Today, Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen attended a protest led by GLBT advocate Brendan Fay in front of NYC’ Iraq Mission. The demonstration was a result of the continued murder of gay men in this country. The demonstration became a shouting match with police, after NYPD tried to stop the organizers from ringing the building’ bell and hand delivering a letter of protest. (See Picture below)
The Gay City News reporter Andy Humm had it out with police – and rightfully so, as they were obstructing a lawful act.
The Jewish Alliance for Change will present a star-studded benefit concert that will feature a dazzling array of over 30 top-name performers from the worlds of Broadway, television, film, music, and comedy – including many Tony, Emmy, Oscar and Grammy Award winners and nominees. TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen will be speaking at the event.
Hosted by
Tony and 2-time Grammy Award winner
Jim Dale
Starring
Richard Belzer, Mike Burstyn, Ann Hampton Callaway, Melissa Errico,
Tovah Feldshuh, Malcolm Gets, Judy Kaye & David Green, Robert Klein, Linda Lavin,
Nellie McKay, Anne Meara, New York City Gay Men?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Chorus, Phyllis Newman,
Alice Playten, Seth Rudetsky, Billy Stritch,
The Accidentals, The Broadway Boys, The Broadway Tenors
and Featuring
Scott Blakeman, Darrian Ford, Cheryl Freeman, Shauna Hicks,
Peter J?ɬ?back, Michael Longoria, Karla Mosley,
Krysta Rodriguez, Jeremy Schonfeld, Noah Weisberg…
Plus more to be announced and special surprise guests!!
Speakers at the event will include:
Evan Wolfson (FREEDOM TO MARRY, Founder and Executive Director)
Steven Goldstein (GARDEN STATE EQUALITY, Chair)
Ron Zacchi (MARRIAGE EQUALITY NEW YORK, Executive Director)
Wayne Besen (TRUTH WINS OUT, Founder and Executive Director)
and Rabbis J. Rolando Matalon and Marcelo Bronstein
(CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN, NYC)
Despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, many religious conservatives insist that gay people can and must become heterosexual, since they think homosexuality is a sinful choice rather than a human variant.
Ex-gay “reparative therapy” or “conversion therapy” proponents assert that counseling, prayer and sometimes aversion therapy, exorcisms, fasting and lipstick-application seminars for lesbians are sufficient for flipping sexual orientation.
The scientific community, however, resoundingly agrees that sexual orientation cannot be changed, and such “therapies” may in fact be harmful.
The American Medical Association stated, “Most of the emotional disturbance experienced by gay men and lesbians around their sexual identity is … due more to a sense of alienation in an unaccepting environment. For this reason, aversion therapy … is no longer recommended.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned, “Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.”
The American Psychiatric Association went further: “There is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of ‘reparative therapy’ as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientation.” And again, “The potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.”
The American Psychological Association agreed: “Medical and mental health professionals also now know that sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be altered. Groups who try to change the sexual orientation of people through so-called ‘conversion therapy’ are misguided and run the risk of causing a great deal of psychological harm to those they say they are trying to help.”
The “ex-gay ministries” answer these bristling position papers by carefully parsing their definition of success. Rather than sexual orientation transformation resulting in, say, heterosexual marriage, they define success as the ability to resist homosexual urges. Critics see this as temporary suppression of one’s sexuality, nothing more.
Also, these groups curiously keep no long-term follow-up records to scientifically validate their success rates, relying only upon anecdotal evidence. That has been problematic, though, as many founders, successive leaders and clients of these organizations have first claimed to be sexually reoriented and then reverted to homosexuality. Such persons often denounce “conversion therapy” as quackery.
But there is evidence that “ex-gay” proponents are becoming even more extremist.
Exodus International, the largest of these groups, was represented by board member Don Schmierer at an anti-gay hate conference in Uganda this month. The conference promoted such human-rights abuses as forced “ex-gay therapy,” life imprisonment for people convicted of homosexuality and the creation of an organization designed to “wipe out” homosexuality in Uganda through police action, forced re-education, life imprisonment and vigilantism. The conference also featured one Scott Lively, who blamed both the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan genocide on gays.
