TX Billboards encourage questioning of homosexuality

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87Q07G80.html


GALVESTON, Texas — Billboards scattered across Galveston County and south Houston bear this message: "I questioned homosexuality. Change is Possible. Discover how." The billboards show a smiling man or woman and promote Focus on the Family's "Love Won Out" conference set for Feb. 19 in Houston.

A Web site promoting the event calls it a "dynamic one-day conference addressing, understanding and preventing homosexuality," but some say the message can be destructive and dangerous.

Cline said his son was gay and is now heterosexual and that his organization works to "prevent homosexuality." He raised the money from various Christian groups and the billboards include the Web site address of Exodus International, an ex-gay group.

Carla Willis-Brandon, a Galveston therapist who works with gay, lesbian and transgender individuals, said she was upset after hearing about the conference from one of her patients.

[WoodrowFan]

1. includes

the conference includes classe son how to decorate the closet they're forcing you into.

[corbett]

20. Not A Walk-In Closet, Either

Hilarious reply!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. as I understand it,homosexuality isn't a choice

any more than heterosexuality. This guy makes it sound like it is a bad habit, like smoking. Sheesh! I just hope no one is pressured to go to this tripe and then leaves feeling worse about themselves, possibly leading to a suicide attempt.

[corbett]

21. Sad But True

You raise excellent points. The best way to beat those fools at their own game when they start the whole "Sexual orientation is a choice" crap is to ask, "So, you chose to be hetero?" If they answer yes, they lie most of the time. Several years ago, Larry King tried this on Jerry Falwell and Falwell answered yes on live TV. King didn't have the nerve to ask the logical follow-up, "So, you tried homosexuality?"

I don't have a bone of homophobia in my body and I'm here to tell you that I didn't choose heterosexuality. It's in my genes! That doesn't mean that I can't admire a handsome man without giving myself the willies.

Alfred Kinsey had it right when he said that no one is either 100% hetero or 100% homo. That's why the radical right hates the new film about Kinsey.

[wildeyed]

33. If someone told me they chose to be hetero,

I would assume they were actually gay and in heavy denial. I was raised in a family that would have loved me regardless of my sexual orientation, and I knew many gay people growing up. Yet I never thought twice about being hetero.

When I have conversations on this topic with conservatives, I always say, I believe gay people are on this planet exactly as God intended. It usually quiets them for at least a few minutes while they think about it.

[AuntiBush]

85. Well, when one suffers from "homophobia,"

it's because they fear that little voice inside themselves.

I'm a woman. I know my sexuality, plain and simple. Gay's don't bother me one bit and I rather like them, having grown-up w/many myself, both male and female - some of the nicest, harmless people one can imagine.

Their problem exists within thir own minds; they have a phobia alright! And now a ticket to ride all over those that have become even more disenfranchised from our society.

All of these past years, as our country worked so hard to come out a bit more of the ranks of predjucial cultural behaviors has re-surfaced like it's 1979 all over again. Un-fricked real!

[Ilsa]

54. My guess is that it could lead to a life where a young woman is

deceived by a young man who is deceieved by these idiots. They have a family together that later falls apart because he can't be that person: a married heterosexual man. Haven't enough of these stories been on Dateline and 20/20 over the last few years so that people "get it?"

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

71. I saw an episode of "Law and Order: SVU" that illustrated just that.

The one with the two closeted DAs. Although none of these "ex-gay" church initiatives was involved. If I was the script writer, it would.

There was instead some bullshit about black people being more homophobic than white people, which I don't believe for a second.

[Stop_the_War]

3. More bullshit from the homophobic right-wing...........

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[saltpoint]

4. Just for kicks, I think the GLBT community should --

-- post billboards in key markets -- say, Dallas, Colorado Springs, Cincinnati, and Nashville -- urging straight people to renounce their heterosexuality.

[corbett]

23. I'd Contribute To That Endeavor!

It would be the best use of my money in the Lone Star State I can think of.

[saltpoint]

36. Hi, corbett. Me, too. If they can hang nasty signs up,

so can we.

Good wishes to you and hang in there.

[lies and propaganda]

78. what a lovely idea....

i hope they also have the money to buy the land, to erect the billboard itself, and then to hire armed security to stand guard at the bottom.

a lot less is possible in this realm of communication when the clear channel owns fucking everything,

[saltpoint]

98. True on all counts.

It could turn into a risk activity in a hurry.

[donheld]

83. I too would contribute to that endeavor

I'd love to see their reaction.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. Should straight people question if heterosexuality is right for them?

Just wondering.

[Borgnine]

6. Sigh.

You know what James Dobson really needs? A good ass fucking.

[ezee]

37. Only if you use a QUART pop bottle.

[booksenkatz]

7. That's funny...

In my life, I've known two women and one man who questioned their heterosexuality and realized that change is possible, and now all three are living happily and openly as homosexuals. So hey, yeah, change is possible! Ha! Maybe they should buy their own billboards down in Galveston!

