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.

Bill Smith is the Deputy Executive Director of Gill Action Fund. In the Advocate, he offered a thoughtful analysis of the LGBT landscape in the post-election environment.

However, I do have a few questions.

Bill: Although it’s been said before, it bears repeating — we must get out of the partisan ghetto and insist that LGBT rights are human rights, not partisan positions. When we allow ourselves to be seen simply as agents of the Democratic Party, we’re building barriers that impede progress with thoughtful Republicans, who we will almost always need to win. We also need thoughtful LGBT Republicans, who do the hard work of having difficult conversations with other Republicans without being apologists for antigay voices. Our freedom to marry, to serve our country, and to work to support our families transcends politics, and we must confidently and positively make our case with equal vigor to Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike.

Wayne: Are we really in the partisan ghetto by choice? I genuinely can’t think of one instance where an LGBT organization had the vote of a member of the GOP and said, “Let’s reject this vote because we don’t like the “R” in front of his or her name.” I’d challenge anyone to find one instance where this has occurred.

Having worked at the Human Rights Campaign from 1998-2003, I can tell you that we went out of our way to engage in bipartisanship, even when it pissed off the LGBT community. I was there when HRC endorsed New York Republican Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. I can’t describe the terror of having hundreds of apoplectic New Yorkers screaming on the phone because they hated the endorsement. I’m still having flashbacks and nightmares!

My point is, the bipartisan thing has been tried in earnest at the federal level for quite some time. It has not worked. During this period, the GOP has moved further to the margins. The number of thoughtful Republicans has diminished and are close to becoming an endangered species. Should we keep trying? Of course, because we can use the support, and having conservatives on-board, such as Ted Olson, has helped our cause.

But as long as the Republican Party has to answer to the Family Research Council or Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) our ability to rise above the partisan ghetto will remain rather limited.

Furthermore, the battle for LGBT equality may be snagged on the Republican obsession with undermining the Obama administration (They won’t even meet with him) and making him a one-term president. The GOP leadership might conclude that if LGBT people fail to gain equality under Obama, they will be upset and more likely to stay home or vote Republican in 2012. If the Republicans can oppose Obama on a huge issue dealing with national security, like an arms control treaty with Russia, they can stomp on ENDA without blinking.

So, my question is, what will be tried to woo Republicans that has not been tried before?

Bill: It’s past time to rethink our federal presence in Washington. It’s broken and it has to be fixed before another two years go by.

Wayne: Wow, this is actually newsworthy. The powerful Gill Foundation is sending a direct message to The Human Rights Campaign that they are not happy with the results in Washington. Does this signal a strategic shift where Gill will get more involved at the national level or fund a proxy? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In terms of DC, it seems to me that LGBT leaders have been able to get into the door and sit in the corridors of power. The problem is, we have often walked out of the room empty handed or with a bare minimum. What the Gill Foundation should do is hire the nation’s top negotiators to train LGBT Executive Directors on how to bargain effectively. There should be mock White House and congressional meetings where these experts show us how to maximize negotiations and leverage our power. Negotiating is an extremely difficult art, but these are skills that can be learned and nurtured.

Bill: It’s time to model our federal campaigns after successful organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the National Rifle Association that understand building and using political capital while insisting on results. There is no legitimate reason we shouldn’t have the ability to be successful on multiple issues simultaneously while not allowing ourselves to be pushed off the agenda by fickle or shell-shocked allies.

Wayne: This is a good idea and one previously stated by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). It is a productive exercise to study other lobbies and learn from their success — and failures. There are certainly ways we can improve and grow as a movement and AIPAC and the NRA are good models to observe and dissect. However, there are obvious limits that will keep us from ever having the clout of these groups.

For example, there are as many as 80 million gun owners in America. There are not 80 million LGBT people in America, and if there were, we would be as powerful as the NRA and would have achieved equal rights at least a decade ago.

Comparisons to AIPAC also have limits. Democrats support this lobby because most Jewish Americans are liberal and reliable party voters. Republicans support Israel for two reasons. The first is because the Religious Right wants Israel in the hands of the Jews, to fulfill prophesy of Jesus returning. The second is because the business wing of the GOP can reward defense contractors by building weapons systems for Israel.

