Excerpted from Girls Will Be Boys, by Mary Roach, published Mar 18, 2007, by The New York Times:

Michael Dillon wanted nothing more than to be invisible, to be one of the guys. Problem: he was born with a woman’s body. Everything he did toward realizing his humble dream — the cross-dressing, the hormones and surgeries and the chimera that resulted — pushed it further from his grasp. He went through life as the most visible sort of human being: a physical anomaly. He was the first person on record to undergo surgery (13 operations between 1946 and 1949) to change his gender…

Happiness eluded Michael Dillon. Isolated, depressed, hounded by the press, he traveled to India and, bizarrely, to a series of ever more remote Tibetan monasteries. He could not speak the language of his fellow novices, but with his shaved head and robes, he felt he fit in someplace. Sadly, he faced prejudice in the monasteries too, and his visa ran out before he was allowed to become a full-fledged monk. In 1962, he died impoverished near the border of Ladakh. He was 47, and had been trying to get back to the monastery where he’d felt at home.

Continue reading in The New York Times… 

From Was It Something I Said?, by Dr. Albert Mohler, published Mar 16, 2007:

Well, never doubt the power of the media. My recent article on homosexuality ignited a firestorm in the public square. Why? We may never know — but the controversy represents both a challenge and an opportunity.Several thoughts:

I must admit much frustration about the way many in the media have handled the issue. Headlines proclaimed “Seminary President Says Babies Born Gay” — something I neither believe nor said. Other articles and reports claimed that I suggested that homosexuality may be genetic in origin and that genetic therapies should be used to create customized and corrected babies. I never even mentioned genetic therapies or germ-line experiments, and I am adamantly opposed to genetic therapies of such a sort — real or hypothetical. Reading these reports and headlines was a painful and exasperating experience. If I believed those things attributed to me, I would not agree with myself and would condemn myself…

God’s condemnation of sin is not determined by science, but by God’s Word. The Bible could not be more clear — all forms of homosexual behavior are expressly condemned as sin. In so doing the Bible uses its strongest vocabulary and places this condemnation in the larger context of the Creator’s rightful expectation of our stewardship of the sexual gift. All manifestations of homosexuality are thus representations of human sinfulness and rebellion against God’s express will. Nothing can alter this fact, and no discovery in science or any other human endeavor can change God’s verdict…

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 the Apostle Paul condemns an entire list of sins, including explicit references to homosexuality. Then he reminds the church, “such were some of you.” The complete text reads: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” [1 Corinthians 6:11]. God brings glory to himself through the salvation of sinners — and Paul includes homosexuality in that list…

Continue reading at Dr. Mohler’s Blog…

From Exodus International, published Mar 15, 2007:

Montel Williams reveals his bias and hostility towards former homosexuals on today’s show, “Homosexuality . . . Can it be Cured?” Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, accepted an invitation to discuss homosexuality and the option of change in the hopes that it would bring a message of hope to a broader audience, but instead, found himself the target of malicious questions, unfair accusations and open hostility.

Former Exodus Board Member, Tom Cole, and his wife Donna, both former homosexuals, were slated to be guests as well, but were thrown off the show for having told Montel Williams that their stories were just as valid as those on the pro-gay side of the argument. Williams became irate, immediately removed them from the panel and had them thrown off the studio premises.

Alan Chambers then found himself the lone voice opposing the views of four guests representing the other side of the debate. The only other former homosexual was placed in the audience and allowed only a short amount of speaking time.

On today’s show, Montel Williams promotes the documentary, “Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-Gay Movement.” The film, produced by Alicia Salzer, the director of William’s after-care program, is an inaccurate portrayal of former homosexuals and shows individuals undergoing shock therapy in order to be “cured” of their homosexuality.

Chambers commented on today’s show, “The world is full of many, like Montel Williams, who are hostile to our message. Yet it does not change the fact that thousands of us have experienced change through the power of Jesus Christ. We will continue to share the hope we have found and the freedom that is available to all.”

