How About A Conference Preventing Fundamentalist Asswads?
These people are sick. Anybody on this blog who says religion isn't damaging, tell me how you work out this twisted shit in your equation:
Focus on the Family is promoting the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable — a message routinely silenced today. We want people to know that individuals don't have to be gay. That's why we've developed a one-day conference for those looking for answers on this often-divisive issue. Whether you are an educator, parent, concerned citizen or even a gay activist, Love Won Out will inform, inspire and offer you hope.
"Love Won Out"? No, clearly rabid irrationality did. Is heterosexuality also preventable and treatable? Because I've got it bad.
On the front of their site, I especially like the guy at the bottom of the page who looks like the movie star version of Sex And The City's flamer, Sanford Blatch. But not to worry, all you fag-fearers. He says he "left homosexuality in 1991." (Alan and his wife Leslie live in Orlando.)
And don't forget Joe. Joe is the program director of Genesis Counseling in Tustin, California. He currently directs a monthly five-day men’s retreat on sexual purity titled, “Every Man's Battle.” Every man's battle? What, exactly, would that be? Hmmm...well, for men who haven't slammed themselves in the closet in the name of Jesus, I would imagine it to be something like not farting loudly in mixed company.
Then, poor Anne Heche, her momma's in on the act: "As a single parent who experienced the international media rush during her daughter Anne Heche’s highly visible relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, and a widow who endured her husband’s diagnosis of and subsequent death from AIDS, Nancy brings a spiritual focus to the effects of homosexuality in a family." Honey, your daughter ate pussy for a few years, she didn't boil babies.
UPDATED: Here's a link to a site with the truth about "Love Won Out." And here's an excerpt:
The facts on this subject are clear. Every leading medical and mental health organization says therapy designed to change a person's sexual orientation is ineffective and can sometimes be dangerous. The American Medical Association, The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics all have policy statements questioning the efficacy of such treatments. The APA says that attempts to change sexual orientation can lead to "depression, anxiety and self destructive behavior."History seems to reinforce the policy statements of these esteemed medical and mental health organizations. Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, co-founders of Exodus International, the nation's largest "ex-gay" group, denounced Exodus after divorcing their wives and holding a commitment ceremony together. Colin Cook, founder of Homosexuals Anonymous, was exposed as a fraud for giving nude massages and having phone sex with the very people he was supposed to be changing.
Love Won Out also faced a scandal after the program's director, John Paulk, was found lounging in a Washington, DC gay bar. Conveniently, this important fact is omitted from Paulk's biography that is currently being used to promote the upcoming Kansas City conference.
The truth is, the more people know about the techniques that are commonly used in reparative therapy the less credible it seems. For example, one commonly used method is the "rubber band technique" where a gay person wears a rubber band around his or her wrist and snaps it when he or she sees someone attractive of the same gender.
Another bizarre method reparative therapists use to cure homosexuality is called "Intrauterine Memory Recovery". This method involves helping a person recover a traumatic memory that supposedly occurred while living in his or her mother's womb. Of course, memory experts dismiss this technique pointing out that human beings can't remember specific memories before two years of age.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, President of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and a prominent Love Won Out speaker, has a few strange ideas of his own. For instance, he postulates that "non-homosexual men who experience defeat and failure may also experience homosexual fantasies or dreams." He also encourages his clients to act more masculine by drinking Gatorade or calling friends "dude." Another leading NARTH member, Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. believes that anti-depressants such as Prozac may help cure homosexuality.
With such peculiar ideas, it is no surprise that groups such as Exodus and NARTH scrupulously avoid documenting their work. When asked by Newsweek magazine why he kept no statistics, Nicolosi replied that he "didn't have time." These groups continue to exist, not to help people, but to help religious political leaders like Focus on the Family's James Dobson and former Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell deny gay people equal rights. Their message is simple: Since gay people can "change" they do not deserve protection from discrimination.
Does anyone remember how John Paulk, program director of "Love Won Out" was found socializing in a gay bar in D.C.'s infamous "fruit loop"? First he lied about his reasons for being there...then when he finally came clean (realizing that no one was buying his "I wandered in by mistake and I was looking for a bathroom" routine) and said that he was there to "relax." Interesting choice of words. If I were a married heterosexual male like Paulk claims to be, I'm not sure a bar full of gay men on the prowl would be the most relaxing place in the world. Not that it would be an stressful place, but John, haven't you ever heard of backyard hammocks?
http://www.anythingbutstraight.com/author/oped1.html
Patrick at August 31, 2005 4:37 AM
I'll never understand why some people feel SO threatened by homosexuality. I mean, we love who we love. Sixty years ago, mixed race or even sometimes mixed religion relationships were taboo. We got over it.
I was reading something a few weeks ago about "camps" (more like privately run prisons/torture centers) for parents who feared their kids were gay, where the kids were being sleep and food deprived, in an attempt to brainwash them straight. That's some twisted shit. They'd rather see their kids suffer than be gay. That's so fucked up.
deja pseu at August 31, 2005 5:55 AM
The problem here is with the people. I grew up in church and never, ever encountered this kind of stuff.
