Part Two: Focus on the Family: Love Won Out

he's he's eighteen. It's fine. This is Behind the Bastards. We talk about bad people, and this is part two of the episode that Garrison wrote, which is the first reversing of the status quo we've had on this show. Garrison, what do we? What do we? What do we? What do we talk about? Today? We last episode we were talking about the history of Focus on the Family and particularly James dubbson its founder. Today we're going to mainly talk about gay conversion therapy. Uh yeah, a nice little light,

light topic. But we're gonna start off with something actually a little bit more fun. Okay, We're gonna we're gonna ease our way kind of into the less fun things. Um. So yeah, last week we're talking about folks in the family. How it started, You know, Dobson getting very politically active during the Reggan years with getting put on a whole lot of weird government boards that he was not qualified for. Um. And then we learned about his media empire. And remember

that database that he was putting together. Yeah, yeah, the gigantic mailing huge like millions and millions of people's mailing lists that all the Republican lawmakers wanted to become friends Dobson so that they could have access to the mailing list. Yeah yeah, why else would you be friends with someone? That's the only reason I know you is your incredible mailing list. Um. So yeah, you know, anyone who communicated with them was added to mailing was huge thing um

in uh in two thousand three. So like the last time you heard about the mailing list was around like nine five's when it had like four million names. So it's only been added two cents. It's hard to come up with exact numbers because they didn't they talk about it that much because it's you know, they shouldn't like for them, it's not in their best interests to really publicly talk about it. Yeah, because then people will think that they're just numbers on a list to these people

who are pretending to be spiritual advisors. Yeah, yeah, pretending to be your friend. Yeah. So in two thousand three, Dobson actually stepped down as acting president and the chief executive officer focus on the family. He was still remaining like the figurehead over the organization, just less involved in

day to day activities. Um. As we'll learn most of the day to day activities in the two thousand's were being extremely homophobic, um and campaigning against the gay agenda and what is scarcely give me a heads up, what is the gay agenda? Well, we'll find out what Dobson thinks it is. Okay, what they think is the GA

because that's term. That's a term that they used. Okay, it kind of got very popular for if I remember being a conservative kid, well enough, the bulk of the gay agenda had to do with the TV show Will and Grace, but I don't remember much else from from my Republican days. Yeah. Well, well we'll get into details on what they think the gay agenda is. Um. But

before we get to that kind of depressing stuff. Um, let's let's ease into the most funny homophobic thing that Dobson and focus on the family ever ever did Oh good? I love a little lighthearted homophobia from a man with incredible wealth and power. Um so, this is this is probably the best thing that's ever been done with this

database ever. In October two eight, about a month before the eight presidential election, Dobson secretly wrote and sent out this letter titled a Letter from a Christian in two thousand twelve. I would love to just read this letter, and it's piority do it, but because it's all because it is absolutely magnificent, But it's it's over nine thousand words, which is about as long as these two podcasts combined. Yeah,

that's that's about that's about two hours with commentary. Um So I will have to go over some of the highlights and kind of give just a general gist. Um, the concept of this letter. It's spelled, it's pronounced gift, gift generals. It's a general gift. That doesn't sound right. I know because that was a lie. Garrison, Yeah, that was a lie. It doesn't try to make you be

as bad at pronouncing things as I is. The concept is that this letter was written by a Christian warning those in what will happen if the then far left radical Barack Obama was elected in two As an eight um, I will just read off the opening of this letter just you get kind of the mood of what the piece is going to be. Here. Here's here's how it starts. October twenty two, two thousand twelve. Dear friends, I can

hardly sing the star spangled banner anymore. When I hear the words, oh, oh, say, does that star spangled banner wave over the land of the Free? I get tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Now in October, after seeing what's happened the past four years, I don't think I can still answer yes to that question. We are not the land of the free, in the

home of the brave. Many of our freedoms have been taken away by a liberal Supreme Court and a democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, and hardly any brave citizen dares to resist the new government policies anymore. Election was closer than Anyoney expected, but Barack Obama still won. Many Christians voted for Obama. Younger evangelicals actually provided him with the needed margin to defeat John McCain, but they didn't think he would really follow through with all the

