JERUSALEM — Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor plans to march 50 donkeys through the streets of the Holy City to coincide with a gay pride parade on Thursday, his office said.
“This expresses what we think — that this is a beastly act,” Rabbi Yitzhak Pindrus, who represents the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party on the city council, told the Ynet news website.
His spokesman Menahem Zaide declined to link the donkey march to the parade, saying only: “Donkeys also have rights to be recognised as couples.
“We are in favour of donkey rights,” he told AFP.
So basically, they’re replicating NOM’s bus tour with animals.
Now we have, in video form, David Pakman‘s interview with Peter, which I wrote about/commented on yesterday. It’s even more fun to watch, because you get Dave’s facial expressions.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote the following:
If one ever completely screws up his or her life and wants “redemption”, there are two courses of action. The first is a name change, with the hope that no one notices the sordid past. Don’t laugh, the technique worked for ValuJet. In 1996, the airline crashed into an alligator-infested swamp, changed its name to AirTran – and presto – it was like the disaster never happened.
And, like clock work, the beleaguered and scandalized “ex-gay” activist group, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, (JONAH) has changed its name to “Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing”
Where did JONAH get the idea of a name change in a time of scandal?
It came from its co-founder, Arthur Abba Goldberg, who is a convicted Wall Street con artist who looted millions of dollars from poor communities. After Goldberg’s parole was up, he dropped the “Abba” from his name, making it nearly impossible to find out about his sordid history on Google. It was at this point he reinvented himself as a great healer of homosexuals and co-founded JONAH. This scheme worked for nearly a decade, until it was uncovered this year by Truth Wins Out and the South Florida Gay News. So, it makes sense that this charlatan would replicate his old trick, which shielded him from controversy for years.
However, Goldberg can change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and it won’t make his tawdry criminal record disappear. Likewise, altering JONAH’s name will not erase the fact that the group’s senior trainer, Alan Downing, stands accused by two former clients of sexual misconduct. The facts won’t so easily be dismissed, nor will people be so easily fooled. And, if they are, Truth Wins Out will be there to remind them.
From what I hear through the grapevine, Goldberg is now claiming that “JONAH is at war.” I’m glad to hear this because he is now operating on my turf. I wish him luck and believe that our truth grenades will prevail over his bullshit bombs.
Goldberg is quite cunning. One has to be to steal millions of dollars — and nearly get away with it. His greatest weakness, however, is that he overestimates his abilities. He fervently believes that he is always the smartest person in the room — like the Enron guys. And we all know what happened to them.
While Goldberg might be a genius in money mismanagement (or is it malfeasance), he needs some work on his lousy PR instincts. For example, only someone delusional or out of touch would use disgraced “life coach” Richard Cohen (See pictures of therapy) as his therapeutic guru. He also made a gargantuan mistake by changing the name of JONAH to Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing.
Why?
The greatest weakness of this organization is the bizarre, sexually inappropriate and unproven methods of “healing” it promotes. As of today, they have made it infinitely easier to focus on the types of therapy provided to clients — including nude therapy, therapeutic lap dances and pretending to murder a parent by slamming a tennis racket into a pillow.
Truth Wins Out is excited about debating JONAH on its so-called “healing” methods. The truth is, Goldberg is the smartest person in the room — if the other people are George W. Bush and Carrie Prejean.
Goldberg and JONAH can change like chameleons, but, in the end, they will show their true colors. When they do, Truth Wins Out will be on the scene to shine a bright spotlight so the entire world will see the flawed and corrupt character of Goldberg and his minions at JONAH.
Ugandan politics took a sad walk onto the world stage at the end of 2009, when David Bahati, a member of Parliament, introduced a bill to gruesomely enhance his country’s existing laws against gay people – making it a crime not to report gays, and going so far as to call for the execution of gays in some circumstances. The death penalty provisions have not become law, but Uganda remains hostile territory.
Kushaba Moses Mworeko, a brave 31-year-old Ugandan and my personal hero, decided to speak out in February against the bill at the American Prayer Hour. This event countered the National Prayer Breakfast run by the notorious and powerful aanti-gay organization, The Family.
At the National Press Club, Moses joined Truth Wins Out, The Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Americans United, and several other organizations to speak out against The Family’s role in Uganda and the horrible “kill the gays” bill.
For his safety, Moses wore a paper bag over his head.
Today, he reveals himself to the world in an effort to stop the persecution of LGBT people in Uganda. The message of Moses: “Let my People Go.
What an incredibly brave and inspiring person! The publication MW has an excellent interview, discussing Moses’ activism, life journey and efforts to stay in the United States to avoid persecution, imprisonment or worse.
It is imperative that Moses stays in the United States. It would be unconscionable if he were sent back to suffer at the hands of would-be murderers.
I wonder if there are, like, NOM groupies who follow the hate-tour around and jockey for space in Maggie Gallagher’s bus harem.
