FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 29, 2010

Contact: Wayne Besen, TWO Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Web: www.TruthWinsOut.org

We are Relieved That The Mayor Did Not Honor A Hate Group, Says TWO

NEW YORK — Truth Wins Out (TWO) thanked Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty today for quickly clarifying that a certificate of appreciation given to Regina Griggs, an activist with Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays, (PFOX) was a clerical error. PFOX had breathlessly touted the certificate in a press release and proudly displayed a copy of it on its website. Today, the mayor’ office issued the following statement

A staff level error was made when the request for the certificate in question was fulfilled. We apologize for the error as it runs contrary to the Mayor’ vision of a more open and inclusive city.

The Mayor is proud of his ardent support of the LGBT community as illustrated in his championing of the Marriage Equality legislation which he signed into law on December 18, 2009.

“We appreciate Mayor Fenty’ rapid response and for clarifying this troubling issue,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “The mayor took an affirmative step to stop PFOX from touting the certificate as a stamp of approval from the DC government. We are pleased that no such recognition was given and that the mayor did not endorse a hate group that deliberately spreads misinformation against LGBT people. Additionally, we thank GLAA’ Richard Rosendall for bringing the issue to our attention and for their efforts to resolve this matter.”

According to a gushing PFOX press release:

The government of the District of Columbia has awarded a certificate of appreciation to Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX). The certificate, signed by D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, recognizes Griggs for her “dedication, commitment, and outstanding contributions as Executive Director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays.”

Truth Wins Out also took PFOX to task for its overwrought excitement over a certificate it was mistakenly given.

“This pathetic publicity stunt shows how desperate PFOX is for attention and how delusional they truly are,” said TWO’ Besen. “Now they look doubly ridiculous, because the they were never meant to have this certificate.”

UPDATE: Mayoral candidate and Council Chair Vince Gray today issued the following statement about Mayor Fenty’ Certificate of Appreciation honoring the work of Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays:

“For the Mayor to issue a certificate of appreciation honoring an organization that has done so much to alienate so many is not only an insult to the LGBT community, it is yet another example of the insensitivity of his administration. It is an embarrassment to our city that he would make such an offensive mistake. It was the Mayor’ signature on the certificate, not a staff-member’, and I hope the Mayor will personally take responsibility.”

Truth Wins Out has discovered that Focus on the Family’s “ex-lesbian” activist Melissa Fryrear no longer works for Focus on the Family. She was one of the featured speakers at Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out conference. She is best remembered for her melodramatic, tear-filled presentation and for claiming that, “I never met one (gay) woman who had not been sexually violated or sexually threatened in her life. I never met one woman. And I never met one (gay) man either, that had not been sexually violated or sexually seduced in his life.”

Fryrear was also noted for discussing in great detail her transformation from luberjack-to-lipstick lesbian. According to Fryrear:

“During my years of restoration, I also began to learn about this thing called womanhood. Goodness! Who knew there was so much to learn: plucking eyebrows, hair bleaches, hair waxings, facial mud masks, eye lash curlers, manicures, pedicures, push-up bras, tummy tuckers, rear-end boosters, last year’ colors, and next year’ fashions?

I also began to learn about boys. Let me say that if anyone thinks puberty is tough at fifteen, try it in your thirties!”

This afternoon, I was was browsing Exodus International’s shiny, new Love Won Out website and noticed that Fryrear was not listed as one of the featured speakers. I called to see if she was still working at Focus on the Family and a receptionist confirmed that she was not. Her departure is recent, with her last identified as a Focus on the Family employee on March 30.

It appears that she may have been a victim of cutbacks. Focus on the Family’s budget has fallen from $151 million in 2008 to $136 million this year. In 2004, there were 1,400 employees; today, there are 830.

Fryrear’s departure signals Focus on Family’s gradual shift away from the ex-gay industry (although they still do actively promote the ex-gay myth). I can’t imagine what Fryrear will do now, considering her job for the past several years was trying to convince people that she is a heterosexual (although she had never had relationships with men). I’m glad I’m not her career counselor, but she might consider beauty school with all her practice at eyebrow plucking and facial mud masks.

Back to Exodus, I’ll give them credit for creating an exciting, new website to peddle its scientifically bankrupt misinformation. Interestingly, they barely seem to focus on real, live “ex-gay” people. According to the site:

Of course, there are no “experts” on the panel as advertised. And, a plausible case can be made that there are no real Christians either. But, I will concede that there are a number of “nationally known” talking heads who are pretending to have a clue about the lives of LGBT people.