Jackie Danicki at August 31, 2005 6:14 AM
But religion teaches all sorts of irrational thinking, which is dangerous. People believe what they are told -- that's what "faith" is all about. (And just to use Christianity as one example)...as a little girl, kids used to tell me I killed Jesus, or the Jews killed Jesus, and that was the basis of a rather hellish, friendless childhood for me. Also, another favorite of mine, is people telling me that I'll burn in hell if I don't except Jesus as my savior. If Adolph Hitler did, he's in heaven, but no, I've got to go to hell. The benign stuff isn't so benign. Maybe if people didn't believe in Jesus, I would have had friends as a child, instead of coming how to "dirty Jews" on our garage door.
Amy Alkon at August 31, 2005 7:00 AM
I feel so bad for your childhood experience. I also grew up in Farmington Hills, am a Christian and believe in Jesus. I would never do or say any of the things some nasty people did to you. Most of my friends when I lived there were Jewish and many of my friends today are also Jewish and/or atheists. We have good relationships and respect one another's beliefs. I wish it were the same for everyone.
Claire at August 31, 2005 7:19 AM
My father said my family moved there because we were just like everyone else. That's fine if everyone else thinks you are just like everyone else, but we got there (and lived in Canterbury Commons, a soulless subdivision) when it started. While I appreciate what you're saying, Claire, almost all religions teach that they're "the way" and everybody else basically sucks...or worse...which is terribly divisive...and all based on "faith" -- ie, irrational belief in the unproven. Seems such a waste to me. And to be moral, secular ethics, like those taught at the Josephson Institute, work just fine.
Amy Alkon at August 31, 2005 7:30 AM
What's hilarious is that guy that supposedly "left homosexuality" looks so incredibly gay. I can't seem to get over my heterosexuality either, Amy. And my lesbian friend isn't getting over her homosexuality. You can't change a healthy hankerin'.
Diana at August 31, 2005 9:40 AM
Why are these holy rollers so fixated on whom other people have sex with? Are they afraid they will lose out on some good beef-cake or something? I don't give a rat's behind who is doing whatever with whom, from President Clinton on down. If it isn't with me and isn't sex with an incapacitated person or a minor, a matter of "national security" (or whatever that might mean) or an assault of one kind or another, then it isn't any of my business.
Sorry about your shitty childhood experience, Amy. I'm glad to see you've put it into perspective and shown you are better than them.
Eamonn Keane at August 31, 2005 10:56 AM
This is another example of how people actively choose ignorance: they can't understand that there are internal as well as external differences between people. They are resistant to the idea even when shown the logical impossibility of assigning fixed gender to people when literally thousands of people are born every day without gender. Most of the time this poses a real problem.
Radwaste at August 31, 2005 1:39 PM
Regarding James Dobson, MD, himself, I have listed to him for years. Whether or not you agree with him politically, he has helped thousands of people and continues to be a resource of help for individuals and families. I have one of his child-rearing books and have read many of his other books. He is a courageous man in my opinion.
Claire at August 31, 2005 9:13 PM
It doesn't look like Mr. Alan Chambers left homosexualtiy until his receeding hair-line got really bad.
Reid in Nashville at August 31, 2005 10:15 PM
Claire sees "courageous", I see "bullying, sociopathic control-freak". In my book, it takes more courage to accept those who are different than it does to try to make everyone conform to the same narrow, hierarchal standards. And it's not "courageous" by my definition to speak with pride about locking yourself in a room with your small pet dog and beating the crap out of it because you perceive it's not being properly worshipful of you, as Dobson describes doing in one of his books. I used to work at a radio station back in the early 80's that carried his "Focus on the Family" and his philosophies made me shudder back then as well.
deja pseu at September 1, 2005 6:17 AM
deja pseu, I completely disagree with your interpretation and assessment of Dr. Dobson.
Claire at September 1, 2005 10:03 AM
deja - would you also please tell me what book you read. I would like to check it out. Thanks.
Claire at September 1, 2005 10:05 AM
From the book, "The Strong Willed Child":
"Please don't misunderstand me. Siggie is a member of our family and we love him dearly. And despite his anarchistic nature, I have finally taught him to obey a few simple commands. However, we had some classic battles before he reluctantly yielded to my authority.
"The greatest confrontation occurred a few years ago when I had been in Miami for a three-day conference. I returned to observe that Siggie had become boss of the house while I was gone. But I didn't realize until later that evening just how strongly he felt about his new position as Captain.
"At eleven o'clock that night, I told Siggie to go get into his bed, which is a permanent enclosure in the family room. For six years I had given him that order at the end of each day, and for six years Siggie had obeyed.
"On this occasion, however, he refused to budge. You see, he was in the bathroom, seated comfortably on the furry lid of the toilet seat. That is his favorite spot in the house, because it allows him to bask in the warmth of a nearby electric heater..."
"When I told Sigmund to leave his warm seat and go to bed, he flattened his ears and slowly turned his head toward me. He deliberately braced himself by placing one paw on the edge of the furry lid, then hunched his shoulders, raised his lips to reveal the molars on both sides, and uttered his most threatening growl. That was Siggie's way of saying. "Get lost!"
"I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to deal with it. The ONLY way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me "reason" with Mr. Freud."
What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!"
deja pseu at September 1, 2005 2:04 PM
I understand the context of that episode and the true intent. He loved that dog. I've actually heard him discuss that one on the radio. We can agree to disagree with his intent, or at least I do. Thanks, though, for sharing it.
Claire at September 2, 2005 6:54 AM
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