A former “gay rights” activist who declared six years ago he left homosexuality through the power of God is now celebrating his marriage to a woman, much to the chagrin of homosexual activists who are ridiculing him and his bride via the Web.
In a letter to his critics published today by WND, Michael Glatze called the month since his Oct. 26 marriage to Rebekah the “greatest” of his life.
“I am so grateful for Rebekah, for God, for His provision, for my new in-laws, for my family which traveled from far and wide to join in our special day, and for the prayers and support that have flooded our way since October,” he writes.
As WND reported in 2007, Glatze become a frequent source for major media covering the homosexual movement as founding editor of Young Gay America magazine before a radical change in his life that he says began with inner “promptings” he now attributes to God.
Since then, he’s been closely watched by homosexual-rights activists such as Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out. Besen’s non-profit declares its aim is to “demolish the very foundation of anti-gay prejudice,” and he asks for help to “uncover the next ‘ex-gay’ swindle.”
Besen – former spokesman for the leading homosexual-rights group Human Rights Campaign – wrote of Glatze’s marriage in a mocking post on his website Dec. 1, taunting that one “can’t be an official ‘ex-gay’ rock star until wedding bells ring.”
“Apparently, this happened for publicity hound Michael Glatze, who married his prop, er bride, Rebekah, on October 26,” writes Besen, author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
He linked to wedding photos of Glatze wearing “fundie drag,” a reference to Glatze’s evangelical Christian faith, which led him to attend a Bible school in Wyoming.
“The victim is attractive and seems rather sweet. I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Besen writes of Glatze’s wife.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT DEAL! YOU WILL GET DAVID KUPELIAN’S BLOCKBUSTER “THE MARKETING OF EVIL” AND HIS NEWEST BOOK “HOW EVIL WORKS,” BOTH AUTOGRAPHED, AT A FABULOUS DISCOUNT!
The reaction of Besen and other activists boils down to an inhuman hope for failure, said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.
“In what other area of life do you see this?” he asked in an interview with WND. “Somebody tries to overcome drugs and falls back, and you say, ‘That’s it, nobody can change.’”
LaBarbera said the only people “who are not celebrating this marriage of a guy who was once involved in homosexuality are the homosexual radicals like Wayne Besen.”
“They are basically celebrating failure,” he said. “They’re all about focusing on the failures, because they can’t admit that homosexual identity and behavior is something you can change.”
LaBarbera said that while some who have declared themselves to be ex-”gay” have gone back to their old ways, Glatze represents many more success stories that don’t receive publicity.
Unfortunately, he said the establishment media focuses on messengers like Besen.
“I think if the average person knew about Michael Glatze, their whole view of the homosexual issue would change,” LaBarbera told WND. “And maybe that’s why people like Besen are so desperate to do anything they can to ridicule, to demonize, to mock, to deny that they even exist.”
He said homosexual activists don’t live up to their appeals for “dignity” and “tolerance.”
“Everything they once said they stood for, they are now doing the opposite toward ex-gays,” LaBarbera said.
‘People have called me a lot of things’
In his letter to his critics, Glatze says he and he new bride don’t want to become “political pawns.”
“I have never called myself an ‘ex-gay,’ though people have called me that,” he writes. “But, then again, people have called me a lot of things on account of the fact that I left homosexuality a few years back and decided that I felt more comfortable living heterosexually.”
Glatze explains he wanted to “make a little ‘shout out’ to all of the angry homosexuals in our country who are currently spreading all sorts of hate and aggression on pro-homosexual blogs.”
“Look, I am not interested in defending myself. I don’t really need to do that,” he writes. “I understand your plight, your point-of-view. I understand the desire to want me to be crazy, or lost in my head and mind, or confused. I understand that it would be just easier if I didn’t exist, or I would just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. But I’m not going to do that.”
In an plea for his and his wife’s safety, he asks that “instead of plotting my death, you may consider the possibility that I do have a legitimate right to life and a legitimate right to my own” decisions.
He says that since so many have commented on his wedding — photos from his personal account meant only for family and friends were widely distributed — he wants to make it clear that “I am not here to ‘force my agenda’ or my ‘lifestyle’ on anyone else.”
“I am here to live a good, God-honoring life,” he said. “And, as a Christian, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell people who God is, what He has done in my life and how He continues to provide for me in ways that are more numerous than I can count.”
