So this happened today, apparently. Porno Pete brought all his worldly friends together to go down to the SPLC and cry:

A coalition of African American pastors and pro-family Christian and Jewish leaders is holding a press conference at noon tomorrow (the day after Martin Luther King Day) outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center — to protest the SPLC’s smearing of pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups”:

Ooh, Porno Pete got to go on vacation! Of course, the SPLC doesn’t brand groups as “hate groups” simply for opposing gay people. They have to be known liars and slanderers. Porno Pete = one of those.

Scheduled speakers:

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), Chicago, IL (the SPLC has smeared AFTAH as a “hate group”);
Dr. Patrick Wooden, pastor, Upper Room Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Raleigh, NC;
DL Foster, founder, Gay Christian Movement Watch, Atlanta, GA;
Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA;
Tim Johnson, Fredrick Douglass Foundation, Washington, D.C.;
Rachel Conner, representing Abiding Truth Ministries (smeared by SPLC as a “hate group”)
Pastor Glen Sawyer, New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ, Elizabeth City, NC
Pastor Wil Nichols, Victorious Praise Fellowship COGIC, Durham, NC
Pastor Jon Robinson, Kingdom C.O.M.E. Ministries, Clairton, PA
Pastor Kenneth Jefferson, Greater Harvest COGIC

The following pro-family leaders and groups will issue supporting statements:

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Rabbinical Alliance of America;
Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute (smeared as “hate group”)
Arthur Goldberg, author, “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change”;
Linda Harvey, Mission America, Columbus, OH
Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance, (smeared as “hate group”)

Awwwww, Porno Pete got to go on vacation and Matt Barber was there! Did the wives come along? Just curious. Let’s see…so Rachel Conner was there, representing the most vicious, dishonest male anti-gay hatemonger in the country, Scott Lively. D.L. Foster, the purported “ex-gay”  who blames gay kids for their own depression and suicide, was there. I’m not familiar with the others, but my thinking is that the only thing the SPLC was confronted with today was the integrity of their own work.

Looking at the supporting cast, we have ol’ Yehuda Levin, probably the most unhinged rabbi in the United States, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Association, who would be the most vicious, dishonest female anti-gay hatemonger in the country if Linda Harvey would ever step aside and let her talk, convicted felon Arthur Goldberg, and Brian Camenker, who holds the title of Peter LaBarbera’s Jewish Friend.

These are the leaders of your anti-gay movement, ladies and gentlemen. Quite a stellar cast of characters. I will say, though, that we should appreciate their work, in a way, because we wouldn’t be gaining quite as much public support as we are if people like those above weren’t spreading their hate around on a daily basis. Sadly, their work does embolden some of the most violent, uneducated hicks in this country, which leads to a higher gay teen bullying/suicide rate, but normal people hear the words of the people at that press conference today and it nudges them a little bit closer to our side.

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth, which is sponsoring the press event, recently interviewed Pastor Wooden, who said that the SPLC’s gambit of labeling mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups” is seriously damaging the SPLC’s credibility.

No it isn’t.

Wooden also debunked the “civil rights” analogy used by “gay” activists, saying it is wrong to compare “my beautiful blackness” with homosexual perversion.

I simply cannot make that quote better.

LaBarbera said the SPLC is engaged in a thinly-veiled, one-sided campaign to demonize adherents of traditional Judeo-Christian morality. He noted that despite the considerable hatred and anti-Christian bigotry emanating from homosexual activists (e.g., Dan Savage’s vile hate-site, Santorum[dot]com), the SPLC has never labeled a “gay” organization or website as “hateful.”

Because we don’t:

1. Lie about you people. We let your words speak for themselves.
2. Advocate for denying you wingnuts your constitutional rights, and instead defend your right to believe whatever bullroar you want, as embarrassing as it must be for your ancestors.
3. Embolden people who would want to hurt bigoted Christian wingnuts — indeed, it’s widely recognized that our side is STILL the only one with a bodycount in this “culture war.”

We do:

1. Report your words verbatim.
2. Make fun of you sometimes. Grow up.
3. Correct the constant, alternate-reality lies perpetuated by extremist religious fanatics who are unwilling to live as adults in a world where not everybody is the same as they are.

