Maryland Schools Finally Say "No More" to Fraudulent "Ex-Gay" Group

For years now the Christianist funded "Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, a/k/a PFOX has been working to disseminate its bogus junk science based ex-gay propaganda in the Montgomery County, Maryland schools.  Never mind that every legitimate medical and mental health association states that the ex-gay myth is a lie and potentially very harmful.  Thankfully, the school division has belatedly said "No" to allowing PFOX's poisonous and fraudulent in the public schools.  This step has required that other legitimate materials likewise be banned from distribution to students, but the school division decided that it was a trade off worth making.  A piece in The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this action which has slammed the doors on PFOX's fraudulent, witch doctor like propaganda.  Here are highlights:

The Montgomery County, Maryland School Board made just such a sacrifice on behalf of their students this summer. An organized band of predators with their own virulent form of creeping crud, is stalking their gay and questioning middle school and high school students. The group, known as PFOX, Parents and Friends of Ex Gays, is actively targeting at-risk kids who are confused about sex and sexuality. PFOX not only tells kids who feel an attraction to someone of the same-sex that something is wrong with them, they tell their parents that sexual preference is a choice, and if they would just turn their children over to the tender mercies of PFOX, they will put them straight; and they do this at the very time in the teen’s life when psychologists say the support of the parent is critical for his (or her) successful future.

The Montgomery School District did not want to be complicit in that message, in fact they required a disclaimer saying nothing about the PFOX program was endorsed by the school, but PFOX had burrowed itself into a legal loophole. Montgomery County schools had a longstanding community outreach program that allowed local businesses and non-profit groups to send home fliers with the students four times a year. It was envisioned as a way local businesses could offer special deals, or groups could organize after school activities. But for six long years, PFOX used the program to send out it’s misinformation fliers, trumpeting their “success” while doing who knows what damage to gay and questioning kids and their families.

Parents complained. Students complained. The local media would run stories about PFOX every time they sent out one of their fliers, causing even Montgomery County residents without school-aged children to complain too. Joshua Starr, the new Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, called the PFOX fliers “reprehensible” and “deplorable” when a student challenged him on the subject at a meet-the-new-boss town hall meeting. 

[T]his June, the Montgomery school board finally decided it was better that no one be allowed to send out fliers than to continue to allow PFOX to plague the families in the district for another school year. On a 6-1 vote, the school board ended the flier program for all the middle schools and high schools in the district.

Now we wait for the PFOX response. Their leadership is angry. Peter Sprigg, who sits on the group’s board of directors, sniped, “I don’t think censorship is the message that we should be teaching students in a free society.” Sprigg says with a straight face the PFOX message is not homophobic nor is it hate speech, which is the only thing the federal judge told the schools they could reject.

Will PFOX seek revenge by targeting 5 to 11-year-olds? The school flier program is still operating in the elementary schools.   .   .   .   .    So make your predictions. Will PFOX attempt to send their garbage science home through the grade-schoolers? If they try, will the Montgomery County School Board again take a stand to protect the vulnerable kids in their charge? We will certainly be watching when the school bell rings in the next round of this prize fight come September. PFOX and the resistance of the Montgomery School Board, will remain On Our Radar.

One can only hope that the school division will take whatever future actions needed to keep PFOX's lies and deliberate misinformation away from school children.  Subjecting students to such lies is in my opinion nothing short of child abuse.

