Congressional Subcommittee To Hear From 'Ex-Gay' Group
by Paul Johnson
Posted: January 23, 2004 12:02 a.m. ET
(Washington, D.C.) The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources has scheduled a hearing on faith-based initiatives Friday and reportedly will hear from extreme rightwing groups including one promoting "converting" gays to heterosexuality.
Among the groups to testify before the Republican controlled sub-committee is Focus on the Family and an organization it sponsors, Love Won Out.
"This could mark the beginning of a faith-based fiasco where the right wing pressures the government to get into the business of destroying lives through support of ex-gay programs," said Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.
Gay civil rights groups are calling on the committee to rescind its invitation to the groups to appear.
"It is unconscionable that our federal elected officials would even consider using the hard-earned tax dollars of millions of parents to fund the denigration of their children," said David Tseng, Executive Director of PFLAG.
The Love Won Out website (www.family.org) states, "Focus on the Family is promoting the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable ... We want people to know that individuals don't have to be gay."
FOF says it plans to have five of their representatives testify at the faith-based funding hearing.
"Ex-gay therapy" was publicly decried in 1999 as unethical by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. At best, ex-gay groups fuel prejudice and homophobia; at worst, they put their 'clients' at great risk of depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior, including suicide.
"There is nothing reparative about this destructive and psychologically harmful practice, which is based on outdated and disproved pseudo-science and fundamentalist religious prejudice," said PFLAG's Deputy Field and Policy Director, Roy Gilbert- Higginson, PhD., a former clinical psychiatric social worker.
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Ah...you have to love our "compassionate extremist" president. And to think? My tax dollars might end up funding this repugnant pseudoscience. Now you can see why I was opposed to that faith-based crap, because now its clear that all this administration was interested in was funneling tax money into religions, which are the most hateful and discriminatory groups in America, second only, perhaps, to Christian "white supremacist" groups.
Melon
by Paul Johnson
Posted: January 23, 2004 12:02 a.m. ET
(Washington, D.C.) The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources has scheduled a hearing on faith-based initiatives Friday and reportedly will hear from extreme rightwing groups including one promoting "converting" gays to heterosexuality.
Among the groups to testify before the Republican controlled sub-committee is Focus on the Family and an organization it sponsors, Love Won Out.
"This could mark the beginning of a faith-based fiasco where the right wing pressures the government to get into the business of destroying lives through support of ex-gay programs," said Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.
Gay civil rights groups are calling on the committee to rescind its invitation to the groups to appear.
"It is unconscionable that our federal elected officials would even consider using the hard-earned tax dollars of millions of parents to fund the denigration of their children," said David Tseng, Executive Director of PFLAG.
The Love Won Out website (www.family.org) states, "Focus on the Family is promoting the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable ... We want people to know that individuals don't have to be gay."
FOF says it plans to have five of their representatives testify at the faith-based funding hearing.
"Ex-gay therapy" was publicly decried in 1999 as unethical by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. At best, ex-gay groups fuel prejudice and homophobia; at worst, they put their 'clients' at great risk of depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior, including suicide.
"There is nothing reparative about this destructive and psychologically harmful practice, which is based on outdated and disproved pseudo-science and fundamentalist religious prejudice," said PFLAG's Deputy Field and Policy Director, Roy Gilbert- Higginson, PhD., a former clinical psychiatric social worker.
---------------------------------------
Ah...you have to love our "compassionate extremist" president. And to think? My tax dollars might end up funding this repugnant pseudoscience. Now you can see why I was opposed to that faith-based crap, because now its clear that all this administration was interested in was funneling tax money into religions, which are the most hateful and discriminatory groups in America, second only, perhaps, to Christian "white supremacist" groups.
Melon