Happy 2007! I had sort of a quiet day. I just got done walking the dogs, and am going to go out to the Zone. (I sort of feel like I want to mae a stab at being social.) Tomorrow is New Years's Day dinner with family.

This was silly and fun.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Highness Michael the Subservient of Deepest Throcking Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I am doing a bit of work in trying to prepare for the Erie Blogger meetup portal page at ErieBlogs.com. Here is a message I sent to the Flickr and Yahoo groups:

Hey all,

I wanted to have a group for just photos taken at Erie Blogger meetups/social events (i.e. organized events that we have scheduled over the past 9 months or so, all of them thus far at Panera's.)

If you have photos from previous get togethers, would you please post them to http://www.flickr.com/groups/eriebloggermeetups/, so that we can have 1 central location.

I wasn't sure how to handle the old Erie Bloggers in the Wild Flickr group (which I haven't done much with), so maybe we can keep that for people who identify as Erie Bloggers, but which may or may not be photos from events.

Anywho, any help in getting the photos up to date.

To follow up, we had a nice chat with 2 of the guys from ErieBlogs.com, and they are working on a portal page for the Erie Blogger meetups. I am guessing that when that is up and running, we will probably get away from using the Yahoo group. The portal page will hopefully also have a feed of photos from the Erie Blogger Meetups Flickr group.

Sound okay?

I get email from all over, and I got the following from the Baileywick Repertory Theatre in Chicago about Barenaked Lads Save Christmas!

Please note the composer's name: Michael S. Mahler (my middle initial is K.) However, a revue encompassing naked men and show tunes, not to mention twisted humor? It's like looking in a mirror! Okay, probably a mirror at a bathhouse, but a mirror nonetheless.)

NAKED CHRISTMAS?

Our newest holiday entertainment, the musical review BARENAKED LADS SAVE CHRISTMAS has gotten great reviews as well. Don't miss what Mary Shen Barnidge in Windy City Times says "the six athletic performers glow with enough congenial warmth to provide us with a welcome 75 minutes of escapist enjoyment."
Writer Andy Eninger and composer Michael S. Mahler have created some truly unique takes on life during the holidays with Eninger and Mahler looking for the naked truth in the holidays and ripping the stockings off of all that we hold dear. Santa Claus gets caught with his pants down; 'Project Runway' gets runover by a reindeer; naked elves get more than they bargained for; and twisted Christmas carols abound. It's one holiday show that's definitely not for the children, as the BARENAKED LADS take on family values, crabby scrooges, and all those tacky people who dare to re-gift.
For those who love the moon? Well those BARENAKED LADS celebrate the holiday in style with a special 9 p.m. performance. Please be a guest for another Naked New Year!

In what has become sort of an annual tradition for me, I went through about the past years worth of articles and etc. at Erie Gay News, and abstracted what seem to be appropriate entries for the history page. I started on the project several years ago, so now I just need to add stuff as it happens to keep it from being too much of a nightmare to maintain. I would love to get further back stuff, but that is pretty difficult.

It was sort of difficult doing the database design: I am trying to keep stuff in roughly chronological order. For most of the stuff since the early 90s, I usually have an exact date. In some cases I might just have an approximate month or approximate year. It's also tough in knowing what to include, as sometimes someone starts some thing and it never really goes anywhere.

I was talking with someone recently who wanted to do a leather event, the which sounds like it would be sort of a similar set up to be Drenched Fur event. I told him that although most folks tend to worry about groups or events succumbing to outside hostility, invariably it is gay folks dropping the ball that kills stuff. I have probably ranted and raved about this on far too many occasions. :-)

Yesterday, myself and a few others met with Mike and Richard from Erieblogs.com about adding a portal to their site for Erie Blogger social group stuff. We are thinking that we might handle calendar stuff with upcoming.org, which I recently started using for publicly listed below events. (Note the block in the sidebar on my blog.) We are also considering maybe using Drupal for some of the other areas. Mike and Richard were extremely helpful, and seemed to have the best possible motivation for helping out: building community. Very much looking forward to how things develop.

