Truth Wins Out was proud to be part of a protest in Auburn, New Hampshire on Saturday against Exodus International. The “ex-gay” hate conference was led by Andy Comisky, the leader of Desert Stream ministries. Here is what he says about LGBT people:

In his book “Pursuing Sexual Wholeness,” Comisky calls homosexuality “spiritual disfigurement” and believes that “Satan delights in homosexual perversion because it not only exists outside of marriage, but it also defiles God’ very image reflected as male and female…Another related source of demonization is the homosexual relationship itself…That attachment and communion are indeed inspired, but their source is demonic.”

Now that you have read his disgusting quote, you can see why we were out there at 8AM on a weekend morning. According to protest organizers Join the Impact Massachusetts:

Ninety protestors were on hand in rural Auburn, NH early Saturday morning, September 17, to greet attendees arriving for the Exodus International North Atlantic Regional Conference. Exodus is the country’s leading network of “ex-gay ministries” and a pillar of the anti-LGBT religious right.

Standing on a traffic island where cars exited the highway and lining the road leading to the conference site, LGBT activists and straight allies held signs, shouted chants, and sang freedom songs. Messages like “Be Yourself,” “Conversion Therapy Kills,” and “God Loves Me and She Knows I’m Gay” adorned colorfully decorated posters. Ian Struthers, Co-Chair of Join the Impact MA, struck up chants as cars passed, such as “Exodus, Exodus, Quack, Quack, Quack/You Can’t Change Gays and That’s a Fact.”

Demonstrators came from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The largest contingent came from South Church Unitarian Universalist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, led by co-ministers the Rev. Chris Jablonski and the Rev. Lauren Smith. Join the Impact MA (“JTIMA”), which was lead organizer, brought several carloads up from Boston. Other groups represented included Truth Wins Out, the Harvard Queer Students and Allies, Get Equal, and the Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts.

Like our successful protest in Houston the week before, the shrinking support and falling attendance for Exodus was noticeable.

We were also proud of Doinkers, our pooch, who attended her first protest.

Gospel music on a Sunday afternoon? Sounds like a great idea.

But no city-supported music festival should preach prejudice against youths, nor promote ostracism and family strife in the name of God.

Yet notorious homophobe Donnie McClurkin, who has called gay people “vampires,” is appearing at Boston’s city-funded Gospel Fest on City Hall Plaza, on July 18.

Join the Impact MA, Truth Wins Out, and the Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts are planning a counter-protest. McClurkin’s bigotry, his hostility toward LGBT people of faith and their families, his unhealthy contempt for sexual honesty, and his harassment of gay and lesbian youths — all are unwelcome in the cradle of liberty.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 5 p.m.
Boston City Hall Plaza at Government Center

For more information:

Facebook:
Protest Against Ex-Gay Crusader Donnie McClurkin at Gospelfest

Join the Impact Massachusetts:
http://jointheimpactma.com/

About Donnie McClurkin:

• Raped by uncle at age 8 and by uncle’s son at 13.
• Denies spiritual equality to LGBT people of faith
• Claims to be “saved,” “sanctified,” and “delivered” from homosexuality
• Admits he is still same-sex attracted, comparing his orientation to diabetes: “I don’t eat sugar, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want sugar.”

What Donnie McClurkin has said and done:

• Incited crowds in Barbados, where homosexuality is illegal
• Says about young lesbians, “They can hide … but there are some evil young hard butch girls.”
• Calls openly gay, well-adjusted young men “broken and feminine.”
• Calls sexual honesty a “curse,” calls gay people “vampires”
• Of fellow gay gospel singer Tonex, McClurkin says, “God did not call young people to such perversion.”
• Projects his lies about his own orientation onto those who live honestly: “Anybody who has a lying problem: They get to the point where they hate having such a lack of character that they make a change.”

City of Boston’s call for Gospelfest performers

Join The Impact – Massachusetts, Boston GLAAD, Political Research Associates, Truth Wins Out, and local equality supporters joined in Boston on Feb. 4 to protest the U.S. Christian Right and ex-gay movement’s efforts to undermine human rights and freedom in Africa.

Slideshow courtesy of Join The Impact – MA