Here at Truth Wins Out, the epidemic of LGBT teen suicides in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district has been on our radar for a long time.

Nonetheless, you need to head over to Rolling Stone and read this article about what LGBT kids go through in Michele Bachmann’s district every day, largely because local evangelicals have waged an all-out war on the area’s LGBT population. This blatant bigotry only serves to intensify the bullying that’s par for the course for LGBT teenagers at schools across the country. In Anoka, homosexuality is forbidden from even being discussed. Teachers and administrators do not intervene when LGBT students are harassed by their peers because they fear being fired for violating a district policy requiring them to stay “neutral” on, and banning positive references to, LGBT people and issues. And the culture of shame and fear that “Christian” fundamentalists (many of them from the same conservative church that Bachmann attended until just last year) have created around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities  is so pervasive that LGBT teens feel scared and unsafe within the walls of their schools.

And they’re killing themselves because of it. So many, in fact, that the state of Minnesota declared the Anoka-Hennepin school district a “suicide contagion area.” After one of the suicides — that of Sam Johnson in 2009 — students in the district’s GSAs participated in the Day of Silence. In this GLSEN-sponsored event, participants spent the day in silence to illustrate the silencing effect of the anti-LGBT bullying that led to the loss of several of their peers.  The response? Local evangelical churches organized a so-called “Day of Truth” event; their kids showed up at school wearing shirts telling their peers they could pray away the gay and engaged in anti-gay proselytizing in the hallways. (At that time the “Day of Truth” events were sponsored by Exodus International; it’s now been shifted to Focus on the Family and re-branded as a so-called “Day of Dialogue” in a transparent attempt to soft-pedal anti-gay bigotry.)

The way local evangelical “Christians” have doubled down on– not merely shown coldhearted indifference to, but doubled down on — the persecution of LGBT people, even in the wake of so many suicides, is pure evil.

Read, too, about Tammy Aaberg. Her son Justin was an Anoka High School student who committed suicide in 2010 due to anti-LGBT bullying, and his death turned her into an activist. Readers who know me know I have a soft spot in my heart for equality moms (including, I’m proud to say, my own). Hell hath no fury like a mom fighting for her LGBT child. But I have nothing short of awe for moms like Tammy Aaberg and Judy Shepard who fight for a child whom they’ve lost. I don’t know how they do it, but I admire their strength.

This is why the fight for our equality is so important. Slowly but surely, we’re building a world where no more Judy Shepards have to bury a child murdered for being gay, where no more Tammy Aabergs have to discover their baby boy dead in his bedroom because he couldn’t take another day of being bullied for his LGBT identity.

Please, read and share this article and resolve to keep fighting.

Oh look, it’s the same tired rhetoric we’re used to from the laughable hate group known as PFOX:

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) is urging parents, students and educators to distribute ex-gay literature at high schools and colleges across the country this Friday.

“We invite schools to distribute our ex-gay brochures year round,” said Regina Griggs, PFOX’s executive director, “but this Friday is especially important because it is considered a ‘day of silence’ by homosexual school clubs. This means that members of gay student clubs and their allies will purposely remain silent all day in school to protest intolerance against homosexuals and cross-dressers.”

“Because homosexual activists try to censor the ex-gay point of view, PFOX asks students to distribute ex-gay literature to their friends in support of equality for the ex-gay community,” said Griggs. “The day of silence enables students to distribute ex-gay literature without harassment since opponents are obligated to remain silent that day.”

And again, we roll our collective eyes and say:

REGINA. If “ex-gays” really exist, then they are “straight,” and thus have the same rights as all other straight people, by which we mean, more rights than gay people. If “ex-gay” is simply a religious construct caused by consumer fraud and spiritual abuse [it is], then those people are gay, and are on the same second tier as the rest of us gay people.

Anyway, it’s really sick that, on a day which simply seeks to draw attention to the bullying, harassment, depression, violence and suicide experienced by LGBT teens, things which are largely caused by the climate of abuse created by the Religious Right, that Regina Griggs would still feel a perverse need to hurt gay kids. But that’s how people like Regina are, and thank goodness, people young and old are starting to see them for the bigots they are.

Folks, you know I’m writing about Peter LaBarbera when I start a piece with the word “folks.”  Anyway, the Day of Silence is this Friday.  If you are not aware, it’s a day where students and teachers across the nation remain silent for a day to give voice to the problems gay kids face every day, such as name-calling, physical abuse, and the like.  Indeed, it’s especially pertinent this year, as we’ve seen a spate of gay or gay perceived kids taking their own lives, stemming from anti-gay bullying perpetuated by classmates, teachers, pastors, and unfortunately, sometimes their own wingnut parents.  It is a fact, not an opinion, that fundamentalist religious teaching on homosexuality, as well as their bizarre obsession with the subject, is related to the pain and depression some gay kids experience. 

