Tuesday, January 16, 2007
(Weekly Column)The anti-gay groups, the
American Family Association and
Americans for Truth should be immediately shut down for committing wanton and craven acts of fraud. They are unabashed con artists duping their own members by selling a product both groups have admitted was misleading.
The merchandise in question is the AFA's anti-gay video "It's Not Gay," which is described on the box as "former homosexuals tell a story few have heard." Unfortunately, the story most Americans have not heard is that Michael Johnston, the supposedly ex-gay star of the video, is a fake that witnesses claim participated in unethical and possibly illegal sexual behavior.
In the late 1990's, Johnston was the founder of Kerusso Ministries and National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day. He worked closely with Rev. Jerry Falwell and filmed an anti-gay
television commercial for Coral Ridge Ministries. In 1998, he appeared in an ex-gay ad campaign under the headline, "From Innocence To AIDS." The ad discussed how he had contracted HIV while living out of the closet, only later to find spiritual restoration though Jesus Christ.
In August 2003, the facade came crashing down. Michael Hamar, a Virginia attorney, called me to say he had a client who had been having an affair with Johnston, not realizing, at first, Johnston's true identity as a prominent ex-gay figure. I was also introduced to another young man who claimed to have had unprotected sex with the ex-gay leader. While in Virginia, I was shown a video of a man that looked eerily similar to Johnston having unprotected sex with several men. Hamar's client signed an affidavit swearing the man was Michael Johnston.
(Under 18.2-67.4:1, Code of Virginia of 1950, as amended law, any person who, knowing he is infected with HIV, has sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus or anal intercourse with another person without having previously disclosed the existence of his infection to the other person is guilty of criminal offense, and subject to fine or imprisonment)
The
news broke in Southern Voice, Atlanta's gay newspaper, which interviewed Johnston's right wing benefactors.
"He obviously had a moral failing, that's true," said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, which had been affiliated with Kerusso.
"I don't think the message is changed at all, though of course the messenger is certainly harmed," said Buddy Smith, American Family Association administrator. "I don't foresee he would ever be back in a place of public ministry, especially in an outreach to homosexuals like the ministry he had."
Think Again.
It is astounding that both groups have resuscitated this vulgar video and are selling it on their websites. Indeed, Johnston is making a comeback on the
"speaking team" of Pure Life Ministries, a sex addiction facility in Kentucky. It is Orwellian that a man who has lived the most reckless, hypocritical and filthy life imaginable would have the impudence to speak under the bogus banner of "Pure Life." When it comes to his moral values and treatment of other human beings, it would be more appropriate to call his ministry "Pure Death."
How can the AFA and American's For Truth's President Peter LaBarbara claim Johnston is a "former" homosexual, when he took part in unprotected gay sex after the video was filmed? Why is there no mention of his moral mudslide in the advertisements for the product? Don't the members of these organizations have the right to know the whole story? This is an unadulterated swindle designed to scam gullible people and bilk them out of their hard earned money.
The AFA and Americans for Truth should follow the example of therapist
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, who filmed the ex-gay video "I Do Exist." Throckmorton
recently learned that
one of the stars in his video, Noe Gutierrez, was having second thoughts on what he called the "divisive message of the ex-gay ministries." Although I rarely agree with Throckmorton, at least he had the integrity to announce he was retiring his video. (Though, understandably, he cited other face-saving reasons for nixing this flimsy film)
Of course, don't expect such decency from the AFA or "Porno Pete" LaBarbera, who seems to spend half his life in gay smut dens conducting "research." The only measure that may stop the gross deception and moral depravity of these organizations is interventions by state anti-fraud divisions, which I plan to alert this week.
It is crucial that such chicanery be exposed at a time when the ex-gay industry is targeting innocent children. Indeed, performance artist and former ex-gay Peterson Toscano is alleging that "inappropriate" incidents that "revolved around interactions between adult and youth participants in an Exodus member ministry" recently took place.
Exodus President Alan Chambers has yet to publicly respond to the grave allegations. Like the AFA and Americans for Truth, Chambers' moral compass is pointed permanently south. Legitimate concerns have been raised about the interaction of repressed adults and naive youth in his quarter-million dollar
Exodus Youth program, and his only answer is to plan more ex-gay
summer camps. (In a twist of cruel, surreal irony, one Exodus Youth retreat, Refuge, can be found at the website
"A Safe Place.")