Good God, I'm so damned sick of these intolerant people who treat homosexuality as a disease that needs to overcome.

[rainbow4321]

14. Neocons attacking 'No Name Calling".. "liberals' pan-sexual agenda"

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87PUKQ00.html


Using a young readers' novel called "The Misfits" as its centerpiece, middle schools nationwide will participate in a "No Name-Calling Week" initiative starting Monday. The program, now in its second year, has the backing of groups from the Girl Scouts to Amnesty International but has also drawn complaints that it overemphasizes harassment of gay youths. "No Name-calling Week" takes aim at insults of all kinds — whether based on a child's appearance, background or behavior. But a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on the references to harassment based on sexual orientation.

"I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute.

"Schools should be steering kids away from identifying as gay," Knight said. "You can teach civility to kids and tell them every child is valued without conveying the message that failure to accept homosexuality as normal is a sign of bigotry
One of GLSEN's most persistent critics is Warren Throckmorton, director of counseling at Grove City College, a Christian school outside Pittsburgh. His skeptical comments about "No Name-Calling Week" have been widely circulated this month on conservative Web sites.

"There's no question middle school can be a difficult place — I'm not advocating that any group gets mistreated," Throckmorton said in a telephone interview. "But it will definitely make traditionally oriented teachers and parents and kids feel very uncomfortable, if they happen to object to homosexuality on moral grounds," he said of GLSEN's program. "If you disagree, you're hateful, you're bigoted, you're a homophobe. They're using name-calling to combat name-calling."

[Cats Against Frist]

51. I think these people should squawk whatever they want

it makes them look stupid, and besides, it allows me to call them delusional superstitious cowardly self-hating, out-of-control, totalitarian fuckwits with shit for brains and shiveled up genitalia.

And that does make me feel good.

I got the flamesuit on, now -- I think some gay people can become "straight," in practice and live so-so lives that way. And very few. Should they, though? Hell no. I'm sure it's psychological self-torture of the worst stripe.

I do, however, think the root cause of homosexuality is narrative and environmental, much moreso than biological. As of this writing, science has found no proof to assert it has biological origins, and I am inclined to believe that homosexuality is a "sexual narrative," that shapes children at a very young age, quite subconsiously, and probably doesn't resolve itself spontaneously.

Many of us are latently or "somewhat" homosexual -- one must realize that it doesn't just involve the sexual act, but the entire psychosocial experience of pair-bonding with a member of the same sex. People don't like it when I use the suffix "-philia," but, in essence, though the nomenclature has changed to be PC, the BEST psychological evidence is that homosexuality develops and sustains itself much the way other sexual attractions do.

That said, it's as natural and normal as anything else, and the right wing is fucked up to launch a crusade to modify it to save humanity. I think it could be said though, that as homosexuality is "normalized," so to speak (I believe it is already normal) that the percentage of homosexuals could increase, or that those latent parts of many might develop, if no longer "taboo."

So I'm a "limbo-ist" when it comes to sexuality -- I don't believe it's a choice, but I don't believe it's biological, but even if it's not biological, I don't think there is any societal reason to launch a crusade of bigotry against it. Seems those that do have little else to do, and probably stick their noses in everybody's business.

As for the business of recognizing gay marriage, I don't think the state should recognize any marriage -- and everyone should have civil contracts. That would solve a lot of problems, now, wouldn't it? Unless each faction isn't really interested in diversity, and is really looking for, say, "the goat" of the other.

[bunkerbuster1]

66. Love your screen name, love your reply. here's my "yebbut."

and I'm only bringing this up because we're among friends, here, so to speak, is that leaning more toward nature rather than nurture side of things is probably a more politically viable position.

But it does amaze me, in any case, just how feckin' volatile this issue of whether or not it's a "choice" one makes. I didn't realize just how touchy a subject this was until FauxOutragegate broke out after the third Presidential debate--you remember, when the ma 'n pa Cheney pretended to be outraged that Kerry brought up their daughter's sexual orientation?

That was, really, about the choice issue. And the reThugs just HAD to go nuclear, there, because had Kerry's amazingly humane statements about their daughter been allowed to stand, people might've... y'know... actually stopped and thought about this whole deal.

and we can't have that.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

73. DSCSHOOCTFWSFBASUGs. I love it!

Delusional superstitious cowardly self-hating, out-of-control, totalitarian fuckwits with shit for brains and shriveled up genitalia.

Insulting is a form of art, and you are obviously well versed in it, which earns my respect! :thumbsup:

[patdem]

32. Hey, I questioned my heterosexuality..and experimented..and found out

I am a heterosexual...and I really did not care at the time what the outcome was. I just realized it was NOT me. So I know I was born with the gene that made me heterosexual...had it been otherwise so would I be! I hate those bigots and all they stand for! :grr:

[Duncan Grant]

8. This is like wearing brown contact lenses when you have blue eyes.

It's a shame that the Bible has such detrimental effects upon some believer's intellect (and common sense). :nuke:

[bunkerbuster1]

67. It might be more like left- or right-handedness.

I always preferred that analogy. Could be influenced by environment. Could be "overcome" if you really wanted to... but why the hell would you?

