Friday, September 14, 2007
Raw Story reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.
Hmmm, is Condi a lesbian? What do you think?
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(Father Time Punishes Chambers For Lying)Exodus can't turn people from gay to straight. Yet, it still gets new clients. How does such a failed group do this? Simply by lying to vulnerable and desperate people and distorting gay life.
On the Fox Morning Show with Romeo and Juliet, Chambers used a typical Exodus scare tactic to get new members.
CHAMBERS: "What I found was that homosexuality was for the young. There was a time when I wasn't going to have hair anymore. There was a time when I wasn't going to work out every day, and lay out in the sun, and be as much a commodity as I was when I was eighteen."
If one looks back at most of the happy marriage photos from San Francisco and the current marriages in Mass. (not to mention Andrew Sullivan's pictures below), it is obvious that the smiling, happy faces are primarily of middle aged people that look just like the individuals Chambers described.
Furthermore, Chambers would have you believe that straight people, particularly church people, don't care about looks. Perhaps, that is because he does not know of any straight people - including the people he works with at Exodus. But in the real world, straight men and women who are not beautiful don't make it past the velvet rope either. It is not a gay thing - but a fact of humanity. (if you are rich or famous, there is an exception to the rule)
What Chambers did was a sleazy attempt to smear GLBT people and terrify young people into entering his failed ministry. What he is essentially saying is - "you might as well join my bizarre ministry, because you will suffer even more if you come out of the closet."How does this man look at himself in the morning? Has there ever been a more dishonest leader of Exodus?
On a side note, since Chambers has taken over Exodus, he has aged, like 30 years. I guess lying takes its toll. The good news is, even if he looks like shit when he finally comes out, there will be someone who loves him for who he truly is - contrary to the tired propaganda he spews on national television.
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A
new study asks if a man's sexual orientation can be observed by the way he walks; the study also addresses how that "snap judgment can unleash a series of stereotypes--even from the most liberal-minded."
A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a mans sexual orientation, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
This simply can't be true. After all, "ex-gay" leader Alan Chambers and his deputy Randy Thomas swish through the halls of Congress trying to pass anti-gay legislation - and they are straight. They have even sworn on a stack of Bibles.
This whole study reminds me of Brian, a guy I dated several years ago in Washington, DC. He once recounted a story of coming out to his mother when he was eighteen. He sat her down and said, Mom, I'm gay."
Without skipping a beat she replied, "I know honey, I've seen you walk."
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
Is New Study Scripture Masquerading As Science? Truth Wins Out warned news organizations today to be skeptical of a biased "ex-gay"
sham study that will be released by right wing therapists in Nashville this afternoon. The "research," which was conducted by
Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and
Mark A. Yarhouse of Pat Robertson University, reportedly will show that a significant percentage of gay people can become straight through religious-based counseling.
"It comes as no shock that anti-gay 'researchers' at Wheaton College and
Pat Robertson University would release a study that claims you can pray away the gay," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "I suppose their next study will provide support for Pat Robertson's theory that homosexuality causes meteors and hurricanes."
Caution should be taken in prematurely critiquing the study until the full methodology is available. However, based on unconfirmed reports there is great concern that these notorious anti-gay researchers did little more than telephone professional ex-gay lobbyists and ministers from Exodus International and asked them if they had "changed." If this is the case, it is likely that the study results are suspect, if not wholly invalid, says Truth Wins Out.
"It appears as if this study is the equivalent of the Phillip Morris 'research' team interviewing members of the company's public relations team on the safety of cigarettes," said Besen. "This study may be a deceptive sham with the goal of making it appear as if science backs fundamentalist beliefs on homosexuality."
There is also the concern that the study sample is unusually small. Additionally, there is no indication that key physical measures or tests were included, such as a "No Lie MRI," which is a scientific truth-detecting brain scan.
"Any 'ex-gay' study that does not include physical components that measure truth are essentially meaningless," said Besen. "After several key ex-gay leaders have been caught in sex scandals, their tales of transformation lack credibility," said Besen. "It is folly to suggest that telephone interviews can be considered genuine research. News organizations should be highly skeptical of such a mockery of the scientific method."
Jones and Yarhouse have made a cottage industry of attempting to mold scientific conclusions so they will conform to their devoutly held religious beliefs. Commenting on a 1991 debate over the ordination of gay Episcopal priests, Jones told the Associated Press that those who support ordaining homosexuals are trying "to normalize a pattern which is destructive and abnormal."
