They started this when they faked up the charge of an attack at that fair in 2007. Just to have a beef at ENDA. Now they don’t even understand the meaning of the words/phrases, gender or sexual orientation. How stupid can you get, just for more publicity? And what dunce of a lawyer did they get to file their frivolous lawsuit?

*yawn*

Tim Hulsey said “For [religious conservatives], the presence of known ex-gays in their church is as potentially troublesome as a Pride parade.”.

I don’t buy that at all. Every religious conservative I’ve ever encountered has an overwhelming preference for “exgays” over gays even though they prefer straights above all. Under no circumstances would religious conservatives find someone who rejects their gayness as troublesome as a pride parade.

Contra Priya, the ex-gays I’ve spoken with — none of whom were political operatives — have stated that “coming out” to friends and family is a vital part of standard ex-gay “therapy.” Because many of them never came out as gay, the revelation of their “ex-gay” identity tends to come as a bit of a shock. The irony, of course, is that many of these people are more “out and proud” as ex-gays than they ever were when they identified as gay or lesbian.

One would think that fundamentalist congregations would be more welcoming toward ex-gays than toward gay and lesbian people. That’s what they keep telling us at any rate. Alas for ex-gays, fundamentalists seldom consider themselves under any obligation to practice what they preach, especially where sex is concerned. Truth to tell, most religious conservatives would prefer that homosexuality and its attendant social issues simply vanish from the public sphere — or at least from their neighborhood. For them, the presence of known ex-gays in their church is as potentially troublesome as a Pride parade.

To cowboy: I have hugged my share of ex-gays, and I do not recommend it.

Any life altering transformation (And I don’t care what it is, losing/gaining lots of weight, finding God, losing God, changing gender, suddenly being wheel chair bound, even something as minor as changing your hair color) will be met with rude curiosity, this will even bleed out some lashing out in confusion, of course that is the natural price that comes with altering your very identity and is not unique to moving out of homosexuality. To try and compare to systematic bullying and institutionalized discrimination is wrong.

Of course after typing all that I realize that what most people mean when they use the term “Ex-gay” isn’t a person who has moved on from homosexuality. It is something in between heterosexual and homosexual, something attached to an industry and a movement. An industry and movement working very hard to diminish the dignity of gays, working very hard to malign the very types of people they were and are trying so hard not to be.

Murdered:
Bashar (the 17th Iraqi LGBT leader to be killed), machine gun assassination by Iraqi death squads — To date, Iraqi LGBT’s network of underground gay activists has been able to assemble documentation of 487 deliberate murders of Iraqis targeted by the death squads because they were known or believed to be gay, lesbian, or transgendered.)

Satendar Singh – Sacramento, CA
James McGee – Cincinnati, OH
Alexio Bello – FL
Levi Rollins – FL
Ryan Skipper – FL
Simmie Williams Jr – FL
Kenneth Cummings – Houston, TX
Weston “Tony” Verrette – LA
Steven Parrish – MD

Robert Whiteside – TX (may not have been a hate crime, but robbery as motive)

Kellie Telesford – UK (14 August 2008)
Michael Causer – UK (4 August 2008)

Hilario Nava-Samoza – Grand Chute, WI (straight, but murdered by Galvan-Gomez because Gomez believed Samoza & a co-worker were spreading rumors yhat he was homosexual)