Occasionally I'll try throwing with my "wrong" hand or swinging a bat or golf club from the "wrong" side. Sure, I can do it, but it ain't pretty.

[Lerkfish]

69. IIRC, the bible hardly even mentions the subject.

there are 3 or 4 passages, tops, on homosexuality. The only one in the new testament, to my knowledge, is in Paul's letters and refers to a sect. there are old testament passages, but we don't stone adulterers anymore, or kill men who touch women on their periods.

if you weigh that against the rest of the bible, that means (I'm guessing) less than 0.0001% of the bible addresses homosexuality, and its only if you take it out of context does it appear negative.

Fundie's favorite mistaken passage to use against homosexuality never mentions it...Sodom and Gomorrah. There are two angels, and the town wants to know them in a carnal sense. Yet, the gender of the angels is never mentioned, and further, (although this is also repugnant), the man sends out his daughter for them to gang-rape instead of the angels. If anything, the passage on Sodom is more against rape than anything, but you don't see fundies mounting anti-rape campaigns for some reason (even though I personally think that would be an ok thing to do).

[pelagius]

96. There's about 3000 verses talking about how the rich...

...shouldn't exploit the poor, so I suggest all Christians -- hey! I'm one myself -- start there.

[Lisa0825]

106. and all of the places in the Bible where it is mentioned can be explained

in NON-homophobic ways. For instance, some of the passages actually refer to young boys or to rape, but those distinguishing factors are conveniently left out by the fundies. There is not ONE mention in the Bible of a relationship between two consenting adults of the same sex, who are not married to other people. It is just not addressed in those terms.

[muchacho]

9. I questioned homosexuality

Abba or Erasure?

[donheld]

94. No, George Michael

:bounce:

[foreigncorrespondent]

10. Maybe...

...we should begin putting billboards up which question the sanity of the religious right!

[thebaghwan]

64. I like that idea! Let me take a try at this: Do you believe people rise

the dead?

Do you believe God actually walked on earth?

Do you believe that terminally ill people can be cured just by being touched.

Do you believe people really can talk in tongues? I always wondered why no one else can understand these shitheads. Where is there a "tongues" dictionary?

Do you believe that Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead?

Do you believe that Jesus ascended into the heavens?

Do you believe Jesus was born of a virgin? I always felt sorry for Joseph never getting any pussy.

And one of my biggest questions is: What did Joseph and Mary do with all the bucks the three wise men laid on them?

[MHalblaub]

74. Jesus had brothers.

The real saint is Joseph not kicking Mary out of the house for that story.

Bucks were sold at ebay.

[Charlie Brown]

11. I questioned Christianity. Change is possible. Discover how n/t

[yardwork]

65. So did I. I decided to be Pagan. I'm much happier now!

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. No. 1 reason why good Christians should support Gay Marriage:

To protect children from the pain of broken marriages.

If you force gay people to "fit in" and conform to the conservative model of marriage, there will be a percentage of these shotgun weddings that will fail. Not only are you potentially setting up a spouse for a divorce, but if there are children brought into the marriage, you're setting them up for a potential broken family.

These are realities that right-wing Christians are too simplistic-minded to see.

[corbett]

25. That's Why They Started The Whole Gay Divorce Argument

You are right, of course, but the opposition has begun to wise up to this one because gay divorce is an issue they can stomach discussing at their seminars.

[youngdem]

26. Gay Pope??????

If I recall in the history of catholicism, was there not a Pope that was gay? Pope Leo???

I might be wrong on this one..

[bunkerbuster1]

68. nah, that was Pope Bruce.

mea culpa. forgive me father, yadda yadda...

[Charlie Brown]

27. because it's a STATE issue n/t

[Carolab]

88. Worse, it can actually lead to violence.

Pushing a round peg into a square hole (forgive the analogy) never, ever works.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Only YOU can prevent radical fundamentalism

"I questioned fundamentalism. Change is possible. Ask me how!"

[Ezlivin]

40. Excellent!

My face should be on that billboard.

:evilgrin:

[McKenzie]

15. It IS "destructive and dangerous"

And do you know the irony of it all? There is a high incidence of homosexuality amongst r/w extremists. Maybe it's the uniforms, muscular guys with shaven heads and other aspects of fascist iconography that float their boat. They are just too hypocritical to admit it.

Try punching "leather+skins+erotica" into Google and see for yourself.

BTW, I'm hetero (voice lowers two octaves)

[rockymountaindem]

16. I'd rather see them throwing away their cash

on some silly project like this than on forwarding a part of their agenda that might actually succeed.

[Patiod]

17. both my cousin and my ex-boss married guys

who "went straight" - one in order to be a "good Catholic". Screwed up their wives' lives with this BS, because of course they both ended up drifting back into being who they really were.