But, where are the real “ex-gays”? You know, people with real jobs and real lives who have actually gone from gay-to-straight. Why does the new version of LWO use the same tired, over-exposed handful of paid, highly-trained spokespeople we have seen 100 times before? It seems that Exodus has trouble finding genuine success stories to share and settles on a recycled cast of slick characters who inevitably have products to sell on the lucrative right wing speaking circuit.

One wonders if the conference should be renamed “Loot Wins Out”.

The majority of the “pro-family” movement is simply anti-gay. They do virtually nothing to assist parents with child rearing or creating marriages that last. The one organization that occasionally seemed to offer some value to Christian parents was Focus on the Family.

However, in recent years, the somewhat constructive work was largely overshadowed by the destructive, aggressively political agenda of the organization’ founder James Dobson. His addiction to bullying leaders in Washington, purification purges of the Republican Party and an obsession with attacking gay and lesbian people branded the organization as mean-spirited and intolerant.

“Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies,” House majority leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) once complained.

Fortunately, Dobson recently left Focus on the Family and has been replaced by Jim Daly (pictured), who pledges to take the organization in a new direction. One of the first things he did was dump the group’ obnoxious “ex-gay” road show Love Won Out. Over the years, it became a fountain of fabrication and a mountain of misinformation on LGBT issues.

Daley claims to hold similar social views to Dobson, but he does not appear to want to shove his religion down peoples’ throats. At least that is the message he is trying to sell us. On the surface, he seems more open to dialogue and not quite as arrogant at his predecessor.

For example, instead of the propaganda-spewing Love Won Out conference, Focus on the Family actually participated in a Colorado Springs panel discussion where dissenting views were allowed. AOL News reports that some panelists were openly gay, while Focus on the Family provided “ex-gay” employee Jeff Johnston, who discussed his “journey out of homosexuality.”

Daly was out of town for the panel, but taped a welcome message. “We’re not always going to agree,” he said on the video, but added, “I’m not here to tell you what to do.”

The fact that Focus on the Family is still pushing the tired and tragic ex-gay myth is dispiriting. But, allowing openly gay people who actually live fulfilling lives to speak is a definite step in the right direction.

More important, Daly seems to be moving away from Dobson’ quest for Christian dominion over government. “The Christian label means a lot to me,” Daly said in the AOL interview. “We don’t want a theocracy. We want a government informed in moral principle.”

While we hold different viewpoints on marriage, Daly, seems to understand, on some level, that allowing gay couples to wed isn’t catastrophic.

“I’m not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. … I don’t know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I’m not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles,” he said, noting that for “98 percent” of people, traditional marriage will remain relevant. “It’s going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now,” he continued. “You look at the under-35 age group. I think it’s splitting 60-40 support for same-sex marriage. There’s a lot of people in the U.S. [who] basically come to the conclusion that this is something between two adults. I will continue to defend traditional marriage, but I’m not going to demean human beings for the process.”

Compare this to the doomsday response to marriage equality from Dobson: “Homosexuals are not monogamous,” Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004. “They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

Focus on the Family is also striking a different tone on abortion. It ran a controversial feel-good ad during the Super Bowl featuring football star Tim Tebow. Strategically, it seems like a wise move to persuade mothers to “choose” to give birth, rather than have angry zealots browbeating pregnant women in front of abortion clinics. (Of course, Focus on the Family would have more credibility pushing the “choose life” message if it actually weren’t cynically working to overturn Roe v. Wade.)

Additionally, Daly has started a program to reduce the number of legal orphans in foster care by recruiting families to adopt hard-to-place children. His Wait No More program has expanded to five states and has already halved the number of children in foster care in Colorado.

Daly’ cheerful style is particularly welcome at a time when many fundamentalist organizations are losing their marbles. For instance, Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition is running around Capitol Hill demanding that Congress defeat the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) to keep “she-males” from becoming gym teachers.

Eugene Delgaudio the executive director of the anti-gay organization, Public Advocate of the U.S, sent out an insane fundraising letter this week. It warned that “Radical homosexuals will terrorize day care centers, hospitals, churches and private schools…Wedding-gown clad men smooching before some left-wing clergy or state official is just the beginning….You’ll see men hand-in-hand skipping down to adoption centers to “pick out’ a little boy for themselves.”

Still, not everyone is sold on the surface changes at the Colorado Springs-based mega-ministry.

