Michael Glatze Desperate for Attention - Again

Michael Glatze resurfaced yesterday as his sordid saga  continues. Glatze was led into the world of "Christian Former Homosexuals" by none other than Matt Barber, who interviewed him for Concerned Women for America on July 3, 2007 and then was heralded as an ex-homosexual hero by  Peter LabBrbera. Glatze, who was the co-publisher of a periodical for gay teens, was essentially saying that he had been recruiting children into homosexuality. In a July 3, 2007 WorldNetDaily polemic, referring to the "indoctrination" of youth, Glatze wrote "I was repulsive for quite some time; I am still dealing with all of my guilt."

On the same day, WND published another piece claiming "Rising star in movement says God liberated him from lifestyle." Whether or not Glatze was a "rising star" is highly debatable. While he had his 15 minutes of limelight, he was more of a  commercial opportunist than gay activist. After all, he was trying to sell a gay magazine which was rapidly failing and managed to publish only six issues.

Shortly after being lionized in July of 2007, Glatze lost the support of the Evangelical Christian right because he became a Mormon. Glatze disappeared from public view for about two years.

Then, on October 8, 2009, Glatze wrote a new, incoherent and rambling piece in WND. According to his more recent screed, he became a Mormon is the spring of 2007 and left the LDS that same August. He wrote "There was some concern that I'd become a member of the Mormon church." Apparently, Glatze's Mormonism was in the closet when he was initially celebrated. In the same article, Glatze seems to be suggesting that he is now a gay man who no longer "practicing the sin of homosexuality." Glatze seems to be compartmentalizing sexuality and sex; a concession to his new-found religious beliefs. Deciphering Glatze's sexuality is difficult. Frankly, he and his sexuality are irrelevant.

According to an October 8 post in Ex-Gay Watch, Glatze contacted Wayne Besen, requesting an interview in late September. Besen declined, but relayed that Glatze sounded a bit desperate to receive attention. In October, Glatze closed his Facebook account and began posting to a blog. Among his short bursts were:

Have I mentioned lately how utterly *disgusting* Obama is? And, yes, it’s because he’s black. God, help us all.

It’s a shame Obama is black. He could end up setting back race relations decades.

That blog has since been closed. Yesterday, Glatze was quoted by Catholic News Agency:

Question 1 backers should not live in fear after death threats …

Aside from his anti-gay views (which now seem opportunistic for attention), Glatze is adding his voice to the notion that there were death threats. The alleged answering machine message for Michael Heath – at an organization that Heath is no longer associated with – could have been made by anyone seeking to disparage the marriage equality movement — including Heath himself. Supposedly, a similar message was left, again on voice mail, for Marc Mutty. This time the "threat" was conveyed by a woman who called the Stand for Marriage Maine headquarters on November 9.  My guess is that we will never know who left those supposed messages but that they will be trotted out as fact for as long as gays must contend for marriage equality. The tactic seems remarkably similar to the campaign to suggest that gays are a threat to children.

The article goes on ot exploit a possibly unstable Glatze and to allow Glatze to exploit a dubious incident about which, little is known in terms of impartial fact. According to CNA:

CNA spoke about the Maine threats with Michael Glatze, a former leader in the homosexual movement who has stopped self-identifying as gay.

“This stuff really gets to me,” he said of the threats. “Anytime you say anything about homosexuality there’s going to be a lot of hate and people are going to get rather riled up and furious. Those are the same people that are looking for hate crime legislation.

“It can be really scary for somebody that’s in a place trying to help and trying to push against all the messages we hear from our society.

“I’m sorry that those people in Maine had to go through that,” Glatze said of the death threats.

Glatze said the issue is “so frightening” right now because some people are “trying to do the right thing” but more and more people say “forget it, I’m not going to bother, I’ll just go ahead with it because I’d rather do that than live in fear.”

He told CNA he is not a supporter of same-sex “marriage” because he believes marriage is “a union of man and woman, a covenant created to support life and the raising of children.”

“It is a godly covenant, not man-made so I think this whole same-sex marriage movement is decidedly arrogant because it claims that man can remake this divine covenant to suit his own particular desires, which are desires in contradiction to human happiness and the success of life.”

The accusation that advocates of traditional marriage are driven by hate, he said, is “horrible” and makes him sick.

So it seems that Glatze is now desperate to be seen and to be relevant. He has much competition among the lunatic fringe of the Christian right. He will need to gain attention above the noise of other crackpots like Ted Pike and Brian Camenker. Exactly why he would attempt to enlist the assistance of Wayne Besen is a mystery. Kudos to Wayne for not further enabling a possibly deranged Glatze.