GLBTQ: Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

"It was fairly quick. A couple of weeks, a month. Itâ€™s a total lesbian joke: What does a lesbian bring on a second date? A U-Haul." —Carline Banegas, recalling how she met girlfriend Jodie Dearborn. CONTINUED Â» Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Domestic Partnerships, nevada

Californians Against Hate's Fred Karger, when he's not being subpoenaed by the National Organization for Marriage, was leading the fight against Maine's marriage foes and their shady fundraising efforts. Karger claimed Stand for Marriage Maine's means of drumming up cash violated law by not releasing the names of donors, but Maine's ethics commission staff says [...]

That Obama's Safe School Czar Kevin Jennings has been dragged through the mud by conservatives isn't new; they've been doing that since he took the post. But yesterday, after Queerty noted how terrible a job Jennings' supporters are doing defending him, these, uh, "background points" arrived in our inbox. Curious. CONTINUED Â» Permalink | Post a comment [...]

For those of you who didn’t catch it:Â Long time supporter and friend of Queer Fresno Jay Hubbell wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Fresno Bee.Â You can check it out here. Jay Hubbell is former president of the Fresno Stonewall Democrats.

This is for all you Lady Gaga fans out there (and I know there are hordes of you). I found this little gem over on Towleroad. Ever wonder what Lady Gaga looked and sounded like before all the glam, glitter and fashion? Y’know… the days when she went by Stefani Germanotta and had tragic hair? [...]

NOTE FROM PAM: Investigative reporter Jesse Fruhwirth of Salt Lake City Weekly contacted me about his trip to Evergreen International's recent pray-away-the-gay conference. He was the only news reporter there to get an inside look at the goings-on. He wanted to share this report -- and the Salt Lake City Weekly has given the Blend permission to repost it. Thanks, because the paper, with its proximity to the heart of the LDS, has regular and thorough coverage of one of the most besieged gay communities in America.

Evergreen International's Queer Science
Attendees seek to balance sexuality, religion & psychology
By Jesse Fruhwirth
Utah author and social worker Kim Nordyke Mack joked that her maiden name doomed her to a lifelong struggle with same-sex attraction, a challenge made more difficult because of her Mormon faith. To deal with that ongoing battle, she writes the “How I Deal” blog, which is about “a faithful LDS woman’s experience in dealing with being gay and remaining true to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” She had three children with her previous husband, but she now lives a celibate life, which keeps her in good graces with her church.
She also considers her own story, and many others like hers, as proof that therapies to change a person’s sexual orientation can have some benefit. That is counter to a study released in August by the American Psychological Association, which drew the conclusion that such therapies are “unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm.”
“Even if all of the studies said after 10 years that I would be miserable, I would still do it, because my experience tells me I won’t [be miserable],” she says.
Nordkye Mack was one of several long-term sexual-repression role models at the Evergreen International conference held Sept. 18-19 at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. Evergreen, a nonprofit that offers members of the LDS Church help and support in repressing or “diminishing” homosexuality, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The conference attracted about 400 people, most of whom were searching for a remedy to same-sex attraction either for a child, a spouse, or for themselves. Others, like Nordkye Mack, show anecdotally that some homosexuals’ behaviors can change, even if, as in Nordyke Mack´s case, same-sex attraction is still present and she has no sexual interest in men.
Taking place at the same time was a conference for members of Affirmation, a group of gay and lesbian Mormons that believes homosexuality is a special gift from God. Among that group are former Evergreen clients, some of whom say their Evergreen treatment included electro-shock aversion therapy and being told to marry as a means of avoiding homosexual behavior.
Despite the close, albeit unofficial, ties to the LDS Church, not all the attendees at Evergreen follow LDS doctrine so piously or dismiss the APA’s conclusion.

