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-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
-- Glatze (Rt.) at Harvard in 2005 with Judy Shepard-- (Weekly Column)
Charlene Cothran (Venus magazine) and Michael Glatze (Young Gay America magazine editor) were gay niche publishers who discovered that peddling fiction is much juicer (and potentially more profitable) than selling straight news on gay life. The newly minted "ex-gay" stars tell us they have seen the light - unfortunately, it appears to be the spotlight - as they now parade themselves in the Christian media, pawning their terrific tales of transformation. Cothran and Glatze explain that they are simply offering a small snapshot of their new lives, but it sure seems like a full-blown photo shoot.
Interestingly, both Cothran and Glatze found God and renounced homosexuality shortly after they split up from what they once considered their spouses. In a sense, it seems like these break-ups caused nervous breakdowns where the embittered party tried to punish an "ex" by becoming ex-gay.
Cothran's conversion occurred after she split up with her life-partner of ten years. The divorce hurt so badly that Cothran remained celibate for three years - hoping that they would eventually reconcile. When the relationship was finally on its deathbed, the former Venus publisher became born again. How convenient.
Meanwhile, Glatze moved from San Francisco to Halifax, Canada in 2004 with his partner to start a family, according to "Weird Nut Daily," a right wing publication. His conversion happened after a pro-gay speech he delivered at Harvard in 2005 - meaning that that he and his husband likely split within months of his miraculous makeover.
Instead of checking out potential new dates, Cothran and Glatze simply checked out, found Jesus, and blamed their personal failures on homosexuality. Whereas most people handle getting dumped by drinking at the bar, those susceptible to the ex-gay myth simply drink the right wing Kool-Aid. They drown their pain in prayer and their sorrow in Scripture, while rationalizing that if they quit love, they will never hurt so badly again.
Unfortunately, the opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality for ex-gays - it is a lifetime of loneliness, despair and celibacy.
"I am physically attracted to the spirit of Christ right now," Cothran said in an interview with the online website Clay Cane. "I would say after 29 years of walking in the sin of lesbianism that if the devil were going to try and tempt me that he's probably not going to send a football player, if you will, because that didn't do it for me. You follow me?"
Yeah, we do follow you - you are a re-closeted lesbian who has given up sex, hardly an accomplishment or meriting a toxic appearance on Rev. Pat Robertson's 700 Club.
Likewise, Glatze suggests that he isn't having any luck with the opposite sex either. "Healing from the Sins of the world will not happen in an instant, but, it will happen," he proclaimed.
Actually, if ex-gay history is any indication, it won't happen, and Glatze will be quite disillusioned when the promises of "healing" turn out to be an illusion.
Ironically, the new spokespeople can't even agree on the nature of homosexuality. Glatze glibly dismisses the love of countless people as "lust-based." Cothran, on the other hand, diverges from this viewpoint by saying that, "it's not all about sex. I say that in every interview heterosexuals have this view that it's all about sex, no, it's not." (However, she does believe being gay is the work of the Devil)
Equally vacuous is the reason Glatze offers for his homosexuality - suggesting he was gay because his parents died before he was 20. I happened to have had lunch with my parents this afternoon. Guess what, I’m still gay and so are many other people who grew up in traditional settings.
Glatze also condemns his life as a gay man because of "the darkest days of late-night parties, substance abuse."
And, I suppose, gay people built all those meth labs dotting the Midwest. Part of right wing dogma holds that when a straight person snorts a line it is a personal sin. However, when a gay person does the exact same thing, it is a communal sin and part of a "lifestyle."
Meanwhile, Cothran does not confine her newfound intolerance to the GLBT community.
"I know many Muslims, who were firm out what they believe, but got sick and was given six months...but faced death's door and suddenly they pushed that Muslim stuff to the side and said - what must I do to be saved!"
Yeah, right. We all know "many" Muslims facing mortality who turn to Jesus at the last moment. Where does Cothran hangout, the Muslim hospice? What is it about so-called ex-gays that when they find the Father, they lose the facts?
