Hate crime or another lie?
Apparently a family in Colorado has been the victim of a hate crime. Allegedly, someone has been tampering and burning down signs they have been putting up in their yard.
These are not pro-gay signs so naturally the family is claiming that a "gay activist" is behind the crimes.
Focus on the Family is also making this claim as seen by the headline of their press release detailing the events in question - Gay Activist Starts Fire in Colorado Family's Front Yard (http://family.org/cforum/news/a0042120.cfm)
There are several questions that come up about the incident. The webpage http://www.goodasyou.org/ goes into detail about the questions, so I will just paraphrase.
For one thing - the family claims that a video camera clearly shows the face of the person committing the crime but there are no arrests.
For another thing, the article makes no mention of a police investigation.
Thirdly, as far as I have seen, no other news source has reported the crime.
Now if anyone having to do with gay activism is guilty of this crime, then they should prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for arson and damaging someone's property.
However, if it turns out that this is not the case, then it would be no surprise to me. On more than one occasion, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, etc. have distorted a current event to add fire to their claims about a so-called gay conspiracy.
This is clearly demonstrated by the tone of the article, which seems to milk the "gay want tolerance but can't show tolerance" angle that the anti-gay industry plays like a broken record.
The sad thing about the Colorado incident, no matter the outcome, is that the anti-gay industry will most likely use it in press releases and in front of legislative bodies as proof that we in the gay community do not deserve equal protection under the law.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
The Depressing Distraction of Comparing Race and Sexual Orientation
Apparently some parents in Philadelphia are upset because school officials had the "audacity" to acknowledge the fact that gays are lesbians are positive contributors of society by declaring October as Gay and Lesbian History Month on the school calendar. (http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=24065)
Inevitably it will probably lead to yet another outcry by some of my fellow African-Americans of the shame of comparing the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s to today's gay rights movement.
Meanwhile same gender loving people of color will yet again be left out in the cold; our needs and visibility will be ignored because of a silly jockeying of moral position.
For the record, I don't like the fact that I hardly ever see any gays or lesbians of color in the cover of the Advocate or that sometimes we get ugly resistance from our fellow gays and lesbians when we put on pride events focusing on our heritage and our needs.
But in all honesty, in the great scheme of things, the methods African-Americans were brutalized is irrelevant when one considers why the brutalization occurred in the first place.
Why indeed were African-Americans victimized in the United States? For that matter, why were over 12 million innocent people slaughtered by the Nazis? Why have Jewish people been the scapegoats throughout the ages.
It is the same reason why thousands of Russians were killed by their own leader Josef Stalin. Or the same reason James Byrd was dragged to death in Texas, the same reason why Billy Joe Gaither, a gay man, was murdered and then set afire, the same reason why Sakia Gunn, an African-American lesbian, was stabbed to death in New York.
It was because of hatred, fear, and the ideas of supremacy and entitlement.
These tainted characteristics are universal. African-Americans have not suffered more than gays, nor have Jews suffered more than African-Americans, et cetera, et cetera.
In short, passing legislation against the gay community because of propaganda that say gays have shorter life spans or that gays molest children at high rates is no different than passing laws based on the idea that African-Americans are inferior or more criminal-minded.
The extent of how one group has been victimized by the hatred of another should never be used as some type of barometer of prominence or status symbol.
Once we lose sight of this, we lose all of our moral integrity.
Apparently some parents in Philadelphia are upset because school officials had the "audacity" to acknowledge the fact that gays are lesbians are positive contributors of society by declaring October as Gay and Lesbian History Month on the school calendar. (http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=24065)
Inevitably it will probably lead to yet another outcry by some of my fellow African-Americans of the shame of comparing the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s to today's gay rights movement.
Meanwhile same gender loving people of color will yet again be left out in the cold; our needs and visibility will be ignored because of a silly jockeying of moral position.
For the record, I don't like the fact that I hardly ever see any gays or lesbians of color in the cover of the Advocate or that sometimes we get ugly resistance from our fellow gays and lesbians when we put on pride events focusing on our heritage and our needs.
But in all honesty, in the great scheme of things, the methods African-Americans were brutalized is irrelevant when one considers why the brutalization occurred in the first place.
Why indeed were African-Americans victimized in the United States? For that matter, why were over 12 million innocent people slaughtered by the Nazis? Why have Jewish people been the scapegoats throughout the ages.
It is the same reason why thousands of Russians were killed by their own leader Josef Stalin. Or the same reason James Byrd was dragged to death in Texas, the same reason why Billy Joe Gaither, a gay man, was murdered and then set afire, the same reason why Sakia Gunn, an African-American lesbian, was stabbed to death in New York.
It was because of hatred, fear, and the ideas of supremacy and entitlement.
These tainted characteristics are universal. African-Americans have not suffered more than gays, nor have Jews suffered more than African-Americans, et cetera, et cetera.
In short, passing legislation against the gay community because of propaganda that say gays have shorter life spans or that gays molest children at high rates is no different than passing laws based on the idea that African-Americans are inferior or more criminal-minded.
The extent of how one group has been victimized by the hatred of another should never be used as some type of barometer of prominence or status symbol.
Once we lose sight of this, we lose all of our moral integrity.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Being black and gay ain't easy
I see the anti-gay industry had another one of their lovefests in which they patted themselves on the back and criticized everyone else who dares have an opinion that is opposite of their own. (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/)
They call it a Values Voter Summit, but modesty precludes me from calling it what it really is.
But something happened there that really disturbs me.
A black minister, Wellington Boone, actually used a slur to demonize gay people and while it is nothing unusual, it had a deeper meaning for me.
