Box Turtle Bulletin

What Baptists Have in Common

Former Presidents Carter and Clinton are part of a move to try and unite Baptists of varying political ideologies and religious wings under a common goal: promoting evangelism, fighting poverty and supporting religious freedom.

This admirable effort tries to bring together liberals and conservatives and provide goals upon which all can agree. However, this convergence of Baptists is not without its controversy. The nation’s largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is not participating in an official capacity because it no longer is a member of North American Baptist Fellowship or the Baptist World Alliance and some conservative Baptists claim that this is discriminatory against them.

But lest we think that this event is for all Baptists who want to be in fellowship and brotherhood, the NABF has identified that one characteristic that Baptists must share:

The North American Baptist Fellowship, under whose auspices next year’s “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” is being held, has informed the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America that they cannot join NABF. Therefore, they cannot be official participants in the event.

Both groups are gay-friendly, you see, and that appears to be the attribute that trumps all others when deciding who is really a Baptist.

GLAAD Statement on “Lesbian Gangs!!!”

This morning, I spoke with Cerissa Cafasso, Associate Director of Public Relations and Communications at GLAAD about the “Lesbian Gangs!!!” meme that anti-gay activists have been pursuing lately. GLAAD has released the following statement to Box Turtle Bulletin, which they subsequently posted on their web site as well. Of particular interest is the assertion that recent reports claiming that GLAAD threatened to sue a Memphis television station for running a “Lesbian Gangs!!!” report are false.

GLAAD Challenges Irresponsible Reporting of “Lesbian Gangs”

This year, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has been busy challenging sensationalistic and unsubstantiated reports of so-called “lesbian gangs.”

On June 21, Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor featured a segment titled “Lesbian Gang Epidemic,” in which Fox News Crime Analyst Rod Wheeler made the factually inaccurate claims that a “national network” of “lesbian gangs” preys on young girls and that 150 such gangs exist in the Washington, D.C. area. Both the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Southern Poverty Law Center found Wheeler’s assertions and statistics to be deeply flawed and misleading. In response, GLAAD issued a Call to Action, urging constituents to demand The O’Reilly Factor to provide background information and evidence that supported Wheeler’s statements. Following GLAAD’s efforts, Wheeler posted a retraction of the story on his website.

As a result of the overwhelming feedback from GLAAD and its constituents, The O’Reilly Factor invited GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs, Rashad Robinson, to appear on its July 9th show. On the program, Robinson brought to light the sensational and inaccurate assertions in Wheeler’s report. Bill O’Reilly agreed that the report was exaggerated and promised, “We’ll do better next time.”

This was not the first time GLAAD took the media to task for irresponsibly and sensationally reporting on “lesbian gangs.” In February, GLAAD called on local ABC24 and CW30 affiliates in Memphis, TN not to air a shockingly defamatory and inaccurate report dramatizing “Gays Taking Over,” with actors portraying a group of African American women preying on other women. In the report, which GLAAD screened before its airdate, the principal interview subject, a so-called “gang expert,” stated without evidence that people victimized by “lesbian gangs” would be turned gay.

Although GLAAD’s urging prompted the station to modify its report and to disclose that it was unable to document its claims or provide evidence to back them, the segment that aired retained its sensationalistic and homophobic tone. And, unlike Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor, ABC24 general manager Jack Peck refused to acknowledge the report’s irresponsible exaggerations. And recently, he even began falsely claiming that GLAAD had threatened to sue the station.

Whenever media outlets seek to boost ratings by airing sensationalized and unsubstantiated stories such as these, GLAAD will continue to demand that journalists back up their reporting with facts and statistics and that their representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community are fair, accurate and inclusive.

Peterson Toscano On Why He Entered Ex-Gay Ministries

Peterson Toscano has begun a three-part series on why “change” wasn’t possible for him in his experience in ex-gay ministries. In the first part of his series, he explains why he went into ex-gay ministries in the first place:

In my teens I also learned about Jesus and his “wonder working power,” and how “if any man (or woman) be in Christ Jesus he (or she) is a new creation. The old is gone behold all things are made new.”

…I heard slogans and testimonies that proclaimed, “Change is Possible!” and testimonies of how people found freedom from homosexuality through Jesus Christ. I did not read the fine print, Actual change in orientation not actually promised or guaranteed, since no such disclaimers existed at the time.

