Ex-Gay Watch

“It Gets Better” is a realistic message for gay and lesbian people living in the western world, where society is increasingly accepting of sexual diversity. But in some non-western parts of the globe, survival as an LGBT person is all but impossible.

Wendy Gritter of New Direction, Canada, has filmed a message for those gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people for whom the message of the It Gets Better campaign isn’t realistic or helpful. That’s not to denigrate the campaign, which Wendy has supported. It is to say this:

We want to say to those who are coming to [freetobeme.com] from areas which are not gay-positive — in fact, that are in very anti-gay contexts, where this is not a conversation, where there is much discrimination and prejudice, and perhaps violence, and perhaps danger — what we want to say to you is: Be wise, be careful, but know inside your own self who you really are, and that you are cherished, you are valuable and you are loved. And know that your voice matters. There are LGBT advocates all through the world, who are working very hard for the human rights of all people, including those who are sexual minorities. Maybe someday you can add your voice to that community saying, “If we diminish anyone’s rights, we are all diminished.”

Watch the video below:

The message comes via New Direction’s Free to Be Me website, which Wendy says has experienced increased traffic from non-western countries.

Image: Exodus International

Exodus International President Alan Chambers has decided, over a year after the launch of the It Gets Better project, that he should support the campaign instead of condemning it.

In May, the ex-gay leader was livid that Toy Story character Woody was being used to promote the message that things get better for bullied teens. We figured out what enraged him so: The message and ministry of Exodus International depends on the opposite message — according to Exodus, it only gets worse until you submit to its religious agenda, renounce your “gay identity” and try to change your sexual orientation. Put simply, as long as gays are oppressed and miserable, Exodus remains in business.

Now, five months on, Chambers has realized he was wrong:

A few months ago I went on record criticizing the “It Gets Better” campaign that has gone viral with an anti-bullying message for LGBT teens. My criticism was over the use of “Woody,” the fictional star from the box office smash Toy Story trilogy. I reacted because I hate when iconic children’s heroes are used to further what I perceive to be adult causes. With further reflection and thought, though, I have to admit that I was wrong to question their marketing strategy without expressing my full support for what is the heart of their campaign – encouraging LGBT teens to choose life.

This slowness is nothing new to Exodus. In March 2009, Exodus board member Don Schmierer participated in a conference that fanned the flames of homophobia in Uganda. An announcement of the Ugandan “Kill the Gays” bill swiftly followed. Yet it was eight months before Alan Chambers weighed in to denounce the bill, a year before Exodus made an official statement and 15 months before Exodus issued a mea culpa taking some responsibility for Schmierer’s role in the conference.

Always too little, too late. If you’re a Christian leader and it takes you a year to realize that executing homosexuals is an idea worth fighting against, or that the lives of kids are more important than your religious agenda, it’s probably time for a radical reassessment of your values.

I’m not a soldier, and I never have been. But I’m guessing if you have the mental and physical strength to protect lives and take lives while preserving your own life in the face of constant deadly danger most of us will never experience, you also have whatever it takes to share close quarters with a soldier you know to be gay.

Today, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell goes into effect. The US military no longer requires gay soldiers to remain in the closet. Gays and lesbians can now get on with serving their country without the unnecessary, unjustifiable and discriminatory pressure of having to hide their partners, families and the basic facts of who they are.

The DADT repeal is not only a victory for equality, but also a victory for common sense. If you can handle bombs, guns, violence, death and destruction, you can handle the fact the guy next to you is gay. If you can’t get over that, you shouldn’t be in the military.

Congratulations to the brave gay men and women of the American military who now have the freedom to be honest and open with their fellow soldiers.

In the video below, a US soldier and formerly anonymous video blogger phones home to tell his dad he’s gay:

Our local team joins this excellent effort, so I just had to post it.  Thanks guys!

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:

Wendy Gritter, of Ontario-based Christian ministry New Direction, tells bullied kids, “It gets better“: