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.
Contact: John Becker, Director of Communications & Development
Phone: 920-265-6023
Email: john@truthwinsout.org
Truth Wins Out Denounces Former Archbishop of Canterbury For Defending ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy
Archbishop Must Apologize Immediately for Embracing ‘Ex-Gay’ Lies, Says TWO
Burlington, Vt. — Truth Wins Out denounced Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, today for signing a letter in support of Lesley Pilkington, a British “Christian” psychotherapist suspended for professional malpractice after she was caught offering ex-gay therapy to an undercover journalist.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy unanimously ruled last May that Pilkington acted recklessly, disrespectfully, dogmatically and unprofessionally. The BACP suspended her accreditation and threatened to revoke it entirely if she failed to complete “extensive training and professional development.” Yesterday, Lord Carey and several other clerics issued a letter to the BACP defending Pilkington, saying that ex-gay therapy “does not produce harm.”
“Lord Carey’s defense of so-called ‘ex-gay therapy’ is simply appalling,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “The ‘pray away the gay’ lie has been denounced by every major organization of medical and mental health professionals, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, because the truth is that it doesn’t work and actually harms people. If Carey would like to meet survivors who were gravely harmed by ‘ex-gay’ therapy we would be more than happy to arrange such a meeting.”
“Whether Lord Carey’s embrace of discredited ex-gay propaganda was intentional or simply ignorant, we are astonished by the lack of respect it shows to LGBT Anglicans,” added John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications & Development. “The former archbishop should apologize immediately and recant his dangerous words before they cause any more LGBT people to hate or hurt themselves.”
The letter alleges that reparative therapy “does not produce harm despite the Royal College of Psychiatrists and others maintaining the contrary” and that “people who seek, freely, to resolve unwanted same-sex attractions hold the moral right to receive professional assistance.”
“This attempt to claim the moral high ground is utterly absurd,” said Becker. “None of these clerics have a shred of medical or psychiatric training, and the idea that they’re even remotely qualified to overrule scientific consensus is ridiculous on its face. Lies told in the name of God are still lies.”
“Far from being mainstream, Lord Carey’s views are extreme,” added Besen. “Instead of parroting discredited ex-gay talking points, the former archbishop should bring his outmoded beliefs into the 21st century and recognize that LGBT people are fine just the way they are.”
Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
So sad. News has been circulating the past couple days of the suicide of eighth grader Phillip Parker from Gordonsville, Tennessee:
A Gordonsville boy’s parents say bullying caused their son to take his own life. Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay.
More than 100 people gathered in Gordonsville on Saturday night, grieving the loss of Phillip.
“He was fun, he was energetic, he was happy,” said Gena Parker, Phillip’s mother.
To his many friends, Phillip was known as the boy who told everyone they’re beautiful.
“He kept telling me he had a rock on his chest,” said Ruby Harris, Phillip’s grandmother. “He just wanted to take the rock off where he could breathe.”
Phillip’s family said they reported their concerns over their son’s bullying to Gordonsville High School on multiple occasions, but the bullying by a group of students just got worse.
Like many kids who are bullied, it seems that Phillip did his best to shoulder the burden alone, so his family didn’t really know the extent of what he was going through. This past weekend, representatives from the Tennessee Equality Project met some current and former teachers at Phillip’s school, and what they found was sadly unexpected. The bullying in school was systemic, and on top of that, Phillip heard religious bullying from pastors, and presumably from fellow churchgoers:
While attending Saturday’s conference, H.G. Stovall and I met a former teacher who knew Phillip while he attended Gordonsville Elementary School. Tears flowed as she told us that Philip had endured years of anti-gay bullying at the school and that bullying in general at Gordonsville Elementary School often goes unaddressed by faculty and staff. She knew of several students who had to transfer to other schools to escape the harassment. This educator also knew Phillip had endured anti-gay preaching from the pulpit of his church.
[...]
We were able to speak to one of Phillip’s teachers. Sadly, she confirmed the same stories we had heard the day before about Philip’s experience at school and at church. She recalled learning that his pastor had recently told him to “pray the devil out him, so he could be straight.” His teacher also remembered that beneath his inner turmoil Philip was always smiling and would often tell his peers how beautiful they were.