Tammy Faye, March 7, 1942 — July 20, 2007

Tammy Faye Messner passed away peacefully Friday after an eleven year battle with colon cancer. A private family service was held Saturday in a private cemetery, where her ashes were interred. He death was announced Saturday evening.

Rest in peace.

Here is her final interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mx2Czj1H1Q

LARRY KING: We have an e-mail question from Jimmy, Sherman Oaks, California: “Unlike many of your Christian contemporaries, you have been a very positive influence in the gay community. Why do you think you found it in your heart to love and accept us?”

TAMMY FAYE MESSNER: Well, you know when I went — we lost everything — it was the gay people that came to my rescue and I will always love them for that.

Washington Post: “Dr. Dodgy” Holsinger

The Washington Post, in an editorial yesterday, expressed dissatisfaction with the answers that Surgeon General nominee Dr. Holsinger gave at his confirmation hearing:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) did his best to show that the scientific underpinnings of Dr. Holsinger’s report were beyond weak. He pointed out that one physician whose work was featured wrote him to complain of the paper’s “unscientific, biased, and incredibly poor scholarship.” Mr. Kennedy said it “cherry-picks and misuses data”; for instance, much of the information was culled from “emergency room and trauma studies” — hardly a representative sample of gay men.

Dr. Holsinger struck a that-was-then-this-is-now pose. “The paper does not represent where I am today,” he said. Fine. But the question remains: Does Dr. Holsinger still believe that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy? If the answer is yes, he should not be confirmed.

See also:

A Closer Look at Dr. James Holsinger’s “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality”

PFOX and Richard Cohen: On the Downlow

Richard Cohen had been president of PFOX, but was forced out a year ago after publicly embarrassing himself and PFOX on CNN. Last spring, he embarrassed himself again on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. That prompted PFOX and NARTH to scrub their web sites of all mention of him.

Wayne Besen, of Truth Wins Out, reports that PFOX hasn’t exactly cut all their ties with Richard Cohen. They just took their relationship on the downlow:

To find out if there was a clandestine collaboration between PFOX and Cohen, Truth Wins Out conducted a simple experiment. The organization sent PFOX a request for an “ex-gay” speaker under the screen name FamilyManMd.

PFOX first offered an African American ex-lesbian. However, when “FamilyManMd” requested a Caucasian male speaker, the screen name received a rapid e-mail from Cohen offering his services. Cohen had previously been expelled from the American Counseling Association, which he failed to mention in his e-mail prompting his services.

Video – Soulforce Survivor’s Initiative – Love In Action Memphis Action

Part 1: Former LIA client Brandon Tidwell describes the positives and the negatives at Love In Action. He describes the burdens placed on parents of clients, saying, “I am not gay because of my parents. I am gay because this is how God made me.”

Part 2: Former LIA client David Christie married at age 21, but the marriage fell apart two and a half years later. He describes the sacrifices he made during his year at Love In Action, including having been beaten by a staff member. David and Brandon conclude by handing collages of their stories to an LIA staff member.

Thanks to Peterson for sending these our way.

LaBarbera Award Winner: Rick Scarborough

I think I’ll inaugurate a new award, called the LaBarbera Award. It will be awarded on an as-earned basis for the most outrageous, offensive, malevolent, crazy, excessive — you get the picture — statement or claim. (Paul Cameron is ineligible; otherwise nobody else would ever get a chance to win.) I thought about naming it for Fred Phelps, but he’s in a class all by himself.

So to kick it off, I’m pleased to give the first LaBarbera Award to none other than Rick Scarborough for saying that your failure to oppose hate crimes legislation will leave the “blood of martyrs” on your hands:

Mark this down; the day that this law becomes federal statute, the open persecution of major conservative broadcast ministries like Focus on the Family and D. James Kennedy will begin, and it will not end until it arrives at a church near you. If you want to avoid having the blood of martyrs on your hands, then join tens of thousands of other Americans who still hold to the truths of God’s Word and click here to send a message to your senators and President Bush that you do not want this legislation. Finally, please click here and make the largest contribution you can to Vision America Action, our 501C4, to assist us in fighting this battle. [Emphasis mine, hyperlinks removed.]

He not only won the first LaBarbera award, Scarborough earned bonus points for recruiting martyrs for a fundraising appeal. Classy.

“It’s Not That I’m A Bad Dude. I Love God.”

That’s the reason 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum gave for going to a Houston gay bar on June 11, hunting for a gay man to kill. He found one:

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a “loving” son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest [Airlines] for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as “definitely not a homosexual,” said God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is the “worst sin.” … “I planned on sending him to hell,” he said.

