FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
PFOX’s Greg Quinlan Compounds Original Defamation With Second Act of Defamation
Burlington, Vt. – Truth Wins Out announced today that it intends to launch a defamation lawsuit against Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) as soon as possible. The lawsuit is a result of PFOX President Greg Quinlan’s comments on a Washington, DC television show claiming that TWO Executive Director, Wayne Besen, tried to have him murdered.
“We are preparing a lawsuit and PFOX will soon realize that this is no bluff,” said TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “PFOX will not be able to pray away this lawsuit any more than they can pray away the gay. The outcome of this disturbing matter will be settled in a court of law.”
On October 7, 2011 Quinlan was interviewed on NewsPlus with Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV). At the 10:38 mark of the show, Quinlan (pictured) fabricates an alleged hit on his life. According to Quinlan:
“Truth Wins Out if you look further, including Wayne Besen. He’s asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS. Those are the things that Wayne Besen and Truth Wins Out says about me. That’s pretty hateful rhetoric.”
TWO sent PFOX a letter last week giving them an opportunity to apologize for their smear campaign. Unfortunately, instead of taking the high road and expressing regret for making false and misleading statements, Quinlan angrily lashed out in today’s statement:
“Once I was able to stop laughing and realized that the letter wasn’t intended to be parody, I thought: Okay; Wayno wants a response to his list of comical demands? Here’s my formal response: Grow up…So, Wayne, if you really feel you must waste money you could be using to bash ex-gays, bully Christian churchgoers and spread the lie that people who are trapped in unwanted homosexuality can never escape it, I say knock yourself out. We’re happy to countersue and expose the hundreds of smears you and TWO have lodged against me and other pro-family advocates. Smears that actually amount to defamation. Little man, I’m calling your bluff.”
In Quinlan’s bizarre response, he defended his original character assassination with a second calumny that will be included in the defamation lawsuit. PFOX’s President falsely claimed that Besen was fired from the Human Rights Campaign, where he served as Deputy Director of Communications from 1998-2003.
“In reality, I left HRC after five years on my own volition to take a new job,” said TWO’s Besen. “The year I left I received a raise, and on my final day at HRC they threw me a party. That Quinlan would publicly lie about something so easily provable is incredibly reckless and irresponsible.”
Quinlan also lied when he claimed: “First of all, Besen blatantly mischaracterized what I actually said on the program, claiming that I suggested he solicited my assassination. This is a bald-faced lie and Besen knows it. The truth is that Besen once said to me in a private conversation that someone should run me over with a bus or inject me with AIDS. Did I think he was serious? No. I knew it was just Wayne being Wayne; one part bluster, two parts hyperbole and three parts hot air.”
“This alleged conversation never occurred and these words were never spoken,” said Besen. “As for Quinlan’s clear statements being ‘mischaracterized,’ people can watch the show and see with their own eyes that Quinlan is being less than honest. I challenge Quinlan to a lie detector test to see who is telling the truth. I seriously doubt he is willing to take one, while I am.”
“Basically, everything Quinlan said in his response was untrue and TWO will see PFOX in court,” added Besen.
Obviously, such a lawsuit is out of budget — so please consider a tax-deductible contribution to help us fight PFOX’s lies.
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Great news! I admire your drive to hold these people accountable.
Thanks Chris — PFOX and Quinlan don’t seem to understand they have stepped in it with their lies. The very essence of Truth Wins Out is vigorously challenging and refuting anti-gay and “ex-gay” propaganda.
The provably blatant lies of PFOX will not stand, nor will I tolerate them. They left us with no choice. Quinaln started this, but we will finish it. His attempt to tarnish my name and smear TWO is unacceptable.
Sue the b*****d !
Quinlan and his friend, Porno Pete, are sick puppies !
Truth really does win out !!
Get it Greg???
[...] by Wayne Besen that fights anti-gay religious extremism and monitors anti-LGBT organizations announced today that it is going to put forth a defamation lawsuit against Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays [...]
The evil anti-gay agenda can only exist with lies. They make up its entire essence. If we could make them adhere to the commandment “Thou shalt not lie,” their whole rotten “movement” would collapse upon itself.
You go Wayne! They clearly have no problem lying about us in generalities, it’s now clear (more than I already thought it was) that they’re totally willing to lie about us individually. I stand with you!
I wonder how long it will take for the coward to start crying and begging to settle.
