The Big 'Ex-Gay' Extravaganza

Sporting a fog machine for its smoke and mirrors routine and an extravagant stage that would make The Rolling Stones blush, the "ex-gay" group Exodus International held its glitzy annual conference in Asheville, North Carolina. I was in town all week to partner with regional and state organizations to oppose the meeting and its dizzying array of distortions.

A dark cloud hovered over the Exodus event, with violent hate crimes unsettling the local GLBT community. At the very moment ex-gay televangelists were railing against homosexuals in the foothills, news broke of an 18-year old boy in Anderson, South Carolina whose father, "yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to cast the demon of homosexuality out of him."

In nearby Greenville, South Carolina, Stephen Moller, an anti-gay thug who murdered 20-year-old Sean William Kennedy outside a gay bar, just learned that he would spend approximately 10 months in jail for his ferocious crime. In this gross miscarriage of justice, the message was sent that murdering gay people was tacitly acceptable, if not encouraged. While in town, I spoke to Sean's grieving mother, Elke Kennedy, who rightfully called the sentence, "a joke and a slap on the wrist." Meanwhile, on the opening day of the Exodus conference, an anti-bullying bill was stalled in the North Carolina legislature.

Into this backdrop of brutality stepped the ex-gay activists Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas, who were determined to show the progressive residents of Asheville that Exodus did not stigmatize gay and lesbian people. Unfortunately, they kept tripping over reality and revealing the true nature of their duplicitous, deceptive and depraved ministry.

For a week, western North Carolinians were dazzled with disingenuousness. The audacity of the lies was breathtaking and the sheer nerve was mind numbing. By the end of the conference, everyone who had paid attention learned that Exodus leaders are shameless charlatans who lack even a modicum of morality.

For example, Thomas tried to distance Exodus from the controversial practice of "reparative therapy," telling the Asheville Citizen-Times, "We get lumped into the groups that do reparative therapy, when it's just not true."

To put it kindly, Thomas sees the truth as a political pinwheel that he can spin in his efforts to win. I personally visited the Exodus conference (before I was evicted) and found that they were selling several books that taught "reparative therapy" including one from Dr. Joseph Nicolosi who invented the term.

In yet another instance of insincerity, on a local radio talk show Thomas feigned compassion for people living with HIV and AIDS. What "good guy" Thomas failed to tell listeners was that Exodus addresses AIDS on its website by saying that, "In today's society, homosexuality is reaping a bitter harvest...Homosexual involvement reaps deep devastation in the lives of many who practice it." That Thomas runs away from such judgmental words when speaking to more liberal audiences shows what a phony he truly is.

The double-talk and dissembling continued when Alan Chambers told the Citizen-Times that Exodus was, "not about fire and brimstone." This, of course, was the same person who wrote in a 2005 newsletter, "One of the many evils this world has to offer is the sin of homosexuality. Satan, the enemy, is using people to further his agenda to destroy the Kingdom of God and as many souls as he can." On Sept. 21, 2007, Chambers told a crowd of social conservatives in Florida, "We have to stand up against an evil agenda. It is an evil agenda and it will take anyone captive that is willing, or that is standing idly by."

With such bombastic broadsides, does one really have to wonder how the violent Andersonville father got the idea that homosexuality was demonic? Or, how the gay bashing hooligan, Stephen Moller, believed he could devalue the life of a gay man?

To underscore this connection, consider Exodus' keynote speaker on Friday, author Andy Comiskey, who wrote a book that Exodus was selling, which calls homosexuality "spiritual disfigurement" and says that "Satan delights in homosexual perversion." Inside of a packed chapel, 700 vulnerable and confused gay people had their souls strip-mined, as Comiskey declared war:

"Wickedness is a reality," said Comiskey on-stage. "And those with same-sex attraction that succumb to the spirit of the age, can become agents of that wickedness...When you claim healing for the homosexual, you have declared war. And people, it is only going to get worse; it is only going to get worse in the changing cultural climate in which we live. Ours is not a benign healing path, it is a call to battle."

And, Exodus claims it does not preach fire and brimstone?

Exodus may smile sweetly and tell the mainstream media they love homosexuals. But, judging by the recent hate crimes in the Carolinas combined with the reactionary rhetoric of Exodus, it seems that they are literally "loving" us to death.

Follow Wayne Besen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Truthwinout

Comments

[OtayPanky]

I'm neither gay/lesbian/bi/TG nor am I a Christian - but if you happen to be both, you can find a spiritual home at one of the OASIS ministries of the Episcopal Church.

http://theoasis.dioceseofnewark.org/resources_welcoming.htm

[blueskybigstar]

Ten months? What about hate crime laws?

[NCGigi]

It does not apply to LGBTQ people.

[dadw5boys]

why does no one ever mention the role of advertizers using sex in every ad to sell anything they can bring to market.

are you afraid that mentioning the over use of sex causes harm to young people and confuses and skews the role of sex in society.

or are you afraid the economic machine that drives our ecomony will faulter if you question the method in with they sell their junk.

