FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

‘We’d Be Delighted to Expose Her Bigotry in a Court of Law and the Court of Public Opinion,’ Says TWO’s Wayne Besen

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Truth Wins Out responded today to a frivolous lawsuit threat by Linda Harvey, an anti-gay talk radio host and the president of Mission America. Harvey warned Truth Wins Out of possible legal action in a Twitter post this afternoon. Harvey was upset about a column that TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen wrote about her titled, “The Most Homophobic Woman in America.” She was also angry that the column linked her to supporting Uganda’s draconian “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”

“Bring it on,” says Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We hope that such a case would be aired on television so we can expose Harvey’s vile words in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. It’s bizarre that Harvey is upset because we quoted her verbatim, which tells me that on some level she is ashamed of her own hateful rhetoric.”

Truth Wins Out has obtained the services of notable Fort Lauderdale attorney Norm Kent, who is also the publisher of South Florida Gay News. Kent says it is likely that Harvey’s threat is empty because her claim has no merit.

“Linda Harvey’s legal threats are frivolous and if they rested on any shakier legal ground they would be measured by the Richter Scale. I can only surmise her tweets are a pathetic and desperate ploy for attention,” said attorney Norm Kent. “We look forward to her next move and will take appropriate action.”

The centerpiece of Harvey’s tweet was that she “never advocated for killing anyone” in Uganda. While it is true that Harvey never explicitly said, “I want to kill gay people in Uganda,” she admits during a March 2010 speech at Grosse Pointe, Michigan tha

t she and anti-gay activist Scott Lively actually worked on the anti-homosexuality bill, which would imprison and murder LGBT people in that country. According to Harvey’s speech:

“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”

“Harvey was either remarkably ignorant or clearly lying through her teeth at the Michigan event when she falsely claimed that the intent of Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill was only to punish pedophiles,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “In reality, LGBT people could be murdered by the state for a charge called ‘aggravated homosexuality’ which basically means they were accused of having sexual relations on more than one occasion. In her talk, Harvey clearly supported imprisonment and possibly capital punishment for LGBT people in Uganda when she flippantly stated that, ‘The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business.’ Obviously, the business she breezily refers to is the hunting down of innocent LGBT Ugandans for the purpose of imprisonment or worse.”

Truth Wins Out’s Evan Hurst and John Becker compiled a short list of quotes from Harvey so readers can see the deep intensity of her anti-LGBT views.

According to her bio: Harvey hosts a radio show on the Salem Network station in Columbus, OH, (WRFD 880 AM), and airs a weekly commentary on the Moody Radio Network. She is also a frequent guest on talk shows coast to coast, a regular columnist for World Net Daily and is interviewed by state and national media outlets. Harvey has been a conference speaker at numerous pro-family meetings including conferences held by Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Heartbeat International, American Family Association, Americans for Truth, and XChange. In addition, Mrs. Harvey has spoken on Capitol Hill and testified numerous times before state legislative committees. She serves on the National Pro-Family Forum and the Ohio Pro-Family Forum.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism and the “ex-gay” myth. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

The Embassy of Uganda had a huge shindig this weekend at the same hotel as the Values Voter Summit. It is unclear if the events were related, but several people did appear to be shuttling in and out of both ballrooms. Considering that American evangelicals played a critical role in Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, the timing of the embassy event was a bit suspicious, if not disturbing — and worth noting.

Truth Wins Out discovered that the party included the unnerving presence of a Ugandan General who was engrossed in a private meeting at a table in the back of the hotel lobby with an American guy who I could not quite place.

Ugandan leaders have been intimately tied to the US fundamentalist group, The Family, which hosts the annual National Prayer Breakfast. The war on LGBT people in Uganda continues and the nation’s first gay bar was recently padlocked.

The owner of Uganda’s first openly gay bar says her establishment has been shut down, the latest setback for gays and lesbians in this conservative East African nation.

Jacqueline Kasha said Thursday that her Sappho Islands bar was padlocked by the landlord on Sunday. The landlord said the bar was noisy and attracted “strange” people.

