Performs ‘Queer 101′](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/former-love-in/): Peterson Toscano, a performance artist and two-year survivor of the Love In Action exgay live-in “therapy” program, performed his sketch Queer 101 at the Lavender Languages and Linguistics conference Feb. 10 in Washington, D.C. The conference continues through Sunday at The American University. Registration costs $5-10. Toscano is the creator of the one-man stage show Doin’ Time In The Homo No Mo Halfway House. In “Queer 101,” Toscano continues the fictional story of Chad, a former participant in the Homo No Mo program who charts his poignant discoveries and humorous observations about gay people, gay history, and identity politics. (Photo of...
- [False Accusations: Dobson’s Exgay Activists Apoplectic Over Broken Eggs](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/false-accusatio/): When antigay fundamentalists periodically spray-paint walls, break windows or commit arson at gay-tolerant churches, Focus on the Family does not leap on the air and blame “pro-family activists.” In fact, Focus often fails to report the crime. Yet when, in the wee hours of Feb. 10, some unwitnessed coward tossed a single carton of eggs at a St. Louis church building that will host an upcoming exgay roadshow, Focus exgay operative Melissa Fryrear raced to print with a sensational story lacking any evidence that “gay activists” were, as Focus alleges, to blame for the “vandalism” of one ruined egg carton.
- [Exgays Behaving Indecently](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/exgays-behaving/): Atlanta-area antigay activist D.L. Foster has been temporarily prohibited from commenting at XGW. His privileges will be restored when: he permits civil discussion at his own websites, he demonstrates a capacity for responsible, decent and mature conduct. he listens actively to those whom he engages at XGW and elsewhere, he repents of his sins, and refrains from further sin against gay people, and he refrains from strawman argumentation
- [Love In Action’s Day in Court](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/love-in-actions-2/): Ben Popper of The Memphis Flyer reports on Love In Action’s day in court last week. The unlicensed exgay live-in therapy agency is suing to stop Tennessee from enforcing laws protecting the mentally ill from abuse, malpractice and neglect, when those patients happen to be in a facility that claims its therapy — including the unauthorized dispensing of prescription drugs and involuntary confinement — is a form of religion. The federal judge in the case seems initially sympathetic to the clinic’s notion that religion excuses oneself from accountability under public-health laws — and the state of Tennessee appears unwilling to stake...
- [Dan Savage NYT Op-Ed “Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Ex-Gay Cowboys”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/dan-savage-nyt/): An excerpt from Dan Savage’s New York Times op-ed February 10, 2006 titled “Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys.” Straight audiences are watching and loving “Brokeback Mountain” — that’s troubling to evangelical Christians who have invested a decade and millions of dollars promoting the notion that gay men can be converted to heterosexuality, or become “ex-gay.” It is, they insist, an ex-gay movement, although I’ve never met a gay man who was moved to join it. This “movement” demands more from gay men than simply playing straight. Once a man can really pass as ex-gay — once...
- [Anti-Gay Parents Blame School Seminar](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/anti-gay-parent-2/): A North Carolina couple, Jim and Beverly Burrows, have outed their son. The boy attended a school seminar entitled The New Gay Teenager and, per the Burrows, consequently began questioning his sexuality. The North Carolina dad explains that his son’s subsequent struggle with homosexuality has turned his family upside down. “As far as our family is concerned, the damage has already been done,” he laments. “There’s no way that we can go back and undo what has been done.” The Burrows seem to believe that their son would have no struggle relating to his sexual orientation, or indeed even consider that...
- [Open Forum](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/open-forum-2/): Liberalism: The theory and practice of: freedom of expression freedom of religion freedom of the press rule of law Democracy: Rule by vote. In its purest form absent a strong Bill of Rights, “democracy” and “freedom” can become euphemisms for tyranny of the majority. Discuss. 🙂
- [Paul Cameron Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/paul-cameron-ar/): The Southern Poverty Law Center’s has an Intelligence Report written by David Holthouse that gives a synopsis of the career Paul Cameron has made out of distorting facts and printing obviously bogus statistics about gays. Cameron is the source of such lies as: The average lifespan of the homosexual is 43 years Homosexuals are 20 times a likely to molest as heterosexuals Homosexual sex is more dangerous than smoking Holthouse gives a brief description of Cameron’s methodology and demonstrates how clearly illogical his “findings” are along with a bit of his history and how his statistics have become standard fodder in...
- [A Penguin Parable In The Style Of GoodAsYou.org](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/a-penguin-parab/): You all know the story: Swedish female penguins sent to seduce “homosexual” male Humboldt penguins in a German zoo failed to break up the male twosomes. Bremerhaven Zoo last year shrugged off attacks from gay pride groups as far away as the United States over its efforts to establish breeding penguin pairs.[*] I’ve been talking to different people about their general reactions to Stephen Bennett’s ongoing radio show and got back two typical answers. Now begins the parable. This additional information was not included in the original penguin news report: The zookeepers, believing the deviant-penguins spoke English also tried piping a...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 02/09/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/stephen-bennett-2-2/): More gender expression obsession to be had on Benett’s show today courtesy of guest Christine Sneeringer, Executive Director of Worthy Creations: (+22:45) Christine: God is God, I am not, and that he made me and he made my gender. And that was part of his grand plan and it was supposed to be a good plan and so [stutters] I wanted to, you know, I had to repent of my bad attitudes towards my gender and try and embrace it, and it was awkward but I do enjoy today being a woman. Irene: You’re a beautiful girl. Christine: Well thank you...
- [Hilarity At The AFA](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/hilarity-at-the/): As much as we complain (and usually rightfully so) about the Agapepress, it’s good to see their headline writer has a sense of humor. NBC Abandons Plan to Attack Christians With Spears
- [Dan Seeks Mac Audio Editing Assistance](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/dan-seeks-mac-a/): As you can see from the below post, I’ve found a way to take take audio clips of Stephen Bennett’s show and save them for the ages. Bennett’s own public audio archives only provide the last week of programming for free. Here’s the technical problem I’m having. My mac’s sound recording utility records his show in AIFF format. I’m looking for recommendations of a sound editing program (for mac) that allows me to easily edit and convert that AIFF into MP3 or other bandwidth thrifty file format. As you can see from the below post I managed to save it in...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 02/07/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/stephen-bennett-18/): DL Foster was Stephen Bennett’s guest today. The conversation covered quite a bit of ground as Joe Brummer documents on his site. Most disturbing however was DL’s promotion of his unique political variety of Christianity many refer to as Dominionism: (+19:35) I believe that god has given us dominion over this world and because of that, you know that’s found in the scripture for anyone who wants to look that up, we have been given dominion, and dominion means we move forward and we take what rightfully belongs to us as children of God and so I take that very seriously....
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 02/06/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/stephen-bennett-17/): Today’s program was the testimony of a woman only identified as “Maureen,” the mother of an independent, out, adult lesbian in a domestic partnership. Note to readers, if this is the sort of story that interests you, join Exodus’ parents email discussion board for a daily deluge of this sort of thing. Like so much ex-gay rhetoric, “Maureen” reminded us how miserable we are all supposed to be. In a letter written to her daughter which she read on the air: (+9:44) I pray that your spiritual eyes will be opened and that you will see God’s truth. I’ve grieving because...
- [Republican Jesus On Love In Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/republican-jesu/): “Republican Jesus” a regular feature of the blog Jesus’ General takes on recent developments about Love In Action.
- [Dan’s Ex-Gay “Going In” Anniversary](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/dans-ex-gay-goi/): Superbowl Sunday 1999 is when I first told my mother “I am, but don’t want to be homosexual.” “I’m gay but don’t want to be,” which I’d heard used on 60 Minutes just didn’t work for me. I preferred to lay out the condition before dropping the bomb. Also I wasn’t about to self-identify as “gay” at the time even though it’s fewer syllables. Really now, what do you call it when you come out to someone to announce you want to be ex-gay? A “coming out” seems so inappropriate. A “coming out of?” or “going in?” Perhaps one of our...
- [“Day of Truth” Is Back And They Have A Hip New Video](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/day-of-truth-is/): Possibly realizing how un-hip attacking gay youth is, the “Day of Truth” is back this year with a “hip” new video that’s really just unintentionally hilarious and sort of bizarre. Much of the imagery appears to be metaphoric but is either confusing, contrived or downright comical. Click on the animated image to see the whole movie. Lessons we can learn from said video: (feel free to add your own via comments) Watch out lesbians! Conservatively dressed strangers are coming to touch you. Walking (and stumbling) along side freight trains makes you look edgy. For more of an urban edgy look spin...
- [Just Noticed](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/just-noticed/): Hmm… The Exodus Media Blog hasn’t been updated in almost a month now.
- [Survivor Protests ‘Love In Action’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/survivor-protes/): Three Memphis, Tenn., TV stations report on a hearing Feb. 3 between Love In Action and the State of Tennessee. A survivor of the inpatient youth program LIA/Refuge spoke outside the hearing. From WREG-TV in Memphis, Tenn.: A 17-year old Georgia boy says he was handcuffed by his parents and brought to Love in Action in Memphis. “You can’t talk to anyone, can’t look anyone, can’t contact anyone, except a counselor,” former Love in Action client DJ Butler makes the religious ministry sound more like a prison than a counseling center for gay men and women. “They shame you, put you...
- [Former Exgay Activist John Paulk Becomes A Caterer](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/former-exgay-ac/): Ex-poster-boi of the ex-gay movement John Paulk (not to be confused with Johan Paulk, google at your own risk) has opened up a Portland, Ore., catering business, the website of which can be found here. Most notably the “accolades” section of the website includes praise from Jim Daly as well as Carrie Gordon Earll, both of Focus on the Family. (Thanks, Wayne, for the tip.)
- [Focus/Family: Liberals=Nazis. Fascists=OK?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/focusfamily-lib/): In an interview plagued by mediocre English, selective memory, and confused politics, Hilmar von Kampe — who was a youth in Nazi Germany — tells Focus on the Family: Conservative Christians were somehow distinct, more moral, than other German conservatives who observed anti-Semitism and did nothing to stop it. How were they different? He does not say. He and his family somehow didn’t know about the Holocaust, even though millions of Jews were vanishing. He didn’t know the West was fighting the Nazis. He thought they were fighting Germany, and the Nazis just happened to be in charge at the time....
- [Teenage Participant in Exgay Love In Action/Refuge to Speak Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/teenage-partici/): A press release follows from Queer Action Coalition, Memphis, Tennessee. The unidentified teenager will appear at 3 p.m. today outside a hearing between the unlicensed exgay live-in treatment facility Love In Action and the State of Tennessee.
- [Physical Attraction To Gender In Trans V.s. Ex-Gay Couples: A Double Standard From Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/physical-attrac/): Last weekend I braved the heterosexual-gridlock on the Sunset Strip to see Transamerica. In keeping with Pat “take him out” Robertson’s logic God was clearly angered I saw such an evil movie and struck me ill with a cold the next day. Since I’m without internet at home till my sugar-daddy gets me a cable modem the germs and I packed up the laptop and headed to the lesbian coffee shop down the street tonight. But let’s get to the actual post. Ex-Gay Situation: A hypothetical gay man, we’ll call him Stephen, is unhappy being gay and pursues conversion. He eventually...
- [Open Forum: Alert — There Are Homosexuals on Project Runway!](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/open-forum-aler/): With Season Two of the Bravo network program entering its final phase, two semifinalists talk on video about their struggle with sexual orientation and self-disclosure. For designer Daniel Vosovic, orientation is partly a numbers game: “80-20.” Designer Nick Verreos, who also dated women, might perform heterosexually again — if he were trapped on a deserted island with a woman and their survival required it. Verreos adds that his Catholic high school should have noticed that he was gay from his lifestyle: He dances well and dresses impeccably.
- [Muhammad Cartoon / AFA Threatens ‘Will & Grace’ Over Caricature of Crucifixion](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/muhammad-cartoo/): Don Wildmon’s AFA yesterday announced a letter-writing campaign calling on NBC affiliates not to air the April 13 episode of “Will & Grace” because it features Britney Spears as a conservative Christian who airs a cooking segment called “Cruci-fixin’s” on Jack’s formerly-gay TV network. The blogosphere has just started to discuss. I have little doubt that some Bible Belt affiliates will decline to air the show, just as they declined to air “Book of Daniel” due to — ironically enough — that show’s caricature of liberal Christians. There has been a race in the West to defend a recent Muhammad cartoon...
- [‘Concerned Women’ Smears Teachers Who Oppose Antigay Bullying](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/concerned-women-6/): According to no less of an authority than Concerned Women For America’s Robert Knight, all but 5 teachers in the San Leandro Unified School District worship the ancient god Baal. The startling discovery was made when 5 teachers in the school district decided that their religion (apparently not Baal worship) required that their classroom be an unsafe place for gay students. They objected to including a sign in their class which said that “this is a safe place to be who you are.” According to Knight, the heated debate going on at San Leandro High is not about safety at all....
- [Straight Talk Radio To Host First Gay Friendly Guest After Sixty Five Air Dates](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/straight-talk-r/): Tomorrow (Tuesday) Stephen Bennett’s guest will be Jeff Tooley of the United Methodist committee at the Institute of Religion and Democracy will explain how “gay activist groups are planning on ‘crashing’ the [White House Egg Roll]– and politicizing it – to bring attention to GLBT individuals and their families.” Wednesday, in a first for Straight Talk Radio, Bennett’s guest will be Robyn Murphy, Soulforce’s media contact for the egg roll event. After SIXTY FIVE air dates for the first time Bennett’s show will have a guest who is friendly to gay and lesbian Americans. (And for that matter isn’t bat-shit crazy...
- [Exgay Chad Thompson Reviews ‘Brokeback’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exgay-chad-thom-2/): Chad Thompson, operator of Des Moines, Iowa-based Inqueery, has written a new review of Brokeback Mountain. Read it here. Thompson is also marketing his latest DVD release, Bringing Christian Love Out of the Closet.
- [John Paulk Ranked Among High-Profile Religious-Right Scandals](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/john-paulk-rank/): The Rev. Steven Baines is an elder in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In a commentary published Jan. 26 at Advocate.com, Baines cites former exgay activist and author John Paulk as one of five high-profile scandals among antigay activists working for the religious right. The other scandals include the arrest of Lonnie Latham, the political corruption of Ralph Reed, the antigay bigotry and sexual affair of Monsignor Eugene Clark, and the gambling addiction of William Bennett. Baines says: The moral hypocrisy of many right-wing religious leaders comes from their fundamental misunderstanding of religion as the practice of a complicated and...
- [Christian College Tells Student Not To Slap Fellow Athletes On The Butt](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/christian-colle/): In a meeting with [John Brown University] administrators, [expelled student Michael] Guinn said, he was given a code of conduct tougher than what other students had to follow. According to Guinn, he was told to not dress in women’s clothing, not slap others on the buttocks if he was a member of a sports team, not hug or shake hands with other men for too long, not “broadcast” his lifestyle, and not tell other students he was gay until he knew them well. [*]
- [A Tenable Belief: ‘Brokeback’ And Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/a-tenable-belie/): In mid-January, CNN’s Larry King Live aired a four-person discussion of Brokeback Mountain and marriage for gay persons. The guests were Janet Parshall and Albert Mohler speaking for the religious right, and Chad Allen and Casper, Wyo., councilman Guy Padget speaking in favor of allowing gay people to marry. At a new web site called A Tenable Belief, Steve Boese analyzes the rhetoric: The logic (or lack thereof) of each speaker; how many words were spoken on a variety of issues, and the percentage of discussion devoted to religion, civil liberties, or unrelated issues. ATB discovers that “conservatives got 50% more...
- [Questioning ‘It’s Not Gay’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/questioning-its/): On the Exodus e-mail support list for antigay parents, a number of participants have been promoting the exgay-activist video It’s Not Gay. They say it features “excellent,” factual information from “medical and mental health experts.” They say it proves the “physical and emotional effects of the gay lifestyle” and claim it proves that gay relationships are short-lived. One parent commented:
- [Duncan Bouwer’s Exgay Talk - “Yes I Am In Denial”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/duncan-bouwers/): I’ve recently subscribed to Duncan Bouwer’s ExGayTalk podcast. Duncan is an ex-gay, music teacher, father and husband in Johannesburg, South Africa. His most recent podcast titled “Yes I am in Denial” is of particular merit. He has a sense of humor that really shines, nor does he make outrageous claims like “complete change is completely possible.” Rather he admits to a continuing struggle and approaches his change from a biblical instead of pseudo-psychological perspective. Duncan notes his humor may raise the ire of ex-ex-gay folk like me. If all exgays had a sense of humor like Duncan my job would be...
- [Redesign Ups And Downs](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/redesign-ups-an/): You may have noticed a few changes in the look of XGW: A new logo, a few color and font changes. More changes are planned, but first I wish to solicit feedback and bug reports from you, our readers. For example, does the layout work in your browser? Are the text or the comment boxes misplaced or awkward to read? What does that red thingy in the logo represent? 🙂 Please comment, either publicly or via e-mail. Don’t forget to include the name of the web browser or newsreader that you use to view the site.
- [Disciplining Commenters (Again)](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/disciplining-co/): I closed a Brokeback Mountain discussion tonight because an anonymous commenter with the pseudonym “Charles” was repeating the same comment, arguing for the sake of argument, and failing to honor basic Internet etiquette. Basically, to borrow his own words, he was being childish. Charles then proceeded to post the same comment again on an unrelated discussion. So I have banned Charles. I happen to agree with some of Charles’ observations, but since the purpose of Charles’ visit was to disrupt discussions and air strawmen, I am inclined to delete his remarks and the resulting side discussions. I invite others to criticize...
- [Bewildered By Anti-Exgay Hostility](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/bewildered-by-a/): The Augusta Free Press in Virginia profiles Greater Hope exgay activist Jeff Watros, who says he doesn’t understand why he’s perceived as a loud, pushy street-corner solicitor. But the Free Press quickly explains it to him: He has chosen to affiliate with Exodus, the antigay political advocacy network. All in all, the story nicely portrays the human journey of Watros while contrasting the self-perceived innocence of local exgay advocates with their self-defeating choice of political sponsorships. The views of Watros and Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas are balanced with those of gay author Wayne Besen and Staunton, Va.-area equality activist Linda Czyzyk.
- [Canadian Gays Rush to Be Alter-ed](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/canadian-gays-r/): From Google News via Colleen Keating…. Whatever alterations those poor Manitobans are undergoing, it sounds painful.
- [Prof. Throckmorton to Air on ‘Christian Dissent Live’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/prof-throckmort-4/): The following radio program was postponed; a new air date is to be announced. From Cole Wakefield at Christian Dissent Live, a progressive Christian radio show based near Nashville, Tennessee: This week Christian Dissent Live will feature the controversial Dr. Warren Throckmorton. Dr. Throckmorton is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Fellow for Psychology and Public Policy at Grove City (PA) College. His work and writings on the flexibility of sexuality are often used by right-wing groups to justify their Ex-Gay programs. Please join us for what is sure to be an interesting conversation. The program will air live Jan. 21,...
- [Exodus Youth Resists XGW’s Attempts To Monitor](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exodus-youth-re/): As previously discussed on XGW, Exodus Youth has a Myspace profile. Using Myspace one is able to easily send out mass emails to other users on one’s “friends list.” However Exodus Youth has declined my attempts to add them and thus I am unable to monitor any messages they may be disseminating. Ex-Gay Watch readers who are more stealthy than myself are encouraged to add Exodus Youth’s Myspace profile and forward relevant information to me should they ever do something noteworthy.
- [Trackbacks](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/trackbacks/): Here’s a note solely of interest to other weblog or web site operators: XGW does not block trackbacks, except from likely spammers. If you encounter difficulties in sending trackbacks to XGW, please contact me. Thanks.
- [Foster Colleague: America Should Learn Anti-Gay Law And Violence From Nigeria](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/foster-colleagu/): A post at ex-gay pastor D.L. Foster’s blog, apparently by Nigerian Pastor Kingsley Nwafor (the attribution is implied by a double quote preceding and following 600-some words of the piece) decries gay civil rights in South Africa. He credits gays with “diverting and destroying the purposes and destinies of men and nations.” He takes comfort in his Nigerian homeland, though: Thank God for the law in Nigeria prohibiting same-sex marriage or any related same-sex relationships. Thank God for the five years jail sentence. But there was a time in the whole of America, that homosexual strugglers were being arrested, beaten up,and...
- [Gays More Likely to Be Left Handed](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/gays-more-likel/): I’m quite late in addressing a finding published in July in Psychological Bulletin. As I was unable to find access to the original report, my sources linked here are second hand. Psychology Today reports that Dr. Kenneth Zucker of the University of Toronto has found that gay men and women are more likely to be left-handed than the general public at large. The findings, reported in the Psychological Bulletin, lesbians have a 91 percent greater chance of being left-handed or ambidextrous than straight women, while gay men are 34 percent more likely than straight men to not be right-handed.
- [Antigay Preacher Hutcherson’s Invisible Boycott](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/antigay-preache/): Daniel Gonzales commented on the lighter side of antigay preacher Ken Hutcherson — his choice of operating systems to boycott — here. But there’s a dark side to Hutcherson’s national boycott of every company that supports Washington state’s new gay civil rights bill: The boycott does not really exist.
- [Responding Constructively to Focus/Family’s Moral-Superiority Complex](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/responding-cons/): From Greg McCandless, via e-mail: I’m only a recent visitor to your website but found that you had recently addressed Gary Schneeberger’s column on the Focus on the Family’s website regarding his recent revelation that he had been acting “morally superior” since viewing “Brokeback Mountain.” I too was blown away by the smugness of his message, but also felt compelled to take him up on his offer of truly wanting to understand why this film is such a “watershed moment for these people and their movement.” I also wanted to help counteract the negative audience experience he witnessed during his screening...
- [Youth Pastor Writes About ‘Finding God on Brokeback Mountain’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/youth-pastor-wr/): Andrew Seely ministers to youth at a Presbyterian church in California. His review of Brokeback Mountain was published at RelevantMagazine.com, a Christian publication by and for young adults. Titled “Finding God on Brokeback Mountain,” Seely opens with: Please do not boil this movie down to homosexuality. Please do not pass judgment without even seeing it. See the fact that there are great performances. See the gift of storytelling. View the beauty of God’s creation. Relate to people who have lives that are complicated. Remember that God’s love is far greater than any of us deserve.
- [Open Forum: Project Runway Sucks](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/open-forum-proj/): Talk about anything except that &@!#? show.
- [Unrepentant Sins of an Antigay Advocate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/unrepentant-sin/): The following is my message to antigay activist Bernie Dehler (email, web) regarding his unrepentant sins, which became the subject of this unrelated discussion of Jerry Falwell’s misrepresentations about exgays.
- [Celibate Gay Man Eyes ‘Brokeback’ with Skepticism](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/celibate-gay-ma/): Readers who tire of imaginative Exodus propaganda about Brokeback Mountain are invited to read David Ben-Ariel’s commentary, Brokeback Mountain Blues: Thoughts of a celibate, gay Christian. Ariel’s analysis is antigay (as I define the term) but his observations are practical and rooted in the content of the movie, not in sloppy political stuntwork. I’ve watched Oprah have men on her program who have been heterosexually married for years, with children, who suddenly “discovered” they were gay, and in “finding themselves,” lost their wife and children. What about the commitment to their marriage they made before both God and man? I don’t...
- [Exodus Piggybacks on Media Attention to ‘Gay Cowboy’ Movie](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exodus-piggybac/): The exgay political network Exodus capitalizes on the commercial success of Brokeback Mountain with a Jan. 16 press release seeking media interviews. While the movie realistically conveys the anguish of same-sex-attracted cowboys in the U.S. heartland, Chambers complains that recent awards are “pushing the envelope” by honoring films that dare to be honest with the public. Here are highlights from the Exodus press release: Chambers inaccurately states regarding Brokeback Mountain and TransAmerica: “[B]oth movies explore the unhappiness, pain and promiscuity in gay life.” TransAmerica is not about gay life. Chambers mistakenly implies that the films both convey the message that people...
- [In Singapore, A Government Welfare Check for Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/in-singapore-a/): From Fridae of Singapore, Jan. 17: The government of Singapore has granted US$61,500 to an Exodus-affiliated exgay ministry. The so-called Liberty League breaks with mainstream psychiatry, teaching Singapore teen-agers that in order to “understand” homosexuality, one must believe it is a gender identity disorder. This teaching is at odds with the scientific positions of U.S. professional counselors’ groups such as the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Counseling Association. The “Liberty” League opposes liberty, as well.
- [‘Book Of Daniel’ Leads to Pre-Enlightenment Rhetoric From Focus/Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/book-of-daniel/): In what can only be described as a stunning display of pre-Enlightenment “thought,” Family News In Focus and the Institute on Religion and Democracy condemned attempts discuss or critically analyze the controversial TV show, The Book of Daniel. “The clear absence of advertisers on this program is a real victory for the moral conscience of this country.” [David] Caton commends secular advertisers for taking a stand. However, some within the Episcopal Church actually see the show as an opportunity for outreach. The Diocese of Washington D.C. set up a web-log to spark discussion about “The Book of Daniel.” Diocese spokesman, Jim...
- [Bennett Makes Up Words, Confuses Media of Tunisia And United States](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/bennett-makes-u/): God forbid anyone else in the religious right should top Stephen Bennett’s outrageousness on any given issue, he provided some recent thoughts on the Golden Globes: “Hollywood has sunk to an all-time moral low. I guess 2006 will be known as ‘The Year of the Homosexual’ in Hollywood. With ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ ‘TransAmerica’ and ‘Capote’ winning several major ‘gender-bender’ Golden Globes – Hollywood is no doubt ‘out’ on a mission to ‘homosexualize‘ America,” [article continues] “When Hollywood is pumping out anti-family movies with sexually explicit, twisted and perverse themes that glorify homosexuality, transsexuality and every other kind of sexual immorality – then...
- [Microsoft Too Gay-Friendly - Like the Alternatives Aren’t, Too?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/microsoft-too-g/): From the 365gay.com story titled “Microsoft, Others Boycotted For Supporting Washington Gay Rights Bill“ When Democrats announced they would reintroduce the LGBT rights bill Microsoft announced it would support the bill. Last week it joined Boeing, Hewlett Packard and Nike in signing a letter to lawmakers urging passage of the measure. Hutcherson said his call for a national boycott would include all of the companies that signed the letter. What? Like they’re going to use the alternative to Microsoft? Cos that’s so “pro-family.” Let’s face it, Apple is faggiest computer company / operating system out there. So what’s the alternative? Well...
- [Ex-Gays Now Number In The Millions According To Falwell](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/ex-gays-now-num/): In 2003 Exodus said exgays numbered in the “thousands…”In 2004 Exodus said exgays numbered in the “tens of thousands…”In 2005 Exodus said exgays numbered in the “hundreds of thousands…”[*] But now it’s 2006 so the order of magnitude is due for an increase. According to Jerry Falwell’s recent column in WorldNutDaily exgays now number in the millions! If the shoe were on the other foot and he was a recovering homosexual (as millions of Americans are), Mr. Kenny wouldn’t be given the time of day by the networks.[*]
- [Socarides Article in Boston Phoenix](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/socarides-artic/): An article by Michael Bronski in the Boston Phoenix is a well written concise recap of Dr. Charles Socarides and how he came to influence the ex-gay movement. Here is a once smart, well-meaning man trapped in history — doomed to become hate-filled and willfully ignorant.
- [Focus on the Family’s Morally Superior Attitude](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/focus-on-the-fa-19/): Focus on the Family’s Gary Schneeberger has been feeling morally superior to gay people since he saw Brokeback Mountain.
- [Open Forum: From Meep Meep to Mahna Mahna](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/open-forum-from/): Talk about anything. About television: I really dislike Santino — what greater vice is there than arrogance? Nick’s designs are gorgeous — so where’s his spine? About the headline: Watch and hear Mahna Mahna in a QuickTime video stream.
- [Exgay D.L. Foster: One-Way Dialogue About Native Americans](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exgay-dl-foster-2/): Exgay activist D.L. Foster is challenging remarks made here at XGW by Regan DuCasse (e-mail). But Foster is denying DuCasse the opportunity to respond to his criticisms. DuCasse wrote this response:
- [Another Youth Blogger Pressured Toward Exgay ‘Counseling’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/another-youth-b/): In 2005, the parents of a teen-aged blogger named Zach forced him to attend more than a month of live-in exgay conditioning at Memphis, Tenn.-based Love In Action. Zach’s father also announced the family’s identity and made an antigay political cause of Zach’s trauma on Pat Robertson’s program, “The 700 Club.” Today, Good As You may have uncovered a similar incident that began less than a month ago: Dec. 19. In this case, the program appears not to be live-in. One can still hope the family will allow the youth to figure out — with unbiased, professional guidance if desired —...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 01/09/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/stephen-bennett-16/): Stephen Bennett’s guest today was straight talking Linda Harvey of Mission America who straight-up pulled a real gem of a statistic out of her ass today: (+15:15) The more you promote this behavior, especially to your young, the more experimentation you will have. So I don’t think here’s anything that we should expect less than 20 years from now that we might have 20 to 25 percent of our population that is bisexual if we keep going the way we’re going now. (Real Audio / Windows Media)
- [Exodus President Joins Another Anti-Gay Effort](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exodus-presiden-4/): First, all-a-y’all should know I’m on sabbatical this month since I’m taking one of the graphical sections of the architectural registation exam (Site Planning) at the end of the month. I’ll have internet at home all hooked up and resume posting regularly Feb 1st. Second, Alan Chambers just couldn’t help but sign his name to another piece of tripe that came across his desk. Check it out at PageOneQ and Pam’s House Blend. (Hat tip: Bruce Garrett, Scott)
- [‘It’s Not Gay’: Exgay Video Available Via Live Stream](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/its-not-gay-exg/): Updated An online religious webcam station, 24/7 WWJD, is hosting a free video stream of “It’s Not Gay,” a 28-minute video that has been sold for several years by the American Family Association for $15. The video stars now-disgraced exgay activist Michael Johnston, who in 2003 retired from exgay activism after he was discovered to have had recent orgies with gay men while neglecting to disclose his HIV-positive status to his liaisons. The video co-stars PFOX president and exgay counselor Richard Cohen, who in 2002 was expelled from the American Counseling Association for unethical conduct with some of his patients. The...
- [Exgay Billboards in Spartanburg, S.C.](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exgay-billboard/): From the Spartanburg Herald-Journal via an XGW reader and also blogger Pam Spaulding: Spartanburg, S.C.-based Truth Ministry (an Exodus affiliate) has posted three antigay billboards in the Greenville-Spartanburg region. Spaulding points to a father’s testimonial by Bill Creech, co-director of the organization’s outreach to relatives of gay persons. Spaulding practically flays Creech, but my own assessment is mixed.
- [Alan And Leslie Chambers Purchase New Home](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/alan-and-leslie/): While poking around public records (which I’m not going to specify in the interest of Alan’s privacy) I found last August Alan and Leslie Chambers purchased a four bedroom home for $325,500. I don’t think Leslie is a full time staffer at Exodus but I did find record she was the manager of Exodus’ 2004 Freedom Conference. Update: Alan Chambers added the following information in a comment posted to this entry. 1. In 1999 my family gave us money to buy our first home in College Park–Downtown Orlando’s oldest neighborhood. We bought on a street that had yet to “catch on”....
- [Open Forum: Evangelism, Or Lifestyle Recruitment?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/open-forum-evan/): If an exgay activist posts a profile on the youth-oriented Myspace web site, this is euphemistically called “evangelism.” If a gay Christian posts a profile at the same site, it’s likely to be called “homosexual recruitment.” But isn’t exgay activism sometimes a form of sexual recruitment into celibacy, unhappy marriage, or secretive sexual encounters? And aren’t some gay people of faith, in fact, evangelists for a God that loves all of humanity? Where can one draw appropriate distinctions between “evangelism” and “recruitment”? Is it ever fair to accuse anyone of recruitment?
- [Socarides: ‘Legacy of Prejudice Wrapped in Pseudo-Science’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/socarides-legac/): Upon the death of psychiatrist Charles W. Socarides two weeks ago, Van of Head of the KweerWolf wrote a thoughtful and personal analysis. Van encountered Socarides’ book, The Overt Homosexual, at a time in the 1970s when Van was first coming to terms with his attraction to other men. What I found in Socarides’ book didn’t sound like me. The book told me about men in San Francisco who wore dresses and makeup and got kicked out of fancy department stores for using the women’s restrooms. It told me about men who lived their lives around cruising for sex in public restrooms and...
- [It Keeps Going… And Going…: PFOX Word-War Against National PTA](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/it-keeps-going/): Good As You comments on the ongoing war of words by antigay aggrieved-parents group PFOX against a decision made half a year ago by National Parent Teacher Association. The PTA gave preference at its national convention to a rival group of parents, PFLAG, that refuses to wage political and rhetorical warfare against its members’ same-sex-attracted children. G.A.Y. takes issue with remarks made to the American Family Association by Prof. Warren Throckmorton on behalf of PFOX.
- [Interview With Blogger Who ‘Questions’ Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/interview-with/): Last autumn (yes, I’m that far behind in my e-mail), Colleen Keating interviewed “Ben” of the Scattered Words blog. Read her article in The Vital Voice.
- [Pastor Says Exgay Road Show ‘Blurs the Distinctiveness That Makes Us Who We Are’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/pastor-says-exg/): The Rev. Irene Monroe (email) writes a regular online column, “Queer Take.” Last month, Monroe commented at length on Focus on the Family’s October exgay road show in Boston:
- [Soulforce Responds to SBC Pastor’s Arrest for Alleged Gay-Sex Solicitation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/soulforce-respo/): Soulforce responds to the arrest of Southern Baptist Convention pastor Rev. Lonnie Latham: Robyn Murphy, Director of Public Relations and Media, for Soulforce: “Many people are attacking Rev. Latham for his hypocrisy, but instead we should be asking ‘what informs that hypocrisy’? The answer is the SBC’s vicious and non-stop campaign of defamation against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and same-gender families.”
- [Exgay Lobbyist, Focus Smear Gay Efforts to Prevent HIV-Drug Misuse And Risky Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/exgay-lobbyist/): In a recent radio broadcast and article coordinated with Focus on the Family, Exodus exgay lobbyist Randy Thomas falsely accused the “gay community” of failing to take action against the abuse of an anti-HIV medication called tenofovir among the “many people” who seek out rave parties as the “only option” to “fulfill a void in their hearts.” In the space of one broadcast, Thomas and Focus: exaggerate gay interest in raves insult the self-esteem of non-fundamentalists accuse the “community” of failing “to listen to reason” accuse gay people, as a class, of a singular “mindset” of “justifying risky behavior” None of...
- [Dead Horse? Beat Away: Exgay Lobbyist’s Fixation on the Formerly Fab Five](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/dead-horse-beat/): There is much that one might find wrong with the fashion industry — superficiality, materialism, runaway consumption, impractical and overpriced designs, and overrepresentation of New York and LA cultural influences. A sensible critique of the industry’s ethics by a social conservative would be most welcome. Exodus lobbyist Randy Thomas isn’t bothered by ethics, however — except when the fashionistas are gay. Only then does he see something awry. And instead of looking for current problems with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Thomas still imagines the same stereotypes that plagued his review of the show two years ago: Thomas blames Fab...
- [Southern Baptist Pastor Arrested for Gay Sex Offer](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/01/southern-baptis-2/): The Recording Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Church has been arrested for propositioning a male undercover officer for oral sex.
- [Focus/Family Trivializes Exgay Struggle](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/focusfamily-tri/): From Good As You: In a review of Lucky Number Slevin, Focus on the Family refers to a rabbi’s son not by his sexual attraction, orientation, or struggle, but rather by his “sexual preference” and “lifestyle.” Focus is suggesting to the public that becoming exgay is no more difficult than redirecting one’s “preference” — as though choosing between same- and opposite-gender attraction were like choosing between carrots and broccoli for dinner, or choosing a lifestyle of home construction over a lifestyle of interior design. Self-identified exgays know that isn’t true — and should demand that Focus on the Family tell the...
- [AFA Dehumanizes Same-Sex-Attracted Persons And Strugglers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/afa-dehumanizes/): The American Family Association periodically employs exgay Stephen Bennett as a writer and activist, and supplies Exodus International with much of its antigay “news” through the misnamed “Agape Press” nameplate. In a fund-raising “petition” dated and e-mailed today: AFA anti-Ford “petition” (PDF file) the AFA dehumanizes same-sex-attracted persons and their families and supporters by repeatedly referring to them as “homosexuals.” While an isolated reference to the noun might be sensible, AFA persistently uses the word alone, without modifiers. The objective of this tactic is to reduce people to nothing more than their sex drives — and then to project that smear...
- [Blogroll Lost: Help Us with Links to Other Web Sites](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/blogroll-lost-h/): Our listing of related web sites, located in the far right column of the front page, has been damaged. Lost were links to religious, social-reform, and gay-writer web sites. If your site was listed, or if you feel a site should be listed, please leave a comment below. Preference is given to sites with alternative, independent, factual, personal, or offbeat points of view. Sorry for any inconvenience.
- [Personal Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/personal-update/): Hey kids, sorry I didn’t post much last week but I have some good news to report (having nothing to do with exgays). In my normal life I’m an apprentice architect, and on Friday I took and passed the examination to become a LEED Accredited Professional. LEED is the emerging standard in green architecture and a number of states and major municipalities already require all new government buildings to achieve a degree of LEED certification. Until recently anyone could claim their building was “green” without accountability but LEED creates a standard that actually means something. Also it should be noted last...
- [Evangelist’s Wife Cheers Gay Christians, Reunites Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/evangelists-wif/): Peggy Campolo, wife of Christian evangelical speaker Tony Campolo, wrote a long, undated article about her ties to the GLBT Christian movement. It is in the Christian gay community that I find the most Christ-like Christian I know — people who love Jesus so much that they struggle to belong where they are not wanted, and are even willing to stand against the majority of their own community to declare that they are part of the church of Jesus Christ. For so many years, I took the church and my place in it for granted. It is a part of my...
- [Ex-Bisexual Ex-Porn Star Tom Katt Preaches the Bible…](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/ex-bisexual-ex/): …But antigay opportunists might not like this born-again Christian’s message. From The Dallas Voice, Feb. 23, 2006 (I’m still behind in my e-mail): For a while, he identified as bisexual. “But when I leaned more towards trying to date a guy, it just didn’t click. When you’re in a relationship with somebody, it can’t just be a physical thing. You have to have an emotional-spiritual connection or it’s not going to work. And I never really found that I could have that connection with another guy,” he says. Unlike many exgay activists, Katt (real name: David Papaleo, age 36) honestly addresses...
- [Open Forum: Tom DeLay, Agent of Satan?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/open-forum-tom/): Tom DeLay, perhaps the most corrupt politician to walk the halls of Congress in a quarter-century, recently told his pastors that he is the Antichrist — or something similar to that. But could the Antichrist possibly be so pathetic, and could the religious right follow an antichrist so gullibly? From The Washington Post, April 9. Tom DeLay may look as though he’s finished because he is quitting Congress, facing a trial on felony political corruption charges in Texas and being targeted by federal prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff scandal. But that would be dead wrong: DeLay recently told one of his...
- [Fristgate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/fristgate/): Thanks to Good As You for bringing the following to our attention According to a Washington Post article, Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader (and anti-gay marriage constitutional amendent advocate) is hosting a party to raise money for other Senators. The invitation features a blue jeaned cowboy’s whose belt buckle you had to undo to open the card. Umm, OK. On the back, well, as the Post’s Al Kamen commented: The back of the card shows the cowboy from behind with a red flowered handkerchief sticking out of his right pocket. Wait a minute — wasn’t there something about how this...
- [Gay Couples May Pay Higher Taxes](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/gay-couples-may/): It’s tax season. At this time of the year we are reminded that regardless of how many years you’ve been together and whether you are raising children; disregarding the vows you made in front of God, your friends, and your church; ignoring the interdependency that you have on each other and the social contributions you have made in settling each other; and rejecting the way that you care for your in-laws and help in the cohesiveness of the greater family; when it comes to marriage the only thing the Federal government cares about is your sexual orientation. Cuz marriage is all...
- [Gay Duck Lifemates](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/gay-duck-lifema/): OK, this is a fluff piece. But it’s a sunny Friday and there’s not much ex-gay news going on, so this is for those who continue to use “it’s unnatural” as their argument: Pink news is reporting that a park in Sweden has a pair of male ducks. For the third year the shelducks, who mate for life, have returned to the park. Lennarth Blomquist, bird manager at the park, told the TT news agency, “We can state that they act exactly like a couple (composed) of a man and woman, the bigger one always defending the smaller duck. UPDATE We...
- [Focus/Family Misinforms Public About California Education Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/focusfamily-mis-2/): California Senate Bill 1437 begins: Existing law prohibits instruction or school sponsored activities that reflect adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry. Existing law prohibits the State Board of Education and the governing board of any school district from adopting textbooks or other instructional materials that contain any matter that reflects adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry. This bill would revise the list of characteristics included in these provisions to include race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, and religion. The introduction says...
- [Everstraight, Gay, Ex-Gay And Ex-Ex-Gay Families Welcome At White House Egg Roll](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/everstraight-ga/): “Mrs. Bush is the overseer of the event, and all families are welcome to attend” Spokesman to Mrs. Bush, Peter Watkins told Detroit News columnist Deb Price. Same-sex headed families will identify themselves at the egg roll with rainbow leis. Perhaps ex-gay headed families will select a fashionable item from the PFOX CafePress store. Recently Good As You and Ex-gay podcaster Duncan Bouwer covered the PFOX store.
- [Exgay Critic of NGLTF Report on Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exgay-critic-of/): The exgay blog Disputed Mutability posted some criticisms of the NGLTF’s recent report on the exgay movement. I haven’t read the report, so I don’t know whether DM’s criticisms are accurate. The tone of the criticisms is moderate compared to typical religious-right rhetoric. Some of the criticisms are specific, while others are quite vague. Some of DM’s observations of moderation in the exgay movement are accurate, but overly optimistic: Let’s face it, the movement is led by would-be theocrats, and the moderates are not only allowing that leadership to happen, but also providing annual donations to the leadership.
- [PFOX Defends Legal Threat Against Wisconsin Diversity Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/pfox-defends-le/): Legal threats from the fundamentalist, anti-diversity Liberty Counsel recently forced the cancellation of Diversity Day at a Wisconsin high school. In response, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal wrote the column, Hijacked diversity day can’t deny differences. In retaliation, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs wrote the following letter to the newspaper.
- [PFOX Confuses Pro-Ex-Gay with Anti-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/pfox-confuses-p/): PFOX may be having difficulty distinguishing between support for ex-gays and hostility to gays. According to a WorldnetDaily article, PFOX was evicted from another educational convention, this time from the Virginia School Counselors Association Conference. I have requested clarification from VSCA but have not yet heard back. However, based on the PFOX press release and on the information on Warren Throckmorton’s website, it appears that PFOX requested attendance based on being a support group for ex-gay individuals but arrived with material attacking gay people. PFOX admits that they brought and had on display material which the facilitators found objectionable including a...
- [Stephen Bennett Anecdotes](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/stephen-bennett-19/): I watched the video of Stephen’s September, 2004 sermon (a link is posted towards the bottom of the SBMinistries home page) and it struck me that he frequently describes himself as a victim of circumstances. Samples which stuck with me:
- [PFOX Reacts to Alleged Ouster From Virginia Educators Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/pfox-reacts-to/): As Timothy Kincaid notes, the less-than-objective WorldNetDaily and Warren Throckmorton say the antigay parents group PFOX was asked last week to leave a conference of the Virginia Schools Counselors Association. Antigay parents who subscribe to PFOX’s e-mail discussion group are outraged, and some have mounted an e-mail protest against the VSCA.
- [Exgay Advocate, Pundit Defend Mutual Tolerance Framework in Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exgay-advocate/): The First Amendment Center, along with BridgeBuilders, school administrators, conservative Christians, and pro-tolerance advocates, recently drafted a framework within which local communities can discuss sexual orientation and harassment within public schools. The agreement was based on the idea that all viewpoints deserve to be heard and that common ground can be reached. The Christian Educators Association International and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network endorsed the proposal. (Previous XGW coverage.) In an article published today at TownHall.com, exgay Chad Thompson and pundit Warren Throckmorton defend the proposal against gay-affirming and antigay critics (citing PFLAG and Ohio antigay activist Linda Harvey...
- [Richard Cohen’s Vanishing Act… Well Sort Of](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/richard-cohens/): Update: PFOX assures me Richard Cohen is still their president. Hi Daniel, Your link didn’t work, but yes, Richard Cohen is still PFOX President. Thanks for watching,Regina Griggs, Executive DirectorPFOX — Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays Richard Cohen, whom last I heard was president of PFOX, has vanished from their website. He no longer appears on the “About Us” page and “Contact Us”only lists Regina Griggs as executive director. No other positions of leadership are given. I could not find any PFOX press releases explaining the change. However Cohen’s own website states he is the president of PFOX. Exodus’...
- [Alan Chambers Gives Insight In To Exodus’ Queer Statistics Collection](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/alan-chambers-g-2/): Recently I’ve called and emailed Alan Chambers several times asking him to elaborate on his claims exgays now number is the “hundreds of thousands” but the only reply he’s given was a very polite email stating he’s been too busy to talk. However Chambers had time to appear on FamilyLife Today with Dennis Rainey back on January 1, 2006 and provided some insight into Exodus’ rather queer statistical gathering techniques. Chambers: It became sexualized at puberty for me. However, a couple of years prior to puberty, I was molested by an older teenage boy who I looked up to, who was...
- [Joe Kort to Appear on Montel Williams Show 4/11/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/joe-kort-to-app/): Hi Everyone, I just wanted to share with you that on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 I will be the expert psychotherapist on the Montel Show on Mixed Orientation Marriages when one spouse is gay and one spouse is straight. The show’s focus was on what to do with couples who want to stay married and do not want to leave. For more information go to www.montelshow.com during the week of April 10, 2006 to read the description for 4/11/06. For more information on straight spouse networks go to www.ssnetwk.org.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Mission Accomplished](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/ex-gay-watch-mi/): Exgay movement leader Alan Chambers announced today that exgays had been betrayed by the religious right. “Today I join Anthony Falzarano, an exgay who years ago condemned Family Research Council and Focus on the Family for their uncharitable treatment of exgays and for their selfish political exploitation of sexual strugglers,” Chambers said. Chambers declared that Exodus International would become an organization devoted to: celibacy, pragmatic disease prevention (including abstinence, monogamy and condoms), addiction/compulsion treatment by certified professionals, nonpartisan religious faith, and values based in charity to others rather than survival of the fittest. Exodus chairman Mike Haley admitted that Focus on...
- [Advice for Tim Wilkins](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/advice-for-tim/): The last we heard of Tim Wilkins of Cross Ministry fame he had agreed to take a polygraph test for gayasyou.org (I never heard how that come out). But now Tim has a new program aimed at giving ministers tools in their efforts in “Walking People out of Homosexuality”. In his program More Than Words, Tim promises to address a number of topics. To assist him in this effort, I’m offering my own notes to his topics:
- [Bennett Opposes HIV Prevention](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/bennett-opposes/): Stephen Bennett’s latest press release is so chock-full of bizarreness that I hardly know where to start. But here goes:
- [Open Forum: I Have One Hour Today. What to Do?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/open-forum-i-ha/): 6 p.m. Read the new 300-page book “Ex-Gay Research” and write review. 6:17 p.m. Watch the 48-minute ex-gay video “I Do Exist” by Chad Thompson, and write review. 6:21 p.m. Fight Exodus attempts to shut down Ex-Gay Watch and other gay-tolerant or gay-affirming sources of news. Contact lawyers from coast to coast. 6:32 p.m. Divide Ex-Gay Watch into separate websites catering to exgays, researchers, opponents of culture warriors, and defenders of constitutional liberty and privacy. 6:38 p.m. Watch the 83-minute ex-ex-gay video “Fish Can’t Fly” and write review. 6:43 p.m. Gently and patiently teach Regan how to separate paragraphs. 😀 6:49...
- [Baptist Kids Reject Abstinence](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/baptist-kids-re/): Some conservative activists believe that if “abstinence only” is taught in schools it will eliminate the need for sex education and information on sexually transmitted diseases. After all, if teens aren’t having sex before marriage, then no problem, right? One problem for gay teens is that it tells them that they can’t have sex before marriage, and that they can’t ever get married. Since “no sex for you, ever” isn’t a very compelling message, the gay community continues to fight the ongoing battle to have inclusive education to reduce misinformation and the spread of disease. A second problem with the “abstinence...
- [Alan Chambers Trashes Gay Papers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/alan-chambers-t/): A library trustee in Ohio doesn’t want the Upper Arlington Public Library to carry the local free gay newspaper, the Outlook Weekly. In a Focus on the Family article, Bryce Kurfees, the trustee said the following: “What I want to do with them is toss them out. There’s no reason that we need to accept free newspapers that are just dropped off at our front door, especially ones that are obscene.” And I’m concerned that if we can’t draw a line at pornographic articles, then it appears that we can’t draw the line anywhere.” Alan Chambers is quoted about the desired...
- [Ohio Constitutional Amendment Promotes Domestic Violence; Antigay Activist Fuels Spread of AIDS](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/ohio-constituti/): Brady at Some Guys Are Normal notes that Ohio’s antigay constitutional ban on nonmarital unions and any rights or services associated with such unions has resulted in court rulings that unmarried heterosexual partners enjoy no legal recourse under the state’s domestic-violence laws. Meanwhile, Ohio antigay uber-activist Linda Harvey is using her “Mission America” nameplate to bury the state’s HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs in litigation and red tape, presumably to force the financially strained organizations to close and to cut off medical help (except for abstinence-only lessons) to people at risk for HIV/AIDS. Gay People’s Chronicle, March 24 The Advocate, March...
- [Discredited Exgay Video Hits the Discount Bin](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/discredited-exg/): Activist/author Wayne Besen has picked up on the news, also noted on March 25 by XGW commenter Chalker Cross, that the antigay video “It’s Not Gay” is on sale for $10.
- [Exgay Supports Minnesota Rally to Ban Gay Unions](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exgay-supports/): Eleventh Avenue South has a picture of the Minnesota “Family” Council using exgay activist Janet Boynes to decorate its booth at a March 21 antigay rally. Ex-Gay Watch is curious to know how, exactly, Boynes believes she is helping same-sex-attracted persons — or anyone else — by promoting discrimination.
- [Melissa Fryrear Says ‘Everyone Is Created Heterosexual’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/melissa-fryrear-4/): As reported by the TimesLeader, in a speech to a Pentecostal church in Pennsylvania, Melissa Fryrear went beyond “no one is born gay”: Fryrear said “everyone is created heterosexual” and said many women are gay because they’re searching for a mother figure or because they have been sexually abused by a man. She said some women are gay because it’s “en vogue.” Fryrear also said that gay people should be welcomed in church but not allowed positions of leadership. No mention was made as to whether this would apply to ex-gay leaders.
- [Origins of ‘Live Out Loud’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/origins-of-live/): I was feeling snarky after Exodus dropped its recent copyright and trademark case against Ex-Gay Watch and blogger Justin Watt. And so I challenged Exodus’ recent use of the slogan Live Out Loud, which happens to be the name of a five-year-old New York organization that promotes safety for gay youths. I should have known better. Humor never pays. An anonymous tipster has pointed out that Live Out Loud is also a popular Christian contemporary song released by Steven Curtis Chapman in 2001. (Available via iTunes song and video, or from Amazon.com.) I did some brief additional research: Live Out Loud...
- [New TV Ad for Inclusive Churches](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/new-tv-ad-for-i/): Street Prophets and United Church of Christ blogger Chuck Currie report on a TV ad unveiled March 27 by the United Church of Christ. The ad’s title: Ejector Seat. The theme: Jesus didn’t turn people away. Nor should Christian churches. The ads have already been banned from the major U.S. broadcast networks; they will run on cable. In response to the ban, Accessibleairwaves.org calls for the mainstream media to stop silencing mainline and liberal religious perspectives in advertising and in news coverage. The networks are not impartially banning all advocacy ads; Talk To Action notes that at least one of the...
- [Another Survivor of ‘Love In Action’ Speaks Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/another-survivo/): Performance artist Peterson Toscano, who survived a long residency at exgay live-in program Love In Action, reports that another LIA survivor named J has begun blogging about his recovery from the program.
- [Illinois Family Activist LaBarbera Solidifies Ties to Constitution Party](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/illinois-family/): The Illinois Family Institute is a state-level family policy council that claims independence from, but closely coordinates its activities with, Focus on the Family. Last month I noted that IFI executive director Peter LaBarbera has been building ties with the theocratic Constitution Party. The Party counts white supremacists among its candidates, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Links to the SPLC allegations are located in my earlier article.) Blogger Pam Spaulding noted on March 25 that LaBarbera is escalating his rebellion against the state GOP because of its limited tolerance for gay Americans. He encourages religious conservatives to vote for...
- [Off-Topic/Open Forum: War Vs. Peace](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/off-topicopen-f-2/): While Focus on the Family and ideological allies such as Cal Thomas wage a cultural war against Christians and against other faiths, Christian Peacemaker Teams pursue their Biblical calling to risk their lives for peace and nonviolence in the world’s most dangerous places. The Rev. David B. Miller, a Mennonite pastor and participant in the teams, responds to a recent tirade by Thomas. Hat tip: Jesus Politics.
- [Focus Misstates Facts Behind Colorado Marriage Ban](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/focus-misstates/): Back on March 8, They Get Letters (via Mike Ditto) found James Dobson misinforming recipients of a fundraising letter that advocates amending the Colorado constitution to prevent gay-tolerant churches from marrying gay couples. Ditto analyzes each of the Focus fundraising letter’s factual errors. (Sorry for my lateness, I’m catching up on old mail.)
- [Did Exodus Borrow ‘Live Out Loud’ Theme From Gay Group Without Permission?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/did-exodus-borr/): Live Out Loud is a New York organization whose goal is to “create a safe space for LGBT youth to learn about powerful and passionate people who are leading extraordinary lives.” The organization has existed since early 2001. It was not until the past few months that Exodus International, the exgay umbrella network, adopted “Live Out Loud” as the theme of its staff blogs and 2006 annual conference. Did Exodus ask for permission to use the name of the New York gay youth-safety organization in its own antigay programs? How would Exodus react if Ex-Gay Watch were to borrow, say, the...
- [Exodus Excommunicates Soulforcers, Misdirects Blame for Antigay Vandalism](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exodus-excommun/): The Soulforce Equality Ride brought its nonviolent call for fairness for gay Christian students to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, in mid-March. (Here are first-person Ride diaries for March 16, 17, 18) The goal of the Ride has been for gay people of faith to engage conservative Christian students in voluntary and peaceful discussion — though Riders have also been arrested when they attempted to walk onto their former campuses to talk with students. During the visit, a local mother and her son spray-painted “fags mobile” across the Equality Ride bus. Unlike Exodus and Focus on the Family, which blame any...
- [Practicing for Future Exodus Speech? Falwell Damns Jews to Hell](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/practicing-for/): In July 2005, Jerry Falwell was the keynote speaker at an Exodus conference. During his appearance, he approved of parents jailing their children at exgay boot camps such as Love In Action. It was shocking enough at the time, that Exodus would permit a speech affirming the internment of teen-agers at camps that have developed reputations for abuse and maltreatment. In late February, Falwell reminded the public that gay youths aren’t the only target of his hellbound self-righteousness: Falwell labels the choice of Judaism a sin and damns all Jews to hell, even though the Bible says otherwise.
- [Pew Research Center Poll on Attitudes About Gay Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/pew-research-ce/): The Pew Research Center has released a new poll that seems to show a favorable shift in attitudes relating to the rights of gay people.
- [Exodus Offices: Small Space, Big Reach](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exodus-offices/): In a suburb of Orlando, Florida, there is a small office building near the airport where six offices share 6,000 square feet of office space. As of mid-2005, Exodus International was headquartered in one of the six offices, occupying perhaps 1,000 square feet. Please note that I am not disclosing the office address. (I’d disclose the source of this photo and real estate information, but in this case to do so would disclose the address.) The office is a bit small for an organization of a dozen-or-so full-time employees, and by itself the office seems inadequate to support 400,000 inquiries per...
- [Exgay Group Drops Case Against Parody Blogger](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exgay-group-dro/): According to USA Today, Exodus has dropped its complaint against blogger Justin Watt, after Watt removed the Exodus logo watermark from his parody of Exodus’ antigay billboard that was titled, “Gay? Unhappy?”: I think Exodus’ decision is sensible; even its claim of infringement against its logo was legally weak. Exodus had lodged a related complaint against Ex-Gay Watch for republishing Watt’s parody. This web site was courteous enough to remove the parody during the dispute; I would have appreciated the courtesy of a direct notification from Mr. Chambers that the case had been dropped. I don’t care much for gay.com, and...
- [AFA Makes Baseless Claim About Ford](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/afa-makes-basel/): In a press release claiming that Ford ‘Proves’ Commitment To Homosexual Agenda, the American Family Association claims that Ford Motor Company “proved to the homosexual leaders the company’s commitment to their agenda” because Ford advertised on an episode of CBS’ Without a Trace in which two women kiss. Although it is likely that Ford simply continued their advertising on the show and did not particularly care one way or the other whether this episode had a same-sex kiss, AFA’s Don Wildmon is free to interpret it as he wishes. However, AFA goes further and claims the following: Last fall, in a...
- [Parody: The Exodus Self-Contradiction](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/parody-the-exod/): Some friendly exgay advice from the desk reference that you’ve been using since you were eight years old. From Justinsomnia, inspired by Zortnac.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Defends Itself Vs. Exodus, Liberty Counsel](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/ex-gay-watch-de/): In September 2005, blogger Justin Watt published a parody of an Exodus exgay billboard and encouraged other web sites to republish it. On Feb. 27, 2006 — after learning of the parody from blogger Mike Tidmus — Ex-Gay Watch republished the parody. Within three days, the Liberty Counsel delivered a cease-and-desist letter to both Watt and Ex-Gay Watch. (Cease-and-desist letter to Ex-Gay Watch, PDF file, 360 KB) I took Ex-Gay Watch’s copy of the parody offline as a courtesy, but refused to agree to the terms of Liberty Counsel’s letter. Lambda Legal helpfully referred Ex-Gay Watch to a legal team with...
- [ACLU Defends Blogger’s Right to Parody ‘Ex-Gay’ Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/aclu-defends-bl/): The ACLU announced its assistance today to blogger Justin Watt, who received a cease-and-desist letter this month after Exodus became aware of his parody of an exgay billboard. SAN FRANCISCO — Citing First Amendment protection for parodies, the American Civil Liberties Union today came to the defense of a California man who received a cease-and-desist letter after posting a parody of a billboard advertisement for so-called “reparative therapy” on his website. Justin Watt talks more about the case, and support that he is receiving from a San Francisco law firm, on his web site today.
- [Exgay Leadership Tip of The Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exgay-leadershi/): Beginning any sentence with the phrase “every homosexual I’ve ever met…” is just a bad idea. Example 1 Example 2 Readers are welcome to submit more examples.
- [Alan Chambers Claims Every Exgay He’s Met Has A Lack Of Relationship With Same-Sex Parent](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/alan-chambers-c/): Today (03/21/06) Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, was the guest on Stephen Bennett’s Straight Talk Radio. Alan had something very interesting to share with Stephen: Stephen: You know a message that seems to be a common thread in so many testimonies of individuals who have left the sinful behavior of homosexuality seems to be a broken relationship with a parent and many times it’s the same-sex parent. There can also be a closer relationship maybe with the opposite-sex parent. And again while this isn’t a parental blame game, and I’m not trying to say this applies to every situation, because...
- [Death Penalty for Christians? Obviously Bad. Execute the Gays? No Comment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/death-penalty-f/): The Family Research Council is justifiably outraged that in U.S.-liberated and U.S.-subsidized Afghanistan, people can be put to death for converting to Christianity. But the pro-Israel, national-security journal The American Thinker notes that it isn’t just Christians who are being threatened with execution: Homosexuality, “lesbianism,” and conversion to faiths such as Judaism or Buddhism are also punishable by death. Afghanistan may exemplify what can happen when voting majorities are permitted unmitigated control over so-called “democracies” and when individual rights are respected only at the majority’s leisure. I share the FRC’s outrage at Islamic intolerance of Christians. But I am disappointed that...
- [Thoughts on Liberty Counsel to School: Include Exgays in ‘Diversity Day’ Or Else](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/thoughts-on-lib/): It’s quite likely the only place many gay people will see the diversity day story is in 365gay.com. Mike covered the story in a previous post here, as it was reported by the local paper. Frankly, 365gay is on par with WorldNetDaily for journalistic credibility and there are two critical facts 365gay failed to include in their turd of a story: Virtually every major world religion was represented in the school panel except Christianity and Hinduism. (That even strikes me as unfair.) When told an ex-gay would be included, the gay representative(s) were the first to pull out. My own thoughts...
- [Liberty Counsel Complaint Over Exgays Cancels School’s Diversity Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/liberty-counsel/): From the La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, Wisconsin, March 21: In 2004, about 400 people signed a petition asking that speakers on gay, lesbian and transgender issues not be included in [Viroqua High School’s] Diversity Day. The school board cancelled the event, but it was reinstated after spring elections changed the board’s makeup. Let’s be clear: The petitioners in 2004 were asking that Diversity Day be less diverse. They were insisting that a pro-tolerance event be intolerant. That battle partially succeeded. Two years later, antigay activists tried a new tactic: Instead of weakening a pro-tolerance event by silencing others, they sought...
- [Exodus Choses HRC’s #1 Most Gay Friendly Airline For Annual Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exodus-choses-h/): The website for this year’s Exodus conference touts discounted rates offered with American Airlines. HRC gives American a perfect score in their index of corporate equality.
- [Question Homosexuality, But Don’t Question Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/question-homose/): Two days ago I posted a comment to a post by straight white male Alan Chambers on the Exodus Live Out Loud blog where he accuses gay rights groups of “hijacking” the civil rights movement. My response consisted of a simply stated quote from Coretta Scott King which disagreed with Chambers’ viewpoint. Two days later my comment has yet to be approved and posted by Exodus moderators. So while it appears Exodus runs advertisements asking people to “Question Homosexuality” once again Exodus itself refuses to be questioned.
- [Exodus Promotes Blog of Stacy L. Harp, Contributor to ‘Alains Newsletter’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exodus-promotes-2/): Google News has rejected a request to carry Alains Newsletter because they consider it hate speech. (Big surprise, I know.) Alains Newsletter tends not to accept traffic from XGW so you may have to copy and paste the link into a new window. Today I noticed the Exodus Live Out Loud blogroll links to the site Writing Right, the personal blog of Stacy L. Harp, a contributor to Alains Newsletter. Harp proudly displays the banner on the right on her site. Click on the image for a full size pop-up. Alains Newsletter is a publication supported by the Traditional Values Coalition...
- [FRC Rips Gay ‘Free Speech’ Agenda, Excuses St. Pat’s Parade Leader’s Namecalling](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/frc-rips-gay-fr/): The chairman of the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade used his leadership position this week to compare gay Irish Americans to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis in a sloppy effort to cast gay Irish Americans as enemies of the Irish community. Even so, the chairman adopted some of the tactics of those extremist groups to affirm discrimination and ostracism against gay Irish Americans. Despite this well-publicized incident, the Family Research Council today silently excused the chairman’s remarks with a blanket defense of the parade and a repudiation of “the homosexual ‘free-speech’ agenda.” FRC contrasted gay Irish requests for inclusion...
- [Focus Shifts Attention From A Detail of Its Role in Abramoff Scandal](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/focus-shifts-at/): The Campaign to Defend the Constitution last week accused Focus on the Family of lobbying on behalf of the Louisiana gambling industry. As Ex-Gay Watch noted then, Focus seemed to admit doing so in the fine print of its response against the Campaign. Today, Focus diverts attention from the key accusation by attempting to refocus public attention on the peripheral question of whether, and exactly how, Focus was compensated for its lobbying of Louisiana voters. Focus denies that chairman James Dobson was paid. In unrelated news today, Focus also lobbied on behalf of Peter LaBarbera, an Illinois activist linked to the...
- [Off Topic/Open Forum: Squelching the Moderates](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/off-topicopen-f/): Christian and Muslim peacemakers have both come under recent attack from Islamic fundamentalists. Meanwhile, Focus on the Family has been strangely silent about these threats. Searches of the Focus web site for the martyred Tom Fox and his kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq turn up nothing. The Focus FAQ on Islam says nothing about liberal or moderate Muslims. Why does Focus deny the existence of headline-making peacemakers?
- [Parody Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/parody-watch/): Lobal Warming has been keeping a list of web sites that have posted copies of Justin Watt’s parody of an Exodus antigay billboard. To its critics, the Exodus billboard seems to assume that gay people are miserable wretches. The billboard then directs the grief-stricken masses of gay Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants and agnostics to the Exodus website for re-salvation and fundamentalist bliss. Watt’s parody assumes (in all fairness to Exodus) that heterosexual people are miserable wretches, and refers straights to a gay web site known for dating and chat services. Ex-Gay Watch posted a copy of the parody, with Watt’s encouragement....
- [Bennett Claims Children Being “Used” By Gays, Ignores Right’s Use of Chase Harper](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/bennett-claims/): Today’s extra-special guest on Straight Talk Radio (03/15/06) was Michael Johnson of ADF talking about their upcoming event, The Day Of Truth. Johnson kept a pretty mild tone speaking about such agreeable things as equal-access and freedom of speech. Bennett however was foaming at the mouth. Here’s a fun excerpt of what Stephen had to say: Over the years I’ve seen first hand the number of adults, teachers, principals even homosexual activists who have zero to do with the public school getting involved in the homosexuals’ Day of Silence. And you know it’s pretty clear that many people believe these kids...
- [GLSEN And Christian Educators Agree on Framework for Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/glsen-and-chris/): The First Amendment Center along with BridgeBuilders and others have drafted a framework within which communities can discuss issues of sexual orientation within the public education system. The agreement is based on the idea that all viewpoints deserve to be heard and that common ground can be reached. The following organizations have endorsed the proposal: The First Amendment Center The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network Christian Educators Association International American Association of School Administrators Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development BridgeBuilders Although the document does not mention ex-gays, both PFOX and the Christian Educators Association International are claiming that it...
- [AFA’s Ford Boycott Is Back On](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/afas-ford-boyco/): AFA has declared that it is boycotting Ford for a year because Ford advertises to gay people, has a non-discrimination policy, and supports organizations that in turn are in favor of gay marriage. Earlier, AFA had threatened a boycott and in a secret meeting with Ford had made demands that they believe were accepted by Ford.
- [Ex-Gay Movement: Time for Reinvention And A New Vision](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/ex-gay-movement/): Wanted: Suggestions and volunteers to take the concept currently known as Ex-Gay Watch in new and distinct directions. Future affiliation with Ex-Gay Watch not required. We currently receive far more news tips (all of them good) than we have time to investigate or write about. Also, because of our very limited time and labor, our focus tends to be too narrowly fixed upon the negative: half-truths, prejudices, and other immoralities of the current ex-gay political leadership. Exgays and other sexually troubled individuals need more than just a daily reminder that their politics are self-defeating, their leadership misguided at best and intentionally...
- [Vote for Best Single Issue Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/vote-for-best-s/): Voting is coming to a close at the 2005 Koufax Awards for Best Single Issue blog. Ex-Gay Watch is among the nominees. Please consider voting: Review the nominees and vote for your favorite single-issue blog. The voting closes Sunday night at 11:59 p.m., so if you plan to vote, do so now.
- [The Questions That ‘Love In Action’ Should Have Asked](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/the-questions-t/): Former Love In Action live-in patient Peterson Toscano asks the questions that Love In Action’s intake staffers should have asked — and might have asked — before granting admission to 29-year-old teacher Chad Stoffel. Did they ask the right questions? We don’t know — Love In Action has offered little information about Stoffel’s application, admittance, and his alleged confession and arrest on charges relating to sexual activity with a minor. Confidentiality provisions and the current criminal investigation may prevent disclosure of details about Stoffel, but there is no reason for Love In Action to withhold information from the public about its...
- [Linda Nicolosi Talks About Exgays In Debate Having Nothing To Do With Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/linda-nicolosi/): (Part 1 of 2) These posts detail how my 4th year of college (2002) an incident of anti-gay vandalism prompted a civil debate on campus. Linda Nicolosi, wife of Joe Nicolosi intruded into the debate with an editorial in the school paper. I responded with my own letter which would be the first time I spoke out publicly about being an “ex-ex-gay.” In my letter I stated my former therapist, Joseph Nicolosi, asked me to participate in the Spitzer study and to lie when Robert Spitzer when asked how I’d heard of the study. Spitzer recently accused me of fabricating my...
- [Nicolosi Asked Me To Lie To Spitzer - A Consistent Public Record](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/nicolosi-asked/): (Part 2 of 2) These posts detail how my 4th year of college (2002) an incident of anti-gay vandalism prompted a civil debate on campus. Linda Nicolosi, wife of Joe Nicolosi intruded into the debate with an editorial in the school paper. I responded with my own letter which would be the first time I spoke out publicly about being an “ex-ex-gay.” In my letter I stated my former therapist, Joseph Nicolosi, asked me to participate in the Spitzer study and to lie when Robert Spitzer when asked how I’d heard of the study. Spitzer recently accused me of fabricating my...
- [Dobson Aims to Add Job-Benefit Discrimination to Alaska Constitution](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/dobson-aims-to/): Not content with its injection of partisan politics and religious bias into Alaska marriages, Focus on the Family is campaigning to add job-benefit discrimination against gay employees and their families to the state’s constitution. And it’s waging this campaign with the same automated phone-dialing computers that telemarketing scammers have used for years to interrupt American families’ dinner hour: From the Associated Press via Advocate.com: A conservative Christian group has entered the battle in Alaska over employment benefits for partners of gay people. The Colorado-based Focus on the Family is using an automated phone system to ask whether people support or oppose...
- [Read the Fine Print: Dobson Admits Aiding Abramoff’s Louisiana Gambling Interests](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/read-the-fine-p/): On March 8, the Campaign to Defend the Constitution launched an ad campaign including a full-page ad (PDF ad) in the New York Times. The campaign spotlights alleged hypocrisy over gambling by three religious right leaders: Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition; Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition; and Dr. James Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family. (Hat tip: From Jonathan Hutson at Talk to Action.) Max Blumenthal at Talk To Action observes: As the Jack Abramoff scandal unfolds, it is becoming increasingly clear how extensively he collaborated with the Christian right...
- [How Separation of Church And State Saved Evangelical Christianity](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/how-separation/): Writing for the Washington Monthly, Stephen Waldman notes that 18th-century evangelicals sought out, and benefited greatly from, the separation of church and state at a time when they were a small minority surviving at the mercy of mainline Christian denominations. Without the separation, mainliners and theists could have wielded federal and state power against evangelicals. Now that “conservative” evangelicals have gained disproportionate influence over American faith and politics, however, many of them want to abolish the very principles that preserved their religious freedom — and which now happen to preserve the religious freedom of mainline Christians and other faiths. Hat tip:...
- [‘Brokeback’ Prompts Man to Come Out — As Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/brokeback-promp/): My Dirty Little Former Secret God used a movie about gay cowboys to release me from the burden of my past. By Dennis Belkofer Christianity Today, March 6, 2006
- [Attention Subscribers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/attention-subsc/): If you subscribe to Ex-Gay Watch via RSS or Atom feed, you may not see this site’s most recent infographics from within your newsreader at the moment. Increased security is the reason. I will be adding support for various newsreaders to the site’s security. Until then, if you wish to see a particular infographic before support for your newsreader is added, please click through to the live web site for a look. If you see the yellow and black image in this message, you are unaffected by this issue. If you do not see the image, and wish for your newsreader...
- [Exgay Activist Says He Warned School About Alleged Molester](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exgay-activist/): Exgay activist and parent Anthony Falzarano says he sensed trouble at a Florida Christian school with a 29-year-old teacher now accused of unlawful sexual activity with a 16-year-old. According to the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida, in March 2005 Falzarano removed his 17-year-old son Carter from the school “because of a disagreement with administrators and concerns about [teacher Chad] Stoffel.” Falzarano founded Parents and Friends of Exgays (PFOX) in the 1990s but was ousted when he accused the religious right of exploiting the exgay movement while providing little financial assistance. He subsequently co-founded Parents and Friends Christian Ministries. The Sun-Sentinel reports: At...
- [Profile: Anthony Falzarano](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/profile-anthony/): According to his online testimony, Anthony Falzarano was molested by an older brother at age 12. He became a male prostitute, eventually catering to closeted antigay conservatives such as Roy Cohn. On the basis of his years of prostitution and anonymous sex, Falzarano claims to understand “gay living.” Falzarano founded Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays in 1996 with help from the Family Research Council. He was ousted from PFOX in mid-1999. He accused the religious right of exploiting the exgay movement and failing to support the movement financially. Falzarano then founded Parents and Friends Christian Ministries and currently serves as the...
- [Alleged Molester Attended Exgay Live-In Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/alleged-moleste/): According to WPTY Memphis: A Florida teacher accused of molesting young boys is behind bars after police say he confessed while staying at Love in Action in Memphis. 29-year-old Chad Stoffel appeared in a West Palm Beach courtroom on Monday. He’s charged with molesting a 16-year-old student. Police say Stoffel was staying at Love in Action when he confessed. Love in Action is the group that claims to turn gay people straight. Love In Action survivor Peterson Toscano reports: From a recent discussion I had with a man who attended Love in Action’s adult program this summer, he confirmed that adults...
- [Mr. Hetero Pastor Sues City](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/mr-hetero-pasto/): The pastor who officiated at a “Mr. Hetero” contest in Worcester, Mass., which featured the testimony of an ex-gay and several silly contests, has sued the city. He was billed for the extra cost of having police presence at the event. The Rev. Thomas J. Crouse, in a suit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, asks for injunctions and damages against the city, citing unconstitutional policies and actions. It is not clear whether Crouse knew of the requirement and agreed to it in advance only later to renege or whether he was surprised after the fact. In the suit,...
- [Discussion: Gay Sex in the ’70s](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/discussion-gay/): ”One for gay sex please…” It’s not often you walk up to a ticket booth and a legitimate theater and say that. I went to see Gay Sex in the ‘70s last night. For those of you interested the last showing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 is on Thursday night. Sometimes I just get tired of trying to intellectualize how all my experiences in gay culture might possibly relate to exgays so I’m not going to try and do that. Rather I’ve got a few thoughts on the film. Footage of the 70s consisted of old news footage, some pornography and...
- [Besen to Exodus: Time to March Your Masses to Washington](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/besen-to-exodus/): According to activist/author Wayne Besen, it’s time for Exodus to put up or shut up. If “hundreds of thousands” of exgays really exist then, as Besen says today, it’s time for these exgays’ self-proclaimed leader, Alan Chambers, to march the hordes to Washington and prove their numbers in force. Besen compares Exodus’ counts to the “billions” who have been “served” by McDonald’s. But it isn’t just Exodus’ numbers that seem out of whack. To former exgays, Exodus member ministries’ services — however tasty and served with a smile — seem in retrospect about as healthy as a diet of bacon double...
- [Exgay Billboard Parody Revisited](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/exgay-billboard-2/): The following postcard is based on this parody of this exgay billboard, which prompted this threat against Ex-Gay Watch by the fundamentalist Liberty Counsel. People struggling with sexual attraction and identity have many options. Ex-Gay Watch supports the right to make such choices with informed consent and without fear of discrimination or harassment. Can Exodus or PFOX say the same?
- [New York Times: Gay Men with Straight Wives](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/new-york-times/): Today’s New York Times Health section features an article by Katy Butler titled, Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of ‘Brokeback’ Marriages. Author, therapist, and Ex-Gay Watch blogger Joe Kort is interviewed about gay men married to heterosexual spouses.
- [SCOTUS: Universities Must Accept Antigay Military Recruiters Along with Taxpayer Funding](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/scotus-universi/): On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled unanimously that law schools could not bar military recruiters from their campus. The Cato Institute (often described as “conservative” but in actuality libertarian) contrasted that decision with that which found that the Boy Scouts could discriminate. The Solomon Amendment was enacted by Congress to require that universities which receive federal funding cannot refuse access to military recruiters. The schools argued that these recruiters were for institutions that discriminate in employment against gays and lesbians and, since they did not allow non-military discriminatory employers, they should be able to restrict access to...
- [Heterosexuals Only Bumper Sticker Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/heterosexuals-o/): It’s about time somebody does a protest with this concept. Of course I have to question how difficult the stickers are to remove since if I were a legislator I might be inclined to vote against a group that vandalizes my statehouse. Forgive my lameness: The stickers were easily removed, and were up only a short time. Via Wayne Besen.
- [TVC Supports Its Internet Consultant’s Extremist Site; NARTH, Stephen Bennett Guest Also Linked](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/tvc-supports-it/): Update: Most of the TVC associated sites in this post have now been substantially altered or no longer accept referral traffic from Ex-Gay Watch. In response I have posted google cache backups of all links cited. I’m sorry to post this graphic which is definitely NOT one of mine. If you don’t wish to view the image I’ll just tell you it’s a banner ad created by an ugly and hateful site called AlainsNewsletter.com which encourages its readers to place the image on their personal homepages. It features an image of the Prophet Muhammad superimposed onto toilet paper. I find it...
- [TVC-Affiliated Newsletter Supports Constitution Party](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/tvc-affiliated/): “Alain’s Newsletter” receives logistical support from the Traditional Values Coalition — specifically, the TVC sends the newsletter to its e-mail subscribers, whether they asked for it or not. The newsletter endorses a political party platform that happens to match that of the Constitution Party. Original article: It’s Time for A New Conservative Party (Recent XGW articles noted that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, several Constitution Party leaders are avowed white supremacists. The party also supports the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.)
- [A Constitutionalist’s World](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/a-constitutiona/): When I was about 8 years old, the moon landings were still fresh and fascinating. Like many kids from that time, a couple of my friends and I decided we were going to build a space ship and go to the moon. What strikes me most about that memory is how real the anticipated trip was to me – a tribute to youthful imagination I suppose. I told my parents, grabbed a bag of grapes and a sandwich I believe, and off we went (well, sort of). I was recently told of a group calling themselves Christian Exodus and reading over...
- [Open Forum: Got Nuke?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/open-forum-got/): Fans used to tune in by the millions each week to watch government agents in La Femme Nikita who would resort to unethical means (such as torturing and killing the innocent) in order to kill terrorists. Then viewers would switch to the news and watch… government agents using unethical methods to kill terrorists. Those were the olden days, and the world is much improved now. Each week, millions of people watch Battlestar Galactica to see what well-armed cynical religious zealots can do to an optimistic, liberal, secular, democratic, diverse religious society. Then they turn the channel and… you finish the story.
- [Bill Maier Turns Unproven Suspicions Into Fact](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/bill-maier-turn/): In Wednesday’s Focus on the Family broadcast (03/01/06) Vice President Bill Maier claims links between protests at Love Won Out and unknown vandals who threw eggs at the host church a week prior. Absolutely no evidence exists the egg-throwers were gay, or activists, but Maier states it as fact: It’s all about compassion and hope and understanding and actually there’s a very effective challenge to the church to be more understanding on this issue. One of the things that Tom [Minnery] didn’t mention is that the church that was hosting this event was egged, it was vandalized. Some gay activists came...
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 03/01/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/stephen-bennett-3-2/): In an stunning display of circa-1984 logic, today’s guest Peter LaBarbera pretends closing the baths will keep gay men from doing unsafe things. In the name of compassion and being pro gay rights, gay men are dying young. They’re dying in the prime of their life because they’re engaged in practices that are unnatural and frankly very dangerous and we would like to see the bathhouses closed down. We would like to see homosexual men realizing that change is possible as you’ve experienced Steve but unfortunately in Chicago the pro gay media is now so ensconced that they try to say...
- [If Exodus Outsourced Their Call Center…](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/if-exodus-outso/): Since Exodus claims to be “contacted” over 400,000 times every year (that’s about once every 30 seconds during normal business hours) Peterson decided they will probably need to outsource to a call center in Bangalore to keep up. Petersons’s audio post is obviously just satire. If the absurdity of the concept didn’t tip you off the over-the-top accents, gay as well as Indian probably will. Yes it seems “Chad” is having some inner conflict over a recent press release issued about Brokeback Mountain. Here’s the audio post.
- [Stephen Bennett’s “Straight Talk Radio” Program 02/28/06](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/stephen-bennett-4-2/): Today’s guest is Jerry Leach, a former pre-op MTF transsexual. Translation: He was about to have gender reassignment surgery but decided not to and now goes around peddling his comical ideas about gender conformity to others. In my excerpt Jerry shares with us how “the stereotypical male homosexual will engage in at some point” the wearing of clothing of the opposite gender and various other whacky deviations of that. Stephen: Jerry let’s take a moment to talk about cross-dressing for those who may not understand it. Is there a connection between cross-dressing and homosexuality. Tell me and the listeners what cross-dressing...
- [Youth in the Ex-Gay Crosshairs](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/youth-in-the-ex/): The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has released a report entitled Youth in the Crosshairs: The Third Wave of Ex-Gay Activism A key finding of the report shows that, in this third wave of ex-gay activism, ex-gay programs and their evangelical Christian right allies are focusing less on “curing” adults of homosexuality and more on preventing its development by targeting parents, children and adolescents. Whether through ex-gay teen programs or traveling ex-gay conferences like Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out ex-gay programs are recommending that parents commit their children to treatment of “prehomosexuality” even if it is against their...
- [Liberty Counsel Threatens to Sue Over Exodus Parody](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/liberty-counsel-threatens-to-sue-over-exodus-parody/): Ex-Gay Watch this morning received a letter from Mathew D. Staver of the Liberty Counsel, a religious-right legal assault team based at Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalist Liberty University. The letter warns web sites to remove this parody by Justinsomnia of this original Exodus photo. Update: The creator of the parody has also received a cease-and-desist letter. Update 2: Jason Griffey has created a parody of the parody — this time with the logo airbrushed out. Jason encourages others to create their own parodies. Would that be Exodus’ worst nightmare — or the sort of publicity that Exodus actually wants? Note: XGW opposes...
- [Infographic: Alan Chambers Claims To Represent Ex-Gays, However Many There Are](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/infographic-ala/): Click Image To View Full Size If you can’t think of anything else to comment on, try and guess where I got the idea for that purple gradient.
- [Christian School Gets Confused About Christian Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/christian-schoo-2/): The San Diego Union-Tribune has a story about Michelle Williams, an Academy Award nominee for Brokeback Mountain. The principle of her childhood school decided Michelle needed some tough love: Not so proud is Santa Fe Christian headmaster Jim Hopson. “We don’t want to have anything to do with her in relation to that movie,” said Hopson, who turned down a request from a Union-Tribune reporter to visit the school and chat with students about the movies and one of their own being up for an Academy Award. “Michelle doesn’t represent the values of this institution. We would not approve of her...
- [Dan Being A Dork](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/03/dan-being-a-dor/): Woo! Focus just announced a Politics Won Out conference for September in beautiful Palm Springs. It’s been years since I was there and fall is such a nice time to visit. Anyone know any nice gay resorts? Oh and look forward to a big audio roundup tonight.
- [FRC, LaBarbera Succumb to the Relativism of Lifeboat Theology](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/frc-labarbera-s/): The effort by Peter LaBarbera and the Family Research Council to lock HIV-positive gay travelers out of the United States reminds me of a Christian song. In 1985, conservative Christian contemporary singer Steve Taylor released a song called Lifeboat (lyrics). The song is about a teacher, Mrs. Aryan, who offers her very young and impressionable public-school classroom children a lesson about something called “values clarification.” In this parody of moral relativism, the children are assigned to clarify their values with a game in which five people must fit into a lifeboat built for two. The children must clarify their values by...
- [Pro-Exgay Vs Gay-Tolerant Reaction to UCLA Gay Genetics Finding](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/pro-exgay-vs-ga/): A UCLA study recently suggested that a mother’s genes may play a contributing role in their sons’ sexual orientation. (Previous XGW coverage.) Exgay movement pundit Prof. Warren Throckmorton responds to the study here. Teach The Facts critiques Prof. Throckmorton’s analysis here. (Background note: Throckmorton has aided the antigay parents group PFOX in its effort to inject exgay lessons and literature into the Montgomery County, Maryland, high school sex-education curriculum. TTF is a local group of parents that has advocated against the imposition of unscientific misinformation with antigay political and religious biases upon a fact-based curriculum.)
- [Exodus Ad Heroes, the ‘Philadelphia 11,’ Endorse Constitution Party](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/exodus-ad-heroe/): As Ex-Gay Watch has frequently noted, since late 2004 Exodus has periodically praised antigay activists who are euphemistically labeled the “Philadelphia 11.” The Philadelphia group was the subject of a recent exgay ad campaign. The group’s real name is Repent America, and it is led by one Michael Marcavage. Exodus and Focus on the Family portray the group as Christian martyrs for illegally disrupting a Philadelphia gay street festival, disobeying police orders, getting arrested, and finally getting hit with trumped-up hate-crime charges that were later dismissed. (The prosecution may have been overzealous because Repent America already had a long criminal record...
- [Black Exgay Activist Admits Ties to Constitution Party](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/black-exgay-act/): On his web site, African-American exgay activist D.L. Foster acknowledged yesterday that he is an active supporter of the Constitution Party. Foster says he spoke at the Party’s 2004 Georgia convention. Foster appears to be correct that no professed racists were on the 2004 Georgia state program. However, the convention’s listed speaker, Gary DeMar, allegedly strives for a fundamentalist federal government and advocates the execution of homosexuals and adulterers. (Related documentation via Google search.) As XGW also recently noted, the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified several Constitution Party candidates and speakers in other states as self-declared white supremacists. No doubt...
- [Focus on the Family Compliments LWO Protesters](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/02/focus-on-the-fa-20/): Focus on the Family tonight acknowledged its host church’s observations that the gay-affirming protesters at “Love Won Out” in St. Louis were friendly, well-behaved and gracious. Focus does not offer a demographic breakdown of LWO attendees, nor does Focus quote any Exodus officials’ opinions of the protesters.
- [PFOX Moms Applaud Cohen Performance on CNN](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/pfox-moms-appla/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays operates a Yahoo group for antigay parents and relatives of adult gay persons. The e-mail discussions are tightly moderated by conservative federal “civil rights” attorney Estella Salvatierra, who has served as PFOX vice president. Salvatierra not only blocks any e-mail message that is critical of an exgay activist or tactic, but also has been known to edit the PFOX list members’ messages — changing key phrases and deleting paragraphs to comply with PFOX’s strict and politically correct worldview — without informing the writer or the group of her changes. Following PFOX president Richard Cohen’s embarrassing appearance...
- [Video “It’s Not Gay” Only Serves To Further Reinforce Idea Of “Exgay For Pay”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/video-its-not-g/): Since 2000 the American Family Association has been peddling a video about exgays titled “It’s Not Gay.” Ex-Gay Watch reader Jim Burroway recently threw $10 at the AFA’s discount-bin for a copy of the video. In his book “Anything But Straight,” author Wayne Besen coined the term “exgay for pay” which describes how virtually every publicly visible person proclaiming to be healed of their homosexuality makes it their liveliehood. I refuse to assert any exgay is getting rich off this, infact many exgays take offense to such a suggestion. Possibly the most touching and relatable moment of exgay Stephen Bennett’s Straight...
- [Gay And Lesbian Couples As Good Parents As Other Storks](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/gay-and-lesbian/): An all male stork couple and an all female stork couple at a Dutch zoo in Overloon were each given an egg. Zoo spokeswoman, Esther Jansen said: “The gay storks look after the eggs and the chicks just as well as our heterosexual birds.”
- [Richard Cohen on CNN; Exgay Leaders React](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/richard-cohen-o/): The Malcontent has video of Richard Cohen’s appearance on CNN. CNN’s website also has video. Pam Spaulding offers background on Cohen, and Steve at A Tenable Belief reacts to Cohen’s techniques. Warren Throckmorton seems as freaked-out by Cohen’s antics as other XGW readers are. He emailed me last night after writing about it on his blog:
- [Exodus Board Member: Wear Intolerance As A Badge of Honor](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exodus-board-me-2/): “They feel like we’re intolerant. So I guess we should wear that as a badge of honor.” — Phil Burress of the Cincinnati-based anti-gay Citizens for Community Values on Ohio placing dead last in measures for civil equality for LGBT citizens. Burress is a board member of Exodus International, the exgay network. Pam Spaulding spotlights an abundance of illogical, self-contradictory talk from Burress in an American Family Association article. Here’s the AFA text: A pro-homosexual group calling itself Equality of Ohio recently published a nationwide study about so-called discrimination against “gays,” lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals. The study rated the state...
- [Cohen on CNN](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/cohen-on-cnn/): [Editor’s Note: The content of this entry has been incorprorated into a more recent post.]
- [In Case There Are Still Any Doubts X-Men 3 Is About Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/in-case-there-a/): In case there are still any doubts X-Men 3 is about exgays: [Ian McKellen] has been openly gay since the 1980s, and he takes exception to the common assumption that homosexuals can be ‘cured.’ So he channeled his fury into the role of Magneto. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday McKellen vented, “As a gay man, some people think that it ought to be cured and made normal again and I find it as offensive as someone saying that they have a cure for the color of their skin. Read the full story. (Hat tip Scott)
- [Where Do You Stand on The Political Compass?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/where-do-you-st/): There are no true “liberals” or “conservatives,” no simple “leftists” or “rightists.” As The Political Compass indicates, these labels are only somewhat accurate in describing a person’s position on a single subject such as economics, or social freedoms. The labels are useless for the purpose of accurately describing a person’s overall philosophy or “worldview.” For a more accurate description of someone’s philosophy, a label encompassing three or more dimensions worthy of Star Trek would be ideal, but a two-dimensional graph covering both economic and social views can serve as a helpful starting point. The Political Compass offers a brief test to...
- [Peace And Good Will From Both Gay-Affirming And Ex-Gay Advocates?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/peace-and-good/): From A Tenable Belief: I wish that anyone struggling with sexual orientation and religious issues could get a clear message from ex-gay ministries and gay-affirming folks alike: We want you to survive, first and foremost, take care of yourself, and be healthy. With that, you’ll have the chance (time, energy, intellect) to work through whatever else you need to do. I know what it’s like to live in dark places. Not related to orientation or religion in many years, but the kind of difficult places that make it hard to believe that some sort of light or peace is going to...
- [What Forms Our Attraction to Gender Vs. Religion?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/what-forms-our/): Willful Grace asked last week: Here’s a question. Please comment. Let me know what you think about this. What if…..we are born not really sexually attracted to any certain gender in particular. What if…..we are born with certain personality traits and temperament… and… according to the way we are raised (or, “yanked up” as I’ve humorously heard it put), we develop our sexuality. There’s such a myriad of sexual preferences out there. Really. That would explain genetics and biology playing a factor and dispell the issue of there actually being a “choice”, wouldn’t it? Maybe not. I’m just, again, thinking out...
- [CNN / Paula Zahn To Air Piece On Richard Cohen](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/cnn-paula-zahn/): It appears the Paula Zahn show will air a segment on Richard Cohen this week, possibly Monday night unless it gets bumped by something constituting real news. Other people interviewed for the story include Jash Drescher, Robert Spitzer, Shawn O’Donnell, and a client who’s been seeing Cohen for three years. Update: It looks like the segment won’t be airing tonight but probably later in the week.
- [Exgays Share Common Cause with Sex Party: Opposition to Condoms](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exgays-share-co/): Exodus board member Phil Burress wants drugstore condoms locked away to discourage their purchase. Focus on the Family disapproves of condoms as a fallback when abstinence fails. Exgay activist Stephen Bennett opposes both condoms and potential prophylactic drugs to prevent HIV infection. Antigay activist Peter LaBarbera and the antigay Constitution Party of Illinois dictate that clinics that make condoms available should be forcibly closed — and their workers jailed. The American Family Association’s AgapePress and the AFA’s Michigan affiliate oppose fund-raising for medical treatments and potential cures for HIV/AIDS. All these folks have something in common with a New York sex...
- [Fun With Captions - By Peterson](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/fun-with-captio/): Peterson Toscano wrote some amusing ex-gay themed captions for this animation taken from Battle Cry‘s website. Peterson describes Battle Cry as “a conservative Christian youth organization with fascist leanings created by a straight white man from the Bush administration.” The first caption in the sequence reads: Luke: Damn, I can’t believe Travis and I got caught in the locker room last night. We were only kissing, but they warned me, “One moment on the lips then you’re all over his hips, and then some.” See the rest of the fun over at Peterson’s site.
- [Black Churches And Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/black-churches/): Last night on NPR’s Talk of The Nation the guest was gay Christian activist and author E. Lynn Harris. The full program is available on online. Talk of the Nation, May 18, 2006 · Author E. Lynn Harris began writing about the “invisible life” of black male bisexuals years before the “down low” phenomena went high profile. Now he sets his sights on a new target: homophobia in the black church. He talks about faith, sex and sexual identity.
- [“Heterosexual Questionnaire” Creates a Stir](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/heterosexual-qu/): Just prior to the last Day of Silence, two teachers at Port Washington High School (Wisconsin) distributed a questionnaire meant to give students an inkling of what a gay person might go through in life. The questionnaire, developed by the late Martin Rochlin was distributed to some 400 students (out of 930) and was used in a class discussion period.  The 10 questions were some common things a gay person might be asked, but with the roles reversed, such as “What do you think caused your heterosexuality” and “Could it be that your heterosexuality is just a phase”.  They weren’t meant...
- [Dear Abby Weighs In](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/dear-abby-weigh/): I’m quite late to report this, but on April 21 “Dear Abby” gave her opinion about Dr. Dobson’s theories on the origins of sexual orientation. Without coming right out and calling Dr. Dobson an idiot, she sidestepped the whole “make him gay” issue and gave some helpful and reassuring advice: DEAR ABBY: My husband, “Ron,” and I are at odds over parenting our 7-year-old son, “Brett.” My husband is very domestic. He cooks like a world-class chef and does more housework than any man I know of. I have read Dr. James Dobson’s books on family. He clearly states that a...
- [FRC President Tony Perkins on O’Reilly Factor Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/frc-president-t/): Family Research Council President Tony Perkins will be on The O’Reilly Factor this evening (May 17) to discuss “Presidential leadership on protecting marriage” i.e. the Marriage Amendment.  He is slated after the first segment at 8:15 PM ET.  Here is a little preview of what we might hear from Tony this evening.  There is growing apprehension from some on the political right over a perceived lack of zealousness on the part of President Bush concerning this issue.  This might prompt some interesting discussion tonight.  If you watch, feel free to come back here and discuss any issues they bring up.  
- [Limbaugh Factually Ignorant](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/limbaugh-factua/): OK, that’s probably not the most surprising title for an entry, be it either Rush or David Limbaugh. And this isn’t really much of a story. But I found it interesting that in the great culture war (the one in which anti-gay activists claim that gay people are the cause of many, if not all, of society’s ills) logic, truth, and facts are often less important than hyperbole and emotional spin. In WorldNetDaily, David Limbaugh writes a piece in which he trys to portray gay people as harassing heterosexuals. As an example of this harassment, he complains that “homosexual rights activists”...
- [X-Men Movie’s Mutant ‘Cure’ A Metaphor for Exgay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/x-men-movies-mu/): At the suggestion of Scott of Reality Cubed, I watched the seven-minute movie trailer for X-Men: The Last Stand. The movie’s story line appears to be a sensational, but somewhat oversimplified, mirror of the exgay debate: If there were a medical cure for something that isn’t an illness, then is it ethical or humane to administer social rejection, discriminatory laws and involuntary medical treatment to accomplish that “cure”?
- [Open Forum: Exgay News Roundup](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/open-forum-exga/): What does ex-gay mean? Is the term offensive? Thoughtful discussions by two exgay/gay-celibate bloggers, Rainbow Unbroken and Disputed Mutability Exodus condones homophobia,criticizes Fall Out Boy’s tolerance statement Discussion by Pam Spaulding and Some Guys Are Normal with two comments at the Exodus Live Out Loud blog Palm Beach County. Fla., school boardthwarts free speech over exgays By Wayne Besen Antigay activist ejected by GLSEN By 365gay.com and Bay Windows
- [AFA Claims Ford Is Just This Side of Bankruptcy Due to Boycott](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/afa-claims-ford/): Despite the overwhelming defeat of the recent shareholder introduced, AFA backed anti-gay family resolution (95-5% against), the AFA continues to send out alerts claiming that their boycott has virtually bankrupted Ford in the few short weeks of it’s existence. After reading some of their latest stuff, I took a look at GM’s performance over the past year and compared it to Ford’s. They are the only two fully American owned auto manufacturers around today, and they are both having a tough time of it. This graph from BigCharts.com clearly illustrates that both manufacturers track closely. Of course, depending on gas guzzling...
- [Attention LA Readers: Peterson Toscano Is Coming](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/attention-la-re/): Love In Action graduate and queer performing artist Peterson Toscano is coming to LA: Friday June 2, and Sunday June 4, 2006 at 8:00 PM both nights at Space At Fountain’s End 3929 Fountain Avenue (at Sanborn)Silverlake (Los Angeles), CA323 856 6168$15.00 For clips of his one-man show click here.
- [Thank God You Are Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/thank-god-you-a/): In his Good Friday sermon, Bishop Alfred A. Owens Jr., pastor of Greater Mount Calvary Church in Northeast D.C., screamed that “it takes a real man to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior”. To punctuate the point, he clarified that he meant only straight men, “I’m not talking about no faggot or no sissy”. He then invited all the straight men to come down to the altar to thank God that they are straight, saying “You ain’t funny and you ain’t cranky, but you’re straight,” – a comment I am still pondering in confusion. Bishop Owens has spent several years on...
- [AP Parrots Exodus, Misreporting Number of Exgays And Extent of Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/ap-parrots-exod/): An article by Travis Reed of the Associated Press today misreports numerous facts about the exgay movement and its critics. The story was carried by at least three central Florida newspapers — The Bradenton Herald, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Please consider writing a polite letter to AP, and to the local newspapers, to encourage fact-checking and to discourage the parroting of unconfirmed and inaccurate information in the future. Read on….
- [Exgay Calls for Starbucks Boycott](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exgay-calls-for/): In a press release fashioned as an AgapePress “news” story, San Diego exgay activist James Hartline calls upon “Christians” (by which he means antigay social-conservative Christians) to boycott Starbucks.
- [Practice Guidelines: A First Step By Throckmorton And Yarhouse](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/practice-guidel/): Warren Throckmorton has just published a preliminary document developed by himself and Mark Yarhouse. Titled Sexual identity therapy: Practice guidelines for managing sexual identity conflicts (100K pdf) Its intended audience is mental health professionals, and at this point the authors are going public with it in order to invite review from their peers. Before going any further, let’s acknowledge the context in which this document is being presented. Much of the ex-gay movement has shied away from establishing standards of care, resisted external oversight, made vague and/or unverifiable claims, insisting that their role was limited to ministry or peer-to-peer support. Those...
- [PGN Article Quotes Daniel Gonzales](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/pgn-article-quo/): An article in the Philadephia Gay News profiles an ex-ex-gay couple, Stephen Parelli and Jose Ortiz, that will be speaking to a Baptist group this weekend. The couple met at an ex-gay group in New York in 1997. Parelli was in counseling with Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH. In addition to comments by Wayne Besen, Peterson Toscano, and Randy Thomas the author also quotes “Daniel Gonzales, a former ‘ex-gay’ and contributor of ExGayWatch.com” Thanks, Daniel, for your representation. Great job. (A special “thank you” to NARTH, Calvary Baptist Church, and the ex-gay movement in general for causing these men to meet and...
- [Comment Security](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/comment-securit/): I have added some security measures to prevent spammers from posting ads for poker, pills, and porn to this site. In the past, these ads rarely appeared on the site, but they filled our writers’ e-mail boxes and our database with spam. These security steps should not affect legitimate commenters, but if your comment is blocked or delayed for some reason, please let me know.
- [Focus Uses “National Day Of Prayer” To Push Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/focus-uses-nati/): (May 11, 2006) The title of today’s Focus on the Family broadcast was “National Day of Prayer 2006: America, Honor God (Part 2 of 2).” I couldn’t help but notice the number of times prayer and the political issue of marriage equality repeatedly occurred in the same sentence.
- [New Book Records the Rise of National Christianist Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/new-book-record/): Salon.com has printed a lengthy and worthwhile excerpt from the new book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. The excerpt is too long and detailed to be adequately summarized; suffice it to say for now that individuals and ideas within Christian nationalism (or national Christianism, take your pick) seem to mirror the National Socialists’ blend of sanctimonious and distorted Bible readings; patriotism; a desire to use government power, money, and surveillance to impose their own self-serving religious “dominion” upon God and society; and contempt for the freedom of competing faiths and cultural groups. Addendum: At Talk To Action, author Michelle...
- [Misquoting John Stossel, Exgays Protest Recognition of Ex-Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/misquoting-john/): Libertarian pundit and veteran ABC investigative reporter John Stossel upset the nation’s handful of exgay activists in 2004 when he interviewed both exgays and ex-exgays, and concluded that the exgay movement consists of only a handful of ideological activists who are abandoned at a steady pace by people who say the movement failed to “change” them. In a press release issued today, Exodus criticized Stossel for renewing his criticisms of the exgay political front. Stossel commented on exgays during a May 10 appearance on Fox News’s “O’Reilly Factor” to promote his new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity : Get Out...
- [Ford Shareholders Overwhelmingly Reject Anti-Gay Resolution](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/ford-shareholde/): A shareholder of Ford Motor Company introduced a resolution to have the company remove sexual orientation as a category against which employees could not be discriminated. Most of his ranting, however, had little or nothing to do with non-discrimation policy.
- [Straight Talk Radio Dramatically Slows Down](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/straight-talk-r-2/): Seems there’s a whole lot of white space on the Straight Talk Radio website these days. As far as Joe Brummer and I can recall, the last new episode aired was on the White House Easter egg roll. An email sent to Straight Talk Radio seeking comment on the long string of reruns was not returned.
- [Melissa Fryrear Offers Explanation Of Her Ex-Gay Statistics](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/melissa-fryrear-5/): Last weekend Melissa Fryrear was quoted in the Miami Herald: ”You can’t make people want to overcome their sexuality. It must be an individual decision,” said speaker Melissa Fryrear. “Thousands of people have made that decision, though.” I’ve been on Alan Chambers’ case for questionable statistics for some time now so I figured I’d email Melissa to see what her source is. She was kind enough to respond to my message and offered an explanation today. In the interest of fairness I present Melissa’s reply in its entirety. Mr. Gonzales, In response to your question, my statement that thousands of men...
- [Silencing Fred Phelps](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/silencing-fred/): I believe that the men and women in uniform fighting for us in Iraq are honorable and are serving a cause that they believe is in the best interest of our country. And though many may disagree with the way in which the war was initiated and is being administered, most agree that those who are serving are worthy of respect.
- [Whoops](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/whoops/): Today’s Family News In Focus referred to Randy Thomas as the president of Exodus International. Congrats to Randy on his unexplained and no-doubt brief promotion!
- [Open Forum: ‘Poseidon’ As ‘Death Porn’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/open-forum-pose/): Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice: A supposedly fun thing I may never want to do again after 9-11, disaster films are simple death porn…. He’s describing Poseidon, but as far as I’m concerned, he could also be talking about Mission Impossible III, War of the Worlds, or even Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
- [Dobson Recalls Pivotal Transition Towards Formation Of Heterosexuality At Age 2-3](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/dobson-recalls/): In Monday’s (05/08/06) Focus On The Family broadcast Dobson throws out a new term not even Google has a clinical definition for called “detachment and differentiation.” This supposedly describes the process by which a young boy separates from the mother and bonds with the father around ages 2-3. Dobson says homosexuality is “very typically rooted in the failure to accomplish that differentiation.” Dobson proceeds to tell listeners and a studio gallery full of Focus Institute students he remembers that pivotal moment at age 2-3 which led to formation of his heterosexuality. Of course I have a full transcript and audio:
- [Throckmorton Quoted on Lesbian Pheromone Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/throckmorton-qu/): Dr. Warren Throckmorton was quoted in an article at HealthCentral.com about the just-released study identifying different brain processing of certain smells (potentially pheromones) between heterosexual women and lesbians: The research suggests that “sexual preference is associated with the brain response,” said Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology and fellow for psychology and public policy at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. “Lesbian women don’t show the same pattern of [brain] activation in response to the pheromones.” While he finds it interesting that different parts of the brain responded differently in the study, “how those differences get there this says...
- [TVC Complains About CBS PSA](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/tvc-complains-a/): Today, millions of young people fear that they will be rejected by family and friends simply because they are gay. But you have the power to make a difference. Be an ally, a friend. Go to GLAAD.com. This is wording that Traditional Values Coalition finds objectionable. The above quoted public service announcement played today on As the World Turns on CBS. TVC sent out a press release blasting “GLAAD’s Pro-Homosexual Ad Campaign” and “CBS-TV’s Complicity”. TVC proposes an alternate PSA be prepared. Instead of encouraging the public to make a difference about fear of rejection, TVC’s announcement would present “a view...
- [Exodus: Stop the Ministry, Resume the Sexual Peer Pressure](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exodus-stop-the/): Elizabeth McClung observes that Exodus has largely abandoned its ministry to gay youths, and replaced that effort with a program to teach heterosexual antigay “Christian” teen-agers new methods of verbal peer pressure and misinformation. McClung is scruplous in linking to specific Exodus acts of misinformation, such as: there are no same-sex-attracted teen-agers, only heterosexual teen-agers tempted by same-gender lust homosexuality can be caused by namecalling homosexuality is remedied by tomboys undergoing beauty-pageant makeovers Beyond the parroting of antigay misinformation, antigay youths are encouraged to threaten gay/straight alliances that uphold freedom of speech, expression, and religion for gay and straight students alike....
- [Study Gets 2nd Look: Exgays Harmed By Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/study-gets-2nd/): From Screw Bronze via A Tenable Belief via Some Guys Are Normal: In 2001, a peer-reviewed study by Drs. Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder measured the harm caused by exgay programs to 202 former participants. Some Guys Are Normal observes: Study subjects: 202Number that were no longer struggling and were fully heterosexual: 8Of those 8, number that were not employees or volunteers of ex-gay groups: 1Number that felt they had failed: 176Number who felt conversion had done long term harm: 155Number who attempted suicide during therapy: 23Number who attempted suicide after therapy: 11Number who reported spiritual harm: 100 So, according to...
- [Study: Lesbians’ Brains Respond Like Straight Men](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/study-lesbians/): From AP/CNN: WASHINGTON (AP) — Lesbians’ brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women. An earlier study of gay men also showed their brain response was different from straight men — an even stronger difference than has now been found in lesbians. Lesbians’ brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual women. From Good...
- [Leading Evangelical’s Change of Heart: Some Are Skeptical](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/leading-evangel/): Incite the slaughter of Muslims, imprison the homosexuals, and prosecute any religious or human-rights activists who seek to help the faggots: That’s been the policy of Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola. Akinola wins praise from U.S. evangelical Rick Warren. So, when Warren’s wife Kay claims “repentance” for unnamed injustices and seeks inclusion in the HIV/AIDS social-service programs of Orange County, California, naturally the local experts and workers who have battled disease and prejudice for 25 years are a bit suspicious.
- [Besen: Religious-Right War Against Sex](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/besen-religious/): The battle to ban gay civil unions — and to subject all same-gender sexual partners to possible prosecution and imprisonment under sodomy laws — could be just one front in a broad battle by the political religious right to make all sex outside of marriage not only illegal, but dangerous. Wayne Besen summarizes what’s happening on other fronts. I’d like to add that the religious rightists have, for the time being, left a convenient sexual escape clause for themselves: Serial marriage and divorce, which appear partly responsible for the Bible Belt’s high divorce rates. Marry someone at age 18, divorce them...
- [Sun-Sentinel Fails to Look Below the Surface of Exgay Claims](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/sun-sentinel-fa/): An article published today in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel repeats many of the May 6 mistakes of The Miami Herald in covering rival exgay and ex-exgay conferences in Fort Lauderdale.
- [Vatican Astronomer: Creationism ‘A Kind of Paganism’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/vatican-astrono/): From The Scotsman via Andrew Sullivan: Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday. Consolmagno says creation myths are rooted in prehistoric belief in nature gods: “Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That’s why science and religion need to talk to each other,” he said. “Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism — it’s turning God into a nature god. And...
- [Exgay Says Same-Sex-Attracted Soldiers, ‘Perverted’ Bisexuals Threaten National Security](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exgay-says-same/): From Pam Spaulding: In a newsletter article reprinted at Free Republic, San Diego exgay activist James Hartline describes gay former U.S. members of the armed forces as a “radical homosexual group,” calls bisexuals “perverted,” and labels the presence of same-sex-attracted persons in the armed forces “a grave threat to national security.” Harline claims that “sexual promiscuity” and AIDS are rising among same-sex-attracted persons, but offers no documentation. Spaulding hosts a lengthy excerpt from Hartline’s newsletter and from Free Republic’s commenters.
- [Propaganda Won Out: Miami Herald Parrots Exgay Activists](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/propaganda-won/): Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is a logical choice of venue for the exgay Love Won Out roadshow: the church and its authoritarian leader, D. James Kennedy, support the enforcement of sodomy laws that would imprison the nation’s homosexuals. Naturally, given the choice between the imprisonment of same-sex-attracted men and women who (with few exceptions) can’t change, and the pretense of ill-defined “change” offered by roadshows such as Love Won Out, rational individuals might choose so-called “change.” That is the hope of LWO hosts Focus on the Family and Exodus International, both of which: support sodomy laws; support...
- [Exodus Conference Schedule Announced - Both Politically Oriented Workshops Run By Focus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/exodus-conferen/): Exodus has announced workshops being held at this year’s conference. Not surprisingly there are twice as many workshops designed to prevent male-on-male sex than those helping the ladies. As expected Focus On The Family employees are leading politically oriented workshops. Why Not Gay Marriage?: — Glenn T. StantonResponding with Intelligence and CompassionMany are engaged in the culture over same-sex marriage, but few are engaging it intelligently and compassionately, seeking both to win arguments and the hearts of people. Glenn Stanton, who debates on same-sex marriage on college campuses around the nation speaks from his experience of intelligently and winsomely discussing the...
- [Traditional Values Coalition Allies with Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/traditional-val-4/): GLAAD has joined with CBS to prepare a public service announcement (PSA) which will air during the As the World Turns soap opera on May 9. The PSA features an actor who’s character on the soap is struggling to tell his parents that he his gay, along with the actress who plays his mother.
- [Shawn O’Donnell Speaks At Northwestern University](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/shawn-o%e2%809/): Shawn O’Donnell, whose picture was included for a long time on the home webpage of Exodus International, spoke at the University Christian Ministry at Northwestern University. As reported by the student newspaper, O’Donnell shared with the students how he entered Love in Action to try and overcome his same sex attraction and how he finally found freedom in accepting himself the way God made him to be. But O’Donnell said he felt sad when he realized he was still gay even though he had tried to suppress it. “I didn’t feel any better.’ he said. “I actually felt worse because if...
- [Virginity Pledges May Not Hold](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/virginity-pledg/): Abstinence-Only education is flawed in its approach to gay and lesbian students. Rather than set reasonable expectations on these youth regarding responsible sexuality, it tells them that there is no acceptable time in their lives in which they can have sex. Ever. But Abstinence-Only education may also be flawed in its approach to heterosexual students. The appeal of these programs seems limited to those with a strong religious upbringing and seems to ignore those who don’t accept a religious based view of sexuality. Additionally, even those teens who seem to be reached by this educational model may not be truly adopting...
- [T-Shirt Wars](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/t-shirt-wars/): According to a story in the Roseville Press-Tribune, on Tuesday, April 25, one day before the Day of Silence, between 20 and 25 students arrived at Oakmont High School in Roseville wearing T-shirts declaring “Homosexuality is Sin. Jesus can set you free.” Because the shirts violated the school’s dress code that prohibits offensive messages, the students were called to the office and asked to turn them inside out or wear a loaner shirt, Oakmont principal Kathleen Sirovy said. Although some of them agreed, 13 did not comply with the directive and were suspended for defying authority and disruption on campus. The...
- [Alabama School Distributes Sex-Ed Pamphlets Promoting Exgay Organizations](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/alabama-school/): In Alabama (via Good As You): The lesbian mother of a 12-year-old girl has objected to a sex education pamphlet handed out at a Dothan middle school that describes homosexuality as not being a “legitimate lifestyle.”
- [Linda Harvey Opposes Youth Access to HIV Testing](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/linda-harvey-op/): Former Stephen Bennett guest Linda Harvey of Ohio-based Mission America had this to say on AlainsNewsletter.com: Before… and After (Permission to distribute and repost is granted.) The Cleveland center website also states, regarding Ohio law: A minor can consent to – or refuse – an HIV test for AIDS without parental permission. Well, this may be the law, but it needs to be changed. Is it better to offer anonymous testing for minors – or to encourage better child-parent relationships? Which do we think has the longer-range potential of helping more kids, more of the time? The HIV rates aren’t going...
- [ATB: While Gay Couples Want Marriage, Antigay Couples Avoid Covenant Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/atb-while-gay-c/): From A Tenable Belief: In an April 29 column in The Washington Post, William Saletan “notes that 6,000-7,000 couples have taken up covenant marriage since 1997, and over 40,000 gay and lesbian couples have taken their commitments to the maximum level allowed, be it registering as domestic partners, civil unions, or marriage….” Fewer than one percent of heterosexual couples have upgraded their marriages at a time when self-described moral conservatives have succeeded in passing constitutional “protection” of these lackluster couples from the threat of loyal and monogamous same-sex-attracted couples. Given the unpopularity of truly committed marriage among the religious rightists, in...
- [ATB: Exgay Stephen Bennett Loves Rosie O’Donnell](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/atb-exgay-steph-2/): Upon the news of Rosie O’Donnell agreeing to co-host ABC’s daytime TV program The View, Steve Boese’s blog A Tenable Belief observes: Stephen Bennett touted his chance to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Rosie O’Donnell at her blog almost a year ago. She posts mostly in verse, leaving things somewhat cryptic at times, naming Stephen “my born again straight man” … To which Bennett responded a week later (June 4, 2005): Ro – whether you like me or not, I care for you. I have no question you are a wonderful mother – and you and I are alike...
- [ATB: Exgay Stephen Bennett Said God Is ‘Very Bigoted’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/atb-exgay-steph/): Blogger Steve Boese at A Tenable Belief has been spending too much time digging through the archives of exgay performer and activist Stephen Bennett. In an undated video linked near the top of his personal testimony page, Bennett says: We need to love the sinner, but we don’t need to love the sin. We need to love and respect all individuals, but we don’t need to tolerate. Jesus was not a person who tolerated. When the woman was caught in adultery, what did Jesus say to her? “No man condemneth thee, so go and continue in your adultery?” No. [Jesus said,]...
- [Business to the Rescue](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/business-to-the/): Historically, the gay community has been associated with left-leaning politics and has been suspicious of “big business” and capitalism. Some of this is the result of the Communist Party links of some early Mattachine Society members, some was due to anti-gay policies within industry at the time, and some was simply due to the attitudes of the youth in the 60’s and 70’s when the gay rights movement began. For many years there was a general assumption on the part of “gay leaders” that government would mandate rights and equality for gay people and that business would fight them all the...
- [ADF Pres. Alan Sears Spouts “Day of Truth” Hypocrisy In Baptist Press - Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/adf-pres-alan-s/): Permission to reprint is granted to all. From Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund: “Day of Truth” participants will hand out cards of their own, offering to share a candid, loving, fact-based counterpoint to the unspoken assertions of the advocates for homosexual behavior. While making their case from a Christian perspective, the “Day of Truth”ers will confront with compassion — not condemnation — and restrict their discussions to the periods before, after and between classes. [emphasis added] The t-shirt pictured above was made by Tyler Chase Harper and worn to school in response to the Day of Silence. The...
- [Exodus’ Message to the Caribbean](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exodus-message/): For many years the Caribbean has had a culture that encourages abuse towards gays. This has been most visible in Jamaica where a popular style of music seems obsessed with violence and death to gay people but now it is spreading throughout the area.
- [20 West Point Cadets Donate Money In Support Of Equality Ride](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/20-west-point-c/): This morning a donation appeared on Equality Rider Monica Carmean’s page from “friends of cadets” in the amount of $670. This hardly a coincidence since tomorrow the Equality Ride arrives at West Point. Under military rules, cadets aren’t allowed to “protest” in their official capacity and so the donation was done under the “friends of” title. Twenty cadets contributed to the donation, fourteen of whom are heterosexual according to my source at West Point who wished not to be named. I inquired how Monica was chosen as the recipient; One cadet “thought she was cute” and another had previously corresponded with...
- [Homosexuality Isn’t Really the Problem Here](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/homosexuality-i/): In his latest newsletter, Exodus Youth Staffer Michael Ensley has some interesting things to say. I thought I would share some of them along with the thoughts that came to me while reading it. Let’s face it; homosexuality isn’t really the problem here. We’re addicted to lust and satisfaction. We want to experience the same selfish thrill we enjoyed through acting out in the gay lifestyle, where there are little or no boundaries. [emphasis added] … what a lot of “straight” guys are experiencing isn’t His will for their sexuality, either. I’ve noticed that what ex-gays often call “the gay lifestyle”...
- [Liberty Counsel’s Motivation Behind Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/liberty-counsel-2/): I have long suspected that the primary motivation behind the championing of the ex-gay movement by religious conservative groups has more to do with justification of anti-gay discrimination than it has to do with concern for same-sex attracted individuals. This agenda appears to be evident in the positions taken by Exodus and many other “ex-gay leaders”. While they consistently claim sympathy with “those stuggling” or “those who choose to leave the homosexual lifestyle,” they show no interest in those who do not make that choice. Take for example this sentence from Randy Thomas about Christians and same-sex attracted persons in Iran:...
- [Exodus Takes Credit for Equality Ride Bus Clean-Up](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exodus-takes-cr/): When the Equality Riders (a group of students traveling to anti-gay schools to present an inclusive message of Christ) went to Lee University in mid-March, someone (believed to be a woman and teenage boy) painted “fags mobile” on their bus. Some Lee University students helped the Equality Riders remove the graffiti. Today Mike Ensley of Exodus International took credit. Not for the graffiti, but for the clean-up. While the reports on ER’s website credit the hospitality demonstrated by Lee University as acceptance of their message, I suspect it probably had a little more to do with the fact that, just two...
- [Ex-Ex-Gay Becomes Assistant Pastor in Portland](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/ex-ex-gay-becom/): Out of Oregon, via the Willamette Weekly, comes the tale of a 25 year old double-ex who has just become the assistant pastor at Metropolitan Community Church of Portland. [A]t the ripe age of 16, he joined forces with the ex-gay movement that claims to “cure” queers of their homosexuality. For several years, in ex-gay groups like “True Hope…For the Best Alternative,” Mullins tried to “fix” himself and get his “demons” out of his spirit. He finally realized nothing was changing, gave up on his old god, found faith in a new God, attended seminary, fell in love, married his hubby,...
- [Bus Driver Suspended, Not Fired; Will Return to Work](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/bus-driver-susp/): The Washington Blade reported April 14 about a bus driver who was fired for telling a passenger to go to the back of the bus after the passenger complained about a sign equating same-gender sexual attraction with murder. On April 19, the Blade reported that the bus driver was suspended, not fired. Acting D.C. DOT spokesperson Karyn LeBlanc told the Blade this week that the driver would likely return to work next week. According to the Blade: LeBlanc said this week that First Transit officials now believe a passenger rather than the driver hung the posters on one or more Circulator...
- [XGW Invites Readers To Submit Their Own “Silenced” Photos](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/xgw-invites-rea/): 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...
- [Anti-Gay T-Shirts Not Allowed - For Now](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/anti-gay-t-shir/): The AP is reporting that ADF’s cover-twink, Tyler Chase Harper, can be restricted from wearing a shirt that says “homosexuality is shameful” to school – at least until his case can be heard. Harper is claiming a first amendment right to try to shame his fellow students. A majority of judges said, however, that Tyler Chase Harper was unlikely to prevail on claims that the Poway Unified School District violated his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion for keeping him out of class when he wore a shirt with the message “homosexuality is shameful.” The lawsuit results from...
- [Anti-Gay Confusion](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/anti-gay-confus/): The anti-gay right is waging a campaign to make them seem the victims of homosexual militant extremists. Sometimes in their efforts to seem reasonable average folk, they make the most outlandish, bizarre, and self-contradictory statements. For example Kristy DeGuise, a parent in Vermont, is upset that the local school had a presentation about anti-gay bullying. She had this to say: “I don’t mind them going to talk to the students about certain things, and I understand them talking about being gay or lesbian and kids finding out about their sexuality, but I don’t think school is the place to do it,”...
- [Randy Thomas’ Defines Homophobia For Readers And Covers For Falwell](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/randy-thomas-de/): Professional heterosexual Randy Thomas was kind enough to define “homophobia” for us today over at the Exodus: Live Out Loud blog. Homophobia is not some off the cuff comment about Tinky Winky. Homophobia is what you see happening in Iran. By “off the cuff,” Randy means Tinky Winky was the title and subject of an article Falwell wrote and then published in The National Liberty Journal. Just What did Falwell say? [Besides the fact he carries a purse and gays like him] further evidence that the creators of the series intend for Tinky Winky to be a gay role model have...
- [Ft. Lauderdale LWO Billboards Go Up!](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/ft-lauderdale-l/): Any XGW readers live in Ft. Lauderdale? I would just love to have some high-res photos of the billboards. South Florida motorists have already been greeted by a regional billboard campaign, sharing one of the conference messages: “I questioned homosexuality; change is possible; discover how.” [*]
- [School Board’s Club Ban Would Include PFOX Type “Gay To Straight” Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/school-boards-c/): From Sovo.com: The school board voted 7-0 April 10 to create a policy that would ban all “sexually oriented clubs, gay or straight or otherwise.” School system spokesperson Kathy Walters said the board could vote on adopting the policy at its April 24 work session or its May 8 board meeting, but a date hasn’t been decided yet. “Sex-oriented clubs have no place in our school system, gay or straight,” said board member Jim Shuping, who proposed the action. “They are disrespectful and disruptive to our educational process…. We need to take a step back from this and take control of...
- [Wikipedia Page on Exodus Flagged After Changes Made By Exodus Staff](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/wikipedia-page/): After recent changes made to Wikipedia’s entry on Exodus International by Exodus staffers, the page has been flagged as “disputed” with the message seen above. The recent change history of Exodus’ Wikipedia entry is here. Hat tip: Justin Watt of Justinsomnia
- [Mixed Orientation Marriages On Montel](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/mixed-orientati/): XGW contributing author, Joe Kort, was a guest on Montel last week and the boys over at The Malcontent have been kind enough to get video of it.
- [Open Forum: A Message to Duke University](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/open-forum-a-me/): Men can stop rape. Men’s strength is not for hurting.
- [Warring Christian Lawyers?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/warring-christi/): Are two different anti-gay activist law groups using school children as pawns in a war over dominance, message, or contributions? For several years the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, in alliance with the United States Student Association, has sponsored the Day of Silence. The Day of Silence®, a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN®) in collaboration with the United States Student Association (USSA), is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bullying and harassment unacceptable in schools take part in activities to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment – in effect,...
- [Another Anti-Gay Day At AgapePress](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/another-anti-ga/): Sometimes it seems that without gay folk to demonize, the conservative Christian press would have nothing to say. When AgapePress runs out of news on the Christian world, they can always fall back on reruns of anti-gay stories. This not only fills up copy space but also fires up the troops in their culture war – which seems more and more to be a war on gay people’s lives. For example, today AgapePress is running articles on:
- [Bad Parenting And James Dobson](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/bad-parenting-a/): Discipline run amok: Christine of Rising Up Whole shares memories of a childhood tainted by parental abuse that she says was learned, in part, from the tough-love teachings of James Dobson.
- [Exgay in the Heart of Texas](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exgay-in-the-he/): From the Dallas Voice, April 13 No matter what causes a person to be gay, Living Hope Ministries, which is based in Arlington, has one thing to say about it. According to executive director Ricky Chelette, “Either God can change a person’s sexual orientation, or he isn’t God.” Chelette collected about $2,000 in admission fees for a one-day conference where he taught 100 people that: homosexuality is “demonic” work gay is a “learned” behavior gays suffer from emotional wounds that can be healed by pursuing God — Chelette’s way “It’s a sin to be gay because it’s an illegitimate way to...
- [Bioscience Journal Gives Paul Cameron a New Soapbox](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/bioscience-jour/): From Jim Burroway: Paul Cameron’s article, “Children of homosexuals and transsexuals more apt to be homosexual,” has just appeared in the May 2006 issue of the Journal of Biosocial Science, an imprint of Cambridge University Press. Until now, almost all of his work has been self-published, either on his web site or in the pay-to-publish Psychological Reports. But now it is only a matter of time before he is able to brag of having obtained the imprimatur of Cambridge University Press. I have posted a point-by-point analysis of his article. I also have given a few details about events leading up...
- [Exgay Prayer Power in San Diego?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exgay-prayer-po/): From CityBeat, San Diego, April 12: After a 27-year run, San Diego’s oldest newspaper catering to the gay community, The Update, announced on March 29 that its publishing company, Dawn Media, would cease production of all six of its publications due to lack of advertising revenue. Meanwhile, Christian crusader and self-professed ex-gay James Hartline is rejoicing in the spoils. [snip] Victory was achieved due to a combination of “prayer, trusting in God and speaking out publicly,” he writes. “That is so beyond ridiculous,” laughed Amber Thorne, vice president of Dawn Media, who had not read the e-mail before CityBeat called for...
- [Exgay Clubs, Differing Opinions](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exgay-clubs-dif/): Although I recently poked fun at the lameness and PFOX’s hypocrisy in calling for a high school ex-gay club, I wouldn’t suggest students should be denied their rights under equal-access. Wayne Besen has taken a more aggressive position on the matter: Allowing a Gay to Straight Club is patently absurd and a public health menace akin to schools sanctioning a cigarette smoking club. Dare I say Besen is saying Exgay clubs have no place in the public school? Also, considering how often similar baseless “health” type arguments are made against pro-gay clubs I’m not sure if this is the most effective...
- [Traditional Values Coalition Still Uses Studies It Acknowledged As Wrong](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/traditional-val-3/): Lou Sheldon proves that ‘preachers do lie’ By Alvin McEwen. Reprinted with permission. April 8, 2006 — Recently, Traditional Values Coalition head Lou Sheldon gave a speech to Kingdom Builders Christian Center , a predominantly African-American church in Norcross, Georgia. During this speech, he remarked that “preachers don’t lie.” He also accused the gay community of exploiting the civil rights movement for its own purposes, claiming that they have “highjacked the freedom train to Selma.” Lastly, Sheldon encouraged members of the congregation to buy his book, The Agenda, which speaks of a supposed gay conspiracy. However, there are questions, not only...
- [Exodus Lobs Rotten Eggs At Easter Kids](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exodus-lobs-rot/): Much like Las Vegas, modern antigay religion is an industry of sin. It builds much of its business upon the profitable violation of the Ten Commandments. Case in point: Exodus’ pre-Easter message on the Live Out Loud web site. Exodus staffer Caryn Davis whines that the gay parents and children who lined up to participate in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll are taking slots away from heterosexual parents and children. If these gay-identified couples want to be seen as considerate thoughtful neighbors, they wouldn’t take this opportunity alongside other families to make a stink of divisiveness and activism. In...
- [PFOX Q & A](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/pfox-q-a/): PFOX now has a new leaflet designed for ex-gay strugglers to provide to their friends to help answer questions they may have. Unfortunately, PFOX’s leaflet makes claims that are not close to truthful. In fact, many ex-gay individuals and groups don’t make the claims that are in the brochure. Here are a few:
- [Chrysler’s Silly Little Fairy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/chrysler-silly-little-fairy/): Unlike most of my friends, I’m not a car guy. When they tell me about the newest hottest BMW, or whatever, my eyes glaze over. I can’t tell a Mercedes from a Mazda. And that’s why I like Chrysler. I can recognize them on the street; they have unique styling and stand out from the generic boxes driving by them. When the LA Car Show comes, I head to the Chrysler section first. Then the other day I saw a commercial for the DaimlerChrysler’s new Dodge Caliber. In the ad there’s a little fairy flying around turning everything “cute”. But when...
- [“Vagina” A Dirty Word Over At Agape](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/vagina-a-dirty/): A recent article over at the Agapepress about the Vagina Monologues did not once spell out the full word “vagina,” instead substituting the letter “V” on every reference to the play. I was curious what other words might have slid past the AgapeCensors in past articles: Sodomy, as well as SodomizeAnal SexVibratorOrgyRimmingPenisSex Club as well as Bathhouse“gay.com”And lastly my personal favorite, Gay Bowel Syndrome (Thanks to Pam Spaulding for the inspiration.) Update: Found a few more real gems: ClitorisCrack Whore (Always popular)DamnTeenage ProstituteBeastialityMasturbationSadomasochismUpon being told the Agapepress has used Penile Penetration, Peterson Toscano remarked, ” this is a very unsafe site...
- [Homos to the Back of the Bus in D.C.](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/homos-to-the-ba/): Exodus president Alan Chambers occasionally — and illogically — boasts that homosexual persons should not be entitled to constitutional rights because homosexuals and their allies, unlike blacks, have never been ordered to the back of the bus or to drink from separate water fountains. Until now. (The news story upon which this post was based has been corrected by The Washington Blade. Read the update.)
- [Robert Spitzer on “Choice”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/robert-spitzer/): ScienCentral News has a good piece up today summarizing the current scientific debate about the origins of homosexuality–and the political controversies attendant to it (I wish I could link to the full Scientific American Mind article the author is referencing, but it’s behind a subscriber wall). The linked article correctly points out that much of today’s debate centers on the research of Columbia Psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, and his 2003 study analyzing the possibility of change in a small, committed group of ex-gay patients. It includes some great Spitzer quotes clarifying his position: “Do gays have a choice?” — Spitzer replies, “They...
- [PFOX / Liberty Counsel Urge Kids To Form “Gay To Straight Clubs” Infographic](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/pfox-liberty-co/): Having grown weary of picking on internet satirists, Liberty Counsel has paired with PFOX to kick off the “Change is Possible Campaign.” PFOX’s press release accuses “homosexual activists” of “using youth to advance an agenda.” The press release goes on to encourage youth to advance PFOX’s own agenda: Students are asked to distribute literature and put up posters with the message that ex-gays exist, and then report to us the results of their efforts. We also encourage them to start Gay to Straight Clubs, and ask that the ex-gay viewpoint be included in all diversity day presentations that discuss homosexuality. We...
- [Some Thoughts on Easter, Inclusion And Exclusion](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/some-thoughts-o-2/): This Easter season has caused me to think some about the distinction between limited inclusion and exclusion.
- [Focus To Girlfriend Of Exgay: Dump Him](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/focus-to-girlfr/): Focus runs a number of other websites besides Family.org. In this case they have a site called Boundless.org which has an advice column written by someone only identified as “J. Budziszewski” who’s column is titled “Ask Theophilus: Dear Professor Theophilus: I am in the strangest, most painful situation I’ve ever found myself in, apart from my parents’ divorce. A young man is pursuing me. He wants to get married, but he’s not, well, firing on all cylinders. What I mean is that he doesn’t find me sexually attractive. In fact, he doesn’t find women in general sexually attractive. He used to...
- [Receive Ex-Gay Watch Via E-mail](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/receive-ex-gay/): If you are too busy to visit the site every day, and if mumbo-jumbo about “RSS/Atom feeds” makes no sense to you, our e-mail delivery option may be just what you need. Sign up today, and receive a daily update in your e-mail. XGW promises not to share e-mail addresses with anyone, nor to send spam. Our subscription list is managed by FeedBurner. Please note that FeedBurner is owned by Google, whose privacy policies may differ from ours. Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner
- [A Deeply Insecure Faith](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/a-deeply-insecu/): Singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin has lived out a 20-year journey away from superstition, insecurity, hubris, and stymied communication among antigay friends in east Texas. Steve was contacted recently by some former Christian bandmates. With the passage of time, have they matured in spirit?
- [Parody Overkill](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/parody-overkill/): Inspired by Justinsomnia, who just found the Church Sign Generator.
- [Exodus Board Member Wants Condoms Locked Away](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/exodus-board-me/): In an article today in The Washington Post, Exodus board member and Ohio antigay activist Phil Burress argues that drugstores should lock up condoms. Citizens for Community Values — which promotes abstinence as the answer to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies — applauds adding steps to buying condoms. “I’d rather see them locked up,” said Phil Burress, president of the organization. “It’s a lie that condoms prevent all sexually transmitted diseases anyway. People should be educated about that and practice abstinence.” But there is little impartial evidence of measurable benefits from abstinence-only policies, say scientists. Burress pointed to a 2001...
- [Left-Handedness, Gay People, And the Gene Pool](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/left-handedness/): Joe Riddle comments. (March 27)
- [Garry Wills: Christ Among the Partisans](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/04/garry-wills-chr/): Utilizing a wealth of New Testament verses quoting Jesus of Nazareth, writer Garry Wills on Sunday reminded Americans that God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, neither a religious rightist nor a religious leftist. According to the Gospels, opposing partisans sought to exploit Jesus of Nazareth for their political causes and religious revolutions; Jesus refused, and opted for self-sacrifice instead.
- [Who’s Secular Now? Take the Quiz](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/whos-secular-no/): From Talk To Action: Test your knowledge! Here are ten quotes from a pool of 20 well-known Democrats and Republicans, and leaders of the religious right and the nascent religious left. Can you figure out who said what? Take the quiz.
- [Dobson, the Slave Trade, And Antigay Cross-Burnings](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/dobson-the-slav/): James Dobson of Focus on the Family unfavorably compares the love and faith of gay couples to the slave trade. Meanwhile, Dobson’s unholy culture-war allies vigilantes have recently begun burning crosses on the lawns of gay, black and interracial homes in Alabama, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee. And a Jewish family in Delaware has been forced to move because the local public school board, after refusing to pray “in God’s name” — they insisted on praying only in Jesus’ name — proceeded to allow “Christian” classmates to call the Jewish family’s kids Christ-killers. Board members and local “Christians” then made...
- [Exodus Promotes Schoolyard-Brawl Myth — But Antigay Parent Admits Story Is False](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exodus-promotes-3/): The exgay network Exodus International on July 1 joined other religious-rightists in parroting a political scandal over an ordinary schoolyard fight that occurred May 17 in Lexington, Mass. The campaign’s premise was that the local community’s gay-tolerant parents incited their first-grade children to single out antigay parent David Parker’s son for a coordinated attack. The antigay parent at the center of the campaign now admits the campaign’s premise was false: “Are parents and administrators telling little children to get [my son] on the playground because of his father’s beliefs? No, I doubt it.” Will Exodus and its partners come clean and...
- [Antigay Group Demands Medal of Honor: Will Exgays Provide It?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/antigay-group-d/): Repent America, as we’ve noted many, many times, is a Philadelphia-area group that illegally commandeers town council meetings, storms gay-friendly entertainment festivals, shouts down authorized speakers with megaphones in order to incite chaos, and gives a favorable nod to a federal death penalty for homosexuals. The exgay network Exodus thinks so highly of the group that it offered Repent America free publicity in exgay ads last year. Now Repent America has demanded that the city of Philadelphia commemorate the group’s illegal acts against civil rights with a plaque, since a 1965 gay protest for civil rights was granted its own historical...
- [Dobson And HRC: Both Secularist, Eager to Shun Gay People’s Faith And Morality](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/dobson-and-hrc/): In their CNN to-and-fro last week, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson wagged his finger at the media for not demonizing and ostracizing homosexuals — while the Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solmonese summarized the Gay Agenda: But I would be lying if I said that we don’t have an agenda — we do, and this is it: 1. A good job, where workers are respected for the work they do, are treated fairly and offered equal benefits 2. A safe home. So that we and our families can live in a community without fear of hate crimes and persecution 3. Fair...
- [NARTH Responds Irresponsibly to the Birth Order Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/narth-responds/): Updated for NARTH reponse (see below) In the 1990’s, Anthony Bogaert released a study in which he and his fellow researchers had determined that birth order of male children had a correlation with the incidences of homosexual orientation. This observation is not true with all gay men but seems to represent a possible etiology for a sizable portion. The study found that the more older brothers a boy has, the more likely it is that he will grow up to be gay. The rate of increase in each successive male sibling is about 33% (i.e. if an oldest son is about...
- [Exgay Convicted Teen-Molester Offers Rosy Picture of Recidivism](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exgay-convicted/): An article about sex offenders in today’s Washington Post cites an unspecified Danish study which found a recidivism rate of 80 percent among sex offenders who have molested children. According to the study, this likelihood of repeat offenses dropped to 2.3 percent among offenders who were subsequently castrated. Judging from his web site, that’s not the kind of data that convicted sex offender, exgay activist and Exodus regional representative Bob Van Domelen seems to want exgay movement supporters to hear. Let’s take a brief look at Van Domelen and what he has to say about the tendency of convicted child sex...
- [Dan’s on Vacation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/dans-on-vacatio/): I’m off on a family vacation through the 13th so please send tips and leads to your second favorite XGW authors in my absence. I might sporadically check my yahoo email but won’t be posting or checking my XGW email. Incidentally this month is my 26th birthday and if anyone is feeling generous I could really use a new camera for Love Won Out: Palm Springs later this year.
- [Exgay Group JONAH Goes on Right-Wing Zionist Internet Radio Station](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exgay-group-jon/): Despite the fact he no longer has any relevance or credibility, DL Foster brought attention to two interviews JONAH recently gave to an extremist Israeli internet radio station. The first features JONAH co-director and executive secretary of the NARTH board Arthur Goldberg and the second has testimonials. What DL didn’t mention is just how extreme Israel National Radio is: Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio is a right wing Israeli radio station. Founded in 1988, it formerly broadcasted on the Israeli airwaves from a ship in the Mediterranean Sea outside of Israel’s territorial waters until being shutdown by the Israeli government. Currently...
- [Truth Wins Out Press Conference At NEA Convention](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/truth-wins-out-2/): WHO: — Joe Saunders, Central Florida field organizer, Equality Florida— Wayne Besen, executive director, Truth WinsOut — Jim Merritt, ex-gay survivor— Pat Padilla, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) WHAT: A coalition will hold a press conference to challenge so-called “ex-gay” efforts to enter public schools with harmful and scientifically bankrupt programs. WHEN: Friday, June 30 at 2:30 p.m. WHERE: Orange County Convention Center (West Concourse), Orlando, Fla. (In Front of Sign at intersection of International Drive and Exhibit Drive) Update: Here’s a follow up article in the Orlando Sentinel.
- [PFOX’s Richard Cohen on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/pfoxs-richard-c/): Richard Cohen is scheduled to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. Update: Just watched it here in the Pacific time zone and was laughing so hard I was afraid I’d wake up my roommate. Please, if anyone has screen shots of George Foreman looking aghast send them to me. Hopefully The Malcontent will have video posted soon. Update 2: God bless The Malcontent, they’ve got video of it now. Update 3: Poor George…
- [Protest At 2006 Exodus Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/protest-at-2006/): From the Marion Chronicle Tribune: As the annual Exodus Freedom Conference began in the Phillippe Performing Arts Center auditorium, a group of about 12 people with the Gay Liberation Network stood at Indiana Wesleyan University’s main entrance in protest. “We consider the Exodus network and other so called ‘ex-gay’ ministries dangerous, particularly to gay youths,” said Bob Schwartz, a member of the GLN coordination committee. “They’re taking the focus off of adults, where they’ve had one abysmal failure after another, and are moving toward youths, and we consider this child abuse.” The article concludes: “Our target is people who are unsatisfied;...
- [Agape Story: A Small Irony](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/agape-story-a-s/): A story I came across today began thus: Former Lesbian Brings Ex-‘Gay’ Message to 2006 NEA Annual Meeting By Jim Brown June 26, 2006 (AgapePress) – A former lesbian who now runs a Christian ministry in Minnesota will be holding the first ever ex-“gay” exhibit at the National Education Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. I found it amusing to behold the mindset that questions the legitimacy (existence?) of homosexuality by placing the word “gay” in inverted commas, while apparently finding no reason to question the notion of an “ex-gay”.
- [Open Forum: Best D.C. Casual Restaurants](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/open-forum-best/): Interested in D.C.-area restaurants? Check out the comments below….
- [Episcopals to Be Ejected From the Anglican Communion?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/episcopals-to-b/): The London Times is reporting that the Archbishop of Cantebury, Rowan Williams, is drawing up plans to remove the Episcopal Church – and other nonconforming liberal Anglican bodies – from full membership in the Communion. This is because the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglicans, would not repent for electing an openly gay man as Bishop. Dr Williams is proposing a two-track Anglican Communion, with orthodox churches being accorded full, “constituent” membership and the rebel, pro-gay liberals being consigned to “associate” membership. All provinces will be offered the chance to sign up to a “covenant” which will set out...
- [Religious-Right Media Ignore National HIV Testing Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/religious-right-12/): You wouldn’t know it from the religious-right media but today is National HIV Testing Day. News sites which ignore this include: FreeRepublicTownhallFamily News In FocusWorldNetDaily And don’t count on the Agapepress to include it when they publish this afternoon. MSNBC has a great article about the editor of POZ, a heterosexual woman who contracted HIV through serial monogamy. If XGW readers find more religious-right news sites ignoring National HIV Testing Day, feel free to mention it in a comment and I’ll update my list.
- [Exodus Board Member, ‘Free From the AIDS Virus,’ Died in 2004](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exodus-board-me-3/): While researching the above post I came to learn the former Exodus board member who said: “Today with God’s abundant grace and His miraculous power to heal, I walk totally free from the AIDS virus.” Died in 2004. His name was Michael Steven Lumberger and his testimonial no longer appears on the recently redesigned Exodus website. Randy Thomas blogged about it and later deleted his post but that’s why we have google cache! Here’s the obit. No cause of death is given in either link. Update 07/26/06: After this post was initially published I had several leaders within the exgay movement...
- [‘Pro-Family’ Group in a Tizzy Over Schwarzenegger’s Gay Dinner](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/pro-family-grou/): The GOP governors just aren’t living up to the Hate the Gays promise that the right wing has in mind. First, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. dumped a Metro representative that was calling gays deviants. And then he had the gall to appoint an openly gay judge. Oh, the tragedy. And now there’s California. Randy Thomasson, director of Campaign for California Families, is all in a tizzy because California GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is headlining a fund raising dinner for Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay and lesbian Republicans and their friends. A few choice pieces of Thomasson’s invective:...
- [Ex-Gay Message to NEA: Gays Choose Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/ex-gay-message/): AgapePress reports that the ex-gay movement will be trying to influence the NEA at their upcoming conference. Something called the NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus will be presenting Janet Boynes, ex-lesbian, at a display booth to promote her ministry. The former lesbian, now a born-again believer, strongly refutes claims that homosexuals cannot change. “Is it easy to come out of homosexuality? No, it’s not,” she acknowledges. “You hear a lot of people say, ‘I prayed to God. I prayed to God, and I just couldn’t come out.’ Well, you know what? It’s not easy to come out, but God can’t do it...
- [Men with Older Brothers More Likely to Be Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/men-with-older/): I can’t wait for the religious right to make up their own explanations for this. ::cough:: Fryrear
- [Chambers Discusses Motivation for Focus on Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/chambers-discus/): In an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Alan Chambers discussed the motivation behind Exodus International’s focus on youth. “There’s definitely an absolute push in Hollywood, in the sitcom world, to really normalize and legitimize homosexual relationships and homosexuality. Because it’s so prominent on television, we’re talking about it more and there’s more acceptance of it,” said Alan Chambers, president of Orlando-based Exodus International, an evangelical organization that tries to guide gay people toward heterosexuality. As a result, Exodus created a youth component six years ago. “We thought, rather than wait until they were immersed in a homosexual identity and wanting...
- [Grove City Communications Student Continues Innuendo Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/grove-city-comm/): EDITED: I’ve edited this posting to narrow my focus of criticism. Addendum, July 7: CWFA has revoked intern Sarah Kuziomko’s original press release without explanation or apology; here is a copy of the original press release, obtained from Google cache. Here is CWFA’s revised press release. Grove City College, where prominent ex-gay proponent Warren Throckmorton teaches, has contributed a new combatant in the Culture Wars. Sarah Kuziomko, an intern at Concerned Women for America, is a communications major at the school. However, Ms. Kuziomko appears to be learning the lie, spin, and distort branch of communications. Her latest effort was to...
- [Former Exgay Mormon Takes One-Man Play to Atlanta](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/former-exgay-mo/): The arts publication David Atlanta profiles thirtysomething Steven Fales, an excommunicated Latter Day father of two who, after a successful run in New York, opened his autobiographical one-man play “Confessions of a Mormon Boy” in Atlanta last week. “Reparative therapy” failed to change Fales’ sexual orientation. After his divorce, excommunication and a separation from his children, Fales struggled for a time with prostitution, depression, and crystal meth abuse. “When I was getting excommunicated, I found it so bizarre and fantastical, I could not believe what was happening,” Fales says after a recent rehearsal of “Mormon Boy” alongside his Tony-winning director Jack...
- [Eve Tushnet, Readers Discuss ‘Love Won Out’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/eve-tushnet-rea/): Eve Tushnet has posted a variety of reader reactions (along with her own responses) to her National Review Online article about Focus on the Family’s exgay-ideology road show. Tushnet also links back to a spring debate on reparative therapy hosted by pro-exgay science pundit Prof. Warren Throckmorton. Tushnet’s readers are generally thoughtful and conservative. The one truly annoying comment came from “L.,” who simultaneously acknowledges a lesbian orientation while rejecting lesbian behavior by marrying and having four children. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that course of action; it’s the projection of her own prejudice that galls. Emphasis is mine: My point,...
- [Anti-Gay Delegates Lose Church Battles](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/anti-gay-delega/): Conservative delegates to two national denominational conventions lost battles to either hold the line against gay ministers or to move it back. The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to continue their official disapproval of ordination of gay ministers but to allow those who are supportive of an inclusive church to ignore the rule. A measure approved 298-221 by a Presbyterian national assembly keeps in place a church law that says clergy and lay elders and deacons must limit sexual relations to man-woman marriage. But the new legislation says local congregations and regional presbyteries can exercise some flexibility when choosing clergy and lay...
- [Throckmorton Splits with PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/throckmorton-sp/): The AgapePress is reporting that Dr. Warren Throckmorton has expressed concerns about Richard Cohen and his unorthodox reparative therapy practices. Psychologist Dr. Warren Throckmorton, director of college counseling at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, maintains a blog on sexual identity change therapy and related information for interested individuals. He is not a reparative therapist, but he claims Cohen’s techniques as demonstrated on CNN are bizarre and are not based on solid research. I agree that Cohen’s methods are extreme and are embarrasing to the ex-gay movement. I do question, however, the assumption that there are any techniques that are based on...
- [Colbert Report on Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/colbert-report/): Click image see it on YouTube.com. The Malcontent also has a copy.
- [Spitzer Says Focus on the Family Misused His Research](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/spitzer-says-fo/): “Although a third of the subjects in my study reported having had serious thoughts of suicide related to their homosexuality, not one of them blamed the gay rights movement’s advocating a ‘born-gay’ theory of homosexuality as the cause of their suicidal thinking,” said Spitzer. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2006 Contact: Wayne Besen Phone: 917-691-5118 E-Mail: wbesen@TruthWinsOut.org FOCUS ON THE FAMILY TAKES RESEARCHER’S WORDS ‘OUT OF CONTEXT’ IN EFFORT TO DEFEND PREVIOUS DAY’S DISTORTIONS Dr. Robert Spitzer Says Group Used His Work to Support Fight Against Gay Rights Miami Beach, Fla. — For the second time in two days, Focus on...
- [APA Director Scolds Military for Classifying Homosexuality As Disorder](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/apa-director-sc/): As reported by the AP: A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders. [article continues] “Based on scientific and medical evidence the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 _ a position shared by all other major health and mental health organizations based on their own review of the science,” James H. Scully Jr., head of the psychiatric association, said in a...
- [Focus/Family Adds to Its Distortion of Lesbian Teen-Suicide Research](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/focusfamily-add/): The Canadian Press — the Canadian branch of AP — has picked up and expanded upon the story first reported by Truth Wins Out last week: that Focus on the Family exgay activist Melissa Fryrear had “hijacked” and distorted Canadian research on lesbian teen suicide to support her employer’s political beliefs. In fact, said [Dr. Elizabeth] Saewyc, American studies have noted that gay teenagers are at the highest risk of suicide before they come out of the closet. After that, they do quite well unless they’re harassed. “If they’re trying to kill themselves because they’re embracing homosexuality, one would logically conclude...
