An ominous and provocative headline, with shades of a gay conspiracy, appeared a few years ago on the Center for American Cultural Renewal’s website. It was the lead to a guest column by Dr. Warren Throckmoron and it boldly declared, “Hiding The Truth From Schoolchildren: It’s Elementary Revisited.”

The article discussed a young gay activist, Noe Gutierrez, who had appeared in the pro-gay “It’s Elementary Video,” only to soon enter the ex-gay ministries. Throckmorton wasted no time exploiting this youthful and confused individual to make political hay. In the blink of an eye, Guiterrez was back on film appearing in Throckmorton’s, “I Do Exist” ex-gay movie.

Of course, Gutierrez has now come out of the closet, a professional disaster for the good doctor. At the time, a triumphant Throckmorton had this to say in his column:

Noe’ Gutierrez, the young man that told his story in the video, came out as gay at 16 but then came out again as ex-gay at 24. On “It’s Elementary,” he was filmed speaking to a San Francisco area middle school on behalf of Community United Against Violence. Mr. Gutierrez was quite involved in gay advocacy and frequently spoke publicly on this topic. However, about six years ago Mr. Gutierrez went through a period of re-evaluation and change. The end result was his change of sexual identity from gay to straight. Without fanfare, Mr. Gutierrez went through a profound experience of transformation and after a while of working through his experience began telling others of his change.

When ex-gay spokesman John Paulk went into Mr. P’s gay bar in Washington D.C. several years ago, the country knew about it. Even though Mr. Paulk did not fall sexually and is still happily married to former lesbian Anne Paulk, the media turned his lapse of judgment into a referendum on ex-gay ministries.

When Mr. Gutierrez came out a second time as ex-gay, no one wrote about it, even though in the eyes of many people, what he did was a nearly impossible accomplishment. Amazingly, certain people want his story to stay unknown.”

Actually, Throckmorton, we do want his story to be known, and we want you to have the personal integrity to tell it. We’d hate to think that you are a big, fat, lying hypocrite that only wants to tell stories when they benefit your right wing views. That’s called propaganda, not the “honest discussion” you keep telling people that you want to have.

All I can say is, “thank God for the Internet,” so we can expose Throckmorton for the phony he truly is. The web is just packed with his cocksure quack quotes, arrogantly ensuring America that “change is possible.” There is still hope for Throckmorton, but he must begin by being honest with himself and then telling the truth to others. With no credibility, his days of peddling the lie that people can go from gay to straight have ended.

An “Ex-Gay” Therapist’s Credibility and Career in Tatters

A few years back, Warren Throckmorton, an erstwhile psychologist and full-time blogger from a tiny Christian school, filmed a noxious “ex-gay” video, “I Do Exist.” The documentary begins at New York’s porn palaces on 8th Avenue - with the seedy atmosphere shot deliberately to signify gay life.

Not long into the video, we were introduced to a nutty exorcist who is known to extract demons from the anuses of gay men. In his typical slippery way, the public relations conscious Throckmorton fails to identify the woman as an exorcist (as she was identified in two other movies, “One Nation Under God” and “Chasing the Devil,” with apparently less truth challenged producers)

Later in the movie, we meet Noe Gutierrez, who had supposedly gone from gay activist to “ex-gay ” spokesperson. For several minutes, he prattles about his tale of transformation - essentially becoming “living proof” that ex-gays exist. Well, last week he renounced his testimony, meaning that as an ex-gay he doesn’t exist. History, once again, has repeated itself, with the latest so-called “ex-gay” leader coming out of the closet. This has happened so many times that this story line, quite frankly, has become somewhat stale. I mean how many times can we see this rerun before people get it?

Unfortunately, this professional humiliation hasn’t stopped Throckmorton from hawking his fictional movie - or just giving it away on his website. Lacking basic integrity and personal responsibility, this slick charlatan persists in retailing ruin to desperate and vulnerable people. (Read More)

(A ‘Blinded’ Chambers Now On The Gay Marriage Market?)

Last year, Alan Chambers, the head of so-called “ex-gay” group Exodus International appeared in full-page newspaper ads opposing same-sex marriage. His bizarre reasoning in the ad text stated:

“By finding my way out of a gay identity, I found the love of my life in the process. Gay marriage would have only blinded me to such incredible joy.”

Well, now that marriage is legal in California, might the temptation be too much for poor, struggling Chambers? Might the sight of thousands of happy same sex couples, “blind” him and his celibate understudy, Randy Thomas? If his silly ad is an indication, Chamber’s might run off to California and marry a man any day.

