By Michael
Baggot
ARLINGTON,
VA, May 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Individuals who once considered themselves
homosexuals but who have since left the lifestyle, often remain silent about
their past life due to persecution from homosexual activists, an ABC News video
revealed on Monday.
"A
person may not be happy being gay, has anyone ever thought of that?" asked
"David," an anonymous man who has overcome his homosexual
inclinations, on ABC News.
"I've
found feelings could change," David added.
Parents and
Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) observed that "David's" desire for
anonymity reflects the wide-scale persecution individuals like him face from
those supportive of homosexuality.
"Many
ex-gays are afraid to come out of the closet because of the harassment they
will receive - their names, phone numbers and personal information posted on
gay websites, attacked at ex-gay exhibit booths, press releases issued against
them, etc," stated
PFOX.
"The
tactics of gay activists are to go after anyone who comes out publicly as
ex-gay, force them back into the closet, and then claim that ex-gays don't
exist because there aren't any out in public."
The ABC
report was sparked by the American Psychological Association's decision to
cancel an important forum scheduled for Monday on the relationship between
religion and homosexuality. The forum was to have included discussion of
reparative therapy used to help individuals overcome unwanted homosexual
tendencies.
Gay
activists feared that the panel would challenge the APA's official 2000
opposition to reparative therapy, itself rooted in the organization's 1973
decision to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.
The ABC
report also featured footage of lesbian protestors who banged pots and pans,
chanted, and danced in front of conservative author Ryan Sorba, forcing him to
cut short his April 29 "The Born Gay Hoax" lecture at Smith College.
Observers
observed that the Sorba incident is characteristic of the "gay
rights" movement's intolerance towards any discussion of the possibility
that individuals may freely abandon the homosexual lifestyle if they so choose.
"This
is exactly how the homosexual movement views free speech and civil rights in
their march to force their social and sexual agenda on others and intimidate
and terrorize anyone who would criticize or disagree. Truth and freedom
become subjected to the whims of thought police and rioters," commented
the conservative Massachusetts organization MassResistance.
PFOX argues
that individuals seeking to abandon their homosexual lifestyle should be
afforded the freedom from discrimination that gay activists demand for
themselves.
"Homosexual
activists are talking about personal choice, freedom, and so forth, but they
deny personal choice and freedom for those who wish to seek change," Peter
Sprigg of PFOX told ABC News.
View the
ABC video:
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0508/517023_video.html?ref=...
Now it's EX-'gays' getting pummeled
Verbal
to violent, attacks rise against former homosexuals
By Bob
Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
But some
attacks on those who have left the lifestyle, or are trying to, go far beyond
verbal denigration, according to those who have experienced it, including Joe
and Marion Allen. Their son Bart was in the process of leaving the homosexual
lifestyle in 2001 when the "gay" with whom he'd shared an apartment
strangled and killed him. The Allens
now run a ministry called Hope for the Broken Heart and they have spoken at
conferences for the ex-"gay" ministry Exodus International simply because they cannot be silent about the tragedy in their family,
and they want to help others avoid a similar result. "He
[Bart] was in the process of trying to come away from this, and was just involved
with a sick, sick man," Mrs. Allen told WND. "He was wanting help. He
did not understand his feelings and we certainly did not understand his
feelings. "Thank
goodness our child was a believer. He did love the Lord and he was miserable. He
knew what the Scriptures said about it," she said. The family looked for
help from a counselor but found, instead, despair. "When
Bart came out of her office, he looked like he had been given a death sentence.
I know this lady did not realize what she was doing … but she had told him he
was born gay," she said. "She
told him we were doing him an injustice by telling him this was wrong and he
needed to go on back [to the homosexual lifestyle]," she said. Her son did
go back, but still couldn't accept his own lifestyle choices any longer, and
asked the other man to leave the apartment. "He
was trying to make a break and he wanted help. He [Bart] called him from our
house, and told him [to move out]," she said. Her son asked the apartment
building managers to change his locks, but they declined, assuring him the keys
could not be duplicated. "We
don't know [what happened]. The police told us Bart was asleep. He [the
attacker] got in and strangled him to death with his hands and a dog
leash," Mrs. Allen said. While
violence rising to the level of homicide is not reported a great deal, the
lower levels of harassment and badgering are growing, according those who have
experienced or witnessed it. Among
recent situations that have developed in the ongoing argument over the 'innateness"
on homosexuality: Officials at a New England
organization have reported that members of a transgender lobby have promised to shadow
grandmothers and others who will be collecting petition signatures on a
traditional marriage amendment plan this summer. Actions by
members of the homosexual community recently prompted the American Psychiatric
Association to
cancel what was to be a discussion of the lifestyle. And prominent leaders of the
homosexual community have stated that only they benefit from hate crimes laws, those laws that enhance a
penalty for crimes already covered by other statutes based on the thoughts that
accompany the criminal act. The Allens
connected with the Exodus International Ministry and have been working through
that, and their own project, to offer help to those who want guidance by
sharing their own experiences. "I
guess you never get over things, of course, but it has been almost seven years.