- [AFA Spreads Half-truth And Falsehood About Playground Assault](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/afa-spreads-hal/): Late this afternoon, the American “Family” Association’s AgapePress repeated an already disproven allegation about a playground altercation in Lexington, Mass., that is being promoted and politicized by antigay activists as a mob hate crime by liberal New England families against antigay families and their school kids:
- [Website Publishes Florida Petition Signers’ Identities](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/website-publish/): In Florida, one can vote to change the Constitution every two years. It takes approximately 600,000 signatures to get a proposed change on the ballot, a figure that Florida4Marriage.org is striving for even now. They missed the deadline for the 2006 ballot, turning in only 455,000 signatures. They vow to have the required number by 2008. The amendment in question (PDF) would rule out gay marriage or anything similar, and would probably eliminate existing domestic partnership laws already in place. As these petitions seem to have become a semi-mandatory part of church services throughout the state, they could very well reach...
- [Out And Cowed? Ex-Gay in the UK](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/out-and-cowed-e/): This article was originally published in Third Way magazine, June 2006 I ONLY had to say three syllables, and yet the simplest words turned out to be the hardest. Mom. I’m. Gay. They were difficult words because I had grown up evangelical, and survived well into my twenties convinced that I could never be openly gay. By the time I was 12, it was more than apparent to me that the feelings I had for other boys were not shared by my school friends. However, I had learned that “the Bible said homosexuality was wrong”, and made up my mind never...
- [Nicolosi Offers Anger, Not Inspiration, to Antigay Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/nicolosi-offers/): The widely assumed intent of Focus on the Family’s exgay road show, titled “Love Won Out,” is to inspire compassionate conservatism and sexual purity in families and churches that struggle with the issue of sexual orientation. But Joseph Nicolosi’s speech to these families in suburban Maryland a week before Father’s Day was not inspiring. Steve Boese attended, and recalls the good and the bad — in particular, how Nicolosi used the exgay soapbox not so much to inspire chastity and family unity, but to advertise his own persistent sins of word and deed as though they were virtues. If you were...
- [Study Author Criticizes Fryrear’s Distortion of Research on Lesbian Youth Suicide](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/study-author-cr/): Last week Focus on the Family published an article in which gender issues analyst and “former homosexual” Melissa Fryrear blames “pro-gay advocates” for high suicide rates among lesbian youth: The survey revealed that nearly four out of 10 lesbian girls say they have attempted suicide in the last year, compared to 8.2 percent of heterosexual girls. Melissa Fryrear said there’s a reason why the numbers are so high. “Regrettably, they think they have to embrace homosexuality because pro-gay advocates told them that they were born gay,” she said. “And that is absolutely not true.” Wayne Besen called and spoke with study’s...
- [In-Depth Observations From Inside ‘Love Won Out’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/in-depth-observ/): Steve Boese of A Tenable Belief attended the antigay/exgay roadshow Love Won Out near Washington, D.C., last weekend. He has written (as of now) three articles about his observations — including the host church facility’s isolation from urban community, the high security, and his encounters with some big-name exgay activists.
- [Danforth Advises Against Episcopal Divisiveness](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/danforth-advise/): John Danforth, Episcopal priest and previous Republican Senator and Ambassador to the United Nations spoke this week to the national convention of the Episcopal Church. The most significant issue being addressed by the denomination is a demand by more conservative members that there be a moratorium on the selection of openly gay bishops and on the blessing of same-sex unions. This has been of particular importance because primates in other countries, particularly in Africa and Asia are insisting that the Episcopal Church either conform to the foreign primates’ demands on issues of homosexuality or that they be severed from the greater...
- [Rhetoric And Reality of the Ex-gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/rhetoric-and-re/): Eve Tushnet makes an interesting observation in her recent article in the National Review: During the entire nine hours of the conference, none of the speakers I heard discussed how to live chastely while experiencing same-sex attractions. The focus was entirely on the goal of switching sexual orientations. Mike Haley, the director of gender issues for Focus on the Family and probably the speaker at the conference with whom I disagreed least, told me afterward that one small-group session had discussed chastity. “We don’t want people to believe that change means you have to be married and have to have kids,”...
- [Friday Tangent: Getting Tested](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/friday-tangent/): I loathe having to get tested. I haven’t been ho’ing around and I haven’t even done anything risky since I was tested last but I still dread it. I’m sure many of the gay men who read this know exactly what I’m talking about. That said, last week my dermatologist decided she wanted me to come back to have a sinister looking mole awkwardly located in my um… gluteal cleft (between my butt cheeks) surgically removed. Honestly, I dreaded my HIV test more than my upcoming *ahem* procedure.
- [Must-Read Conservative Insight Into Exgay Ideology](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/must-read-conse/): Writer Eve Tushnet is a conservative Roman Catholic. Tushnet, whose article on the exgay roadshow Love Won Out appeared at National Review Online today, accepts church teaching that sexual expression is — to oversimplify just a bit — reserved for reproductive potential within heterosexual marriage. I’m told that Tushnet opposes gay marriage and might well oppose other facets of civil equality. So we have our differences of opinion. Yet her tentative conservative outsider’s observations of Exodus and Love Won Out are well worth pondering. A possible insight into exgay goals: The possible insight is this: Ex-gay theology/ideology seeks to immanentize the...
- [Exgay Thoughts](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exgay-thoughts/): A few days ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with local journalist Eve Tushnet, for her article on the ex-gay movement, for National Review Online. The article is up, and you can read more about Eve’s reaction to the recent DC-area Love Won Out conference over at her blog. Now that I have a decade’s worth of emotional distance from my ex-gay experience, I can honestly say I am grateful for the years I spent trying to change my orientation–and for the things I learned about myself in the process. Mainly, it taught me that if I am going to...
- [REFUGE: No Law Against Forcing Your Child to Attend](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/refuge-no-law-a/): REFUGE, the new name for Love In Action, Memphis Tennessee, is a daughter ministry of Love In Action International, the largest member ministry of Exodus International.  You will remember it from Zach’s story last year. One of the questions floating around during that time was the legality (if not the morality) of forcing one’s child to attend  such a place against their will.  REFUGE addresses this in two different questions on their new FAQ.
- [Exodus Begins to Distance Itself From Rev. DL Foster](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exodus-begins-t/): Wayne Besen is reporting the following email reply from Alan Chambers of Exodus International concerning the recent posts by DL Foster. I just emailed DL and asked him to retract his statement and to apologize. There is plenty we can disagree on without attacking one another. I pray that DL will take my advice and make amends. Regards, Alan Chambers Exodus International Randy Thomas has also commented about the situation on his own blog.  His apparent surprise at DL’s behavior is curious, as this is standard operating procedure for him.  Judge for yourself, but he does seem to be genuinely offended...
- [White Ravens And Hair Care in the Ex-Gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/white-ravens-an/): An article by Rita Price in the Columbus Dispatch is either a very clever swipe at the ex-gay movement or an unintentionally hilarious sincere effort at reporting. A few of my favorite quotes are: “Don’t tell me that I have to be gay,” said David, 36, a teacher and member of the same group. “Who is the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, to say that no one can change? “Can you be certain there are no white ravens? No, you can’t. Not unless you’ve seen them all.” And James, 50, a member of Bridge of Hope, explains his goals:...
- [Boston Globe Article on New Hope](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/boston-globe-ar/): The Boston Globe published an article on Sunday by Tanya Erzen about the ex-gay movement. Erzen focused her observations on New Hope Ministry in San Rafael, Frank Worthen’s ex-gay camp. Erzen’s piece seems thoughtful and is neither a hit piece nor a glossy repackaging of ex-gay propaganda. Perhaps this is because she did not limit her research to an interview. She spent several years of research including visiting New Hope and corresponding with several participants over a period of years. Her article shows awareness of the motivations of the participants, the methods of the ministries, and the dogma about causation and...
- [Religion And Sexuality Week](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/religion-and-se/): This week will be very important in ongoing efforts of mainline denominations to determine the appropriate response to gay Christians within their family. The Episcopal Church will be having its national convention at which issues relating to the ability of congregations to bless same-sex unions and of regions to elect gay bishops will be debated. Depending on the results of votes, this convention could result in decisions that lead to either a split within that denomination of their possible expulsion from the worldwide Anglican fellowship. The Presbyterian Church (USA) will alse be making a decision this week that could effect whether...
- [Who Are the Real Successors of Hitler?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/who-are-the-rea/): So Wayne Besen has been likened to Adolf Hitler by a notoriously extreme ex-gay proponent for whom the extra attention of mentioning his name would be undeserved. (And so I won’t.) By no means is every ex-gay or every person who disagrees with homosexuality a Nazi or a fascist. But there is a particularly ugly anti-gay type who, it seems to me, is the natural descendant of Nazi anti-semitism. This is the type who trades in on vicious insinuations and accusations of paedophilia, depravity and disease-spreading. In The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right, Didi Herman writes: These themes...
- [Oh the Pain, the Pain](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/oh-the-pain-the/): It should not be surprising that those who describe themselves as former homosexuals would have a negative view of “the homosexual lifestyle”. The testimonies on the websites of ex-gay ministries almost universally are stories of miserable people living unfulfilled and often debased lives who find meaning by striving to be ex-gay. Unable to achieve a functional existence complete with loving relationships or reciprocal friendships and surrounded by those individuals with a similar outlook, they see only unhappiness and misery within the gay community. It is a condition of humanity that we see the world through the prism of our own experiences....
- [Exgay DL Foster Not a Big Fan of Anti-Fraud Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exgay-dl-foster-3/): On the DL Foster has come completely unhinged over Truth Wins Out and posted this photo to his blog. Oh yes, that’s exactly what you think it is. Here’s DL’s entire post. PageOneQ wrote a little something about it and Good As You joined the fun too.
- [Guidelines for Civility Among Commenters](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/guidelines-for/): Comments at XGW may be immediately deleted, or commenters may be banned, for the following reasons: Libel Slander Copyright violations Link spam Profanity Threats Namecalling Solicitation Commenters may rapidly earn demerits toward a ban for the following reasons: Ad hominem attacks Strawman argumentation Persistent disruptive off-topic comments — for example, comments that seek to turn a page about antigay violence into unrelated complaints about pedophilia or promiscuity. Defamation against entire categories of people. Extensive repetition of third-party propaganda. Your writing must be your own, though you may criticize selected short portions of speech by someone else. Internet trolling Commenters are expected...
- [Love Won Out - Washington DC](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/love-won-out-wa/): As people begin to post about their experiences at Love Won Out this weekend, I’ll continuously update this post. Steve Boese went inside the conference. Photos of the protest outside from Bruce GarrettStraight, Not Narrow has a nice summary. Focus’ press releaseEquality Maryland’s press releaseTruth Wins Out’s press release I must say I can’t wait to meet everyone in Palm Springs! Ok well it’s not actually going to be in Palm Springs, the host church is in Indian Wells, far removed from the gayness of Palm Springs. It’s really closer to Coachella so I’ll see y’all at Love Won Out: Coachella.
- [Attention “As the World Turns” Fans](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/attention-as-th/): AfterElton.com has this about an ex-gay camp plot: SPOILER ALERT Luke’s birth father (don’t ask–it’s a long story) recently reappeared, and next week will try to send Luke to an ex-gay camp. Given how pro-gay the show has been, I suspect that ATWT will somehow make it clear how awful those places are, whether or not Luke actually goes to one. Best of all, the fan forums on ATWT have been full of righteous indignation that Luke might be sent to such a place. Viewers have really taken to Luke and want his mother to accept him as is. I read...
- [Only “Ex-Gays For Pay” Callers Make It Past Alan Colmes Show Screener](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/only-ex-gays-fo/): [This post has been pulled so I can verify the extent to which David Blakeslee practices exgay therapy.]
- [We Love Bob Knight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/we-love-bob-kni/): Can I just say I love the photo of Wayne Besen concerned woman Bob Knight is running in his story on Truth Wins Out. Watch out, or he’ll bite cha!
- [Alan Chambers: One Week, Two Deceptive Figures](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/alan-chambers-o/): It’s been a schizophrenic past couple years for Alan Chambers. He never seems sure of how many queers his ministries have straightened out. On Monday in an Exodus press release Alan was quoted: “The lives of thousands of former homosexuals, like me, verify that homosexuality is not an immutable trait” Funny. Just last year the order of magnitude was “hundreds of thousands.” Then today on CBN’s NewsWatch today; when asked how “successful” Exodus has been Chambers gave this deceptive answer: “There are literally hundreds of thousands of men and women like me who testify to the truth that change from homosexuality...
- [XGWers At Los Angeles Pride](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/xgwers-at-los-a/): This upcoming weekend is Los Angeles Pride. Since I missed Peterson’s event, it would be great to have a chance to meet all of you Angelinos (or close by) who may be there celebrating. I will be all over the place over the weekend and it might be hard to arrange a time we all could get together. But I do know that I will be working a booth for my church on Saturday evening from 7 to 11 if anyone wants to drop by and put a face to the name. My church is WeHo Church and our theme this...
- [A Look Back At Alan Chambers’ Political Motivation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/a-look-back-at/): Randy Thomas and Alan Chambers recently went to Washington DC to lobby for the marriage amendment. Ex-Gay Watch readers have likely thought many different things about Chambers’ and Thomas’ motivation. My editor Mike dug up an old copy of the Exodus newsletter where Chambers discusses his reasons for involvement in politics. (April 2005) For copyright reasons I can’t reprint Chambers’ entire letter but I enlarged some key passages. In between the excerpts Chambers discusses the difficulties of operating in Canada, Christian protesters arrested at Philadelphia pride, and quotes Chuck Colson. Nowhere in the letter does Chambers explain how gay marriage encroaches...
- [Former Exgays Launch ‘Truth Wins Out’ in D.C.](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/former-exgays-l/): Corrected to reflect Nick Cavnar’s biographical details. Truth Wins Out launched today with a press event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Here are Ex-Gay Watch photographs of the event, along with links to other web pages about each individual. Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen later released a statement describing the event and profiling each speaker. All photos by Ex-Gay Watch except for the photo of Lance Carroll, which is reprinted courtesy of Truth Wins Out. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 7, 2006 Contact: Wayne Besen e-mail: Wbesen@TruthWinsOut.org Phone: 917-691-5118 www.TruthWinsOut.org NEW ORGANIZATION LAUNCHES TO BATTLE RIGHT-WING LIES...
- [Article 8 Complaint Depends on Relativist Standards of Gender Expression](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/article-8-compl/): Lungi Offending mannequins Article 8’s two primary gripes with the Macy*s mannequins appear to be: “Very bizarre. One mannequin is wearing what looks like some of rainbow skirt. And when was the last time you saw male store mannequins with breasts like those? What’s that all about?” The breast issue is so patently absurd I’m not going to address it other than saying these people have clearly never walked past a Hollister or Abercrombie window display. Not everyone in Boston is flat-chested or has a beer-gut. But on to the business at hand. Many religious conservatives, including Stephen Bennett, seem to...
- [Anti-Gay Constitutional Amendment Defeated](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/anti-gay-consti/): The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment XIV, Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Those who believe in the equal protections doctrine are...
- [FRC President Tony Perkins on MSNBC’s Hardball Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/frc-president-t-2/): It’s supposed to air at 5 p.m. (ET) so this is short notice.  He is there to discuss today’s US Senate vote on the “Marriage Protection Amendment” (it failed btw).  If you catch it and find anything worth discussing, come back and let us know.
- [Maryland Coalition Challenges Exgay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/maryland-coalit/): (Sorry for the delay in posting this. Better late than never….) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 1, 2006 BROAD COALITION COUNTERS DAMAGING RHETORIC OF “CONVERSION THERAPY” CONFERENCE IN SILVER SPRING Clergy, Mental Health Professionals, and Youth Advocates Declare Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” Conference Dangerous and Spiritually Disenfranchising to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth
- [Ex-gay in the UK - a Related Practical Question](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/ex-gay-in-the-u-2/): Group A is a conservative Christian “ex-gay” ministry. It does not encourage people to expect a change of orientation, and is critical of groups that do. It promotes celibacy rather than a change of orientation. Group B is us. Gays and lesbians, many of whom have a Christian faith. My question is this: Can you envisage Group A working with Group B to oppose the more extreme ex-gay groups who are promoting conversion/reparative therapy? Could gays and “moderate” ex-gays ever unite to combat the extremes? Why/why not?
- [Ex-gay in the UK](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/ex-gay-in-the-u/): The main difference between the ex-gay movement in the UK and the US is that, well, that there isn’t really much of an ex-gay movement as such in the UK. In the US, the movement tends to be focused and visible, largely thanks to Exodus. In Britain, Exodus doesn’t have much going on. The most prominent ex-gay ministry in Britain is the True Freedom Trust, and its leader, Martin Hallett, broke off from Exodus International a few years ago. He is now backing off from claims of actual conversion to heterosexuality, and gave up the Exodus affiliation for precisely that reason....
- [Truth Wins OUT Website Is Up](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/truth-wins-out/): In Wednesday’s press conference, founder Wayne Besen will present a slide show (which can be found here) and Love In Action survivor Lance Carroll’s story will be given. That’s all I know at this point folks but figured I should post something letting you know the website is up. I also found what I’ve been moost curious about, TWO’s 10 point strategic plan which I have posted below for discussion.
- [From Peterson’s Show on Sunday](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/from-petersons/): (Sorry bout the funky colors, theater lighting is beyond even photoshop.)
- [A Christian Look At the Marriage Protection Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/a-christian-loo/): Alan Chambers, Randy Thomas, and many other anti-gay leaders of the ex-gay movement are in Washington, D.C. lending their support to efforts to exclude gay couples from the protections of equality promised by the United States Constitution. They do this under the guise of Christianity. However, Mark Dayton, Senator from Minnesota, brought his faith to this debate and found within his Christianity a different commandment: In addition to being un-American this amendment is also un-Christian. Now I hesitate to bring religion into this debate. I’m highly skeptical of politicians who do so. Giving a Bible to a politician is like giving...
- [Exgays Exploited](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exgays-exploite/): Steve Schalchlin, a co-founder of the online gay/exgay bridge-building project Bridges Across the Divide, comments on the political exploitation of exgays by Focus on the Family — a gradual process that he has observed since 1998.
- [Pictures of Us](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/pictures-of-us/): Performance artist and former exgay Peterson Toscano was performing in Southern California last weekend. He has posted pictures of Ex-Gay Watch participants Daniel Gonzales, Regan DuCasse, and Steve Schalchlin.
- [Truth: Mike Haley V. Wayne Besen](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/truth-mike-hale/): I don’t know what they are proclaiming the truth to be — they like to claim that all the medical organizations are against reparative therapy and that it’s harmful, but the reality is that that isn’t what the organizations have said,” he said. “Instead, they have said that homosexuality is multi-causal and there’s proof-positive over the years that men and women have changed. This the response Focus on the Family’s Mike Haley gave to Wayne Besen’s new Truth Wins Out organization. But how does Haley’s claim hold up? Are “the medical organizations” against reparative therapy? Or is Haley right?
- [Randy Thomas Ignores The Sacred Bond Of Marriage To Suit His Point](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/randy-thomas-ig/): Professional “former homosexual” and white male Randy Thomas had this to say over at his blog today: At today’s press conference one of my heroes, Rev. Bill Owen, spoke very passionately about what civil rights means to the African American community and how the fight over marriage is nothing comparable to that. Rev. Owen was friends with Dr. King and I think he would know. So who knew Dr. King best? Oh, I don’t know… There has been all this talk from the religious right about the sacred God-ordained institution of marriage so maybe we autta think about that. I mean...
- [DL Foster, Lesbians And Logic](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/dl-foster-lesbi/): According to DL Foster, this statement – From what I know I believe there’s 80% of women, between 80 and 85% of women that are struggling with homosexuality were either raped by someone they knew or somebody outside of that but normally there’s some type of rape or some kind of molestation in our past. is equivalent to this statement – Since rape or sexual assault is perhaps the most common form of attack against lesbians (as it is against all women), it follows that many purely practical issues would arise for lesbians who victims of rape or sexual assault. The...
- [About Dave Rattigan](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/about-dave-ratt/): Glad to be here as a contributor to a blog of which I’ve been an avid reader for over a year. I am British-Canadian, and living in Liverpool, England. It’s hard to describe what I do for a living, since it’s a mixture of things, but most of them involve writing, research, editing and design. Some of you may know me already from my own blog, which is rarely updated these days, or from various bits and pieces I’ve published around the Internet. British readers may have read my recent article about the ex-gay movement in the UK in Third Way...
- [Love in Action Survivor Speaks to Protesters](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/love-in-action-11/): Lance Carroll spent last summer at Love in Action. He came back today to join Queer Action Coalition and the protesters outside. While Carroll’s prepared message spoke of depression and cruel methodology within LIA and of verbal and physical abuse after LIA’s efforts went unsuccessful, he also spoke of a loving family that took him in when the abuse became to great at home. The contrast between rejection and abuse by those who sought to change him and the care and comfort he’s received from those who accept him makes clear where love is truly being shown in action.
- [Exodus Goes to the Rose Garden](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exodus-goes-to/): OOOPS… I didn’t see that Daniel had already posted about this before I posted. Sorry Daniel. But here’s my take on it: According to writer Michelle Goldberg, Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas of Exodus International were scheduled to be at President Bush’s anti-gay-families speech in favor of constitutional discrimination. I find this to be disturbing for two reasons. First, this further illustrates that Exodus International is primarily a political organization and has very little concern with the lives of people who are gay. If their interest was in appealing to same-sex attracted people and sharing a message of hope for change,...
- [Randy Thomas And Alan Chambers Invited To White House, Lobby For Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/randy-thomas-an/): Randy Thomas and Alan Chambers are in DC to lobby for the Federal Marriage Amendment. (I refuse to use the various names for such an amendment which seem to change monthly.) Randy writes on his blog (archive): Yes, I am going to DC to lobby for the MPA (Marriage Protection Amendment) and also the next LWO is in the vicinity (Silver Spring Maryland.) We start the week with MPA, finish the week with Exodus Regional leaders meeting and then the LWO conference. Michelle Goldberg at the Huffington Post tells a different story: When George W. Bush announces his push for a...
- [Ex-Gay TV Ad Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/ex-gay-tv-ad-wa/): A couple of hours ago I caught a portion of a TV commercial run by the Arlington Assembly of God. It’s not clear to me whether it was one of the same ads that the church ran last year. In it, a woman identified herself by first (I think it was Kelly or Kelli) and last name, spoke of sexual abuse, living as a lesbian, and now finding healing and peace via faith in Jesus Christ. This one ran on TBS on Comcast Cable’s Washington DC service. I’ve scanned commercials on a number of channels in the 2 hours since and...
- [Nullifying Tolerance](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/nullifying-tole/): The leaders of the political religious right frequently criticize pro-tolerance advocacy: They protest that tolerance advocates are not tolerant of intolerance. They assert that it is a sin to tolerate (much less affirm) that which religious rightists selectively declare to be sinful. They demand both affirmation and political power for their own sins. Quite simply, the religious right has sought to redefine tolerance: Tolerance = Tolerance of Intolerance + Intolerance of Tolerance This is the new form of tolerance that they insist be taught in schools and in the media. Discuss.
- [Exgay ‘Freedom From Freedom’ Campaign (Open Forum)](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exgay-freedom-f/): Exodus has for years graced the world with an innovative plan for “freedom.” Exodus was first to offer the world a “Freedom from Homosexuality” campaign. This outreach did not offer exgays freedom from same-sex attraction — but it did (thankfully!) seek to push homosexuals out of schools, jobs, families and churches — and into jail cells where moral misfits belong. Exodus looks forward to the day when exgays will enjoy true freedom from homosexuals. We at Ex-Gay Watch believe Exodus is being a little timid, however. Why stop at freedom from homosexuals? Let’s face it: Freedom sucks. And Freedom From Freedom...
- [Stephen Bennett to Evangelize WorldPride in Jerusalem](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/stephen-bennett-20/): August has been evangelism season for Stephen Bennett Ministries: In 2003, he took a group to Provincetown and met with resistance from gays, some of whom were former ex-gays. 2004, the year Stephen named gay relationships a putrid stench in [God’s] nostrils, brought scaled-up goals — a $50K campaign to bring hundreds into P-Town, later scaled back to a $25K goal. That campaign coincided with Family Week, so the ministry brought bible gift bags for the kids. They were met by peaceable gay Christians and thoughtful gay parents, and kid-focused activities already in progress. After taking a break in 2005, it’s...
- [Love In Action Survivor One Year Later](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/love-in-action-10/): One year ago next week the gay community, and many straight supporters, were energized by the story of a teenager named Zach who was being sent to Love In Action for reorientation against his wishes. For weeks the internet was rife with opinions, objections and even skepticism about Zach and his story: LIA claimed that all attendance was voluntary, but then backtracked; the Tennessee state government inspected LIA and found no mistreatment, but also found improper dissemination of prescription drugs and psychiatric care; LIA lost half of their revenues. Some went so far as to claim the whole story was a...
- [Wayne Besen Announces Launch Of New Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/wayne-besen-ann/): Posted today on Wayne’s site: ‘Truth Wins Out’ to Take on Key Issue In Anti-Gay Campaigns Washington, DC — As President Bush and Congress prepare to debate gay marriage, a new organization will launch next Wednesday, June 7th to combat so-called “Ex-Gay” ministries and organizations. “Truth Wins Out will confront a dangerous lie that has buttressed anti-gay campaigns from coast to coast,” said founder and noted activist Wayne Besen. “From school boards to city councils to Congress, a lie is being advanced that sexual orientation is something that can be directed or ‘cured. It’s false, and Truth Wins Out will strike...
- [Minnesota Methodists Support Inclusion](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/minnesota-metho/): From WCCO Methodists in Minnesota have approved ordaining gay clergy and accepting gay marriage at the state convention in St. Cloud. The annual convention will make the recommendations to the denomination’s General Convention, which meets in 2008.
- [Exgay Ministries Move to Stifle Dissent On Discussion Forums](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/exgay-ministrie/): Last week I received a rather bizarre email from a woman identifying herself as Carrie informing me DesertStream.org (an exgay ministry) had shut down their online forum “because of all of the posts being made by pro gay advocates.” The nutty part went on to accuse XGW, “how dare you [XGW?] take away their right and support to interact with other people who do not believe people are born gay.” Carrie goes on to say, “last I checked we are not living in China.” I checked Desert Stream’s discussion board and found this posted: We have had to temporarily shut down our sexuality...
- [Two Anti-Gay Media Outlets Go Down](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/06/two-anti-gay-me/): Alain’s Newsletter, classified as hate speech by Google and supported by the TVC, recently discontinued publishing and put up a splash page on the domain’s entry which provides no explanation. I emailed former contributor Stacy L. Harp who replied: Not that you and I are friends, but I was told by someone that he is very ill and had to discontinue the blog until things get better. Such a peach that Stacy! She’s writing for Newsbusters.org now. In Stephen Bennett news, the “daily broadcast” hasn’t been updated in two weeks or so and Straight Talk Radio appears to have become a...
- [Dobson: “Marriage Is Under Vicious Attack…From The Forces Of Hell”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/dobson-marriage/): Today’s Focus on the Family broadcast was the first in a series designed to whip up hysteria over gay marriage and try an convince black people Focus cares about a variety of issues impacting their families how they vote on gay marriage. Of course that means it’s time for Focus to trot out the black pastors again. Before putting his guests on Dobson can’t help but blab away the first half of the program himself. Here are a couple of highlights: Cos as you all very well know marriage is under vicious attack, now I think from the forces of hell...
- [Audio: Ex-Lesbian Janet Boynes Gives Questionable Statistics](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/audio-ex-lesbia/): In a podcast interview with Kim Jeffries, ex-lesbian Janet Boynes cites makes up some interesting statistics: Jeffries: I understand that’s not uncommon that there has been a sexual assault or rape or some kind of abuse in the past of many women who enter into a lesbian lifestyle. Boynes: From what I know I believe there’s 80% of women, between 80 and 85% of women that are struggling with homosexuality were either raped by someone they knew or somebody outside of that but normally there’s some type of rape or some kind of molestation in our past. [Download MP3 of Segment]
- [Villain in X-Men 3 Parallels Reparative-Therapy Movement Founder](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/villain-in-x-me/): I saw X-Men 3 at the Hollywood & Highland Chinese today and noticed some things I didn’t get from the previews… Charles Socarides, founder of NARTH, and his gay son Warren Worthington II, founder of Worthington Industries, and his mutant son. Read more about Charles Socarides. Announcing a cure has been developed which offers people “freedom from homosexuality” “freedom from their mutations.” Yes, they actually said “freedom from” in the movie. My jaw near well dropped. Exgay groups love to proclaim “freedom from homosexuality” to the point of putting it on the Exodus logo.
- [Creepy ‘Christian’ Website: Parody Or Hate?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/creepy-christia/): When I originally wrote this post, I assumed that Jesus Loves Everything was a hate site — hate gays, hate China, hate freedom for anyone deemed insufficiently holier-than-thou. But then Jody at Naked Writing pointed out to me that some of the site’s articles are a bit over-the-top — not outlandish enough to be funny, in my opinion, but edgy enough to generate unease among readers. Does the site’s content reflect good parody, unfunny comedy, or serious hatred? And if it’s hatred, then hatred of what — fundamentalists or non-fundamentalists? You decide. Here’s what I originally said about JLE…
- [True Prophet Vs. Servant to Worldly Powers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/true-prophet-vs/): Feminary is a “socially liberal theologically orthodox inclusive tolerant feminist Episcopalian (who) goes to one of the world’s top evangelical seminaries.” Feminary’s preaching class recently viewed a DVD about Peter Storey, Methodist Archbishop of South Africa and chaplain to Nelson Mandela in prison. Here’s an excerpt from notes taken during class: Some of the religious groupings in this country are actually serving the powerful. If they make political statements that align with the powerful they are chaplains to power, not prophets. If there’s one definition of a prophet that cannot be challenged, it is that a prophet never serves the powerful....
- [SNL’s ‘Heteroy’ Changed Homosexuals Into Bible-Thumpers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/snls-heteroy-ch/): In October 1998, Saturday Night Live‘s animated TV Funhouse skit invented an exgay superhero. Watch the video: Heteroy has real-world counterparts: LiveJournal blogger Keith recently discovered Bibleman while standing in line at the register at Half Price Books. Bibleman is available as a video series and in a set of nifty action figures. These supposedly Christian heroes use light sabers and other weaponry to kill atheists and other presumed non-believers. Hat tip for Heteroy: Locusts and Honey. Video posted to YouTube by subzero2o.
- [LA Times: ‘Ex-Gays’ Seek a Say in Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/la-times-ex-gay/): The Los Angeles Times reports that antigay Christians and Jews are challenging and sometimes suing school districts: If proponents of tolerance and opponents of bullying are permitted classroom time, then — so the story goes — proponents of bigotry and reparative therapy must be given equal time. The article covers a lot of territory; here’s a point-by-point summary:
- [Divinity Student Says ‘Love In Action’ Resembles Canaanite Child Sacrifice](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/divinity-studen/): Blogger Brian Rainey is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. He is currently focusing in Hebrew Bible and Political Theology. He self-identifies as a Christian. Rainey has harsh words — supported by Bible passages — for parents who would subject their children to the exgay boot camp that calls itself “Love In Action”:
- [X-Men: Looking Back At the Trilogy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/x-men-looking-b/): Howl of the Kweerwolf looks back at the X-Men trilogy and hopes that teen-agers watching X-Men: The Last Stand will discover the dignity and value of their “faggot” classmates.
- [On Video: Exodus Exgay Youth Recruiter](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/on-video-exodus/): Current.tv hosts a video interview with Exodus exgay youth recruiter Mike Ensley. From Current.tv’s description of the video: Can God really do anything? Mike Ensley believes He can. Mike Ensley is a former homosexual saved by grace, and now living in freedom from homosexuality. This is Mike’s testimony of how the loving and caring nature of Jesus Christ has changed his life. For with God all things are possible.
- [Focus/Family Times D.C. Exgay Roadshow to Coincide with Pride Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/focusfamily-tim/): From The Washington Blade, May 26: Love Won Out, a controversial religious conference that espouses reparative therapy and encourages gays to change their sexual orientation, is coming to Maryland next month. Counter-vigils are planned. Worth reading are statements by spokespersons for Focus on the Family, Equality Maryland and PFLAG…
- [Peaceful Pro-Tolerance Vigil Planned As Exgay Boot Camp Escalates Talk of War](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/peaceful-pro-to/): The Queer Action Coalition of Memphis, Tenn., plans a June 5 vigil at Love In Action, marking one year since LIA’s involuntary detainment of sexually struggling youths made headlines. The scandal severely curtailed LIA’s activities, but the antigay organization appears to have received a fresh injection of cash because — as the coalition reports — LIA recently expanded its recruitment of antigay and troubled youths. LIA uses the language of war — “ammunition” and “battle” — and positions struggling youths as pawns in a culture war. Visit the QAC website for details. Find additional commentary by LIA patient/survivor Peterson Toscano here.
- [Focus on the Family’s New Ad Campaign Exploits Sad Kids](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/focus-on-the-fa-21/): A Tenable Belief and Good As You assess Focus on the Family’s latest ad campaign, which exploits stock photos of unhappy children. The ad campaign’s objectives: humiliate children whose adoptive parents happen to be gay, redirect a backlog of unadopted children into fundamentalist Christian foster-care and halfway-house assignments, and promote an Oklahoma law that sought to enable state police and antigay medical authorities to seize the children of families that visit or drive through Oklahoma, if it were reported to (or suspected by) authorities that the adoptive parents might be gay. Oklahoma prohibits adoption by couples that are gay; that law...
- [Funny And True For Your Friday](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/funny-and-true/): An Ex-Gay Watch operative called NARTH earlier this week to determine if Bill Curnow’s western Michigan based LIFE Coaching International is a member. I pray that one day my son will be on eHarmony.com looking for a wife. Do you have any therapists in the Grand Rapids area? You know, that sorta story. NARTH’s receptionist informed our caller there are no referrals for the entire state of Michigan and then proceeded to try and give out information for a therapist in New York. Either NARTH needs to brush up on their geography or they’ve got a major membership gap in the...
- [Congratulations to Pam Spaulding](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/05/congratulations-2/): Katherine Volin of the Washington Blade wrote a wonderful profile of Pam Spaulding’s work as a black lesbian blogger who specializes in monitoring the religious right. Thanks to efforts by bloggers such as Spaulding, XGW can spend less time analyzing the religious right and more time focusing on exgays.
- [Thoughts for Peterson](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/thoughts-for-pe/): I’m sure readers and authors alike would like to join me in sending some love Peterson’s way today.
- [Palm Springs Rally Organizers Charter Bus to Indian Wells](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/palm-springs-ra/): I just spoke with a delightful woman from Palm Springs N.O.W. who explained why the Unity Rally organizers have chartered a bus to take participants from Palm Springs to the church site for Love Won Out in Indian Wells. Apparently Indian Wells is a million-dollar bedroom community with no public street parking on its arterials and virtually all residential communities are gated. Update: Sign up for the bus here. I just spoke with the protest head organizer and there’s no cost to ride the bus but participants must attend a briefing on peaceful protest guidelines before taking part.
- [Seeking Reformists (and A Social Life) in New England](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/seeking-reformi/): If you live in the northeastern United States, I’d like to hear from you. I have just moved to Hartford, Connecticut — lured north from Washington by Peterson Toscano, Six Flags New England, Rhode Island’s beaches, a regional appreciation for parks and wilderness, affordable housing, and proximity to my hometown in upstate New York. I would be interested to know whether there is a critical mass in the region of regular readers or other people (of any religion, political persuasion, or marital status) who seek ethical and spiritual reform in the exgay movement. Plus, heck, it might be just super to...
- [NARTH Quietly Revises History Concerning Berger Comment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/narth-quietly-r/): As you may have read recently, NARTH has received a lot of criticism over the callous advice of one of their committee members, Joseph Berger, M.D.  Their response seems to consist of private comments of disapproval followed by a stealth edit of the original article.  Of course, the problem statement was a quote from Joseph Berger so an edit seems rather deceptive.  There is no mention there that the material has been changed, or that they have any problem with what it originally said.  So why was this quote perfectly fine with them yesterday – they published it on their site...
- [Palm Springs Mayor to Attend LWO](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/palm-springs-ma/): Gay Palm Springs mayor Ron Oden announced at a press conference today he: …would accept Thursday’s invitation from Focus on the Family to attend the conference. “I definitely want to attend and have the opportunity to share my perspective,” he said. [snip] Oden says he sees the conference as a way to share the love and acceptance that the valley offers the gay community. He said he will have ambassadors attend the conference to talk to participants. He said there will also be people in the community who will not attend the Sept. 23 conference but who will interact with the...
- [Palm Springs’ Gay Mayor Welcomes Upcoming Love Won Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/palm-springs-ga/): After being contacted by friend of XGW Scott H, openly gay mayor of Palm Springs Ron Oden rolled out the welcome mat in The Desert Sun: Palm Spring’s openly gay mayor, Ron Oden, says the valley should welcome a controversial religious alliance condemning homosexuality with open arms, not picket signs. Oden believes showing courtesy and kindness will lead to positive education and communication with attendees during next month’s “Love Won Out” conference at Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, sponsored by conservative Christian groups Focus on the Family and Exodus International. Here’s the best part: “However, what better place could they...
- [NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee Member Joseph Berger Advocates Children Teasing Gender-nonconforming Peers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/narth-scientifi/): From PinkNews.co.uk: Gay pressure groups have accused an “ex-gay” organisation of “inviting child abuse” after claiming children with gender identity issues should be exposed to bullying. A coalition of organisations monitoring groups claiming to convert gay people back to heterosexuality, have criticised the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH) after a member advocated teasing transgender children to “re-establish that necessary boundary.” NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee member Joseph Berger said on a blog in reaction to a San Francisco Chronicle article on gender identity issues, “I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the...
- [Alan Chambers Turns Domestic-Violence Fact Into Fiction](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/alan-chambers-t-2/): In another dazzling display of deception that borders on the unethical, Exodus President Alan Chambers and Focus on the Family News have taken a Department of Justice study from 2000 (PDF) and remade it in their own image.  The Focus News article, Domestic Violence Among Gay Couples Ascends, takes a complex study and distills out of it a single half-truth apparently meant to give the impression that a large number of gay couples are at each other’s throats. It’s something that we knew would come to light more as the issue of gay unions began to be on the radar screen...
- [Anti-Gay Activist in Charge of Screening Minnesota Police Officers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/anti-gay-activi-2/): Michael A. Campion gets to make decisions as to whether applicants are psychologically fit to be police officers at a number of departments in Illinois. But is Campion psychologically capable of treating gay applicants fairly?
- [AGLP Film Project on Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/aglp-film-proje/): The Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists has a new film project underway about reparative therapy: Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-Gay Movement. Abomination focuses on four individuals for whom reparative or other ex-gay treatments have been unsuccessful: Nita, in rural Mississippi, who spent twenty years attempting to suppress her lesbian feelings; Dave, in New York City, who found the ex-gay community supportive but the “treatment” to be ultimately ineffective; Randy, an Arkansas minister who describes his difficult personal journey integrating a gay identity and religious life; and the tragic outcome for Mary Lou, an Arkansas mother estranged, on religious grounds, from...
- [Alan Chambers’ Personal Reference for Truthfulness](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/alan-chambers-p/): In responding to comments on the thread below about whether the use of the term “the homosexual” was intentionally offensive, Alan Chambers said the following: I imagine that I have and will continue to offend you and others with my beliefs, but I do care about being untruthful. Alan is to be commended for his care about being untruthful. My greatest concern about the ex-gay movement is how it seems at times to have little care about its untruthfulness, so any declaration of care about this matter is received with joy. Alan has shown that he has some ignorance about the...
- [Exodus Has A New Book Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/exodus-has-a-ne/): Alan Chambers and the “leadership team of Exodus” have a new book out titled “God’s Grace And the Homosexual Next Door: A Guide to Overcoming Barriers And Misunderstandings, Getting to Know the Real Person, Offering God’s New Life.” Pre-orders are being taken at Amazon.com. I requested a review-copy from the Harvest House publicist but haven’t received anything. If any XGW readers have media credentials feel free to request a copy here and pass it along to me cos I’ll be damned if Exodus is getting a cent from me.
- [Photos - Truth Wins Out Protest At Dallas Exgay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/photos-truth-wi/): Voila! Photos from the Truth Wins Out protest in Dallas over the weekend. Lots more images after the jump…
- [Report From TWO Protest At Dallas Exgay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/report-from-two/): When I was putting this together a week ago I thought it’d just be me out there.-Wayne Besen Hearing that Wayne needed help as well as authorities on the exgay movement at his event in Dallas I was fortunate to enough to have a donor generously provide for my travel. This is the first time I had ever been to any sort of ex(ex)gay protest and it was an amazing experience. About 20 people total showed up, Wayne and myself were the only non-locals. Impressively the AP covered the event, see their photo here. There was also a reporter from the...
- [Friday Musings on Faith](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/friday-musings/): The following are a few of my musings on faith and religion. If that’s not your thing, you may want to skip this thread.
- [AgapePress Describes Attendees of San Diego Pride As Sodomites](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/agapepress-desc/): Really now, who uses the term “sodomite” anymore except maybe Fred Phelps? The AgapePress, that’s who: Hartline says last year the not-for-profit San Diego Pride organization was under investigation for employing numerous pedophiles as volunteers and staff during its yearly parade and festival. He believes these pro-homosexual events are generally pornographic and that they are frequented by militant sodomites. Keep in mind, that’s in the author’s voice, it’s not a direct quote. Also did I mention San Diego pride was July 29th. That’s almost a full month ago and Hartline and the Agape still aren’t over it. And yet Nancy Brown...
- [Would That Be a Money-Back Guarantee?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/would-that-be-a/): On an Australian radio program ex-gay Richard Cohen may have said the stupidist thing to date about ex-gay ministries: RICHARD COHEN: I was exclusively homosexual. Now I am exclusively heterosexual. I’m not interested in guys. I feel my “guy-ness”. If somebody wants to change, it’s guaranteed. It can be done. What little grasp on reality that Cohen ever had seems to have been jarred loose the last time he beat a pillow with a tennis racquet. And someone should remind Cohen that one of the biggest criticisms of his own brand of therapy is that it isn’t his own “guy-ness” that...
- [Truth Wins Out Seeks Participants for Response to Exodus Event in Texas](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/truth-wins-out-4/): On Saturday August 26th Living Hope Ministries is having an exgay conference at Vista Ridge Baptist Church in Carrollton, TX. Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out, an organization which counters exgay propaganda, is seeking locals interesting in participating in TWO’s counter event. Email Wayne here. On a personal note, I would love to attend. If anyone is feeling generous and would get me a plane ticket please let me know. Update 8/23/06: From the press release announcing details of Wayne’s event: WHO: Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out; Brother Curtis Smith, Pastoral Leader, Trinity MCC, Arlington; Rev. Ken Ehrke, Agape...
- [Infographic: Exgay Groups Pose As Moderates for APA Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/infographic-exg/): I knew something had to be done with the images from the recent exgay protest at the APA convention. The two groups who organized the protest (NARTH and Exodus) hold far more radical views than the protest presented. The first image shows the original message and is followed by my interpretation of what these organizations actually believe. Such a book actually exists. Exodus has a section of its website devoted to fighting the civil rights of former clients/patients.
- [NARTH And TVC Use Pejorative Term ‘Shemales’ in Article About Gender-Queer](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/narth-and-tvc-u/): Both NARTH and the Tradititional Values Coalition have published summaries/reactions to a story in The Advocate titled “Life in the T Zone – With the aid of testosterone, biological women are expanding the old ideas of male and female. But being gender-queer can involve health risks.” Before XGW reader Autumn brought this to my attention I’d heard the term gender-queer before. I learned gender-queer is an identity for people who have no desire to get sexual reassignment surgery but don’t wish to present themselves as either of the two binary genders our society presents them with. Oftentimes that involves prescribed hormones...
- [Oregon Christian Coalition Leader Admits Molestation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/oregon-christia-2/): We briefly discussed the accusations against Lou Beres, previous leader of the Oregon Christian Coalition and a long-time anti-gay activist, relating to inappropriate behavious with under-age girls. These allegations were confirmed here by his nephew, Rich Galat. It now appears that Galat and other family members have had their charges verified. According to the Portland Mercury, Beres has admitted to police that he “had sexually touched his sister-in-law in the 1960s when she was a teen, and two friends of his daughters—one incident was in 1976 or ’77, according to the report, and the other was unspecified.” We wish his victims...
- [Fools At AFA, Christian Post Continue to Count on Paul Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/fools-at-afa-ch/): Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute has been completely discredited. After being expelled from the American Psychological Association and condemned by resolution of the Nebraska Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association, it would seem logical that Cameron would not be quoted as a “source”. Years of obviously inaccurate “studies” and debunked claims should suggest that those associated with Cameron have no regard for honesty. Even Exodus tries to not appear too closely linked to Cameron’s reports. But there are always some so hungry for a negative thing to say about gay people that they are willing to sell their...
- [Ex-Gay Champions Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/ex-gay-champion/): It is true that sometimes the gay community will make misplaced accusations of homophobia. Sometimes those who may not support full equality for gay people are not acting out of malice but are simply uninformed or conflicted or perhaps have not applied thought, logic, and consistency to an issue. But there are also times when people behave in a hateful manner and act out of spite and malice. And this week some California Assemblymen demonstrated that attitude. In response to a revision of a bill requiring pro-gay education in schools, on Monday the Democrats in the Assembly suspended the rules to...
- [Peter LaBarbera Resigns From Illinois Family Institute](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/peter-labarbera-2/): “Porno-Pete” LaBarbera has resigned his position as Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute to: …pursue his goal of creating a national organization dedicated to confronting the homosexual activist agenda. [snip] LaBarbera’s group, Americans for Truth, will be based in Naperville, Illinois. In other words, Peter will be able to obsess over gay people full-time, whereas that pesky Illinois Family Institute sometimes required he deal with other issues. Now contrary to the IFI’s press release, Pete doesn’t have to “create” his new organization, since Americans For Truth was formed in August of 2000 by disgraced ex-gay and spreader of HIV Michael...
- [W. W. Finlator, Early Southern Baptist Preacher to Oppose Discrimination, Died](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/w-w-finlator-ea/): According to the Associated Baptist Press, W. W. Finlator, longtime pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, died of pneumonia July 3. He was 93. In the 1950s, unlike virtually all of his white Southern Baptist counterparts, Finlator spoke out forcefully against segregation. Over the years, the causes he adopted were ahead of the curve for most white Baptists, including opposition to the Vietnam War, support for women’s rights, calling for nuclear disarmament during the height of the Cold War, even embracing gay rights. In a clear demonstration of the close relationship between racial prejudice and discrimination and homophobia: He...
- [Exodus’ Changed Priorities](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/exodus-changed/): In Straight to Jesus, Tanya Erzen notes that after Alan Chambers took the helm of Exodus International in 2001 the organization became much more political. Prior to 2001, the statement of intent was Exodus is an international Christian effort to reach homosexuals and lesbians. Exodus upholds God’s standard of righteousness and holiness, which declares that homosexuality is sin and affirms His love and redemptive power to recreate the individual. It is the goal of Exodus International to communicate this message to the Church, the gay community, and to society. Today Exodus International’s mission statement reads: Proclaiming to, educating and impacting the...
- [Just for a Chuckle](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/just-for-a-chuc/): Perhaps it was intentional, perhaps it was a matter of two countries separated by a common language, but I had to chuckle at this headline for an article out of the UK about a gay teen group in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan that wants to organize a pride event: Prince Albert pride for Canadian gay teens Yeah, I know that has nothing to do with ex-gay activism… but you chuckled too, didn’t you
- [Upcoming NPR Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/upcoming-npr-pr/): NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross has an upcoming piece on the ex-gay movement. Those interviewed include Tanya Erzen, Alan Chambers, and an ex-ex-gay New Hope participant. We’ll provide an update when we find out the program schedule.
- [Attraction And Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/attraction-and/): In reading Tanya Erzen’s Straight to Jesus (get this book) a number of things jumped out at me as being relevant to our discussions here. Erzen quotes from Alan Medinger’s book Growth into Manhood (a must-read at New Hope): Most male overcomers I have encountered continue to differ from other men in that they do not become sexually stimulated by the sight of a woman’s body. Erzen noted “Many ex-gay men … say they are not attracted to women in general, just their wives.” This seems consistent to what we have heard from those ex-gays and spouses that have shared with...
- [Straight to Jesus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/straight-to-jes/): I’ve finally read Tanya Erzen’s Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of those who are going through ex-gay movements. Erzen spent a year observing New Hope, Frank Worthen’s live-in program for Christian men who are struggling with unwanted same sex attraction. She was given access to the participants over a long period of time and was able to gain their trust and respect. The resultant book is a fascinating look at the motivations, methods, and attitudes of the participants in the program. Over the next...
- [AP Reports NARTH’s APA Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/ap-reports-nart/): An AP article reports on the two dozen protesters that NARTH and FOTF shipped in to protest the APA’s position on reorientation. The group, which was sponsored by the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, was protesting what it sees as the APA’s views on the immutability of homosexuality. NARTH’s Nicolosi made claims about his miracle cure but his discription of “cured” doesn’t seem much like heterosexuality to me Nicolosi, who works with people wanting to change their sexuality, said that he has found about a third of his patients experience no change, a third have what he called “significant improvement.”...
- [Photos From the NARTH/Exodus Protest At APA Convention](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/photos-from-the/): Wayne has posted some photos from yesterday’s NARTH/Exodus protest. They’re kind of blurry but I swear that’s Randy “boy wonder” Thomas in the orange. Alan “Batman” Chambers doesn’t appear in the pics. In case you’re wondering why the Batman nicknames, just watch Randy’s hilarious introduction for a speech he gave to the Florida Family Policy Council. His sense of humor really shines through and really made me think what a sweet likable guy he must be apart from Exodus’ public rhetoric.
- [Friday Free-For-All](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/friday-free-for/): Here’s a chance to do some off-subject commenting. Try to keep it at least somewhat relevant to the site and, as always, follow the guidelines. My random thoughts are after the jump. Be sure to add yours to the Comment Section.
- [Wishing Ben Well](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/wishing-ben-wel/): For about two years, Ben, a early-20’s guy struggling to reconcile his sexual orientation and his religious faith, blogged on a site called Scattered Words. (Vital Voice interview here) I have not always been generous in my attitude towards Ben and originally I suspected him of being a fake identity. But over time I came to see a young man genuinely anguished in his efforts to become the man he wanted to be. For the past six months or so it seems to me that he has been growing discouraged at the disconnect between his religious identification and his emotional attraction...
- [APA Releases Statement on Conversion Therapy Following Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/apa-releases-st/): “For over three decades the consensus of the mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and therefore not in need of a cure. The APA’s concern about the positions espoused by NARTH and so-called conversation therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.”
- [Texas Ford Dealers Don’t Want Gay Customers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/texas-ford-deal/): This is a very late response to a letter written on June 23, 2006. The board of the Greater Texas Ford Dealers Advertising Fund which represents 78 Ford Dealers in North Texas has sent a letter to Ford Motor Company expressing sympathy with the virulently anti-gay American Family Association and requesting that Ford no longer advertise with “controversial media”, in particular “homosexual related media and events”. The language of the letter is overflowing with homophobia and bigotry and includes such language as gay lifestyle gay polygamy objectionable assault on their values offend or alienate the masses in order to placate a...
- [Truth Wins Out to Counter Antigay Coalition’s ‘Subversion of Science’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/truth-wins-out-3/): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 10, 2006 TRUTH WINS OUT TO COUNTER ANTI-GAY COALITION’S ‘SUBVERSION OF SCIENCE’ AT AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S CONVENTION Religion-Based Bigots Cloak Scripture in the Guise of Science, Says TWO WHAT: Truth Wins Out will hold a press conference to counter a right wing attempt to bully the American Psychological Association into re-labeling homosexuality a mental illness. The anti-gay coalition is staging a politically-motivated “protest” at the New Orleans convention center on Friday. These groups believe that homosexuality is sinful, and therefore they are attempting to pressure the APA into twisting science so it will correspond to the coalition’s...
- [Pot Calls Kettle Black: Exodus Criticizes APA for Informing Public Policy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/pot-calls-kettl/): This press release from Exodus caused me to laugh out loud: Exodus International will join several other national organizations to protest the American Psychological Association’s (APA) increasing political involvement at its national convention this Friday, Aug. 11, in New Orleans. In recent years, the APA has moved away from its mission to improve the welfare of its patients in favor of a more political one. I don’t see how they issued this with a straight face (in more ways than one). What’s this next photo? Why it’s Randy Thomas (Exodus membership director and “Robin to Alan’s Batman”) speaking at a Florida...
- [To Thine Own Self](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/to-thine-own-se/): Michael McManus (not the “marriage-protecting” conservative commentator) discusses in the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska, Omaha, how he stopped being a people-pleasing pushover: I think I realized the severity of my situation when I told my parents I would go to counseling to try and turn “un-gay.” I knew it wasn’t going to work, but who was I to disappoint? I put a smile on my face, gave my parents false hope, and let the counselor explain to me why I was wrong. I remember sitting there, listening intently. I imagine I was experiencing the same thing that guests...
- [Stephen Bennett’s WorldPride Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/stephen-bennett-21/): In case you forgot, Stephen Bennett is currently conducting an “outreach” at WorldPride 2006. He’s got a special blog to detail their activities here. I’d be worried if I were Stephen since The Agape (rarely out-done in level of hysteria) is predicting “‘WorldPride’ event might bring God’s judgment.” I swear to you I am not making that up.
- [Diagram: What Is An Ex-Gay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/diagram-what-is/): There’s been a great deal of discussion recently at Warren Throckmorton’s site regarding Alan Chambers’ possible retirement of the term “ex-gay.” Although I didn’t join the discussion, I did start thinking about what the term “ex-gay” entails. Needless to say, ex-gay covers a huge spectrum of experiences. Before we possibly do away with the term, I thought I would contribute something by creating a diagram to capture that wide range of experiences. I felt that a diagram was necessary to recognize that “ex-gay” is an identity commonly associated with a dynamic range of experiences and feelings much like “gay.” This diagram...
- [Mixed Orientation Mormon Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/mixed-orientati-2/): There is an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about gay/straight married Mormons. These are relationships in which straight women knowingly marry gay men. While the article does not go far into the motivations of the women, it does discuss some of the reasons that these men decided to marry, a mixture of faith and genuine affection. The interesting aspect of this article is that the men are not claiming to have become heterosexual. In fact, one of them went through ex-gay therapy without a change to his orientation. Ben had been through therapy before and after his two-year mission for...
- [Focus Strikes Out With Atlanta Braves](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/focus-strikes-o/): According to the Southern Voice, The Atlanta Braves have asked that anti-gay Focus on the Family not be included in future Faith Days events.  “We do not feel it is an appropriate connection for Focus on the Family to be part of this event,” said Braves spokesperson Beth Marshal.  She declined to comment further. Faith Days, a new event the Braves call primarily a business decision, is an effort to boost attendance by reaching out to the 5000 churches within 75 miles of Turner Field.   The first such event was held on July 27, with two more scheduled this year...
- [Visitor/Commenter Adam Kautz Banned](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/visitorcommente/): An infrequent visitor/commenter named Adam Kautz has posted 12 comments at Ex-Gay Watch in the past three years. One prior comment was deleted because Kautz made a personal attack. More recently, Kautz posted death threats and racial slurs on an exgay website. Such conduct is unacceptable, and XGW will not allow people exhibiting such conduct — whatever their political, religious or sexual background — to comment here. We received what I believe to be a sincere and heartfelt apology from Mr. Kautz, but that alone does not alter the ramifications of his actions. Words are cheap if they are not followed...
- [Beat Him Straight: Do Ex-Gay Ministries Have Blood on Their Hands?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/beat-him-straig/): This past weekend in El Paso, three young men kidnapped a gay teen, tied him up, and beat him all night. the attackers told the man “they were going to scare him straight.” Some might consider it extreme to blame this young man’s torment on the ex-gay movement. And it is true that I cannot prove that any of his attackers were familiar with any of the literature disseminated by Exodus or other anti-gay organizations. But it’s clear that they share some beliefs in common: * Gay people can become straight * Gay people don’t deserve to be treated the same...
- [Anti-Gay “Love” Seems More Like Hate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/anti-gay-love-s/): Anti-gay activist often claim to “love the sinner, hate the sin”. A recent example is Guy Adams of Renew America who (in the midst of a string of evil and false accusations) said on Stacy Harp’s podcast …we don’t hate the gays mind you, we don’t hate them, we hate what they’re doing… Joe Brummer challenged Adams’ lies and, it would appear, made him angry. Adams blasted a stream of emails to Joe (available here) in which his definition of “we don’t hate” becomes much more clear: Whether I reach gays or not is not that important to me. Yes, I...
- [Renaming Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/renaming-ex-gay/): According to Michael Bussee at Warren Throckmorton’s site, Alan Chambers seeks to do away with the term “Ex-Gay”. Michael Bussee quoted Alan Chambers, Ex. Dir. of Exodus speaking about the term ex-gay as follows: “We need to do away with the term entirely and make sure it’s never used again.” Mr. Chambers confirmed this quote in an email. While I agree with Bussee that “Ex-Gay” is a term that sets itself up for misunderstanding, I find the phrase used by Chambers, “former homosexual” to be even more deceptive. “Ex-gay” could legitimately be interpreted as no longer identifying as part of a...
- [Ex-Gay Minister Became a Supporter](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/ex-gay-minister-3/): There is an article in the Washington MetroWeekly about a gay-supportive African American minister that is leaving DC and going to a church in New York. Alvin Jackson, who was a shining star in the Disciples of Christ church (pastor of flagship National City Christian Church and the demonination’s moderator) was involved in a scandal in 2003 relating to plagiarized sermons. Having admitted his mistakes, he will now be seeking a new start. He will be leaving DC to pastor the small Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan. But what caught my attention was the following: ”The interesting thing for me,...
- [Guy Adams of Renew America Says “Gays Having Sex With Infants” Is New Trend](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/guy-adams-of-re/): Guy Adams recently spoke with Stacy L. Harp on her podcast, The Right View.  Incredibly, during the interview he claimed that the new trend among gays is to have sex with infants!  He offered no source for this preposterous, disgusting claim and Mrs. Harp did not inquire further.  The entire interview was littered with a generous dose of half-truths and baseless claims.  The following examples are from JoeBrummer.com: Gays have sex with infants (He says its “The New trend”) Gays have sex with animals (yuck) Gay relationships only last about a year and 1/2 (and that came from what study? cause...
- [Jeffrey John: Ex-gay of Sorts](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/jeffrey-john-ex/): I challenged a blogger the other day on his consistent use of the most juvenile, sophomoric insults to express his belief that homosexuality is a sin. On this particular occasion he had referred to a gay marriage as “the union of two men unto eternal donut-punching”. When I asked why he always expressed himself this way, he replied: I say “donut punching” because the terms, “vigorous anal sex” (my web filter will probably block me from my own blog now) and “rectal semen deposits,” are too graphic. Take sex out of homosexuality and you have two guys who are just Best...
- [On a Personal Note](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/on-a-personal-n/): I need to gloat for a moment. I just passed my ninth architectural registration exam. If I lived in any other state besides CA or NY I would be a licensed architect now. Alas those two states require a panel interview on top of the nine exams.
- [Exodus Blog Reprints Article Containing Known Factual Errors](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/exodus-blog-rep/): Here Exodus blogger Nancy Brown reprints an aricle from the Agapepress so poorly written it confuses the difference between sex and gender as well as contains a factually incorrect definition of “transgender.” I wrote two posts on XGW detailing the factual errors in the Agape article here and here. In response I’ve attempted to post comments on the Exodus blog as well as email Nancy Brown. Feel free to drop her a line yourself.
- [Anti-Gay T-Shirt Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/anti-gay-t-shir-2/): As discussed before, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that anti-gay activists do not have a constitutional right to go into the classroom with anti-gay religious messages on their clothes. The Court found that gay students have the right to be left alone and not be required to attend class in an environment that is hostile and condemning. Of course anti-gay activists care nothing about the gay students and feel that it is the anti-gay activists that are being persecuted. They feel that if gay students can seek tolerance from other students in school, then anti-gay students should be...
- [CWA Intern Repeats LaBarbera’s Deceptions](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/cwa-intern-repe/): UPDATED Concerned Women for America has an internship program in which they train young women to be culture warriors against those who don’t share CWA’s view of how the world should be. Part of this training appears to be writing negative and accusatory articles about the gay community. Molly Hamrick, a recent graduate with a degree in Political Communications from Bryan College, took a claim by Peter LaBarbera that the Gay Games was “a flop” and paraphrased this as “Gay Games VII is the third “gay” event that has failed financially”. However, the Washington Blade reports Organizers in Chicago said this...
- [Exodus Staff And the Florida Marriage Amendment Petition](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/08/exodus-staff-an/): KnowThyNeighbor.org, which is a website which publishes the names of everyone who signed the petition to amend the Florida state constitution defining marriage. I naturally assumed since Exodus has a track record of supporting that (and Randy Thomas even spoke at a rally) all their names would appear on the petition. I did a quick search and failed to turn up all the major Exodus staffers I could think of. (But I must admit I don’t know the names of everyone at Exodus.) I thought that a bit odd so I emailed Randy Thomas asking for comment. He was kind enough...
- [Hartline Comments on Bathhouse Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/hartline-commen/): As we’ve discussed before, the IFI protest at the Gay Games in Chicago were highly ineffective. The protesters were outnumbered and then rain washed them out after about an hour and a half. Previous reporting discussed singing atheletes from London, but James Hartline, ex-gay activist from San Diego, gave AgapePress a different report about those who challenged LaBarbera and Hartline. “When we went inside of the homosexual community,” the Christian activist recalls, “it had to be one of the ugliest spiritual experiences that I’ve ever experienced, because of the hostility that was directed towards us specifically by members of that community....
- [XGW At San Diego Pride](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/xgw-at-san-dieg/): I’m in San Diego this weekend for San Diego Pride and was lucky enough to meet friend of Ex-Gay Watch Autumn Sandeen.
- [Protest At Courage Meeting in St. Louis](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/protest-at-cour/): The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article about Courage, the Catholic ex-gay group, meeting there and a protest held by Catholic Action Network for Social Justice. Protestors objected that Courage views homosexuality as changable through reparative therapy. Christina Nair, speaking for Courage, said the group does not engage in reparative therapy but would support people who seek out such therapy. The group does not force anyone into a life they don’t want, she said. “The purpose of Courage is to provide support for men and women with same-sex attractions who want to live a chaste life,” she said. “We’re not trying...
- [Is Exodus Complying with Tax Law?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/is-exodus-compl/): The Internal Revenue Code has a long history of favorable tax treatment for “ministers of the gospel”. I do not prepare income tax returns for ministers or churches, but there is a good summary of the rules in a December 2005 article in the CPA Journal. UPDATE: See Below
- [A Post Revisited](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/a-post-revisite/): Last month when I wrote about the death of HIV+ Exodus board member Michael Lumberger, the post generated a great deal of comments and discussion. However I left for two weeks of vacation after uploading my post so I wasn’t able to participate in the discussion. Over the last month I realized this is a complex issue and my original post did not fully explore it fully. My addendum elaborates on the following: -Why Lumberger’s testimony is so offensive to many gay people. -Why the words of a man who passed away in 2004 are still relevant and demand examination. -An...
- [Nancy Heche’s “Love” Shows Its True Colors](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/nancy-heches-lo/): Focus on the Family’s ex-gay roadshow, Love Won Out, has presented Dr. Nancy Heche (doctorate in pastoral counseling) as an authority on sexual orientation issues. Heche claims to represent “truth and love” in her approach. Heche’s claim to authority is based on her husband’s closeted life and the very public relationship that her estranged daughter (actress Anne Heche) had with Ellen DeGeneres. She purports that this has given her a “compassionate and unique focus”. Although she presents herself as though she offers help to families, she is also available to campaign against laws that would protect people from discrimination in employment,...
- [Good Times This Weekend](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/good-times-this/): I’m headed to San Diego pride this weekend. Does anyone know if James Hartline has anything festive planned?
- [Chad Thompson Provides An Ex-Gay Angle on X-Men 3](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/chad-thompson-p/): Chad Thompson, one of the most fair-minded exgay activists I know just wrote a piece on X-Men 3. (I know he’s a wee bit late.) Instead of ignoring the obvious ex-gay themes of the movie like the AgapePress and Focus on the Family did, Chad tackles them head on and applies them to his ex-gay perspective. I admire him for that. His article cites metaphors from the movie and argues those with noble and valid reasons for seeking change deserve to be treated with compassion, understanding, acceptance and respect.
- [Alan Chambers: Gays Trying to Portray Themselves As Equals](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/alan-chambers-g/): From Family News In Focus today: Some think the ads [on gay marriage] having nothing to do with marriage. Alan Chambers is with Exodus International. “I think their long-term goal is to portray themselves as equals, as people who are the same as heterosexuals, that their lifestyle is just as legitimate as heterosexuality.” And, despite the money the gay cause has to throw around, Chambers says conservatives need to have a consistent response. “We have to fight to protect marriage because marriage is best for children. As Christians we need to respond in love, respond with respect towards people with different...
- [LaBarbera’s Bathhouse Visit - One More Thread](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/labarberas-bath/): We now have a report from the Windy City Times about Peter LaBarbera’s outreach to Steamworks, a gay bathhouse in Chicago on the final Saturday of Gay Games. LaBarbera showed up with an armed bodyguard, ex-gay James Hartline, and half a dozen supporters. They were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters singing and drowning out the anti-gay group. If LaBarbera was counting on divine intervention in his latest efforts to “tell homosexuals there is freedom in Christ”, he must have been sorely disappointed. The event, which IFI called an “outreach program” on its Web site, was slated to run from 5:30 p.m. until...
- [Why the Ex-Gay Debate Is So Important](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/why-the-ex-gay/): Anti-gay activists spend millions of dollars every year to promote the idea that “change is possible”. Although there is no empirical evidence to support their claims and although their most touted “study” only claims that a miniscule percentage of gay people might be able to reorient, countless hours and small fortunes are spent to give the impression that gay people could be heterosexual if they just tried. The reason for this deceptive effort is demonstrated in a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Washington today. Writing for the majority in a 5-4 decision that gay couples are not...
- [The Proper Response to Bashing](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/the-proper-resp/): Papers around the country are picking up an AP article by Ling Liu in which heterosexuals complain about mistreatment in Provincetown, Mass., a gay resort town on Cape Cod. The list of abuses consists of: 1. One gay man accused a straight woman in a grocery store of being a “bigot” because she signed a petition to take marriage rights away from gay people. 2. A straight woman who had signed the anti-gay petition found dog manure by her car and claimed that a gay person put it there (this appears to be an unsupported assumption). 3. A printed list of...
- [AgapePress’ Jim Brown Fails to Open Dictionary to “transgender”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/agapepress-jim/): From Jim Brown over at the Agape today: Transgenders are individuals who have changed their sex through surgery, or at least have tried to. Hmm… Let’s surf on over to the dictionary at the National Library of Medicine which offers a more accurate and less… how shall I put this? less-madeup definition than Jim.
- [AgapePress / Bob Knight Confuse Sex And Gender](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/agapepress-bob/): The AgapePress begins with apples: Students looking to enter the Harvard Business School MBA program are asked to fill out an online profile that offers three choices of gender: female, male, or transgender. And then talks to Bob Knight about oranges: “I’m not surprised it’s coming out of Harvard,” he says, “because they’ve flirted with the idea that, in terms of sexuality, anything goes, and they’ve given intellectual respectability to it.” Knight continues, sharing that he feels it is “harmful” that Harvard, one of the most prestigious colleges in America, now thinks there are three sexes instead of two. “That kind...
- [Haley’s Claims Contrast with Reporter’s Experiences](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/haleys-claims-c/): Cindy Rodriguez, columnist for the Denver Post, attended the peace vigil that Soulforce organized to pray for the end of James Dobson’s persecution of gay people. She spoke with Mike Haley, Focus on the Family’s head ex-gay, about his anti-gay activism and his reorientation. Rodriguez was not impressed. I wonder: If Haley found a man he loved who was willing to commit to him, would be have remained gay? Rodriguez is dismissive of Haley and his claims. Perhaps this may be because of her particular political or religious views. But what struck me as most interesting is what Rodriguez said next....
- [Ex-gay Protest of Gay Games Comes to an End](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/ex-gay-protest/): With the culmination of the Gay Games VII in Chicago, so too ends the protest led by IFI’s LaBarbera and his crew of less-than-reputable ex-gays. Although there was a full schedule of protest planned throughout the Gaymes, very little was reported in the press; even the religious press did not seem to much notice IFI’s efforts. The Chicago Tribune, in its article about the closing ceremonies, did mention the following: Some people traveled hundreds of miles to protest the Games, but they seemed to have little impact on participants. The Illinois Family Institute staged a week of lectures in a downtown...
- [Water: a Deepa Mehta Film](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/water-a-deepa-m/): My family came to town for my birthday and we saw the Indian film Water. (official site / apple.com trailer) It’s the story of 8-year-old Chuyia (pictured) who after being widowed is forced to live in a house for widows, all outcasts under the Hindu religious tradition. The widows of Water aren’t subjected to this (many times against their will) for their own benefit or that of society but because a 2000 year old religious text declares it so. The most memorable line of the movie is an older widow’s exchange with Chuyia: To even think of re-marriage is a sin....
- [LaBarbera’s Ex-Gay Message to Chicago’s Gay Games](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/labarberas-ex-g/): We reported earlier that Peter LaBarbera was to be in town to “counter the upcoming Gay Games events in Chicago with a ‘Truth and Love Offensive.'” Described as an “outreach”, his stated goal was to “tell homosexuals there is freedom in Christ.” Part of that offensive was a press conference featuring three ex-gays and several anti-gay speakers. However, fearing that gay activists might protest their love offensive, LaBarbera announced that “only credentialed reporters will be allowed to attend this event.” He did not explain how restricting gay people from attending this event fit into his overall plan of outreach. Perhaps the...
- [Articles Unpublished](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/articles-unpubl/): I’ve unpublished three recent articles: 1. My item on the Taiwan hospital and parents that incarcerated a gay youth for 56 days on false claims of mental disorder. 2. Peter LaBarbera parody infographic 3. Whose Life Is Sacred My question to readers: Are we doing enough to substantiate our posts, and demonstrate clear links to specific exgay individuals, groups or philosophies? We may republish the items for reasons of transparency, but I thought I would raise the issue.
- [New England Says “NO” to Anti-Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/new-england-say/): Marriage equality has been legal now in the State of Massachusetts for over two years. In Vermont, civil unions have been open to gay couples for six years. Those who oppose legal recognition of same-sex couples often predict horrible consequences unless government bars these couples from equal treatment under law. It is reasonable to assume that if such dire events were taking place, those closest both geographically and in temperament would notice it first. The New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are the states that are most likely to be impacted by the social...
- [Leaving Ex-Gay Efforts Turned Latvian Priest Christian](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/leaving-ex-gay/): In an ironic twist, a priest in Latvia tells of his efforts to become ex-gay and how after they failed he found acceptance from God. I was born in a communist family. When I was 12, I recognized that I was gay and I tried all sort of therapy to change my sexual orientation. I visited several psychiatrists and psychologists in six different countries! When I was 17, after I tried a lot of doctors who did not succeed in changing me, I became Christian. At that point, I understood that if people cannot accept me, and I cannot accept myself,...
- [LeVay Exposes Evergreen’s Deception](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/levay-exposes-e/): On July 8, David Clarke Pruden, the executive director of Evergreen International, an ex-gay group for Mormons, wrote an opinion piece in the Salt Lake Tribune in which distorted the results of several studies to claim that there is “no scientific basis for ‘born gay’ theory”. We pointed out several inaccuracies here. On Sunday, the Tribune published a rebuttal by Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist and leading researcher in the study of sexual orientation and its origins. LeVay is clear in exposing the deliberately deceptive nature of Pruden’s opinion piece. Employing a turn of phrase calculated to confuse any reader, Pruden writes...
- [NARTH Enters the Blogosphere](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/narth-enters-th/): Yes, NARTH has entered the blogosphere. Alas, there’s still a long way to go before they truly enter the 21st century.
- [Numerous Inaccuracies in Focus’ Attack on Transgendered Child](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/numerous-inaccu/): When Focus goes after transgender issues it’s both sad and comical how little they appear to know. This time they’re all worked up about a transgenderd 5 year old beginning kindergarden in Broward County, Florida. From Family News In Focus on 7/11/06: (To be clear, Family News in Focus is a radio broadcast. I just took the audio and added a photo montage.) First let’s have some fun with Paulk’s statement. I’m not sure what testosterone has to do with anything. Does Paulk think testosterone is an exclusively male hormone? If that’s what he was implying then he’s wrong, testosterone is...
- [Dan’s Over LA](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/dans-over-la/): I’m currently exploring my options for moving to a gay-friendly city with more affordable housing than exists in southern California. Cities must have at least half a million residents and the median home price must be near or below a quarter million dollars. Government recognition of partnerships is not required but non-discrimination laws at either the state or local level are. Hot is preferred to cold. Thoughts anyone? (And it’s kind of funny that Exodus’ hometown of Orlando now almost fits the bill.)
- [Ex-Gays At the Gay Games](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/ex-gays-at-the/): Athletes from around the globe are converging on Chicago for Gay Games VII. But they will not be alone. Also in attendance will be ex-gays to share their message. The Truth and Love Offensive will be headed up by Peter LaBarbera, president of Illinois Family Institute. Peter has joyously shared his views on gay employment:
- [Do You Moo?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/do-you-moo/): Borndifferent.org is seeking to let Colorado Springs meet Norman, a dog that says “Moo”. It’s part of an effort to encourage discussion about the biological bases for sexual orientation. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, they are running ads on television and have banners around town featuring Norman and have information on their website. The facts they quote on their site, particularly about twin studies, are overly broad and may be outdated, but their purpose is to initiate dialog, not “offer conclusive scientific proof one way or the other”. Of course Focus on the Family was ready to downplay the scientific...
- [Unrealized Expectations](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/unrealized-expe/): People Can Change, a seminar series that purports to help people reorient, has polled participants on their website. Although only a small percentage took the poll, People Can Change has released their results claiming that contrary to “conventional wisdom” people do not seek to become heterosexual out of internalized homophobia or societal pressure. They list the top ten responses of their respondents, most of which relate to religious belief or stereotype. Jim Burroway has observations on the survey here. I want to address only one of the top ten reasons that these SSA strugglers listed for undergoing reorientation therapy: 7) Family...
- [Dan’s Roommate From the Nicolosi Years](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/dans-roommate-f/): As I detail in my bio I saw Joe Nicolosi for exgay therapy during my freshman and sophomore years of college. Both years I had the same roommate in the dorms, Mike Sullivan. Mike wasn’t out freshman year but came out sophomore year and seemed to think I was ready to come out with him. I’ll save that story for another day. Mike was recently featured on Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D-List generally being himself. The Malcontent has video. God bless them. Also on a personal note, I’m back from vacation. The Chihuly show at the New York Botanical...
- [Lowest Divorce Rates in States Favorable to Gay Partnerships](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/lowest-divorce/): Christian Right Wrong On Gay Marriage in Massachusetts:Mass Likely To Retain Lowest Divorce Rate Spot In 2005,States Hostile to Gay Marriage Lag by Bruce WIlson, Talk To Action Excerpt: “….Over two years have passed now since same sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, and data from all of 2004 and the first 11 months of 2005 are now available. Emergent trends in Massachusetts amount to a stark indictment of those dire claims about sex marriage cited earlier in this article. Divorce rates are commonly used as a key measure of marital and family health. US states, including Massachusetts, submit monthly summaries...
- [Christians Should Not Wish for a Theocracy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/christians-shou/): There is an excellent article in the most recent issue of Christianity Today entitled “The Lure of Theocracy.”  It is a great illustration of why some Christians seek a theocracy and more importantly, why they shouldn’t.  A comparison is made between Islamic States and the West, the latter with it’s separation of Church and State. Several years ago a Muslim man said to me, “I find no guidance in the Qur’an on how Muslims should live as a minority in a society and no guidance in the New Testament on how Christians should live as a majority.” He put his finger...
- [Exodus’ Home County Blocks Antigay Discrimination in Housing](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exodus-home-cou/): (Most of the Orlando Sentinel articles linked in this post are behind a paywall.) While Exodus 2005 keynote speaker Jerry Falwell claims to support equal housing, Exodus president Alan Chambers’ position has been a bit less kind — but perhaps evolving.
- [Exgay Mormon Leader Twists Science to Accuse Others Of… Twisting Science](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exgay-mormon-le/): Writing in the Salt Lake Tribune, Mormon exgay activist David Clarke Pruden — head of Evergreen International — misrepresents gay activist claims about scientific research into the origins of sexual orientation, in order to claim that those unnamed activists have been, well, misrepresenting the research. Specifically, Pruden falsely claims that gay activists are wedded to the notion that homosexuality is determined by a gay gene. But Pruden fails to name a single activist who subscribes to such a theory. While some of Pruden’s scientific citations are plausible, he mischaracterizes the research of Dr. Robert Spitzer. Pruden neglects to tell readers that...
- [PFOX President Lashes Out At Critic of Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/pfox-president-2/): From Wayne Besen: Today, disgraced “counselor” Richard Cohen has once again gone off the deep end with insane attacks against me. My crime – informing America on the bizarre methods this witchdoctor uses on clients. Ouch! The PFOX president’s offense against Besen: A lengthy string of personal putdowns in his newsletter. Besen responds to Cohen, point-by-point. Read it — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll don a flak jacket, you’ll ask PFOX to refund your donation.
- [Salon.com Reviews ‘Straight to Jesus’ About Exgay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/saloncom-review/): Read Gay, godly and guilty, written by Laura Miller for Salon.com. Miller interviews Tanya Erzen, author of the new book Straight to Jesus. Then read the review of the review by Steve Schalchlin.
- [It’s Hard to Hate a Clown](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/its-hard-to-hat/): Gay Pride in Kansas City was invaded by an anti-gay clown. And this one was dressed up in clown make-up. It was a busy busy day for fighting the Gay Agenda at AgapePress. But our good buddies over there took time to bring us a story about an anonymous clown calling himself JM (Jesus’ Messenger) who put cards on 200 car windows. The clown, who will only identify himself as “JM” (“Jesus’ Messenger”) talked like he actually had a good time as he strolled the grounds, dressed in a rainbow-colored shirt that announced “Jesus is still SettingCaptivesFree.com” on the back. During...
- [Open Forum: Eerie Look Into the Past Reveals That Some Lies Haven’t Changed](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/open-forum-eeri/): While browsing the blog Two World Collision, I found the following video clip from the 1950’s.  It was apparently produced as a joint project between the school system and police department of Inglewood, CA, to warn young boys to watch out for “the homosexual.”  Watching this thing gave me the creeps but further, an appreciation for how much worse it must have been to grow up gay in the 50’s.  It’s amazing how similar the warnings are to those of extreme anti-gay groups today.  A connection to pedophilia is not implied, it is simply stated; the only distinction made is between...
- [‘We Are Thinking’: Exgay PAC Seeks to Splinter Civil-Rights Movements](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/we-are-thinking/): Updated to reflect the location of WeAreThinking PAC. There has never been just one civil rights movement; there have been numerous movements: for Jews and other religious minorities, for blacks, for women, for Japanese-Americans after World War II, and for gays since approximately the 1950s. Nevertheless, it has become a mantra among the religious right that certain groups are “hijacking” the one solitary civil rights movement. Meanwhile, in the small universe of web sites that advertise the existence of “former homosexuals,” there are many exgay sites that join the religious right in opposing promoting antigay discrimination — but few sites that...
- [Vigil At Conference for Celibate, Antigay Catholics](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/vigil-at-confer/): The U.S. antigay Catholic group Courage, which contends there is a “homosexual identity” and then coaches same-sex-attracted Catholics to reject that identity in favor of chastity, will hold its national conference July 27 at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Catholic Action Network for Social Justice plans a vigil outside the conference. Courage’s understanding of homosexuality directly contradicts statements by major professional mental health and medical associations including the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. St. Louis University, a Jesuit University that emphasizes social justice and diversity, is...
- [Tim Wilkins: Talk Is Cheap, But Pardon Me While I Talk Up ‘Gay Theology’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/tim-wilkins-tal/): Exgay activist Tim Wilkins held a one-day conference titled “More Than Words” in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 8. He plans another one August 12 in Raleigh, N.C. The theme of his lecture tour is that antihomosexual Christians should not waste much time in a fruitless effort to “talk” a gay person out of his or her homosexuality. Instead, they should “walk” the person out of it. Does Wilkins mean that actions speak louder than words — a noble sentiment — or does he fear that antigay individuals will lose an argument based on actual facts with their gay family member or...
- [‘Cultural Warfare Updates’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/cultural-warfar/): Solarbird.livejournal.com has been summarizing the day-to-day activiities of numerous religious-right organizations in the United States and Canada. Worth tracking….
- [Oh, Really? Rocker Accused of Threatening to Kill ‘Ex-Gay Lover’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/oh-really-rocke/): Corrected to indicate that the former boyfriend was erroneously described as “ex-gay lover.” From Gay Celebrity News, a story about former celebrity Pete Burns: The cross dressing former front man of 1980s band Dead or Alive appeared in court yesterday accused of threatening to kill his ex-gay lover. The Celebrity Big Brother contestant was accused of waging a month-long harassment campaign against his former boyfriend Jason Peters. Commenter Norm points out below, and a Google search (mostly) confirms, that Jason Peters is not ex-gay.
- [Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/top-10-power-br/): AlterNet on July 7 reprinted Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right, published in June by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. James Dobson ranks No. 2. (Blame Pat Robertson.) The top power brokers are indexed, along with much longer versions of the following profiles for each:
- [Exgay NEA Activist Turns Out to Be Anti-NEA](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/exgay-nea-activ/): Corrected to reflect Jeralee Smith’s exgay identity. Exgay activist Jeralee Smith formed the NEA Ex-Gay Educators Caucus in early 2004, ostensibly to educate teachers and administrators about exgays. But just two years later, she is calling upon Christian teachers not to educate fellow NEA members, but rather to think about leaving the NEA because the NEA refuses to immediately sign on to a far-reaching antigay political agenda.
- [Schism in Australia’s Uniting Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/07/schism-in-austr/): The Uniting Church, Australia’s third largest Christian denomination, was formed in 1977 by the union of the Congregational Union, the Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church. Like many churches in English speaking nations, the Uniting Church is discovering the difficulty in keeping in fellowship those who believe in the full inclusion of gay persons in the body of Christ and those who believe that Scripture forbids acceptance of homosexuality. In 2003, the Church adopted Resolution 84, which allows individual presbyteries to appoint gay clergy. Church leaders insist this reaffirms the autonomy of presbyteries, but conservatives say it endorses gay ministry and...
- [Ex-gay Lobbyist Thomas Claims Gays Mortified At Gay Activism](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/ex-gay-lobbyist/): The leadership at Exodus seems to have come up with a bizarre and totally unsubstantiated new talking-point claiming “most” gay people don’t care much for the work of gay-rights groups. In Exodus’ book “God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door” Randy Thomas is so kind as to oversimplify all gays and lesbians into three “groups of homosexuals.” From page 126 describing the “moderate” type of homosexual: Perhaps to your surprise, I can say that most people who identify as gay or lesbian are like these women. …Most moderate homosexuals are grateful to live in the United States and will challenge the...
- [Exodus Board Member Undermines Ohio Domestic-Violence Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-board-me-4/): Exodus board member Phil Burress is the president of Ohio’s misnamed Citizens for Community Values, which identifies itself as “Officially Associated with Focus on the Family and Family Research Council as a Family Policy Council in Ohio.” According to the Dayton Daily News (Oct. 15), Burress’ organization is seeking to overturn Ohio’s 27-year-old law against domestic violence, claiming that it conflicts with the state’s new gay-marriage ban. The Ohio Supreme Court will hear State v. Carswell in December. If the court strikes down part of the domestic-violence law, it could wipe out longstanding legal protections for unmarried Ohioans in abusive relationships....
- [Did Alan Chambers Follow His Book’s Advice to ‘Stand Up for Gay People’ After Liberty Sunday Profanities?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/did-alan-chambe/): “God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door” is a new book written by several senior leaders at Exodus International. On page 115: Stand up for gay people. The church and conservative Christianity hasn’t been a safe, welcoming place for homosexuals. Oftentimes pastors and youth leaders make insensitive remarks about homosexuality or gay people. These remarks can be devastating. When you’re a witness to unkind words, or a judgmental attitude, or hate, stand up for gay people. Boldly and graciously confront injustice and hatred. Jesus always stood up for the sinner, and we should as well. [This particular passage is from a...
- [Transglobal Ethnic Profiling At Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/transglobal-eth/): From Wayne Besen, Sept. 27: The ex-gay group Exodus International got into the ethnic profiling game this week by claiming Thai students become hookers because of “materialism.” “College students in Bangkok become prostitutes to earn money to buy brand name clothes and accessories in order to be well accepted by friends,” an Exodus affiliated ministry, Beyond Imagination, stated in its Fall newsletter. Exodus should understand better than most that poverty is the root of prostitution. Executive Director Alan Chambers, for instance, turned his struggling organization into a million dollar industry by pimping it out to Focus on the Family. Exodus, a...
- [Academics Refute FRC’s Pedophile-Pandering](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/academics-refut/): Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, is a former Louisiana lawmaker with fundraising ties to the KKK dating to 1996 and political ties to other racist groups dating to 2000. Earlier this month, in a campaign that was coordinated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, Perkins scapegoated same-sex-attracted persons for the lusts and crimes of (mostly heterosexual) pederasts. The following articles are among the best-researched refutations of Perkins’ vitriol. Jonathan Rowe Box Turtle Bulletin Mark Pietrzyk
- [Speaker Uses FRC Podium to Voice Bigoted Rape Fantasies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/speaker-uses-fr/): Last weekend at a Family Research Council event — a gathering of politicians and religious power-seekers that was misnamed “Liberty Sunday” — Bishop Wellington Boone fantasized about the “rape of the civil rights movement” by people of faith who dare to affirm the equality and liberty of same-sex-attracted family members and friends. Boone also verbally attacked Condoleeza Rice for voicing respect for a gay couple. Commentary from: Arbitrary Marks:Liberty Sunday: Homosexuality should be a capital offense Jesus PoliticsMisuse of Old North Church by ‘Liberty Sunday’ Jesus Politics:Reaction by People for the American Way Joe Brummer:Exodus teams up with Liberty Sunday to...
- [Dobson’s Quest for Power](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/dobsons-quest-f/): As if to prove Dick Armey right, James Dobson is scrambling to shore up his own power in the Republican Party. Speaking in Tennessee, Dobson asked his Christian audience to put the Mark Foley scandal behind them, and to vote for a straight Republican ticket — apparently without regard to how morally and financially corrupt the party has become. As The Tennessean notes, Dobson is battling a growing realization among evangelicals that there are nonpartisan Christian public-policy alternatives to the politically corrupt Focus on the Family and Family Research Council. According to Tennessee state Sen. Roy Herron, who co-chairs FaithfulDemocrats.com, “Christians...
- [Dick Armey: James Dobson Is Imperiling Religious Freedom](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/dick-armey-jame/): Commentaries on Dick Armey’s Oct. 12 statement against Focus on the Family are available from: Andrew Sullivan Jesus Politics via Will Hinton Malcontent Andrew Sullivan Writing for FreedomWorks, Armey accused Focus’ longtime chairman of: being most interested in power, not faith, freedom, or morality promoting big government lying about conservatives (such as Armey) who oppose Dobson on select legislative issues smearing the faith and character of these opponents threatening the freedom of religious minorities, including future Christians On Sept. 26, Media Matters for America accused the mass media of ignoring prior criticisms of Dobson by Armey.
- [Religious-Right Correctness: An Effort to Rebuild Tower of Babel?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/religious-right-13/): From Dwight at A Religious Liberal Blog: This was a quote I gleamed off of Fr Jake’s site. It identifies a problem with the drive to conformity that the right seeks. “Any insistence to agree on everything sounds like a call to build a new “Tower of Babel.” In the story, unity of language and purpose led to pride, with the people patting themselves on the back for being so smart. (So) God decided to destroy the tower and to confuse our language in order to keep us mindful that only God creates anything of lasting significance. Differences remind us that...
- [Thoughts on “God’s Grace And the Homosexual Next Door”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/thoughts-on-god/): “God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door” is a new book written by several senior leaders at Exodus International. On page 69: “Some Christians believe that change is always evidenced by full deliverance from homosexuality, resulting in complete and immediate eradication of strong homosexual desires and the establishing of heterosexual desires and feelings.” Oh gee I wonder why. I believe it’s “ex-gay” Stephen Bennett who says it best, “complete change is completely possible.” Or it could be the photos of “happy families” that grace Exodus ads and brochures? Here’s Mike Haley playing with his kids on the June 2004 cover of...
- [‘Identities’ That Are ‘Contrary to Christ’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/identities-that/): Exodus President Alan Chambers and staffer Mike Goeke pass judgment against “identities” that are “contrary to Christ.” They also slap Roman Catholics in the face with a sloppy repudiation of official church teaching on sexual orientation. I invite readers to submit other identities that are contrary to Christ. For example: Republican Democrat Nationalist Racist High priests and politicians (powers and principalities) Gas Guzzler But not Jewish, because Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew. Please specify Bible verses with each identity that you deem contrary to Christ.
- [NARTH Introduces Reprint/Synopsis Series Because…?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/narth-introduce/): The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has announced that it is going to begin a reprint and synopsis series. Included in the Reprint/Synopsis Series: – Reprints from the NARTH Conference Reports – Archived articles from the NARTH site – Articles from previous issues of the NARTH Bulletin – Synopses of older articles from other published resources – And additional published resources as deemed necessary. If NARTH, in its default disclaimer, indicates… Opinions expressed on [the NARTH website] are the views and sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of NARTH… Then can...
- [LA Times Picks Up On NARTH’s Berger & Schoenewolf Statements](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/la-times-picks/): “Its statements routinely outrage gay-rights activists. But two commentaries posted online in recent months by members of NARTH’s scientific advisory committee have raised concerns among its closest allies as well.” –Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, October 15, 2006 It took a while, but what was first documented at XGW made it to the mainstream press. On XGW, Daniel Gonzales covered Joseph Berger comments about gender variant children here, and then frequent reader of XGW Boo uncovered Gerald Schoenewolf’s comments on slavery here — Timothy Kincaid writing it up as a full post here . These stories on gender variant...
- [UK: Anti-Gay “Pure” University Course](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/uk-anti-gay-pur/): The Times Online and PinkNews are reporting that UK students nationwide have joined an online protest (on Facebook) against a campus based Christian course — a course which encourages gay students to suppress their homosexuality. The course, entitled Pure, is being sponsored by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) — self-identified as a UK student Evangelical organization.
- [Civil Rights Movement: Political Correctness Or Moral Decency?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/civil-rights-mo/): Sexual Identity Therapist Dr. Warren Throckmorton, who recently pulled out of the NARTH conference program over their handling of Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf’s justification of slavery, has created this poignant video reminder of the historical facts surrounding this issue.  The civil rights movement is not about political correctness, it is about moral decency.  Please be advised, this is a powerful look at a gruesome part of our history.  Some of it may be, and in fact should be, disturbing. Source: wthrockmorton.blogspot.com
- [New Book By Exodus Leadership Calls ‘Celibate Gay Life’ A Sin](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/new-book-by-exo/): Pro-exgay blogger Disputed Mutability calls the Exodus leaders’ new book, God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door, “profoundly alienating.” DM is especially dismayed at Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Mike Goeke for their assertion that celibacy is sinful and for their sloppy repudiation of official Roman Catholic policy on both celibacy and the unlikelihood of so-called “change.” Says Alan Chambers: This is why I believe that it is so important to clarify that just living a celibate gay life is just as sinful as living a sexually promiscuous one. The sin is in identifying with anything that is contrary to Christ,...
- [Wayne Besen Speaking in Long Beach](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/wayne-besen-spe/): Wayne Besen will be speaking at Glory Tabernacle Christian Center in Long Beach, Calif., this Saturday, Oct. 14, at 11 a.m.
- [If You Own a Blog Or Personal Web Site…](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/if-you-own-a-bl/): If you write a blog or own a personal web site, and you’d like to track XGW’s latest headlines, please feel free to add the following Ex-Gay Watch button to your site. Just copy the following code into your HTML: <a href="https://feeds.feedburner.com/exgaywatch"> <img src="https://feeds.feedburner.com/exgaywatch.gif" alt="Ex-Gay Watch" style="border: 0px" /> </a> Your site’s readers will see:
- [NARTH & Dr. Schoenewolf Respond to Southern Poverty Law Center](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/narth-dr-schoen/): Last week, the Southern Policy Law Center posted an article about the controversial paper (pdf) written by Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf, a member of the NARTH Board of Scientific Advisors (narth.com).  Today a response to that article has appeared on the NARTH website titled “Political Correctness Gone Amok: The Latest Controversy.”  It is an anonymous interview of Schoenewolf, who appears to continue his justification while complaining that liberals are making it hard for people like him to speak their mind. These so-called “liberal” groups are driving social conservatives and libertarians out of the debate with their misuse of their comments, said Schoenewolf....
- [The Politicized Vs. The Personal](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/the-politicized/): From Focus on the Family’s ‘Love Won Out’ Conference Comes to Woodstock; Message That ‘Change is Possible'” to Be Shared in Georgia on Nov. 4: “The issues surrounding homosexuality have become so politicized in recent years, that it is easy for people to forget how deeply personal these matters are. We hope to change that,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of Focus’ gender issues department and a conference speaker. “Love Won Out is a conference that reaches out to those who are hurting and offers them a message of understanding and of hope.” An brief examination of Melissa Fryrear’s media release statement...
- [Exodus’ Healing Message to Homosexuals: You Don’t Exist](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-healing/): Pure Passion is a new weekly television series endorsed and promoted by Exodus International and co-hosted by Exodus President Alan Chambers. David Kyle Foster produced Pure Passion as a function of Mastering Life Ministries, a member of the Exodus network. Myra Noyes, the Exodus Florida Regional Representative, also works with David Kyle Foster and Mastering Life Ministries. Exodus is deeply involved with this production and endorses it’s message. During the third episode, David Kyle Foster took a few minutes to “clarify” homosexuality for the viewers. He started off this way. You know, a great place to start when talking about homosexuality...
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Tells NPR Most Gays Aren’t Interested in Anti-Discrimination Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-presiden-6/): Chambers made that bizarre statement on NPR’s Fresh Air this morning (alternate link 1 / alternate link 2). I created the following video to document that claim and examine some real statistics about how America views anti-discrimination laws. I’d like to thank Jason at National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for helping me with the kickass statistics used in the video. 10/10/06 Update: Chambers is evidently too lazy to track down the Gay and Lesbian Task Force pride survey himself after “a friend emailed” him about this video. Chambers issued a pretty lame “clarification” essentially calling the study anecdotal, trying to...
- [The Qualifications to Advise NARTH: Burtoft](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/the-qualificati-2/): NARTH presents itself as a secular organization whose “primary goal is to make effective psychological therapy available to all homosexual men and women who seek change.” So then it would be reasonable to assume that the advisors of such a group would be qualified by their expertise in the field of psychological therapy. We might even go so far as to assume that any scientific advisor labeled as Ph.D. was a professional in a scientific field if not in psychology. Not so. Take, for example, Dr. Lawrence F. Burtoft, Ph.D.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Author Responds to “I Hate Being Gay” Article in the Advocate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/ex-gay-watch-au/): On September 15, a young man named Kyle Rice wrote a “first person” article in the Advocate titled I Hate Being Gay. Kyle described how unhappy he was with an orientation that was not compatible with his religion and how he’s exploring an ex-gay ministry. The Advocate kindly let me respond.
- [Scouting For All Rally in San Diego](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/scouting-for-al/): NARTH, PFOX, the CWA — these folk all find the Boy Scouts among their issues. Well, the San Diego chapter of Scouting For All held its annual rally Sunday. One of the main reason’s for the Rally is that the Boy Scout’s Camp Balboa is on City of San Diego parkland (Balboa Park) — The Boy Scouts use public land while discriminating against LGBT and non-thiest youth, parents, and leaders. Stories on the Boy Scouts continuing in a presence in Camp Balboa are here and here.
- [Video Clip: My Exodus From Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/video-clip-my-e/): Created by Dan Rickard, this appears to be a sincere and heartfelt presentation of one young man’s experience with anti-gay shame imposed by both family and society, and his experience with the answers offered him by Exodus International.  In his own words: This is a movie that I did for my sociology class project on my time spent in an ex-gay group called Exodus International. Call it an homage to what societal influences do to a young mind. The message here is more complicated than may first appear.  It illustrates many of the issues we often discuss here, but with a...
- [Wayne Besen Hospitalized](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/wayne-besen-hos/): Clearly displeased with his work,Earlier this week God struckWayne Besen suffered with a stomach ailment that briefly hospitalized him. XGW invites readers, who are so inclined, to pray for Wayne’s recovery now that he’s back at home. It is unclear as of this posting (on Saturday) if Wayne will be in California as planned this week.
- [Holy Potpourri, Batman!  Dobson Decries Any Evangelical-Foley Link](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/holy-potpourri/): I don’t know what disingenuous smells like, but I’m guessing disingenuous smells something quite the opposite of potpourri. From Dr. Dobson Responds to Liberal Attacks over Foley Situation: “Somebody is going to have to tell me what in the wide world this indiscretion by a member of Congress has to do with evangelical Christians. And in my case, especially me,” he said. “What in the world is the connection there? And yet the media is trying to link us somehow.” Ummmmm… …Could it be Exodus has publicly reacted to the Foley Scandal, coupled with known FOTF ties to Exodus? Could it...
- [Southern Poverty Law Center Weighs in on NARTH’s Schoenewolf Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/southern-povert/): Yesterday (Oct. 6) the Southern Poverty Law Center weighed in on the NARTH Schoenewolf controversy with an Intelligence Report article “Ex-gay” psychologist claims Africans “better off” as slaves. Titled “Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History,” Schoenewolf’s angry polemic was published on NARTH’s website. In addition to his outrageous historical claims about the conditions of life in Africa, he writes that human rights proponents are intellectually stunted. (Schoenewolf draws upon Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized four stages of intellectual development, with the most advanced stage consisting of abstract and complex thinking. “[F]ollowers in the Human Rights Movement,” have...
- [Former Exgay to Appear on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/former-exgay-to/): Former exgay Shawn O’Donnell will be interviewed by Terry Gross of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air program on Monday, October 9. Visit www.freshair.com to find your local air time or to listen to it live. During the interview, O’Donnell discusses his time in Exodus International, the exgay network of local activist groups and ministries.
- [Exgay Stephen Bennett Appeals for Foley Media Attention](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exgay-stephen-b-2/): Stephen Bennett of Stephen Bennett Ministries is available for comment on the Foley scandal. From the “Foley, Molestation and Homosexuality — Expert Available for Comment” media release: …”Former Rep. Foley’s story is so tragically typical – the molested can become the molester. Yes, there are those who can deal with the trauma and make it through. However, we have to stop worrying about being ‘politically correct’ in the media regarding homosexuality and finally deal with the truths and facts that homosexual molestation (and heterosexual) of children can and does produce future homosexual men and women. It robs children of their childhood...
- [Men Can Stop Rape: Masculinities in Media](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/men-can-stop-ra/): Nine years ago, I co-founded the Men’s Rape Prevention Project (archive link), the predecessor organization to Men Can Stop Rape. MCSR assists high schools and fraternities in forming curricula to discourage men from committing or tolerating sexual abuse in their own lives and among their peers. Earlier this year, Men Can Stop Rape launched a blog called Masculinities in Media. The blog examines the role of the news and entertainment media in promoting unhealthy stereotypes of masculinity and violent male behavior. There haven’t been any blog posts since August — I assume MCSR is busy with more immediate real-world concerns. But...
- [Question for Readers: What’s the Name, Location of Foley’s Rehab Center](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/question-for-re/): We’d like to know. If you know, please tell us via e-mail — and include the source of your information.
- [Exodus Reacts to Foley Teen Sex-Messaging Scandal](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-reacts-t-2/): On Sept. 29, Exodus’ resident lobbyist Randy Thomas employed admirable restraint in his personal blog by offering a politically neutral focus on the charges against Rep. Mark Foley and the victims. By today, however, Thomas’ mood had changed. On both Exodus’ official Live Out Loud blog, and his personal blog, Thomas uncritically parroted an opinion that has become the official spin of Exodus’ primary benefactors political partners among the political religious right. Gary Bauer, former leader of the Family Research Council, wrote a widely circulated opinion that: defends Republican reaction to the scandal, shifts blame to the Democrats, falsely states that...
- [A Look At the Science: Are Homosexual Men More Or Less Likely to Molest?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/a-look-at-the-s/): In former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, the underwriters political partners of the exgay movement see both a threat to their growing influence in Congress, and an opportunity to smear same-sex-attracted Americans. Instead of educating churchgoers about sexual abuse, assisting exgays who have been abused, or discussing politics with dignity, the religious right has resorted to defensive and indignant shouting — not to mention more than a little scapegoating. The antifamily Family Research Council cited Foley as proof that same-sex-attracted persons are disproportionately prone to commit sexual abuse. Without naming the source of its alleged facts, FRC cited two false statistics:...
- [Peter LaBarbera: There Is a Higher Element of This…the Word Is Pederasty…](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/peter-labarbera-3/): I loathe the idea of commenting on the Foley scandal here in the XGW; however; Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth commented on the scandal, and his comments apply to this forum.
- [NARTH’s Changing Disclaimer: The Buck Doesn’t Even Pause Here](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/narths-changing/): During the past few weeks, NARTH has made quiet changes to their disclaimer concerning the views voiced on their blog. This includes the blog administrators themselves, who are presumably at least connected with NARTH.  Members of the NARTH Scientific Advisory Board have also posted there, though with so many fictitious screen names it’s impossible to know if one is debating an article or position with the author of same, a member, just another interested individual. A history of the changes can be viewed here: revision 1, revision 2, revision 3.  Notice that revisions 1 and 2 both have the same date. ...
- [Resignations Mark Disbelief Over NARTH’s Lack of Accountability](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/resignations-ma/): Source: wthrockmorton.blogspot.com Late this afternoon, Dr. Warren Throckmorton wrote in his blog: Call me crazy but I have decided not to present the Sexual Identity Therapy Guidelines at the NARTH conference in November. In addition to other reasons, I am in disbelief that the leadership of NARTH has not come out against the article by Gerald Schoenewolf regarding political correctness. I fear that this is a cloud over NARTH that can only be dispelled by decisive action and clear statements. Dr. Throckmorton, a long time supporter of NARTH’s claimed mission, was to speak at their next conference in November.  He has...
- [July’s ‘City of Sodom’ Pride Event Still a Fresh James Hartline Topic](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/julys-city-of-s/): Maybe it’s because I still live in San Diego/Sodom that I care about all things James Hartline — my city’s perennial ex-gay activist. Here it’s two months past San Diego Pride, yet he’s still trying to make news out of it. His latest James Hartline Report piece on San Diego Pride is dated September 28th, and is entitled “Christian Activist Tells San Diego Board Of Education, ‘I’m Going To Be As Tenacious As A Pit Bull'”. Pam of Pam’s House Blend has a recent history of Hartline’s comments about San Diego Pride posted, so I won’t reinvent the wheel by posting...
- [“The Heterosexual Agenda” - What the Sex Studies Used Against Gays Say About Straights](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/the-heterosexua-2/): Friend of Exgaywatch Jim Burroway describes it this way: I’ve spent the better part of the past year or more looking at how the far right puts together their “scholarly” anti-gay tracts. After having looked at them for so long (especially how they misuse social science research), I thought to myself, “I wonder what would happen if someone used these exact same methods to write an anti-straight tract?” And so, “The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing the Myths” was born. It is now up on by website, in slick PDF format, available for distribution at your church’s pot luck or neighborhood block party....
- [Exodus Member Ministry in Wisconsin Enters Marriage Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-member-m/): Someone who appears to be an ex-gay wrote an editorial in the Oshkosh Northwestern in favor of the Wisconsin marriage amendment: …many people with homosexual attractions, like me, have found real and lasting change; consequently, marriage is not a civil right. Who is this Mike Levenhagen who signed the letter? Could he finally be an elusive “normal” ex-gay who’s not entrenched ex-gay ministries? Oh please, that’ll be the day. Mike Levenhagen is the director of the Reclamation Resource Center, an Exodus member ministry in Oshkosh. Mike of course fails to point out his ex-gay for pay conflict of interest in his...
- [“Allow Myself to Introduce… Myself!”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/allow-myself-to/): To quote Austin Powers…”Allow myself to introduce… myself!”
- [TVC: “Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/tvc-will-cross/): The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) released a press release and report on September 26th entitled Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?. (Off-TVC Link to a PDF of the report here for those who experience the TVC trackback blocking.) Executive Director Andrea Lafferty wrote the report. One heavily relied upon source for the new TVC report is Daniel E. Byrne’s NARTH article Pediatric Academic Societies’ 2006 Annual Meeting Encourages Normalization Of Gender-Variant Children. The TVC identified Dr. Byrne as a NARTH member — in fact most of the Part II of the TVC report came from Byrne’s article — but with...
- [Open Forum: Project Runway’s Exgay Success Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/open-forum-proj-2/): It’s Nazri. How so? Whether she’s wearing salt ‘n’ pepper or a tie dye, Nazri is sexy enough to turn a gay man straight. Uh oh. My resolve to be gay is weakening.
- [Author Tanya Erzen on Public Radio](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/author-tanya-er/): Tanya Erzen, author of “Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement” was recently on Orange County’s NPR affiliate KPCC discussing her book. Audio here (in real audio format)
- [Sex, Lies, And Oprah](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/sex-lies-and-op/): Peter LaBarbera’s anti-gay group, Americans For Truth, delighted in today’s Oprah show. He posted this article: Oprah Exposes NAMBLA: Homosexual Pedophiles Online …Mr. Eisenwald [sic] was a guest on “Oprah” because today’s program focused on homosexual pedophiles and on NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association…
- [NARTH & Focus on the Family Cooperate on DVD Presentation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/narth-focus-on/): Focus on the Family’s Mike Haley and National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality founder and president Joseph Nicolosi have participated in the making of a DVD called “The Condition of Male Homosexuality.”  It is described on the NARTH website as “an excellent introduction to the conditions that lead to male homosexuality, and how to begin the journey toward wholeness.”  Presumably one must spend the $12 to find out just what “wholeness” means, but we can probably take a guess. While NARTH often claims to be a secular, scientific organization, this would seem another example of their heavy collaboration with...
- [Schoenewolf Defended By NARTH’s Blog Administrator on NARTH’s Blog Site (UPDATED)](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/schoenewolf-def/): The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is not pleased that they are being perceived as an organization that endorses slavery and tormenting of children. But rather than rethink the wisdom of having advisors that hold views that are abhorrent to decent society, NARTH has gone on the defensive. First NARTH posts a disclaimer that the views expressed in the articles on their site were the views of the authors and not necessarily of NARTH. That might actually mean something if the authors were not part of NARTH’s advisory committee. If these authors are not NARTH, who is?...
- [Gay Brothers Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/gay-brothers-st/): There is an article today in the Chicago Sun-Times that profiles an effort by Researchers from the Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago, headed by Dr. Alan Sanders, to determine whether one or more genes can be identified that may be instrumental in the development of male sexual orientation. The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and involves research on a 1,000 sets of gay brothers. I encourage those gay men (or ex-gay men) who read here and who have a gay brother to review the study’s website...
- [A Satirical Seven-Point Plan to Protect GAY YOUTH Against OPPRESSION](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/a-satirical-sev/): In response to Linda Harvey’s “A Seven-Point Plan to Protect Christian Youth Against Homosexuality,” I present this satire. But first, I just want to remind readers this is the woman who opposes youth access to HIV testing because she believes (without a shred of evidence presented) it contributes to an epidemic of STDs. If we are to save this generation of gay youth for God, we must act now. Here’s our Seven Point Plan for equipping gay youth on the issue of religiously motivated oppression: 1. Begin a serious Bible study for your gay youth community center on homosexuality, reading and...
- [Linda Harvey: Hatred Or Fear?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/linda-harvey-ha/): Recent discussions on this site and others have revolved around whether Christians who are parents, pastors, grandparents or friends of gay people and that attend anti/ex-gay conferences are motivated by hate. The authors and frequent participants of XGW agreed that fear and misunderstanding of gay people were more likely to be the true reason for these people to be open to the ex-gay message.
- [Added to the Blogroll](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/added-to-the-bl/): Some of these have been on the blogroll before, and I have no idea how they got dropped. Anyhow, here goes: Newly Noted Accidental Christian Arbitrary Marks Disputed Mutability Joe Brummer Nonsequitur Odd Psalms Paradoxy Prodigal Sheep
- [German Fashion Magazine to Exgay Movement: “You’re In”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/german-fashion/): Exgay movement leader Alan Chambers and former exgay Peterson Toscano are both featured in the October 2006 issue of Maxi, a German women’s fashion magazine. Toscano’s weblog has pictures and excerpts from the articles. (The articles are not available on Maxi’s web site.) Among the excerpts is a German-language quote from a former exgay named Daniel, 25. Toscano helpfully offers a Babelfish translation of Daniel’s quote from German back into English: However I particularly repent one: that mine Coming out three years too late dam. At that time I was at the Collge and a quantity of marvelous types missed, with...
- [The Difference Between Me And Exgay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/the-difference/): While summarizing more than two-dozen recent news stories involving mostly antigay and exgay activists on Sept. 22, QueerlyKos (TerranceDC) observed: When I weigh in one hand the best that the “ex-gay” path can offer me, and the life that I have now with my family, there’s no contest. What’s stranger still is that, at bottom, the “ex-gay” and I are simply different sides of the same coin. I thought about it as I was getting lunch, and realized that the eatery was playing instrumental Christian “Muzak” over the AP. I recognized one of the chorus of one song that I grew...
- [Send Us Ideas for Response to Upcoming LWO Atlanta](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/send-us-ideas-f/): It looks like I might be collaborating with various Atlanta based organizations in planning a response to the Love Won Out there on November 4th. I’m currently brainstorming ideas and would love to harness the power of our readership which demonstrated its intelligence in responding to my last request for ideas. Comments on this post are disabled – please email me your ideas daniel@exgaywatch.com Oh and I should mention this “Atlanta” event is being held 30 miles from the center of town. That’s ten miles even more less-convenient than Palm Springs. Google lists two First Baptist Churches in Woodstock so I...
- [Love Breaks Out (UPDATED)](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/love-breaks-out/): From an article in the Desert Sun, it seems that a minister in Palm Springs is planning a conference called Love Breaks Out. I don’t know much more than is in the article other than it’s being organized by Nick Warner, a clinical psychologist, and pastor at Desert Oasis Chapel in Palm Springs. Warner spoke at the Unity Rally and was knowledgeable, intelligent, compassionate and disinclined to villainize those who attended the LWO conference. He was one who mentioned at the rally that he had been to a LWO conference and that the attendees were motivated by fear and misunderstanding rather...
- [Yo! That Definition’s Wicked Clear](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/yo-that-definit/): The ex-gay movement’s favorite verses of the Bible are 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And there it is, right there in...
- [Open Forum: ‘The Big Voice: God Or Ethel Merman?’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/open-forum-the-3/): A New England theater describes The Big Voice, an award-winning musical, like this:
- [Blogging Exgays: A Snapshot of the Blogosphere](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/blogging-exgays/): How do you challenge ‘Satan’? Good As You, September 25 Focus on the Family accused of breaking IRS laws MLM Liberal, September 25 (reprint from Talk to Action, Sept. 21) Commenters debate using the word “hate” to describe ‘Love Won Out’ Pam Spaulding/Pam’s House Blend, September 25 Palm Desert, Calif., blogger supports Unity Rally Written Rebellion, September 25 No wonder Anne Heche stays away from mother Nancy Damn That Ojeda, September 25 ‘Love’ In Action? Ahimsa (Australia), September 25 Exgay movement targeting Australia Richard Watts (Australia), September 25 Just another day in the life of people who blog about exgays.
- [Sweden: Publicity for Former Exgay Is Good — But Inaccurate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/sweden-publicit/): Performance artist Peterson Toscano, a former exgay from the Love In Action program in Memphis, recently performed “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House” in Sweden. He received good reviews from a conservative Swedish publication, Kvälls Posten. But, sorta like the Bible, accuracy is lost somewhere during the performance piece’s translation from English to Swedish.
- [NARTH Disavows Its Own Web Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/narth-disavows/): Several days after it came to light that the antigay National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality was hosting racist content on its web site, NARTH quietly removed the racist article, which had been hosted for 15 months without protest from NARTH’s leaders and membership. But instead of apologizing for its indecency, NARTH has posted this new disclaimer disavowing responsibility for the content published on its own website by its own board members and panelists: This flight from responsibility is less than satisfactory for the National Black Justice Coalition, which last week issued a letter of protest to NARTH executive...
- [Love Won Out/Palm Springs Protest - Dan’s Account And Photos](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/love-won-outpal/): We got to the protest site (at Southwest Community Church) around 6:45 since check-in for Love Won Out began at 7 a.m. We were there for about half an hour before two buses organized by the Unity Rally arrived. The Unity Rally was a coalition of liberal political, social and gay rights groups formed to provide a uniform voice in response to Love Won Out. Ex-Gay Watch ultimately decided to speak in our own voice and remain unaffiliated with the Unity Rally coalition. We planted ourselves firmly on the curb by the church’s main driveway and each person was given a...
- [Focus Misrepresents Antigay Political Objective At ‘Love Won Out’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/focus-misrepres/): Scott and I were walking down Arenas in Palm Springs this morning in search of a postcard to send our friends at Exodus but instead just ended up picking up a copy of The Desert Sun and this immedietly jumped out at me: Love Won Out media director Gary Schneeberger said the event was not aimed at influencing political decisions on gay marriage, domestic partner benefits or gay adoption. The article continues: But in at least one of the conference sessions the speaker highlighted gay marriage ballot initiatives and told the audience arguments they could use against gay marriage advocates. “National...
- [Media Coverage of Exgay Roadshow in Southern California](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/media-coverage-3/): Google News lists numerous stories this morning about yesterday’s antigay conference hosted by Focus on the Family and Exodus near Palm Springs, Calif. The most thorough coverage is from The Desert Sun, which published numerous articles and updates about the event. One of the articles quotes Timothy Kincaid of Ex-Gay Watch, who attended a morning vigil as conference attendees arrived: “I don’t object to having a religious belief,” said Timothy Kincaid of Los Angeles, who protested the event. “What I object to is when you come in and you don’t tell the truth.” Kincaid said the message of love at the...
- [Error on Unity Rally Web Site Against ‘Love Won Out’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/error-on-unity/): The Unity Rally is a response by pro-tolerance religious and secular organizations to the antigay “Love Won Out” roadshow being hosted by Focus on the Family in Palm Springs, Calif., this weekend. There is an error on the rally’s home page: Love Won Out is inaccurately identified as the “same group” that published NARTH’s recent article that blamed Africa for slavery and asserted that white slavery civilized Africa and offered benefits to society. Here’s the clip from the rally web site: Love Won Out, a Focus on the Family-sponsored group, will hold a conference on Saturday, September 23, in Indian Wells...
- [In Europe, Former Exgay Peterson Toscano Falls in Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/in-europe-forme/): He has fallen for a “Swede”.* I am shocked — is this a drastic overreaction to being attacked by a pit bull? Scandalous. * The Swede: Tartex organic vegetarian yeast paste. Available in the U.S. from finer importers of European vegetarian organic yeast paste.
- [National Black Justice Coalition Asks NARTH to Apologize](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/national-black/): From the National Black Justice Coalition via Wayne Besen: Friday, Sept. 22, 2006 National Association of Research & Therapy of Homosexuality Attn: Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, NARTH Executive Director 16633 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1340 Encino, CA 91436-1801 Dear NARTH: The National Black Justice Coalition is deeply troubled by an article written by Gerald Schoenewolf, Ph.D that has appeared on your organization’s website. His comments reflect not only a misunderstanding of history, but a trivialization of the suffering caused by slavery. As a member in good standing on NARTH’s Scientific Advisory Board, we can only assume that Dr. Schoenewolf’s statements are a reflection...
- [Exgay Tim Wilkins: ‘Temptation,’ Not ‘Sexual Orientation’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/exgay-tim-wilki-2/): Wayne Besen assesses a speech by exgay activist Tim Wilkins to 200 2,000 conservative Christians in North Carolina earlier this month: In his sermon, Wilkins repeatedly made the stunning acknowledgement that people do not choose to be gay. Instead, he erroneously blamed homosexuality on a wide array of possibilities including the standard pseudo-scientific canards of parental abuse and dysfunction. To his credit, Rev. Wilkins confessed that his “theories” could not be applied to all gay people. Equally surprising was that Wilkins unwittingly admitted that he was not cured, but merely suppressing his sexuality. He tried to spin this message by reducing...
- [Truth Wins Out Asks Exgays to Cancel Keynote Speaker Over Racist Incident](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/truth-wins-out-5/): Excerpt from Truth Wins Out press release via Wayne Besen: In Letter, National Black Justice Coalition Urges Dr. Joseph Nicolosi To Apologize For His Organization’s Divisive Article MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Truth Wins Out called on Focus on the Family today to cancel a Saturday keynote speaking appearance by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the Executive Director of The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), after a column was discovered on the group’s website that appeared to justify slavery. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) also wrote a letter to Dr. Nicolosi this afternoon, calling on his organization to apologize...
- [Focus’ Double Standard on Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/focus-double-st/): This weekend in a church near Palm Springs, speaker after speaker from Focus on the Family will tell ministers and family members that gay people can “come out of a homosexual lifestyle” and live celibate. Yes, they will trot out some married ex-gays to hint and suggest that gay people can miraculously become heterosexual but behind the token wives and children is the message that for the vast majority of gay people, Focus’ goal is a life of celibacy. Hey, that’s not so bad, is it? It’s only eternal abstinence. But when advising their own (i.e. heterosexuals), Focus on the Family...
- [If You Could Ask a Question At Love Won Out’s Press Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/if-you-could-as/): Love Won Out will be holding a press conference at noon on Saturday and I plan compiling a list of suggested questions to be given to the media. Please email me your most challenging and thoughtful questions.
- [NARTH Responds to Criticism of Schoenewolf Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/narth-responds-2/): An April 2005 article on NARTH’s website that defends slavery was recently brought to light by various websites including Ex-Gay Watch. Update: The article, authored by NARTH advisory board member Gerald Schoenewolf, Ph.D, has been removed from public view, but a copy of the article is available — see update below. Wayne Besen publicly called for NARTH to retract the article and Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee sent private correspondence and posted comments to NARTH’s blog admonishing them as well. (Update: Warren Throckmorton has weighed in and advised NARTH to pull the article.) A NARTH blogger known by the handle “Sojourneer” has...
- [For Fear Or Loathing, Exodus Censors Contrasting Views](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/for-fear-or-loa/): Someone recently brought up the subject of trackbacks and why we don’t routinely send them when authoring posts which link to ex-gay or anti-gay websites.  We don’t bother because such sites routinely refuse them.  If they didn’t, readers of say the Exodus blog would be able to see and *gasp* follow links to XGW to read an article based at least in part on the original Exodus post they had just been viewing.  This is one of the ways that blogs work, facilitating the exchange of information and ideas.  Just to see if things had changed, yesterday I tried to request...
- [NYC Study: “Straight Men” Not So Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/nyc-study-strai/): In the category of “What Does This Mean” comes a new report out of New York City that highlights the difficulties of self-identification. Just as it seems that some persons that call themselves “ex-gay” may be attracted only to the same sex, so too may some men who call themselves straight only have sex with other men. And not just a few of them. To better understand disease prevention, a survey was made of 4,193 male New Yorkers consisting of 130 questions including sexual identification and sexual behavior. They found that 91.3% identify as straight, 3.7% as gay, and the rest...
- [Paul Cameron on The Daily Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/paul-cameron-on/): I’m not kidding, you’ll be on the floor laughing at this piece. (via Good As You)
- [Maier Abandons Truth Entirely](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/maier-abandons/): In a letter to the Palm Springs Desert Sun about the Love Won Out conference in Indian Wells, Focus on the Family’s Bill Maier managed to be untruthful in nearly every paragraph. Considering the extent of the deception, it is difficult to be charitable and assume it was unintentional. Consider: We’ll admit, our conference offers a perspective on homosexuality that is in stark contrast to that which is touted by America’s major gay organizations. While they claim that homosexuals are “born gay,” we agree with the official position of the American Psychiatric Association that homosexuality develops across a person’s lifetime and...
- [One Can Be Gay And Christian? Exodus Staffer Randy Thomas Doesn’t Seem to Think So](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/one-can-be-gay/): In a recent post on the Exodus blog, Randy Thomas responded to the GLSEN quote covered in a recent article here. Wait just a minute… did they just say that identity is a choice and indirectly infer that some people claim orientation is a choice?… That identity is a developmental process? Wow. We at Exodus know that people struggling with same sex attraction did not choose to struggle with same sex attraction and yet people can choose by what facet of their lives they want to identify with.  For myself it is Christian.  Wait just a minute… did he just imply...
- [Parrtay!](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/parrtay/)
- [Exgay Terms Added to UrbanDictionary.com](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/exgay-terms-add/): ex-ex-gay exgay / ex-gay ex-gay for pay Phallic Fruit Fetish Sadly “Porno Pete” was not approved the first time I submitted it so I’ve made a few revisions and resubmission is pending.
- [Response to Focus on the Family’s Op-Ed in The Desert Sun](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/response-to-foc/): An op-ed by Bill Maier of Focus appeared in Monday’s edition of the Palm Springs Desert Sun. This is my response which was sent to the Sun that evening: Editor, This is in response to Bill Maier’s op-ed “Hear our message, then judge.” I’ve heard Maier’s message. My name is Daniel Gonzales, I’m a contributing author with ExGayWatch.com, the largest and most comprehensive website dedicated to monitoring the exgay movement. The caricature of liberals in Maier’s imagination tells him protesters such as those from ExGayWatch are going to talk about tolerance on Saturday; that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I...
- [Is Chambers Recognizing the Flaws in the “Nurture Only” Arguments?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/is-chambers-rec/): In an article about the Evergreen conference held for LDS members dealing with the conflict between same-sex attracted persons and the teachings of the Mormon Church, much attention was paid to the views of the keynote speaker, Alan Chambers. Unlike other articles which have quoted Chambers, quite a bit of attention was paid to his concession that there may be a genetic basis to orientation. In years past, such ministries were “afraid to give any credence toward the argument that (homosexuality) could be genetic. Today, we don’t think there is any harm in saying we’re genetically made people — it’s something...
- [Agape (Mis)quotes Throckmorton](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/agape-misquotes/): AgapePress wrote an article titled Psychologist Says Gender-Dysphoric Kids Need Case-by-Case Intervention in which they claim However, noted mental health counselor Dr. Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College in Pennsylvania believes children who feel they are the wrong gender require individualized, case-by-case intervention. Intervention is a rather strong term and being somewhat familiar with Dr. Throckmorton and his manner of communication, it seemed rather unlikely that this was what he was promoting. But this may just be a matter of anti-gay religious press choosing to hear what they wanted to hear. Unless there are quotes that were not included in the...
- [Open Forum: Sexual Fluidity And the Postgay Identity](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/open-forum-sexu/): A continuation of off-topic discussions from this page. Are exgay/postgay ideologues true champions of “sexual fluidity,” or does that title belong to honest bisexuals, or can both groups amicably share the trophy? And what is the difference between exgay, postgay, and bisexual, anyhow? Talk away.
- [Exgays Spin GLSEN Definitions of Sexual Orientation And Identity](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/exgays-spin-gls/): A three-year-old glossary on the web site of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network defines sexual orientation and identity as follows: Sexual Orientation: This is determined by our sexual and emotional attractions. Categories of sexual orientation include homosexuals—gay, lesbian—attracted to some members of the same sex; bisexuals, attracted to some members of more than one sex; and heterosexuals, attracted to some members of another sex. Orientation is influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics and hormones, as well as unknown environmental factors. Though the origins of sexuality are not completely understood, it is generally believed to be established before...
- [Unrealism And Fear Corrupting Conservative Christianity?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/unrealism-and-f/): Fear, individualism and consumerism: Have they replaced realism among American Christians? Peter Laarman thinks so. He urgently calls for a renewed commitment to realism. I want simply to focus in on Niehbuhr’s core insight that Christians should see the world as it is and act ethically in the light of a clear-sighted realism. For the neoconservatives and for most other Right ideologues, “realism” means understanding how bad they are–all the “enemies of freedom,” “Islamo-fascists,” etc.; yet surely a major part of Niebuhr’s realism entailed understanding our own propensity to sinning, our own capacity for self-deception and hubris. It’s this kind of...
- [Which God Does Exodus Worship?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/which-god-does/): A recent Baylor University religion survey finds U.S. Christians worshipping different gods. Those gods are identified as the Authoritarian God, the Benevolent God, the Critical God, and the Distant God. Sources: USA Today via Christian Alliance for Progress, September 12, 2006.
- [Christian Rightist Repudiates Falwell, Bush](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/christian-right/): Christian rightist Chuck Baldwin is criticizing the immoral and self-serving politics of Jerry Falwell and George Bush — and, by extension, the acolytes of Falwell and Bush who in recent years have seized command of Exodus International. (Falwell keynoted Exodus’ 2005 annual conference, and Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas offer public endorsements of Bush frequently.) Dr. Falwell’s column is entitled, “The candidate who can win in 2008.” He begins his column by saying, “First, any presidential candidate who wishes to secure the evangelical vote, which is essential to victory for a Republican, must be a social and fiscal conservative.”...
- [GOP’s Danforth Stands Up to Party Theocracy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/gops-danforth-s/): A new book by Republican former U.S. senator John Danforth criticizes the GOP’s growing corruption by the Christian Right, and he speaks some difficult truths about same-sex attraction, the antigay Federal Marriage Amendment, and campaigns by Christian rightists to undermine marriage. The book: Faith and Reason: How the ‘Moral Values’ Debate Divides America, and How to Move Forward For more information: Good As You. Gay Orbit, and Raw Story, September 15-16, 2006.
- [Antigay Group PFOX Projects Its Own Confusion Onto National Pro-Family Group PFLAG](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/antigay-group-p/): Regina Griggs, the antigay executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, recently projected her own parental and political confusion over her gay son upon the more loving and politically diverse membership of the pro-family, affirmative parents group PFLAG. Speaking to the antifamily AgapePress in a September 14 article, Griggs offered no evidence to substantiate her diatribe against PFLAG, nor did she offer any evidence of “unconditional love” among the antigay parents and former spouses that PFOX represents. Good As You effectively refuted Griggs’ claims on September 15, noting that (among other things) PFLAG welcomes a range of parents — tolerant,...
- [Evergreen Convenes Meeting of Antigay Mormons](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/evergreen-conve/): Source: Salt Lake Tribune, September 15, 2006
- [NARTH’s Justification of Slavery](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/narths-justification-of-slavery/): The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has been criticized on this site for the views espoused on their site by members of their Scientific Advisory Committee. Not surprisingly, NARTH’s views about gay people are less than complementary. Some show amazing ignorance about actual living breathing gay persons and some demonstrate a revulsion that is expressed in terms that cannot be described as other than hateful. What is surprising, however, is some of the language that is used to address other social issues or historical situations that effect people other than those who are gay. It seems that...
- [The Qualifications to Write for NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/the-qualificati/): The National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality (NARTH) claims to represent that segment of the mental health community that believes that sexual orientation is mutable. Their website state’s that “NARTH’s primary goal is to make effective psychological therapy available to all homosexual men and women who seek change.” NARTH claims membership of 1,000 professionals. Although this is only a tiny fraction of the 185,000 combined membership of the American Phychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, even this number may be grossly inflated. As Wayne Besen points out on his blogsite, NARTH was only able to muster 75...
- [Bearman And Bruckner’s Incredible Findings](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/bearman-and-bru/): The past few years have given us several reports that suggest a pre-natal basis for sexual orientation. Such studies have included observations about gay people such as brain activity in response to possible pheromones, disproportionate incidence of left-handedness, and the elimination of social factors from the fraternal birth order effect. They have also included observations of others such as mothers of some gay men displaying rare single deactivated chromosomes and hypothalamus variances in the brains of same-sex attracted rams.
- [Open Forum: The New Name for Ex-Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/open-forum-the-2/): People Formerly Identified as Formerly-Gay-Identified.
- [Exgay TV Show to Air on ‘Christian’ Networks](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/exgay-tv-show-t/): From The Advocate: A television show hosted by and featuring “ex-gays,” including a former prostitute and a self-confessed thief, is preparing for its launch on two Christian networks. Pure Passion will debut on both the Sky Angel Satellite Network and the Christian Television Network on September 18. The show, produced by Mastering Life Ministries, will be hosted by former prostitute David Kyle Foster and Alan Chambers, a onetime criminal and current president of the “ex-gay” group Exodus International, according to a press release issued by Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit that counters so-called conversion therapy. Joining...
- [New Blog Aims to Track Deceptions of the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/new-blog-aims-t/): In anticipation of his upcoming book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, Alvin McEwen has begun a weblog that itemizes the day-to-day and strategic deceptions of the so-called religious right.
- [Dos Cristianos Escriben Sobre Su Fe Y Sus Deseos Homosexuales](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/dos-cristianos/): In August 2006, Peterson Toscano and a friend nicknamed Ariadna launched a Spanish-language blog, Dos Equis, that looks at the ex-gay movement as well as the conflicts between faith and sexuality. Dos Equis has already received visitors from Latin America and Spain. Since there are few online resources for Spanish speakers who wish to know about exgays, former exgays, and gay Christians, Toscano and Ariadna thought it was time to step up, share stories, and air what they have learned in their own struggles. Ariadna, a lesbian raised Catholic and now Quaker, is from Colombia, South America, and currently lives in...
- [Note From Dan](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/note-from-dan/): I’ll be in Austin, TX through Tuesday night so in the meantime send urgent news and story tips to one of your other favorite XGW authors. This trip begins my search for a safe and more affordable place to live. Mike and Peterson pitched Hartford, CT to me which has become the first ex-ex-gay ghetto. However upon reading this in Hartford’s wikipedia entry decided it wasn’t right for me. The region has a relatively low population of adults between the ages of 18 and 25.
- [Open Forum: A Comment on Mormons And Exgays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/open-forum-a-co/): From a comment to XGW today: …I feel this information might be important: The Mormon/LDS Church has published on their news-web a pseudo-interview with two high-ranking authorities and an anonymous PR (internal) person. Summary:1) The Mormon Church does not believe in conversion therapies.2) The Mormon Church does not believe heterosexual marriage is a cure for those afflicted with same-gender sexual identification.3) Those with gay tendencies need to live a celibate life like any single person.4) Those with gay tendencies (it is a behavioral thing) can be assimilated fully (except to be called on as a Bishop) in the workings of the...
- [Archbishop’s U-turn: Gays Must Change?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/09/archbishops-u-t/): Archbishop Rowan Williams’s most recent remarks about homosexuality have been widely interpreted as “gays must change”. Speaking in the Sunday Telegraph last month, ++Rowan said: “I don’t believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don’t say ‘Come in and we ask no questions’. I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviours, ideas, emotions,” he told a Dutch journalist. “Ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics.” To me this sounds like more of the fudging for which the Archbishop...
- [Father John Harvey Interview](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/father-john-har/): The Denver Catholic Register interviewed Father John Harvey, the founder of Courage, the Catholic Ex-Gay Ministry. Unlike Exodus, Courage places more emphasis on physical acts of sex than on “gay identity”. And while they do repeat the bilge coming from NARTH, their purpose is driven around the notion of chastity rather than a change in orientation. Nonetheless, Father Harvey makes some statements in his interview that are odd – and in some instances comical – and which demonstrate the Church’s schizophrenic approach to gay issues. Take, for example, Father Harvey’s rationale about the “intrinsic evil” of same-sex sexuality: If [the] two...
- [Jay Bakker’s Revolution - One Punk Under God](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/jay-bakkers-rev/): A year and a half ago we reported that Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye, had been deleted from the speaker schedule at the 2005 Exodus Freedom Conference. The reasons for the cancellation may have something to do with an interview he gave to gay new source QNotes about the conference in which he says: “I think what the church has done to the gay community is horrible and wrong,” he said with a start. “My family went through so much hurt and rejection from the church. I wanna’ go back and show them how hurtful they’ve been....
- [Left-Handedness And Fraternal Older Brothers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/left-handedness-2/): Both left handedness and having older brothers have been seen to correlate with male homosexuality. A forthcoming study reanalyzes previous studies to see if these are mutually existing or competing correlations. Ex-gay Watch friend, Jim Burroway,comments brilliantly on the study. Go read his comments here. Interesting observations were: 1. Right-handed gay men were much more likely to have more older brothers and fewer older sisters than the general population. 2. Left-handed gay men were the opposite. They were much more likely to have fewer older brothers and more older sisters than the general population. Gay lefties were also more likely to...
- [Ambidextrous Bisexuals?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/ambidextrous-bi/): The Redding Record-Searchlight (or Wretched Flashlight, as I called it when I was a kid and it was my local paper) reports a finding by a study conducted by University of Guelph psychology professor Michael Peters in which he notes a correlation between ambidextrousness and bisexuality. For example, among men, only 4 percent of right-handers and 4.5 percent of left-handers reported that they were bisexual. But among those who wrote with both hands that number was 9.2 percent. Among women, 6.2 percent of right-handers and 6.3 percent of left-handers reported they were bisexual, compared to 15.6 percent among the more ambidextrous...
- [Open Forum: NYT Article “Gay And Evangelical”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/open-forum-nyt/): In some ways this subject is outside our normal scope (hence the open forum designation), but I feel there is a tie to the ex-gay equation as our own Daniel Gonzalez has recently illustrated.  Faith, especially for Christians, can be both a motivating factor to seek out ex-gay therapy and, tragically, it can also be a casualty of that same mission.  I don’t think Exodus or it’s member ministries realize just how detrimental this process can be. This article from the New York Times, “Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance” is an honest peek into the lives of people who...
- [Alan Chambers: Transgender Issues Subject Matters Expert?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/alan-chambers-t-3/): What makes one an expert in a subject? Often it’s credentials, such as degrees or certificates. Often it’s position, such as being the executive in charge of a university department, or a non-profit or business that works in a particular area or field. Often it’s research one has done has done on a subject, such as research for an article or book. Sometimes its personal experience with a subject, such as an alcoholic with alcohol abuse, or knowing about spouse abuse because a person was the victim of domestic violence, or a police officer who’s assigned to the domestic violence beat...
- [It’s the Soy, I Tell Ya](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/its-the-soy-i-t/): Because WorldNetDaily has never found anything anti-gay that is just too crazy to print, we bring you this amazing new revelation about the cause of homosexuality!! It will surprise, shock and stun you!! Cover the children’s eyes!! In this startling new report called A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals and based on nothing whatsoever, columnist James Rutz reveals the shocking truth about a demon product invading our kitchens and turning our little boys into revolting and dangerous homosexual predators. What is this menace, you ask? Soy!! Yes, if you feed your little boys soy based formula, they will...
- [Another Pastor Falls](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/another-pastor/): Yet another evangelical pastor of a mega-church in Colorado has been shown to have a double life, publicly happily married – but privately engaging in sexual activity with other men. But unlike Ted Haggard and his anti-gay marriage efforts, Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County was not political in his efforts. And he did not try to cover up or lie when confronted. Barnes has had a life-long conflict between what he has wanted for himself and his internal desires. “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy,” Barnes said in the 32- minute video,...
- [Florida Ex-Gay Group Profiled in New Man Magazine](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/florida-ex-gay/): Exchange, the ex-gay ministry of an Assemblies of God Church in Winter Park, FL which seats about 5,000, was profiled in New Man Magazine, a Christian publication for men. The reporter visited one of Exchange’s weekly Monday night meetings and observed the leader John Wallcott and the 15 or so attendees. Although a love-letter to ex-gay efforts, this article provides insight into the functioning and methods of Exodus ministries and has both similarities and sharp contrasts to the propaganda and claims of the national organization and its leaders. In particular, I noticed:
- [Saddleback Church AIDS Conference Quote](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/saddleback-chur/): From a story by the Orange County Register: “The term `ex-gay’ is so offensive to the gay community,” Kuhn says. “Just telling them, `Don’t have sex; don’t be gay’ – that’s not relational. That’s paternal. That’s just not how God works. That’s how the church works.” -Becky Kuhn, M.D., board member of Global Life Works Oh and I should mention Becky is from Long Beach. I’m so proud! Hat tip Scott H.
- [My Video Testimony Of Trying To Go From Gay To Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/my-video-testim/): I originally wrote this testimony/speech for the press conference at Love Won Out Atlanta, and realizing it was pretty good I figured I should show the world. Here’s my story: Huge thanks to Eteban for shooting this. Transcript after the jump
- [Exodus Executive Vice President Mike Goeke Resigns](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/exodus-executiv/): The latest edition of the Exodus newsletter Impact reports that Executive Vice President Mike Goeke has resigned and plans to immediately move his family back to Texas, reportedly to start a new ministry there. This move is nothing against Exodus or my job here – but is simply our response to the call of God on our lives. Stephanie and I are very excited working to fulfill our vision for a nationwide support system for married couples impacted by homosexuality. [emphasis in original] According to the article, Goeke and his family were to move back to Texas last month.  Oddly, as...
- [What We Can Learn About Marriage From the Bible](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/what-we-can-lea/): On a previous thread on this site, there was a discussion about the Biblical model for marriage. While the question of Biblical marriage models may not be strictly ex-gay in nature, the ex-gay movement is heavily involved in the opposition to marriage equality and the argument over the mutability of orientation was integral to the decision of at least one state supreme court. Although much of the legal argument against equal access to marriage rights for gay people is based on the notion that opposite-sex marriages are better for society, the emotional and political argument is that God ordained a plan...
- [Exodus European Member Ministries Secede](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/exodus-european/): Ex-Gay Watch reader Noa from Sweden (of “Alex and Noa” as mentioned on Peterson Toscano’s weblog) sent us this news from the website of Swedish ex-gay ministry Medvandrarna: [translation by Noa]Exodus EuropeExodus Europe has been something of a sad series of events in the newsletter of the Medvandrarna ministry over the years. The latest developments is that since the Exodus conference in Northern Ireland in the summer of 2005 the work of the elected board [of Exodus Europe] has come to almost a complete breakdown, and a lot of the reasons for that is disparate views on how the relations to...
- [Box Turtle Bulletin Nominated for 2006 Weblog Awards](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/box-turtle-bull/): Congratulations to Jim Burroway, creator of the Box Turtle Bulletin — an invaluable resource for in-depth information refuting antigay distortions of science and health. Box Turtle Bulletin has been nominated as Best LGBT Blog in the 2006 Weblog awards. Other nominees include: Queerty Keith Boykin Dorothy Surrenders Pam’s House Blend Ohlala Blog Gay Patriot Transcending Gender Box Turtle Bulletin Towleroad The Republic of T. Voting will begin shortly. And the Bulletin deserves your support. So vote!
- [Ex-Gay Lobbyist Randy Thomas Dates Another Ex-Gay Activist](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/ex-gay-lobbyist-2/): Last December a broad coalition of anti gay organizations ran this newspaper ad featuring “ex-gays” in opposition to hate crimes legislation. The ad failed to identify what it called “former homosexuals” but those of us familiar with ex-gay groups immediately recognized (from right to left) Randy Thomas, Janet Boynes, and Mike Ensley but the woman on the left remained a mystery. It’s now apparent she is, Lorraine Durso, a staff member, and evidently ex-gay at Worthy Creations Ministry, an ex-gay ministry in Fort Lauderdale, FL. (Worthy Creations’ website only names its executive director on the website but Exodus’ “2006 Freedom Conference...
- [Where Are Exodus’ Guidelines to Protect Youth?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/where-are-exodu/): As we previously reported here, Exodus president Alan Chambers writes in his new book: Anyone, no matter his or her background, should be carefully screened before being entrusted with precious children. As with any childcare worker, criminal background checks should be done to ensure that the worker has no criminal history and especially no history of violence or abuse against children. If only Exodus would practice what its president preaches. Steve Boese of A Tenable Belief notes that — unlike reputable church and gay-youth programs — Exodus’ youth programs seem to have few published guidelines (possibly none at all) protecting youth...
- [How “Judeo” Is That Judeo-Christian Value? - UPDATED](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/how-judeo-is-th/): Many in the anti-gay movement like to use the phrase “Judeo-Christian”. This phrase makes it seem less like they are trying to push their doctrine on others and more like a collective of faiths seeking to guide an errant society. Take for example Kent Paris in an article at the Exodus website: If your son or daughter attends a public school, you need to realize that they are at risk, intentional targets of the same agenda of desensitization and conversion to beliefs contrary to our Judeo-Christian faith. or Bob Knight (formerly Concerned Woman) of the Media Research Center Pro-homosexual ABC and...
- [Thinking About The “The” In “Homosexuality Isn’t The Answer”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/thinking-about/): Jesus is the answer for the world todayAbove him there’s no other, Jesus is the way… If you have some questions in the corners of your mindAnd traces of discouragement and peace you can not findReflection of the old past, They seem to face you every dayThere’s one thing I know for sure that Jesus is the way —Andre and Sandra Crouch These are some of the lyrics to a song other youth in my church and I sang back in the 70’s. My smart aleck brother Mark* asked a question regarding the lyrics, saying “So what’s the question?” Perhaps we...
- [Posting Issue: New Security Measures](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/posting-issue-n/): As everyone who comments has already noticed, typing a displayed security code is now necessary when submitting a comment. This was installed as part of our protection against both spam and a DoS attack last month. This version does not use distorted numbers so it should be fairly easy, but we’ve had a problem. Some people are posting without entering the code. This puts your comment in the junk queue until I can get around to checking and releasing it. It’s easy to forget, I’ve done it myself on a few posts. Unfortunately, this can disrupt the train of thought and...
- [Alan Chambers - Gays Should Not Teach Sunday School, No Verdict on Other Unrepentant Sinners](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/alan-chambers-g-3/): From page 215 of Exodus’ new book “God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door:” [From the chapter “25 Questions and Answers About Gay Ministry”] 17. Can a homosexual who has become a Christian work around children in the Sunday school or elsewhere? First of all, becoming a Christian is not the issue. Practicing homosexuals, whether they are Christians or not, should not teach Sunday school to any age. However, the case may be different if someone has accepted Christ and surrendered his (or her) sexuality to God. Now why a gay person who isn’t a Christian would possibly want to teach...
- [Family Research Council Cites Absurd “Research” in Court Brief](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/family-research-3/): Jim Burroway of the Box Turtle Bulletin has created an excellent point by point analysis of the Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) brief from the Family Research Council to the Maryland Court of Appeals opposing same-sex marriage in that state.  While one would expect such a document submitted to a court in order to influence a legal ruling might contain more substantial science, the FRC has sadly fallen back on the tried and true deception of propaganda instead. The FRC cites five studies to describe gay male relationships, none of them remotely representative. Four studies are more than twenty years...
- [In Defense of Harassment: Ex-Gay Opposes Unisex Rest Rooms](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/in-defense-of-h/): On July 29, 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee, 38-year-old Willie Houston was celebrating his recent engagement with his fiancée and friends; he and his fiancée had taken a late night cruise together on a local casino riverboat. At the end of the evening, Willie held his fiancée’s purse when she took a trip to the restroom. One of Willie’s friends, who happened to be blind, also had to use the restroom, so Houston took him by the arm and led him into the men’s room while still holding the purse. Quoting the Gay & Lesbian Times as to what occurred next: Less...
- [Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett Demands $100K in Holiday Donations](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/ex-gay-stephen-5/): A Tenable Belief analyzes ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett’s holiday fund-raising appeal. On his home page, Bennett claims an immediate need for $25,000 to repay debts and then warns that his activist operation might not continue unless donors supply $100,000 by Dec. 31 to cover just the first three months of 2007. ATB notices what’s missing from Bennett’s claims of financial hardship: No mention is made of funds earmarked for, or expenses paid because of, the radio show, the Jerusalem trip, or the new church. A drop in donations would be expected after giving up travel for preaching and speaking engagements in...
- [Do You Want to Heal Or Do You Want to Blame?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/do-you-want-to/): Very often in life we face this question – though we may not recognize it in those terms. When a friendship or relationship has had a bad spell and feelings are hurt we have to decide our next action. Do we lash out and cause pain for pain, or do we find a way to mend the rift and bring peace. Sometimes this decision has to be made when there is little or no cost to oneself. Do you gloat when you’ve won a political battle? Do we inflict pain after an argument is over? We have to decide whether we...
- [Ex/Anti-Gay Activist Claims Divine Healing](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/exanti-gay-acti/): James Hartline is an ex-gay gadfly who lives in San Diego and spends his remaining days fighting against the “evils of homosexuality”. Hartline has a history of crime, drug use, and mental instability and it is clear that he suffers from delusions. However, he is occasionally quoted by religious media sources that are looking for a particularly venomous anti-gay quote. In the past, Hartline has claimed that God was going to heal him from AIDS and this healing was going to be the start of a great revival. He also believes God spoke to him through a television, that there is...
- [A Sudser Has A New Transgender Character](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/a-sudser-has-a/): Normalizing the behavior has always been the crux of the gay agenda. Part of the process involves mainstreaming the lifestyle through entertainment. –Unattributed quote, Transgender Plot Unfolds on Daytime TV, Focus On The Family News For those who haven’t heard, the ABC Soap Opera All My Children (AMC) is adding a transitioning transgender/transsexual character. GLAAD and some New York based transpeople have done some consulting with the AMC producers with the goal of creating a realistic, transitioning character. That might be a little hard since they named the character “Zarf” and made hir a rock star, but hey — this is...
- [A Former Love Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/a-former-love-s/): Once upon a time Lisa and Janet fell in love. They were so in love that they decided to get married and start a family. Since marriage wasn’t legal for two women, they went to Vermont and got a civil union instead. And then Lisa got pregnant and had a baby girl. Janet cut the umbilical cord. Now Lisa and Janet wanted a happy life where they could raise their child in safety and comfort. Virginia was spewing out some pretty nasty anti-gay language and legislation so the brides took their baby and moved to Vermont. But alas, as is sadly...
- [Real World’s Gay Guy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/real-worlds-gay/): Real World is a long running series on MTV in which seven young adults who don’t know each other are placed together in a house and video-taped 24 hours per day. The more dramatic moments are edited into a one-hour broadcast. MTV tries to match people who have differing backgrounds to heighten the drama and have a formula that generally includes at least one gay person. This season the gay guy is Davis, a Southern Baptist frat boy from Marietta, GA who brings a strong sense of faith with him to Denver to live with strangers. In fact, the first person...
- [Human Sexuality Curriculum In Montgomery County Public Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/human-sexuality/): The Citizens For Responsible Curriculum (CRC) don’t like the newly proposed human sexuality curriculum for Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, specifically as how it approaches sex education for eighth and tenth graders. The Washington Blade’s Joshua Lynsen reports that… …Montgomery County Public Schools are poised to approve a gay-inclusive sex education curriculum. Objection to the curriculum, especially regarding GLBT-related lesson plans in the curriculum, isn’t particularly surprising — this is the second go around for this curriculum fight. Montgomery County’s human sexuality curriculum includes material that many of the county’s parents could find objectionable. Per the CRC website, some of the...
- [Christian Camps to Feature Exodus Speakers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/christian-camps/): After I was initially creeped out by camp spokesman cum organizer “Justin Lookadoo” I quickly noticed Exodus has their hands all over this series of youth summer camps across the southeast. Exodus leaders Alan Chambers and Scott Davis are two of the four speakers listed on the camp’s website. Davis’ bio makes Exodus’ intentions pretty clear: Scott’s goal is to encourage the evangelical church to reach out to youth grappling with their sexual identity with God’s radical grace and unswerving truth. He educates and trains college and youth leaders on this issue and currently oversees the Groundswell Conference — nationwide training...
- [Who Does (Or Could Possibly ) Identify As “Ex-Trans”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/who-does-or-cou/): This is the third part of a multiple part series about the term gender. Conservative religious organizations and ex-gay organizations use the term gender — and variants on the term gender — to group together GLB & T people in a manner that GLB & T people don’t group themselves together. This series will explore groupings around the term gender, and the term’s variants. –Autumn Who identifies as ex-trans in ex-gay circles? Who could by their testimony — but doesn’t — identify as ex-trans? Three testimonies associated with figures that have ex-trans identities are linked here and here. The three figures...
- [An Alternative to Love Won Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/an-alternative/): Last year the LoveWon Out traveling conference came to Boston to reassure anti-gay Bostonians that homosexuals could reorient to heterosexuality and that their efforts to deny their gay neighbor the same privileges they enjoy are morally justified. Many gay Bostonians, and others who do not subscribe to a dogma of castigation, objected outside. Loudly. Sam Gloyd took another approach. He went inside and listened. And what he heard was a “hateful message that’s masked in love”. He found it traumatizing. So Gloyd organized an alternative. Last weekend a couple of hundred people came together for a Bible-based conference which was affirming...
- [Dobson on Haggard](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/dobson-on-hagga/): In yet another edition of the story that won’t go away, the Rocky Mountain News brings us James Dobson’s musings on the Ted Haggard scandal. Demonstrating the irresistable drive among the ex-gay industry to redefine words, Dobson has has decided that hypocrisy has a new definition. James Dobson said Wednesday that disgraced evangelical Ted Haggard was not a hypocrite for preaching against homosexuality while engaging in “sexual immorality” with a gay escort, but was a man “at war with himself.” [snip] It was not hypocrisy. It was a struggle between behavior and a belief system.” No. What it was, doctor, was...
