Box Turtle Bulletin

Why Does The Family Research Council Hate Our National Anthem?

The Family Research Council just sent this action alert to its supporters:

This past Sunday, at the San Diego Padres baseball game, what was advertised as a “Free Floppy Hat Night” for kids under 14 turned out to be a double play. While the Padres management was enticing families with the giveaway for kids, it was also promoting the evening as a Gay Pride night at the ballpark. Children who received free hats were treated to the Gay Man’s Chorus of San Diego singing the national anthem prior to what one homosexual group billed as “Out at the Park with the San Diego Padres.”

…Click the link below to contact the San Diego Padres and tell them that baseball is a family game that shouldn’t be used as an exhibition of homosexual lifestyles.

A gay chorus singing “The Star Spangled Banner” is an “exhibition of homosexual lifestyles.” My hat’s off to the FRC. I don’t have the imagination it takes to make this stuff up.

Holsinger Confirmation Hearing Tomorrow

Dr. James Holsinger’s Surgeon General nomination hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is set for tomorrow, July 12 at 10 a.m. (EDT) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. This will be two days after former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona’s explosive testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committe about the “administration’s muzzling of medical science when it conflicts with administration policy.

Since Dr. Holsinger himself has a demonstrated record for representing medical science for policy considerations with the United Methodist Church, these hearing should be very interesting.

You might want to take this moment to make sure your Senator has seen our report, “A Closer Look at Dr. James Holsinger’s “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality’.” It’s important that he or she understands what this nominee once promoted as the best available research on homosexuality.

More on Lesbian Gangs!!!

Remember those all those rampaging Lesbian gangs that Fox News discovered? Rod Wheeler told Bill O’Reilly that the nation’s capital was being overrun by lesbian gangs. Wheeler has now spun down his rhetoric from the no-spin zone:

During the O’Reilly Factor segment on June 21st, while engaged in a discussion on Lesbian gangs, I inadvertently stated that gang members carry pistols that are painted pink and call themselves the “Pink Pistol Packing Group.” I was not referring to the gay rights group “Pink Pistols” who advocates for the lawful rights of gays to carry weapons for protection. Further, I mentioned that there are “over 150 of these gangs” in the greater Washington DC area. What I actually meant is that there are over 150 gangs in the Washington DC area, some of which are in fact lesbian gangs. 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.

I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused.

Buy Levi Kreis’ Album

Although you may not yet recognize the name, singing artist Levi Kreis has an impressive resume.  The National Tour of Rent, appearances on The Apprentice and Days of Our Lives, two albums, and three independant movies including Del Shore’s Southern Baptist Sissies, which I’m sure you will all rush out and see when it comes out.

I had the opportunity to hear Levi perform at the church I attend this past Sunday and hear a bit of where he comes from as well as get blown away by his vocal abilities.  I had known that Levi had an ex-gay past (and had discussed it at Ex-Gay Watch) but it was touching to hear him talk about a contract he made with God that he’d spend three hours every day in prayer and Bible study if God would just take “that thing” away – and how he kept his end of the deal for years waiting for God to make his straight.  I blinked back tears.

I picked up Levi’s latest album, The Gospel According to Levi, and have had it in the CD player since.  The dedication it takes to make and keep a years-long many hour commitment is evident in Levi’s music.  And those who were raised in church will immediately recognize how heavily his background has influenced both his sound and his message.  Buy this CD – I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Former Surgeon General: Administration “Muzzled” Science

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona (2002-2006) testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about being muzzled by political appointees in the Bush administration on matters of science and health. Carmona is quoted as saying:

Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried. The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party,”

Carmona said he was politically naïve when he started the job, and was astounded at how science was manipulated to serve political causes. Sound familiar? James Holsinger, nominated to replace Carmona as Surgeon General, will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday.

See also:

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

Run for your Life!! Lesbian Gangs on the Loose!!

