Protest at St. louis conversion therapy conference this Saturday

[MikeStl]

Heres some info on a protest I am involved in in St. louis. Focus on the Family has been putting up billboards in St. louis about their conversion therapy. They are hosting a "love won out" conference here in St. louis to preach their bigotry. You can see more about the conference at lovewonout.org. Below is the information about our protest. Please consider joining us if you are in the area!



LOVE NEEDS NO CURE!!
Action

TO: All fair-minded people

On February 25, 2006, Focus on the Family is holding their “Love Won Out” conference in St. Louis. This group claims that people can be “cured” of homosexuality. Sadly, this conference will attract persons who may be just coming to terms with their sexual identity or even more distressing, parents who are determined to “save” their children from what they see as the “affliction” of homosexuality.
A group of people from diverse faiths, political groups, psychological and medical professions, and other social action groups are organizing to be present in the vicinity of this conference. We will hold a respectful, joyous, and life, love-affirming demonstration.

We want YOU to be there!!

You have two opportunities to take a stand
for Dignity and Equality

Morning Action will occur from 6:30---8:30AM
(Yes, it’s early—but, conference registration is 7:00am & start time is 8:00 am)

Afternoon Action will occur from 4:30---5:30PM
(The conference adjourns at 5 p.m.)

Date: Saturday, February 25, 2006
Where: vicinity of First Evangelical Free Church
1375 Carman Rd, Ballwin, Mo

Note: We expect media coverage of this action. Those attending
may appear on television or in photographs.

For parking, shuttles, carpool, contact and other information
please see other side of this flyer


Action Date: Saturday February 25, 2006

Shuttle Service

Times: Saturday February 25th 6:15 to 6:45 AM and 3:30 to 4:00 PM.

From the following locations:

Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Rd. (West Park Entrance)

Manchester United Methodist Church 129 Woods Mill Road (at Manchester Rd). Please park in the NW corner of parking lot.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church 327 Woods Mill Road ¼ mile north of Manchester Rd.
Please park in the south side of parking lot, closest to house and garage.



Carpools will be available at 6:00 AM from two locations:

1. ‘Delmar Loop’ Metro Link Station, 660 Rosedale Ave, St. Louis, MO 63112
2. St. John’s United Methodist Church (also the MCC church),
5000 Washington Ave at Kingshighway---CWE, St. Louis, MO


Parking near venue

On-site Parking: very limited parking will be available on side streets close to the church.

Handicap and very limited parking available at the Carman Trails Elementary School---
Carman & Weidman Roads.

Anyone who can assist with carpools or shuttling please contact:

Rob 314.353.5951 [e-mail]

Perry 314.283.4050 [e-mail]

or email your contact info to: [e-mail]
someone will call you!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. You need to have your own conference

Love Wins Out-and shows that hateful homophobes can be cured of their intolerance,

[MikeStl]

2. Great idea...

We do plan to some sort of follow up and hosting a mini conference of our own was one of things brought up.

[sui generis]

4. Lady Clairol Wins Out!!! You too can be cured of brown hair!

(you'll still be a brunette underneath, but with the love of our lowerd and savior baby jeebus you can live a loving and accepted lifestyle of righteous blondness.

It is THAT absurd.

The first premise is that you have to believe that being gay is wrong or undesirable, like being born with two arms is wrong or undesirable.

It's difficult, yes, but that's because of everyone else who has a problem with it or thinks it's an "illness" that can be "cured". Clearly, like heterosexuality can be cured.

But to me "normal" is what I am, not everyone else. For the me that is I to be heterosexual would be abnormal. That's the critical piece they're missing. They think just because we want happiness and families and marriage and other wonderful "ordinary" things we're secretly yearning to be heterosexual! D'Oh!

[nickinSTL]

3. my response to the Missouri forum post

I'm glad this protest is happening.

I find this "conference" repulsive.

Almost as repulsive is the amount of news coverage it has gotten from the local NBC affiliate (KSDK).

I emailed KSDK about their station giving legitimacy to this group, and the fact that "cures" are known to be ineffective by all legitimate psychological experts.

[MuseRider]

5. Good luck and go get them!

I wish, oh how I wish I was closer to you because I would be there in a heart beat.

Please be certain to let us know how it goes.

This is so repulsive I can't even think about it without getting angry.

Please report.

[MikeStl]

6. I'll try to post some pictures

from the event so you all an see how it went. This whole thing is so frustrating. One of the ex-gay groups billboards has been vandalized, and now its like every gay persons fault in the city that it happened. The St. Louis Post dispatch ran a column about how both sides are intolerant. I'm surprised the billboard didn't collapse under the weight of the ENTIRE St. Louis GLBT population on it at once defacing it. :sarcasm: Oh and now the church holding the conference is the knight in shining armor as they are going to provide restrooms and coffee to the protesters. :eyes: :banghead: :banghead:

[MuseRider]

7. I find that every

issue dealing with GLBT issues these days is frustrating. I just don't get the crap.

