Former "Ex-Gay" Poster Boy John Paulk Competes On Cooking Reality Show

Last night former "ex-gay" poster boy John Paulk competed on the cooking reality show Cutthroat Kitchen. The show was promoted by Go Local PDX on Friday:

"The fast-paced energy I experienced while taping the episode last summer was exhilarating," said Paulk. "I've never had more fun in my life competing with other talented chefs." This in not Paulk's first appearance on T.V. For several years, Paulk was a regular guest on local television morning shows doing cooking demonstrations. Currently, Paulk is preparing to launch his new, weekly radio show, "Talking with our Mouths Full," on Wild Planet Radio, KPQR 99.1 FM. - Portland's new radio station aimed at the LGBT community. Paulk is the former founder and leader of the ex-gay ministry 'Love Won Out,' which promotes freedom from homosexuality through the power of Christ. He has since left the ministry and denounced gay reparative therapy. Paulk's Mezzaluna Fine Catering has serviced many politicians and leaders with close ties to Portland's gay community.

Paulk's fall from "ex-gay" grace began in 2000 when activist Wayne Besen caught him in a DC gay bar. He resigned from Love Won Out shortly after Focus On The Family head James Dobson confronted him about the incident. Paulk disavowed the "ex-gay" movement in 2013 and has since issued public apologies.

(Tipped by JMG reader Daniel)

MAINE: Gay Gubernatorial Candidate Grand Marshal's Portland Pride Parade

Via the Associated Press:

A Democratic candidate who reluctantly made public his homosexuality last year found himself serving as the grand marshal of Maine's biggest gay pride parade and festival Saturday and urged activists to continue fighting to eliminate discrimination and promote equality. Mike Michaud, who would become the nation's first openly gay person to be elected governor if he unseats Republican Paul LePage in November, said it would be powerful for the gay community to have a seat at the table in discussions with governors across the country on equality issues. "Maine has come a long ways and our nation has come a long ways, but there's still a long way to go," he said in an interview before he marched alongside a white convertible down the roughly milelong route in downtown Portland.

Headline Of The Day

"The Portland Trail Blazers are in support of the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection ballot initiative. We do so as believers in individual choice as a fundamental right of all people.” Source. (Tipped by JMG reader Glenn)

OREGON: Portland Timbers Pro Soccer Fan Club Display Denounces Homophobia

On Sunday the fan club for the Portland Timbers pro soccer team created the above display in support of the International Day Against Homophobia, which is this Friday. From the Major League Soccer site:

Sometimes, supporters groups' tifo displays are designed to look really cool, to recognize a player's career-long contributions to the club or even to intimidate that day's opponent with a massive pregame display that covers the entire end of a 70,000-seat stadium. And other times, the displays transcend the sport of soccer altogether, making a statement about life in general. On the same day a match in Italy – one that happened to involve United States national team midfielder Michael Bradley's club team, AS Roma – had to be momentarily halted because of racist chants aimed at opposing AC Milan players, the Timbers Army chose to spend their Sunday afternoon taking a stand against another sensitive social issue in the sports world: homophobia. The 5,000-person section used roughly 4,500 colored cards to create the display, according to Timbers Army 107 Independent Supporters Trust board member Abram Goldman-Armstrong in an e-mail exchange with MLSsoccer.com on Monday.

The article adds: "The Timbers Army will be the first of many independent supporters groups across MLS to lend their support to the 'Pride, Not Prejudice' cause this week."  Very, very cool. By the way, the Timbers won their game. (Tipped by JMG reader Lance)

Ex-Gay Poster Boy John Paulk Apologizes: I No Longer Support Ex-Gay Movement

John Paulk, the man many "credit" with launching the "ex-gay" movement in the United States, has apologized for his past and denounced the "ex-gay" industry.  From an interview with Portland's PQ Monthly:

"Until recently, I have struggled all my life in feeling unloved and unaccepted,” Paulk said. “I have been on a journey during the last few years in trying to understand God, myself, and how I can best relate to others. During this journey I have made many mistakes and I have hurt many people including people who are close to me. I have also found a large number of people who accept me for who I am regardless of my past, any labels, or what I do.”

Paulk continued, “I no longer support the ex-gay movement or efforts to attempt to change individuals — especially teens who already feel insecure and alienated. I feel great sorrow over the pain that has been caused when my words were misconstrued. I have worked at giving generously to the gay community in Portland where I work and live. I am working hard to be authentic and genuine in all of my relationships.”

