Ex-Gay Watch

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 attendees. He did not provide specifics or who the people would be.

These Love Won Out events have a reputation for being pretty zero-tolerance in regards to dissenting views so I’m curious just what Oden and his “ambassadors” have planned. Participants are encouraged to snitch out other participants who so much as hand them a business card from a gay organization.

If one registers for LWO online, you encounter the following disclaimer:

In order to preserve the rights of those who intend to participate in this event in a quiet, peaceful and nondisruptive manner, Focus on the Family reserves the right to remove any person from this event at any time and for any cause. By attending the Love Won Out event, you are deemed to have expressly agreed that you may be removed from the event and from the premises at any time by a representative of Focus on the Family…

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 come to find positive role models in the community? We have people here who have been in loving relationships for decades and are successful, self-confident, self-actualized people. And not just one or two. This is a good place to come and see their examples. It may go against what they teach. My job as mayor is to welcome people.”

Apparently having not understood that last paragraph it appears some locals have gotten their panties all up in a bind and the mayor is now holding a press conference to clear up confusion. More stories here and here.

Anyone wishing to participate in the welcome party for our friends at Love Won Out in Palm Springs, please contact myself or Scott H. LWO check-in is from 7-8am and the “Unity Rally” isn’t until 11am so our event will conclude giving participants time to go to the “Unity Rally” to be held in Palm Springs being thrown by larger organizations.

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 opposite sex – but not counselling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings.

“On the contrary, don’t interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world.

“Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.”

Let’s jump ahead to my favorite part:

Daniel Gonzales of Ex-Gay Watch, a similar campaign group, was shocked at the statement, he told PinkNews.co.uk “Regardless if a child’s gender dysphoria persists into adulthood, allowing any child with a psychological condition to be harassed because of that condition is shameful.”

“I’m most shocked and dismayed this position is being advocated from within a professional mental health association.”

The article also features quotes from friends of XGW Autumn Sandeen, Wayne Besen, and Jack Drescher.

Update: This evening Nicolosi appears to have renounced Berger’s statement in a note sent to fellow therapist Warren Throckmorton viewable at Throckmorton’s blog:

Narth disagrees with Dr. Berger’s advice as we believe shaming, as distinct from correcting can only create greater harm. Too many of our clients experienced the often life long, harmful effects of peer shaming. We cannot encourage this.

Update 9/1/06: NARTH has quietly revised the Berger article on their website.

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 of the American public.

So wise is Alan Chambers that he foretold our dirty little secret;  let those gays get together in official unions and they will go off their pretty little heads.

In fact, according to the National Violence against Women Survey, 39 percent of homosexuals report being raped, physically assaulted or stalked by their partners. Chambers says many gays grew up in a home where they were abused and that transfers into their relationships later in life.

The article doesn’t link to the actual study as we have above, and one has to wonder if Alan actually read it himself.  Jim Burroway at the Box Turtle Bulletin has done his usual excellent job of ferreting out the facts and we suggest you take the time to read his complete article on the subject and even the DOJ report itself (linked above).

The bottom line is this.  The portion of the study we are talking about here (pages 29-31) deals with people who have a history of same-sex cohabitation, but not exclusively so.  Many of these subjects had been in both same-sex and opposite-sex partnerships at one time or another.  And the 39% figure given above may or may not be those who consider themselves primarily homosexual, but instead have at one time been in a same-sex relationship at some point in their lives.  Further, that figure covers violence by both same-sex and opposite-sex partners. 

From page 30 of the study (page 37 of the PF index):

At first glance, these findings suggest that both male and female same-sex couples experience more intimate partner violence than do opposite-sex couples.  However, a comparison of intimate partner victimization rates among same-sex and opposite-sex cohabitants by perpetrator gender produced some interesting findings: 30.4 percent of same-sex cohabiting women reported being victimized by a male partner, whereas 11.4 percent reported being victimized by a female partner.  Thus, same-sex cohabiting women were nearly three times more likely to report being victimized by a male partner than a female partner.  Moreover, opposite-sex cohabiting women were nearly twice as likely to report being victimized by a male partner than were same-sex cohabitating women by a female partner (20.3 percent and 11.4 percent) (exhibit 9).

Readers may remember a recent article which exposed the same deception used in another study on sexual abuse in foster parent households by the discredited Paul Cameron.  The same method of telling half-truths to create a lie was used then.  Some ex-gay leaders seem to have no problem with this kind of dishonesty as long as it serves what they consider the “greater good.”

A couple of days ago Alan Chambers posted on this site, “Offensive is different to me then untruthful, Joe. I imagine that I have and will continue to offend you and others with my beliefs, but I do care about being untruthful.“  We would like to invite Alan to explain how playing fast and loose with the facts can serve the cause of truth.  From this end it serves only to marginalize gay people and validate your own ideological and political agenda – and it happens far too often.

