NOM Promotes FRC Documentary Touting “Ex-Gay” Therapy, Horror Stories
May 22, 2012 3:54 pm ET
- by Carlos Maza
Last week, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strengthened its “treasure[d]” relationship with the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council (FRC) by promoting its 30-minute documentary “The Problem with Same-Sex Marriage”. Although FRC has released several clips from the film over the past few months, the full documentary had only been made accessible to the public in early May.
FRC’s documentary, however, isn’t just a rehashing of NOM’s typical “protect marriage” talking points. In fact, it’s riddled with anti-gay propaganda that NOM has previously claimed to reject, like the myths that homosexuality can be cured and same-sex parents harm their children:
Children are indoctrinated into supporting same-sex marriage, homosexuality in school. The documentary features testimony from Massachusetts parents who claim that children are forced to learn about same-sex marriage in school – a claim that’s been debunked for over a year. Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, warns that children are being taught to accept the “rightness, the correctness of homosexuality.”
Homosexuality is a “condition” that can be cured. The documentary includes the testimony of a number of alleged “ex-gays” – people who claim to have changed their sexual orientation to become heterosexual. Heads of several “ex-gay” organizations assert that “change” is possible, despite the medical community’s widespread condemnation of “ex-gay” therapy. Dr. Julia Hamilton, president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), claims that allowing teenagers to identify as LGBT “can have the effect of closing out other options for themselves.”
Children of same-sex parents are more likely to be gay, bisexual. Peter Sprigg, an FRC senior fellow, asserts that the children of same-sex parents are “five to 15 times as likely to be homosexual or bisexual as the general population.” The idea that same-sex parents influence their children to identify as LGBT has been rejected by mainstream medical organizations.
Gay activists distributed sexually explicit material to students. FRC also interviewed Brian Camenker, president of another anti-gay hate group, MassResistance. Camenker claims that agy activist groups in Massachusetts distributed a sexually explicit “Little Black Book” to students during an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of Boston. In reality, the explicit materials were made available by accident, and reports indicate that no students took the book home. GLSEN issued a cease-and-desist letter against FRC last year after it was discovered that the documentary incorrectly blamed GLSEN for the incident.
As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has noted, NOM has a long habit of letting other anti-gay groups do its “dirty work.” In February, however, NOM co-founder Maggie Gallagher claimed that she keeps a “close track of what goes up on [NOM’s] website.” Is she aware that her organization openly promotes hate group propaganda?
