I was doing a bit of research this morning and I stumbled upon a “Quack Classic” by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, co-founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). In a book he co-wrote with his wife Linda Nicolosi, “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality,” he opines:
I have also seen this same intense fascination with neutered or genderless cartoon characters. One father told me that his son, who is now involved in homosexuality and is refusing to consider change, had a boyhood fascination with Bozo the clown. At the time his parents thought it was cute, even if a little strange. But he held onto the obsession until the age of twelve. The truth is, these obsessive interests are boys’ attempts to lose themselves in a fantasy world where they can imagine themselves as something other than male and where the challenges of gender do not exist. (P. 67)
How does Dr. Nicolosi know that this is “the truth” and not some surreal theory he pulled out of his posterior? And aren’t most forms of entertainment attempts to lose oneself in a fantasy world — such as watching sports, going to the movies, drinking beer, watching television, or playing video games?
Here is the truth: When one reads such idiotic notions it is a reminder of why the entire field of “ex-gay” therapy should be easily dismissed and not taken seriously. Such therapy exists, not as science, but as a cynical public relations stunt designed to trick people into thinking the medical field echos the opinions of fundamentalist Christians on homosexuality.
However, the more one reads about the techniques and ideas espoused by “doctors” like Nicolosi, the easier it is to see through the nonsense. So-called Reparative Therapy is a joke perpetuated by religious individuals playing doctor who obviously have psychological disturbances and severe sexual hangups. The bizarre ideas they come up with prove that they are on the wrong side of the couch and are in serious need of professional help.
This is the same buffoonish book where Nicolosi tells fathers that “The experience of taking showers together has the potential to strengthen a boy’s identification with his father and his father’s masculinity, as well as with his own male anatomy.”
To bolster his position, Nicolosi quotes Dr. George Rekers, the infamous quack who got caught taking a young male escort to Europe that he met on Rentboy.com:
If the son repeatedly touches his father’s privates every time they take a shower together, Dr. Rekers advises the father to say, “I don’t mind if you look at my penis, because I’m your dad and seeing what my grownup penis looks like helps you learn how your body will grow up to be like mine. But now that you’ve already touched it to see what it’s like, I need to teach you that we guys don’t touch each other’s penises — unless we’re a doctor examining a patient or a parent giving a little boy his bath or checking if a boy needs medicine if he complains his private parts hurt or itch. Furthermore, the father should explain that when a boy touches his own penis, he should do so in private.” (P. 187)
This creepy claptrap is what “reparative therapy” is all about. These are the pathetic products and wacky ideas that PFOX, JONAH, and Exodus International have been peddling to clients for years.
And they wonder why they are laughed at and mocked by thinking society. But such tomfoolery masquerading as science is fully deserving of scorn and belly laughs. Clearly, “ex-gay” activists are not serious people and they promote almost child-like, superstitious notions on human sexuality that must be confronted and dismissed by the modern world.
Here is Nicolosi spewing more unscientific trash, such as a trauma, sexual abuse, or a distant father can turn boys gay. Or maybe it is an older brother good at sports that makes the timid younger brother gay. It is important that people realize that no mainstream, credible scientific organization in the world supports Nicolosi’s carackpot ideas.
Exodus International’s former Vice President, Randy Thomas, has always been rather truth challenged — much like his old boss Alan Chambers. Yesterday, he took me to task for criticizing Chambers for “queening out” in a video — which clearly shows that he is still GAY — not the “ex-gay” he purports and gets paid to be.
Highlighting this bizarre video is important — not simply for a chance “mock” the utter ridiculousness and unprofessional demeanor or Chambers — but to point out his rancid hypocrisy. Exodus does two things:
1) It is a place where clients pay big bucks to “pray away the gay”
2) It enforces strict gender roles and traffics in outdated stereotypes.