If Toscano's
explosive allegations prove accurate, Chambers must explain why Exodus concealed this embarrassing information. Chambers now has an obligation to act like the moral leader he purports to be by either robustly refuting the charges or apologizing for dereliction of duty by irresponsibly putting vulnerable children in harms way.
21 Comments:
You are absolutly right - they should be stopped from misleading people with false information and more importantly false hopes, where someone has claimed he is one thing and it is provable that he is another.
posted by , at
1/16/2007 2:33 PM
Thanks for the update on Johnston. I guess he's been "rehabilitated". Again.
Can't this guy get a real job?
posted by Timothy Kincaid, at
1/16/2007 2:59 PM
Wayne that isn't the worst of it. "Porno-Pete's" organization AFTAH is listed under the IRS code R26 which is for lesbian and gay rights groups which we all know AFTAH is anything but a gay advocacy group. The FTC and IRS needs to know about this group defrauding the U.S. government by mislabeling itself as a gay rights group. Here is the link:
http://joebrummer.com/WordPress/?p=527
posted by Adam Kautz, at
1/16/2007 3:03 PM
The mainstream media sucks. If this were a moralizing straight preacher with HIV having orgies with women, it would lead every network and be on the front page of the New York Times.
Where the fuck is the MSM?????? This is called blatant homophobia by the media that is supposed to be liberal. I guess it is perfectly acceptable if queers die. I guess our lives are worth less than hetros. What a sad joke.
Marty -- New York City
posted by , at
1/16/2007 4:23 PM
It seems a little disingenuous of Mr Gutierrez to wish now to draw a veil over the nature of his sexual desire.
I guess he is entitled to his privacy. But having been a spokesman for the "ex-gay" movement, it would certainly be helpful if he could now say clearly whether he still desires his own sex or not. From his reticence - coyness, even - on the topic, one can't but suppose that he does.
If he now truly desired only the opposite sex, why would he want to distance himself from the "therapy" movement, and why would he not simply say so outright?
It looks like Dr. Throckmorton is honest enough as a scientist to face up to the complete lack of evidence - after, presumably, a long period of believing in it and looking for it - in support of theories that sexual orientation can be changed by any clinical methodology.
posted by , at
1/16/2007 4:27 PM
Throckmorton is as much a "scientist" as I am a leading man.
Off topic: a cool bumper sticker I saw the other day: The Republican Party-Our Bridge to the 11th Century.
Good one!
posted by , at
1/17/2007 9:11 AM
Mr. Johnston should be put in prison.
The AFA and the IFI should be heavily fined.
Mr. Chambers should resign for not having updated guidelines in place.
But, this will never happen because these are people of poor charachter with no moral values. They say they are Christians, but they are more like the anti-christ.
Mark Winters
Florida
posted by , at
1/17/2007 11:08 AM
Noe Guitierez writes:
"It has been my experience in the years since joining (and later leaving) the ex-gay movement that a person’s sexual orientation may or may not be an area impacted by the change that comes by way of a diligent Christian faith...However, I do not believe that change in a person’s sexual orientation is the mark of whether a person is close to or far away from God. Also, any change in a person’s sexual orientation may or may not be (1) complete or (2) permanent. In the spectrum of human sexuality there is much room for diversity and change throughout a lifetime; it is never guaranteed that such change is omnidirectional or that it is irreversible."
While he is not coming out right and stating that he is indeed still either gay or bi, it is hard not to read into this anything other than just that.
posted by , at
1/17/2007 1:35 PM
Anonymous at 1:35pm, I agree.
I was musing over the example of a heterosexual young man. Let's imagine that he has gotten into a place in his life where he's become very committed to promiscuous sex. His entire leisure time is taken up with clubbing in sleazy venues, and attempting to "score" with as many females as he can, on a "no-strings" basis.
His whole thinking is consumed with sex, how women look, and where he might next "score".
Then he begins to re-assess his life and, perhaps with the help of a therapist of some kind, takes steps to adjust his priorities, recognising that he is not happy.
He begins to focus more on his job, on hobbies, on looking after a family member who needs care, and on charity work. With these other priorities, and his efforts towards them, he finds that in time he focusses much less on sexual thoughts and feelings. His life is much more balanced and he is busy with a variety of beneficial activites. He hopes that in time he may find a woman to whom to commit on the deepest level and to marry, and in the meantime he is living a celibate life.
Is it to be said of this young man that he has "transitioned out of heterosexuality"? NO!
