As noted in the last post, America has its own anti-gay fanatics who dress themselves in the cloak of religious piety even as they peddle hate, lies and untruths about LGBT individuals and, of course, the myth that gays can "change." Never mind that all of the legitimate medical and mental health associations disagree with this politically and religiously motivated claim.Some of these groups have been aptly registered as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Others have not be so registered - at least not yet, but ought to be in my opinion. Even more disturbing is the fact that some of the leaders of these organizations are treated as if they were credible spokesman by news outlets such as MSNBC. One of the merchants of the "change myth" is Parents ad Friends of Ex-gays ("PFOX") which not surprisingly derives funding from and has board members from SPLC registered hate groups. One of PFOX's ongoing battles has been with the Montgomery County, Maryland, school division where PFOX has been striving to disseminate its fraudulent information. On his blog, Warren Throckmortion, a convert from the change myth industry slams PFOX and its dishonest agenda. Here are highlights:
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays has been getting push back over the ex-gay pamphlets sent home with students recently in Montgomery County, MD. Earlier today, Peter Sprigg, who is on the board of PFOX and works for the Family Research Council wrote the Washington Post to criticize a Post article for calling homosexuality “innate.”
What is also troubling about Sprigg’s letter is that he offers an organization as an alternative that does what he accuses the Montgomery Board and the Post of doing – making political statements in place of scientific ones. PFOX has no interest in all of the evidence regarding sexual orientation. Instead, they promote reparative therapy, with the dubious view that parenting and sexual abuse causes sexual orientation. The one PFOX conference I attended several years ago was a sad affair for a group of parents I spoke with after the sessions. Why? Richard Cohen had just finished telling them that lack of love was the culprit behind the gayness of their kids.
As I write this, PFOX is just one of the organizations along with FRC that continues to mislead their constituents regarding current information regarding sexual orientation. They blast those who say that homosexuality is innate or may be a response to pre-natal factors while at the same time promoting bad parenting and trauma as causal factors.
Montgomery County may still be in an ideological war over the factors which cause sexual orientation to take the direction it does, but an answer to that problem is not more “information” from PFOX.
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