Ex-Gay Watch

Joseph Bearden, the first of two men accused of the brutal killing of a Florida gay man, Ryan Skipper, has been convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to life in prison.  He was also sentenced to 40 years for associated crimes, to be served concurrently.  William David Brown Jr, also charged with the crime, is charged with murder in the first degree and will go on trial later this year.  Brown is accused of actually wielding the knife that stabbed Skipper 19 times and then slit his neck.

While Florida has no provision for hate crime enhancements on murder (the penalty for which is already the max), the state made it clear that the fact that Bearden and Brown knew that Skipper was gay contributed heavily to their actions – it was a hate crime.  Even Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter had this to say in response to Bearden’s plea for leniency:

You were way more involved in this,” Hunter said. “He (Skipper) was killed because of the robbery, he was an easy target and he was gay.

Sadly, this case is marred by early leaks to the media by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office which were later determined to be false or uncorroborated. The defendants, in an apparent attempt to mitigate their own guilt, claimed that Skipper was looking for sex, taking illegal drugs with them and discussed some sort of check fraud scam for which no evidence was found. The SO later admitted this:

Sheriff’s Chief W. J. Martin acknowledges that what was said was based on comments from the two suspects. “Unfortunately, Ryan Skipper is not here to tell his side,” said Martin, who heads the agency’s criminal investigations bureau. “In these kind of cases you have two suspects trying to minimize their involvement to make themselves look better.”

There has been no apology to Skipper’s family and friends who all tell a consistent story of a wonderful young man just finding his way in the world when he was brutally murdered. Along with becoming financially responsible, and learning a trade at a local vocational school, Skipper had made peace with his faith.

Skipper was raised in the church and believed in God; he made peace with his faith and homosexuality in his own way,” she said. “I know his philosophy was that, ‘God’s not going to discriminate against me because of my sexuality.’”

See the Wikipedia entry for Ryan Skipper for what appears to be reasonably accurate information.

-Jonathan Rauch and David Blankenhorn propose a compromise on the issue of gay marriage.

-James Dobson resigns as chairman of Focus on the Family.

-The New Mexico state senate votes against domestic partnerships.

-The Tennessee legislature considers a bill that would ban adoption by individuals in a same-sex relationship.

-The NAACP calls on the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8.

-Randy Thomas reiterates: “Actually I do think there is a relational and possibly comprehensive worldview/ideology that underlies even the premise of identifying as gay.”

–Acceptance of gays and lesbians grows among British evangelicals.

Exodus is changing all right, but hardly in the right direction. Despite hinting numerous times at a more progressive outlook, here comes yet another move to put Exodus firmly in the “What the hell were you thinking of?” category.

In March, reports BTB, Exodus board member Don Schmierer (pictured) will be heading for Uganda to share a platform with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Cohen cohort Caleb Lee Brundidge. The embarrassments for Exodus are numerous.

Lively is no ordinary revisionist. He doesn’t deny 6 million Jews were killed – the author of The Pink Swastika just says that the Nazis responsible were “militant male homosexuals,” and uses this theory to dismiss gay victims of the Holocaust and justify discrimination against homosexuals today.

Exodus’s relationship with risibly unorthodox ex-gay guru Richard Cohen has been somewhat love-hate. After his ridiculous antics were exposed on CNN and the Jimmy Kimmel Show, Exodus joined IVP, NARTH and PFOX in quietly dumping Cohen. In 2006, Exodus officially disassociated themselves from Cohen and his techniques, only to make friends again in 2008.

At least as worrying as the association with Lively and Cohen, however, are the organizers of the conference itself, Family Life Network. Executive Director Stephen Langa made the outrageous claim that homosexuals in Uganda were “busy recruiting school boys and girls at an alarming rate.” Uganda is a country where gay sex can be punished by life imprisonment, yet Langa is hosting the conference in direct response to fears that homosexuality could be decriminalized.

So what does this say about Exodus? We can be certain it is changing – unfortunately by becoming increasingly unconcerned about the company it keeps. Alarmingly, Exodus feels justified in going to a country where the persecutions of homosexuals is sanctioned by the state and, rather than defending the oppressed and speaking up for justice and equality, being used by anti-gay propagandists as fuel for the fire.