Truth Wins Out provides some background on Paulk:

John Paulk was at one time the most well known and influential person in the “ex-gay” industry, appearing on the cover of Newsweek with his wife Anne in 1998 under the headline, “Gay For Life?” He was instrumental in forming the Love Won Out “ex-gay” roadshow, which subjected countless LGBT youth and their families to misinformation, indoctrination and lies, and which destroyed many families in the process. In 2000, Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, photographed John Paulk coming out of a Washington, DC, gay bar, and the lies began to unravel. Though John resigned from the board of Exodus International following this incident, the Religious Right continued to use the Paulks’ story as evidence that the “ex-gay” life was a fairy tale rather than a nightmare, and many LGBT people and their families have been damaged or destroyed over the years as a result.

Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen says "not good enough."

"It is not enough to simply send an e-mail that says, ‘I’m sorry.’ John Paulk must work to atone for the damage he has done to LGBT families by taking a public role in renouncing and working against the harmful ‘ex-gay’ industry by embarking on a speaking tour to show that he truly has changed. Further, he should advocate for a bill in Oregon that would ban so-called ‘reparative therapy’ for minors. Only then can he start to repair the damage he has done to countless LGBT people and their families.”

RELATED: Last April I posted a report that Paulk's Facebook page was "littered with Glamor Shots-style images of Paulk and attractive men" and that his profile stated that he is "interested in women and men."

Maine Marriages Start Tomorrow

Same-sex marriages commence in Maine tomorrow and Portland City Hall is bracing for a rush after midnight tonight.

"We're prepared for pretty much any kind of crowd we could get," said Chris Farwell, a city event coordinator who is responsible for logistics on Saturday. Portland is one of a handful of communities in Maine that plan special office hours Saturday, the first day that same-sex couples can be married under a new state law. Falmouth will also open just after midnight, while communities including Augusta and Brunswick will open their offices at 9 a.m. For groups and families who plan to be at Portland City Hall on Friday night and early Saturday morning, city officials are arranging varying levels of access. Only couples, their immediate families and a limited number of guests will be allowed inside the building, and only the couples themselves will be allowed to wait in line for marriage certificates. Families will be directed to adjacent lobbies and rooms, Farwell said.

One minister will park his RV outside of city hall to accommodate the overflow. Anybody inside city hall by 3AM tonight will be allowed to marry before the building closes.

MAINE: Portland City Hall To Perform Midnight Marriages On Dec. 29th

Portland's City Hall will open at midnight on December 29th, the first day that gay Mainers can marry.

The announcement came a day after Augusta said it would open its offices for the same purpose on that Saturday, during more traditional morning hours. Portland decided to go a little further and open the minute the law takes effect. "There was a lot of discussion about logistics, and the feedback from staff and others was that this would work," said city spokeswoman Nicole Clegg. "It's very exciting," said Ian Grady, communications director for EqualityMaine, the state's leading gay-rights group. "I think the biggest part of the excitement is these people who have been waiting years and years who literally don't want to wait another second."

One of the most beautiful aspects of this latest bit of LGBT history has been watching city governments and civil servants step up, often on their own time, to serve our people.  To serve their people.

SF Rated America's Best City 2012

So says Business Week:

With assistance from Bloomberg Rankings, Businessweek.com evaluated 100 of the country’s largest cities based on leisure attributes (the number of restaurants, bars, libraries, museums, professional sports teams, and park acres by population); educational attributes (public school performance, the number of colleges, and graduate degree holders), economic factors (2011 income and June and July 2012 unemployment), crime, and air quality. Major professional league and minor league teams, as well as U.S.-based teams belonging to international leagues in that city were included. The greatest weighting was placed on leisure amenities, followed by educational metrics and economic metrics, and then crime and air quality.

Here's their top ten:

1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. Washington DC
4. Boston
5. Portland, OR
6. Denver
7. New York City
8. Austin
9. San Diego
10. Saint Paul

Chicago ranked 28th, Los Angeles is 50th.

Archdiocese Of Portland Offers Defense Loan To Child-Molesting Priest

The Archdiocese of Portland has offered an "open-ended" loan to the Oregon priest who last week was witnessed running down the street in his underwear as he tried to capture the 12 year-old boy he'd just molested.