[jcutbirth]

Wayne, thank you so much for all the work you do to help fight these parasites and bullys who prey on people and their families.

[Rockwell]

With enough "therapy" you can teach anyone to hump a monkey. Doesn't mean it's changed their sexual identity. Just means you've added monkeys to the menu.

What's pathetic about these psuedo Christians is that they obsess about the sex. Sexuality is so much more than copulation. Didn't these idiots ever read love poems or listen to ballads? Being in love is so much richer and deeper than just being in lust.

I'm a gay man. I love my women friends, I've only fallen in love with men. It's not something I chose. It's not something pushed upon me. It's not the result of daddy issues or mommy trouble. My parents are great folks, even if they do vote republican.

I'm gay because that's how God made me. It took me a lot of years to reach that understanding and make peace with myself. The only sick bastards are the ones who twist and manipulate people to their own agenda, like these Exodus frauds.

[joebiz]

Religious hucksters, Elmer Gantry wannabe frauds, crooks and shams. Religion or the role of religion poisons eveything.. Put the title of reverend or any other religious moniker before a name and it becomes a license to steal. Being gay is not a disease, mental, physical, or otherwise. But, being a religious zealot with an agenda borders on fascism, intolerance, and pseudo-science.

[kjdwyer]

Borders, nothing. It IS pure fascism.

I absolutely agree with you. The poison of religious fanaticism is rampant in American life, and especially American political discourse, and growing at an alarming rate. Christian evangelicals already make up a surprising 25% of the population. How long before they reach critical mass?

One possible light (however dim) in the face of all this is an article from this website written a couple of weeks ago about the decline among younger evangelicals in their open opposition to homosexuality.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-waldman/abortion-vs-homosexuality_b_111921.html

Also, gay rights have continued to slowly but surely advance in the face of this growing rise in religious fanaticism (with obvious setbacks here and there, i.e. states revising their constitutions to ban gay marriage). It's remarkable, but by no means a sign that we can relax. We have to reamain vigilant, but we should be proud of the advances we've already made.

For example, the marriage in California of my best friend and his partner of 21 years. I honestly never thought I'd see the day.

It provides a very odd juxtaposition, but perhaps the closer we get to parity, the more extreme will be the instances described in this article. We just need to stay the course we've been following, and not get drawn in to responding in kind. Our best answer to their b.s. is our openess, diligence and honesty while their arguments disintegrate like wet cardboard.

[Deaninphilly]

I think your painting with your brush far too wide. There are plenty of religious people out there as well as churches that do a lot of good and are not stealing. Be very careful when using words that condemn all as the same can be used right back against you. I'm gay, religious and deeply involved am I also included in your summation?

[hartkid]

I'm just glad Estelle Getty is not around to see this. WWEGD? Try asking yourself that sometime, Exodus.

[marignymitch]

The mission of Exodus is to make money. Lots of it. They do it by terrorizing impresssionable gay men and lesbians. The strategy works well for our Escalade-driving christianist preachers too. God is bread, as we said in the '60s.

[DavidHealy]

A gay man/woman who is chaste is nevertheless gay as opposed to "ex-gay." The issue is the identity, not whether one does or does not have sex. It's the identity that bothers these folks, nor really the sex.

[ToeJamSam]

"By the end of the conference, everyone who had paid attention learned that Exodus leaders are shameless charlatans who lack even a modicum of morality."
~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~
Your quote here, in a nutshell, sums it up perfectly!

[Sciguy]

Wickedness is indeed a reality. Want a good example? Try Andy Comiskey...

Thanks for a great article.

[nightbloom]

Scary stuff. Exodus sounds pretty hard-core protestant evangelical - I'm more familiar with the much more moderate group "Courage" which definitely doesn't push reparative therapy (just chastity), and which doesn't engage in public advocacy or political activism. It discussion of homosexuality is much more elevated, although (of course) it doesn't endorse policy initiatives which validate gay relationships. There are similar groups for Muslims and Jews which take a more enlightened view than the examples discussed in this article. Focusing on the most extreme statements from a single unrepresentative group, interspersed with unrelated references to gay-bashings, doesn't advance the discussion much. I've known quite a lot of gay men who have chosen to become chaste after unsuccessful relationships or after getting their fill of the gay male "sex-&-drugs" subculture. We don't really address this reality, and in this sense the gay community is guilty of misrepresenting itself somewhat (just like Exodus). It ain't all "Will & Grace" that's for sure. But then, I've known some heterosexual men who have done the same (chosen a lifestyle of devout chastity after getting their fill of self-indulgence, or after failed relationships). There's nothing wrong with that. It's a personal decision. There are many, many ways of being a sexual minority, and they don't all include a pride float, a white picket fence, and tickets to the nearest circuit party.

[KevinVT]

"Focusing on the most extreme statements from a single unrepresentative group"....

Actually, it's the largest and best-funded group, as well as the most virulent. "Courage" is indeed more moderate, which is why Besen doesn't target them for his criticism. There are gay-positive denominations and gay-positive Jewish congregations. But Exodus is the most active and the most destructive.