- [Update: Link Changed on Recent Video](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/update-link-cha/): Some of you have graciously embedded on your own sites the recent video presentation Daniel created. We were uncertain about the licensing of the music he used for the background, so this morning we took down the original and Daniel has modified it with music we can confirm is appropriately licensed for such use.  The updated video has a different YouTube identifier so those of you who embedded it will need to grab the code from there once more. This action wasn’t prompted, but we are aware of the need to be responsible about the materials we distribute and just wanted...
- [Giving Thanks 2006](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/giving-thanks-2/): There are many things that have happened within the past year for which I am grateful. I have met wonderful people, some I spend time with and some I only know online, but all of whom I delight in knowing. I have added activities to my life (a bowling league – yeah, I know, don’t laugh) and removed others (better left unidentified). Some things were new: I went skiing for the first time in a decade or so and met a friend who has become very close; and some things were recurring: my church, my family, close friends. But the one...
- [Nicolosi Steps Aside, Mormons Take Charge At NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/nicolosi-steps/): Pro-exgay pundit and college professor Warren Throckmorton reports today: NARTH has had some changes in recent days. A. Dean Byrd, PhD, CEO of the LDS affiliated Thrasher Research Fund was appointed President-elect of NARTH and I heard through a friend who attended the conference that David Pruden, Executive Director of Evergreen International, was appointed Executive Director of NARTH. Dr. Byrd (ProCon bio) is also a clinical professor in the medical school at the University of Utah and was formerly the Director of Clinical Training for the LDS Social Services. No word on when Dr. Byrd’s term will begin. No word on...
- [Israel to Recognize Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/israel-to-recog/): The Supreme Court of Israel has ordered the government to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other countries. This may appear to be unusual in that it requires a country to recognize a marriage that isn’t legal in that country. However, in this matter Israel already has established precedent and custom. The rabbinate has a monopoly over Jewish marriage and divorce in Israel. Those citizens who wish for a civil marriage rather than a religious marriage cannot do so in Israel. So they go abroad, marry, and register the marriage with the nation. If, for example, a protestant Christian couple did not...
- [Reply to Adam Carolla / Randy Thomas Video Posted on Exodus Blog](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/reply-to-adam-c/): To quote ‘W’ we’ve smoked Exodus out of their hole. Randy Thomas finally responded this morning to concerns over his statements made on the Adam Carolla show.
- [A Note to the Gays of Tupelo, MS](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/a-note-to-the-g/): It looks like you can go to your local Wal-Mart this weekend and not worry about running into Don Wildmon.
- [But They Really Don’t Want To… Really](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/but-they-really/): Those wacky gays and lesbians are at it again; they’re doing things that they don’t want to do – making huge sacrifices – all so they can destroy society and all that’s good!!! Or, at least, that must be what Alan Chambers is thinking. Back in February he told the Conservative Political Action Conference gay people do not really want gay marriage But now news comes out of Canada to tell us Same-sex marriages are on the rise. Maybe it’s just a liberal militant homosexual activist coordinated part of the radical Gay Agenda (but if so, why didn’t I get the...
- [The PFOX Handout](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/the-pfox-handou/): We have now been able to ascertain exactly what PFOX distributed to the high school students of Montgomery County, Maryland. A public school parent provided Teachthefacts.org with a copy of the PFOX flyer distributed at Quince Orchard High School. The handout had very little information other than a list of websites that children should visit to get more information. The type of information the children would receive if they visited these sites includes:
- [Ex-Gay Greg Quinlan Stirs Up Anti-Gay Passions for Political Purposes in New Jersey](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/ex-gay-greg-qui-3/): For the past few decades conservative evangelical leaders have become increasingly focused on politics. And while there are some from this branch of Christianity are starting to question why the election of politicians should take priority over feeding the hungry or caring for the sick, the ex-gay movement remains at the forefront of anti-gay political activism.
- [XGW Original Video: “Does Exodus Sanction Forcing People Into ‘Ex-gay’ Programs?”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/xgw-original-vi/): Randy Thomas (membership director for Exodus International, the largest “ex-gay” group in the country) was interviewed recently on the Adam Carolla radio show and claimed nobody is ever forced to attend an “ex-gay” program against their will. This video examines Randy’s claim and Exodus’ track record on the matter. I thank Peterson Toscano (a survivor of the Love In Action “ex-gay” program) for bringing this issue to my attention on his blog last week. Peterson provided a great deal of inspiration and assistance in creating this video.
- [Trans And Gay: The GID Diagnoses And “Gender Confusion”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/trans-and-gay-t/): This is the second part of a multiple part series about the term gender. Conservative religious organizations and ex-gay organizations use the term gender — and variants on the term gender — to group together GLB & T people in a manner that GLB & T people don’t group themselves together. This series will explore groupings around the term gender, and the term’s variants. –Autumn It’s not quite yet common knowledge in western society that there are significant differences between being a gay man and being transgender woman, but more and more people are becoming aware that being gay and being...
- [Homosexuality In DOD’s “Conditions, Circumstances & Defects” List](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/homosexuality-i-2/): One of the difficulties with the US Government’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is that when the Department Of Defense (DOD) discharges someone who has been determined to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the military has to list a reason why the servicemember in getting discharged on the discharge papers. Up until a few weeks ago, the military listed homosexuality as a mental disorder — using rationale used by the APA prior to 1973. When members of Congress discovered this they — and the APA –complained, so the military changed how they classify homosexuality. From Revised Military Document Suggests That Homosexuality...
- [Exodus’ Nancy Brown Uses White Supremacist, Paul Cameron, And Non-Existent Tome to Support Hateful Claim About Life Expectancy](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/exodus-nancy-brown-uses-white-supremacist/): There are some FAQ’s on the Exodus International website that are written with a reasoned approach and present their case without resorting to histrionics and wild assertions. Exodus does have some participants who are logical and they seem to be called upon to answer questions about church life and witness. But when Exodus addresses a social question and wants an answer that is bat-poop crazy, they know they can call on Nancy Brown.
- [Is Slander Against Gays OK, Nancy Brown?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/is-slander-agai/): In reviewing the Exodus website, especially that portion written by Nancy Brown, you will see a wild arrangement of falacies, bogus statistics, and claims without any basis in reality. Is that acceptable? Let’s ask Nancy!! From the website of her ministry we find We believe that moral opposition is not a license to engage in any form of slander or harassment against those with whom we disagree. Ohmigosh, slander isn’t acceptable. Wow. You’d never think that from Nancy’s writings.
- [Ex Marks His Spot!](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/ex-marks-his-sp/): Here is a typical letter I receive from those who have “successfully” completed Nicolosi’s Reparative Therapy. This just came into my box today from an article I was mentioned in here https://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/NEWS01/611160322&template=printart on Thursday November 16, 2006. ____________________ Dear Joe, Thank you for your article. I am one who went to therapy with Joe Nicolosi. I can tell you that I was fortunate to have found him. While you don’t agree, is there possibility in your thoughts for those for whom it does work? Those who choose, for whatever reason, that that lifestyle is not one for THEM? Furthermore, what is...
- [Exodus’ Nancy Brown Makes Wild Claims About Your Relationship](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/exodus-nancy-br/): Exodus International has turned much of their public voice over to Nancy Brown. In addition to being the principal writer on Exodus Media Blog, she also authored some of the FAQs that Exodus posts on their website. Considering that Nancy is not same-sex attracted and has not ever identified as gay, it is difficult to see why she was selected. But perhaps it is this lack of personal experience or context that uniquely qualifies her to shamelessly make bizarre claims without blushing. Or maybe it is a lack of knowledge about statistical sampling that gives her confidence to make assertions that...
- [Griggs Defends PFOX’s Anti-Gay Handout](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/griggs-defends/): In an article at AgapePress, PFOX’s executive director Regina Griggs defends her anti-gay handout to school children in Maryland. We still are uncertain as to exactly which handout was provided, but Griggs describes her goal in providing the literature “Children need to be able to have a free place where they can go and get information and not have someone promote an agenda and not provide them with accurate information,” Griggs asserts. This is, however, confusing since that description does not in any way fit PFOX. There are very few organizations that have less accurate information or more of an agenda.
- [Chambers Declares Homosexuality to Be “Multicausal”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/chambers-declar/): In the middle of an article on November 12th in the Denver Post about Christian response to revelations about Ted Haggard is a sign of a revolutionary change in the language of ex-gay ministries. Alan Chambers, president of Orlando-based Exodus International, which advocates “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ,” describes more accepting attitudes in his movement toward the role genetics may play. Exodus’ stance is that homosexuality is “multicausal,” Chambers said. One side of the debate is guilty of saying it’s only genetics, and the other side is guilty of saying homosexuality can “go away” with prayer and...
- [NARTH’s Nicolosi Respects Self-Abhorrence](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/narths-nicolosi/): In yet another example of the type of thinking that alienates reasonable people, NARTH’s Dr. Joseph Nicolosi had this to say about fallen evangelist Ted Haggard: “If this man is saying, ‘This is a part of me that I abhor,’ why can’t we respect that?” Nicolosi asked. “Why do we have to attribute that to something external and take away the dignity of the individual to express how he feels?” Most therapists would not suggest that the appropriate response to self-abhorrence is affirmation, but Nicolosi is not most therapists. Ignoring Haggard’s claims that he had “sought assistance in a variety of...
- [South Africa Legalizes Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/south-africa-le/): Much of the political efforts taken up by ex-gay seminars has focused on activism to oppose any recognition of same-sex couples. According to Alan Chambers, leader of Exodus, this is to counter efforts by gays to be treated “equal, as people who are the same as heterosexuals”. However, much of the rest of the free world has reached the conclusion that same-sex relationships are worthy of respect and support and that gay persons are to be treated as equal in the eyes of the law (though sometimes separate). This week South Africa joined Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada (and the state...
- [Catholic Diocese Cancels Unitarian Lease After Gay Outreach](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/catholic-dioces/): Yes, it’s me, ExGayWatch’s lone UK correspondent, amazingly still breathing. 😉 Despite my infrequent articles, I intend to remain a contributor to the blog, and I urge any UK readers with tips or ideas for UK-related issues or stories to get in touch. I did want to share two US-related items, however. The first is from Marc Adams of HeartStrong, a charity that reaches out to GLBT kids in religious schools. Recently HeartStrong was booked to appear at outreach events at two US churches, one a Roman Catholic church, the other a Unitarian Universalist church that happens to rent a building...
- [PFOX Annoys High School with Court-Mandated Lies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/pfox-annoys-hig/): PFOX has distributed an ex-gay flyer to students at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. I don’t recall PFOX winning direct access to students, but the local NBC affiliate is reporting that they have. Targeting gays with hard-to-miss billboards, groups like PFOX weren’t always allowed inside schools. But when it sued to pass out literature, it won. Now, policy and the law allow the group to reach students through school. Clearly students, faculty, and administration alike are unhappy with the intrusion of a religious-based anti-gay activist group distributing propaganda during class time. Administrators, faculty and students quickly blasted the...
- [A Brief Juxtaposition](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/a-brief-juxtapo/): From John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Meanwhile, today the Southern Baptists of North Carolina will be voting to expel from their fellowship any church that has a single gay member. The proposed guidelines would bar openly gay church-goers from being baptized, accepted for membership, ordained or hired on staff. I don’t think I need to offer any commentary.
- [Producer of 1950s Anti-gay “educational” Films Dies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/producer-of-195/): From the LA Times: Sid Davis, an educational filmmaker in the 1950s and ’60s who specialized in dark, cautionary tales crafted to frighten captive classroom audiences away from even thinking about misbehaving, has died. He was 90. The article makes no mention of Davis’ most ugly, hateful and homophobic film, Boys Beware in which homosexuals are portrayed as mentally ill predators, pedophiles and criminals. NPR’s coverage was unafraid to acknowledge Davis’ most infamous film.
- [Focus / Exodus’ Actions Send Message to Gay Community: Your Media Are Illegitimate](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/focus-exodus-ac/): Focus on the Family refuses to treat gay bloggers as journalists, which is hardly unexpected. What is surprising is how a reporter from the Southern Voice, part of a network of gay print media which reaches 400,000 readers weekly, was went unrecognized and marginalized despite behaving in a professional maner at Love Won Out Atlanta. Laura Douglas-Brown had some things to say on SoVo.com that really shows Exodus may proclaim “freedom from homosexuality” (to straight voters) but really doesn’t give a damn if actual gay people ever hear the message. Contrast that to the treatment Dyana Bagby, Southern Voice news editor,...
- [The Insanity of Activist Organization Names](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/the-insanity-of/): Over the weekend I was at a pro-gay conference called Love Breaks Out which is a response to the ex-gay conference Love Won Out in Palm Springs a month ago. One of the most well known ex-gay ministries is named Love in Action. Wayne Besen formed an organization called Truth Win Out to counter ex-gay groups. Peter LaBarbera formed his own anti-gay group Americans for Truth. People, this needs to stop right now. I had dinner with Peterson Toscano last night and even the two of us would stumble over and mix-up the names of these groups. I don’t know how...
- [Photo From “Love Breaks Out”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/photo-from-love/): I just got back from Love Breaks Out, a pro-gay response to Focus on the Family and Exodus held in Palm Springs Saturday. From left to right: Peggy Campolo (wife of Tony Campolo), Peterson Tosocano (performing artist) and ex-gay survivor Worthie Paul Meacham as Momma.
- [Transgender / Ex-Transgender Glossary](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/transgender-ex/): This is the first of a multiple part series about the term gender. Conservative religious organizations and ex-gay organizations use the term gender — and variants on the term gender — to group together GLB & T people in a manner that GLB & T people don’t group themselves together. This series will explore groupings around gender, and the term’s variants. –Autumn Ex-gay, formerly identified as gay, formerly identified as homosexual — we know what these statements mean when we read them. Here is some ex-gay terminology you may not have heard or heard often: – ex-transsexual – ex-transgender – ex-cross-dresser...
- [Sheldon Implies That Haggard Is Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/sheldon-implies/): Rev. Lou Sheldon, the founder and chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition was interviewed by The Jewish Week about the results of Tuesday’s election. Considering that Sheldon rejected the faith of his Orthodox Jewish mother and aligned himself with a political movement that supports the ability of Christian groups to take federal funding for social service programs and then refuse to hire Jews, the Jewish Week was remarkably fair. Yes, Sheldon comes across as delusional but, having met Sheldon some years ago, I don’t think that is an unfair representation. Lou Sheldon discusses his take on the Democrat take-over “We know...
- [Another Illustration That There Is No “Homosexual Lifestyle”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/another-illustr/): Ex-gays and other anti-gays like to portray all gays and lesbians as a living some “homosexual lifestyle”. Naturally, this lifestyle has every negative attribute that can be imagined. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons are all anti-Christian, anti-American, anti-defense socialists in favor of overthrowing society and especially the family. They hate all that is good and pure. And, of course, they always vote Democrat. And they also make up only 1% of the population. The CNN exit polling from Tuesday’s election suggests otherwise. Although little information about gay voters is provided, we do find that gay, lesbian, or bisexual voters made...
- [Two Evangelicals: Change Is Possible… No It Isn’t](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/two-evangelical/): Kyra Phillips host of CNN Newsroom, today interviewed moderate evangelical author Tony Campolo on the Rev. Ted Haggard’s upcoming “restoration.” Here’s a transcript: CAMPOLO: [Haggard has] said all the right things up to this point. The real question is, when he does get counsel, when he does enter into this restoration process, will he be forthcoming and honest about everything? Will he just say, I have a little problem on the side? Or will he begin to face the fact that maybe I have a sexual orientation that does not offer an easy fix. And if he does turn out to...
- [Dobson Withdraws From Haggard’s ‘Restoration Panel’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/dobson-withdraw/): From the Colorado Springs Gazette: “It is with great regret — and after much prayer and discussion with friends and family — that I have had to reconsider my involvement in the panel overseeing Ted’s restoration,” Dobson said in a written statement. “Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help — but the reality is I don’t have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility.”
- [Post-Election Recommendation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/post-election-r/): During the past few election cycles there has been much discussion about the lives of gay individuals and couples. And sadly some of this has come from those who are voices in the ex-gay movement. In efforts to advance partisan political goals, some ministry leaders have made claims about “change” and about “the homosexual lifestyle” that I believe are neither true nor Christian. It is difficult to know why these ex-gay representatives have sacrificed their intergrity in this manner. Perhaps they fell victim to the notion that objective truth is less important than political spin, or perhaps they convinced themselves that...
- [New Exodus Youth “Outreach Guide”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/new-exodus-yout/): Exodus has a new youth outreach guide and lord knows I’ll never receive a copy if I request it so I’d encourage all XGW readers to go here and request one themselves.
- [Haggard: Ex-Gay Therapy Didn’t Work, Maybe Dobson Can Help Me](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/haggard-ex-gay/): The Colorado Springs Gazette reprinted the full text of Rev. Ted Haggard’s letter of apology to the church that dismissed him on allegations of improper behavior with a male escort. Here is the full text. Pay close attention to the boldface text — emphasis is XGW’s.
- [Conference Divided Family…](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/conference-divi/): The headline reads Conference on Gays Divides Family. Did the Love Won Out conference divide this highlighted family? Not really. What divides Brenda and Brandon Meredith — a mother and son — has little directly to do with a conference held at a church building in Atlanta, although Brenda did go to the Love Won Out conference, and Brandon did go to the Truth Wins Out protest. The article read, with regards to the mother: “We’re helping to equip her with how to respond in a Christian way to her son,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of gender issues for Focus on...
- [Love Won Out - Atlanta Protest Photos](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/love-won-out-at/): Setting up for the press conference the day before Love Won Out. I don’t have any pics during the event since all the speakers were seated next to the mic stand. But NBC ran a snippet of my testimony so that kind of makes up for not being able to take pics myself. Most protesters arrived around 10am after Love Won Out attendees had already arrived so things were slow till they broke for lunch and quite a few people left for lunch. Oh and that’s my “Caution: Junk Science Ahead” sign being held for me while I ran around taking...
- [Commenting Restored After DoS Attack](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/commenting-rest/): As many have noticed, we had to turn off the ability to comment on posts for the past few days. This was necessary to reduce our exposure during a Denial of Service attack. We have others investigating the source of this attack but in the mean time we have migrated to servers more able to handle the situation should it happen again. You may now comment, though we have made a couple of changes to reduce the load. The comment preview has been removed, and a security code plugin added. This should be self-explanatory but if you have any trouble posting...
- [Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Half-Truths About Ex-Gays, Or Just Shallow Reporting?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/atlanta-journal/): Today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (free subscription required): About 1,000 people, from 22 states, paid $60 a piece to attend the “Love Won Out” convention that lasted all day and featured eight speakers. About 50 activists gathered on the sidewalk. How much did the conference cost Focus on the Family, and what was the organization’s net income? The AJC doesn’t say. Inside, Sarah Tate, a 62-year-old from Gwinnett County lamented the antagonism between the groups: “It [Love Won Out] is a very understanding way of trying to be helpful and not as judgmental as most people think Christians are,” she said. “What...
- [Former Ex-Gays Counter Atlanta Religious-Right Roadshow](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/former-ex-gays-2/): WXIA-TV, Atlanta, televised a report tonight (Windows Media video) about former ex-gays, clergy, doctors, and parents who are protesting against Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay roadshow: Excerpts from the report: “I spent countless evenings on my knees begging the Lord to make me straight. And he never did.”–Daniel Gonzales, former patient of Joseph Nicolosi “I have compassion for people. I simply want to say that I believe that God didn’t make us that way.”— Roy Blankenship, First Baptist Church of Woodstock (host of the ex-gay conference) “I am holy. I am gay. And just for the record, I...
- [The Rev. Ted Haggard’s Lesson for Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/the-rev-ted-hag/): The Ledger of Lakeland, Fla., is succinct in summarizing the situation: Why can’t preachers always practice what they preach? Because they’re all sinners, just like the rest of us. Why can’t the bigger sinners among them at least avoid preaching what they don’t practice? That’s a better question. If they did, maybe we wouldn’t have so much hypocrisy to talk about. Don’t preach what you don’t practice.
- [Ex-Gay’s Reaction to Ted Haggard: An Incomprehensible Mess](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/ex-gays-reactio/): You try to make sense out of Stephen Bennett. I can’t — every paragraph contradicts every other paragraph. The one consistent element: Self-promotion.
- [Sorry for the Lack of Comments](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/sorry-for-the-l/): We hope to have the site operating on a new and secure platform early next week. Please feel free to contact us via e-mail in the meantime with strongly felt opinions or just friendly greetings.
- [Not A Gay Sex Scandal, But One of ‘Identity’ And Bisexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/not-a-gay-sex-s/): Edited from the original, with changes marked. The major news media have uniformly marched behind a “gay sex scandal” label for the sex-and-drug allegations against the Rev. Ted Haggard, now-former head of the National Association of Evangelicals. But it’s not a “gay sex” scandal. If the allegations are true, then Haggard — a father of five — is more likely an irresponsible and dishonest bisexual man who has devoted much of his career recent years to the promotion of discrimination against people who are more honest and faithful to their partners than he. Beyond the issue of sexual attraction, there is...
- [Leading Evangelical Resigns Over Accusations of Sex And Drugs with Gay Hustler](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/leading-evangel-2/): Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections, and Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed. These were the words Ted Haggard used to open his sermon last Sunday. And until this week Ted Haggard was one of the most influential religious voices in the nation. Haggard was pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, the head of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, and an advisor to President Bush on...
- [Event Schedule for Love Won Out, Atlanta](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/event-schedule/): Ok kids, I’m off to Atlanta to speak at the joint press conference being thrown by Wayne Besen and Soulforce. Here’s their press release. FRIDAY PRESS CONFERENCE WHERE: OutWrite Books, 991 Piedmont Avenue WHEN: Friday, Nov 3. at 11:30 a.m. WHO: Rev. TJ McGiffert, SoulForce, Wayne Besen, Founder, Truth Wins Out, Daniel Gonzales, Former ex-gay NARTH patient, Patti Ellis, mother, www.FamilyAcceptance.com, More Speakers TBA SATURDAY PROTEST WHERE: First Baptist Church Woodstock, 11905 Highway 92, Woodstock Georgia WHEN: Nov. 4, Demonstration begins at 10 a.m.
- [“Homophobia At Hell House” A Report By the Gay And Lesbian Task Force](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/homophobia-at-h/): “This is Steve,” the demon says. “He thought his homosexual lifestyle was everything a real man could want, but now he’s dying of AIDS.” The Gay and Lesbian Task Force has issued a new report titled Homophobia at Hell House. From the report: One scene described on the Hell House Web site depicts a demon –– Hell House’s tour guide –– and an “angel of the Lord” arguing over a young lesbian’s sexuality. The demon tells the character Jamie that God “made” her a lesbian, and because of conflict over her sexual orientation, Jamie commits suicide.14 The Hell House kit describes...
- [Subconscious Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/subconscious-or/): Several years ago there were urban legends about subliminal messages. They ranged from secret advertising in the muzak played in department stores to satanic messages you could only hear if you played rock songs backwards. Much of this was nothing more than fear and superstition but in 1974 the FCC banned subliminal advertising. The effectiveness of subliminal messaging has long been debated. But nonetheless it is indisputable that the mind does process some information on a subconscious level. And we now know that sexual orientation plays a part in how that information is processed. A new study at the University of...
- [Catholic Bishops’ New Guidelines](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/catholic-bishop-2/): The Catholic Bishops will be voting on guidelines for ministry to gay parishioners. And the drafted guidelines show both the difficulty with the church’s conflicting principles and how the Catholic position varies from that of evangelical based ex-gay ministries. The Church (along with some other Christian churches) has both a desire to be in ministry to gay people and a desire to hold to traditional anti-gay doctrine. These conflicting goals lead to somewhat schizophrenic pronouncements about homosexuality in all its disordered evil nature that simultaneously state that gay people are not morally defective. And though the church seems to want to...
- [Love In Action Settles Lawsuit With Tennessee](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/love-in-action-12/): This is a follow-up to Love In Action’s Day in Court. Love In Action Settles Lawsuit With Tennessee. Excerpt: On Friday, Love in Action announced a settlement in which the state agreed that the facilities did not need to be licensed and agreed to pay the organization’s attorneys’ fees and expenses in the lawsuit. In return, Love in Action agreed that its employees would not administer or regulate the medications of program participants. “TDMHDD is pleased that the case has been settled to the satisfaction of all parties involved,” department spokes woman Jill M. Hudson said in a statement. Love In...
- [All the Rights - But Not Quite Equal](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/all-the-rights/): The Supreme Court of New Jersey has just decided that gay couples are entitled to all the rights that heterosexual couples have… but do not have a claim to the institution of marriage. The legislature of that state now has 180 days in which to decide whether to change the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or whether to create another separate-but-equal institution to provide benefits and obligations. Much of the argument against marriage equality is that man-woman marriage is the ideal grouping in which to raise children. While same-sex couples may raise perfectly fine kids, it just isn’t as good...
- [Nothing To Do With Any Social Issue Other Than Same-Sex Attraction?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/nothing-to-do-w/): From NARTH’s Political Correctness Gone Amok: The Latest Controversy (October 10, 2006): “The bottom line,” said NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi, “is that NARTH’s mission has nothing to do with any social issue others than same-sex attraction. Our mission is to defend our clients’ rights to assert their own values and say, ‘Gay is not who I really am.'” NARTH’s position statements are In agreement with that are with that statement — for example, nothing is written there about transgender or transsexual people. So why did NARTH publish an article entitled UK Physician Investigated Over Rushed Sex Change Operations on October 23,...
- [Apologies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/apologies/): I failed to notice that I had made this page an open forum. So the protest of Ex-Gay Watch’s policy against using quotation marks around “ex-gay” was allowed. I have unbanned Randi Schimnosky. I am sorry for acting so aggressively. I remain disappointed in our commenters for demanding politically correct labeling, for expressing intolerance toward sexual strugglers, and for seeking to suppress the fact that a few ex-gays and ex-gay blogs disagree with the religious-right and “change is possible” messages.
- [PFOX: “We Want Mr. Foley to Know That Help Is Available”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/pfox-we-want-mr/): Which was going to be the first ex-gay group to come out and suggest Mark Foley enter a conversion program? We finally have our answer, PFOX. It took long enough… (via Good As You)
- [Ten Beliefs of an Unhealthy Faith](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/ten-beliefs-of/): From Pastor Brenda: God’s love and favor depends on my behavior. All ministers are people of God and can be trusted. Material blessings are a sign of spiritual strength. I can work my way to heaven. Problems in my life are a result of some kind of sin. If it’s not in the Bible it isn’t relevant. A strong enough faith will protect me from problems and pain. God hates sinners, is angry with me, and wants to punish me. Having true faith means waiting for God to help me; doing nothing until He does. More than anything else God wants...
- [Pastor Advocates for Charity, Not Nationalism](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/pastor-advocate/): Katherine Hawker is pastor at Evangelical United Church of Christ in Webster Groves, Missouri. Writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month, Hawker contrasted local mainline churches that celebrate World Communion Day to foster Christian unity and charity, with the religious-right lobbies and megachurches down the road that foster division and partisan vitriol within local communities. I want to build on the unity that I share with others who recognize God’s kingdom as one of justice, peace and inclusive love, not those who use Jesus’ name to preach hate. I no longer trust that a container labeled “Christian” necessarily has contents...
- [Sin Is ‘Neither Republican Nor Democratic’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/sin-is-neither/): From BeliefNet author Diana Butler Bass via Straight, Not Narrow: “Making sexuality a political issue, as much of the Religious Right has done, distracts from a host of other issues, such as poverty, war, and environmental concerns. But it also obscures the fact that Christians agree (as my friend and I do) on many things regarding this intimate part of our lives. We agree that sexuality is a gift from God, that love and commitment are foundational to sexual expression, that marriage is the best vessel for human sexuality, and that authenticity, honesty, fidelity, and mutual regard form the basis of...
- [Why Do Pro-Family Movement Followers Vote Against Their Families?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/why-do-pro-fami/): Denver Post columnist Cindy Rodriguez discusses some reasons why followers of Focus on the Family obey the organization’s advice — and vote against their own families. Rodriguez’s own bias is obviously Democratic.
- [Wanting to Start an Ex-Gay Ministry, But Skeptical of Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/wanting-to-star/): From Peterson Toscano: Having experienced victory, aspiring ex-gay minister “Marvin” now voices hesitation about joining the world’s largest ex-gay organization. Marvin asks: Does a local spiritual ex-gay ministry need to be entangled in Exodus psychology and politics? What are the benefits?
- [Barry Goldwater, 1981: Resisting the Arrogant Power of the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/barry-goldwater/): From Barry Goldwater via Wikipedia via Andrew Sullivan: “On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following...
- [From Focus on the Family: Yours Free for a Required Donation?](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/from-focus-on-t/): Apparently too many people have been requesting antihomosexual and exgay resources from Focus on the Family while offering less than the organization’s “suggested donation.” So now Focus, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is making it more difficult to “donate” less than its sales department deems appropriate for goods that should have been free in the first place.
- [Dobson Invites Ann Coulter to Rally His ‘Values Voters’](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/dobson-invites/): Karl Rove called him “nuts.” Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey called him a threat to religious liberty. And evangelical voters and Baptist leaders are deserting him. So whom does the desperate James Dobson seek for support? The nation’s leading potty-mouthed priestess of political correctness, Ann Coulter. Coulter will appear twice — Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 — on Focus on the Family’s daily radio program. Coulter accuses liberal and libertarian people of faith of godlessness for seeking to keep partisan and sectarian religious biases out of government. According to Talk to Action: What the vicious and vindictive Coulter has...
- [Open Forum: Your Favorite Exgay Blogs](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/open-forum-your/): Tell us about exgay blogs that dare to think outside the box of the political religious right.
- [Open Forum: Name Your Favorite Exgay Or Former-Exgay Music, Books And Movies](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/open-forum-name/): What should Ex-Gay Watch review or advertise in the future?
- [Exodus Lobbyist: Fairness in Journalism for Me, Maybe Not for Thee](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/exodus-lobbyist-2/): Lobbyist Randy Thomas complains on the Exodus blog that, at the Family Research Council’s misnamed “Liberty Sunday” event last weekend, a reporter for the Boston Herald chuckled at the label “ex-gay” and refused to receive ex-gay materials or interview ex-gay activists. Thomas uses the Exodus blog entry to point the unnamed reporter to the Code of Ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists. This is a code that Exodus refuses to practice in its own blogging, lobbying, and media relations. Thomas says: People like Alan, including myself, are not gay whether the Boston Herald tolerates that fact or not. Diversity and...
- [Former Exgay Educates Illinoisans About Sexual, Spiritual Struggle](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/10/former-exgay-ed/): From the Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale: You can’t make fish fly, but you can chuck them across the room and make them think, for just a little while, that they can. Sarah Lohman reports on Peterson Toscano’s performance of “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House: How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement.”
- [Reaction to Chad Thompson’s UCSB Speech From A Gay Student](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/reaction-to-chad-thompsons-ucsb-speech-from-a-gay-student/): I just had a long conversation with Christopher Eberz from the Queer Student Union at the University of California at Santa Barbara where ex-gay Chad Thompson spoke in February. I know it’s a bit late to be posting on this but Chris sent me to his blog where he wrote a very perceptive first person reaction to Chad’s speech. I like to think it’s because Chris reads XGW that he was able to see below the surface of what Chad was and wasn’t saying.
- [Sex God’s Way - As a Duty](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/sex-gods-way-as-a-duty/): In an article on the Christian webzine Boundless, Exodus Youth’s Mike Ensley offers advice to those who “struggle with same-sex attraction” but who do not find themselves turning into heterosexuals. While some of what Mike spouts is parroting dogmatic nonsense (“Homosexuality is an experience you have, it’s not a thing that you are”), he also gives some practical advice that would be useful for avoiding anything that you find a temptation. And Mike broaches a subject that I believe is too often hidden from the public face of ex-gay ministries. Stop obsessing about how much you will (or won’t) enjoy heterosexual...
- [Exodus, Former Ex-Gays to Appear March 15 on Montel](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/montel-show-to-host-exodus-former-ex-gays-on-march-15/): Exodus president Alan Chambers, ex-gay “therapy” survivors Peterson Toscano and Lance Carroll, and former male prostitute Mike Jones — who exposed a three-year relationship with evangelical leader Ted Haggard — are the scheduled guests on the Montel show Thursday, March 15. Also scheduled: Dr. Alicia Salzer, producer of a documentary called Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-gay Movement, who will offer a psychiatric perspective about reparative therapies. Show title: “Homosexuality–Can It Be Cured?” Find your local station and air time.
- [God’s Grace And The Transsexual Next Door](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/gods-grace-and-the-transsexual-next-door/): David Roberts recently wrote a short piece entitled Exodus President Alan Chambers is Clear About Coulter Comment. David praised and thanked Alan Chambers for making the unambiguous comment regarding Ann Coulter’s use of the pejorative faggot: Used in any context, this hurtful word is used to demean an individual who is valuable to God. There is nothing to be gained by denigrating others with crude slurs. In doing so, we disgrace ourselves and discredit the truths we seek to publicly elevate. Wow: “[N]othing to be gained by denigrating others with crude slurs.” That’s a powerful statement. I wish Alan Chambers’ idea...
- [New York Blade on Venus Magazine’s Ex-Gay Conversion](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/new-york-blade-on-venus-magazines-ex-gay-conversion/): From the New York Blade: What Cothran isn’t telling us is that not only is she getting financial support from black churches, but they have also helped her land ads from big pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott Laboratories that pay for half the cost of the magazine, with the other half paid for by the black churches promoting “ex-gay” ads targeted to the African-American LGBTQ community.
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Is Clear About Coulter Comment](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/exodus-president-alan-chambers-is-clear-about-coulter-comment/): Instead of the shameless psuedo-defense coming from some other ex-gay groups, Exodus president Alan Chambers was unambiguous in his admonition of Ann Coulter over her recent use of the word “faggot” in a comment about Democrat presidential hopeful John Edwards. Used in any context, this hurtful word is used to demean an individual who is valuable to God. There is nothing to be gained by denigrating others with crude slurs. In doing so, we disgrace ourselves and discredit the truths we seek to publicly elevate. Unlike PFOX and Peter LaBarbera, the latter of which seems to pine for the good old...
- [Another Site Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/test-post/): That’s right, another face lift. The previous design, while minimalist on the outside, was nearly impossible to customize on the inside. The author is either a genius or mad, I’m not sure which. This design is much easier to deal with and I took the opportunity to update the logo a bit as well. If you have any trouble with the new stuff, please post to this thread. I’m sorry if anyone is getting dizzy 😉
- [2007 Equality Ride Launches With Ex-Gay Survivors](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/2007-equality-ride-launches-with-ex-gay-survivors/): On Thursday the 2007 Soulforce Equality Rides will arrive at their first destinations. Yes, you heard me right, there are two buses this year, one headed east, one headed west. On last year’s Equality Ride participants found themselves unprepared when the dialogues they engaged in turned to the subject of exgays. Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano was brought in to help train this year’s riders and discovered at least half of the Equality Riders had ex-gay experiences through church, Christian counseling, on their own and/or through an ex-gay therapist or ministry. Each rider has a bio but in a quick search the...
- [PFOX on Ann Coulter - “Edwards Did It First”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/pfox-on-ann-coulter-edwards-did-it-first/): PFOX has responded to Ann Coulter’s recent use of the word “faggot” in a joke about Democrat presidential hopeful John Edwards. While they briefly acknowledge that “no one should be subjected to hateful name calling, either gay or ex-gay,” the main thrust of their comments draw attention away from Coulter and onto Edwards. “Unlike Coulter, McEwan’s statement was not made in jest or for humorous purposes,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX while calling attention to the recent blogger scandal concerning Edwards. It seems a simple, no strings attached admonishment for something so obviously hateful and indecent was too much...
- [Peterson And Love In Action on Current.tv](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/peterson-and-love-in-action-on-currenttv/): Just a quick reminder, if this video gets enough votes it’ll air on Current.tv’s actual TV station. A while back Mike Ensley of Exodus had an interview posted to Current.tv.
- [Peterson on Ex-Gay Program Follow-Ups](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/peterson-on-ex-gay-program-follow-ups/): From Peterson Toscano: In speaking with some ex-gay leaders recently, I see the desperate need they have to hear some of our stories. Never once has an ex-gay program I attended ever done any sort of follow-up. I mean I can’t buy a soy latte these days without having to fill out a survey about my coffee experience. Yet folks can spend tens of thousands of dollars on reparative therapy and nothing–no aftercare, no reflections on what worked and what didn’t work. I think ex-gay leaders can be like folks with lots of credit card debt. The debt exists and it...
- [A New Approach for Exodus to Consider](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/a-new-approach-for-exodus-to-consider/): The Catholic World News brings us a story of a former homosexual in Italy. He says that his sexual impulses were healed as a result of reading the Bible and the works of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, as well as praying the Rosary three times a day. Surely Exodus – an organization that relies so heavily on the testamony of former homosexuals as inspiration for how others should live their lives – will readily welcome this new approach. And, of course we can expect that Love Won Out will soon introduce special seminars on appealing to St....
- [More About Ex-Gays on Public Radio](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/more-about-ex-gays-on-public-radio/): Peterson Toscano and Jack Drescher will be guests on Thursday’s broadcast of “To The Point” which comes from my local NPR station KCRW. Catch it streaming live on KCRW’s website from noon to 1 PM pacific time. If you miss the live broadcast you can click here to podcast it and full archived episodes can be found here for free. This is why I love public radio, and especially our local station here in LA.
- [Focus Reports Half The Story On APA’s Re-Evaluation of Position On Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/focus-reports-half-the-story-on-apas-re-evaluation-of-position-on-reparative-therapy/): Focus on the Family recently claimed gay activists (NGLTF and PFLAG) have “pressured” the APA to re-examine it’s position on allowing members to practice gay conversion or reparative therapy. Given Focus’ recent history of distorting science and reality to fit their worldview, I contacted the NGLTF, PFLAG, and the APA myself and spoke respectivly with Jason Cianciotto, Ron Schlittler, and Clinton Anderson. What I learned was that in an informal meeting Schlittler (PFLAG) expressed concerns to Anderson (APA) over: (in Schlittler’s words) “aggressive promotion of “reparative therapy” by right wing groups.” Given that the APA’s position statement on reparative therapy is...
- [Alan Chambers on Montel Williams Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/alan-chambers-on-montel-williams-show/): Exodus sent out a press release encouraging people to “tune-in” to the Montel Williams show today to see guest Alan Chambers.  This may confuse those who tune in because today’s show is actually about “Murder and Mystery with Sylvia Browne.” The show with Alan is being taped today with the broadcast probably a week or so later.  You can always see Montel’s schedule for the final word.
- [Analysis of Alan Chambers on CNN - XGW Original Video](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/analysis-of-alan-chambers-on-cnn-xgw-original-video/): Earlier this month Alan was on Anderson Cooper 360 and made some very interesting statements about “change” in three weeks, gay Christians, and his own reasons for leaving homosexuality. Rest assured I’ve done my homework and found Alan and Exodus’ track record on these things don’t match up. Most dramatic is Melissa Fryrear’s claim she’s met exgays who changed instantaneously. Oh yes… we have audio of her saying that at Love Won Out Phoenix. Just watch the video. [googlevideo]-5477987282460690780[/googlevideo] Video on YouTube / Google Video Transcript after the jump.
- [End of Week Silliness](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/end-of-week-silliness/): On Wednesday, in their infinite wisdom, the state legislature of Utah has passed a law intended to shut down clubs that teach tolerance of other students, regardless of sexual orientation.  On Thursday it was reversed on a technicality and didn’t have the votes to pass Thursday’s revote. The bill would have required all sorts of additional hoops for non-curricular clubs to jump through for starting up including requirements that parents sign permission slips. While the authors of the bills claim that they want to protect children, absolutely no one believes that this is intended to do anything but shut down gay-straight alliances....
- [A Sign of Changing Attitudes](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/2299/): Those who claim to speak for “American Values” would often have us believe that a core American value is discrimination against gay people. Increasingly, however, this “value” is becoming an anachronism. Another evidence that gay people are beginning to be recognized and valued as a part of the American family is a new poll from the folks at Gallup. Between now and the 2008 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates — their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be homosexual, would...
- [Desert Stream Protest in San Francisco](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/desert-stream-protest-in-san-francisco/): The San Francisco Chronical has an article about a protest of ex-gay ministry Desert Stream and their seminar in the heart of San Francisco. An evangelical Christian minister from Missouri, who came to a San Francisco church to teach gays and lesbians how to become straight, was greeted Saturday by a protest led by a gay theology student who said the preacher’s conversion therapy was so psychologically damaging that he twice attempted suicide when he tried it. The Bay Area Reporter also covered the seminarians and ex-ex-gays that came to protest the message of brokenness. Maria Caruana and Todd Ferrell of...
- [A Story of Cruelty](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/a-story-of-cruelty/): Here’s a story about Cheryl and Keri. Once upon a time they met and fell in love and decided to get married, start a family, and spend the rest of their lives together. So Cheryl and Keri went to Vermont and had a civil union. And they used artificial insemination to have a daughter. Cheryl was the birth mother. And all was good. Then, as too often happens in such stories, things went sour. Cheryl found out that Keri had been unfaithful and their relationship ended with remorse and recrimination. Keri moved out. But though they were no longer a couple,...
- [Survivors of Ex-Gay Ministry on Montel](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/survivors-of-ex-gay-ministry-on-montel/): Peterson Toscano and Lance Carroll — both survivors of Exodus’ flagship live-in boot camp, called Love In Action — were on Montel yesterday (02/20/07) each briefly discussing their experiences with the ex-gay movement.
- [Destroying the Enemy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/destroying-the-enemy/): By Timothy Kincaid One aspect of war is dealing with enemies, those who seek to do you harm. And we all know that in war, enemies are to be destroyed without compassion or hesitation before they do the same to you. Millennia of warfare have shown that the best way to keep your troops willing to fight is to dehumanize your enemy. Don’t let your troops sympathize or see theirselves in the enemy or they may not be so ready to slaughter him. Sadly, these rules of engagement also apply to culture wars. We can readily see this tactic of dehumanization...
- [Can One Be A Transgender Christian?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/can-one-be-a-transgender-christian/): Julie Marie Nemecek, formerly known as John Nemecek, has recently filed a suit against Spring Arbor University (SAU). The University is firing the transgender professor/Baptist minisiter effective June 1st, choosing not to tolerate Nemecek’s transformation from John to Julie Marie: Pastor Tom Ramundo is superintendent for the southern Michigan conference of the Free Methodist Church, a conservative evangelical denomination with which the university is affiliated. He says Nemecek has been a cause célèbre for homosexual activist groups like PFLAG — Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “It seems very carefully orchestrated,” says Ramundo in reference to the discrimination claim;...
- [Focus on the Family Protests Free Speech Rights of Billboard Owners](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/focus-on-the-family-protests-free-speech-rights-of-billboard-owners/): Prior to the recent Love Won Out conference in Phoenix, Focus on the Family tried to purchase space on billboards owned by media communications company Clear Channel. The billboards were to bear the organization’s familiar drumbeat “I questioned homosexuality: Change is Possible, Discover How.” Clear Channel declined. Speaking on behalf of Focus on the Family, Melissa Fryrear said “the advertising company had turned down the business, but as of Monday, its lawyers had not received an explanation for the decision.” Clear Channel is a publicly traded company, and while they do own TV and radio stations, the Focus ad request was...
- [Daniel Gonzales of Ex-Gay Watch in People Magazine](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/2291/): There’s a two page article on ex-gay stuff in the current issue of People Magazine which hit newsstands today (Friday) and will arrive in mailboxes on Tuesday. I was interviewed for the article but they didn’t run any of that, instead deciding to go with a half page photo. Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano is also interviewed in the story. I can be contacted at daniel@exgaywatch.com.
- [Video: Dr. Spitzer Speaks Out About Distortion Of His Work](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/video-dr-spitzer-speaks-out-about-distortion-of-his-work/): A video interview with Dr. Robert Spitzer was released today by Truth Wins Out. In it he explains in detail how groups such as Focus on the Family have distorted his research for their own purposes and his reaction to that. This comes at at time when Daniel Gonzales of Ex-Gay Watch has recently produced his own informational video on the subject and PFOX has included a highly edited clip of Dr. Spitzer on their newly redesigned site in which he appears to say something quite different. We suggest you view both and decide for yourself which reflects the truth. ZwE6_dLweYo
- [More Math Magic](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/more-math-magic/): We have long noted the fondness that Exodus President Alan Chambers has for claiming that “hundreds of thousands of us have found freedom from the isolation and emptiness we experienced in gay life through the power of Jesus Christ”. This Sunday the New York Times ran an article about persons who are unhappy with their same-sex attractions. While the story provided a good synopsis of services available in the NYC area, there was not much new to us. Except this: It is unclear how many people participate in these programs, but a leading Christian organization in the movement, Exodus International, estimated...
- [PFOX Video Distorts Spitzer’s Views on Orientation Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/pfox-video-distorts-spitzers-views-on-orientation-change/): The front page of a newly renovated PFOX web site features a video clip of ex-gay researcher Dr. Robert L. Spitzer that loads automatically, whether the user wishes to view the video or not. The selectively edited, undated video features Dr. Spitzer saying: I mean, the gay activists have taken the viewpoint that from a political/strategic point of view they do better if they can convince society at large that once you’re homosexual you can never change. Now, I can appreciate that that helps them politically, and I’m sympathetic towards their political goals, but I think it’s just not true. There’s...
- [Truth Wins Out: Ex-Gay Marriages Make Lousy Valentines](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/truth-wins-out-ex-gay-marriages-make-lousy-valentines/): A new video by Truth Wins Out demonstrates that ex-gay activists’ efforts to coerce ex-gays into heterosexual marriage erode family values and lead to divorce. 4M-nFojvH84 TWO’s subtitle: “Ex-gay groups love to spotlight the wedding photos, but they never show the divorce papers.”
- [The Scientific Problem With Sex Dichotomies](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/the-scientific-problem-with-sex-dichotomies/): Recently, I wrote a piece on Mike Ensley’s take on gender fluidity. He responded in his personal blog with an article entitled What do I know about gender? In the article he states: …I can see how in a different circumstance (different city, family, influences) I might have gone down the road of transgenderism. A lot of people have backgrounds similar to mine, but didn’t end up struggling with same-sex attractions like I have. We’re all different and broken in different ways–but we can still understand one another. Furthermore, transgenderism represents to me one of the biggest loopholes in the new...
- [Dan Gonzales on American Public Media’s “Weekend America”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/dan-gonzales-on-american-public-medias-weekend-america/): I was interviewed Thursday night (before flying to Phoenix) for American Public Media’s “Weekend America” which was broadcast on many NPR stations across the nation today. Full audio of the segment here.
- [Ex-Gay Watch At Love Won Out Phoenix](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/2270/): Every local news station in Phoenix came to the press conference today in opposition to Love Won Out. Video of the entire press conference will be posted soon. Update: And here’s the video. [googlevideo]-8344195389415698722[/googlevideo] And the Q&A. [googlevideo]-7302457955324224016[/googlevideo]
- [Publisher of Venus Magazine Now Ex-Lesbian](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/publisher-of-venus-magazine-now-ex-lesbian/): Charlene Cothran, the publisher of Venus, a magazine targeting black same-gender-loving people, recently determined that she was no longer a lesbian and has changed the message of her magazine. While Cothran wants to target the same audience (people of African descent In The Life), her new theme is how God can deliver you from being gay. This has left some of her readers – and former writers – somewhat perplexed. Amy Wooten of The Windy City Times discussed Cothran’s conversion and the new direction of her publication as well as Cothran’s intention to continue targeting a gay audience. She quotes Cothran...
- [Randy Thomas Weighs in on Haggard’s Three Month Recovery](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/randy-thomas-weighs-in-on-haggards-three-month-recovery/): The Associated Baptist Press reports that both those who favor and those who doubt reorientation effectivity are skeptical about Ted Haggard’s newfound heterosexuality. On the pro side, Randy Thomas echoed Alan Chambers’ word on CNN. “To be honest, I’m not aware of the specifics of what Mr. Haggard went through. But in my own personal experience that’s not the case — and in the experience of everyone I’ve talked to,” said Randy Thomas, vice president of the Florida-based group Exodus International. Psychologist Lee Beckstead* provided an explanation for Haggard’s position. Beckstead, like the majority of mental-health professionals, believes much of “ex-gay”...
- [The Onion On Haggard](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/the-onion-on-haggard/): The satire website/newspaper The Onion takes on Haggard’s 3-week “cure.” Hat tip Scott H.
- [Mike Jones Responds to Haggard’s Three Week Cure](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/mike-jones-responds-to-haggards-three-week-cure/): PageOneQ has the response of Mike Jones, the escort who exposed mega-church pastor Ted Haggard’s same-sex philandering. Jones responds to two claims made by Rev. Tim Ralph, a member of Haggard’s restoration team. Ralph claimed, “He is completely heterosexual. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn’t a constant thing.” In response to one of Haggard’s counselor’s claims that Haggard’s activities were not a “constant thing,” Jones explained that he could only speak to the time he spent with Haggard and that had an ongoing sexual relationship with the minister and that their time together “indicated a gay...
- [Boston Legal’s Ex-Gay Suit](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/boston-legals-ex-gay-suit/): I missed Tuesday’s episode of Boston Legal about a man suing to recover moneys spent in failed reorientation efforts. But AfterElton has comments here …in the episode, a judge (Henry Gibson, he of Laugh-In fame) secures the assistance of the firm in order to sue a “faith-based treatment center” that promised to cure him of his same-sex yearnings (his doctor diagnoses his gayness as “Same Sex Attraction Disorder”, or SSAD), and failed (to the tune of 40,000). UPDATE A youtube clip of the episode is available here (hat tip to Scott H)
- [Newsweek Interviews Chad Allen About Ex-Gay Film](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/newsweek-interviews-chad-allen-about-ex-gay-film/): Newsweek interviewed actor Chad Allen about Save Me, his movie about one gay man’s experience with an ex-gay ministry. Your character in “Save Me” struggles to reconcile his Christian beliefs with his homosexual desires. Which parts of that struggle ring true to you? Pretty much all of it. It wasn’t like I set out to tell my story, but where the script ended up is a struggle that I relate to almost in its entirety. My character starts out finding himself loveless and godless. I went through that. There was a time in life when I was absolutely desperate and addicted...
- [Pardon the Dust](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/pardon-the-dust/): We continue our site renovation behind the scenes, and one of our upcoming tasks is to upgrade our old table of contents. While that work is in progress, we encourage readers to make use of this temporary list of Very Important Pages: Guidelines for commenters About us: What we believe, why we exist How to subscribe via e-mail Promotional buttons for your web site 
- [Video: Yale Professor Says ‘Focus On The Family’ Distorts Science](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/video-yale-professor-accuses-dobson-of-distorting-science/): KPuTQAoO7qo Truth Wins Out said today: Truth Wins Out unveiled a new video today on YouTube featuring a Yale professor who claims Focus on the Family leader James Dobson “cherry picked” his research. Dr. Kyle Pruett’s testimony represents a growing trend where leading scientists are speaking out against manipulation of their work by right wing political organizations. Pruett decided to respond after Dobson misused his research in a guest column Dobson wrote in TIME magazine debasing Mary Cheney’s pregnancy. “When people start spinning science you have to respond,” said Pruett, professor of child psychiatry, the Yale University School of Medicine. “Journalism...
- [Transcript of Alan Chambers on CNN Discussing Haggard’s “Transformation”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/transcript-of-alan-chambers-on-cnn/): Hopefully I’ll have video up by this weekend at the latest. Here’s a link to the transcript. Alan Chambers appeared opposite Mark Shields of HRC. (Since when does HRC care or know anything about ex-gays? Shields admits he never even went through an ex-gay program.) Of note, Alan even seemed a bit surprised by Haggard’s 3-week transformation to full heterosexuality: COOPER: Alan, you believe it is possible to stop being gay. Ted Haggard, though, says that he — this is something he wrestled with his entire life. Does it make sense to you that he was able to stop this allegedly...
- [Heads Up - Alan Chambers on CNN Tonight Talking About Haggard](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/heads-up-alan-chambers-on-cnn-tonight-talking-about-haggard/): From the Orlando Sentinel: Alan Chambers will discuss “the topic of change in homosexuality, faith and the ex-gay movement.” Cooper’s program airs at 10 on CNN. One topic: The suggestion that the Rev. Ted Haggard, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is “completely heterosexual” after attending an Exodus program. That’s the first I’ve heard that Haggard attended an Exodus program. 
- [“Boston Legal” Episode To Have Ex-Gay Theme](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/boston-legal-episode-to-have-ex-gay-theme/): The plot summary of tonight’s Boston Legal:  “Selling Sickness” Tuesday, February 6 @ 10/9c Alan Shore, Denny Crane and Bethany Horowitz are hired to represent a judge who is suing a company for not delivering on its promise to cure him of his homosexuality. Meanwhile, Shirley Schmidt takes on a case involving the use of a controversial new drug that can dull traumatic memories, and Denise is shocked to discover she’s pregnant — but doesn’t know whether the father is Brad Chase or Jeffrey Coho. Hat tip Scott H
- [“Haggard Says He’s Not Gay,” Smells Strongly Of Nicolosi](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/haggard-says-hes-not-gay-smells-strongly-of-nicolosi/): From today’s Denver Post: The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is “completely heterosexual” and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser. It should be noted that in the Spitzer Study of ex-gays, a study so overwhelmingly positive it’s been accused of being inaccurate, it took most people at least TWO YEARS to achieve this. More after the jump.
- [An Unsatisfying Experience](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/an-unsatisfying-experience/): Geico, an insurance company, has an advertising campaign that is not only memorable but tells an important message. The tag line is “Geico.com. So easy even a caveman can do it”.Several commercials follow the efforts of cavemen to educate and enlighten the ad executives as to the offensive nature of the ads. The execs refuse to see it as offensive, become condescending, and make apologies that are clearly of the “go away now” variety.
- [An Ex-Gay Watch Original Video - The Spitzer Study: Methodological Flaws And Abuse In Anti-Gay Politics](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/an-ex-gay-watch-original-video-the-spitzer-study-methodological-flaws-and-abuse-in-anti-gay-politics/): Here’s my latest video. A great deal has been said about the Spitzer Study but much of it is difficult to understand for people unfamiliar with the ex-gay movement. The purpose of this video is to examine the methodological flaws of the Spitzer Study and highlight how the study is being abused and misinterpreted by anti-gay political groups. Transcript after the jump.
- [Protest Info - Love Won Out Phoenix](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/protest-info-love-won-out-phoenix/): Interested in protesting Love Won Out Phoenix? See the Arizona Human Rights Fund website for info.
- [Ex-Gay Pets!!](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/ex-gay-pets/): Charles Alexander at Between the Lines brings us news of an organzation that can help your pet fight its unwanted same-sex attraction. Think your own Christian pet might be gay? Don’t panic. It’s just a phase. For a chuckle you might check it out. Warning. Article involves mockery.
- [Conservative Jews Approve of New Gay Supportive Rules](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/conservative-jews-approve-of-new-gay-supportive-rules/): As we previously discussed, Conservative Jewish synagogues may now decide to accept gay rabbis and officiate at same-sex blessings if they so choose. As reported in JTA, the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary commissioned a survey to see how Conservatives were feeling about the new rules. Roughly two-thirds of Conservative rabbis and cantors said in the survey released Wednesday that the Jewish Theological Seminary should admit openly gay and lesbian students for rabbinical study. Percentages in favor were even higher among the movement’s professional and lay leadership. Similar margins of support were found for the idea of Conservative rabbis officiating...
- [The Other Side of Values Determination](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/02/the-other-side-of-values-determination/): The San Jose Mercury News tells us of the intense pressures put on young gay Chinese Like many gay men in China, 22-year-old Chen Lei enjoys the newfound liberties of urban life. But he says he cannot fight his destiny: to marry a woman for whom he feels no attraction.For economic, social and cultural reasons, the pressure on gays in China to wed and raise families is high. In Chen’s case, his family hails from a village in Inner Mongolia, and he dares not tell them of his private life in the big city, knowing they would not understand. Some might...
- [Anthony Castro](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/anthony-castro/): Some stories need to be told. One such story is the short life of Anthony Castro. As first reported by Outsports, Castro’s courage and determination was tragically cut short by an auto accident on January 21. Yet his impact on his community and the perceptions others may have will live on. From an ESPN article: A four-year starter for the Banning High Broncos when the team’s starting quarterback was ruled academically ineligible, Anthony, a 6-foot, 210-pound fullback, volunteered to take his place. He had never played the position before, but that didn’t stop the Broncos’ captain from making all-conference. Anthony was...
- [Latest Salvo in the T-Shirt Wars](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/latest-salvo-in-the-t-shirt-wars/): Remember Tyler Chase Harper and anti-gay T-Shirts? Harper is the blond teen ADF model/activist-in-training who sued the Poway School District because they wouldn’t let him wear an anti-gay T-shirt to school two days in a row. We’ve told you about him and his crusade before. Harper has now graduated and has passed his “shameful” torch to his sister, Kelsie who – one supposes – also wants to wear a shirt condemning her fellow students. Well, this time was no different than the last. The judge, again, said that giving students the ability to attend class without condemnation is within the rights...
- [Kent Philpott’s Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/kent-philpotts-back/): Rev. Kent Philpott was a key player in the birth of the ex-gay movement. In the mid 70’s, there was a growing movement to recognize the civil rights of gay men and women. There were challenges to sodomy laws, pride celebrations, and open politicians. Even the way in which gay persons were percieved changed; “Gay” came to be an adjective of what someone was rather than the older term “a homosexual” which suggested what someone did. It was in this time and place of transition, around 1973 in the San Francisco bay area, that a preacher, Philpott, first decided to bring...
- [Values V. Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/values-v-change/): In an article in Crosswalk magazine, Dr. Warren Throckmorton has further demonstrated his shift in focus away from reorientation efforts and towards a values determination for those who find a conflict between their sexual orientation and their religious convictions. In this article, Throckmorton discusses a friend, Jim, who was unable to achieve a shifting in his base attractions away from men generally and towards women generally. Jim did not find the advice of ex-gay ministries to be useful and his observations suggested that their insistence on set models of psychological causes were not supported by reality. What Jim stated that he...
- [XGW, Youtube, And You (The Serious Reader)](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/xgw-youtube-and-you-the-serious-reader/): If you’re seeing this post over the weekend you must be a serious XGW reader. As a serious reader you should definitely subscribe to our new Youtube channel which has been made possible in part by the site which recently upgraded us to a “Director Account.” The URL of our channel is: https://www.youtube.com/exgaywatch By subscribing to the channel Youtube lets you know whenever we post something new. Expect something big just in time for Love Won Out Phoenix.
- [Dr. Laura on Ex-gay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/dr-laura-on-ex-gay-therapy/): Dr. Laura Schlessinger has a syndicated daily radio show with 8.5 million daily listeners. She doles out advice on marriages, family and other personal relationships from a conservative perspective. She unabashedly confronts her callers with what she perceives to be their irresponsible decisions and advises personal responsibility. I’ve listened to Dr. Laura, on and off, for over a decade. While for many years Dr. Laura simply dispensed advice, in the late 90’s and early part of this century she began to become quite political, encouraging her listeners to write letters and make phone calls on legislation that she favored or opposed....
- [Ruling Undermines Ex-Gay Case Against Hate-Crime Laws](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/ruling-undermines-ex-gay-case-against-hate-crime-laws/): On Jan. 16, the national ex-gay umbrella network Exodus International declared its opposition to the inclusion of sexual orientation in federal hate-crime laws. Exodus President Alan Chambers cited the Philadelphia-based antigay protest group Repent America as an example of Christians whose First Amendment rights were allegedly violated in 2004 by government officials and gay activists who were supposedly armed with local hate-crime laws. Focus on the Family launched an almost identical campaign the same day, quoting Chambers and its own pundits as the sole sources of information about hate-crime laws. Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett couldn’t resist joining the campaign — boasting...
- [Cohen No Longer President of PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/cohen-no-longer-president-of-pfox/): While recently investigating two articles about or by PFOX, Ex-Gay Watch sought to determine if Richard Cohen remained president of the organization. Cohen is most well known for touch or “holding” therapy as well as having patients emotionally strike pillows with a tennis raquet. After demonstrating these techniques in a string of circus-like mainstream (and not so mainstream) media appearances, Cohen’s name disappeared from PFOX’s website rather unceremoniously. Ex-Gay Watch emailed Regina Griggs, PFOX’s executive director nearly two weeks ago and more recently Warren Throckmorton seeking an explanation. Throckmorton responded: (printed here with permission) I decided to stop working with PFOX...
- [Ex-Gay Movie “Save Me” Gets Favorable Reviews](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/ex-gay-movie-save-me-gets-favorable-reviews/): Chad Allen (Dr Quinn, End of the Spear), Robert Gant (Queer as Folk), and Judith Light (Who’s the Boss, Ugly Betty) star in Save Me, an indie film about a young man in an ex-gay ministry. The film premiered yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival and early reporting suggests a well-crafted and nuanced film that sensitively looks at the lives of those who participate in ex-gay ministries. Unofficially Sundance gives the plot premise Years in the making, Robert Cary’s exquisite third feature, Save Me, is a film about redemption. Mark (Chad Allen), a lost, young, gay man, leads a wild life...
- [Articulating Hypocrisy: NARTH Professional On Empirical Research](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/articulating-hypocrisy-narth-professional-on-empirical-research/): Dr. Dea reports her four or five child-patients, all under the age of 15 living as the opposite sex, as being ‘much happier’ and having better grades. She also stated she was ‘waiting for the study that says supporting these children is negative.’ I’m waiting on the research that says supporting such behavior is positive on a long-term basis. The problem I see with this approach is that there are professionals engaging in this type of psychotherapy without valid, empirical research to support it. Would you take a pill that has not been through the rigorous testing of not only the...
- [Christianity Today: Evangelicals Behaving Badly with Statistics](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/christianity-today-evangelicals-behaving-badly-with-statistics/): A well written article in Christianity Today begins: American evangelicals, who profess to be committed to Truth, are among the worst abusers of simple descriptive statistics, which claim to represent the truth about reality, of any group I have ever seen. At stake in this misuse are evangelicals’ own integrity, credibility with outsiders, and effectiveness in the world. It is an issue worth making a fuss over. And so I write. The article goes on to examine a claim: “This generation of teens is the largest in history—and current trends show that only 4 percent will be evangelical believers by the...
- [Transgender Religious Summit](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/transgender-religious-summit/): This weekend marks the first ever Transgender Religious Summit. The press release states the following about the event: Religious communities struggle with full acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, causing discrimination not just in churches, temples, and mosques, but throughout society. Perhaps least understood and accepted among sexual and gender minorities are members of the transgender community. Those who identify as transgender or other non-conforming gender expressions are subject to misunderstanding and rejection by faith communities, and harassment and violence in society as a whole. The Transgender Religious Summit to be held at Pacific School of Religion (in...
- [We’re Back!](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/were-back/): The upgrade too longer than expected, but we seem to be up and running. Look for changes and tweaks over the next few weeks. Also, while we have tried to maintain legacy links as much as possible, please check your links to us if you have them and make sure they work.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Shutting Down](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/ex-gay-watch-sh/): Ok, I hope that got your attention. Sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning, we will be shutting down for at least a few hours to (hopefully) make the final move to our new software platform. This move has required a lot of work to fix some problems encountered during past upgrades and moves. We hope this next change will provide a solid base on which to continue our growth. We ask your patience with any down time during this period. When the site comes back up, it will look very different, but it won’t be complete. Expect that things will...
- [Levi Kreis’ Exodus Efforts](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/levi-kreis-exod/): Levi Kreis is an emerging gay musician. He’s appeared on an episode of The Apprentice, done a few indie films, and has had his music played on television shows. In connection with the release of his new album The Gospel According to Levi, Kreis artist sat for an interview with Between the Lines. The songwriting process became therapeutic as he reflected on his personal struggle to accept himself while serving God. As a Tennessee teen he stopped attending his parent’s Southern Baptist congregation, where he sang and preached, and enrolled in an ex-gay program at a nearby church. No one knew....
- [Complaint Filed Against Seller of Ex-Gay Video Featuring Fallen Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/complaint-filed/): Earlier this week XGW’s Timothy Kincaid wrote about fallen ex-gay Michael Johnston’s appearance in the video “It’s Not Gay” which is still being sold by several anti-gay organizations. This morning gay activist Wayne Besen filed a complaint against one such organization, Americans For Truth, for selling what Besen calls “a fraudulent video” with the Illinois Attorney General.
- [NARTH’s Rosik Comments On Apotemnophilia And GLBT Civil Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/narths-rosik-co/): [O]pponents say the prospect of same-sex book-borrowing endangers the moral fiber of the country’s most sacred reading traditions. “What’s next—gay people at the DMV, being granted licenses to drive cars?” Rev. Brian Peters of Verona, WI said. “Will we be soon seeing gays and lesbians at our local post offices, being sold stamps and mailing packages? We must protect our nation’s public institutions from relentless encroachment by those who threaten our values.” –Satire from The Onion‘s article Nation’s Gays Demand Right To Library Cards The Onion’s very funny take on GLBT civil rights issues is funny in its pure hyperbole. It’s...
- [In Case You Question If “Love Won Out” Targets Youth](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/in-case-you-que/): If one reads the news coverage following pretty much any Love Won Out conference it quickly becomes obvious they are attended primarily by family, friends and clergy rather than actual ex-gays or gays. As I’ve stood at the driveways to churches where Love Won Out is hosted I’ve seen too many cars pass by with children in the back seat, looks of sheer fear and dread on their faces, their parents unable to reconcile their faith with their child’s sexuality. At Love Won Out Atlanta one such gay son stood outside with us while his mother attended the conference. An article...
- [The Very Model of an Ex-Gay Individual](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/the-very-model/): On New Years Eve, 1879, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan presented their comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. Although a social satire of English sensibilities, the production’s launch was in New York to (ironically) deter pirating of their work. Those old enough may recall Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith, and Kevin Kline in the 1983 movie or the rather dreadful campy adaptation, The Pirate Movie, from the year before with Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins. Perhaps the best known piece of G&S music is the Major-General’s song from Pirates. It’s mockery of English priorities for military leadership – an extensive education...
- [The Newly Refurbished Michael Johnston](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/the-newly-refur/): In 1988 Michael Johnston became ex-gay. Almost immediately he became visable in the conservative anti-gay Christian movement. The following year he started his own ex-gay vehicle, Kerusso Ministries through which he put himself as an example in churches, schools, and on religious programming on radio and television. Eventually, by 1999, his profile had reached the place where Jerry Falwell used him as an example to Soulforce that gay people could become heterosexuals. Johnston was the darling of anti-gay religious powerhouses. He was awarded by the Southern Baptists and helped write the Assemblies of God’s position paper on homosexuality (for those unaware...
- [Exodus Youth Guidelines Posted](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/exodus-youth-gu/): As you may have read recently, much concern has been displayed for the apparent lack of standards under which Exodus youth member ministries operate.  Peterson Toscano has led the push to give Alan Chambers, president of Exodus, the opportunity to provide such guidelines and make certain they are enforced.  This issue has caused much debate over how to best ensure the safety of these youth. As reported here and here, Alan has to date been unwilling to respond to phone or email messages left by Toscano to indicate their progress as he had agreed to do.  Today, however, Dr. Warren Throckmorton...
- [Did Ex-Gay Contribute to Akinola’s Virulently Anti-Gay Activism?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/did-ex-gay-cont/): We have commented here about the extremist anti-gay political efforts of Nigerian Anglican Arch-Bishop Akinola including his support of a bill that would criminalize reading this website. We have also discussed how the ex-gay ministries and their leaders have in many cases shifted focus away from those who are struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions and now are primarily political activists. Now we find reported on the virulently anti-gay conservative Anglican website, Virtue Online, that ex-gay Mario Bergner may have encouraged Akinola in his anti-gay efforts by providing to him – four years ago – ex-gay materials including Jeffrey Satinover’s Homosexuality and...
- [Ex-Gay Mother Demands Child Support From Her Lesbian Ex](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/ex-gay-mother-d/): While she has denied her lesbian ex-partner visitation that was ordered by Vermont courts, ex-gay biological mother Lisa Miller-Jenkins has apparently sought child support from her ex, Janet Miller-Jenkins. According to the Rutland Herald, The child support order filed last month in Rutland Family Court calls for Janet Miller-Jenkins of Fair Haven to pay $240 a month to her former partner, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, the biological parent to the 4-year-old child, Isabella, she conceived by artificial insemination while the couple were joined in a Vermont civil union. In addition to $240 per month, the order calls for Lisa to pay 73 percent...
- [Who Is Telling the Truth About Misconduct in the Exodus Programs?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/who-is-telling/): In December 2006, Ex-Gay Watch asked some questions about the lack of protections for youth in ex-gay programs. Alan Chambers, the President of Exodus International, responded in the comments section. He claimed that pro-gay groups do have problems but that Exodus does not: I went to a group in Orlando as a teen and saw plenty of inappropriate, even illegal, behavior going on between adults and youth. We hear from parents and teens all the time about such practices. I am not going to say this is always the case, but there is illegal activity where youth are concerned going on...
- [Former Ex-Gay Says Exodus Admits Mistreatment of Youth But Stalls on Safeguards](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/former-ex-gay-s/): Note: In fairness to Exodus, I have changed my references to “abuse” to “misconduct.” Peterson Toscano, a survivor of the ex-gay live-in ministry Love In Action, announced today that Exodus International president Alan Chambers has failed to act publicly to protect youths in an Exodus member program after Chambers was informed of three confirmed cases of misconduct involving youth in the year preceding June 26, 2006. On June 26, 2006 I initially left voice messages for Alan Chambers of Exodus International and another national ex-gay leader about inappropriate incidents that affected youth at an Exodus member ministry. I will not go...
- [Phoenix “Love Won Out” Billboard Goes Up](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/phoenix-love-wo/): I really love how Focus always says “we hope the protesters will come inside and hear our message” when every Love Won Out conference follows the exact same script in every city it goes to, presenting the same stale old rhetoric and junk science. I don’t need to come inside to hear the message, I podcast every Focus broadcast and read documents put out by Exodus on an almost daily basis. And just like the message, I know the schedule now and it’s always the same. It’s t-minus one month till Love Won Out Phoenix and that means it’s time for...
- [Ex-Gay Featured in Video No Longer Part of Ex-Gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/ex-gay-featured/): In 2004, Dr. Warren Throckmorton produced I Do Exist, a video that profiled five individuals who identified themselves as ex-gay. One of these, Noe Gutierrez, was given particular attention because he had previously been included in a supportive video about gay youth called It’s Elementary. Throckmorton’s video was considered by those with an anti-gay agenda as a refutation of the pro-gay video. There has been some speculation for a while that Gutierrez was no longer a supporter of the ex-gay movement. In a public statement dated January 7, 2007, Noe Gutierrez verifies this and explains his decision to leave the effort....
- [PFOX on ‘Chastity’ And the Alleged Sameness of All Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/pfox-on-chastit/): Good As You comments on an endorsement by antigay relatives’ group PFOX of author Dawn Eden, whose recent book The Thrill of the Chaste discusses a heterosexual woman’s journey away from promiscuity. PFOX distorts the author’s thesis when it conflates promiscuity with same-sex attraction and points to “chastity” as a cure for homosexual persons — as if same-sex-attracted family members who are honest about their orientation were inherently unchaste. Author Eden probably won’t object to this reinterpretation of her book, however: Good As You says Eden has a history of equating same-sex-attracted persons with AIDS and misportraying the science (such as...
- [XGW Blogroll Goes on a Diet](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/xgw-blogroll-go/): When I founded Ex-Gay Watch in 2002, it was a personal experiment — one of the few web sites to document the “ex-gay” political movement’s growing lust for power over others, its financial and logistical support from wealthy and politically influential religious extremists, and the abdication of its former role as a support system for sexual strugglers. At the time, the “blogroll” — a list of unaffiliated web sites that remains located in the right margin of the front page under the heading “What We Read” — linked to my own favorite web sites. A few of those sites were by...
- [For What Purpose Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/for-what-purpos/): Focus on the Family gave a loving interview with Alan Chambers relating to his book God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door. We’ve discussed the book before here, and I don’t wish to linger there. But in the question and answer format, Chambers did make two comments that I believe go to the heart of how Exodus sees it’s purpose for existence. At the suggestion of motivating Focus’ readers to dig deeper in the book, Chambers said I think the biggest motivator is that homosexuality affects everyone. Whether we like it or not, it absolutely goes into every segment of our...
- [Mike Ensley On Gender Fluidity](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/mike-ensley-on/): Mike Ensley is in his mid-twenties, and is listed as the assistant for the Exodus International’s Exodus Youth department. Ensley, like many working for Exodus International, has a habit of writing or talking about things which are outside of his expertise and not providing any references. His latest piece for Exodus Youth Voice, entitled Gender & Sexuality: Fluid Or Solid, follows in this vein. The piece is full of some people say‘s and they say‘s, as well as analogies without any provided basis in fact. Here’s an excerpt: A lot of people say it’s dangerous to pursue counseling to help bring...
- [The Social Implications Of Studying Gay Sheep For A Gay Cure](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/the-social-impl/): If anyone saw the play Twilight of the Golds by Jonathon Tolins, they saw a play about what would happen if parents had an in utero test to determine if a child were gay. In the play, it was just a supposition. A new study puts this choice potentially in the tangible world: …the techniques could one day be adapted for human use, with doctors perhaps being able to offer parents pre-natal tests to determine the likely sexuality of offspring or a hormonal treatment to change the orientation of a child. That excerpt is from an article in Britain’s The Sunday...
- [Wayne Besen Among The Advocate’s 55 People Of The Year](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/wayne-besen-amo/): The headline pretty much says it all, here’s a link to the story.
- [Affected High School’s Student Publication On PFOX Handout](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/01/affected-high-s/): On December 31st, the student newspaper of Blair High School (Montgomery County, MD) posted an article about the PFOX Handout entitled Flier Sparks Controversy. (Previous XGW article: The PFOX Handout.) It’s pretty clear from the Silver Chips Online article that the school’s principal, its GSA group, parents, and students weren’t too pleased about the PFOX flier being passed out to students. Excerpts organized by groups: Principal: [Principal Phillip] Gainous said that he sympathized with the many Blair students who came to complain to him about the flier. “If I had my druthers, [the flier] would not have gone out,” he said....
- [Happy New Year](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/happy-new-year/): Here’s wishing each of you a joyous and safe celebration and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year
- [Not Under My Roof, You Aren’t](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/not-under-my-ro/): Exodus and other ex-gay groups tell parents that they should love their gay children. And their resources are abundant with advice that if you reject your child, you’ll lose your child. And if you never have your children around, you can’t witness to them that “change is possible”. Much of the advice is useful and caring – provided that you come from the position that sexual orientation is fluid and homosexuality is inherently sinful in all circumstances. But with the discussions about love there are also discussions about boundaries and discipline. Minors are to be what their parents desire, even if...
- [Love In Action / Refuge’s Predecessors](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/love-in-action-2-2/): Reason Magazine, a periodical with a strongly libertarian bent, has an article by Maia Szalavitz that discusses the forebears of ex-gay live-in program Love In Action/Refuge. The focus of the article is on teenage drug rehabilitation programs but some of the tactics will sound very familiar to those who monitor the actions of LIA/R. But like the drug war itself, tough love programs are ineffective, based on pseudoscience, and rooted in a brutal ideology that produces more harm than most of the problems they are supposedly aimed at addressing. The history of tough love shows how fear consistently trumps data, selling...
- [Aftermath From Colorado](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/aftermath-from/): Last week the Los Angeles Times presented an article that looked at conservative evangelical churches to see the result that the recent scandals in Colorado have had. No one has proposed rethinking the theology that homosexuality is a sin. Instead, there’s a growing consensus that the church must do a better job of helping pastors resist all immoral desires, such as a lust for pornography, an addiction to drugs or a lifelong same-sex attraction. Seminary professors, Christian counselors and veteran clergy say the best way to help pastors fight temptation is to get them talking — even about their most shameful...
- [Good-Bye, Mr. President](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/good-bye-mr-pre/): In this age of Culture War and extreme partisanship it seems rare to find a politician whose positions are determined by principle rather than party affiliation. The passing of Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States is a gentle reminder of a time when bi-partisan was a practice rather than a campaign claim. Ford was by all accounts a kind and gracious man who placed the healing of a nation above his own political power. And though he made decisions that were not at the time popular – including pardoning President Nixon – in hindsight his choices seem appropriate and...
- [One Punk Update](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/one-punk-update/): In the second episode of Jay Bakker’s serial documentary One Punk Under God, Jay dealt with his growing conviction that gay and lesbian Christians are worthy children of God. Perhaps what made this episode so startling to me is that unlike many gay-supportive churches, Jay’s approach was entirely dependent upon Scripture. If it wasn’t in The Word then he wasn’t going to preach it. Jay did his research and looked beyond the quoting of one or two verses in Romans to see history, culture, context, and he tried to understand what the author was saying and how that related to the...
- [Ex-Gay Ministries And the Episcopal Split](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/ex-gay-ministri-2/): I tend to think of ex-gay ministries as appealing primarily to fundamentalist evangelicals. But there are some “mainline” churches that also are conservative and that readily buy into the anti-gay activism that Exodus and NARTH offer. Two such churches are Truro Church and The Falls Church, two large historic and affluent Episcopal churches in Virginia near the National Capital. The Truro Church supports “healing from homosexuality” and recommends Exodus, Love Won Out, and Exodus’ local affiliate, Regeneration. The Falls Church relies on NARTH as a source for why gay people are not entitled to civil rights. Truro and The Falls are...
- [A Letter To Gay Youth In Crisis Through The Holidays](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/a-letter-to-gay/): To the young people who all too-often desperately stumble upon our website; Like us, you have no desire to attempt to “change” your sexual orientation. I trust you’re enjoying spending time with your family over the holidays and applaud you for coming out over Thanksgiving and opening up a previously unshared part of yourself with them. I’m so glad to hear it went well. Merry Christmas, I’m sorry to hear you returned home to find a rather unpleasant pamphlet in your bedroom. I’m sorry to hear people you thought loved you for all that you have made their true feelings known....
- [Dan’s Annual Church Experience](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/dans-annual-chu/): Merry Christmas everyone. I’m back from my cruise to Mexico last week and now I’m at my parents’ place in Ventura for Christmas. I had the unpleasant obligation of attending church this morning where I was again reminded of one of the reasons for the loss of my faith. Growing up in the church we are told myriad lies about gay people — that they are unhappy, depraved and godless. It’s common knowledge the most effective way to dispel these lies is to actually meet gay people who are content, happy, fulfilled and people of faith. Despite being a rather moderate...
- [Statements of Conversion: Student ‘Trans’-formed By Christ](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/statements-of-c/): Here on the Ex-Gay Watch I know I frequently point out logical fallacies in logical (or perhaps better said illogical) arguments, and my peers here do the same thing. My peers and I have noted ex-gay and ex-gay affirming organizations — such as NARTH and Exodus International — often use Statements Of Conversion to make their points, vice referencing statistically sound research or widely recognized subject matter experts. Backing up a little, a Statement Of Conversion is where a person asserts that he or she used to believe one way, but now has a rejected that previous belief, and now because...
- [FOTF On Dobson’s Time Article: “None Of Their Charges Are Sticking”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/fotf-on-dobsons/): Michelle Goldberg, famous for her work at salon.com work and her book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism said the following in the interview article The Growing Threat of Right-Wing Christians: One of the first pieces I did on the Christian right was on the ex-gay movement. What struck me going to the Exodus Conference was that it takes place in this whole entire parallel universe. They have their own psychologists, psychological institutions and their own version of professional medical literature. The amount of books, magazines and media, and the way it almost duplicated everything that we have in our...
- [Third Researcher Tells Dobson to Quit Misquoting Her](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/third-researche/): Writer Angela Phillips believes, and I agree, that the high incidence of homosexuality occurring in Western nations is related, at least in part, to the absence of positive male influence when boys are moving through the first crisis of child development. Or so Dr. Dobson claims in an article titled How Boys Learn to be Men. The problem is that Angela Phillips does NOT believe that at all. Per her letter on Wayne Besen’s site, I do not suggest that lack of positive male role models leads to homosexuality (or indeed that it would be problematic if it did). and My...
- [Truth Wins Out: James Dobson Rebuked By Researcher On Video](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/truth-wins-out-2-2/): Related XGW article: Dr. Dobson’s Abusive and Factually Untrue “Truth”. Related Truth Wins Out Press Release: James Dobson Rebuked On Video For Distorting Research Of NYU Professor Carol Gilligan. — H/t: Wayne Besen / Truth Wins Out ******Update******
- [Blocking LGBT Websites On Public School Computers](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/blocking-lgbt-w/): One of the things that has become a boon for the transgender community was the coming of the internet. I’ve no empirical data to back up that belief, but the reality that my transgender peers and I can go online and find out about transgender people and issues has allowed community building. Previously, the relatively small number of out transpeople, and lack of interconnectivity between geographically separated transcommunities made it difficult for transpeople to learn of each others’ existence. Not only has the internet provided means for transpeople to interconnect, it’s also provided transpeople access to accurate information regarding transgender issues...
- [Circumcision And AIDS](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/circumcision-an/): Apostle Paul once famously said Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. This, along with other passages, separated the ancient link between morality and circumcision. Though there could still be made arguments either for or against the practice, those arguments now stood – for Christians – in a moral vacuum. An interesting discovery was reported this week which I believe challenges one of the anti-gay movement’s weapons in the arsenal they employ in attacking gay freedoms. Although ex-gay ministries rely heavily on religious doctrine in...
- [Dr. Dobson’s Abusive And Factually Untrue “Truth”](https://exgaywatch.com/2006/12/dr-dobsons-abus/): I remember an incident from my teenage years: I was at a church youth camp where an uncle of mine, a respected foreign missionary, was a keynote speaker. My uncle was playing basketball with some of the young men and the game became quite competitive. At one point, my uncle fouled another player. I, who knew little about basketball, could see this clearly. And it was plain that the other players shared this observation. But not my uncle. He said, “That wasn’t a foul”. And though their faces betrayed their incredulity, the other players didn’t argue. Because he was an authority...
- [Born Gay? Ex-Gay Leader Offers CNN An Elliptical Response](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/born-gay-ex-gay-leader-offers-cnn-an-elliptical-response/): Inspired by an LA Times article about an upcoming professional convention that will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of ex-gay “therapies,” CNN’s Situation Room aired an interview this afternoon with Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, and Jack Drescher, distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Correspondent Mary Snow inaccurately states that “Exodus International president Alan Chambers says he has overcome his attraction to men,” while Chambers repeats something that he has said before, albeit not often enough nor among the audiences that most need to hear it: that so-called “change” is not instantaneous.
- [Sign Up for The Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/sign-up-for-the-ex-gay-survivors-conference/): Time is running short to register for The Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference to be held June 29-July 1, 2007, in Irvine, California. Why hold a conference of former ex-gays? As the conference web site states: Creating a communal space for ex-gay survivors to tell their stories allows us to share what led us into an ex-gay lifestyle and ways we have been able to recover from it. Workshop facilitators and speakers include: Christine Bakke, ex-gay survivor and co-founder of Beyond Ex-Gay Darlene Bogle, former Exodus leader and author of A Christian Lesbian Journey: A Continuation of Long Road to Love Jim Burroway,...
- [Chambers on CNN Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/2492/): Alan Chambers will be appearing on CNN tonight. The Exodus President will be interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room, following an article in today’s LA Times, in which Chambers disavows the “ex-gay” label: It’s too neat, implying a clean break with the past, when he still struggles at times with homosexual temptation. “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete,” Chambers said. The article claims “new ground” in the debate over ex-gay therapy, hailing “new agreement” between ex-gays and their critics. The show airs between 4.00 and 6.00pm EST.
- [Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett Smears Adoptive Families Yet Again](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/ex-gay-stephen-bennett-smears-adoptive-families-yet-again/): Not long ago, the White House issued a picture of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife holding their new grandchild, Samuel David Cheney. Samuel is the child of the Cheney’s daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. As we reported, ex-gay Stephen Bennett was so incensed that the White House would refer to the Cheney’s daughter and her partner as the parents that he issued a press release which stated emphatically that only biological parents were “REAL” parents. [emphasis in original] This prompted a principled rebuke from Exodus president Alan Chambers, the adoptive father of two children, and a less...
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Addresses Concerns Over Radio Spots](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/exodus-president-alan-chambers-addresses-concerns-over-radio-spots/): A few days ago, we reported on radio spots released by Exodus to promote their upcoming Freedom Conference in Irvine, California. These spots implied that one could expect “sudden, radical, compete change” in same-gender attraction. In response, a statement has been placed on the webpage associated with the spots: Exodus International exists to mobilize the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality. As such, we are calling upon the evangelical church to undergo a sudden, radical and complete change in the way it has dealt with the issue of homosexuality in the past. As...
- [Change Of Orientation ‘Sufficiently Documented,’ Says Northern Ireland Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/change-of-orientation-sufficiently-documented-says-northern-ireland-church/): The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland, voted last week in favour of a new policy endorsing ex-gay therapy. The aim of the document was to make the church a more welcoming and understanding place for homosexuals, and Ex-Gay Watch commends some of the more constructive aspects of the policy. For example: ‘Are our children safe?’ ‘It might be infectious’ ‘They will lead our other young people astray!’ ‘They are the cause of AIDS/HIV!’ ‘It’s all about sex, sex, sex!’ There is a great need to dispel such myths about same sex attractions. Children are no...
- [In Brief: Massachusetts Lawmakers Vote Down Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/in-brief-massachusetts-lawmakers-vote-down-anti-gay-marriage-amendment/): Source: Human Rights Campaign WASHINGTON — Today, during a joint session, Massachusetts lawmakers voted 151 to 45 to defeat a measure that would have placed a discriminatory, anti-marriage constitutional amendment before voters on the November 2008 ballot. The proposed amendment threatened to undo the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s historic 2003 decision making the state the first to recognize marriage equality for same-sex couples. This appears to have been a fair vote — no interruptions or parliamentary tricks were allowed and yet the measure was soundly defeated. Is it possible the people of Massachusetts simply believe allowing same-sex marriage is the fair...
- [Whose Right to Self-Determination Is Really In Question?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/whose-right-to-self-determination-is-really-in-question/): PFOX is back, this time speaking in defense of Surgeon General nominee Dr. James Holsinger. According to the group’s press release, “Gay rights groups are attacking Dr. James Hoslinger’s [sic] nomination because his church is inclusive of ex-gays and he supports the right to self-determination regarding one’s sexual attraction.” Alan Chambers has joined PFOX on the bandwagon as well. Although Chambers declared himself neutral on the subject of Holsinger’s nomination (PFOX also stopped short of endorsing him), he, too, resorted to playing the “victim card,” declaring, “As a society, we should not disqualify an individual simply because of his belief that...
- [In Brief: Exodus Releases Anti-Bullying Statement](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/in-brief-exodus-releases-anti-bullying-statement/): We received this today from Alan Chambers, with a promise that it will be placed on their website by tomorrow. Exodus Position Statement on Bullying and Violence “Exodus International affirms that gay-identified individuals and those who struggle with same-sex attraction are persons for whom Jesus Christ died and loves equally. Therefore, we strongly oppose bullying, name calling and acts of aggression against any individual or group of individuals for any reason. These actions have no place in our society and we must, instead, affirm behavior that validates the personal worth and dignity God bestows upon every human being. “In addition, every...
- [Who Da Man — Andrew Sullivan, Wayne Besen, Or XGW?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/who-da-man-andrew-sullivan-wayne-besen-or-xgw/): In a book review written last month, writer Jesse Monteagudo compared two gay activists: famous conservative Andrew Sullivan and not-so-famous liberal Wayne Besen, who is a longtime critic of the exgay movement. Monteagudo asked why Sullivan is famous while Besen is “ghettoized” to alternative media. The major difference between Besen and Sullivan: Besen is a liberal while Sullivan is a gay conservative. In fact, Besen’s unabashed liberalism is probably why he does not have the status of an Andrew Sullivan, whose “conservative soul” makes him more acceptable to the mainstream, corporate media. I agree that Besen is disadvantaged, but I disagree...
- [‘Mainstream’ UK Ministries Invite NARTH’s Nicolosi to Speak](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/mainstream-uk-ministries-invite-nicolosi-to-speak/): Ex-gay therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi will be speaking in London, England, later this month, in an event sponsored by Anglican Mainstream, CARE and Living Waters UK. Interestingly, the former two conspicuously describe themselves as “mainstream“, when the decision to give a platform to the increasingly discredited Nicolosi is anything but mainstream. Even a group as conservative as Focus on the Family appears to be distancing itself from Nicolosi. One wonders whether the organizers are aware of just how extreme Nicolosi’s message is. While the conference brochure tactfully uses the phrase “possibility of change” four times, for Nicolosi, it is more than...
- [Open Forum: Enrique Iglesias Shows Gay Fan He’s Class Act](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/open-forum-enrique-iglesias-shows-gay-fan-hes-class-act/): [myspace]https://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2034375544[/myspace] I noticed this posted at Box Turtle Bulletin and thought Jim wouldn’t mind if I shared it as an open forum post. During an appearance at G-A-Y, a famous gay nightclub in London, Enrique Iglesias serenaded a gay male fan during the performance of his popular song Hero. This is a customary thing for Enrique to do, though the fan is usually a young girl. As you can see in the video above, this young man went home beaming. What a sweet thing to do.
- [Recommended Reading: Confessions of An Ex-Ex-Transgender](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/recommended-reading-confessions-of-an-ex-ex-transgender/): It’s not very often I just recommend a piece for reading without much commentary on my part, but comments on recent Ex-Gay Watch posts have indicated that many are unfamiliar with the ex-transgender component of the ex-gay movement. This recommended reading post is a personal story piece by Marti Abernathey that explains how she used to be ex-transgender, and now understands herself to be ex-ex-transgender – or as Marti says, “In the end I’m not really ex-ex- anything. I’m me.” The Washington Blade picked it up for their BlogWatch for June 5th, so as one might guess Ms. Abernathey’s piece is...
- [Exodus Fails to Document ‘Sudden, Radical, Complete Change’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/exodus-fails-to-document-sudden-radical-complete-change/): Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization and increasingly active anti-gay rights lobby, is now making a rather bold claim. Without any explanation, support or fanfare, they have released two radio spots as part of a media campaign to promote their upcoming Freedom Conference in Irvine, California. Revolution – a sudden, radical, complete change – through Christ – freedom is possible for those who struggle with same-gender attraction…” Both audio clips use the same script with different background music to fit the various radio programming formats. The page contains no information or support concerning the claim, and as far as one can...
- [Former Exodus Missionary Speaks Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/former-exodus-missionary-speaks-out/): Jose Luis Maccarone lived as an ex-gay for over 10 years. Peterson Toscano met him during his stay at Love in Action, an ex-gay residential program in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2000 Jose Luis moved from his home in Argentina to Madrid to serve as Exodus Interational’s first missionary. After a few years, he left Exodus and came out gay. Peterson recently traveled to Madrid to meet with Jose Luis. In a series of YouTube videos, Peterson talked to Jose Luis about his experiences with the the ex-gay movement. It’s an enlightening and moving testimony. Jose Luis shares some of the reasons...
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Responds to Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett’s Smear of Adoptive Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/exodus-president-alan-chambers-responds-to-ex-gay-stephen-bennetts-smear-of-adoptive-families/): Self-proclaimed ex-gay Stephen Bennett has a habit of issuing questionable statements, apparently to gain news coverage. As he fades from his minor moment in the spotlight – even mainstream ex-gay organizations don’t seem to care for him – he makes more and more disturbing claims to draw attention to whatever ministry he is promoting at any given time. Bennett’s offerings are often for fee only, which is described as a tax deductible donation. This time Bennett is upset over a picture issued by the White House of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife holding their new grandchild, Samuel David Cheney....
- [Screened Out: Gay Images In Film](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/screened-out-gay-images-in-film/): If you enjoyed the Celluloid Closet, you might want to set your Tivo for this. On Monday and Wednesday evenings, for the month of June (starting tonight), Turner Classic Movies is featuring films from 1912 to 1969 which contain gay themes – 44 in all. I find these peeks into gay history fascinating, especially the obvious changes brought about by the Production Code in 1934. Before that, one could detect what appeared to be a distinct glimmer of acknowledgment, almost acceptance even, of the characters in what were mostly plot tangents. Something happened after that and what managed to pass the...
- [Perfect Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/perfect-love/): Every time I recount the story of how I transitioned from a place of unquestioning acceptance of ex-gay ideology into the journey that I find myself on today, it comes out a bit differently as I focus on different aspects of what was, at the time, a far more complex process than a few pages of text could ever fully capture. If there’s one pivotal event that I hope I adequately account for in every retelling, it’s how I came to truly understand, for the first time, that God loves me exactly the way I am, and that I don’t have...
- [EHarmony Sued for Excluding Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/eharmony-sued-for-excluding-gays/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxOhG2nDOA eHarmony advertises that they want to “move beyond traditional online dating.” For some reason, that phrase strikes me as a bit ironic. It doesn’t get much more “traditional” than the process one goes through at eHarmony. However, if you’re gay you can forget about it. Linda Carlson is suing the relationship site for discrimination. Her lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court based on the fact that she was denied access because she is gay. Carlson’s lawyers believe the suit to be the first of it’s kind against the internet’s largest dating site of 12 million members. The company...
- [Positive Portrayals of Transgender People Seen As Promoting Sin](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/positive-portrayals-of-transgender-people-seen-as-promoting-sin/): Federal legislation on expanding hate crimes to include violent attacks against individuals on the basis of “gender, sexual orientation and gender identity” is currently being reviewed by the Senate. Christians have strongly voiced opposition to the expansion, arguing that the bill could silence believers who view homosexuality as sinful. That also applies to the transgender.–Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Staff Writer Lillian Kwon recently wrote an article for the Christian Post entitled Media Bias on Transgenders Raising Concerns. The concern, expressed by Dr. Robert Gagnon, Peter LaBarbera and Kwon, is that there are portrayals in the first place, and that these portrayals...
- [XGW Website Improvements And Added Features](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/xgw-website-improvements-and-added-features/): We’ve added a few features you may want to know about. If you have any other suggestions or requests, please email us at editor@exgaywatch.com. Scripture references in comments and posts will now automatically be hotlinked to the referenced text at BibleGateway.com (NIV default but many available). The comment editor window now has formatting buttons for easy blockquotes, bold, links, etc. Just highlight the text to format and click the button. Comments may now be edited by the commenter for up to 5 minutes after submission. This should give you time to catch any missed errors and correct them, avoiding the need...
- [AAPA Votes to Oppose Attempts to ‘Cure’ Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/aapa-votes-to-oppose-attempts-to-cure-homosexuality/): The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) issued a press release today announcing the results of Monday’s vote on a variety of issues. Among these is the matter of conversion therapies, where they voted the following: The American Academy of Physician Assistants opposes any psychiatric treatment directed specifically at changing sexual orientation, such as “conversion” or “reparative” therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her sexual orientation. With this decision, the AAPA joins a large number of prestigious professional organizations in...
- [Wrapping It Up: What I’ve Learned-Part III](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/wrapping-it-up-what-ive-learned-part-iii/): My experience with ex-gays, ex-gay ministry, and vicariously, with reparative therapy, changed me because it was a learning experience. I’ve always been honest about the fact that change is a relative term with decidedly religious overtones. Furthermore, while I hesitate to say that changing orientation is not possible for some, I am willing to say that I believe it to be highly improbable. While I described some bizarre practices in Part II, there were some positives derived from the ex-gay therapy experience. Our couples sessions were always quite helpful to us. We learned many great strategies for communicating, and we grew...
- [Exodus VP Randy Thomas Upset Over ‘Alleged’ Life](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/exodus-vp-randy-thomas-upset-over-alleged-life/): On his personal blog, Exodus Executive Vice President Randy Thomas recently complained about an interview with a Florida newspaper. He took issue with the interviewer’s use of the word “alleged” to describe what he reported as a change in his sexual orientation: You say that you left behind homosexuality fifteen years ago and three years into it you had this alleged sexual orientation shift away from men and sexually attracted to women? To this Mr. Thomas responded: I said that there was nothing “alleged” about the sexual orientation shift. It is my sexual orientation and it changed. There is nothing “alleged”...
- [Zucker And Bradley](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/zucker-and-bradley/): Researchers Kenneth J. Zucker and Susan J. Bradley are names that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become “straight” at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist’s office — but almost no one knows who Zucker and Bradley are. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH) quotes Zucker and Bradley often in defense of treating children diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) — described as a “pre-homosexual condition” by Joseph Nicolosi in his book A Parents Guide To Preventing Homosexuality. (Update – See Further Reading‘s GID Reform Advocates: DSM-IV-TR: Gender...
- [Major Geneticist Francis Collins Responds to NARTH Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/major-geneticist-francis-collins-responds-to-narth-article/): Francis Collins is a respected geneticist most recognized for his leadership of the Human Genome Project. He has championed the free, open access of genomic information to the worldwide scientific community so that as many minds as possible can work on solving the connections between genes and disease. He envisions a world where disease can be prevented and citizens of even the least developed nations can benefit from that work. Dr. Collins recently published a book, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” As a man of faith, he rejects Creationism and Intelligent Design, but instead sees evidence...
- [New Book Puts a Focus on Antigay Activist Robert Knight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/new-book-puts-a-focus-on-antigay-activist-robert-knight/): Activist Alvin McEwen has published an excerpt from his upcoming book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry. In the excerpt, McEwen recalls an encounter with Robert Knight, director of the antigay office at the social-conservative Media Research Center.
- [‘Save Me’: New York LGBT Film Festival Closer Has Ex-Gay Theme](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/save-me-new-york-lgbt-film-festival-closer-has-ex-gay-theme/): At the 2007 NewFest: The 19th Annual New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, the closing film will be the New York City premiere of Robert Cary’s drama Save Me, which stars Chad Allen, Robert Gant, and Judith Light. The film centers a confused, gay addict who turns to an ex-gay ministry to be cured, but finds himself drawn to another man.
- [Commentator Glenn Beck Learns Not to Cross the Dobson](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/commentator-glen-beck-learns-not-to-cross-the-dobson/): Source: CitizenLink.com Nationally syndicated radio host Glenn Beck shared with his listeners today an allegation published in USA Today that Dr. James Dobson had said former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson not Christian enough to be president. CNN and other national media outlets also have carried the report. Within the hour, the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action was a guest on Beck’s show, debunking the spin of the mainstream media. “You know very well you can’t believe what you read in the media, especially about evangelicals,” he told Beck. “That was spun by the media. I’m getting sick...
- [Why Is Change Necessary And At What Cost?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/why-is-change-necessary-and-at-what-cost/): Source: Peterson Toscano In a recent post on his blog, Peterson Toscano’s A Musing, Peterson asks these important questions. As has been noted before, often those with stories of change describe a past which many of us would find frightening. When looking at most Exodus testimonies, we hear stories of people who lived as sexually addicted, miserable, lonely, faithless, confused people (who also overindulged in drug and alcohol abuse, illegal activities and unprotected sex). They found Jesus and the church, and they changed their lives. They became celibate, began to develop healthy relationships, changed their lifestyle–not to a straight one, but...
- [Shawn O’Donnell: My Ex-Gay Group Cruised the Mall](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/shawn-odonnell-my-ex-gay-group-cruised-the-mall/): Speaking of his four years attending New Hope Ministry, and Exodus International member ministry, Shawn O’Donnell describes how his group would go down to the mall to ogle guys after church on Sundays. After a while he realized the “therapy” just wasn’t working. Source: Truth Wins Out
- [Sexual Harassment, Civil Rights, And ENDA](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/sexual-harassment-civil-rights-and-enda/): I’ve been the victim of sexual harassment. Near the end of my 20-year, U.S. Navy career, a subordinate of mine decided I was gay and didn’t want me in his Navy – he talked to my last four division officers trying to get an investigation into my alleged homosexuality started on me. My subordinate finally found a sympathetic ear in a new Executive Officer (XO). I got called in front of the XO twice. I’d stayed within the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) rules, but he asked me if I were gay anyway. I wrote up my subordinate and my XO...
- [The Letter of the Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/the-letter-of-the-law/): Read through the materials of just about any Christian organization that speaks out against gay relationships, and you’ll almost certainly find reference to Leviticus 18:22. The wordings of our English translations of the verse appear very clear, and at face value lend weight to those groups’ political crusade against gay rights. One can, after all, hardly speak positively about anything that God called an “abomination.” Of course, there are many other “abominations” listed in the Old Testament, shellfish being the most famous example, so conservative theologians have been forced to refine their arguments to explain why some of Moses’ commands are...
- [We Interrupt for a Special Report From James Dobson](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/we-interrupt-for-a-special-report-from-james-dobson/): We don’t discuss politics at XGW and we don’t plan to start now, but one has to take note of such hubris. Today we received this email titled “Special Report” from the Focus on the Family mock news site CitizenLink. It was brightly colored to set it apart from all the others we get from them, even the one announcing Jerry Falwell’s recent passing. Braced for the earth shaking news, I opened it to read the following: Focus on the Family Action Alert: Dr. James Dobson Says Won’t Vote for Giuliani “It is an irrevocable decision.” That was the entire message. ...
- [Jerry Falwell Dies At 73](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/jerry-falwell-dies-at-73/): A major figure in the Religious Right, Jerry Falwell was found unconscious in his office after breakfast this morning and was pronounced dead a few hours later at Lynchburg General Hospital. He had a recent history of heart problems. Founder of the now defunct Moral Majority in the 1980s, Falwell was arguably one of the architects of what is now called the Religious Right in this country. He held a consistent and vocal anti-gay stance and XGW has had occasion to report on his views and actions a number of times over the years. Recently, however, he seemed to change direction...
- [Paul Cameron’s World](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/paul-camerons-world/): Note: This is a cross post from Box Turtle Bulletin. If anyone has paid any attention to gay-rights debates over the past three decades, they would have undoubtedly come across at least a few of Paul Cameron’s many pronouncements. As the head of the tiny Family Research Institute (it appears to consist only of himself, his wife, a daughter, and a son who is also a frequent coauthor), he’s nevertheless made a name for himself by publishing more than three-dozen anti-gay “studies,” mostly in the pay-to-publish vanity journal Psychological Reports. He has also expressed his virulently anti-gay views in several pamphlets...
- [NARTH Concerned About Their Media Image](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/narth-concerned-about-their-media-image/): Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, president of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is concerned that the media isn’t reporting the details of reparative therapy accurately. “During the past month, Montel Williams and Diane Sawyer have run features dealing with reparative therapy, but neither one of them invited a therapist on their shows to explain it,” said Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D. “Both shows actually dealt with faith-based ministries, not reparative therapy–the approach I developed more than two decades ago. If the mainstream media has any interest in accurately reporting on our therapy, they should invite real reparative therapists to...
- [What Does Chuck Colson Know About It?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/what-does-chuck-colson-know-about-it/): Chuck Colson of BreakPoint Ministries has a very colorful history. The first member of the Nixon administration to serve prison time for the Watergate cover-up, he founded Prison Fellowship Ministries barely two years after in 1976. While Colson has gained respect for his work with prisons, there doesn’t appear to be anything in his history that would prepare him to speak authoritatively on LGBT issues. However, this has not stopped him from chiming in on the subject with only bad sources as a guide, spending his conservative capital to propel his message along the way. In a recent radio broadcast (Real...
- [Rev. Gregory Daniels](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/rev-gregory-daniels/): Reprinted with permission from the SPLC: Intelligence  Report Rev. Gregory Daniels By Brentin Mock CHICAGO — The Rev. Gregory Daniels walks into the South Side’s famous Dixie Kitchen restaurant wearing a full-length chocolate mink coat and glass frames the icy blue color of toothpaste gel. He knows why he’s been asked for an interview and immediately delves into the sizzling declaration reported in The New York Times in February 2004: “If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them.” It was quite a statement for a black man. Despite what Daniels now describes as a mere “parable,” the president...
- [Peterson Toscano Asks, ‘What About the Parents?’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/peterson-toscano-asks-what-about-the-parents/): Source: Peterson Toscano’s A Musing No one has perfect parents, and parents and their adult children need to talk about past hurts and family issues, but often without any trained counselors, after only a few days of group therapy, ex-gay program leaders have pushed parents and their sons and daughters into conflict and crisis. The “therapy” sessions have caused a deep rift in the relationships and have wounded the parents. The parents left feeling confused, condemned and brokenhearted. In his recent post, Peterson Toscano discusses the often devastating effects ex-gay programs can have on the parents of the participants. So often...
- [Reparative Therapy II:  You Want Me to Measure My What?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/reparative-therapy-part-2-you-want-me-to-measure-my-what/): When my husband began reparative therapy I was quite anxious. He was “prescribed” weekly individual and group sessions. Initially, it was the idea of group sessions with other same sex attracted men which worried me. At the time, I couldn’t imagine how such connections could benefit him without foiling the goals of the therapy. The goal of the reparative therapy was to lessen my husband’s unwanted same sex attractions and replace those with opposite sex attraction. It was explained to me during my first individual visit with the therapist, that the group sessions provided the guys attending with a safe place...
- [Guest Post: Hate Crimes Legislation And Why Wording Matters](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/guest-post-hate-crimes-legislation-and-why-wording-matters/): College Jay considers himself a “Side B” Christian, as defined by the folks at GCN. In short, those who view their same-sex attractions as a temptation, and strive to live celibate lives. Side Bs are not in competition for which view is right, but are simply living their lives as they see fit, recognizing other’s freedom to do the same. This is offered as background, not a point of debate. His guest post below on the deceptive tactics of many who are working to defeat HR 1592 is refreshingly honest and well worth the read. My personal blog, “Adventures of a...
- [Make Plans Now for the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/05/make-plans-now-for-the-ex-gay-survivors-conference/): Source: eMediaWire Austin, TX (PRWEB) May 2, 2007 — This summer, on June 29-July 1, former ex-gays and their allies will have an unprecedented opportunity to meet, share resources, and add their voices to a growing social movement. The Ex-gay Survivor’s Conference, which will take place on the University of California’s Irvine campus, is co-sponsored by Soulforce, beyondexgay.com, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center at the University of California, Irvine. Recent events have brought national attention to the existence of programs intended to modify same-sex desires, which continue to multiply in spite of the consensus of the...
- [NARTH Web Site Promotes Discredited ‘Research’ of Paul Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/narth-web-site-promotes-discredited-research-of-paul-cameron/): Last week, we saw that Exodus was still promoting Paul Cameron’s junk science. Even though this wasn’t the first time an Ex-Gay Watch author raised this issue, last week’s post prompt some remarkably swift corrective actions from Exodus president Alan Chambers. In a commendable act of transparency, Exodus’s FAQ on life expectancy was replaced with this statement: “This article has been removed due to the inaccuracies surrounding the research of Paul Cameron.” Now it’s time to turn our attention to NARTH. A quick search of NARTH’s web site reveals that they have been just as willing to promote Cameron’s so-called “research.”...
- [What I’ve Learned From Ex-Gay Therapy/Ministry: Part One](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/what-ive-learned-from-ex-gay-therapyministry-part-one/): I’ve been encouraged to share personal narratives about what I’ve learned from ex-gay therapy/ministry. While I’ve never experienced being ex-gay personally, my unique perspective affords me a great deal of “inside” anecdotal information that could be valuable to folks on any side of the issues surrounding ex-gay therapy/ministry. I hope that folks who read XGW will take this series as an opportunity to better understand the language and position of those in the ex-gay movement. I understand (not fully, of course) how offensive the very idea of ex-gay therapy/ministry is to so many of you who may read this. And yet,...
- [Exeter International Offers to Make the Gay Go Away](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/exeter-international-offers-to-make-the-gay-go-away/): Source: thisjustin.com If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be priceless. If only the damaged lives were equally humorous. Here’s to a future where ex-gay organizations stop hawking cures, making empty promises and lobbying Congress, and actually help those who feel their faith is incongruous with their sexual orientation while respecting those who don’t. Then maybe a video like this wouldn’t seem so real.
- [Exodus Web Site Promotes Discredited ‘Research’ of Paul Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/exodus-web-site-promotes-discredited-research-of-paul-cameron/): Updated: Exodus President Alan Chambers responds. Amid recent warnings about the integrity of data used by antigay activists, Exodus International continues to air the distorted statistics and false health claims of antigay activists Paul and Kirk Cameron — laundered through third parties. On its recently redesigned web site, Exodus continues to host at least four articles, written by two longtime Exodus activists, that rely upon Cameron’s false claims about the health and longevity of same-sex-attracted persons. The Exodus FAQ “Is there a connection between life expectancy and homosexuality?,” written by Exodus blogger and member-activist Nancy Brown, is blatant in its re-use...
- [Stephen Bennett And Mission America Link to Racist Materials](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/stephen-bennett-and-mission-america-link-to-racist-materials/): Subject: Brainwashing children about homosexuality: YouTube The homosexual brainwashing of kids in schools… If you haven’t already seen these, get ready. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mil2ohzJ6gs&NR=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spz5yN5I2wU&NR=1 That was the juicy little email sent out by Mission America this evening, a conservative Christian political outfit operated by Linda Harvey of Columbus, OH. Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett sent one out to his members as well. On the other end is what appears to be pirated video from the 8 year old documentary It’s Elementary, along with hardcore racist and Nazi propaganda. The video in the links above is of a sample classroom where teachers speak intelligently...
- [Drs. Warren Throckmorton, Morten Frisch Respond to Paul And Kirk Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/drs-warren-throckmorton-morten-frisch-respond-to-paul-and-kirk-cameron/): Since criticizing Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron’s “Scandinavian Gay Lifespan” study, Dr. Warren Throckmorton has participated in an email exchange over his comments, first with Paul Cameron and then his son, Kirk. That study, you may remember, was presented in a poster session at the Eastern Psychological Association’s convention in Philadelphia last March. Cameron’s subsequent press releases quickly drew a sharp condemnation in an official statement from the EPA’s president, Dr. Phil Hineline. Dr. Warren Throckmorton has remained on the case. He contacted Danish epidemiologist Dr. Morten Frisch, who responded with a strong rebuke of the Camerons’ methods and conclusion two...
- [Book Review: ‘Sex And the Single Savior’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/book-review-sex-and-the-single-savior/): For those wrestling with the question of what a Christian position on the issue of homosexuality should look like, Dale Martin’s new book Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation could be a valuable resource. Unlike most who have written books on this subject, Martin (Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University) focuses much of his attention on how we interpret the Bible. As he likes to point out, the Bible, being an inanimate object, doesn’t say anything; it’s the reader that brings meaning to the text based on his or her experiences, preconceptions and cultural baggage....
- [Former Ex-Gay to Appear on ‘Good Morning America’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/former-ex-gay-to-appear-on-good-morning-america/): Christine Bakke, co-founder of Beyond Exgay and recently featured in Glamour Magazine, is scheduled to appear live on ABC-TV’s Good Morning America. Good Morning America airs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. EDT. Hat tip: Peterson Toscano Update: For those who missed it, you can view the segment here. (Thanks Steve)
- [Open Forum: (B.S.O.D.) Blue Screen of Death](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/open-forum-blue-screen-of-death/): Open Forums are where authors and commenters can talk about anything. Nothing is off-topic, but standard rules of civility and decorum still apply. Twice every day, my Windows Vista for Business computer suffers a Blue Screen of Death. It’s a pretty blue, full of bits of fascinating knowledge about my PC that I never knew existed. But the B.S.O.D. wipes out whatever I had been working on. And now I have discovered the problem. It happens because I shout profanities such as #!@$*{@! at my computer. The computer senses my sin and executes immediate punishment. I kinda like that. My computer has acted...
- [Former Exodus Leader to Speak At Gay Christian Retreat](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/former-exodus-leader-now-ex-ex-gay-to-speak/): Ann Phillips, who is a former Exodus local group leader and former women’s program director at the Exodus flagship live-in program Love In Action, will speak at the gay-friendly Evangelicals Concerned women’s retreat July 25-27, 2007 in Orange, Calif. For 10 years, Phillips spoke and led workshops on behalf of the ex-gay movement, claiming to teach the causes of homosexuality and offering claims of change. However, after ten years of having “all the answers,” Ann realized that God had not placed a period at the end of her now well-known testimony nor her life. Thus, she began the journey of trying to live...
- [Change Is Possible — for Exodus Exiles](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/change-is-possible-for-exodus-exiles/): The national leadership of ex-gay umbrella network Exodus International promises and fails to deliver heterosexual attraction to its Christian followers, even as it uses those followers in various campaigns of antigay political warfare. While Exodus’ national leaders focus on partisan politics and misdiagnosis of sexual struggle, other organizations focus more on helping same-sex-attracted persons live according to their Christian values. One such organization: GayChristian.net, a support group for celibate same-sex-attracted Christians as well as for Christians who believe that God calls them to monogamous same-sex marriage. From GCN’s frequently asked questions: Are you sexually abstinent? Not all gay Christians have the...
- [Exodus’ Alan Chambers Joins Repent America’s Paranoia](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/exodus-alan-chambers-joins-repent-americas-paranoia/): Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International said: In Philadelphia, eleven Christians were jailed for sharing a message from the Bible to a crowd of people attending a public pro-gay event. Was this “sharing a message from the Bible” Alan? Or was it an attempt to disrupt a licensed, lawful event until someone was arrested and a spectacle could be made? For the record, this is the incident described here by the two “grandmothers” from Repent America. Watch their video and compare it to the actual record above and see if you detect any dishonesty in their depiction of events. A video...
- [Nicolosi Is a No-Show At Omaha “Love Won Out” Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/nicolosi-is-a-no-show-at-omaha-love-won-out-conference/): Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, head of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) did not appear in his scheduled time slot at LWO Saturday. Joe Dallas, author of The Gay Gospel?: How Pro-Gay Advocates Misread the Bible, spoke in his place. Nicolosi recently appeared in a CNN Anderson Cooper 360 segment which featured the Phoenix LWO conference. As reported here, his comments and demeanor were not exactly flattering. Could Focus on the Family be reconsidering their longstanding alliance with the causation and cure obsessed Nicolosi? In the following clip from the same CNN special, Nicolosi remarks glibly on...
- [Another “Love Won Out” Billboard Unwelcome](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/another-love-won-out-billboard-unwelcome/): Before every Love Won Out conference, Focus on the Family leases billboard space in the area where it will be held. Before the last conference, one company refused to lease space to them citing the contents did not “meet their community’s standards for appropriateness or the copy is deemed offensive towards any business, group or individual.” FOTF then announced that they would contact their lawyers even though the billboard company, Clear Channel, did not appear to be under any legal obligation to accept their business. Last Wednesday, FOTF issued a press release that claimed another company had denied their business for...
- [“We Can Overcome Our Genetics”: Alan Chambers & the Semantic Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/we-can-overcome-our-genetics-alan-chambers-the-semantic-problem/): Following Al Mohler’s controversial article Is Your Baby Gay? last month, evangelical monthly Christianity Today enters the gay gene debate with Re-engineering Temptation. Of interest to XGW are the comments by Alan Chambers of Exodus: This conversation puzzles Alan Chambers, president of the ex-gay group Exodus International. Christian leaders aren’t pushing for a medical answer to alcoholism or pornography, he noted. Instead of looking to science, Chambers said, Christians should study the struggles of reformed homosexuals. “People like me who struggled with it and found freedom are more than sufficient proof that we can overcome our genetics,” he said. “Science will...
- [Latest Cameron Study “Severely Methodologically Flawed”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/latest-cameron-study-severely-methodologically-flawed/): Source: wthrockmorton.com In an attempt to further evaluate the problems with Paul Cameron’s latest study, Dr. Warren Throckmorton asked Morten Frisch, Danish epidemiologist, to review the Cameron’s paper. Among other things, Frisch had this to say: Cameron and Cameron’s report on “life expectancy” in homosexuals vs heterosexuals is severely methodologically flawed. It is no wonder why this pseudo-scientific report claiming a drastically shorter life expectancy in homosexuals compared with heterosexuals has been published on the internet without preceding scientific peer-review (https://www.earnedmedia.org/frireport.htm). The authors should know, and as PhD’s they presumably do, that this report has little to do with science. It...
- [What Is a Christian?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/what-is-a-christian/): Can a person be both gay and Christian? It’s an important question that has only begun receiving serious attention over the last couple of decades. Many evangelical Christians would respond with a flat “no” and refuse to engage the question further. Exodus International’s answer is a bit more nuanced, but the strong implication one nonetheless gets from most ex-gay publications is that individuals who accept a “gay identity” (even the celibate, sometimes) are just kidding themselves if they think they’ll one day join the chosen few in paradise. So what, then, is a Christian? Many evangelicals would respond that it involves...
- [Dr. Nicolosi Getting in Touch with His Inner (Spoiled) Child](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/dr-nicolosi-getting-in-touch-with-his-inner-spoiled-child/): For those who didn’t get to see the CNN special last week, here is what can only be described as a minor temper tantrum from the longtime head of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH). Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, who has often described gay people as fundamentally narcissistic, appears to earn such a diagnosis for himself. Transcript TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joseph Nicolosi often accuses the media of distorting his research. He was reluctant to speak with us. (on camera): We were hoping we can talk to you when it’s over. NICOLOSI: Yes. OK. Well, I don’t think so....
- [Eastern Psychological Association’s Statement on Paul Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/eastern-psychological-associations-statement-on-paul-cameron/): This is a quick follow-up to my earlier post on Paul Cameron’s “Scandinavian Gay Lifespan” study. Cameron purportedly presented the paper at a recent convention of the Eastern Psychological Association. Just this morning, Phil Hineline, president of the Eastern Psychological Association sent me an email in response to an inquiry I made last week. It includes a statement which disassociates the EPA from Cameron’s claims and challenges Cameron’s description of his presentation. You can read the statement in its entirety here.
- [Ex-Gay John Paulk Undergoes Personal Makeover](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/ex-gay-john-paulk-undergoes-personal-makeover/): Before After Ex-Gay Watch congratulates John Paulk on his new look, which we trust matches his good cooking. We don’t know whether he learned to project long-haired, diet-conscious, post-metrosexual masculinity from Kyan and Carson or from Ex-Gay Eye for the Christian Guy, but however it happened, he looks fabulous, and healthier than ever. More pictures of Paulk, cooking colleagues and family are in color here. Best wishes to John and his family from the folks at XGW.
- [Christine Bakke: “They Tried to Cure Me of Being Gay”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/they-tried-to-cure-me-of-being-gay-article-in-glamour-magazine/): Christine Bakke, of Rising Up Whole and Beyond Ex-Gay, has been featured in an article in Glamour magazine. I first “met” Christine when she emailed me about a year ago. She’d just discovered that I live in the same Texas town where her sister lived at the time, and Christine thought I might be able to help her sister process what was going on in the crazy journey from gay, to ex-gay, to ex-ex-gay. I happily obliged and was blown away by the incredible LOVE I felt emanating from the sisters. It’s a good article. Christine is not bashing ex-gays, and...
- [Exodus No Longer a Member of PATH](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/exodus-no-longer-a-member-of-path/): Source: wthrockmorton.com According to an email reproduced on Warren Throckmorton’s blog, Exodus has dropped it’s membership in PATH, a coalition of ex-gay organizations, effective today. Just recently, Exodus president Alan Chambers was asked by longtime XGW commenter grantdale if he might consider taking Exodus out of PATH. At that time, Chambers had just announced his resignation from the board of PFOX, at least in part due to their continuing association with the unlicensed, self described “psychotherapist and educator,” Richard Cohen. According to his web site, Cohen co-founded PATH and remains a member. Exodus is not the only ex-gay organization to disassociate...
- [A Video Examination of the “Day of Truth”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/a-video-examination-of-the-day-of-truth/): [googlevideo]https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3501440730972344004 [/googlevideo]YouTube Link In response to GLSEN’s “Day of Silence” where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth remain silent to protest the silencing effect discrimination and harassment has on LGBT youth, the far right Alliance Defense Fund created a “Day of Truth” one day after the pro-gay “Day of Silence.” This video, written and narrated by former XGW author Daniel Gonzales and released by Truth Wins Out, examines the real motives behind the Day of Truth and the organizations surrounding its promotion. Source: Truth Wins Out
- [Paul Cameron’s “Scandinavian Gay Lifespan” Study Debunked](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/paul-camerons-scandinavian-gay-lifespan-study-debunked/): In 1993, Paul Cameron, of the Family Research Institute, began touting a paper he said he presented at the Eastern Psychological Association entitled, “The lifespan of homosexuals.” In this study, he drew on obituaries placed in gay newspapers around the country to claim that the average lifespan for gay men was a mere 42 years. For lesbians, the average was 44. While that study was roundly criticized for its ridiculous methodology, those statistics have persisted among some anti-gay activists. Well, Cameron’s at it again. Returning to the scene of the original crime, he’s hijacked the Eastern Psychological Association’s reputation once again,...
- [Offend One Audience, Woo Another: Former Lesbian Magazine Gets A Boost From Religious Rightists](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/offend-one-audience-woo-another-former-lesbian-magazine-gets-a-boost-from-religious-rightists/): When she turned the Atlanta-area black gay and lesbian magazine Venus into an ex-gay publication, Charlene Cothran offended loyal subscribers and advertisers with antigay and antiwhite rhetoric that was written with the help of spiritual mentor, Venus blog editor, and ex-gay activist D.L. Foster. Late last month, Venus got a boost — from an ex-gay contributor to Christianity Today and from an antigay activist in Illinois. Antigay activist Peter LaBarbera, whose ties to the Constitution Party have raised alarm at Ex-Gay Watch in the past, printed a promotion for Venus magazine to his national religious-right readership. LaBarbera’s promotion is uncharacteristically free...
- [University Provost Fired, Rehired Amid Dispute Over Origins of Sexual Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/university-provost-fired-rehired-amid-dispute-over-origins-of-sexual-orientation/): From Bill Berkowitz of Talk To Action: Within the space of 48 hours, Ave Maria University Provost JosephFessio was fired and then rehired. Ave Maria University was founded recently by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan. Details of the original firing are still murky. At first it appeared that Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press in San Francisco (the primary English-language publisher of Pope Benedict XVI) and the University of San Francisco’s Ignatius Institute, wasn’t up to the task of enrolling enough students or raising the necessary money for building the first new Catholic university in the U.S. in 40 years. Then, it...
- [Ex-Gay Purge At NARTH, PFOX Compared to Stalinist Era](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/ex-gay-purge-at-narth-pfox-compared-to-stalinist-era/): Writing for Bay Area Reporter about the purge of ex-gay leader Richard Cohen from the web sites of NARTH and PFOX, Bob Roehr says: Some articles were removed entirely, while others were selectively edited to remove references to Cohen. The tactics are reminiscent of a purge by the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, where former allies were made enemies and liquidated, even to the point of retouching photographs to remove them. On a previous occasion when NARTH first defended and then silently purged its site of racist content, Ex-Gay Watch stated that accountability and transparency are minimum requirements for an organization that...
- [Previously Unreleased Spitzer Video Gives Candid Results](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/previously-unreleased-spitzer-video-gives-candid-results/): Source: wthrockmorton.com This is a well hashed subject but sexual identity therapist Dr. Warren Throckmorton has just posted some previously unreleased video of an interview he conducted with Dr. Robert Spitzer a few years ago. In this interview, Dr. Spitzer gives his candid views on the meaning and value of his 2003 study on whether or not anyone has ever significantly changed their sexual orientation. Up to that point, success rates as high as 70% had been quoted by no less than Exodus International (see note below) and yet no one had even attempted to justify these figures with scientific study....
- [Dave Rattigan Returns to Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/dave-rattigan-returns-to-ex-gay-watch/): After a hiatus of a few months, I am back on the Ex-Gay Watch team, and looking forward to bringing you a UK perspective on the ex-gay movement. I am a British-Canadian with roots in Vancouver and Liverpool, where I now live and work freelance in various writing, web and arts-related projects. After being “born again” in my teens, I studied at a Pentecostal Bible College and spent a couple years in my native British Columbia as an associate pastor. During that time, I tore myself gradually away from my fundamentalist past. Although I had always known I was gay, truly...
- [CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 to Feature Former Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/cnns-anderson-cooper-360-to-feature-former-ex-gay/): Former ex-gay Shawn O’Donnell will be featured this week on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 as part of a two-part special titled, “What Is A Christian?” Tune to CNN for the specials on April 4 and 5 at 10 p.m. EDT. O’Donnell is scheduled to appear on the April 5 program.
- [Former Ex-Gays on Tyra Banks Show, in L.A., Boston And Glamour Magazine](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/two-former-ex-gays-to-appear-on-tyra-banks-show/): From ex-gay program survivor Peterson Toscano: I went to Los Angeles to be a guest on the Tyra Banks Show. The show will air on Thursday April 12, 2007 and proves to be quite interesting. In the show Tyra (we are now on a first name basis) looks at some places where lesbians and gays are not safe. Appearing with Toscano will be John Smid, Exodus board member and director of the ex-gay live-in program Love In Action, and Steven Fales, gay Mormon father and writer/performer of Confessions of a Mormon Boy. (That web site appears to be offline at the...
- [Ex-Gay Survivor Site Beyondexgay.com Launches Today, Conference Set for June](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/ex-gay-survivor-site-beyondexgaycom-launches-today-conference-set-for-june/): Performance artist Peterson Toscano and fellow blogger Christine Bakke announced today the launch of Beyondexgay.com, a new online community designed to provide support for “survivors” of ex-gay programs. “The ex-gay experience is unique in many ways. No one understands it better than those of us who have been through it. Creating a communal space for ex-gay survivors to tell their stories allows us to share what led us into an ex-gay lifestyle and ways we have been able to recover from it,” Bakke said in a press release issued today by Soulforce. Beyondexgay.com looks to be a valuable resource for those...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Author Daniel Gonzales Takes on New Goals](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/04/ex-gay-watch-author-daniel-gonzolez-takes-on-new-goals/): Almost two years after beginning my work at XGW I’m now leaving in my official capacity. In those two years my work has changed from being a dutiful author to today where I find the majority of my work is spent behind the scenes; collaborating with gay activists, making films, and talking to the media. To be free to do my best work XGW and I agree I need a degree of autonomy not possible if I remained on staff. But don’t fear, I shall continue my film making, continue my public speaking, and I will continue to collaborate with the...
- [NARTH And PFOX Quietly Rid Themselves of Richard Cohen](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/narth-and-pfox-quietly-rid-themselves-of-richard-cohen/): Over the past couple of days, The National Association for the Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH), and Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays (PFOX), have quietly removed all traces of any affirmation of Richard Cohen. PFOX has removed all references to him entirely, while NARTH has left only historical events which included his name – all his articles are gone and his books no longer appear in their online bookstore. Before these completely slide into the void, take a look at what has been removed: PFOX Why Rosie O’Donnell has SSA (cached) This was removed entirely. Gay Children, Straight Parents (cached)...
- [More Ex-Gay Rhetoric in Schools From PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/more-ex-gay-rhetoric-in-schools-from-pfox/): PFOX has been at it again with the distribution of their fliers in schools. This time, the letters were passed out at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. The article in the school newspaper titled, PFOX letter stirs student emotions, details the quickly organized student protest that followed the PFOX letter campaign. “I thought the PFOX letter was very well written and put up a great façade,” GSA president, senior Chloe Richard said. “Most students didn’t understand why [we] were protesting the letter because it was so well written. It was a good fake out, and it really masked the...
- [Ex-Gay Roadshow Says Cultural Warfare = ‘Dialogue’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/ex-gay-roadshow-says-cultural-warfare-dialogue/): The title of a press release issued yesterday by Focus on the Family was cause for joy: “Love Won Out Looking Forward to Dialogue About Homosexuality” That sounds most promising. But the press release makes it clear that no actual dialogue will occur: Colorado Springs, Colo. – Focus on the Family welcomed news today that its April 14 Love Won Out conference at Trinity Church in Omaha will be protested by gay activists, saying it looks forward to adding its voice to a communitywide dialogue on homosexuality. It is perhaps a sad self-reflection of Focus on the Family’s “values” that it considers...
- [Eugene Wagner Joins Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/eugene-wagner-joins-ex-gay-watch/): After a decade of pursuing “change,” Eugene began to notice the holes and inconsistencies in ex-gay philosophy, and after taking Exodus’ advice to “question homosexuality” seriously, came to the conclusion that conservative evangelicals were the ones in error on this issue. For the last year and a half he has critically examined ex-gay claims and other aspects of fundamentalist ideology on his blog, Paradoxy, and he now brings that perspective to the Ex-Gay Watch team. Please join us in welcoming Eugene to XGW as yet another talented writer who, like the rest of us, comes with his own particular point of...
- [Ex-Gay James Parker & the UK Sexual Orientation Regulations](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/ex-gay-james-parker-the-uk-sexual-orientation-regulations/): Perhaps taking his cue from Exodus’s increasing involvement in US politics, British ex-gay James Parker has weighed in on the UK’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations. The SORs are an attempt to apply the same anti-discrimination laws to gays and lesbians that already apply to race and gender because of the Equality Act 2006. Under these rules, a hotel, say, cannot refuse a room to a couple simply because they are gay; businesses and services must be equally open to straights and gays. By the same token, of course, a gay bar cannot refuse service to straight people. After failing a challenge...
- [Karen Booth Decides to Apologize to Mike Jones](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/karen-booth-decides-to-apologize-to-mike-jones/): Karen Booth is the leader of the Exodus member ministry Transforming Congregations who just recently led a charge to force eBay to remove the massage table “where it all happened” from auction. Today she has decided that, though she stands behind that campaign, she wishes to apologize for the way she personally treated Mike Jones in print. I’ve decided that I want to issue a public apology to Mike Jones. (I’ve also contacted him personally as well.) …And I want to be as clear as I can about what I apologize for and why. I am not apologizing for protesting the...
- [No Standards Of Care For SSAD](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/no-standards-of-care-for-ssad/): Whenever I discuss transgender medical or therapeutic treatments here at the Ex-Gay Watch, I always seem to go back to the Harry Benjamin Standards Of Care. Like or hate this document (and the GID diagnosis), what the document does is provide criteria for determining if one has a condition that falls under the document’s purview; it provides a general outline of what medical and psychological treatments are appropriate for transsexuals; and it lists timelines and benchmarks for when particular treatments are considered appropriate. Many medical and mental health conditions have standards of care — evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. There are standards...
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers Resigns From PFOX Board](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/exodus-president-alan-chambers-resigns-from-pfox-board/): We recently discovered that Alan Chambers had joined the board of PFOX late last year. In an email reply, Alan said he did so as he thought he could assist them in making positive changes. One of the conditions of this arrangement was that PFOX remove all ties with Richard Cohen, the unlicensed, self described “psychotherapist and educator,” and director of the International Healing Foundation. Cohen has received notoriety for frequently appearing on TV, sometimes in venues one might find questionable (Howard Stern?) for someone claiming to be able to “heal homosexuality.” To date PFOX remains deeply entrenched in Cohen’s questionable...
- [Randy Thomas on Richard Cohen’s “Spectacle”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/randy-thomas-on-richard-cohens-spectacle/): Who says ex-gays don’t have a sense of humor? Just a warning: the above clip will probably make you laugh even though it is at the expense of the “ex-gay” movement. Randy Thomas, vice president of Exodus International, is rightly embarrassed by Richard Cohen’s appearance on the Daily Show: The guy on the video announces Richard as the foremost expert on “healing the gay” or something like that. Richard is not the foremost of anything except making a spectacle of himself and completely misrepresenting the larger “ex-gay” movement. He is not a part of Exodus and apparently not willing to take...
- [NARTH Demands Right to Edit Wikipedia Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/narth-demands-right-to-edit-wikipedia-article/): The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, NARTH, is upset about changes made to an entry about them in Wikipedia. For those who are not familiar: Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. NARTH is unhappy with what they insist are inaccuracies about them introduced to the article by someone they describe as a “lesbian activist,” Joie de Vivre. NARTH must have...
- [Millions To Defeat Them, Nickels To Serve Them](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/millions-to-defeat-them-nickels-to-serve-them/): Karen Booth is the leader of an Exodus member ministry called Transforming Congregations. She was offended recently when Mike Jones, the man who outed Ted Haggard, placed his massage table for auction on eBay. The proceeds of the auction where promised to Project Angel Heart, an established, reputable charity which provides care for AIDS and cancer patients. In response, Karen Booth placed a request on her ministry website for others to join her in contacting eBay to demand that they remove the auction, calling it “reprehensible”: This item is not only offensive to any person in the eBay community who might...
- [Jim Burroway Joins Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/jim-burroway-joins-ex-gay-watch/): Author Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin has a well deserved reputation for his intelligent, clear style of writing. His thorough research has been invaluable in taking the spin out of many an argument and he expertly illustrates the facts behind some rather muddy issues. Jim has participated behind the scenes at XGW for a number of months but has now decided to do some writing of his own here. In the mean time, he will continue the valuable work at his own site, such as his recent series about the Love Won Out conferences from Focus on the Family. There...
- [Truth Wins Out on The Daily Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/truth-wins-out-on-the-daily-show/): Updated: Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” tonight (March 19) at 11 p.m. Eastern time. Besen appears in a show segment titled “Diagnosis: Mystery” along with sexual reorientation coach and author Richard Cohen. Mr. Cohen is an unlicensed Maryland psychotherapist and advisor to Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, an organization of antigay parents and spouses that was co-founded by the Family Research Council and ex-gay former activist Anthony Falzarano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLtF7baeouw
- [PFOX Webmaster Lobs Verbal Assault At Montel Guests](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/pfox-webmaster-lobs-verbal-assault-at-montel-guests/): In reaction to a video of former ex-gay Peterson Toscano’s appearance last week on the Montel Show, Gabriel Espinosa — webmaster for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays — posted the following comment: User gespin3549: alicia is showing cleavage!!! montel is a stooge of the gay agenda. lance needs a thorough thrashing. he may still be gay afterwards, but at least he’d stop acting like a big baby! Ex-Gay Watch has commented previously on PFOX’s ill-advised choice of webmasters. Hiring choices such as this do not reflect well on the character and good will of PFOX — but by now, it is...
- [What Gays Want From Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/what-gays-want-from-ex-gays/): Over at Warren Throckmorton’s web site, Karen Booth of Transforming Congregations asked: Other than shutting up and going away, what exactly do you want folk involved in the ex-gay movement to say and do? My response (slightly edited): 1. Refrain from marketing treatments where there have been no scientifically rigorous outcome studies to determine either the actual efficacy or harm of “reparative” treatments. In other words, first do no harm. 2. Refrain from excusing and defending discrimination, harassment, unequal punishment for violent hate crimes, and a seemingly endless array of strawman arguments. In other words, love your enemy. Do unto your...
- [PFOX to APA: “Sexual Orientation Is a Matter of Self-affirmation And Public Declaration.”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/pfox-to-apa-sexual-orientation-is-a-matter-of-self-affirmation-and-public-declaration/): In a letter to the American Psychological Association (APA), PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs continues that organizations habit of coopting language from the gay rights struggle for use by ex-gays. The ex-gay movement is a civil rights movement to ensure the inclusion of former homosexuals in all realms of society and to support the ex-gay community’s equal access to schools on the same level as gays currently enjoy. … every day brings new hostile acts against the ex-gay community simply because we dare to exist. Forcefully worded, this letter is a request that the APA “include ex-gays and their allies to...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Bids a Fond Farewell to Timothy Kincaid](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/ex-gay-watch-bids-a-fond-farewell-to-timothy-kincaid/): For the past couple of years XGW has been blessed with the talented writing of Timothy Kincaid. During that time his writing has been recognized by many as both compassionate and sincere. We would like to wish him a successful future as he moves on to other things. He will be missed.
- [NARTH’s Rosik On Trans-Affirmative Public Policies](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/narths-rosik-on-trans-affirmative-public-policies/): The National Association For Research And Therapy Of Homosexuality (NARTH) is again commenting on transgender issues, although their mission, vision, and previous leadership statements have indicated that their focus has “nothing to do with any social issue other than same-sex attraction.” NARTH recently posted an article on their website entitled NYU Students Find Accepting Campus For Transsexuals. In the article, Christopher Rosik, Ph.D. (a member of the NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee) is quoted: While transgendered students are clearly in need of our compassion, I suspect that simply affirming their disjuncted gender identity does them a disservice. A preferable first response would...
- [Peterson Toscano Behind the Scenes on Latest Montel](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/peterson-toscano-behind-the-scenes-on-latest-montel/): fsYsusY1ALQ Update: Here are some clips of what did air. Clip 1 and Clip 2 From Peterson Toscano’s A Musing: One thing that got cut during Montel’s interview of ex-gay survivor Lance Carroll was Montel’s reaction to Lance’s story of being forced by his parents to attend Love in Action/Refuge. Montel stopped Lance, pointed to the American flag folded up behind them, and said something like, “I fought for this country for the right of all Americans, not just straight Americans.” No doubt Montel is opinionated, but as a quirky queer guy seeing that from backstage, I felt affirmed and, well,...
- [The Montel Williams Show - Reminder](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/the-montel-williams-show-reminder/): Just a reminder today’s episode of the Montel Williams Show deals entirely with ex-gays and features Alan Chambers, Peterson Toscano, Lance Carroll, Richard Cohen and others.  Evidently the taping was a real circus but I’ve been reserving comment until I see how the show is actually edited.
- [Don’t Ask - Don’t Tell Alan Chambers](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/dont-ask-dont-tell-alan-chambers/): When Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, he made the mistake of assuming that this meant the country, and it’s elected officials, had endorsed the gay positive position upon which he ran. This was not the case. Upon beginning his term in 1993, Clinton began the discussion of lifting the ban of gay and lesbian servicepersons – only to find that he was almost alone in that position. The discussion quickly became one of “compromise” wherein deeply closeted gay people could theoretically serve in the military without harassment. The compromise soon came to be know by half of it’s promise:...
- [Willful Grace (Pam Ferguson) Comes to Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/willful-grace-pam-ferguson-comes-to-ex-gay-watch/): Grace (as in Willful) is writing for Ex-Gay Watch now? What next, my own reality show? What should we call it; “The Gay Whisperer?” Ok, so maybe I’m not THAT high-profile and my being here isn’t really THAT big a deal. But still, who’d-a-thunk-it three years ago when I was just beginning to figure out such a world as this existed? At that time I’d been reading and leaving encouraging comments to the now defunct “Ben” of “Scattered Words;” And thus began my journey into the world of blogging. I’m humbled and honored to be included as a writer here. I’d...
- [WeAreThinking, PFOX And Anti-Gay Ads](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/wearethinking-pfox-and-anti-gay-ads/): PLvHA18stY8 The anti-gay website WeAreThinking.com has posted a number of “future television spots” including the one seen above. These same spots appear on YouTube with “PFOX” in the title of every video. One of those videos features Dr. Robert Spitzer which recently appeared on PFOX’s newly designed homepage. Consistent with pretty everything done by WeAreThinking, we have absolutely no idea who is behind this or who the people in the videos are (with the exception of Spitzer). See previous coverage of WeAreThinking for an examination of how bizarre of an “organization” it is. I encourage readers to post comments PFOX’s YouTube...
- [Danish Faith Based Group Under Investigation For Promoting Ex-Gay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/03/danish-faith-based-group-under-investigation-for-promoting-ex-gay-therapy/): XGW reader Noa brought my attention to (and translated) Swedish gay news/entertainment site homOnline.se: Evangelical group in Denmark loses governmental funding while allegations of conversion counseling are being investigated. The Danish Evangelical group Agape has received governmental funding to preform sex education and crisis counseling, but after reports that a lesbian woman that had contact with the organization was advised to pursue a change in sexual orientation, funds have been frozen. “There is some uncertainty as to whether the nature of the counseling with regards to homosexual people and their religious beliefs” states the Danish Secretary of Health and Human Services,...
- [ABC 20/20 Double Episode on LIA, Conversion Therapies](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/abc-2020-double-episode-on-lia-conversion-therapies/): We’ve been told that ABC will air two episodes of 20/20 tomorrow night, Friday, from 9 – 11 PM ET. They should focus partly on a return visit to the Exodus member ministry Love In Action, comparing things now to their first report which aired May 31, 2000. Of that visit, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) had this to say: The May 31 edition of 20/20 Wednesday ran a segment on reparative therapy, the controversial process that proponents claim can change unhappy homosexuals into happy heterosexuals. “Desperate to Change” focused on the religion-based ex-gay group Love in Action,...
- [Evidence Still Scarce in Alleged PFOX Assault](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/evidence-still-scarce-in-alleged-pfox-assault/): This is a follow-up in our effort to separate fact from fiction in the alleged assault claimed by Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays (PFOX) at the Arlington County Fair last month. If you haven’t read our earlier coverage, please do so first to help put the following in context. You can find what could be referred to as parts one and two in our archives, along with this related article. When we last reported on this issue September 5, the Arlington County Police Department, representatives from the Arlington Fair, an Arlington County Board Member and two eyewitnesses all reported...
- [Technical Issues: XGW Feed Problems](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/technical-issues-xgw-feed-problems/): You may have noticed that our Atom/RSS syndication feeds have been interrupted recently. We’ve had problems before which seem to trace to Feedburner, so we have stopped using Feedburner. Because Feedburner no longer is pointed to Ex-Gay Watch, you may need to reset your subscription to Ex-Gay Watch in your news reader. You can use autodiscover from https://exgaywatch.com/. Or you can choose one of the following feeds: RSS 2.0 https://exgaywatch.com/feed/ (use this if you don’t know) Atom https://exgaywatch.com/feed/atom/ If you have any problems that do not resolve by doing this, please post them here. We apologize for the trouble.
- [PFOX Seeks Confrontation At Virginia Festival](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/pfox-seeks-confrontation-at-virginia-festival/): This past weekend, Nicholas F. Benton, owner and editor of the Falls Church News-Press, attended the Falls Church Festival, in Falls Church, Virginia. As the only community newspaper, he and his reporters were there to cover the event. As it turns out, PFOX and PFLAG both had booths there. Benton is a noted journalist, with a history as a White House correspondent during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He covered the pivotal Reykjavik summit between President Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev held in Iceland, and founded the Falls Church News-Press in 1991. In short, he is...
- [A Preliminary Review of Jones And Yarhouse’s ‘Ex-Gay? A Longitudinal Study’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/a-preliminary-review-of-jones-and-yarhouses-ex-gay-a-longitudinal-study/): Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin has written a lengthy and detailed analysis of the study’s methodology and conclusions. Check it out. Update: Dr. Stanton Jones has replied to Burroway’s analysis of the ex-gay study.
- [Exodus Puts Upbeat Spin on Ex-Gay Study Finding Little ‘Change’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/exodus-puts-upbeat-spin-on-ex-gay-study-finding-little-change/): An Exodus press release, not yet available online, tries to sound optimistic: Leaders of the world’s largest outreach to those dealing with unwanted homosexuality commended recent research showing change in sexual orientation to be possible at a press conference today in Nashville. The study, released by InterVarsity Press yesterday, is the first longitudinal, peer-reviewed, scientific research of its kind on this topic to date. The Exodus press release offers no specifics — no success or failure rates. And no evidence of genuine peer review. After reading Prof. Warren Throckmorton’s preliminary look at the study, Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin finds...
- [In Brief: Doctors’ Protest Leads Ex-Gay Therapist to Withdraw From Austrian Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/in-brief-doctors-protest-leads-ex-gay-therapist-to-withdraw-from-austrian-conference/): From the U.S.-based Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists: The Austrian Society of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (OEGPP) is a sponsor of an upcoming conference, “Religiosity in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,” to be held this October in Graz, Austria. Markus Hoffmann, a German conversion therapist who leads an evangelical group that attempts to convert gays and lesbians into heterosexuals, had been invited to speak. AGLP President, Ubaldo Leli, M.D., wrote the OEGPP in August: “Conversion therapy of gay and lesbian people is unscientific, harmful, and unethical… By inviting these speakers to your conference, you are granting scientific legitimacy to a discredited therapy that...
- [In Brief: Sway Or Swagger: Does Body Language Give Away Sexual Orientation?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/in-brief-swish-or-sway-does-body-language-give-away-sexual-orientation/): From MSNBC: Is he gay or straight? At a glance, the key to telling might be in the way he walks. A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a man’s sexual orientation, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Observers were only able to accurately guess the sexual orientation of men; with women, their guesses didn’t exceed chance. But what’s most interesting to researchers is understanding how that snap judgment can unleash a series of stereotypes – even from the most...
- [Ex-Gays, Survivors, And Therapists Debate on Fox Morning Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/ex-gays-survivors-and-therapists-debate-on-fox-morning-show/): Update: Full transcript added. Peterson Toscano and Good As You set the scene: The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet hosted an ex-gay leader, a former ex-gay, and two therapists — one gay-affirming, the other pro-exgay — during a segment this morning. Here’s the first half of the segment: Thanks to XGW commenter Emproph, we have transcripts (and discussion) for both segments. Read on….
- [In Brief: Ex-Transsexual Sy Rogers Speaks At Sydney Megachurch](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/in-brief-ex-transsexual-sy-rogers-speaks-at-sydney-megachurch/): Ex-gay and ex-transexual Sy Rogers speaks at Hillsong Church, Australia, this week. The controversial Sydney Pentecostal church has titled the seminar Sense and Sexuality. Although publicity makes no mention of homosexuality, Hillsong is apparently no stranger to ex-gay therapy. A former member recently spoke about her time as part of the church’s Living Waters ex-gay program during the ’80s, while another alleged that late pastor Frank Houston sexually abused him during therapy sessions. Houston, whose son, Brian, is now the church’s Senior Pastor, resigned from ministry in 2000 after confessing to an unrelated case of sexual abuse against a teenage boy....
- [Peterson Toscano On The Morning Show This Week](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/peterson-toscano-on-the-morning-show-this-week/): Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano will be appearing on The Morning Show With Mike and Juliet this Thursday, September 13 on a segment entitled “Can You Choose to Be Gay or Straight?”. The Morning Show airs on the Fox Network weekdays at 10:00 am EST. Exodus president Alan Chambers is also slated to appear on the program.
- [At JONAH, Click ‘Lez’ for Lesbian](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/at-jonah-click-lez-for-lesbian/): Hey JONAH, is anyone at the helm of your website home? I have my doubts for a couple reasons. One is that it appears that the greeting on the main page has only been changed once. The second and more important reason is because I found a strange menu option when I clicked on “FAQ.” The FAQ provides instant info on why male gays are gay and not straight. Obviously, this does not help lesbians. Not to worry! Simply click on the word “Lez” and you will find an explanation as to why Lesbians are gay and not straight. Now, I...
- [Former Client Speaks Out About Dr. Chris Austin](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/former-client-speaks-out-about-dr-chris-austin/): Mike Airhart made a great point in the comments of the article about Dr. Austin. XGW did not decide Austin was guilty; a Texas jury did… David Roberts made another interesting observation. I continue to be amazed at the Svengali like ability Mr. Austin seems to have over some people. As a former client, I have some thoughts I would like to present regarding Dr. Austin’s conviction. First, I’ve had nothing but wonderful experiences with therapy under his care. People are consistently amazed by the perseverance and grace I’ve demonstrated during and after my marriage to Tdub. I say this not...
- [Study of Exodus Participants To Be Released Next Week](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/study-of-exodus-participants-to-be-released-next-week/): A press release by InterVarsity Press gives specifics about the study on which we reported here and here. In September, InterVarsity Press will publish the results of a longitudinal study conducted by researchers Stanton L. Jones (Wheaton College) and Mark A. Yarhouse (Regent University). Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation directly addresses two of the most contentious and disputed questions of our day—Is change of sexual orientation possible? and Is the attempt to change harmful?—and the findings of the study appear to contradict the commonly expressed views of the mental health establishment. InterVarsity Press will hold...
- [Ex-Gay Counselor Chris Austin Convicted of Sexual Assault](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/ex-gay-counselor-chris-austin-convicted-of-sexual-assault/): Source: Truth Wins Out Truth Wins Out is reporting that Chris Austin, a longtime ex-gay counselor from Irving, Texas, was convicted today of sexually assaulting a client. Austin, a previous speaker for both Evergreen International and the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), has been accused of sexual assault on a client before. In 2001, Mark Hufford made similar accusations: Hufford accused Austin of engaging in improper sexual behavior that included “oral copulation and fondling” during counseling sessions that spanned more than a year. The psychologist, who also teaches in the church’s Sunday School, had convinced Hufford...
- [Arlington Fair Officials, Eyewitness Contradict PFOX Claims of Assault](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/arlington-fair-officials-eyewitness-contradict-pfox-claims-of-assault/): As a follow-up to our previous post on this matter, we have gathered more information in our investigation of claims made by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) here. Yesterday, we spoke with Jackie Abrams, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Fair. According to Abrams, no physical altercation occurred, police were never called and no one was ejected from the fairgrounds – she was emphatic and certain. “I was in radio contact with the other board members during the Fair, and definitely would have known if the police had been summoned. It did not happen [her emphasis],” said Abrams....
