After waiting nearly a year and half, Exodus International has finally done the right thing by releasing a lucid, definitive statement on its role in promoting possible genocide in Uganda. The group also stated its opposition to the criminalization of homosexuality.

Exodus’ President Alan Chambers and its Vice President, Randy Thomas, are guilty of the Sin of Pride for waiting so long to be clear and concise. How long does one have to pray to figure out that murder and pogroms are immoral? How would these men have felt if the Anti-homosexuality Bill had been passed and LGBT people were rounded up and slaughtered?

This is a risk they took with their tardy response.

That said, better late than never in recognizing human rights for all people. Exodus’ new statement opposing the criminalization of LGBT people is a positive step in the right direction. It shows moral and ethical growth on the part of Thomas and Chambers, who all too often have unthinkingly carried the Religious Right’s spit bucket. It appears that they are slowly developing more independent and authentic voices by questioning the more extreme parts of the anti-gay fringe’s agenda.

Still, Exodus has not done enough. The only way they can truly right this terrible wrong is to send Chambers and Thomas to Kampala. They need to hold a press conference in the same hotel where the original “kill the gays” symposium was held, that led to this international fiasco.

As far as I know, people can reach Uganda by plane from Orlando, where Exodus is based. So, when is the Exodus leadership catching a flight? It is one thing to release a statement to gay activists in America. And, quite another to have the courage to disseminate this message where it really needs to be heard — in Kampala. Exodus helped shatter this Humpty Dumpty. They have a duty to go to the source of the problem and glue it back together.

Let’s hope that this week’s statement is indicative of better leadership at Exodus going forward. Of course, we all know that Exodus’ gig in America is on borrowed time. As less people are being taught to be ashamed of who they are, the market for Exodus poison decreases daily.

Here is Exodus statement opposing the criminalization of homosexuality:

Exodus International opposes the criminalization of homosexual behavior as conducted by consensual adults in private. We strongly oppose the imprisonment, mistreatment, or death of homosexual men and women on the basis of their perceived or known sexual orientation. These actions breed cultural violence and institutionalized shame, neither of which reflect God’ redemptive heart.

We hope Exodus lives up to its new creed. Many of us still have not forgotten Exodus’ empty statement that they gave up anti-gay politics, only to see the group’s leaders vigorously campaigning to pass Proposition 8 prohibiting marriage equality in California. There is good reason to be skeptical of Chambers and Thomas, given their tenuous relationship with the truth.

Maybe this is the start of a new day for Exodus? Or, perhaps, it is more smoke and mirrors. While time may tell, we at Truth Wins Out will be looking at the timepiece and taking notes.

Tony Perkins spoke tonight in Memphis at an event at Bellevue Baptist Church.  I jokingly live-blogged it from the future using my truly heinous psychic powers, because I knew exactly what was going to happen at that event.  The rally was called “Stand for the Family,” and it featured Perkins and Bishop Harry Jackson.  It was organized by a group with the adorable name “FACTn,” which stands for Family Action Council of Tennessee, in response to the fact that inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances are passing in the Memphis area.  In other words, the “pro-family” forces are scared.

Turns out my live-blog was pretty darned accurate.  I wasn’t there, but in an effort to be two places at once, a friend was helping me follow tweets from another friend with GetEqual who decided to brave the malignant air inside Bellevue.  The words “homosexual” and “crossdresser” were thrown around quite a bit.  There was lots of fearmongering about undefined “threats” to the “family.”  Tony Perkins even said “abortion” two whole times, which, hello, look at #5 in my live blog from this morning.  I knew it would be brought up, because it’s their other boogeyman, but I had a feeling it would be an afterthought.  No, hating LGBT people was for dinner at Bellevue.   But no, I didn’t attend.  I was down the street at another event at another church called “Stand for ALL Families,” organized by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Point:

Tony Perkins and Harry Jackson on a stage reciting the same claptrap anti-LGBT talking points for the fearful masses under the guise of “protecting the family”…

Counterpoint:

A pastor in her mid/late 50’s who also happens to be a lesbian speaking authentically about her life, her wife, and her experience of God. A young mother with a second child on the way who spoke, sometimes tearfully, of the things she and her husband take for granted, about how she was blindsided by how much deeper their relationship became when they got married, and about how she was speaking up because she wants her kids and their friends to be able to take those same things for granted, no matter who they love.  A multi-racial lesbian couple who looked FAR too young to be raising a teenager, talking about just how mundane their “lifestyle” really is, as they go about raising a family together.  A straight Catholic mother of two sons, who just about brought the house down as she related her experiences fighting for ALL children in the face of insane bigotry, hatred, and institutional religious discrimination.  An African-American lesbian couple who married a couple of years ago, stepping forward to encourage more African-American LGBT people and allies to speak up for themselves and each other.

And so on.

