Pride Source reported today that the Family Research Council placed a blatantly dishonest ad in the The Holland Sentinel that claimed, among several lies, that some LGBT people “spontaneously” go from gay-to-straight.
This was an odd claim to make considering the head of the “ex-gay” industry, Exodus’ Alan Chambers told the Lost Angeles Times on June 18, 2007:
“By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete…Sexual orientation “isn’t a light switch that you can switch on and off.”
Apparently, FRC missed that memo. They also failed to mention they backed a million dollar ad campaign in 1998 that featured “ex-gay” poster boy John Paulk. I photographed him in a gay bar on Sept. 19, 2000. Another participant in that ad campaign was Michael Johnston. In August 2003, attorney Michael Hamar and I revealed that Johnston was engaging in group sex with men he met on the Internet.
Given its sorry track record, why is the Family Research Council perpetuating the “ex-gay” myth?
FRC took out the outrageous ad in Holland, MI to counter a community group that is trying to make the town more accepting of LGBT people. The FRC ad, also sponsored by Request Foods, made reference to efforts toward broadening the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The Holland City Council has referred the measure to its Human Resources Commission for review.
Among other things, the ad said homosexuals can be changed into heterosexuals “sometimes spontaneously, and sometimes as a result of therapeutic interventions,” that homosexuals experience considerably higher levels of mental illness and substance abuse than heterosexuals and that gay people are not seriously disadvantaged by discrimination.
If FRC was truly interested in how “ex-gay” therapy works in Michigan, they could have checked with Patrick McAlvey (video below). However, they never bothered to take the time and instead elected to spread hateful propaganda at the expense of truth.
