Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth

I'm reading `Anything but Straight' for the second time. With my busy life......that's about the best vote of confidence I can give any book. Wayne has done and excellent job researching the ex-gay movement, history, programs and connections. He's read the materials, interviewed people, gone to meetings undercover to make sure he has all the facts. His work is extremely valuable. The homosexual debate has become much more than a religious issue and is now more complex since it has been politicized; often the key players being men with multi-million $$$$$ ministries with hidden agendas. Wayne helps us shift through the maze and get some clarity on what is really going on. Having spent 22 years unsuccessfully trying to change my sexual orientation I know first hand, much of what he writes about. Therapy, counselling, exorcisms, 40 day fasts, months in an live-in ex-gay program and 16 years of marriage were just some of things I was told would help make me heterosexual. The result.......I'm still gay.......but at last happy about it....and realise that same sex attraction is no different to left handedness or red hair. It's just the way we are.......different but not abnormal. In Australia, the ex-gay ministries lack funds, success stories, charismatic leaders and political connections so are not the threat experienced in the extremist/fundamentalist/Judaeo/Christian culture of some parts the US. this work is still valuable to us however to ensure we don't follow America down the Golden Arches Road into a country constantly harassed by Christian extremists whose worldview has not moved past Genesis. The wise have learnt by your mistakes. I'm glad Wayne has devoted himself to detailing these things because I wouldn't want another human being to go through the torment that I did. If `Anything but Straight' was out years ago maybe many of us would not have wasted years of our lives trying to do the impossible and change our sexual orientation and learnt to be true to ourselves. Against all the research and understanding today, many in fundamentalist churches still hold on to the archaic belief that being gay is a sin, a choice and the result of being brought up in a dysfunctional family. Thanks Wayne for reminding us again how futile and damaging those beliefs have been. Anthony Venn-Brown Author of `A Life of Unlearning - A Journey to Find the Truth'

I first read the reviews on this book and was disturbed by the attempts of straight folks promoting the ex-gay "agenda" giving the author lousy ratings. Then I read the pro-gay reviews and had a lot to think about in terms of how angry the GLBT community is at this blatant ripoff of our more vulnerable community members (those just coming out). Then I read the book! It's tough to read, see people abused over and over again, and have it be justified by the Religious (Not)Right. Evidently any psychological technique is fair game if you're a homosexual. I'm surprised we haven't seen chastity belts and sexual lobotomies. Nobody likes being told they are horrible sinners and must change one of the most fundamental parts of themselves unless they're already buying into the notion that they are worthless. God doesn't make worthless! What a shame so many people are being hurt.

Despite years of hearing, reading, and writing about this topic, I can't think of a better ex-gay resource than Wayne R. Besen's book Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Besen not only gives an accessible and easy-to-follow history of the sham's path of destruction but also makes it clear why so many gays and nongays choose to believe its obvious lies. He also exposes the many people who profit monetarily, politically, or even sexually from ensnaring more ex-gay followers. Still, Besen also shows how most of the people who become involved with or lead these ministries probably mean well. More importantly, he shows how gays and their allies can expose these hurtful groups, which rely heavily on wild semantics, shaky statistics, pseudo psychology, and highly questionable science, all the while trying to appear Bible-based. Besen also shows how gays can make their communities less vulnerable to ex-gay groups, while warning those communities about insidious new tactics that the increasingly media-savvy ex-gay leaders use to lure parents into forcing children to join the ex-gay circus. For groups that keep claiming that all of their members come there voluntarily, they certainly keep taking advantage of parental pressuring and other fears of rejection!Best of all, Besen offers resources and alternatives for people who might want to join these groups. He even defends, to my satisfaction, his undercover efforts to capture all of the information that appears in this sometimes shocking but always fascinating volume. I suggest Besen's study for all gays, all of their allies, and anyone who thinks the ex-gay movement needs support or more recruits.I also suggest Ronald L. Donaghe's scathing fictional treatment of the ex-gay movement, The Salvation Mongers, as well as the disturbing documentary One Nation Under God and-for some needed levity on the topic-the silly yet likable comedy But I'm A Cheerleader.

I have read hundreds of articles and books on reparative therapy and ex-gay movements. Many are written so academically that I cannot get through it. Or it is written through the words of Christianity that they lose me being the Jewish man that I am. This is the first book I have ever read that was engaging and kept my interest. The author is smart, well-researched and funny. He absolutely exposes the ridiculousness of the Reparative therapies and ex-gay movements. BRAVO!!! Joe Kort [...]

WOW!!!! The author has hit a grand slam with this book! I have been waiting a very long time for someone to write a book about reparative therapy and the con people who run these organizations. Besen has exposed these people and the damage they do to thousands of people every year. I hope every Gay person who is being dragged to these seminars will make their parents or friends read this book first and then let them make an intelligent decision about these radical right wing zealot organizations who are not their to help you but their to take your money and your soul. This book is a great read, very factual, very informative, and very funnny. I could not put this book down!!!!.