“There is clearly a concerted rebranding effort within FOtF, with the communications team placing a focus on creating a nicer, sweeter, less hostile Focus on the Family,” wrote blogger Jeremy Hooper on his popular Good As You website. “But they seem to want this change in impression without actually creating any change within their own operation… We on the side of LGBT equality buy into the “nicer, softer” myth at our own peril!”

Hooper (pictured) points out that, “This is still the group that, just two weeks ago, declared that an openly gay SCOTUS nominee is automatically a non-starter, regardless of merit and qualifications. This is still the outfit that donates hundreds of thousands whenever gay rights are up for contention at any one of our state’s polls.”

Will Focus on the Family actually start helping real families rather than fixating on gay people? With Daly’ leadership, there is at least hope that the culture war will eventually turn into a civil cultural discussion.

But if this is all spin and no substance his plan will sow distrust and backfire. It won’t take long to know if Daly’ hugs are thinly disguised headlocks. While outspoken homophobes are unpleasant, they are always preferable to insincere hypocrites.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org

Religious Extremism And Censorship Are Dangers To LGBT Equality

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out expressed strong support for Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of Comedy Central’ South Park, after they faced calls for violent reprisals following an episode that showed the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. Such religious extremism and intolerance threatens all Americans, particularly the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender community, says TWO.

“We stand in solidarity with the creators of South Park and strongly defend their freedom of speech,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Our liberty demands that we fight back against intolerant fanatics — no matter what the religion – who believe they can bully and intimidate to get their way. If zealots have a problem with South Park, they can turn the channel. If we cave into their demands, the LGBT community will be one of the first to feel the chilling effects and suffer the consequences.”

Following the controversial episode, a fringe Islamic website, RevolutionMuslim.com, warned Parker and Stone that they could face retribution. The website included a graphic photo of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in 2004 after making a documentary on violence against Muslim women.

“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show,” the website reads. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them…They’re going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It’s just the reality.”

“The goal of these extremists is to foment fear and create an atmosphere of self-censorship,” said TWO’ Besen. “This would essentially lead to an unwritten blasphemy law that would curtail creative freedom. We must not allow this to happen or other fringe religious organizations will view threats of violence as a legitimate strategy to meet their demands.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that monitors religious extremism, fights anti-gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender misinformation campaigns, and educates about the lives of LGBT people.

The Irish Times
April 21, 2010

I love Jesus (but not in a gay way)

Core Issues, a Christian initiative that encourages homosexuals to heal their “sexual brokenness’ through prayer and therapy is planning a “Leaving Homosexuality Celebration’ in Northern Ireland.

By FIONOLA MEREDITH

DISGRACED POLITICIAN Iris Robinson caused controversy in 2008 when she offered to put gay people in touch with a “very lovely psychiatrist”, with a Christian background, who could change an individual’ orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The psychiatrist in question was subsequently revealed to be Dr Paul Miller, who worked for Robinson when she was chair of the Health Committee at Stormont. It was the first public sign of the growing ex-gay movement in Ireland where, through a combination of prayer and therapy, unhappy homosexuals are encouraged to heal their “sexual brokenness”.

At the centre of this movement is an organisation called Core Issues, a Northern Ireland Christian initiative run by Mike Davidson, a married man who describes himself as having been “in conflict with unwanted homosexuality . . . before finally seeing the light”. Core Issues has brought a series of high-profile ex-gay speakers from the US to Ireland, and this week hopes to host a “Leaving Homosexuality Celebration” with Alan Chambers of Exodus International, a worldwide umbrella group for ex-gay organisations — that is, if the “act of God” volcanic ash situation allows Chambers to enter the country.

The author of Leaving Homosexuality: a practical guide for men and women looking for a way out , Chambers — like many in the movement — is unabashedly upfront, evangelical even, about his own struggle to overcome “unwanted same-sex attraction”. He says: “I first realised I had same-sex attractions at around age 11. I did not choose those unwanted attractions and did everything in my power to change them.”

Chambers admits that the faith-based approach advocated by Exodus isn’t a miracle cure: “While some do absolutely see an eradication over time of their same-sex struggles, most see a lessening. Some see no change whatsoever. In my case, I did experience a great shift in my attractions . . . and when I met my wife, Leslie, the connection I felt with her was unmistakable — a deep unselfish love, very different than the selfish, self-focused lust/love I’d had for the men I’d fallen for.”

So doesn’t he ever feel tempted to go back to his old gay ways? “I am human and humans struggle. But the temptation for me is the same as it would be for any husband.” In coming to Ireland, Chambers says he hopes to “share an honest story about a man who once was lost but now is found. There are people in need of the same hope that I found; people who want to put God above their sexuality”.