Investigating Mitt Romney's Off-Shore Accounts

Vanity Fair has a lengthy article that looks at both Mitt Romney's business practices - which included encouraging employees to lie and engage in clandestine efforts against rival businesses - and also his preference of hiding money overseas so as to avoid paying U.S. taxes.  The picture that emerges from the article is unsettling: many questionable deals, hidden funds, brutal treatment of employees, and the dismemberment and closure of companies.  It's a picture quote different from the one being actively marketed by the Romney campaign to the general public.  Romney and his cronies seem to seek a return to the Gilded Age and seem happy to emulate the robber barons of old.  The practices certainly make one wonder what type of atmosphere would pervade a Romney White House. Here are article excerpts:

A person who worked for Mitt Romney at the consulting firm Bain and Co. in 1977 remembers him with mixed feelings.   .   .   .   Bain and Co., the person recalls, pushed employees to find out secret revenue and sales data on its clients’ competitors. Romney, the person says, suggested “falsifying” who they were to get such information.   .   .   .  “Mitt said to me something like ‘We won’t ask you to lie. I am not going to tell you to do this, but [it is] a really good way to get the information.’ … I would not have had anything in my analysis if I had not pretended.

This unsettling account suggests the young Romney—at that point only two years out of Harvard Business School—was willing to push into gray areas when it came to business. More than three dec­ades later, as he tried to nail down the Republican nomination for president of the United States, Romney’s gray areas were again an issue when he repeatedly resisted calls to release more details of his net worth, his tax returns, and the large investments and assets held by him and his wife, Ann. Finally the other Republican candidates forced him to do so, but only highly selective disclosures were forthcoming.

Even so, these provided a lavish smorgasbord for Romney’s critics. Particularly jarring were the Romneys’ many offshore accounts. As Newt Gingrich put it during the primary season, “I don’t know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account.” But Romney has, as well as other interests in such tax havens as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

While the Romneys’ spokespeople insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in “jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,” as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.

That’s not the only money Romney has in tax havens. Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital  .   .   .   Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.

Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs.

Come August, Romney, with an estimated net worth as high as $250 million (he won’t reveal the exact amount), will be one of the richest people ever to be nominated for president. Given his reticence to discuss his wealth, it’s only natural to wonder how he got it, how he invests it, and if he pays all his taxes on it.

 Ed Kleinbard, a professor of tax law at the University of Southern California, says the Swiss account “has political but not tax-policy resonance,” since it—like many other Romney investments—constituted a bet against the U.S. dollar, an odd thing for a presidential candidate to do. The Obama campaign provided a helpful world map pointing to the tax havens Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands, where Romney and his family have assets, each with the tagline “Value: not disclosed in tax returns.”

Romney’s personal tax rate is a particular point of interest. In 2010 and 2011, Mitt and Ann paid $6.2 million in federal tax on $42.5 million in income, for an average tax rate just shy of 15 percent, substantially less than what most middle-income Americans pay.

All the assets on Mitt’s financial disclosures are in blind trusts or retirement accounts held by him and Ann. Blind trusts are designed to avoid conflicts of interest for those in public office by having politicians’ assets managed by independent trustees. The Romneys’ blind trust was created when Mitt was elected governor of Massachusetts. Curiously, the Romneys appointed Bradford Malt as their trustee. It’s certainly true that under Malt the trusts don’t appear to be as blind as they might be . . .

Mysteries also arise when one looks at Romney’s individual retirement account at Bain Capital. When Romney was there, from 1984 to 1999, taxpayers were allowed to put just $2,000 per year into an I.R.A., and $30,000 annually into a different kind of plan he may have used. Given these annual contribution ceilings, how can his I.R.A. possibly contain up to $102 million, as his financial disclosures now suggest?

A report by Bain and Co. itself, looking at the period from 2002 to 2007, concluded that there is “little evidence that private equity owners, overall, added value” to the companies they took over: nearly all their returns are explained by broad economic growth, rising stock markets, and leverage. 


Bain engaged in startling penny-pinching with the laid-off employees. Their contracts stipulated that if they left early they would have to pay back the costs of relocating to Miami—but in spite of all that Dade had done to them, it refused to release the employees from this clause.   .   .   .   .   generous pensions were converted into less generous benefits, wages were cut, and more staff members were laid off. Some employees contacted Norman Stein, then the director of the pension-counseling clinic at the University of Alabama law school, with a view to challenging the conversions. Stein says the employees were “extraordinarily nervous,” so fearful, in fact, that they refused to let lawyers even make copies of pension documents. “I have been dealing with pensions issues for over 25 years and I never saw anything like this,” recalls Stein. The spooked employees did not go to court.