far left policies that had made his career. They were wrong, far left policies like doing everything or Republican would do except for being shitty on abortion and to gay people. Well, even in twenty eight, Obama wasn't even for game. No he was not yeah yeah, like basically a Republican but not as not big at it as much. So like I wasn't around, but I wasn't paying attention to the twenty eight election because I was like six, um, so like I don't know, that's not let's not dwell too

long on that continue. So like I don't like I've I've heard legends of what Obama's campaign was, Like I heard it was like very progressive in nature, but didn't actually get followed through. It's like I'm trying to understand from a Republican perspective, like were they actually like did it actually make sense? They were scared like this far left radical or was that now with Biden were like no, he's not at all, Like he's not even pretending to be.

He was a little more. He definitely was playing to the progressive side, whereas Biden's playing to the conservative side. But like the stuff he was talking about, like there was talk of, you know, improving healthcare, he was going to close GUANTANAMOBEI, he was gonna not get the US into wars. But like, there wasn't a lot of there wasn't a lot of Like he wasn't promising like social life,

full socialized medicine. He wasn't promising like he was promising you know, improvements, but he wasn't promising like we're gonna be like, you know, have an NHS like the UK. And he wasn't promising like basic income or like he was not he was running for the towards the progressive wing. But like like you said, he wasn't even back in

gay marriage at that point. And here's the thing. Even though for marijuana, even though Barack Obama is told it as less progressive, in reality, Joe Biden is more progressive than Barack Obama. Which you're looking at your face now, you're like, hey, yeah, but if you're going off of records, if you're going off have record, you're not in what Biden is running on now is technically you could consider more progressive than what Obama did and looking at like

their records except or etcetera. But if you're looking at like the I guess social side of it or the you know, pr side of it, you definitely people looked at Barack Obama as this extreme liberal progressive movement when it it really wasn't anything of that. It was so he was just a Democrat. He has a Democrat after like the worst Republican ever had been present for a rob I don't know, I'm still I'm still giving the edge to Bush because Trump has not started two new wars.

I'm sorry, Like we'll see Trump still has the chance to be worse. But at this point in you're gonna agree to disagree. Garrison finished your sentences because I've gone an robber through the iPad. I mean, Trump got a

lot more Americans. I'll say this Trump got was a worst president domestically because George W. Bush to the hell of a lot more international day And so what what this letter is going to be detailing for this far left agenda is written by a conservative who was born in the thirties, um who is again secretly wrote this

and send it out to everyone on his database. Right, So like it's just they just receive a letter from a Christian in God, right, Like this is the concept of the letter, and he's going to describe all of the things that he thinks is gonna be is going to be doing. I bet these have all happened. Yeah,

these things are all all absolutely exactly what happened. So the first, the main problem that the author secretly, James Dobson writes about is the is the Supreme Court because Obama makes a six to three far less Supreme Court having one party with that kind of dominance of the Supreme What a nightmare, What a nightmare that would be if we had a six to three Supreme Court leaning on one side. Yeah, yeah, it could never happen. Um. So I'm going to read the first major change the

far left liberals enact. Um. So I'm gonna start. I'm gonna quote from the letter here. The most far reaching transformation of the American society came from the Supreme court stunning affirmation in early that homosexual quote marriage was a quote constitutional right that had to be respected in all fifty states because laws barring same sexual marriage valid of they broke the equal Protections clause in the Constitution. So

he he brought. He discusses how he thinks same sex marriage is actually not constitutionally protected because of these dumb things whatever. He gets very mad. He writes, suddenly homosexual marriage was the law on the land in all fifty states. No state legislator, no state Supreme Court, no state constitutional amendment, not even Congress had any power to change it. The Supreme Court had ruled and the discussion was over. This was a plaintant example of the of of creating law

