DRMIZER
02-23-2005, 11:33 AM
By Wayne Besen
In 1998, Janet Folger of Coral Ridge Ministries and 17 other right wing political groups declared war on the GLBT community. Their secret weapon was an unprecedented million dollar print and television ad campaign featuring so called ex-gays.
"We're asking you to reexamine the truth of homosexuality with ALL the facts in hand, apart from the half-truths and hostile name calling," implores one of the ads.
Fair enough. It has been five years since this inflammatory campaign transfixed America. What has happened in these five years?
** Southern Voice, Atlanta's GLBT newspaper, today unmasked HIV+ ex-gay poster boy Michael Johnston as a fraud. A 1998 full page Wall Street Journal ad in which he appeared says "If you love someone you'll tell them the truth."
Apparently this love and truth may not have been extended to Johnston's sexual liaisons. He allegedly had unsafe sex with several men in southern Virginia, potentially infecting these unwitting partners with HIV.
<snip>
Johnston once called Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a "pervert". As the boulders of truth land on his head this week, he would do well to apologize to Frank and others for casting a gravel yard's worth of first stones.
** John Paulk was the king of the ex-gay ministries. During the 1998 assault he appeared in a full page ad with a group of "former homosexuals" under the headline "We're Standing for the Truth that Homosexuals Can Change". He and his wife also took this explosive message to 60 Minutes and Oprah.
The pinnacle of his career came when he appeared on the cover of Newsweek with his ex-lesbian wife Anne under the bold headline, "Gay for Life?".
Apparently so.
In September 2000, John Paulk was found imbibing at Mr. P's, a well known gay saloon in Washington, DC. He offered my Human Rights Campaign colleague Daryl Herrschaft a cocktail and hit on him. Herrschaft called me from the bar and I came by and photographed the "ex-gay". Paulk was suspended as Chairman of Exodus, the world's largest ex-gay organization.
** In a 1998 New York Times full-page ad, "ex-lesbian" Anne Paulk proclaimed, "I'm living proof the truth can set you free." Unfortunately, Ms. Paulk was caught in a lie. In the huge ad she says, "...even though I had a lot of male friends, I just wasn't attracted to men sexually."
<snip>
Yet, in Love Won Out, a book she co-wrote with her husband John, Anne says she had the hots for a man named Mark. "He appealed to me sexually...we were drawn together by sheer animal magnetism...I came to see I could be physically attracted to a male, but I just couldn't surrender my heart to him," wrote Anne.
It is amazing that the right wing had so much trouble finding a real ex-lesbian that they had to recruit a straight or bisexual woman to lie in the ad about her past animal attraction towards men.
** Finally, Wade Richards, an ex-gay spokesperson who worked with right winger Peter LaBarbera following the ad campaign has since come out of the closet and denounced the ex-gay ministries.
We have reexamined the issue, as the right wing asked, and the verdict is in.
The ex-gay ad campaign that was supposed to be a knockout punch for the GLBT community, has instead become a punchline. It is a bust of epic proportions and would be laughable if it had not hurt so many innocent victims.
The real story here is not that Johnston failed and put people at risk for contracting HIV. After all, he is just a pathetic pawn and a victim of the right's hate propaganda and homophobia.
The true scandal is that Revs. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and their right wing friends remain silent after learning of Johnston's demise. No statements. No press releases. Certainly no million dollar ad campaigns apologizing for their mistake. They knew their poster boy had flunked out of hetero school, yet they swept the lie under the rug and never told the public.
These groups allowed families to continue to be torn apart because they had been sold the lie that sexual orientation is a casual choice and that heterosexuality can be achieved by following Michael Johnston's model of success. Well, the model is broken beyond repair. The only thing these groups have he ability to set straight is the record - and they can't even get that right.
To continue supporting these disgraced ministries one would have to be either intellectually dishonest or evil. Since Falwell and the religious right are both, in my opinion, the ex-gay ministries will continue. But they will survive with about as much credibility as the dreadlocked band Milli Vanilli after they got caught lip synching.
