Ex-Gay Watch

As our readers may have heard, Google recently announced it’s official position against California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in that state.  They did so in a blog by Co-founder and President, Sergey Brin.  Among other things, he said this:

While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

Those two lines sum up the general attitude of a wide range of people who oppose this amendment — average individuals, public officials, Hollywood stars and owners of businesses large and small. To them all it’s a matter of equality.

In his recent post about this announcement, Exodus Vice President Randy Thomas illustrated a classic failing of so many ex-gay and anti-gay proponents.

First, I thought this was really odd considering that 22 states, to date, have passed Marriage amendments and there are two other states this go around who have similar measures on the ballot (Arizona and Florida.) That’s odd to me because out of 25 opportunities, they pick this one. So … I am guessing (TOTAL conjecture) that there are big time investors and prominent employees who identify as gay working for/investing in Google. I would further guess that most of those folks live in California. Read more…

SOULFORCE MEDIA ADVISORY
September 29, 2008

Contact: Katie Higgins, katie@soulforce.org, 843-259-8876

LIBERTY U. TO ALLOW EQUALITY RIDERS ON CAMPUS

Young Adults Tour Christian Colleges to Advocate Safety
and Inclusion for All Students

What: On Wednesday, October 1, the Soulforce Equality Ride, a youth-organized bus tour to faith-based colleges, will bring a message of inclusion and love to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Five young adult Equality Riders will donate gay-affirming Christian books to the Liberty University library and talk with students about safety and acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.

Why: More than 200 U.S. colleges and universities have explicit policies that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. At Liberty University, gay and lesbian students are subject to reprimands and disciplinary consequences, including ex-gay conversion counseling and expulsion.

When: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
1:30 pm, Equality Riders arrive on Liberty University campus
7:00 pm, Public forum at First Christian Church in Lynchburg.

Where: Equality Riders will enter campus via University Blvd.
First Christian Church is located at 3109 Rivermont Ave. in Lynchburg.

Who: The 18 to 26-year-old Equality Riders are members of Soulforce Q, the young adult division of Soulforce, a national social justice organization. Soulforce was founded by Lynchburg resident Rev. Mel White, a former ghostwriter for Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.

Since 2006, the Equality Ride has visited 50 schools, hosting public forums, participating in panel discussions, and taking part in worship services and Bible studies.

The organizers of the Equality Ride use a collaborative approach, writing to college administrators months in advance and inviting them to work together to design programming that examines diverse points of view—including points of view that affirm gay and transgender students.

From AP via Texarkana Gazette

Bishop Carlton Pearson preached his final sermon at New Dimensions Church on Sept. 7. The church has been folded into All Souls Unitarian Church, the world’s largest church in that denomination.

Carlton Pearson once presided over a large Charismatic church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  With a seat on the board of trustees at Oral Roberts University, and a working relationship with Trinity Broadcasting Network, Pearson was an influential voice.  This was further validated when then newly elected President George Bush consulted with Pearson in 2000.

As XGW reported last year, this changed drastically in 2003 when Pearson began to embrace what he called a “gospel of inclusion,” a fundamental tenant of which is that all people would end up in heaven equally no matter their beliefs or actions on earth.  Since a predominant central tenant of Christian faith is a belief that repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Christ is essential for one’s salvation, Pearson’s new direction clashed with most of his contemporaries, clergy and congregant alike.

Person’s own ministry’s “salvation” then seemed to come from gay and lesbian faithful, who appreciated his acceptance of them before God.  Pearson began to support gay rights in a tangible way, participating in rallies in support of bias crime legislation in Washington DC. Pearson seemed to find a new direction with his support of gay believers and GLBT causes in general.

In this brief recounting we are not yet sure what happened to bring things to a close for his church.  We have left a message to ask just that.  It appears that the remaining members of his New Dimensions church, which had been meeting at Trinity Episcopal Church, have been merged with a Unitarian congregation, but we are not sure which one.

As a topic that affects all of our US readers, we would like to alert our readers to the availability of the first copy of what is being called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.  It’s 106 pages of how our government intends to use hundreds of billions of dollars of your money in an attempt to fix what is being called the worst economic crisis since 1929.  Whatever your feelings about it, you should have the information as quickly as possible.

Future updates to this document should be available at financialservices.house.gov.

Download (PDF)

As the writers at Box Turtle Bulletin have been discovering and reporting, California’s proposed anti-gay marriage amendment – Proposition 8 – is being pushed and backed immensely by the LDS Church. But to give the appearance of ecumenical effort, the claim is made that Mormon, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim voices are being heard. As “proof,” the organizations that are sponsoring the proposition are listed here.

But as BTB’s Timothy Kincaid has noted, the “Jewish” part of that collective voice is very quiet, because the only Jewish organization listed out of more than a hundred is the Orthodox Union. This is an organization run by Orthodox Jews, who tend to be more socially conservative than the other “flavors” of Judaism.  “Jewish New Testament Publications” is also listed, but they are Messianic Jews, a religious denomination that dresses up Christian doctrine and theology in Jewish clothes – most commonly Ashkenazic in fashion. (Ashkenazic Judaism is the most visually stereotypical-looking form of Judaism.) Every other Jewish denomination considers Messianic Judaism to be a form of Christianity, not Judaism.

