David Roberts recently wrote a short piece entitled Exodus President Alan Chambers is Clear About Coulter Comment. David praised and thanked Alan Chambers for making the unambiguous comment regarding Ann Coulter’s use of the pejorative faggot:

Used in any context, this hurtful word is used to demean an individual who is valuable to God. There is nothing to be gained by denigrating others with crude slurs. In doing so, we disgrace ourselves and discredit the truths we seek to publicly elevate.

Wow: “[N]othing to be gained by denigrating others with crude slurs.” That’s a powerful statement.

I wish Alan Chambers’ idea of loving the LGBT neighbor next door by treating them with respect would be embraced by other conservative Christian/ex-gay affirming organizations, especially when it comes to transgender people like me.

An example of not taking Chambers’ and Exodus International’s cautions against verbal slurs to heart include a recent piece in The Record, the online publication of the Christian Civic League of Maine (CCLM). The piece by Mike Hein  — All My Tranny Children — begins by using tranny as a slur in the article’s header. He then goes on in the article to state:

Maine Teacher Makes Queer Television History

Maine’s most famous transgendered man, Jennifer Finney Boylan, is set to make daytime network television history this week, and the radical homosexual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) organization praises ABC Television for making “the unfamiliar [transgendered men and women] familiar.”

Starring as himself in ABC’s daytime soap opera, All My Children, Boylan (formerly James Boylan) and five other transgendered adults play a transgendered support group. The group coach ‘Zoe,’ a young female character played by a Jeffrey Carlson. The now-female ‘Zoe’ character is involved in a lesbian relationship with ‘Bianca,’ another female character on the show. Boylan is the transgendered support group leader…

…Boylan remains married to his wife despite having taken on a female persona in 2001 while still in his early 30s and despite having young sons. He mentions his experiences while taping the All My Children episode recently in his March 4 Kennebec Journal column “There from Here.” “I asked my boys and my spouse if they had any interest in coming down to the set the next day to watch me film my scenes,” writes Boylan. “My son Zach wrinkled his nose.”

As one can see, Mike Hein not only uses tranny as a slur, he sedulously points out Boylan’s former male name. And even though Boylan has had sex reassignment surgery, Hein makes a point of frequently and only using male pronouns to refer to Boylan.

Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an interesting, original video from Daniel Gonzales of the Ex-Gay Watch. Note how Alan Chambers / Exodus International and Melissa Fryrear of Focus On The Family tailor their messages to their audiences.

(Click image to view Google Video)

Transcribed text of the video is at the Ex-Gay Watch.

(Crossposted here from my post at the Ex-Gay Watch.)

Recently, I wrote a piece on Mike Ensley’s take on gender fluidity. He responded in his personal blog with an article entitled What do I know about gender? In the entry he states:

…I can see how in a different circumstance (different city, family, influences) I might have gone down the road of transgenderism. A lot of people have backgrounds similar to mine, but didn’t end up struggling with same-sex attractions like I have. We’re all different and broken in different ways–but we can still understand one another.

Furthermore, transgenderism represents to me one of the biggest loopholes in the new sexual ethic of our society. We’re told gays can’t and/or shouldn’t change because people are supposedly born gay, but then the T segment of the LGBT community is encouraged to do everything–therapy, drugs, surgery–to change the way they truly were born.

Anywho; I could get into the whole why-I-believe-in-male-and-female thing, but that’s a whole new post.

The piece as a whole is an outpouring of how he believes he could of ended up transgender — it reads as another Argument from Spurious Similarity. But beyond that, he seems to indicate a belief in sex dichotomy determined by biological forces.

Ensley’s faith in a two-sex dichotomy is shared with other religious conservatives. As a recent example, Sonja Dalton on the Americans For Truth about Homosexuals website responded to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shaking up transgender assumptions with her piece Shaking Up Gender Assumptions — Destroying Teenagers.

Read the rest of this entry »

In his blog, Mike Ensley responded to my Ex-Gay Watch article.

Excerpt:

A couple people who emailed me accused me of not knowing anything about transgenderism. This is an assumption they make either because I myself am not transgendered, or because I don’t embrace their view of it. But I think I know more than they would give me credit for.

I believe transgenderism, like homosexuality, is a state of mind rather than a state of being. Just like many people’s life stories could have gone down the path of the homosexual struggle–but didn’t–I believe mine could have gone down the path of gender identity crisis, with the right circumstances and stimuli. These two issues have a lot of similarities, just as they each have with many other issues, and some differences.

I didn’t feel like a boy growing up. Like I’ve shared many times, I failed at all the typical “male” activities and attitudes as a child. I was often called a girl, and I often just accepted it and hung out with girls. That was much more preferable than enduring humiliation among boys.