Update 4:30PM ET

Warren Throckmorton is reporting on his blog that Caleb Lee Brundidge, mentioned above, is also involved in a ministry which states as one of its goals to raise the dead.  From Extreme Prophetic:

Raising the dead has always been a mandate of the church. Jesus commissioned us to go in His name and preach the good news of the Kingdom. He then went on to explain, that includes healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Our evangelism teams, led by Caleb Brundidge and Melissa Fisher recently grabbed hold of this and went out to practice raising the dead. Watch this video, hear Melissa share some great testimonies, and be inspired on how you can take reaching out with the gospel to a whole new level!

The leader of Extreme Prophetic apparently claims the title of Prophet, and she and her team have been to funeral homes trying to raise the dead in what they call “mortuary outreaches.” While they don’t report any success with resurrections, they do claim that that gold dust appeared while they were trying which they believe to be evidence of God’s Spirit.

We certainly hope Exodus board member Don Schmierer can learn more about Extreme Prophetic on his trip to Uganda with Caleb.

-Local gay activists and Wayne Besen from Truth Wins Out provide counterprogramming to Love Won Out’s Charlotte, NC conference.

-The Hawaii House of Representatives passes a civil unions bill.

-Utah State Senator Chris Buttars joins the likes of Sally Kern in declaring that gays are the greatest threat to America.

-The Utah State Legislature rejects even basic legal protections for GLBT individuals.

-Jennifer Vanasco ponders both the good and the bad of the decision by a Michigan TV station to refuse to air an AFA propaganda piece.

Source: UPI

According to United Press International, two members of the notoriously anti-gay Phelps clan/church have been denied entry to Great Britain.

Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who belong to the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, were planning to come to Britain to protest outside a performance of “The Laramie Project,” the Times of London reported Friday.

Phelps is well known in the United States for his vicious hatred of gays. He and his family form the bulk of Wesboro Baptist Church and frequently picket the funerals of soldiers, GLBTs and AIDS victims.  They were apparently hoping to do something similar at the performance of The Laramie Project when they were blocked from entering the country.

“The Home Secretary has excluded both Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the U.K.,” a Border Agency spokesman said. “Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred against a number of communities.”

Peter Tatchell of the gay rights group OutRage! did not agree with the Home Secretary, believing that even people as bigoted as the Phelps’ deserve to be heard.

The Phelpses are odious, homophobic bigots. They give Christianity a bad name,” Tatchell said. “Objectionable though they are, I don’t agree with them being banned.”

Restrictive actions taken by countries where free speech is (and has always been) far less potent than in the United States are often used by anti-gay groups here to paint a frightening picture of the future. In that scenario, equality for GLBTs is connected with repression of the right to present dissenting views.

No doubt this incident will provide more fuel for some to make that argument, even though we are certain Phelps and his daughter will be able to re-enter the US without incident where they can continue to say whatever they want.

“When I turn 30, I plan to be straight … I’m hoping it’s just going to be a phase, because I never chose to be gay. I never wanted to be gay.”

So said 19-year old Shane on Wednesday’s Tyra Banks Show. Shane is gay, but finds gay men “weak and disgusting.” Men are “supposed to be alpha,” he says, but gay men aren’t. And older gay men are creepy. (They stalk 16-year-old boys on the internet, apparently.)

I wanna have a family, like, with a wife and a kid and a dog – it’s like the old cliche. … I wouldn’t be satisfied with a guy, like, it’s just pure sexual, and I feel like emotionally I’m supposed to be with a woman. Technically I guess I’ll probably still be gay [at 30] … I’ll probably still have my sexual urges, but I’m just gonna try and force myself to be with a woman, I guess. I think if you’re gonna be a guy, then be a guy.

Where to begin deconstructing this nonsense? I feel no offense from the guy himself. He’s young and obviously very confused, though he says it’s all “clear” in his mind. He feels that way because he’s been fed a very limited and warped view of what it means to be “gay.” Doubtless his idea of homosexuality is based on his exposure to just one gay subculture. He admits to having “hook-ups” where he’s “forced” to do things he doesn’t feel comfortable with. If this kind of experience is defining his sexuality for him, is it any wonder he doesn’t want it any more? He needs someone to tell him he can be who he wants to be. He can be who and what he is comfortable with. He can have love and contentment and self-respect without suppressing his sexuality.