Neither Schmierer nor Exodus International president Alan Chambers spoke up at the conference, to protest any of the recommendations, nor did they denounce the Holocaust revisionist.
Another increasingly shrill and extremist proponent is James Dobson, co-founder of Focus on the Family, a conservative religious ministry. Over the years, Dobson has become obsessed with gay people and believes that one can simply “pray away the gay.”
But according to “ex-gay” watchdog group Truth Wins Out, “In the past year alone, Dobson has conflated, purposely misconstrued or cherry-picked research from at least six esteemed academic scholars, who have publicly condemned him for misusing their work.” In October 2004, he actually told the The Daily Oklahoman, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”
Yikes! Not only are they unscientific, these people are downright scary.
I would especially implore the parents of gay kids everywhere to heed the advice of respected, science-based professionals and avoid exposing your child to the psychologically dangerous “reparative therapies.”
Your child may differ from you, but is not broken and does not need repair.
Truth Wins Out is proud to accept a $5,000 gift today from Mitchell Gold, co-founder of the well-known furniture company, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. The following is a letter from Gold, articulating why he gave to Truth Wins Out and urging others to follow his lead:
Dear Friends,
I am proud to be able to offer Truth Wins Out (TWO) a $5,000 contribution today in support of its crucial, life saving work. I hope others will join me in donating to this inspiring organization, led by the articulate, courageous, and committed Wayne Besen. Truth Wins Out shines a critically important spotlight on the so-called ex-gay industry and exposes their lies and deceit. Of course, no one can “pray away the gay,” and TWO makes sure America understands this simple truth. Just this past week I had lunch with two Southern Baptist ministers who asked me about the success of James Dobson’ reparative therapy claims. Armed with information I’ve learned from Wayne over the years, I was able to answer succinctly and effectively. Changing these folks is not a one conversation deal, but I know this information gave them a jolt.
The unique work of TWO is particularly helpful to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, who are the target of these ruthless ex-gay programs. Organizations, such as Exodus International, run horribly damaging Youth Ministries, train summer camp counselors and even have teen boot camps. Alarmingly, ex-gay therapists diagnose and “treat” clients as young as three-years old — calling them “pre-homosexual boys.”
As the author of “CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay In America,” I am acutely aware of the damage caused by these organizations. The ex-gay industry makes young people feel as if they are defective and less than whole human beings. They use religion-based bigotry to divide families and create destructive myths and misconceptions about homosexuality.
What I most admire about TWO is that it fights the right at “Ground Zero.” Not every LGBT advocacy group leader is equipped to do this INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT WORK. When ex-gay conferences appear in conservative cities or small towns, we can always count on this organization to be where the action is, refuting anti-gay lies at their source. TWO has fought back in unlikely places such as Anchorage, Macon, Asheville, Charlotte, Phoenix, Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas, Omaha….and by my side in Taylorsville, North Carolina.
I am most grateful that our community has a first-rate organization like Truth Wins Out. Your immediate support is vital when you consider that TWO is up against powerful forces. The largest ex-gay organization, Exodus International, has 13 staff members and a one-million dollar budget. TWO is operating on less than one-fourth of their budget — and needs our help. Imagine what amazing things TWO could accomplish if we give them the resources they deserve?
Please join me in empowering Truth Wins Out to combat the destructive ex-gay propaganda that has ruined so many lives. It is our responsibility to ensure that the next generation is not harmed by the same lies that hurt us. We cannot forget our own youth. I strongly urge you to match my commitment to Truth Wins Out by making a contribution today.
Sincerely,
Mitchell Gold
Co-founder, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
It did not take long for anti-gay groups to fight back after losing marriage battles in Vermont and Iowa. Here is an unbelievably dishonest ad by the National Organization for Marriage.
Now, courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign, here are the actor tryouts for the bogus ad. I wonder why they could not find real people who were harmed by gay people marrying?
HRC says the ad is set to run eight times per day in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and California.
