With an alleged one-million dollar budget and 13 staff members, Exodus had essentially gone into hibernation. It had not updated its tired website since Nov. 16, 2009. The only peep from the organization comes from periodic posting on the group’s vanity blog by Vice President Randy Thomas.

I guess my criticism lit a fire under President Alan Chambers’ derriere. On January 26, one day after my charges were leveled, he cleared the cobwebs and took a break from praying away his gay to update Exodus’ site.

A new work ethic had been born!!

Well, not exactly.

Since January 26, Exodus has not bothered to update its site. That’s right, we are nine days into February and Exodus is peddling old news, just like it hawks outdated ideas. Likewise, the group’s Exodus Youth site has not been updated since Dec. 1, 2009. The Exodus Church Association site hasn’t changed since August 2009.

While the group’s slogan is “Freedom is Possible”, apparently hard work is another story.

Finally, why is Exodus still not promoting San Diego’s March 6, “Love Won Out” conference on its main site’s front page? They supposedly bought the “ex-gay” road show from Focus on the Family last year. San Diego is its first foray without Focus – yet there has barely been a word of promotion.

In one year’s time, Exodus’ online properties have gone from robust to just plain bust. It is worth considering that the worldwide economic meltdown has affected Exodus more than it’s activist leaders are letting on. It is implausible that the group is still fully staffed and functional, yet unable to carry out the basic online functions it succeeded at only one year ago.

What is really going on at Exodus, Mr. Chambers?

Related posts

• Soulforce Open Letter to U.S. Christian Rightists Who Undermine LGBT Human Rights (3)
• Ex-Gay Activists, Knight, Barber to Proclaim LGBT Rights Incompatible with Anyone Else’s (1)
• Stephen Baldwin Loves the Ex-Gays (Not So Much a Fan of Minorities, Though) (4)
• Exodus’ Randy Thomas Is Just Advertising for His Personal Net Nanny Now (1)
• If an Ex-Gay Must Lock His Computer, Is He Really Healed? (7)

(h/t Jeremy)

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• No related posts.

THE ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY BILL. 2009.

MEMORANDUM 1.1.

The principle The object of this Bill is to establish a comprehensive consolidated legislation to protect the traditional family by prohibiting (i) any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; and (ii) the promotion or recognition of such sexual relations in public institutions and other places through or with the support of any Government entity in Uganda or any non governmental organization inside or outside the country.
This Bill aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family.
This legislation further recognizes the fact that same sex attraction is not an innate and immutable characteristic.
The Bill further aims at providing a comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect the cherished culture of the people of Uganda. legal, religious, and traditional family values of the people of Uganda against the attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Uganda.
There is also need to protect the children and youths of Uganda who are made vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technologies, parentless child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care, or otherwise.

2.1. Defects In existing law.
This proposed legislation is designed to fill the gaps in the provisions of other laws in Uganda e.g. the Penal Code Act Cap. 120.
The Penal Code Act (CapI20) has no comprehensive provision catering for anti homosexuality. It focuses on unnatural offences under section 145 and lacks provisions for penalizing the procurement, promoting, disseminating literature and other pornographic materials concerning the offences of homosexuality hence the need for legislation to provide for charging, investigating, prosecuting, convicting and sentencing of offenders.
This legislation comes to complement and supplement the provisions of the Constitution of Uganda and the Penal Code Act Cap 120 by not only criminalizing same sex marriages but also same-sex sexual acts and other related acts.

3.0. The objectives of the Bill The objectives of the Bill are to:
(a) provide for marriage in Uganda as that contracted only between a man and a woman;
(b) prohibit and penalize homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family;
(e) prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act;
(d) prohibit the licensing of organizations which promote homosexuality.

3.1. Part I of the Bill incorporating clause 1 provides for preliminary mailers relating to interpretation of the words and phrases used in the Bill.

3.2. Part II of the Bill incorporating clause 2 to 6 prohibits homosexuality and related practices by introducing the offences of engaging In homosexuality, and the penalties of imprisonment upon conviction. This pan also provides for protection, assistance and support for victims of homosexuality.

