PFOX: Faking Hate Crimes

A couple of paragraphs in an interesting story by Amanda Hess in last week's Washington City Paper show us how the "ex-gays" in PFOX operate.

Discretion is key in the vicinity of PFOX propaganda. Periodically, the group alerts its followers to assaults against an ex-gay manning one of the organization’s booths. In 2006, ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan claims he was assaulted at a National Education Association convention in Florida by gay activist Wayne Besen. In 2007, PFOX claimed that an unnamed ex-gay volunteer was attacked at the Arlington County Fair by an unknown (but gay) assailant. Weeks later, at the Falls Church Fair, a PFOX volunteer accused Falls Church News-Press editor Nicholas Benton—also gay—of “looking like the guy who assaulted the ex-gay at the Arlington Fair.”

“Their strategy is to create fake hate crimes,” says Besen, who says he ended up on the wrong end of a PFOX accusation only after first receiving a threatening chest-bump from the ex-gay. “They are attempting to portray ex-gays as victims of discrimination to get legal recognition. They’ll wait until there are four of them and one of you, and no witnesses, and then call the cops. But there’s never any ‘there’ there,” Besen says. “The fear is that somebody, under the right circumstances, could actually end up in trouble over this. So I urge everyone to do anything they can to just stay away from them.”

Faking hate crimes for Jeebus. Sounds about right. Read the entire story.

(Tipped by JMG reader Michael M.)