An unfortunate side effect of the election of 2004 is the outreach the anti-gay industry made to black churches. So many of our so-called men of God wanted so much a piece of Bush's "faith based initiative" monies that they gladly attacked the gay community.
And not even with having the decent good taste of being subtle.
I have noticed that black ministers who have joined the anti-gay industry seem to revel in the image of being "attack dogs." Wellington Boone is just one of the new ones.
From DL Foster to Talbert Swann to Ken Hutcherson to Dwight McKissic, some black ministers nationwide are resorting to schoolyard name calling and posturing in order to get their names in press.
They are so wrapped up in their own egos that they don't even see how they are contributing to the problem.
A perfect example would be in my area of South Carolina. One Sunday in a local church (which shall remain nameless) an announcement was made that they had received a substantial monetary grant to educate congregants on HIV and AIDS.
Not less than 30 minutes later, a guest minister stood in the pulpit and inferred that gays are attempting to infiltrate public high schools.
In other words, just how in the hell can this church help stem the flow of HIV when it attacks the very people it should be helping.
For the record, I am a black gay man and I am cynical about the entire thing. A chapter about the hypocrisies of the black church was to be included in my book but I omitted it because I wasn't being fair. I attacked the black church but in all honesty that is only part of the problem.
As long as the mainstream gay community continue to play that diversionary game of "should we or should we not compare the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement" black gays and lesbians will be left out.
As long as we push visual heroes like Lance Bass, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell without giving any acknowledgement to folks like Keith Boykin, Nadine Smith or Mandy Carter, we are only adding to the problem.
Black gays and lesbians should receive visibility and support but the black church ain't gonna give it to them.
The gay community needs to take up the slack.
Linda Harvey - Phony Expert
I see that Linda Harvey of Mission America is striking again (http://joebrummer.com/WordPress/?p=392)
For the luck of those who do not know, Linda Harvey considers herself a Christian and an expert of the gay community. God will decide on the first, but I will decide on the latter.
This woman has no idea what she is talking about. She spouts homophobia in the guise of expert opinion. She has a history of doing this:
"When people have views supporting homosexuality they should not be involved with youth in any way, period. Because they:
will provide inaccurate, misleading information to kids;
may limit a student’s opportunity to hear warnings about the behavior;
may advocate or model inappropriate behavior;
may be directly involved in the molestation of kids themselves; or
may be in a position to allow others to do so” - Linda Harvey, Fairy Tales Don’t Come True, February 13, 2006
Linda Harvey is a perfect example of an anti-gay industry propaganda technique; that of the phony expert. As far as I know, Harvey has no training or any degrees in assessing gay people. Her biggest attribute is her picture, which casts her as a wholesome mother figure in the guise of June Cleaver.
The anti-gay industry generally don’t recruit third, unbiased parties in their fact gathering. They create their own experts on the subject of homosexuality. And these phony experts, usually in-house employees or some with affiliations to religious conservative organizations, already have anti-gay biases.
Certainly everything they say and do will put homosexuality in a bad light, whether deserved or not, because that is what they are getting paid for. These so-called experts, like Timothy Dailey, Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, or Linda Harvey, have no training or background in what they claim to have expert opinions in. It seems that their titles are dependent on how well they look in the media, or how adept they can apply spin.
And then there are people like John R. Diggs.
The following excerpt about Diggs is from my upcoming book:
Some of the most dangerous spreaders of anti-gay propaganda are those masquerade their distortions under the guise of being an objective medical practitioner. While people such as Fred Phelps declare where they stand from the first instant, these “ministers of propaganda” seek to soothe their audience, taking the form of a concerned physician while they spread their biases and lies. It is this crowd that can potentially have more of a damaging effect on how America sees the gay community.
Dr. John R. Diggs is one of these false objective medical practitioners.
He published a study entitled The Health Risks of Gay Sex and it is featured on many so-called “pro-family” web sites as a thorough analysis of gay sex. While Diggs is an M.D., he is also co-chair of the Massachusetts Physician Resource Council, which is a part of the Massachusetts Family Institute, another so-called traditional values organization. Despite his credentials, Diggs’s real aim is to smear gays and lesbians.
The Health Risks of Gay Sex is a distortion-ridden research propaganda piece in the vein of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (the legendary piece of propaganda that claimed that Jewish people were attempting to take over the world) that seeks to exploit fears and stereotypes about gays and lesbians. Since he is taking the guise of a “concerned professional,” Diggs does not push forth any conspiracy theories, nor does he dehumanize homosexuals by calling them “radical” and the like.
However, the distortions in this study just do not hold up under close scrutiny:
Twice, he includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlike that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) were distorting their work.
In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” The term is an obsolete medical term. exist and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to what were the circumstances surrounding it.
I see the anti-gay industry had another one of their lovefests in which they patted themselves on the back and criticized everyone else who dares have an opinion that is opposite of their own. (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/)
They call it a Values Voter Summit, but modesty precludes me from calling it what it really is.
But something happened there that really disturbs me.
A black minister, Wellington Boone, actually used a slur to demonize gay people and while it is nothing unusual, it had a deeper meaning for me.
An unfortunate side effect of the election of 2004 is the outreach the anti-gay industry made to black churches. So many of our so-called men of God wanted so much a piece of Bush's "faith based initiative" monies that they gladly attacked the gay community.
And not even with having the decent good taste of being subtle.
I have noticed that black ministers who have joined the anti-gay industry seem to revel in the image of being "attack dogs." Wellington Boone is just one of the new ones.
From DL Foster to Talbert Swann to Ken Hutcherson to Dwight McKissic, some black ministers nationwide are resorting to schoolyard name calling and posturing in order to get their names in press.
