Ex-Gay Watch

A psychologist and one-time Exodus* counsellor has told the Brisbane Times, Australia, has denounced the ex-gay movement, saying he walked away 25 years ago because it forced gay men into “living an even greater lie” that hurt themselves and their families.

Paul Martin, now an equal rights activist and head of the Centre for Human Potential in Brisbane, spoke out after Queensland Member of Parliament Fiona Simpson was criticized for her ex-gay views. The politician had lent public support to Exodus in 2002, praising the organization for giving homosexuals “the freedom to grow into homosexuality over time.”

Here are Paul Martin’s own words, from the Brisbane Times article:

“We’d parade men who went through the program and got married around like they were champions, and they’d all say their lives were better since they committed to God and enjoyed the sort of relationship God intended – with a woman, having children,” Mr Martin said. “But you’d then have a conversation where they admitted their lives were far more painful now they were living this even greater lie – they were burdened with guilt because they were hurting the woman they were married to, or engaging in desperate sex acts in public toilets or bushes that were even further from their belief system [than committed same-sex relationships].”

Mr Martin said such interactions, coupled with his own struggle to meld his fundamental Christian beliefs with his homosexual orientation, eventually gave rise to his decision to walk away from the ministry, its church, and move to Brisbane.

Read the full article here. An accompanying video features an interview with Paul Martin.

* Exodus Global Alliance is the worldwide branch of (the confusingly named) Exodus International.

Correction: Fiona Simpson was incorrectly identified as “Australia’s Community Services Minister” in an earlier version of this article.

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:

Minnesota Christian therapist Marcus Bachmann, the husband of Republican presidential runner Michele Bachman, is a spokesman for anti-gay and ex-gay causes.

In a 2010 radio interview replayed widely this week  Dr Bachmann expresses his homophobic views quite clearly:

We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. And just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to go down that road. That’s what’s called a “sinful nature.” And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings [from] moving into the action steps.

In an MSNBC report, The Daily Beast‘s David Graham alleges that Bachmann has practiced reparative therapy. When asked whether Bachmann believed in a “gay cure,” Graham said he hadn’t explicitly admitted it, but “that appears to be his attitude.”

Anchor Thomas Roberts also notes that Marcus Bachmann received over $130,000 in US public money last year to fund therapy, and he questions whether government money has been paying for gay-to-straight treatment.

Update 7-7-2011 by David Roberts

Full audio of the Marcus Bachman clip is available below.  While some have implied that his statements were taken out of context, the additional audio is anything but redeeming.  Notice also the host’s question refers to the letter sent to all school superintendents in the US by the bogus “American College of Pediatricians” (not to be confused with the legitimate American Academy of Pediatrics).

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The entire show is archived here.

(Scroll down for 06/24/11 update) Canada’s official party of opposition has voted unanimously to oppose tax-exempt charity status for ex-gay groups such as Exodus Global Alliance.

The federal New Democratic Party, better known simply as the NDP, adopted the resolution at its convention in Vancouver, BC, last weekend. Delegate Michael McLaughlin introduced it thus:

Delegates, an investigation published in September 2010 by [the] LGBT news blog Slap Upside The Head revealed that Exodus Global Alliance, an ex-gay organisation, enjoys registered charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency. Ex-gay organisations claim that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people can be made straight. They take advantage of LGB people, often in vulnerable family situations or at grips with depression and self-hatred, and browbeat them—saying that LGB people never live happy lives, that we are unhealthy and unwhole, and that we never experience love and that the only hope lies in their therapies. [...] We see that they are selling snake oil with benefits given to them by the Canada Revenue Agency at present.

Exodus Global Alliance is based in Toronto, ON, and proclaims that “change is possible for the homosexual through the transforming power of Jesus Christ.” It is partnered with but organizationally separate from the US-based Exodus International, whose president, Alan Chambers, sits on the board of both.

The current government of Canada is Conservative and enjoys widespread religious support. In May this year, the NDP all but wiped out the more centrist Liberal Party to become the official opposition for the first time in its 50-year history.

Update: Here is the full text of the NDP resolution to deny ex-gay organizations charity status:

6-12-11 Resolution on Ex-Gay Associations
Submitted by the NDP Federal LGBT Committee, Quebec Section

Be it resolved that the New Democratic Party call on the Government to immediately remove any charitable status currently enjoyed by “ex-gay” organizations and to see to it that according to this status to such organizations in future be prohibited.

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.

The US government has announced that it is no longer prepared to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

The act enshrined in US federal law the definition of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. DOMA has been one of the chief weapons of anti-marriage-equality campaigners.

Associated Press says the policy reversal “could have major implications for the rights and benefits of gay couples and reignite an emotional debate for the 2012 presidential campaign.”

Tip of the hat to Box Turtle Bulletin.