Lake Huntington native to stage struggle with ex-gay

	Photo by Roy Steele Chad is a character played by Peterson Toscano in "Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House—How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement" (Click for larger image)

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance will feature 1983 Narrowsburg Central School graduate Peterson Toscano in the final performance of the Tusten Theatre’s fall music and theatre line-up.

Toscano will perform his comedic, truth-seeking program, “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House—How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement!” on Saturday, November 1 at 8:00 p.m. at the Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge Street.

Through five characters, Toscano takes his audience on a tour of an ex-gay ministry, weaving together humor, program jargon and outrageous eyewitness accounts to form a hilarious, poignant and inspirational piece. The Homo No Mo Halfway House is a 12-step Christian program based on Toscano’s real experiences with people who try to save men from the snares of homosexuality.

The ex-gay movement is a largely church-driven program that treats homosexuality as a disease or a habit that can be cured or broken through reconditioning rules—like how to dress straight—and sheer force of will, Toscano said. From the daily rap sessions on appropriate male dress to the surreal family and friends weekend, prepare for a rocky and raucous tour of the halfway house and see if the hero comes out alive.

“I lived for a short time in Memphis as an ex-gay, and then literally one morning I woke up and said, ‘What the hell are you doing? This is crazy. You’ve done everything in your power. Nothing has worked. Give it up.’ And that’s when I really started to come out,” Toscano said.

But constructing a new life is more than just proclaiming your gayness to the world, and the show plumbs the extent to which coming out means more than just being honest with oneself. That honesty has communal repercussions, he said.

“As a person of faith, which I am, I wasn’t very encouraged about getting involved with the gay community because I didn’t see a lot of positive energy around spirituality. That is changing. But still you’ve got a lot of folks in the gay community who are really anti-church and anti-spirituality because they’ve been burnt so badly,” he said.

Despite his experience, Toscano said he hopes his work will help to create much needed dialogue between faith groups and the gay and lesbian community.

“I choose not to make this a diatribe against ex-gay ministries, because I think, for one, that’s bad theater. The performance actually seeks truth and reconciliation. I want to reach out to ex-gay ministries, programs that exist all over the country that try to change people from being gay to straight,” Toscano said.

“I embed in [the show] a very clear affirmative message about not just being gay, but just coming out, whoever you are, and how that process is one that requires a community to embrace you for who you are. No one can do it in a vacuum,” he said.

A discussion period following the performance will provide a forum for people to pose questions and voice opinions.

After a long and complicated struggle, Toscano came out in January of 1999, fully accepting himself as a gay man. Since then, he contributed to the gay community through his involvement in Integrity Memphis and the University of Memphis gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) student group.

In 2000, he wrote and directed a performance poem for Judy Shepard during her historic visit to Memphis, TN. Toscano currently lives in Hartford, CT, where he serves on the board of True Colors, which annually organizes the world’s largest GLBT conference for young people.

Toscano’s parents, owners of Pete’s Pub in Lake Huntington, NY, encouraged him to bring his play to Narrowsburg as part of his national tour that began in Memphis, TN and continued in Nashville, Boston and Santa Cruz. The piece is gaining national attention for its skillful blending of comic arts and insightful, fearless storytelling.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens. For more information call 845/252-7576.

For online video samples of the performance piece and more info about the Homo No Halfway House, visit homonomo.com. n

The information in this article was compiled and edited by Charlie Buterbaugh