‘RespectMyResearch.org’ Leads New Trend Where Top Researchers Speak Out To Stop Manipulation of Science For Political Gain
Miami Beach, FLA. – Truth Wins Out unveiled a new campaign today encouraging scientists to report right wing distortions of their research on the website www.RespectMyResearch.org. Truth Wins Out will also join the gay right’s group SoulForce today in a media conference call featuring a panel of experts who will discuss how groups, such as Focus on the Family, manipulate social science to help justify discrimination.
“This website is a powerful response to the brazen and outrageous manner in which the far right has hijacked science to support their discriminatory aims,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Our goal is to make it easier for legitimate researchers to fight back and demand their work be respected and not co-opted for an extreme political agenda.”
“When people start spinning science you have to respond,” said Dr. Kyle Pruett, professor of child psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. “Journalism used to handle this, but not anymore. So it’s bounced back to become increasingly the responsibility of the people doing the research.” (Read More)
I have finally developed a grudging respect for Focus on the Family. The ease in which they lie is so remarkably breathtaking, all one can do is applaud in wondrous awe.
What amazes me is that Focus on the Family raises approximately $200 million a year but produces virtually nothing. It’s the empire built on bunk and a monstrous Machiavellian monstrosity that manipulates and vituperates but doesn’t generate. Indeed, the organization’s “scientific” apparatus consists of a few fundamentalist flunkies who couldn’t tell a research trial from the Anna Nicole Smith trial. (Read More)
Lester Leavitt, believing what his Mormon Church taught him about overcoming his attraction to men, married Barbara in 1981. After 23 years together, they both now know the Truth about that advice. One couple’s story of love, grace and a friendship anchored in trust.
The Rev. Ted Haggard story has reignited discussion about what makes a person gay — and whether someone can switch sexual orientation and become an “ex-gay.”
On one side are organizations like Focus on the Family and Exodus International, which at conferences across the country teach that homosexuality is a lifestyle that can be overcome.
On the other are groups such as Truth Wins OUT, formed specifically to counter such ministries and whose director, gay activist Wayne Besen, says there’s no such thing as an “ex-gay.”
“It’s a recloseted homosexual,” Besen said. “I have never met an ex-gay who isn’t on the payroll of a group like Focus on the Family or Exodus.”
Besen monitors both ministry groups, sometimes attends their conferences and said he has exposed “ex-gays” — including a former Focus on the Family employee — in compromising situations.Just last week, Truth Wins OUT posted two videos on YouTube aimed at further debunking what Besen calls “the ex-gay myth.” (Read More)
Miami Beach, FLA. – Truth Wins Out released a new video today on YouTube featuring a famed psychiatrist who says Focus on the Family has chronically exaggerated his scientific data from a 2001 study to support their anti-gay political agenda.
“The gay person who is thinking about entering some kind of program to change should know that the likelihood of success is quite small. And, of course, Focus on the Family does not say that,” said Dr. Robert Spitzer, a professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, in an exclusive video interview with Truth Wins Out.
In 2001, Spitzer released a controversial study claiming a minute number of gay people can change from gay-to-straight. Focus on the Family and other right wing groups have since habitually taken his work out of context by claiming that his research proves that most, if not all, gay people can switch sexual orientations through a combination of prayer and therapy. (Read More)
In a speech at University of California Santa Barbara this week, ex-gay leader Chad Thompson seemed to welcome the elimination of gay people if a gene that determined sexual orientation were discovered. This is quite ironic, considering Thompson wrote the book “Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would.”
“I think it would be cool if a gay gene were discovered. Then God would get more glory when people are changed,” Thompson said.
“Sounds like Thompson would ‘love’ gay people right out of existence if he had his way,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “If this is how ex-gays love, I’d be afraid to see them when they hate.”
In the speech, Thompson also tried to sound loving when he said, “Christian media shows homosexuals as demons…gay media shows Christians as [hateful] people, and both of these lies create tension between the two sides.” (Read More)
‘Ex-Gay Groups Love To Spotlight The Wedding Photos, But They Never Show The Divorce Papers,’ Says TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen
Miami Beach, FLA. – Truth Wins Out today unveiled a Valentine’s Day video that shows why right wing attempts to pressure gay people into “reforming” through marriage destroys families in the name of family values and usually leads to divorce.
“Ex-gay groups notoriously pressure gay people into heterosexual marriage by parading happy wedding photos,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Unfortunately, they never show people the divorce papers, which paint a more realistic picture of these doomed marriages. Ex-gay groups often have little regard for the spouses and children and treat them as collateral damage in their zeal to prove that you can pray away the gay.”
Truth Wins Out’s new video was released on YouTube and featured a Mormon couple, Barbara and Lester Leavitt, who are ending their marriage after 25 years, having raised four children together. Although Lester always knew he was gay, his church and society sent the message that homosexuality was just a phase that could be overcome through marriage. He fought mightily to be the perfect husband and father, but two years ago he could no longer live a lie and came out to his family. (Read More)
In New Trend, Researchers Speak Out To Stop Manipulation of Science For Political Gain
Sixth Researcher in One-Year Says That Dobson Misrepresented Work, Establishing A Disturbing Pattern
Miami Beach, FLA. – Truth Wins Out unveiled a new video today on YouTube featuring a Yale professor who claims Focus on the Family leader James Dobson “cherry picked” his research. Dr. Kyle Pruett’s testimony represents a growing trend where leading scientists are speaking out against manipulation of their work by right wing political organizations. Pruett decided to respond after Dobson misused his research in a guest column Dobson wrote in TIME magazine debasing Mary Cheney’s pregnancy.
“When people start spinning science you have to respond,” said Dr. Kyle Pruett, professor of child psychiatry, the Yale University School of Medicine. “Journalism used to handle this, but not anymore. So it’s bounced back to become increasingly the responsibility of the people doing the research.”
Pruett is the second acclaimed professor to criticize Dobson’s use of their work in TIME Magazine. New York University professor Dr. Carol Gilligan also appeared in a Truth Wins Out video saying she was “mortified” by the manner in which Dobson’s cited her findings. Both Pruett and Gilligan wrote letters to Dobson to express their concerns. So far, Dobson has ignored personally responding to their letters and refused to engage in a direct dialogue with the professors. (Read More)
James Dobson’s assertion that “two mommies is one too many” doesn’t tell the whole story, according to one of the researchers Dobson quoted. Author and family relationships expert Dr. Kyle Pruett feels that Dobson “cherry picked” his research to support highly dicriminatory views.
With a gift of $35 to Truth Wins Out, you can receive an autographed copy of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
