Serious Bad Controversy Here, Yessir

The American Library Association released its 2007 annual list of the most controversial books in the United States, based on complaints at schools and libraries. This was the second year in a row for this one.

You'd think it was something with, say, some sex and violence in it, wouldn't you? Something low, nasty, corrupt, dirty. Something debasing, perhaps, with an evil message.

No, it's a kids' book about a happy family of penguins.

NEW YORK - A children's story about a family of penguins with two fathers once again tops the list of library books the public objects to the most.

"And Tango Makes Three," released in 2005 and co-written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was the most "challenged" book in public schools and libraries for the second straight year, according to the American Library Association.

"The complaints are that young children will believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle that is acceptable. The people complaining, of course, don't agree with that," Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The ALA defines a "challenge" as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." Penguin tale tops list of `challenged' books

This is one messed-up world we live in, he said, in his G-rated voice.

What kind of book is this? From Amazon.com, here is the School Library Journal review of the book:

PreSchool-Grade 3-This tale based on a true story about a charming penguin family living in New York City's Central Park Zoo will capture the hearts of penguin lovers everywhere. Roy and Silo, two male penguins, are "a little bit different." They cuddle and share a nest like the other penguin couples, and when all the others start hatching eggs, they want to be parents, too. Determined and hopeful, they bring an egg-shaped rock back to their nest and proceed to start caring for it. They have little luck, until a watchful zookeeper decides they deserve a chance at having their own family and gives them an egg in need of nurturing. The dedicated and enthusiastic fathers do a great job of hatching their funny and adorable daughter, and the three can still be seen at the zoo today. Done in soft watercolors, the illustrations set the tone for this uplifting story, and readers will find it hard to resist the penguins' comical expressions. The well-designed pages perfectly marry words and pictures, allowing readers to savor each illustration. An author's note provides more information about Roy, Silo, Tango, and other chinstrap penguins. This joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library. From School Library Journal

Charming ... true story ... capture the hearts ... joyful story ... uplifting ...

Read the ALA's press release HERE.

Fishback Addresses Channel Seven Presentation

David Fishback is the former chair of the MCPS Citizens Advisory Committee for Family Health and Human Development, he's on the board of Metro-DC PFLAG, and he has been a central character in TeachTheFact.org's activities over the years. He has written up a reaction to Monday's story about "ex-gays" on Channel Seven. His post starts by quoting the entire online text of the report, and then discusses important aspects of it, better than when I said it was "unbelievably terrible" and "sickening." David's always good for a clear, reasonable analysis of a complicated situation.

Here is his text:

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE WJLA REPORT

I think it useful to look at the entire text of the WJLA piece on its website HERE.

*****************************************************
The idea that a person can change their sexual preference is beginning to become a major debate with gay activists because of an upcoming book, "The Born Gay Hoax".

Author Ryan Sorba was speaking at Smith College about his upcoming book, "The Born Gay Hoax," when gay protesters began taking over shouting, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it!" Soon Sorba was overrun and drowned out. Police finally arrived and advised Sorba to leave for his own safety. An example, some say, of how militant gay activists hijacked public debate on homosexuality.

"A person may not be happy being gay! I mean, has anyone ever thought of that," David exclaimed.

David, 34, said he would be afraid of being harassed by gays, if he were to be identified. He said he wanted "out of the gay life" that contradicted his faith and left him feeling empty, so he underwent so-called "reparative therapy". "I'm working on becoming more heterosexual," he said, "I believe that it is possible." "I believe feelings can change and I found feelings to change."

Scott Melendez, who is gay, said that he prayed to be straight, "No matter how much I believed that God would deliver me or make me straight, it never happened."

Melendez had a whole different view. He believed that people were born gay and that they should accept it. "I finally just realized that God loved me exactly the way I am and He didn't make a mistake."

In 1973, the mainstream scientific community declared homosexuality no longer a mental disorder and it warns now that trying to change a person's sexual preference could leave a person confused and depressed.

Scientists still don't know why a person is gay.

Dr. James Scully with the American Psychiatric Association said "There's actually been no definitive studies to decide what causes homosexuality."

So the debate rages on, with websites touting programs to help people go straight or at least to help them learn to control same-sex impulses. Yet there were no hard numbers on results and others blasted ex-gay methods as futile and ridiculous.

Wayne Besen with TruthWinsOut.org said, "It destroys people, it shatters families, it ruins lives, and it's being promoted by right-wing political groups."

With many struggling to reconcile feelings with their faith and absent hard science, many still maintain homosexuality is triggered by childhood abuse or poor relationships and people should be freed to choose which path to take.

"Homosexual activists are talking about personal choice, freedom and so forth, but they deny personal choice and freedom for those who wish to seek change," said Peter Sprigg with the organization, Parents and Families of Ex-Gays.

Gay activists applauded the cancellation of the American Psychiatric Association's workshop Monday. They called it a ploy by the religious right, but Dr. David Scasta who is a gay psychiatrist said he worked two years trying to setup the workshop. He just wanted to move beyond the shouting and bashing. He said he might try again next year.

*******************************************************************
The actual video may be viewed HERE. That version framed the issue as a conflict between "militant homosexuals" and those who wish to have calm discussion of the question of whether people can change their sexual orientation.

I have several observations:

1. The piece leads with something about one Ryan Sorba, who has written a book entitled The Born Gay Hoax. Given the scientific consensus that sexual orientation is not chosen, I was curious to find out Mr. Sorba's qualifications for attacking the scientific consensus. It took a little time, because his blog and other things on the web seem to avoid that. Finally, I found that he has a bachelor's degree in psychology by Cal State-San Bernadino. See HERE

Before leading with such an item, I would think that WJLA would want to inquire as to whether Mr. Sorba is a reputable scholar and researcher in the field, or just a right-wing ideologue. A Google search reveals that the latter is the case.