(To SEE ADD scroll to bottom)

A agree with Mike Airhart that The Advocate piece was a nightmare that glosses over the issues. I also think they mischaracterized the state of the “ex-gay” movement and were factually wrong on many fronts. Not to mention the reporter needs to get a hold of his emotions and not suck up to ex-gays who think he is “perverse” and “sexually broken.” The failure of this article was a shame because the Advocate magazine has traditionally done a terrific job covering this issue. I have confidence they will get it right in the future. Here is a summary of my beefs:

The article: “Exodus encompasses more than 120 ministries in the United States and Canada.”

The Facts: Exodus claims a 59 percent increase in its member agencies, growing from 117 in 2003 to more than 200 in 2008. (although Exodus is prone to exaggeration)

The article: “A growing chorus of such stories, it’s shaken up the usual talk-show paradigm.”

The Facts: Could anything be further from the truth? Telling the story of survivors is not a new phenomenon. Anyone who thinks it is, simply has not been out of the closet very long, spinning the issue or is ill informed.

In the 1990s, there was a key ex-gay survivor group that I worked with in Washington, Dos Equis, that provided me survivors. These courageous individuals were telling their stories in national media while some of today’s leading survivors were sill in ex-gay groups, essentially paying the salaries of Exodus’ leaders. Before this, the documentary “One Nation Under God” told the story of survivors, including John Evans and Mike Bussee. And, Sylvia Pennington articulated their struggles in the book, “Ex-Gays? There Are None?”

While at the Human Rights Campaign, I held several press conferences, beginning in 1998, with ex-gay survivors. These included high profile events at Washington’s famed National Press Club. During this time period, I booked survivors on major talk shows and had their stories told in national media. In 2000, under my direction, HRC produced a groundbreaking publication, “Finally Free” that introduced America to 14 ex-gay survivors.

While I appreciate and greatly admire the current work of our newer survivors, to take sole credit for a survivors movement is unfounded and historical revisionism. Indeed, today, TWO (and BoxTurtleBulletin) are also leaders in this arena – and this is reflected by the cutting-edge videos that fill our website.

The article: The article referred to me as an ex-ex-gay.

The facts: I was never an ex-gay and I appreciate the Advocate correcting this error.
(Read More)

In a new article in the conservative Charisma magazine, Exodus International youth activist Mike Ensley tells parents “What To Do When Your Child is Gay.”

Beginning with its patronizing title — parents struggle with the coming-out of older teen-agers and adult offspring, not a “child” — the article proceeds to declare that homosexuality is a disease, that family members are doomed to a lifestyle of depraved promiscuity, and that parents are to blame.

(Read More)

Ruling Undermines ‘Ex-Gay’ Propaganda And Lets Potential Recruits See The Truth About Same-Sex Relationships

NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org expressed jubilation over the California Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage. The momentous 4-3 ruling is one of the biggest victories in the GLBT equality movement’s history. It also undermines “ex-gay” propaganda that demeans gay relationships to recruit new members.

“We are thrilled to be a part of history and experience a monumental victory for marriage equality,” said Wayne Besen, TruthWinsOut.org’s Executive Director. “The court made a bold decision and confirmed that all relationships, regardless of sexual orientation, are equal in California.”

“Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest,” the court said in a majority decision. “Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.” (Read More)

UPDATED with revised conclusion.

Feministe say wrote May 13 of efforts to assist people struggling with gender identity:

Ken Zucker of Toronto’s Clarke Institute represents the widespread, traditional approach, where the goal is to eliminate cross-gender behavior and the desire to be a different gender. He basically describes his success rate as the number of kids he’s managed to steer away from becoming an adult trans person; as he’s said elsewhere, he wants to “help these kids be more content in their biological gender.”

Which sounds all right on paper, but how far do you go in denying a child’s perfectly innocent inclinations?

Feministe notes that some view Zucker’s attitude toward gender-variant people as repackaged ex-gay therapy. And so Feministe is naturally concerned that the American Psychiatric Association has put Ken Zucker in charge of a working group that will weigh changes to the definition of gender identity disorder.

Although I don’t know if I quite understand this given that the DSM is a diagnostic tool rather than a prescriptive tool, and given that previous DSMs were written from similarly retrogressive approaches, she also feels there’s “an additional danger that gay and lesbian communities need to be cognizant of […] if Zucker and company entrench conversion therapy in the DSM-V, then it is a clear, dangerous step toward also legitimizing ex-gay therapy and re-stigmatizing homosexuality.”

