Author Demands AFA Pull Fraudulent Video that Promotes HIV

Author Wayne Besen called on The American Family Association today to immediately stop selling a video featuring an HIV positive "ex-gay" leader who allegedly had unsafe sex with several Virginia men.

The video, "It's Not Gay," features Michael Johnston who once said he had gone from gay to straight through the "power of Jesus Christ." The "ex-gay" leader stepped down in 2003 after credible allegations that he was meeting men online and having unsafe sex.

After the incident, AFA spokesman Buddy Smith called Johnston's failure a "moral fall." With the AFA publicly acknowledging that they were aware of Johnston's failure as an ex-gay and his unsafe behavior, it is shocking that they would continue to promote "It's Not Gay" on their website.

"The American Family Association is blatantly committing fraud by suggesting that Johnston is heterosexual and they are promoting the spread of HIV by continuing to use him as a spokesperson," said Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. "This episode suggests a stunning lack of integrity on the part of the American Family Association and utter contempt for the truth. If they have a shred of decency and morality, they will immediately stop selling the tape and apologize for their disgraceful behavior."

http://www.waynebesen.com/2005/12/afa-video-scandal_06.html

Oh this is rich! The AFA hate group puts an "ex-gay" in their video. He's later unmasked not only as a closeted gay man who cruises for sex online, but one who practices unsafe sex and contracts HIV. He steps down because of his "moral failure" but AFA continues to shill his video.

Out-fucking-rageous!

This PFLAGer reads his columns regularly.

He is in the DVD I just bought, "Fish Can't Fly."

I'm going to show the DVD to my PFLAG friends; we can use the video to educate the community about this horribly destructive 'ex-gay movement.'
Maybe then people will refuse to participate in the ex-gay nonsense, and their funds will dry up, and they will go away.

I never count on anything - but I can dream, can't I?

They're assholes, but I don't understand this part of the argument.

Looks to me like we've got a nice little emailing/phone flooding action on our good buds at the AFA.
This needs to somehow make it to the media.

I think anything on the AFA would get a whole lot of support.