Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook received Auburn University’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement award, and gave a short acceptance speech at the UN. First, War Eagle!, Auburn runs deep in my veins, and though we haven’t produced it yet, the tight relationship of the Auburn family features prominently in the sequel to our Act 1 video. If you want us to produce it, click the Donate button. Certainly Tim has achieved a high level of success in his professional life. Besides athletes, he is probably the highest profile Auburn grad in pop culture, and rightfully deserves this lifetime achievement award. We expect him to continue guiding Apple, Inc. on a path of innovation and making complex technology accessible to everyone.
However, Tim used this opportunity to engage in hate speech and campaign for abolishing our critical 1st-amendment-protected rights. Drawing an analogy with his time spent in the racist south, he associated people who do not believe in same-sex marriage with cross-burning racists. Depending on how you view the speech, he either associated LGBT with blacks who had their civil rights abridged during the decades leading up to the 1960’s, or with physically disabled persons.
Specifically, Tim Cook is backing Federal legislation, called “ENDA”, which would be a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 1st amendment, which prohibits the Federal Congress from passing legislation respecting the free exercise of religion. In this legislation, called “Employment Non-Discrimination Act”, employers are prohibited from not employing self-identified members of the “LGBT” community.
Business policy vs. Love vs. Law.
Please understand, here at Recently Straight LLC, we do not use a person’s self-identitfied membership as L, G, B or T as a sole determining factor as to whether we will contract with them, but that’s policy, not law. The main reason I don’t use someone’s self-identified membership in LGBT community is because, as actors, their job is portray someone else, or as crew their job is to help me produce art. Those kinds of jobs don’t see a lot of interference from someone’s unmet love needs and unhealed emotional wounds which lead to eroticized same-sex attractions. That’s also why I don’t advocate discrimination in other business associations, unless for some reason it’s directly tied to their ability to fulfill their job.
As someone who experienced unwanted eroticized same-sex attractions I know how scary it could be that if someone discovered my “inner” feelings that I might be let go, or kicked out of Church, or shot, or abused, or end our friendship, or well anything really. Anticipatory shame, and defensive detachment are hallmark symptoms of eroticized same-sex attractions. Far beyond anticipating, working the Recently Straight project, we’ve been discriminated against on several occasions. We’ve been black-balled by some Dallas talent agencies, actors and actress have failed to fulfill their roles after deciding they don’t like the purpose of the project, marketing agencies have decided not to take us on as clients, and supposedly-conservative websites have decided not to allow us to advertise, Google has “disapproved” our ads, Vimeo has cancelled the accounts of other ex-gay clients, and even pastors have told me not to tell my testimony. We’ve seen more than our share of prejudice and discrimination. But I don’t complain much, because as a private business, that’s their right. I wonder how those businesses will feel once they realize I can sue for $M’s when they use our stance on the origin of eroticized same-sex attractions as the sole reason they don’t work with us, which is pretty much all we are. Lest they forget a Federal court has ruled that if L, G, B and T are protected gender identities, so is ex-gay.
The difference between business policy and law is that business associations are always voluntary. Governments use coercion to enforce laws. What level of coercion is appropriate to force a Christian Counseling group to continue employing a therapist claiming to provide Reparative Therapy for homosexuality after he announces that he identifies as “gay” and continues to engage in a gay-partner relationship? (Don’t laugh, it happens.) What level of coercion is appropriate to force a cake baker to bake a cake for a gay wedding when the cake baker does not believe that same-sex marriage can exist? (Don’t laugh, it happens.) Under this law, the Federal government would be in the position of prosecuting a religious organization which refuses to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony. Don’t laugh, it’s already happened to public facilities. They react by discontinuing all marriage ceremonies. These situations are already happening under some state laws, if ENDA is passed, they will begin happening in all states.
ENDA presumes truth contrary to science
The ENDA legislation is problematic for another reason: it hinges on the concept that “gay is how someone is born” by using the term “sexual orientation”. Science shows this isn’t true. Studied on identical twins have found that if one twin identifies as ‘gay’, in approximately 90% of cases, the other one does not. Instead, we know that eroticized same-sex attractions are the result of unmet love needs and unhealed emotional wounds. That’s why we promote love and acceptance of persons with eroticized same-sex attractions – because that’s what they deserve as being made in the image of God, it’s what Jesus commands us to share with each other, and it’s what they need to heal.
The need for “equality” has already been met
It is not coincidental that the gay lobby, of which Cook is clearly a proponent, uses the flag of “equality”, and is yet never satiated by their achievements. They’ve now moved beyond wanting tolerance, and acceptance: now they want to harm others who do not believe as they do. The sad truth is that they already are equal. There is no such thing as a “gay man” or a “lesbian”, but instead all human beings are inherently heterosexual. We are all created “men” and “women”. But not feeling the equality is a major contributing factor leading to the eroticized same-sex attractions. It is in fact the goal of Recently Straight to help them feel the belonging, the oneness, the equality. My motivation has been to do that with love, I see now that if we fail: their ‘stick’ will be to use the powers of government to coerce us.