Peterson Toscano's A Musing

German Speakers Have an Ex-Gay Fetish?

I have been surprised at the fairly constant interest in the Ex-Gay Movement by German-speaking media people. In just the past 18 months I have been featured in a German women's magazine, a large mainstream Frankfurt newspaper and this summer on national German TV. (Hi Michael, are you still stalking me?)

I've asked these German and Austrian journalists about their fascination with the ex-gay story, and they tell me things like, "Well we don't have things like that in our country." Hmm, true, but neither do they have ex-gayness going on in Denmark and Belgium and Spain, and we don't see stories published there about the ex-gay movement. (Although French Glamour did recently run a piece about ex-gay survivor, Christine Bakke).

The latest German-speaking coverage of the ex-gay movement comes from an Austrian in the form of a German-language Wikipedia article about me. But wait, it is not just a little paragraph mention, as it really should be. No, this is the most in depth article written about my background, ex-gay experiences and current work that I've ever seen. He even mentions the name of my high school and the family restaurant where I grew up and that I am a Quaker vegan. All of it he pulled from resources available on the web. He unearthed articles and interviews that I totally had forgotten about.

I really should mount and laminate these articles and hang them up or at least keep a scrape book of this stuff, if for no other reason than to give to Joe G. for Christmas :-P

Here's a sample from Deutsch Wikipedia,

Mit Christine Bakke^[17] und der technischen Unterstützung von Steve Boese startete er am 2. April 2007^[18] das Internetangebot Beyond Ex-Gay (bXg) für Ex-Gay-Überlebende. Zusammen mit SoulForce und der University of California in Irvine (Kalifornien) veranstalteten sie vom 28. Juni bis zum 1. Juli 2007 eine Konferenz unter dem Motto Undoing the Damage, Affirming Our Lives Together. Bei einer Pressekonferenz am 27. Juni entschuldigten sich auch drei ehemalige Führungsmitglieder des Zusammenschlusses Exodus International (Jermey Marks von Courage UK, Micheal Bussee, Mitbegründer von Exodus International und Darlene Bogle) öffentlich für ihre Rolle Konversionstherapien angeboten und gefördert zu haben.^[19]. Zur selben Zeit fand im selben Ort eine Ex-Gay-Konferenz von Exodus statt.

Ein Quäker-Seelsorger verweist auf die gewaltlose Vorgangsweise in der Arbeit Toscanos, Unrecht aufzuzeigen ohne negativ eingestellte Personen oder Gegner zu attackieren.^[20]

Peterson lebt derzeit in Hartford (Connecticut), ist Mitglied der Religious Society of Friends (Quäker) in West Hartford, ernährt sich vegan^[21] und unterrichtet an der Watkinson School Schüler in einem speziellen Befähigungsprogramm.

Read the rest here to practice your German.

And stay tuned. Tomorrow I will post a multi-media surprise!

Labels: ex-gay, germany, media

posted by Peterson Toscano @ 2:57 PM