Forget business as usual. Instead, we should stop doing business with a country that is proud of its persecution against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Our goal is to turn Jamaica into a pariah state, as long as GLBT people live in a state of terror. This means no more subsidizing the anti-gay slaughter by drinking Myers Rum and Red Stripe Beer. It requires skipping that Carnival Cruise to Jamaica — so your money won’t support murder.
If Jamaica were anymore homophobic, it would change the name of its signature music, reggae, to “ray-straight.” The national song would be, “Wasting the Gays Again in Murderitaville.” (Read More)
Stephen Langa, a leader of Uganda’s antigay vigilante movement, utilized the philosophy of ex-gay guru and longtime PFOX president Richard Cohen during the March 5-7 conference which launched Langa’s campaign of renewed violence.
Richard Cohen falsely teaches that bad parents and abuse are responsible for homosexual attraction. He has been banned for life from the American Counseling Association for inappropriate and unprofessional conduct with patients. His “treatment” methods include full-body man-to-man cuddles and symbolic beating of one’s parents.
Cohen has thus far offered no comment regarding the use of his false teachings to promote violence against gay Ugandans.
Antigay and ex-gay activists continue to incite an organized campaign of violence against gay Ugandans, possibly with misappropriated U.S. government funding. Orlando-based Exodus International — whose board member Don Schmierer keynoted the campaign’s founding conference March 5-7 — refuses to publicly condemn either the conference or its aftermath.
During the past few days in Kampala, innocent gay Ugandans have been outed by vigilantes and falsely associated with molestation by hired ex-gay activists. When Sexual Minorities Uganda held a press conference to set the record straight, it was poorly attended by the nation’s antigay official media — and vigilantes responded with further personal threats and unsubstantiated accusations which have received ample media attention.
Box Turtle Bulletin spotlights one activist in particular, George Oundo, who has been hired by pro-violence activists to proclaim himself a child molester — and to denounce his gay and transgender former friends and colleagues in lieu of punishment for his own alleged crimes.
Meanwhile, Exodus’ official position is that it supports board member Don Schmierer’s participation in the conference, and neither officially supports — nor officially opposes — imprisonment and forced ex-gay therapy.
Exodus claims to U.S. audiences that it proclaims the “truth” in “love” — but there is neither truth nor love in Exodus’ role in the Uganda vigilante campaign. There is only flight from responsibility — and apathy toward the renewal of Ugandan violence for which Exodus is largely responsible.
Exodus’ position smacks of old-fashioned imperialism:
First, Exodus refused in February and early March to tell Schmierer to abort his trip to the conference and refused to disavow the conference or its speakers
Then, Schmierer exported his long-discredited falsehoods (blaming parents and abuse instead of teaching the actual science sexual orientation) to uninformed Ugandan parents, some of whom believe as a result that homosexuality is spread via sexual molestation
Then, Exodus allowed conference leaders to import the organization’s reputation, in order to grant legitimacy to their campaign of imported Euro-American Holocaust revisionism and incitement to violence (video via Ex-Gay Watch)
Finally, Exodus continues to dismiss the human rights of native Ugandans who are being newly oppressed, assaulted, jailed, or killed to satisfy those in the United States who funded a five-year plan by Stephen Langa, Don Schmierer and Scott Lively to — in Langa’s words — “wipe out” homosexuality in Uganda by any means necessary.
Take action! Write to your local gay and mainstream media, and ask them to interview your local Exodus member ministries regarding their national office’s role in Ugandan human rights violations.
On Wednesday, March 25, a sizable crowd of LGBT activists began a five-day walk they’ll never forget. As the California State Supreme Court prepares to rule on the validity of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, these hearty souls are marching from San Francisco City Hall to Sacramento in support of marriage equality. Their goal is to raise public awareness as to why our relationships should be legally recognized.
Heather Tompkins, 24, and Richard Aviles, 18, represent a new, energized generation of LGBT activists. Heather explained why she was marching: “It’s outrageous to the younger generation that we don’t have equal rights.”
Adds Aviles, a high school senior: “We are the future, creating the pillars for society.”
Jazzie, who did not give a last name, had another agenda: transphobia.
“In this city (San Francisco) transgenders face 67% unemployment. It’s higher elsewhere.”