‘No safer place than Bible school’
In a 2007 interview with WND, Glatze said he became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly declared himself “gay” at age 20. After a decade in which his leadership role in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner conflict – he said he finally was “liberated.”
After becoming editor of Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum. Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC and quotes in a cover story in Time magazine called “The Battle Over Gay Teens.”
He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen suicide, “Jim In Bold,” which toured the world and received numerous “best in festival” awards. Young Gay America’s photo exhibit, telling the story of young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S.
In 2005, Glatze was featured in a panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard, at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
One of Glatze’s former colleagues in the homosexual-rights movement wrote a first-person article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011 about his trip to visit Glatze, who was in Bible school at the time.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis concluded: “As I drove back to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again. Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth?
“It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon,” Denizet-Lewis wrote.
“For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/ex-homosexuals-marriage-slammed-by-activists/#bGKb6ivmgQzp8wy8.99
In a letter to his critics published today by WND, Michael Glatze called the month since his Oct. 26 marriage to Rebekah the “greatest” of his life.
As WND reported in 2007, Glatze become a frequent source for major media covering the homosexual movement as founding editor of Young Gay America magazine before a radical change in his life that he says began with inner “promptings” he now attributes to God.
Since then, he’s been closely watched by homosexual-rights activists such as Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out. Besen’s non-profit declares its aim is to “demolish the very foundation of anti-gay prejudice,” and he asks for help to “uncover the next ‘ex-gay’ swindle.”
Besen – former spokesman for the leading homosexual-rights group Human Rights Campaign – wrote of Glatze’s marriage in a mocking post on his website Dec. 1, taunting that one “can’t be an official ‘ex-gay’ rock star until wedding bells ring.”
“Apparently, this happened for publicity hound Michael Glatze, who married his prop, er bride, Rebekah, on October 26,” writes Besen, author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
He linked to wedding photos of Glatze wearing “fundie drag,” a reference to Glatze’s evangelical Christian faith, which led him to attend a Bible school in Wyoming.
“The victim is attractive and seems rather sweet. I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Besen writes of Glatze’s wife.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT DEAL! YOU WILL GET DAVID KUPELIAN’S BLOCKBUSTER “THE MARKETING OF EVIL” AND HIS NEWEST BOOK “HOW EVIL WORKS,” BOTH AUTOGRAPHED, AT A FABULOUS DISCOUNT!
The reaction of Besen and other activists boils down to an inhuman hope for failure, said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.
“In what other area of life do you see this?” he asked in an interview with WND. “Somebody tries to overcome drugs and falls back, and you say, ‘That’s it, nobody can change.’”
LaBarbera said the only people “who are not celebrating this marriage of a guy who was once involved in homosexuality are the homosexual radicals like Wayne Besen.”
“They are basically celebrating failure,” he said. “They’re all about focusing on the failures, because they can’t admit that homosexual identity and behavior is something you can change.”
LaBarbera said that while some who have declared themselves to be ex-”gay” have gone back to their old ways, Glatze represents many more success stories that don’t receive publicity.
Unfortunately, he said the establishment media focuses on messengers like Besen.
“I think if the average person knew about Michael Glatze, their whole view of the homosexual issue would change,” LaBarbera told WND. “And maybe that’s why people like Besen are so desperate to do anything they can to ridicule, to demonize, to mock, to deny that they even exist.”
He said homosexual activists don’t live up to their appeals for “dignity” and “tolerance.”
“Everything they once said they stood for, they are now doing the opposite toward ex-gays,” LaBarbera said.
‘People have called me a lot of things’
In his letter to his critics, Glatze says he and he new bride don’t want to become “political pawns.”
“I have never called myself an ‘ex-gay,’ though people have called me that,” he writes. “But, then again, people have called me a lot of things on account of the fact that I left homosexuality a few years back and decided that I felt more comfortable living heterosexually.”
Glatze explains he wanted to “make a little ‘shout out’ to all of the angry homosexuals in our country who are currently spreading all sorts of hate and aggression on pro-homosexual blogs.”
“Look, I am not interested in defending myself. I don’t really need to do that,” he writes. “I understand your plight, your point-of-view. I understand the desire to want me to be crazy, or lost in my head and mind, or confused. I understand that it would be just easier if I didn’t exist, or I would just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. But I’m not going to do that.”