This screed from supposed “ex-gay” and anti-gay crusader D.L. Foster, about the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, has to be seen to be believed. It’s been amazing to watch, over the past year, as the suicides of gay teens have reached a certain level of prominence in the media, as members of the Religious Right like Linda Harvey have gleefully pissed on the graves of those we have lost. But I think Foster has outdone Harvey in the hate department, which is quite a feat. Is the hate of the Religious Right, which feeds the casual bigotry of those who bully gay kids into severe depression and, tragically, sometimes suicide, to blame here? No, Foster, hateful twit that he is, blames Dan Savage and Lady Gaga:

Homosexual activists Dan Savage and Lady Gaga should be brought up on charges of murder for issuing wholesale false promises and lies to young people confused about their sexuality.

“Lies” like “you can have a happy life” and “don’t let the bullies get you down.” This runs completely counter to D.L.’s message of “I’m filled with self-loathing to such a degree that I have become an abuser, and you can too!”

Just this past week, Savage’s so-called “it gets better campaign” proved just how ineffective it is when a fourteen year old boy in Buffalo, New York committed suicide after embracing its dead message. ABC News reported that Buffalo police are considering charges.

Yes, against the bullies. Because, unless you are mindblowingly stupid, you understand that the tragedy of Jamey’s death came despite the fact that there are now messages getting out there to tell gay kids that they’re going to be okay. The bullying was still just sadly too much.

Responding to Jamey’s “It Gets Better” video, D.L. says this:

If homosexual activists are looking for a culprit and someone to lay the blame on, they need look no further than what a dollar store mirror will show them. Plying confused children with false hope is just like giving a drunk kid car keys and telling him to drive home safely.

This is why anytime a rube from the Religious Right claims to want “dialogue” with LGBT people, they should be summarily laughed at and scorned. These people do not exist in the reality-based community. They actually believe their ridiculous, disproven dogma, which says that gay kids hate themselves “because of their sin,” which is, again, batshit stupid, as there are many, many, many gay teens who have never dealt with self-hatred or depression, and it’s because they have supportive families and communities. You take away the religion-based bigotry, and you have healthy kids, whether gay or straight. Right from the closet case’s mouth:

The tragic irony of the “it gets better” lie is that it ignores the only true hope for those who are personally embattled with sexuality and gender confusion issues. It (whatever “it” is) never defines what “hope” is, thus its nothing but a carrot stick trick to hurting children. Savage conveniently tosses out the bait only to dissappear then re-emerge with “outrage” when another sexually confused teen succumbs to their inner demons. The real outrage is that America has been suckered into accepting a lie that continues to kill its youth. Of course, it gets Savage and his IGB cohorts lots of media face time and awards and such. For them, the exposure certainly does get better.

Actually, Dan gets letters all the time from kids who are doing much better now because of the “It Gets Better” project. D.L. cannot prove that these kids are “personally embattled” or dealing with “inner demons.” No, that’s likely what D.L. deals with, and it’s because he’s a victim of the same machine that he’s now been empowered into abusing others with. And it is precisely that abuse that leads to dead kids.

In a way, I feel sorry for the Religious Right, because it must be quite a concept to grasp, to find out that everything they’ve ever believed is not only a joke, but also leaves a trail of blood and dead kids’ bodies. It must shake them up. But after I’m done feeling sorry for them for about eight seconds, we’re back to normal, where these people need to realize that if they don’t want to be viewed as monsters, they need to stop being f*cking monsters.

But let’s be clear here. The solution to such turmoil in youth isn’t the usual humanistic “just believe in yourself”, “just love yourself”, “you were born this way” screeds. At best, such is fatalistic window dressing. Telling someone that they cannot change what they hate about themselves is no promise, its a death sentence. Imagine if Christ came and told us that we could not be free from sin?

Yet again: take away the Religious Right dogma, and these kids have a hell of a lot better chance of surviving past 12th grade. Pile on the religious hate and the bodycount will continue to grow. It’s quite simple, because, again, for the slow wingnuts, these kids wouldn’t hate themselves if hateful fundamentalist whack-jobs like D.L. Foster didn’t teach them that they should. The fact that D.L. is a make-believe “ex-gay,” which means he actually knows what it’s like to be different because of your sexuality, and that he still chooses to twist the knife in regards to these kids, is simply a reflection of his own lack of character.

D.L. quotes something from that loon Jew for Jesus Michael Brown and then winds up here:

Savage, Gaga, Swilley, Obama and all the rest that have promised “it gets better” have no power to change anything because they are finite humans with the same limitations and frailties as the kids who believe their false promises.

