LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Gays Should Share Lies From Ex-Experiences |
by Wayne Besen |
It is morning once again, and as you rub your tired eyes and peer into the unforgiving bathroom mirror, the shiny reflection of your head is a painful reminder that you look just as much like Kojac as the day before. Although your friends say you should learn to accept your baldness, you desperately want to change and have spent years pursuing the latest hair growth remedies to no avail. But today is your lucky day. While sipping the morning coffee, you pick up a copy of a respected news magazine and a bold, splashy headline proclaims: BALD FOR LIFE? Underneath the headline, two smiling, bushy haired people, who look enthralled by their new hair-dos, claim to have been "cured" by a miracle hair tonic, combined with bible study. Ecstatic, you excitedly turn the pages until you find the story about this new "miracle cure." But as you read on, your enthusiasm quickly begins to diminish. First, you find that the smiling mop-tops on the cover-page are full-time, paid employees for a company marketing this product. Next, even the most fervent supporters claim that the success rate of this so-called panacea is a paltry 30%. What about the other 70%? According to the company, the hair tonic is not working for these folks because they are "not praying hard enough." As you skim down the page, you perk up because you read there is still hope! A competing company claims that their hair tonic has a miraculous success rate of 71.6%. But when asked by the magazine reporter for hard data to corroborate the claim, the company spokesperson glibly replies, "I dont have time to conduct follow-up studies." How then, you wonder, does the company come up with a specific number like 71.6% without follow-up studies to document whether or not the patients sprouted hair? The article then points out that the two scientists who founded the hair tonic formula have feverishly traveled to science conventions around the world to declare that their invention does not work as they once said it did. They say that many people would be harmed psychologically if they pinned all of their hopes and dreams on what they now call a "fraud." The article also states that all respected medical and mental health organizations agreed with the inventors that the hair tonic was no more likely to help one grow hair than dipping ones head in a vat of Ben and Jerrys ice cream. If that isnt bad enough, the companies promoting the hair tonic have taken out full page ads in major newspapers which have distorted a baldness study by one of the premier hair loss specialists in the nation. The acclaimed expert retorted acrimoniously to the lies by saying, "It was a complete misrepresentation of what the research actually said. It was taken completely out of context. I am horrified and angry and they are spreading an awful and destructive message." Your dreams of looking like Fabio are dashed for good when you read that of the people lumped in the 30% success rate category, the majority believed that if the hair tonic did not work, biological baldness could be overcome by wearing a toupee. The article ends with the testimony of angry ex-ex bald people who claim that they were misled and cheated by the hair tonic companies. One companys spokesperson dismissed the inconvenient complaints of the ex-ex-bald people by saying: "Some people fall off the wagon." You now sit in your living room, enraged by the misleading story, wondering how a respected news outlet would give this "snake oil" that has been so thoroughly discredited, the slightest bit of legitimacy, no less a cover story. Shouldnt the ex-ex-bald people have been on the cover, or at least been the focus of the story instead because their experiences are more representative of the vast majority who took the tonic? Do journalistic ethics and standards exist anymore, you wonder? Whoops, you almost forgot, it is 1998, "The Year of the Journalist." Of course, you would never see a cover story about a discredited, unsubstantiated, cure for baldness, or anything else for that matter...except homosexuality. When it comes to a so-called cure for gay people, (as if one were wanted or needed) veracity does not seem to be of much importance to the media. In the following passage, all of the shenanigans attributed to the ex-bald movement actually occurred in the so-called ex-gay ministries, from the bogus statistics to the distortion of scientific research, to the founders of the ex-gay ministries marrying each other and repudiating these "cures." Yet, despite these gross irregularities, the media still unwittingly legitimizes "ex-gay" ministries by not holding them to the same standard of scientific proof that they would demand from any other group. Advocates for gay equality believe these ministries should have an opportunity to voice their opinions. However, the media has a duty to research the accuracy of statements made or statistics reported. Currently, false notions about gay Americans are being perpetuated by a media which erroneously believes it is honorable journalism to simply regurgitate sound bites from both sides in the name of balance. While balance is important, it is not an excuse to eschew accuracy and tough fact checking. All statements are not equally valid and it is the medias responsibility to distinguish fact from fiction. In most of the news stories about the "ex-gay" ministries or the right wing ad campaign in which these ministries are highlighted, fiction has been the norm and the truth has been a casualty. For example, ex-gay leader Anthony Falzarano recently said on television that nearly 80% of gay people were molested as children. This is factually incorrect by any objective standards, with gay people no more likely to be molested as children than heterosexuals. Unfortunately, because he is talking about gay people, the lethargic media felt there was no need to hold Falzarano accountable for his lie. If Falzarano would have made an outrageous claim about any other minority group, it is guaranteed the media would have followed-up and excoriated him for his hysterical statement. At the Human Rights Campaign, our biggest challenge is not countering political religious activist groups who exist to deny us equal rights. The toughest battle we face is getting the media to accurately follow-up on outrageous statements made by these groups. As it stands, our opponents can say anything they want about gay people, no matter how despicable, and they never have to answer for it. Through lazy reporting, the media has become an accomplice in the Rights discrimination campaign against gay Americans by giving bald faced lies equal stature to documented facts. It is our hope that as the news media begins to evaluate some of their glaring ethical lapses in 1998, they will consider stopping the harmful practice of printing false information about gay people perpetuated by the Right without first verifying the outrageous claims. This project will invite former ex-gays from around the nation to share their stories with the Human Rights Campaign and lift the veil of secrecy surrounding these ministries. If you have been through these ministries, please submit your story so we can share it and help others. Stories can be submitted to: http://www.hrc.org/ncop/rol. The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support, and educates the public to ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 8, No. 15, November 20, 1998. |