Ex-Gay Watch

-Sentencing of gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza in Malawi is postponed until April 8.

-Magician James Randi comes out of the closet.

-Lt. Dan Choi talks to Newsweek about the state of the gay rights movement.

-A Georgia teenager is given permission by his school to bring a same-sex date to his prom, then kicked out of his home by his parents.

-Out Front Colorado interviews ex-gay survivors Christine Bakke, Daniel Gonzales and Ryan Kendall.

-A federal judge rules that lesbian high school student Constance McMillen’s rights were violated, but won’t force her school to reinstate its prom.

-Another sexual abuse scandal rocks the Catholic church.

-The Pentagon adopts new rules making it more difficult to discharge soldiers under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-Marine Corps Commandant James Conway argues that repealing DADT would require building separate barracks for gay marines.

-An anti-gay Hungarian politician is outed while attending a gay pride event.

This is a little off our beat but it seems like an issue our readers would want to address.  Question 1 was a proposal on the ballot in Maine last November designed to reverse a new law allowing marriage equality.  It passed, taking the right for same-sex couples to marry with it.  Major funding and other support for Question 1 came from the Roman Catholic Diocese in Portland.

In the past, the Portland Diocese had also funded the Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice program.  Portland-based Preble Street runs a collection of programs to help the poor and homeless, those who can’t overcome the barriers to other services.  They also seek to give those they serve a way to participate in their own solutions.  To that end, Homeless Voices gives people in need a way to work within the political process to improve their own lives.

Homeless Voices for Justice is a state-wide social change movement, organized and led by people who have struggled with homelessness.  It is a grassroots effort based on the belief that true change occurs only when those affected by an unjust system are directly involved in addressing the injustices and in which disenfranchised people become empowered and gain leadership skills to organize and advocate for institutional change.

During the campaign in Maine leading up to last November’s vote, Homeless Voices came out against Question 1, and for marriage equality.  This apparently did not sit well with the Catholic Diocese, who along with the Washington-based Catholic Campaign for Human Development, pulled funding of the Preble Street program.  Citing an earlier agreement, a spokesperson for the Diocese said:

…the diocese requires agencies that receive funding to conform to the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church. She said Preble Street agreed to that requirement when it applied for the money. Read more…

A post titled Ugandan Statement Issued From Exodus Board & North American Leaders appeared on the official Exodus blog today.  To our knowledge, this is the first official statement on the issue from Exodus.

Last November, a letter signed by Exodus president Alan Chambers, vice president Randy Thomas, Christopher Yuan of Moody Bible Institute and Grove City professor Warren Throckmorton was sent to Ugandan president Museveni.  That letter condemned the Anti-Homosexuality Bill being considered there but was not signed by a member of the board and was not a statement but a letter.

The statement released today is certainly welcome and anything which helps dissuade Ugandans from enacting such an inhumane law is a good thing. However, there is no way around the glaring fact that this statement is extremely late.  Mega-Pastor Rick Warren made a rather bold statement, both in a video and a letter directly to President Museveni, last December.  And the original conference which put this legislation in overdrive occurred over a year ago.  An Exodus board member, Don Schmierer, attended that conference and signed today’s statement.

No one can go back and undo the past, but we sincerely hope that Exodus leadership can take lessons from this.  Be very careful when becoming involved with potential hot-spots abroad — know who you are dealing with and the effect your message can have, especially when no healthy counterbalance exists.  And act fast to admit mistakes and minimize the damage you might have done, whether intentional or not.

The official statement from Exodus: Read more…

-Police in Rapid City, SD destroy a lesbian’s military career.

-Arizona senate candidate J.D. Hayworth compares gay marriage to bestiality.

-The PA State Senate Judiciary Committee tables an anti-gay marriage amendment.

-The KY House of Representatives adopts a resolution in support of the Manhattan Declaration.

-The National Organization for Marriage launches an ad campaign against California senate candidate Tom Campbell.

