Southern Poverty Law Center and Truth Wins Out Launch Campaign Targeting Destructive Conversion Therapy
Community Meetings Planned in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Truth Wins Out (TWO) launched a national campaign today targeting conversion therapy, a thriving practice that claims to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality. The groups made the announcement in coordination with today’s National Coming Out Day.
The campaign will begin with a series of community meetings in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., for survivors of the practice, which has been discredited or highly criticized by virtually all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations. Survivors are also invited to share their own stories at www.splcenter.org/conversion-therapy. The campaign also will encourage community advocates and elected leaders to scrutinize local conversion therapy programs.
“Conversion therapy programs have devastated all too many lives and families by attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation,” said Christine Sun, deputy legal director, who leads the SPLC’s LGBT rights project. “This practice is based on nothing more than junk science and must stop.”
“There’s a serious concern that the damage inflicted by conversion therapy can reach far beyond the individual receiving the ‘therapy’ and into communities across the country,” said Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out.
Central to conversion therapy – sometimes known as reparative or “sexual reorientation” therapy – is the belief that being gay is a mental disorder – a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association nearly four decades ago. People who have undergone conversion therapy have reported increased anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicidal ideation.
Despite these findings, the conversion therapy movement continues to push its message and is increasingly targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, often recommending that parents commit their children to treatment against the child’s wishes.
The American Medical Association officially “opposes the use of ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy that is based on the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation.”
In 2006, the American Psychological Association declared: “There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.”
Yet the message that LGBTQ people can and should change their sexual orientation is echoed throughout the literature promoting conversion therapy:
“Anyone who experiences SSA [same-sex attraction] is not ‘gay,’ ‘lesbian,’ ‘bisexual,’ or ‘transgender.’ They are all latent heterosexuals!”
“Self-deception about gender is at the heart of the homosexual condition. A child who imagines that he or she can be the opposite sex—or be both sexes—is holding on to a fantasy solution to his or her confusion. This is a revolt against reality and a rebellion against the limits built into our created human natures.”
Absurd theories and treatments also are promoted within the conversion therapy movement:
“The penis is the essential symbol of masculinity—the unmistakable difference between male and female. This undeniable anatomical difference should be emphasized to the boy in therapy.”
“The family model that produces a homosexual son has, in our view, typically failed to validate the boy’s masculine individuation during the formative phase of gender identification.”
There are other troubling aspects of this practice. The American Psychological Association expressed concern in 2006 that the positions espoused by some of the leading advocates of conversion therapy, such as the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), “create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.”
The potential for conversion therapy to foster an anti-LGBT atmosphere is another concern for the SPLC, which analyzed 14 years of federal hate crime data and found that homosexuals are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States. The SPLC also has worked to combat anti-gay bullying in schools.
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The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.
Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO 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.
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1. Richard Cohen, Straight Talk About Homosexuality: The Other Side of Tolerance, 2010, p. 112.
2. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Ames Nicolosi, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, 2002, p. 22.
3. Ibid., p. 24.
4. Joseph J. Nicolosi, Shame and Attachment Loss: The Practical Work of Reparative Therapy, 2009, p. 39.
SPLC Urges Public Figures to Boycott Values Voter Summit Because of Anti-LGBT Hate Speech by Summit Host and Co-Sponsor
WASHINGTON – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today urged all public figures to boycott this weekend’s Values Voter Summit, which is hosted and co-sponsored by two groups that demonize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community with false propaganda.
“The Family Research Council and the American Family Association are among the chief purveyors of lies about the LGBT community – lies that stoke hate and violence,” said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “LGBT people are now, by far, the group most victimized by violent hate crimes in America. Public figures should not lend their names to groups that vilify them.”
Here are examples of what these groups say about LGBT people:
• Both groups say gay men molest children at far higher rates than heterosexual men – an assertion rejected by every relevant scientific organization, including the American Psychological Association.
• Both groups have enthusiastically promoted “reparative therapy,” the widely discredited idea that gay men and lesbians can be “cured” of their sexual orientation.
• The AFA has declared that “homosexuality gave us Adolph [sic] Hitler … the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”
More about the FRC and the AFA and their misinformation can be found here:
www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/just-whose-values-are-promoted-at-the-values-voter-summit.
“The lies peddled by these groups end up hurting real people,” said Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, an organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay smears. “Hate speech by the FRC and AFA encourages bullying in schools, which has led to tragic suicides. And their push to ‘cure’ gay people has exploited and seriously harmed many in the LGBT community. This fear-mongering has to stop.”
