“I am an ex-gay. That means a former homosexual for those of you who don’t understand the term ‘ex-gay.’ … “There is no replicated, scientific study supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality.” That’s a quote from the American Psychiatric Association May 2000. … Why does the government feel it necessary to accommodate a small sexual minority based on a sexual identity that has no basis in genetics or biology?”

“However, homosexuality does have a strong etiology in sociological and psychological behavioral formation. Actual change in sexual orientation is documented in professional literature since the ninetieth century … There have been thousands of people like me who have left the homosexual lifestyle as an act of their will, a right of self-determination, a right that I hope this body would support. …”

“I personally know many other men and women who have left the homosexual lifestyle, renounced their homosexual identity, and are now living productive heterosexual lives, many of them married with children.”

“Medical professionals support freedom of right to change. Some people experience change in sexual orientation without therapy. Many medical professionals agree that sexual intention is neither innate or inborn nor immutable. Sexual orientation is more fluid than fixed. There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation.”

“What is successful change in sexual orientation? Like other challenges success and change in sexual orientation is defined along a continuum ranging from a change of behavior to a reduction or even an elimination of unwanted homosexual attractions … Success in changing sexual orientation range from 30 to 70 percent, which is exactly similar to the treatment of depression or drug abuse or eating disorders.”

“We also have to note that in these jurisdictions across the world that have accepted homosexual marriage and have codified it, the rates of suicide among people who identify as homosexual does not change. Drug abuse does not change. The infidelity and promiscuity of the homosexual lifestyle does not change. Nothing changes about the behavior when you codify it, nothing.”

“I have been a health care professional for over thirty years. I have personally watched over a hundred of my friends and acquaintances die of AIDS before I quit counting. There have been more since I stopped counting, and I am personally an eyewitness and a victim of homosexuality and the damage it brings to families and society. Codifying homosexual relationships, whether it’s domestic partnerships, civil unions, or same sex marriages is a harm to the very people who elected you and that you swore an oath to protect.”

“In the strongest possible terms I urge you to slow down. I urge you to stop and truly ponder the actions that you’re taking. Changing the definition of the basic foundation of society, man/woman marriage, the core of a family, is an extreme action, unnecessary, and nothing more than an act of political will.”

“Something as important and vital as this should be decided by the people of Maryland in a referendum. This should not be decided by a small band of elitist legislators, and I urge you to put this to a vote of the people, because I honestly believe this is above your pay grade.”

Note: Greg Quinlan’s testimony before the Maryland State Legislature can be viewed on U-Tube.

Apple Suppresses Diversity by Pulling iPhone Application

Orlando, FL- Last night, Apple removed an application submitted by Exodus International, a global Christian ministry helping those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction to live a life congruent with biblical teaching. Apple told the ministry’s web developer that they deemed the app “offensive to large groups of people” and removed it. Exodus is encouraging people to contact Apple and ask them to recognize the diversity of beliefs within its customer base.

Apple originally approved the app which provided mobile access to the information available on the ministry’s web site and gave it 4+ rating, but pulled it after gay activist groups launched a petition to remove it. It now appears that the multinational corporation has caved, yet again, to their pressure. In November, Apple removed the application submitted by The Manhattan Declaration, a group of Christian leaders who support biblical teaching on marriage, as a result of pressure from the same gay activist groups.

“We are extremely disappointed to learn of Apple’s decision to deny equal representation in the public square,” said Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International. “Discrimination of thought and belief obstructs essential dialogue and authentic diversity,” said Chambers noting that Apple provides hundreds of apps specific to the GLBT community and has made the Gay Christian Network’s podcasts available on its iTunes store.

“Ultimately, this issue comes down to what we, as a culture, believe about equality and the freedom to express our beliefs,” said Chambers. “It is our hope that Apple will reconsider its decision and allow our organization to be part of the ongoing conversation about the challenging issues many face today.”

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To arrange for an interview, please e-mail or call the Exodus Press Office at (407) 599-6872 or (321) 279-8965. For more information, please go to: www.exodusinternational.org

After a long break I am back in the Ex-gay Truth web editor’s desk. I apologize for not reporting the news from the ex-gay movement for these past months and will try to put some of that news in articles to come.

Sincerely,
Tom Coy

Christian radio host Dawson McAllister, who moved to secular radio in 2005, publically severed ties with Exodus International after the radio hosts secular employer told him that his referrals to Exodus International violated its “diversity policies.” Preceding this action, gay activist Greg Kimball had organized a barrage of complaints to Clear Channel Communications, Inc. claiming that McAllister was “an evil, calculated sneak who is reaching out across the country and hurting our gay youth while pretending to be a good person who just wants to help people.”

Kimball’s assault is based on the unfounded fabrication that a person with unwanted same-sex attractions is harmed by trying to change their same-sex attractions. In the real world the message that homosexuality is changeable is a hopeful message to those who don’t want to identify as homosexual. This latest gay assault has silenced that message of hope to millions of youth who listen to Dawson McAllister.

