Hundreds of Sacramento-area students rallied to support four students suspended for wearing anti-gay shirts. One participant said: "It's only going to get worse against Christians. We're going to get persecuted more and more. But those who stand to the end: God is going to save them." Um, right...
Sony's banking on Spider Man 3. Literally. Some insiders claim the flick cost $300 million to produce. No doubt, however, it'll make it back. And then some.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will honor Nepal's Blue Diamond Society for all their hard activist work. Unfortunately, they will not be honored with actual blue diamonds.
We've never quite understood Kate Moss and Pete Doherty's relationship. Now we do. And they're kind of cute. Still total nutters, but cute...
The fuzz may have been investigating theft at Atlanta's airport, but they found a bunch of horny gay men, instead. Now they're looking for more.
Regional lawyers have ruled that Latvia's City Council acted unjustly in barring last year's gay pride parade. Hoorah!
Maryland's House has passed a bill requiring health insurance companies to extend benefits to same-sex partners and children. The bill now needs to be signed by the governor to become a law. (We totally just had a School House Rock flashback.)
GLAAD's celebrating the tenth anniversary of Ellen Degeneres' coming out with a month full of flag-waving faggotry.
Sri Lanka may forbid homosexuality, but that's not stopping gay activists from planning a pride event. Trouble is, they don't have any money. Do you?
In an effort to make a more single friendly album, Madonna has joined forces with Justin Timberlake and uber-producer Timbaland. If they can't help her sales, no one can...
The House Judiciary Committee isn't fucking around with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They've just issued a subpoena for more documents regarding the allegedly illegal firing of federal prosecutors. Nail him to the wall, kids!
New York has agreed to extend benefits to employee's same-sex partners. About fucking time, no?
Mario Vasquez still claims he's not gay. But, of course, the interview took place before that whole sexual harassment lawsuit, so who knows...
Don Imus may have called them "nappy-headed hos", but the Rutgers Women's basketball team has agreed to have a little sit-down. We hope they give it to him good.
Robbie Williams may have ditched Take That! to embrace his bad boy image, but some are saying the recently rehabbed singer's mulling a musical reunion. Um, is that supposed to be a career booster or a death rattle?
21-year old Akino George has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the beating of gay singer, Kevin Aviance. Like his violent cohorts, George copped a plea. Smart fucker...




Tanya Erzen's new book Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement is already on our reading list, where it's lingered for a few weeks as we struggle to complete the half dozen beach reads we've got going. An exploration of the "ex-gay" movement, the book was the culmination of Erzen's dissertation work, where she immersed herself in the ex-gay camp. Most of are quick to identify the theory that gays can be "cured" as a totem of a conservative right-wing agenda — the same way our efforts to legalize gay marriage are part of the GLBT community's "liberal gay agenda." But after 18 months of interviewing those who underwent reparative therapy and and working alongside those who administer it, Erzen walked away with a much broader understanding of the movement — including how a vast number of the movement's advocates fail to identify at all with the Christian right. But to even get to the part where she put pen to paper, Erzen first had to disavow any preconceived notions.
Erzen wasn't interested in collecting fodder for political battles, though, and that's what makes "Straight to Jesus" so enlightening. As an ethnographer, she made every effort to listen to and understand everyone at New Hope Ministry, whether or not she agreed with their beliefs (and it's fairly clear that most of the time she didn't). That's practically unheard of in most popular discussions of charged issues like homosexuality -- and rare in scholarly discussions, either. Nowadays, everyone's convinced that they already know everything the other side has to say and that actually having to listen to it would constitute an insupportable demand on their own patience. Everyone thinks their side of the argument never gets any exposure, yet rabid, ranting opinion of all varieties howls at us everywhere we turn.
Are we ready to accept and rationalize the ex-gay movement? Not exactly. The struggle of some individuals to fight their biology is certainly worth discussing, however. But Erzen's book certainly did give us a new perspective on reparative therapy's ties to religion: It was only recently, in the mid-90s, did the Christian right begin "embracing" ex-gays — and that was only to use them as evidence in their anti-gay proclamations. And further, just because you're an ex-gay supporter or "success story" doesn't mean you disparage the gay community, are anti-gay marriage, or even believe you're truly heterosexual.
Gay, godly and guilty [Salon]
Straight to Jesus : Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement [Amazon]