This seems to have disappeared from Amazon.com. Maybe because they realized it looked like a sex toy. They also have other characters like SpongeBob Squarepants (and yes, it REALLY should be SpoogeBob Queerpants in this case.)

It takes batteries. Of course it does. :) I wonder if it vibrates. It really should. :)

Here's some explanatory text:

SPONGEBOB™ & DORA THE EXPLORER™

Hang out with SpongeBob, Patrick and all their underwater pals! With our SpongeBob toy collection you can check out Bikini Bottom...dine at the Krusty Krab and just live the underwater life. Ages 3+ & 5+

Bikini BOTTOM? Krusty KRAB? Comedically speaking, this is an embarrassment of riches. Okay, I'm stopping before my chest implodes from stifling back guffaws.

Heh. I recall when this first aired. Funny!

I was also in the chat room when a Catholic guy said something about remembering "the reason for the season." I shot back with "Of course! Mithras' birthday! December 25." He was NOT amused. However, as the article indicates, the "divine figure born on December 25 to a virgin" thing was observed quite some time before the Christians basically borrowed elements from other faith traditions. It's perfectly fine that it has its own unique meaning for them, just that some of the elements didn't technically originate within that tradition.

Oh, and check out what the original symbolism for mistletoe was IF YOU DARE!

Last night I went out at about 11 p.m. to walk the dogs. As it so happens, the Catholic church across the street was letting out. I guess they did midnight mass a little bit early. They had been playing carols on the church bells. When I walked out, the church bells were planning "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." It struck me as sort of funny because

1. It isn't snowing at all. (Although I guess it could be argued that one is dreaming of a white Christmas because there is no snow.)
2. White Christmas doesn't have any particular religious themes.
3. White Christmas was written by Irving Berlin, who happens to have been Jewish.

All in all, I just hope they had a nice service. I had a nice day at my mom's with all the dogs, hanging out with my little brother and my stepfather as well.

I was out last night at the Zone having an absolute wonderful time dancing with my friend Paul. The turnout of the people dancing ws good as well, and it was just a grand old time. I saw my friend Dave, whom I know is an atheist. I made a point of wishing him a "happy secular holiday." I also saw my friend Jeff, who made a point of wishing me a happy Solstice. Knowing that Jeff was very Catholic, I responded with "Merry Christmas." My usual trend seems to be that if somebody greets me with my specific holiday, I greet them with their specific holiday, if I know it. If I don't know what else to do, , I usually just say "happy holidays."

I don't get offended at all if someone does a Merry Christmas, or if I get a card for the holidays that has an explicitly Christian theme to it. I just feel kind of weird doing something that sounds like I'm a member of a religion that I have never identified as belonging to, so I try to do the generic thing.

Oh well, Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, Joyous Kwanzaa, Festive Hanukkah and any other holidays I might have left out!

Nobody knows what tahini is. I was out at the grocery store today, and I bumped into a friend who is looking for tahini. His son had wanted him to get it for him. He wasn't quite certain what it was, and one of the clerks at the store told him to check near the red peppers. He later figured that the clerk probably misheard the word as "zucchini."

I explained that I that tahini is ground sesame seed paste, and it is used a lot in Middle Eastern cooking I said that I thought that one could substitute peanut butter, in a pinch.

He was also checking other departments, I'm not that he ever found it. I had a very similar experience several years ago when we were trying to make hummus from scratch and no one at the grocery store had the slightest clue what tahini was!

A very productive day! My friend Jeff replaced the back patio door, which has been non-functional for months. I hve also had this gaw-awful montrosity of a sofa that the dogs have pretty much trashed, as well as a used piano that I never got around to playing. (Not to mention an old, dead dryer.) So, with the very kind assistance of Jeff and another friend, I now ahve a functional back door, and a lot of old ugly crap out of my house. At this rate, I might be upgraded to non-hovel status in merely a decade or two. (I am lousy about home maintenance and I nervously admit it is probably the part of myself I am most ashamed of.)

