This one is kind of funny in a way but in a non-funny way, it keeps us on track discussing how worldviews clash.
In Italy, a big music festival may feature soon a tribute of sorts to reparative therapy. Here is the scoop:
ANSA) – Rome, December 23 – Italian gay rights group Arcigay on Tuesday threatened to disrupt Italy’s biggest musical event of the year, the Sanremo song festival, if a song apparently about ‘converting’ gays to heterosexuality is not pulled.
The song by 36-year-old Milan singer-songwriter Povia, entitled Luca Was Gay, was announced on Monday as one of 16 numbers that will compete for the title of best song at next year’s festival in February.
Luca Was Gay (maybe it sounds more lyrical in Italian) is causing a fuss because it apparently tells the story of a reparative therapy success story.
The Arcigay president said Povia had gone on to say that he had ”had a gay phase, it lasted seven months, and then I got over it” as well as claiming to have ”converted” two of his friends who ”thought they were gay” but were now married.
Mancuso claimed the song referred to a formerly gay man called Luca Tolve, who claims to have been ”cured” of his homosexuality thanks to the controversial reparative therapies of American Catholic psychologist Joseph Nicolosi ”widely refuted by the global scientific community”.
So what is an offended party to do? Protest!
Mancuso warned state broadcaster RAI, which shows the glitzy five-day event each year, that protests would be ”extremely strong, noisy and organised” if the song was not withdrawn from the festival.
Some 200 people signed up to a Facebook protest group launched by Arcigay on Tuesday within hours of its going online.
Even though I am not a reparative therapist, I lean toward agreement with this assessment:
But politician Luca Volonte’ of the Catholic UDC party described Arcigay’s efforts as ”a clear attempt at discrimination and censorship”.
All kind of songs extolling one form of love or another are sung in broad daylight, why not a song about trying to change the direction of one’s attractions? Maybe there will be tennis raquets providing some of the percussion. Maybe it is an emo song with people screaming about their moms. An encore might be Katy Perry singing, “I kissed a girl and used to like it.”
Oy.
According this message the lyrics will stay a secret up to the debut performance .
My italian is very also bad. I had used windowslivetranslator, Google-Translation, Leo-Dictionary it-ge and some stereotypes. 🙂
The only more in the interview anout his phase was: He was 18, the duration was seven month and he came over it.
Maybe some interesting for you: My strongest heterosexual feelings was mostly, when im feeling very bad. 🙂 I had to deal with some different-sex-attractions. 🙂 (In person most women with little baby-fat and a significant look, who stimulated my protective instinct. And boyish girls.)
And i had feeled attraction to two women before my coming out. Both was very nice and the girlfriend of a friend from school. I flirted, in my thinking absolutly free that something happend or not. I would only show that i liked her. One girl said at one time to do not so much, because her boyfriend and my friend was a little jealous. After my coming out i recognised i was truly in love with him and therefore i flirted with his girlfriends. Projectioning and mixing my feelings. 😎 Because before my coming out “i cant’t love him”. “With the same sex you can only have hidden sexual acts.” and “Gays are old men who lusted after young boys.” “I had nothing against homosexuals, i can think to have sexual acts with men i like.” A likewise situation was only one time after that. But this was short and i realised was it was. And she was to different in interests, feelings and what she liked in bed (we three discussed very open and she had for example a more “manly timing”).
Povia say 2005 he know from own experience how someone becoming gay. It is based on what and how frequently someone learn it as a young. Like the childs, that a beaten by the parents and then the perversion have to be beaten.
Sounds like contitioning.
He had a gay phase of seven months and now he know how someone, how everyone, become gay.
I wrote Povia and asked if he could provide the lyrics in English. FGlist your English is much better than my Italian so we would like to read translated lyrics. If you have access to them, please post them.
RE: Povia’s phase, I would like to find out more about that. Some do have a phase and go back to their original orientation. Some gays have a straight phase as well.
Eddy,
Thanks for that refresher on Rico Suave!
Patrick–
You’re absolutely right.
I’d heard the one by Sarah on the radio and then freaked out when I heard, as Whoopi calls it: The F-Bomb. LOL.
I like your latter suggestion as well. I’m sure that it would be too late for their counter song to be considered for this event but it could enjoy a heck of a life on “You Tube”. I love a good parody even if it pokes fun at me.
Back in my early ministry days, Anita Bryant’s strange campaign was going on. I forget which gay group pulled this together but ….they run this ad about a gay rally or event (I honestly forget what) and there’s Anita’s voice in the background singing her most famous patriotic song. The voice-over guy end his message just as Anita sings “And we’ll all be gay…gay…gay…” with the assist of a touch of echo. (“When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again”)
As far as I know they still censor the F-word in songs – or substitute it.
James Blunt – You’re Beautiful – substituted the word flying for the other f word in the radio version.
Same with a Sarah Mclachlan tune which featured the f-word – that was censored out.
I sure there are numerous other examples.
