EXCLUSIVE NEW TRUTH WINS OUT VIDEO

Glenn Shadix (on left) is an actor made famous by roles in movies such as Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. His television work includes the HBO drama Carnivàle, and the NBC television comedy Seinfeld, in which he played Jerry’s landlord.

What many people do not know, however, is that Shadix had undergone shock therapy as a teenager in Alabama, in an attempt to turn from gay-to-straight. The “cure” did not work and today Shadix lives as a proud openly gay man. Having lived in New York City and Hollywood, he recently returned to Alabama. Truth Wins Out applauds Shadix for his willingness to share his experience and help other people avoid the pain and suffering of the ex-gay industry.

The Tuscaloosa News reported yesterday that a state legislator has prefiled a bill, with the support of the governor, to prohibit public universities from offering employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

But the same lawmaker is willing to subsidize unmarried heterosexuals who shack up.

The legislation penalizes the state’s taxpayers in order to subsidize the benefits of heterosexual bureaucrats, based on the religious bias of evangelicals who oppose religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

Rep. DuWayne Bridges said taxes should not be used to treat state workers equally. He said it is objectionable to “subsidize same-sex lifestyles” but offered no apparent objection to subsidized benefits for unmarried heterosexual couples.

Contrary to Bridges’ assertion that “liberals” engage in social engineering, it is he and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley who seek use taxpayer money to reward sectarian religious activists’ favored bureaucrats and to cheat skilled and accomplished government workers out of equal benefits.

Bridges also applauded the notion of Alabama voters deciding who is or isn’t entitled to constitutional rights, when they voted to ban marriage equality. The new bill will be introduced to the state legislature in January.

What next — a bill to require universities to hire only conservative Christians?

The ex-gay “Love Won Out” roadshow has, since its inception, taught parents, clergy, and would-be “ex-gays” not to trust mainstream mental health professionals or mainstream science regarding sexual orientation.

Instead, LWO speakers use vague and mostly un-Biblical religious language, discredited claims, and misquotations of legitimate research to blame overmothering, absent fathering, and abuse — without exception — for homosexuality. LWO also denies the existence of sexual orientation as opposed to mere sexual temptation. The program stereotypes gay men as insufficiently masculine, lesbians as insufficiently feminine, and both as depressed sex addicts.

The solution, they say, is not mainstream psychiatric care; it’s a heavy dose of blame, political correctness, prayer, and acting-out of stereotypical masculine or feminine behavior.

In a promotion for its roadshow this weekend in Birmingham, Ala., Focus on the Family doesn’t deny Truth Wins Out’s allegation that ”Love Won Out tells young people and their families that they aren’t whole and that they should and can change – which isn’t true.”

Instead, activist Joe Dallas — who claims to be a former homosexual and writes books damning gay people of faith and their values — portrays himself as though he were a leader of an organization that ex-gays frequently condemn: the gay-affirming parents group PFLAG. According to Dallas, LWO does not teach parents to hate or coerce.

“Just the opposite,” he said. “We teach parents how important it is to love and care for their sons or daughters, no matter what choices they make.”

That sounds nice, but like so many statements by Focus on the Family, it’s a half-truth. Dallas teaches parents and pastors to believe prejudices about LGBT persons and to reject the plain truths spoken by these persons (and expert researchers) as if they were satanic deceptions. Dallas is neither tolerant nor respectful toward people of his same religion who disagree with his antigay prejudices and his sloppy, egocentric theology. He divides families according to his own political and religious agendas. And he uses the word “choice” to describe sexual orientation — a cruel hoax that is rejected even by some conservative Christian researchers. In short, Dallas defines “love and care” the way most sensible people define “hate and coerce.”

Meanwhile, his LWO colleague Melissa Fryrear says, “Moms and dads shouldn’t have to relinquish their religious convictions.” But she makes it clear that, given a choice between political and religious correctness and the health, welfare, and love of their children, parents should choose the former.

It is hateful to deliberately and persistently lie about the nature of sexual orientation in one’s relatives, as Dallas, Fryrear, and LWO teach parents to do. It is hateful to deliberately lie about the attractions, character, values, choices, and “lifestyle” of one’s relatives. And it is coercive to manipulate relatives by requiring them to conform to LWO stereotypes, stigmatizing relatives and their partners, and denying relatives full equality in religion, housing, employment, and public services.

Focus on the Family equates prejudice with love, and ignorant manipulation with care.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, will be on hand in Birmingham on Saturday to support local LGBT people and their affirming families and allies in protest against FOTF’s grotesque assault against family integrity and human dignity.

Focus on the Family complained tonight that “Alabama schools are now required to write stricter anti-bullying policies, thanks to language in a bill that opens the door to the gay agenda.”

