Vigil Saturday
This is going to be a low-key event, but Vigilance readers should know about it and may decide to attend.
Focus on the Family runs a series of events they call "Love Won Out," where they try to convince themselves that gay people can become straight. If you've followed this blog, you know how we feel about reparative therapy and the whole "ex-gay" hoax -- it's a cruel thing to deceive someone who is struggling, to give them false hope that they can stop being what they are. It's the wrong thing to tell someone, and it exploits confusion and unhappiness to further a hateful ideology. Love Won Out is coming to a Montgomery County church this weekend.
Saturday morning and evening the group will be met by a silent vigil outside the church, which will include religious leaders from our area. Read the press release with more details HERE. The vigil will be held from 7:30-9:30 in the morning, and from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, with a press conference at 9:00 AM. Speakers at the press conference will include Delegate Gareth Murray (D-Montgomery County), a Baptist clergy member and mental health professional; Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist and Montgomery County resident; Robert Rigby, Jr., a survivor of "conversion" therapy; and Stephen Eckstrand, who is a PFLAG father.
The vigil will be held outside Immanuel's Church, at 16819 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring, MD. It is just north of Spencerville Road, 6.8 miles north of Colesville Road. For further information about the vigil, contact Rev. Sandy Dodson.
Focus on the Family runs a series of events they call "Love Won Out," where they try to convince themselves that gay people can become straight. If you've followed this blog, you know how we feel about reparative therapy and the whole "ex-gay" hoax -- it's a cruel thing to deceive someone who is struggling, to give them false hope that they can stop being what they are. It's the wrong thing to tell someone, and it exploits confusion and unhappiness to further a hateful ideology. Love Won Out is coming to a Montgomery County church this weekend.
Saturday morning and evening the group will be met by a silent vigil outside the church, which will include religious leaders from our area. Read the press release with more details HERE. The vigil will be held from 7:30-9:30 in the morning, and from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, with a press conference at 9:00 AM. Speakers at the press conference will include Delegate Gareth Murray (D-Montgomery County), a Baptist clergy member and mental health professional; Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist and Montgomery County resident; Robert Rigby, Jr., a survivor of "conversion" therapy; and Stephen Eckstrand, who is a PFLAG father.
The vigil will be held outside Immanuel's Church, at 16819 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring, MD. It is just north of Spencerville Road, 6.8 miles north of Colesville Road. For further information about the vigil, contact Rev. Sandy Dodson.
posted by JimK at 1:15 PM
7 Comments:
Ex-Gay Conference Targeted
with Counter Messaging
Love Won Out will bring the message that change is possible to the Washington, D.C,. this weekend -- but a homosexual-activist group is planning its own conference.
On Saturday, June 10, people will gather at Immanuel's Church in Silver Spring, Md., to hear the message that there is hope for those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. But gay-activist Wayne Besen has announced a counterconference to be called "Truth Wins Out."
Mike Haley, director of the gender-issues department at Focus on the Family and Love Won Out conference speaker, said Besen intends to directly challenge the message that people can change their sexual orientation.
"It's a direct response to what we're doing with Love Won Out," he said. "Even their name -- Truth Wins Out -- they have to piggyback off of the success of Love Won Out. I think they thought for years it was going to go away, but they are seeing that it is more successful now than it's ever been."
That depends on how you define "successful."
If you define success as how many people become permanent, fully functioning heterosexuals, the numbers are abysmal. If you define success as how many people remain celibate rather than act on their natural attraction, the numbers are still abysmal. But if you define success as how much money is extracted from guilt-ridden parents for "ministering" to their gay teens, well then I agree, the snake oil salesmen have been very successful.
Good luck finding any such ministry that's been scientifically proven to have a success rate even approaching 50%. These ministries have been around for decades and when you conduct research into the results they bring, you find that becoming ex "ex-gay" is by far the most common outcome for people who submit to this ministering.
Jim writes,
If you've followed this blog, you know how we feel about reparative therapy and the whole "ex-gay" hoax
How you feel? Or, did you mean to say how you think, since feelings are...well, rather subjective?
-- it's a cruel thing to deceive someone who is struggling, to give them false hope that they can stop being what they are.