But hate group leaders Peter LaBarbera and Laurie Higgins really, really don’t want to examine their souls, at any point, because they love their dogma more than they love people.  So let’s watch them encourage truancy this Friday in order that the wingnut parents who follow them might have something about which to pout. Here’s the Peter Part [you don't need links.  You know where this hateful, dishonest crap is posted on the internet]:

The suffocating political correctness on a host of controversies — including homosexuality — overwhelms the Average Mom and Dad, who are already running ragged between work, family duties, church and youth sports.

Uh, normal parents aren’t running around crying about the “political correctness” [read: actual information and education] over homosexuality. Not good parents, anyway.

(In addition, as more and more Christian parents abandon the public schools, it removes a key wholesome influence restraining evil.)

At least once a week, the words of a fundamentalist remind me of a science fiction novel, or Magic: the Gathering, or something along those lines.

So we at AFTAH echo the call for parents to pull their kids out of any school that abides the annual homosexual-activist event April 15 called the “Day of Silence.”

[...]

If you have any inkling that they are encouraging this disruptive event, tell the school that you will be keeping your child home that day. In doing so, you will send a powerful message to teachers and administrators that their embrace of pro-homosexual advocacy comes at a price.

Uh, yeah. Five or six kids with annoying parents won’t be there that day.

Okay, time for Laurence:

It is unconscionable that conservative parents remain silent, acquiescent, fearful non-participants in our public schools while homosexuals and their ideological allies engage continuously in vociferous, vigorous, and bold action.

It’s always funny to me that hate group leaders like Laurie tell themselves that the REAL problem is that wingnuts aren’t bitching loud enough. Trust me. Everybody can hear y’all.

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), is fewer than two weeks away. GLSEN’s Day of Silence, which began on college campuses and has now infiltrated middle schools, exploits anti-bullying sentiment to undermine the belief that homosexual acts are immoral.

And that’s all it is: a belief. A stupid, uninformed belief, based on nothing. But, ya know, gay kids unfortunately make up a disproportionate percentage of bullying victims, so how dare we include them?

GLSEN shamelessly exploits teen suicide in order to create a climate of hysteria which they can then exploit to falsely impute culpability for teen suicide to conservative moral beliefs.

Uh. Well, since anti-gay sentiment comes from conservative “moral” beliefs [sic], and this actually involves kids dying and/or being scarred for life, I really don’t see how anyone is “exploiting” anything. Laurence and Porno Pete are just upset because the day is coming when their “moral” beliefs will be relegated to the scrap heap of society where they belong, alongside White Supremacy. Laurence and Peter want special rights, really. Since it’s simply not debatable by actual adults whether or not fundamentalist anti-gay hatred contributes to the problem of gay teen suicide, they are desperately trying to get an exemption that would allow them to continue to spiritually, mentally and emotionally bully gay kids.

GLSEN’s end game is the eradication of conservative moral beliefs and the creation of a social and political climate in which it is impossible to express them.

Conservative “moral” beliefs are being eradicated on their own, mostly because in the year 2011, fewer and fewer people buy into their dishonest bile about gay people. And no, nobody wants to take away wingnuts’ rights to express their beliefs [as long as they don't directly hurt people]; I mean, the Klan still has rallies occasionally in the South. Nobody’s taking away their freedom of speech.

Their cultural vehicle of choice for this radical social experiment is public education. What a strategic coup for homosexualists: use our money to capture the hearts and minds of our children.

Oh yes, we are so crafty. We’re actually trying to protect YOUR kids, because YOUR gay kids are the ones who end up, all too often, depressed and suicidal, because of YOUR influence. Hello, “ex-gay” industry. How are you doing today? Still hurting people? Yup.

And we do virtually nothing. Our complacence makes us complicit in the damage done to our children and our culture. Moreover, we teach our children by example to be cowardly conformists.

To be fair, your kids, more and more, don’t really understand why you’re so barking upset about gay people.

Anyway, so then Laurence gives a bunch of instructions to parents, about keeping their kids home during the Day of Silence, so that their kids might escape the suffering that might befall them if they were confronted with actual education on the subject of LGBT people. The fundamentalist lifestyle really is, at heart, a loud, over-choreographed permutation of sticking one’s fingers in one’s own ears and caterwauling.

