Ohio Anti-Gay Leader Encouraged Portman to Put Son in Ex-Gay Therapy, Vows to Fight His Reelection

[The Straight Story]

Sen. Rob Portman has, unsurprisingly, been faced with a barrage of criticism from Religious Right groups since he announced that, inspired by his gay son, he had changed his mind to support marriage equality. But perhaps no one has been more upset with Portman than Ohio anti-gay leader Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values. Last week, Burress called Portman “a very troubled man” who is “distraught over what’s happened to his son.”

On Wednesday, Burress took to “ex-gay” activist Michael Brown’s “Line of Fire” radio program to recount a conversation he had with Portman shortly before the senator’s announcement. Portman was “dejected” and “basically sad throughout the conversation,” Burress says. And while Burress had initially thought Portman was “looking for help for his son to walk away from the lifestyle” through "ex-gay" therapy, it eventually became “obvious that he was going to embrace his son’s behavior, which was devastating, because he just gives his son no chance whatsoever of understanding, you know, that he doesn’t have to be that way.”

Burress knows who to blame for this change of heart in father and son: Yale University, where the younger Portman is currently a freshman. At Yale, Burress says, Portman’s son was “probably associating with the other homosexual activists” and ultimately “forced his dad’s hand on this thing.”

Burress: He called me the night before he went public and told me that he was the first one that he wanted to call, and we shared ideas and thoughts. And when he first called me, I thought he was looking for help for his son to walk away from the lifestyle, because I’m pretty sure that he knows that I spent four and a half years on the board of an international organization helping people walk away. And he dropped the bomb on me by saying he was going to change his opinion, which I still today cannot believe that he did that because this is a principled issue and you just don’t turn your back on principled issues.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ohio-anti-gay-leader-encouraged-portman-put-son-ex-gay-therapy-vows-fight-his-reelection

[Rex]

1. There are so many things I could point out as wrong with Burress's comments

that I don't know where to start. This man is the true definition of the word IDIOT. All I will say is that he seems to say the words 'principled issues' without knowing what they mean, as evidence by his own comments.

[MrSlayer]

2. Fuck this guy and his "principles".

What an asshole.

[Kurovski]

9. If his principles are based on a phrase in Leviticus, then he's got a pile of squat for principles.

But I'm guessing.

[socialindependocrat]

3. Burress probably promotes the use of leeches and exorcism - What a confused person.

These people are elected to office and have very little idea about
how the world works. They think they are leaders of the congress
and they gurgle forth this archaic bullshit!

If they ever realized how uneducated they are they'd probably go into
a depression and wither away.

How do these people go thru so many years and just deny their stupidity?

The world amazes me more and more every day...

[ZRT2209]

4. he lacks the courage to come out, and is jealous of those who do

[backscatter712]

5. Fuck every single reptilian piece of shit involved with "reparative therapy".

At best, "ex-gay" "therapy" is psychologically damaging, and a waste of time.

At their worst, the facilities used for this quackery are only slightly less brutal than Nazi concentration camps. The people who work those facilities should be hanged for crimes against humanity. Literally. Strung up until strangled. That's how bad they are.

[marshall]

6. I don't even understand the logic of ex-gay therapy

What does it mean? If they're ex-gay, by whatever process that might ever occur, why the need for therapy to turn them straight?

[Volaris]

8. no no no, you're misudnerstanding the terminology...

The "thearpy" is supposed to turn you INTO an ex-gay. It's quackery. The closest it comes to achieving real Psychology is the idea that a person can choose Celibacy (and I'm not even sure I believe that). I'm NOT gay, and I promise you, there is NOTHING EVER that could destroy my physical interest in, or my desire to engage with physically (and emotionaly) the opposite sex. Why should it be any different for someone attracted to the same sex?

Answer: it's not, and anyone who says otherwise, is SELLING something.

[marshall]

10. I believe people can choose celibacy

It doesn't mean the drive or interest is gone, just that the will controls ones actions.

I could see how one might need therapy to bolster such a decision.

[Volaris]

11. I'll accept that as a valid argument.

In which case, the "treatment" should be sold as Guided Celibacy Support Psychology (or something), and NOT as "we can cure your kid of The Gay."

If one is Celibate, it matters NOT who one WANTS to fuck, what matters in that case is that one is not fucking ANYTHING--gay men, straight women... chickens, robots, what have you .

[SpartanDem]

7. Lie with dogs and you get fleas.

[Brickbat]

12. "You just don’t turn your back on principled issues." It's more important not to turn your back on

your family, or turn your back to reality, when it comes down to it.

[HughBeaumont]

13. Phil, "Teh Gay" isn't "the common cold", you FUCK.

Otherwise, there could logically be "ex-straight" camps. Maybe someone should ask Phil-Do why there aren't . . . I'd love to hear his answer.