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.
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 her testimonial make no reference to sexual attraction, and only two references to possible sexual behavior — one of them being heterosexual rape?
3. Laurila mentions heavy drinking, partying, and irresponsible workplace behavior that led to her being fired. At some time in the past, did she accept responsibility for her choice of behaviors — as many of us do as we mature and learn from our mistakes — or does she blame these behaviors on so-called lesbianism?
4. Did she repent of the betrayal of her friend in 1969 — or blame the betrayal on lesbianism?
5. Does she require that other Christians be as preoccupied as her own denominational perspective appears to be, with demons and Satan — or does she realize that many Christians (and other people of faith) find such preoccupations spiritually misguided and unhealthy?
These are painful questions, perhaps, but perfectly fair ones to ask, in my opinion. These issues would have been healthy for Laurila — and her readers — to explore.
Addendum: Laurila’s testimonial says she has sought to maintain low public profile. But among her public statements, one finds a 10-year-old Exodus conference tape titled "God’s Agenda for Gays — Restoring Sodom." That antigay political tape is sold here under the somewhat dubious subject heading, "Personal Wholeness."
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.
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 claims of the religious right, Bible preaching is not what got Green in trouble with the law.
Green was prosecuted because of a sermon that labeled homosexuality "a deep cancerous tumor in the entire society" and equated it with pedophilia.
According to the Post, the case began in June 2003 at Green’s small church.
"Our country is facing a disaster of great proportions," he said in the sermon, equating homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality. He warned that "sexually twisted people will rape animals."
Green was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in prison, but remained free pending appeal. He was the first person in Sweden convicted of agitating against homosexuals since the law was extended to gays and lesbians in 2002. He was also the first preacher in Sweden convicted for hate speech for remarks made from the pulpit.
Gay rights activists in Sweden may appeal, arguing (in part) that Green’s speech would be illegal if directed at Jews, for whom the hate-speech laws were originally written.
The Swedish court ruling may represent both a victory for free speech — and a defeat for civility.
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 about homosexuality and the connotations and everything that go along with it. It’s really against God’s will," Roy states.
Simmons has not had sex in three years — perhaps a wise decision, given his stated difficulty in moderating his behavior. But Simmons agrees with a pastor who has encouraged him to blame his sins — drug abuse? prostitution? nonmarital sex? — on "homosexuality."
The 700 Club article argues that does not ask one very obvious question, nor does Simmons volunteer an answer:
1. To which gender is Simmons now attracted?
If he is indeed happy and secure in his faith, and celibacy is nothing to be ashamed of. So it should not be difficult for Simmons to answer this simple question.
But I do not expect to see Simmons’ answer promoted on The 700 Club.
(Hat tip: Aaron)
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.
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.
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 in Iraq. The truth is, President George Bush defied the Holy Father on the war in Iraq. I’d like the media to report that, too. I like the Catholic bishops’ stance, a consistent ethic of life, a seamless garment, so there isn’t only one issue. Some of the most brutal dictators in the world have been against abortion. Some of the most horrific, rightwing political leaders have been against abortion. You can’t run the economy into the ground, ignore the poor, carry out unilateral pre-emptive wars and be okay as long as you’re just against abortion.
To be a single-issue voter is not the most responsible kind of Christian citizenship. I was at Notre Dame this spring with a room full of students and faculty. Most of them were very committed to the poor. They were against the war in Iraq, very pro-environment and pro-life. And they struggled with the Democrats on abortion. One young woman stood up and said, "Four thousand unborn lives were lost today. How can I vote on any other issue than abortion?" I let the question linger a bit, and then another student stood up and said, 9,000 lives were lost today to HIV/AIDS; that’s a pro-life issue, too." Another student stood up and said, "Thirty thousand children died today because of hunger and disease related to hunger." It’s what I call the "silent tsunami." How do we deal with that as a pro-life issue?
At the end of the conversation, these Catholics agreed that there was no consistent ethic-of-life candidate running in this election, neither George Bush nor John Kerry. George Bush is an ardent supporter of capital punishment, he fought a war in Iraq that the Catholic Church opposed, his stance on poverty is under a lot of criticism by Christians who care about poverty, and the budget [he has proposed] is going to make it much worse—and yet he opposes abortion. John Kerry could say nothing more about abortion than to again reiterate his commitment to a woman’s right to choose.
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 to possible misinterpretations generated by sources of questionable scientific reliability and known bias.
Addendum: Curiously, Throckmorton cites a study
that he says supports his own viewpoint. But the latter study, "Exotic
Becomes Erotic: Interpreting the Biological Correlates of Sexual
Orientation" by Daryl J. Bem, speculated that biology and childhood nonconformity to overly rigid societal gender roles may interact in the formation of sexual orientation.
Is Throckmorton admitting that environment alone does not determine sexual orientation?
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 group.
The web sites had assumed the hotline, a project of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, was a legitimate mental-health provider.
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