For a good healthy dose of crazy, it’s hard to beat the ex-gays. But when you combine an ex-gay, World Net Daily, and Peter LaBarbera, you get enough crazy for a three ring circus full of clowns in big shoes and little cars.

Take, for example, the report by he-of-no-spin, Bill O’Reilly, about a national network of lesbian gangs (150 in DC alone) who were raping schoolgirls. In addition to being a national crime cartel, Bill’s reporter, Rod Wheeler, breathlessly tells him that a lot of their viewers will want to know that some of these lesbian gangs call themselves Pink Pistol Carriers.

Which would, no doubt, be quite a surprise to the actual Pink Pistols, a national gay and lesbian gun-enthusists group that is friendly with the NRA.

GLAAD took a little look-see and found that the report was, well, spinning faster than a tornado in a trailer park:

Gaithersburg, Md., Detective Patrick Word is President of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, an intelligence-sharing organization of 400 criminal justice professionals in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Virginia. He told the Intelligence Report, “there is no evidence whatsoever of a lesbian gang epidemic in this region…our membership reports only one lesbian gang.”

When confronted by the facts, Bill O’Reilly apologized because his reporter “got carried away” and had a follow-up segment in which he backed away from the earlier claims and allowed a representative from GLAAD to provide facts that shed a different light on the story.

But anti-gay gadfly LaBarbera knows things that the Gang Investigators Network and The O’Reilly Factor are afraid to tell. LaBarbera has access to (breathless pause) an ex-lesbian:

Having heard over the years of the fast-growing influence of lesbian gangs and their tactics of intimidation, LaBarbera said the reports, including an estimate of 150 attack squads in the Washington, D.C., region alone, were no surprise.

LaBarbera told WND he heard about the “lesbian bullying phenomenon” from former lesbian-turned-Christian evangelist Linda Jernigan, who was contacted by a teacher about speaking at a suburban Chicago where “this sick behavior was occurring.”

“Jernigan said she was told that lesbian girl gangs would drag a targeted female into the school restroom, hold her down, and perform oral sex on her to ‘turn her out’ – i.e., forcible ‘seduce’ the poor girl through lesbian rape,” he said.

And the only reason we don’t all quiver in our boots that marauding gangs of lesbians will attack us and subject us all to hours of lesbian sex is because of the evil homosexual lobby that controls all of the media. And though O’Reilly admitted that he isn’t afraid of being attacked by lesbians on the loose on the way to his car, he should be!!

“All they wanted to do was shut down the story,” LaBarbera told WND. “This epitomizes the selfishness of the gay activists.”

Now I don’t want to diminish any harm anyone has experienced as the victim of a lesbian gang. Any violence, bullying, or harassment should be immediately met with a concerted effort to see that the guilty parties are swiftly brought to justice. If there is a gang of lesbians that is harming schoolgirls, I encourage authorities to allocate resources to ending this swiftly.

But until such allegations are substantiated, sometimes you just have to sit back and laugh at the clowns.

Update: Rod Wheeler, Bill O’Reilly’s “Lesbian Gangs!!!” expert recants.

Hey Wait, I’m Not Done Yet

Fort Lauderdale’s socially conservative (and clearly idiotic) mayor, Jim Naugle, has identified a crime wave that the police were unaware of and has proposed that the city shell out big bucks to fix it.  He’s decided that sex in public bathrooms at the beach is a blight (there was a single arrest last year) and wants robotic public toilets whose doors fly open after a certain amount of time.  He followed up this proposal with this bit of loveliness:

I don’t use the word ‘gay.’ I use the word ‘homosexual.’ Most of them aren’t gay. They’re unhappy.

The community responded by starting a drive to send Mayor Naugle toilet paper so he could “wipe his dirty mind clean”. But I think that the best response, by far, is the rather droll advice given by Commissioner Dean Trantalis and reported by World Net Daily (who clearly didn’t get the joke):

“I’m not an expert on public toilet sex,” said Trantalis, “but there are those who would say one minute would be enough. Or 30 seconds.”