This is good news, but the fight obviously isn’t over:

Uganda’s parliament has adjourned without debating a controversial bill which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

It had been reported that a vote could be held on Friday.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been condemned by Western leaders and human rights groups, some of whom are celebrating “victory”.

The bill, first introduced in 2009, could still be brought up when the new parliament meets later this year.

David Bahati said, though, that he wants to reintroduce the bill when the new parliament comes back in February.  More chapters, sadly, will be written in this story.

Well, this is a minuscule step:

The Ugandan parliamentarian behind an anti-gay bill that attracted worldwide condemnation said the most controversial part of the legislation — the death penalty provision — is likely to be dropped from the bill.

David Bahati said if the parliament committee the bill currently sits before recommends that the death penalty provision be removed, “I would concede.”

“The death penalty is something we have moved away from,” Bahati told The Associated Press in an interview.

Good. Now move away from the entire bigoted bill.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gay Man Claims Ssempa Paid Him To Say He Was ‘Ex-Gay’; Ssempa’s ‘Ex-Gay’ Also Testified in Favor of Anti-Homosexuality Bill Under What Appears to be Coercion and Duress

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Truth Wins Out today called on Ugandan authorities to investigate anti-gay activist Martin Ssempa (pictured) for potential extortion, perjury and fraud, following the New York Times’ discovery that Ssempa may have paid and pressured a witness to give false testimony in favor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

In a last ditch effort to bring the “Kill the Gays” bill up for a vote, Ssempa brought so-called “ex-gay” activist George Oundo to a meeting with the speaker of Parliament, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi. In the meeting, Oundo said that he had gone from gay-to-straight and strongly urged the speaker to pass the notorious measure.

However, with Ssempa no longer present, Oundo (pictured left) reversed his testimony and told New York Times reporter Josh Kron that he was paid by Ssempa to say he had gone straight and actually opposed the anti-gay bill. Clearly, there appears to be coercion, if not extortion involved, given Oundo’s quick repudiation of his testimony and his allegation that he was paid for delivering a bogus sexual conversion tale.

“Something stinks in Martin Ssempa’s corrupt campaign to get a vote,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Ugandan authorities should immediately launch an investigation of Ssempa to find out if he has engaged in coercion or illegal activity in pursuit of passing the Anti-Homosexuality bill.”

The following is what was written in today’s New York Times:

Mr. George Oundo, 26, a transgender person who used to go by the name Georgina, went next. (testifying to Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi)

“I used to call myself the Queen Mother and Lady of the City,” Mr. Oundo said. “I was recruited into homosexuality many years back, when I was 12.”

“When I joined Mr. Ssempa, I told him all my problems,” he said. “I had to come out and join the struggle.

“Please help us; let the bill pass,” he said.

But an hour later, in a quiet hotel, Mr. Oundo recanted much of what had been said at the meeting.

“David Kato was murdered; it was a plot,” Mr. Oundo said. “I don’t support the bill.”

As for being a “former homosexual,” that, too, was not true.

I’ve always been gay,” Mr. Oundo said, in a timid but growing voice. “I didn’t choose it.

“David Kato was the first one who taught me to protect my human right,” Mr. Oundo added.

Mr. Oundo said that his presence alongside Mr. Ssempa at Parliament had been to “protect” himself and that he had been contacted only that morning by Mr. Kagaba about the meeting and offered about $42 to attend. He said Mr. Ssempa had offered him about $2,000 in 2009 to repent and switch sides in the debate, but later reneged. Either way, Mr. Oundo became a poster-child for Mr. Ssempa’s anti-homosexuality movement.

Mr. Ssempa declined to comment on the allegations.

Mr. Oundo admitted that he had picked up boyfriends at high schools and universities, what the antigay movement calls recruiting. But he said Uganda’s gay population was full of “natural-borns,” like himself.

“If I live or die, I am gay, and if I am buried, bury me gay,” he said.

