Ex-Gay Watch

-The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs launches a twelve-step program for gays.

-Singer Jason Mraz declares that he won’t marry until gay couples can marry as well.

-A gay couple in Dallas celebrates their 50th anniversary.

-A PFLAG mom is named Senior Australian of the Year.

-House Republicans prepare a push to overturn the District of Columbia’s marriage equality law.

-Florida State Rep. Mark Pafford introduces a domestic partnership bill.

-Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie nominates an openly gay woman to the state Supreme Court.

-Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato is murdered.

-56% of New Yorkers now support marriage equality, according to a new poll.

-Iowa Democrats block an attempt to advance a gay marriage ban.

-France’s Constitutional Court upholds the nation’s current marriage law.

-The Hawaii State Senate passes a civil unions bill.

-A Louisiana man is hospitalized following a brutal anti-gay attack.

-The Tarrant Baptist Association is expelled from the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for retaining a member church that isn’t adequately anti-gay.

-The US Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge to the District of Columbia’s marriage equality law.

-New census data finds more gay couples raising children in the South than in other parts of the country.

-France’s high court agrees to hear a case by a lesbian couple who want their relationship recognized as a marriage.

-A homeless shelter in Georgia kicks out two women suspected of being in a relationship.

-The Government Accountability Office reports that enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” cost nearly $200 million over five years.

-The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposes a new anti-discrimination policy.

-A high school principal in Long Island blocks the formation of a gay-straight alliance, claiming that anti-gay slurs aren’t a big deal.

-A gay marriage ban passes the first of three hearings in the Wyoming House.

A UK psychotherapist may lose her license if a disciplinary hearing finds she attempted to cure a patient of homosexuality.

It is almost a year since Patrick Strudwick published an article in The Independent (London) detailing his experience of ex-gay reparative therapy in the UK. As part of his investigation, the journalist secretly taped sessions with Christian therapist Lesley Pilkington, whom he met through a NARTH conference.

In Strudwick’s recordings, Mrs Pilkington, 60, told him that homosexuality was “a mental illness, an addiction [and] an antireligious phenomenon.” She agreed to provide SOCE — Sexual Orientation Change Efforts — after he said he was a Christian and wanted to leave the “homosexual lifestyle.”

According to the Sunday Telegraph (London), a letter sent to the therapist by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) accused her of “praying to God to heal [Strudwick] of his homosexuality … [of] having an agenda that homosexuality is wrong and that gay people can change and that [she] allegedly attempted to inflict these views on him.”

Pilkington denied she had forced Strudwick into therapy, saying she only offers the treatment to people who choose it because they are “depressed and unhappy” with their sexual orientation.

-The National Organization for Marriage targets Rhode Island.

-The US State Department adopts gender-neutral terms for parents’ names on children’s passport applications.

-Religious right activist Cindy Jacobs blames the recent bird and fish deaths in Arkansas on the repeal of DADT.

-Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

-A male model confesses to murdering fashion reporter Carlos Castro to “get rid of his homosexual demons.”

-The GLBT History Museum opens in San Francisco.

-An employee at Pastor Scott Lively’s new coffee shop is discovered to be a convicted sex offender.

-A gay-positive billboard in Schenectady, NY draws opposition from local Christians.

-Black Entertainment Television runs a feature spotlighting 36 LGBTs of color.

-The township of Haverford, PA passes an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Scott Lively made a small splash by deciding to open a Christian-themed coffee house in Springfield, Massachusetts called “Holy Grounds.” People wondered aloud if this was a “new leaf” being turned over, but Lively made known that he would continue to serve as a conference speaker on the topic of homosexuality.

Now, it turns out that the man who advises parents to keep their children away from gays has himself employed a child molester to manage his establishment. Michael J. Frediani, 38, was arrested for failing to register as a level 2 sex offender in Springfield. He lived in an apartment above Lively’s shop.

In New York, Frediani was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the second degree in 1996.

The charge relates to an arrest by police in Canandaigua, N.Y., in 1995 in which the victim was an 11-year-old girl. The description of the offense was “deviate sexual intercourse.”

He was sentenced to two to four years in state prison, serving at the Midstate Correctional Facility from September of 1996 to February of 1999, according to Carole Weaver, a spokeswoman for the state’s Division of Parole.

Local authorities expressed concern that the business was becoming a haven for truant teens, as well.

Lively is of course the co-author of the infamous book “The Pink Swastika,” in which he falsely claims the Holocaust was perpetrated by a Nazi Party infiltrated by hyper-masculine homosexuals. Its claims have been consistently debunked, and Lively has become well-associated with outright hatred of gay people. His group “Abiding Truth Ministries” has been on the SPLC anti-gay hate group list for several years, and recently played a key role in the introduction of Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” bill.

Lively’s response to Frediani’s arrest?

Frediani had told Lively that he had a “rough past before he became a Christian,” Lively said, adding that he did not know any specifics and that he saw no need for a criminal background check.

“That’s the beauty of the salvation of Christ,” Lively said. “When you come to Jesus Christ, and you accept his forgiveness for your sins, then you are forgiven by Him and enter a new life. It doesn’t surprise me that he had a rough past, that he has a criminal record.”

-The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asks the California Supreme Court to weigh in on whether Imperial County initiative proponents have standing to appeal the Prop 8 ruling.

-New Hampshire Republicans prepare to attempt to overturn the state’s marriage equality law.

-Two Wyoming legislators announce plans to launch an effort to place a marriage amendment on the state ballot.

-Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee calls for marriage equality in his inaugural address.

-New Mexico Attorney General opines that same-sex marriages performed elsewhere should be recognized by the state.

-A Miami man confesses to murdering two people for having “homosexual tendencies.”

-A marriage equality bill is prepared for consideration by the Rhode Island legislature.

-Sports writer Steve Buckley comes out of the closet.

-Christian artist Derek Webb talks about homophobia in the church.

-Sen. John McCain promises to help with the implementation of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.

-A Texas court of appeals upholds the divorce of a lesbian couple.

-Pastor Ted Haggard gets his own reality show.

Our friend, Jim, over at Teach The Facts brought this up and I thought it was an ideal theme to start the New Year off with.

Imagine Peace in 2011

It is a New Year, 2011, war is raging, hatred abounds, greed is rewarded with power, love is reviled as filth. Good people need to be vigilant, paradoxically to fight for peace.

I m a g i n e:

War is over, if you want it