How much more hypocritical can a business organization with a diversity policy be. While they pride themselves on diversity, Clear Channel has no room for ex-gays. Clear Channel’s diversity policy says “Our ZERO TOLERANCE policy that prohibits discrimination extends beyond our employees, into each and every market in which we conduct business.” In clear violation of their diversity policy Clear Channel Communications has discriminated against those with unwanted same-sex attractions because a gay political minority protested the idea that homosexual behavior can be unwanted, destructive, and sinful. Clear Channel has shown it is intolerant of ex-gays, their message, and conservative Christians who believe in the biblical ideal of sex in marriage between one man and one woman.

Alan Chamber’s blog April 14, 2010
Alan Chamber’s response April 20, 2010
Related Christian Web News article April 26, 2010

Recently a statement was issued by the National Association of Social Workers of Uganda on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The statement is a well-reasoned rationale supporting the bill. Exodus International President Alan Chambers commented on the statement saying that “the NASWU seems genuinely concerned in helping those struggling with same-sex attraction,” although “the organization fails to see that Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009–as any legislation that criminalizes homosexuality–does more to hurt than help homosexuals.”

Exodus International, the largest ex-gay ministry in the world, has played a leading role in trying to stop the bill’s criminal penalties for consensual adult homosexual sex. Nevertheless, the liberal media has propagated the gay viewpoint that the Ugandan bill is the product of hatred stirred up by Christian conservatives.

I would like to argue that Christian morality is not responsible for NASWU endorsing criminal penalties for homosexual behavior. NASWU’s stated purpose for preparing the statement is “to ensure that Uganda and other nations in Africa and around the world develop appropriate policy responses to the issue of homosexuality … free of political influence.”

The NASWU built their position on facts that the western world has chosen to ignore. They point out that the Kinsey studies, which liberalized moral norms in the West, were fraudulent; “Kinsey had intentionally skewed his data to support his “political” views about homosexuality.” In the late 1940s Kinsey falsely reported that 10 percent of the population was homosexual. Kinsey then argued that because homosexuality was so prevalent, it needed to be accepted as normal behavior. Statistical studies of sexuality that followed the Kinsey study showed that less than two percent of the population was homosexual.

The NASWU statement correctly mentions that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973 because of gay political pressure and maneuvering. NASWU also recognized that science has not shown that homosexuality is a genetic condition, therefore the NASWU statement makes the valid argument that it is “wrong to compare homosexuality with immutable (unchangeable) characteristics like skin color or gender or physical disability.”

The gay influence in western professional and academic organizations has stymied the objective research of homosexuality since 1973. Irving Bieber, Charles Socarides and other psychiatrists had uncovered the mystery of homosexual causation, pioneered the treatment of homosexuality and documented sexual orientation change. Bieber and Socarides had even recommended nurturing roles for parents and educators that could prevent most cases of homosexuality. As the gay influence turned into political power after 1973, Bieber, Socarides, and the known clinical science on homosexuality were removed from medical textbooks.

From the clinical science Bieber and Socarides had hypothesized that any society can curb homosexuality by helping its children identify with the same sex in healthy non-sexual ways. The clinical science showed that the same-sex parent was especially important in helping the child want to identify as a heterosexual man or heterosexual woman. It was suggested that school teachers were in an opportunistic position to help children identify with their peers as boys or girls. This group of psychiatrists also offered hope to the adolescent or adult with unwanted homosexual attractions. They had helped a significant number of homosexuals change their sexual orientation through psychotherapy. In truth, the clinical science of homosexuality was making major advancements when liberal medical professionals in positions of authority suppressed it.

Social workers in Uganda would have had adequate information on the causes, treatment, and prevention of homosexuality, if academia and professional organizations in America had continued to build upon the clinical science after 1973. Instead, in 2010, Ugandan social workers saw criminal penalties against homosexual behavior as the only way to curb homosexuality and protect the traditional family.

There was a particular message in the NASWU statement that America should heed. “Ethical practice also demands that where professional errors have been made in the past, they be recognized so that corrective action can be taken for the greater good of society.” The misinformation on homosexuality that is disseminated in America needs to be recognized and corrected. It was and is unethical for academia and science-based organizations to ignore the clinical evidence on the causation, treatability, and prevention of homosexuality. The assault on Bieber, Socarides, and their clinical research in the 1970s was an injustice that has compounded over the years. Almost forty years later, the suppression of the clinical science has indirectly caused a frustrated Uganda to propose criminal penalties for consensual homosexual behavior.

The American College of Pediatricians has sent a letter to all 14,800 school districts in the United States warning them that premature labeling of students with same-sex attractions may “lead some adolescents into harmful homosexual behaviors that they otherwise would not pursue.”

The ACOP warning is based on studies that demonstrate “most adolescents who initially experience same-sex attraction, or are sexually confused, no longer experience such attractions by age 25. In one study, as many as 26% of 12-year-olds reported being uncertain of their sexual orientation, yet only 2-3% of adults actually identify themselves as homosexual.”