All that can be said is that he has "transitioned out of heterosexual promiscuity". There has been no change in ORIENTATION; only in the intensity of desire, and that has happened simply because he filled his life with a healthy selection of other priorities.
In the "ex-gay" movement, however, this whole matter is terribly obfuscated. As Wayne has demonstrated, persons are sometimes called "ex-gay" simply for signing up to a program of some kind. And persons are called "ex-gay" simply for changing their behaviour, even though the orientation of their desire has not changed.
It is a delusion and a scam.
posted by , at
1/18/2007 10:33 AM
Worse yet. It is a cruel hoax. Gay men and women who really don't want to be gay, generally due to religious stigma, count on these people as proof; as role models; as evidence that they can be straight and right with God again. And so they take the same paths as these people who claim to have gone straight. They fork over huge sums of money. They don't change. And they never learn that their role models are not straight as they thought, because that's hidden under the rug. It's a cruel hoax. They think that it is something within them. They think that God has cursed them, or isn't listening to them. What's the option? Suicide? Or hiding in the dark corners of sex clubs and S&M bars, using drugs and alcohol to kill the pain? These people have to be stopped. How they can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning is beyond me.
posted by jekelhyde, at
1/18/2007 5:11 PM
Well, I'm reminded of the famous quip by Liberace. Asked if it didn't bother him artistically that he mangled the classics for popular taste, he replied "Oh yes! I cry all the way to the bank!"
Ex-gay for pay, indeed.
posted by , at
1/18/2007 7:49 PM
Anonymous at 11:23, would you like to set the trend, then, by describing how your own change of sexual desire took place?
What clinical methodology was applied and on what timescale did it prove clinically effective? How was the treatment administered? How quickly did you find your gaze involuntarily following persons of the opposite sex instead of the same sex?
Nobody so far has been willing to share this information (that's why I don't believe they exist). Would you like to be the first?
posted by , at
1/19/2007 12:55 PM
From a posting by that prolific poster (poseur?) Anonymous (With my comments in parentheses):
--"It is indeed cruel to show people as frontmen and women of something that they truly are not."
(Glad we agree on that much; what they are truly not is "ex-gay".)
--"But in spite of those corrupt people who used people to promote their own agenda, ex gays do exist and live well."
(We can agree on their being corrupt too; but it is because the entire enterprise is corrupt at its root, not because of "those corrupt people". As for "ex-gays" existing and living well; bully for them. Just as every medical quack--no matter how strange their ideas--can boast of a few successes, so can every "ex-gay" group. That does not make either less of a crock.)
--"I hope the day comes when the ex gay ministries gets out of politics and just focuses on people and does not propagandize personal lives."
(But politics is their whole reason for being.)
--"Personal religious faith and practice is not an imposition to be made on those of a different personal faith and religious practice or lack thereof. That is a constitutional standard of free people."
(Fine words; now try preaching them to your friends, who need to hear them them badly. The chief threat to free people these days are militant Muslims and fundamentalist Christians--with conservative Catholics and even some Jews doing their bit to help chase peace, human rights, and democracy off the globe.)
posted by , at
1/19/2007 1:23 PM
Dear Anonymous:
As you know, you have been permanently banned. That means forever. All comments will be deleted as soon as there is an opportunity to do so.
Now, get off-line, leave the house and get a life.
Thanks
posted by Wayne Besen, at
1/19/2007 2:09 PM
Wayne I was 80% certain it was the old anonymous "snuck in", and I'm sorry I didn't resist rising to the bait. I shoulda.
posted by , at
1/19/2007 4:39 PM
posted by , at
1/19/2007 4:55 PM
"Chambers now has an obligation to act like the moral leader he purports to be by either robustly refuting the charges or apologizing for dereliction of duty by irresponsibly putting vulnerable children in harms way." I wouldn't count on it. The problem is that even were he to do such the damage has already been done. Those who listen to him would have their faith in him "restored" upon hearing any apology, which ironically would strengthen his credibility with his followers. The sad thing is he knows it, cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching, it's how he fills his coffers.
posted by It's Robert's Fault, at
1/21/2007 12:24 PM
I don't necessarily agree. I think Chambers' biggest problem is that he is an egomaniac. he comes across as a nice guy, but he seems to have a hard time admitting when he is wrong. he doesn't want to own up to failure. That's why he is holding on to this information. It isn't all financial, although I've no doubts that a part of it. Mostly it's pride, I think. Just a thought.
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