6 Ways Religious Frauds Try to Make Gays and Lesbians Straight | | AlterNet

6 Ways Religious Frauds Try to Make Gays and Lesbians Straight | | AlterNet:

1. Rubber-band therapy
2. Healing touch therapy
3. Beat your mom to death -- with a tennis racket
4. Get face-to-face and crotch-to-crotch
5. Subliminal messages
6. Shock therapy and ... torture

Make no mistake: every major, reputable professional psychological and medical association has stated that not only is there no evidence supporting the possibility of changing somebody’s sexual orientation, but that such programs harm those involved; depression and suicide are all-too-common in the ex-gay world.

i just finished reading the article again and all i can say is that it made me physically nauseous...especially the 6th method, shock and torture (emphasis added to highlight the "christian" barbarism of it all):

Last year, the Kansas State Collegian printed the tragic story of “Thomas Swanson,” who recounted how his father tried to "beat the gay out of him" before handing his son over to a conversion therapist. During therapy sessions, the counselor told Swanson he already had AIDS and was going to die. But after several sessions, the counselor moved to aversion therapy methods:

After he was seated, each of his hands was strapped to the arm of the chair and softball-size ice blocks were placed in each palm. Then photos of men touching appeared on the screen. At times a heterosexual couple was shown, and the ice was removed. The ice was left on his palms, causing freezing pain, as many photos of homosexual men were shown.

But the ice therapy didn’t eliminate the same-sex attractions. So, his counselor upped the intensity:

Swanson was again strapped to the chair by his hands. Again photos were shown, but this time, there was a level of intimacy that had lacked in the previous sessions.

The men were embracing or perhaps kissing on the cheek and Swanson received intense amounts of heat transferred through gel pads applied to his hands.

“Now it was the burn sensation,” Swanson said. “I still had, for a few years, a huge pink mark across my hand because it would literally burn your skin.”

Of course, the ice and heat didn’t work. The next step was electricity:

“Very very thin needles were inserted into my fingers, on all 10 fingers, still strapped down, and then the rest of my body was strapped down because they knew what was going to happen,” Swanson said.

As the man turned on the electricity, the pain was so horrible, Swanson still cannot understand why his mother sat in the lobby and did not race to rescue him as he screamed.....

“Electricity was excruciating,” Swanson said with a look of intensity. “I have no way of describing to people how hard I screamed; it was excruciating pain. The pain was horrible, I would lose bowel control, consciousness, mental capacity, so many things with the electricity.”

thanks, "mom" (not MY mother, thank GOD!!!). how sick must a parent be to allow such heinous torture to be inflicted on a child and not intervene? in CHRIST'S NAME? I. DON'T. THINK. SO.

now, if you'll excuse me i need a shower...that is if i can find the brillo pads and bleach to wash the hatred off of me.

epic battles throughout history:

David vs. Goliath
Tezcatlipoca vs. Quetzalcoatl
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Mothra
Ali vs. Foreman, Frazier, Liston, Holmes, Marciano...

and now, the epic to end all epics: BOIES vs. Perkins

shorter version:

The Anti-Defamation League's Ground Zero Mosque Hypocrisy - The Daily Beast

The Anti-Defamation League's Ground Zero Mosque Hypocrisy - The Daily Beast

The ADL calls itself “the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency.” Coming from an explicitly Jewish organization, that’s an audacious claim. But it’s an inspiring one, too. The ADL was born in 1913, after a Georgia jury falsely convicted a Jewish factory owner named Leo Frank of murdering a Christian employee. The men who defamed, and later lynched, Frank were anti-Semites. But they were not only anti-Semites. Three months after Frank’s murder, some of his tormenters met on Georgia’s Stone Mountain to refound the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that would now dedicate itself not merely to terrorizing African-Americans, but to terrorizing Catholics and Jews as well.

What if white victims of African-American crime protested the building of a black church in their neighborhood? Or gentile victims of Bernie Madoff protested the building of a synagogue?

Against this backdrop, the founders of the ADL made their organization a kind of mirror image of the Klan. If the Klan saw anti-Semitism as one component of the struggle to maintain white, Protestant supremacy, the ADL would make its opposition to anti-Semitism one component of the struggle against white, Protestant supremacy. If bigotry was indivisible, anti-bigotry would be indivisible too. “The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people,” declared the ADL’s charter. “Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”

this story is as long as the nose on breitbat-nocchio

Big Falsehoods: An updated guide to Andrew Breitbart's lies, smears, and distortions

Big Falsehoods: An updated guide to Andrew Breitbart's lies, smears, and distortions | Media Matters for America

i've been remiss...