There’s more at the link to his response, but again we’re dealing with Appeals to False Authority and Arguments from Spurious Similarity. What Ensley doesn’t get about logical arguments is one needs to avoid logical fallacies.

For What Purpose Exodus
(Crossposted from the Ex-Gay Watch)

January 5, 2007
By Timothy Kincaid
Ex-Gay Watch

Focus on the Family gave a loving interview with Alan Chambers relating to his book God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door. We’ve discussed the book before here, and I don’t wish to linger there. But in the question and answer format, Chambers did make two comments that I believe go to the heart of how Exodus sees it’s purpose for existence.

At the suggestion of motivating Focus’ readers to dig deeper in the book, Chambers said

I think the biggest motivator is that homosexuality affects everyone. Whether we like it or not, it absolutely goes into every segment of our society — from our personal lives where our families are concerned, to the schools where our children go, to the communities where we live, to our church, to our pastors — and then when it comes to our religious freedoms.

And when discussing why people doubt his claims of “thousands of men and women who have left homosexuality”,

And then in the gay community, I don’t know that the entire gay community would doubt that change is possible, but the mantra that comes out from those who lead the gay community is that people can’t change. Because if we can, that really invalidates their story, it invalidates the special-rights status they’re seeking.

Exodus has long since given up on any but the most fragile pretenses of providing support services to ex-gay strugglers. The “information” provided on their website is factually incorrect, outdated, and full of “missing” footnotes. Exodus has long since put networking between ex-gay groups a far distant priority behind speaking at church rallies designed for heterosexuals.

What then is the purpose that justifies their existence?

I believe the above two brief comments serve to illustrate what has become the primary function and purpose of Exodus International: to fight against civil equality for gay citizens.

Chambers sees the intersection of Christians and gays to be a political one and when challenged to speak directly to Christians his response is to pose their fellow gay citizens as a threat in society. A threat to families, children, schools, communities, churches and pastors.

And Chambers views the purpose of his testimony as a political action, an invalidation of gay citizens’ requests for equal treatment under the law.

Amidst all his talk about the church being careful to select appealing language, and not to view homosexuality as a sin greater than others, lies Chambers’ primary purpose and goals: to fight against the physical lives, freedoms, and equalities of those gay persons who do not accede to his religious demands.

And this, my friends, is the very definition of oppression.

–
My follow-up comment on my peer Ex-Gay Watch author Timothy Kincaid’s article was this quote from C. S. Lewis (author of of The Chronicles Of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters):

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely Lose Weight Exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

I’m an M2F transsexual. I’m not confused about my gender, and I’m not confused about my natal sex. Just as gay, lesbian, and bisexual people aren’t confused about their sexual orientation, I’m not confused about my gender identity not matching my natal sex.

People at ex-gay and ex-gay affirming organizations have called both gay and transgender people “gender confused.” Most of the time it seems the concept of gender confusion is used by these organizations in a lordly, parochial way of saying we are smarter than you gay and transgender people, and know better than you who you are.

We can now add Mike Ensley to the list of folk who’ve identified transgender people as “confused.” In his January piece for Exodus Youth Voice (entitled Gender & Sexuality: Fluid Or Solid) he states:

A lot of people say it’s dangerous to pursue counseling to help bring your sexual identity in line with your faith and the life you want, because they say we’re “born that way.” But, in the next breath they will say it’s safe and okay for some kids to take hormone-altering drugs and even go under the knife to change the way they were born, just because they’re confused. Which do you think is more likely: that God accidentally puts the souls of men in female bodies (and vice versa), or that our understanding of our gender is just one of the many paths human beings can get lost on?

Maybe you feel like you fit in more with people of the opposite sex than the same. Perhaps you’ve considered that you are someone of the opposite sex, or that you should have been. You might be unsure exactly where you fit in.

You don’t need a new body, and you don’t need to invent a new gender for yourself because God really doesn’t make mistakes. There is great diversity within the male and female genders, but the truth is that you don’t need to go outside them to find you.

The last paragraph in his the piece seems to directly counter what Christ said in Matthew 19:12:

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

It appears that no matter what definition of eunuch one uses, Christ himself actually endorsed body reshaping (castration) done for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, and in the same verse seems to indicate that body reshaping not done for the kingdom of heaven’s sake wasn’t sinful. Isaiah 56:4-8 seems to agree, stating about eunuchs that:

“…their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.”

On top of the possible doctrinal problems with Mike Ensley’s latest Exodus Youth piece, Ensley has the same Appeal To False Authority problems regarding expertise on transgender issues that Alan Chambers has. Ensley’s Exodus International biography doesn’t indicate a why he might be a transgender issues subject matter expert, and his personal blog (or his old personal blog) doesn’t list any variant of “transgender” in the list of message tags. Much as transgender issues isn’t an area where Alan Chambers can claim to be a subject mater expert, it doesn’t look like transgender issues is an area where Mike Ensley can claim to be a subject matter expert. He demonstrates his inexpertise in indicating he believes transgender people are confused about their gender identities.

