The Associated Press reports that Malawi’s president has pardoned a same-sex couple who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison. However, President Bingu wa Mutharika’s announcement was far from encouraging for the broader picture of LGBT equality in a region that has fallen woefully behind the rest of the world.

“These boys committed a crime against our culture, against our religion, and against our laws,” President Mutharika said. “However, as head of state, I hereby pardon them and therefore order their immediate release without any conditions….We don’t condone marriages of this nature. It’s unheard of in Malawi and it’s illegal.”

Malawi had faced international condemnation for the conviction and harsh sentencing of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, who were arrested in December, a day after celebrating their engagement. After the pardon, activists were searching for a safe house for the couple, fearing they could be attacked upon release.

This horrific treatment of LGBT people in much of Africa must end. While anti-gay hatred is constantly portrayed as an African value, many African leaders are really upholding homophobic colonial traditions. Worse, the tense atmosphere is exacerbated by American “Colonial Christians” who poison Africa with noxious forms of religious views.

While there is much to be done worldwide for LGBT equality, at lease one couple caught a break and can hopefully resume their lives — although they seem to be potentially in harms way. As for Malawi, it was a very wise move by Mutharika. Had this couple remained in prison, it would have put a searing spotlight on this otherwise invisible nation. This would have harmed Malawi’s reputation, undermined its economy and retarded growth.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) has dumped George “rent boy” Rekers from its “Pediatric Psychosocial Development Committee”. Until now, the organization was one of the few anti-gay groups to stick by the disgraced charlatan.

This is an important development because The American College of Pediatricians recently launched an anti-gay website, Facts About Youth, that was bereft of basic truth and objective reality. The ACP also sent letters promoting their propaganda to more than 10,000 school superintendents across America. According to a ACP press release:

The College reminds school superintendents that it is not uncommon for adolescents to experience transient confusion about their sexual orientation and that most students will ultimately adopt a heterosexual orientation if not otherwise encouraged.

For this reason, schools should not seek to develop policy which “affirms” or encourages these non-heterosexual attractions among students who may merely be experimenting or experiencing temporary sexual confusion. Such premature labeling can lead some adolescents to engage in homosexual behaviors that carry serious physical and mental health risks.

For the unacquainted, the ACP is a small, mostly southern anti-gay advocacy group consisting of notorious activists and angry doctors who have an axe to grind with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). They are upset because the group has a pro-gay (and scientific) stance that claims:

Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.

In contrast to the small and controversial ACP, the AAP has 60,000 members who conduct genuine studies that are subject to peer review. The average person, however, may not know the difference between the two groups. This transparent form of identity theft is the likely intention of the ACP, which hopes to confuse people in order to siphon off the credibility of the real pediatric group.

The ACP’ new anti-gay website essentially replaces facts with quacks. It is packed with members of the discredited reparative therapy organization, The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).

This organization pushes the canard that all gay men have distant fathers and making friends with straight men can turn one heterosexual. NARTH encourages male clients to become more masculine by drinking Gatorade and calling friends “dude”.

Remarkably, former NARTH officer Arthur Abba Goldberg sits on the ACP’ Pediatric Psychosocial Development Committee. In late February, Truth Wins Out and South Florida Gay News revealed that Goldberg was a disbarred Wall Street con-artist who served hard time in prison for massive bond fraud. His presence as a putative “expert” on the Facts About Youth site is all you need to know about the group’ “integrity.”

One researcher has already spoken out against the site, claiming the ACP’ work is shoddy and that his study had been misapplied. In a blistering letter to the American College of Pediatricians, University of Minnesota researcher, Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., (pictured) wrote:

Knowingly misrepresenting research findings for material or personal gain is a flagrant violation of this code of conduct. Implicating me in this chicanery is doubly damaging to my professional reputation and career by holding me accountable for misstatements and by associating me with a cause that most ethical Pediatricians will recognize as misguided and hurtful to an entire class of children and families.

The Minnesota City Pages has an article about Ramafedi’s tremendous efforts and courage to stop habitual right wing distortions of his work. The researcher is so frustrated by the dishonest tactics from groups such as the ACP, that he has contemplated lawsuits.

“I’ve considered litigation,” he says. “It was libelous. On a personal level, when I’m dead and buried, I don’t want my work to be associated with these types of organizations and ideas.”

More on this issue from Dr. Warren Throckmorton, who continues to do superb work holding members of NARTH and the ACP accountable for their actions.

The separation of Church and State is a fundamental tenet of the U.S. Constitution. Increasingly policies that funnel taxpayer dollars into faith-based organizations challenge this important principle. This month on our June Pride episode, IN THE LIFE follows the money to expose some faith-based initiatives that sanction homophobia here and abroad.

DEMOCRACY OR THEOCRACY?

