Janet Boynes, Bachmann’s Ex-Gay: Making Plenty of $ From Suicides

Janet Boynes' autobiography is the only book about homosexuality offered in Marcus Bachmann's clinics.

By Zack Ford 

Today, Truth Wins Out has a lengthy special reportdebunking the ex-gay narrative of Janet Boynes, the leader of a Minnesota ministry with close ties to Republican candidate Michele Bachmann. She is “the Religious Right’s ‘ex-gay’ du jour,” embraced by hate groups like the Family Research Council and touted by Marcus Bachmann in his Christian counseling clinics. Her public profile is quickly growing — she was recently featured on the cover of Charisma magazine and on Lisa Ling’s special on ex-gay therapy for the Oprah Winfrey Network, making her one of the most public faces of the ex-gay movement. Despite the fact she and the Bachmanns describe each other as “friends,” Michele Bachmann continues to dodge questionsabout her connections to the harmful ex-gay movement.

Boynes has made a profitable career peddling her ex-gay autobiography and other ex-gay propaganda through her eponymous Exodus International-affiliated ministry and an ex-gay front group known as the National Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus, which pushes the dangerous therapies at education conferences like the National Education Association’s. In addition to being the darling of the ex-gay movement, Boynes is also directly fueling anti-LGBT efforts.

The Vice President of her ministry is Barb Anderson of the Minnesota Family Council, the group spearheading next year’s ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota’s constitution. Boynes testified in support of the bill and Bachmann also spoke out for it. Further, Anderson and Boynes have been directly involved in the curriculum discussions at Anoka-Hennepin School District, where teachers areforbidden from discussing sexual orientation, creating a toxic environment which may have contributed to the suicides of multiple students. Boynes’s efforts are perhaps the best example yet of how ex-gay therapy is the underpinning of all anti-gay attitudes, and thankfully, TWO is here to show just how phony her story is. It’s worth reading theentire special report, but here is a quick breakdown of the analysis:

- EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: Boynes’ “stardom” as an ex-gay is a clear indication of the Religious Right’s “desperate to find anyone willing to claim that they have successfully gone from gay to straight.”

- NOT ACTUALLY EX-GAY: Boynes is obviously bisexual, recounting in her book her regular attractions to men and relationships with them, which means her claims of being “a former lesbian” are a stretch. Arguably, her entire ex-gay narrative is a fraud, and she even admits in her book, “I was not born homosexual. I made a decision.”

- “BORN THIS WAY” IS IRRELEVANT: According to Boynes, race is inborn and sexual orientation isn’t, and thus the struggle for LGBT rights is incomparable to the Civil Rights Movement. Animus must motivate this distinction, because she suggests that even if a “gay gene” is discovered, “it doesn’t really matter,” dismissing the injustice and violence still faced by the LGBT community.

- NO EVIDENCE OF EX-GAY THERAPY’S SUCCESS: Parroting the talking point of all ex-gay groups, Boynes claims there are “thousands of ex-gays,” but offers no evidence besides herself and a boy named Christian, who admits he’s totally still sexually attracted to men.

- STIGMA IS WHAT HURTS, NOT HOMOSEXUALITY: By trying to suggest that the “homosexual lifestyle” is ugly and unhealthy, Boynes proves the opposite in her book. The stigma against being gay, which was hammered into her by her family growing up, is what led her to make all the unhealthy decisions she made. Research from the Family Acceptance Project shows that when families do not accept LGBT youth, those young people are much more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors.

- UGLY COMPARISONS: Throughout her book and ministry, Boynes regularly compares homosexuality to polygamy, pedophilia, incest, and bestiality.

Read the whole report for countless excerpts from Boynes’ book that show how truly toxic her views are. Hers is the one book about homosexuality Marcus Bachmann makes available at his clinic. As her public profile grows, it’s likely she will continue using her influence to perpetuate harm against the LGBT community and live quite comfortably off the profit of her efforts.

UPDATE

Janet Boynes penned a letter to the editor today reiterating her opposition to creating a more inclusive environment in schools like Anoka-Hennepin, writing:

No one should be promoting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) behaviors. They are not born that way. There is no scientific evidence that proves they are. None.