Some of us are going to see Santaland Diaries at the Roadhouse tonight, so I need to scurry and get ready!

A tip of the hat to Eden for forwarding this story

Oh yeah, in the photo at the site, they have the naughty bits blocked out. And the woman holding the item has SCARY nails.

A mobile device preloaded with a video of 5 men having sex?? I am SO totally there! Geek and porn stuff!

Walmart's Zunes, now with more porn?

Posted Dec 20th 2006 8:15AM by Thomas Ricker

It's not the first time, nor the last, that people will find porn on (supposedly) new or recycled consumer electronics. This time it happened to a family in Southside Chicago who purchased Microsoft's Zune from the local Walmart for their 12 year-old daughter. The daughter, who says the box looked like it had been opened (the charger was missing) discovered that her player contained porn. When confronted, the Walmart store manager initially blamed Microsoft for the pre-load. Later, a Walmart spokesman said they would investigate the matter and provide the couple with a full refund plus a $25 gift card -- presumably to pick up a copy of "My Two Daddies" to help the mother explain to her daughter why the "5 men were having sex with each other." Uh, "join the social" Microsoft?

Several of us were chatting at Menspace this past Saturday. Somehow the topic of straight wedding parties that come out to gay bars after the ceremony came up. We all thought it was slightly odd, and sort of had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is rather like eating a steak dinner in front of people required by law to be vegetarians. On the other hand, the more that people interact with real gay folks, the more likely they are to believe in equality for all sexual orientations.

I pointed out that maybe it was part of the old saying, "something old, something new, something borrowed, someone blew."

Some of us who have been active with the Erie Bloggers have been having a discussion about additions at ErieBlogs.com to cover the group that meets, in additions to links to the various blogs. I am still working out on my own what is needed, and whether we are okay with the Yahoo group, or if there are other things we could do that would be enhancements to the group.

So, it looks like we will be having a geekfest on Tuesday, December 26 at 2 PM at Panera's Yorktown, 2501 W 12th St, to bat around some ideas. We are currently kicking around the idea of maybe doing something with Drupal.

I think that the most important stuff might be a calendar, maybe a forum, and an easy way for folks to email each other. It would be good if we had something to raise the profile of the group a bit. I am doing my normal "just making it up as I go along" for what I have been doing.

I was in the chat room at Gay.com a few nights ago. One person asked, "isn't there anyone here who is not looking for a hookup?" Another person said that this was a double negative. I jumped in and said that I thought it was bad construction, but not a double negative. The person who made the original correction typed back "your wrong." Twice. I pointed out that it should have been "you're" rather than "your."

I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that if the sentence "there isn't anyone here who doesn't know about Bob" isn't technically a double negative (and I believe I am correct about that), then effectively the same sentence phrased as a question should also be okay. I know that if the sentence had ended with "not looking for no hookups" that would clearly have been a double negative.

I asked a coworker who does most of the writing for my workplace whether I was correct, and he tended to think I was. (I did change "a hookup" to "a car." One does try not to overwhelm the heterosexuals too much. :-) I also asked the guy who proves the newsletter for us, but he wasn't as sure.

I also talked about this with Deb. She and I have a running gag about being word nerds. Quite a few years ago, we were driving back from some sort of event, and somehow we got onto the subject of states and postal abbreviations. Simultaneously, we were having this minute conversation about how geeky it was to talk about postal abbreviations.

This is pretty clever! I recall the original PSA that this is based on.

Yup, I am pretty much a nerd.

Since I saw this on sk0t's blog, I thought I would download the Windows Live Writer Beta and see how it works. Let's see if this posts okay.

Alas, it doesn't seem to work with MySpace, but no desktop tool that I have found works with that. Oh well.

OMG! Yet another hysterical thread at the Datalounge. I love me some Datalounge.

