Lawsuit Filed Against Gay Conversion Therapy Group

Chaim Levin, along with three other gay plantiffs, filed a civil suit today against a JONAH, a New Jersey-based therapy organization, claiming their methods of trying to change their sexual orientation were fraudulent.  The New York Times writes, " the former clients said they were emotionally scarred by false promises of inner transformation and humiliating techniques that included stripping naked in front of the counselor and beating effigies of their mothers."

I have known of Chaim Levin for about a year now.  He is doing very important work and I have the utmost respect for him.  It was very recently that I ruminated over how to keep my children safe from child predators.  As I told Chaim on his Facebook page this evening, I admire him for his kind, level-headed, peaceful demeanor.  No one likes an angry activist (tendencies which I have and need to work on, admittedly), but Chaim is such a wonderful orator and writer.  I know he will succeed no matter what the outcome.  He's a real mentsch.  

I do worry about how the world will view Orthodox Jews as a result of this press.  Naturally, I believe this therapy is a terrible thing and that this awful experience should be given justice.  Yet there are those folks who jump at every opportunity to put down Jews, especially the Orthodox ones.  Don't you have a cousin who thinks that all Orthodox Jews are smelly swindlers who force their wives to shave their heads?  Evidence of forcing young adults to try to change their gay orientation with quackery therapy doesn't look good.  But that doesn't mean it should be kept locked up in a box.  Quite the contrary, as Chaim and his co-plaintiffs are proving.

My hope is that this will ultimately help strengthen the Jewish community.  And that those rabbeim crooks individuals who have gotten away with abusing innocent kids in yeshivas for years, thereby turning people away from their rich heritage, will be exposed and excommunicated.  And that the vibrant percentage of our world that is gay can live in health, happiness, success and harmony.  Because we all deserve to get to the Garden of Eden.

As I mentioned in the past, it is the Golden Age of Miracles, right?

Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce Went Viral Last Fall...Where Was I???

(Disclaimer, my daughter Concealed Light peeked her head in just now as I am watching the video below and said, "Inappropriate.")

Certainly not at spin class, otherwise I would have been enlightened much earlier...

For my Mah Jongg ladies (that would be you, mom)...

For my gay friends (that would be you, Tim, my coworker at HBO who was from the South and wore silver spandex glitter pants to our annual party at Tavern on the Green...actually I am sorry for being so stereotypical, I only partially recall that you loved Barbra.)...

For guys named Elliot  (as in her first husband)...

For anyone who appreciates the date April 24th (meaning, you are a true Barbra Streisand fan.  That would be my mother, not me.)...

Click this caption below this photo to get to the video of the Barbra Streisand song, by Duck Sauce (DJs Armand Van Helden and A-Trak, Alain Macklovitch a Jewish guy from Montreal), that went viral last fall  (yea, currently over 60 MM views on YouTube... that would be millions for those of you who are unaware of Wall Street abbreviations):

no, I do not own this image.  I copied it from some web site.  Not worth suing me.  Would rather just embed the YouTube video, but Spinnin' Records doesn't want to allow that, which I think is utterly ridiculous.  Come on, my Dutch friends, you will be doing the world a complete service if you allow embedding on folks' websites.  Oh well, I still love Holland.  You do bikes, mass transit, congeniality, tulips, world peace and coffee shops very well.  Apparantly food, too.  Did you see the recent NY Times article about the improvement of Dutch food'?  No hard feelings, 'kay?

http://youtu.be/uu_zwdmz0hE   click that link   will get you there, too.

Did you see Philadelphian DJ ?uestlove in there?
Kanye West, also
Ezra Koenig
and more current musicians whose work I really don't know!

Thank you Katie, my most awesome spin instructor for the most excellent new tunes!  As a full-time mom who doesn't get to a single dance club these days (did I ever?), I rely so much on Spin Class for the good new tunes!

And here is Why I Know The Significance of the Date April 24th.  Again, Thank You Mother!
(start at around 3:00, and then Barbra gets to the punchline, which she CHANGED in the TV version of "I'm Five" to April 29th!  Oh, Barbra, you are too much!)







Finally, here is NPR's coverage by Guy Raz, a star reporter at NPR and a few years younger than me at Brandeis, about "Why Club DJs Love Barbra Streisand."


Here is some Vampire Weekend, with Ezra Koenig, in case you had no clue who that was...

 

Drawings From The Film Beginners By Mike Mills

I was recently gifted with this book, a limited edition companion to the film Beginners by Mike Mills.

courtesy of Reprizent

Thank you, Michael Arkin!  (to the blogosphere:  I also wrote Michael a thoughtful, hand-written note of thanks.  Long before I was acquainted with Derek Blasberg's work, I was trained in proper etiquette by my mother).

My college boyfriend's father was gay.   I remember the great secrecy and emotion surrounding him telling me about his father in the early 90s.  Times are so different today for the gay community and this film gives a broader historical perspective about the lifestyles of closeted gays in the 20th century.

I have been told that I will like Mike Mills' style if I like Wes Anderson's.  This is too delicious!



Naturally, I have great affection for Christopher Plummer, who stars in this film, as he will always be the Captain singing "Edelweiss" in my memory.