Ex-Gay Watch Founder Michael Airhart To Blog Daily On Site

NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org (TWO) launched its innovative new website today, enhancing its ability to fight the ex-gay myth and right wing propaganda. The site will be a leading educational resource and an all-encompassing look at the dangerous world of conversion therapy. For years, the ex-gay industry had dominated the flow of information on this topic. With this site, our movement has finally surpassed our opponents and we now have the means to counter ex-gay lies and reach vulnerable people with messages of truth and hope.

“TruthWinsOut.org is a one-stop-shop for information on the ex-gay myth and an action center for those who want to fight back against this insidious industry,” said TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We believe this site will help people come out, keep families together and even save lives. This is a great day for those who have long wanted to stop the spread of ex-gay misinformation and help people escape the ex-gay trap.”

Michael Airhart, who founded Ex-Gay Watch in 2002, will publish daily on TWO’s blog, offering his penetrating insights and a deep understanding of this topic. Airhart formerly worked as senior business editor for McClatchy-Tribune news wires in Washington. In 2005 he became a director for a leading blog syndication company. He also co-founded Men Can Stop Rape in 1997.
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“Gender identity is very important to God,” according to Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas.

But what verses of the Bible or any other authoritative religious document refer to “gender identity”? In an interview published today by Focus on the Family, Thomas does not say.

Sidestepping specifics about the Bible, Thomas ignores a growing Christian debate about gender-variant Biblical role models and eunuchs, broadly labels gender-variant individuals as “confused,” and offers a bold generalization: that the courage to express one’s individuality is the fault of unidentified “activists.” (Read More)

Focus on the Family Action, political branch of the operator of the Love Won Out ex-gay roadshow and sponsor of ex-gay billboard campaigns, tonight defended Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern after she said gay people were the biggest threat to the United States, “even more so than terrorists and Islam.” (Read More)

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. visited Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson at his Seattle-area megachurch recently and today offered observations about Hutcherson’s betrayal of his own victory over discrimination — and Hutcherson’s exploitation of “ex-gays”. (Read More)

Update: ‘Repent America’ Leader Guilty: Michael Marcavage, whose Philadelphia-area band of followers uses megaphones to shout down public events, was found guilty of disorderly conduct for shouting down a Halloween festival last year in Salem, Mass. Previously, Exodus officially defended Repent America’s megaphone raid against a Philadelphia gay event as a matter of religious expression. (American Family Association) (More: The Salem News)

Focus on the Family Undermines Couples to ‘Save’ Marriage: Focus on the Family says that states must keep traditional families intact. How? By discriminating against all other families. Focus is upset at a same-sex couple that is suing the University of Hawaii after being excluded from married student housing on campus. Focus accuses the couple of “attacking marriage” by seeking respect as a couple and by honoring marital commitment. (Focus) (Update.)

Focus on the Family Thwarts Evangelicals, Defends Global Warming: Rejecting the guidance of the National Association of Evangelicals regarding creation care and environmental stewardship, Focus on the Family cheered a gathering of industry researchers and religious conservatives who blame climate change on ordinary cycles in the Earth’s history. (Focus)

Protest Planned against Ex-Gay Charlene Cothran: Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network will protest on March 13 against “ex-gay” Venus magazine publisher Charlene Cothran, who is developing an inflammatory new project: a speech entitled “How Homosexuality Destroys Families, Not Just Values.” (Queerty)

Hutcherson and the Legacy of MLK: On the Wallbuilders Live radio program, Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson expands his campaign against his daughter’s school to include attempts to shut down the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and end the school’s participation in The Day of Silence. Hutcherson warns that the school faculty should be glad he’s not still committing acts of violence against whites, but adds: “If they don’t fire these teachers, I’m going to sue ‘em and I’m going to ask them for their dreams. And then they’re going to mess around and laugh and I’m going to take their tongue out.” So much for Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of nonviolent social unity and equal opportunity. (Right Wing Watch)

Lighter Side: Who cares what overpaid, over-blowdried anchors think? Anderson Cooper doesn’t — and doesn’t think the public should, either. (Romenesko)

After claiming last week that the ex-gay network had stepped back from public policy, Exodus admitted otherwise this week — but without admitting the apparent deception.

President Alan Chambers acknowledged to Ex-Gay Watch that his organization will continue as an active member of the Arlington Group, a political alliance of most major religious-right organizations that coordinates members’ policy choices and priorities.