- [Exodus Staffer Responds to Ex-Gay Bible Comic](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/exodus-staffer-responds-to-ex-gay-bible-comic/): Exodus youth assistant Mike Ensley has responded on his personal blog to my protest of a comic strip that was published (in my opinion, sacrilegiously) within Bibles distributed by Tim Todd Ministries starting in 2005. Ensley does not object, as I did, to the politically correct and sacrilegious alteration of holy Scripture. But he does seem to agree with me that the comic unnecessarily fuels partisan culture-war rhetoric and trivializes ex-gay struggle. Says Ensley: I do take issue with this comic on a couple of things. First of all, the main characters’ conversation happens against a backdrop of amped-up extremism; we...
- [Police Info Casts Doubt on Alleged Attack Against PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/police-info-casts-doubt-on-alleged-attack-against-pfox/): This past Tuesday, PFOX posted some disturbing news. While innocently offering “materials on same-sex attraction and tolerance for the ex-gay community to a hungry public” at the Arlington County Fair, Arlington Va (Aug 15-19), they claim their representatives were viciously attacked, both verbally and physically, by “gay activists” who had also set up a booth at the fair. As happens every year, gay activists disrupted our booth activities. They screamed obscenities, threw our materials from the exhibit table to the ground, insisted we recognize their same-sex “spouses,” demanded that PFOX leave, and hit a PFOX volunteer because he is ex-gay. Clearly,...
- [Evangelist Publishes Sacrilegious Ex-Gay Comics in Public-School Bibles](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/evangelist-publishes-sacrilegious-ex-gay-comics-in-public-school-bibles/): Tim Todd Ministries has recently distributed 48,000 New Testaments — altered to conform to religious-right political correctness — to public-school students in the United States. These New Testaments come with numerous “powerful full-color comics” that (Todd claims) communicate the “absolute truth,” that are packed with “absolute truths regarding moral issues young people are faced with everyday.” Issues covered in the comics range from drugs, alcohol, and peer pressure to abortion, evolution, and rock music. Unfortunately, none of these issues is mentioned in the Bible, and even if they were, the comics present them in the form of fictitious strawman arguments by...
- [Overseers Rebuke Rev. Haggard As Ex-Gay Recovery Goes Awry](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/overseers-rebuke-rev-haggard-as-ex-gay-recovery-goes-awry/): At a time when he should be getting a job, earning a wage from real labor, and focusing on his supposed “recovery” from lifelong homosexual struggles, the Rev. Ted Haggard has apparently sought donations for himself and for a defunct Colorado charity that the Rocky Mountain News (with help from writer Dan Savage and attorney Dave Coffman) has linked to a convicted sex offender. Today, overseers of Haggard’s supposed ex-gay recovery rebuked the fallen minister and canceled his plan to work for the Phoenix Dream Center, a halfway house for people struggling with compulsive behaviors. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette,...
- [Ex-Gay Live-In Program Says It Was ‘Exonerated’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/ex-gay-live-in-program-says-it-was-exonerated/): Ex-Gay Watch has asserted at various times that Exodus’ flagship live-in program, Love In Action, altered its web site, put new limits on its youth program, and redefined itself from a therapeutic effort into a “ministry” in 2005 after Tennessee state regulators became concerned that unlicensed LIA staff were controlling participant/patient access to prescribed medications. Specifically, XGW has said: “In 2005, according to Soulforce, Love in Action was investigated by the state of Tennessee for operating a mental health facility without a license. LIA then changed its operating procedures to avoid state regulation.” LIA disputes Ex-Gay Watch’s assertion. We stand by...
- [Open Forum: Sen. Larry Craig’s Alleged ‘Hypocrisy’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/open-forum-sen-larry-craigs-alleged-hypocrisy/): Both the news media and the blogosphere have been roaring their disapproval of Sen. Larry Craig’s “hypocrisy” after he was arrested for alleged lewd conduct in a Minneapolis/St. Paul airport restroom. But exactly how was Craig allegedly hypocritical? That’s where the accusations become vague — they preach to the converted and assume that any hypocrisy is self-evident. I don’t think it is. We don’t know whether Craig is predominantly attracted to the same gender and therefore “gay.” Even if he were, it is not necessarily hypocritical to be homosexual and to oppose same-sex marriage and inclusion in hate-crime laws (though I...
- [Christianity Thinly Veiled At JONAH](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/christianity-thinly-veiled-at-jonah-or-how-greenberg-is-my-valley/): How “Greenberg” is my valley? You would think that an organization as professedly Jewish as JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) wouldn’t need any help from the Goyim. You thought wrong. (“Goyim,” by the way, means “Nations” in Hebrew, and in scripture refers to the non-Jewish, or Gentile, nations.) While perusing JONAH’s online library, I came across more than a couple “Jewish” resources that point to not-so-Jewish origins. Now, it would be one thing if JONAH owned up to this and put a disclaimer before the Christian-produced articles saying something like “this article is of a Gentile origin, but is...
- [Ex-Gay Live-In Program Leader Promotes Job Discrimination](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/ex-gay-live-in-program-leader-promotes-job-discrimination/): Steve Gallagher is president of Pure Life Ministries, a Kentucky-based live-in and at-home “ministry” for persons deemed to be sexual sinners. Gallagher’s organization may not have healed a single soul of their same-gender romantic and sexual attraction, but he is eager to make life difficult for same-sex-attracted persons just the same. In a guest column for the religious right’s OneNewsNow, Gallagher expresses disgust that — compared to the AIDS-hysteria days of 1987 — fewer evangelical Christians now support job discrimination against same-sex-attracted people who are teachers by profession. Also, in Gallagher’s column, those who are politically correct (like him) are described...
- [African-American GLBT Leaders React to Ex-Gay Publisher](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/african-american-leaders-react-to-ex-gay-publisher/): We’ve commented occasionally about Charlene Cothran, the newly ex-gay publisher of Venus magazine who alienated her gay African-American readership with rhetoric of blame, self-pity and victimhood borrowed straight from the sorry political playbook of privileged white ex-gays. Recently, some members of the African-American GLBT leadership have put together a video response produced by Human Rights Campaign and co-sponsored by the National Black Justice Coalition and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
- [Too Quiet for Comfort At Focus on the Family?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/too-quiet-for-comfort-at-focus-on-the-family/): People for the American Way thinks that James Dobson of Focus on the Family has been unusually quiet of late. Health problems and foot-in-mouth disease may have prompted Dobson’s low national profile, but PFAW suggests the organization’s strategic plan is alive and well: Given a lackluster slate of Republican presidential candidates and a partisan refusal to support Democratic religious-values candidates such as Barack Obama, Focus is instead pushing its partisan agenda in state elections. While some values voters may feel drawn to Obama’s frank talk about faith and charity, Focus and its state affiliates hope to mobilize “an army of citizen...
- [Update: More on Ex-Gay Study, ‘The Thomas Project’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/update-more-on-ex-gay-study-the-thomas-project/): More information has come to light concerning the study we reported on here. An anonymous source said they have contact with someone participating in the study, called the Thomas Project, out of Wheaton College, and the study consists of questions asked once a year by phone. This participant also noted that the questions were oversimplified, requiring basic responses where they felt detailed explanations were needed. We have good reason to trust this contact, though we will respect their request for anonymity. There are unconfirmed reports that the study has a sample of as few as 100 to 150 participants. While we...
- [Results of Secret Exodus Study Soon To Be Released](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/results-of-secret-exodus-study-soon-to-be-released/): Readers may have noticed the casual claims by Exodus president Alan Chambers and vice president Randy Thomas concerning the success rates of “change” and perhaps even vague references to an ongoing study. These have led to an increasingly common, though entirely unsubstantiated figure of 30% “real change in orientation.” A statement on the Exodus International website goes even further: On the statistical side, careful reviews of research studies on sexual orientation change suggest that real change is indeed possible. Studies suggesting change rates in the range of 30-50% are not unusual, although “success rates” vary considerably and the measurement of change...
- [More Former Ex-Gay Leaders Apologize](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/more-former-ex-gay-leaders-apologize/): Beyond Ex-Gay has posted apology letters from Vonnie Pitts, Wendy Lawson and Kim Brett, former leaders of ex-gay ministries in Australia. According to the press release, Pitts, Lawson and Brett were inspired by the public apology issued in June by Darlene Bogle, Michael Bussee and Jeremy Marks. The press release also mentions that former ex-gay Anthony Venn-Brown will be appearing on the Australian version of Sixty Minutes this Sunday, August 19. Additional coverage: Box Turtle Bulletin, Soulforce, and Beyond Ex-Gay.
- [A New Look - Work In Progress](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/a-new-look-work-in-progress/): We are trying a new look (yes again!) and there are some minor features missing (author listings on posts for one). This will be corrected in the next few days if we decide to stick with this one. In the mean time, register your likes/dislikes here. Thanks! Update:  We’ve gone back to our original look.  Thanks for your comments.  If you saw the new one and still want to comment here, that’s fine.
- [Update: Omaha Responds Concerning Violent Messages](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/update-omaha-responds-concerning-violent-messages/): We recently reported about our serious concerns over the violent messages on a group of websites owned by Brian Wyant, GLBT Center Coordinator for Rainbow Outreach in Omaha, Nebraska. Most disconcerting was the lack of response from anyone we could find connected with Wyant or Rainbow Outreach. The story made it to a number of other blogs, and was reported by the Christian Post. A couple of days ago we were were able to contact Michael Gordon of Citizens For Equal Protection of Nebraska. He seemed genuinely alarmed and shared our concerns over the violent entries, especially fearing that someone impressionable...
- [In Brief: Did InterVarsity Press Drop Richard Cohen?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/in-brief-did-intervarsity-press-drop-richard-cohen/): InterVarsity Press is a widely respected publisher of Christian themed books, so it struck us as rather amazing when we found a new edition of ex-gay guru Richard Cohen’s book Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan For Family Healing on their upcoming book list for July 2007. While some may not appreciate the difference, one can normally expect a line between Cohen’s work and that from a traditional, solid publisher like IVP. Perhaps this is why Cohen normally self-publishes. However, when we checked back to write this story on the release, there was no sign of the book on the IVP...
- [In Brief: Michael Glatze to Speak At NARTH Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/in-brief-michael-glatze-to-speak-at-narth-conference/): According to their conference schedule (PDF), the troubled former gay youth activist turned ex-gay Michael Glatze will be speaking at the next annual conference of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Glatze announced a couple of months ago that he was no longer gay, believed homosexuality was death and was baptized into the Mormon Church. By any analysis, the various statements of Glatze and his former partner, Benjie Nycum (audio 7-9-2007), lead us to believe he has some serious issues having nothing to do with homosexuality. However, the speed at which the ex-gay and anti-gay pundits...
- [Something’s Fishy At JONAH](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/somethings-fishy-at-jonah/): Many people, even those involved in countering the ex-gay movement, have probably never heard of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality). In a field that is dominated by Evangelical Christianity, JONAH seems to stand alone as the only ex-gay group targeted specifically at Jews. First, I feel I should explain a little bit about Judaism and homosexuality: There are 4 main “flavors” of Judaism, which I list here from most liberal to most conservative: Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox (which also includes what are known as Chasidic communities). Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism fully accept GLBT members and ordained rabbis. Conservative...
- [SBC’s New Approach Same Old Ex-Gay Line](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/sbcs-new-approach-same-old-ex-gay-line/): Saturday’s edition of The Tennesseean features interviews with ex-ex-gays Darlene Bogle and Christine Bakke and with pastor Bob Stith, the Southern Baptist Convention’s first national strategist for gender issues. Bogle and Bakke flew to Nashville last week to share their stories in front of the SBC’s headquarters. For his part, Stith does express deep concern about the message that many churches continue to send to the gay community: Stith’s interest in ex-gay ministries began a dozen years ago, after a fire-and-brimstone sermon about homosexuality. “I asked myself, ‘Would someone who struggled with this issue come to you after they heard you...
- [Omaha-Area Gay Activist Ducks Concerns About Violence](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/omaha-area-gay-activist-ducks-concerns-about-violence/): A few days ago we reported on a website dealing with gay issues which included some very disturbing verbiage. Part of our report centered on the reaction of some prominent ex-gays who were treating the site, GayStraightAlliance.org, as if it represented the official GLSEN Gay-Straight Alliance effort. We were in the process of investigating the issue more thoroughly when it became necessary to remark on those posts. In the mean time, we have continued our efforts and would like to report the results so far. The GayStraightAlliance.org website is part of a group of sites registered to Event Horizon Publications, and...
- [The Spirit of the Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/the-spirit-of-the-law/): As I’ve discussed here before, strict adherence to the letter of the law can produce odd results.  By reducing the Bible to a rulebook, we run the risk of either binding ourselves to all sorts of regulations that have no context in real life other than “God said so,” or of resorting to cherry-picking to weed out those commands that we would rather ignore. Fortunately we have precedents in church history for placing the spirit of the law ahead of the letter of the law, even when doing so appears (on the surface) to place us in violation of what had...
- [PFOX Ruling Guarantees More Garbage in Backpacks](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/pfox-ruling-guarantees-more-garbage-in-backpacks/): As a public school teacher, I’ve been calling for the reversal of the “open forum” ruling on student backpacks for quite some time, including this little blurb in the 5th paragraph of an XGW article last March. As far as I’m concerned, backpacks should be used to carry materials to and from school which pertain explicitly to the education of the student as outlined in the school’s curriculum and implemented by the student’s teacher. Instead, we have the once again upheld “open forum” ruling which allows any Tom, Dick, Harry, or PFOX organization to print up flyers and send them home...
- [Open Forum: Focus on the Family: Benefactor to Exodus Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/open-forum-focus-on-the-family-benefactor-to-exodus-ex-gays/): I have often expressed my personal opinion that Exodus relies upon Focus on the Family as its primary “benefactor.” Specifically, I contend that Focus spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on Love Won Out events, billboards, political ads, and press releases that prominently spotlight Exodus leaders making antigay political speeches and supporting other activists’ false claims about the origins of sexual orientation and the nature and likelihood of “change.” I have reasoned that the fortune spent by Focus on the marketing of Exodus would, if it were publicly disclosed, amount to a very large percentage of Exodus’ own annual...
- [Exodus And Dr. Throckmorton Duped By Unknown Website](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/exodus-and-dr-throckmorton-duped-by-unknown-website/): Earlier today we received an email calling our attention to a website called GayStraightAlliance.org, specifically to the verbiage at the bottom of the main page: WITHOUT GSA ACCESS, STUDENTS ARE FORCED TO SIMPLY KILL CLASSMATES WHO TAUNT & BULLY – SHOOTING, STABBING AND POISONING ARE THE COMMON FORMS OF RETRIBUTION. FAR TOO MANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS LIKE BULLYING CHILDREN TO THE POINT WHERE RETRIBUTION AGAINST CLASSMATES AND FACULTY IS ONLY OPTION TO REDRESS RELENTLESS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN MANY REGIONS. SPECIOUSLY-NAMED “PRO-FAMILY” LEADERS ARE CHILD MOLESTERS WHO MAKE MONEY STIGMATIZING HOMOSEXUALITY TO SILENCE GAY VICTIMS. These comments seem to imply that murder...
- [Holocaust Revisionism Supported to Further Jewish Ex-Gay Agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/holocaust-revisionism-supported-to-further-jewish-ex-gay-agenda/): Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) appears to stand alone as the only Jewish ex-gay organization in the country. With a fairly substantial online library, rabbinical commentary, and even an option to read the site in Hebrew, JONAH is obviously taking great pains to reach out exclusively to a Jewish audience. But at what cost are they trying to prove that homosexuality is a lifestyle of vice and ultimately harmful to both society and humanity? Apparently, not even a Jewish ex-gay group is afraid of employing the research of a Holocaust revisionist, so long as it furthers their cause. In...
- [Judge’s Ruling Exposes Ex-Gay Doubletalk About ‘Thought Crimes’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/judges-ruling-exposes-ex-gay-doubletalk-about-thought-crimes/): For all their protests about so-called “thought-crime laws,” Exodus president Alan Chambers and executive vice president Randy Thomas seem content to tolerate such laws, in case they might be used to prosecute non-Christians for violent crimes committed against Christians. Despite their whispered personal misgivings, their employer Exodus and their employer’s primary benefactor, Focus on the Family, refuse to take an emphatic public stand against existing state and federal laws that provide investigatory assistance and enhanced sentencing of violent crimes that are based on the victim’s religion and race. Their objection is solely to laws that would extend coverage to violent crimes...
- [HRC Interviews Producer of Film Featuring Former Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/2585/): The Human Rights Campaign’s XM Radio show, “The Agenda with Joe Solmonese,” has posted an audio clip about the documentary God and Gays. Film producer Kim Clark discusses the film’s positive reception by churches. Also appearing is Darlene Bogle, a former Exodus local group leader who now acknowledges her same-gender sexual orientation. Hat tip: Gay Religion News Blog
- [In Battle Against Sex Ed, Ex-Gay Group Loses One Legal Ally, Gains Another](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/in-battle-against-sex-ed-ex-gay-group-loses-one-legal-ally-gains-another/): The Washington Blade reports today that an outfit called the Thomas More Law Center has replaced the much stronger and better-known Liberty Counsel in pursuing a battle against sex education in Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools. Thomas More is assisting the national ex-gay advocacy group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and the local group Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum in a lawsuit to prevent suburban Washington, D.C., schools from teaching age-appropriate information and tolerance regarding sexuality — homosexuality in particular. Thomas More’s online About Us statement positions the organization as a “sword and shield” of religious conservatives in a war against...
- [Gay Bishop Describes Battle to Become Straight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/gay-bishop-describes-battle-to-become-straight/): In a frank and moving interview last week, the Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire talked about his attempts to overcome his homosexuality. The Right Reverend Gene Robinson was ordained bishop in 2004, precipitating a momentous controversy still raging strong today in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Speaking to British journalist Andrew Collier, the Anglican Church’s first openly gay bishop recalled his early struggles with his sexuality: [When I didn’t grow out of homosexuality,] by the end of college and the beginning of seminary, I got into therapy twice a week to rid myself of this horrible thing. I felt if I couldn’t...
- [Peterson Toscano Announces Retirement of ‘Homo No Mo’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/08/peterson-toscano-announces-retirement-of-homo-no-mo/): Since 2003, Peterson Toscano has put his quirky talent to use performing his original play, Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House–How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement. He has used it to tell his own story of attempted change and thereby reflect those of many others. He and his play served as an early focal point to draw out many who had survived their own experience with the ex-gay movement – not just clients but leaders as well – and help give them a voice. Peterson announced today that he will officially retire his play in February, 2008. While...
- [Open Forum: I’m Not Gay!](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/open-forum-im-not-gay/): The person in this video goes by the nickname RevolutionaryHorizon on YouTube. I don’t think this is a joke – he seems to be serious about what he is saying. I’m posting this in an open forum because in just a few minutes, he touches on all kinds of issues we discuss here. A lot has been made lately of how best to provide therapy to those struggling with issues of sexual orientation. Here is your chance; you are the therapist and he is your patient. How would you honestly address some of the things he is saying? What is your...
- [The Real Reason Focus On The Family Mocks Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/the-real-reason-focus-on-the-family-mocks-hate-crimes/): This video was released almost two weeks ago by Focus on the Family through their political mouthpiece, CitizenLink, so you may have already seen it or read commentary about it. Regardless of where you might stand on hate crimes laws, this kind of glib, heartless characterization seems unwarranted and cruel. It may also signify a certain amount of desperation. When you watch, pay attention to the last few comments. We’ve heard gross distortions of this legislation apparently designed to scare people with the idea that, if it passes, free speech will be curtailed, pastors will be jailed, and innocent little grandmothers...
- [In Brief: I Am What I Am And It’s Not a Choice](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-i-am-what-i-am-and-its-not-a-choice/): Ex-ex-gay activist Peterson Toscano writes about sexuality, choice and the ex-gay journey in the latest New Statesman (a broadly left-wing British political weekly). Peterson writes both humorously and powerfully: I chose to be authentic, to no longer demonise my sexuality, to integrate my faith with the rest of my life. I did choose to be a Christian, a Quaker, a vegan and an activist, but I never chose to be gay. A talking point: How does Peterson’s description of of faith and sexuality compare to Warren Throckmorton‘s words on CNN last week? Toscano: I chose … to integrate my faith with...
- [Open Forum: Drs. Throckmorton And McCommon on CNN](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/open-forum-throckmorton-and-mccommons-on-cnn/): This is a recent, brief interview of Dr. Warren Throckmorton and Dr. Benjamin McCommon on CNN regarding their views on the APA’s current re-evaluation of their position on reparative therapy. Sean O’Donnell also appears via a brief file clip explaining his own attempts to change from gay to straight. You may have already seen this or read about it; either way we would appreciate your candid impression of the comments by both interviewees. Hat Tip: Jeremy for the video.
- [Tammy Faye Messner Remembered for Welcoming Spirit](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/tammy-faye-messner-remembered-for-welcoming-spirit/): In her final TV interview, taped Wednesday and aired Thursday on CNN, Tammy Faye Messner didn’t declare that she knew God’s will. She didn’t excuse her own fallibility or pass selective judgment against others. And she didn’t order up a set of litmus tests for would-be followers to pass in order to win divine approval. True to her lifelong calling, Messner spoke of a personal faith and unconditional love. As she was dying, she said, “I talk to God every single day. And I say, God, my life is in your hands and I trust you with me.”
- [Ex-Gay News Roundup](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/ex-gay-news-roundup/): Former ex-gay Peterson Toscano sums up the week in ex-gay news. Toscano has also posted new video from the Survivor Initiative press conference outside Love In Action in Memphis, Tenn. Looking for new or rejuvenated ex-gay topical blogs to read this weekend? Try these: Chronicles of An Ex-Ex-Gay, by Jacob, a survivor of “Love In Action” Straight Guise, by Joe Kort, M.A., M.S.W. Walk Free, by Ken Peters Whether you like or dislike them, hop over and give them a piece of your mind.
- [Researcher Seeks British Ex-Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/researcher-seeks-british-ex-ex-gays/): A researcher in the UK would like to speak to former ex-gays who have been through ex-gay therapy and/or ministry in Britain, or who received any sort of ministry in a UK church or religious group to help them change their sexual orientation. If you think your story might be relevant, please contact me, Dave Rattigan, in the first instance. Your details will not be passed on unless and until you give your consent.
- [In Brief: Ex-Gay Proves Useful in Lobbying Against Equal Treatment of Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-ex-gay-proves-useful-in-lobbying-against-equal-treatment-of-hate-crimes/): WorldNetDaily cites the (alleged) Madison, Wis., arrest of ex-gay David Ott under local hate-speech laws as one of several cases where local misapplication of local or state hate speech laws is somehow (illogically) used as the primary excuse to prevent violent hate crimes against gay people from being sentenced to the same degree that violent hate crimes targeting blacks, Jews (or for that matter whites) are sentenced.
- [In Brief: Focus on the Family, Ex-Gay Activist Join ‘Lesbian Gangs’ Scare](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/focus-on-the-family-ex-gay-activist-join-lesbian-gangs-scare/): Focus on the Family and Alan Keyes’ Renew America have joined ex-gay activist Linda Jernigan and Peter LaBarbera in spreading an already-disproven false report that lesbian gangs are running amok in America’s cities. All four sources neglect to tell their readers that Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation didn’t want the story to run in local media because the story was, in fact, false — disproven by the Southern Poverty Law Center and reported as such by the New York Times. Instead, Jernigan says, “They [GLAAD] don’t want this type of information to get out,” she told Family News in Focus,...
- [Christian Post: The Ends Justify The Means](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/christian-post-the-ends-justify-the-means/): Adherence to what most evangelicals would regard as a false religion is apparently acceptable under some circumstances, according to the Christian Post: Christians need to understand that any support for Glatze should not be interpreted as support for the Mormon church. Instead it should be viewed as support for an individual and a very important movement, as is done during any interfaith activity. Glatze should be accepted for who he is – not the result of Mormon conversion, but one of the latest and most prominent examples of former homosexuals who came to acknowledge homosexuality as sin and made the decision...
- [Former Ex-Gays Tell of Harm At Exodus ‘Love In Action’ Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/former-ex-gays-tell-of-harm-at-exodus-love-in-action-program/): Two former clients — Brandon Tidwell of Memphis and David Christie of New York — spoke on July 18 in front of Love in Action, a Memphis, Tenn., residential program that claims to help people reject “false images” that supposedly contribute to same-gender attraction and behavior. Tidwell and Christie said their experiences at Love in Action caused emotional, spiritual, and financial hardships. They then presented framed artwork depicting their stories to staff at the facility. Tidwell and Christie spoke in conjunction with the Survivor’s Initiative, a national campaign to share the stories of “ex-gay survivors”– men and women who feel that...
- [In Brief: Scientology America’s ‘Biggest Ex-Gay Movement’, Says Maupin](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-scientology-americas-biggest-ex-gay-movement-says-maupin/): The gay author Armistead Maupin slammed Scientology at a book-signing in London last week: [The] Church of Scientology comes in very handy. It’s the biggest ex-gay movement in America. They catch you when you’re young and confused, tell you they’ll look after you, even provide you with a wife and child. Then of course you have to do what they call an audit, where you confess everything you’ve ever done into a tape recorder, so they’ve got the tapes. So once you’re famous and successful you have to go along with all their nonsense about people falling into volcanoes. In a...
- [Questions For Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/questions-for-exodus/): Given the defensive, sarcastic, and even hostile reactions that Exodus and its political allies have offered in response to the Ex-Gay Survivors Conference and the growing profile of the ex-ex-gay movement, several questions come to mind. 1. How do Exodus and its affiliates treat those who “drop out” of their programs? Is any follow-up ever done to find out why those individuals left? If not, does Exodus just hope that those people will go away and quietly vanish? How are current participants encouraged to treat former participants? 2. Does Exodus believe that ex-ex-gays have a right to tell their stories in...
- [Ex-Gay Boot Camp Youth Program Returns With Changes](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/ex-gay-boot-camp-youth-program-returns-no-longer-residential/): XGW previously reported that the Love In Action Refuge youth program had been discontinued. In a recent press release, Love In Action reported that it has returned with a new name, Family Freedom Intensive. Unlike Refuge, this new incarnation will not be residential. The Family Freedom Intensive involves a four-day schedule of group interaction and individual family meetings designed to help parents better understand the sexual issues their teen is experiencing while equipping them with healthier and more effective communication tools. Should a teenager decide they would like to be included in their parents’ process, we will work to faciliate [sic]...
- [In Brief: Review of 50 Studies Finds Antigay Job Bias Still A Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-review-of-50-studies-finds-antigay-job-bias-still-a-problem/): Exodus periodically claims that gay people suffer little or no discrimination nowadays. But a new study by economist Dr. Lee Badgett and her colleagues at UCLA indicates that job-related bias remains a problem. Their report, Bias in the Workplace: Consistent Evidence of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination, reviews findings from more than 50 studies that addressed employment discrimination among sexual and gender minorities. Among the findings: In one survey, 18% of the respondents reported experiencing discrimination when applying for a job or keeping a job. In another study, 10% of the total sample reported having been fired from a job...
- [In Brief: 1 in 5 Sexual Minorities Suffer Hate Crimes](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-1-in-5-sexual-minorities-suffer-hate-crimes/): Based on federal statistics and his own soon-to-be-published research, Dr. Gregory Herek reports that hate crimes hit one in five adults who belong to sexual minorities. Among the findings: 13% of respondents said they had been hit, beaten, physically attacked, or sexually assaulted because of their sexual orientation. 15% had been robbed or had their property stolen, vandalized, or purposely damaged. (Combining these two groups, 21% had experienced either violence or a property crime.) 14% said someone had tried to attack them, rob them, or damage their property, but didn’t succeed. 23% had been threatened with violence.
- [In Brief: Ex-Gay Racism?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-ex-gay-racism/): Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett suffered a racist verbal slip last week. But it was not an entirely isolated incident. Republic of T reminds us that Bennett has linked to white supremacists before. (Past coverage: Good As You, Ex-Gay Watch). Republic of T recalls other examples of ex-gay racism, and sees a broader pattern of racism in the ex-gay political movement.
- [PFOX Writes Bitter Letter in Response to Ex-Ex-Gay Message](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/pfox-bitter-over-ex-ex-gay-message/): In what continues to be a surprisingly visceral response to the recent testimonies of Ex-Gay Survivors, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) has placed an open letter to all such people on their MySpace page. While you all claim in websites, protests, in organizations, or coalitions, to want to help people who are “trapped in the ex-gay movement,” you seem to be more concerned with sticking your nose in my business, and telling me the way you think I should live, along with who I am. You don’t know me, and you don’t know my needs and wants. While...
- [Wayne Besen, Michael Glatze, And Charlene Cothran on CNN Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/wayne-besen-michael-glatze-and-charlene-cothran-on-cnn-tonight/): Wayne Besen is reporting: Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen will appear live TONIGHT on CNN’s Paula Zahn Now. Besen will be debating the “ex-gay” former editor of YGA Magazine, Michael Glatze; and Charlene Cothran, “ex-gay” publisher of Venus Magazine. (8PM ET) Monday Set your Tivos. Hat Tip: Emily K Update: TruthWinsOut.org reports that the segment has been canceled. Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen will no longer appear live tonight on CNN’s Paula Zahn Now -as the segment has been cancelled or postponed. Besen was to debate the “ex-gay” former editor of YGA Magazine, Michael Glatze; and Charlene...
- [Hard Questions for Gays And Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/hard-questions-for-gays-and-ex-gays/): Former ex-homosexual Peterson Toscano says the birth of the “ex-gay survivors’ movement” raises some questions. Why did I pursue change? What was I looking for? What did I do to myself and let others do to me? What good came of the experiences I had? What harm came of it? How can I recover from these experiences and move on? For those offering or considering ex-gay therapy: Why is change so highly desired and what are the costs in pursuing it? What happens once people leave your care? Do you know? Do you care? Toscano says the ex-ex-gay movement is “a...
- [In Brief: Ex-Gay Guru Richard Cohen Claims He’s Stopped Counseling](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-ex-gay-guru-richard-cohen-claims-hes-stopped-counseling/): As reported by Dr. Warren Throckmorton, the self-proclaimed conversion therapist Richard Cohen has decided to stop counseling. According to Cohen’s website: Richard Cohen has always practiced within the legal requirements of the state. Recently, he retired from counseling to focus on public speaking and training other professionals. His passion is to spread the word that no one is born with same-sex attraction (SSA), no one chooses to have SSA, and that people can choose to change and come out straight. He devotes much of his time to training therapists, coaches, clergy and ministry leaders about the process of sexual reorientation. Cohen...
- [Exodus President Shuts Out Warnings of Harm Caused By His Programs](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/exodus-president-shuts-out-warnings-of-harm-caused-by-his-programs/): Ex-gay survivor Shawn O’Donnell has documented the personal harm done to him on his blog and in recent videos as well as a collage that was personally delivered to NARTH. Exodus President Alan Chambers retorted on O’Donnell’s blog: Harm? Come on, Shawn. No one is being harmed by Exodus offering people a choice. You KNOW better. But no one said that choice causes harm, and Chambers knows that. What at Exodus has caused harm? Exodus’ practice blaming of parents, sex abuse, and modern gender roles for the roots of all individuals’ homosexualities, and its suppression of information about biological roots Its...
- [Glatze Is LDS Convert - Why the Silence?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/glatze-is-lds-convert-why-the-silence/): In a short interview with Warren Throckmorton published today, former gay youth activist and now ex-gay Michael Glatze confirmed that he was recently baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known popularly as the Mormons. In the interview, which Throckmorton hints will be the first of several, Glatze denied rumours that he had been influenced by controversial self-help “guru” Roy Masters, but did state that he was now a member of the LDS Church. This was not mentioned in the WND story, nor in any Christian media, and for a very obvious reason: The LDS Church is...
- [XGW Exclusive: Exodus President Defends Response to Former Ex-Gays’ Apology](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/xgw-exclusive-exodus-president-defends-response-to-former-ex-gays-apology/): A little over a week ago, three former Exodus leaders issued an apology “to those individuals and families who believed our message that there is something inherently wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.” In response, Exodus president Alan Chambers wrote an entry in his personal blog claiming, among other things, that he forgave one of the three, Darlene Bogle, for negatively affecting him when she made the “decision to go back into homosexuality.” The post had a terse tone to it and elicited strong responses. We wanted to dig further into his thoughts on this, so we asked Chambers...
- [In Brief: Maryland School Board Fires Back At PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/in-brief-maryland-school-board-fires-back-at-pfox/): This statement was released on Tuesday, July 3, in Rockville, Maryland. The Maryland State Board of Education ruled in favor of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Tuesday clearing the way for the 8th and 10th grade health education curriculum to include two lessons that promote tolerance, empathy and respect for all people regardless of sexual orientation and one 10th grade lesson that demonstrates the proper use of a condom. The Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, a coalition which includes PFOX, has been battling the Montgomery County school board for two and a half years over the content of their sexual education...
- [Ex-Gay-Affiliated Minister At Survivors’ Dinner Speaks Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/ex-gay-affiliated-minister-at-survivors-dinner-speaks-out/): Three ex-gay ministers dined with former ex-gays during the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference last week. The three ministers were Scott Kingry, director of Where Grace Abounds, Sonia Balcer, director of Safe Passage, and the independent Karen Keen, who appears prominently in the movie God & Gays: Bridging the Gap, which was shown at the conclusion of the conference. At her blog, Pursue God, Keen writes: As we munch on bok choy and shrimp, Scott, Sonia and I listen to stories and concerns regarding ex-gay ministry. Our goal is not to criticize or argue, but to take the concerns seriously and learn how...
- [Soulforce Video: Launch of Ex-Gay Survivor Initiative](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/soulforce-video-launch-of-ex-gay-survivor-initiative/): Soulforce has posted video of its launch of the Survivor Initiative. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Kg6_NLElY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J-cfXq23VM In an e-mail message conveying news of the video, Soulforce director Jeff Lutes states: NARTH is a strong proponent of the ex-gay myth and their staff are featured in James Dobson’s Love Won Out conference – spreading the false and toxic message that LGBT people are disordered and in need of change. Thanks to your support, and our partnership with Beyond Ex-Gay, Soulforce is helping survivors find their voice and use it nonviolently to speak out in powerful ways about the damage these ministries...
- [Focus on the Family Associate Editor Protests Being Corrected](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/focus-on-the-family-associate-editor-protests-being-corrected/): In a recent post we called attention to an odd article at CitizenLink from June 28. The author claimed to know the attendance figures of the Ex-Gay Survivors conference held last weekend in Irvine, California. Strangely enough, the article was posted a full day before anyone was to even show up for the conference — there is simply no way it could have been true. The numbers are irrelevant, there was no conference yet from which to gather the information. Jennifer Mesko, associate editor for CitizenLink and apparently the author of the first article, wrote another one on Tuesday in which...
- [Former Ex-Gay Shawn O’Donnell: ‘We Are All Loved’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/shawn-odonnell-we-are-all-loved/): Former ex-gay Shawn O’Donnell offers a brief reflection on the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference. He quickly cuts to the point of the conference, which sadly has been overlooked by some conference critics.
- [Former Gay Youth Activist Joins an Ex-Gay Blame Game](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/2531/): In news with echoes of the Charlene Cothran story earlier this year, the editor of a pioneering gay youth magazine has announced that he is no longer gay. But instead of responsibly addressing and treating his addictions, Michael Glatze blames same-sex attraction alone for his bad behavior, and suggests that gay equality laws have “sanctioned behaviors that harm life.”
- [Churches’ Conditional ‘Love’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/churches-conditional-love/): The Advocate (June 29) briefly profiled blogger Eric Leocadio of Two World Collision, who participated in the Ex-Gay Survivor conference. As a high school freshman Leocadio ingested two fistfuls of pills, hoping to kill himself so that he would not have to struggle with his sexual orientation. “When I survived,” said Leocadio, now 31, “I realized that God wasn’t done with me. There was so much more that God had planned for me.” But his journey of self-acceptance was arduous. After his suicide attempt Leocadio became a devoted Christian and used his spirituality to stifle his same-sex attractions. At 26 he...
- [Relationship with God: Who Needs the Ex-Gay Middleman?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/relationship-with-god-who-needs-the-ex-gay-middleman/): Reflecting on observations from the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference, God & Gays wonders why people pay money to the ex-gay movement for harmful goods: Why not skip the middle man and allow God to guide you? No need to spend money to hear someone say every gay person is gay because they were molested (Melissa Fryear of Exodus) or it’s the father’s fault because he didn’t hug his son enough (Nicolosi from NARTH) or it’s the mom’s fault because she wasn’t a strong role model for her daughter. Why pay someone to do that to you? Why doubt yourself and God’s guidance...
- [Exodus Ex-Gay Program Charges Parents $500 Per Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/exodus-ex-gay-program-charges-parents-500-per-day/): Distraught over your family member’s homosexuality? Perhaps the Exodus flagship live-in program “Love In Action” can help. Having recently discontinued one flawed youth program, LIA is targeting youths in other ways. One program, the so-called Family Freedom Intensive, indoctrinates parents in a four-day program of gender-role and sexual stereotypes, along with an unhealthy dose of religious judgmentalism. As LIA survivor and former ex-homosexual Peterson Toscano observes, the cost of this program is so high — $2,000 for four days — that low- and moderate-income parents need not apply … unless they read the fine print. Are you the parent of a...
- [Soulforce Announces ‘Survivor Initiative’ By Former Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/soulforce-announces-survivor-initiative-by-former-ex-gays/): Ex-gay survivors Shawn O’Donnell, Darlene Bogle and Daniel Gonzales launched the Survivor Initiative on July 2 at the headquarters of NARTH, an advocacy organization for ex-gay “therapy.” NARTH is headquartered in the office of therapist Joseph Nicolosi in Encino, Calif. Soulforce is sponsoring the initiative. Gonzales offers a brief, first-hand account of the event at Box Turtle Bulletin. Gonzales says the initiative “will continue through the month of July and highlight the stories of people affected by exgay programs.” UPDATE: Soulforce has posted video of the initiative’s press conference at NARTH headquarters.
- [Warren Throckmorton to Former Ex-Gays: What’s the Agenda?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/warren-throckmorton-to-former-ex-gays-whats-the-agenda/): In reaction to the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference, Prof. Warren Throckmorton asks former ex-gays and their organizations: What are you wanting to accomplish? Ok, a follow up question. Do you want to see your vision of reform at Exodus or do you want to see Exodus shut down? In the comments to Throckmorton’s article, Exodus President Alan Chambers chimes in with four additional questions — and Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee, who is no longer ex-gay, responds to both Throckmorton and Chambers.
- [Noli Irritare Leones: Notes From Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/noli-irritare-leones-notes-from-ex-gay-survivors-conference/): Lynn Gazis-Sax attended a portion the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference and offers numerous observations.
- [When Mother Berates You With A Bible](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/when-mom-bashes-you-with-a-bible/): The scene: A birthday dinner for your mother, just you and her, at Olive Garden. The act: Mom … who is divorced … guilt-trips you for not finding a heterosexual fiance for her to approve, tells you that you haven’t tried hard enough to be sexual with the opposite gender, trivializes your gay relationship, warns you not to explain yourself, and threatens to build a wall between you and your brothers and sisters in order to prevent you from “influencing” them. Your predicament: What can you possibly say or do in response? Writer James M. evokes the poignancy of this moment...
- [Exodus Ex-Gay Boot Camp Discontinues Live-In Youth Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/07/exodus-ex-gay-boot-camp-discontinues-live-in-youth-program/): Love In Action, the live-in program that became infamous in 2005 for subjecting a then-16-year-old teen-ager named Zach to involuntary live-in indoctrination for nearly two months, has discontinued its “Refuge” youth program. The announcement was made tonight (June 30) at the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference in Irvine, Calif. Filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox learned of the closure while contacting Love In Action’s director, Exodus board member John Smid, in connection with Fox’s upcoming movie. Fox disclosed the news in a last-minute change to a previously scheduled preview of his movie This Is What Love In Action Looks Like. This Is What Love In...
- [What Are Your Ex-Gay Experiences? What Caused Good Or Harm?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/what-are-your-ex-gay-experiences-what-caused-good-or-harm/): At the morning plenary session of the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference, former ex-gays and people with similar past experiences were presented with a blank white wall of paper. On one side of the wall, participants were invited to share their ex-gay experiences. On the other side of the wall, they were invited to share what good or harm came from their experiences. I’ll post more details about this wall later, but for now I open these questions up to comment from Ex-Gay Watch readers: What are your past and present experiences with the ex-gay movement? What good or harm have you encountered?
- [Ex-Gay Survivor Conference Opens](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/ex-gay-survivors-conference-opens/): Peterson Toscano opened the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference tonight (June 29) in Irvine, Calif., with a performance of Toscano’s one-man play, “Doin’ Time in the HomoNomo Halfway House.” The conference was co-organized by BeyondExGay.com, Soulforce, and the LGBT Resource Center at the University of California-Irvine. Among the audience, Ex-Gay Watch sighted a mix of former and current Exodus group leaders, former ex-gays, and others concerned about the potential harm caused to people by ex-gay politics and ex-gay misunderstandings of gender, sexuality, and faith. Coverage of the conference will continue this weekend.
- [Focus on the Family Now Reporting From the Future](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/focus-on-the-family-now-reporting-from-the-future/): Focus on the Family has apparently gained the ability to travel into the future and, once there, report on events which have not happened yet for the rest of us. Early yesterday they reported the following via their political mouthpiece CitizenLink: The meeting, which began Tuesday and wraps up Sunday, has drawn close to 1,000 people — and no protesters so far. Across town, a counter-conference drew about 100 people. The meeting referred to is the (32nd) Exodus Freedom Conference and the “counter-conference” is the (1st) Ex-Gay Survivor Conference, which starts today but does not end until tomorrow night (the bulk...
- [What ‘Change’ Is Possible? Former Ex-Gay Leaders Challenge Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/what-change-is-possible-former-ex-gay-leaders-challenge-exodus/): The incomparable Box Turtle Bulletin has recorded exclusive video interviews with the three former ex-gay Exodus leaders who apologized for their past ex-gay/antigay advocacy at a press conference yesterday. The apologies were aired at a press conference and reported by the Los Angeles Times. The interviews include: Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International Darlene Bogle, Paraklete Ministries, Hayward, California Jeremy Marks, former president, Exodus International Europe In further video recorded last September by filmmaker Esteban Rael (Me and God) and aired this week by Box Turtle Bulletin, Bussee explains why he co-founded Exodus, how he and his future partner came to...
- [Just In: Former Ex-Gay Leaders Apologize](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/just-in-former-ex-gay-leaders-apologize/): Source: BeyondExGay.com Leaders from Soulforce and BeyondExGay.com just completed a press conference at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. Three former ex-gay leaders issued public apologies for the roles they played in ex-gay ministries affiliated with Exodus International. They also shared portions of their personal stories. The event was covered by members of local and national news media including CNN and Azteca America .More information about the apologies, the leaders, and their statements will be released later today. I would think it likely that CNN will add this to Paula Zahn Now tonight. Update: BeyondExGay.com has posted the full text...
- [Tulsa Preacher Changes Mind on Gays, Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/tulsa-preacher-changes-mind-on-gays-ex-gays/): On CNN this week, Tulsa Pentecostal pastor Carlton Pearson described how he had a change of heart about fundamentalism after his best friend came out gay. Bishop Pearson graduated from ORU, and was well-known for his association with such charismatic superstars as Carman and Oral Roberts. At one time he headed up a 5,000-strong megachurch in Tulsa, OK, but was denounced as a heretic by fellow charismatics when he began embracing the “Gospel of Inclusion” in 2003. The one-time fundamentalist now preaches that God accepts everyone – including gays and lesbians – a message that has cost him the best part...
- [Exodus’ Alan Chambers And Warren Throckmorton on CNN Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/exodus-alan-chambers-and-warren-throckmorton-on-cnn-tonight/): CNN will be airing various segments today concerning GLBT issues, including the ex-gay angle. If you can only watch one thing, try to catch Paula Zahn Now at 8pm ET. Paula Zahn Now examining the complexities of gay and straight lifestyles, and whether a gay person can be “turned straight.” As part of her nightly feature segment Out in the Open, anchor Paula Zahn speaks with several members of the “ex-gay movement,” which consists of gay individuals who say they became straight. Paula Zahn Now airs weekdays from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Those interviewed for this segment include Exodus president...
- [PFOX Fires Another Shot Against Maryland Schools](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/pfox-fires-another-shot-against-maryland-schools/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays has joined forces yet again with Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and Family Leader Network in opposition to the Montgomery County School Board in Maryland. PFOX and its allies were unsuccessful in their efforts to stop the piloting of what they deem a “controversial” sex and health curriculum last fall, and they’ve recently petitioned the Maryland State School Board to block the full implementation of the lessons in all Rockville, Md.-area middle and high schools for the coming school year. The coalition threatens to sue the county school system if they don’t get their way, claiming...
- [Prodigal Sons: Exodus Ex-Gays Shun the Survivors](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/prodigal-sons-exodus-ex-gays-shun-the-survivors/): In a June 21 press release, ex-gay network Exodus International claimed that it “welcomes dialogue on homosexuality” when Exodus and a new network of former ex-gays hold rival conferences later this month in southern California. Exodus president Alan Chambers said: Dialogue on this issue only benefits the community and the culture at large. It is a topic worth discussing and I am happy to share my experience as a part of a much-needed exchange of thoughts on this issue. But just a day later, in a June 22 statement for Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink partisan political newsletter, Exodus executive vice...
- [Venus Magazine Editor Tells Her Story to Pat Robertson](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/venus-magazine-editor-tells-her-story-to-pat-robertson/): Charlene Cothran, the editor-in-chief of Venus Magazine who came out as an ex-gay earlier this year and proceeded to alienate her readers by turning her magazine into an ex-gay promotion piece and aligning herself with DL Foster and Peter LaBarbera, is back in the spotlight after an appearance on Pat Robertson’s CBN Network Thursday. Some quotes of particular interest: She’d grown up in a Christian home, and had come into the lesbian lifestyle at 19, after several bad relationships with boys. “I didn’t want anything to do with men anymore,” she said. “I was away at college and that was a...
- [In Brief: Culture Warriors Berate Ex-Gay Leader Over Ease of ‘Change’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/in-brief-culture-warriors-berate-ex-gay-leader-over-ease-of-change/): Box Turtle Bulletin offers coverage-in-depth of this week’s angry war of words fired by far-right culture warriors Peter LaBarbera and Stephen Bennett against Exodus International and its president, Alan Chambers. Chambers has stated for some time that “change” is slow (if it happens at all) among ex-gays. When word of this reached the mainstream press this week, LaBarbera and Bennett became outraged that their own message of easy, instantaneous heterosexuality had been undermined in some very public forums. None of the three activists has yet documented a gay past to XGW’s satisfaction, and LaBarbera in fact claims never to have been...
- [Youth Project Vanishes From Ex-Gay Flagship Program’s Web Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/youth-project-vanishes-from-ex-gay-flagship-programs-web-site/): Peterson Toscano, a survivor of Exodus’ flagship residential ex-gay program called Love In Action, commended Exodus this week for what he perceives to be public gestures toward ethical and spiritual renewal. But in doing so, Toscano accidentally discovered that what’s not happening may be more important. In the past few years Exodus has intentionally shifted their focus to target youth with their own Exodus Youth MySpace page and of course Love in Action’s Refuge program. As of this moment if you go to the Refuge site, www.asafeplace.org, it looks much more understated than I ever remember it. I cannot easily find...
- [Former Ex-Gays Invite Ex-Gay Leadership to Private Dinner](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/former-ex-gays-invite-ex-gay-leadership-to-dinner/): Christine Bakke and Peterson Toscano are co-founders of Beyond Ex-Gay and co-hosts (with Soulforce) of an ex-gay survivors’ conference scheduled to coincide with the Exodus annual conference at the end of June. Bakke and Toscano have invited the ex-gay leadership of Exodus International to a private dinner June 29. Their open letter to Exodus is posted at the Beyond Ex-Gay web site. Here’s an excerpt: Too often once we leave your programs, you never hear about our lives and what happens to us. Most ministries do not have aftercare programs or any formal means to follow-up on participants. Some stories you...
- [In Brief: AFA Now the Stuff of Urban Legends](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/in-brief-afa-now-the-stuff-of-urban-legends/): The American Family Association (AFA) continues to sing in the chorus of propaganda against the pending Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 1592). Their email pleas have become so numerous and shrill that Snopes.com has added one of their recent Action Alerts to it’s database of Urban Legends. For those not familiar, Snopes.com investigates the various wild emails you may get, more often than not forwarded to you from that particular friend or relative who seems to believe everything is a conspiracy. They research the claims, try to determine their origin and list them on their website with a determination as to...
- [Canada: Ex-gays Demand Hearing In Anglican Gay Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/canada-ex-gays-demand-hearing-in-anglican-gay-debate/): Anglican ex-gay group Zacchaeus Fellowship is demanding its say when the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada meets to vote on whether to allow same-sex blessings. At last year’s Synod, a motion to include “those who identify as ex-gay or lesbian” in the 2007 debate was defeated, to which the Fellowship responded with the following plea (in a statement signed by Mario Bergner, among others): Our voices have been silenced and not heard in the Anglican Church of Canada; you have not paid heed to us. Today, we ask that you would not betray us by passing these motions...
- [LA Times: Is ‘Change’ Bypassing Ex-Gay Leadership?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/06/la-times-is-change-bypassing-ex-gay-leadership/): With years of “therapy,” Exodus president Alan Chambers says, he has mostly conquered his own attraction to men. And he will no doubt emphasize his “heterosexuality” at Exodus’ annual conference in southern California at the end of this month. (A conference of survivors of ex-gay programs will be held nearby.) But today’s Los Angeles Times reports that Chambers has “come to resent the term ‘ex-gay’: It’s too neat, implying a clean break with the past, when he still struggles at times with homosexual temptation. ‘By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.'” Reporter Stephanie Simon sees...
- [Wendy Gritter of Exodus Member Ministry New Direction](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/wendy-gritter-of-exodus-member-ministry-new-direction/): Recently we became aware of Wendy Gritter’s keynote talk (mp3) at the Exodus leadership conference in January. Wendy is the executive director of an Exodus member ministry in Canada called New Direction. While it is what most here would describe as an ex-gay ministry, many things about it are unexpected. For one, you won’t find them using that term, “ex-gay” or many others associated with an Exodus ministry. Whether this is for show, or a sincere attempt to be different, you are free to explore here. Many of her suggestions echo our own pleas to ex-gay ministries over the years; stop...
- [Beyond Ex-Gay Arrives in Memphis](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/beyond-ex-gay-arrives-in-memphis/): Peterson Toscano reported Wednesday on his arrival in Memphis for Beyond Ex-Gay’s Deconstructing the Ex-Gay Myth — A Weekend of Action & Art, which begins today. Two local media outlets have reported on the event: the Memphis Flyer published an interview with Toscano yesterday, while the Memphis Commercial Appeal featured fellow Love In Action survivor Jacob Wilson. Focus on the Family, whose Love Won Out roadshow rolls into Memphis on Saturday, will no doubt point to the local press’ greater interest in Beyond Ex-Gay’s event as an example of anti-Christian media bias, yet Focus’ own reporting displays far less objectivity than...
- [In Brief: Clear Thinking on Hate Crimes From ESPN](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/in-brief-clear-thinking-on-hate-crimes-from-espn/): Senior ESPN Writer LZ Granderson recounts his own frightening experience with a mob in New Orleans that started with taunts of “faggot.” Granderson is gay and also often writes about social issues surrounding sports on ESPN Page 2, where this story can be found. As I walked by the group of men — on my way to the Playboy party, no less — one of them called me a faggot. Then another joined in. They followed me for a while, continuing to hurl names at me. I tried to ignore it but eventually the “Detroit” came out of me and I...
- [Ex-gay Audio Discussion At Interfaith Voices](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/ex-gay-audio-discussion-at-interfaith-voices/): There is a new interview and discussion of the ex-gay issue from both major angles at InterfaithVoices.org.  Peterson Toscano discusses how his life was harmed by the process, after which no change was evident.  Alan Calhoun, group leader from Regeneration Ministries discusses his shame over being gay, and his experience with ex-gay ministry personally. Dr. Michelle Wolkomir is interviewed over the material in her new book, Do Not Be Deceived: The Sacred and Sexual Struggles of Gay and Ex-gay Christian Men in which she studies an Exodus member ministry. The discussion, which starts approx 23 minutes in (you can easily scan...
- [Ex-Gay ‘Touch Therapy’ Leads to Sexual Assault Conviction](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/ex-gay-touch-therapy-leads-to-sexual-assault-conviction/): Source: Winnipeg Sun The story is a familiar one. A young man is found by family to be sexually attracted to men and coerced through a fear of hell to seek “therapy” to go straight. This is the story that led a young Canadian man to seek out the help of Terrance Lewis, a minister and (former) counselor at Providence College and Seminary. The man said Lewis started a program of “touch therapy,” which included the two kissing and fondling each other and engaging in sexual roleplaying. “He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would...
- [Open Thread: It’s All Because the Gays Are Getting Married](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/open-thread-its-all-because-the-gays-are-getting-married/): A rather creative video to demonstrate the folly of blaming the fall of the Western World on gay marriage. [brief underwear clip]
- [Auf Wiedersehen](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/auf-wiedersehen/): I founded the Ex-Gay Watch web site in 2002 to promote new voices in the social dialogue regarding so-called ex-gays. After two years of writing 20 hours per week (or more) about ex-gay political activists, I began to run out of energy and time. XGW could have ended right there, but two excellent writer/researchers — Daniel Gonzales and Timothy Kincaid — stepped in, rescued Ex-Gay Watch, and took the project to the next level. At a time before “Make it work!” became a popular catchphrase, that’s what Daniel and Timothy did — spectacularly. XGW further evolved with the issues and changing...
- [New Book Reveals Depth of Anglican Mainstream’s Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/new-book-reveals-depth-of-anglican-mainstreams-homophobia/): When I ordered God, Gays and the Church, I was – perhaps quite naively – not prepared for the egregious level of homophobia contained in its pages. Released yesterday to coincide with the gay debate at the Church of England Synod, the book is a compendium of essays about homosexuality and ex-gays, here re-termed “post-gays”. It is published by The Latimer Trust, and edited by Lisa Nolland, Chris Sugden and Sarah Finch of the UK-based Anglican Mainstream. The book argues that the debate has been too heavily slanted towards gay experience, and promises to redress the balance by telling the stories...
- [Gay to Straight in One Weekend!](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/gay-to-straight-in-one-weekend/): A critique of the Journey Into Manhood claims of change. Recently, People Can Change issued a press release (PDF) suggesting 79% of respondents reported (PDF) a decrease in frequency or intensity of homosexual feelings as a result of participating in a Journey Into Manhood weekend retreat. Furthermore, in supporting documents, they indicate 13% of the respondents now consider themselves to be straight, all thanks to a two-day retreat. However, as with so many other claims of change, they are without any substance. People Can Change queried 500 men who had participated in the retreats ranging from 6 months to 5.5 years...
- [The Intolerance of ‘Love In Action’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/the-intolerance-of-love-in-action/): Reverend John Smid, one of the founders and now president and CEO of Love In Action (LIA), recently claimed homosexuals are intolerant of those who wish to seek “change” of their sexual orientation. There are many people within that community who are very intolerant of people who choose to walk away from it,” says Smid. “And I find that some of the people like that are unsupportive of someone who says, “I want to be free from homosexuality, I want to walk away from this lifestyle. Or I want to live sexually celibate and free, or I want to pursue marriage.”...
- [UK Anglicans Launch Book Against Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/uk-anglicans-launch-book-against-gays/): Conservative Anglicans are launching a new book to coincide with the homosexuality debate at this week’s General Synod of the Church of England. God, Gays and the Church will feature ex-gay testimonies, along with contributions by biblical scholar Robert Gagnon and the increasingly discredited Dr Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH. Chapter titles include “Post-Gay: The Transforming Power of God,” “Post-Lesbian: My Testimony” and “Same Sex Attraction. Is it innate and immutable?”. The launch comes the week after the Bishop of Liverpool, the Church of England’s leading evangelical, broke ranks with conservatives by drawing attention to same-sex relationships in the Bible and calling...
- [Example of NARTH’s ‘Very Conventional Therapy’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/example-of-narths-very-conventional-therapy/): The mysterious “Doug Narthian” has created another parody (link above) which should require very little explanation. As with most good parody, there is a healthy dose of sarcasm, but only as much as is appropriate to illustrate a contrary point of view. In this case, the subject really does deserve the attention.
- [Australia: Christian Leaders Apologize to Gay Community](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/australia-christian-leaders-apologize-to-gay-community/): Over 100 Christian ministers will be showing their support for Australia’s gay and lesbian community by marching in this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras parade. The multi-denominational group, which calls itself 100 Revs, has issued a formal apology for the Church’s mistreatment of gays, confessing that Christians have been “profoundly unloving” towards homosexuals: As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people, For these things we apologise. We are deeply sorry and ask the forgiveness of the...
- [Bishop Signals Hope for Same-Sex Relationships: A Way Forward for Ex-Gays?](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/bishop-signals-hope-for-same-sex-relationships-a-way-forward-for-ex-gays/): The Bishop of Liverpool has apologized for his part in opposing the proposed appointment of openly gay cleric Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. The Right Reverend James Jones – perhaps the Church of England’s most prominent evangelical bishop – has also drawn attention to God-sanctioned same-sex relationships in the Bible, describing the story of David and Jonathan as a “witness to love between two people of the same gender,” and signalling an openness to more dialogue on the subject. Jones was one of nine Anglican bishops to put his name to a letter publicly opposing Jeffrey John’s consecration in 2005....
- [Beyond Ex-Gay Regional Event in Memphis](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/beyond-ex-gay-regional-event-in-memphis/): Beyond Ex-Gay, in conjunction with the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center, will be holding an art show and local gathering February 22-24.  The schedule and other details are available here; events will include the Ex-Gay Survivor Art Show, two performances by Peterson Toscano and a preview of Morgan Fox’s new film, This Is What Love In Action Looks Like. The event will provide a counterpoint to Love Won Out, which is holding a conference in Memphis on the 23rd. Daniel Gonzales has created a video ad for the event:
- [How Alex Learned Shame in Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s ‘Grey Zone’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/how-alex-learned-shame-in-dr-joseph-nicolosis-grey-zone/): A few days ago, we posted about a video parody which illustrates the profoundly general nature of one of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s (NARTH) personal theories — the “Grey Zone.” Essentially, this is supposed to be a grief state when one feels really bad, then seeks to act out homosexually in an attempt to feel better. Nicolosi uses a lot more space and Freudian overtones to explain it, but that’s basically it. Even to the layman, it’s obvious that this pattern could fit any number of moods and behaviors, most having absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality. The parody was amusing and...
- [Jewish Ex-Gay Organization JONAH Refuses to Respond](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/jewish-ex-gay-organization-jonah-refuses-to-respond/): Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), whose “alternatives” are not new and aren’t that Jewish, has a lot to answer for. That’s why not long ago I sent them the following email: My name is Emily Kesselman and I’m a writer for Ex-Gay Watch (www.exgaywatch.com). I author articles under the pseudonym “Emily K” and specialize in researching the Jewish end of the ex-gay spectrum. I have some questions that I would love for you to take the time to answer, because I want to report only the facts on your organization. In turn, I request permission to publish the answers...
- [Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH Demonstrates the ‘Grey Zone’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/dr-joseph-nicolosi-of-narth-demonstrates-the-grey-zone/): In what appears to be a parody reference to one of the videos recently added to the website of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), someone using the nickname “planetnarth” has posted the video linked above to Youtube. We received an email, presumably from the same person, notifying us of it and so we are sharing it with you. The parody, which appears to share some audio from this video, effectively illustrates the vague and unscientific nature of Nicolosi’s theories. As we have noted before, many such theories are based on little more than opinion and...
- [In Brief: South American Webmaster Goes Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/in-brief-south-american-webmaster-goes-ex-gay/): BGay News reports that Victor Jorquera, founder of GayChile.com, has renounced his “shameful” orientation and aligned himself with the fundamentalist Biblical Missionary Church of Paraguay. Reminiscent of Charlene Cothran’s decision to turn Venus Magazine into an ex-gay propaganda piece, GayChile.com now features an evangelistic message stating that “God loves you and wants to forgive you although [you] have committed the more “horrible” of the aberrations” (text translated to English via FreeTranslation.com). VivirLatino wonders “if Jorquera is still making money off the traffic of his “shameful” readers who don’t know he’s turned the site into a trap where he hopes to “convert”...
- [Beyond Ex-Gay Calls for Artists](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/beyond-ex-gay-calls-for-artists/): Beyond Ex-Gay and the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center will be hosting an art exhibition in February, and are calling for ex-gay survivors, and their friends and families to submit their artwork. All types of visual art are welcome, including “drawings, painting, collage, mixed media, photography, or multimedia.” The deadline is Wednesday February 13, and the exhibition will be held in Memphis from February 22 to 24. For more information, including how to submit your artwork, see Peterson Toscano’s blog, here.
- [LDS President & Prophet Gordon Hinckley Dies At 97](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/lds-president-prophet-gordon-hinckley-dies-at-97/): The worldwide leader and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away earlier this week at the age of 97. Gordon B Hinckley had been the 15th President of the Church, popularly known as the Mormons, since 1995. In 1999, Hinckley said the following at the General Conference of the Church: Our opposition to attempts to legalize same-sex marriage should never be interpreted as justification for hatred, intolerance or abuse of those who profess homosexual tendencies, either individually or as a group. We love and honor them as sons and daughters of God. They are welcome...
- [A New Writer Arrives At Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/a-new-writer-arrives-at-ex-gay-watch/): We would like to introduce Yuki Choe, a commenter turned writer at XGW. Some may know her already from her thoughtful comments, but for those who don’t she has written an introduction which follows. Please join us in welcoming her to the site! Introduction Greetings everyone! I am YukiChoe, and I am an Asian transsexual female with strong interests in ex-gay related issues. I will be living in Australia soon with my newly wedded husband. I became involved with Real Love Ministry in Malaysia back in mid 2006, and was quickly disillusioned with their camouflaged, anti-gay, anti-transgender rhetoric. I was also...
- [The Fighting Words of Michael Brown](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/the-fighting-words-of-michael-brown/): Tough-talking Pentecostal Dr Michael Brown is the latest Christian leader to be added to Love Won Out’s roster of conference speakers. In this article, we profile Dr Brown, and ask whether the ex-gay movement’s newest friend might only drag it deeper into “culture wars”. Who is Brown? Brown is an Old Testament scholar, a revivalist, a Pentecostal apologist, an evangelist to Jews and an unabashed moral crusader. He is President of the FIRE School of Ministry, a non-denominational Charismatic Christian training college that grew out of the controversial “Brownsville Revival” (also known as the “Pensacola Outpouring”) of the 1990s. After a...
- [Exodus Vice President Randy Thomas Links Civil Rights for Gays to Wealth](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/randy-thomas-gay-communitys-affluence-disqualifies-them-from-civil-rights-protection/): Gays are too wealthy and successful to be discriminated against, according to Randy Thomas’ January 14th blog post. I think everyone deserves the same basic set of civil rights across the board. However, many gay activists proclaim that they deserve special civil rights protections for just about any legislative battle that they pitch. The Civil Rights act of 1964 lays out three criteria for protected class status: [emphasis mine] 1. Immutable Characteristics 2. Proven widespread pattern of discrimination 3. Economic Disenfranchisement Homosexuality is far from proven immutable. There isn’t a proven widespread pattern of discrimination for those who identify as gay...
- [Exodus International’s New Advertisement: Polished But Hollow](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/exodus-internationals-new-advertisement-polished-but-hollow/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCV1Y8WkZKI Exodus International has begun advertising for its 2008 conference. Its new video, posted above, is slickly produced, but as one might expect from a two-minute ad it contains little of substance. Like most of Exodus’ advertising, the video makes use of buzzwords like “change” and “freedom” without making any effort to define them. Alan Chambers does explain in one clip that change doesn’t come without struggle, but viewers unfamiliar with Exodus’ word games would be excused for concluding that they (or their gay friend or family member) need merely to persevere through a little hardship to achieve heterosexuality. In terms...
- [Paranoia Increasing At Narth](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/paranoia-increasing-at-narth/): 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....
- [In Brief: Abomination](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/in-brief-abomination/): The Bay Area Reporter reviews Abomination, Alicia Salzer’s recent documentary examining the claims of the ex-gay movement. Dr Salzer, a New York psychiatrist, was the subject of controversy last year over remarks she made on The Montel Williams Show.
- [Exodus Ramps Up Its Church Network Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/exodus-ramps-up-its-church-network-program/): Family News in Focus reported Wednesday on Exodus International’s church network initiative. Exodus hopes to grow its network, launched in 2006, from its current membership of 70 churches to 10,000 by 2010. The network offers training and resources to churches seeking to provide a conservative evangelical approach to “reach[ing] out to those struggling with their sexual identity.” According to Exodus’ website, churches must meet the following requirements to join the network: 1. The Church must express agreement with Exodus’ doctrinal and policy statements. 2. The Church must designate a contact person for this area of ministry, and that contact person and...
- [A Case for Banning Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/a-case-for-banning-reparative-therapy/): Warren Throckmorton recently posted excepts from an article by social psychologist Carol Tavris called Mind Games: Psychological Warfare Between Therapists and Scientists (The Chronicle of Higher Education, paid account only). The point was made that, by and large, therapists are not scientists. There is such a “split between the research and practice wings of psychology,” that much of what we came to think of as fact over the past decades — simply because therapists said it was — turned out not to be so. Here are some examples from the original quote: Low self-esteem causes aggressiveness, drug use, prejudice, and low...
- [Dr Patrick Chapman Responds to Drs Jones And Yarhouse](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/dr-patrick-chapman-responds-to-drs-jones-and-yarhouse/): Dr. Chapman gives his concluding remarks in a series which began with his three part critique of Ex-gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation by Dr Stanton Jones and Dr Mark Yarhouse. What follows is a response to the author’s comments on the original critique. We thank all three for their participation. I appreciate Dr Stanton Jones’ willingness to exchange comments on his recent co-authored book and for the spirit of collegiality that is represented in the exchange. Bias is an issue that all researchers are subject to and strive to overcome. It is sometimes difficult to...
- [UK Gay Activist Dies At 98](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/uk-gay-activist-dies-at-98/): Dr James Hemming, a child psychologist, humanist and gay rights campaigner, has died at the age of 98. He was Vice President of GALHA, the UK’s Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, as well as a former President of the British Humanist Association. In the 1980s, he was an outspoken critic of Section 28, the inisidiously discriminatory Tory legislation that effectively robbed gays and lesbians of respect and tolerance in British schools. The law was finally repealed in 2003. Hemming passed away in Kingston upon Thames, England, on 25 December.
- [Ex-Gay Survivor Testimony: Eric Leocadio](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/ex-gay-survivor-testimoney-eric-leocadio/): Daniel Gonzales of Box Turtle Bulletin took his camera with him to see Eric Leocadio of Two World Collision and came away with some great video testimony. Much of this echoed my own life and Eric tells it with his usual sweet, humble manner. He explains his journey through Ex-Gay programs Desert Stream and Living Waters, and the despair of having Christian friends distance themselves from him as he “came out.” Do you see yourself in any of this? “Suicide & The Porcelain Punisher” – Part 1
- [Evangelicals Remain Fixated on Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/01/evangelicals-remain-fixated-on-homosexuality/): The Christian Post listed homosexuality as the #4 story in its Top 10 Christian News of ’07 review, ahead of the passing of Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy (#6), the joint calls for peace and “common ground” by Muslim and Christian leaders (#7), the negative image that most young Americans now have of the evangelical church (#8) and the chronic problems of poverty and disease around the world (not on the list). Only the rise of “militant atheism,” Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid and Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith ranked higher. Among the news items mentioned were the APA’s decision to review...
- [Open Forum: Reflections on the Old, Wishes for the New](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/open-forum-reflections-on-the-old-wishes-for-the-new/): At the suggestion of XGW commenter cowboy, here is an open forum to discuss any loose ends from 2007, or hopes and dreams for 2008. We can start with cowboy’s: I’m not going to make some transitory quest to fit back into my college-days jeans or resolve to get my taxes done early this year. I want happiness. Okay…I’ll settle for some contentment on some level with being single. But celibacy is not a long-term option for me. Would a lodge-styled mansion in Wilson, Wyoming and a partner like the Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Brokeback Mountain be asking for too much...
- [The Forward Program: More of the Same?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/the-forward-program-more-of-the-same/): Although Exodus International and its affiliate ministries are often perceived by the general public as a unified entity, Exodus does not, in fact, speak for its affiliates except on a very broad level. Educational curricula and counseling techniques can vary widely from ministry to ministry, as can political stances and “non-essential” doctrinal positions. Some curricula are available to those wishing to run an ex-gay ministry, however, including Bill Consiglio’s one-year, fifteen topic Forward Program, for which a leader training workshop will be offered in January, as advertised on Exodus’ events page. Dr. Consiglio is a semi-retired Christian counselor and the founder...
- [Pat Robertson: Why Is 2% Worth Protecting Against Hate?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/pat-robertson-why-is-2-worth-protecting-against-hate/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvPGZ56LBd8 Pat Robertson’s really reaching with his preaching in the latest episode of the 700 Club. According to him, laws protecting LGBT persons are not appropriate because gays and lesbians make up such a small part of the population: (beginning at 1:10 in the video) Maximum- maximum – 2% of our population could consider themselves gay or homosexual, and about 1% would consider themselves lesbian. That’s it! … There’s one thing about having ten, fifteen percent or twenty percent of our population being discriminated against, that’s a different matter. By Pat’s logic, Jews should not be protected under hate crimes laws...
- [Dissenting Bishop Cites Ex-Gay Ministry As Influence, Denies Ever Being Homosexual](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/dissenting-bishop-cites-ex-gay-ministry-as-influence-denies-ever-being-homosexual/): The Bishop of San Joaquin, California is leading his diocese out of the Episcopal Church in protest at the Church’s increasing acceptance of gays and lesbians. The Right Reverend John-David Schofield previously attributed his views on homosexuality to his experience of Fresno-based ex-gay group New Creation Ministries. Although he has been candid about his support for ex-gay ministry, Schofield denies claims that he is or ever has been homosexual. A 1995 newsletter from Voice of Integrity, a pro-gay Episcopalian group, said the Bishop “told members of his clergy that he was a “cured homosexual”.” The publication carried the headline “Bishop outs...
- [Former Ex-Gay Minister Recounts “Spiritual Rape” By Living Waters/Desert Stream](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/former-ex-gay-minister-recounts-spiritual-rape-by-living-watersdesert-stream/): Growing up in a 1960’s conservative evangelical home, Scott Harrison not only knew homosexuality was a sin, he knew it was “the worst sin a person could do. It was worse than murder.” He described to the Southern Poverty Law Center the exorcism delivered upon him by a minister at Living Waters/Desert Stream [see edit below], a neo-Pentecostal ex-gay ministry. After a “very intense, dramatic” group prayer that lasted three hours, Harrison found himself “drenched in sweat” and “psychologically wounded.” Because of “how it happened and the incorrectness of the theology,” it “felt like a spiritual rape” to him. Harrison was...
- [Response to Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Critique of ‘Ex-Gays’ - Part 3](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/response-to-dr-patrick-m-chapmans-critique-of-ex-gays-part-3/): Response to Part 3 of Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Review of “Ex-Gays”, posted on Ex-Gay Watch, November, 2007, by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. Response to “Part 3: A Focus on the Results — Examining if it is Harmful” In this final response, Chapman raises a number of interesting questions, but again continues 1) applying a pattern of logic and argument that would, if applied broadly in the mental health field, establish self-defeating and unsustainable implications for the entire field and 2) on that basis then highlighting isolated findings and anecdotes as if they refute the broader pattern of...
- [Crazy For God: An Evangelical Icon Speaks Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/crazy-for-god-an-evangelical-icon-speaks-out/): Francis Schaeffer is a name that commands automatic respect in most evangelical circles. His book, How Shall We Then Live?, and its companion video series, have been credited as the primary catalysts that led to the formation of the religious right and the politicization of the evangelical church. Now, however, Schaeffer’s son Frank (an evangelical celebrity in his own right) has come forward to set the record straight with his new book, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. In...
- [Stephen Bennett Seeks to Profit From Huckabee AIDS Issue](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/stephen-bennett-seeks-to-profit-from-huckabee-aids-issue/): Whenever something remotely gay or ex-gay hits the headlines, Stephen Bennett is there pandering with a press release. He so desperately wants to be relevant, and yet he just isn’t. At times I actually feel sorry for him. Responding to media questions about presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee’s 1992 statement on isolating those with HIV/AIDS, one can almost see Bennett jumping up and down like an attention-starved puppy as he issues yet another press release. This time he bills himself as “a worldwide Christian support community for parents with children who are homosexual, HIV positive or children who have died from complications...
- [SPLC Intelligence Report On The Ex-Gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/splc-intelligence-report-on-the-ex-gay-movement/): The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has posted an excellent, detailed report on the state of the ex-gay, or “sexual reorientation therapy” movement. It touches on most of the important issues of concern, and should be a catalyst for more debate. Let’s take the following as a foundation for our view of sexual reorientation therapy: Reparative or sexual reorientation therapy, the pseudo-scientific foundation of the ex-gay movement, has been discredited by virtually all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations. The American Psychological Association, for instance, declared in 2006: “There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual...
- [Open Forum: Earning God’s Love And Forgiveness](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/open-forum-earning-gods-love-and-forgiveness/): One of the most basic beliefs of the Christian faith is that Jesus died so that sinners did not have to do anything to earn God’s forgiveness and love. Exodus International, being a Christian organization, believes just that: We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Because of Jesus, we don’t have to worry about screwing up and falling out of favor with God, and we don’t ever have to try to earn God’s...
- [Response to Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Critique of ‘Ex-Gays’ - Part 2](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/response-to-dr-patrick-m-chapmans-critique-of-ex-gays-part-2/): Response to Part 2 of Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Review of “Ex-Gays”, posted on Ex-Gay Watch, November, 2007, by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. Response to “Part 2: A Focus on the Results — Examining if Change is Possible” Here in Part 2 Dr. Chapman’s criticisms turn more severe. First he asserts that ours is not a long term study. Again, his logic is questionable, and the problem of incomplete citation of our argument is significant. Chapman says “In the opening chapter Jones and Yarhouse honestly and correctly state this study cannot establish if long-term, permanent and enduring change...
- [In Brief: A New Way to Save the Planet](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/in-brief-a-new-way-to-save-the-planet/): Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink reports that, according to a new study, married households are more environmentally friendly: By examining data from 12 countries, Jiangua “Jack” Liu, senior author of the study, and his associate Eunice Yu, found that married households are more efficient with water, energy and land use. On the other hand, divorced couples require an extra 38 million rooms and spend 46 percent more per capita on electricity and 56 percent more on water than married couples. Although the CitizenLink article focused primarily on the environmental impact of divorced couples, the same data would seem to apply to...
- [Open Forum: How Best to Support Same-Sex-Attracted Sexual Strugglers](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/open-forum-how-best-to-support-same-sex-attracted-sexual-strugglers/): Ex-Gay Watch often points out how specific ex-gay programs worsen sexual struggle and emotional and spiritual trauma rather than curing it. It also documents how some ex-gay programs exploit strugglers for selfish political or financial gain. But it’s less often that we clearly spell out appropriate, constructive steps that strugglers and their supporters can take. What can XGW and other gay-tolerant groups do to support people whose values require them to remain celibate outside of heterosexual marriage, or who need assistance to reduce unhealthy compulsions or depression?
- [XGW Site Maintenance](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/12/xgw-site-maintenance/): Between this evening and tomorrow, you may experience some issues with our site.  You may not be able to browse to us, or the content may not be updated correctly.  This is due to a server move/upgrade and shouldn’t cause much trouble, but we wanted you to know. If you experience any unusual site-related problems after Sunday, please tell us. Thank you.
- [Response to Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Critique of ‘Ex-Gays’ - Part 1](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/response-to-dr-patrick-m-chapmans-critique-of-ex-gays/): Response to Part 1 of Dr. Patrick M. Chapman’s Review of “Ex-Gays”, posted on Ex-Gay Watch, November, 2007, by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. The greatest compliment that be paid to any work of scholarship is for it to receive serious consideration and generate discussion. Thus, we are pleased to see the review by Dr. Chapman of our book, Ex-gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. Chapman raises important issues, but in the end, we must conclude that his review fails to establish the serious flaws he claims in our study. Response to “Part 1:...
- [Ex-Gays Initiated Into Manhood Through New Warriors Training Adventure](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/ex-gays-initiated-into-manhood-through-new-warriors-training-adventure/): In an attempt to turn ex-gays into real men, some in the ex-gay camp recommend a weekend retreat called New Warriors Training Adventure to their clients. An interesting and enlightening discussion of the New Warriors program can be read at Dr. Warren Throckmorton’s blog , where the following retreat activities are described as taken from a recent article in the Houston Press. • Blindfolded walking tours in the nude; • People blowing sage smoke in his face while 50 or so naked men danced around candles; • Men sitting naked in a circle discussing their sexual histories while passing a wooden...
- [Letter Recalls Richard Cohen’s Shocking Behavior At Exodus Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/letter-recalls-richard-cohens-shocking-behavior-at-exodus-conference/): Recently, we received a copy of a letter sent by Exodus president Alan Chambers to members of a parents group earlier this year. While the source wishes to remain anonymous, we have verified it as authentic. In the letter, Chambers describes the first and last time ex-gay guru Richard Cohen was invited to participate in an Exodus Annual Freedom Conference in 2000. During that conference, Cohen taught a workshop on holding therapy. During that class, which I attended, he asked for a volunteer to demonstrate on. His volunteer was a seasoned Exodus leader. This leader was instructed by Mr. Cohen to...
- [A Critique of Jones And Yarhouse’s ‘Ex-gays?’ - Part 3](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/a-critique-of-jones-and-yarhouses-ex-gays-part-3/): A guest post By Patrick M. Chapman, PhD Continued from Part 2 A Focus on the Results — Examining if it is Harmful The American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association regard attempts to change sexual orientation as “potentially” harmful or risky. However, Jones and Yarhouse misrepresent the American Psychological Association as saying that such involvement “would be” harmful (p. 353) or “is highly likely” to be harmful (p. 365). Likewise, the authors state they are examining whether the change process is “always” harmful (p. 19), “potentially” harmful (p. 77), or “likely to be harmful” (p. 77). They conclude there is...
- [Psychiatrists Warn Church of England to Reject Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/psychiatrists-warn-church-of-england-to-reject-reparative-therapy/): A report recently presented to Anglicans in the UK has warned that therapy to change sexual orientation is based on unproven methods and can cause severe damage. In its submission to the Church of England’s Listening Exercise on Human Sexuality, the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote that therapists who attribute their clients’ mental health problems to their sexuality are likely to cause “considerable distress.” The report went on to say: A small minority of therapists will even go so far as to attempt to change their client’s sexual orientation. This can be deeply damaging. Although there is now a number of...
- [Jewish Ex-Gay Group Supports Therapist Who Wants Jews to Convert](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/jewish-ex-gay-group-supports-therapist-who-wants-jews-to-convert/): Despite the fact that it was revealed that half of their library is made up of Christian literature, and their online resource center is padded with articles from Christian therapists and counselors, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) strives to provide ex-gay therapy to an exclusively Jewish clientele. Christian ex-gay group Exodus International’s Alan Medinger has contributed six articles, more than any other writer, to JONAH’s online library, including one that needed to be “adapted” from its original Christian context (PDF) to be easy on Jewish eyes. Clearly, JONAH considers him to be a good resource – so imagine the...
- [Ex-Gay Therapy Spreads to Egypt](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/ex-gay-therapy-spreads-to-egypt/): As reported by AlArabiyah.net: Dr. Awsam Wasfi, 42, offers a “treatment program” for gays that focuses on boosting their self-esteem and enhancing their communication skills, as well as encouraging them to play sports and work on their religious beliefs. In what could be a soundbite from NARTH or a Love Won Out conference, Dr. Wasfi asserts that “No child is born homosexual. It is either social or as a result of some childhood sexual abuse.”While the ex-gay approach has yet to gain widespread acceptance in the Islamic world, it’s not difficult to envision a Muslim version of Exodus taking root in...
- [Video: A Look Back At Ex-Gay Survivor Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/video-a-look-back-at-ex-gay-survivor-conference/): Brian Murphy, a Soulforce Equality Rider, attended the Ex-Gay Survivor Conference that was co-sponsored by Soulforce, Beyond Ex-Gay and the LGBT Resource Center at the University of California-Irvine. Murphy, a filmmaker, interviewed fellow attendees and taped footage of various conference activities including the Chalk Talk, a time of written expression and reflection. Watch Murphy’s complete film: [googlevideo]https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6813300738108451537[/googlevideo] Three-minute trailer: Brian Murphy’s weblog: All Points In Between
- [Video Preview: ‘This Is What Love In Action Looks Like’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/video-this-is-what-love-in-action-is-like/): Filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox has released an extended preview for the feature-length documentary, “This Is What Love In Action Looks Like.” According to the filmmaker: In the summer of 2005, a 16-year-old from Memphis, Tenn., wrote on his MySpace blog about his parents sending him to a “Fundamentalist Christian” program that claimed to offer “freedom from homosexuality.” What followed is a modern-day message in a bottle, as teen-agers in the local community stood up for their friend with daily protests which eventually grew to include a plethora of individuals demonstrating at the facility in what would become an international news story....
- [A Critique of Jones And Yarhouse’s ‘Ex-gays?’ - Part 2](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/a-critique-of-jones-and-yarhouses-ex-gays-part-2/): A guest post By Patrick M. Chapman, PhD Continued from Part 1 A Focus on the Results — Examining if Change is Possible In the opening chapter Jones and Yarhouse honestly and correctly state this study cannot establish if long-term, permanent and enduring change occurs because that would require a long-term study (p. 17). Contrarily, they later suggest the results demonstrate sexual orientation is changeable (pp. 42, 325), evidenced by 11 “Success: Conversion” cases out of the original 98. The conclusion is unwarranted because: 1) they acknowledge multiple anecdotal cases from previous “ex-gay” success stories who later recanted their “conversion” to...
- [UK Charismatic Leader: Sexual Abuse Causes “Spirit” of Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/uk-charismatic-leader-sexual-abuse-causes-spirit-of-homosexuality/): A Christian leader in the UK says that sexual abuse is the most common cause of homosexuality, and that when a demon is asked to leave, so does homosexual desire. Jill Southern of Ellel Ministries told the Eastern Malaysian Daily Express last month: It’s a lie to say you are born homosexual. It is usually a result of homosexual abuse in very early childhood when they were wrongly touched but there are other possible causes such as gender confusion and rejection by a peer group as a ‘weakling’. Sexual abuse causes an ungodly “soul tie” with the abuser, which in turn...
- [A Critique of Jones And Yarhouse’s ‘Ex-gays?’ - Part 1](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/a-critique-of-jones-and-yarhouses-ex-gays-part-1/): A guest post By Patrick M. Chapman, PhD Introduction and Methods As an academic with a PhD in biological anthropology, and as someone who tried for over a decade to change my sexual orientation, I approached with interest and skepticism the new Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse book, Ex-gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. By studying participants in the Exodus International ex-gay ministries the authors intended to answer two questions: 1) can a homosexual orientation be “healed,” specifically can a person change their orientation using religious-based therapy, and 2) are attempts at change harmful...
- [Ex-Gay Therapist James Phelan Removed From Exodus Referral List](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/ex-gay-therapist-james-phelan-removed-from-exodus-referral-list/): Dr. James E. Phelan recently caused quite a stir with a disturbing and somewhat gleeful report on his blog about having “one-two drop kicked the hell out of” a man in the Columbus Marathon. Phelan had heckled a gay group, one of many who had gathered alongside the road to cheer the runners on. The victim of his drop kick had protested this by allegedly shoving Phelan. No one we contacted remembered such an event so we can’t confirm or deny what happened. Phelan himself confided that the police had not been notified. In the mean time, we noticed that Phelan’s...
- [James Holsinger May Become Surgeon General Soon](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/james-holsinger-may-become-surgeon-general-soon/): Frank Lockwood at the Bible Belt Blogger seems to think Surgeon General appointee Dr. James Holsinger is preparing for a recess appointment. Lockwood reports that Holsinger has just resigned from the board of trustees of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Ky, and has mentioned the recess appointment plans to others. Holsinger’s nomination, opposed by several leading Democrats, has stalled in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. But Holsinger is telling people the president plans to appoint him to the post anyway once the Congress goes into its holiday recess, a well-connected Wilmore source says. Jim Burroway at the Box Turtle...
- [Beyond Ex-Gay On The Radio Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/beyond-ex-gay-on-the-radio-tonight/): Peterson Toscano is reporting that he and Christine Bakke will be on the Strictly Confidential radio program tonight at 9pm ET. You can listen to the live stream here at that time.
- [Protest Against DC Sex Ed Curriculum Raises Questions](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/protest-against-dc-sex-ed-curriculum-raises-questions/): According to Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink, The Washington, D.C., Board of Education will vote next month on “Healthy Learning Standards” that would encourage condom use and teach eighth-graders that they “may begin to feel romantically and/or sexually attracted to people of a different gender and/or to people of the same gender.” Needless to say, Focus on the Family is not happy about the proposed curriculum.  Speaking against the program, Randy Thomas is quoted in the article: “Parents need to be aware of the fact that in many school districts across the nation, the promotion of homosexuality is coming in stealthily...
- [Former Ex-Gay Updates Video About Antigay ‘Day of Truth’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/former-ex-gay-updates-video-about-antigay-day-of-truth/): In early 2007, Truth Wins Out and former ex-gay Daniel Gonzales produced a YouTube video that found a blend of untruths and misleading “truthiness” in the annual antigay “Day of Truth” campaign. Gonzales has updated the video to reflect changes at the ex-gay counseling program Love In Action — and the failure of Exodus to take corrective action against the campaign’s errors and unethical tactics. Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin
- [PFOX Webmaster, Get Thee to Thine Anger Management Course](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/pfox-webmaster-cited-for-expletive-ridden-public-rant/): The webmaster for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, Gabriel Espinosa, has been cited by Box Turtle Bulletin for his use of the F word (and little else besides the expletive) in correspondence with public officials about what constitutes fair access by transgendered persons to gender-specific restrooms. Espinosa’s only suggestion for those who seek fairness for transgendered persons: Hopefully, it will be one of your daughters who gets raped first! Previous XGW coverage of Gabriel Espinosa. Other coverage: Wayne Besen
- [Birds of a Feather? Cameron And the Christian Council of Britain](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/birds-of-a-feather-cameron-and-the-christian-council-of-britain/): Discredited anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron was guest speaker at a meeting of the Christian Council of Britain last month. Cameron used the opportunity to claim that homosexuals are responsible for 29 percent of child rapes and murders. It is hard to say which is worse: Paul Cameron aligning himself with the far-right, nationalist Christian Council of Britain, or the Christian Council of Britain aligning itself with the virulently homophobic Paul Cameron. We know all about Cameron, but here’s a sample of where the CCB is at: The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland resolved that it recognises that all...
- [Open Forum: Truth Wins Out On Rubber Band Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/11/open-forum-truth-wins-out-on-rubber-band-therapy/): I always wondered what those red marks were ;). Has anyone heard of this?
- [Montgomery County Sex-Ed Curriculum Cleared for Take-off](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/montgomery-county-sex-ed-curriculum-cleared-for-take-off/): The long and winding runway that PFOX and its allies have traversed with the Montgomery County School Board at the expense of their taxpayers finally reached a straitaway and green light earlier this month. The controversial curriculum was approved by a Maryland Circuit Court judge on October 10. PFOX remains unhappy and intends to “keep up the good fight”. While the curriculum addresses sexually transmitted disease and condom use, PFOX insists that specific statistics regarding homosexuality and AIDS be noted, assuming, I suppose this will scare some students into pursuing opposite sex attractions. Continuing with that logic, if you’re going to...
- [International Healing Foundation Listed On Cult Awareness Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/international-healing-foundation-listed-on-cult-awareness-site/): International Healing Foundation (IHF), the non-profit organization founded and run by ex-gay guru Richard Cohen, has been posted (scroll down) on the Freedom of Mind Center’s website under the heading of “Moon Cultural and Social Fronts.” The site further elaborates about the list in general: This list is the latest revision of the front group list originally created in June 1981 by the Ex-Moon Organization of business names of companies owned, operated, and/or controlled by the Moon organization or Moon followers. This list is for information purposes only so the public can make an informed decision as to whether they want...
- [Open Forum: McClurkin Turns Obama Gospel Concert Into Ex-Gay Harangue](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/mcclurkin-turns-obama-gospel-concert-into-ex-gay-harangue/): At Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s gospel concert in South Carolina this weekend, singer and ex-gay activist Donnie McClurkin had an opportunity to take the high road: Show good will and extend an olive branch toward his gay co-singers and audience members. Instead, according to the New York Times political blog, The Caucus, McClurkin took the low road.
- [Focus on the Family Plans For the Future](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/focus-on-the-family-plans-for-the-future/): From the October 26 Rocky Mountain News: [O]ut of public view, a new generation of executives is laying the groundwork for sustaining the conservative Christian group as a cultural and political force once the 71-year-old Dobson has left the scene. And most of their efforts are concentrated not in the political realm, but in finding new ways to deliver marriage and parenting advice to a younger generation of families, many of whom distrust institutions or dislike evangelical engagement in politics. [Focus on the Family president Jim] Daly emphasized that Focus on the Family is not backing off its public policy work,...
- [McClurkin Controversy Escalates with Gay Affair Allegations](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/mcclurkin-controversy-escalates-with-gay-affair-allegations/): Late last week, Democratic hopeful Barack Obama was under fire for inviting ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to perform on this weekend’s South Carolina tour. Now McClurkin himself is facing accusations that he is still practicing the homosexuality he condemns. In an attempt to woo black evangelical voters, Obama announced last week that McClurkin would be among several gospel artists joining him on the tour, which starts in Charleston this weekend. McClurkin’s inclusion drew immediate criticism, with dissenters angry about the singer’s history of anti-gay remarks. He denies being on a “crusade” against homosexuality, and maintains he only offers help to...
- [Video: Exodus V.P. Defends Right to Do What’s Wrong: Discriminate](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/video-exodus-vp-claims-right-to-do-whats-wrong-discriminate/): Ex-gay activist and Exodus executive vice president spoke at a press conference last Friday to oppose the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Video courtesy of People For the American Way. Here are some excerpts. I know what it is to be an out and proud gay-identified man … I was out and proud in the workplace … I know what that’s like first-hand. But I also know what it’s like to say … If I’m doing a bad job, then I definitely need correction, but if I’m not, she does. And it was taken care of right then. And I actually got promoted...
- [Peterson Toscano Posts Follow-Up on Ex-Gay Harm](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/peterson-toscano-posts-follow-up-on-ex-gay-harm/): In a follow-up to Peterson Toscano’s post outlining the various types of harm someone may experience through ex-gay therapy and ministries, he has posted a blog entry that asks those involved what it means to them. He puts out specific questions and suggestions to other ex-gay survivors, to current ex-gays, to ex-gay providers and promoters and to those who are friends, family and allies to ex-gay survivors. For people who run ex-gay ministries, provide ex-gay counseling, promote ex-gay experiences and refer to people to ex-gay programs, to folks who, like Warren Throckmorton, who are trying to come up with therapeutic guidelines...
- [NARTH Advisor James Phelan Brags of Beating Pro-Gay Man](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/narth-advisor-james-phelan-brags-of-beating-gay-man/): In a rather self-congratulatory post to his personal blog, James Phelan claims to have picked a fight with a pro-gay man* during a recent public event. They had several huge rainbow banners all lined up, seen for yards and yards away. As I passed the group, I yelled over that, in my opinion, they were there just to “push their gay agenda”. My opinion was they were using the large public event (which had nothing to do with homosexuality) to pollute it with gay politics. Well, one runner, a huge muscled-type, didn’t like me doing this and thought he’d teach me...
- [Obama’s Faith-Inclusive Campaign Includes Ex-Gay Gospel Singer](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/obamas-faith-based-campaign-includes-ex-gay-gospel-singer/): The New York Times and Washington Post report that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will tour South Carolina with gospel singers including ex-gay advocate Donnie McClurkin. The name of Obama’s tour? “Embrace the Change.” Author and activist Keith Boykin profiles McClurkin here. Previous XGW coverage of McClurkin is here. Hat tip: AmericaBlog
- [Allies, Too: A Step Forward Or More of the Same?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/allies-too-a-step-forward-or-more-of-the-same/): Exodus Youth has launched a new initiative, the Allies, Too project, whose stated goal is “to build a community of tolerance and respect.” As Focus on the Family reports, “We hope most of all to bridge the gap between Christian and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) students that has been created by the promotion of false tolerance,” said Mike Ensley, youth analyst for Exodus. “Our goal is to embolden and educate students to make a stand for real tolerance – treating each other with dignity and respect in the midst of debate.” While dignity and respect are certainly laudable goals,...
- [Ex-Gays Prominent At Values Voter Summit](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/ex-gays-prominent-at-values-voter-summit/): Exodus and Focus on the Family made prominent use of ex-gay advertising at the so-called Values Voter Summit today. Courtesy of People for the American Way Foundation and Flickr, here are some snapshots: (Ex-Gay Watch reviewed the above ad here in 2005.) Note that, for the moment, PFOX has dropped “and Gays” from its name. Finally, I noticed this photo from Bishop Harry Jackson’s High Impact Leadership Coalition. In all fairness, I’m not sure what kind of “change” it’s referring to. Political? Spiritual? Sexual? But the anger and fearmongering are obvious. [Update: This shirt is a protest against radical Islam and...
- [NY Premiere for “Abomination” Documentary](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/ny-premiere-for-abomination-documentary/): A documentary short in which a psychiatrist lays out the case against ex-gay therapy will have its New York premiere next week. Montel Williams Show regular Dr Alicia Salzer produced the film, which according to the latest press release has already “struck a nerve” with critics at festivals across the US and Canada. In ABOMINATION, Salzer profiles four gay Christians who did everything possible to become heterosexual, including undergoing conversion therapies such as shock therapy, hypnosis, gender coaching, and sham marriages. The film’s subjects include: a rural Mississippian who spent 20 years trying to suppress her lesbian feelings; an Arkansas minister...
- [Former Ex-Gays Outline Harm of Ex-Gay Programs](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/former-ex-gays-outline-harm-of-ex-gay-programs/): During the past four years, former ex-gay Peterson Toscano has been in contact with more than 1,000 “ex-gay survivors” — people who pursued ex-gay experiences, often assisted by a therapist, minister, ex-gay program. At his blog, Toscano and his commenters are outlining numerous ways in which ex-gay experiences harm individuals or cause individuals’ existing sexual, emotional, social, spiritual and family difficulties to worsen.
- [Jewish Ex-Gay Group Ignorant of Ally’s Nazi Rhetoric?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/jewish-ex-gay-group-ignorant-of-allys-nazi-rhetoric/): Jews who want to rid themselves of same-sex attractions will often turn to “secular” organizations like NARTH, because aside from Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), every religious ex-gay ministry in the United States is targeted to some type of Christian population. JONAH is extremely close to NARTH, in fact, virtually all their “scientific” articles come from NARTH’s library. This is a serious mistake. Jews who align themselves with NARTH don’t just align themselves with bad science – they align themselves with Holocaust revisionism and hateful rhetoric that parallels the language of Nazi Propaganda; specifically, anti-Jewish propaganda. Here are sources...
- [James Dobson: The End of the World Is Near](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/james-dobson-the-end-of-the-world-is-near/): Faced with an increasingly negative public image and declining support for his holy war against GLBT individuals and every other sort of infidel, James Dobson is pulling out all the stops to rally his remaining troops. “It’s not just marriage that is at stake, it’s absolutely everything,” Dobson solemnly warned listeners on his October 10 broadcast. Together with guests Maggie Gallagher, Chuck Colson and Robbie George, the spin machine was in high gear as Dobson laid out a grim scenario in which increasing support for gay marriage would lead to the destruction of all marriages everywhere, the repeal of religious freedom...
- [Ultra-Conservative Columnist Claims Chambers Return to “Sodomy”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/ultra-conservative-columnist-claims-chambers-return-to-sodomy/): Warren Throckmorton reports that Fred Hutchison reports that Paul Cameron reports that Exodus President Alan Chambers has returned to “sodomy”. At the root of this bizarre claim is last June’s LA Times article in which Chambers was said to “resent the term ‘ex-gay’,” because “by no means would [he] ever say change can be sudden or complete.” Now conservative pundit Hutchison, of Renew America, quotes Paul Cameron approvingly in a recent mailshot: Ex-gay leader returns to sodomy According to Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute Alex Chambers, (sic) Director of Exodus International, the largest Evangelical organization for ex-gays declared that...
- [UK: One-Time Ex-Gay Group Backs Gay Equality Initiative](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/uk-one-time-ex-gay-group-backs-gay-equality-initiative/): The UK evangelical ministry Courage lent its support to a new anti-discrimination campaign this past weekend. Courage began in 1988 as an ex-gay ministry, but announced it was gay-affirming in 2001. Now the pioneering organisation is among the supporters of Would Jesus Discriminate?, a campaign being run by the Metropolitan Community Church in Bath, England. Other UK Christian organisations backing the initiative include Ekklesia and Accepting Evangelicals. At the heart of the campaign is an appeal to Scripture, with a call to look again at the biblical teaching on homosexuality, beginning with an examination of Jesus and the Gospels: The gospels...
- [Open Forum: The Ninety-Nine And the One](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/open-forum-the-ninety-nine-and-the-one/): “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matt. 18:12-14, NIV) Thus did Jesus summarize what Christian ministry should look like as he set the example by...
- [Does Ex-Gay Guru Richard Cohen Retain Ties to Unification Church?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/does-ex-gay-richard-cohen-retain-ties-to-unification-church/): Dr. Warren Throckmorton is alleging that the ties between Richard Cohen’s organization, International Healing Foundation (IHF), and the Unification Church may be alive and well, despite Cohen’s statements to the contrary. A brief review [of the IHF website] finds professionals operating from within Latter Day Saint, Jewish, Christian and Unification Church traditions. The latter group, followers of Sun Myung Moon, is surprising since Cohen said he left that church behind in 1995. Curious, I asked Cohen recently by email if there were any UC connections to his organization, and he told me, to his knowledge, there were none. To the contrary,...
- [In Brief: New Study Of Gay And Lesbian Mental Health](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/in-brief-new-study-of-gay-and-lesbian-mental-health/): A recent study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has found, among other things, that younger (age 18-44) gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women experience fewer mental disorders and are less likely to have attempted suicide than their counterparts in the 45-59 age group.  As Dr. Ilan Meyer, Associate Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences and principal investigator of the study notes, The finding regarding younger cohorts of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is consistent with social stress theories that predicted that the liberalization of social attitudes toward homosexuality over the past few decades can lead to a...
- [Florida Journalist Investigates the Gays Being “Scared Straight”](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/florida-journalist-investigates-the-gays-being-scared-straight/): From Florida comes an article that flew under the gaydar here at Ex-Gay Watch, but the Miami New Times piece, published last July, is still worth noting. In Scared Straight, Joanne Green profiles Worthy Creations, the Fort Lauderdale-based ex-gay ministry that promises the gay struggler (in a phrase borrowed directly from Exodus) “the freedom to grow into heterosexuality.” The article is at its most effective when gays, ex-gays and ex-ex-gays are speaking for themselves. Randy Thomas of Exodus is interviewed, for example, as is Worthy Creations dropout and critic Jerry Stephenson. However, the article is also very strong on opinion, and...
- [Richard Cohen And JONAH: A Match Made in Hashamayim?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/10/richard-cohen-and-jonah-a-match-made-in-hashamayim/): Maybe it’s the name. Ever since ex-gay, ex-licensed, ex-Moonie, and ex-Jewish “therapist” Richard Cohen made his disastrous appearance in “The Daily Show,” (see the video here), virtually every major ex-gay organization dropped him like a hot potato. Cohen, described by Wayne Besen only a few years ago as “the future of the ex-gay industry” (Anything But Straight p. 159), was the star that burned out quicker than he rose to fame. Well, he almost burned out. Cohen may have evaporated from every mainstream Christian ex-gay organization, but he continues to rain down on us because the secular – and vicariously, the...
- [Open Forum: The Dobson Wears Prada](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/open-forum-if-james-dobson-were-in-the-devil-wears-prada/): If James Dobson ruled the ex-gay movement with an iron fist, and if the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada were to peek inside a political empire instead of a fashion magazine, then what might Dobson’s morning arrival at Focus on the Family look like? [Elevator doors open onto the executive floor. James Dobson dons his glasses, steps from the elevator, and barks orders at his female personal assistant, who takes notes.] Tell Alan I’m not going to approve that young man that he sent me for the youth layout. I asked for sexy, serious, and ripped; he sent me...
- [Two Ex-Gays React Differently to Offensive Gay Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/two-ex-gays-react-to-offensive-gay-ad/): When I learned of the following ad from Right Wing Watch, I was immediately disgusted at the advertisers. And so were two ex-gay activists. The ad, for a San Francisco S&M fair for glbt and heterosexual people, did not target impressionable family audiences and it is apparently hard to find in print, even in San Francisco. But no matter: It turns a cherished and peaceful religious celebration of unity and brotherhood into a carnal display of certain medically dangerous behaviors. It also portrays gay people as the antithesis of Christians — in other words, as antichrists. While there may be a...
- [Canadian Ex-Gay Mayoral Candidate Should Listen to Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/ex-gay-mayoral-candidate-should-listen-to-exodus/): Ex-gay Canadian Bill Whatcott is a fringe candidate for mayor and former prostitute who believes he is qualified to police the morals of Edmonton, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan. But if he listened to some potential allies at Exodus, he might reconsider both his candidacy and his warlike attitude toward same-sex-attracted persons.
- [Some Ex-Gays Agree with Ahmadinejad: Homosexuals Don’t Exist](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/common-cause-with-president-ahmadinejad/): From Gregory Herek, Ph.D: Q: What does the president of Iran have in common with certain antigay activists in the United States? A: Both maintain that homosexuals don’t really exist. While Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas calls for President Maumoud Ahmadinejad to “go home,” some of his past and present allies might feel somewhat differently. Among those who agree with the Islamist leader’s redefinition of homosexuality are Paul Cameron (as noted by Herek), Joseph Nicolosi, and a variety of followers who assert that there is no such thing as a true homosexual, only a heterosexual with a homosexual problem. I’m...
- [Ex-gay Study Rigged to Achieve Desired Results?](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/ex-gay-study-rigged-to-achieve-desired-results/): Mel Seesholtz assesses the weaknesses of the recent ex-gay study by Stanton Jones of Wheaton College and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University. The Thomas Project: A study designed for specific results A well-known, peer-reviewed research study of ex-gays that was conducted by Robert Spitzer in 2001 made fundamental mistakes of methodology, according to those peer reviewers: telephone interviews, no physical monitoring, slanted definitions of “success” and “change,” biased pool of subjects — in a single round of 45-minute telephone interviews. Was it really worth Jones and Yarhouse’s effort, and Exodus’ money, to spend five years repeating the same mistakes — this...
- [Ex-Gays Mislead Christian Activists At ‘Family Impact Summit’](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/ex-gays-mislead-youth-activists-at-family-impact-summit/): At the religious-right’s misnamed “Family Impact Summit,” two spotters for Right Wing Watch recorded their observations of Exodus youth activists Mike Ensley and Scott Davis, and the anti-Christian appeals of Christine Sneeringer, who leads an Exodus-affiliated group called Worthy Creations. According to the observers: The session drew attention to efforts by Exodus and others to put a friendly face on its anti-gay message. In response to pro-tolerance and anti-harassment campaigns by pro-equality students, like the Day of Silence, Exodus is promoting a product called “Truth and Tolerance,” (truthandtolerance.net) designed to put anti-gay students on record against bullying (alliestoo.org), and calling for...
- [Dobson At Odds with Evangelicals And Fred Thompson](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/dobson-vs-evangelicals-and-fred-thompson/): Right Wing Watch is monitoring a growing rift between James Dobson, co-founder of Focus on the Family, and a faction of evangelical Christians over the U.S. presidential candidacy of Fred Thompson. Thompson supports a constitutional amendment to allow states not to recognize other states’ gay marriages. In an e-mail to religious-right leaders that was leaked to the media, Dobson accused Thompson of being “opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage.” In other words, Thompson’s antigay position wasn’t vicious enough for Dobson. Or, seen yet another way, those who differ in small ways from Dobson are somehow guilty of failing to...
- [Former Ex-Gays on ABC-TV And CNN](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/former-ex-gays-on-abc-tv-and-cnn/): Former ex-gay Peterson Toscano brings us up to date on the appearances of former ex-gays on ABC’s 20/20 and on CNN.
- [Maryland Schools Criticize Sloppy Work of PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/maryland-schools-slam-sloppy-legal-work-of-pfox/): In July, antigay political groups including Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) filed papers in Maryland state court to stop implementation of a board-approved and popular sex education curriculum in grades eight and ten in suburban Washington, D.C., schools. This week, the Montgomery County Public Schools responded by asserting that the anti-tolerance activists were abusing certain legislative rules (which were intended to preserve status quo) to actually alter the status quo and deny Montgomery County families the up-to-date, intelligent, balanced, and age-appropriate sex-education curriculum that local parents have sought for years. Teach The Facts, a local parents group, does its best...
- [Republican Mayor Tearfully Supports Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/republican-mayor-tearfully-supports-gay-marriage/): https://youtube.com/watch?v=SnTwrnKb61Q There is nothing we could add to this except the hope that members of both parties would have such courage. Full Story in LA Times
- [Christianity Today: Older And a Little Wiser, But Not Much](https://exgaywatch.com/2007/09/christianity-today-older-and-a-little-wiser-but-not-much/): True to its image as a more moderate voice in the evangelical community, Christianity Today has attempted to take a more nuanced approach in its coverage of Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse’s recently released ex-gay study. Although it ultimately fails in its attempt to provide truly balanced coverage, Christianity Today (CT) does nonetheless offer a less strident approach to the topic than most Christian media outlets in its article, An Older, Wiser Ex-Gay Movement. The article, written by CT senior writer Tim Stafford, starts out promisingly enough: Transformed ex-gay leaders are the best argument for their movement. Likewise, those who’ve left...
- [Found: Original Copy of the ‘Gay Agenda’ in America](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/found-original-copy-of-the-gay-agenda-in-the-us/): We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Taken from original. Actual image here.
- [XGW Digest: July 9, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/xgw-digest-july-9-2008/): Dr. Laura softens her anti-gay stance. Randy Thomas notes the increase of HIV contractions among men of color aged 13-24, and blames the promiscuity of the “gay lifestyle.” He fails to mention that the “down-low” culture created by intolerance of LGBTQ persons among Blacks and Latinos is what drives unsafe sexual practices that lead to infection. Focus on the Family is apparently opposed to gays being monogamous. Accusing political rivals of twisting her comments, Iris Robinson still boldly insist homosexuality is an abomination, but not a mental disorder. She believes homosexuals do not need psychiatric help for mental health needs caused...
- [Chambers on Gay Gene: “I Know” to “I Don’t Know” in a Few Weeks](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/chambers-on-gay-gene-i-know-to-i-dont-know-in-a-few-weeks/): Exodus President Alan Chambers is experiencing some confusion on the existence of a gay gene. In New Man eMagazine this week, Chambers says that his response to the gay gene question is an “unequivocal … I don’t know,” yet only weeks earlier he told a radio host that “the only thing that we do know at this point in time is that [homosexuality] is developmental.” Why the softening? Chambers would not be the first evangelical to steel himself for the possibility of a gay gene (and in fact he has done it before, in his 2006 book God’s Grace and the...
- [Vince Cervantes: Former Ex-Gay, Proud Latino](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/vince-cervantes-former-ex-gay-proud-latino/): When Vince Cervantes began to notice his strong attractions to other men in his first year of college, he immediately panicked. At that time he was a student at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian school that taught that homosexuality was immoral. The only thing that made sense to Vince was to enter into ex-gay therapy, and he did so, with an Exodus-trained counselor at an Assemblies of God church. Otherwise, he feared, he would be kicked out of school, disowned by his parents, and worst of all, end up in Hell. His therapist told him to give up activities he loved,...
- [Confirmed: Exodus Met with Richard Cohen, Original Statement Pulled](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/confirmed-exodus-met-with-richard-cohen-original-statement-pulled/): While investigating the removal of policy statements admonishing Richard Cohen and holding/touch therapy on the Exodus website, we received a reply from the assistant director of Cohen’s International Healing Foundation (IHF).  She describes what seems like a reconciliation of sorts between the two groups: Richard explained more about his work and his position and methods to Exodus and they all made peace. Exodus and IHF have either ignored or denied our request for any further comment for the record. However, we have been able to confirm through two credible sources (who wish to remain anonymous), one from inside Exodus, that the...
- [Exodus And Cohen Make Peace Says Assistant Director Wiemann](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/exodus-and-cohen-make-peace-says-assistant-director-wiemann/): On the heels of our post asking “does Exodus disapprove of Cohen or not?“, we seem to have at least a partial answer. In response to our inquiry about the apparent improved relationship between Cohen and Exodus, International Healing Foundation Assistant Director Hilde Wiemann gave the following response: Richard explained more about his work and his position and methods to Exodus and they all made peace. This response, along with the issues raised in the previous post, describes a rather stunning situation. Addendum: We have sent email inquiries to Chambers and his alternate contact, as well as a request for more...
- [XGW Digest: July 2, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/xgw-digest-july-2-2008/): Other Sheep Kenya will host a seminar on Christianity and Homosexuality in Nairobi on July 7-9. The daughter of a gay man shares about being separated from her father by Christian relatives. Anti-gay news groups insist on using the word “homosexual” as opposed to “gay” to emphasize their belief that LGBTQ persons are sex-obsessed. “Gay” sounds too positive; “Homosexual” has the word “sex” in it. To ease the strain on manual editing, One News Now does a “search and replace” for the word “gay” on all articles it reprints. Unfortunately, the proper name “Gay” also gets searched and replaced, making for...
- [Is Exodus Warming Up to Richard Cohen Again?](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/is-exodus-warming-up-to-richard-cohen-again/): Ex-gay guru Richard Cohen has always taken what some would consider a freakish approach to ex-gay therapy, one that stands out in a field that is, by definition, unconventional at best.  Cuddling with clients on the couch, swatting pillows while yelling about one’s maternal grievances — these are all part of the Cohen path to heterosexuality.  But many have been willing to overlook his odd methods and instead trust his assurances that all homosexuals can become 100% heterosexual.  None of this stopped Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays (PFOX) from making him their president and recommending his therapy and books...
- [NAACP Appreciates PFOX Participation, Invites Them Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/naacp-appreciates-pfox-participation-invites-them-back/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) sent out a mailing today titled “NAACP Rocks,” referencing a 2006 letter of appreciation from the organization to PFOX.  According to the attached copy, PFOX held an exhibit at the NAACP annual convention that year.  It is not yet known if they participated in 2007 or if they will be there this year, but the email suggests they plan on participating in 2009. The PFOX exhibit displayed useful information on unwanted same-sex attractions and tolerance for the ex-gay community. We distributed many brochures, flyers, stickers, and buttons. The attendees were enthusiastic about our...
- [XGW Digest: June 27, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-june-27-2008/): LGBT activists working with Soulforce open a dialogue with Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Maryland. Timothy Kincaid continues to methodically and intelligently disassemble “pro-gay marriage defender” David Benkof, who despite claiming to have ties to the gay press, has been dropped by the last gay publication to feature him. Kincaid also picks apart Benkof’s latest article, which attempts to prove that monogamy is not a gay family value. In the mean time, Benkof finds an ally in being cited on Peter LaBarbera’s website. Jason Kuznicki ponders the ramifications that a cure for homosexuality would present. The Orange County...
- [James Phelan Invited to Rejoin Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/james-phelan-invited-to-rejoin-exodus/): Readers may remember the incident from last October when Exodus member and therapist James Phelan “one-two drop kicked the hell out of” a fellow marathon runner.  The other runner had objected to Phelan yelling about how he thought those cheering along the sidelines with pride flags were “pushing the gay agenda.”  An alleged shove led to the drop kick response by Phelan.  We were never able to get any third-party verification of the incident, but Phelan not only admitted to his actions, but bragged about them in a post on his blog. XGW posted about this to call attention, not just...
- [XGW Digest: June 23, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-june-23-2008/): The Family Research Council is promoting their annual Values Voters Summit with an impressive photo array of 24 speakers, including senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, actress Patricia Heaton, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Unfortunately, only 10 have confirmed they will be attending – the others have just been invited to attend, including the four mentioned. [H/T Good As You] TWO: In what seems to be yet another turn from its exodus from politics, Exodus International’s Youth Activist Mike Ensley pushes an anti-Obama stance because the presumptive Democratic nominee “has indicated that he wants judges who make social policy...
- [Controversial Robinson Adviser Paul Miller Represents NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/controversial-robinson-adviser-paul-miller-represents-narth/): Increasingly irrelevant in the US, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has created a new division to spread their views abroad.  The International Federation for Therapeutic Choice (IFTC), while it sounds formidable, appears only to be a new Yahoo group to which members are privy after paying the usual $65 per year to join.  Though NARTH claims membership of over a thousand, former members have estimated less than 200 are actually professional therapists, with the rest made up of pastors, activists and just plain everyday people.  With less than 50 in attendance at their last annual...
- [Exodus’ Alan Chambers Says Gay Orientation 100% Developmental](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/exodus-alan-chambers-says-gay-orientation-100-developmental/): Speaking on Chris Fabry Live! last month, Exodus President Alan Chambers made this astonishing declaration: The truth is, when we look at the issue of homosexuality, the only thing that we do know at this point in time is that it is developmental.  There has never been a study that’s been done that replicated, or proven sufficiently, that there is any genetic component to the issue of homosexuality… Chambers is the president of the largest ex-gay organization in the world, Exodus International.  While one might imagine he carries his share of bias to the table, it seems incredible that he could...
- [XGW Digest: June 17, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-june-17-2008/): September 5 has been set as the theatrical release date for “Save Me,” the ex-gay drama starring Chad Allen and Judith Light. TWO: A panel on “gender issues” organized by the Southern Baptist Church is overrun by ex-gays, is all white and all male except for one member, and seeks to acquire Southern Baptist financial support. They supposedly are also here to offer a “Way Out.” Soulforce, Jay Bakker and Peterson Toscano dialogue with the leaders of Willow Creek Church. Wayne Besen reports of a man whose partner was “brainwashed” away from him by a born-again Christian woman who pretended to...
- [Rounding Up the Reactions to Iris Robinson’s Gay Remarks](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/rounding-up-the-reactions-to-iris-robinsons-gay-remarks/): By now, regular readers of Ex-Gay Watch will know of the controversy surrounding homophobic remarks made by Iris Robinson, a Member of UK Parliament. Robinson, a health spokesperson and wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, said that homosexuality was “vile,” “disgusting,” “nauseating” and “an abomination,” and recommended ex-gay therapy to turn homosexuals heterosexual. We have already discussed a handful of contrasting reactions, but there are others worth noting. For example, Canadian Exodus ally Wendy Gritter weighs in on Warren Throckmorton’s blog to denounce the invective in no uncertain terms:
- [Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know, Mrs Robinson](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/jesus-loves-you-more-than-you-will-know-mrs-robinson/): Of course she will – and does – deny it is hate, but doesn’t everyone who hates? Those who oppose and discriminate against gays and lesbians may be quite sincere, and it never looks from the inside like they’re doing a disservice. On the contrary, from the anti-gay mindset, they’re actually doing gays and lesbians a favor by telling them the truth and offering them a way out of their hideous lifestyles. To them, it’s love. Iris Robinson, a Member of UK Parliament for the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, caused a furore last week when she claimed that homosexuals...
- [Ex-gay Psychiatrist in Northern Ireland Controversy Is Cohen Disciple](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/ex-gay-psychiatrist-in-northern-ireland-controversy-is-cohen-disciple/): The psychiatrist Northern Ireland MP Iris Robinson claimed could turn homosexuals straight has been named as Dr Paul Miller, who trained under the notorious Richard Cohen. Exodus International cut its ties with Cohen following a series of embarrassing TV appearances in 2006, in which he demonstrated controversial “touch therapy,” amid other ludicrous methods. Speaking last Friday on BBC Radio Ulster, Mrs Robinson said that homosexuality was an “abomination,” and offered to refer homosexuals to the care of a psychiatrist friend who had helped gays to “turn away from what they are engaged in.” Miller, forgetting that in science the onus is...
- [Archbishop Peter Jensen Does A Nicolosi… Well, Almost](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/archbishop-peter-jensen-does-a-nicolosi-well-almost/): The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen, is a central figure in the opposition to same-sex marriages and homosexuals serving in the church. As such, he is also firmly against the appointment of openly gay Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire. Earlier this year he attempted to rally support against homosexuality in a rift that threatens to split the church. Curiously, Dr. Jensen is also consistent in rejecting the appointment of female bishops. Archbishop Jensen has also argued strongly against the possibility of women bishops for the Anglican Church of Australia. Holder of the Licentiate in Theology and...
- [XGW Digest: June 10, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-june-10-2008/): Peter LaBarbera declares a Boycott of Chicago’s Hyatt Regency and Palmer House Hilton hotels after attending International Mr. Leather there. Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the AFA opposes hate crimes legislation because they claim it will negate your right to call homosexuality a sin. However, bill H.R. 1592 only covers “cases where a victim was physically attacked or the subject of an attempted attack.” “Sharing your faith” by calling homosexuality a sin would still be perfectly legal. Joe Brummer calculates that Focus on the Family could put the $30 million they use on anti-gay forces to good use in more...
- [Love Won Out Still Promoting Orientation Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/love-won-out-still-promoting-orientation-change/): In recent years the ex-gay movement has toned down its message of “change.”  With occasional exceptions, gone are the days when one could hear Exodus spokespeople make direct and unambiguous claims that gay people who went through an ex-gay program could become straight. It’s unsurprising, then, that Love Won Out has taken steps to tone down some of its own proclamations.  In April, CitizenLink made an effort to clarify LWO’s position: Love Won Out says it does not attempt to “fix” gays and lesbians, a charge heard often from its critics in the APA. “Such glib characterizations ignore the complex series...
- [Bishop Gene Gets His Wish to Be a June Bride](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/bishop-gene-gets-his-wish-to-be-a-june-bride/): The Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop has married his long-term partner. Vicki Gene Robinson, whose ordination as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 hailed a still-continuing worldwide division in the Anglican Church, entered into a civil union with Mark Andrew on Saturday. “I always wanted to be a June bride,” the Bishop once remarked. Congratulations and best wishes from XGW to Gene and Mark.
- [“The Workout” Should Work Out a Clearer Message](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/the-workout-should-work-out-a-clearer-message/): Ex-gay counselor David Pickup, whose “Increasing Manhood” video was met with speculation as to whether or not it was a joke, was recently profiled in an XGW article that showed his obsession with hyper-masculinity. His ex-gay program, “The WorkOUT,” seems to play on both this obsession and the stereotype that gay men are themselves obsessed with going to the gym. We pointed out Pickup’s association with Jayson Graves, a Christian ex-gay counselor on the Exodus Board. Pickup is a member of Graves’s Healing for the Soul “Therapeutic Team.” His “WorkOUT” website contains links to Christian groups Exodus International, Love Won Out,...
- [N Ireland MP Recommends Therapy to “Become Heterosexual”](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/n-ireland-mp-recommends-therapy-to-become-heterosexual/): [Updated 06/07/08] Northern Ireland politician Iris Robinson, a Democratic Unionist Member of UK Parliament, has provoked criticism by recommending ex-gay therapy, claiming that she has met people who have “turned around and become heterosexual.” The Spokesman [sic] for Health, Youth and Women in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, told the BBC she knew a Christian psychiatrist who had helped gays to “turn away from what they are engaged in,” adding that she would be “happy to put any homosexual in touch with this gentleman.” Her comments came on Radio Ulster today, two days after a...
- [XGW Digest: June 5, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-thursday-june-5-2008/): The Bloomington, IL Pantagraph examines the spectrum of opinion within Christianity on the issue of homosexuality. At the blog “The Unseen Disciple,” Christian ex-gay ministries are examined to see not only if they could be called Christian, but if they could even be called “ministries.” Hat tip: TWO Anna Quindlen talks about gay marriage. The Christian Post continues to call it gay “marriage,” but admits that a recent study shows that the California ruling “could provide a $370 million boost to the economy over the next three years.” Peterson Toscano’s Homo No Mo stage show is now available on DVD. Exodus...
- [Toscano Lambeth Appearance Draws Ire From Anglicans](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/toscano-lambeth-appearance-draws-ire-from-anglicans/): Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano will be taking his one-man show to the Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly international gathering of Anglican bishops. The announcement has provoked a near-hysterical response from some “traditional” Anglicans. At Times correspondent Ruth Gledhill’s blog, one reader predicts that the conference “will simply be a circus.” Another laments that “there will be clowns for entertainment.” But over at Stand Firm in Faith, where Greg Griffith has “no doubt … just how gay Peterson Toscano really is,” the reaction borders on self-parody. Indeed, I thought initially that this comment was a spoof, although on further reading it appears not....
- [XGW Digest: June 2, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/06/xgw-digest-june-2-2008/): Peter Lane, director of Exodus Asia-Pacific, states that criticism from former ex-gays “has hurt his organization,” but declares that it “doesn’t minimize the message” of Exodus. PFOX claims attacks against ex-gays are “rising,” even though most of the events they cite are old news, and some of those claims have since been disputed. On June 1st, Israel’s city of Tel Aviv opened the first LGBT center in the world to be financed and run by local government. There is a special focus on youth, says the Tel Aviv Mayor’s advisor Itai Pinkas, because of the high suicide rate of gay teens....
- [XGW Digest: May 29, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/xgw-digest-may-29-2008/): Despite Exodus’s supposed retreat from politics, Randy Thomas speaks out on the Exodus website against gay marriage (specifically, the recent California gay marriage victory) and legislation that protects the LGBT community from hate crimes. He also speaks on behalf of Exodus’s political beliefs in an article in AdvanceUSA, a conservative Christian political blog. A new field poll suggests that most Californians support the recent gay marriage decision. A coalition will be held to counter Love Won Out in Orlando on Wednesday June 4, at 11 am. The guest list includes Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out. On Saturday at 7:30 AM...
- [Gay Bishop Univited From International Gathering, Will Come Anyway](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/gay-bishop-univited-from-international-anglican-gathering-will-come-anyway/): The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the Anglican Church’s first openly gay bishop, will visit the UK for a 10-yearly global Anglican gathering this summer, despite having been officially uninvited. The Lambeth Conference takes place in England in July and August, and will bring together hundreds of Anglican bishops from across the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, made it clear that Bishop Robinson was not welcome on the grounds that those who cause “exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion” can have their invitations withdrawn. Robinson’s consecration as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 precipitated a worldwide division that...
- [The APA’s DSM-V Development: Kenneth Zucker’s Involvement](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/the-apas-dsm-v-development-kenneth-zuckers-involvement/): Recently the American Psychiatric Association (APA) announced their new panel for the revision of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Named as chairperson of the work group for “Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders (GID)” is Dr. Kenneth Zucker, known for his reparative therapy work on transgender children with Dr. Susan Bradley.  Additionally we have Ray Blanchard, who famously renamed “transvestism” to “transvestic fetishism,” a term that is based on sexual fantasies in the DSM-IV (1994).  There are other changes made by both Blanchard and Zucker. Mr. Blanchard is also the creator of the term “autogynephilia.”...
- [Video: Why Homosexual Marriage Should Be Banned](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/video-why-homosexual-marriage-should-be-banned/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSfFa44p96o A clever message that makes a good point.
- [Opinion: No More Interviews For Mike Ensley](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/opinion-no-more-interviews-for-mike-ensley/): I just finished listening to an interview between Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out and Mike Ensley of Exodus International.  They were on the Alan Colmes radio show, and Michael Bussee also called in briefly during the open phones.  I almost felt sorry for Mike, he really seemed unprepared for a serious interview.  Wayne, on the other hand, should probably seek more radio and TV work, he excels in that type of exchange. I only heard the last two-thirds, but that was enough.  I don’t think I realized how acclimated I have become to the twisted byproducts of indoctrination that often...
- [Message to Mike Ensley: Being Gay Is Not the Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/message-to-mike-ensley-being-gay-is-not-the-problem/): Mike Ensley’s article in the latest issue of Charisma Magazine illustrates everything that is wrong with Exodus and the ex-gay movement. In What to Do When Your Child Is Gay, Exodus’s “Youth Analyst” warns parents against trying to control their teenage children – and yet achieves a more subtle manipulation through misinformation. Unfortunately, while aiming to help parents deal with their child’s homosexuality, labelling it a “problem” is the problem in itself. By making sexual orientation (“same-sex attraction,” in his terminology) into an issue to be rectified, Ensley and those who share his ideology are the problem, and consistently defining homosexuality...
- [XGW Digest: May 22, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/xgw-digest-may-22-2008/): BTB covers the California same-sex marriage decision, anti-gay groups decry ruling Gambian president Yahya Jammeh threatens to behead homosexuals in effort to make Gambia “one of the best countries to live in” John Corvino opens a dialogue with Focus on the Family Wayne Besen will debate Mike Ensley of Exodus tonight
- [Beyond Ex-Gay To Visit Spain](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/beyond-ex-gay-to-visit-spain/): Peterson Toscano announced yesterday that Beyond Ex-Gay will participate in a conference in Barcelona, Spain on May 30.  Organized in response to recent efforts by the ex-gay movement to make inroads into Spanish-speaking countries, the one-day conference will examine various methods of reparative therapy and the potential harm that they can cause. Speakers will include Toscano, local gay leader Jordi Petit, psychologist Noemi Dominguez and local ex-gay survivors. Additional coverage: Beyond Ex-Gay, Box Turtle Bulletin
- [Rabbi to LGBTQ Jewish Website: “Rehabilitate” Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/rabbi-to-lgbtq-jewish-website-rehabilitate-gays/): Recently I wrote a post announcing the launch of HOD, the Israeli website for gay religious Jews. This website was started especially to counter Atzat-Nefesh, the website operated by straight people who say gays can change their sexual orientation. One of the primary goals of HOD is to put a human face on LGBTQ persons. They do so by meeting with their opposition, including staunchly conservative rabbis. Recently they sent out a letter to Jewish clergy, and Rabbi Ratzon Arussi responded by calling for the rehabilitation of “the sin of our time:” “I have read your letter with much consideration because...
- [Noe Gutierrez: What I Learned From Ex-Gay Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/noe-gutierrez-what-i-learned-from-ex-gay-ministry/): Ex-gay ministries depend on certain adversarial elements to inspire the commitment of their members. Although the majority will agree their members did not have a choice in their homosexual feelings, ex-gay ministries emphasize choice as the key factor in the re-orientation of these feelings. Biblical emphasis on purity, chastity, and self-sacrifice give the ex-gay person a sense of process. By making consistently “biblical” choices in the expression of their sexuality, the ex-gay person can experience a level of “freedom from homosexuality” albeit paid for in their own blood, sweat and tears. My opinions are not founded on scholarly research; rather they...
- [XGW Digest: May 15, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/xgw-digest-may-15-2008/): LifeSiteNews claims that ex-gays live in fear because of a stigma imposed on them by homosexuals, citing PFOX “under attack” at ex-gay exhibit booths as an example. They also cited the recent Ryan Sorba debacle as the main reason why the potentially one-sided American Psychiatric Association’s “Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension” symposium was cancelled. Stephen Black believes Ex-Gay Watch is WATCHING and STALKING ex-gay leaders, even though Ex-Gay Watch already freely invited him (and many other ex-gays for that matter) to comment here, and even moderated some unsupported claims against him. Update: Black has removed this comment from his blog...
- [In Brief: Focus on the Family’s Definition of ‘Dialogue’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/in-brief-fotf-redefines-dialogue/): In response to Soulforce’s American Family Outing initiative to open dialogue on the issue of homosexuality at six megachurches, Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink is advising churches on how it thinks they should respond.  At first glance, FotF’s advice may seem reasonable: Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping at Exodus International, said each church needs to assess whether a meeting would be helpful. “I would be completely open to having a meaningful conversation, if both parties were humbly submitted in that conversation,” he said. “I would not enter into a conversation if I knew there was not a sincere openness to...
- [Christian Anti-Gay Activists Align with Anti-Semitic Anti-Gay Activists](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/christian-anti-gay-activists-align-with-anti-semitic-anti-gay-activists/): Politics makes strange bedfellows, and here is another shining example. Anti-gay activists have hit the trifecta of racism, antisemitism, and homophobia with newly recognized allies David Duke, Rev. Ted Pike, and Peter LaBarbera. Rev. Ted Pike makes claims against Jews on his website in the name of Jesus, while Duke not only pushes “white civil rights” and caters to white supremacists, but has published his own “bestselling” take on what he calls “Jewish Supremacism.” Peter LaBarbera aligns himself with this man while claiming to know the truth about what happened when a gay young man called out another young man for...
- [Jayson Graves, David Pickup & the Exodus Connection](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/jayson-graves-david-pickup-the-exodus-connection/): Gay bloggers recently had a field day with ex-gay counsellor David Pickup’s “Increasing Manhood” video, one even speculating whether it was a spoof, in the vein of Donnie Davies. Unfortunately, Pickup (right) and his campaign to undermine the masculinity of gays — while supposedly helping them to discover their true manhood — are very much for real. Pickup is a member of the “therapeutic team” at Healing for the Soul, the ex-gay ministry of Jayson Graves (left). And who is Jayson Graves? Well, he is a lot of things but what surprises us most is that he is also a board...
- [XGW Digest: May 10, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/xgw-digest-may-10-2008/): John Corvino on the importance of dialogue Jonathan Rowe dismantles World Net Daily’s latest screed Exodus Global Alliance Ontario conference to focus on young people questioning their sexuality; Truth Wins Out responds Former ex-gay leader interviewed on GCN Radio
- [Another Former Ex-Gay Tells His Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/another-former-ex-gay-tells-his-story/): Chris Tyler grew up in a devout Mormon family.  In this podcast series (part one is below; the rest of the series can be accessed through his YouTube channel) he chronicles his time in ex-gay therapy and the subsequent process he went through in coming to a place of self-acceptance. Chris’ whole story may go into more detail than some are interested in sitting through (the podcast is broken up into 14 ten-minute segments).  Those who come from similar backgrounds (Mormon, evangelical or otherwise) will identify with the emotions he describes as he is first coming to grips with the reality...
- [Love In Action Documentary Preview Released](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/love-in-action-documentary-preview-released/): Sawed-Off Films has released preview footage of the new documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like. The film is an examination of the controversial Memphis-based Love In Action (LIA), a ministry whose actions became notorious in 2005 when 16-year-old Zach was enrolled in their residential ex-gay program against his will. Zach, now 19, is one of several participants in the documentary. Following his ordeal at LIA, the harrowing run-up to which was uniquely documented on his MySpace blog, Zach refused to talk at length about his experience. In This Is What Love In Action Looks Like, he revisits the...
- [XGW Digest: May 2, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/xgw-digest-may-2-2008/): Free resources on Judaism and LGBT issues now available from Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion New report on effectiveness of ex-gay therapy shows “robot-like parroting” of rhetoric, according to Jim Burroway In case you missed it, Christian TV host Azariah Southworth came out gay Cornell PhD student Gabriel Arana reminisces about three years of therapy under Dr Joseph Nicolosi
- [Article Review: ‘Grace And Gay Men’ By Randy Thomas](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/05/article-review-grace-and-gay-men-by-randy-thomas/): Exodus Vice President Randy Thomas wrote an article titled “Grace and Gay Men” that recently appeared in the Focus on the Family webzine Boundless. While doing my best to read it with an unbiased eye, I’ll admit that Randy’s erratic blogging and commenting behavior make that difficult. For whatever reason, the man wipes out his entire blogging history on a repeated and regular basis (which makes accountability for past statements nearly impossible). Also, it has been my experience that Randy is incapable of allowing for or conducting any open and honest discussion with people who disagree with him. Whether he is...
- [PFOX’s New Gender Musing](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/pfoxs-new-gender-musing/): Parents And Friends Of Ex-Gays And Gays (PFOX) recently published an article by an unknown Erica Heny* about Gender Identity Disorder (GID) from an African-American perspective. The article “The Emperor’s New Gender” likens people living with GID to the foolish emperor in the well-known Hans Christian Andersen tale. Ms. Heny goes on to compare trans folk with African-Americans wishing their skin was white to avoid prejudice and slavery. Assuming a gender identity that is in contradiction to one’s biological reality begs a suspension of disbelief, like that required when watching a theatrical production. People with gender identity disorder believe – and...
- [Ex-Gay: The Musical!](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/ex-gay-the-musical/): Check out this ex-gay musical from the Gay Christian Network (GCN) 2007 conference. It opens with a hilarious parody of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan number The Major-General’s Song: I am the very model of an ex-gay individual, I’ve no more gay attractions (okay, maybe a residual) My favorite line has to be this one: I think of God, not Gaynor, when I hear someone say “Gloria,” I always stay a block away from local gay emporia [googlevideo]https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8132458028555523831&hl=en[/googlevideo] Hat-tip: Andrew Sullivan.
- [XGW Digest: April 26, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/xgw-digest-april-26-2008/): Exodus Vice-President Randy Thomas is laying low in the blogosphere again Ex-gay woman finds true freedom in gay-affirming church (hat-tip: TWO) Jim Burroway and Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin voice their opinions on Throckmorton’s Golden Rule Initiative Pastor Ken Hutcherson noisily protests the Day of Silence
- [Tonight: ABC’s 20/20 Explores Gay Public Affection](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/tonight-abcs-2020-explores-gay-public-affection/): ABC’s 20/20 will be showing an updated version of an old theme; gaging how people view public displays of affection. This time the couples are gay and the reactions range from reasonable to overbearing. The setting is NJ for lesbian wives and Alabama for a gay couple. Guess where the 911 call happens. Tonight at 10pm ET.
- [‘Where Grace Abounds’ Latest to Leave Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/where-grace-abounds-latest-to-leave-exodus-international/): Since its inception, Exodus International has been an umbrella organization for a coalition of local ministries focused on the issue of homosexuality.  In most cases these organizations are founded by churches or individuals acting independently of Exodus, with varying degrees of input from existing ministries. As a result of this, Exodus’ coalition is a diverse collection of organizations representing a large number of Christian denominations, each one having their own approach to ex-gay ministry.  While this diversity of backgrounds and methodologies means that those seeking help from Exodus have a variety of options to choose from, it also means that Exodus...
- [Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver Latest to Be ‘Truth Challenged’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/liberty-counsels-mat-staver-latest-to-be-truth-challenged/): In a recent article from the AFA‘s pseudo-news outlet One News Now, attorney Mat Staver of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel claims that students today, during the Day of Silence (DoS), will refuse to answer questions from teachers in class and otherwise disrupt the operation of the school day. ‘Number one, if students will not speak up in these classes when they’re called upon, that’s disruptive — and they [the schools] don’t have to tolerate students who will not speak because of the Day of Silence,’ he suggests. One News Now writer Jeff Johnson also chimes in: The Day of Silence is...
- [LaBarbera’s Shameless Self-Promotion May Damage a Real Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/labarberas-shameless-self-promotion-may-damage-a-real-ministry/): Yesterday, I noticed a post from Peter LaBarbera concerning The Marin Foundation. I remembered hearing Andrew Marin’s story on a podcast from The Gay Christian Network (GCN) and something didn’t click. Marin was a self-confessed “bible-banging homophobe” brought up in the Assemblies of God. His life was changed by the coming out stories of his three best friends in college. It led him to immerse himself (Marin is straight) in the gay community to understand and identify with the struggles so many have. He has a passion to be a genuine, unconditional representation of God’s love to both the gay community...
- [In Brief: Peterson Toscano on LOGO TV](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/in-brief-peterson-toscano-on-logo-tv/): Performance artist Peterson Toscano will be the subject of an episode of LOGO TV’s documentary program Be Real: Stories from Queer America, when it returns for another season beginning May 5. Also interviewed for the segment were Peterson’s father, Pete Toscano, Beyond Ex-Gay co-founder Christine Bakke, and ex-gay survivors John Holm and Scott Tucker.
- [Video: Day of Truth 2008 - Controversy, Criticism & Opposition](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/video-day-of-truth-2008-controversy-criticism-opposition/): BTB’s Daniel Gonzales has produced an excellent video which exposes several basic untruths about the Day of Truth, the Alliance Defense Fund‘s counter to the Day of Silence.
- [Audio: Anti-Gay Activist Stacy Harp Reveals Her Passions](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/audio-anti-gay-activist-stacy-harp-reveals-her-passions/): At XGW we generally don’t give much space to fringe figures, but Stacy Harp is someone who might just end up as another Matt Barber one day, so we think it’s important to share this glimpse into her “heart and mind” for the record. Harp and Joe Brummer have apparently had blog and email exchanges over the past couple of years and so they have a lot of history. This recording of a phone call from Harp to Brummer (recorded by the former and apparently authorized for open release) has Harp baiting Brummer into a conversation. In the process, Harp, who...
- [Sally Kern: More Exodus Connections And Divine Appointment](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/sally-kern-more-exodus-connections-and-divine-appointment/): In a recent post to his blog, Stephen Black, director of Exodus charter member First Stone Ministries, added more of his own spin to the Sally Kern issue, and with it some new facts. He again expresses support, not shame, focusing on how he thinks Kern was the victim and her words, if taken in context, would be understood as loving: They edited down the comments to what they considered the most inflammatory sound bites. Their cunning plan was to upload the edited comments to YouTube in hopes of enraging gay people and their supporters. This plan, they thought, would further...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Digest: April 18, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/ex-gay-watch-digest-april-17-2008/): Details magazine published an blog piece titled “Would You Really Be Okay with a Gay Kid?” and Albert Mohler posts a response that misses the point and is a glaring example of how many fundamentalists twist meanings to support anti-gay rhetoric. The Portland Mercury reviews a Christian children’s book titled “Does God Love Michael’s Two Daddies?” Another Details article featuring gay dads. Christian TV host comes out of the closet. Hat tip: BTB Original article here.
- [XGW Bookshelf: Gay Christian 101](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/xgw-bookshelf-gay-christian-101/): Welcome to the Ex-Gay Watch Bookshelf, a new feature and an opportunity for the XGW staff to share books we’ve been reading that may be of interest to our readers. First up, Gay Christian 101 by Rick Brentlinger. A former Baptist minister, Brentlinger is more theologically conservative than most pro-gay apologists. Although no book, no matter how persuasively written, is likely to sway those whose opinions on this topic have already been set in stone, Brentlinger’s conservative approach may gain him an audience among some who have dismissed other pro-gay authors as “too liberal.”  Brentlinger addresses all of the biblical passages...
- [In Brief:  Beautifully Written Narrative By Peterson Toscano](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/in-brief-beautifully-written-narrative-by-peterson-toscano/): Peterson Toscano posted a beautifully written narrative yesterday. He describes the almost prison-like atmosphere of the Love in Action program where physical and spiritual sustenance were strictly regulated. The staff demanded all participants to attend Central Church, an Evangelical mega church with its own fitness center and congressman. No matter if you were Catholic, Adventist or Methodist, the program required each participant to assimilate into the white Evangelical Church semi-Charismatic tradition. Peterson’s experience clarifies the need for rehabilitation and healing after having participated in this sort of “recovery” program.
- [Ex-Gay Watch Digest: April 10, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/ex-gay-watch-digest-april-10-2008/): Media follow-ups to the three-day Exodus Freedom Conference held in Fresno, CA last week. KMPH Fox26 quotes Randy Thomas who seems to be taking a more nuanced approach to past statements about changing from gay to straight.  This video version at ABC30 depicts Alan Chambers talking about help and serving a big god – again, no utterance of the word change.  Finally, a scathing editorial at GayWired.  Mike Airhart of Truth Wins Out discusses Exodus Global Alliance and their support for the criminalization of homosexuality.  UK: Leading anti-gay campaigner, Bishop Michael Reid, resigns over adulterous affair. Canadian ex-gay documentary, “The Cure...
- [In Brief: Coalition in San Jose to Counter Love Won Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/in-brief-coalition-in-san-jose-to-counter-love-won-out/): A press conference will be held on April 10th in San Jose, California to counter Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out ex-gay conference. It will take place in The Billy DeFrank GLBT Community Center. Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out, will be speaking. Says Besen: “It’s tragic that most of the people attending Love Won Out are parents who are looking for answers in the wrong place. We are speaking out to stop these parents from being exploited and we hope to dispel myths and misconceptions so they can learn to love and accept their gay children. Others...
- [Video: Exodus Ministry Director Stephen Black Supports Kern](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/video-exodus-ministry-director-stephen-black-supports-kern/): As XGW reported a few days ago, Stephen Black, director of Exodus charter member First Stone Ministries, appeared at the recent rally in support of Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern. The rally was orchestrated by fifty or so churches and assorted ministries who seem to have latched on to Kern as a sort of patron saint in their crusade against the dreaded “homosexual agenda.” Black was there to lend his support as can be seen in the video below. The second clip is shorter and contains most of Blacks remarks of support, while the first is a general resume of his life,...
- [Website for Israeli LGBTQ Religious Jews Counters Myth of ‘Change’](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/website-for-israeli-lgbtq-religious-jews-counters-myth-of-change/): LGBTJews.org relayed the news that HOD, a Hebrew acronym for “Gay Religious Jews,” is a new website created to counter misinformation about LGBT issues involving religious Jews. Geared toward religiously conservative Jews who live in Israel, HOD has an extensive Hebrew site and a brand new, fairly sparse English site that they hope will reach out to Jews all over the world. They specifically exist to counter Atzat-Nefesh, a site which they say has been key in promoting untruths about gay Jews – specifically, that their orientation can be changed: Up to now the only website catering to the religious gay...
- [Warren Throckmorton Offers Day of Silence Response for Evangelicals](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/warren-throckmorton-offers-day-of-silence-response-for-evangelicals/): April is chock full of teachable moments lest any teacher’s plan book go empty. We have Keep America Beautiful Month, National Poetry Month, and National Frog Month. April birthdays include Leonardo DaVinci, William Shakespeare, and Daffy Duck. Now, Dr. Warren Throckmorton, professor of psychology at Grove City College, and author of the Sexual Identity Therapy Framework has come up with The Golden Rule Initiative. Dr. Throckmorton’s aim is to provide an appropriate response for straight, evangelical students to the GLSEN sponsored Day of Silence on April 25. The Day of Silence began 12 years ago with the purpose of proactively bringing...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Digest: April 6, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/ex-gay-watch-digest-april-6-2008/): Virginia writer details Pat Robertson’s “4 Aces” of Christian fundamentalism in this expose’. No homosexuals in Iran. Wayne Besen holds his ground with O’Reilly. Mormon leaders to meet with gay group. (BTB) 
- [Exodus Regional Freedom Conference Opens in California](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/exodus-regional-freedom-conference-opens-in-california/): Exodus International began their 3-day regional “Freedom Conference” on Thursday at The Bridge Evangelical Free Church in Fresno, CA. The theme for this year is “A New Day.” The conference will run through the 5th. Keynote speakers are Alan Chambers, Joe Dallas, Don Schmierer, and Dr. Sharon Hersh. The conference will also feature Dr. Nancy Heche, mother of actress Anne Heche, who famously dated openly gay comedienne Ellen Degeneres. But more alarming is the special program geared towards the under-25 set, which Exodus has titled “Xscape.” This is “a special part of the conference focused on the concerns of young people.”...
- [Exodus Member Says ‘Homosexual Agenda’ Destructive to US](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/exodus-member-says-homosexual-agenda-destructive-to-us/): A rally was held at the Oklahoma Sate Capital in support of Representative Sally Kern’s comments on homosexuality. Among other things, she said that gays and their desire for rights are more dangerous to our country than terrorism. The rally was held mostly by churches and related groups, who seem to view Kern as a prophetic “voice in the wilderness.” Ostensibly held to fight for Kern’s right of free speech, this appears to be little more than a straw man as no one has seriously questioned that she has such a right. Interviewed at the rally, executive director Stephen Black of...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Digest: April 2, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/04/ex-gay-watch-digest-april-2-2008/): Evangelical group seeks to move away from anti-gay political stance and focus on social justice issues. Mike Haley receives a mixed reception at Hastings College. AFA goes after General Motors after declaring “victory” over Ford.  Sally Kern cites Paul Cameron and Exodus affiliated ministry director attends a “Sally Rally” in OKC.  Happy 1st Birthday to Beyond Ex-Gay! TWO’s Wayne Besen to appear on Fox’s O’Reilly this evening. (8PM)
- [Refried Freud: Another Look At Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/refried-freud-another-look-at-reparative-therapy/): One of the more curious ironies of the ex-gay movement is how it has helped popularize the theories of Sigmund Freud among conservative Christians, who for many decades viewed his work with skepticism if not open hostility. As it became increasingly untenable for thoughtful Christians to dismiss homosexuality as some sort of conscious, perverse choice, they discovered a new ally in a man otherwise considered (even by himself) an enemy of the faith. With the help of his theories they could acknowledge that people (with perhaps a handful of exceptions) don’t choose their sexual attractions, yet still reduce homosexuality to nothing...
- [Tips: Get Free Books From WOWIO - US Residents Only](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/tips-get-free-books-from-wowio-us-residents-only/): If you like to read but need to stick to a budget or just want to go green, check out wowio.com. They have a nice selection of e-books (PDF format) and they are adding more. Best of all, they are free! There is a decent gay and lesbian section – I just downloaded Going to Heaven: The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson – along with all the other title categories one would expect. You are asked to sign up, which amounts mostly to verifying your location. Apparently their licensing allows only those in the US to benefit (this may...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Digest: March 28, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/ex-gay-watch-digest-march-28-2008/): Exodus President Alan Chambers interviewed by  New Man eMagazine. Glen T. Stanton of Focus on the Family responds to Dr. Chapman’s critique at Box Turtle Bulletin. Humorous editorial in the Montgomery County Sentinal about an ex-gay pamphlet. OKC’s Cathedral of Hope pastor, Dr. Scott Jones, debates Sally Kern on local television. Cuba considers  same sex unions, inheritance rights, and free sex-change surgeries for citizens.
- [Exodus VP Randy Thomas Interviewed As Transgender Authority](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/randy-thomas-talks-transgenders/): From the American Psychological Association (APA) on the differences between sex and gender: Sex refers to biological status as male or female. It includes physical attributes such as sex chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, internal reproductive structures, and external genitalia. Gender is a term that is often used to refer to ways that people act, interact, or feel about themselves, which are associated with boys/men and girls/women. Randy Thomas, who apparently does not understand the differences between sexual identity and gender identity, mentioned in a recent interview with CitizenLink: These activists are preaching this very strict worldview that there is no gender,...
- [In Brief: FRC’s Peter Sprigg Apologizes for ‘Export Homosexuals’ Comment](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/in-brief-frcs-peter-sprigg-apologizes-for-export-homosexuals-comment/): Last week, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council (FRC) made the following comments during an interview: I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States, because we believe that homosexuality is destructive to society. Today he issued an apology: In response to a question regarding bi-national same-sex couples who are separated by an international border, I used language that trivialized the seriousness of the issue and did not communicate respect for the essential dignity of every human being as a person created in the image of God. I apologize for...
- [John Smid, President of Troubled Love In Action Resigns](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/john-smid-president-of-troubled-love-in-action-resigns/): The rumors first posted by Peterson Toscano yesterday have been verified. Josh Morgan, communications manager for Love In Action (LIA), confirmed to XGW this morning that John Smid, president and CEO, has indeed resigned, and that they will release a statement in their monthly newsletter. It will be available online at their website starting April 1st. LIA has been the subject of much controversy, but they are probably best known to readers for the Zach controversy from 2005, when a teenager was forced by his parents to attend the youth program Refuge after coming out to them at age 16. LIA...
- [XGW Digest: March 25, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-25-2008/): Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement to debut at the Birmingham SHOUT Film Festival. Openly gay Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson not invited to Lambeth conference; plans a GLBT-supportive event, same Lambeth place, same Lambeth time. Box Turtle Bulletin continues its coverage of the Glenn Stanton controversy with an excellent article by Patrick Chapman. CitizenLink touts the health benefits of marriage, but don’t hold your breath waiting for them to extend those benefits to same sex couples.
- [A Reparative Therapy Session With a Counselor Referred By FOTF](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/a-reparative-therapy-session-with-counselor/): [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kPo7KGj1OE[/youtube] Jeff Williamson is an articulate young man who grew up in a conservative, Christian family and church. When he came out to his parents last year, they sent him to a counselor recommended by Focus on the Family. He says they sent him there with the absolute expectation that he would become heterosexual. As Jeff had investigated things related to reparative therapy, he came prepared — apparently to the frustration of Hudson. It’s nice to see a new generation of young people unwilling to listen to the old stereotypes, or be shamed into a situation not of their own choosing....