Before we go any further, I will remind you that Thomas was Exodus’ political hack and worked hard to take away our equal rights. A report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center in November 2010, analyzing FBI data from 1995 to 2008, found that LGBT people are 2.6 times more likely to be attacked than blacks; 4.4 times more likely than Muslims; 13.8 times more likely than Latinos; and 41.5 times more likely than whites. Still Thomas (pictured on far right) felt obliged to insult the victims of hate crimes by posing in this disgusting ad:
He also worked the political system to try to help pass the Federal Marriage Amendment that would have written LGBT couples out of the US Constitution. Here he is chilling with Karl Rove:
Anyway — Thomas accuses me of “mocking” Chambers — which is true because he deserves it. There is spectacular hypocrisy and serious cognitive dissonance when a man runs an “ex-gay” program obsessed with rigid gender roles, then turns around and prances in a video. Here is the video in question:
Alan Chambers bitterly complained and said he was being “bullied.” He then essentially claimed I was distorting the truth by using old material to represent Exodus:
“And, for the record, Exodus doesn’t help people become masculine or feminine. Those types of things haven’t been around in decades. Your information is outdated an [sic] you know it.”
First, Chambers never apologized for the many lives his organization trashed and destroyed by the methods and techniques he now breezily claims are no longer part of his program. Shouldn’t the people who were harmed by the lipstick seminars and masculinity exercises, at the very least, be given their money back?
Second, the stereotypes peddled by Exodus are not a relic of the past, but a very real part of the modern Exodus literature and programs. Chambers is simply lying when he claims Exodus has changed its tune. For example, the Love Won Out in Atlanta this past weekend sold Janet Boynes book, Called Out. Here is a passage from that book.
“In the years since those early first steps of faith, I have gradually gained confidence as a woman. I know that I have made a fool of myself trying to learn how to walk in heels and there are definitely days when I feel more comfortable in a sweatshirt and blue jeans, but I have been learning little by little. I have grown my hair out and regularly get my nails done.” (p. 67)
Um, sounds like Exodus minister Janet Boynes is doing exactly what Chambers says is outdated. Chambers should explain why Exodus is selling this book promoting gender stereotypes?
If this wasn’t bad enough, Exodus current workbook and DVD set, Hope for Wholeness is a cesspool of gender stereotypes and distortions on masculinity and femininity. Examining this “ex-gay”curriculum reveals an organization fixated on placing men and women in 1950′s gender boxes. The women, in particular, are browbeaten into conforming and portrayed as transforming from “Ugly Dykeling” to “Straight Swan.” Take a look at Exodus current rhetoric that it is selling to its clients for $330:
If masculinity is an achievement — than Alan Chambers obviously has not lived up to the program goals he is peddling to desperate and vulnerable people.
I’d love to know which part of women’s rights Exodus believes had a negative impact. Was it voting or working outside the home? Was it allowing women to control their lives with birth control? Was it allowing women to leave unsatisfying or abusive marriages?
In the above figure, Exodus is selling the lie about gay men being passive and how they can be more assertive. Say, like Alan Chambers, who is so assertive that he can skip on a video and not see how odd it looks for an “ex-gay” activist.
Yes, let’s browbeat girls into becoming Stepford Wives and bully boys until they know not to prance in pubic videos…oh, wait.
Check out the junk pseudoscience and bogus cause and effect relationships that Exodus still uses to this day. it is unbelievable that they want to be taken seriously when they rely on these anachronistic ideas that no credible expert has believed since before Richard Nixon was president.
And here is my favorite — Janet Boynes great “fakeover” — showing that Exodus is nothing, if not a series of “before and after” pictures designed to bilk clients into believing that they can act stereotypically straight if they just place their trust and cash in Exodus.
I’ve vividly shown that Exodus is untruthful when they claim their emphasis on gender boxes is a thing of the past. Chambers “outrage” was nothing more than a cynical tactic to elicit sympathy by playing the victim. As the above evidence show, Chambers and his enablers, such as Thomas, are actually the victimizers.
I’m going to end by expressing my disdain for Thomas, who leveled a gossip-laden passive aggressive smear job on me on his vanity blog.
Commenting on TWO’s PFOX lawsuit he wrote:
My guess is … not that it really matters but I have had run-in’s with both Greg and Wayne … Greg probably said what he said to generate sympathy and support through negative attention seeking. Wayne is doing the same thing to try and raise money from his own activist base of support.
To draw a moral equivalence between Quinlan’s outrageous claim and our trying to raise money to support our lawsuit is unseemly. Perhaps if Exodus had raised more money, Thomas would still have his old job.
