John Travolta

[Lucky]

I agree with you. I've always been uncomfortable with the whole outing thing. Each person has a different private life and reason for why they stay in the closet or not. It is not my place to make that decision for them, of course I'm a big fan of the Right of Privacy. To me the whole outing thing has more to do with people's love for gossip than anything else.

The right of privacy seems to be a relic these days, especially in light of the thread on laptop and cellphone seizures at the airport without probable cause, explanation, or sometimes even return.

Travolta has taken no stands against gays and deserves to live his life as he sees fit, but more and more people like him and Anderson Cooper are not hiding who they are so much as they are simply not talking about it. And that's their right too.

[KYTOP]

The right of privacy seems to be a relic these days, especially in light of the thread on laptop and cellphone seizures at the airport without probable cause, explanation, or sometimes even return.

Yeah and even the extreme body searches at the airports. The 4th amendment of the US Constitution in its simple total states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

But it seems this is becoming the most ignored portion of our Constitution by our Government.

[caeron]

Bible's *much* older and yet many agree it'd be OK to out a high-ranking Catholic. In fact, the two antigay passages in the bible are pretty tame and many believe superseded (like the rest of Leviticus).

Verses it being the recent basis of CoS that homosexuality is a perversion to be cured. And where it can't be cured (

) it can be used as a means of control.

You miss my point. I looked and could find nothing current from scientology on this. THe last stuff is decades old. With the catholic church and the like you can find stuff they said from last week. So I dispute the assertion that the they're actively anti-gay.

Second, he's a famous scientologist. I cannot find anything that has him as a 'ranking' member of the group.

I'm fine with outting people who actively work to undermine the community or attack us. This fails on both counts. I can't find evidence that they are currently anti-gay. Nor can I find evidence that even if they were that He has a say in the matter.

[BiBottomBoy]

From 2008

According to a new book from investigative journalist Ian Halperin, a church of Scientology official claims the church "cured" John Travolta of his homosexuality through auditing.John Travolta

In his book, Hollywood Undercover, Halperin describes how he once posed as a member of the 'Israeli royal family' and claimed to be gay in order to test how officials at the Scientology 'Celebrity Center' in Los Angeles would react.

The First Post writes:

"Halperin, whose book chronicles his quest to 'make it' in Hollywood, expressed his fear to a Church official that revelations of his homosexuality could ruin his career. The official took him in, promising the Church could "cure him of his sexuality through auditing".

Auditing is a form of personal counselling, led by a Scientology 'auditor' who asks a set of questions about the subject's personal life and records the answers. Halperin, 43, claims some well-known Hollywood actors - including John Travolta - have completed the process, which can cost as much as $500,000. A 1991 article in Time magazine about Scientology claimed that Travolta - then the most well-known Scientologist - was being held hostage in the church, scared that, if he defected, they'd reveal everything he'd confessed to them about his homosexuality.

http://www.bgay.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=

[Guest zipperzone]

Its a can of worms no matter which way you look at it.

[BiBottomBoy]

That it is. But it boils down to several key points.

1. If a for profit religion claims to be able to cure homosexuality and one of their most prominent members is getting fucked by dudes fives ways to Sunday, it's news.

2. If you are a well known person getting gang banged in public on a regular basis, eventually people are going to hear about it.

3. Seeing that their cures don't work might save a lot of self loathing young gays from suffering through the emotional and financial pain of Scientology auditing just because they are desperate to crave pussy.

[caeron]

If Scientology currently thinks it can cure homosexuality, I'm sure it would say so. It wouldn't need to have that reported in some 'expose'.

I would argue that all religions are 'for profit', and don't find anything worse about scientology than all the other imaginary man in the sky faiths.

[BiBottomBoy]

You misunderstand the way scientology works.

The intentionally do not tell you the vast majority of their beliefs until you have paid them a lot of money and been a part of their church for a long time. They also make you sign papers saying you will not talk about their beliefs with outsiders.

They do this specifically not to scare people off - i.e. they don't want gay or bisexual men to run away from the religion before they get their teeth in them. They also don't tell female members that the church will eventually set them up in arranged marriages for similar reasons.

You don't even get to learn about Xenu until you've been in the relition for more than five years.

[caeron]

Um, I know how Scientology works. I just don't agree with you.

The fact that we both know about Xenu says that it has leaked and they aren't keeping the secrets very effectively, are they? Heck, Xenu has its own wikipedia entry!

So why nothing about curing homosexuality? The only thing I find currently are scientology public statements that they don't care about someone's private sexuality.

I think the whole secrecy thing is to mimic the mystery cults of old. Hidden wisdom is always 'cooler'. Even if the hidden wisdom is dumb as shit.

[BiBottomBoy]

Scientologists harassing people at a gay pride rally in 2008.

http://www.queerty.com/scientologys-anti-gay-push-thwarted-at-toronto-pride-20080710/

And here's a video from this year of a gay man talking about how horrible Scientology was to him for being gay.

http://scientologyandhomosexuality.com/

[TampaYankee]

Scientologists harassing people at a gay pride rally in 2008.

http://www.queerty.com/scientologys-anti-gay-push-thwarted-at-toronto-pride-20080710/

And here's a video from this year of a gay man talking about how horrible Scientology was to him for being gay.

http://scientologyandhomosexuality.com/

And how does this differ from Baptists and Catholics?

[BiBottomBoy]

It doesn't.

As I've said before if a seriously high ranking member of any church that is against homosexuality was blowing guys in bathhouses I think it's a legit news story.

Travolta is the number four highest ranking member of scientology.

He's a legit target.