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 disavowing Chambers’s remarks, saying he was “disappointed.” Two days later, Yvette Schneider went on record with the following “in response“:

I came out of homosexuality after a powerful encounter with Jesus Christ and a desire to serve and obey Him. I can say with complete honesty that I NEVER have homosexual desires of any sort - physical or emotional.

Readers might prefer to check out the Google cache here. Why? Because XGW contacted Alan in early August to ask about the apparent rift. Chambers neglected to respond, but presumably he was not too busy to consult LaBarbera, as a disclaimer was added yesterday, within 24 hours of the announcement of Schneider’s appointment:

Yvette Schneider’s comments below relate to her own story of transformative change and were initially made following a controversy last year surrounding Exodus President Alan Chamber’s quotes in the Los Angeles Times. Since we first published this piece, we have learned that Alan’s statements were incomplete and taken out of context by self-serving homosexual activists to create an impression that he never sought to create — i.e., questioning the potential for radical and even complete change in the life of homosexual strugglers.

Since the Times interview, Mr. Chambers has clarified his position on change in homosexuality to AFTAH saying:

“There are a variety of levels at which individuals experience change when it comes to the issue of homosexuality. For some it may be a rapid, total transformation, but for many, it is often a gradual process of dealing with difficult life issues, habits and behaviors. Regardless of the timing, any change is still change and as Christians, we know that the process of dealing with sin and becoming more like Christ will continue throughout the course of our lives.”

The criticism remains on LaBarbera’s website unchallenged for over a year, and then suddenly it’s time to issue a disclaimer?

A timely damage-control exercise, but just as potentially damaging is Schneider’s history of right-wing political involvement. As well as her association with the notorious LaBarbera, Schneider has worked with Eagle Forum, Family Research Council and Matt Barber’s Concerned Women for America. Not a good omen for an organization that claimed last year they were leaving politics behind.

In summary, what does Schneider’s appointment mean? On inspection, it appears Exodus has appointed to a major role in its organization a woman with a track record of ultra-conservative political activism (despite Exodus’s claim to be a non-political group), who pushes a hard line on orientation change (despite Exodus’s deliberate attempt to steer away from such rhetoric, at least in public) and who has openly criticized its president’s more moderate statements (although LaBarbera tries to alter that by pinning the blame on “self-serving homosexual activists”). Isn’t this looking like just another move in the wrong direction?

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Filed under: Exgay Activists, Exodus, Peter LaBarbera

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 therapist, while speaking from the audience of a recent American Psychological Association conference.

From Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listings, it would appear Pickup is also an actor.  Queerspiracy, featured above, is a comedy which pokes fun at the notion that one can “become gay” through some sort of present day event, in this case a visit to a pride parade.  Pickup plays nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alan Sisko, who apparently agrees that there is indeed a “queerspiracy.”

Dr. Patrick Janeway, after what he describes as his own ‘near gay’ experience, levels a startling accusation: taking a child to the Unity and Diversity Pride Parade very well may turn them gay. Join NewsCorridor’s Dan Stewart as he investigates this shocking allegation by interviewing not only Dr. Janeway, but Nick Warren and Justin Davies, a gay couple whose own adopted son, Brad Haas, came out soon after attending the very same parade. Stewart leaves no stone unturned, interviewing such luminaries as University of Los Angeles GLBT professor Dr. Mandy Sawyer, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alan Sisko, Second United Church of Los Angeles’ Pastor Tom Hansen, and national gay rights group HAPI’s (Homosexuals Against the Public Intolerence) very own Timothy Picard as he looks into Dr. Janeway’s ‘Queerspiracy.’

The other two listings, provided in the previous post as well, are:

In the Eyes of an Angel (2001) — David Pickup plays “the father.”

A dark sounding drama about a girl who is sexually abused (and gets pregnant) by her father. In order to hide this tragedy she seduces her blind date and accuses him of rape. Disgusted by her actions, she returns home to face her father and rid herself of the torment forever.

Deviant Desires (2002) — David Pickup plays “a poker player.”

Softcore (or “middlecore”) porn made for Cinemax and for which we could find no official plot description. An IMDB commenter describes it, however: I seem to be seeing a new trend in the sex film industry in the last week or so, a new kind of porn that I dub middlecore. Real sex without the closeups. I’ve seen it this week with a French channel showing Voyeur Confessions and this film, which features an actress who was in the series.

Flower Edwards, who is a quite an island girl knockout, but a terrible actress, plays the cooly-named Shane Miller. A room mate of hers, who was a prostitute at some private bar, is murdered. The police department won’t investigate the matter because they claim the place is clean. So Shane uses her body to get to the bottom of this case. And let me tell you, she does!