3.3. Part III of the Bill incorporating clause 7 to clause 14 creates offences and penalties for acts that promote homosexuality, failure to report the offence and impose a duty on the community to report suspected cases of homosexuality.

3.4. Part IV of the Bill incorporating clause 15 to clause 17 provides for the jurisdiction of Uganda Courts in case of Homosexuality, including extra territorial jurisdiction.

3.5. Part V of the Bill incorporating clauses 18 and 19 provides for miscellaneous provisions on International Treaties, Protocols. Declarations and conventions and the Minister to make regulations to give effect to the Act.
Schedule of the Bill gives the value of the currency point.

HON DAVID BAHATI,
Member of Parliament, Ndorwa County West Kabale.

THE ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2009.

ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.

PART I — PRELIMINARY
Clause I. Interpretation.

PART II — PROHIBITION OF HOMOSEXUALITY.
2. The offence of homosexuality
3. Aggravated homosexuality.
4. Attempt to commit homosexuality.
5. Protection, assistance and payment of compensation to victims of homoseuxality
6. Confidentiality.
PART Ill — RELATED OFFENCES AND PENALTIES.
7. Aiding and abating homosexuality.
8. Conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.
9. Procuring homosexuality. by threats, etc.
10. Detention with intent to commit homosexuality.
11. Brothels.
12. Same sex marriage.
13. Promotion of homosexuality.
14. Failure to disclose the offence.
PART IV — JURISDICTION.
15. Jurisdiction.
16. Extra-territorial Jurisdiction.
17. Extradition.
PART V — MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
18. International treaties.
19. Regulations.
Schedule
Currency point.
—
A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED THE ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY ACT, 2009.
An Act to prohibit any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; prohibit the promotion or recognition of such relations and to provide for other related matters.
BE IT ENACTED by Parliament as follows:
PART I — PRELIMINARY.
I. Interpretation.
In this Act. unless the context otherwise requires –
“authority” means having power and control over other people because of your knowledge and official position; and shall include a person who exercises religious. political, economic or social authority;
“bisexual” means a person who is sexually attracted to both males and females;
“child” means a person below the age of 18 years:
“currency point” has the value assigned to it in the Schedule to this Act;
“disability” means a substantial limitation of daily life activities caused by physical. mental or sensory impairment and environment barriers resulting in limited participation;
“felony” means an offence which is declared by law to be a felony or if not declared to be a misdemeanor is punishable without proof of previous conviction, with death or with imprisonment for 3 years or more.;
“gay”” means a male person who engages in sexual intimacy with another person of the same sex;
“‘gender”” means male or female;
“HIV” means the Human Immunodeficiency Virus;
“homosexual”‘ means a person who engages or attempts to engage in same gender sexual activity;
“homosexuality”’ means same gender or same sex sexual acts;
“lesbian” means a female who engages in sexual intimacy with another female;
“Minister’” means the Minister responsible for ethics and integrity;
“misdemeanor” means an offence which is not a felony;
“serial offender” means a person who has previous convictions of the offence of homosexuality or related offences;
“sexual act” includes –
(a) physical sexual activity that docs not necessarily culminate in intercourse and may include the touching of another’s breast, vagina, penis or anus:
(b) stimulation or penetration of a vagina or mouth or anus or any part of the body of any person, however slight by a sexual organ;
(c) the unlawful use of any object or organ by a person on another person’s sexual organ or anus or mouth;
“sexual organ” means a vagina, penis or any artificial sexual contraption;
“touching” includes touching—
(a) with any part of the body;
(b) with anything else;
(c) through anything;
and in particular includes touching amounting to penetration of any sexual organ. anus or mouth.
“victim” includes a person who is involved in homosexual activities against his or her will.

