ARTICLES

Ex-Gay Takes on His Past

A Tour through Hillcrest

By Robert Kumpel

James Hartline, 45, is the one thing the gay community hates and fears the most: a converted homosexual ready to shout the gospel from the rooftops. He lives in Hillcrest and has no intention of leaving.

"When I was 14, I was removed from my parents' custody in and placed in a state children's home in Nevada. I had starting running away to get away from the abuse, and in the process of running away, I started stealing to take care of myself. They put me in a state orphanage in Carson City. I kept running away and getting in trouble for stealing, so I ended up in a state reform school for boys until I was 17, when they placed me in a halfway house for teens, where they mixed us with adults. I stayed there until I graduated from high school. I had been exposed to a lot of pornography at home when I was little, from about age six until I left. My parents deny it was there, but it was. I was beaten on an almost daily basis -- I once was pushed through a shower door and cut my head open. My mother did most of the beatings -- but I consider my father to be more responsible, because he stood there while she did it. But you have to forgive and forget to move on."

"When you're in a reform school and you're one of the smaller younger kids there and you're around other people, the involvement in sexual activity compounds itself. Nevertheless, there was a seed of immorality that was planted in me at a very small age. What I've come to learn about that most of the people today who say that they were born homosexual, is that the incidence of abuse or exposure to some type of sexual thoughts are like seeds planted and they happen before the child is aware that it's happened, then that image is still there and it's always there. So subconsciously, the sexual image or proclivity has been implanted by an adult or older child and the child affected by that doesn't realize that that's how that thing got there. They assume that they were born that way because that's all they've ever remembered. It's the Spirit of God that gives you enough power to wash away the effect, so that the images may never surface again, or they've lost all their pull. So when the Spirit of God comes into your life, the Word of God coupled with the Spirit that's upon that word breaks the bondage that's attached to that image. They key is through Christ Jesus, to never bring yourself down and allow yourself to go into that territory again.

"When I was 17 and living in Reno, still going to high school, I had extremely overwhelming sexual urges that had been ignited in reform school and it just got worse and worse. At this time, I found a park where boys hung out and men began to pick me up.

"The gay community is always trying to separate child molesters from homosexuality, but I've found that most pedophiles will participate in homosexuality if they can't get children. When I was hanging out at this park, it was mostly older men always picking me up, and they knew that I was underage. They introduced me to my first taste of the homosexual community that I had no clue even existed. In 1975 going into 1976, when I was about to turn 18, a man asked me if I'd ever been to a place where men dance and I said 'no.' So he took me to a gay bar. All of a sudden, I had all these men paying attention to me where my father hadn't, and I can tell you that the core factor for people getting into the bondage of homosexuality is seeking an unfulfilled relationship with their father.

By age 18, Hartline was living in a halfway house with no job skills and was arrested for stealing. "They stuck me in prison. That began an episode where I went to state prison five times, every time for stealing. I was a terrible thief. I'd always get caught! I've spent a total of 19 years incarcerated. The entire time I was in prison, I was constantly involved in homosexual activity. There was almost never a day that went by in those 19 years that I didn't have sexual contact. I was also exposed to drugs, which brought about years of methamphetamine abuse. I went through probably 30 suicide attempts. I was strapped down in rubber rooms, injected with medications against my will."

The beginning of Hartline's rebirth came in 1985 in an isolation cell at the San Diego County Jail. "They used to put the homosexuals and the transvestites in a separate cells together, separated from the rest of the populations. I was put in the tank with the homosexuals, and I got in a fight. I used to fight a lot. Even though I was small, I had a reputation of being such a scrapper that I could beat up some of the biggest guys. After I got in this fight, they put me in an isolation cell. Interestingly, they had televisions in these cells and it was just local cable. Channel 40 was on, and it was really snowy, but I could see it was TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network -- which you normally couldn't get in San Diego. I was filled with the Holy Spirit right there. One night I was praying, the Spirit came upon me. I was consumed to read the Bible, like I'd never been to read anything before. I read and read and read the Bible and I came across Ephesians Chapter 6, about of the armor of God. So I drew a little soldier and named the different parts, like the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and so on. I painted it on the wall of my cell. All of a sudden, something came upon me. My eyes were closed, and the mist came before my vision and these lights began to flash. It was so real that I got scared and opened my eyes and began to rebuke the devil! I was hyperventilating. I closed my eyes and it was still there. A being came out of this mist toward me. I put my head down, and he put this thing on my head and held my hand out and something that felt like a sword went in it. My hand began to move and my mouth was opened and something was put in my mouth. I heard these words like they were imprinted upon me: "I am preparing you to do battle for me in the last days." I held onto those words for a long time. I was in that cell for eight months. But I went into such degradation after that, that I later thought that it couldn't have been God, since my life didn't change. Today, I know that it was a true word from The Lord about what he was preparing me to do."

