Box Turtle Bulletin

Photos From Denver “Seven Straight Nights” Soulforce Vigil

I attended the Seven Straight Nights vigil here in Denver this evening and present the following photos:

Click each thumbnail to view full size images

We started with a silent march from a Unitarian church in Capital Hill and proceeded down Colfax towards the Capital Building.

A group called Singing For Equality lead some songs and did a few numbers on their own.

There were a few speakers ranging from politicians to various types of families.

After the prepared remarks people were free to leave their hand-drawn luminaria on the steps of the Capital.

Also during that time participants were encouraged to take the mic and share their reason for participating.

Seven Straight Nights For Equal Rights

Soulforce and Atticus Circle’s Seven Straight Nights campaign wraps up this weekend and I’ll be attending the vigil in Denver this evening. (Update: See my photos from the vigil here.)

Since it’s the weekend take some time and enjoy news coverage of Seven Straight Night events earlier this week:

US Army Reserve Advertises On Bisexual Dating Show

A friend who actually works at TV Week brought this to my attention. For those of you who don’t know pop culture personality Tila Tequila is the star of a new reality dating show on MTV. The catch, Tila is bisexual and thus half the contestants vying for her attention are men and half are women.

Possible Anti-Gay Vehicular Attack Near Ft. Lauderdale

Ft. Lauderdale has been making some gay news lately, mostly due to a campaign of homophobia coming from the city’s mayor, Jim Naugle.

Now Ft. Lauderdale police are investigating a hit-and-run that, according to an eye-witness, may have been an anti-gay hate crime attack.

Marcus Hopkins … was there that night outside Ramrod, a popular bar primarily for gay men where [Tommy] Davis works as a bartender.

It was shortly after 10 p.m. Sept. 18 when Davis was crossing Northeast Fourth Avenue to return to work. Hopkins said Davis got halfway into the right lane when Davis, he and another friend heard an engine rev.

Hopkins said Davis ran, but before he could get away, the car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit him.

“When he hit the windshield, he bounced off the car and hit the dirt,” said Hopkins.

The driver of the car then swerved back onto the road and kept going. Hopkins believes the incident might have been a hate crime.

Anti-gays often claim that their objections are to “sin not sinners”. And when others point out that their denunciations result in violence, they loudly protest their innocence and that there is “no proof” to link the rhetoric to the crimes. They say, “you can’t prove the one who committed the crime was at the sermon or the press conference”.

Well, it is my observation that when anti-gay language escalates in an area, anti-gay violence soon follows. And I’m tired of bigots refusing to see the link. I’m disgusted at those who claim to “love the sinner” but take no responsibility for the results of their campaign against “the sin”.

To those who use God as a justification for their denunciations of their gay brothers and sisters, I ask this question, “Don’t you think He’s watching? Don’t you think He cares about the consequences of your campaign?”

Alan Chambers “Returns To Sodomy”?

It looks like Warren Throckmorton is on some pretty entertaining email lists. He reports on an email by Fred Hutchison, a columnist on the particularly virulent website Renew America, which has gained wider circulation among social conservatives. That email goes like this:

Ex-gay leader returns to sodomy

According to Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute Alex Chambers, (sic) Director of Exodus International, the largest Evangelical organization for ex-gays declared that he is no longer ex-gay and is not sure he has ever met an ex-gay! He is now calling to Evangelicals to reconcile with practicing gays.

Don’t you just love it when someone takes Paul Cameron’s word for something?

Warren contacted Hutchison, who responded by citing last June’s LA Times story (which says no such thing) and Cameron again, saying, “I really thought Paul Cameron and the LA Times were adequate sources because I had no intention to publish.”

I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. I also have no idea whether Cameron actually claimed that Exodus President Alan Chambers “returned to sodomy,” or if Hutchison quoted Cameron accurately. I am quite confident that Chambers hasn’t “returned to sodomy” — that much I can say. But is it too terribly wrong of me to think that this sounds like something Cameron might say?

Whenever Cameron has written about the ex-gay movement, he’s been particularly critical of Exodus. This goes at least as far back as his October 1998 newsletter, when Cameron zeroed in on what he sees as the essential problem of ex-gay ministries like Exodus — they’re too nice:

The result among ex-gay ministries has often been an attitude that those who engage in homosexuality are deserving of delicate treatment, precisely because they consider homosexuals “victims of circumstance.” In fact, the tactics of the ex-gay groups sometimes so avoid direct criticism of homosexual behavior that they almost sound like quasi-apologists for the gay movement. They frequently use the same words gays use, words like homophobia, etc. And these leaders are often reticent to call homosexuality what it is — deadly dangerous.

