On Tuesday, the U.S. federal budget deficit soared to $407 billion for this year alone.

Just a day earlier, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were seized by the federal government, adding substantially to an astronomical $9 trillion national debt that threatens to bury the nation’s future families in debt and a devalued dollar.

Sadly, the culture warriors of Focus on the Family failed to warn its supporters that neither presidential candidate is addressing these brewing catastrophes for the family.

Instead, all five of Focus Action’s daily CitizenLink “news” items for Tuesday scapegoated gay Americans for the nation’s growing fiscal and foreign-policy crises. (Read More)

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) today responded to reports that U.S. Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s church promoted Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay road show. The ex-gay propaganda day, which mobilizes antigay parents and pastors to oppose equality and sexual honesty for gay members of their families and churches, will commence later this week in Alaska’s state capital, Juneau. (Read More)

The Maryland Court of Appeals today threw out a ballot petition to re-legalize discrimination against the transgender residents of Montgomery County. The antigay group, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and its offshoot Citizens for a Responsible Government, obtained substantial publicity and petition support from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and its co-founder, the Family Research Council. The antigay campaign suffered from reports of misconduct among uncivil and misinformed canvassers who deceived petition signers about the petition. (Read More)

Exodus youth activist Mike Ensley says he frequently receives inquiries from antigay parents and youths about gay-straight clubs that unite students against violence and prejudice in schools. (Read More)

Dear Friends:

This week, Truth Wins Out has been busy raising awareness about GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s church, which supports so-called “ex-gay ministries.” Wasilla Bible Church believes that people can “pray away the gay” and is actively promoting Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out conference — which will be coming to Anchorage this Saturday.

This morning, I board a plane and travel to Anchorage to fight back against the ex-gay lies that have harmed so many gay and lesbian people. I will be joining the Metropolitan Community Church and other local organizations to help young GLBT people understand that they are not broken and in need of fixing. They are not sick and in need of healing.

These young people are fine just the way they are and we will make sure they know it.

Truth Wins Out likes to be on the ground where the action is. It is not enough for us to sit in the comfortable confines of New York City and send out press releases over a fax machine. We travel where vulnerable people in conservative areas need to hear our messages of love, hope and acceptance.

But, our work takes money and we need your help to continue our outreach. Help me fight back in Alaska by giving what you can today. If you can generously give $1,000, please consider doing so. If what you are able to offer right now is $10, we can use your help. Join the fight to educate America and help GLBT teenagers find the self-acceptance they deserve.

Make a tax deductible Contribution to TWO

The group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays is working overtime to get lies into public libraries. Our friends at Queerty said today that PFOX was embarking on a public library project to get titles like Arthur Goldberg’s, “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality,” and “A Parent’ Guide to Preventing Homosexuality,” by Joseph and Linda Nicolosi.

The only way such titles should be in libraries is in the fiction section. These are essentially fake medical books without scientific backing. Librarians literally have millions of books to choose from – so why take books that have theories rejected by all medical and mental health organizations?

From Edge Boston:

Peter LaBarbera’ posting (Americans For Truth) announced that his organization and P-FOX would work together with what LaBarbera termed “other pro-family groups and ministries” in order, LaBarbera wrote, “to attain–at the very minimum–balance in the selections that libraries carry on the homosexual issue.”Added LaBarbera, “There is no logical or common sense reason why taxpayer-funded public libraries should make available every latest ‘gay’-affirming book–including those designed to open up young minds to the false and dangerous notion that homosexuality is normal–while NOT carrying faith-based and ex-’gay’ books that oppose a pro-homosexual ideology.”

It seems to me that barring political books posing as legitmate science-based material is quite logical. What next, a slew of books promoting that the earth is flat? When frauds like LaBarbera can show us real ex-gays who are not on the payroll of anti-gay organizations, then we might listen. Indeed, three of his poter boys (John Paulk, Wade Richards and Michael Johnston) have fallen off the hetero wagon. If there is one person in America who should know better than to promote ex-gay books, it is Mr. LaBarbera.