On the flip side, a quite substantial collective Jewish voice has sounded their support for equality. The L.A. Times is reporting that the Board of Rabbis has come out in opposition to Prop. 8:

The board — a collection of leaders from the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements — this week declared its opposition to the measure, which would amend the California Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Leaders of the board said they wanted protect the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples.

These Jewish religious leaders understand that their religion should not be imposed upon the American public. 93% of those who voted – 120 out of 290 members – rejected support of Prop. 8.

On a personal level, seeing such an eclectic group of Jews – Jews that cross all denominations, from the most socially liberal to the most socially conservative – vote in overwhelming harmony does my heart good. I see so much dissonance between my fellow Jews politically and religiously that this event is a beam of hope.

BTB reported further on pro-equality Jews in the news, although they might not have been aware of it. Robert Haas, the Jewish great-great nephew of Levi’s Jeans founder Levi Strauss (who was himself a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria), has contributed to the pro-equality effort.

Robert Haas, the great-great-grand-nephew of the founder has given $100,000 to defeat Proposition 8 and announced that he is putting the reputation and the strength of his company (and $25,000 of its cash) to the effort as well. (Forbes)

Levi’s Jeans helped shape the San Francisco area Jewish community for 150 years, and now they are helping to shape the San Francisco gay community. Their effort is a joint one with energy company Pacific Gas & Electric.

Hat Tip: BTB

Born-again Christian Clay Aiken comes out of the closet.

Anita from Sisterfriends Together reminds readers about another Christian musician who was pilloried for coming out of the closet.

Conservative Christian blogger (and gay rights supporter) Misty Irons dissects the arguments of a liberal Democrat who supports Proposition 8 in California.

Truth Wins Out reports that the ex-gay myth is being used to keep gays and lesbians from achieving equality in Nepal.

TWO’s opposition at the Anchorage, Alaska “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference receives notable publicity.

Jim Burroway takes a closer look at where funding for the anti-gay initiatives in California and Arizona is coming from.

In Exodus VP Randy Thomas’ latest attempt to define the happenstance of being attracted to the same sex with a single cultural “worldview,” he almost figures it out. He almost realizes that what pushes us to become LGBTQ rather than just L, G, B, T, and Q is our daily task of facing discrimination and opposition – including opposition from people like him who are members of groups like Exodus International. In his blog post about the hypothetical “Gay Legacy,” Randy ponders the discrimination and hardships faced today by gay senior citizens and recounts his own encounter with a young gay activist who had been picketing a Love Won Out conference:

He angrily went on to tell me how oppressed he and his boyfriend were (in Massachusetts), and how he had been beat up during his school years for being “different.” He had tried everything (at eighteen) to get rid of his feelings and now he was happy and embraced both his being “gay” and Christianity. He shared about how his coming to peace with his sexuality inspired him to organize the gsa (gay straight alliance) in his school.

I thought it remarkable that, aside from his wanting to get rid of his homosexuality in his early teens, he was repeating the exact same messaging I was saying before he was even born.

Well, Randy, it’s not difficult to deduce that discrimination against LGBTQ persons, despite remarkable growth of acceptance in my generation, is still rampant. This young man is not repeating “messaging.” He is describing his struggle to live honestly, without fear. There is nothing “remarkable” about seeing person after person recall the same kind of struggles with their family, church, and community.

When Randy decided to become a Christian, he rejected his homosexuality completely in favor of a path of sexual celibacy and self-deception, joining a group that actively seeks to limit LGBTQ equal rights and keep the bullying of LGBTQ youth socially acceptable. This young man reached a much more honest conclusion than Randy did, by deciding to be sexually true to himself and channeling his struggle for acceptance into positive outreach to other gay youth.

What many XGW readers may themselves marvel at is Randy’s admission here:

Public policy battles will always be flash-points of non-compromise but I am personally encouraged that today’s broader culture is much safer for those with same sex attractions than the reality of what some of our Senior citizens went through. It’s not perfect and I am not dismissing that true hatred (on both sides) flares up. Even so, it is a far different reality for that 18 year old as compared to the Seniors mentioned in the article.

Does this provide evidence of an ex-gay acceptance of the reality of substantial LGBTQ existence? In my personal opinion, it is a way for the ex-gay camp to spin a losing cultural battle into an avenue of evangelizing their propaganda. Just like ex-gay proponents are quickly restyling their message in reaction to undeniable proof that homosexuality is not caused by alterable nurturing factors such as an “overbearing mother,” a more visible LGBTQ community coming out at a much younger age means a bigger more vulnerable target for Exodus and their ilk. Fortunately, we are growing up knowing better.

A member of the church pastored by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell has launched a website offering advice to homosexuals who want to find “healing from same-sex attraction.”

