Exodus VP Randy Thomas once wrote a letter dismissing the gay agenda. We gays weren’t plotting, he said. No, it was something far more sinister: “What I do believe is that in the spiritual realm, there are demonic spirits who have an evil agenda of destruction and hate, and they are the ones deceiving and manipulating both gays and straights to achieve their agenda.” Oh, God, no! [XGW]
Exorcism
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
kevin57
These people sound more and more desperate for someone to care about what they’re saying…It’s a sign of how weak they know they are with the public. Oh, their ‘choir members’ will continue to sing the song, but they scared shitless that in the next round of elections the “gay agenda” will not move the voters. We’re winning, boys!
PalePhoenix
Great. So, now I’m not even responsible for my anti reparative/conversion therapy efforts, it’s extracorporeal entities from some ambiguous locale beneath the lithosphere? Oh, that’s rich.
They’re really scraping the bottom of their own barrel with that one. All humans = nothing but meatpuppets for Good ‘n’ Evil. I must say, it’s a lot easier to live that way, rescinding the illusion of free will that gods use to trick us into compliance, and leaving their mouthpieces to dictate the exact scope of our daily suffering. Yes, I want to be miserable and misguided, just like they are. Then we can BOND.
BTW, has anyone heard of Evergreen, the Mormon equivalent to Exodus? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find one of these groups for every faith on the planet.
Dave Rattigan
Whacky demon talk aside, I think what Randy was trying to say (a few years ago now) was that hate and destruction from anyone, whether gay or straight, was the problem with the world. Sad that in the intervening years he’s become part of the problem.
Michael
People. Crazy.
christian
Damn’t. I hate when turncoats tell on us like that. I said the very same thing to Satan this morning at our weekly planning session, just before I ran off to hand out candy to all of the cute boys on the playground (just the vulnerable ones, of course).
Oh well, time to go to the Cub Scouts meeting and then it’s off to the Y where I’ll be teaching swim class for the for all those fatherless boys!
Sooni Davis
Actress to Record Public Service Announcements Against Cyberbullying
2008-03-11 09:07:41 – Well-known television and film star Amy Sedaris to speak out against America’s fastest growing form of mental abuse in recorded radio, television appearances in 2008
New York, New York (PR-INSIDE) March 11, 2008 – New York-based entertainment personality Amy Sedaris, the well-known actress and comedienne and author of the New York Times best-selling cookbook “I Like You: Entertaining Under the Influence,” (Grand Central, $27.95), will record up to 12 Public Service Announcements (PSAs) over the course of 2008 speaking out against Cyberbullying, America’s fastest growing form of mental abuse, according to a new report.
Sedaris, 38, a popular actress with a broad fan base, is perhaps best-known for her role as Jerri Blank, a 46-year-old hooker who returns to high school to get her diploma in the cult cable television hit, “Strangers With Candy,” which was recently turned into a feature length film. More recently she received rave reviews for her portrayal of the bi-polar Beth in the series “Rescue Me.” Her role in the just-released film “Snow Angels†won particularly favorable notice from reviewers at the New York Times and elsewhere. In the past year, she has also had a featured role in Dolly Parton’s landmark music video, “Better Get to Living,†and starred in her own online video promoting Microsoft new Vista software. Sedaris is also planning her own Comedy Central Special, “Amy Sedaris: There’s A Reason I’m Still Single,†under the direction of Comedy Central’s Tony DiSanto and sponsored by Quiznos.
“Even though cyberbullying cannot physically hurt you, it can still leave you feeling mentally vulnerable and emotionally scarred,†says Sedaris, who is making the PSAs as part of a court-approved settlement over her own abusive history of cyberbullying. “You can also feel scared, lonely and stressed and that there’s no way out.â€
Contrary to the pattern of many cyberbullies, who worked on their own, Sedaris herself often pulled together an entire team of people when cyberstalking her victims. “Somehow I was able to convince myself that if I had others do the dirty work, that I myself was not involved and had clean hands. But this type of Karl Rovian ‘swift boating’ approach to cyberstalking still made me, in legal terms, what you would call the ‘ringleader’ of my numerous cyberstalking operations.â€
Sedaris herself found herself “surprised at first†to be accused of cyberbullying. “After all, I am a spokesperson for PETA, which is a society for the prevention of cruelty for animals,†notes Sedaris. “And to come upon the realization that I was being so much less kind to people than to animals came as a major shock to me.â€
But stalking, Sedaris eventually realized, is a continuous process, consisting of a series of actions, each of which may be entirely legal in itself.
