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
(Focus on the Family's Ex-Gay Leader Melissa Fryrear)
Focus Reports On Attendance Figures A Day Before Conference Begins, Says TWO
MIAMI BEACH - In an example of yellow journalism that sets a new low for Focus on the Family, the organization "reported" on attendance figures for an ex-gay survivors conference more than 24 hours before the event actually occurred. An entire day before attendees boarded planes for the Irvine symposium, sponsored by SoulForce and Beyond Ex-Gay, Focus editor Jennifer Mesko wrote that "across town [from the Exodus 'ex-gay' conference] a counter-conference drew about 100 people."
Jim Burroway and Ex-Gay Watch reported on the deliberate effort by Focus to lowball the attendance figures by inventing the numbers out of thin air. In response, Focus on the Family disingenuously pointed to a picture of conferees to show that less than 100 people were in attendance. However, they failed to point out that many people chose not to be photographed and others had already left the premises. For example, Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen elected not to appear in the photo, but watched the photographer snap the picture.
"The fact that I was not in the photo does not mean I was not there," said TWO's Besen.
In any case, it still does not explain why Focus on the Family filed its report a day before the event began. This shows, yet again, that Focus on the Family lacks integrity and is unscrupulous in its efforts to distort gay life, says Truth Wins Out.
"We are used to Focus on the Family fudging the facts, but to report concrete attendance figures on a conference that had yet to take place is a new low," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "This was an outright lie made worse when you consider Focus on the Family was mocking the pain and suffering of the survivors attending this conference."
The actual attendance was between 150-250 people, depending on the time of day and programming. For example, at a Saturday evening concert and movie screening, there appeared to be well over 200 people seated in a theatre.
"Focus on the Family might consider hiring real reporters instead of relying on clairvoyants to inaccurately report on the future," said Besen. "I understand, on some level, it must be difficult for Focus on the Family to face their victims. But bearing false witness will not make the witnesses to the manifold abuses of ex-gay ministries disappear. They are beginning to speak out and they are here to stay."
Truth Wins OUT is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the "ex-gay" myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit www.TruthWinsOut.org.
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20 Comments:
Why do all these bitches on the whacko right look like Stepford wives? Check out their pix on the back of any right-wing "christian" book on how to be a good slave to your husband and family. They all look like they just stepped out of a time machine from the 50s. Mentally and spriritually they still live there.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 4:09 PM
An "ex-gay" leader with the last name FRYREAR!! Methinks God has a sense of humor after all.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2007 4:11 PM
"Ex-gay" women look like Stepford Wives (and ex-gay 'men' appear equally as strange) because they are ACTING. They are not being their authentic selves and are projecting the persona that they think people WANT to see. The inauthenticity is clearly obvious.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/05/2007 1:50 PM
Fryrear looks a lot like Rosie to me.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/06/2007 7:59 PM
Why is it that there has been no evidence of legitimate clinical trials proving that homosexuals can be converted to an heterosexual "lifestyle"? In the absence thereof, I submit that this is all a myth. It is worth mentioning, that the majority of socalled "ex-gays" rarely, if ever, have ongoing, long-lasting heterosexual relationships. Many abstain from sexual contact with the opposite sex which leads me to conclude that they are still "gay" but asexual. How sad and what a waste of life.
Its all a myth. Let them prove by government sponsored clinical trials that they can convert heterosexuals to homosexuality, then maybe they'll lend credence to their claims. Until then, I'll remain unconvinced and sceptical at best. The majority of them lead asexual lives, yet at their core, they remain gay.
Ha ha, a caller on the radio one day pointed out the most obvious way you can tell these guys are phonies - because if it really were possible to change gays into straights, then the pharmaceutical companies would have been all over it by now.
That's an entirely common sense argument even conservatives should be able to comprehend.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/08/2007 9:29 AM
Eshto, I was just about to post a comment of the same argument. Why hasn't Big Pharma jumped at this opportunity? There's been so much press about it lately - maybe it's because the very medical organizations that the professionals pushing their products belong to agree that homosexuality cannot be "cured."
posted by Emily K, at
7/08/2007 3:51 PM
Ex Gays are usually bisexuals with major issues ... any bi person can be an ex-gay
posted by Anonymous, at
7/10/2007 2:46 PM
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