Here’s where Thomas’ lack of decency and morality shines through:
But truly, who knows the whole story? What if Greg is repeating something he was told by someone he trusted who was lying or … not? I’ve had people tell me all kinds of horrible things that Wayne has allegedly done and said but I saw it for the gossip it was. I wouldn’t repeat it publicly because I don’t know that it is really true even though I have reason to trust the folks who told me.
First, Thomas is deliberately spewing innuendo and engaging in gossip when he claims, “I’ve had people tell me all kinds of horrible things that Wayne has allegedly done.” Only a sleaze merchant would make such an allegation without backing it up. Please, Randy, name the people and the specific allegations — and if you can’t you shouldn’t be printing such trash. And, if you elect to publish these allegations, please be advised that if they are not true, you and the people involved will be also be facing lawsuits.
The difference between you, Quinlan — and myself — is that I am willing to take both a polygraph and NoLie MRI to prove my innocence. I’m guessing that neither Quinlan, nor yourself, and your alleged friends who made alleged charges would fare so well in such truth-telling tests.
Finally, what really bothers me about Thomas’ rant is that he is not fully disclosing the facts. He writes that he has heard rumors and allegations from unnamed sources that likely only exist in his vivid imagination. Why would he rely on such alleged tales when he has met me in person several times? I believe the last time I had contact with Thomas we dined together at the One-by-One “ex-gay” conference in Orlando, Florida. At lunch, we had a rather civil and pleasant conversation about politics.
Prior to this, Thomas was assigned to monitor me at an Exodus conference in Asheville, NC while I was writing my book, Anything But Straight. Again, the interaction was rather innocuous and we engaged in small talk as he shadowed me. Given this personal interaction, I would think that Thomas would have the dignity and class to clearly state that my in-person behavior at “ex-gay” events and with “ex-gay” activists is non-confrontational and completely respectful. He knows this from experience, yet elected to conceal this fact, and instead spread gossip — which I believe the Bible has something to say about.
Come to think of it, given our pleasant in-person history, I’m considering putting Thomas under oath to testify as a character witness for our side in the PFOX case.
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director Phone: 917-691-5118 E-mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
PFOX President, Greg Quinlan, Falsely Alleged on Television That Gay Advocate Tried to Have Him Killed, Says TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out announced today that it has filed a defamation lawsuit against Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) and its President Greg Quinlan after he claimed on a television show that Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen tried to have him killed. The lawsuit (Case number: CL12000008-00) was filed in Virginia’s Northumberland County Circuit Court where PFOX is headquartered. Norfolk attorney Michael Hamar will represent TWO.
“We will not let PFOX’s outright lies and bizarre fabrications go unanswered,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Greg Quinlan’s false allegations were deviously designed to damage my reputation and that of Truth Wins Out. We look forward to vigorously challenging Quinlan’s delusional version of events and debunking them in a court of law.”
On October 7, 2011 Quinlan was interviewed on News-Plus with Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV). At the 10:38 mark of the show, Quinlan 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 offering the group an opportunity to apologize for their smear campaign. Unfortunately, instead of taking the high road and expressing regret for his false and misleading charges, Quinlan angrily lashed out in a statement posted to the organization’s website:
“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 todefamation. 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, Besen left HRC after five years on good terms to pursue a new career opportunity.
“When people engage in smear campaigns they are usually smart enough not to write lies on their website or make false allegations on television,” said TWOs Besen. “That Quinlan would so brazenly lie in social and mainstream media is incredibly reckless and irresponsible.”
Earlier this month, Truth Wins Out sent an open letter to Montgomery School Superintendent Joshua Starrstrongly urging him to stop disseminating “ex-gay” fliers by PFOX. The virulently anti-gay group distributed 8,000 sheets at five Montgomery County schools, even though Starr calls the fliers “reprehensible and deplorable.”
The letter points out that PFOX board member Peter Sprigg, who works for Southern Poverty Law Center hate group the Family Research Council, once said that he wanted to “export” LGBT people and that he supports criminalizing homosexuality.