Jazzie, a black male-to-female transgender person, spoke eloquently of the hatred she had seen growing up in the South. It was not something she could live with any longer.
John Lewis, who, along with husband Stuart Gaffney (both pictured), had fought for the right to marry in court, understands why Prop 8 passed, but is confident that Prop 8 will be overturned in the 2010 election.
“In the past decade, there has been a great change in public opinion,” said Lewis. “Everybody involved, leaders or not, need to pay attention to what their intentions are. In a fight like this there can be multiple intentions. We need to dig down into our hearts for our basic intentions to bring about justice for the entire LGBT community.”
There was a definite spirit of unity throughout the crowd: a desire among everyone to come together as one people. As the crowd gathered, I struck up a conversation with Martin, a handsome young man who sported a “Made in Palestine” T-shirt. For a few minutes he and I discussed the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: my revealing that I’m part Israeli did not diminish the courtesy we accorded each other.
Speakers included Names Project founder Cleve Jones (pictured), who pointed out that LGBT San Franciscans needed to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters in “Stockton, Lodi and Fresno, where putting out a sign can result in your house being burned down.”
The March to Repeal Prop 8 will take about 5 days, with marchers stopping for meals and rest at friendly churches along the way.
On the Saturday immediately following the Prop 8 ruling, their will be a large rally in downtown Fresno, regardless of which way the Court rules.
Fresno was chosen because it’s in the very middle of California, and because it’s a conservative area whose citizens voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8.
One in six British psychiatrists has tried to “cure” a gay patient, and some continue to mistreat their patients — even though ex-gay theories about sexual orientation have been disproven by mainstream research, and even though former ex-gays say that ex-gay “therapy” only worsens sexual temptation, depression, and unhealthy behavior.
A study of more than 1,400 psychiatrists and therapists in BMC Psychiatry found that 222 (17 per cent) said they had treated at least one client to alter their homosexual feelings at some point. The researchers expected the cases to be concentrated in the past, but the 400 to 500 cases recorded were distributed evenly across the decades. ‘It is happening up to the present moment,’ [Professor Michael King, of the University College Medical School] said. It might only be the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
One week after her shocking and tragic death at age 45, her peers are recalling that the late Natasha Richardson was more than just a great actress. She was a tireless AIDS fundraiser.
Richardson was the best kind of activist: She did her work quietly yet effectively, getting the job done but without tooting her own horn.
She had a personal stake in the HIV crisis. Her father, the renowned director Tony Richardson, was openly bisexual and died of HIV-related causes in 1991. “I just accepted him for who he was,” Richardson later said.
Andy Humm, writing for Gay City News in New York, called Richardson an “AIDS Hero.” Humm was right on the money.
The actress worked tirelessly for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, winning their Award of Courage in 2000. In 2006 she joined AmFAR’s Board of Directors.
She raised money for God’s Love We Deliver, a meals on wheels program for HIV-infected New Yorkers, and Bailey House, a homeless shelter for people with AIDS. She was also involved with the AIDS Crisis Trust and the National AIDS Trust.
Natasha Richardson is survived by her husband, actor Liam Neeson, their two sons, her mother Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, her sister actress Joley Richardson, and her extended family, which includes aunt Lynn Redgrave.
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out thanked Replacements, Ltd. today for awarding $5,000 to the organization. The funds will help TWO refute anti-gay misinformation campaigns and challenge programs that claim to “pray away the gay.”
“Truth Wins Out is extremely grateful for the generous support it has received from Replacements and its founder Bob Page,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “This allows us to increase our capacity to educate Americans and set the record straight when anti-gay organizations distort research. It also assists us in helping people understand the danger of so-called ex-gay therapy programs that endanger the mental health of GLBT youth.”
Founded by Bob Page in 1981, Replacements, Ltd. (located in Greensboro, NC) has the world’s largest selection of old and new dinnerware, including china, stoneware, crystal, glassware, silver, stainless, and collectibles. Its 415,000 square foot facilities (the size of seven football fields!) house an inventory of 13 million pieces in more than 300,000 patterns, some over 100 years old.