- [XGW Digest: March 21, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-21-2008/): Mike Ensley of Exodus reviews pro-gay documentary For the Bible Tells Me So Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber on supposed gay threat to blood supplies Kern claims speech was taken “out of context”; read it in its full context here Family Research Council’s Peter Spriggs: I’d like to export gays
- [Stanton Makes Excuse for Article Controversy, Citizenlink Still Not Off the Hook](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/stanton-makes-excuse-for-article-controversy-citizenlink-still-not-off-the-hook/): Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton has defended Citizenlink, saying they only changed a controversial article because he was unhappy with how his views were represented – but his explanation still doesn’t put the right-wing news service in the clear. Earlier this week, XGW detailed how Citizenlink, the official news service of Focus on the Family, rewrote an entire article following a storm of controversy in which anthropologists, including the American Anthropology Association, disputed claims of a “consensus” on the nature of “traditional marriage”. Now Stanton, the researcher supposedly behind the claims, has given Box Turtle Bulletin his side of the...
- [‘Homosexual Indoctrination’ - an Educator’s Point of View](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/homosexual-indoctrination-an-educators-viewpoint/): The recent hateful rant by Representative Sally Kern hit home with me, not because of the more widespread comparison she made between gay folks and terrorists, disgusting as it is, but because of her continued rant about the public schools “indoctrinating” children as young as two years old with “the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle.” As a 19-year veteran public school teacher, and an Oklahoma educator at that, where do I begin? First of all, I’d like to let Representative Kern know that even though I contribute voluntarily to a pro-gay site, I’ve yet to receive my official copy of...
- [In Brief: Exodus International’s Countercultural Revolution](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/in-brief-exodus-internationals-countercultural-revolution/): Exodus president Alan Chambers heralded that organization’s “countercultural revolution” at LifeSiteNews.com, echoing a previous claim of dramatic increase in first-time attendees during the Exodus International Annual Freedom Conference 2007 in Los Angeles (50%) and the Exodus’ Regional Freedom Conference in Nashville, Tennessee (60%). People are hungry for a hopeful message about homosexuality that encompasses God’s truth as well as His compassionate heart. We are thrilled to be a small part of what God is doing to reach a new generation with His liberating truth. The identities of the first-timers (and the regular participants) who are hungry for the ex-gay doctrines presented...
- [Ex-Gay Ministry Leader Says ‘Gay Agenda’ Is a Myth](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/ex-gay-ministry-leader-says-gay-agenda-is-a-myth/): The following is a quote from a major ex-gay ministry leader: The Homosexual Agenda…Myth. Yes, I believe there are many people with many agendas. However, I do not believe there is an American-wide gay conspiracy that is played up in by Coral Ridge and some other conservative Christian organizations to generate fear. What I *do* believe is that in the spiritual realm, there are demonic spirits who have an evil agenda of destruction and hate, and they are the ones deceiving and manipulating both gays and straights to achieve THEIR agenda. In decrying the way gay people are portrayed by many...
- [XGW Digest: March 18, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-18-2008/): XGW Founding Editor Mike Airhart blogging daily for Wayne Besen at relaunched Truth Wins Out website UK anti-gay activist Stephen Green (Christian Voice) hints at opening ex-gay “clinic” in Wales Canadian television to broadcast hour-long documentary examining ex-gay movement Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins: environmentalism joins same-sex relations as threat to traditional family Gays & Muslims unite to oppose OK rep Sally Kern’s remarks; Kern’s son denies gay rumours; Sally finds sympathetic ear in company of notoriously homophobic Matt Barber & Peter LaBarbera
- [Citizenlink Quietly Rewrites Debunked Article](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/citizenlink-quietly-rewrites-debunked-article/): Not content with predicting the future, Citizenlink now wants to change history by rewriting a controversial article – and saying nothing. In 2007, Citizenlink, the official news service of Focus on the Family, suffered embarrassment after reporting attendance figures for an ex-gay survivor conference before they could possibly be known. Associate Editor Jennifer Mesko protested her innocence (in an article that has since disappeared from the web), but failed to explain why she felt able to accurately forecast the future. At that time, Mesko wrote: As Christian journalists, we adhere as best we can to truth and accuracy. But many of...
- [A Lesson in the Priorities of Rep. Sally Kern](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/a-lesson-in-the-priorities-of-rep-sally-kern/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy3yQJTqPac More at sallykerntribute.blogspot.com Hat Tip: greatamericanpatriot
- [XGW Digest: March 14, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-14-2008/): Warren Throckmorton proposes an alternative way conservative Christian families can respond to the Day of Silence Ford denies American Family Association claims of pro-family victory following boycott The Wittenburg Door speculates on how James Dobson might respond to The Newest Threat to American Families Focus on the Family supports homophobic Oklahoma rep Sally Kern, describes controversy over gays/terrorists comparison as “quibbling”; Kern claim to have received death threats unsubstantiated; thankfully, Kern doesn’t represent all Oklahoma Christians
- [Frank Schaeffer on Gays, Ex-Gays & the Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/frank-schaeffer-on-gays-ex-gays-the-religious-right/): Frank Schaeffer was a key player in the early days of the Religious Right. Along with his father, the evangelical apologist Francis Schaeffer (pictured), he successfully mobilized millions of American Christians to pursue an aggressive political agenda based on a handful of conservative causes – abortion and homosexuality being top priorities. His memoir, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back, has polarized opinion. In the book, he is scathing about his parents’ fundamentalism, as well as their personal failings (although...
- [XGW Digest: March 12, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-12-2008/): Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern speech provokes hostile reaction, remains unrepentant over anti-gay remarks (original story here) Queerty finds evidence that Rep. Kern disowned gay son James Dobson laments the passing of the Religious Right’s old guard Openly gay Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson declines invitation to Anglican Church’s 10-yearly Lambeth Conference, says it’s a “non-offer” (previous XGW story on Bishop Gene here)
- [Exodus Will Remain A Member of the Arlington Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/exodus-will-remain-a-member-of-the-arlington-group/): After XGW discovered information indicating that Exodus International is a member of the prominent religious conservative political organization, The Arlington Group (AG), we asked President Alan Chambers to respond on the record. He replied that Exodus was indeed a member, and they planned on maintaining that membership. Co-founded by Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, AG is an attempt to unify the efforts of religious conservative political groups. It is politics and policy in overdrive, and when you hear powerful religious conservatives speak in unison, it probably started in a huddle at AG. Now the obvious question; how does this...
- [Real Love Ministry’s Edmund Smith in Malaysian Women’s Weekly](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/real-love-ministrys-pastor-edmund-smith-in-malaysias-women-weekly-and-new-video/): Edmund Smith of Real Love Ministry (RLM) Malaysia believes his homosexuality was caused by his mother, as he shared in the February edition of the Malaysian Women’s Weekly. I am the fourth boy in my family. When Mum was pregnant with me, they had hoped that I would be a girl. Perhaps that’s why, until I was five, my mother brought me up like a girl. I played with dolls and was dressed in dresses. When asked whether he would return to what he deemed as the “homosexual lifestyle,” he added: My faith, and the fact that I’m married with children,...
- [XGW Digest: March 10, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-10-2008/): Daniel Gonzales and Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin interview ex-gay survivors John Holm and Jacob Wilson Anglican Mainstream champions (a little late) Jones & Yarhouse ex-gay study (see here for our previous AM coverage) Ex-gay Charlene Cothran back in the public eye with new anti-gay claims, according to Queerty Is change possible? asks ex-gay therapist Warren Throckmorton on Crosswalk Naked Before God: Escort Mike Jones exposes Ted Haggard’s hypocrisy in new stage show
- [Open Forum: Anti-Gay Diatribe By Oklahoma Representative](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/open-forum-anti-gay-diatribe-by-oklahoma-representative/): In what is described as a small gathering that was apparently not meant for public ears, an Oklahoma State Representative rails on about the “homosexual agenda,” using any number of discredited, Paul Cameron inspired quotes. According to JMBzine.com, the speaker is Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, sponsor of HB 1569 mentioned in the clip. Claiming that “gays are infiltrating city councils,” she boldly announces that various parts of the nation – Kensington MD, Pittsburgh PA, West Palm Beach FL, and more – are all under the “control” of gays. It takes no imagination to understand the war-like hyperbole she uses. But...
- [XGW Digest: March 8, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-march-8-2008/): Christian wisdom: Let’s encourage gays to destroy themselves by sharing disease Focus on the Family: Gays confused More anthropologists weigh in on Focus on the Family’s misrepresentation of “traditional marriage” Gay = Self-Centered. What some in the ex-gay movement think of us: All of my relational, political, and social needs were defined by a worldview that fed my appetites and met my needs, albeit just temporarily. My world was centered around the idea that the unholy trinity of me-myself-and-I was sufficient to provide vision, inspiration, answers … and even legacy. I was gay.
- [Ex-Gay TV Commercial Pulled Following Facebook Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/canada-ex-gay-tv-commercial-pulled-following-facebook-campaign/): The Canadian Television Network (CTV) has pulled a commercial after activists on Facebook claimed it was a violation of the channel’s own ethical policy. The 30-second advertisement, from Ontario-based Life Productions, contained the following message: You hear a lot about gay rights, gay marriage and the gay lifestyle being taught in our public schools for children, but what many people don’t realize, and seldom hear, is that many homosexuals don’t want to be homosexual. What many who are struggling with homosexuality don’t realize, and seldom hear, is that they can change. I should know – for 13 years, I used to...
- [Beyond Ex-Gay Memphis Wrap-Up](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/beyond-ex-gay-memphis-wrap-up/): Beyond Ex-Gay has posted a recap of their recent Memphis gathering, “Deconstructing the Ex-Gay Myth: A Weekend of Action and Art,” complete with photographs and video footage. Among the weekend’s highlights was the chalk talk, which gave the former ex-gays in attendance an opportunity to share about their ex-gay experiences in writing: Additional reflections on the weekend have been posted by Peterson Toscano, Bruce Garrett, Christine Bakke and Daniel Gonzales.
- [XGW Digest: March 6, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/xgw-digest-06-march-2008/): Welcome to a new regular feature, the XGW Digest. There are always links, stories and snippets of news that go under the radar, not warranting a full article, and yet worth noting. Here we’ll update readers once or twice a week with those stories and links of interest and relevance to the ex-gay movement. Today: – Focus on the Family misrepresents the consensus among anthropologists on the definition of “traditional marriage” (H/T Good As You). Sure a consensus exists – but it’s not what the Religious Right wants it to be. Over at Box Turtle Bulletin, anthropologists Bill Mauer and Patrick...
- [Exodus Leaving ‘Politics’ Says President Alan Chambers](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/exodus-leaving-politics-says-president-alan-chambers/): Claiming a new focus on ministry, Exodus president Alan Chambers confirms that they have left the political arena. Seeking to verify a rumor, XGW asked Chambers to respond for the record today. His answers may be particularly significant considering the recent discussions (both here and on Warren Throckmorton’s blog) with Wendy Gritter, leader of Exodus member ministry New Direction. XGW: We’ve heard that changes have been made regarding Exodus’ direct involvement in politics. Can you confirm and explain what these are? What changes have been made, i.e. what were you doing and what are you doing now in this realm? Chambers:...
- [Alternatives to Ex-Gay JONAH for Gay Observant Jews](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/03/glydsa-shows-how-to-be-jewish-observant-and-gay/): Ex-gay group Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), despite their heavy involvement with Christian organizations, claim to be a viable alternative for Jews who see conflict between their sexual orientation and the Torah. They claim to take a Torah guided approach to the matter, and have several articles on their site to support this view. But another option for frum (observant; religious) Jews who are dealing with their homosexuality is to – well, to stay gay. The Gay and Lesbian Yeshiva Day School Alumni Association (GLYDSA) shows us how. Christians are familiar with the holiness code followed by Jews. It...
- [Pedophilia, Hedonism & Impending Confusion: Revisiting the Anti-Gay Rhetoric of Michael Brown](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/pedophilia-hedonism-impending-confusion-revisiting-the-anti-gay-rhetoric-of-michael-brown/): Pentecostal leader Michael Brown continues to throw homosexuality into the mix with an array of exotic sexual fetishes, including pedophilia, zoophilia and coprophilia, sexual arousal from human feces. In January, we looked at Brown, the latest evangelical leader to join Love Won Out‘s roster of conference speakers. Ex-Gay Watch found Dr Brown’s rhetoric to be aggressively militaristic. Those who read the discussions here and on Warren Throckmorton‘s website will be familiar with his argument that nothing separates homosexuality from any other manner of non-conventional sexual practices. Last week, Brown appeared on the Concerned Women for America (CWFA) radio program, alongside Peter...
- [Peterson Toscano Clashes Gracefully in Radio Debate](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/02/peterson-toscano-clashes-gracefully-in-radio-debate/): Beyond Ex-Gay co-founder Peterson Toscano found himself on a broadcast radio show yesterday with a host, another guest and all but one caller holding staunchly anti-gay positions. His responses were responsive and calm in the face of some really vile commentary. In one particularly egregious statement, the host suggested the real reason those who protested Love Won Out in Memphis did so was because the available population of men with whom to have sex would be reduced if more gay men were “turned straight.” If you have ever had trouble keeping your cool when asked such things, you really should listen...
- [Watch Ted Haggard On Oprah Today](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/watch-ted-haggard-on-oprah-today/): Ted Haggard appears with his wife on Oprah today.  This show was scheduled with others to promote his upcoming HBO special, The Trials of Ted Haggard and taped prior to the latest revelations about his relationship with young church volunteer Grant Haas.  The HBO special was also taped before these latest allegations though they are sure to increase scrutiny of the documentary.  Haggard spoke briefly to this point in a subsequent letter to Oprah. “Oprah, I did not reveal the relationship on your show out of privacy concerns—even though there was never any physical contact. I have regretted my irresponsible behavior....
- [Haggard Scandal Expands As Second Sex Partner Speaks Out](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/haggard-scandal-expands-as-second-sex-partner-speaks-out/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siO9m1XR5uU It appears that New Life Assembly paid the young man $180K in what can only be described as hush money.  He comes forward in this report by TV station KDRO.  The references to the life that Ted Haggard was actually living are incredible, especially when we now know that the church knew about much of this in 2006.  At the very least, New Life Pastor Brady Boyd should step down immediately.  This deception is unacceptable, and one is hard pressed to find a reasonable excuse for the amount of money that was spent to “deal with it.” H/T: Truth Wins...
- [Joseph Nicolosi And Glenn Stanton in the Grey Zone](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/joseph-nicolosi-and-glenn-stanton-in-the-grey-zone/): Check this post if you are unfamiliar with the Grey Zone.  If Nicolosi’s theory is correct, he and Stanton should probably not be sitting so close on that couch.
- [Video: Ex-Gay Guru Richard Cohen Brings Out The Magnets](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/video-ex-gay-guru-richard-cohen-brings-out-the-magnets/): It’s a non-sequential?  The video above is from the upcoming movie Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement by Bill Hussung and Mishara Canino-Hussing.  Ex-Gay guru and all around bizarre guy Richard Cohen seems only too happy to participate, bringing back memories of pillows and tennis rackets.  Listen carefully, there are some interesting comments.  One that I didn’t quite get is in the beginning, he’s says he has been married for “2300 23,000 years”?  Is that just a joke or is it a Moonie thing? (I honestly don’t know) Dr. Jack Drescher brings us a brief period of sanity, perhaps laced...
- [Ex-Gay Stephen Bennett: Who’s Your Daddy (Pants)](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/ex-gay-stephen-bennett-whos-your-daddy-pants/): Staunch ex-gay Stephen Bennett has apparently moved to yet another work-from-home project.  While Good As You’s Jeremy Hooper may have spoiled the grand opening, the cache still shows the details of the  now locked page.  More can be seen below from the brief RSS feed: Bennett has run through a lot of small business ventures to earn his living; sign making, drawing, singing, ex-gay, podcast, virtual church, private discussion group, selling real estate, and now sewing and selling pajama bottom pants to name a few.  Many of these ventures required donations to provide the capital, from which Bennett and his wife...
- [Video: Man Who Exposed Ted Haggard Speaks Out Again](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/video-man-who-exposed-ted-haggard-speaks-out-again/): Filming and Editing by Daniel Gonzales Mike Jones, the man who exposed Ted Haggard’s extramarital, same-sex encounters in 2006, has just made a video to get a few more things off his chest.  Jones was an escort in the Denver area and Haggard was the Pastor of the huge New Life Church, and President of the National Association of Evangelicals.  Haggard resigned in shame after his relationship with Jones was exposed, and has spent the years since going through various phases of counseling, even claiming that he was no longer gay after the first three weeks. Recent news has brought out...
- [Open Thread: Prayers for Bobby](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/open-thread-prayers-for-bobby/): I just finished watching the Lifetime special Prayers for Bobby.  It came across true and accurate to what I know about the matter, and may have even been somewhat reserved considering the time frame (circa 1980).  The mother’s reaction and the “help” her son Bobby was given could easily take place today in just that way — it does take place today in just that way.  Ryan Kelley did an excellent job as Bobby, as did Sigourny Weaver as his mother, Mary Griffith.  The pain, condemnation and agony was far too real, and I cried through  much of it.  It was...
- [XGW Digest: January 24, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/xgw-digest-january-24-2009/): -The Obama Administration releases its civil rights agenda. -Chad Allen and Robert Gant’s movie, Save Me, is now available on DVD. -KABC in Los Angeles refuses to air a public service announcement that positively depicts gay families. -Exodus International takes over management of the Alliance Defense Fund’s so-called “Day of Truth.” -Focus on the Family resorts to scare tactics to steer its supporters away from Lifetime TV’s upcoming movie Prayers For Bobby. -Matt Foreman offers his take on why Proposition 8 passed.
- [In Brief: More Skeletons Falling From Ted Haggard’s Closet](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/in-brief-more-skeletons-falling-from-ted-haggards-closet/): Source: Associated Press According to the Associated Press, another man has come forward about an apparently long-term sexual relationship he had with the disgraced Rev. Ted Haggard while the latter was pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs.  The young man was a volunteer and came to church officials on 2006, shortly after the first scandal broke. [Current New Life pastor Brady] Boyd said an “overwhelming pool of evidence” pointed to an “inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship” that “went on for a long period of time … it wasn’t a one-time act.” Boyd said the man was in his early 20s...
- [Richard Elliott Friedman’s Commentary on the Torah: A New Look At Ancient Passages](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/richard-elliott-friedmanns-commentary-on-the-torah-a-new-look-at-ancient-passages/): The current economic situation has affected every individual, business, and organization in America – including ex-gay organizations. I recently even received a newsletter from Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), virtual tzedakah box in hand. This is the first JONAH email I have ever received after more than a year of scrutinizing them, as well as being in contact a couple of times by email – while courteous, they were (understandably) not exactly welcoming of me. They know I’m not a friend to their organization; I can only assume one of two things: That they sent me the email by...
- [XGW Digest: January 17, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/xgw-digest-january-17-2009/): -The Supreme Court of California rules that conservative congregations that split from the Episcopal church will not get to keep the property they meet on. -Former congressman Bob Barr, who authored the Defense of Marriage Act, now calls for its repeal. -Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference will be broadcast on GOD TV, a conservative Christian internet-streamed video channel that can also be watched on certain Satellite TV providers.  GOD TV claims to reach “almost half a billion people.” -The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado ordains a lesbian priest. -Obama invites openly gay bishop Gene Robinson to pray at...
- [‘In the Life’ Explores the Ex-Gay Equation](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/in-the-life-explores-the-ex-gay-equation/): In God We Trusted This month IN THE LIFE explores the power of religion to shape our lives, worldview, and our political convictions… providing spiritual guidance and comfort, but often used to promote intolerance and hatred of LGBT people. Looking at the intersection of religion and sexuality, we see how gays and lesbians reconcile their faith within their religious communities. Regular readers should recognize some familiar faces. See all three segments at In the Life. H/T: TWO
- [‘Dr. Nicolosi, I Think Your Theory Sucks,’ Says Mom](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/dr-nicolosi-i-think-your-theory-sucks-says-mom/): Never one to be deterred by the facts, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) goes up against the mother of a transgender child.  Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family joins him in what seems like a defense of the theories essential to their respective group’s claims that homosexuality is a disorder and can be treated.  In this case, Nicolosi staunchly informs the mother that she was overly involved in her child’s life, while the child’s father was not involved enough.  Further, there is a 75% chance that her child will be...
- [Randy Thomas Defends Ex-Gays, Becomes Conveniently Forgetful](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/randy-thomas-defends-ex-gays-becomes-conveniently-forgetful/): Gay columnist Dan Savage has examined a recent event involving the receipt of ricin-laced letters by several gay bars. He theorizes that an embittered gay man must be the perpetrator. The letters strike me as having been written by a very bitter man—by someone who came out, expected that gay life would a glorious cycle of song, and was shocked to discover that gay life—just like straight life—comes with no guarantees. In the years after coming out he learned that some people, gay and straight, can be a**holes; that gay men were not, despite the hype, his “brothers.” I wouldn’t be...
- [Open Forum: “Planet Narth” Gives Us a Vocabulary Lesson](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/open-forum-planet-narth-gives-us-a-vocabulary-lesson/): YouTuber “Planet Narth” gives us a light-hearted vocabulary lesson with the help of Joseph Nicolosi. XGW covered the incident featured in the video, for those who are curious about it.
- [XGW Digest: December 31, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/xgw-digest-december-31-2008/): –Melissa Etheridge and ex-evangelical Frank Schaeffer endorse Obama’s pick of Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration. -Jim Johnson of Straight, Not Narrow comments on the current decline of the Southern Baptist denomination. -The Yes on 8 campaign moves to get 18,000 same-sex marriages invalidated, despite previously insisting otherwise. -Pope Benedict XVI puts emphasis on “keeping human ecology clean,” declaring that upholding “God-given” rigid gender dichotomies and narrow sexual definitions is as important as protecting the rain forests. -David Alex Nahmoud has posted a follow-up to his recent reports of an anti-gay family stealing away his long-term partner, convincing him to...
- [Metropolitan Community Church Initiates Fledging Church In Malaysia](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/metropolitan-community-church-initiates-fledging-church-in-malaysia/): A crescendo of voices can be heard at the second floor of a shop lot singing Christian praise and worship songs such as “Lord, I Offer My Life” and “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever”. Kenny the worship leader, is backed by Paul on keyboards leading a group of people during a worship service in the afternoon. Located near one of Kuala Lumpur’s busiest highways leading to the district of Cheras, the Good Samaritan Fellowship (GSF) have come a long way in Malaysia. The bilingual Chinese-English service is conducted much like any other church in Malaysia. The difference is, this...
- [Disgraced Evangelical Haggard Still Struggles with Sexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/disgraced-evangelical-haggard-still-struggles-with-sexuality/): Ted Haggard, the megachurch pastor who abandoned his ministry after the revelation that he had sexual relations with a male prostitute, admits in a new documentary that he “still struggles” with his sexuality. The married father of five stepped down as leader of the 10,000-member New Life Church, Colorado Springs, CO, in 2006. After three weeks of counselling, associates declared him “completely heterosexual,” but in a new HBO documentary he says his sexuality has been a lifelong battle. “The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick...
- [XGW Digest: December 19, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/xgw-digest-december-19-2008/): -The Times of South Africa takes a look at the ex-gay movement. -A former ex-gay leader who now helps GLBT individuals come to terms with their sexuality is named one of samesame.com.au’s 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians for 2008. -Join The Impact to host peaceful candlelight vigils in cities all over the country in memorial of the marriages that were dissolved due to Proposition 8. -Randy Thomas praises Rick Warren’s appointment to give the U.S. inaugural invocation, despite the fact that some gay groups are upset and allegedly making it “all about them.” He says it shows Obama is interested...
- [In Brief: Mike Ensley Laid Off From Exodus International? (Confirmed)](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/in-brief-mike-ensley-laid-off-from-exodus-international/): Just in time for Christmas? We have heard a strong rumor with partial confirmation that Mike Ensley is no longer working for Exodus and further that he may have been laid off.  If so, this would further confirm suspicions of financial trouble for the ex-gay ministry.  We have asked Ensley for clarification but received nothing as yet.  Ensley’s most recent title was Youth Analyst for Exodus.  If this is accurate, the timing qualifies for some sort of Scrooge award. More details as we get them. Update 4:30pm ET XGW has confirmed that both Youth Analyst Mike Ensley and Bookstore Manager Chris...
- [Open Forum: What Is Compassion?](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/open-forum-what-is-compassion/): “Me, homophobic? Ridiculous. I love my homosexual friends.” –Pat Boone, following his recent editorial comparing gay demonstrators to the Mumbai terrorists. “It isn’t just that we believe gay marriage is bad for Christians, the culture at large, etc. But it is ultimately bad for homosexuals if we really believe God has something different in mind for them. This is true for anyone who desires the fullness of joy and peace that God wants them to have.” –Bob Stith, the SBC’s National Strategist for Gender Issues, following the passage of California Proposition 8. Members of the religious right are well known for...
- [XGW Digest: December 12, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/xgw-digest-december-12-2008/): -Steve Kern, husband of OK state rep. Sally Kern, helps launch a major anti-gay campaign in Oklahoma City. -Newsweek publishes a pro-gay marriage editorial. -Carol Boltz, ex-wife of gay Christian singer Ray Boltz, starts a blog to share her story. -Richard Cizik, Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigns after coming under heavy fire for endorsing civil unions for same-sex couples. -Showtime begins developing a reality series about gay people coming out of the closet.
- [TWO Tackles Anti-Gay Religious Leaders with Newspaper Ad](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/two-tackles-anti-gay-religious-leaders-with-newspaper-ad/): Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out is countering anti-gay prejudice by publishing a full-page advertisement in the Salt Lake Tribune today. The ad is a response to last week’s New York Times ad sponsored by No Mob Veto, which used a handful of incidents to paint the entire backlash against Proposition 8 – California’s constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality for gays and lesbians – as a campaign of “violence and intimidation.” TWO’s ad will take conservative Christian leaders to task for portraying the demonstration as mob rule, when in fact only a small number of violent incidents have marred an...
- [XGW Digest: December 5, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/12/xgw-digest-december-5-2008/): -The Vatican voices opposition to a UN resolution that would protect individuals facing imprisonment or the death penalty for being gay. -Box Turtle Bulletin reports on the latest example of the heterosexual menace. -Shirley Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church: Prop. 8 will fail.  Politics makes for strange bedfellows indeed. -The Episcopal Church splits over gays. -The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission demands an apology for Prop 8: The Musical. -Jennifer Vanasco warns that boycotts can backfire.
- [XGW Digest: November 29, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/xgw-digest-november-29-2008/): -The Australian Senate votes to extend legal recognition to same-sex couples. -Paul Varnell reminds us that we still have much to be thankful for. -The African nation of Burundi outlaws homosexuality. -Religious Right spokespersons explain how they oppose gay rights because they love us.  Interestingly, Margie Phelps recently explained that Westboro Church’s activism is also an act of love.
- [Netherlands: Government Subsidizes Ex-Gay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/netherlands-government-subsidizes-ex-gay-ministries/): The Dutch Government is giving public money to ex-gay groups in the Netherlands. RefoAnders received 84,000 euros (about $108,000), while Onze Weg received 50,000 euros ($65,000). Dutch newspaper De Pers accused the organizations of supporting reparative therapy to try to “cure” gays, though the groups denied it. Critics have labelled the decision to award the grants a “compromise” with conservative Christian political party ChristenUnie. Emancipation Minister Ronald Plasterk defended the subsidies, however, saying that such organizations had overcome “important hurdles” in making homosexuality discussable among Christians, “where there would otherwise be no homo-emancipation at all.” Despite the controversy, the Netherlands is...
- [XGW Bookshelf: Thou Shalt Not Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/xgw-bookshelf-thou-shalt-not-love/): As a young gay man steeped in the evangelical subculture, Patrick Chapman grew up feeling deeply conflicted about his sexual orientation. As so many individuals in his situation do, he poured much of his time and energy (and a decade of his life) into attempting to become heterosexual, first through pastoral counseling and later through an ex-gay ministry. And as with most who pursue that path, he was forced to rethink the assumptions he had been taught when it became apparent that the change he was promised was never going to happen. Although Dr. Chapman’s life experiences are not the primary...
- [XGW Digest: November 21, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/xgw-digest-november-21-2008/): -Box Turtle Bulletin shares reports and photos from last weekend’s Join the Impact rallies across the country. -The California Supreme Court agrees to hear challenges to Proposition 8. -Focus on the Family announces another round of layoffs. -eHarmony to extend its matchmaking services to gays and lesbians. -Bill O’Reilly smears San Francisco in a “documentary” tailored to “prove” that secular liberalism will destroy America. -2008 U.S. Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee declares that gays haven’t been beaten enough to merit using the title “civil rights movement.” -A new report finds that scientific study has been hindered by political controversy, forcing scientists to either censor...
- [Study Reveals Startling Effects of Marriage Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/study-reveals-startling-effects-of-marriage-equality/): From GraphJam. H/T Wil Wheaton.
- [Join the Impact: Philadelphia, PA](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/join-the-impact-philadelphia-pa/): I attended the “Join the Impact” protest of Proposition 8 at City Hall in the heart of Philadelphia, PA on Saturday. Getting there was a snap since I live in South Philly. I made 5 signs the night before and dragged them along on the subway, distributing all but one to the empty-handed once I arrived. The protest was peaceful. A small police presence was there, but I suspect they were mostly there to keep the flow of traffic. Usually at our local gay events there are “Christian” counter-protesters, but I didn’t see any. City Hall consists of a large building...
- [XGW Digest: November 14, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/xgw-digest-november-14-2008/): -Ex-Gay Expose wrap-up: Peterson Toscano reports on the weekend’s activities: press conference and demonstration held outside the NARTH conference in Denver, followed by a gathering of ex-gay survivors.  Christine Bakke also shares her reflections. -Utah State Senator Scott McCoy calls the LDS Church’s bluff. -Dan Savage takes on the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. -Nate Silver debunks myths about race and Prop 8. -Dale Carpenter suggests an alternative to targeting Mormons in anti-Prop 8 rallies. -JoinTheImpact plans “Fight the H8” protests for tomorrow (November 15) in every state in the US. Some people have dubbed this the “new Stonewall.” The official website has...
- [New Study Refutes Cameron ‘Gay Lifespan’ Claims](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/new-study-refutes-cameron-gay-lifespan-claims/): Danish researchers are to publish a study whose findings will challenge the claims of anti-gay propagandists Paul (pictured) and Kirk Cameron. Epidemiologists Morten Frisch and Henrik Brønnum-Hansen will publish “Mortality Among Men and Women in Same-Sex Marriage: A National Cohort Study of 8333 Danes” in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The study finds that since 1996 the mortality rate among gay men in same-sex marriages has been virtually equivalent to that of heterosexuals. Their conclusions directly contradict the Camerons, whose notoriously flawed study claimed that gay males had an average lifespan of 42 years. True...
- [Exodus Should Come Out of the Political Closet](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/exodus-should-come-out-of-the-political-closet/): Psalms 51:8 (Psalms 51:6 in Christian texts) tells us that G-d desires truth from one’s inner-most self. Proverbs 25:18 says that lying about your neighbor is as bad as inflicting physical harm upon them. I’m sitting here contemplating these very basic and powerful lines of scripture, all the while wondering why Exodus International doesn’t just go for broke and start its own PAC. XGW posted an entry putting to light Randy Thomas’ continued contempt for legalized LGBTQ equality and Alan Chambers’ “conflicted” feelings regarding Proposition 8. Despite an official stance of being apolitical, Exodus has chosen to once again embody a...
- [UK: Homophobic MP Robinson Named Bigot of the Year](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/uk-homophobic-mp-robinson-named-bigot-of-the-year/): The British LGBT charity Stonewall has awarded politician Iris Robinson the title of “Bigot of the Year” after she publicly denounced homosexuality as “disgusting, nauseous, loathsome, shamefully wicked and vile.” The MP also told the British Parliament that “sodomy” was worse than “sexually abusing innocent children.” Mrs Robinson, the wife of Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, caused controversy when she appeared on a radio show in June this year, labelling homosexuality an “abomination” and saying that gays were “set apart from society because of their behaviour.” She endorsed ex-gay therapy, claiming she knew former homosexuals who had “turned around and...
- [XGW Digest: November 7, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/xgw-digest-november-7-2008/): The ACLU, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights prepare to challenge Prop 8 in court.  A sampling of reactions to Prop 8’s passage from around the blogosphere: Andrew Sullivan: Oh, no, you don’t  Misty Irons: At what cost? Jim Johnson: Moving beyond the mixed message of election day Eric Leocadio: Snatched and gay bashed Steve Schalchin: Prop 8, Gay Marriage & Mormons Jason Kuznicki: California Prop 8, Arkansas Act 1 Jonathan Rauch: Try a little learning
- [Ex-Gays Show Their Political Colors Post-Election Day; Others Show Great Insight](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/ex-gays-show-their-political-colors-post-election-day-others-show-great-insight/): Several professional ex-gays made their political leanings very public post-election day. Specifically, Randy Thomas and Alan Chambers, who head Exodus International, the “ex-gay” organization that has “exited politics.” On Nov. 4th’s historic election night, he was jumping for joy over anti-gay amendments, as evidenced by multiple posts on his live blog session. Jay Holloman, a celibate same-sex attracted young man who frequently comments and occasionally writes for XGW, also participated in the live blog session. He had a centrist and often very tolerant tone, but found himself at odds with Thomas. Below are some examples of the messages that were posted....
- [Open Forum: Americans Go to the Polls for Marriage Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/11/open-forum-americans-go-to-the-polls-for-marriage-equality/): While the US votes for a new president, the states of California, Arizona and Florida will also vote today on state-constitutional amendments outlawing marriage between gay men and women. Proposition 8 (CA), Proposition 102 (AZ) and Amendment 2 (FL) are attempts to deny gays and lesbians equal rights by defining marriage as solely the union of “one man and one woman.” If the anti-gay, “pro-family” lobby has its way, many gay families will no longer be recognized as families, and future generations of gay men and women will never have the same rights as heterosexuals to build a marriage and a...
- [XGW Digest: October 31, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/xgw-digest-october-31-2008/): -Hate crimes based on sexual orientation increased slightly in 2007, despite an overall drop from 2006. -Anthony Venn-Brown launches a new site for ex-gay survivors in Australia and New Zealand. -The Ex-Gay Expose, hosted by Beyond Ex-Gay, comes to Denver November 7-9. -Bill Hussung and Mishara Canino-Hussung’s documentary, Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement, is now available on DVD. -Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, compares the legalization of gay marriage to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
- [Chambers: Vote Against Marriage Equality to Make It Easier for Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/chambers-vote-against-marriage-equality-to-make-it-easier-for-ex-gays/): Exodus President Alan Chambers told California’s Proposition 8 supporters last month to vote against marriage equality because it would have made it harder for him to be ex-gay. Despite earlier this year vowing that Exodus would stay away from politics, Chambers complained that marriage equality would have made it more difficult for him to “come to the Lord,” and that young people “don’t need this obstacle in their way.” He went on: I’m so grateful that back in 1990 and 1991 that wasn’t something that stood in my way in coming to Christ in the way that he had me come...
- [XGW Digest: October 25, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/xgw-digest-october-25-2008/): Fred Phelps’ daughters to participate in a debate over Florida’s Amendment 2. A California blogger confronts a Proposition 8 supporter’s scare tactics. Peter LaBarbera: Banning books is “good parenting.”  Coincidentally, he says this even as the push to get ex-gay and anti-gay books into Virginia libraries is failing. Notorious anti-gay activist Janet Porter (née Janet Folger) continues to hammer home the same old rants – claiming that should a certain Presidential candidate come to power, he would “use the bully pulpit of the white house to place vulnerable orphan children in the homes of homosexual activists.” Meanwhile, the Yes on 8...
- [Love Won Out Celebrates 10 Years of Culture Warfare](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/love-won-out-celebrates-10-years-of-culture-warfare/): The October 23, 2008 Denver Post featured an article about Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out roadshow, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this weekend in Colorado Springs.  The article itself is well-balanced, featuring counterpoints from ex-gay survivors Peterson Toscano and Christine Bakke alongside the usual talking points from LWO spokespersons.  Unfortunately little is done to directly examine LWO’s claims, which can seem more impressive on first glance than they really are. According to the article, “Focus says more than 50,000 gay people and family members have attended 52 conferences around the country in the past decade.”  Casual readers might...
- [Former ‘Love in Action’ Head Smid Starts New Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/former-lia-head-smid-starts-new-ministry/): Ex-gay leader John Smid, who resigned from the controversial ex-gay ministry Love in Action in March, is now leading a new ministry from an office in or near his home church in Germantown, TN. The specific nature of Grace Rivers Ministry is left rather vague by its mission statement: Grace Rivers is a worldwide ministry actively stirring the body of Christ towards healthier relationships and spiritual growth by helping people become more honest and real with themselves, others and God using biblical principles, resulting in a more passionate response to fulfilling the great commission. The “core values” are described thus: Authenticity...
- [Wife Divorces Ex-Gay Activist Greg Quinlan](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/wife-divorces-ex-gay-activist-greg-quinlan/): Ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan’s wife of three years, Cheryl Quinlan, appears to have received a decree of divorce in May of 2007, having filed the initial complaint seventeen months earlier.  XGW readers will recognize Greg from a recent incident involving distorted quotes attributed to noted geneticist Francis Collins.  The couple had no children and both considered themselves ex-gay before marriage.  Greg did not reply to our request for a comment. This writer debated about whether or not to post this information.  Divorce is a painful, private time and we would not wish it on anyone, nor do we want to make...
- [XGW Digest: October 17, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/xgw-digest-october-17-2008/): Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern still sees homosexuals as a greater threat to the United States than terrorists. A new poll shows that 53% of Connecticut voters support the state supreme court’s legalization of same-sex marriage. The Our Family Matters conference takes place next week in Nashville. A school bus driver is charged with instigating a homophobic attack against a 10-year-old boy. David Link reminds readers of California’s pioneering role in recognizing same-sex relationships.
- [Open Forum: Clever PSA on Prop 8](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/open-forum-clever-psa-on-prop-8/): I recognize the guy in the costume from the now canceled CBS drama Jericho, and the woman looks like Molly Ringwald, so this must at least be a semi-professional effort of some sort.  It’s nice to see that at least one side of this debate can place an ad that isn’t literally filled with lies.  To those for whom the ends justify any means, here is hoping the people of California, Arizona and Florida will not reward such efforts, but instead decide on the facts of the issue and the fairness in their hearts. You can view a few more in...
- [Ex-Gays Most Bullied Minority in America, Says PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/ex-gays-most-bullied-minority-in-america-says-pfox/): In a press release full of risible exaggerations, PFOX’s Regina Griggs has claimed that ex-gays are “the most bullied and maligned group in America,” and complained that “they are not protected by sexual orientation non-discrimination laws.” Calling on presidential candidate Barack Obama to include ex-gays in sexual orientation discrimination regulation, Griggs wrote: Former homosexuals and their friends have been fired from their jobs, repeatedly ridiculed, assaulted, and intimidated. This harassment is most often perpetrated by the same groups who demand protection under sexual orientation laws but work to deny ex-gays the same respect. The evidence offered for these assertions is wide...
- [Open Forum: Activist Supreme Court Redefines Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/open-forum-activist-supreme-court-redefines-marriage/): Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival…. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with...
- [National Coming Out Day: Love the “You” You Hide](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/national-coming-out-day-love-the-you-you-hide/): Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? from Will You Come & Follow Me (hymn) Three and a half years ago I confessed before friends and family a secret that had been eating away at me since early boyhood. There followed perhaps the biggest sense of relief I have ever felt. The shame, anxiety and sheer terror that kept me bound for years was gone in a moment when I found the courage – after much umming and ahhing – to say the words...
- [XGW Digest: October 10, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/xgw-digest-october-10-2008/): -Connecticut legalizes same-sex marriage. -Bolthouse Farms distances itself from its anti-gay founder. -Via TWO: Talk show host John Selig talks to Wayne Besen about his work fighting ex-gay groups, and ex-gay survivor Brian Nesbitt talks about why he went into therapy, what therapy was like, and what led him to leave it behind and protest ex-gay organizations. -Timothy Kincaid investigates the scare tactics being used by proponents of California Prop. 8. -Straight spouses lend their support to National Coming Out Day.
- [Bob Stith And Baptist Press Correct Erroneous Collins’ Quote](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/bob-stith-and-baptist-press-correct-erroneous-collins-quote/): As XGW reported last week, Bob Stith, the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) National Strategist for Gender Issues and Exodus speaker, apologized in an email to us for his use of erroneous quotes from noted geneticist Francis Collins. XGW has made correction of the misuse of Collins’ materials a priority since NARTH‘s Dean Byrd mangled words from Collins book last year. While the ex-gay activist who appears to have made up this particular quote, Greg Quinlan, has refused to issue a correction, Stith seems genuinely concerned about the error and submitted a correction to Baptist Press who had published the original article. ...
- [UK: The Times Investigates the Ex-Gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/uk-the-times-investigates-the-ex-gay-movement/): A British journalist has gone undercover to investigate the ex-gay movement. Lucy Bannerman of The Times (London) spent a week at an Exodus retreat at the LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Centre, North Carolina, an experience she dubbed “six days of evangelism psychotherapy.” The report does not contain much of surprise to anyone familiar with the ex-gay movement, sticking safely to the most ubiquitous characterizations, some of which are unfortunately never substantiated in the piece itself. For example, the article is boldly titled, “The camp that ‘cures’ homosexuality,” and yet little in the text establishes that Exodus was out directly to “cure” participants....
- [Ex-Gay Ministry Provides Convicted Sex Offender As Resource](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/ex-gay-ministry-provides-convicted-sex-offender-as-resource/): Evergreen International bills itself as “the most complete resource for Latter-day Saints on same-sex attraction.”  As one of the larger ex-gay organizations after Exodus International, a number of familiar names in that arena hail from Evergreen.  Outgoing NARTH President Dean Byrd is one example. While they exist to serve other Mormons, there is a curious ecumenical cooperation between Evergreen and Evangelical organizations such as Exodus.  Exodus President Alan Chambers and Vice President Randy Thomas have spoken at Evergreen’s annual conference in the past, and Exodus speaker Janelle Hallman was a keynote speaker, both in 2003 and just last month. From this...
- [Sarah Palin on Homosexuality — Belief And Choice Instead of Science](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/in-brief-vp-hopeful-sarah-palin-calls-homosexuality-a-choice/): Last month, the Associated Press reported that a church which Vice Presidential hopeful Gov. Sarah Palin currently attends was promoting the recent Love Won Out conference in Anchorage, Alaska. Truth Wins Out called on her to speak out about this, but she never did. TWO’s Wayne Besen was present along with many supportive organizations and individuals to counter LWO with peaceful demonstrations that encouraged the truth to be told about the LGBTQ community.Gov. Palin did not at first address homosexuality by calling it a “choice.” She gave one of her first interviews to Charlie Gibson and said the following: In her...
- [XGW Digest: October 4, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/xgw-digest-october-4-2008/): -Ecuador extends civil unions to same-sex couples. -Truth Wins Out continues its battle to reverse James Dobson’s inclusion in the Radio Hall of Fame. -Fundamentalist Christians blame gays and lesbians and the overall sexual culture of America for the current economic crisis. -Salon Magazine exposes “liberal Democrat” David Blankenhorn, who wrote an editorial in favor of California Prop. 8. -Bill Maher interviews “ex-gay” John Westcott in a clip of his upcoming movie Religulous. -Peterson Toscano talks about his ex-gay experiences on The Agenda, the Human Rights Campaign’s radio program.
- [In Brief: Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries Struggles to Keep Closet Door Closed](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/in-brief-nancy-alcorn-of-mercy-ministries-struggles-to-keep-closet-door-closed/): Nancy Alcorn, founder and head of Mercy Ministries, a “Bible-based” rehabilitation home for girls facing ailments ranging from eating disorders to sexual abuse, is a closeted lesbian according to former member Jennifer Wynne. Nashville Scene provides an eye-opening article outing Alcorn and exposing terrifying realities behind Mercy Ministries, as described by the experiences of several former members. Wynne, a lesbian herself, was entrusted with providing alibis for Alcorn’s secret liaisons with another “ex-lesbian” named Lisa who paid frequent visits to Mercy, where “looking lesbian was a major crime.” Wynne, in Alcorn’s inner circle, became part of the deception. While Wynne was...
- [Southern Baptist’s Bob Stith Apologizes for Erroneous Collins Quote](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/10/southern-baptists-bob-stith-apologizes-for-erroneous-collins-quote/): Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) National Strategist for Gender Issues and Exodus speaker, Bob Stith, weighed in on Ray Boltz’ announcement that he has been gay all his life and that God created him that way.  Ray Boltz is a celebrated contemporary Christian musician and his announcement prompted many in the ex-gay and anti-gay world to publicly reinforce their belief that homosexuality is the result of nurture, not nature, and that it can be changed. As XGW has reported, one of the more recent distortions being used to reinforce that belief is a quote from noted geneticist Francis Collins...
- [Exodus VP Randy Thomas Illustrates Narrow Ex-Gay View](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/exodus-vp-randy-thomas-illustrates-narrow-ex-gay-view/): As our readers may have heard, Google recently announced it’s official position against California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in that state.  They did so in a blog by Co-founder and President, Sergey Brin.  Among other things, he said this: While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love....
- [In Brief: Liberty University to Allow Equality Riders on Campus](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/in-brief-liberty-university-to-allow-equality-riders-on-campus/): SOULFORCE MEDIA ADVISORY September 29, 2008 Contact: Katie Higgins, katie@soulforce.org, 843-259-8876 LIBERTY U. TO ALLOW EQUALITY RIDERS ON CAMPUS Young Adults Tour Christian Colleges to Advocate Safety and Inclusion for All Students What: On Wednesday, October 1, the Soulforce Equality Ride, a youth-organized bus tour to faith-based colleges, will bring a message of inclusion and love to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Five young adult Equality Riders will donate gay-affirming Christian books to the Liberty University library and talk with students about safety and acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Why: More than 200 U.S. colleges and universities have...
- [News Brief: Bishop Carlton Pearson Has Closed His Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/news-brief-bishop-carlton-pearson-has-closed-his-church/): From AP via Texarkana Gazette Bishop Carlton Pearson preached his final sermon at New Dimensions Church on Sept. 7. The church has been folded into All Souls Unitarian Church, the world’s largest church in that denomination. Carlton Pearson once presided over a large Charismatic church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  With a seat on the board of trustees at Oral Roberts University, and a working relationship with Trinity Broadcasting Network, Pearson was an influential voice.  This was further validated when then newly elected President George Bush consulted with Pearson in 2000. As XGW reported last year, this changed drastically in 2003 when Pearson...
- [News Brief: First Copy of Financial Bailout Available to Download](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/news-brief-first-copy-of-financial-bailout-available-to-download/): As a topic that affects all of our US readers, we would like to alert our readers to the availability of the first copy of what is being called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.  It’s 106 pages of how our government intends to use hundreds of billions of dollars of your money in an attempt to fix what is being called the worst economic crisis since 1929.  Whatever your feelings about it, you should have the information as quickly as possible. Future updates to this document should be available at financialservices.house.gov. Download (PDF)
- [Support Abounds From the Jewish Community to Fight California’s Proposition 8](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/support-abounds-from-the-jewish-community-to-fight-californias-proposition-8/): As the writers at Box Turtle Bulletin have been discovering and reporting, California’s proposed anti-gay marriage amendment – Proposition 8 – is being pushed and backed immensely by the LDS Church. But to give the appearance of ecumenical effort, the claim is made that Mormon, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim voices are being heard. As “proof,” the organizations that are sponsoring the proposition are listed here. But as BTB’s Timothy Kincaid has noted, the “Jewish” part of that collective voice is very quiet, because the only Jewish organization listed out of more than a hundred is the Orthodox Union. This is an...
- [XGW Digest: September 25, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/xgw-digest-september-25-2008/): Born-again Christian Clay Aiken comes out of the closet. Anita from Sisterfriends Together reminds readers about another Christian musician who was pilloried for coming out of the closet. Conservative Christian blogger (and gay rights supporter) Misty Irons dissects the arguments of a liberal Democrat who supports Proposition 8 in California. Truth Wins Out reports that the ex-gay myth is being used to keep gays and lesbians from achieving equality in Nepal. TWO’s opposition at the Anchorage, Alaska “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference receives notable publicity. Jim Burroway takes a closer look at where funding for the anti-gay initiatives in California and Arizona is coming...
- [Exodus VP Randy Thomas Almost Gets It](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/exodus-vp-randy-thomas-almost-gets-it/): In Exodus VP Randy Thomas’ latest attempt to define the happenstance of being attracted to the same sex with a single cultural “worldview,” he almost figures it out. He almost realizes that what pushes us to become LGBTQ rather than just L, G, B, T, and Q is our daily task of facing discrimination and opposition – including opposition from people like him who are members of groups like Exodus International. In his blog post about the hypothetical “Gay Legacy,” Randy ponders the discrimination and hardships faced today by gay senior citizens and recounts his own encounter with a young gay...
- [Falwell Church Member Launches Ex-Gay Website](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/falwell-church-member-launches-ex-gay-website/): A member of the church pastored by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell has launched a website offering advice to homosexuals who want to find “healing from same-sex attraction.” Debbie Thurman of Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA, has set up TheFormers.com as “a place of fellowship for those who have found healing from same-sex attraction — or are on that journey — and their supporters.” Echoing a by-now-familiar refrain of ex-gays and anti-gays, Thurman writes that, “Even if science one day finds a genetic predisposition to same-sex attraction, we don’t believe gays and lesbians are designed that way.” The site is...
- [Update: Noted Geneticist Confirms XGW Correction of Greg Quinlan, NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/update-noted-geneticist-confirms-xgw-correction-of-greg-quinlan-narth/): Working with the New Jersey Family Policy Counsel and speaking to the American Family Association’s (AFA) One News Now, ex-gay Greg Quinlan made statements on behalf of noted geneticist Francis S. Collins that were untrue — specifically that his work on the human genome project had led to the “fact” that homosexuality was 100% nurture, with absolutely no genetic component.  This echoed a similar distortion made by NARTH’s Dean Byrd earlier this year.  See our recent post for details on this. As noted in that previous post, we contacted Dr. Collins last May and printed, with permission, his correction of what...
- [Ex-Gay Greg Quinlan Severely Distorts Researcher’s Comments, Accuses XGW of Fraud](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/ex-gay-greg-quinlan-severely-distorts-researchers-comments-accuses-xgw-of-fraud/): Greg Quinlan was once a prominent ex-gay activist.  He founded the Pro-Family Network in Dayton, Ohio in 1998, and appeared in I Do Exist, the ex-gay video by Warren Throckmorton, in 2004. It appears he left Ohio in the last year or so and now works with the New Jersey Family Policy Counsel in an unknown capacity. In an interview concerning the recent coming out of contemporary Christian singer Ray Boltz, Quinlan attributed false statements to one of the nations most respected geneticists, Francis S. Collins.  Speaking to the American Family Association’s (AFA) pseudo-news site One News Now, Quinlan responded to...
- [XGW Digest: September 18, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/xgw-digest-september-18-2008/): Christian musician Ray Boltz comes out of the closet. Ex-gay Gregory Quinlan responds to Boltz by distorting the work of geneticist Francis Collins. British Christian superstar Cliff Richard speaks out in favor of gay marriage. Psychologist Jesse Bering examines some of the theories about the origins of homosexuality. Peter LaBarbera comments on the Folsom Street Fair, inventing a “conversation” between two gay parents to prove some kind of point. No definitive answer on whether he’ll make a cameo appearance. A local Christian reports on Love Won Out’s Anchorage show.
- [Boys Beware! A Look Back At Sid Davis’ Infamous Film](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/boys-beware-a-look-back-at-sid-davis-infamous-film/): Educational film producer Sid Davis released countless “cautionary tales” over the span of the 1950’s and ’60’s, one of the most notorious being the film Boys Beware (1961). XGW mentioned the film in a brief posting in 2006 when Davis died. It shows predatory men targeting young boys for sexual gratification, warning the audience that homosexuals are on the loose. The film includes such quotable gems as: What Jimmy didn’t know was that Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious — a sickness of the mind. You see, Ralph was a...
- [In Brief: New And Upcoming Releases](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/in-brief-new-and-upcoming-releases/): September is the release month for several items that may be of interest to the XGW community:  -Peterson Toscano’s recently retired stage show, Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House, is now available on DVD. -Save Me, the ex-gay-themed movie starring Chad Allen, is being screened in selected cities over the next two months. The release schedule is posted here. -Regular XGW readers will remember Patrick Chapman from his critique of the Jones-Yarhouse study last year.  Dr. Chapman’s new book, Thou Shalt Not Love: What Evangelicals Really Say to Gays, is being released by Haiduk Press later this month. -Candace Chellew-Hodge, editor...
- [Nature Vs. Nurture, Left Or Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/nature-vs-nurture-left-or-right/): As a child I was atypical. I didn’t begin speaking until months after other kids my age had said their first words – but when I did finally talk, it was in complete sentences. What no doubt appeared at first to be a developmental problem turned out to simply be a different way of doing things. It’s a pattern that has followed me into adulthood; I tend to hold back, watching and learning, and then leap in at hit the ground running once I understand how to do something. I try to temper this characteristic when the situation dictates, since there...
- [Nostalgia Time: The Golden Years of Christian Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/nostalgia-time-the-golden-years-of-christian-homophobia/): Click here for a vintage homophobic hate tract from 1986. The comic book, by Dick Hafer, is titled Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternative Deathstyle, and promises “the facts behind today’s headlines,” declaring that “what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home can hurt you!” The back cover bears endorsements by evangelical superstar Beverley LaHaye (founder and then-President of Concerned Women for America) and the late Reverend D James Kennedy, a leading light of the Christian Right, who hails the book as “a very accurate portrayal of homosexuality and the problem which it poses to our nation and civilization.” I wonder...
- [In Brief: Palin’s Church Supports Ex-Gay Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/in-brief-palins-church-supports-ex-gay-ministry/): It is no surprise to discover that the church attended by McCain VP candidate Sarah Palin is a supporter of anti-gay groups and ex-gay programs. A Time Magazine article about the Wasilla Bible Church this week revealed: The only sign of culture warring in the whole [service] is an insert in the day’s program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to “respond to misinformation in our culture” and help them “overcome” homosexuality. Last time Ex-Gay Watch checked, Love Won Out was still in the...
- [Open Forum: Ex-Gay David Pickup Dating Video From Planet Narth](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/09/open-forum-ex-gay-david-pickup-dating-video-from-planet-narth/): XGW has covered the strange story of David Pickup from several angles, but perhaps none so bizarre as this parody from our friends on Planet Narth.  Apparently the sky is rather pink there.
- [Hardline Political Activist Appointed to Exodus Women’s Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/hardline-political-activist-appointed-to-exodus-womens-ministry/): Exodus International’s new women’s ministry leader is a hardline ex-lesbian who once joined critics in decrying moderate remarks by Exodus President Alan Chambers. Yvette Schneider, also known as Yvette Cantu Schneider and previously Yvette Cantu, will “communicate biblical, compassionate truth to women who feel overlooked by society,” according to an Exodus press release. In 2007, Schneider joined Peter LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth in criticizing Alan Chambers after the LA Times reported he had softened on the meaning of “change.” Chambers said that “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.” LaBarbera immediately supported pal Stephen Bennett...
- [In Brief: Interesting News in the Fight Against HIV Infection](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/in-brief-interesting-news-in-the-fight-against-hiv-infection/): I remember reading a long time ago about those who appear to be naturally immune to infection.  We often hear of breakthroughs that may lead to a vaccine or effective cure.  As incredible as that will be, I suspect it will only be the beginning of unimaginable possibilities to come in this new era of medicine.  We are on the precipice, who can guess what’s next?
- [Exodus Board Member’s Staff Person Appears in Gay Themed Movie](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/exodus-board-member-staff-person-appears-in-gay-themed-movie/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGGDJhO1HnE David Pickup appears in the next to the last frame — this is only a preview. David Pickup, as reported in the previous post, is on staff with Jayson Grave’s Healing for the Soul, described as a private counseling practice specializing in sexual addictions and unwanted same gender attractions.  Graves is also a member of the Exodus International Board of Directors. While Pickup’s Healing for the Soul bio claims he is a life coach and not a therapist (doesn’t do therapy), XGW writer Dave Rattigan has called attention to the fact that he claimed to be just that, a reorientation...
- [Pickup Contradicts Himself to Support Reorientation Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/pickup-contradicts-himself-to-support-reorientation-therapy/): Ex-gay therapist David Pickup has told the American Psychological Association that he practices “reorientation … therapy,” despite claiming on his website that what he offers is “not therapy.” XGW has already reported on Pickup’s bizarre testimony, which centers on his admiration for big, muscley, men and his belief that gay men cannot be truly masculine. Through Healing for the Soul, a counseling ministry led by Jayson Graves (an Exodus board member), Pickup dubs himself a “life coach,” and takes other same-sex-attracted men through the same “transformation into heterosexuality.” At last week’s APA Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Pickup joined other Christians, including...
- [The Extremes of Church Of Our Saviour And Choices Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/church-of-our-saviour-and-choices-ministrys-extreme-ways/): Choices Ministry was founded by Sy Rogers during the expansion of Exodus Global Alliance, and started  their reparative therapy program back in 1991 under the wings of Church Of Our Saviour (COOS) in Singapore. The church markets Choices as a way to salvation, a way to avoid the fires of hell. Their obsession with “curing a nation of homosexuality” has led some to label COOS as the most homophobic church in the Asian region. Choices is still closely affiliated with Exodus International through Exodus Asia Pacific. COOS’s Senior Pastor is Derek Hong, while Choices’ most vocal proponent is ex-gay Shawn Tay...
- [In Brief: Young Evangelicals Increasingly Accepting of Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/in-brief-young-evangelicals-increasingly-accepting-of-homosexuality/): Citing the Pew Forum, Newsweek writes that views about hot-button issues are cooling somewhat on evangelical campuses, including those about homosexuality. Young evangelicals are far more accepting of gay and lesbian lifestyles than their parents are: 34 percent of evangelicals between 18 and 29 think homosexuality “should be accepted,” compared with 24 percent of those from 50 to 64… As I reflect on the recent firing of a friend from his job at a conservative Christian school because he is gay and in a monogamous relationship, I can’t help but hope this change accelerates.
- [XGW Digest: August 13, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/xgw-digest-august-13-2008/): Peterson Toscano shares the story of a former ex-gay in Malta. Paul Varnell looks at the state of gay rights outside of the western world. Focus on the Family hides a video it had posted only 12 days prior calling for Christians to “pray for rain of Biblical proportions” during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. They are now claiming the video was supposed to be humorous and not taken seriously. Anti-gay activists are getting worked up over the declaration of a “Harvey Milk Day” in California, claiming that schoolchildren would be forced to celebrate the day in the classroom, and...
- [Falzarano’s God Kills Lesbians to Teach Them a Lesson](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/falzaranos-god-kills-lesbians-to-teach-them-a-lesson/): Ex-gay, ex-Exodus leader Anthony Falzarano believes God may have caused a lesbian’s partner to die of breast cancer in order to chastise her. Falzarano, the founder of PFOX, told former ex-gay Darlene Bogle that God may have been trying to teach her something by taking away her gay partner of 15 years, Des. In a comment posted to the Beyond Ex-Gay website, Falzarano wrote: Darlene, I’m glad I ran across your blog. I still miss you. I am sorry to hear that your lover died of breast-cancer. Darlene is God sending you a message? Please consider coming back to Exodus. You...
- [In Brief: Revelations Abound in New Book About Jerry Falwell](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/revelations-abound-in-new-book-about-jerry-falwell/): Forbes gives us a glimpse of the dark internal mechanisms of Rev. Jerry Falwell’s evangelical empire in Dirk Smillie’s new book Falwell Inc.: Inside a Religious, Political, Educational and Business Empire. Smillie describes how the direct-mail tactics of For-Profits were applied to Falwell’s Non-Profit by brilliantly turning pleas for donations into “short stories” with a hero, a villain, obstacles to overcome, and an urgent call to rescuers. Gays and lesbians today are all too familiar with the charge of “recruiting,” a charge that Falwell uses here to drum up funds: “Dear Friend: Homosexuals are on the march in this country. Homosexuals...
- [Female Ex-Gay Survivors to Share Their Stories](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/female-ex-gay-survivors-to-share-their-stories/): Peterson Toscano reports that former ex-gays Christine Bakke and Darlene Bogle will host a public conference call tomorrow, August 7, to talk about their experiences in the ex-gay movement and answer questions. As Toscano explains, “many ex-gay survivors have come forward and several sites offer thoughtful analysis of the ex-gay world, but we have heard precious little from the women who once partook of ex-gay treatment and have since come to accept their lesbian or bisexual side.” Details for those who wish to participate in the conference call: Thursday, August 7th, 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern 1. Dial-In Conference Number 1-218-486-1300 2. Access...
- [My Hope - By Jay Holloman (College Jay)](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/my-hope-by-jay-holloman-college-jay/): I like Wendy Gritter, and I like New Direction. She’s a sweet and Christ-focused woman and I think New Direction is one of the most Christ-centered ministries for people that deal with same-sex attraction. I was upset when I read her recent blog post about a colleague that has been claiming New Direction “doesn’t offer hope anymore.” Now, I’m not going to refute that statement here. Ms. Gritter has already done extremely well with that in the linked post, and I highly suggest you read it. I will offer my own personal story, though. I’ve never been involved with New Direction...
- [UK: Gay Hate Victim, 18, Is Dead](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/uk-gay-hate-victim-18-is-dead/): A gay teenager has died, just one week after he was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Eighteen-year-old Michael Causer of Whiston, near Liverpool, England, died in hospital on Saturday August 2 at 12.30pm. He had been attacked by other youths while walking with friends in nearby Huyton, some time before 11am on Friday July 25. It was a busy road and it was broad daylight. Emergency brain surgery the following day could not save him. Michael lived just a couple streets away from me. He had many friends and family around here. Many of them are now part of a...
- [In Brief: The Massachusetts Family Institute on Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/08/in-brief-the-massachusetts-family-institute-on-marriage/): Citizenlink quotes Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, in its report on the Massachusetts legislature’s repeal of the 1913 law that was used to prevent out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying there: With the protective barrier removed, out-of-state, same-sex couples who ‘marry’ here will sue to seek recognition in their home states … further eroding the people’s right to define marriage. Wait a minute – “the people’s right to define marriage”? What happened to marriage being an age-old institution established by God himself? So if, say, the people of France decided that the benefits of marriage should be extended same-sex...
- [New Development in Insure.com Anti-Gay Propaganda Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/new-development-in-insurecom-anti-gay-propaganda-story/): As our readers may be aware, it was recently reported that the popular online insurance portal Insure.com has posted disturbing and completely inaccurate information about the lifespan of gay people.  Worse, the source for their claims is the discredited and largely avoided Dr. Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute. Insure.com CEO Robert Bland defended the use of Cameron’s data in the articles, the core claim of which is that “a gay lifestyle takes away 8-20 years from the average lifespan.” Further, insurance companies don’t charge higher premiums for gay clients (supposedly because of some sort of political correctness) so gays...
- [Liverpool Boy in Critical Condition Following Homophobic Beating](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/liverpool-boy-in-critical-condition-following-homophobic-beating/): Story here. Updates here and here. I’ve been fortunate. I don’t live in the most gay-friendly community in the world, but I’ve never personally been subject to a homophobic assault in my area. My family is well-known round here, and it’s no secret that I’m gay. I’ve had schoolkids ask me about my partner, and for the most part their reaction has been: “Cool.” But I am not oblivious to the fact that I live in an area where there is homophobia. I have friends down the road who, although they’ve never been physically attacked, have experienced vandalism borne out of...
- [Anglicans Complain of Ex-Gays Being Sidelined At Lambeth](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/anglicans-complain-of-ex-gays-being-sidelined-at-lambeth/): Two ex-gay ministries have complained that gay groups are being given preferential treatment at the Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops. The Lambeth Marketplace makes room for booths representing dozens of Anglican organizations during the three-week-long gathering, but representatives of Zaccheus and Redeemed Lives say they have been given “low visibility” compared to pro-gay groups such as Integrity, Changing Attitude and the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. According to VirtueOnline, Zaccheus, a Canadian support group for “same-sex attracted” Anglican Christians, were unexpectedly moved from a prime location to a booth at the rear of the marketplace. They said they...
- [Exodus V.P. Randy Thomas And the “Gay Ideology”](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/exodus-vp-randy-thomas-and-the-gay-ideology/): In his celebration of having “left the gay identity” sixteen years ago, Exodus International Vice President Randy Thomas attempts to define on his blog what that even means. In the comments section, he was challenged by a commenter known as “College Jay” to define what he called the “gay ideology,” which supposedly held him back from achieving a relationship with the Christian God. Here are his comments, uncut: When I refer to gay ideology… I am not talking about bar culture (even though that is a part of it.) In fact your seeming need to make sure the non-sensational are represented...
- [XGW Digest: July 27, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/xgw-digest-july-27-2008/): Paige Schilt of Soulforce shares about her experiences on the American Family Outing. The Asheville chapter of PFLAG hosts the Real Families Picnic in response to Exodus’ conference. Cartoonist Jack T. Chick, known for his infamous “Chick Tracts,” has aligned himself with Nazi-admiring anti-gay “researcher” Paul Cameron. Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have unsuccessfully tried to make it illegal for anyone to identify as “lesbian” if they do not originate from the island. They claim that gay women who use the term “lesbian” to describe themselves are damaging the islanders’ cultural heritage. YouTuber “Planet Narth” gives us a “great...
- [‘Doctor Who’ Actor Meets Ex-Gay Preacher](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/doctor-who-actor-meets-ex-gay-preacher/): Gay actor John Barrowman met with an ex-gay during the filming of a BBC documentary about the origins of homosexuality. The British-American entertainer, best-known to international audiences as Captain Jack Harkness in the the sci-fi serial Doctor Who (and its spin-off, Torchwood), met with Ron Woolsey, aka Victor J Adamson, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor from Arkansas. Woolsey’s part in the broadcast was surprisingly brief. He reiterated the common ex-gay claim that being gay was a destructive lifestyle: My life was hurting people. I saw my parents weeping, so I looked at my situation and I was under great conviction that...
- [Exodus Loses Another Major Member Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/exodus-loses-another-major-member-ministry/): We recently noticed that David Kyle Foster’s Mastering Life Ministries no longer appears on the Exodus affiliate page for Tennessee.  When asked, Exodus President Alan Chambers confirmed to XGW that Foster chose not to renew his membership for 2008, and “left the Exodus Network late last year.”  Interestingly, Myra Noyes is no longer listed as an Exodus regional representative,either.  She was responsible for the Florida region and has been associated with Foster’s ministry for some time (she is still listed on the Mastering Life Ministries website).  Whatever led to the split between Foster and Exodus, Noyes’ concurrent departure may indicate a...
- [PFOX Misrepresents Research to Defame Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/pfox-misrepresents-research-to-defame-gays/): A scientist has accused Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays (PFOX) of distorting his research by claiming that high school gay-straight alliances increase risk of suicide for teens. PFOX President Regina Griggs said that “the risk of suicide decreases by 20% each year that a person delays homosexual or bisexual self-labeling,” and criticized schools for affirming teens who self-labeled. However,  Dr Gary Remafedi, a pediatrician at the University of Minnesota, whose research Griggs cited, told Wayne Besen that the claims did not line up with his study: My work has been cited by PFOX in response to a Washington Post...
- [XGW Bookshelf: Messy Spirituality](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/xgw-bookshelf-messy-spirituality/): The late Mike Yaconelli spent much of his life worried that he wasn’t spiritual enough.  Despite his many efforts to be a better Christian, the best he ever seemed to manage was “a stumbling, bumbling, clumsy kind of following.”  Spirituality remained an eternally elusive state of being that was always just out of grasp. Most churches reinforce this perfectionistic line of thinking, setting high standards for how their members should look and act and offering countless formulas for “godly” living that never quite work as well as advertised.  The end result is pews full of people with smiles permanently in place...
- [Gays Worse Than Child Abusers, Says Northern Ireland MP](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/gays-worse-than-child-abusers-says-northern-ireland-mp/): Northern Irish MP Iris Robinson is in trouble again after comparing homosexuality to child sex abuse. The Member of UK Parliament, who stood by a slew of homophobic remarks last month, told the House of Commons on June 18 that there could be “no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.” Although a Hansard official later checked recordings and confirmed that her comments were transcribed correctly, Mrs Robinson denied she had made the remarks. “I clearly intended to say that child abuse was worse than even homosexuality and sodomy,” she said. “At no point have I...
- [Insure.com Stands By Anti-Gay Researcher Cameron](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/insurecom-stands-by-anti-gay-researcher-cameron/): Timothy Kincaid and Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin have done a sterling job of exposing Insure.com for using research from the notorious anti-gay propagandist Paul Cameron. The controversy started when Insure.com, an online provider of insurance advice, published an article entitled Top five ways to kill yourself and get away with it, of which the number one recommendation for certain self-destruction was “Being gay.” Author Joe White claimed that eight to 20 years’ reduction in life span was a “conservative estimate.” It was not the first time White had made the claim. An earlier article was boldly named Gay men...
- [XGW Digest: July 17, 2008](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/xgw-digest-july-17-2008/): Candace Chellew-Hodges proposes a new framework for the debate over the Bible and homosexuality. The Malaysian National News Agency reports on a worrying moral decadence; its tentacles had engulfed the west, and it is now gripping the country with its ills and evil ways. “Womanly” males are to be monitored, while parents are warned children will be trapped by its clutches. Like a malignant cancer, this felony threatens to bring destruction and devastation to society, along with many diseases. Its name? They call it “Homosexual“. A gay Christian blogger offers a thoughtful response to Alan Chambers’ recent New Man eMagazine article....
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers: “Gay People Live in Heaven”](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/exodus-president-alan-chambers-gay-people-live-in-heaven/): The Asheville, NC Citizen-Times ran an article Monday on Exodus International’s annual conference, which started yesterday in neighboring Ridgecrest. The article profiles Exodus and its activities, as well as Equality Asheville, which is offering counter programming with the message “you’re okay the way you are.” Both sides are given equal time, with quotes from Exodus leaders presented alongside statements by Wayne Besen and several members of Equality Asheville. For the most part, it’s business as usual. What stands out is a rather surprising comment by Alan Chambers: “The truth is that homosexuality does not send people to hell. Gay people live...
- [Skeptical Over Benkof’s Change of Mind](https://exgaywatch.com/2008/07/skeptical-over-benkofs-change-of-mind/): There have been best wishes for David Benkof this weekend as he “takes his life in another direction.” Others confessed to having “misjudged” him, and hailed a change of position brought about through “logic [and] reasoning.” What has the anti-gay-marriage activist done to provoke this response? He has announced on his blog (which blog now seems to have disappeared – cache here) that he is giving up the fight against gay marriage because of “disturbing information” that makes it “impossible” for him to keep supporting the pro-traditional marriage lobby. While we have no solid sources we can quote at the moment,...
- [Ultra-Conservative & Anti-Gay Groups Joining Forces](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/ultra-conservative-anti-gay-groups-joining-forces/): According to Reuters, a press conference in Washington D.C. today at 1:30 pm EDT will announce the formation of the Freedom Federation. The Freedom Federation is a new and unique federation of some of the largest multi-ethnic and transgenerational faith-based organizations in the country committed to plan, strategize, and work together on common interests within the Judeo-Christian tradition to mobilize their grassroots constituencies and to communicate faith and values to the Religious, social, cultural, and policymaking institutions. The organizations list some of the usual suspects in such an effort, including some of the most shrill in the anti-gay realm, along with...
- [The 'Gayby Boom:' Children of Gay Parents are 'Coming Out'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/the-gayby-boom-children-of-gay-parents-are-coming-out/): A couple of generations have passed since Stonewall, and more and more people are acting upon Harvey Milk’s declaration that the closet is the biggest enemy to the queer community. This not only includes those who are gay and lesbian, but those who are children of gay and lesbian couples. A recent article interviews several of these children, now adults, and how their family structure affected their childhood and well-being. Opponents claim that raising a child in a home lacking in a parent of either gender will cause the child to become psychologically damaged, experiment more with their sexuality, and grow...
- [Update: Disturbing Police Raid on Fort Worth Gay Bar](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/disturbing-police-raid-on-fort-worth-gay-bar/): Source: Dallas Voice On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, it appears local and state police have recreated history in Fort Worth, Texas. It happened at the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge, described as “the only cool gay bar in town,” by Q Cinema founder and former Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Todd Camp. From someone present at the time of the raid: The not awesome thing was the paddy wagon of homophobic police that showed up … looking for trouble. My group and I were sitting on the back patio at a picnic table. Nobody was being wild out there. [The police]...
- [XGW Digest: June 27, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/xgw-digest-june-27-2009/): -Gay couples can now use their married names on their passports. -A Catholic priest speaks out against the Vatican’s anti-gay teachings. -Anti-gay marriage petitioners in Maine may be collecting signatures under false pretenses. -Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively cites and defends anti-gay ‘researcher’ Paul Cameron. -Delaware adds sexual orientation to its list of protected classes. -Ireland establishes civil partnership rights.
- [Gay Exorcism Pastor: We Are Not Against Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/gay-exorcism-pastor-we-are-not-against-homosexuality/): The pastor of a Connecticut Pentecostal church in the news for performing an exorcism on a gay teen told CNN that her church is not against homosexuality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9oIuBNx-3A “We do not hate [homosexuals]. We do not come up against them. We just do not believe in their lifestyle,” said Pastor Patricia McKinney of Manifested Glory Church, Bridgeport. Asked whether a gay person could be a member of the church, she said they could not live the lifestyle, but “when you come in, you can get delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit.” She later added that homosexuals are “all welcome...
- [Farrah Fawcett Dead at 62](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/farrah-fawcett-dead-at-62/): Actress and 70s sensation Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer today. She was 62. R.I.P. Farrah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZrxjNcxBZw
- [Michael Jackson Dead at 50](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/michael-jackson-dead-at-50/): According to TMZ, Michael Jackson suffered a heart attack at his home and could not be revived by paramedics on scene. He was 50 years old.  Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II. R.I.P. Michael. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYrUQItmW4s
- [Christian Commentator Defends Teenage Gay Exorcism](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/christian-commentator-defends-teenage-gay-exorcism/): Dr Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has defended a church that performed a gruelling exorcism on a 16-year-old boy. Manifested Glory Church in Bridgeport, CT, has been widely condemned after a video was released showing the boy writhing around on the floor as a preacher attempted to rid him of the demon supposedly behind his homosexuality. As others held the teenager in place, occasionally propping him up, the preacher shouted, “You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now. You have no power. … Loose your grip, Lucifer, you sex demon,” among other commands to the Devil. Now Dr...
- [Synchroblog, and Why I Just Can't](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/synchroblog-and-why-i-just-cant/): Like many, I accepted the invitation to participate in a blogging experiment started by Wendy Gritter and New Direction, a ministry in Canada and a former member of the Exodus network.  The idea, as I understand it, is to elevate the conversation concerning bridge-building between those who are accepting of GLBT people and those who are not, the latter particularly for religious reasons. I fought to think of what I would say that could help.  After just having finished some exhaustive work on yet another one of the reasons that XGW exists (Matthew C. Manning), I’m not in a very good...
- [Ex-Gay Pastor Matthew C. Manning's Troubling Criminal Record](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/ex-gay-pastor-matthew-c-mannings-troubling-criminal-record/): Ex-Gay Watch's investigation into Pastor Matthew C Manning has failed to find evidence for his miraculous healing claims. But more disturbingly, it has revealed a history of accusations, charges and at least one plea of no contest for sexual offenses.
- [Christian Pollster Barna Dispels Anti-Gay Myths](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/christian-pollster-barna-dispels-anti-gay-myths/): George Barna, the evangelical author popular with conservative Christians for his research into faith and culture, has said that common stereotypes of gay people and their relationship to Christianity are wrong. As his research company, The Barna Group, released the results of a survey on homosexuals and faith, Barna said: People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts. … A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and claim to have some type of meaningful personal commitment to Jesus Christ active...
- [Anti-Gay Phelps Clan Now Targeting Jews](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/anti-gay-phelps-clan-now-targeting-jews/): Sometimes we gay Jews describe ourselves as being “twice blessed,” but in the Phelps’s case, we’re twice targeted. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, Westboro Baptist Church is declaring that “God Hates Jews” for being idolators, Christ-killers, and homosexual-enablers. Jews are, according to them, the group of people most supportive of gay rights and abortion. WBC issued a press release in April that stated: “Yes, the Jews killed the Lord Jesus…Now they’re carrying water for the fags; that’s what they do best: sin in God’s face every day, with unprecedented and disproportionate amounts of sodomy, fornication,...
- [XGW Digest: June 20, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/xgw-digest-june-20-2009/): -Dr. Gregory Herek remembers LGBT researcher Larry Kurdek. -Focus on the Family continues to perpetuate the myth that homosexuality is caused by sexual abuse. -Lesbian filmmaker Paige Williams debuts Mississippi Queen, her documentary about growing up gay in rural Mississippi. -An evangelical rethinks her stance on gay marriage. -David Link argues that there are better reasons to be angry at the Obama Administration than its brief in defense of DOMA. -Openly gay Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis speak out against the DOMA brief. -A new study reveals that homosexual behavior is “nearly universal” in the Animal Kingdom, and argues that...
- [In Brief: Focus on the Family's Doublespeak](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/in-brief-focus-on-the-familys-doublespeak/): In a June 17 Citizenlink article, Focus on the Family speaks out in support of Italian pop singer’s ex-gay song “Luca Used to be Gay.”  The autobiographical song advocates that gays can become straight, which XGW predicted would bring it to the attention of ex-gay advocates elsewhere. What is more telling, however, is Citizenlink’s statement that the song promotes “the truth that people can change their sexual orientation.”  While it comes as little surprise to outside observers that Focus on the Family believes that homosexuals can (and should) become heterosexual, it does belie the assertion repeatedly made by spokespersons for FotF’s...
- [In Brief: 'Stephen Bennett Ministries' Websites Now Down](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/in-brief-stephen-bennett-ministries-websites-now-down/): Ex-gay Stephen Bennett, now working as a realtor, no longer has a website for “Stephen Bennett Ministries.” Links that once led to sites associated with him, such as www.sbministries.org, now lead to dead ends. The cache of SBministries.org has a link that leads to an iGroops page called “The Parents Group,” but no mention of Bennett is made on that page. Bennett used to have an iGroops page but that too seems to be down – here is a screenshot of the cached link. Over the past few months Bennett has been very actively begging for donations, and attempting to stave...
- [XGW Digest: June 13, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/xgw-digest-june-13-2009/): -The Arizona legislature votes to eliminate domestic partner benefits granted last year to state employees. -An Emory University study reveals that bans on same-sex marriage lead to an increase in HIV infection rates. -An African-American minister fights for marriage equality. -Four gay couples to marry in a public ceremony in Tel Aviv, Israel during Gay Pride celebrations. -A gay African-American veteran runs for Congress. -Carrie Prejean is stripped of her Miss California title.  The National Organization for Marriage predictably declares her a martyr. -The Obama Administration asks the Supreme Court to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act.
- [Please Pardon our Dust](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/please-pardon-our-dust/): Ex-Gay Watch is halfway through a major upgrade/conversion (change is possible for blogs) so some features may be missing for a bit, while others might not work correctly. Also, the Blogroll will be back as soon as it can be rebuilt. We hope you like the change when it is done.
- [Alan Chambers: Why Should Gays Be Celebrating?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/alan-chambers-why-should-gays-be-celebrating/): President Barack Obama issued a statement in celebration of the month of June being LGBT Pride Month: “LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities.” Exodus International head Alan Chambers released his own statement, at first praising gays and then scolding them. “…does the fact that these leaders identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender have anything to do with the fact that they are talented? Of course not. Their achievements and...
- [In Brief: Pat Robertson - “Most” Homosexuals Were Abused; All Are Hell-Bound](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/in-brief-pat-robertson-most-homosexuals-were-abused-all-are-hell-bound/): On an episode of the 700 Club, a mother called in to ask how to handle having a gay son. Host Pat Robertson responded by declaring that “most” homosexuals are now same-sex attracted because of a previous abusive relationship, and that they are all on the path to hell. Transcription of the clip, courtesy of Right Wing Watch: TERRY MEEUWSEN (co-host): This is Theresa. This is difficult. She says, “How should we, as parents of a homosexual son, handle the ongoing challenges facing us, such as staying true to our faith and following the commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’?...
- [XGW Digest: June 6, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/xgw-digest-june-6-2009/): -The Nevada Legislature overrides Gov. Gibbons’ veto of its domestic partnership bill. -Gregory Herek advises Californians against trying to repeal Proposition 8 in 2010. -Former Vice President Dick Cheney supports same-sex marriage, says “freedom is freedom for everyone.”  He would not support a law at the federal level, however. -Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out to host a panel on religion and homophobia on June 11 in advance of the next Love Won Out conference in Grand Rapids, MI. -The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on a bill that would grant immigration rights to binational same-sex couples. -New Hampshire legalizes same-sex...
- [Warren Throckmorton on Scott Lively, Uganda, And the Nazis](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/warren-throckmorton-on-scott-lively-uganda-and-the-nazis/): Dr. Warren Throckmorton appears to have written an introduction to a series of arguments to counter those put forth by Scott Lively in his book, The Pink Swastika. Scott Lively has made a career of drawing parallels from Nazi Germany to modern homosexuality. He has gone around the world with the message that homosexuals were responsible for Nazi totalitarianism. Throughout the next month or so, I will provide counter arguments to Lively’s thesis. After delving into the matter, Throckmorton seems to believe that, if comparisons are to be made, the government of Uganda is acting and sounding more like those leaders...
- [XGW Digest: May 30, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/xgw-digest-may-30-2009/): -Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoes a domestic partnership bill. -In Washington State, the wording of Referendum 71, which would repeal the Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009, is challenged by its own author. -David Link clarifies what the religious right actually won in the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8. -The Family Research Council selectively quotes the wording of the Loving vs. Virginia decision to argue against same-sex marriage. -Archbishop Desmond Tutu reaffirms his support for full inclusion of GLBT individuals in the church. -Andrew Sullivan argues that the Prop 8 ruling represents a net gain for marriage equality in...
- [You Don’t Take Your Constitutional Rights to the Ballot Box](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/you-dont-take-your-constitutional-rights-to-the-ballot-box/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUlDZLZ1Gls Constitutional powerhouses Ted Olson and David Boies take on Proposition 8. This is a clear, authoritative discussion of the real issues involved. Impressive.
- [XGW Digest: May 23, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/xgw-digest-may-23-2009/): -Moscow police forcibly break up a Slavic Pride demonstration. -Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, a 20-year veteran and decorated fighter pilot, is discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -The New Hampshire House rejects Gov. Lynch’s proposed changes to its same-sex marriage bill. -The Illinois legislature is scheduled to vote on a civil unions bill next week. -Colorado extends benefits to partners of gay and lesbian state employees. -Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons signs a bill barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. -The California Supreme Court will issue its ruling on Proposition 8 this Tuesday, May 26. -Timothy Kincaid takes a look...
- [The Great XGW Blackout Or Make Sure You Have Backups!](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/the-great-xgw-blackout-or-make-sure-you-have-backups/): In case you are one of the people who didn’t email me for an explanation, XGW went off-line last Friday morning, May 15.  While stories of “being hacked” would be more intriguing and perhaps increase polarization, that didn’t happen.  The truth is actually boring — a total disruption of services at the data center we use for our server.  We outgrew an individual hosting account long ago and instead lease a server from a place that manages many of them.  After a notice of about 9 hours, they attempted a massive move from one location to another which they thought could...
- [In Brief: Exodus And the ‘30 Orientations’ Lie](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/in-brief-exodus-and-the-30-orientations-lie/): Recently, the addition of “actual or percieved” sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal law concerning hate crimes has come much closer to reality. Attempting to stir fear, many anti-gay groups claim that the term “sexual orientation” will be defined to include pedophiles and necrophiliacs, because the American Psychiatric Association defines such conditions – 30 in total – as sexual orientations. Exodus International’s website, in fact, attaches (historical screen capture) a pop-up to the word “orientation” any time it appears in one of their articles and tells us exactly that. But there’s one catch: the APA doesn‘t recognize 30 sexual...
- [XGW Digest: May 9, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/xgw-digest-may-9-2009/): -The situation for gays and lesbians in Uganda continues to worsen. -Emmy-nominated actor David Ogden Stiers comes out of the closet. -The Miss Universe Organization sends a “cease and desist” letter to the National Organization for Marriage for NOM’s use of pageant footage in its latest anti-gay ad. -Marie Osmond voices what appears to be support for same-sex marriage -Queers United highlights the significant numbers of homeless LGBTQ individuals. -NOM launches a campaign to repeal marriage equality in Maine via a “people’s veto.” -Heavily Catholic Rhode Island is considered unlikely to join its neighbors in extending marriage rights to gay couples...
- [Breaking: Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal In Maine!](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/breaking-same-sex-marriage-now-legal-in-maine/): Source: CNN “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage,” said Baldacci, a Democrat. With this statement, Gov. John Baldacci signed the marriage bill into law less than an hour after the state legislature passed it. It was previously unknown whether he would sign even if it went through. This makes at total of four states where same-sex marriage is currently the law, with Vermont’s version going into effect this September. California’s marriage law is still being considered by...
- [In Brief: British Repartee Wins Over Nicolosi’s Reparative Rant](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/in-brief-british-repartee-wins-over-nicolosis-reparative-rant/): During his recent visit to London for a conference held by the Anglican Church, Joseph Nicolosi was interviewed on the BBC News Hour along with Professor Michael King from the University College of London Medical School.  Their debate was short but, as King put it at one point, robust. Nicolosi normally comes out of the gate strong in these settings, boldly stating things which he later has trouble supporting.  Early on when he is questioned by King about randomized trials, Nicolosi begs off saying he is a clinical psychologist.  Later when asked directly again by King, Nicolosi claims that other treatments...
- [SBC President Albert Mohler Abandons Baptist Tradition](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/sbc-president-albert-mohler-abandons-baptist-tradition/): Centuries ago, the Baptist church was founded on the principle of freedom of conscience. According to Baptist belief, individual Christians are fully competent to study the Bible for themselves and to seek guidance from God (the “priesthood of the believer“); consequently, Baptists of all stripes strongly opposed the adoption of any formal creeds, save perhaps “Ain’t nobody but Jesus going to tell me what to believe.” To this day, many Baptist churches maintain this commitment to the autonomy of the local church and the individual believer. Since 2000, however, the Southern Baptist Church has departed sharply from its roots. Although the...
- [NOM Tries to Perk Up Their Image With Miss California](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/nom-tries-to-perk-up-their-image-with-miss-california/): Carrie Prejean, who is Miss California, created a stir when she expressed support for marriage only being between a man and a woman at the Miss USA pageant. The National Organization for Marriage quickly adopted her as a spokesperson in their new ad, called “No Offense.” While they chose to focus on Carrie’s opinions about marriage, I chose to focus on her other exploits in this parody of the original that I created. Note: I ask for donations at the website specified in the ad, but with tongue in cheek. In reality, any donations made would go towards support of the...
- [XGW Digest: May 2, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/xgw-digest-may-2-2009/): -Same-sex couples begin marrying in Iowa. -Support for gay clergy continues to grow within the Presbyterian Church (USA). -Ex-gay survivor Christine Bakke responds to her mother’s decision to start an ex-gay ministry named after Christine’s blog. -Graduate student Scott Boscoe-Huffman seeks same-sex couples to participate in a research study. -The New Hampshire State Senate passes a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.  Governor Lynch has not yet announced whether he will veto it. -Support for marriage equality in the United States has increased dramatically in recent months, according to a new poll. -Congresswoman Virginia Foxx attempts to rewrite the history of Matthew...
- [Alan Chambers: Gay Christians - God’s Handicapped Children](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/05/alan-chambers-gay-christians-are-gods-handicapped-children/): This post deals more heavily with issues of the Christian faith than most.  There is some “insider” language as a result.  Most readers should be used to the fact that dealing with Exodus intensely means that one will be dealing with this topic, but for those who are new and may not share this faith, please bear with us. Wendy Gritter, leader of New Direction, a former Exodus member ministry, has posted in interview format a conversation she had recently with Alan Chambers.  The discussion came about after Gritter approached Chambers concerning an article he authored in Charisma which she felt...
- [Guest Post: Another One Bites the Dust](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/guest-post-another-one-bites-the-dust/): by Jack Drescher, MD A recent article in Scientific American by Thomas Maier has cast into doubt the veracity of a study published 30 years ago that purported to demonstrate that some people can change their homosexual orientation to a heterosexual one. The study in question was carried out by the most pre-eminent American sex researchers of the last century, the husband and wife team of gynecologist William Masters and psychologist Virginia Johnson. In their own time they were as famous as Alfred Kinsey and like Kinsey, their names became synonymous with the study of human sexuality, if not with the...
- [More Dogma From Dr Nicolosi](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/more-dogma-from-dr-nicolosi/): In an interview with self-proclaimed “global voice of orthodox Anglicanism” VirtueOnline, reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi made some of his boldest claims yet. The former President of NARTH, who told a London ex-gay conference last weekend that 75 percent of his clients were “cured” of their homosexuality, said the following: [The] fact remains that if you traumatize a child in a particular way you will create a homosexual condition. If you do not traumatize a child, he will be heterosexual. If you do not traumatize a child in a particular way, he will be heterosexual. The nature of that trauma is...
- [London: Nicolosi Peddles Same Old Gay, Ex-Gay Myths](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/london-nicolosi-peddles-same-old-gay-ex-gay-myths/): Reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi used a conference in London yesterday to recycle a host of offensive myths about gay men. According to David Virtue, who describes his notoriously anti-gay website as “the global voice for orthodox Anglicanism,” Nicolosi “ripped” gay organizations for promoting a “lifestyle” that is “ultimately pathological, narcissistic, self-absorbed and offers no hope for people who want to change.” Nicolosi, the former President of NARTH, told the audience of conservative Christians that 75 percent of his clients were “completely cured” by reparative therapy, and said that he had “a great deal of evidence showing … that therapy works.”...
- [Randy Thomas: Exodus Had Nothing to Do with Anti-Gay Uganda Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/randy-thomas-exodus-had-nothing-to-do-with-anti-gay-uganda-conference/): Randy Thomas “wept” at finding out how many are being tortured and murdered abroad because they are attracted to the same sex. I honestly don’t know what to do other than expose it here on the blog and pray for doors to open.  Some have for Alan in Uganda (currently getting ramped up for a government crackdown ::: shaking my head in bewilderment :::) and for a couple of other people we know with other countries. It might seem surprising that Randy would claim “bewilderment” at the actions of Ugandans, since a member of his own organization’s board went overseas to...
- [Goldberg’s Embarrassing Radio Appearance on Eve of London Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/goldbergs-embarrassing-radio-appearance-on-eve-of-london-conference/): Ex-gay proponents Joseph Nicolosi, Arthur Goldberg and Jeffrey Satinover are in London today for the Sex & the City conference organized by Anglican Mainstream, the publishers of the tired, homophobic polemic God, Gays and the Church. On BBC Radio Five Live last night, JONAH’s Arthur Goldberg made the mistake of invoking the 1979 Masters-Johnson study in support of ex-gay therapy – seemingly oblivious to the recent controversy surrounding its conclusions. When host Stephen Nolan asked (rather clumsily, admittedly) whether Goldberg woke up each day and made the decision to be attracted to women, rather than “bits of cloth” or animals, say,...
- [XGW Digest: April 25, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/xgw-digest-april-25-2009/): -53% of New Yorkers support marriage equality, according to a new poll. -The Maine State Legislature holds hearings on two bills, one which would legalize same-sex marriage and one which would confer the rights and benefits of marriage to couples on the Domestic Partner Registry. -San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announces his candidacy for Governor of California. -The murderer of transgender woman Angie Zapata is sentenced to life in prison. -Notoriously anti-gay Mormon author Orson Scott Card joins the board of Maggie Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage. -NOM has also sent out a new fundraising letter asking for contributions to their...
- [Gays to Protest London Ex-Gay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/gays-to-protest-london-ex-gay-conference/): Over 100 activists have pledged to join a protest in London on Saturday, when reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi (pictured) addresses conservative Christians at the Sex & the City Conference. Nicolosi will be joined by NARTH colleague Jeffrey Satinover and JONAH President Arthur Goldberg for the weekend, organized by CARE and Anglican Mainstream, the Church of England group behind the egregiously homophobic 2008 publication God, Gays and the Church. Among Nicolosi’s outmoded and offensive ideas are that lack of fatherly love leads to homosexuality (“If you don’t hug your sons, some other man will,” he tells fathers) and that being artistic...
- [Alan Chambers: ‘Gay Marriage Bonanza Is a Trap’](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/alan-chambers-gay-marriage-bonanza-is-a-trap/): This is the phrase the president of Exodus International used in a recent WORLD magazine article to describe his opinion of the recent cluster of victories for marriage equality. Who is being trapped? The gay men and women advocating for equal civil recognition of their loving partnerships: “My major concern is that homosexuality is a counterfeit of what God intended us to experience in human sexuality,” said Chambers, president of Exodus International and a former homosexual who left the lifestyle 17 years ago. “There will be young people who are like I used to be, who will see homosexuality as their...
- [In Brief: Police Investigate 12 Year Old ‘Ex-Gay’ YouTuber, Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/in-brief-police-investigate-12-year-old-ex-gay-youtuber-family/): Source: Edge Boston According to Edge Boston, the police have located the twelve-year-old boy who called himself ChristianU2uber, along with his family.  The young man had been posting videos of himself talking about various subjects, but his claims of “having been gay, but changed” and tirades laced with repeated calls for others to stop calling him “homo” were of great concern to many bloggers.  In at least one video, he repeatedly slaps his face and head, apparently quite hard, and describes other violent outlets such as throwing bricks and watching them smash into pieces. There was some discussion between XGW and...
- [XGW Digest: April 18, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/xgw-digest-april-18-2009/): -New York Gov. David Paterson introduces a marriage equality bill in the state legislature. -Openly gay Iowa state senator Matt McCoy receives a death threat. -Via Wendy Gritter, Brian Pengelly encourages Christians to participate in the Day of Silence. -An employee of Rick Warren attempts to rewrite history. -A conservative heterosexual Christian chooses to accept and support her gay friends unconditionally. -Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons announces his intent to veto a domestic partnership bill being considered by the state senate. -The ACLU challenges a decision by several Tennessee school districts to block all GLBT websites from school computers.  Anti-gay sites are...
- [Why 'Day of Truth' Fails All Students](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/why-day-of-truth-fails-all-students/): Today, April 17th, is the 13th annual “Day of Silence.” For those unaware, the “Day of Silence” is one day out of the school year when participating students choose to remain silent all day as a protest of the silence that many students must keep in order to avoid being harassed by anti-gay bullies at school. Special attention is paid to the Queer sector of the student body, as such bullying makes it difficult for students seeking to be sexually honest to come out. But their straight classmates could just as easily be victims. Even though this event originates from the...
- [YouTube Kid Exploited for Laughs, Now Exploited By Religious Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/youtube-kid-exploited-for-laughs-now-exploited-by-religious-right/): A 12-year-old boy on YouTube is being hailed by some Christians as a martyr for enduring insults, although a better description would be “disturbed.” Scott, whose screenname is ChristianU2uber, has received thousands of views for his videos, in which he decries same-sex marriage and seemingly admits to being ex-gay, saying that he used to be gay until he found out it was wrong, and “now I like girls.” He identifies himself as a Christian and says his videos are there to “Teach You What Christianity Is All About” (capitals his). The videos have attracted a litany of reprehensible comments – amazingly,...
- [XGW Digest: April 11, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/xgw-digest-april-11-2009/): -The North Dakota House of Representatives kills an anti-discrimination bill. -Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight runs state-by-state projections for the decline of opposition to marriage equality. -Pam Spaulding catches Rick Warren in the act of bearing false witness on Larry King Live. -The Washington, DC city council votes to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. -The Columbia, MO city council establishes a domestic partner registry. -Jim Burroway documents the dishonest claims in Maggie Gallagher’s new ad against marriage equality. -Timothy Kincaid provides a state-by-state update on marriage-related initiatives. -Jason Kuznicki weighs in on Rick Warren’s recent lie and Maggie Gallagher’s bizarre response...
- [Alan Chambers Finally Speaks Up — In Defense of Peter LaBarbera?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/alan-chambers-finally-speaks-up-in-defense-of-peter-labarbera/): As reported elsewhere, blogger Glenn Sacks wrote a post about his concerns that an organization such as Christian News Wire would issue bigoted, anti-gay press releases by Peter LaBarbera.  Sacks describes his own organization, Fathers & Families, this way: Fathers & Families improves the lives of children and strengthens society by protecting the child’s right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce. We seek better lives for children through family court reform that establishes equal rights and responsibilities for fathers and mothers. We don’t know much more about Sacks than this at the moment, but many...
- [Slaughter of Gays Still Goes on in New Iraq](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/slaughter-of-gays-still-goes-on-in-new-iraq/): The bodies of up to 25 suspected homosexual men have been found over the past two months in the newly democratic Iraq, according to the New York Times. A modicum of liberation for Iraq’s gays has arrived with the regime change, but tribal values remain strong. In 2005, Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the execution of gays and lesbians, saying that they should be put to death “in the worst, most severe way of killing.” The latest report comes two days after an Iraqi official revealed that six gay men had been murdered by tribes after being disowned...
- [Newspaper: How to Spot a Gay Ugandan](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/newspaper-how-to-spot-a-gay-ugandan/): The Observer, a newspaper in Uganda, has written a compendium of suggestions and comments by people there on how to spot a gay Ugandan.  No doubt brought about by the heightened negative attitudes towards gays there brought on by a recent conference, the comments reflect a wide range of bad information and obvious prejudice.  However, one common theme seems to be the idea that gays wear make-up and act like women.  That, and nearly every one calls for stricter laws to deal with the “problem” of homosexuality (meaning that it exists, that gay people live in Uganda). John Mayanja, 26, Businessman...
- [Breaking: Vermont Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/breaking-vermont-legalizes-same-sex-marriage/): The Vermont legislature voted this morning to override Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of its same-sex marriage bill.  Although the House’s initial passage of the bill had fallen short of a two-thirds majority, several legislators changed sides to pass the override by a vote of 100-49; the Senate’s override passed by a vote of 23-5. Vermont now becomes the fourth US state (not counting California) to legalize gay marriage, and the first to do so through the legislative process.  As such, this victory is especially noteworthy as the religious right cannot accuse “activist judges” of overriding the “will of the people” to bring marriage...
- [Breaking: Six Gay Men Murdered By Tribes, Says Iraqi Official](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/breaking-six-gay-men-murdered-by-tribes-says-iraqi-official/): Six gay men have been killed over a period of 10 days, according to an Iraqi official. In two separate incidents, the men were disowned by their families before their tribes pursued and executed them. The report comes in the midst of increasing awareness of homophobia and anti-gay violence in countries such as Jamaica and Uganda. This is not the time for such deafening silence from ex-gay ministries.
- [Open Forum: Ex-Gay Labels](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/open-forum-ex-gay-labels/):  The term “ex-gay” is probably the most common one used to describe people who enter into reparative therapy. One can call themselves “ex-gay” even if they have not shaken their sexual attraction to the same sex. After years of public scrutiny, groups like Exodus International can no longer declare outright that their single mission is changing one’s sexual orientation from completely homosexual to completely heterosexual. Even their leaders declare publicly that they “still struggle” and must pray daily to have the strength to “deny that which comes naturally” to them. Recently, it seems the term “post-gay” has started to become more...
- [XGW Digest: April 4, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/xgw-digest-april-4-2009/): -Anti-gay activists blame gay newsman George Weber for his own murder. -Former governor Howard Dean encourages Vermont legislators to vote for gay marriage. -Sweden legalizes same-sex marriage. -An anti-gay amendment is quashed in socially conservative West Virginia. -The Alliance Defense Fund challenges New York’s recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages. -The Vermont House votes in favor of same-sex marriage, but falls short of a veto-proof majority.
- [Breaking: Iowa ‘One Man, One Woman’ Language Stricken](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/breaking-iowa-one-man-one-woman-language-stricken/): The Iowa Supreme Court has just issued a landmark, unanimous ruling in Varnum v. Brien, a case involving six same-sex couples who sought and were denied marriage licenses in Iowa. Consequently, the language in Iowa Code section 595.2 limiting civil marriage to a man and a woman must be stricken from the statute, and the remaining statutory language must be interpreted and applied in a manner allowing gay and lesbian people full access to the institution of civil marriage. The ruling will go into effect in 21 days. Unless lawmakers immediately take up the matter, the earliest time for opposition action...
- [Chambers Is Blind to His Own Prejudice](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/chambers-is-blind-to-his-own-prejudice/): In his latest article for Charisma magazine, Exodus President Alan Chambers speaks a lot of truth, but is blinkered to how it applies to his own organization. With amusing timing, Chambers remembers a school bully who picked on him for being gay – and later turned out to be gay himself. He writes: I did feel some empathy for him, but the fact that he was launching an all out verbal assault on me while he was struggling with the same issues was tough to reconcile. … [He] shunned me and encouraged others to do the same. I guess insecure people...
- [We’re No Longer American, Says Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/04/were-no-longer-american-says-exodus/): In a formal statement, Exodus has confirmed that after 23 years in the US, the organization will be going ex-American. Speaking from Exodus’s Florida base yesterday, President Alan Chambers said emphatically that “we are no longer in the US.” Let’s not play the political correctness card here. We’re not saying Americans are bad. The sin is not in being American or British or Chinese or any of these things. They’re all equally an abominable stench in the nostrils of God. The sin is in identifying with anything other than Christ. “Change is a process,” Mr Chambers told reporters when asked why...
- [EHarmony Goes Gay, Sort of](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/eharmony-goes-gay-sort-of/): After losing a lawsuit, the heterosexual-only dating service eHarmony has opened it’s gay mirror image, Compatible Partners. It officially opens for business on April 1 (yes, we know) but it seems to be working now, offering: The founder of eHarmony, Dr. Neil Clark Warren is a psychologist with a divinity degree. He was initially affiliated with Focus on the Family, and the site was promoted as being “based on the Christian principles of Focus on the Family author Dr. Neil Clark Warren.” However, Dr. Warren began to distance himself from FOTF and Dr. Dobson back in 2005, claiming among other things...
- [Gay Rights Groups Speak Up in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/gay-rights-groups-speak-in-uganda/): Source: ugpluse.com Gay rights activists in Uganda held a press conference today in response to a recent anti-gay push coordinated by Family Life Network (FLN) leader Stephen Langa.  Ex-Gay Watch has posted exclusive video (here and here) of Langa addressing a group of people in Kampala with all manor of misinformation concerning homosexuality.  Apparently, gay leaders there thought it was time to respond publicly. Victor Mukasa, the coordinator of the Uganda Minority Sexual Rights group says the campaign against homosexuals in the country is based on wrong information that homosexuality is an acquired behavior which can be taught to people. Mukasa...
- [Illinois Anti-Gay Group Protests ‘Hate Group’ Label](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/illinois-anti-gay-group-protests-at-hate-group-label/): The Illinois Family Institute, an anti-gay organization once fronted by Peter LaBarbera, has protested at being declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Member Laurie Higgins claims the IFI has been targeted purely because of its moral views on homosexuality. Writing on the website Opposing Views, Higgins says that: Since, in the distorted view of pro-homosexual organizations, our efforts constitute hatred, the only way we can be deemed not hateful is to change our views on the nature and morality of homosexual conduct, or to accept the continued use of public money to affirm and advance liberal/radical views...
- [Ex-Gay Guru Richard Cohen Reaches Into Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/ex-gay-guru-richard-cohen-reaches-into-uganda/): At the same meeting in Uganda described here, Family Life Network (FLN) leader Stephen Langa continues his discussion with the group on the evil, clever “gay agenda.”  In doing so, he turns to Richard Cohen’s book, Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality. Cohen has been a bombastic embarrassment for ex-gay groups over the years, appearing about anywhere that would have him.  His demonstration of “bioenergetics” on CNN has him beating a pillow with a tennis racket while yelling at the top of his lungs.  The same appearance includes a session of “holding” or “touch” therapy where Cohen cradles his...
- [XGW Digest: March 28, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/xgw-digest-march-28-2009/): -Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain, comes out in favor of gay marriage. -More than 50% of voting-age adults in North Carolina oppose a marriage amendment, according to a new poll. -Mel White, founder of SoulForce, and his son, screenwriter Mike White, are still hanging in there on “The Amazing Race.” Timothy Kincaid reports that they are winning many fans and supporters while demonstrating true Christian graciousness. -Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas announces his intent to veto the same-sex marriage bill overwhelmingly passed by the state senate. -The New Hampshire house votes in favor of a gay marriage bill. -Pam Spaulding...
- [Exclusive Video: Stephen Langa Whips Up Anti-Gay Sentiment, Violence Ahead](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/video-stephen-langa-whips-up-anti-gay-sentiment-violence-ahead/): On March 15, 2009, Stephen Landga of the Family Life Network in Kampala, Uganda, held a meeting to follow up on the conference from a couple of weeks prior.  Approximately 60 people attended the talk in which Langa attempts to blur the line between pedophilia and homosexuality.  While nothing especially new in the history of homophobia, the tactic is still both disgusting and dangerous, particularly in that region of the world. In this clip, Langa uses the holocaust revisionist book “The Pink Swastika” as a source for a “history of the modern gay movement.”  The premise of the book, which appears...
- [UK: One in Six Therapists Has Offered Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/uk-one-in-six-therapists-has-offered-reparative-therapy/): A survey has found that 17 percent of therapists in the UK have offered a client therapy to “reduce” same-sex attractions. Four percent said they would try to “change” a patient’s sexuality if asked. The findings are from a study carried out by a team at University College London, whose ongoing research into conversion therapy is being documented online at www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk. The reseachers, led by Dr Graham King, questioned 1,400 mental health professionals. They described the number willing to offer help for gays to become straight as “a significant minority,” and concluded that the lack of evidence for change made such...
- [This Is What Love in Action Looks Like](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/this-is-what-love-in-action-looks-like/): A documentary about the controversial ex-gay program Love in Action will be released on DVD on June 6 2009. Love in Action revisits the furore of summer 2005, when then-16-year-old Zach Stark gained the attention of activists worldwide after his parents forced him to attend the Memphis-based program. In the film, Zach speaks for the first time about his ordeal. From the official blog: In the documentary, former Love In Action director John Smid as well as former adult and teenage clients share their hearts on these experiences. In addition, local bloggers, community activists and classmates of Zach tell their stories...
- [Exodus Loves Bobby, Too](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/exodus-loves-bobby-too/): At the end of this past January XGW noted the deafening silence made by Exodus while the movie “Prayers for Bobby” was being prominently featured in both mainstream and gay-specific news outlets. It was critically acclaimed and drew in millions of viewers for Lifetime, a mainstream cable network. An open thread featured here generated responses from people genuinely affected upon viewing the movie. But you could have heard a pin drop over at the blogs of the Exodus leaders. For those who don’t recall, “Prayers for Bobby” is a book, based on the true story of Bobby Griffith, that was made...
- [PFOX & Mission America Ask Followers to ‘Protect Heterosexuals’](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/pfox-mission-america-ask-followers-to-protect-heterosexuals/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) has emailed an “action alert” from Mission America to their subscriber list.  Recipients are asked to “help keep the activists accountable” by reporting the web site “Prop 8 Maps” to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a hate group. Subject: Protect Heterosexuals Help Keep the Activists Accountable: One simple thing you can do Please do one simple thing to keep rabid homosexual activism accountable. Go to this page of the Southern Poverty Law Center web site: https://www.splcenter.org/center/contact.jsp Send them a complaint about a hate group. In the selection box, click on “Report hate activity...
- [XGW Digest: March 21, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/xgw-digest-march-21-2009/): -The Nigerian government considers a bill to further toughen its anti-gay laws. -Former senator Rick Santorum refuses to debate with Andrew Sullivan on the issue of gay marriage. -The Minnesota Family Council tries to get an amendment banning all forms of same-sex unions on the 2010 ballot. -The Rev. Irene Monroe examines the “Down Low” culture inside the African-American church. -Tennessee State Rep. Tracey Campfield reintroduces a bill that would ban teachers from making any reference to homosexuality in the classroom. -Via Jonathan Rauch, acceptance of homosexuality is up to 56% among Christians in mainline denominations according to a recent Pew...
- [Correction: Video From Saddam Era Iraq](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/video-irans-punishment-for-gays/): Original Headline: Video: Iran’s Punishment for Gays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-simxDbjU4 See Box Turtle Bulletin for explanation on how this ended up at Gays Without Boarders.  Posting this without checking further was lazy and out of character for XGW.  We apologize for inadvertently mischaracterizing the nature of the video, but nonetheless it is still an awful example of cruelty. The sentence for consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex in Iran it being thrown off a roof.  This is not easy to watch so be warned.  We have included it because, as with all human rights abuses, it should be impossible to...
- [Breaking: US to Sign UN Gay Rights Declaration](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/breaking-us-to-sign-un-gay-rights-declaration/): Source: AP An anonymous official has told the Associated Press that the Obama administration will sign a U.N. declaration calling for the world-wide decriminalization of homosexuality. “The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world,” said one official. “As such, we join with the other supporters of this statement and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora,” the official said. The official added that the United States was concerned about “violence and human rights abuses against...
- [The Irony of Exodus And Holocaust Revisionism](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/the-irony-of-exodus-and-holocaust-revisionism/): Ex-Gay Watch readers have probably read of the frightening anti-gay conference held in Kampala, Uganda earlier this month. Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and the International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Lee Brundidge were center stage. Scott Lively is best known for having co-written the discredited book “The Pink Swastika,” which claims that the evils of the Nazi Party were a direct result of rampant homosexuality in its ranks. It denies the fact that thousands of gays and lesbians were targeted, imprisoned, and gassed, having been deemed “anti-social” and “undesirable” by Hitler’s Nazi regime, instead it declares most...
- [XGW Digest: March 14, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/xgw-digest-march-14-2009/): -The 2010 US census will count legally married gay couples as “unmarried partners.” -Two heterosexual college students in California propose a constitutional amendment to reclassify all marriages in the state as “domestic partnerships.”  Jason Kuznicki questions the amendment’s practicality. -John Corvino dissects a civil unions proposal by conservative writers Ryan Anderson and Sherif Girgis. -A study about former ex-gays who are now living as LGBTQ will be conducted at the University of Montana. Volunteers are needed. -The Washington state Senate passes an upgraded domestic partnership bill.  The House is expected to follow suit, and the governor is expected to sign the...
- [Exodus VP Randy Thomas: Only People Like Me Can Help in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/exodus-vp-randy-thomas-only-people-like-me-can-help-in-uganda/): Exodus Executive Vice President Randy Thomas has posted his first open comments concerning the conference mess in Uganda.  Most of the post is nothing new but there are a couple of sentences that have truly left me speechless. It isn’t going to be a gay activist yelling at the Ugandan government that will actually get our ssa brothers and sisters out of jail. It will be people like me pleading with these leaders to recognize the Christ-likeness inherent in respecting self-determination and the dignity of every soul that draws breath. There is nothing I can say right now.
- [Exodus President Speaks, Proud of Uganda Conference Participation](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/exodus-president-speaks-proud-of-uganda-conference-participation/): The Christian Post has published an article about Warren Throckmorton’s concerns over the conference in Uganda. … Dr. Warren Throckmorton, director of College Counseling and associate professor of Psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, finds it troubling that the American Christian leaders spoke at a conference that supports the criminalization of homosexuality and that none of them had reportedly publicly opposed the law. He noted that the people in charge of the conference called for stricter enforcement of laws against homosexuality. “It is illegal to be homosexual in Uganda. There’s also a category of homosexuality (act) that has a potential...
- [South African GLBT Group Rebukes Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/south-african-glbt-group-rebukes-exodus-international/): The following was released today by the South African Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD). The group is joining in our condemnation of Exodus for the participation of their board member, Don Schmierer in the recent anti-gay conference in Uganda. SA GLAAD hereby expresses its solidarity and support for American GLBT advocacy groups who yesterday berated the anti-gay group Exodus International for its public involvement and support of those who are responsible for vigilante violence and state-sanctioned persecution of gays, lesbians and trans people in Uganda. SA GLAAD wholeheartedly supports the initiative of the coalition of Truth Wins Out...
- [‘Extreme Ex-Gay’ From Planet Narth](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/extreme-ex-gay-from-planet-narth/):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWqGSCk0l5M Caleb Lee Brundidge and Richard Cohen brought to us through Planet Narth.  The scary part is that in the unedited video, the woman there is actually talking about going to funeral homes to try to raise the dead as a way to “spice up your ministry.”
- [Committed, Celibate Relationships ‘Sinful,’ Says Chambers](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/committed-celibate-relationships-sinful-says-chambers/): I suppose we can be grateful at least that Alan Chambers is nailing his colours firmly to the mast. In a column for Charisma today, the Exodus President revealed that his problem with homosexuality goes beyond the physical act of sex. His problem is with same-sex love and commitment. According to Chambers, “sexless committed relationships between members of the same gender” are “sinful.” Asked what is wrong with two women living a committed life together in the same house, but in separate bedrooms, he replies, “Everything.”
- [Open Letter to the Exodus International Board of Directors](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/open-letter-to-the-exodus-international-board-of-directors/): The following represents a cooperative effort between Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin, Mike Airhart and Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out, and me, David Roberts of Ex-Gay Watch.  This is not an exercise in hyperbole, but a serious, heartfelt stand.  I have added my name to this effort because I feel a line has been crossed with the conference in Uganda, and it requires a stronger level of action in response.  Anything less seems like too little.  This does not, however, necessarily represent the position or feelings of the other writers at XGW. — David Roberts david@exgaywatch.com. Open letter to...
- [Moving Beyond Victimhood](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/moving-beyond-victimhood/): In a recent post on his blog, Peterson Toscano explains why he describes himself as an ex-gay survivor but not as a victim: In the nearly 20 years of ex-gay/anti-gay/de-gay treatment I endured, no one ever forced me to do any of it. I chose to submit myself to the unsound and potentially damaging practices designed to demonize and annihilate my sexuality (and much of my personality and gender differences along with it). I elected to go into these programs. I paid for them with my own money (except for when I turned to my parents or others to help with...
- [The Great Tragedy of the Ex-Gay Conference in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/the-great-tragedy-of-the-ex-gay-conference-in-uganda/): There is much to criticize about the freakish conference taking place in Kampala, Uganda the past few days.  Several blogs, including this one, have done their best to sift through the mess.  Chief among those who are providing information on the scene is Victor Mukasa, blogging for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Despite the odious rhetoric and violent imagery brought to the table by Scott Lively, the fallacy of “preventing homosexuality” and blaming a parent contributed by Exodus’ Don Schmierer, and the predictable babble coming from International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Brundidge, the following stood out to us...
- [XGW Digest: March 7, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/xgw-digest-march-7-2009/): -The California Supreme Court holds hearings on the validity of Proposition 8. -Andrew Sullivan questions the wisdom of advancing gay rights through the courts.  One of his readers offers a rebuttal. -The Vermont Legislature fast tracks gay marriage legislation. -A coalition of religious right groups instructs evangelical parents to keep their kids home from school on April 17 (the Day of Silence). -A civil unions bill advances to the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives.
- [Forced Ex-Gay Therapy In Uganda, the Other Shoe Drops](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/forced-ex-gay-therapy-in-uganda-the-other-shoe-drops/): In an eerily Orwellian move, the anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda, has produced serious calls for gays there to be placed into forced “therapy.”  From UGPulse: The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo has today told a conference organized to discuss the ways to fight Homosexuality that he will soon submit a bill on pornography and homosexuality for discussion in Parliament. The conference that took place at Parliament was organized by Defend the Family International, an organization in the United States of America that was formed to fight homosexuality. Buturo says the he will present the bill against...
- [Bizarre Anti-Gay Conference Begins in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/03/bizarre-anti-gay-conference-begins-in-uganda/): A strange mix of speakers started off a conference in Kampala, Uganda today.  Invited by Stephen Langa, leader of Family Life Network (FLN), they are to speak on the theme “Exposing the Truth behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda.”  Langa is concerned that homosexuality might be decriminalized in Uganda due to a recent court case there.  In fact, he would like to make the laws stronger.  Currently, being gay there can get one life in prison.  Names of suspected homosexuals are posted in newspapers and there are periodic witch-hunt like marches in the streets. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights...
- [Ryan Skipper’s Killer Convicted of Murder, Sentenced to Life](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/ryan-skippers-killer-convicted-of-murder-sentenced-to-life/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LplmLqb6HQ Joseph Bearden, the first of two men accused of the brutal killing of a Florida gay man, Ryan Skipper, has been convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to life in prison.  He was also sentenced to 40 years for associated crimes, to be served concurrently.  William David Brown Jr, also charged with the crime, is charged with murder in the first degree and will go on trial later this year.  Brown is accused of actually wielding the knife that stabbed Skipper 19 times and then slit his neck. While Florida has no provision for hate crime enhancements...
- [XGW Digest: February 28, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/xgw-digest-february-28-2009/): -Jonathan Rauch and David Blankenhorn propose a compromise on the issue of gay marriage. -James Dobson resigns as chairman of Focus on the Family. -The New Mexico state senate votes against domestic partnerships. -The Tennessee legislature considers a bill that would ban adoption by individuals in a same-sex relationship. -The NAACP calls on the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8. -Randy Thomas reiterates: “Actually I do think there is a relational and possibly comprehensive worldview/ideology that underlies even the premise of identifying as gay.” –Acceptance of gays and lesbians grows among British evangelicals.
- [Exodus Shows Change Is Possible - in the Wrong Direction](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/exodus-shows-change-is-possible-in-the-wrong-direction/): Exodus is changing all right, but hardly in the right direction. Despite hinting numerous times at a more progressive outlook, here comes yet another move to put Exodus firmly in the “What the hell were you thinking of?” category. In March, reports BTB, Exodus board member Don Schmierer (pictured) will be heading for Uganda to share a platform with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Cohen cohort Caleb Lee Brundidge. The embarrassments for Exodus are numerous. Lively is no ordinary revisionist. He doesn’t deny 6 million Jews were killed – the author of The Pink Swastika just says that the Nazis responsible...
- [XGW Digest: February 21, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/xgw-digest-february-21-2009/): -Local gay activists and Wayne Besen from Truth Wins Out provide counterprogramming to Love Won Out’s Charlotte, NC conference. -The Hawaii House of Representatives passes a civil unions bill. -Utah State Senator Chris Buttars joins the likes of Sally Kern in declaring that gays are the greatest threat to America. -The Utah State Legislature rejects even basic legal protections for GLBT individuals. -Jennifer Vanasco ponders both the good and the bad of the decision by a Michigan TV station to refuse to air an AFA propaganda piece.
- [Breaking: Anti-Gay Protesters Banned From Britain](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/breaking-anti-gay-protesters-banned-from-britain/): Source: UPI According to United Press International, two members of the notoriously anti-gay Phelps clan/church have been denied entry to Great Britain. Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who belong to the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, were planning to come to Britain to protest outside a performance of “The Laramie Project,” the Times of London reported Friday. Phelps is well known in the United States for his vicious hatred of gays. He and his family form the bulk of Wesboro Baptist Church and frequently picket the funerals of soldiers, GLBTs and AIDS victims.  They were apparently hoping to do...
- [Self-Hating Gay on Tyra: I’ll Be Straight By 30](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/self-hating-gay-on-tyra-ill-be-straight-by-30/): “When I turn 30, I plan to be straight … I’m hoping it’s just going to be a phase, because I never chose to be gay. I never wanted to be gay.” So said 19-year old Shane on Wednesday’s Tyra Banks Show. Shane is gay, but finds gay men “weak and disgusting.” Men are “supposed to be alpha,” he says, but gay men aren’t. And older gay men are creepy. (They stalk 16-year-old boys on the internet, apparently.) I wanna have a family, like, with a wife and a kid and a dog – it’s like the old cliche. … I...
- [In Brief: Mike Ensley Vanishes From Blogosphere](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/in-brief-mike-ensley-vanishes-from-blogosphere/): XGW reported in December that Exodus International downsized “youth specialist” Mike Ensley. However, no official word was ever publicly released on the websites of Exodus, President Alan Chambers, Vice President Randy Thomas, or even Ensley himself. In fact, Ensley’s blog – mikeensley.vox.com – kept running as though all was normal well after news got around he was fired laid off. Ensley was a frequent commenter at Randy Thomas’ own blog up until as recently as this past November. But not a peep was mentioned about his being let go. Ensley now seems to have officially disintegrated his blog, although Randy still...
- [XGW Digest: February 13, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/xgw-digest-february-13-2009/): -The city of Phoenix, AZ launches a domestic partner registry. -Jonathan Rowe examines one of the religious right’s ‘secular’ arguments against homosexuality. -The Hawaii House of Representatives passes a civil unions bill. -The son of megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes is arrested for indecent exposure. -A Michigan television station refuses to air the American Family Association’s latest anti-gay propaganda piece.
- [Guest Post: Little Boy Lost](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/guest-post-little-boy-lost/): Johannah, frequently pen-named “Ephilei,” is a genderqueer and self-labeled liberal-orthodox Christian who recently started TransChristians.org and faithful reader of XGW. The public intersection of Christianity and transgenderism is quite small, so I’ve kept tabs easily and I have to scrounge for every morsel. So I was anxious to see Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family enter the court of the prince of pop-psychology on “Dr. Phil,” McGraw’s daytime show on January 14th. The trans movement is several decades behind the gay movement so I don’t encourage anyone to put their hopes up for a fair portrayal. Nevertheless, the result was...
- [However Bad You Thought the Ted Haggard Situation Was…](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/however-bad-you-thought-the-ted-haggard-situation-was/): it’s worse. I was honestly hoping that some of what the second person, Grant Haas, has said was at least exaggerated for tabloid purposes, but that hope seems to have vanished.  As an obvious initial move (and by no means will it begin to make this right), has anyone yet demanded that Senior Pastor Brady Boyd step down — immediately?  The rest of the leadership at New Life Church can follow suit with all dispatch.
- [XGW Digest: February 6, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/xgw-digest-february-6-2009/): -U.S. President Barack Obama asks for a study of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy. -Matt Barber commends Nigeria for its stance on imprisoning gays, people who attend gay weddings, and others who “aid and abet” gays in any way. -Peter LaBarbera is upset that President Obama intends to name a gay man, John Berry, to be head of the Office of Personnel Management. -Sally Kern goes where most anti-gay activists have gone before, proclaiming that she’s found a copy of the “gay agenda” in Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen’s little-read book “After the Ball.” –Despite legal actions attempted by Proposition...
- [Randy Thomas Defines, Yet Again, How He Has “Changed”](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/randy-thomas-defines-yet-again-how-he-has-changed/): Randy Thomas has clarified his personal “change” yet again. Because “ex-gay” organizations like Exodus International (of which Randy is the Vice President) have been closely publicly scrutinized in the last few years, their public facade has changed considerably. For one thing, they no longer loudly tout the idea of changing from homosexual to heterosexual. Since it has been revealed both by their own studies and by ex-gay program survivors that people can’t just flip a sexual switch through years (sometimes decades) of prayer and therapy, the complexities of sexuality have been grudgingly acknowledged to justify the notion of “change” in program...
- [Breaking: New Direction Leaves Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/breaking-new-direction-leaves-exodus-international/): Another major ministry has left the network of Exodus International.  New Direction, an Exodus member ministry led by Wendy Gritter in Canada, has just announced on their blog that they will not be renewing their membership. At the same time, we have become uncomfortable with some of the messages expressed in a variety of ways through the very diverse Exodus network. Some of these messages run counter to the ways that we are seeking to build bridges and be part of the broader missional conversation. I am also mindful that some of the distinct emphasis of New Direction may be troublesome...
- [Ex-Gay Song Sparks Row In Italy](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/02/ex-gay-song-sparks-row-in-italy/): Ex-gay Giuseppe Povia, who hails from Milan, wrote and performed the song “Luca Was Gay” that is currently in the running for the best song award at the yearly Sanremo Music Festival to be held next month in Italy. He claims that two of his friends also converted to heterosexuality and got married after he convinced them to change. Aurelio Mancuso, president of the gay rights group Arcigay of Italy, promised a “strong, noisy and organized” protest unless the song is removed from the festival. Povia is no stranger to speaking up against gays as mentioned by Mancuso, as he had...
- [XGW Digest: January 31, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/xgw-digest-january-31-2009/): -Rev. Mel White, founder of Soulforce, and his son are one of the teams on the new season of The Amazing Race. -California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals rules that private schools can discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. -Dr. Mark Friedman’s latest study analyzes the link between anti-gay harassment against young gay men and health problems later in life. -Misty Irons questions whether evangelical leaders who have softened their anti-gay rhetoric in recent years have really had a change of heart. -Iceland is set to appoint the world’s first openly gay woman to the office of prime minister.
- [Video: Sex in Ex-Gay Programs?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/video-sex-in-ex-gay-programs/): It seems there is never a dull moment in the life of Ex-Gay Survivor Peterson Toscano.  He has just posted this short video to answer a question he often receives from curious friends and audience members.
- [No Prayers for Bobby From Exodus International?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/no-prayers-for-bobby-from-exodus-randy-thomas/): Last Sunday evening, during the Lifetime broadcast of Prayers for Bobby, Exodus Vice President Randy Thomas was (in his own words) wasting 96 minutes of his life watching Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading.  Since then he has written about Ted Haggard, and even the weather (twice!), but not a peep about Bobby.  I waited to write this because I thought for sure he would come up with something, even if only to complain or feign some sort of lament that Bobby didn’t find the right ex-gay ministry before taking his life. Prayers for Bobby is a real story — first...
- [Breaking News: Colombia Rules for Sweeping Equality Under the Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/01/breaking-news-colombia-rules-for-equality-under-the-law/): Source: Blabbeando The high court ordered changes to 42 norms that range from Criminal, Civil and Disciplinary Codes, to the special health plan available to military forces. The Magistrates embraced a position paper submitted by their peer, Rodrigo Escobar Gil. They ruled that the challenged dispositions did not justify the discrimination they instituted, or that the variances with regards to same-sex couples placed these people in a position of vulnerability before the law. And in both cases, the Constitutional Court held that the right to equality was violated. Hence, provisions such as those contained the Disciplinary and Penal Codes, which establish...
- [Anti-Gay Northern Ireland MP's Affair with 19-Year-Old](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/anti-gay-northern-ireland-mps-affair-with-19-year-old/): As ugly and vicious as Iris Robinson’s attacks on gays were, I cannot say I take much pleasure in joining the media to expose the details of her adulterous affair. But the main issue here is one of moral authority. Even without explicit appeals to the rightness of her own conduct, a crucial element of such homophobic moral lecturing is the implicit positioning of the speaker herself as a model of virtue and moral uprightness. If she loses that superiority, the crux of her argument falls flat. When that argument serves discrimination and prejudice against gays and lesbians, it is only...
- [Looking for Uganda Videos Mentioned on Maddow?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/looking-for-uganda-videos-mentioned-on-maddow/): Here is a rough list until tomorrow: Scott Lively in Kampala, Uganda Stephen Langa whipping up fear and anger in Kampala, Uganda. Stephen Langa, teaching from Michael Swift satire as fact — there really is only one use for doing this, to inflame, causing anger and fear through deception. Check out our YouTube channel, the last few clips uploaded. More to come over the weekend.
- [RIP, Reverend Brett Harris](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/rip-reverend-brett-harris/): Gay activist Reverend Brett Harris has passed away at the age of 48. As the founder of Friends of BRYCE, he did much to draw attention to the plight of Bryce Faulkner, the 23-year-old gay man allegedly coerced into ex-gay therapy by an overbearing family. In doing so, he drew people’s attention to the scandal of religiously inspired homophobia and reparative therapy. Peter C Harris and Gary Konecky reflect on Brett’s death and legacy. Rest in peace, Brett Harris.
- [Northern Ireland: Anti-Gay MP Had Affair, Attempted Suicide](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/ireland-anti-gay-mp-had-affair-attempted-suicide/): Iris Robinson, the wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, has resigned as a UK Member of Parliament after confessing to marital unfaithfulness. The controversial politician said she had suffered severe mental illness and had attempted suicide as a result of her actions. Robinson compounded her already-notorious reputation for homophobia in 2008 when she described homosexuality as “disgusting, nauseous, loathsome, shamefully wicked and vile,” and suggested that psychiatric help could turn gay people straight. Her affair was roughly 18 months ago, which indicates she was engaging in adultery at the same time she went public with her egregious judgments on homosexuals. The...
- [Video: The Tortured Path to Rid Uganda of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/video-the-tortured-path-to-rid-uganda-of-gays/): Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has taken some clips obtained jointly by them and us to create an excellent description of the devastating influence of the March 5th Homosexuality Seminar in Kampala. Scott Lively described his presentation there as a “nuclear bomb against the “gay” agenda in Uganda” and certainly the fallout has been potentially deadly. Lively plays on that region’s worst fears and historical anger and he does it well. We have more video, some of which has been posted already. Below is a full cut of Lively complaining that the venerable Southern Poverty Law Center considers his organization...
- [Jenkins Seeks Help From Police, Court, Public To Locate Daughter Isabella](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/jenkins-seeks-help-from-police-court-public-to-locate-daughter-isabella/): Janet Jenkins has asked a judge to hold her ex-partner Lisa Miller in contempt for not turning over their daughter, Isabella, to her by the deadline. A lawyer filed an emergency motion for contempt on Friday. She has also released a statement appealing to the public for help. “I am so worried about Isabella. I do not know where she is or whether she is okay. Isabella is my daughter. Lisa and I decided together to have a child, and that we would use alternative reproductive technology to do so. We picked out a donor together. I was there with Lisa...
- [Anti-Gay Dobson Not Going Away Just Yet](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/anti-gay-dobson-not-going-away-just-yet/): Christian radio host and family values guru Dr James Dobson is not yet ready to give up his campaign against gays. Despite resigning from Focus on the Family last year, he has now announced that he is launching a rival organization and radio show. Dobson told fans that “the institution of the family continues to be in deplorable condition, and children are growing up in a culture that often twists and warps their young minds.” He will launch his new ministry, James Dobson on the Family, with his son, Ryan. Religion historian Randall Balmer told the Colorado Springs Gazette he thought...
- [CNN: Update on Ex-Gay Mother's Disappearance with Daughter](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/cnn-update-on-ex-gay-mothers-disappearance-with-daughter/): CNN gives a report on the Jenkins-Miller custody battle.
- [XGW Digest: January 2, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/xgw-digest-january-2-2010/): -A Republican candidate for US Senate in Illinois spreads rumors about his primary opponent’s sexual orientation. -Rwanda takes a step toward decriminalizing homosexuality. -The US Senate confirms the country’s first openly gay US Marshal. -Jonathan Rauch reviews the progress and setbacks of the marriage equality movement in 2009. -Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre become the first gay couple to legally marry in Latin America. -The Netherlands to extend marriage equality to the Dutch Caribbean Islands. -The Pakistani Supreme Court legally recognizes transgendered individuals. -Pop star Jason Mraz speaks out in favor of marriage equality. -Fifteen gay couples ring in...
- [Lisa Miller Now in Violation of Court Order; Still Missing with Isabella](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/lisa-miller-now-in-violation-of-court-order-still-missing-with-isabella/): Lisa Miller has missed the deadline to hand over custody of Isabella, her daughter with ex-partner Janet Jenkins. A judge had ordered her to do so by 1 pm EST today. Miller and Isabella have both been missing for weeks. [Vermont Family Court Judge William] Cohen awarded custody to Jenkins on Nov. 20 after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to the girl. The judge said the only way to ensure equal access to the child was to switch custody. But Cohen also noted that it appeared Miller had stopped speaking to her attorneys and “disappeared” with...
- [Ex-Gay Mother and Daughter Missing](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/ex-gay-mother-and-daughter-missing/): An ex-gay Christian woman is missing with her seven-year-old daughter after a judge ruled her former partner should be given custody. Lisa Miller gave birth to Isabella in 2002, by artificial insemination, two years into a civil union with lesbian partner Janet Jenkins. In 2003, Miller ended the partnership, taking her child with her. She became an evangelical Christian and renounced lesbianism, refusing Jenkins visitation rights. She demanded child support payments, however. Due to Miller’s ongoing refusals, which constituted contempt of court, a Vermont Family Court judge granted Jenkins full custody (PDF link) of Isabella in November 2009. Jenkins says she...
- [Homosexuality Discussed in Forum at Orthodox Jewish School](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/homosexuality-discussed-in-forum-at-orthodox-jewish-school/): A panel called “Being Gay in the Orthodox World: A Conversation with the YU Community” was held on Tuesday at Yeshiva University, a prominent Orthodox Jewish college in New York City. The event drew about 1,000 attendees. Although the head of YU spoke out against even the idea of such an event, many people attending were outwardly supportive, if not tolerant, of the gay Orthodox Jews who spoke. The hope was not that people would change their hearts and minds about halakha (Jewish Law) – the hope was that people would attend and see that queers are not an abstract “other,”...
- [XGW Digest: December 26, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/xgw-digest-december-26-2009/): -British rugby star Gareth Thomas comes out of the closet. -HBO’s show “Big Love” to introduce a romantic storyline between two men who have been through ex-gay therapy. -Highlands Church, an evangelical congregation in Denver, gains national attention for its gay-affirming stance. -Martha Stewart Weddings runs its first feature on a gay wedding. -Mexico City’s assembly legalizes same-sex marriage. -The Iowa Family Policy Council begins work on an effort to repeal marriage equality in the state. -A Texas state appeals court recognizes the parental rights of a lesbian non-biological mother.
- [XGW Digest: December 19, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/xgw-digest-december-19-2009/): -Kapya Kaoma chronicles how American evangelicals established a base of power in Uganda and other African nations. -Houston voters elect Annise Parker as the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. -Twelve gay men currently face execution in Iran. -A well-known Honduran LGBT activist is murdered. -Peterson Toscano posts a reminder that straight people can be the victims of anti-gay hate crimes too. -The Washington, DC City Council gives final approval to legalize same-sex marriage. -A US Senate committee approves the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act. -Actor Glenn Shadix talks about his experiences undergoing aversion therapy in his...
- [Another notable quotable from PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/another-notable-quotable-from-pfox/): Re: “New Jersey State Senator and NAACP’s Bond Support Genderless Marriage While Rejecting Ex-Gay Rights” [12-9-09] “…major scientific studies and mental health associations have stated homosexuality is not innate,” said Regina Griggs, director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX). “No scientific evidence has found a ‘gay gene.’ No DNA or medical test can determine if a person is homosexual. Sexual orientation is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration…” “Sexual orientation is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration.” Try it like this: Human sexuality is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration. — Apparently you’re not human...
- [Church of England Vicar: Ugandans "Might Actually Have a Point"](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/church-of-england-vicar-ugandans-might-actually-have-a-point/): Since I am gay, Anglican and British, I am more than disturbed to hear a priest in my own church and my own country concede that “the Ugandans, who are currently considering draconian legislation regarding homosexuality, might actually have a point.” Writing on his blog today, the Reverend John Richardson points to the failure of a recent legal case to criticize Britain’s supposed lack of religious freedom and to suggest that Uganda has good reason to avoid following the West in “normalizing” homosexuality. The case in question is that of Lillian Ladele, a Christian registrar who refused to carry out civil...
- [XGW Digest: December 12, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/xgw-digest-december-12-2009/): -Pepsi issues an apology for its sponsorship of an anti-gay musician’s concert in Uganda. -The Economist takes a look at where gay couples live in the United States. -A group of Minnesota Quakers announces that it will not issue any more marriage licenses until the state makes marriage available to everyone. -Another anti-gay politician is caught in a sex scandal. -John Corvino warns against overusing the word “bigot.” -Bruce Springsteen speaks out in support of marriage equality. -Equality Florida Palm Beach County hosts a workshop concurrent with Soulforce’s anti-heterosexism conference. -A group of progressive Christians drafts The Affirmation Declaration in response...
- [Hunting Down People for Same-Sex Love is a Sin Says Senior Ugandan Advisor](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/hunting-down-people-for-same-sex-love-is-a-sin-says-senior-ugandan-advisor/): But hunting down people for same-sex love, I believe to be a sin, against Love, one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. (I say all this without being a homosexual.) Parliament should not pass this Bill. New Vision is a newspaper run by the government of Uganda.  The author of that line , John Nagenda, is a senior advisor to President Yoweri Museveni, who has himself not commented on the bill one way or the other as of yet. But Nagenda clearly sees it as something that should not pass into law, and chides the PM who introduced it, David Bahati,...
- [VP of Exodus, Randy Thomas, decries Maddow, defends Cohen](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/vp-of-exodus-randy-thomas-decries-maddow-defends-cohen/): Building on David Robert’s post on the Richard Cohen portion of The Rachel Maddow Show, Randy Thomas, Vice President of Exodus International, had some things to say about the exchange. Randy Thomas: I am going to share a review of the actual interview and then move into how I believe she, and some other militant gay activists, are missing the point with regard to Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill. Transcript, edited for brevity, emphases mine: MADDOW: But you have told them, particularly in your book, “Coming Out Straight,” which I understand you donated multiple copies of to this organization that‘s promoting this bill....
- [Pastor Rick Warren Condemns Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/pastor-rick-warren-condemns-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/): As with Exodus, we wish this had been done sooner, but the statement could be quite effective. Warren is speaking directly to pastors in a country that takes him very seriously. The video is provided on his site in broadcast quality files as well as on Youtube. If this is played in Uganda, and I think it likely that it will be, this could make the difference.  One can only  hope so. This is accompanied by a letter to the Ugandan church leaders: LETTER/VIDEO STATEMENT TO UGANDAN CHURCH LEADERS By Dr. Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., Regarding...
- [Death Penalty, Life in Prison Dropped from Uganda Anti Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/death-penalty-life-in-prison-dropped-from-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/): According to Bloomberg, the draft bill, now being called the “kill the gays bill” will be “refined” to remove the death penalty and life imprisonment provisions. This is being done, according to Uganda Minister of Ethics James Nsaba Buturo, “to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties.” While this is no doubt to be seen as a good thing, our fundamental objections to the bill remain. The criminalization of relationships between consenting adults is simply not acceptable. Killing people or putting them in prison for life as punishment for such is certainly the extreme wrong end...
- [Richard Cohen Connected to Uganda Kill Gays Bill by Rachel Maddow](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/richard-cohen-soundly-put-in-his-place-by-rachel-maddow/): Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Writing much here would only serve to spoil the excellent job MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did Tuesday night in her interview with ex-gay guru Richard Cohen. Pay close attention to the references in Cohen’s book, Coming Out Straight (third printing), which came from the discredited pseudo-research of the notorious Paul Cameron. Also of note, Maddown calls Cohen on the reference in his other book, Gay Children, Straight Parents, which places race as one contributing factor to homosexuality. At first Cohen didn’t believe it was in the book, but then, after...
- [US Christians Denounce Gay Hate in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/us-christians-denounce-gay-hate-in-uganda/): A group of prominent Christian leaders from the US have put their names to a statement opposing the vicious Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposed in Uganda. In standing up unapologetically for the rights of gays and lesbians, they do what other Christian leaders, including Exodus, should have done long ago. Below is the full text, entitled U.S. Christian Leaders’ Statement on the “Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009” Under Consideration by the Parliament of Uganda. Its signatories include the broadly evangelical luminaries Ronald J Sider, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. Our Christian faith recognizes violence, harassment and unjust treatment of any human being...
- [VP of Exodus describes hate speech as 'difference of opinion'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/vp-of-exodus-describes-hate-speech-as-difference-of-opinion/): Randy Thomas, Vice President of Exodus International: Freedom of speech which expresses a difference of opinion on morality and spirituality is not a crime. The following is a case of one of the hackneyed headless monsters that the anti-gay industry loves to trot out, especially in regard to hate crime legislation that includes protections for minorities on the basis of sexual-orientation and gender identity. In an article on the EI blog called “Canadian Decision Protects Freedom of Speech For Religious Views,” Mr. Thomas links to another article titling “Alberta judge rules anti-gay letter not hate speech, overturns ruling”: A Court of...
- [XGW Digest: December 5, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/xgw-digest-december-5-2009/): -The Washington, DC city council votes in favor of marriage equality. -The Chinese government opens a gay bar. -The Los Angeles Times criticizes the Manhattan Declaration. -The Courage Campaign withdraws from the effort to try to repeal Proposition 8 in the 2010 election. -Pastor Rick Warren attempts to claim neutrality in the controversy over Uganda’s proposed anti-gay law. -Columnist Edward Fitzpatrick makes a conservative case for gay marriage. -A Syracuse University student upstages an anti-gay demonstrator. -Actress Meredith Baxter comes out of the closet. -Jim Burroway analyzes the political machinations at work behind the scenes in Uganda. -Alvin McEwen documents some...
- [Rachel Maddow Reports Further on Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/rachel-maddow-reports-further-on-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/): Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Solid reporting on this issue our readers have become familiar with since last March.
- [NY Senator Savino Defends the Sanctity of Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/ny-senator-savino-defends-the-sanctity-of-marriage/): A formidable, moving and excellently reasoned argument for marriage equality by Senator Diane Savino of New York: Hat-tip: James McGrath of Exploring Our Matrix.
- [Rachel Maddow Covers Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/rachel-maddow-covers-anti-homosexuality-bill/): Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has begun continuing coverage of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill. On Wednesday evening’s show she read responses from the three Americans who comprised the conference in Kampala earlier this year which served as a starting point for the legislation. While Exodus did finally take a stand of sorts against the bill, tonight’s broadcast was the first occasion we know of where Richard Cohen or his organization (International Healing Foundation) have responded at all. While XGW and others contacted him directly for comment long ago, Cohen claimed to...
- [Tonight: Watch Rachel Maddow (postponed)](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/tonight-watch-rachel-maddow/): Andrew Marin will appear on the latter part of the Rachel Maddow Show tonight next week to talk about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda.  Watch or record, 9pm ET/8pm CT. Update: Apparently the live interview has been postponed until next week.  We will notify you of the new date when we get it.
- [Flagging up Gay Hate on World Aids Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/12/flagging-up-gay-hate-on-world-aids-day/): Today, on World Aids Day, the world unites to reflect on the scourge of Aids and HIV, to acknowledge those they affect and to promote awareness of the facts surrounding them. But as we remember those who have lost their lives, and celebrate those who courageously live with HIV and Aids, our attention can’t help but turn to the hatred and prejudice against those groups most affected. The theme of this year’s WAD is Universal Access and Human Rights. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the pertinent issues in a speech yesterday: Obviously our efforts are hampered whenever discrimination or marginalization...
- [XGW Digest: November 28, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/xgw-digest-november-28-2009/): -Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker selects an openly gay running mate. -Hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation continue to rise, according to the FBI’s latest statistics. -An evangelical church in Denver adopts a gay-affirming stance. -Good Morning America cancels a concert featuring Adam Lambert following his controversial performance at the American Music Awards. -The National Organization for Marriage launches a $500,000 ad campaign in New Jersey. -The Charleston, SC city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Lambda Legal files a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta following a police raid on a local gay bar. -The Catholic Archbishop and...
- [Malaysia Report: Transgender Day of Remembrance](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/malaysia-report-transgender-day-of-remembrance/): Held on the 20th of November every year, this day is set to commemorate transgenders who have been killed due to discrimination, prejudice and hatred towards the community. It is also to raise awareness and act against the violence, brutality and murder of gender variant or non-gender conforming individuals within the LGBT community worldwide. Every year, scores of transgenders have been murdered in dehumanizing ways, as the hatred against gender variant or non-gender conforming individuals is on the rise. The countless deaths are from all walks of life; activists, school children, sex workers, civil servants and even mainstream executives. Even those...
- [XGW Digest: November 21, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/xgw-digest-november-21-2009/): -Same-sex marriage is legalized via court order in Buenos Aires, Argentina. -Dolly Parton speaks out in defense of gay rights. -Meghan McCain (daughter of Sen. John McCain) challenges the Republican Party’s hypocrisy on the issue of same-sex marriage. -The Christian Anti-Defamation League’s rally against the Matthew Shepard hate crimes law fizzles. -NARTH’s annual conference takes place this weekend in Florida. -A new study commissioned by the Catholic Church finds that gay priests are no more likely to molest children than straight priests. -The New York Supreme Court rejects the Alliance Defense Fund’s challenge to the state’s law recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages....
- [NARTH Pulls Latest Glatze Interview](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/narth-pulls-latest-glatze-interview/): As reported here a few days ago, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) recently posted an interview between reparative therapist Joseph Nicolosi and ex-gay activist Michael Glatze. The latter’s inflammatory comments of late are severely at odds with the image portrayed while talking with Nicolosi, who promoted an obviously troubled man as a great example “to young people who are struggling.” Among other things, Glatze claimed bullying should be allowed as a growth experience. Apparently, NARTH’s promotion of Glatze didn’t sit well with Exodus president Alan Chambers, who is to speak at the annual NARTH conference...
- [Better Late Than Never, Exodus Sends Open Letter to President of Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/better-late-than-never-exodus-sends-open-letter-to-president-of-uganda/): According to their website, Exodus has sent an open letter to President Museveni of Uganda voicing their opposition to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill being considered there. Exodus has been criticized heavily for the lack of such a statement, and has so far only released bits and pieces. This one seems to leave no doubt that they are against the bill becoming law, though they do rely on the same “we can’t help the poor souls if you do this” argument as has been presented by others. Then again, perhaps that is an argument Uganda needs to hear.
- [Deja Vu All Over Again? NARTH Features Advocate of Bullying as a Growing Experience](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/deja-vu-all-over-again-narth-features-advocate-of-bullying-as-a-growing-experience/): Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has posted a recent interview with Michael Glatze.  Glatze is the troubled former editor of XY Magazine who made an ex-gay splash in a 2007 World Net Daily article.  After dropping mysteriously out of site for a couple of years, he has recently been literally begging for attention from friend and foe alike (read summary).  This interview reads much like the first one Nicolosi conducted with him in 2007, filled with the former’s trademark confirmation bias and the latter’s apparently ever-growing urge to please the good...
- [XGW Digest: November 14, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/xgw-digest-november-14-2009/): -Portugal’s new Prime Minister places marriage equality on his list of priorities. -The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission plans a rally to try to provoke arrests under the new hate crimes law. -The New York State Senate promises to vote on marriage equality before the end of the year. -Rhode Island Governor Carcieri vetoes a bill that would have allowed domestic partners to make funeral arrangements for a deceased partner. -Salt Lake City passes an anti-discrimination ordinance with the support of the Mormon church. -Support for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell continues to decline among military personnel. -Dan Savage speaks on the definition of...
- [Audio: Throckmorton & Ssempa Debate Anti-Homoexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/audio-throckmorton-ssempa-debate-anti-homoexuality-bill/): Earlier today, Dr. Warren Throckmorton and Pastor Martin Ssempa were able to discuss the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently being debated in Uganda. Both appeared on Premier Radio, part of the Christian media in the UK. While the exchange is short, it offers a revealing look into the mindset that would promote such widespread criminalization of homosexuals. One of the more surprising disclosures was made by Dr. Throckmorton when he read a new statement from Exodus International concerning the issue. Exodus has come under great pressure for dragging their feet to respond to a dire situation so germane to their own work. This...
- [AMA Votes Against DADT, Same-Sex Marriage Bans](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/ama-votes-against-dadt-and-same-sex-marriage-bans/): Source: AP The American Medical Association has voted to oppose the military policy concerning gay service members, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), saying it has “a chilling effect” on open communication with one’s doctor. “A law which makes people lie to their physicians is a bad law,” said Dr. David Fassler, a University of Vermont psychiatry professor who attended the meeting. The group also publicly declared that same-sex marriage bans contribute to health care disparities. The health disparities policy is based on evidence showing that married couples are more likely to have health insurance, and that the uninsured have a high...
- [Love Won Out: Birmingham, Alabama](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/love-won-out-birmingham-alabama/): The ex-gay “Love Won Out” conference in Birmingham went underway Friday, the final one led by Focus on the Family before they relinquish control to Exodus International amid financial troubles. Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen organized a protest of the conference and spoke at the University of Alabama, Birmhingham on Thursday. This has prompted Exodus V.P. Randy Thomas to call for prayer: I (Randy) won’t personally be at this particular event but having been to about 20 of them, every single one had some sort of protest and every single time the LWO team responds lovingly.  Would you add praying for...
- [XGW Digest: November 7, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/xgw-digest-november-7-2009/): -A candlelight vigil is held for the victim of a violent homophobic attack in Liverpool, England. -A Catholic church in Maine fires a lay minister for speaking out in support of marriage equality. –The Economist considers the legal complexities surrounding the existence of intersexed individuals. -Gay-friendly Republican Dede Scozzafava withdraws from the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional district. -Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage is put on the defensive during hearings on marriage equality in the District of Columbia. -Maine voters repeal marriage equality; gay rights and openly gay candidates prevail in other races around the country. -Referendum...
- [UK Government Expresses Concern Over Ugandan Anti-Homosexually Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/uk-government-expresses-concern-over-ugandan-anti-homosexually-bill/): Source: pinknews.co.uk Following similar statements from the US and France, representatives for the United Kingdom have expressed serious concern over the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda.  Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, a spokeswoman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are concerned by the introduction of a private member’s bill on anti homosexuality in Uganda.” “Adoption of the bill could do serious damage to efforts to tackle HIV and its criminalisation of organisations that support homosexuality could, in theory, encompass most donor agencies and international NGOs.” “The UK, alongside our EU partners, has raised our concerns about the draft bill and LGBT...
