"We've Got to Get Past the Fact That Sexual Orientation Is a Reason to Discriminate": Video Resources

I continue working on the writing project I've been commissioned to write about Garrard Conley's painful, beautiful memoir Boy Erased, a story of growing up gay in a conservative evangelical Missionary Baptist preacher's family in Arkansas, and being sent to Love in Action in Memphis in 2004 for "reparative" "therapy." I mentioned this project early this month, and wrote a review of the book in July.

Michael Coren's Epiphany and Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: "America Remains a Place Where Queer People Have to Fight for Their Lives" — Implications for 2016 Elections

I'm now reading Michael Coren's book Epiphany: A Christian’s Change of Heart and Mind Over Same-Sex Marriage (Toronto: Signal, 2016). I blogged about Coren's book last month (when I had only read excerpts from it), and pointed you to a very good review of it by Michael Boyle at Michael's Sound of Sheer Silence blog.

Historical Footnote to Orlando Discussions: 19 June 2013, World's Largest "Ex-Gay" Organization Exodus International Announces It's Shutting Down

Jim Burroway reminds us that yesterday in 2013, the world's largest "ex-gay" organization, Exodus International, announced it was shutting down operation: as Jim states,

Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: Template for Understanding Religion-Based Homophobia and Its Assault on Queer Humanity

I mentioned a few days back that I was reading Garrard Conley's book, Boy Erased (NY: Riverhead, 2016), which recounts his experiences growing up as the son of a Missionary Baptist minister in small-town Arkansas in the final decades of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century. As my previous reference to the book notes, it's primarily a memoir of his experiences at the "ex-gay" reparative therapy outfit Love in Action in Memphis, to which his parents sent him after he was outed to them as gay. Mama vomited on hearing this news, Papa threatened, and Conley had no choice except to go to LIA, if he expected his father to continue to claim him as a son and to help pay for his college education (he was in college when this happened).

David Gibson and Tom Heneghan Publish Religion News Service Report about Father Tony Anatrella: "Scandal That Could Have Repercussions All the Way to the Vatican"

An update as the week ends, on the story of Father Tony Anatrella, about which I've been keeping you posted (and here) as it's discussed in the French media recently: at Religion News Service, David Gibson and Tom Heneghan have just published a report about the Anatrella story with the headline "Prominent French Priest and Vatican Adviser Accused in Sex Scandal." This is the first such report I've seen in the English-speaking media, though, admittedly, I have not been searching carefully for such reports, after I found initially that the French media were reporting on the new Anatrella allegations, while I found no such reports in English-language media.

Talk About Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy Not Working: Update on John Smid Story

I've blogged about John Smid and his remarkable story a few times in the past — here and here. As these postings note, Smid previously headed a faith-based "ex-gay" program in Memphis called Love in Action. He and the program came on the radar screen of many folks in 2005 when Zach Stark, a young teen, was sent to the program by his parents against his will, and cried out for help online. 

Ex-Gay Activist Peterson Toscano Launches New Blog: Combining Climate Change Activism with Queer Activism

Churches and Gays: Stephen Fry on Ex-Gay Therapy, Becca Morn on Exporting of Anti-Gay Hatred, Rowan Williams on Appalling Anti-Gay Violence of Many Christians

It's worth watching Stephen Fry's stylish, humane look at ex-gay therapy* for his observation (at about the 8.24 mark) that Joseph Nicolosi could well pass for a gay man, a metrosexual. The look on Nicolosi's face as Fry delivers the observation is priceless.

Faithful America Petition: "Tell Roman Catholic Cardinal: Don't Offer Your Blessing to Ex-Gay Therapy"

On Thursday, I blogged about the decision of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the past president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to celebrate Mass at the annual convention of the group Courage, though the group's program will be featuring speakers from the "ex-gay" group NARTH. As I noted, Sister Maureen Fiedler is asking Cardinal George to dissociate himself from the bogus and harmful medical claims of NARTH that it can "cure" homosexuality, and she proposes that he cancel his plans to celebrate Mass for Courage as long as NARTH is part of the program.

Cardinal Francis George to Celebrate Mass at Courage Conference Featuring NARTH Speakers

Maureen Fiedler reports at National Catholic Reporter this morning that the past president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George, will be celebrating Mass for the group Courage next week. As she notes, Courage is "a Catholic group that encourages lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to remain celibate in keeping with the teaching of the Catholic hierarchy."