2. It is noteworthy that while WJLA contacted and quoted Peter Sprigg of PFOX (a shell organization if ever there was one), without mentioning that his principal affiliation is as Vice President of James Dobson's Family Research Council), but did not even bother to contact Metro DC PFLAG – a real organization representing actual people.

3. The piece does set forth "both sides" of the substantive dispute, but does so with only a peremptory nod to the scientific consensus, without even mentioning the recent American Psychological Association's publication Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth (READ HERE) which lays out the facts and details the dangers of so-called reparative or conversion therapies.

4. The most egregious portion of the WJLA report is the following statement: "With many struggling to reconcile feelings with their faith and absent hard science, many still maintain homosexuality is triggered by childhood abuse or poor relationships and people should be freed to choose which path to take."

But who are the "many [who] still maintain homosexuality" is so triggered? WJLA does not say. This viewpoint has been rejected outright by the scientific community for decades. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics, in its Guidance for Clinicians on Sexual Orientation and Adolescents, unequivocally states that "there is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation." READ HERE). No reputable scientific or medical researcher believes what WJLA says that "many still maintain." For WJLA to not so state in its report was irresponsible. The canard that bad parenting causes homosexuality has been used by theological ideologues to drive wedges between parents and children for too long to let the canard go unanswered. For WJLA to set forth the "many still maintain" statement without more was irresponsible.

5. I believe that the piece entirely misses the key question underlying the controversy: Why do some people want to change their sexual orientations in the face of the reality, confirmed by the mainstream scientific community, that people cannot will themselves to change their orientation?

Some conservative religious groups tell people that being gay is contrary to God's plan and that therefore they should try to change their sexual orientation. But this is where theology runs directly into mental health issues, since it is clear that real, purposeful change of sexual orientation is simply not possible.

I suspect, but do not know, that Dr. Scasta's intention was to have a discussion about whether and/or how gay people who wish to follow the theology of the particular religious communities into which they were born can find contentment in celibacy. On an earlier string on this blog, I asked Warren Throckmorton if his view was that gay people really could change and, if not, whether that meant they should be live-long celibates, giving up the joys of monogamous intimacy. He did not respond. I was disappointed that he did not respond, because a discussion of the intersection of theology and mental health is important. The problem, as Dr. Scasta may have discovered, is that many people have good reason to be suspicious of the agendas of the leaders of the "ex-gay" approach.

Is Professor Throckmorton approaching these sorts of discussions starting from a common ground of a scientific understanding of sexual orientation, or is his agenda still to assert – in the face of all the evidence to the contrary – that people cannot purposely change their orientation? If the latter, there is no point of having him on panels discussing mental health. Moreover, if the latter, then the appropriate place for him to speak would be in debates about the science regarding whether people can change their orientation – but given the scientific consensus on that point, such debates would be akin to debates about whether the Earth is round or flat. But even if this were an open question, Professor Throckmorton has done no peer reviewed research which would contribute to such a scientific discussion.

6. So WJLA's framing of its report with students at Smith College yelling at Mr. Sorba distracts from the real issues here. The visual may be good television entertainment, but it is deficient journalism.

David S. Fishback
Board Member, Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

Channel Seven Steps In It Again

I told you the other day that Channel Seven was going to do a show on whether gay people can become straight. I thought it would be bad -- I didn't even come close -- it was unbelievably terrible.

The idea that a person can change their sexual preference is beginning to become a major debate with gay activists because of an upcoming book, "The Born Gay Hoax".

Author Ryan Sorba was speaking at Smith College about his upcoming book, "The Born Gay Hoax," when gay protesters began taking over shouting, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it!" Soon Sorba was overrun and drowned out. Police finally arrived and advised Sorba to leave for his own safety. An example, some say, of how militant gay activists hijacked public debate on homosexuality.

"A person may not be happy being gay! I mean, has anyone ever thought of that," David exclaimed.

David, 34, said he would be afraid of being harassed by gays, if he were to be identified. He said he wanted "out of the gay life" that contradicted his faith and left him feeling empty, so he underwent so-called "reparative therapy".

"I'm working on becoming more heterosexual," he said, "I believe that it is possible." "I believe feelings can change and I found feelings to change." Can Someone's Sexual Preference be Changed?

Man, this is sickening.

I told you about the Channel Seven interviewer asking me if I was gay. Yes, she's the reporter on the scene in this story, Greta Kreuz. She's the same one who reported on the hoax at Rio, when the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever had a man in a dress go into the ladies locker-room.

There is no controversy about whether someone's sexual preference can be changed. It can't.

Listen, go look at the video. Read the rest of this.

Here's what Box Turtle Bulletin says about it:

If this wasn’t truly pathetic journalism, it would be laughable. But on they go about “militant gay activists hijack[ing] public debate” and ex-gays fearful to give their name lest they be harassed.

The entire article is an embarrasment on the news department at ABC 7, and perhaps even a sad endictment of the quality of “news” that reaches the consumers of press-release based journalism. The station manager would do well to find whichever anti-gay staff member introduced this piece of foolishness into their newsroom and remind them that a reporters job is reporting, not advocacy for religous extremism. ABC 7 News Buys into Mass Resistance’s Hype

Her name is Greta Kreuz. I'm sorry to see it, I kind of liked her when I first met her.

They know more about this guy's stupid book at Box Turtle Bulletin than I do. Follow that link to find out more of the story behind the story here.

Maryland Gays Not Happy With Governor

While we have been fighting our battles in Montgomery County, others have been working at the state level to get fair treatment for gay and transgender people. We have mostly stayed out of that, there's been enough in our county to keep us occupied, but it's good to see our local situation in the context of the state's movement.

Montgomery County is definitely a Blue place, a liberal, even progressive, county where the people are tolerant and ready to extend freedom to all. We are a little more liberal than the state as a whole, though Maryland in general leans heavily that way. But those who have to make the decisions -- whether these are local school district people or elected officials or whatever -- tend to get jumpy and careful. Even though they know they have popular support, they also know that a small number of squeaky-wheel nuts will begin squealing if it looks like they are giving equal rights to gay and transgender people or whatever it is that sets them off. They start squealing, the Family Blah Blah groups back them up, and they can put considerable pressure on the little local politician or bureaucrat who's just trying to do his or her duty.

