As if we had not suffered enough inclement weather, citizens of Lynchburg, Virginia and South Bend, Indiana will get “ex-gay” snow jobs this weekend.
In Lynchburg there will be a conference on Friday, “the Consequences of Same-Gender Attraction.” The hate-fest will feature Exodus International’s President Alan Chambers, (pictured) who is using this opportunity as a warm-up act for an April trip to Belfast, Ireland.
Hasn’t Chambers’ irresponsible outfit caused enough problems already in places like Uganda? How this man wakes up in the morning and can look in the mirror without feeling deep shame, (not counting the shame he internalizes over his sexuality) I’ll never know. It takes a special type of human being, one with out a conscience, to consistently lie to himself and others.
I’d like to remind the good folks of Lynchburg, that last time Liberty University tried the ex-gay thing, it didn’t go so well. Their “pray away the gay” poster boy was a man named Michael Johnston. He now lives in a sex addiction facility in Kentucky, following a slew of bareback orgies with men. Here’s the mini-movie:
On Saturday, the Liberty University Law Review will host a legal symposium entitled “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?”
Of course they can co-exist, unless your religious beliefs and practice are defined exclusively by violent anti-gay animus. If you believe the First Amendment allows you to harass, intimidate, torment and physically abuse LGBT people then there is a conflict. Other than that, there’s no problem.
So, why all the fear-mongering?
It seems quite obvious that in states with laws that protect citizens based on sexual orientation, people are still free to pray any way they wish. But, reality has never been the Religious Right’s cup of tea.
If you are fortunate enough to be around at 1:30pm on Saturday, you will catch a panel featuring arch-homophobes Robert Knight (pictured) and Elaine Donnelly, “Hire Them and Don’t Fire Them: How Homosexual Rights and Privileges Have Eroded Employers’ Rights and Destroyed Religious Freedom.”
Social conservatives say they are generally opposed to affirmative action. But, they are firmly in favor of “Conservative Action”. This is where unskilled, unqualified and unproductive heterosexual, white, male, fundamentalists believe they have the God-given right to preferential treatment in hiring and in receiving promotions. Whether it’s the Tea Party crybabies or the bigots on this panel, it has become increasingly clear that these fulminating fundies with tightly-wound undies are bitter because they can’t accept that in many cases minorities are more qualified than they are.
So, this panel has nothing to do with employer’s rights or not being able to fire a gay person, once they are hired. It has everything to do with insecure little men like Robert Knight freaking out over the prospect of one day having to work for a gay or transgender boss who has more skills than they do. This “indignity” would be too much for their warped egos to handle.
They will never actually say this in the panel discussion. But this is the subtext that lies below the surface. The other unspoken idea is that fundamentalists only have to follow laws that they agree with and can opt out of the American system by invoking a God-clause. This is similar to Muslims who want to establish pockets of sharia (Islamic law) in free nations. Fundamentalists of all stripes believe they are superior to the rest of us and don’t have to play by the same rules. How wrong they are.
Meanwhile, in South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame will host “ex-lesbian” Melinda Selmys who says that gay men have a hard time accepting God because he reminds them of their own harsh father figures. As a gay man with an amazing father, why do these “ex-gay” clowns keep regurgitating this crap? I’m living proof that it has no basis in fact. They are simply making poor observations based on their own troubled lives and projecting false assumptions onto others. It is time they stop promoting such blatant lies.
Notre Dame’s administration should invite a counter-point to Selmys. One would think that a school of higher learning and academic freedom would want to present an alternative viewpoint, one that that just so happens to be on the side of science and the mental health associations. It seems that propaganda and politics is increasingly in vogue in South Bend.
Waymon Hudson has more on Notre Dame at Bilerico. There is also a story by Michael Jones at Change.org. Apparently, this is the latest anti-gay disturbance at Notre Dame, which appears to be taking cues from a Vatican that should be spending more time cleaning up the child molestation mess, than attacking healthy LGBT people.
If you are a student at Notre Dame or Liberty University, here are a few videos to help you understand what the “ex-gay” industry is really about:
It is about junk science:
It is about divorce:
It is about unprofessional counselors:
It is about pain and suffering at your expense:
It is about twisting religion to harm people:
