Ex-Gay Watch

Several anti-gay and ex-gay Christian and political groups want to prevent schools from addressing homophobic bullying by name. Day of Truth, sponsored by Exodus International, exists in deliberate opposition to Day of Silence, a day established to address the problem of anti-gay bullying and harassment in schools.

And yet the last few weeks have seen a spate of high-profile teen suicides apparently provoked by homophobic bullying. Billy Lucas, Jaheem Herrera, Seth Walsh and Asher Brown are just a few of the most recent teenagers to kill themselves after being bullied because they were–or people thought they were–gay.

Today, police have identified a body as that of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University, NJ, who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate secretly filmed him having gay sex and broadcast it live online. Before his death, he told an internet forum he felt like Dharun Ravi, also 18, was telling the world, “Look at what a fag my roommate is.”

And religious right groups like Focus on the Family continue to deny that addressing homophobia in schools is necessary:

Do you sometimes wonder what century we’re living in that swaths of people would gladly ignore the prejudice and hatred that is leading to the death of these innocent young people?

This is almost too bizarre for words.

-Russian LGBT activist Nikolai Alekseev resurfaces, shares what really happened following his abduction by Russian authorities.

-Houston mayor Annise Parker receives favorable ratings from her constituents.

-Lady Gaga hosts a rally in Maine urging the state’s senators to vote to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-New York Gov. David Paterson signs a law allowing gay couples and other unmarried partners to jointly adopt children.

-Dan Choi debates Bishop Harry Jackson over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-The US Senate fails to invoke cloture to bring a bill that would repeal DADT to a vote.

-A Florida appeals court rules that the state’s ban on gays adopting children is unconstitutional.

-A group of Minnesota bishops spams the state’s Catholics with a DVD opposing marriage equality.

-A Muslim-American speaks out in support of her gay friends and neighbors.

-Former president Bill Clinton talks about his role in the enactment of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-”Peter Barber Gallagher-Sprig” offers a modest proposal for upholding the traditional family.

-Rev. Irene Monroe observes that President Obama could end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell with an executive order.

-The Washington Post misrepresents a study about the prevalence of HIV among urban gay men.

-A federal judge orders the reinstatement of a flight nurse discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

An anti-gay pastor with a congregation of over 25,000 has been accused of sexually abusing three male teenagers. According to the allegations, Bishop Eddie Long, a fierce critic of same-sex marriage, coerced three young men, aged between 17 and 19 at the time, into sexual activity.

Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg, now 20 and 21, filed a lawsuit Tuesday, sayings the bishop talked them into sexual massages and “oral sodomy” by telling them it was part of their spiritual development. According to this transcript from CNN, the relationships began with a “ceremony,” during which jewellery was exchanged and a covenant was made for Bishop Long to be the boys’ “spiritual father.” The third man, Jamal Parris, now 23, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the bishop as “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.”

Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia, runs an ex-gay “Out of the Wilderness” program offering counseling for gays “who desire healing and deliverance through the Word of God.” In 2006, the church hosted a “sexual orientation and reorientation” conference featuring DL Foster, a Pentecostal preacher so radically homophobic, even Ex-Gay Watch rarely bothers to comment on him these days.

If the accusations are true, Bishop Eddie Long would not be the first outspoken Christian homophobe to harbour gay desires or act on them in private–but that these allegations involve not just homosexual activity and hypocrisy, but abuse of power and assault of vulnerable adolescents, makes them particularly despicable.

Bishop Long has denied the accusations and has announced a press conference on Thursday.

Subtitle: A Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction
General Editors: Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche
—
Introduction (Part 1) here.

I wanted to start Part 2 with the beginning chapters that put the rest of the book in perspective, but this issue seems timely enough to skip to.
—
Chapter 21: Gays in the Military, by Joe Dallas, co-editor and main author of the book.

It should first be observed that while Scripture condemns homosexual behavior, it says nothing of the general characteristics of homosexual people. [p378, emph mine]

Except when Scripture actually does speak to the characteristics of homosexuality:

Romans 1:26-32: Paraphrased: Furthermore [re the example of homosexuality], since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless…

But wait, he clarifies:
Read more…

-Arson is suspected in the burning of a Tennessee lesbian couple’s home.

-A gay Saudi Arabian diplomat seeks asylum in the US.

-Florida governor and US senate candidate Charlie Crist assembles a paper supporting gay rights in general but not marriage equality.

-Highlands Church in Denver celebrates its first anniversary.

-An Indiana teenager commits suicide following years of anti-gay bullying.

-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid files for cloture on a bill to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-The National Organization for Marriage’s effort to influence the DC city council elections flops.

-Delaware’s Republican candidate for US Senate, Christine O’Donnell, has ties to ex-gay ministries.

-Ex-gay survivor Wade Richards talks about his experiences working with Christine O’Donnell.

-The IRS levies a $20K tax against a Christian nonprofit for its excessive lobbying against Hawaii’s civil unions bill.

-Russian LGBT activist Nikolai Alekseev is abducted by authorities and transported to Belarus.

Exodus Global Alliance has enjoyed tax-exempt status in New Zealand for more than 10 years. This year, however, they have been denied that status on the grounds that they do not meet one of the requirements for being declared a “charity,” providing a “public benefit:”

Exodus Ministries has had charitable status, exempting it from income tax, for more than a decade but the status was removed by the Charities Commission this month under a regime introduced in 2007.

The commission said the trust was not performing any public benefit because homosexuality was not a mental disorder and did not need curing.