Eric, a 41-year-old Dallas business professor and returned LDS missionary, repressed his homosexuality through much of college with the help of therapists. He accepted himself as a gay man shortly after realizing during his senior year at Brigham Young University that church leaders “don’t have a clue” about sexual health. For years, he and his LDS therapists fixated on his same-sex attraction while post-traumatic stress disorder related to being molested as a small child by an adult neighbor and his older brother festered in his mind, untreated and unaddressed.
“At BYU, being told to masturbate to pictures of Madonna as a therapy for homosexuality—that did harm. That did real harm,” Eric said to a roomful of attendees at the Evergreen conference. The attendees erupted in laughter, but Eric wasn’t joking. When the Material Girl and other methods of changing his sexual orientation failed, he said later, he felt inadequate and personally responsible. While he thought his homosexuality explained his difficulty with relationships and, later, sex addiction, he believes now those problems are the result of his childhood trauma. &.
Eric doesn’t go to church now, and believes same-sex attraction is not a sin in the eyes of God, only church leaders. Nevertheless, he still appreciates Evergreen for the camaraderie it provides with those who understand his complex sexual baggage—and LDS values. “The reason I come to Evergreen is emotional support. I don’t believe everything they say,” he says.
Eric didn’t want to publicly reveal his brother as a sex crime perpetrator, so he asked that City Weekly identify him by first name only.
Even some Mormon mental-health professionals seem out of step with LDS Church leaders like Elder Bruce Haffen, who used the word “evil” twice in his speech about homosexuality.
Social worker Christy Cox, of the LDS Addiction Resource Center for Healing (ARCH) in Sandy, co-presented a session with Nordkye Mack entitled “Growing a New Norm for Moms and Daughters.” Cox later joked that she might get a “talking to” by her LDS bishop for things she said. She revealed that she not only accepts and loves her lesbian daughter—but also appreciates her daughter’s partner.
“This partner my daughter has is saving my daughter’s life,” Cox said during her session, crediting the woman with reducing her daughter’s previously dangerous drinking habit. Cox supports Evergreen’s work for individuals who want it, but that category does not include her daughter.
One gay expert on reorientation therapy, Salt Lake City psychologist Lee Beckstead, who also served a Mormon mission, may be too far off the straight and narrow to get an invite to speak at Evergreen. Set to task by the APA in 2007, Beckstead and five other psychologists from throughout the country reviewed 83 studies of various reorientation therapies. The psychologists’ 130-page report (pdf)informed the APA’s stance that the reorientation therapies are a bad idea.
“Ex-ex-gay groups have felt violated, used, abused, and are fighting back,” Beckstead says. “They were the reason for the task force.”
Multiple speakers at the conference referenced the APA’s findings, usually denouncing and dismissing them as Evergreen board chairman Larry Richman did. He said the APA task force members were “gay or gay activists” and “no one represented people who have changed their sexual orientation.” The sexual-orientation-change community has its own studies that show effectiveness and safety, which the APA reviewed, but they were mostly rejected on scientific grounds, such as statistical violations that exaggerated results, Beckstead said.
In its August report, the APA repeated its stance that clinical literature proves homosexuality is normal and healthy. Thus, any emotional or physical price patients may pay to repress their homosexuality is probably too high, even for clients who requested it.
Eric, the Dallas business professor, sought answers from the LDS therapists specifically for his same-sex attraction, because he had faith that he could change and that they could help him. His efforts to change his sexual orientation, however, were “very hurtful and damaging to me.”

Also, if you want to check out ak out another writer's work at the Salt Lake City Weekly, click over to read Brandon Burt at Brandon's Big Gay Blog, an intellectual take on today's gay news.

I don't know how Peter @ RWW could stomach listening to the bile generated out of the Mother Schlafly-sponsored How To Take Back America conference last week. It's notable that this year Phyllis co-hosted with the untethered-from-reality Janet Folger Porter.

Mike Huckabee was there, of course, as were fellow Republican tools Michele Bachmann (MN), Trent Franks (AZ), Steve King (IA), and Tom McClintock (CA). Here's Peter's rundown of the conference's themes -- they sound quite familiar, but the radical desperation level is meter-breaking.

a continued merging of messaging and organizing among the Religious Right and "teabagger" right

the fervent belief that America is at a tipping point between freedom and fascist power: President Obama and his congressional allies are on the verge of delivering America into Socialism, Communism, and/or Nazi-style tyranny, and that government is therefore to be feared and resisted

optimism that the tea bag movement and anti-health-reform town halls are a sign that Americans are prepared to resist that tyranny

extreme opposition to Democratic health care reform efforts, with some support for the congressional Republican alternative and some demands for a no-compromise approach that would involve ending all government involvement in health care, including Medicare

recent attacks on ACORN are just part of a larger effort to target progressive community organizing groups and their religious supporters and "defund the left"

hostility not only to same-sex marriage but also to any legal protections for LGBT Americans and same-sex couples

a new push to use "abortion as black genocide" as a wedge between African Americans and pro-choice progressives built around a new "documentary" portraying abortion as 21st century genocide

American exceptionalism - the belief that America's founding was divinely inspired and the nation has been uniquely blessed by God - is alive and well, though America is now living under a curse for having elected Barack Obama

activists don't need a majority to take back America; if their minority or "remnant" is committed enough God will use them

the apparent passing (or grabbing) of the torch from Phyllis Schlafly to Janet Folger Porter

Matt Barber was there with his pithy drivel:

Another speaker, anti-gay activist Matt Barber, strung together as many insults as he could in describing the president as "a secular humanist, a radical socialist moral relativist." He also referred to gay rights advocates "as bullies who get their way with propaganda and 'goose-stepping' intimidation of those who oppose equality. Bam Bam, that line's getting so old it's fossilizing. Did your BFF The Peter attend, or was he kept out of sight?

And about TEH GAYZ, well it's the usual hysteria, and they've completely discarded the old soft-sell meme that "we just want to protect marriage" -- it's full blast "no rights of any kind for LGBTs":

Of course, freedom to these conference-goers does not extend to LGBT Americans who want to live their lives free from discrimination or serve the nation in the armed forces. Several workshops focused on the dire threat to children and communities posed by the prospect (and reality) of gay couples getting married. And for this crowd, stopping marriage equality is not enough: they are out to prevent civil unions and domestic partnerships as well. They believe the Employment Anti-Discrimination Act is a grave threat to religious liberty. They believe that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would threaten national security. And please don't get them started on transgender people.

