Box Turtle Bulletin

The Daily Agenda for Saturday, December 3

TODAY’S AGENDA:

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Manilla, The Philippines.

Also This Weekend: Gay Days at Disney, Hong Kong, China.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
New York Business Group Says People with AIDS Should Be Forced to Work at Home: 1985. Just as the state of New York was about to release a report showing that workplace AIDS discrimination complaints had gone up 500 percent that year, the New York Business Group on Health, which advised 265 businesses, including Bloomingdale’s and New York Telephone Co., recommended that employees diagnosed with AIDS should be required to work from home. How a salesperson at Bloomies was supposed to work from home wasn’t explained. Remember, this was long before the Internet made telecommuting even a remote possibility for some. Ron Najman of the National Gay Task Force blasted the proposal. “It’s counterproductive, and it leads to de facto discrimination,” he said. “It’s opening the door to tolerating hysteria and panic.”

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Allan Bérubé: 1946. He is best known as the author of the best-selling book, Coming Out Under Fire, about the stories of gay men and women who served during World War II. The book, which drew on GIs wartime letters, interviews with veterans and declassified military documents, Bérubé revealed a history that had previously been hidden. What’s more, his timing was prescient; the book came out just three years before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was enshrined into law. The book earned Bérubé an Lambda Literary Award for outstanding Gay Men’s Nonfiction. The book was made into a documentary in 1994, which won a Peabody Award in 1995 and earned Bérubé “Genius Grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1996. After he died in 2007 the bulk of his personal and professional papers were donated to the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, where they are currently being organized and catalogued for future historians.

If you know of something that belongs on the Agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.

Donald Trump to Moderate Republican Debate

Because, you know, Carrot Top wasn’t available.

More Things You Can Marry When Marriage Equality Become Legal

Polygamy, polyamory, a building, a car, a dog… when did box turtles become so passé?

Pennsylvania School Turns Away HIV-Positive Student

Honestly, I had to look at the calendar to make sure it wasn’t still 1985 when I saw this one:

The Milton Hershey School was founded by the chocolate tycoon as a school that “nurtures and educates children in social and financial need to lead fulfilling and productive lives.” But it seems that fulfillment won’t be coming for a 13-year-old honor student from Delaware County who is infected with the virus that causes AIDS. “I feel no other teenager should go through this, being denied just because they have HIV,” the boy said in an exclusive interview with NBC Philadelphia’s Denise Nakano.

He is suing the school in U.S. Federal District Court, alleging that the Hershey School is in violation of “multiple anti-discrimination laws.” The school has, in effect, admitted as such in a particularly ignorant fashion:

Milton Hershey School released a statement Wednesday saying in part that “in order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.”

Except he doesn’t pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others. He’s not a walking HIV virus, eager to infect everyone he comes in contact with.

Alliance Defense Fund Celebrates Pending Criminalization of Consensual Relationships and LGBT Advocacy in Nigeria

Phoenix-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is the legal team defending California’s Proposition 8 in Federal Court, posted this alert on their web site :

Nigeria: Citizens Celebrate Ban of Same-Sex Marriage
All Africa Global Media: Nigerians have continued to celebrate the banning of same-sex marriage by the Senate, commending senators for outlawing what they regard as abnormality and a licence for immorality.

The bill which ADF is so keen on celebrating criminalizes all LGBT advocacy by organizations or individuals with ten years imprisonment. It also demands ten years in a Nigerian prison for anyone caught in a “public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly.” That’s in addition to the provisions for fourteen years’ imprisonment for entering into a same-sex marriage or ten years for witnessing, performing, or “aiding/abetting” one.

Remember, these are the same guys who are fighting with everything they have to strip Californians of their right to marry.

[via Alvin McEwen]

Russian Deputy PM Suggests “Homosexual Propaganda” Bill Can Be Made Federal

The Interfax News service reports that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has suggested that the proposed bill in St. Petersburg which would ban the “promotion” of homosexuality could be made a federal law:

“Probably, we should consider this topic at the federal level,” Kozak told a press conference in St. Petersburg on Friday. Any propaganda regarding non-conventional sexual relations is “an abominable thing to do,” he said.

The bill also includes a ban on the promotion of pedophilia — is there a problem with this in Russia? — and therefore uncritically links homosexuality with pedophilia in the public debates taking place over the bill.