In August 2010, PFOX president Greg Quinlan spoke at a conference organized by another SPLC- certified hate group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. In his speech, Quinlan made an outrageous and offensive anti-LGBT slur:
“I wasn’t your flaming faggot, you know,” Quinlan said. “I can say that because I’ve been there and done that. You know, the one’s whose wrists are so limp that when the wind blows they slap themselves in the face. I wasn’t one of them.” (Comment at 8:00-8:13)
At the same-conference, PFOX public speaker and convicted felon, Arthur Abba Goldberg, smeared LGBT people with ugly stereotypes disguised as scientific observation:
“By the way, did you notice that a lot of gays who remain in the gay lifestyle also do a lot of body building,” said Goldberg. “They will be in the gym a lot trying to build up their pecs…Because they have these body image issues and don’t feel they are masculine enough.”
Furthermore, the former president of PFOX, Richard Cohen, was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association for multiple ethics violations. Cohen is the individual most associated with the discredited mental health techniques trumpeted by PFOX.
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Edge Boston reporter, Peter Cassels, wrote an excellent story today detailing the rise of “ex-gay” clinics in South America. According to his thorough and informative report:
A government investigation of so-called “reparative therapy” clinics in Ecuador after allegations of kidnap and torture is placing a spotlight on the ex-gay movement in Latin America.
In early February, gay rights groups filed a complaint with the government’s health ministry after a lesbian reported that she was held against her will in a center near Quito, the country’s capital, for 18 months. During that time, Paola Concha claims she was handcuffed, not fed for several days at a time, forced to dress as a man and repeatedly raped. The story made headlines after Change.org posted a petition asking Ecuador to shut down the clinics.
The movement appeals to both evangelical Christians and Catholics, who together wield enormous clout in the region. “The market in Western Europe and the U.S. is drying up,” Wayne Besen told EDGE. “As Pentecostals gain market share in Latin America, you’re going to see more and more ex-gay outfits.” (It was Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a strong critic of ex-gays, who, acting on a tip, tracked Paulk and photographed him at the Washington gay bar.)
As it is elsewhere, the Internet is pervasive in Latin America. It can function not only as a major tool to communicate but to fuel misinformation, Besen pointed out. “You don’t have to have an official ex-gay ministry to use the paradigm they have created. The right-wing religious communities’ use of misinformation is much greater there and has a lot of breadth.” Rights groups in the region don’t have the resources to strongly respond to reparative therapy advocates, he added.
As we saw in Atlanta this weekend, Exodus International is not drawing the numbers that it once did, as more people come out at younger ages and the failed leaders and bizarre techniques continue to discredit “ex-gay” programs. Yet, we can never forget that “ex-gay” groups can be big business for opportunistic entrepreneurs who who have no qualms exploiting desperate and vulnerable people for a quick buck. These failed groups also present a way for religious zealots to justify discrimination and rationalize the enormous pain and suffering they readily inflict on innocent LGBT people.
So long as prejudice and discrimination exist, there will be a market for “ex-gay” programs — and right now the market is shrinking in the West and growing in Africa, Asia, and South America. Clearly, we will have to organize and fight this poison throughout the world — and I guarantee that Truth Wins Out and others will defeat these evil opportunists as we are getting close to achieving at home.
Truth Wins Out may have to create international chapters in the future, so people can monitor these hate groups, dispel myths, and counter “ex-gay” fiction with facts.
Exodus International continues its notable decline in the United States with another poorly attended Love Won Out conference. Exodus spokesperson Chris Stump said only 400 people were at Midway Church, where the event took place. However, judging by the number of cars in the parking lot and the number of people exiting the building for lunch, it appears that Stump’s generous estimate was a bit of a stretch. Love Won Out is a shell of its former glory when it was administered by Focus on the Family — where the “ex-gay” road show regularly drew more than 1,000 people.
This event was highly anticipated because Exodus President Alan Chambers had recently told a crowd of gay Christians that Exodus was altering its message. Chambers also told the Gay Christian Network: “We’re not here to change you. That is our message. It is something that we have to say. We can’t do that… ‘Change is Possible’ we don’t use that phrase anymore…I’m sorry that that is something that we used.”
Additionally, Chambers admitted: “The majority of people I have met, and the majority meaning 99.9% of them, have not experienced a change in their sexual orientation or have gotten to a place where they can say they have never been tempted or are not tempted in some way or experience some level of same-sex attraction.”