While the LGBT movement can influence Democrats, it does not have the crossover appeal, such as AIPAC, in the Republican Party. As I explained earlier, any true embrace of the LGBT movement creates a messy showdown for the GOP with the Religious Right.

Finally, AIPAC and the NRA have relatively homogeneous constituencies that are more easily organized than the unruly and diverse coalition that makes up the LGBT movement. Would these groups maintain such enviable unity if they were juggling transgender concerns, GOProud types, Dykes on Bikes and the black tie dinner crowd? Make no mistake, our LGBT leaders have extremely difficult jobs.

Bill: We must be serious about holding elected officials’ feet to the fire and avoid wallowing in victimhood when they don’t deliver. We must communicate clearly with our friends about what we expect, push them harder than we’re comfortable with until they deliver results, and thank them appropriately when we win. And when they betray our trust or vote against us, fight like hell to beat them. LGBT New Yorkers didn’t accept the results of last December’s awful vote against marriage equality, they got organized. Through Fight Back New York and other organizations, they defeated three antimarriage senators (of both parties) and replaced them with three strong allies. Steadily using this formula will build both respect and a healthy dose of fear for the perils of crossing LGBT voters.

Wayne: These are all good points and the Gill Foundation has done a terrific job in targeted races. The larger questions are — Can these efforts in New York be duplicated in Michigan or Mississippi? What leverage do we have in such places? Can we deliver enough money or votes to make a difference?

Bill: Yes, there were significant losses, and unfortunately another truth about the LGBT community is that we sometimes wallow in our defeats. We have the opportunity now to use the wins of Election Day  to triumph over the adversity of the losses. To do that we must make the all too familiar choice: Get busy winning or spend time wallowing. I for one am ready to get busy winning.

Wayne: But crying in my beer is so much fun!

Seriously, political circumstances change, but we must keep working and fighting so the march of progress moves forward.

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Does the World Bank think that your sexual orientation can be cured? Well, maybe not officially, but that’s not stopping the World Bank from funneling money to an organization that not only tries to convert people from homosexuality to heterosexuality, but also has ties to Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill. Perhaps the World Bank is adjusting their mission statement: “Working for a World Free of Poverty … and Free of Gay People.”

As Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner writes, the World Bank has allowed a controversial ex-gay group — Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) — to join the ranks of its Community Outreach Program, a workplace-giving campaign that allows employees of the World Bank to give money to an organization, and have that money matched by a contribution from the World Bank. Depending on how many employees decide to give money to PFOX, the World Bank will give anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent in a matching donation.

Which means that in the months ahead, the World Bank will be giving money directly to an organization that believes homosexuality can be cured. On top of that, as Truth Wins Out notes, a former PFOX board member, Richard Cohen (who still serves as a therapy guru to the organization), was intimately involved in efforts to create legislation in Uganda that would punish homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment.

And it gets even shadier. The director of PFOX’s Speakers Bureau, Abba Goldberg, is a convicted felon who was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for bilking poor communities with bond schemes. And PFOX has also had its tactics condemned by the worldwide psychological and medical profession, with leaders from the organization being thrown out of professional groups like the American Counseling Association for violating ethical protocols.

Wow, if the World Bank is willing to lend credence to an organization like PFOX, what does it say about their overall credibility? For the World Bank, it looks like corporate social responsibility equals corporate endorsement of curing gay people.

What’s also particularly troubling about the World Bank’s endorsement of PFOX is that it looks like the Bank made an exception in order to squeeze PFOX under its Community Outreach Program guidelines. Under those guidelines, a qualifying organization is supposed to have “a substantial local presence in the Greater Washington metropolitan area.” But a 2009 report by the Washington City Paper revealed that PFOX has no presence in D.C.; moreover, the organization’s headquarters are in Reedville, Virginia — a whopping 127 miles from Washington, D.C.

“It is factually incorrect to say that PFOX has a ‘substantial local presence in DC’”, said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Either PFOX is committing fraud against the World Bank, or they are receiving special rights from the organization and inexplicably allowed to pass as a local organization.”