That assumes that in every instance what is at issue is an inborn, intrinsic and innate part of humankind, an assumption that has as yet to be supported by solid science (as opposed to professional groups pressured to adopt a partisan political view and in turn present it as the "scientific consensus").
It's the wrong thing to tell someone, and it exploits confusion and unhappiness to further a hateful ideology.
It is wrong to offer a choice? LOL! And this is what passes as "progress"? I think nail biting is an innate characteristic of who I am since I cannot remember a time that I have not chewed my nails. If someone came along and offered me a "way out" of this habit I would take it in a heartbeat (and yes, I have tried a variety of methods, not the least of which is hynossis). Why is that any different from those that believe they are suffering from same-sex attraction? How exactly is that "hateful" other than offending one's own social and political prejudices?
Re-aligning one's sexual identity is problematic I'll admit. But shouldn't that be the choice of the individual with this issue?
"Hateful ideology"? The partisans that support this website would not know anything about ideology since this site is only about teaching the facts...correct?
I suspect the principle reason that this is considered a "hateful ideology" is because if successful (and that is an *if*), it severely undermines the argument that sexual orientation is as innate a human characteristic as skin color.
Oh, and For Pete's Sake writes,
Good luck finding any such ministry that's been scientifically proven to have a success rate even approaching 50%. These ministries have been around for decades and when you conduct research into the results they bring, you find that becoming ex "ex-gay" is by far the most common outcome for people who submit to this ministering.
Since I am not ex-gay I cannot say...but I do know that gays consider ex-gays traitors and as individuals of even less social value than homophobic spewing Fred Phelps. For reasons of privacy and to keep from being intimidated and mocked, I suspect that ex-gays prefer to live quiet lives (either of desperation or contentment, depending on how "sucessful" they are in leaving behind what once was their sexual identity).
Orin said, "Re-aligning one's sexual identity is problematic I'll admit. But shouldn't that be the choice of the individual with this issue?"
Whose choice is it when a parent forces their teen to attempt this "problematic" ministering?
Orin continues, "Since I am not ex-gay I cannot say...but I do know that gays consider ex-gays traitors and as individuals of even less social value than homophobic spewing Fred Phelps."
And how pray tell do you know that? Have you asked every gay person if they share that view or are you assuming your gay dog-walking neighbors speak for all of us?
"For reasons of privacy and to keep from being intimidated and mocked, I suspect that ex-gays prefer to live quiet lives (either of desperation or contentment, depending on how "sucessful" they are in leaving behind what once was their sexual identity)."
Nice suspicion. Got any data to back it up?
Reparative therapy is BS- and everyone knows it- well, everyone who actually has a medical degree or therapy area degree(and hasn't been debarred). There is not one MD or real therapist speaking to this conference of lies. This is not love- this is bigotry and hatred and the worst is to pretend this is religious and the way of God. Feel free to hate - just don't claim God condones it.
Nail biters should not be allowed to marry.
Nail biting is filthy and disgusting.
Nail biting interferes with the intended purpose of marriage.
Allowing nail biters to wed will destroy the institution of marriage.
Orin my friend,
I was involved in the ex-gay movement for many years. When we have that cup of coffee, I'll tell you about it. I went into it willingly, as an adult, under no coercion, but out of a sense of shame and desparation, and it was one of the most destructive things I've ever been engaged in.
The question of choice is an important one for physicians and therapists. Should a patient be able to make decisions about treatment? Absolutely. But if a doctor tells a patient he has leukemia, should the patient be able to ask for treatment for appendicits? No, of course not. Religion brings in other factors. The government allows for medicare payments for Christian Science practitioners, even though the medical establishment says it doesn't work. With children it's even more complicated: adults can accept or refuse any treatment, but courts often force parents to provide for essential medical care for their children, even if it violates the parents' religious teachings (again, a big issue among Christian Scientists). These are hard issues. My opinion is as follows: physicians and other licensed or accredited professionals should not be able to provide reparative therapy under the aegis of their profession and remain licensed, and parents should not be able to compel children to undergo reparative therapy. It's too destructive; adults who opt for such things are not making decisions in their best interest, and children are too vulnerable.
I know I wish for myself that it had not been available 20 years ago.
Robert
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