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…

Ex-gay Stephen Bennett, now working as a realtor, no longer has a website for “Stephen Bennett Ministries.” Links that once led to sites associated with him, such as www.sbministries.org, now lead to dead ends. The cache of SBministries.org has a link that leads to an iGroops page called “The Parents Group,” but no mention of Bennett is made on that page. Bennett used to have an iGroops page but that too seems to be down – here is a screenshot of the cached link.

Over the past few months Bennett has been very actively begging for donations, and attempting to stave off musings of the possibility that he was leaving his ministry:

Let’s Put An End To “Rumours”…
Several homosexual activists are claiming “victory!” that “Stephen Bennett is no longer in ministry” and that “SBM has finally closed!!”WRONG. DEAD WRONG.

Friends, Stephen Bennett IS NOT out of ministry — nor am I going ANYWHERE. SBM is experiencing one of the most financially difficult times we have ever had — and these ministry doors have not closed yet. I DO NEED YOUR HELP TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING.. SEE BELOW.

However, NO — Stephen Bennett isn’t going ANYWHERE!!

For now, however, Stephen Bennett Ministries has no online presence.

Staunch ex-gay Stephen Bennett has apparently moved to yet another work-from-home project.  While Good As You’s Jeremy Hooper may have spoiled the grand opening, the cache still shows the details of the  now locked page.  More can be seen below from the brief RSS feed:

Bennett has run through a lot of small business ventures to earn his living; sign making, drawing, singing, ex-gay, podcast, virtual church, private discussion group, selling real estate, and now sewing and selling pajama bottom pants to name a few.  Many of these ventures required donations to provide the capital, from which Bennett and his wife would take their paycheck and expenses.  This is perfectly legal to our knowledge, but in Bennett’s case not particularly efficient.  For example, in 2006, Bennett’s ministry reported gross income of nearly $300,000.  From that, Bennett and his wife received approx $125K in compensation and miscellaneous benefits, along with nearly $50K in travel expenses (Form 990 – 2006).

Many in the ex-gay industry give us reason to question their sincerity.  When facts are few, it makes trust even harder to come by.  But in our opinion, few have such a strong ring of insincerity as Stephen Bennett.  Despite many chances to give depth and support to his story, he has not done so.  And his dogged claim of 100% homosexual to heterosexual, while just what the anti-gay activist right wants to hear, is far from both the data and the reality of ex-gay programs.

If the pattern continues, “Daddy Pants” will be replaced at some point in the near future with yet another idea.  The requirements are only that it can be done from home, take little money to start and sell for more than it should.  Then again, if it prevents his contribution to the pain and confusion of GLBT’s, perhaps we should all buy a pair?

H/T: Good As You

Whenever something remotely gay or ex-gay hits the headlines, Stephen Bennett is there pandering with a press release. He so desperately wants to be relevant, and yet he just isn’t. At times I actually feel sorry for him.

Responding to media questions about presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee’s 1992 statement on isolating those with HIV/AIDS, one can almost see Bennett jumping up and down like an attention-starved puppy as he issues yet another press release. This time he bills himself as “a worldwide Christian support community for parents with children who are homosexual, HIV positive or children who have died from complications due to HIV/AIDS.” When did he add the HIV/AIDS part? Apparently just yesterday, but then it does mesh nicely with the Huckabee issue.

It’s a coincidence that Stephen left his homosexual lifestyle in 1992 — the same year now presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made his statements on HIV/AIDS and reference to homosexuality as being “sinful.”

Smooth Stephen, real smooth.

Bennett has done a lot of things. He used to draw the portraits of celebrities (not half bad), then send them in as a fan and have them signed. Some might even think the work was commissioned by the celebrities themselves, though we are sure not intentionally. This was before his sign business, but on to the interesting stuff.

When he started a podcast, he called it a “nationwide radio program.” Apparently charging to listen wasn’t working out, so he started a church — a “virtual” church. Originally you could get sermons sent to you for $50 a month, but the material has become so stale it’s free now. It was creepy to hear him ask for everyone to gather round in a circle and hold hands, knowing he was probably sitting at his computer recording it all by himself. Read more…

When I learned of the following ad from Right Wing Watch, I was immediately disgusted at the advertisers.

And so were two ex-gay activists.

The ad, for a San Francisco S&M fair for glbt and heterosexual people, did not target impressionable family audiences and it is apparently hard to find in print, even in San Francisco.

But no matter: It turns a cherished and peaceful religious celebration of unity and brotherhood into a carnal display of certain medically dangerous behaviors. It also portrays gay people as the antithesis of Christians — in other words, as antichrists.

While there may be a role for controversial art in society, such for-profit advertising at the expense of people of faith — including gay people — can serve no legitimate, civil, or constructive purpose. Gay people of faith can and should join others in thwarting prurient advertisers who capitalize upon the denigration of peaceful religion and brotherhood and who promote certain medically condemned activities among at-risk populations.

Unfortunately, as I will demonstrate momentarily, people like ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett apparently do not want helpful allies and they do not really want to solve problems. Like so many pro-lifers and pro-choicers, Bennett seems more interested in the cultural warfare itself, than in resolving issues or affirming shared community values.

Exodus’ Randy Thomas, on the other hand, reacted with admirable restraint — perhaps an unnecessary degree of restraint, given the severity of the offense.