They are so wrapped up in their own egos that they don't even see how they are contributing to the problem.
A perfect example would be in my area of South Carolina. One Sunday in a local church (which shall remain nameless) an announcement was made that they had received a substantial monetary grant to educate congregants on HIV and AIDS.
Not less than 30 minutes later, a guest minister stood in the pulpit and inferred that gays are attempting to infiltrate public high schools.
In other words, just how in the hell can this church help stem the flow of HIV when it attacks the very people it should be helping.
For the record, I am a black gay man and I am cynical about the entire thing. A chapter about the hypocrisies of the black church was to be included in my book but I omitted it because I wasn't being fair. I attacked the black church but in all honesty that is only part of the problem.
As long as the mainstream gay community continue to play that diversionary game of "should we or should we not compare the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement" black gays and lesbians will be left out.
As long as we push visual heroes like Lance Bass, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell without giving any acknowledgement to folks like Keith Boykin, Nadine Smith or Mandy Carter, we are only adding to the problem.
Black gays and lesbians should receive visibility and support but the black church ain't gonna give it to them.
The gay community needs to take up the slack.
Linda Harvey - Phony Expert
I see that Linda Harvey of Mission America is striking again (http://joebrummer.com/WordPress/?p=392)
For the luck of those who do not know, Linda Harvey considers herself a Christian and an expert of the gay community. God will decide on the first, but I will decide on the latter.
This woman has no idea what she is talking about. She spouts homophobia in the guise of expert opinion. She has a history of doing this:
"When people have views supporting homosexuality they should not be involved with youth in any way, period. Because they:
will provide inaccurate, misleading information to kids;
may limit a student’s opportunity to hear warnings about the behavior;
may advocate or model inappropriate behavior;
may be directly involved in the molestation of kids themselves; or
may be in a position to allow others to do so” - Linda Harvey, Fairy Tales Don’t Come True, February 13, 2006
Linda Harvey is a perfect example of an anti-gay industry propaganda technique; that of the phony expert. As far as I know, Harvey has no training or any degrees in assessing gay people. Her biggest attribute is her picture, which casts her as a wholesome mother figure in the guise of June Cleaver.
The anti-gay industry generally don’t recruit third, unbiased parties in their fact gathering. They create their own experts on the subject of homosexuality. And these phony experts, usually in-house employees or some with affiliations to religious conservative organizations, already have anti-gay biases.
Certainly everything they say and do will put homosexuality in a bad light, whether deserved or not, because that is what they are getting paid for. These so-called experts, like Timothy Dailey, Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, or Linda Harvey, have no training or background in what they claim to have expert opinions in. It seems that their titles are dependent on how well they look in the media, or how adept they can apply spin.
And then there are people like John R. Diggs.
The following excerpt about Diggs is from my upcoming book:
Some of the most dangerous spreaders of anti-gay propaganda are those masquerade their distortions under the guise of being an objective medical practitioner. While people such as Fred Phelps declare where they stand from the first instant, these “ministers of propaganda” seek to soothe their audience, taking the form of a concerned physician while they spread their biases and lies. It is this crowd that can potentially have more of a damaging effect on how America sees the gay community.
Dr. John R. Diggs is one of these false objective medical practitioners.
He published a study entitled The Health Risks of Gay Sex and it is featured on many so-called “pro-family” web sites as a thorough analysis of gay sex. While Diggs is an M.D., he is also co-chair of the Massachusetts Physician Resource Council, which is a part of the Massachusetts Family Institute, another so-called traditional values organization. Despite his credentials, Diggs’s real aim is to smear gays and lesbians.
The Health Risks of Gay Sex is a distortion-ridden research propaganda piece in the vein of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (the legendary piece of propaganda that claimed that Jewish people were attempting to take over the world) that seeks to exploit fears and stereotypes about gays and lesbians. Since he is taking the guise of a “concerned professional,” Diggs does not push forth any conspiracy theories, nor does he dehumanize homosexuals by calling them “radical” and the like.
However, the distortions in this study just do not hold up under close scrutiny:
Twice, he includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlike that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) were distorting their work.
In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” The term is an obsolete medical term. exist and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to what were the circumstances surrounding it.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Approaching 500 hits
As my hits approach 500, again I would like to thank everyone for having an interest in my work. I thought I would forgo my usual diatribe and go into more detail as to the creation of the book Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.
My book is the culmination of a two year study of anti-gay industry studies and reports about our community.
In actuality, it is a book that's over ten years in the making for me.
I think that as some of us get older, we forget how it is to first come out and to try find correct information as to who we are and what our futures hold. I can remember how when in college I was attempting to find good information on the gay community, I kept getting saddled by the lies of Paul Cameron, etc. It depressed me to no end how housewives and others portrayed by the media as "ordinary American citizens" would repeat Cameron's information as fact. It was devastating to my sense of self esteem to have some housewife who did not know me portray me as the "other" or the "threat" to her family.
Luckily my first boyfriend was very well read and he provided me with material that told the truth about Cameron's lies and how the anti-gay industry spreads propaganda about us.
As the years went by, my depression gave way to anger. It was anger at how these so-called moral people would tell lies on me and mine and how those who have leadership positions in the gay community seemed to not be as aggressive as they should have been in calling out Cameron, Gary Bauer, Robert Knight, etc.
And that is where I am now. I do believe that our survival lies in not only telling the true story about our lives but pointing out (in an unapologetically aggressive manner) how people like Peter LaBarbera, DL Foster, Robert Knight, Lou Sheldon, etc. lie on an almost daily basis about who we are.
