Kris Jenner Threatens To Sue Over Bruce Jenner Diane Sawyer Interview

There is a great deal of media hype about former Olympian Bruce Jenner's upcoming interview with Diane Sawyer during which some anticipate that Jenner may confirm that he is transgender and is contemplating transitioning to a new gender.  It goes without saying that the usual suspects  - i.e., the "godly Christians" and the professional Christian crowd - will attack Jenner and spread all of the lies and hate that they love to lavish on the transgendered.  However, the story may also shine a spotlight on  how (i) individuals find themselves forced to live up to societal and family expectations to their own emotional and psychological detriment, and (ii) family members can turn on someone in the family coming out as either gay or transgender out of embarrassment or self-consciousness.  The International Business Times is reporting that Kris Jenner is threatening to sue former husband Bruce Jenner over the Diane Sawyer interview set to air tomorrow.  Here are highlights:

Kris Jenner has reportedly threatened Bruce Jenner with a defamation lawsuit over his upcoming interview with Diane Sawyer. The former wife of the 65-year-old is reportedly "beyond concerned" that Bruce could reveal details about their relationship in the television special set to air on ABC on Friday.

The 59-year-old “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” star, who was not present during the shoot of “Bruce Jenner: The Interview,” and has not seen the footage, is “worried what he’s going to say about her,” a source close to the family told Radar Online.

“Kris snapped this weekend and is now threatening him with a defamation suit, demanding that he let her see the Diane Sawyer interview and what is filmed so far of the documentary,” the source reportedly said. “Kris told Bruce that if he defames her in any way, or their brand, she is going to sue him for everything that he is worth.”

The star’s daughter, Kourtney Kardashian, recently made efforts to ease tensions between Bruce and Kris by setting up a meeting between the two, according to media reports. However, tensions escalated after Kris visited Bruce following the latter's breast implant surgery.

Kris is also reportedly worried that Bruce might embarrass the family, especially their teenage daughters Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner.

“The older ones can handle it,” a source said, according to New York Daily News. “She said that it could damage (Kendall and Kylie’s) careers. She said he was being selfish. At first she told him, ‘You better not do it.’”

However, the highly anticipated sit-down between Bruce and Sawyer will reportedly reveal about the former Olympian’s transition into a woman. TMZ previously reported that Bruce will likely discuss the hormone therapy and the plastic surgery he has undergone so far.

 When I came out after years of marriage to a woman, I was accused of being "selfish."  The real issue was that my coming out was going to upset a lifestyle that some had come to enjoy.  The fact that I was full of self-hate and leaning towards suicide did not factor into the equation.  Thus, I ask, who is being selfish?  Kris Jenner or Bruce Jenner?  My vote is that Kris Jenner is the selfish one. 

PFOX Unwittingly Showcases Parental Child Abuse

As this blog has noted countless times at this point, EVERY legitimate medical and mental health association in America condemns so-called reparative therapy and concludes that gay conversion efforts do not work.  Even former ex-gay poster boy John Paulk and the former president of Exodus International have admitted the claims of "change" are little more than lies and self-delusion.  But that doesn't stop parasite "ex-gay" ministries from preying on the gullible and pandering to parents who are more concerned about what people will think about them than they are for the welfare of their child.  These parents, in my view, are the height of selfishness.  They ought to be charged with child abuse.  Right Wing Watch looks at the batshitery that is the norm for PFOX - Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays - which is a far right Christofascists organization staffed by self-loathing "ex-gays for pay" like Greg Quinlan.  Here are story excerpts - Note the traits that supposedly make one susceptible to homosexuality and the number of discredited quacks cited as "experts":

A recently released spring newsletter [PDF] of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) includes an essay by Steve and Janice Graham, who describe their efforts to rid their son of his “destructive” homosexuality.

Quoting ex-gay therapist Charles Socarides’ claim that coming out amounts “to a kind of murder of the family,” the Grahams write that they believed their son is gay because he started “looking at body builders online” and had “personality traits (high intelligence, curiosity, overconfidence, and a tendency to overanalyze) [that] made him more susceptible to porn and homosexuality.”

“To us, homosexuality is a deviation, a disorder, a willful rebellion, or a combination of these,” they write, adding that their son’s ex-gay therapist told him to “tell us every homosexual feeling or thought he experienced each day.”