That may seem to be a logical fear, but apparently it is unwarranted:

Gay City News wrote a story today that addresses some (not all) activist apprehensions. Key points:

• The working groups will not prescribe treatment
• The diagnosis of homosexuality will not be put back into DSM

Dr. Jack Drescher, a gay Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry affiliated with New York Medical College and a member of the APA’s DSM Work Group for Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, was helpful in clearing up concern relating to the scope of working-group efforts.

In an article that attempts to bridge a spectrum of gay, ex-gay, and ex-ex-gay viewpoints, The Advocate asks:

Three years after the furor over a teenage boy who was forcibly sent to one of its camps, the ex-gay movement may be losing steam. Meanwhile, ex-gay survivors are gaining strength. But are the two groups really that different?

While offering a comprehensive range of voices ranging from Exodus’ John Smid and Alan Chambers to ex-gay survivors Peterson Toscano and Christine Bakke, The Advocate article glosses over:

• the exploitation of ex-gay counselees by antigay and GOP-affiliated political organizations
• efforts by ex-gay therapists and activists to scare ex-gays away from friendships and dialogue with gay acquaintances
• the abandonment of counselees by their ex-gay “ministries” when counselees such as Noe Gutierrez reject certain ex-gay political positions or misleading claims about orientation change – or find a way for faith and sexual honesty to co-exist
• deliberate efforts by ex-gay activists to promote discrimination, intrafamily blame games, prohibition of legal gay relationships, and tolerance of antigay violence, as tools to pressure gay people to submit to quack therapy and abusive, politicized distortions of religion
• the tight connections between the Exodus International board of directors and the Arlington Group of religious rightists that strive to replace federal law with fundamentalist reinterpretations of the Bible, science, history, and the rights of non-fundamentalists
• the ongoing false marketing of Exodus and Focus on the Family, promising “change” and a dishonest ”heterosexual identity”

Until a substantial number of moderate members of Exodus take responsibility for their leaders’ political and cultural warfare, and act appropriately to interfere with that warfare, there really is no sincere effort toward common ground on the ex-gay side — contrary to what The Advocate suggests.

A 21-year-old Indiana student and four friends were physically attacked May 9 in the latest apparent antigay hate crime to be ignored by ex-gay activists.

Last month, in a declaration that antigay violence is a non-issue, Exodus and Focus on the Family voiced opposition to a national Day of Silence which commemorates antigay violence and seeks to establish specific school policies to reduce violence and harassment. Pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton sought to compete with the Day of Silence through a Golden Rule initiative, while Exodus featured speaker Ken Hutcherson organized a antigay protest purposely intended to disrupt public-school classes at a school in Washington state where the Day of Silence was being observed by some students. Exodus and Focus supported a so-called Day of Truth three days later. The DOT was a national religious-right campaign that sought to:

• oppose school programs that offer specific measures to reduce antigay violence
• vent antigay religious judgmentalism and sexual insults against gay and gay-tolerant students while they are at school trying to learn

Since the February killings of California gay student Lawrence King and Florida gay youth Simmie Williams, reports of antigay assaults and killings stretching from Tennessee to Illinois to New Jersey and elsewhere have been met by the ex-gay movement with ongoing silence and a refusal to act — except to silence survivors and hold rallies for bullies.

At the University of Toledo in Ohio, administrators apparently made the mistake of hiring a bigot to administer university hiring policies which forbid discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sexual orientation.

In an April 18 article in the Toledo Free Press, Crystal Davis Dixon, associate vice president for human resources for the university, declared her support for discrimination on all three counts:

• she was willing to enforce her own antigay religious views upon university employees and students possessing less-homophobic, more-genuine religious beliefs,
• despite university hiring policies to the contrary, she denied that gay people have civil rights or that discrimination victimizes them, and
• she implicitly denigrated gay African-Americans.

Dixon also denied the natural existence of intersexed and gender-variant people who might apply for jobs at the university — and threatened God’s wrath against such people:

She concluded: “My final and most important point. There is a divine order. God created human kind male and female (Genesis 1:27). God created humans with an inalienable right to choose. There are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God’s divine order.

Dixon was fired for flouting the policies that she was hired to enforce, and religious-right media have been in an uproar ever since — accusing the university of discriminating racially and religiously against Dixon because it would not permit her to deny religious freedom to others, nor to arbitrarily violate campus hiring and employment policies with impunity.

Two ex-gay activists have now leapt to Dixon’ defense with a bizarre assertion that antigay African-Americans somehow enjoy a special racial and religious right to discriminate against others on the basis of victims’ religion and sexual orientation, whatever local laws and employer hiring policies may say to the contrary.

(Read More)