In short, I have said it once and I will say it again: the gay rights movement needs more Genghises than Gandhis. We need aggressive intelligent people who will challenge the anti-gay industry and the so-called "pro family" groups and make them explain things like why they continue to use Paul Cameron's work or why have at least 10 researchers have complained about how their work is being misused.
I hope my book will be one of the first steps of this endeavor. Seeing that it is my first book, I will be self publishing it myself via Cafe Press. I email the sources, ask permission for the usage of work, design the front cover and will handle all of the press for the book. I will also pay for the publication of the book.
To me, this is a strategic step not designed for profit but to shift the so-called cultural war to the point as to where it should be.
We should not have to explain our lives to people like Dobson, Sheldon, etc.
They should be explaining their desire to lie about the gay community not just to us but to the American public at large.
As my hits approach 500, again I would like to thank everyone for having an interest in my work. I thought I would forgo my usual diatribe and go into more detail as to the creation of the book Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.
My book is the culmination of a two year study of anti-gay industry studies and reports about our community.
In actuality, it is a book that's over ten years in the making for me.
I think that as some of us get older, we forget how it is to first come out and to try find correct information as to who we are and what our futures hold. I can remember how when in college I was attempting to find good information on the gay community, I kept getting saddled by the lies of Paul Cameron, etc. It depressed me to no end how housewives and others portrayed by the media as "ordinary American citizens" would repeat Cameron's information as fact. It was devastating to my sense of self esteem to have some housewife who did not know me portray me as the "other" or the "threat" to her family.
Luckily my first boyfriend was very well read and he provided me with material that told the truth about Cameron's lies and how the anti-gay industry spreads propaganda about us.
As the years went by, my depression gave way to anger. It was anger at how these so-called moral people would tell lies on me and mine and how those who have leadership positions in the gay community seemed to not be as aggressive as they should have been in calling out Cameron, Gary Bauer, Robert Knight, etc.
And that is where I am now. I do believe that our survival lies in not only telling the true story about our lives but pointing out (in an unapologetically aggressive manner) how people like Peter LaBarbera, DL Foster, Robert Knight, Lou Sheldon, etc. lie on an almost daily basis about who we are.
In short, I have said it once and I will say it again: the gay rights movement needs more Genghises than Gandhis. We need aggressive intelligent people who will challenge the anti-gay industry and the so-called "pro family" groups and make them explain things like why they continue to use Paul Cameron's work or why have at least 10 researchers have complained about how their work is being misused.
I hope my book will be one of the first steps of this endeavor. Seeing that it is my first book, I will be self publishing it myself via Cafe Press. I email the sources, ask permission for the usage of work, design the front cover and will handle all of the press for the book. I will also pay for the publication of the book.
To me, this is a strategic step not designed for profit but to shift the so-called cultural war to the point as to where it should be.
We should not have to explain our lives to people like Dobson, Sheldon, etc.
They should be explaining their desire to lie about the gay community not just to us but to the American public at large.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
The"ex-gay" movement: Let's not forget what it's really all about
I see that James Dobson's Focus on the Family is bringing its "ex-gay" sideshow, "Love Won Out" to California. (http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060923/UPDATE/60923004)
Naturally, there will be many of us and our supporters who will stand against this group and their plateau of lies.
But something has bothered me. In fact, it always bothers me when I read about how we stand against those who want to perpetrate the "ex-gay" lie.
We are not telling the full story behind their lies.
What I mean is that every time I read about these groups, their spokespeople like to present a "we just want to present our point of view" front for the media.
They seem to be turning the "tolerance" message upside down and I don't think we challenge them on it as successfully as we should. We should invite media and the public to see who exactly is pulling the strings behind the "ex-gay movement."
But another excerpt from my upcoming book spells it out in a better fashion. This is from one of the chapters I had to exclude for the sake of space:
The ex-gay movement is nothing but a front, a dodge, a diversionary tactic by religious conservative organizations. These ex-gay groups speak out of both sides of their mouths and lie every time. They claim that they only exist to introduce change to anyone who has a problem with their homosexuality, but their actions and especially the company they keep, prove otherwise.
Ex-gay groups exist only to make life miserable for those homosexuals are in fact happy with their orientation. If one would take a critical look at the ex-gay movement, he would find the dirty fingerprints of the anti-gay industry all over it.
Or in the words of Surina Khan, associate analyst at Political Research Associates:
"The ex-gay movement provides political cover for a significant new phase in the Christian Right’s long-running anti-gay campaign. . . Instead of simply denouncing homosexuals as morally and socially corrupt, the Christian Right has now shifted to a strategy of emphasizing personal salvation for homosexuals through the ex-gay movement. Behind this mask of compassion, however, the goal remains the same: to roll back legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people . . ."
The closet, Wayne Besen, Talbert Swann, and D.L. Foster
In June 2004, an African-American minister, Talbert Swann edited a book entitled Closing the Closet: Testimonials of Deliverance from Homosexuality. According to Swann’s webpage:
"Fifteen former gay men and eight former lesbians providing inspiration, motivation, support, and biblically based guidance to homosexuals who desire to be free from their current lifestyle. They pour their hearts out and tell the story of how God transformed them from lives of misery and shame to a committed, joy-filled, blessed existence as man and women living in accordance with God’s word."
Wayne Besen blasted the book as propaganda, saying he doubted the book’s credibility because some of the "ex-gays" it used were affiliated with so-called "pro family" groups.
"Why did this book us a number of ex-gay lobbyists who get paid to say that they’ve changed," he said. " . . . I question whether ex-gays who are independent of fundamentalist political groups actually exist."
