American Family Association demonstrates the difference between winning and losing

I am in a better mood today and there is much to write about.

The Freepers are upset over a high school spirit week idea that has students dressing up as the opposite gender. They see it as a "plot by radical homosexuals" rather than good clean fun that is no different from a powderpuff football game.

In California, an anti-gay industry group has resurrected the image of the "cross dressing linebacker" in an attempt to defeat a pro-gay law.

But something on One News Now caught my attention.

As I perused the site, I saw one of their pop up ads. It was advertising the video "It's Not Gay." If you click on the ad, it will take you to this site.

For the benefit of those who are not aware of this controversial video, I will give a little background. It gives the testimonies of folks who have claimed to have "walked away from homosexuality." In fact, the cover of the video shows one of the people featured, Michael Johnston.

However, well after the video was made, Johnston was discovered to be having clandestine gay sexual encounters in hotel rooms. To compound this situation, Johnston is HIV positive. He has freely admitted his status as he traveled the country claiming to be "ex-gay."

Wayne Besen has taken the American Family Association to task for selling this fradulent video. He was the first to notice it. I have taken them to task. Several others have cried foul over the selling of this video.

When confronted with the truth behind the video, the American Family Association played the victim. But they pulled the video:

“It was with great sadness that AFA stopped selling It’s Not Gay at that time,” said AFA executive assistant Buddy Smith. “Michael remained a friend of ours, and we were so happy to hear that, following his fall, he had placed himself under the spiritual care of Steve Gallagher at Pure Life Ministries.”

Now it seems that they have snuck it back on the market. And why is Johnston still on the cover? How can they get away with this?

The answer may be something I saw today. I was looking through a gay magazine (I won't say which) that was commemorating the year 2007. It focused on the usual nonsense - celebrities, musicians, designers, parties, and clothing too damned expensive for me to buy.

Sometimes I wonder if we are focused as we should be.

The American Family Association has been selling a fradulent video even after they have been called on it simply because those in our community with enough power to bring attention to it don't give a shit.

I know our mindset seems to be focus on the positive and not think about the anti-gay industry, but to do so all the time is pure delusion. There are people and groups out there who are focused on stripping lgbts of our rights to life, health, and self determination. They want to put us in spiritual cages thereby making us define our lives by their ignorant definitions of homosexuality.
To ignore them is folly.

Or to put it another way, if our side had made such a blatant error, do you think that the anti-gay industry would ignore it?

Of course they wouldn't. They would harp on it every chance they got.

As we should in this situation. The American Family Association is knowingly selling a fradulent video and rather than ignore it, we need to bring it to public attention every chance we get.

It's called persistence and it is the difference between winning and losing.