Nor was this an isolated incident: Kosman lists five other “formerly healthy” companies—Stage Stores, Ampad, GS Technologies, Details, and KB Toys—Bain helped drive into bankruptcy, while making big profits.  

The bottom line is that Obama's seemingly harsh ads attacking Romney have a strong basis in fact.  They underscore the reality that Romney cares nothing for average people and their financial well-being if he can make a buck out of screwing them over - in a careful legalistic way, of course.  Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's not immoral nonetheless.

Louisiana Legislator Was For School Vouchers, Until She Realized Muslims Exist

I had seen several stories on Republican Louisiana State Representative Valarie Hodges (pictured at right) who was an advocate of and voted for a Louisiana law that allows parents to utilize vouchers to send their children to religious schools.  So far I've bitten my tongue and refrained from commenting.  I just can't do it any longer since in my view Ms. Hodges represents both the stupidity and alternate universe mindset of the majority of today's Republicans.  When she voted for the bill backed by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal - a certifiable loon and bigot in my opinion - Ms. Hodges believed that only Christian schools would qualify for the vouchers.  Imagine her horror when she woke up to the fact that Muslims and non-Christian parents could also use these vouchers at their own religious affiliated schools.  The Livingston Parish News looks at Ms. Hodges' reaction to this shocking reality. 

Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Watson, says she had no idea that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s overhaul of the state’s educational system might mean taxpayer support of Muslim schools.

“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools,” the District 64 Representative said Monday.  “I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school,” Hodges said.

Hodges mistakenly assumed that “religious” meant “Christian.”  HB976, now signed into law as Act 2, proposed, among other things, a voucher program allowing state educational funds to be used to send students to schools run by religious groups.

Other members of the local legislative delegation, including Senator Dale Erdey, Rep. J. Rogers Pope and Rep. Sherman Mack, opposed HB976. They argued that public school funds should stay with the public schools.

Local lawmakers said they feared that funding of non-public schools with public school money would gradually erode the state support that has helped Livingston Parish become one of the best school systems in the state. Livingston Parish, as a predominantly residential community, does not have a strong tax base bolstered by large-scale industry and commerce. In spite of voter support for school taxes, the parish has traditionally been heavily dependent on state support.

The lawsuit claims Act 2 is unconstitutional in part because it does not “have a single object or purpose,” as required by the constitution. Act 2 is 47 pages long and covers multiple topics and purposes.  The lawsuit also claims that Act 2 violates a provision in the state constitution that “state funding for public education shall be equitably allocated to public school systems.”

The new system improperly uses public school funding for vouchers to pay tuition to private schools, including those run by religious groups, according to the lawsuit.

Hodges said she was sympathetic with the Governor’s overall goal of bringing “meaningful reform to our education system, because we are next to the last in the nation.”  “I initially supported the bill because I understand the need to address and reform our education system in Louisiana,” Hodges said. “However, once you look at the details of the bill there were more questions than answers about the long term impact these changes could potentially have.

One does have to wonder whether or not Ms. Hodges has enough sense to come in out of the rain.  While she is obviously and idiot, her mindset demonstrates that the GOP and its Christianist base never cease to seek special rights for far right versions of Christianity.

Roanoke Times Column Slams Anti-Gay Bigotry

After reaping horrific negative news coverage literally worldwide, as noted on this blog previously the Roanoke Athletic Club and Botetourt Athletic Club (in the Roanoke, Virginia area) changed their membership policies to allow same sex couples to join under a new "household" membership.  Making matters worse, the clubs are affiliated with Carilion Clinic, the major hospital/heath care provider in the Roanoke area (it describes itself as "a not-for-profit health care organization serving nearly one million people in Virginia through hospitals, outpatient specialty centers and advanced primary care practices").  That such an entity would have anti-gay policies speaks volumes about the backwardness and bigotry that continue to permeate much of Virginia.  And what's really frightening is that Roanoke is liberal and enlightened compared to the rest of southwest Virginia.  A column in the Roanoke Times takes Carilion and its affiliates to task and notes the disservice anti-gay bigotry to the entire region and state.  Here are highlights:

Carilion did the right thing last week by changing its ill-advised policy barring same-sex couples from joining the Roanoke Athletic Club and Botetourt Athletic Club as families.  The pity is, it took 40 days, a lawsuit and a torrent of criticism to accomplish that.

