As reported by the Colorado Springs Independent, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) today sent a letter to Acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning demanding that Dr. Mike Rosebush be immediately dismissed from his position at the Air Force Academy.
The full article about Dr. Rosebush, the subject of an extensive report by Pam Zubeck, will be out in tomorrow's edition of the Independent, but, due to the story leaking elsewhere earlier today, the Independent has posted a preview of MRFF's demand letter, and I am posting the full letter here.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Eric Fanning
Acting Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670
Dear Acting Secretary Fanning,
With great shock and an enormous sense of disgust, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been informed of the notorious anti-gay bigot Dr. Mike Rosebush's employment at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). Needless to say, the employment of a fundamentalist Christian, "gay conversion therapy" advocate comes as a grave insult and palpable threat to USAFA's lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) cadets, staffers, and faculty members, including MRFF's 27 LGB clients at the Academy. Accordingly, MRFF demands that USAFA immediately terminate the employment of the notorious homophobe Rosebush.
Rosebush has devoted his entire professional career to the bullying and harassment of the LGBTQ community, carried out under the highly dubious guise of "curing homosexuality," a sexual orientation that he likens to "addiction" and disease. Rosebush is a former vice president of the rabidly fundamentalist Christian, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, one of the foremost anti-gay organizations in the country. Additionally, Rosebush has also been a clinical member of NARTH (the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality). According to the promotional materials for his book "Sanctification Coaching," Rosebush is an "expert" on fighting "unwanted same-sex attractions" among Christian men "acting upon their homoerotic temptations." The man has gained fame and notoriety by taking insipid quack science to ever-lower depths of absurdity. Indeed, the American Psychological Association (APA), in its "Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts," has taken great pains to underscore such "therapy" as merely the expression of prejudice and discrimination, with a basis in ignorance and the distortion or active disdain of scientific data. Even Exodus International, the organization for which Rosebush served as Professional Counselors' Network director, has publicly apologized for the harm caused by the espousal of the patently false notion that homosexuals can be "cured."
Implausibly, Rosebush now finds his employment at the United States Air Force Academy. Reporter Pam Zubeck, writing for the Colorado Springs Independent on a story about Rosebush, interviewed MRFF just a few days ago. In that interview, Ms. Zubeck informed MRFF that Rosebush was hired at the Academy in 2009 to work in the Academy's "plans and programs directorate," which develops institutional policy, plans, and assessment strategies for commanders. That same year, the APA comprehensively debunked Rosebush's conversion or "reparative" therapy/quackery. Zubeck further advised MRFF that, in 2011, Rosebush transferred to the Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development where he develops programs for a team of USAFA counselors. The mind literally boggles at the wretched thought of Rosebush being employed at USAFA anywhere, but especially at a place described as the Academy's "Center for Character and Leadership Development"!
Mike Rosebush has absolutely no place in the hallowed halls of our military service academies. Such casehardened proponents of old-school horrific bigotry and putrescent prejudice, if employed by the United States Air Force Academy, will no doubt use their positions to erode and denigrate the precious civil rights of airmen, cadets, faculty and staff. We call on the leadership of the United States Air Force to expeditiously and comprehensively root out this menace to good order, morale, and discipline at USAFA.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation demands that USAFA exercises its responsibility towards the civil rights and protections of cadets, staff, and faculty, and immediately terminate the employment of "ex-gay" fraudster Dr. Mike Rosebush.
Sincerely,
Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, Esq.
Founder and President
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Edith A. Disler, PhD, MBA, Lt. Col. (USAF) Ret.
MRFF Director for LGBT Affairs,
Advisory Board Member,
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
CC:
General Mark A. Welsh III, Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Lieutenant General Michelle D. Johnson, Superintendent of USAFA