Gaytanamo

Sally Kern (left picture), an Oklahoma State Rep., warned her constituents that gays are taking over and have become more dangerous to the American way of life than terrorists. The lawmaker made the remarks in a speech to a small gathering but did not know they were being recorded.

On Monday, Kern said her comments were edited and taken out of context. Kern said they were directed at wealthy, politically active homosexuals who are contributing money to gay and lesbian candidates for public office in Oklahoma and other states.

“I was talking about an agenda. I was not talking about individuals,” said Kern, the wife of a Baptist minister. “They have the right to choose that lifestyle. They do not have the right to force it down our throat."

I'm not sure that anybody would want to force anything down Sally's throat, apart of her Baptist minister husband (but that would also be against the Biblical mandate of procreation, therefore a sin), but I'm deeply sorry to hear that Mrs. Kern didn't follow up her own advice and try advocating some sort of Gaytanamo, one where homosexuals could be kept for years without any other charge than being presumed enemies to the American Way of Life.

In any case, Sally Kern spoke about a "Gay Agenda" which is not clear to exist, according to Randy Thomas, VP of Exodus International, quoted at Ex-Gay Watch to have said that "I do not believe there is an American-wide gay conspiracy that is played up in by Coral Ridge and some other conservative Christian organizations to generate fear."

In the meantime, while homosexuals are being accused of destroying kids, in the Philippines province of  Bulacan, five people were nailed to wooden crosses, including a 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl. This wasn't the result of mob angriness, but a mixture of religious Catholic devotion and tourism attraction, taking place in the archipelago since decades, with the blessings of the Catholic hierarchy of course, who never forbid any of such bloody displays.

It's unclear whether a world where homosexuals be kept inside Gaytanamos and teens nailed to wood crosses would be better than the one we live right now.

Conversion therapy revealed

Via Ex-gay watch, the Winnipeg Sun tells the story of an ex-gay minister eventually convicted of sexual assault on one of his patients. Copying from Ex-gay Watch...

A young man is found by family to be sexually attracted to men and coerced through a fear of hell to seek “therapy” to go straight. This is the story that led a young Canadian man to seek out the help of Terrance Lewis, a minister and (former) counselor at Providence College and Seminary.

The man said Lewis started a program of “touch therapy,” which included the two kissing and fondling each other and engaging in sexual roleplaying.

“He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would understand,” the man testified.

During “touch therapy” sessions in Lewis’ car, Lewis asked him to masturbate, the man said. Lewis also admitted to fantasizing about him, the man said.

Many ex-gay therapists have practiced what they call “touch therapy,” including Richard Cohen, who extends this from touching to hugging or even cuddling on the couch. Dr. Chris Austin carried touch too far and was convicted of sexual assault, as was Terrance Lewis in the story above. While certainly not all ex-gay therapists go to this extreme, starting with the premise that sexual orientation should, or even can, be changed has led to unorthodox and at times, illegal “therapy.”

A-ha! So, the much hyped therapies to become ex-gay are only intended to become a closeted gay guy with your personal therapist, eh? Five to seven sessions of touch therapy weekly and you will be able to live a perfectly normal non-gay life. Reminds me to assaults on choirboys, which wouldn't be judged by courts because, in many cases, wouldn't be understood, or be just a matter of the divine, ethics, and moral. Religion, you know. Religion which wants to keep The Only Truth, The Key to Proper Sexual Life, The Authorized Science Guidelines, and The Door to Eternal Salvation. Were I to engage in such conversion therapies, at least I'd choose two or three hot therapists. Ex-gay ministries can call at my door with Jensen Atwood as touch therapist.

Spain pre-election promises, promises, promises...

With most eyes focused on the American campaign, I've just following, like most Spaniards, the moves of our pre-elections season. Eventually, the Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy disclosed some amount of the changes to bring about on society: contract agreements for immigrants to "behave like Spaniards" and "fulfill the existing laws" (I had never guessed that any person coming to Spain, tourist or permanent settler, had not the obligation to respect and fulfill our laws, and that Spanish behavior might mean they will have to shout and scream in bars for most of the Saturday evening, drive fast and half drunk, and learn how to throw papers and all sorts of other rubbish out of the wastecans when walking the streets); of course, on homosexuality the Party is starting to appear more the wolf they are than the sheep: the first (notice: the first) proposal is to ban homosexual marriages from adoption. It's just a first step, I'm afraid, later on it'll come the banning of homosexual marriage too. But the implications are broader: if homosexual couples can't adopt, it must be because they are not able to raise children correctly, and hence... what will we do when a lesbian couple give birth to a baby? Of course, call the social services and find a suitable home. Preferably traditional, catholic, and conservative.

