The Anchorage Press, wrote a large feature story on the so-called “ex-gay” ministries. It did so after TWO and local Alaskan activists squared off against Focus on the Family, which brought its “ex-gay” road show to town last week. TWO Executive Director, Wayne Besen, flew to Alaska to help organize a response. The anti-gay symposium took on national interest after GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s house of worship - the Wasilla Bible Church - promoted the event. Besen spoke at the Anchorage Metropolitan Community Church with local clergy and mental health experts to counter Love Won Out.
“The Anchorage Press article was in-depth and did a very good job of getting to the essence of the ex-gay industry - which is politics,” said Besen. “Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out road show is a political vehicle used to make people feel better about themselves when they vote for anti-gay legislation. Other than that, the glitzy event has no practical purpose.”
Thanks to E. Ross of the website Bent Alaska and Edie Bailey of the Metropolitan Community Church and PFLAG, there was a powerful response to the “ex-gay” road show.
Truth Wins Out Calls On Sarah Palin To Comment On Her Church’s Support of ‘Pray Away The Gay’ Conference
Coalition To Hold Educational Forum On Thursday To Counter ‘Ex-Gay’ Program
Truth Wins Out (TWO) today urged GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to speak out about her church’s support for an “ex-gay” conference that will be in Anchorage on Saturday. Palin is scheduled to be in Alaska today and should use her visit as an opportunity to inform Americans whether she agrees with her church that homosexuals can be cured through prayer, says TWO.
“It is time Sarah Palin lets the American people know whether she shares her church’s view that being gay is a choice that can be prayed away,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Voters are entitled to know who Palin is and what her views are on this issue before they go into the voting booth. Palin’s visit to Alaska is an opportunity for her to address whether she supports the goals of Focus on the Family’s divisive anti-gay conference.” (Read More)
‘We Will Stop Focus on the Family’s Destructive Lies Wherever They Are Spread,’ Says TWO
Truth Wins Out’s founder, Wayne Besen, will speak at a forum on Thursday evening in Anchorage with local religious and community leaders to discuss the danger of so-called “ex-gay” ministries. The “God Loves You Just as You Are,” symposium is sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church (7208 Duben Avenue) and will take place at 7:00 p.m. The conference is a response to Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out “pray away the gay” road show.
“We appear wherever Focus on the Family spreads lies and fear,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Love Won Out distorts gay life and conflates stereotypes with science, while selling false hope to vulnerable people. We are looking forward to working with Alaskan advocacy groups to counter Focus on the Family’s false and destructive messages.”
Speakers at the MCC forum include: Rev. Sara Gavit, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church; Rev. John Carey, Pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church; Rev. Beatrice Hitchcock, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Edie Bailey, Worship Coordinator for Metropolitan Community Church; Summer LeFebvre, Social Action Chair, National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter; Kaya Kade, President of the Alaska Counseling Association; Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out.
Besen is the author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the ‘Ex-Gay’ Myth.” TWO shadows this anti-gay seminar across the nation to ensure that the public is armed with the facts and aware that Focus on the Family is deliberately disseminating misinformation about gay and lesbian people.
The Love Won Out conference will take place on Sept. 13 at the Abbott Loop Community Church. Love Won Out is a quarterly symposium that preys on vulnerable and desperate parents upset because they have a gay child. John Paulk, an ex-gay leader who was on the cover of Newsweek, founded the program. Love Won Out suffered a major setback after Paulk was photographed inside a Washington, DC gay bar by Besen in 2000.
In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused James Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at RespectMyResearch.org.
On September 18, the Anchorage chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will hold a support meeting for parents and family members of gays and lesbians at Immanuel Presbyterian. “We do not believe that ‘reparative or conversion’ therapy should be used to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian children of homosexuality,” says Jane Schlittler, current president of PFLAG-Anchorage. “There is nothing wrong with our children. They are not sick or evil. They are jCCCust fine the way God made them.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
Wayne Besen, an executive director of gay advocacy group The Truth Wins Out, appeared on a CNN debate in the US last week discussing the Heinz ad.
In the debate he raised issue of how the AFA, a powerful American lobby group, had played a role in the strong stance Heinz US had adopted over the ad.
“They are a very powerful constituency, a very powerful lobby group. They are one of the top groups in the religious right in America,” Besen told MediaGuardian.co.uk.
He added that the AFA had gone after companies including Disney and Ford in the past.
“They have a lot of experience mobilising campaigns and boycotts. They are like a puritanical national nanny,” Besen said.
NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org (TWO) will join a coalition of state and local North Carolina organizations to counter a conference in Asheville (July 15-20) that plans to teach people to ‘pray away the gay.’ The controversial Exodus International symposium will sell books that promote exorcisms and encourage gay men to play touch football and lesbians to wear lipstick to become heterosexual.
“Ex-gay groups would be a farce if its failures weren’t so destructive to individuals and families,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of TruthWinsOut.org. “We plan a robust week of activities to highlight the harm caused by this nefarious right wing organization and to show the truth about the lives of GLBT people. I want to thank the Coalition for Equality for their commitment to educating North Carolinians about the dangers of the ‘ex-gay’ myth and the positive contributions GLBT people make to the community.”
Tuesday, July 15, 7:00–8:30 PM, Kick off Event
“Can You Pray Away the Gay?”
Firestorm Café & Books (48 Commerce St., Asheville)
Speakers: Wayne Besen, Director, TruthWinsOut.org and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-gay Myth,” and Ian Palmist, Director, Equality NC
NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org (TWO) responded today to Focus on the Family leader James Dobson’s attack on Barack Obama. On Dobson’s daily radio show, the right wing leader accused the democratic nominee of ‘distorting’ the Bible. This charge was odd, considering Dobson has been blamed by at least seven top researchers for “ distorting” their scientific findings.