The Daily Agenda for Friday, December 2

TODAY’S AGENDA (OURS):
Briefs Due for Prop 8 Appeal: San Francisco, CA. Last month, after the California State Supreme Court ruled that Prop 8 proponents had standing to defend the constitutional amendment when state officials opted not to do so, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals announced that they would consolidate the appeal of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Prop 8 was unconstitutional with an an appeal of U.S. District Judge James Ware’s decision that Walker’s ruling should not be vacated just because he is gay and has a partner. By combining the two cases, it provides a clear path to a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Final briefs are due today.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Manilla, The Philippines.

Also This Weekend: Gay Days at Disney, Hong Kong, China.

TODAY’S AGENDA (THEIRS):
Journey Into Manhood Weekend: Palm Beach, FL. Built on the premise that gay men really just want to connect with their fathers, Journey Into Manhood is a hodge-podge of psychobabble and Richard Cohen-style cuddling. Go out in the woods and let other men show manly affection, and all of your homosexual desires will eventually disappear. That’s the premise anyway. When Ted Cox, a straight journalist, went undercover for a JIM weekend, he found that during one of those cuddling sessions, well,

I don’t remember exactly when I felt his erection pressing into my back. It might have been while he whispered in my ear, “Long ago, you were the Golden Child. But, somehow, that Golden Child was hurt, and you put up a wall to protect yourself.”

…I sat on the floor between the outstretched legs of a camp guide, my head leaning back against his shoulder. The guide sat behind me, his arms wrapped around my chest. This hold was called “The Motorcycle.” Five men surrounded the two of us, their hands resting gently on my arms, legs and chest.

And for all of that, JIM claims a 79% success rate. Well okay then. If that’s success, sign me up. But hold on a minute. One of JIM’s life coaches, Alan Downing, was accused by two of his clients of inappropriate behavior and sexual impropriety. A staffer at an Arizona JIM weekend was none other than Lee Caleb Brundidge, one of the three American extremists who travelled to Kampala in 2009 to host the explosive ex-gay conference that set the stage for the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. I think you get the picture. The manly-man’s he-man butchout and cuddle camp starts today at an undisclosed location in the Palm Beach, Florida area, and goes on through Sunday. Matching boots and belts are strongly discouraged.

If you know of something that belongs on the Agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.

No, the gay community is not boycotting the Salvation Army

Unlike, say, the Southern Baptist Convention, the widely diverse group of people who fall under the general category of “the gay community” do not have an official spokesman. And, fine as Bil Browing (editor of Bilerico) is, and as committed to our community as he is, he doesn’t speak for anyone but himself – as, indeed, is the true for all of us bloggers.

But to some in the news, a whiff of disagreement between a gay person and a religious group is a news story and so off they have run.

MSNBC: Gay groups boycott Salvation Army red kettle drive
Christian Post: LGBT Groups Boycott Salvation Army’s Red Kettles
And USA Today: Gays, lesbians call for Salvation Army boycott, really gets it wrong:

The gay and lesbian community is calling for a boycott of The Salvation Army and its annual holiday red kettle drive because of the organization’s stance on gay and lesbian relationships, Christian Today, MSNBC and other news organizations are reporting.

Let me first address the facts, the hype, and the conflict.

The facts:

The Salvation Army is a church. It’s a denomination, just like the United Methodist Church or the Assemblies of God. But, unlike those denominations, the Salvation Army is best known for its charity.

And, indeed, the Salvation Army has been focused on the less fortunate since its start in the 19th Century. William Booth’s intention to bring the gospel message to the poor including “alcoholics and prostitutes” was not only a challenge to class and status but a genuine care for the physical needs of those to whom he preached.

The three ‘S’s’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the ‘down and outs’: first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.

Personally, I find that a church which focuses first on caring for physical necessities and then on social integration and finally on religious conversion has their priorities in order. I would go so far as to say that a good many churches could take a lesson from the Salvation Army.

But, paradoxically, the Salvation Army’s prioritizing has led to criticism by some. As so few churches do place care for the unwealthy unsaved and unloved as their fifth, sixth or eighteenth priority, it comes as a surprise to some that those people calling themselves the Salvation Army are actually a church. But, but, but churches don’t act like that; only non-religious non-profit organizations – or the government – help those in need!