The newsletter also features articles on Mother’s Day and President Obama’s supposed attempt “to ‘queer’ America” and promote “homosexual addicts.”

When our son admitted his problems with homosexuality, we took him to see a psychiatrist—but it was too upsetting for him. He thought we believed he was crazy. We didn’t know what to think. We were in shock—and a bit of denial.

In his book, A Freedom Too Far, Dr. Charles Socarides describes how we felt during this time: 

“Announcements like this that our kids have suddenly decided [or in our son’s case, become convinced] they’re gay amount to a kind of murder of the family. Parents can’t imagine things that are worse. It’s something like a premature Alzheimer’s disease; there’s no more real communication, no more sharing of experience, now, or ever. Some great parents can say that this is okay. But, deep down, they know they are deluding themselves. This can mean the end of hopes and dreams for their kids—that they will some day experience the extreme joys that have been repeated over and over again since civilization began, that they will become parents. And make them grandparents. To know that this isn’t going to happen—well, it’s a sadness.”

 …
Years later, our son’s therapist concluded he wouldn’t have struggled with homosexual tendencies had it not been for the pervasive homosexual influence of the internet. In other words, he was fed a gay identity. It began with the power of suggestion—by our son looking at body builders online. Having endured a lot of teasing from his peers, he was curious about his male body. He wondered if he had what it took to be a “real man.”

Many parents today back off when their child tells them they’re “gay.” This never occurred to us. To us, homosexuality is a deviation, a disorder, a willful rebellion, or a combination of these. It isn’t anyone’s true self. As Michael Glatze notes, “The whole gay identity is completely a fabrication. You’re not a homosexual; you’re a heterosexual with a homosexual problem. It’s literally all in your mind.”

In “Seven Ways to Recruit-Proof Your Child,” Scott Lively writes “it’s never too late for a child to recover his innate heterosexual orientation.” He cautions: “it will take much more work than taking preventive action would have.”

 

I can only imagine the psychological damage done to the child of these insane and self-centered parents.  From 37 years of trying to "change," I know that this bullshit doesn't work and all it does in cause internalized self-hate and self-loathing.  I pity the child of these horrible people.

Death of Gay Mormon Hopefullt Will Spur Activism

Back in September I wrote about the sad and tragic suicide death of Bryan Egnew (pictured at right with his family) who came out to his wife at age 40 after years of marriage only to quickly find himself excommunicated from the Mormon Church and separated from his five children. Perhaps understandably, Egnew felt that suicide was his best option. While Egnew was Mormon - admittedly a particularly anti-gay denomination - similar horrors are inflicted on those from other denominations such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and many others. Worse yet, all to often divorce court judges are little better and cannot put their personal religious based bigotry aside in order to see the common humanity of gay litigants. From my own experience I could name two Norfolk Circuit Court judges who fail into this category and who, under even Virginia's Canons of Judicial Conduct ought to be removed from the bench because of their judicial misconduct. If there is any good news arising from Bryan Egnew's sad story (which resonates with me because of some of the parallels) it is the fact that it may give rise to much needed activism to counter suck anti-gay bigotry. A column in Religion Dispatches looks at events in the aftermath of Egnew's suicide. Here are some highlights:

Bryan Egnew grew up in an observant LDS family in Arizona, the fourth of ten children. After graduating high school, he attended Brigham Young University, served a proselytizing mission in France, and then married in an LDS temple. He became the father of five children. He served in his local LDS congregation. He did everything that was asked of him.

And over the course of more than twenty years, Bryan slowly came to terms with the fact that he was attracted to men. Six years ago, Bryan confided his attraction with a friend he’d known since BYU days. Jahn Curran was a fellow Mormon, a father, and someone who’d also come to terms with his own homosexuality a few years earlier.

Jahn offered Bryan a listening ear, and some practical advice. When Bryan called a few months ago, saying he could keep his situation from his wife no longer, Jahn told him, "Be prepared to fight a legal battle. Get a lawyer.

Within two weeks, Bryan was excommunicated from the LDS Church. From the perspective of Mormon doctrine, his excommunication severed Bryan’s relationship to his children not only in this life, but also in the hereafter.

Alone in his home in North Carolina, Bryan was devastated. His parents flew out to be with him, then brought him back to Arizona for intensive treatment for depression.