The piece ends with laundry list of grievances, about how it’s getting harder and harder for fundamentalist wingnuts to hurt gay kids and treat them like pariahs. My remarks come in italics after each whine:

•Ten states now have “enumerated” anti-bullying laws, which specifically include homosexuality and gender confusion as protected classes.  Instead of allowing the anti-gay bullying to continue apace!
•Comprehensive sex ed curricula portray homosexuality as morally equivalent to heterosexuality.  Prove that it is not.  Oh.  You can’t.
•California’s SB 48, if passed, will require schools to teach about homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder positively while censoring dissenting resources.  Well, discredited nonsense from wingnuts really has no place in public education anyway.
•Federal Safe Schools Improvement Act denies funding to schools to combat drugs and violence unless they agree to address homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder.  Again, what Laurie wants is special rights to continue hurting gay kids while protecting the other kids.
•Federal Student Non-Discrimination Act includes homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder as protected classes. If passed, schools would be prohibited from treating the objective biological fact of a student’s sex as if it had objective status. It would render the act of making common sense distinctions between boys and girls illegal. Oh, lord.  You know, Laurie, there’s biology involved in the phenomenon of “transgender,” and scientists actually understand it pretty well.  Feel free to do some research and learn about it.
•“Dear Colleague” Letter, which unconstitutionally expands the control of government over student speech, was sent by the Department of Justice to all school boards.  I’m getting bored writing this piece.
•The Department of Justice created a video submission to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign in which federal employees affirm unproven moral propositions about homosexuality to students.  It’s really adorable when a wingnut tries to use the word “unproven,” since NOTHING they believe is proven or provable.  That being said, the fundamental complaint here is the suggestion [which is valid and provable!] that life can get better for hurting gay kids, and that it doesn’t involve spiritual abuse!
•President Obama held an anti-bullying conference at the White House to which he invited representatives from virtually every homosexuality-affirming organizations that seeks to use public education to normalize homosexuality.  Instead of affirming Laurie Higgins’ special right to hurt gay kids.
•The White House created an anti-bullying website that has a special image link for only one group of students who experience bullying: LGBT students.  Yep.

Seriously, I’d hate to be there on the day people like Laurie Higgins and Peter LaBarbera realize [if moral reflection is even possible for their kind] how much harm they have done to people throughout their careers. 

Like any good comedienne, Laurie saves her punchline for the last paragraph:

It’s long past time that conservatives start acting and speaking as if we think our moral beliefs are objectively true.

You do. Watching it is atrocious. They’re not. And people’s lives are destroyed because of it.

Spread the word about the Day of Silence, everyone.

Ashley Horne and Candi Cushman of Focus on the Family have the answer!  Unfortunately the video isn’t embeddable, presumably because it’s embarrassing.  The video is about Focus’s “Day of Dialogue,” in which they seek to deflect public attention from the blood all over fundamentalist Christian hands when it comes to the bullying and, all too often, suicides among gay teens.

Anyway, they don’t use the word “hate,” but rather use coded dogwhistles and catch phrases like “God’s plan for sexuality,” and other tripe meant to soothe the brainwashed.

Last week, I commented on how the “ex-gay” group Exodus International had a sluggish year where, at times, it seemed as they had dropped off the radar. It turns out that Exodus had gone into hibernation since the summer to ask God for direction. According to a new letter written to Exodus supporters from Executive Director Alan Chambers:

As is the case every year about this time, my team and I are gearing up for a new year!  We have been in meetings regularly since August praying and talking about how and where God is leading Exodus International in 2011 and beyond. Some years we roll out big new endeavors and introduce big ideas that God has given us.  This year, however, God isn’t calling us to do anything new.

God’s call to do nothing sat well with me, considering Exodus was already losing relevance. Unfortunately, I continued reading and was was alarmed that Exodus’ top goal in 2011 is to recruit school children as young as eleven years old (Middle School age). The organization plans to lure these children by investing in high-tech gadgets and new media. According to the online letter:

…the greatest area of need in our culture is outreach to young people.  We will be changing the name of Exodus Youth to Exodus Student Ministries in order to encompass middle school thru [sic] college age students.

We have listened to youth pastors, parents and especially students and we want to amplify our message in a way that they will best receive it: via web communication, YouTube, podcasts and short to the point booklets. We are also in the process of creating an App for iPhone users.

Given the organization’s appalling record with youth, this organization has no business in schools or around anyone under the age of 21. Their message is hateful, intolerant, scientifically bankrupt and may lead to teens harming themselves — including the potential for depression, drug abuse and even suicide.

Disconcertingly, many of Exodus’ “counselors” have virtually no professional training and the organization does not employ rigorous standards when they pair up vulnerable youth with adults. The results of Exodus’ lack of professionalism has, at times, been devastating.

The so-called “ex-gay” organization has forced youth, against their will, into its programs. The most notable example is Zach Stark, a 16-year-old Tennessee boy, who in 2005 was forced into Exodus’ “Refuge” boot camp, run by member ministry Love In Action. Zach Stark made international news when he posted his predicament on MySpace:

Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay… Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long “talk” in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they “raised me wrong.” I’m a big screw up to them, who isn’t on the path God wants me to be on. So I’m sitting here in tears, joing the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs – and I can’t help it.

The uproar over the incident prompted Exodus into closing down the notorious Refuge program. Similarly, on October 6, 2010, Exodus shuttered its noxious Day of Truth program which mocked the Day of Silence, an annual event where students take a vow of silence in support of LGBT friends who are bullied.

