Don't read any of these links showing NOM pushing 'ex-gay' therapy; they're all made-up, apparently.

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02/15/2012

by Jeremy Hooper

Remember that fallacious appearance Maggie Gallagher made on Chris Hayes' MSNBC morning show? The one where, when confronted about her and NOM's advocacy for gay "change," she flat-out lied?

Yeah, well: NOM has finally gotten around to posting that clip. And not only has the org declared Maggie the winner of the segment -- they are actually repeating the lie that those of us who mention the "ex-gay" thing are making up facts, even though we have fully documented evidence:

(via Alvin McEwen)

So okay, fine. If I have to do it again, I'll do it again.

(Some of) NOM co-founder Maggie Gallagher advocating the idea that gays are broken and can/should make alterations: Maggie has called homosexuality an "unfortunate thing," "at a minimum, a sexual dysfunction much as impotence or infertility," and "a sexual disability preventing certain individuals from participating in the normal reproductive patterns of the human species." She has also suggested that gays "can always control their behavior," and even made a direct call for a sitting President to give more funding to scientifically-shunned "ex-gay" research. And that's not even mentioning the time Maggie advised gays to "pick a girl, love her, make a family."

Also, NOM president Brian Brown recently touted a (flawed, deeply faith-based) "ex-gay" study, saying "Even those who disagree with us about gay marriage (or Christian sexual ethics) should feel good about this this scientific verification of the possibility of free will triumphing over desire. We are all more than our instincts, sexual or otherwise" [SOURCE].

NOM's Culture Director, blogger, and "Next Generation Project" head Thomas Peters has advocated for Courage, a Catholic "change" organization. Peters has also said that the MSM intentionally denies that "change happens." Oh, and here's one of Thomas pushing a separate "12-step program for people with same-sex attraction."

Jennifer Roback Morse, head of NOM's affiliate Ruth Institute recently went into a long explanation about how Catholics like herself don't "accept the category of gayness," basically saying that we are all just men and women who are meant to be heterosexual, regardless of our "attractions." Her Ruth Institute has also proudly pushed press releases claiming that "change happens."

Damian Goddard, the man who is working with Maggie on her recently launched "Marriage Anti-Defamation" project, also advocated for "Courage," the aforementioned organization geared towards helping LGBT Catholics "change." Goddard has also said that gays are "basically throwing away a gift that’s been given to you by God."

Oh, and whoever runs the NOM Facebook page (presumably someone at Opus Fidelis, the Catholic firm NOM hired for social media outreach) recently "liked" a comment in which a supporter touted the "formerly gay people that realized the wrong in it and felt the same emptiness and changed."

That's just some from off the top of my head. There's surely much more, especially if you consider all of the links, affiliations, and rubbed-shoulders that allow NOM to exist in the first place. In just the past year alone, NOM has officially partnered with Focus on the Family (Iowa presidential forum) and the Family Research Council (Values Bus tour). Both organizations aggressively push the "change" idea.

It's understandable why NOM, an organization that depends on seeming only focused on marriage in order to survive, would be troubled by the facts at hand. But the truth is that both Maggie and her beloved NOM have advocated for "changing" messengers like me. They don't have to shoot me for saying as much.

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