After a few weeks of therapy, Bryan convinced his parents and his therapist that he was stable enough to return home to North Carolina, so he could look after the family home. Back in North Carolina, on Saturday, September 10, Bryan bought a gun at Wal-Mart. He fed the family’s animals, cleaned the house, handed the keys to a neighbor, sent a message to a family member that they needed to come to the house, and then went on the front lawn and shot himself.

[T]he story became public. And now, advocacy groups are mobilizing around Bryan’s story to demand that LDS Church leaders do more for gay Church members. Within gay Mormon communities, there is debate over whether focusing on gay suicides actually works to change Mormon hearts and minds.

But in the wake of Bryan’s death, many Mormons—LGBT and otherwise—are reflecting on the kind of support our communities are capable of offering gay Mormons who feel they can no longer hide their sexuality.

We’ve been taught that it is an abomination—the choice of selfish individuals. We’ve believed that same-gender attraction is comparable to a disease like alcoholism, or to pornography addiction—an unhealthy compulsion to be battled and overcome. We’ve bought into the idea—and many Mormons still do—that it is possible to change one’s sexual orientation through various therapies, or marriage, or prayer and fasting. We’ve been led to believe that equal rights and protections for same-sex couples constitute a threat to our religious freedom.

[D]o any of these serve the thousands upon thousands of young Mormons who are coming to terms with their attraction to people of the same sex? Do any of these prepare non-gay Mormons to respond to gay sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, or fellow Latter-day Saints?

May this weekend’s Conference bring some kind of strength to all those who love and care about Bryan--including his family, LGBT Mormons, and the families of LGBT Mormons around the world.

I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy whatsoever for Egnew's wife. She acted as a mean selfish bitch. She obviously cared nothing for her husband and likewise deep down cared nothing for her children who she helped to deprived of a father (increasing their likelihood of suicide in the process). As for the Mormon Church leadership, I am confident that if there is is Hell, they have special reserved seats for the abuse, hate, and intolerance they have inflicted on others even as the pat themselves on the back for their false piety and self-congratulation. Common whores have more integrity and moral upstanding. Both the Mormon Church leadership and Egnew's wife literally have blood on their hands and I sincerely hope they are haunted for the rest of their miserable lives. The world would be a better place if far right Christianity - be it under the nomenclature of Catholicism, Southern Baptist, or Evangelical Christian - and far right Mormon beliefs disappeared from the planet. Am I being too harsh in this assessment? I think not. If anything, I am not harsh enough. Religion in this form is an immense evil that needs to be irradiated because it is solely about hate and fear.

Losing One's Soul in the Closet

A month or so ago I said that I had no desire to ever date someone still in the closet. I truly believe that the fact that I was not fully out when I met my former boyfriend and that I still had a distance to go until I was "out and proud" played a significant role in the problems in our relationship. Yes, it might have ended anyway, but the toxic elements of being closeted surely did not help matters. At least one reader agrees and recently sent a comment, a portion of which reads as follows:

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I'm the out-and-proud one in my relationship (I'm also a lawyer) and I'm having a hard time being patient with my closeted partner. He's okay going out to the bars, etc, and some of his family know, but he just hasn't made that final leap to tell the parents or his sister - though I'm sure they all suspect and would be fine with it. He and I are a really good match and so I hope this all works out. If not, I'm taking your position from now on - understand that coming out is difficult and slow (hell, I've been there) but not interested in dating someone going thru that process.

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The other aspect of the closet is that in my view one has to basically lose a part of their soul to remain in the closet. I fully understand that there are many reasons to stay in the closet: fear of losing one's job, fear of client/patient reaction, inability to let go of religious indoctrination, or fear of losing material things as is the case with one individual I know. Material possessions are nice, but being one's own master and not subject to blackmail and threats that material possessions will be taken away is, at least for me, far more important. Materially, I have lost a great deal by coming out socially and professionally, but I have re-gained my soul.

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I suspect that closeted readers do not agree with me or fully understand the sense of freedom and liberation being out and proud gives. Having been in both places mentally/emotionally, I would never go back in the closet. I truly believe that I'd rather die than ever live in the closet again. As for families who try to force family members to stay in the closet, it's not a sign of love. To me, it's a sign that the family puts more value on themselves than on the one they allegedly love. It's not love. Rather it's all about them and not the gay family member.

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Ultimately, each of us must make our own decision. For me, regaining my soul is far more important than possessing the things that remaining in the closet might have brought to me.