By now the facts are well known. Will Trinkle, a real estate agent who's gay and is raising a child with a male partner, signed up for a family membership at the RAC on May 15.  Nine days later in a telephone call, the RAC revoked it, under the reasoning that Trinkle and his partner didn't qualify as "a family." Carilion had claimed it was following Virginia law.

That was a crock, because Virginia law doesn't define the term "family," at least not yet. Nor has the General Assembly gotten around to prohibiting private businesses from granting such memberships to families headed by same-sex parents. (But give them some time. Del. Bob Marshall may be working on the bill as you read this.)

This brought the RAC more publicity than anything else in its history. And all of it was negative, aimed at a company that is by far the Roanoke Valley's largest employer.  By extension, it made this region look like the kind of atavistic backwater that only the Rev. Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps could be proud of.

Southwest Virginia desperately needs new businesses and industries.  The type of media attention that the RAC debacle brought to the Roanoke area certainly did nothing to help the region's image or to attract progressive forward thinking businesses and the jobs they would create.   Del. Bob Marshall and his fellow knuckle dragging Neanderthals in the Republican Party of Virginia may want to drag Virginia back into the 18th century, but that endeavor will not help most Virginians or attract the jobs areas like southwest Virginian need so badly.  Once again Virginia has received a black eye in the world of national news coverage.

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

The Evolution of Obama - and Why Romney Needs to Be Defeated

With Mitt Romney flip flopping more than a freshly caught fish in the bottom of boat and telling one untruth after another, it would seem that sentient voters would get the message that a return to the policies of Bush/Cheney and a new Gilded Age would not be in the best interest of America or average families.  Yet, by prostituting itself to the Christianists, playing on the paranoia of the Tea Party, promising lower taxes to the greedy and wealthy, and throwing in a good dose of thinly veiled racism, the GOP remains competitive in the 2012 election cycle.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at how the Obama campaign is striving to convince voters to look beyond their own greed and prejudices and move the nation forward.  Here are excerpts:

President Obama’s bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania late last week offered a striking look at the evolution of a president. In 2008, Obama used soaring rhetoric and personal biography to talk about binding together a red-blue nation. His message today is about the urgent need to defeat a stubborn opposition party in order to move the country forward.

Four years ago, Obama used themes of hope and change to suggest that he could bring a new politics to Washington. .  .  .  . Today, the battle-scarred president who has met almost uniform resistance from the Republicans sees the world differently, or so it seems from the way he talked in Ohio and Pennsylvania. At nearly every stop, he made it clear that he sees November in the starkest of terms and that there can be but one winner. He asked supporters to help deliver a victory in November that would carry a message that his vision is superior to that of the Republicans.

In Maumee, Ohio, under a blazing sun on Thursday, he put it this way: “What’s holding us back from meeting our challenges — it’s not a lack of ideas, it’s not a lack of solutions. What’s holding us back is we’ve got a stalemate in Washington between these two visions of where the country needs to go. And this election is all about breaking that stalemate.”

On one side, it is seen as the threat of big government, shackles on the economy and an end to freedom. On the other side, it is seen as shredding the middle class in order to reward the rich. Swing voters in the middle are being asked to pick one side or the other .  .  .  .  

“I’m not a Democrat first,” he told the audience in Maumee. “I’m an American first. I believe we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. And I believe what’s stopping us is not our capacity to meet our challenges. What’s stopping us is our politics. And that’s something you have the power to solve.”

