Day: October 15, 2006

Ex-Gay Therapists’ Crackpot Statements Are So Bad Even Other Ex-Gays Are Critical

Jon Ponder
One NARTH board member called for allowing schoolchildren to shame and ridicule classmates who don’t act according to stereotypical gender roles. Another asserted that slaves may have been better off in chains than in “savage” Africa.

The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which is based in the San Fernando’s upscale Encino neighborhood, is a group that purports to help gay people go straight. NARTH is embroiled in controversy over statements made by two of their board members that are so inflammatory that even other ex-gay groups are distancing themselves:

[Two] commentaries posted online in recent months by members of NARTH’s scientific advisory committee have raised concerns among its closest allies as well.

[Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger] called for allowing schoolchildren to shame and ridicule classmates who don’t act according to stereotypical gender roles. Another board member, [New York psychotherapist Gerald Schoenewolf], asserted that slaves may have been better off in chains than in “savage” Africa…

Yes, folks, these are the “scientists” who believe that the fundamental fact of a person’s sexual identity can be changed. In reality, most of the people seeking “reparative” therapy are bisexuals who can’t resolve wildly inaccurate interpretations of biblical texts with their inborn attraction to members of their own gender. No serious psychiatric researcher or therapist believes sexual reorientation is either possible or necessary.

NARTH is standing by its board members. But advocating the humiliation of school children and suggesting that American slaves were happy in their chains seems to have gone a step too far for other researchers and groups in the field:

One of NARTH’s scientific advisors has quit in protest, and a prominent therapist has canceled his presentation at the group’s annual conference next month. Alan Chambers, who leads the nation’s largest support group for “ex-gays,” urged NARTH’s members to “think long and hard about the mission of the organization.”

…The two groups that regularly stage conferences on “overcoming homosexuality” — Focus on the Family and Exodus International — have both affirmed their support for [NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi]. But Chambers, the president of Exodus, made clear he disagreed sharply with how NARTH has handled the controversy.

Berger’s advice that children with differences be ridiculed “wouldn’t be something we would tolerate from someone who was part of our board,” said Chambers, who recalls being teased for acting effeminate as a boy. “We have to be very careful about what we say and how we say it. Peoples’ emotions, hearts and even lives are at stake.”

Bush Claims Not to Have a Strategy for Governing if Dems Win Congress

Jon Ponder

He has no plan for Iraq and had no plan for Katrina, so it should not be a surprise that President Bush claims not to have a plan for the rest of his term if his Republican cronies in Congress lose their majorities in the election:

Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7–a concern aggravated by the president’s news conference this week.

“They aren’t even planning for if they lose,” says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

“The Bush White House has had no relationship with Congress,” said a Bush ally. “Beyond the Democrats, wait till they see how the Republicans–the ones that survive–treat them if they lose next month.”

It’s okay, really. I’m sure the Democrats will keep Mr. Bush very busy, if they win either house.

Bush Obsessing Over “Really High Stakes” of Failure

Trish

Not only can I not stand to listen to George W. Bush — the only president who consistently evokes Jimmy Cagney when speaking by using the word, “see” to start or end nearly every sentence — I can’t stand to watch him talk either.

But Julie Mason can, and she records some sharp observations about his recent Rose Garden press conference.

Bush has been using a different speaking style lately, with more angry-sounding, often highly partisan rhetoric and stronger body language.

He grips the podium, jabs a finger and raises his voice. He squares his shoulders, mocking Democrats and scoffing at critics of his policies.

Mason concludes that Bush is in campaign battle mode.

Key issues for Bush are North Korea and the Middle East, where the stakes, Bush said, “are really high.” And numerous: Bush alluded to the “stakes” 11 times in just more than an hour in his Rose Garden news conference.

Bush has been using a different speaking style lately, with more angry-sounding, often highly partisan rhetoric and stronger body language.

In fact, “the stakes couldn’t be any higher,” Bush said. “I understand the stakes. I’m going to repeat them one more time.”

He added, “As a matter of fact, I’m going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes.”

The stakes are high for Bush in November. If he can’t lead his party to another majority in the House and Senate, his domestic agenda may wind up as scraps of forgotten rhetoric. He could also face stronger and more effective resistance to his Iraq policy…

Everyone got that? See, the stakes are really high. For once I’ll take Bush’s word for it. So get out and vote, see? Because undermining Bush’s ability to have his way is the highest stake of all.

South Slammed as Rest of the Country Gets Free Pass — Again

Trish

A never-ending debate here at PR* concerns the degree of racism in the South, compared to the rest of the country. Editor-in-Chief Jon, who was born in Texas, grew up in North Carolina, and considers California home, feels the South is correctly maligned regarding racism. Editor Trish, who was born in North Carolina but grew up in Florida and considers it home, feels the South is used as a scapegoat to allow the rest of the country off the hook and an air of superiority to boot. Editor Buck, who was born in Florida and returned here after college, largely stays out of the argument.

George Stephanopoulos covered the Tennessee Senate race to fill Bill Frist’s seat on This Week. He unknowingly bolstered Trish’s case when he explained about candidate Rep. Harold Ford, that “if elected, he would be the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction.”

Because you know how we are down here: all unenlightened and everything, unlike the rest of you who are so colorblind and forward thinking. Take a moment now and pat yourselves on the back because it’s not at all surprising to hear Southern states would have sent less African-Americans to the Senate than say, California. Or New York. Or Ohio.

Except that none of those places has ever sent any.

In fact, only five African-Americans have served in the U.S. Senate — two from Mississippi, two from Illinois, and one from Massachusetts.

My point is not that the South is right to have done so little to erase color barriers in this country, rather that it is not alone in this deficiency. And as long as people can point to the South as the “real problem,” they avoid solving what is, in fact, an American problem. So what George Stephanopoulos should have said is that Ford would be the first African-American elected to the Senate in 48 states since Reconstruction.

And that sucks. Go, Rep. Ford.

*Where —full disclosure — we are all white.