Earlier this week the Washington Post gave op-ed space to Tony Perkins, the head of the virulently anti-gay Family Research Council. The same Tony Perkins who has a documented history of racism and fraternizing with racists and who is a feel documented liar. Had anyone at the Washington Post bothered to Googled Mr. Perkins, they'd have realized that no legitimate and credible publication should ever give editorial space to Tony Perkins. After being severely criticized and hit with brickbats, the Post decided to do so CYA by allowing a piece by Sirdeaner Walker who lost her son to suicide as a result of anti-gay bullying. Walker challenges Perkins' bullshit lies. An unrelated piece in Religion Dispatches likewise redirects the blame for anti-gay bullying to its real source: anti-gay Christianists who continue to peddle the "ex-gay" myth, often enriching the proponents of these bogus "ministries" in the process. First these highlights from Ms. Walker's Washington Post response to the gay-hating, Klan loving Tony Perkins:*
I came to know about an organization called GLSEN--the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network--about a year and a half ago in the midst of the most difficult time of my life. My 11-year-old son Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover had just taken his life after enduring anti-gay bullying in school. His school had not taken the bullying seriously enough. Eliza Byard, GLSEN's executive director, offered her support.
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[S]ome of my friends and family members expressed concern about the organization's work to address anti-gay bullying in school. They voiced religious opposition to GLSEN. . . . And they're all wrong.
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Mr. Perkins' tactic, and that of others like him, is to use faith and religion to divide us. They seek to thwart efforts to deal with a problem at the heart of this current crisis--anti-gay bullying and harassment.
But Perkins goes further--his "facts" are taken out of context and are, frankly, untrue.
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And we need to be clear on one thing - addressing anti-gay bullying is not a controversial issue. If you move through the smoke screen organizations like Family Research Council try to create, you realize addressing anti-gay bullying is simply the right thing to do if we care about all of our young people.
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I could not be more grateful to my friends at GLSEN for their unwavering support, and I marvel at their determination. They do not allow themselves to be discouraged by the attacks of their crucial work, God's work, by people like Perkins.
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The piece from Religion Dispatches takes Ms. Walker's argument further and slams the snake oil merchants of the "ex-gay" ministries. Here are highlights from this piece:
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Few of the commentaries about Clementi, Brown, Walsh, Lucas and others address the broader context of responsibility for their suicides. What did the family and religious lives of these teens tell them about sexuality and religion? What produced despair so profound that death seemed their only avenue of escape from bullying?
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It’s obvious to condemn the anti-gay hatemongering of Westboro Baptist church . . . More troubling is the subtle and pernicious rhetoric espoused by religious communities and organizations that advise young people to transform their sexuality from gay to straight. Exodus Youth, an entire branch of the Christian ex-gay movement targets those at the most vulnerable and precarious points in their lives, arguing that instead of being gay, they are merely experiencing what they call SSA or same-sex attraction; a temporary malady that can be fixed through ministry, counseling, and prayer.
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The most recent post on the Exodus Youth blog by Chris Stump “Tragic Losses: Enough is Enough!” exemplifies how anti-gay sentiment masquerades as love and compassion.
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I knew a man who took his life after struggling to transform his sexuality in an ex-gay ministry for years. The ideas of “hope for healing” and “freedom from homosexuality” promulgated by Exodus Youth, religious organizations, families, and social communities are deeply entrenched and powerful. Even men and women I met in the course of my research who attended ex-gay ministries and later self-identified as LGBT still struggled. No matter how many years separated them from their experiences as young people in churches, the beliefs of their upbringing and their own same-sex desires still felt irreconcilable.
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By focusing on bullying, Exodus Youth and its supporters avoid the truth that their organization endorses insidious forms of hatred cloaked in the language of compassion.
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Few of the commentaries about Clementi, Brown, Walsh, Lucas and others address the broader context of responsibility for their suicides. What did the family and religious lives of these teens tell them about sexuality and religion? What produced despair so profound that death seemed their only avenue of escape from bullying?
*
It’s obvious to condemn the anti-gay hatemongering of Westboro Baptist church . . . More troubling is the subtle and pernicious rhetoric espoused by religious communities and organizations that advise young people to transform their sexuality from gay to straight. Exodus Youth, an entire branch of the Christian ex-gay movement targets those at the most vulnerable and precarious points in their lives, arguing that instead of being gay, they are merely experiencing what they call SSA or same-sex attraction; a temporary malady that can be fixed through ministry, counseling, and prayer.
*
The most recent post on the Exodus Youth blog by Chris Stump “Tragic Losses: Enough is Enough!” exemplifies how anti-gay sentiment masquerades as love and compassion.
*
I knew a man who took his life after struggling to transform his sexuality in an ex-gay ministry for years. The ideas of “hope for healing” and “freedom from homosexuality” promulgated by Exodus Youth, religious organizations, families, and social communities are deeply entrenched and powerful. Even men and women I met in the course of my research who attended ex-gay ministries and later self-identified as LGBT still struggled. No matter how many years separated them from their experiences as young people in churches, the beliefs of their upbringing and their own same-sex desires still felt irreconcilable.
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By focusing on bullying, Exodus Youth and its supporters avoid the truth that their organization endorses insidious forms of hatred cloaked in the language of compassion.
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