But at its core, Obama’s message has shifted. The urgency in his appeal is grounded in his conviction that this is an election about ideas and policies and political philosophies, that the country faces a crucial moment and a clear choice. The country is in a far different place than it was when he first ran for office, and he is in a far different battle. And he has decided how he will fight it between now and November.

Am a I fearful of a Romney victory?  Most definitely.  I'm afraid of the damage it will do to the country and how it will continue the destruction of the middle class.  I'm also afraid that it would bring even more religious extremism into the mix as Romney whores himself out to the far right in the hope of avoiding a primary challenge in 2016.  We cannot afford to have the future of the nation be decided on the basis of hate, greed, selfishness and intolerance - the hallmarks of today's GOP.

Anyone Else Tired of the GOP?

This image pretty much says it all.  Sometimes the truth hurts and I'm sure some of my Republican readers won't be pleased with me. :)

Sweltering Heat and Morning Reflections

The sweltering heat continues in Hampton Roads and even though the official high temperature yesterday was 98 at the Norfolk airport that sits near Chesapeake Bay (and is moderated temperature wise by the Bay's proximity), the thermometer in the back yard topped out at 105 in the shade.  Definitely too hot even for a sun worshiper like me to stand.  So why didn't I blog more yesterday?  Apparently the heat took its toll on our local Internet provider and the Internet went into sleep mode or some other melt down mode and ground to a near halt.  I couldn't even get the blog "new post" option to load.   I took solace in reading a new archeology/thriller novel stretched out under a ceiling fan.

But I did have time to think about some of the good things about are life in Virginia - an often wretched state to live in if one is an LGBT individual.  And what's good comes down to our friends, and not just our gay friends.  Friday night the boyfriend and I took three of his widowed clients out to steak night at The Wave - a Norfolk gay bar - and then for dessert at Sassi Cakes and Sweets in Ghent area of Norfolk.  These women are outrageous fun and were right at home in a gay club.  They indeed have a resilience and spark right out of "Steel Magnolias."  It was a wonderful evening and they are game for another night out with the gay boys.

Then last night we had an older couple over who are truly remarkable both in terms of their achievements over the course of their lives and their sense of fun and open mindedness.  The purpose of the dinner was to celebrate the husband's 78th birthday.  Would that more Virginians had their style, love of life and spirit of acceptance of others.  I truly treasure them and they have become surrogate parents of sorts for me now that both of my parents are gone.

This afternoon, we will take refuge by a friend's pool (see below) and most likely have a libation or two - or three.  Friends do make the difference in one's life.  The boyfriend and I are blessed to have wonderful friends even in a backwards place like Virginia.

Appellate Court Upholds New York’s Marriage Equality Law

As some readers will recall, following New York State's passage of gay marriage last summer a far right lunatic organization - the so-called New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF) which describes its mission as influencing “legislation and legislators for the Lord Jesus Christ” - filed a lawsuit claiming that the law was invalid because of the violation of General Assembly open meeting requirements.  That claim went down to defeat in a unanimous opinion the New York Appellate Division.  The court declared that “defendant New York State Senate did not violate the open meetings law ("OML")  in enacting the Marriage Equality Law ("MEA") and that marriages performed thereunder are not invalid.”  Here are highlights from Gay City News:

A unanimous panel of the New York Appellate Division has rejected a challenge to the state’s Marriage Equality Law (MEA) enacted on June 24, 2011.

The July 6 ruling, from the Rochester-based 4^th Department, came in response to a suit bought by New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF), a group whose website describes its mission as influencing “legislation and legislators for the Lord Jesus Christ” and “voicing the pro-life and pro-family perspective.”

The group’s suit claimed the law was not validly enacted based on three factors –– the appearance of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo at closed-door meetings of the State Senate’s Republican caucus where the bill was discussed; Cuomo’s issuance of a “message of necessity” that allowed the Senate and the Assembly to vote on the bill without allowing members three days to study its final text; and the locking-down of a part of the State Capitol building during the Senate floor debate and vote.