(and no, that's not a new drag name).

husbear and i have been in the living hell known as a remodel of the love shack on cinder blocks.

ok, enough "don't cry for me blogentina"...what motivated me to post today was a BLISTERING (in a hella-good way) post from John Aravosis over at AMERICAblog.gay in response to Andrew Tobias ("aunt tomasina", h/t commenter "fritzrth")

i won't excerpt it here, you must go HERE and read the full delicious (and well-deserved) beyotch slap response to "tomasina" tobias (oh, fritzrth, you bring out the claws in me).

what i will post in full is this most excellent comment from GRIDLOCK (my new blog-commenter mancrush), who said:

Jesus, what a basketful of fail. Not a nice basket either.. one of those cheap dollar store easter kinds with the bits of plastic sticking out and that weird chemical smell.

Where to start?

I don't want to see Nancy Pelosi have to hand her gavel to John Boehner, or Barney Frank have to hand his to the gentleman from Alabama. I expect your readers don't, either.

I don't give a rat's ass what you want to see or not. If they have to hand their gavels over because they suck at their jobs, then too fucking bad. Listen closely Tobias: We do not care anymore if the GOP wins if the Dems are just as bad as they are. Get it? Party loyalty is fucking OVER. It's done. It's passé. People want and care about RESULTS, they do NOT care if the person has an R or a D beside their name because that crap is interchangeable.

Merely voting for someone, who has done and continues to do nothing for us, simply because they have a specific letter beside their name has gone the way of the dinosaurs. If you are unaware of this, perhaps you better consign yourself to the dustbin of history right alongside because you're just as outmoded and useless.

So even as we push for our rights - as we absolutely should - I'd urge John and others not to demonize our allies and, in so doing, discourage our community from acting in its own self-interest by failing to fight like mad to keep the right wing from gaining more power.

Demonize our allies? What allies are those, exactly? The same allies who demonize US in court, defending the indefensible DADT and DOMA even though they are NOT required to do so? Demonizing us with hideous language equating our relationships to incestuous pedophiles? Demonizing us by saying we are not deserving of full citizenship? Tobias, you giant squishy pantload, allies actually HELP YOU. They push for you. They accomplish things for you. They don't merely mouth platitudes and then turn their backs on you in your hour of need.

The Dems have done that for DECADES, Tobias. We have given our money, time, votes, blood, sweat, and many many tears and what the fuck have we gotten in return? Absolutely nothing but a knife in the back and our bodies thrown under the bus.

Right now, the Dems are just as bad as the GOP. See, you're again showing how much of an obsolete dinosaur you are.. you're still stuck on this "My team good even though they don't do anything for me, their team bad" mentality. You're an airheaded cheerleader hoping the captain of the football team marries you, but the most he's gonna do is fuck you in the back of a Camaro and then dump your pregnant ass on the curb.


And if we don't form TOO tight a circular firing squad, we will make a lot more.

How about this, Tobias:

We'll make headway on LGBT rights when the Democrats actually stand for something, grow a spine,push for legislation and don't view us as a moneypot, locked in voting demographic, or LIABILITY after the election.

Got it?

that's not just going to leave a mark...methinks it will leave a SCAR. good.

in closing, gridlock, you are SO lucky i'm a "stand by my man" kinda man!

I AM a social justice Christian, too.

the WH easter egg roll is SO GAY:

is this to become an annual event? trot out the gay couple at the whitehouse easter egg roll to show what a "fierce advocate" we have? puhleeze.

invitations are nice and everything, but it's time to get to work on those promises you made to end DADT, DOMA and ENDA.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/gay-family-at-center-of-f_n_525420.html

this a$$ rocket would have already been discharged...

...if he was gay...BUT, the current commander-in-chief is more scared of us queers than the birthers. how sad is that.

Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, an Army physician, has refused to obey any orders from his commanding officers -- including President Obama -- until Obama produces his birth certificate.

Rachel Maddow, FTW!!!

one of THE most delicious moments in television. EVAR:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

take the tea party pledge! it's fun. inspiring. it's, well, better than cats!

Print the pledge and ask all your teabagger/libertarian friends and family to sign it! (cribbed from facebook)

Tea Party Anti-Socialism Pledge.

The Teabagger Socialist-Free Purity Pledge

I, ________________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I will forswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also.