Which one of these things is truly “pro-family”?

One speaker made the point that, for Tony Perkins and Harry Jackson (and, I would add, Linda Harvey) and the fundamentalists congregated in the theater seats of the megachurch down the road, this was a game where, in order to protect their worldview, someone had to lose.  They cannot protect their worldview…it has nothing to do with their “families”…without tearing us down.  We are their negation.  Meanwhile, as we sat and had fellowship together, straight, gay, black, white, Christian, atheist, and every other permutation you can imagine, we stood for all families.  In fact, we stood for the families at the Tony Perkins rally.  Because our equality takes nothing away from them.  In fact, in a world where all families are allowed to exist peacefully, more families will thrive.  The dirty little secret that Tony Perkins won’t acknowledge is that WE were in the room with him that night.  Every family in that room had a gay relative, a gay neighbor, a gay son, daughter…whether they know it or not.  But Tony Perkins and Harry Jackson don’t actually support families, because in order to do that, you have to support all members of all families, even the ones who don’t conform to your unscientific and wholly disproven ideas of gender and sexuality.

There was indeed a pro-family rally in Memphis tonight.  It was lovely.

Truth Wins Out’s research team revealed today that an alleged split in July 2009 between Exodus International and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) may only be cosmetic. While PFOX is no longer listed as an Exodus referral agency on Exodus’ website, the groups appear heavily enmeshed.

TWO has found that nearly one-quarter (22-percent) of PFOX chapters are actually Exodus member ministries. The cross-over ministries include:

Wisconsin’s Reclamation Ministries, South Carolina’s New Song Ministries, Oklahoma’s First Stone Ministries, New Mexico’s LifeMor ministries, Missouri and Illinois’ Pure Heart Ministries, and Florida’s Family Ties Ministries.

“Despite their public divorce, Exodus and PFOX appear to be very much in bed together,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.”These groups should be honest and admit the true extent of their working relationship.”

There is one other possibility. PFOX may be falsely listing Exodus ministries as PFOX chapters in order to mislead the public into thinking the organization is larger than it actually is.

In July 2009, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) broke away from Exodus International – or perhaps it was the other way around. The details remain murky. They were supposedly split over strategy, with PFOX couching its bizarre arguments in civil rights language.

For example, they want “ex-gays” to be included in laws that protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Exodus, simply wants gay people not to be covered by such laws. There was also Exodus’ concern over PFOX’s judgment in placing quack “therapist” Richard Cohen on television.

It is becoming clear that Minnesota’s Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, is a politician so craven and amoral, that he is challenging Mitt Romney for the distinction of biggest phony.

For example, in 2007, he called the issue of climate change “one of the biggest of our time.” Now he has flip-flopped, questioning the impact humans have had on this phenomenon.

It seems he will say and do anything in his transparent effort to pander to the Tea Party crowd.

Last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pawlenty posed as the new God Squad commander. In a speech, he laid out principles conservatives should follow. The first one is this:

“God’ in charge,” he said. “God is in charge.” Mr. Pawlenty’ remarks drew a wave of applause, according to The New York Times. “There are some people who say, “Oh, you know, Pawlenty, don’t bring that up. You know, it’ politically incorrect. Hogwash.”

Um, yeah, it was real risky to have a God bullet point in a speech to CPAC. What next, a “politically incorrect” vow to cut taxes? This guy represents everything people hate about politics. He stands for nothing except his own career and access to power.

He is such a toady, that at CPAC he shed his mild-mannered and usually boring approach to transform into “Pitchfork Pawlenty.”

“When you listen to the elites and the pundits talk about the Tea Party movement, or they talk about us as conservatives, they may not always say it explicitly,” he said. “But implicit in their comments are, you know, maybe they’re not as sophisticated, because a lot of them didn’t go to the Ivy League schools. Or you know, they’re from places like the heartland, not ‚Äî you know, they don’t hang out at our Chablis-drinking, Brie-eating parties in San Francisco.”

“And the implication is, you know, we’re kind of bumpkins,” Mr. Pawlenty said.

I’m sure pampered Pawlenty is running around the governor’s mansion eating Oscar Meyer wieners and washing them down with bathtub moonshine. What a phony!!

What bothers me is the divisiveness of his speech. Instead of bringing Americans together, his entire presidential run appears to be about pitting people against each other and weakening the fabric of America. Does he not care about the affect this will have on the cohesion of this country? Is his own personal ambition more important than keeping America unified?

Pawlenty’s crass stereotypes of people from the East Coast and San Francisco are laughable. We don’t sit around making fun of people in the Midwest who eat at the Waffle House. In fact, many of us love the Waffle House, okra and Cracker Barrel.

What we don’t understand, however, is what these people have against Chablis and brie (or arugula). Is it the taste? The name? It certainly can’t be the price, as I have been to many expensive steakhouses in the Midwest and eaten at a fancy restaurant in Pawlenty’s Minneapolis.