“Even children with Gender Identity Disorder (when a child desires to be the opposite sex) will typically lose this desire by puberty, if the behavior is not reinforced. Researchers, Zucker and Bradley, also maintain that when parents or others allow or encourage a child to behave and be treated as the opposite sex, the confusion is reinforced and the child is conditioned for a life of unnecessary pain and suffering.”

Well-intentioned but misinformed school personnel who encourage students to “come out as gay” and be “affirmed” may push sexually confused youth into harmful behavior. “Among adolescents who claim a “gay” identity, the health risks include higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, alcoholism, substance abuse, anxiety, depression and suicide.” It does not get better in adulthood. According to the Centers for Disease Control men who have sex with other men are diagnosed with HIV 44 times as much as other men.

“Encouragingly, the longer students delay self-labeling as “gay,” the less likely they are to experience these health risks. In fact, for each year an adolescent delays, the risk of suicide alone decreases by 20%.”

“In dealing with adolescents experiencing same-sex attraction, it is essential to understand there is no scientific evidence that an individual is born “gay” or “transgender.” Instead, the best available research points to multiple factors – primarily social and familial – that predispose children and adolescents to homosexual attraction and/or gender confusion. It is also critical to understand that these conditions can respond well to therapy.”

The ACOP sent the mass mailing out to counter the misinformation in the American Psychological Association’s Just the Facts pamphlet. ACOP medical professionals claim the APA pamphlet is “biased and grossly misleading,” omitting critical facts and placing “young people at increased risk of grave psychological, emotional, and physical harm.”

The ACOP maintains “[it] is not the school’s role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student’s medical condition, and certainly not a school’s role to “affirm” a student’s perceived personal sexual orientation.” The ACOP is encouraging parents to read the letter and visit their website factsaboutyouth.com. Parents are also encouraged by the ACOP to make sure that their school boards and administrators are aware of these facts.

(Quotations are from the ACOP letter. The CDC statistic is from an ACOP Fact Sheet.”

Related World Net Daily article

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is calling on all PepsiCo shareholders to vote for Shareholder Proposal No. 4 - the Charitable Contributions Report, which asks PepsiCo to divulge its standards for funding and account for how the Company’s charitable contributions are actually used. The PepsiCo Foundation has been one of the largest donors to gay political organizations.

In his testimony at the PepsiCo shareholder’s meeting in 2009 PFOX representative Greg Quinlan told the Board of Directors that “PFLAG contributes to the intolerance of the ex-gay community and stereotypes former homosexuals like myself. By funding PFLAG PepsiCo promotes fear and hostility against the ex-gay community, and supports and spreads lies about ex-gays.”

The “PFLAG Faith Field Guide” encourages gays and their supporters to protest against messages that claim homosexuality is changeable. In particular they single out the Love Won Out conferences as anti-gay and give as evidence the billboards with the message “Change is Possible.”

(Author’s note: The gay political mantra labels educational efforts that show sexual orientation change is possible as anti-gay; even though it is has been a clinically documented fact for over fifty years! Instead of having empathy for individuals who have unwanted same-sex attractions, gay activists see them as traitors to the gay subculture. This gay hostility has also been documented for over fifty years.)

Greg Quinlan also told the PepsiCo Board that he had been heckled by PFLAG members for “being out and open in society as a former homosexual.” Quinlan asked the Board, “Why does PepsiCo fund groups like PFLAG who hate people who are different from them?”

Quinlan also reported to the Board that when Sarah Palin’s home church sponsored an ex-gay conference, “PFLAG issued press releases against Sarah Palin and organized protests at her church. This same church was later vandalized by fire; reminiscence of the burning of Black churches in the South during the civil rights movement.”

In response to Quinlan’s motion a PepsiCo spokesperson at the shareholder’s meeting stated that “shareholders can easily see the extensive steps PepsiCo already takes to document its corporate-social responsibility and foundation activities. Details regarding grant guidelines and lists of donations are already featured prominently on the PepsiCo website.” Quinlan’s motion was seconded and as a result it is before the Board this year.

The American Family Association (AFA) had been leading a boycott of PepsiCo products, which include Pepsi-Cola and Gatorade drinks, Frito-Lay snacks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods. “AFA launched a boycott of PepsiCo after the company made $500,000 donations to Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 2008.” AFA suspended its boycott of PepsiCo on February 12, 2010. After monitoring the company for several months, AFA was satisfied the company had withdrawn its major financial contributions to gay activist groups. “Records from PepsiCo, HRC and PFLAG indicate repeat donations did not occur in 2009.”

Yet PepsiCo is listed as one of the leading donors to the gay political organization GLSEN, which promotes homosexual political objectives in schools, and PepsiCo earned a perfect gay friendly rating from the gay lobbyist organization the Human Rights Campaign in 2009, which factors in contributions to gay organizations. The PepsiCo grants for 2008 did not include GLSEN and as of March 31, 2010 the PepsiCo website does not list the recipients of PepsiCo grants in 2009. As Regina Griggs argues the PFOX supported Shareholder Proposal No. 4 “is a reasonable request.”

RELATED WEB NEWS:
PFOX Press Release March 29, 2010
World Net Daily article March 31, 2010