It would take 12 more years in prison and a close brush with death before Hartline's conversion would be complete. "Even though I didn't see how I was going to get out of homosexuality and drug abuse, I kept reading the Bible, and I even studied theology. In 1989, I was transferred to Folsom prison, because I had been in so many fights. One fight was over pornography that someone had stolen from me -- in those days you could have a lot of pornography in prison. But in Folsom, I was in the midst of some very dangerous people -- me, this skinny, effeminate homosexual. I had nobody to protect me. I survived that for two and a half years. I corresponded with the judge who had sent me to prison, Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund, of the San Diego Superior Court. We wrote back and forth for four and a half years. He's a wonderful man, and he helped me get into an early release program in 1989 and out of Folsom. He got me a job at the Robert Driver Insurance Company as a mail room clerk and, of course, I rewarded him by continuing to use drugs. I went back to prison. That was my last sentence, and I was paroled in July of 1997. Five months after getting out of prison for the fifth time, November of 1997, I picked up HIV from doing drugs."

With his long history of unprotected sex and I.V. drug use, Hartline had begun to feel invincible. "Interestingly, in 1989, I got infected with Hepatitis A, B, and C all at the same time. But they disappeared while I was in prison! Without a trace! When I got out of prison in 1997, the doctor told me that there was no trace of Hepatitis C, although I had the antibodies for it, and I had never gotten HIV -- up to that point. And I had encounters in prison with people who I knew had HIV. I knew there was something special about my blood, so I called the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and presented my case to them in August of 1997. I said 'I think there's something extraordinary about my blood, because I'm clear of Hepatitis C, and I never got HIV. They began to test my blood and took lots of samples and studied it. My blood was studied by one of the foremost HIV specialists in the world, Dr. Donald Mosier. They told me that there was, in fact, something extraordinary about my blood, particularly that I had once had Hepatitis C and it was gone and that I never got HIV. They were studying my blood all the time, making what they called, cell lines. But what was probably the weekend of Thanksgiving, 1997, when I got strung out on drugs, I was infected with HIV. I didn't know that's what it was, but I got very sick. I went to the emergency room, and they sent me home -- they didn't test for HIV at that time. I called Dr. Mosier, and he told me that if I was doing drugs, I may have gotten infected with HIV. I thought there was something special in my blood and I couldn't get it. So Dr. Mosier called Dr. Susan Lytle, who researches HIV at UCSD, and had her come to my apartment. She was looking for people to study who were at the earliest point of infection. On December 11, Dr. Lytle came to my apartment and drew my blood, then sent me to the hospital in an ambulance. On December 12, she called me and said, 'You have a massive, brand new infection of HIV.' The next year, Dr. Mosier presented a paper on me at the International AIDS symposium in Chicago as the only person in the United States for whom they have blood samples at the exact time of infection. There are only two other people in the world for whom they had blood samples at that early stage. One guy died, and they other is in Australia. The Lord was in this, because now my case is well-published. God has told me that I am going to be healed of this disease. The purpose behind that is, when I am healed, the case is going to be so well-documented that it will send shock waves throughout the medical community. I believe God will use me to preach the gospel and one of the platforms for me to preach from will be my healing from HIV."

When he realized he was infected, Hartline's conversion took a more serious turn. "I began to seek wholeheartedly the Hand of God, because I knew that my time was running out if I didn't. The Spirit of God began to come upon me mightily and bring to light in my mind all the years of Bible study I had done. In February of 1999, I really began to try to get out of homosexuality altogether. Instead of sleeping with other men, I began to sleep with my Bible. In March of 1999, I began to have the first of over 100 dreams from the Lord. The dreams have been revelatory, showing me what is coming. I had hundreds of demons who were possessing me and that's what hindered me from coming to God.