The World Bank has some serious explaining to do, Lucy. Of course, if you listen to World Bank spokespeople, they say that their support of PFOX shouldn’t be considered an endorsement of PFOX’s work. And if you believe that, I think there’s a bridge in Alaska that’s for sale, too.

“‘Because Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) met the minimum criteria for inclusion on the Community Connections campaign, they were included this year,” said a spokesperson for the World Bank, according to Metro Weekly. Ah, such bureaucratic speak for such a serious issue.

Send the World Bank a message that their decision to include PFOX in the Community Outreach Program is as offensive as it is tactless. This is an organization that uses manipulation and discredited psychological tactics to “cure” people of their sexual orientation, has ties to an anti-gay bill in Uganda that could wipe out an entire population of gay people, and who has a leadership that includes people with shady criminal ties. Is that really the type of “charity” the World Bank wants to lend credence to?

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While we were all busy celebrating Hallowe’en this weekend, I somehow managed to hear about this:

One of the mail bombs sent by terrorists in Yemen was addressed to a small, gay-friendly synagogue in Chicago.

Or Chadash leases spaces in Emmanuel Congregation’s lakefront synagogue on the North Side.

“We have a highly visible lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community and at first we thought that might have attracted attention,” Lilli Kornblum, the Co-President of Or Chadash told FOX Chicago News. “But as we learned that more packages were sent, we now don’t take it personally, Well, we are taking it personally as human beings and as Jews but it seems we were randomly selected from any number of Jewish organizations in Chicago.”

Scary.  But we’re not wingnuts, so I assume we’ll all continue checking the mail every day, right?  Good.

PZ Myers points us to something truly hilarious.  Apparently one of the Illinois Family Institute’s Laurie Higgins’ kids went to Gustavus Adolphus, a small Lutheran college in Minnesota, and Laurie has witnessed something horrible (terrible! outrageous!) that went on at their freshman orientation:  a humorous, honest discussion of sex, in skit form!  You see, in part of it, a couple has sex and uses a condom, which is evil; and then a gay student tells his friend that he’s gay, and the friend does not bully him, which is what Laurie supports; and then, a group of students with silly names talk about how abstinence is good, but if you don’t abstain, here are some things that you should do to make it safer, and there’s nothing worse than people making responsible choices when they have sex; worst of all, the ones who don’t have sex say they MASTURBATE, and they laugh about it on the stage, and the other kids laugh too!; et cetera.

What Laurie is really upset about in these videos is that the kids are being honest, funny, and aren’t flailing about with guilt at the mere mention of the word sex. Watch the first video, which MAY NOT be safe for work, and then we’ll listen to some of Laurie’s WAAAAHMbulance, together:

Okay, so fun, silly video, right? College freshmen are hormonal beasts, but they’re also not stupid, so it’s better to acknowledge it, laugh about it, encourage people to make smart choices, and a good time will be had by all.

Laurie is so upset:

Two videos of a freshmen orientation presentation at Gustavus Adolphus College, a small Lutheran College in St. Peter, Minnesota, have come to light that expose the repugnant ideas and images that college students at a purportedly Christian college think are funny.

NOTHING is funny when you’re a Fundamentalist! Did Jesus laugh? NO! He WEPT!

The first video begins with a couple having sex in their dorm room (complete with sound effects) and joking about putting a hat on the door to warn the boy’s roommate to stay out — for the fourth time in one week.

What?! A couple in college? Having sex FOUR TIMES in one week?! What are they, ANIMALS?

Laurie’s biggest complaints, though, are about this next video, where LGBT students are explicitly supported and affirmed.  This is all, of course, awful and terrible, because again, Laurie basically supports hurting gay kids; to be clear, I doubt Laurie really wants bats taken to gay kids’ heads, but would rather suggest that for her and for her ideological cohorts, the gay kids that are bullied, beaten, or driven to suicide are simply collateral damage.  What they really want can be ranked sort of like this:

1.  Gay kids, in shame, deny who they are, and live fake, painful lives where they never experience fulfillment.

2.  Some gay kids do #1, while those who are obstinate about it probably deserve what’s coming to them, for not seeing the “wisdom” of the disproven, scientifically bankrupt Fundamentalist Christian worldview.  Bullying, beating, suicide…sad to them, but not as sad as #3.