Boy, oh boy. I have no idea what ex-gay conferences or literature Cameron’s been exposed to, but I haven’t seen much evidence of “delicate treatment” from the ex-gay movement. But that might just be a matter of perspective. Maybe Cameron would be more approving if the ex-gay movement adopted some of the “proven techniques” developed by Nazi Germany which Cameron admires so much.

Anyway, Cameron continues:

This is one of the difficulties with the philosophy undergirding Exodus. FRI regards homosexuality not as a disease from which one must be cured, nor necessarily a bruise from an inadequate or defective childhood that must be healed, but a bad habit that must be broken no matter how it came to be acquired. Digging about in a person’s past often involves mining for face-saving excuses, and has no particular relevance to breaking adopted habits.

Since FRI regards homosexuality as merely a habit (Don’t you love how Cameron refers to himself in the institutional third person?), the solution to that habit is simple. Just stop doing it and move on:

But those in leadership positions in the ex-gay movement often appear unwilling to simply move on, get away from homosexuality, and get a life. Being involved with the Ex-ministry keeps them around homosexuality and homosexuals. Instead of “getting away and staying away,” they retain a toehold in the gay world.

Cameron’s opinion of Exodus hasn’t changed much since 1998. He returned to the subject last July, prompted by what Alan Chambers told the LA Times:

Alan Chambers directs Exodus International, widely described as the nation’s largest ex-gay ministry. But when he addresses the group’s Freedom Conference at Concordia University in Irvine this month, Chambers won’t celebrate successful ‘ex-gays.’ Truth is, he’s not sure he’s ever met one.

… [L]ately, he’s come to resent the term “ex-gay”: It’s too neat, implying a clean break with the past, when he still struggles at times with homosexual temptation. “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete,” Chambers said.

Those comments served as a launching pad for Cameron’s long and rambling critique of the ex-gay movement which appeared in the July 2007 issue of the FRI Report (not available online). Here, Cameron loses patience with both arms of the movement – the ministerial branch represented by Exodus, as well as the clinical branch represented by NARTH and personified by one of its founders, Dr. Charles Socarides. In fact, Cameron spends nearly three pages criticizing Socarides’ psychological approaches to homosexuality.

And in the end, Cameron remains dissatisfied that nobody seems to understand what he thinks is so clear: that homosexuality is nothing more than a “habit.” And the best way to break the habit is to stay completely away from anyone else who is prone to that same habit:

‘Common sense’ holds that if one has a bad habit – involving sex or drugs or anything else that can be intensely pleasurable – that individual has got to stop feeding it. Then they must get out and stay away from those with whom they associated while indulging their habit and any of its associated pleasures….

…

FRI believes that the folk involved in Exodus and NARTH are sincere, caring people. But FRI, believing in ‘common sense,’ is skeptical about any ‘curative program’ that physically puts together many of those seeking healing from a particular bad habit.

After recalling Michael Bussee’s example (He was one of the original founders of Exodus before leaving with his partner and fellow volunteer, Cary Cooper, to become one of Exodus’ strongest critics), Cameron finally returns his attention the Chambers’ remarks on the fifth page. That’s where Cameron accuses Chambers of potentially making the same “mistake” Bussee made:

These ‘healing programs’ defy common sense. Instead of running away from homosexuality and those who participate in it, ex-gay movement leaders immerse themselves — albeit with a different motivation, a motivation to help their fellow former-habitué’s. Who knows how much this ‘re-immersion’ affected Bussee’s decision making?

And when it comes to Chambers, perhaps he hasn’t met an ex-gay because those who leave the lifestyle AND distance themselves from hanging around homosexuals or former homosexuals aren’t around for him to talk to. And why should they?

Cameron concludes:

Perhaps Alan Chambers’ ‘spilling the beans’ might be the wake-up call that the Evangelical Church can hear. If the main defense of the Church against the homosexual movement boils down to ‘converting’ homosexuals away from participation in homosexuality, it is hard to see how victory can be denied the gay movement. Yet this very tactic is being vigorously pushed by Focus on the Family at its ‘Love Won Out’ conferences.

… Chambers is calling for the Church to abandon its historic stance against homosexuality and adopt instead the ‘insights’ of psychiatric theory. He is in step with Joe Dallas, an ex-gay who delivers the last address at many of the ‘Love Won Out’ conferences. In that address Dallas compares the Church’s treatment of those who practice homosexuality to the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis’s. That’s what FRI would call taking psychiatric theory seriously!! [Emphasis in the original]

Imagine the impertinence of Joe Dallas using the Nazi angle! Why, that’s Cameron’s domain!

Clearly Cameron is not Alan Chamber’s greatest fan, nor does he think much of Exodus, ex-gay ministries or secular “reparative” therapy. Throughout his career, Cameron has made it clear that he’d rather go the punishment route instead.