We haven't been following the state battles much here on this blog, we've stayed more local than that, but Adam Pagnucco writing at Maryland Politics Watch has a good summary of the sour tone that has set in. He pulled together a lot of threads to explain comprehensively what's going on and where it's headed. I hope they don't mind if I simply copy and paste their whole post here.

The Sun reported yesterday on growing dissatisfaction among gays against Governor O'Malley. But in fact, resentment towards the Governor has been building inside the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community for at least eight months.

Last September, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that state law forbids same-sex marriage. While the Governor did not have a hand in the ruling itself, he released this statement to the Washington Blade:

I look forward to reading the Court's full opinion, but as we move forward, those of us with the responsibility of passing and enforcing laws have an obligation to protect the rights of all individuals equally, without telling any faith how to define its sacraments... I respect the Court's decision.

Gays across the state immediately took this as a betrayal. What did the court's decision on civil marriage have to do with any religion's sacraments? And why did the Governor fail to include a right to marriage as one of the rights that should be protected for "all individuals equally?" The plaintiffs in the marriage lawsuit immediately unveiled emails sent to them by the Governor expressing his support for marriage rights as recently as August 2005. Blade editor and blogger Kevin Naff fumed:

As gay Marylanders were reeling from the high court decision upholding the state's marriage ban -- shedding tears and canceling wedding plans -- the governor released a statement that didn't offer sympathy or condolences. Instead, he said he respected the court's decision -- an opinion unparalleled in its gratuitously offensive language -- and that lawmakers shouldn't tell religions how to define the sacraments.

With that statement, O'Malley kicked us all at a time when we were down and we should not forget it. No more gay money. No more gay votes. No more door-to-door gay support or green bumper stickers or yard signs. After distinguishing himself as a brash young politician of a new generation, he has revealed himself to be a typical climber, so blinded by national ambition that he would break any promise to pad his resume and preserve his power.

Neither marriage nor civil unions passed in the 2008 general session, but bills providing gay partners the right to visit each other in the hospital and limited exemptions from some property taxes did pass. One sticking point was on partnership benefits for state employees. The Governor says the state cannot afford them despite the fact that their cost -- about $3 million per year -- equals approximately 0.02% of the state's general fund. That helped to prompt this comment from one of the state's most prominent gay rights leaders:

"There's just not a lot to be enthusiastic about, because the governor hasn't done much to help us move forward," said Dan Furmansky, director of Equality Maryland, a leading gay rights group. "Why did the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community work so hard to elect this person? What do we have to show for it at this point?"

Make no mistake: marriage equality is inevitable, regardless of O'Malley's calculations and vacillations. Perhaps it will come to pass under Governor Doug Gansler.

Gays vs. the Governor

Sunday Morning, Closing Some Tabs

If you could choose where to live based on the weather and you were here today you'd choose Montgomery County. Right now it is exactly what you want, warm, sunny, a breeze that seems carefree and appropriate for the season. Everything is green now or brightly colored with some kind of flowers. The little seed-wings are spinning down from the maple trees like snow, and it's snowing under the beautiful cherry and apple trees too, snowing flower-petals. We watched a deer in the neighbor's yard yesterday, eating their garden, and this week family members saw a fox and also a pair of raccoons crossing the street, both late at night. The dogwoods are in bloom, and our peonies have exploded, they're huge. We saw some pigeons doing their mating ritual in the park, the male puffing up and trying to get the female's attention, and everywhere I see sparrows with construction materials in their beaks, string and sticks and pieces of cloth. It is spring-time, big-time.

Look, I have a bunch of tabs open in my browser. I will be goofing around on the Internet and I'll see something, and I'll think, wow, that's interesting, I ought to put that on the blog, but sometimes they just don't quite rise above the threshold. So this morning, let me go through and shut some of those tabs. I'll tell you what's in them and then I can X them out. Which, by the way, is a beautiful new verb, don't you agree? To X. You know what I mean, right?

The big news in my neighborhood was the fire. A guy was killed and some firefighters got hurt fighting an apartment fire on my street. We drove down there at one-something in the morning, I haven't heard that many sirens since the snipers, helicopters were circling over it. We went down Twinbrook, and it was solid emergency vehicles. I told my wife, it reminded me of the ending of the Blues Brothers movie, when all those cops were there, remember that? They blocked off the street and it was like Las Vegas with all the lights blinking, with a big column of smoke rising up above it. In the morning I went down and it was still blocked off. Later I went by and looked, and it didn't look that bad, mainly one apartment unit seemed to be destroyed. Those apartment buildings have been there a long time. They say the third floor collapsed onto the second, and the firefighters had to dive out from the second floor.

The next story, this will get interesting. Kids are taking sexy pictures of one another on their cell phones and then sending them around. They call it "sexting," or at least a reporter did. From Portland Oregon:

Teens told Portland TV station KPTV that many of their classmates are using cell phones to take and send explicit photos. They said "sexting" is a major problem at most campuses in Portland.

Anton Bogan, a local high school student, said "9.7 times out of 10, it's a nasty photo."

By texting, students keep their conversations secret because they're not talking on the phone. They can even use their phones in the classroom.

"I'd rather text than talk on the phone," said 17-year-old Darrell Keyes. "I waste, like, 4,000 text messages in a month."

But texting inappropriate photos can turn into a criminal matter.

In Utah, "sexting" led to criminal charges when a parent had found an explicit photo and called police. Several students at one school were found to be texting inappropriate photos. Cell Phone 'Sexting' A Problem, Teens Say

OK, remember, we're talking about teenagers here, so this is legally child porn. It seems to me you could end up in a really bad situation here, not thinking. And "not thinking" is something teenagers are good at. You take a picture of your girlfriend flashing you or something, you send it to somebody, they go OMG LOL and send it to somebody else, somewhere there's an adult in the loop, who is now in possession of child porn, maybe they're eighteen. I don't know if the world can keep up with the implications of our new technology. How are you supposed to keep sex under control, when everybody has a camera on their phone? It's like The Onion last week had a story about someone putting a picture of a naked lady on the Internet, and authorities were concerned that soon there could be hundreds of imitators. Yes, there could be, really. Where is this going to go? You can't stop people from taking pictures and sending them. You can't stop teenagers from being obsessively interested in sex. I don't see how prudishness can win this one.