Contrast the false —and powerless— promises of Savage, Gaga (who’s now whining to SOTUS about the issue) to the promises of new life given to all men who are in covenant with Jesus Christ.

Joshua 23:14 – God says not one of his promises will ever fail you
Jeremiah 29:11 – God says his plan for us is filled with hope
Titus 1:2 – You can rest in his promises, because he cannot lie
Numbers 23:19 – God is not a man that he should lie. If he said it, he will perform it.

Nothing will get better when the only hope for change is rejected. The only hope for this world is Jesus Christ. Not a church, not a program, not a campaign, not the lies of gay activists. Jesus Christ.

D.L.’s true message: his perverted vision of “god” created you wrong, but if you swear fealty to his perverted vision of “god,” you, too, can find a way to repress your true self and write hateful screeds about dead kids on the internet.

No thank you.

Atlanta ex-gay activist D.L. Foster has a history of racially insensitive commentary, as well as affiliation with some people of questionable integrity. Now he is accused of some racist comments on Facebook.

James Troia participated in the following exchange with Foster on David Tyree’s Facebook page. Troia says the exchange, which he considers racist, occurred at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday.

D.L. Foster initiated the conversation with this statement:

Its really interesting and ironic that white people (the ones whose foreparents enslaved black folk) are the first ones to try to correct black folk (the ones whose foreparents were enslaved by their white slavemasters) on ‘prejudice’ and ‘intolerance.’ Correct your own family before you bark at me.

Were the replies racially insensitive? You be the judge.

Here are additional excerpts written by Foster:

Why are you so upset if this doesn’t apply to you? Guilty dogs bark loudest.

and

White racists always trying to cover up their evil by accusing others.

and

Oh time to move on now huh? Thats what you want black folk to do, forget about hundreds of years of slavery and murder? Just… move… on huh? Typical of white slave owner descendants.

and

And that’s your problem that youre a latina jackass. Personally I think you should have kept that to yourself

If Foster’s statements were less sweeping and absolute, some of them might reflect valid concern about white hypocrisy. But he directs his accusations primarily at a commenter, Nadith Schuster Werth, who happens to be Latina and non-LGBT. Furthermore, the commenters show little sign of overt racism; Foster is blaming them for the sins of their alleged great-great-grandparents.

In an e-mail message to Truth Wins Out, Foster acknowledged the exchange. (Read More)

“Ex-gay” activist D.L. Foster’s anti-Christian web site “GCM Watch” strives to drive same-sex-attracted and sexually honest people away from Christianity, via stereotypes and ostracism wrapped in Scripture-lite godtalk.

A blog post last week spotlighted Brittany Ursery, Foster’s latest poster child for women seeking freedom from masculinity. And of course, profit is a factor — Ursery is selling her story for $15 a pop.

Foster’s interview with Ursery posits that there is a singular “homosexual subculture” and in that culture, the women are expected to be “studs.”

Ursery’s flimsy perspective on sexual attraction: “Based on what I’ve been told by quite a few youth I’ve talked to, they are preconditioned to accept homosexuality because of [name calling, hormones, distance from one's family]. Just the other day a young lady told me how she always thought her sisters were more pretty then her, and how she used to get teased. She figured since nobody accepted her she would just rebel and turn to homosexuality. So those factors can and do influence a young person’s choices about their sexuality.”

I often end speaking engagements on the so-called “ex-gay” myth by comparing the charade to a play. I tell audiences that “ex-gays” are “like actors playing a role and in the end the final curtain of reality comes crashing down.”

It turns out that in Atlanta, a very surreal curtain will soon be lifted to reveal a bizarre play that promotes “freedom” from homosexuality and trashes gay life. Southern Voice, Atlanta’s LGBT publication, says that “Once Upon a Dream,” liberally uses the words “faggot,” “queer” and “abomination” in a negative way. It will show at the 14th Street Playhouse, conveniently nestled in Midtown, Atlanta’s gay neighborhood.

The show’s producer, Toni Henson, told Southern Voice in an e-mail that her production company wants to partner with area churches “to reach out to 155 million practicing homosexuals as we launch this unique, bible-based Christian ministry through this dramatic stage play.”

Wow, 155 million homosexuals in a country of 3oo million. One would think Gay Pride would have been a bit more crowded given such a surprising surge in our population. Hmm, now we know how Exodus leader Alan Chambers came up with his peculiar figure of “hundreds of thousands” of ex-gays – he must have employed Henson as his statistician.