Background Ad Rebuttal
“The Real Truth Behind the Fake Ad”
The general argument of the ad is that the push for marriage equality isn’t just about rights for same-sex couples, it’ about imposing contrary values on people of faith. The examples they cite in the ad are:
(1) A California doctor who must choose between her faith and her job
(2) A member of New Jersey church group which is punished by the state because they can’t support same-sex marriage
(3) A Massachusetts parent who stands by helpless while the state teaches her son that gay marriage is okay
The facts indicate that (1) refers to the Benitez decision in California, determining that a doctor cannot violate California anti-discrimination law by refusing to treat a lesbian based on religious belief, (2) refers to the Ocean Grove, New Jersey Methodist pavilion that was open to the general public for events but refused access for civil union ceremonies (and was fined by the state for doing so) and (3) refers to the Parker decision in Massachusetts, where parents unsuccessfully sought to end public school discussions of family diversity, including of same-sex couples.
All three examples involve religious people who enter the public sphere, but don’t want to abide by the general non-discriminatory rules everyone else does. Both (1) and (2) are really about state laws against sexual orientation discrimination, rather than specifically about marriage. And (3) is about two pairs of religious parents trying to impose their beliefs on all children in public schools.
The real facts of each case are:
The California doctor entered a profession that promises to “first, do no harm” and the law requires her to treat a patient in need — gay or straight, Christian or Muslim — regardless of her religious beliefs. The law does not, and cannot, dictate her faith — it can only insist that she follow her oath as a medical professional.
The New Jersey church group runs, and profits from, a beachside pavilion that it rents out to the general public for all manner of occasions –concerts, debates and even Civil War reenactments‚Äî but balks at permitting couples to hold civil union ceremonies there. The law does not challenge the church organization’ beliefs about homosexuality — it merely requires that a pavilion that had been open to all for years comply with laws protecting everyone from discrimination, including gays and lesbians.
The Massachusetts parent disagrees with an aspect of her son’ public education, a discussion of the many different kinds of families he will likely encounter in life, including gay and lesbian couples. The law does not stop her from disagreeing, from teaching him consistently with her differing beliefs at home, or even educating her child in a setting that is more in line with her faith traditions. But it does not allow any one parent to dictate the curriculum for all students based on her family’ religious traditions.
Only ten years ago, it looked like gay people would not be able to marry until the cows came home. With an Iowa Supreme Court victory and the state legislature approving marriage in Vermont, gay couples will soon be coming home to their cows — with marriage licenses in hand. The farm teams have brought us major league victories and reinvigorated the GLBT marriage movement.
“Today we have overridden the governor’s veto,” Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said in a written statement released by the Human Rights Campaign. “I have never felt more proud of Vermont as we become the first state in the country to enact marriage equality, not as the result of a court order, but because it is the right thing to do.”
It feels odd to be partying like it’s 1999 in 2009. Just several long months ago, the GLBT movement suffered a stinging marriage defeat in California. But, our short period of tribulation was swiftly followed by surprising jubilation. It was downright shocking to see hog-wild homosexuals dancing in the streets of Des Moines. For anti-gay organizations, the once easy game of whack-a-marriage is feeling more like whack-a-mole. They can’t be sure where marriage equality will pop up next. (Read More)
Exodus International’s Day of Truth is a campaign to oppose students and faculty — especially in public schools — who oppose anti-gay bullying.
For 13 years, the Day of Silence has encouraged students and faculty to end the silent tolerance of antigay violence. This year, Days of Silence are planned on or around April 17. Several thousand schools across the United States have established anti-bullying programs to stop the harassment of minority students, including gay youth.
Exodus has yet to endorse a single antibullying program. Not one.
The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which coordinates Day of Silence vigils, explains why antiviolence programs are necessary:
GLSEN’ 2007 National School Climate Survey found that 9 out of 10 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and more than 30% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. The Day of Silence helps bring us closer to making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in America’ schools.
GLSEN encourages participating students not to be unnecessarily disruptive:
GLSEN advises all students to secure school permission for the event. We believe that such support is critical for many reasons. We encourage students in those schools where support is unlikely to build campaigns to try and secure that support or work with their administration on compromises of activities the school will allow. We also encourage students to identify events and ways to participate outside of the school.
Exodus, unfortunately, refuses to acknowledge that antigay violence is a serious problem for U.S. schools.