Says Sedaris: “I now realize that stalking, including cyberstalking, is a form of mental assault, in which the perpetrator repeatedly, unwantedly, and disruptively breaks into the life-world of the victim, with whom he has no relationship, or no longer has, with motives that are directly or indirectly traceable to the affective sphere. Moreover, the separated acts that make up the intrusion cannot by themselves cause the mental abuse, but do taken together in their cumulative effect.”
According to Sedaris, escaping cyberbullying can be very difficult. “Because anyone can get access to a mobile phone or the internet almost anywhere, it can even be tough for those on the receiving end to avoid it, even in the safety of their own home,†said Sedaris.
In her own case, Sedaris often organized teams of individuals to conduct real world stalking of individuals by following them and staking out their homes, as illegally and/or unethically and intrusively intercepting their email and voice messages when sent through insecure wireless channels.
“Once I even arranged for a person to be videotaped while they were performing oral sex,†said Sedaris. “I now realize however, which I did not realize before, that this secret videotaping of a private sex act was wrong and in fact, might have the consequences of affecting the person I was cyberstalking in a very extreme fashion, perhaps driving them almost to the point of suicide. At the very minimum, they might find it to be extremely upsetting.â€
In her own instance, Sedaris often involved other people – well-known comedians such as David Cross, Billy Tisdale, David Wain, Bryan Dinello, Zach Cregger, and musicians such as Lane Steinberg and Jeff Pollack — to cyberstalk on her behalf. She made extensive use of the free MySpace social community in her efforts to intimidate and terrorize, and used a Florida cellphone number from the 954 area code registered to Joanne and Ann Minniti to send literally hundreds of unrequested photos and messages to her numerous victims over the years.
Why do cyberbullies do it? “As I know from my own experience, there’s no simple answer for why some people choose to cause pain to others by bullying them,†says Sedaris.
But there are lots of possible reasons, notes Sedaris, and here are some common ones:
1. It can be simply a case of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time and allowing themselves to be easily intimidated.
2. Some people who cyberbully think that they won’t get caught if they do it on a mobile phone or on the internet.
3. The people who cyberbully are jealous, angry or want to have revenge on someone, often for no reason at all.
4. Cyberbullies often think that getting their group of friends to laugh at someone makes them look cool or more popular.
5. Some people also bully others as a form of entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands.
6. Many do it for laughs or just to get a reaction.
“People who feel they are victims of cyberstalking or cyberbullying should call their local police department immediately and ask for the computer crimes divisions,†concludes Sedaris. “Often these situations can quickly escalate into something almost life-threatening.â€
Some Background on Cyberstalking: According to the Wikipedia, cyberstalking is “the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. It has been defined as the use of information and communications technology, particularly the Internet, by an individual or group of individuals, to harass another individual, group of individuals, or organization. The behavior includes false accusations, monitoring, the transmission of threats, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, the solicitation of minors for sexual purposes, and gathering information for harassment purposes. The harassment must be such that a reasonable person, in possession of the same information, would regard it as sufficient to cause another reasonable person distress.
CyberAngels has written about how to identify cyberstalking:
When identifying cyberstalking “in the field,” and particularly when considering whether to report it to any kind of legal authority, the following features or combination of features can be considered to characterize a true stalking situation: malice, premeditation, repetition, distress, obsession, vendetta, no legitimate purpose, personally directed, disregarded warnings to stop, harassment, and threats.
Kontaktinformation:
Public Service Announcement Society of America
10 Downing Street
New York, New York 10014
Kontakt-Person:
Lucette Barnes-Moss
Spokesperson
Phone: 954 663 6975
E-mail: e-mail
PalePhoenix
Re: Deliberately mislocated/yet-to-be-moderated ‘cyberbullying’ post.
That’s nice an’ all, but it would help your cause tremendously if you first donated to my antispamming research fund. I will have my Nigerian barrister in contact with you soon.