Together, the FRC and the AFA comprise the most influential anti-gay lobby in the country, with combined budgets of more than $30 million. The FRC has hosted the Values Voter Summit, an annual conference for social conservatives in the nation’s capital, since 2006. The AFA is a major sponsor.
Because of the groups’ history of spreading demonizing lies about the LGBT community, the SPLC added the groups to its hate group list last year.
“Our criticism of these groups has nothing whatsoever to do with their opposition to same-sex marriage or their belief that the Bible describes homosexuality as a sin,” Potok said. “Rather, it’s based entirely on their continuing use of discredited research and outrageous falsehoods to defame the LGBT community.”
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The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information.
Southern Poverty Law Center to Hold Press Conference Outside Values Voter Summit
The Southern Poverty Law Center will hold a press conference this Friday, Oct. 7, to release a report on the Family Research Council (FRC) and American Family Association (AFA), two groups that spread false propaganda that demonizes the LGBT community. The FRC is hosting the annual Values Voter Summit this weekend Washington, where many prominent public officials will be speaking. The AFA is a major co-sponsor.
WHO: Mark Potok, Director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out
WHEN: Friday, October 7
8 a.m. (EDT)
WHERE: Omni Shoreham
2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.)
Washington, DC
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The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.
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.
The wingnut reactions are a-startin’ to trickle in! Oh look, it is the Family Research Council, a known and certified hate group, so designated because they have a policy of spreading fear, hatred and lies about LGBT people, chiming in:
Apple’s old logo was colored by the rainbow–and it looks like their business philosophy still is! In a stunning decision, Apple withered under pressure from the gay community and censored an application that offers help to people struggling with homosexuality.
No, they removed an app that demonizes an entire community and lies to people who have already been demonized and damaged into thinking that the way they are is either not good enough, evil or both. Nice try with the joke-making and the rainbow comment, though.
Even though Apple’s own store gave Exodus a thumbs-up for content, the app vanished overnight–another victim of the growing campaign to silence Christianity in America.
Yes, we are trying to silence you. I mean, right now, on the blog of Truth Wins Out, we are “silencing Christians” by repeating your words verbatim!
“There is no place for ‘ex-gay’ therapy on the Apple platform,” said Mike Jones, whose fringe group started the uproar.
You hear that, Mike? Change.org is a “fringe group.”
Ironically, there seems to be plenty of room for applications like the Gay/Lesbian News Reader, HRC Buying for Workplace Equality Guide, Jack’d gay “social network,” Grindr “gay, bi & curious guy finder,” or Gay Dance Radio. What about the millions of Americans who are offended by those apps?
They don’t demonize or lie about people. You do, though. And so did the Exodus app.
Would 146,000 signatures be enough to rid iTunes of them?
Nope. See above. Plus, closeted fundamentalists would die without Grindr.
In this instance, all Exodus does is offer compassion and help for people who choose to seek it.
No, they offer lies and false hope to people who are pressured by their society, their families, their churches and their communities into believing that they are sick and in need of a cure, even though every grown-up medical and mental health association agrees that homosexuality is normal, while reparative therapy is harmful. Try again!
Jeff Buchanan of Exodus is tired of the app being misrepresented in the press. “It’s being touted as a ‘gay cure’ app,” he says, “and nothing could be further from the truth. We present a redemptive, Biblical worldview on sexuality… it’s a message of love and acceptance of those [who] are struggling with same-sex attraction.”
Oh, Jeffers. We know you don’t change gay people into straight people. God, everybody knows that by now. You’ve been consistently moving the goalposts for years on that one! But no, your “worldview” for gay people is loneliness, shame, isolation, self-hatred, etc. You don’t even know the meaning of the words “love” or “acceptance,” because you’ve been brainwashed with such a disgusting, transmogrified version of them for so long. Cha-ching, though, right?
In other words, Apple’s censorship has nothing to do with “tolerance.” This is about silencing anything and anyone who challenges homosexuality.
No, it is about a private corporation following its own policies and responding to its customers.
Americans need to wake up and realize that religious liberty is heading in the same direction as Exodus’s app–toward extinction! In this environment, it doesn’t matter what the facts are.
Well, that should be a comfy environment for the Family Research Council!
Meanwhile, liberals are on a crusade to end bullying–when the biggest bullies are the ones in their own movement!
Yeah, all those gay teenagers killed themselves because of us. Right. I often wonder whether the talking mouths at groups like FRC will ever have a moment in their lives when the pain they’ve caused to innumerable people and families, all in the service of their disproven, patriarchal, anti-scientific worldview, will suddenly dawn on them. I’d hate to be there for that moment.
What do you call 146,000 people ganging up on a company because they don’t like someone else’s point of view?