In an plea for his and his wife’s safety, he asks that “instead of plotting my death, you may consider the possibility that I do have a legitimate right to life and a legitimate right to my own” decisions.
He says that since so many have commented on his wedding — photos from his personal account meant only for family and friends were widely distributed — he wants to make it clear that “I am not here to ‘force my agenda’ or my ‘lifestyle’ on anyone else.”
“I am here to live a good, God-honoring life,” he said. “And, as a Christian, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell people who God is, what He has done in my life and how He continues to provide for me in ways that are more numerous than I can count.”
‘No safer place than Bible school’
In a 2007 interview with WND, Glatze said he became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly declared himself “gay” at age 20. After a decade in which his leadership role in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner conflict – he said he finally was “liberated.”
After becoming editor of Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum. Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC and quotes in a cover story in Time magazine called “The Battle Over Gay Teens.”
He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen suicide, “Jim In Bold,” which toured the world and received numerous “best in festival” awards. Young Gay America’s photo exhibit, telling the story of young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S.
In 2005, Glatze was featured in a panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard, at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
One of Glatze’s former colleagues in the homosexual-rights movement wrote a first-person article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011 about his trip to visit Glatze, who was in Bible school at the time.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis concluded: “As I drove back to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again. Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth?
“It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon,” Denizet-Lewis wrote.
“For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/ex-homosexuals-marriage-slammed-by-activists/#bGKb6ivmgQzp8wy8.99
A former “gay rights” activist who declared six years ago he left homosexuality through the power of God is now celebrating his marriage to a woman, much to the chagrin of homosexual activists who are ridiculing him and his bride via the Web.
In a letter to his critics published today by WND, Michael Glatze called the month since his Oct. 26 marriage to Rebekah the “greatest” of his life.
“I am so grateful for Rebekah, for God, for His provision, for my new in-laws, for my family which traveled from far and wide to join in our special day, and for the prayers and support that have flooded our way since October,” he writes.
As WND reported in 2007, Glatze become a frequent source for major media covering the homosexual movement as founding editor of Young Gay America magazine before a radical change in his life that he says began with inner “promptings” he now attributes to God.
Since then, he’s been closely watched by homosexual-rights activists such as Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out. Besen’s non-profit declares its aim is to “demolish the very foundation of anti-gay prejudice,” and he asks for help to “uncover the next ‘ex-gay’ swindle.”
Besen – former spokesman for the leading homosexual-rights group Human Rights Campaign – wrote of Glatze’s marriage in a mocking post on his website Dec. 1, taunting that one “can’t be an official ‘ex-gay’ rock star until wedding bells ring.”
“Apparently, this happened for publicity hound Michael Glatze, who married his prop, er bride, Rebekah, on October 26,” writes Besen, author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
He linked to wedding photos of Glatze wearing “fundie drag,” a reference to Glatze’s evangelical Christian faith, which led him to attend a Bible school in Wyoming.
“The victim is attractive and seems rather sweet. I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Besen writes of Glatze’s wife.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT DEAL! YOU WILL GET DAVID KUPELIAN’S BLOCKBUSTER “THE MARKETING OF EVIL” AND HIS NEWEST BOOK “HOW EVIL WORKS,” BOTH AUTOGRAPHED, AT A FABULOUS DISCOUNT!
The reaction of Besen and other activists boils down to an inhuman hope for failure, said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.
“In what other area of life do you see this?” he asked in an interview with WND. “Somebody tries to overcome drugs and falls back, and you say, ‘That’s it, nobody can change.’”
LaBarbera said the only people “who are not celebrating this marriage of a guy who was once involved in homosexuality are the homosexual radicals like Wayne Besen.”
“They are basically celebrating failure,” he said. “They’re all about focusing on the failures, because they can’t admit that homosexual identity and behavior is something you can change.”
LaBarbera said that while some who have declared themselves to be ex-”gay” have gone back to their old ways, Glatze represents many more success stories that don’t receive publicity.
Unfortunately, he said the establishment media focuses on messengers like Besen.
“I think if the average person knew about Michael Glatze, their whole view of the homosexual issue would change,” LaBarbera told WND. “And maybe that’s why people like Besen are so desperate to do anything they can to ridicule, to demonize, to mock, to deny that they even exist.”