3.  Gay kids allowed to grow up happy, healthy and beautiful, just as they are, thus existing, as so many millions of us do, as the negation of the Fundamentalist Christian worldview.

The second half of the video is an egregious violation of Fundamentalist Christian Ethics and Morality, as it is a dramatic portrayal of the need for all people to accept and love one another, and Jesus woulda never said anything like that.  None of the college freshmen in attendance had ever heard of gay people, and if they had only gone to the College Of Laurie Higgins’ Pursed Lips, they’d all be straight virgins today.

So now Laurie has some questions for Gustavus Adolphus, one of which can be filed under Walking Up To Tyler Clementi’s Funeral and Pissing On His Grave. Let’s hit that one first:

Does anyone see how the exhibitionism, voyeurism, and promiscuity which this freshman orientation presentation embodies and promotes relate to the Tyler Clementi tragedy at Rutgers University?

Oh wow, Higgins. You are truly a grotesque woman. You see, Tyler’s shame at being exposed most likely came from his Christian upbringing and the internalized homophobia that comes from that. Gay people don’t hate themselves in a vacuum, Higgins. People like you and your malcontent cohorts in life have to be there to inject homophobia into the discourse. You probably won’t be around to see it, but there will come a day when homophobia is exactly as socially unacceptable as Ku Klux Klan-style bigotry, and it will be amazing how the gay teen suicide rate plummets. Without “Christian” teaching, these kids won’t learn to hate themselves. Bullies won’t learn to hate gay kids. Bullies who are struggling with their sexuality won’t learn to hate themselves, leading them to perceive those who are not struggling as a threat. It will be a much more beautiful world.

What values does this freshmen re-orientation presentation foster? Does it demonstrate respect for the dignity of people, or does it degrade people?

It respects dignity, indeed, for people to make their own choices, responsibly, while fostering a climate of acceptance for people who are different. Apparently in Laurie’s world, dignity goes hand in hand with a chastity belt and a climate of shame.

Do the upperclassmen recognize that one of the most important forms of diversity in life-philosophical diversity-is missing from their puerile production? There is no representation of the view that modesty matters. There is no representation of the view that pornography is evil and the use of it destructive to the moral imaginations, lives, and marriages of men and women. There is no representation of the view that homosexuality and sadomasochism are perversions.

First of all, that would make for a sucky skit. It wouldn’t be funny, and it wouldn’t respect the diversity of the student body. As a sidenote, fundamentalists are always whining like babies about how their families, their worldview, are never portrayed by the eeeeeevil lib’rul Hollywood primetime teevee shows. They think it’s because people are attacking their way of life, but it’s not that — it’s that they’re not entertaining. They’re boring.

But all of that aside, the videos DO encourage abstinence, for those who choose it. They encourage safe sex for those who choose it. They encourage the gay kids, the straight kids, the bisexual kids, the transgender kids…all of them.

Also, there is no empirical evidence for the idea of homosexuality as a “perversion,” so it obviously has no place in an institution of higher learning. I know the videos would work out better for Laurie if they condemned homosexuality, because it probably would warm her black heart to imagine the gay kids in the audience feeling hurt and ashamed, but again, this a Christian university with a commitment to learning. No Bronze Age babble, please.

Anyway, kids, isn’t it nice to know that even some Christian colleges are working to foster an educational environment rife with tolerance, love and respect for others?

There’s hope for Christendom, there is.

There was an excellent article in today’s News Journal by reporter Ginger Gibson on the campaign of Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell.

O’Donnell founded a group, The Saviors Alliance For Lifting The Truth (SALT) that had an “ex-gay” ministry run by Wade Richards, who has since come out of the closet and renounces such “pray away the gay” groups.

Interestingly, Christine O’Donnell has a lesbian sister, Jenny, who lives in California. Many of us were wondering how she felt about her rabidly  anti-gay sister’s campaign. Well, we got the nauseating answer in the News Journal article:

“A lesbian, liberal Democrat for Christine, right here,” Jenny O’Donnell shouted.

