Dan Choi: A New Beginning

At Netroots Nation I sat down with Lt. Dan Choi a day after he received the news that his discharge from the military was official. It was quite a reflective and interesting interview as Dan talked about his the dangers of the closet, his struggles growing up in a religious family and where is going from here. Listen in.

Today on the Signorile Show

The Michelangelo Signorile Show continues LIVE, Day 2 from Las Vegas at the Netroots Nation convention, where progressive bloggers gather to speak about the issues leading up to the midterm elections and the pressing news of the day!

Follow along on Twitter! And, don't forget, you can follow Mike on Twitter and Facebook for feedback from the convention!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

We will be bringing you the show LIVE from Las Vegas, where Michelangelo will be cover all the action at this years Netroots Nation, a convention where progressive bloggers from around the blogosphere gather to discuss the issues at hand.

Tune in as Mike interviews activists, politicians and bloggers about what they hope to accomplish this year leading to the midterm elections this November as well as all the news of the day.

And, don't forget to follow Mike on Twitter and Facebook for all the updates from Netroots Nation 2010 in Las Vegas!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

Let's go through the massive Washington Post series on the "fourth branch of government," which they headline "Top Secret America: A Washington Post Investigation." The first installment, yesterday, is called "A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control." It's getting lots of coverage on the cable networks and Post reporters worked on for two years and the paper is hyping it big time. But I must say that going through, it there's nothing shocking even if alarming: A gigantic overreaction to 9/11 was something many of us were warning about for years, not just because of the huge money pit but most importantly because of the civil liberties implications even as we are not much "safer" than we were. And that's pretty much what the story points to. Lots of facts and details about what we do and how much it costs, with no confirmation if any of it works. We'll get into it.

The U.N. has given recognition finally to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, over the objections of Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and with the support, for the first time, of the United States.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Three powerful antibodies have been dicsovered by US government scientists to combat 91% of HIV strains. Mark Schoofs outlines this in a recent article for the Wall Street Journal and joins us this afternoon to talk about them.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - We played some audio of the JONAH ex-gay survivors yesterday afternoon, talking about the absurdness of these types of programs. Ben Unger and Chaim Levin join us this afternoon to tell us their stories.

Further proving just how dangerous closeted gay politicians can be, California Legislator Roy Ashburn, outed last year after a drunk-driving bust, has apologized for his antigay votes and explained them a bit more. Lots to discuss here.

Did Justice Ginsburg plant a "time bomb" for a future marrage decision? We actually had commented on this back when the Supremes ruled against the Christian Legal Society. We'll get into it more today.

And why do some lesbians like to watch gay male porn? An interesting detail revealed in the new film, The Kids Are Alright, and we're going to ask women to call in today to explain -- or perhaps tell us why they think it's just plain not true or overblown or totally wrong.

These stories and much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show! Always check back here throughout the day as we book guests and topics, updating this post.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Advocate Reposts Andrew Marin Article

The Advocate has reposted my 2006 article about Andrew Marin, since it is now getting much more attention. This confirms that the Article was never "retracted" it as Marin claimed -- until he recently admitted it wasn't true, after I called him on it.

Today's Signorile Show

We're back from a week off, and so much to get into before we head off to Vegas and Netroots Nation, broadcasting live from the Rio Hotel Thursday and Friday. Lots to talk about today, including the attacks on the NAACP for calling out racism in the Tea Party. After all the blather, now the teabaggers have only proved the point: Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams has been expelled by the Tea Party Federation for making racist comments (in a letter to Abe Lincoln!). We'll get into it all.

Back to the future? BP says it has sealed the well, but leaks are detected.


Hmm. Evangelicals supporting immigration reform.

Why is the media so quick to report on a black "hate group" but rarely point out that The Southern Poverty Law Center lists several anti-gay groups which the media treat as "mainstream," as hate groups as well, including Family Research Council and Focus on the Family?

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Cocaine has been one of the biggest black market industries for years. The US governments spend millions to combat the problem, but many say this is a waste of time and money. Tom Feiling joins us this afternoon to talk about his book Cocaine Nation: How The White Trade Took Over The World and how a legal market could and should be created.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - The racism debate between the Tea Party crowd and the NAACP has been front and center in the past few weeks. Fresh from the 101st NAACP Annual Convention, Mark Thompson, host of Make It Plain w/ Mark Thompson on Sirius Left 146 and America Left XM 167, joins us to talk about the debate.