We have no houses We have no jobs We have the AIDS But we can still sing.

by: RENT

They all deserve to die Oops I killed my wife Now I'm killed by a half-wit How Ironic

by: Sweeney Todd

We are cats.
That is all.
Oh yes, one of us dies.
Yawn.

by: Cats

It's all fun & games until someone gets shivved during a rumble.

by: West Side Story

I'm a whore who marries well and runs my country into the ground before I die early.

by: Evita

There are more here.

How surreal. I was driving to work this morning and was sitting at a traffic light, I noticed that there wass a motorcycle next to me, which happened to be a Honda. Beneath the word Honda was a label saying "Body by Tupperware."

Who in heaven's name thinks of Tupperware and motorcycles together? Is there some kind of bizarre biker/suburban soccer mom crossover demographic I am unaware of? "Well, I need to be sure to pack the Light 'n Lively Jello salad in my backpack before I rev up my hog for the Hell's Angels run." (Said in an Edie McClurg voice, with leather chaps and motorcycle boots.)

I came home yesterday to find a package from my sister and brother-in-law. I haven't done anything with a gift exchange for quite a few years now. I was going to hold it to open for Christmas, but I had a very nice call from my brother-in-law yesterday. He said to go ahead and open it. It turned out to be a game called Homogenious, which is sort of a Trivial Pursuit board came about gay history/culture.. My sister and brother-in-law very much enjoy playing games and have been to a few conventions for that. My brother-in-law had read about when we would play Trivial Pursuit at Trance, and thought of me when they saw the game.

I guess they're both doing relatively well, and he is going to be quite busy with his Santa Claus stuff this season. He has been doing Santa for for quite some time, and started doing it as a seasonal sideline business a few years ago. This past July, he went to the Real Live Bearded Santa Convention in Branson, and led a workshop, which they put onto the DVD from the event.

Well, since Tam and Eden did this, what the hey!

Create your own friendquiz here

I hope that I am not doing my usual over-analyzing stuff here. (My inner child needs to be on serious amounts of Ritalin.)

After the Erie Blogger meeting last night, and a comment someone had posted, I am curious as to how best to handle Erie Blogger stuff/events. I am not sure what folks use, since there are a few venues. So I posted the message below to the Yahoo group and the Flickr discussion group for Erie, Pennsylvania.

It might very well be fine the way that it is. I would just like to be sure that folks are getting info and not feeling confused or overwhelmed.

Hey there,

An additional thought. Currently, I have been sort of thinking that the Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eriebloggers/), but we also have some discussion on the Erie, Pennsylvania discussion group on Flickr, as well as individual entries, comments and etc on various folks blogs. I have also included the events at www.upcoming.org.

Does this seem to be working okay? If so, cool! If not, is there a better way to centralize stuff? Should we check into some kind of section at www.erieblogs.com for the blogger meet ups or some other site?

Forgive me if I am being a neurotic twit. It happens a LOT. ;)

Wow. Who knew that conservative clergy liked gay sex so much?

Have we sufficiently established that sexual orientation is not some idle whim, but rather a deep-seated part of who a person is? Or does someone need to hit Exodus International over the head with an anvil? Just sayin'. This is why whenever I hear some straight person blathering on about the "gay lifestyle", I cannot help but roll my eyes in annoyance. The same people making bold definitive statements about being gay are the same folks who couldn't identify gay folks if their lives depended on it? How on Earth can one be an expert on a phenomenon one can't reliably identify???

Second Colo. pastor resigns over gay-sex scandal

Monday, December 11, 2006 / 03:50 PM

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard.

Haggard, a gay-marriage opponent, admitted to unspecified "sexual immorality" when he resigned last month as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A male prostitute had said he had had sex with Haggard for three years.

On Sunday, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in this Denver suburb, told his evangelical congregation in a videotaped message he had had sexual relations with other men and was stepping down.

Dave Palmer, associate pastor of Grace Chapel, told The Denver Post that Barnes confessed to him after the church received a call last week.

The church board of elders accepted Barnes' resignation on Thursday.