Assaulted or vandalized:
Trevor Cartor (The man who was with murder victim Tony Randolph Hunter)
Cary Anderson and Richard Delaunay (companions of murder victim Paul Broussard)
2 Unidentified victims at Pride in the Pines festival – AZ (23 June 2008)
Shawn Nusum – Bermuda (victim of machete attack) (6 Jully 2008)
2 Unidentified men attacked at Sacramento gas station (19 May 2008)
Jordan Smith – Canada (28 Sept 2008)
Ryerson University, Toronto: Homophobic vandalism (19 March 2008)
Nima Daivari – Colorado (15 Sept 2008)
Melbourne Brunner and Mitchell Mart – FL (27 Feb 2008)
Wilton Manors homes – FL (18 July 2008)
College Park Episcopal Church – GA (1 Sept 2008)
Gay Holocaust Memorial – Germany (vandalized) (16 August 2008)
Fort Wayne AIDS Memorial vandalized – Fort Wayne, IN (25 April 2008)
Kyle Flood – Ball State University Muncie, IN (13 May 2008)
Mob attack on gay men in Maghera, County Londonderry Northern Ireland (15 September 2008)
Several gay men in Tel Aviv’s old central bus station by 4 attackers in 2007
Mob Ransack of the Rome Gay Center (18 April 2008)
Unidentified (due to age) teen beaten on suspicion of being gay – Greeley County, KS (18 September 2008)
LZ Granderson (senior writer for ESPN The Magazine) during NBA All-Star Weekend (Feb 2008)
Unidentified victim, Howard Street, Baltimore, MD (24 Sept 2008)
3 men, 1 woman attacked (unidentified at victims request) Columbus Ave, Boston, MA (28 Aug 2008)
New England Blade newspaper boxes vandalized (9 Aug 2008)
MIT Sloan LGBT student group threatening e-mail (12 April 2008)
Wayland Union High School Michigan bashing of teen lesbian (13 June 2008)
Unidentified (victim’s request) Minneapolis, MN (30 Spet 2008)
Mike Du Pree, Netherlands (6 June 2008)
Timothy Carter and Peter de Vries (continued harassment by firefighters at neighboring firehouse — awarded $2.84M in 13 June 2008)
Staten Island New York attack (20 August 2008)
David Campeas – NJ (12 Aug 2008)
Lance Neve – NY
Rev. Louis Braxton Jr (9 July 2008)
Wished to remain anonymous) – NC (11 July 2008)
Edward “Eddie” Makar (beat with baseball bat) – Cleveland, OH (11 Sept 2008)
Freedom Valley Campground owners (vandalized, threatened) – OH (7 Feb 2008)
Jon Brittain – Cleveland, OH (23 Aug 2008)
Robert Stotler – OK (18 July 2008)
Hate crimes at EuroPride (30 July 2008)
Neal Moffitt Anthony (ongoing home vandalism, threats) TN (11 April 2007, was still ongoing in May 2008)
Smith, Widner, and Onks – TN (22 Aug 2008)
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (27 July 2008)
Jimmy Lee Dean – TX (25 July 2008)
Alexander Lee – UK (15 July 2008)
Malcolm Bryan (died of a heart during a homophobic confrontation in September 2006) – UK
“Olly” (severe stabbings left him permanently paralyzed) – UK (4 Sept 2008)
St Helens UK man attacked (8 Sept 2008)
St Mawes Ferry attackes – UK (20 Aug 2008)
Upper St. James St., Kemp Town, Brighton UK attacks (30 Aug 2008)
Churchill Drive, Salt Lake City beating of unidentified victim – UT (4 Sept 2008)
Adams Morgan area, Todd Metrokin – Wash DC (30 Sep 2008)
Canal area, Georgetown attack (4 Oct 2008)
Club 5 patron(s) attacked – WI (17 Sept 2008)
Greg’s Place patron – Indianapolis, IN (23 June 2008)
Attack on member of Changing Attitude Nigeria, Port Harcour, Nigeria (22 March 2008)
Lee Simpon (committed suicide due to homophobic bullying) – UK (9 Oct 2008)

And these don’t include my list of asylum seekers.

As was mentioned above, they are in the least desireable of positions. They are fighting against a natural instinct, one that is intrinsic to their nature.

And they have few allies.

Those heterosexuals with whom they worship do not consider them to be equal. The “strugglers” are not viewed the same as heterosexuals – just see what would happen if they volunteered to participate at the youth camp out.

Gay folks don’t really understand them. While most gay people are fine with those who do not wish to be sexually active, few folks of any stripe want to socialize with others who a) think you’re immoral, and b) think that they are more holy than you.

And parse it any way you like, many (if not most) ex-gays very much need to believe that their celibacy and striving towards heterosexuality is more holy. It’s even the mantra of the ex-gay movement: “the opposite of homosexuality is holiness”.

So really the only folks that “get” them are the ex-gay groups.

And unfortunately most ex-gay groups are far more interested in two things: encouraging heterosexual striving, and using ex-gays as tools in an anti-gay political effort.

And let’s face it, ex-gay groups only respect and promote those who are advancing to heterosexuality.

Imagine yourself as an ex-gay. Heterosexuals are suspicious of you, gay folk find you arrogant and self-righteous, ex-gay groups are the only ones decent to you and they are using your life example to try and harm people whom you used to call friends. And any slip up can cause your only buddies to disrespect you.

And you know that if you leave the ex-gay group you will have no one. It takes time to find new friends and recovery from ex-gay programming can be time consuming and mentally draining.

I pity ex-gays.

But I no respect whatsoever those like Regina Griggs who heartlessly exploit them to try and harm me.

The Office of Human Rights is not claiming that. The anti-discrimination law covers people on the basis of sexual orientation. That means whether your orientation is gay or straight the law prohibits discrimination against you on that basis. Whether “ex-gay” is considered an orientation seperate from straight or not, discrimination on that basis is still prohibited. PFOX is lying in an effort to foster the image that gays are not discriminated against unless they reject their gayness.