In an article at ChristianExaminer.com, ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan asserts that one cannot be gay, monogamous, and Christian; repeats his unproven claim to have volunteered for the Human Rights Campaign; and projects his own past “shallow, lust-filled and immature” lifestyle onto all sexually honest persons living today.
Quinlan says these things during a visit to San Diego for the National Education Association’ convention on behalf of the antigay parents’ group P-FOX and its “Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus.” He also consults for the New Jersey Family Policy Council, an affiliate of Focus on the Family. (P-FOX recently gave up its affiliation with Exodus International.)
Quinlan is pushing for access to teachers in an effort to oppose the union’ push for same-sex marriage rights to ease the social and economic burden on children of gay couples, and the union’s push for a curriculum that opposes antigay stereotypes and bullying.
Quinlan hopes to change public schools’ curricula by opposing comprehensive sex education and by changing science lessons so that they conform to the ex-gay myths of P-FOX mentors Richard Cohen and NARTH.
He blames his own past homosexual behavior on an “abusive ‘Archie Bunker-type’ father,” followed by an inability to reconcile his sexual behavior with his faith and identity in a healthy and responsible fashion.
Instead of life improving at home, the father’ abuse toward him worsened. Eventually he filled his desperate need for affection at the hands of a young teen boy who introduced him to sex. Quinlan said he became a willing molestation victim.
Unfortunately, Quinlan now works to deny gay youths the safe and affirming support that might have protected him from “willing molestation” at the hands of an older boy.
Because his own same-sex attractions allegedly faded during counseling for his father’s abuse, Quinlan campaigns to coerce sexual change in persons whose same-sex orientation is not derived from environmental factors such as abuse or parental neglect.
For a trend toward increasing sexual honesty among gay youths in the schools, Quinlan blames Christians who are not emphatic enough in silencing gay youth and coercing change.
“We’ve allowed this to happen,” he said. “There are so many Secret Service Christians who need to come out of the closet, but we also need to know how to argue and debate persuasively. This conspiracy and its wheel have been around for decades.”
Quinlan has yet to demonstrate that he can argue and debate persuasively, however — his past efforts have been hindered by anger, stereotypes, strawman arguments, and disrespect for those who are sexually honest. Are we now to believe that a kinder, gentler Greg Quinlan is emerging?
Addendum: Almost one year after Quinlan was caught lying about mainstream professional mental-health consensus regarding ex-gay therapy, and in particular lying about the human-genome research of Dr. Francis Collins, Good As You noted last week that Quinlan is repeating the same lies in order to rationalize his opposition to federal legislation that would equalize punishment for antigay hate crimes.