If we really care about our young people, we will do everything to steer them away from homosexuality and transgenderism, and the unhealthy sexual acts that are a part of these lifestyles.

Parents, start telling your kids that homosexuality is unnatural, unhealthy, and changeable. As an ex-gay I am living proof that you are not born gay.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/issue/ 

Anti-gay groups outspending pro-equality movement by a Bunch

By Lisa Keen

Originally printed (Issue 1930 - Between The Lines News)http://www.pridesource.com

The LGBT movement is making progress, but it's being seriously outspent by opponents and still has "a long way" to go to reach equality. That's the conclusion of an in-depth analysis by an independent think tank devoted to studying how best to marshal the LGBT movement's resources to "speed advancement of equality for LGBT people."

And it's a hard-edged conclusion in a year which has seen many dramatic gains for the movement - repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," significant federal court rulings against the Defense of Marriage Act, and a swing in public opinion toward support for same-sex marriage.

But the report, prepared by the five-year-old Movement Advancement Project, is clearly aimed at helping direct the community's attention to where work can and must be done to move the movement along. The report notes, for example, that only 3.4 percent of LGBT people made a contribution to a national LGBT group in 2009. Meanwhile, anti-LGBT groups have more than three times the revenue of pro-LGBT groups.

The report also notes that:  

-HIV infection is still a "growing" concern among men having sex with men. While 59 percent of new HIV infections among men in 2000 were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact, 75 percent were in 2009;

-24 percent of lesbians are living in poverty, compared to 19 percent of straight women;

-53 percent of LGBT people live in states where there is no legal recognition of their relationships.

-the median household income of a same-sex couple with children is 23 percent less than that of a straight couple with children; and,

Much of the information presented in the report was reviewed in March at a closed-to-the-press conference of wealthy LGBT donors, organized by the OutGiving Conference. The invitation-only conference is hosted annually by gay philanthropist Tim Gill's foundation. Gill Foundation President Tim Sweeney, a long-time respected activist and former head of Lambda Legal Defense, sits on the MAP board. Other MAP board members include representatives from the foundations of other gay philanthropists, including the David Bohnett Foundation and Jon Stryker's Arcus Foundation.

The presentation to the conference, provided by MAP Executive Director Ineke Mushovic and Williams Institute Executive Director Brad Sears, was more blunt than the report. They noted that the 2010 election results giving Republicans control of the House and many state legislatures limited "opportunities" for LGBT gains in the "short-term." They said the movement "may be hitting a wall in some areas," noting that, in 28 states, there has been "little progress" toward passing non-discrimination laws.

"While things are improving on the coasts and in the upper middle west," said Sears to the OutGiving Conference, "they're not improving equally across the country, and we need to focus on these states where things are lagging behind." Those states include Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Arizona.

The presentation also noted that while 550 LGBT non-profit groups collected a total of $574 million in contributions during 2009, most of that money ($299 million or 52 percent) went to providing health services and community center programs. About $192 million (33 percent) was spent on advocacy, and about $35 million (6 percent) on legal challenges. Arts and recreation accounted for about $36 million (6 percent). Only $13 million (2 percent) is spent on public education. And, as reported in a study released by MAP earlier this year, revenue to LGBT groups dropped by 20 percent between 2008 and 2009.

But both the written report and the OutGiving presentation included a long list of advancements by the movement, including increasing public support and increasing bipartisan support of civil rights for LGBT people. The reports note that the LGBT movement has gotten better at working with its allies to accomplish its goals. The number of states with "safe school laws" addressing the issue of bullying of LGBT youth has gone from zero in 2001 to 14 today.

"Much work remains to be done," concludes the report, "but strong and growing public and political support, along with a growing list of legislative successes, shows that momentum is on the side of progress."

View the full report here

NPR: "Journey Into Manhood For The Low Price of $650+travel"

by By Zack Ford 

National Public Radio has yet to apologize for the platform it provided Rich Wyler on Monday to spout as many lies about sexual orientation as he could fit into the segment. NPR featured Wyler for being ex-gay and allowed him to testify about all the promise he believes reparative therapy offers to people not happy with their same-sex attractions, despite the fact that there is scientific consensus that ex-gay therapy is harmful and ineffective. But NPR made another big journalistic mistake besides its inappropriate framing of ex-gay therapy — the story neglected to mention that Wyler makes his entire living off of providing ex-gay therapy to vulnerable and insecure men he convinces to try to change.

