He says on his website he's a "survivor" and "AIDS activist." The only surviving he did was survive a prison stint for damaging countless lives as a drug pusher and him saying he's an 'AIDS activist' is just unbelievable when all he's doing is using his HIV status as a way in to say God wants you to not be in a gay loving relationship. A real HIV/AIDS activist brings awareness to the disease, Yuan brings awareness God has issues with you being gay while he has HIV, big difference. The fact he doesn't mind being used by the anti-gay religious who have no compassion for gays who have HIV/AIDS, the same people who believe that the disease is a "sow what you reap" because of being gay, shows how clueless he is with insulting the audience he's trying to reach.
Someone left a comment on Yuan's old blog years back and I print it here because it clinches it for me with which path is the right one:
Dear Christopher,
Gay or straight, we are all subject to the risks of pornography, drugs, and HIV.
Being gay or straight is not a choice, just like being black, white, or yellow. But choosing pornography is a choice. Choosing to take drugs is a choice. Choosing to be a drug dealer is a choice. Choosing casual sex, choosing not to talk about and not practice safe sex with your partner(s), choosing not to ask your partner(s) to get tested, those are choices. Please take responsibility for your own actions.
I am also Chinese. I knew I was gay when I was 13 year old. I was the in closet in High School and College, not having a single gay friend. When I saw my straight friends getting serious in their relationships getting married, I knew I wanted that too. I wanted to find the person I love, find the person that loves for who I am, find my soul mate. In coming out, I reached out for support from an Asian support group called GAPSN. My first meeting at GAPSN was "Coming Out" to parents. I came out to my parents after that meeting. My second meeting at GAPSN was "HIV and AIDS", I went to this meeting with my boy friend, and we learned to talk about this uncomfortable issue together.
That was 20 years ago. I am happy to say today I've been in a loving committed relationship with my soul mate for 13 years. My soul mate is also Christian. My brother, sister, and mother are also Christian. My father is Buddhist. My soul mate's family members are also Christians. Dreams do come true. I am getting married to my soul mate next weekend in CA. All of our families and friends have been very supportive and encouraging.
My sister and mother went to your talk, and told me about you. I read the hand out that was passed out during your presentation. It was heart breaking to read that hand out called "Rebel w/o a cause", specifically the 2 page argument against "Same-sex marriage." Will you have happiness by taking away the wishes and dreams of millions of committed loving same-sex couples? We know many same-sex couples who've been together for decades, where their life's dream is to be married one day. The path you have taking in your efforts in denying so many committed couples their hopes, dreams, and happiness, will that bring you happiness?
You are gay Chinese. I am also gay Chinese. We have taking very different paths in coming to terms with who we are. "I shall not bear false witness." With courage and honesty comes love and honesty.
Being HIV+ does not mean you have to give up your hopes and dreams. I pray to God that one day, you will find your soul mate, that you will have happiness.
God Bless,
Douglas.
P.S.: I also do talks. I do talks for the younger generations of Asian gays, like older generation have done for me when I was a young adult. The talks I do are about love, commitment, responsibilities, marriage, honesty, and courage. I know that through my talks, gays will be less likely to choose the path you have chosen of unsafe sex, drugs, drug dealing, and HIV. Gay or straight, we all want love, commitment and marriage.
What REAL AIDS activists look like.
9 comments:
By the way, you've spelled his last name incorrectly. I've heard him speak before and I do not agree with him, but I don't think that you correctly represented him either. Have you had a chance to listen to him speak before? A friend of mine brought me to one of his talks. I was very curious because I've heard many of these ex-gay preachers. And I wanted to see what he had to say. It was interesting that he stated that he does not call himself ex-gay. Also, he does tell his Christian audience that not all gays are like him and not all gays do drugs or are promiscuous. He also tells his Christian audiences that they should stop saying that people chose to be gay, which I actually agreed with him on! :)
Thanks for the spelling check, it's Yuan, not Yuen, and I've corrected it. I chose my words carefully and never claimed he was an "ex-gay" in my post or that he held that title for himself. I know full well he struggles with his same sex attraction, still, and that makes him distinct from others I've talked with and about. Maybe you didn't know this, but he was a speaker at many Exodus International meetings (read; "ex-gay") back in the day and in a letter he signed himself off as a "former homosexual." This all came up when he was scheduled to speak at Yale. I gave Yuan the benefit of a doubt with not calling him "ex-gay."