That's one arguement I always use with idiots who think homosexuals can "go straight" if they want. "Would you want your daughter/sister marrying someone who was hetero from birth, or someone who was trying to 'go straight'?" Yeah, I thought so.

[MountainLaurel]

44. Indeed

Here in DC several years ago, one of the higher ups in the police department had a whole extortion racket going based on "straight" men visiting gay bars. He'd send some officers in the neighborhood (near the Navy Yard) where a lot of the gay dance clubs were, to take photos of all the Volvos and sedans with Virginia and Maryland tags and baby seats in back, and then would use their police-access databases to find the owners. They'd then send the photos with nice notes about sending money or the spouse would be notified.

[Warpy]

18. yeah, and a couple of years and a couple of kids later

that happy, beaming couple will have gone back to the "sin" of being who god made them, the marriage will end in divorce, and those kids will be the casualties.

These places need to be forced to tell the truth about their long term "success" rate in builying gay folks of both sexes into acting straight.

[Mad_Dem_X]

70. You can live in denial only so long...

Typical conservative ideology - repress your true self to please society.

[genieroze]

19. As a Christian this stuff really pisses me off. Maybe they should walk a

mile in a homosexuals shoes. How? Very simple, imagine how you feel if you are a heterosexual man or a woman about the opposite sex. Now imagine yourself the opposite sex of your own. Would you have the same feelings? I think you would, that's what homosexuals feel. You can't change who you are attracted to and if you do then you never were gay or you are in severe denial or you could be bisexual. I'm attracted to tall, dark, strong men, why? I DON'T KNOW! Would you make me date blond haired, blue eyed men? Hell, would you make me date women? SAME THING by trying to change gay people. My brother is gay, so I kind of know. I getting sick of these people butting into other peoples private lives when they really need to get a life of their own. Misery loves company and that's my explanation. They are self loathing psychos who's low self esteem makes them easy targets for these religious nuts who are psycho control freaks. These people need a good dose of MYOFB. (mind your own f**king business)

[Coastie for Truth]

22. Nature Not Nurture

The (non-US) research is beginning to show that homosexuality (male and female) is "Nature Not Nurture."

Some really interesting epidemiological (but not etiological) studies. The "Y" Chromosome is the least studied and least genomically mapped chromosome - but the US lags the high tech world in these studies (just like we lag the high tech world in stem cell research).

What can you expect of an administration that bans stem cell research, bans research that contradicts Dobson, encourages teaching creationism with tax dollars, calls global warming "junk science."

[lawladyprof]

24. Maybe some of their success stories were bi-sexual

rather than gay. Just wondering.

[rogue_bandit]

30. Hermphrodites

I think a few billboards of hermaprodites might please some of the tweaked out Christians. God created a great variety. There is no black and white regarding anything under God's sun.

[Boomer]

34. It's not a binary system

The concept of gay/straight labels is fundamentally flawed. Although some people fall to the far extremes of only same-sex or opposite-sex attraction, a lot more people fall in the middle with varying degrees of attraction for men and women, regardless of whether they ever act on them. Even the bisexual label is a poor attempt to describe a continuum of emotion and behavior.

I know women who described themselves as gay who nontheless had affairs with men or even eventually married a man. And then there are the straight women who were having affairs with other women while married or about to be married. Some ended up leaving their husband for a woman, others did not. But you'll find the same relationship shuffle within both the straight and gay community as couples break apart and reform, then break apart again.

Truth is, as humans we're attracted to individuals not concepts, even at times when the individual isn't supposedly our normal "type." Hair color, body configuration, religion, gender -- where romance is concerned, all expectations can be overturned without notice.

[American Tragedy]

47. Interesting. I personally have never been attracted to another woman.

As a photographer and art enthusiast, I can appreciate both the male and female body aesthetics. I can even think that another woman has attractive features, but I'm not attracted to them. There is no...no chemistry, no desire for physical contact, no sexual magnetism. It's hard to explain. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. :)

I agree that for many people, it may be more ambiguous. I still think that it would be difficult and unnatural to try to socially engineer a person's sexual orientation against their most deeply felt inclinations, whether homosexual or heterosexual, like these people in Texas aim to do.

[Sunny_Sunshine]

95. And I'm not attracted to 99% of men either

Doesn't mean I'm not heterosexual. With the vast majority of people I come into contact with there is no "chemistry." Ah but that one, sigh.

[Boomer]

99. I know just what you mean

I'm not attracted to the vast majority of people I meet, male or female, but there have been just a few women that send me to the moon.

So far, I haven't met a man who has that same devastating effect on my nervous system, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Granted, given my age (over 50), it's unlikely. But I'm not going to tempt fate by saying it's impossible, 'cause you just never know when some extraodinary individual will turn your world upside down....

[reprobate]

28. Please tell me wherein lies the difference.....

Between the Dobson and Bin Ladin brands of fundamentalism.

I know I'll get arguments on this, but in my humble opinion if we could remove all organized religions from the face of the earth, humanity would be a far happier species.

