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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2001)
IgjM St aatf * auQusl 17.2001 m r n m z in e w s RE/MAX Injured? S ig n a tu re ...Call me P r o p e r t ie s ! Proudly serving our community since 1989 in personal injury claims including: Hala Gores, P.C. • Bicycle & Pedestrian Accidents A ttorney at Law Free Consultation No Fee Until We Get You Money "I w as a 'n ervo u s first time b u y e r’ w h en I met T in a . But once I started w o rk in g w ith her, she an sw ered all o f m y qu estio n s and then some. T in a w as patient, kn o w ledgeable, trustw orthy, and had a great sense o f hum or. I co u fd n ’t be h ap p ier w ith m y new hom e...and I ow e it to T in a ! ” — K ariuui Hick.' Tina Schafer, g r i , a b r Surviving the ex-gay movement Continued from Page 1 In the eyes of his Baptist church there only could be one answer. “They made it clear I didn’t have a choice,” Strouse recalls 16 years later. “1 was unable to be a good father or husband. 1 was starving to be acceptable to the church. I would have given my teeth to he straight,” The church officials held the promise of acceptance through change, and Strouse agreed to their conditions. “It was wonderful. I felt relieved. I would get ‘cured.’ ” • Insurance Claims 503 / 295-1940 12th Floor 621 SW Morrison Portland i»TTTiiK "nr:v7. g ta JLiLtm ia tt.u n u .w i A I ulti-A l ¡Ilion Dollar Producer RE/M AX Signature Properties ^ A 282-4000 X 12 2 fff Cffuj e-mail: tinas@rem ax.net Integrity, Experience ^ R e s u lts w Oregon drives OtPiTOL * ** J TheBeautyofAIl-WheelDnvi « * '"SOMMER SALE! We Will Beat Any Advertised Price On Any New Subaru in Oregon!! With same MSRP on in stork ¡toms only. Offer must be on legitimate competitors advertised price. EXCLUDES WRX 2002IMPREZA 2002 FORESTER OUTBACK Strouse at home in Vancouver, Wash. Strouse looks down into his closed fist. W hen he speaks again, his voice shrinks to a whisper, as if in prayer. “But I was wrong, of course.” It’s a dilemma gay men and lesbians often face: The challenge to conform or even trans form themselves in the face of a closed society that does not accept who they are and does not believe sexual orientation is as much a part of their identity as, say, the color of their skin. The rite of passage Pastor Strouse endured might cause all of us to value our lives more. T he C o n f e s s io n T o begin the “healing process,” Strouse delivered a detailed confession o f his "heinous homosexual sins” to his congregation of deeply religious Baptists. The sanctuary was silent, he recalls. No coughs. No movement in the pews. Only 300 transfixed faces staring up at Strouse. “I’d never seen the church so packed and so quiet.” His children and wife refused to attend the confession. They couldn’t abide the humiliation. But in the crowd were other youth the pastor knew well— he even had taught many of them Looking * 19,477 * 19,977 H ours M on- Fri 8 -9 S at 9 -7 Sun 1 0 -5 Ju st o ff 1-5 on M ission S t. 25th & Mission, SALEM 503*585*4141 © GIPnOLSUBARU Subject to prior sale. In-stock units only. Prices do not include license, title or doc. fees. Art is for illustration only. • Prices expire Sept 6th, 2001. All financing on approved credit. www.cqpitolsubaru.com For Quality On A Budget? • Free Estimates • Free Installation • 90 days some os cosh on approved credit tBudget/ b lin d i Serving Oregon £ SW Washington C a ll N o w ! 503-590-4333 Salem 503-362-1643 HunterDouglas to water-ski at summer camp. Their parents were also there, as was the teen-ager who had revealed Strouse’s homosexuality to church leaders. Also in attendance were his closest friends and his staff members. Everyone who mattered to him. Strouse began to speak in his deep, preacher’s voice. “W hen I was 12 years old, I met this man who worked at a gas station. Later I returned, and we went into the bathroom together. Then I went over to his house.” Strouse never told the congregation that he and the man spent time talking and that they never had intercourse. Although they did touch each other, he did not consider the experience horrible at all. “I enjoyed it,” he recalls. But the story he told the church was different. “Any moderately sexu al relationship I had with a man was considered rape,” Strouse explains. "So I told them I was raped. T h at’s what they wanted me to say.” Strouse explained hom osex uality, using the Baptist definition. “Homosexuality is a man’s desire to love himself,” he said. “It occurs when a man’s own maleness has not been accepted...only when a man fully accepts his maleness in its own right will he begin to expe rience desires emerging for the opposite o f himself.” He told them how he had tried to accept his maleness, how for 10 years he attended Exodus, a group in Vancouver, British Columbia, that promised to cure him. But he failed. He wasn’t strong enough. However, he would continue to do everything he could to change. Finally, Strouse finished. T he room remained silent. A brave few got up, gave him hugs and wished him luck. A t school, his son was harassed: “I bet your daddy fucks you.” Just 48 hours after the confes sion, Strouse moved his family to another town. “We couldn’t stand it,” he remembers. “We left as fast as we could.” It would take eight months for him to break free from the devils in disguise. T he E “C u re ” very week, Strouse came to the Southeast Portland office of a conservative criminal psychologist who worked with sex offenders. The church agreed to pay for half of the coun seling costs. “He said the more honest I was, the more it would help, hut by being homosexual I was
