Wayne Besen

Last updated
Wayne Besen
Born1970 (age 53–54)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Florida
Known forFormer spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign
Founder of Truth Wins Out
AwardsNominated for two Lambda Literary Awards
Scientific career
Institutions Human Rights Campaign

Wayne Besen (born 1970) is an American LGBTQ rights advocate. He is a former investigative journalist for WABI-TV, a former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, and the founder of Truth Wins Out. Besen came out to his parents before starting his Truth Wins Out Organization. After coming out to his parents, they bought him an ex-gay DVD that could supposedly hypnotize people and turn them straight. It was that and the invitation by President George W. Bush of ex-gay leader Alan Chambers to the White House that led him to start the Truth Wins Out organization. [1]

Contents

Besen has interviewed hundreds of former and current "ex-gays", and is an outspoken critic of organizations such as Homosexuals Anonymous. [2]

Early life and education

Born into a non-religious, liberal Jewish family, Besen attended Kaiser High School in Honolulu, Hawaii. [3] [4] After high school, Besen studied at the University of Florida, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in broadcast journalism in 1993. [5] While in Florida, Besen helped co-found his first non-profit organization in 1992. Named the Sons & Daughters of America (SDA), the group headed a public awareness campaign focused around gay and lesbian injustices. [6]

Photos of John Paulk

In September 2000, Besen photographed ex-gay activist John Paulk, then Chairman of Exodus International, in a Washington D.C. gay bar called Mr. P's. [7] Paulk said he was simply there to use the washroom, but Besen and other witnesses allege he was drinking and flirting for over 20 minutes. Besen went public with the story, and wrote about it in his book Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth . The book was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards in 2003. [8]

Besen's photograph of Paulk in September 2000 (and the subsequent release of the story) was instrumental in the ultimate removal of Paulk as Chairman of Exodus International. Exodus International was a major organization in the "Ex-gay movement" until it was disbanded in June 2013. [9] As noted by The Washington Post in October 2002, "John Paulk had been the most famous success story of the Christian ex-gay movement, which seeks to persuade gay men and lesbians to accept Jesus and renounce homosexuality. He had appeared on 60 Minutes , Oprah and the cover of Newsweek ." [10]

Criticism of Sam Brinton

Besen has expressed skepticism about anti-conversion activist Sam Brinton's description of their childhood conversion therapy experience. [11] [12] Besen noted inconsistencies in Brinton's retelling of events, as well as Brinton's being unable to remember the therapist's name despite having had two years of sessions with him. [12] In the aftermath of 2022 allegations of luggage theft against Brinton, Besen reiterated his concerns and accused various people and groups of failing to heed "clear warning signs" and of making decisions to accept Brinton's recounting of their experience without confirming its veracity as "sloppy, ethically negligent, and shockingly unprofessional" behavior that had given conservative groups and media a talking point to help them denigrate the LGBTQ+ community. [13] [14]

Opposition to Catholic activism

In November 2009, Besen wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Bay Times arguing that the gay community has a "gigantic Pope problem", and that under the leadership of Benedict XVI, the Vatican had become an enemy of liberalism, modernity, and LGBT rights. He was responding to the recent ecumenical manifesto Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience , which calls upon Christians to oppose laws and policies that attempt to undermine their private religious consciences. [15]

Related Research Articles

The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.

Richard A. Cohen is a Christian psychotherapist and author associated with the ex-gay movement. He is a co-founder of Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality which offers discredited conversion therapy practices purporting to change a person from homosexual to heterosexual. In 2002, Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association for multiple violations.

John Paulk is an American activist who, from 1998 to 2003, was an advocate of the ex-gay movement and conversion therapy. In April 2013, Paulk disavowed his belief in gay reparative therapy and issued a formal apology for his role as an advocate of the movement.

The Family Research Institute (FRI), originally known as the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), is an American socially conservative non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado which states that it has "...one overriding mission: to generate empirical research on issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality, AIDS, sexual social policy, and drug abuse". The FRI is part of a sociopolitical movement of socially conservative Christian organizations which seek to influence the political debate in the United States. They seek "...to restore a world where marriage is upheld and honored, where children are nurtured and protected, and where homosexuality is not taught and accepted, but instead is discouraged and rejected at every level." The Boston Globe reported that the FRI's 2005 budget was less than $200,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exodus International</span> Defunct Christian conversion therapy organization

Exodus International was a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian umbrella organization connecting organizations that sought to "help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires". Founded in 1976, Exodus International originally asserted that conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction, was possible. In 2006, Exodus International had over 250 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries. Although Exodus was formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it was most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations.

Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is a non-profit organization that promotes the ex-gay movement. PFOX advocates the view that homosexuality is not a product of biological determination. Past presidents of PFOX include Greg Quinlan and Richard Cohen.