On the videotape, which The Post was allowed to view, Barnes told church members: "I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. ... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

Barnes, 54, led Grace Chapel for 28 years. He and his wife have two adult children.

Palmer said in a written statement that "While we cannot condone what he has done, we continue to support and love Paul." (AP)

It was a pretty nice turnout tonight for the Erie Blogger get together. We had some folks who had been around for a while, some more recent additions and 1 new person. We basically did live memes and shmoozed.

We are next getting together on Monday, January 15 at 7 PM. If we don't come up with a location, we will probably be at Panera's on W 12th St (Yorktown) if no one comes up with a different venue. Several folks would like to try something new, which is fine. So, I am hoping to hear from folks soon.

I have been battling some weirdness with DreamWeaver 8 wherein it will suddenly just exit the application. Sigh. Not fun. I have tried a few things, but it still acts up.

I also got around to begin working on a different theme for Drenched Fur. It is a canned theme, but we will make some changes. Since I suck at graphic stuff, I am giving some of the supporting graphic files to Gary to edit. We are also having our first organization meeting for the event tomorrow. I have a social thing tonight. I should probably get off my butt and do some laundry/cleaning.

There is a very cool article about the documentary We Belong on the front page of today's Erie Times News. The web based film is about homophobia in schools. We had an article in Erie Gay News this past month.

One of the subjects is Timothy Dahle, who spoke at the 2004 Pride Rally, and who survived some pretty horrific treatment in high school. He spoke at the 2004 Pride Rally. The front page photo has Tim being embraced by his partner, Rex Young. I think they met at the 2005 Pride Picnic.

I admire anyone who can survive adversity and do positive things as a result. Kudos also to Joe Wilson, for directing the film!

Here is a meme, via Eden. Eden took the same quiz, and got a snake. Eden is not particularly fond of snakes, to put it mildly. They did ask some interesting questions, among them favorite Pagan holidays. My most favorite is Beltane, and second is Lughnassadh.

I should probably mention that I don't think I have met any Pagans who actually even think about familiars. It seems to be something that non-Pagans (Cowans) think about Pagans that doesn't seem to be grounded in fact. Sure, most of us are fond of all living things, but the concept of a familiar comes from other folks.

What is your Pagan Familiar

Your Familiar is a Deer. You are a free spirited person, and love to be with small groups of close friends. Trust in yourself, and open up to others a little more.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

I know that most people tend to like music that they heard when they were in their late teens and 20's. I am odd, as I was active with the Society for Creative Anachronism for a fair portion of that time, so the music I heard was Early/Medieval/Renaissance stuff. (I also like Classical/Baroque a lot.) Just tattoo "NERD" on my forehead and be done with it.

I was surfing around the Internet last night and I found a place to buy some recordings of songs I like: Ronde/Hupfauf, Daphne and others. Nerdy hog heaven for me! Some of them I used to play on recorder when I was part of the Shire of Stormsport's Cacophonic Consort. I was talking with John, who initially formed the group, and we were talking about the Ronde/Hupfauf. Part of it is in 2/4 or 4/4 time (I forget which) and then switches to 3/4 and back to the original meter. I wasn't sure what the term was for the middle part having a different meter, so I just referred to it as "transmetricized." John later said that he wasn't sure either, but it seemed like it might be a useful word.

Daphne was also known as Hit or Miss. Until last night, I was unaware that there were lyrics. Basically, it's a poem about the nymph Daphne fleeing Apollo. (Ooh, bonus Pagan points!) here was also a dance that I learned that went to the same music. Like many Enlgish Country Dances, there was a hey (I think that is the right spelling), and this was a circular hey. The dance was for 2 couples, and at one point the men faced one direction, the women faced another, and everyone walked forward, moving out and in alternately.

A few years after that, I was at a male strip show at Lizzy Bordon's, a local gay bar. Strippers are not normally a big excitement for me - spending money to not get laid (not that I would ever spend money for sex - eeyew! How humilating!) just didn't make sense. But in the opening number, they did the same circular hey at one point, and I recognized it, smiled, and realized that I was probably the only person to have the experience of recognizing an English Country Dance movement at a gay strip show. Like I said, I am a severe nerd.