While Cothran and Glatze claim to be washing away their sins, it seems more like brainwashing or a deliberate attempt to strike out at those who hurt them. Whatever their true reasons - judging by the number of cameras following them around, I suspect that both already feel like they are in heaven.
20 Comments:
It's clear that Glatze became involved with Roy Masters and the Foundation of Human Understanding. David Kupenlian started as the editor of Roy's magazine 'The Iconoclast' and then 'New Dimenstions'. WND was headquartered near Grants Pass Oregon on a retreat Roy owns called 'Tall Timber Ranch'. If look into it, you will also find that ex-gay Matt Drudge also sought help from Roy Masters (who used to be a guest on Drudge's old tv show). In the case of Drudge, the 'cure' didn't take so well because he is very worldy-oriented (into clubs, dancing, gay music, fashion). Drudge even spoke about the Christian meditation that Roy teaches in his interview with Radar magazine years ago.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 12:03 AM
Matt Drudge also earns a fortune as a professional gossip and slanderer, a vice that the both the old and new testaments condemn much more frequently than same-sex sex. Ah, but evangelicals have a long history of cherry-picking from the Bible to suit their agenda.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 12:02 PM
In a sense, it seems like these break-ups caused nervous breakdowns where the embittered party tried to punish an "ex" by becoming ex-gay.
Glatze is full of shit if he thinks gay relationships are all 'lust-based'. Like heteros, when gays 'get married' our sex lives tend to tank just like straight people joke about. If they want to stop gay sex, they should be pushing for all of us to be able to get married. (laugh)
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 4:01 PM
Read an open letter to Michael that addresses many of the points he makes in his essay...here:
Warren Throckmorton has interviewed Glatze, and Glatze apparently denies involvement with Roy Masters. (He says he has never met him.) Glatze is now Mormon. http://wthrockmorton.com/
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 10:52 PM
And I thought the heartbreak haircut I got when I was 17 was an excessive response to the end of a relationship....
posted by CrackerLilo, at
7/05/2007 10:37 AM
Doesn't it creep you out to read things like, "I am physically attracted to the spirit of Christ right now"?
"Physically" attracted to the "spirit"? COME. ON.
How sad that people cannot understand that God cares NOTHING about your sexuality! God could care less who you're screwing. To think that the Master of the Universe is interested in or concerned about the minutae of our lives is ridiculous.
posted by cobalt_blue, at
7/05/2007 12:18 PM
On Tuesday, the website of the "American Family Association" splashed Glatze's story all over its pages. Imagine my astonishment when, just this morning, I went back to that site to see if there were any updates. Lo and behold, the story was completely gone! I wondered "what happened", so I did more research. It turns out the Mr. Glatze has joined the Mormon church, and since that doesn't fit with their false reality, the story has been removed and all comments deleted.
The phonies of the religious right couldn't care less about the true personhood of Mr. Glatze or any other gay individual. In this case, it took them less than 48 hours to hang the man out to dry when they discovered that his "miracle" didn't actually fit into their own worldview.
It's the same with Charlene Cothran. Those sanctimonious religious kooks never give a damn about Ms. Cothran or her life, but all of a sudden, they just adore her. Their "Christian love" is totally conditional and is based upon day to day circumstances, not on any real feeling for the individual in question. My guess is that after a couple of years of being pimped out by the fundamentalists, these two dear people will finally see the light. Religion is disgusting.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/05/2007 1:40 PM
The World Net Daily's introductory article incorrectly said Glatze became editor of YGA at age 22, when in fact this magazine did not exist then, but during 1999-2001 he was an assistant/associate/managing editor of XY Magazine, which was not named when he obliquely called it "bordering on pornography." Also, Glatze fails to name his partner Benjie Nycum who also became an assistant editor of XY Magazine. It is obvious after rereading Glatze's XY writing that he had been mentally ill, sexually confused and was supporting conservative ex-gay-like thoughts early as 1999. I've quoted some examples of this, along with a picture of three covers that say 'straight antigay wacko,' next to his picture on my blog page Michael Glatze straight antigay wacko XY editor (7/5/07)
posted by Thomas Kraemer, at
7/05/2007 5:13 PM
Now that Mr. Glatze is on the straight and narrow path and following God's law in all things, I am hopeful that he will return the money that I sent him for two years' worth of a subscription to YGA for my son, of which we received one issue. At the time, I chalked it up to a youthful publishing venture that just didn't work out, and figured that they were trying to do good things for gay youth anyhow. But now that Mr. Glatze has had a life transformation, I would think that he might want to renounce his ill-gotten gains and send me back my $30 that I sent him after he wrote me a pitiful letter about how much they needed the money to keep on publishing.
