A few "ex-gay" reps have contacted me in the last month or so, using a nice sales pitch, as they like to do - thickly laying on the "Jesus loves you" jam on my perfectly nice slice of "I'm happy as I am" wholewheat toast. I held on to my restraint and presented my responses, presented below as if to one individual - or to the "ex-gay" industry as a whole.
"Change is possible"?
Yes it is - I used to be a Christian - until I saw what being a "Christian" meant - hating and persecuting innocent people in the name of a loving God. Now I'm not a Christian anymore.
Hating and hurting gay people is wrong, no matter what you believe - or what God you believe in. And before you say you and "Christians" do not hate gay people - let me point out the acts of terror committed by anti-gay groups in the last 40 years alone around the world. How can you describe campaigning to remove equal civil rights of people, opposing laws that would protect people against hate crime, exclusion of people from churches and society, hate speech and misinformation campaigns in the press and media - and even giving false witness by encouraging gay people to allow others to persecute them by submitting to abuse and torture by those who hate them - other than hate?
That is simply despicable.
You are only bluffing yourself - not me. "Ex-gay" is a lie - full stop - even the mighty Exodus International admits you cannot change a person's sexual orientation - you can just get these poor fools to lie to themselves and the rest of the world, while they and the religious right profit from it.
The only real "ex-gay" is a dead gay person. if you are born gay you will always be gay - so just keep lying to yourself.
Here is a little light reading material for you:
http://www.truthwinsout.org/the-history/ The History of Truth Wins Out
http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/exclusive-truth-wins-out-interview-with-thomas-maier/ Masters & Johnson’s Notorious ‘Ex-Gay’ Study Debunked
http://www.truthwinsout.org/ Truth Wins Out
http://gaychristiansurvivors.tripod.com/
http://www.godmademegay.com/
http://gayandlesbianbible.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt
http://www.soulforce.org/article/homosexuality-science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_same-sex_unions
http://www.whosoever.org/I2sodom.html
http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/press_releases/releases/borngay.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080617151845.htm Swedish study brain symetry GLBT
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050511_transfrm.htm Preliminary work, genetic link found in transexuality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_animals
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html
http://respectmyresearch.org/
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/history/king_james_gay.html King James (of the KJV) was gay!
We are born gay or straight - and this is undeniable. If you believe God made you and you are gay, then you have to believe that God made you as a gay person. You should not be questioning your inborn sexuality - instead you should be questioning the bigots who claim to speak for the same God and persecute us in His name, and spread vicious lies and hate using trumped up "scriptures" and mis-translations to do so.
Beneath the "loving" "Christian" veneer of this movement is an underlying mass of raw hatred - and I have seen it for myself. Do you like being a part of it?
The "ex gay" industry destroys so many lives every year, contributing to the suicide rate they claim indicates that homosexuality is somehow a "suicidal lifestyle". If that is so, then they and groups like them make it so. They have the blood of people like us - innocent blood - on their hands.
And if you side with them, gay or not, you are no better than they are.
And I will never stand with you and share this dishonor, guilt and shame.
Following this, I received a barrage of rhetoric comparing gay people's sexuality with pedophilia and bestiality and even incest! I would expect a person who might themselves be gay (even if they are in denial) to at least have a more accurate picture than a straight bigot who obviously knows nothing about the nature of the people he or she is attacking.
Consider your own logic. Your pattern of reasoning shows clear ignorance about sexuality. As is typical of religious right gay haters, you seek to somehow "prove" that gay people are pedophiles, or that being gay is somehow similar to being a pedophile. This vain comparison can be dispelled by one simple fact: pedophilia causes harm - being gay or trans does NO harm - to anyone.
Here are some links to authoritative articles on the matter - not by idiots standing in a pulpit spewing hate and lies against people they know nothing about - but by people who actually know what they are talking about:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation
http://www.robincmiller.com/gayles4.htm Playing the Pedophillia Card
Then I am accused of "twisting God's words" by supporting the assertions that gay people are born gay (as supported by scientific research) and that he in fact therefore made us gay or trans and therefore does not hate us.
