Michigan State University's Hannah Administration Building (Creative Commons photo by larrysphatpage via Flickr)

Michigan State University's Hannah Administration Building (Creative Commons photo by larrysphatpage via Flickr)

EAST LANSING — After assuring LGBT activists and leaders for two years that a controversial website would be removed from its computer servers, Michigan State University said last week it will continue to host the website of the ex-gay ministry Corduroy Stone.

In an email, David Gift, vice provost for libraries, computing and technology at MSU, told Michigan Messenger that the university’s hands are tied because Mike Jones, who runs the site that promotes therapy as a way to convert gay individuals to a straight lifestyle, is a retired university employee:

We have made systematic progress over the past year at removing public purchased web publishing and e-mail accounts that had been established at MSU. However, retirees have the benefit of continued use of their MSU web space and our existing policies for controlling their use of that space are quite limited and do not permit us to address this particular case. The owner of this site is a retiree, and after we closed his purchased account under our general change of business practices he set up shop in his retiree space. He apparently has arranged for a .com URL, but has that URL redirected to his MSU personal webspace.

The website became an issue in June 2007 when the American Family Association of Michigan hired a plane to fly over the Motor City Pride celebration in Ferndale. The plane dragged an aerial advertisement behind it advertising a website for ex-gay programs, which included Corduroy Stone. At that time, MSU officials said the website would be removed. But in March 2008, the website remained. Officials at the time said it had been an oversight and the website would be disabled. Apparently, based on Gift’s email, the site was disabled, but Mike Jones, the man who runs Corduroy Stone, is allowed website space because of his retiree status. He has moved the organization’s web pages to his personal MSU account.

Terry Denbow, vice president for university relations, explained MSU’s decision via an email:

The point is that we do allow retirees to have Web spaces that link to other organizations. The fact that this organization has material that is offensive does not, in and of itself, violate any University policies. We cannot, under the First Amendment, make content based distinctions on what sites we allow and which ones we do not. We are continuing to review and update our acceptable use policies and will take this under advisement as we do so. In the meantime, so long as Mr. Jones is in compliance with U policy, his web space will remain available to him.

Denbow said that while the university was blocked from further action under current policies, it might be time to revisit those policies.

While MSU’s hands may well be tied due to the First Amendment, experts and activists say the content of the website is still false and even dangerous to the well-being of LGBT people.

Jack Drescher, a New York-based psychiatrist, distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of that organization’s working group on sexual and gender identity issues, called the website’s content irresponsible. In an email to Michigan Messenger he wrote:

Both the American Psychiatric Association and more recently the American Psychological Association have raised strong warnings about the lack of scientific evidence supporting sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) as well as the possible harm that these practices sometimes cause. A publicly funded State University should, in principle, provide a forum for a diverse range of community voices. However, since ex-gay ministries make hopeful promises that they cannot keep to many hopeless and desperate individuals, providing such a group with the appearance of official university sanction may unintentionally do more harm than good.

Earlier this year, the American Psychological Association released a report on reparative therapy for gay individuals, calling the practice harmful and illegitimate.

Wayne Besen, executive director of the national organization Truth Wins Out, which opposes the ex-gay movement, also called on the university to remove the website:

“Michigan State should cancel Jones’ e-mail address and immediately stop hosting his site. It gives the false impression that the university endorses a dangerous form of therapy that was just condemned by the American Psychological Association.”

Besen is particularly familiar with Corduroy Stone because when he was in Grand Rapids earlier this year to speak at an event at Grand Valley State University aimed at countering the national ex-gay conference held locally. While there, he met Patrick McAlvey, 24, of Lansing, who says he was victimized by Jones and the Corduroy Stone programs. He even went so far as to do a video interview with Besen, which was posted last month on YouTube. And Besen features McAlvey’s story on his website.

“As both a graduate of Michigan State University and a recovering victim of Mr. Jones’ “ex-gay” therapy I find it sickening that the Corduroy Stone website continues to be supported by MSU. It is horrifying to think that taxpayer money, including my own, is supporting Mr. Jones and his strange and dangerous “work” with Corduroy Stone,” said McAlvey in an email to Michigan Messenger. “I am disturbed that this use of MSU server space could be be mistakenly interpreted as lending Corduroy Stone some sort of credibility it certainly doesn’t deserve and in reality does not enjoy.”