by the court instead of just interpreting it. For homosexual marriage was mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, nor would any of the office have imagined same sex quote marriage could be derived from their words. So this is the first huge change that happens in America. But I mean that did happen and not but not happened much later on. But so now, the fun part of this letter is that we get to hear about all of the bad

things that have happened because of this ruling. This ruling is very important excited if you remember from the last episode in two US and four, Dobson wrote this whole book called um Marriage under fire. Yeah maybe or not. I mentioned in the last episode. I know I mentioned. I mentioned it later, um, which is all about, you know, what will happen to this country if homosexual marriage becomes

a thing. So now he gets to write this very fun piece of fan fiction or excellence speculative fiction about about what this change does. So the letter details far reaching changes due to this decision. The first impact, the letter writes, is that the Boy Scouts are no longer an organization. This is the first thing. Yeah, okay, they

banned the Boy Scouts. So the Boy Scouts quote chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual Scout masters, which just sounds like good workplace discrimination laws to me. You know, it's like, it's that one of the reasons that's kind of wild to me. Just I guess it's not surprising because again, I grew up in this world.

But the the first gay person that I ever like knew personally was a kid about a year older than me, who I was an academic to kathlon with in high school, and we were both in the Boy Scouts and he was about to finish his Eagle Scout and one day we were like alone in this little classroom that we had, and he just kind of blurted out that he was and then asked me not to tell anybody because he

didn't want to lose his eagle. And that was like I was still like very hardcore, like like right wing at this point, but that was like my first that was in retrospect, kind of one of the first cracks in my worldview because it was like, well, okay, I like this guy, this guy's a friend of mine, Like why is he so scared of admitting this thing that doesn't seem good? Yeah, that doesn't seem like a society. It's a little off topic, but no, yeah, like that,

then that is it real? When I was when I was growing up in the conservative circle, that was actually a big fear is if if gays are allowed in the boy Scouts, that's gonna that That was It was a that was a hotly debated topic. Yeah it still is, I think, Yeah, But stuff has changed since then without without that voicecause as an organization operates where it's less of a it's less of a big deal. But it

used to be really really a huge, big world. Oh, yeah, yeah, I learned a lot of great stuff in the Boy Scouts. I really enjoyed my time in the Scouts. Not to whitewash the various significant problems that organization has, but um, yeah,

it was. It was a good experience for me. So the letter also details about the Boy Scouts unquote, it had became increasingly difficult for the Boy Scouts to find a meeting place anyway, because in two thousand nine, Congress and President Obama signed an expansion of the Civil Rights Act, which extended federal civil rights protections to people engaging in homosexual behavior. So the Proud Boys have been kicked out of all public facilities. No, not Proud Boys. Sorry, I'm

thinking we have there's a big fascist rally tomorrow. I'm thinking Proud Boys. No, the Boy Scouts had had been kicked out of all public facilities because there's like, the Boy Scouts have become public enemy number one under Obama's justice system. So they've been kicked out of all public

buildings because they don't because of their homosexual rules. Think of how much more fun today would be if the government was going full bore after the Boy Scouts and not Antifa just running down twelve year olds in the street, throwing them into unmarked vans, cub Scout troops disappearing in the night. Because they don't like gay people. That's why they ever been putting them down. Yeah, yeah, maybe they didn't tie one of their rope not Oh my god,

that would be funny. I'm so sorry. Please continue. Other aspects of this far left failing state are that schools now teach gender science and incorporate queer studies into their sex set. As a result, quote, tens of thousands of Christian teachers either quit or were fired, and many Christian private schools were chose to shut down rather than be forced to quote obey the law and teach that homosexuality

and heterosexuality are both morally good choices. So all these Christians school shut down because they would have been forced to teach that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are like okay and is the intens of thousands of teachers quick rather than that, then do that. Also, Dobson was very upset that jet you talk about gender now in sex. I don't think we should talk about gender at all. I

don't think there should be genders. I think everyone should just I think when it's time to breed, you should just have one large group of people ejaculate into a pool and then another group of people swim around in it. And if children happen, that's the only thought anyone ever gives to it. If you can incorporate that into a gender abolition argument, maybe you can get jobs on boards on what he wrote. The key and I are allies on this more gender. Yeah, we can, we can, we