Bay Windows Report On Emergence of Ex-Gay Survivors

Boston’s Bay Windows has just published a good report on the ex-gay survivor’s conference. While most survivors talk about the harms they experienced in ex-gay ministries and therapies, I find it interesting that reporters are noticing that some can point to some positive aspects of their ex-gay experiences:

Yet Toscano said another surprise was that some people were willing to acknowledge positive aspects about their ex-gay experience. One person wrote, “Part of the journey of becoming who God is making me to be.” Another wrote, “My partner says her years as an ex-gay were wasted. But God is using that experience in her ministry and those years make her the person she is today — and I love that person with all my heart and soul.”

There are many areas of common ground between ex-gays and ex-ex-gays, and there really is a genuine kinship between them. And I use the word “kinship” in it’s close, familial sense. They are family to each other. Maybe that’s why so many ex-gay leaders are so defensive.

Focus On the Family Jumps On the “Lesbian Gangs!!!” Bandwagon

CitizenLink is now working the Lesbian Gangs!!! theme, pumping a lurid sweeps-week report by a Memphis ABC affiliate from last February. Focus claims this story is being suppressed by gay activists:

Peter LaBarbera, with Americans for Truth, said the station manager told him the group [GLAAD] definitely did not want the story to air.

“A senior staffer told him several times, ‘We’re going to take you to court if you air this report,’ ” he said.

Similar gang activity is reported in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Linda Jernigan, a former homosexual, said that’s why GLAAD is making such an issue of the Memphis story.

“They don’t want this type of information to get out,” she told Family News in Focus, “because then they know people’s eyes will be opened, they’ll begin to see this whole situation for what it really is.”

Here’s the situation for what it really is: Memphis police have no police reports or arrest records to substantiate this story. That’s why the station manager, after reviewing the report, finally admitted that they had no independent confirmation that anything had happened.

You’d think CitizenLink would understand the importance of independent confirmation in journalistic practices. After all, they claim to have professional editor, don’t they? But even with professional editors CitizenLink still has difficulty understanding journalistic standards.

But what about the other cities?

• New York? Nope. Just a group of women who overreacted to a street vendor coming on to them.
• Philadelphia? Hardly. That turned out to be a bunch of eighth graders at one middle school.
• Chicago? Consider the source.
• Baltimore? Nope. At least I can’t find any evidence for it. If you can, leave it in the comments.
• Washington, D.C.? Okay, found one.

I’m sure that out of the many thousands of gangs across the nation, some are bound to be gay or lesbian. And insofar as we do have a serous gang problem that needs to be addressed at all levels, and there are likely to be gay and/or lesbian gangs among them, I don’t want to minimize anyone’s efforts to highlight the problem of criminal activity among youths.

But really. An epidemic of Lesbian Gangs!!!? Hardly.

Let’s go back to what Rod Wheeler said. He’s the guy who appeared with Fox New’s Bill O’Reilly and started all of this nonsense. He’s also the guy who retracted the whole thing:

Lastly, I mentioned in the segment that there is this “national epidemic” of lesbian gangs. A better choice of words would have been to say that there is a growing concern nationally, and especially in major urban areas, of increased gang activity, which includes some lesbian gang activity.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to make a compelling headline out of that.

EDGE Boston Features Love In Action

EDGE Boston began running a four-part series last week on the ex-gay movement by publisher David Foucher. Last week’s installment provides an overview of the ex-gay movement and why people go into it. Today’s installment focuses mainly on Memphis-based Love In Action, and features extensive quotes from former client Peterson Toscano. He talks about the weekend when his parents came to LIA to join him for some seminars and counseling:

“They felt that the reason you’re gay is not nature, it’s nurture,” Peterson recounts. “And so they drag the parents into this. They brought mine out for a weekend…”

“I walked away from that weekend ok — but my sister told me that when my parents returned home they were not the same. They were depressed, despondent, hardly ate or talked to anybody. This was the biggest most important thing in their lives — to be a good parent — and after two days at Love In Action they basically got the message that they screwed up their kid. That’s the most horrible thing you can tell a parent.”

See also:

EDGE Boston Examines Reparative Therapy

Survivor Initiative at Love In Action in Memphis

Yesterday two former Love In Action (LIA) clients, David Christie and Brandon Tidwell, shared some of their experiences as former clients and ex-gay survivors at a Survivors Initiative in front of LIA in Memphis.