As reported on CNN, Mary Cheney, the openly lesbian daughter or Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, is expecting her first child. Mary's partner is Heather Poe, and they have been together 15 years.

Hmm, wonder if the Religious Right will be quite so loud and condemnatory of this particular gay couple. When one is rich, white and Republican, the rules seem to be different.

What a bunch of crybabies! This moron congressman is actually complaining that he and his fellow Representatives will have to work 5 days a week! Maybe he is unaware, but in the private sector, most of us work that.

Lazy jerk!

"Keeping us up here eats away at families…The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

-- Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), quoted by the Washington Post, in response to incoming-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-MD) plan to increase the House’s work schedule from three days a week to five.

[Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]

Hmm, not sure how accurate this is:

You Are A: Pony!

Who doesn't love a pony? You are one of these miniature horses, renown for your beauty and desired by many. Full of grace, you are a beautiful and very special animal, full of strength and majesty.

You were almost a: Puppy or a Bunny
You are least like a: Turtle or a FrogThe Cute Animals Quiz

The headline read Bainimarama announces coup. Really, it did! However, I was glancing and I thought it said "Banarama announces coup," and my first thoughts was that somehow an 80's girl group had taken over Fiji. Poor natives would doubtless be forced to belt out, "I'm Your Venus" with big 80's hair. However, maybe Thomas Dolby woud have restored order by blinding them with science, thus squelching the coup.

I seriously need to get a life. And the actual events that are transpiring in Fji sound ominous and pretty heinous, so sorry for the silly tangent. The actual name is Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Sigh. This is actually relatively minor. I have been having a problem for a while that the seat belt on the driver's side. Sometimes, it refuses to come out.

Last night, I went to fill my gas tank after grocery shopping, and couldn't get the cover off for love or money. Obviously, I needed to take care of that soon, so I would have a car that I couldn't move.

Fortunately, the car repair shop that is near my workplace was able to take it when I called. While driving to work, however, the seat belt refused to budge, so I just let it go. While going over 8th Street near the Bayfront Highway, my car spun a half donut, and I got quite nervous. Fortunately, I remembered to pump my brakes slowly, and there wasn't a problem. My heart just leapt into my throat, but no harm done.

On the plus side, the mechanic was very friendly, and drop dead cute.

I am hoping it is something simple and easy. Sigh. I am SO incompetent in some areas.

Tip of the hat for Deb for passing this along. This is surreal!

This is the Ignite Student Outreach, which has strong ties to Exodus International, an "ex-gay" "Christian" outreach. They appear to be trying to be stealthy about being an ex-gay thing. And yes, it does indeed look like the highlights in Justin's hair have highlights! But how apropos that the group is called "Ignite" Student Outreach when one of the main leaders is so flaming. (Meow!)

It gets better. Check out Justin's website. The main graphic on the 411 page has Justin with his butt in the air and his hands on his hips. Look, if one is trying to stress that one is not gay, a pose that normally is only seen in personal ads entitled "Insatiable pig bottom seeks hot men" might be a good idea. Just saying. One does rather imagine Jeff Stryker, Zak Spears and Donnie Russo lined up to take a ride. He has a page on hygiene tips (with his hand high in the air in queenly flair) and talks about make up tips. Oh, and he's riding a bale of hay in that one.

Better yet: on the 411 page, he has a typo that is pretty funny:

Find Out What His Closet Friends & Family Don't Even Know: Fetal Weight, Location Of His Sixth Toe, What Happen To His Evil Twin. Read On.

See? not closest, but "closet." As my father used to say, "I think your Freudian slip is showing."

There's a fair amount of goofy.self deprecating humor on the site, but he does rather come across as Rip Taylor and Buddy Cole's love child (who was raised in the Castro, with summers on Fire Island.) Helen Keller, after having had a lobotomy and a head cold, would get the story on this person. I would stand a better chance of passing for straight.