Oh, and here's a good story, a sign of the times. Air marshals are supposed to fly inconspicuously on airplanes to catch terrorists. The problem though is that there is a watch list of half a million potential terrorists who aren't allowed to fly on American airplanes -- including some of the air marshals.

Some federal air marshals have been denied entry to flights they are assigned to protect when their names matched those on the terrorist no-fly list, and the agency says it's now taking steps to make sure their agents are allowed to board in the future.

The problem with federal air marshals (FAM) names matching those of suspected terrorists on the no-fly list has persisted for years, say air marshals familiar with the situation.

One air marshal said it has been “a major problem, where guys are denied boarding by the airline.” Air marshals' names tagged on 'no-fly' list

Yes, it's the Washington Times and I don't usually quote them, but that's too good. We are so scared of each other now, we're scared of the guys who are supposed to be protecting us. You feel like turning around and walking away, but there's no place to walk away to. This crazy country.

Here was a good blog post: The Worrier's Almanac Guide -- Things You Should Actually Worry About. This person sat down calmly and thought about the world. There are things out there that can kill you. They aren't the things we spend billions of dollars protecting ourselves from, these are real things.

Staying with the theme here, it turns out Microsoft has made a program to make it easier for the government to go through your stuff.

Microsoft has developed a small plug-in device that investigators can use to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes.

The COFEE, which stands for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is a USB "thumb drive" that was quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith described its use to the 350 law-enforcement experts attending a company conference Monday.

The device contains 150 commands that can dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence, which is becoming more important in real-world crime, as well as cybercrime. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer. Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime

I'm just glad to know that no bad guys will ever get hold of one of those things. Oh, and I'm glad to know that the government will have to get a search warrant before they can use this. Because I'm an idiot and I believe things.

Okay, this was a good one. Akhenaten, the pharaoh who was married to Nefertiti, possible father or half-brother to King Tut, appears to have been intersex or something.

May 2, 2008 -- Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine. And he was a bit of an egghead.

So concludes a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten for an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh's body to convert more male hormones to female hormones than needed, Dr. Irwin Braverman believes. And Akhenaten's head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.

The pharaoh had "an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters," Braverman said. "But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique." 'Androgynous' Pharaoh Had Feminine Physique

You see, it doesn't quite rise to the level of getting its own place on the blog, not exactly breaking news that just happened three thousand years ago, but it is interesting, don't you think?

Ah, this one blog quotes somebody else. The question has to do with those Mormon polygamists that they have been going through out there in Texas. That. Is. A. Mess. What, are they marrying little girls and having sex with them? And molesting the boys too? I think everybody agrees there is some creepy stuff going on there. Anyway, here's a question from the Internet:

Where’s the outrage from the “marriage should be between one man and one woman” crowd about this nonsense in Eldorado? You’d think they would be up in arms about this. Aren’t these people DESTROYING all marraige for normal straight couples

It does seem funny that the Family Blah Blah groups are so scared about Adam and Steve moving in together, and don't seem to care about this. Doesn't it give them the uncontrollable urge to go out and propose to more women?

I think you understand that blog best if you see the title: Marriage Is…Er…Whatever It Needs To Be To Exclude The Gays.

And what do you think about the DC Madam committing suicide? Gee, she has a list of tens of thousands of customers of her prostitution service, including the most powerful men in Washington, DC, she says repeatedly that she would never kill herself, and then ... she does. It's a weird site to link to, but Prison Planet is putting the pieces together, with lots of links. If you believed the government's report on the Kennedy assassination you won't be interested in this.

Do you think there is anybody who believes the official account of the Kennedy assassination? I am thinking I have never met anyone who did, not that I ask everybody I meet.

There is one last thing, which I don't have a link for but you will want to watch out for this. Apparently Channel Seven is planning to run a story this week about how gay people can change. Normally, a responsible news source would find this story very easy to write: the story is, it doesn't happen. You grow up knowing you're gay, you stay gay, people have to get used to that. You can pretend otherwise, but there's no news story here. Channel Seven has had a recent history of taking the wrong side on some issues. You remember they were the only ones who publicized the hoax of the "man in a dress" going into the ladies locker-rooms at the gym in Rio. And to tell you the truth, the Channel Seven reporter who did that story is the only person in my life who has seriously asked me if I am gay. She interviewed me once in DC, near the Columbus statue outside Union Station, and she was so nervous. We talked after the interview, and she said these things just seem so controversial, at that time we were talking about adding some information about sexual orientation to the MCPS sex-ed curriculum. Then she glanced around and leaned forward, and in a hushed voice she said, "Are you gay?" Listen, gay-dar is not perfect, you can't always tell, but this lady was shooting in the dark. Only time that's ever happened to me, and now this channel is going to investigate whether homosexuality can be cured or whatever. Let's see, maybe they'll interview some intelligent people and not Regina Griggs, Reverend Grace, Peter Sprigg, Richard Cohen. I guess we'll have to watch.

Well this is a beautiful day, too nice to stay in. WPFW is having a pledge drive, so G-Strings is playing some good jazz guitar this morning, but I think I'm going to miss it. The puppy doesn't mind if I walk him more than he needs, maybe I'll do that. Maybe we'll see a bunny, like yesterday.