PART II — HOMOSEXUALITY AND RELATED PRACTICES.
2. The offence of homosexuality.
(1) A person commits the offence of homosexuality if-
(a) he penetrates the anus or mouth of another person of the same sex with his penis or any other sexual contraption;
(b) he or she uses any object or sexual contraption to penetrate or stimulate sexual organ of a person of the same sex;
(e) he or she touches another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.
(2) A person who commits an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.
3. Aggravated homosexuality.
(1) A person commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality where the (a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years;
(b) offender is a person living with HIV;
(c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed;
(d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed;
(e) victim of the offence is a person with disability;
(f) offender is a serial offender, or
(g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex,
(2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death.
(3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.
4, Attempt to commit homosexuality.
(1) A person who attempts to commit the offence of homosexuality commits a felony and is liable on conviction to imprisonment seven years.
(2) A person who attempts to commit the offence of aggravated homosexuality commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.
5. Protection, assistance and payment of compensation to victims of homosexuality.
(1 ) A victim of homosexuality shall not be penalized for any crime commuted as a direct result of his or her involvement in homosexuality.
(2) A victim of homosexuality shall be assisted to enable his or her views and concerns to be presented and considered at the appropriate stages of the criminal proceedings.
(3) Where a person is convicted of homosexuality or aggravated homosexuality under sections 2
and 3 of this Act, the court may, in addition to any sentence imposed on the offender, order that the victim of the offence be paid compensation by the offender for any physical, sexual or psychological harm caused to the victim by the offence.
(4) The amount of compensation shall be determined by the court and the court shall take into account the extent of harm suffered by the victim of the offence. the degree of force used by the offender and medical and other expenses incurred by the victim as a result of the offence.
6. Confidentiality.
(1) At any stage of the Investigation or trial of an offence under this Act, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judicial officers and medical practitioners, as well as parties to the case, shall recognize the right to privacy of the victim.
(2) For the purpose of subsection (I), in cases involving children and other cases where the court considers it appropriate. proceedings of the court shall be conducted in camera, outside the presence of the media.
(3) Any editor or publisher, reporter or columnist in case of printed materials. announcer or producer in case of television and radio, producer or director of a film to case of the movie industry. or any person utilizing trimedia facilities or information technology who publishes or causes the publicity of the names and personal circumstances or any other information tending to establish the victim’s identity without authority of court commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty currency points.

PART III — RELATED OFFENCES AND PENALTIES.
7. Aiding and abating homosexuality A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.
8. Conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.
A person who conspires with another to induce another person of the same sex by any means of false pretence or other fraudulent means to permit any person of the same sex to have unlawful carnal knowledge of him or her commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.
9. Procuring homosexuality by threats, etc.
(1) A person who–
(a) by threats or intimidation procures or attempts to procure any woman or man to have any unlawful carnal knowledge with any person of the same sex, either in Uganda or elsewhere;
(b) by false pretences or false representations procures any woman or man to have any unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex, either in Uganda or elsewhere; or
(2) A person shall not be convicted of an offence under this section upon the evidence of one witness only, unless that witness is corroborated in some material particular by evidence implicating the accused.
10. Detention with intent to commit homosexuality.
A person who detains another person with the intention to commit acts of homosexuality with him or herself or with any other person commits an offence and is liable on conviction for seven years.
11. Brothels.
(1) A person who keeps a house, room,set of rooms or place of any kind for the purposes of homosexuality commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.
(2) A person being the owner or occupier of premises or having or acting or assisting in the management or control of the premises, induces or knowingly suffers any man or woman to resort to or be upon such premises for the purpose of being unlawfully and carnally known by any man or woman of the same sex whether such carnal knowledge is intended to be with any particular man or woman generally, commits a felony and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for five years.
12. Same sex marriage.
A person who purports to contract a marriage with another person of the same sex commits the offence of homosexuality and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.
13. Promotion of homosexuality.
(1) A person who –
(a) participates in production. procuring, marketing, broadcasting, disseminating, publishing pornographic materials for purposes of promoting homosexuality;
(b) funds or sponsors homosexuality or other related activities;
(c) offers premises and other related fixed or movable assets for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality;
(d) uses electronic devices which include internet, films, mobile phones for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality and;
(e) who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality and related practices;
commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a line of live thousand currency points or imprisonment of a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years or both fine and imprisonment.
(2) Where the offender is a corporate body or a business or an association or a non-governmental organization, on conviction its certificate of registration shall be cancelled and the director or proprietor or promoter shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.
14. Failure to disclose the offence.
A person in authority, who being aware of the commission of any offence under this Act, omits to report the offence to the relevant authorities within twenty-four hours of having first had that knowledge, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty currency points or imprisonment not exceeding three years.