Would these new realities be reflected in Atlanta? Those who follow these groups were more than curious if Love Won Out would take a new tone.
Not surprisingly, Exodus did not turn over a new leaf, but presented the same old tired lies. For example, at the event, Exodus sold an exorbitantly expensive $330 DVD set and workbook, “Hope for Wholeness,” that explicitly touted the “change” that Chambers said his organization no longer promotes. Here are vivid examples taken directly from a Hope for Wholeness workbook that I purchased at Atlanta’s Love Won Out this weekend.
It is time that the LGBT community stops placing even a shard of hope in Exodus President Alan Chambers. He appears to be incapable of telling the truth and lies for sport. He often tries to distance himself from such lies by claiming he is sometimes unaware when local Exodus member ministries use the language of “change.” However, Chambers can’t wiggle his way out of the fact that his picture is on the back of the nine-part “Hope for Wholeness” DVD set and he is described as one of its “teachers.” (Pictured top left)
Additionally, this DVD-set featured Desert Stream ministries activist Andy Comisky, who calls homosexuality “spiritual disfigurement.” Comisky wrote in his book, Pursuing Sexual Wholeness that “Satan delights in homosexual perversion because it not only exists outside of marriage, but it also defiles God’ very image reflected as male and female…Another related source of demonization is the homosexual relationship itself…That attachment and communion are indeed inspired, but their source is demonic.”
Exodus also was selling Jeanette Howard’s book, “Out of Egypt: One Woman’s Journey Out of Lesbianism.” In her book she writes, “Choosing to leave the lesbian life brings us into direct conflict with the satanic realm….only when we understand and implement spiritual warfare can our walk into wholeness be successful.”
Clearly, Exodus has not changed its ugly and bigoted rhetoric as Chambers claimed at the GCN conference. What he did was use his platform at GCN to strategically reposition Exodus’ brand by making the group appear more mainstream. While many people were not fooled, there were some gullible activists who believed Chambers, in spite of robust evidence that contradicted the Exodus leaders false and misleading claims.
To protest these lies, Truth Wins Out joined Get Equal GA and several local Atlanta organizations, including the Queer Justice League, to demonstrate outside the mega-church where Love Won Out was being held on Saturday. The demonstration brought out 50 people.
On Friday, Truth Wins Out and the Southern Poverty Law Center held a press conference to discuss the dangers of Exodus. SPLC’s Sam Wolfe and I spoke, as well as “ex-gay” survivor Chaim Levin. ProjectQAtlanta videotaped Chaim’s powerful testimony:
On Thursday, TWO’s Wayne Besen, SPLC’s Wolfe and Ashley Jackson and Levin hosted held a compelling seminar on the harm caused by “ex-gay” programs. A fascinating panel discussion took place following our multimedia presentations. The local panelists included:
Jon Diggs: National Certified Counselor – Evolution Project (AID Atlanta)
Rev T.J. McGiffert; Chaplain at Dekalb Medical and SoulForce Member
Rev Paul Turner; Pastor of Gentle Spirit Church
Dr. Gwen Davies; Licensed Psychologist – Clinical Director at Positive Impact
Mrs. Patti Ellis; Activist Mother of Gay Son – Runs Website FamilyAcceptance.com
Allen Peebles; Ex-Gay Survivor
Rev Tony Jones; Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church
Special thanks to GetEQUAL GA’s Paul Schappaugh and the Queer Justice League’s Art Izzard. Both men did an amazing job organizing and were the driving force behind our efforts to counter the “ex-gay” myth in Atlanta. Truth Wins Out was honored to work with them and we are thankful for their warm hospitality while we were in Atlanta.
The anti-gay/”ex-gay” bigot set have reacted in different ways to the (not at all new) phenomenon of gay kids being rejected and bullied so relentlessly that they end up killing themselves. Some of them have stayed mostly quiet about it, perhaps sensing on some level that their ideology is the root of what hurts these kids. Others have been openly disgusting on the issue, blaming the gay community for trying to help these kids, and sometimes going so far as to blame the kids themselves.