For a while now, I’ve been making the point, probably at least once a week, that the message of the Religious Right to LGBT people IS bullying, and it’s not just the icing on the cake. Without the messages coming from the pulpit and from other adults who unfortunately command respect, kids in the schoolyard wouldn’t automatically equate “gay” with “bad,” and wouldn’t feel such a license to make another child’s life a living hell over their sexuality. Sure, kids will always be kids, and no anti-bullying program will eliminate all schoolyard taunts. But the sooner we make the solid connection, as a society, that the kind of bullying that causes gay and questioning kids to feel such despair that they end their young lives, comes directly from adult bullies like the pastor who urged Phillip to “pray away the gay” [to think that people think we're being hyperbolic when we use that phrase...], the sooner we’ll reach a time when I won’t have to write articles about kids killing themselves every damned week.
Mike Goeke of some pray away the gay outfit called Cross Power Ministries:
The truth is that homosexuality IS different. It is not different as a “sin.” God sees the sin of homosexual expression as He sees all sin. It is different, however, in that no other sin (or, better said, an identity based primarily on sinful behavior) has impacted, or is likely to impact, culture in the dramatic way that homosexuality has done and will do.
Homosexuality is the only sinful behavior that has a cultural identity and movement surrounding it. What other sin is encouraged to be celebrated? What other sin has a “pride” movement attached to it? What other sin are people so quick to identify their lives by and to adopt as the defining characteristic of their lives? There are not greed pride parades, or people proclaiming on magazine covers “Yes, I’m a gossip.” There are not gluttony neighborhoods or bars where liars openly gather. Men and women don’t proudly self-identify as promiscuous. There are many people who are pro-choice and many who admit to having an abortion, but there are few who celebrate the fact that they had abortions. In fact, if you exclude random individuals like Charlie Sheen, few people would want their sin attached to their name and fewer would proudly boast in their sinful activity.
Homosexuality is also the only sinful behavior that has a growing, accepted theology built around it. Sure, there are fringe “religious” movements for odd things, but within the realm of Christianity there is no other revisionist theological movement based on identity primarily defined by sinful behavior. Denominations are crumbling and fracturing over how to deal with the issue of homosexuality and how to integrate people openly identified as gay or openly practicing homosexual behavior.
First off: There are totally gluttony neighborhoods. Wherever two or three chain restaurants gather in suburbs in the shadow of megachurches and shopping malls, we are dealing with gluttony neighborhoods.
But moreover, perhaps dude should take a step back and say “Wait a minute. Homosexuality IS different. There are millions of healthy, happy, wonderful gay and lesbian people who contribute as much or more to society than I do! And all these other sins I’m naming have actual consequences that I and my counterparts can actually verify, rather than just lying or making them up like we usually do for gayness. Maybe everything I believe is not only wrong, but damn wrong, and I should re-examine things.”
But nah. Wingnut too far gone to face reality. Oh well.
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Wednesday announcement that she is ending her White House bid comes as no surprise. While the Minnesota congresswoman was one of the first GOP candidates to experience a surge in the polls last summer as the party’s base searched frantically for a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney (she even won the Iowa straw poll in August), her campaign had been dogged by a series of high-profile missteps.
They included: suggesting that cervical cancer vaccines cause “mental retardation,” pledging to close the non-existent American embassy in Tehran, reassigning the location of the “shot heard ‘round the world” to New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts, and confusing movie star John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
The withering heat of the presidential vetting process also yielded an embarrassing and disturbing revelation about Bachmann: The “Christian counseling” clinic that she co-owns with her husband, Marcus, offers so-called “ex-gay therapy” that purports to turn clients from gay to straight.
The Bachmanns had long denied that their clinic endorsed this form of “therapy,” which has no basis in research, inflicts substantial harm to patients who are falsely told they can “pray away the gay,” and is denounced by every mainstream professional medical and mental health organization. However, working for the LGBT rights group Truth Wins Out and at the behest of founder Wayne Besen, I conducted an undercover, hidden-camera investigation last summer that provided incontrovertible proof of reparative therapy taking place at Bachmann & Associates.
TWO’s investigation disrupted the momentum of Rep. Bachmann’s campaign, highlighting the congresswoman’s virulently anti-LGBT views and the extent to which those views are out of step with those of most Americans. It helped to define the public perception of Michele and Marcus Bachmann as religious extremists, drew attention to her long legislative record of anti-LGBT bigotry, and made it more difficult for her to recast herself as a mainstream presidential candidate.
