Dr. Jack Drescher, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychologist in private practice in New York City. He presented the second keynote address at the Anti-Heterosexism Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2009.

Dr. Drescher has written and edited over 20 books regarding homosexuality and gender identity. His keynote, “STRAIGHT” Jackets: A Psychiatrist Deconstructs Sexual Conversion Therapies, speaks in great detail about the psychology and psychiatry of homosexuality and the ineffectiveness of so-called “conversion therapies.”

The conference organizers have now made video of this address available. Video length: about 48 minutes.

Dr Jack Drescher from SOULFORCE on Vimeo.

The Anti-Heterosexism Conference was co-sponsored by Soulforce, the National Black Justice Coalition, Truth Wins Out, Box Turtle Bulletin, Equality Florida, and Beyond Ex-Gay.

Opponents of antigay prejudice and arrogance gathered in south Florida two months ago at the Anti-Heterosexism Conference to expose the deceit of the ex-gay and antigay movements.

Dr. Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D., presented the first keynote. Dr. Rhue serves as Director of Religious Affairs with the National Black Justice Coalition and is a scholar, writer, educator and sought-after public speaker. The title of her presentation was “STRAIGHT” Rackets: Why the Religious Right Needs Reparative Therapy.

The conference organizers have now made video of this address available. Video length: about 58 minutes.

Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D. from SOULFORCE on Vimeo.

Some thoughts raised for consideration:

• Homophobia in the black church is an artifact of archaeology, and not an artifact of faith.
• Authoritarian religious movements, filled with fear and loathing, wage an ongoing war against love.
• Ten years ago, the ex-gay movement patterned a national ad campaign in a fashion some found starkly reminiscent of past campaigns against Negroes. In those times, southern Americans, largely Baptist, would conduct castrations and lynchings on Saturday nights and worship on Sundays without a hint of schizophrenia or guilt.
• Jesus is not in the orientation-changing business, because sexual orientation is God-given and morally neutral
• From Fred Phelps to Harry Jackson, numerous Christian Rightists demonstrate a basic lack of understanding of human sexuality and a lack of empathy for the harm they do.
• The need of some Christian Rightists to be at war with some segment of the population highlights a lack of integrity and confidence in their theology.
• The word “homosexuality” was invented in 1869, didn’t arrive in states until the turn of century, and did not appear in the Bible until c. 1940 as a mistranslation.
• Most evangelical youth leave their church, never to return: They want faith, but not their parents’ faith.

The Anti-Heterosexism Conference was co-sponsored by Soulforce, the National Black Justice Coalition, Truth Wins Out, Box Turtle Bulletin, Equality Florida, and Beyond Ex-Gay.

People who were spiritually and emotionally injured by “ex-gay” ministries and reparative therapy gathered in south Florida two months ago to reflect on their experiences and their recovery.

The conference organizers have now made video of these recollections available. Video length: about 50 minutes.

Reflections from Survivors of Ex-Gay Ministries & Reparative Therapy from SOULFORCE on Vimeo.

The Anti-Heterosexism Conference was co-sponsored by Soulforce, the National Black Justice Coalition, Truth Wins Out, Box Turtle Bulletin, Equality Florida, and Beyond Ex-Gay.

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

One of the greatest hypocrisies of ex-gay groups is how they seek victimhood status against the alleged gay agenda that discriminates them for daring to want to “be free from homosexuality,” while simultaneously allowing themselves to be a funnel/conduit for some of the most extreme anti-gay propaganda in existence.

PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) is a perfect example of the hypocrisies of the ex-gay movement.

On it’s webpage, PFOX has this huge section called  “Equal Rights,” where it posts articles pushing the lie that ex-gays are somehow discriminated against. Such articles include: Are Ex-gays Next?, Ex-Gay Declaration of Independence, Hear our message, then judge, and Ex-Gays Face Double Discrimination.

And a few of these articles have huge errors. Such as the piece Putting Adolescents at Risk.

This article pushes the notion that:

Males who self-identify as “gay” before age 18 are highly likely to have been victims of sexual abuse and/or to suffer from untreated Gender Identity Disorder (GID). This puts them at high risk for a number of negative outcomes. When these problems are untreated, the boys often act out in ways that draw negative attention to themselves. The strict restriction of bullying and other mistreatment by fellow students is, of course, important, but it is equally important to address the underlying problems. Even if an adolescent boy does not suffer from sexual abuse or GID, sexual activity combined with the predictable adolescent irresponsibility carries a high risk.