Instead, Exodus grossly mischaracterizes those who oppose antigay violence in schools. According to Exodus Youth:
The Day of Silence is a national program of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which asks students to remain silent for an entire day to express their support for the promotion of the homosexual agenda in the public schools.
In Exodus’ view, it seems, anyone who stands firmly and unconditionally against antigay violence and harassment is guilty of “promotion of the homosexual agenda.”
Exodus — and its ally in the project, the fundamentalist legal-attack group Alliance Defense Fund — assert that organized, explicit, and unconditional opposition to violence is un-Christian. What is Christian, in their view? Sadly, they appear to consider it a Christian mandate to verbally harass gay youth and the friends of gay youth at the same time that these youths are opposing school inaction against violence. They also affirm conservative evangelical conversion of gay youth in public schools, even when the youths are already Christian or when they and their families are members of minority faiths. Finally, they encourage hostile faculty to coerce gay youths to seek help from discredited and disreputable ex-gay counselors — again, regardless of the wishes of the youths’ families. And if schools seek to limit antigay harassment in order to ensure that gay youths can learn like everyone else, then Exodus and its ADF lawyers recommend:
If a principal, teacher or someone else in authority asks you to stop, ask them graciously to check with a supervisor first. If this does not resolve the issue or the school official persists in confronting you, stop immediately and call 1-800-TELL-ADF so that we can resolve the situation quickly.
The Day of Truth is, in short, has nothing to do with clearing up misinformation in schools regarding homosexuality — misinformation that is deliberately created by religious-rightist bigots in the first place. Nor does the Day of Truth foster understanding or support for so-called “ex-gays.”
The DOT is a lobbying day for religious-right trial lawyers who proclaim a supposed right of conservative Christians to harass gay youths, their family members, and youths from minority religious backgrounds — throughout school hours, on school property. It also encourages conservative Christians to ignore the physical violence that occurs around them; to make any reduction in violence conditional upon unilateral acceptance of antigay and anti-minority bigotry; and to misuse religion to incite violence and ostracism against members of minority social and religious demographics, including Christians who affirm or tolerate same-gender attraction.
Of Exodus’ Day of Truth, GLSEN observes:
Those who do not support the Day of Silence often protest, but rarely contribute positively to finding ways to end anti-LGBT harassment. Some individuals and groups organize events in response to the Day of Silence. These events grossly mischaracterize or simply misunderstand the basic purpose of the Day of Silence. Bringing attention to these events only adds a false credibility to their misinformation about the Day of Silence, GLSEN and the thousands of American students taking action on April 17th. If you face hostile students or organizations in your school on the Day of Silence remember to remain calm. We encourage you to not get into a debate, make gestures, and certainly not to get into a physical altercation. If you continue to be harassed, we encourage you to contact your GSA advisor or other ally school staff person.
Until Exodus and its religious-right allies unconditionally oppose antigay violence — until they renounce their implicit support for harassment and bullying in the United States and their public support for antigay vigilantism, imprisonment, and murder from Jamaica to Nigeria to Russia to Uganda — there remains a compelling need for Days of Silence to stand vigil over those who equate violence with “Truth.”
Days of Silence seek to restore schools as a safe learning place for all students, regardless of orientation or choice of religion.
Exodus’ Day of Truth seeks to turn schools into centers of harassment and relentless fundamentalist ex-gay proselytization.
In just five days, leaders of Iowa, Vermont, and the District of Columbia have opted to protect marriage by ensuring that same-gender couples can marry.
Today, the District of Columbia’s City Council voted, 12-0, to recognize, in D.C., same-sex marriages, unions, and partnerships that are entered in other jurisdictions, according to The Washington Post. The vote is the first of several actions required before gay relationships entered elsewhere are recognized in the District.
The move follows the legalization of gay marriage by Vermont’s legislature, which today overrode a veto by Gov. Jim Douglas.
And it follows the nullification on Friday of Iowa’s religious-right law denying marriage to couples if they are homosexual.
The Des Moines Register reported on Saturday that some experts expect Iowa to benefit economically as well as socially from marriage equality due to Iowa’s isolation from the other states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont — to which gay couples, their families and friends may travel.