Police in Palm Springs are grabbing their crotches in bathrooms to entice gay men to have sex with them, then arresting them. How do you spell E-N-T-R-A-P-M-E-N-T? And should the police be charged themselves with public lewdness?

We must talk about the Vatican's latest announcement: Attempting to make the ordination of women a grave crime, on a par with, yes, child sex abuse!

NYU has decided that it doesn't want nude photos and video of artist Larry Rivers in which the subjects are his two daughters, who have complained it was sexual abuse since they were underage. Now the question is, what to do with the photos? Is this art or child porn -- or, can it be both? -- and what should be done? We'll open up the phones to you.

What Arizona and its immigration bill hath wrought: Neo-Nazi's are patrolling the border.

And, don't forget, you can follow me onTwitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Back on the Live Show Today

Back from vacation, all rested up and so ready to be back to the show. Hope to hear from many of you this afternoon.

Today's Signorile Show

I'm on vacation all week and today and tomorrow thrilled to have Lizz Winstead guest-hosting. She'll be hitting all the big issues and of course, if the Prop 8 decision comes down, Lizz is at the helm! Listen in.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Transcript of Andrew Marin Seminar

Very thankful to Jim Burroway of BoxTurtleBulletin for transcribing the Andrew Marin audio clips which I posted a couple of days ago. Below are the transcripts of Marin's seminar from 2008 to youth pastors:


"Part of our national research study that we're doing, I talked about a lot of those results yesterday, but here's something for you guys. We have found that the average age of someone today in 2008 that first realizes their same-sex attraction: thirteen years old. On top of that, the average age of somebody today in 2008 who comes out and declares their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender: fifteen years old. Fifteen!

"Think about this. We have a window here of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years old, and that window gives us the realization of attraction of same sex, and there's a quick two years before they totally come out and say hey, I'm gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

"And we all know when someone comes out and declares their orientation, they tell everybody -- family, friends -- and what happens is that then their identity becomes wrapped up in being gay. How much more difficult is it for somebody whose identity is already wrapped up in being gay than it is for someone who might have a same-sex attraction and their identity is not wrapped up in being gay?

"There is a huge, huge period within those two and a half, three years. And what we have to do is start deconstructing the integration. Because once everything is integrated -- and I'll touch on this construct in a couple of minutes here -- but once everything is integrated, it is going to be rough!. It's going to be rough for us, it's going to be rough for them, it's going to be rough for parents and family and everybody. So if we can hold off the integration part, the better off we're going to be with all this. So just understand once again: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. "

-----

"I want to talk about "expectation yields integration." Now what am I talking about? I'll give you an example. When my third best friend Dan came out to me the third consecutive month, we started talking from that point forward. And Dan had been my best friend since second grade, raised in the same neighborhood, same friends, same school, same church, played the same sports, same everything. And Dan told me when he came out, "You know, Andrew, I can't do the God thing anymore. You know? I can't be a part of church, I can't pray, I can't do that."

"And that was the first time in my life -- now granted, my best friends had only come out to me for the previous two months here so everything was a new experience for me -- but that was the first time that I actually realized, oh! This is a bigger issue than about someone's gayness or straightness. Because Dan feels like that he has to sprint as far away from church and from God and religion as he possibly can, just because he came out.

"And I didn't know what was going on, so I asked him, 'Why? Why do you feel like that? Why do you feel like you have to leave? Why do you feel like you're not a child of God anymore? Why do you feel like these things?'

"He said, 'Because I don't belong anymore. I don't belong anymore.' And within the next three months, Dan lost a bunch of weight, got the little 'fauxhawk', started wearing tight clothes, started acting effeminate, talking effeminate. And I was like, because we went to college and we went to different colleges and so we saw each other at Christmas break, I go, 'Dan, who the heck are you dude? I've been your best friend since we were in second grade and now you're like, you're the stereotypical flaming gay guy who now can't be a part of God or the Church or anything just because he came out.'

