Ex-Gay Watch

Ex-Gay activist Christopher Yuan will speak to an audience of Yale students at the Af-Am House this Friday at 7:00, at the invitation of campus Christian organizations. Yuan’s claim to fame is his “deliverance” from some rather bad habits which, as is a common practice among ex-gays, he associates with being gay.  He attributes his behavior change to God, and his mother’s prayers.

What many would consider their worst nightmare has become a reality for Christopher Yuan. While attending dental school, he began living promiscuously as a homosexual and experimenting with illicit drugs. Within a few years, he was expelled from dental school, imprisoned for drug dealing and discovered that he was HIV positive.

Yuan espouses the tired if convenient Exodus line “the opposite of homosexuality isn’t heterosexuality, it’s holiness.”  Yale seems like a rather enlightened place for this type of thinking, so this news surprised us.  Yuan’s website reflects his movement toward making his ex-gay narrative a source of income, complete with speaking engagements and a book or two.  His ideology tracks closely with Exodus and he defends them when questioned.

Anybody from Yale out there?

TWO reports that one of their board members, the Rev. Jerry Stephenson, is starting a new ex-gay survivor group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:

I am starting an Ex-Ex-Gay Group called GOD’S WORTHY CREATION with Atlantic Institute Spiritual Counseling Center to help gays and lesbians know that they are wonderfully made as they are in God’s wonderful creation.  We seek to bring healing to those coming out of the Ex-Gay Movement. Call us at 954-632-1529 or email us at JeryLSt@aol.com

Stephenson has also authored the books “Out of the Closet and into the Light” and “Overcoming Obstacles in Life and Coming Out On Top.”

-The parliament of Liechtenstein unanimously votes to institute civil unions.

-The mayor of Barcelona, Spain dedicates a memorial to LGBT people.

-An immigration judge suspends the deportation of an Argentine lesbian who’s legally married in Connecticut.

-Wendy Gritter offers a nuanced response to Lisa Ling’s “Pray Away the Gay?” special.

-The Obama Administration prepares a declaration calling on the UN to work to end criminal punishments for LGBT individuals around the world.

-A civil unions bill is introduced in the Delaware state senate.

-The Mormon church fires a man for refusing to disassociate from his gay friends.

-The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to lift the stay on Judge Walker’s Prop 8 ruling.

-John Gruber, the last original member of the Mattachine Society, passes away.

-The Montana senate kills a bill that would have overturned all LGBT rights laws in the state.

-The California Republican party elects an openly gay board member.

Exodus International has a story it would really like you to believe. It wants you to think that Exodus is a simple ministry of encouragement to Christians who have same-sex attractions but don’t want to act on it. Exodus, so the story goes, doesn’t harm gays or stick its nose into anyone else’s business; it’s just about like-minded people helping one another live the lifestyle they freely choose.

This bogus narrative is important now Apple has denied Exodus International its iPhone app. Exodus President Alan Chambers wants the world to believe his claim that the move has trampled on his and other ex-gays’ rights and freedoms.

Peterson Toscano is one voice of thousands sharing a story that contradicts Exodus’s version of events. In his latest post, he expresses his astonishment at reading this claim from Exodus:

“In no way shape or form is our message about trying to cure or do we try to promote that type of methodology or message,” Jeff Buchanan, Exodus International’s Senior Director of Church Equipping & Student Ministries, told The Christian Post.

Asks Peterson:

[Was] I caught in the Matrix all those years? Is Jeff Buchanan saying that thousands of ex-gay survivors were duped into believing something Exodus didn’t actually offer?

In recent years, Exodus has avoided direct promises of gay-to-straight change. But it has certainly capitalized on the vagueness of language such as “freedom,” “liberation” and “healing.” Its mantra continues to be “Change is possible.”

Read Peterson’s story for more insight into what Exodus has stood for throughout its history. For more background information, check out our Exodus International archives, and read Emily K’s recent article What Exodus Believes in 2011.

Apple has confirmed that it pulled an iPhone app by the ex-gay organization Exodus International.

Speaking to New York’s Daily News, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said, “We removed the Exodus International app from the Apple Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.”