Anyway, Bil Browning met up with Maggie and Ryan McCann, the fresh-faced (you know what I mean) “Director of Public Policy for the Indiana Family Institute” on the Indianapolis leg of NOM’s Summer of Poorly Attended Bigotry, and got both of them on tape saying some very interesting things. Also, apparently Bil Browning and Ryan McCann are dating, but under the guise of “winning bets with each other”? That’s gay as hell.
Old Scott Lively got the Daily Show treatment for his malevolently stupid assertion that the Nazis were a gay movement, therefore gays shouldn’t be able to serve in the military, because we are too “brutal.”
Burdened by two scandals, the ex-gay activist group Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality has changed its name.
The change occurred recently without fanfare on the organization’s web site. The new name: “Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing”
Despite the name change, JONAH’s mission remains largely the same:
Deny the existence of sexual orientation, a predominant state of sexual attraction to a particular gender
Promote the myth that homosexual attraction is caused not by biology or brain chemistry, but by a Freudian deficiency of “masculinity” in men that is caused by bad parenting or abuse
Receive substantial aid from conservative Christian evangelical organizations which teach that faith in Jesus Christ offers the only path out of homosexuality
And its credentials and practices are as scandalous as ever.
Far from “healing” its clients of any sexual confusion or self-doubt, JONAH has a reputation for supplying its clients with Christian evangelical books and subjecting them to unethical abuses that would never be tolerated among true mental-health professionals. And its counselors’ abuses aren’t “new alternatives,” they are century-old snake-oil remedies.
JONAH’s leader, Arthur Abba Goldberg, is a convicted Wall Street con artist who looted millions of dollars from poor communities. Goldberg has no professional credentials in the mental-health sciences
JONAH’s senior trainer, Alan Downing, likewise has no professional credentials and stands accused by two former clients of sexual misconduct
JONAH and its counselors refuse to keep accurate and comprehensive records about their clients, lest such records fall into the hands of objective scientists and be used to measure actual rates of success or failure
It’s the fault of the entire gay blogo-webs. None of us everreportwhathesays. That’s one of many things our friend David Pakman learned when he interviewed Peter LaBarbera today for his program “Midweek Politics with David Pakman.” You can listen to the entire program here, or download the podcast for yourself. The Peter Part starts 17 minutes in, if you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing (but you should, because David is A Good Thing). Videos will be available tomorrow.
Forthwith, a few notes about what happened, with a few editorial comments:
1. Peter has met FIFTY “former homosexuals” in his twenty-year anti-gay career! This is interesting, because he usually says there are THOUSANDS of them. Out of those fifty, how many have ended up back in gay? Inquiring minds want to know.
2. Peter says that there is more than one way into homosexuality, and also more than one way out. I tried to plug this into my GPS, but the computerized voice coughed out the word “bullshit.”
3. It takes him four minutes to mention his favorite man-crush of a gay activist, Wayne Besen.
4. Peter complains several times that David’s producer should have told Peter that the show he was going on today was pro-gay. This is because Peter does not have access to Google, and couldn’t find out anything about the show for himself.
5. Also, everybody censors Peter, and also so-called “ex-gays.” Apparently in Peter’s world, “censorship” is reporting his words without refuting/making fun of all of them. Impossible. That’s part of the First Amendment too, babe. I would point out that this blog gives a hell of a lot of airtime to so-called “ex-gays,” probably more than any other major blog out there.
6. Peter denies several times that he covers/photographs leathersex conventions and street festivals, before admitting that yes, he covers/photographs leathersex conventions and street festivals.
7. And then there’s Uganda. Peter says he does not support anything that “could be construed as violence or hatred toward gays.” You know what’s (correctly) construed as hatred toward gays? Yes, that’s right, Pete’s website is an SPLC-certified hate site! So, basically he issued a disclaimer against himself right there. But strangely enough, Peter suggests that in Uganda, the laws should be written so that the penalties for, say, raping a child, are the same whether or not the perpetrator is gay or straight. In other words, Peter is saying that gays and straights should be treated equally. I don’t think he meant to say that, though.
8. According to Peter, Fred Phelps is a wingnut. It’s funny when one wingnut calls another wingnut a “wingnut.” That is my only thought on that.
Mr. Downing Is Lying And Playing Head Games With Former Clients To Save His Career, Asserts TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) challenged scandalized “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing (pictured) to take a lie detector test and a No Lie MRI today, after he denied in The Jewish Week that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two male clients. Former Downng patients, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, made allegations of impropriety in a Truth Wins Out video released last week that has more than 11,000 views. They allege that during individual therapy sessions, Downing made them undress in front of a mirror and touch their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched.
“Regarding the video recently posted by two men identifying themselves as former clients of mine, I deny the allegations of malicious intent that are made in this video,” Downing asserted in a written statement to The Jewish Week. “I also emphatically deny the falsehoods being promulgated by activists and commentators; their accusations are not true. I am deeply concerned about the use of these young men to advance a political agenda, and the impact this publicity will have on them. I plead with those who choose to use them in this way to put their well being ahead of political goals.”