PART IV — JURISDICTION
15. Jurisdiction.
Save for aggravated homosexuality that shall be tried by the High Court, the magistrates court shall have jurisdiction to try the other offences under this Act.
16. Extra- Territorial Jurisdiction.
This Act shall apply to offenses committed outside Uganda where –
(a) a person who, while being a citizen of or permanently residing in Uganda, commits an act outside Uganda, which act would constitute an offence under this Act had it been committed in Uganda; or (b) the offence was committed partly outside and or partly in Uganda.
17. Extradition.
A person charged with an offence under this Act shall be liable to extradition under the existing extradition laws.

PART V — MISCELLANEOUS.
18. Nullification of inconsistent international treaties, protocols, declarations and conventions.(1) Any International legal instrument whose provisions are contradictory to the spirit and provisions enshrined in this Act, are null and void to the extent of their inconsistency.
(2) Definitions of “sexual orientation”, “sexual rights”, “sexual minorities”, “gender identity”
shall not be used in anyway to legitimize homosexuality, gender identity disorders and related practices in Uganda.
19. Regulations.
The Minister may, by statutory instrument. make regulations generally for better carrying out the provisions of this Act.

SCHEDULE

One currency point in equivalent to twenty thousand shillings.

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Not true.

The death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” is defined in Part II of the legislation to include “serial offender,” but the offense in this context is defined narrowly as “homosexuality” and not related offenses. Related offenses and their penalties are addressed in Part III of the legislation.

Part III, Section 14, states:

Failure to disclose the offence.

A person in authority, who being aware of the commission of any offence under this Act, omits to report the offence to the relevant authorities within twenty-four hours of having first had that knowledge, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty currency points or imprisonment not exceeding three years.

In other words, the bill punishes the pastors, families, and friends of LGBT people to 3 years in prison for failing to report a loved one to police for life imprisonment or execution.

Clause 13 of the legislation punishes, with a sentence of at least 5 years, any speech by friends, families, pastors, medical and academic professionals, media, or politicians which might be perceived as less than all-out condemnation of homosexuality, or which might be perceived by ideologues as assisting LGBT people by educating them about disease prevention — activities which are vaguely described as “related activities,” “related practices,” and “promoting homosexuality.”

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[I]f the anti-choice position is so true, so mainstream and so critical to the future of our nation, why did Focus on the Family spend $2.5 million to avoid saying anything whatsoever about it?  Pam Tebow’s lines were all oblique references to her choice not to have an abortion, but if FotF felt the need to couch her story in such coded and oblique terms that it could have been an ad for Wii Family, doesn’t that say something incredibly telling about how weak and radical their position actually is?

Yep.  They had to water it down to make it palatable, in the hopes that they would simply look like an organization that “embraces life,” much as one might embrace puppies and flowers!

I also believe that they intended to make the ad lame and benign in order to score a cheap point against those of us who were raising very real concerns about their true message.  (Look at dem mean abortionists!  All I see is a big miracle baby tacklin’ his mama!)  Women like Pam Tebow wouldn’t be heroes in any sense if it weren’t for Roe v. Wade.  Those of us on the pro-choice side of things are the ones who actually support women like Pam Tebow, because we want them to be able to make these choices for themselves, with their doctors.  If her story is true (which is in question) and she made a conscious choice to tough it out and things turned out well, then we’re happy for her!  But the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t always turn out that way, and pro-choicers believe that women should be able to weigh the pros and cons of their own individual circumstances and decide what’s best.  And yes, sometimes a safe termination of a pregnancy is the best option.  Sometimes it’s not.  The point is that it’s not up to the men who run Focus on the damn Family!

