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Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
It really boggles the mind that these people are still peddling their snake oil in this day and age, and even more mind-boggling that there are some out there who are so terrified of themselves that they will fall for any scam that promises to deliver the result they claim to desire, even in the face of literally mountains of scientific evidence proving that this kind of “therapy” DOES NOT WORK.
I’ve been a Christian practically from the cradle, but I long ago dismissed the idea of a God who would create me and then after seventy or maybe eighty years throw me into a fiery eternity just because I didn’t follow the rules. If I thought God was really like that, I could not worship Him/Her.
These people yammer constantly about the Bible, but the Bible says God is Love; 1 Corinthians 13 says that Love “keeps no record of wrongs;” yet in Revelation depicts a God who will require us to account for everything we did and said in our lives, a direct contradiction to 1 Cor 13 that the Fundamentalists conveniently ignore, and if confronted with God’s love, they start yammering about “God’s justice” as if the two were somehow diametrically opposed instead of partners.
It is unfortunate that in this country you don’t need to be a licensed anything to hang out a shingle and call yourself a “counselor;” the term is vague and pretty much absolves the practitioner from any professional ethics. This is what needs to be changed, because it is what allows charlatans like Marcus Bachmann to continue to pursue a dangerous ideology and profit off the misery of other people in the process. All while he and his cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs “wife” yammer about what good Christians they are.
Positively sick-making.
Very good video.
There’s currently a bill pending in California to prohibit reparative therapy for minors (it pertains to psychologists and other professionals). It has passed both of the legislative houses and is now pending in front of the governor. Nice to see science and rationalism in action in government.
However, this doesn’t affect the quacks and other non-professionals (this would include any number of religious officials – priests, ministers, etc.) from doing their thing, so the religious whackos can continue their “work” unhindered by facts and reality. Too bad.
Great vid John. This is by far the best actual conversion-happening video I’ve ever seen. Is it time to laugh a little? I posted it to RandyThomas.Co for his private files. I’m sure it made his Fri night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulb3tZU8vsk
Thank you for that excellent video, John. I have to admit the earlier part made me a bit tearful, as it brought back to me something of what I went through years ago as a gay Catholic, although I never went as far as self-harm or even considered suicide. Anyway, I congratulate you on coming through it all in one piece and for exposing the “ex-gay” fraud for the wicked and abusive nonsense that it is.
OUTSTANDING! This was really well done. I have been writing about gay kids recently (NARTH, by the way, is seeking an injunction in CA). I get so infuriated with this nonsense.
I suspect that a substantial amount of this crackpottery is practiced on children. I am an agnostic Jew. Nevertheless, I would like to meet this god that they have conjured up. What kind of deity would inflict so much pain and suffering on kids in his name?
Wonderful video, John! I got tears at the end where you seemed to be choking up a bit.
I, too, tried to pray away the gay, had years of counseling at a major clinic in southern Minnesota in the fifties when their official philosophy was that I could change if I wanted to badly enough and tried hard enough. Three days a week for seven years I drove 15 miles from my small town teaching job to the clinic. No health insurance. I paid it myself. Any fundie that says I didn’t try hard enough is full of it.
This video should be aired on every major news network in the country.
@Scott
I can’t find that line in Corinthians 13, “love keeps no record of wrongs” in the standard or King James. It’s a great line. Which Bible interpretation did you read that in? And which verse is it?
[...] and one of the nation’s foremost experts on “pray away the gay” groups. Wayne posted this video when it was released on Saturday, but I decided to re-post it today since many TWO [...]
Thanks for this article and your reporting. What you do is appreciated.
I posted it to my LGBT Group on LinkedIn to spur members to read your article and to make comment. I also scooped it at Scoop.It on my LGBT Times news mashup.
Link to group >> http://www.linkedin.com/groups/LGBT-Gay-GLBT-Professional-Network-63687/about
All LGBT+ and community allies…. please come join me and 15,000+ of your soon to be great connections on LinkedIn. The member base represents 80% of the world’s countries.
It’s core value is – Visibility can lead to awareness which can lead to equality. Come stand with us and increase our visibility on the globe’s largest professional networking site. Be a professional who just happens to be LGBT – or a welcomed community ally.
Great video. I hope that something can be done at some point to get this banned in all states. This is such a travesty and does clear harm to those minors forced to undergo such “therapies” and adults as well.
First time I’ve EVER written a congressional rep. (I’m in CA) asking them to please vote in favor of the ban (SB 1172), on Thurs., 8/30. They responded the following day, saying it had passed, and was on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown. Hopefully, he will do “the next right thing,” at least for those who are still impressionable, meaning those under 18 years of age. Wish it were totally banned, for EVERYONE, however, this IS a start. Tired of hearing the horror stories, and unfortunately for me, I know from personal experience, IT DOESN’T WORK: SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!
I very much like your video. I like the grace you convey–which I believe allows you to communicate to a wide range of audiences.
If I understood the therapist, he stated change is possible and it has happened–in response to your question whether change can happen. I did not hear any promises to you.
I am curious as to why you don’t identify the therapist. And I am curious as to how it was decided which therapist you would see. Since they have psychologists with expertise in sexuality–how did you end up seeing a new person with an MA without any stated expertise in human sexuality????
Whether I agree with your agenda–I think your presentation/investigation is clear and I’m disappointed Bachmann has not responded.
Melinda, aren’t you curious why Bachmann can’t produce a single tumescence exam to prove his claims of “change”?