Watch the video: Truth Wins Out and local GLBT equality advocates protested against Focus on the Family’s ex-gay roadshow in Mountain View, California, on April 12, 2008.

Truth Wins Out, a representative of the Metropolitan Community Church, a former “ex-gay,” and local GLBT groups conducted a prayer vigil, protest and discussion forum in conjunction with Focus on the Family’s ex-gay road show, titled “Love Won Out,” in San Jose, Calif.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that 700 people attended the ex-gay event. About 25 people protested outside.

Sadly, some attendees of “Love Won Out” sought to learn about gay people, not from actual gay people who stood peacefully nearby, but from Focus on the Family speakers who wage political and cultural warfare against a so-called gay “lifestyle”:

Anthony Jones, a church minister from the Pearly Grove Baptist Church in Fresno, said he came to learn to improve his ministry.

“I’m hoping to learn approaches on how to minister to homosexuals,” he said, “to know and understand what their lifestyle is.”

“We’re not saying you’re going to hell for being a homosexual,” he said. “We want to embrace them and love them but understand the sin of same-sex attraction.”

Buffy of The Gaytheist Agenda provides a detailed first-hand account and pictures of the protest and discussion forum. Joe.My.God has an overview with reader comments.

Truth Wins Out will air video from the events later this week.

UPDATE: Truth Wins Out posted the following video from the event:

Please join us at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 12, in Mountain View, Calif., for a prayer vigil in front of the church that is hosting Focus on the Family’s ex-gay Love Won Out road show.

Abundant Life Christian Fellowship
2440 Leghorn Street (map)
Mountain View, California
April 12, 11 a.m.

Also on Saturday, the Billy DeFrank GLBT Community Center will host a panel discussion on the ex-gay industry at 1 p.m.

The panel will feature Aejaie Sellers, DeFrank Center’s CEO/Executive Director; Bill Roth, Catholic Democrats of California; Gloria Nieto, Santa Clara County LGBT Democrats; the Rev. Michael Ellard, Metropolitan Community Church of San Jose; ex-gay survivors; and Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out.

The Billy DeFrank GLBT Community Center
938 The Alameda (directions)
San Jose, California
(West of the HP Pavilion Arena, between Race St and Hwy 87)
April 12, 1 p.m.

Love Won Out is a quarterly ex-gay symposium sponsored by Focus on the Family. John Paulk, an ex-gay leader who was on the cover of Newsweek and appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes and Good Morning America, originally ran the program. Love Won Out suffered a major setback after Paulk was photographed in a Washington, D.C., gay bar by Besen.

TruthWinsOut.org is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.

What others are saying:

The Gaytheist Agenda