Box Turtle Bulletin

Exodus’ Little Math Problem

Focus on the Family has congratulated Exodus on their booming success and huge growth:

Exodus International has seen a 59 percent increase in its member agencies, growing from 117 in 2003 to more than 200 in 2008.

But a 59% increase from 117 is 186. And further in the article:

Since 1976, Exodus has grown to include 150 ministries in 17 countries.

I’m pretty sure that 150 does not equal “more than 200”. But what do I know, I wasn’t home schooled.

Jamaican Church all but Endorses Violence Against Gays

As we have reported before, Jamaica is a violent, homophobic, dangerous place and ought to be avoided by all persons who care about civil rights. We were not alone in our observations.

The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), a gay-welcoming denomination, has started a protest against the Jamaican government’s inability – or unwillingness – to crack down on anti-gay violence.

Rev. Nancy Wilson, MCC’s leader, and a contingent of religious leaders from the MCC’s Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale met with Jamaican Consulate General Richard Allicock and three top staff members for more than an hour in the consulate’s office in downtown Miami.

“We were encouraged,” Wilson told a group of about 25 protesters who came to Miami for the protest from Sarasota, Boynton Beach and Fort Lauderdale. “We had a frank honest discussion. We’re engaged in a long-term discussion and were not going to stop until gays and lesbians are protected in Jamaica.”

Rev. Wilson’s demands were neither extreme nor unreasonable

that the government launch an educational campaign to decry anti-gay violence in Jamaica, and that the Jamaican police begin sensitivity training regarding the GLBT community

One might suppose that a call for the cessation of violence was a campaign which all Christians could support. One would be wrong.

Not only were MCC’s requests reviled in the Jamaican media, but Jamaica’s Christian community did not take well to being told that they ought not murder gays.

The Rev Dr Merrick ‘Al’ Miller, pastor of the Fellowship Taber-nacle in St Andrew, said that Jamaicans generally deem homo-sexuality wrong.

He said the demands of gay activists who are attempting to force their beliefs on society will in no way influence Jamaicans to change their views.

“Homosexuality is wrong from every possible angle,” said Miller. “It’s immoral from a physical, social and spiritual standpoint.” He said that despite this, the Church was willing to help and support those homosexuals who are in need of counselling or assistance to change their lifestyle.

“I have no problem in supporting and helping someone who sees that he is going the wrong way and wants help in changing his life, but where I draw the line is when you say that it is OK and want to force others to accept your abnormal behaviour,” he added.

and

The Rev Dr Lloyd Maxwell, of the AGAPE Christian Fellowship in Portmore, said that Scripture takes a very clear stance on the matter of homosexuality and, as such, the Church would not sanction nor encourage the lifestyle.

Rev Maxwell said the idea of conducting a public awareness campaign to sensitise Jamaicans on the issue is ludicrous.

With the media and the church openly endorsing homophobia and refusing to condemn the murder of gay men, I have little hope that violence against gays will diminish in Jamaica.

In Response To the Murder of Lawrence King, Where Is the Voice of the Church?

If you want to infuriate a conservative Christian, suggest that the church is at least partially responsible for anti-gay violence.

The response is quick, harsh, and brimming with indignation. How dare you suggest that the church supports violence? Why, the very admonitions against murder are from the ten commandments, you know! The church is full of love, love, love, love for “persons suffering with same-sex attraction”.

I do not doubt that sermons within the church talk about love. About being kind. About showing mercy. All while opposing sin and the vile agenda of sinners. One should love the sinner and hate the sin.

But only one part of that message seems to make it outside the church doors.

Much is said about homosexuality by the self appointed voices of Christianity. One cannot go a day without some proclamation about destroying society, or an evil agenda, or protecting children, or some such thing. It is clear that “Christianity” feels threatened by and is in opposition to “the Homosexual Agenda”.

But is it opposed to violence against gay people? And if so, how would anyone know?

In the wake of the murder of 15 year old Lawrence King by a classmate apparently motivated by King’s non-gender-conforming appearance and openness about his sexual orientation, the community of Oxnard has been asking itself hard questions. Why did this happen? What could we have done differently?

And the community has joined together to express its sorrow and its love. A hastily organized rally by two sophomore students resulted in over 1,000 children showing their support for tolerance and peace. Editorials and letters to the local paper have called on the community to look at its part in the tragedy.

But one group has been strangely silent. One voice has had nothing to say about retrospection or self-examination. One voice has not been raised to condemn either the harsh treatment of Lawrence King when he was alive or his brutal execution.