PLEASE PRAY — Please pray that many will hear a message of hope despite the hostility that is expressed towards those who have experienced change. Please pray for Montel Williams and his staff as well.

PLEASE VOICE YOUR OPINION — The media must hear from individuals like us who value personal freedom and the option of change. Please use this opportunity to voice your views in a manner that reflects Christ’s love.

Proving once again that homosexual behavior (like all sinful behaviors) is changeable…

“I don’t like porn, it reduces the mind, flattens the soul.

“That’s not hypocrisy talking, that’s experience…

“I can tell you that by the time I finished my summer tour
of major [pornography] studios, I was pretty disgusted with myself.

“I’ve moved forward a lot and this past stuff is not something I want to drag into my future.”

— Marine Corporal Matt Sanchez, 36
(formerly homosexual porn star known as “Rod Majors” and “Pierre LaBranche”)
as quoted in Republican Activist Defends Porn Career,
by Alexis Hood, published Mar 9, 2007,
by the pro-homosexuality PinkNews

From Why Christians Embrace ‘Gay’ Porn Stars, by Kevin McCullough, published Mar 11, 2007, by Townhall:

Diabolical liberals are once again showing their disdain for homosexuals, and their lack of love for those who struggle with sexual sin. They are adverse to truth about sexual behavior. And when a sexual sinner is brave enough to say so, liberals become the most homophobic mouth foamers the universe has ever seen.

Take the case of Marine Cpl Matt Sanchez. (Also affectionately known as ‘the other CPAC scandal’.)

Following his acceptance of the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom award he was “outed” by homosexual bloggers (bloggers who write about and engage in homosexual behavior) as being a “Gay Porn Star.”

The reason so many of these homosexual bloggers knew this is simple. They are rabid consumers of homosexual pornography and have spent days, months, possibly years in front of their television screens acting out on the urges within them. They have been enslaved by the unforgiving voices that have told them since birth to act upon every sexual urge they have. The thought of personal sexual restraint is foreign to these bloggers. Thus they have near cataclysmic system failure when someone they believed was homosexual turns a corner in his life and leaves that filth behind.

Writing for Salon.com this week Sanchez spoke about his past and what being employed in the homosexual porn business did to his heart, mind, and life.

Porn reduces the mind and flattens the soul. I don’t like it. That’s not hypocrisy talking; that’s just experience. I sometimes think of myself, ironically, as a progressive: I started off as a liberal but I progressed to conservatism. Part of that transformation is due to my time in the industry. How does a conservative trace his roots to such distasteful beginnings? I didn’t like porn’s liberalism. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is magnified.

Being in the adult entertainment industry was sort of like being in a cult, and like all followers of a cult, I have a difficult time figuring out when I stopped believing in the party line. I can tell you, though, that by the time I finished my brief tour of the major studios, I was pretty disgusted with myself. It was an emotional low, and the people who surrounded me were like drug dealers interested only in being with the anesthetized in order not to shake off the stupor of being high.

It needs to be immediately understood that Sanchez committed two cardinal sins here.

The first is – he stopped having homosexual sex. The ability to “choose” one’s actions particularly as it relates to which gender one has sex with is supposed to be unchangeable in the mind of liberals. The whole “made that way” argument tends to get decimated when someone like Sanchez simply decides that it is an empty, sad, and destructive life that brings him no joy.

The second is — he began to pursue truth. The maniacal hold on belief that liberals force upon their followers is not based on belief system of absolutes. So little can be trusted, verified, and believed. Sanchez saw it for the first time when he as a Marine reservist was smeared “baby-killer” on his college campus. After his successful and brave fight for free speech at Columbia University, and thus the recognition at CPAC, those who felt threatened by the change his life represents felt it necessary to drag up his pornographic past. He referenced as much in his op-ed.

Why did I become a conservative? Just look at what I left, and look at who is attacking me today. Let’s face it: Those on the left who now attack me would be defending me if I had espoused liberal causes and spoken out against the Iraq war before I was outed as a pseudo celebrity. They’d be talking about publishing my memoir and putting me on a diversity ticket with [a top presidential Democratic contender]. Instead, those who complain about wire-tapping reserve the right to pry into my private life and my past for political brownie points.