“It is clear that George Oundo came under an inordinate amount of pressure to lie about his sexual orientation and suppress his actual position on the this bill,” said TWO’s Besen. “Ugandan officials should question Ssempa to see if blackmail, extortion or fraud led to Oundo’s false testimony. If it is determined that Ssempa lied or forced Oundo to lie at any time under oath, he should be charged with perjury. Martin Ssempa should not be above the law.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

Jim Burroway has done the hard work of reading and summarizing a variety of cables exposed by WikiLeaks and posted in The Guardian.

One cable I found particularly interesting came after Rick Warren was forced to distance himself from the Ugandan bill and its proponents, because it so completely captures how and why anti-gay sentiment is being used to distract the people’s attention from what’s really wrong in that country.  It happens all over Africa every day, and in many other countries around the world.  Indeed, it happens in our own [see: Tea Party movement], and it’s what happens when ruling classes learn how to train their citizens to react like peasants, ready to scapegoat a minority at a moment’s notice.  Here’s what the US diplomat had to say at that time:

Recent condemnations by Warren and other U.S. based individuals have further isolated Bahati. His homophobia, however, is blinding and incurable. Bahati, Buturo, and particularly Ssempa’s ability to channel popular anger over Uganda’s socio-political failings into violent hatred of a previously unpopular but tolerated minority is chilling. XXXXXXXXXXXX described Ssempa as an anti-homosexuality “extremist.” XXXXXXXXXXXX said he opposes the legislation not because he favors homosexuality, but because legalizing persecution of homosexuals is the first step toward state sponsored persecution of other minority groups.

Emphasis mine. But doesn’t that sound familiar? Think back to every Republican “family values” campaign in the past thirty years, as they have scapegoated gay people, who have nothing to do with the admitted failures of the patriarchal “family” model in the United States. I have said many times that we should be careful not to simply think of Uganda as “over there,” but, especially with the influence American Evangelicals have had on the process in that nation, understand that patriarchal, “pro-family” forces will simply do what they can get away with in a given society. They know that their views are increasingly socially unacceptable in modern, civilized nations, but when they go to Uganda and other places, it’s a far different story.

The full cables and more analysis are over at Box Turtle Bulletin.

(Weekly Column)

The American fundamentalist group, The Family, has to make an important strategic choice. It can have its influential National Prayer Breakfast each February in Washington, or it can have its Anti-Homosexuality Bill become law in Uganda. It likely cannot have both.

It would be naïve for this secretive and powerful organization to believe that it can turn Uganda into a concentration camp for gay and lesbian people without transforming its signature affair into a symbol of such oppression. It would be madness for The Family to think it can sell the loving Higher Path Jesus at their breakfast, while unleashing its anti-gay Psychopath Jesus in Kampala.

If The Family does not kill the Anti-Homosexuality Bill before it becomes law, the cruel piece of legislation will end up killing The Family, by stripping it of its moral authority and tying its members to genocide. What respectable politician would want to attend an event marred by protests and hosted by human rights abusers?

Last year, a prominent member of The Family, David Bahati, wrote and introduced The Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament. In Jeff Sharlet’s latest book, “C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy”, the bill’s author said he believes that homosexuality is worse than murder and calls it “a threat to our existence”.

Aside from persecuting LGBT people and snuffing out their right to exist, the bill punishes anyone who offers support or friendship. Some of its provisions:

• Three years in prison for failure to report a gay person to authorities within 24-hours of disclosure
• Seven years in prison for “promotion”, which includes activism or simply acknowledging that homosexuality exists
• Life imprisonment for one homosexual act
• The death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” (which includes sex while HIV-positive, sex with a disabled person, or sex more than once, marking the person as a “serial offender”)

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was put on the backburner last year after the National Prayer Breakfast was protested. The efforts to shine a light on The Family’s activities led to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the bill at the event.

Unfortunately, Bahati has revived the bill, claiming it will pass and “close the door to homosex”. Last week, he made a trip to The United States to furtively rally support for his efforts. The Ugandan legislator says that he has strong support in America, but his prominent evangelical friends are afraid to publicly back him because they fear reprisals.