However one of the sources which PFOX uses to prove this claim is being distorted:

The following is the conclusion of a study of the association of health risk behaviors and sexual orientation: “GLB youth who self-identify during high school report disproportionate risk for a variety of health risk and problem behaviors, including suicide, victimization, sexual risk behaviors, and multiple substance abuse use. In addition, these youth are more likely to report engaging in multiple risk behaviors and initiating risk behaviors at an earlier age than their peers.” (Garofalo 1998)

The study PFOX is referring to is The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents, by Massachusetts pediatrician Robert Garofalo.

PFOX is implying that the study says that the lgbt orientation is causing bad behavior in youth.

PFOX was not the first group to use Garofalo’s work to make this claim. In 1998, the Family Research Council and 14 other so-called religious right groups, including the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family, ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post using Garofalo’s study to claim that “homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle.”

When Garofalo found out how his research was being used he got angry because you see, his study never faulted the lgbt orientation for bad behavior amongst gay youth.

Garofalo contended that his research was saying that when gay teenagers abuse drugs or contemplate suicide, it is because of the unaccepting culture they face. – Boston doctor says ads distorted his work on gays, Anne E. Kornblutt, The Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, August 4, 1998

Another article in PFOX’s Equal Rights section, African Americans: Same Sexuality & Race, cites a study by discredited researcher Paul Cameron:

According to the Omega Journal, a leading publication on death and dying, the median age of death for a homosexual man without AIDS And With a long-term sexual partner is only 41 years of age. The median age of death of heterosexual married men is 75 years. The average age for a married, African American male is 69 years. Given these statistics, this is not only a moral issue, but an emerging public-health crisis. Passing laws that would institutionalize a lifestyle that could cut the lives of our young men by nearly a third is unthinkable.

But the one thing that takes the proverbial cake when it comes to the hypocrisies of PFOX is this link.

The link above is a diagram from that lovely anti-gay group, the Allied Defense Fund, that outlines supposedly how we lgbts are slowly taking over the world in color coordinated splendor.

I don’t know what’s worse; the fact that someone loony enough to think this up is getting gainfully employed or the fact that I wish lgbts could get as coordinated as we are shown to be in the diagram.

You can’t have it both ways, PFOX. If you want “tolerance” from our community, then you don’t put ugly and untrue things about us on your webpage.

No one should have to tolerate being kicked in the teeth.

Exclusive Truth Wins Out interview with Thomas Maier

For decades, anti-gay organizations have gleefully pointed to Masters & Johnson’s 1979 book, “Homosexuality in Perspective”, that claimed to cure homosexuality. Indeed, Dr. William H. Masters and Virgina E. Johnson, the husband and wife sex research team, went on Meet the Press on Sunday, April 22, 1979, to discuss their finding that homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals. The book has since been used by the so-called “ex-gay” industry to “prove” gays could go straight, if they just tried hard enough.

In his groundbreaking new book, “Masters of Sex”, author Thomas Maier discovered through investigative reporting that the results of Masters & Johnson’s study were entirely fabricated. Virginia Johnson acknowledged that the results were fake. She had actually argued in 1978 that book should never have seen the light of day – but it was already to late in the publishing process to undo the damage.

One can not overstate the importance of Maier’s findings. They undo the very underpinnings of the so-called “ex-gay” therapy movement, further showing that there is no scientific evidence or data to support the outdated idea that gay people can become heterosexual through therapy. Indeed, many people who have undergone such “treatment” claim the experience was harmful and that they were psychologically damaged. The American Psychiatric Association says that attempts to change sexual orientation can lead to “anxiety, depression and self-destructive behavior.”

Another religious-right figure is on the hot seat for inappropriate behavior and hypcrisy: The Colorado Independent reports that Focus on the Family Spanish-language broadcasterJuan Alberto Ovalle, 42, faces felony charges after being caught using the Internet to try and lure a 15-year-old girl for sex.  If you don’t know Ovalle, he’s the voice on FOTF’s Spanish-language Bible CDs and markets Christian-themed tapes. Here, he shares admonitions against unlawful fornication from 1 Corinthians.

From the Independent:

Ovalle “came to know the Lord at the age of 14,” according to a Web site offering his Spanish Bible narration for sale, and founded Spanish Christian Audio in 2001 to “help Christian organizations with their audio needs.”

After first encountering the officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl in a chat room last week, Orvalle made “sexually graphic statements in a chat room to a person he believed to be an underage teen,” the district attorney’s office said. When the undercover officer said her mom wouldn’t be home the next day, Orvalle said he was “horny” and made arrangements to come to her house, according to an arrest affidavit cited by The Post.

Officials expect Ovalle to be charged formally Thursday with two felonies — criminal attempted sexual assault on a child and Internet luring of a child. The Independent reports that his bail was set at $25,000; at the time of this writing, he was still behind bars.