We still cry," she said. Regina
Griggs, the executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, said her organization and staff
members repeatedly have been attacked simply because of their message: that
there are such individuals as former homosexuals. Some
attacks have been physical, such as the 2007 incident at the Arlington County Fair. There,
police told WND, there was a confrontation between an individual who got upset
over the PFOX message about leaving homosexuality and a volunteer at the fair
booth. "One
officer told me today he was on patrol at the fair when a woman approached him
and told him a man had knocked over pamphlets at the PFOX booth and assaulted
another man there. The officer then spoke to the alleged victim. He did not
want to press charges and therefore no written report was filed," said a
statement issued by John Lisle, media relations officer for the Arlington
County police department. "Based
on the description the officer was given, he located the suspect at the fair. Another
officer escorted that gentleman off the fair grounds," his statement
continued. The result
of the situation? Pro-homosexual activists vigorously condemned Griggs for
"making up" the story when she alerted supporters about the
situation. "Regina
Griggs has lost all credibility and must resign in shame for her dishonest
behavior," wrote Wayne Besen, executive director of the homosexual
advocacy group Truth Wins Out. "What PFOX did was warped, twisted and an
insult (sic) real hate crime victims." Griggs said
at the time, "The gays became infuriated when our ex-gay volunteers
testified about leaving homosexuality. … One gay man went so far as to hit our
ex-gay volunteer because he refused to recant his ex-gay testimony." The fair
was one of the events to which PFOX was admitted. Several other major
influences in America today, including the National Education Association, and the Parent-Teachers Association, simply refuse to allow PFOX to appear at their
events. Griggs said
her most recent application for an event was returned to her unopened. NEA and
PTA officials refused to respond to WND requests for comment on their
censorship policies. Those who
condemn homosexuality also face electronic badgering. When Sally Kern, an Oklahoma lawmaker, vocally rejected
the homosexual lifestyle choice as a threat, she was inundated with tens of thousands of
e-mails in a coordinated attack on her beliefs. Some of the e-mails threatened
her. In a PFOX
commentary, the question was raised: "Why is it that the term 'ex-gay' so
threatens the gay community?" That's
because, "It implies that one remains homosexual by choice. That the gay
person need not continue in the homosexual lifestyle is an unsettling message. It
is far easier to believe that there is no way out than to contemplate the
rigors of the change process. Let no one deceive themselves by thinking that
leaving the homosexual lifestyle is an easy thing to do. It is extremely
difficult. It is only when we totally give up and say, 'Lord, I can't do it on
my own,' that we allow God the opportunity to come in and begin to remake our
lives. The process is slow and the gay person encounters much in the way of
spiritual warfare. The enemy does not allow anyone to easily slip out of his
control. Indeed, the ex-gay person passes through the fire." But the
label itself is important, they say. "It is
our witness to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. It is the ray of hope
that flickers within the gay community that homosexuality is not a terminal
condition. In itself, it says, 'There IS a way out!'" Griggs told
WND the movement is becoming more aggressive in teaching that homosexuality is
something people are born with, not something they choose for whatever reasons. "We
have a school board teaching homosexuality is innate. We have judges ruling
schools are not required to teach fact-based [sex education] information,"
she said. "Basically they are silencing anyone who holds a different
opinion. Their sole concern is about advancing that homosexuality is normal,
natural and healthy and should have all the equal benefits of marriage. "If
you come at it from a Christian perspective, that makes you a homophobe,"
she said, citing the case of a University of Toledo administrator who was fired
for expressing her personal Christian testimony regarding homosexuality. "They're
not seeking equality; they're seeking total control," she said. National
statistics on crimes victimizing those who are leaving the homosexual lifestyle
are virtually untracked, but a federal study does reveal that there is a level
of violence involving same-sex partners. The 2000
study that cites those statistics, however, notes that most intimate partner
victimizations are not reported to police. The federal
study did reveal that violence between "partners" is more common
among male same-sex duos than among female same-sex duos, women living with
women reported less "intimate partner violence" than women living
with men but men living in homosexual situations reported a higher rate of
assault than men living with women. At The State of America, an author raised the issue of the
springtime event, the Day of Silence, which promotes homosexuality in public
schools under the guise of highlighting "discrimination" against
"gays." "The
Day of Truth is simply a day of counter-cultural political activism. A day of
silence would almost be okay if it was about all bullying, all intolerance, and
all discrimination, but it is not. What about the harassment of the goofy
looking guy with glasses, or the person with a big wart on her neck, or the one
with too many ugly pimples, or wimps, or nerds, or those who wear black cloaks
and look like gangsters, or all the others who are often harassed because of
appearance or speech problem or whatever? Gays are certainly not the only one
silenced, harassed, bullied, alienated, or isolated. A lot of kids have been
murdered by others kids because of being harassed before and since the
Columbine massacre. Why is their not a national day of protest for them? Because
gays are the only group with a corporate funded political agenda." "Each
year thousands of men and women with same-sex attractions make the personal
decision to leave homosexuality by means of reparative therapy, ex-gay ministry
or group counseling. Their choice is one only they can make. However, there are
others who refuse to respect that choice, and endeavor to attack the ex-gay
community. Consequently, ex-gays are subject to an increasingly hostile
environment where they are reviled or attacked as perpetrators of hate and
discrimination simply because they dare to exist," Griggs said. Researcher
Georges Rekers, of the University of South Carolina, in a review of studies,
confirms the results indicate homosexuality can be changed
"significantly." "[The
research] demonstrates with convincing scientific evidence that the Christian
ministry interventions of Exodus International produce strong and clinically
meaningful changes in homosexual orientation in a large percentage of
individuals. Furthermore this … research … yielded no evidence to support the
common assumption that attempts to change sexual orientation cause harm or
psychological distress," he said in a report on the website for The National Association for Research and
Therapy of Homosexuality. Exodus
officials had protested when Congress recently considered the Local Law
Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R 1592, which was to protect those
with "sexual orientation" issues. According to a Baptist Press
report, a spokesman said the legislation was discriminatory. "What
we're saying is this legislation is unfair, because it means that I was more
valuable as a homosexual than I am today as a former homosexual," the
spokesman said.