Focus on the Family sent a “Special Alert” to supporters this afternoon:

Dr. Dobson to Appear on Glenn Beck Tonight

Dr. James Dobson is scheduled to discuss California’s marriage amendment tonight on the Glenn Beck Show at 7 ET (4 PT). It airs on CNN Headline News. Check your local listings to learn when the program will re-air.

Please be in prayer for Dr. Dobson, as he takes this responsibility very seriously. And please tune in tonight.

I suggest a different approach than simply watching (and obeying) Dobson:

Please write polite letters to Glenn Beck’s radio and TV shows.

Describe, from your own experiences and objective examples, how Dobson’s propaganda has promoted doomed ex-gay marriages, discouraged healthy and lifelong gay relationships, advocated the denial of equal access to public facilities and services, and prevented brave and well-qualified men and women from serving in the armed forces.

Perhaps most important: Politely tell Mr. Beck how Dobson’s ex-gay conferences and antigay lobbying have fueled misunderstanding and division among your own families and friends. Ask Mr. Beck to invite ex-gay survivors, medical professionals, and researchers onto Beck’s program to offer the audience a look at the consequences of James Dobson’s war against families and science.

By Wayne Besen

In one of the best articles on the ex-gay myth in years, the Times of London captured the true essence of these dangerous programs when the newspaper went undercover at Exodus International’ 2007 annual conference in Asheville, NC. The article cut through the spin, painted an accurate portrait of what Exodus is about and offered a genuine glimpse of the pain and suffering caused by sexual engineering programs.

Reporter Lucy Bannerman did her homework and rightfully highlighted the false advertising of Exodus that leads people to believe that they can pray away the gay. The counterfeit hope and unrealistic expectations are made clear when Exodus’ leader Alan Chambers triumphantly appears at a pep rally.

“How many of you are in need of some hope here tonight?” A murmur passes through the dark auditorium, pleasing Chambers, the man with the microphone. Heads nod. “How many of you are at the end of your rope?” he continues. “How many are ready for an encounter with the Lord?”

Later in the expose, “an amazing week of breakthroughs, transformations and healings,” is promised. And, an Exodus sexual engineer tells the reporter that she will have a “very impactful” experience. The reporter also points out that an Exodus’s affiliate in the United Kingdom, Re-alignment Ministries, uses the slogan “reinventing people.” Anyone who says that Exodus is not misleading people with pie-in-the-sky promises of heterosexuality is simply not telling the truth. (Read More)

Today is what I call Sexual Honesty Day — otherwise known as National Coming Out Day.

Sexual Honesty Day was developed by Dr. Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary in 1988. It was popularized with the artwork of Keith Haring.

Sexual Honesty Day affirms the decision of same-sex-attracted persons to be honest with friends, family, and neighbors. Sexual honesty makes healthy living possible: It enables informed, transparent, and responsible behavior; it allows people to obtain emotional, physical, and spiritual support; it spares heterosexual spouses the trauma of an ex-gay “marriage”; it allows same-sex-attracted people to un-closet the romantic side of their lives.

In short, National Coming Out Day events around the world the pro-equality movement a familiar face for friends and peers of those who are same-sex-attracted.

Sadly, Sexual Honesty Day is hated and parodied by a handful of ex-gay activists, who created a Dishonesty Day in response.

For years, HIV-positive ex-gay activist Michael Johnston chaired “National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day.” NCOHD was promoted annually by Focus on the Family and Peter LaBarbera — until 2003, when Virginia attorney Michael Hamar contacted TruthWinsOut.org founder Wayne Besen. Hamar had two clients who claimed to have had unsafe sex with Johnston, and one client believed he may have been infected with HIV from Johnston. After admitting a vague “moral fall,” Johnston’s “ex-gay” Kerusso Ministries collapsed in shame. Johnston later returned to ex-gay politics and finance, however, through the so-called “Pure Life Ministries” in Kentucky. Johnston has never apologized nor made amends for endangering the lives of his male sex partners.

Meanwhile, Dishonesty Day lived on, albeit feebly: Exodus International tried to resuscitate NCOHD in 2006, while the Traditional Values Coalition promotes Dishonesty Day — and Michael Johnston — on its web site. Neither organization warns readers about Johnston’s potentially lethal abuse of gay men. (Perhaps we need a Double Dishonesty Day?)

Whether one calls it National Coming Out Day or Sexual Honesty Day, today offers people from all walks of life an opportunity to reflect on their level of honesty and openness with their families and neighbors – and to think about secrets that might be eating away at their emotional or physical health.

By the Rev. Steven F. Kindle, Clergy United, Inc.