"And that's when I realized Dan had an expectation in his head of what gay meant. Dan had an expectation in his head that gay people are supposed to dress a certain way, act a certain way, do things a certain way, and be a certain person. He had that expectation, and because he felt like he couldn't be a part of the church anymore, part of God anymore, part of being a child of God, he felt he had to just fully integrate himself into the broader gay and lesbian community, become the thing he thought in his mind was acceptable to everyone else like him. Expectation yields integration. And this is a very, very real thing. "

-----

"What we have to understand from our mindset is that there is a clear expectation in many of our youths' mind of what gay is. And if they have that same-sex attraction, they will automatically start leaning in that direction. Thirteen, fourteen and fifteen years old. And when they come out and tell the world -- their parents, family, friends, teachers, school, all that stuff -- so when they fully integrate themselves at that point (I don't want to say it's too late because once again, think big picture principal that we have until the last breath to accomplish what the Lord has for our lives), but in the same fashion, that's who they are. That's all that they are.

"And as I talked about yesterday, the behavior equals the identity. The act of sex equals the whole person. I have so many in the gay community who are grown up that say, "Dude, if you take away my gay sexuality, you take away everything that I am as a person." And those [are] people who are adults. So I see it on the back end. So as much as I can tell you what happens on the back end is as much as we can realize how to deconstruct this traditional process on the front end where you guys are."

-----

"Now, you're saying well how am I supposed to answer that question, 'Do you think I can change my sexual orientation?' This is a background framework for what I'm going to say.

"So one thing that I've learned about answering questions is that the more opinions you give, the more trouble you'll get in. I learned that one the hard way back in the day.

"So now what I say if someone says, 'Well do you think gay people can change their sexual orientation?' I say facts. I say, 'Do I know people who have changed their sexual orientation?' Yes, I know people like that. Do I also know people who have tried to change their sexual orientation and have not been able to? Yes, I know people like that.

"And really, it's as easy and as simple as that. It changes the conversation away from your opinion of, oh yeah, I think everyone should change or I think everyone should be straight. The stating of fact or opinion, because most of the time, once again, if you're talking to either a youth with a same-sex attraction or someone in the broader gay community, they're thinking to themselves, especially the youth, it's like "aw man, I can't change, I don't know where this came from, I don't know, whatever..." And the moment you say everyone should be like this, they look to their secular gay community which says, 'Hey! I'm gay! It's great! Come on! Let me give you some love!' And they're like, wait a second. What my youth pastor says doesn't match up with all of these people who said they tried to change and can't.

"And so if that's the only option that we give them, once again, where are they going to lean? The easy road or the hard road? But if you then state instead of that, if you say, 'Do I know gay people who have changed?' Or if you don't know anyone who has changed, it's okay. You know? You can say, 'Do I know that there have been gay people who have changed? Yes. Do I know that there have been people who have not changed? Yes.' And then, you know, getting them back into the whole Bible scene and Word of God and all that stuff, you know, we know where to go from that point. But it diffuses and it changes the conversation."

-------------

"Well you know, even in that situation where the kid's like, 'Hey, I'm gay, I just want to be gay and I want to be Christian, I want to be a gay Christian' and whatever -- there is a ton of hope for a person like that. Because you have to understand, you have to think big picture. And the funny thing is if you bring up --- because I'll tell you, a lot of fifteen year olds don't think about what their life is going to be like when it's thirty-five. Especially for a kid who's like, 'hey I'm fifteen and I'm a gay Christian' -- I don't think that quite resonates with what that's going to be when you're thirty-five years old and you can't be married and you can't have kids and, you know, it's a lot different of a life than at that point fifteen year olds can grasp, you know? And so, even if you throw something like that out there, about, well this is for the long haul and you have to think about the big picture and thirty-five and you know with all of this other stuff happening, the great part is, if they're willing to come to you and say something like that, you can provide that hope in Christ [and] take away the whole sexuality issue. Take it away, you know?

"What we don't want to have happen is the sexuality or the behavior become the identity. We don't want to have the expectation become fully integrated. And the more we focus on sexuality as the issue, not even the issue like a sin issue, but just if this kid comes to you and says this, the more you focus on sexuality in his life, the more sexuality becomes the dominant figure of who he is. So remove it, and instead plant in there everything else from pretending that it's not there, you know."

Rebroadcast Today

Off from the show this week and today you'll hear a rebroadcast of interviews and discussions from the recent past which many of you requested. Tomorrow and the Friday, the so smart and wonderful Lizz Winstead will guest host!