“James Dobson is a serial distorter and has consistently twisted the work of respected scientists to support his political agenda,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It his the height of hypocrisy for him to point fingers and accuse others of distortions. It is clear that Dobson has little credibility and has tremendous difficulty with the truth.”
In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at TruthWinsOut.org.
The first researcher to step forward was New York University educational psychologist Carol Gilligan, PhD. On Sept. 14, 2006 Gilligan wrote a letter to Dobson that stated: “I was mortified to learn that you had distorted my work this week in a guest column you wrote in Time Magazine…What you wrote was not truthful and I ask that you refrain from ever quoting me again and that you apologize for twisting my work.”
The most recent scientist to claim Dobson distorted his work was University of Minnesota’s Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H. In a letter to Dobson dated April 28, 2008 he wrote, “I want to draw your attention to a gross misrepresentation of our research at the website of ‘Focus on the Family.’”
Other leading researchers who have taken issue with Dobson’s use of their work include: Dr. Kyle Pruett, Professor of child psychiatry, the Yale University School of Medicine; Dr. Robert Spitzer, Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University; Angela Phillips, Professor, Goldsmiths College in London; Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, Associate professor, school of nursing, University of British Columbia; and Dr. Judith Stacy, Professor of sociology, New York University
“We urge the media to report the facts and allow America to see the real James Dobson,” said Besen. “He portrays himself as a beacon of morality, but he is really just a tower of half truths.”
Truth Wins OUT is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit www.TruthWinsOut.org.
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Watch the video: Truth Wins Out and local GLBT equality advocates protested against Focus on the Family’s ex-gay roadshow in Mountain View, California, on April 12, 2008.
Truth Wins Out, a representative of the Metropolitan Community Church, a former “ex-gay,” and local GLBT groups conducted a prayer vigil, protest and discussion forum in conjunction with Focus on the Family’s ex-gay road show, titled “Love Won Out,” in San Jose, Calif.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that 700 people attended the ex-gay event. About 25 people protested outside.
Sadly, some attendees of “Love Won Out” sought to learn about gay people, not from actual gay people who stood peacefully nearby, but from Focus on the Family speakers who wage political and cultural warfare against a so-called gay “lifestyle”:
Anthony Jones, a church minister from the Pearly Grove Baptist Church in Fresno, said he came to learn to improve his ministry.
“I’m hoping to learn approaches on how to minister to homosexuals,” he said, “to know and understand what their lifestyle is.”
“We’re not saying you’re going to hell for being a homosexual,” he said. “We want to embrace them and love them but understand the sin of same-sex attraction.”
Buffy of The Gaytheist Agenda provides a detailed first-hand account and pictures of the protest and discussion forum. Joe.My.God has an overview with reader comments.
Truth Wins Out will air video from the events later this week.
UPDATE: Truth Wins Out posted the following video from the event:
First, I want to thank the American Counseling Association for supporting ethical standards in its work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. Your organization has helped many people and allowed them to live openly and honestly with dignity and respect. The ACA has been a model for proper treatment and I applaud you for your commitment to assuring a superb standard of care for all people.
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that a group of politically motivated right wing counselors are working to undermine the ACA’s effective guidelines for dealing with GLBT clients. This group recently filed a formal complaint falsely claming that the ACA has violated its own polices. It’s real goal, however, is to bully the ACA into allowing unscrupulous practitioners to harm clients, while shielding its damage in the cloak of religious liberty.
As the leader of an organization that represents victims of ex-gay therapy, I urge you to soundly reject this stealth attempt to inject bad policies and biased practices into ACA guidelines. My organization, TruthWinsOut.org, offers its support and would gladly supply you with testimonials – video or in person – of people who have been severely damaged as a result of so-called ex-gay therapy. These survivors represent the psychological carnage that often accompanies attempts to either change or repress one’s natural sexual orientation.
In addition to my work with TruthWinsOut.org, I have studied “ex-gay” therapy for a decade and authored the book, “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.” My research concluded that the therapy promoted by the counselors who filed this complaint is harmful, ineffective and based on outdated psychological theories. (Read More)
Once again, a gay man trying to go from gay to straight was sexually abused under the auspices of “touch therapy.” Such therapy is not only ineffective, but a gateway for conflicted therapists to sexually victimize their clients. This latest example occurred in Winnipeg, where a minister and former Christian college instructor was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young man who sought ex-gay counseling. A jury returned with the guilty verdict early last night after only a few hours of deliberations. The therapist, Terrance Lewis, 60, will be sentenced at a later date.
Lewis’ erotic therapy sessions included kissing, fondling and engaging in sexual role-playing. Many of these touch therapy sessions took place inside the therapists car. “He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would understand,” the victim testified.
“The use of so-called ‘touch therapy’ creates an ideal situation for abuse to occur, because you have sexually repressed therapists who can take advantage of vulnerable clients,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We call on all ‘ex-gay’ therapists to repudiate and abandon this bizarre practice before more victims are damaged.”
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."
The Anchorage Press, wrote a large feature story on the so-called “ex-gay” ministries. It did so after TWO and local Alaskan activists squared off against Focus on the Family, which brought its “ex-gay” road show to town last week. TWO Executive Director, Wayne Besen, flew to Alaska to help organize a response. The anti-gay symposium took on national interest after GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s house of worship - the Wasilla Bible Church - promoted the event. Besen spoke at the Anchorage Metropolitan Community Church with local clergy and mental health experts to counter Love Won Out.