But Focus political writer Josh Montez (pictured) doesn’t seem to know the difference between a bill and a law; he uses the two terms interchangeably.

He may be referring to the Student Harassment Prevention Act, which goes into effect Oct. 1. (PDF copy of the Act.) The legislation empowers the state department of education to develop a model policy for local districts to receive reports of harassment and to punish perpetrators. In particular, the law directs the department to develop “a procedure for the development of a nonexhaustive list of the specific personal characteristics of a student which may often lead to harassment. Based upon experience, a local board of education may add, but not remove, characteristics from the list.”

In other words, the state might specify race and religion for statewide protection; a local district might add sexual orientation to its local policy.

According to the Times Daily of Florence, Ala.:

Until now, there haven’t been any legal repercussions from bullying and it’s an issue the state has long needed to address, said longtime educator Lisa Moses, of Florence, who said bullying is one area addressed in another new piece of legislation known as Taylor’s Law. Under that law, a student’s behavior at school, including bullying, can delay the student from acquiring a driver’s license.

“Bullying has too long been ignored on the school level and has somewhat been accepted with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude,” Moses said. “Kids need to be able to report these things anonymously, but they don’t trust that it will be kept quiet and they’re scared.” …

The issue came to a head in April when 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide at his Atlanta-area home after his parents say he was repeatedly tormented in school. District officials denied it, and an independent review found bullying wasn’t a factor, a conclusion his family rejects.

Until now, Alabama children have been completely unprotected:

Alabama’s law covers grades pre-kindergarten through 12th. The sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Betty Carol Graham, D-Alexander City, said the new Alabama law was three years in the making and grew out of the rise in suicides among youth in the state and nation.

Focus on the Family objects to the law’s attention to “the motivations and ‘characteristics’ of victims, rather than on the wrong actions of the bullies.”

In other words, Focus believes that bullying is not really bullying in the case of certain types of victims. Focus believes that the distinction between “bullying” and physical action to correct homosexual youths should be decided not by the community or police, but by individual bullies and antigay faculty members.

Focus offers applause to Betty Peters, a member of the Alabama education board, who (Focus claims) said gay activists are “encouraging like-minded individuals to sign up for local committees that will be responsible for writing similar policies. She encouraged parents who oppose the gay agenda to do the same.”

Focus warns:

Parents should watch out for attempts to mandate special protections for “gender identity” and “sexual orientation”— which can pave the way for pro-gay curriculum and mandatory “diversity” training.

Focus believes other characteristics of students may be protected from bullying — but not gender identity or sexual orientation.

Josh Montez, Focus’ staff writer, fails to inform readers that Peters is a member of the American Family Association, Alabama Republican Assembly, Eagle Forum, and Christian Coalition. Peters wants creationism to be taught in schools. She was the lone no-vote on state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton’s recommendation that Alabama participate in a state-led initiative to develop common core standards for English and mathematics. Peters also opposed President Obama’s speech to school children.

Peters’ Eagle Forum membership is worth remembering — we shall revisit this momentarily.

Montez also failed to tell readers about the experiences of bullied students and faculty. According to radio station WBHM-FM in Birmingham:

…Critics say that merely implying that gay students are protected is not enough. The result, they say, is that no one is safe, even those who are just perceived gay.

Experts say that these days children are hearing more anti-gay language in school. Carly Friedman is a Samford University psychology professor and research consultant for the Alabama Safe Schools Coalition. Friedman is surveying Alabama students to gauge how often they hear gay slurs in school.

“We are seeing an increase in things like, Oh that’s so gay, You’re such a fag. These words that we are hearing more often I think that really can have an effect on young people.”

She’s found that they don’t concentrate as well, they skip class, and they have higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. Friedman adds that gay slurs affect all youth. …

But people like Eunie Smith, president of Eagle Forum of Alabama, a conservative activist group, say homosexuality shouldn’t be talked about in schools, much less tolerated.”Well, young people are highly impressionable. And for the schools to provide some special status for those who would perceive themselves to be homosexual…would be to legitimize and therefore to encourage these unhealthy lifestyles.”

Smith and Peters — both of them, leaders within the Eagle Forum — object to safety for LGBT students despite those students’ safe and responsible lifestyles, and even when those students’ parents and churches accept them. In the view of Smith and Peters, antigay parents and students enjoy a “religious freedom” to slander and bully others: a freedom that supersedes the personal and religious freedom of LGBT students and their families.

But Focus’s Montez does not share any of this information with readers.

Focus says Montez obtained a bachelor’s degree in communication from Moody Bible Institute. One wonders what kind of communication is really taught at Moody.