He said homosexual activists don’t live up to their appeals for “dignity” and “tolerance.”
“Everything they once said they stood for, they are now doing the opposite toward ex-gays,” LaBarbera said.
‘People have called me a lot of things’
In his letter to his critics, Glatze says he and he new bride don’t want to become “political pawns.”
“I have never called myself an ‘ex-gay,’ though people have called me that,” he writes. “But, then again, people have called me a lot of things on account of the fact that I left homosexuality a few years back and decided that I felt more comfortable living heterosexually.”
Glatze explains he wanted to “make a little ‘shout out’ to all of the angry homosexuals in our country who are currently spreading all sorts of hate and aggression on pro-homosexual blogs.”
“Look, I am not interested in defending myself. I don’t really need to do that,” he writes. “I understand your plight, your point-of-view. I understand the desire to want me to be crazy, or lost in my head and mind, or confused. I understand that it would be just easier if I didn’t exist, or I would just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. But I’m not going to do that.”
In an plea for his and his wife’s safety, he asks that “instead of plotting my death, you may consider the possibility that I do have a legitimate right to life and a legitimate right to my own” decisions.
He says that since so many have commented on his wedding — photos from his personal account meant only for family and friends were widely distributed — he wants to make it clear that “I am not here to ‘force my agenda’ or my ‘lifestyle’ on anyone else.”
“I am here to live a good, God-honoring life,” he said. “And, as a Christian, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell people who God is, what He has done in my life and how He continues to provide for me in ways that are more numerous than I can count.”
‘No safer place than Bible school’
In a 2007 interview with WND, Glatze said he became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly declared himself “gay” at age 20. After a decade in which his leadership role in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner conflict – he said he finally was “liberated.”
After becoming editor of Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum. Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC and quotes in a cover story in Time magazine called “The Battle Over Gay Teens.”
He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen suicide, “Jim In Bold,” which toured the world and received numerous “best in festival” awards. Young Gay America’s photo exhibit, telling the story of young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S.
In 2005, Glatze was featured in a panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard, at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
One of Glatze’s former colleagues in the homosexual-rights movement wrote a first-person article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011 about his trip to visit Glatze, who was in Bible school at the time.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis concluded: “As I drove back to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again. Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth?
“It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon,” Denizet-Lewis wrote.
“For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/ex-homosexuals-marriage-slammed-by-activists/#bGKb6ivmgQzp8wy8.99
In a letter to his critics published today by WND, Michael Glatze called the month since his Oct. 26 marriage to Rebekah the “greatest” of his life.
As WND reported in 2007, Glatze become a frequent source for major media covering the homosexual movement as founding editor of Young Gay America magazine before a radical change in his life that he says began with inner “promptings” he now attributes to God.
Since then, he’s been closely watched by homosexual-rights activists such as Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out. Besen’s non-profit declares its aim is to “demolish the very foundation of anti-gay prejudice,” and he asks for help to “uncover the next ‘ex-gay’ swindle.”
Besen – former spokesman for the leading homosexual-rights group Human Rights Campaign – wrote of Glatze’s marriage in a mocking post on his website Dec. 1, taunting that one “can’t be an official ‘ex-gay’ rock star until wedding bells ring.”
“Apparently, this happened for publicity hound Michael Glatze, who married his prop, er bride, Rebekah, on October 26,” writes Besen, author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
He linked to wedding photos of Glatze wearing “fundie drag,” a reference to Glatze’s evangelical Christian faith, which led him to attend a Bible school in Wyoming.
“The victim is attractive and seems rather sweet. I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Besen writes of Glatze’s wife.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT DEAL! YOU WILL GET DAVID KUPELIAN’S BLOCKBUSTER “THE MARKETING OF EVIL” AND HIS NEWEST BOOK “HOW EVIL WORKS,” BOTH AUTOGRAPHED, AT A FABULOUS DISCOUNT!
The reaction of Besen and other activists boils down to an inhuman hope for failure, said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.
“In what other area of life do you see this?” he asked in an interview with WND. “Somebody tries to overcome drugs and falls back, and you say, ‘That’s it, nobody can change.’”
LaBarbera said the only people “who are not celebrating this marriage of a guy who was once involved in homosexuality are the homosexual radicals like Wayne Besen.”
