Michael Glatze, wrer for the (now shuttered) gay twk magaze XY and the short-lived publitn Young Gay Ameri who went "ex-gay" and beme a poster boy for that movement, marryg a woman 2013, sat down for an terview wh vlogger Jake Reynolds followg the screeng of the new movie, I Am Michael at Sundance. I Am Michael is based on the Beno Denizet-Lewis NYT article "My Ex-Gay Friend". You n read here. Glatze (played by Jam Fran the film) appeared thrilled wh his portrayal and told Reynolds that is a turng pot his life: "Life is startg up aga. It's almost like a new life. I thank Jam Fran for that. I did. I sent an email for him and I said 'thank you so much for your tert this project' bee has been the spark to a gigantic healg procs for so many people my world, and now we n rejo the rt of the world." For those who are not faiar wh Glatze's story this requir a b of ntext. Wayne Ben, founr of Tth Ws Out, an anizatn that has voted much time to exposg the "ex-gay" myth, wrote about Glatze's story 2013: Mr. Glatze worked for XY Magaze and was the -founr of a short-lived LGBT teenie-bopper mag, Young Gay Ameri. Sudnly, he broke up wh his boyiend and had what appeared to be a nervo breakdown, where he had severe panic attacks about dyg. Durg the disturbg episos, he renounced his sexual orientatn and temporarily nverted to Mormonism. Though he had dived to the Mormon fah wh gto, he jt as quixotilly abandoned this fah to bee an outspoken fundamentalist Christian... .. began wrg cendiary op-eds for World Net Daily where he claimed to be “repulsed by homosexualy.” He appeared on Porno Pete LaBarbera’s rad show. However, his time on the “ex-gay” circu was short-lived and he proved to be an petent spokperson. His lumns were so beyond the pale, that he alienated long-time “ex-gay” activists. Eventually, Glatze was dmmed out of the “ex-gay” dtry after a meltdown. His mise me after he wrote a racist rant agast print Barack Obama on his blog... Fran this week reacted to the experience of meetg Glatze for the first time and said that Glatze told him the film was "healg" as well. Fran add: "In a way, we had to show to him we were gog to have a very even-hand, non-judgmental approach, but we also had to say to ourselv, 'We’re not tellg this story jt to make Michael happy, we’re tellg the story to get both sis.' The bt we uld do was say to him, 'We have good tentns. We’re not gog to ccify or judge you but we also need to tell the story om the other si as well as the si you’re on now.'" However, there is only one si to the "ex-gay" story, and if the film (which I have not seen but was reviewed by our film cric here) prents beg "ex-gay" as a valid optn life, will certaly do a disservice to all of the young gay people who have been irreparably damaged by so lled "nversn therapy", "ex-gay" mistri, and so on. As time go by, former "ex-gays" and proponents (John Plk, Randy Thomas, Robert Spzer, and Jam Stabile, and more) ntue to e out and reveal that beg "ex-gay" is a damagg, damagg myth. In the new terview, Glatze is asked what he would say to the gay youth who have said they were hurt and felt betrayed by Glatze's renunciatn of his inty: "I'm sorry, and that is one of the thgs I would say to anyone who has been hurt by any of the words that have e through my mouth or typed out on a puter even through vio is that I'm sorry for any of the pa that I have ed. I lerally feel that and have been alg wh that over the past really three or four years pecially. It has jt been a lot of the procs of healg for me - we've been gog through that together - and jt growg what the Buddhist teacher kd of observed was missg me at that time was there (are) amends to be ma then to make those amends and not offend anyone on eher si. We've got to be very reful wh that." Watch the terview, AFTER THE JUMP...
Contents:
- MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
- ‘EX-GAY’ MICHAEL GLATZE SAYS JAM FRAN FILM GAVE HIM ‘NEW LIFE’, APOLOGIZ TO GAY YOUTH: VIDEO
- WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?
- EX-GAY MICHAEL GLATZE PROFILED NEW YORK TIM
- MY EX-GAY FRIEND
- WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
* ex gay michael *
My mom is a problem solver, and the next day she hand me a stack of papers she had prted out om the Inter about reorientatn, or "ex-gay, " therapy. Joseph Nilosi, a clil psychologist California who was then print of the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), the untry's largt anizatn for practners of ex-gay therapy.
Nilosi's rner office had emerald-green rpet and mahogany bookshelv led wh tl like Homosexualy: A Freedom Too Far and Homosexualy and the Polics of Tth. " Although I might never feel a spark of excement when I saw a woman walkg down the street, as I progrsed therapy, my homosexual attractns would dimish.
The other men-four or five altogether-were their forti and fifti and talked about their years the "gay liftyle, " which had yield only unhapps.
