Press release from Wayne Besen about last week’s Law & Order: SVU episode:
AUTHOR ON EX-GAY MYTH COMMENDS NBC’S LAW AND ORDER FOR HIGHLIGHTING SCIENTIFIC VOODOO BEHIND EX-GAY PROGRAMS
Focus on the Family’s Own Failed Ex-Gay Leader Proves That Law and Order Was Right, Says Anything But Straight Author, Wayne Besen
WASHINGTON – Wayne Besen, author of the controversial new book ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHT: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, today commended the NBC show Law and Order: SVU for presenting an accurate portrayal of the harmful, failed programs that unsuccessfully try to turn gay people straight through prayer and expensive therapy.
In the show, an ex-gay “poster boy” is murdered because he is about to expose the movement’s failures. The story ends by revealing that the killer is another ex-gay leader. Right-wing group Focus on the Family issued a harsh statement condemning the show, calling it “misinformed drivel” and accusing the show of having an “activist agenda.”
“I urge Focus on the Family to lighten up and realize the show was simply fiction – just like their ex-gay programs,” said Anything But Straight author, Wayne Besen. “Law and Order and NBC should be commended for showing the truth about the complete and total failure of attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation. Focus on the Family hardly has the credibility to protest the show when its own ex-gay leader, John Paulk, was once found imbibing in a gay saloon.”
Besen, a former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, says his politically explosive new book shatters the false notion that gay people can change into heterosexuals through prayer and therapy.
Besen is currently on a 55-city-28 state tour in his effort to take his important message to America’s heartland and Canada at a time when right wing leaders are attempting to exploit the “ex-gay” myth in their efforts to thwart same-sex marriage. Please visit www.AnythingButStraight.com for further information about stops on Besen’s book tour.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Nov. 14, 2003
Contact: Wayne Besen
Mobile: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: Wbesen@aol.com
What is wrong with that show? How could they use real bad news for money? I can’t believe that of them. How dare them! That show is so disrespectful to reality. They used 9/11! Curse “Law & Order! What do they know? Nothing! They weren’t touched by 9/11. They don’t know how it feels to lose loved ones. 9/11 did change NYC (and perhaps the world) forever. They too should be changed by 9/11. They only use the real bad news, not documentaries. How typical! Why don’t they make up their own thing, without using reality? They should shut up. They talked about the War on Terror and Iraqi prisoner scandal. One episode was about a fictional FDNY scandal. What’s next? What does that show want to teach us? What is the purpose of it? They’re evil, I tell you! Evil!
James Hanlon, a real FDNY fireman who directed the documentary 9/11, acted in this show and NYPD Blue.
I dont see anything wrong with it. Is there a problem with icluding real life news in some show?
I doubt If anyone would rather hear them make up something like
‘the twin towers exploded and turned into candy,’ instead.
It would be further disrespected if Law and Order simply forgot about it. And besides, its New York City, a real place, not MadeupVille.