An op-ed by Bill Maier of Focus appeared in Monday’s edition of the Palm Springs Desert Sun. This is my response which was sent to the Sun that evening:
Editor,
This is in response to Bill Maier’s op-ed “Hear our message, then judge.”
I’ve heard Maier’s message. My name is Daniel Gonzales, I’m a contributing author with ExGayWatch.com, the largest and most comprehensive website dedicated to monitoring the exgay movement.
The caricature of liberals in Maier’s imagination tells him protesters such as those from ExGayWatch are going to talk about tolerance on Saturday; that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I plan on talking about the junk science, antiquated theology and trail of distortions and failures behind the exgay movement.
I plan on reminding Palm Springs it’s been over three decades since homosexuality was considered a mental disorder and for some reason Love Won Out speaker and therapist Joe Nicolosi still thinks otherwise. Furthermore, every major mental health organization in the country has renounced attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation.
This is not the only whacky idea pushed at Love Won Out events. At Love Won Out Birmingham, AL in 2005 professional heterosexual Melissa Fryrear stated out of the hundreds of homosexuals she’s met in her life every single one of them had been molested. Then there’s another LWO speaker and professional heterosexual Alan Chambers who regularly makes up numbers about how many people have been “cured” of their homosexuality. In 2003 without justification he told the Baptist Press “thousands,” wrote an article for NARTH claiming “tens of thousands” in 2004 and in 2005 told WorldNetDaily “hundreds of thousands,” once again all without explanation. Well mister Chambers, it’s 2006 and I recon you should have millions of exgays at your conference.
Let’s continue with the ex-gay deceptions. In his op-ed Maier distorts a study of exgays by Robert Spitzer. (It’s pretty much the only study that has ever said anything good about exgays.) Focus has distorted this study to the point where Spitzer himself went on the record and stated “unfortunately Focus on the Family has once again reported findings of my study out of context to support their fight against gay rights.”
So no Mr. Maier, I don’t plan on talking about tolerance on Saturday. Quoting the title of a book by Ryan Dobson (the son of Dr. Dobson) about rejecting bogus ideas, “Be Intolerant: Because Some Things Are Just Stupid.”
Daniel Gonzales is a former client of Joe Nicolosi and is now a contributing author to ExGayWatch.com. He is fully out of the closet and a resident of Long Beach, CA.
Spitzer conducted a five-year study of 200 gay men and women who had sought “reorientation” therapy. He found that most of them have achieved fulfilling, long-term heterosexual relationships.
How on earth did they manage to draw that conclusion from Spitzer’s study? Have they given up any pretense of honesty?
Bang-Zoom.
A home run, Daniel!
I love that, “professional heterosexual, Melissa Fryrear.”
I think she is just an amateur, but there is the compensation-by-Focus, issue.
Seriously, Focus is nearly incapable of distinguishing between the truth and a convenient lie.
Good one Daniel. I hope it gets in.
Excellent!!!
Let’s hope they print it
Nice work, Dan.