PFOX: "Does the ex-gay community need civil rights?"

(If being gay [same-sex attracted] is a sin and we’re all sinners all the time forever no matter what, wouldn’t the term “ex-gay” be tantamount to claiming that one is an “ex-sinner” and thus be blasphemous and a sin in and of itself? Which begs the question, How in the universe would God even take the victimhood complaints of blasphemers seriously?)

PFOX stands for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and is an anti-gay counter group to PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. (Gee, PFOX, I don't know, do you think that "ex-sinners" are being deprived of their civil rights?) Granted, this one paragraph alone is autopsy-worthy, just check the last part of it out:

In August alone, the ex-gay community has been the victim of a number of injustices by high-ranking officials. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law that outlaws therapy for children who wish to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, some of whom developed such attractions in the wake of sexual abuse at the hands of homosexual predators. Also, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld California’s law banning therapy for minors who wish to go from gay to straight, despite statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing an increase in HIV infections by MSM (men who have sex with men) aged 13-24.

I believe the hyperlink was placed and worded very carefully in the original article. It’s a CDC PDF and it is true, according to the GRAPH on page 7 you will find that the largest HIV increases are occurring in the 13-24 year old age range.

Read it on the original article and -- correct me if I’m wrong -- does it not read like they’re insinuating that the Court dismisses evidence of a connection between same-sex attraction -- in and of itself -- raping kids, turning them gay and giving them AIDS?
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Titles? Tags? One-liners? … Anyone?

"Ex-gay" Therapist Claims "Sensitive temperament" is Fundamental Cause of Homosexuality

(Reposted from Ex-Gay Watch)
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And then goes on to bash gay activists as scheming thugs.

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Anti-gay/exgay therapist, Christopher Doyle of The International Healing Foundation, recently penned an op-ed in the Christian post.

These feelings [same-sex attractions (SSA)] are the result of many factors, mostly environmental and familial, mixed-in with one genetic factor, a sensitive temperament. [emphasis added]

Anti-gay/ex-gay activists often claim “there’s no gay gene” to support their “not born gay” meme. For Christopher Doyle, sensitivity and empathy are not only the cause of homosexuality, but a genetically-based one at that.

In twenty-three years, we have found that 99 percent of our clients who experience homosexual feelings have very sensitive temperaments. … This is what I believe to be the foundation for the development of SSA…

Using that logic, teaching them how to be heartless monsters would cause them to experience heterosexual feelings.

And that’s the end of that theory, let the bashing begin…

He continues with the clichéd assertion that we equality-agenda driven, pro-gay activists are all mindlessly following Kirk and Madsen’s “homosexual manifesto,” After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s. (You know, the one we all carry around in our back pockets.)

This landmark book blueprinted how to indoctrinate the public into the innate-immutability myth of homosexuality – that people are born this way and cannot change. … Their biggest problem, however, in achieving all their goals, is the advent of the former homosexual, or ex-gay. Because if homosexuals can change, the whole foundation of ‘born this way’ tumbles like a stack of cards.

We and our “powerful” influence wielding organizations …ignore, defame, or disqualify [gay to straight] research for some reason.” Because it is “…biased, or fatally flawed for whatever reason.” [emphasis added]

He then goes on to tout a thoroughy debunked anti-gay-parenting study to make his point.

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The second tactic is to paint SSA persons who seek sexual orientation change as victims by their counselors.

So, life-maimed survivors of “ex-gay” therapy, like some at Beyond Ex-Gay and a myriad of those elsewhere are no more than pawns in our political ploy to undermine the ex-gay movement?

They are now recruiting clients who are unable to achieve sexual orientation change to sue their former therapists in the name of consumer fraud…

Unable to change, you say?

The third and final method is to attack former homosexuals who have come public with their stories of change.

That “attack” is well deserved when so-called “ex-gay” persons like, Mr. Doyle, use the word “change,” ambiguously, to imply that euphemisms like “ex-gay,” “formerly homosexual” and “post-gay” mean the equivalent of heterosexual.

His marriage, children and not having “relapsed in eight and a half years” in no way prove or even indicate that same-sex orientation can be “changed” — across the board — to an opposite-sex orientation.

Further, There are PLENTY of gays and lesbians who are married with children who have never had sex or a relationship with a member of the same gender.

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You can read his delusional perception that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is waging a “hate campaign” on the ex-gay counter-movement here, and Wayne Besen’s (of Truth Wins Out) scathing rebuttal to it here.

SPLC on conversion therapy:

 

'Some face with that egg?

I realize I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, so if you’re unfamiliar with the anti-gay antics of PFOX, here's some suggested reading.

That said, I was recently made aware of PFOX distorting a study in an AFA-One News Now article.

As Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters quotes from the article:

Quoting a recent study, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) is warning of the increased risk of suicide that is linked with young people who identify themselves as homosexuals before achieving full maturity -- a process encouraged by many homosexual high school clubs.

