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Q - L I V I N G Opinion by Rev. Irene Monroe . Contributing Writer Ted Haggard’s not fooling anyone No lie lives forever. And no one should know this better than Rev. Ted Haggard. First he lied about being gay and now he’s lying about being “cured” of his homosexuality in only three weeks. But since the average “treat ment” period is almost four and a half years, even his Christian cohorts are not buying it. So what’s behind Haggard’s tall tale? Internalized homophobia. Excommunicated from the GOP inner sanctum and the Christian Right’s hallowed sanctuary, Haggard now hopes to regain the creature comforts he once had — a political platform, a bully pulpit and heterosexual priv ilege. And to regain it all, he must whore him self as the pitchman for “reparative therapies.” Once a national bigwig. Haggard is founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and was president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He wielded influence on Capitol Hill as part of a cadre of men who participat ed in conservative Christian leadership con ference calls with the White House. As a GOP insider. Haggard was one of this nation’s key advocates for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. After Massachusetts legalized marriage equality in 2004, Haggard, along with others, began aggressively organizing state-by-state opposition that resulted in pushing Colorado’s Saturday March 17th St. Patrick's Day Party • ft Daily Drink Specials www.thecellblocknc.com Guys Gone Wild Wednesday! Open 5:00 pm to 2:00 am 7 Days Per Week WiFi now available same-sex marriage ban for the 2006 ballot. But as one of the GOP’s closeted front men, he facilitated in demonizing homosexuality while his party politicizes h. And in the face of his own truth that he is gay. Haggard ranted and railed against gays, while privately hving a dif ferent life, one on the down low in drug-fueled homosexual trysts for at least three years. And in his effort to convert gays to a life of Jesus, Haggard fronted a “conversion” ministry to frequent gay bars while inviting these lost souls not only to his congregation for worship, but "also to his hotel suite for sex. In spite of the overwhelming scientific evi dence from major health and professional associations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, so- called “conversion therapies” do not work. Instead, they produce politically and reli giously Biased Agenda-Driven (aptly abbrevi ated “B.A.D.”) science like “reparative thera pies,” attempting to justify them by presenting LGBT people as genetically flawed. This charge is eerily reminiscent of the scientific racism and sexism that once served as the foundation for treatment of blacks and women as morally inferior due to supposed genetic flaws. And back in the day, “reparative therapies” consist ed of testicular castration, electroshock thera py and lobotomies. But the truth is that these “ex-gay repara tive therapies” have a failure rate of 90 percent, and several “ex-gay” groups have had to shut down when their leaciers finally dealt with the reality of their own hofiiosexuality. Case in point: John Paulk, once a nationally known “ex-gay” poster boy, appeared in Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) 2000 photo album with a one-word caption: “Gotcha!” That Kodak moment was captured by Wayne Besen,then HRC’s associate director of communications, as he snapped a picture of Paulk in a Washington, D.C., gay bar. In that moment, pande monium broke out in the bar, as the series of flashes from Besen’s camera were assumed by some to be those of a homophobe harassing a patron. But as Paulk hunched down trying to conceal his face, he learned that he could nei ther run nor hide. Paulk said he went into the bar just to use the bathroom — an unlikely story, as 40 min utes after entering the bar, he was still there, keeping company with both a drink and a fellow patron. Paulk, a former drag queen known as Candi and a one-time first runner-up in the Miss The biggest lie: Ted Haggard says he’s ‘cured.’ Ingenue pageant, is presently married to a self- proclaimed former lesbian who also underwent counseling in an “ex-gay” ministry run by Exodus International. Today, they both don the drag of being heterosexually married. They prominently graced the cover of Newsweek, appeared on “60 Minutes” and “Oprah” and wrote the book that gave Focus on the Family the name for its “ex-gay” conferences—“Love Won Out,” a memoir depicting the Paulks’ flight from gayhood. When we miss the essential point that human life is varied, precious and of equal worth, such as “reparative therapies” do, we ignore the unique gifts that each life brings to each other and the world. “Ex-gay” min istries do not focus on this human uniqueness, but instead blur the distinctive ness that makes us who we are — a human tapestry of variety. And diminishing that variety not only diminishes ourselves, but also violates our basic civil rights. Haggard’s fall from grace is his act of infidelity toward his wife. His sin, however, is not his sexual orientation, but rather his participation in this country’s political and religious institutional structures that fight against LGBT people’s rights of selfhood, including his own. And his biggest lie is when he says he is healed. I FEBRUARY 24 .2007 •, Q-NQTES 41
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