The discussion from cable airwaves on Keith Olbermann’s show on MSNBC, to prominent left wing blogs like AMERICAblog operated by John Aravosis, sought to injure Sanchez for deeds committed over a dozen years ago but also to bludgeon conservatives — many of whom are faith-based, Bible-believing Christians for “allowing someone like that” to be honored for true bravery.

The truth is that such criticism shows a fundamental lack of understanding about what the Christian message of redemption is.

Many if not most of these same liberals grew red faced and blasted spittle at those who criticized then President William Jefferson Clinton for engaging in adultery with a much younger intern in the People’s house. The argument, “everybody does it” seemed logical given that his defenders all grew up in the era when the predominant way of thinking was “do what feels good.” But it did not make it right.

Repentance is not merely saying one is sorry. It is a more all encompassing idea of turning away from that which you are sorry for – and going steadfastly in the other direction. Clinton by any generous assessment would not measure up to that.

Sanchez does. His example condemns not only the left’s hypocrisy but its deliberate sinfulness. That is why they must have his head.

Sanchez admitted that he wondered how his outing would affect his future.

By the way, as a political minority on the Columbia campus, people are always asking me, “How can you be a conservative? They’re so hateful.” That wasn’t the feeling I got when I accepted my award. And it’s not what I’ve been hearing from the conservative community since my “outing.”

I am embarrassed to admit that was I worried that my fellow conservatives would distance themselves from me when the news about my film career broke. The opposite has happened.

That’s the way it should be. As my new good friend Bryan Preston reminded us this week, we’ve all got things in our past that we are not proud of. As I detail very clearly in my new book, liberals would prefer us to stay stuck in those terrible behaviors to boost their own egos. God-fearing, Bible-thumping conservatives want us to repent (turn and walk away from). Knowing that one path leads to death and destruction, the other to ultimate knowledge, wisdom, and peace — which side would you say truly cares about the well being of the individual.

So should we be surprised that Christians and conservatives have embraced a man who starred in ‘gay’ porn? Of course not — Jesus would have!

And then he would say to us today, what he said two thousand years ago, “go and sin no more!”

Sure to result in a task force hostile to the idea of reparative therapy (therapy that works to diminish same-sex attraction and potentitally restore a person’s natural heterosexual orientation)…

From the American Psychological Association:

Call for Nominations for the Board of Directors Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation

Nominations are requested by March 19, 2007 for the Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. Nominations should include a statement of interest and a curriculum vitae for each nominee. They should be sent to the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Office by E-mail (lgbc@apa.org), by FAX (202-336-6040), or by mail at Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Office, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE , Washington , DC 20002. For any questions about the Task Force or the nomination process, contact the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Office at 202-336-6041.

The Board of Directors authorized the five-person Task Force during its February 14-15, 2007, meeting, and allocated $12,500 from its 2007 discretionary fund to support two meetings of the task force in 2007.
The Task Force was given the following charge:

(1) To revise and update the APA resolution Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation (1997);
(2) To generate a report that includes the following:

• (a) The appropriate application of affirmative therapeutic interventions for children and adolescents who present a desire to change either their sexual orientation or their behavioral expression of their sexual orientation, or both, or whose guardian expresses a desire for the minor to change;
• (b) The appropriate application of affirmative therapeutic interventions for adults who present a desire to change their sexual orientation or their behavioral expression of their sexual orientation, or both;
• (c) The presence of adolescent inpatient facilities that offer coercive treatment designed to change sexual orientation or the behavioral expression of sexual orientation;
• (d) Education, training, and research issues as they pertain to such therapeutic interventions;
• (e) Recommendations regarding treatment protocols that promote stereotyped gender normative behavior to mitigate behaviors that are perceived to be indicators that a child will develop a homosexual orientation in adolescence and adulthood;

(3) To inform the Association’s response to groups that promote treatments to change sexual orientation or its behavioral expression and to support public policy that furthers affirmative therapeutic interventions.