The hype:

And upon finding out that the Salvation Army is a church, many assumed that therefor it must be a right-wing extremist anti-gay church. After all, it’s sneaky: pretending to be a charity like that! And when the Salvation Army responded to questions with theological positions which were not those of, say, the United Church of Christ, such fears were confirmed.

Making matters worse, in 2001 when George W. Bush proposed funding faith-based charities, the Salvation Army requested that the Bush Administration exempt religious charities that receive federal money from local laws that bar anti-gay discrimination. Their concern was based in fear that they would be required to provide domestic partner benefits to their gay employees, something they felt contradicted their religious teaching. Bush ultimately said, “no”.

And thus was created the public image of the Salvation Army as being virulently homophobic. Google “Salvation Army homophobic” and you’ll get over 60,000 responses.

And, as he has in times past, Bil Browning has written to advise his readers to find a better choice for their charity dollars than the Salvation Army.

And the Chicago marxist organization masquerading as a gay group, Gay Liberation Network, has jumped in to and emailed news organizations that they “support the boycott”, thus providing the press with both “an LGBT group” and the b-word.

The conflict.

The Salvation Army is not homophobic. But it has somewhat conservative theology on the matter and has behaved carelessly, if not callously, towards the gay community.

The Church’s theology falls within mainstream Christianity and its teaching on homosexuality is not divergent from that general realm. They do not, as do many conservative evangelical churches, deny sexual orientation or champion ex-gay ministries or even deny membership or positions of leadership to gay people. But, consistent with a significant portion of mainstream Christianity, they believe that gay people should live celibate lives:

The Salvation Army holds a positive view of human sexuality. Where a man and a woman love each other, sexual intimacy is understood as a gift of God to be enjoyed within the context of heterosexual marriage. However, in the Christian view, sexual intimacy is not essential to a healthy, full, and rich life. Apart from marriage, the scriptural standard is celibacy.

Sexual attraction to the same sex is a matter of profound complexity. Whatever the causes may be, attempts to deny its reality or to marginalize those of a same-sex orientation have not been helpful. The Salvation Army does not consider same-sex orientation blameworthy in itself. Homosexual conduct, like heterosexual conduct, requires individual responsibility and must be guided by the light of scriptural teaching.

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.

Likewise, there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation. The Salvation Army opposes any such abuse.

In keeping with these convictions, the services of The Salvation Army are available to all who qualify, without regard to sexual orientation. The fellowship of Salvation Army worship is open to all sincere seekers of faith in Christ, and membership in The Salvation Army church body is open to all who confess Christ as Savior and who accept and abide by The Salvation Army’s doctrine and discipline.

Not an embracing position, but not exactly hateful either. And, other than their efforts to protect their own self-interest, the Salvation Army has not been much of a player or – with a few exceptions – actively campaigned against civil equalities or inclusion in the fabric of society. On the scale from SBC to UCC, they are closer to the middle.

And now my recommendation:

People are in need. This economy sucks. If you are able, please give to those who have less than you. However, in giving you have a responsibility. And you have choices.

Bil Browning reports that the Salvation Army discriminates in the providing of services:

I’ve seen the discrimination the Salvation Army preaches first hand. When a former boyfriend and I were homeless, the Salvation Army insisted we break up before they’d offer assistance. We slept on the street instead and declined to break up as they demanded.

Bill’s situation may have been a local policy or it may have been revised since that time, but currently the church has as policy that sexual orientation is not considered in its provision of services. And the church reportedly does not discriminate in the hiring of bell ringers (though its permanent gay employees do not get partner benefits).

However, ultimately, this is a church. And while it invites you to give to help support its charity efforts, once the soup and the soap have been distributed, it will seek to fulfill the third “S”, the one in its name. The charitable efforts of the Salvation Army were never intended to be secular, but rather the distribution of care from Christians to those in need.

So if you do not support the reason they have an S on their crest, “Salvation from sin through Jesus”, or if you believe that their theological teachings are incompatible with your own beliefs, the Salvation Army should not be your first choice for caring for the essential needs of those suffering most in this economy. Perhaps your local Episcopal Church or Lutheran Church has a soup kitchen (many mainline churches have established programs which – while not on the scale of the Salvation Army – do reach their local community). Or perhaps a secular organization is a better fit for you.

But we are not “boycotting”. Generally, boycotts are ineffective and end up with embarrassment in the media. So, while our community does on rare occasion rally together and make a universally accepted purchasing decision (which seems to happen spontaneously), when the gay community boycotts you, you will know it.