Unsurprisingly, this upsurge in what its advocates call “sexual redemption work” has not gone unchallenged. In particular, gay conversion therapy, sometimes known as reparative therapy or gender affirmative therapy, has come under intense scrutiny. And now Paul Miller, who is also a close associate of Mike Davidson, has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) by gay British journalist Patrick Strudwick.

Having gone undercover to receive treatment from Miller, Strudwick describes the experience as harmful and disturbing. “There is a spectrum in conversion therapy: at the most damaging end you get people performing exorcisms, at the other end you have well-meaning naive types who don’t really know what to do,” says Strudwick. “Then you have people in the middle like Miller … looking at your relationship with your mother, whether you had a distant father. There’ the assumption that something went wrong in your upbringing. They go on a trauma hunt, trying to find something to pin it on, whether it’ your parents or peer bullying. I was also given advice on how to interrupt and analyse sexual thoughts. And there’ an emphasis on fraternal social contact in order to fulfil your needs so you don’t act out. It’ all about building up your masculinity; the assumption is that if you’re gay, you’re not masculine enough.

In my view, they look for what they already believe is there and then they find it.”

When approached by The Irish Times to respond to these allegations, Paul Miller indicated through an intermediary that although he wished to speak out he was unable to comment due to the impending GMC hearing.

The website of Miller’ organisation, Abeo — an umbrella group of like-minded mental health professionals who specialise in gender affirmative therapy, addressing same-sex attraction through “enhanced masculinity” — has also disappeared. In an article published in 2008, after his link with Robinson was made public, he insisted he was not trying to “cure” homosexuality. He said that therapists such as himself “do not assume homosexuality is a mental disorder nor do we assume that all patients should seek to change their orientation. We simply treat those who ask for help with unwanted same-sex attraction . . . Our clients are free to retain their homosexual identity or to change in favour of heterosexual identity . . . Despite what our detractors say, based on sound professional ethics, robust scientific research and clear results with our own clients, we are on very solid ground indeed when we say that we can help those people with unwanted same-sex attraction who wish to change.”

PSYCHOLOGIST ROGER BAILEY considers reparative therapy to be “totally out of order. I have faced this situation clinically, and my first response is to find out why the person feels so distressed that they want to change who they are. I had a guy once who said that if you tell me I’m gay I will kill myself. I said, okay, no matter what happens, I won’t say you’re gay. Let’ just try to work out who you are as a human being first.’ As a clinical professional, your religious choices must be quite separate. You can be a priest or you can be a psychologist. You can’t be both.”

Concerned at the growth of conversion practices in the North, gay rights activists in the Republic are working with the College of Psychiatry of Ireland to develop guidelines for practitioners. But there’ disquiet within some gay Christian circles too. That’ why Changing Attitudes Ireland, a network which campaigns for the full acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Irish churches, has organised its own counter-event to protest at Alan Chambers’ visit. They have invited Wayne Besen — founder of Truth Wins Out, an organisation which attempts to debunk the “ex-gay” industry — to give a talk in Belfast this week.

Besen claims that “Exodus is targeting Ireland and other countries because they have been thoroughly debunked and discredited in America. Their antiquated efforts are rejected by every respected medical and mental health organisation and they have left a trail of hurt and suffering. Having failed at home they are now looking for fertile territory abroad where they can exploit desperate and vulnerable people and profit from their pain.” Mike Davidson, of Core Issues, says he welcomes the debate, and he’ happy for those who hold radically differing views to participate in the Chambers event: “This issue has become very strident, polarised on both sides. We need to find common ground.”

Davidson, and his fellow ex-gay activists, seek to portray themselves as offering a non-prescriptive Christian pathway out of guilt and despair. Others see it as an offensive, actively harmful process, rooted in shame and sin, which pathologises homosexuality, and is anyway bound to fail. When it comes to “praying away the gay’, the prospect of consensus seems remote.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Religious Right Leader Admits That Anti-Gay War Is Lost Without a Miracle

TWO Special Report: Inside “The Awakening’ Conference In Lynchburg

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Truth Wins Out’ founder and Executive Director Wayne Besen spent two days in Lynchburg, Va., to observe a major Religious Right conference, “The Awakening”, which featured many of the religious right’ biggest stars. TWO released a full report on the event, which can be viewed at www.TruthWinsOut.org. The symposium revealed that anti-gay rhetoric was on the decline and no longer the far right’ number one priority.