I have searched and as best I can find, in the days since King’s murder, the sole discussion about this tragedy from Christian media has been limited to a single CNS article by Susan Jones titled “Hate Crime Charges Against Teen Who Shot ‘Feminine’ Boy”. This, incidentally is from a media source that actively opposes hate crimes legislation.

At no point did the article indicate that it was heinous, immoral, or even slightly inappropriate that Lawrence King was murdered for his orientation. But it did declare that “homosexual activists have seized on Lawrence King case” and that “some conservative groups say California has gone overboard when it comes to “sexual indoctrination” in the schools”.

Perhaps the church in Oxnard mourns the loss of one of the community’s children. But if it mourns, it does so silently. I am confident that sermons on Sunday sought to bring comfort to congregations, but if there was any outcry against the homophobia that led to King’s death, it was not public.

But the greater voice of Christianity has not been silent since Larry was shot.

In the past few days, CBN tells us that homosexuality is about relational brokenness and that it’s possible to change your orientation. OneNewsNow (AFA) reports Rev. Ken Hutcherson calling a Gay-Straight Alliance a “sex club” without even suggesting that perhaps his accusation may be extreme. The California Catholic Daily reports that in California young children are to be “educated” to approve of the homosexual lifestyle and a Christian leader says “You have to get them out. You have to rescue them”.

And it is not just within the Christian press that homosexuality has been decried as evil this week.

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

“I don’t define myself against other churches, but I am very scriptural and I don’t shy away from the hard scriptural passages,” said Griffin, who has recently tackled issues such as homosexuality, adultery and pornography. “I believe the truth is spoken in love. I don’t just pound the pulpit.”

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Presbyterians may disagree with their church’s ban on ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, but they must follow the rules, according to the Louisville-based denomination’s highest court.

From the Arizona Daily Star:

Leaders from five Anglican provinces said Friday they will boycott a once-a-decade world Anglican summit because the U.S. Episcopal Church ordained a gay bishop.

Yes there are denominations, churches, and individuals that are seeking to include gay people in the body of Christ. And they are seeking to have their voice be heard.

But sadly, if you asked the random stranger on the street, “What do Christians believe about gay people,” the answer would not be that gay people are to be loved as your neighbor or that they are equal children of God. Rather, you are going to hear time after time that the church condemns gays and lesbians and opposes their rights and equality.

So I ask – if the church opposes violence against gay people and seeks to show love, why does no one see it? If the church finds the murder of Lawrence King to be heinous and disgusting, why cannot I find words to that effect? If murder is at least as bad as homosexuality in the eyes of the church, why don’t the articles of Christian news-sources or the quotes of preachers and other religious leaders reflect this?

Tell me, just who is to blame for the message that the world has heard from the church this past week… if not the church?

My Submission For The Memphis Ex-Gay Survivor Art Show

(Click To Enlarge)

Acrylic paint and Sharpie on wooden block and parchment craft paper
Nikon D70 @ 50mm, multiple exposures at 1/20 f8, ISO 400
Natural illumination supplemented with halogen work lamps

Just a reminder “Deconstructing The Ex-Gay Myth, A Weekend Of Action And Art” is next weekend in Memphis. For a full schedule of events click here.

Students March for Lawrence King

Last Friday, we reported on a memorial march for Lawrence King, the 15-year-old student who was shot and killed by a classmate because he was gay. There was another march Saturday, this time organized by Oxnard, California students. They had expected only a few hundred to show up. But much to the surprise of organizers, school officials and police, more than a thousand turned out to remember Larry.

Memphis Commerial Appeal on Ex-Gay Survivors

Jacob Wilson was just nineteen when he was involved with Love In Action’s residential adult program at the same time that Love In Action was in the national spotlight. A few years ago, LIA gained notoriety when a teenager named Zach wrote on his mySpace page about being forceed by his parents into LIA’s now-closed Refuge program for youth.

Zach’s supporters protested outside of LIA, but Wilson says the men and women inside were told not to make eye contact with the protesters and not to read their signs.

After Wilson left LIA, he found out what the protesters had wanted him to know.

“These people weren’t doing it to be activists, they were doing it to show that we weren’t alone, that we were loved … It crushes me that that message was cut from us.”

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports this morning on Jacob Wilson’s experience at Love In Action as he struggles to pay off the huge credit card debt from that failed effort. There’s also more information about this week’s Beyond Ex-Gay Mid-South Regional Gathering on Feb 22-24 in Memphis.

Washington House Votes to Beef Up Domestic Partnerships

In April 2007 the State of Washington established Domestic Partnerships. Yesterday the House voted to add specific protections to these relationships.

The measure adds domestic partners to sections of laws where previously only spouses were mentioned, including areas referring to probate and trusts, community property and homestead exemptions, and guardianship and powers of attorney.