Debbie Thurman of Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA, has set up TheFormers.com as “a place of fellowship for those who have found healing from same-sex attraction — or are on that journey — and their supporters.” Echoing a by-now-familiar refrain of ex-gays and anti-gays, Thurman writes that, “Even if science one day finds a genetic predisposition to same-sex attraction, we don’t believe gays and lesbians are designed that way.”

The site is a melting-pot of ex-gay resources, with little discrimination shown. Demonstrating an ecumenism that temporarily bypasses fundamentalists’ usual hostility to other religions and non-orthodox sects, the site links to Jewish ex-gay group Jonah and Mormon ministry Evergreen, as well as Christian groups across the spectrum, including NARTH and the increasingly extreme PFOX.

To get some idea of where Thurman’s sympathies lie, consider her defense of her late pastor, who infamously declared that AIDS was God’s judgment on both homosexuals and the society that tolerates them, and announced that gays would “literally crush all decent men, women and children.” He later blamed 9/11 on gays and lesbians, among others. In a letter to the Lynchburg News & Advance earlier this year, Thurman decried a columnist for saying that the late Falwell “spouted hate,” joining the call for him to apologize to “the Falwell family, Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University.”

It seems the ex-gay movement has found itself yet another hardline advocate.

_________________________

Meanwhile, Box Turtle Bulletin reports on a new website about the history of treatment for homosexuality in the UK since 1950. The site will archive research carried out by University College London, in the UK.

Working with the New Jersey Family Policy Counsel and speaking to the American Family Association’s (AFA) One News Now, ex-gay Greg Quinlan made statements on behalf of noted geneticist Francis S. Collins that were untrue — specifically that his work on the human genome project had led to the “fact” that homosexuality was 100% nurture, with absolutely no genetic component.  This echoed a similar distortion made by NARTH’s Dean Byrd earlier this year.  See our recent post for details on this.

As noted in that previous post, we contacted Dr. Collins last May and printed, with permission, his correction of what was falsely being credited to him by NARTH.  In this latest challenge, Quinlan has accused XGW of fraud, claiming that quote was not accurate.

While this accusation is absurd at best — XGW has never been seriously accused of fraudulently posting anything, let alone has this ever been shown to be the case — it seemed prudent to seek public validation of the quote’s veracity.  To that end, we posted the entire email exchange from May with headers intact.  We also wrote Collins again and asked that he confirm to a third party that what we were reporting was accurate and that his quotes were true.

Collins has now confirmed this to Warren Throckmorton, who has posted about it on his own blog.  Throckmorton is known to others who discuss these issues and understands the debate, yet has a worldview closer to that of Quinlan.  His confirmation should be enough to dispel any genuine question of validity concerning our quotes.  For the record, here is a message I received from Collins yesterday, after making him aware of the challenge to what we had quoted:

Dear David,

Thanks for the heads up. I am truly sorry to hear that there is a continuing effort by Mr. Quinlan and others to distort this information about genetic factors in homosexuality. The facts have not changed since the e-mail message I sent you on May 20, 2007.

Regards, Francis Collins

And then the cc’d comment after I asked that he confirm all this to Throckmorton:

Hello David and Warren,

I am happy to confirm that these e-mail communications from May 2007 and yesterday are indeed authentic, and represent my best effort at summarzing what we know and what we don’t know about genetic factors in male homosexuality. I appreciate your continuing efforts to correct misstatements that seem to be circulating on the internet.

Regards, Francis Collins

We hope this demonstrates our desire to expose the truth without deception, and of course the validity of our previous quotes from Collins. Would that we could apply an equal level of scrutiny to our ex-gay friends and expect a reply! We are still waiting for retractions by both Quinlan and One News Now, not to mention the genesis of this distortion, Dean Byrd at NARTH.

So far, this is all we have heard:

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Greg Quinlan was once a prominent ex-gay activist.  He founded the Pro-Family Network in Dayton, Ohio in 1998, and appeared in I Do Exist, the ex-gay video by Warren Throckmorton, in 2004. It appears he left Ohio in the last year or so and now works with the New Jersey Family Policy Counsel in an unknown capacity.

In an interview concerning the recent coming out of contemporary Christian singer Ray Boltz, Quinlan attributed false statements to one of the nations most respected geneticists, Francis S. Collins.  Speaking to the American Family Association’s (AFA) pseudo-news site One News Now, Quinlan responded to Boltz’ contention that he had been born gay:

I’m absolutely shocked. I’ve got some of his CDs and cassette tapes –- tells you how long it’s been around. When he says he’s born that way, we know now for a fact that that’s false. In fact, just last year in March, the director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins, said this: homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality.

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The original source for Quinlan’s comments appears to be this article posted to NARTH’s website last year.  In it, NARTH President Dean Byrd quotes a few lines from the appendix of Dr. Collins’ book, The Language of God: A Scientist presents Evidence for Belief, in such a way as to make it appear that his findings support NARTH reparative doctrine — specifically, the contention that homosexuality is entirely based on nurture. Read more…