I will send you a check to help fight this lying queen.
Truly, a pathetic, sad little man in self denial. Very sad.
Notice how he’s already started changing his story. First he was claiming Wayne said “He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS.” but now he’s saying Wayne said this to him. If it had been said to him Wayne would have said “you” and not “him.” Quinlan is not a very good bluffer.
Whow, they want to try to get away with a “he said privately without any corroborating proof that…” statement. If you make inflammatory statements, you better be able to proof it.
Their whole anti-Gay movement is about money and power so if they get sued every time they say something libelous or false, the profit motive is removed from their careers and they will move on.
I just sent a paypal donation. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more.
[...] Besen responded to Quinlan’s response with this responsive response: “We are preparing a lawsuit and PFOX will soon realize that this is no [...]
Out of curiosity, I had a read of the PFOX website, and, well I’ve never come across a such group of self loathing gays in my life.
All this fake cheerful ‘I’m delivered I’m no longer gay praise the lord’ is truly distressing and offensive. And the excuses they give for being gay, ‘it was because Daddy didn’t love me or Mummy loved me too much’.
They give testimonies about women becoming lesbians because they didn’t enjoy straight sex, so the suggested treatment seems to consist of is them meeting a good man to straighten them out!
The testimonies of gay men and lesbians falling in love with the opposite gender are just tales from bisexuals. I know as a bisexual it is possible to fall in true, deep love with the right one of either gender, without warning, especially when you think you’re totally gay or totally straight and have been for a while.
What a load of fakes.
What really made me laugh (not in a good way) is their definition of unconditional parental love; something along the lines of, ‘we love our children unconditionally and that means we don’t have to accept they are gay.”
?
If a young LGBT person, confused, uncertain, brought up in a straight atmosphere, not knowing how to handle their feelings comes across this site and tries the methods suggested and they don’t work it could drive the kid further in the closet and make them feel worse about themselves. Maybe even try and end their own lives.
Go ahead and sue them Mr Besen, force them to bring their closeted lies out into the daylight and explain just how many thousands of gay people turned to straights. Names and locations that can be confirmed, please.
And please, sir, keep on pushing the liars who peddle ex-gay therapy and reminding their victims, ‘you don’t have to force it or pretend any more, we accept you as you are’.
A few thoughts:
- The suit needs to be against both PFOX and Quinlan individually and in his capacity as an officer of PFOX.
- His defense is that you advocated his death on a single occasion in a private conversation. But if you listen to the clip, he says tells the host that you made these statements “about” him, not to him. He further tells the host that the host can confirm what he is alleging by “looking further”, meaning that the statements exist somewhere online or in writing. In other words, nothing he said in the clip is consistent with the claim that you made the offending comments once in a private conversation.
- I can’t help but notice the bizarre name-calling (“Wayno” and “little man”) and the juvenile taunting (“Grow up.” “Cry me a river.”) I don’t think that anyone in the world actually believes right-wing Christians when they say they “love” homosexuals. But it is nice when even they can’t keep up the pretense.
One other thought:
One of the first issues to arise will be whether you are a public figure, a limited public figure, or a non-public figure. It would be easier for you to win if you are not a public figure. Ordinarily, I would think it would be pretty clear that you are either a public figure or a limited public figure. However, since Quinlan is basing his defense on the notion that you made statements to him in a private conversation, maybe there is a basis to argue that you should not be considered a public figure for the purposes of the case. That would mean that you would have to show Quinlan spoke negligently about you, rather than with malice. I am not sure if this would go anywhere but it is something that Mr. Hamar might consider.
It’s a shame it wasn’t Exodus International that slandered you. One lawsuit would knock ‘em out for good.
I noticed that too: in his original statement, he said that Wayne had said that “someone should inject Greg Quinlan with AIDS” but in his response to your lawsuit threat, he says that you told it to him directly. His story lacks consistency, a tell-tale sign of a lie. What a foolish man. Doesn’t he understand the law as it pertains to libel?
[...] Truth Wins Out Announces Intent to Sue PFOX as Early as This Week. Read more [...]
I see our friend Porno Petey has his favorite picture of Wayne up again, the picture of Wayne “Screaming into a megaphone, outside a church window”. im amazed at Waynes ability to scream without opening his mouth to widely…But in Pete’s defence, Waynes a*s does look pretty cute in the picture.
Of course, now Petey will be fighting Jamie for Wayne… Tough choice there…