Wyler’s ex-gay organization, People Can Change,  utilizes the stigmatic notion that people should change to drag men through an emotionally traumatic weekend called Journey Into Manhood (JiM). And it’s all for the low, low price of $650 (plus travel)! According to its tax forms, the organization takes in over $200,000 a year, most of which goes to the costs of providing these “coaching” weekends, although about $50,000 goes directly into Wyler’s pocket as his salary.

And what happens at these weekends? Writer Ted Cox infiltrated JiM to find out. The therapy is built on the premise that men have same-sex attractions as a weakness of their manhood. Wyler uses a lot of emotional trauma to shake these men to their core, accompanied by borderline homoerotic “healing touch” to somehow help them connect with their inner masculinity. Cox explains one of the opening exercises, a re-enactment of Jack and the Beanstalk:

The story, a narrator explains, is loaded with coming-of-age​ symbolism. Fatherless Jack has lived in the safe, feminine world under his mother’s care; the old man in the village represents ancient tribal elders who help boys transition into manhood; the seeds given to Jack represent both his sperm and the masculine potential for creation. Like most women, Jack’s mother doesn’t understand the importance of the seeds, so she chucks them out the window. The reenactment ends with Jack sent to bed without supper. After all, he screwed up his masculine duty to provide food for his family.

Much like Jack’s adventure, Journey into Manhood is the initiation into the mysterious world of heterosexual masculinity that has supposedly eluded us for so long. But as I look at the men filling in seats around the lodge room, especially the men who appear to be in their late 50s, I wonder: Have they never felt like men?

This is the work of Rich Wyler. These are the bogus ideas NPR decided to highlight under the guise that they were merely “controversial.” And by promoting these ideas, Wyler will no doubt scam more men into his expensive, torturous weekends, where their egos will be beaten into submission as their attractions are, if anything, reinforced through inappropriate touching. There is no controversy around providing therapy to people who are gay. There are professionals who improve gays’ well-being through affirmation and then there are con-men eager to make them feel worse by reinforcing stigma.
http://thinkprogress.org

Are There Real Ex Gays? Only if There Are Celestial Aliens

Do Real Ex-Gays Exist?

Julian Sanchez believes they do:

It’s true, most self-described “ex gays” sound like they’re engaged in a religiously-motivated form of denial, rather than responding to some genuine personal epiphany about their inner nature. But if people who are actually gay can go years or decades convincing themselves (or trying to convince themselves) that they’re straight, surely it’s at least possible that some small handful of actually-straight people sometimes convince themselves they’re gay.

Nope. Never found one. The reason? So much of the culture and the environment and social pressure is for heterosexuality. It's the norm. Very, very few people who are the norm in a society where the norm is overwhelmingly celebrated, are going to be in denial that they're really straight. Maybe a few fluid lesbians in college. But that's it. I can't imagine a straight guy feeling in any way pressured to live a gay life.

The vast majority of "ex-gays," in my view, are not ex-gay in any internal sense; except if their inability to accept their true nature is so overwhelming that they'd rather live as tortured heteros than marginalized homos. They can do it, of course, and it should emphatically be their choice. But in many cases, it will come at enormous personal and human cost.

Still, good luck to them. My view is that the point of the gay rights movement is not to force everyone to be gay, or even every gay person to be openly gay, it is to expand the possibilities for individuals to be themselves. That must include those gays who cannot bear to be who they are. Unhappiness, like happiness, is an option every free society should respect.                           

posted on andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com

Dolly Parton Issues Apology For The Gay Shirt Fiasco

LGBTQ Nation 

                        Country music entertainer and theme-park entrepreneur Dolly Parton has issued a public apology to a lesbian couple who claimed they were discriminated against recently when an employee at the Tennessee theme park “Dollywood” told one of the women that her “Marriage is so Gay” t-shirt was offensive to other visitors.

