You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Richard Cohen, left, Displays His Morals On The Howard Stern Show
Former Moonie and naked cult member Richard Cohen was on Howard Stern this morning to make an ass of himself, talking about his bizarre "transformation" from gay to straight. In typical fashion, he was a buffoon and a self-promoting media ho, who plugged his book every six seconds. Two things he failed to bring up:
1) He was kicked out of the American Counseling Association for malpractice (whoops!) 2) He once left his wife and child to have sex with men in New York City (Yikes!)
Sounds like a real success story!
39 Comments:
What a psycho creep. Lord knows who he is really sodomizing.
Wayne, isnt he the putz that Penn and Teller profiled and totally trashed on their episode about the "traditional family"? Saying this guy MADE an ass of himself is a bit redundant; he done did that a loooong time ago. Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
9/15/2005 1:08 PM
Yes, it is the same clown from Penn and Teller. I will be debating him on Real Life with Mary Amoroso on Jersey's CN8 on Sept. 20.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
9/15/2005 1:12 PM
Wayne, I'm going to have to call you soon. Peter Toscano brought up something I wondered about myself. That the ex gay movement was dominated by white males and why that was. I'm intrigued by how many of them become ministers and Christian music promoters (mostly their own). The leaders or most prominent spokespersons anyway, sounded like complete BASKET cases before the intervention of ex gay ministry. Now, as a straight black woman, who comes from a cultural community that can be loud, well fed and colorful... What all these men look like to me are ATTENTION whores. Why is it soooooooo important that they exist (as heterosexuals now, who need no introduction. Or that living as heterosexuals doesn't compromise their freedom and access and protections for anything, let alone living heterosexually.
It's not like there isn't plenty of political, religious and social representation for heterosexual Christian males. Would it be safe to say, that a lifetime of EXCESS as homosexuals is translating to EXCESS all over again, but this time as AGGRESSIVELY Christian, white male heterosexuals who crave a spotlight and popularity? Isn't it the most insecure of individuals who behave this way? Or addicts? Addicts are also the types of folks who don't like to get stoned alone. They are constantly enticing someone into their life of getting high to validate themselves and that this is what makes them feel better.
The requirement for them to spread their joy at their altered heterosexual persona is just more of the same way they've ALWAYS been?
In other words....'I'm not REALLY that strong or feeling secure in what I am or do, but if enough people tell me I'm wonderful and it's soooo good for me, I can be SOMEBODY!' Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong. But as someone who has spent my entire professional life as a skilled, legit performer who avoided the common traps of drugs and watched my own peers crash and burn from it-I speak from the experience of being right there as a stone sober observer. I know an insecure attention whore when I see one. A person of marginal personality and skill who numbs these inadequacies with drugs. The gay aspect is a component where invalidation comes in and that's exploited by the ex gay movement. But the basic personality can be there, gay or not. Hey, just calling it as I see it.
If I'm wrong, you can call me on that too. But Cohen is taking looking like an ass by letting it happen over and over again to another level. He won't go away, out of the public eye, no matter how humiliated he gets. If it means going through it this much (not out of courage), just to be on television, what other motivation is there?
posted by Regan, at
9/15/2005 2:50 PM
Wayne Did you mean Sept 23rd for Real Life? I checked online and it looks like that show is only on friday nights?! The 20th is a tuesday. thanks
posted by Anonymous, at
9/15/2005 3:35 PM
BC Waterboy, excellent! It definitely brings bisexuality into question too, now if only we could get every gay man and woman fired up about everything else, we'd be in great shape when it comes to the election in 2008. Just wish those log cabin people would stop supporting their gay-hating leaders and face reality. If [they]all voted en masse against their party in 2008, it would have a profound effect on republican moderates and hopefully produce a few more Weld's, but the kind of Weld who don't flip flop for political expediency. One million plus log cabin votes going to the other party can make a huge difference in the outcone of an election.
I have genuinely been working hard to analyze this and access people who are engaged in the ex gay business, Joseph Nicolosi included. NARTH is in my neighborhood. I was met with considerable stonewalling (no pun intended) and I got the feeling their offices and influence were one big dressed set. As if they were hiding the lack of substance to their situation with an impressive front, an nothing else. Chad Thompson was the closest I got to someone who touted being a changed homosexual, while saying in his public engagements that incivility towards gay people who DIDN'T change wouldn't inspire confidence in people of faith as compassionate for the needs of gays and lesbians. He struck me as a person who didn't understand the gravity of his fence straddling. He didn't get that he further muddied and confused this issue rather than clarified it and couldn't understand that he couldn't defend what he'd shied away from himself. It was a unique experience all things considered. But his travels and speaking schedule were exclusively with religious groups, Exodus and so on. He registered to me, another person who craved attention.