Deb also forwarded a link to at article by Wayne Besen:

The Campiest Summer Camp Friday, December 1st, 2006

(Scott Davis - Alan Chambers Right Hand Man)(Wayne Besens Weekly Column)

I am frequently asked if the big screen comedy depicting a wacky ex-gay camp, But Im a Cheerleader, accurately reflects these conversion groups. People are surprised to learn that the hilarity and hijinx portrayed in the movie, starring drag diva RuPaul, is not farfetched from reality. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the zany movie is art imitating life or the other way around.

For example, this week we have learned that Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization, has partnered with a Christian group, Ignite Student Outreach, to produce the campiest ex-gay camp America has ever seen. The featured speaker at the summer retreat is Justin Lookadoo, a peroxide blond who looks like punk rocker Billy Idol on crack.

If you click on Lookadoos webpage, he poses bent over while grabbing his tush. He lists among his favorite singers Ricky Martin, when he was still Latino and Michael Jackson, when he was still black.
Lookadoo and other wholesome figures will lead four summer camps this summer in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Ostensibly, they cater to all Christian youth, but if you delve below the surface, it appears to be a thinly-veiled front for ex-gay recruitment and the indoctrination of young Christian leaders.

What is particularly disturbing about Ignite Student Outreach is that it does not explicitly claim to be ex-gay and focuses on close encounters with God. However, even a cursory look at their webpage reveals that it is laced with a dangerous ex-gay message, lists Exodus Youth as its only affiliate (at least until my blog publicly revealed the camp this week) and features ex-gay speakers.
Indeed, Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus International, is scheduled to speak at the camp, as is his hunky Exodus Youth deputy, Scott Davis

This camp appears to be a stealth strategy for Exodus to get a foothold into summer camps and mold impressionable minds. The way they are trying to accomplish this is by appearing cool, utilizing trendy graphics, innovative CDs and featuring hokey hipsters such as Lookadoo. The camp is also actively recruiting gay youths at colleges in the south through targeted e-mail campaigns. (UNC Greensboro student/activist Matt Hill Comer first reported on the camp)

While Ignite Student Outreach has lavished resources on seeming hip, has it focused the same attention on keeping out hypocrites? What measures has the camp put in place to ensure that youths are safe from predators?

Even Exodus claims no more than a 1/3-success rate and compares the transition to homosexuality as a constant struggle. In a candid moment, Chambers told me in an interview for my book, Anything But Straight, I dont think [change is] going from gay to straight. Just saying that doesnt sound like an accurate representation of what Exodus facilitates or proclaims.

Given the admitted failure rate, the inability to achieve complete transformation and the constant battle against sins of the flesh, it seems that it is exceedingly unhealthy for Exodus to be in the youth business.

We know from dealing with Catholic priests that men who try to suppress their sexuality often fail and look for easy targets to satisfy their urges - like youths in a summer camp. Given this parallel, why would a struggling ex-gay be admitted to lead a summer camp?

Indeed, Exodus has already encountered problems with leaders preying on vulnerable children. According to the Los Angeles Times, in 1998, one family sued Desert Stream, arguably Exoduss premier ministry, alleging that a minister had sexually abused a teenager while the youth was undergoing therapy to turn him straight. According to the article, the family settled its lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.
Im sorry, but this is totally unacceptable behavior for an organization that is working to get into pup tents with youth in the woods. If Exodus wants to expand into camps, they must come clean on what really happened in California and explain what actions were taken against the alleged molester. They must also reveal all other such episodes that may have occurred since this incident.

There is the additional concern that Exodus will admit teens into these camps against their will. Just last week, I spoke to a distraught father whose daughter was taken from him by his ex-wife and placed in a desert bootcamp in the Southwest where she was forbidden from bathing. The father rescued her, but said he wanted to burn her clothes because they were so fetid.
While ex-gay groups promote theories that belong in comedies like But Im a Cheerleader the damage and mental abuse perpetrated by their leaders is nothing to cheer.