My Ex-Gay Friend

[slipnslide]

So apparently you can un-gay yourself anytime you want. . .

My Ex-Gay Friend (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/my-ex-gay-friend.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1)

[Darkside2009]

Interesting article, thanks for posting the link. I clicked on the embedded link on the Bible school and read another article about a man in the Netherlands building a replica of Noah's Ark. It is set to become quite a tourist attraction. lol
Thanks again.

[TaylorMade]

So apparently you can un-gay yourself anytime you want. . .

My Ex-Gay Friend (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/my-ex-gay-friend.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1)

Anytime you want is not what the article is saying:


Michael didn’t begin to question his life path, he told me, until a health scare in 2004 that led to what he calls his “spiritual awakening.” That year, when Michael was 29, he experienced a series of heart palpitations and became convinced that he suffered from the same congenital heart defect that killed his father when Michael was 13. (Michael lost both his parents young; his mother died of breast cancer when he was 19.) After tests eventually ruled out his father’s illness, Michael felt that he had escaped death and found himself staring “into the face of God.”

His walking away probably was caused by near death trauma. Facing that kind of stark reality can change a person. As long as he does it of his own free will... who are we to judge? If this is how he wants to live his life... vaya con Dios. Literally.

*Taylor*

[drugstore cowboy]

Those "ex" gay programs have a terrible failure rate! ;)

They're also responsible for GLBT teen kids thinking they can pray away their sexuality that's something other than hetero, or transgender bodies/minds and issues, and cause more problems than they solve.

I don't believe for a second that this guy is somehow bisexual, heterosexual, or somehow confused about his sexuality. He does seem to have swallowed the Flavor Ade of dogma and Born Again Xtianity. :rolleyes:

It's entirely possible to be a gay man and against gay ghettos or the so called "gay community", and even Christian but not become celibate or denying your sexuality and a hot mess and in total denial of your true sexuality like this guy is.

If that guy in the article actually does marry a woman I feel bad for her since it will be a completely sexless marriage and she's not going to get sexual satisfaction from him. It would be like a Hetero woman marrying an asexual man. ;)

[jem_is_bi]

Anytime you want is not what the article is saying:



His walking away probably was caused by near death trauma. Facing that kind of stark reality can change a person. As long as he does it of his own free will... who are we to judge? If this is how he wants to live his life... vaya con Dios. Literally.

*Taylor*

I had my own near death experience when I was about 30 yrs old. But, that did not make me heterosexual or make me consider trying to be heterosexual. Rather, at 58 yrs old, my getting near to old age type of death caused me to act on my true sexual feelings. I have never desired to become something I never have been. The anxiety of my ultimate death or the fear of what may come after cannot change that.
I do no not see how fear can be a healthy basis for changing how we live our lives when it causes us to have delusions of who we really are. I think disaster may be next when reality intrudes on a make-believe world.
That does not make him bad. But, we all make mistakes and some are big ones.

Me? I very happy to be me until I am not any more.

[Long Duck Dong]

reading the article, than rereading it, it makes me wonder, based around what was said, if micheal was actually gay to being with

there is a pattern in what micheal has done... the all or nothing approach to being a gay advocate, and now a christian person..... and the attitudes are from one extreme to the other..... and thats generally what we look at.... but at the core of micheal, the shift is just one of sexuality and that is something that is mentioned a lot in this forum

based around what I am reading about the death of his father and his way of coping, it bears classic signs of a person that has lost what they hold dear and seek to replace it........

however the easy going nature of micheal in a relationship, presents a interesting contradiction... as he was at ease with being in love and sexually active with another male...... and that is something that is found in gay and bisexual males that can be romantic / sexual and naturing in relationships.....

exactly what his sexuality is, something we can assume, but based around much of what I have read, I would not be surprised if after a number of years, he drifts away from the church and religion cos he is not finding the answers he is seeking

that is something I have seen a lot of, I am a ex christian and the burnout rate of new christians is high cos its like a adrenaline rush at the start.. then it wears off .....

[TaylorMade]

I had my own near death experience when I was about 30 yrs old. But, that did not make me heterosexual or make me consider trying to be heterosexual. Rather, at 58 yrs old, my getting near to old age type of death caused me to act on my true sexual feelings. I have never desired to become something I never have been. The anxiety of my ultimate death or the fear of what may come after cannot change that.
I do no not see how fear can be a healthy basis for changing how we live our lives when it causes us to have delusions of who we really are. I think disaster may be next when reality intrudes on a make-believe world.
That does not make him bad. But, we all make mistakes and some are big ones.

Me? I very happy to be me until I am not any more.

Exactly. Everyone is different. I won't judge him at this point. And LDD's post has a good point to consider too. I'm still IN the church and it ebbs and flows like a tide...like any other feeling, it has to be managed.

*Taylor*

[drugstore cowboy]

Religion and religious dogma do some fucked up things to people.

This even includes the dogma that you find in what's called paganism and Wicca.

It's not just Christianity, Judaism, or Islam that have dogma and make people do messed up things like this man.

Even Richard Dawkins with how he's now made Atheism into a consumer product so he can make money is the same way.

I'm not Atheist but I have no interest in Dawkins' dogma either. :)

[slipnslide]

Religion and religious dogma do some fucked up things to people.

This even includes the dogma that you find in what's called paganism and Wicca.

It's not just Christianity, Judaism, or Islam that have dogma and make people do messed up things like this man.

Even Richard Dawkins with how he's now made Atheism into a consumer product so he can make money is the same way.

I'm not Atheist but I have no interest in Dawkins' dogma either. :)

I really like Dawkins. I enjoyed reading The God Delusion.

[Gearbox]

Richard Dawkins has an educated English accent, which he uses to mask how thick as f*ck he is.:rolleyes: He's giving atheism a bad name IMO.

Well on another note - Michael was getting palpitations at 29.:rolleyes: Hello! That's a queer age to get anxious for a gay man who's mortality was in question, and chances of offspring pretty low.:rolleyes:

Mid-life crisis anybody?:bigrin: