You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
That is the only explanation for the wacky things the Executive Director of Exodus International says. In his latest attempt to piggyback on the success of Brokeback Mountain, he sent out a strange press release where he blames "gay life" for causing the pain of the characters. Brokeback Mountain is a powerful story of painful oppression and unbridled obsession," said Chambers.
"The film does an exceptional job painting a picture of the heartbreaking devastation so many endure in gay life."
Well, actually Alan, the men are miserable and create phony families, much like yours, because they can't be together and live a healthy gay life as out men.
All one can do is chuckle at the twisted logic used by conflicted, horny and unsatisfied men like Chambers. It must be difficult to keep up illuisons and mental contortions to get through the day. But, I guess people will do anything for a paycheck.
14 Comments:
Chambers is bizarre.
Is he admitting that gay people are oppresed by society? Its hard to tell.
The bottom line is: a person's sexual orientation is biological. A small minority of mammals, including humans, are born homosexual.
Those with religious beliefs that conflict with this scientific fact and/or the ones that can not take responsibility for living as responsible, healthy gay people are the ones in this ex-gay program.
Great point, Wayne. Love your work and wanted to give you a heads up: a good friend and I infiltrated the Love Won Out conference this past weekend and shot a lot of good footage that I'm working on posting on my vlog. Currently trying to edit together Melissa Fryrear's talk with the protest footage I got, but it should be up soon. Don't know if it would interest your readers, but we were sure freaked out by the experience. We hope we can help others know what these conferences are really about. Best, B
posted by Killer B, at
3/01/2006 11:07 PM
Interestingly, the only way to maintain such an air about oneself is through the power of group influence. If he can surround himself with the pain of others, then create within his own mind an omnipotent deity that is also apparent in the minds of the rest of the group (no matter how skewed the version are between the members), he can feed off of the collective pain and incredibly harmful effects of an all powerful deity to the point where it is a reality unto himself. Good ol' run-on sentences.
"The film does an exceptional job painting a picture of the heartbreaking devastation so many endure in gay life."
That devastation is the closet and the untold harm it does on gay people and those around them. Chambers is experiencing that closet in his life and is in for a rude awakening when he wakes up one day and realizes how the evil religious right has abused his self-hatred. It is so pathetic to see a fellow gay man who has been brainwashed by the bullshit of radical christians who don't know anything about humanity.
posted by BC WaterBoy, at
3/02/2006 8:36 AM
You guys are speaking from the point of men who have had good relationships with their dads.
If your fathers had taken you (with your latent sexuality) to see a beaten-unrecognizeably-dead gay man and said "This is what we DO to these people here" (and you're genuinely afraid you so-called "Dad" would do that to you if he found out (as Enis' father did his son in the original Anne Proulx short story which inspired "Brokeback")...
or...
If your "Dad" had disciplined you by beating and urinating on you (as Jack's father did in the Proulx story)...
Odds are high that you'd be screwed up in multiple ways, emotionally and sexually.
Some are seeming to see it as an exodus testimony, without the messy ex-gay stuff.
What do you all see this film as? What is the point of it? (No pun intended.) Seriously?
posted by Kurt W, at
3/02/2006 9:35 AM
Well, Kurt... Having read the story from a collection of stories abour living hard in Wyoming, THAT is what the story's appeal was.
I compare the movie to quality other films in it's genre like "The Last Picture Show" also written by Larry McMurtry...or "Tender Mercies".
All these are stories about isolation, loneliness and the redemption that love can bring if one could follow one's heart.
Those who object to gay people and their lives, are only looking at the hurt in the unsuspecting hetero wives and the children.
And only have sympathy for the women and kids.
The real issue in the movie is heterosexual conceit. That this conceit drives EVERYTHING in this situation and always has been the root of all tragedy to gay and straight alike.
All of the Oscar contenders for best picture are about contentious socio/political issues, so BBM isn't the only one about controversy.
Last year, "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Sea Inside" were about euthanasia, and the self determination of the disabled.
Heterosexuals have to get over the fact that life and all of nature has inversions, and sexuality is no exception to that. And heterosexuals must get over the fact that if gay people will only be with them after threat and coercion, then it's not a good idea to sleep with someone gay.
There isn't anything terrible in a gay person not wanting to have sex with a straight person. What is terrible is that straight people think they are the only people who SHOULD be slept with.
I see the film as groundbreaking in these two ways...non stereotypical gay men, and portrayed sympathetically.
But gay people have been acting straight without being credited with outstanding performances that have fooled straight folks forever. Even in the sack.
Ex gays crack me up that way. They want the accolades and the Oscar for acting straight.
But want gay folks to be criticized and excluded for not performing at all if they don't want to and SAVING straight people the trouble.
There is a saying which goes, "We don't describe the world we see, we see the world we describe". Kurt, Brokeback Mountain has four victims in it. The first two are those gorgeous, sexy, incredibly hot cowboys (ahem), and the others are the two wives. In a better world, those two women would have married straight men and wouldn't have been robbed of the true marriage experience. But that was taken away from them. Why?
Due to societal pressure to be straight (demanded of people as though sexual orientation were a mere behavior, as ex-gay ministries foolishly proclaim), they were married to gay men who simply used them to conform to the standard that ex-gay ministries dish out. The ex-gay sham hurts gay men, but it destroys straight women, too.
posted by Chris L., at
3/02/2006 11:46 AM
Regan, "Tender Mercies" is a great picture! Thank you for reminding me of it!
posted by Chris L., at
3/02/2006 1:12 PM
Kurt, that's the second time you brought up the 'beaten gay guy' and the other one getting pissed on by his father in BBM to make some type of point about gay men; as if the movie were a documentary. I T' S F I C T I O N!! The author could have had Glinda come down in a bubble if she wanted to. And as for Alan Chambers---he has the perfect lying twisted mindset that would be perfect for the bush administration. Ally, yur doin' a heck of a job. Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
3/02/2006 1:48 PM
Painful oppression and unbridled obsession won't get you any respect from this clown.
You can't have a good "obession, love and painful devestation" flick without 12 obsessed young guys who follow a dude who loves all men - he proves it by being tortured for a day - finally dying after bashers nail him to two posts and leave him to the birds.
Now, that's a gay love story Americans would see more than once.
"I can't quit you" is pretty lame compared to "I Died for you." Epic, right?
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