Straight on for you

Frequent SN&R contributor (and member of my writing group) Ted Cox has a secret: He’s a straight guy who spent better than a year pretending to be a gay man who wanted to be straight. Confused? So are most of the people involved in “ex-gay” programs. On top of everything else, their “gaydar” is broken, and they bought Ted’s story as he participated in a couple of local churches’ “pray away the gay” programs. He also spent a long weekend at a sleep-away “straight camp,” where they practiced a sort of “loving touch” that remarkably resembles foreplay. And after all this, poor Ted is still straight. Go figure. He’ll be presenting the results of his research—which will soon be a book—at a lecture on Tuesday, December 15, at 7 p.m. at the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community, 2791 24th Street. A $2 donation will help cover the building rental.