Anyway, if the gay community wants to protest this – the answer is not screams and shouts – but how about a satire counter song pointed at Nicolosi and the exgay movement. Gay people are a creative lot – I am sure they could submit a whooper of a tune.
“Rico Suave” by Geraldo was this strange mix of latino, rap and hip hop. The singer, a handsome young latino, was all ‘come on’ talk throughout the song. The lyrics were only half in English but those were rather graphic. He saw himself as a gigolo and was wanting to pleasure you. LOL. I just googled the lyrics a while ago and, although I found the song ‘campy’ when it was out, ….well, let’s just say I can see how they agreed that some of the suggestiveness was a tad over the line.
As I heard the story of the blackballing though…it was more because the dj’s found it to be an annoying song but one that was being requested all day (and all night) long. Their request lines were overflowing with young girls NEEDING to hear that song 10 or more times a day.
Warren: Any chance you could link us to the song–‘Luca Was Gay’? It just occurred to me that I haven’t heard it or even seen the lyrics. Off on a search I go….
Eddy said,
Oh, wow, sometimes memories are so funny. I love that one, Eddy! To think that the comedic sidekick of Carol Burnett, VL ,sang that song is just so amusing. Actually, I really miss Carol, Vicki, Harvey, and Tim Conway!
Sorry for going OT, but that Saturday line-up of All in the Family, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett just can’t ever be topped. In those days, the country had more shared experiences as the media choices were not as varied and while it’s nice to have so many choices (as in this computer and blogging), it was a very “bonding” experience when the nation as a whole shared so many things.
You know, that name does ring a vague bell, but I remember no particulars. How about you save me from a Google search and fill me in? I do remember (who can forget?) how we thought we were really getting away with something with “Louie, Louie.” We also thought Mick was quite risque with “Can’t get no…I can’t no….I can’t get no….. satisfaction. Hey, hey, hey!” LOL.
Carole–
It’s the last line of verse three that’s the clincher:
Well I laughed but that didn’t work,
and it’s only her love that keeps me wearing this hurt.
Now I’m crying but deep down inside,
well I did it to him, now it’s my turn to die.
And hey, I left out Vicki Lawrence’s “That’s The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”…’little sister got’s bloodstains on her hands”…
LOL. I guess there are occasional side benefits to having a karaoke addiction!
Another fun search for the new year, 2009 is to pull up the Billboard Top 100 for 1969 (40 years ago!) and then groan to realize how old we are!!!
When I was young, the radio did actually censor a few songs. Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” was banned on some stations due to it’s interracial theme…so was a song called “Beans In Your Ears” (a dangerous suggestion). The Guess Who’s “Bus Rider” would get bleeped for the “I’m so awful #@$% glad I’m not in your shoes” and some would even bleep the simple ‘damned’ from Jonathan Edward’s “Sunshine”…”He can’t even run his own life; I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine.”
So refreshing to see that censorship is back in vogue.
Happy New Year!!!
One final tidbit: There is one famous song that got blackballed all across America even though it was immensely popular. I really do need to do some more follow up on that story. It was a first (to my memory) when dj’s themselves said ‘this song is trash; it’s meaning and essence is garbage; we simply aren’t going to play it anymore’. Remember Rico Suave? Reee-ko Swarrr-vey…..
Eddy, I loved your post:
I luvvvv the Bee Gees so when I reached “Gotta Get a Message to You,” I thought, “Huh? That’s about a criminal?” So here I sat, trying to remember the lyrics, mumbling, grumbling, singing off key (nothing new, for sure). It is one of those recordings which enables the listener to sing along only so far before he or she is reduced to humming or garbling nonsense after reaching a certain part where the lyrics are obscured by the orchestration and/or the mumbling of the singers. Yep. The Bee Gees are indeed hard to understand , but I love ’em anyway.
So, “Hold ooon, hold onnnnnn”? That was about a criminal trying to see her for the last time? Guess that’s what the “One more hour and my life will be through” was all about. Boy, do I feel dumb! Guess I need to go to Lyrics.com!
Oh, and “Delta Dawn” ? I admit to pulling out my Helen Reddy and blasting that song as loudly as I can in the car. Personally, I do think it’s a very empathic song, funny also that my sister only yesterday said, “I wish Helen Reddy still performed.”
So, you got me to singing songs I love, but your point is very well taken, Eddy–so true.
Meatloaf? “No, I can’t_do_ THAT!” LOL.
Patrick,
Kind of makes you wonder??? I’d like to know, seriously.
Eddy,
How true!!! Little brown jug, oh I love thee!!
Gotta love the censors!
We can accommodate the messages of “LOLA”, “Walk On The Wild Side”, “Me and Mrs Jones”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Rehab”, “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights”….
We can sing of criminals: “Indiana Wants Me”, “Green Green Grass Of Home”, “Gotta Get A Message To You”, “Delilah”….
Crazy people: “Delta Dawn”, “Copacabana”, “Angie Baby”, “They’re Coming To Take Me Away”….