"About four years ago, the Lord began to purge from me the desires for homosexuality. I was an extremely effeminate homosexual. People could automatically tell I was homosexual. Today when people look at me and they don't have a clue unless I tell them that I was there. God has removed every single manifestation that would identify me with the homosexuals. A lot of the characteristics that you see in homosexuals are demonically intertwined characteristics that get into the persona of that person and you can see it. The spirit of the homosexual community as well as most homosexuals despise my very existence in their neighborhood.

"Every day I see people that I either had sexual contact with or did drugs with. All of that bondage is still there, but it now has no power over me. The Lord told me a few years ago, 'If you will stay here and allow me to deliver you while you are in the middle of it, it will never again have power over you. If you run from this and go away, there is always the potential that it will come back and take you over, because you did not conquer it when it faced you.' You have to face your enemy to overcome him. If you run, he's going to chase you. I spend at least two hours a day reading the Word of God and praying.

"It's been shown to me that what's going to take place in the gay community of Hillcrest is going to be the equivalent of a spiritual earthquake. It will rock this neighborhood and cause a revival that will sweep not just through Hillcrest, but every gay community in the United States. I liken it to the domino effect that took place in Europe when Communism fell. The Lord is about to expedite it. He's shown me because I was willing to pay the price, to lay down my life for the cause of Christ and put myself in harm's way and trust Him to protect me, to turn from my wicked desires and allow Him to deliver me. It had to be him, because I had no power to deliver myself and have no family to help me. My family has never come back to help me and does not associate with me today. But the Lord wants to use me to ignite the land and bring revival to the homosexual community."

Living on disability, Hartline says that he witnesses everywhere he goes. Most of the time, he doesn't go far. "There's a business at First and University in a strip mall called Rainbow Road. It's a porno store. I've been here for years, and it used to be a juice bar. The guy who owns Rainbow Road had the place where The Closet clothing store and gift shop is. The juice bar moved out, he moved in and he took over that whole spot there. He got his business license for Rainbow Road in 1998, five years ago. The civil code specifically states that you cannot have a sex business within 1000 feet of an elementary school, but Florence elementary is less than a block away, right across the street. So what he did was take the wall out that separated The Closet and Rainbow Road. He owns both, but there's only one entrance. So it looks like The Closet is part of Rainbow Road. So an inspector going in there would look at that and say 'A sex business exists when you have 15 percent or more of your display space devoted to pornography.' So if you go into Rainbow Road and turn to the right, there are stairs. You go up the stairs and the whole second floor is gay porn. Perceptively, if the code enforcement people aren't looking too carefully, they would think that the downstairs is the whole store. But if you exclude the clothing store, the gay porn section is about 30 percent. And they don't even keep the front windows of the store blocked. You can look in there and see that they don't have just a porno section, but they've interspersed with all the regular gifts, pornographic images of naked men on postcards and posters. They are supposed to get a tax clearance from the police department who then regulates them through vice. It's the responsibility of code enforcement to determine whether they've violated any code and then assign a penalty. And that comes under the authority of the city attorney's office. That store has been there for five years, and nobody has ever filed a complaint, and if you don't file a complaint, code enforcement is not going to come in and look at it.

"I called the principal of Florence Elementary School repeatedly, and she never returned my calls. Finally, I went down there, and she still wouldn't see me. I told her secretary I would be taking this to the authorities. When I got home, there was a one-sentence message on my phone machine from the principal. She said, 'This is not a matter that the school will be involved with. You need to take it to the city council.' That's the response of a principal! Across the street from the porno store is also a non-profit entity, called Operation Schoolbell, that operates under the Assistance League of San Diego. It provides assistance to the kids when they get out of school, and it runs a thrift store. The code also states that a sex business cannot be within 1000 feet of a social institution provider such as a non-profit, like that program. I told the ladies who run the program there about it and they were outraged. They said they were going to call and complain, because they don't want it there.

"The City says that sex businesses bring in drug users, alcoholic abusers, homeless vagrants, prostitution, cause the spread of disease, and are known to produce crime. So they want to keep these away from vulnerable populations. Well, the ladies from Operation Schoolbell have told me on two occasions that they constantly have to deal with alcoholics and drug addicts on the back of their property next to the school!"

