Every summer,the Arlington County fair serves up pony rides, minor reality television stars, and if you’re lucky, a good old dust-up involving members of the local ex-gay lobby.

In 2007, Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) volunteer David Elliott claimed that he was assaulted at the fair’s ex-gay booth by an unidentified gay man. For this year’s requisite PFOX confrontation, Elliott cornered Jay Fisette, an openly gay member of the Arlington County board. The confrontation had all the elements of a classic PFOX press release: Several ex-gay volunteers, one prominent gay man, and plenty of allegations of anti-ex-gay discrimination.

Read More “PFOX Stages More Ex-Gay County Fair Shenanigans!” »

Remember Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), that rag-tag group of heterosexual activists that just can’t seem to find many “ex-gay” people to advocate for? Last we heard from PFOX, the group was celebrating a court decision which said that “ex-gays”—people who were once gay, but are now totally heterosexual—should be covered under the District’s sexual orientation protections. PFOX was psyched with the ruling, because it meant that the group could begin to capitalize on protections that have been afforded to the LGBT community (hate crime legislation, anti-discrimination policies, etc.) and open up the possibility of suing on behalf of persecuted “ex-gays.”

Read More “Ex-Gay Group Calls Hate Crime Laws “Anti-Ex-Gay”” »

Virginia’s leading ex-gay advocacy group, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), has had trouble recruiting ex-gays to its cause. In a PFOX blog post published on Tuesday, the group attempts to explain why.

Quoting liberally from Neil Whitehead’s book, “My Genes Made Me Do It!,” PFOX argues that there are plenty of “ex-gays” living outwardly as homosexuals that don’t want to identify as ex-gay—because they just want to be straight. Writes Whitehead:

At this point the natural question arises – if there are so many “ex-gays” in the population, where are they? Most readers will never have met any. It is no wonder the GLB community is very skeptical about whether real change occurs, though the best estimate of the researchers involved is that it does, and spontaneously, without clinical intervention, just in the normal course of life.

Read More “PFOX Explains Why It Can’t Find More Ex-Gays” »

“Remnant International Public Relations Division” must have heard that I’m hot on the “ex-gay” beat now. R.I.P. relations (ouch) just sent me a press release offering up Cornelius Williams, author of “Transition: From Homosexual to Preacher,” for an interview. (Sorry, PFOX: This ex-gay is based in Chicago). Unfortunately, I am ill-equipped to provide Williams with the requested “Possible Television Interview” in which I would “interview the author and air the story encoded in the below press release.” I can, however, attest to the fact that this press release appears to be written in some sort of code:

The homosexuals in this community refused to allow the author to speak, saying “his message is a message of hate.” They also acused the author of preaching “reparative theropy” which they say does not exist acording to phycologists.

Okay! More of that, after the jump!
Read More “Fun With Ex-Gay Press Releases” »

If you do, pick up the phone right now and CALL ME (202-332-2100). If you don’t, read my cover story this week on why a dearth of local ex-gays poses a logistical problem for the area’s biggest ex-gay advocacy organization. BONUS: A discussion of fun new sexual orientation term, “everstraight”!

Illustration by Robert Ullman

Are you ex-gay? Do you know anyone who is ex-gay? Do you know anyone who is ex-ex-gay? Do you live in the Washington, D.C. area? Then I’d love to hear from you!

Call me at (202) 332-2100 ext. 269, or drop me a line at ahess@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Shorts Circuit: Tosin Abasi’s fashion sense tests metal.

Tosin Abasi was walking down the street in the East Village when he ran into New York magazine. Abasi’s outfit had caught the eye of a reporter looking for a subject for the mag’s fashion blog, the Cut. Abasi obliged, and proceeded to detail his street style for the camera: a pink paisley scarf, a Schiaparelli fedora, and khaki linen women’s shorts he scored as a hand-me-down from his girlfriend.

Such an outfit wouldn’t prompt a second thought if Abasi worked as a writer, artist, butcher, salesman, or in any number of other professions.

But Abasi is a metal guitarist, and women’s shorts don’t sit too well with that crowd.
Read More “Metal Guitarist Wears Women’s Shorts, Hell Breaks Loose” »

A Virginia “ex-gay” group won a small victory alongside a big defeat in D.C. Superior Court this summer.

In 2002, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) applied for an exhibit booth at the National Education Association’s annual convention, “Expo 2002.” PFOX submitted an application, signed a deposit check, and prepared its exhibit: an educational display, it claims, “to promote tolerance and equality for the ex-gay community.” The NEA denied PFOX’s application, citing limited booth space. PFOX suspected there was another motive at play: sexual orientation discrimination.

In 2005, POX filed a discrimination claim with the D.C. Office of Human Rights against the NEA for “refusing to provide public accommodations to ex-gays.” When the D.C. Office of Human Rights sided with the NEA, PFOX appealed the decision to D.C. Superior Court. Judge Maurice Ross handed down the decision [PDF] in June of this year: PFOX’s request to reverse the OHR’s decision was denied.

But Ross’s decision wasn’t a total loss for PFOX: While Ross decided in the NEA’s favor, he also held that ex-gays do, in fact, constitute a protected group under the D.C. Human Rights Act. Judging from PFOX’s eerily celebratory press release, this is kind of a big deal for them.

Read More ““Ex-Gays” Protected Under D.C. Human Rights Act, Judge Rules” »

A group of ex-gays—people who claim they were once gay, but have turned straight—are now also claiming they’ve been snubbed by the D.C. Office of Human Rights, The Blade’s Lou Chibarro, Jr. reports:

Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, a national group known as PFOX, last week announced it was “suing” the D.C. Office of Human Rights to overturn a decision that ex-gays do not belong to a protected category under the city’s Human Rights Act.

Well, that depends by what you mean by “suing.” According to Chibarro, “An office spokesperson called the PFOX announcement inaccurate, though, and noted the group filed a petition, not a lawsuit, before the D.C. Superior Court to appeal the 2005 decision.”

PFOX fired back, calling the petition “a lawsuit of sorts.”

The fake lawsuit “stems from a decision to dismiss a complaint that PFOX filed against the National Education Association,” which said that the NEA “discriminated against “ex-gays” as a class by denying a PFOX application to maintain an exhibit booth during a 2003 NEA convention.”