NOM: "Ex-Gay" Therapy "Helps" Gay People

One does have to wonder what mind altering drugs the folks at the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM") are gulping down.  In a recent post the always bovine Maggie Gallagher insists that ex-gay therapy offers “help” to gay people, and says that ex-gay therapy should not be banned in New Jersey or elsewhere and that "therapists" should not be sued for pushing this toxic snake oil on the ignorant or religiously brainwashed.   Under Gallagher's upside down world, antisemitism and the KKK "help" Jews and blacks.  The one who needs therapy is Gallagher who still hasn't recovered from getting pregnant in college and then being dumped by her boyfriend.  The woman is disgusting.  Here are highlights from Think Progress:

National Organization for Marriage co-founder Maggie Gallagher made it quite clear today that she believes ex-gay therapy offers “help” to gay people. She published a brief post at the National Review supporting lawyer Chuck Liamndri, who is defending the Jewish ex-gay group JONAH from a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Chuck Limandri, my old friend from the Carrie Prejean, Prop 8 fights, is a heckuva a lawyer and one brave man. He’s taking on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s massive legal machine to defend the right of Jewish gay people to seek help.

SPLC is using consumer-fraud laws to try to bankrupt these small nonprofits and if it wins this case has announced plans to take it nationwide against 70 groups offering some form of sexual-orientation-change efforts. They must not want publicity because this landmark case is flying under all media radar screens.

Jeremy Hooper points out that this isn’t surprising, because Gallagher has made plenty of similar comments in the past. In particular, she believes that gay people “construct” their identities, convincing themselves they were born that way just because it’s “quite painful to come to terms with being gay.”

There’s nothing “brave” about defending harmful, ineffective ex-gay therapy, and even those working under the façade of a “nonprofit” are still making their living off of shaming people by reinforcing their internalized homophobia. If Gallagher believes the case needs more publicity, perhaps it’s worth revisiting the details of the case. Here is what the ex-gay survivors represented by the suit were instructed to do during their treatment with JONAH therapists:

• Remove all clothing during both individual and group therapy sessions and hold penis in front of therapist.
• Cuddle and intimately hold others of the same-sex including between young clients and older counselors.
• Violently beat an effigy of the client’s mother with a tennis racket.
• Go to the gym more as well as bath houses in order to be nude with father figures.
• Be subjected to ridicule as “faggots” and “homos” in mock locker room and gym class scenarios.

Perhaps Gallagher should clarify how this kind of humiliation and degradation “helps” gay people.

What makes Gallagher even more foul is that she has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year peddling anti-gay venom and pushing to deprive gays of equality under the civil laws.  A tawdry whore has more virtue.

Read More

Undoing the Damage of the "Ex-Gay" Myth and "Change Ministries"

I write frequently about the evils of the "ex-gay" industry and the charlatans like Michelle Bachmann's lisping husband who make a living peddling the lie that sexual orientation can be changed and that being gay is a "choice."  I do so for several reasons.  First, I remember the years of self-hate and efforts I went through to "pray away the gay" even as I remained in the closet and tried to convince myself that I wasn't really gay.  Given the responses I've received to yesterday's post about Romeo and Juliet, I had lots of company in that private Hell of trying to not be gay.  No one should suffer through these kinds of experiences in the future.  Second, all legitimate medical and mental health associations - i.e., those not funded by Christofascists - now condemn so-called reparative therapy and it is past time that this "therapy" which is nothing more than child abuse be banned.  A piece in Huffington Post provides an overview of the evils done by the now thankfully closed Exodus International and its allied snake oil merchants.  Here are some highlights:

Exodus International announced that they would be closing their doors on July 1, 2013. An apology was issued for the "damage that has been caused," and an official statement was made that after four decades of working with countless people from the gay community, it was clear that sexual orientation cannot be changed.

I can't help but look at the indisputable evidence that begs -- screams -- for our attention. According to recent polls, 40 percent of our homeless youth are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). Per Trevor Talks, suicide rates are three to four times higher among LGBT youth. In addition, reparative therapy patients are not likely to "convert," but they do often suffer psychological damage and deep shame surrounding their sexuality. The American Psychological Association states that reparative therapy is in fact harmful, and that it "reinforces stereotypes and contributes to a negative climate for lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons." 

The removal of homosexuality as a diagnosis invalidated many secular forms of reparative therapy, but religious-right groups, including Exodus International, persisted in their efforts to change sexual orientation. It is truly impossible to measure the damage that has been done to the people who had the misfortune of falling prey to such abhorrent treatment.

Exodus International and similar organizations may not be performing frontal lobotomies to try to alter one's sexual orientation, but the psychological damage that has been inflicted on countless people is indisputable. It cannot be overlooked that, in addition to the unfortunate individuals who have undergone such conversion efforts, there are innumerable people who have been influenced by this message of rejection and intolerance.

Exodus International has tormented the minds of youth and adults alike who have struggled to come to terms with their sexual identity in the face of such unforgiving religious scrutiny. How many people have pored over the teachings of this organization, pleading to God to show them how they can change and become worthy of salvation? How many parents have rejected their children, justifying their stance of tough love through the ideals of this organization? For forty years individuals, families, churches and communities have been impacted by the false and egregious teaching that homosexuality is a choice and that those who have enough stamina, enough tenacity, enough spiritual commitment, can change. The damage is irreversible.