What drain do they scrape kooks like these two from? If you decide that you are actually more bi than gay, AND that you would like to live with/marry someone of the opposite sex; fine by me.
Why then do you have to join up with fundamentalists and indulge in fag- and dyke-baiting with them? I don't think either of these two are wrapped very tightly.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/05/2007 6:26 PM
As a Canadian, this is indeed sad. I pray for his ex-husband and their child, if one exists.
As a clergyman, I find his "conversion by Dominionist theocons" to portray psychosexual orientation as description of non-monogamous trysts, to be absolutely disingenuous.
Hugh Heffner would not have led the empire in pajamas for the past half century is sexual promiscuity was relegated to the gay person.
I suggest that Glatze's promise of celibacy or heterosexual activity will eventually make him return to his obvious psychosexual orientation. In the interim, the Homophobic Spiritual Violence, turned inward, will hurt many until he sees what pain he has inflicted on himself and those who loved him enough to commit.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/06/2007 11:19 AM
When exactly did "Christianity" turn into such a joke? They obsess about the sex lives of strangers; they fire a beloved Lutheran pastor merely because he's gay, they oppose a hate crimes bill on the grounds that "pastors who preach against homosexuality will be imprisoned". How did those people ever get convinced that such pitiful actions are even remotely representative of goodness, integrity or truth itself? It seems "church" has become a place where neurotic, uneducated half-brainers can assert the holiness of their hick views, all with the accompanying background music of a "hallelujah chorus". The Christians have become a group which unabashedly appeals to the worst in people. We are witnessing the great apostasy.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/06/2007 12:22 PM
If it is true that this guy was in fact straight but lived as a gay man then he is very sick. He sure can’t claim that he was socially pressured to live as a gay man in a culture that is as anti gay as America is. I think he might have a psychotic bipolar illness. I am always suspicious of people who seem only able to live on the extremes. When is the last time you heard of someone going from gay to exgay and becoming a moderate Christian. Never, they go from the bath house to Christian dominionists.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/07/2007 2:51 AM
'Equally vacuous is the reason Glatze offers for his homosexuality - suggesting he was gay because his parents died before he was 20. I happened to have had lunch with my parents this afternoon. Guess what, I’m still gay and so are many other people who grew up in traditional settings.' Maybe this shows that different people can respond differently to the same things.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/07/2007 7:10 PM
Sometimes I wonder if this is really a sincere conversion for Michael or if this simply is a ruse to get YGA Magazine up and running again. It appears that YGA Magazine had published 5 or so issues and then ran out of money (www.ygamag.com). In the April/May 2005 issue of YGA, Mike wrote an ed-op piece titled “God: You.” I don’t doubt that Michael wants a relationship with God, but his conversion came from looking at God from different religions and viewpoints, including meditation (he was working for Shambhala Institute during 2006(http://www.shambhalainstitute.org/Fieldnotes/Issue11/index.html). Mike then became involved with the Mormon Church in Halifax and was baptized in late April 2007. I wonder if Mr. Glatze really has a deep understanding of the true grace of God? It sounded like he went to a revival meeting of some sort and came back accepting the Lord as his savior and then decided to publically announce this to the world. If so, let us hope that as he grows in his faith, he will achieve a better understanding of God’s true and ultimate grace for all.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/08/2007 5:28 PM