In a Sept. 14, 2004 interview with The Virginian-Pilot, Yarhouse explained that he tells clients that their homosexual feelings do not mean they have to identify as gay. "Christ, or God, has a pre-existing claim on their sexuality" that trumps same-sex attractions, Yarhouse said.
In an
April 2006 interview for the anti-gay website NARTH.com, Jones and Yarhouse explain the motivation for their work. "As evangelical Christians, it seemed to us that homosexuality is the area where more pressure is being put on the church to depart from the explicit moral teachings of scripture than any other area."
The release of their study results in Nashville coincides with a regional conference of the ex-gay organization Exodus International and the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference. The full study results will be released on Oct. 10, in the form of a book by Christian publisher InterVarsity Press.
Truth Wins OUT is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the "ex-gay" myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit www.TruthWinsOut.org.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The couple
got married in Provincetown, MA!!! We wish them a happy life together.
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Monday, September 10, 2007
(Weekly Column)It was the oddest event in my fifteen-year activism career.
I had ventured to Orlando, Florida last summer to attend the National Education Association's annual meeting. Crashing the conference was the so-called "Ex-Gay Educators Caucus," a sham organization run primarily by
anti-gay lobbyists, who are attempting to get the viewpoints of "former homosexuals" into public schools. To counter their presence, I staged a press conference outside the huge convention center.
Following the media event, I unassumingly straggled into the gargantuan showroom where there were booths as far as the eye could see, representing numerous causes and products. Eventually, I spotted the ex-gay booth, staffed by a man who ran a Focus on the Family offshoot, ex-lesbian Janet Boynes and a woman who claimed to represent Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX). I slowly walked up to the booth and began peering at the group's literature.
Over the years, I have visited anti-gay booths or conferences dozens of times. In almost every case, we engaged in light banter, shook hands and politely agreed to disagree. They regularly come to our events and we, in turn, visit theirs - and there is an unspoken rule that the opposition will be treated courteously, if only because you don't want to be harassed when in "enemy territory."
This time it was different.
I asked one of the volunteers if any of the people in the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus were actually ex-gay educators. As far as I could tell, the contingent consisted of only one teacher's assistant with the rest being right wing lobbyists with a political agenda. One older woman, who identified herself as the PFOX representative, became belligerent and accused me of starting trouble. Sensing I was not welcome, I turned around to exit, but was confronted by "ex-gay" Ohio lobbyist
Greg Quinlan, who bumped my chest and got in my face. I sternly warned him to back off and let me leave in peace.
I turned to walk away, but was unexpectedly met by the police. Both Quinlan and the PFOX representative turned the situation around and began whining that they were victims and that I had tried to pick a fight. I was in complete shock, in that I had been totally set up. Fortunately, the cops let me go and that was, for the most part, the end of the situation.
Having lived through this surreal experience, it came as no surprise when PFOX recently outright faked a hate crime at the Arlington County Fair in Virginia. The unthinkable started on Aug. 28, after PFOX sent out a press release with the headline, "Gays Assault Ex-Gays At County Fair." According to the release:
"As happens every year, gay activists disrupted our booth activities. They screamed obscenities, threw our materials from the exhibit table to the ground, insisted we recognize their same-sex 'spouses,' demanded that PFOX leave, and hit a PFOX volunteer because he is ex-gay."
The website Ex-Gay Watch investigated the claims and found that a slight disagreement occurred between a woman and a male PFOX representative (much like what happened to me in Orlando.) However, Ex-Gay Watch's David Roberts contacted Jackie Abrams, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Fair. Abrams said that no physical altercation occurred, police were never called and no one was ejected from the fairgrounds, as PFOX had claimed.
"I was in radio contact with the other board members during the Fair, and definitely would have known if the police had been summoned. It did not happen," Abrams said.
Jay Fisette, a member of the Arlington County Board, backed this version of events.
"The alleged incident is a fiction," said Fissette. "It makes for a good story, and possibly helps some with fundraising, but remains untrue. Both the Arlington County Police and the County Fair Board state they have no awareness or record of such an incident. Having spent quite a bit of time at the County Fair myself, I'm not sure the PFOX booth received much attention at all over that weekend."
Indeed, PFOX used the bogus story to solicit funds telling members that, "...our brochures and flyers cost money to print. We also have to pay for exhibit fees and travel. If you would like to help with costs, please make a tax deductible donation."
Predictably, The Big Lie was repeated by Focus on the Family who will further any fib if it fosters their faith. Unless PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs comes up with an explanation to justify what appears to be a sickening act of deceit, she ought to resign in disgrace. While her reprehensible organization never had much credibility to begin with, its remaining thread of respectability vanished the day PFOX cried wolf over a fabricated hate crime.
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