Baltimore’s LGBTQI affirming faith communities, now have a new member to add to the family. DignityUSA, the largest and oldest community of LGBTQI Catholics, has commissioned a new chapter in Baltimore. This is the first time there will be a chapter of DignityUSA in Charm City since the 1980s. Dignity Baltimore has been initiated under the leadership of Father Al Risdorfer. He and his husband Tony have been longtime members of Dignity in its Philadelphia, Central Pennsylvania and Washington chapters. Al is also a priest with the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America, CACINA, as it is known. CACINA is […]
Conversion Therapy’s Extreme Makeover
On January 18th, 2019 the Baltimore Sun reported that a psychotherapist and ex-gay activist Christopher Doyle formally challenged Maryland’s conversion therapy ban on minors through a federal lawsuit against the state. Doyle, who lives in Virginia and practices there and in Maryland, argues that the conversion therapy ban prevented his clients with unwanted same-sex attractions from seeking therapy that would supposedly diminish those attractions. While Doyle acknowledged that draconian practices such as electroshock therapy are ineffective and inhumane, he also argued that banning conversion therapy undermined the efficacy of faith-based counseling for persons with unwanted same-sex attractions. In September, a […]