Equally important, it cast a glaring spotlight on ex-gay therapy and helped reinvigorate the ongoing national conversation around this issue.
However, we shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking that today’s announcement will mean we’ve heard the last from Michele Bachmann. She will return to Congress, where she will undoubtedly remain a forceful opponent of any and all efforts to advance LGBT equality. Bowing out of the presidential race allows Bachmann to focus her time and effort on her upcoming congressional re-election campaign in Minnesota, where it’s probable that she’ll lend her now-amplified voice to the effort to pass a proposed constitutional amendment banning any recognition of same-sex marriages or civil unions in that state. And Rep. Bachmann will most likely intensify her homophobia now that she no longer has to concern herself with attempting to appear presidential.
Finally, let’s not forget that the field of remaining presidential candidates is littered with homophobes, including a now-surging Rick Santorum, who most recently stated that his administration would attempt to forcibly divorce legally married same-sex couples.
So while the end of Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign is undoubtedly a positive development for America’s LGBT community, it’s definitely not cause for complacency. To the contrary, our efforts to protect and expand upon the victories we’ve achieved must intensify, because in this election year, our opponents are just getting started.
Note: this op-ed was written for, and initially appeared at, the Advocate.
Screen shot: Andy Towle
I wrote about this when it happened a few weeks ago, but here is CBN reporting on Exodus’ Alan Chambers being named World magazine’s “Daniel of the Year.” At first I figured they called it that in allusion to the Biblical character of Daniel and the whole lion’s den story, but maybe “Daniel” is just some guy who likes dudes but is married to a lady, which would make Alan Chambers a perfect recipient.
In that report, I love where they mention the Exodus iPhone app being pulled during 2011. In case you forgot, we did that.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
New Ex-Gay Watch Report Says Exodus International Trying to Repackage Lies As the Group is on the Brink of Collapse
Burlington, Vt. – Truth Wins Out warned the LGBT community today not to be fooled by future rebranding efforts by the “ex-gay” organization Exodus International, which is looking to retool as it stands on the precipice of collapse. The desperate state of Exodus was revealed in an exclusive story by Ex-Gay Watch today, which reported that talk of an Exodus makeover occurred during an emergency meeting that focused on the group’s solvency.
“The problem with Exodus International is that it peddles a faulty product that causes harm to its clients,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Rebranding efforts for Exodus are no different than putting a new car body over a sputtering engine. It won’t be long before people realize it’s the same old lemon.”
The Ex-Gay Watch report, written by David Roberts, reveals a Nov. 16 secret summit in New York, where Exodus President Alan Chambers desperately plotted how to “keep Exodus International from social and financial oblivion.” The report discusses how an ill-advised real estate deal hindered Exodus’ ambitions goals to expand.
Three years ago, Exodus purchased a building for a little over $1.1 million. This was at the height of the real estate bubble and its value must have decreased significantly since. While they seem to have shed as many of their obligations as possible, debt service for that building must be a great draw on their meager resources. According to IRS documents, they burned through $200,000 of their savings in 2010 alone. In short, if they continue on their current trajectory, there seems little doubt that Exodus will fold in the near future.
According to the report, Chambers said that “everything is on the table” during the clandestine meeting and that efforts to re-brand Exodus as kinder and gentler were being considered. The talk included the possibility of a hollow apology that would occur without changing the group’s destructive core “pray away the gay” message. Chambers reportedly plans to make announcements about the future at Exodus’ Leadership Conference in January 2012.
“We will only accept apologies from Exodus that are substantive and sincere, not part of a cynical strategy to repackage the same tired old lies,” said TWO’s Besen. “Public relations alone will not improve relations with the LGBT community, and spin will not absolve Exodus from its anti-gay sin.”
Exodus became a virtual household name in 1998, starring in the “Truth in Love” advertising campaign, which was sponsored by 15 anti-gay political organizations. The campaign backfired when TWO’s Wayne Besen photographed its poster boy, John Paulk, in a gay bar. A second poster boy, Michael Johnston, was discovered by Besen and attorney Michael Hamer to be having intimate relations with men he had met on homosexual websites.
When Chambers took the helm at Exodus, he promised to avoid politics. He went back on his word and began lobbying against LGBT equality, with the help of his deputy Randy Thomas. Their efforts led to President George W. Bush inviting them to the White House in June 2006 to lobby for the federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.
