Once upon a time, Charlene Cothran seemed like a gal you’d want to know. She launched the black lesbian magazine Venus in 1996 from Atlanta, catering to an oft underserved demographic. Then she found Jesus in 2006, and Venus‘ editorial mission suddenly changed — to promote the ex-gay “movement.” She speaks to the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, of the ultra-conservative The Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and joins the ranks spreading disinformation about this gay agenda we keep hearinga bout: Namely, that we want to have the right to strip down in public and have sex. Yes, that is what we’re fighting for, isn’t it?
(And don’t get us started about Cothran accusing the “gay media” of “fabricating” the notion that anyone is born gay.)
(Thanks, Ari!)
Steff
Shut up, dyke?
terrwill
SHUT UP C U NEXT TUESDAY!!!!
Ja
@Steff: I know, the editors (and frequently the posters) of this website are no better than Mario Lavandeira. It’s embarrassing.
Mike
I don’t think Jesus was into conspiracy theories, so why do ex-gays and conservatives think we have an “agenda”, other than oh i dunno Equality, it’s actually a big ol’ conspiracy to turn the world gay and stamp out humanity by disregarding procreation, ’cause that sounds like an awesome goal!!!!
asa1973
It’s sad. It’s a shame. My stomach turns every time I see her or read her comments. How could she hate herself so much, and why is she doing this to a community she once championed?
But why do you have to call her a dyke? All your credibility flies out the window the next time you want to complain about someone using the word “fag.”
Dennis
Honestly, with epidemic gang violence, the drug wars, more young black men in jail than in college, prevalent teen-age single mother pregnancies, and systemic racism still present in many forms in our country…if these morons believe that tolerance, acceptance and compassion for LGBT African-Americans is EVEN IN THE TOP TEN list of things black people ‘need to be worried about’…then their heads are totally up their asses.
Shut up, Dyke is the right tag on this!
Cam
Just another sad pathetic closet case who got partied too much, got dumped, and is bitter and furious at the gay community for not supporting her magazine so she has now decided to take it out on all gay people.
Pathetic.
Cam
@asa1973: You said “But why do you have to call her a dyke? All your credibility flies out the window the next time you want to complain about someone using the word “fag.””
_____________________________________________________________
I assume Queerty is calling her that because there isn’t anything she is more terrified of being called at this stage in her closeted life.
Bobby
There is no such thing as a “ex-gay”. They might pretend they’re not still attracted to the same gender, but let the same gender get them alone for a little while and see how “ex” they are.
This woman is filth as is anyone that thinks they can or tries to speak for God.
They can worship as they please, but the should remember, if they take our rights, theirs ain’t far behind!
DeAnimator
Although I hate this whole ex-gay crap and Charlene Cothran…”shut up, dyke” as a header is stupid. Why don’t you guys ever write “shut up, fag” on your articles about harmful gay men?
Huh
youcanhandlethetruth — – Why are you trolling around gay websites? That’s odd. Also – You worship a BOOK – not God.
duttybarb
Gays dont want to admit they are perverted..thats all. Thank God you’ve seen the light,baby
youcanthandlethetruth
@Huh: There’s no such thing as a “gay website”. Websites are asexual.
This is a website that focuses on homosexual issues.
I’m here to represent an alternative point of view.
And no I don’t worship a book.
Yuki
@youcanthandlethetruth:
“Gay website” meant a site that focuses on homosexual issues, run by gay people. You’re arguing semantics.
Also, I recall reading accounts of “ex-gays” who say that they still have homosexual tendencies but do not act on them. Simply because some people are skeptical of “ex-gays” does not make them bigots.
youcanthandlethetruth
@duttybarb: Have you noticed how the homosexuals get so angry to see one of their former group become rehabilitated?
I suppose they hate to acknowledge these wonderful examples because it proves that homosexuality is not genetic, it is fluid and people can be cured successfully.
Steff
Have you noticed how the homosexuals get so angry to see one of their former group become rehabilitated?
I suppose they hate to acknowledge these wonderful examples because it proves that homosexuality is not genetic, it is fluid and people can be cured successfully.
Alas, no. I’m afraid it’s more that we’re angry at seeing somebody repress their natural condition as a result of the intolerance of crackpots like you.
youcanthandlethetruth
@Steff: So you don’t agree that pedophiles or alcoholics should try to repress their “natural condition” either?