Exodus took this extraordinary step following a high profile string of suicides, tacitly admitting that its program exacerbated homophobia and bullying in schools.

“Even though we have reached a fair number of students”, said Chambers, “We believe that due to the timing of the event, Day of Truth was always perceived in an adversarial manner, and became more about policy than people.

One of the more disturbing aspects of Exodus is the tendency to place youth in programs alongside sexual reprobates. On the March 15, 2007 the Montel Williams Show featured former Exodus client Lance Carroll who spoke out about his harrowing experience with Exodus:

“I went to one of your organizations,” said Carroll, who was speaking directly to Exodus’ Alan Chambers. “I was in a group with a convicted sexual offender.” (See video 1:10 mark)

Lance Carroll is not alone. Exodus clearly has an ongoing predator problem that it must seriously address before it makes brainwashing youth its foremost priority in 2011.

Patrick McAlvey was also an Exodus client at the age of 19. He visited Exodus’ Lansing affiliate Corduroy Stone where he was counseled by Mike Jones. During counseling, McAlvey was asked about the size of his member and made to engage in erotic cuddling. He spoke out about the experience in a Truth Wins Out video:

‘Ex-gay’ survivor Jaylen Braiden was taken advantage of by an Exodus team leader at Desert Stream Ministries [DSM]. This counselor later got in trouble for sexually abusing other minors. Exodus’ Alan Chambers has yet to come clean and publicly discuss the Desert Stream Ministries scandal.

However, on March 8, 2010 Desert Stream founder Comiskey wrote a blog post entitled “Falling Mercies” where he says DSM had been, “cast out of our home church”, Vineyard Anaheim, as a result of “a darker strain of sin in our own ranks.” He goes onto reveal that this sin was, “a longstanding staff person from Desert Stream had sexually abused at least one teenager who had sought help from us.”

Aside from the very real prospect of youth being placed with unsavory characters who appear to be unmonitored and unfiltered, the message of Exodus is destructive. The organization tells youth that they are sexually broken, sinful, counterfeit, satanic or perverse.

Spiritual warfare is a common part of Exodus’ rhetoric.

In a 2005 Exodus Newsletter Chambers said:

“One of the many evils this world has to offer is the sin of homosexuality. Satan, the enemy, is using people to further his agenda to destroy the Kingdom of God and as many souls as he can.”

At the “Family Impact Summit,” a right wing conference in Brandon, Florida held on Sept. 21, 2007, Chambers told the crowd of social conservatives:

“We have to stand up against an evil agenda. It is an evil agenda and it will take anyone captive that is willing, or that is standing idly by.”

To lure youths, Exodus resorts to outright lying about LGBT life. For example, Chambers says that that gay life is only for the young:

Chambers also misleads by falsely claiming that gay life will disappoint.

Given the recent uptick in gay suicides and understanding that hate leads to bullying in schools, it is grossly irresponsible for Exodus, given its reprehensible record — to target youth. Before parents hand their children over to this organization or get them an i-phone application, they should know the whole truth about this notorious organization.

Weekly Column

In a self-righteous, moralizing speech in Michigan last week, right wing radio personality Linda Harvey blithely offered this gem when questioned about discrimination against LGBT partners who want to marry.

“They can still marry someone of the opposite gender,” Harvey said.

This flippant response was not surprising. Self-styled “family values” activists have long turned a blind eye to the destruction caused by such “arranged” marriages. There are support groups, such as The Straight Spouse Network and Gay Husbands/Straight Wives, to pick up the pieces after these unions implode.

In her propaganda-laced presentation, Harvey (pictured) portrayed gay men as living an unhealthy existence. She cherry-picked medical data while blithely ignoring the positive affect marriage would have on the health of LGBT people. In the New York Times, conservative columnist David Brooks wrote about what social science has to say about the affects of marriage:

“According to another [study] being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year,” writes Brooks. “If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy.”

If Harvey and others of her ilk were genuinely concerned about the health of LGBT couples, they would be in favor of allowing them to marry. Instead, such hypocrites smugly mask their contempt with transparently saccharine professions of concern. They even offer “help” for LGBT people who are unhappy — while simultaneously working to undermine relationships that might bring joy. Is this not a conflict of interest?

Today’s New York Times science section has an article, “No Matter What, We Pay For Others’ Bad Habits”, that highlights a plethora of factors that determine health:

“Unhealthy habits are one factor in disease, but so are social status, income, family dynamics, education and genetics.”

Homosexuality is not a habit, of course, while homophobia is. Indeed, this preoccupation with prejudice by religious extremists directly affects several of these key measures of health. Every time an LGBT person is rejected from his or her house of worship, this has a tangible impact on their social status. When gay and lesbian couples are taxed at discriminatory rates it affects income.

