In comments at the Ex-Gay Watch blog, self-styled moderate ex-gay advocate Karen Keen defends a special “right” of ex-gays who oppose civil rights to appear at the conventions of organizations that support civil rights for all.
Since it was created by the Family Research Council in 1996, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays has hosted private parental discussion forums that promote discrimination in employment and family law, ostracism in places of worship, factual falsehoods about sexual orientation in schools, and sweeping defamations about the “lifestyle” of same-sex-attracted persons. Two PFOX webmasters — “Burning Black Triangle” and Gabriel Espinosa — have advocated antigay violence. More recently, PFOX vice president Estella Salvatierra has apparently unleashed Fred-Phelps-like tirades at Virginia fair-goers in order to provoke physical altercations with passersby who are unfamiliar with PFOX’s headline-craving tactics.
PFOX advocates in Maryland against equal access to public facilities for gay and gender-variant Marylanders, and PFOX recently lost a Maryland battle against comprehensive sex education.
Despite Keen’s interest in dampening any inquiry while claiming victimhood, PFOX’s exhibit at a 2006 convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is well worth investigation: Did NAACP mistakenly believe that PFOX supports civil and constitutional rights for all? Did PFOX falsely claim that ex-gayness is a sexual orientation that is somehow distinct from homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality? Did PFOX disclose to NAACP that it endorses programs that enjoy a zero percent success rate at changing orientation, or that those programs have resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of injured survivors?
These facts are readily available at web sites such as XGW, Truth Wins Out, and WayneBesen.com. In her comments, however, Keen promotes a moral relativism that treats all so-called “voices” as not only valid, but worthy of airing on the soapboxes of rival organizations — no matter how unfactual, unsubstantiated, defamatory, and incendiary those views may be.
Keen compounds this moral relativism with some inertia against checking her facts and performing simple research about the political groups that she identifies and sympathizes with. To be fair, Keen did attend the Beyond Ex-Gay gathering of former ex-gays in 2007; she has shown initiative at times. And yet, in her absent-minded defense of PFOX, Keen seems to have forgotten the homophobic family abuse that witnesses and survivors recalled at that gathering — abuse that has been intentionally encouraged and perpetuated by PFOX.
Amnesia and disinterest in fact-checking seem to be a requirement for advocates of the ex-gay fraud: One must constantly forget the abuses and falsehoods that one has committed — or witnessed among one’s peers — in order to justify continuing such advocacy.
Why, exactly, do ex-gay advocates such as Keen feel “censored” when they are required to prove their claims and document their quackery — or when organizations such as NAACP are asked to reconsider giving ex-gays a soapbox for their opposition to civil and constitutional rights?
Perhaps it is because today’s ex-gay advocates feel unable to meet reasonable standards for moral and factual accountability. They only experience the true “freedom” that is promised by Exodus International when critics are prevented from voicing plain facts that naturally cause would-be allies to walk away from ex-gay activists in disgust. Ex-gay activists equate criticism with censorship because few people wish to waste time listening to ex-gay double-talk about civil rights and equality, once the facts are known.
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Michael,
To clarify, I never said I necessarily supported PFOX being at NAACP. I am agnostic at this point because I only have a superficial knowledge of PFOX and want to research it. I do think its important to research such organizations and as I said in the ExGay Watch comments, I plan to do that. That is one of the reasons I read blogs like ExGay Watch because it can challenge me to consider certain things that wouldn’t come up if I only listened to people I agree with.
My concern was that *any* ex-gay group would be deemed inappropriate to have a booth at NAACP. For example, the support group I help out with explicitly states in our mission statement that we do not get involved in fighting political battles. We do not agitate against GLBT rights.
I would think from the mission of TWO, though, that *any* ex-gay group would be deemed offensive merely for existing regardless of whether those ex-gays are against discrimination of GLBT people or not.
Comment by Karen K — July 1, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Thanks for commenting, Karen.
You originally said:
“So, if I am reading you right you [David Roberts at XGW] would like to curtail the rights of PFOX from exhibiting at NAACP?”