Huh? So, Jenny, you have such low self-esteem that you would help elect your sister, who would work to take away your most basic and fundamental rights?

I do understand that it is important to stand by family. But, in her entire public career, when did Christine ever stand up and support Jenny? It is quite clear that family values in the O’Donnell household is a one way street. Jenny is a dupe and a sucker to not recognize that she is being used by her sister to help moderate her extremist image. Shame on Jenny for leaving the LGBT community high and dry, so she can help her sister get elected to pass hateful anti-gay legislation.

Moving along, in the News-Journal article, I had a few choice words to say about O’Donnell:

Besen, who debated O’Donnell in the 1990s, said her attempts to ignore past statements don’t add up.

“I’m not buying it,” Besen said. “This is someone who was a radical.”

Besen said when he and O’Donnell were facing off, it wasn’t in their youths, but when they were adults with formulated opinions.

“I don’t disavow anything I said,” Besen said.

Besen said he wasn’t shocked that O’Donnell’s message has remained consistent, but broadened to capitalize on a fiscal conservative movement.

“I think Christine is being politically opportunistic,” Besen said.

I also talked about the fact she was a “true believing” zealot, that had real trouble with reality.

The founder of Truth Wins Out, a group that works to discredit programs that claim to cure homosexuals, Besen said her views were radical for conservative thinking at the time.”She really struck me as someone who didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid,” Besen said. “But was standing with the Kool-Aid guy stirring the pitcher.”

I think O’Donnell is nuts. But, she is not nearly as loopy as voters in Delaware if they elect her to the Senate, knowing full well her bizarre past, extreme positions and poor management of money.

Samuel Brown is a member of New Birth Church, the same church where Bishop Eddie Long has preached many anti-gay sermons. In 2004, Long led a march in Atlanta in support of banning same-sex marriage.

Brown also happens to be a gay male. Brown and his life partner Derrick joined New Birth initially, not saying a word about their sexuality to anyone. In light of the allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding Bishop Eddie Long, Brown has decided to share his story exclusively with BET News to express his discontent with his pastor.

See BET Video

(Weekly Column)

Earlier this week, Boyd K. Packer, president of the Mormon Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, gave a sermon that endorsed discrimination against gay people and claimed that they could be converted into heterosexuals.

Conveniently, Packer failed to point out that the keynote speaker at the Mormon “ex-gay” group Evergreen’s September conference was John Paulk – the supposedly cured family man that I photographed in a Washington, DC gay bar in 2000. (video below)

Truth Wins Out recently revealed that Mormon “life coach”, Alan Downing, was instructing clients to touch their genitals in front of a mirror to help make them straight. (video below) And “People Can Change”, a bizarre boot camp run by Rich Wyler, a Mormon “ex-gay” activist, has a “cuddle room” where men touch each other to find sexual “healing”.

No matter how many millions of dollars religious organizations squander on this fatal fantasy, or how loudly they preach this destructive lie – there is no evidence that one can pray away the gay.  The idea that millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people will abandon rich, satisfying lives to become “ex-gay” is equal parts propaganda and pipedream.

Given the fact that LGBT people exist and are not going anywhere, the Religious Right has two choices:

1) It can accept that LGBT people are on a trajectory to be embraced by mainstream society

2) Or, it can suppress this rapidly growing trend through intimidation and violence

In the past year, I believe, the LGBT movement has reached a tipping point, where there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Polls are in favor of equal rights and widespread acceptance is seeping into nearly every sphere of society.

Anti-gay activists see the writing on the wall and are reacting rabidly by spewing unprecedented amounts of biblical bile. The attitude of these extremists can be summed up by The Call’s Lou Engle, who said at an anti-gay seminar in Lynchburg, Va., earlier this year, that without a Godly intercession, the LGBT movement would win.

Of course, there will be no Godly intercession, anymore than there will ever be a mass exodus into the silly “ex-gay” ministries. And, this is precisely why organizations like Focus on the Family, The Minnesota Family Council, and Exodus International fight tooth and nail against programs that would stop anti-gay bullying.

