Posted on 01/10/2006 8:49:54 AM PST by pabianice
Group plans to target ‘Mr. Hetero’
WORCESTER, MA — Gay activists are preparing to target the Mr. Heterosexual Massachusetts contest, scheduled for next month at Mechanics Hall, as a hate-filled event that will perpetuate discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“Contrast the first great event at Mechanics Hall: The First National Women’s Rights Convention in 1850 with the Mr. Hetero contest of 2005. One led to 150 years of historical events held there — the other leads to the decline of the institution,” said Wayne Bates of Boylston, a gay activist who has criticized the Tantasqua Regional High School for allowing the organizer of the event, Rev. Tom Crouse, to hold Holland Congregational Church services there.
Rev. Crouse maintains that all people are born heterosexual and that the gay lifestyle is a choice that can be reversed, in direct contrast to scientific findings that sexual identity is wired into the genes. The Mr. Heterosexual event will include testimony from a man who claims to have transformed from gay to straight.
The Sturbridge Host Hotel and Conference Center canceled a Mr. Heterosexual contest that was scheduled for Feb. 4. Mechanics Hall agreed to host the event on Feb. 18, a Saturday night, beginning at 6 p.m.
Nicole Cormier of Worcester, co-chairman of the Greater Worcester Equality Network, said the event is tantamount to “the majority picking on the minority.”
“This is another form of rape for females,” she said.
Mr. Bates said he has talked to a number of people who are stunned at the latest developments surrounding the Mr. Heterosexual contest.
“People are pretty shocked,” he said. “First you tell them Mr. Hetero is being held in Worcester and then you tell them its Mechanics Hall and their jaws drop. It’s literally shocking that a place like Mechanics Hall would do that.”
Mechanics Hall Executive Director Norma Sandison did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
“We’re going to meet this week and figure out what we can do to alert some of the board of directors of Mechanics Hall to what’s going on. There’s nothing definite planned yet. I think this guy is doing it for the notoriety more than anything,” Mr. Bates said.
In a letter to the editor of the Telegram and Gazette, Mr. Bates wrote, “I ask the various members of the board of directors of this institution to reconsider allowing Mechanics Hall to be used as a venue for Pastor Tom Crouse’s event which he claims glorifies the heterosexual male as being created in God’s image — while I find it denigrates women and gays.”
“If you must allow the program to proceed because you need the money that bad — please do us a favor and cover the portraits of Lucy Stone, Abby Kelley Foster, Dorothea Lynde Dix and Clara Barton in black shrouds so they do not have to symbolically see or hear the words they fought their entire lives against,” the letter reads.
Ms. Cormier said the long list of world-renowned speakers who have taken the stage at Mechanics Hall is a salient issue in the effort to cancel the Mr. Heterosexual event.
“Teddy Roosevelt spoke at that hall. Bill Clinton spoke at that hall,” she said. “Do you really want this guy (Mr. Crouse) on the list of people who spoke at that hall?”
On his Web site, mrhetero.com, Rev. Crouse promises, “… a fun and entertaining event with a life changing message. We encourage you to pray for Tom, this event, and all who are and will be involved, that it would glorify God in every way!”
Contact Richard Nangle by e-mail at rnangle@telegram.com.
How intolerant of them.
Authentic manhood:
God to serve, a woman to love and work to do.
"Do you know how I know you guys are gay?"
Excellent lines from "The 40 Year Old Virgin"- see it.
They wanted a Mr. Homo show.
Let me guess. Barney Frank won't be a contestant.
Something queer in their reasoning. Do they hate hate or do they tolerate hate - I can never keep it straight - oops did I say straight - err I hate it when I do that!
Do they have to live in the state? Might not be a large pool ;)
I suppose it would be another form of rape to ask, “How, exactly?”
My goodness, that seems like sloppy writing. Chromosomes (XX, XY) determine Sexual Identity and, yeah, thats in the genes. But I think they are hinting that Sexual Preference is in the genes.
And I'd like to see the study that proves that!
LOL. This just in...Tom Cruise is still in the closet...and he won't come out.
So, "Straight Pride" is hate? Well that figures, Knowthyneighbor.org called my editor to intimidate him about my column condemning their tactics which harm the initiative petition process in MA. MassEquality even condemned their tactics!
So, "Straight Pride" is hate? Well that figures, Knowthyneighbor.org called my editor to intimidate him about my column condemning their tactics which harm the initiative petition process in MA. MassEquality even condemned their tactics!
Wondered that too.
How utterly sick is the world of Romneyland.
WE WILL NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE!
Oh Gawd! Gimme a break!
Ask the young lady who was raped at gunpoint by an intruder in her apartment if she considers this "another form" of rape? Morons.
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