"Further, when you say God made people gay, you put words in His mouth that He did not say about Himself...I don't know about you but I don't like when people twist my own words." "God is free to have His own thoughts on the subject as are you and I, however, telling God that His plan is flawed may seem insightful but perhaps a bit unwise. "
What arrogance - Christians (and even Jews) have been "putting words in God's mouth" since the dawn of history - and editing it when they saw a need or opportunity. Their books have been changed and censored and embellished so many times there is no more telling what is the correct message anymore. Besides, nobody knows what God said - if anything - who is alive today who can tell us? No-one really knows.
Which is exactly why I say EVERYONE is an agnostic - even if they don't like it.
It seems the issue revolves more around WHO "puts words in God's mouth" than the actual fact that people claim "God says..." without really knowing for sure. "God said that in making us male and female..." yadda, yadda, yadda - is it not also written "There is no male nor female... for all are one in Christ Jesus?" No wonder Christianity is such a schizophrenic religion - you could divide the whole thing in two -"Do's" and "Don'ts" - with a huge section of overlap, followed by a huge amount of people fanatically pointing fingers at each other. And then you just see a world of black and white with no grey areas? No thanks. Life's too short for that kind of nonsense.
Here's some simple logic for you - God made everything, every person. He made people as they are, seemingly perfect or imperfect. He made people with differences of all kinds. Gay people are born gay - as supported by scientific research, medical evidence - and our testimony. If God made everyone, then he made us as we are too. If he made us as we are - and truly loves everyone as he claims in his book - why would he do so and then send "his followers" against us in hatred? Does that sound like a loving God to you? So who do you think is really "twisting Gods words"? Somebody has it wrong honey - and it isn't us.
Hate is never right.
This is the kind of argument typically employed by bigots, using assumptions, "urban myths" and fallacies peddled by the gay-hating groups to bolster their "worldview". If only they could see from our side how wrong and small they make themselves. It is not our nature which hurts us - it is the reaction of people like them which does that.
"Forcing people to believe the way you or I do does not make us right, it makes us tyrants." - true. You are free to believe what you like - but you can never have the full freedom to persecute other people and infringe on their equal rights and to even commit human rights abuses against them simply because you disagree with them - THAT is tyranny.
"I hope you can understand and appreciate this point. Saying others are evil because they disagree is unfair," - wrong - perhaps "unfair" to you when we take on your organized religious attacks - but seemingly it should be "fair" when your organized religion attacks us? Their words and acts of hatred make them wrong. By their fruits you shall know them" your book says, and we know them all right.
"...as it exalts our free will over theirs and we become the intolerant close-minded abusers we despise. "- wrong. Forcing people to recognize the equality of others with them and preventing them from committing a slow genocide and persecution is not abuse of human rights - and will never be a "tyranny" - rather the polar opposite.
"Someone may be free to hate me because my views disagree with theirs but it will still make them a hater, and that will alter the person they are." - Yes, these "Christian" groups hate us - they hate innocent people - and how have these "Christian" groups been altered by their hate? Are they still "Christian"? I doubt it. They have replaced their Savior with a false Christ - a god of Dominionism and Kingdom Now Theology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism http://www.intotruth.org/res/tract2.html
Here's a quote - one of my favorites: "All that is required for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Peace is what I seek, but there are forces in this world - wolves in sheep's clothing - who do not seek peace or co-existence with us - but our destruction in whatever way suits their purpose.
And as far as I am concerned, may they reap what they sow.
If it is any consolation to you, I do not hate. But I will not stand idly by and do nothing while groups masquerading as "good" commit acts of blatant evil. I hope to see full equality for gay and trans people - and the elimination of anti-gay and trans hate speech and hate groups worldwide in my lifetime - and I am still young enough to hope - and to have the energy and dedication to make it happen.
I live to make a difference - and to me that is enough.
And that is my free will.
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