“They are basically celebrating failure,” he said. “They’re all about focusing on the failures, because they can’t admit that homosexual identity and behavior is something you can change.”
LaBarbera said that while some who have declared themselves to be ex-”gay” have gone back to their old ways, Glatze represents many more success stories that don’t receive publicity.
Unfortunately, he said the establishment media focuses on messengers like Besen.
“I think if the average person knew about Michael Glatze, their whole view of the homosexual issue would change,” LaBarbera told WND. “And maybe that’s why people like Besen are so desperate to do anything they can to ridicule, to demonize, to mock, to deny that they even exist.”
He said homosexual activists don’t live up to their appeals for “dignity” and “tolerance.”
“Everything they once said they stood for, they are now doing the opposite toward ex-gays,” LaBarbera said.
‘People have called me a lot of things’
In his letter to his critics, Glatze says he and he new bride don’t want to become “political pawns.”
“I have never called myself an ‘ex-gay,’ though people have called me that,” he writes. “But, then again, people have called me a lot of things on account of the fact that I left homosexuality a few years back and decided that I felt more comfortable living heterosexually.”
Glatze explains he wanted to “make a little ‘shout out’ to all of the angry homosexuals in our country who are currently spreading all sorts of hate and aggression on pro-homosexual blogs.”
“Look, I am not interested in defending myself. I don’t really need to do that,” he writes. “I understand your plight, your point-of-view. I understand the desire to want me to be crazy, or lost in my head and mind, or confused. I understand that it would be just easier if I didn’t exist, or I would just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. But I’m not going to do that.”
In an plea for his and his wife’s safety, he asks that “instead of plotting my death, you may consider the possibility that I do have a legitimate right to life and a legitimate right to my own” decisions.
He says that since so many have commented on his wedding — photos from his personal account meant only for family and friends were widely distributed — he wants to make it clear that “I am not here to ‘force my agenda’ or my ‘lifestyle’ on anyone else.”
“I am here to live a good, God-honoring life,” he said. “And, as a Christian, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell people who God is, what He has done in my life and how He continues to provide for me in ways that are more numerous than I can count.”
‘No safer place than Bible school’
In a 2007 interview with WND, Glatze said he became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly declared himself “gay” at age 20. After a decade in which his leadership role in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner conflict – he said he finally was “liberated.”
After becoming editor of Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum. Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC and quotes in a cover story in Time magazine called “The Battle Over Gay Teens.”
He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen suicide, “Jim In Bold,” which toured the world and received numerous “best in festival” awards. Young Gay America’s photo exhibit, telling the story of young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S.
In 2005, Glatze was featured in a panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard, at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
One of Glatze’s former colleagues in the homosexual-rights movement wrote a first-person article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011 about his trip to visit Glatze, who was in Bible school at the time.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis concluded: “As I drove back to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again. Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth?
“It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon,” Denizet-Lewis wrote.
“For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/ex-homosexuals-marriage-slammed-by-activists/#bGKb6ivmgQzp8wy8.99
A former “gay rights” activist who declared six
years ago he left homosexuality through the power of God is now
celebrating his marriage to a woman, much to the chagrin of homosexual
activists who are ridiculing him and his bride via the Web.
In a letter to his
critics published today by WND, Michael Glatze called the month
since his Oct. 26 marriage to Rebekah the “greatest” of his life.
“I am so grateful for Rebekah, for God, for His provision, for my new
in-laws, for my family which traveled from far and wide to join in our special
day, and for the prayers and support that have flooded our way since October,”
he writes.
As WND reported in 2007, Glatze become a
frequent source for major media covering the homosexual movement as founding
editor of Young Gay America magazine before a radical change in his life that
he says began with inner “promptings” he now attributes to God.
Since then, he’s been closely watched by
homosexual-rights activists such as Wayne Besen, founder and executive director
of Truth Wins Out. Besen’s non-profit declares its aim is to “demolish the very
foundation of anti-gay prejudice,” and he asks for help to “uncover the next
‘ex-gay’ swindle.”
Besen – former spokesman
for the leading homosexual-rights group Human Rights Campaign – wrote of
Glatze’s marriage in a mocking post on his website Dec. 1, taunting
that one “can’t be an official ‘ex-gay’ rock star until wedding bells ring.”