Indeed, Bahati believes he is vindicating his American friends who have lost the culture war against LGBT equality. The grand plan is for Uganda to be used as a proxy in a global war against homosexuality. Once the bill passes in Uganda, the hope is to spread copycat bills throughout Africa. These conservative African nations can then be used as vivid examples to Western countries of how to re-stigmatize homosexuality. Of course, the larger utopian fantasy is to use homosexuality as a wedge issue to establish theocracies across the planet.

We should take this effort very seriously and make it clear to The Family that there will be consequences for such bloodlust. A few of the options include:

• Working to have Congress cut off all foreign aid to Uganda
• Large demonstrations at The National Prayer Breakfast
• Denying Ugandan officials visas to America
• Denying prominent members of The Family visas to Uganda
• Stripping David Bahati of his degrees at the University of Cardiff and the University of Pennsylvania
• Exploring efforts to prosecute Bahati, and others affiliated with this bill, for crimes against humanity.
• A media campaign exposing The Family

Bahati justifies his planned purge by disguising it as a morality campaign to protect Ugandan children from predatory Western gay men. However, he has put forth no credible evidence to back his bizarre assertions, and all available information points to an eliminationist witch-hunt against innocent people.

Bahati also rationalizes his cruelty by saying that Ugandans support his bill. Of course, the bill’s popularity and the demonization of LGBT people are only maintained through artificial means. To tar homosexuals as despised villains, Bahati and his goons have to create a repressive culture where free speech is stifled, LGBT people can’t come out, pro-gay allies are punished for “promoting” homosexuality, the media is cowed, and a robust smear campaign is relentlessly waged with no opposition.

Incredibly, Bahati plays the imperialist card, arguing Americans should stay out of his nation’s business, even as he hypocritically does the bidding for American evangelicals that made his career.

In the name of God, these thugs and theocrats are playing God with the lives of LGBT people across the globe. The only Family these tyrants remind me of is The Sopranos – except they are more sadistic. It is time civilized people stand up to such Bible-based barbarism before it is too late. A good place to start is at The National Prayer Breakfast.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton reports that David Bahati, author of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, was denied entry to an economic summit in Washington, DC.

He arrived mid morning and was informed of the decision. It turns out that we didn’t have his proper e-mail address for his phone. There was a frank but calm discussion and Mr. Bahati was not able to enter the building.

There is heavy speculation that Bahati used the economic meeting as a front to coordinate his anti-gay eliminationist campaign with prominent evangelicals — such as the C Street Family.

If you are in DC or New York City and happen to see this madman, do not hesitate to confront him. He is our Hitler and should be treated accordingly. Make it very clear to him that we will not willingly walk into his prisons or death chambers without a fight.

Bahati will be on the Rachel Maddow show this evening to discuss his psychotic fixation with LGBT people — who are innocent and have done nothing to harm him. Yet, he wants us imprisoned or dead.

In my view, Bahati’s visa should be denied and he should immediately be arrested and deported. The United States and other civilized nations should make Bahati and anyone connected to the Kill the Gays bill international pariahs. If the bill passes, he should be arrested for crimes against humanity.

This video is an example of what this atrocious monster has done to peoples’ lives.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010

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

TWO Pledges To Help Educate The World Bank About PFOX’s Record of Hate and Harm

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out today praised the World Bank’s plan to eliminate matching funds for the “ex-gay” hate group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), and called it a “positive step in the right direction.” The bank took this extraordinary step after learning more about PFOX’s reprehensible record and strong objections from staff who were upset PFOX had been included on the World Bank’s list of approved charities.

“We are grateful that the World Bank ensured that taxpayers will not be subsidizing PFOX’s anti-gay campaign,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We pledge to continue educating the World Bank on this vital issue. The more they learn about PFOX’s history of hate and harm, the less likely they will consider PFOX a legitimate charity.”

Last week, Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner discovered that a small number of anti-gay staff-members at the World Bank had recommended PFOX as a charity for this year’s Community Connections Campaign. World Bank matching funds were to be given to the chosen charities. Depending on the level of employee participation, the bank’s matching funds are either 50 percent or 100 percent of the employee donations.