Sheesh.

If you missed the ad (you didn’t miss much), here it is.

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On his embrace of gay marriage, he observed: “There were pastors in my Tennessee district who said you can minister to someone and change their sexual orientation. I just never accepted that. I’m a heterosexual. I don’t know what anyone can say to me to make me sexually be with a man.”

Ford is considering a primary challenge against Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY). While representing Tennessee, Ford had clashed with the LGBT community on several occasions. According to the Gay City News:

While his two votes backing an amendment to the US Constitution that defined marriage as “only the union of a man and a woman” and effectively barred any state or federal constitutional claim to marriage for same-sex couples might be enough to cost him gay support, earlier votes cast by Harold Ford in the House may further alienate gay and lesbian voters.

Since moving to New York, Ford has changed his stance on marriage equality. Some would call this a cynical move (same for Gillibrand who grew more liberal when she left her conservative New York district to become a U.S. Senator). Still, it was nice to hear Ford explicitly reject the false premise that people can pray away the gay.

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(via Joe.My.God)

For more on the public stand Scott has taken for gay equality, click this clicky.

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Dianetics?  Richard Simmons.

Atlas Shrugged?  J. Edgar Hoover.

Twilight?  That would be Bruce Vilanch.

Jewel’s book of poetry?  Wanda Sykes!

This is the world according to gay-obsessed Scott Lively, who’s most known around these parts as the man who went to Uganda and told an audience there, among other grotesque and dishonest things, that gays were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda, essentially handing David Bahati one of the proverbial guns he needed to get the genocide going.  Now he’s popped up again, e-mailing a blogger named Benzion Chinn, who had been writing about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to let him know that there’s a theory out there that maybe it was written by George Bernard Shaw!  Here’s Lively’s e-mail:

At the Library of Congress is an obscure book by Samuel Igra which makes the case that “The Protocols…Zion” was actually written by George Bernard Shaw. I don’t remember the title, but I read a portion in DC when I was researching another book by Igra and I remember thinking at the time that his case seemed quite plausible, though I don’t remember the details now.

It is common knowledge that Shaw was a close friend of the homosexual poet Bruce Douglas, the “translator” of the Protocols.
Regards,

Dr. Scott Lively

He’s just sayin’!  Here’s a thought, you know, maybe it was written by one of my super-homosexual boogeymen!

Chinn, of course, handily disposed of this notion after doing a bit of research on Lively’s obsession with blaming gay people for every evil that’s ever befallen the world:

Samuel Igra, Lively’s source, seems to have been one of the main originators of this Nazism and homosexuality link with his 1945 book, Germany’s National Vice. According to Igra, Hitler was a homosexual prostitute in Vienna and then in Munich from 1907-1914. (See Gregory Woods A History of Gay Literature: the Male Tradition pg. 251-53.) Obviously there were Nazis who were homosexual. The most famous example is Ernst Rohm of the SD. While an early member of the party, Rohm was killed off in the infamous “Night of the Long Knives” in 1934. Considering the very real persecution of homosexuals under the Nazi regime, saying that Nazism was a homosexual movement (as opposed to individual Nazis being homosexual) strikes me as the height of perversity.

Bruce Douglas was the young lover of Oscar Wilde’s, whose father got into a libel suit with Wilde, which eventually brought about the downfall of Wilde in English society. Douglas did do one of the first English translations of the Protocols in 1919, nearly twenty years after it was first written. The Protocols came out of Russia, and while it was plagiarized from many sources, including one French anti-Semitic tract, it is clearly a product of reactionary Russian circles. Personally I find the idea that George Bernard Shaw would have written the Protocols to be offensive. I would have no problem accepting Shaw as an anti-Semite along the lines of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. But to think that Shaw would have written such a piece of garbage as the Protocols, boggles the mind. If Shaw had wanted to write a book about Jews plotting to rule the world, this book would have been a model of wit and would have me convinced to become an Elder.

