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
Macy's department store has altered a window display marking Boston's gay pride week after a group that opposes gay marriage complained it was offensive.
Exactly how stupid is Macys? First, it is a GAY GAY GAY store. Right wingers don't shop there. Second, most of the big department stores are in large cities where normal people don't give a damn about the issue. Third, Macy's PR team should be fired for incompetence. If Macy's does not reverse course, they will find they have made a terrible blunder.
Amazing, but Mary Cheney's book has only sold 6,000 copies, despite the fact that she has been on seemingly every national talk show in the country. Maybe no one wants to buy the book because it is clear that she is still "spinning" and not speaking from her heart.
I bought and read the book and it taught me virtually nothing, except that Mary was a daddy's girl and her sycophantic book cleared the approval desk at the Republican National Committee. I almost want to sue Mary for making me waste a day of my life reading such calculated political drivel.
I never thought I'd actually sell more books than Mary.
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Truth Wins OUT, a new group founded by author Wayne Besen to combat right wing misinformation campaigns and unmask the "ex-gay" myth, has officially launched. The web-site www.TruthWinsOut.org has been unveiled. The site will grow and expand in the weeks and months to come.
TWO will officially kick-off with a 10am press conference featuring victims of the "ex-gay" ministries at the National Press Club in Washington at 10AM. One speaker, 18-year old Lance Carroll, was taken to an ex-gay bootcamp in Tennessee against his will.
If you believe that letting America hear the story of Lance is important, please consider joining TWO.
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This week, I am starting a non-profit organization, Truth Wins OUT to combat right wing misinformation campaigns, particularly the ex-gay hoax. As the author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," I have long witnessed how these groups shatter families and ruin lives. But, conversion therapy has mostly been the domain of the insane and a hobby for right wing fringe groups that exploited homosexuals with low self-esteem for political gain.
This changed on June 5 when President Bush invited Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the nation's largest ex-gay group, to a White House press conference supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same-sex marriage in the U.S. Constitution.
The Bush Administration had always been at the intersection of Fantasy Street and Fanaticism Avenue, but inviting an ex-gay leader to a White House ceremony was beyond the pale. After all, the methods Exodus routinely uses to "cure" gay people are downright bizarre. For example, does Bush endorse youth boot camps where underwear is confiscated to 'cure' people who are gay or lesbian?
"They took away my Calvin Klein underwear," said Wade Richards, who attended Exodus International's "Love In Action" retreat. Richards said camp counselors believed there "seemed to be more of a sex appeal [issue] for men to wear Calvin Klein than it would if they wore Fruit of the Loom."
For decades, Exodus International had disingenuously claimed that it had no agenda but to "change" gay people into heterosexuals. But now this pretense has been stripped away as we see that its real aim is to change laws so that GLBT people will remain a persecuted minority.
"The lives of thousands of former homosexuals, like me, verify that homosexuality is not an immutable trait, therefore marriage is not a civil right to be casually granted to any group who demands it," said Chambers in a press release.
Chambers even appeared in a full-page newspaper ad in Ohio this year holding his wife under the banner headline, "By finding my way out of a gay identity, I found the love of my life in the process. Gay marriage would only have blinded me to such an incredible joy."
In other words, if it were not for officially sanctioned legal discrimination and oppression, Chambers would be married to a man. I,m not sure what that says about the effectiveness of his wacky program, but it does say a lot about the intensions of Exodus.
Exodus has even worked to oppose laws that would penalize gay bashing. A staff member appeared in an ad targeting senators voting on hate crimes legislation that read: "Hate crime laws say we were more valuable as homosexuals than we are now as former homosexuals."
Although Exodus leaders pretend they love openly gay people, their true feelings are transparent. "As a property owner of Orlando, I wouldn't rent to someone who is gay any more than I would rent to a person who is a practicing witch," Chambers once lovingly told an Orlando newspaper.
The reason the president is embracing Exodus is because polls show that Americans who believe homosexuality can be cured are far more likely to support anti-gay legislation. For example, a November 2004 Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates poll shows that 79 percent of people who think homosexuality is inborn support civil unions or marriage equality. Among those who believe sexual orientation is a choice, only 22 percent support civil unions or marriage rights.
It is abundantly clear that the ex-gay ministries are the centerpiece of the right wing's culture war against gay people. Exodus has 12 full-time staffers dedicated to demeaning and dehumanizing GLBT Americans. The gay community has not one full-time individual to counter this propaganda. I am starting Truth Wins OUT (www.truthwinsout.org) to counter this misinformation and level the playing field.
TWO will launch this week at the National Press Club in Washington to offer an alternative point of view to the one given at Bush's anti-marriage press conference. We will feature the testimony of 18-year old Lance Carroll, who was forced by his parents to attend an Exodus bootcamp in Memphis.
"My time in the ex-gay ministry Love in Action last summer was a horrendous experience," said Carroll. While I was there, it just seemed to make people more depressed and self-loathing than they already were. I, myself, went through several of these depressive periods."
Sadly, Bush gave his imprimatur to programs that virtually incarcerate youth, such as Lance, because they are gay. TWO will shine a light on these groups while dismantling right wing lies. If we put our hearts and minds to it, the ex-gay ministries and their right wing puppet masters won't stand a prayer. Now is the time to fight to protect our families and create a better world for future generations.
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'Ex-Gay' Group Operates Questionable Youth Boot Camp, Equates Gays with Satan;
Group Launches to Combat 'Ex-Gay' Programs
Washington, DC -- President George W. Bush invited an "ex-gay" leader whose organization operates a questionable youth boot camp, and equates gays with Satan, to his White House press conference in support of a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage.
Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, the nation's largest so-called "ex-gay" advocacy group, joined President Bush, conservative religious organizations and members of Congress at the White House today.
"It is unconscionable that President Bush would embrace a group that claims to 'pray away the gay'," said Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, an organization that will combat "ex-gay" efforts. "Does President Bush endorse youth boot camps where underwear is confiscated to 'cure' people who are gay or lesbian?" asked Besen.
"They took away my Calvin Klein underwear," said Wade Richards, who attended Exodus International's "Love In Action" retreat. Richards said camp counselors believed there "seemed to be more of a sex appeal [issue] for men to wear Calvin Klein than it would if they wore Fruit of the Loom."
Exodus' "Love In Action" has also offered training for women to apply lipstick and seminars on touch football for men.
Additionally, Exodus' website promotes books by Andrew Cominskey which claim that "Satan delights in homosexual perversion" and that same-sex attraction's "source is demonic."
An 18-year old boy who was forced into Exodus' boot camp will appear this Wednesday at the launch of a new national organization, Truth Wins Out, aimed at exposing dangerous and unethical "ex-gay" programs:
- New Group Launch -
Truth Wins Out will launch Wednesday at the National Press Club with dramatic personal stories from victims of "ex-gay" programs, and insights into how those theories are woven into the debate over gay marriage. The press conference will also expose the new Right-wing strategy to force "ex-gay" theories into classrooms.
WHO: Truth Wins Out WHAT: A new national organization to combat so-called "ex-gay" efforts. WHEN: Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 WHERE: National Press Club, Zenger Room; 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC
NOTE TO MEDIA: A victim of the "ex-gay" program operated by President Bush's invited guest is available for interviews. E-mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
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