I want to set the record straight on who we actually do make fun of.

We mock fake politicians and those who are too closed-mindedness — as if they are too “manly” — to try new food or beverages, even if they might enjoy them. San Franciscans and New Yorkers rarely deride anyone simply because they are from a different geographic region or did not attend an Ivy League school. (I went to University of Florida and my partner is from rural Nebraska). So, Pawlenty ought to stop deliberately misrepresenting large swaths of this nation – particularly if he wants to be president of the United States of America.

Finally, I suspect, conservative Republicans like their Brie and Chablis the way they like their homosexual sex — often and in the closet. Fakes – like Pawlenty – are sophisticated, cosmopolitan and usually have highbrow culinary tastes. It is the Minnesota governor who mocks social conservatives as bumpkins when he poses as a simpleton and grovels for their votes.

And, quite frankly, the people of CPAC are only considered unsophisticated and naive when they are duped into buying Pawlenty’s transparent hillbilly act.

Ex-Gay Watch reports that convicted con artist Arthur Abba Goldberg, who dropped the “Abba” in his name and co-founded JONAH in 1999, is trying to create yet another false identity by manipulating the wikipedia website. His latest assumed name is Arthur “Avrum” Goldberg.” Here is what Ex-Gay Watch had to say:

However, in what seems too coincidental to be such, the longstanding “Arthur A. Goldberg” in the Wikipedia article about JONAH was changed to “Arthur Avrum Goldberg” on February 8th. The editor goes by the name of Ann Jonah.

Avrum is Yiddish for Abraham, which in turn means “father of nations” or father in general to the Jews. Abba also means father and so we think Goldberg is being cleverly deceptive here. We also think we know why this edit was made several days before the current story hit. This post will be updated once confirmed.

Apparently, a con artist just can’t stop conning, even when the jig is up. It is almost amusing to watch Goldberg’s useless machinations on his wiki page, even as the story of his true identity goes viral on the Internet. Arthur Abba Goldberg is clearly the “father” of falsehoods.

There is still no public statement from Goldberg. He is still manipulating and maneuvering behind the scenes like a trapped wet rat. I suggest he come out of the convict closet and admit he is a snake oil salesman. No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to rewrite history.

In Omaha, Nebraska, a child’s parents and therapist have determined — after years of struggle, extensive counseling, and careful consideration of their unique circumstances — that it is best, at least for the time being, to allow their child to live as the opposite gender.

WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., has an in-depth story and video about the child’s background and struggle.

According to KTIV-TV,

[Therapist] Ellie Hites says the brain is sometimes wired differently than the body is.

She says many of her transgender clients have suffered from nervous breakdowns, suicide attempts and deep depression because they’ve been forced to hide their true identity.

Hites tells KETV-TV in Omaha, “I wish that society was open and loving enough to let that child be who that child perceives himself to be.”

But the activists of Focus on the Family and the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha will hear nothing of it. It is still considered politically correct for members of conservative political institutions to ridicule sissies and tomboys and to dismiss any child development issue as something that can be cured with a good spanking and strict conformity. Focus’ Jeff Johnston — who has no professional mental-health credentials — ignorantly diagnoses that the child must have “gender identity disorder” and further declares, “Many boys who are troubled with gender-identity disorder grow out of it,” he said. “Good parental, pastoral and therapeutic support can help.”

In other words, Focus on the Family declares that its political activists — not a child’s parents or therapist — know what’s best for all children. And it deems itself qualified to blame parents and therapists for the failure of some children to conform to the dictates of Colorado Springs evangelicals. Meanwhile, the Catholic archdiocese in Omaha has been just as smug, ignorant, conformist, and superficial: It has thrown the child out of Catholic school.

According to WJXT,

The mother, a life-long Catholic, thought making the transition in their parish would be the best place for their child to continue friendships, with a support system that included other parents and children.

“The child is welcomed to come, but it would not be acceptable to change the child’ gender and present as a girl,” said Omaha Archdiocese’s Chancellor, the Rev. Joseph Taphorn.

Instead of utilizing this moment to teach its school children about gender, tolerance, and respect, the conservative archdiocese politely told the family to get out. This is the sort of sweetly worded ostracism that conservative Catholics and Focus on the Family try to market as “love” these days.

Focus on the Family and its religious-right therapeutic mentor, NARTH, have a long history of advocating ridicule and harassment of children as a means of imposing traditional gender roles and identities by force. This latest situation suggests that Focus has not yet learned how to approach issues of youth and gender with sensitivity, grace, patience, and respect for parents’ authority and first-hand knowledge.

It’s much easier for a conservative organization to humiliate a family and to dictate comforting, self-satisfied, and politically partisan stereotypes, than to support Christian families with intelligence and compassion in unique and difficult circumstances.