Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 22nd, 2011
It’s predictable, isn’t it? At some point in virtually every discussion involving gay people, anti-gay activists point to the so-called “ex-gay” movement to say that if some people can change (or pretend to change) then everyone ought to change and all laws granting even a smidgen of dignity to gay people (let alone anything remotely approaching equality) is unnecessary. We saw this argument before on hate crimes legislation, suicide prevention efforts, and even the current “It Gets Better” anti-bullying campaign. Their answer for everything: change, or at least pretend to change.
And so now we learn that Anthony Falzarano is now in the New York Capital lobbying against marriage equality, claiming that God “healed” him of his homosexuality. But if there’s anything we’ve learned this past month from Kirk Murphy’s family, “healing” carries a terrible price tag. That’s why every major professional organization argues against ex-gay therapy, citing both the lack of evidence that it works as well as the reports of grave harm that it produces.
Falzarano, who co-founded Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) won’t disclose any of that to his lobbying targets though. Instead, he sees death as a sign from God that homosexuals should change (or at least pretend to change). In fact, that could be the ex-gay movement’s mantra: Change or die.
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On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
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Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
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homer
June 22nd, 2011
These people are pathetic.
tavdy79
June 22nd, 2011
The growing ex-Mormon movement proves it’s possible to escape the evil snare of Mormonism – that you can be set free of its harmful influence. Does this mean that Mormons should be denied constitutionally-protected civil rights afforded other groups?
Mark F.
June 22nd, 2011
tavdy79 is right–whether or not you can change is really irrelevant to the issue.
TampaZeke
June 22nd, 2011
They fight on the one hand for “freedom of choice” for gays to choose to pursue “ex-gay” “therapy” and to be “ex-gay” and, AT THE SAME TIME with the other hand to deny gay people the “freedom of choice” to choose ANYTHING other than being “ex-gay”.
That was the most glaring message I got when reading the New York Times’ two big “ex-gay” stories last week.
Brady
June 23rd, 2011
I really wish the ex-exgay groups out there would have a lobbying arm out there too to be able to offer counter testimony to this sort of stuff.
Ben in Atlanta
June 23rd, 2011
Some may not care for the tags over at JMG but I love and agree with the “Still Totally Gay” one.
There’s no such thing as ex-gay nor does there need to be.
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