The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects religion from governmental interference, at the same time it ensures government is protected from religious influence. But faith leaders with close ties to Capitol Hill, target the LGBT community by using religion as a basis to deny our equality and blur the line distinguishing our democracy from a theocracy.

EXPORTING HATE

In 2009, the Ugandan Parliamentary proposed an anti-homosexuality bill that would impose the death penalty on serial offenders of homosexual acts. Inciting fear and sanctioning homophobia, the bill has caused LGBT Ugandans to be hunted in their communities and forced into exile. IN THE LIFE focuses on the man behind the bill and his supporters, and exposes the political and financial influence used by powerful conservatives in the U.S. to export their anti-gay agenda overseas.

Intersections of Church and State will begin airing June 1st. To find out when it airs in your local area, to stream or download it, go to the IN THE LIFE website: www.inthelifetv.org.

Watch a preview now

It is time for Congress to act swiftly and boldly to end the insane Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy by attaching repeal to the defense budget bill this week.

Doing so will be good for the military and America.

There are some who call for the completion of a Pentagon study, due in December, before abolishing the discriminatory law. However, we don’t need a study to know that the current policy hurts military readiness, wastes taxpayer’s money and ruins the lives of patriotic service members.

The sooner we stop fighting this ridiculous, counterproductive culture war, the sooner we will have the soldiers we need to fight real wars. More than 13,000 gay members of the military have already been forced to take off their combat boots to be booted out of the armed forces. This includes at least 58 Arabic linguists.

A GAO report released in 2005 estimated that DADT has cost U.S. taxpayers $200 million and the loss of “valuable personnel over the last decade.”

Can any serious person who cares about the success of our military say that we could not use these 13,000 trained soldiers today as we enter battle in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar?

The hard truth is that the Religious Right is eager and willing to sell out our military to peddle their socially conservative dogma.

A New York Times editorial on Sunday pointed out that gay soldiers are performing nobly and honorably in other western nations. Contrary to what fear-mongering supporters of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell are selling the American public, allowing gay people to serve has not led to a breakdown in unit morale or discipline. According to the Times:

Military generals from Britain, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Israel were in Washington last week offering assurances that ending the gay ban became a nonissue once their services were justly integrated.

“There were concerns in the late ’90s of gay men walking across the gangplank in feather boas and high heels,” retired Lt. Cmdr. Craig Jones of the British Navy related. “That just did not happen.”

Quite frankly, the religious right and their lackeys in Congress are insulting our men and women in uniform. What they are essentially saying is that American soldiers are uniquely socially stunted and lack the discipline to handle the integration of openly gay soldiers.

For people who like to fancy themselves as “patriots”, how do they justify their low opinion of our courageous men and women in the military?

We have the greatest military in the world. Unlike The Center for Military Readiness and their President Elaine Donnelly, I have faith that America’s Armed Forces will carry out gay integration as well — if not better — than any other nation on earth.

The Democrats control Congress and President Barack Obama has promised repeal. If not now, then when?

If you want to help with repeal, please contact SLDN. We can’t let this crucial moment slip away.

(Weekly Column)

We are fast approaching the point where it will only be news if an outspoken Christian conservative politician isn’t cheating on his or her spouse. The extramarital humping from the self-righteous Bible-thumping is becoming clich?© with the scandals happening almost by the day.

The latest lying Lothario is Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) who announced that he would resign from Congress because he had an affair with a woman on his staff. Rep. Souder had received a zero on every single Human Rights Campaign scorecard since entering Congress in 1995. He has consistently voted against employment protections, hate crime laws, increases in HIV/AIDS funding and providing equality to same-sex couples.

Clearly, the state of the GOP Family Values fraud is such, that Republican leaders were probably relieved that Souder’ sinful shenanigans were with a woman – not an undercover cop in a bathroom stall (Sen. Larry Craig) or with male congressional pages (Rep. Mark Foley).

Like most sexual scandals, there was an element of tragic comedy. In November 2009, Souder’ mistress, Tracy Jackson, interviewed Souder for a video on abstinence.

“You’ve been a longtime advocate for abstinence education and in 2006 you had your staff conduct a report entitled ‘Abstinence and its Critics’ which discredits many claims purveyed by those who oppose abstinence education,” Jackson said as she introduced Souder.

Technically, there was no hypocrisy in this instance, because Souder believes in abstinence before marriage — and he was clearly married at the time he and Jackson put in a little overtime protecting the morals of taxpayers.

However, there was quite a bit of duplicity in Souder’ rabid and reactionary opposition to LGBT equality. For example, he opposed the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, which would give federal employees in gay relationships access to health benefits. In voting against the bill Souder told the Federal Times, ”I am against taxpayer funding for these benefits because it is totally inconsistent with the belief that marriage should be one man and one woman.”