Though we are not boycotting, I echo Bil’s call:

Instead of donating to the Salvation Army, choose a different charity that will help everyone without prejudice. Find a local secular charity [or pro-gay religious charity] – or here are some national organizations that provide help to anyone who needs it:

Goodwill (disabled and unemployed)
The Red Cross (medical and emergency relief)
Doctors Without Borders (medical and emergency relief)
Habitat for Humanity (homelessness and housing)

But I add this caveat. Some of you may find that you are less propelled to click the above links, make a pledge, pull out a credit card or send a check. Best of intentions aside, you know you aren’t going to give.

Others might not be able to give much and feel embarrassed to attach their name online to a gift of only give a few dollars. Don’t be. They are delighted to get your two dollars and will put them to good use.

But if you can’t overcome your embarrassment or motivate yourself to make a more socially responsible selection, don’t choose to simply not give. Don’t let someone do without this holiday season because Bil or I have criticism of the Salvation Army. So while we both encourage another choice, if reality says that its the Salvation Army or nothing at all, then drop something into their red buckets.

Because this isn’t about “boycotting”. It isn’t about “punishing the Salvation Army” or demanding that they change their theology. It’s about helping the poor and doing so in the most responsible way we can.

GOP Presidential Candidate Supports Marriage Equality

Evolved already.

Pam’s Spaulding has the scoop. While former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s chances of capturing the Republican nomination is just a smudge better than nil, he is now the only significant candidate of either party to support full marriage equality. (Okay, there’s Fred Karger, but still.) He made his announcement during an online town hall hosted by GoProud’s Jimmy LaSalvia:

For a very long time, society has viewed gay marriage as a moral and, yes, religious issue. Today, I believe we have arrived at a point in history where more and more Americans are viewing it as a question of liberty and freedom. That evolution is important, and the time has come for us to align our marriage laws with the notion that every individual should be treated equally.

Johnson’s use of the word “evolution” is a nice touch. Last time we checked in on President Obama, he said he was “still evolving.”

Head to Pam’s place for the full statement.

“Gays Can Marry, As Long As They Marry The Opposite Sex”

That, in a nutshell, was Michele Bachmann’s answer to a high school student’s question asking why gay couples can’t get married:

Maybe she wouldn’t mind then if I were to marry her daughter.

Oh wait, what am I thinking? Just look at her husband.

Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post has a field day with this: “This is the sound of a thousand heads hitting a thousand desks.”

Nigerian Human Rights Group Issues Call to Action

Nigeria’s Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights (CDSR) has issued a call to action against the Same Gender Marriage Bill, which passed the Nigerian Senate on Monday. The original bill was ostensibly relatively narrow in scope, imposing prison terms for those enter into any form of same-sex union, and fines for those who solemnize or witness it. But the broad wording for the definition of “Same Gender Marriage” which also  included “other purposes of same sexual relationship” worried advocates that the bill would criminalize anyone living together.

As bad as that was, what emerged on Monday was far worse. The Senate’s Committee on Human Rights and Judicial Matters upped the penalties to fourteen years imprisonment for anyone entering into what they broadly defined as a “same gender marriage,” as well as ten years in prison for witnesses or “anyone who helps couples marry.” It also added new penalties making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, and criminalized the “public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly.” Those who violate those provisions would face 10 years imprisonment. The CDSR says that those penalties were added as retaliation for the appearance of human rights advocates at the committee meeting to criticize the bill:

We are extremely concerned and disappointed with the conduct of the public hearing by the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Judicial Matters on the Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill 2011, which was held on Monday 31st, October 2011. A number of delegates from the US and EU countries missions in Nigeria attended the public hearing and noted the biased nature of the public hearing, which included name calling and profiling for civil society organizations and individuals activists opposing the bill.

… We fear that not only the Senate did not listen to the civil society expressing their contrariety to the bill, but in an unprecedented decision, it decided to punish the presence of civil society that was against the bill during the public hearing.

