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'Reformed' gays demand a voice in America's schools
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | June 19, 2006 | Toby Harnden

Posted on 06/18/2006 6:28:31 AM PDT by Man50D

Angered by what they see as the promotion of homosexuality in schools, thousands of American parents are banding together to demand that their children be taught that it is possible to stop being gay.

Organizations such as Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (Jonah) and Inqueery are trying to ensure that their view is aired alongside gay rights messages.

A high school in New Hampshire allowed an "ex-gay" activist to address pupils on Civil Rights Day last year.

In Colorado, education officials are pondering whether to hand out a pamphlet to teachers suggesting that "conversion therapy" - a combination of prayer and counselling - can reform homosexual tendencies.

Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus International, an umbrella for ex-gay support groups, said: "The gay community says that you can't change. But there is an alternative. Now more and more teenagers are able to see there are two sides to this issue."

Mr Chambers, 34, was drawn to men from boyhood. "I didn't choose to feel gay. When I was 11, I found myself struggling with same-sex attraction issues. I was told by a school counsellor that there was nothing I could do about it. I had to accept I was gay. That made me want to die."

At 18, he joined a local Christian group in Florida and was convinced that it was possible to change. He renounced his previous sexual leanings, and within eight years he was married.

He now has two children under two. "My life couldn't be more different," he said. "I am one of tens of thousands of men and women who have overcome homosexuality."

Melissa Fryrear, of Focus on the Family, a Christian conservative group, was a lesbian for a decade.

She attributes her former orientation to "having been violated by a man outside my family when I was a child", a lack of an emotional bond with her mother and a frequently absent father. "I had 30 or 40 relationships in those years. I didn't see any stability around me.

When I was coming to the end of my proverbial rope, I discovered there was a biblical sexual ethic outlined in scripture and I started to hear wonderful stories of people who had overcome homosexuality."

Regina Griggs, the executive director of PFOX, said: "People are not born gay and there's never been a test that has found a gay gene. It's a free speech and equal access issue. We want children to have all the facts, not just the outlandish statements and bias of one side."

She became involved in PFOX when her teenage son announced that he was gay. 'But he's at the point where he admits now that change is possible.

"I have never sat him down and handcuffed him and said, 'I'm taking you to a therapist'. His decision is his decision. We love one another and we're no different from any other family."

Miss Fryrear, 40, said she faces more discrimination as an "ex-gay" than she did as a lesbian. "It seems that gay and lesbian activists want me to go into the closet. I have been called things I could never repeat to my mother.

"I have had death threats. I have to travel with personal security. I get a Christmas card each year with human faeces smeared on it."

Unlike some hardline Christians, Mr Chambers and Miss Fryrear accept that homosexual feelings may be genuine, arguing that they are a complex mixture of innate tendencies, childhood factors and personality traits.

Mr Chambers suggested that he would never completely shake off his past. "I'm not above being tempted. I'm human," he said. "But it's not something that rules my life.

I am attracted and committed to my wife and I have developed heterosexual feelings in general. I choose to live beyond these things and they don't control me any more."

Ron Schlittler, the deputy executive director of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the "ex-gay" arguments were potentially damaging to young people. "Conversion therapy is snake oil - it's really suppression therapy.

Their basic premise is that gay people don't exist but are basically confused heterosexuals who need help."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: exgays; formerhomosexuals; homosexualagenda; pfox
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To: Man50D
And I suppose that voice will sound like Janet Reno and the Nanny mixed together?
21 posted on 06/18/2006 7:38:23 AM PDT by do the dhue (I hope y'all will help bail me out of jail after I dot Billery Clinton's eyes.)
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To: Man50D

It's not about gay vs. exgay. It's about gay Vs. shut the F up you don't have a right to be heard.


22 posted on 06/18/2006 7:43:27 AM PDT by Eddie01
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To: Paloma_55
"Once in, they are adored and pulled in by the group till they can't get out."

Sounds like a tactic used by 'religious' cults. Hit on the victim when they are psychologically and emotionally vulnerable. Next thing you know, you wake up selling pencils on a street corner for your glorious leader -- or strapping on a suicide harness.

"Battle for the Mind", by William Sargant explains how one can very easily lose their personal identity and have it replaced with group-think. Any group.

23 posted on 06/18/2006 7:46:54 AM PDT by Eastbound
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To: Man50D
As the article says, there is no genetic test or procedure (experimental or otherwise) that can determine one's sexual orientation. When people claim to be gay and we believe them, what we're really doing is taking them at their word. We believe their claim, we believe their testimony and we believe their declaration that they are gay.

But there are some people who are suddenly skeptical when one claims to be ex-gay. They don't believe the ex-gay claim, they don't believe the ex-gay testimony nor their declaration that they are ex-gay.

When somebody uses a certain standard to measure the credibility of what one group says, but then refuses to use the same standard to measure the credibility of what another group says--thereby ignoring the claims of the second group (ex-gays)--he should ask himself why he believes one group and not the other... This is a double standard.

24 posted on 06/18/2006 7:53:17 AM PDT by scripter ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Man50D
Angered by what they see as the promotion of homosexuality in schools, thousands of American parents are banding together to demand that their children be taught that it is possible to stop being gay.

Indeed, exgays do exist. For those who aren't aware of it, checkout the I Do Exist video.

25 posted on 06/18/2006 7:54:11 AM PDT by scripter ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Man50D

Being gay is currently popular, carrying with it both cachet and currency in the hip world, like all fashions, it will wane and likely wax again as generations struggle to contend with the maturation process.


