Tuesday, July 18, 2006
by Wayne Besen
Peter LaBarbera is in a swivet because I have nicknamed him "Porno Pete" for his propensity to penetrate seedy gay settings. Once inside a porno palace or S&M club, LaBarbera photographs licentious behavior in an effort to grossly distort gay life and to scare (not to mention scare up cash) from impressionable right wing audiences. Planet Out mentioned his new moniker and the right's paparazzi of perversion wrote a scathing letter claiming that he had been treated unfairly by the news organization.
All I can say to the whining LaBarbera is: If the leather jockstrap fits, stop your sniveling snits. Let's face it, this guy isn't a policy wonk - he's a right wing "policy wank."
Of course, Peter will disingenuously deny that he gets off on going to homo hangouts. But there is no denying that he has attended more gay events than Mr. Leather, RuPaul and Mary Cheney combined. One of his websites, for example, boasts a shocking array of dirty pictures he cherry picked from various Pride events to show that gay people are sick.
Indeed, he was found
picketing the tubs in Chicago last week during the Gay Games and protesting at Chicago's gay pride not long before that. LaBarbera's former ex-gay spokesperson, Wade Richards, described in my book Anything But Straight, a trip into LaBarbera's licentious lair.
"Peter was very intense," said Richards. "The office freaked me out. I had never seen so much gay pornography in my whole life...It was crazy...[there were] thousands [of gay magazines] - all kinds...[He said they were] for research...I had no clue what fisting was until I met Peter LaBarbera...It was a crazy experience."
In his letter to Planet Out, LaBarbera tried to justify his obsession. "Yes, I once researched gay events, and still do occasionally, by attending them to get firsthand info."
The issue I have with him isn't his "firsthand" account, it is that he keeps going back for second...third and fourth-hand accounts. Has he gleaned any new information from this month's trip to the tubs? Is there some novel sexual technique he recently discovered that will help him showcase the evils of gay sex to unsuspecting church ladies? If not, than why keep going back?
It seems Peter is protesting a bit too much and entering certain arenas that go above and beyond the call of duty. While Rev. Pat Robertson hosts the 700 Club, Porno Pete seems to have attended 700 gay clubs in search of sodomy.
LaBarbera needs to understand that we see through his facade. He doesn't need more gay magazine subscriptions than the Stonewall Library to learn about the titillating fringe of gay life. It is no secret that some gay people like to have lots of sex and sometimes enjoy porn. What LaBarbera doesn't seem to get is that most straight people also love sex and naughty pictures.
Has it been lost on him that one can watch straight porn in most major hotel chains? Maybe if he'd pry himself away from gay sex joints, he'd find the time to read straight porn mags, visit swingers clubs, film spring break orgies, spy on frat house sex parties, snoop around whore houses in Las Vegas and peep at prostitutes that slouch on street corners in every big city in America. But, no - it is only gay sex that seems to capture Porno Pete's wild imagination.
Pete, we love the sinner, but you must admit, your sins are a tad weird. What the GLBT community is fed up with is that you brazenly exploit us for political gain with no conscience. You are a right wing lobbyist who bears false witness and uses distorted depictions of our lives to pass hateful legislation.
If you cared about fairness, you'd attend a PFLAG meeting or take pictures of gay veterans during pride parades. Why not attend the GLAAD Media Awards or an HRC black tie dinner? No, you just want to slither through the tubs at unGodly hours - in the name of God. What you do Peter, is produce pure, unadulterated propaganda and hate. You have made it difficult for kids in school and torn families apart.
Most disturbing, is that you have seen your pet "ex-gays" fail three times in a row - yet you tragically keep beating this dead horse. First, you backed John Paulk, until I photographed him in a gay bar. Then, you touted Wade Richards - an honest man you now unfairly attack as a liar. Then, you jumped on the Michael Johnston bandwagon, before I exposed him as a fraud for having sex with men he met online. I would have thought that you would have learned something by now. But, you have no interest in the facts, even as your tired strategies have repeatedly failed. This is profoundly immoral and unBiblical behavior.
Ironically, LaBarbera is a friendly guy, despite his peculiar peccadilloes. This is not a personal battle between us. I just wish he would deal with his issues, whatever they might be, instead of destructively battling his demons on the public stage. The lives of too many GLBT youth are at risk for LaBarbera to continue to play his Gay Games. Isn't it time he put away his camera and went home to his waiting wife?
And if he can't kick his voyeuristic homosexual habit? Let's just drop all pretenses and name him Grand Marshall of next year's Pride Parade.
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