We sing of lovin’, of cheating, of two-timing, of moving on, of stepping out, of finding the real thing, of working things through….
But, yeah, we simply cannot have a song about that.
@Timothy Kincaid:
Another song about causes. Add it to the musical.
Patrick
I found them:
Oh… wait… maybe not
🙂
Wow an exgay love song.
I would love to read the lyrics of the song – translated of course 🙂
Do you know if the two Lucas are the same person?
Seems I have read of Volante’s “conversion” in the last couple of years. But then I lost all that blood and I can’t remember some things. He was in the Italian parliament (or whatever they call it), I think. Why, yes he is!
Then there is what Volante said about a poster in Tuscany that had a baby with a wrist-band that said “homosexual” on it.
Volante said: “Using newborns to make people believe that homosexual impulses are an innate characteristic is dishonest and a disgrace.”
See: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-10-25-ad-showing-homosexual-newborn-causes-stir-in-italy
Reuters has a picture of the poster:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL253376720071025
For some, it has happened. And yes we do hear, read, feel the protests.
Not everyone who has SSA has it to the length, depth, and breadth of similar degrees. For some – it really does get switched off (I am not saying all, or most etc…)
We are hearing the protests from others over those who have changed their minds on how the will act. Sort of brings to mind all those transgendered people and the old double standard swithcheroo – if it is indeed wholly biological. Which I doubt.
I agree
I think that may be a bit of a stretch, at least as it applies to men. I haven’t heard many who claim that their same-sex attractions were gone completely.
I’ve heard of those who have found meaning and value in celibacy. I’ve heard of those who are able to focus on the value of their wife and family. I’ve heard of those who avoid temptations including what they watch, who they know, and where they go. I’ve heard of some who are able to build support networks. And
I’ve even heard of those who so redefine “heterosexual” that it includes wandering eyes and sex dreams about the same sex. And I’ve certainly heard of those who find that “the opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality but godliness”.
But so far – and I’m admitting that I don’t know EVERY ex-gay – but so far the only ones I’ve heard claim that their same-sex attraction was entirely “switched off” are Wirthlin (who is, I believe, in his 70’s) and Bennett (whom I will refrain from characterizing).
I think it may be more accurate to say that gays protest (loudly) at those who claim that they are now “heterosexual”, that gays can “change”, that “no one is born gay”, and that homosexuality can be “overcome”, when the evidence (from themselves) shows that these statements are not truthful unless ex-gays redefine their terms to mean something other than what they mean.
They are tired of false witness.
TK,
I can only speak for women and from my own experience. It does not mean that at some time in the future things won’t change. It was not a purely scientific statment. But it does mean that we don’t all go around just repressing feelings either and have “switched” a switch if you will. Nor does it mean that gay feelings die and go away. Just like the feelings of anger towards a person who has harmed you greatly. The feelings go away but can come back if reminded – like any other event in our lives. We don’t take away anything – but we add to our experiences and our lives, perceptions, attitudes etc… change. Unless you’ve been there on this issue – it really is difficult to explain. Some people want to insist that if the feelings don’t go away completely and forever then the feelings are ever present and only repressed. Not so.
A person remembers. We just add more understanding and new experiences to our lives. We change, we grow, we re-define. Just like gay people who are in the coming out process. It is a constant reformation of oneself. You take a part of yourself that you thought you knew and explore it deeper. Like everyone who works on an aspect of themselve.
Mary,
Sometimes I think that female and male sexuality are about as alike as cheese and cheesecake. So I’ll not argue about the experiences of women.
But, I think from what I’ve read (and again, I’m not really in their head) from male ex-gays, quite often this is almost an all-consuming battle. But perhaps that’s only for the professional ex-gays.
I guess I’ll let them speak in their own voice, however. I can’t know to what extent they find the process easier over time, I can only go by what they say and do.
I‘ll just stick to speaking for the gay folk… them I have a better grasp on.
Timothy,
Men are men. Women are women. We are different creatures. I am convinced of that!! I have a friend who tells me that there are something like over a thousand differences (physically) between men and women. Many of them chemical and that’s a whole lot of stuff to consider.
I often wonder if I had been male and gay, what the expereince would be like to go through the whole ex gay thing? I mean, (cover you eyes if you squimish) How does a christian man who has experienced the stimulation of his prostate gland, and the understanding of male companionship go back to some idea of a woman who knows nothing about his body and that satisfaction?? How does he overcome all of that. I mean, that’s sort of one of those things that … you know?? Many women (and I am suspecting even more christian women) will find all sorts of excuses to not do some sexual thing. I just wonder about those kinds of things. Men are so physical, even the most religious.
Maybe Mary all exgays are tops 🙂
Sorry couldn’t resist.
Patrick
I found them:
Oh… wait… maybe not
🙂
You think it’s bad now…
Just wait until scientists actually do come up with a way to switch gay attraction to straight. HOLY GUACAMOLE! Those are going to be some scary protests.
Uh oh!!! Rights protest or censorship??