26 posted on 06/18/2006 7:58:08 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Man50D
Exodus has a list of real stories from ex-gays, and more.

There's also Mike Haley's Great Escape and Richard Weller's "confession"

27 posted on 06/18/2006 8:03:44 AM PDT by scripter ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Eastbound

You are so dead on here.
I have witnessed gayness and cultism in a part of my family, and the tactics are the same.
Hit the victim when they are vunerable, then threaten them once they have been *caught*


28 posted on 06/18/2006 8:10:35 AM PDT by carmenbmw (My cats name is Mean. He earned it.)
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To: sweetliberty
While I don't bellieve there is a "gay gene" either, there may, in some cases, be a predisposition toward homosexuality that may have a genetic component...

That's a really good point a lot of people don't understand. In The Gay Gene?, Jeffery Satinover summarizes his article similarly. From the article, what's key is to know what, and how little, "linkage" and "association" really means.

It's a great article more people should read.

And here's another:

How Might Homosexuality Develop? Putting the Pieces Together

29 posted on 06/18/2006 8:11:37 AM PDT by scripter ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Man50D

Homosexuals are a bane to civilization. They are a cult of the depraved.


30 posted on 06/18/2006 8:16:28 AM PDT by hgro
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To: sweetliberty

There is no "gay gene" NOR predisposition. It is learned over time and reinforced by the ADULTS around the children.

Thus the feminst/rino mom reinforces the girlish behavior of her little boy (who she wishes had been a little girl)

EVERYTHING ELSE is based on Skinner, EXCEPT the politics of where genitals are placed for recreation.

Homosexuality should be put back to sexual "PREFERENCE" untile there can be a true gene test to identify the mythical "gay gene". (along with that unicorn detector)


31 posted on 06/18/2006 8:20:12 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Eastbound

"Battle for the Mind", by William Sargant explains how one can very easily lose their personal identity and have it replaced with group-think. Any group.

Congress. Tow the line. Admonish members that step over the boundaries of the cult. For sure commitment to honesty is not a boundary. I'm pretty sure doing that -- commit to honesty -- is out of bounds. Those that do commit are, for the most part in the closet. Which really isn't a commitment.

32 posted on 06/18/2006 8:57:43 AM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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To: carmenbmw
Thank you for your reply. Yes, it's as easy as ABC once the victim is targeted. The same techniques are tailored to the needs of the particular group. Sales, political, religious, societal, law enforcement, sexual, ethical, moral, whatever.

Be wary of a stranger's casual 'Hello' and don't under-estimate the power and influence a new-found peer group has over you. Look what happened to the totally out-of-control democrat party. One mind and one accord to destroy our military, our political system, our legal system, our independence, our sense of self-responsibility and individuality, our borders, language and culture, and our national sovereignty. And they are getting plenty of help from non-democrats who are falling under the spell of socialism.

33 posted on 06/18/2006 9:05:44 AM PDT by Eastbound
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To: Man50D

bump for later


34 posted on 06/18/2006 9:08:12 AM PDT by diamond6 (Everyone who is for abortion have been born. Ronald Reagan)
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To: the invisib1e hand
Miss Fryrear, 40, said she faces more discrimination as an "ex-gay" than she did as a lesbian. "It seems that gay and lesbian activists want me to go into the closet. I have been called things I could never repeat to my mother. "I have had death threats. I have to travel with personal security.

Hell hath no fury like homoadvocates faced with the threat of someone who has been inside and has overcome. It undermines all their rhetoric and lies.

I get a Christmas card each year with human faeces smeared on it."

In some homosexual circles, this is probably considered a gesture of endearment.

35 posted on 06/18/2006 9:12:50 AM PDT by fwdude (If at first you don't succeed .......... form a committee and hire a consultant.)
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To: Man50D

Thanks for the ping.


36 posted on 06/18/2006 9:27:15 AM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: Zon
"Which really isn't a commitment."

I agree. It's like taking a bite of the apple and saying you can spit it out anytime you want to, enjoying the juices and not wanting to acknowledge that the juice is the ingredient which is transforming you. Honesty remaining on a hook in the closet, thinking it will still be hanging there when need to cloak yourself with it.

Self-deception -- the great sin.

37 posted on 06/18/2006 9:30:35 AM PDT by Eastbound
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To: Eastbound
Be wary of a stranger's casual 'Hello' and don't under-estimate the power and influence a new-found peer group has over you.

Does the same hold true for Freeping? Are you saying I've been influenced by all you FReepers? What is the cure? LOL!
38 posted on 06/18/2006 9:36:24 AM PDT by Man50D
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To: Man50D; AFA-Michigan; Abathar; AggieCPA; Agitate; AliVeritas; AllTheRage; ...
Homosexual Agenda Ping!

If you oppose the homosexualization of society
-add yourself to the ping list!

To be included in or removed from the
HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA PING LIST,
please FReepMail either DBeers or DirtyHarryY2k.

Free Republic homosexual agenda keyword search
[ Add keyword = homosexualagenda to flag FR articles to this ping list ]

'Reformed' gays demand a voice in America's schools

How about: Reformed 'gays' demand a voice in America's schools...

Just the mention of the existence of Ex-Gays is something that drives homosexual agenda activists wacko -this reality contradicts a large portion of what premises homosexual agenda folklore and mythology

39 posted on 06/18/2006 9:37:49 AM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: Man50D
""Does the same hold true for Freeping? Are you saying I've been influenced by all you FReepers? What is the cure? LOL!"

No cure for FReeping. Sorry. You have been assimilated!!!!

Heehee!

40 posted on 06/18/2006 9:44:09 AM PDT by Eastbound
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