Haworth Press set today as the release date for Wayne Besen’s book on the ex-gay movement, “Anything But Straight.”
The unveiling will be accompanied by a 55-city book tour. An extended excerpt from the book is available here.
The book-release announcement follows. It lists 51 of the 55 cities and says they are “tentative.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, Sept. 28, 2003
Contact: Wayne Besen
Mobile: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: Wbesen@aol.com
LANDMARK BOOK DEBUNKING THE EX-GAY MYTH TO BE UNVEILED OCTOBER 1 AND WILL INCLUDE A MASSIVE 55-CITY BOOK TOUR
Anything But Straight, by Wayne Besen, Disproves the Controversial and Politically Charged Notion That Gay People Can Go Straight Through Prayer and Therapy
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Haworth Press announced today that on October 1 the much-anticipated book ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHT: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, will be unveiled nationally. Wayne Besen, the book’s author and a former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, says the highly controversial and politically explosive book shatters the notion that gay people can change into heterosexuals through prayer and therapy.
“Anything But Straight is the one book that the right wing doesn’t want America to read because it exposes their lies, hypocrisy and willingness to destroy innocent lives in pursuit of their anti-gay political agenda,” said Besen. “What the right wing particularly hates about this book is that it will hurt their ability to use so-called ex-gays as props to raise money and deny gay people equal rights.”
On October 11, National Coming Out Day, Besen will kick-off a 55-city 28-state tour in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., his hometown. Besen will 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.
“We made this an extensive book tour because we wanted to ensure the truth is told in every region of the country. We hope this book tour opens minds, changes hearts and saves lives,” said Besen.
Leaders in the GLBT community are already looking forward to the important message offered in Anything But Straight.
“Anything But Straight is a powerful, riveting, and well written look at the ex-gay ministries and blows the lid of these false prophets,” said David Mixner, author of Stranger Among Friends and co-editor of Brave Journeys: Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage.
“Wayne Besen splays open the underbelly of the ex-gay ministries and sheds light on one of the most insidious movements of the radical right,” said gay activist Donna Red Wing. “America needs to pay attention to what Besen has exposed in this astonishing revelation.”
“This is a must-read book for people on all sides of the debate,” said Soulforce founder and author Mel White, who wrote the Forward for Anything But Straight. “Besen does a masterful job of making both gays and ex-gays alike contemplate ways to re-examine all our assumptions, re-state all our conclusions, and in the process extricate ourselves and our issues from the hijackers who are using gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to frighten and divide the nation and control the churches.”
The book tour is tentatively scheduled to visit the following cities: Albuquerque, Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Boulder, Buffalo, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbia (S.C.), Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Ferndale (Mich.), Flagstaff, Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville (Fla.), Houston, Key West, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Madison, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (Ore.), Providence (R.I.), Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, St. Louis, Syracuse, Tampa, Vancouver (B.C.)Washington, D.C.
Besen is a nationally recognized advocate for gay and lesbian rights. He is a frequent guest on leading news and political talk shows including: the NBC Nightly News, The Roseanne Show, CNN’s Talk Back Live and The Point, Fox’s O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes, Fox News and MSNBC News. He has also been quoted in a number of national publications such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone and the Advocate magazine.
Besen made international news when he photographed “ex-gay” poster boy John Paulk cruising a gay bar in Washington, D.C. In August, Besen again made headlines when he uncovered HIV positive ex-gay leader Michael Johnston’s not so ex-gay life. Besen traveled to Norfolk, Va. and found that Johnston was allegedly having unsafe sex with several men, even as he was a spokesperson for Rev. Jerry Falwell and other major right wing groups.
I wish Wayne well with the book. It’s no small task to get published, not to mention make enough of a splash to rack up decent sales.
The months-long hype is wearing thin with my midwestern sensibilities, though. Today’s unveiling appears to be a non-event apart from a press release, and the “massive” nationwide tour has a starting point in 10 days but no itinerary.
C’mon, Wayne, fill in the details!
Its a shame with all of the exposing of the ex-gay movement that in debunking this so-called harmful type of ministry that the gay community has little to offer in exchange. 15 years of living in it including an 8 year monogomous relationship proved to me that 1. although there are some exceptions relationships are largely built on sex and difficult to maintain and 2.leave many frustrated and chasing an illusionary “man of my dreams” that doesn’t last, and at best is empty.
While I would never identify myself as heterosexual, in truth I sure do not belong to the gay world either. According to well-meaning Pro-gay experts this should leave me feeling confused, miserable and perhaps suicidal. If life was only all about sexual identity perhaps this would be true. Thankfully mine is not.