How else do you think I misrepresented him? Please, tell me? He has his full testimony given at various locations on YouTube and what he's said at different churches and schools including on his own website. I stand by every word I wrote. He speaks very frankly about his rise in the drug world (he likes to give out his mug shot when he was arrested by the Feds) and he's spoken at several anti-gay churches because those are the only ones that would have him.
There are people who knew him before he found his faith and they claim is life was bound to implode with drugs, booze and promiscuity. He was a ticking time-bomb waiting to turn on his unhappy life or it would have eventually killed him, THIS is the "homosexuality" Chris speaks from and it's misleading to his audience who are mostly anti-gay Christians who need to hear gays either can change or live a life of solitude picking flowers in the field for the Lord.
I don't know when was the last time you saw him speak, but now he's boldly talking about the genetics and homosexuality and thinks he knows Hermeneutics... he doesn't.
I think you've misrepresented him as well. Try reading his book this time, because it wasn't such a spur of the moment decision. The life style he lives now was in the works long before he started using. I actually just finished the book myself. And then afterward, try "Same-Sex Attraction and the Church". That book is written by a different author but sheds light on the reason Yuan describes himself the way he does. I understand your frustration but I think it's misplaced.
You haven't pinned down exactly what I've misrepresented about him. The previous poster stated the same and I backed what I wrote by going to Yuan's own words and actions to prove it. Why do I need to go further in reading his book that's just more of the same? Is it going to be so different than what he's already given or represented? His core message is still a bad message, no matter what medium he puts it in. You and the previous poster are splitting hairs because YOU believe his message. The lifestyle he lives now was long in the works? Are you talking about him living as a Christian now because his mother did everything she could to make her son leave the "gay lifestyle" she couldn't, or wouldn't, accept? I purposely left out criticism of his mother (they would later write a book together where she paints herself out as a victim of homosexuality as much as Chris) because I only wanted to focus on Mr. Yuan. This was a woman who wanted to "throw herself in front of a train" over his homosexuality. See this in stark contrast to a mother who loves and accepts their gay children unconditionally, I was blessed to have such a mother. I'm not frustrated by Yuan, I'm frustrated by people like you who are taken in by him.
I want to clarify a point and this is directed at the two previous posters and those who would make the same argument they do. Whether Chris identifies as "ex-gay" or some other self identification of someone who rejects their same-sex attraction, it's all the same (semantics) in that the message is same-sex attraction could lead to sin with a same-sex act. This is wrong. This is not coming from sound Biblical exegesis outside of Evangelical schools and let's be clear about this. His message is no less noxious than those who condemn us I name on my blog tags below, It just happens to come from a gay man who is HIV and this does not make him "more" right. Chris is still on the wrong side of the road with these religious leaders by his side.
His arguments are so typical of "ex-gays" who blame homosexuality as part of the harm they endured.
I know I'm coming to this late but it seems to me that Yuan occasionally bumps up against some specifically racial problems. At the moment on twitter he's advocating the idea that giving money to rebuild Notre Dame is idolatry. I asked him whether he thought that giving money to rebuild an African American church destroyed by fire is also idolatry but he hasn't responded. And his broadsides against "tyrannical big government" are, well, kind of Trumpian and it doesn't take much imagination to see a connection to whiteness (what has "tyrannical big government" done for African Americans, please?). I'm working with the idea that he may, without realizing it, be trying to shed his Chineseness. Rosaria Butterfield kind of does the same thing, having viewed the Catholicism she grew up in as a form of ethnicity. And Jackie Hill Perry may well belong in this category too. Just things I'm mulling over.
I see Yuan has grown worse over the years since I wrote this post. Now he's saying no one is born gay and we've been fooled by popular culture into thinking we are. He also belongs to a group called "The Gospel Coalition" that opposes protections for gays being fired from their job or kicked out of their home just for being who they are. They also support businesses that refuse to serve gays. It's sad and unfortunate how he first came off as a warm and fuzzy, damaged, man who found Christ and is 'trying to figure all this out' to now being a strident anti-gay activist. I also see his mom is still by his side prodding him on.
He keeps sinking deeper and deeper into the mire, but not surprising with the path he's taken.
I want to post a video to show a contrast. Chris's parents always made it how his homosexuality affected THEM, how it was hurting THEM. Making it all about them and not Chris and using their conservative Christian background as the excuse to neither understand nor accept Chris. The testimony of this conservative Christian couple who have a trans child made it about their child while still holding true to their faith and not selfishly making it about themselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpMUhphL_ig
For more detail about our exchange, go to my "Late Nite Tapas" post.
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