Gay youth who drop out of school because they are bullied or kicked out of their homes have both their education and family dynamics torn apart. San Francisco State researcher Caitlin Ryan found that, LGBT “Teens who experienced negative feedback [when they came out] were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.”

One would think that priggish proselytizers such as Harvey would read these alarming statistics and oppose bullying in schools. Instead, her organization, Mission America, is dedicated to attacking the “Day of Silence,” an annual event where students remain quiet for a day to show their support for LGBT peers.

Instead of insightful views from a faith perspective on Mission America’s website, Harvey’ organization offers manipulative questions designed to incite students against their LGBT classmates. These include:

• Is there any room for finding homosexuality‚Äîdare we say it‚Äîrepulsive? Or is that response now going to be viewed as “hate”?
• Is a student allowed to say a firm “no” to a homosexual advance?

• Is the Day of Silence really a back-door way to silence valid criticism and gain approval for questionable lifestyles?

So, the unctuous Harvey is concerned for our health, but portrays LGBT teenagers as repulsive predators with a furtive political agenda. I’d hate to see what Harvey is capable of saying if she did not love us so much.

Harvey also prattled on in her presentation, and website, about the supposed dangers of homosexuality – particularly contracting HIV. Not surprisingly, Harvey actively promotes abstinence-only “education” in schools, which is proven to be ineffective. She recklessly presents HIV as a gay disease — when it can be contracted by anyone who fails to take adequate precautions.

It is important to note that even if a gay man contracted HIV today, he still might outlive judgmental religious extremists who are so quick to condemn. Bible-Belt states are generally the fattest, have the highest concentration of smokers, have the most divorces and are even more likely to have traffic accidents due to aggressive driving.

While these busybodies worry about our hearts and happiness, their own children may one-day die prematurely of heart attacks by inhaling Happy Meals. In conservative areas, the fast food drive-thru might as well be a drive-by-shooting.

Isn’t it time our foes stopped obsessing about narrow-minded “morality” and spent more time addressing their own mortality caused by gluttonous and destructive lifestyles? Averting their obsessive gaze from the gays to focus on their own families is quintessentially a “pro-life” position.

Focus on the Family blasts the Day of Silence — GLSEN’s annual antiviolence vigil and conversation-starter in schools — as a sinister manifestation of the “homosexual agenda.”

Focus is alarmed that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network encourages schools to acknowledge the existence of LGBT youth — such acknowledgment being an obvious prerequisite to stopping violence against those youth.

Instead of acknowledging that gender- and orientation-variant youth exist and should not be assaulted and intimidated with impunity, Focus claims that the ex-gay activist group Exodus International offers “redemptive truth” as an alternative to nonviolence.

Exodus’ Day of Truth, purposely scheduled one day prior to the Day of Silence, condemns LGBT youth to hell and urges “Christian” youths to view their LGBT-tolerant classmates as inferior prior to any “conversation” about violence that the Day of Silence might otherwise prompt.

Violence does not concern Focus; “lesbian, gay and bisexual materials in the classroom” do.

Focus and Exodus are purposely ignorant of the New Testament’s repeated admonitions against violence toward ethnic and gender minorities; and where Focus and Exodus claim to be knowledgeable, the knowledge is false. “The biblical truth for sexuality” — as interpreted by their mentor James Dobson — isn’t Biblical at all. It is a 1950s TV sitcom fantasy of heterosexual marriage at age 18 followed by premature child-raising and lives of suffocating gender-role conformity. This myth of white suburban Americana rejects the Bible’s conflicting affirmations of celibate evangelism, polygamy, rape, and same-sex relationships; ignores the ethnicity and modest living standards of Biblical characters; and applauds the Bible’s ignorance of crucial scientific and historical facts.

Do Focus or Exodus offer Biblical truth? No. Redemption? No. Freedom from violence? Absolutely not. What they do offer is little more than a cocoon of smug self-satisfaction, ethnic and sexual ignorance, and the sort of hypocritical moralizing and intimidation that Jesus of Nazareth reputedly condemned.

Confusing verbal taunts and insults with Orwellian “truth,” Exodus International is preparing to re-launch, in April, a Christian Rightist effort to disrupt efforts by K-12 and college students and faculty to stop antigay bullying. And gay news media such as The Advocate are beginning to take notice.

Bullies have long been explicitly coached in intolerant behavior by antigay churches, Christian Right political networks such as Exodus International, and SPLC-certified hate groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition and Peter LaBarbera’s former employer, the Illinois Family Institute.

Since antigay violence and prejudice have long enjoyed calculated support from elements of local communities, it only seemed fair that someone should help communities form antiviolence efforts to counteract the hatred and violence.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s annual Day of Silence was one such effort. Launched in 1996, it employs silent vigils at schools to commemorate the youths who have been physically assaulted, killed, or driven to suicide by relentless harassment, humiliation, and ostracism.