I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

• Social Security

• Medicare/Medicaid

• State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)

• Police, Fire, and Emergency Services

• US Postal Service

• Roads and Highways

• Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)

• The US Railway System

• Public Subways and Metro Systems

• Public Bus and Light Rail Systems

• Rest Areas on Highways (liberaldemdave's note: republican members of Congress exempt from this exemption...*wink wink, nudge nudge*)
  

• Sidewalks

• All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 Federal Senate Appropriations-- http://grassley.senate.gov/issues/upload/Master-Approps-73109.pdf)

• Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)

• Public and State Universities and Colleges

• Public Primary and Secondary Schools

• Sesame Street

• Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children

• Public Museums

• Libraries

• Public Parks and Beaches

• State and National Parks

• Public Zoos

• Unemployment Insurance

• Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services

• Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)

• Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)

• Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)

• Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking

• Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies

• Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

• If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forgo my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

• I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:

• Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History

• The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments

• The government-operated Statue of Liberty

• The Grand Canyon

• The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials

• The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery

• All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

• I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forgo their government salary and government-provided health care

• I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America

• I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

• I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

• Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

• Upon reaching age 65, I will forgo Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF ____________ IN THE YEAR ______________.

it must really s*ck to be a republican right now...

schadenfreude abounds from today's headlines:

http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/29/high-flyer-rnc-chairman-steele-suggested-buying-private-jet-with-gop-funds/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/washington-watchdog-veter_n_517096.html

a whole BAG FULL of wingnuttery over the census:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/2010-census-officials-wor_n_516847.html

OH, NOES!!! ACORN!!!!11!!!



http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_616954.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/18/bachmann-acorn-might-go-door-to-door-for-us-census/

OMG!!! the UN is gonna round us all up using the census' GPS information!!!

http://www.americandailyreview.com/science-technology/2009/4/27/big-brother-gps-doorway-census.html

if the UN doesn't getcha, one of our military drones will drop a missile on you!!!

http://www.infowars.com/census-gps-a-missile-at-your-door/

MICHELLE MALKIN says THE ILLEGALS are gonna get us because obama wants to count 'em!!!

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/03/obama-census-no-illegal-alien-left-behind/

(re: census...bachmann the nut...on FAUX SPEWS, no less!!!)



UPDATE:
how dare those uppity negroes call c-span on the * gasp * REPUBLICAN line!!!

glenn beck makes Jesus weep.

"I'm begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

full outrage HERE.

seriously, glenn, that's like saying "if your church web site says 'JESUS', or 'Christian principals', run!"

NOTE: all that "social justice" stuff he's railing about? READ THE BEATITUDES.

IOKIYAR: you tell 'em, rachel!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

myths being used to support dadt...

...ok, let's stop parsing semantics. they're not myths, they are out-and-out blatant, unmitigated, deceitful, homophobic, bigoted, narrow-minded f'ing LIES. (there, i feel somewhat better)

from MediaMatters.org via AmericaBLOG Gay:

MYTH: Don't Ask, Don't Tell is working

MYTH: Repeal would undermine morale and unit cohesion

MYTH: Military experts oppose the repeal of DADT

MYTH: The public does not support repeal of DADT

MYTH: Right-wing attacks on DADT repeal are not anti-gay

MYTH: DADT repeal would adversely affect retention

MYTH: Experience of other nations aren't relevant because "nobody counts on" their armies

MYTH: Only progressives support the repeal of DADT

MYTH: DADT repeal would expose servicemembers to greater HIV risk

rick "man on dog" santorum on DADT

"My thoughts are this," he said, in a morning speech before Conservative Political Action Conference. "The military is there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to protect and defend the United States of America.

"We have a volunteer army," he added. "They can un-volunteer too."

yes, you miserable POS, they CAN UNvolunteer! don't wanna serve with a patriotic, freedom loving homo? DON'T RE-UP!

what a douche-mook.

note to O: dude, sorry but you're a day late and a dollar short.

read the whole steaming pile of hypocrisy HERE:
(emphasis added)

In a sharp turnaround, the administration on Thursday announced a new proposal to place limits on the size of banks and prohibitions on their commercial activities. It's an idea that one senior White House official said President Obama began considering "a couple of months ago." But the timing of the rollout, coming one day after what the White acknowledged was a "wake up call" wasn't a coincidence.