Social conservatives would do themselves a huge favor if they edited their marriage creed to, “one man, one woman and one mistress.” Although, it is doubtful even this amendment would sate their voracious sexual appetites. One just has to consider the outrageous behavior of Gov. Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford (R-S.C.) and Sen. John “I slept with my best friend’ wife” Ensign (R-NV) to realize that conservative politicians are as addicted to extramarital porking as they are in procuring big government pork.

The most predictable part of the salacious Souder scandal is his attempt to blame unnamed political opponents for exploiting his tryst.

“I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff,” Souder said. “In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., any personal failing is seized upon and twisted for political gain. I am resigning rather than put my family through a painful drawn out process.”

Souder is clearly confused. The only thing that was likely “twisted” was the bed sheet used during his extramarital affair. The congressman seems blithely unaware that it was opportunistic puritanical phonies — such as he — that are responsible for creating the toxic environment in Washington that he now ironically bemoans.

It was right wing ideologues looking to mine conservative churches for votes and money that made “protecting” the family a matter of United States policy. They launched a destructive culture war and divisive debate, even as they behaved like whores who fornicate. Yet, the money-grubbing morality machine soldiers on — blaming everyone and everything but the shallowness and emptiness of their wanton worldview.

A perfect example of deflecting blame came from The Liberty Counsel’ Matt Staver who suggested outside forces were out to get anti-gay researcher George Rekers, who got nabbed with a male hustler he met on Rentboy.com.

“I think that it’s the classic [tactic], ‘If you can’t destroy the message, you destroy the messenger,’ … and I think this is a personal attack (on Rekers) designed to cast aspersions on his character and reputation,” Staver said.

Is Staver suggesting that a gay organization or mischievous LGBT activist sent Rekers to RentBoy.com? Furthermore, isn’t the alleged rectitude and righteousness of these holier-than-thou messengers a key part of the moralistic message?

Miami Herald columnist Daniel Shoer Roth said it best this week when he wrote, “When these cases come to light, it is a victory for the public, because you open your eyes to the veiled nature of these two-faced individuals. And, hopefully, you will better appreciate those who are honest with themselves and others.”

Right wing activists and politicians have no one to blame for their troubles but themselves. People would not care one bit about their tawdry affairs if they had not made “family values” a central part of the affairs of state.

Of all wars, only culture wars offer the hope of sheer, unadulterated hilarity. Sex and hypocrisy were staples of farce long before America became a nation, and they never go out of style. Just listen to the roaring audience at the new hit Broadway revival of the perennial “La Cage aux Folles,” where a family-values politician gets his comeuppance in drag. Or check out the real-life closet case of George Rekers, who has been fodder for late-night television comics all month.

Rekers is in a class by himself even in the era of Larry Craig and Ted Haggard. A Baptist minister and clinical psychologist with a bent for “curing” homosexuality, the married, 61-year-old Rekers was caught by Miami New Times last month in the company of a 20-year-old male escort at Miami International Airport. The couple was returning from a 10-day trip to London and Madrid. New Times, which published its expos?© in early May, got an explanation from Rekers: “I had surgery, and I can’t lift luggage. That’ why I hired him.”

Read Full Article in NYT

(Weekly Column)

Sure, its scandalous when an anti-gay charlatan employs a male escort to lift his sack and rub his back. But the larger story is that Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum, hired now disgraced professor George Rekers for $120,000 to testify as an “expert” witness in favor of the state’s ban on allowing gay people to adopt. He did so knowing that Rekers testimony had already been debunked and lacked credibility. While the handsome Jo-Vanni Roman was a bargain for Rekers at $75 per night, “Big Spending Bill” bilked taxpayers for a handsome sum of money to defend his bible-based bigotry. As the rent boy hoopla begins to subside, people should begin to focus on the far more dangerous rent-a-quack industry, where puritanical politicians funnel public money to fellow fundamentalists who twists facts in the name of faith.

“Rekers is part of a small cadre of homophobes-for-hire that charge top dollar for their bogus’expert’ witness testimony despite the fact that they’ve been discredited over and over again,” Nadine Smith, Executive Executive Director of Equality Florida, told me during an interview. “McCollum knew this guy was a fraud but he paid him anyway to burnish his conservative credentials. While thousands of children languish in the foster care system and hundreds age out of the system never having been adopted, Rekers is an ideological hired gun who will distort the truth for pay in defense of this law that dehumanizes gay people and denies children in need the stability and permanency that only adoption can bring.”

Rekers was paid a $60,900 retainer in Florida. He also received a $59,793 payment for hourly billing, according to the Department of Children and Families, for 402 hours at about $150 per hour. The payments were made by the office of the Florida attorney general, Bill McCollum, which was defending the DCF’s policy in court.