can figure something out. We can. We can email him he's still around. No, don't think about just a network of semen pools all around the country. It's it could work, Sophie. No more gender continue, just a bunch of warm, salty swimming pools. Today, speaking speaking of speaking of getting children with no homes, which I feel like the swimming pool idea would probably get some kids with not with not

many homes. Um. All Christian adoption agencies have been shut down because they refuse to let gay couples adopt people. So that's a big thing in the Christian scene, is Christian adoption agencies. I I know about this from experience dealing with those adoption agencies. Um, yeah, they big. They hate it when a gay person gets to get one of the kids. Yeah, they try to avoid it at

all costs. Um, and stuff has changed now. But you know dob Dobson's writing here when his family had to like drive, like flee from a state or some ship, they were like being chased or something. Yeah, so in this fiction Dobson's rights here that they they just all shut down instead of letting gay people adopt adopt. Um.

None of that is surprising. And one of my favorite parts of this first section about the changes that like gay rights made is that um in no one's allowed to re allowed the Bible on TV and radio because I remember when they banned the Bible. There's the letter the Bible could no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such offensive quote doctrines such as criticizing homosexual behavior or other offensive

other offensive sections. Uh. The Streme Court agreed that these should be kept off the air, prohibited as quote hate speech that is likely to incite violence and discrimination. These policies followed broadcasting and print restrictions that were in place prior Toy eight in Canada, which is a lie. Yeah, it's just I don't know if you know said a lie. It's a lie because like I was in I was a Christian in Canada in a very conservative cultish environment.

And no, I had friends whose parents would like preach hate speech on the radio. No, I'm pretty sure that kill everybody who so much as looks at a Bible nearer radio. That's Canadian law. It's right under the thing about making it illegal to falsify maple syrup. Yeah, the famous Canadian legal code. No Bible, lots of syrup. Also, the other main thing Mounties do is hunt down Indigenous people and beat them up. Yeah, those are the three main things they if they see. If they see a Bible,

they lose it. They see faking maple syrup, they lose it. If they see an Indigenous person, they freak out. The three things everyone knows about the Mounties the thin reddish thin line, the thin horse wearing line, the thin horse line. So this does play into my theory that horses are anyway you know, you know horses kill me right deathly allergic to horses. I didn't know I get if I get near one, it's bad. See everybody, like I was

right when I said we need horse genocide. Now human beings need Sorry, all right, let's just go on speaking of health related issues like not being around horses. Um. Physicians and lawyers who reserved to who refused to serve queer people lost their licenses. Um. If churches refused to be used for LGBT weddings, they lose their tax exempt status. Um,

which is actually that's kind of an interesting idea. I mean, I have quite I have my own opinions of churches should be texed in any way, but like if a lawyer and doctor like refuses to do their job on someone because they're queer, maybe they should lose their license. I agree with that with lawyers and doctors, like, I don't think I think it's kind of a fake boogeyman the idea that churches would be forced to marry anybody

like because it's never happened. Yeah, but yeah, I think if you're a fucking doctor in somebody's like dying and you're like, oh but gay, icky, like yeah, you shouldn't. Sorry, I can't do this, Like I just as a guy who carries a medical kid around it where like a rally, and I see like a fucking proud boy get shot and I have the ability to stop them from bleeding to death. I'll try to stop them from bleeding to

death because it's just what you do. If you're not going to do that, you have no right to call yourself a fucking doctor. So here's another section about the church. The church changes um quote. While churches are still free to turn down homosexual applicants for the job of senior pastor, churches and para church organizations are no longer free to reject homosexual applicants for staff positions such as part time

youth pastor and and director of counseling. Those that have rejected homosexual applicants have also had their tax exempt status revoked. I love how granular they are about how much the Obama administration was going to interfere with like the staffing decisions local churches. Nine thousand words in the letter. They

