Michael Brown: Here is a taste of next month's NARTH conference

The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality claims to be a scientific organization. However, a review of their website finds lots of anti-gay advocacy. In the past, when I bring this up with NARTH supporters, what I have been told is that they do it because the APA does it.
While I don’t deny that the mental health groups lean left and this bias comes out at their conferences at times, I wonder why NARTH makes any pretense of being distinct from the APA when they feature non-scientists in prominent speaking spots. Cases in point: this year’s conference features advocate of keeping homosexual criminal Sharon Slater who will speak in an applied workshop (I wonder what application NARTH wants participants to take from Slater’s workshop?). In addition, minister Michael Brown will speak in a plenary meeting to all participants. Brown has a book out called A Queer Thing Happened to America. It is not a science book.
You can hear a little of what he might have to say next month here, courtesy of Right Wing Watch.

Really?
There will always be extremes in any social group who want to say, ‘off with their heads’ to people not in the club. We got our reconstructionists and dominionists and the gays may have them some gay dominionists somewhere. I don’t really think I should be judged by the reconstructionists. Should we judge all gay folk by Brown’s gay dominionists (if they exist)?

36 thoughts on “Michael Brown: Here is a taste of next month's NARTH conference”

  1. @Kevin
    Like William I haven’t read Brown’s book either, but I have debated him on this blog and read a bit about him. It was clear to me that Brown is more interested in pushing his own anti-gay agenda than participate in any reasonable debate on sexual orientation or gay rights.

  2. This kind of stuff ticks me off so much. I’ll bet you a KJV Bible that these guys decry lumping all Christians into some hateful, Westboro Baptist, group, but they don’t seem to mind doing it to other groups. This seems like such an obvious thing that I find it shocking when I see intelligent people doing it. I wonder if these people even remember what the Golden Rule is all about?

  3. @ ken, I’m right with you bud, I too, would like to know what rights have been denied.
    Where does this Brown, and that self-aggrandizing charlatan, Cindy Jacobs, come up with these fantasies?
    Oh, and speaking of charlatans…how is George Rekers doing?

  4. At what point does “leaning left” mean what was once “in the middle” or simply “reasonable” when the “right” is racing so fast in the other direction?
    As for Brown, NARTH really went for the bottom of the barrel in their decision to bring him in. If you will notice, he hasn’t spoken at LWO since Exodus took it over — to their credit. If NARTH really felt the need to have a religious leader speak at their conference (a dubious choice in the first place), they certainly could have done much better than him.
    The race to the margins has not only begun, it’s in full sprint.

  5. @ Kevin…
    I haven’t read Brown’s book .. but I have read a review of it from someone I trust .. Additionally I have blogged with him and visited his website. His so called documentation is really proof texting (lifting things out of context) to satisfy his own personal agenda … which .. apparently .. is to vilify gay and lesbian folks (and transfolks as well). It is one thing to have a moral position .. it is quite another to have a vendetta (seeking to vilify and misrepresent those you disagree with)… Unfortunately this is what Dr. Brown seems to be doing along with .. sadly .. many others.
    Dave

  6. @ Kevin…
    I haven’t read Brown’s book .. but I have read a review of it from someone I trust .. Additionally I have blogged with him and visited his website. His so called documentation is really proof texting (lifting things out of context) to satisfy his own personal agenda … which .. apparently .. is to vilify gay and lesbian folks (and transfolks as well). It is one thing to have a moral position .. it is quite another to have a vendetta (seeking to vilify and misrepresent those you disagree with)… Unfortunately this is what Dr. Brown seems to be doing along with .. sadly .. many others.
    Dave

  7. @Kevin
    Like William I haven’t read Brown’s book either, but I have debated him on this blog and read a bit about him. It was clear to me that Brown is more interested in pushing his own anti-gay agenda than participate in any reasonable debate on sexual orientation or gay rights.

  8. @ Kevin:
    I can’t answer for Warren, and I haven’t read Brown’s book, but the perncious trash that he talks in the video above is, I submit, ample reason for any reasonable non-homophobic person to be “down on” him, as you put it.

  9. @ Kevin:
    I can’t answer for Warren, and I haven’t read Brown’s book, but the perncious trash that he talks in the video above is, I submit, ample reason for any reasonable non-homophobic person to be “down on” him, as you put it.