Besen’s criticism was answered back by Swann and another minister, D.L. Foster. Swann said:
"If Mr. Besen was interested in making an informed critique he sould have at least read the book. He would have known that of the twenty-three testimonies printed, many have "normal jobs and normal lives" and are not, as he so condescendingly puts it professional flacks for right-wing political groups."
But Besen was correct in his assertion and Swann was misleading in his. Of the 23 testimonials, a great majority of them were affiliated with so-called "pro family" groups or groups who collaborate with such organizations.
These include:
Stephen Bennett - Focus on the Family
Mike Haley - Focus on the Family
Alan Chambers - Exodus International
Bob Ragan - Exodus International
D.L. Foster even goes farther and accuses Besen of being "exgayphobic." Foster also accuses Besen of attacking ex-gays for money and even goes as far as calling him a lunatic. The entire summation of Foster’s letter is that Besen was attempting to shut the voices of "ex-gays" who only want to tell how they were able to transform from being gay.
"His totalitarian agenda won’t be successful in trying to silence us," Foster said. "Besen’s tactics would serve him much better in Saudi Arabia, but this is America."
Foster’s attempt to garner victimhood status for "ex-gays" such as himself is an outright deception. It also further underscores the fact that the ex-gay movement are an engineered front for the anti-gay industry.
The ex-gay movement is quick to grab what they think is a textbook tactic of the gay rights movement: victimhood status. Their leaders and spokespeople are always complaining that they are being discriminated against; that "gay activists" are being intolerant against them, that they are just trying help people who want to change and denying people the choice of "turning away from homosexuality" is discriminatory.
However, prominent ex-gay Stephen Bennett (a contributor to the book) was the Special Issues Editor on Homosexuality for the American Family Association and has spoken in behalf of Concerned Women for America.
Alan Chambers (another contributor) has spoken out against civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
Even Foster has a blog where he spotlights negative news articles concerning gays and lesbians, attempting to paint the entire community with a bad brush, much like white racists webpages does to the black community. He claims that he is merely showing the true face of the gay rights movement.
Exodus International’s website utilized studies with data from the Kinsey Institute (Homosexuality: Is It Just Another Lifestyle by Alan Medinger) while at the same time utilizing other studies that criticizes Alfred Kinsey, the founder of the Institute (Kinsey and the Homosexual Revolution by Judith Reisman).
Clearly Exodus International is using data that it claims is not credible.
NARTH also repeats John Diggs’s poor study on the sexual activities of homosexuals, as well as Paul Cameron’s discredited data.
And all of these groups, as well as other "ex-gay" groups link themselves with Focus on the Family’s "Love Won Out" tour, which spotlights ex-gays
. . . Every prominent ex-gay is on the payroll of organizations like Focus on the Family or the Traditional Values Coalition - organizations who believe that gays are evil and out to destroy American culture and values. If the ex-gay movement wants credibility, the first step would be to work on their autonomy. They should distance themselves from Dobson, Sheldon, Wildmon, etc.
'Nuff said.
I see that James Dobson's Focus on the Family is bringing its "ex-gay" sideshow, "Love Won Out" to California. (http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060923/UPDATE/60923004)
Naturally, there will be many of us and our supporters who will stand against this group and their plateau of lies.
But something has bothered me. In fact, it always bothers me when I read about how we stand against those who want to perpetrate the "ex-gay" lie.
We are not telling the full story behind their lies.
What I mean is that every time I read about these groups, their spokespeople like to present a "we just want to present our point of view" front for the media.
They seem to be turning the "tolerance" message upside down and I don't think we challenge them on it as successfully as we should. We should invite media and the public to see who exactly is pulling the strings behind the "ex-gay movement."
But another excerpt from my upcoming book spells it out in a better fashion. This is from one of the chapters I had to exclude for the sake of space:
The ex-gay movement is nothing but a front, a dodge, a diversionary tactic by religious conservative organizations. These ex-gay groups speak out of both sides of their mouths and lie every time. They claim that they only exist to introduce change to anyone who has a problem with their homosexuality, but their actions and especially the company they keep, prove otherwise.
Ex-gay groups exist only to make life miserable for those homosexuals are in fact happy with their orientation. If one would take a critical look at the ex-gay movement, he would find the dirty fingerprints of the anti-gay industry all over it.
Or in the words of Surina Khan, associate analyst at Political Research Associates:
"The ex-gay movement provides political cover for a significant new phase in the Christian Right’s long-running anti-gay campaign. . . Instead of simply denouncing homosexuals as morally and socially corrupt, the Christian Right has now shifted to a strategy of emphasizing personal salvation for homosexuals through the ex-gay movement. Behind this mask of compassion, however, the goal remains the same: to roll back legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people . . ."
The closet, Wayne Besen, Talbert Swann, and D.L. Foster
In June 2004, an African-American minister, Talbert Swann edited a book entitled Closing the Closet: Testimonials of Deliverance from Homosexuality. According to Swann’s webpage:
"Fifteen former gay men and eight former lesbians providing inspiration, motivation, support, and biblically based guidance to homosexuals who desire to be free from their current lifestyle. They pour their hearts out and tell the story of how God transformed them from lives of misery and shame to a committed, joy-filled, blessed existence as man and women living in accordance with God’s word."
Wayne Besen blasted the book as propaganda, saying he doubted the book’s credibility because some of the "ex-gays" it used were affiliated with so-called "pro family" groups.
"Why did this book us a number of ex-gay lobbyists who get paid to say that they’ve changed," he said. " . . . I question whether ex-gays who are independent of fundamentalist political groups actually exist."