The acting isn’t very good (we’re talking about people who only use acting as a secondary device to their means), but the middlecore “philosophical discussions” are very well done. Flower is great in that category. Certainly, this is a better example than the last film I saw featuring “middlecore”. Maybe this will take off in the same way that soft and hard types of these films have.

Contains female nudity, front and back, lesbian sex and hookers.

While his appearance in Queerspiracy is obvious, we have asked Pickup to confirm his participation in the other two films without reply. We are checking through other sources, though so far it looks likely that he is the same David Pickup in all three.

On the Queerspiracy site, Pickup is described as follows:

David Pickup has appeared in Musical Theater, Film, Television, and Podcast roles on Outlaws, Pearl Harbor, Arrest and Trial, Into the Woods, Houston Opera, and is currently a co-host on The Homecast Show, a new podcast-only internet show. David graduated from the University of South Florida with a BA in vocal performance, and from National University with an MA in Psychology. His major contribution in life is through his career as a psychologist. He has a great love of acting, and his expertise in understanding human psychology is a major component in creating his characterizations. As an actor, he studied with Michael Kearns of Los Angeles.

Let’s keep in mind, this is the same person Focus on the Family has featured in a clip about the “fight against the unfair gay agenda.” A man whose employer sits on the board of Exodus International, the largest ex-gay related organization in the world. I doubt anyone here is particularly concerned if the man has artistic outlets on the side. I, for one, would pay to see Joe Nicolosi as Mary Sunshine in Chicago. But when one takes all the facts about Pickup into account, he is unfortunately an apt testimony to the sort of person one is likely to find in the ex-gay, reparative therapy racket. And while being gay is not one of them, some people who seek out this kind of help have real problems and they deserve better.

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Filed under: Exgay Activists, Exodus, Media, Therapy

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 Liam Yaw. Gerald Tsai is the director of Choices. COOS and Choices enthusiastically spread misinformation about what they consider the basics of homosexuality. However, to date neither the church nor the ministry have produced any reliable evidence or statistics of successful change in sexual orientation. Instead, controversy occurred at the end of 1999 when ex-gay survivor Patrick Lee shared the story of his turbulent years at COOS and Choices. And in 2003, the latter effectively declared war on gays in what was perhaps the first time the church actively lobbied against gay rights in Singapore.

Last year, discussions were on the way for the repeal of the old British Law Penal Code Section 377 and Section 377A, which deemed “carnal intercourse,” including anal and oral sex, illegal for Singaporeans. In April 2007, a hate e-mail was found circulating among the churches and other groups in Singapore in an attempt to gain support to lobby the government against the removal of the Section 377A (the homosexual counterpart to 377).

Subsequently, Section 377 was repealed and heterosexual anal and oral sex is now legal. Unfortunately, Section 377A was maintained, keeping the same for homosexuals illegal in what most quarters agree is a blatant act of discrimination. Hong’s involvement is still hidden behind church doors, except for a position statement released at their website. Read more…

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Filed under: Antisex Laws, Discrimination, Exodus, NARTH

• 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 therefor be sexually indoctrinated. Benjamin Lopez of the Traditional Values Coalition is especially peeved, saying that Milk contributed nothing to the state of California “other than encouraging gay people to come out of the closet.”
• BTB has been extensively covering the Proposition 8 campaign in California, legislation that would ban same-sex marriage in the state. Usually euphemisms like “protecting traditional marriage” and “religious freedom” are used when anti-gay activists describe their efforts, but in a meeting with the editorial board of the LA Times, Prop. 8 supporters bared their true colors, leaving the writers “momentarily speechless.”

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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 do not reproduce, they recruit, and many of them are after my children and your children….This is one major reason why we must keep “The Old Time Gospel Hour” alive…So don’t delay. Let me hear from you immediately. I will be anxiously awaiting your reply.”

Recipients who respond with a generous check can feel as though they’re coming to the rescue of the victim (”My children and your children”) being pursued by a seemingly unstoppable ruthless enemy (”recruiting homosexuals on the march”) that is on the verge of ultimate victory (”don’t delay. Let me hear from you immediately”).

The tactics engaged by Falwell’s direct-mail architect Jerry Huntsinger were thorough and exact. No aspect of the mailer was left to chance:

Huntsinger was also a master at fine tuning the mechanics: the color of the envelope, the position of the address window, which paragraphs to indent, which sentences to underline. He knew how to lure a reader’s eye just to where he wanted.

Hat Tip: Right Wing Watch

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Filed under: Uncategorized