Notice I did not say 'spirituality'. I said 'organized religion'. There is a huge difference. 'Spirituality' is the individual coming to peace within him/her self. 'Organized religion' is the individual giving up his/her own way to follow the false way of others. False because it is not his/her own. Following another's spirituality is ALWAYS the false path.

[d.l.Green]

29. Right on! n/t

[ruggerson]

31. Someone Should Put Up Signs

I Questioned Fundamentalist Christianity

Change Is Possible. I Came Out of the Cult.

[Maestro]

43. Excellent!

Where do I send the money?

[ilovenicepeople]

113. How about,

Satan supports Fundamentalist Christianity.Denounce Satan Today!

[bobweaver]

35. There is no such thing as "heterosexual" or "homosexual." There are two

desires, a desire for men and a desire for women. Any person can have one or the other or both or neither. The terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" are simply man-made concepts that have nothing to do with biology or behavior.

[Boomer]

100. Yup, I've always liked the dual continuum model

The single scale with gay or straight extremes, with bi dancing around the middle somewhere, has always seemed overly simplistic to me.

|<--- gay ------------ bi ---------- straight --->|

I much prefer the one to which you allude -- a scale for your degree of attraction to women, another one for your degree of attraction to men. It handily illustrates intensity of libido as well since it's entirely possible to rank low on both scales if one simply doesn't have strong sexual urges or to rank very high in both if one is highly sexual.

Attraction to males:

|<-- low ------------ med ---------- high --->|

Attaction to females:

|<-- low ------------ med ---------- high --->|

[bluestateguy]

38. A friend of mine is gay

He was thrown out of the house by his fundamentalist wacko parents. He moved to New York, and I lost contact with him for awhile. Then after over a year, he called me and told me that his parents would allow him to come home if he attended "reparative therapy" sessions(he's 22, and was working, attending communitty college and living at home). He refused, and last I talked to him, he has had no contact with his family for over a year since then.

[Turbineguy]

42. How could anyone do that to

their own child?

[MountainLaurel]

45. Too many do

It's one the central reasons why a large portion of street kids are gay -- almost uniformly there were thrown out. The other large constituency consists of children experience abuse at home -- living on the streets is actually a safer place for them.

[dsc]

52. Sadly it is very common

Way too many gays are kicked out by their families. There is one guy here on DU who had to give up a promising musical career when his parents kicked him out for being gay. Honestly, it is every gay kids biggest fear.

[ruggerson]

59. Because religious rightwingers are clinically insane

[Occulus]

76. Here's mine

One night when I was nineteen I came home from work one night and found all my porn (soft core, all of it) spread out over my bedroom floor. My mom confronted me about it; my dad was out of town. Two hours later I didn't have a home.

I was a kid who graduated thirteenth in his class (an omen?) with a 3.85 GPA, scored a 27 on the ACT, received about two dozen Solo & Ensemble Competition medals while in band in high school, received the J. P. Sousa Award for musical excellence at graduation, where I wore both NHS cords, had performed in four musicals while in high school, attended the MSVA Regional Honors Choir for three years and the State Honors Choir for two, had been composing and arranging since the age of thirteen... the list goes on, believe it or not. I'm only trying to establish here that I was very active in music and basically followed the rules.

After I got kicked out, I didn't go to school for two weeks (this was in my second year of college). My grades slowly but steadily dropped like a stone. The following summer, I was forced to sleep under trees on campus after a roommate skipped out of signing the lease. My parents helped me put things into storage, and then left me standing there without a home. It was over a week of open skies and skulking in friends' dorm rooms before they "let" me move back in. Months later, they informed me it was a "waste of time" to continue helping me pay for my education, said promise having been extended since I was about a sophomore in high school. I was financially unprepared to continue school and had to drop out.

A while after that happened, still living at home, a job with the USPS opened up. My mom pointed it out to me. Once again, I was under the pressure of having to do as she said or suffer some unspecified consequences. I didn't want to lose the roof over my head- again- so I took the job and got the hell out of that house for good. However, she's made me feel so guilty and ashamed and low that I just don't want to have anything at all to do with music any more- she went and poisoned all the good memories I have with the stamp that I was just wasting my time- all that talk about being able to do anything I wanted to if I put my mind to it, all that talk about always being there to support me... it was all one great big old fucking lie from beginning to end. I really wish I'd never bothered.

Also, my mom informed me about four years ago that both she and my father knew from that time I was five years old that I was musically talented, but they didn't do one blessed thing to nurture that talent because they didn't want to put me under too much pressure. The irony is, they then went and had me play soccer and baseball for a few years. I made a total fool of myself, I wasn't suited to athletics at all, but I sort of felt I had to do it, for them. I always sang along with whatever tape I was listening to when I was mowing the lawn, things like that... but they never, ever once gave me even so much as the smallest clue that I was good at it.