Dolly Records

Dolly Parton

Olivier Odom and Jennifer Tipton, who married last year, said they were “in disbelief” when a gate host denied Odom admittance to the park until she changed her shirt.

Now Parton has released a statement to ABC News apologizing for the incident.

“I am truly sorry for the hurt or embarrassment regarding the gay and lesbian t-shirt incident at Dollywood’s Splash Country recently. Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community. Dollywood is a family park and all families are welcome.”

Dolly adds that the policies on clothing or signs with profanity or controversial messages are in place to protect the person wearing the shirt and keep disturbances at the park to a minimum.

Dolly concludes saying, “I am looking further into the incident and hope and believe it was more policy than insensitivity. I am very sorry it happened at all.”

ABC News

   Following the incident, Odom sent a letter last month to Dollywood officials, asking them to “implement policies that are inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people; conduct staff sensitivity training; and issue a public statement indicating that the park is inclusive of all families.”

The theme park, located in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., is owned by Parton and the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation.

Maddow's Ratings Continue to Grow. Contract Extended by MSNBC

It looks like Rachel Maddow's career is not over. MSNBC has extended her contract well beyond the 2012 election, The Hollywood Reporterreports.

It's likely no one was too worried about Maddow's career. As The Hollywood Reporterpoints out, Maddow's ratings continue to grow. And she is MSNBC's highest rated anchor, the Huffington Post reports. But there remains one small -- well, maybe tiny -- thorn in her side: a$50 million lawsuit for slander and false light.

The lawsuit, filed by controversial anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean and his ministry, claimsMaddow took Dean's fiery comments on homosexuality and spun them to suggest he endorsed killing gays. Larry Klayman, Dean's lawyer and the founder of Freedom Watch, said last week that the lawsuit will end Maddow's career. "You can't just say whatever you want," he told the Michele Tafoya Show on CBS radio.

MSNBC dismisses the lawsuit, saying "the suit is baseless and we stand by our reporting."

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Anti-Gay AFTAH Tax-Exempt NO MORE!

According to the IRS, the tax-exempt status of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) was revoked on 5/10/2010 (PDF). The reason for this action is listed by the reporting organization Guidestar as a “failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years.”  These forms are required of legitimate non-profit organizations for review by the IRS and the public.
While the current incarnation of AFTAH appears to have been active since 2006, we found only one form 990-EZ on file — for the year 2009 (PDF).  In this, total receipts are listed as $110.000, out of which Peter LaBarbera received a salary of $75,000.  For perspective, this is approximately the same salary plus benefits claimed by Exodus president Alan Chambers.  Exodus lists eleven employees and a million dollar budget.

According to the IRS documentation on revocations (PDF), AFTAH can no longer be considered a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, and there is no process for appeal.  Donations made to them before 6/10/2011 are still deductible by donors, though any income after revocation may be taxed and require filing of a federal return.  LaBarbera appears to have been aware of all this, as the donations section of the AFTAH website no longer claims tax-exempt status.

AFTAH is one of a handful of anti-gay organizations classified by the venerable civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a hate group.  According to the SPLC, this is due to LaBarbera’s intense marketing of untruths which paint gays and lesbians in a false and negative light (eg. promoting the claims of the discredited Paul Cameron, claims of a disproportionate incidence of pedophilia in gays, and Scott Lively’s assertion that gays headed the Nazi party, etc).

Thousands of organizations exist which claim that homosexuality is a sin or otherwise immoral, only eighteen are listed as true hate groups by the SPLC.  AFTAH is one of them.

ExGayWatch obtained

Census Reports Gay couple households boom in Utah

BY ROSEMARY WINTERS

AND LEE DAVIDSON

The Salt Lake Tribune

Molly Butterworth, a Salt Lake City resident, liked that the 2010 Census form allowed her to identify her "Person 2" as both Chinese and white, correctly reflecting the diversity in her household. She also was pleased she could report that person as her "wife," even though her Massachusetts marriage license is not recognized in Utah.

More than ever before, same-sex couples living together in Utah are reporting their relationships in the U.S. Census. The number of households headed by gay and lesbian couples shot up by 73 percent over the past decade — and they now account for about one of every 150 households here, according to 2010 Census data released Thursday. In contrast, the total number of Utah households grew by 25 percent.

