Friday August 11, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 32 |
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Sunday, Jul 06, 2008
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An anti-Gay coalition urges APA to label homosexuality as a mental illness |
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| An anti-Gay coalition urges APA to label homosexuality as a mental illness | ||
| "This coalition is trying to kill the APA messenger because they don't like their science-based message," said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen.
Truth Wins Out will hold a press conference to counter a right wing attempt to bully the American Psychological Association into re-labeling homosexuality a mental illness. The anti-Gay coalition is staging a politically-motivated "protest" at the New Orleans convention center on Friday. These groups believe that homosexuality is sinful, and therefore they are attempting to pressure the APA into twisting science so it will correspond to the coalition's fundamentalist beliefs. The main tactic the coalition is using to manipulate the APA is the exploitation of so-called "ex-Gays," which are recloseted homosexuals who say they have prayed away the Gay. "This is the subversion of science and a religious racket designed to con Americans into believing that homosexuality is a mental illness," said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. "This coalition is trying to kill the APA messenger because they don't like their science-based message. These ex-Gay groups keep no statistics, they produce no peer reviewed studies, most of their top leaders have reverted back to homosexuality and they conveniently disregard scientific evidence that does not conform to their political agenda." BACKGROUND In 1974, the American Psychological Association deleted homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. It did so, because it was determined that prejudice instead of proof was responsible for the original diagnosis. There was no evidence to support the notion that Gay people were psychologically different from anyone else in society. Unfortunately, the right wing has launched an unethical and scientifically bankrupt campaign to politically pressure the APA into overruling its respected research. Ironically, the groups that are criticizing the APA use bizarre techniques to "cure" homosexuals. Some of their methods include exorcisms, repossessing a client's Calvin Klein underwear because it is deemed "too Gay," taking Prozac and drinking Gatorade in an effort to make men more masculine. "If the quack science is examined, it is clear that conversion therapy is a cruel hoax that is destroying lives and shattering families," said Besen. "The goal of this right wing coalition is to fool voters into thinking homosexuality is mutable, because polls show that when Americans believe people are born Gay, they are more likely to vote in favor of equality." Truth Wins OUT is a non-profit think tank and educational organization that counters right wing disinformation campaigns, debunks the ex-Gay myth, and provides accurate information about the lives of GLBT people. Wayne Besen, the groups Executive Director, is the author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking The Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. A Truth Wins Out press release |
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International Readers |
REPORTS & MUSINGS FROM THE VETERAN GAY AND AIDS HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE
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