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
My column on The Huffington Post about the "ex-gay" conference in Asheville is generating a lot of positive response on the popular social networking site Digg.com.
This is a key time for my post in terms of it being read by the most people possible. If the post can attract more "diggs" (reader clicks that indicate a positive response) in the next couple hours, it will greatly increase the chances of it moving to the front page of Digg.com, where it will be seen by tens of thousands of new readers. To help make this happen, please email the following link to your friends and family -- and anyone else who would like to see my post on the nefarious ex-gay myth get a wider audience -- and encourage them to click the "digg it" button.
I don't have any problems with conferance. Everyone has the righ to be exposed to differant ideas. If you want to believe in UFO's, so what? If, as some believe, that sexual orientation is a sliding scale rather than an either/or proposition, then so what if some chooses to slide to the hetrosexual side. I support Mike Rogers blogactive.com site that exposes hypocrits and this is fair, but everyone is responsible for the choices they make, and isn't freedom of choice what it is all about. Where Exodus should be called out it when they step out of the personal and into the political. They are mostly a political orginazation.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/28/2008 10:59 AM
Actually, Exodus does not have any right to sell false hope. If they want to promise people a lifetime of celibacy and loneliness, I would agree it would not be an issue. However, if they want to sell, "freedom from homosexuality" I have a huge problem with it. It is immoral ans sleazy to sell false hope and bilk people out of their hard earned money by misleading them. Anonymous, you may think screwing vulnerable people is okay - I don't.
Furthermore, it is ignorant for you to say the conference is fine. It isn't. It is ethically wrong to sell people false scientific theories as if they are true. It is sick to tell people that they are full of demons. It is despicable to tell people that if they come out they will be lonely, die of AIDS and go to Hell. This is the real message of Exodus. It is much more than "exposing people to different ideas."
posted by Wayne Besen, at
7/28/2008 11:29 AM
Anon, you're an idiot. People don't have freedom of "choice" when they're lied to and brainwashed.
People who believe in UFO's aren't told they need to spend decades and thousands of dollars trying to turn into one or else their family and church community will disown them, God will hate them and they'll burn in hell forever.
Exodus should be "called out" on lying, peddling harmful pseudoscience, reinforcing the worst stereotypes about an already oppressed minority, and most of all manipulating people and destroying lives.
Okay Wayne you've been dugg. Dammit you made me sign up for yet another stupid internet networking thing.
I'll post a note to friends on facebook and my deviantart page later.
posted by Eshto, at
7/28/2008 11:39 AM
Anonymous, the "ex-gay" industry is just like those phoney medical clinics in Mexico that claim to be able to cure cancer. (No analogy being made here between cancer and gayness, natch.)
Like those phoney medical practitioners, the ex-gay crowd catches people at a most vulnerable moment, usually when they're in their teens or early 20s and struggling with accepting their sexuality in the face of a hostile culture.
They encourage these souls to embrace their self-disdain and to take it to the mat, so to speak, by "acting straight," pretending to be heterosexual, even dating and marrying a person of the opposite sex, when, in truth, absolutely nothing has changed.
The eventual fallout (development of a false self, divorce, wasted years, depression, suicide) isn't based on mere theory but upon the testimony of so many who have survived these programs. Yes, people are entitled to their views, and we are entitled to respond by protesting and getting the truth out.
posted by Chris L., at
7/28/2008 11:47 AM
"Exodus does not have any right to sell false hope"
Someone should read the first ammenment.Look I think Exodus are a bunch of assses, but they have a right to exist.
"Exodus does not have any right to sell false hope"
some better contact the Enzite people (you know, smiling Bob). We are sold false hope everyday. It is called Madison Ave.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/28/2008 1:03 PM
How many people get depressed because the latest weight loss probram fails? We need to stress personal responsability; buyer beware. This will help us with the false hope of all types of hucksters. To win the battle of ides you must counter bad ideas with good ones, not shut up your opponents.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/28/2008 1:07 PM
Exodus is not about ideas. It is the perpetration of consumer fraud. It is about brainwashing people and then pickpocketing them - with promises of false cures. It is about nostrums of nonsense that destroy lives and ruin families.
Exodus does not inherently have the right to sell a fraudulent product any more than any other maker of sundry scams.
If a miracle weight loss drug does not work - the company should be put out of business. The same goes for Exodus. Their door should be padlocked and Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas should be in court defending themselves on fraud charges.
Wayne I think you should rethink this. You could say that all religions other then the one a particular individule agrees with is selling a fraudulent product. You are sounding shrill right now and you are a better spoksman for the gay community then this. I thank you for all you have done.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/28/2008 2:09 PM
Yes - I sound as "shrill" as a prosecutor who arrests con artists from selling swamp land to retirees in Florida. This is not about religion, as you suggest, but about bilking people and selling snake oil. Standing up for consumers is smart, not shrill.
When Exodus presents "success" stories who are not on the dole, we can talk.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
7/28/2008 4:00 PM
I get you point Wayne and agree to some extent. I would guess that Exodus' position is that if you can't change you should obstain. They are about "saving souls" more then changing peoples psychology. But I think most reasonable people would find it a stretch if they claim they could change a Librace into skirt chaser.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/28/2008 4:39 PM
Wayne Besen: "Exodus does not have any right to sell false hope."
Anonymous: "Someone should read the first ammenment."
Anonymous, the First Amendment does not protect ALL speech.
It will not protect me if I decide to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire.
It will not protect me if I spread false stories about how a coworker raped me, and he decides to sue me for slander.
It will not protect me if I sell sugar pills and claim they will cure cancer.
It will not protect me if I make a public speech in which I instruct people to go out and kill every Jew they can find.
If Exodus is going to be purposely dishonest about their services (which they are), then their statements are not protected under the First Amendment.
Exodus does not advertise itself as a group that helps gay people abstain from same-sex relationships. They advertise themselves as a group that can actually change someone's orientation. That's where they cross the line.
What Wayne said is correct; Exodus does NOT have the right to lie about their services.
posted by piasharn, at
7/28/2008 10:04 PM
Wayne, In princpal you are correct, they are a fraud. But where Exodus would win such a law suit is when the would bring up witnesses who claim that it worked well. When they are on the stand with their 3 kids in the court room, the jury would find Exodus not libel.
The saddest think about ex-gays are the straight women who marry them. Not all end up like the Paulks, two gays in a relationship. It is more often theat they marry a straight women, who ends up stuck in a loveless, sexless marriage with a man who is always eyeing other men. I believe full disclouser to a potential wife should me mandated by law.
I think we have seen a lax FDA that allows penis and breast enlargement pills to be sold on tv with no problem. It is a billion dollar industry. Not to mention all the fat loss pills that contain nothing more potentant than dandylion extract.
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7/29/2008 1:00 PM
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