Besen’s criticism was answered back by Swann and another minister, D.L. Foster. Swann said:
"If Mr. Besen was interested in making an informed critique he sould have at least read the book. He would have known that of the twenty-three testimonies printed, many have "normal jobs and normal lives" and are not, as he so condescendingly puts it professional flacks for right-wing political groups."
But Besen was correct in his assertion and Swann was misleading in his. Of the 23 testimonials, a great majority of them were affiliated with so-called "pro family" groups or groups who collaborate with such organizations.
These include:
Stephen Bennett - Focus on the Family
Mike Haley - Focus on the Family
Alan Chambers - Exodus International
Bob Ragan - Exodus International
D.L. Foster even goes farther and accuses Besen of being "exgayphobic." Foster also accuses Besen of attacking ex-gays for money and even goes as far as calling him a lunatic. The entire summation of Foster’s letter is that Besen was attempting to shut the voices of "ex-gays" who only want to tell how they were able to transform from being gay.
"His totalitarian agenda won’t be successful in trying to silence us," Foster said. "Besen’s tactics would serve him much better in Saudi Arabia, but this is America."
Foster’s attempt to garner victimhood status for "ex-gays" such as himself is an outright deception. It also further underscores the fact that the ex-gay movement are an engineered front for the anti-gay industry.
The ex-gay movement is quick to grab what they think is a textbook tactic of the gay rights movement: victimhood status. Their leaders and spokespeople are always complaining that they are being discriminated against; that "gay activists" are being intolerant against them, that they are just trying help people who want to change and denying people the choice of "turning away from homosexuality" is discriminatory.
However, prominent ex-gay Stephen Bennett (a contributor to the book) was the Special Issues Editor on Homosexuality for the American Family Association and has spoken in behalf of Concerned Women for America.
Alan Chambers (another contributor) has spoken out against civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
Even Foster has a blog where he spotlights negative news articles concerning gays and lesbians, attempting to paint the entire community with a bad brush, much like white racists webpages does to the black community. He claims that he is merely showing the true face of the gay rights movement.
Exodus International’s website utilized studies with data from the Kinsey Institute (Homosexuality: Is It Just Another Lifestyle by Alan Medinger) while at the same time utilizing other studies that criticizes Alfred Kinsey, the founder of the Institute (Kinsey and the Homosexual Revolution by Judith Reisman).
Clearly Exodus International is using data that it claims is not credible.
NARTH also repeats John Diggs’s poor study on the sexual activities of homosexuals, as well as Paul Cameron’s discredited data.
And all of these groups, as well as other "ex-gay" groups link themselves with Focus on the Family’s "Love Won Out" tour, which spotlights ex-gays
. . . Every prominent ex-gay is on the payroll of organizations like Focus on the Family or the Traditional Values Coalition - organizations who believe that gays are evil and out to destroy American culture and values. If the ex-gay movement wants credibility, the first step would be to work on their autonomy. They should distance themselves from Dobson, Sheldon, Wildmon, etc.
'Nuff said.
Friday, September 22, 2006
A. Nicholas Groth, American Family Association and a Time Line
First, from the Department of Freudian Slips and Giving People Enough Rope to Hang Themselves, I bring you . . . Peter LaBarbera:
"I think the corporate world is now in a rush to embrace the gay agenda fully," he offers. "They don't see a downside, and it's up to pro-family Americans to create a downside." - List of 'Gay'-Friendly Companies Continues to Grow, Agape Press, September 21, 2006 (http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/212006f.asp)
And speaking of our friend Peter, an earlier post (What exactly is a "headless monster?") featured his usage of a discredited study in order to claim that gay men molest children at high rates. For those who remember this post, the bone of contention in the study was that one of the sources, A. Nicholas Groth, demanded that his name be taken off of the study since its espoused a theory that his work contradicts.
In looking over the studies of other so-called "pro family" groups, I found something interesting. It is so interesting in fact that it can only be shown through another one of my timelines:
August 21, 1984 - A. Nicholas Groth complains to the Nebraska Board of Examiners of Psychologists that a certain researcher by the name of Paul Cameron is misusing his work to make the claim that gay men molest children at a high rate. (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm)
October 19, 1984 - The Nebraska Psychologists Association pass a resolution distances itself from Cameron's work. (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm)
June 2001 - The American Family Association publishes Homosexual Agenda Targeting Children Part 4: Access to children: homosexuality and molestation. The piece pushes the same theory Cameron did. And also includes some references to Groth's work, excluding the fact that he found in his study that homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked. (http://www.afa.net/homosexual_agenda/childrend.asp)
June 10, 2002 - A. Nicholas Groth writes a letter to Timothy Dailey of the Family Research Council demanding that any reference of his work be removed from Dailey's piece, Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse, because the study contradicts his work. (http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/Researcher_Cited_in_Anti-Gay_Report_Criticizes_the_Study_as_Biased_and_Misleading.htm)
September 22, 2006 - The American Family Association study remains on the website intact and unchanged. The references to Groth's work remain, excluding the fact that his study found that homosexuality and pedophilia are not related.
First, from the Department of Freudian Slips and Giving People Enough Rope to Hang Themselves, I bring you . . . Peter LaBarbera:
"I think the corporate world is now in a rush to embrace the gay agenda fully," he offers. "They don't see a downside, and it's up to pro-family Americans to create a downside." - List of 'Gay'-Friendly Companies Continues to Grow, Agape Press, September 21, 2006 (http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/212006f.asp)
And speaking of our friend Peter, an earlier post (What exactly is a "headless monster?") featured his usage of a discredited study in order to claim that gay men molest children at high rates. For those who remember this post, the bone of contention in the study was that one of the sources, A. Nicholas Groth, demanded that his name be taken off of the study since its espoused a theory that his work contradicts.