Holsinger Nomination and “Practicing Homosexuals”

The New York Times published an editorial in which they expressed serious reservations about Dr. James Holsinger’s nomination to be the next Surgeon General. It was a pretty good and balanced editorial. Except —

Well, it seems that whoever wrote the editorial may have had their heart in the right place, but their stylebook was definitely somewhere else. The unnamed writer used the archaic term “homosexual” to describe gays and lesbians, and compounded that error with “practicing homosexuals” in an otherwise fine concluding paragraph. Those unfortunate and ill-considered words have several pro-gay web sites seeing red, for good reason. Michelangelo Signorile responds:

Let’s all write the Times and let them know that we are not a coven of witches “practicing” our craft.

Oh dear. That’s all fine and well, but let’s not drag the Gay and Lesbian Wiccans into this.

Threatdown: Ex-Gay Survivors

One of my favorite segments on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report is the “Threatdown,” where Stephen Colbert runs down a list of the leading threats to society. Continuing reactions to the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference leads me to believe that if there were an ex-gay “Threatdown,” former ex-gays would top the list.

The Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference continues to reverberate in some very interesting ways. For thirty-two years, ex-gay ministries, particularly as embodied by Exodus International, have enjoyed a virtual monopoly in framing the issues and setting the parameters for debate. Until now, their only counterparts have largely consisted of gay-rights advocates who know very little about the ex-gay movement and, often, next to nothing about contemporary Evangelical Christianity that is at the heart of the movement.

But the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference has changed all that, and the reactions from ex-gay ministries are telling. Exodus president Alan Chambers left an angry-sounding comment on Shawn O’Donnell’s blog, and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX, Richard Cohen’s former outfit) responded with a hysterical open letter on their MySpace page:

While you all claim in websites, protests, in organizations, or coalitions, to want to help people who are “trapped in the ex-gay movement,” you seem to be more concerned with sticking your nose in my business, and telling me the way you think I should live, along with who I am. You don’t know me, and you don’t know my needs and wants. While you go on and on with slogans like “I survived the ex-gay movement,” it’s actually the groups like you that make it harder for us to “survive” if anything.

…Your attempts to get what you and you only want don’t scare me, nor do your lies and false accusations. If I want to change, that’s my business. Who are you to tell me who I am or how I should live? You know what? You’re no one. So get a life stay outta my business!

It’s hard to imagine that 175 people (give or take) gathering on a largely empty campus in Irvine, California could provoke such vitriol. Those who gathered for that conference didn’t seek to invalidate anyone else’s experience, nor did they try to project their experiences onto others. They were merely trying to describe their own experiences within the ex-gay movement. These stories acknowledged the good with the bad, and they were deeply personal and unique to each participant there.

Just a few miles down the road, Exodus held their Exodus Freedom Conference. I actually attended both conferences. And I must say that the contrast between the two was quite striking. While I was at the Exodus conference, I heard speaker after speaker describe their own lives of drug abuse, sexual abuse, physical and emotional trauma, depression, sexual compulsion, and so on.

Taking them at their word, I couldn’t help but believe that these speakers were telling the truth when they said they had led miserable lives. And again, taking them at their word, I was glad to know that they had overcome all of the addictions, abuse, traumas, depression, and whatever else that led to so much misery and heartache. But what I don’t remember hearing was anyone saying that their experience was all that unique. What I heard instead was the implication that their own personal struggles were common and even nearly universal among everyone who is gay or lesbian.

And so while I heard very few attempts at the Survivor’s conference to invalidate anyone’s story who is happy with their ex-gay experience, I certainly heard speaker after speaker at the Exodus conference invalidate my story and the stories of so many people I’ve come to know.

And so when I see the open letter from PFOX complaining that somehow the ex-gay survivors are “sticking your nose in my business, and telling me the way you think I should live, along with who I am,” I can’t help but shake my head at the incredible chutzpah it takes to say that with a straight face.