Dennis
@youcanthandlethetruth:
How about you repress your “natural condition” of being a judgemental, brainwashed, holier-than-thou asshole? Is that a condition you can repress, or if ‘God’ just made you that way, then keep it in some fucking born-again evengelical church…where ‘your kind’ belongs. Your churches are usually a cesspool of judgement, damnations, hypocrisy, and barely-repressed longings to be free…I’m sure you’ll feel quite at home there.
And we’ll keep our (fabulous) natural condition among ourselves, and the MILLIONS of open-minded, compassionate straight people who love us.
J5
Wow, gay or straight, drunk or sober, this or that, can we not discourse with just a little love at all times? I’m angry too but I prefer civility when engaging in public discourse.
Take it as you will…
youcanthandlethetruth
@Dennis: Dennis sorry you are such an angry, hate-filled, intolerant, christiophobic bigot.
Remember Step One in the AA 12-step program is to accept that you have a problem. Obviously you have yet to reach step one.
Dennis
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Listening to the idiotic ramblings of brainwashed morons like you (and NuttyBarb) who need relgious dogma as a crutch to believe themselves superior to others, is the only ‘problem’ I have.
Real Christians are busy helping those less fortunate, doing charity work, and spreading a message of love, compassion and tolerance…in alignment with the vast majority of Jesus’ teachings. You are nothing but a pathetic troll, passing away the useless hours of your life spreading bullshit online.
REAL Christins I have tolerance and some respect for…assholes like you…none at all.
youcanthandlethetruth
@Dennis: As you’re a homosexual you probably are something of an expert on assholes.
Sadly your hate-filled rhetoric only reinforces you own intolerance and homosexual bigotry. That is one of your many problems.
Dennis
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Hey Faux Christian, what ‘good works’ have you done to justify your self-proclaimed moral superiority? My ‘hate-filled rhetoric’ is defending the worth and decency of EVERY LGBT person who has been insulted by pieces of holier-than-thou shit like you.
Really, what makes you sooo deserving of salvation and everlasting paradise? Did Jeebus proclaim “and get thee online, and waste hours of the precious life I gave you persecuting the gays…I command you to surf queer sites endlessly…”
And honey, as a gay man, yes, I have known some sweet, beautiful assholes…mmmm. One of the many benefits of God making me gay.
You, however, are a sour asshole (yucky!)…and a fraud, using your supposed faith to do nothing but judge others and spread intolerance.
Said it before and I’ll say it again every time I have the misfortune of seeing one of your iniane ramblings, you’re a fucking, pathetic, joke and a poor excuse for a ‘christian’.
TANK
Why is it ex gays are generally really ugly? More power to them, then! They clean up our image (literally) by living a lie.
youcanthandlethetruth
@Dennis: I suppose it’s understandable that you would be so hateful and combative.
It must be hard to grasp the truth about your sad affliction and do something about it. Must easier just to attack the messenger.
That’s why I admire Charlene Cothran and people like her who are prepared to confront their homosexual choices and so something positive to change it.
Vancouverite
@youcanthandlethetruth: Lies!
You’re here to be abused by gay men, whom you provoke into a name-calling frenzy. And you love it, don’t you?
Naughty little piggy.
Bobby
@Huh:
A-freakin’-men!!
They’d rather worship their Bible than deal with the thought of an actual Being. God to them is nothing but a three letter word for HATE!
RainaWeather
Queerty editors, can we be mature adults, please?
marcelo
“the right to strip down in public and have sex”
Sorry, have you not read article #419 of the Gay Agenda?
That’s the only reason I supported the agenda to begin with!
TADPOLICUS WEX
Duttybarb: I’d call you a c*nt, but you lack the depth and the warmth!
alicia banks
charlene is an amoral capitalist hypochristian lesbian!!!
shame!!!
I remember the first time I heard of Venus Landin. It was well over a decade ago…I was producing and hosting a popular and legendary radio show, Les Chanteuses Africaines, at WRFG in Atlanta, Georgia. I heard of Venus in Atlanta’s vast black lesbian social circles…
Suddenly in 1993, a casual acquaintance became morbid headline news. Venus had been murdered by an ex-lover named Bisa Niambi. This black lesbian murder suicide stunned the city of Atlanta.