The group says that the new bill “brings us back to the most draconian version of the bill proposed in 2006.” (Some background on the 2006 bill can be found here. You can download the Senate version of the 2006 bill from the Nigerian Senate’s web site here (PDF: 144KB/3 pages). ) CDSR also warns that the bill “tries to criminalize homosexuality and any form of LGBT advocacy, seriously affecting freedom of speech, freedom of expression and association with severe criminal provisions,” and calls on the international community to mobilize as they did against the 2006 bill:

We call on ministers of foreign affairs, foreign missions accredited to Nigeria, international organizations and civil society to send formal letters and statements to the Nigerian president, to the presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives asking them to:

• Withdraw the bill due to its implications on health, HIV/AIDS and protection of human right.
• Call on the Nigerian President and the Presidents of the Senate and the House of Assembly to guarantee safety and protection for all human rights defenders and all individuals irrespective of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or religion.
• Call on the Nigerian government and parliament to respect international human rights law, particularly their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• Call on the Nigerian Government to remove discriminatory laws that criminalize sexuality, gender identity and expression in the federal and other parallel legal systems followed in the country.

We call on heads of governments, ministers of foreign affairs and other relevant officials, foreign missions accredited to Nigeria, presidents of Parliamentary Assemblies to raise their concern in public and in private with their Nigerian counterparts in any possible circumstance, making it clear that if this bill were to be approved Nigeria would place itself outside the community of democratic nations, in a moment in which the country is facing serious internal and external anti-democratic threats.

The Daily Agenda for Thursday, December 1

TODAY’S AGENDA:
World AIDS Day: Everywhere. Today is the day set aside to increase awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education about HIV/AIDS. Worldwide, it is estimated that about 35 million people are are living with HIV/AIDS. The good news is that the rate of new HIV infections worldwide are declining, as have AIDS-related deaths. Where access to antiretroviral (ARV) medications is available, AIDS changed from being a fatal disease to a chronic one, albeit a very serious one. Those who are on ARVs can now expect a near–normal lifespan. The bad news is that men who have sex with men (MSM) made up 61% of all new HIV infections in 2009. Alarmingly, African-American men make up about 42% of that category. The epidemic has also shifted from the major Northeastern, Midwestern and West Coast cities of the 1990s to becoming an increasing problem in rural and urban areas of the Southeast. While ARV’s have proven to be a literal lifesaver, access remains difficult. Treatment in the U.S. still costs about $10,000 per year per person, while 12 states currently maintain ADAP waiting lists with 6,411 who qualify not receiving treatment. That’s of the numbers that we know of. Of those who have been identified as HIV-positive, only about half are receiving treatment. All told, an estimated 75% of people with HIV do not have their virus under control because about quarter of all people with HIV don’t even know they have it. Do you know your status? Find out today.

Click to enlarge. You know you want to.

And hey, not to be too maudlin about it, another purpose for World AIDS Day is to raise funds for research, treatment, and education. And so let’s take some time to show our appreciation for British rugby start Sacha Harding, who generously agreed to bare it all for a photo shoot for the U.K. magazine Gay Times to support Elton John’s AIDS foundation. All together now: “Thank you, Sacha!”

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Manilla, The Philippines.

Also This Weekend: Gay Days at Disney, Hong Kong, China.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Connecticut Passes It’s First Sodomy Law: 1642. “If any man lyeth with mankind as hee lyeth with woman, both of them shave committed abomination, they both shall surely be put to death. — Levit. 21. 13.” If it’s any consolation, the same penalty also applied to adultery.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Matthew Shepard: 1976. If he had not been beaten and left to die on a cold rural Wyoming fence, he would have turned 35 today. Instead, he is forever 21 and still much too young to die.

If you know of something that belongs on the Agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.

Exodus International Ponders New Message To Save Itself from Bankruptcy

That’s according to Ex-Gay Watch’s David Roberts, who learned of a “secret conference” held in New York in November to explore ways to keep Exodus International from going under. Exodus is saddled with enormous debt due to the purchase of their office building in 2007 at the peak of the real estate bubble, and like most non-profits, they are experiencing a sharp downturn in donations. According to Roberts, anonymous sources told him that the emphasis at this conference was on exploring ways to make Exodus more “donor accessible” — in other words, upgrades to Exodus’s fundraising programs and mechanisms. But discussions on possible turn-around plans weren’t limit to just money:

Chamber’s apparently wishes to “re-brand” Exodus into something more palatable to those with funds to give, and the general public alike.  According to our sources, Chambers said that “everything is on the table.”  That everything apparently includes the possibility of his resignation.  It was also clear from the meeting that this is their last resort, their “Hail Mary” so to speak — they’ve tried everything else.  Indeed, it seems certain that Chambers would have made pleas to anyone he knew with money before taking this drastic action.  And we’ve all seen the odd inconsistencies apparent in their public face.  Exodus is an organization fumbling for a solution.