The study PFOX was referring to was:

Risk Factors for Attempted Suicide in Gay and Bisexual Youth by Remafedi, Farrow, and Deisher, in Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics 87: 869-875 June 1991

And it wasn’t long after that that Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out contacted one of the researchers:

Dr. Gary Remafedi Says ‘Ex-Gay’ Group Manipulated His Study And Should Immediately Take The Distortions Off Its Website

Of course, being the “Christians” that they are, they haven’t. (Note: this study is also referenced on their FAQ page.)

Which brings us to the latest portion of the 'PFOX abuse of research' story, which overlaps with another.

Enter one (former Principal) David Davies.

From Box Turtle Bulletin:

Davis outed a gay student to her parents, organized a “morality assembly”, and interrogated students about their orientation, and suspended students that were part of the “Gay Pride” movement.

Now the judge has issued his opinion (pdf) and has awarded legal recovery to the plaintiffs. And Davis’homophobia cost the district $325,000 in legal fees and cost (plus a dollar to the plaintiff).

Quoting now from HBHM, who quotes from the opinion, with commentary:

Regrettably, Jane’s contact with Davis during her senior year may well have been her last interaction with a school administrator before her graduation. Instead of providing Jane with a positive experience in the public school system during her final year, Davis crushed her and brought her to tears. Davis’s conduct, in the capacity of a role model and authority figure, is particularly deplorable in light of studies which confirm the vulnerability of gay and lesbian students . . .

The next time some idiot (hello PFOX) ruminates as to the supposed harm of GSAs, please remind them of this incident.

So I went to go read the opinion, and as it turns out, the very next portion of the ruling that follows the above quoted part..

Davis’s conduct, in the capacity of a role model and authority figure, is particularly deplorable in light of studies which confirm the vulnerability of gay and lesbian students...

..then goes on to include this little gem:

"The demeaning of young gay and lesbian students in a school environment is detrimental not only to their psychological health and well-being, but also to their educational development. Indeed, studies demonstrate that ‘academic underachievement, truancy, and dropout are prevalent among homosexual youth and are the probable consequences of violence and verbal and physical abuse at school.’ Susanne M. Stronski Huwiler and Gary Remafedi, Adolescent Homosexuality, 33 REV. JUR. U.I.P.R. 151, 164 (1999)"

Yep, Gary Remafedi, the exact same researcher who’s findings, FOR A SECOND TIME NOW, have been found to be at direct odds with the claims of PFOX:

"Schools should not be encouraging teens to self-identify as gays, bisexuals or transgendered persons before they have matured. Sexual attractions are fluid and do not take on permanence until early adulthood. Rather than affirming teenagers as ‘gay’ through self-labeling, educators should affirm them as people worthy of respect and encourage teens to wait until adulthood before making choices about their sexuality. If teens are encouraged to believe that they are permanently ‘gay’ before they have had a chance to reach adulthood, their life choices are severely restricted and can result in depression."

As though the lasting and permanent effects of puberty are something to "identify" with...as though one has a "choice" in the matter...and as though the only thing any responsible mentor (like Principal Davis) should do, is to demean gay youth by discouraging them from even acknowleging their own current, ongoing, and undeniable same-gender attraction(s) -- lest they "encourage" the "permanence" of a "gay identity."

Wake the kids, phone the neighbors, but most importantly, run for you lives.

And who can forget the MULTITUDE of persecuted ex-gay students, falling through the proverbial discriminitory ex-gay cracks in the mercilessly secular pro-anti-ex-gay public school system (bold mine):

Griggs also notes that schools with Gay Straight Alliance clubs are notorious for suppressing ex-gay organizations or individuals supporting tolerance for the ex-gay community. “GSA clubs and their teacher sponsors make schools unsafe for anyone who has rejected the ‘gay’ label in their lives or who believes in ex-gay equal rights. Our efforts to reach all students are typically met with hostility and violence. Time after time, we have faced hostile gay students and teachers ripping up our ex-gay materials or demanding that we be banned from distributing our materials on campuses.”

Boo hoo, wah wah, we just want to be left alone to ruin the lives of gay people in peace… Good God, she sounds just like Randy Thomas.

I’d ask if there’s something in the holy water, but It’s not like they drink it.

Anyway, to conclude, they both have a vested interest in demeaning gays. Thomas, and those of like-political ex-gay ilk, have to reinforce the belief that they made the right choice in “leaving homosexuality” (not to mention for the maintenence of their ex-gay careers as well). And Mrs. ‘perfect Christian mother’ Regina Griggs needs to know that she's not responsible for her own son's homosexuality (or so I assume...).

And that's where we and our "evil activist" GSA's come in:

Griggs, Thomas, Alan Chambers, and many if not most of their political-like, may not personally subscribe to the notion that “crimes against human-sexuality” are executable offenses. But if they ever get their way, it will be the most radical amongst them, that get their way, and so on.

And as long as the death threat of Leviticus 20:13 is not CONDEMNED as an unacceptable means of condemning homosexuality, then to my mind, the potential REALITY that we may someday be legally put to death for who we are, is automatically endorsed in its usage.

Oh, and FYI all ye blameless believers in, and repeaters of God’s holy hatred of homosexuality, negligent homicide is still HOMICIDE.