On other parts of the world, Romania's Senate is trying to amend the Romanian Civil Code on marriage to explicitly forbid same-sex marriages, though that's a move which could bring about some sort of admonition from the European Union. When joining the EU in 2007, Romania had to "recognise same-sex couples registered in other member states". A couple of cases brought before the European High Court could oblige lawmakers to rewrite their homophobic moves.

And just two interesting links to finish: Patrick Chapman makes a brief but interesting critic to the NARTH Journey into Straight, showing that studies of ex-gay organizations are not always trustable, while Ziggy on High posts The Gay Agenda according to the US ultraconservatives.

Italian reparative therapy, and exorcising homosexuality out.

Via Vecchifroci I came to know about Davide Vari, an Italian journalist who posed as homosexual in order to enter religious "reparative" therapy circles. Though affiliated somehow with NARTH, the people involved in ex gay movements in Italy are also affiliated with the Catholic Church (Roman, that is), and Vari dissects the process and procedures of diagnosis and therapy in an article published in Liberatione, but also in his own blog. For those of you understanding Italian, this is the full text of its report. In brief, as I'm not really fluent in Italian, Davide posed as a gay man having had "full sexual relationships" with other men "both active and passive", and conducted a series of interviews with priests and psychologists, undergoing what he clearly describes as the Minnesota Test for purposes of measuring his degree of homosexuality, perceived in such circles as a deviation from natural law, perversion, or neurosis, depending on the interviewer.

Prompted by this article, Arcigay's president, Aurelio Mancuso, issued an statement asking to the proper Health institutions in Italy to watch carefully those reparative "therapies" and reminding that as of May 1990, the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as disease and filed it into a natural variant of sexuality.

Of course, Catholics will not stay quiet about this statement, perceived as a direct attack to the Church: Catholic World News affirms that such WHO declassification of homosexuality was a success of The Homosexual Lobby — whenever I read "Homosexual Lobby" I can't help figuring out some sort of obscure and evil council of leather daddies, smoking cigars, plotting the conversion of all the world's children into gays and lesbians over a huge plasma round screen in the middle of an oval table. It might sound funny but it's the 21st century and you can't bring up again the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, can you? — plus defending their psychologists in the worst way they could to the eyes of a former Catholic: building their academic authority in their militancy with the Legionaries of Christ.

But on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, AlterNet offers an interesting interview with Scott Harrison, who

"desperately tried to change his sexual orientation in various "ex-gay" ministries for eight years, three of them as a ministry leader in Southern California. Most of his experience with ex-gay groups — Christian organizations that see homosexuality as a choice that can be changed with proper therapy — was with Living Waters and Desert Stream, two curricula of a national ex-gay network that has more than 80 branches today. When Harrison joined in 1982, he felt ex-gay ministers were then a band of compassionate outsiders attending to the first AIDS victims. But by the end of that decade, Harrison had taken note of the movement's increasing radicalism, symbolized for him by the minister at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in San Pedro, Calif., who performed an exorcism on him in an attempt to cast out the "demons" said to be the cause of his homosexuality. Harrison finally quit the movement in 1990 after deciding he could, after all, reconcile his sexuality with his Christian faith."

Technorati tags: Ex gay, Reparative therapy, Italy, Davide Vari

Ex Gay movements turning violent

Ex-gay Watch, a blog devoted to keep an eye on ex gay movements, writes about the relationship between JONAH, (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) and NARTH. Among the many points of similarly neo totalitarist rhetoric of NARTH, these bloggers count the following:

• NARTH sports a guide to “taking back” schools from pro-tolerance activists, written by Scott Lively. Lively is a former American Family Association state chapter leader (he’s still listed as an active director) and the author of the book The Pink Swastika, which (according to the SPLC) falsely asserts that more gays were involved in the perpetration of genocide than were murdered under the Nazi regime. Lively has used The Pink Swastika to achieve popularity in Eastern Europe and among Russian-speaking U.S. immigrants. Lively is now a leader of a Slavic organization called Watchmen on the Walls (Google translation link), which has applauded the murder of a Sacramento gay man by Slavic skinheads, used West Coast Russian-language radio shows to promote anti-gay ethnic cleansing, and taught audiences that homosexuals have a contagious disease that must be quarantined and treated. If you think this sounds eerily familiar, you’re right.
• Paul Cameron, previously reported to be a supporter of a “Final Solution” for homosexuals and an admirer of Nazi officer Rudolph Höss, is still quite pervasive in NARTH’s library. Articles that cite his work can be found here, here, here, and here.