Petition-signers.
Bullies!
Oh, oops, we’re bullies. Let me know when anti-gay extremists start jumping off bridges because the gays have bullied them so much. Maybe then we’ll talk about how badly you have been “bullied.”
I guess they still don’t understand why we started the petition, even though we’ve said it clearly, in English, for days. But let’s not be cute about people’s “points of view.” It would be the same if the Ku Klux Klan [another SPLC-certified hate group] wanted an iPhone app. I mean, certainly the KKK has a “point of view,” and their app would be rejected because their “point of view” is eliminationist against an entire minority group. Just like the Family Research Council’s point of view. Just like Exodus’s point of view. That is sort of the point that wingnuts are missing, I think.
They also know that if they had to debate conservatives out in the open on issues like marriage and morality, they’d lose!
Uh, we do it all the time, and we win. There was this thing called “The Prop 8 trial,” and the Religious Right brought its best and brightest [I know, I'm using that phrase very loosely], and they ended up being used for floor-mopping purposes by the plaintiffs. It would’ve been must see teevee if the very same Religious Right hadn’t been so afraid of the general public seeing what they look like when they have to defend themselves by the standards of a court of law.
Anyway, that’s about it. It must be comforting for Exodus to see hate groups rising up to defend their honor. Until the next wingnut crying spell, I’m signing off!
Peter LaBarbera, of course, runs a very small hate group called Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, and this video was made by a member of another hate group, the very small shopping center outpost known as “Faithful Word Baptist Church,” pastored by the biblically illiterate Steven Anderson. It’s notable that, in the flurry of fist-shaking and tantrum-throwing that’s come in the wake of the Family Research Council and American Family Association being added to the SPLC’s list of hate groups, no one of any note has stepped up to defend either Peter’s or Steven’s organization. They are that marginal, even among their own ideological compatriots.
My favorite thing about the video though, is that the guitar is very Indigo Girls, but not Indigo Girls now, but more like the day they picked up their guitars, but not in a world where the Indigo Girls had hands, but instead something more akin to paws. But it’s clear where the songwriter gets his inspiration. Baby, you ain’t never gonna be Closer to Fine.
The song’s author is a regular poster on Free Republic (of course) and in typical chickenshit fashion has cloaked the ownership details of his URL: GodGunsGutsGlory.com. But here’s his YouTube channel, if you wanna have some fun over there.
Anyway, I hope the author had a really merry Christmas, filled with nightmares about homosexuals, of course!
It’s funny how the Religious Right is wailing about the SPLC allegedly giving no explanations for their hate group listings, because it’s obvious to anyone with at least a couple brain cells to rub together that they’re explaining it, thoroughly and often.
Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (one of the groups SPLC named as an anti-gay hate group) had a radio interview today on the David Pakman Show and in less than 30 minutes, he proceeded to totally wreck any claims by the FRC that religious right groups don’t peddle anti-gay hatred through junk science and propaganda, giving new meaning to idea of giving someone enough rope to hang themselves.
Indeed. There are parts of our jobs as activists and writers on the side of fairness, justice and equality that are difficult. But when it comes to exposing Religious Right bigots for what they are, we merely have to expose their actual words to a wider audience, outside of the ever-shrinking echo chambers where they are still viewed with respect.
The interview is fun, so enjoy:
Here, from David, are some of the funny things Bryan said:
“The southern poverty law center belongs on its own list [of hate groups]…for peddling falsehoods about homosexuality”
“We’re the ones telling the truth about the link between homosexuality and pedophilia.”
“Active participation in the homosexual lifestyle will deprive a male of anywhere between 8 and 20 years of his life expectancy”
“There is ‘no such thing as a monogamous homosexual relationship’”
“The rectal wall is one cell thick”
“We need to take our cue from gay porn actors”
“Those homosexual activists that are so intent on normalizing homosexual behavior…they must be harboring some deep seated longing to be straight”
“…homosexual activists must be latently heterosexual”
It’s too bad Bryan Fischer’s version of reality doesn’t resemble the actual, three dimensional one the rest of us live in, but that’s what fundamentalism does to the brain.
Alvin McEwen has a pretty epic smackdown over at AlterNet right now, over the Religious Right’s use of Paul Cameron’s “research” in order to vilify gay people. Paul Cameron, as anyone who pays attention knows, is probably the least credible “researcher” in the entire field of human sexuality. But that doesn’t matter to fundamentalist Christian wingnuts, because they one thing that group has in common is that they’re willing to lie to preserve their worldview. Here’s what Peter said to Concerned Women for America’s Martha Kleder on the subject:
Kleder: One of the things I’ve also noticed is that the SPLC seems to be riled by the fact . . . uh . . . if they don’t particularly like your source that you document then you must be a hate group.