Later, Alice Walker made the local shock a global one when she penned a tribute and a special poem to Bisa in the acknowledgements and afterword of her classic book on female genital mutilation entitled Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation & The Sexual Binding of Women. Alice mentioned that Bisa had been a gifted masseuse and a tragic cutter. She mentioned Bisa’s visible wounds of self-mutilation that dulled her pain as she expertly practiced her profession. Alice even reprints Bisa’s business card as a final tribute to her beloved reflexologist.
I was also haunted by the memory of Bisa. This sudden villainess had been a loyal fan who often phoned me in the studio at WRFG. I still think of her when I hear the songs she requested so often. Her voice was always lonely and tortured, even as she strove to sound mellow. Often she would chat briefly and intimately during those late night studio calls. I am a very spiritually sensitive person, protected always by legions of African angels. As Bisa thanked me for soothing her musically, or spoke of the incest that tortured her incessantly, I always felt an inexplicable sense of dread…
I am not a tragic lesbian. I have a wonderful, stable, loving family. I have never been molested. I came out to my entire family at age 22 and they love me unconditionally. I have been uniquely blessed academically and professionally. Yet, I always deeply felt Bisa’s pain.
I was wounded when I heard the inevitable gossip that followed the fatalities. Everyone talked. Most grieved. Some of us grieved for both felled sisters. Even as we whispered about karma, players, consequences, infidelity, emotional abuses, and toxic connections, these two losses left voids in the collective soul of our black lesbian and gay Atlantan community.
Then, I had my own incident with Venus’s friend, Charlene Cothran. At that time, she was a leader of a lesbian events organization known as Hospitality Atlanta. They were hosting their first annual “Women of Color Business Expo”. Curiously, they chose to request an interview at WRFG, on a reggae show hosted by a heterosexual, Rastafarian, female host named Afrikiti Kishi. Clandestinely, those members interviewed led Afrikiti to believe that they were not a lesbian organization.
After the show, typically rabid gaybashing Jamaicans went berserk. I was implicated by association as an openly gay member of the WRFG staff, who was strangely never contacted to arrange an interview. I was also obligated, as Afrikiti’s professional peer within a revered group of afrocentric radio rebels, known as Radio Free Griots, to defend a sister host.
Afrikiti and I respected each other as fellow afrocentric radio warriors then. That mutual respect put me in the precarious position of ethically aiding a heterosexual sister, by defending an unethical act against her by lesbians, in order to appease the unethical hatreds of rabid gay hating rastas. It was one of the most difficult and painful moments of my colorful life in Atlanta’s radio scene from 1986 until 1996.
I allowed Afrikiti to address this deception on my show and clear her name with her gaybashing fans. Ironically and sadly, years later, I would resign with rage from the Radio Free Griots at WRFG, in the throes of a public war about homosexuality and their own constant gay bashing. My departure and our battles would garner personal bodyguards and national media attention. I won that war… (Read: “Psuedo-Afrocentrics” herein.)
I went on to host Outlook at WIGO and appear frequently at WGST. I launched my website and column database, Eloquent Fury, online in 1992. Later, I relocated to Oakland, California where I produced and hosted Les Chanteuses Africaines at KPFA, KPFB, and KFCF… But, I will miss WRFG and the Radio Free Griots eternally, especially Afrikiti…
When Charlene relocated to Hamilton, New Jersey to begin a magazine dedicated to Venus, I sincerely wished her well. And, from a distance I watched that same entrepreneurial drive that fueled the foul incident at WRFG help make Venus magazine a great success. Until today, I was very proud of Charlene.
Now, I read that Charlene is no longer a lesbian and that Venus magazine will become a publication dedicated expressly to reformed homosexuals/“ex-gays.” Is this not a second brutal murder of the memory of the beloved lesbian Venus Landin? Is there any better way to buck dance on a grave? What better way to make a buck these days than by profiting from racist white neocon pimps of black preacher whores who would consider such a rag a literal literary godsend? Can’t you envision cover stories by T. D. Jakes and Jesse Jackson right now?