The measure makes dozens of changes to state law, including requiring domestic partners of public officials to submit financial disclosure forms, just as the spouses of heterosexual officials do.

It also would give domestic partners the same spousal testimony rights that married couples have, allowing domestic partners the right to refuse to testify against each other in court.

The bill passed 62 to 32.

Yes, 32 people decided that not just the establishment of a legal relationship, but these specific rights, should be denied gay couples. Somehow they think this is just protecting the family and society and isn’t just anti-gay. They love gay people, ya know, they just don’t think they should have homestead exemptions.

Sigh.

The Senate companion bill is currently winding its way through committees.

Mixed Marriages: When One Spouse Is Gay

CNN recently profiled several married couples who remained married after finding out the husband or wife was gay. According to one couple, it takes a special kind of communication between them to make it work:

“He had to learn to talk to me — he had spent so many years not saying what was really on his mind, and not dealing with his true feelings,” says Anna Marie Will, now 39, a worker’s compensation program administrator. “We found out once we got past all that, our marriage was so much better. We still loved each other as people and partners.”

…”When we married, and now still, we feel that we could spend the rest of our lives together,” he says. “We want to be together.”

It’s easy to assume that when either the husband or wife comes out of the closet, authenticity requires that the marriage come to end. But authenticity doesn’t always demand that solution. When it comes to love, it doesn’t have to make any sense at all to anyone else other than that couple. It’s also important to recognize that one couple’s solution won’t work for everyone. In each unique case, the the bottom line is always what’s important to that particular couple. For Anna Marie and Jim, it’s this:

“You can’t help who you love,” Anna Marie Will says. “I can’t imagine sharing a sunrise or sunset, or good day or bad day, with anyone else.

When you find that person, you know that’s it.”

Says her husband: “Your relationship can be different from everyone else’s, and if it works for you in your heart, that’s what you do.”

Isn’t It Ironic, Dontcha Think?

If you’re like me you’ve screamed at your radio, “No Alanis, rain on your wedding day is not ironic. It’s just unfortunate.” Irony is a discrepancy between what’s expected and what happens, especially when enlivened by ‘perverse appropriateness’.

For example:

Rev. Ken Hutcherson, an active opponent of gay civil rights, was invited to speak at Mt. Si High School on a day to recognize and honor Martin Luther King Jr’s work for civil rights. No, that’s not the example.

One teacher booed and one teacher questioned Hutcherson on his commitment to civil rights. Also, Hutcherson is very upset that some people in the community have began to think that he and his family are bigoted and homophobic because they hold anti-gay views. Still isn’t the example.

And Hutcherson objects that his daughter has been made to feel stress when teachers told her that other students feel uncomfortable when she monitors the Gay-Straight Alliance meetings. OK, we’re getting closer.

Although Mt. Si’s principal apologized to Hutcherson, he refuses to let this go. And though the two teachers received a letter of reprimand, Hutcherson demands that they be fired. One booed him and one questioned him and they need to go! And if the school doesn’t heed his demands they will “pay and pay dearly”.

“You can see the arrogance that’s going on in our public school system with the agenda of making our schools just so open and available to what the homosexual agenda is all about,” he remarks. “I’m absolutely amazed at the stubbornness that we’ve run into in our public education system, especially with teachers who think that nothing can happen to them.”

And that, Alanis, is ironic.

Vigil And March For Lawrence King Tonight

A vigil organized by the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance is being held tonight (Friday). Supporters will gather at the Art Barn (856 E. Thompson) at 7pm and proceed to the pier.

Update: Friends, classmates, and total strangers gathered for a quiet and solemn remembrance:

An Inspiration’s Swan Song

Mike Airhart founded Ex-Gay Watch in 2002, and I became an avid reader and commenter somewhere around 2003 or 2004. I always admired his concise and compact style, particularly his ability to condense a complicated set of ideas into their fundamental essence. While I only wish I could write as directly and compactly as he does (do I hear a volunteer to be my editor?), I am grateful for his contributions to the debate. I also have to confess that Ex-Gay Watch was one key inspiration for my decision to found Box Turtle Bulletin. In many ways, Ex-Gay Watch and Mike Airhart are this humble site’s blog-daddy.

Today, Mike Airhart has announced that he is leaving Ex-Gay Watch, which will continue in the very capable hands of David Roberts and a team of writers as Mike pursues “a more activist approach” to the problems which lay before us. I had the pleasure of meeting Mike at the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference last summer, and I look forward to seeing where his future takes him.