GLSEN‘s vigils — now in 8,000 schools — have, along with research into the chronic epidemic of antigay violence — inspired the formation of antiharassment programs and Gay-Straight Alliances against violence in thousands of schools nationwide.

The Christian Right, unfortunately, has evolved since the early 1980s to view ignorance, violence and intimidation as integral and indispensable core values of its less-than-Christlike “religion.” And so, in retaliation, the Alliance Defense Fund — a Christian Right legal-attack organization which sues schools and employers that oppose antigay violence and discrimination — formed the Day of Truth in 2004 with the purpose of empowering antigay students to disrupt the silent vigils.

Marketed with pious godtalk and liberal-sounding words such as “conversation” and “dialogue,” the ADF’s Day of “Truth” rallied antigay youths and parents — ranging from skinheads to fundamentalists — to disrupt vigils with vocal proclamations damning LGBT students, their parents, teachers, and friends to hell. The event urged the passage of school rules to silence any talk of tolerance and to mandate the promotion of fundamentalist ex-gay brainwashing in public schools. In recent years, Exodus conference speaker and antigay preacher Ken Hutcherson joined the ADF’s right-wing parade by organizing loud and disruptive protests and boycotts at Seattle-area schools in order to shut down classes rather than permit students to conduct their solemn vigils in memory of bullied and murdered peers.

In 2009, Exodus assumed control of the Day of [Orwellian] “Truth.” Its marketing objective remains the same: Damn students to hell with a smile, engage tolerant students in one-way conversation, insult LGBT sexuality with unchallenged falsehoods derived from antigay propaganda, and flatly exclude LGBT students from protection under any antiharassment programs.

Exodus tellingly offers no restraints on what antigay students may say or do, provided that the bullies don’t subjectively feel that their misconduct constitutes name-calling or bullying.

Nor does Exodus offer any help to antigay students who discover that their own enthusiasm has motivated peers to resort to verbal, physical, and spiritual abuse; as it has always done, Exodus absolves itself of responsibility for the violence that it inspires.

Exodus’s FAQ reassures the public:

Exodus and Day of Truth strongly opposes bullying, name-calling and acts of aggression against any individual or group of individuals for any reason.

This is a shameless lie, unfortunately: Exodus expressly opposes — in press releases, blog posts and advertising — the explicit protection of LGBT students from violence and verbal abuse. Exodus also opposes newly expanded federal law which explicitly protects Americans from felony violence committed on the basis of sexual orientation.

The Exodus FAQ for the event also tells antigay bullies to contact the ADF for legal assistance if school officials seek to curtail their efforts to disrupt classes and taunt classmates.

Exodus’ dependence upon violence and harassment, as tools of coercion, seems to be its primary reason for re-launching the Day of [Orwellian] “Truth.”

In the past decade, the ex-gay movement has utterly failed in its one-time objective of sexual recruitment through voluntary persuasion: Despite television, newspaper, and billboard ad campaigns, Exodus’ referral network of local amateur counseling groups has shriveled. Exodus’ bold move into the politicization of churches since 2002 has occurred precisely because Exodus has discovered — through the failure of its voluntary ministries — that people will seek out ex-gay organizations and their discredited amateur counselors only if they are pressured to do so through overt government-, school-, church-, and business-based discrimination, intimidation and ostracism.

Cases in point: Lance Carroll, Zach Stark, and Bryce Thompson. These three young men are just a few of the hundreds of teen-agers and young adults who have been forced involuntarily into ex-gay detention facilities such as Love In Action in Tennessee and a variety of secretive Exodus facilities in the Deep South.

Exodus’ secondary purpose for the D.O.T. is to assert that conservative Christians are the intended sole benefactors of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom.

When Exodus states that the D.O.T. seeks an “honest conversation about relationships, sexuality, and faith,” it may be helpful to remember that Exodus believes the Christian Right is the sole arbiter of what constitutes true faith and politically correct sexuality. Expression of any other faith perspective and any other view of sexuality is presumed by Exodus and its antigay church network to be demonic, immoral and exempt from any Constitutional protection.

Exodus has made its redefinition of “conversation” apparent in countless locations here and abroad:

• in Ohio, where veteran board member Phil Burress has raged against the presence of LGBT people in workplaces and against LGBT groups’ and individuals’ access to public facilities and the media;
• in Tennessee, where Exodus refused to cooperate with the state regarding suspicions of sexual abuse and intimidation at its flagship Love In Action residential program, and instead relabeled the detention facility as a religious “retreat” that is now exempt from public scrutiny;
• in Florida, where for years Alan Chambers vocally opposed antidiscrimination and pro-adoption legislation, as a means of silencing “conversation” by making people homeless, jobless — and parent-less;
• in Barbados, where Exodus Global Alliance published ads defending vigilantism and criminalization of homosexuality as a means of coercion into fraudulent ex-gay therapy;
• in Uganda, where Exodus board member Don Schmierer — with encouragement from president Alan Chambers — has spent seven years working with Scott Lively, Martin Ssempa, Rick Warren, David Bahati, Stephen Langa and others to foster the belief that homosexuals pose a dire threat which must be silenced and eradicated through abusive parenting, strict imprisonment, and involuntary ex-gay “treatment.”