Here is a chance to earn the benefit of the doubt you mentioned, Alan.  Just be honest and explain why you said these things, we are listening. 

Further reading: Box Turtle Bulletin

Supporting documentation: Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence

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?
Read more…

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 her lesbian daughter.

Abomination also features prominent psychiatrist, Robert Spitzer, MD, who cuts through the media sensationalism and explains what his controversial research on reparative therapy actually means. It further features mental health experts who have studied and written about the ex-gay movement’s treatment failures, including: psychiatrists, Jack Drescher, MD, and David Scasta, MD and psychologist, Ariel Shidlo, PhD, as well as, the American Psychiatric Association’s James Scully, MD, and Annelle Primm, MD, explaining why mainstream, professional mental health organizations remain concerned about the harm caused by reparative therapies; the American Psychological Association’s Clinton Anderson, outlining the stance that mainstream mental health organizations have taken on homosexuality; and author, Wayne Besen, sharing his investigative findings of the ex-gay movement’s most prominent and sensational failures.

The AGLP is accepting contributions to assist in the production cost.

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 gay community and gay-identified people. In particular, he is unaware that talking about “the homosexual” is offensive.

Perhaps we should assume that much of what he and Exodus have said since he took its helm in 2001 has also been based on ignorance and that any untruthfulness has been unintentional. I’m sure Alan will appreciate any efforts we make to provide to him – in one easily accessed location – a quick reference of untruthful statements he can avoid in the future.

Alan, I dedicate this thread to just this use. Please consider this your personal reference.

This means, fellow readers, that we should limit the comments to specific instances of examples. Let’s not pontificate or opine about what we find objectionable of offensive about Alan, Exodus, or ex-gay ministries. This thread is solely short examples of misstatements, inaccuracies, and deceptions. Let’s keep it brief and easy so Alan can use it. I will be removing violations.

Here is an example of one such deceptive statement. It is from Alan’s new book.

…many gay activists who are encouraging Christians to accept homosexuality as normal have a better working knowledge of biblical arguments against homosexuality than most Christians. And these activists have their own answers against those arguments.

Some of these gay promoters may themselves have flirted with Christianity in the past and may even have made professions of faith, only to return to their fleshly desires when the going got tough. Or perhaps when they found no firm support in a local church of from Christian friends when they struggled, they gave up on Christianity.

Alan makes no mention here of the huge number of gay people who did not “give up on Christianity” or “return to fleshly desires when the going got tough” but have reconciled their orientation with their stong Christian faith. Many of Alan’s readers will not know about MCC or the thousands of gay Christians who worship in the reconciling congregations of Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, UCC, and other Christian churches.

To deliberately limit “gay activists” to those who are not Christian does nothing to help his readers who may wish to witness to “the homosexual next door”. In fact, the unprepared reader may be surprised when the gay couple next door invites them to church. However, Alan’s description does stigmatize gay people and sets up an “us v. them” dynamic which, while useless for witnessing Christians, does support anti-gay political activism.

This statement is deceptive and untruthful.

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.

Voila! Photos from the Truth Wins Out protest in Dallas over the weekend.

Lots more images after the jump…
Read more…

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 Dallas Voice who shot video interviews with most of our group.

Three local MCCs sent representatives including Trinity MCC Arlington, MCC Dallas and Agape MCC Fort Worth. There was also someone from the Cathedral of Hope, PFLAG Fort Worth and a survivor of the Living Hope program.

We stood at the driveway to Vista Ridge Baptist Church in Carrollton from about 8:00 to 10:00 and waved, smiled and held our signs up to cars as they entered. About half the people entering glanced away and the other half waved and smiled with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Several cars stopped to chat and several people walked out from the church itself to “see what this is all about.” Everyone involved was friendly and amiable.

The Rev. Colleen Darraugh from MCC Dallas was speaking with the passengers of an SUV who surprisingly seemed unaware of what kind of information and viewpoints would be presented at the conference. She informed them the stated purpose of the conference was to convince people one can’t be gay and Christian and that it’s possible to change your sexual orientation. Colleen told me she consistently found participants she spoke with were unaware of the extreme and single-sided viewpoints the conference would present.

The majority of people arriving for the conference were white male-female couples. Very few of the cars had a third passenger, who would usually be a young male aged 15-30.

The weather that day reached a high of 102 and as you can see from Wayne’s photos (which I’m actually in since it wasn’t my camera) I was wearing slacks, loafers and a dress shirt. The high for that day was 102.

For my photos of the event go here.