Exodus’ political involvement included forming a controversial alliance with Focus on the Family, where Chambers starred in FoF’s Love Won Out road show. When these groups teamed up — Exodus’ perpetual money woes seemed to disappear overnight.
In 2010, the much savvier Focus on the Family dumped Love Won Out. Observers of the “ex-gay” industry noticed Exodus’ message became increasingly incoherent and attendance at events began to fall. The group’s nadir came when its board member, Don Schmierer, spoke at a Uganda hate conference that helped lead to the draconian “Kill the Gays” bill.
“Focus on the Family made Chambers look smart,” said TWO’s Besen. “Without the larger organization’s public relations prowess and exposure to donors, Chambers was left to run the show on his own — and it appears that he lacks the skill to pull it off.”
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO fights anti-LGBT extremism, monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Another woman has emerged accusing Herman Cain of sexual misconduct. This time, though, Cain stands accused of a thirteen-year-long consensual affair by a Georgia businesswoman. Details are emerging — an Atlanta FOX affiliate appears to be releasing the exclusive story this evening — but today’s revelations are also notable because although Cain officially denied the affair, Cain’s lawyer issued a statement to the station that didn’t, instead opting for the it’s-none-of-your-business argument:
“Mr. Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain. This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault – which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.
Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults – a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public’s right to know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door. [emphasis added]
Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media.”
So apparently, on Herman Cain’s planet, it’s completely unacceptable to discuss his alleged consensual heterosexual extramarital affairs. However, when it comes to other people’s sexual orientations and the sexual expressions of said orientations, they’re fair game. In fact, Mr. Cain thinks himself such an expert on sexual orientation that he wants people to believe, against ALL evidence, that sexual orientation is a choice.
But seriously — pay no attention to this self-appointed moral scold’s own alleged sexual shenanigans. Herman Cain appears to have a particularly egregious double standard in place: he wants the right to insert himself into the bedrooms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons all across America, while simultaneously asserting that the media needs to keep the hell out of his bedroom. And remember: he’s for traditional marriage.
Alan Osmond, the eldest of the singing group the Osmonds, says being gay is not genetic and that “reparative” therapy is successful, and reveals Chuck Norris was enlisted to butch up the group’s dancing.
I am not equipped to respond to this with any level of journalistic decorum.
Apparently this all started last year when Alan Osmond wrote an article for a website, thefamily.com, in multi-colored text of varying sizes, which purports to show the “science” of the gay issue, and also the “Mormon” of the gay issue. I am reproducing it as it is, so you can see this childish nonsense for yourself:
Much confusion can be avoided if we heed the words of the Lord’s prophet. President Gordon B. Hinckley has provided a solid foundation in addressing this difficult issue. He has stated:
“Prophets of God have repeatedly taught through the ages that practices of homosexual relations, fornication, and adultery are grievous sins. Sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage are forbidden by the Lord. We affirm those teachings.”
[...]
In addition to having counsel from the Lord’s prophet to provide guidance, it is helpful to have accurate information about homosexualityand its development. First, it is important to understand thathomosexuality is not innate and unchangeable. Research has NOT proved that homosexuality is genetic. Even more important, many researchers whose studies have been used to support a biological model forhomosexuality have determined that their work has been MISINTERPRETED. What is clear is that homosexuality results from an interaction of social, biological, and psychological factors. These factors may include temperament, personality traits, sexual abuse, familial factors, and treatment by one’s peers.3
Developmental factors aside, can individuals diminish homosexual attraction and make changes in their lives?Yes.There is substantial evidence, both historical and current, to indicate this is the case. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., a former Fellow at Yale University and a graduate of MIT and Harvard, concludes:
“The fact that not all methods of treating those who struggle with homosexual attraction are successful, and that no method is successful for everyone, has been distorted by activists into the claim that no method is helpful for anyone. … The simple truth is that, like most methods in psychiatry and psychotherapy, the treatment ofhomosexuality has evolved out of eighty years of clinical experience, demonstrating approximately the same degree of success as, for example, the psychotherapy of depression.”4
Other researchers note treatment success rates that exceed 50 percent, which is similar to the success rates for treating other difficulties.