-Openly gay candidate Craig Lowe finishes first in the Gainesville, FL mayoral election; runoff vote scheduled for next month.

-Joanne at Ranker.com lists the top ten anti-gay activists caught being gay.

-Rev. Mary Glasspool officially becomes the Episcopal Church’s second openly gay bishop.

-Lt. Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo are arrested during a DADT protest in front of the White House.

-Anti-gay activists demonstrate their willingness to employ underhanded political tactics in New Hampshire.

Ex-Gay Watch reported on Matthew C. Manning’s troubling criminal record in June, 2009.  Manning claims to have been “delivered from homosexuality in 1989 and miraculously healed from HIV/AIDS in 1994.”  He has claimed that this enabled him to help people wishing to be “delivered from homosexuality.”  Readers unfamiliar with Manning are invited to read our previous post for background.

What’s happened since last June

The day after last year’s post, Manning filed to expunge the conviction from 2005 per California penal code 1203.4.  It appears to have been granted on August 10, 2009.  This is something we contemplated in the original article — California law provides for this in some cases if the defendant follows all court imposed conditions. These are listed in our post from that time.  A reading of the statute indicates that the expungement has limits, especially if one is found guilty of another crime in the future.

It also seems he either tried to, or did sell his house in Santa Rosa.  We don’t currently have the records to know under what circumstances this was done.  His new ministry address is a UPS private mail box in San Francisco.

All references we could find indicate that his house was his main ministry location.  Aside from a period during which a local church allowed him to use a room at off hours for meetings, his home is the only thing we could find.  Copies of the ministry 990s bear this out with no payments to any property or office outside the home.  There are expenses claimed for a “ministry house” which we assume to be a reference to his home (or former home) in Santa Rosa.

There is also no mention of a board of directors, in spite of the fact that posts appear on Manning’s blog claiming to be from them, discussing Manning’s activities, claiming to give their blessings to this or that move, etc.  These posts follow Manning’s grammar and writing style closely.  It is our considered opinion that Manning is the sole “director” of Light House World Evangelism, Inc.  He is listed as president on the 990s, with his wife as secretary. Read more…

It seems that Exodus VP Randy Thomas is no fan of the recent resolution brought to a vote at Disney by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX).

The language PFOX uses is confusing. It appears they are doing a “find and replace” word processing function on their organizational messaging.  They are copying gay activist talking points and replacing every instance of “gay” with “ex-gay.”

Confounding rational minds everywhere, PFOX increasingly refers to ex-gay as a separate and unique sexual orientation.  If that seems like loopy logic, there appears to be a method to their madness as XGW contributor Dave Rattigan recently illustrated.

While Thomas seems to get the absurdity of PFOX’s argument, we would have preferred his message didn’t also include a backhanded jab to gays and lesbians.

We don’t move beyond gay ideology and identity to become an ex-gay member of an ex-gay community in need of the government (in America … as of right now) or a private corporation (like Disney) to protect us as such.  We are Christians … nothing more or less. Please don’t fight for special rights based on yet another false victim class.

We are Christians, not terminally unique “ex-gays.”  Let’s work toward the edification of the Body of Christ, not public or private policy to make us feel affirmed as yet another GLBTQExYZ protected class.

We would like to remind Thomas that we work for equality, not to become a “false victim class” or to obtain “special rights.”  And people of faith have been a “protected class” for decades.  These are all catch-phrases from anti-gay campaign rhetoric.  It’s good to know that he can see the folly in what PFOX proposes, but perhaps he could have found a way to say so without insulting many of the people he claims to care so much about.

PFOX was an Exodus member until last year.  The circumstances of that separation are not clear.

PFOX’s attempt to make the Walt Disney Company include ex-gays in its anti-discrimination policy is not about sexual orientation – it is about ideology.