The ex-gay movement won’t tell him that. Too many ex-gay and anti-gay ministries trade on limited perceptions like this, exploiting the negative experiences of their followers and telling them that being gay is the problem. Unfortunately, there are many gays who will not tell him that either. There are many who, like Shane, have bought into the idea that being gay is about being in a particular ghetto, living a certain lifestyle and adopting certain values. So it is unsurprising, if sad, that when a person wants to escape from that milieu, they feel their only option is to deny their sexuality and try to be “straight.”

There is only one answer to this situation: honesty. And here’s the honest truth: Shane, you can have happiness. You can stay away from the gay bars and the gloryholes if you want, you can say no to casual sex, and you can have a partner who loves you and respects you. You can build a family and, dammit, you can even have a white picket fence and a dog if you want. And you don’t have to change a thing about your sexuality.

XGW reported in December that Exodus International downsized “youth specialist” Mike Ensley. However, no official word was ever publicly released on the websites of Exodus, President Alan Chambers, Vice President Randy Thomas, or even Ensley himself. In fact, Ensley’s blog – mikeensley.vox.com – kept running as though all was normal well after news got around he was fired laid off. Ensley was a frequent commenter at Randy Thomas’ own blog up until as recently as this past November. But not a peep was mentioned about his being let go.

Ensley now seems to have officially disintegrated his blog, although Randy still keeps a (now dead) link to it in his blog roll. And even though he no longer is employed by Exodus, his biography page remains on the site and easily discovered through a Google search. On the Exodus Youth page, Ensley has authored a great deal of the articles present and a link leads to an official page listing the posts credited to him. His most recent post is dated at December 10th 2008, about 2 months ago.

Freelance photography may be his next move. His MySpace page describes him as “an aspiring writer, photographer and artist living in Orlando.” Included in his Flickr.com portfolio are images from Exodus and “ex-gay”-related events.

-The city of Phoenix, AZ launches a domestic partner registry.

-Jonathan Rowe examines one of the religious right’s ‘secular’ arguments against homosexuality.

-The Hawaii House of Representatives passes a civil unions bill.

-The son of megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes is arrested for indecent exposure.

-A Michigan television station refuses to air the American Family Association’s latest anti-gay propaganda piece.

Johannah, frequently pen-named “Ephilei,” is a genderqueer and self-labeled liberal-orthodox Christian who recently started TransChristians.org and faithful reader of XGW.

The public intersection of Christianity and transgenderism is quite small, so I’ve kept tabs easily and I have to scrounge for every morsel. So I was anxious to see Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family enter the court of the prince of pop-psychology on “Dr. Phil,” McGraw’s daytime show on January 14th. The trans movement is several decades behind the gay movement so I don’t encourage anyone to put their hopes up for a fair portrayal. Nevertheless, the result was entertaining.

The cast was comprised of three moms of transgirls (male-to-female transexuals), two trans-affirming researchers, Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Michelle Angello, the not so affirming Joseph Nicolosi and Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family, and Dr. Phil. The kids were absent. Siegel has an MD from Harvard and has spent years studying how parent-child attachment influences behavior, emotions, and how a child perceives their history. In other words, exactly what reparative therapists generally believe is the cause of both transgenderism and homosexuality. Dr. Angello has her doctorate in sexology and has 10 years of counseling and leadership experience in gender and sexual orientation. Both act in the ways we’d expect from professional counselors – deep knowledge, experience, empathy, and solid advice – so I’m going to focus on Nicolosi and Stanton.

Stanton was new to me, and for good reason. He’s written a fair number of books and articles on homosexuality, but nothing on transgenderism and, of course, his education has nothing to do with psychology and his experience is politics and public speaking. His very basic article on the topic reveals he relies more on second hand quotations like newspapers and Focus on the Family literature than books or journals. Stanton is like any lay person who hears a theory second hand and uses his influence to espouse it without actually doing research or talking with trans (or even “ex-trans”) people.

For instance, on the show he cites Dr. Jerome Kagan as an expert with four decades of experience. Kagan is a giant in psychology, but his expertise is cisgender (non-transgender) child development, not transgenderism and invoking his name is a fallacious appeal to authority. Read more…

it’s worse.

I was honestly hoping that some of what the second person, Grant Haas, has said was at least exaggerated for tabloid purposes, but that hope seems to have vanished.  As an obvious initial move (and by no means will it begin to make this right), has anyone yet demanded that Senior Pastor Brady Boyd step down — immediately?  The rest of the leadership at New Life Church can follow suit with all dispatch.