Archbishop John G. Vlazny approved the loan to Perez this week, Archdiocese of Portland spokesman Bud Bunce said Friday. Police said Perez chased a 12-year-old boy down a Woodburn street early Monday while dressed only in his underwear. "It's available if he needs it," Bunce said of the loan. Bunce said he didn't have details on the loan or how it would work. Parishioners in Woodburn have also begun to raise money for Perez's defense, he said.

SNAP knows what the loan is really about.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the church will cover the cost of defense for priests "in the overwhelming majority of cases," but it's usually not called a loan. "I don't think they've ever called it a loan and, frankly, we think that's pretty disingenuous," Clohessy said. "On a priest's salary, there's virtually no chance that it'll ever be repaid, especially if he's found guilty." The Archdiocese of Portland was the first in the nation to declare bankruptcy in 2004, just hours before two civil trials on sex abuse allegations were set to begin.

The diocese emerged from bankruptcy in 2007 with a $50 million settlement of more than 175 claims. Another $20 million was set aside to handle future claims. The offer to cover Perez's defense costs was likely a strategic move, Clohessy said. "We suspect the goal here is to intimidate others who were hurt by Father Perez or other clerics into staying silent or settling quietly," Clohessy said. "The signal he's sending is, 'Don't think this is going to be easy.'

(Tipped by JMG reader Tom)

Portland Police: It Gets Better

Portland's LGBT Paper Folds After 29 Years

From the publisher of Portland, Oregon's Just Out: "Effective December 26, 2011, Just Out newsmagazine, serving Portland’s LGBTQ community since 1983, is no longer in business. Three years of recession have taken their toll."

Gaga For The Holidays

From the Portland Gay Men's Chorus.

(Via - Towleroad)

Pepper-Sprayed At Occupy Portland

Cops Vs OWS: Oakland & Portland

OREGON: Two Gay Portland Men Beaten For Holding Hands

Portland, Oregon police are investigating a possible hate crime after two gay men were beaten after being seen walking hand-in-hand. One of the victims reports: "I left [the ER] with 9 stitches in my lips, two black eyes, a dislodged jaw, some loose teeth, severe swelling where they hit me on my cheek, and scrapes and bruises on my head."

Detectives say Brad Forkner and Christopher Rosevear were walking hand-in-hand Sunday evening in Waterfront Park and then headed over the Hawthorne Bridge. As the pair walked, police say, they noticed several men behind them who were talking, laughing and pointing, but they weren’t sure if it was directed at them. Police say the attack happened as Forkner and Rosevear walked from the bridge to the trail toward the East Bank Esplanade. The pair told officers the men pushed and punched Forkner before he managed to break away and call 911. Police say the attackers hit Rosevear in the head, face, back and ribs before running off. ”It’s too bad that people are still walking around a city like Portland feeling, well, actually unsafe,” says Paul Fukui, the operations manager of the Q-Center, which advocates for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.

According to the above-linked news story, several witnesses observed the attack but did nothing to help. The three assailants are described as white men in their 20s.

(Tipped by JMG reader Megan)

Portland: Beau Breedlove Joins Recall Effort Against Mayor Sam Adams

Beau Breedlove, the former paramour of openly gay Portland Mayor Sam Adams, has joined the latest recall effort against him. Controversy over Breedlove's age at the time of his encounters with Adams nearly brought the mayor down during his election campaign.

Breedlove, who is volunteering with the recall campaign, said in an interview after the rally that other gays and lesbians have chastised him for backing the recall of the city's first openly gay mayor. Breedlove said that's precisely why Adams should step down. "He should hold himself to a much higher standard than any other politician, because he's not just representing the city of Portland," he said. "He's representing the GLBTQ community in a new way they haven't been represented before." Breedlove said he and Adams kissed before he turned 18 but didn't have sex until after he turned 18, which is the age of consent. Adams has maintained that no sexual contact took place before Breedlove turned 18. Adams was 42 at the time. The attorney general's office declined to prosecute Adams, citing lack of evidence. "In reality, he was the one who was in his 40s and he was the adult in the situation. I never felt like a victim until the end, when he continued to lie and threw me under the bus," Breedlove said Thursday. Breedlove said he and Adams have had no contact since the attorney general's investigation.

Breedlove parlayed his fame as the mayor's boytoy into a 2008 nude photo spread in Unzipped Magazine. The recall effort presently has fewer than half of the signatures needed by April 20th to force a vote.

