Wednesday, December 14, 2011

'Ex-gay' president changing statement in face of lawsuit?

Very few people are aware of the possible lawsuit that the organization Truth Wins Out may lodge against the ex-gay group PFOX.

The incident stems from an October 7 interview on NewsPlus with Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV). At the 10:38 mark of the show, PFOX President Greg Quinlan claimed that Wayne Besen, head of Truth Wins Out, said the following:

“Truth Wins Out if you look further, including Wayne Besen. He’s asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS. Those are the things that Wayne Besen and Truth Wins Out says about me. That’s pretty hateful rhetoric.”

Reportedly, Truth Wins Out sent PFOX a letter last week asking for an apology, claiming that Quinlan's claim was a lie.

Quinlan, however refused to apologize. In a letter sent out, he also tried to turn the incident around on Besen, claiming that Besen is a persistent harasser of the so-called peaceful ex-gay movement.

That's neither here nor there. The important piece is the claim by Quinlan that Besen has been calling for someone to harm him.

Quinlan, in his letter, claimed that Besen told these things to him in a private conversation:

First of all, Besen blatantly mischaracterized what I actually said on the program, claiming that I suggested he solicited my assassination. This is a bald-faced lie and Besen knows it. The truth is that Besen once said to me in a private conversation that someone should run me over with a bus or inject me with AIDS. Did I think he was serious? No. I knew it was just Wayne being Wayne; one part bluster, two parts hyperbole and three parts hot air.”

Besen has denied this conversation ever took place.

Here is the thing though which may hurt Quinlan's case. The claim he made about Besen calling for others to harm him is on video. And at no point does Quinlan indicate that it was a private conversation between him and Besen. In fact, Quinlan expressly said that Besen was telling people to harm him:



So while at the present time, Quinlan is showing all sorts of bravado (the end of his letter is a challenge to Truth Wins Out and Besen to go ahead and sue him), we will see if that bravado holds up in the face of what appears to be an incriminating video.


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1 comment:

Isa said...

the idea of a peaceful ex-gay movement is an oxymoron. [ex-gay is an oxymoron] like clean coal, or therapeutic rape, or a palin witticism. painful, cruel, and poisonous.