  10. Dr Throckmorton, why are you so down on Michael Brown? His book is well-documented and provides a reasonable description of the “gay agenda” and its actions.

  11. Dr Throckmorton, why are you so down on Michael Brown? His book is well-documented and provides a reasonable description of the “gay agenda” and its actions.

  14. Exodus Conference to feature former NARTH president:

    Also speaking is Dr. Julie Hamilton, a former president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and whose book, Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions, includes a final chapter by discredited ex-gay activist George Rekers. As we reported in our original investigation of Rekers’s “treatment” of four-year-old Kirk Murphy, Rekers claimed that he had successfully turned the “effeminate pre-homosexual” boy into a straight man. He built his entire career on that supposedly groundbreaking success story.
    Except there were a couple of problems: Kirk grew up to be gay, and he ultimately committed suicide over the lifelong conflicts he struggled with as a result of that therapy. Yet in Hamilton’s book, Rekers boasted that Kirk “had a normal male identity,” six years after Kirk took his life. Hamilton’s book with Rekers’s boast is still on sale at NARTH’s web site, and I have no doubt that it will also be available at the conference, which takes place today and tomorrow at the First Baptist Church in Leesburg, FL.”

    Source: Ex-gay Watch

  17. Exodus Conference to feature former NARTH president:

    Also speaking is Dr. Julie Hamilton, a former president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and whose book, Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions, includes a final chapter by discredited ex-gay activist George Rekers. As we reported in our original investigation of Rekers’s “treatment” of four-year-old Kirk Murphy, Rekers claimed that he had successfully turned the “effeminate pre-homosexual” boy into a straight man. He built his entire career on that supposedly groundbreaking success story.
    Except there were a couple of problems: Kirk grew up to be gay, and he ultimately committed suicide over the lifelong conflicts he struggled with as a result of that therapy. Yet in Hamilton’s book, Rekers boasted that Kirk “had a normal male identity,” six years after Kirk took his life. Hamilton’s book with Rekers’s boast is still on sale at NARTH’s web site, and I have no doubt that it will also be available at the conference, which takes place today and tomorrow at the First Baptist Church in Leesburg, FL.”

    Source: Ex-gay Watch

  18. Exodus may have quietly stopped promoting NARTH’s books, but they still promote NARTH. I wonder… Will they continue this stance in light of Warren’s accusation that both organizations are less than truthful about “change” — and that they actually impede effective anti-bullying eforts? This is still on the Exodus Website, when you search for references to NARTH:

    NARTH is an excellent professional, scientific, and therapeutic organization (again, not “megalithic” at all) that provides much research and many articles helping the lay person to understand some of the root contributing factors of same-sex attraction.

    With Michael Brown presenting, do they still think so?
    http://exodusinternational.org/2010/02/dispelling-the-myths-about-onebyone-and-exodus-international/

  19. Exodus may have quietly stopped promoting NARTH’s books, but they still promote NARTH. I wonder… Will they continue this stance in light of Warren’s accusation that both organizations are less than truthful about “change” — and that they actually impede effective anti-bullying eforts? This is still on the Exodus Website, when you search for references to NARTH:

    NARTH is an excellent professional, scientific, and therapeutic organization (again, not “megalithic” at all) that provides much research and many articles helping the lay person to understand some of the root contributing factors of same-sex attraction.

    With Michael Brown presenting, do they still think so?
    http://exodusinternational.org/2010/02/dispelling-the-myths-about-onebyone-and-exodus-international/

  20. “…perhaps seeing and hearing who they have chosen to speak will give clear warning for people to stay away from NARTH.”

    Are you listening, Exodus?

  21. “…perhaps seeing and hearing who they have chosen to speak will give clear warning for people to stay away from NARTH.”

    Are you listening, Exodus?

  22. I have blogged with Dr. Brown (on one occassion).. he is incredibly lost in his own spin .. His book is rather scandalous as well …
    I don’t think NARTH could have picked a worse speaker .. but then .. on the other hand … perhaps seeing and hearing who they have chosen to speak will give clear warning for people to stay away from NARTH.
    Dave

  23. I have blogged with Dr. Brown (on one occassion).. he is incredibly lost in his own spin .. His book is rather scandalous as well …
    I don’t think NARTH could have picked a worse speaker .. but then .. on the other hand … perhaps seeing and hearing who they have chosen to speak will give clear warning for people to stay away from NARTH.
    Dave

  24. Yep, and we’re hypersensitive.
    Yes, we’ve been celebrating in the White House since Ronald Reagan’s wife brought in her gay decorators.
    Geesh….