Henson’s e-mail goes onto say: “”Once Upon a Dream’ tackles the tough Issue… 1) Is FREEDOM from homosexuality possible? 2) Can I be gay and Christian? 3) How is same sex marriage & the pro-gay agenda affecting the church? 4) What are the risks if my church does outreach to gays?”

I guess that if one considers “freedom” self-denial, then it is possible. We can only imagine what risks there might be to a wholesome church if it reaches out to cootie-ridden homosexuals. And, what do you bet that the manufactured gay agenda they present won’t include the items:

I. Full Equality Under The Law

II. Being Left Alone And Free From Annoying Religious Zealots Who Promote Offensive Plays That Distort Out Lives

There is one thing Henson got right — seeking advice from “ex-gay” activist and Drama Queen, D.L. Foster, who is best known for his habit of drawing Hitler mustaches onto the pictures political opponents. In June 2006, Foster even drew one on yours truly. According to Exodus testimony, Foster had once engaged in orgies, drank and was hooked on poppers (is that even possible??), until he turned on basic cable late one evening:

“I slumped down in front of the TV and flipped it on,” wrote Foster. “When the screen came into focus, I saw an amazing sight: a badly beaten man dragging a heavy wooden cross through the streets of a city. Suddenly, the man stopped, and looked up at me as blood trickled down his face. Then he said, ‘I did this all for you.’ I began to weep uncontrollably as I realized Jesus had spoken to me.”

Given such a theatrical conversion, the play should be entertaining, to say the least. Instead of poppers, Mr. Foster can eat popcorn and watch his twisted vision of Biblical Broadway come to life. And, maybe Henson will win a Tony of Intolerance for her efforts to slime the GLBT community and promote simplistic and fictional versions of our lives.

While Exodus International maintains a don’t-support-don’t-oppose policy, some ex-gay activists have spoken out against the ex-gay exorcist church in Bridgeport, Conn.

The Fairfield Weekly reported June 18:

Rev. D.L. Foster, who heads Gay Christian Movement Watch, an Atlanta-based “ministry” that opposes the acceptance of homosexuality in the church, posted [the video] on his Web site.

“I thought what I saw in the video was bizarre and I don’t think [the practice depicted] is biblical,” Foster says. “There is a sense of spiritual coercion. You have a young man on the floor being stepped on, being videotaped.” He says he has seen incidents like this (he doesn’t condone them), but “this is extreme.”

Georgia-based ex-gay activist D.L. Foster is something of a leader within Exodus Global Alliance.

In recent years, Exodus has given Foster an international soapbox from which Foster affirmed violence and imprisonment in Jamaica and Barbados as tactics to coerce local gay people to closet themselves and pretend to be heterosexual.

At his blog Gay Christian Movement Watch today, Foster berated Canadian ex-gay advocate Wendy Gritter of New Direction for a comment yesterday here at Truth Wins Out. Gritter said:

I would go to a close friend’ gay wedding and yup, I’d bring a gift. I know that all of my close friends know what I believe about sexual ethics and would not assume my beliefs had changed but that my attendance was a sign of my love and friendship. I’m sure I would get some serious flack for this decision – but at the end of the day, I believe loving people is what God asks of me.

Unlike Jesus of Nazareth, Foster disapproves of — in his words — “hanging out with sinners.” Even though Foster has exploited the Exodus global network, Foster now warns antigay clergy not to support Exodus’ North American operation, Exodus International:

Pastors should not refer people to the organization until it can solidify its message and practice into one which is faithful to the Word of God not science, polls, surveys and people like Wendy Gritter.

Foster’s demand spotlights an apparent difference in approach, between the global alliance’s support for antigay violence and imprisonment, and the North American operation’s approach of hiring professional ex-gays to distort science and create appealing soundbites at ex-gay roadshows and ex-gay support-group meetings. Unlike Exodus in North America, Foster rejects science and critical thinking outright — advocating blind obedience to his selective and brutal reinterpretations of the “Word of God.”

So long as Exodus International affiliates with Exodus Global Alliance — thereby aiding ungracious and politically correct thugs like Foster — it puzzles me that relatively gracious moderates like Gritter bother to affiliate with Exodus International.

Surely there are effective and ideologically consistent ways to draw referrals and to promote one’s message, without sacrificing individual, intellectual, and religious freedom?