Day of Silence supporters have coped with melees at Day of Truth events in previous years, but GLSEN puts a brave and diplomatic face on the situation this year. According to The Advocate:

GLSEN representatives see the competing event differently. “We find it unfortunate that the ADF and now Exodus International tries to spin a message counter to ours, that anti-LGBT bullying is wrong,” GLSEN spokesman Daryl Presgraves said. “Students today feel more welcome and accepted, and have a sense of belonging that didn’t exist 20 years ago. Part of the Day of Truth is to take away from that, to spread the mistruths about ‘conversion therapy.’”

Presgraves added that “it doesn’t look like [Exodus] is saying that bullying is OK. However, the fact that they have this counterevent a day before the Day of Silence on April 16 is telling.”

Perhaps more than just “telling.”

Peter LaBarbera and Linda Harvey are on their neverending Warren Throckmorton witchhunt again. It must be one of the most painful things in the world to be the Last Bigots Standing, but Pete and Linda bring it upon themselves, so no pity! Hold your nose, we’re going to have Linda time now:

A broad coalition of pro-family groups recommends that parents keep their children home on the deceptive, pro-homosexual “Day of Silence,” to be observed this year on April 16, 2010, but one “gay”-affirming counselor started what he calls the “Golden Rule Pledge” instead.

Yet, the “Golden Rule Pledge” actually functions as a disinformation tool and a divisive wedge in schools and among Christians. It is insidiously misleading and would bring harm to kids. It grieves me to take this position, but there’ no choice, because lives are at stake.

That’s right, Linda. Lives ARE at stake! Gay kids attempt and commit suicide at a much higher rate than the rest of the population because of the pig ignorant bile you leave everywhere.

[Warren Throckmorton] has expressed his preference for students remaining in school on the “Day of Silence” and hearing pro-homosexual propaganda, and learning to sympathize with those practicing these behaviors, rather than taking an unequivocal, biblical stand against these harmful practices by remaining home.

Refer to post title.

Throckmorton doesn’t even like the Exodus-sponsored “Day of Truth,” which encourages kids to remain in school and have a frank conversation, in love, with friends while presenting the biblical view of homosexuality. Throckmorton calls this “offensive.”

Well, why would he like the “Day of Truth,” since the people who sponsor it value actual, verifiable truth like pedophiles value children?

Throckmorton’ support of the “Day of Silence” will do incalculable harm to many young people. Misleading professionals like Throckmorton in positions of influence can make our sons and daughters become comfortable with entering into, staying in, or approving of homosexuality, bisexuality and gender change.

Wrong! Again, we deal with actual truth, not “I hide my bigotry behind Bible verses I don’t understand” truth. Helping make our sons and daughters comfortable with their biology, their sexual orientation, and helping them along the path of healthy development is a GOOD thing. And guess what? I can point to tons of high school kids who are living this reality right now. Meanwhile, Linda continues to have nothing more than some bur in her nether regions that she inexplicably blames on gay people.

If I were a parent who discovered my minor child had been counseled in this way, I’d bring the largest and most aggressive medical malpractice suit I could launch against this counselor at Grove City.

Well, to be fair, no one accused you of being a good mother, Linda.

Jesus would never make a person feel more comfortable about:

• Young males having sex with males, the incidence of which rose over 12 % per year between 2001 and 2006 among males ages 13 to 24 1;
• Young “lesbians” choosing a fatherless life for any future children, since they can never conceive children with female partners;
• Hoping in such relationships for a false “marriage” in violation of Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9, where Christ told us that “from the beginning” people were created male and female, and that one man and one woman form a marriage;
• Teens and even younger children believing they should change genders. As with homosexuality, we should be doing everything possible to counsel these kids and prevent these behaviors among youth.

I could swear up and down that because Curious George doesn’t refer to the Man in the Yellow Hat owning any other color hats, that’s because other colors are evil, and I could swear up and down that Curious George was written by a supreme deity, but I’d still be a malevolent bigot, hiding behind a book.

And yes, it’s the same. For that matter, you don’t know what Jesus would say, because he ain’t here, and he didn’t see fit to discuss these subjects. Although there’s a strong case to be made that he was confronted with men he knew to be in a sexual relationship with each other, and didn’t have a word to say about it. AND, there were gender variant people all over the Bible, and Jesus didn’t seem to have an issue with that either. AND, since medical science is indeed figuring out that people are born with brains that are gendered in a way that doesn’t match their physical gender, AND since medical science should theoretically be considered by Christians to be the study of God’s wondrous creation, Christians should be the first to get on board with its findings.