Heh.  And what is Chinn’s expertise?  Oh, just Jewish History.  In other words, Chinn sort of knows what he’s talking about.

So anyway, that happened.

But wait, there’s more!  Lively got a bur in his britches over Chinn reprinting the e-mail on his blog and sent another e-mail, wherein he called the (conservative!) Jewish History teacher an anti-Semite!  Really.  No, seriously, really. You cannot make this stuff up:

Dear Mr. Chinn,

I offered privately what I thought would be a helpful research tip regarding a source you were not likely to have discovered, not a personal conviction to be publicly ridiculed. It was a friendly gesture to a stranger. Your incivility is unbecoming a man of letters.

If anti-Semitism is the dehumanization of people because of their beliefs and values, I’m sorry to say you have become your own case-in-point.

It’s very strange, though, that Lively would be bothered by this.  He has, after all, made a career based on just cold making things up about gay people in order to make us look like murderous maniacs, pedophiles and what-have-you.  This fits right in with his pattern.

You really should go read Chinn’s entire response to this.  It’s fair to say that there are things in there that, in another situation, I would disagree with fervently.  Bear in mind that this is a conversation between a conservative religious person and an irrational, insane,and most importantly, malevolent homophobe.  I’m willing to grant that there is a difference.  But Chinn seems like an honest broker.  Not so, Mr. Lively.

So anyway, there you have it.  If you’re interested, the discourse just keeps going and going…  Somewhere in the second link, Lively tries to defend his work in Uganda, but you know, we have the video, and it says otherwise.  As I said before, it’s a discourse between a conservative Jewish man who I could spend hours debating (but will not, because there comes a point when it’s boring) and the extremely disturbed, delusional homophobe Scott Lively.  So it gets a bit tiresome.

I think we’ve covered the parts of this that are important.

Left Behind series?  Ghostwritten by RuPaul, but I’m sure you figured that…

(h/t Wendy Leigh for tipping me off to this)

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Sprigg is also one of the few local citizens to serve on a citizens’ advisory board for Montgomery County Public Schools in Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs.

Just two days after Sprigg proudly declared that LGBT people of all ages should be imprisoned, the school district sent students home with PFOX brochures. The brochures tell students that if they are same-sex attracted, it is OK to be of two minds, to conceal one’s attractions from friends and family, to be dishonest, and proclaim one’s so-called heterosexuality. And while PFOX opposes any right to self-determination for persons who wish to be honest about their orientation, it doesn’t acknowledge this in the brochures; instead, PFOX portrays students who seek to be sexually honest and free from bullying as if they are oppressing those students wish to hide in shame and to bully or imprison others.

Neither the literature nor the school district tell students any of the following truths:

• Since its founding in 1996, PFOX has been little more than a branch of the Christian-Rightist FRC. FRC ousted PFOX founder Anthony Falzarano when the latter criticized the Christian Right’s political exploitation of the ex-gay movement
• PFOX support groups incite parents to turn in anger against spouses and family members who are tolerant and unprejudiced toward an LGBT family member
• PFOX support groups portray LGBT family members as diseased, sexually irresponsible, depressed, and drug-addicted as a result of their sexual orientation
• PFOX discourages parents from seeking the help of mainstream mental-health professionals. PFOX support group members insist that only Christian conservative “counselors” can be trusted to conform to orthodox Christian Right stereotypes. They further assert that LGBT family members should be made more unhappy and depressed in order to force them to change their orientation
• FRC and PFOX oppose anti-hate-crime laws unless they exclude LGBT people from protection.
• FRC and PFOX oppose school antibullying programs unless they exclude LGBT students from protection
• PFOX board member Estella Salvatierra is a federal “civil rights” attorney who uses her office to undermine the constitutional rights of sexual minorities
• Both FRC and PFOX support sodomy laws
• Longtime PFOX president Richard Cohen remains esteemed by PFOX, even though his International Healing Foundation has supported genocide in Uganda, and even though Cohen — disbarred from the American Counseling Association for misconduct toward patients — practices man-to-man cuddle therapy with patients and pressures them to blame parents for same-sex attraction

The Washington Post reported today on the flier distribution but neglected to report these facts.