The Right Wing Watch wrap is well-worth the click over, because there are so many delicious tidbits of insanity from that conference I'd end up re-posting the entire thing. Peter has great analysis of the ascent of Porter to the Schlafly throne.

Link here to audio

At 9:00 am today, the Maine Ethics Committee will be meeting regarding Fred Karger/ Californians Against Hate complaint of money laundering against NOM and others.

But don't expect a helluva lot to come from it:

http://updates.pressherald.mai...
Maine marriage campaign complaint facing vote
Submitted by The Associated Press on Wed, 09/30/2009 - 17:40
AUGUSTA -- The Maine ethics commission staff says no ays no investigation is warranted into fundraising by groups supporting the campaign to repeal Maine's gay marriage law.
The recommendation goes to the five-member commission, which votes Thursday on whether to launch an investigation.
The matter stems from a complaint by Californians Against Hate founder Fred Karger, who says groups contributing to the Stand for Marriage campaign are not reporting the names of many donors as the law requires. Stand for Marriage is leading the push for a people's veto of Maine's gay marriage law Nov. 3.
Ethics commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne said Tuesday the staff didn't think Karger presented enough evidence supporting his claims to justify an investigation.

What is especially interesting to me is that I got the above image last night from the PPH website, which is now denying access to the 5:40pm Wednesday evening story and is not showing the story at all on its site... hmm.

This will be the 3rd case discussed according to the hearing's schedule.

Immediately before that will be discussion regarding "Maine Leads". We'll see what happens with that as well!

Agenda
Meeting of October 1, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
Burton M. Cross Office Building, Room 208,
111 Sewall Street, Augusta, Maine
1. Ratification of Minutes of the July 30, 2009 and September 8, 2009 Meetings
2. Investigation of Maine Leads
At its May 28, 2009 meeting, the Commission directed its staff to investigate whether Maine Leads was required to register and file campaign finance reports as a political action committee or as a ballot question committee. The staff has completed its investigation. Staff recommendation: the staff recommends finding that Maine Leads violated 21-A M.R.S.A. ? 1056-B by not filing campaign finance reports covering the fall of 2007, 2008, and early 2009.
3. Request to Investigate Stand for Marriage Maine PAC and its Contributors (National Organization for Marriage)
The Commission received a request from Fred Karger of Californians against Hate to investigate the Stand for Marriage Maine political action committee (PAC) and some of its contributors. The staff invited responses from the PAC and one of its major contributors, the National Organization for Marriage.
4. Request to Investigate Organizations Opposed to TABOR
5. Request for Waiver of Late-Filing Penalty/Lobbyist John Anton
6. Questions from 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate Lynne Williams
7. Presentation of Audit Reports
Other Business
EXECUTIVE SESSION
If necessary.
ADJOURNMENT

Dolores Huerta, who foundedÂ the United Farm Workers of America alongside Cesar Chavez and was its first Vice-President, is coming to Salem to speak on Immigration Reform & Farm Worker Justice! This this is a fabulous opportunity to hear a seasoned veteran whose been doing this work for over 30 years speak on the social [...]es Huerta, who foundedÂ the United Farm Workers of America alongside Cesar Chavez and was its first Vice-President, is coming to Salem to speak on Immigration Reform & Farm Worker Justice! This this is a fabulous opportunity to hear a seasoned veteran whose been doing this work for over 30 years speak on the social [...]

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 3:00pm At the home of Jim Frank & David Gray 451 Lindsay Lane in Ashland, Oregon $20 per head, RSVP beforehand The last stop on Basic Rights Oregon regional event series is Ashland, for our 2nd Annual Rogue Valley Garden Party! Join faces, both familiar and new, for an afternoon of wine, live entertainment and [...]

Thursday’s Gay News Post Includes: A massive interview with Gore Vidal; A Previously Unpublished Interview With Walter Cronkite; The DADT Debate; The War Over LGBT Rights; Parents, Kids & Coming Out; Tasmania Causes Govt. in Canberra to Think; Eyes on Portugal; LDS Church Signs… Interviews: - The unpublished Cronkite interview by Mark Segal (Not sure why he [...]

The Entertainment Post for Thursday Includes: Some Queer Book Notes; Laramie Project; A Docu of Note; Celeb Sex Stats; Benjamin Disraeli; Fired from Radio for Being Gay; The TV Ratings Game; Alan Ball on Life & Writing; And a Gay Cartoonist Who’s Pissed at GLAAD. Bookworm Notes: - In the ’70s, All New York Seemed Young and [...]

This Week’s Crime Files Post Includes: More on the London, ONT AttacT Attack Story; A Wanted Craigslist Conman; An Invite That Led To a Brutal Assault and Robbery; A ‘Gay Advance’ Led to Murder; A Drunk Holidaymaker Brit; A Gay Couple Forced to Flee Their Home; And a Gay Man Found Not Guilty of Kidnapping. - [...]

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

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