APA Session Called Off

The American Psychiatric Association was going to have a forum on religious perspectives on homosexuality at their convention, looks like a lot of it was going to be about ministering to gay people who don't want to be gay for religious reasons. There has been controversy since this thing was first announced, as you might expect. Warren Throckmorton was going to be on the panel -- if you've been following our story here, you will know that name, he co-authored an early paper complaining about our county's new sex-ed curriculum, and spoke at a meeting of the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever a couple of years ago. He's a psychologist at a small Christian college, the patron professor of their side. He talks like an academic, but the bottom line for him is that gay people whose religion prohibits homosexuality should learn to change, at least counselors and psychologists should have some techniques for helping them become overcome their God-given sexuality. It is a very insidious approach, where he can appear to express empathy for everyone, including those who believe their own natural feelings of love are dirty and wrong.

Wayne Besen had a press release yesterday:

New York - Sources have informed TruthWinsOut.org that Monday's symposium featuring infamous "ex-gay" therapist Dr. Warren Throckmorton may be canceled. The forum, "A Pastoral Approach for Gay & Lesbian People Troubled by Homosexuality," suffered a major blow when panelist, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, pulled out of the event. Robinson expressed concern that the symposium, scheduled to take place the same week as the APA's annual meeting in Washington, would be used as a public relations gimmick for Focus on the Family.

"The cancellation of this forum is welcome news because it gave the wrong impression that the American Psychiatric Association endorsed 'ex-gay' therapy, when, in fact, the organization soundly rejects such therapies," said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen.

Predictably, on his blog, Throckmorton claimed that the APA is "apparently afraid of a conversation." What he conveniently failed to mention was that this discussion ended three decades ago and his side was defeated because they lacked scientific credibility. They have yet to provide a shred of evidence supporting the efficacy of ex-gay therapy, while there is evidence that such methods cause a great deal of harm.

"Throckmorton 'counsels' vulnerable gay people to either live a lifetime of loneliness or a lifetime of lies.This is neither healthy nor therapeutic and it's a diagnosis for disaster," said Besen.

Throckmorton confirms the rumor on his blog:

What a difference a day makes.

The American Psychiatric Association program Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension has been pulled by chair David Scasta. My understanding is that he was asked (by whom, I am still not clear) to pull the program because of increasing concerns about it. I am still hearing more about the reasons and hope to know something more clearly soon.

Dr. Scasta did tell me that the APA’s position is that the program was not pulled because gay activists were unhappy with it. At this moment, I am skeptical.

More to come… The APA symposium on homosexuality, therapy and religion has been cancelled

This was going to be the big chance for the reparative-therapy advocates to pretend that there is something legitimate about what they do. You might remember that the intelligent design people got a paper published once in a minor biology journal, and made a big deal out of the fact. Their side needs this sort of thing, it is all-too-obvious that reparative therapy -- a kind of psychotherapy that is supposed to make gay people stop being so gay -- has no scientific support or basis, and it would have been good for them to have this conference session, so they could link the APA's name to what they do. Looks like it's not going to happen.

Scuttlebutt: Court Rules Against Radical Groups

A quick note here. It's hard to get into the court records for this, but we have been told that the circuit court judge handling the lawsuit against the Montgomery County Board of Elections has ruled against granting intervenor status to Citizens for a Responsible Whatever and the Alliance Defense Fund. The groups had filed to help defend petitions that are alleged to contain thousands of invalid signatures and evidence of fraud. The petitions calling for a referendum on the recently-passed Montgomery County gender identity nondiscrimination bill were collected by the CRW in February and certified by the board. The new bill prohibited discrimination against transgender people in certain cases, and these groups are trying to re-legalize it.

A group of county voters filed suit to challenge the petition signatures, and Equality Maryland and other groups launched an intensive campaign to scrutinize every petition, checking that signatures were valid. If the petitions are declared invalid, the referendum will be thrown out.

You will be hearing the radical groups complaining, probably starting tomorrow. They love to say that a referendum is more democratic than our representative system of government, that it's better to have things voted on by the people. Their ideal is a system of government where the majority imposes its will on whatever minority annoys them at the moment -- in this case, transgender people. Not everybody in the county agrees with them about this.

I don't get all this fancy legal stuff, you know, but I am told that what this means is that the election board is going to have to fight the suit on their own; they won't have the backing of the huge, deep-pockets rightwing groups such as ADF, which was founded by leadership of Campus Crusade for Christ, Crown Financial Ministries, Focus on the Family, Coral Ridge Ministries, International Christian Media, American Family Association, and more than thirty other conservative Christian organizations.

The judge will rule on the validity of the signatures following a hearing that is tentatively scheduled for June. Now a complaint has been filed, the results of the petition review will be available to the judge, he'll look at the evidence and make a decision -- without a bunch of shower-nuts howling into bullhorns about the safety of children and the modesty of women, about predators and pedophiles and scary perverted men lurking in ladies' locker-rooms. He'll have the luxury now of deciding on the basis of the evidence. I wouldn't guess which way it will go, I've seen some of the petitions and I know there's some crazy stuff there, but I don't try to guess what a judge will decide.

All of this has to move pretty quickly in order to have ballots ready by November.

Sunday Morning Off-Topic

This morning is it cool and gray out, after a night of furious thunderstorms; I kept losing the network as I worked here at the kitchen table during the storm. The kitty is crouched on the windowsill hoping to eat a bird, her ears are perked up, she sits motionless, wide-eyed, a natural predator reacting to something she sees, unable to quite account for the complicating fact that there is a sheet of glass between her and the sparrows that dance around our bird-feeders. She has a second reason for sitting there, too -- she can taunt the dog safely from that position. He's a little Cairn, he can see her on the sill but he's too small to reach her. She'll turn to face him and wave a paw at him, sometimes boxing him in the face. If he's really noisy about it, she'll leap off the sill and onto the back of the chair, where she'll find the most precarious way to balance, reaching through the slats of the open back of the chair so she can punch him if he gets near, but making it as complicated as she can, just for the challenge of it.

The dog chases the cats, but it is obvious to anyone that they own the place. He makes noise, he can provoke them to run at times, but ... they eat his food, they drink his water, when Mama makes sandwiches the cats go to the front row in case a piece of meat "accidentally" falls to the floor (she's too nice to them), while puppy waits sadly behind them.