Catholic Church Defunds Portland Homeless Charity Over Marriage Support

Another homeless charity is suffering the wrath of the Catholic Church for having the audacity to support equal rights for gays. This time it's in Portland, Maine.

A social service agency's support for same-sex marriage has cost it local and national funding from the Catholic Church's anti-poverty program. Preble Street's Homeless Voices for Justice program has lost $17,400 this year and will lose $33,000 that it expected for its next fiscal year. Officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Washington-based Catholic Campaign for Human Development say that Preble Street violated its grant agreement by supporting Maine's "No on 1" campaign last fall. No on 1 opposed a ballot proposal to overturn the new state law legalizing gay marriage. Voters approved Question 1 on Nov. 3. Homeless Voices for Justice, a statewide advocacy group, is led by people who have been homeless. It works on issues that affect the homeless, such as supporting affordable housing and preventing violence against the homeless. Portland-based Preble Street, which runs a dozen programs to provide housing and other services for the poor and the homeless, provides staff support for Homeless Voices for Justice.

The cut was ordered by Bishop Richard Malone, whom you may remember for his infamous "second collection" of Mass offerings which were donated to the successful effort to repeal marriage equality in Maine.

Beau Breedlove To Pen Memoir

Beau Breedlove, the young Oregon man whose teenage love affair with Portland Mayor Sam Adams threatened to cost Adams his office, is releasing a memoir. Breedlove (real name!) posed nude for Unzipped Magazine shortly after the affair became public.

“The book is a reflection on the events of my life before, during and after the 'scandal' surrounding my relationship with Sam Adams,” Breedlove wrote in an e-mail to The Oregonian. “In addition, the book will cover a broader look at people who have been in similar situations to mine, and how stereotypes both play into the media attention as well as are used as tools against victims. This book is a memoir, and an insight into the change that the GLBTQ community needs to see in the way we are portrayed and represented.” Breedlove was 17 when he met Adams in 2005; they had sex shortly after he turned 18. A year ago this week Adams admitted publicly that he had lied about the nature of his relationship with Breedlove. Breedlove is living in, and blogging from Provincetown, Mass. After the scandal broke, he agreed to pose for the cover of an adult magazine.

Breedlove's agent says they don't yet have a buyer for the book.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams Cleared

Openly gay Portland mayor Sam Adams has been cleared of charges that he had an affair with the then-underage Beau Breedlove.

After a six-month investigation, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger found no evidence that Portland Mayor Sam Adams broke the law by engaging in a relationship with Beau Breedlove. In a report released this morning, Kroger said Breedlove lacked credibility as a witness, and state investigators could find no other witness to corroborate his account of an underage relationship with Adams. State investigators interviewed 57 witnesses during the course of their inquiry. "Here, there are serious questions about the credibility of Breedlove's account, due to his prior inconsistent statements, the lack of corroborating witnesses or evidence, his attempt to gain personally from matters related to his involvement with Adams and his prior criminal record," the report states. "Accordingly, we have concluded there is insufficient evidence to charge, let alone convict, Adams with illegal sexual contact with a minor."

Adams was also cleared of the charge that he hired a local reporter in order to keep her from exposing the affair.

No Obama Mask For White 5th Grader

The 5th grade adopted son of a gay couple in Portland, Oregon has been told that he can't wear an Obama mask during a school talent show. His parents say it's because their son is white.

"I understand the history of blackface and how African Americans were caricatured by it," said Scott Lechert. "However, we now have a popular biracial president who is admired by white and nonwhite people. At what point will it become OK for an 11-year-old admirer to dress up as the president without fear of offending someone?" Lechert said he and his partner, Paul Kelly, helped the boy design props — including a presidential seal affixed to the front of a desk with duct tape. And they advised him to "have lots of bop" and "use your shoulders" in the routine. "We are white, but we're a minority class," Kelly said. "We have some insight into this process of what is and what isn't offensive. There was obviously no intent to harm here or really any possibility of offending anyone." Their son said he didn't think performing without the mask was an option. "If I don't have the mask," he said, "it's just some kid up there dancing around."

Is the school being overly cautious? Are white children not allowed to dress up as the president if he's black? Crazy situation. Generally, I'd say err on the side of, pardon the phrase, political correctness. Not sure about this time.