Truth Wins Out and Change.org launched an online petition to drop PFOX from the list of charities. World Bank staff  also made a persuasive case against using taxpayer funds to assist PFOX. The World Bank decided to take another look at PFOX and elected to change their guidelines. According to the new rules:

Bank-matching funds will be provided to those organizations that have, through prior participation, established a track record of support with staff. Organizations that have come on the list this year will not be offered matching funds in this year’s campaign, though the Bank will match any contribution that has been made to this latter group prior to today, November 15, 2010. We will review the new organizations after one year, to see if they have the staff and community support to warrant a match in the FY12 campaign.

Truth Wins Out preferred that PFOX be completely dropped from the list this year, but is satisfied with this interim measure that starves the hate group of taxpayer funds. In 2011, TWO will disseminate key information to World Bank staff and management to ensure they are aware of PFOX’s dubious record.

“It is a shame that other first time charitable organizations will have to suffer because of PFOX’s unseemly presence,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Sadly, the PFOX baby is so toxic that the bathwater had to be flushed to avoid contaminating the entire program’s reputation.”

In August, two key members of PFOX spoke at the “Truth Academy”. The conference was hosted by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s founder Peter LaBarbera, whose website was listed as an official “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

At the Truth Academy, PFOX Board President Greg Quinlan raised eyebrows with an offensive speech. Quinlan explained how he allegedly went from gay-to-straight, and found support from an Assemblies of God Church that accepted him because he allegedly was not effeminate.

“I wasn’t your flaming faggot, you know,” Quinlan told the chuckling crowd. “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.”

At the same conference, Arthur Abba Goldberg, the convicted Wall Street thief who runs PFOX’s speakers bureau, demonstrated PFOX’s unscientific use of stereotypes.

“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 Abba 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.”

“PFOX is a dangerous organization that traffics in ugly slurs and crass stereotypes,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Given PFOX’s level of vitriol, it would seem reckless and irresponsible to give this group charitable status in the future.”

PFOX’s former board President is Richard Cohen, who still serves as the “therapy” guru of the organization. Cohen runs the International Healing Foundation and sent his protégé, Caleb Lee Brundidge, to Uganda. The result of his visit was the introduction of the deadly and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association on March 23, 2002 for multiple ethics violations.

PFOX is an anti-gay political organization founded in 1998 by Anthony Falzarano with the help of an $80,000 Family Research Council grant. Falzarano once called University of Wyoming hate crime victim Matthew Shepard a “predator to heterosexual men.” He also said on CBS News that, “AIDS comes directly from Satan. He uses homosexuals as pawns and then he kills them.”

“PFOX likes to claim that they ‘love’ LGBT people,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “But their syrupy rhetoric does not match their record, nor reality. From the moment this organization was founded, it showed open hostility and extreme animus towards LGBT people.”

There are also lingering questions as to whether PFOX should have been listed as a charity, given that to be included in the World Bank’s Community Outreach Program, an organization is required to have, “a substantial local presence in the Greater Washington metropolitan area.”

PFOX fails to fulfill the criteria. The organization is based in Reedville, VA — placing PFOX 127 miles — and a two hour and forty minute drive — southeast of the nation’s capitol. PFOX also does not list any legitimate chapters in DC or Virginia. The only “contact” e-mail listed in DC or VA is that of the national organization based in Reedville.

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.

Greg Quinlan audio of Truth Academy speech:

Arthur Abba Goldberg’s Truth Academy Speech:

Richard Cohen’s Odd Behavior:

PFOX Endorsed Therapy

Viciously anti-gay Ugandan MP David Bahati says it still will become law:

The member of the Ugandan Parliament behind a controversial “anti-gay” bill that would call for stiff penalties against homosexuality — including life imprisonment and the death penalty — says that the bill will become law “soon.”

“We are very confident,” David Bahati told CNN, “because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children.”

Governments that have donated aid to Uganda and human rights groups applied massive pressure since the bill was proposed a year ago, and most believed that the bill had been since shelved.

Not so, says Bahati, adding, “Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes.”

Who knows how much weight should be given to Bahati’s words here, but things are getting scarier and scarier for gays and lesbians in Uganda.