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'Gay cure' Protest - Update No 1

As I write the numbers on the Facebook group are already looking quite impressive. 35 people have agreed to attend while anoter 47 are "maybe attending". Most amazingly, there are another 810 people who have been invited but haven't replied yet. This is truly great!

We are still trying to confirm that the venue is the one we think it is (the Emmanuel Centre). IF anyone can think of a way to acertain this, then please do so and let me know. The protest is scheduled for Saturday 25 April between 1 and 3pm. The Police has been made aware of this and of the Facebook group. I haven't heard back from them yet.

I would like the protest to peaceful (certainly) and possibly also silent. I welcome people's views on this. In any case, we need to be as visibly LGBT as possible. Please bring your rainbow flags along. I would also encourage people to create placards (the only slogan I could think of so far is "Gay don't need a cure".).

Appart from the Facebook group. I have contacted the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Changing Attitude, the University and College Union, the LGBT Consortium (who are having conference on Friday 24th in London and will hopefully mention the protest there), several other groups on Facebook and Stonewall. I have also created an event on Thingbox and on the LGBT London forum.

Someone I know has sent an email to a mailing list of 450 people (thanks Rob!) and I am about to post on the blog of Schools Out, the mailing list of the London Gay Men's Chorus and that of the London Gay Reading Group.

If you can think of other organisations you have access to, please contact them and keep the word out there.

Finally I would like to thank everyone for their support and confidence. I hope we can make a real difference and show those people that we are here, happy with who we are and more importantly vigilant and not willing to be mistreated any longer.

See you on Saturday.

See also
- Protest against the 'gay cure' conference to be held in London (25 April).
- 'Gay cure' protest - press release
- 'Gay cure' Protest - Update No 2
- 'Gay cure' Protest - Update No 3
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Comments

  1. Agate4/22/2009 8:53 pm

    Having read books by the speakers, it would appear that you have misheard what the conference is about. Not one of them is speaking of curing homosexual, only allowing those who want to leave homosexuality because of unwanted homosexual feelings to live the life they choose. It is the gay lobby that is speaking of cure not Dr's Satinover or Nicolosi. All they are doing is fighting for people's right to choose.

    Also, are you speaking about the conference being run by Anglican Mainstream as this is not about curing homosexuality, but about all forms of modern sexual activity including pornography. If it is the Anglican Mainstream conference you are planning to protest outside then it may be an idea to check their website to see what the conference is actually about - or would that be politically incorrect to check your facts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. zefrog4/23/2009 12:07 pm

    Dear Agate,

    Sadly one of the speakers is clearly advocating a cure. See this article in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/apr/03/weekend.deccaaitkenhead

    The fact that some people my not feel at ease about who they are is because of the attitude and rhetoric of people like the speakers, the organisers and the members of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

    If they were more Christian in there ways (ie like Christ), welcoming, accepting and supportive of gay people, there wouldn't be any need for therapies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liam4/23/2009 1:20 pm

    Hello Agate

    Whatever else may be covered by the conference, the website headlines it prominently with the authors of three books; “Shame, Homosexuality and the Practical Work of Reparative Therapy,” “Homosexuality and Politics of Truth” and “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality and the Power to Change.”

    The ‘background information and more detail’ which takes up more than half of the page talks extensively and almost exclusively about the gay movement, resisting ‘unwanted Same Sex Attraction’ and Joe Nicolosi’s ‘Affect-Focussed Therapy.’

    If the conference marketing is so heavily tilted towards one particular theme, I don’t see any reason to believe the conference agenda will be any different. Perhaps you are the one who should check their facts?

    ReplyDelete
  4. David4/23/2009 2:01 pm

    Nicolosi, Satinover, and the other speakers who will be appearing at the Conference are at root all about ELIMINATING HOMOSEXUALITY.

    There is no escaping this reality. They may call it "reparative therapy" or whatever they like, but it is about ELIMINATING HOMOSEXUALITY in people through a programme of brainwash and behaviour-modification which is ludicrous.

    At the end of the day, the programme has been demonstrated to be ineffectual, it cannot change one's homosexual nature, try as the perpetrators might. It has been demonstrated that all they CAN do is encourage self-hating gay men and lesbians to use their will-power to RESIST their true sexual natures and live and behave in another manner - in other words, to pretend!

    Nicolosi's "Reparative Therapy" fails to effect any "repairs" whatsoever.

    Anyway, our heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual natures don't need repairing: all they need is accepting and respecting

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nic Gilder4/24/2009 1:25 am

    I'm sorry Agate, what makes you or anyone else think that a persons sexuality is a choice? I didn't choose to be Gay. I am Gay. Just as a man doesn't choose to be a man, a woman a woman, a black man a black man or a bigoted, right winged, christian, fundamentalist a bigoted, right winged, christian, fundamentalist, I have no control over what your creator has chosen to make me. I suppose the only difference is, unlike those people supporting this event, I respect that creator for his wisdom and choice in making me who I am. And trust me Agate, I'm Proud of who I am.

    ReplyDelete
  6. zefrog4/24/2009 9:44 am

    To be fair, Nic, I do think that the "bigoted, right winged, christian, fundamentalist" does have a choice in being "a bigoted, right winged, christian, fundamentalist"...

    ReplyDelete

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