Hartline pulls out a paper with eight Hillcrest addresses. It is a letter from Sharren Carr, Neighborhood Services Program Manager at the city attorney's office, thanking Hartline for submitting the addresses for investigation of civil code violations, assuring him that it is a "high priority for the department" and promising to investigate within 45 days. The letter is dated June 16. "There are at least 12 porno businesses that are regulated by the police department in this neighborhood, and nobody has filed a complaint against any of them, they've never been cited for violating codes, and they are all in violation of the law. I spoke to Sherrie Carr about these porno places on a number of occasions and every time she defended them! She said, 'They are all grandfathered in, none are in violation of laws.' After dealing with her for a couple of weeks, I went to her office. She was on vacation, so I spoke to her supervisor and it was discovered that none of my complaints had even been logged on her computer at all! I told him that my rights had been violated and I planned to take this to the authorities. Within two days, on June 13, I got a call from her that she would be sending me this letter, and she wanted to verify all the addresses."

One of the addresses, 4090 30th Street, is in North Park. When asked about that business, Hartline's eyebrows flare. "That's The Crypt. I've been in there, and it's in violation of all kinds of laws and all kinds of kids go in there. It's two blocks from the Presbyterian Covenant Church. The law clearly says that you cannot be within 1000 feet of a church. So how did they even get a license? I've been told that by the police department that these people don't always report to the police that they are selling porn, even though by law, they're supposed to. But they can just start selling this stuff and hope they don't get caught. So many of these porno places that are opening, already in violation of the law, may not be reporting to any law enforcement entity and getting away with it until somebody reports it. And sometimes they get so well established maybe the church will close or move and nobody will know. The Crypt is one of the most evil of all the bookstores. How do I know? When I was doing drugs, I used to go in all these places. I used to score drugs in all these places. I know intimately, from firsthand knowledge, everything that is going on in every one of these places. I have been in every one of them as a customer."

Midnight Adult Book and Video is on the list as 1405 University Avenue. "I don't know how long it's been there, but it's only two blocks from two churches. One church has been there 60 years -- Calvary Temple Assembly of God and University Christian Church, which is even closer, has been there 100 years! How do these porn shops open right by these churches in violation of the law? Right across the street, about 30 feet away from this Midnight Store, is the Access Center. The Access Center is the largest rehabilitation center for disabled people in San Diego -- a social service entity! And all day long there are drug users there, they find condoms and used drugs paraphernalia, such as needles and syringes right at the doorsteps of this disabled place from people hanging out at that bookstore."

The lack of code enforcement is a result of what Hartline perceives as the utter corruption of the "gay political machine". "They believe that they have created an assembly-line machine out of this community where they can continue producing gay politicians out of it and sending them out. A few years ago, they got the area re-districted, so that the gay community is a district within itself. They can continually elect gay officials and move them up. So here's what's about to happen: Casey Gwynn is not going to be running for city attorney again. The homosexual agenda has already reviewed the potential candidates. There's one Republican and three Democrats. There is a woman at the city attorney's office who is very pro-homosexual that they are going to put forth as a candidate to run for city attorney. If she gets elected, they will have a lock on both areas of law -- criminal (referring to lesbian district attorney Bonnie Dumanis) and civil."

Hartline produces another letter, this one from Third District councilwoman, Toni Atkins. In the letter, she thanks Hartline for contacting him about the adult business in the area and informs him that she has contacted police legal advisor Mary Nuesca from the city attorney's office, and gives Hartline her phone number. She also mentions contacting Sharren Carr and police lieutenant Robert Kanaski of the vice squad, who claimed to be working with Hartline already. She encourages Hartline to continue working with the three officials and thanks him for his efforts. "I called her office and said, 'I don't believe your office is going to do anything, but I want you to prove me wrong!' I know that she gets support from these porno places. They're a big part of her campaign, a big part of the gay community and a big part of the gay agenda. I got this letter from her promising to investigate. I believe two things: either Toni Atkins will respond accordingly and facilitate the shutting down of these illegal businesses -- which would cause an earthquake with her supporting constituents, or she will do nothing, which will prove that she is complicit with the porno businesses. This is a woman who is trying to sell the voting citizens that she is pro-family and pro-children, yet in the neighborhood where her office is are 12 porno businesses right by schools, churches, and medical care clinics. This neighborhood needs to be sensitive to children, because this neighborhood invites tens of thousands of children every year into the neighborhood, because the zoo is here, the museums are here, the park is here.We have the Corvette Diner, where kids have birthday parties. There's the City Deli where they have beautiful things for kids.