The event was organized by Soulforce, although Love In Action appeared to be confused about that. They seemed to believe it was organized by Peterson Toscano, who wasn’t even in the state. LIA issued this press release:

LIA seems to think this is all about Peterson, and not the many other former clients who are coming forward to share their experiences in LIA. Peterson responds:

I find LIA’s statement, and particularly my inclusion in it, to be very curious, especially since I am still waiting to hear back from John Smid after a recent e-mail exchange we had. I am not one to print private e-mails, but if Love in Action is going to accuse me of being closed to dialog all the while stringing me along with promises of dialog, I may need to set the record straight.

While focusing on current (paying) clients, John Smid has not found time to connect with former clients like me after expressing a desire to do so. Perhaps LIA staff and board will launch a last minute initiative to make some calls to former clients to check in on how we are doing. If so, it is a good first step, but cannot be considered a serious, thoughtful approach to organized aftercare and follow-up.

I did not organize today’s press conference or contact any of the media, Soulforce did that. My role as an ex-gay survivor was to assist the people who could go…

A local reporter noted, “[LIA Director John Smid’s] prepared statement talks about dialogue, but there was none, not even with reporters whose questions he refused.”

It would have been good if LIA could have dropped its defenses and met with the people who were there. Brandon Tidwell’s experience at LIA was a mixture of positive and negative experiences, and he is very upfront in describing both aspects. David Cristie on the other hand was beaten by a staff member who lost his temper, an event that David attributes to LIA’s status as a ministry and not as a regulated mental health facility with standards for staff qualifications and training.

In 2005, the Tennessee Department of Health investigated Love in Action for operating a mental health facility without a license. A judge barred LIA from treating patients who were taking anti-depressants and other mental health drugs. LIA countersued and made minor changes to its programs to avoid state regulation, (they used to refer to their participants as “patients,” now they’re “clients” undergoing religious counseling) and the state of Tennessee settled the case.

Help Jog Mike Ensley’s Memory

Exodus International’s Mike Ensley posted the following comment on Warren Throckmorton’s website:

I don’t think you understand Exodus’ political involvement at all. Do you think all (or even most) pro-homosexual activist groups are adopting a “live and let live” policy toward people with different beliefs? Hardly.

My focus is entirely on youth and education, and believe me, the lobbying in that field is nothing like “live and let live.” In California, for instance, pro-gay advocates have exclusive rights to what children are taught in public schools regarding these issues. Parents are explicitly kept out of the loop–and if they somehow get in the loop, they have no right to opt their children out of instruction that undermines their values.

As for “ending people’s rights,” I would just like to know what rights Exodus is helping to end, and for whom?

Your comment about a “you must live our way” stand really doesn’t have any basis, either. Opposing thought-crimes legislation and education law that excludes every view except a gay-centric one is hardly forcing others to live the way we do.

Now I think Mike is either rather forgetful or perhaps unaware of the activist nature that Exodus has adopted.  He seems to think that Exodus’ political activism is limited to “thought crimes legislation” (the dismissive description he gives to hate-motivated violent criminal activity) and exclusive education laws.

I started to respond to Mike.  But rather than just rely on my memory of the activities Exodus and their staff have taken to trample on my rights and freedoms – and the spin and outright lies they will tell about, for example, the California education code – I thought I would get the shared input of our readers first.

So please help me remind Mike of the extent of Exodus’ political activism.  And if you are familiar with California’s education system, share that as well.

Dr. Throckmorton on CNN

Dr. Warren Throckmorton and Dr. Benjamin McCommon were interviewed by CNN regarding their views on the APA’s current revaluation of their position on reparative therapy.  Though Throckmorton favors the APA being open to religious values based therapy and McCommon favors clients leading a life in congruence with one’s sexual orientation, both doctors agreed that a therapist should not dictate to a client what they “should do”. 

Over all the presentation was non-confrontational and informative.  I particularly agree with this statment of Dr. Throckmorton:

I think that the research on the subject is mixed. Some research shows that the effort to change one’s sexual orientation, even if not successful, can have benefit for the person seeking it. Other research has suggested that those efforts are harmful. So, I would say that we need more research about the subject.

But the point really of the research is there’s two focuses here. Is one, does the person benefit from the attempt? And two, does the person actually change? Both of those questions require, in my opinion, a good bit more research before we could say for certainty what the answer is for most people.

I think it is clear that for most people, the person does not actually change.  However a good bit more research is definitely welcome.