You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Author Wayne Besen released an explosive letter today by Love In Action's co-Founder and former ex-gay John Evans, which rebukes gay conversion groups saying that they "shattered lives". The group he started has recently made headlines because it runs a boot camp for gay teens called "Refuge" that tries to turn adolescents heterosexual, often against their will.
"In the past 30 years since leaving the 'ex-gay' ministry I have seen nothing but shattered lives, depression and even suicide among those connected with the 'ex-gay' movement," Evans writes in his letter to John Smid, Love In Action's current director. "I challenge Christians to investigate all sides of the issue of being gay and Christian. The Church has been wrong in the past regarding moral issues and I'm sure there will be more before Christ returns."
Jeff Gannon should slither away in the dead of night and hide in the murky shadows for his remaining days. Like a bad summer rerun, he has returned, this time reinventing himself as a pro-liberty, patriotic gay activist.
"The Web-Sites of these [gay bloggers] activists are populated with extreme elements who seek to compromise America’s security and cripple its economy. Intelligent debate over issues and strategies is crushed by expressions of blind rage and conspiracy theories," Gannon writes in Southern Voice, Atlanta's gay newspaper."
For those who don't remember, Gannon was the phony "reporter" Jim Guckert, who went from working in a cyber-whorehouse as an escort to covering the White House as a "correspondent" for conservative Internet magazine, Talon News.
When not reporting conservative news, Guckert was a member of Bush's "ownership society". In fact, he owned seedy gay sex websites including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com. While other reporters covered a beat, Guckert's beat was under the covers.
While this imposter got special rights to cover the White House, real reporters sometimes did not receive press passes. Gannon is a fraud and has lost any shard of respectability or credibility. He is an eyesore who should leave the public eye. It is time he gets on with his life, gets a real job and becomes a respectable citizen before he asks us to respect what he has to say.
Finally, what is a real threat to our national security is a government that undermines a free media by planting a phony reporter in press briefings to lob softball questions. Every time Gannon asked a staged, Bush-friendly gem, a reporter with a real inquiry on genuine military matters was denied, and so was our nation. Gannon should stop posing and start repenting. What he did hurt America and subverted the very freedom he purports to champion.
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The White House is citing the attorney-client privilege as the basis for refusing to reveal memos written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. when he was representing the government before the Supreme Court. But in 1996, porn writer, I mean Independent Counsel, Kenneth W. Starr challenged the notion that White House lawyers who worked for Clinton could invoke the attorney-client privilege when he sought notes they had written. According to the Los Angeles Times, Starr argued that these lawyers worked for the people of the United States, not for the president.
This is what the GOP gets for trying to bend the rules to advance their agenda. That is why it is important to govern on principle, not just political expediency. Starr got what he wanted, and now Roberts should get what is coming to him. It is called comeuppance.
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Pandering to a right wing fringe group, Clear Channel took down a Gay.com ad that featured a bare chested man and the American flag. There is nothing offensive about such an ad and gay people are Americans like anyone else and have the right to celebrate the flag. Such freedom of expression is downright American. Yet, a group of yahoos in Boston demanded that the ad be censored, because they apparently think gay people dating and the flag don't mix.
"You have two men embracing, wrapped in the American flag, advertising a porno website," right wing nut Brian Camenker. "How can you get more offensive than that?"
What is more offensive to me is how so-called family values groups wrap themselves in the flag to mask their campaigns of hatred and discrimination. Furthermore, gay.com is a dating/news website, not pornography, although some people elect to post naked pictures. Clear Channel should have had some guts and told the puritanical busybodies to get lost. After all, the ad had been up since April and no one complained until a blue-nosed interest group made it their pet cause.
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With absolutist positions on intertwining church and state, it strikes me as a little odd that Republicans are suddenly rallying to make sure questions about Supreme Court nominee John Robert's religious beliefs are off the table.
A report released Monday shows that if 'don't ask, don't tell' - the law that bars out gays from serving in the military - were repealed the armed forces could alleviate a critical troop shortage.
The report, prepared by the Williams Project at the UCLA School of Law, and released today by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network shows that without the ban, the military could expect to see 41,000 new recruits.
It comes as the Pentagon admits it will not meet its recruiting goal this year for the first time since 1999.
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Sandy Rios, former Concerned Women President and nutcake with big hair, was canned as the Director of Programs for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The I.F.C.J is a group started by a "rabbi" named Yechiel Eckstein who has found a way to inveigle millions of dollars from conservative Christians. The evangelicals give tons of money to his "Jewish" group so he can help assure them that Israel will be in Jewish hands, which will set the stage, according to their beliefs, for a happy Jesus to return to Jerusalem.
Of course, once Jesus returns, the Jews must convert or die in Armageddon. It is a tidy scam, really. Jesus isn't coming anytime soon, so Eckstein gets to collect an endless fortune from gullible Midwestern fundamentalists. (Before you write, I promise if He returns I'll apologize profusely.)
Back to Rios. The New York Times Magazine did a cover story on this brilliant rabbi/businessman. (What he does is only unethical, not illegal in any way) While trying to convince America that the fundamentalists don't mean any harm to Jews, Sandy Rios - the zealous buffoon - interjects and offers this advice:
Throughout this conversation, [Sandy] Rios was clearly eager to join in. And as soon as there was a pause in the discussion, she did. "You know," she said, "the truth is, Christians do want to convert Jews."
Eckstein and Mamo exchanged glances. "Not by some bait-and-switch trick," she said. "But we believe it's part of God's plan." Eckstein winced the way he had when Pastor Munsey called him a born-again Christian.
"Anyway," Rios said, "we love Jews, notwithstanding their rudeness and hatred for us."
Three days later, Eckstein called me in New York. Rios had been fired, but her gaffe, and the impression it made, was still on his mind. "It's really my fault," he said. "Hiring staff is a problem. Truthfully, it's extremely hard to find people who understand exactly what we're doing here."
Way to go Sandy. Not only did you lose your job, but you also exposed the I.F.C.J. for the right wing front group that it actually is. People who want to help Jews only to expedite the End Times are no friend of Israel. Eckstein should disband his group before it does any more harm. As for Sandy, I think I may have seen a want ad for a crackpot fundamentalist on Monster.com last week.
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