Ex-Gay Watch

Parents And Friends Of Ex-Gays And Gays (PFOX) recently published an article by an unknown Erica Heny* about Gender Identity Disorder (GID) from an African-American perspective. The article “The Emperor’s New Gender” likens people living with GID to the foolish emperor in the well-known Hans Christian Andersen tale. Ms. Heny goes on to compare trans folk with African-Americans wishing their skin was white to avoid prejudice and slavery.

Assuming a gender identity that is in contradiction to one’s biological reality begs a suspension of disbelief, like that required when watching a theatrical production. People with gender identity disorder believe – and expect everyone else to believe – a fairy-tale that simply isn’t true.

Unfortunately, this is not about a fairy tale. Ms. Heny seems unaware of research conducted over the last decade to suggest that GID is an inborn condition which defines MtFs as females and FtMs as males. She states that people with GID are delusional, but let’s take a look at the psychological evidence.

Male to Female’s have female neuron numbers, Female to Males have male neuron numbers (PDF):

The number of SOM neurons in the BSTc of the transwomen [MtF] was similar to the other women (P=0.83). In contrast, the neuron number of a transmen [FtM] was found to be in the male range. Read more…

Check out this ex-gay musical from the Gay Christian Network (GCN) 2007 conference. It opens with a hilarious parody of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan number The Major-General’s Song:

I am the very model of an ex-gay individual,
I’ve no more gay attractions (okay, maybe a residual)

My favorite line has to be this one:

I think of God, not Gaynor, when I hear someone say “Gloria,”
I always stay a block away from local gay emporia

Hat-tip: Andrew Sullivan.

• Exodus Vice-President Randy Thomas is laying low in the blogosphere again

• Ex-gay woman finds true freedom in gay-affirming church (hat-tip: TWO)

• Jim Burroway and Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin voice their opinions on Throckmorton’s Golden Rule Initiative

• Pastor Ken Hutcherson noisily protests the Day of Silence

ABC’s 20/20 will be showing an updated version of an old theme; gaging how people view public displays of affection. This time the couples are gay and the reactions range from reasonable to overbearing.

The setting is NJ for lesbian wives and Alabama for a gay couple. Guess where the 911 call happens.

Tonight at 10pm ET.

Since its inception, Exodus International has been an umbrella organization for a coalition of local ministries focused on the issue of homosexuality.  In most cases these organizations are founded by churches or individuals acting independently of Exodus, with varying degrees of input from existing ministries.

As a result of this, Exodus’ coalition is a diverse collection of organizations representing a large number of Christian denominations, each one having their own approach to ex-gay ministry.  While this diversity of backgrounds and methodologies means that those seeking help from Exodus have a variety of options to choose from, it also means that Exodus itself is vulnerable to guilt by association when one of its members becomes embroiled in controversy, as happened when Love in Action came under fire for accepting teenagers who were coerced into the program against their will.

In response to that incident, Exodus created a set of guidelines for its member ministries to follow when working with youth.  Since then, Exodus has been working on a more comprehensive series of guidelines spelling out requirements for leadership positions and counseling techniques.

XGW is currently working on obtaining a copy of these latest guidelines; their existence came to light this week when Where Grace Abounds, one of the oldest and largest Exodus-affiliated ministries, formally decided to withdraw from Exodus’ referral network.  Although this split appears to have been reached amicably (WGA’s leaders plan to continue attending Exodus’ summer conferences), it does not appear to have been sudden decision. Read more…

In a recent article from the AFA‘s pseudo-news outlet One News Now, attorney Mat Staver of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel claims that students today, during the Day of Silence (DoS), will refuse to answer questions from teachers in class and otherwise disrupt the operation of the school day.

‘Number one, if students will not speak up in these classes when they’re called upon, that’s disruptive — and they [the schools] don’t have to tolerate students who will not speak because of the Day of Silence,’ he suggests.

One News Now writer Jeff Johnson also chimes in:

The Day of Silence is an allegedly student-led event designed to highlight purported suffering of homosexual students. Throughout the day, students who participate in the protest refuse to talk, even when teachers or administrators ask them to respond to questions.

First of all, there is nothing “purported” about the suffering and death of Lawrence King. And denying that goes way beyond an ideological disagreement. Secondly, the ACLU has made clear that students are required to speak in class when called on by a teacher, etc. There is no ambiguity here so one has to ask why Staver and Johnson are pretending this is so. Read more…

Yesterday, I noticed a post from Peter LaBarbera concerning The Marin Foundation. I remembered hearing Andrew Marin’s story on a podcast from The Gay Christian Network (GCN) and something didn’t click. Marin was a self-confessed “bible-banging homophobe” brought up in the Assemblies of God. His life was changed by the coming out stories of his three best friends in college. It led him to immerse himself (Marin is straight) in the gay community to understand and identify with the struggles so many have.

He has a passion to be a genuine, unconditional representation of God’s love to both the gay community and the traditional evangelical community. These and similar terms he uses are not meant to express a false dichotomy, but simply to make it easier to describe his concepts. He now lives in Boystown, Chicago, with his wife and has formed The Marin Foundation.

I had always been under the impression that Marin was one of those few success stories, one of the truly “good guys” who is affected by the honesty and truth of the GLBT people in his life and changes because of it. To see him described on LaBarbera’s site as “the other side of the same coin” caught me off guard. I wrote Marin and told him this, and asked him if he had given the only real quote that LaBarbera used. He replied quickly, and sincerely, and it led to a conversation which you may hear below.

My own assessment of what I have heard is that LaBarbera has co-opted the good will and reputation of another for himself. He already has the idea that someone is spending millions of dollars just to counter his fringe voice, so there is no doubt that he is self-absorbed. But it would appear he is willing to negatively impact both friend and foe in his struggle to be noticed.

In matters of faith there is little agreement, but one does not need to agree with Marin to sense his sincerity. I found him willing to listen and teachable. Like Wendy Gritter, he had a profound sense of the hurt LGBT’s have suffered because of the actions of the Church. But he wants nothing to do with ex-gay anything; his work, concern, and love are unconditional. You can decide what you like about Marin, but I hope you will listen to the conversation and see what you think of LaBarbera’s actions toward him.

The first part is a quick background on Andrew Marin, then his description of the issue with LaBarbera.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Performance artist Peterson Toscano will be the subject of an episode of LOGO TV’s documentary program Be Real: Stories from Queer America, when it returns for another season beginning May 5.

Also interviewed for the segment were Peterson’s father, Pete Toscano, Beyond Ex-Gay co-founder Christine Bakke, and ex-gay survivors John Holm and Scott Tucker.

BTB’s Daniel Gonzales has produced an excellent video which exposes several basic untruths about the Day of Truth, the Alliance Defense Fund‘s counter to the Day of Silence.

At XGW we generally don’t give much space to fringe figures, but Stacy Harp is someone who might just end up as another Matt Barber one day, so we think it’s important to share this glimpse into her “heart and mind” for the record.

Harp and Joe Brummer have apparently had blog and email exchanges over the past couple of years and so they have a lot of history. This recording of a phone call from Harp to Brummer (recorded by the former and apparently authorized for open release) has Harp baiting Brummer into a conversation. In the process, Harp, who has claimed to be a Christian for as long as we have known about her, puts on a rather disturbing display.

Kudos to Joe for keeping his lunch down during this one.

Audio (via Kevin Kaatz): this is NOT work safe.

Alternate Link (easier to play)

Hat Tip: BTB