“Apparently, this happened for publicity hound
Michael Glatze, who married his prop, er bride, Rebekah, on October 26,” writes
Besen, author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and
Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
He linked to wedding photos of Glatze wearing
“fundie drag,” a reference to Glatze’s evangelical Christian faith, which led
him to attend a Bible school in Wyoming.
“The victim is attractive and seems rather
sweet. I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Besen writes of Glatze’s
wife.
The reaction of Besen
and other activists boils down to an inhuman hope for failure, said Peter
LaBarbera, president of Americans for
Truth about Homosexuality.
“In what other area of life do you see this?” he
asked in an interview with WND. “Somebody tries to overcome drugs and falls
back, and you say, ‘That’s it, nobody can change.’”
LaBarbera said the only people “who are not
celebrating this marriage of a guy who was once involved in homosexuality are
the homosexual radicals like Wayne Besen.”
“They are basically celebrating failure,” he
said. “They’re all about focusing on the failures, because they can’t admit
that homosexual identity and behavior is something you can change.”
LaBarbera said that while some who have declared
themselves to be ex-”gay” have gone back to their old ways, Glatze represents
many more success stories that don’t receive publicity.
Unfortunately, he said the establishment media
focuses on messengers like Besen.
“I think if the average person knew about
Michael Glatze, their whole view of the homosexual issue would change,”
LaBarbera told WND. “And maybe that’s why people like Besen are so desperate to
do anything they can to ridicule, to demonize, to mock, to deny that they even
exist.”
He said homosexual activists don’t live up to
their appeals for “dignity” and “tolerance.”
“Everything they once said they stood for, they
are now doing the opposite toward ex-gays,” LaBarbera said.
‘People have called me a lot of things’
In his letter to his critics, Glatze says he and
he new bride don’t want to become “political pawns.”
“I have never called myself an ‘ex-gay,’ though
people have called me that,” he writes. “But, then again, people have called me
a lot of things on account of the fact that I left homosexuality a few years
back and decided that I felt more comfortable living heterosexually.”
Glatze explains he wanted to “make a little
‘shout out’ to all of the angry homosexuals in our country who are currently
spreading all sorts of hate and aggression on pro-homosexual blogs.”
Michael and Rebekah Glatze
“Look, I am not interested in defending myself.
I don’t really need to do that,” he writes. “I understand your plight, your
point-of-view. I understand the desire to want me to be crazy, or lost in my
head and mind, or confused. I understand that it would be just easier if I
didn’t exist, or I would just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. But I’m not
going to do that.”
In an plea for his and his wife’s safety, he
asks that “instead of plotting my death, you may consider the possibility that
I do have a legitimate right to life and a legitimate right to my own”
decisions.
He says that since so many have commented on his
wedding — photos from his personal account meant only for family and friends
were widely distributed — he wants to make it clear that “I am not here to
‘force my agenda’ or my ‘lifestyle’ on anyone else.”
“I am here to live a good, God-honoring life,”
he said. “And, as a Christian, I would be a liar if I didn’t tell people who
God is, what He has done in my life and how He continues to provide for me in
ways that are more numerous than I can count.”
‘No safer place than Bible school’
In a 2007 interview with WND, Glatze said he
became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly
declared himself “gay” at age 20. After a decade in which his leadership role
in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner
conflict – he said he finally was “liberated.”
After becoming editor of
Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and
recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major
homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum.
Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC
and quotes in a cover story in
Time magazine called “The Battle Over Gay Teens.”
He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and
Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen
suicide, “Jim In Bold,” which toured the world and received numerous “best in
festival” awards. Young Gay America’s photo exhibit, telling the story of young
people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S.
In 2005, Glatze was featured in a
panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard,
at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
One of Glatze’s former
colleagues in the homosexual-rights movement wrote a
first-person article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2011
about his trip to visit Glatze, who was in Bible school at the time.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis concluded: “As I drove back
to my hotel that night, I wondered if I would ever hear from Michael again.
Might he call me someday to say that he was gay after all, and that his years
as an ex-gay were just another pit stop in his lifelong pursuit of truth?
“It’s possible, but I doubt it will happen
anytime soon,” Denizet-Lewis wrote.
“For an ex-gay intent on staying that way, there
are few safer places in the world than a Bible school in Wyoming.”
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