- [Fallen Megachurch Pastor Haggard Starts Home Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/fallen-megachurch-pastor-haggard-starts-home-church/): Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor exposed in 2006 as a homosexual and adulterer, has started a regular prayer meeting in his Colorado home. Before the scandal, which broke three years ago almost to the day, Haggard was President of the National Association of Evangelicals and founding pastor of New Life Church, a 10,000-strong megachurch in Colorado Springs, CO. But after years denouncing gays from the pulpit, it emerged that he had been taking methamphetamines and regularly paying a male prostitute for sex, and he was forced to resign his leadership positions. Just a few months later, his counselor claimed he was...
- [Christian Right Leader Dobson Quits Radio Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/christian-right-leader-dobson-quits-radio-program/): James Dobson, the evangelical founder of Focus on the Family, is cutting ties with the organization after more than 30 years. He stepped down as Chairman earlier this year, and last Friday announced that he would also be quitting as host of its flagship radio show. Dobson has led the attack on LGBT families in the US by falsely depicting gays and lesbians as a threat to the family. Through Focus on the Family, he has been at the forefront of political and religious efforts to deny gays dignity and basic rights. He has shown himself to be not above fabrication...
- [France Joins the US in Denouncing Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/11/france-joins-the-us-in-denouncing-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/): Source: Sky News The French Foreign Ministry has issued a statement concerning the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently under serious consideration in Uganda: “France expresses deep concern regarding the bill currently before the Ugandan parliament,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement sent to AFP in Kampala on Monday. “France reiterates its commitment to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” The bill provides penalties up to and including death. Even knowing someone who is gay and not reporting them would be a crime punishable by years in prison. Way to go, France.
- [Pastor Rick Warren Denounces Martin Ssempa and Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/pastor-rick-warren-denounces-martin-ssempa-and-anti-homosexuality-bill/): In response to a query from Grove City professor Warren Throckmorton, pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has provided this statement concerning the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill and one of it’s major backers, Martin Ssempa. Martin Ssempa does not represent me, my wife Kay, Saddleback Church, nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy. In 2007, we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own. Our role, and the role of the PEACE Plan, whether in Uganda or any other country, is always pastoral and never political. We vigorously oppose anything...
- [XGW Digest: October 31, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/xgw-digest-october-31-2009/): -Jeremy Hooper takes an in-depth look at the National Organization for Marriage. -Anti-gay hate crimes are on the rise in London. -Army Secretary John McHugh weighs in on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Stephen Colbert skewers opponents of Washington Referendum 71. -Stand For Marriage Maine distances itself from Peter LaBarbera’s Maine press conference. -Opponents of same-sex marriage offer weak arguments against the District of Columbia’s proposed marriage equality law. -A US District Court denies the National Organization for Marriage’s petition to keep its donor rolls secret. -The Christian Anti-Defamation Coalition refers to Paul Cameron’s and Scott Lively’s organizations as “fine Christian groups.”...
- [Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Hits Close to Home for Some](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/ugandas-anti-gay-bill-hits-close-to-home-for-some/): We haven’t checked yet to see if it varies from the second hand copies that have been offered up to now, but this is a copy of the official bill provided by Martin Ssempa, a key sponsor.  Please share this as you contact others to make them aware of the severity of the human rights abuses it will prompt. Reading the the objectives of this bill, it becomes clear why so many conservative groups and ministries, such as Exodus and Focus on the Family, have not spoken out more clearly against it: they share common goals with the anti-gay forces in...
- [US Slams Uganda's Proposed Anti-Gay Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/us-slams-ugandas-new-anti-gay-bill/): Source: AFP An official with the US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, has said that the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill, if enacted into law, would “mark a major setback in the promotion of human rights.” We urge states to take all necessary measures to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests, or detention. Ugandan Ethics Minister James Nsaba Buturo spoke with journalists today. While acknowledging the great numbers of “foreigners” who express grave concern over the possibility of such a bill becoming law, he made it clear that he...
- [President Obama Signs Hate Crimes Act into Law](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/president-obama-signs-hate-crimes-act-into-law/): Today U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Act into law, adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of federally recognized classes. This is the fruition of 10 years of work for the parents of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man whose brutal murder made national news. The Matthew Shepard Foundation issued a statement in response, expressing their gratitude. This is a notable step forward for the cause of equality.
- [Audio: Radio Interviews on Pending Anti-Gay Law in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/audio-radio-interviews-on-pending-anti-gay-law-in-uganda/): The Current is a program on CBC’s Radio One in Canada. In the third segment of a recent show, host Anna Maria Tremonti discusses the proposed laws against homosexuality in Uganda. Her guests include representatives from rights groups inside and out of Uganda, along with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart Of American Power. Scroll down to segment three here or listen to the direct audio (MP3). Hat Tip: IGLHRC
- [Follow-Up: Liberty University Says Cohen Not Approved Internship Site](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/follow-up-liberty-university-says-cohen-not-approved-internship-site/): This is a follow-up to our previous post questioning the apparent internship of a Liberty University student, Christopher Doyle, with discredited ex-gay guru Richard Cohen. Tim Clinton (mentioned in previous post) responded to our email two days after we requested information about this issue. Cohen has not responded to a similar inquiry. The Center for Counseling and Family Studies at Liberty University is not affiliated with the International Healing Foundation (IHF) nor has IHF been approved as an internship site. Additionally, Richard Cohen has not been or would not be, as we understand the matter, approved as a supervisor for one...
- [XGW Digest: October 24, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/xgw-digest-october-24-2009/): -A spokesman for Stand For Marriage Maine admits that the organization has made dishonest claims in its ads. -Congressman Jared Polis’ partner talks about being a gay congressional spouse. -Another anti-gay crusader is caught in a scandal. -Irish sports star Donal Og Cusack comes out of the closet. -Protect Marriage Washington ramps up its anti-gay rhetoric. -Jason Kuznicki considers whether hate crime laws cause more harm than good in some situations. -An 86-year-old World War II veteran speaks out in support of marriage equality. -Focus on the Family donates $98,500 to Stand For Marriage Maine. -The Church of Sweden’s governing board...
- [Do Liberty University and the American Association of Christian Counselors Endorse Richard Cohen?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/do-liberty-university-and-the-american-association-of-christian-counselors-endorse-richard-cohen/): From the International Healing Foundation (Richard Cohen) website, we learn that a Liberty University student will soon begin an internship “under the direct supervision of Richard Cohen.” He is to start on-site and telephone counseling on January 12, 2010. The site encourages readers to make an appointment now to start their nine weeks of “expert coaching [which] leads you to your personal healing plan.” Christopher [Doyle] came out of homosexuality, married his beautiful wife in 2006, and together they have a one-year old son. He knows firsthand what it’s like to experience conflicts over one’s SSA and the journey to wholeness...
- [Exodus Issues Pathetic Response to Worsening Uganda Situation](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/exodus-issues-pathetic-response-to-worsening-uganda-situation/): This post was written by David Roberts and Emily K. While the situation in Uganda continues to spiral down, Exodus has issued a response of sorts by way of a post by Vice President Randy Thomas to the official Exodus blog. He refers to the constant pleas by those of us who have been working to avoid the inhumane pain and bloodshed that the coming laws will provide an already repressive society as “North American noise,” and to us as “American militant gay activists.” What little we have seen come from Exodus on this matter has been weak and filled with...
- [XGW Digest: October 17, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/xgw-digest-october-17-2009/): -A group of Russian and Slavic Christians stage an anti-Referendum 71 rally in Washington one day before 1,500 Washingtonians march in support of 71. -The Alliance Defense Fund sues to try to stop New York from recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages. -California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs two gay rights bills. -The Obama Administration begins working with key senators to introduce a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal bill. –Nearly 2/3 of Stand For Marriage Maine’s funds have come from two sources: the National Organization for Marriage and the Catholic Diocese of Portland. -Elder Dallin Oakes compares gay rights advocates who protest the Mormon...
- [Properly Defining The Term 'Post-Gay'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/properly-defining-the-term-post-gay/): For about the past year, Exodus V.P. Randy Thomas has been slowly transitioning from using the term “ex-gay” to describe himself to the term “post-gay.” He has since taken over the Exodus Blog, and the term “ex-gay” is rarely found. Articles having to do with ex-gay issues are now tagged “post-gay,” and the term has replaced “ex-gay” to describe people who are trying to go from gay to straight – or, at least, less gay. In a recent post on the Exodus blog, Randy takes pride in having adopted a term for himself that is, according to the Huffington Post, “avant-garde.”...
- [Interracial Couple Denied Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/interracial-couple-denied-marriage/): Source: Associated Press A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”...
- [Ugandan MP Proposes Severe New Anti-Gay Measures](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/ugandan-mp-proposes-severe-new-anti-gay-measures/): A Member of Parliament in Uganda has tabled a bill for new laws that could see gays and gay-sympathizers in the East African country imprisoned for life and even executed. Bahati David’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 received its first reading in Parliament yesterday. Although homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, the new bill toughens existing laws and widens the scope of homosexual offenses. As justification, the bill contains a litany of supposed negative consequences of homosexuality, and makes bold claims about the nature of sexual orientation and the possibility of change: This legislation further recognizes the fact that same sex attraction is...
- [PFOX declares war on Mickey Mouse!](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/pfox-declares-war-on-mickey-mouse/): PFOX stands for ‘Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays’–despite the fact that the organization is not run by ex-gays, and repeatedly and openly expresses a vituperative disdain for all things gay. One of their more outlandish claims is that there are twice as many “ex-gays” as there are gays. In census terms, that’s about 18 million ex-gays. You can read about their latest escapade below (For recent coverage, see Google): Shareholders ask Walt Disney to Include Ex-Gays in Company’s Non-Discrimination Policies: “It is about time Disney treated ex-gays with the respect they deserve,” said Bobbie Strobhar, the stockholder who submitted...
- [Pure Hate](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/pure-hate/): Source: KTLA How many times will we now read from anti-gays how, oh, of course this is not tolerable, this is awful, but… If you work against the rights of gays and lesbians to live the same life that anyone else is afforded, then YOU are the only thing wrong with being gay.  Hate has been overcome before, it will be again.
- [Exodus: Pray for Participants of National Equality March](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/exodus-pray-for-participants-of-national-equality-march/): Randy Thomas over at the Exodus blog has called for prayers for those participating in the National Equality March. His goal is to “generate prayer” by spreading word through the blog. He is praying for the following things: For True Freedom: That God’s freedom and sovereign love will lead the participants to Him. I have a friend who was in a pride parade and out of the blue, he just knew that he knew God was telling him to leave.  So … he did.  God is so much bigger than we often give Him credit for.  I am praying for truly...
- [XGW Digest: October 10, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/xgw-digest-october-10-2009/): -The religious right continues to attack Obama appointee and openly gay educator Kevin Jennings. -Microsoft donates $100,000 in support of Washington Referendum 71. -LGBT activists in Belarus host an international conference in Minsk. -Two straight NFL players speak out in defense of gay rights. -Washington, DC city council member David Catania introduces a same-sex marriage bill. -More than 350 Maine lawyers sign a statement opposing Question 1 and the misinformation being spread by its proponents. -The Montana Supreme Court rules in favor of a lesbian parent seeking visitation rights. -The House of Representatives passes the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. -The National...
- [Ex-Gay Survivor Gonzales on Growing up Gay in Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/ex-gay-survivor-gonzales-on-growing-up-gay-in-church/): Daniel Gonzales of Box Turtle Bulletin has been talking about growing up gay in a radically anti-gay church, namely Coastline Bible Church in Ventura, California. In a four-part series, Daniel describes how his fundamentalist church propelled him towards ex-gay therapy. Parts: 1, 2, 3. Keep tabs on BTB for Part 4.
- [Ex-Gay Michael Glatze: Obama is 'Utterly Disgusting Because He is Black'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/ex-gay-michael-glatze-obama-is-utterly-disgusting-because-he-is-black/): Some may remember Michael Glatze from his ex-gay debut a couple of years ago. Formerly co-editor of XY Magazine, Glatze and boyfriend of ten years, Benjie Nycum, set out in 2004 to found YGA, another magazine designed for GLBT Youth.  Nycum and Glatze also co-authored the book XY Survival Guide while still working with XY in 2000.  YGA seems to have published only six issues and stopped publication after 2006. While all this makes a fine resume for a thirty-something, there is no evidence that Glatze was ever the kind of major “gay rights leader” that conservative commentators claimed when presenting...
- [Middle School-Age Youth More Open to Coming Out; Exodus Youth Responds](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/middle-school-age-youth-more-open-to-coming-out-exodus-youth-responds/): The New York Times published an article detailing experiences of middle school-age children (roughly ages 11-14) who were open about their sexuality. Chris Stump of Exodus Youth responded with this article. In the Times article, we learn that while some might not experience their gradeschool years free of conflict concerning their sexuality, they are much more likely to be accepted or simply left alone about their orientation. These kids date, have boyfriends and girlfriends, and can talk openly about their crushes – no matter their gender – with their friends and peers. One 13-year-old who came out did so because when...
- [Checking in: Our Man in the North](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/checking-in-our-man-in-the-north/): After an absence of six years, I have returned to my native land. Your European correspondent is now officially Ex-Gay Watch’s man in Canada. When I’m not out hunting polar bears and eating poutine, I’ll be reporting on ex-gay news north of the border. Back in 2006, I offered some modest observations about the differences between the ex-gay movement in the US and in the UK. If anyone has observations to share about Canadian-US differences, feel free to share in the comments thread.
- [XGW Digest: October 3, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/10/xgw-digest-october-3-2009/): -Daniel Gonzales lays out the similarities between ex-gay programs and Scientology. -Exodus ally Mark Yarhouse backs away from his previous support for reorientation efforts. -The Seattle, WA city council passes a resolution urging voters to vote yes on Referendum 71. -Amanda Hess dissects PFOX’s repeated claim that hate crime laws are discriminatory against ex-gays. -A federal court dismisses a lawsuit against a hospital that denied visitation rights to a dying patient’s same-sex partner. -Nate Silver projects a likely defeat for the marriage ban in Maine. -Coral Ridge Ministries blatantly misrepresents the ACLU’s efforts to unblock LGBT-related websites in Tennessee public schools....
- [XGW Digest: September 26, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/09/xgw-digest-september-26-2009/): -Former ex-lesbian Kori Ashton launches a gay-affirming website. -The Serbian government cancels Belgrade Pride due to safety issues. -Focus on the Family steps up its efforts to recruit younger supporters. -Opponents of marriage equality in Washington state showcase divorcees in a “preserve marriage” campaign authored by divorcees. -Anti-gay group Marriage Maine admits that they are misleading voters in their advertisements. -The US Census Bureau releases data on same-sex marriages for the first time. -More than half of all LGBT individuals remain in the closet at work, according to a new study. -A gay teenager claims to have been “healed” via exorcism;...
- [XGW Digest: September 19, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/09/xgw-digest-september-19-2009/): -The Atlanta police department offers questionable reasons for its recent raid on a gay bar. -President Obama to nominate law professor and out lesbian Chai Feldblum for Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. -A Catholic church solicits funds for anti-gay political activity during Sunday Mass. -The Ohio House passes a non-discrimination measure.  The bill faces a tougher battle in the Republican-controlled senate. -The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce voices its support for Washington Referendum 71 (a “yes” vote is a vote in favor of retaining Washington’s domestic partnership law). -Congressman Earl Blumenauer apologizes for his vote in favor of the...
- [XGW Digest: September 12, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/09/xgw-digest-september-12-2009/): -The National Equality March gains additional support. -Right Wing Watch warns that the religious right is regaining momentum. -Former Miss California Carrie Prejean to speak at the 2009 Values Voter Summit. -Arizona eliminates domestic partner benefits for the families of 800 state employees. -Another defender of “family values” is caught in a scandal. -Soap opera actress Patricia Mauceri claims victim status after being fired for objecting to her lines in a gay-themed storyline. -Anti-gay Referendum 71 is cleared for the ballot in Washington State. -Discover Magazine explores the history of reparative therapy. -The British government formally apologizes for its treatment of...
- [Russell Moore Joins Randy Thomas As "Transgender Authorities".](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/09/russell-moore-joins-randy-thomas-as-transgender-authorities/): Randy Thomas has a history of speaking about transgenders without any real knowledge of the subject. So it was only a matter of time until he showed his ignorance and lack of any real knowledge on transgender issues once again. A while ago, he was interviewed on Prime Time America along with Russell Moore, self-styled trans authority who knows almost nothing about the complexities of transgenders. Mr. Thomas was asked to explain some of the factors that can lead people into the “transgendered lifestyle.” Quote: Thomas: From the experiences that I had with friends who have dealt with this issue, it could be anything from...
- [XGW Digest: September 5, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/09/xgw-digest-september-5-2009/): -Same-sex couples begin marrying in Vermont. -Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening apologizes for his past opposition to same-sex marriage. -Conservapedia continues to defend Paul Cameron’s “research.” -Carrie Prejean sues Miss California USA officials for religious discrimination. -A Washington state judge rejects a challenge to Referendum 71, but leaves the door open to further challenges. -Focus on the Family cites the case of a former Hewlett Packard employee who was fired for repeatedly posting anti-gay Bible verses he admitted were “intended to be hurtful” in its arguments against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. -The government of India leans toward accepting the Delhi High...
- [Exodus Unable to Give a Numerical Success Rate](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/exodus-unable-to-give-a-numerical-success-rate/): In a post by Brad Sargent on the Exodus blog, the success rate of ex-gay therapy is addressed.  25 years ago, Brad became involved in Exodus. He started working for them in 1991, and was often addressed with the question, “What is your success rate?” Unable to give any numerical result, he was forced to respond thusly: That question popped up so often, it became a frustration. There were no formal studies available from Exodus ministries then – who had funds or time to conduct such research? And yet, callers were anxious to know: If I’m going to invest myself in...
- [XGW Digest: August 29, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/xgw-digest-august-29-2009/): -US District Judge David Carter dismisses a lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act on a technicality. -Harvey Milk is inducted into the California Hall of Fame. -Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute equates homosexuality with Nazism. -A Chicago police officer comes under investigation for allegedly harassing and falsely arresting gay and lesbian motorists. –Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio speaks out in favor of gay marriage. -Concert promoter Live Nation cancels the four performances it had scheduled for extreme anti-gay singer Buju Banton. -Washington Families Standing Together files a lawsuit against the WA Secretary of State’s office over the certification...
- [Exodus Youth condemns bullying by singling out gay students](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/exodus-youth-condemns-bullying-by-singling-out-gay-students/): In a piece called “Ministry to Gay Students,” Shawn Harrison of Exodus Youth goes the extra mile to portray condescension and religious supremacism as compassion. He also believes that the Bible is inerrant. First we get the compassion part: There is no question that high schools and middle schools across this nation are ground zero for students who face peer pressure, bullying, low self-esteem, depression, and the like. One of the most disturbing of these is bullying… …and occasionally ends with students getting beat up, receiving death threats, missing school, changing schools, and in some cases, even attempting suicide. On his...
- [Ex-Gay Group PFOX Loses Appeal in NEA Case](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/ex-gay-group-pfox-loses-appeal-in-nea-case/): Despite their rather up-beat press release (and more than a few blog headlines), The Superior Court for the District of Columbia handed Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, Inc (PFOX) a defeat today. PFOX had asked for a review of an earlier decision by the DC Office of Human Rights (OHR) which has jurisdiction over cases involving the DC Human Rights Act (HRA). That decision, prompted by a complaint filed by PFOX in 2003, found that the National Education Association (NEA) was within it’s rights to deny PFOX a booth at their annual convention in 2002. The DC Superior Court denied the...
- [Exodus "Troubled" by ELCA's Acceptance of Gay Clergy](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/exodus-troubled-by-elcas-acceptance-of-gay-clergy/): Exodus expressed dismay at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s decision to allow partnered gay clergy to serve in the church. Orlando, FL.  Exodus International, the world’s largest interdenominational ministry helping those conflicted by same-sex attraction to live a life that reflects the Christian faith, is troubled by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s vote today to allow congregations to hire clergy involved in same-sex relationships. Exodus says this is a clear move away from biblical teaching on sexuality and a disconcerting approach to this issue. An Exodus ministry leader named Nate Oyloe presented “his personal testimony of leaving homosexuality” to...
- [XGW Digest: August 22, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/xgw-digest-august-22-2009/): -Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoes an anti-discrimination ordinance. -Alvin McEwen examines the anti-gay propaganda promoted by the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. -The Durham, NC city council passes a resolution endorsing marriage equality. -Human Rights Watch issues a report on the recent wave of anti-gay violence in Iraq. -The Guam legislature to consider domestic partnership legislation. -A Christian mother comes to accept her gay son. -Jason Kuznicki analyzes the zero-sum logic behind conservative “pro-family” policies. -The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopts a new policy on sexuality that allows local congregations to recognize same-sex couples. -US District Judge Vaughn Walker denies...
- [Ex-Gay Survivors Gain Exposure in Media](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/ex-gay-survivors-gain-exposure-in-media/): Several ex-gay survivors – people who went through ex-gay therapy but ultimately found it unsuccessful and came out as gay – have been profiled recently by various media outlets. Jacob Wilson, Vince Cervantes, and Daniel Gonzales have been interviewed by Edge Magazine, a gay magazine in Boston, MA. In the article they talk about reasons they went into ex-gay treatment and what harm it did them. 23-year-old Bryce Faulkner’s disappearance into the ex-gay world sparked all sorts of debates about how possible coercion by his conservative Christian family may have played a role in his decision to enter into an ex-gay...
- [XGW Digest: August 15, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/xgw-digest-august-15-2009/): -A new book chronicles the challenges and difficulties faced by gay youth in America through 40 personal stories. –Tim Horton’s and Blount Fine Foods drop plans to provide food for a NOM rally in Rhode Island. -The Family Research Council resurrects Paul Cameron’s “statistics” in an attempt to bolster its argument against ENDA. –Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe makes a major gift to the Trevor Project, which operates a suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth. -The US Army investigates claims that American soldiers participated in the murder of gay Iraqis and finds no evidence to support the allegations. -The Anchorage, AK...
- [Focus on the Family Cuts 'Love Won Out' Conferences, Gives them to Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/focus-on-the-family-cuts-love-won-out-conferences-gives-them-to-exodus/): Focus on the Family’s conference on homosexuality joins Exodus’ expanding church outreach Orlando, FL. — Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out conference on homosexuality will be moving to Exodus International starting November, the longtime allies announced today. The move is a logical step not only for both organizations, but also for a movement that has educated and equipped Christians for decades about the reality that unwanted same-sex attractions can be overcome. Exodus is making church education a priority effort. Recently, Exodus announced it was merging with outreach ministries of the Presbyterian and Reformed faith communities as well as The United...
- [XGW Digest: August 8, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/xgw-digest-august-8-2009/): -Anti-gay activist Linda Harvey uses the Tel Aviv shootings as another opportunity to bash the gay community. -The Liberty Counsel tries to separate two young children from the gay foster parents who nurtured them back to health. -David Link points out why “former homosexual” characters are unlikely to become more common in popular entertainment. -Anti-gay activists protest the El Paso, TX city council’s extension of benefits to gay couples. -The Human Rights Campaign releases a new study on LGBT people of color. -The likelihood of anti-gay Referendum 71 in Washington State making it to the ballot decreases as the error rate...
- [Reparative Therapy Not Supported by Evidence, Says APA](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/reparative-therapy-not-supported-by-evidence-says-apa/): The American Psychological Association has said that there is insufficient evidence for so-called “sexual orientation change efforts,” and has instructed mental health practitioners to avoid offering reparative or “ex-gay” therapy. In a resolution adopted at its annual conference today, the APA officially rejected treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental disorder, and lauded approaches “that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth.” The accompanying report made short shrift of recent ex-gay studies, saying they were based on “inadequate” research methods. The Chair of the APA’s Task Force on...
- [2 Gay Teens in Tel Aviv, Israel Murdered; 15 Wounded After Shooting](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/2-gay-teens-in-tel-aviv-israel-murdered-15-wounded-after-shooting/): A gunman dressed all in black opened fire on a room full of teens in a LGBTQ center, killing two and wounding fifteen. The incident is being taken very seriously and security around other LGBTQ centers has been stepped up. “This is a most severe incident. The police are investing major resources and means to capture this murderer and his accomplices,” Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. David Cohen said, speaking from the murder scene. “These were teenagers,” Yaniv Weisman, chairman of the Israeli Gay Youth organization, told The Jerusalem Post. With tears in his eyes, Weisman added, “they came to this center from...
- [XGW Digest: August 1, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/08/xgw-digest-august-1-2009/): -The Anglican and Episcopal Churches move further apart over the issue of gay clergy and same-sex unions. -Soap star Thom Bierdz comes out of the closet on and off screen. -Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claims to respect same-sex unions while opposing gay marriage. -Maggie Gallagher drops her initial criticisms of the Defense of Marriage Act to advocate against its repeal. -An Evangelical organization produces a pro-ex-gay play in Atlanta. -Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. -Albania to consider legalizing same-sex marriage. -Meanwhile, Portugal’s Constitutional Court upholds the country’s gay marriage ban. -A group...
- [Faulkners Talk to Fox, Deny Son Forced into Ex-Gay Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/faulkners-talk-to-fox-deny-son-forced-into-ex-gay-program/): The parents of Bryce Faulkner have spoken to Fox News to deny allegations that their 23-year-old son is being coerced into attending an ex-gay program. Friends of Bryce, a 23-year-old medical student who graduated this year, say he was happily gay and ready to move from Arkansas to Wisconsin to be with his boyfriend, Travis Swanson, 24. They believe he was browbeaten into therapy by his Baptist parents after they found out about his homosexuality. But mother Debra Faulkner told Fox today that the stories were untrue. She confirmed that Bryce was undergoing “Christian counselling,” but said that he just wanted...
- [In Brief: PFOX No Longer an Exodus Affiliate](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/in-brief-pfox-no-longer-an-exodus-affiliate/): Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, Inc (PFOX) is no longer affiliated with Exodus International, according to Exodus President Alan Chambers, via Warren Throckmorton’s blog. Within the last couple of weeks, PFOX gave up affiliation with Exodus. While Chambers declined to give reasons for the PFOX move, he indicated that Exodus would not seek any future relationship. He noted that PFOX is a public policy organization and their activities do not fit in with the mission and direction of Exodus. Chambers says that PFOX, a long time Exodus affiliate, decided not to renew their membership.  However, he also says that their “public...
- [Where Is Bryce?](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/where-is-bryce/): Friends of a gay medical student from Arkansas are anxious amid claims that he has been forced into a Florida ex-gay program. Bryce Faulkner, 23, has not been in touch with boyfriend Travis Swanson since 15 July. Swanson says their last phone call was an emotional exchange in which Faulkner tearfully related how he had been told “hateful” things about his homosexuality. According to friends, Faulkner had planned to come out to his parents before moving to Wisconsin to be closer to Swanson. He is now believed to be in a 14-month [edit: earliest reports say 14 weeks] Exodus program in...
- [Video: Bruno Captures Paul Cameron's Misogynistic Views](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/video-bruno-captures-paul-camerons-misogynistic-views/): Video link courtesy of DocumentingReality.com This seventy-second clip from from the movie Bruno catches discredited “researcher” Paul Cameron dispensing advice to the main character, played by Sacha Cohen.  As is the shtick in these movies, Cameron does not know this is a fake situation.  His comments about women and sex go a long way toward explaining a few things, to be sure. And I wonder what those conservatives who still accept Cameron, even fund him, will think about his recommendation to an unmarried man that he allow women to “seduce him.”  Heaven help his wife with attitudes like this. Lately I...
- [XGW Digest: July 18, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/xgw-digest-july-18-2009/): -The Maine Family Policy Council blames gays for urban blight. -Focus on the Family increases its focus on opposing gay marriage. -The Episcopal Church in the USA rules that gays can be ordained as bishops. -Former president Bill Clinton speaks in favor of gay marriage. -Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voices support for overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Fort Worth mayor Mike Moncrief apologizes (sort of) for the Rainbow Lounge raid. -NYU Law School students challenge the anti-gay views of a visiting professor. -The Gay Christian Network (GCN) wins a 2009 Pride Choice Award. -The Supreme Court of Pakistan extends equal...
- [Book Review: Alan Chambers 'Leaving Homosexuality'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/book-review-alan-chambers-leaving-homosexuality/): Subtitle: A Practical Guide for Men and Women Looking For a Way Out. Alan Chambers: “On the conservative side we hear the claim that homosexuality is a choice. One can choose to be a homosexual or a heterosexual. On the other, more liberal side, we hear that there is no choice at all when it comes to homosexual behavior. It’s an inborn trait.” [p13] In the first part of that paragraph, Chambers defines homosexuality as a state of being: “to be a homosexual.” Then switches gears, defines homosexuality as a behavior, and voilà, the pro-gay movement now considers sexual behavior to...
- [Mainline Denominational Ministries Merge with Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/exodus-merges-with-mainline-denominational-ministries/): Two ex-gay ministries from mainline US denominations announced this week that they will be merging with Exodus International. One by One, representing Presbyterian and Reformed Christians, and Transforming Congregations, from the United Methodist Church, will join together to “break the polarizing debate over homosexuality through an approach that is both biblically orthodox and truly compassionate,” according to Exodus. The two ministries will continue to have their own identity as “departments” within Exodus. It appears the main reason for the merger is the isolation of conservatives in mainline churches, increasingly accepting of LGBT Christians. Exodus Vice-President Randy Thomas says the intention is...
- [XGW Digest: July 11, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/xgw-digest-july-11-2009/): -The anti-gay witch hunt in Uganda continues to expand. -Straight film critic filmmaker Ken Russell celebrates gay cinema. -The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide takes a look at the ex-gay survivors movement. -Britain’s Conservative Party woos gay voters. -Congressman (and Iraq War vet) Patrick Murphy launches a new effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Peterson Toscano reports on a college student forced into ex-gay therapy by his parents. -Christian singer Derek Webb releases a song challenging the way evangelical Christians treat gays. -Richard Rosendall criticizes the ultimatums issued by the Dallas Principles. -El Paso police harass a group of gay...
- [NARTH Author Admits Newly Touted Study Contains 'No New Science'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/narth-author-admits-newly-touted-study-contains-no-new-science/): NARTH’s new peer-reviewed study is not new, is not peer-reviewed and is not a study – flaws even one of its authors admitted to Ex-Gay Watch. CitizenLink, the news arm of Focus on the Family, made much of the paper’s appearance earlier this week, faithfully reproducing the immodest claims of NARTH’s press release: A new report in this month’s edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Sexuality finds that sexual orientation is not immutable and that psychological care for individuals with unwanted homosexual attractions is beneficial and poses no significant risk of harm. This study is … a significant milestone when...
- [In Brief: Paul Cameron Made a Fool in Movie 'Brüno'](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/in-brief-paul-cameron-made-a-fool-in-movie-bruno/): Anti-gay “researcher” Dr. Paul Cameron, infamous for his severely skewed statistics and his support of Nazi concentration camp tactics for dealing with homosexuals, has yet again been made a fool. This time it’s in Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming movie “Brüno,” in which he plays a flamboyant, gay Austrian man of that name. Victim: Dr. Paul Cameron, chairman of the Family Research Institute, Colorado Scene: Bruno comes to him for advice on going straight. “I did a German thing a year ago. Is that this? I wondered what had happened to that. I’m in this bloody film? Well, I’ll be jiggered. I...
- [XGW Digest: July 4, 2009](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/xgw-digest-july-4-2009/): -The Southern Baptist Convention decrees that member churches must explicitly and actively condemn homosexual behavior to remain in good standing. -US Defense Secretary Robert Gates considers ways to ease enforcement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -OK State Rep. Sally Kern introduces a resolution blaming the recession on “debauchery.” -Anti-gay Christians use child abuse allegations as an excuse to smear gay parenthood. -A Superior Court strikes down efforts to block the District of Columbia from recognizing gay marriages performed in other states. -Dan Savage weighs in on the police raid in Fort Worth, Texas. -A Marvel Comics title features the first same-sex...
- [In Brief: Scott Lively Hanging Up His Swastika](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/in-brief-scott-lively-hanging-up-his-swastika/): According to a post on his website, Pink Swastika co-author Scott Lively has learned all he can about “the homosexual movement” and will be turning his attention to other things. With the June 17th publication of my final book on the homosexual issue, “Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the ‘Gay’ Agenda,” I have completed 20 years of service as a front-lines opponent of the homosexual movement. “Redeeming the Rainbow,” which I have published as a free book in pdf format, encompasses all that I have learned through this long tour of duty and I believe there is little more...
- [Building 'London Bridges' with Dr. Michael Brown](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/07/building-london-bridges-with-dr-michael-brown/): Dr. Michael Brown has a radio show called “In the Line of Fire.” On June 12th, 2009, the first hour (40 min.) of that program was entitled “Building a Bridge of dialog with the Homosexual Community.” (Transcript is here.) This was mostly in response to Wayne Besen’s speech at Grand Valley University, and the panel discussion on the harm caused by the “ex-gay” industry—which was in response to the (then) forthcoming Love Won Out conference. Wayne clarifies in a post called “‘Love Won Out’, What’s the Point?“: Wayne Besen: I’m on my way to Grand Rapids, Michigan to give a presentation...
- [Update: 'Freedom Federation' Takes on Theocratic Tone](https://exgaywatch.com/2009/06/update-freedom-federation-takes-on-theocratic-tone/): Vision America, an organization formed by Baptist minister Rick Scarborough, has issued a press release concerning their involvement with the newly announced “Freedom Federation.”  In it we find a little more about this organization which is “not an organization.” Scarborough commented: “These organizations represent some of the nation’s largest constituencies of youth, Hispanics, African-Americans, women, pastors and churches, who are uniting to defend a tradition increasingly under attack.” The Freedom Federation is committed to defending and extending core values expressed in the Declaration of American Values, the organization’s founding document. These include the right to life, the institution of marriage, parental...
- [XGW Digest: July 10, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/xgw-digest-july-10-2010/): -London mayor Boris Johnson comes out in support of marriage equality. -Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoes the state’s civil unions bill. -Britain’s Supreme Court rules that gay immigrants who fear violent retribution in their home countries have a right to asylum. -The Presbyterian Church USA moves toward greater inclusion of its gay and lesbian members. -Jonathan Rauch raises controversy by arguing that civil rights don’t always trump the will of the majority. -A federal judge rules that portions of the Defense of Marriage Act are unconstitutional. -The Pentagon distributes a survey on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to 400,000 service members. -NBC’s...
- [XGW Digest: July 3, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/xgw-digest-july-3-2010/): -The Montana Republican Party joins its Texas counterpart in calling for the reinstatement of sodomy laws. -The National Organization for Marriage aligns itself with anti-gay activist Louis Marinelli. -The US Supreme Court refuses to grant legal immunity to the Vatican in child sexual abuse lawsuits. -Henry Schalizki and Bob Davis get married in Washington, DC after 62 years together. -The US Supreme Court rules that a California law school can legally deny recognition to student groups that discriminate against gays. -A group of doctors experiment with a treatment they think can prevent homosexuality in female babies. -TWO’s Evan Hurst reports from...
- [Former Exodus Leader Alan Medinger Has Died](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/former-exodus-leader-alan-medinger-has-died/): Exodus president Alan Chambers has just notified members that Alan Medinger has passed away.  Medinger was once himself executive director of Exodus International, and president of ex-gay ministry Regeneration.  Medinger was an established figure in ex-gay circles.  He authored the familiar title Growth Into Manhood and believed that homosexuality was a disordered condition which could be healed. In an article written for Exodus in 1995, Medinger wrote: Homosexuality took form out of our response to pain — most often the pain of rejection, abuse, or low self-esteem. The patterns of behavior and thinking that led to our homosexuality were patterns of...
- [XGW Digest: June 26, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/xgw-digest-june-26-2010/): -The Texas Republican Party calls for the criminalization of same-sex marriage and the reinstatement of sodomy laws. -Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker marches in Boston’s gay pride parade. -The Obama Administration announces plans to extend family and medical leave rights to gay employees. -The Chicago Blackhawks to march the Stanley Cup in Chicago’s gay pride parade. -A new study finds more similarities in brain use between gay men and heterosexual women. -Beijing, China hosts its second gay pride event. -The New York state senate passes an anti-bullying law after nine years of failure. -GOProud fires back at the Family Research...
- [Former Megachurch Employee Ordained in Gay Church](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/former-megachurch-employee-ordained-in-gay-church/): An ex-staffer from Australia’s most famous megachurch is being ordained in the Metropolitan Community Church, the broadly evangelical denomination that caters specifically to the LGBT community. Penny Davis, who underwent ex-gay therapy during her stint at Hillsong Church, Sydney, will become a pastor at CRAVE, an MCC congregation in the Paddington suburb of the city. “My journey has led to this moment, where I stand as a confident woman who is being ordained and happens to be a lesbian,” she told the Sydney Star Observer. The 20,000-strong Hillsong Church is well-known worldwide for its praise and worship songs, which have dominated...
- [Lou Engle Shows More Support for Anti-Gay Ugandans](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/lou-engle-shows-more-support-for-anti-gay-ugandans/): American evangelical leader Lou Engle has confirmed his support for the leaders who drafted Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. Engle, whose TheCall conference in Uganda promoted the bill that would spell execution for gays and their supporters, told Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches that he was in favor of “the principle of a nation … restraining [homosexuality] from coming into their nation.” He said he supported “a legal restraint and punishment” to keep out the “homosexual agenda,” but was evasive about what type of punishment he favored. He denied supporting the death penalty for gays, but said there were biblical grounds for...
- [XGW Digest: June 19, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/xgw-digest-june-19-2010/): -Two US Marines are arrested in Savannah, GA for beating up a gay man. -California’s Fair Political Practices Commission fines the Mormon church for failing to report all of its non-monetary contributions to the Prop 8 campaign. -The mayor of Cambridge, MA comes out of the closet. -Incidents of anti-gay hate crimes increase in Canada. -Prop 8 supporters renew their effort to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the measure went into effect. -A German court rules against recognizing same-sex marriages, but says the couples could register as life partners. -Judge Walker Vaughn hears closing statements in Perry...
- [Gay Christian Network Provides an Alternative to Ex-Gay Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/gay-christian-network-provides-an-alternative-to-ex-gay-ministries/): By Justin Lee For years, former leaders and “success stories” of the ex-gay movement have been coming out and saying that ex-gay ministries don’t really work as advertised. But if that’s so, why are these ministries still as popular as they are, after all these years? One of the main reasons has to do with faith. A 2007 Barna Group study found that 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers believe that Christianity is anti-gay. And yet, a 2003 study by Christian Community found that approximately 10% of churchgoing high schoolers identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Our...
- [Lou Engle Supported Uganda Anti-Gay Bill, Says Bahati](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/lou-engle-supported-uganda-anti-gay-bill-says-bahati/): Ugandan MP David Bahati was “ecstatic” that American evangelical leader Lou Engle supported his Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, according to journalist Jeff Sharlet. The bill, which would effectively make homosexuality – and “aiding” homosexuality – a capital offense, was promoted heavily at Engle’s TheCall Uganda conference in May this year. More recently, Engle apologized and denied having anything directly to do with the promotion, claiming it occurred in his absence. But, as Warren Throckmorton has shown, the bill was promoted in Engle’s presence as well. Now writer Jeff Sharlet adds more confusion to this web of inconsistencies and half-truths, saying he spoke to Bahati,...
- [Open Thread: Really Exodus, Child Slavery?  Can't You Do Better?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/open-thread-really-exodus-child-slavery-cant-you-do-better/): Abortion, suicide, homosexuality, addiction, child slavery…Christ is the only hope for this depravity. Looking over the Exodus Freedom Conference website (archive), this quote really jumps out.  It’s from a band called Take No Glory (the members call themselves musicianaries).  Exodus lists them as special guests performing in the Wednesday evening general session. I listened to one of their songs called “Straight.”  From the scripture references (Romans 1:18-27) it appears the title does mean straight as in heterosexual.  Subject matter aside, I can’t say much for the music or the lyrics.  There must be better bands that Exodus could afford. What really...
- [XGW Digest: June 12, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/xgw-digest-june-12-2010/): -A new study reconfirms that children raised by lesbian parents fare as well children raised by opposite sex couples, and possibly better. -Oklahoma City councilman Brian Walters votes against approving a gay pride event, comparing gays to pedophiles. -Malawi couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga have reportedly broken up. -A brutal anti-gay attack takes place at the Washington high school frequently scrutinized by pastor Ken Hutcherson. -Details Magazine takes a look at the practice of gay exorcisms. -LGBT candidates fare well in Tuesday’s primary elections. -A transgender attorney runs against Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern. -Two gay students are crowned King...
- [History Repeats Itself - Scripture Used to Support Bigotry](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/history-repeats-itself-scripture-used-to-support-bigotry/): As noted by Evan Hurst at Truth Wins Out, the following is the Declaration of Causes of Texas’s secession from the Union in the prelude to the American Civil War: In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality...
- [Exodus Issues Mea Culpa on Uganda, Policy Statement on Criminalization](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/exodus-issues-mea-culpa-on-uganda-policy-statement-on-criminalization/): Fifteen months to the day since I wrote this post summarizing the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Conference, Exodus President Alan Chambers has written his own acknowledgment of how badly he and his organization screwed up. First things first, I was personally lax in investigating thoroughly the pre-conference intelligence that was coming in from Timothy Kincaid, David Roberts and Warren Throckmorton, to name a few. My initial belief was that their major concern was over Caleb Lee Brundidges association with Richard Cohen. Again, no excuses, I was negligent in digging deeper and heeding their warnings. As I have stated in less trafficked public settings,...
- [XGW Digest: June 5, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/xgw-digest-june-5-2010/): -Randy Roberts Potts, gay grandson of televangelist Oral Roberts, shares about growing up in his grandfather’s shadow. -Local activists successfully stage two gay pride demonstrations in Moscow. -Malawi couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga are pardoned and released, but warned not to continue their relationship. -Political instability delays the implementation of Nepal’s new constitution, which would include marriage equality. -A federal appeals court grants the National Organization for Marriage a stay of the ruling that would have required it to submit its donor list to the Maine Ethics Commission. -Pakistani Police break up a wedding between a man and a transgender...
- [FRC Reportedly Lobbied Congress Against Condemning 'Kill the Gays' Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/report-says-frc-lobbied-to-keep-congress-from-condemning-kill-the-gays-bill/): If you keep up with those who fight against GLBT rights at all, you have come to expect no good from an organization called the Family Research Counsel (FRC).  It is headed by Tony Perkins, a man who seems to crave the power and influence of a politician but without any of the accountability.  A Senior Fellow, Peter Sprigg, either wants gays sent out of the country or their lives criminalized, depending on the interview.  Their history is pretty bad, and a simple search will give the reader all they need. Even with all that in mind, I don’t think I...
- [New Haggard Church Will Include Gays, Hold up Heterosexuality as Ideal](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/new-haggard-church-will-include-gays-hold-up-heterosexuality-as-ideal/): Ted Haggard, the megachurch pastor exposed four years ago for his adulterous activities with a male prostitute, is opening a new church. The former President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) says that all are welcome to join him, whether they are  “a Democrat, a Republican, gay, straight, bi, tall, short, addict, [or] recovering addict.” Despite the air of inclusivity, he says he still holds up heterosexual marriage as God’s intention, and will not be performing gay marriages. “Earth is not heaven. And here on Earth, sexuality is very complex and very confusing. … There is a complex process people have...
- [Exodus Affiliate Hosts Group That Praises Execution of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/06/exodus-affiliate-hosts-group-that-praises-execution-of-gays/): Bradlee Dean and Jake MacAulay are the main personalities in a non-profit called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, International.  There are several sub-groups under this main umbrella, one of which is their radio show.  Their tax information describes the show as a: Weekly radio program, School of Hard Knocks, on AM 980 KKMS every Saturdays (sic) from 1-3PM.  The program uses both a preaching and interview format to share the truth of Jesus Christ to the Minneapolis Area. A quote from the May 15, 2010 airing of this show caught our attention.  In response to a caller’s rather strong...
- [RIP Ephilei](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rip-ephilei/): Those who have commented for a while at Ex-Gay Watch will know the name of Ephilei, a long-time reader who frequently commented and in 2009 wrote an article here as our guest. XGW is sad to report that Ephilei, whose real name was Johannah, has died in a car crash at the age of 26. On Facebook, XGW contributor Yuki Choe wrote, “We have lost an incredible ally, friend, sister. Thank you for all the joy, love, and compassion. We will miss you terribly.” Johanna ran the website Transchristians.org, a resource for transgender Christians and anyone looking for answers on gender and...
- [XGW Digest: May 29, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/xgw-digest-may-29-2010/): -Neo-Nazis disrupt Slovakia’s first gay pride event. -Two gay rights activists are arrested in Zimbabwe. -Musician Jason Mraz shares how he became an advocate for LGBT rights. -The Obama administration lends its support to a new effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -A federal magistrate rules that the National Organization for Marriage should disclose the donors that funded its anti-marriage equality campaign in Maine. -FedEx to begin offering health insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners. -Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association steps up his anti-gay rhetoric. -A Christian punk rocker in Minnesota lauds the righteousness of Muslims who execute...
- [Scott Lively on the Offensive over Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/scott-lively-on-the-offensive-over-uganda/): Scott Lively, the anti-gay activist whose conference appearance precipitated Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, is fighting back against the media’s “character assassination” of him. In an email sent to supporters this week, Lively wrote: Friends, I’m looking for a good Christian media source to interview me on film on the Uganda issue for posting online.  I intend to get off defense and counter-attack the false witnesses with hard facts about Uganda and the dishonest way the media has addressed the story.  Please forward this to any pro-family journalists you know and ask them to contact me at sdllaw@gmail.com. In the mean time,...
- [Video: View 'Missionaries of Hate' Now on Hulu](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/video-view-missionaries-of-hate-now-on-hulu/): The documentary “Missionaries of Hate” traces the influence of American evangelical leaders on a proposed law that could make being gay punishable by death in Uganda. It will air on Current TV Wednesday at 10/9c. This is must see TV for anyone interested in the tragic events surrounding the “kill the gays” bill in Uganda. It appears you can view this now on Hulu (probably restricted to the US). It could be this documentary, or the excellent Times article of two days ago that has caused one of the key players in the original anti-homosexuality conference, Scott Lively, to go on...
- [XGW Digest: May 22, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/xgw-digest-may-22-2010/): -Belarussian police break up a gay pride march in Minsk. -On the same day, Mariela Castro leads a gay pride march in Cuba. -Portugal officially becomes the latest nation to legalize same-sex marriage. -Another anti-gay politician is brought down by a scandal. -A Malawi court passes sentence on gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. -The National Association of Realtors amends its code of ethics to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. -A conservative Republican transgender woman runs for Congress in Florida. -Colorado gets another openly gay legislator. -Senator Al Franken introduces a student non-discrimination bill. -An Australian “family values” politician...
- [Exodus President Reveals Family Values](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/exodus-president-reveals-family-values/): Exodus International President Alan Chambers jubilantly noted on Facebook this morning that a lesbian couple of 22 years had finally broken up in response to prayers: Heard from a couple this morning who have been praying for their daughter and her partner to come to Christ for 22 years. Both accepted Jesus, broke off their relationship and are pursuing a life in Christ. God is faithful and answers prayers. Be encouraged no matter your circumstances! This rejoicing should tell you all you need to know about Exodus’s family values, and those of the Christian Right. They proclaim the importance of monogamy,...
- [XGW Digest: May 15, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/xgw-digest-may-15-2010/): -Lithuania’s first pride festival takes place, but not without opposition. -A group of UK Christians create a British version of the Manhattan declaration. –Debate rages over whether Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan should have to publicly declare her sexual orientation. -A New Jersey school board votes to ban a gay-themed book. -Police investigate whether an Indiana gay man’s murder was a hate crime. -Former First Lady Laura Bush speaks out for marriage equality on Larry King Live. -The Leon County, FL Commission passes an anti-discrimination ordinance. -A Kentucky middle school student is belittled by a school employee for having lesbian parents....
- [Rekers Resigns from NARTH Following Rentboy Scandal](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rekers-resigns-from-narth-following-rentboy-scandal/): Dr George Rekers has resigned from the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), following allegations that he received nude, erotic massages from a male prostitute. Rekers, who has been an anti-gay activist for decades, took a 10-day European vacation with Jo-Vanni Roman (at first identified only as “Lucien”), a gay escort who says they met through the explicit website Rentboy.com. Rekers faced humiliation in the media after denying the accusations, claiming he he hired Roman to help carry his luggage while he recovered from surgery. He said he only found out Roman was an escort...
- [XGW Digest: May 8, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/xgw-digest-may-8-2010/): -The religious right’s “May Day 2010” event draws fewer than 300 people. -Country singer Chely Wright comes out of the closet. -The Obama Administration delays efforts to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -A pair of Republican congressional candidates in Tennessee give implicit endorsement to violence against gay servicemembers. -Three Republicans running for governor in Iowa sidestep a question about gay marriage. -Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson offers some advice to Pope Benedict. -The New York Court of Appeals upholds the rights of gay parents. -Austria issues a gay pride postage stamp. -Argentina’s House of Deputies votes in favor of a same-sex marriage...
- [Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper on Rekers' Story](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rachel-maddow-and-anderson-cooper-on-rekers-story/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAiIXb9Aql0 Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
- [Rekers' Escort 'Lucien' on CNN 360 Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rekers-escort-lucien-on-cnn-360-tonight/): Joe Jervis from the blog Joe.My.God has posted an excellent and refreshingly candid interview he conducted by phone with Jo-Vanni Roman (Lucien), the 20 year old male escort who accompanied anti-gay activist George Rekers to Europe recently. In that interview, Jo-Vanni mentions that he would be taping an interview for “that gay reporter on TV.” Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out (TWO) has confirmed that he will also be on CNN’s 360 with Anderson Cooper tonight. A transcript of a conversation Rekers reportedly had with Jo-Vanni shortly after the story broke has been posted on the Miami New Times site. Both...
- [UK: Prospective Conservative MP in Trouble for Views on Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/uk-prospective-conservative-mp-in-trouble-for-views-on-gays/): As the UK goes to the polls, questions remain over a prospective MP who allegedly believes that gays and lesbians are demon-possessed, and can be set free through prayer. An article in Sunday’s Observer (London) accused Philippa Stroud, who is standing for the Conservative Party in today’s election, of founding a church that cures homosexuality by casting out demons. The story deserved some proper coverage from Ex-Gay Watch, but with the George Rekers scandal breaking this week, it rather fell into oblivion. Since the story is rather timely (the identity of our new Prime Minister will be known sometime in the...
- [Gay Escort: Rekers Is Homosexual](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/gay-escort-rekers-is-homosexual/): The gay escort at the center of the George Rekers scandal says Rekers paid him for nude massages. On Tuesday, the Miami New Times reported that Dr George Rekers, a long-time anti-gay, ex-gay Religious Right activist and scholar, had taken a vacation with a 20-year-old male prostitute he had met through the sexually explicit website Rentboy.com. Rekers first claimed “Lucien” was a travel assistant, employed to help him lifting luggage, following recent back surgery. He later added the incredulous story that he was evangelizing Lucien in an attempt to persuade him against homosexuality. Lucien said there was no sex between them,...
- [Rekers Purge Has Not Yet Begun](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rekers-purge-has-not-yet-begun/): While the titillating details of the events surrounding anti-gay activist Dr George Rekers’ recent overseas trip with a male escort continue to spread at an incredible rate, there are some errors multiplying just as quickly. While we fully expect from past experience that conservative sites now referencing Rekers will start to disassociate themselves at some point, there is no evidence that this has happened yet. Contrary to recent reports which are being duplicated with the fast pace of reporting on this story, it does not appear that the Family Research Counsel (FRC) has made any recent edits to their site concerning...
- [Rekers Responds to Rentboy Accusations](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/rekers-responds-to-rentboy-accusations/): Religious Right scholar, anti-gay activist and NARTH officer Dr George Rekers has responded directly to blogger Joe. My. God following the report that he took a vacation with a male prostitute he’d met through the sexually explicit website Rentboy.com. Wrote Rekers: I have spent much time as a mental health professional and as a Christian minister helping and lovingly caring for people identifying themselves as “gay.” My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes. Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them....
- [This is the Sound of Hate and Deception](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/this-is-the-sound-of-hate-and-deception/): Uganda’s Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo calls for support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. He made this speech on May 2 at TheCall, a recent religious rally in Kampala by U.S. based evangelist Lou Engle, the latter having issued what now seems was a deceptive press release just before leaving for Uganda. Half the audio is the interpreter repeating Buturo’s remarks in a local language. Still, one can sense the hatred, something those who took Engle at his word should remember when he comes home. A transcription is available here. Hat Tip: Warren Throckmorton
- [Anti-Gay Rekers Takes Vacation with Rentboy](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/anti-gay-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rentboy/): According to the Miami New Times, an anti-gay activist and NARTH officer took a vacation with a rentboy he met through the sexually explicit gay hookup website Rentboy.com. George Rekers, PhD is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, and has been lurking behind the scenes of the Religious Right and the ex-gay movement for decades. In 1983, he co-founded the vociferously homophobic Family Research Council with Dr James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and – among other political activities – he testified against gay adoption in the state of Florida, in 2008. He has...
- [Lou Engle Adds Fuel to Anti-Gay Fire in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/lou-engle-adds-fuel-to-anti-gay-fire-in-uganda/): Despite a recent press release obviously designed to cast his ministry in a better light, Lou Engle, leader of a bizarre religious sect in the United States, has opened his latest conference in Uganda with strong support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009.  The following is from the New York Times: Before arriving here last week, Mr. Engle came out with a statement condemning the harsh penalties proposed in the bill, and said that his ministry could not support it. But when he took the stage late on Sunday afternoon, with Ugandan politicians and pastors looking on, he praised the country’s “courage”...
- [Two Rabbis Mull Over Leviticus 'Losing'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/two-rabbis-mull-over-leviticus-losing/): Rabbi Brad Hirschfield and Rabbi Irwin Kula both have articles about the advancement and inclusion of gay people in society. The reason? this week’s Torah parashah includes Lev. 18:22, a verse that has been used to the point of obsession against gays and lesbians (even though the verse very specifically only applies to males). Rabbi Hirschfield’s posts often approach controversial issues and often produce more questions than answers. While this may sound pointless and annoying, it is actually helpful because it allows a variety of different kinds of people to consider different possibilities in their own minds. The issue of gayness...
- [XGW Digest: May 1, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/xgw-digest-may-1-2010/): -A transgender student at Cal State Long Beach is violently attacked. -Amnesty International accuses several European countries of illegally deporting gays back to Iraq. -The California state assembly unanimously votes to repeal an outdated anti-gay law. -A Florida man is charged with the murder of his daughter’s girlfriend. -The Washington Blade reopens. -Laura Bush shares in her new memoir that she advised her husband against making gay marriage an issue in the 2004 elections. -A Mississippi high school excises all mention of a lesbian student from its yearbook. -The Georgia and Massachusetts legislatures both unanimously pass anti-bullying measures. -The Hawaii state...
- [Video: D.C. Mayor Fenty Apologizes for PFOX 'Award'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/05/upate-d-c-mayor-fenty-apologizes-for-pfox-award/): The reporter repeated the PFOX spin on the lawsuit they lost last year against the NEA.  PFOX has a long history of repeatedly making false statements, which makes it even more imperative that Mayor Fenty publicly revoke this certificate. As readers digest these recent PFOX related issues, Dave Rattigan’s excellent post on the ideology behind all this should be an excellent refresher. Source: News8.net
- ['Certificate of Appreciation' Accidentally Given to Anti-Gay PFOX](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/certificate-of-appreciation-accidentally-given-to-anti-gay-pfox/): Virulently anti-gay organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) were jubilant earlier this week as they announced that Executive Director Regina Griggs had received a ‘certificate of appreciation’ from the District of Columbia: The certificate, signed by D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, recognizes Griggs for her “dedication, commitment, and outstanding contributions as Executive Director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays.” “Regina’s award is well-deserved,” said Greg Quinlan, President of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays. PFOX presented the award to Griggs last week in honor of her ten years of volunteer service to parents and the ex-gay community. “Regina...
- [XGW Site Maintenance Notice](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/xgw-site-maintenance-notice/): Over the next few days readers may notice some issues with our site. We are making some changes and fixes that are long overdue. Since we all have have regular jobs to attend to, these tasks aren’t always given the attention they should be. If you see a different theme displayed or a function is broken for a bit, we probably know about it, but you can always send a note to david@exgaywatch.com if you wish. Thank you for your patience.
- [Alan Chambers Upset after Radio Host Ditches Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/chambers-upset-after-radio-host-ditches-exodus/): It took about six months to provoke Exodus International into responding to allegations that its organization’s words and actions had been fueling homophobia in Uganda. After witnessing Exodus’s inexcusable inaction on the anti-gay bill that would effectively see all Uganda’s “practicing” homosexuals and their supporters executed, Ex-Gay Watch (justifiably) wondered what exactly it would take to spur Exodus into immediate, urgent action. We found our answer. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to the threat to tens of thousands of homosexual and heterosexual lives? 180. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to a radio show dropping its...
- [XGW Digest: April 24, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/xgw-digest-april-24-2010/): -The Maine Family Policy Council declares that Jerry Falwell was right to blame 9/11 on gays. -Sonoma County, CA officials circumvent a gay couple’s legal arrangements to separate them and make financial decisions for them. -Australian Olympic medalist Daniel Kowalski comes out of the closet. -The city of Casper, WY states that it cannot force a resident to take down an anti-gay sign. -The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America removes the last barriers to full inclusion of GLBT individuals in its congregations. -The Family Research Council ramps up its scare tactics in opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. -The Assemblies of God...
- [Open Thread: Extremism](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/open-thread-extremism/): Obviously from a few years back, but crystal clear even today. Hat Tip: loveisanorientation.com
- [Media Ordered Away from DADT Protest at White House](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/media-ordered-away-from-dadt-protest-at-white-house/): This video clip has been attributed to AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis. In a move that again calls into question the Obama administration’s promises of transparency, both the media and the public were ordered out of Lafayette Park park today.  This was the scene of another demonstration against DADT, the second such action in the past two months.  This time Lt. Dan Choi was joined by five others, including former XGW writer Autumn Sandeen (currently with Pam’s House Blend).  All handcuffed themselves to the White House gates, a frequent scene of protest. What makes this particular demonstration even more remarkable is that police...
- [Liberty University Students, How Can You Tolerate This?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/liberty-university-students-how-can-you-tolerate-this/): The volume is very low, we have enhanced the audio track only here: You heard correctly.  Among other things, Lafferty, alongside Matt Barber, is actually trying to claim that ENDA will allow hypothetical VA employees with acrotomophilia to freely molest returning amputee veterans. This clip is from an event called “The Awakening” sponsored by the Freedom Federation and held at Liberty University this past weekend.  Matt Barber, listed as Associate Dean for Career and Professional Development at Liberty, is seated next to Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition.  This particular breakout session, labeled “LGBT Agenda” was held at Liberty University...
- [XGW Digest: April 17, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/xgw-digest-april-17-2010/): -Anti-gay mobs in Senegal exhume and desecrate the bodies of several gay men. -Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee compares gays to drug users. -A leading anti-gay activist in Scotland confesses to possession and distribution of child pornography. -Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, runs for president. -The Missoula, MT city council votes to extend anti-discrimination protections to GLBT individuals. -Restore Equality 2010 fails to qualify a Prop 8 repeal measure for the California ballot. -Televangelist Joyce Meyers denounces Uganda’s proposed anti-gay bill. -Christian musician Jennifer Knapp comes out of the closet. -Iceland’s parliament to vote on a same-sex marriage bill....
- [NIH Director Francis Collins Admonishes 'American College of Pediatricians'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/nih-directory-admonishes-american-college-of-pediatricians/): Former head of the Human Genome Project and current director of the venerable National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins has once again sent a strong message warning that passages of his book have been twisted to fit an anti-gay agenda. Statement from NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., in Response to the American College of Pediatricians Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Director April 15, 2010 “It is disturbing for me to see special interest groups distort my scientific observations to make a point against homosexuality.  The American College of Pediatricians pulled language out of context from a book I wrote in 2006 to support an ideology that...
- [Christian Radio Show Severs Links with Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/christian-radio-show-severs-links-with-exodus/): A Boston radio show offering advice to young people has disassociated itself from Exodus International after complaints that it was promoting the ex-gay message. Twenty-two-year-old activist Greg Kimball posed as a 16-year-old to phone HopeLine, a youth advice line run by Dawson McAllister Live, a Christian show broadcast weekly on 160 radio stations across the US. Kimball told the representative that he was questioning his sexuality and thought he might be gay, and says he was told in return that his lack of a religious upbringing was to blame. He could be “cured,” however, by embracing God. Kimball phoned back the...
- [XGW Digest: April 10, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/xgw-digest-april-10-2010/): -Nate Phelps, son of Fred Phelps, speaks out against Westboro Baptist Church. -Recently discovered correspondence reveals that Count Laszlo de Almasy, the inspiration for The English Patient, was gay. -Itawamba Agricultural High School tricks lesbian student Constance McMillen into attending a fake prom. -Focus on the Family helps spread the latest disinformation from NARTH front group The American College of Pediatricians. -Writer LZ Granderson challenges the myth of the “gay lifestyle.” -The town of Dillon, CO elects an openly gay mayor. -CNN’s Kyra Phillips provides a platform for discredicted ex-gay therapist Richard Cohen, then backtracks. -Jamaica’s first gay pride event is...
- [Anthony Venn-Brown on 'Situational Heterosexuality'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/anthony-venn-brown-on-situational-heterosexuality/): Ex-ex-gay and former Assemblies of God minister Anthony Venn Brown reflects on the elements of sexuality, and discusses how ex-gay men maintain heterosexual marriages: ‘Situational heterosexuality’ is a term I’ve used for several years when people have asked how I could have been married for so many years and yet be gay. This term has also helped people gain a clearer understanding of what really happens when someone who is homosexual marries someone of the opposite sex and claims change. Confusion about what really happens in these situations still exists and often wrongly reinforces the ‘homosexuality is a choice’ and ‘homosexuals...
- [XGW Digest: April 3, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/04/xgw-digest-april-3-2010/): -Tarleton State University cancels a student production of gay-themed play Corpus Christi. -Chai Feldblum receives a recess appointment to become the first openly gay head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. -Two members of the Dixie Chicks record a song about a gay teenager being disowned by his parents. -Oklahoma lawmakers accidentally exempt the state from the wrong section of the federal hate crimes law. -A gay British soldier holds his wedding reception in his regiment’s barracks. -Singer Ricky Martin comes out of the closet. -British gay activist Peter Tatchell defends an anti-gay pastor’s right to freedom of speech. -The New...
- [XGW Digest: March 27, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/xgw-digest-march-27-2010/): -Sentencing of gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza in Malawi is postponed until April 8. -Magician James Randi comes out of the closet. -Lt. Dan Choi talks to Newsweek about the state of the gay rights movement. -A Georgia teenager is given permission by his school to bring a same-sex date to his prom, then kicked out of his home by his parents. -Out Front Colorado interviews ex-gay survivors Christine Bakke, Daniel Gonzales and Ryan Kendall. -A federal judge rules that lesbian high school student Constance McMillen’s rights were violated, but won’t force her school to reinstate its prom. -Another...
- [Diocese Pulls Funding of Homeless Shelter Over Political Position](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/diocese-pulls-funding-of-homeless-shelter-over-political-position/): This is a little off our beat but it seems like an issue our readers would want to address.  Question 1 was a proposal on the ballot in Maine last November designed to reverse a new law allowing marriage equality.  It passed, taking the right for same-sex couples to marry with it.  Major funding and other support for Question 1 came from the Roman Catholic Diocese in Portland. In the past, the Portland Diocese had also funded the Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice program.  Portland-based Preble Street runs a collection of programs to help the poor and homeless, those who...
- [Exodus Makes Official Statement Concerning Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/exodus-makes-official-statement-concerning-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/): A post titled Ugandan Statement Issued From Exodus Board & North American Leaders appeared on the official Exodus blog today.  To our knowledge, this is the first official statement on the issue from Exodus. Last November, a letter signed by Exodus president Alan Chambers, vice president Randy Thomas, Christopher Yuan of Moody Bible Institute and Grove City professor Warren Throckmorton was sent to Ugandan president Museveni.  That letter condemned the Anti-Homosexuality Bill being considered there but was not signed by a member of the board and was not a statement but a letter. The statement released today is certainly welcome and...
- [XGW Digest: March 20, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/xgw-digest-march-20-2010/): -Police in Rapid City, SD destroy a lesbian’s military career. -Arizona senate candidate J.D. Hayworth compares gay marriage to bestiality. -The PA State Senate Judiciary Committee tables an anti-gay marriage amendment. -The KY House of Representatives adopts a resolution in support of the Manhattan Declaration. -The National Organization for Marriage launches an ad campaign against California senate candidate Tom Campbell. -Openly gay candidate Craig Lowe finishes first in the Gainesville, FL mayoral election; runoff vote scheduled for next month. -Joanne at Ranker.com lists the top ten anti-gay activists caught being gay. -Rev. Mary Glasspool officially becomes the Episcopal Church’s second openly...
- [Matthew C. Manning Closes His Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/matthew-c-manning-closes-his-ministry/): Ex-Gay Watch reported on Matthew C. Manning’s troubling criminal record in June, 2009.  Manning claims to have been “delivered from homosexuality in 1989 and miraculously healed from HIV/AIDS in 1994.”  He has claimed that this enabled him to help people wishing to be “delivered from homosexuality.”  Readers unfamiliar with Manning are invited to read our previous post for background. What’s happened since last June The day after last year’s post, Manning filed to expunge the conviction from 2005 per California penal code 1203.4.  It appears to have been granted on August 10, 2009.  This is something we contemplated in the original...
- [Exodus VP Agrees with Disney Vote Against PFOX Resolution](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/exodus-vp-agrees-with-disney-vote-against-pfox-resolution/): It seems that Exodus VP Randy Thomas is no fan of the recent resolution brought to a vote at Disney by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX). The language PFOX uses is confusing. It appears they are doing a “find and replace” word processing function on their organizational messaging.  They are copying gay activist talking points and replacing every instance of “gay” with “ex-gay.” Confounding rational minds everywhere, PFOX increasingly refers to ex-gay as a separate and unique sexual orientation.  If that seems like loopy logic, there appears to be a method to their madness as XGW contributor Dave Rattigan recently...
- [PFOX's Disney Stunt Is About Protecting Ideology, Not Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/pfoxs-disney-stunt-is-about-protecting-ideology-not-orientation/): PFOX’s attempt to make the Walt Disney Company include ex-gays in its anti-discrimination policy is not about sexual orientation – it is about ideology. If it were about sexual orientation, PFOX would have to concede that ex-gays are already protected. Are ex-gays same-sex attracted? Then they are homosexual, and are therefore protected. Have they overcome same-sex attractions to become opposite-sex attracted? Then they are heterosexual, and are therefore protected. Do they now have heterosexual relationships? Marriages? Then they have the same rights as every other person in a heterosexual relationship or marriage. Do they have no sexual relationships at all? Then...
- [XGW Digest: March 13, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/xgw-digest-march-13-2010/): -Actor Sean Hayes comes the rest of the way out of the closet. -Fred Karger writes an open letter to Maggie Gallagher. -California State Senator Roy Ashburn admits to being gay. -The city of Kissimmee, FL extends partner benefits to LGBT city employees. -Servicemembers United scrutinizes Elaine Donnelly’s list of 1,100 officers who allegedly oppose repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -A Saudi Arabian man is severely punished for appearing in an amateur gay video. -Rev. Mary Glasspool moves one step closer to becoming the Episcopal Church’s second openly gay bishop. -The Oklahoma state senate votes to exempt the state from federal...
- [Kid Learns That Guys Can Love Each Other Too](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/kid-learns-that-guys-can-love-each-other-too/): If only grown-ups could learn from this child’s easy-going acceptance of others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPgnDT-2Sg
- [XGW Digest: March 6, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/xgw-digest-march-6-2010/): -John Shore ponders what Jesus might do if invited to a gay wedding. -The mayor of Turin, Italy performs a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple. -Andrews Air Force Base disinvites Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council from a speaking engagement. -Catholic Charities ends spousal benefits for its employees in Washington DC so that it won’t have to offer them to same-sex couples. -The LGBT Center at UC Davis resolves to leave recent anti-gay graffiti in place as a reminder that intolerance still exists. -Washington, DC begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. -Free Republic provides Paul Cameron with a...
- [NARTH Goes on the Record about Ex-Con Goldberg](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/narth-goes-on-the-record-about-ex-con-goldberg/): The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has officially responded to Ex-Gay Watch on the matter of Arthur Abba Goldberg, the former NARTH Executive Secretary. Goldberg, who is co-founder and co-director of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), was revealed last month to have been jailed and fined in 1989 for his part in a multimillion-dollar business fraud. Goldberg responded to the reports by shifting the blame, and was duly followed by NARTH President Julie Harren-Hamilton, who attacked the gay media and bloggers for exposing Goldberg’s criminal past. Last week, XGW reported that Goldberg was no longer...
- [Former Love In Action Director John Smid Offers Apology](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/former-love-in-action-director-john-smid-offers-apology/): John Smid was the director of Exodus member ministry Love in Action (LIA), a residential ex-gay program in Memphis, Tennessee, for 22 years.  This included the Refuge youth program which gained notoriety in 2005 when a teen, Zach Stark, created what became a plea for help on his MySpace page. This event and the protests that followed were a significant turning point in the effort to shine a light on the actions of such ministries.  But we should not forget that most of those who would later recognize harm from their time at LIA had already been through the program by...
- [Instead of 'Culture Wars,' How About Fighting a War That Matters?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/instead-of-culture-wars-how-about-fighting-a-war-that-matters/): Warren Throckmorton gets to the heart of Sodom and Gomorrah in his latest blog post: The real sodomite is the arrogant person, the overfed and apathetic person who ignores the poor and others in need. The sexual sins of Sodom are second rate compared to the sins of pride and greed. Ban Sodomy, anyone? Sodomy, viewed from God’s perspective, is practically the American way. I guess we have been exporting sodomy to Uganda. You might think Throckmorton is getting liberal. In fact, he is merely being consistent with Scripture (Ezekiel 16:49-50): Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her...
- [Confirmed: Arthur Abba Goldberg No Longer a NARTH Officer](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/03/arthur-abba-goldberg-no-longer-a-narth-officer/): Arthur Abba Goldberg is no longer listed as a NARTH officer on the organization’s website. There is no indication whether Goldberg resigned or was forced to leave. Either seems likely after last month’s revelation that the champion of reparative therapy and co-director of Jewish ex-gay ministry JONAH was a convicted felon. In 1989, Arthur Abba Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and fined $100,000 for his part in a mail fraud scam. He appears to have deliberately concealed his identity since becoming a leader in the ex-gay movement, and when his past finally caught up with him, he tried to...
- [XGW Digest: February 27, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/xgw-digest-february-27-2010/): -The Alliance Defense Fund goes even further off the deep end. -Sen. Joseph Lieberman becomes chief sponsor of the effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -A West Virginia couple is denied an apartment on the basis of their sexual orientation. -The Minnesota House holds hearings on a trio of marriage equality bills. -Bruce Carroll of GOProud argues that the recent CPAC conference was a watershed event for modern conservatism. -College wrestling star Hudson Taylor speaks out for LGBT rights. -The West Virginia House shoots down a Republican effort to force a vote on a same-sex marriage ban. -Media Matters debunks...
- [Video: Ex-Gay Conversion Report from Down Under](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/video-ex-gay-report-from-down-under/): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1gAVfbq07M An interesting report featured last night on ABC Australia’s Hungry Beast.  The ex-gay featured could be a spokesperson for Exodus International, he is that spot on.   It’s also interesting that one of the gay men describes having been introduced to gay clubs through an affair with this team leader in an ex-gay program.  This tracks with a statement by Peterson Toscano (if anyone remembers that, please post in the comments). Hat Tip: Anthony-Venn Brown
- [Arrest Warrant Issued for Missing Ex-Gay Lisa Miller](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/arrest-warrant-issued-for-missing-ex-gay-lisa-miller/): Ex-lesbian Lisa Miller has been on the run from the law with her daughter Isabella since her refusal to show up in court on January 1st, where she was to relinquish custody to her former partner, Janet Jenkins. Their whereabouts are still unknown, and organizations who once led the cheers for her illegal actions went silent. Still, despite her actions, Miller was not immediately found to be in contempt of court. That changed today. A Vermont judge has ordered the arrest of a woman who has refused to turn over her 7-year-old daughter to her former lesbian partner. Family Court Judge...
- [NARTH President's Myopic Response to Goldberg Accusations](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/narth-presidents-myopic-response-to-goldberg-accusations/): NARTH President Julie Hamilton has responded to this week’s report that NARTH Executive Secretary and JONAH co-founder and co-director Arthur Abba Goldberg is a convicted felon. On the NARTH website, Hamilton makes a number of assumptions and seems blind to the actual issues raised. She says that activists, “unable to silence NARTH’s message, resort to attacking NARTH’s members.” I can only speak for Ex-Gay Watch, but when the story broke, it never occurred to me that Goldberg’s exposure was ipso facto a way to discredit NARTH as a whole. It discredited Goldberg, certainly, and by extension JONAH. It is primarily NARTH’s...
- [UK: SCOTT Protests Mario Bergner Ex-Gay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/n-ireland-scott-protests-mario-bergner-ex-gay-conference/): Campaigners in Northern Ireland today are protesting a visit from American ex-gay leader Reverend Mario Bergner. The protest is led by journalist Patrick Strudwick, who earlier this month wrote an exposé of the “bizarre world of gay-straight conversion” for The Independent (London). He followed it up with a strong article in The Guardian (London) calling for an all-out “war” on reparative therapy, and announcing the formation of the Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce (SCOTT). Of this weekend’s campaign, Strudwick told The Independent: Love needs no cure. We want to remind the young people in the conference in the midst of so-called treatment...
- [XGW Digest: February 20, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/xgw-digest-february-20-2010/): -Former vice president Dick Cheney joins the call for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Anti-gay mobs march in Kenya; police continue to hunt down gay activists in Malawi. -Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell strips LGBT state employees of anti-discrimination protection. -Southern African Anglican bishops denounce Uganda’s proposed anti-gay law. -The city of Charleston, SC to host its first gay pride event. -The New Hampshire House kills an attempt to repeal the state’s marriage equality law. -The Archdiocese of Washington DC terminates its foster-care program in reaction to the city’s new marriage equality law. -Grinnell College in Iowa installs an openly...
- [I'm the Victim: Convicted Felon Arthur Abba Goldberg versus the World](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/im-the-victim-convicted-felon-arthur-abba-goldberg-versus-the-world/): Arthur Goldberg’s damage-control campaign has begun. His strategy is to portray himself as an innocent man who made a mistake, and is now the victim of a ruthless personal attack by the purveyors of the much-feared gay agenda. Arthur A Goldberg, Executive Secretary of NARTH and a co-founder and co-director of Jewish ex-gay group JONAH, was exposed earlier this week as convicted felon Arthur Abba Goldberg, the Wall Street investor fined $100,000 and sentenced to 18 months in 1989 on three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America. Goldberg has yet to...
- [The Fate of Gay Conservativism](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/the-fate-of-gay-conservativism/): Andrew Sullivan reports on the Cato Institute‘s forum addressing the question Is there a place for gay people in conservatism and conservative politics?, a debate that featured Sullivan alongside Catholic anti-marriage equality campaigner Maggie Gallagher and openly gay British Conservative MP Nick Herbert. Gay Cato employee Jason Kuznicki was also in attendance (he can be seen on the video at about the 73-minute mark here). Kuznicki writes: … I got to ask Maggie Gallagher the question I’ve always wanted to ask her: What do you think that am I supposed to do with my life? Suppose I found myself in agreement...
- [NARTH Official Confirms Arthur 'Abba' Goldberg Identity](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/narth-official-confirms-arthur-abba-goldberg-identity/): Upon first reading the recent story about Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) founder Arthur A. Goldberg, we contacted NARTH’s David Pruden (among others) for a statement for the record. Goldberg is listed on NARTH’s website as an Executive Secretary and they have a long history with him.  In his response, Pruden confirmed that JONAH’s Arthur A. Goldberg was indeed Arthur Abba Goldberg. I know nothing about the content of the article from Arthur or anyone else. I can say that everyone I know, knows his name is Arthur Abba Goldberg. I’ve seen it on documents, email communications, etc. for...
- [Horrifying Implications of Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill Explained](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/6144/): This is a clear, concise and accurate analysis of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, with its  implications laid out simply and horrifyingly. The narrator of this video demonstrates faultlessly that the bill in its current form would mean death not only for gays, but for anyone who supports them. For more clear analysis, see Ex-Gay Watch’s earlier post Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009: Just the Facts. A tip of the hat to Harry’s Place for the video.
- [JONAH Co-Founder Arthur Goldberg Convicted Felon](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/jonah-co-founder-arthur-goldberg-convicted-felon/): Arthur Goldberg, head of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), apparently has a hard time breaking old habits – he co-founded the Jewish ex-gay organization a month after he completed parole as part of his sentence for perpetrating fraud. A 1991 New York Times article tells us: Arthur Abba Goldberg, the former executive vice president for Matthews & Wright who arranged the bond transaction, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and fraud. The victims of the fraud in this case were entire communities – East St. Louis, Illinois and Guam. ...
- [XGW Digest: February 13, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/xgw-digest-february-13-2010/): -A majority of Iowans don’t regard a gay marriage ban as a priority, according to a new poll. -SyFy channel’s Caprica features a married gay couple. -Brendan Burke, the openly gay son of hockey legend Brian Burke, dies in a car accident. -The National Organization for Marriage has a field day with the revelation that Prop 8 judge Vaughn Walker is gay. -Senator Chuck Schumer nominates an openly gay man for a judicial position. -Lt. Dan Choi returns to active duty. -Another “pro-family” advocate calls for the criminalization of homosexuality. -An Orlando performance artist announces he will marry a total stranger...
- [Christianity Today on Uganda: Condemnation Violates Human Rights](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/christianity-today-on-uganda/): Leading evangelical magazine Christianity Today has weighed in on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. In an editorial appearing today without attribution, CT urges American Christians to “listen, then speak.” Faced with the possibility that thousands of Ugandans will be put to death, the writer has the audacity to say approvingly that “for American Christian leaders, both silence and open condemnation end up violating important missional and human-rights principles.” This isn’t an argument about abstract moral principles. This is about human lives. I can’t be the only homosexual wondering what human-rights principle could possibly be getting in the way of the clear condemnation...
- [Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009: Just the Facts](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill-2009-just-the-facts/): Despite the best efforts of activists, and political and social commentators, ignorance abounds concerning the atrocious Anti-Homosexuality Bill being proposed in Uganda at the moment. Among the myths being perpetrated are that the legislation is only there to protect the “vulnerable,” such as children and the disabled, and that the death penalty either is being proposed only for these offenses or has been dropped altogether. All of these claims are false. The bill is effectively a mandate for the genocide/mass slaughter/mass murder/wholesale execution – call it what you will – of gays.
- [Anglican Christians Divided over Execution of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/anglican-christians-divided-over-execution-of-gays/): Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told the worldwide Anglican Communion that the “infamous legislation” now being discussed in Uganda was rightly received with “repugnance.” Meanwhile, the Anglican Church of Uganda released an official statement on the same Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. Its verdict? The Church supports the death penalty for “serial offenders” (practicing homosexuals) and sentences of up to life imprisonment for a variety of lesser offenses, including failure to report homosexuality. Its suggestions for the bill were all designed to make its aims clearer. It would appear that gay bishops, priests and communicants are a minor issue. The...
- [Near death experience exploited to further anti-gay agenda](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/near-death-experience-exploited-to-further-anti-gay-agenda-2/): (Note: The relevant texts to this episode can be found here (adb/pdf)), and/or you can view the whole thing here.) With that, we begin. Dr. David Kyle Foster is the producer and co-host of a show called “Pure Passion.”: David founded Mastering Life Ministries in 1987 and has been its director ever since. He is also the producer and host of “Pure Passion” – a televised outreach designed to equip the church to redemptively minister to those who are trapped in sexual sin and brokenness. … The goal of the program is to tell the world of God’s grace and love...
- [British Journalist Declares 'War' on Homosexuality 'Cures'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/british-journalist-declares-war-on-homosexuality-cures/): The journalist behind an ex-gay exposé in The Independent (London) last week, has launched an all-out campaign against reparative therapy. Patrick Strudwick’s investigative report revealed startling practices among reparative therapists in the UK. In his latest missive, he reiterates and expands on some of his more disturbing claims, such as that ex-gay psychiatrist Dr Paul Miller encouraged sexual arousal during therapy sessions, and that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is inadvertently funding reparative therapy. He also reveals that Cohen disciple and NARTH representative Miller, who was promoted by now-disgraced Northern Ireland MP Iris Robinson in 2008, still struggles with gay...
- [Exodus President Joins Anti-Gay Extremists for Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/exodus-president-joins-anti-gay-extremists-for-conference/): Exodus President Alan Chambers will speak at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The theme of the February 12th conference is “Consequences of Same-Gender Attraction.” The description sounds familiar, with tired jargon and old assumptions: Those struggling with same-sex attractions need understanding and hope for a life without conflict, so it is imperative to understand the implications of same-sex attraction and the broader homosexual agenda. The broader homosexual agenda has politicized radicalism of homosexuality that is aggressive and intent on trampling upon the fundamental freedoms of anyone who may disapprove. This conference is vitally important because the conference...
- [Ex-Gays Live in Self-Imposed Nanny State](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/ex-gays-live-in-self-imposed-nanny-state/): Political Conservatives will decry “Nanny State” policies – policies involving government regulation – as infringing on personal liberty and inhibiting growth. Since virtually all ex-gays align themselves with conservative Christian politics (in America, this aligns with the Republican Party), one would think these same people would oppose anything approaching a Nanny State. But apparently, placing one’s self in a Nanny State lifestyle is a key for some ex-gays, and a key for everyone employed by Exodus International. Wayne Besen reported on an ex-gay Anglican priest in Britain whose entire life is monitored by his wife and “others to whom  he’s accountable.”...
- [Young Man 'Delivered' from Same-Sex Attraction](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/young-man-delivered-from-same-sex-attraction/): As a former charismatic, the type of religious experience shown in this video is very familiar to me. In this kind of heady, charged atmosphere, it is very easy to suppress one’s “sin” issues and live on a “victorious” spiritual plane – that is until the trappings of revivalist, Pentecostal worship aren’t there or just don’t work any more, and the subject is brought down to earth with a bump. In this video from IHOP (International House of Prayer, not to be confused with the restaurant chain International House of Pancakes), a young man claims to have been delivered from homosexual...
- [XGW Digest: February 6, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/xgw-digest-february-6-2010/): -The Hawaii House of Representatives indefinitely postpones a vote on civil unions. -Another judge rules against Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban. -A group of Michigan pastors file a lawsuit against the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act. -General Colin Powell speaks out in favor of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. -Police in Malawi go after local gay activists. -The Maryland House Judiciary Committee kills an anti-gay marriage bill. -President Obama condemns Uganda’s proposed “kill gays” bill. -Anti-gay activists encounter resistance to their agenda at New Hampshire town meetings. -Albania’s parliament passes a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.
- [US Anti-Gays Show Their True Colors](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/us-anti-gays-show-their-true-colors/): Peter Sprigg, the family values activist, has said that homosexuality should be criminalized. From The Advocate: Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the antigay [Family Research Council (FRC)], appeared on the program [Chris Matthews’ Hardball] to debate the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. As Sprigg mounted an increasingly illogical defense of the policy based on discrimination, Matthews pressed him on the question: “Do you think we should outlaw gay behavior?” “I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas which overturned the sodomy...
- [Facebook Group Against Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Disappears](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/facebook-group-against-ugandas-anti-gay-bill-disappears/): [Update: The group has now been restored, though no explanation has been given why it was pulled.] [Second update: Mike of Progress Now says, “I ran it up the flagpole with our contact at Facebook. The group is back up now. He said it was not taken down, it was just a bug.”] On a new, hopefully temporary Facebook group, Warren Throckmorton writes: On Friday, January 29 Facebook removed the group Speak Out Against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. There was no warning or explanation. Multiple inquiries have been made by many members of the group with no replies as yet. Whatever...
- [The Bizarre World of Gay-to-Straight Conversion](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/02/the-bizarre-world-of-gay-to-straight-conversion/): An excellent piece by Patrick Strudwick in today’s Independent (London) details the author’s strange and disturbing experiences in ex-gay therapy in the UK. It’s a refreshing article in that it focuses exclusively on reparative therapy, and tends not to dilute it with other aspects of the ex-gay movement. Strudwick begins his undercover investigation by attending a conference by Dr Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH. (We covered that conference here.) There he heard the usual Nicolosi myths, including the oft-repeated claim that “If you don’t hug your son, some other man will.” Strudwick met two reparative therapists at the conference, and later consulted...
- [XGW Digest: January 30, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/xgw-digest-january-30-2010/): -David Link looks at the Prop 8 trial from a more personal angle. -Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov reiterates his belief that gay pride events are “satanic.” -Rob Tisinai debunks the myth that gays are more likely to molest children. -State Rep. Alfred Baldasaro claims that New Hampshire sold children to gay couples. -Michelle Obama invites a gay businessman to be her guest at the president’s State of the Union address. -British Conservative Party leader David Cameron calls for schools to teach equal treatment for gay people. -President Obama advocates the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. -An Oklahoma State Representative wants...
- [Ex-Gay Study Author Stanton Jones in Wheaton College Controversy](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/ex-gay-study-author-stanton-jones-in-wheaton-college-controversy/): The co-author of a major ex-gay study is a key figure in the controversy over the direction of Wheaton College, Illinois. In the article Whither Wheaton?, appearing in the SOMA Review, Andrew Chignell names Dr Stanton L Jones, Provost of Wheaton College, as a force in the increasingly authoritarian approach to doctrine at the flagship evangelical school: Still, when one spends time talking with Wheaton faculty, students, and supporters, alongside real appreciation one is also likely to hear expressions of deep concern about the unusually pro-active roles that [President] Litfin and his provost, Stanton Jones, have assumed as the definers and...
- [Exodus: Gays Must Remain Unequal For Their Own Good](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/exodus-gays-need-inequality-under-the-law-for-their-own-good/): In March of 2008, Exodus International announced it was leaving the realm of public policy to focus on what they claim is the heart of their organization, ministering to troubled same-sex attracted people. XGW applauded this move as one in the right direction. But since that time, their actions have spoken very differently. This past week, Randy Thomas made clear why imposing their religious views on the rest of America is so important to Exodus. Back in 1997-1998 I was complaining to some Exodus leaders about their involvement in public policy. They were very kind and heard me out.  But one...
- [XGW Digest: January 23, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/xgw-digest-january-23-2010/): -Nepal’s new constitution to institute marriage equality. -Fox News commentator Margaret Hoover joins the fight for marriage equality. -Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, poses for a NOH8 ad. -David Link argues for a distinction between prejudice and hatred. -Peter LaBarbera defends Uganda’s “kill gays” bill. -The Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee clears an anti-gay referendum for a full senate vote. -A new study confirms that same-sex couples can parent as effectively as opposite-sex couples. -The city of Miami Beach expands its anti-discrimination ordinance to include transgender individuals. -California pastor Miles McPherson tries to quietly erase anti-gay statements from his church’s...
- [Congress Members Appeal to Obama, Museveni on Uganda Anti-Gay Bill](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/congress-members-appeal-to-obama-museveni-on-uganda-anti-gay-bill/): Following a hearing yesterday, several members of Congress have written to the Presidents of the US and Uganda to protest the latter’s impending legislation to make homosexuality an executable offense. The US Government’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission heard evidence and testimony against the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill yesterday afternoon. Congress has responded by petitioning Presidents Barack Obama and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on this “international human rights issue,” calling the bill “reprehensible,” and “the most extreme and hateful attempt by an African country to criminalize the LGBT community.” Addressing President Museveni, they wrote: This egregious bill, which represents one of the most...
- [Exodus Misses the Humor in Humor Piece by 'The Advocate'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/exodus-misses-the-humor-in-humor-piece-by-the-advocate/): The Advocate is a well-known magazine that caters to the Queer community. It runs serious articles that inform readers of issues facing gays, and lighter fair for when you’ve read enough about Uganda’s legislative genocide for one day. One such piece is entitled “The Advocate’s 15 ‘Gayest’ Cities.” Randy Thomas, who is no longer “gay-identified” but for some reason still reads this prominent gay publication, has taken issue with the piece. Mike Albo, billed in the piece as an “intrepid amateur sociologist,” gives us his findings, with certain points emphasized by Randy Thomas: Intrepid amateur sociologist Mike Albo searches for America’s...
- [Human Rights Hearing on Uganda Anti-Gay Bill Today](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/human-rights-commission-investigates-uganda-anti-gay-bill-today/): The US Government’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will hold a hearing on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill this afternoon. Over the course of 90 minutes, the TLHRC will hear evidence and testimony on the legal and humanitarian aspects of the proposed bill, which as it stands at the moment will see the execution of practicing homosexuals, and sentences up to life imprisonment for lesser offences such as promoting and aiding homosexuality. LGBT POV has posted an illuminating video edited by Bruce tracing the connection between certain American evangelicals and the current legislation in Uganda. It focuses on “spiritual warfare” experts George...
- [Gay Brit Turns Straight, Attacks Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/brit-gay-man-turns-straight-attacks-gays/): From The Guardian’s Comment is free this morning: Writing in the Times earlier this week, Patrick Muirhead describes “the day I decided to stop being gay“. Even allowing for its firmly tongue-in-cheek tone, the problem with his article is that he really seems to believe the half-truths he presents about homosexuality. He talks of his increasing attraction to women, or more pertinently his attraction to the idea of a wife and children – though in fact, when his decision was made, no woman was even in the picture. It was the sight of a father playing with his child that persuaded...
- [XGW Digest: January 16, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/xgw-digest-january-16-2010/): -Portugal’s parliament enacts marriage equality. -Former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) has a change of heart in favor of marriage equality. -Nate Silver points out that divorce rates have, on average, risen in states with an anti-same-sex marriage amendment and declined in states without one. -Margaret Talbot takes a closer look at the players in the Prop 8 trial. -The Gay Christian Network’s 2010 conference draws a record attendance of nearly 400 participants. -The National Institute of Health solicits public comment on plans to undertake the largest study of LGBT health issues conducted to date. -A District of Columbia superior court judge...
- [Ugandan President Softening on Anti-Gay Bill?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/ugandan-president/): The President of Uganda appears to have distanced himself from the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, which would effectively introduce the death penalty for gays. President Museveni told members of the National Resistance Movement that the bill had not been proposed by his party, nor by the Ugandan Government, but by a private member, David Bahati. He said he had received phone calls from several foreign leaders, including the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian PM Stephen Harper, and all they wanted to talk about was “gays.” He described the Anti-Homosexuality Bill as a “foreign policy...
- [Ted Olson Makes the Conservative Case for Gay Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/01/ted-olson-makes-the-conservative-case-for-gay-marriage/): Sounding like a conservative from the days before the Moral Majority, et al, began what would become a devastating theocratic infiltration of the GOP, top conservative attorney Ted Olson makes the case for gay marriage in the latest Newsweek. At the end of the Civil War, to make the elusive promise of equality a reality, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution added the command that “no State É shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person É the equal protection of the laws.” Subsequent laws and court decisions have made...
- [XGW Digest: April 9, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/xgw-digest-april-9-2011/): -Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick nominates an openly gay judge to the state’s supreme court. -Ireland begins issuing civil partnership licenses. -Gay Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger wins a straw poll in New Hampshire. -Information is released about a series of harassing phone calls received by Prop 8 plaintiffs Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier. -The National Organization for Marriage criticizes Tim Gill for employing one of its political tactics. -The Arkansas Supreme Court overturns the state’s gay adoption ban. -The Delaware state senate passes a civil unions bill. -A Superior Court judge rules that Target cannot stop a marriage equality group from...
- [Why On Earth Would You Go Ex-Gay? Ex-Gay Survivors Reveal Multiple Motivations](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/why-on-earth-would-you-go-ex-gay-ex-gay-survivors-reveal-multiple-motivations/): When an ex-gay survivor shares an account of how they tried to change or suppress their orientation or gender non-conforming behavior, some gays and lesbians respond–That’s CRAZY! Why would you ever do something that STUPID! Indeed, it may seem illogical that intelligent queer folk living in modern times get duped by promises of heterosexuality or vaguer promises of “change.” Some just chalk it up to that Old Time Religion that makes people do silly and self-destructive things. But it’s not that simple. After spending nearly twenty years deeply entrenched in the ex-gay world, attending multiple Exodus programs, including the Love in...
- [Exodus iPhone App Approval Myth Examined](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/exodus-iphone-app-approval-myth-examined/): Which of these iPhone apps was originally approved with flying colors?  Which was removed after public outcry alerted Apple to it’s nature?  Which one, regardless of how distasteful, has even a remote chance of leading to someone’s harm? The Apple App Store opened almost three years ago.  In that time, over 350,000 apps have been approved.  If evenly spaced over every hour of every day during those three years, that would be approximately thirteen apps per hour.  Keep in mind, this only accounts for those that made it in — many more did not.  There is simply no practical way for...
- [XGW Digest: April 2, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/xgw-digest-april-2-2011/): -A Presbyterian minister rethinks his opposition to gay rights. -The Maryland House passes a bill that would extend non-discrimination protections to transgender individuals. -Another gay man is savagely attacked in New York City. -Jeremy Hooper takes a closer look at Apple’s alleged anti-Christian bias. -Straight ally Kathy Baldock writes an open letter to Alan Chambers. -The Washington state senate votes in favor of recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages. -Colorado’s civil unions bill dies in committee. -A lesbian couple is arrested in Panama for kissing in public.
- [Exodus Leadership Sheds Their Apple Toys in Protest](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/exodus-leadership-sheds-their-apple-toys-in-protest/): From the AP: As a response to Apples’ recent move to drop their iPhone app from the App Store, the leaders at Exodus International have vowed to live without their iToys.  “Contributing our money and computing allegiance to a company that clearly does not represent our values just seemed wrong,” said Exodus president Alan Chambers.  “After all,” he continued, “Apple represents a minor segment of the computer and smart phone market, there are plenty of alternatives.  It would be wrong of us to concentrate so heavily on them when they do not accept us or our worldview.”  Asked to comment on...
- [Ex-Gay Activist Christopher Yuan to Speak at Yale Tomorrow](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/ex-gay-activist-christopher-yuan-to-speak-at-yale-tomorrow/): Ex-Gay activist Christopher Yuan will speak to an audience of Yale students at the Af-Am House this Friday at 7:00, at the invitation of campus Christian organizations. Yuan’s claim to fame is his “deliverance” from some rather bad habits which, as is a common practice among ex-gays, he associates with being gay.  He attributes his behavior change to God, and his mother’s prayers. What many would consider their worst nightmare has become a reality for Christopher Yuan. While attending dental school, he began living promiscuously as a homosexual and experimenting with illicit drugs. Within a few years, he was expelled from...
- [In Brief: New Ex-Gay Survivor Group In Fort Lauderdale, Florida](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/in-brief-new-ex-gay-survivor-group-in-fort-lauderdale-florida/): TWO reports that one of their board members, the Rev. Jerry Stephenson, is starting a new ex-gay survivor group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: I am starting an Ex-Ex-Gay Group called GOD’S WORTHY CREATION with Atlantic Institute Spiritual Counseling Center to help gays and lesbians know that they are wonderfully made as they are in God’s wonderful creation.  We seek to bring healing to those coming out of the Ex-Gay Movement. Call us at 954-632-1529 or email us at JeryLSt@aol.com Stephenson has also authored the books “Out of the Closet and into the Light” and “Overcoming Obstacles in Life and Coming Out...
- [XGW Digest: March 26, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/xgw-digest-march-26-2011/): -The parliament of Liechtenstein unanimously votes to institute civil unions. -The mayor of Barcelona, Spain dedicates a memorial to LGBT people. -An immigration judge suspends the deportation of an Argentine lesbian who’s legally married in Connecticut. -Wendy Gritter offers a nuanced response to Lisa Ling’s “Pray Away the Gay?” special. -The Obama Administration prepares a declaration calling on the UN to work to end criminal punishments for LGBT individuals around the world. -A civil unions bill is introduced in the Delaware state senate. -The Mormon church fires a man for refusing to disassociate from his gay friends. -The 9th Circuit Court...
- [Apple Aftermath: What Is Exodus International Really About?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/apple-aftermath-what-is-exodus-international-really-about/): Exodus International has a story it would really like you to believe. It wants you to think that Exodus is a simple ministry of encouragement to Christians who have same-sex attractions but don’t want to act on it. Exodus, so the story goes, doesn’t harm gays or stick its nose into anyone else’s business; it’s just about like-minded people helping one another live the lifestyle they freely choose. This bogus narrative is important now Apple has denied Exodus International its iPhone app. Exodus President Alan Chambers wants the world to believe his claim that the move has trampled on his and...
- [Confirmed: Apple Pulls Exodus App](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/confirmed-apple-pulls-exodus-app/): Apple has confirmed that it pulled an iPhone app by the ex-gay organization Exodus International. Speaking to New York’s Daily News, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said, “We removed the Exodus International app from the Apple Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.” Ast to the Daily News’ question why Apple gave the app a rating of 4, signifying “no objectionable material,” perhaps the answer is in Exodus’s less-than-honest description of the app: Exodus International is the world’s largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality. With over 35 years of ministry experience,...
- [Exodus 'Gay Cure' iPhone App No Longer Available?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/its-official-exodus-iphone-app-has-been-pulled/): A recent tweet from Alan Chambers: Yeah, somehow I doubt we will submit an ex-gay app.  But if we do, please ask that it be removed.  We still haven’t’ heard from Apple, so to be safe please keep up the pressure until we do. Edited 11:06 pm to reflect the fact that no official notice has been received from Apple.
- [Victoria Jackson - Homophobic or Just Sadly Confused?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/victoria-jackson-homophobic-or-just-sadly-confused/): Perhaps a bit off topic for XGW, but the religious views expressed should be familiar to many readers.  When I read Jackson’s comments they angered me.  When I watched this video clip, I think I felt sad for her more than anything else.  She expresses herself like someone caught in a cult, and it is tragic that she has so much company. It seems unlikely that any group has done more to damage Christianity and the Church than the “evangelical” movement in this country — very sad indeed.
- [Youth Pastor Cured Gay Teens by Having Sex with Them](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/youth-pastor-cured-gay-teens-by-having-sex-with-them/): A former youth pastor from Iowa has been charged with 60 sexual offences against teenage boys, some as young as 14. Brent Girouex, 31, of Council Bluffs, told police he had sex with the young men to cure their homosexuality, according to the Wisconsin Gazette. He claimed that ejaculation was the key to ridding them of sexually impure thoughts. At least eight men have accused Girouex of molesting them. He is now out on bail of $30,000. (HT: Evan at Truth Wins Out).
- [NARTH Continues Attack on Noted Geneticist Francis Collins](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/narths-david-pruden-continues-attack-on-noted-geneticist-francis-collins/): The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is once again attacking the veracity of noted geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins.  For a review of the history of this issue, please see the summary and links in our previous post.  The original NARTH article that started this is “Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired,” Concludes Dr. Francis S. Collins, Head Of The Human Genome Project” from 2007. This latest effort comes in the form of an article identified as submitted to the NARTH website by David C. Pruden, NARTH’s Vice-President of Operations.  We will assume from here on out that Pruden...
- [XGW Digest: March  19, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/xgw-digest-march-19-2011/): -A group of teenagers in New York City stomp another teen to death while shouting anti-gay slurs. -A new poll finds shrinking support for the Defense of Marriage Act. -The Crystal Cathedral asks members of its choir to sign an anti-gay statement. -The Ogden, Utah city council unanimously votes in favor of an anti-discrimination ordinance. -Another teenager commits suicide following anti-gay bullying. -Congressional Democrats introduce a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. -A Pennsylvania man stones a gay man to death, citing the Bible as his authority. -The Isle of Man grants civil partnership rights to same-sex couples. -A...
- [CT Article Downplays American Role in Ugandan Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/christianity-today-article-downplays-american-role-in-ugandan-homophobia/): In an opinion piece for Christianity Today, Timothy Shah absolves American evangelicals from any responsibility for homophobia in Uganda and says the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is “a single legislative stunt by a single low-level politician.” Shah responds to the claim that a 2009 conference stirred up anti-gay sentiments . The agenda of its American organizers, Shah says, was “therapeutic, whereas Mr Bahati’s bill is remorselessly punitive.” The reference is to David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who attended the conference and was later to draft the bill that would effectively put to death homosexuals and their supporters in Uganda. Therapeutic? Perhaps Shah has not seen this...
- [Audio: Alan Chambers and Prof Michael King on Gay Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/audio-alan-chambers-and-prof-michael-king-on-gay-christians/): Exodus president Alan Chambers was in the UK last week, presumably to make up some speaking engagements that he had to cancel last year do to the Icelandic volcano eruption. While there, he was interviewed by William Crawley on BBC radio, along with Prof Michael King of University College London.  The topic was the persistent debate of whether one can be gay and Christian, but it drifts a bit into other interesting territory. It’s a short discussion and King cuts through the semantic fog with typical British civility and conciseness  — well worth a listen.  Original link here, or use the...
- [XGW Digest: March 12, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/xgw-digest-march-12-2011/): -Rhode Island Congressman Jim Langevin has a change of heart about marriage equality. -The Colorado Democratic Party elects an openly gay chairman. -A Maryland legislator comes out of the closet. -Lisa Ling takes a look at the ex-gay movement. -A school board in Corpus Christi, TX reverses its previous stance and gives approval to a student Gay-Straight Alliance. -The Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee votes to advance a civil unions bill. -Two Kansas state representatives declare that the state should keep its law against same-sex relationships on the books. A Swedish footballer comes out of the closet. -The Obamas headline a conference...
- [Ex-Gay Organization Now on Your iPhone](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/ex-gay-organization-now-on-your-iphone/): Exodus International, the organization that claims to bring “healing to homosexuals,” has released a free iPhone application. Users can receive blog posts and podcasts to their smartphone, as well as updates about Exodus International events. According to the iPhone app store: Exodus International is the world’s largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality. With over 35 years of ministry experience, Exodus is committed to encouraging, educating and equipping the Body of Christ to address the issue of homosexuality with grace and truth. Exodus might have also given some clue that it campaigns against equal rights for gays and lesbians, and that...
- [Eyewitness: Love Won Out Spouts 'Horrific' Messages; Youth Attendants 'Intelligent; Somewhat Liberal'](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/eyewitness-love-won-out-spouts-horrific-messages-youth-attendants-intelligent-somewhat-liberal/): Christopher Jay Hall, a guest blogger at “Raging Pride,” attended Exodus’ Love Won Out conference in Pheonix, Arizona on February 19th and was horrified by the kind of information being given as “fact:” Speakers were determined to address a transgender person by “the way God intended them to be” and not how they identified personally. Transgender issues are often difficult for ex-gay activists to grasp, since gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things that don’t necessarily correlate. The classic argument is “God doesn’t make mistakes.” Heterosexual couples have a life-long interest in their relationships that homosexuals lack. Studies that...
- [XGW Digest: March 5, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/03/xgw-digest-march-5-2011/): -A British cricket star comes out of the closet. The Rev. Peter Gomes dies. -An anti-gay preacher is arrested for public masturbation. -Maryland’s marriage equality bill encounters unexpected delays in committee. -LGBT support grows on the campuses of evangelical college. -The US Supreme Court upholds Westboro Baptist Church’s right to picket at military funerals. -A New Hampshire House committee tables an attempted repeal of the state’s marriage equality law until next year. -The Wyoming Senate kills a bill that would have banned recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages. -The Maryland marriage equality bill moves out of committee to the house for a...
- [XGW Digest: February 26, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/xgw-digest-february-26-2011/): -The Israeli government appoints an openly gay judge. -A hockey player at the University of New Hampshire comes out of the closet to speak in support of the state’s marriage equality law. -Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie signs civil unions into law. -Senator Dianne Feinstein announces plans to introduce a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. -An anti-gay marriage amendment is introduced in the North Carolina senate. -Actor Mark Ruffalo and his wife voice their support for marriage equality. -A pair of Tennessee Republicans introduce a bill to ban all mention of LGBT people in the state’s public schools. -The...
- [Obama Administration Will No Longer Defend DOMA](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/obama-government-will-no-longer-defend-doma/): The US government has announced that it is no longer prepared to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. The act enshrined in US federal law the definition of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. DOMA has been one of the chief weapons of anti-marriage-equality campaigners. Associated Press says the policy reversal “could have major implications for the rights and benefits of gay couples and reignite an emotional debate for the 2012 presidential campaign.” Tip of the hat to Box Turtle Bulletin.
- [Florida Abstinence Program Linked to Ssempa](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/florida-abstinence-program-linked-to-ssempa/): An abstinence group based in Jacksonville, Florida, has ties to the anti-gay Ugandan activist Martin Ssempa, according to a report in the Florida Independent. Project SOS founder Pam Mullarkey is quoted on Ssempa’s website as saying that Ssempa is “the most powerful voice for abstinence in the world and his passion, charisma and character make his vital message irresistible.” Mullarkey refused to decry Ssempa when contacted for comment; instead she praised him. Other US evangelicals have disassociated themselves from Ssempa when pressed. The Ugandan pastor is notorious for promoting misconceptions about gays in Uganda, including the myth that eating one another’s...
- [The World's Worst Place to be Gay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/the-worlds-worst-place-to-be-gay/): https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F07F722A5387A637 Many XGW readers will be familiar with the painful, anti-gay efforts in Uganda, highlighted over the past couple of years by this and other blogs.  The reporting has been at times very detailed, and devastating to take in.  This was all punctuated by the recent murder of Ugandan gay rights advocate David Kato, and signs that the dastardly Anti-Homosexuality Bill may move forward after President Museveni’s recent re-election. In spite of all the excellent writing on this issue, only the posts of GayUganda have come close to giving this writer the same human connection as this excellent BBC effort.  The...
- [XGW Digest: February 19, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/xgw-digest-february-19-2011/): -The New York Times calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. -A marriage equality bill is introduced in the Washington state legislature. -Same-sex marriage may soon be legal in the UK. -Authorities in Minsk, Belarus authorize an LGBT rally. -Authorities in Budapest, Hungary reject an application for a pride parade. -The US Air Force allows Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach to retire with full rank and pension. -The Hawaii State Senate votes in favor of civil unions. -The California Supreme Court agrees to rule on whether Prop 8’s proponents have legal standing. -Target modifies its corporate giving policy to better...
- [XGW Digest: February 12, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/xgw-digest-february-12-2011/): -A gay couple in North Carolina are victims of arson. -Police in Bahrain arrest 127 gay men at a private party. -A new survey finds that 83% of Kentuckians oppose discrimination against gays. -The Advocate interviews Ted Haggard. -Maggie Gallagher inadvertently convinces a Maryland state senator to support marriage equality. -Nearly 2/3 of adults in New Hampshire oppose repeal of the state’s marriage law, according to a new poll. -The city of Manhattan, KS adds sexual orientation and gender identity to its non-discrimination ordinance. -Canada’s House of Commons votes to extend non-discrimination and hate crimes protections to transgender individuals. -The Dallas...
- [You Don't Have to be Gay?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/you-dont-have-to-be-gay/): He’s not joking, the book is You Don’t Have to be Gay by Jeff Konrad.  If you want to get a copy, look no further than the Exodus bookstore — not that Exodus has anything to do with gays going straight or anything. I tend to agree with one commenter from the Amazon listing: He [the author] says that in high school, he had a big crush on a girl but was too shy to do anything about it or was hurt by her. He then got a boyfriend and, at first, was “disgusted” at the idea of kissing him. This...
- [What Exodus Believes in 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/what-exodus-believes-in-2011/): A new website brings a fresh look to Exodus International, and XGW took a fresh look at their Frequently Asked Questions to check on what their official positions are concerning several topics, including political and civil topics. 1. They refuse to talk about a success rate for sexual orientation change. When asked, they redirect the question so that the one actually posed never gets answered – and that’s the one we want answered: whether people can successfully change from homosexual to heterosexual. Let’s rephrase that question. Is there realistic hope that men and women who experience same-sex attraction can overcome those...
- [XGW Digest: February 5, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/02/xgw-digest-february-5-2011/): -Champion cyclist Graeme Obree comes out of the closet. -The wife of a British anti-gay activist files for divorce, citing physical abuse. -One Colorado launches a campaign to bring civil unions to the state. -Barbara Bush, daughter of George W. Bush, voices her support for marriage equality. -Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs civil unions into law. -A 19-year-old son of a gay couple testifies on behalf of marriage equality in Iowa. -The Iowa House approves an anti-gay marriage amendment. -Maryland Senate Minority Leader Alan Kittleman, a Republican, announces his support for marriage equality. -Six transgender women are murdered in Honduras in...
- [XGW Digest: January 29, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/xgw-digest-january-29-2011/): -The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs launches a twelve-step program for gays. -Singer Jason Mraz declares that he won’t marry until gay couples can marry as well. -A gay couple in Dallas celebrates their 50th anniversary. -A PFLAG mom is named Senior Australian of the Year. -House Republicans prepare a push to overturn the District of Columbia’s marriage equality law. -Florida State Rep. Mark Pafford introduces a domestic partnership bill. -Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie nominates an openly gay woman to the state Supreme Court. -Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato is murdered. -56% of New Yorkers now support marriage equality, according to...
- [XGW Digest: January 22, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/xgw-digest-january-22-2011/): -The Tarrant Baptist Association is expelled from the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for retaining a member church that isn’t adequately anti-gay. -The US Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge to the District of Columbia’s marriage equality law. –New census data finds more gay couples raising children in the South than in other parts of the country. -France’s high court agrees to hear a case by a lesbian couple who want their relationship recognized as a marriage. -A homeless shelter in Georgia kicks out two women suspected of being in a relationship. -The Government Accountability Office reports that enforcement...
- [UK: Gay-to-Straight Therapist May Be Struck Off](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/uk-gay-to-straight-therapist-may-be-struck-off/): A UK psychotherapist may lose her license if a disciplinary hearing finds she attempted to cure a patient of homosexuality. It is almost a year since Patrick Strudwick published an article in The Independent (London) detailing his experience of ex-gay reparative therapy in the UK. As part of his investigation, the journalist secretly taped sessions with Christian therapist Lesley Pilkington, whom he met through a NARTH conference. In Strudwick’s recordings, Mrs Pilkington, 60, told him that homosexuality was “a mental illness, an addiction [and] an antireligious phenomenon.” She agreed to provide SOCE — Sexual Orientation Change Efforts — after he said he...
- [XGW Digest: January 15, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/xgw-digest-january-15-2011/): -The National Organization for Marriage targets Rhode Island. -The US State Department adopts gender-neutral terms for parents’ names on children’s passport applications. -Religious right activist Cindy Jacobs blames the recent bird and fish deaths in Arkansas on the repeal of DADT. -Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality. -A male model confesses to murdering fashion reporter Carlos Castro to “get rid of his homosexual demons.” -The GLBT History Museum opens in San Francisco. -An employee at Pastor Scott Lively’s new coffee shop is discovered to be a convicted sex offender. -A gay-positive billboard in Schenectady, NY draws...
- [Scott Lively Coffee Shop Managed by Convicted Child Molester](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/scott-lively-coffee-shop-managed-by-convicted-child-molester/): Scott Lively made a small splash by deciding to open a Christian-themed coffee house in Springfield, Massachusetts called “Holy Grounds.” People wondered aloud if this was a “new leaf” being turned over, but Lively made known that he would continue to serve as a conference speaker on the topic of homosexuality. Now, it turns out that the man who advises parents to keep their children away from gays has himself employed a child molester to manage his establishment. Michael J. Frediani, 38, was arrested for failing to register as a level 2 sex offender in Springfield. He lived in an apartment...
- [XGW Digest: January 8, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/xgw-digest-january-8-2011/): -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asks the California Supreme Court to weigh in on whether Imperial County initiative proponents have standing to appeal the Prop 8 ruling. -New Hampshire Republicans prepare to attempt to overturn the state’s marriage equality law. -Two Wyoming legislators announce plans to launch an effort to place a marriage amendment on the state ballot. -Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee calls for marriage equality in his inaugural address. -New Mexico Attorney General opines that same-sex marriages performed elsewhere should be recognized by the state. -A Miami man confesses to murdering two people for having “homosexual tendencies.” -A...
- [Happy One More Revolution Around Our Star, Everybody!](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/01/happy-one-more-revolution-around-our-star-everybody/): Our friend, Jim, over at Teach The Facts brought this up and I thought it was an ideal theme to start the New Year off with. Imagine Peace in 2011 It is a New Year, 2011, war is raging, hatred abounds, greed is rewarded with power, love is reviled as filth. Good people need to be vigilant, paradoxically to fight for peace. I m a g i n e: [youtube width=”340″ height=”300″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs[/youtube] War is over, if you want it
- [XGW Digest: December 31, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/xgw-digest-december-31-2010/): -Ireland’s civil partnership law goes into effect on January 1. -Two gay men are attacked outside a gay bar in Austin. -North Carolina’s Council of Churches elects an openly gay leader. -California State Senator Mark Leno introduces a bill to require public school textbooks to include information on historical LGBT figures. -The BBC interviews an anti-gay activist as part of its coverage of the birth of Elton John’s son. -Joseph Farah wants to purge gay and gay-supportive individuals from the conservative movement. -WorldNetDaily promotes Scott Lively’s discredited book “The Pink Swastika” in its online store. -Two teachers sue the state of...
- [XGW Digest: December 24, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/xgw-digest-december-24-2010/): -The religious right reacts predictably to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” -Towleroad posts a summary of the aftermath of the DADT repeal. -Even Fox News finds strong public support for the repeal. -An Israeli court authorizes second-parent adoption for gay couples. -Conservative British MP Nigel Evans comes out of the closet. -Two gay men are arrested in Zimbabwe. -Foreign Policy magazine looks at the state of gay rights in ten countries around the globe. -The Mormon Church makes a tentative overture to several gay rights activists. -President Obama signs the DADT repeal bill. -The UN votes to restore sexual...
- [Senate Passes DADT Repeal, Military to Allow Openly Gay Soldiers](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/u-s-senate-passes-dadt-repeal-military-to-allow-openly-gay-soldiers/): In an historic vote, the United States Senate has passed an act repealing the ban on openly gay soldiers serving in the armed forces, 65-33. Eight Republicans sided with the mostly Democratic call for repeal. The ban, called “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” or “DADT,” has been in effect since 1993. President Barack Obama has expressed opposition to the ban since his presidential campaign. “As commander in chief, I am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best led and best trained fighting force the world has ever known,” said the President,...
- [XGW Digest: December 18, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/xgw-digest-december-18-2010/): -Adele Starr, co-founder and former president of PFLAG, dies at age 90. -The Family Research Council continues to earn its hate group status. -The National Organization for Marriage attacks Apple for removing the Manhattan Declaration app from its store. -An international coalition lobbies to reverse the UN’s recent removal of sexual orientation from its resolution against arbitrary executions. -Lt. Dan Choi is hospitalized due to stress. -The US House votes to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. -Colorado State Senator Pat Steadman announces plans to introduce a civil unions bill in the legislature’s next session. -A gay soldier shares his perspective before...
- [XGW Digest: December 11, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/xgw-digest-december-11-2010/): -Recent polls continue to find strong public support for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” -King County, Washington swears in a gay councilmember. -Jonathan Rauch encourages gay rights activists to consider a change in tactics as the majority opinion shifts in favor of equality. -The National Organization for Marriage misrepresents some basic facts about the Prop 8 trial. -A variety of religious leaders in Texas weigh in on the ability of chaplains to perform their duties post-DADT. -An El Paso, TX ballot initiative pushed through by a local pastor to deny benefits to partners of gay city employees inadvertently strips benefits from...
- [XGW Digest: December 4, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/12/xgw-digest-december-4-2010/): -Warren Throckmorton counters the religious right’s reaction to the SPLC’s expanded list of anti-gay hate groups. -New Delhi hosts its first pride parade since India decriminalized homosexuality. -Apple Computer removes an anti-gay app from its library. -The Pentagon’s report on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ finds little risk in allowing gay servicemembers to serve openly. -Tony Perkins blasts the SPLC for adding the Family Research Council to its list of hate groups, then promptly turns around and proves the SPLC’s point. -The Illinois legislature passes a civil unions bill. -Hungary adopts a new constitution that bans same-sex marriage. -Kenyan Prime Minster Raila...
- [XGW Digest: November 27, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/xgw-digest-november-27-2010/): -The Southern Poverty Law Center adds five organizations to its list of anti-gay hate groups. -Students and administrators at Del City High School dispute the claim that two lesbian students were expelled for being gay. -The New Jersey legislature overwhelmingly passes an anti-bullying measure. -The number of violent hate crimes based on sexual orientation increases even as the overall total decreases. -The Salvation Army threatens to cease providing services in New York City if forced to begin providing benefits to the partners of gay employees. -The Family Research Council unveils its latest anti-gay “study.” -The National Organization for Marriage campaigns against...
- [Wake the Kids, Phone the Neighbors: Exodus’ 2011 Agenda is in](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/wake-the-kids-phone-the-neighbors-exodus-2011-agenda-is-in/): Aaaaaaand it turns out to be more of the same. Literally. 2011 = Simplify, Amplify and Intensify — Letter from Alan Chambers for November 2011 Nov 17, 2010 First, we are reminded of the mission of Exodus: Mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality. Implication: Homosexuality is a negative impact. — The agenda… He [God] has impressed on our entire team the need to do 3 things with what we already have: simplify, amplify and intensify. ~Simplify: We want to be clear about what we do and don’t do at Exodus. [emphasis added] Clear:...
- [XGW Digest: November 20, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/xgw-digest-november-20-2010/): -An Oklahoma high school refuses to let two lesbian students graduate. -Former Congressman Bob Barr declares his full support for marriage equality. -Cindy McCain backpedals on her previous support for a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Newsweek runs a puff piece on Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage. -A group of Arab and African countries block a UN resolution condemning the execution of gays. -The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announces that the Prop 8 hearings will be televised on C-SPAN. -The Human Rights Campaign highlights the less civil side of the National Organization for Marriage. -Sen. Joe...
- [XGW Digest: November 13, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/xgw-digest-november-13-2010/): -Bishop Gene Robinson announces his retirement. -Another teenager commits suicide due to anti-gay bullying. -Rob Tisiniai questions another anti-gay claim. -A Christian mom identifies the root cause of bullying in schools. -Marriage equality bills are introduced in the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria. -GLAD and the ACLU file separate suits challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. -The US Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by ex-gay mother and kidnapper Lisa Miller. -A Catholic university fires a lesbian employee after her wedding announcement appears in a local newspaper. -A newly released study finds no incidences of child...
- ['Day of Truth' Acquired by Focus on the Family](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/day-of-truth-acquired-by-focus-on-the-family/): Focus on the Family has taken the helm of the Day of Truth, which was spawned by the Alliance Defense Fund to oppose GLSEN’s Day of Silence. It was adopted by Exodus International this past year. Exodus relinquished custody of the DOT not long after several kids committed suicide as a result of anti-gay bullying. Focus has decided to rename DOT the “Day of Dialogue:” “We’re trying to raise awareness that more than one side needs to be heard on the issue of homosexuality, and we’re helping to ensure Christian students have the chance to express their viewpoint,” said Candi Cushman,...
- [Military Study: Lift of Gay Ban Not a Problem](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/military-study-lift-of-gay-ban-not-a-problem/): From the Washington Post: A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1. More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results...
- [Journey into Manhood Investigated by ABC's Nightline](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/journey-into-manhood-investigated-by-abcs-nightline/): Direct link here. (JiM is second segment, about 6:30 in) Patterned after the equally bizarre Mankind Project, Journey into Manhood is nothing new to those who keep up with pseudo-therapies which make wildly unscientific claims of success in changing people from gay to straight.  JiM’s founder, Richard Wyler, doesn’t even try to claim a professional background that would qualify him as a therapist or a researcher.  Claims made by the organization have as much factual weight as those made on behalf of “male enhancement” pills on late night cable — anyone can claim anything. Yet in spite of all this, and...
- [Wendy Gritter: It Gets Better](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/wendy-gritter-it-gets-better/): Wendy Gritter, of Ontario-based Christian ministry New Direction, tells bullied kids, “It gets better“: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX9wBaGxVtg
- [Exodus Accepts Gays--as Long as They're Helpless Victims](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/exodus-accepts-gays-as-long-as-theyre-helpless-victims/): Alan Chambers just doesn’t get it. The Exodus International President expects gays and lesbians to be moved by his words of compassion, but any gay or lesbian who knows their worth will hear only patronizing and insulting condescension in his words. Here is Chambers speaking at the Third International Congress on World Evangelization (the Lausanne Conference), held in Cape Town, South Africa, last month: [flv]https://capetown2010.IStreamPlanet.com/Multiplex01_Sat_Seg1_Sexuality_WEB30036567.flv[/flv] Here is Chambers castigating Christians for what he believes is their greatest sin towards homosexuals: We, as the Church, have not viewed homosexual people, gay and lesbian men and women, as starving, hurting, broken, lost people in...
- [XGW Digest: November 6, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/11/xgw-digest-november-6-2010/): -Taiwan LGBT Pride hosts the largest pride parade ever held in Asia. -University of Michigan student Chris Armstrong files an ethics complaint against his anti-gay stalker, MI Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell. -The Family Research Council campaigns against a pro-life but gay-supportive Republican congressman. -An aggressive street preacher gets a taste of his own medicine. -Lexington, KY elects an openly gay mayor. -US Voters elect a record number of LGBT candidates. -David Cicilline becomes the fourth openly gay member of the House of Representatives. -Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal pledges to block any attempts to vote on a same-sex marriage...
- [XGW Digest: October 30, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/xgw-digest-october-30-2010/): -Irish voters may be on the verge of electing a gay president. -A gay man teams up with the former skinhead who once attacked him to fight bullying in schools. -NOM’s latest bus tour flops in Iowa. -South Korea’s Human Rights Commission concludes that punishing gay servicemen is a violation of their rights. -An Arkansas school board member makes his feelings about gay students clear. -Texas NBC affiliate KETK apologizes for airing a segment titled “Will homosexuals bring about America’s destruction?”. -Betty White reiterates her support for gay marriage. -Equality California workers find a noose hanging on their office doorknob. -The...
- [Book Review Part 3: The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/part-3-testing/): Subtitle: A Biblical and compassionate response to same-sex attraction. Main authors and editors: Joe Dallas, Nancy Heche. Part 1, Part 2 This book is an anti-gay training manual. A veritable bible on how to be the best anti-gay Christian you can be. There are a list of key points at the end of each chapter, some of which include mock debates. ____________________________________ SUICIDE, BULLYING AND VIOLENCE Nancy Heche on gay teen suicide: Nancy Heche: A number of studies over the past decade have indicated that rates of suicide attempts, depression, and unhealthy behaviors are higher among gay teens than among their...
- [XGW Digest: October 23, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/xgw-digest-october-23-2010/): -The ACLU files a lawsuit on behalf of a Mississippi corrections officer who was fired for being gay. -Pop singer Justin Bieber joins the fight against anti-gay bullying. -The Pentagon instructs military recruiters to begin accepting gay applicants. -Maggie Gallagher tries to absolve opponents of marriage equality of influencing the suicide rate among gay teens. -The Kentucky Masons vote down a proposal to bar gay men from membership. -Another gay teenager commits suicide. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issues a temporary stay allowing the military to continue enforcing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Amanda Udis-Kessler challenges Southern Baptist Convention president Albert...
- [UK Invited to Take Ex-Gay Journey into Manhood](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/uk-invited-to-take-ex-gay-journey-into-manhood/): Journey into Manhood, the immersion course that claims to help men solve the problem of homosexual attractions, is hosting a weekend retreat in the UK later this month. According to JiM, 80 percent of participants report a decrease in homosexual attractions following the course, and over half say they have experienced increased heterosexual attractions. Patrick Chapman addressed the survey’s flaws briefly, but decisively here on Ex-Gay Watch. JiM is not strictly Christian, but participation does require belief in a “higher power,” and the course’s contents mimic all the familiar traits of the mostly Christian ex-gay movement. While the website says JiM...
- [This is How Ex-Gays Influence the Civil Rights of Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/this-is-how-ex-gays-influence-the-civil-rights-of-gays/): Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck on “Meet the Press”: From the same interview: MR. GREGORY: … And Mr. Buck I want to start with you. The issue of gays in our country, in a debate last month you expressed your support for “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which we talked about with Mr. Gibbs, and you alluded to lifestyle choices. Do you believe that being gay is a choice? MR. BUCK: I do. MR. GREGORY: Based on what? MR. BUCK: Based on what? MR. GREGORY: Yeah. MR. BUCK: Well… MR. GREGORY: Why do you believe that? MR. BUCK: Well, I guess...
- [XGW Digest: October 16, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/xgw-digest-october-16-2010/): -A group of thugs in the Bronx abduct and torture two teens and a man for being gay. -Serbia’s pride parade is marred by anti-gay violence. -Another gay teenager commits suicide. -New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino makes blatantly anti-gay remarks, then claims he isn’t homophobic. -US District Court Judge Virginia Phillips orders the Department of Defense to immediately cease enforcement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -The son of an anti-gay university professor comes out of the closet. -Perez Hilton pledges to be kinder. -The US Department of Justice prepares an appeal of Judge Phillips’ ruling against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell....
- [Tearful Texas Councilman to Gay Teens: It Gets Better](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/tearful-texas-councilman-to-gay-teens-it-gets-better/): Joel Burns shares his moving personal story of surviving anti-gay bullying with his fellow Fort Worth City, TX, council members: Hat tip: Towleroad
- [National Coming Out Day](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/national-coming-out-day/): In honor of National Coming Out Day, here’s a beautiful essay by Peggy Campolo that meant a lot to me when I first read it: In God’s House There Are  Many Closets.
- [Tony Campolo in Canada: Gays, Ex-Gays, Rights and Wrongs](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/tony-campolo-in-canada-gays-ex-gays-rights-and-wrongs/): Evangelical leader Tony Campolo addressed an audience in Oakville, Ontario, on Saturday, telling them that the “absent father” theory of homosexuality was “the dumbest thing I ever heard.” Citing statistics on single-parent families, he added that, if the theory were true, “Camden, New Jersey, would be the gay capital of the world.” Campolo, a sociologist and Baptist pastor known for his liberal views, despite holding a conservative view of Scripture, was guest speaker at Relevant Engagement, the 2010 fundraiser for New Direction, a Canadian Christian ministry that reaches out to those “outside the heterosexual mainstream.” He said that while genetic and...
- [Disgraced Goldberg Still Finds an Audience Among Evangelicals](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/disgraced-goldberg-still-finds-an-audience-among-evangelicals/): Arthur Goldberg, the ex-gay leader exposed earlier this year as a convicted Wall Street felon, will speak at a conference in Northern Ireland in November. Arthur Abba Goldberg was jailed in 1989 after being convicted of fraud. He later founded JONAH, the Jewish ex-gay ministry originally known as Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, but whose recent name change made it the confusing Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing. Goldberg appears to have deliberately hidden his identity, and stepped down from the highly anti-gay NARTH when the story became public in February. He subsequently blamed everyone but himself for the fiasco. Evidently...
- [XGW Digest: October 9, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/xgw-digest-october-9-2010/): -Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls for an end to bullying. -Andrew Sullivan ponders the possibility of a major homophobic backlash. -Johannesburg Pride draws attention to the plight of LGBT individuals in Africa. -The National Organization for Marriage launches a media campaign attacking New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage. -Blogger John Shore challenges the notion that being gay is just another “sinful temptation.” -Musician John Mellencamp asks the National Organization for Marriage to stop using his music at their rallies. -Christine Bakke questions the depth of Exodus’ opposition to anti-gay bullying. -A Maine house candidate...
- [New Direction Ministry's Generous Space: Discussion Thread](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/new-direction-ministrys-generous-space/): New Direction, the Ontario-based Christian ministry known to Ex-Gay Watch readers for its 2009 break with Exodus International, will host Relevant Engagement this weekend, with guest speaker Tony Campolo, the evangelical speaker and University of Pennsylvania sociologist. The event will be live-streamed on the official website from 6.30pm onwards on Saturday, October 9. New Direction began in 1985 as an ex-gay ministry, but over the last few years has rejected the narrow confines and false dichotomies of the ex-gay movement and broadened its mission to embracing gays and lesbians wherever they are in their faith journey and however they reconcile their faith and...
- [Exodus International Shuts Down 'Day of Truth'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/10/exodus-international-shuts-down-day-of-truth/): Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, has announced that they will no longer sponsor the annual Day of Truth (DOT) event which has been used for the past few years to counter the Day of Silence.  The DOS was first proposed by Maria Pulzetti, and organized by other students at the University of Virginia in 1996.  In 2000, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) proposed that it become an officially sponsored project. Chambers confirmed to XGW that the activist component of the DOT contributed to a polarizing debate rather than a relational dialogue.  “As a tool, it seemed to...
- [You Can't Stop Homophobic Bullying without Talking about Homophobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/you-cant-stop-homophobic-bullying-without-talking-about-homophobia/): Several anti-gay and ex-gay Christian and political groups want to prevent schools from addressing homophobic bullying by name. Day of Truth, sponsored by Exodus International, exists in deliberate opposition to Day of Silence, a day established to address the problem of anti-gay bullying and harassment in schools. And yet the last few weeks have seen a spate of high-profile teen suicides apparently provoked by homophobic bullying. Billy Lucas, Jaheem Herrera, Seth Walsh and Asher Brown are just a few of the most recent teenagers to kill themselves after being bullied because they were–or people thought they were–gay. Today, police have identified...
- [Video: Crazy Closeted Cyberstalker or Logical Extension of Anti-Gay Rhetoric?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/video-crazy-closeted-cyberstalker-or-logical-extension-of-anti-gay-rhetoric/): This is almost too bizarre for words.
- [XGW Digest: September 25, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/xgw-digest-september-25-2010/): -Russian LGBT activist Nikolai Alekseev resurfaces, shares what really happened following his abduction by Russian authorities. -Houston mayor Annise Parker receives favorable ratings from her constituents. -Lady Gaga hosts a rally in Maine urging the state’s senators to vote to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -New York Gov. David Paterson signs a law allowing gay couples and other unmarried partners to jointly adopt children. -Dan Choi debates Bishop Harry Jackson over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -The US Senate fails to invoke cloture to bring a bill that would repeal DADT to a vote. -A Florida appeals court rules that the state’s...
- [Atlanta Megachurch Bishop Accused of Male Sexual Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/atlanta-megachurch-bishop-accused-of-male-sexual-abuse/): An anti-gay pastor with a congregation of over 25,000 has been accused of sexually abusing three male teenagers. According to the allegations, Bishop Eddie Long, a fierce critic of same-sex marriage, coerced three young men, aged between 17 and 19 at the time, into sexual activity. Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg, now 20 and 21, filed a lawsuit Tuesday, sayings the bishop talked them into sexual massages and “oral sodomy” by telling them it was part of their spiritual development. According to this transcript from CNN, the relationships began with a “ceremony,” during which jewellery was exchanged and a covenant was...
- [Book Review Part 2: The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality: Gays in the Military](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/book-review-part-2-the-complete-christian-guide-to-understanding-homosexuality-gays-in-the-military/): Subtitle: A Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction General Editors: Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche — Introduction (Part 1) here. I wanted to start Part 2 with the beginning chapters that put the rest of the book in perspective, but this issue seems timely enough to skip to. — Chapter 21: Gays in the Military, by Joe Dallas, co-editor and main author of the book. It should first be observed that while Scripture condemns homosexual behavior, it says nothing of the general characteristics of homosexual people. [p378, emph mine] Except when Scripture actually does speak to the characteristics of homosexuality:...
- [XGW Digest: September 18, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/xgw-digest-september-18-2010/): -Arson is suspected in the burning of a Tennessee lesbian couple’s home. -A gay Saudi Arabian diplomat seeks asylum in the US. -Florida governor and US senate candidate Charlie Crist assembles a paper supporting gay rights in general but not marriage equality. -Highlands Church in Denver celebrates its first anniversary. -An Indiana teenager commits suicide following years of anti-gay bullying. -Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid files for cloture on a bill to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -The National Organization for Marriage’s effort to influence the DC city council elections flops. -Delaware’s Republican candidate for US Senate, Christine O’Donnell, has ties...
- [Exodus Global Alliance Denied Tax Exempt Status in New Zealand](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/exodus-global-alliance-denied-tax-exempt-status-in-new-zealand/): Exodus Global Alliance has enjoyed tax-exempt status in New Zealand for more than 10 years. This year, however, they have been denied that status on the grounds that they do not meet one of the requirements for being declared a “charity,” providing a “public benefit:” Exodus Ministries has had charitable status, exempting it from income tax, for more than a decade but the status was removed by the Charities Commission this month under a regime introduced in 2007. The commission said the trust was not performing any public benefit because homosexuality was not a mental disorder and did not need curing....
- [XGW Digest: September 11, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/xgw-digest-september-11-2010/): -The Atlanta, GA police department creates an LGBT advisory board. -Montana’s Tea Party organization fires its president for posting anti-gay comments on Facebook. -Serbia’s LGBT community plans its first pride parade since 2001. -Religious right activists in Iowa twist Sandra Day O’Connor’s words to promote their campaign against the judges who brought same-sex marriage to the state. -New York Gov. David Paterson signs a comprehensive anti-bullying bill. -Colorado Governor Bill Ritter appoints a gay latina to the state’s supreme court. -The US Air Force Academy’s alumni association cancels an event to honor LGBT servicemembers. -The California Supreme Court rejects a request...
- [RIP Actor, Beetlejuice Co-Star Glenn Shadix](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/rip-actor-beetlejuice-co-star-glenn-shadix/): The actor Glenn Shadix has died at the age of 58. His films included Demolition Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Planet of the Apes, but his most-celebrated role was as the camp interior designer Otho in Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice. In 2009, Shadix, who as a young gay man underwent aversion therapy at the behest of his father, gave an exclusive interview to Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out: Glenn Shadix, April 15, 1952 – September 7, 2010
- [Marin Dismisses Criticisms, Irks Anti-Gay Scholar Gagnon](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/marin-dismisses-criticisms-anti-gay-scholar-gagnon-irked/): Andrew Marin has provoked fellow evangelical Professor Robert Gagnon to fury after Gagnon published a 24-page debunking of Marin’s book Love Is an Orientation. Gagnon is perhaps the most prolific biblical scholar supporting the traditional reading of the Bible on the subject of homosexuality. For years, he has happily propped up the anti-gay and ex-gay movements with his scholarship, going so far as to join the notoriously extreme Peter LaBarbera’s “Truth Academy.” Marin, a one-time “Bible-banging homophobe,” says he wants to put aside theological issues and “build bridges” with gays and lesbians. He steers away from commenting publicly on whether homosexuality is...
- [XGW Digest: September 4, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/xgw-digest-september-4-2010/): -Focus on the Family reiterates its objection to protecting gay students from bullying. -The New Zealand government denies charitable status to an ex-gay program. -African viewers respond negatively to the sight of two women sharing a bed on an episode of Big Brother: Africa. -Another Republican speaks out in favor of marriage equality. -Tasmania, Australia takes a step toward recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. -The Fifth District Court of Appeals overturns a lower court’s decision that would have allowed a married gay couple to divorce in Texas. -Fidel Castro acknowledges the injustice of his government’s persecution of gay Cubans. -Businesses in...
- [NSFW: Martin Ssempa Meets Tosh.0](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/nsfw-martin-ssempa-meets-tosh-0/): Only Comedy Central can really do justice to the absurdity of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill proponent Martin Ssempa.   Tosh.0 is one of my favorites. Doing research  — where have I heard that one before?
- [Book Review: Introduction: 'The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/09/book-review-introduction-the-complete-christian-guide-to-understanding-homosexuality/): Subtitle: A Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction (part2, part3) “Wouldn’t it be great if this book could be a one-stop resource?” So we selected the main topics associated with homosexuality —theological, clinical, social, political, and familial—then solicited contributions from a variety of authors with specific expertise. The result is a comprehensive guide providing biblically based insights into the many issues the subject raises. [p16-emph in original] There is much ground to cover here. The book is nearly 500 pages long and most of the information contained is an organized conglomeration of things we’ve been hearing for years and rebutted...
- [XGW Digest: August 28, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/xgw-digest-august-28-2010/): -Ann Coulter’s firefight with religious right activists angry at her for agreeing to speak at a GOProud event escalates. -LGBT demonstrators face off against supporters of anti-gay Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez in Guadalajara, Mexico. -Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America tries to correlate the low rate of high school graduation among black males with acceptance of same-sex marriage. -A gay couple files a lawsuit challenging Wyoming’s marriage laws. -Focus on the Family once again changes its tune to suit its agenda. -Alyssa Eisenstein captures the opinions of Ugandans on the issue of homosexuality in their own words. -A gay political...
- [In Brief: California Senate Approves Bill to End State-Mandated Research for "Gay Cure"](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/in-brief-california-senate-approves-bill-to-end-state-mandated-research-for-gay-cure/): The California Senate approved a bill to end a law passed in 1950 that classifies gays as sexual deviants and potential child molesters. The 60-year-old piece of legislation requires the Department of Mental Health to research the causes and potential cures for homosexuality. The bill, AB2199, was carried by Sen. Roy Ashburn, a Republican from Bakersfield. Ashburn came out as gay earlier this year after he was cited for driving drunk while leaving a gay bar. The measure passed 36-0 without debate. PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) objected to the bill, and reportedly called the repeal effort “offensive.”
- [Exodus International Lays off Staff, Cuts Benefits](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/exodus-international-lays-off-staff-cuts-benefits/): Minutes ago, Exodus President Alan Chambers announced the following on the organizations Facebook page: Dear friends, please pray for us at Exodus. We have experienced an unexpectedly low giving season this summer coupled with much higher expenses (insurance, utilities, etc). Sadly, we have had to let several staff go. Your prayers are appreciated. For those who are also having to endure this unfriendly economy, our prayers are with you! On his own page, Chambers adds that they have cut benefits as well.  Exodus left a modest set of leased offices in the Spring of 2008 in favor of their own building,...
- [Identical Twins Do Not Have Identical DNA](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/identical-twins-do-not-have-identical-dna/): A study that was published in 2008 blows away the belief that monozygotic twins, also called identical twins, have the same DNA. Geneticist Carl Bruder of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his colleagues studied the genomes of 19 pairs of adult identical twins and found sites of genetic divergence in each pair. Such divergences occur when there are a different number of copies of the same gene, a genetic state called “copy number variants.” For example, one twin in Bruder’s study had a genetic marker for leukemia – specific genes on particular chromosomes were missing. While this twin did...
- [XGW Digest: August 21, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/xgw-digest-august-21-2010/): -NOM’s sparsely attended “Summer For Marriage” tour concludes in Washington, DC. -Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach reaches an agreement in federal court over his discharge under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Mexico’s Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples in Mexico City have a right to adopt. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals grants a stay on Judge Walker’s ruling against Proposition 8. -Radio Host Penna Dexter recasts Brandon McInerny, murderer of gay teen Larry King, as King’s victim. -Germany’s Constitutional Court grants equal inheritance rights to same-sex couples. -BuzzFeed chronicles “The 10 Dumbest Maggie Gallagher Quotes.” -A religious right group creatively edits a...
- [Hong Kong Christians Recycle NARTH Material to Attack Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/hong-kong-christians-recycle-narth-material-to-attack-gays/): A right-wing Christian group in Hong Kong has published a 52-page booklet condemning homosexuals and promoting reparative therapy to change sexual orientation. The Society for Truth and Light has drawn heavily from the anti-gay National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality to produce Acceptance–Caring for Homosexuality. To support the notion that gays can be turned straight through therapy, the booklet cites the usual flawed studies with their neglible results, including Spitzer (2001), Jones and Yarhouse (2007), and the infamous non-study by James Phelan, Neil Whitehead and Philip Sutton (2009)–a literature review falsely touted by NARTH as a groundbreaking new study. One...
- [XGW Digest: August 14, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/xgw-digest-august-14-2010/): -Attorney David Boies takes on Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins on Face the Nation. -Stephen Colbert weighs in on the Prop 8 ruling. -Mexico’s Supreme Court rules that Mexico City’s marriage equality law is constitutional. -The anti-gay “Truth Academy” flops. -Fox News commentator Margaret Hoover advises conservatives to rethink their opposition to marriage equality. -Another researcher accuses religious right activists of distorting his work. -Ms. Magazine columnist David Dismore reminds readers what “traditional marriage” really entailed. -The American Bar Association announces its support for marriage equality. -Pam Spaulding reports from NOM’s Raleigh stop. -An evangelical Christian rethinks her support for Proposition...
- [Exodus Blog Supports Lawsuit Filed to Fight Religious Freedom At University](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/exodus-blog-supports-lawsuit-filed-to-fight-religious-freedom-at-university/): A recent case involving the dismissal of a graduate student studying counseling at the Augusta State University in Georgia has Religious Right media outlets in a spin. The student is Jennifer Keeton, who was enrolled in the Counselor Education Program at the school. She identifies as a Christian and believes that homosexuality is a choice. Since every major medical and educational organization in the United States declares otherwise, this put her at odds with the University curriculum. She was offered a remediation plan to increase her “ability to be a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian,...
- [XGW Digest: August 6, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/xgw-digest-august-6-2010/): -Focus on the Family lays off another 110 employees. -Chilean Senator Fulvio Rossi announces plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill. -NOM’s summer tour meets with more tepid responses in Des Moines and Sioux City, IA. -Bishop Harry Jackson claims that opposition to marriage equality is akin to fighting for civil rights. -The Family Research Council sinks to new lows to smear a gay soldier. -A human rights commission finds that an Illinois school superintendent was fired for being gay. -The Prop 8 Report sheds new light on what did and didn’t work in the 2008 campaign against the amendment.
- [Prop 8 Struck Down, Gay Marriage in California](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/prop-8-struck-down-gay-marriage-in-california/): In Perry v. Schwarzenegger, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker has found that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice.  While this is undoubtedly the first step in successive legal battles over this issue, the unlikely team of Ted Olsen and David Boies is proving to be a formidable foe of those who wish to deny marriage equality. Readers can get a copy of the final ruling here, but the main thrust of it comes in the remedy section: Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates...
- [JONAH Still Supports 'Receiving Healthy Touch and Affection'](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/jonah-still-supports-receiving-healthy-touch-and-affection/): It hasn’t been an easy year for JONAH. First, their co-founder Arthur “Abba” Goldberg was outed as a convicted felon. Then, a scandal broke about how two young Orthodox Jewish men were engaged in bizarre, naked therapy wherein it was reported a much older man, Alan Downing, instructed them to touch their genitals in front of a mirror while he watched. This scandal led to an awkward (though ironically more accurate) name change, “Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing.” Now a statement has been signed by many Orthodox rabbis confirming their support for gay people, including their “religious right to reject”...
- [Orthodox Rabbis Sign Statement Supporting Rejection of Ex-Gay Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/08/orthodox-rabbis-sign-statement-supporting-rejection-of-ex-gay-therapy/): Dozens of Orthodox Rabbis have signed a statement of principles expressing support for the inclusion of gay Jews in their community, but still rejecting complete acceptance of same-sex partnering and marriage. One particular point stands out: 5. Whatever the origin or cause of homosexual orientation, many individuals believe that for most people this orientation cannot be changed. Others believe that for most people it is a matter of free will. Similarly, while some mental health professionals and rabbis in the community strongly believe in the efficacy of “change therapies”, most of the mental health community, many rabbis, and most people with...
- [XGW Digest: July 31, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/xgw-digest-july-31-2010/): -NOM’s Summer for Marriage tour scores a modestly successful turnout in St. Paul, MN after playing to near-empty plazas in Lima, OH; Indianapolis, IN and Madison, WI.  Turnout returned to normal in Rochester and St. Cloud. -The New Jersey Supreme Court declines to hear a case petitioning for marriage equality. -Target donates $150,000 to an organization with anti-gay ties. -Clay Greene, an elderly gay man forcibly separated from his dying partner, wins a $600,000 settlement from Sonoma County, California. -Nepal to host its first gay pride event. -NOM’s summer tour draws out some of its more radical supporters. -A new study...
- [JONAH Now Offering 'New Alternatives to Healing'?](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/jonah-now-offering-new-alternatives-to-healing/): Wayne Besen points out a bizarre change in the name of the ex-gay organization JONAH. Formerly Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, JONAH have apparently changed (most) references to their name on the website to Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing. (As of writing this article, they have neglected to change it in their header, making the old name visible at the top of internet browsers and in search engines.) It is no surprise that JONAH would try to revamp their image following two recent scandals, but it is a surprise that they have chosen a name that makes no sense....
- [Video: Scott Lively on The Daily Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/video-scott-lively-on-the-daily-show/): The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
- [Activists to Accused Ex-Gay Therapist: Take a Lie Detector Test](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/activists-to-accused-ex-gay-therapist-take-a-lie-detector-test/): Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen has challenged Alan Downing to take a lie detector test following claims that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two male clients: In light of his public denial, Truth Wins Out offered to pay for both a polygraph and a No Lie MRI for Downing, so he can prove his alleged innocence. … We believe that Alan Downing is not telling the truth and that his brain would light up like a Menorah if he took a No Lie MRI. I’m not convinced either lie detector test is the way to go. No evidence exists that...
- [Clients Accuse Ex-Gay Life Coach of Sexual Misconduct](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/clients-accuse-ex-gay-life-coach-of-sexual-misconduct/): Two men have accused Alan Downing, a life coach with Richard Cohen’s ex-gay International Healing Foundation, of using sexually inappropriate therapy techniques, according to Truth Wins Out. On separate occasions, Downing allegedly asked Ben Unger and Chaim Levin to undress in front of a mirror and fondle their genitals while he watched, saying this would help them affirm their masculinity. Downing is a close associate of JONAH, the Jewish ex-gay organization whose leader Arthur Abba Goldberg was exposed as a convicted Wall Street felon earlier this year. He has also run courses and retreats for the controversial Mankind Project., and worked with...
- [XGW Digest: July 24, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/xgw-digest-july-24-2010/): -The National Organization for Marriage’s summer marriage tour continues to draw embarrassingly small turnouts in Albany, Providence, Trenton, Annapolis and Columbus. -Warsaw, Poland hosts the 2010 EuroPride festival. -President Mary McAleese signs Ireland’s civil partnership bill into law. -Gay teen Derrick Martin organizes Project LifeVest to help other LGBT teenagers facing discrimination. -Two former clients of ex-gay counselor Alan Downing accuse him of sexual misconduct. -The United Nations grants consultative status to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. -Outed California State Senator Roy Ashburn apologizes for his past opposition to gay rights. -Rob Tisinai takes fellow activists to task...
- [XGW Digest: July 17, 2010](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/xgw-digest-july-17-2010/): -Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer announces plans to marry in Connecticut to protest New York’s lack of marriage equality. -The University of Illinois decides not to renew the contract of a professor who spoke negatively of gays and lesbians. -The Southern Nevada Health District severs its relationship with Canyon Ridge Christian Church due to the church’s ongoing partnership with anti-gay Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. -Many Tea Party activists support the court decision striking down portions of the Defense of Marriage Act. -Argentina becomes the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriage. -The Washington, DC Court of Appeals upholds the city’s...
- [Video: Anti-Marriage Equality in Crisis](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/video-anti-marriage-equality-in-crisis/): Well said. Hat Tip: BTB
- [British Comedienne 'Leaves Lesbianism' Disappointed After High Expectations Weren't Met](https://exgaywatch.com/2010/07/british-comedienne-leaves-lesbianism-disappointed-after-high-expectations-werent-met/): An article from the UK’s Daily Mail bears this title: How I went from committed lesbian to a happily married mother of four. It describes British comedienne Jackie Clune’s winding testimonial as a woman who, once “committed” to her lesbian identity, decided to “try men again” after growing tired of lousy relationships and rigid, self-imposed stereotypes. In a 2005 article from The Times entitled Love, etc. Clune called lesbian culture “dictatorial and intimidating” and “the opposite of the sapphic fluffy nirvana [she] expected.” She married a man and finally had a family, something she “never thought possible” as a lesbian. The...
- [XGW Digest: October 8, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/xgw-digest-october-8-2011/): -A Tennessee pastor and his deacons attack a gay couple to stop them from entering his church. -New York City gets its first transgender firefighter. -Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain proclaims that being gay is a choice. -The Presbyterian Church (USA) prepares to ordain its first openly gay pastor. -The National Organization for Marriage is less than congratulatory about the birth of Congressman Jared Polis’ son. -South African investigators look into the recent murders of five gay men. -A new study suggests that employers are less likely to interview openly gay job candidates. -British Prime Minister David Cameron clarifies why he...