Cameron seems to think that Chambers’ continuing association with “homosexuals or former homosexuals” is flirting with danger. What’s more, Cameron is outraged that Chambers occasionally speaks out about “compassion” towards the gay community. Again, I have no idea if Cameron actually claimed that Chambers “returned to sodomy.” I personally doubt it myself. But given his writings on Chambers and the ex-gay movement, it would appear that Cameron sees little difference.

“Truth Wins Out” Videos for National Coming Out Day

October 11 is National Coming Out day. And to commemorate this great day, Wayne Besen at Truth Wins Out has released a video featuring four women who married closeted gay men:

While ex-gay organizations, such as Exodus and Focus on the Family, love to show the wedding pictures, they never show you the divorce papers. This video is a powerful reality check and a warning for those who would marry thinking that it will help them go from gay to straight.

A Tale of Liars and Attention Whores

One of the problems with being a Culture Warrior and fighting against an Evil Agenda is that sometimes you begin to believe your own rhetoric. Of course, it helps if you start with a bit of a disconnect from reality.

Take, for example, this story from Edge about a recent confluence of some of the anti/ex-gay’s loonier players.

MassResistance, an anti-gay outfit in Massachusetts, held a forum on October 3 at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School to protest the Drama Department’s planned production of The Laramie Project. Ironically, the daughter of MassResistance’s main blogger, Amy Contrada, is playing a lead part in the play. Amy was unable to be at the forum because she was “putting her efforts into our banquet” planned for the following day. However, ex-gay gadfly Stephen Bennett was scheduled to declare that “no one is born homosexual and complete change is completely possible”.

Brian Camenker, the face of MassResistance, told a little story to those in attendance about why Bennett didn’t show.

“Stephen Bennett will not be here tonight. … He is reviled and hated by the homosexual movement. While he was driving here after he got off the Mass Pike onto highway 290, as he paid his tolls and went going there was a parked car,” Camenker told the crowd of about 50 people at the start of the forum. “The parked car, as he got going, bashed into his car, causing him personal injury and then took off. State troopers came and they refused to file a police report on this.”

The story of the gay plot to target Stephen Bennett became a recurring theme throughout the evening, particularly in the remarks of Dr. John Diggs, a Massachusetts internist who spoke at the forum to warn Acton parents and community members about the dangers of homosexual sex. Diggs at various points in his remarks compared the alleged attack on Bennett to the attacks on civil rights workers in the South fighting for rights for African Americans, and he said the attack was similar to the tactics used to quash dissent in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union.

“So why is Stephen Bennett so dangerous? Why is Stephen Bennett run off the road, in Massachusetts, the land of tolerance!” said Diggs, raising his voice to a shout. “Obviously because of what he had to say here tonight. Why? … Stephen Bennett is dangerous because he sticks the knife in the core of the lie.”

Frightening! Shocking! Horrifying!

The only problem with this story? It wasn’t true.

Camenker forgot to run his conspiracy story by Bennett, who had no idea that gay activists had attacked him. And, when contacted, the police told another story which differed from Camenker’s fairy tale.

“The damage as a result of that crash was extremely minor. It includes a scuffed bumper,” said Benson.

He also dispelled the myth of a conspiracy between State Police and gay activists. He said police did not file a crash report because the incident did not meet the required threshold; the damage to Bennett’s car was less than $1000 and he was not injured. Benson said police took down Bennett’s description of the vehicle of the alleged perpetrator, including the license plate number and are working to track that person down.

Camenker has yet again illustrated that he’s either deranged or an unabashed liar. And Bennett has yet again illustrated that he’ll join with anyone, no matter how nutty, to get his face in the spotlight.

Larry Craig, Really?!?

In case you missed last weekend’s Saturday Night Live:

NY Times: “Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight”

The New York Times has an impressive article about the pressures elderly gays and lesbians feel to go back into the closet during their final years. The opening paragraphs tell a common story:

Even now, at 81 and with her memory beginning to fade, Gloria Donadello recalls her painful brush with bigotry at an assisted-living center in Santa Fe, N.M. Sitting with those she considered friends, “people were laughing and making certain kinds of comments, and I told them, ‘Please don’t do that, because I’m gay.'”

The result of her outspokenness, Ms. Donadello said, was swift and merciless. “Everyone looked horrified,” she said. No longer included in conversation or welcome at meals, she plunged into depression. Medication did not help. With her emotional health deteriorating, Ms. Donadello moved into an adult community nearby that caters to gay men and lesbians.

“I felt like I was a pariah,” she said, settled in her new home. “For me, it was a choice between life and death.”