It's an odd kind of hierarchy of predators. He loves making their lives miserable -- there are two cats -- and in their way they enjoy the game, too. Salem is the queen of the place, she walks past the dog slowly, sits where he can see, looking him calmly in the eye as he comes yapping, hopping like an idiot. Her favorite moment is when we bring him into the house on his leash. She always happens to be strolling casually just inside the door as we come in -- he lunges, yip-yipping, yanking on the leash, and he can't reach her. She has it timed perfectly, she moseys across the room toward the cat-door to the basement, which he can't fit through. It drives him crazy, she disappears just as we unsnap the leash and he is released to go eat the kitty-cat. Salem loves having somebody to despise, it seems to make her life complete.

We hang the bird-feeders where we can see them from the kitchen and dining room. This last week a squirrel got up there and knocked the whole sunflower-bell down, we don't usually mind if the squirrels have some, but that was not nice. We have nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, flickers, wrens, goldfinches, mourning doves on the ground where the seed falls, plus the usual ones, starlings, sparrows. Did you know that starlings can learn to talk? They are related to minahs. When I was a paperboy, a lady on my route had a minah that would say "Hello?" when I knocked on the door. I would stand out there a long time, expecting to collect my money when in fact there was nobody home, no human anyway. I recently read a news story from England where a parrot taught the other parrots at the pet shop to cuss. They said English things like "Bollocks" and "Bloody this-and-that." Wouldn't it be funny if there was a flock of foul-mouthed starlings?

I kind of don't like the starlings. They're big and they tend to chase the other birds away. We have a birdhouse over by the driveway, like an apartment, there are six units in it, and sparrows try to nest there but the starlings go in and do something, I don't know if they eat the sparrows' eggs or the chicks or what, but you can tell it's an ugly scene. The sparrows have chewed the openings to the apartment units so they're wider, and then last year they stuffed grass and paper into the openings so you can't get in on one side. I have no idea what they think they're doing, but they have some big idea there, and they work very hard at it -- yesterday I saw a sparrow perched on the wire with a piece of cloth in his mouth that was almost as big as him.

I doubt you would call a starling a "predator," really, I'm sure the kitten here (she's a couple of years old, still young) thinks of the starling as "prey." I suppose it's relative, to the sparrow the starling is bad news. This cat, Evie, is a good one -- by which I mean to say, she is a pain in the butt. She loves people and she also loves to break things, tear things up, she likes to sit on the toilet seat and splash the water all over the floor. Lampshades have no future with her in the house. Plants that hang down, macrame, forget it. Something sitting on a table, forget it. Something like a salt shaker is just waiting to be knocked over, she can't resist. She plays cat and mouse with the dog, where she's the cat. It doesn't speak that well for the dog, does it? He's sure he's chasing her, she's seeing if she can balance with each foot on a different surface, with her head upside down, reaching through the chair-slats to bat at him, it's a game for her but he's pretty sure he's going to be eating the cat in a few minutes, he's going to get her this time. But, you know, dogs are intelligent. Cats are too dumb to learn tricks, a dog can learn to do what you tell it to do. There is a moral to that story.

Well, that's my house this quiet Sunday morning. WPFW just played part of a speech by Barbara Jordan in 1974, now they're playing a gospel song, they're singing "This ground is holy ground." The DJ is explaining now, these singers are church elders from different ethnic backgrounds. Wow, they're from all over the world. I see, it was the Annual Prayer Vigil for the Earth, their web site is HERE. Pretty cool, I guess.

I'm up a little bit early this morning, I don't know why. "My" show comes on at nine, it's a few hours of guitar music mostly, and other stringed instruments. Most of the day they play good stuff, blues, old-school, jazz, on this station. I don't mind the top-forty format but it doesn't hold my attention very long. I'd rather be surprised.

This has been a great week for my seventeen-year-old. He's with his friend in Daytona Beach. The friend has an old Volkswagen bus that he's fixed up a little bit, and they drove it down there. They planned ahead, you know, got a case of ramen and a case of Krispy Kremes. Well, you have to eat, you know. They were going to go to Myrtle Beach, but the night before they were going to leave the third kid, a girl, got in some trouble with her parents and they wouldn't let her go -- you go from splitting expenses three ways to two ways and everybody gets hit pretty hard. So they threw out their plans and decided to go somewhere else. They went to Google Earth, closed their eyes and moved the cursor around, and it ended up on Port Orange, Florida. So that's where they are, it's right next to Daytona. He said "It could have been Kansas." Tell me, does that make you a little bit jealous? To be seventeen, cruising down the highway in a VW bus, going someplace you don't know? Man, I think I could handle that! He calls, sends cell-phone pictures, it sounds like an excellent time. They drove straight down there without stopping, but they decided to come back slower, along the coast, spending the night halfway.

When I was twenty or so I hitch-hiked all over the country. It's hard to explain, but let's say I ended up with three hundred dollars from a bail fund after a riot, never mind I'm not going to go into that but the charges of remaining at the scene were thrown out and there was nobody to give the bail money back to. We had three hundred bucks, stuck out our thumbs, went from Phoenix to Steamboat Springs, Boulder, Boston, New York City, Long Island, New Hampshire. I got a job in New Hampshire for a couple of months, working on the highways in Swanzey, got enough money to go around to Niagara and back to Arizona. Shortly after that I read Kerouac's On The Road and was completely unimpressed -- isn't everybody's life just like that?

You don't hitch-hike any more. Recently somebody asked me why that is. All I could think of was Charles Manson. Is there a reason you can't stick out your thumb and accept a ride from a stranger? Is there a reason you can't stop and let somebody ride with you, to share a little conversation and help them out? Everybody's just afraid of everybody any more. When I was in high school, my girlfriend lived all the way across town, and I'd go out after school and stick out my thumb and I'd be there as fast as if I'd driven myself.

