There,if they persevere in their quest for personal and political freedom,they shall encounter other gays and hopefully gays aiming for self-determination which is the purpose of the suffering of gays of countless past generations.
K6
The result of the suffering, perhaps, but I cannot agree with suffering having a purpose. But maybe it was just an unfortunate choice of words by a person whose mother tongue is not English.
Butler said his parents forced him to take part in the Love in Actions Refuge program aimed at teens. The program is designed to teach teens to resist gay feelings.
The result of the suffering, perhaps, but I cannot agree with suffering having a purpose.
Suffering is unavoidable.The choice is between suffering for some purpose,or fo no purpose at all.Actually,there is a purpose: mere existence for us gays.But I would prefer political independence as a natural outcome (and explanation) for our suffering.
"In the past 30 years since leaving the 'ex-gay' ministry I have seen nothing but shattered lives, depression and even suicide among those connected with the 'ex-gay' movement," Evans writes in his letter to John Smid, Love In Action's current director. "I challenge Christians to investigate all sides of the issue of being gay and Christian. The Church has been wrong in the past regarding moral issues and I'm sure there will be more before Christ returns."
Evans, a gay man, founded what may be the first modern ex-gay group in San Raphael, Calif. in 1973, along with a heterosexual preacher Kent Philpott. Evans left his life partner of ten years to start the gay conversion group. He later dropped out after he realized it didn't work and his best friend committed suicide because he could not turn heterosexual.
"Having the founder of Love In Action step forward to admonish the ministry he started speaks to the utter hopelessness and futility of these groups, not to mention the danger they represent," said Wayne Besen, Author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth (Haworth, 2003). "Most disturbing are the compulsory gay boot camps for teens which are tantamount to child abuse.
They should immediately be shut down."
The experience gives them right: homosexuals of course are able to enchant an innocent female and even make her pregnant a couple of times. The other question is, of course, whether these homos are happy with their sexual live, but they are anyway not supposed to be, so it hardly matters.
I have been researching the "ex-gay" movement in Europe since moving back here in February and have so far found no overt signs of existence, which does not, however, mean that they are not stealthily and under some other guise operating here, especially in Eastern Europe. I will continue to research the topic and post any eventual findings. This is a largely U.S.-borne phenomenon which most of the rest of the world would not countenance.
The situation in Canada is more or less the same as in Europe.
Sadly, I must report that the situation in the province of Alberta regarding the ex-gay phenomenon more closely resembles the situation that pertains in the very worst parts of the United States. Fortunately, the state of family law, even in Alberta, is such that these young people have defenders. The chief problem is in communicating the availability of defence.
Quebec has a well and longtime established anti-church mentality.
Alberta is not likely to impose its ways on the rest of the country,even though it has oil.
And Quebec - where I live and which has no conservative constituency either political or cultural -
has the option of seceding from Canada anyway,thus making of Alberta the distant part of another country.
Have you seen the recent polls? Conservative support rising in Québec. Look out!
This week, I am starting a non-profit organization, Truth Wins OUT to combat right wing misinformation campaigns, particularly the ex-gay hoax. As the author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," I have long witnessed how these groups shatter families and ruin lives. But, conversion therapy has mostly been the domain of the insane and a hobby for right wing fringe groups that exploited homosexuals with low self-esteem for political gain.
This changed on June 5 when President Bush invited Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the nation's largest ex-gay group, to a White House press conference supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same-sex marriage in the U.S. Constitution.
For decades, Exodus International had disingenuously claimed that it had no agenda but to "change" gay people into heterosexuals. But now this pretense has been stripped away as we see that its real aim is to change laws so that GLBT people will remain a persecuted minority.
Exodus has even worked to oppose laws that would penalize gay bashing. A staff member appeared in an ad targeting senators voting on hate crimes legislation that read: "Hate crime laws say we were more valuable as homosexuals than we are now as former homosexuals."
Although Exodus leaders pretend they love openly gay people, their true feelings are transparent. "As a property owner of Orlando, I wouldn't rent to someone who is gay any more than I would rent to a person who is a practicing witch," Chambers once lovingly told an Orlando newspaper.
The reason the president is embracing Exodus is because polls show that Americans who believe homosexuality can be cured are far more likely to support anti-gay legislation. For example, a November 2004 Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates poll shows that 79 percent of people who think homosexuality is inborn support civil unions or marriage equality. Among those who believe sexual orientation is a choice, only 22 percent support civil unions or marriage rights.
It is abundantly clear that the ex-gay ministries are the centerpiece of the right wing's culture war against gay people. Exodus has 12 full-time staffers dedicated to demeaning and dehumanizing GLBT Americans. The gay community has not one full-time individual to counter this propaganda. I am starting Truth Wins OUT (www.truthwinsout.org) to counter this misinformation and level the playing field.
III. LANDMARK LEGAL STRATEGY
The ex-gay ministries are vulnerable to potential lawsuits because they abuse victims and even cause sucides. TWO will create a Legal Advisory Board by working with GLBT legal organizations. This Legal Board would play defense against the latest ex-gay strategy, which is to partner with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Counsel in an effort to intimidate school districts into including ex-gays in public school curriculums.
Do agitators of Ex-gay movement have access to public schools? This is incredible - though, I have heard some particularly smart politicians suggest "intelligent design" to be taught in schools, too.
Probably, the best possibility to make Ex-gay brainwashers stop their dangerous activities is to sue them for psychological abuse and mailpractice. Because the victims are probably mostly young, it is in the hand of LGBT organizations to initiate such law suits on behalf of ex-captives.
Probably, the best possibility to make Ex-gay brainwashers stop their dangerous activities is to sue them for psychological abuse and mailpractice. Because the victims are probably mostly young, it is in the hand of LGBT organizations to initiate such law suits on behalf of ex-captives.
If the gay interest is to prosper,it is in some land where reason,science and education predominate.Not in a place peopled by cultureless serfs giving to superstition and religious faith a large support which no longer exists in other western societies.