The reality of angry voters turning against them, as embodied by the election of Republic Scott Brown to the Senate seat in Massachusetts, is having a profound effect on Democratic leaders. Officials now recognize that the party appears far too aligned with financial industry bailouts and special-interest dealmaking, and that if the electoral bloodletting is to end, more distance is needed from Wall Street.

barack obama: champion of "separate but equal"

from MoDo's washington post editorial, "the trials of gavin newsome"...
emphasis added:

“Oh, I can’t get in trouble here,” Newsom said with a playful wince. “I want him to succeed. But I am very upset by what he’s not done in terms of rights of gays and lesbians. I understand it tactically in a campaign, but at this point I don’t know. There is some belief that he actually doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage. But it’s fundamentally inexcusable for a member of the Democratic Party to stand on the principle that separate is now equal, but only on the basis of sexual orientation. We’ve always fought for the rights of minorities and against the whims of majorities.”

ironic, isn't it? the "change agent/fierce advocate" has embraced "separate but equal"...and the obamabots STILL proclaim he's a "progressive". ok, "progressive" compared to WHAT, exactly?

so terribly sad...those poor prop h8 folks are afraid of "teh mean gayz"

give me a MF'ing break, people. FEAR is never knowing if someone will accept you. FEAR is being confronted by a gang of angry homophobes with baseball bats. FEAR is trying to decide the best way to commit suicide because your family has rejected you. FEAR is being a homeless teenager that has to sell his/her body for food because their parents no longer love them.

FEAR is NOT being concerned that your bigotry and hatred is going to be exposed for the world to see in a court of law.

this is the best place to follow the daily developments of the prop h8 case: http://prop8trialtracker.com/

this is what prompted the above rant:
(emphasis added)

Yesterday, during the cross examination of plaintiff’s expert Michael Lamb, defense attorney David Thompson had Lamb comment on studies by two “experts” that the plaintiff had planned to call during the trial. It seems now that the two “experts” were, according to Prop 8 counsel Andy Pugno, “fearful of retribution” if they were to testify. Apparently the mere suggestion that their evidence would be videotaped shocked them into submission. Nothing like confidence in your own work, for you there. Anyway, that’s Pugno’s story anyway. The real story, as is so often the case with Pugno, is actually far different.

“The experts they withdrew were ones that [gave deposition statements] that simply disagree with their thesis,” said Boies. He said plaintiffs would introduce evidence later to show that the defense’s own experts have “admitted that they did not have a basis for believing that same-sex marriages would harm heterosexual marriages and no reason for depriving gay and lesbian couples marriage [and doing so is] depriving gay and lesbian couples harm. They admit that,” said Boies, “and it guts the case of defendants.”(Keen News Service 1/15/2010)

required reading from AMERICAblog Gay

do yourself a favor...go read this VERY insightful piece by John Aravosis.

http://gay.americablog.com/2010/01/president-obama-continues-to-disregard.html

Today's NYT notes that not only does the Obama administration continue to disregard laws that it finds objectionable, but it's doing so in a manner that's even less transparent than what George Bush did, and for which Bush was routinely castigated by, among others, candidate Obama.

At the same time, the Obama administration, and its apologists in Congress (Frank, Baldwin, Polis) and the Democratic Party (Tobias), have the temerity to lecture the gay community on how the President simply couldn't put a temporary stop to the two-a-day discharges of gay service members, couldn't provide federal employees with health benefits for their family members, couldn't permit the foreign partners of gay Americans to enter and stay in the United States, couldn't even argue against DOMA and DADT in a court of law - all because we simply must respect the rule of law, to hell with how 'wrong' we think that law is.

ummm, SET to break that promise???

hypocrisy emphasized below:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs raised eyebrows in the briefing room on Tuesday when he said that the president does not regret his campaign pledge to allow health care negotiations to be televised -- even as the administration is set to break that promise.

Gibbs told reporters on Tuesday that he had "not seen" (and therefore wouldn't comment on) a letter from CSPAN's CEO Brian Lamb asking congressional leaders to "open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage."

"SET to break that promise"??? srsly, WTF. do gibbs and fierce advocate think the entire american populace is retarded?!?

i wanted to see the BACK DOOR DEAL MAKING between the WH (obama) and the drug lobby...ON C-SPAN

i wanted to see the PUBLIC OPTION ARM TWISTING between the WH and progressives...ON C-SPAN

i wanted to see the GANG OF SIX HEALTH CARE MASTURBATION-FEST (oh, they called it "negotiations"...my bad)...ON C-SPAN

ok, that's just the tip of the iceberg of what I WANTED TO SEE...ON C-SPAN.

i have absolutely ZERO confidence that fierce advocate will live up to YET ANOTHER campaign promise.

full, rage inducing, article can be found HERE.

icanhazhowarddeanprimaryin2012?

kthxbai.