Ast to the Daily News’ question why Apple gave the app a rating of 4, signifying “no objectionable material,” perhaps the answer is in Exodus’s less-than-honest description of the app:

Exodus International is the world’s largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality. With over 35 years of ministry experience, Exodus is committed to encouraging, educating and equipping the Body of Christ to address the issue of homosexuality with grace and truth.

What modern, tolerant person would have a problem with a ministry that encouraged and extended grace to LGBT persons and their families? But this vague description falls short of describing what the anti-gay Exodus International is really about.

Last night, an upset Exodus President Alan Chambers tweeted:

It’s official, the @ExodusInl App is no longer in the @AppStore. Incredibly disappointing. Watch out, it could happen to you. #freedom

But it’s not really about freedom, at least not in the First-Amendment sense Alan implies. American free speech rules don’t apply to the policy of a private company, unless Alan wants to argue that the Phelps clan, the KKK and H@t ‘n’ H@rny L@litas Ltd also have a right to an Apple app. On the other hand, it is about the freedom of a private company to have a content policy that rejects homophobia.

Hat tip: TWO

A recent tweet from Alan Chambers:

Yeah, somehow I doubt we will submit an ex-gay app.  But if we do, please ask that it be removed.  We still haven’t’ heard from Apple, so to be safe please keep up the pressure until we do.

Edited 11:06 pm to reflect the fact that no official notice has been received from Apple.

Perhaps a bit off topic for XGW, but the religious views expressed should be familiar to many readers.  When I read Jackson’s comments they angered me.  When I watched this video clip, I think I felt sad for her more than anything else.  She expresses herself like someone caught in a cult, and it is tragic that she has so much company.

It seems unlikely that any group has done more to damage Christianity and the Church than the “evangelical” movement in this country — very sad indeed.

A former youth pastor from Iowa has been charged with 60 sexual offences against teenage boys, some as young as 14.

Brent Girouex, 31, of Council Bluffs, told police he had sex with the young men to cure their homosexuality, according to the Wisconsin Gazette. He claimed that ejaculation was the key to ridding them of sexually impure thoughts.

At least eight men have accused Girouex of molesting them. He is now out on bail of $30,000.

(HT: Evan at Truth Wins Out).

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is once again attacking the veracity of noted geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins.  For a review of the history of this issue, please see the summary and links in our previous post.  The original NARTH article that started this is “Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired,” Concludes Dr. Francis S. Collins, Head Of The Human Genome Project” from 2007.

This latest effort comes in the form of an article identified as submitted to the NARTH website by David C. Pruden, NARTH’s Vice-President of Operations.  We will assume from here on out that Pruden is the author unless or until we receive information to the contrary (see below).  In it, this writer is painted as having wooed Dr. Collins into making statements favorable to a pro-gay position by “misinforming” him about NARTH.  Supposedly, by not telling him what a good and wholesome organization it is (cough), we hoodwinked Dr. Collins into perverting the science in our favor.

In the US, all correspondence to and from government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where Dr. Collins worked (and is now Director), is archived and can be obtained by making a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.  Apparently, four years after the fact, someone at NARTH got the idea to request copies of my email exchange with Dr. Collins.  While they did not quote from them, they did strategically paraphrase and then claim that I had misinformed Dr. Collins.

While all very cloak and dagger, they could have saved some effort and a stamp by simply reading the three year old post here.  We made that exchange public in its entirety, email headers and all, back in 2008.  As noted then, the original emails were not written with public consumption in mind, so they are a bit personal but nonetheless sincere and honest.

So what about the latest article? Read more…

-A group of teenagers in New York City stomp another teen to death while shouting anti-gay slurs.

-A new poll finds shrinking support for the Defense of Marriage Act.

-The Crystal Cathedral asks members of its choir to sign an anti-gay statement.

-The Ogden, Utah city council unanimously votes in favor of an anti-discrimination ordinance.

-Another teenager commits suicide following anti-gay bullying.

-Congressional Democrats introduce a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

-A Pennsylvania man stones a gay man to death, citing the Bible as his authority.

-The Isle of Man grants civil partnership rights to same-sex couples.

-A new poll finds majority support for marriage equality for the first time.