If it were about sexual orientation, PFOX would have to concede that ex-gays are already protected. Are ex-gays same-sex attracted? Then they are homosexual, and are therefore protected. Have they overcome same-sex attractions to become opposite-sex attracted? Then they are heterosexual, and are therefore protected. Do they now have heterosexual relationships? Marriages? Then they have the same rights as every other person in a heterosexual relationship or marriage. Do they have no sexual relationships at all? Then they have the same rights as every other celibate person.

What unique attraction or relationship is the ex-gay trying to protect by insisting he be included in a sexual orientation policy?

The fiercely anti-gay PFOX complains thus:

Disney’s exclusion of ex-gays from its sexual orientation policy and programs reinforces the second-class status of ex-gays, and contributes to the negative perceptions and discrimination against former homosexuals.  Disney’s exclusion also disregards diversity and the basic human right to dignity and self-determination.  Adding ex-gays to Disney’s sexual orientation policy and programs, which already include gays and bisexuals, will increase diversity, assure equality in the workplace, and be inexpensive for the Company to implement.

PFOX claims that ex-gays are victims of intolerance, discrimination, unfair treatment and hostility. It even claims to have “documented numerous incidents of intolerance against the ex-gay community.” But it is blind at best, disingenuous at worst to say that hostility or intolerance towards ex-gays is due to their sexual orientation. It is about ideology. In the public square, the ex-gay message is rarely heard without accompanying slander of gays and their relationships. If indeed this is a sexual orientation, it is a tragedy – not to mention an anomaly – that it is an orientation defined overwhelmingly by hatred of and opposition to another sexual orientation.

As a gay man, I am oriented primarily towards other men. My sexuality has nothing to do with opposing other people’s sexuality. I do not need to destroy heterosexuality to be able to love someone of my own gender. I do not need to slander straight people in order to affirm my own orientation.

Yet this novel ex-gay “orientation” proposed by PFOX rarely exists without setting itself explicitly in opposition to the lives, loves and relationship of gay men and women.

It is obvious that PFOX’s bid for protection is about the ex-gay ideology, not an orientation. With so little substance, this campaign is little more than a transparent ploy for publicity for a dying and increasingly desperate ex-gay movement.

-Actor Sean Hayes comes the rest of the way out of the closet.

-Fred Karger writes an open letter to Maggie Gallagher.

-California State Senator Roy Ashburn admits to being gay.

-The city of Kissimmee, FL extends partner benefits to LGBT city employees.

-Servicemembers United scrutinizes Elaine Donnelly’s list of 1,100 officers who allegedly oppose repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-A Saudi Arabian man is severely punished for appearing in an amateur gay video.

-Rev. Mary Glasspool moves one step closer to becoming the Episcopal Church’s second openly gay bishop.

-The Oklahoma state senate votes to exempt the state from federal hate crimes laws.

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks out against the most recent wave of anti-gay activity in Africa.

-The US State Department highlights Uganda in its annual human rights report.

If only grown-ups could learn from this child’s easy-going acceptance of others:

-John Shore ponders what Jesus might do if invited to a gay wedding.

-The mayor of Turin, Italy performs a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple.

-Andrews Air Force Base disinvites Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council from a speaking engagement.

-Catholic Charities ends spousal benefits for its employees in Washington DC so that it won’t have to offer them to same-sex couples.

-The LGBT Center at UC Davis resolves to leave recent anti-gay graffiti in place as a reminder that intolerance still exists.

-Washington, DC begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

-Free Republic provides Paul Cameron with a platform to disseminate his latest “research.”

-The UK’s House of Lords votes to lift a ban that prevented churches from performing wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

-Yet another anti-gay politician is outed in a scandal.

-Same-sex couples can now marry in Mexico City.

-A gay prostitution scandal unfolds in the Vatican.

-Slovenia becomes the latest country to consider legalizing same-sex marriage.

-Senator John Kerry calls for an end to the ban on blood donations from gay men.