I spent most of my childhood thinking I wasn't good at anything and wanting to be alone all the time. I got taunted and verbally abused by the people around me while the 'authority' figures stood by and did nothing (literally; about ten kids ganged up on me in fifth grade and threw me headfirst into a garbage bin outside the school while the adult playground monitor watched and laughed). I grew up to finally, when I hit middle school, find something could fit into- being music, and I was damn good at it. I then go to college and discover I'm gay, do everything I can to hide it, get found out, and lose everything- including not one but two circles of friends, they being the only thing that kept me sane.

When I was eighteen, my mom wrote me and IOU to get my piano tuned as a birthday gift, and now almost twelve years later she refuses to follow through, in spite of owning more than $300,000 in investments including over $50,000 cold hard cash in the bank. She can't afford that the same way they said they couldn't afford to help me continue school- but could afford to buy two new vehicles (hers a Lincoln Town Car!) about a year after they told me my education was a 'waste of time'. They paid cash, by the way- just whipped out the checkbook and started writing.

Is it just me, or did those two hate me as soon as they discovered I was 'different'? Is that a fair thing for me to say?

[MissB]

81. You have every right to say anything you want about them

Your story was absolutely heartbreaking. I just cannot imagine the hell.

That said, please don't go through life thinking your parents owe you anything. It'll only hold you back. Find your own way, and try to forget about them. They may be your parents, but I sense that you're not going to find sense of family through your parents. That is truly heartbreaking.

I hope you're able to find an outlet for your love of music.

[pelagius]

97. Damn. Just damn.

I don't even know what to say. I just want to cry. As a parent, I'm shocked beyond belief. Thank you for posting your story. People need to understand that "those gays" are our own sons and daughters fully deserving of our love.

[rainbow4321]

91. The college angle....

My daughter's friend has had a rough time of it, too, worrying about if his father finds out that he is gay, he will NOT pay for his college. He lives with his single mom who doesn't make a lot of money but his father has offered to pay for college.
This same kid came out to the kids at school last year..a few weeks later he was in a car accident...fucking fundies at the school then started a "see, this is God's way of punishing him". GGRRRRRRRRR :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: I just wanted to put them all in a blender and and hit the "grind til it is a liquid" button!

[Solly Mack]

39. fuck wits

[Turbineguy]

41. Yeah, well,

they have signs along the freeways that say "Drive Friendly".

Nobody seems to pay any attention to them either!

[Stinky The Clown]

46. Bull*Fucking*Shit

"Cline said his son was gay and is now heterosexual and that his organization works to "prevent homosexuality.""

I am a straight man. I know, work, and socialize with many gay men and women. I know a few who lived a straight life for some period of their lives. I know not a one who went from being openly gay to being straight.

Anecdotal, to be sure. But its my frame of reference.

[phylny]

48. So...if homosexuality isn't genetic,

what did these parents "do" to their kid to make him gay?

/sarcasm

I wish people would work harder to decrease divorce and give husbands and wives some counseling to try to improve their marriages. That would be an even greater boost to the family unit.

[MHalblaub]

75. The Darwin Paradoxon is solved.

Italian scientist discovered how gay men can exist in spite of Darwin's theory. The same genetic factors that make them gay delivers their mother or sisters a higher fertility rate.

[Boomer]

103. The answer is obvious

If straight parents end up with gay children, then society needs a lot more gay parents out there so their kids will turn out straight.

[arwalden]

49. Faith-Based Bigotry... There's Nothing Quite Like It.

What is WRONG with these people???

[aikido15]

53. yep, sure isn't

I have heard of this group, saw a special about it, IT DOESN'T WORK, obviously. How ludicrous. :eyes:

[PurityOfEssence]

50. On a BILLBOARD? Where KIDS can see it?

I thought the wacky gay-haters wanted to keep their kids shielded from the knowledge that such a thing actually exists. I guess their hatred is greater than their nurturing instinct. Big surprise.

Personally, although a big First Amendment nut, I think blatantly sexual messages shouldn't be on billboards, as well as disturbing horror movie images. Having kids sorta messes with the perspective...

[aikido15]

55. Kids heads are in the right place...

It's twisted adults like these religious freaks who put malicious thoughts in children's minds. Like the spongebob thing, for example.

[despairing optimist]

56. Texas needs a "Torch Song Trilogy" revival, and quick

Imagine that you're left-handed in a right-handed world without any tolerance for left-handedness. Early in your life you realize you're different but try hard to fit in and be like everyone else, but using your right hand for everything is still awkward and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, when you're courageous enough to risk rejection by everyone you know as you go against everything that you've been taught is right, you start using your left hand as you always wanted to.

First feeling: intense relief from not living a lie and being true to yourself. Second feeling: fear of the consequences from friends, family, society, employers, religious figures, etc. Third feeling: why was I born this way? What did I do? Fourth feeling: anger at the ignorant people who made you feel guilty for who you were.

With any luck, and with a lot of hard work, gay people can achieve another feeling: forgiveness of all those people who did not know the hurt and harm that they were causing their loved ones.