The closed-door GOP meetings violated the state’s Open Meetings Law, NYCF alleged, while the “message of necessity” was “ultra vires,” or beyond the governor’s authority, and the Capitol lockdown prevented the plaintiffs from accessing senators, violating their freedom of speech.

Livingston County Supreme Court Justice Robert Wiggins, last November 18,  .  .  .  .   refused to dismiss the first claim, holding that the Open Meetings Law may have been violated. He accepted the plaintiffs’ argument that a meeting of the Republican caucus that also included non-Republicans meant it could not be sheltered by the OML’s exemption for private caucuses. That exemption states that a private party caucus qualifies even if it invites “guests,” but NYCF argued such “guests” must be members of the same political party.

In unanimously reversing Wiggins and ruling that the Senate did not violate the law, Justice Eugene Fahey wrote that the plain meaning of the statute did not limit the term “guests” in that way. A Senate party caucus can invite anybody as a guest other than a member of the Legislature from a different party, said the court.  Since neither Bloomberg nor Cuomo were members of the Legislature, they could be invited as guests without the caucus losing its exemption from the requirement that public business be conducted in public.

The court’s ruling went one step further, finding that even if the Open Meetings Law had been violated, that would not by itself justify invalidating the Marriage Equality Law. The OML gives the court the power, “in its discretion, upon good cause shown,” to declare that a violation justifies voiding legislation subsequently enacted. In this case, the court concluded, the plaintiffs failed to show “good cause.”

As a native of New York State, I am proud of the state of my birth.  Would that Virginia would drag itself out of a 19th century mindset and embrace the 21st century and equality for all citizens.

Cat Fight Develops Between "Ex-Gay" Myth Proponents

UPDATED: Religion Dispatches also has a good piece on what the Christianists consider to be Alan Chamber's hersey.  Here's a sampling:

Chambers acknowledged that most Exodus members are single and remain so, that those who are married are trying to salvage an existing marriage rather than starting new, straight ones, and that homosexual desire stays homosexual desire. “In the past,” he said, “we’ve been aligned with organizations that believe feelings can completely change, temptations can completely go away. We now believe that’s an unrealistic and unhealthy expectation that can cause a lot of damage.” Rather than insisting on change, the organization now claims to help support those who wish to align their sexual lives with their religious faith. “We’re here to support those who are in conflict at the place where their sexual attractions meet their faith,” Chambers said.

This is not to say that Exodus can necessarily be trusted to independently take those and other positions in support of the life and liberty of gay people in a responsible and timely fashion. But it does suggest that Exodus is changing, is engaged in an actual conversation with gays and lesbians, and is receptive to efforts to keep it a little more honest and hold it a little more accountable. That change may be tentative, its direction may be uncertain, it may well be motivated by money, and suspicion, of course, is warranted. But dismissing that change is inaccurate

Needles to say hate groups such as Family Research Council and American Family Association are beside themselves.   Personally, I suspect that Chambers - like Warren Throckmorton who used to advocate that change was possible - has seen the hand writing on the wall.  With all legitimate medical and mental health associations condemning "reparative therapy" it is only a matter of time before these bogus ministries and therapists who perpetuate the change myth are either shut down by state regulators or hit with major lawsuits.  Thus the issue is either move away from the disingenuous change myth or be shut down and put out of business over the longer term.