"[On Saturday, July 12] I'm running on the sidewalk and who walks by me but [Assemblywoman] Christine Kehoe. I thought 'I can't miss this opportunity!' I turned around and went back and she was getting in her car. She asked me if she could help me, and I told her I wanted to talk to her. A week prior to this, I had been up to her office, which overlooks one of the porno places, The Obelisk. The Obelisk is a known, gay-political bookstore at 1029 University. On their front window it says, 'Harry Potter Books Sold Here'. So they know that kids will look at that and go in and they have a huge pornographic section. They have none of the porn covered and they have no divider saying that you have to be 18 to enter the section -- all in violation of the law. I had originally gone up to her office to complain about the porno store next to the elementary school. Her assistant said, 'We don't deal with these local issues anymore because she's not on the city council.' Kehoe said to me, 'I'm sorry the man in my office was disrespectful, but when I was on the city council, I was aware that the store was opening next to the school. I tried to stop it, but there was nothing I could do about it.'"

Pornography is not the only sex-business Hartline has decided to fight. San Diego has three bathhouses (two in Hillcrest, one downtown) that he says are breeding grounds for drug use and transmitting disease. "These are some of the most vile, HIV-producing entities on the planet. The taxpayers are footing the bill and the owners are making millions." He holds up a copy of the Gay and Lesbian Times with a full-page ad for Club San Diego, showing a naked muscular young man looking provocatively at the camera, with another naked man rubbing the side of his face against the standing man's crotch. "The problem with these bathhouses are that they are really sex clubs. Almost every city in the U.S. banned them, including San Francisco 15 years ago, because they were known to spread AIDS. But they've never been closed in San Diego. Now here's the interesting dynamic: When somebody gets AIDS in California, they are entitled to complete and free medical care at a cost to taxpayers of $3,000 to $5,000 a month per patient. Now everybody can't help it if they get HIV, but if there are businesses that are open specifically known by the owners that people are going in there specifically to engage in sex, and no protection is used and drugs are being sold -- the men are all under the influence of drugs. The police department used to raid these places all the time, until the bathhouses sued that their privacy was being violated, and the police lost big time and have since left them alone. But drug use is rampant, and alcohol is being dispensed to minors. State law allows people 18 years or older to go in to these places, but you have to be 21 to get alcohol and there's no restriction to keep people from bringing alcohol into these businesses. So people over 21 bring in alcohol and share it with minors."

Hartline's copy of the Gay and Lesbian Times features ads for gay bars. One full-page ad for Wolfs (located a block away from St. Patrick's Church on 30th St.) shows a man wearing a pair of white briefs. One hand is plunged fully into the front of his briefs while he tugs at his nipple with the other. "This magazine is full of pornographic ads. Triple X. And they are distributed everywhere where the children are, because they are free. They're at libraries, restaurants, everywhere. The business has to request these magazines to be dropped off. They are in medical clinics, near schools and in the buildings where charter schools are, every coffee house, restaurant, and store in the area. I've complained to the library, and they've refused to move them. When I complained at the Hillcrest News Stand two nights ago, I was assaulted. The magazines are the biggest endorsers of Christine Kehoe and Toni Atkins. They give them free column space and ads. They are the political and pornographic newspapers of the gay community, and they are everywhere the kids are."

Hartline's fortunes are looking up. He says he almost is never sick and has the makings of a full-time job taking shape. "There are two attorneys working with me that have already starting compensating me for my work, and they are going to arrange for an office for me right here in Hillcrest where I can do Christian advocacy work."

In one of his dreams, Hartline was given a scripture about Moses that he believes parallels his own calling. "Moses was sent back to face Pharoah and deliver the captives from Pharoah. The Lord gave Moses signs to use, including putting his hand in his breastplate and pulling it out with leprosy. When he placed his hand back and pulled it out again, it was healed. When the Lord heals me of HIV, I will be able to use that as a sign against the principalities and powers that rule over this neighborhood."

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