Anti-Ex-Gay Activist Continues to Spread Lies About South African Tortured Youth

Wayne Besen Joins New Jersey Liar in Promoting “Gay Conversion Torture Camp” Conspiracies

There comes a time when you run out of talking points and simply have to resort to downright fabrication in order to fuel controversy. That’s just what Wayne Besen is doing on his anti-ex-gay hate blog, hilariously named Truth Wins Out (TWO). Voice of the Voiceless (VOV) thinks Wayne would have a hard time recognizing truth if it slapped him in the face.

Not even twenty-four hours after VOV called TWO, The Huffington Post, and GayStarNews out after suggesting that South African youth were tortured and killed by a militaristic-style camp with “reparative therapy elements,” Besen has doubled-down on his discredited conspiracy theory, saying:

To be clear, calling boys “sissies” and “moffies”does have an undertone about sexual orientation, but Bekker is deflecting attention from the real issue by saying that “turning boys into men” is not the same thing as changing homosexuals into heterosexuals. Indeed, on a surface level that’s true. Moreover, no one is claiming that the crimes were committed because the boys were gay, but rather were part of a hyper-masculine environment committed to the idea that these boyswouldn’t be “moffies.”

Really? No suggestions of gay to straight themes in the camp? Then why didn’t Besen just condemn this horrific tragedy instead of suggesting that the attitudes of these brutal criminals were similar to the disposition of professional therapists in the USA? Instead, Besen wrote this:

While no specific ties appear to exist at this point between American “reparative therapy” programs and this gruesome camp, the notable parallel is that groups like NARTH and Journey Into Manhood, as well as “therapists” like George Rekers have long been focused both on “preventing” homosexuality by teaching boys to be as masculine as possible, and on “curing” homosexuality in teens and adults by teaching them how to Be Men. Of course, it doesn’t work, as sexuality has nothing to do with either effeminacy or masculinity, but that’s the idea.

Here we go again, an activist-blogger trying to play therapist. I won’t even give him the decency of responding to his uneducated opinions on sexual orientation change effort therapy. But what I will address is his obvious exploitation of a tragedy to make subtle associations, wherever he can, with certain groups and therapists who disagree with his uninformed opinions.

By connecting professional therapists to brutal criminals, Besen uses a psychological technique called “jamming” (not that Besen would be educated enough to know this) where a respected person is compared to a non-respected person in order to make people believe they are similar, even unconsciously. Besen is notorious for doing this when he routinely compares PhD-level psychotherapists to ex-gay religious ministry leaders, many of whom have no formal psychological education or training. Not that there is anything wrong with persons of faith who minister to homosexuals, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges. All educated therapists know that relying on simple behavioral therapeutic techniques, such as celibacy, do not help persons resolve unwanted same-sex attractions.

The truth is, Besen and his goons at TWO are so desperate to bring down highly educated mental health professionals who help persons with unwanted same-sex attractions, that they’ll do and say just about anything, even lie, to achieve their objectives. In fact, here is a picture we found of Wayne and his good friend Matt Barber, after Barber called him out at the 2010 Awakening Conference at Liberty University. Besen tried (but failed) to pass as a college student in an undercover ploy to dig up dirt. To his surprise, the Christians at Liberty welcomed Besen with open arms, not that he would know how to accept such compassion.

With his latest tirade, Besen is stooping to the level of Brielle Goldani, the New Jersey transgendered woman who lied about being tortured in a so-called “Conversion Therapy Camp” in Columbus, Ohio in 1997. It turns out that the camp, “True Directions” did exist, but only in a 1999 movie starring drag queen Ru Paul.

VOV broke the story on WorldNetDaily.com (see: http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/transgendered-woman-lies-about-therapy-torture/) and will be announcing major developments in New Jersey on Monday, May 6 to stop this destructive legislation that was advanced on fraudulent testimony.

So be careful what you read on the internet folks, especially on amateur blogs like Besen’s TWO. He likes to make things up…that’s his specialty.

Christopher Doyle, M.A. is the Founder and Acting Director of Voice of the Voiceless