Ex-Gay Watch

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, and moved to Oregon to oversee a worship service geared to young adults. Happy Ending.

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 buses sometime in March.

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 any photos you submit for future infographics.

daniel@exgaywatch.com

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 Harper’s response to the 2004 Day of Silence. Harper refused to change his shirt and so was held out of class for a day and allowed to do homework in a conference room.

On Thursday, the three-judge appeals court panel said “the school is permitted to prohibit Harper’s conduct…if it can demonstrate that the restriction was necessary to prevent either the violation of the rights of other students or substantial disruption of school activities.”

The opinion, written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt and joined by Judge Sydney Thomas for a 2-1 ruling, didn’t decide the merits of the student’s lawsuit, which will be heard in federal court in San Diego.

The dissenting judge seemed unable to distinguish between the tactics employed by the Day of Silence and those employed by Harper:

“Harper’s T-shirt was not an out-of-the-blue affront to fellow students who were minding their own business,” Kozinski wrote. “Rather, Harper wore his T-shirt in response to the Day of Silence, a political activity that was sponsored or at the very least tolerated by school authorities.”

Kozinski did not differentiate between an event that was focused on inclusion and tolerance of others and a T-shirt message that sought to diminish and show distain for others. Kozinski validated Harper’s belief, a common one among the politically religious, that stating any beliefs which they do not endorse is an attack on them and their right to harm gay people.

Fortunately, for the moment, the politics of exclusion and shaming have been put on hold.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has a more substantive article

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,” DeGuise said. “I don’t think it should be brought up in a classroom situation. School is a place to learn. I don’t personally believe that learning about not bashing gays is going to get them a better job in life.”

In other words, she’ll all in favor of learning, just not in school. Because school is a place to learn.

And, of course, it never enter’s DeGuise’s head that “they” includes gay kids and that having other children learn not to bash them will most definitely improve their chances in life in ways that include and exceed getting a better job.

DeGuise listed the other things presented that week: the dangers of substance abuse, eating disorders, the risks of using tobacco, suicide prevention and violence against women. DeGuise had no complaints about those things, however. Presumably because she thinks they will help her daughter get a better job in life.

DeGuise and a few other parents thought their kids didn’t need any lessons about anti-gay bullying. However, I think that DeGuise’s 12 year old daughter, Kaitlyn Bruley, may have inadvertently put in words exactly why the school felt that anti-gay bullying needed to be addressed:

Mom, I don’t want to hear about it. It’s disgusting.

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 surfaced. He is purple — the gay-pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay-pride symbol.

I know most cases of homophobia aren’t technically phobias but let’s have a look:

phobia – an uncontrollable, irrational, and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity.[*]

Falwell’s claim irrational? Naw…

Are Falwell’s attacks on gays persistent? What would possibly make you think that?

Dare I say he mouths-off so frequently it’s uncontrollable? It’s happened more than once.

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.” [*]

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 our schools.”

This ban would clearly apply to a “Gay To Straight” club. I’m sure Liberty Counsel will swoop in to fight for the legions of students who wanted to form an ex-gay club.

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

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.