While the school district was required in 2006 to begin distributing outside organizations’ propaganda on a quarterly basis, that order did not include the propaganda of hate groups. But the MCPS does not wish to confront the obvious truth that PFOX is a hate group. The Post quoted a school official:

“These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum, but that curriculum focuses on respect, and we respect freedom of speech,” said Patricia O’Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase), president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

A Montgomery County parents group, Teach the Facts, is alarmed that the school district is allowing its policies to be steered by a dangerous bigot like Sprigg. TTF also points out that, contrary to claims in PFOX literature, there are no ex-gays in the D.C. area.

Teach The Facts concludes:

The district is doing this as a consequence of a lawsuit, I understand, you have to abide by the court’s ruling. But at the same time somebody should be preparing to file some papers, drafting policy, gearing up for a political fight, speaking up. While the district is required to allow these flyers, our community leaders could be voicing their opposition loudly and clearly — they have freedom of speech, too. What we are looking for here is a leader with a capital L. Instead we have a bunch of shoulder shrugging.

It is incredible to see Superintendent Jerry Weast and the members of the Board of Education sitting on their hands, looking the other way, when the emotional damage they are doing is unimaginable. This is damaging both to gay adolescents who need understanding and accurate information at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable, and to the others, who are forming attitudes and stereotypes, and are likely to believe this junk about gay people choosing not to be gay, especially since it is handed out by their teachers, at school.

Our school district is propagating a message that undermines the proud values of our community and the hard-won knowledge of researchers, scientists, and medical practitioners. It’s time for MCPS to stand up for what’s right.

Please support TTF in their efforts.

Addendum:

For obvious political reasons, PFOX closely guards the identities of its board of directors. In its tax filings for 2008, PFOX identified the following board members:

Paul Rondeau, president
Estella Salvatierra, vice president
Scott Strachan, secretary
Michelle Hoffman, treasurer
Peter Sprigg, senior fellow at the Family Research Council
Retta Brown
Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries and American (Anti) Civil Rights Union
Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel
Greg Quinlan, ex-gay activist

As of late 2009, Richard Cohen protege and NARTH committee member Christopher Doyle had joined the board, claiming to be  a “certified” sexual reorientation “coach.”

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The fliers, from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, were distributed Thursday alongside report cards by teachers at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. The group says it delivered them to about half the county’s high schools this week and plans to do the same at the remaining high schools at the end of the school year.

(…)

School officials said that while they aren’t always happy with everything that goes home with students, their hands are tied by the results of the litigation.

“These fliers are probably counter to what is available in our health curriculum, but that curriculum focuses on respect, and we respect freedom of speech,” said Patricia O’Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase), president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

The flier, printed on one side of a sheet of paper, says that “every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity.” At the bottom, it includes a disclaimer that the content is not sponsored by the Montgomery County Board of Education, the school or the superintendent.

(…)

“We believe that people have the right to seek change if they’re unhappy,” said Regina Griggs, the organization’s director. “No one’s telling anybody that they have to support our position.”

Uh, Regina?  If they’re unhappy, it’s because of people like you.  Also?  Lying to children is wrong, Regina.  NO credible medical or psychological or child welfare organization supports anything you teach.  None of them!

And might I also add, Regina, this is a particularly disturbing way you’ve chosen to abuse your gay son by proxy.  But then again, it doesn’t leave a visible bruise, does it?

Way to fly under the radar, champ.

Mike Airhart has a lot more to say on this story here.

(h/t John Aravosis)

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