Read more…

Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett suffered a racist verbal slip last week. But it was not an entirely isolated incident. Republic of T reminds us that Bennett has linked to white supremacists before. (Past coverage: Good As You, Ex-Gay Watch). Republic of T recalls other examples of ex-gay racism, and sees a broader pattern of racism in the ex-gay political movement.

Not long ago, the White House issued a picture of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife holding their new grandchild, Samuel David Cheney. Samuel is the child of the Cheney’s daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe.

As we reported, ex-gay Stephen Bennett was so incensed that the White House would refer to the Cheney’s daughter and her partner as the parents that he issued a press release which stated emphatically that only biological parents were “REAL” parents. [emphasis in original] This prompted a principled rebuke from Exodus president Alan Chambers, the adoptive father of two children, and a less than adult counter comment by Bennett here on XGW.

For his part, Bennett wrote an after the fact post on his blog trying to explain that only same-sex parents were a sinful charade, saying this exonerated him from Chamber’s (and our) claims. He never did explain why this clarification was in an obscure section of his website and not in the press release itself.

Now it appears that Bennett isn’t so convinced of the worth of adoptive parents after all. He has made a similar statement in yesterday’s entry of his blog, the subject of which is the recent same-sex marriage vote in Massachusetts.

The Goodridge lesbians – plantiffs [sic] who started this “gay” marriage mess – broke up an left one another only two years after saying, “I do.”

Obviously — they didn’t and a ten year old girl was left in the wake of these self-centered lesbians’ destruction, while she has a REAL father somewhere, out there.

Just because the government is pandering to the P-Town crowd mentality, real marriage has been degraded and devalued and “playing house” has been elevated to “legal” status.

Again, emphasis on the “REAL” father, i.e. the biological father. Certainly after the ordeal two weeks ago Bennett should be aware of how callous it is for him to keep emphasizing the idea that biological parents are the only “REAL” parents — regardless of his opinion of same-sex relationships.

Bennett also makes sport of the fact that the couple’s relationship ended after two years, calling them “self-centered lesbians” and cracking a sarcastic joke about their vows. No one should have to point out the fact that same-sex couples are not behind the overwhelming popularity of no-fault divorce in this country. Marriages can and do fail, sometimes after only a brief time. It’s unfortunate to say the least, but it is not a gay or lesbian issue.

Self-proclaimed ex-gay Stephen Bennett has a habit of issuing questionable statements, apparently to gain news coverage. As he fades from his minor moment in the spotlight – even mainstream ex-gay organizations don’t seem to care for him – he makes more and more disturbing claims to draw attention to whatever ministry he is promoting at any given time. Bennett’s offerings are often for fee only, which is described as a tax deductible donation.

This time Bennett is upset over a picture issued by the White House of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife holding their new grandchild, Samuel David Cheney. Samuel is the child of the Cheney’s daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. That’s the part that incensed Bennett.

Unlike the official White House photo caption, a man and a woman, a Daddy and a Mommy, are Samuel David Cheney’s REAL biological parents.

Then who is Heather Poe?

Heather Poe is Mary Cheney’s live-in lesbian lover. She may act like a parent, she may treat the baby as a parent, she may love this baby with all of her heart, but in this reality we all live in, Heather Poe is NOT the baby’s real parent. She has NO biological connection to the child whatsoever. Some man, the baby’s real Daddy, is the child’s other REAL parent.

In his fervor to portray same-sex parents as vile and invalid, which is callous enough, he does the same to all families with adopted children. The foundation of his argument is that only biological parents are “REAL” parents [his emphasis] no matter how much genuine love exists between them. Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization and himself the father of two adopted children, had this to say in response:

Read more…

Subject: Brainwashing children about homosexuality: YouTube
The homosexual brainwashing of kids in schools…
If you haven’t already seen these, get ready.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mil2ohzJ6gs&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spz5yN5I2wU&NR=1

That was the juicy little email sent out by Mission America this evening, a conservative Christian political outfit operated by Linda Harvey of Columbus, OH. Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett sent one out to his members as well. On the other end is what appears to be pirated video from the 8 year old documentary It’s Elementary, along with hardcore racist and Nazi propaganda.

The video in the links above is of a sample classroom where teachers speak intelligently about gay people to help demonstrate how to help prevent stereotypes and prejudice later in life. This is ironic, considering the fact that the owner of the YouTube account has tagged it with the word “faggots” and has surrounded it with other videos entitled Hitler and Keep America White.

With the other titles so obvious, and the epithets right next to the videos in the links, one is left to wonder if Bennett and Mission America are so entrenched in hate that they didn’t even notice what they were promoting.

It should be noted that Mission America is one of the organizations who supported a boycott of the Day of Silence, calling it a day “in which students and some supportive faculty intentionally remain silent throughout the school day to protest alleged oppression of homosexuals.” [emphasis added]

A Tenable Belief analyzes ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett’s holiday fund-raising appeal. On his home page, Bennett claims an immediate need for $25,000 to repay debts and then warns that his activist operation might not continue unless donors supply $100,000 by Dec. 31 to cover just the first three months of 2007.

ATB notices what’s missing from Bennett’s claims of financial hardship:

• No mention is made of funds earmarked for, or expenses paid because of, the radio show, the Jerusalem trip, or the new church.
• A drop in donations would be expected after giving up travel for preaching and speaking engagements in June.
• Receiving $100K in December might increase Bennett’s peace of mind, but only $25K is urgently needed to pay off debt.
• Is the new church is consuming a significant proportion of the ministry’s energy? If so, is there a plan to bring in enough $50/month global members in order to fund it?