For the first time, former ex-gays are coming forward to tell their stories of their own experiences from deep inside the ex-gay movement. And they have done this in a way that draws directly from the language and culture of the movement. This also means that for the first time, the legitimate counterpart to the ex-gay message speaks the ex-gay language because they lived it. They walked that walk, and they know the talk far better than all the well-intentioned but often ill-informed activists who came before.

And more importantly, many of these former ex-gays still speak the language of Evangelical Christianity. For some, they have emerged from their struggles with their love of God intact. Tragically however, that was not the case for many others. And that, too, for many, is a consequence of their experiences with ex-gay ministries. But again, not all.

Peterson Toscano sums this up pretty well as he reflects on the defensive reactions to the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference:

These ex-gay survivor stories strike a cord. While at Love in Action, whenever one of us would get defensive about some feedback we got from staff or other participants, the staff encouraged us to look into that defensiveness to see if there was anything in it. Perhaps we felt defensive because we heard a truth that we were yet not able/willing to grasp.

Donald Hank: “Big Sodomy” Wants To “Silence” Cameron

I rarely read WorldNetDaily, an omission I intend to correct immediately. I almost missed this interesting nugget, “Will ex-gays bring down ‘Big Sodomy’?” The title alone is worth the price of admission, which, of course, is free.

Donald Hank (who I’ve never heard of before, but there’s his picture in case you’re curious) is all excited that a gay activist by the name of Mike Glatze (who I also had never heard of before) has decided to switch teams and become ex-gay. And Hank believes that somehow this unknown activist is supposed to be some sort of body-blow against the whole homosexual-industrial complex that Hank has dubbed “Big Sodomy.”

Frankly, I don’t know what the fuss is all about. I’ve been rather bemused by the reaction to Glatze’s homo-hostile broadside. He’s not the most interesting anti-gay writer, nor is he the most talented. And I also can’t help noticing that Glatze is trying to stretch his fleeting fifteen minutes of fame into a sixteenth minute by hitting virtually every web site that mentions his name with either an email or a long-winded comment (or both).

But enough about that. The passage that I found most interesting wasn’t Glatze’s energetic and ongoing attempts to draw attention to himself, but this:

Of course, the promulgation of knowledge and data concerning the link between alternative sex and disease is hampered by the bullying tactics of the elite. Thus, only a few facts are known at all to some of the public (such as the results of a study in Scandinavia showing that men in same-sex marriages die 24 years earlier than their counterparts in the general population), and these facts aren’t mainstream, thanks to the media blackout on this issue and the muzzling of opponents under color of law. And that, in turn, is thanks to the activists.

Sure enough, these “facts” aren’t mainstream, but not because of a media blackout or any muzzling by “Big Sodomy.” The facts aren’t mainstream simply because they are utterly ridiculous and demonstrably false. These statistics comes straight from Paul Cameron’s latest oeuvre, “Federal Distortion of Homosexual Footprint,” which I analyzed in detail last April. Cameron’s actions surrounding that paper led to his condemnation by the Eastern Psychological Association just a few weeks later.

But now we have Donald Hank — whoever he is — adding his name to a long roster of those who rely on the discredited “science” of a man who credits the Nazis for “curing” homosexual . And unfortunately, that roster keeps growing. These are the people who continue to spread Paul Cameron’s bogus statistics, despite his censure by four different professional associations and his draconian “solutions” for the homosexual problem. Does Hank also agree with Cameron’s manifesto?

I would love to hear Hank’s thoughts on this.

Holsinger’s Support May Be Slipping

According to this morning’s Washington Times, Dr. James Holsinger’s nomination for Surgeon General may be in trouble, and not just among Democrats.

The Times canvassed Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee members, who will hold a hearing for Holsinger’s nomination this Thursday. Five Republicans who responded, including ranking member Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), refused to commit to Holsinger’s nomination or offer any indication of support. Two Democrats on the committee — Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) — oppose his nomination, and Barak Obama (D-IL) has voiced serious reservations.

