Glatze: Gays are stupid, strange creatures, trapped with voices in their minds

Just a few days ago I wrote a bit about Michael Glatze here, as well as a Featured article over at IQN. Glatze is the former editor of YGA Mag, the founder of Young Gay American and the former associate editor of XY Magazine.

On July 3rd, Glatze wrote an op-ed and appeared in a news article on the conservative WorldNetDaily.com about his “coming out” of homosexuality and ex-gay life.

Since then, both the anti-gay and gay media and blogospheres have picked up the story.

It seems that Glatze is now spending his time perusing the LGBT blogs, making comments and emailing bloggers, asking them to post some of his “ex-gay” propaganda.

Good As You also got the letter from Glatze. Their only response: “You’re ridiculous.”

The new operators of YGA Mag and the website ygamag.com released the following message:

Recently, Glatze has rejected his own homosexuality and embraced the view that he was never homosexual in the first place, that he was corrupted by lust, and that through accepting God, he realized he could be healed. While we respect everyone’s right to freedom of choice, we believe that the message communicated by Glatze could be extremely harmful and confusing to youth in America and elsewhere who are struggling to come to grips with their own feelings and confusion.

We believe that, particularly in view of Glatze’s recent interviews acknowledging his own struggle, and the inherent conflict between homosexuality and most Christian belief systems, it’s important to continue to communicate honest and (as much as possible) unbiased information about gay sexuality, the current scientific thinking, and societal views to gay youth.

But, now, to the subject of this post: Glatze’s email to bloggers.

In his email, Glatze calls all LGBT people weak, stupid, strange creatures, trapped and with voices in their minds:

God made us men and women. Think about that; you could – really – be a man or a woman! Not a strange creature… but, real!

[…]

Change is very difficult and takes a lot of inner strength. Do you have that strength? I promise you that the Gay Identity does not
exist, that it is a fabrication of mankind (look it up, if you don’t believe me), and that you are not “trapped” in same-sex-orientation. To believe that you are Gay is to be stupid. I’m sorry, if that sounds cruel; it’s not cruel. To believe that you are a false identity, created by man, unnaturally, to participate in social engineering, is to be stupid.

[…]

those angry voices in your mind, planted there by Satan, might scream and judge and ridicule…

And, as if that wasn’t enough damage, Glatze goes on to say that he, personally, knows what every single LGBT person feels and thinks:

I know, in my heart, that all homosexuals desire to be free.

Um. Oh… haha, I get it now. Glatze isn’t trying to be “ex-gay,” he is trying to be God!

Yeah… LGBT people, like all minorities in the world, desire to be free - free from discrimination, harassment, prejudice and bigotry. We desire to take full part in the American Dream. We desire to be recognized as fully human, with the full inherent worth and dignity given to us by God. We desire to see that the promises made by our Founding Fathers are extended to us and all human beings.

But, alas, Glatze thinks we can’t have any of that. After all… we’re all weak, stupid, strange creatures who need to be examined and have the weird voices taken out of our minds.

Glatze is in deep. A commenter and EqualityMySpace-er left the following comment on the EqualityMySpace Blog re-posting of the original IQN Feature Article:

It sounds like Mr. Glatze has been brainwashed just like a was a few years back. I spent over a year and half of my life in an Exodus ministry. I think I was susceptible to their brainwashing because I was very unhappy with my life which allowed me to be convinced that most of my problems and issues were there because I was gay. If I could just be straight I could be happy. After meeting countless people who had spent many years in ex-gay ministries only to still be attracted to the same sex the lightbulb came on and I realized that there was no changing my sexuality. I hope that Mr. Glatze will realize that too before he goes and marries a naive woman who thinks he is really straight.

The entire “ex-gay” industry is built upon the mistaken, prejudiced and bigoted premise that all LGBT people are evil simply because they are gay. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a Christian - a Baptist from the South - and I certainly believe that, yes, people are sinful. But I do not believe that one’s sexual orientation has anything to do with how sinful - or how righteous - a person is. Straight people are guilty of the same sins as non-straights. And LGBT folk are guilty of the same sins as straight folk. However, being gay - or straight, or bisexual or lesbian or transgender - is not a sin.

I have a dear friend who once thought that being gay was a sin. He was undergoing therapy to “control his homosexual tendencies.” I respected him, partly because he didn’t try to do what Glatze and other “ex-gay” industrialists are doing. My friend didn’t play God. He didn’t pass down judgments. He didn’t tell me that I absolutely had to believe what he believes and if I didn’t then I was some strange, evil, little creature bound for hell. My friend respected me and I respected him.

That is the problem that I have with the “ex-gay” industry and their industrialist tycoons. They make fame and fortune, power and riches off the plight and fear of their followers and the weak. They turn the awesome power and love of God and the radical Gospel of Our Lord into a sword - a weapon to be used at will and to slice open the hearts and souls of those who do not fit into their tiny, 1950’s, black-and-white mold of what humans are to be.

Glatze speaks of being “real” men and women, but Glatze forgets that to God and to Christ, no such thing exists:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (KJV).

Glatze speaks of “love.” Unfortunately his version and his “ex-gay” industry’s version of love is a far cry from that ideal of love set forth by Christ and the Gospel:

There is no love in a “love” which claims that one must forsake true self and life. There is no love when one says, “love the sinner and hate the sin,” for one cannot love God and hate their brother (I John 4:20); for one cannot deny the humanity, divinity and existence of another “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) in the “image & likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26-27); for one cannot uphold “the law” without love, for “the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14 [Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31]); for one cannot cast out, because in so doing one also casts out Christ (Matthew 25:40, Matthew 25:31-46).

The Witness of the Gospel and the radical, inclusive nature of Christ is overly apparent. All are one in Christ Jesus.

Glatze’s got it wrong. And his words are built only on a foundation of hate, exclusion and prejudice, words and feelings never felt and never preached by Christ. Glatze claims to speak in the Name of God and Christ, unfortunately, I fear he is only acting in the same fashion of all those throughout history who have twisted the love of God and turned it into a tool of hate and exclusion.

I pray for Glatze and hope that he sees the true nature of Christ and the true nature of His love. I hope he sees the beautiful image of God in all of God’s children. I hope that he lays down the Bible as a sword of hate and picks it back up again for its only rightful use: A use which brings together all the nations of the world in love, compassion, mercy and Christ.

Technorati Tags: Michael Glatze, YGA, Young Gay America, XY Magazine, WorldNetDaily, ex-gay, gay youth

Posted in Anti-LGBT, Ex-gay, LGBT, LGBT Youth, Politics, Religion, Sexuality, United States |