The question is not: Will marriage survive the inclusion of non-heterosexuals into its mix? Of course it will. No, the appropriate question is: Can America be America if it does not end its oppression of gay Americans? Will we become a nation that is willing to endure second-class citizens after two centuries of steady emancipation of other oppressed groups? I suggest to you that America’s soul is at great risk by this moral failure. This is a justice issue that needs to be addressed and resolved in favor of the oppressed. Offering same-sex marriage is the final step in recognizing the full, unencumbered humanity of non-heterosexuals, and their inclusion as fully emancipated American citizens.

Historical progress toward equality

The history of the United States can be summarized, quite accurately, as the slow but sure realization of the vision of its founding document, the Declaration of Independence, that all are created equal.

The same founders who agreed that “All men are created equal” also said, “Slaves shall represent 3/5 of a human being.” They and their successors also denied women the right to vote and upheld “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws, making interracial marriages illegal and restricted immigration to maintain white majority.

The founders had something in mind when they wrote the Constitution, but it’s not the republic in which we now live. In fact, their prejudices went so deep that they didn’t even feel the need to write “all white, landed, protestant, heterosexual, free men are created equal.” Forget about their slaves, forget about women, forget about those without land, forget about gay people-the only ones who had the right to vote, and thus the right to participate in the building of this new republic were people exactly like them.

In the intervening years, slavery has been abolished, women have been fully emancipated and nonwhites have been given the full dignity of the law. The inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans is now the realized dream of that distant day.

There is, however, one exception: non-heterosexual Americans, who are described by Harvard sociologist Byrne Fone as victims of the last acceptable bigotry in America.

It is my contention that withholding marriage rights for non-heterosexuals is unconstitutional, unchristian, and un-American. I will make the case for same-sex marriage being beneficial to America by providing four bedrock reasons why same sex marriage rights deserve to be placed on par with heterosexual marriage rights.

1. Justice
2. Evolution of marriage
3. There’s no downside
4. Social stability

(Read More)

Millions of lives are destroyed, relationships are uprooted, and fortunes are wasted in the false hope of becoming ex-gay, all because of the blatant misuse of one biblical passage.

It is well-known that the ex-gay movement is based on very faulty psychological premises. What is not so well-known is that the biblical basis for their assumptions is equally bankrupt. It may be good to remind ourselves that every time oppressed groups began to make headway in America they were all opposed by those who claimed to have the Bible on their side. Eventually, their arguments were perceived as the rantings of self-serving demagogues and carry no weight today among mainstream Christians and biblical scholars.

So today we should not be surprised that the Bible is trotted out once again to keep another oppressed group under wraps. And just as before, a careful look at their arguments finds this current effort wanting.

(Read More)

Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions. The divided court ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut’s civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples.

“We are delighted that the court has ruled in favor of equal marriage rights,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “This is a historic day that underscores the unstoppable momentum of marriage equality for our families.”

Evergreen Also Whitewashes Suicide of Stuart Matis, Says TWO

NEW YORK — Truth Wins Out (TWO) slammed “ex-gay” Mormon group Evergreen International today for gross violations of ethics and morality. The “pray away the gay” ministry listed convicted sexual predator therapist Christopher Austin as a resource and also covered up the suicide of Stuart Matis, a Mormon who took his own life because he could not change his sexual orientation.

“Evergreen should be ashamed and apologize for the unethical and immoral way it conducts business,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Instead of admitting the group’ failures, Evergreen has engaged in a series of omissions and cover-ups that whitewash reality at the expense of their victims.”

The blog, Ex-Gay Watch, discovered that Evergreen listed Christopher Austin on its site. What Evergreen failed to mention was that Austin, a disgraced therapist in Irving, Texas, was convicted of sexually assaulting a male client in Sept. 2007. Austin was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but received seven years probation, had to register as a sex offender and was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

“Unfortunately, Evergreen continued to promote Austin’ therapy and hold him up as an example of success,” said Besen. “Under pressure, Evergreen finally scrubbed him from its website this week, but the appropriate action would have been to let people know the truth. Sadly, Evergreen’ answer is to bury the facts in order to promote their fiction that one can change from gay to straight.”

In an equally disturbing incident, Evergreen whitewashed the heartbreaking suicide of Stuart Matis. On its website, Evergreen lists Fred and Marilyn Matis as past speakers and blithely says, “Their oldest son, Stuart, had same-gender attraction.”

This, of course, leads readers to believe that their son is now “ex-gay.” What Evergreen fails to tell readers is that the dangerous “ex-gay” message led Stuart to end his life. In his suicide note, Stuart Matis wrote:

“The church has no idea that as I type this letter, there are surely boys and girls on their callused knees imploring God to free them from this pain. They hate themselves. They retire to bed with their fingers pointed to their heads in the form of a gun. I am now free. I am no longer in pain and I no longer hate myself. As it turns out, God never intended for me to be straight. Perhaps my death might be a catalyst for some good.”

