I wanted to share this with you guys. This is what PFLAG does in response to Love Won Out conferences. I was able to participate when Love Won Out came to Portland, Oregon. My own uncle called wanting me to attend this with him and I gave him a flat out "no" that my son was fine the way he is. [Note: There's an action item at the bottom of this email; please take a moment to respond to the Letter to the Editor planted by "Love Won Out" organizers in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday.] Friends, Here's the YouTube posting of a video of the PFLAG protest of Focus on the Family's 50th "Love Won Out" conference at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando on June 6, 2008. The conference was timed to coincide with Gay Days, an annual pilgrimage of at least 100,000 people to Walt Disney World that is widely considered to have a bigger impact on the Central Florida economy than any other single event. This video was created by Vicki Nantz and Mary Meeks, the documentarians who created "Accessory to Murder: Our Culture's Complicity in the Death of Ryan Skipper" (www.ryanskipperdocumentary.com). Ryan Skipper's stepfather, Lynn Mulder, is one of the people interviewed here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzg2b-jRGNs At the rally were about 30 PFLAGers from AL, FL, GA and SC, plus PFLAG National Executive Director Jody Huckaby, Communications Director Steve Ralls and Senior Field & Policy Coordinator Jamie Curtis -- all of whom were in Orlando for the PFLAG Gulf Regional Conference held at Walt Disney World that weekend. We were joined by a woman from the local LGBT community who is interviewed in this video and says she was a victim of "ex-gay" therapy. Due to the fact that First Presbyterian's parking is across the street from the church campus, PFLAGers had an opportunity to speak directly with LWO participants, including staff of both First Presbyterian and Exodus International (an "ex-gay" organization). Perhaps the single event that had the greatest impact on rally participants was seeing a youth being walked into the church by his parents while tears streamed down his face. Next stops for "Love Won Out" are Anchorage (AK) on Sept. 13th, and Colorado Springs (CO) on Oct. 25th. (www.lovewonout.com) For more information about "ex-gay" therapy, visit the PFLAG website: http:// community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=503&srcid=652 Prior to LWO Orlando, organizers posted six billboards around Orlando with the headline "I Questioned Homosexuality". A similar billboard had appeared prior to the LWO in suburban Atlanta in 2006 and was posted in the historically African-American Sweet Auburn neighborhood (home of Ebenezer Baptist Church and the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change) featuring a smiling middle-aged African-American man, even though conference attendees are generally white and that LWO was held in a predominantly white suburban megachurch. The Orlando billboards prompted the following story in the Orlando Sentinel: Gay activists to protest Orlando event, notion that homosexuality is 'curable' orlandosentinel.com/community/news/winterpark/orl- exgays0608jun06,0,908656.story Jeff Kunerth Sentinel Staff Writer June 6, 2008 Gay activists and clergy are planning a silent protest Saturday morning outside a conference of ex-gays who contend homosexuality can be cured by religious counseling. The conference, called "Love Won Out" and sponsored by the conservative Colorado-based Christian organization Focus on the Family, has sparked controversy and outrage with several billboards in Orlando and other cities that host the traveling event. The billboards declare: "I Questioned Homosexuality and discovered love won out." The group's message is that change is possible. "For gays, this is the same as saying you don't have to be black, you don't have to be Jewish," said Wayne Besen, executive director of TruthWinsOut.org, a Brooklyn-based gay advocacy group. "They represent us as broken and incomplete people." Protesters, organized by Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, will meet outside First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, where organizers say the conference is expected to draw about 500 participants. The conference coincides with Gay Days, which annually attracts thousands of gays to Orlando and Disney World. Earlier in the week, leaders of Orlando's gay community denounced the conference and the billboards as part of the larger agenda by Christian groups to deny gays rights -- including same-sex marriage -- and portray gays and lesbians as deviant and abnormal. Before Orlando, Love Won Out had erected the controversial billboards in eight cities. In some cities, the billboards have been vandalized. The ex-gays conference is the setting for the latest battleground between conservative Christian ministries and gay activists over the unsolved question of what determines a person's sexual orientation. The ministries argue that same-sex attraction results from specific events in a person's life -- such as sexual abuse, personal trauma and dysfunctional families -- that can be corrected with Christian- based counseling. "Same-sex attraction is the result of a number of influential factors, but, no, we don't believe people are born gay," said Melissa Fryrear, director of gender issues for Focus on the Family. "We believe homosexuals can be converted and same-sex attractions can change." Research by the American Psychological Association and other mental- health organizations disputes that view of homosexuality, said Kathryn Norsworthy, a licensed psychologist in Winter Park. "Homosexuality is not a deviant behavior or abnormal. There is no need for a cure," Norsworthy said. Jill Bley, a psychologist with the American Psychological Association, said there is no evidence that therapy can change a person's sexuality -- only that some people can repress their sexual desires. "They cannot change because, we believe, it is a chemical, biological thing that happens in very early stages of development," said Bley, whose practice is in Cincinnati. Love Won Out points to a recent study as proof that change in sexual orientation is possible. Researchers followed a group of gays and lesbians who had been referred for "conversion therapy" by Exodus International, an Orlando-based ministry for ex-gays. The study found that 15 of the 98 gays and lesbians had become heterosexual. But Besen says the therapy is a false hope that Love Won Out sells to unhappy homosexuals, their families and friends. Scores of ex-gays who marry believing they have turned straight end up in divorce court after discovering they hadn't changed after all, Besen contends. "They show you the marriage licenses," he said. "They don't show you the divorce papers." Jeff Kunerth can be reached at 407-420-5392 or [email protected]. The following Letter to the Editor appeared the next day in the Sunday edition of the Orlando Sentinel and was written by a member of First Presbyterian. To submit a letter in response, send it to [email protected] and/or you can post a comment to the online version of the letter here: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/T4U2T56BTKLIPCFSA Saving Us From Ourselves http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl- le08_108jun08,0,602672.story Upon reading the article about gay activists planning a protest to the "Love Wins Out" conference happening in our city, I felt sorry for those 500 people who have nothing better to do but create hate and anger outside a downtown church that 365 days a year truly does promote the love and healing of a mighty God. Focus on the Family, the organization sponsoring the event, has for years offered loving support and counseling as a way to flee from the gay lifestyle. God created and loves us all and calls us to be obedient to His will, but He did give us a free will of our own. The lifestyle choices we surrender to are in fact choices within our free will, whether it be homosexuality, self-righteousness, alcoholism, gambling, lying, and the list goes on. All of us have been born with strong tendencies toward right or wrong. It is our relationship with our mighty and loving God, who, by the way, created us, that can save us from ourselves. NANCY CHAPIN Orlando Here's a comment on that letter, posted online by a rally participant: I'm a little surprised you characterized the rally this way. The protesters were from PFLAG National and PFLAG Orlando (Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians) and they were polite, offered donuts and juice to attendees and had very interesting and calm dialog with the Pastor of the church. He was charming in fact. The result of the conversation I had lead me to understand where we have common ground. Pastor's Position: -We love our children. -We are doing what we think is best for our children. -We are helping the INDIVIDUAL to change. -We want them to obey God. -The reward is acceptance for our children in the Christian community. My Position: -We love our children. -We are doing what we think is best for our children. -We want our children to be true to themselves. -We are helping the COMMUNITY to change. -The reward is acceptance for our children in the community. It is difficult to be on opposite sides of an issue when the intent is the same. We both want what is best for our children. -- Lance Helms PFLAG Gulf Regional Director Atlanta www.pflag.org Take the Straight For Equality Pledge! www.straightforequality.org/pledge
What I've always found funny is that religion accepts that science is based on logical understanding of the world, and still rejects its findings if they don't agree with them. When every psychological agency worth anything in the US disagrees, I don't quite get why they're still convinced we're diseased, and we all want to be cured really. I don't. I don't want to have my true nature suppressed. Girls don't do anything for me. I don't have a dormant straightness that would be exposed through aversion therapy. I'd be more likely to be put off relationships altogether, giving me no hope for love in the world whatsoever. Love is winning out. Who I love doesn't stop it being love.
Wow. I never realized people cared about people like us so much. I guess I never would have expected parents to care.
When I got to the part where parents were leading their child into the LWO conference, and he had tears streaming down his face... That broke my heart.
Yeah, I was crying when I read that. How could a parent look at their child and lead them into one of those things.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=A8uLkNefhkQ&feature=related This is an interview by an ex-gay survivor, and I think it's pretty informative.
As odd as it may sound, I wasn't really surprised. I'm not surprised by much of anything anymore. Various religious, legal, social, and political groups have done much more ignorant things in the past concerning the wellbeing of the LGBT community. It's sad, it's angering, but it's been going on for a very long time. At least there ARE people who are willing to fight for our protection.
The very name "Love won out" is a misnomer. I hate it. Even IF (which I doubt) the 15 out of 98 gays had turned hetero, that's still 83 that had wasted their time, money and had to endure guilt and blame and possibly have lasting damage from the "cure". People should be allowed to explore and discover their own sexuality without any bias.
Oh my non-existent god, who the HELL do these bastards think they are?! Really, "Love Won Out?" That has got to be the biggest misnomer ever, as pirateninja said. Ex- gay conferences/camps and conversion the-RAPE-y are emotional abuse. They should be shut down, just like those "metalhead conversion clinics" were.