Still, we are working hard here and there has been no anti GLBT legislation get out of committee here so far this session so maybe it is working. The thing is, they will not stop and I just don't know how to break through to people who are really truly fair minded and hold no hate but do and say and vote according to what their anti GLBT pastor tells them. That kind of non critical thinking is what is really killing us right now. :shrug: You do what you can and end up taking flack for it but it is what must be done.

So let's celebrate each tiny step and each big step for what it is and cheer each other on so we don't end up getting so mired in the crap.

YAY for YOU!

[kevinbgoode]

8. Hon...one thing you can do is. . .

make sure there are tons of letters to the Post-Dispatch asking them when they have written an editorial encouraging a group to recruit "ex-straights". . .or "ex-evangelicals". . .and then cite the number of times (like in the state of Georgia) where gay groups weren't allowed to even PUT UP billboards, while Right wingnuts are. . .

and then point out what a sham this organization is, and some of the things FOF has stated in the past. You can turn this around very easily, and there is nothing wrong with criticizing the Post-Dispatch's editorial board for a poorly researched piece.

[MikeStl]

9. The protest was beautiful

It was very peaceful and a good turnout. I'll post some pictures and some more details after I've has some sleep. :)

[MuseRider]

10. Good for you.

We have a KEC meeting today so I will look forward to seeing them when I get home tonight. I am so glad to hear that it was beautiful, must mean you came back feeling very good. :hug:

[MikeStl]

11. Found some pics

I was working working in peacekeeping there so I wasn't able to take any on my own. I've been able to find some scattered around here and there though. Heres some links with pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/search/tags:love%2Cneeds%2Cno%2Ccure/tagmode:all/

http://pinkboop.blogspot.com/2006/02/protesting.html

http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/02/peaceful_protes.html

I talked briefly to a woman that had came there with a friend to infiltrate and take some pictures at the conference. Heres her blog:

http://bshoot.blogspot.com/

The weather all day was very unpleasant, cold and I lot of wind blowing our signs everywhere. However as I understand about 500 people showed in the morning and later in the afternoon about 400. We also had some presence there all day. It was very much worth it. Was good to be there as a place for people to come out to get away from the rhetoric inside. Had a pretty steady stream of visitors from the conference, some curious what was going on, some came out to ask people to come into the conference, to start a dialog, etc. The church pastor was very accommodating and brought us coffee, food etc. had a few young people came out that had either been dragged there by their parents, or had been asked to go by their parents. Some of them stayed out most of the day chatting and helping out with the vigil. Someone was thoughtful enough to make cds with glbt resource info for us to give to people who wanted it. Managed to sneak a few back into the conference ;)

[MuseRider]

12. Thank you.

It looks like a great gathering. It may have been unpleasant outside but nobody looks to be anything but happy to be in the group. I love the signs, especially the Will Work For Equal Rights, that is a pretty one with a great message of course. I have not read all of the commentary yet but the message from inside sounds like much more than reparative therapy. Scary stuff but not something that has not been out there for a while.

We are having various "celebrations" here to mark the one year anniversary of the Marriage Amendment passing. One chapter is having birthday cake and inviting all the people that worked against us with the statement, "Look what you have done! We are organized and working hard to defeat you and we thank you for bringing us together, you are not going to be able to do this again."

Thanks.

[MikeStl]

13. Congrats on the marriage amendment

What a great anniversary to be celebrating. :-) I agree with it looking like more than repairative therapy. In bold near the top of the love won out webpage it says "A dynamic one-day conference addressing, understanding and preventing homosexuality." Prevention is not a term you use in taking care of something someone already has. I can't help but find that line very sinister the more I look at it.

Just side note I was looking at the netblock info for lovewonout.com and I find it odd it is being hosted out of a Raytheon facility in colorado. They are a defense contractor..I guess they do web hosting on the side. Who knew.

[MuseRider]

14. NO NO We did not win this one

it is a celebration of the thing that made us come together to fight the bigots. We lost big time but the celebration is to rub it in their faces that they have ended up organizing us in one solid state wide group instead of the mess we all were when we fought and lost. Just wait, we have some real suprises in store for them. It all takes time but we are not going down without a big fight.

It does seem very sinister but then it all does to me.

Raytheon? Hmmmm, that is very odd.

[MikeStl]

15. Ah I should have looked at what state you were in

The Marriage amendment passed here too. I think we have learned a lot here as well as to what worked and what didn't.