For the record, sex is not sexuality. Lots of curious, lonely, amoral, whorish, heterosexuals engage in homosexual sex daily. Some are porno stars or prostitutes. Some are just sick and tired of being abused by heterosexuals. Some are bored and bi-curious. Many of these persons pose as serial lesbians when they are truly sinister bisexuals. Many are selfish and abusive down low cowards who are completely homosexual and merely pose as bisexuals (Read: “The Low Down on the Down Low” herein).
Sexuality is never a choice. Consensual sex is always a choice. Sexuality is a complex emotional identity. Sex is a simple physical act. The “ex-gay” myths that Venus magazine will now tout only add more confusion to these chaotic sexual frays. It encourages people to make impossible choices. It validates similarly fake choices already made by deceitful others.
Every “ex-gay” who was truly gay is still gay. They may never have gay sex again. But, they will always be gay. One can die a virgin and be a biological homosexual. (Read: “Open Letter to Homeless Homosexuals” herein). Virtually every phony “ex-gay” always returns to gay sex and usually gets busted doing so. So, let us count the days until Charlene is caught creeping back to lesbian sex…
It is not necessary to demonize all gays to behave bisexually. Alice Walker did not bash ex-lover Tracy Chapman or all gays when she resumed a heterosexual love. Prince did not bash gays when he stopped tongue kissing Brown Mark on stage. Diana Ross and Cindy Birdsong did not bash gays when their lesbian affair was outed? So, why then does Charlene feel the need to bash and betray all gays as she optimistically hunts for a new man?!? Such gross excess drama usually signals deceit.
I never judge anyone by sexuality, race, or class. I will always judge everyone exclusively by their actions. As aforementioned, I have seen Charlene in entrepreneurial action before. She has now taken being unethical to a cosmic level. She has ruthlessly betrayed her readers. But, more importantly she has shockingly and brutally betrayed her friend Venus.
There is absolutely nothing godly about most religions and most religious people. Charlene’s latest act demonstrates that expertly. The only thing more loathsome than self-hatred is hating those who love you. Nothing could be more hateful to the readers who loved this magazine than to bastardize it, by grotesquely morphing it into a rag dedicated to the sheer fantasy of “ex-gays.”
Adding insult to injury, Charlene is daring to leave the name of a revered late lesbian at the magazine’s masthead. Even when she cannot love her lesbian self, Charlene has a duty to love those who loved her magazine and who love Venus. Keeping Venus’s name upon an “ex-gay” magazine is akin to owning a magazine that celebrates O. J. Simpson and naming it Malcolm X. It is like devoting a magazine to afrocentrism and naming it Michael Jackson. It is like dedicating a magazine to Nazis and calling it Africa. It is like dedicating a magazine to poverty and naming it Oprah. It is like dedicating a magazine to legitimate musical talent and naming it P-Diddy. It is like dedicating a magazine to feminism and calling it Eminem. It is like dedicating a magazine to gun control and calling it DMX…
God creates homosexuals in every living species. We proud out homosexuals are precisely who we are born to be (Read: “The Science of Sexuality” herein). Charlene has the human right to live an ungodly lie. But, Venus died a lesbian, not a liar. An ethical person would kill the magazine and start anew with a new name more befitting a blasphemous, neocon-in-blackface, fantasy rag. Charlene has chosen to kill her legacy with gay readers and the memory of her dead lesbian friend Venus instead.
Charlene’s sudden insanity has been created by some evil preachers who have convinced her that God hates gays as much as they do. God loves all of us just as we are. We are the homosexuals that God created us to be (Read: “Top 10 Gaybashing Myths About The Bible” herein).
God is love. Gaybashers pretend that gays do not love each other. Gaybashers never even mention gay love. They are singularly and pornographically obsessed with gay sex. Now, as all neocon rags, Venus magazine will profit immensely by exclusively condemning gay sex. It will ignore gay love. Fortunately, the universal love of God is never so brazenly selective or amorally capitalist.
We live in an evil world. We need no more rabidly capitalist liars within it. It is filled with evil preacher pimps, who bash gays daily for passion and profit. Charlene has joined their mindlessly masochistic evil flocks. Her mangled magazine is her first official tithing to her new congregations. Her confused soul is the greatest debt paid. This entire ugly saga is further solid evidence that black gaybashers are indeed the most hateful of all.