- [Gay Christian? New Direction Has Your Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/gay-christian-new-direction-has-your-back/): The Toronto-based ministry New Direction is controversial. As a former Exodus organization that now aspires to “bridge the gap” between Christians and LGBT people, both Christian and non-Christian, it invites suspicion from both sides. On Saturday, I was honoured to be a guest at Relevant Engagement, New Direction’s annual fundraiser. Last year, I joined the event via livestream and later blogged about sociologist and evangelical pastor Tony Campolo’s message. This year, the format was different. There was no big-name speaker; instead, Executive Director Wendy Gritter invited a handful of people to join her in comfy armchairs on stage, and she interviewed them...
- [XGW Digest: October 1, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/xgw-digest-october-1-2011/): -Actor Sean Maher comes out of the closet. -A Seattle couple is subjected to anti-gay threats. -The US Census Bureau releases its first-ever count of married same-sex couples. -Southwest Airlines defends its decision to kick a lesbian couple off of one of its flights. -New details come to light in the case of a student suspended for making anti-gay remarks. -A new proposal is introduced to increase penalties against same-sex marriage in Nigeria. -Congressman Jared Polis and his partner become fathers for the first time. -The Serbian government cancels Belgrade Pride due to fears of violence. -The Pentagon will now permit...
- [Ex-Gay Study Nothing New, Same Flawed Data](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/ex-gay-study-nothing-new-same-flawed-data/): A 2007 study of sexual orientation change is back in the news following its publication in a scientific journal. But despite conservative Christians’ championing of the research as proof that gays can change, the article presents nothing new. Stanton L Jones of Wheaton College, IL, and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University, VA, followed 61 subjects over about seven years of ex-gay therapy to assess whether homosexuals could change.  It was published by Inter-Varsity Press in 2007 as Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. Interested readers can revisit Dr Patrick Chapman’s three-part review of the study to see clearly why...
- [NARTH Absent from Relaunched Exodus Bookstore](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/narth-absent-from-relaunched-exodus-bookstore/): Exodus International has relaunched its online bookstore at Exodusbooks.org, but some key titles are missing from the shelves. In particular, there appear to be no books by the notorious Dr Joseph Nicolosi, the father of ex-gay reparative therapy and former president of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Nicolosi’s seminal work Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality (1992), in which he articulated his view that distant fathers and overbearing mothers cause homosexuality, is no longer listed. Also missing are Nicolosi’s A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality and NARTH’s Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions, although I can’t confirm if those...
- [XGW Digest: September 24, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/xgw-digest-september-24-2011/): -Focus on the Family announces another round of layoffs. -Klaus Wowereit, openly gay mayor of Berlin, is reelected to a third term. -“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” officially ends. -Anti-gay vandals target a Colorado family farm. -Another teen commits suicide in the wake of anti-gay bullying. – Exodus International’s North Atlantic regional conference draws more protesters than attendees. -Maggie Gallagher steps aside as chair of the National Organization for Marriage. -President Obama exhorts the United Nations to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. -A gay soldier is booed by audience members at the latest GOP presidential debate. -A Republican congresswoman signs...
- [Anti-Gay Michael Brown to Speak at NARTH Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/anti-gay-michael-brown-to-speak-at-narth-conference/): Anti-gay activist Dr Michael L Brown will be a guest speaker at NARTH’s conference in Arizona this fall. Brown, who recently self-published a massive diatribe against the “gay agenda” titled A Queer Thing Happened to America, will appear at a plenary session on November 4. We’ve already documented extensively Brown’s anti-gay rhetoric and his hostile, inflammatory stance towards gays and lesbians. To this history of homophobia, he recently added a skewed interpretation of the death of Lawrence King, the California teen shot dead by classmate Brandon McInerney. Writing on OneNewsNow.com, Brown placed the blame for Larry’s death on gay activism: And...
- [Exodus Spent Over $1 Million on How to Change from Gay to Straight, IRS Records Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/exodus-spent-over-1-million-on-how-to-change-from-gay-to-straight-irs-records-show/): During the years from 2005 to 2007, IRS records show Exodus designated over $1 million for “various education programs and publications that explain how to change sexual orientation…” This period begins several years into Alan Chambers’ tenure as Exodus President, and covers what might be called their pinnacle.  While those of us who study Exodus may not find this particularly startling, we must remember that they have vehemently denied ever having this as their goal.  To have an official record stating those intentions is important. Of course, Exodus’ history is littered with evidence of their emphasis on change.  Their motto, Change...
- [US Military Catches up with Modern World, DADT History](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/us-military-catches-up-with-modern-world-dadt-history/): I’m not a soldier, and I never have been. But I’m guessing if you have the mental and physical strength to protect lives and take lives while preserving your own life in the face of constant deadly danger most of us will never experience, you also have whatever it takes to share close quarters with a soldier you know to be gay. Today, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell goes into effect. The US military no longer requires gay soldiers to remain in the closet. Gays and lesbians can now get on with serving their country without the unnecessary, unjustifiable...
- [XGW Digest: September 17, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/xgw-digest-september-17-2011/): -Authorities in Ecuador shut down thirty ex-gay clinics. -Gay MP David Norris re-enters the Irish presidential race at the encouragement of his supporters. -The Oregon Republican party announces that it will remove anti-gay statements from its official platform. -The North Carolina legislature approves an anti-gay marriage amendment for a May 2012 vote. -Clint Eastwood voices his support for marriage equality. -A New Hampshire House panel advances a bill that would repeal the state’s marriage equality law. -Ugandan LGBT advocate Frank Mugisha wins a human rights award. -The National Religious Broadcasters see anti-Christian bias everywhere.
- [Recent Exodus 'Love Won Out' Turnout Could be Lowest Yet](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/recent-exodus-love-won-out-turnout-could-be-lowest-yet/): Last weekend saw the latest Love Won Out conference, the ex-gay roadshow which was once sponsored by Focus on the Family (with Exodus as partners) but is now completely run by Exodus International.  The latest locale was Sugarland, Texas (outside Houston) — firmly in the Bible Belt and where one might expect more than the usual number of sympathetic participants. According to he Houston Chronicle, however, that doesn’t seem to have been the case.  They report 450 in attendance, for what we believe is the lowest figure yet — certainly in recent years.  That’s less than half the numbers reported in...
- [XGW Digest: September 10, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/xgw-digest-september-10-2011/): -Openly gay congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) officially announces her candidacy for the US Senate. -An Orthodox Rabbi offers a for matchmaking service that marries gay men to lesbians. -Three men in Iran are convicted and executed for committing sodomy. -A federal appeals court rules that the state of Arizona can’t discriminate against its LGBT employees. -Rap artist The Game encourages gay rappers to come out of the closet. -Yet another court rules against NOM’s efforts to evade campaign disclosure laws. -An effort to legalize same-sex marriage in Colorado fails to garner enough support for a 2012 ballot initiative. -Support for marriage...
- [Polish University Cancels Ex-Gay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/polish-university-cancels-ex-gay-conference/): A conference on gay-to-straight therapy has been forced to seek a new venue after a Polish university withdrew its support. The event, featuring notorious NARTH therapist Joseph Nicolosi, was due to take place on September 16 at the Medical School Foundation in Poznan, Poland. The institution cancelled the event before the contract was signed, however, following criticism by the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. A front-page story pointed to the American Psychological Association (APA) resolution stating there was a lack of evidence to support the claims of reparative therapists to reverse or cure homosexuality. The university said hosting the conference “identifies [reparative therapy]...
- [XGW Digest: September 3, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/xgw-digest-september-3-2011/): -HRC president Joe Solmonese announces that he will step down at the end of his current term. -New York City major Michael Bloomberg endorses lesbian city council speaker Christine Quinn as his successor. -Straight ally Kathy Baldock stands up to anti-gay protesters at Pride Charlotte. -Warren Throckmorton examines the Dominionist movement. -A Penn State student challenges Rick Santorum’s misuse of social science data. -An anti-gay assault takes place in Salt Lake City. -The National Organization for Marriage’s online fundraiser bombs. -The Larry King murder trial ends in a mistrial.
- [Love In Action Suspends Residential Program](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/09/love-in-action-suspends-residential-program/): Love In Action, the flagship ex-gay ministry of Exodus International, has shut down its residential program. A statement on its website says: Love In Action’s Residential program has been suspended indefinitely. Simply put, there is a significant need to bring all of LIA under one location for it to be more cost effective. We continue to counsel and grow through our 4-Day Intensives, Hourly Counseling, Conferences, Support Groups, and Church Assistance Program. The Memphis-based ministry is the subject of a new documentary, This Is What Love in Action Looks Like. The feature-length film follows the 2007 controversy over gay teen Zach...
- [Tampa Bay Rays Say 'It Gets Better'](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/tampa-bay-rays-say-it-gets-better/): Our local team joins this excellent effort, so I just had to post it.  Thanks guys!  
- [Ron Reagan Jr. on the Polygamy Argument](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/ron-reagan-jr-and-me-on-the-polygamy-argument/): Wednesday, August 24, 2011 full transcript / msnbc video — Ron Reagan Jr. was filling in for Chris Matthews last week on Hardball. In the “Let me finish” portion at the end of the show, Ron refutes (fmr. Sen. (R)) Rick Santorum’s (et al), claim that gay marriage will lead to polygamy — the “slippery slope” fallacy/argument. [youtube width=”290″ height=”175″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rliV6yx0Mfc[/youtube] The pith of it is this: Ron Reagan Jr.: “Santorum and many of his anti-gay colleagues can do a lot better than paper towels. They’re fond of claiming that if gay people would be allowed to wed, we’d also have to...
- [Exodus Encourages Loneliness, Celibacy Among Young Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/exodus-encourages-loneliness-celibacy-among-young-gays/): It’s not news that the solution Exodus gives to young people for their attraction to the same sex is to refrain from acting on it and “deny themselves for Christ.” But a recent article brings Exodus to a new Orwellian level, this time by saying that being ascetic with one’s interpersonal relationships is a Godly calling when you are gay. In “Loneliness is Good,” an article cross-posted to the Exodus Student Blog, Mike Goeke tells of his struggle to find Christian male friends after being told doing so would be a way to help heal his homosexuality. I read many books,...
- [XGW Digest: August 27, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/xgw-digest-august-27-2011/): -Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) comes out in support of marriage equality. -Joseph Farah claims that gays and Muslims are working together to destroy America. -A 19-year-old is beaten to death in an anti-gay attack in Iowa. -The Family Research Council quietly backs down from a false claim. -A new study discovers that bisexuals really do exist. -Focus on the Family worries that airing last year’s Prop 8 trial would lead to the murder of Christians. -A judge in Texas forbids a gay father from leaving his children in the care of his legally wedded husband. -Texas Gov. Rick Perry signs NOM’s...
- [Randy Thomas Puts Himself in the Spotlight, Post-Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/randy-thomas-puts-himself-in-the-spotlight-post-exodus/): Randy Thomas believes change is possible, and to prove it, he changes his blog roughly once every six months. His latest blog is Confessions of an Ex-Gay Superstar, and here’s his personal video introduction to the new site: Amid dwindling support for Exodus International, Randy Thomas stepped down as its vice-president in April this year, taking on a part-time role coordinating digital media for the organization. In June, he left Exodus altogether, saying it was a “new season” in his life and denying any connection to Exodus International’s declining fortunes.
- [XGW Digest: August 20, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/xgw-digest-august-20-2011/): -Christians in Ghana march against “gayism.” -Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann insists that she doesn’t judge gay people. -GLSEN stands up to the Family Research Council. -A Kentucky church is expelled from the local Baptist association for allowing a PFLAG group to meet in its building. -Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin marries a lesbian couple. -Former senate candidate Christine O’Donnell walks out on Piers Morgan after being asked about her views on gay marriage. -The Obama administration issues new immigration policies that may help same-sex couples facing separation by deportation. -NOM president Brian Brown rehashes the claim that marriage equality will lead to legalized...
- [XGW Digest: August 13, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/xgw-digest-august-13-2011/): -Czech president Vaclav Klaus condemns the embassies of 13 European nations for issuing a statement supporting Prague’s pride festival. -Jim Burroway is unimpressed by the turnout to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer rally, “The Response.” -The American Bar Association awards one of its highest honors to Ted Olson and David Boies for their work against Prop 8. -A married gay couple loses their battle against deportation. -Five men are arrested on suspicion of homosexuality in Zimbabwe. -Gay conservative group GOProud names Ann Coulter as its honorary chair. -Chilean president Sebastian Piñera introduces a civil unions bill. -The Republican presidential candidates voice...
- [Review: This Is What Love in Action Looks Like](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/review-this-is-what-love-in-action-looks-like/): The new documentary This Is What Love in Action Looks Like is the definitive account of one of the most shameful episodes in the 40-year history of the ex-gay movement. It’s the story of what happened to gay teenager Zach Stark at Love In Action, a Memphis, TN-based ex-gay ministry, in the summer of 2005. Zach, then 16, told his parents he was gay. They reacted badly. “They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they have raised me wrong,” he wrote on his MySpace blog. “I’m a big screw up to them, who isn’t on the path...
- [XGW Digest: August 6, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/xgw-digest-august-6-2011/): -Vandals trash the office of a Ugandan LGBT rights group and steal its member database. -The National Organization for Marriage acknowledges that heterosexuals are destroying their own marriages. -The Suquamish Tribe in Washington State legalizes same-sex marriage. -The American Psychological Association unanimously votes to endorse marriage equality. -The Sao Paulo, Brazil city council votes to institute a Heterosexual Pride Day. -Gay Irish presidential candidate David Norris drops out of the race. -Three Republican presidential candidates sign NOM’s marriage pledge. -The last known gay survivor of the Holocaust passes away.
- [IRS Revokes Peter LaBarbera's AFTAH Tax Exempt Status](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/08/irs-revokes-peter-labarberas-aftah-tax-exempt-status/): According to the IRS, the tax-exempt status of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) was revoked on 5/10/2010 (PDF). The reason for this action is listed by the reporting organization Guidestar as a “failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years.”  These forms are required of legitimate non-profit organizations for review by the IRS and the public. While the current incarnation of AFTAH appears to have been active since 2006, we found only one form 990-EZ on file — for the year 2009 (PDF).  In this, total receipts are listed as $110.000, out of which...
- [XGW Digest: July 30, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/xgw-digest-july-30-2011/): -Same-sex couples begin marrying in New York. -Disney’s Weddings & Honeymoons blog highlights a gay wedding. -Anti-gay activist Bradlee Dean sues Rachel Maddow for quoting him. -A lesbian couple helps save several dozen campers during the Norway massacre. -Colombia’s Constitutional Court orders the legislature to pass a same-sex marriage bill within the next two years. -Anti-gay activists bring donkeys to protest Jerusalem’s Pride event. -Television personality Mo Rocca comes out of the closet. -All but one member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation participate in an “It Gets Better” video. -The California Supreme Court sets a September date to hear Perry vs....
- [Ann Coulter Throws Her Support Behind Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/ann-coulter-throws-her-support-behind-ex-gays/): Some lady who’ll say anything to get a bit of attention thinks some people can pray away the gay: In the interview, with The View host Joy Behar, Coulter points to a Michael Glatze story in the New York Times as evidence that gays can change. “[Glatze] used to run a big gay magazine in San Francisco, and then he found God, and he’s not gay any more,” she said, adding that “the most important part of the story … was that he’s a huge Ann Coulter fan.”
- [NARTH Responds to Marcus Bachmann Criticisms](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/narth-responds-to-marcus-bachmann-criticisms/): The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality has congratulated gay-to-straight conversion therapist Marcus Bachmann for “sticking to the science.” Bachmann, husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachmann, runs a clinic in Minnesota offering ex-gay therapy. His description of gays as “barbarians [that] need to be educated [and] disciplined” made headlines, prompting his embarrassing attempt to deny ever having made the remarks, claiming the recordings were doctored. (They weren’t.) Defending Bachmann in its July 26 bulletin, NARTH said that change therapies have been offered for the past century and have been found to be successful. In fact, over the...
- [NARTH No Longer Educating Therapists in California](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/narth-no-longer-educating-therapists-in-california/): The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexual is no longer offering continuing education to therapists in the state of California, according to SFGate blogger Susan Davis. Although some activists had tried to have NARTH‘s rights to provide continuing education revoked on the basis of its homophobic, pseudoscientific beliefs and practices, Davis reports the actual reason is unpaid fees to the California Board for Behavioral Science. In the article, she reveals, surprisingly, that the CBBS doesn’t have the ability to remove an organization from membership for erroneous scientific claims: As it stands now, the BBS can’t reject a continuing...
- [Come Say Hi to Ex-Gay Watch on Facebook](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/come-say-hi-to-ex-gay-watch-on-facebook/): In case you missed the news a month or two back, Ex-Gay Watch is now on Facebook. Stop by, click “Like,” and say hey!
- [Liverpool Frontline Church's Ex-Gay Ministry: Backstory](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/liverpool-frontline-churchs-ex-gay-ministry-backstory/): In the Wavertree district of Liverpool, England, Frontline Church has a ministry to gays and lesbians. It’s an ex-gay ministry, LIFE Liverpool, that they say helps people work through childhood pain to overcome their homosexuality. It was founded in 2000 with the help of Joanne Highley, head of LIFE New York City, whose unusual teachings and practices include exorcizing demons out of bodily cavities such as the anus, the mouth and the uterus. She says that the homosexual orientation is itself sinful and can be overcome by a combination of counseling and prayer. Writing for The Guardian‘s Comment is free last week,...
- [XGW Digest: July 23, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/xgw-digest-july-23-2011/): -Several hundred active duty servicemembers march in San Diego’s pride parade. -An openly gay man is selected to chair Utah’s Democratic Party. -A gay man and transgender woman in Cuba announce plans to marry on Fidel Castro’s birthday. -President Obama endorses the Respect for Marriage Act. -Andrew Sullivan reiterates his case for marriage equality. -The US Senate confirms an openly gay man as a federal judge. -A regional minister in Ghana calls for the arrest of all gays. -The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the proposed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. -An Orthodox rabbi blames the murder of...
- [Liverpool, England, Ex-Gay Ministry Grew out of Extreme NYC Group](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/liverpool-england-ex-gay-ministry-grew-out-of-extreme-nyc-group/): The ex-gay LIFE ministry, in New York City, teaches gays and lesbians that their sexual orientation is sinful and must be changed. Homosexuality is a psychological, emotional and spiritual disorder that can be overcome with prayer, deliverance and counselling, it says. It often comes with demons attached, according to leader Joanne Highley; if you’ve had any form of immoral sex, evil spirits have infected any cavity that has received an ungodly deposit of semen, whether it’s the mouth, the anus or another orifice. Once you’ve confessed the sin of homosexuality, your repentance is a process that ends with complete healing of...
- [Alan Chambers to Willow Creek: Deny Us, You Deny the Truth](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/alan-chambers-to-willow-creek-deny-us-you-deny-the-truth/): Last month, we reported that Willow Creek Community Church, the Chicago evangelical megachurch, had cut ties with ex-gay organization Exodus International. Today, Christianity Today reported the story with reaction from Exodus President Alan Chambers. Predictably, Chambers makes the break all about Exodus, revealing an attitude we’ve seen before: The choice to end our partnership is definitely something that shines a light on a disappointing trend within parts of the Christian community, which is that there are Christians who believe like one another who aren’t willing to stand with one another, simply because they’re afraid of the backlash people will direct their...
- [Exodus Says Ex-Gay Boot Camps Don't Exist, Survivors Say Otherwise](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/exodus-says-ex-gay-boot-camps-dont-exist-survivors-say-otherwise/): Exodus International’s Julie Neils, in 2010: As for those mysterious gay-to-straight “boot camps,” they don’t exist. Ex-gay survivor Kyle Luebke, in 2011: Realizing that [being gay] was not just a “phase” that I was going through, [my parents] decided that more drastic action needed to be taken. They proceeded to contact Mr. Phillips, and took his advice to send me to the “Refuge” program, a program run by the ex-gay ministry Love In Action in Memphis, Tennessee. My parents told me that I had no option but to go, considering that I was underage and still under their authority. Thus, we packed...
- [Baptist Seminary Head Al Mohler Says Gay Orientation Is Sinful](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/baptist-seminary-head-al-mohler-says-gay-orientation-is-sinful/): Influential Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler has defended gay-to-straight conversion therapy by telling readers of his latest column that being gay is in itself “deeply sinful.” Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote in the context of the controversy over the ex-gay views of therapist Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachmann. Most conservative Christians are careful to distinguish between orientation and behavior, or at least they keep the language very fuzzy, but Mohler firmly nails his colors to the mast: Actually, the Bible speaks rather directly to the sinfulness of the homosexual orientation —...
- [Married Ex-Gays Stay Homosexual, Activists Still Claim 'Ex-Gay' Is an Orientation](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/married-ex-gays-stay-homosexual-activists-still-claim-ex-gay-is-an-orientation/): The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer and ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan, of PFOX, present a litany of myths and half-truths in this AFA Radio interview: But one particularly prominent and consistent theme in the segment, as Jeremy Hooper at Good As You points out, is the PFOX claim that “ex-gay” is an orientation comparable to gay or straight. The primary reason for this bizarre notion is that anti-gay, ex-gay activists like Quinlan and Fischer want to claim that ex-gays are victims of hate crimes on account of their orientation, and therefore if anyone deserves so-called “special protection,” it’s ex-gays. This is...
- [Ex-Gay Therapist Marcus Bachmann Lies about 'Doctored' Tapes](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/ex-gay-therapist-marcus-bachmann-lies-about-doctored-tapes/): Christian therapist Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachmann, has been caught in a big lie. Late last month, recordings emerged of a 2010 radio interview with the Bachmann. He said: We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. And just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to go down that road. That’s what’s called a “sinful nature.” And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings [from] moving into the action steps. Last week, Bachmann — who has...
- [XGW Digest: July 16, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/xgw-digest-july-16-2011/): -Blake Mycoskie, founder of Tom’s Shoes, apologizes for his company’s recent association with Focus on the Family. -Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson denounces the anti-gay pledge signed by several other candidates. -The government of Chile begins drafting a civil unions bill. -A county clerk in New York resigns to avoid having to issue same-sex marriage licenses. -A bus driver tries to force a gay couple to move to the back of the bus. -Republican Mitt Romney refuses to sign Iowa Leader’s anti-gay pledge. -California Gov. Jerry Brown signs the FAIR Education Act. -An immigration judge halts deportation proceedings against a married...
- [Open Thread: Exodus' Alan Chambers on ABC News](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/open-thread-exodus-alan-chambers-on-abc-news/): Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. Watch More News Videos at ABC Alan continues to find new ways to avoid saying anything of consequence — especially the truth. Can anyone decode the double-speak into answers he does not want to give?
- [Mark Driscoll on Facebook Mockery: I Need to Do Better](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/mark-driscoll-on-facebook-mockery-i-need-to-do-better/): (Updated 07/22/11 — scroll down) Seattle preacher Mark Driscoll has provided some “some backstory” on — though not apologized for — his “flippant comment” about effeminate worship leaders, saying it arose from a conversation with a trucker, and his executive elders have since told him he needs to “do better by hitting real issues with real content in a real context.” Yesterday, we reported Driscoll’s vicious Facebook post, in which he essentially asked his followers to expose and ridicule effeminate worship leaders: So, what stories do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leaders you’ve ever personally witnessed? After...
- [Preacher Mark Driscoll Bullies, Makes Fun of Effeminate Men](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/preacher-mark-driscoll-bullies-makes-fun-of-effeminate-men/): Celebrity preacher Mark Driscoll, of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church, is a bully — though that’s no revelation to anyone familiar with his macho posturing and derisive attitude towards those who fail to live up to his archaic vision of the Christian alpha male. Now Driscoll is in trouble again over a vicious Facebook status update in which, with all the finesse of a high-school jock, he called on his followers to expose and ridicule effeminate men: So, what stories do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leaders you’ve ever personally witnessed? Before Driscoll apologists take issue with “expose...
- [ABC Nightline Segment on Ex-Gay Therapist Marcus Bachmann](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/abc-nightline-segment-on-ex-gay-therapist-marcus-bachmann/): In a report aired last night, ABC’s Nightline investigated the therapy practice of Marcus Bachmann, the husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachmann. According to a related investigation by Truth Wins Out, Bachmann practices ex-gay therapy, where he and his associates attempt to turn gay men straight. Watch the ABC segment below:
- [Focus on the Family Tries to Pull a Fast One](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/focus-on-the-family-tries-to-pull-a-fast-one/): There has been a lot of buzz lately about an apparent collaboration between charity minded Tom’s Shoes and the virulently anti-gay Focus on the Family.  It appears that the average Tom’s Shoes customer finds FoTF’s work against equal rights for LGBTs offensive and many of them let Toms’ founder, Blake Mycoskie, know about it.  This prompted the following clarification and apology.  FoTF then countered with their own response. “It’s perplexing to think that the same voices who champion ‘equal rights for all’ seem so intent on limiting our opportunities to help children in need through wonderful programs like TOMS,” he said....
- [Gay Man Describes Mormon Ex-Gay Experience](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/evergreen-international/): In this video, Steve, a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, describes his experience of Mormon conversion therapy. He spent 12 of his 35 years in Mormonism receiving treatment from Evergreen International, the main ex-gay ministry serving the LDS church. He says: Of the 15 men that were with me [in the Evergreen program] in the Denver area, one third of those men committed suicide. … The success statistics in Evergreen are based on how many people are still going to the meetings. They don’t care if you’re feeling better. Success is if you’re still going...
- [Truth Wins Out Investigation: Bachmann Clinic Practices Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/truth-wins-out-investigation-bachmann-clinic-practices-reparative-therapy/): An undercover Truth Wins Out investigation claims that the counseling clinic headed by Marcus Bachmann, husband of U.S. Senator Representative and presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), offers reparative therapy to clients troubled by their sexuality. Bachmann had previously denied that his clinic, Bachmann & Associates, practiced reparative (change) therapy. TWO reporter John M. Becker went undercover as a man struggling with his sexuality, meeting with counselor Timothy Wiertzema for five sessions, with a hidden video camera in tow (footage has not yet been released). He writes: At the start of our second session I went straight to the point: what could...
- [XGW Digest: July 9, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/xgw-digest-july-9-2011/): -Gay activist Jean Harris has died. -Two gay soldiers are assaulted in Colorado. -The National Organization for Marriage defies another state’s campaign disclosure laws. -President Obama appoints a lesbian veteran to West Point’s advisory board. -The California legislature passes the FAIR Education Act, requiring schools to include the contributions of LGBT individuals in history courses. -The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals orders an immediate end to the enforcement of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ -Connecticut becomes the 15th state to protect its transgender residents from discrimination. -A North Carolina man kills a four-year-old boy for exhibiting “gay behavior.”
- [Google Plus and NOM: An Unholy Alliance?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/google-plus-and-nom-an-unholy-alliance/): Our team of intrepid Ex-Gay Watch reporters is scrambling to dig up more dirt on the crystal-clear link between the newly unveiled Google Plus (Circles) and the hideously anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, an association only made more obvious by the eerie similarities between their logos:
- [Exodus International's Ex-Gay Bait-and-Switch Game](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/exodus-internationals-ex-gay-bait-and-switch-game/): Sexual orientation can rarely, if ever, be made to change. Labels can change. Exodus International announces that “change is possible,” but they know that most people hear “sexual orientation change is possible,” while what they really mean is “changing labels is possible.” It’s a classic ex-gay bait-and-switch. As long as ex-gays talk publicly of “healing,” “transformation” and “change,” while resisting clearer definitions, their audience will hear that they can be cured of their same-sex attractions. Exodus International does little to correct it. Yesterday, for example, we reported on the Charisma magazine article that held up Exodus President Alan Chambers, his marriage...
- [Charisma Editor Promotes Gay Cure, Holds up Alan Chambers as Example](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/charisma-editor-promotes-gay-cure-holds-up-alan-chambers-as-example/): Christian writer J Lee Grady says that homosexuals can alter their sexual orientation, and points to Exodus President Alan Chambers as evidence of ex-gay change. In a column published online last month, the Charisma magazine contributing editor urged Christians to “learn the argument” when it comes to homosexuality and gay rights. “Sorry, but timidity on this issue is not an option,” he wrote, before depicting sexual orientation as a sinful inclination that could be altered: Many “gay Christian” advocates insist that some people are born homosexuals and therefore they have no hope of altering their orientation. But this is a lame argument...
- [Ashton Elijah Talks about Damon Thompson & His Ex-Gay Exorcisms](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/ashton-elijah-talks-about-damon-thompson-his-ex-gay-exorcisms/): In this video, gay journalist Ashton Elijah talks about his experience at The Ramp, a church ministry run by Damon Thompson in Hamilton, Alabama: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k7kkRvln3I[/youtube] The interview above was filmed as part of The David Pakman Show. It featured in his July 4 podcast, alongside a segment about the dubious Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican presidental hopeful Michele Bachmann. See our previous coverage of Damon Thompson for more video of the Pentecostal preacher and his extreme anti-gay views and practices.
- [XGW Digest: July 2, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/xgw-digest-july-2-2011/): -Conservative commentator David Frum explains why he now supports marriage equality. -A Brazilian judge rules that a gay couple can convert their civil union to a marriage. -Prop 8 proponents file another appeal against Judge Walker’s ruling. -Thirteen US Senators contribute to an ‘It Gets Better’ video. -Cuba’s first gay pride event takes place in Havana. -The Rhode Island state senate passes a civil unions bill over the objections of gay rights groups. -EqualityMaine launches a campaign to put marriage equality back on the state ballot in 2012. -Nate Silver updates his projections for the future of marriage equality. -An elderly...
- [GOP Michele Bachmann's Husband: Gays Are Barbarians, Need Discipline](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/07/michelle-bachmanns-husband-gays-are-barbarians-need-discipline/): Minnesota Christian therapist Marcus Bachmann, the husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachman, is a spokesman for anti-gay and ex-gay causes. In a 2010 radio interview replayed widely this week  Dr Bachmann expresses his homophobic views quite clearly: We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. And just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to go down that road. That’s what’s called a “sinful nature.” And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings [from] moving into the action steps....
- [World Health Organization Affirms Right to Ex-Gay Therapy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/world-health-organization-affirms-right-to-ex-gay-therapy/): The Belfast News Letter reports that the World Health Organization has “affirmed the view of controversial groups which say it is medically orthodox to seek treatment for unwanted homosexuality.” In an article published yesterday, the site said the affirmation followed this month’s Core Issues conference, featuring reparative therapists David Pickup and Lesley Pilkington. The News Letter continues: A WHO spokesman said Ego Dystonic Sexuality is a disorder where “the gender identity or sexual preference (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or prepubertal) is not in doubt, but the individual wishes it were different because of associated psychological and behavioural disorders, and may seek treatment in...
- [Extra! Marriage Equality Comes to New York](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/extra-marriage-equality-comes-to-new-york/):   In a major victory for gay rights, the New York Sate Senate voted 33 to 29 to approve same-sex marriage in the state, becoming the sixth state to do so.  The debate lasted for days and followed a previous attempt in 2009 which fell through at the last moment.  Governor Cuomo, who had promised to pass this legislation during his election campaign, signed the bill before midnight.  Same-sex marriages can begin in 30 days. The deciding vote was cast by Republican Stephen Saland who had voted no last time.  He credits this change to a “change of heart” and a...
- [XGW Digest: June 25, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/xgw-digest-june-25-2011/): -Actor LeVar Burton signs on as spokesperson for the AIDS Research Alliance. -The people of Liechtenstein vote to institute civil partnerships. -A Michigan court of appeals rejects the “gay panic” defense. -A Wisconsin judge upholds the state’s domestic partnership registry. -Christian author John Shore asks gay Christians to tell their stories for an upcoming book project. -A Methodist pastor is found guilty of marrying a gay couple. -A new Williams Institute study finds over 25,000 gay couples raising children in California. -President Obama speaks at an LGBT Democratic fundraiser. -Bank of America donates $130,000 to San Francisco LGBT organizations. -The New...
- [With Buchanan, A Change of Tone at Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/with-buchanan-a-change-of-tone-at-exodus/):   With Jeff Buchanan laterally promoted to VP and former Exodus blogger Randy Thomas out of the organization, there has already been an immediate shift in tone on their website. Three posts have gone up since the personnel-change announcement – two of them targeted at vulnerable gay youth – and all are denigrating to gays and lesbians. Gays pursue “counterfeit relationships,” writes Exodus President Alan Chambers. Gay Christians “serve two masters” while claiming to serve God alone. “Study Shows Gay, Bisexual Teens More Prone to Risky Behavior” reads the headline of Buchanan’s latest post. The final line states “[t]he CDC report...
- [Canadian Political Party Votes to Oppose Ex-Gay Charity Status](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/canadian-political-party-votes-to-oppose-ex-gay-charity-status/): (Scroll down for 06/24/11 update) Canada’s official party of opposition has voted unanimously to oppose tax-exempt charity status for ex-gay groups such as Exodus Global Alliance. The federal New Democratic Party, better known simply as the NDP, adopted the resolution at its convention in Vancouver, BC, last weekend. Delegate Michael McLaughlin introduced it thus: Delegates, an investigation published in September 2010 by [the] LGBT news blog Slap Upside The Head revealed that Exodus Global Alliance, an ex-gay organisation, enjoys registered charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency. Ex-gay organisations claim that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people can be made straight. They...
- [Another Mega Church Cuts Ties with Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/another-mega-church-cuts-ties-with-exodus-international/): Another major US based ministry has cut ties with Exodus International, the largest organization which claims to help people “leave homosexuality.”  An event earlier this year caused us to check the Exodus affiliate listing to see if mega-church Willow Creek of Barrington Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, was still listed there.  They had been an Exodus affiliate for years but were indeed no longer listed. A question to Alan Chambers concerning their affiliation with Willow Creek received no response, so we contacted Susan DeLay, Media Relations Manager for Willow Creek.  The following concise response came through Scott Vaudrey of their Elder...
- [Jeff Buchanan Promoted to Exodus International Vice President](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/jeff-buchanan-promoted-to-exodus-international-vice-president/): In May, we learned that Randy Thomas was stepping down as Vice President of Exodus International and taking on a part-time role. Yesterday, he announced he was stepping down altogether from the ex-gay organization. Today, Exodus has announced Jeff Buchanan as its new Executive Vice President. This is a promotion for Buchanan, previously Senior Director of Church Equipping and Student Ministries. But it’s also a money-saving move for Exodus, as is apparent from its June newsletter, Exodus Impact: [Jeff] will continue to oversee Church Equipping and Student Ministries until the recession lifts and we are able to hire others to help in one or both...
- [Randy Thomas Leaves Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/randy-thomas-leaves-exodus-international/): Two months after he announced he was no longer Vice President of Exodus International, Randy Thomas says he is stepping down completely as a staff member at the ex-gay organization. Randy became Exodus’s part-time Director of Digital Media and Development in April. Now he has bowed to the “increasing conviction” that his “season” as an Exodus staffer is “drawing to a close.” In a letter addressed to “Exodus Friends and Family” (which Randy posted publicly to his blog), Exodus President Alan Chambers wrote: I wanted you all to be the first to know that Randy Thomas will be leaving Exodus at...
- [Alabama Preacher Manipulates Gay Demons out of Young People](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/alabama-preacher-manipulates-gay-demons-out-of-young-people/): Where to begin dissecting the manipulation and abuse on display in this video of Pentecostal preacher Damon Thompson casting demons out of young gay and lesbian women? Thompson, who heads up fiery youth ministry The Ramp in Hamilton, Alabama, employs every trick in the spiritual abuse playbook to coax his young congregation into outing themselves as gay and then stepping forward to be exorcised of their demons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLDC5Vaegyo Ashton Elijah, who was at the meeting in the video, describes his experience: Damon called upon those who were struggling with homosexual demons to come to the front and be “set free from...
- [XGW Digest: June 18, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/xgw-digest-june-18-2011/): -A US Bankruptcy Court rules that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. -Croatia’s first gay pride event is disrupted by violence. -Support for marriage equality grows in the New York State Senate. -Two men are kicked out of a public pool in Kentucky for being gay. -A federal judge rejects an attempt to invalidate Judge Walker’s ruling on Prop 8. -New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo forwards a marriage equality bill to the state legislature. -The city of El Paso, TX restores domestic partner benefits. -Southern Baptist Convention president Bryant Wright agrees to meet with a group of gay rights advocates....
- [Ex-Gay Michael Glatze Profiled in New York Times](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/ex-gay-michael-glatze-profiled-in-new-york-times/): A gay New York Times journalist recently caught up with a former friend and colleague, Michael Glatze, the conservative Christian activist who, in 2007, renounced his homosexuality and claimed to have become straight. Benoit Denizet-Lewis wrote about the reunion, with background on Glatze, in the NYT story “Going Straight.” Following his ex-gay conversion, Glatze, a one-time LGBT youth activist, wrote an editorial for World Net Daily, in which he called homosexuality “neurotic” and “abornmal,” saying it was “lust and pornography wrapped into one.” He also appeared to question whether homosexuality should even be legal: Homosexuality allows us to avoid digging deeper, through...
- [More Anti-Family, Anti-Gay Propaganda from Anglican Mainstream](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/more-anti-family-anti-gay-propaganda-from-anglican-mainstream/): The UK-based Christian group Anglican Mainstream has once again shown its extreme anti-gay propaganda is anything but mainstream. In 2008, Anglican Mainstream published a book that included, among other homophobic essays, a vile anti-gay tirade penned by Ronald G Lee, in which the author said gays would spend most of their lives in pornographic bookstores until they die of AIDS and that gay Christians only go to church to cleanse their consciences from cruising for sex the night before. Canon Chris Sugden, the Church of England cleric who edited the volume, justified the inclusion by saying Lee deserved an equal hearing,...
- [Watch: CNN's The 'Sissy Boy' Experiment (Full)](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/watch-cnns-the-sissy-boy-experiment/): Watch “The Sissy Boy Experiment: Uncovering the Truth,” the Anderson Cooper 360 series, which aired on CNN recently. Below, parts one, two, three and four:
- [Video: Gay Teen Murder Ignored by Media](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/video-gay-teen-murder-ignored-by-media/): British teenager Michael Causer died on August 2, 2008, aged 18, a week after being beaten and stabbed for being gay. Almost three years after this brutal, homophobic hate crime, Michael’s family, along with the LGBT community in Liverpool and across the UK, are asking why the story was largely ignored by the national media in the UK. This short documentary on the subject, The Invisible Death of Michael, retells Michael Causer’s story and features interviews with his family and gay activists, including Peter Tatchell. Michael lived in the village of Whiston, Merseyside, in the neighbourhood I call home. He was...
- [UK: Dubious Therapists Pickup, Pilkington Headline Ex-Gay Conference](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/uk-dubious-ex-gay-therapists-pickup-pilkington-headline-ex-gay-conference/): An ex-gay therapist who surrounds himself with muscular men to help him feel masculine will be the main speaker at a reparative therapy conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, tomorrow (Tuesday, June 14). He’ll be joined by a Christian therapist who was found guilty of professional malpractice after she told a client his homosexuality was due to Freemasonry and unacknowledged sexual abuse. David Pickup will speak at Belvoir Church of Ireland in the city, during a conference for the group Core Issues. A flyer for the event announces, “You don’t have to be gay,” and says there will be “tolerance for all...
- [Ex-Gay Watch Is Now on Facebook: Join Us](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/ex-gay-watch-is-now-on-facebook-join-us/): Ex-Gay Watch is making a belated entry into the social media revolution and now has a Facebook Page. Click “Like” to keep up with the latest developments, and feel free to comment on posts there, post to our Wall and get to know other XGW readers. We’ve already been on Twitter a while, under the username @ExGayWatch. See you there?
- [XGW Digest: June 11, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/xgw-digest-june-11-2011/): -The AARP reaches out to the LGBT community. -The Wyoming Supreme Court permits a married same-sex couple to divorce in the state. -A gay police officer fights for and wins the right to march in a pride parade in uniform. -Catholic Charities sues the state of Illinois for the right to discriminate against gay couples. -A Connecticut sportscaster comes out of the closet. -Truth Wins Out hosts a counter-conference to Exodus International’s annual conference. -Three LGBT individuals in Puerto Rico are found dead within a three-day period. -Target Corporation declares neutrality in the marriage battle in Minnesota. -Portland, OR adds transgender...
- [Exodus International Holds Conference in Asheville, North Carolina](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/exodus-international-holds-conference-in-asheville-north-carolina/): Exodus’ Freedom Conference began yesterday and goes until the 11th of June. Touted with the motto “The Reality of Grace,” attendees come to hear “a message of Biblical truth and Christ-like compassion to a world impacted by homosexuality.” Watchdog group Truth Wins Out is holding a counter-conference through June 10th. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/24636642[/vimeo] Exodus couches their rhetoric with words like “truth,” “love,” and “Christ-like compassion,” but their true core beliefs are much less kind.
- ['Sissy Boy' Experiment Should Cause Reassessment of Reparative Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/sissy-boy-experiment-should-cause-reassessment-of-reparative-therapy/): Conservative Christian psychologist Dr Warren Throckmorton says that the story of Kirk Murphy, aka “Kraig,” should provoke “a serious re-examination” of gay-to-straight therapy. Yesterday, Box Turtle Bulletin and CNN broke the true story behind the “Sissy Boy” experiment, during which Kirk, then five, underwent psychiatric treatment intended to turn an effeminate, “gender-confused” homosexual-in-waiting into a masculine, heterosexual boy. That was in 1970. In 2003, aged 38 and gay, Kirk committed suicide. The experiment — which George Rekers hailed throughout his career as an “ex-gay” success — was a failure. Now Throckmorton, a former advocate of reparative therapy, says the revelation calls...
- [BTB, CNN Reveal Story behind George Rekers 'Sissy Boy' Experiment](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/btb-cnn-reveal-story-behind-george-rekers-sissy-boy-experiment/): In 1970, a five-year-old boy named Kirk Murphy was subjected to an ex-gay experiment. Under the care of Dr Ivor Lovaas and George Rekers, then a doctoral student, of UCLA, he underwent therapy to eliminate supposed effeminate behaviors. In 1974, Lovaas and Rekers jointly published a paper about the boy they renamed “Kraig,” heralding his treatment for “childhood cross-gender problems” a success and claiming he had been transformed from a gender-confused homosexual-in-waiting to a healthy, heterosexual young man. On the back of this study, Rekers built a career as an anti-gay activist and a supposed expert in childhood sexual development. He...
- [Review: Michael L Brown's A Queer Thing Happened to America (Part 1)](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/review-michael-l-browns-a-queer-thing-happened-to-america-1/): Evangelist and conservative Christian activist Dr Michael L Brown is a little disappointed but mostly deliriously excited that the publishing world was “afraid to touch” his latest book. The back cover of his self-published tome, A Queer Thing Happened to America: And What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, lists blurbs by “a conservative pundit,” “a conservative publisher,” “a bestselling conservative author,” “the head of a New York City publicity firm,” “a publishing insider” and “a top literary agent” — all predicting what a flop Brown’s book would be. To Brown, this is evidence that a gay agenda controls the media, making...
- [XGW Digest: June 4, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/06/xgw-digest-june-4-2011/): -An Iowa Republican joins the fight for marriage equality. -A group of gay activists including Americans Dan Choi and Andy Thayer are arrested in Moscow during a gay pride parade. -A trans woman and a gay man are elected prom queen and king at a Florida high school. -Illinois begins issuing licenses for civil unions. -President Obama issues a Pride Month proclamation. -Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signs two anti-discrimination bills. -The Richmond Federal Reserve Bank flies a rainbow flag in honor of pride month. -Home Depot rebuffs pressure from the American Family Association to discontinue its support for diversity.
- [UK: Psychotherapist Guilty of Malpractice for Promising Gay Cure](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/uk-psychotherapist-guilty-of-malpractice-for-promising-gay-cure/): A British psychotherapist was “reckless,” “disrespectful,” “dogmatic” and “unprofessional” in trying to turn a homosexual patient heterosexual, a hearing has concluded. Last week, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy found Christian counselor Lesley Pilkington guilty of professional malpractice. after she let her “personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation … affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial.” The saga entered the public eye in February, 2010, with an investigative report in The Independent (London), in which gay journalist Patrick Strudwick went undercover to research the world of gay-to-straight therapy. In the article, Strudwick described his...
- [Randy Thomas Again Fails to Accurately Address Transgender Issues](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/randy-thomas-again-fails-to-accurately-address-transgender-issues/): Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity, currently stars in a show, “Becoming Chaz,” that takes a close look at his life as a female-to-male transperson. This show has received some buzz, as it is currently being broadcast on Oprah’s “OWN” network. It’s been too much buzz for Exodus International blogger Randy Thomas to ignore. His latest post retreads an argument he previously made which calls the gay community “hypocritical” for welcoming transpeople into their ranks while shunning ex-gays like himself. And, in the process, he makes a statement which is a complete fabrication. Let me state right out of the gate that there...
- [XGW Digest: May 28, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/xgw-digest-may-28-2011/): -Focus on the Family president Jim Daly concedes that they are losing the battle against marriage equality. -ABC’s What Would You Do? stages the harassment of a pair of lesbian mothers in a Texas restaurant. -The Minnesota House approves a marriage amendment for the 2012 ballot. -The Church of Scotland votes to allow the ordination of gay ministers. -Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton symbolically vetoes the marriage amendment scheduled for next year’s ballot. -Comedian Lisa Lampanelli donates $50,000 to an AIDS charity on behalf of Westboro Baptist Church. -Ex-NOM supporter Louis Marinelli plans another summer bus tour – this time in support...
- [Open Talk: Scissor Sisters and 'It Gets Better'](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/open-talk-scissor-sisters-and-its-gets-better/): “She’s My Man” – Scissor Sisters (2007) Scissor Sisters front man, Jake Shears – It Get’s Better
- [Woman Accuses Sheriff of Sending Her for Gay Cure Instead of Rehab](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/woman-accuses-sheriff-of-sending-her-for-gay-cure-instead-of-rehab/): A lesbian is suing a police department she says sent her to an evangelist for ex-gay therapy. In April, 2010, the family of Amanda Booker requested she be given therapy for her drug addiction. A court order commanded Bartow County Sheriff’s Department to take her to Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Rome, GA. She suffered seizures on the way, however, and was taken instead to Cartersville Medical Center. It was there, Booker alleges, that police officers prevented her from contacting her female partner and made “numerous threats concerning her lesbian relationship.” From there, Booker was taken to stay in a private...
- [New York Times: Gay Teens in Their Own Words](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/new-york-times-gay-teens-in-their-own-words/): Gay teens share their stories this week in the New York Times. The interactive series, which touches on issues of oppression, anti-gay bullying and the challenges of coming out in school, began this morning with 19-year-old John Albuquerque of the Bronx, and Thomas Miller, 17, of Mandeville, Louisiana.
- [XGW Digest: May 21, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/xgw-digest-may-21-2011/): A group of wealthy Republicans lend their financial support to the push for marriage equality in New York. -Rick Welts, president of the Phoenix Suns, comes out of the closet. -…and so does CNN anchor Don Lemon. -Anti-gay demonstrators disrupt a march for marriage equality in Adelaide, Australia. -A gay rights parade is held in Havana, Cuba. -The United Belize Advocacy Movement challenges Belize’s sodomy law. -Officials in Moscow, Russia ban another gay pride rally. -A Kentucky politician belatedly goes public about his support for marriage equality. -A new study finds that gay Catholic priests are no more likely to abuse...
- [Michael L Brown Upset at the Queer Things Happening to America](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/michael-l-brown-upset-at-the-queer-things-happening-to-america/): We’ve met Dr Michael L Brown before. In The Fighting Words of Michael Brown, I analyzed the revolution- and battle-based rhetoric he uses to call evangelical Christians to rise up against gays and lesbians, and their rights. In Pedophilia, Hedonism & Impending Confusion, I revisited Brown’s anti-gay rhetoric and demonstrated how he misrepresented LGBT people with a classic “slippery slope” argument. Now Brown is in the spotlight again with a book that claims to chronicle the rise of gay rights and, with the support of “massive research and extensive interaction with the GLBT community,” debunk the so-called homosexual agenda. A Queer Thing...
- [XGW Digest: May 14, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/xgw-digest-may-14-2011/): -The National Organization for Marriage pulls out the stops in its campaign against marriage equality in New York. -University City, MO passes a domestic partnership ordinance. -Chaz Bono’s story debuts on the Oprah Winfrey Network. -Progressive Christian organization Sojourners rejects an LGBT-welcoming advertisement. -Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signs civil unions into law. -The House Armed Services Committee approves an amendment that would hinder the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” -The US Navy succumbs to pressure to cancel plans to allow same-sex marriages in naval chapels. -A new poll finds that 55% of Minnesotans oppose the marriage amendment currently being pushed...
- [BC, Canada: Aspiring Conservative Leader Says Being Gay Is a Choice](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/canada-vancouver-conservative-mp-says-being-gay-is-a-choice/): A BC Conservative Party leadership candidate has said in a radio interview that gays should not have “special rights” because homosexuality is a choice. John Cummins, who recently stepped down as Conservative Member of Parliament for Delta-Richmond East to run as leader of the BCCP, told Victoria’s CFAX Radio that he’s “not a scientist, [but] some of the research tells me that there’s more of an indication that that’s a choice issue.” According to the Times Colonist (Victoria), Cummins later told reporters, “I’m pro-life, I’m protraditional marriage, that’s my view, I’m not a scientist.” He refused to defend his views, saying they...
- ['Kill the Gays' Bill up for Debate in Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/kill-the-gays-bill-up-for-debate-in-uganda/): According to a Parliament of Uganda order paper published today, a second reading of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 is imminent. The legislation, dubbed the “Kill the Gays” bill, would effectively make homosexuality a capital offence. Related offenses of “promoting” homosexuality could carry the same punishment. While the order paper doesn’t make it certain the reading will be soon, Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin has done the math and considers it likely the bill will be addressed by the Parliament of Uganda on Wednesday, May 10. There are several petitions circulating. I’m generally skeptical of internet petitions — do they really...
- [It Gets Worse: Oppression of Gays Is Good Business for Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/it-gets-worse-oppression-of-gays-is-good-business-for-exodus/): 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...
- [XGW Digest - May 7, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/xgw-digest-may-7-2011/): -23 top New York business executives sign a statement calling for marriage equality. -Fox News correspondent Michelle Malkin accuses gay activists of employing a tactic she herself uses. -A lesbian activist is brutally murdered in South Africa. -Openly gay judge Barbara Lenk is confirmed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. -Former president Bill Clinton joins the call for marriage equality in New York. -GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul declares that marriage should be defined at the state level. -The Supreme Court of Brazil legalizes civil unions. -Gay immigrant Henry Velandia, who’s legally married in Connecticut, is granted a temporary reprieve from deportation.
- [Gay Blog Queerty Is Back](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/gay-blog-queerty-is-back/): Queerty, the six-year-old gay interest blog that unexpectedly shut down last month, is back online with a new team. GayCities has acquired the blog and is returning with some of the same team and a crop of new writers. GC’s Chris Bull, whose editorial experience began at The Advocate, says the site will retain its essential character, but they’ll address some criticisms, too: While we are committed to maintaining the best of Queerty, we also recognize that you have demanded change. In recent months the Queerty patented wit devolved into predictable snark, eviscerating everyone and everything in its path. Some of...
- [This Is What Love in Action Looks Like: Documentary Premieres June 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/this-is-what-love-in-action-looks-like-documentary-premieres-june-2011/): A documentary about the ex-gay movement will have its premiere in June 2011, after six years in the making. The premiere of This Is What Love in Action Looks Like takes place at Frameline 35, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, which takes place from June 16 to 26. The movie had its genesis in the 2005 story of Memphis, TN, teenager Zach Stark, whose parents forced him to attend a residential gay-to-straight “bootcamp” run by Love in Action, the Exodus-affliated ex-gay ministry. The film features interviews with many figures at the center of the controversy, including Stark, now 22, his...
- [Osama Bin Laden Killed by US Forces](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-killed-by-us-forces/): CNN News outlets are reporting that covert US forces in Pakistan have killed 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden.  The US is apparently also in possession of his body, which should allow for the concrete identification the world will demand.  President Obama will speak shortly with the details. Updated with video of the presidential address:
- [XGW Digest: April 30, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/xgw-digest-april-30-2011/): -House of Rainbow, Nigeria’s only gay church, makes plans to reopen its doors. -Movie director Kevin Smith officiates at a gay wedding. -Prop 8 proponents move to have Judge Walker’s ruling vacated on the basis of his sexual orientation. -Anti-gay vandals in Ohio burn down a barn containing eight horses. -Republicans 4 Freedom is launched to counter the anti-gay wing of the Republican Party. -Taiga Ishikawa becomes the first openly gay politician to win an election in Japan. -Three Republican state senators push to get a marriage amendment on the 2012 ballot in Minnesota. -Rhode Island legislators may consider civil unions...
- [XGW Digest: April 23, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/xgw-digest-april-23-2011/): -A young gay man is attacked by a mob in South Carolina. -LGBT blog Queerty closes down. -Hungary adopts a new constitution that bans same-sex marriage. -The Malaysian government sends 66 effeminate boys to a reorientation camp. -Anti-gay activist Marc Mutty admits to using extreme hyperbole in the campaign to overturn marriage equality in Maine. -A church in Louisville, KY resolves to stop signing marriage licenses until its gay members can marry. -A Texas man murders his daughter’s girlfriend and her mother. -Orange County, FL extends benefits to the partners of gay county employees. -Polls continue to show growing support for...
- [Palm Sunday Message to Christians: Stand with LGBTs](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/palm-sunday-message-to-christians-stand-with-lgbts/): Wendy Gritter of Canadian LGBT ministry New Direction urged her fellow Christians to stand against anti-gay bullying in a Palm Sunday message to her church yesterday. Wendy highlighted two recent initiatives against homophobic bullying — Day of Pink and Day of Silence — and then had these words for her congregation: In this time of confession, in this time of recognizing how quickly our own Hosannas can ring hollow, we, as the church of Jesus Christ, of all people in the Earth, should be standing in solidarity with those who are oppressed or are treated injustly for whatever reason. It ought not to be the world taking...
- [XGW Digest: April 16, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/xgw-digest-april-16-2011/): -A marriage equality bill is introduced in Uruguay. -Timothy Kincaid questions demographer Gary Gates’ estimates of the size of the American LGBT population. -The National Organization for Marriage continues to downplay its association with Louis Marinelli. -The Maryland senate kills a bill that would have added gender identity to the state’s anti-discrimination laws. -Former US Senator Alan Simpson decries the Republican party’s homophobia. -Gay actor Paul Marcarelli shares about his experiences during his time as Verizon’s pitchman. -The Hawaii state senate passes a bill extending employment protections to transgender individuals. -Delaware adopts civil unions. -Prop 8 proponents attempt to bury the...
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers on 'Dr Drew' Show Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/exodus-president-alan-chambers-on-dr-drew-show-tonight/): Exodus International President Alan Chambers will be appearing on Dr Drew tonight (Friday, April 15). The show airs at 9.00pm ET and PT on CNN’s HLN Network. According to Exodus, Alan will share “his personal story as well as sharing the message and mission of Exodus International.” I’ll be watching in the hope of finding out today’s official Exodus position on being gay and Christian.
- [Can You Be Gay and Christian? Exodus Spins Its Answer](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/can-you-be-gay-and-christian-chambers-spins-his-answer/): Back in March, Exodus International President Alan Chambers (pictured) told the Oprah Network’s Lisa Ling (Our America, March 8, 2011)  there was such a thing as a gay Christian: Is there condemnation for those who are in Christ?  No there is not. There are people out there living a gay Christian life, active gay Christian life. God’s the one who called them and has their heart.  And they are in relationship with him.  And do I believe they will be in heaven with me?  I do. If they have a relationship with Jesus Christ, they will.  We serve that kind of God...
- [Randy Thomas No Longer Exodus VP](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/randy-thomas-no-longer-exodus-vp/): Ex-gay organization Exodus International has announced that its Vice President, Randy Thomas, is stepping down and taking on a part-time role as its new Director of Digital Media and Development. Exodus says it and Randy both sensed that “God has been preparing him to serve in exciting areas beyond the borders of Exodus.” The smaller role allows him “ample time to pursue his calling and passion in the arts and pastoral care.” There’s no word on a new VP. That the economic downturn has taken its toll on Exodus suggests a replacement is not a priority. An old friend of Ex-Gay...
- [Former GOP Senator Tells the Truth about Fellow Republicans](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/former-gop-senator-tells-the-truth-about-fellow-republicans/): Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator for Wyoming, told Hardball‘s Chris Matthews how it is on homophobia in the GOP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSxCYlvbKs Tip of the hat to Towleroad.
- [PFOX's Pernicious Plan to Subvert LGBT Day of Silence](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/04/pfoxs-pernicious-plan-to-subvert-lgbt-day-of-silence/): Ex-gay group Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays has announced a plan to subvert the pro-equality Day of Silence by encouraging conservative Christian students to distribute anti-gay literature. LGBT students and their supporters will draw attention to homophobic bullying, prejudice and discrimination by spending Friday, April 15, in silence. In a press release sent out today,  PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs urged anti-gay students to take advantage of the event: “We invite schools to distribute our ex-gay brochures year round,” said Regina Griggs, PFOX’s executive director, “but this Friday is especially important because it is considered a ‘day of silence’ by homosexual...
- [XGW Digest: June 16, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/xgw-digest-june-16-2012/): -A Republican billionaire starts a new Super PAC to promote marriage equality. -A questionable new study questions whether gay parents are equal to their straight counterparts. -Country star Carrie Underwood voices her support for marriage equality. -The state Democratic parties of Texas and Montana add marriage equality to their platforms. -A new survey finds overwhelming support for marriage equality in Britain. -Anti-gay Referendum 74 qualifies for the Washington state ballot. -The Pentagon announces that it will recognize Pride Month. -Marriott International advertises event planning for gay weddings. -A fifth grader is told he cannot deliver a pro-equality speech at a school...
- [Exodus Board Member Dennis Jernigan Resigns Over Jamaica Incident](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/exodus-board-member-dennis-jernigan-resigns-over-jamaica-incident/): Two days ago we reported on media reports from Jamaica following a visit there from Exodus board vice chairman Dennis Jernigan.  Jamaica is a particularly violent place for gay and lesbians.  Jernigan’s visit and statements while there were used in support of their anti-sodomy laws.  The US, Great Britain and others are apparently trying to persuade Jamaica to address the basic human rights issues involved with this issue.  Jernigan criticised President Obama, and expressed support for the developmental view of homosexuality, basically that it could be prevented if “fathers did their job.” Readers will note that this sounds frighteningly familiar to...
- [Another Exodus Leader Stirs Up Anti-Gay Sentiment Abroad](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/another-exodus-leader-stirs-up-anti-gay-sentiment-abroad/): Truth Wins Out reports that the vice chairman of the Exodus board, Dennis Jernigan, may have inserted himself into a Uganda like situation in Jamaica, a place with a virulently anti-gay atmosphere.  According to quotes in the Jamaican press, Jernigan claimed he was once gay but no more, and mentioned his marriage.  He also disparaged President Obama as being “deceived” concerning homosexuality, referring to the President’s recent statement of support for marriage equality. When asked about what I thought about President Obama’s recent remarks concerning homosexuality, I told them I love my president but I believe he is greatly deceived and...
- [Defensive Theology & the Ex-Gay Movement](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/defensive-theology-the-ex-gay-movement/): People and groups that promote and provide ex-gay treatments are almost always religious. While they may draw on debunked Freudian theories (Re-Fried Freud) and co-opt AA recovery methods, many ex-gay practitioners adhere to pastoral or Biblical counseling. Often it has been the Bible, interpreted by anti-LGBTQ clergy, that lured many of us into ex-gay treatment. The oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people has been organized and funded by groups and individuals that use the Bible as a weapon wielded to not only deny us our equal rights, but our very humanity. In addressing these on-going attacks, a necessary...
- [Exodus International Has Lost Twenty Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/exodus-international-has-lost-twenty-ministries/): It is no secret that Exodus International has had a rough time of it in the past year.  Money issues, falling attendance and a major effort to rebrand have left the ex-gay organization in a tenuous state.  While there are some mixed reviews on just what the new face of Exodus might really mean in the long run, one thing is certain — member ministries are in their own exodus from Exodus. Random references to groups that had left them led us to compile a detailed comparison of the current Exodus member ministry listings to that of a year ago.  Previous...
- [XGW Digest: June 9, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/xgw-digest-june-9-2012/): -Gay Pride marches are held in Poland and Latvia. -Conservative Jews in America will now formally recognize same-sex marriages. -President Obama makes a Pride Month proclamation. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies a request to rehear the Prop 8 trial. -Jeremy Hooper of Good As You releases a book. -Former NFL player Wade Davis talks about life as a gay professional athlete. -Opposition to Minnesota’s marriage ban amendment grows. -Several Croatian officials announce their intent to participate in a gay pride parade. -The Boy Scouts of America agrees to consider ending its ban on gay scouts and leaders. -Marriage equality...
- [Anti-Equality Politics, Ex-Gay Advocacy Strongly Linked](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/anti-equality-politics-ex-gay-advocacy-strongly-linked/): The reason I started following the ex-gay movement is directly related to my involvement in the fight for LGBTQ political equality. Our movement differs from earlier civil rights struggles in that we have the extra burden to first prove that we even exist – that is, show people that we are indeed a naturally occurring unique subset of humanity, rather than heterosexuals who, as the result of some kind of damaging experience, engage in “abnormal” and “unnatural” sexual habits. As long as we don’t actually exist, so the thinking goes, we don’t need equal rights. Thus, the ex-gay movement is frequently...
- [XGW Digest: June 2, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/xgw-digest-june-2-2012/): -Gay San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio solicits funds for his mayoral campaign from anti-gay donors. -Moscow police arrest 40 people during a gay rights demonstration. -A gay man is beaten by a mob at a graduation party in Duluth, MN. -Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council agrees to have dinner with a lesbian couple. -Two more virulently anti-gay pastors crawl out of the woodwork. -Texas will soon have an openly gay state legislator. -The First Circuit Court of Appeals agrees that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. -A group of straight Mormons joins the Salt Lake City pride...
- [Updated, The Spitzer Study of Ex-Gays: Flaws and Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/updated-the-spitzer-study-of-ex-gays-flaws-and-abuse/): An original work by Daniel Gonzales while writing for Ex-Gay Watch in 2007, this analysis of the flaws in the Spitzer study is as relevant today as it was then.  For while Dr. Spitzer has now formally denounced his own work and apologized to the Gay community for having put such a flawed study into the literature, there are still those using it to support the bankrupt idea that gays can and should become straight. Daniel has remastered the original video in HD quality and added a prologue to recognize Spitzer’s recent retraction. He can be reached at exgaysurvivordan@gmail.com.
- [XGW Digest: May 26, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/xgw-digest-may-26-2012/): -The NAACP’s board votes to endorse marriage equality. -NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn marries her partner. -Two Ukrainian gay activists are savagely beaten by right-wing thugs. – Dharun Ravi is sentenced for his actions that led to Tyler Clementi’s suicide. -Dan Savage proposes a time and place for his debate with NOM’s Brian Brown. -Actor Jim Parsons officially comes out of the closet. -Adam Lambert becomes the first openly gay artist to hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. -The Ohio Republican Party’s new executive director is a lobbyist for Equality Ohio. -Support for marriage equality among African-American voters rises...
- [Revealed! Why Some Christians are Stuck on the Gay Issue](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/revealed-why-some-christians-are-stuck-on-the-gay-issue/): I have begun a series of short YouTube videos about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues. In particular, I’m interested in the conflict around faith and sexuality that causes so much strife and oppression for LGBTQ people and their loved ones. Serious stuff for a queer comic to tackle. How come in 2012 people are still overwhelmed with the idea of two men or two women together? Is it that people are held hostage to the Bible and the way they insist on interpreting it? Or is there some other big fat pink elephant in the room distracting them from...
- [Suspended Christian Therapist Lesley Pilkington and Her Defenders](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/suspended-christian-therapist-lesley-pilkington-and-her-defenders/): Watch the Channel 4 News report about Lesley Pilkington, the Christian therapist who lost her appeal against suspension from the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy for her appalling practice: Below, Channel 4’s Jon Snow interviews Mrs Pilkington: Rightly or wrongly, the appeal verdict said nothing about the validity of conversion therapy or reparative therapy, per se. It focused on Lesley Pilkington’s misconduct entirely aside from the suggestion that therapy can change sexual orientation. Pilkington’s Christian supporters disgrace themselves by condoning the blatant intrusion of highly questionable personal beliefs into therapeutic practice. Even conservative Anglican Peter Ould has harsh words for...
- [UK 'Gay Cure' Therapist Loses Appeal against Suspension](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/uk-gay-cure-therapist-loses-appeal-against-suspension/): Leslie Pilkington, the Christian therapist suspended from practice after offering to help turn a gay client straight, has had her appeal rejected by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. The hearing that led to her suspension found her conduct “reckless,” “disrespectful,” “dogmatic” and “unprofessional,” and concluded that she let her “personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation … affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial.” Although several high-profile Christian leaders rushed shamelessly to her defence, the facts of the case are clear. She told her client, undercover journalist Patrick Strudwick, his “same-sex attraction” could be traced...
- [Spitzer 'Gay Cure' Apology Makes NYT Front Page](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/spitzer-gay-cure-apology-makes-nyt-front-page/): In 2001, psychiatrist Robert L Spitzer claimed highly motivated gays could successfully change their sexual orientation. In 2003, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published his study — without peer-reviewing it. And in 2012, after over a decade of ex-gay groups such as NARTH, PFOX and Exodus International citing his research to prove their message that “change is possible,” Spitzer publicly apologized and announced he wanted to retract the paper. Now the New York Times has profiled the story on its front page with the headline “Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing Gay ‘Cure'”: The study — presented at a psychiatry meeting in 2001, before...
- [XGW Digest: May 19, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/xgw-digest-may-19-2012/): -Chile passes an antidiscrimination law. -A Republican strategist advises the party to evolve on gay rights issues. -Croatia’s Prime Minister makes a push for marriage equality. -Soap opera star Joanna Johnson comes out of the closet. -Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee issues an order recognizing same-sex marriage licenses from other states. -Colorado House Republicans kill civil unions again. -An Iranian court sentences four men to death for sodomy. -Over 50 employees resign from a Baptist university in protest of the school’s new lifestyle statement. -The Lincoln, Nebraska city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -David Pakman interviews anti-gay ‘researcher’ Paul Cameron. -A...
- [XGW Digest: May 12, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/xgw-digest-may-12-2012/): -Focus on the Family withdraws its “Religious Freedom” amendment from the 2012 Colorado ballot. -A Catholic high school tells a senior he cannot accept the Matthew Shepard Scholarship at the school’s awards ceremony. -Jeremy Hooper finds a historic parallel to North Carolina’s Amendment One. -Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan voice their support for marriage equality. -Maggie Gallager makes her case for why same-sex marriage is worse than straight divorce. -Gay children’s author Maurice Sendak passes away. -North Carolina voters pass Amendment One. -San Diego names a street after Harvey Milk. -Colorado House Republicans run out the...
- [Greg Quinlan Is Liar and PFOX Is a Dishonest Organization, Says TWO](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/greg-quinlan-is-liar-and-pfox-is-a-dishonest-organization-says-two/): Truth Wins Out disputed Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) dishonest and immature portrayal today of a lawsuit filed against its President Greg Quinlan. The lawsuit was dismissed by the United States District Court in Richmond because Besen was deemed a “public figure,” which raises the bar on proving malice in defamation lawsuits. However, the outcome does not erase the fact that Quinlan is a liar who got successfully called out for lying by Truth Wins Out. “Greg Quinlan clearly fabricated a story and continues to lie about it, showing he has deep character flaws and is unchristian,” said Truth Wins...
- [XGW Digest: May 5, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/xgw-digest-may-5-2012/): -A Cleveland radio DJ recommends corrective rape for a listener’s gay daughter. -A North Carolina man posts a video of himself shooting a “No on 1” yard sign. -Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill is dead, for now. -A transgender woman is murdered in Oakland, CA. -A Missouri legislator comes out of the closet to oppose that state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. -Romney advisor Richard Grenell resigns in the wake of concerted opposition from anti-gay conservatives. -LGBT rights advocate Zach Wahls releases his autobiography, My Two Moms. -The wife of the author of North Carolina’s Amendment One says it is needed “to...
- [Exodus Cancels Next 'Love Won Out' Conference Due to Lack of Interest](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/exodus-cancels-next-love-won-out-conference-due-to-lack-of-interest/): In what seems like the logical extension of the recent trend, Exodus International has decided there were not enough people interested in attending their Love Won Out conference scheduled for later this month to justify the expense.  Conference attendance has been trending downward, with their last conference bringing in barely 400 people.  This is down from nearly 1000 in Exodus’ headier days. In November, XGW reported on a secret meeting held by Exodus president Alan Chambers to come up with ways to rebrand the organization in the wake of social and financial collapse.  Since then events have occurred which seem to...
- [Physical Violence and Other Ways to Stop Your Kid Being Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/05/physical-violence-and-other-ways-to-stop-your-kid-being-gay/): A Baptist preacher gave parents in his church a “special dispensation” to beat their effeminate sons last Sunday. Pastor Sean Harris of Berean Church, Fayetteville, NC, made the remarks in a sermon in favour of Amendment One, a proposed law to make marriage between one man and one woman “the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized” in the state of North Carolina. Harris’s audience laughed as he advised giving a four-year-old son a “good punch” if he “acts a little girlish.” Listen to the nauseating audio (courtesy of Jeremy at Good As You), or read the transcript...
- [XGW Digest: April 28, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/xgw-digest-april-28-2012/): -Anti-gay activist Chuck Colson passes away. -Gay Moroccan writer Abdellah Taia tells his story. -The James Beard Foundation returns an award to the Boy Scouts in protest of their anti-gay policies. -Olympic wrestler Stephany Lee marries her wife. -Christian evangelist Jay Bakker speaks out against North Carolina’s marriage ban. -California lawmakers consider a bill banning most ex-gay therapy for minors. -An Illinois State University student is the victim of a violent anti-gay assault. -Openly gay Pennsylvania state senate candidate Brian Sims wins his primary. -North Carolina’s Amendment 1 loses one of its legislative sponsors. -Hong Kong pop star Anthony Wong comes...
- [Spitzer: 'I Owe the Gay Community an Apology'](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/spitzer-i-owe-the-gay-community-an-apology/): Dr Robert Spitzer, the researcher behind a flawed 2001 ex-gay study, has added to his recent retraction by apologizing for his claims. The psychiatrist, now 80, already went public with his retraction in an interview with Gabriel Arana of American Prospect magazine. In his 2001 paper to the American Psychiatric Association, published in 2003, Spitzer had interviewed 200 ex-gays provided by conservative ex-gay organizations such as NARTH and Exodus International, then claimed their testimony proved that some homosexuals could change their orientation through therapy. Those who claim gays can change have relied on the findings for over a decade, despite its obvious flaws....
- [Coroner Confirms Ex-Gay Advocate Anthony Falzarano's Death](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/coroner-confirms-ex-gay-advocate-anthony-falzaranos-death/): News broke yesterday of the possible death of long-time ex-gay advocate Anthony Falzarano’s death.  No one seemed to be certain of the validity of this report and he appeared at a West Palm Beach social event earlier this month with his wife.  He also attempted to comment here* barely two days ago.  Falzarano was banned from further participation at XGW long ago for abuse of the privilege so the comment was not posted, but it was in keeping with his usual tone and subject matter. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to us this morning that they indeed had...
- [Never Too Late: A Student and His Gay Teacher Reconcile after 40 Years](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/never-too-late-a-student-and-his-gay-teacher-reconcile-after-40-years/): In The Oregonian, Tom Hallman, Jr, writes: A good feature story is about something universal. When it comes to apologies, no one gets a pass in this life. Everyone deserves one, and everyone needs to give one. When I mentioned this letter to people, I found a story more universal than any that I’d written in years. Everyone told me they had someone they wished they could apologize to. And they told me that by the time they realized that truth, it was too late. He relates the story of Larry, a man who, in the 1972-73 school year, transferred from...
- [Core Issues' Mike Davidson on Being Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/core-issues-mike-davidson-on-being-ex-gay/): Core Issues director Mike Davidson told The Daily Telegraph he believes being gay is a “normal developmental aberration,” and explained what he really means when he says he’s ex-gay. “We don’t consider it a disease,” he told the paper. He later added: “I see homosexuality as a normal developmental aberration. Which I know would sound profoundly disrespectful to some people, but that is how I have experienced it.” Core Issues is the UK group that, with Anglican Mainstream, planned an advertising campaign on London transport, featuring the slogan “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get used to it!” Boris Johnson, London’s Conservative...
- [XGW Digest: April 21, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/xgw-digest-april-21-2012/): -The Presbyterian Church (USA) ordains its first out lesbian minister. -GLAAD names Herndon Graddick as its new president. -The Saudi Arabian government bans “gays and tom boys” from all public schools. -The Massachusetts Tea Party aligns itself with Scott Lively. -A bullied Iowa teen commits suicide. -Rob Tisinai considers the contradictory statements of anti-gay activists. -The Archbishop of Wales speaks up in support of marriage equality. -The religious right launches its annual assault on GLSEN’s Day of Silence. -Mitt Romney hires an openly gay man as his national security spokesman. -Focus on the Family’s “religious liberty” initiative qualifies for the Colorado...
- [Ex-Gay Leader Andrew Comiskey Fires First Volley in Exodus Civil War](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/ex-gay-leader-andrew-comiskey-fires-first-volley-in-exodus-civil-war/): Andrew Comiskey, founder and current leader of Desert Stream Ministries (Living Waters), has posted what appears to be the first public criticism of Exodus President Alan Chambers recent rebranding efforts.  In a letter to unspecified recipients, Comiskey describes the importance of reparatve therapy to what Exodus does, and the prevalence of the Living Waters brand of therapy in the Exodus network. He describes their “concern over Exodus distancing itself from reparative therapy.”  There was some indication of this in a discussion between Comiskey and Joseph Nicolosi that we reported on recently. We at DSM are only indebted to the good of...
- [Rachel Maddow on Ex-Gay Movement, Spitzer Retraction](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/rachel-maddow-on-ex-gay-movement-spitzer-retraction/): On her MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow gave a history of the ex-gay movement in light of psychiatrist Robert Spitzer’s retraction of his 2001 study. Watch the report below: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy The brief segment provides a fairly good run-down of how groups such as Exodus International rose up in defiance after the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. Maddow identifies how ex-gays seized on the Spitzer study as proof of a “gay cure,” and how, a decade later, Spitzer admitted his conclusions — that gay men and...
- [BBC to Air Documentary on Rugby Player Who Woke up Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/bbc-to-air-documentary-on-rugby-player-who-woke-up-gay/): A Welsh amateur rugby player who says a stroke turned him gay is the subject of a BBC Three documentary being broadcast in the UK this evening. Writes Pink News: Chris Birch, now 27, was a Welsh bank employee who weighed 19 stone and enjoyed heavy drinking sessions. Following a stroke in 2011, he is now a Welsh hairdresser with sweeping dyed hair and a male fiancé. I Woke up Gay will examine how Birch’s personality changed so abruptly. He tells the BBC: “I was doing a forward roll down a grass bank one day and cut off the blood supply...
- ['Traditional Christian Teaching': Exposing an Ex-Gay Myth](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/traditional-christian-teaching-exposing-an-ex-gay-myth/): Before Core Issues hit the publicity jackpot with its controversial ex-gay advertising campaign, its director, Mike Davidson, was still licking his wounds from a disastrous radio appearance. Not long after the tense interview on BBC Radio Ulster in January 2012, Davidson, a trainee psychotherapist, had his membership of the British Psychodrama Association revoked. He’d appeared alongside Professor Andrew Samuels, Chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, who challenged Davidson’s use of his BPA affiliation to support Core Issues’ claims: What’s happening here is that a person who is not qualified is doing his best to bolster and boost his credibility....
- [XGW Digest: April 14, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/xgw-digest-april-14-2012/): -The Catholic Church threatens to cut off an immigrant rights group for supporting LGBT equality. -A French imam blesses the wedding of a gay Muslim couple. -Anti-gay violence continues to increase in Brazil. -A group of Colorado State University football players reportedly use anti-gay slurs before beating up four freshmen. -The CIA hosts a summit for LGBT intelligence workers. -Opposition to North Carolina’s anti-gay amendment gains momentum. -Actor Paul Iacono comes out of the closet. -The New York GOP uses redistricting to protect its four senators who voted for marriage equality. -A group of football players at a San Antonio high...
- [Core Issues Director Mike Davidson Removed from Professional Association](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/core-issues-director-mike-davidson-removed-from-professional-association/): The British Psychodrama Association has revoked the membership of Mike Davidson, a key figure behind the London bus ads that would — if Mayor Boris Johnson hadn’t put a stop to them — have proclaimed to commuters: “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!” Davidson is director of Core Issues Trust, a Northern Ireland-based organization that is effectively the UK’s equivalent to the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in the US. As a trainee psychotherapist, he was a member of the BPA, which describes itself as follows: The British Psychodrama Association (BPA) is the professional...
- [Ex-Gays, Anti-Gays Launch London Bus Ad Campaign (Update: Ads Pulled)](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/ex-gays-launch-london-bus-ad-campaign/): Ex-gays in the UK will go on the offensive later this month when they launch an ad campaign subverting a well-known pro-gay slogan. But its conservative Christian organizers come with a notorious reputation for promoting pseudoscience and extreme homophobia. The words “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!” will appear on the sides of London buses for two weeks, starting from Monday, April 16. The surprisingly aggressive message spins a slogan famously used by leading British LGBT campaign group Stonewall: “Some people are gay. Get over it!” Unfortunately for the campaign’s backers, the announcement comes just as the psychiatrist...
- [Spitzer Retracts 2001 Landmark Ex-Gay Study](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/spitzer-retracts-2001-landmark-ex-gay-study/): For a decade, ex-gays have relied on the results of a 2001 study to prove their claim that “change is possible.” But if they continue to promote its flawed research, they will do so only in the knowledge that its author, psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, has now publicly disowned it. In an article in the May issue of The American Prospect magazine, Spitzer tells Gabriel Arana he wants his retraction of the landmark study on the record: “In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct,” he said. “The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy...
- [Sydney Newspaper on 'Healing' the Gay Worshipper](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/sydney-newspaper-on-healing-the-gay-worshipper/): A gay man from Sydney, Australia, says six months of Christian programs to heal his homosexuality only confirmed his sexuality rather than curing it. According to an article in Sunday’s Sydney Morning Herald, “Shaun,” now 35, attended two three-month programs with Liberty Christian Ministries, in the Sydney suburb of East Balmain. He said he tried the ex-gay ministry because he wanted to live up to the expectations of his family, friends and church. He was 21 at the time and had been referred to the group by a minister. Every week for three months, he met about 40 homosexual men and women...
- [XGW Digest: April 7, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/xgw-digest-april-7-2012/): -A Catholic Priest accidentally includes gay pornography in a PowerPoint presentation. -A conservative Christian mother is forced to rethink what she thought she knew. -The Miss Universe Organization agrees to allow a transgender woman join the competition in Canada. -Anti-gay activism increases in Liberia. -A federal appeals court hears a challenge to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. -Malaysia moves to ban all LGBT characters from television. -NOM demands that the federal government investigate the Human Rights Campaign. -Country singer Toby Keith joins with other conservatives who oppose North Carolina’s marriage ban amendment.
- [Former NARTH President Dean Byrd Has Died](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/former-narth-president-dean-byrd-has-died/): The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality has announced the death of its former president, Dr A Dean Byrd. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Byrd was the foremost proponent of reparative therapy among Mormons, and as a leading member of NARTH he was, according to the organization … a true clinical pioneer paving the way for many others in the treatment of unwanted homosexual attractions. He had been a member of the NARTH Board of Directors for more than a decade and made a tremendous contribution to the early work in establishing...
- [XGW Digest: March 31, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/xgw-digest-march-31-2012/): -More than 200 gay couples exchange wedding vows at a rally in Cleveland. -The Department of Homeland Security announces that it will allow same-sex families to enter the US together. -India’s Supreme Court reserves its verdict on the decriminalization of homosexuality. -The National Organization for Marriage’s secret strategy documents are brought to light. -Chilean President Sebastian Pinera promises an anti-discrimination law in the wake of a brutal anti-gay attack in Santiago. -The NAACP condemns NOM’s race-centered tactics. -The Russian Parliament considers a ban on “homosexual propaganda.” -Rick Santorum stops a boy from using a pink bowling ball. -The Government of Malta...
- ['Day of Silence' to Follow 'Day of Dialogue' This April](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/day-of-silence-to-follow-day-of-dialogue-this-april/): The “Day of Dialogue,” once dubbed “Day of Truth” by the Alliance Defense Fund before being handed off to Exodus International, is coming up this April. Now headed by anti-gay socially conservative powerhouse Focus on the Family, this year the DOD will happen the day before the gay-supportive, anti-bullying “Day of Silence.” The DOD (then DOT) was founded to oppose the DOS, and has for the past few years been held a day or so after the DOS. As the body count from the suicides of bullied kids continues to mount, it becomes increasingly counter-productive for socially conservative pundits to openly...
- [XGW Digest: March 24, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/xgw-digest-march-24-2012/): -Former president Jimmy Carter voices his support for marriage equality. -Jon Rowe considers another parallel between race and sexual orientation. -Actor Kirk Cameron defends himself following the backlash from his recent anti-gay comments. -The National Organization for Marriage declares itself in favor of civil unions in New Hampshire. -The New Hampshire House rejects an effort to repeal the state’s marriage law. -The European Court of Human Rights rules that marriage equality is not a human right. -Meanwhile, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules in favor of a gay parent. -Two men on a cruise ship are arrested in Dominica for...
- [XGW Digest: March 17, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/xgw-digest-march-17-2012/): -Rosie O’Donnell interviews Randy Roberts Potts and Nate Phelps. -Openly gay Idaho state senator Nicole LeFavour announces her candidacy for Congress. -Jim Burroway clarifies for the uncertain how Kirk Cameron’s anti-gay comments were offensive. -Denmark’s Prime Minister promises a marriage equality law by summer. -Former Vice President Walter Mondale joins the fight against Minnesota’s marriage ban initiative. -The Omaha, Nebraska city council passes an anti-discrimination ordinance. -The Pennsylvania state house kills a proposed constitutional marriage ban. -The Center for Constitutional Rights sues Scott Lively for the role he played in the inception of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. -The Italian Supreme Court rules...
- [NARTH Promotes Anti-Gay Junk Science, Says SPLC](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/narth-promotes-anti-gay-junk-science-says-splc/): The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality is now the “main source of anti-gay ‘junk science,'” according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “But even as NARTH is held up as an authority on the science of homosexuality by both fringe groups and politically potent national organizations like the Family Research Council, its claim that LGBT people can be ‘cured’ of their homosexuality is not backed by the evidence,” the SPLC said. The report gives a brief history of NARTH, which began in 1992 as a response to the medical consensus that homosexuality was...
- [XGW Digest: March 10, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/xgw-digest-march-10-2012/): -Gay Republican Ken Mehlman apologizes for his role in past anti-gay political campaigns. -Rick Santorum pledges to nullify all same-sex marriage licenses if elected. -A gay Chilean man is savagely beaten by neo-Nazis. -A wave of anti-gay violence sweeps through Iraq. -Actor Hong Seok-Cheon talks about life as an openly gay man in Korea. -Actor Colin Farrell and his gay brother Eamon join an anti-bullying campaign in Ireland. -The SPLC’s list of anti-gay hate groups grows to 27. -Two openly lesbian candidates win their primary races in Ohio. -Chris Hughes, gay co-founder of Facebook, buys The New Republic.
- [NARTH, Andy Comiskey Malign Gays, Affirm 'Freedom from Homosexuality'](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/narth-andy-comiskey-malign-gays-affirm-freedom-from-homosexuality/): Ex-gay Andy Comiskey says that being gay is about self-absorption and lack of self-restraint — but gays can change. In an interview with reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi, of NARTH, Comiskey says he can’t help but see gay activists as conflicted. They are denying their God-given selves, he says, and efforts to promote same-sex marriage are vain attempts to prove “how good and normal I am.” But the exchange opens with the issue of sexual orientation change and whether “anyone can be completely free of homosexuality.” Comiskey, whose Exodus-affiliated Desert Stream Ministries runs the Living Water program to help gays find...
- [Dustin Lance Black's 8: Dramatization of the California Prop 8 Trial](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/dustin-lance-blacks-8-dramatization-of-the-california-prop-8-trial/): Saturday, March 3, saw a live YouTube broadcast of Dustin Lance Black’s play 8, a reenactment of Perry v Schwarzenegger (later Perry v Brown), the 2010 trial that ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional. The play premiered on Broadway in September, 2011, but this live version from Los Angeles was an abridged reading by an all-star cast that included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen and Jamie-Lee Curtis. Black has based his script largely on the court transcripts. The defendants, arguing for Proposition 8, successfully fought to keep video of the proceedings out of the public eye. I’d wager they...
- [XGW Digest: March 3, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/03/xgw-digest-march-3-2012/): -Radio personality Fez Whatley comes out of the closet. -A Catholic priest treats a lesbian spitefully while officiating at her mother’s funeral. -A majority of Iowans oppose repealing marriage equality, according to a new poll. -NOM is foiled in its last attempt to keep its donor list secret. -A student and faculty group demands that Harvard issue posthumous degrees to seven students expelled in the 1920s for being gay. -St. Petersburg, Russia, enacts an anti-gay ordinance. -George Clooney talks to The Advocate about gay rumors and civil rights. -Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signs marriage equality into law. -Conservative activist and GOProud...
- [XGW Digest: February 25, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/xgw-digest-february-25-2012/): -A Republican sheriff and congressional candidate in Arizona is outed. -Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dinner with a group of gay constituents. -The Virginia state senate votes to allow private adoption agencies to discriminate against gay parents. -Baltimore County, MD extends antidiscrimination protections to transgender residents. -Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie announces that he will not defend the state’s marriage ban. -California District Court Judge Jeffrey White rules that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. -Authorities in Cameroon arrest ten women suspected of being lesbians. -Republican former Senator Alan Simpson calls Rick Santorum a homophobe. -A new survey finds overwhelming...
- [Truth Wins Out Takes on PFOX and Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/truth-wins-out-takes-on-pfox-and-exodus-international/): LGBT activist organization Truth Wins Out has launched a lawsuit against PFOX, the anti-gay lobbying group whose president accused TWO’s Wayne Besen of calling for his death. Here’s what Greg Quinlan said on TV last year: [Wayne Besen] asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS. Those are the things that Wayne Besen and Truth Wins Out says about me. That’s pretty hateful rhetoric. Quinlan later incriminated himself by misrepresenting what he’d said: First of all, Besen blatantly mischaracterized what I actually said on...
- [Discredited Psychotherapist Shudders at Prospect of Gay Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/discredited-psychotherapist-shudders-at-prospect-of-gay-equality/): Lesley Pilkington, the British psychotherapist stripped of her credentials after offering to cure a patient of his homosexuality, has appeared on TV to express her dismay at LGBT equality. Mrs Pilkington told Channel 4’s 4thought.tv that she believed “Christianity should be central to our nation today.” She continued: We have lost the notion of sin. We are now fighting a rearguard action, for example, against legislation that is very likely to come in to give equality to same-sex marriage as to marriage between one man and one woman. The church has been silent, and that is the problem in our society....
- [XGW Digest: February 18, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/xgw-digest-february-18-2012/): -Actor Matt Bomer comes out of the closet. -The New Jersey Senate votes for marriage equality, but falls short of a veto-proof majority. -Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signs marriage equality into law. -Anti-gay groups show their true colors at CPAC. -Oklahoma voters elect an openly gay state senator. -A Liberian senator proposes punishing gays with the death penalty. -The European Parliament condemns Russia’s recent wave of anti-gay bills. -The US Justice Department announces that it will not defend anti-gay Title 38. -A conservative radio talk show host is spotted in a gay bar. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoes marriage equality…...
- [Will the Real Exodus Please Stand Up?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/will-the-real-exodus-please-stand-up/): After statements by Exodus President Alan Chambers at the recent GCN conference, some have been persuaded that Exodus may be headed in a more tolerant “congruency” direction.  We’ve been around this block more than a few times before and remain skeptical of the sincerity of any such change.  Having published information late last year linking an upcoming stunt such as this to a need for funds and a way to save Exodus from ruin, we are doubly cautious. Curiously lacking, however, has been any commentary from other Exodus leaders on this new found direction.  How do people with their lives and...
- [XGW Digest: February 11, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/xgw-digest-february-11-2012/): -Religious right activists react with predictable hyperbole to the Ninth Circuit Court’s Prop 8 ruling. -A marriage equality bill is introduced in the Illinois legislature. -The city legislature of St. Petersburg, Russia advances an anti-gay bill. -CNN suspends Roland Martin for posting homophobic tweets during the Superbowl. -Marriage equality is approved by the Washington State House. -The Australian parliament prepares to debate same-sex marriage. -Howard Stern defends Ellen DeGeneres. -Virginia Republicans open up a can of worms in their zeal to deny rights to gay parents.
- [Court Rules Prop 8 Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/court-rules-prop-8-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional/): Proposition 8, the law that bans same-sex marriage in California, has been ruled unconstitutional by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The announcement, made just before 10am PT today, is another nail in the coffin of marriage inequality in the US. The fight for LGBT equality is still far from over, however. According to Andrew Gumbel in The Guardian (UK), the ruling “will not put an end to the argument about the rights of same-sex couples in the United States, but it will be a vital stepping stone toward the inevitable final showdown in the Supreme Court in...
- [Documentary Alleges Gay Teen Kidnapped, Sent to Evangelical Boot Camp](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/documentary-alleges-gay-teen-kidnapped-sent-to-evangelical-boot-camp/): A feature-length film aims to tell the story of American teenagers sent to an evangelical Christian boarding school, Escuala Caribe, in the Dominican Republic. According to its website, the school is “therapeutic,” with a mission to help the parents of underachieving kids “train their child in the way he or she should go.” Several past students allege “physical and emotional abuse” at the “boot camp,” however. Among those featured in the upcoming documentary Kidnapped for Christ are a teenager who says he was, essentially, abducted during the night to be taken from his US home to Escuala Caribe: One morning I woke up....
- [XGW Digest: February 4, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/xgw-digest-february-4-2012/): -Another British footballer speaks out against homophobia. -A new poll finds a plurality of Minnesotans in favor of banning same-sex marriage. -The Virginia State Senate votes down an anti-discrimination bill. -Kenya Chief Justice Willy Mutunga voices his support of gay rights. -The National Organization for Marriage loses yet another court appeal. -Country singer Drake Jensen comes out of the closet. -Amazon joins the list of corporations supporting marriage equality. -The Washington State Senate votes to legalize same-sex marriage. -The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules against releasing the video recordings of Perry vs. Brown. -Rolling Stone scrutinizes the anti-gay policies of...
- [Alan Chambers Begins Damage Control at Exodus after GCN Debacle](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/alan-chambers-begins-damage-control-at-exodus-after-gcn-debacle/): Exodus International President Alan Chambers has published his reflections on what he said to a conference of gay Christians last month. Speaking to the Gay Christian Network in January, Chambers enthusiastically greeted GCN leader Justin Lee as his “brother in Christ”: I honestly trust [Justin Lee], and I honestly like him, and I honestly believe that he loves Jesus and that we are brothers in Christ and that we will spend eternity together … and because of that, the thing that brought me here first and foremost is: We’re Christians, all of us. We may have diverging viewpoints … but the...
- [More Homophobia from Anglican Mainstream](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/02/more-homophobia-from-anglican-mainstream/): Anglican Mainstream has once again demonstrated its deep-rooted homophobia. The British-based organization teamed up with ex-gay group Core Issues to coach a disappointingly small audience on how to treat gays and lesbians — and it took the opportunity to deliver vile smears against the LGBT people it claimed to help. According to Changing Attitude‘s report, American lawyer and pastor Jim Reynolds, came across the most gracious at The Lepers Among Us, the conference held in London last weekend. The level of compassion declined considerably when Anglican Mainstream’s Lisa Nolland took to the stage: We were then treated to what can only...
- [UK Evangelicals Disgrace Themselves with Support for NARTH, Lesley Pilkington](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/british-evangelicals-disgrace-themselves-with-support-for-narth-lesley-pilkington/): A number of British conservative evangelical leaders have written to the Daily Telegraph to express their support for Lesley Pilkington, the Christian therapist found guilty of professional malpractice for offering a “gay cure” to an undercover journalist. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is among the 70 signatories of the letter. Also joining him are the former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali, the current Bishop of Chester the Right Reverend Peter Forster, the Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham — and several names representing the most extreme end of the anti-gay, ex-gay movement in the US. They include JONAH’s Arthur “Abba” Goldberg, PFOX’s...
- [XGW Digest: January 28, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/xgw-digest-january-28-2012/): -A 15-year-old boy writes a letter to his gay dads. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie nominates an openly gay judge to the state Supreme Court. -Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley introduces a marriage equality bill. -Glen Retief offers advice for parents with a child being bullied in school. -Starbucks joins the list of Washington corporations in favor of marriage equality. -Maine voters will have another opportunity to vote on marriage. -Congressman Barney Frank announces plans to marry his long-time partner. -Australia makes the lives of its LGBT citizens a little bit easier. -The Family Research Council assails a videogame for recognizing the...
- [XGW Digest: January 21, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/xgw-digest-january-21-2012/): -Support for marriage equality in France reaches 63%. -Maggie Gallagher endorses Rick Santorum for president. -A group of parents in Minnesota demand an anti-gay school curriculum. -Comedian Todd Glass comes out of the closet. -A gathering of anti-gay activists protests their inclusion on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups. -Survivor casts a gay Republican for its upcoming season. -The New Hampshire House defers a vote on its marriage repeal bill until February. -Cuba to consider civil unions this year. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks noncommittally about his state’s marriage equality bill. -Tennessee lawmakers seek to add a...
- [The Lepers Among Us: Conference Addresses 'Same-Sex Sin,' Brings NARTH Gay Cure Message to UK](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/the-lepers-among-us-uk-conference-addresses-same-sex-sin/): A conference taking place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, today offers ways for conservative Christian churches to minister to “the lepers among us” — namely, gays and lesbians, or those who “struggle with same-sex sins.” Astonishingly, Core Issues, which organized it and an identical conference taking place in London, England, tomorrow [correction: next week], failed to foresee the offence the “leper” label would cause. A press release issued yesterday said: The conference organisers recognise that the event’s title “The Lepers Among Us” has caused some misunderstanding, being taken as a call for the church to treat LGBT people in the way that lepers...
- [XGW Digest: January 14, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/xgw-digest-january-14-2012/): -New Jersey Democrats fast track a marriage equality bill. -An evangelical mother speaks in support of her gay daughter. -The National Organization for Marriage spends $140,000 campaigning against Congressman Ron Paul. -A Washington state Republican joins the push for marriage equality. –Wendy Gritter and Kathy Baldock reflect on Alan Chambers’ appearance at the GCN conference. -Jimmy Kimmel shows how gay marriage could destroy the world. -The Canadian government issues reassurances that it will recognize all marriage licenses after a previous statement that they would only be valid if recognized in the couple’s home state or country. -Another gay teenager commits suicide....
- [GCN Director's Official Statement on Exodus Controversy](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/gcn-directors-official-statement-on-exodus-controversy/): Justin Lee, the director of the Gay Christian Network, has published an official statement concerning the unscheduled appearance of Exodus President Alan Chambers’s at the GCN conference in Orlando, FL, last week. Read this initial post and the ensuing comments thread, as well as this follow-up thread, for the backstory. Justin has given Ex-Gay Watch permission to reproduce his apology here in full: Official Statement from Justin Lee By now, many of you have heard about a public meeting I had last weekend with Alan Chambers, the president of the world’s largest ex-gay ministry. The meeting generated a lot of controversy...
- [Exodus President's Doublespeak on Gay Christians](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/exodus-president-doublespeak-on-gay-christians/): Exodus International President Alan Chambers is happy to affirm LGBT Christians as his brothers and sisters in Christ, at least according to his opening gambit at the GCN conference last week: I honestly trust [GCN leader Justin Lee], and I honestly like him, and I honestly believe that he loves Jesus and that we are brothers in Christ and that we will spend eternity together … and because of that, the thing that brought me here first and foremost is: We’re Christians, all of us. We may have diverging viewpoints … but the thing that brings us together, the thing that...
- [The Email GCN Sent Out to Conference Attendees](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/the-email-gcn-sent-out-to-conference-attendees/): There has been a lot of discussion lately over the attendance of Exodus President Alan Chambers at a recent Gay Christian Network conference (GCN).  Chambers participated in a panel discussion with former Love In Action director John Smid, Courage UK founder Jeremy Marks, and  Wendy Gritter, Executive Director of New Direction ministry in Canada (a former Exodus affiliate, now gay affirming).  This was Friday evening, January 6, 2012. Controversy exists over a number of issues.  Among other things, GCN serves as a refuge of sorts for gay Christians who had bad experiences with ex-gay ministries or who have simply reconciled their...
- [XGW Digest: January 7, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/xgw-digest-january-7-2012/): -Civil unions begin in Delaware and Hawaii. -The British government honors gay war hero and inventor Alan Turing with a new stamp. -The wife of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor voices her support for marriage equality. -The North Carolina Psychological Association voices its opposition to the state’s proposed marriage amendment. -A Colorado Republican group pushes for civil unions. -The Concord Monitor argues against overturning New Hampshire’s marriage equality law. -Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire announces plans to introduce a marriage equality bill. -Another researcher’s work is twisted by an anti-gay writer. -A New Hampshire Republican speaks out in defense of marriage equality....
- [Exodus President Alan Chambers to Appear at GCN Conference Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/exodus-president-alan-chambers-to-appear-at-gcn-conference-tonight/): We have learned that Exodus president Alan Chambers will be attending the Gay Christian Network conference this evening in Orlando, Fl.  He will be participating in a panel discussion with Jeremy Marks, John Smid, and Wendy Gritter at 8:30 EST.  This is all the information available at the moment. From the GCN website: The Gay Christian Network (GCN) is a nonprofit ministry supporting Christians worldwide who happen to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). Our mission, “sharing Christ’s light and love for all,” is carried out in 5 primary directions, to impact individuals, families, communities, churches, and the world. GCN...
- [It Gets Better? A Message for Non-Western LGBT](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/01/it-gets-better-a-message-for-non-western-lgbt/): “It Gets Better” is a realistic message for gay and lesbian people living in the western world, where society is increasingly accepting of sexual diversity. But in some non-western parts of the globe, survival as an LGBT person is all but impossible. Wendy Gritter of New Direction, Canada, has filmed a message for those gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people for whom the message of the It Gets Better campaign isn’t realistic or helpful. That’s not to denigrate the campaign, which Wendy has supported. It is to say this: We want to say to those who are coming to...
- [XGW Digest: December 31, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/xgw-digest-december-31-2011/): -Buzzfeed reveals the sordid details of what gay people do on Christmas. -Just Out, Portland’s LGBT newspaper, shuts its doors. -Congressman Ron Paul’s views on gays come under scrutiny. -CNNMoney finds that same-sex couples pay up to $6,000 per year more in income taxes than straight couples. -Several Jamaican political candidates use anti-gay statements to try to rally supporters. -Barnes & Noble pulls an anti-gay calendar from its online store. -A Florida appeals court restores parental rights to a lesbian mother. -Marriage equality comes to Quintana Roo, Mexico.
- [XGW Digest: December 24, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/xgw-digest-december-24-2011/): -A new study confirms that marriage is healthy for gay couples. -A New Jersey judge rules in favor of a gay couple in a custody hearing. -The Duluth, MN city council votes to officially oppose the anti-gay marriage amendment on the state ballot. -YouTube names Zach Wahl’s speech as its most-viewed political video of 2011. -Brandon McInerny is sentenced to 21 years in jail for the murder of gay teen Larry King. -A lesbian couple performs the traditional naval “first kiss.” -Richard Socarides believes that President Obama will come out in support of marriage equality before the 2012 election. -The state...
- [XGW Digest: December 17, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/xgw-digest-december-17-2011/): -The National Organization for Marriage continues to receive nearly all of its support from several large donors. -Journalist and gay activist Paul Varnell passes away. -The city of Orlando, Florida institutes a domestic partner registry. -Congress removes several anti-gay provisions from the 2012 defense authorization bill. -The government of Malawi reviews its anti-gay law. -Republican senators block confirmation of an ambassadorial appointment on the basis of the candidate’s support for gay rights. -Janice Shaw Crouse demonstrates how easy it is to abuse statistics. -A lesbian couple fights back against an anti-gay attacker. -Three Ugandan pastors face libel charges for their anti-gay...
- [Ex-Gay Joe Dallas: Christians Who Support Equality are Disobeying God](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/ex-gay-joe-dallas-christians-who-support-equality-are-disobeying-god/): Joe Dallas, former leader of Exodus International and self-professed “ex-gay,” was on the Janet Mefferd Show to express his disapproval of Christians who support equality and of Christian members of the Queer community. Dallas, long an opponent of so-called “gay theology” (that is, Biblical exegesis that is affirming of the benign reality of homosexuality in humanity), declares that Satan has a clear role in leading people “astray” to homosexuality in his book When Homosexuality Hits Home. Satan’s strategy is leading humans astray, whether the arena is doctrinal or moral, is to deceive an individual into thinking that what God has forbidden...
- [Congratulations, Wayne and Jamie](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/congratulations-wayne-and-jamie/): We’re a few days behind, but better late than never in wishing long-time Ex-Gay Watch friend and ally Wayne Besen, of Truth Wins Out, the very best with his new husband, Jamie Brundage. The happy couple married in Burlington, Vermont, on December 8. Congratulations!
- [XGW Digest: December 10, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/xgw-digest-december-10-2011/): -The Puerto Rico legislature moves toward eliminating several categories, including sexual orientation and gender identity, from the local hate crimes statute. -A gay couple in Ohio is targeted by anti-gay graffiti. -The Raleigh, NC city council passes a resolution opposing the state’s anti-marriage equality amendment. -A Republican mayor resigns after being outed by a male escort. -Rob Tish demonstrates how statistics can be used to support either side of an argument. -NFL linebacker Scott Fujita voices his support for marriage equality. -NOM resorts to citing Paul Cameron as an authority. -Another bullied teenager commits suicide. -GOProud outs a strategist working for...
- [Evangelical Christians Ignorant of Sexual Orientation Research](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/evangelical-christians-ignorant-of-sexual-orientation-research/): The evangelical media is silent on recent scientific research into sexual orientation, according to Dr Warren Throckmorton. The Grove City College psychology professor says his Christian audience routinely confirms there’s a blackout on up-to-date information on sexuality in the Christian media: They know there is no gay gene but they don’t know about the significant brain, perceptual and cognitive differences reported within the past six years by various researchers around the world. … Many evangelicals believe homosexuality is due to abuse. Some will say with confidence that gays are more likely to be abused than straights but they are unaware of the...
- [A Landmark Speech on Human Rights at the UN in Geneva](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/a-landmark-speech-on-human-rights-at-the-un-in-geneva/): This is well worth watching in it’s entirety.  LGBT rights are of course human rights, as Secretary Clinton so eloquently illustrates to the United Nations in Geneva.  There are times when we manage to get it right, and this looks like one of those times.  This speech follows the release of a memorandum by President Barack Obama “to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.” Full transcript from the State Department below: CLINTON: Good evening, and let me express my deep honor and pleasure at being here. I want to thank Director...
- [Exodus' Alan Chambers Wins Award, Re-branding Begins?](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/exodus-alan-chambers-wins-award-re-branding-begins/): World Magazine has awarded Exodus President Alan Chambers their 2011 Daniel Award.  With this award, Alan Chambers joins the ranks of Kenneth Star, John Ashcroft, Phillip E. Johnson (“father” of Intelligent design), Peter Akinola (rabidly anti-gay Nigerian priest), and Stephen C. Meyer (Intelligent Design), among other past recipients. In an article which appears in the December 17th edition, Chambers and Exodus are painted in glowing, courageous terms.  Many of Chambers’ key talking points are covered nicely, while any opposition is portrayed in a one-dimensional fashion.  This website is said to have “whole sections devoted to condemning Chambers and other ministries to homosexuals.”...
- [XGW Digest: December 3, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/xgw-digest-december-3-2011/): -Congressman Barney Frank announces his retirement. -Religious right activist Randy Thomasson worries about Prop 8’s chances of surviving in appeals court. -A lawsuit against New York’s marriage equality law is allowed to proceed. -Illinois will now allow couples in civil unions to file joint tax returns. -Another closeted Republican is embroiled in scandal. -A new poll finds strong support among Pennsylvanians for some form of legal recognition for gay couples. -A private school in Pennsylvania rejects a student for being HIV-positive. -The state of Queensland, Australia legalizes same-sex unions. -Jamiel Terry, the gay son of religious right activist Randall Terry, is...
- [Nicolosi Retracts Claim of Gay Cure through Antidepressants](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/12/nicolosi-retracts-claim-of-gay-cure-through-antidepressants/): NARTH founder Joseph Nicolosi, arguably the father of modern reparative therapy, has retracted his claim that a patient was able to change his sexual orientation through an SSRI. In 2009, Dr Nicolosi said his client had made no progress in eight years of therapy, but after a course of Lexapro, a brand of the antidepressant escitalopram, “he discovered that he had no more sexual attractions to men.” Although his claim failed to find a publisher, it didn’t stop NARTH using it as evidence in its 2009 ground-breaking, peer-reviewed study, the notorious publication that turned out not to be ground-breaking, peer-reviewed or...
- [Exclusive: Secret Conference Held to 'Save Exodus International' from Ruin](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/exclusive-secret-conference-held-to-save-exodus-international/): Exodus President Alan Chambers called a meeting together this past November 16.  The subject was quite simply how to keep Exodus International from social and financial oblivion.  In attendance were Exodus leadership, prominent religious leaders (such as Gabe Lyons) and lay people.  The latter were mostly those who once counted themselves in the ex-gay camp but now are either in the process of changing their views or are fully gay affirming. We had been following odd activity at Exodus for some time.  It was clear that something was up but only after being contacted by some of those directly involved did...
- [Anti-Bullying Activist Roger Crouch Dies](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/anti-bullying-activist-roger-crouch-dies/): Roger Crouch, the British activist who led the charge against homophobic bullying following the death of his teenage son, has died. Dom Crouch committed suicide in 2010, saying he had been the victim of malicious gay rumours. His father, Roger, and mother, Paola, have since dedicated themselves to fighting homophobia and speaking out against bullying. Earlier this month, the UK LGBT lobbying group Stonewall awarded him the title of Hero of the Year, an honour voted for by the organization’s supporters. Receiving the award, Roger said: I see this as an award for Dom. I want to say by choosing us...
- [XGW Digest: November 26, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/xgw-digest-november-26-2011/): -A Baptist congregation in North Carolina votes against conducting any more weddings until gay couples can legally marry. -Jayson Littman shares his experiences as a Jewish ex-gay. -The Nigerian government considers a same-sex marriage ban. -An Orthodox Jewish rabbi marries a gay couple. -Major League Baseball adds sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination provision. -Three men are sentenced to prison in Cameroon for having sex with each other. -The US Supreme Court rejects Protect Marriage Washington’s attempt to keep its petition signers anonymous. -Fifteen transgender individuals are killed in a fire in Delhi, India. -Get Up Australia releases a powerful new ad...
- [PFOX President Greg Quinlan Severly Truth Challenged Once More](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/pfox-president-greg-quinlan-severly-truth-challenged-once-more/):   Current PFOX president Greg Quinlan appeared for an interview recently on a local D.C. station.  While the interviewer, Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV), was better prepared than most, it doesn’t seem he understood the depth of misinformation Quinlan is willing to put forth.  It would take a week to tease through the factual errors in this short interview, and much of it has been covered before.  For example, claims that PFOX won a suit in D.C to have ex-gays considered a protected class have been confronted before. Quinlan goes on to accuse noted geneticist Dean Hamer of lying about his research, Dr. Robert...
- [LIFE: Behind Liverpool Frontline Church's Extreme Ex-Gay Connections](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/life-behind-liverpool-frontline-churchs-extreme-ex-gay-connections/): One aspect glossed over in recent media reports about Liverpool Frontline Church and its ex-gay ministry is its roots in an American ministry, LIFE. Here’s how I summarized the issue back in July, for The Guardian‘s Comment is free: But let’s be clear that concern over the Life connection is not a simple matter of guilt by association. Joanne Highley, a woman who teaches that homosexual orientation is a sin that can be cured by a combination of psychological therapy and prayer, personally visited Frontline multiple times to help establish an ex-gay ministry based explicitly on her teachings and methods. Oklahoma-born...
- [XGW Digest: November 19, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/xgw-digest-november-19-2011/): -A coalition of civil rights groups renews the campaign for marriage equality in Washington State. -Baylor University quietly renames a sociology course originally titled “Homosexuality as a Gateway Drug.” -An anti-LGBT bill is introduced in the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg, Russia. -Oklahoma City adds sexual orientation to its employment anti-discrimination law. -Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan publicly endorses marriage equality. -Amanda Terkel examines NOM’s claims of victimhood. -The California Supreme Court rules that proponents of Prop 8 have standing to appeal Perry vs. Brown. -An Oklahoma pastor bears false witness. -A Republican official in Texas comes out...
- [Liverpool Frontline Church Loses Allies over Ex-Gay Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/liverpool-frontline-church-loses-allies-over-ex-gay-ministry/): Local government, police and community investors have distanced themselves from Frontline Church in Liverpool, England, after details of its “gay conversion” ministry were publicized. In July, I wrote for The Guardian‘s Comment is free about Liverpool LIFE ministry, a group patterned after LIFE NYC, an extreme, anti-gay organization founded by Joanne Highley. Although Frontline’s defenders are quick to claim they’re only following traditional Christian teaching, Joanne Highley’s teaching goes far beyond the “orthodox” Christian view of homosexuality. Among other things, she believes and practices casting demons out of any bodily orifice that has been penetrated and received an “ungodly deposit of...
- [XGW Digest: November 12, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/xgw-digest-november-12-2011/): -300 gay Mormons hold a conference in Salt Lake City. -An anonymous anti-gay flyer taints a Virginia state senate race. -60 major corporations join the battle against the Defense of Marriage Act. -The United Kingdom lifts its ban on blood donations by gay men. -A gay man and a transgender woman win seats in Poland’s parliament. -LGBT and gay-friendly candidates fare well on election day. -Director Brett Ratner steps down as a producer of the Academy Awards in the wake of his recent anti-gay comments. -Basic Rights Oregon opts against pursuing a marriage equality ballot measure in 2012. -American soccer player...
- [Private NARTH Letter to Dr. Francis Collins Displays Arrogance](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/private-narth-letter-to-dr-francis-collins-displays-arrogance/): In 2007, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) posted an article by Dean Byrd on their website.  It seemed written to give the impression that noted geneticist Dr. Francis Collins agreed with both the idea that homosexuality did not have a genetic cause and that it could be changed or prevented.  To be sure, NARTH believes all this, but it did not sound like something with which Dr. Collins would agree.  Collins has a reputation for being a brilliant and reasonable scientist, passionate about the truth. A careful reading of Byrd’s article revealed some select comments...
- [A Third Ex-Gay Domino Falls](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/a-third-ex-gay-domino-falls/): The founder of a Brazilian group that claims to heal homosexuals has come out against them in an interview with the “Flying Teapot Project” blog. The English and philosophy teacher, also a theologian, Sergio Viula, 42, born and resident in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the founders of the Movement for the Healthy Sexuality (MOSES), an evangelical NGO which helps people interested in quitting homosexuality. He tells a tale familiar to that of John Smid, who recently came out against Exodus. Viula recounts how he got married and had children, only to admit that his attraction to men never went...
- [XGW Digest: November 5, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/xgw-digest-november-5-2011/): -Gay rights pioneer Axel Axgil dies at age 96. -Republican Senator Jim Inhofe condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill. -A San Diego high school crowns a lesbian couple Homecoming King and Queen. -A brutal anti-gay hate crime is committed in Reno, Texas. -California Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani comes out of the closet. -England and Wales will soon allow civil partnership ceremonies to be held in churches. -A gay couple is ejected from a Chicago bus. -Anita Bryant sits down and has a conversation with an actual gay person. -Conan O’Brien officiates a gay wedding on his talk show. -A new diagram explains marriage equality...
- [Ex-Gay Survivor Survey Documents Ex-Gay Harm](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/ex-gay-survivor-survey-documents-ex-gay-harm/): The website Beyond Ex-Gay has launched a survey to counter the false promises and damaging claims of the ex-gay movement: We’ve all heard the declarations that “thousands and thousands of people have been healed of their homosexuality.” Where do those numbers come from? At Beyond Ex-Gay (bXg) we know firsthand that the thousands who have attended ex-gay groups never “changed.” Worse yet, our ex-gay experiences caused us tremendous harm. So to counter the rhetoric, we have created a new survey specifically for ex-gay survivors. It’s short, and you can stay as anonymous as you’d like. If you can’t find answers that fit...
- [Former Exodus Leader Tells Australian Media Truth about Ex-Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/11/former-exodus-leader-tells-australian-media-truth-about-ex-gays/): A psychologist and one-time Exodus* counsellor has told the Brisbane Times, Australia, has denounced the ex-gay movement, saying he walked away 25 years ago because it forced gay men into “living an even greater lie” that hurt themselves and their families. Paul Martin, now an equal rights activist and head of the Centre for Human Potential in Brisbane, spoke out after Queensland Member of Parliament Fiona Simpson was criticized for her ex-gay views. The politician had lent public support to Exodus in 2002, praising the organization for giving homosexuals “the freedom to grow into homosexuality over time.” Here are Paul Martin’s own words,...
- [Richard Cohen Issues Sham Apology to LGBT Community](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/richard-cohen-issues-bizarre-apology-to-lgbt-community/): Ex-gay guru Richard Cohen of the International Healing Foundation has published an “apology” to gays and lesbians he has hurt: “We at IHF wish to offer a sincere, heartfelt apology to everyone in the LGBTQ community,” said IHF founder and director, Richard Cohen. “I apologize and ask forgiveness to those who were hurt by our message.” Cohen, a leading expert in the field of sexual orientation and married father of three, knows first-hand how it feels to be ostracized having lived a gay life. Beginning today, IHF’s doors are wide open to everyone in the LGBTQ and straight communities. The new mission,...
- [XGW Digest: October 29, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/xgw-digest-october-29-2011/): -Denmark moves closer to legalizing same-sex marriage. -Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, calls for gay rights to be included in the country’s new constitution. -Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain once again supports the idea of a federal marriage amendment. -Progressive Muslim-Americans work to raise their profile. -The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee approves a bill to repeal the state’s marriage equality law. -Three Republican Congressmen participate in an “It Gets Better” video. -Uganda’s Parliament reopens debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. -NOM is caught pretending photos from nonrelated political rallies were from its events. -The Johnson Family Foundation awards $150,000 grants...
- [Mental Health Professionals a Minority in NARTH](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/mental-health-professionals-a-minority-in-narth/): Although the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality promotes itself as a professional organization, mental health professionals make up a mere quarter of its 1,000-strong membership. Dr Warren Throckmorton, a conservative Christian and psychology professor who has become increasingly skeptical of ex-gay “science,” obtained the figures directly from a senior NARTH official: Actually, according to NARTH’s operations director, David Pruden, only about 250 of NARTH’s approximately 1000 members are mental health professionals. Furthermore, some of those 250 members who have mental health degrees are academics who write about sexuality but do not provide sexual reorientation therapy. Thus, the...
- [XGW Digest: October 22, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/xgw-digest-october-22-2011/): -Actor Zachary Quinto comes out of the closet. -Another gay teen commits suicide following years of bullying. -Inspired by Zachary Quinto, ABC news anchor Dan Kloeffler comes out of the closet. -Paul Cameron looks for a new audience for his “research” in Moldova. -250 gay voters in New York change their party affiliation to support a Republican ally. -Botswana’s former president calls for decriminalizing homosexuality. -NOM loses yet another attempt to keep its donor rolls secret. -Adoptions by gay parents have more than tripled over the last decade, according to Census Bureau estimates. -Over 900 Methodists sign a covenant challenging the...
- [Exodus' New $1M Headquarters, Incognito](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/exodus-new-1m-headquarters-incognito/): In 2008, Exodus moved from a modest office that they leased for $2000+ a month to the building above at 190 N Westmonte Dr, Altamonte Springs, Florida, which they purchased at the height of the real estate market bubble for over $1.1 million.  Exodus has an estimated eleven employees working in this two-story office complex, assuming they haven’t quitely let anyone else go.  Presumably this also houses the oft referenced phone that allegedly receives 400,000 calls a year (roughly 45 calls an hour 24/7/365) from people begging to hear about “freedom from homosexuality.” Unlike NARTH, Focus on the Family, et al,...
- [XGW Digest: October 15, 2011](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/xgw-digest-october-15-2011/): -Two gay Republicans enter the race for San Diego Mayor. -Rev. Scott Anderson becomes the Presbyterian Church’s first officially sanctioned gay minister. -Legendary gay rights activist Frank Kameny dies at the age of 86. -Bank of America will begin reimbursing partnered gay employees for the extra taxes they pay on their health insurance. -The British government announces that it will reduce aid to nations that persecute gays and lesbians. -The Marine Corps sets up a recruiting booth at a Southern California Pride event. -The US Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal from a gay couple that wants both father’s names...
- [Exodus President Reluctantly Admits 'It Gets Better'](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/exodus-president-reluctantly-admits-it-gets-better/): Exodus International President Alan Chambers has decided, over a year after the launch of the It Gets Better project, that he should support the campaign instead of condemning it. In May, the ex-gay leader was livid that Toy Story character Woody was being used to promote the message that things get better for bullied teens. We figured out what enraged him so: The message and ministry of Exodus International depends on the opposite message — according to Exodus, it only gets worse until you submit to its religious agenda, renounce your “gay identity” and try to change your sexual orientation. Put simply,...
- [Former Ex-Gay Leader Smid Can No Longer Condemn Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2011/10/former-ex-gay-leader-smid-can-no-longer-condemn-gays/): The former leader of Exodus International’s oldest ministry says you can’t repent of homosexuality — and he now publicly admits he is homosexual himself. John Smid, who resigned as Executive Director of Love in Action in 2008, has made his strongest statements yet disavowing the message he preached for years as the head of a ministry that promised gays they could change. Writing on the website of his new ministry, Grace Rivers, Smid says being homosexual (he generally uses this rather clinical term rather than “gay”) is an intrinsic part of a person’s being, not a behaviour he can repent from:...
- [XGW Digest: May 18, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/xgw-digest-may-18-2013/): -A Russian man is brutally murdered for being gay. -A transgender woman in Hong Kong wins the right to marry her boyfriend. -A gay couple is savagely attacked in Cyprus. -Minnesota becomes state #12. -Queer Rising plans a rally to protest recent anti-gay violence in New York City. -Brazil’s National Council of Justice rules that government offices cannot refuse marriage licenses to gay couples. -LGBT rights advance in Nevada. –New polls find majority support for marriage equality in Michigan, Arizona and Virginia. -ILGA-Europe releases its annual review of the state of LGBT rights throughout Europe. -The Texas House votes to allow...
- [Movie: God Loves Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/movie-god-loves-uganda/): From director Roger Ross Williams, comes a movie about the devastating effect of the descent of Evangelicals from the West on Uganda.  XGW readers will be well familiar with the “Kill the Gays Bill” which came out of interventions in 2009 by a number of US evangelists, including The Pink Swastika author Scott Lively.  We haven’t been able to review this movie yet, but it has received rave reviews like this one from The Dallas Weekly: God loves Uganda is an astonishingly courageous documentary by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams. This film takes an intense look at the hate-filled rhetoric...
- [Harm Caused by Ex-gay Therapy is 'greatly, greatly, greatly exaggerated'](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/harm-caused-by-ex-gay-therapy-is-greatly-greatly-greatly-exaggerated/): …is what anti-gay / ex-gay activists Michael Brown (left) and Arthur Goldberg (right) would have you believe. Anti-gay activist and “ex-gay” advocate, Michael Brown, had a little chat with, Arthur Goldberg — of the “ex-gay” conversion therapy group JONAH — “Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing” — on Brown’s radio show, “Line of Fire.” Goldberg asserted that the harm caused by ex-gay/reparative/conversion therapy is “greatly, greatly, greatly exaggerated.” Brown then adds: …you were involved with civil rights movement years ago. Did the leaders say, ‘Look, our kids, our black kids are killing themselves, hanging themselves because they’re being rejected by society, so you’d better accept them’?...
- [Is the Latest Outcry over Abercrombie A Clever Retail Ploy?](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/off-topic-chat-is-the-latest-outcry-a-clever-scheme-to-boost-abercrombie/): Revised to include response from the Business Insider. Until the latest nascent campaign against Abercrombie & Fitch took root, the retailer had suffered from a prolonged period of lousy sales (Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal) as youths flocked to hipper, fresher, and friendlier rivals such as H&M. On May 3, however, Business Insider — a publication that includes sponsored news — reported on comments made by ANF CEO Mike Jeffries: “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told [Salon.com]. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid...
- [Please Excuse the Mess](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/please-excuse-the-mess/): Over the next week, XGW will be changing a bit so don’t be surprised if something looks amiss.  After we are done there will be a chance to submit feedback if things aren’t working.  After that, you should notice a lot more activity again. Thanks!
- [XGW Digest: May 11, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/xgw-digest-may-11-2013/): [list type=”arrow”] The Iowa Supreme Court rules that both of a child’s lesbian parents must be listed on the birth certificate. The Albanian government passes a hate crimes law. Frank Bruni challenges the religious right’s attempt to monopolize ‘moral values.’ A gay couple is attacked outside Madison Square Gardens. Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady is forced to resign over his support for gay rights. Delaware becomes the 11th state to legalize marriage equality. A father and son plan an 1,800-mile bike ride to protest the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policies. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorses marriage equality. The Minnesota House...
- [In Criticizing Exodus, RHN's Rob Gagnon Projects His Own Sins](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/in-criticizing-exodus-rhns-rob-gagnon-projects-his-own-sins/): Good As You blogger Jeremy Hooper was copied on correspondence from a listserv of socially conservative activists last week — correspondence that reveals less-than-healing and far-from-gracious opinions of Restored Hope Network board member Robert Gagnon. It is worth reminding readers that RHN is, according to its own mission, supposed to share God’s love and heal broken people — not mangle Bible verses and vent defensive judgments upon everyone who has been cheated or injured by the advocacy of fraudulent and unbiblical treatments for homosexuality. Responding to Exodus International president Alan Chambers and executive vice president Randy Thomas via email, Gagnon pontificated...
- [Hard-Line 'Ex-Gay' Alliance Reveals Desire for Political Power](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/11690/): A hard-line “ex-gay” splinter group from Exodus International formally announced its political intent this week, in a press release that gets a bit carried away with self-flattery. Italics are mine. Restored Hope Network is pleased to announce its Restored Hope Board of Reference comprised of strong, competent and fearless leaders who choose to stand with the new ministry and the truth that Jesus still transforms lives in conformity to God’s will. They are Dr. Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspectives Ministries; Dr. Matthew Barber, Liberty Counsel; Steve Berger, Grace Chapel Nashville; Dr. Michael L. Brown, Fire School of Ministry; Fr. Paul Check, Courage; Dr....
- [XGW Digest: May 4, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/xgw-digest-may-4-2013/): -NBA player Jason Collins comes out of the closet. -Northern Ireland’s Assembly turns down a marriage equality bill. -A “conversion therapy” ban is introduced in the New York legislature. -The religious right pillories gay NBA player Jason Collins. -Mariela Castro of Cuba is granted a visa to attend an LGBT conference in Philadelphia. -A gay imam performs same-sex weddings in Washington, DC. -Civil unions begin in Colorado. -Rep. Paul Ryan drops his opposition to adoption by gay parents. -Two more Brazilian states recognize marriage equality. -A private school in South Africa tells a lesbian couple their son will be expelled if...
- [XGW Digest: April 27, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/04/xgw-digest-april-27-2013/): -An openly gay man is confirmed as Under Secretary of the Air Force. -Rio de Janeiro joins the ten other Brazilian states that recognize marriage equality. -Anti-gay activists mail threats to the president of the French General Assembly. -The government of Malta appoints a council to draft LGBT rights legislation. -Marriage equality receives unanimous support from the Republicans in the Rhode Island senate. -Paraguay’s new president apologizes for his anti-gay remarks. -A Nevada state senator comes out of the closet during debate over a bill to repeal the state’s marriage ban. -The French National Assembly gives final approval to marriage equality....
- [XGW Digest: April 20, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/04/xgw-digest-april-20-2013/): -A Pennsylvania state representative is kicked out of a Christian band for supporting gay rights. -French anti-gay activists predict that their opposition to marriage equality could turn violent. -Ireland’s Constitutional Convention recommends marriage equality. -New Zealand officially becomes the 13th country to legalize same-sex marriage. -A Texas Senate committee advances a bill to repeal the state’s sodomy law. -A Peruvian man is accused of setting his gay son on fire. -Anti-gay violence escalates in France. -A Catholic high school teacher is fired after being outed in her mother’s obituary. -John Paulk renounces his ex-gay past. -The Boy Scouts of America moves...
- [XGW Digest: April 13, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/04/xgw-digest-april-13-2013/): -Actor Jeremy Irons expresses his reservations about same-sex marriage. -Senator Orrin Hatch suggests that he’s now open to civil unions. -A gay couple is savagely attacked in Paris. -Marriage equality gains Republican support in the Illinois house. -Tim Johnson becomes the 54th US Senator to support marriage equality. -Opponents of marriage equality attempt and fail to change the wording of an Oregon ballot initiative. -Delaware Gov. Jack Markell promises to sign a marriage equality bill if given the chance. -The High Court of Singapore rejects a request to repeal the country’s ban on gay sex. -The Montana legislature votes to repeal...
- [XGW Digest: April 6, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/04/xgw-digest-april-6-2013/): -Singer Marie Osmond endorses marriage equality. -A Mormon group launches a new ex-gay website. -Legislators in Uruguay and Colombia prepare to vote on marriage equality. -US Senators Bob Casey, Tom Carper and Mark Kirk announce their support for marriage equality. -The Uruguayan Senate passes a marriage equality bill. -A Florida Senate committee approves a domestic partnership registry bill. -A Seventh-Day Adventist pastor is fired for supporting full LGBT inclusion in his church. -GLAAD names former president Bill Clinton as its first Advocate for Change. -Magic Johnson voices his support for his gay son. -Senators Bill Nelson, Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp...
- [XGW Digest: March 30, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/xgw-digest-march-30-2013/): -NFL player Scott Fujita explains why he supports equality. -Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear vetoes an anti-gay “religious freedom” bill. -Senator Claire McCaskill endorses marriage equality.  Four more Democratic senators follow suit. -Karl Rove admits that he could see a gay-supportive Republican presidential candidate emerge in 2016. -The US Supreme Court hears arguments in the Prop 8 case. -CBS Sports reporter Mike Freeman announces that a current NFL player may be close to coming out of the closet. -Today Show personality Jenna Wolfe comes out of the closet. -Bud Light releases a pro-equality ad. -The Supreme Court hears arguments in the DOMA...
- [PFOX: Gays Terrified of ‘Heterosexual Behavior’](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/pfox-gays-terrified-of-heterosexual-behavior/): “As a former homosexual, I understand the gays’ dread and absolute fear of heterosexuality. It goes beyond trying to normalize sodomy by calling it “marriage.”” — PFOX stands for Parents and Friends of Ex-gays, a counter movement to the pro-LGBT support group, PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. — On the PFOX blog, they’ve re-posted an editorial by anti-gay/“ex-gay” activist Greg Quinlan (President of PFOX) that was originally published last year in October on the super-duper anti-gay site, LifeSiteNews — in the effort to promote the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) upcoming Marriage [inequality] March in Washington D.C., March 26th, 2013. It...
- [XGW Digest: March 23, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/xgw-digest-march-23-2013/): -Major Mike Almy reaches a settlement with the Department of Defense over his discharge under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Anti-gay activists find dwindling support at CPAC. -Hillary Clinton formally endorses marriage equality. -Pastor and Christian author Rob Bell comes out in support of marriage equality. -Folk singer Michelle Shocked shocks her audience with an anti-gay rant. -50,000 petitioners ask the Finnish government to reintroduce a marriage equality bill. -Chipotle cancels its sponsorship of a Boy Scouts event. -Santa Fe Mayor David Coss argues that same-sex marriage is already legal in New Mexico. -A gay teenager is stoned to death in Somalia....
- [XGW Digest: March 16, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/xgw-digest-march-16-2013/): -Queen Elizabeth II prepares to sign a new anti-discrimination charter. -Openly gay city council member Christine Quinn officially launches her campaign for mayor of New York City. -Newly released documents reveal that the Regnerus study was commissioned to influence the Supreme Court’s upcoming marriage cases. -The Colorado House formally passes civil unions. -A new study from Denmark finds lower mortality rates for legally married gay men. -The New Zealand Parliament moves a step closer toward marriage equality. -A federal court strikes down Virginia’s “crimes against nature” law. -Marriage equality is forwarded to the floors of the Minnesota House and Senate. -IRS...
- [IRS Revokes NARTH's Tax-Exempt Status](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/irs-revokes-narths-tax-exempt-status/): The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has lost their tax-exempt status, for failing to file form 990 three years in a row. Dr. Warren Throckmorton confirmed this with the Internal Revenue Service and reported it on his site on March 12. “Even though the full name of the organization is not listed, the Employee Identification Number and address match up with the 2009 990 form. A call to the IRS also confirmed it. NARTH’s website advises prospective donors that their donations will be tax deductible but it appears such deductions after September 15, 2012 may not be...
- [XGW Digest: March 9, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/xgw-digest-march-9-2013/): -Former Polish president Lech Walesa makes some harshly anti-gay remarks. -Music acts Train and Carly Rae Jepsen cancel their appearances at the Boy Scouts Jamboree in response the Scouts’ anti-gay policies. -Bill O’Reilly accuses Colorado House speaker Mark Ferrandino of protecting child molesters. -The US Senate confirms openly gay judge Pamela Chen to the federal bench. -Chattanooga voters elect Tennessee’s first openly gay official. -The Odawa Indian tribe in Michigan legalizes same-sex marriage. -The FBI investigates the murder of a gay mayoral candidate in Clarksdale, MS. -President Obama signs the Violence Against Women Act. -Civil Unions advance to the floor of...
- [‘Ex-gay’ Therapist Claims ‘Sensitive temperament’ is Fundamental Cause of Homosexuality](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/ex-gay-therapist-claims-sensitive-temperament-is-fundamental-cause-of-homosexuality/): And then goes on to bash gay activists as scheming thugs. — Anti-gay/exgay therapist, Christopher Doyle of The International Healing Foundation, recently penned an op-ed in the Christian post. These feelings [same-sex attractions (SSA)] are the result of many factors, mostly environmental and familial, mixed-in with one genetic factor, a sensitive temperament. [emphasis added] Anti-gay/ex-gay activists often claim “there’s no gay gene” to support their “not born gay” meme. For Christopher Doyle, sensitivity and empathy are not only the cause of homosexuality, but a genetically-based one at that. In twenty-three years, we have found that 99 percent of our clients who experience homosexual...
- [XGW Digest: March 2, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/03/xgw-digest-march-2-2013/): -The Kansas Supreme Court upholds a lesbian mother’s parental rights. -The Obama Administration files a brief calling for the repeal of Prop 8. -British Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigns in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behavior. -The New York Legislature considers a transgender rights bill. -Germany’s ruling party reconsiders its opposition to rights for same-sex couples. -A Boston fraternity raises money for a transgender brother’s surgery. -The Illinois House Executive Committee forwards marriage equality to the floor for a full vote. -More than sixty large corporations sign an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8. -The Phoenix, AZ...
- [XGW Digest: February 23, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/02/xgw-digest-february-23-2013/): -Another researcher accuses Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH of misusing his research. -Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble announces introduction of a marriage equality bill. -Alaska Republicans make their feelings about civil unions clear. -The Mexican Supreme Court rules against an Oaxaca state marriage ban. -Music producer Clive Davis comes out as bisexual. -The German Federal Constitutional Court strengthens adoption rights for same-sex couples. -A Turkish court rules that gay sex is natural. -The Puerto Rican Supreme Court upholds a ban on adoption by gay parents. -Former First Lady Laura Bush asks to have her name and picture removed from a Respect for...
- [Exodus International’s New Policy on Gay Marriage: We Don’t Have One.](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/02/exodus-internationals-new-policy-on-gay-marriage-we-dont-have-one/): Question of the Week — Gay Marriage? Full transcript below, commentary after the fold. [vimeo]https://www.vimeo.com/59911448[/vimeo] Transcript: Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International: Each week we get a number of important questions that come into our office. This week, the important question we decided to answer is, does Exodus International have a policy on gay marriage? And the answer is, no, we don’t. [Quite the policy position to no longer take.] If you’ll remember, a number of years ago, we were involved in public policy. About five years ago, we decided that that was a major distraction for us, frankly, at Exodus...
- [XGW Digest: February 16, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/02/xgw-digest-february-16-2013/): -The late Jeanne Manford, founder of PFLAG, is chosen to receive the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal. -Indiana Republicans postpone a legislative vote on a marriage amendment until next year. -A former member of Westboro Baptist Church poses for the NOH8 Campaign. -A Catholic high school principal is fired for voicing support for marriage equality. -The Colorado State Senate votes in favor of civil unions. -Basic Rights Oregon launches a petition drive to place marriage equality on the 2014 state ballot. -The Hawaii House Judiciary Committee shelves marriage for the current legislative session. -The French National Assembly gives its final approval to...
- [XGW Digest: February 9, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/02/xgw-digest-february-9-2013/): -The Wyoming Senate kills an anti-discrimination bill. -The French Assembly votes in favor of marriage equality. -French forces free two gay Malian men sentenced to execution. -An ex-gay advocate is caught using Grindr. -The British House of Commons votes for marriage equality. -An ex-gay therapist in Canada is sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting his clients. -US Rep. Jerrold Nadler introduces a bill to extend immigration rights to gay couples. -The Boy Scouts of America defers action on changing its anti-gay policies. -The Ugandan Parliament keeps the “Kill the Gays” bill on its to do list. -Two members of the Phelps...
- [XGW Digest: February 2, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/02/xgw-digest-february-2-2013/): -Catholic Charities threatens to pull out of Colorado over civil unions. -Kathleen Wynne becomes Ontario’s first female and first openly LGBT Premier. -At least 125,000 people rally for marriage equality in Paris. -The Boy Scouts’ national board meets to consider dropping its anti-gay ban. -A Wyoming House committee rejects marriage but approves a domestic partnership bill. -LGBT activist Shane Windmeyer dialogues with Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy, to positive results. -A bullied gay teenager in Oregon commits suicide. -Venice, Italy ends its sister city relationship with St. Petersburg, Russia over the latter’s anti-gay policies. -Westboro Baptist Church files an amicus brief in...
- [XGW Digest: January 26, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/xgw-digest-january-26-2013/): -President Obama calls for equality for gay Americans in his inaugural address. -A bill is introduced in the Russian Parliament that would outlaw “homosexual propaganda.” -A Nashville music venue fires an employee for wearing a T-shirt with a pro-marriage equality message. -Supporters of Prop 8 file their opening brief with the Supreme Court. -Facebook issues an apology for deleting a picture of a same-sex couple. -The British Parliament sets February 5 for debate on marriage equality. -The Rhode Island House votes overwhelmingly in favor of marriage equality. -The Russian Duma gives preliminary approval to a bill banning gay “propaganda.” -The Polish...
- [XGW Digest: January 19, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/xgw-digest-01-19-13/): -Several hundred thousand protesters demonstrate against marriage equality in France. -Jodie Foster officially comes out of the closet. -Illinois business leaders speak out in favor of marriage equality. -Actor Victor Garber comes out of the closet. -British evangelical leader Steve Chalke voices his support for LGBT inclusion in the church. -The Virginia House votes to confirm an openly gay judge. -Marriage equality hearings begin in Rhode Island. -President Obama selects a gay-affirming Episcopal priest to deliver the inaugural benediction. -House Republicans increase the DOMA defense fund to $3 million. -A Chinese court proposes allowing wives of gay men to annul their...
- [XGW Digest: January 12, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/xgw-digest-january-12-2012/): -Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, retires. -The Log Cabin Republicans campaign against former Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. -The US Supreme Court sets dates for hearing the DOMA and Prop 8 cases. -Actor Matt Dallas comes out of the closet. -Alvin McEwen releases a new booklet exposing the tactics of the anti-gay right. -The US Defense Department agrees to give full separation pay to service members discharged for “homosexuality.” -The University of Buckingham in Britain and Victoria University in Uganda sever ties over differences in non-discrimination policy. -Jeanne Manford, founder of PFLAG, dies at...
- [Banning Conversion Therapy, the Flip Side](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/the-other-side-of-why-conversion-therapy-should-be-banned-for-minors-when-the-kids-want-it-and-the-parents-dont/): The “ex-gay” meme alive and infectious in Australia. But we begin with the latest on the subject matter in California. LA Times: Brown appeals injunction against gay-conversion law January 2, 2013 | 3:06pm Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday appealed a court injunction that has blocked enforcement of a new law that prohibits providing gay minors with therapy aimed at converting them to being heterosexual. The notice of appeal was filed on behalf of Brown and the Medical Board of California by state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided Dec. 21 to block the...
- [XGW Digest: January 5, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/xgw-digest-january-5-2012/): -The first baby of 2013 in France is born to a lesbian couple. -Pro bowler Scott Norton kisses his husband on camera on ESPN. -Charges against gay theater producer David Cecil are dismissed by a Ugandan court. -Andrew Sullivan announces the launch of a new subscription-only blog. -Marriage equality bills are introduced in the Rhode Island House and Senate. -Anti-gay activist Scott Lively is sued by Sexual Minorities Uganda for ‘crimes against humanity.’ -The Pentagon’s web filters still block all LGBT websites. -Marriage equality is approved by an Illinois Senate committee but will not come to a full vote in the...
- [2013 -- Onward](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/01/2013-onward/): Peace on Earth — the entirety of the liberal agenda. It may not be the most practical goal, but it’s one worth dying for.  
- [XGW Digest: December 29, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/xgw-digest-december-29-2012/): -The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals suspends California’s ban on ex-gay therapy for minors. -A new book argues for conservative Christian support for LGBT rights. -Religious right leaders blame the Newtown massacre on gays and liberals. -Frank Bruni chronicles his father’s journey toward acceptance. -250 religious leaders call on Illinois to legalize marriage equality. -Mexico has reportedly lifted its ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men. -Fox Nation identifies Westboro Baptist Church as a “left-wing cult.” -A gay man in Baltimore is the victim of a possible hate crime. -Several thousand Dutch Catholics leave the church en masse...
- [XGW Digest: December 22, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/xgw-digest-december-22-2012/): -The Ugandan Parliament adjourns without voting on the “Kill the Gays” bill. -The Michigan Legislature kills two anti-gay bills. -The Dutch Caribbean island of Saba begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses. -The Montana Supreme Court dismisses an appeal calling for equal benefits for same-sex couples. -Meanwhile, the Helena, MT city council unanimously passes an anti-discrimination ordinance. -AIDS activist Spencer Cox dies. -Truth Wins Out investigates former ex-gay spokesman John Paulk. -Gay rights protesters are attacked outside the Russian Parliament building. -Sao Paulo State in Brazil legalizes same-sex marriage. -New Gingrich now sees marriage equality as inevitable.
- [Ex-Gay Poster Boy Paulk Caught Out Again](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/ex-gay-poster-boy-paulk-caught-out-again/): In 1998, Exodus International plastered the image of husband and wife John and Anne Paulk on billboards across America as proof of the ex-gay message that “Change Is Possible.” Together, the ex-gay married couple wrote a book, Love Won Out, the tale of how “God’s love helped two people leave homosexuality and find each other.” In 2000, John was spotted and photographed in a Washington DC gay bar. His ex-gay career pretty much went downhill from there, but wife Anne continued her ministry apace, and in 2011, she became a founding member of the Restored Hope Network, a new ex-gay organization...
- [XGW Digest: December 15, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/xgw-digest-december-15-2012/): -A Swedish football team fires its entire first squad for chanting homophobic slurs at an opposing team. -A new poll finds strong support for marriage equality in Oregon, New Jersey and Illinois. -The Beekman Boys win the Amazing Race. -The Merck Foundation suspends its support of the Boy Scouts of America. -The FBI reports that hate crimes based on sexual orientation increased in 2011. -Singer Katy Perry accepts an award from the Trevor Project. -Justice Antonin Scalia reiterates his opposition to gay rights. -Scientists from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis propose a new theory on the origin of...
- [XGW Digest: December 8, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/xgw-digest-december-8-2012/): -The West Point chapel hosts its first same-sex wedding. -An openly gay woman is named chief of police in Minneapolis. -A Republican legislator in Pennsylvania comes out of the closet. -An Israeli court grants a divorce to a gay couple. -The Atlanta City Council passes a resolution supporting marriage equality. -Minnesota marriage equality activists discuss their next step. -The Boise, ID city council unanimously approves a non-discrimination ordinance. -Single Dad Laughing comes out of the closet. -A bullied gay teen in Michigan commits suicide. -The Mexico Supreme Court strikes down a state marriage ban. -Washington State begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses....
- [Gay Activist Claims Orientation Can Change? WND Misses the Point](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/gay-activist-claims-orientation-can-change-wnd-misses-the-point/): It’s little wonder that with so few facts on their side, anti-gay activists are forced to make earth-shattering headlines out of unremarkable material. So it is that WorldNetDaily excitedly reveals that a gay activist has, supposedly, challenged pro-gay arguments: But now the homosexual activists have had a wrench thrown in their argument, with the admission by a homosexual conference presenter that being “gay” isn’t necessarily permanent. “Sexuality is fluid, especially when it goes beyond the binary of ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ labels,” says a description of the “Beyond Bisexuality: Living Between the Labels” seminar presented by Prideworks for LGBT Youth. “The way...
- [XGW Digest: December 1, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/12/xgw-digest-december-1-2012/): -A Libyan militia group kidnaps twelve allegedly gay men and announces their impending execution. -The United Nations condemns executions based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. -The Defense of Marriage Act is dealt another blow in federal court. -The world’s first gay mosque is set to open in France. -The Southern Poverty Law Center files a lawsuit against ex-gay group JONAH. -The Associated Press removes the term ‘homophobia’ from its stylebook. -St. Louis County, MO passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -The Illinois legislature may revisit marriage equality as soon as January. -A federal judge upholds Nevada’s marriage law. -The Family...
- [UK Therapist Misrepresents Reasons for Dismissal from Professional Body](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/uk-therapist-misrepresents-reasons-for-dismissal-from-professional-body/): Mike Davidson, leader of the Northern Ireland-based Core Issues, has again misrepresented the reasons why he was dismissed from the British Psychodrama Association. The ex-gay therapist, whose group effectively promotes the work of NARTH in the UK, has complained before that his membership was revoked without a hearing. In his latest missive, to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, he repeats the claim: I am one of three forced out of membership of professional psychotherapeutic bodies in the UK for maintaining that the right to align the expression of sexual feelings to personal values is a fundamental and inalienable...
- [XGW Digest: November 24, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/xgw-digest-november-24-2012/): -NOM refuses to release the names of the two donors who provided 2/3 of its 2011 contributions. -The Observer interviews gay statistician Nate Silver. -Nathaniel Frank exhorts the LGBT movement to reach out to its staunchest opponents. -An attorney for the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund is charged with possession of child pornography. -Gay Republican Kevin James receives a boost in his race for mayor of Los Angeles. -Charisma Magazine proposes a different theory on the source of homosexuality. -An ex-gay youth leader is implicated in the death of his wife. -Former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman launches a new effort to win...
- [Remembering Victims of Transphobia](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/remembering-victims-of-transphobia/): Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Take a few moments to remember victims of transphobic violence and think about how you can help make the world a safer and fairer place for all people, whatever their gender identity. For your contemplation, here’s Trans Europe’s list of 265 trans men and women reported murdered in the past year. (Hat-tip: @Sally_Rush.)
- [XGW Digest: November 17, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/xgw-digest-november-17-2012/): -The UPS Foundation discontinues its support for the Boy Scouts. -The Ugandan Parliament revives the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. -Kyrsten Sinema becomes the first openly bisexual member of Congress. -A lesbian is murdered in South Africa. -A Hong Kong pop singer comes out of the closet. -Oregon may be the next state to vote on marriage equality. -The US Supreme Court postpones hearing dates for the DOMA and Prop 8 cases. -The Nigerian House of Representatives considers harsher anti-gay laws. -The Washington State Senate gets an openly gay majority leader. -Parents accuse a Florida teacher of turning their daughter into a lesbian. -The...
- [Uganda 'Kill the Gays' Bill Set to Pass This Year](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/uganda-kill-the-gays-bill-set-to-pass-this-year/): Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 — legislation that could see gays and lesbians punished with life sentences and even execution — has not gone away. Reports suggest it will go before Ugandan Parliament before the end of 2012. The plain facts of the bill have not changed since MP David Bahati first proposed the laws in 2009. Some reports say the death penalty has been dropped from the text, but this has not been confirmed, and it has been falsely claimed before, even by leading news agencies. The law is effectively a mandate for the genocide of homosexual men and women in...
- [UK Government: Ex-Gay Therapy Not Beneficial, May Harm Clients](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/uk-government-ex-gay-therapy-not-beneficial-may-harm-clients/): The UK’s Minister of State for Care Services has told Parliament the British government does not condone the idea of a “gay cure.” Asked for the government’s official position on the practise of therapy to change sexual orientation, Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat health minister in the UK’s Conservative-Liberal coalition, replied: The Department of Health does not condone the concept of therapists offering ‘cures’ for homosexuality. There is no evidence that this sort of treatment is beneficial and indeed it may well cause significant harm, to some patients. It is incumbent on professionals working in the National Health Service to ensure...
- [XGW Digest: November 10, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/xgw-digest-november-10-2012/): -Senator Marco Rubio campaigns against marriage equality for NOM. -The government of Malawi suspends its anti-gay laws. -The Slovakian Parliament rejects a civil partnership bill. -Protect Marriage Maine posts – and then erases – a sterotype-filled anti-gay screed. -The cousins of Ohio Republican senate candidate Josh Mandel purchase a newspaper ad denouncing his anti-gay stance. -The Constitutional Court of Spain upholds the country’s marriage law. -2012 proves to be a historic election for LGBT Americans. -NOM puts its best spin on its across-the-board losses on November 6. -New Hampshire voters elect a transgender legislator. -Outed Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeau is reelected....
- [Another Ex-Gay Therapist Arrested for Sexual Assault](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/another-ex-gay-therapist-arrested-for-sexual-assault/): According to KSDK in Minnesota, Pastor Ryan Jay Muehlhauser of the Lakeside Christian Church  in Cambridge has been arrested and charged with eight felony counts of criminal sexual conduct on two men.  The assaults allegedly occurred over a period of two years. The victims reported that they met Muehlhauser two years ago at an event held by Outpost Ministries.  Outpost claims to “help the sexually and relationally broken find healing and restoration through relationship with Jesus Christ.”  Until recently they were a member of Exodus International, but a comment on their Web site claims that they have “withdrawn from Exodus International...
- [Floyd Godfrey: Cannibalism Analogous to Same-Gender Attraction](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/floyd-godfrey-cannibalism-analogous-to-same-gender-attraction/): On the heels of Dave Rattigan’s recent post about the BBC’s “Gay to Straight” documentary, Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch finds conversion therapist Floyd Godfrey on the Linda Harvey show with an interesting take on the nature of homosexuality. You may want to read that post first to prepare you for Godfrey’s inanity in this one. Tashman: Mission America president Linda Harvey this weekend hosted ex-gay therapist Floyd Godfrey, who describes his own path to ‘healing’ his homosexuality by befriending more men. Godfrey: [I] went on to take beginning softball, basketball, weight lifting and gymnastics … I even got a job at a...
- [Brief: Maine Votes for Marriage Equality](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/brief-maine-votes-for-marriate-equality/): According to the Associated Press, Maine’s Question 1, which allows for same-sex marriage in the state, has won approval with a comfortable margin.
- [President Obama Wins Again!](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/president-obama-wins-again/): Democrats retain the Senate, Tammy Baldwin (out lesbian) won in Wisconsin and a lot more.  I’m sure other more political oriented blogs will bloviate, but this is one citizen who is happy.
- [XGW Digest: November 3, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/xgw-digest-november-3-2012/): -Lanae Erickson Hatalsky charts the growth of support for marriage equality across all age groups. -A transgender woman is stoned to death in Brazil. -The San Francisco GLBT History Museum is vandalized. -The reported bashing of a gay Republican in Wisconsin is revealed to be a hoax. -Dallas County, TX extends limited benefits to employees with same-sex partners. -Sicily, Italy elects an openly gay governor. -An anti-gay attorney general is exposed as an adulterer. -Actor Brad Pitt donates $100,000 to the Human Rights Campaign. -A “family values” state senate candidate in Delaware is indicted for child molestation. -Two gay men are...
