Students at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks are protesting a long series of on-campus lectures by an “ex-gay” proponent of antigay prejudice.
Edward Delgado, a deacon at an Anchorage Baptist church, on Saturday launched a series of 14 lectures against sexual honesty. Delgado contends that honesty about one’s sexual orientation requires adherence to a non-existent “homosexual lifestyle” of “promiscuity, abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse.” He further argues that people with a predominant same-sex orientation can only achieve “freedom” through conformity to antigay evangelical bigotry, misleading assertions of heterosexuality, shame regarding one’s same-sex attraction, sexless marriage, or lifelong celibacy.
While Delgado is not listed as a member of Exodus International, his poster slogan is borrowed from past Exodus billboards which imply that all gay people are — or should be — inherently lonely and confused. Delgado’s poster refers students to Exodus International and to “ex-gay” political activist Joe Dallas.
According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Chancellor Brian Rogers said he wouldn’t order the poster removed.
Rogers said he wants a “welcoming and inclusive university” but said tolerance of opposing views and freedom of speech are at the core of the campus’ values.
No one appears to have been invited to offer “opposing views” to Delgado, however.
In his self-promotions, Delgado speaks about his “life of homosexuality” as a Southern California teen, when — according to the News-Miner — he says he had 10 male sex partners by age 19: A tally not much different from many heterosexual teen-agers. Delgado asserts that his own unfulfilling lifestyle choices must be representative of all gay people. “The things that I speak [against gay people] are not a lie, because I’ve lived these things,” he said.
Delgado is now married with two sons — though the Daily News-Miner does not say whether Delgado is sexually active with his wife, whether he is (or ever was) predominantly same-sex attracted, or whether the sons are his through biology or adoption.
Members of a campus gay-straight alliance planned to counter Delgado’s smears against healthy and well-adjusted members of the academic community with “Stop the Hate” T-shirts and literature, according to Queers United.
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“He further argues that people with a predominant same-sex orientation can only achieve “freedom” through conformity to antigay evangelical bigotry, misleading assertions of heterosexuality, shame regarding one’ same-sex attraction, sexless marriage, or lifelong celibacy.”
Does he actually spell it out like that? If so, then at least he’s being frank about what being “ex-gay” really means. No-one can say that they weren’t warned.
Comment by William — September 21, 2009 @ 7:12 am
I wish he did spell it out quite so honestly.
Comment by Michael Airhart — September 21, 2009 @ 8:49 am
The last major “ex-gay” to come from Alaska was Michael Johnston, who had to step down after Michael Hamer and I exposed him for having sex with men he met on the Internet. The Alaska media should talk about this. How soon they forget.
The truth is, ex-gay marriages last about as long as a Sarah Palin term as governor. Like Palin, they start out with over-zealous proclamations of success, only to fizzle and quit, long before the term is up.
Comment by Wayne Besen — September 21, 2009 @ 11:44 am
This is hilarious. This is Eddie Delgado formerly of Victorville, Burbank, and Orange County California. Nephew of none other than “Luis” from Sesame Street.
And his presentation is full of it.
We knew and worked with Eddie in California know that while he embraced religion because it made him feel less profoundly stupid, and even though he was known to live with a woman that he physically abused–he continued to practice his homosexuality later in life.
Eddie should not throw stones from his glass house. We who love the gay community, understand science and more than anything, know this bottomfeeder personally be sending our stories out next time he wants to get a little free press. His “testimony” if factually inaccurate and there are legion that can prove it.
Comment by Vince Clark — January 4, 2010 @ 12:17 am
I am offended but not surprised by this. He has always been “confused” about his choices as a young person and has embraced homophobia and false ideas and beliefs as a way to condemn others and himself. AND he never “lived” as a gay man. He has always been a closeted homophobe. I know this from my own experience with him. He doesn’t know what it means to be an “ex-gay” because he never lived openly as a gay man.
I worked with Eddie in CA too. I also lived with his family. They embraced me with compassion. I also embraced myself with compassion and I am being true to myself. I cannot live a lie of conformity. And even if I were now trying to live as a straight man, I would never condemn others or use homophobia as a platform.
I have no SHAME about who I am. The longer I tried to avoid my true nature the longer I suffered. I avoided the lifestyle he portrays and was very unhappy for a very long time and I will never put myself through that again. I am a very happy and proud gay American. I was confused and lonely because the heterosexual community would not accept me as I was and I had no support or unconditional love as a teen and was shamed and abused for being who I am.
The GLBTG community as a whole is not depressed, sick, or unhappy. Some suffer from mental health conditions and addictions but those things are not a symptom of their sexuality. If anything, they are depressed or unhappy for being oppressed by the hate mongerers and homophobes who have an illness of their own and by their own families and communities that will not accept them or be inclusive.
This “ex-gay” sickness so deep that it causes them to hate others who love differently rather accept and love them just as they were intended to be and accept themselves.
They continuously stand in the way of our civil rights. It is an abomination to be prejudiced . It is unfair for others to suffer by someone else’s “self-promotion”. It is selfish and wrong in every sense that freedom of speech be allowed to condemn inclusiveness and keep others from living a fulfilling life because of their false beliefs. And just because he’s being “frank” about what he means doesn’t make it right.
Comment by Gerald Radley Jr. — January 4, 2010 @ 7:29 am