OUTLOOKaug2015.pg34.qxp_OUTLOOK OHIO TEMPLATE 7/21/15 6:43 PM Page 1
complete the circuit
The Busy Life of MICHAEL GLATZE ‘Ex’-Gay Activist Says He’s Sorry But Keeps Causing Harm
by Mickey Weems
Are there limits to forgiveness?
34
august 2015
lowed because it could promote personal growth. In recent years, Glatze has mellowed somewhat. But as late as February 2014, he gave an interview with an antiGay counselor that showed he was not yet done with hate speech:
I Am Michael is the story of an LGBT activist who betrayed his own. Michael Glatze was a champion of LGBT rights. He worked on two magazines, XY and GYA, specifically for LGBT youth. He railed against homophobic Christians, but “I looked squarely at homosexuality, and eventually God then he had a health issue that inspired him to run drew me to the awareness that homosexual activity was a straightaway into a stained-glass closet. sin. It was at that point of awareness that I wrote, ‘Homosexuality is death, and I choose life.’” According to Glatze, however, there was no closet in which he needed to hide. Being Gay, he said, was a false identity. But then he changed his mind again. That same month, He went to bible school in a Godforsaken corner of Glatze issued a public apology to the LGBT community: Wyoming and found a woman who was willing to marry him. “I want to say that I am sorry for the way that Jesus has been represented through some of my actions in recent That was not all. Glatze, at 32 (he’s now 40), became the years, as ‘a hateful bigot who hates gays.’ That is not the very thing he had warned Gay youth about. He cautioned heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. ... I am personally sorry for kids not to fall into the trap of homosexuality, and he used the pain that any of my words, or actions, may have Jesus as a shield while he threw stones at the people he caused any of you.” formerly championed. Spouting shabby theology, then that same month issuing But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. a piously worded apology for harm done, does not sound like an honest attempt to discover one’s true self, unless “He’s one of the nicest people you could meet,” said Lau- one’s true self is a devout asshole who craves the media ren Selig, executive producer of I Am Michael. “He’s just spotlight. searching for who he is. He’s not out to hurt anybody.” Just before I Am Michael premiered, Michael and Rebekah Zachary Quinto, the out actor who plays Glatze’s boyfriend Glatze were interviewed by Gay blogger Openly Jake. “If in the film, said, “It’s an authentic path that he’s on.” there are amends to be made, [I will] make those amends. And yet not offend anyone as much as possible on either I Am Michael, which premiered at the Sundance Film Fes- side.” tival in January, features a star-studded cast and a threesome between Quinto, James Franco (who plays Glatze) This recent, more moderate, version of Michael Glatze does and Charlie Carver. Gay men across America have seen not sound like an asshole, devout or otherwise. Neverthethe film for that scene alone, which Carver described as less, he does indeed have amends to make. He should “hot as hell.” begin by offending all kinds of people on the other side, by stating the obvious: It is un-Christlike to say that one canThe film was produced with a strong sense of integrity and not be Christian and Gay. unblinking honesty. Selig, Franco and writer-director Justin Kelly take pains not to mythologize its protagonist. Glatze’s Are there limits to forgiveness? There need not be. But story is messy, and I Am Michael aims to show it that way, there are limits to how much bullshit we should take from making him neither villain nor hero, just a man trying to anyone. find his true self. Even the nicest guy you could meet. Nevertheless, Glatze caused tremendous damage to our Mickey Weems is a writer, educator and creator of community on his way to self-discovery. He spoke against us over the years since his re-closeting, then he presented the Qualia Encyclopedia of Gay Folklife. You can follow him at mickeyweems.com or qualiafolk.com, or himself as a martyr being persecuted by hateful Gays. He email him at mickeyweems@yahoo.com. His next was quoted as saying that anti-Gay bullying should be alcolumn will run in Outlook in October.
We’re on the lookout for Ohio screenings of I Am Michael.
outlookohio.com