Exodus International's Big Announcement (and Apology): A Selection of Valuable Responses

Exodus International Shuts Doors: We've Been "Imprisoned in a Worldview That’s Neither Honoring Toward Our Fellow Human Beings, Nor Biblical"

Big news in the world of "ex-gay" therapy: the leading organization in the U.S. that has long dangled false hopes of curing the gay in front of gay folks desperate to be turned into heterosexuals announced last night that it's shutting its doors. Fred Clark tells the story at his Slacktivist site today con his usual brio, noting that Exodus International president Alan Chambers made a stunning admission as he announced the closing of the group--that it has been 

imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.

In Religion News: Scalia Father, Scalia Son, Uganda and Stone-Cold Silence of U.S. Catholic Bishops

On Wednesday, I noted that Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia's son Father Paul Scalia has served as a chaplain for the Catholic group Courage.  Yesterday in the Los Angeles Times, Michael McGough notes the younger Scalia's connection to Courage, and points out that Father Scalia has gone on record suggesting that gay people don't really exist--there are only homosexual acts:

Leopards and Spots, Silk Purses and Sows' Ears: Exodus International and Reality as Reality

And speaking of media-hyped, market-driven re-branding (as Valerie Tarico does in her take on the Southern Baptist Convention's latest moves, about which I just posted): I think Zack Ford is right on target in his analysis of media coverage of the latest developments with Exodus International.  As Ford notes, the influential "ex-gay" organization is now stating that it repudiates the notion of gay-conversion or reparative therapy.  Because it doesn't work, and there's abundant evidence it doesn't work.

Dr. Robert Spitzer's Significant Apology to the Gay Community

This is a very important story for a number of reasons: as Benedict Carey notes in today's New York Times, in 2003, Dr. Robert Spitzer published a study that claimed to validate "ex-gay" therapy.  Because Spitzer had played a leading role in the movement that resulted in the removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's list of diagnostic disorders, his endorsement of ex-gay "conversion" or "reparative" therapy naturally created quite a stir in 2003.  It gave heart to people attacking the gay community, including faith-based groups offering therapies that many gay folks--and the vast majority of mental health professionals--have for some time now recognized as not merely spurious, but actually harmful to those on whom they're practiced.  

In the News: Marcus Bachmann and Ex-Gay Therapy, Phelps and Westboro Baptist, God and GOP

More end-of-week religion and politics news: 

Wayne Besen on John Smid's Admissions: "Ex-Gay" Therapy Employs Cult-Like Mind Control

Because Wayne Besen's commentary about John Smid and his recent admission that "ex-gay" conversion therapy hasn't worked for him came out the same day I wrote my own piece about this, I didn't link to Besen's statement at Truth Wins Out.  Now that I've seen Besen's commentary, I want to take note of it.  It's impossible to overstate the importance of Wayne Besen to the movement to expose the fraud, lies, and malice of the "ex-gay" movement.  He's been tracking this movement for years, and what he has to say about it is of extreme importance.

Prominent "Ex-Gay" Leader Tells Truth about Conversion Therapy: Doesn't Work, Perverts the Gospel

There's an important story breaking right now regarding how churches--and, in particular, the conservative wing of evangelical churches--are coming to understand homosexuality.  This story, which will perhaps not receive as much notice in the mainstream media as it should, is a significant one because it illustrates the extent to which even those faith communities most strongly opposed to acceptance and inclusion of gay people in church and society are slowly coming to revise their attitudes.

New Documentary Focuses on Ex-Gay Ministry Love in Action

I don't know if any readers of this blog followed the case of Zach Stark back in 2005, when his parents sent him to the ex-gay Love in Action program in Memphis.  Zach became something of a celebrity at that time, when he posted a plea for help on his MySpace site and protestors began to gather daily at the Love in Action facility to monitor what was happening to Zach and other teens enrolled in the LIA program.  The national media became interested in the story, and a brief national conversation about the desirability of placing teens in programs designed to "cure" them of homosexuality ensued.

Who's the Barbarian? A Reflection on "Christian" "Ex-Gay" "Therapy"

Though he tried to deny it once he'd been exposed, Michelle Bachmann's therapist husband Marcus Bachmann has called gays (including gay children) "barbarians."