I am not kidding. That is how it looks on The Forgotten Osmond’s website. Of course, Truth Wins Out readers know that the mere suggestion of “50 percent” success rates in changing sexual orientation are complete nonsense. In a day and age when the luminaries of the “ex-gay” industry are admitting at an alarming rate just how hot they still think guys are, I feel no need to address childish silliness such as this. Moreover, I am not arguing genetics with a man who said this:
Last October, Osmond posted a video on YouTube in which he grimaces while discussing dancing with his brothers and says “they had us doing effeminate moves.” Osmond says the brothers enlisted their friend Chuck Norris, then a karate instructor, to “toughen up” their dancing. He says Norris made them very “boyish, which is what we wanted.”
It would simply be a futile exercise to try to explain the complexities of what science has shown about sexuality to a man who ran into the arms of Walker, Texas Ranger as a child in order to de-gay his boy band.
Here is video of whatever his name is talking about that time Chuck Norris taught the Osmond boys what it means to be men. You really, really, really need to watch it:
Herman Cain with CNN’s Piers Morgan (h/t: Rex Wockner)
On issues from evolution to climate change, the members of the GOP presidential class of 2012 (with one notable exception) have demonstrated a shocking contempt for science, dismissively tossing aside research-tested, reality-based scientific consensus and deciding instead to stick their collective heads in the sand in order to please their increasingly deranged, reactionary base. Concerned people from across the political spectrum, from Jon Huntsman to Paul Krugman, are alarmed by a Republican Party that is, to quote Mr. Krugman, “aggresively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge.”
This certainly holds true where LGBT issues are concerned. The current crop of Republican candidates have practically tripped over themselves in a quest to outdo each other in the homophobia department. Michele Bachmann, who has made opposition to LGBT rights the central pillar of her entire political career, co-owns a clinic that claims, in the face of the overwhelming medical and scientific evidence to the contrary, to be able to “pray away the gay.” Newt Gingrich and RickPerry are both enthusiastic supporters of the American Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group that actively promotes the idea that sexual orientation can be changed. Rick Santorum, whose name will be forever linked with homophobic bigotry thanks to Dan Savage, most recently raised the horrifying specter of gay soldiers showering with other soldiers as a reason to reinstate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and publicly embraced “ex-gay” propaganda.
The GOP’s current flavor of the month, Herman Cain, has eagerly jumped onto the anti-science, gay-hating bandwagon. Earlier this month, Cain told The View’s Joy Behar that he believes homosexuality is a personal choice and issued a challenge:
“You show me the science that says that it’s not [a choice], and I could be persuaded. Right now it’s my opinion against the opinion of others who feel differently. That’s just a difference of opinion.”
Truth Wins Out, Think Progress, and other groups hit back with the facts: sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed. Ours isn’t an opinion, but scientific fact.
But apparently, to Cain, facts don’t matter — he’d rather cling to his anti-gay bigotry, thank you very much. In an interviewlast night with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Herman Cain reiterated his Stone-Age, anti-science views on homosexuality: “Although people don’t agree with me, I happen to think that [homosexuality] is a personal choice.” When Morgan told the candidate that his comments were just as ridiculous as a gay person telling Cain that he chose to be black, Cain bristled: “You know that’s not true. I was born black;” he added that race “doesn’t wash off.”
Herman, Herman, Herman. I, along with most LGBT people I know, happen to be a big fan of regular bathing. Trust me: I’ve bathed over 9,700 times in my 26 years and it hasn’t washed off — I’m still gay.
Mr. Cain thinking he’s entitled to an opinion on a matter of scientific fact is quaint at best. When one considers that he’s a member of an oppressed minority group turning around and contributing to the oppression of another minority group, Mr. Cain’s bigotry seems tragic, hypocritical, and profoundly sad. When one remembers that Herman Cain is seeking the office of the Presidency of the United States, it becomes a cause for alarm. His dangerously unscientific views about LGBT people render him unfit for that office.
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Wednesday announcement that she is ending her White House bid comes as no surprise. While the Minnesota congresswoman was one of the first GOP candidates to experience a surge in the polls last summer as the party’s base searched frantically for a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney (she even won the Iowa straw poll in August), her campaign had been dogged by a series of high-profile missteps.
looking to retool as it stands on the precipice of collapse. The desperate state of Exodus was revealed in 
Another woman has emerged accusing Herman Cain of sexual misconduct. This time, though, Cain stands accused of a thirteen-year-long consensual affair by a Georgia businesswoman. Details are emerging — an Atlanta FOX affiliate appears to be releasing the 
