An Open Letter to ‘Truth Wins Out’ on Sexual Orientation Change (Reparative) Therapy for Homosexuals

“You will not acknowledge the freedom of those who seek change”

Homosexual activist Wayne Besen of "Truth Wins Out" viciously attacks people who have overcome homosexuality in their lives--like former lesbian Janet Boynes. To order Boynes' book, go to www.JanetBoynesMinistries.com.

The following is an open letter to “Truth  Wins Out” (TWO), a homosexual activist organization that attempts to discredit the observed truth that people practicing homosexuality can change their dominating sexual attractions (and behaviors). This letter was sent to members of the California state Assembly, which is considering SB 1172 — passed in late May by the state Senate — banning “sexual orientation” change therapy (also know as “reparative therapy”) for homosexual youth. The letter’s signers are: myself [Peter LaBarbera, Founder and President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)], Wayne Lela, Founder of H.O.M.E. (Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment), and John McCartney, Jr., an AFTAH Board Member and advocate with the Citizens Concerned About Media, also based in Chicago.

TWO viciously demonizes “ex-gays”; typical is TWO founder Wayne Besen’s crass and demeaning characterization HERE of former lesbian Janet Boynes as an “ex-gay fraud” and “con artist.” Significantly, much of Besen’s and TWO’s efforts are directed at denying media visibility to people like Boynes who have overcome homosexuality in their lives. You can also listen HERE to Besen’s embarrassingly unprofessional appearance last year opposite me on liberal radio host Barry Lynn’s talk show, “Culture Shocks”: in addition to repeatedly calling me “Porno Pete” (a nasty smear he concocted) on air, Besen exposes his own folly of trying to “prove” homosexuals cannot change by admitting that he hasn’t (and of course cannot) monitor every former homosexual. (Besen and his small outfit evidently hadn’t been tracking successful Chicago former lesbian Linda Jernigan.)

I wish to add, for myself personally as a Christian who has monitored the homosexual movement for two decades, that some people trapped in homosexuality HAVE experienced rapid and, many would say, miraculous change away from homosexuality — mostly (but not always) through spiritual regeneration in Jesus Christ. However, that should not be the expectation of every person seeking sexual healing and transformation. As in all areas of life, each person brings his or her own unique circumstances, struggles, beliefs and personality to the process of overcoming adversity, sin and addictions in their life. And the lingering effects of temptation, abuse/family dysfunction and indulged, habitual sin — of whatever stripe — usually last a lifetime.

For more details on the California bill that gravely threaten’s parental rights, see the NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuals) and PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) website. PFOX also has some interesting information on Besen’s antics. This letter was sent out last week.–Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

___________________________________

Open Letter to Truth Wins Out:

Your campaign to discredit reparative therapy (RT) for homosexuals and lesbians is now focusing on the California legislature, urging legislators to outlaw RT. This letter aims to discourage them from doing so. Why? For six reasons.

One: Men and women can manage, diminish, even eliminate same-sex attraction (SSA); we know, and know of, many who have. You avoid debate on RT while discrediting it and its practitioners. Do you activists have psychiatric training? We suspect not. Your approach is aggressive propagandizing, not arguing your case in the public forum. What are you afraid of? The truth.

Two: RT works, and we pity the dissatisfied homosexuals and lesbians whom you prejudice against it. Three hundred sixteen thousand men who’ve had sex with men (MSM) have died of HIV/AIDS since 1980, and MSM accounts for 532,000 of the 1,200,000 American HIV/AIDS victims. One would think that compassion would persuade you to give RT the benefit of the doubt, because the stakes are high. Who can take you seriously about the putative danger to gays when you ignore the immense harm they’ve done, and are doing, to themselves?

Three: In your anti-RT campaign you will not acknowledge the freedom of those who seek change, and you relentlessly strive to restrict the freedom of those professionals offering change—even to the point of calling for their decertification.

Four: Your Exhibit A, those depressed, frustrated, or “damaged” by RT, claim that their desire for same-sex intimacy was not removed by it. We contend it was not failure of the therapy; it was your over-exposed exhibits’ unrealistic expectations. Even Alcoholics Anonymous achieves only 40 percent success. People addicted to alcohol don’t soon lose the desire; they manage it as it diminishes. Those who have habitually acted on their same-sex attraction should not expect a miracle. Theirs too must be the Twelve-Step way. TWO’s contention that RT causes “damage” is based not on hard evidence but on the self-defeating expectations of the unsuccessful.

Five: By ranting against RT and scoffing at the claim that homosexuals and lesbians need healing, you’re not only discouraging the dissatisfied from seeking healing, you’re giving a pass to those who made them need it—-by rejection, abuse, and other traumatic experiences. You ignore culpability with your born-that-way argument, thereby maintaining your constituency.

Six: If you can, through propaganda and sustained attack, outlaw RT in the United States, then you can argue that gays are a “suspect class” deserving the same Constitutional standing as black Americans. But same-sex attraction can change, color cannot.

While we know none of you personally [LaBarbera has debated TWO’s Besen over the years] nor your economic views, we conclude that you reject the free market because you believe dissatisfied gays cannot, without your vigorous intervention, reject a service (RT) not benefiting them or choose one you deem appropriate.

Peter LaBarbera

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), Naperville, Illinois

Wayne Lela

H.O.M.E. (Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment), Chicago, Illinois

John J. McCartney, Jr.

Citizens Concerned About Media, Chicago, Illinois; Board Member, AFTAH