The horrible truth is that the Religious Right needs the threat of violence and selective use of terror to keep young people from living openly and honestly. They even have entire websites, such as TrueTolerance.org, and annual events, like the “Day of Truth”, to ensure bullying remains a bloody right of passage for many gay students.

Indeed, Focus on the Family’s True Tolerance website smarmily states, “Concerned about homosexual advocacy in your child’s school? You’ve come to the right place.”

Our foes would deny that violence is their intention, and no doubt many of them would prefer a neat and clean conversion, before a messy reversion to brute force. But, Dr. Joseph Berger revealed how the right genuinely believes gender norms should be enforced.

“…let the other children ridicule the (gay or transgender) child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world,” wrote Berger, a “Scientific” Advisory Committee member of the “ex-gay” therapy group NARTH. “Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.”

How do such “academic” ideas play out in the real world?

Ask 11-year old Tyler Wilson, a victim of such boundary enforcement. Last month bullies broke his arm because he joined his school’s cheering team. Also last month, at least six gay youth committed suicide, by way of bridge jumping, hanging, and gunshot wound. (Finally – through suicide — the Religious Right can claim success for helping gay youth “leave homosexuality”.)

The closet is also enforced for adults by roaming thugs who use violence to let LGBT people know their place. In the heavily gay neighborhood of Chelsea, a group of friends were attacked this weekend with fists and a metal garbage can, while the assailants yelled, “Go home faggots. This is our neighborhood.”

Actually, this is my neighborhood, with my apartment only one block away from where this gay bashing incident occurred.

I have also had drinks at the historic Stonewall Inn – birthplace of the modern LGBT movement and the scene of an equally horrific anti-gay hate crime this past weekend.

On a street corner where I have held hands with my partner, I now must look over my shoulder. In a bar where I once imbibed carefree, I must now be on guard. Even if the perpetrators are caught and jailed, the damage to all LGBT people is done.

Breeding such insecurity, at root, is why the Religious Right vehemently opposes efforts in schools to stop bullying. As long as no place feels completely safe, the church-inspired closet will maintain the illusion of a safe haven.

The unholy marriage of the bully and the pulpit really is all anti-gay activists have left in their arsenal to defeat the LGBT movement. No matter how many youth commit suicide or adults are gay-bashed, don’t expect our foes to give up their trump card of violence anytime soon.

Anti-Gay Industry Responsible For Creating Hostile Climate That Leads To Such Tragedies, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out expressed a sense of deep sorrow and loss as news of three gay teen suicides in September rocked the LGBT movement. In each case, the victim was a target of relentless harassment and bullying by school peers. Truth Wins Out blames the anti-gay industry and negligent school officials for creating a hostile climate that places lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at risk for psychological abuse, violence and suicide.

“Our hearts go out to the families of these young men and we feel a deep sense of sorrow and regret for these needless tragedies,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We blame the anti-gay industry for fighting measures to end bullying in schools, and school officials who turn a blind eye to brutality. We are fed up with what amounts to anti-gay schoolyard muggings that are foolishly dismissed as ‘boys being boys’. In reality, it is ‘boys beating boys’, and these bullies receive tacit approval for their violent, homophobic behavior by teachers and certain vocal segments of society.”

Through their annual “Day of Truth” campaign and TrueTolerance.org web site, Focus on the Family and the “ex-gay” group Exodus International actively and continuously obstruct anti-bullying programs in schools across the country. Instead of opposing violence, both organizations remain dedicated to pretending the problem of anti-gay bullying does not exist, or downplaying the deadly results.

“The goal of Exodus International and Focus on the Family is to purge LGBT people from society, although they disingenuously frame the issue as eliminating homosexuality, which is not possible,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “When you target homosexuality, the result is persecution and punishment of LGBT people, and in many cases it leads to gay bashing or suicides. The anti-gay industry should dismantle these despicable programs and work towards creating solutions instead of suicides.”