It is not gay people who are in need of reprogramming, I'm afraid.

[fooj]

57. Isn't that illegal?

Brought to you by the Compassionate Right!

[manly]

58. Fryrear? You've got to be kidding. n/t

[NickB79]

60. Is this the same group who's leader was caught in a gay bar a few yrs ago?

How can groups like this have any credibility, when their own founders can't hold true to their new sexuality they claim they chose?

[annabanana]

61. Dear God.. the poor kids......

I feel so sorry for a gay kid who's forced to exist in this hostile environment. Kids are so susceptible to EVERYTHING when they're the age that they're beginning to figure out where they fit in and how they feel.

These people are monsters.

[BiggJawn]

62. How does Cline KNOW his son is straight now?

Did he WATCH him fuck a woman?

Newsflash for you, Mr. Cline, just because your boy's married to a woman now don't count for SHIT.

More bullshit from "Doctor" Jim Dobson, who needs to focus on his OWN damn family...

[wildwww2]

63. Didn`t Hitler go after gays also? Bu$h is following his mentors footsteps.

A real leader like Bill Clinton would denounce crap like this happening in his country. But psychopath Bu$h just lets his trusted hate mongers run amok. What country do we live in?
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[w4rma]

72. Jeeze those xenophobes have gotten themselves off on an evil tangent.

Hate, hate, hate, hate. That's not what Jesus taught you xenophobic, preachers of hate. What was the single largest topic that Jesus talked about and that these same xenophobes flee from whenever it's mentioned? "Mercy for the poor".

They need to go back and read the beatudes. Read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount.

[msongs]

77. once again it is ALL ABOUT $$$$$....because

the dobson cult makes millions off the fears of Xians.

this outfit that claims to rehab gays and lesbians charges huge amounts of money to the conflicted glbts who try its services....huge amounts of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

where if they really believed they were doing the work of JESUS do you not think they would do it for free as a testamony to the healing powers of the their "LORD"?

my my their religion seems to be short on faith does it not, and certainly pathetic if its power cannot "heal" gays and lesbians/

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[Democrats_win]

79. Billboard: Don't drag chained people behind pickup trucks

Texas needs more love and less hate. Leave the gays alone, Texas.

[rainbow4321]

93. You would think we didn't have anything else to worry about...

down here. Food stamp users have gone up dramatically (1.4 mil to 2.2 mil people), state mental health funding cuts now have people overburdening our local ER's with psych issues...school finance has gone to hell..and these are JUST from this weekend's AP articles.
Maybe these wonderful "Christians" need to redirect their "ads" to fixing some of these problems..naahhhh..that would be too Christian-like..can't have that, can we?

[TalkingDog]

80. Reminds me of a joke: Do you want to stop gay people from having sex?

Let them get married!

[davidinalameda]

82. yet another reason not to go to Texas

wonder who owns the billboards

[FreeCajun]

84. *sigh* It's GENETIC :

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6519

There's a lot more evidence out there, like differences in brain structure by dissecting straight and gay rams and the fact that it occurs throughout the animal kingdom.

This billboard and the programs it espouses are symptoms of soul-sick people. 5 gets you 20 that there's a high violent crime/suicide rate among the people who graduate from programs like this, due to the added stress of being a "horrid sinner" with "Satanic urges."

[area51]

86. "his organization works to 'prevent homosexuality'."

Cline said:

"... his son was gay and is now heterosexual and that his organization works to 'prevent homosexuality'."

Um, okay. I guess he's (& his organization) are planning on stopping people from having sex, b/c gays will be born to straight people, no matter what he (Cline) wants.

[robbedvoter]

87. yeehaaa! Texas always leads the pack! First W's "jebus Day", now

"healing gays". I predict witches burning in maximum one year.

[geniph]

89. This can cause people such pain...

I have a good friend who grew up extremely fundy Baptist. He spent the first 30 years of his life in a morass of pain, despair, self-loathing, and shame over his feelings toward his own gender. He spent uncountable hours with his preacher, being "reprogrammed" to be straight and confessing his awful desires. He even married a woman his church helped choose for him. After a dreadful five years, he finally admitted that he could not live that lie.

It's taken him many years, and he still suffers from shame and guilt, but he's finally starting to be happy living with another man. Thankfully, he discovered an open and affirming church, and through them, is learning he can still have faith and love those whom his god has made him to love.

There is nothing queer about loving another human being. I hate these attempts to make people self-loathing deniers of their own nature, I really hate them. It's cruel. It's FUTILE. It's so unnecessary.

[pelagius]

90. If homosexuality is a choice...

...why would people choose it in this society? I mean really -- social ostracism, legal discrimination, the very real threat of violence against your person... why would anybody choose that?

When gay haters try this "choice" stuff on me, I ask them point-blank, "Could you tell me how you would going about choosing to be gay?"