Falwell, Folger and their buddy's told us that the "truth will set you free". So isn't it fair to ask, when they will stop lying?
http://www.anythingbutstraight.com/author/oped4.html
In 1998, Janet Folger of Coral Ridge Ministries and 17 other right wing political groups declared war on the GLBT community. Their secret weapon was an unprecedented million dollar print and television ad campaign featuring so called ex-gays.
"We're asking you to reexamine the truth of homosexuality with ALL the facts in hand, apart from the half-truths and hostile name calling," implores one of the ads.
Fair enough. It has been five years since this inflammatory campaign transfixed America. What has happened in these five years?
** Southern Voice, Atlanta's GLBT newspaper, today unmasked HIV+ ex-gay poster boy Michael Johnston as a fraud. A 1998 full page Wall Street Journal ad in which he appeared says "If you love someone you'll tell them the truth."
Apparently this love and truth may not have been extended to Johnston's sexual liaisons. He allegedly had unsafe sex with several men in southern Virginia, potentially infecting these unwitting partners with HIV.
<snip>
Johnston once called Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a "pervert". As the boulders of truth land on his head this week, he would do well to apologize to Frank and others for casting a gravel yard's worth of first stones.
** John Paulk was the king of the ex-gay ministries. During the 1998 assault he appeared in a full page ad with a group of "former homosexuals" under the headline "We're Standing for the Truth that Homosexuals Can Change". He and his wife also took this explosive message to 60 Minutes and Oprah.
The pinnacle of his career came when he appeared on the cover of Newsweek with his ex-lesbian wife Anne under the bold headline, "Gay for Life?".
Apparently so.
In September 2000, John Paulk was found imbibing at Mr. P's, a well known gay saloon in Washington, DC. He offered my Human Rights Campaign colleague Daryl Herrschaft a cocktail and hit on him. Herrschaft called me from the bar and I came by and photographed the "ex-gay". Paulk was suspended as Chairman of Exodus, the world's largest ex-gay organization.
** In a 1998 New York Times full-page ad, "ex-lesbian" Anne Paulk proclaimed, "I'm living proof the truth can set you free." Unfortunately, Ms. Paulk was caught in a lie. In the huge ad she says, "...even though I had a lot of male friends, I just wasn't attracted to men sexually."
<snip>
Yet, in Love Won Out, a book she co-wrote with her husband John, Anne says she had the hots for a man named Mark. "He appealed to me sexually...we were drawn together by sheer animal magnetism...I came to see I could be physically attracted to a male, but I just couldn't surrender my heart to him," wrote Anne.
It is amazing that the right wing had so much trouble finding a real ex-lesbian that they had to recruit a straight or bisexual woman to lie in the ad about her past animal attraction towards men.
** Finally, Wade Richards, an ex-gay spokesperson who worked with right winger Peter LaBarbera following the ad campaign has since come out of the closet and denounced the ex-gay ministries.
We have reexamined the issue, as the right wing asked, and the verdict is in.
The ex-gay ad campaign that was supposed to be a knockout punch for the GLBT community, has instead become a punchline. It is a bust of epic proportions and would be laughable if it had not hurt so many innocent victims.
The real story here is not that Johnston failed and put people at risk for contracting HIV. After all, he is just a pathetic pawn and a victim of the right's hate propaganda and homophobia.
The true scandal is that Revs. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and their right wing friends remain silent after learning of Johnston's demise. No statements. No press releases. Certainly no million dollar ad campaigns apologizing for their mistake. They knew their poster boy had flunked out of hetero school, yet they swept the lie under the rug and never told the public.
These groups allowed families to continue to be torn apart because they had been sold the lie that sexual orientation is a casual choice and that heterosexuality can be achieved by following Michael Johnston's model of success. Well, the model is broken beyond repair. The only thing these groups have he ability to set straight is the record - and they can't even get that right.
To continue supporting these disgraced ministries one would have to be either intellectually dishonest or evil. Since Falwell and the religious right are both, in my opinion, the ex-gay ministries will continue. But they will survive with about as much credibility as the dreadlocked band Milli Vanilli after they got caught lip synching.
Falwell, Folger and their buddy's told us that the "truth will set you free". So isn't it fair to ask, when they will stop lying?
http://www.anythingbutstraight.com/author/oped4.html