“While the sheer number of anti-gay attacks had decreased from past conferences, the remaining rhetoric was vicious and vile, as our desperate opponents see they are losing the battle of public opinion,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.

The sullen mood over losing ground was best summarized by Lou Engle of “The Call”. During a breakout session on the “LGBT Agenda”, he acknowledged that when he preaches against LGBT issues, Christian youth often “rage against him.” Engle said that the far right has lost on this issue barring a miracle. One idea floated by Engle to turn the tide was creating an intercession by holding a 500,000 strong youth rally.

“If Lou Engle is wondering how his movement lost the current generation of youth, it is because the hatred and hyperbole spewed by anti-gay activists is incongruous with reality,” said TWO’ Wayne Besen in the report. “Many teenagers, including evangelicals, have friends who come out of the closet at early ages. They listen to the slurs and the slander at such conferences and know, based on real life experience, that they are hearing lies. Such cognitive dissonance is costing evangelical leaders enormous credibility”.

At the same breakout session, Rena Lindevaldsen, a law school professor at Liberty University, revealed that the anti-gay lobby’ strategy to defeat the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is, “letting people see how the kids are affected…it’ an unhealthy lifestyle.” ENDA is a federal bill that would prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Another breakout session, “Pastors and Political Activity”, urged fundamentalist Christians to use stealth tactics to infiltrate public schools. A man in his 20′ spoke up during the Q&A period and claimed that the panelists were not trying hard enough to get into classrooms. He alleged that through his youth ministry, “we’ve been to 330 schools and only two asked us to leave.”

Upon hearing this, Dr. Rick Scarborough, Vision America, cheered these youth and said, “We need more special forces like yourself”, and then spoke of the importance of engaging in “guerilla warfare”. Rev. Rick Joyner, Morningstar Ministries, chimed in that fundamentalists should “come in undercover.” For example, a fundamentalist could go in to speak “as an athlete”, but really be in the schools to push a sectarian message.

“It is disgraceful that these supposed moral leaders would use chicanery to promote Christianity,” said TWO’ Besen. “It seems that the ends justify the means and these zealots will do almost anything, no matter how dishonest, to proselytize to captive audiences at public schools.”

Energized by the Tea Party, many people in Lynchburg pledged not to automatically give their votes to Republican candidates without assurances that they would champion rigid conservative positions on social issues.

“Our loyalty belongs to Jesus Christ, not to any party,” said Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. He added in a breakout session that, “The black community has been used and exploited by the Democratic Party. The goal is to make sure Christians are not exploited by the Republican Party.”

“While conventional wisdom has the energy on the far right helping Republicans, it could easily backfire and split the GOP,” said TWO’ Besen. “Republicans are playing with fire by thinking they can control the combustible right wing activists that I observed.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns, counters the so-called “ex-gay” industry and educates about the lives of LGBT people. Our goal is to help individuals be true to themselves and lead genuine lives of honesty and integrity.

- 30 -

The recently disgraced Arthur Abba Goldberg will take his first stab at rehabilitating his image tonight after a South Florida Gay News and Truth Wins Out investigation revealed that he was a convicted Wall Street con artist. Upon leaving prison and completing parole, Abba Goldberg reinvented himself as an ex-gay activist – concealing his sordid past.

Goldberg and his apologists say that he should now be forgiven because his crimes and sins occurred two decades ago. But that ignores the central fact that his larger moral failing was that he concealed his past from colleagues and the media during his entire tenure with Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH). He never came clean about his sordid identity and would have continued lying and deceiving if not for the expose in February revealing that he is a fraud. As a result of his deception, he was forced exit his position as an officer with the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)

Over the past couple of months, Goldberg has understandably kept a low profile. But, now he appears to be reemerging with a full-fledged public relations campaign. His efforts begin tonight with an “enlightening panel discussion” in Tallahassee allegedly sponsored by Pride and Seminole Christian Life. The event is presenting speakers both for and against the so-called “ex-gay” industry.

According to a Face Book page, the panelists will include:
- Frank Carrasco, Exodus
- Rev. Mark Byrd, Gentle Shepherd MCC
- Arthur Goldberg, JONAH
- Cantor Tanya Greenblatt, Temple Israel
- Christine Sneeringe, Exodus

The Face Book page also says:

Keep in mind, this is a panel, not a debate. We are looking to engage one another in a meaningful dialogue about the others opinions in a safe space. Both sides will be represented in order to present an unbiased view so that we all can reach our own conclusions about the topic in question.

