Ex-Gay Watch

Some lady who’ll say anything to get a bit of attention thinks some people can pray away the gay:

In the interview, with The View host Joy Behar, Coulter points to a Michael Glatze story in the New York Times as evidence that gays can change. “[Glatze] used to run a big gay magazine in San Francisco, and then he found God, and he’s not gay any more,” she said, adding that “the most important part of the story … was that he’s a huge Ann Coulter fan.” Read more…

In case you missed the news a month or two back, Ex-Gay Watch is now on Facebook.

Stop by, click “Like,” and say hey!

Exodus International President Alan Chambers is upset at a TV commercial aimed at encouraging gay teen victims of homophobic bullying.

The ex-gay leader told the Christian Post he found it “disappointing” that the commercial used the character of Woody, the cowboy from the Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story:

Children all over the world, including my two children are fans of Toy Story and to see a character like that endorsing something that at this point children have no need to know about, it’s disappointing.

The ad, a promo for Google Chrome and part of the It Gets Better campaign, aired during an episode of Glee last week. Why would Alan’s five- and six-year-old would be watching a show like Glee anyway? Alan worries that if his kids “happen to see that and ask questions and if they get the full understanding of what the commercial is actually about, we will have to have the conversation. It’s not something I plan to talk to my kids … about.” One wonders why this concern about children having “the conversation” was never a problem with Exodus’s own highly public billboard campaigns.

But, while “it gets better” for targets of anti-gay bullying, Chambers’s message only gets worse:

“For organizations like Exodus International, which has thousands of men and women like me who have lived a gay life, it obviously didn’t get better living a gay life for them. I would say that today it has become radically better,” he said.

“I think that we have to promote the stories of people who have found an alternative to homosexuality but I think that at the same time the church has to do a better job at addressing issues related to bullying and violence and how kids have been treated at public schools.”

Chambers encourages the church and celebrities alike to stand up and be “supportive of our Christian values and to stand up and proclaim that.”

Let’s think about what Chambers is really saying here: He doesn’t want this positive message going out to gays because his ministry depends on homosexuals being unhappy. He pays lip service to “addressing” anti-gay bullying and violence, but his ultimate concern is that if gays are too happy, Exodus International is out of business.

Here’s the nasty, brutal reality of Exodus and “gay cure” organizations like it: They have a vested interest in keeping gays oppressed.

We’ve heard this before. When Chambers addressed his fellow Christians at last year’s Lausanne Conference, he said as much. Exodus accepts gays as long as they know their place. Exodus’s acceptance is for gays and lesbians who are helpless victims, willing to be pitied and then fixed. The more gays become well-adjusted and content, the less there is for Exodus to do — and that’s Alan’s biggest problem.

Watch the commercial for yourself, and see just how inoffensive it really is:

Queerty, the six-year-old gay interest blog that unexpectedly shut down last month, is back online with a new team.

GayCities has acquired the blog and is returning with some of the same team and a crop of new writers. GC’s Chris Bull, whose editorial experience began at The Advocate, says the site will retain its essential character, but they’ll address some criticisms, too:

While we are committed to maintaining the best of Queerty, we also recognize that you have demanded change. In recent months the Queerty patented wit devolved into predictable snark, eviscerating everyone and everything in its path. Some of the comments simply piled on. We will maintain the independent voice at all cost, going after with a vengeance the powerful, the hypocritical and the just plain foolish. But now we’ll also strive for a better sense of journalistic balance and fairness.

In other words we’re going to keep afflicting the comfortable; only now we’ll take care to comfort the afflicted as well.

Exodus International President Alan Chambers will be appearing on Dr Drew tonight (Friday, April 15). The show airs at 9.00pm ET and PT on CNN’s HLN Network. According to Exodus, Alan will share “his personal story as well as sharing the message and mission of Exodus International.”

I’ll be watching in the hope of finding out today’s official Exodus position on being gay and Christian.

Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator for Wyoming, told Hardball‘s Chris Matthews how it is on homophobia in the GOP:

Tip of the hat to Towleroad.

Christopher Jay Hall, a guest blogger at “Raging Pride,” attended Exodus’ Love Won Out conference in Pheonix, Arizona on February 19th and was horrified by the kind of information being given as “fact:”

Long after gays are given the equal rights they are due, and long after LGBTQ equality becomes a given, no matter the biological significance of homosexuality in nature, Exodus and their ilk will still cling to the “gay gene” canard. It’s much easier than trying to argue actual science – since they know it is not on their side.

Since a lesbian by definition is a woman who is exclusively attracted to other women, it wouldn’t surprise me if a relationship with a man “went sour.” But LWO here seems to say that when women get “tired of men” they’ll just flip a switch and go with women.

