Group Wants "Ex-Gay" Books on Shelves

LIBRARY BOOKS PUBLISHING CENSORSHIP X390 (PHOTOS.COM) | ADVOCATE.COM

A group of "ex-gay" advocates is asking Chicago-area libraries to stock books about quelling same-sex attractions.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays argues that their message about the ability to alter sexual orientations is not being heard because libraries are not carrying books such as You Don't Have to Be Gay or A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.

"Books about leaving homosexuality are censored in most high school libraries, although gay-affirming books for youth are readily available," said the group's executive director Regina Griggs.

The American Psychological Association, as recently as August, has repeatedly advised therapists to cease "ex-gay" or "reparative" therapies because they have been shown to be largely ineffective, often project homophobic attitudes, and are potentially harmful to clients.

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Reader Comments

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Name: Carol
Date posted: 10/25/2009 2:34:00 PM
Hometown: MO

Comment:
The Medical Societies do not advise any therapies to change a persons sexual idenity be that Homosexual or Heterosexual, and every book of Ex-Gay people should have this stated on a page in front of these ill-advised books. If it is not printed and included in these books it will cause many problems for the GLBT children and their families. We have freedom of speech, and no book should be banned, but thinking people usually take Medical Societies reccomendations.
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Name: Ben
Date posted: 10/25/2009 5:39:43 AM
Hometown: NY

Comment:
I am generally against any kind of book-banning or censorship, but after reading Val's point below I have to agree. These books could cause a lot of harm to children growing up in certain areas, or in certain kinds of families. No public library would offer books teaching the children of any other minority group to hate themselves, or giving advice to parents on how to nurture the self-hatred of their minority children.
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Name: Ken
Date posted: 10/25/2009 12:51:41 AM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:
Freedom of speech applies to everyone. By all means let the "ex-gays" have their books in the libraries - if you've ever been even a bit curious and actualy looked at one (I have) you'll see how intellectually and spiritually bankrupt the authors and their books really are. ROFL
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Name: Carlos
Date posted: 10/24/2009 7:16:17 PM
Hometown: Montrea/Canada

Comment:
Are these people crazy or what? Soemting is wrong with them. You Born Gay... you do not becom egay due to your enviroment or what you have been expose to. These people need to get a good psychiatist and get a life. To repress feelings are not goog for health!
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Name: Christopher B
Date posted: 10/24/2009 3:58:24 PM
Hometown: Charlotte, NC

Comment:
I would just say to put the books in the library. Yes, most people would not agree with the content, but this controversy just brings attention to the ex-gay movement. It's a free country. Remember when gay books were 'bad' and 'wrong' and banned? The ex-gay movement is collapsing under its own hypocrisy and ridiculousness.
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Name: steve
Date posted: 10/24/2009 1:45:47 PM
Hometown: madison

Comment:
The books should be placed in the Fiction section.
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Name: Val
Date posted: 10/24/2009 11:01:37 AM
Hometown: London, UK

Comment:
If the prevailing scientific opinion is that ex-gay therapies are harmful, of course they are not going to be advertised in a public library. Not all opinions are created equal. You can be convinced that drugs are good for children but if the prevailing scientific opinion is that they are not, you're not going to have books encouraging children to take drugs in public libraries.
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Name: Michael Airhart, Truth Wins Out
Date posted: 10/24/2009 9:32:55 AM
Hometown: Providence, RI

Comment:
PFOX was founded by Anthony Falzarano, but for better or worse, it was co-founded by the Family Research Council. When Falzarano publicly protested the exploitation of ex-gay organizations by the religious right, FRC fired him and installed Regina Griggs, an antigay woman whose son is openly gay. FRC maintains a presence on the board, along with antigay activist Greg Quinlan. The board was led for many years by Richard Cohen, who practiced and advocated "touch therapy" (full-body cuddles) with his male patients. Cohen also appeared on Howard Stern's radio show; afterward Stern's co-workers stripped naked and posed with a smiling Cohen. Cohen appeared on CNN to promote parent-bashing: He demonstrated how a male ex-gay can supposedly become straight by pounding a pillow with a tennis racket as if the pillow were the man's overbearing mother. Cohen was then quietly taken off the board, but he remains a hero to most of the PFOX leadership.
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Name: Greg
Date posted: 10/24/2009 7:54:51 AM
Hometown: Providence RI

Comment:
I read in another gay news source that PFOX "was founded by lawyer Roy Cohn’s ex-boyfriend, Anthony Falzarono." Yikes! Hard to imagine the self-loathing that would involve. I guess if your main experience of gayness was being Roy Cohn's boyfriend, you'd want to get over your gayness too? ...I think the weirdest thing about the Christian ex-gay movement is the way they get women to go along with all this, to date & have (premarital) sex with & marry these poor screwed-up, supposedly ex-gay guys.
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Name: Scott
Date posted: 10/24/2009 12:20:51 AM
Hometown: Portland

Comment:
I had sex with one girl when I was 19, I guess I am "ex-straight" (by their thinking). Maybe I will write a book about my beautiful life changing experience and it can sit besides their books on the library shelfs. I always believed that I was always gay and was finding myself, but maybe they are right. I was straight because I did it once, now I'm gay and have done that a lot of times, so I'm actually really gay! Sheesh it's all so confusing, I mean the label game.

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