In looking over the studies of other so-called "pro family" groups, I found something interesting. It is so interesting in fact that it can only be shown through another one of my timelines:
August 21, 1984 - A. Nicholas Groth complains to the Nebraska Board of Examiners of Psychologists that a certain researcher by the name of Paul Cameron is misusing his work to make the claim that gay men molest children at a high rate. (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm)
October 19, 1984 - The Nebraska Psychologists Association pass a resolution distances itself from Cameron's work. (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm)
June 2001 - The American Family Association publishes Homosexual Agenda Targeting Children Part 4: Access to children: homosexuality and molestation. The piece pushes the same theory Cameron did. And also includes some references to Groth's work, excluding the fact that he found in his study that homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked. (http://www.afa.net/homosexual_agenda/childrend.asp)
June 10, 2002 - A. Nicholas Groth writes a letter to Timothy Dailey of the Family Research Council demanding that any reference of his work be removed from Dailey's piece, Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse, because the study contradicts his work. (http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/Researcher_Cited_in_Anti-Gay_Report_Criticizes_the_Study_as_Biased_and_Misleading.htm)
September 22, 2006 - The American Family Association study remains on the website intact and unchanged. The references to Groth's work remain, excluding the fact that his study found that homosexuality and pedophilia are not related.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Paul Cameron on The Daily Show: Not as funny as you think
From what I understand, our friend Paul Cameron was on the Daily Show earlier this week. - http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/09/paul_cameron_on_2.html#comments
Now I did not see the clip (the disadvantages of not having cable and having dial up) but from I understand, he provided a good laugh to the many who saw it.
But don't the laughter fool you. Cameron may have looked like a buffoon but he is anything but stupid.
He is a classic example of a headless monster in that he has been refuted and discredited many times by legitimate sources but the anti-gay industry continues to prop him up as a legitimate researcher and critic of the gay community.
And even when he is not referred to by name, so-called "pro family" groups feature his work as legitimate.
An earlier post on this blog demonstrated how Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition simultaneously claims that Cameron's work is not credible but still refers to it (Paul Cameron, the Traditional Values Coalition, a little game that I like to call "Time Line")
I think a few more examples of Cameron's influence is in order via another book excerpt:
In May 2005, Cameron announced the completion of another study that supposedly proved that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking and being overweight. What he did was take over 10,000 obituaries from the gay newspaper the Washington Post and compare them to a CDC report entitled AIDS Cases in Adolescents and Adults, by Age - United States, 1994-2000. He claimed that this supported his early gay life span study.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said otherwise. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, said Cameron uses bad methodology. He also said:
"[The CDC] does not collect statistics on the life span of gay men. While gay men continue to be severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related death data cannot be used to indicate that homosexual men live shorter lives than heterosexual men overall."
The CDC's condemnation meant nothing to the Agape Press. In June 2005, it claimed that Cameron's life span study had been proven to be correct.
"New government research has found what most conservatives have been saying for years about the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle. . ."
Agape Press did not print a rebuttal from the CDC to this statement.
Nor did the CDC's rebuke mean anything to Rev. Bill Banuchi, head of the New York chapter of the Christian Coalition.
In June 2005, he said that gays should wear warning labels. His rationale was the following:
"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports" - Christian Coalition: Gay Warning Labels, 365Gay.com, June 13, 2005
Even the Southern Baptist Convention used this study. In that same month, the convention looked at a resolution issued by evangelist Voddie Baucham, Jr calling for churches to "investigate whether their local school district has a 'gay-straight' alliance or other homosexual clubs." The resolution also tells churches to "encourage parents' removal of their children from schools that have curricula or programs that treat homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle."
Part of this resolution referred to Cameron's study:
"Whereas, there is evidence that the homosexual lifestyle reduces life expectancy more than smoking;"
In May 2005, a 16-year-old teenager by the name of Zach Stark told his parents that he was gay. His parents put him in a reparative, or ex-gay program entitled "Love In Action." Zach's situation became widely known because of a blog he was keeping about his coming out. His parents were faced with negative scrutiny as to how they could place their child in such a program.
Zach's father, Joe Stark, explained their decision on a July episode of Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club." One of the reasons he gave cited a bastardized version Cameron's life span statistic:
"We felt very good about Zach coming here because . . . to let him see for himself the destructive lifestyle, what he has to face in the future, and to give him some options that society doesn't give him today," Stark said. "Knowing that your son... statistics say that by the age of 30 he could either have AIDS or be dead."
In June 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed two bills; one dealt with abortion, while the other was a "defense of marriage" bill. Accompanying Governor Perry was televangelist Ron Parsley. Parsley had this to say about homosexuality:
"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease. Only one percent of the homosexual population in America will die of old age. The average life expectancy for a homosexual in the United States discounting AIDS is forty-two years of age . . . A lesbian can only expect to live to be forty-five years of age." Perry schmoozes with gay bashers, Austin Chronicle, June 10, 2005
Not only was Parsley quoting a Cameron statistic, but he even generalized about the lesbian population even though lesbians made up only two percent of Cameron's sample group. Parsley repeated that lie in an August 9, 2005 issue of Agape Press. He said the following:
"I'm against the homosexual lifestyle because the average life expectancy of a homosexual and a lesbian in the United States is forty-two and forty-five versus seventy-five and seventy-nine. These people are fighting for a lifestyle that is robbing them of half of their life expectancy." - Pastor Contends Christians Have An Obligation to Warn Homosexuals, Agape Press, August 9, 2005
Cameron's claim that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking has even made its way to the lower echelons of the Bush Administration. In July 2005, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter asked that the national Health and Human Services look at a certain website because it allegedly showed inaccurate information about homosexuality and contraception.
