PFOX evicted from the Virginia School Counselors Association Conference

Thursday, March 30, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays) was evicted from the Virginia Schools Counselors Association annual convention. They had applied for, paid for, and received permission to exhibit at the conference. While setting up their booth, several members of the VASC leadership, including current president Tammy Davis, and past-president Carol Kaffenberger, requested to meet Regina Griggs, PFOX director. The school counselors objected to some materials on their table and said PFOX would have to leave. After some discussion, the school counselors said the bullying brochure (most of which, I wrote) and the PFOX teen brochure were ok. However, the PFOX representatives were still asked to leave since offering only two brochures would not be worth their time. At that point, the hotel staff intervened and demanded that the PFOX people leave. One of the staff began to dismantle the table and the police were called. The two grandmothers (Regina and Retta Brown) were not hauled out by the authorities since they decided to leave.

I have emailed the VSCA officers to confirm this event and will post their replies. This amazes me. PFOX was invited to come to exhibit and then when they arrived, they were promptly evicted. PFOX was willing to take away anything that seemed offensive (they had a copy of one of Nicolosi’s books that they put away and a story of a trangendered person who warns about surgery) but they were still ushered out.

UPDATE: Dr. Tammy Davis emailed to say that she would be providing a comment about the incident sometime later today or this evening. Stay tuned…

David de Alba: Masculine gay males in denial

Today in social psychology class I showed the Christmas Day, 1977, episode of All in the Family where transvestite Beverly LaSalle is killed by thugs and Edith has a crisis of faith as a result of the loss.

In looking for more information about the man who played BLS, Lori Shannon, I found an interview with female impersonator, David de Alba. The interviewer was Chris Lee and I found this exchange interesting.

Chris: What’s your explanation of the connection between Female Impersonation and Gay men? What’s all that about? I’m speaking both from the standpoint of most FIs being Gay and most FI fans being Gay.

David: I hope I am answering your question correctly, but although most of the FIs I knew were gay, there are some who claim that they were bisexual and were married to straight women. In fact we had several FIs like that at Finocchio’s. There are many gay men and lesbians who I have known in my showbiz past who loved FIs and my work as an FI, but there are some gay men trying to be so ‘butch’ that they claim they don’t like female impersonators. Somewhere in their personalities there are femme characteristics they want to deny. Putting us FIs down makes them feel like a straight male talking rough and putting down a gay male. Strange how some people feel they have to play roles. If people were true to themselves this world would be an easier place to live in.

In light of discussion on this blog about masulinity and homosexuality, I thought it was interesting that this icon in the San Francisco gay community described masculine gay males as being in denial about their feminine side. Being a masculine gay male seems to be doubted from a variety of perspectives. I am not making an opinion statement here, just blogging.

Invisible Children Documentary

I interrupt the normally scheduled blog to bring you this important public service announcement. Everybody reading this, please go to www.invisiblechildren.com. I saw the documentary this morning in church and I was blown away. The documentary is a call to action for the West to help the children of Sudan and Uganda. I think we will be doing the Global Night Commute later in April. Pass the word (maybe it is all over blogosphere already, I don’t know, but here is my little part).