‘EX-GAY’ MICHAEL GLATZE SAYS JAM FRAN FILM GAVE HIM ‘NEW LIFE’, APOLOGIZ TO GAY YOUTH: VIDEO
While speakg Sgapore at a semar sponsored by Foc on the Fay, I was asked the qutn: What about ex-ex-gays? Do their existence prove that is really impossible for people to change their sexual orientatn? * ex gay michael *
I left the office wh a py of Nilosi's most recent book, Healg Homosexualy, and a worksheet that tegorized different emotns unr the brics of "te self" and "false self. Another sheet illtrated the "triadic relatnship" that led to homosexualy: a passive, distant father, an overvolved mother, and a sensive child. My mother might not have so easily found rmatn about ex-gay therapy had the Christian right not planted this stake the culture ad appeared 23 years after the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) classified homosexualy as a mental illns.
A small group of therapists ntued to practice talk therapy that enuraged patients to see homosexualy as a velopmental disorr, but they remaed on the ge until the Christian right took up their e. Instead of fire-and-brimstone nunciatns om the pulp, the ex-gay movement allowed the Christian right to uch s nmnatn of homosexualy a way that seemed passnate. Foc on the Fay lled s new ex-gay mistry Love Won Out and talked about healg and rg for ex-gay movement turned the rhetoric of gay rights agast self: Shouldn't ex-gays be able to pursue therapy and live the liv they want whout facg discrimatn?
Together wh the late Charl Soris, a psychiatrist who led the opposn to classifyg homosexualy as a mental illns, Nilosi formed NARTH 1992 as a "scientific anizatn that offers hope to those who stggle wh unwanted homosexualy. Nilosi remas NARTH's most visible are no reliable statistics for how many patients have received ex-gay treatment or how many therapists practice , but the late 1990s and early 2000s, ex-gay therapy enjoyed a legimacy hadn't sce the APA removed homosexualy om s diagnostic manual.
WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?
Whether or not the Christian right's alliance wh the ex-gay movement had nstuted a D-Day the culture wars, had succsfully challenged the prevailg ia that the bt choice for gay people was to accept themselv. I read one of Nilosi's books, Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexualy, that he tri to posn himself as a supportive father figure, typifyg the sort of relatnship that he believ his patients never had wh their own father. When I left for Yale, my mother sent me off wh a warng: Were she to disver that I had "entered the gay liftyle, " my parents would no longer pay for my tn.
What translated to the larger culture was: The father of the 1973 revolutn the classifitn and treatment of homosexualy, who uld not be seen as jt another biased ex-gay csar wh an agenda, had validated ex-gay therapy. Participants had been referred to Spzer by ex-gay groups like NARTH and Exod, which had an tert remendg clients who would validate their work. Spzer was drawn to the topic of ex-gay therapy bee was ntroversial-"I was always attracted to ntroversy"-but was troubled by how the study was received.
The need for that evince beme more prsg the early 2000s, when a dre of gay-rights bloggers began to sctize the movement, ready to expose any ht of hypocrisy. Richard Cohen, the founr of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays)-tend as the ex-gay unterpart to PFLAG (Parents, Fai, and Friends of Lbians and Gays)-was expelled om the Amerin Counselg Associatn for ethics vlatns.
EX-GAY MICHAEL GLATZE PROFILED NEW YORK TIM
Michael Johnston, the founr of "Natnal Comg Out of Homosexualy Day, " was revealed to have fected men he'd met on the Inter wh HIV through unprotected sex.
Among them were Alan Downg, the lead therapist of JONAH (Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy), who ma his patients strip and touch themselv ont of a mirror; NARTH member Christopher At, who was nvicted of "unlawfully, tentnally and knowgly [g] peratn of" a client; and Exod-affiliated Mike Jon, who asked a patient to take off his shirt and do ph-ups for movement also suffered several high-profile fectns.
John Evans, who had found the first ex-gay mistry outsi of San Francis, renounced change therapy when a iend mted suici after failg to bee heterosexual. " In 2007, Exod -founr Michael Bsee apologized for his role startg the as a rponse to the rurgence of ex-gay therapy, mastream profsnal anizatns also took a harr stance. " The APA now tells s members they should not engage the the past few years, even Exod has begun to show cracks s support for ex-gay therapy.
MY EX-GAY FRIEND
The group no longer talks about "Freedom om Homosexualy"-s motto-but about the nobily of ntug to stggle agast same-sex has also begun to distance self om NARTH.
When asked about the possibily of gay people changg their sexual orientatn, Chambers-who'd once claimed that he knew of thoands of succs stori-said "99. I beme creasgly prsed but didn't go to mental-health unselg for fear that a well-meang therapist would rm my parents that I was livg the "gay liftyle.
WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
But the sprg of my sophomore year, the disparate parts of myself I had managed to hold together-the part of me that thought beg gay was wrong, the part that slept wh men anyway, the part of myself I let the world see, and the part that suffered silence-me undone.
While took years of unselg to disabe myself of the ias I had learned while unrgog therapy wh Nilosi, was the first time I enuntered profsnals who were affirmg of my sexualy, and the first time I allowed myself to thk was all right to be gay.