Earlier this week the United States of America took a giant step forward, bring them closer to truly having equal rights for all men and women. A small minority, after years of long, hard political battling, finally saw there dreams realized and accomplished more for their people then any other time in their history.
Looking back through the eras its hard not to think of other civil rights movements that came before them and those leaders, immortalized forever by their actions, and the collective struggle of their people.
Names like Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X for their contributions to the American black communities struggle for equality, Oscar Zeta Acosta and his role in the Chicano movement (circumstances of his mysterious, supposed death not withstanding), and Harvey Milk with all his work for the gay community, will have to make some room on the shelve of great historical repute and eminence, because Greg Quinlan and his legion of reformed christian ex-cock suckers are moving on up.
Greg is, of course, the director of PFOX, the Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays. An organization built around an acronym that makes no sense and the christian fundi belief that enough prayer, therapy, and good old fashion 1950's style guilt can "cure" the affliction and simply chase the devil out of the sinner.
They won't say from which hole exactly Satan escapes from, but its probably a pretty painful experience.
Idiotic ideology aside, with the pounding of the gavel a District of Columbia court has declaired ex-gays, or former homosexuals, a totally legitimate, not made up, sexual orientation, and therefor are covered under the D.C. Human Rights Act and there for protected against discrimination.
I support protection of any group of people. A hate crime can be committed against any member of any race, religion, or sexuality, and there should be law protecting everybody, even the crazy, confused, desperately trying to repair the closet door, "former" homosexuals.
What actually makes an organization like this so dangerous is the effect this philosophy can have during a persons coming out process, especially if they are young. While struggling to accept the reality they are facing, a lot of people, usually men, go through a denial process. They attempt reason with their desires, believing maybe its possible to consciously will heterophila onto themselves.
PFOX and its ilk display misinformation and studies by strictly homo-negitive physicians and the conjecture of religious leaders as unbiased fact. It can all play on a pubescent teenager's already confused mind and create an unrealistic exception of controlling thoughts and feeling at a point in sexual development that no one has control of any aspect of their sexuality.
For a religious person, when the "treatment" inevitably fails, the individual has not only let themselves down, they have failed their god, possibly creating a deeper feeling of isolation from their community and could result in self labelling as a freak, or an abomination, if you read Leviticus that is.
Continually it also can also delay, or possibly halt the parents and relatives of a queer person's, acceptance of their loved ones homosexuality. Placing more strain on an already difficult experience.
The ironic part of the whole recent court fiasco is that Greg Quinlan, and his merry men, actually lost the complaint they filed, accusing the National Education Association, of discrimination for not allowing them to set up a booth at the NEA's annual Expo in 2002.
They waited three years to file the complaint.
The final decision came down against PFOX, because they weren't denied a booth because they were ex-gays, they were denied a booth because they're anti-gay. Still the organization regards the ruling that they could be discriminated against legally as a victory.
Following their lead, I will continue rue their existence, but view the fact that I live in a different country then these people as a victory.
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