Meanwhile, Focus on the Family continues to promote mob rule, demanding that federal and state constitutional guarantees of equal protection to all citizens be sacrificed to the whims of angry mobs who seek to impose their own religious beliefs by force upon people who hold other religious perspectives.
Focus on the Family Action Senior Vice President Tom Minnery falsely stated that marriage equality permits polygamy; falsely assumes that socially conservative Iowa citizens enjoy a right to deny constitutional equality to fellow citizens; and insinuates that children are better off in orphanages or on the streets since there are not enough married heterosexual couples available to adopt American children:
The Iowa Supreme Court opened the door to all kinds of “marriage’ by using logic so broad and defective that the decision could well include polygamy. This ruling tramples on the will of Iowa citizens who enacted a law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman in 1998 to help ensure every Iowan child had a chance to be raised in a household by a married mom and a dad.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst at Focus on the Family Action, implied that Iowa justices are wrong to protect all Iowans equally under the law, and that it is the proper role of justices to impose fundamentalist Christian social values upon all, rather than allowing individuals and couples the constitutional right to choose their own social values (whether they be liberal or conservative):
“The justices brazenly asserted that their role was not only to redefine marriage, but also to legislate whatever new social agenda they favored, ‘free from the influences’ of a society resistant to such change,” he said.
Antigay, anti-marriage activists Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage, Doug Napier of the Alliance Defense Fund, and Peter LaBarbera all similarly argued that mobs of voters enjoy a special right to deny constitutional equality to fellow citizens who are members of minority demographics. LaBarbera went further, equating same-gender affection with “evil.”
Another religious-right figure is on the hot seat for inappropriate behavior and hypcrisy: The Colorado Independent reports that Focus on the Family Spanish-language broadcasterJuan Alberto Ovalle, 42, faces felony charges after being caught using the Internet to try and lure a 15-year-old girl for sex. If you don’t know Ovalle, he’s the voice on FOTF’s Spanish-language Bible CDs and markets Christian-themed tapes. Here, he shares admonitions against unlawful fornication from 1 Corinthians.
Ovalle “came to know the Lord at the age of 14,” according to a Web site offering his Spanish Bible narration for sale, and founded Spanish Christian Audio in 2001 to “help Christian organizations with their audio needs.”
After first encountering the officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl in a chat room last week, Orvalle made “sexually graphic statements in a chat room to a person he believed to be an underage teen,” the district attorney’ office said. When the undercover officer said her mom wouldn’t be home the next day, Orvalle said he was “horny” and made arrangements to come to her house, according to an arrest affidavit cited by The Post.
Officials expect Ovalle to be charged formally Thursday with two felonies — criminal attempted sexual assault on a child and Internet luring of a child. The Independent reports that his bail was set at $25,000; at the time of this writing, he was still behind bars.
I strongly urge all people interested in stopping the anti-gay violence in Jamaica to see Taboo Yardies, a film-short on the issue. It will be shown at 6 p.m. April 24 at the General Theological Seminary, 440 W. 21st Street, in New York.
I saw a preview of the movie and I highly recommend it. Filmmaker Selena Blake (pictured left) offers an in-depth, multi-layered snapshot of the problem. She is a heterosexual Jamaican woman who explores the roots of the homophobia and what it means for Jamaican society.
Today, Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen attended a protest led by GLBT advocate Brendan Fay in front of NYC’ Iraq Mission. The demonstration was a result of the continued murder of gay men in this country. The demonstration became a shouting match with police, after NYPD tried to stop the organizers from ringing the building’ bell and hand delivering a letter of protest. (See Picture below)
Truth Wins Out is proud to accept a $5,000 gift today from Mitchell Gold, co-founder of the well-known furniture company,
Another religious-right figure is on the hot seat for inappropriate behavior and hypcrisy: The Colorado Independent reports that Focus on the Family Spanish-language broadcasterJuan Alberto Ovalle, 42, faces felony charges after being caught using the Internet to try and lure a 15-year-old girl for sex. If you don’t know Ovalle, he’s the voice on FOTF’s Spanish-language Bible CDs and markets Christian-themed tapes. Here, he shares 
I strongly urge all people interested in stopping the anti-gay violence in Jamaica to see 
