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Exodus Invited to Anti-LGBT White House Event

Today when President Bush announced his support of a heterosexual only marriage amendment, a bold and sinister move to use the US constitution to deny rights to citizens, he invited Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas of Exodus to the festivities.

Don't they realize they are simply pawns in a political game that simply takes advantage of the ex-gay struggle?

Writing for Huffington Post, Michelle Goldberg insightfully exposes the exploitation of ex-gay ministries for political gain.
By inviting Chambers, Exodus's president, and Thomas, its director of membership, to the White House, Bush is at least implicitly endorsing the ex-gay movement. This is of a piece with the administration's continuing embrace of pseudo-science and its frequent attempts to elevate the institutions of the religious right to places of public authority. In a sense, Bush needs the ex-gay movement, because it provides a veneer of moral justification for his new anti-gay marriage push -- the refusal to offer recognition to gay relationships can only be justified if homosexuality is a choice or a condition that can be cured. If, as virtually all mainstream experts believe, Exodus is wrong, then Bush's attempt to rally support against gay families is simply gratuitously cruel.
From The Ex-Gay Movement at the White House

(hat tip to Daniel at Ex-Gay Watch and Jim Maynard at Queer Notes)

Comments

Willie Hewes said…
I'm going with gratuitously cruel.
3:59 AM
Anonymous said…
Frustrating. We could have 100 years of scientific studies, psychological research, and rational/factual case studies for why we know what we do to be true and it wouldn't matter. We will just keep hearing the "God said it and I believe it" stance without the other side thinking about social context and interpretation. I feel sometimes that we have become a literalist theocracy and the idea of democracy disappeared somewhere in the night when I wasn't old enough to be paying attention. :(
10:26 AM
Peterson Toscano said…
Well said! The sad thing is that Exodus gets the invitation from Daddy Bush, gets the affirmation from the Father figure (just like they've been getting from Dobson and Falwell) and they fall right into the trap.
11:46 AM
Contemplative Activist said…
That is very unsettling Peterson - when all mainstream scientists/psychiatrists/psychologists believe their theories to be crack-potted lunacy are invited into the Whitehouse - where does the science go? Or more perhaps more importantly, where does the integrity go?

Incidentally, have you heard of Patrick Henry college in Washington? There was a documentary about them last night on UK TV and how they are providing large numbers of Whitehouse interns. They were all very conservative Christians and heavily focussed on being anti-gay and anti-abortion. All their "science" is taught from a "Biblical viewpoint" (i.e. creationism) - its rather disconcerting when these people may become some of the most powerful players in American & international politics.

CA
1:04 PM
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