Another author enlisted in NARTH ranks is Joseph Nicolosi, who, with Gerard J. M. van der Aardweg, the latter being a psychologist deeply involved with the Opus Dei, make the core project of the Catholic Ex-Gay movement, which tried to root in Spain as well as in Latin America apparently without much success, as one can deduct from the site Es Posible El Cambio, promoted by a so called Grupo Juan Pablo II.  It's likely that Courage Latino be more active around Latin America, though.

Finally, and about the involvement of Mr. Scott Lively with Watchment on the Walls, we recommend you an interesting reading, this article from Alternet published on October 5th.

Anti-gay movements are out there and homosexuals are their target. Even physically. Beware.

Technorati tags: Religion and Homosexuality, Ex gay, Violence against homosexuals, Catholic, NARTH, JONAH, Ex gay watch, Courage Latino, Es Posible El Cambio, Watchmen on the Walls

Ahmadinejad, Akinola, and the peanut butter jar

Oh, yes! It's been some hours and I bet the whole TLGBlogosphere is already spreading the video like fire. Well, here it is:

 

Of course, they can't have such a thing. As it's well pointed on Towleroad, they get rid of them. I was chatting with a good friend from the Gulf and he was like ROTFL when I told him about the above statements.

But then that feeling doesn't seem to be an exclusive of Mr. Ahmadinejad. Over the weekend you have all read about the Anglican meeting in the USA where even the Archbishop of Canterbury is seen as taking more tolerant (I hate this word, it should read "respectful") positions towards the inclusion of homosexuals within the Anglican ranks. And then we have our old friend (I'll leave Phelps to you, Lex, I have enough with this) Akinola, touring the USA in order to reap discontent fundamentalist Episcopalian bishops for his homophobic cause. I don't have a single doubt that Akinola and Ahmadinejad could find a final solution for "the homosexual problem". Nor you would read any statement from the Primate of Nigeria in support for the young guys threatened with death penalty in the sharia-applying states of the North.

Akinola, however, is not alone in his crusade for morality. Pentecostal churches (which belong to the same type of belief that Evangelical and in general, newborn Christians are) all along Africa are getting more and more base, as well as in Latin America and Europe. And what solutions do they propose for a problem which is not a problem? Conversion, no less. As I wrote in former posts, newborn Christians claim that it's possible to shift sexual orientation, as if it was a driving wheel, finding Jesus and repenting from abomination. They have scientific proof, grounds of which may be questioned by serious scientists, but whatever, isn't Final Proof of Creation (and not Evolution) to be found in a jar of peanut butter?

Still, what would newborn Christians do with those among homosexuals who don't want to be converted, or fail the conversion "therapy"? Would they handle us to Fred Phelps or to Ahmadinejad?

Technorati tags: Ahmadinejad, Akinola, Anglican Church, Religion and Homosexuality, USA, Ex gay, Conversion Therapy, Evolution disproved

Religion and Homosexuality (III) - Islam

Islamic scholars and council of Ulama consider homosexuality as a sin. I have doubts they even use the word "homosexuality" but instead most of those boards will speak about "sodomy". The religious base to maintain this view is fundamented in both Koran and Tradition. Since this post is intended to be brief, I'll just point you to where details on these positions are further explained and developed. Thus, for an official view of Islam on homosexuality this link can be useful. Homosexuality is a sin which will be punished by Allah and by the Islamic law. Period.

Dissident Voices.

On April 30th 2007, The Muslim Council of Britain issued a brief statement in regards to their position on the Sexual Orientation Regulations: "We affirm our belief that the practice and promotion of homosexuality is forbidden according to the teachings of Islam. However the Sexual Orientation Regulations are not about religious belief but about prohibiting discrimination in the provision of goods and services on grounds of sexual orientation. The MCB stands opposed to discrimination in all its forms." it was a non-compromising statement towards SOR, also known as the 2007 Equality Act. Maybe this is the start of a change in Islamic positions? Not at all. But there are dissident voices among muslims, the most known example of which is Sheik Muhsin Kendricks in South Africa, whose position you can read in this article on Behind the Mask. An even more permissive position is that of Abdennur Prado, whom is being discussed in this entry from Islam Online (the article containst several pieces of misinformation though).