What Ensley offers in his current.tv video testimony is the “change is possible” message via the scripture “but with God all things are possible” — which coincidentally is also from the same chapter in Matthew as the one I referenced for Christ’s comment on eunuchs. And, much as I pointed out in the case of Peter LaBarbera, Ensley’s personal religious conversion and/or ex-gay experience doesn’t make him an authoritative voice on gender identity, gender variance, or gender fluidity.

I hope Mike Ensley won’t always be spreading the lie to Christian youth that all of my transgender peers and I are confused. We aren’t. Combining my personal experience of non-confusion with the messages of Matthew 19:12, Isaiah 56:4-8, and Acts 8:26-40, I’m left with this feeling that it’s Mike Ensley who may be the one confused about gender and transpeople.

Those who read what I post at the Ex-Gay Watch and The View From (Ab)Normal Heights know I tend to point out logical fallacies in people’s arguments. Well, many ex-gay and ex-gay affirming organizations — such as NARTH and Exodus International– rely heavily on Statements Of Conversion. This is where a person asserts that he or she used to believe one way, but now has a rejected that previous belief, and now because he or she has personally experienced belief in both sides of a particular argument that he or she is now a topic authority. This is a version of Argument From Authority — where the speaker is claiming to be, or has been asserted to be an expert, and it’s implied that because the person is an expert he or she should be trusted..

Americans For Truth‘s President Peter LaBarbera is using a Statement Of Conversion in his recent article Great News: IL Student ‘Trans’-formed by the Christ of Christmas!

Long story short, suburban Chicago high school student John identified last year as transgender student Joanna, but now has converted back to John. From Peter LaBarbera’s telling of the story:

God intervened and John was “born again” through faith in Jesus Christ, he told his student newspaper.

Now “transgender” Joanna is no more and John is reestablishing his true, God-given male nature at his high school. His newfound reality is precisely the sort of story that homosexual/transsexual activist groups like GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) do not want other teenagers to hear. Because GLSEN knows that such stories undermine the “gay” myth that people are born GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered), and that such aberrant identities are mere natural and innocuous “orientations.”

The problem with resorting to a tale of conversion as a tool for arguing is that other stories exist. For example, I’ve gone from fundamentalist Christian to agnostic to non-fundamentalist Christian, while also in my life going from identifying as a boy, to identifying a transsexual teen, to identifying as a cross-dressing teen, to identifying as an ex-transvestite, to realizing I needed to explore my gender with a professional therapist, to now identifying and living as a transgender/transsexual-identified woman. Is John more of an expert on transgender and ex-transgender experience because of his life conversions, or am I more of an expert due to my life conversions?

The reality is that one can’t draw wide conclusions by means of Statements Of Conversion. John’s and my conversions make us each a little more knowledgeable about transgender issues than John Q. Public (and Joanna Q. Public), but our conversions alone don’t make us authoritative speakers on transgender issues.

If we want to draw wide conclusions, we need to ask:

- What do studies and research reveal?
- What do the subject matter experts in the field think?
- What do the professional organizations state about a topic in their position papers?

It goes without saying that the experts don’t agree with the broad conclusions Peter LaBarbera draws from John’s conversion testimony. (To read up on what some of the experts say, one can read the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care, the American Psychological Association’s Answers to Your Questions About Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity, and info about Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on Gid Reform Advocates.)

Peter LaBarbera in his piece further states:

But, of course, change is possible, because God is in the business of changing repentant sinners. If the Christ of Christmas can turn around the lives of drug addicts, murderers, and drunks, He certainly can save men and women — and adolescent children — trapped in gender confusion and homosexuality.

And Peter LaBarbera is an expert on the change is possible dogma because…?

I’ll end this on that rhetorical question.

What makes one an expert in a subject? Often it’s credentials, such as degrees or certificates. Often it’s position, such as being the executive in charge of a university department, or a non-profit or business that works in a particular area or field. Often it’s research one has done has done on a subject, such as research for an article or book. Sometimes its personal experience with a subject, such as an alcoholic with alcohol abuse, or knowing about spouse abuse because a person was the victim of domestic violence, or a police officer who’s assigned to the domestic violence beat of his or her city.

There are degrees of expertise, and relative values of expertise. Does one put more Lose Weight Exercise to what a domestic violence counselor knows about domestic violence, or does one put more Lose Weight Exercise to a researcher with a Sociology doctorate whose researched domestic violence? It may depend on whether one is gauging the personal pain of domestic violence victims, or gauging the societal costs of domestic violence.