Huh?

By definition the ex-gay industry is biased and pumps out unadulterated propaganda. It is has not one iota of science on its side. Its central thesis is a fraud: That LGBT people are the way they are as a result of poor parenting or sexual abuse. They say the “cure” is a combination of prayer and making straight friends that the gay person does not have sex with.

Not only is this bizarre reasoning false, but it is deliberate pseudo-scientific misinformation designed to undermine LGBT attempts to gain equality under the law. Indeed, the entire “ex-gay” “movement” isn’t even a real movement. It is political construction by religious fundamentalists intent on manipulating science to bolster a discriminatory worldview and justify anti-gay legislation. It allows the Religious Right to smile and pretend they love us, even as they persecute us.

It is disappointing that Pride is so gullible to promote this as a “safe space” when by definition “ex-gay” rhetoric demeans, diminishes and dehumanizes LGBT people. Does Pride believe that calling LGBT people sexually broken, demonic and perverse, as ex-gay activists routinely do is meaningful dialogue? Is having ex-gay activists whitewash their failure rate and lack of professional oversight, which can lead to abuse, sound like a “safe space”?

Furthermore, did they ever stop to question why the fundamentalists have recruited Goldberg, a convicted con artist, to represent their side? Maybe because their intention is to con students into believing they are just a good bunch of wholesome, loving people who only want to “help” those who want to change. Not the double talking, hate mongering, intellectually bankrupt, extremist ideologues they truly are.

By all means, have a panel discussion, I support such dialogue and free speech. But it is disappointing that Goldberg, a proven miscreant with no credibility, zero moral authority or genuine expertise on this subject is given a platform with the willing consent of an LGBT organization. That’s just plain stupid and allowing yourself to be punked.

As for the Christian organization I only have two questions: If your side is so moral, just and correct, why must you elevate a convicted felon who lied to his colleagues as recently as February to make your case – unless you have no case? Is this really, the best your side can do?

I hope the panelists and students who come to this event are well-informed, armed with the facts and ask tough questions. They should not shy away from combating such propaganda – even if it means making Goldberg and others uncomfortable. This con artist should not get a pass. I’d like to see a student ask this question:

Mr. Abba Goldberg. You bilked your clients – including poor communities – for millions of dollars. You emerged from prison and lied about your identity. What gives you the moral authority and integrity to talk about this issue, given your propensity for decades of deception? Why should we believe you now?

The Goldberg rehab train continues in New York City with a “special evening with JONAH”, Sunday, April 25, 2010 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm on West 70th St., NYC. According to the invitation:

This evening will be an opportunity to ask questions of our counselors and directors about JONAH’s new programs and plans for the future. We would also like your input and help in creating programs that will suit your needs.

We look forward to seeing you. We have lots of good information to share.

*Kosher Dietary Laws Observed

Well, at least its good to know there are still some laws observed by Goldberg. I may just have to attend this meeting. I can think of a few important questions to ask.

Truth Wins Out praised President Obama today for signing a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

“This caring and compassionate action by the Obama administration will stop needless trauma and suffering for gay and lesbian families,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Today, Obama lived up to his promise of creating positive change. We look forward to continued progress and urge the President to move forward in ending all legal discrimination against LGBT Americans.”

The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision. An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

Truth Wins Out applauded a ruling by a federal judge today that struck down the federal statute that established the National Day of Prayer, ruling that it violates the constitutional ban on government-backed religion.

“[I]ts sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function,” a Wisconsin judge wrote in the ruling, referring to the 1952 law that created the National Day of Prayer. “In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience,” wrote the judge, Barbara B. Crabb.

According to the Associated Press, the injunction against the National Day of Prayer will not take effect until the defendants in the case, President Obama and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, have exhausted their appeals, the decision said. The Obama administration said it intends to recognize this year’s National Day of Prayer, which is May 6.

“Judge Crabb made a wise decision that upholds genuine religious liberty and freedom of individual choice,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Just as before this ruling, Americans can still pray anytime, anyplace, anywhere they want. So, the National Day of Prayer is clearly not about religious access, but a deliberate manipulation of government resources to pressure people into praying. There is no place for such heavy handed, intrusive, big government when it comes to religion.”

The statute that established the National Day of Prayer calls on the president to annually designate one day, other than a Sunday, “on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups and as individuals.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns, counters the so-called “ex-gay” industry and educates about the lives of LGBT people.

DUE TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, THE EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED

FUTURE DATE TBA