  25. Yep, and we’re hypersensitive.
    Yes, we’ve been celebrating in the White House since Ronald Reagan’s wife brought in her gay decorators.
    Geesh….

  26. Yes, and the Jews run an international banking conspiracy, caused the crash of 2008, engineered the Trade Center attack, and make matzos from the blood of Christian children.
    I find the most sinister aspect of this conversation to be its banality. Each tries to outdo the other with outrageous statements made in the same flat tone of the choir preaching to itself. They expect no contradiction because in their own little world they are never contradicted.
    There is no such thing as a ‘gay dominionist’. If gay Americans sometimes sound somewhat absolute and strident (I find I have that in me too. Perhaps some around here might have noticed) it is because they are reacting to this kind of filth. I’ve always said that NARTH is a religious organization because they frame everything in a sinner/saved/redemption narrative. But on what planet are Christians ever at the mercy of gay people? That we have recently had some moderate success in demanding a certain level of long-overdue respect here in the US seems to have tipped these three over the edge to loonyville. But it’s obviously good for fundraising. All three make their livings from demonizing gay people. For perspective let me add that the budget FRC alone is many many times the total budget for all the gay advocacy groups in the US. We are out funded, outspent, at every turn.
    I too was startled by ‘left-leaning’ professional bodies. Unless we think that science is a Democratic or Jewish endeavor.

  27. Yes, and the Jews run an international banking conspiracy, caused the crash of 2008, engineered the Trade Center attack, and make matzos from the blood of Christian children.
    I find the most sinister aspect of this conversation to be its banality. Each tries to outdo the other with outrageous statements made in the same flat tone of the choir preaching to itself. They expect no contradiction because in their own little world they are never contradicted.
    There is no such thing as a ‘gay dominionist’. If gay Americans sometimes sound somewhat absolute and strident (I find I have that in me too. Perhaps some around here might have noticed) it is because they are reacting to this kind of filth. I’ve always said that NARTH is a religious organization because they frame everything in a sinner/saved/redemption narrative. But on what planet are Christians ever at the mercy of gay people? That we have recently had some moderate success in demanding a certain level of long-overdue respect here in the US seems to have tipped these three over the edge to loonyville. But it’s obviously good for fundraising. All three make their livings from demonizing gay people. For perspective let me add that the budget FRC alone is many many times the total budget for all the gay advocacy groups in the US. We are out funded, outspent, at every turn.
    I too was startled by ‘left-leaning’ professional bodies. Unless we think that science is a Democratic or Jewish endeavor.

  28. This kind of stuff ticks me off so much. I’ll bet you a KJV Bible that these guys decry lumping all Christians into some hateful, Westboro Baptist, group, but they don’t seem to mind doing it to other groups. This seems like such an obvious thing that I find it shocking when I see intelligent people doing it. I wonder if these people even remember what the Golden Rule is all about?

  29. @ ken, I’m right with you bud, I too, would like to know what rights have been denied.
    Where does this Brown, and that self-aggrandizing charlatan, Cindy Jacobs, come up with these fantasies?
    Oh, and speaking of charlatans…how is George Rekers doing?

  30. Steps in the right direction. Exodus won’t have Brown as a speaker. Exodus no longer promotes NARTH books. Now, sever ties completely.

  32. At what point does “leaning left” mean what was once “in the middle” or simply “reasonable” when the “right” is racing so fast in the other direction?
    As for Brown, NARTH really went for the bottom of the barrel in their decision to bring him in. If you will notice, he hasn’t spoken at LWO since Exodus took it over — to their credit. If NARTH really felt the need to have a religious leader speak at their conference (a dubious choice in the first place), they certainly could have done much better than him.
    The race to the margins has not only begun, it’s in full sprint.

  34. Steps in the right direction. Exodus won’t have Brown as a speaker. Exodus no longer promotes NARTH books. Now, sever ties completely.

  35. I’m curious to know what “rights” are being denied to conservative christians.

  36. Jail seems harsh. Maybe some required community service instead. 🙂

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