Additionally, Hall heard messages being delivered to queer and questioning youth in attendance that are extremely irresponsible, considering the rate of suicide among such young people:

Apparently, there [are] no such thing as homosexuals as we are all broken heterosexuals. They told the youth that homosexual behavior is always a sin. People who believe they are homosexual are not the sin itself. The person is not an abomination rather their behavior is the abomination they must seek help in overcoming.

There was, however, some hope.

[T]he youth were very intelligent and to some degree liberal. They were curious as to why our “sin” of homosexuality was a focus of the church when there are so many other sins within the church itself that are being ignored. The best question that left the presenters baffled was, “If it is bad to change one’s sex because it was god’s original intention to have us born the way we are, than why do we dye our hair, wear braces to “fix” our teeth, receive plastic surgery, etc. I was happy to see the amount of liberal individuals who attended, I am just saddened to see so many hurt souls who are forced to attend and the church feels they have no role in the high rates of suicide amongst our LGBTQ youth. What ignorance!

What ignorance, indeed. With all their talk of  “grace for the homosexual” and having compassion and “true tolerance,” the messages being delivered at the conference give quite a different image.

Dr George Rekers has resigned from the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), following allegations that he received nude, erotic massages from a male prostitute.

Rekers, who has been an anti-gay activist for decades, took a 10-day European vacation with Jo-Vanni Roman (at first identified only as “Lucien”), a gay escort who says they met through the explicit website Rentboy.com. Rekers faced humiliation in the media after denying the accusations, claiming he he hired Roman to help carry his luggage while he recovered from surgery. He said he only found out Roman was an escort partway through the trip, and responded by evangelizing him and warning him against homosexuality.

Stepping down from NARTH, Rekers wrote:

I am immediately resigning my membership in NARTH to allow myself the time necessary to fight the false media reports that have been made against me. With the assistance of a defamation attorney, I will fight these false reports because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever. I am not gay and never have been.

NARTH responded:

NARTH has accepted Dr. Rekers’ resignation and would hope that the legal process will sufficiently clarify the questions that have arisen in this unfortunate situation. We express our sincere sympathy to all individuals, regardless of their perspective, who have been injured by these events. We also wish to reiterate our traditional position that these personal controversies do not change the scientific data, nor do they detract from the important work of NARTH. NARTH continues to support scientific research, and to value client autonomy, client self-determination and client diversity.

Earlier this week, there were premature reports of some websites and organizations (Focus on the Family’s Family Research Council, for example, which Rekers co-founded) deleting mentions of Rekers from their history. Today, Dr Warren Throckmorton reports that the purge has begun.

As the UK goes to the polls, questions remain over a prospective MP who allegedly believes that gays and lesbians are demon-possessed, and can be set free through prayer.

An article in Sunday’s Observer (London) accused Philippa Stroud, who is standing for the Conservative Party in today’s election, of founding a church that cures homosexuality by casting out demons.

The story deserved some proper coverage from Ex-Gay Watch, but with the George Rekers scandal breaking this week, it rather fell into oblivion. Since the story is rather timely (the identity of our new Prime Minister will be known sometime in the early hours of tomorrow morning), I’ll do the next best thing and refer you to some of the coverage.

Check out the original Observer article here, and a related article alleging “secret” Tory Party funding from right-wing Christians here.

The ever-reliable Richard Bartholomew has covered the story here and here, with the latest update detailing Stroud’s impending legal action here.

Patrick Strudwick takes on the story at The Guardian’s Comment is free here.

It took about six months to provoke Exodus International into responding to allegations that its organization’s words and actions had been fueling homophobia in Uganda.

After witnessing Exodus’s inexcusable inaction on the anti-gay bill that would effectively see all Uganda’s “practicing” homosexuals and their supporters executed, Ex-Gay Watch (justifiably) wondered what exactly it would take to spur Exodus into immediate, urgent action.

We found our answer. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to the threat to tens of thousands of homosexual and heterosexual lives? 180. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to a radio show dropping its services? Approximately seven – and there was outrage.

Earlier this month, Christian radio host Dawson McAllister received disapproval from the LGBT community after a gay blogger went undercover and discovered that Hopeline, the teenage advice line operated in conjunction with McAllister’s weekly radio show, was referring young gay people to Exodus International.

McAllister responded to the outcry by severing his links with Exodus. After all, recommending an ex-gay, anti-gay organization was even against the policy of McAllister’s own network, Clear Channel.

But Exodus President Alan Chambers was so grieved, he did something he admits he hardly ever does – he publicly denounced McAllister’s actions in an official statement: Read more…