Game, set, match, crazy cat lady.*

As the piece continues, Linda takes issue with the Golden Rule itself:

Hmmm. “…The way I want to be treated.” So, if a student is about to enter, or has entered, a high-risk practice that is called an abomination by our Lord, and has shared this with classmates, a “true” Christian should attend school to support a day that affirms this behavior and scorns any warnings to that student? Some friendship!

Here’ a biblically-based alternative: “Friends don’t let friends do homosexuality!”

Uh, actually, Linda, since you have no proof for anything you say (not the high-risk part, not the abomination part), actually you’re just a malevolent woman who feels she has a right to impose her backwards worldview on innocent children. Perhaps the admonition should be “Friends don’t leave their children with lying Fundamentalists.”

I wouldn’t leave my kids with a deranged imam, and I certainly wouldn’t leave them with Linda Harvey.

No, the “Day of Silence” is about propaganda. The goal is to shame and label Christians and tradition-minded students and teachers, silence their authentic witness, and even silence any public health warnings. Real safety would be to scream from the rooftops about the harm homosexuality or gender change will bring to these young lives. And since no one is born homosexual, these desires are demonstrably changeable, so no one is left without a positive alternative.

My god, these people never show their work. Show me how monogamous sex between two same gendered individuals is harmful, please? Show me how safer-sex practices work for straight people, but not for gay people? And then show me how transgender people expressing their appropriate gender in whatever way they choose is harmful. And then show me your proof that people aren’t born gay. (And don’t give me that unscientific crap about how no “gay gene” has been found yet. A first year student of genetics, even from a Christian school, could explain how stupid that argument is.) And then show me all the people who have “demonstrably changed” their sexual orientation. I mean, even John Smid is now admitting that he’s still into dudes. They all do, eventually.

This is such a travesty that if we were all ancient Israelites, we’d be rending our clothing and putting on sackcloth and ashes!

Really, she just said that. But since Linda’s not an ancient Israelite, she’s going to stick with the frumpy separates and wild and crazy pink headband she got at TJ-Maxx last week.

Please join me in praying for Warren Throckmorton, for his repentance, and also for his duplicitous dealings to be revealed so no further harm is done to our precious and impressionable kids.

And please help me pray that the emotionally manipulative “Day of Silence” is revealed for what it is ‚Äî adults exploiting precious kids.

Uh, no thanks. We’ll stick with the reality-based world that Warren is becoming more of a part of every single day.

*No, I do not have any personal knowledge of how many cats Linda Harvey has. My educated guess is “47.”

GLSEN’s Day of Silence is still a month-and-a-half away, but Exodus International is already mobilizing antigay teens in schools across North America with Exodus’ misnamed “Day of Truth” campaign.

The DOT mobilizes antigay churches and students to harass LGBT students and their friends, and — under the guise of so-called “conversation” — to lobby schools to exclude LGBT students from schools’ antibullying policies.

In a press release last week, Exodus applauded its past successes in convincing antigay youths to be ignorant, misinformed, and sanctimonious toward their lesbian and gay “friends.” (If you’re wondering why Exodus doesn’t mention transgender students, it’s because the organization effectively denies the existence of people who are not conventionally male or female, equating them with drag queens.)

Here are some of Exodus’ “success” stories:

“One girl in particular asked me if it was hard because I have a friend that is a lesbian. I told her that “yes” it is hard, but I’m not going to give up on her. I think that God has so many awesome plans for that girl and for the rest of us. The Day of Truth is something that is so awesome!” – A high school freshman in Arizona

“I was so glad to hear about the Day of Truth. My daughter is a freshman.. and we have both been in shock that the school counselor would promote a club to encourage gay lifestyles. We need to pray for these kids and people encouraging this sinful and deadly lifestyle and give our kids a voice to proclaim the truth.” – Pam, a parent

“I still disagree with your views, and I always will. However, you’ve expressed your views in a polite and forthright manner, without being confrontational, and I wanted to tell you that I very much appreciate that.” – An adult who does not support Exodus International’s views on homosexuality

Please note that Exodus lacked sufficient integrity to identify these people for purposes of confirmation; that none of these people indicate any knowledge of specific truths about their friends and children; none of them acknowledge the violence and harassment that is happening against their LGBT classmates; none of them admit the truth that Exodus ex-gay counseling programs are a dismal failure; and that the two antigay poster-persons view the task of having gay friends or relatives as a chore — or worse, a threat. That’s Exodus-style “love” for you.

Truth Wins Out urges schools and GSAs around the country to become alert to Exodus’ possible formation, in coming months, of affiliate student groups that intend to harass and ostracize religious and sexual minorities — and to sabotage nascent efforts by parents and friends of assaulted youths to make schools safer for LGBT students.