Muslim LGBT groups.

Perhaps the most renowned of all Muslim LGBT groups is Al Fatiha, "a US-based organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, questioning (LGBTIQ) & their allies", but also Queer Jihad, and the Gay and Lesbian Arabic Society. For a more extensive view and links to LGBT resources, please check Al-Bab page on Gay and Lesbian Arabs.

It remains curious, in my humble opinion, that an Internet domain such as gaymuslims.org points to Eye on Gay Muslims, a blog which appears to be an offspring of the StraightWay Foundation, an organization which apparently tries to introduce the Evangelical concept of ex-gay into the muslim community.

In any case, LGBT people in the muslim and arab world is gaining visibility and starting to claim for rights, and not only in Turkey or Lebanon, but also in Kuwait, for instance.

Technorati tags: Islam and Homosexuality, LGBT Muslims, Gay rights, Religion and Homosexuality

USA gay "debate" (again)

Today would have been probably a great day, were it not for this. But you know, I'm done with all those self-called Christians bashing everything and everyone not conformant to their really high standards (which, by the way, themselves are not even able to meet). In their own terminology, they're just pharisees, whitened tombs. Period.

For a detailed discussion and comparison on that thing, go to Towleroad if you're interested. I'll only say that the guy has a narrow vision of the world. Very narrow. "Despite all of their efforts to convert us", he writes. Convert y'all to what, to homosexuality? D'ya think homosexuality is a religion, with own Sacred Books and rituals? No babe, it's y'all who are trying to "convert us": convert us to Evangelical narrow pharisaic views, convert us into being ex-gay heterosexuals, uncomfortable with sexuality "oppossed to life"***, into soldiers of a vengative and hateful Jesus, and into cannon fodders in your world wars and crusades. I'm done with you, and won't ever take a look at your worthless hateful speech. Unlike you, I don't hate you, don't try to change you, and don't pay much attention to you, from now on.

[***] - Maybe they would have to try in vitro fecundation and fetal growth, to make sure not any spermatozoid and ovulus be spared in the process of "life".

Technorati tags: Homophobia, USA, Religion and Homosexuality

Matt Sanchez - Attack is The Best Defense

Yes, our beloved ex-porn star (whose flicks I never watched, by the way) takes up on arms on the Larry Craig case/not case/case again, but not defending the (maybe) resigning Senator. Via Topix. (There's a link to Matt's rant published in Right Wing News, if you want to read it in full go to Topix and follow their link, I'm allergic to linking Right Wings here).

Mr. Sánchez works out some memorable statements when asserting that "For homosexuals, cruising is a sacred pastime right up there with re-runs of Will and Grace, circuit parties and lip-syncing drag queens. Public sex is supposed to be "hot," and I have some knowledge of this having co-starred in the high-end fantasy film Tijuana Toilet Tramps. In reality, for gays, a subset that defines itself by bodily function, it is no secret that the way to a homosexual's heart is somewhere beneath the stomach."

Hmmm... let me take a wild guess. Mr. Sánchez became an ex-gay whose feelings for the same gender individuals were more than fulfilled during his military years of comradeship (but of course no sex), and now he's trying to reduce homosexuality to casual sex encounters in toilets and dark rooms? The whole rant of Mr. Sanchez deals not with the rights of Republican Senators to vote in "conscience" what they feel right, yet cruising for quick dirty sex in tearooms — allegedly (and with my English shortcomings) he's protesting that LBGT organizations somehow "guide" or "publish guides" to toilet sex and circuits. Well, Matt, if such points of alleviating pressure on cruising had succeeded, Craig wouldn't have been messed in such affair, don't you think?

But the funniest part of the rant is this sentence: "A few years ago, the entire Craig scandal would have been inappropriate for the mainstream news." Oh, of course. Those times when news relied entirely in Governmental statements, eh? And now what is the GOP gonna do, ban the Internet too?

Technorati tags: Matt Sanchez, Larry Craig, Public gay sex, Cruising

Another "ex-gay" turn of screw

Sometimes one's browsing the internet and comes across really weird things, like this first one. Through The Bilerico Project we can reach to some illustrations and story on a children book by Richard Cohen which explains the process of becoming gay and understanding it, thus getting ready to leave homosexuality behind.

Meanwhile, in Australia, some Ex-Gay Leaders apologize for causing "more harm than good".

Technorati tags: Australia, Ex gay, Richard Cohen, Apologies