Truth Wins Out (TWO) is an organization formed by Wayne Besen to fight what he considers "anti-gay religious extremism", especially the ex-gay movement.

<i>Anything but Straight</i> 2003 book by Wayne Besen

Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth is a 2003 book by Wayne Besen, a gay rights advocate. The book examines the claims of prominent gay "conversion therapists" and provides insight into "ex-gay" ministries such as Love in Action, Exodus International, Homosexuals Anonymous.

Andrew Comiskey is an American conservative Christian political activist and is the founder of Desert Stream Ministries, a ministry formerly affiliated with Exodus International. He has written several books based on his experience with turning away from a homosexual identity and avoiding homosexual relationships and behaviors, and gives seminars to those who wish to be free from such relationships and behaviors. He is considered to be a prominent ex-gay leader, and has appeared as a guest on The 700 Club.

Love Won Out was an ex-gay ministry launched in 1998 by Focus on the Family, an American conservative Christian organization. It was taken over by Exodus International in 2009 and then shut down at the same time Exodus International was disbanded, in 2013.

The Homosexuals (<i>CBS Reports</i>) Episode of CBS Reports

"The Homosexuals" is a 1967 episode of the documentary television series CBS Reports. The hour-long broadcast featured a discussion of a number of topics related to homosexuality and homosexuals. Mike Wallace anchored the episode, which aired on March 7, 1967. Although this was the first network documentary dealing with the topic of homosexuality, it was not the first televised in the United States. That was The Rejected, produced and aired in 1961 on KQED, a public television station in San Francisco.

CBS Reports is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with 60 Minutes, as a series of its own, or as specials. The program aired as a constant series from 1959 to 1971.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homosexuals Anonymous</span> Anti-LGBT Christian fundamentalist group

Homosexuals Anonymous (HA) is an ex-gay group which practices conversion therapy and describes itself as "a fellowship of men and women, who through their common emotional experience, have chosen to help each other live in freedom from homosexuality." HA regards homosexual orientation as "sexual brokeness" that may be "healed" through faith in Jesus Christ. In common with other Christian fundamentalist groups, HA regards heterosexuality as "the universal creation-norm". This approach has been criticized for stressing that a person must renounce homosexuality to be a Christian, and because there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.

"Pray the Gay Away?" is a 2011 episode of the American television series Our America with Lisa Ling. The episode, hosted by Ling, profiles several people as they seek to reconcile their homosexuality with their Christianity. It originally aired on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network on March 8, 2011.

Anne Edward is the executive director of Restored Hope Network, an interdenominational Christian ex-gay ministry headed up primarily of former members of Exodus International.

John J. Smid is the former director of the Memphis, Tennessee ex-gay ministry Love in Action, a group that claims to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality.

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Silverado, formerly known as Flossie's, is a gay bar and strip club in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Brinton</span> American nuclear waste disposal expert

Samuel Otis Brinton is an American nuclear engineer and LGBTQ activist. They served as the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy from June to December 2022. Brinton is no longer employed by the Office of Nuclear Energy after being charged with luggage theft on three occasions.

References

  1. ↑ "Talking About: Wayne Bensen". Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  2. ↑ Besen, Wayne R. (2003). "Founding Follies". Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Routledge. pp. 97–98. ISBN   978-1-56023-446-3.
  3. ↑ Cohen, Lenny (February 21, 2019). "'Truth Wins Out' Founder Fighting Google, Ex-Gays in Philly". Philadelphia Gay News. Archived from the original on March 13, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  4. ↑ NNDB (2019). "Wayne Besen". NNDB: Tracking the Entire World.
  5. ↑ "Wayne Besen's official website". Waynebesen.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Staff | TWO Care" . Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  7. ↑ Glassman, Anthony (September 29, 2000). "Head of 'ex-gay' group Exodus is caught in a gay bar" . Retrieved January 6, 2009.
  8. ↑ "Previous Lammy Award Winners (Recipients and Finalists)". Lambda Literary Foundation. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Exodus International Shuts Down: Christian Ministry Apologizes To LGBT Community And Halts Operations". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  10. ↑ Cooperman, Alan (October 21, 2002). "Ads Renew Ex-gay Debate". The Washington Post .
  11. ↑ Villarreal, Daniel (October 10, 2011). "The Mystery Surrounding "Driftwood's" Tortured Ex-Gay Survivor". Queerty . Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  12. 1 2 "Has Sam Brinton's story always been too good to be true?". LGBTQ Nation. December 7, 2022.
  13. ↑ Ramirez, Nikki McCann (2022-12-10). "Biden Nuclear Waste Official Accused of Airport Luggage Theft -- Again". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  14. ↑ Riley, John (2022-12-13). "Department of Energy: "Sam Brinton is No Longer a DOE Employee"". Metro Weekly . Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  15. ↑ "The New GLBT Pope Problem". Sfbaytimes.com. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
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