Hi, “ex-gay” train wreck, D.L. Foster. What have you to say about gay kids and Dan Savage? That Dan should be arrested for trying to help? As Joe said, if it’s the will of whatever god D.L. worships for these kids to kill themselves, I guess we’re not supposed to interfere.
A Brooklyn Rabbi, Yehuda Levin, wrote that gay men should consider chemical castration “as you do with cancer” to stop their same-sex feelings. Levin made his comments in a Letter to the Editor in response to a groundbreaking op-ed written in the Jewish Press by Chaim Levin. (No relation). The op-ed was important because it was the first time that this conservative publication published a column written from the perspective of an openly gay former Orthodox Jew.
“As you do with cancer, you never stop trying to find a better treatment to cure yourself,” wrote Rabbi Yehuda Levin in his Jewish Press letter. “If all therapies fail, as a last resort you use chemicals to stop the urge to act in a forbidden manner. (This resolution is ordered by European courts for offenders and it works.) Unpleasant, surely; but better than committing adultery, homosexuality or incest.”
Rabbi Levin’s medieval mindset is an embarrassment to Judaism and he should be deeply ashamed of himself. Levin’s anti-gay comments were cruel and insensitive to Jews everywhere who have felt the sting of intolerance and discrimination.
Rabbi Levin, who leads Congregation Mevakshei Hashem in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, is no stranger to anti-gay controversies. Last year he made news by claiming that the new marriage equality law in New York helped cause the earthquake that shook the East Coast. The rabbi opposed a gay pride parade in Jerusalem in 2010 calling it a “sodomy celebration” and “nothing less than the spiritual rape of the Holy Land.”
However, Levin is most remembered for helping GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino write anti-gay remarks that badly backfired. After Paladino retreated and apologized to the LGBT community, Levin dropped his support complaining that the politician, “folded like a cheap camera.”
Clearly, Rabbi Yehuda Levin is the Jewish version of Fred Phelps, the hateful Kansas preacher best known for protesting LGBT events with “God Hates Fags” signs. The fact that so many anti-gay organizations team up with him proves that they will scrape the bottom of the barrel to show that their ‘Christian Nation’ agenda has diverse support.
Indeed, Levin is a member of the advisory committee of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation. Last month, the rabbi joined some of America’s most radical extremists to protest the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling a few anti-gay organizations “hate groups.”
The Rabbi was angered after he read an historic op-ed in the Jewish Press by Chaim Levin, who detailed being abused at the hands of a therapist referred by the “ex-gay” organization Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH). The co-founder of JONAH, Arthur Abba Goldberg, is a convicted felon who concealed his lurid past until it was uncovered in a joint Truth Wins Out and South Florida Gay News investigation. Chaim originally spoke out about the harm caused by reparative therapy in a video produced by Truth Wins Out.
The reaction to Chaim’s Jewish Press op-ed by anti-gay activists was ferocious. According to the newspaper: “Following the publication of this op-ed, a number of Jewish Press advertisers were approached and threatened. They were told to stop advertising with the Jewish Press.”
Instead of backing down, the Jewish Press wrote a brave editorial defending Levin’s op-ed and boldly claimed that, “The Jewish Press won’t be silenced.” In support of the publication, TWO started an online Change.org petition that generated more than 3,000 letters from people who thanked the Jewish Press for their bravery and fairness.
Levin is not the only Jewish anti-gay extremist making news. Australia’s Rabbi Shimon Cowen published a report that claimed an effective way to counter anti-Semitic bullying is to funnel public money away from anti-homophobia bullying campaigns.
Last week, TWO’s Director of Communications & Development John Becker did a last-minute interview with progressive talk phenom David Pakman about Alan Chambers’ confusing statement that it’s impossible to pray away the gay. Unless you’re Alan Chambers, who was able to… err, what was that? As David and John discussed (and as Wayne wrote in the latest TWO Special Report), it will be interesting to see how Chambers and Exodus spin this going forward, both at next week’s Love Won Out conference in Atlanta and beyond.
Here is the truth: When one reads such idiotic notions it is a reminder of why the entire field of “ex-gay” therapy should be easily dismissed and not taken seriously. Such therapy exists, not as science, but as a cynical public relations stunt designed to trick people into thinking the medical field echos the opinions of fundamentalist Christians on homosexuality.
