BACKGROUND:
“We Will Stop Focus on the Family’ Destructive Lies Wherever They Are Spread,’ Says TWO
Truth Wins Out’s founder, Wayne Besen, will speak at a forum on Thursday evening in Anchorage with local religious and community leaders to discuss the danger of so-called “ex-gay” ministries. The “God Loves You Just as You Are,” symposium is sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church (7208 Duben Avenue) and will take place at 7:00 p.m. The conference is a response to Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out “pray away the gay” road show.
“We appear wherever Focus on the Family spreads lies and fear,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Love Won Out distorts gay life and conflates stereotypes with science, while selling false hope to vulnerable people. We are looking forward to working with Alaskan advocacy groups to counter Focus on the Family’ false and destructive messages.”
Speakers at the MCC forum include: Rev. Sara Gavit, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church; Rev. John Carey, Pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church; Rev. Beatrice Hitchcock, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Edie Bailey, Worship Coordinator for Metropolitan Community Church; Summer LeFebvre, Social Action Chair, National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter; Kaya Kade, President of the Alaska Counseling Association; Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out.
Besen is the author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the “Ex-Gay’ Myth.” TWO shadows this anti-gay seminar across the nation to ensure that the public is armed with the facts and aware that Focus on the Family is deliberately disseminating misinformation about gay and lesbian people.
The Love Won Out conference will take place on Sept. 13 at the Abbott Loop Community Church. Love Won Out is a quarterly symposium that preys on vulnerable and desperate parents upset because they have a gay child. John Paulk, an ex-gay leader who was on the cover of Newsweek, founded the program. Love Won Out suffered a major setback after Paulk was photographed inside a Washington, DC gay bar by Besen in 2000.
In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused James Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at RespectMyResearch.org.
On September 18, the Anchorage chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will hold a support meeting for parents and family members of gays and lesbians at Immanuel Presbyterian. “We do not believe that ‘reparative or conversion’ therapy should be used to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian children of homosexuality,” says Jane Schlittler, current president of PFLAG-Anchorage. “There is nothing wrong with our children. They are not sick or evil. They are jCCCust fine the way God made them.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
