Andrew Caldwell’s ex-gay church viral vio: Why are we lghg at ?

Contents:

• “I’M NOT GAY NO MORE” CHURCHGOER STILL DIR MEN, ADMS HE HASN’T BEEN “DELIVERDT”
• WHY DID ANDREW CALDWELL’S EX-GAY VIO GO VIRAL?
• CHURCH THREATENS LAWSU OVER 'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' SONG
• 'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' GUY -- I WENT VIRAL ... NOW I'M MAK' RERDS
• MAN WHO CLAIMED 'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' RPONDS TO CRICS
• ‘I’M NOT GAY NO MORE’ PARODY VIO
• GAY NO MORE
• I'M NOT GAY NO MORE MEME GENERATOR
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND
• HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN
• MAN ON MAN BRGS BIG GAY ENERGY TO GRAMPS
• SEND HUNTER BIN IRS WHISTLEBLOWER INTIFIED AS GAY DEMOCRAT

“I’M NOT GAY NO MORE” CHURCHGOER STILL DIR MEN, ADMS HE HASN’T BEEN “DELIVERDT”

" Andrew Caldwell liv Missouri, but he reached out to NBC12 to clear the air about the vio, his "gay nversn" experience and the backlash he has felt.

You may rell the story of Caldwell, who beme a virtual h last fall when he flamboyantly nounced his homosexualy at the 107th Holy Convotn of the Church of God In Christ St. “I’m not gay no more, ” said Caldwell, who was cked out a paisley jacket, purple shirt, and flouncy bow tie a vio that went viral, spawng jok, songs, and ritur. And now we are alg wh Andrew Caldwell, a 21-year-old man whose exuberant claratn of havg been cured of homosexualy was met wh much jubilatn by atten of the Church of God Christ’s 107th Holy Convotn … and much chucklg by the gay blogosphere.

WHY DID ANDREW CALDWELL’S EX-GAY VIO GO VIRAL?

While the figur the vios are very different—Jordan openly and happily intifi as gay, while Caldwell ntu to assert he is ex-gay—I n’t help but nsir them together terms of the rponse they’ve generated. I prevly argued that Jordan’s allure lay the trouble he ed for ntemporary ias about “rpectable” gay behavr; he b the sweet of entertament wh the salty be of transgrsn. But wh that ntext, we’re shown a man who, spe or perhaps bee of the words g out of his mouth (women, women, women), seems very gay, at least the sense of cultural markers.

We all see this and regnize , and yet the current polil paradigm of self-claratn disurag fg gayns those terms (at least public), so we’re left sort of a strange posn. Do we believe Caldwell, sce he is very fiantly not “out, ” or do we go wh our gaydars and ntue to nsir this man a homo (and perhaps even a n artist) spe his prottatns? When the gay blogs ially vered the vio’s viral breakout, most posted wh ltle mentary other than a general suggtn that this object was patently risible.

CHURCH THREATENS LAWSU OVER 'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' SONG

The “church queen”—the closeted gay man who sublimat his sexualy service of the church, often an artistic pacy like choir director—is a faiar and oft-rid figure.

'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' GUY -- I WENT VIRAL ... NOW I'M MAK' RERDS

” Cane is hard on the “black church” about s role trmatizg gays, llg “te, ep vlence, ” but he also nmns those mockg Caldwell as participatg his abe. So much of the rponse to this vio (among the gay muny, anyway) has felt giddy that way people get when they are actually anx about somethg ser. The church muny appears to be important to this man, and is clear that he nnot be openly gay and rema a part of this particular one.

Nor, should be said, n he fd shelter the church queen archetype; the succs of the gay rights movement has had the nsequence of makg those kds of prevly tolerated rol creasgly untenable.

MAN WHO CLAIMED 'I'M NOT GAY NO MORE' RPONDS TO CRICS

In the end, I wonr if we are not so much embarrassed for Caldwell as we are embarrassed that people like Caldwell may see so ltle of value current gay culture that nyg themselv orr to fd acceptance where they n is an appealg optn. The Church of God Christ has orred Andrew Caldwell to stop sellg the “I’m Not Gay No More” chant that he turned to a song or face a lawsu.

The church also feels that Caldwell is makg a joke out of the whole thg by attemptg to prof off of what was supposed to be a public liverance om the gay of Thursday (Nov.

‘I’M NOT GAY NO MORE’ PARODY VIO

Image source, gicmister2 (YouTube)Image ptn, The vio was shot at a nference St LouisFootage showg a man renouncg his homosexualy at a church event St Louis has been viewed more than a ln tim - and now the man qutn appears to have spoken out on Facebook.

"I'm not gay no more, " says the man the film, shot last week at a major gatherg of the Church of God Christ, a Pentestal church wh branch across Ameri. Someone of the same name has posted on Facebook discsg his difficult upbrgg, and sayg he renounced homosexualy bee his "liftyle was not right", though we nnot verify this rmatn.

GAY NO MORE

He says many Pentestal church have gay members whose sexualy is rarely discsed public, and for them the vio sh unwanted attentn on the matter. "A statement released by the Church of God Christ to the BBC said that whilst would not promise s posn " favour of biblil teachg on matters of sexual nduct" - or other words that do not approve of homosexualy - expected s lears to be civil and nsirate, and nmned harassment all forms. A Missouri man claimg that he was livered om homosexualy at the Church of God Christ nvotn is rpondg to cricisms about the vio that has bee a viral sensatn.