LaBarbera: Paul Cameron.
Kleder: Yeah.
LaBarbera: They say if you cite Paul Cameron, then you are a hater. I mean that’s ridiculous. You know there is a researcher who just came out and found that Paul Cameron’s work on the greater likelihood of homosexual adoptive parents to have . . . for the child to emerge as a homosexual. He confirmed Cameron’s thesis. You don’t have to agree with everything Paul Cameron ever did but how proposterous to say that citing a researcher . . Paul Cameron’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. What they’ve done, Martha is set up these criteria and then you violate them, they call you a hate group, and then they have their little echo chamber on the left which reports their charge. And of course the media, which really doesn’t like us anyway. The media is very pro-gay, they cite us and so it begins to take a life of its own.
Of course, Alvin does point out that Peter is one of the only members of the Religious Right who doesn’t get embarrassed when he’s called on his use of Cameron’s “data.” The rest of them apparently have a slight bit of shame and integrity left, but Peter threw that aside when he started trolling leathersex conventions.
For anyone who is new, here’s a quick intro to Paul Cameron’s career, again, courtesy of Alvin:
Cameron is a researcher who has made a name for himself by creating studies designed to demonize the lgbt community. These studies for the most part have been published in “vanity” or “pay-for-publish” journals and they are not “peer-reviewed” in the normal sense. No “peer” who objects to Cameron’s work has the right to remove it from the journal.
He has also been discredited and censured by many group and individuals on the left, the right, and in the middle due to his bad research techniques. Several of his studies have been criticized for such errors as having small sample sizes, showing an anti-gay bias in interviews, and not having enough responses to establish a suitable analysis.
And, of course, Alvin provides a few key quotes from [actual, grown-up, non-religious] medical/mental health organizations about Paul Cameron:
“(Cameron) misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views. I make a very clear distinction in my writing between pedophilia and homosexuality, noting that adult males who sexually victimize young boys are either pedophilic or heterosexual, and that in my research I have not found homosexual men turning away from adult partners to children . . . I consider this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of Dr. Cameron and I want to bring this to your attention. He disgraces his profession.” – Dr. A. Nicholas Groth in letter written to the Nebraska Board of Examiners of Psychologists on August 21, 1984
“Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists – American Psychological Association, 1983
The science and profession of psychology in Nebraska as represented by the Nebraska Psychological Association, formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality. Further, the Nebraska Psychological Association would like it known that Dr. Cameron is not a member of the Association. Dr. Cameron was recently dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists – Nebraska Psychological Association, 1984
Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” – American Sociological Association, 1985
The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality. – Canadian Psychological Association, 1996
There is oh, so much more where that came from, including refutations of the lies contained in Peter’s quote above, so please, read Alvin’s entire piece.
Cameron is a liar, a poor researcher, and a hatemongering bigot of the first degree. Perhaps one day an ACTUAL mental health professional will examine Cameron’s tiny life and figure out where it all went so terribly wrong.
But this, dears, is one of the many reasons these groups, including Peter’s, are on the hate groups list. They ALL know Paul Cameron is a fraud.
But they hate/fear/are threatened by gay people too much to let little things like facts get in the way.
The surest sign one is losing a debate is to resort to character assassination. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal fundraising machine whose tactics have been condemned by observers across the political spectrum, is doing just that.
The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman. How does the SPLC attack? By labeling its opponents “hate groups.” No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate
These type of slanderous tactics have been used against voters who signed petitions and voted for marriage amendments in all thirty states that have considered them, as well as against the millions of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement. Some on the Left have even impugned the Manhattan Declaration-which upholds the sanctity of life, the value of traditional marriage and the fundamental right of religious freedom-as an anti-gay document and have forced its removal from general communications networks.
This is intolerance pure and simple. Elements of the radical Left are trying to shut down informed discussion of policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts. Tell the radical Left it is time to stop spreading hateful rhetoric attacking individuals and organizations merely for expressing ideas with which they disagree. Our debates can and must remain civil – but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponents character.
You can take action by adding your name to the following statement:
We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women of America, National Organization for Marriage, Liberty Counsel and other pro-family organizations that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and family. We support the vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all Americans.
Whatever. For those with the ability to read, the SPLC debated and explained their reasoning in labeling the FRC a hate group here, in plain English.
But wingnuts don’t read things on their own.
For a long chronicle of why the Family Research Council deserves to be called the hate group that it is, click over to Jeremy’s place and to Right Wing Watch.