Gay Eighth Grader Fatally Shot

Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student at at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California was shot at least twice in the head by another classmate last Tuesday. Fellow students say that King was gay and was often taunted by fellow students.

King was rushed to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where he was initially listed in critical condition. By the end of the day, his condition was reportedly improving. But today we learn that he has been declared brain dead by two neurosurgeons at the hospital on Wednesday at 2 pm. He is being kept on life support so his organs can be harvested for transplant.

Police said the 14-year-old Brandon McInerney shot King at the start of the school day and fled the campus. He was arrested by police a few blocks away. Today, prosecutors charged him with premeditated murder, with a special allegation of using a firearm in the commission of a hate crime. Once King is removed from life support, prosecutors have indicated they will try McInerney as an adult.

Lawrence’s father described his son as “headstrong, confident, artistic and sweet“:

Larry King loved to sing songs by folk rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash, and was studying “The Star-Spangled Banner” in hopes of singing it at his younger brother’s baseball games, his father said. “He had a very gifted singing voice.”

…He also enjoyed using licorice sticks to catch crawdads at Bubbling Springs Park in Port Hueneme, where his family would go for his younger brother’s baseball games.

In 2001, the Journal of Public Health reported on the results of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which found that gay youth are almost twice as likely to be subjected to extreme forms of violence requiring medical attention. According to the Los Angeles Times, a 2002 California Department of Education study found that a student who is thought to be gay is five times more likely to be threatened or injured by a weapon. And yet in the face of all this, California social conservatives continue to express outrage that the California schools are required to address the problem of bullying in schools. In 2008, does it still require the tragic death of an eighth grader to justify safe schools for everyone?

Maryland AG Endorses Marriage Equality

As we have noted before, the current front in the battle for marriage is in Maryland. Now WBAL is reporting that the Attorney General has spoke in favor of marriage equality.

“In five, 10, 15 years, there is no question in my mind we will have gay marriage in the state of Maryland and across the United States,” said Gansler, who acknowledged his arguments would be unpopular with some but that he was obliged as the state’s top lawyer to seek justice.

Interestingly, Gansler was the one who successfully defended the state’s anti-marriage legislation before the Supreme Court last year. Nevertheless, he can see that defending a legislature’s right to make a decision doesn’t make that decision right.

“All of us have gay friends, right? If you say to somebody, I’m not going to stand up for you, what good are you?” Gansler said.

That is a message that I wish everyone would hear.

See also:
Blade Asks What Happened In Maryland
Maryland Passes Limited Rights for Gay Couples
Maryland Balances Budget by Taxing Gay Widows
Maryland Senator Muse Champions Bigotry
Maryland AG Endorses Marriage Equality
Maryland Legislator Calls Anti-Gay Bluff
Maryland Introduces Bill to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage – Are Democrats Committed to Equality?
Maryland Marriage Poll

Let Them End the Marriage They Cannot Enter

Massachusetts has a law that they will not recognize marriages between non-residents if their marriage would not be recognized in their home state. Because of a plethora of anti-gay amendments and the peculiarities of state laws, only Rhode Island’s gay residents may marry in Massachusetts.

Rhode Island recognizes Massachusetts’ marriages between persons of the same sex, but will not recognize marriages between the same citizens if they stayed home and married. Yeah, it’s confusing, but here comes the oddest part: only Massachusetts residents can divorce in Massachusetts.

But what are they to do if some couple goes to Massachusetts, marries, returns, and then decides to break up. Well the state Supreme Court said that they are not entitled to a divorce – unless the legislature should decide to change the law. It seems that Rhode Island gay marriages are more permanent than even “Covenant Marriages“.

But now there is a proposed solution. No, not treating gay tax payers like their heterosexual neighbors and allowing them to solemnize their commitments.

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox says he’ll file a bill in the General Assembly that would allow married gay couples to divorce.

Recognizing that any battle for equality is a worthy effort, gay Rhode Islanders and those who love them are welcoming this bill.

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that regardless of where one stands on the issue of same-sex marriage, legalizing a couple’s ability to file for divorce just makes sense.

“Absolutely no public policy is served by requiring people to stay married when they have no desire to do so,” Brown said.

Oh, but there’s opposition. Those who oppose equality will fight this bill and it may well be vetoed by the Republican Governor, Don Carcieri.

Ironically, this may be a situation in which anti-gays are so opposed to gay marriages that they’ll insist on keeping them intact.

Anti-Gay T-Shirt Wars

The Alliance Defense Fund is a legal arm of the social conservative movement. They are also the founders and promoters of the Day of Truth, an effort on school campuses to “counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda”. The DOT grew out of efforts to oppose the Day of Silence, a program by gay students and their friends and allies to bring attention to how heterosexism and homophobia silence the voices of the LGBT minority.