- [BBC 'Gay to Straight' Documentary Exposes Ex-Gay Therapy as Parody of Itself](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/11/bbc-gay-to-straight-documentary-exposes-ex-gay-therapy-as-parody-of-itself/): I am an openly and unashamedly gay man — and yet, when I hug a male friend, gay or straight, I don’t need an instructor in my ear reminding me it’s a non-sexual hug. It is, contrary to the mythology of the ex-gay movement, possible to be a healthy, gay-identified man without foisting your sexual attentions on every other man that comes along. A BBC documentary broadcast earlier this week followed several ex-gay men, some of whom need coaching in how to desexualize an embrace. As 35-year-old Aaron received a group hug on an Adventure In Manhood camping weekend (similar to...
- [Unification Church Leader Outs Ex-Gay Guru Richard Cohen as Moonie?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/unification-church-leader-outs-ex-gay-guru-richard-cohen-as-moonie/): Ex-gay maverick Richard Cohen is a member of the Unification Church, according to the leader of the religious group better known as the Moonies. Church president Hyung Jin Moon made the claim at a Bay Area town hall meeting earlier this month: Richard Cohen is a member in our movement who has worked on this tremendously, the whole issue [of homosexuality]. Even as you mentioned, you said that people are gay through no fault of their own. But of course this is debatable; that’s an assumption. Richard Cohen actually debates that assumption. He’s actually an expert on this issue and so...
- [XGW Digest - October 27, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/xgw-digest-october-27-2012/): -A Missouri minister delivers a surprising gay rights speech. -Pastor Ted Haggard’s views on marriage equality evolve. -A North Carolina gay man accuses his church of imprisoning and abusing him for four months. -A UCLA study finds that children adopted by gay parents fare just as well as those adopted by straight parents. -The New York State Court of Appeals declines to hear a challenge to the state’s marriage law. -Bill and Melinda Gates contribute $500,000 toward marriage equality in Washington State. –Details of the negotiations between Mitt Romney and the Log Cabin Republicans leak out. -Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe makes...
- [PFOX Furious Over Government Support for LGBTQ Anti-bullying Efforts](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/pfox-furious-over-government-support-for-lgbtq-anti-bullying-efforts/): This post brought to you by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX). Families Ask Obama Administration to Take Down Government Links to Anti-Ex-Gay Websites — Government gives $100,000 to gay group for schoolchildren to become “youth activists” Those statements are basically the same complaint; That LGBTQ anti-bullying/suicide prevention resources are attacks on the so called ex-gay/formerly-homosexual community — Seriously. That first statement is self explanatory enough so I’m going to start by breaking down the second one. — The Gay Straight Alliance Network (GSAN), “empowering youth activists to fight homophobia and Transphobia in schools” has received a $100,000 grant  from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To help clarify...
- [XGW Digest: October 20, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/xgw-digest-october-20-2012/): -Republican billionaire Paul Singer donates $250,000 toward marriage equality in Maryland. -Michele Bachmann’s gay stepsister talks about their rocky relationship. -Dancer and fitness trainer Shaun T comes out of the closet on the occasion of his marriage. -CNN anchor Carol Costello challenges Bryan Fischer on his extreme anti-gay rhetoric. -Two University of Texas students are outed thanks to a loophole in Facebook’s security settings. -Another federal appeals court rules against the Defense of Marriage Act. -An Italian Catholic priest comes out of the closet. -A High Court judge rules against Northern Ireland’s ban on adoption by gay parents. -Religious right icon...
- [XGW Digest: October 13, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/xgw-digest-october-13-2012/): -Sally Field talks about her gay son at the Human Rights Campaign’s gala. -Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin maintains a narrow lead in the Wisconsin senate race. -63 former Catholic priests organize in favor of marriage equality in Washington. -A Minneapolis archbishop tells a mother she will go to hell if she doesn’t reject her gay son. -British Prime Minister David Cameron resolves to move forward with marriage equality legislation. -Pat Robertson’s ACLJ fires an attorney for having relationships with young men. -A local LGBT youth group is barred from participating in Anoka, MN’s annual Halloween parade. -Gallaudet University’s Chief Diversity Officer is...
- [XGW Digest: October 6, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/xgw-digest-october-6-2012/): -California officially bans ex-gay therapy for minors. -Malawi president Joyce Banda drops her pledge to decriminalize homosexuality. -The US Supreme Court turns down another appeal from the National Organization for Marriage. -MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts marries his partner. -New polls show strong support in three of the four states where marriage equality is on the ballot. -The Ukrainian parliament gives preliminary approval to an anti-gay censorship law. -Serbian authorities ban another gay pride event. -Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa and five others are convicted of falsely accusing a rival pastor of homosexuality. -Expedia explores gay marriage from a father’s perspective in a...
- [Citizenlink equates LGBT Equality to Blindness](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/citizenlink-equates-lgbt-equality-to-blindness/): “I spent a month protesting 20/20-vision-normativity by not wearing my glasses. After a couple car accidents, my wife made me put them on again…” — Stop Being So Heteronormative! by Jeff Johnston Johnston: I was testifying against the redefinition of marriage before a committee at the Maryland State legislature, about 12 years ago. A Unitarian minister also testified … he said, “Blind is good, seeing is good. Deaf is good, hearing is good. Disabled is good, fully abled is good. Gay is good, straight is good. I thought, Are you crazy? Is anyone even listening to what this guy is saying?...
- [America For Jesus Rally 2012 Descends Upon Philadelphia](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/10/america-for-jesus-rally-2012-descends-upon-philadelphia-2/): Over the weekend, the America for Jesus rally descended upon Independence Mall in my hometown – Philadelphia, PA. Independence Mall is a large open area at the edge of Old City, Philly’s historical district. Old City is where you’ll find the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and various other Revolutionary-Era sites. The city is nicknamed “the Cradle of Liberty” because Philadelphia served as a focal point for the birth of the United States, a nation founded upon – among other things – the principle of personal liberty. Keeping this in mind, I found it very interesting that a far-right, conservative Christian event...
- [XGW Digest: September 29, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/xgw-digest-september-29-2012/): -The Intel Foundation ends its giving to the Boy Scouts to protest the Scouts’ discriminatory policies. -Newspaperman and former baseball team owner Kevin McClatchy comes out of the closet. -Congressman Paul Ryan declares that he would not try to reinstate Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy denies that the company is cutting its support to anti-gay groups. -The Supreme Court opts not to include any cases related to DOMA or Prop 8 on its preliminary schedule for the upcoming season. -Pro-equality Republican Roy McDonald has lost his reelection bid in New York. -French President Francois Hollande calls on UN...
- [New Website: Legalize Lesbian Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/new-website-legalize-lesbian-marriage/): Ex-Gay Watch contributor Emily K has put her design talents to work for a new satirical website promoting same-sex marriage. Legalize Lesbian Marriage makes the case for letting two women marry — in Emily’s inimitably quirky and subversive style. Join her in supporting girl-on-girl (political) action!
- [More on Jeff Buchanan's Resignation from Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/more-on-jeff-buchanans-resignation-from-exodus/): Former Exodus International VP Jeff Buchanan has revealed more of why he stepped down from the post. While the organization said nothing about his reasons, Buchanan posted to Facebook to confirm he resigned because of his disagreement with Exodus’s new message: For those of you who may not be aware, Angela and I have recently resigned our positions as Director of Communications and Executive Vice President of Exodus International. This was a difficult and painful decision, but one we felt we needed to make due to challenges with current messaging that reflects a theological stance we cannot align ourselves with. We...
- [XGW Digest: September 22, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/xgw-digest-september-22-2012/): -The Malaysian Education Ministry issues instructions on “how to spot gays.” -Congresswoman Michele Bachmann faces a tough reelection campaign. -WorldNetDaily readers celebrate the death of an alleged homosexual. -Clint Eastwood reiterates his support for marriage equality. -A young filmmaker seeks to spread awareness about the plight of gays in Iran. -An openly gay man runs for office in Kenya. -Chick-Fil-A may be backing off from its support for anti-gay groups. -The Australian House rejects marriage equality. -The Australian Senate follows suit the next day. -Paris Hilton apologizes for making insulting statements about gay men. -A mother fights back against the school...
- [Is Exodus's Love Won Out Losing Out?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/is-exoduss-love-won-out-losing-out/): Is time up for Exodus International’s Love Won Out? The conference, aimed at family and friends of “those struggling with same-sex attractions,”  takes place several times a year in locations all over the United States — but details of upcoming events are conspicuously absent after the conference scheduled for Harrisburg, PA, this weekend. Love Won Out began as a ministry of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, with the support of Exodus International, in 1998 — the heyday of the ex-gay message that “change is possible.” In 2009, Focus on the Family backed out, and Exodus took over. Since the takeover,...
- [Warren Throckmorton Hospitalized after Heart Attack](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/warren-throckmorton-hospitalized-after-heart-attack/): Dr Warren Throckmorton underwent triple heart bypass surgery on Tuesday, after suffering a heart attack on Sunday. A professor of psychology at Grove City College, PA, Throckmorton has held to a conservative Christian theology while staunchly advocating against the false promises of conversion and reparative therapy, and claims of sexual orientation change. He has also been vocal in opposing Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and has done good work countering the pseudo-history of the Religious Right as it relates to America’s Founding Fathers, especially in the work of David Barton. Ex-Gay Watch will keep readers updated with Warren’s progress, and wishes him and...
- [Peter LaBarbera Laments Absence of Ex-Gay TV Characters](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/peter-labarbera-laments-absence-of-ex-gay-tv-characters/): Peter LaBarbera was on the Janet Mefferd radio show , when Mefferd asked LaBarbera what he knows about NBC’s The New Normal: LaBarbera: … you can see the incredible propaganda that we’re going to be subjected to in this movie (sic). What’s most shocking about it is it’s just so out in the open now that NBC can be doing heavy duty promotion of a TV show that’s built totally around the idea of two homosexual men adopting a baby, is that really ‘the new normal’ for America in 2012? It’s shocking. Shocking I tell ya, just shocking! LaBarbera: It’s all about manipulation...
- [XGW Digest: September 15, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/xgw-digest-september-15-2012/): -An Australian footballer comes out of the closet. -Minnesota Vikings player Chris Kluwe defends a colleague’s right to endorse equal rights. -A Catholic college faces accreditation questions due to a course that equates homosexuality with murder and rape. -A Republican group in New York produces an anti-gay campaign ad with pornographic images. -A college football player is kicked off his team after kissing his boyfriend at a game. -Support for marriage equality grows in Washington State. -The Pocatello, Idaho city council drafts an anti-discrimination ordinance. -British playwright David Cecil is placed on trial for producing a gay-themed play in Uganda. -A...
- [XGW Digest: September 8, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/xgw-digest-september-8-2012/): -Poland’s ruling party prepares a civil partnership law. -Republican billionaire David Koch voices his support for marriage equality. -The city council of Dublin, Ireland formally endorses marriage equality. -The Christian Post publishes ‘researcher’ Paul Cameron’s latest claims. -A teacher sues the Christian school that fired her for siding with her gay son. -A doctor in Sydney, Australia is formally reprimanded for prescribing chemical castration to a gay teenager. -Four Marines are arrested in Long Beach for beating up a gay man. -Turkish police investigate the murder of a gay teenager. -Zach Wahls speaks at the Democratic National Convention. -Rep. Barney Frank...
- [In Brief: Joe Dallas Leaves Splinter Group Committee, Remains with Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/in-brief-joe-dallas-leaves-splinter-group-remains-with-exodus/): There had been some speculation about how Joe Dallas could be part of both Exodus International and the splinter group Restored Hope Network (RHN) — the two claim antithetical goals.  When we asked Robert Gagnon about the prospect of dual membership, he replied, “[w]e are still in the process of working through this.”  For their part, Exodus told us the subject hasn’t really come up so they aren’t currently barring anyone from membership in both. It now seems the matter is partially settled, for Joe Dallas at least.  His name is missing from the RHN committee page yet we have verified...
- [Breaking: At Exodus, Jeff Buchanan leaves, Randy Thomas Returns](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/breaking-at-exodus-jeff-buchanan-leaves-randy-thomas-returns/): From Exodus International: Yesterday marked Jeff and Angela Buchanan’s last day on the Exodus International staff.  Jeff served for the last 4 years and Angela the last 2 years.  During their time here, Angela served as Director of Communications and Jeff served as Senior Director of Church equipping until taking on responsibilities as Executive Vice President in August 2011. Buchanan’s departure is no surprise to us.  His harsh, fundamentalist stance on all things gay made his presence during the Exodus rebranding somewhat suspicious.  It is our understanding that this move was an abrupt one, and that his change of attitude was...
- [XGW Digest: September 1, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/09/xgw-digest-september-1-2012/): -Anti-gay Maryland legislator Donald Dwyer injures four children while driving under the influence of alcohol. -Salt Lake City’s NBC affiliate announces it will not air The New Normal, which features a gay couple. -The parents of the late Tyler Clementi leave their church due to its anti-gay views. -Blogger Carlos Maza attends NOM’s “It Takes a Family” conference. -Catholic bishop Salvatore Cordileone (the “father of Proposition 8”) is arrested for drunk driving. -A marriage equality bill passes a preliminary vote in the New Zealand Parliament. -The California Assembly approves a scaled-down version of the ban on ex-gay therapy for minors. -Tasmania’s...
- [XGW Digest: August 25, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/xgw-digest-august-25-2012/): -The Mexican Supreme Court rules that all states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City. -Moscow’s high court upholds the city’s 100-year ban on gay pride parades. -Zimbabwe police raid the office of an LGBT advocacy group. -The United Church of Canada elects an openly gay moderator. -Cameroon hosts a “Gay Hate Day.” -A church building owned by an LGBT-affirming congregation in Ohio is destroyed by arson. -Brian Brown of NOM debates Dan Savage over dinner. -Blogger Wayne Self explains the Chick-Fil-A controversy to a conservative Christian reader. -Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard share why they won’t get married...
- [Exodus President Returns to Lisa Ling Show](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/exodus-president-returns-to-lisa-ling-show/): Exodus president Alan Chambers returned to the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Our America this week, a year after he first spoke to host Lisa Ling on the show. By all accounts, the episode contained little new, simply re-screening most of the 2011 broadcast alongside new interview footage of Chambers. Nor did most of the new footage say much new; Chambers simply confirmed Exodus International’s new stance on reparative therapy. In an extended interview available online, Chambers said: The vast majority of people that I’ve met would say that there is some level of struggle, or temptation, or attraction, that’s resident there, whether it’s...
- [Dana Milbank: Hate Speech Is the Same as Exposing It](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/dana-milbank-hate-speech-is-the-same-as-exposing-it/): Dana Milbank penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post on the August 16 in regard to the recent shooting at the Family Research Council. In Hateful speech on hate groups, he falsely equates hate speech with the hatred of hate speech. Milbank is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC’s markedly left-leaning news programs, so in my opinion, he should know better. Human Rights Campaign isn’t responsible for the shooting. Neither should the organization that deemed the FRC a “hate group,” the Southern Poverty Law Center, be blamed for a madman’s act.  … But both are reckless in labeling [them] as a “hate group”...
- [Concerning the Recent Violence](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/concerning-the-recent-violence/): There can be no excuse for violence in response to the words of another — period.  This part is simple and our message on this has been consistent over the years.  There is no need for extended editorials or hand-wringing, it really is a simple as that.  We stand with dozens of other LGBT groups in solidarity against the recent shooting at the Family Research Council. Unfortunately, there will likely always be a few in our midst who are not guided by reason or who have psychological issues which lead them to act rashly in unacceptable ways.  Heaven knows the LGBT...
- [XGW Digest: August 11, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/xgw-digest-august-11-2012/): Note: The Digest will be taking a vacation break next week. -Marriage equality may soon come to Tasmania, Australia. -A California author proposes a new theory about the source of sexual orientation. -Another new study examines the link between pupil dilation and sexual orientation. -Pope Benedict rejects a foreign ambassador who once included a “homosexual act” in a novel. -The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dismisses a challenge to the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. -Ugandan LGBT activists hold a gay pride event. -Delaware Gov. Jack Markell predicts his state will move forward on marriage equality in 2013. -Germany’s Constitutional Court rules...
- [Reparative Therapy: Restored Hope Network v Exodus International](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/andy-comiskey-on-exodus-restored-hope-network-and-reparative-therapy/): A doctrinal statement released by the new Restored Hope Network last week seemed to downplay potential differences between it and Exodus International, particularly on the reparative therapy controversy. But a new statement by Andy Comiskey sets the new ex-gay organization at odds with Exodus. In a letter to supporters of his Desert Stream Ministries, Comiskey outlines the main differences. First, a gay Christian cannot be saved: Whereas Exodus believes that practicing ‘gay’ Christians may well inherit the Kingdom of heaven, we beg to differ. Second, every homosexual can experience a change in orientation, to some degree, if he submits to Christ:...
- [XGW Digest: August 4, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/xgw-digest-august-4-2012/): -An Olympic torchbearer kisses his boyfriend onstage. -The Democratic Party includes marriage equality in its platform. -An openly gay Republican runs for Congress in Massachusetts. -More Eagle Scouts return their badges in protest of the Boy Scouts’ policies. -New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announces his support for marriage equality. -Another Federal judge rules that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. -Author Gore Vidal dies at 86. -A Tanzanian gay rights activist is murdered. -Rock band Train pulls their music video from an anti-equality website. -Lebanese police arrest 36 men during a raid on a gay cinema. -Anti-gay forces target...
- [Portland Fellowship Latest to Leave Exodus Network](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/portland-fellowship-latest-to-leave-exodus-network/): A member since 1988, Portland Fellowship has announced that is has left the Exodus International network in a recent newsletter (PDF). Portland Fellowship has removed its affiliation with Exodus until changes in leadership take place and the mission is restored. Jason Thompson, executive director of Portland Fellowship, goes on to list the two issues that have brought about this split.  Referring to the recent changes at Exodus, where Alan Chambers has said that 99.9% of the people he knows have not changed their sexual orientation and that he expects to see his “gay Christian brothers and sisters” in heaven, Thompson says:...
- [Restored Hope Network Releases Doctrinal Statement](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/08/restored-hope-network-releases-doctrinal-statement/): The Restored Hope Network released its official doctrinal statement Tuesday. The first tenet of belief is a fairly direct response to Exodus International’s recent claims that being gay does not exclude a person from heaven: 1. Sexual purity is a life-and-death matter. Sexual holiness for Christians matters to such an extent that a sexually immoral life can get even self-professed Christians excluded from the kingdom of God (Matt 5:29-30; John 8:11 with 5:14; 1 Thess 4:3-8; Gal 5:19-21; 1 Cor 5; 6:9-10, 13-20; 2 Cor 12:21; Rom 1:23-32; Col 3:5-7; Eph 4:19; 5:3-6; 1 Tim 1:9-11). The third point seems to address Exodus President...
- [XGW Digest: July 28, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/xgw-digest-july-28-2012/): -House Majority Leader Eric Cantor calls on his fellow Republicans to be more tolerant on social issues. -The Jim Henson Company severs its ties with Chick-Fil-A. -The Liberian Senate votes to outlaw gay marriage. -A Nebraska lesbian is the victim of a suspected hate crime. -Astronaut Sally Ride is outed in her obituary. -A Washington, DC gay couple is beaten in a possible hate crime. -The Ukrainian Parliament considers a ban on gay “propaganda.” -Polls show narrow leads for marriage equality in Washington and Minnesota. -A group of Republican lawmakers comes out in support of marriage equality in Maine. -46 American...
- [Dr. Nicolosi's Claims Contradicted by His Own Words](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/dr-nicolosis-claims-contradicted-by-his-own-words/): This year has seen Exodus International’s president Alan Chambers drop support for the brand of change therapy called reparative therapy.  In response, the therapy’s chief proponent, Dr. Joeseph Nicolosi, has accused Chambers of misrepresenting the practice.  Some of what we present here has appeared elsewhere recently, but we are now able to provide a more complete picture using some new information recently obtained. On July 3, Alan Chambers posted the following to Facebook: As for Reparative Therapy, I do not support it.  I don’t think it’s “fine.”  They use pornography as a means of making people “100% straight.”  We stopped allowing...
- [PFOX Fears Exodus Now Controlled by a Cult](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/pfox-fears-exodus-now-controlled-by-a-cult/): By distancing itself from reparative therapy and affirming the (fairly common) evangelical doctrine of “once saved, always saved,” the still-very-definitely conservative Exodus International has moved just a little bit to the left. Naturally, this leaves true Christians, such as those at PFOX, wondering whether Exodus is now in league with the kingdom of the cults:
- [Restored Hope Network Membership No Barrier to Exodus Affiliation So Far](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/restored-hope-network-membership-no-barrier-to-exodus-affiliation-so-far/): Little information has yet been made public about Restored Hope Network, the new ex-gay organization that seems designed as an alternative to Exodus International. We do know that its founders include two of Exodus’s most outspoken critics, Robert Gagnon and Andy Comiskey, who have recently taken Exodus President Alan Chambers to task for both his theology and his rejection of reparative therapy. David Kyle Foster, whose Mastering Life Ministries separated from Exodus, is another founding member. RHN doesn’t yet have a functioning website, but its mission is described on its Facebook page: We are a group of ministries and individuals committed...
- [Restored Hope Network: Beginnings of an Exodus Splinter Group?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/beginnings-of-an-exodus-splinter-group/): In the first definite sign of an organized Exodus International splinter group, former Exodus affliate First Stone Ministries is advertising a conference of the “Restored Hope Network.” The event, from September 21 to 22, features outspoken Exodus critics Robert J Gagnon and Andy Comiskey, as well as Love in Action founder Frank Worthen. The conference blurb reads: Nowhere does the transforming power of Jesus Christ have more relevance then in our sexuality. Broken sexuality takes life; Jesus through His body restores hope for the integrity of our intimate relationships. Break ground with us for the first gathering of the Restored Hope Network! The conference...
- [XGW Digest: July 21, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/xgw-digest-july-21-2012/): -The European Union declares that new members must protect LGBT rights. -The Netherlands offers asylum to LGBT Iraqis. -A former Mormon bishop expresses his support for LGBT equality. -The Boy Scouts of America decides to maintain its ban on gay scouts and leaders. -An anti-gay effort falls short in California. -Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy leaves no doubt about what he thinks of gay people. -NOM claims that Kraft was bullied into creating its rainbow Oreo ad. -A Kentucky teenager is savagely beaten for being gay. -A straight Eagle Scout returns his badge to protest the Boy Scouts’ continued anti-gay policies. -A...
- [Alan Chambers on Gay America (in 2004)](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/alan-chambers-on-gay-america-in-2004/): Right-Wing Watch has reported on an egregious anti-gay diatribe by Exodus International President Alan Chambers, published on the Charisma magazine website today. Do We Want a Gay America? Have you noticed that America is becoming a gay nation? The land of the free and the home of the brave is morphing into a homosexual haven.Gay activists want much more than legalized gay marriage. Are you comfortable with their vision for our future? Just look at the top programs on television or listen to the most popular actors and musicians. They are celebrating all things gay: gay marriage, gay adoptions, gay cruises, gay politics, Gay...
- [Joseph Nicolosi Responds to Exodus Reparative Therapy Claims](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/joseph-nicolosi-responds-to-exodus-reparative-therapy-claims/): NARTH co-founder Joseph Nicolosi has called on Exodus International head Alan Chambers to take back criticisms he has made of reparative therapy. In particular, Nicolosi, the chief theorist and practitioner of reparative therapy, took exception at the following remarks, which Chambers made on Facebook: As for Reparative Therapy, I do not support it. I don’t think it’s ‘fine’. They use pornography as a means of making people “100% straight”. We stopped allowing Joe Nicolosi to teach because he encouraged attendees to pick up heterosexual porn to encourage heterosexuality. Also, he and others have said that they can “cure” people 100% of...
- [Why Is Exodus International So Afraid of 'Gay'?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/why-is-exodus-international-so-afraid-of-gay/): Exodus International may be distancing itself from reparative therapy — defined specifically as the gay-to-straight treatment offered by Joseph Nicolosi and NARTH — but it is also at pains to distance itself from another big, bad something: the word GAY. Writing for The Gospel Coalition, Exodus Executive Vice President Jeff Buchanan grasps at straws when he tries to list the reasons no Christian should identify themselves with the adjective or noun “gay.” His number one excuse is that calling oneself a “gay Christian” or even a “gay celibate Christian” is that it detracts from “our identity in Christ.” With every additional...
- [Oklahoma Ministry Ends 36-Year-Long Exodus Affiliation](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/oklahoma-ministry-ends-36-year-long-exodus-affiliation/): In June, Ex-Gay Watch noted that First Stone Ministries was one of twenty ministries to have severed itself from Exodus International recently. Now the Oklahoma City-based group has publicly explained its actions in a press release, citing changes in “ideology and leadership” as reasons for the split: Press Release: FSM No Longer an Exodus Ministry Many of you may know that for 36 years, First Stone Ministries has been affiliated with Exodus International, a network of ministries that all proclaim freedom from homosexuality through relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the last several months, the leadership of First Stone Ministries has become increasingly...
- [XGW Digest: July 14, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/xgw-digest-july-14-2012/): -China allows lesbians to begin donating blood. -The Vietnamese government ponders the possibility of legalizing marriage equality. -Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer petitions the US Supreme Court to overturn domestic partner benefits for gay couples. -Taiwan’s first gay Buddhist wedding is scheduled for August. -The Episcopal Church approves a blessing for gay couples. -Astronomers rename an asteroid in honor of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny. -This Is What Love In Action Looks Like is now available through Netflix streaming. -A group of young conservatives launches a marriage equality campaign. -Anti-gay activists submit enough signatures to qualify a marriage ban for the Maryland...
- [Proactive Theology and Ex-Gay Survivors](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/proactive-theology-and-ex-gay-survivors/): Last month I posted about how some Ex-Gay Survivors need to take on the Bible for themselves. Religious leaders and Ex-Gay ministers have used the Bible as weapon against us. If we choose to have the Biblical texts in our lives, we need to look at them afresh. In Defensive Theology & the Ex-Gay Movement, I gave examples of how I approach two of the most often quoted clobber passages–the Sin of Sodom and Romans Chapter One. I have appreciated the thoughtful and well-presented comments. In facing the clobber passages that once oppressed me, I no longer feel condemnation, and I...
- [Exodus and Alan Chambers Still Vague on Change](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/exodus-and-alan-chambers-still-vague-on-change/): Video: Alan Chambers interview on MSNBC’s Hardball, July 10 (scroll down for commentary): Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Exodus International President Alan Chambers gave characteristically vague responses when pressed for answers on MSNBC’s Hardball this evening. After a few minutes getting no definitive answer on Exodus’s new approach to reparative therapy, host Michael Smerconish cut to the chase: I guess what I’m waiting for you to say, that I gleaned from the New York Times but I’m not hearing on Hardball, is that it doesn’t work. Because in the Times, quote, “he said that virtually every ex-gay he has ever...
- [Changes at Exodus: Reactions](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/changes-at-exodus-reactions/): We all know that Exodus International is undergoing some changes. We knew a major rebranding was coming, following last November’s revelation that America’s leading ex-gay organization had warned its allies it faced social and financial ruin. We’ve seen Chambers’s efforts to present a more open and friendly Exodus to the world — including LGBT Christians — beginning with his appearance at the Gay Christian Network conference in January. Since then, we’ve seen Exodus distance itself increasingly from the claims of reparative and conversion therapy. Conservative Christian psychologist Dr Warren Throckmorton is jubilant about Exodus International’s new stance, describing President Alan Chambers as...
- [XGW Digest: July 7, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/07/xgw-digest-july-7-2012/): -Journalist Anderson Cooper officially confirms that he is gay. -Facebook creates icons for married same-sex couples. -Sofia, Bulgaria’s Pride parade draws a record crowd. -The League of United Latino American Citizens endorses marriage equality. -The Washington, DC Republican Committee adds gay-inclusive language to its party platform. -Microsoft execs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer donate $100,000 each toward marriage equality in Washington State. -The National Organization for Marriage continues its boycott against Starbucks. -Singer Frank Ocean comes out of the closet. -The drive to repeal Iowa’s marriage equality law loses steam. -The Episcopal Church considers adding a blessing rite for gay couples.
- [XGW Digest: June 30, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/xgw-digest-june-30-2012/): -Violence erupts at a Pride parade in Thessaloniki, Greece. -An Australian senate committee recommends a vote on marriage equality. -The last known gay survivor of the Holocaust has passed away. -A lesbian couple is shot near Corpus Christi, Texas. -Singer Cyndi Lauper launches a new project to help homeless LGBT youth. -The Texas Republican party tones down the anti-gay portions of its platform. -Rep. Adam Smith introduces a bill to extend spouse benefits to same-sex military couples. -The Bronx LGBT Community Center announces it will have to close in the wake of an embezzlement scandal. -Christian celebrity Debby Boone’s husband performs...
- [Is Exodus Changing for the Better?](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/is-exodus-changing-for-the-better/): Exodus International has been getting a fair bit of media attention lately. As part of the major rebranding exercise we predicted in November last year, Exodus President Alan Chambers has gone far and wide with his message that the group, known as the foremost proponent of the idea that homosexuals can change, no longer puts stock in the idea of a “gay cure.” Last week, The Atlantic interviewed Chambers under the headline “Sexual Healing: Evangelicals Update Their Message to Gays.” Then, earlier this week, an AP story reported that Exodus was backing away from reparative therapy: The president of the country’s best-known Christian...
- [Kansas Board of Education Nominee Jack Wu Was in Phelps Documentary](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/kansas-board-of-education-nominee-jack-wu-was-in-phelps-documentary/): Westboro Baptist Church attendee — but not member — Jack Wu is in the news: A Kansas state school board candidate who describes evolution as “Satanic lies” and wants to stop public schools from teaching the theory attends Westboro Baptist, the Topeka church known for anti-gay protests worldwide. Jack Wu told The Topeka Capital-Journal that he decided to run for the State Board of Education after learning that Democratic incumbent Carolyn Campbell, also from Topeka, would otherwise be unopposed for a second term in the 4th District of eastern Kansas. What has gone as yet unnoted is that Wu was interviewed...
- [XGW Digest: June 23, 2012](https://exgaywatch.com/2012/06/xgw-digest-june-23-2012/): -A father speaks out for his gay son. -Professor Mark Regnerus defends his conclusions about gay parents. -A Brooklyn teenager loses an eye in an anti-gay attack. -Quebec launches an official registry to track homophobic acts. -Police in Uganda raid a gay rights gathering. -The New York legislature considers legislation to outlaw cyberbullying. -Former Governor Jesse Ventura weighs in against Minnesota’s anti-gay marriage amendment. -An ex-gay man’s former girlfriend reminds us that participants aren’t the only victims of ex-gay programs. -Republican leaders express reluctance to reinstate Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. -Uganda may move to ban 38 NGOs for being gay-supportive. -Gay...
- [XGW Digest: June 28, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/xgw-digest-june-28-2014/): -The New York Senate kills a pair of bills that would have protected gay minors and transgender individuals. -Freedom Ohio decides not to pursue a marriage equality amendment this year. -Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney marries his partner of 22 years. -Gay-supportive pastor Frank Schaefer is reinstated by the Methodist Church. -The Orlando, FL city council files a brief supporting marriage equality. -The government of Gambia announces legislation to ban LGBT advocacy. -The town of Latta, SC votes to reinstate its lesbian police chief. -A federal court strikes down Indiana’s marriage ban. -The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the overturning of...
- [XGW Digest: June 21, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/xgw-digest-june-21-2014/): -Anti-LGBT hate crimes increase significantly in Scotland and the United States. -WWE legend Pat Patterson comes out of the closet. -The Obama Administration announces an executive order protecting employees of federal contractors from discrimination. -The New York State Assembly passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -Luxembourg enacts marriage equality. -The US Senate confirms two openly gay African-American judicial candidates. -Fort Lauderdale’s city commissioners urge the state to legalize marriage equality. -A Texas judge bars a married gay couple from adopting their children. -Rob Tisinai live tweets NOM’s March4Marriage. -The Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to allow its pastors to marry...
- [So. Baptists Approve Fundamental Untruths about Transgender People](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/southern-baptists-approve-a-fundamental-lie-about-transgender-people/): Whereas thousands of people are born every year with the genes or organs of both sexes, Southern Baptists declare that all Christians should lie and claim these people don't exist -- and then deny them their human and constitutional rights -- because butchered Bible verses told them so.
- ["Discussing Marriage" Site Doesn't Appear to Want Discussion](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/discussing-marriage-site-doesnt-want-discussion/): A Christian Right site maintains "reason and civility" in marriage "discussion" by disallowing and mischaracterizing all views except its own.
- ['Ex-Gay' Rejoins Activists Who Coincidentally Seek to Imprison Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/ex-gay-dennis-jernigan-rejoins-hardline-antigays/): "Ex-gay" Dennis Jernigan again joins antigay activists who seek to imprison LGBT Americans.
- [Ex-Gays Cite Violence against Women as Reason to Stay Closeted](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/ex-gay-network-cites-violence-against-women-as-reason-to-stay-in-closet/): Restored Hope Network exploits violence against women to steer women back into the closet.
- [So. Baptist Resolution Mandates Transgender Ignorance, Discrimination](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/so-baptist-resolution-mandates-ignorance-discrimination-toward-transgender-people/): A Southern Baptist Convention resolution misdefines "transgender," prays for increased discrimination, misquotes the Bible, and opposes religious liberty except for Southern Baptists.
- [XGW Digest: June 7, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/06/xgw-digest-june-7-2014/): -Cyprus’ first pride parade draws thousands of attendees. -Medicare will now cover gender transition-related surgeries. -A new report finds that anti-LGBT crimes grew more violent in 2013. -The Bozeman, MT city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Anti-gay Ugandan Sam Kutesa is appointed President of the UN General Assembly. -British consulates in 23 countries will now marry same-sex couples. -Long Beach, CA elects its first openly gay mayor. -GOProud closes, or at least reorganizes. -Slovakia amends its constitution to ban same-sex marriages. -The Jackson, MS city council takes a stand against the state’s “religious freedom” law. -The US Supreme Court refuses to...
- [XGW Digest: May 31, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/xgw-digest-may-31-2014/): –New lawsuits reduce the number of states with unchallenged marriage bans to one. -Costa Rica extends social security benefits to same-sex couples. -Boy Scouts president Robert Gates says he would allow gay scoutmasters, but will not challenge the current ban. -The Topeka, KS city council passes two LGBT rights bills. -Researchers study the brain patterns of gay fathers. -A gay man is lynched in Ghana. -A Maine ethics panel fines NOM and orders it to disclose its donor list. -The Houston city council passes a landmark non-discrimination ordinance. -Republican Rep. Charlie Dent declares his support of marriage equality. -A gay couple...
- [XGW Digest: May 24, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/xgw-digest-may-24-2014/): -The Arkansas Supreme Court suspends the decision striking down the state’s marriage ban. -Massachusetts celebrates ten years of marriage equality. -President Obama nominates a gay man as ambassador to Vietnamn. -A Catholic school bans a female student’s yearbook picture after she wears a tuxedo to prom. -Judge Michael McShane strikes down Oregon’s marriage ban. -Judge Dale Kimball orders Utah to recognize the 1,300 same-sex marriages performed there. -South Africa allows gay men to donate blood. -Judge John E. Jones strikes down Pennsylvania’s marriage ban. -The UK deports a lesbian refugee back to Uganda. -Zakhele Mbhele becomes the first openly gay black...
- [XGW Digest: May 17, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/xgw-digest-may-17-2014/): -Arkansas Judge Christopher Piazza strikes down the state’s marriage ban. -Michael Sam becomes the first openly gay NFL player. -Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst wins the Eurovision song contest. -Heck Bender shows parents how to talk to their children about Michael Sam. -The US Naval Academy hosts its first same-sex wedding. -A French lesbian is kidnapped by fundamentalist family members. -Anti-gay attacks increase dramatically in France. -Singer Clay Aiken wins the Democratic primary for his Congressional race in North Carolina. -Federal judge Candy Dale strikes down Idaho’s marriage ban. -Six men are tried and convicted in Morocco on charges including homosexuality....
- [XGW Digest: May 10, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/xgw-digest-may-10-2014/): -Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel declares his support for marriage equality. -Bishop Gene Robinson announces he is divorcing his husband. -A Republican candidate in North Carolina is outed as a former drag queen. -LGBT allies boycott the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection hotels. -Gay documentarian Tim McCarthy reports on his time undercover in Uganda. -HGTV cancels plans for a show whose stars were discovered to be anti-gay activists. -Another member of the Phelps family splits from Westboro Baptist Church. -Three Russian same-sex couples get married in Copenhagen. -More than half of LGBT employees still remain in the closet at work. -Hallmark produces a...
- [John Paulk: Proud to Be Ex-Ex-Gay](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/john-paulk-proud-to-be-ex-ex-gay/): John Paulk: “I felt like a liar and a hypocrite. Having to go out and give hope to these people. I was in despair knowing that what I was telling them was not entirely honest. I couldn’t do it anymore.”
- [XGW Digest: May 3, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/05/xgw-digest-may-3-2014/): -A Texas judge rules that the state’s marriage ban is unconstitutional during a gay divorce case. -The Alaska State Supreme Court rules that state property tax exemptions must be extended to gay couples. -A Virginia school committee votes against censoring a gay-themed book. -Japan’s First Lady participates in Tokyo Pride. -A federal court overturns a ruling requiring Tennessee to recognize out of state same-sex marriages. -Milwaukee County, WI enacts a non-discrimination ordinance. -The US Department of Education rules that Title IX protections apply to transgender students. -Maggie Gallagher concedes the fight against marriage equality. -The United Church of Christ sues North...
- [Peterson Toscano Launches Website for Queer Climate Change Action](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/04/peterson-toscano-queer-climate-change-website/): Press release: Queer Performance Activist and Ex-Gay Survivor Peterson Toscano announces new direction to promote Queer Climate Change Action Through his performance work, media appearances, activism, and Biblical scholarship, Peterson Toscano has worked to expose the harm that comes from gay conversion therapy, the injustice within the LGBTQ community, and in faith communities towards transgender people. As part of his on-going engagement in human rights work, Peterson has relaunched his website at www.petersontoscano.com, and announces that he will make Climate Change Action his primary focus, with special emphasis on a queer response. Peterson is known for his comic, one-person shows that...
- [XGW Digest: April 26, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/04/xgw-digest-april-26-2014/): -A South Carolina police chief is fired for being gay. -Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe announces that he will expel pro-gay diplomats. -The city council of Latina, Italy votes to recognize a gay couple’s marriage. -WWE joins the NOH8 campaign. -The National Organization for Marriage steps in to defend Oregon’s marriage ban. -Christian musician Dan Haseltine speaks out for marriage equality. -Actor Daniel Franzese comes out of the closet. -Judge Vaughn Walker opens up about his experience going through ex-gay therapy as a young man. -Brunei delays implementation of its new anti-gay law.
- [XGW Digest: April 19, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/04/xgw-digest-april-19-2014/): -The Nevada Republican Party removes opposition to marriage equality and abortion from its platform. -Judge Timothy Black orders the State of Ohio to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages. -Singer Debby Boone becomes an ally. -The Parliament of Malta passes a civil unions bill. -India’s Supreme Court recognizes transgender people as a third gender. -The Louisiana House kills an attempt to repeal the state’s obsolete sodomy law. -The government of Ethiopia backs away from a plan to toughen its anti-gay laws. -Prop 8 attorney Charles Cooper’s views on marriage equality evolve. -Egyptian police continue a series of raids on the homes of gay...
- [XGW Digest: April 12, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/04/xgw-digest-april-12-2014/): -A Russian district court rules that two previously banned LGBT events can take place. -The Mormon church reiterates its stance against marriage equality. -The US Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by Elane Photography. -The Church of Norway votes against adopting a liturgy for same-sex weddings. -Retired Republican Senator Alan Simpson endorses marriage equality in a new ad. -The Republic of San Marino considers recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. -Four Egyptian men are sentenced to prison for “deviant” acts. -Derrick Gordon becomes the first openly gay NCAA basketball player. – Rep. Mike Coffman becomes the seventh Republican to co-sponsor the...
- [XGW Digest: April 5, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/04/xgw-digest-april-5-2014/): -A recently deceased man is rejected as an organ donor for being gay. -A South African gay man is brutally murdered in public. -Same-sex marriages officially begin in England and Wales. -Actress Sara Gilbert and musician Linda Perry get married. -Uganda’s Inter-Religious Council celebrates the Anti-Homosexuality Act. -The Mississippi legislature passes an anti-gay “religious freedom” bill. -The Harvey Milk stamp is unveiled. -India’s Supreme Court agrees to reconsider its decision to recriminalize homosexuality. -Honey Maid responds to its anti-gay critics. -A federal judge rules that gay and lesbian employees are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. -Mozilla CEO...
- [XGW Digest: March 29, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/03/xgw-digest-march-29-2014/): -A Republican party strategist marries his partner in Michigan. -The US Sixth Court of Appeals issues a stay on Michigan’s marriage ruling. -The Obama Administration issues a formal response to Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law. -Singer Tyler Glenn (Neon Trees) comes out of the closet. -Christian charity World Vision announces that it will allow married gay Christians on its staff. -An Anglican priest announces that he will wed his partner in defiance of church policy. -The Tennessee legislature votes to legalize anti-gay discrimination in state-funded schools. -World Vision caves to pressure to reverse its decision to hire openly gay employees. -The Maryland legislature...
- [XGW Digest: March 22, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/03/xgw-digest-march-22-2014/): -The Department of Health and Human Services orders health insurers to offer the same coverage to all married couples. -Boston Mayor Marty Walsh boycotts the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade to protest it exclusion of LGBT groups. -Chick-Fil-A takes a step back from the culture wars. -Evangelical leader Franklin Graham endorses Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay policies. -Anti-gay activists turn their attention to Peru. -The Cincinnati Archdiocese adds stronger anti-gay language into its new employee contract. -Religious right activists fail to unseat the three Illinois Republicans who voted for marriage equality. -Anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps dies. -Living Waters Australia closes its doors. -Gibraltar’s...
- [XGW Digest: March 15, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/03/xgw-digest-march-15-2014/): -Outed anti-gay politician Robert Arango officially comes out as a gay man. -A lesbian couple is murdered in Texas. -The United Methodist Church announces it will not prosecute Rev. Thomas Ogletree for presiding at his gay son’s wedding. -Honey Maid features a gay couple’s family in its latest ad. -Actor Kristian Nairn comes out of the closet. -A new poll finds majority support for marriage equality among young Republicans. -Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is challenged in court. -A gay conservative Republican runs for office in Idaho. -Lithuanian lawmakers consider a ‘gay propaganda’ ban. -The US suspends part of its aid to Uganda.
- [XGW Digest: March 8, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/03/xgw-digest-march-8-2014/): -The Tempe, AZ city council unanimously approves an anti-discrimination ordinance. -A public gay wedding takes place in Burma/Myanmar. -A former Miss Kentucky comes out of the closet. -The University of Texas distances itself from Professor Mark Regnerus. -The Maryland State Senate passes a transgender rights bill. -A group of Western Republicans signs a brief supporting marriage equality. –The Nation takes a look at the anti-gay climate in Cameroon. -Pope Francis hints that he might be willing to support civil unions. -Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana denounces Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law. -Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper clarifies his support for marriage equality. -A gay...
- [XGW Digest: March 1, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/03/xgw-digest-march-1-2014/): -Virginia legislator Mark Sickles comes out of the closet. -Jason Collins signs with the Nets to become the first openly gay player in the NBA. -Ugandan President Museveni signs the anti-homosexuality bill in to law. -The Georgia House considers a pro-discrimination bill. -An effort to roll back transgender rights in California fails to qualify for the ballot. -Anti-gay violence escalates in Uganda. -Three European countries suspend or reduce aid to Uganda. -A federal judge declares that Texas’ marriage ban is unconstitutional. -Gov. Jan Brewer vetoes Arizona’s pro-discrimination bill. -A federal judge orders Kentucky to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages.
- [XGW Digest: February 22, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/02/xgw-digest-february-22-2014/): -A new University of Chicago study strengthens the case for a genetic cause for homosexuality. -Actress Ellen Page comes out of the closet. -The Wyoming House votes down pro- and anti-marriage equality bills. -President Obama speaks out against Uganda’s anti-gay law. -A mob attacks 14 “suspected homosexuals” in Nigeria. -The Colorado legislature votes to allow same-sex couples to file joint tax returns. -A group of Kenyan legislators begins agitating for harsher anti-gay laws. -Actor Patrick Stewart responds with grace and humor to being misidentified as gay. -NFL coaches and players respond positively to Michael Sam’s coming out. -Oregon’s Attorney General refuses...
- [XGW Digest: February 15, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/02/xgw-digest-february-15-2014/): –Protests across Russia lead to more than sixty arrests. -A same-sex marriage ban fails in El Salvador. -The US Justice Department extends additional federal rights to married same-sex couples. -Ireland prepares a marriage equality referendum for the 2015 ballot. -A college football star may become the NFL’s first openly gay player. -Nevada’s Governor and Attorney General withdraw their support for the state’s marriage ban. -The Kansas House passes a pro-discrimination bill. -A federal judge rules that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. -The Idaho Supreme Court rules that gay couples have the same adoption rights as anyone else. -Russia announces...
- [XGW Digest: February 8, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/02/xgw-digest-february-8-2014/): -Mumbai Pride draws a record crowd. -Finnish Olympian Ari-Pekka Liokkonen comes out of the closet to protest Russia’s anti-gay laws. -Two gay Senegalese men are sentenced to prison. -Three Russian men are convicted of murdering a gay man. -The Scottish Parliament passes marriage equality. -GQ Magazine takes a look at what it’s like to be gay in Russia. -Singer Clay Aiken announces that he is running for Congress. -UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon speaks out against attacks on LGBTI people. -Google joins the protest against Russia’s anti-gay law. -Anti-LGBT bullying continues to be a severe problem in Australia. -Dilbert takes a...
- [XGW Digest: February 1, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/02/xgw-digest-february-1-2014/): -The TSA changes its screening policy to recognize gay couples. -33 couples, gay and straight, get married at the Grammy Awards. -The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus repeals its ban on homosexuality. -Jeremy Hooper reflects on how anti-gay propaganda affects him now that he’s a parent. -The Indiana House amends the proposed marriage amendment, thereby likely derailing it. -The Indian Supreme Court refuses to review its decision to reinstate anti-sodomy laws. -ENDA now has six Republican co-sponsors in the US House. -A former pastor is arrested for kidnapping and robbing a gay man. -Texas now has a second openly gay state...
- [XGW Digest: January 25, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/01/xgw-digest-january-25-2014/): -A gay couple’s family photo sparks anti-gay outrage on Twitter. -Vladimir Putin offers partial reassurances to gays planning to attend the Sochi Olympics. -Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina comes out of the closet. -UNAIDS joins a lawsuit against Malawi’s anti-gay laws. -Glenn Beck takes Vladimir Putin to task for being too anti-gay. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that potential jurors cannot be excluded on the basis of sexual orientation. -Starkville becomes the first city in Mississippi to pass a non-discrimination ordinance. -Virginia’s Attorney General announces that he will not defend the state’s marriage ban in court. -Three men are convicted...
- [Grassroots Ex-Gay Meetings in 2014 Stigmatize Healthy Families](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/01/grassroots-ex-gay-meetings-in-2014-stigmatize-healthy-families/): Restored Hope Network, which advocates costly gay-conversion therapies and ineffective pray-away-the-gay counseling, is taking its message that gay people are broken and damned to 20 cities in the first half of 2014.
- [XGW Digest: January 18, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/01/xgw-digest-january-18-2014/): -The Russian Orthodox Church calls for a referendum to outlaw homosexuality. -Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signs an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT state employees. -Nigeria enacts an even harsher anti-gay law. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoes a transgender rights bill. -A Methodist Church in Indiana loses 80% of its members after firing a gay employee. -Support for marriage equality grows in Utah. -A federal judge rules that Oklahoma’s marriage ban is unconstitutional. -Evangelical speaker Rachel Held Evans reflects on her time at the Gay Christian Network’s 2014 conference. -Sharia enforcers in northern Nigeria step up their witch hunt against...
- [XGW Digest: January 11, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/01/xgw-digest-january-11-2014/): -A new survey finds strong support for most LGBT rights in Hong Kong. -Retired boxer Evander Holyfield describes gays as ‘handicapped.’ -The US Supreme Court issues a stay on same-sex marriages in Utah. -Bruce Kraus becomes Pittsburgh, PA’s first openly gay city council president. -A monument to LGBT holocaust victims is built in Tel Aviv. -Comedian Lily Tomlin marries her long-time partner Jane Wagner. -New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez declares that she will not support efforts to reverse marriage equality. -A Yemeni man is murdered for being gay. -German footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger comes out of the closet. -Civil unions move forward...
- [XGW Digest: January 4, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/01/xgw-digest-january-4-2014/): -Houston Mayor Annise Parker announces that she plans to marry her partner. -Good Morning America host Robin Roberts comes out of the closet. -The State of Utah commits to a $2 million effort to defend its marriage ban. -The Mennonite Church USA ordains a lesbian pastor. -The Rose Parade features a same-sex wedding. -The Boy Scouts of America begins admitting gay scouts without triggering a mass exodus. -Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist apologizes for his past support of anti-gay measures. -NFL punter Chris Kluwe suspects he was fired for his LGBT rights advocacy. -A federal judge refuses to halt benefits for...
- [XGW Digest: December 28, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/12/xgw-digest-december-28-2013/): -Same-sex couples begin marrying in Utah. -A federal judge rules that Ohio must recognize same-sex marriages on death certificates. -Utah is denied a stay on Judge Shelby’s marriage equality ruling. -Queen Elizabeth II grants a pardon to gay war hero Alan Turing. -Lockheed Martin discontinues its support of the Boy Scouts. -An Irvine, CA woman defies her anti-gay neighbors. -The Israeli Knesset votes against marriage equality. -A Connecticut man threatens to kill his mother and gay sister.
- [XGW Digest: December 21, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/12/xgw-digest-december-21-2013/): -The Advocate names the 13 biggest homophobes of 2013. -The Social Security Administration begins processing benefits for gay widows and widowers. -A lawsuit is filed against a Mississippi school district for failing to address anti-gay bullying. -The Advocate names Pope Francis as its Person of the Year. -A Russian toy store comes under investigation for selling a game containing ‘gay propaganda.’ -President Obama adds gay athletes to the US delegation for the Sochi Olympics. -Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett endorses a nondiscrimination bill. -A&E suspends Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for making anti-gay remarks. -Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer is defrocked for officiating...
- [XGW Digest: December 14, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/12/xgw-digest-december-14-2013/): -A Pennsylvania Catholic school fires a gay teacher for applying for a marriage license. -German President Joachim Gauck announces that he will boycott the 2014 Sochi Olympics. -An administrative court rules against a Colorado bakery that refused to sell a cake to a gay couple. -The National Railway Labor Conference extends healthcare benefits to spouses of gay employees. -Oregon will vote on marriage equality in the 2014 election. -India’s Supreme Court reinstates the country’s anti-‘sodomy’ law. -The Shreveport, LA city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Ireland’s Justice Minister orders the recognition of same-sex unions legalized elsewhere. -Same-sex couples will now be...
- [XGW Digest: December 7, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/12/xgw-digest-december-7-2013/): -The Salvation Army removes links to two ex-gay ministries from its website. -The UK Supreme Court rules against a Bed & Breakfast owner who discriminated against a lesbian couple. -The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper comes out of the closet. -The office of a gay rights group is invaded in Haiti. -Croatian voters pass an anti-gay marriage referendum. -A gay man is murdered in Chester, England. -Olympian Tom Daley announces that he is dating a man. -The Croatian government announces plans to pursue civil unions in the wake of the country’s recent marriage referendum. -Gay Olympian Johnny Weir comes under fire...
- [XGW Digest: November 27, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/11/xgw-digest-november-27-2013/): The Digest will resume its normal weekly schedule in December. -A group of teenage girls is caught on video beating up a transgender classmate. -A federal judge rules that Pennsylvania must defend its marriage ban in court. -Gay teen science prodigy Jack Andraka is honored by the Vatican. -The United Methodist Church convicts a pastor for officiating at his gay son’s wedding. -The US Air Force Academy hires an ex-gay therapist to head its counseling department. -Houston will begin offering benefits to spouses of gay city employees. -Marriage equality passes a first reading in the Scottish Parliament. -Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn...
- [XGW Digest: November 16, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/11/xgw-digest-november-16-2013/): -The Hawaii House gives final approval to marriage equality. -The Arkansas Attorney General approves a marriage equality measure for the 2016 ballot. -A Colombian anti-gay activist is outed. -A Federal District Court judge upholds New Jersey’s ban on conversion therapy for minors. -Five suspected lesbians are arrested in Senegal. -A survey of Republicans finds more support for the Confederate flag than for the rainbow flag. -A marriage equality bill fails in New South Wales, Australia. -Luxembourg elects a gay prime minister and deputy prime minister. -Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon orders the recognition of same-sex marriages for tax purposes. -Vietnam legalizes same-sex...
- [XGW Digest: November 9, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/11/xgw-digest-november-9-2013/): -West Point hosts its first same-sex wedding involving a male couple. -Congressman Mike Michaud comes out of the closet. -Two masked men open fire on an LGBT meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. -A religious right leader is exposed as an adulterer. -A prominent Idaho Republican speaks out in support of LGBT rights. -Three gay men are violently assaulted in Portland, Oregon. -The Illinois House votes in favor of marriage equality. –Seattle, WA and Atlantic City, NJ elect openly gay mayors -The European Court of Justice rules that gay refugees from three African nations can seek asylum in the EU. -Marriage equality...
- [Ex-Gay Activist Leader Idolizes Sin and Hearsay, Not Faith](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/11/ex-gay-activist-anne-paulk-idolizes-sin-and-hearsay-not-faith/): Anne Paulk, executive director for the hardline ex-gay Restored Hope Network, has no formal academic certification in Christian scripture, history or doctrine; no professional expertise in mental health; no clear or singular attraction to women; and no documented personal experience with either same-sex activity or healthy same-sex romance. Lack of competence in these areas effectively confines her online musings about homosexuality to the following lines of argument: projection of her own ideological intent and behavior onto others false guesses and assertions about what Christians or the Bible say, since she rarely quotes them false guesses about what sexual minorities believe, since...
- [XGW Digest: November 2, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/11/xgw-digest-november-2-2013/): -Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister promises a referendum on marriage equality. -Gay rights activists rally in Vietnam. -Holocaust survivor and LGBT rights activist Sharley McLean dies at age 90. -Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promises a vote on ENDA before Thanksgiving. -Anti-gay ‘researcher’ Paul Cameron addresses the Russian Duma. -Philadelphia enacts a new LGBT-inclusive ordinance. -A straight Nebraska man is beaten for standing up for his gay friends. -A civil union bill is introduced in the Israeli Knesset. -Retired justice Sandra Day O’Connor presides at a same-sex wedding. -The Hawaii Senate ratifies marriage equality by a wide margin.
- [XGW Digest: October 26, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/10/xgw-digest-october-26-2013/): -Same-sex marriages begin in New Jersey. -A Catholic school in Arkansas fires a teacher for marrying her partner. -Podgorica, Montenegro’s first Pride event turns violent. -A Texas judge leaves the Republican party in protest of its discriminatory views. -The Australian Capital Territory passes a marriage equality bill. -A gay Oklahoma couple finds a loophole in their state’s marriage ban. -Universal Studios Hollywood discontinues a homophobic Halloween show. -The New Mexico Supreme Court hears arguments for and against marriage equality. -The World Congress of Families names the religious right leaders who recently met with the author of Russia’s “homosexual propaganda” bill. -The...
- [XGW Digest: October 19, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/10/xgw-digest-october-19-2013/): -Moldova overturns its ban on ‘gay propaganda.’ -Former Olympian Greg Louganis marries his partner. -The Values Voter Summit produces a predictable pile of anti-gay rhetoric. -North Dakota publishes a separate tax form for married same-sex couples. -A trial date is set for the challenge to Michigan’s marriage ban. -Oregon will now recognize same-sex marriage licenses issued in other state. -Brazilian conservatives propose a bill to allow religious groups to discriminate against gay couples. -An openly gay man runs for mayor of Tel Aviv, Israel. -The New Jersey Supreme Court rejects Gov. Christie’s request for a stay on marriage equality.
- [XGW Digest: October 12, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/10/xgw-digest-october-12-2013/): -Kuwait announces that it will use medical screenings to stop gays from entering the country. -A transgender teen is named Homecoming King at a New Hampshire high school. -A first-ever pride parade is held in Gujarat State, India. -A gay couple is beaten by anti-gay thugs in Pittsburgh. -A new poll finds 62% support for marriage equality in New Jersey. -An Illinois high school elects a gay homecoming king and queen. -A California teacher expresses sympathy for a student who murdered a gay classmate. -Pope Francis writes a personal reply to a group of gay Catholics. -The US Postal Services announces...
- [XGW Digest: October 5, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/10/xgw-digest-october-5-2013/): -Attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies join the lawsuit against Virginia’s marriage equality ban. -The United Nations hosts a forum on LGBT rights. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie files an appeal to stop the state’s court-ordered implementation of marriage equality. -Anti-gay activist Scott Lively announces his candidacy for governor of Massachusetts. -The High Court of Singapore dismisses a challenge to the country’s anti-sodomy law. -Ex-Gay Awareness Month’s lobbying day draws a crowd of fifteen. -A grandfather disowns his daughter for disowning her gay son. -Two Pennsylvania State Representatives introduce a marriage equality bill. -Justice Antonin Scalia declares that he has not...
- [XGW Digest: September 28, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/09/xgw-digest-september-28-2013/): -A transgender student is named Homecoming Queen at a California high school. -A professor at a Christian college is forced to resign after coming out as transgender. -The government of Bangladesh turns down a UN recommendation to decriminalize homosexuality. -The Finnish parliament agrees to vote on marriage equality. -A Costa Rican court rules that the country’s new marriage law does not apply to same-sex couples. -Scott Lively takes great pride in Russia’s anti-gay law. -The US Senate confirms the first openly gay federal appeals court judge. -A Pennsylvania pastor loses his job after officiating at a same-sex wedding. -The Chairman of...
- [XGW Digest: September 21, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/09/xgw-digest-september-21-2013/): -Russia modifies its Olympic Truce document to be slightly more inclusive. -Linden becomes the latest Michigan town to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance. -Transgender women are murdered in Los Angeles and Baton Rouge. -Actor Billy Boyd speaks out for marriage equality in Scotland. -An openly gay priest is appointed Chaplain General of the Canadian armed forces. -PA State Rep. Brian Sims introduces a bill to ban conversion therapy for minors. -Figure Skater Johnny Weir opts against participating in the Sochi Olympics. -Marriage equality gains Republican support in New Jersey. -Jim Burroway examines the ramifications of Pope Francis’ most recent comments. -The government...
- [XGW Digest: September 14, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/09/xgw-digest-september-14-2013/): -The New Mexico Supreme Court schedules a hearing to consider marriage equality arguments. -A South Korean couple holds the country’s first public same-sex wedding. -The Colville Tribal Council votes to recognize marriage equality. -The Archbishop of Mumbai reaches out to local LGBT activists. -Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie calls a special legislative session to vote on marriage equality. -NBA star Michael Jordan’s daughter comes out of the closet. -Equal Marriage Arizona drops its effort to place a marriage initiative on the state’s 2014 ballot. -LGBT activist Corey Johnson wins his primary race for a seat on the New York City Council. -A...
- [XGW Digest: September 7, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/09/xgw-digest-september-7-2013/): -Sergeant Darren Manzella, who fought for the repeal of DADT, dies in a car accident. -Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiates at a same-sex wedding. -A Federal judge rules that same-sex couples are eligible for the same veterans’ benefits as other couples. -President Obama schedules meetings with LGBT rights groups in Russia. -A gay man is attacked by a mob in Cleveland. -Six religious right groups sign a statement endorsing Russia’s new anti-gay law. -A gay man is savagely beaten in Denver. -A seventh New Mexico county begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses. -A group of New Mexico Republicans file a...
- [XGW Digest: August 31, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/08/xgw-digest-august-31-2013/): -A conservative Catholic writer changes his mind about marriage equality. -Anti-gay activists launch a recall campaign against Daniel Hernandez Jr. -Ricky Martin admits that he bullied other gay people before coming out of the closet. -BBC News examines what it’s like to be gay in Pakistan. -The number of New Mexico counties issuing same-sex marriage licenses increases to six. -Newark Mayor Cory Booker responds ambiguously to questions about his sexual orientation. -A gay man is found murdered in his home in Jamaica. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds California’s conversion therapy ban. -The IRS announces that it will recognize the marriages of gay...
- [XGW Digest: August 24, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/08/xgw-digest-august-24-2013/): -NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young agrees to keynote an LGBT Mormon conference. -A gay Marine veteran is booed at a San Antonio City Council meeting. -The New Mexico Supreme Court declines to hear two marriage equality cases. -Same-sex weddings begin in New Zealand. -New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signs a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -Minneapolis’ Chief of Police marries her partner. -The Kazakhstan Parliament considers drafting its own version of Russia’s anti-gay law. -The Hawaii legislature considers a special session to vote on marriage equality. -Doña Ana County in New Mexico begins issuing marriage licenses to gay couples....
- [XGW Digest: August 17, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/08/xgw-digest-august-17-2013/): -Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promises marriage equality if reelected. -An Italian 14-year-old boy commits suicide because of anti-gay bullying. -John Berry, US ambassador to Australia, marries his partner. -California enacts stronger protections for transgender students. -Jim Burroway examines the roots of Russian homophobia. -A gay couple is attacked at a private party in Haiti. -The Pentagon extends marriage leave to gay service members. -Athlete Nick Symmonds dedicates a silver medal won in Russia to his gay and lesbian friends. -A Russian TV anchor is fired for coming out of the closet. -A gay couple is attacked by a gang of...
- [XGW Digest: August 10, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/08/xgw-digest-august-10-2013/): -Actress Raven Symone comes out of the closet. -The US State Department begins issuing visas for married gay couples. -An Albuquerque shuttle bus driver orders a gay couple to move to the back of the bus. -The National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame inducts its first honorees. -LGBT activists hold a Pride parade in Kampala, Uganda. -The Croatian government moves forward with civil unions legislation. -A Wal-Mart customer assaults a two-year-old boy for wearing a pink headband. -A gay dad’s children offer event planning advice to the organizers of Ex-Gay Pride Month. -Young Democrats President Rod Snyder comes out...
- [XGW Digest: August 3, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/08/xgw-digest-august-3-2013/): -A Louisiana sheriff starts enforcing the state’s invalidated anti-sodomy law. -An Australian parliamentary committee rules that states can set their own marriage laws. -The mayor of Zagreb, Croatia agrees to let the city host an LGBT conference. -The state of Colima, Mexico legalizes civil unions. -Gallup finds majority support for marriage equality on a national level. -The Pennsylvania Department of Public Health sues to stop Montgomery County from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. -Les Hommen continue their ironic campaign against marriage equality in France. -Religious right groups encourage clerks in Minnesota and Rhode Island to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses. -The...
- [XGW Digest: July 27, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/xgw-digest-july-27-2013/): -A group of Dutch tourists is arrested under Russia’s new anti-gay law. -Orson Scott Card quietly steps down from the National Organization for Marriage’s board. -Several lawsuits challenging Section 3 of DOMA remain in court. -A federal judge orders the state of Ohio to recognize a gay couple’s marriage. -Anti-gay protesters in Haiti murder two men suspected of being gay. -A 17-year-old boy is murdered in Jamaica for wearing women’s clothing. -The Missouri Supreme Court considers a challenge to the state’s marriage ban. -Anti-gay violence colors Montenegro’s first Pride parade. -Montgomery County, PA begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of the...
- [Hardliners: Ex-Gays Say Tolerance=Racism, Admit Desire but Lack Power to Damn Gays](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/hardliners-ex-gays-say-toleranceracism-admit-desire-but-lack-power-to-damn-gays/): What’s happening this week among hardline ex-gay activists: Veteran ex-gay activist Anne Paulk and Alex McFarland, a guest writer for antigay evangelical James Dobson, equate their own antigay prejudice with”God’s ways” and “His standards and His plan for human relationships.” Opponents of bigotry are “spiritual traitors,” Paulk says. (See screen capture at right.) African-American ex-gay activist D.L. Foster equates “gay activists” of all races with white slave owners. The hardline Restored Hope Network implies a desire to damn gays to hell, but admits that God might interfere with that hope. “We cannot guarantee someone’s salvation, since we are not God, nor do we proclaim...
- [Christian Group Prays Gays into Prison, Casts Spell on Tornado (and Raises the Dead)](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/u-s-ex-gay-raise-the-dead-ministry-helps-incite-caribbean-antigay-persecution-splc-says/): VIDEO: Extreme Prophetic Ministries, a reactionary U.S. raise-the-dead ministry, rebukes a tornado and claims that they caused it to dissipate. In 2009, the ministry co-launched Uganda’s kill-the-gays legislation. Now, according to the SPLC, EPM supports imprisoning homosexuals in the Caribbean. A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center says that several U.S. organizations — including an extremist ministry which claims to raise the dead and pray away the gay — are defending antigay imprisonment and defamation in Belize and other Caribbean nations. The same groups also oppose U.S. calls for respect for human rights. (Source: Washington Blade) The groups include Alliance Defending Freedom...
- [Jamaican Violence Worsening One Year after Ex-Gay Endorsement](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/jamaican-violence-escalates-one-year-after-ex-gay-endorsement/): Jamaica's epidemic of antigay violence has worsened in the year since Exodus board member traveled to the island, affirmed harsh antigay laws, and criticized U.S. concern for human rights.
- [Holocaust Revisionist Lively, Contra Supporter LaBarbera Affirm Russian Antigay Pogrom](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/holocaust-revisionist-lively-contra-supporter-labarbera-affirm-russian-antigay-pogrom/): Scott Lively and Peter LaBarbera endorse Russia's official antigay censorship and extrajudicial violence
- [Exodus VP Posts Open Apology to Gay Community](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/exodus-vp-posts-open-apology-to-gay-community/): Exodus International Vice President Randy Thomas has followed President Alan Chambers in apologizing to gays and lesbians: When Alan Chambers made his apology to the gay community, I couldn’t have been more supportive. I am so proud of my friend and fully agree with what he shared. I, too, have been taking a personal moral inventory. So many eye-opening experiences have occurred in the past twenty-four months – including the suicide of a beloved friend and former partner this past January. The loss of Michael forced me to face some issues I had not been willing to deal with until that time. And it’s through...
- [XGW Digest: July 20, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/xgw-digest-july-20-2013/): -Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera presides over a mass gay wedding. -Marriage equality passes a final vote in Britain’s House of Lords. -A gay rights activist is tortured and murdered in Cameroon. -The California Supreme Court rejects a request to stop the resumption of same-sex marriages. -An allegedly gay man is murdered in Yemen. -A new study confirms that children are not impact by the sexual orientation of their parents. -Marriage equality officially becomes law in England and Wales. -House Republican leaders announce that they will not defend any further legal challenges against DOMA. -Benjamin Medrano becomes the first openly gay...
- [XGW Digest: July 13, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/xgw-digest-july-13-2013/): -Former President George W. Bush avoids taking a stand for or against marriage equality. -Another prominent Ohio Republican comes out in favor of equality. -The ACLU files lawsuits challenging marriage laws in multiple states. -ENDA advances to the floor of the US Senate. -Anti-gay author Orson Scott Card asks those he can’t tolerate to show tolerance toward him. -Marriage Equality advances another step in the British House of Lords. -Pennsylvania’s Attorney General opts against defending the state’s marriage ban in court. -A lesbian couple is attacked in Chicago. -A Colombian judge rules that a gay couple can legally marry. -NOM attempts...
- [XGW Digest: July 6, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/xgw-digest-july-6-2013/): -Same-sex marriages resume in California. -A federal judge strikes down Michigan’s ban on domestic partner benefits. -A British Conservative MP comes out of the closet. -The Russian government enacts a ban on “homosexual propaganda.” -Blogger Pam Spaulding says farewell. -Same-sex marriages begin in Delaware. -The Family Research Council turns its attention to ENDA. -A wave of anti-LGBT violence hits Washington, DC. -The Costa Rican legislature accidentally passes a civil unions bill. -Formerly homophobic NBA star Tim Hardaway signs a petition for Equal Marriage Florida. -Popes Francis and Benedict reiterate the Catholic church’s views on marriage. -Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla signs...
- [Among N.Y. People of Faith Celebrating Pride, A Prophetic Message](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/07/among-n-y-people-of-faith-celebrating-pride-a-prophetic-message/): Among the churches and synagogues that celebrated NYC Pride, a renewed call to action.
- [XGW Digest: June 29, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/xgw-digest-june-29-2013/): -Vietnam’s National Assembly agrees to consider marriage equality. -Focus on the Family steps back in for the ex-gay movement. -A lesbian couple in Northumbria, England are the victims of an anti-gay attack. -Marriage equality bills are introduced in the Michigan legislature. -The New Jersey Assembly passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -Northern Ireland’s assembly votes against recognizing same-sex marriages. -California Gov. Jerry Brown orders county clerks to prepare to issue same-sex marriage licenses. -A marriage equality bill is introduced in Scotland’s parliament. -ThinkProgress rounds up some of the most extreme reactions to the Supreme Court’s gay rights rulings. -Australia’s...
- [Prop 8 Dead, SCOTUS Won't Hear Appeal](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/prop-8-dead-scotus-wont-hear-appeal/): Proposition 8 is dead. Following today’s finding that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has now declared it will not hear appeals against California’s decision to strike down Prop 8. This means that same-sex couples in California will remain legally married, entitled to the legal benefits federal government affords all married couples.
- [DOMA Found Unconstitutional on Equal Protection Grounds](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/doma-found-unconstitutional-on-equal-protection-grounds/): The early word is that DOMA is struck down!  Discuss as the news progresses. Update: Sounds like they may dodge the Prop 8 decision on jurisdictional grounds, which we assume would mean the lower court decision stands, and Prop 8 is invalidated.  Wait and see.
- [Hardline Ex-Gays Respond to Exodus Apology](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/hardline-ex-gays-respond-to-exodus-apology/): After Exodus International apologized last week for its past practice of blaming parents for homosexuality and ostracizing people who were no more sinful than they, the New York Times followed up with a report on Andy Comiskey, a co-founder of the hardline ex-gay Restored Hope Network. RHN continues to scapegoat parents and to accuse survivors of ex-gay therapy of not praying hard enough for God to make their sexuality disappear. The Restored Hope Network, which was founded last year after Mr. Chambers’s announcement, will hold its own conference this weekend in Oklahoma, competing with the annual Exodus conference. Andrew Comiskey, a Restored...
- [Why Does Charisma Magazine Hate Christians?](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/why-does-charisma-magazine-hate-christians/): Charisma Magazine's antigay tirades say more about a church obsessed with sex and hate, than they do about gay people. Charisma humiliates Christians. Why, then, does Charisma Magazine hate Christians? 
- [Tampa Ex-Exodus Affiliate Moves Ahead with Conversion Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/tampa-ex-exodus-affiliate-moves-ahead-with-conversion-therapy/): ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa, Fla., reports that a former Exodus affiliate, New Hearts Outreach, will continue performing discredited and counterproductive “conversion therapy” upon unsuspecting families. The most common form of conversion therapy, reparative therapy, teaches counselees that their parents are to blame for the counselee’s homosexuality. But neither the patient nor their parents are pre-warned about this blame game, and the resulting anger and retribution often permanently damages patients’ families. NHO’s website masthead accuses sexual minorities of being “sexually and relationally challenged.” The founder of the Tampa-area antigay group, Mark Culligan, asserts that ex-gay and antigay people — but not...
- [Ex-Gays Repackage Exodus' Spiritual and Sexual Condescension](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/ex-gays-repackage-exodus-spiritual-and-sexual-condescension/): The mission of successors to Exodus International begins to look like the old mission: To break people spiritually and sexually.
- [XGW Digest: June 22, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/xgw-digest-june-22-2013/): -President Obama nominates two gay men to ambassadorships. -Pam Spaulding announces her retirement from blogging. -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postpones debate on a civil unions bill. -Poland’s only openly gay member of Parliament is attacked outside of a café. -Equal Marriage Arizona begins a petition drive for a 2014 ballot initiative. -Poland’s Prime Minister concedes that his country isn’t ready for civil unions. -Sen. Lisa Murkowski becomes the third Republican senator to endorse marriage equality. -A Brazilian Congressional commission authorizes a bill to repeal the nation’s ban on conversion therapy. -Delaware enacts a transgender rights bill. -Wendy Gritter responds to...
- [Five Outcomes of the Exodus Ex-Gay Reboot](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/five-objectives-of-the-exodus-ex-gay-reboot/): Five things to remember about the Exodus "shutdown."
- [LGBTQ's to The Organization Once Known as Exodus International: It's Still Your Move](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/lgbtqs-to-exodus-international-its-still-your-move/): Last night, Exodus International announced it was shutting its doors. This came on the heels of Alan Chambers’ apology, and just before the airing of a new episode of Lisa Ling’s “Our America.” Alan Chambers has met with ex-gay survivors, and the encounter was apparently visceral, with no holds barred on the side of the former ex-gays. However, I remain skeptical, and unsatisfied by this segue. Exodus needs to do more than cut its losses and shutter its windows. It can’t just leave behind its despicable past, hoping people will just forgive and forget. It needs to actively and genuinely atone for...
- [Alan Chambers on Exodus Shutdown on HuffPost Live](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/alan-chambers-on-exodus-shutdown-on-huffpost-live/)
- [Finally, a Hint of the Honesty We Wanted from Exodus](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/finally-a-hint-of-the-honesty-we-wanted-from-exodus/): It’s been a long time coming, but finally, almost eighteen months after the rebranding of Exodus International began, President Alan Chambers has acknowledged the harm he and his organization have done. When I heard he would be appearing on Lisa Ling’s Our America on the Oprah network, I steeled myself for more hazy, defensive posturing that failed to get to the heart of the issue. I recently commented: I am really gonna flip if [Alan Chambers] tries any of the following tacks: a) we’re sorry “if” we unintentionally hurt anyone; b) we never meant what you thought we meant – we just communicated...
- [Exodus to Shut Down Ex-Gay Network; Leaders to Launch New Ministry](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/exodus-to-shut-down-leaders-to-launch-new-ministry/): Exodus International, the North American umbrella network of ex-gay ministries, announced tonight that it is shutting down and relaunching as a new ministry. Its remaining member ministries — those that have not already joined the hardline ex-gay rebel group, Restored Hope Network (RHN) — will continue to operate, but not under the Exodus International umbrella. “We’re not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change – and they want to be heard,” Tony Moore, Board member of Exodus. The message came less than a day after Exodus released a statement...
- [Live Streaming of Exodus Freedom Conference Tonight](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/free-live-streaming-of-exodus-freedom-conference-tonight/): Live streaming of the first night of the Exodus 2013 International Freedom Conference is free of charge.  Just use the code “TrueStory” at the checkout.  Considering all that is going on with Exodus, this could be interesting. You can register now, but it doesn’t start until 7:35 pmPDT (10:35 pm EDT).  Bring your opinions back here after if you watch.
- [Alan Chambers Apologizes to LGBTQs](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/alan-chambers-apologizes-to-lgbtqs/): In what appears to be a preemptive move, Alan Chambers has posted what he says is an expanded version of the apology he will give tomorrow night on Our America with Lisa Ling.  This apology is deeper than any offered so far, and seems to indicate a man whose views are in flux, with comments like “[t]oday it is as if I’ve just woken up to a greater sense of how painful it is to be a sinner in the hands of an angry church.” He also laments his deception concerning his own “change” saying, “[t]here were several years that I...
- [Pam Spaulding Closes the Coffee House](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/pam-spaulding-closes-the-coffee-house/): LGBT blogger Pam Spaulding has announced she’ll be putting down her pen and archiving her blog, Pam’s House Blend, as of July 1. Pam and her team have been writing about politics, culture, and gay and transgender issues for almost a decade. In recent years, however, ill health has taken its toll. PHB contributors Laurel Ramseyer, Alvin McEwen and Autumn Sandeen will launch a new blog, hosted on the progressive political website Firedoglake.com. We wish you the best of health, Pam, and thank you for your contribution to the LGBT blogosphere over the past nine years.
- [XGW Digest: June 15, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/xgw-digest-june-15-2013/): -The city of Pocatello, ID passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Canada celebrates ten years of marriage equality. -Google commemorates the late Maurice Sendak’s 85th birthday. -The Russian State Duma unanimously approves a law banning “homosexual propaganda.” -Pope Francis acknowledges the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican. -A wave of anti-gay attacks hits Columbus, OH. -Exodus International withdraws from the Exodus Global Alliance. -The Southern Baptist Convention denounces the Boy Scouts. -A Christian university expels a student for being gay and demands that she repay a scholarship. -Andrew Muir becomes Northern Ireland’s first openly gay mayor.
- [Lesbian Falls in Love with Man, Realizes Importance of Same-sex Marriage](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/lesbian-falls-in-love-with-man-realizes-importance-of-same-sex-marriage/): A British journalist says she finally realized the value of same-sex marriage after falling in love with a man – despite previously identifying as gay. On The Guardian‘s Comment is free website, Helen Bell writes: I’ve always wanted to end up with someone interesting, clever, funny, attractive, liberal-minded and, above all, kind. My partner is all of those things. Having been gay all my life, I just wasn’t expecting him to be male. … [Entirely by accident], I fell in love with a man. It took me a week and a half to ask him out for incredibly awkward coffee and bagels....
- [Hardliners Pre-Emptively Spin Exposé of Survivors of Ex-Gay Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/hardliners-pre-emptively-spin-expose-of-survivors-of-ex-gay-abuse/): Before a TV exposé of people abused by ex-gay ministries can air, Restored Hope Network pre-emptively sins against those survivors. 
- [XGW Digest: June 8, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/xgw-digest-june-8-2013/): -Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan extends the deadline for voting on marriage equality. -Another gay man is murdered in Russia. -The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elects an openly gay bishop. -A group of boy scouts marches in uniform in Salt Lake City’s Pride parade. -The College Republican National Committee urges the GOP to drop its opposition to marriage equality. -The British House of Lords votes in favor of equal marriage. -Anti-gay author Scott Lively describes Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill as “courageous.” -A Christian mother opens up about losing her gay son. -The Church of England concedes its fight against...
- [Is the End of Exodus International Near?](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/is-the-end-of-exodus-near/): The organization needs to be shut down — shut down. Don’t tweak it, don’t try to improve it, shut it down. — Michael Bussee On June 20th, the OWN network will air the third and probably last of their reports on the idea of “curing gays” and how that has affected many lives.  This time it will be Exodus President Alan Chambers vs. a group of ex-gay survivors.  Viewed against the backdrop of the major disruptions at Exodus and the rest of the ex-gay world this past year, could we be looking at the end of Exodus International? We have not...
- [Photo Gallery: Antigay activists stage press event at Human Rights Campaign](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/photos-antigay-press-event-at-human-rights-campaign/): Photos by Mike Airhart/Ex-Gay Watch A small coalition of antigay activists met outside the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., to declare that “homosexuality is nothing to be proud of.” The press event coincides with Capital Pride in the District and national LGBT Pride Month. Speakers included Peter LaBarbera, founder and president of American for Truth About Homosexuality; Liberty Counsel attorney Matt Barber; Mission America founder Linda Harvey; American Family Association-Pennsylvania activist Diane Gramley, and antigay filmmaker Eric Holmberg. Approximately a half-dozen people attended the event who were not obviously members of the local, LGBT, or Christian news media. Related HRC...
- [Journal Editor Calls Antigay Parenting Study 'Deeply Flawed' and 'Disgraced'](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/journal-editor-calls-antigay-parenting-study-deeply-flawed-and-disgraced/): John M. Becker, managing editor of The Bilerico Project, follows up on a rigged study about the suitability of sexual-minority parents: In an explosive interview published yesterday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Darren Sherkat — a member of the editorial board of the journal Social Science Research, which published Mark Regnerus’s disgraced “study” claiming that gays and lesbians make inferior parents — once again eviscerated the study as “deeply flawed” and its author as “disgraced.” Sherkat, who is also a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University, was appointed by Social Science Research editor James Wright to conduct an audit of the process by which Regnerus’s study...
- [Armed Antigay Conflict Not Out of the Question, FRC Leader Says](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/armed-antigay-conflict-not-out-of-the-question-frc-leader-says/): Video at GLAAD Kenyn Cureton, vice president for church ministries at the Family Research Council (certified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), spoke at a recent event sponsored by the FRC’s “Watchmen on the Walls” ministry. After declaring that defenders of constitutional equality and nonviolence for sexual minorities are controlled by our “malevolent master … the Devil,” the FRC representative said: Some might ask, ‘Are you calling for armed conflict?’ No I’m not. Not yet. If not now, then how soon, FRC? Hat tip: GLAAD, John M. Becker
- [Ex-Gay Leader Decries Fairness and Good Health for Gay Youths, Scout Leaders](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/hardline-ex-gay-leader/): The decision of the Boy Scouts of America to stop ostracizing and defaming gay Scouts has drawn support from a broad spectrum of scouting supporters, including the conservative National Catholic Commission on Scouting. Mormons, Methodists, the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association also have voiced support for the Scouts. But leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have responded by declaring war against gay youths, even as a body of scientific research and anecdotal evidence suggests that this war — and not sexual orientation per se — threatens the health of...
- [Gagnon Hints that Banned Ex-Gay App Is Really Just Antigay](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/gagnon-hints-that-banned-ex-gay-app-is-really-just-antigay/): Robert A.J. Gagnon, board member of the ex-gay Restored Hope Network, initiated a Facebook conversation last night that was supposed to be about Setting Captives Free, a mobile-phone app that promises to cure people of “habitual sin” as defined by the Christian Right — chief among those sins, so-called “bondage from homosexuality.” (Curiously, the app makes no effort to cure individualism, greed, wrath, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, domestic abuse, authoritarianism, or workplace abuse.) But Gagnon didn’t link to news about the newly banned app; he linked instead to a 2010 Christian Post complaint against Apple for banning an app for the antigay...
- [Being Ex-Gay: Straining to See Oneself as Defective](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/being-ex-gay-straining-to-see-oneself-as-defective/): In the 1997 classic sci-fi movie Gattaca, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is a man living a double life — publicly he’s an exemplar among a superior caste of humanity; secretly, he’s a member of the genetic underclass, a “de-gene-erate” — doomed from birth to be treated as a second-class citizen, unless he can convincingly lie about himself and fake his way to the top. Once his false public identity begins to unravel, Vincent confronts his unsuspecting girlfriend, Irene (Uma Thurman), who — being similarly disadvantaged — has bought into their society’s discrimination against her. VINCENT TO IRENE: You are the authority on what...
- [Religious Fundamentalism 'May Be Categorised As Mental Illness & Cured By Science'](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/religious-fundamentalism-may-be-categorised-as-mental-illness-cured-by-science/): Someone who has for example become radicalised to a cult ideology – we might stop seeing that as a personal choice that they have chosen as a result of pure free will and may start treating it as some kind of mental disturbance. This is a view that has come up more than a few times in discussions about ex-gay issues.  At what point, if at all, could faith be labeled a mental illness?  Where do we draw that line?
- [XGW Digest: June 1, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/06/xgw-digest-june-1-2013/): -Ukrainian activists defy a court order and hold Kiev’s first gay pride march. -The spree of anti-gay hate crimes in New York City continues. -A gay Catholic priest goes public with his story. -Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announces that she won’t run for reelection. -France hosts its first legally recognized same-sex wedding. -ExxonMobil’s shareholders reject a proposed nondiscrimination policy. -Puerto Rico enacts two LGBT rights measures. -An Oregon baker’s moral reservations are discovered to be highly selective. -The Nigeria House of Representative passes an anti-gay bill. -The Illinois House ends its session without voting on marriage equality
- [Listen: Same Love](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/same_love_macklemore_ryan_lewis/): This song was released last year, but somehow it passed me by until last night, when it played following the 20th anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey’s play Beautiful Thing, at the Liverpool Playhouse. The song is Same Love, by rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, with vocals by Mary Lambert. Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty, touches on several gay rights issues, including religion, ex-gay conversion therapy and the homophobia in his own music genre: If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me. Have you read the YouTube comments lately? “Man, that’s gay,” gets dropped on the daily. We become so numb to...
- [XGW Digest: May 25, 2013](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/xgw-digest-may-25-2013/): -The Puerto Rico Senate passes an anti-discrimination bill. The House follows suit. -A gay man is murdered in New York City. -President Francois Hollande signs marriage equality into law in France. -A Florida teenager is expelled and charged with a felony for being in a gay relationship. -The Church of Scotland approves a rule allowing gay clergy. -The Connecticut Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts announces that it will accept gay scout leaders. -The British House of Commons votes for marriage equality. -The Peace Corps announces that it will recognize same-sex couples and allow them to serve together. -A divorced woman...
- [Breaking: Boyscouts Lift Ban on Gay Scouts](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/breaking-boyscouts-lift-ban-on-gay-scouts/): Jeremy Hooper is reporting at Good As You that the Boy Scouts of America have voted by a large margin to lift their ban on accepting gay scouts.  The ban remains on gay adults, scoutmasters, etc. Welcome (partially) to the right side of history, BSA.
- [Gay Psychiatrist Named Head of APA](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/gay-psychiatrist-named-head-of-apa/): According to the Washington Blade, “Dr. Saul Levin, who last year became the first openly gay head of the D.C. Department of Health, was named on May 15 as the new chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association.” Forty years from mental illness to head of the group.  This should bring interesting commentary from the anti-gay crowd.
- [Don't Believe in Us? You Don't Believe in God, RHN Ex-Gays Suggest](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/dont-believe-in-us-you-dont-believe-in-god-rhn-ex-gays-suggest/): Restored Hope Network coordinator Anne Paulk posted the following to Facebook overnight: I am always amazed at the people this topic attracts to our page. Some people who do not believe in God are drawn to come to our page to call names of those of us who do. Paulk was reacting to Christians who politely disagreed with some extreme statements by RHN. RHN wasn’t being heckled or harassed, as far as XGW can determine; its extremism was being disagreed with. And when you dare to disagree with RHN, even politely, you get deleted. It’s a bit unsettling to see RHN...
- [Discuss: Who Are the Real Ex-Gay 'Antinomians'](https://exgaywatch.com/2013/05/discuss-who-are-the-real-ex-gay-antinomians/): The legalist ex-gays of the Restored Hope Network have been using Facebook to lob charges of “antinomianism” against Exodus International, fomenting gossip and schism within the ranks of RHN members’ former parent organization. “Antinomianism” is a pejorative label that is used by legalists against people who contend that Christians are saved first by grace, not works. The label is especially popular among those who reduce the Bible into an antisex manual — rather than a collection of spiritual journeys, traditions, and moral codes regulating economic and social life — and who then gossip about the alleged sexual impurity of other people and promise...
- [Law & Crime Network Reports on Alan Chambers' Sex Sting](https://exgaywatch.com/2026/05/law-crime-network-reports-on-alan-chambers-sex-sting/): The Law & Crime Network has produced a video about Alan Chambers’ arrest, along with a brief, if somewhat flawed, summary of his history. Most of it seems reasonably even-handed considering the seriousness and nature of the charges. They do, however, introduce one new detail. According to the video, “The detectives wrote that one of the accounts they had investigated was used to connect with male sex workers.” If accurate, this would indicate that Chambers at least had an adult outlet for male sexual contact, though there is no evidence at this point indicating whether he actually pursued it. It also...
- [Where are the Safeguards at Sexual Orientation Change Ministries](https://exgaywatch.com/2026/05/where-are-the-safeguards-at-sexual-orientation-change-ministries/): Where Are the Safeguards at Sexual Orientation Change Ministries? Organizations such as the Restored Hope Network, Changed Movement, Brothers on a Road Less Traveled (also known as Brothers Road), and Portland Fellowship promise transformation to people in deep emotional distress over their sexual orientation or gender identity. They work with vulnerable adults, sometimes minors, and sometimes survivors of prior sexual abuse. Yet a review of their public-facing materials reveals a striking absence: None of these organizations appear to publish formal, enforceable policies for preventing sexual misconduct and abuse within their programs. I find no publicly accessible background check requirements for leaders,...
- [Peterson Toscano on Alan Chambers Sex Sting](https://exgaywatch.com/2026/05/alan-chambers-sex-sting/)
- [Alan Chambers, Former Exodus President, Charged in Underage Sex Sting](https://exgaywatch.com/2026/05/alan-chambers-former-exodus-president-charged-in-underage-sex-sting/): According to WFTV in Orlando, former Exodus International president Alan Chambers has been arrested in Florida following an undercover investigation in which detectives posed as a 14-year-old boy online. Authorities allege Chambers engaged in sexually explicit communication and discussed meeting for sexual activity. He faces charges including solicitation of a minor via computer and transmitting harmful material to a minor. The charges remain allegations, and no conviction has been reported. Chambers is of course well known to us as the face of the ex-gay movement for over a decade, ending in 2013 when he oversaw the closing of Exodus International, once...
- [Camouflage, Compliance, <br>and the Cost of Blending In](https://exgaywatch.com/2025/06/camouflage-compliance-and-the-cost-of-blending-in/): In his recent essay for&nbsp;the Advocate, Peterson Toscano returns to familiar yet urgent terrain: the performance of identity under pressure. Titled simply&nbsp;Camouflage, the piece is equal parts memoir, cultural critique, and call to conscience. Toscano, a longtime chronicler of queer survival, unpacks how the impulse to “blend in” is often a capitulation to fear—and how it quietly shapes the lives of queer and trans people, especially in conservative spaces. It begins with a green camo hat. “Once I put it on,” Toscano writes, “the cap seemed to summon brown and tan work pants, heavy boots, and a jacket meant for moving...
- [Matthew Scott Montgomery Issues Interview Retraction](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/04/matthew-montgomery-issues-interview-retraction/): Last year we reported on an interview with Disney actor Matthew Scott Montgomery on Christy Carlson Romano’s podcast&nbsp;Vulnerable. In it he described his experience with reparative therapy under Joseph Nicolosi Jr., son of the late Joseph Nicolosi Sr. The latter was the well-known co-creator of reparative therapy who passed away in 2017. If you haven&#8217;t already, take some time to read that post and watch the interview. We recently received an email from Matthew telling us that he wanted to retract some of the statements he made in the original interview. He claimed that Dr. Nicolosi Jr. had demanded this. I...
- [Another US Anti-LGBTQ+<br> Extremist Visits Uganda](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/03/another-us-anti-lgbtq-extremist-visits-uganda/): American extremist Ayo Kimathi recently traveled to Uganda to promote hatred against the LGBTQ+ community and voice his support for the country&#8217;s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023. He conflates LGBTQ+ with Jews and hates both with a passion. Kimathi, who belongs to the Straight Black Pride Movement (SBPM) hate group, was invited to speak at an event hosted by the Pan-African Pyramid forum in Kampala on March 15th. In his speech, Kimathi attacked LGBTQ+ rights, made inflammatory comments about opposition leaders like Bobi Wine, and even disparaged Nelson Mandela&#8217;s legacy. The visit by Kimathi, who was previously fired from a U.S....
- [From Flower Power to Conversion Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/03/flower-power-coversion-therapy/): The Jesus People Movement: A Reaction to 1960s Idealism Much of the modern ex-gay movement &#8212; and a broader rebellion by American religious conservatives against perceived threats to their worldview &#8212; are rooted in San Francisco&#8217;s Jesus People Movement of the early 1970s. As it happens, my own family spent time in this movement and in San Francisco. The experience reshaped my parents and defined me for life, spiritually and philosophically. In fact, certain ideals inherited from that era &#8212; community justice, personal growth, and religious accountability &#8212; inspired the creation of the Ex-Gay Watch website in 2002 and the formation...
- [Black History Month: Meet Augustine Tanner-Ihm](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/02/black-history-month-meet-augustine-tanner-ihm/): As February draws to a close, so do Black History Month in the US and LGBT History Month in the UK. It seems, then, an appropriate point to introduce readers to the Revd Augustine Tanner-Ihm. Born to a Jehovah&#8217;s Witness family and brought up in an impoverished black neighbourhood of Chicago, Augustine was a teenager when he realised he was gay. He knew from his cultural and religious background, however, as well as his recently found evangelical faith, that being a &#8216;practising homosexual&#8217; was not an option. A book given him by a mentor was his introduction to the idea that...
- [US Evangelicals Pull Uganda's Strings](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/02/us-evangelicals-pull-ugandas-strings/): A new law in Uganda targeting LGBTQ+ people has rightfully drawn international condemnation. As covered in a recent article, the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 (AHA 2023) criminalizes same-sex relations and promotes the dangerous, discredited practice of &#8220;conversion therapy.&#8221; While Ugandan officials claim the law reflects local values, the article exposes how American anti-LGBTQ+ groups have actively shaped and promoted it over many years. Organizations like Family Watch International, Abiding Truth Ministries, and Exodus International (now disbanded) have provided the ideological framework, messaging, and pseudoscience used to justify AHA 2023. The involvement of these American extremists undercuts arguments that the law represents...
- [Exposé on Ex-Gay Therapist Christopher Doyle](https://exgaywatch.com/2024/01/expose-on-ex-gay-therapist-christopher-doyle/): The venerable Truth Wins Out published an explosive exposé on ex-gay therapist Christopher Doyle. The article alleges hypocrisy and misconduct by Doyle, who leads the Institute for Healthy Families despite having a dysfunctional personal life rife with secrets. The investigative report includes testimony from Doyle&#8217;s niece alleging his wife caught him on nanny cam ushering a male stranger into his home for a sexual encounter. This after years of Doyle claiming to be cured of same-sex attraction through conversion therapy. His niece also accuses him of habitually visiting massage parlors for illicit services. Considering the utter failure of Doyle to overcome...
- [Book: Getting Jefferson Right](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/11/book-getting-jefferson-right/): Fact-checking claims about Thomas Jefferson Early readers of this blog will remember Warren Throckmorton. He began his interactions with us hailing from the ex-gay side of things. He later responded to the data and his own experiences as a psychologist and psychology professor, and realized that ex-gay or conversion therapies did not work and may even be harmful. While he remains a conservative Christian, his views surrounding this subject have evolved. He has since done a great deal of work to dispel the bad science used to justify conversion therapies. One of Throckmorton&#8217;s passions is sifting through errant garbage to uncover...
- [Mike Bickle Accused of Clergy Sexual Abuse](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/10/ihopkcs-mike-bickle-accused-of-clergy-sexual-abuse/): Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), has been accused of clergy sexual abuse. The allegations are called &#8220;credible and longstanding,&#8221; spanning decades. According to a statement released by three former leaders at IHOPKC: A few days ago, we made the leadership team of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City(IHOPKC) aware of serious allegations spanning several decades concerning its founder, Mike Bickle, Without going into details to protect the privacy of the victims’ identities, we have found these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing. The credibility...
- [Review: Lies with a Straight Face, by Wayne Besen](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/10/review-lies-with-a-straight-face-by-wayne-besen/): In his newest book, activist and journalist Wayne Besen has produced a prodigious account of the American ex-gay movement since its inception, providing an illuminating survey of where its proponents have been, where they are now and where they&#8217;re headed. Despite being a very easy read, Lies with a Straight Face: Exposing the Cranks and Cons Inside the &#8220;Ex-Gay&#8221; Industry is remarkably thorough and well-documented, tracing the movement&#8217;s 50-year history through key figures&#8217; own statements, contemporaneous media and the reportage of sites such as his own Truth Wins Out, Ex-Gay Watch and others. As someone who covered the ex-gay beat here...
- [Ex-Gay Therapist Doyle's Serious Violence Issues](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/10/ex-gay-therapist-doyles-serious-violence-issues/): Wayne Besen at Truth Wins Out has discovered some very troubling information about ex-gay therapist Christopher Doyle. Doyle is the successor to the outlandish ex-gay guru Richard Cohen and his International Healing Foundation. However, while Doyle has his hands in many pies, his main project always seems to be the Institute for Healthy Families. From the IHF website Doyle offer&#8217;s all sorts of things for which one can pay him money. According to records uncovered by Besen, Doyle&#8217;s own life with his wife and family has been less than ideal. Doyle married his wife, Sherry Montgomery, in 2006, and they have...
- [Gay Journalist Josh Kruger Murdered](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/10/gay-journalist-josh-kruger-murdered/): An unknown intruder fatally shot 39-year-old gay journalist Josh Kruger at his home in Philadelphia early Monday morning. Kruger had apparently been the victim of harassment and minor vandalism some weeks before. It is unknown if any of this is related to the attack that caused his death. He was shot seven times in the chest and abdomen and died about an hour later in the hospital. Kruger had worked for a number of publications, including LGBTQ Nation, The Philadelphia Citizen, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and others. He had a particular affinity for the homeless, having been homeless himself at one point. From...
- [Uganda: Human Rights Violations](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/10/uganda-human-rights-violations/): Ex-gay Message Exports Homophobia to Uganda Fifteen years ago, lawmakers in Uganda passed a law that basically made it a crime to be gay there. It wasn&#8217;t just sex between same-sex individuals that was illegal, but knowing about someone who was homosexual without notifying the authorities was also a crime. The penalties were anything from a few years in jail to death for &#8220;aggravated homosexuality,&#8221; a term covering repeat offenders among other things. After much protest from around the world, this was amended to life imprisonment. The bill passed in 2014 and was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni ....
- [Rishi Sunak to Sideline Therapy Ban?](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/09/rishi-sunak-to-sideline-therapy-ban/): Truth Wins Out, the non-profit that works against conversion therapy and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry is reporting that UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will likely renege on plans for a conversion therapy ban in that country. As prime minister five years ago, Theresa May promised a ban on practices that sought to suppress or “cure” a person’s sexual orientation. Boris Johnson repeated the pledge during the 2019 general election campaign, The Guardian reports. Now, Sunak is prepared to drop the legislation entirely citing phony fears that it would inhibit religious practices. He also disingenuously claims that such protections were “problematic or ineffective in...
- [Cured, a Documentary](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/09/cured-a-documentary/): Doctors Called them Sick, the Remedy was Rebellion The confluence of events that led to the momentous decision in 1973 to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders are chronicled in this documentary that was five years in the making. This was the first major step on the road to acceptance. Many were involved and this film promises &#8220;a trove of newly unearthed archival material — much of it unseen for decades.&#8221; While CURED is indisputably about science, medicine, politics, and the process of social change, this film at its core is about a group of extraordinary activists with stubborn...
- [Matthew Scott Montgomery's <br/>Reparative Experience](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/09/matthew-scott-mongomerys-reparative-experience/): Update: Matthew has notified us of retractions he has been asked to make to his original comments. The original interview video is now unavailable but you can still view it on the archive of this article here. The relevant material starts at about 19:20. Please see the details of his retraction here. Recently, on Christy Carlson Romano’s podcast Vulnerable, former Disney actor Matthew Scott Montgomery described his experience with reparative therapy with Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., the son of the well-known reparative therapist and apologist. Montgomery described the practice as Christian, and claiming to treat Hollywood stars seeking to become straight....
- [Fixing the Unfixable: Conversion Therapy](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/09/fixing-the-unfixable-conversion-therapy/): This is the first in a series of posts that will explain the basics of several new versions of conversion therapy. We will explore how these variations help practitioners avoid some of the negative perceptions connected with the older terminology. They may be able to avoid state bans, appear more legitimate to potential clients, and qualify for insurance reimbursement. Lets start with a few basics. In the early part of this century, conversion therapy was the popular catchall term covering a host of practices used in an attempt to change one’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The term&#8217;s use for...
- [What is Ahead for Ex-Gay Watch](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/07/what-is-ahead-for-ex-gay-watch/): As it turns out, there is a fair bit of work involved with bringing a site like this back from the dead. We have spent a lot of time reviewing the literature of the current crop of ex-gay organizations, therapists and religious based speakers. In some ways the landscape hasn&#8217;t changed all that much. The ex-gay triad of religion, therapy and money is alive and well. However, they have changed tactics and most want nothing more to do with the toxic terms of the past, i.e. conversion therapy, ex-gay, and even largely Reparative Therapy. More on this in another post. There...
- [An Open Letter to Christian Today](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/06/open-letter-christian-today/): The following is a copy of a letter we sent to the editor of Christian Today (not Christianity Today). It was about an article they published by Paul Huxley, the communications manager at Christian Concern. These are both Christian organizations in the UK. Mr. Huxley was wrong in his reading of a study recently published by The Guardian and wrong on multiple issues of fact. The article is misleading and a good example of when bias and ideology cause one to hastily evaluate new data. Unfortunately, when met with the facts in a twitter exchange, he simply stopped responding. The article...
- [We're Back for Round Two](https://exgaywatch.com/2023/06/were-back-for-round-two/): Ex-Gay Watch essentially ended operations in 2015. Exodus International, the main ex-gay organization at the time, had shut down. Its principals accepted that their homosexuality was not incompatible with their faith and moved on with their lives. Many other ex-gay organizations followed suit. The allure of the ex-gay movement had faded. Then came Obergefell which struck at the heart of the reason why evangelical political groups financially supported ex-gay ministries. Indeed, the anti-gay actors entered a lull, which, in retrospect, gave us a false sense of complacency. Those who profited from the fear and prejudice of parents have since regrouped. They...
- [Remembering A True Mother on Thanksgiving](https://exgaywatch.com/2021/11/remembering-true-mother-thanksgiving/): Carol Ann Gonzales is an unsung hero in the movement by survivors to end conversion therapy.
- [Remembering Yuki Vivienne Choe](https://exgaywatch.com/2021/01/remembering-yuki-vivienne-choe/): We remember Yuki Vivienne Choe, a conversion therapy survivor and lesbian trans woman who took time to write for Ex-Gay Watch 12 years ago while advocating for LGBTQ rights in her home country of Malaysia.
- [Remembering Timothy Kincaid](https://exgaywatch.com/2021/01/remembering-timothy-kincaid/): We remember Timothy Kincaid, a longtime writer for blogs that intelligently reported and critically analyzed the conversion therapy movement and religious right. Timothy died suddenly in September 2020.
- [XGW Digest: December 12, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/12/xgw-digestdecember-122015/): -PBS News looks at the ordeals that gay people have to endure in Nigeria. -Australia&#8217;s House of Representatives gets its first openly gay member. -The State of Arkansas refuses to list same-sex couples on their children&#8217;s birth certificates. -Presidential candidate Marco Rubio lays out his plan for rolling back LGBT rights. -A transgender candidate is elected to Venezuela&#8217;s National Assembly. -A Czech court recognizes a gay couple as the legal parents of their adopted children. -A Christian university is granted federal permission to ban gay students. -The Cincinnati city council passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -The Savannah, GA...
- [XGW Digest: December 5, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/12/xgw-digestdecember-52015/): -The Parliament of Cyprus passes a civil partnerships bill. -The Mexican Supreme Court strikes down another same-sex marriage ban. -A new poll finds 51% support for marriage equality in Japan. -A group of gunmen open fire at a gay festival in Acapulco. -World AIDS Day is commemorated around the globe. -Ireland&#8217;s Parliament votes to protect the rights of LGBT teachers working at religious schools. -Michigan Republicans launch another effort to undermine marriage equality. -The government of Northern Ireland asserts that civil partnerships are enough for gay couples.
- [XGW Digest: November 25, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/11/xgw-digestnovember-252015/): -A gay Ugandan is denied asylum in the UK, -Pat Robertson acknowledges that the sin of Sodom was not homosexuality. -Same-sex marriages begin in Ireland. -An Australian senator drops his opposition to marriage equality and becomes a supporter. -Tucson, AZ hires an openly gay police chief. -November 20 was the Transgender Day of Remembrance. -Portugal legalizes adoption by gay couples. -23 students are arrested in Nigeria for alleged acts of gay sex. -The government of Vietnam passes a transgender rights bill.
- [XGW Digest: November 14, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/11/xgw-digestnovember-142015/): -Kentucky&#8217;s governor-elect announces that he will remove county clerks&#8217; names from marriage licenses. -The Dallas City Council considers expanding anti-discrimination protections. -Conservatives start a petition to &#8220;drop the T&#8221; from LGBT. -A lesbian couple faces jail time in Costa Rica for getting married. -President Obama officially endorses the Equality Act. -An anti-trans activist defends a man charged with spying on women in a bathroom. -The Australian Senate calls for a legislative vote on marriage equality instead of a referendum. -The Vatican meets with the US Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons. -A Utah judge orders that a baby be...
- [XGW Digest: November 7, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/11/xgw-digest-november-7-2015/): -The Church of Norway allows same-sex weddings to be held in its churches. -The Parliament of Northern Ireland passes, and then vetoes, a marriage equality bill. -Gays who adopted their partners for legal purposes find themselves unable to marry. -Ben Carson comes under fire from the religious right for supporting non-discrimination policies as a corporate board member. -A gay couple is violently assaulted in Palm Springs. -Voters strike down Houston&#8217;s Equal Rights Ordinance. -Early results indicate that Salt Lake City has elected an openly gay mayor. -Two Tokyo wards begin recognizing same-sex couples. -Colombia&#8217;s Constitutional Court rules that gay couples can...
- [XGW Digest: October 31, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/10/xgw-digest-october-31-2015/): -Houston Texans owner Bob McNair withdraws a donation to the anti-gay Campaign for Houston. -Young adult author James Dawson comes out as transgender. -Russian lawmakers propose a further expansion of the country&#8217;s anti-gay laws. -Ten same-sex couples participate in a mass wedding in Taipei, Taiwan. -Another anti-gay politician is outed. -An intersex veteran sues for the right to not specify a gender on their passport. -A Colombian city elects an openly gay conservative mayor. -The Netherlands lifts its lifetime ban on blood donations by gay men. -Ireland&#8217;s Presidential Commission signs marriage equality into law.
- [XGW Digest: October 24, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/10/xgw-digest-october-24-2015/): -A transgender woman is murdered in Maryland. -John Corvino considers possible ways to balance religious freedom with non-discrimination laws. -A British army general wants more LGBT people to join the military. -Polls show residents favoring Houston&#8217;s LGBT rights referendum by a narrow margin. -Civil unions begin in Chile. -Slovenia&#8217;s Constitutional Court approves a referendum to repeal marriage equality. -New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares an executive order to protect transgender rights. -An Indonesian province makes gay sex a punishable offense.
- [XGW Digest: October 17, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/10/xgw-digest-october-17-2015/): -A British journalist exposes the continued use of shock therapy on gay patients in China. -A new survey reveals the depth of anti-gay sentiment in Russia. -Actor Victor Garber marries his partner. -A Texas judge recognizes a gay couple&#8217;s common law marriage. -India&#8217;s Missionaries of Charity ends adoption services to avoid the possibility of a gay parent adopting a child. -Hate crimes are on the rise in England and Wales. -A civil unions bill is introduced in the Italian Parliament. -Justice Sonia Sotomayor presides over a same-sex wedding. -A new report from a federal agency calls for an end to conversion...
- [XGW Digest: October 10, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/10/xgw-digest-october-10-2015/): -Norwegian billionaire Stein Erik Hagen comes out as bisexual. -ISIS continues to execute gay Iraqi men. -LGBT Catholics from 31 countries launch the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics. -Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler acknowledges that reparative therapy doesn&#8217;t work. -The Carmel, IN city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -A transgender woman is murdered in Philadelphia. -College basketball coach Chris Burns comes out of the closet. -Scientists develop a test that can predict sexual orientation with a 70% success rate. -Malaysia&#8217;s Federal Court upholds a ban on cross-dressing.
- [XGW Digest: October 3, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/10/xgw-digest-october-3-2015/): -Pope Francis makes comments that imply that he supports Kim Davis&#8217; refusal to issue marriage licenses. -Actor Matt Damon suggests that actors should hide their sexual orientation. -Catholic LGBT rights pioneer John McNeill has died. -Former Exodus International President Alan Chambers endorses same-sex marriage. -Legislators in North Carolina quietly introduce a provision to nullify all non-discrimination laws in the state. -Nebraska&#8217;s Attorney General tries to block same-sex spouses from being listed on their children&#8217;s birth certificates. -The anti-gay Speaker of the Indiana House resigns following the release of a sex video. -The Anchorage, AK city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Presidential...
- [XGW Digest: September 26, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/09/xgw-digest-september-26-2015/): -President Obama nominates an openly gay man to be Secretary of the Army. -Tennessee legislators launch another attempt to bypass the Supreme Court&#8217;s marriage ruling. -Britain&#8217;s Prince William speaks out against homophobia. -The Channel Island of Jersey enacts marriage equality. -The White House includes LGBT representatives in its reception for Pope Francis. -County Clerk Kim Davis really has a gay friend after all &#8211; not that he approves of her actions. -The real Vladimir Putin calls Elton John following a recent prank. -The Gay-Straight Alliance Network calls for a boycott of Roland Emmerich&#8217;s Stonewall movie. -Germany&#8217;s Federal Council passes a marriage...
- [XGW Digest: September 19, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/09/xgw-digest-september-19-2015/): -A Missouri high school elects a transgender homecoming queen. -County clerk Kim Davis continues to interfere with the issuing of same-sex marriage licenses. -Malcolm Turnbull, Australia&#8217;s new Prime Minister, calls for a public vote on marriage equality. -Support for &#8220;religious liberty&#8221; laws declines in the wake of the Kim Davis controversy. -The Columbus, IN city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Elton John is pranked by a Russian caller claiming to be Vladimir Putin. -A Texas judge recognizes a lesbian couple&#8217;s common law marriage. -Ireland&#8217;s high court rejects a challenge to the marriage equality referendum. -Frito-Lay introduces Rainbow Doritos to support the...
- [XGW Digest: September 12, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/09/xgw-digest-september-12-2015/): -Same-sex marriages begin in Rowan County, KY -A Tennessee judge refuses to grant a straight couple&#8217;s divorce because of marriage equality. -ESPN commentator Israel Gutierrez comes out of the closet. -Ireland&#8217;s Gender Recognition Act goes into effect. -A Fox News panel agrees that county clerk Kim Davis has no right to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses. -Most of the Republican presidential candidates distance themselves from Kim Davis. -Voters in Fayetteville, AR reinstate LGBT nondiscrimination protections. -Thailand&#8217;s Gender Equality Act takes effect. -Texas&#8217; Attorney General tries to stop a lesbian from inheriting her late wife&#8217;s estate. -A gay man is violently...
- [XGW Digest: September 5, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/09/xgw-digest-september-5-2015/): -Anti-gay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis continues her fight against issuing same-sex marriage licenses. -Russia&#8217;s only LGBT film festival is canceled by the government. -The Advocate profiles 14 former ex-gays. -Neo-Nazis attack the headquarters of a Ukrainian LGBT group. -China&#8217;s film regulators greenlight a gay love story. -Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is jailed for refusing to do her job.
- [XGW Digest: August 29, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/08/xgw-digest-august-29-2015/): -Seven Senegalese men are sentenced to prison for having gay sex. -John Oliver explains the need for the Equality Act. -The National Organization for Marriage finally releases its donor list in compliance with Maine law. -The Denver City Council delays Chick-Fil-A&#8217;s expansion plans due to the company&#8217;s anti-gay stance. -Two Syrian refugees testify to the UN about ISIS&#8217; persecution of gay men. -The Pentagon sets an end date for its ban on transgender troops. -Republican Chris Christie declares that businesses should not be allowed to discriminate against LGBT customers. -Couples, both gay and straight, begin quoting Justice Kennedy&#8217;s comments on marriage...
- [XGW Digest: August 22, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/08/xgw-digest-august-22-2015/): -Gay athlete Michael Sam leaves professional football, citing mental health concerns. -A minor league baseball player comes out of the closet. -A historic Baptist church embraces LGBT equality. -Two Texas men are charged with torturing a gay African-American man. -The White House hires an openly transgender staffer. -Anti-gay icon Josh Duggar is outed as a client of hook-up website Ashley Madison. -An openly gay Muslim man films his pilgrimage to Mecca. -Illinois becomes the fourth state to ban conversion therapy for minors. -The Oregon bakers fined for refusing service to a gay couple send cakes and Christian videos to ten LGBT...
- [XGW Digest: August 15, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/08/xgw-digest-august-15-2015/): -Supporters of marriage equality rally in cities across Australia. -Gay Ugandans hold a pride parade. -Another transgender woman is murdered. -Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott blocks a motion to bring marriage equality to a vote in Parliament. -Mexico&#8217;s Supreme Court overturns a ban on adoption by gay couples. -Singer Sam Smith uses his Twitter account to expose homophobia. -The Guam Senate passes two LGBT rights bills. -A Kentucky high school removes a gay basketball player&#8217;s picture from the team&#8217;s yearbook page. -The Colorado Court of Appeals rules against anti-gay baker Jack Phillips. -A Puerto Rican cabinet member comes out of the...
- [XGW Digest: August 8, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/08/xgw-digest-august-8-2015/): -A Senegalese journalist is jailed for &#8216;acts of homosexuality.&#8217; -An Iowa couple raises funds to place anti-gay messages on billboards. -A homophobic man makes the mistake of assaulting gay West Point alumni. -The American Foundation for Equal Rights announces its closure. -The UN removes LGBT rights from its latest agreement on development goals. -The Republican National Committee votes down two anti-gay resolutions. -A district judge overturns Nebraska&#8217;s ban on foster parenting by same-sex couples. -Ohio Gov. John Kasich exhorts his fellow Republicans to accept marriage equality. -Two anti-gay Michigan legislators are caught having an affair.
- [XGW Digest: August 1, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/08/xgw-digest-august-1-2015/): -A Lutheran bishop comes out of the closet. -Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta rejects President Obama&#8217;s call for gay rights protections. -An &#8216;ex-gay&#8217; politician runs for governor in Missouri. -The Boy Scouts officially lift their ban on gay adult scout leaders. -Pride Jamaica plans the country&#8217;s first gay pride celebration. -A world champion power lifter comes out as transgender. -Omar Sharif Jr. talks about life as a gay man in an Arabic television interview. -A religious extremist stabs six people at Jerusalem Pride. -An &#8216;ex-lesbian&#8217; asks for funding to help her become straight. -An Israeli Knesset member comes out of the closet.
- [XGW Digest: July 25, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/07/xgw-digest-july-25-2015/): -Thomas Roberts becomes the first openly gay man to anchor a network news program. -The government of Taiwan begins drafting a same-sex partnership law. -A new petition may force the Finnish parliament to reconsider its marriage equality law. -An anti-gay archbishop is accused of sexual harassment. -Support for marriage equality remains stable even as more disapprove of the Supreme Court’s ruling. -A transgender woman is murdered in Florida. -The Polish Parliament passes a transgender recognition bill. -A gay Ukrainian couple holds hands and sits together in public to gauge reactions. -The Texas Supreme Court deals a blow to Houston&#8217;s LGBT rights...
- [XGW Digest: July 18, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/07/xgw-digest-july-18-2015/): -A gay Chinese couple holds a wedding ceremony despite warnings from police. -Civil unions begin in Chile. -A Texas judge declares that he will marry gay couples, but only after they acknowledge his disapproval of their union. -The Boy Scouts&#8217; Executive Committee votes to lift the ban on gay scout leaders. -A new poll finds that small business owners strongly oppose anti-gay &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; laws. -An anti-bullying bill dies in the US Senate. -The Irish Parliament passes a transgender rights bill. -Siri begins correcting iPhone users who refer to Caitlyn Jenner as Bruce. -Five thousand Kenyans plan to protest Obama&#8217;s pro-LGBT...
- [XGW Digest: July 11, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/07/xgw-digest-july-11-2015/): -Baylor University removes &#8220;homosexual acts&#8221; from its misconduct policy. -A Moroccan mob violently attacks a gender-nonconforming person. -Employees of the Decatur County, TN clerk&#8217;s office quit en masse to protest same-sex marriage. -A new poll finds more than 2/3 support for marriage equality in Northern Ireland. -20th Century Fox acquires the rights to make a movie based on the Supreme Court&#8217;s marriage ruling. -Vladimir Putin&#8217;s United Russia party creates a &#8216;Straight Pride&#8217; flag. -A homeopathy blog claims that homosexuality can be &#8216;cured&#8217; by acupuncture. -Spain celebrates ten years of marriage equality. -Israel&#8217;s Knesset votes down two civil union bills. -Full federal...
- [XGW Digest: July 4, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/07/xgw-digest-july-4-2015/): -Riot police break up Istanbul Pride. -Anti-gay activists fail to shut down Seoul Pride. -A gay couple is violently assaulted during Seattle Pride. -The US Department of Justice affirms that Title IX protections apply to transgender students. -A Utah man admits that he lied about being the victim of anti-gay violence. -A federal judge orders Alabama to comply with the Supreme Court&#8217;s marriage ruling. -The Episcopal Church votes to allow religious ceremonies for same-sex weddings.
- [XGW Digest: June 27, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/06/xgw-digest-june-27-2015/): -Harvard University accepts a transgender athlete to its men&#8217;s swimming team. -The United Protestant Church of Belgium votes to ordain openly gay clergy. -Marriage equality comes to the Pitcairn Islands. -The Stonewall Inn receives official designation as a historic landmark. -Northern Ireland&#8217;s marriage ban is challenged in court. -Federal employee health plans will now be required to cover transition-related procedures for transgender employees. -Professional wrestler Matt Cage comes out of the closet. -The Oxford English Dictionary adds an entry for &#8216;cisgender.&#8217; -A New Jersey jury rules that ex-gay therapy is a fraud. -A new poll finds that a plurality of Texans...
- [XGW Digest: June 20, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/06/xgw-digest-june-20-2015/): -Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard serves as Grand Marshal of Indy Pride. -An anti-gay archbishop resigns after being charged with covering up sexual abuse by a local priest. -The Israeli Knesset votes against an anti-discrimination bill. -South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg comes out of the closet. -A South Korean court rules that police cannot ban LGBT pride events. -The American Academy of Nursing issues a statement condemning conversion therapy. -The city of Bellevue, Idaho passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -A gay couple graduates together from Boston&#8217;s Police Academy. -Pope Francis declares that gay couples make inferior parents.
- [XGW Digest: June 13, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/06/xgw-digest-june-13-2015/): -Mexico&#8217;s Supreme Court issues a blanket statement ruling that bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. -KyivPride2015 is disrupted by neo-Nazis. -Nebraska&#8217;s Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts attends his gay sister&#8217;s wedding. -Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declines to call a special session to consider anti-gay legislation. -Evangelical leader Tony Campolo calls for full acceptance of gay couples by churches. -An Arkansas county judge orders the state to recognize the 500+ same-sex marriages performed in the state in 2014. -A straight couple threatens to divorce if Australia legalizes marriage equality. -Civil union bills advance in three Mediterranean countries. -The North Carolina legislature overrides Gov....
- [XGW Digest: June 6, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/06/xgw-digest-june-6-2015/): -Former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert is charged with covering up sexual misconduct with a former male student. -The Illinois state senate passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -A new marriage equality bill is introduced in the Australian parliament. &#8211;Stories of &#8220;corrective rape&#8221; in India are made public. -The Belfast, Northern Ireland city council votes to endorse marriage equality. -The Alabama state senate votes to abolish all marriage licenses. -A Costa Rican judge grants a common-law marriage to a gay couple. -Alabama&#8217;s bill to abolish all marriage licenses dies in committee. -A federal judge strikes down Guam&#8217;s marriage ban.
- [XGW Digest: May 30, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/05/xgw-digest-may-30-2015/): -Ireland becomes the first nation to enact marriage equality via popular vote. -Irish opponents of same-sex marriage show graciousness in defeat. -Three men are jailed in Morocco on charges of homosexuality. -Marriage equality comes to Greenland. -An anti-gay Tea Party activist is arrested for possession of child pornography. -Kazakhstan&#8217;s Constitutional Council throws out a ban on &#8220;gay propaganda.&#8221; -German Chancellor Angela Merkel rules out the possibility of liberalizing the country&#8217;s marriage laws. -The US Department of Labor prepares to induct gay rights activist Frank Kameny into its Hall of Honor. -Another anti-gay marriage amendment dies in the Texas legislature. -North Carolina...
- [XGW Digest: May 23, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/05/xgw-digest-may-23-2015/): -The Nevada legislature passes an anti-bullying bill. -The Church of Scotland gives final approval to ordaining gay minsters. -Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg presides over another same-sex wedding. -An anti-gay pastor is outed on Grindr. -Longtime LGBT activist William Kelley has died. -Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signs a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -A new Gallup poll finds 60% support for marriage equality nationwide. -An Alabama minster is sentenced and fined for conducting a same-sex marriage. -Georgia Republicans elect an openly gay state treasurer. -Gay hotelier Ian Reisner works to make amends for hosting a reception for Ted Cruz. -Rome, Italy...
- [XGW Digest: May 16, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/05/xgw-digest-may-16-2015/): -ISIS militants have been luring gay men out of hiding in order to execute them. -Mariela Castro presides over a gay rights parade and commitment ceremony in Cuba. -The Texas legislature debates whether to defy the Supreme Court&#8217;s anticipated ruling on marriage equality. -Anti-gay protesters inadvertently direct passers-by to a gay porn website. -The FDA recommends an end to the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men. -The president of Gambia threatens to slit the throats of gay people in his country. -A new survey finds that 48% of lesbian, gay and bisexual American identify as Christian. -The Laramie, WY...
- [XGW Digest: May 9, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/05/xgw-digest-may-9-2015/): -A high school in Utah elects a transgender prom queen. -Republican Rick Santorum almost defends Bruce Jenner. -Conservative talk radio host Guy Benson comes out of the closet. -The US Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge to New Jersey&#8217;s conversion therapy ban. -A Christian game developer releases a violently anti-gay video game. -A Nebraska woman files a federal lawsuit against all homosexuals. -Hawaii makes it easier for transgender individuals to change their birth certificates. -The town of Hot Springs, AR passes a non-discrimination ordinance in defiance of state law. -A gay couple is violently attacked in New York City. -The...
- [XGW Digest: May 2, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/05/xgw-digest-may-2-2015/): -Kenya&#8217;s High Court rules that LGBT groups cannot be blocked from registering as NGOs. -Olympic champion Bruce Jenner officially comes out as transgender. -A Bengali TV star commits suicide after being pressured to break up with her girlfriend. -Ecuador&#8217;s National Assembly votes to legalize civil unions. -An anti-gay Republican legislator is outed in North Dakota. -The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments for and against marriage equality. -The grand-nephew of conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. comes out of the closet. -The New York Assembly passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals puts its...
- [XGW Digest: April 25, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/04/xgw-digest-april-25-2015/): -LGBT and immigrants’ rights activist Catherine Han Montoya is murdered in Atlanta. -The Mexican Supreme Court rules against Sinaloa state&#8217;s marriage ban. -A Manchester barman is violently assaulted by an anti-gay attacker. -A group of Pennsylvania high school students organizes an &#8220;Anti-Gay Day.&#8221; -The government of Tonga considers a marriage ban. -Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signs an anti-bullying law. -The Little Rock, AR city board passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -The Nevada Assembly kills an anti-transgender &#8220;bathroom bill.&#8221; -The New England Journal of Medicine endorses marriage equality. -A straight high school student asks his gay best friend to be his prom date.
- [XGW Digest: April 18, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/04/xgw-digest-april-18-2015/): -An Iowa man is charged with sending a fake anthrax letter to a local gay bar. -US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy voices his opposition to conversion therapy. -Hillary Clinton hires an openly gay campaign manager. -Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signs civil unions into law. -The First Circuit Court of Appeals defers hearings on Puerto Rico&#8217;s marriage ban until after the Supreme Court has ruled. -An Egyptian court rules that foreigners can be barred from the country for being gay. -Guam&#8217;s attorney general orders territory officials to begin processing same-sex marriage licenses.
- [XGW Digest: April 11, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/04/xgw-digest-april-11-2015/): -A &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bill dies in the Nevada legislature. -Ireland legalizes adoption by gay couples. -A Denver bakery that refused to make an anti-gay cake is cleared of discrimination charges. -A federal judge orders California to grant a transgender inmate access to reassignment surgery. -North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple issues an order barring discrimination by state agencies. -Voters in Springfield, MO vote to repeal the city&#8217;s non-discrimination ordinance. -The National Organization for Marriage continues its string of failed boycotts. -Barry Manilow has reportedly married his longtime partner. -President Obama voices his support for an end to conversion therapy for minors. -Former...
- [XGW Digest: April 4, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/04/xgw-digest-april-4-2015/): -An Eagle Scout petitions the Boy Scouts of America to stop discriminating against his gay twin brother. -The Montana House deadlocks over a &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bill. -All-American and National Champion wrestler Mike Pucillo comes out of the closet. -A gay British parliamentary candidate comes out as HIV positive. -The Arkansas legislature passes a &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bill. -Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson refuses to sign the bill as written. -Indiana Republicans draft an amendment to their &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; law. -The Greater New York Boy Scouts hires a gay Eagle Scout as a camp leader. &#8211;Arkansas and Indiana modify their &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; laws. -A...
- [XGW Digest: March 28, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/03/xgw-digest-march-28-2015/): -The Idaho House calls for the impeachment of judges who rule in favor of marriage equality. -Fundamentalist leader Bob Jones III apologizes for advocating that gays be stoned to death. -A Russia-led effort to stop the UN from extending family benefits to gay employees is voted down. -The official Swedish dictionary introduces a gender-neutral pronoun. -Indiana Governor Mike Pence signs the &#8220;Religious Freedom Restoration Act&#8221; into law. -Slovenia&#8217;s National Assembly blocks an attempt to overturn marriage equality. -Indiana&#8217;s &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; law produces a backlash. -A federal judge blocks medical leave benefits for same-sex couples in four states. -Georgia&#8217;s &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bill...
- [XGW Digest: March 21, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/03/xgw-digest-march-21-2015/): -LGBT groups march in South Boston&#8217;s St. Patrick&#8217;s Day Parade for the first time. -The Puerto Rican government considers dropping its opposition to marriage equality. -The Central Conference of American Rabbis elects an openly gay president. -Fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana stir controversy by voicing opposition to adoption by gay couples. -The Oregon House passes a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -The West Virginia House and Senate both kill &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bills. -The Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to amend its constitution to recognize gay marriages. -An evangelical church in San Francisco drops its requirement that gay members remain celibate. -The...
- [XGW Digest: March 14, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/03/xgw-digest-march-14-2015/): -The Georgia senate passes a broadly worded &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; bill. -379 corporations and private companies sign on to an amicus brief in favor of marriage equality. -The Colorado house advances a bill to ban conversion therapy for minors. -A Jamaican mob stones a man suspected of being gay. -A new poll finds 59% support for marriage equality in the US. -The Oklahoma House passes a bill that would end the issuing of marriage licenses. -A bill to legalize civil unions in Peru dies in committee. -The Utah House passes a non-discrimination bill, and another bill permitting discrimination. -The Florida House votes...
- [XGW Digest: March 7, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/03/xgw-digest-march-7-2015/): -Jeb Bush reaffirms his opposition to marriage equality. -The state of Nebraska lifts its ban on gay foster parents. -Federal judge Joseph Bataillon strikes down Nebraska&#8217;s marriage ban. -The California Republican Party formally recognizes the Log Cabin Republicans. -The Charlotte, NC city council votes down a non-discrimination ordinance. -Slovenia enacts marriage equality. -A shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth opens in San Antonio. -The Alabama Supreme Court places a halt on same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of federal orders. -The US Supreme Court will hear its four marriage cases on April 28. -More than 300 Republican leaders sign an amicus brief endorsing...
- [XGW Digest: February 28, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/02/xgw-digest-february-28-2015/): -Two Louisiana men are arrested under the state&#8217;s obsolete sodomy law. -Three state legislatures consider bans on conversion therapy for minors. -The State Department names Randy Berry as its special envoy for global LGBT rights. -A Swiss legislative committee endorses a marriage equality initiative. -Arkansas outlaws non-discrimination protections for LGBT individuals. -Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern pushes a bill to prohibit the regulation of conversion therapy. -The Wyoming House kills a nondiscrimination bill. -A lesbian couple is violently attacked in Ireland. -Republican Jeb Bush assembles a pro-LGBT staff for his presidential campaign team. -West Virginia&#8217;s Senate Majority Leader nixes the idea...
- [XGW Digest: February 21, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/02/xgw-digest-february-21-2015/): -An effort to repeal Houston&#8217;s LGBT protections is stalled by errors on petitions. -Oregon gets the country&#8217;s first openly bisexual governor. -The town of Thurmond, WV enacts a non-discrimination ordinance. -Apple terminates its contract with an anti-gay lobbyist in Alabama. -The North Dakota State Senate passes an anti-discrimination bill. -The Chilean government declines to defend the country&#8217;s marriage ban in court. -A new study finds transgender Americans far more likely to live in poverty. -A Detroit pediatrician refuses to treat the child of a lesbian couple. -A same-sex marriage license is issued in Texas. -Congressman Mike Honda speaks out in support of...
- [XGW Digest: February 14, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/02/xgw-digest-february-14-2015/): -DC Comics launches a new series featuring a gay superhero. -An Alabama mother sues to stop marriage equality so she can inherit all of her gay son&#8217;s estate. -Slovakian voters reject an anti-gay referendum. -Alabama state judges attempt to block marriage equality in defiance of federal orders. -Greece&#8217;s ruling party announces plans to extend civil partnerships to gay couples. -The US State Department creates a position for an LGBT rights envoy. -Eureka Springs, AR passes a non-discrimination ordinance in defiance of the state legislature. -An Alabama minister is arrested for trying to perform a same-sex wedding. -The Wyoming state senate passes...
- [XGW Digest: February 7, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/02/xgw-digest-february-7-2015/): -A transgender woman is murdered in Los Angeles. -An evangelical leader comes out of the closet in England. -A Puerto Rican pastor is outed as a former gay porn star. -Victoria, Australia Premier Daniel Andrews leads a local pride parade. -The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to extend the stay on marriage equality in Alabama. -Pope Francis endorses an anti-gay referendum in Slovakia. -Speaker John Boehner speculates that House Republicans will not weigh in when the Supreme Court hears marriage equality cases. -A Montana house committee kills an attempt to remove outdated marriage ban language from the state constitution. -A...
- [XGW Digest: January 31, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/01/xgw-digest-january-31-2015/): -US District Judge Callie Granade strikes down Alabama&#8217;s marriage ban, then issues a stay. -A British army general anonymously announces plans to come out of the closet. -Two large evangelical churches come out in favor of LGBT inclusion. -Twelve men are arrested in Nigeria for allegedly planning a gay wedding. -Mormon leaders offer to support LGBT rights in exchange for &#8220;religious freedom&#8221; exemptions. -Alabama Rep. Patricia Todd threatens to expose the extramarital affairs of anti-gay state officials. -Actor Joel Grey comes out of the closet. -Rome, Italy establishes a civil unions registry. -Andrew Sullivan announces his retirement from blogging. -ExxonMobil extends...
- [XGW Digest: January 24, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/01/xgw-digest-january-24-2015/): -A Colorado bakery is sued for refusing to write an anti-gay message on a cake. -Ireland&#8217;s Minister for Health comes out of the closet. -Baja California&#8217;s first same-sex wedding takes place. -Israel will soon permit citizens to change their gender on ID cards without undergoing reassignment surgery. -President Obama celebrates advances in LGBT rights in his State of the Union address. -Macedonia&#8217;s Parliament passes a marriage ban. -The Chilean House of Representatives passes a civil unions bill. -Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler&#8217;s anti-gay rhetoric reaches new lows.
- [XGW Digest: January 17, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/01/xgw-digest-january-17-2015/): -The Church of Scotland&#8217;s presbyteries vote to allow ordination of gay ministers. -Vietnam repeals its ban on same-sex weddings. -Russia bans transgender individuals from obtaining driver&#8217;s licenses. -Nigerian author Kehinde Bademosi comes out of the closet. -Westboro Baptist Church pickets the Gay Christian Network&#8217;s annual conference. -An Egyptian court acquits 26 gay men arrested for &#8216;debauchery&#8217;. -The mayor of Starkville, MS vetoes an attempt to repeal the city&#8217;s non-discrimination law. -Former Exodus vice president Randy Thomas officially comes out as gay. -A federal judge strikes down South Dakota&#8217;s marriage ban. -A Colorado church cancels a lesbian&#8217;s funeral to avoid showing pictures...
- [XGW Digest: January 7, 2015](https://exgaywatch.com/2015/01/xgw-digest-january-7-2015/): -Confusion reigns in Florida over the legal status of marriage equality. -Maura Healey becomes the first openly gay state attorney general in the U.S. -The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules against firefighters forced to participate in a gay pride parade. -A transgender teen commits suicide in Ohio. -The British embassy hosts a same-sex wedding in the Dominican Republic. -Fourteen Florida counties declare they will cancel all wedding ceremonies to spite same-sex couples. -Madhu Kinnar becomes India&#8217;s first transgender mayor. -Newsweek looks at the perils of being LGBT in India. -The Macedonian Assembly votes overwhelmingly for a marriage ban.
- [XGW Digest: December 27, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/12/xgw-digest-december-27-2014/): -The US Supreme Court refuses to issue a stay on marriage equality in Florida. -TLC films a reality show about gay Mormon men married to women. -Gay rights activists are violently attacked in Zimbabwe. -A marriage equality bill is considered by the government of Taiwan. -Three men are arrested for &#8216;homosexual acts&#8217; in Gambia. -The FDA proposes a modification to its ban on blood donations by gay men. -Washington, DC mayor Vincent Gray signs a ban on reparative therapy for minors. -Vocativ takes a look at what life is like for gay Iranians.
- [XGW Digest: December 20, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/12/xgw-digest-december-20-2014/): -A homeless shelter for LGBT youth is scheduled to open in San Antonio in January. -The FDA&#8217;s advisory committee adjourns without recommending a repeal of the ban preventing gay men from donating blood. -Champion swimmer Tom Luchsinger comes out of the closet. -Same-sex marriages begin in Scotland. -The hero who gave his life to help end a hostage situation in Sydney, Australia was a gay man. -The Irish government schedules a referendum on same-sex marriage for next May. -Texas now has an openly gay federal judge. -A Florida judge grants a divorce to a gay couple. -A Venezuelan LGBT rights leader...
- [XGW Digest: December 13, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/12/xgw-digest-december-13-2014/): -A Kansas minister receives death threats for performing same-sex weddings. -The Michigan House passes an anti-gay “religious freedom” bill. -The Plano, TX city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Towleroad lists the top 80 comings out of 2014. -Former ex-gay activist Christian Schizzel opens up about his experiences. -A Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto begins performing same-sex weddings. -Fayetteville, AR voters repeal the city&#8217;s non-discrimination law. -ISIS murders another allegedly gay man. -Federal judge Orlando Garcia refuses to lift his stay on marriage equality in Texas.
- [XGW Digest: December 6, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/12/xgw-digest-december-6-2014/): -The European Parliament declares its commitment to protecting sexual minorities. -The Finnish Parliament votes in favor of marriage equality. -ISIS executes two men for being gay. -Robert Biedron becomes Poland’s first openly gay mayor. -Apple commemorates World AIDS Day. -Major League Baseball umpire Dale Scott comes out of the closet. -The Miami-Dade County Commission passes a transgender rights ordinance. -The Food and Drug Administration reevaluates its ban on gay blood donors. -The Washington, DC council enacts a ban on conversion therapy for minors. -The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to extend the stay on Florida’s marriage ruling. -The Employment Non-Discrimination...
- [XGW Digest: November 28, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/11/xgw-digest-november-21-2014/): -15 individuals and two organizations are inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. -Mexico City’s Legislative Assembly passes a transgender rights bill. -The City Union Mission in Kansas City declares that it will not house married same-sex couples together. -Former ex-gay leader John Smid marries his partner. -The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denies South Carolina a stay on its marriage ruling. -Procter &amp; Gamble endorses marriage equality. -Donations to the National Organization for Marriage continue to plummet. -Federal judge Brian Morris strikes down Montana’s marriage ban. -Australian MP Don Harwin comes out of the closet. -Country music...
- [XGW Digest: November 15, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/11/xgw-digest-november-15-2014/): Note: The Digest will be on vacation next week (11/22). -Uganda’s parliament begins drafting another anti-homosexuality bill. -Third gender Hijras hold a pride march in Bangladesh. -A retired Mennonite pastor is defrocked for officiating at his gay son’s wedding. -A Malaysian appeals court strikes down a “cross-dressing” ban that discriminated against transgender women. -A federal judge strikes down South Carolina’s marriage ban. -A federal judge overturns Michigan’s ban on domestic partner benefits. -The US Supreme Court refuses to issue a stay on Kansas’ marriage ruling. -New South Wales, Australia will begin recognizing same-sex marriage licenses from other countries. -A judge in...
- [XGW Digest: November 8, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/11/xgw-digest-november-8-2014/): -A conservative Presbyterian church tries to shame a former member for being gay. -The Philadelphia city council unanimously passes a hate crimes ordinance. -Eight Egyptian men are sentenced to prison for participating in a same-sex wedding. -Montenegro Pride takes place under police protection. -Federal judge Daniel Crabtree rules against Kansas’ marriage ban. -Dallas voters extend non-discrimination protections to LGBT city employees. -A Texas state judge orders Houston to stop extending benefits to same-sex partners of city employees. -The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. -Latvia&#8217;s foreign minister comes out of the closet. -Federal...
- [XGW Digest: November 1, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/11/xgw-digest-november-1-2014/): -Bystanders stop a drunk homophobe from assaulting another man at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. -Family Circle magazine runs a story about a same-sex couple with children. -An Azerbaijani woman murders her sister for being a lesbian. -Lewiston, ID passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -Apple CEO Tim Cook challenges his home state of Alabama to move forward on LGBT rights. -Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore condemns reparative therapy. -Catholic-affiliated Creighton University announces it will extend health benefits to same-sex spouses of employees. -Taiwan Pride draws 70,000 attendees. -Singapore’s high court upholds the country’s sodomy law. -Apple CEO Tim Cook talks openly about being gay....
- [XGW Digest: October 25, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/10/xgw-digest-october-25-2014/): -The Catholic Synod of Bishops on the Family reverses its welcoming stance toward gays. -A US marine is charged in the murder of a transgender Filipina. -An Idaho wedding chapel tries to paint itself as a victim of marriage equality. -Human Rights Watch releases a report on anti-LGBT violence in Jamaica. -Raleigh, NC extends non-discrimination protections to transgender city employees. -A US District Court Judge dismisses a challenge to Puerto Rico’s marriage ban. -Korea University’s student council votes to ban anti-gay discrimination. -A straight couple files a lawsuit against marriage equality in Kansas. -Gay Liberians are scapegoated by their neighbors for...
- [XGW Digest: October 18, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/10/xgw-digest-october-18-2014/): -US District Court Judge Timothy Burgess strikes down Alaska’s marriage ban. -Seoul mayor Park Won-soon publicly endorses marriage equality. -The Vatican softens its tone toward gays and lesbians. -A transgender woman is brutally attacked in New York. -Palau repeals its anti-gay laws. -The State of Alaska is granted a temporary stay on its marriage ruling. -Arizona’s marriage ban is struck down. -A memorial plaque for the last men executed in France for homosexuality is unveiled in Paris. -The government of Kyrgyzstan enacts a ban on gay ‘propaganda.’
- [XGW Digest: October 11, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/10/xgw-digest-october-11-2014/): Happy National Coming Out Day! -A Polish boxing champion speaks out for LGBT rights. -Catalonia, Spain enacts a stringent anti-homophobia law. -Seven gay men are arrested in Cameroon. -The US Supreme Court denies all seven marriage petitions, allowing the appeals court rulings to stand. -Religious right leaders respond predictably to the Supreme Court’s non-decision. -A new survey finds majority support for marriage equality in Northern Ireland. -A transgender woman is murdered in Brazil. -The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. -Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issues a stay on the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision...
- [XGW Digest: October 4, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/10/xgw-digest-october-4-2014/): -Indonesia’s Aceh Province enacts a harsh anti-gay law. -Serbia hosts its first pride event in four years. -Marriage equality opponents hold a large rally in Mexico. -A ‘Christian’ man shoots a gay couple with a BB gun. -A new study examines the financial challenges faced by LGBT couples. -A Louisiana church expels an AA group for fear it may one day be forced to host a same-sex wedding. -Facebook discontinues its “real name” policy. -The US Supreme Court omits marriage equality from its current order list. -An injured teen is charged with assault for fighting back against anti-gay bullies. -Researchers trace...
- [XGW Digest: September 27, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/09/xgw-digest-september-27-2014/): -Target releases a new ad that features a gay couple. -The US Census Bureau begins counting legally married gay couples as families. -The International Queer Culture Festival is disrupted by anti-gay thugs. -Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan officiates a same-sex wedding. -A new poll finds a dip in support for marriage equality. -A Louisiana state judge rules against the state’s marriage ban. -The government of Chad considers an anti-gay bill. -Pennsylvania State Senator Jim Ferlo comes out of the closet. -The Southern Baptist Convention expels a gay-friendly church. -Houston Mayor Annise Parker is chosen as a finalist for the 2014 World...
- [XGW Digest: September 20, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/09/xgw-digest-september-20-2014/): -A federal judge orders Arizona to recognize a widowed gay man’s marriage license. -The Indian government issues an objection to the high court’s recognition of a third gender. -Victoria, Australia takes steps toward wiping the criminal records of those convicted under its old anti-sodomy laws. -Symantec announces its software will no longer block LGBT-related websites. -A transgender man wins the gold in powerlifting at the Gay Games. -Twitter users help Philadelphia police track down a gang of gay bashers. -Ugandan LGBT activist John Abdallah Wambere is granted asylum in the U.S. -The Egyptian government begins monitoring social media to track down...
- [XGW Digest: September 13, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/09/xgw-digest-september-13-2014/): -Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presides over another same-sex wedding. -HRC President Chad Griffin apologizes for neglecting the transgender community. -A transgender woman is murdered in Memphis, TN. -Winston-Salem, NC begins recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses. -Seven Egyptian men are arrested for participating in the country’s first same-sex wedding. -Gambia toughens its anti-gay laws. -Oregon Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby endorses marriage equality. -Two openly gay candidates win their primaries in Massachusetts. -The US Supreme Court will review seven marriage case petitions at its September 29 conference. -The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upholds New Jersey’s ban on conversion therapy...
- [XGW Digest: September 6, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/09/xgw-digest-september-6-2014/): -Facebook introduces gender-neutral options for identifying family members. -Colombia’s Constitutional Court expands adoption rights for same-sex couples. -An ex-gay survivor opens up about being sexually abused by his counselor. -Mexico’s Coahuila State legalizes marriage equality. -A public school district cuts ties with Gordon College over its anti-gay stance. -Former Exodus VP Randy Thomas apologizes for his former opposition to marriage equality. -New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade will include an LGBT group for the first time. -Federal judge Martin Feldman upholds Louisiana’s marriage ban. -Two Malaysian women are arrested on charges of being lesbians. -A former Republican Party spokesman comes...
- [XGW Digest: August 30, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/08/xgw-digest-august-30-2014/): -Ecuador announces that it will begin recognizing same-sex unions. -A gay couple is beaten by a mob in Athens, Greece. -The season premiere of Doctor Who features a lesbian kiss. -The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals challenges the weak arguments presented by opponents of marriage equality. -Tempe, AZ voters approve a non-discrimination ordinance. -A Chilean sailor becomes the first openly gay member of his country’s armed forces. -Mills College becomes the first all-women’s college to welcome transgender students. -A British woman is brutally attacked for being gay. -The first adoption by a gay couple in Italy is finalized.
- [XGW Digest: August 23, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/08/xgw-digest-august-23-2014/): -The US Supreme Court issues a stay on Virginia’s marriage ruling. -A New Jersey middle school orders a transgender girl to dress like a boy. -A Republican super PAC commits $2 million toward electing candidates that support gay rights. -A lesbian is raped and murdered in South Africa. -The Family Research Council exploits Robin Williams’ death to promote ex-gay therapy. -The Fayetteville, AR city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance. -US District Judge Richard Young rules against Indiana’s marriage ban a second time. -Federal judge Robert Hinkle strikes down Florida’s marriage ban. -Nashville mayor Karl Dean speaks out in favor of marriage...
- [XGW Digest: August 16, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/08/xgw-digest-august-16-2014/): -A British man is charged and fined for advocating anti-gay violence on Facebook. -One hundred activists turn out for a gay pride rally in Uganda. -Gay rights activists march in Nepal. -Kenyan legislators draft a “stone the gays” bill. -A Tennessee state judge upholds the state’s marriage ban. -Discredited anti-gay researcher Mark Regnerus releases a new survey. -The Orlando, FL city council adds gender identity and expression to its human rights ordinance. -A gay man is brutally attacked in San Francisco. -An Arizona State football player comes out of the closet. -Christian singer Vicky Beeching comes out of the closet. -The...
- [XGW Digest: August 9, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/08/xgw-digest-august-9-2014/): -A gay man from Ghana is granted asylum in the U.S. -Australia’s Parliament schedules a vote on marriage equality. &#8211;Slate talks with celibate gay Christians. -A Florida circuit judge orders the state to recognize an out-of-state same-sex marriage. -A referendum to repeal Houston’s non-discrimination ordinance fails to qualify for the November ballot. -Roeland Park becomes the second city in Kansas to ban discrimination against LGBT individuals. -Target files an amicus brief endorsing marriage equality. -A memorial for LGBT servicemembers is planned for the Congressional Cemetery. -NARTH rebrands itself. -Virulently anti-gay Tennessee legislator Stacey Campfield loses his reelection bid. -Chattanooga, TN voters...
- [XGW Digest: August 2, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/08/xgw-digest-august-2-2014/): -A tow company owner is arrested for illegally towing cars during Orlando Gay Days. -The Alaska Supreme Court extends survivor benefits to same-sex couples. -The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the overturning of Virginia’s marriage ban. -North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announces that he will stop defending the state’s marriage amendment. -Former ex-gay activist Yvette Cantu Schneider shares her story with Jeremy Hooper. -A gay pride rally takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia without violence. -A gay couple in Athens, Greece is reportedly attacked by police officers for holding hands. -Skateboarder Tony Hawk records a video for the Human...
- [XGW Digest: July 26, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/07/xgw-digest-july-26-2014/): -The Colorado Supreme Court stops Denver – but not Boulder or Pueblo Counties – from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. -The US Supreme Court extends the stay on the overturning of Utah’s marriage ban. -Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Priefer is suspended for anti-gay remarks. -President Obama signs an executive order banning federal contractors form discriminating against LGBT employees. -A lesbian couple in Michigan receives a death threat. -Republican Congressman David Jolly comes out in support of marriage equality. -A gay Saudi man is sentenced to 450 lashes and three years in prison. -HIV infections increase dramatically among young gay and bisexual men....
- [XGW Digest: July 19, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/07/xgw-digest-july-19-2014/): -Olympian Ian Thorpe comes out of the closet. -Support for marriage equality drops in the Czech Republic. -A former teacher receives an apology 42 years after being fired for being gay. -An ex-gay pastor is charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy. -The US Justice Department announces its support for the court rulings striking down state marriage bans. -The Croatian parliament passes a civil unions bill. -Malawi suspends enforcement of its anti-gay laws pending a review. -Support for marriage equality in Australia tops 70%. -The Macedonian parliament passes a constitutional marriage ban. -A Florida county judge rules against the state’s marriage...
- [XGW Digest: July 12, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/07/xgw-digest-july-12-2014/): -An anti-gay archbishop is placed under investigation for sexual misconduct with other men. -A new study finds positive outcomes for children raised by same-sex couples. -Kyiv Pride is canceled by Ukrainian authorities. -Support for marriage equality grows among evangelicals. -A lesbian veteran sues for the right to be buried beside her late wife. -The ACLU and several LGBT rights groups withdraw their support for ENDA. -Five ‘suspected homosexuals’ are arrested in Uganda. -Justice Samuel Alito denies a request to halt same-sex marriages in Pennsylvania. -A district court judge strikes down Colorado’s marriage ban. -Denver joins Boulder County, CO in issuing same-sex...
- [XGW Digest: July 5, 2014](https://exgaywatch.com/2014/07/xgw-digest-july-5-2014/): -Apple CEO Tim Cook marches in San Francisco Pride. -A transgender woman is murdered in Cincinnati. -The US Supreme Court rejects a challenge to California’s ban on conversion therapy for minors. -Judge John G. Heyburn II strikes down Kentucky’s marriage ban. -The Irish government announces a marriage referendum to be held in spring 2015. -A federal judge orders Indiana to recognize the marriage of a terminally ill lesbian. -Italy inches toward legal recognition of same-sex couples. -14 religious leaders petition for the right to discriminate against LGBT individuals.

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- [About](https://exgaywatch.com/about/): Ex-Gay Watch fact-checks political and religious movements which seek to make gay people straight. We provide critical analysis of the political tactics, religious rationalizations, research findings, health claims, and apparent motives of organizations which claim that sexual orientation is a choice. Ex-Gay Watch was launched in July 2002. Then and now, evangelicals and conservative U.S. Catholics lobby to jail sexual minorities, deny them protection from politically and religiously motivated violence, and promote discrimination in housing, employment, and public services. A subset of that movement, popularly known as &#8220;ex-gays,&#8221; seeks to profit from these campaigns, charging people with &#8220;unwanted same-sex attraction&#8221; thousands...

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