Chambers claimed last week, “There isn’t anyone on staff that has policy in their job description and we don’t plan to spend money there.” On its 2006 filing of an IRS 990 form (PDF via Guidestar), Exodus reported a $5,000 donation to the Arlington Group; Exodus donations for 2007 are yet to be disclosed.

Chambers announced last week that Exodus’ withdrawal from public policy began in “August, 2007. 2008, however, marked a complete refocus on ministry.”

But as TWO has noted since then, Exodus board member Phil Burress (pictured), youth activist Mike Ensley, and speaker Ken Hutcherson continue to actively campaign for antigay and partisan political causes.

Just two days ago, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas boasted of his ongoing, expenses-paid trips to Washington, D.C., to provide political “friends” with ex-gay rhetoric and support.

And on Friday, board member Burress sued to hold taxpayer-subsidized church services in an Ohio public library. Burress’ self-led Citizens for Community Values (another Arlington Group member) opposes anti-bullying, tolerance, and sex-education programs in schools, and it is largely responsible for a 1993 Cincinnati vote to overturn local antidiscrimination law. A 2004 vote reversed the earlier vote.

In reaction to Exodus’ commitment to the Arlington Group, former ex-gay Peterson Toscano finds Exodus violating Biblical values under Chambers’ leadership.

The following is an excerpt from the March 2008 electronic newsletter of Exodus Youth:

In the news

UK Foster Parents Must Support Homosexuality A Christian couple in the UK was told they were “unsuitable” to be foster parents because they refused to teach children that homosexuality is morally acceptable.

Many CA Students May be Leaving Public Schools A number of Christian organizations are urging parents to remove their children from public schools due to the passage of SB 777, a bill that will greatly increase the amount of pro-homosexual propaganda incorporated into the school system.

Homosexuality: A Polarizing Term A group called Catalyst recently visited a Love Won Out conference. They were able to interview many of the main speakers, including Alan Chambers, and have posted those interviews on their website.

These articles and many more are available on the Exodus Media Blog.

Of these three “news” items, the second is excerpted from a partisan political publication, and none of the items relates in a constructive way to the struggles or needs of gay or “ex-gay” youths and their families.

Why is Exodus officially parroting partisan political propaganda six months after, it says, it decided to refrain from such activity?

Exodus International president Alan Chambers said last week that the ex-gay network had halted its aggressive antigay political advocacy as of August 2007.

Exodus youth activist Mike Ensley, however, vows to continue using his position in the ex-gay network as a soapbox to silence gay students, withhold accurate information from heterosexual peers of those students, and deny the existence of intersexed persons.

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An antigay outfit called Life Productions aired a Canadian TV ex-gay ad featuring a man with no name, no history, no evidence of a sexual orientation, and no explanation of how he “changed.”

In the ad, the mystery man claims that his (somewhat dubious) existence is proof that people can “change,” but he offers viewers no guidance on how or where to change. Instead, he implies that the recognition of gay persons’ equality under the law somehow threatens the public’s ability to learn about no-name people like him.

Since no guidance is offered in the ad, nor on Life Productions’ web site, the ad appears to be a ploy by Life Productions to collect personal information from troubled individuals without guarantees of privacy nor promises that the information won’t be shared with antigay political organizations. Worse, presumably troubled individuals are told by the web site’s contact form that “due to high volumes of mail we regret we cannot answer everyone.”

After an initial airing on CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, a Facebook campaign last week persuaded the network to revisit the ad. Its issue advocacy and implicit approval of discrimination were found to violate the network’s ethical standards, and CTV withdrew the ad.

Critics of the ex-gay political movement sometimes observe that successful ex-gays rarely seem to exist as real people with real names — except when they are paid political hacks of the religious right. Critics also observe that the movement commits more resources to politics than to helping people with specific paths to “change.”

This ad unwittingly fuels critics’ arguments.

Hat tip: XGW

Fearing that facts may undermine stigmas and stereotypes, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council have spoken out against Just The Facts, an educational resource guide that was developed by a 13-member coalition that includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators.

According to The Washington Blade, the factbook was sent to 12,000 high-school administrators on Feb. 8, advising that schools should refrain from subjecting students to potential harm by promoting various unproven or discredited “ex-gay” conversion “therapies.”

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