It sounds like the Day of Silence went well. You might have seen, one teacher who comments here said that 250 students at his school participated in it. Tomorrow the anti-gay groups want to do something, wear t-shirts that put down gay people of something. I don't expect it to be any big deal, I suppose we'll hear about it. You understand that I am comparing people like the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever to my dog, who thinks he's the big predator chasing the cats.

My Post Piece On Our County

Okay, okay, I’ll post it. This is a piece that ran in the Montgomery Extra section of the Washington Post this week. They had asked me and some other people to write up a little piece about what Montgomery County is like, so I sent them this. I don’t know that it really fits on the blog, but several people wanted me to post it. I guess it does, this blog is about living in this county as much as anything.

Here you go:

A Melting Pot of Cultures, Viewpoints

I have seen Montgomery County from several points of view, being a parent, a federal employee and something of a social activist. This is an unusual place, a bedroom community for the government, and our population is amazingly diverse -- what country on Earth is not represented here? The beauty of the countryside needs to be mentioned. I live in Rockville, not far from Rock Creek, and walking in the woods is the most refreshing experience. It is not unusual to see rush-hour traffic stopped for a family of geese single-filing across the road. We have trees along the creek that have been gnawed by beavers, and you watch for the occasional red fox slinking through back yards, even a coyote now and then. Our county shimmers with life.

But, of course, the most impressive thing here is the people. Our group, TeachTheFacts.org, has been involved in a vibrant debate over community issues for several years, and it has been incredibly invigorating to hear from absolute strangers who want to contribute their time and knowledge to our effort. This is not a county of apathetic sleepyheads; people here are serious about decisions that affect all of us and reflect the timbre of life in our community. There may be disagreement and debate about what direction to take, but there is nothing like the somnambulistic acceptance of the status quo that you see in so many other places.

The word "diverse" barely begins to scratch the surface here. There are neighborhoods downcounty where you could believe you were in Central or South America, with bachata blasting from boomboxes and the smoky smell of pollo a la brasa settling over the sidewalk. Then you drive upcounty and you might as well be in Idaho or at least Kansas, with wide-open landscapes, conservative people and the warmth and the pace of rural America; loop back around to Potomac, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, where the rock stars, the athletes, the lobbyists and the congressmen live, and you're in another world altogether. We really do have every kind of people here.

The result is a casual and mature kind of tolerance that you rarely find anywhere. There are so many ways of life here that the phrase starts to lose its meaning. Friends and neighbors adapt to one another's ways without judging. People look for the goodness in one another and respond to that. It adds up to a county scintillating with energy, a prosperous place where some of the world's greatest scientific breakthroughs are routinely made, where the nation's and the world's leaders rest their heads at night, where cultures interact to produce a new thing -- an integrated, high-energy, peaceful approach to living that makes better people of all of us. Call it the Montgomery County way of life.

Jim Kennedy

Rockville

A Melting Pot of Cultures, Viewpoints

I should mention that I didn’t make up that title.

Surprisingly, Citizens for Responsible Whatever Oppose National Day of Silence

Tomorrow (Friday, probably "today" when you read this) is the National Day of Silence, when students everywhere can express their support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. It is not surprising that the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever would take this opportunity to encourage their members to avoid educating their children. They just sent out an emergency newsletter. Here's their take on the whole thing:

Tomorrow Public Highschools and Middleschools
Engage in Indoctrination of your kids
Day of Silence, Friday April 25th, 2008

Parents with Kids in Public Highschools and Middle schools WATCH OUT
Tomorrow, Friday, April 25th is the "Day of Silence" Across Montgomery County Schools in MD.

Your public schools, if listed below, is participating.

What does this mean ?

1) Kids in the school will be be wearing "SILENT" signs and NOT responding to teacher's questions.

2) Pro-homosexual rallies, and potentially announcements over the schools intercom will take place at your school, all during schools hours.
There is one sure way to make sure your public school knows that you don't want your kid indoctrinated. KEEP THEM HOME. While SAT scores are dropping, your public school is sanctioning kids being disrespectful to teachers by not answering their questions when directly addressed.

By the way, there were 0 reports of sexual orientation discrimination in Montgomery County and 22 reports of religious discrimination, but does that stop our school system from it's rampant indoctrination of our kids using our tax dollars ? NO.

This is wonderful news. Absolutely no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Montgomery County. Uh, I mean zero reports of discrimination -- do you know how many forms you have to fill out, what agency you're supposed to go to, to report something like that? The people who get this newsletter will believe that there is no discrimination because, hey look Madge, it says so right here.

Here's the good part, if you ask me:

