Ex-Gay Watch

Dr. Michael Brown has a radio show called “In the Line of Fire.” On June 12th, 2009, the first hour (40 min.) of that program was entitled “Building a Bridge of dialog with the Homosexual Community.” (Transcript is here.)

This was mostly in response to Wayne Besen’s speech at Grand Valley University, and the panel discussion on the harm caused by the “ex-gay” industry—which was in response to the (then) forthcoming Love Won Out conference.

Wayne clarifies in a post called “‘Love Won Out’, What’s the Point?“:

Wayne Besen: I’m on my way to Grand Rapids, Michigan to give a presentation at Grand Valley State University on the harm caused by the “ex-gay” industry. My speech, followed by a panel discussion, is in response to Focus on the Family’s traveling road show, Love Won Out, which will be in town on Saturday. Having countered several of these conferences, I must confess, I still don’t understand what point they are trying to make…

Dr. Brown seemed to take the exclusion personally, and complained vociferously about his *unfair* treatment by those who claim to be “tolerant” and “inclusive,” and points out on quite a number of occasions that the university received more than “TEN THOUSAND” emails in support of his being included on the panel. No mention of the fact that Focus on the Family — The sponsor of the Love Won Out conference that he was speaking at — put out the call to have said emails sent to the university in a CitizenLink Action Alert.

(For the sake of reference, Dr Brown takes quite a fancy to the challenge of defending himself against what he considers to be unfair characterizations of him or his positions, as evidenced here at Ex-Gay Watch, 1, and 2, and also on Dr. Warren Throckmorton’s blog, 3.)

In this radio program, he vacillates between claiming persecution by the LGBT community, and pursuing the notion of dialogue with the LGBT community.

In the attempt to demonstrate the fundamentally corrupt nature of the event, he quotes from Besen’s book, Anything But Straight:

[5:08-5:50] Michael Brown: here’s one from Wayne in his book “Anything But Straight,” “Reparative therapists” — so these are people who help—psychologists, psychiatrists, or ministries who help people dealing with unwanted same-sex attractions. [Which now includes Dr. Brown]

“Reparative therapists are detestable, money hungry con-artists who lure and bamboozle susceptible people with misleading promises and false hope. One reason these quacks practice this chicanery is to cash in on this lucrative industry, but one cannot dismiss raw hatred as the primary motive that drives these charlatans to extreme lengths to denigrate lesbians and gay men.”

Delightful. That was the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that was put forward by Wayne last night. Read more…