ORIGINAL POST: One of the things that gives me perverse pleasure is watching the Christofascists get in a cat fight amongst each other when someone finally briefly acknowledges reality and makes an "the emperor has no clothes" statement that draws attention to the lies and disingenuousness of their former compatriots.  A case in point? Exodus International's recent admission that gays cannot change their sexual orientation.  This is utter heresy to the "family values" organizations and professional Christians who have pour tons of money and crafted a relentless propaganda campaign to try to convince the public, but more importantly, politicians that being gays is a "choice" or a "behavior" as opposed to in immutable characteristic - an immutable characteristic that would support non-discrimination laws just like race, national origin and gender.   It's also heresy to the psychologically disturbed "ex-gays for pay" who see their livelihood going down the toilet if they can't prey on those tortured by toxic religious belief to line their wallets and bank accounts.  The New York Times looks at the in fighting now overtaking this group of charlatans as Exodus International belatedly begins to accept scientific reality.  Here are some excepts:

For more than three decades, Exodus International has been the leading force in the so-called ex-gay movement, which holds that homosexuals can be “cured” through Christian prayer and psychotherapy.

Exodus leaders claimed its network of ministries had helped tens of thousands rid themselves of unwanted homosexual urges. The notion that homosexuality is not inborn but a choice was seized on by conservative Christian groups who oppose legal protections for gay men and lesbians and same-sex marriage. 

But the ex-gay movement has been convulsed as the leader of Exodus, in a series of public statements and a speech to the group’s annual meeting last week, renounced some of the movement’s core beliefs. Alan Chambers, 40, the president, declared that there was no cure for homosexuality and that “reparative therapy” offered false hopes to gays and could even be harmful. His statements have led to charges of heresy and a growing schism within the network.

In a phone interview Thursday from Orlando, Fla., where Exodus has its headquarters, Mr. Chambers amplified on the views that have stirred so much controversy. He said that virtually every “ex-gay” he has ever met still harbors homosexual cravings, himself included. Mr. Chambers, who left the gay life to marry and have two children, said that gay Christians like himself faced a lifelong spiritual struggle to avoid sin and should not be afraid to admit it. 

He said Exodus could no longer condone reparative therapy, which blames homosexuality on emotional scars in childhood and claims to reshape the psyche. And in a theological departure that has caused the sharpest reaction from conservative pastors, Mr. Chambers said he believed that those who persist in homosexual behavior could still be saved by Christ and go to heaven.

Mr. Chambers’s comments come at a time of widening acceptance of homosexuality and denunciation of reparative therapy by professional societies that say it is based on faulty science and potentially harmful.

A bill to outlaw “conversion therapy” for minors has passed the California Senate and is now before the State Assembly. Earlier this year, a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, apologized for publishing what he now calls an invalid study, which said many patients had largely or totally switched their sexual orientation.

Some in the ex-gay world are more scathing about Mr. Chambers.   “I think Mr. Chambers is tired of his own personal struggles, so he’s making excuses for them by making sweeping generalizations about others,” said Gregg Quinlan . . . 

Many of the local ministries in Exodus continue to attack gays and lesbians, said David Roberts, editor of the Web site Ex-Gay Watch, and they often have close ties with reparative therapists. He speculated that Mr. Chambers was trying to steer the group in a moderate direction because “they were becoming pariahs” in a society that is more accepting of gay people. 

Mr. Chambers said he was simply trying to restore Exodus to its original purpose when it was founded in 1976: providing spiritual support for Christians who are struggling with homosexual attraction. 

He said that he was happy in his marriage, with a “love and devotion much deeper than anything I experienced in gay life,” but that he knew this was not feasible for everyone. Many Christians with homosexual urges may have to strive for lives of celibacy.  But those who fail should not be severely judged, he said, adding, “We all struggle or fall in some way.”

As one who tried to "pray away the gay" for 37 years and experienced profound self-hate and self-loathing when I could not "change" I know full well what a line of utter bullshit the "ex-gay" myth is in fact.  What religiously tortured gays need to do is find a new church and/or denomination as opposed to trying to change the unchangeable.  If those who in my opinion are psychologically disturbed such as Greg Quinlan want to delude themselves and pretend that they have "changed," it's their right to do so.  But they need to cease disseminating lies and trying to convince legislators that sexual orientation is not an immutable characteristic.  I also believe that straight spouses need to think twice before they marry an "ex-gay" who despite the best of intentions simply can never be straight.