The Day of Truth walks a careful line. While they talk about “tolerance for opposing viewpoints” (their anti-gay viewpoints, primarily) and claim that there is “freedom to change”, they stop short of outright attacks on gay students.

But this is not because they want to avoid such attacks. Indeed, the Alliance Defense Fund would like little more than to teach hostility to homosexuality and silence anyone who disagrees. But school boards have restricted the ability of anti-gay students to publicly condemn their fellow students.

ADF is not happy.

They sued.

The best known of these cases is that of Tyler Chase Harper. Young Mr. Harper wore a T-Shirt to his school in the Poway Unified School District in response to the 2004 Day of Silence. His eloquent message was Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27″. That didn’t get Harper enough attention, so the next day he ratcheted up his message to “Be Ashamed” and “Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned.”

On the second day, school administrators told him that he could not wear a message that was overtly hostile to other students and asked him to remove the statement – which had been added to his plain black T-Shirt with masking tape. Harper refuse and, with the help of ADF, sued his school. (One can’t help but wonder what Harper would have worn the next day if this message did not get his desired result).

The judge found that Harper did not have a case. ADF appealed.

In 2006, a three judge appeals panel found that “the school is permitted to prohibit Harper’s conduct…if it can demonstrate that the restriction was necessary to prevent either the violation of the rights of other students or substantial disruption of school activities.” But they did not rule on the case itself.

In August 2006, the Ninth Circuit appeals court denied en banc review (review by all of the judges). This time the decision was in more direct language.

“Hate speech, whether in the form of a burning cross, or in the form of a call for genocide, or in the form of a tee shirt misusing biblical text to hold gay students to scorn, need not under Supreme Court decisions be given the full protection of the First Amendment in the context of the school environment, where administrators have a duty to protect students from physical or psychological harms.”

In their quest to equate the statement “treat all students with fairness” to “condemn some students based on one’s own religious beliefs”, ADF continued with their lawsuit to overturn restrictions on hostile messages in an environment in which attendance is compulsory. But by the time that the case made its way to the US Supreme Court, Chase Harper graduated and the decision was moot.

However Chase Harper’s little sister Kelsie discovered that she too had a burning drive to condemn her fellow students and the lawsuit was transferred to her.

ADF asked the judge to reconsider his ruling throwing out the case. U.S. District Judge John Houston issued his ruling today. Not surprisingly, he hadn’t changed his mind.

He wrote that a school “interest in protecting homosexual students from harassment is a legitimate pedagogical concern that allows a school to restrict speech expressing damaging statements about sexual orientation and limiting students to expressing their views in a positive manner.”

Interestingly, the ADL is supported by that organization most hated by social conservatives, the American Civil Liberties Union.

David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, said the case is troubling. The ACLU filed a brief in support of Harper’s speech rights – siding with the religious groups that they are often at odds with.

“This theory is a novel and extreme expansion of a school’s rights to limit speech,” Blair-Loy said. Schools potentially could ban any speech they say is “psychologically damaging.”

“And let’s face it: What about high school is not psychologically damaging?” Blair-Loy said. “This student wore a T-shirt that expressed an idea. It’s an idea we don’t agree with at the ACLU, but that is the essence of free speech. It’s not just for ideas you like.”

In the midst of this battle in the Great American Culture War Against Gay People, I think something is being forgotten by both sides. Any ruling that allows social conservatives to attack gay people… also allows other students to attack religion.

If messages are allowed that condemn homosexuality on religious terms, then would not messages that condemn religion on terms of orientation be allowed? Surely they could not disallow “Christianity is a Hateful Religion and those who follow it are Homophobes and Bigots”.

And is it then a far reach from “Homosexuality Is Shameful” to “Catholicism is Idolatry” or “Speaking in Tongues is Satanic”? Would Jews be accused of “killing our Savior”? Would a school with a small Muslim minority be force to subject those students to T-Shirts attacking their faith?

This is not without precedent. In 1984 religious activists pushed the Equal Access Act through Congress so as to allow Bible Clubs on school campuses. It said that if a school allows ANY non-curricular organizations to meet, it has to all ALL non-curricular organizations to meet. This is the piece of legislation that protects Gay-Straight Alliances from being banned by homophobic school administrations – a consequence that Bible Club backers did not intend.

I doubt that ADF or those who support them have thought about the eventual results of their efforts. But, then again, this is a great fund raiser for ADF and I doubt they much care. After all, an anti-Christian T-shirt on some campus would give them another lawsuit for which to request funds and issue press releases.