“We proudly support Truth Wins Out; I hope others will contribute to this important organization,” said Bob Page, founder of Replacements, Ltd. “So many GLBT people—and their families—have been damaged by groups distorting the truth about sexual orientation or gender identity. Our communities and our workplaces are impacted too, and that has a very real cost. I want us to be a part of the solution to the problem.” Page is known as a generous philanthropist who has helped organizations that promote GLBT equality – particularly in North Carolina.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against anti-gay misinformation campaigns. TWO also counters the “ex-gay” industry and educates America about the lives of GLBT people.
The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is known for distorting research about gay and lesbian people. Critics have long claimed that NARTH’s goal is to twist science to make it fit anti-gay religious beliefs. Today, this was confirmed by an e-mail obtained by Truth Wins Out that was sent to a potential client who asked NARTH about its methods. The “therapy” group responded with this reply:
“As an organization we are trying to maintain the ability for counselors to continue to be able to help those struggling with same sex attraction, the American Psychological Association will not listen to religious reasons so we have taken a stance to have scientific proof as to how and why we should be able to help those live a heterosexual lifestyle.”
This is precisely why NARTH cannot be trusted. NARTHcherry-picks research and dishonestly call it “proof” that their religion is backed by research. They disregard anything that does not back their agenda.
With the continued support of Exodus International for his recent pro-vigilantism conference, Uganda ex-gay activist Stephen Langa on March 15 followed through on threats to renew a campaign of antigay vigilantism across the African nation, according to Box Turtle Bulletin.
Then, on March 19, U.S. writer Richard Rosendall noted that Uganda’s antigay vigilante campaigns may be subsidized by U.S. taxpayers through evangelical groups’ misuse of former President Bush’s abstinence-only AIDS funding in Africa.
And on March 22, Langa put self-proclaimed child molester and “ex-gay” George Oundo on the soapbox before Ugandan pro-government (antigay) media, to declare that all gay Ugandans are “targeting mostly children ‘because they are easy to initiate and they like easy things.’ ” Oundo projected his own sickness onto gay people, and accused Ugandan anti-violence and pro-equality groups of enabling his alleged past acts of child molestation. Oundo, who was arrested and possibly tortured by the Ugandan government in 2008, now works for antigay pastor Martin Ssempa, who has coordinated past Ugandan vigilante campaigns that were monitored by Human Rights Watch:
Campaigns with access to millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that were intended for AIDS prevention, but which increased the spread of AIDS through vigilantism, prejudice, miseducation, and denial of access to condoms.
The new campaign by Langa, aided without apology by Exodus, may enjoy ongoing support from U.S. taxpayers unless action is taken to stop the funding.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 12 anti-gay hate groups in the United States: Hate groups are organizations that “go beyond mere disagreement with homosexuality by subjecting gays and lesbians to campaigns of personal vilification.” Among the hate groups are Peter LaBarbera’s former project the Illinois Family Institute; Lou Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition; and several organizations linked to Exodus ally, Holocaust revisionist, and ex-gay activist Scott Lively.
Mission America, the Ohio-based nameplate for antigay activist Linda Harvey, may be envious: It’s not listed. That may be one reason why Harvey — aided by the antigay parent group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, according to Ex-Gay Watch — is urging antigay conservatives to write to the SPLC and demand that California supporters of open campaign-donation records be collectively branded a hate group.
Why is Mission America equating open records with hate? Not because of any actual violence or harassment of campaign donors: There hasn’t been any.
Perhaps, then, Mission America is simply hopping on the bandwagon of ProtectMarriage.com, a coalition of wealthy, out-of-state, antifamily religious-rightists who want their identities — and their antigay extremism — kept secret from California voters. Exodus International is among the coalition’s endorsers.
There’s little chance of California open-records laws being overturned, and no actual evidence that the records have been used to promote violence of any kind against members of the antigay, antifamily coalition. So the objective of P-FOX and Mission America may be twofold:
1. Deflect their supporters’ attention from their organizations’ association with certified hate groups
2. Gain inclusion in future editions of SPLC’s hate-group list, so that Mission America — a little-known outfit among the giants of the religious right — may claim victimhood at the hands of those who warn America against defamation and vilification done in the name of religion
Jazzie, a black male-to-female transgender person, spoke eloquently of the hatred she had seen growing up in the South. It was not something she could live with any longer.
Speakers included Names Project founder Cleve Jones (pictured), who pointed out that LGBT San Franciscans needed to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters in “Stockton, Lodi and Fresno, where putting out a sign can result in your house being burned down.”