The commission noted that the American Psychological Association said there was little scientific evidence to show that homosexuality could be “cured” and attempts to do so could cause harm.

Hardly the only charity targeted by the commission, in fact 1,224 other organizations have been deregistered for being “too political, too commercial, or not having the required paperwork.” 978 have been deregistered this year alone.

EGA is not a part of Exodus International, about whom XGW reports much more often. Rather, they are a global umbrella organization of which Exodus is a member. Details about this relationship can be found on this page of the EGA site. While Exodus International is largely affiliated with the United States, Canada, the UK and Mexico, EGA states that they encompass Africa, Asia Pacific, Brazil, China, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Latin America. Their “International Office” is located in Toronto, Canada.

-The Atlanta, GA police department creates an LGBT advisory board.

-Montana’s Tea Party organization fires its president for posting anti-gay comments on Facebook.

-Serbia’s LGBT community plans its first pride parade since 2001.

-Religious right activists in Iowa twist Sandra Day O’Connor’s words to promote their campaign against the judges who brought same-sex marriage to the state.

-New York Gov. David Paterson signs a comprehensive anti-bullying bill.

-Colorado Governor Bill Ritter appoints a gay latina to the state’s supreme court.

-The US Air Force Academy’s alumni association cancels an event to honor LGBT servicemembers.

-The California Supreme Court rejects a request by the Pacific Justice Institute to force the state attorney general to appeal the ruling that struck down Prop 8.

-A US District Court judge rules that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is unconstitutional.

-Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announces that he would sign a marriage equality bill.

-Supporters of Olahoma State Rep. Sally Kern call her transgender opponent “a confused it.”

The actor Glenn Shadix has died at the age of 58. His films included Demolition Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Planet of the Apes, but his most-celebrated role was as the camp interior designer Otho in Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice.

In 2009, Shadix, who as a young gay man underwent aversion therapy at the behest of his father, gave an exclusive interview to Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out:

Glenn Shadix, April 15, 1952 – September 7, 2010

Andrew Marin has provoked fellow evangelical Professor Robert Gagnon to fury after Gagnon published a 24-page debunking of Marin’s book Love Is an Orientation.

Gagnon is perhaps the most prolific biblical scholar supporting the traditional reading of the Bible on the subject of homosexuality. For years, he has happily propped up the anti-gay and ex-gay movements with his scholarship, going so far as to join the notoriously extreme Peter LaBarbera’s “Truth Academy.”

Marin, a one-time “Bible-banging homophobe,” says he wants to put aside theological issues and “build bridges” with gays and lesbians. He steers away from commenting publicly on whether homosexuality is right or wrong, and seems to encourage others–to the understandable frustration of many of his gay critics–to evade questions too.

Now the two have clashed, with Gagnon “stunned” at the attention Marin’s approach has received:

Andrew Marin’s book, Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community (2009), has been gaining some traction in evangelical circles. Having just finished reading the book I am stunned that an evangelical press like InterVarsity would publish such a fatally flawed work—and that persons such as Scot McKnight (a New Testament professor at an evangelical university, North Park) and a certain Michelle Strombeck of Moody Broadcasting Network (a conservative evangelical organization) would provide endorsements for it. (A foreword by Brian McLaren is not surprising since McLaren had already surrendered to a homosexualist view. The same applies to Tony Campolo, whose enthusiastic video endorsement is posted on Marin’s site.)

Marin did not respond directly to Gagnon’s criticisms, but mentioned it on his blog, with the headline “Conservative theologian REALLY doesn’t like me, or anyone ASSOCIATED with me.” He refused to engage Gagnon’s analysis and pointed to this paragraph of Gagnon’s as a “big red flag”:

I have written extensively on homosexual practice for a decade now, with two academic books published and many scholarly articles and articles for a general audience. I’m widely recognized as the world’s leading authority on the subject, certainly from a ‘traditional’ (i.e. scriptural) perspective. Yet CBN never asked me for a comment on Marin’s work, much less ever devoted an article on my work.

Gagnon, never one to do things by halves, responded with 26 pages of comment. Yes, 26 pages, just because he was slighted by Marin.

Ironically, despite having glibly described Brian MacLaren as a “homosexualist,” Gagnon objects to being called a conservative, a term “designed to isolate me into some fundamentalist/evangelical ghetto.” Gagnon quite rightly realizes he was slighted by Marin, although Marin denies it, but why this ridiculous overreaction? Gagnon really, really hates being diminished in this way, and reacts in a way I’m not used to seeing scholars do. Yes, scholars engage other people’s substantial criticisms, but since when do they write full-length treatises because someone sniped at them on a blog?

Observe what happens (pages 22-26) when “John from Arizona (a born-again Christian and a brother in Christ)” sends him an email of a mere 48 words insinuating Gagnon is a closet homosexual. Gagnon responds with over 400. John replies again with 500 words and Gagnon in turn sends him a staggering 1,600 words. A university professor who invests so much time and energy into responding to what at the end of the day is internet bickering is not in a secure place.

And Marin? I’m not surprised he doesn’t directly address Gagnon’s criticisms, since Gagnon is probably right in much of his biblical exegesis. The Bible does say some very ugly things about homosexuals–the offensive thing about Gagnon is not that he thinks the Bible condemns homosexuality, but that he agrees with it and uses it to justify prejudice against gays and lesbians today.

I haven’t scratched the surface of what Marin has written, despite pressure to denounce him on this blog. I’m eager to see what Marin does with those problem texts. Does he avoid them, like he (I think) avoids questions about the morality of homosexuality? Marin is already finding out that this tack doesn’t please those on either side. So who is it benefiting?