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
In typical fashion, Exodus and Focus on the Family are fooling future victims with false advertising, pie-in-the-sky promises and semantic games. In hyping the Asheville event, Focus on the Family wrote an article that claimed the following:
** For 33 years, Exodus has been spreading a message of hope and freedom to a world impacted by homosexuality.
I would agree that Exodus is spreading a message of hope. Indeed, the entire organization is all about "messages" - even if their slick words conflict with the dark reality experienced by most of the people who will attend the group's conference. The sad truth is, anyone can offer "messages" - but are these messages backed by substance or simply empty promises that will cause needless pain and suffering? The statistic-free Exodus refuses to show whether its rhetoric matches reality - because it doesn't. In my view, the Exodus message machine borders on consumer fraud.
** Exodus President Alan Chambers said, "There is a biblical alternative, that we can find freedom from homosexuality."
Once again, Chambers is word-smithing to make it appear as if Exodus is offering a magical cure. Chambers pathologically denies this, but wide-eyed, new conference-goers will surely see Chambers' words as offering a new life as a heterosexual. After all, "freedom from homosexuality" implies that the alternative is heterosexuality. Anyone who says otherwise is flat out lying and exploiting people.
** Jeff Johnston, gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family, attended his first Exodus conference more than 20 years ago. It helped him gain victory over homosexuality, and he said he wants that message of freedom to spread. "You have some churches saying, 'Homosexuality is OK; that's how God made people,'" he said. "Exodus is proclaiming (the) truth and helping people find freedom."
Johnston is also guilty of manipulating words to make conference attendees believe they will become straight - which they won't. He is saying that people will "find freedom" and the text supports this by saying that Exodus helped him "gain victory." For the vast majority of people paying their hard earned money in Asheville, victory means an opposite-sex spouse that they are actually attracted to. It means that when they are at the gym and see an attractive person of the same-sex, they will feel nothing sexual.
Exodus cannot promise such a transformation, and is thus immorally preying on people by offering promises they can't deliver. Why doesn't Exodus simply tell people the truth. Here are few honest slogans:
1) "Marry someone you aren't attracted to and learn to have sex with them!" (Alan Chambers, Instructor)
2) "Improve your acting skills by playing straight! Free Haircuts!" (Melissa Fryrear, Instructor)
3) "Learn the Joys of Lifetime loneliness and Celibacy!" (Randy Thomas, Instructor)
30 Comments:
The ex-gay crowd is simply not taken seriously anymore, at least not by thinking people. Hopefully, they will not be able to trick young gay people of falling into their snare. Sometimes, however, people have to deny their sexuality in order to see that it is wrong to do so; that experience becomes their proof.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/11/2008 1:04 PM
Such comments, if found in a Christian or Right winged publication would be trounced on by the gay community as being insensitive and homophobic.
Wow - I guess there really is more privilege
posted by Anonymous, at
7/11/2008 1:36 PM
No one is making fun of him for being gay. It is because he is a phony. That you don't get it anonymous, shows that your synapses aren't connecting.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/11/2008 1:55 PM
No - that you don't get the double standard means you are discriminating and engaging in inciteful language. That has nothing to do with gay or not gay or whatever a person calls themself. Geez - you probably weren't there when they used to call us dykes and fags openly and made fun of our clothes, hair, etc... just because we were gay.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/11/2008 4:09 PM
ANONYMOUS" Mary Louise, she is a screamer and she is way too old to remain in denial. This is way past a closet. She is plum freakin crazy nuts. whackjob. bonkers. flipped out. Please. Look at that face. It is a caricature. If it was not necessary to fight this rediculousness, i would be hysterically laughing.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/12/2008 1:50 AM
Anonymous is probably Adam or Theo(cracy).
posted by Anonymous, at
7/12/2008 9:35 AM
Oh - and you have never had a goofy picture of you taken by one of your friends???
Come on! You guys are name calling, and trying to bully the guy. Double standard all the way down the line.
And what I find strange - yet again, is that if someone disagrees with you and calls you on your own bad behavior, then you call that person a "Theo(crat)", or Andy (who apparently is someone you don't like or something else. You can't see the message for what it is. That's wrong.
BTW, I am not Theo or Andy or a religous right winged person.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/12/2008 11:57 AM
Anonymous. Our points that we are making is that Alan Chambers is a fag. Ok he is gay. Ok he is a homosexual man. Ok? It is silly and detrimental for all of us to sit around trying to make excuses for his behavior. It is natural that we would make the comments that have been made. He is gay for goodness sake. Face it. He is an enemy to gay youth because he is spreading falsehoods about changing yourself from gay to straight. There is no one i know of who is out there telling straight people it is possible to change yourself into a gay person for reasons whateva.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/12/2008 11:24 PM
Natural to have disdain for him - sure. Natural to want to make comments - sure. But if someone in straight society made those comments about a gay man - then all hell would break loose. Stop trying to justify the same behavior that you run to town with when somneone does the same thing to you.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/13/2008 12:56 AM
anon: thats bullshit. who would know better than one of your own? And more importantly if you are gonna attack anyone on this topic, it should be that self hating confused gay man alan chambers.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/13/2008 2:12 AM
anon: by the way. you sound really hot. hi. wink.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/13/2008 2:17 AM
Ewe, you sound ugly. You may be good looking and rich but your soul is ugly. Sorry. Your hatred is just as bad as any I've seen.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/13/2008 12:53 PM
too bad we can't know which anonymous wrote that.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/14/2008 12:49 PM
oh well that clears it all up.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/15/2008 5:01 AM
It's alan chambuz huself isn't it?
posted by Anonymous, at
7/15/2008 5:03 AM
No Ewe. I am not he. But your antagonising is reminiscent of the same gays used to go through. You must be very young and have no understanding of the value of your current freedoms and earned rights. It is a long hard fought battle to bring dignity to GLBT people and you're makeing a mockery out of the struggle of those who came before you. Thanks a lot.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/16/2008 4:47 AM
Get your head out of your ass. I will no longer respond to you hiding behind anonymous because you cannot even be addressed via a specific handle. As far as being young and taking things for granted, i suggest you try your diminishing dialogue with someone who fits into your fantasy. Good riddance Anonymous.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/16/2008 11:46 AM
Okay Exe now you have lost all ability to remain civil. Calling me names and trying to bully me. Why - oh - why would I give you a name when you cannot even be trusted to be civil with a person you don't know??? Just think what you would do if you really did know my name? Scarey. Yeah - you are very young and very mislead about the cost of freedom.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/16/2008 10:43 PM