The website, 4parents.gov, had information from an organization called the National Physicians Center for Family Resources. Health and Human Services had hired the organization to create its content. The chairman of the National Physicians Center for Family Resources board John Whiffen said the organization was correct regarding what it had printed about homosexuality. He said:
"It's fairly well-accepted that somking is not a good idea. It takes seven years off of your life. It appears that male homosexuality takes more than that off your life." - Specter seeks review of teen health site, Washington Blade, July 29, 2005
Paul Cameron is no laughing matter and it would be in our best interest to tell the truth about him every chance we get.
From what I understand, our friend Paul Cameron was on the Daily Show earlier this week. - http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/09/paul_cameron_on_2.html#comments
Now I did not see the clip (the disadvantages of not having cable and having dial up) but from I understand, he provided a good laugh to the many who saw it.
But don't the laughter fool you. Cameron may have looked like a buffoon but he is anything but stupid.
He is a classic example of a headless monster in that he has been refuted and discredited many times by legitimate sources but the anti-gay industry continues to prop him up as a legitimate researcher and critic of the gay community.
And even when he is not referred to by name, so-called "pro family" groups feature his work as legitimate.
An earlier post on this blog demonstrated how Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition simultaneously claims that Cameron's work is not credible but still refers to it (Paul Cameron, the Traditional Values Coalition, a little game that I like to call "Time Line")
I think a few more examples of Cameron's influence is in order via another book excerpt:
In May 2005, Cameron announced the completion of another study that supposedly proved that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking and being overweight. What he did was take over 10,000 obituaries from the gay newspaper the Washington Post and compare them to a CDC report entitled AIDS Cases in Adolescents and Adults, by Age - United States, 1994-2000. He claimed that this supported his early gay life span study.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said otherwise. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, said Cameron uses bad methodology. He also said:
"[The CDC] does not collect statistics on the life span of gay men. While gay men continue to be severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related death data cannot be used to indicate that homosexual men live shorter lives than heterosexual men overall."
The CDC's condemnation meant nothing to the Agape Press. In June 2005, it claimed that Cameron's life span study had been proven to be correct.
"New government research has found what most conservatives have been saying for years about the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle. . ."
Agape Press did not print a rebuttal from the CDC to this statement.
Nor did the CDC's rebuke mean anything to Rev. Bill Banuchi, head of the New York chapter of the Christian Coalition.
In June 2005, he said that gays should wear warning labels. His rationale was the following:
"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports" - Christian Coalition: Gay Warning Labels, 365Gay.com, June 13, 2005
Even the Southern Baptist Convention used this study. In that same month, the convention looked at a resolution issued by evangelist Voddie Baucham, Jr calling for churches to "investigate whether their local school district has a 'gay-straight' alliance or other homosexual clubs." The resolution also tells churches to "encourage parents' removal of their children from schools that have curricula or programs that treat homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle."
Part of this resolution referred to Cameron's study:
"Whereas, there is evidence that the homosexual lifestyle reduces life expectancy more than smoking;"
In May 2005, a 16-year-old teenager by the name of Zach Stark told his parents that he was gay. His parents put him in a reparative, or ex-gay program entitled "Love In Action." Zach's situation became widely known because of a blog he was keeping about his coming out. His parents were faced with negative scrutiny as to how they could place their child in such a program.
Zach's father, Joe Stark, explained their decision on a July episode of Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club." One of the reasons he gave cited a bastardized version Cameron's life span statistic:
"We felt very good about Zach coming here because . . . to let him see for himself the destructive lifestyle, what he has to face in the future, and to give him some options that society doesn't give him today," Stark said. "Knowing that your son... statistics say that by the age of 30 he could either have AIDS or be dead."
In June 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed two bills; one dealt with abortion, while the other was a "defense of marriage" bill. Accompanying Governor Perry was televangelist Ron Parsley. Parsley had this to say about homosexuality:
"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease. Only one percent of the homosexual population in America will die of old age. The average life expectancy for a homosexual in the United States discounting AIDS is forty-two years of age . . . A lesbian can only expect to live to be forty-five years of age." Perry schmoozes with gay bashers, Austin Chronicle, June 10, 2005
Not only was Parsley quoting a Cameron statistic, but he even generalized about the lesbian population even though lesbians made up only two percent of Cameron's sample group. Parsley repeated that lie in an August 9, 2005 issue of Agape Press. He said the following:
"I'm against the homosexual lifestyle because the average life expectancy of a homosexual and a lesbian in the United States is forty-two and forty-five versus seventy-five and seventy-nine. These people are fighting for a lifestyle that is robbing them of half of their life expectancy." - Pastor Contends Christians Have An Obligation to Warn Homosexuals, Agape Press, August 9, 2005
Cameron's claim that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking has even made its way to the lower echelons of the Bush Administration. In July 2005, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter asked that the national Health and Human Services look at a certain website because it allegedly showed inaccurate information about homosexuality and contraception.
The website, 4parents.gov, had information from an organization called the National Physicians Center for Family Resources. Health and Human Services had hired the organization to create its content. The chairman of the National Physicians Center for Family Resources board John Whiffen said the organization was correct regarding what it had printed about homosexuality. He said:
"It's fairly well-accepted that somking is not a good idea. It takes seven years off of your life. It appears that male homosexuality takes more than that off your life." - Specter seeks review of teen health site, Washington Blade, July 29, 2005
Paul Cameron is no laughing matter and it would be in our best interest to tell the truth about him every chance we get.
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