Focus on the Family blames committed gay couples for a lack of commitment among gender-biased heterosexual Christian couples.

On Oct. 9, Focus cited one supposed victim of marriage for gay couples: An antigay California couple whose marriage license was rejected after they marred it by crossing out inclusive language and replacing it with sexist language.

Focus also complained that an antigay New Jersey retreat, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, lost its special tax breaks after it violated its legal commitment to make a boardwalk pavilion equally available to all taxpayers in exchange for that tax exemption.

Focus further complained that two federal courts “rudely” foiled two Massachusetts antigay couples in their attempt to force overworked public-school teachers to warn them prior to any lessons that the parents deemed to be politically incorrect.

Also on Oct. 9, Focus on the Family indirectly protested California law which requires primary-school children to be educated about marriage. Again, it seems, Focus only wants kids to be educated about marriages that it deems to be politically correct — in other words, evangelical, heterosexual, and Republican.

On Sept. 28, Truth Wins Out protested a Baptist Press article by ex-gay activist and longtime Exodus member Bob Stith. While mourning the sexual honesty of Christian contemporary singer Ray Boltz, the article unnecessarily and falsely quoted Human Genome Project former director Francis Collins as saying:

Homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality.

Collins never said that; ex-gay political activist Greg Quinlan did. Good As You made the same observation.

Collins had said almost the opposite: He told Ex-Gay Watch:

The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality — the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.

Collins added:

No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.

Ten days later, Baptist Press finally changed the wording of the article — without acknowledging to readers the nature of the falsehoods that had previously been conveyed, without apparent effort to correct syndicated copies of the article that were circulated around the Internet, without apology to Dr. Collins, and — most importantly — without apparent reforms necessary to prevent future errors.

The only hint of the two-week deception appears at the top the article with this brief note:

REVISED: October 8, 2008 to reflect more accurate wording from “The Language of God” by Dr. Francis Collins.

Stith’s article now accurately conveys what Collins said — but the damage has already been done among readers who walked away from the article (and more than a dozen syndicated copies) believing that a leading geneticist had declared homosexuality a purely environmental choice.

Thus far, it seems Stith might walk away from the damage with nothing more than a quiet admission of fault to one web site, Ex-Gay Watch, which his regular audience never reads. Meanwhile, Quinlan has not acknowledged any deception whatsoever. We have asked Stith for assurances of complete remedial action; he has declined to respond.

Stith’s peers say that he is a man of good character; at one time I believed that, but I became very doubtful 10 days ago and now I am nearly convinced otherwise. True accountability, transparency, and penitence require more effort and integrity than I’m seeing, at present, from a prominent Exodus speaker and policy wonk for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Ex-gay fugitive from justice Lisa Miller continues to violate Virginia and Vermont court orders that she comply with the visitation rights of former partner and co-mother Janet Jenkins.

As Truth Wins Out has previously reported, since 2004 Miller has worked with religious-right activists to undermine U.S. family law by demanding a special right of ex-gays and religious extremists to move from state to state to escape their family obligations. Had she succeeded, the ability of U.S. states to enforce custody and deadbeat-dad laws could have been damaged.

But on June 6, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Vermont’s jurisdiction over her former partnership and the resulting child.

The Liberty Counsel vowed to find other ways to sidestep the nation’s laws, but on Oct. 27, Miller’s case returns where it belonged from the start: In Vermont, the state from which Miller fled justice in the first place.

Vermont courts are virtually certain to uphold earlier rulings in favor of Jenkins’ visitation rights.

Now the Liberty Counsel, Concerned Women for America, and antigay activist Peter LaBarbera are launching a scare campaign and a political mobilization. They warn that on Oct. 27, a Vermont judge might strip Miller of custody due to her persistent and continuing violations of family law and court rulings in two states.

Total loss of custody seems unlikely to me. However, even if it were likely, Miller can pre-empt that loss — and end her career as a fugitive — by respecting law, order, morality, and the welfare of her child.

Or, she can continue to act illegally and use her child as a pawn in a religious-right political war against family values. If she continues, then perhaps it is appropriate that Miller temporarily lose custody until she stops using her child as a political pawn — and starts obeying laws which exist to protect children from fugitive and deadbeat parents.

Far from being persecuted victims, Miller and her allies have become habitual offenders against family values and the rule of law. They are not Christian — they are egomaniacs who believe they are above compliance with any law.

One way or another, Isabella deserves better parenting than she has received thus far.