While I applaud and celebrate the downfall of such a damaging organization, it is evident to me that merely closing the doors of Exodus International hardly begins to soothe the colossal damage that four decades of false teaching has caused. The message has been engrained in our sanctuaries and reverberated throughout our culture that being gay is a choice. This is the time when all those who celebrate the ending of the existence of Exodus International must dig their toes in and promote organizations that are actively seeking to repair the relationships destroyed by misconception.  . . . .
Stand up, speak out and fight for equality and acceptance for all.

What makes the whole saga even more sad is that the "ex-gay" industry was and continues to be fueled by those who (i) want to make a buck off of the sufferings of others and/or (ii) are afraid to think for themselves and make their own moral choices and instead cling to selective passages of writings of ignorant nomads for 2500+ years ago.

 

Read More

Justice Scalia's Son Says Homosexuality Doesn't Exist

One has to wonder whether Justice Antonin Scalia was homophobic first or if he learned his batshit craziness  from his son who is a priest and who doth seems to protest too much that homosexuality doesn't really exists.   Paul Scalia (pictured at left), has praised books perpetuating the "change myth" and "choice" myth for the insanely named "Courage" program which is the Catholic Church's home grown version of the now defunct Exodus International.  Right Wing Watch looks at the younger Scalia's disingenuous bullshit that will no doubt harm many young Catholic gays - all so that the closeted self-loathing closet cases can avoid facing the reality that the Bible is wrong about gays and homosexuality.  Here are excerpts:

Courage, a Roman Catholic group that encourages gays and lesbians to live lifetimes of abstinence, is planning to hold its annual summit this month at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill., which will include a speech by Fr. Paul Scalia.

Paul Scalia is the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and his involvement in Courage is well known.

The conference’s website listsScalia as “the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Courage apostolate”and says he will speak on “Fearing the Lord ... and Not Being Afraid.”

Courage also points to an article Scalia wrote for the Fall 2012 edition of Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture & Science, in which he reviews three books authored by Courage founder Fr. John Harvey.

Scalia’s piece claims that critics of homosexuality are being silenced and mistreated, while in “this radical transformation of society, one of the greatest casualties is the individual who experiences homosexual attractions but who desires to live chastity.” He adds that it is unfortunate that Harvey used the term “homosexual person” since according to Scalia, those people do not exist: “We should not predicate “homosexual” of any person. That does a disservice to the dignity of the human person by collapsing personhood into sexual inclinations.”

After hailing Harvey for having eventually “ceased using the term “homosexual” or “homosexual person,” Scalia goes on to claim that many people have “have found freedom, to varying degrees, from homosexual attractions” and deny that people have sexual orientations: “Homosexual tendencies (to use a term from magisterial documents), do not constitute a fixed, unchangeable aspect of the person and therefore should not be considered an “orientation”…

Consider how swiftly American society has changed as regards homosexuality. The “Stonewall riots,” the touchstone and unofficial beginning of the gay rights movement, occurred in June 1969. Since then, the demands from the gay community have progressed from simple tolerance, to acceptance, to the right to marry, to now the silencing of any opposition as bigoted and “homophobic.” Those who once insisted on tolerance for their lifestyle will now tolerate no disagreement. Society now requires everyone’s approval of what not long ago was regarded as morally abhorrent.

In this radical transformation of society, one of the greatest casualties is the individual who experiences homosexual attractions but who desires to live chastity. He finds, on one hand, the homosexual community encouraging him to live out his sexual desires, to claim his gay identity, to embrace the lifestyle, and so on. Worse, even some in the Church will encourage him to do so. Unfortunately, among those to whom he turns for help, he may find insensitivity, ignorance, misunderstanding, or simply an unwillingness to help. This individual is caught in the crossfire of the broader battle. He suffers great loneliness and often despair in the face of a struggle that some see as futile and others ignore.

People suffer because of the ignorance and bigotry of people like Scalia.  Would that they would accept modern knowledge of sexual orientation and cease clinging to the myths and writings  or Bronze Age nomads.  Reparative therapy and programs like "Courage" should be illegal, particularly in the context of minors.  

Courage, a Roman Catholic group that encourages gays and lesbians to live lifetimes of abstinence, is planning to hold its annual summit this month at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill., which will include a speech by Fr. Paul Scalia.
Paul Scalia is the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and his involvement in Courage is well known.
The conference’s website lists Scalia as “the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Courage apostolate” and says he will speak on “Fearing the Lord ... and Not Being Afraid.”
Courage also points to an article Scalia wrote for the Fall 2012 edition of Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture & Science, in which he reviews three books authored by Courage founder Fr. John Harvey.
Scalia’s piece claims that critics of homosexuality are being silenced and mistreated, while in “this radical transformation of society, one of the greatest casualties is the individual who experiences homosexual attractions but who desires to live chastity.” He adds that it is unfortunate that Harvey used the term “homosexual person” since according to Scalia, those people do not exist: “We should not predicate “homosexual” of any person. That does a disservice to the dignity of the human person by collapsing personhood into sexual inclinations.”
After hailing Harvey for having eventually “ceased using the term “homosexual” or “homosexual person,” Scalia goes on to claim that many people have “have found freedom, to varying degrees, from homosexual attractions” and deny that people have sexual orientations: “Homosexual tendencies (to use a term from magisterial documents), do not constitute a fixed, unchangeable aspect of the person and therefore should not be considered an “orientation”…
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/scalias-son-says-homosexuality-doesnt-exist-plans-address-group-encourages-lifelong-abstinen#sthash.JjLGnArd.dpuf

Read More