In September, there have been three gay teen suicides as a result of school bullying:

• Seth Walsh, the Bakersfield, CA 13-year-old who hanged himself from a tree in his back yard after years of being bullied, died Tuesday afternoon after nine days on life support. Police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself. “Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears,” Police Chief Jeff Kermode said. “They had never expected an outcome such as this.”

• Asher Brown, 13, an eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Houston Texas. Brown, his family said, was “bullied to death” — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.

• Billy (William) Lucas, 15, a student at Greensburg Community High School in Greensburg, IN, was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home Thursday evening — he had hanged himself. Friends say that he had been tormented for years. “He was threatened to get beat up every day,” friend and classmate Nick Hughes said. “Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him. Some people at school called him names,” Hughes said, saying most of those names questioned Lucas’ sexual orientation.

“This insanity must stop and all school districts must commit to making school safe for LGBT students,” said TWO’s Besen. “It is inexcusable and unconscionable that bullying is tolerated in this day and age. Those responsible for allowing such tragedies to occur should be held responsible.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their misinformation and exposes their leaders as charlatans. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

TRAGIC UPDATES:

• A Rutgers University freshman posted a goodbye message on his Facebook page before jumping to his death after his roommate secretly filmed him during a “sexual encounter” in his dorm room and posted it live on the Internet.Items belonging to 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi were found by the George Washington Bridge last week, according to authorities. Clementi’s freshman ID card and driver’s license were in the wallet.Clementi’s post on his Facebook page, dated Sept. 22 at 8:42 p.m. read, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

• School bullies broke the arm of eleven year-old Tyler Wilson because he joined the cheering team. But he’s pushing through it, and he’s going to cheer and not give into the thugs. A longer report and full interview with Tyler and his mom from Good Morning America are here.

I just stumbled across a really neat piece from a Muslim American author and activist named Melody Moezzi, where she takes the position that, despite the crap that’s being slung at Muslims by low-information Americans from coast to coast, she’s still in a better position as a Muslim American than her gay friends are:

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about how much my people are under attack in America today. The thing is, though, as an American Muslim, I don’t really feel under attack. Annoyed? Sure. But attacked? No.

Despite all the controversy surrounding the construction of the Park51 Center in downtown Manhattan, for example, the fact remains that it will still be built. Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama have both staunchly defended our right to build it and most of the center’s most vociferous opponents have either never set foot in Manhattan or belong to some extremist political or religious group — the exact same kind of group from which they claim to be “protecting” Americans by protesting the construction of the center. In short, no matter how loudly these bigots protest or how viciously they insult us, we still have the law and our leaders on our side.

Meanwhile, I just had lunch with a friend who can’t even get married or serve openly in the military in this country, who has nowhere near the same 14th Amendment equal protection rights that I do as a Muslim American woman, and who can no longer afford his HIV medications because his social security payments are too high for him to qualify for Medicaid. Just like me, my friend is an American citizen, but unlike me, he doesn’t share the same rights and privileges that said citizenship ought to guarantee.

[...]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it’s easy being a Muslim American today. Far from it. What I am saying, however, is that as a Muslim American, my obligation is to defend the rights of the most marginalized and persecuted citizens living in my great country — and as it stands, despite all the nasty name-calling, I’m not one of those citizens.

Awesome. Read the whole thing, please. And follow Melody on Twitter.

When we were in the middle of the loudest week of Muslim-bashing over the Park51 center, the writers at Truth Wins Out spoke out strongly about why we supported the building of the center.  But quite simply, the above piece is why.  Because any time one minority is being attacked in this country, simply for who they are, we all are being attacked.

Among all minorities in this country, there are, regrettably, people who are uber-concerned about their own minority rights, but who have irrational hatreds against other minorities.  I don’t have to give a bunch of examples here; readers know what I’m talking about.  What we have to recognize, though, is that any time anyone is not being treated as a full human being, whether legally or socially, by other citizens, for not conforming to the white, male, patriarchal, Christian  ”ideal” of the “Real ‘Murrikan” espoused by those who are, of course, white, male, patriarchal and Christian, then that’s relevant, even if it’s not your group in the crosshairs.  The only way to fight back against that, and to keep the true ideals of the United States alive, is to support each other, and to fight for each other.