Baby boomers in general are taking a hard look at late-life options for when their own health begins to fail, and many boomers aren’t too happy with the options they see. Gays and lesbians are no different. Fortunately there are new options for elderly gays and lesbians opening up in a few cities across America. And the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is beginning to consult with general-population nursing homes on the special needs that gays and lesbians face.

See also:

Straights Invade Gay Retirement

Getting Gay-Bashed Isn’t Just For Gays

Terrance Heath’s latest entry in his LGBT Hate Crimes Project is a profile on National Guardsman Matthew Ashcroft, who was beaten with a baseball bat outside a gay bar in Newport, Kentucky, an old historic Cincinnati suburb, in June, 2004. What makes this case so interesting is that Matthew is straight. But he was attacked while coming to the aid of Leon Hughes, a gay man who was being beaten outside the bar. Ashcraft suffered a fractured skull, cranial bleeding, and a blood clot on his brain:

Ashcraft was uninsured, and his medical bills topped $29,000. A fund was set up at U.S. Bank in Newport to help with medical expenses. A benefit for Aschraft was held at Woolly’s, on July 7, 2004, where about $200 was raised to help with his medical bills. Ashcraft attended, but became ill during the benefit and had to be taken to the hospital. Woolly’s owner Rick Petri said he planned to host more benefits. Another bar owner, Carl Fox, reported receiving a death threat in the mail after speaking in favor of gay rights on television. Ashcraft suffered paralyzing headaches following the attack and was discharged from the National Guard, but hoped to re-enlist in one year.

Next time someone tries to tell you that hate crime legislation based on sexual orientation unfairly elevates one class of people over another, tell them about Matthew Ashcraft.

CA EQ Preaching To The Choir?

This ad should, but won’t be seen by people in the most backwards cities in California:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5696750115924165098&hl=en

Via the Sac [Town] Bee:

Frustrated in efforts to legalize same-sex marriage through legislation or litigation, proponents will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign this week to “open hearts and minds” in Sacramento and other major cities.

The 60-second ads will run in the capital, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs as part of a monthslong campaign to prod families to openly discuss same-sex marriage.

“The long-term goal is to have the majority of Californians support the freedom to marry — to change the climate here,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, which is coordinating the campaign.

If CA EQ is interested in changing the climate in my home state why in the world are they only targeting areas which already have the most favorable attitudes towards marriage equality? It’s in the socially backwards central valley cities like Fresno [where Mike Ensley hails from] , Bakersfield, Stockton and Modesto where the most change needs to occur and I’m inclined to believe CA EQ’s ads would receive the most attention.

CA EQ’s website on the Let California Ring campaign gives no explanation.

Oregon Domestic Partners Breathe Easy Again

As we reported a few weeks ago, the Oregon state legislature voted in a domestic partnership law. Oregon laws can be challenged by petition and signature efforts were made to halt this bill until it was defeated (or ratified) by referendum.

KVAL is reporting that although Let Oregon Vote had turned in 63,000 signatures, not enough were valid.

State elections officials reported Monday the effort fell only 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 needed to suspend the law and place it on the November 2008 ballot for a popular vote.

That means that as of Jan. 1, Oregon will join eight other states that have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples – Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii.

It has not yet been announced whether a petition to reverse the companion non-discrimination bill has received enough valid signatures to go on the ballot.

Straights Invade Gay Retirement

The Los Angeles Times had an article on Friday about the concerns some residents of a Sante Fe gay retirement center had regarding more people moving in that are not gay. New Mexico has a housing non-discrimination policy which forbids the center from denying residency based on sexual orientation.

The controversy may be a bit exagerated as the only ones quoted as concerned later admitted that they did not object to the straight residents that had moved in. Few homophobes seek residency in a center designed for gay folks.

Because my roommate’s grandmother was one of the first heterosexual residents, I can bring you her perspective: the buildings are just the type of home she always dreamed of living in but the food is too fancy and the lecture about lesbian activism wasn’t very useful.

Homeland Security’s “Suitability Matrix”

The Department of Homeland Security retains the option of denying you a clearance for sodomy and other acts of “carnal knowledge.” Seems incredible, but an applicant for a security clearance at NASA has the goods. It turns out that the Office of Personnel Management has published a quaintly-named “Suitability Matrix” (PDF: 12.6 MB/12 pages) which lists sodomy as a Severity C (with D being most severe) “criminal and moral conduct” issue for denying a clearance.

Lawrence v. Texas — or any other court ruling or law for that matter — has very little meaning in the age of terror.

On A Personal Note

I am now a licensed architect in the State of Colorado.

Any celebration this weekend will be tempered by the fact I have hours of footage for my next video project I’m still sorting through. I’m not ready to say what it’s on just yet but Jim will very soon be a star.