Ex-Gay Watch

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?

Now they are trying to claim that we are intimidating them. Yes, you read that right. A new blog discussion on the NARTH website administered by the anonymous “Sojourneer” reads:

A Public Record of Homosexual Activists Intimidation Tactics

I want this topic to document acts of intimidation by the gay activists, governments or institutions for expressing opposition to homosexual activism. As mentioned in another post, these acts seem to be getting more aggressive and malicious. Tell your stories here please stand up and make these attacks public. By making it public you are demonstrating the intimidation is not going to work. If we are silent it will only get worse and may become violent later. I want this to be a public national record and a reference source for others interested in keeping a record of such attacks.

Sojourneer then lists his first example of an aggressive and malicious (and potentially future violent) attack:

Below is the first installment of lies and distortion, in an attempt to discredit Narth and Dr. Shoenewolf. (sic)

And here Sojourneer posts Wayne Besen’s press release about NARTH advisor Gerald Schoenewolf and his comments in defense of slavery.

As NARTH wishes a permanant record of gay intimidation tactics and as exgaywatch (and Wayne) appear as Exhibit 1, I posted my reponse to their accusation. Perhaps they’ll even post it.

I am the one who posted Schoenewolf’s comments at Exgaywatch. To those of you who think it some kind of personal attack on Schoenewolf to discredit his anti-gay activism, consider the following:

Schoenewolf chose to write an article about “political correctness” and in it he chose to rail against civil rights. Schoenewolf was the one who decided to comment on slavery. He made the decision to claim that Africa was “a jungle”. He penned the words that many Africans taken as slaves from Africa were “better off”.

If this language and position seems outlandish, it’s not because I falsely portrayed it that way. It’s because justification of slavery is despicable and writing that slaves were “better off” leaves the average decent person nauseous.

If Schoenewolf’s writing seems to reflect badly on NARTH, it’s not because I’m persecuting the organization. It’s because NARTH published the article on its website for years before I pointed out that championing slavery is an unusual political position these days. Surely someone at NARTH had read the article in the meanwhile yet no one seemed to find it offensive.

And if it suggests that Dr. Nicolosi has poor judgment in whom he has as an advisor, it is not because he was unaware of Schoenewolf’s beliefs. In an article called Why I Support Narth posted on the NARTH site in April of this year, Schoenewolf himself tells us that he was selected to participate at NARTH specifically because of his views:

“I had been trying to stand up to the forces of political correctness for some time and had felt as though I were the only person in the world who saw what was happening…

“If I persisted in these views their eyes would begin to gleam and they would throw the usual labels at me — sexist, homophobe, bigot, racist…

“Upon coming across Joe Nicolosi’s book, I wrote him a letter congratulating him on his courage and telling him something about myself. He asked me to send him a paper I had just written, “Gender Narcissism.” Upon reading the paper, he invited me to present the paper at the next NARTH conference in Los Angeles. The NARTH Conference was a memorable weekend. I had many things in common with Joe and others at NARTH including a passionate need to stand up against the irrationality and activism of those groups who were forcing their misguided values down the throats of America.

“I am very glad that NARTH exists and that there is still a place where one can express views such as those I’m expressing here.”

Yes, it was Nicolosi himself that looked at Schoenewolf’s writing – the writing that others called sexist, homophobic, bigoted, and racist – and decided that he shared the same values as were expressed in Schoenewolf’s writing. So it should not seem at all odd when others who find Schoenewolf’s opinions to be shocking also question whether Nicolosi is also sexist, homophobic, bigoted, and racist.

And none of this required that I intimidate NARTH or anyone associated with it. All I did was to shine a light on it.

UPDATE: The semi-anonymous Narth blog moderator has clarified that he does not speak for the website on which he writes:

I do not speak for Narth and any comments I have made on the blog are my personal opinions. Please read the Narth disclaimer regarding the blog.

He has also removed his original defense of racism and now has decided:

Regarding his comments about slavery, I regret his choice of words and think his point could have been made with a better choice of words. The comments were incendiary and have inflamed the debate.

However this is followed by a sentence that I am unable to decypher. Perhaps he means that Wayne’s press release is no longer considered intimidation, or perhaps he thinks my response (shown above) to his defense of Schoenewolf is intimidation.

Therefore, for the sake of continued dialogue with all sides I am going to retract the first letter from Timothy Kincaid as an example of gay intimidation.

In any case, now that Sojouneer has clarified that the Narth blogs are not affiliated with Narth and are nothing more than his own personal musings, and now that it has become clear that he will publish the unfounded accusations of certain inflamatory individuals while not allowing reasoned postings from those who disagree with his opinions, I have little interest in discussing or debating anything there.