Just found this in my e-mail.
Amazing! After more than 150,000 petition signatures from Change.org members and saturation media coverage, news outlets worldwide are reporting that Apple has pulled an iPhone application launched by Exodus International that claimed to help "cure" gay and lesbian people.
This is a huge, public victory against the dangerous myth that gay young people can and should be "turned straight" -- a falsehood that contributes to the plague of depression and suicide afflicting these kids and young adults. Our friends at Truth Wins Out, the organization that started the petition on Change.org, are absolutely thrilled.
Apple did the right thing because an incredible 151,125 Change.org members -- including you -- stood together to demand it. We spread the word on Facebook more than 55,000 times. And together we attracted the attention of media around the globe, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and hundreds of newspapers and blogs.
It's simply amazing. Thank you for making this victory possible.
- Eden and the Change.org team
Thanks to everybody who voted. It was a stupid, insensitive thing for anybody to do and thankfully Apple has seen the light, or else they simply realize the some of their best customers walk on the wild side.
You know what they need is a phone app that identifies people who still believe homosexuality is a disease and immediately rings the phone of the closest gay person to them, with a message to walk on over to educate their sorry homophobic ass.
"Do you have ignorant, uneducated people in your life? There's an app for that!"
And this, my friend, is why my family has owned Macs since the 'seventies.
ReplyDeleteThey just own the word cool.
Besides being offensive, an ap like that just underscores the ignorant belief of most people that gay is black and white, and that it can be easily defined, identified, and placed in a box. This is why anti-gay bigots never discuss bisexuality, never bring it up, ever. Because it's not it their interest, it's not where they want the national conversation to go. And thus, there's no "Bisexual Ap" for I-phone. If there was, it would confuse people, and make them wonder why they're supposed to fear and hate gays, and make they think...wait a minute, I had that experience in college that I "grew out of", or I brought that girl home a few times so my wife and I could have a threesome...are we gay??? Oh, the horror.
ReplyDeleteBetter to look toward the far end of the Kinsey scale and point to those people and say, those are the gays, the ones we can fear and hate.
There's such a range of human physicality in so many ways, like athletes (a runner has a completely different body than a weight lifter), or individual traits such as baldness, or myopia, which appear in some of us, not others. And our brains are physically different - we have our brilliant scientists, and then others whose brains are not math-wired and instead can master the piano with very little effort. We are made this way. As Gaga says, born this way. We are human. So don't tell me that there's no variation or range of sexuality, and the billions of us are straight, with a few kinky gays who veered off course. It's just not possible.
But it's very difficult to tease out the truth, even in your own family. When I came out, I figured, ok I guess I'm the only one. Then later I questioned my mother,...what about that best friend you had that I see in old photos? Reluctantly some admissions would drip out, like a coffeemaker. And what's up with the aunt who didn't marry until she was 40? What did she do all that time before? Where is that cousin who left town that no one wants to talk about? This is what you find when you dig deeper.
So we're just putting the first cracks in this nut, and have a long way to go before we get to the kernel of truth. Until then, we have to put up with political jockying on both sides, and destructive fear-mongering.
Thanks, btw Gryph, for putting these posts up and keeping it in the public consciousness.
Hurrah! We signed the petition so it is particularly sweet to know that our tiny action made such a difference.
ReplyDeletePeople are remembering that if we work together, we can indeed effect change.
After President Obama was elected, I think too many people thought it was all done, that they could just kick back and he would make change happen.
So glad people are getting off their collective bottom and doing something even as simple as clicking submit on a worthy petition.
Heads up here: over at politicususa the WGE characterizes the Israeli/Palistinian conflict as a "zoning issue" and insists Obama leave the "zoning" question to Israelis.
ReplyDeleteAn app called GOP-rid? I'll buy one of the damn phones just to get that.
ReplyDeleteO/T:
ReplyDeleteScary! Watch what happens when a government lies about the dangers of nuclear radiation...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92fP58sMYus
Too bad we had to sign petitions, etc. You think in this day & age we still wouldn't have to do this people would just be smart enough.
ReplyDeleteGuess not.
The repubs are trying to take us back to the 1800's. Who knows what is next. Never in my life did I think we'd still be going on about abortions. Never thought what was going on in Wisc., OH, etc. would happen either. And for heaven's sake being gay is not a disease or a condition!
I'd like to see how many downloads there were of that App. It'd be curious to see if it were a money maker or a mere curiosity for those with lurid humor.
ReplyDeleteWhen all else fails to change the tide of the 'gay' conspiracy, like Church programs and camps, seminars and therapies provided by someone like Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's gay husband - make an App for that.
Pathetic.
I have an app too, it's called "Fuck Apple."
ReplyDeleteAnd this, my friend, is why my family has owned Macs since the 'seventies.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the first-ever Mac was released January 24, 1984. My friend Randy, who let me play with his the following month, commented: this machine is bound to be a success—the kids prefer it to MTV!
Not that the Apple I, released July 1976, wasn't a very worthy machine.
I'm glad they pulled it, but really feel like it's important for them to explain how they ever let something like this happen to begin with. It was very disturbing.
ReplyDelete4:48 - you may be on to something with Mr. Bachmann. His clinic specializes in "saving the gay." I think one of their biological sons is gay as well. Perhaps Michelle's obsession with being Super Rep and then Prez is simply a desire to control things because she cannot control what her hubbie and son are. She may be overreacting, over-focused in an attempt to run away from her personal life.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think that is what really motivates Sarah, too. Both seem like control freaks - trying to find something, anything they can make go their way. Both have husbands that have been rumored to be gay (or in Todd's case, bisexual). The women have to do something to compensate, right?
FUCK YEAH!
ReplyDeleteApple can't vet every 3rd party app. Good people brought it to their attention and they did the right thing. Free speech is one thing, spreading ignorance - not so much.
BTW, you don't need apps, open a browser, bookmark it, voila, free app.
Paying for apps, snort, what a joke.
Quetzalcoatl