Now, let the doors of the church say Amen…
Dear Venus and Bisa: May you both rest in peace…regardless…AB
alicia banks
there are NO ex-gays!
they are all only celibate gays/fake hets
shame!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/06gay.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper
bs19
@youcanthandlethetruth:
its not a cure you idiot!!!!!!!
the people in these organizations tell them that theyre still gonna have those feelings and they teach them how to deny them.
they dont cure them. they even aknowledge that it cant be cured.
youcanthandlethetruth
@bs19: I agree for some people rehabilitation from homosexuality is very similar to a recovering alcoholic or drug addict. You might never recover you just stay sober for one more day at a time.
However plenty of other people make a complete recovery and rue the day they ever chose the homosexual lifestyle.
[email protected]
blogging is a lifestyle
sex is an act
sexuality is an emotional ID
there is never a cure
get over that
http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/on-betraying-venus-landin-charlene-cothran-is-buckdancing-oin-her-grave.html
http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/the-science-of-sexuality.html
[email protected]
robert:
this is not your blog
you will never ever control my blogging here or anywhere else
tip:
fret over something you can control
like refusing to keep masochistically and suicidally tithing to gaybashing black preachers who hate you but not your gay tithes
perhaps?
or defending black holy hypochristians and the buybull they use to lynch you worse than any white kkk member?
http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/video/6a0123ddb39306860b0123ddb69f27860b.html
http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2009/11/watch-donnie-mcclurkin-rants-against-tonex-homosexuality-and-gay-youth-at-cogic.html
http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/donnie-mcclurkin-homohating-homosexual-hypochristian.html
[email protected]
no one chooses their sexuality
one can die an 80 year old virgin nun and STILL die a lesbian
only bigoted clueless fools deny that homosexuality is 100% natural for homos in EVERY living species
http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/the-science-of-sexuality.html
CantdenytheTruth
There does seem to be a lot of rage on the “gay side.”
Yes, I am a Christian. And yes, I think homosexuality is wrong, and by wrong I mean contrary to what God wants for any of His creation. But even if I wasn’t and I didn’t, I’d at least ask myself a couple of questions to see where I fit in in the world (in fact, I did go through these questions, and do on a daily basis):
1. Do I believe there is a God (or, for some people have I gone through the process of trying to figure out if there is a God)?
2. If I come to the conclusion that there is (may be, possible there is, etc.) a God, do I believe it’s at least *possible* there is *something,* *anything* in my life that I want to do but He would not want me to do?
Right now, I’ll start by addressing gays who believe there probably is a God or those who believe there is a God. To those people I say – be honest – much of the anger is pride because for some reason you can’t accept that an all-powerful being could ever *possibly* be unhappy with something you are doing. That will never make sense to me. Again, just addressing (for now) the people who believe there probably is a God. If you believe there is probably a God, you have got to accept there may be things that He knows that you don’t, and there are things He wants you to do and things He doesn’t want you to do, for His own good reasons you are incapable of understanding, and that these things He wants and expects are contrary to what you want for yourself.
Those who say “yeah, there’s probably a God, but I’m sure being gay is okay because I feel like it just has to be okay” is foolishness and pride. The Bible in its entirety is about submission to God’s will instead of our own will, trusting what He says instead of what we believe based on our feelings, and loving enough to follow His commands. When you love someone with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, you don’t pick and choose what you will do for them. Even if it’s not what you would want to do. Anyway, you can all fool yourselves, but Charlene knows that now.
leonard hall
Oh My God!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am so sorry. But i really am tired of you guys!!!!!!! why do you have to rub your dykeishness in my face ! ?.i am straight and i dont watn to know about my straight friends sex ives !!
it grosses me out to see same sex couples groping each other in public…….and it aint that much better to see a strait couple doing the same.your private life could and should be PRIVATE !!!!!! as in dont inflict it on me ! Please please please.why is it politically incorrect for me go be not a gay lover ? if i dont oppress them why should i be opressed for bing normal ?jeeeze why even make a big publicdeal about your queerness ?I DONT GIVE AS SHIT !!Or i wouldnt if you would just enjoy your wierdness and not make me have to be an unwilling observer.keep your shit to yourself as for it being natural it aint!!!!.