The List of Schools in Maryland Participating

ALBERT EINSTEIN HIGH SCHOOL
ANNAPOLIS SR. HIGH SCHOOL
ATHOLTON HIGH SCHOOL
BALTIMORE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
BETHESDA CHEVY CHASE HIGH SCHOOL
BROADNECK SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
BRYN MAWR SCHOOL
C. MILTON WRIGHT HIGH SCHOOL
CARVER CENTER FOR ARTS & TECHNOLOGY
CATOCTIN HIGH SCHOOL
CATONSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL
CHARLES E. SMITH JEWISH DAY SCHOOL
COL. ZADOK A. MAGRUDER HIGH SCHOOL
DAMASCUS HIGH SCHOOL
ELANOR ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL
FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE
GAITHERSBURG HIGH SCHOOL
GARRISON FOREST SCHOOL
GILMAN SCHOOL
GLENELG HIGH SCHOOL
GOV. THOMAS JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL
HARFORD TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
HAVRE DE GRACE HIGH SCHOOL
HEREFORD HIGH SCHOOL
HIGH POINT HIGH SCHOOL
HOLTON-ARMS SCHOOL
HOWARD HIGH SCHOOL
JAMES HUBERT BLAKE HIGH SCHOOL
JULIUS WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL
KENT ISLAND HIGH SCHOOL
LAUREL HIGH SCHOOL
LONG REACH HIGH SCHOOL
MAGNOLIA MIDDLE SCHOOL
MCDONOGH SCHOOL
MONTGOMERY BLAIR HIGH SCHOOL
MOUNT HEBRON HIGH SCHOOL
NORTH EAST HIGH SCHOOL
NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL
OAKLAND MILLS HIGH SCHOOL
OLDFIELDS SCHOOL
PARK SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE
PARKDALE HIGH SCHOOL
PATAPSCO HIGH AND CENTER FOR THE ARTS
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR HIGH SCHOOL
POOLESVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
QUINCE ORCHARD HIGH SCHOOL
RESERVOIR HIGH SCHOOL
RICHARD MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL
RIVER HILL HIGH SCHOOL
ROLAND PARK COUNTRY SCHOOL
SANDY SPRINGS FRIENDS SCHOOL
SENECA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
SEVERN SCHOOL
SHERWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
SOUTH CARROLL SR. HIGH SCHOOL
SPRINGBROOK HIGH SCHOOL
ST ANDREWS EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
ST PAUL'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
SUDBROOK MAGNET MIDDLE SCHOOL
THE NORA SCHOOL
THOMAS S. WOOTTON HIGH SCHOOL
THORNTON FRIENDS SCHOOL
TOWSON HIGH LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY
TOWSON HIGH SCHOOL
WALT WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOL
WALTER JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL
WATKINS MILL HIGH SCHOOL
WESTERN HIGH SCHOOL
WESTMINSTER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
WICOMICO HIGH SCHOOL
WILDE LAKE HIGH SCHOOL
WINSTON CHURCHILL HIGH SCHOOL

It makes me want to giggle. There are more schools -- entire schools with thousands of students each -- than the Citizens for Blah Blah has members.

Most of the main players in the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever pulled their kids out of the public schools long ago, this isn't going to affect them. They just can't stand the idea that tens of thousands of students across the state of Maryland are going to take a day to show respect for their friends who happen to be different in an irrelevant way. It just drives them nuts. Oh wait, they were already nuts.

I think TTF parents are talking with their young ones tonight about this. Encourage them. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender kids in their schools face a lot of obstacles. Being gay, being transgender, is not a problem, there's nothing wrong with that, it's dealing with stupid people that makes life hard for them. Show them you support them, print that card out and carry it to school tomorrow. Your teachers will be cool with it.

Friday Is the National Day of Silence

This Friday, the 25th, will be the National Day of Silence. People who choose to participate in this event can download a pdf file to print and cut down to make a card which reads:

Silent for Lawrence King

Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence (DOS), a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT bullying, name-calling and harassment. This year’s DOS is held in memory of Lawrence King, a 15 year-old student who was killed in school because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today.

DAY of SILENCE

What are you going to do to end the Silence?

Download that document HERE for a nice-looking printed card.

It's just a little thing, one day of being quiet. It can't hurt anybody, being quiet, but it can be dramatic.

The website DayOfSilence.org has a page of explanation. I'm cutting out the in-between stuff, but they make these four major points:

1) The Day of Silence’s purpose is to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment and effective responses.

2) Hundreds of thousands of students of all beliefs, backgrounds and sexual orientations participate in the Day of Silence.

3) Day of Silence participants encourage schools to implement proven solutions to address anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment.

4) The day is a positive educational experience.

Not surprisingly, the Agents of Darkness try to exert their forces against this sort of peaceful, positive activity. The Alliance Defense Fund, which is an organization that has joined local agitators in trying to re-legalize discrimination against transgender people in Montgomery County, has a web site for what they call the "Day of Truth," which will be Monday. I don't know what they plan to do, talk I guess. You can buy t-shirts and posters from them.

Isn't it interesting how "those people" use the word truth? I think most of us would consider a truth to be either a proposition about something that has been observed directly or something that has been proven logically. Yet for the ADF-type folks "truth" is an assertion without evidence or support, something you believe on faith. The absence of evidence can even be twisted around to be a kind of proof of this kind of truth -- it is only through faith that you can know truth, you don't find it in material things. For them, a day of "truth" is a day to say bad things about gay people, because they believe there is something wrong with homosexuality, without evidence or logical support; they believe it on faith, therefore it is truth.

Until a few years ago I was one of those people who never gave a thought to issues facing sexual minorities. GLBT, or LGBT, was not an acronym I recognized, it seemed like gay people did a lot of squawking, and I ignored the whole can of worms. But in 2004 a group of radicals tried to remove our county's school board from office, basing their attack on an anti-gay propaganda platform. The schools had just adopted a new sex-ed curriculum that talked about sexual orientation, and these people were going to use that fact to recall the school board and replace it with a panel of nuts like themselves. Some of us were alarmed at this development, and at least for me it was an eye-opener, because in order to fight them I had to listen to their case and examine the evidence for and against it. Their agenda was incredibly ignorant and hateful, every fact was a lie and every conclusion was decided before the logical argument was developed. They opposed gay people and that was that, anything that gave gay folks an equal chance was "pro-homosexual" (to use Peter Sprigg's tired cliche). I had thought gay people were squawking about nothing, because I figured everybody was like me, more or less apathetic about the whole thing, but it turned out there are people -- we heard a politician say this a month or two ago -- who think gay people are worse than terrorists. These idiots make life miserable for some who just want to live and love in peace, and so they have to fight -- they have to squawk -- just to be treated like anybody else.

Even though the school district ended up putting a curriculum into place that talked about sexual orientation, the final product was barely sufficient to introduce the topic, teachers have to read the classes from a script, and the schools still send home anti-gay materials in students' backpacks. It was considered a gigantic breakthrough to allow teachers to tell their classes that homosexuality is not a disease. The new curriculum is an important step forward, but the silence surrounding the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity is enormous, and the Day of Silence is an excellent dramatization of that fact.

If you have a kid in school, the National Day of Silence should be a good opportunity to talk to them about these issues. Print out that card for them. The big point is that gay and transgender people are just people, they deserve the same respect as everyone else. This can be a growing experience for you and your child, and a chance for them to set an example for others.