Chambers mentioned how struck he was by the response to John Smid’s recent change in direction, particularly his apology.  He seems to think that doing something similar might be one way that Exodus could gain some positive attention.  Don’t forget, everything is on the table.  We have confirmed that Smid has been in contact with Chambers recently, and has plans for more discussions in the future. It has been our understanding that there is no love lost on Smid by Chambers, so any future corroboration would likely have a more practical basis.

Exodus has flirted with the idea of retooling its message before. The main message that Exodus promotes is that changing from homosexuality to heterosexuality (however loosely defined) is possible. But more recently, an underlying theme has emerged among those who are more embedded in the ex-gay movement that “the opposite of homosexuality isn’t heterosexuality, it’s holiness.” Chambers has been giving variations on that theme since at least 2007. He surprised supporters and critics alike in 2009 when he told the Los Angeles Times, “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.”

And yet this is a long way from the direction that John Smid has taken since stepping down as Executive Director of the Memphis-based residential ex-gay program Love In Action. Smid now says that he “never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual,”, and he also now says that same-sex relationships can be “a faithful gay relationship that is truly, in their experience,  a great blessing to their relationship with Christ.” He has also offered a generalized apology (although some former clients are skeptical that the apology alone is sufficient), all of which points to a dramatic transformation for him. It’s doubtful that Exodus would be able to pull off a similarly dramatic change and still keep its relationships with the network of Evangelical churches that it has built over the past several years.

Another possibility, instead, may be a stunt that was recently attempted by Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation. They recently underwent a rebranding of their own, which included a very see-through thin “apology” and a new (and expensive) program they called “Coming Out Loved.” Cohen claimed his new initiative would be “the catalyst of true tolerance, real diversity, and equality for all,” and that “IHF staff will assist anyone who is conflicted about their sexuality and other challenging issues that arise for many in the gay community.” But a quick review of their web site— still at “changeispossible.org” — shows that he is still peddling his own ex-gay messages, including his 2007 book Gay Children, Straight Parents which describes his twelve-step program, complete with hugging, to turn gay children straight. Any attempt by Exodus International to try to pull off that kind of a stunt will be seen through quite quickly.

Exodus will conduct its annual leadership conference in January. Roberts expects that if any changes will be announced, it will happen then, and adds:

“In the coming months when you hear of changes from Exodus, or some event that seems heartfelt and spontaneous, or whatever this re-branding may eventually consist of, remember what got the ball rolling — money.”

St. Petersburg City Legislature Punts Anti-Gay Bill Vote

In a surprising development, LGBT advocate Polina Savchenko of St. Petersburg-based LGBT organization Coming Out reports that the city legislature completed its session today without voting on the bill which would ban “public actions aimed at propaganda of pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors.” With this delay, the bill will not be adopted before the elections scheduled for this weekend. The danger that the bill could resurface in the next government, however, remains very real, according to the statement from Coming Out.

The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, November 30

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Ban on LGBT Advocacy Scheduled For Vote: St. Petersburg, Russia. The St. Petersburg City Duma is expected to give the third and final reading today for a bill which would ban all LGBT advocacy with a fine of up to $1,600 for organizations engaging in “public actions aimed at propaganda of pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors.” The fine for individuals would be about $100. The U.S. State Department has expressed “deep concerns” about the proposed legislation and called on Russian officials ” to safeguard these freedoms, and to foster an environment which promotes respect for the rights of all citizens.” The Russian Foreign Ministry has, in turn, denounced the State Department’s comments. “We view with bewilderment the American side’s attempts to interfere, what’s more, publicly, in the lawmaking process.”

Local LGBT advocates fear that the measure would provide another tool for police crackdowns, not only on Pride events, but also on the numerous conferences, meetings and film festivals which take place in the city each year. What’s more, the bill’s very vagueness leaves open the question of what constitutes “public actions.” Two women holding hands in public or one man with a rainbow lapel pin may run afoul of the new law. Similar laws have already been passed in Arkhangelsk and in the Ryazan region, and the St. Petersburg bill is expected to pass as well. After all, elections are only four days away.

If you know of something that belongs on the Agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

As always, please consider this your open thread for the day.