"Much of the increase is due to an increased willingness to report as opposed to Utah suddenly getting a surge of same-sex couples willing to move there, or that suddenly the [lesbian, gay and bisexual] population coupled at an increased rate," said Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California-Los Angeles Williams Institute.

Gates has noticed similar surges in other conservative states, including Arizona (70 percent), Montana (88 percent) and Oklahoma (70 percent). The growth was less dramatic in more socially liberal states, including California (36 percent) and New York (40 percent), where more gay couples may have felt just as comfortable reporting their status in 2000 as they did in 2010, Gates said. Household data has not yet been released for every state, so there is not a national average.

Meanwhile, the number of heterosexual couples living together in Utah without marrying also skyrocketed by 66 percent, and they now head one of every 25 households in the state.

The number of households headed by married couples increased by only 21 percent, but they account for three of every five Utah households.

University of Utah research economist Pam Perlich said those changes come as public polls and academic research have shown that Americans — especially the younger generation — are more accepting of gays and lesbians, and also increasingly question the need for marriage.

"Polls show about 70 percent of younger people are accepting [of gays]. There really is a generational shift," Perlich said, adding that Utah has the lowest median age in the nation. "I expect there is a similar propensity of younger kids to self-identify [as gay] more than the older folks who have been raised in very repressive and punitive sorts of environments where it’s fine to fire people or not give people housing."

A changing climate made a difference for Kate Call, a 58-year-old American Fork resident, when she completed her Census form.

A decade ago, she was living with a lesbian partner on a ranch in San Juan County. She did not have mail service so a Census taker, someone she knew in small-town Blanding, came to pick up her 2000 form. She reported her girlfriend as a roommate, rather than an "unmarried partner" because she feared being outed.

"Generally, [people in rural Utah] are ‘live and let live’ but you will run into the occasional person who will discriminate against you," Call said.

In 2010, Call looked forward to reporting her unmarried partner in the 2010 Census. She was living near Moab at the time.

"I wanted to be counted in the state of Utah as being a same-sex couple," she said. "Some people think we are just a tiny fraction of the population when we’re more populous than they realize."

The Census shows 5,814 households in Utah were headed by same-sex couples in 2010, up from 3,360 in 2000. The number includes heads of households who identified a second adult as either a same-sex spouse or unmarried partner.

Every county in Utah had at least one household headed by a gay couple — although Daggett and Piute counties reported only one each. Eighty percent of same-sex couples live in the four Wasatch Front counties of Salt Lake, Utah, Davis and Weber.

Salt Lake County was home to 54 percent of Utah’s same-sex couple households. Salt Lake City itself claimed 19 percent, followed by 6 percent in West Valley City and 5 percent in Millcreek.

Nearly a third of all same-sex couples — 1,813 — have children under the age of 18 in their homes.

Tony Butterfield, a father of 9-year-old twin boys, said he enjoys living in Sandy, where his kids can be close to their grandparents and cousins. He teaches chemical engineering at the University of Utah and his husband, Paul, stays home with the kids. (The couple married in California in 2008 during the window that same-sex marriages were legal there.)

"When it comes to everyday interactions with the people of Utah, I find that, as soon as they get to know us, all the politics and biases go out the window and they are just our neighbors and friends," Butterfield said. "In Utah, the biggest problem are the people who don’t know us."

Butterworth and Davida Wegner, who married in Butterworth’s hometown of Nantucket, Mass., in 2007, are among the couples who are new to Utah — not just newly counted. Butterworth moved to Salt Lake City six years ago to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Utah. Wegner, a graphic artist at Whole Foods Market, followed a couple of years later when she had finished a master’s degree at Yale.

"Utah is more diverse than people view it from far away," said 31-year-old Butterworth.

She counts the Wasatch Mountains, affordable cost-of-living and cultural opportunities such as Cedar City’s annual Shakespeare festival among the perks of living in Utah.

"Originally, we thought we definitely wouldn’t stay in Utah" after finishing graduate work, Butterworth said. "Right now, I really don’t know."

rwinters@sltrib.com

ldavidson@sltrib.com