Updated:
Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” tonight (March 19) at 11 p.m. Eastern time.
Besen appears in a show segment titled “Diagnosis: Mystery” along with sexual reorientation coach and author Richard Cohen.
Mr. Cohen is an unlicensed Maryland psychotherapist and advisor to Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, an organization of antigay parents and spouses that was co-founded by the Family Research Council and ex-gay former activist Anthony Falzarano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLtF7baeouw
It’s true. 11:11pm and I’m laughing my ass off. Besen and “coach” Cohen…
Pillow hitting. Patient hugging. “My safe word is ‘cinnamon’.” It’s all there!
Does Richard Cohen just like have no idea he’s making a complete idiot out of himself every time he goes on tv? And what was up with the stretching thing?!
Is Mr. Cohen aspiring to become the new Mike Jones?
Everything else aside, Richard Cohen is one weird dude.
I wonder, Richard Cohen correctly mentioned on the Daily Show that he’s not a psychiatrist, in fact he described himself as a “coach.” Yet looking at the International Healing Foundation (which he founded) website, the section on Mr. Cohen says “Richard Cohen, M.A., a psychotherapist and educator, is one of the leading experts in the field of sexual reorientation and the author of Coming Out Straight: Understanding and Healing Homosexuality and Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan for Family Healing.”
So I guess my question is, what is Cohen? a “psychotherapist” or a “coach”?
This has been the subject of some debate recently. Perhaps someone more familiar with Maryland law and licensing could chime in. The the average reader, it certainly appears as though he is saying one thing on TV and another on his web site. One would think a psychotherapist would require a license of some sort.
That was one of the funniest segments I’ve ever seen, and I’m a hugh Jon Stewart fan.
Richard Cohen is quite a poster boy, isn’t he? I just love it every time he shows up on the boob tube.
I’m bummed that I missed this, Hopefully we can see some youtube links to a clip of the segment here at XGW pretty soon 🙂
I didn’t see the show either and hope for a youtube link soon.
With regard to Cohen, I have also been intrigued that his clients don’t pay him for his coaching/psychotherapy. He has the client “donate” (probably a set dollar amount per hour of coaching/therapy) to his foundation for a session with him. Presumably his foundation (which I guess just includes Cohen and possibly his wife) then pays Cohen.
Donating to a non-profit in order to get around the fact that he doesn’t have a license and not directly paying Cohen for his professional services seems to me to raise IRS issues. I really wonder if what he does is legal from a tax point of view.
John, where did you find this information?
Isn’t it illegal to practice medicine without a license?
Brilliant!!! I’m ex-gay but this piece demonstrates everything that’s wrong with the approach of Cohen and others. And why does he NOT get how bad he’s coming across on TV?
On another matter, what’s the WP plugin to get the comment appearing as you type?? I could use that…
And to think they say a gay man can’t throw or catch a ball….
OH, MY BAD !
Richard Cohen CAN’T throw or catch a ball.
xy
David,
Richard Cohen talked about how he gets paid in a TV show where he demonstrated his pillow hitting technique and holding therapy to a female journalist (?Paula Zahn). I remember the money part being mentioned when he was hugging one of his clients who had dredlocks.
Brilliant, as all Daily Show segments are. Richard Cohen is a disgrace in every way possible. He is a professional disgrace and it is shameful that he is gay (I say is because I do not believe and have never seen credible evidence that change is possible – if he was a gay leaning bisexual, then it is possible that he has made a “choice” for women, however if he was gay, he is gay — regardless of who he is forcing himself to sleep with).
Regards,
Reynolds Jones
https://www.rebuff.org
believeinyou24@yahoo.com
Cohen is a pretty funny guy. In fact, maybe he should give up his day job and just fulfill his destiny as a comedian.
So fucking funny and true, which is sad
Depending on the state you live in, you “could be” a psychotherapist with an MA (but we don’t know what Cohen’s MA is in!).
What is more disturbing is how someone like Cohen, who has no credentials or research to back up his claim (hitting pillows…and yelling at Dad is just SOOO absent father theory of homosexuality).
But Fox News and other conservatoons will give him airtime because they like what he says.
Fox News does this repeatedly, gives airtime to crackpots…and then Fox gets all pissy about it when they get caught.
Just between us, isn’t EGW, TWO, or some other gay rights organization just paying Cohen to undermine the ex-gay movement? If so, it’s money well-spent.
I love this part:
Qjersey, thank you for your input but please watch the language while posting here – thanks.
Actually, the real surprise is that Richard Cohen has been on everything from 20/20 to Howard Stern. I guess one can’t blame them entirely, he is quite a circus act.
Am I missing something here? I do not have cable/dish network and from the looks of this clip I would assume Mr. Dick Cohen was part of the skit? He is a satirist?
No?
No
Cowboy, Richard Cohen is as real as snow.
Wickedly funny! Best laugh I’ve had in a long time.
Wayne’s a cutie!
Stewart and Colbert ’08!
If Stewart and Colbert ran, i would vote for them in a second.
This is a riot! Very clever and very right on.
Thank you Richard Cohen!
Seriously. Thank you for being on the other side.
Oh, Colbert actually makes fun of conservatives. I am an ex-exhomosexual, meaning I tried to make myself “straight” while I was still in the closet. It is great when a satire show presents the truth.
He doesn’t get paid? Maybe he just does it for the cuddles!
For anyone who would like a bit of trivia from the show, you can get your very own copy of the “Gay and Unhappy” subliminal audio tape right here. Just scroll down to the bottom and for less than $20 you too can be straight!
Wait, that “gay and unhappy” tape is actually REAL?! Who put it out?
Duh, following the link helps 😮
I think this man’s weirdness is the result of his poorly concealed longing for other men, sexually and emotionally. When one’s sexual orientation and identity are denied, the mind looks for other ways to conceal or reveal one’s sexuality.
It’s like Ted Haggard, the closeted-self-hating-I’m-a-sinner-and-Gawd-has-forgiven-me, loving father and husband: this man will never be trusted by the crazy Christians around whom he has chosen to hide and associate. He will be miserable the rest of his life, while he tries to suppress his own natural feelings and desires. Similarly, Richard Cohen is a sad, diminished, and, now, peripheralized closet case.
Part of the reason that Cohen doesn’t want to be gay is that he was a Moonie. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Movement, purveyor of massive arranged marriages conducted in football stadiums, was notoriously anti-gay. Moon referred to gay people as “dung-eating dogs”, called them “lower than animals” and predicted that God would “eliminate” them from the earth. No wonder Cohen is so fucked, he’s been brainwashed by an anti-gay cult.