“Opinions expressed on this web site are the views and sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of NARTH. However, NARTH values diversity of opinions and freedom of speech, and encourages individual writers.”

Maybe Wayne Besen could write an article for them since they are so interested in “diversity and freedom of speech from individual writers”? How are the readers to determine who represents NARTH’s views and who doesn’t?

Here’s the plot: “Jeremiah Johnson (1972) is a film about the mountain men who hunted for furs, primarily beaver, during the first part of the 19th century. It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and starred Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson and Will Geer as Bear Claw. This movie is said to have been based in-part on the life of the legendary mountain man Liver-Eating Johnson. It is also based on the novel Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher.”

Looks like “jjohnson” is a just a pseudonym for another cowardly NARTH member, like “sojourneer”.

No one takes responsibility. How can anyone take NARTH seriously, when the person who retracts the offending article hides behind a screen name? Isn’t anyone in charge at NARTH? Shouldn’t an official retraction come from someone in authority who is willing to be named? Does Jeremiah Johnson have the authority to speak for NARTH and retract articles by official NARTH advisors?

I can think of at least two more reasons.

First, and unfortunately I can’t give direct quotes since the article was pulled, in at least two places the author states his frustration that anyone who brings up the kind of viewpoints he does is denounced as a bigot or a racist. There is a very good reaon for this. People who espouse bigotry tend to get called bigots. More than an emotional response, it’s a matter of definition. Schoenewolf repeatedly talks of “the Civil Rights Movement” and “the Feminist Movement” and “the Gay Rights Movement” as if they are all monolithic entities bowing at the alter of Marxism. He claims that the entire gay rights movement can be summed up in one radical leftist publication he read on a website somewhere. This would be analogous to me saying the entire ex-gay movement can be summed up by, well, Gerald Schoenewolf. NARTH claims it exists to help homosexual individuals. Are homosexuals individuals helped by NARTH having an individual on their Advisory Board who makes sweeping claims about entire classes of people and movements being “Marxists” based off of… well, other than the one article he read on a website, he had no evidence whatsoever for any of the three movements he criticizes being influenced by Marxism. Are homosexual individuals helped by placing responsibility for their psychological care in the hands of someone who is predisposed to view them this way? If someone wants to change their orientation but still believes homosexuals individuals are entitled to protection from workplace discrimination, does Schoenewolf still view them as a Marxist?

Second, this article was put up on their website in 2005. This never would have come up if I hadn’t happened across it and brought it to the attention of exgaywatch and Wayne Besen. This wasn’t some off the cuff remark, this is a lengthy article that was drafted, revised, edited, and published. Presumably, some person or persons is responsible for the content of NARTH’s website. Not only did Schoenewolf show, at the very least, remarkably poor judgement in writing this, but one or more persons of authority at NARTH read it and liked it enough to put it on their website. You’d at least think that after the Berger embarassment, someone would have gone through the site to make sure there was no more dirty laundry. To his credit, Dr. Throckmorton saw serious problems in this thing immediately. Why didn’t anyone at NARTH?

This was on the NARTH webpage today.

David Blakeslee

Good to here from you.

David Blakeslee