And then there is Appeal To False Authority, where an authority is speaking outside his area of expertise, but still functions as an authoritative speaker. When false authority is coupled with Argument From Spurious Similarity (where it’s suggested that some resemblance is proof of a relationship), or an Appeal To Widespread Belief (which includes the idea that a belief held by many people makes something true), arguments become particularly troublesome.

Recently, I pointed out in In Defense of Harassment: Ex-Gay Opposes Unisex Rest Rooms that self-identified former homosexual Sylvia Bertolini claimed expertise on transgender issues specifically because she is a former homosexual. Her initial piece read to me and others as an Appeal To False Authority, coupled with an Argument From Spurious Similarity; the spurious similarity being that sexual orientation and gender identity are the same thing, or are so intertwined that these two issues have the same root cause or causes.

Now in a similar fashion, Exodus International’s Alan Chambers (in World Magazine’s “Pick and choose; Health: Sex selection in New York City soon will be all about how he — she? — is feeling”), comments on New York City’s now abandoned plan for altering the birth certificates of pre-operative and non-operative transgender people:

Alan Chambers of Exodus International, a Christian ministry that helps people leave homosexual and transgender lifestyles, agrees that the policy [of allowing the city's residents to change the sex on their birth certificates if they believe they are transgender] is “dangerous . . . especially for the people confused enough to believe they were born in the wrong bodies.”

Chambers, a former homosexual, recalls the anguish of feeling, “I should have been born a girl.” He says society shouldn’t “put a stamp of approval on gender fluidity. . . . The most loving response is to tell people the truth and show them grace.”

The critique of Alan Chambers here in this article isn’t about the merits of changing the gender marker criteria for non-operative or pre-operative transsexuals — it’s not about even about his opinion he expressed on the subject. Instead, it’s about Chambers’ qualifications to be quoted as a subject matter expert on transgender issues — Are transgender and gender identity issues subject matter areas where Chambers can plausibly be identified as an authority?

I’d argue “no.”

Chambers’ authority to speak on gender identity issues as an expert doesn’t seem to be derived from his formal education or formal credentials, as his biography doesn’t indicate he has any formal education or credentials related to the subject. Also, none of Alan Chambers credited published works deal with transgender issues directly, so from the public record it appears he hasn’t done any scholarly research specifically related to transgender people. (And, neither of Exodus International’s uncredited pieces relating to transgender issues — LGBTQ labels and Gender Identity — are scholarly, referenced works.) And even though the World Magazine piece describes Exodus International as “a Christian ministry that helps people leave homosexual and transgender lifestyles,” Exodus International’s Who We Are webpage describes themselves as “…a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization promoting the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.” Exodus International’s work with transgender and ex-transgender people is only mentioned when a spokesperson from the organization comments on transgender and gender identity issues; Any work Exodus International may do with transgender and ex-transgender people doesn’t appear to be found within the primary mission of the organization.

And, since about 75% of children diagnosed with Childhood GID report a homosexual or bisexual orientation in adulthood, drawing conclusions about to the similarity between adult transgender people and adult gay people based on one’s own experience with Childhood GID appears a suspect means to make an analogy. Although there are similarities of experience (such as shared experiences of societal discrimination), there are dissimilarities in the adult experiences of gay men and transgender women, as well as lesbian women and transgender men. For example, most transsexuals want to express a gender identity different than that of their natal sex, most gays and lesbians are comfortable with their gender identity matching their natal sex. The dissimilarities are significant enough to indicate that just because one is an expert on gay, lesbian, and/or bisexual life experiences, it wouldn’t mean that one is an expert on transgender life experiences, and vice a versa.

It appears to me that what we’re left with then is Chambers’ apparent lack of academic or professional credentials indicating expertise, his personal statement of experiencing Childhood Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in his personal childhood belief he “should have been born a girl,”, his presidency of an organization whose “Who We Are” page doesn’t identify itself as an organization with any distinctively transgender/ex-transgender focus, and his status as a self-identified former homosexual. Given what we know about Alan Chambers’ resume before us, it’s difficult to support recognizing him as an expert on transgender or gender identity issues.

And given what we know about Chambers, we’re left much as we were with Sylvia Bertolini’s claims of expertise — Appeal To False Authority coupled with an Argument From Spurious Similarity. And perhaps in Chambers’ case, an added Appeal To Widespread Belief can be added, in that many in Chambers’ circle of ex-gay, religious right, and anti-gay friends believe sexual orientation and gender identity are tightly entwined in sexual confusion.

For Alan Chambers to be presented as, or present himself as, an expert in gender identity or transgender issues based on his resume seems unsustainable. Since I now see a propensity for Chambers’ overreaching his resume to speak on issues, I, and I hope my peers, will keep their eyes open for other Exodus International false claims of authority.