Rekers, an officer of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, testified in 2008 that LGBT people have a higher likelihood of depression, drug addiction and failed relationships. He claimed these ailments made them unfit parents who could not provide stable homes for children. Of course now we all know that Rekers thinks its okay to rent boys, not raise them.

What McCollum got for the loot was pure lies at the expense of tax payers. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman found that Rekers testimony was “motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.”

Of course, McCollum, a Republican who is now running for Florida governor as a “fiscal conservative” had to have known that he was wasting public money. Rekers had already testified in Arizona against gay foster parents. But the judge called his testimony “extremely suspect and of little, if any, assistance to the court.”

Rekers also testified on behalf of the state of Arkansas. A two-year legal battle followed after Rekers billed the state for $165,000, more than the state wanted to pay. The case concluded with Rekers receiving a $60,000 settlement, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In an Orlando Sentinel article, “Big Spending Bill” admitted that he hired Rekers because he could not find a credible mental health expert to testify in favor of the ban.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of choice,” said McCollum.

Well, there was a choice. McCollum could have decided to save the peoples’ money and not place a disreputable witness on the stand that he knew was pushing junk science. That is what a man of good character and strong morality would have done. Clearly, McCollum has no problem abandoning the facts in the service of justifying his faith.

McCollum’s actions were a clear violation of the public trust and he has a duty to return the money to the state he was elected to represent. It would be nothing less than disgraceful if he did not pay restitution for the political prostitution that happened on his watch.

As for George Rekers, he should return the dough he has not yet squandered on rent boys to Florida, Arizona and Arkansas. He bamboozled taxpayers and should not get away with it. Of course, now we all know why he needed a strapping young man to lift his baggage. They could possibly have been filled with dirty money from his anti-gay money-grab in Florida.

It seems that Jo-Vanni Roman’sbiggest mistake was that he was in the wrong business. The quickest way to make a buck is to buck reality and provide propaganda for ambitiouss politicians such as Bill McCollum.

NARTH co-founder Joe Nicolosi has long been considered a quack – so it is no surprise that he is ducking the “Rent Boy Rekers” scandal by jetting off to Italy. While there, he will deliberatly distort science to smear LGBT people, while concealing his organization’s tawdry and disgraceful scandals.

Or, perhaps, he is just going to Europe to enjoy a rent boy of his own? After all, we now know what some key NARTH members do in Europe – when they think no one back home is paying attention. Maybe NARTH officers should be required to have adult supervision when they travel?

If an Italian LGBT organization wants me to come and speak to counter Nicolosi’s propaganda – I’m so there. Let me know!

Read Italian Translation of hate site promoting Nicolosi.

The following interview aired tonight on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org

Web: www.TruthWinsOut.org

Leading Ex-Gay Activist Caught On Vacation With “Rent Boy’

Behind the Scenes, George Rekers Is A Major Anti-Gay Figure Who Has Caused A Great Deal of Harm, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out called on anti-gay activist Dr. George A. Rekers to resign from the board of a leading “ex-gay” therapy group and apologize to the LGBT community after the Miami New Times discovered that he took a male prostitute that he met on Rentboy.com to Europe. According to the sex worker, Rekers “likes younger guys to hang out with.”

“This is a bombshell that completely discredits the ex-gay industry and proves that the movement is a fraud,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “While Rekers keeps a low public profile, his fingerprints are on almost every anti-gay effort to demean and dehumanize LGBT people. Lobby groups that work to deny equality to LGBT Americans ubiquitously cite his work. Rekers has caused a great deal of harm to gay and lesbian individuals.”

A major anti-gay figure that used to work at University of South Carolina, Rekers is a founder of the Family Research Council, a board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, and testified as an expert witness in favor of gay adoption bans in both Arkansas and Florida. He has also published several anti-gay books.

Both the sex worker and Rekers deny having sex on the trip, and emails exchanged between the two prior to their escapade are carefully worded. Reached by New Times reporters Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, who broke the story, before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned that the man in question was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (Though medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the large baggage cart through Miami International Airport, according to the New Times.)

“It is clear that Rekers has baggage and certainly needs help,” said Besen. “At least he did not say he was walking the Appalachian Trail. Given the sordid and tawdry facts, he should immediately step down from NARTH’ Board and apologize to the LGBT community for his extreme hypocrisy and self-loathing. As of today, his entire body of work on LGBT issues is rendered meaningless.”

This is the second NARTH board member to be exposed as a fraud in the past three months. In February, Arthur Abba Goldberg was unmasked as a con artist who had served prison time for bond fraud. Goldberg was also the co-fonder of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH). Goldberg resigned from NARTH’ board in shame.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation, counters the so-called “ex-gay” industry and educates America about the lives of LGBT people. Our goal is to fight for a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly, free of discrimination and be true to themselves.