Will Batts of the Memphis Gay and Lbian Communy center said, “Every reputable scientific study on this experience says you nnot change someone’s orientatn. While preachg agast homosexualy is standard fare for s learship, is wily known that many closeted gay men and women are active COGIC’s hight held offic. A breakaway group of Christian and secular therapists claims to be able to nvert homosexual to heterosexuals—if they'll jt get wh the program.

So Simmons spl up wh his male partner and started attendg the Orlando-based Eltheros, one of more than 100 Christian anizatns the Uned Stat dited to helpg people forego gay sex. There, at a mistry that believ homosexualy stems om fay dysfunctn, Simmons talked about growg up wh a father who was a ary medic and would disappear for six-month tours aboard a Coast Guard cutter. The key was an "acuntabily group, " six to eight men to whom he was required to report every homosexual ntact, every same-sex fantasy, every trip to a gay bar.

I'M NOT GAY NO MORE MEME GENERATOR

Simmons' is one of the real-life stori behd the "ex-gay" movement, a loose alliance of secular unselors, renega psychoanalysts and Christian mistri that believe homosexualy is a pathology that n be overe.

Though no statistics exist on the number of men and women who have tried to change their orientatns, Exod Internatnal, the Christian ex-gay umbrella-anizatn, timat has field 200, 000 quiri om homosexuals and their fai sce the 1970s, acrdg to director Bob Davi. The ads feature photos of men and women who have stggled wh same-sex attractn and have a text that reads, "Thoands of ex-gays like the have walked away om their homosexual inti. While the paths each took to homosexualy may vary, their stori of hope and healg through the transformg love of J Christ are the same.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

The ads have sparked a firtorm of ntroversy, wh lbian and gay activists accg the sponsors, cludg the Christian Coaln, of explog sexually nfed dividuals to promote an iologil agenda.

"We're not ee om the opportuny, but we're ee om the power of s, " says Greg Wallace, an ex-gay who now ns the Livg Waters mistry Beech Grove, Indiana.

Most psychologists say that nversn mistri and therapists are tryg to force lbians and gay men to a mold that don't really f, and the rults uld lead to prsn, addictn, even suici.

IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND

" Lookg at fai wh more than one gay member, Hamer and his lleagu have ed herance patterns to theorize that the X chromosome ntas a gene that predispos some men toward homosexualy. In one study, Hamer examed 40 pairs of gay brothers and found that 33 of the pairs had five intil strips of DNA on their X chromosom.

D., a nro scientist, has noted topsy studi that a certa nucls--or cell clter-- the hypothalam is between two and three tim larger straight men than gay men. ) LeVay's fdgs are open to challenge; for example, some crics note that the "gay bras" belonged to men who died of AIDS, whose nuclei might have been shnk by their meditns. Known as "reparative therapists, " they hew to an alternative theory of homosexualy, which has been adopted by both the secular and relig arms of the ex-gay movement.

"Nature ma man plementary to woman, and to clg to the samens of one's own sex is to look at the world wh one eye, " he wr his book Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexualy (Jason Aronson, 1991). Andrew Sullivan, former edor of The New Republic and a gay man, not that if distant fathers were the e, "then most of the generatns born between 1930 and 1980 would be homosexual.

HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN

There might also, perhaps, be a startlg rise homosexualy among Ain-Amerins the last 20 years, when absent fathers have bee the norm, rather than the exceptn. He scrib gay sex as "isolated and narcissistic, " bee partners experience asm separately and mt negotiate their sexual rol the acts they perform. Nilosi ignor the fact that lbians are famoly monogamo and dismiss two rpected studi sayg the majory of gay men have 20 or fewer panners their lifetim.

MAN ON MAN BRGS BIG GAY ENERGY TO GRAMPS

Usg such techniqu, Christian mistri and reparative therapists claim to succsfully nvert about 30 percent of homosexuals their programs.

Would-be nverts, say psychologists, typilly e om eply thorarian backgrounds where homosexualy is brand immoral or a s, while others are married and nnot rencile their fay mments wh their erotic sir. Two of the founrs of Exod Internatnal, Michael Bsee and Gary Cooper, left the anizatn after fallg love, and more than a dozen Christian mistri have closed down after their lears reverted back to homosexualy.

SEND HUNTER BIN IRS WHISTLEBLOWER INTIFIED AS GAY DEMOCRAT

There is now an rmal work of "ex-ex-gays, " people who tried unsuccsfully to change their orientatns, and stead have learned to live as gay men and lbians.

Young men and olr male mentors, who were supposed to serve as surrogate fathers, sometim began livg together relatnships that were sentially gay, except that there was no sex. " After a year and half and still sperate for help, Rix drove to another charismatic church where a woman promised to exorcise his homosexualy She laid hands on his head, anoted his forehead wh oil and started prayg.

The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey. Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment. Those Wtern Europe and the Ameris are generally more acceptg of homosexualy than are those Eastern Europe, Rsia, Ukrae, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Ai.