This theme was repeated a couple times, as commenters pointed out that no organization enjoys an automatic right to be hosted by another organization.
While I understand your ultimate intent, I believe the assumed “right” of ex-gays to impose their untruths upon private institutions and upon impressionable children (despite parents’ and teachers’ better judgment) is a recurring theme at Exodus and Focus on the Family.
Regarding your ultimate concern about opposition to all ex-gay groups:
By their own definition of ex-gay, virtually all ex-gay groups falsely claim to have “left” homosexuality or to be “leaving” homosexuality when further inquiry finds little or no change in participants’ sexual attractions.
Furthermore, all ex-gay groups that affiliate with Exodus or that endorse Focus on the Family are inseparably joined to those organizations’ campaigns against equality and against truthful discussion and education about sexual orientation.
Some ex-gay activists that don’t affiliate with Exodus are even more politically and spiritually extreme — supporting quack exorcisms, violence, and incarceration.
Meanwhile, in my opinion, ex-gay groups that absolve themselves of political responsibility for their allies’ immorality may be worst of all, in certain respects.
Is it really virtuous for a Christian evangelical — who teaches that Jews are inferior and that Judaism can be cured — to say “no comment” whenever it is asked whether it supports churches’ efforts to fire Jewish public-school teachers, to humiliate Jewish students in public schools, to rout Jews out of careers in media and finance, to insult and proselytize Jewish comrades on a military battlefield, or to refuse to marry a Jewish couple in the course of one’s responsibilities as a justice of the peace?
I view that choice of neglect of one’s neighbor as contrary to the parable of the good Samaritan. Apathy seems to be among the worst of New Testament sins.
Do any ex-gay groups exist which teach the truths that:
–sexual orientation appears to be fixed and substantially unchangeable in most people
–gay people deserve equal access to jobs, housing, and religious and civil institutions, including civil marriage
–the “gay lifestyle” does not exist
–consensual sex between adults in private must not be prosecuted
I fail to see how a legitimate civil rights organization could maintain philosophical integrity while intentionally aligning with today’s ex-gay groups, which either promote inequality, prejudice, and family breakdown — or refuse to oppose inequality, prejudice, and family breakdown.
Comment by Michael Airhart — July 1, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
To Michael Airhart,
You an Airhead. Where did you make up the statement “Is it really virtuous for a Christian evangelical — who teaches that Jews are inferior and that Judaism can be cured…”
That may be the kind of Christian evangelicals they have in your town but making a broad statement like that really makes you look retarded and out to make false claims yourself. If you knew Christian evangelical culture you would know that they are not as you describe. Just as your statements that: “virtually all ex-gay groups falsely claim to have “left” homosexuality or to be “leaving” homosexuality…” is wrong because it speaks only to those ex-gay groups who make statements to get the attention of people like you. It may come as a shock that a group you would label an ex-gay group has only the purpose of helping those who are sick and tired of the BS that is gay life to walk away from engaging in it without a mention of cures or other voodoo. Just the negative behaviors associated with gay life. But since you seem bent on coloring everything with the same brush I guess you’re just as hopeless as the rest of the gay world. Wait, was that a broad and untrue statement??? It’s alright because Mike Airhead would approve.
Comment by Lyle Norsit — July 10, 2008 @ 5:58 am
“sick and tired of the BS that is gay life
negative behaviors associated with gay life”
Wow, you certainly seem to speak for me, Lyle. I’m gay, and I have a life.
I’m not completely convinced though. Tell me, what do we gays do on our Saturdays?
Comment by Emproph — July 10, 2008 @ 7:32 am
I’m also curious as to what he thinks we gays do on our Saturdays.
(I nap. As in, snoring and dreaming and pissy if someone wakes me up.)
Comment by Emily K — July 10, 2008 @ 7:45 pm
I won’t allow name-calling here. For that reason, Lyle is no longer welcome to comment.
Furthermore, if Lyle is upset at the excesses of the best-known and loudest ex-gay organizations, he should blame them — and not blame Truth Wins Out for holding them accountable.
Comment by Michael Airhart — July 11, 2008 @ 1:17 pm