[Boomer]

101. Geez, it's not all bad, folks

>> why would anybody choose that? <<

It's true, I didn't choose to be gay, but I wouldn't change to being straight even if it were possible. There are some negatives, mostly in the area of legal protection for my relationship with my partner, but overall it's been a very postive experience for me. I *like* being gay.

As a gay woman I've escaped many of the emotional and societal pressures that make many of my straight women friends conflicted and miserable in their relationships with men. I'm just an average looking person, but in the lesbian community there is considerably more leeway in what is considered attractive, so my self-esteem hasn't been battered to pieces. I've had two long-term partnerships with women who made me a better person than I would have been without them. I've encountered more discrimination for being a woman than for being gay, even though I've never been particularly closeted. And I've probably pissed off more people with my abrasive personality than I ever have because I'm queer. Being gay created some strain with my mother, but I don't know many mother-daughter relationships that aren't strained in some way for a host of reasons, so I wasn't alone in that regard.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd still check the Lesbian option on my admission form to Life. For me, the pros outweighed the cons. That may not be everyone's experience, but I get tired of hearing the "nobody would ever WANT to be gay" argument used.

I didn't get to choose being gay, but thank god I am.

[pelagius]

104. You're right --- didn't mean to imply being gay was an awful fate n/t

[Boomer]

111. S'okay...

It's an easy trap to fall into when trying to argue this point with the "it's a choice" crowd.

[VegasWolf]

92. This must be a horrible contradiction to the neocons. In their minds,

if you are wealthy and powerful, then it is a sign that god
loves and favors you, predestined even before the foundation
of the earth. If one is poor, or inferior in neocon terms, then
this is a sign of god's disfavor with that individual person
or country. Therefore, if god is frowning on them then there
is no need to help them. Since many gays are wealthy, and god
cannot be in contradiction, then what to do?

[Boomer]

102. What to do, what to do....

>> Since many gays are wealthy, and god cannot be in contradiction, then what to do? <<

I suspect the answer to that will soon be "throw them into detention centers and take away their money."

For their own good, of course. Can't have all that filthy lucre corrupting anyone but God-fearing white straight Amuricans.

[Lisa0825]

105. There is one outside my office. It was featured on the news last night

in Houston. I saw the news truck filming it. I wonder if our corner was chosen because the organization I work for has a very open policy about gays, so we probably have a higher proportion of gay employees than other companies.

Those I work with are all laughing it off as a pathetic attempt and a waste of money on the fundies' part.

[enki23]

107. oh, who the hell cares.

one more group of idiots who can afford to put up asinine signs. big deal. so far as homosexuality is a choice (and it is, in part, so far as *anything* in life is a "choice.") people are free to question it for themselves even if it *is* mostly genetic. same goes for heterosexuality. maybe we should make some counter signs, asking heterosexuals to question their lifestyle choices. in any case, gays and lesbians are hardly the only people made miserable by christian brainwashing.

anyway, all this nature vs. nurture bullshit regarding gay rights is getting old. the jury is certainly still out over what portion is nature, and what portion is nurture. the only thing we can be sure of is that both have some role to play, just like they do with every *other* human behavior. nature vs. nurture is a completely outdated dichotomy anyway. we have to get off this stupid "but it's genetic" line of argument. we just don't know how "genetic" it really is. all we know is that people have the right to have consensual sex with whichever other adults they damned well choose, and it doesn't matter *why* they choose who they do. to do otherwise is to fall into the "natural law" bs which makes up the central arguments of today's republican party.

[TrogL]

108. I do, for one

Reparative therapy does not work. http://members.shaw.ca/trogl/orient.html

The Religious right blocks all attempts to get correct and meaningful information to LGBT people. Unless they have access to the web and know where to look, they can be sucked into this and damaged.

[enki23]

110. fundie christianity doesn't "work."

they fuck up *everything* they touch. as for reparative therapy not working, that's pretty much a given. most therapy doesn't, after all, especially for something that's such a basic part of one's personality. anyway, my point is... they are free to offer it anyway, though i feel sorry for the poor bastards who put themselves through it.

of course, they shouldn't be able to lie about it's efficacy. but that's never stopped the assholes before. they can pretend they have "faith" in it, and suddenly i'm supposed to just accept their bullshit. (if i had my way, nobody could put up a "jesus is risen!" sign without either a disclaimer, or first establishing that they have substantial evidence that such is actually true. but my utopia ain't likely to happen anytime soon.)

[0rganism]

109. It's a natural corollary to their assertions of homosexual indoctrination

Of course, the fact that "reorientation" is basically bullshit should cast some doubt upon the premise, but tracking long-term success would never occur to the fundies. The important thing is to get all those queers in to be indoctrinated with guilt and shame, and redeemed by the Love of Heterosexual Jebus.

[hunter]

112. It's a good thing I don't live in Texas...

Somebody take away my chainsaw, that billboard would be coming down. And don't let me come anywhere near the ignorant fools who put it up.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I got my heart ripped apart by someone who, for religious reasons, truly "questioned" her own homosexuality...

I still get so angry. I can't even write.