And that his efforts did NOTHING to foster understanding of gay people and homosexuality, or motivation to accept homosexuality as the feature described above by Tim W. Chad Thompson displayed astonishing naivete for an intelligent man, but hated me telling him how damaging he actually was to the process of educating the public about gay people. I got spanked (again) by DL Foster for posting a message on his blog. He was told that his blog is among many examined by anti hate advocacies and educational groups to be discussed and disseminated by their interested parties. I am a person committed to social responsibility, not gossip. The membership in the groups I belong to like ADL (Foster didn't know who that was) and the Museum of Tolerance as a volunteer is VERY serious. Chad Thompson and DL Foster would find themselves excluded. Chad, not because he didn't feel sincerely compassionate, but because his type of compassion is essentially empty and actually quite worthless to the cause of eliminating hate and educating against it. He didn't like hearing that...but in the real world, you have to be able to have the guts to.
posted by Regan, at
9/16/2005 1:03 PM
Who is the guy posing with Cohen?
A confirmed gay leatherman, or one of Stern's neo-Nazi skinheads making fund of those homosexuals?
posted by Michael, at
9/16/2005 1:49 PM
As a gay Jew - I'll bet he's also a self-hating Jew.......
posted by Dave, at
9/16/2005 6:51 PM
The Log Cabin people DON'T support gay-hating leaders. Some gay Republicans do, but not LCR. (For example, they didn't endorse Bush last time... though he did get a million gay votes.)
They don't view their job as providing political cover for the bigoted Republicans but rather as advocates for change in the party. In some ways this is more honest than some gay activists who support anti-gay Democrats over pro-gay Republicans (though that is, thankfully, becoming less common in our community).
It can't be said that Republicans in general support gay equality. LCR has a really tough job and most folks couldn't begin to do it.
I wish they were more successful.
But I'll be happy with what progress they make. For example, just this week 30 Republicans joined most of the Democrats in Congress to pass a gay and trans inclusive hate crimes bill.
I disagree with you guys. I heard about Richard's appearance on this show with nude men and was looking up info on this.
Although i haven't yet read much on it, his creditability is not shot with me because i've been greatly helped by his book "Coming Out Straight" and Ex-gays do exist, because I'm one.
Richard Cohen may not make the smartest decisions i guess. I don't know much about him. I did hear about the ACA and it is interesting that he did not contest it, but his book has helped me and a lot of people.
Though these words are the ones people often emphasize, i have made changes. The change is not total yet. But i've been able to almost completely eliminate Same-sex attraction as i deal with issues of brokenness and abuse. Shockly i'm slowly developing attractions for female when this did not exist in the past. I'm not forcing this attraction or focusing on girls in anyway intentionally. it is coming autocatically as i deal with my hidden issues.
Thanks for letting me speak. Change is possible. we do exist. It is unfortunate that not many of us speak out.
It is worth noting that most of my therapy came from books. I did try therapy with some therapists like NARTH and got few results. Nicolosi has a great book that has helped me a lot but i typically feel that therapy can be a waste. I don't have problems with therapy in particular however. Some of my friends say they have had great success with reparative therapists but my experience with one in NARTH and a few with two other groups is that it was a waste. As i mentioned much of my success in overcoming my attractions which were strong and now are almost non-existant, came from reading books by reparative therapists. I say almost just to allow for possibility of it popping up which it does not. I want to wait a few years or month to say it is total. but for the last few months the difference is evident.
I'm not saying however that therapy sessions with Reparative Therapists are bad. I'm just saying that it didn't work well for me and it costs a lot of money. Richard Cohen has teleconferences which i thought i would give a try to see what it is like and is if i can uncover some issues from my painful past.
Similar to Michael Jackson, and i've now learned other blacks, like myself, i suffer not only from SSA but also a lack of racial identity. These two issues developed simultaneously as i rejected my own parents and longed for more loving, caring parents in which i thought white people provided the solution. Thus i've always wished i was white and i've been attracted to white males and disidentified with blacks.
Thanks again
I'm a 27 year old Southern African American.
posted by Anonymous, at
11/25/2005 3:16 AM
I'm not gay but I love my gay husband-to-be. One day, when the law allows it, we will get legally married.
The fact is, I'm a bisexual male. I've had satisfying romantic emotional and sexual relationships with both women and men. Many gay men are very uncomfortable with this idea, just as many straight men are uncomfortable with gay men and/or with bisexuality.
Even as I love my husband-to-be, I can still find certain other men and certain other women sexually attractive. I imagine that gay men who try to convert to straight and report 'success' are simply discovering the part of them that can be attracted to women. But this does not necessarily mean that they will cease to be attracted to men.
The real question is, why is it a problem to be a man attracted to men? The answer is, it isn't a problem; homophobia is the real problem.
You'll notice that the ex-gay movement has a focus on gay men and not on lesbians. I think this is also significant.
Everyone should be free to follow their desires and to follow their heart. The 'ex-gay' movement likes to pretend that gay rights champions are trying to stop them from following their heart. What gay rights champions are trying to do is expose their inherent homophobia -- why do they want to change? If they feel an attraction, why is that wrong?
The only kind of reason that can be given is religious. And of course they are free to pursue their religion. But they are not free to pass religion off as science nor as therapy. And one person's religion shouldn't be forced onto the rest of us as law.
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