I Questioned Homosexuality

[pnggrad79]

I was wondering has anyone seen these billboards popping up in your town or city? They are all over Houston. They are sponsored by Exodus International. Everytime I see one, I think how much it angers me that organizations like Exodus claim they can help someone change who they are just to make the establishment happy. It is a tragedy that many gay young men and women fall into this insidious trap cajoled by their parents to "get help", are pressured to marry someone of the opposite sex, and spend a good portion of their lives being miserably attached to someone they don't feel right with. All to make SOMEONE ELSE happy!!!! Like I told my father, he doesn't pay my bills, raise my children, pay my taxes, or change the oil in my truck. Why on earth should I live my life to please him or anyone else? I am adult, and I can love whomever I choose and it should be NO ONE else's business.

These billboards and Exodus are nothing but agents of misery to a whole lot of people stuck in fundamentalist religion and think that if they really come out and be gay, God will hate them and their family will reject them. In reality there is a whole community to love them and support them if their family does kick them out, but God will never stop loving them.

Why doesn't HRC, GLAD, the Task Force or someone counter these ridiculous billboards with something like, "I questioned Exodus!", or "I questioned heterosexuality"? It's about time we stood up against these monsters. :mad:

[novaseeker]

It is annoying, I agree, but in my view the best way to counter this kind of thing is not an ad campaign of our own, but rather just living our lives in the middle of the straight world, in communities and churches and other organizations everywhere.

EXODUS are trying to run a culture war against gay people. I think the we resist that is by not being what they stereotype us to be: unhappy, dissolute, disconnected from God and society and the like. Be ourselves, be happy, be coupled, be out, and be, for lack of a better world, harmless. That way we win, and EXODUS end up looking like to fools to everyone other than the fundamentalists (and their minds are honestly not the minds that we can hope to change).

[Emproph]

OMG pnggrad that’s horrible. At least when I’m online I can blame myself for seeking out the hatred levied against me! Houston must be next on their list.

I know you already know about this:
http://joebrummer.com/WordPress/?p=529

But I posted it at Ex-Gay Watch and Mike Airhart, one of the writers there suggested this (http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/02/protest-info-love-won-out-phoenix/):
Donations to nonprofit groups such as Truth Wins Out would help make such billboards a reality.

Not that I have the money to donate right now but it certainly makes me curious about how much it costs and how long they stay up, etc.

Truth Wins Out is geared specifically to counter the lies of the Ex-Gay movement, hence the "wins out" aspect of the name, as in 'love won out' – Essentially the ex-gay name for Focus on the Family (they're connected if not the same thing).

HRC and others tend to be focused on other areas such as rights and reputation.

What's so insidiously dishonest about the so-called ex-gay political movement is that their goal is to convince people that homosexuality is a choice – WITHOUT ACTUALLY SAYING SO. It's disgusting.

God that makes me angry.

[Zerbie]

PNG honey - the FOF ex-gay traveling road show lands in my town Right Now for a conference tomorrow.

We've got this billboard too.

A protest has been planned, and I will in fact be able to attend for part of the day tomorrow. I will let you all know how that goes.

[pnggrad79]

Zerb, you go girl. Wish I was there to help.

[belladonnacordial]

One of dearest friends, from a Catholic upringing was commited to a mental institution for being gay from the time he was 15 until his insurance ran out out at 18, whereby he was free to release himself and hitch a ride to a gay bar where with much help he managed to put his life together. During the time he was commited he was drugged, beaten, raped, and received shock therapy. He is still gay.

[Daniel]

One of dearest friends, from a Catholic upringing was commited to a mental institution for being gay from the time he was 15 until his insurance ran out out at 18, whereby he was free to release himself and hitch a ride to a gay bar where with much help he managed to put his life together. During the time he was commited he was drugged, beaten, raped, and received shock therapy. He is still gay.

Beautiful Lady- I am glad to know that your friend has a friend in you!

I also have a close friend, a lesbian, who was committed to an mental institution during the late 60's and escaped after 6 months- fleeing to Europe for the next ten years. She has since reconciled with her parents- who committed her- and has married her partner.

Your post also brought to mind this memoir:

Life Inside by Mindy Lewis. Mindy, a straight woman, was institutionalized for her youthful rebellion- which was pathologized. She writes with clarity, intellegent, and harrowing detail of the kind of experience your friend has gone through- and is still happening to many unfortunately.

[Zerbie]

One of dearest friends, from a Catholic upringing was commited to a mental institution for being gay from the time he was 15 until his insurance ran out out at 18, whereby he was free to release himself and hitch a ride to a gay bar where with much help he managed to put his life together. During the time he was commited he was drugged, beaten, raped, and received shock therapy. .

WHAT?!
Donna - how was that legal? When did that happen? I am guessing they were able to get away with it b/c he was a minor at the time? How can an institution that exposes someone to so much severe harm and danger avoid lawsuits?

When I was little I was afraid that could happen to me - finally it seemed like a far-fetched scenario, I concluded that these things never happen.

[Zerbie]

I also have a close friend, a lesbian, who was committed to an mental institution during the late 60's and escaped after 6 months- fleeing to Europe for the next ten years. She has since reconciled with her parents- who committed her- and has married her partner.

the kind of experience your friend has gone through- and is still happening to many unfortunately.

Still happening? How? How is it possible to do this to someone involuntarily? Someone please explain.

[Daniel]

Still happening? How? How is it possible to do this to someone involuntarily? Someone please explain.

My understanding is that, if one is underage, one can be institutionalized against one's will. I bet Scotty can fill us in on the particulars.

[belladonnacordial]

Hi Zerbie!

This happened in Florida circa 1978, a good five years or so after the AMA declared that homosexuality was not a mental disorder. I don't know how legally binding AMA finding are on individual treatment centers. How is this legal? Maybe it wasn't. That doesn't help someone in that situation. They don't get to talk to lawyers. I'm certain his friends had no idea what had happened to him. Only his parents knew. They were convinced that it was the right thing to do to help their son. He did reconcile with them by the way.

Hi Daniel!

You are right. Things like thing probably do happen today. I know the laws governing commitment to mental institutions vary state to state. For a while in Texas all it took to commit a wife was her husband's signature- that's all.

Love and peace,
Donna

[belladonnacordial]

Was doing some research on involuntary commitment and found this. Now, I'm fairly cynical when it comes to the state of things. This surprised me. Please read about the Oregon woman committed to a mental institution against her will by a judge for nude bike riding:

http://www.progress.org/fold265.htm

Now, what if he decides he doesn't like homosexuals?

[Joe Allen]

One of dearest friends, from a Catholic upringing was commited to a mental institution for being gay from the time he was 15 until his insurance ran out out at 18, whereby he was free to release himself and hitch a ride to a gay bar where with much help he managed to put his life together. During the time he was commited he was drugged, beaten, raped, and received shock therapy. He is still gay.

My friend, Dan, who is somewhat mentally retarded, was put into a mental institution when he was a teenager because he had sex with a boy his own age. He told me that he did not know how long he was in there (it was in Montana if I remember correctly) and they released him when he was 21 years old. Dan is in a Tulsa, OK nursing home now because of physical disabilities and he will be 66 on Sunday. He calls me several times a week. I have known him since the summer of 1994.