And now the Family Research Council’s Tom McCluskey is voicing reservations of his own about Dr. Holsinger. In 2002, Holsinger testified before a Kentucky state legislature committee in support of looser regulations on cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research in that state. While the White House counters that Holsinger fully supports the administration’s position on stem cell research, the FRC is taking a wait and see stance.

Hat tip: Bible Belt Blogger, who continues to provide the best coverage of the Holsinger nomination.

See also:

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

Video – Soulforce Survivor’s Initiative – New Life Church Action

Yesterday Soulforce held another Survivor’s Initiative action, this time at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The first two clips below document the action and the third clip is Peterson Toscano’s (one of the participants) explanation of why these actions are unannounced.

Richard Cohen Shifts Gears

Grove City College’s Warren Throckmorton noticed that Richard Cohen, the self-proclaimed ex-gay “psychotherapist” who heads the International Healing Foundation, has quietly announced that he is no longer personally counseling clients who want to change their sexual orientation.

Cohen does however continue to offer personal consultations, treatment plans and referrals. He also sells a series of internet-based teleconferences and what he calls “healing seminars,” and he is more than happy to “certify” other therapists in his unorthodox methods for $1,400 a pop. And it looks like some have taken him up on the offer.

And all of this, of course, follows his own line of books, audio CD’s and DVDs. In case you were wondering, buying his products happens to be “step 1” of his “process of healing”. He doesn’t even want you to contact him until you’ve done that.

Which is probably for the best, because when you read his 2001 book Coming Out Straight — the one with Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s endorsement on the front cover — you’ll find out what his “process of healing” is all about.

But if you’ve read his book and you’re still interested in getting in on his act, he has an entire line of products for each of the remaining four steps of healing. In fact, he has an entire ladder of healing; an ex-gay pyramid, if you will.

With so many products to sell and seminars to hold and teleconferences to sponsor, maybe one-on-one counseling has become a poor revenue stream from a return-on-investment standpoint.

It’s amazing what one can get by with in a wide open field with no standards, no regulation, and no accountability. Caveat emptor.

See also:

Richard Cohen Shifts Gears
Richard Cohen Is “Disappeared”
Fallout From Richard Cohen’s “The Daily Show” Appearance
Therapy In the Wild, Wild West

More Interviews With People Who Once Believed They Had ‘Changed’

Last week when I posted interviews with former Exodus leaders I noted strategically it has always been difficult to counter Exodus’ claims of change when they use the “I’ve changed and I’m living proof change is possible” argument. I believe highlighting the stories of people who once believed they had changed is an effective answer to Exodus’ approach. I shot a couple more interviews at the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference over the weekend and present them here:

Twenty-two years pedaling on a stationary bike: He was part of Australia’s first ex-gay program in 1972.

Twelve years in numbness: Until he realized that his ministry leaders weren’t “changing” either.

Ten years, four ministries, time spent hoping: He finally realized that he was just “stuffing” those feelings more and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uQ33glBuk

Eleven years; “Like holding a candle to a bonfire”: He felt he was falling in love with a wonderful woman, until he really fell in love with a man in the church.

Followed the rules at Love In Action: But as soon as he left, he realized that not much had changed.

Assistant House Leader at Love In Action: But he saw too many failures around him, leading him to think there was something wrong with the message.

An Exodus Conference Attendee Goes to the Ex-Gay Survivor’s Conference

Karen Keen is a lay leader in the house church Gathering by the Bay. She attended the Exodus Freedom Conference in Irvine. She also accepted Peterson Toscano’s and Christine Bakke’s invitation for dinner and dialogue. Karen also attended part of the Exodus Survivor’s conference Friday evening and Saturday morning. She shares her thoughts on her blog, Pursuing God. It’s a very lovely and grace-filled post.

Hat tip: Scott H.