The Board was asked to establish the Task Force by the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns (CLGBC) and the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI). CLGBC and BAPPI recommended the Task Force as a mechanism for revising and updating the 1997 APA resolution Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation to reflect the larger body of research and scholarship on sexual orientation conversion therapy, or so-called reparative therapy, that has been published since 1997, as well as to take into account that other professional associations have adopted resolutions since the 1997 APA resolution. Several external organizations have recommended that APA update its policy, because of their concerns about the continued visibility of reparative therapy practitioners and treatment facilities and about the role of advocacy for reparative theory in attempts to shape public opinion about the nature of sexual orientation and to support an anti-gay activist role in legislative and judicial arenas.

The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns will review the nominations at its March 23-25 meeting and present slates of nominees to BAPPI for review and approval.

Excerpted from “Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired,” Concludes Dr. Francis S. Collins, Head Of The Human Genome Project, by A. Dean Byrd, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, published Mar 8, 2007, by NARTH:

…Dr. [Francis S.] Collins succinctly reviewed the research on homosexuality and offers the following:

“An area of particularly strong public interest is the genetic basis of homosexuality. Evidence from twin studies does in fact support the conclusion that heritable factors play a role in male homosexuality. However, the likelihood that the identical twin of a homosexual male will also be gay is about 20% (compared with 2-4 percent of males in the general population), indicating that sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations [emphasis added].”

The heritability estimates for homosexuality is substantially lower than General Cognitive Ability, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness, Aggression and Traditionalism!

Dr. Collins noted that environment — particularly childhood experiences — as well as the role of free will and choice affect us all in profound ways. As researchers discover increasing levels of molecular detail about inherited factors that underlie our personalities, it’s critical that such data be used to illuminate the issues, not provide support to ideologues.

…Unfortunately, much of the research in areas such as homosexuality has been misrepresented; not only in the media, but also by the scientists themselves through a tendency to overestimate the quantitative contribution of their findings.Regarding the contributions of genetics to areas such as homosexuality, Dr. Collins concluded, “Yes, we have all been dealt a particular set of cards, and the cards will eventually be revealed. But how we play the hand is up to us.”

Continue reading at NARTH…

From ‘Gay’ Group Sponsors Breast-Removal Workshop, published Feb 16, 2002, by WorldNet Daily:

The nation’s largest homosexual lobby group is sponsoring a conference this weekend for “female-to-male” “transgenders” that will include sessions on “chest surgery” for young women who want to have their breasts removed in their quest to become “transmen.”

The Human Rights Campaign has signed on as an official sponsor of the “True Spirit Conference,” which is scheduled to be held at a hotel in the nation’s capital Feb. 15-18. In a TV talk show debate Wednesday, HRC spokesman Wayne Besen said he was “proud” of his group sponsoring the event and defended the “chest surgery” sessions for women seeking to remove their breasts.

Besen made his comments on the Fox News Channel’s debate show “Hannity & Colmes” after being challenged about HRC’s role in the transsexual event by Peter LaBarbera, senior policy analyst for the Culture & Family Institute of Concerned Women for America, who was also a guest on the show.

On the Fox program, LaBarbera asked Besen, “There’s actually a doctor coming from New York who is talking about ‘breast reconstruction’ – chopping off the breasts of these girls because they want to become men. We think that’s dangerous. How can you justify teaching that as normal in the schools?”

Besen replied, “First of all, we’re very proud of supporting this type of conference. As Peter said, there are doctors and medical professionals there to deal with this particular issue. He ought to get educated on it.”

Sadistic sex, polygamy workshops

The True Spirit conference also includes a panel on “How to Do SM [sadomasochism]” and one devoted to “Polyamory,” an activist term for multiple-partner sexual unions (“Polyamory can work, if you do it right, we promise!” says the True Spirit website.) In addition, the program contains sessions devoted to sexual tips for “transgenders.”