Twelve years later I still remain delighted to be out….. out of the homosexual world and found life to be tremendously delightful on the other side of gay. I am saddened by this book because it negates that some of us are deeply thankful to have been associated with ex-gay ministry. Contrary to this book’s premise I personally found more love and freedom within the walls of “ex-gay” ministries than I ever found in the 15 years I lived like most of us have lived… in bars, bathhouses, and all of that other shit…
Not all of us had negative expriences with ex-gay ministry…………
Respectfully,
Don Kimball
Interesting. I’ve been queer my whole life and never did the bars – bathhouses – promiscuity scene. Perhaps those behaviors are simply behaviors chosen by individuals — most of hem heterosexual, by the way, and have nothing to do with being gay.
Glad you are out of that scene, though, Don, and I am glad exgay ministry did not harm you. Most of those I know involved in them have different stories to tell.
As far as the gay community having little to offer in exchange, that’s bunk. Obviously you have not seen as much of it as you assume.
I’ve been more or less a part of the gay “community” for 15 years and in an evolving monogamous relationship for about three. Sex is not the focus of our relationship, by any means. As for difficulty, I think that’s dependent on any two individuals’ personalities, not gender, and in this relationship our personalities are highly compatible.
There are big differences between searching for the perfect person, searching for the “man of my dreams,” and searching for someone who’s compatible and with whom there’s shared affection.
In the first case, someone searching for the perfect person is likely to be inflexible, uncompromising, judmental, and prone to seek excuses not to relate or commit.
In the second case, I think someone searching for a “man of my dreams,” soulmate, or knight in shining armor is likely to be looking for love — not looking to love. Love requires effort, and solid relationships require two-way give-and-take built on shared interests and values.
Relationships started in random social gatherings like bars work occasionally, but I think they’re highly prone to failure because the individuals in a bar on a given night have very little in common — interest-wise, value-wise, or in temperament.
Don, I can relate to your disenchantment with the bar scene, but I’m honestly unclear what you mean by the “homosexual world.”
The “gay community” is whatever you make it be, in your own life. If you go to church, that’s your community. If you golf a lot, that’s your community. Go to football games? Ditto. Volunteer for the Republican Party? Read books at Starbucks? There you go. Assuming you meet gay folks in those settings, you’ve got your own “gay community.” Unless something romantic happens with a special individual with whom you find much in common, none of those gay relationships are going to be sexual.
If a relationship is built on sex, I have to wonder whether it’s because at least one partner chose to prioritize the sex over the common interests and activities.
Don, I’m glad you’re happy with where you’re at. I know a few individuals who feel they benefited from ex-gay ministries. I believe it’s unfortunate those individuals are being used — or are choosing to participate — in a political war fought with stereotypes, strawman arguments, and discrimination against other same-sex-attracted individuals.
I read Don’s comments and could only think how much better off gay people would be if we did have gay marriage, not to mention true societal acceptance.
We grow up learning that being gay is this horrible sin or curse. In deciding to come out, we often are rebelling against all the moral “truths” of our youths and then are thrown into a “scene” in which everyone else has also thrown out the moral “truths.” We have no real role models for relationships, and no expectations our lives will be anything but random sexual encounters. We don’t know how to date, and have spent most of our lives hiding our feelings.
Clearly not every gay person is like this, but there is a core of gay people, mainly men, who are. I personally am not a prude, and if people really enjoy casual sex (safely) I am all for it. But I do also believe that the expectation of an ordered life (dating, marriage, children, old age) that heterosexual people have does benefit them. Even if they decide not to follow that path, the option is so out there an available that they know what they are getting into, or not.
I think the gay community could be helped tremendously by a similar expectation. We would actually learn to date, hopefully as teenagers, and then be ready to be more mature and responsible as twenty-somethings.
I already see this is the group of young gay people (say 25 and younger) who have grown up with the support and approval of their family and friends. These folks always seem to have boyfriends/girlfriends and seem readier to take on the adult trappings of life. I have to believe there is a connection.
Pushing on 30 years of being out, beginning a relationship that has many rewards and pleasures. Met a man in a bar and was with him almost 7 years until he died. I have never done the bath house scene. In this time there have been joys and sorrows. Very few of them are things I feel I can blame on the gay community. Many I can blame directly on the types of groups Exodus etc support.
Mike says: Love requires effort, and solid relationships require two-way give-and-take built on shared interests and values.
Very true, it takes a lot of work to live with and love someone. Thanks for the insight Mike.