In light of his public denial, Truth Wins Out offered to pay for both a polygraph and a No Lie MRI for Downing, so he can prove his alleged innocence. When taking a No Lie MRI, if a person speaks a mistruth, a portion of the brain lights up on a scanner.
“We believe that Alan Downing is not telling the truth and that his brain would light up like a Menorah if he took a No Lie MRI,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We are offing the test to Downing any time and on our dime. So far he has refused our request because, perhaps, he is consumed by guilt.”
“It is highly unethical for Downing to play head games with his victims and pretend he cares about their well-being,” continued TWO’s Besen. “The fact is, he harmed his clients when he acted inappropriately and asked them to strip in his office. He should be offering apologies instead of obfuscation.”
Tellingly, when The Jewish Week asked Downing to describe the therapy sessions, he elected to remain silent. The man who referred Unger and Levin to Downing, Arthur Abba Goldberg, co-founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), defended the bizarre practices of Downing, essentially saying that “fondle therapy” and “therapeutic lap dances” are misunderstood.
“The video misrepresents common therapeutic techniques used by many types of practitioners who work with men with body image wounds and shame; they are often very successful.”
“No doubt these peculiar and dangerous practices are common for JONAH, but they are rejected by all respected mental health associations,” said TWO’s Besen. “Goldberg’s ‘quack defense’ lacks credibility and is not backed by science.”
Goldberg, a Wall Street criminal mastermind, was convicted in 1987 of “fraud of spectacular scope”. Upon completing parole, Goldberg secretly reinvented himself as a moral leader who “cures” gay and lesbian people. Known as “Abba Dabba Do” in the financial world, Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months in jail for bilking poor communities with complicated bond schemes and served six months in prison.
Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, was a major player in the “ex-gay” industry and a practitioner of so-called “reparative therapy”. He is the lead therapist for Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) and – until the scandal broke — was listed on the People Can Change website as a “Senior Trainer” for Journey into Manhood, which is a controversial “ex-gay” backwoods retreat designed to supposedly make gay men more masculine.
In Truth Wins Out’s illuminating video, Unger and Levin discuss what occurred in Downing’s office.
“He was encouraging me, ‘it’s okay Ben, you can take your shirt off’…here was a man that was much older than me, and I was around 20,” said Ben Unger, a former client of Alan Downing. “At that point, I was just staring at a mirror with my shirt off and he was right behind me staring at the mirror with me at my body. Then telling me to look at my body and feel my body. It was weird.”
“While I was standing there without my clothes on, he asked me to touch my genitals,” says former Downing client Chaim Levin. “Once again, I communicated that I was not comfortable with it. And he was like, you know, ‘just feel yourself. Just feel it for a second. So, you can grasp your masculinity physically.’”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights religious extremism. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders as charlatans. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
In a sample of 106 adoptive children living in different parts of the United States, youngsters were developing well regardless of whether they were living with lesbian, gay or heterosexual parenting couples. The study found that whether or not adoptive children were developing in positive ways was unrelated to the sexual orientation of their adoptive parents.
The finding appears in the August issue of the journal Applied Developmental Science.
“We found that children adopted by lesbian and gay couples are thriving,” said U.Va. psychology professor Charlotte J. Patterson, who led the study. “Our results provide no justification for denying lesbian or gay prospective adoptive parents the opportunity to adopt children. With thousands of children in need of permanent homes in the United States alone, our findings suggest that outreach to lesbian and gay prospective adoptive parents might benefit children who are in need.”
The study was authored by Patterson, who also is a faculty member and research scientist at the Fenway Institute’s Center for Population Research in LGBT Health in Boston; Rachel H. Farr, a U.Va. doctoral candidate; and Stephen L. Forssell, a faculty member in psychology at George Washington University. It was funded by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
It came from its co-founder, 
Goldberg is quite cunning. One has to be to steal millions of dollars — and nearly get away with it. His greatest weakness, however, is that he overestimates his abilities. He fervently believes that he is always the smartest person in the room — like the Enron guys. And we all know what happened to them.
The greatest weakness of this organization is the bizarre, sexually inappropriate and unproven methods of “healing” it promotes. As of today, they have made it infinitely easier to focus on the types of therapy provided to clients — including nude therapy, therapeutic lap dances and pretending to murder a parent by slamming a tennis racket into a pillow.
Ugandan politics took a sad walk onto the world stage at the end of 2009, when David Bahati, a member of Parliament, introduced a bill to gruesomely enhance his country’s existing laws against gay people – making it a crime not to report gays, and going so far as to call for the execution of gays in some circumstances. The death penalty provisions have not become law, but Uganda remains hostile territory.
For his safety, Moses wore a paper bag over his head.
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) challenged scandalized “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing (pictured) to take a lie detector test and a No Lie MRI today, after he denied in The Jewish Week that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two male clients. Former Downng patients, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, made allegations of impropriety in a Truth Wins Out video released last week that has more than 11,000 views. They allege that during individual therapy sessions, Downing made them undress in front of a mirror and touch their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched.
Goldberg, 