get into a lot of detail. It's you couldn't even get the website working for the shitty healthcare plan he gave us, Like what do you do you think he's gonna be like, no, you can't seen your staff are allowed to you can? You can, you can refuse to hire gay for them. But if you hire a youth pastor. They have to be allowed to be like, how do what are you imagining them sitting down and doing it's nine. I'm cutting out so much like small details. He adds on,

it's astonished he would be here for two hours. It's just a sta mishing. Ah, it's real. It's really a great letter. Um. One of the few semi accurate predictions he actually made was that um, don't ask, don't tell. Got ended, yes, Um. But with the weird addition that Dobson says new LGBT people enrolling the military are given a special bonus for enlisting into military service to compensate

for past discrimination. I remember that the gay bounty that the army gives up, so they get gay people get paid extra for being in the military because they were discriminated against in the past. So yeah, that sounds like a thing that the army does. That that sounds like

the army. Um. So again here he he restates if nurses refused to help patients with abortions, they'll lose their job, and if doctors um refused, they lose their licenses to deliver babies in any state, all mandated by federal law. So as as as added onto like if you refers to where people if you refused to help with an abortion,

if you're a nurse, you're fired. If you're a doctor, or you lose your license to deliver babies, Like you can still be a doctor, but you just can't assist in the delivering of babies in any state, which is a weird decision to speculate about. Yeah, I can. Like, it's this thing that people who are it's this thing that I see on the right, and on the religious right in particular, where they imagine that all everyone but

them thinks about is how to hurt them. So like Obama, who had a lot on his plate when he became president. I don't know, you don't remember this garrison, but like the the entire United States was about to collapse financially, um and even well maybe not as dire as the place we are in now, but pretty fucking dire situation. And like it was just a disaster area of a country. Um, And they're thinking he's gonna be like super focus, like laser focused on changing internal policy in a bunch of

like small local churches just to be evil. Obama. He's very It's amazing, I mean, Obama was anti Christ. That's what That's what I heard as a kid. Yeah, he sure was. I remember that when he opened the Seventh Seal and let loose the Hounds of Hell. Was the October surprise? Yeah, Robert, did you know what? Won't release the Seven Sins of Hell. I don't accept anyone to advertise on this show unless I think there's a decent chance they're the anti Christ? Do do you know who

will open the Seven Seals? Possibly, possibly, possible, allegedly allegedly are some potentially some of these products and services onto the show? What? Yeah? Yeah, products? Hi, we're back when porn what Garrison, don't say porn apparently eighteen apparent everywhere everywhere. This is not on me, This is no, this is Dobson. Yeah, this is on James Dobson. Porn is everywhere. Now back

back back to the letter. Porn everywhere, huge problem in America now, gas stations, grocery stores, news stands, all places that kids can easily find. Porn magazines everywhere. If kids could easily find porn, So like this is another thing where Dobson was like right, but in the wrong way, Like like he was imagining porn magazines on all these

grocery stores stands. This is this letter. I guess the letter was written by Dobson eight from a Christian in right, so it was it was written into into us and eight in from the perspective of someone into twos and twelve. Um. But yeah, he says, another big problem and now is that porns everywhere because of because of new rulings under

the First Amendment. Is that now that porn can be displayed in any anywhere, gas stations, grocery stores, news stands, all places where kids can now find porn because of the First Amendment. I mean, the funny thing about that is that because of smartphones and access to stuff like that, kids have more access to pornography than they ever have. And your generation also has less sex than previous generations. And we're kind of the generation that understands concepts of

consent kind of more than any other generation. The opposite thing happened. Yeah, Like, you be fine when you provide some information, even if it's bad. The kids will still look up other information and then some of that will be eventually good if they go to actually medical sites. Yeah, and then it seems broadly speaking like we're fine, well on that anyway, UM, besides on something less fun than porn. Um. By by two thousand twelve, it's illegal for citizens to

own guns in eight states. The letter writes, quote inner city violent crime has increased dramatically due to people not allowed to have guns in eight states. Um in uh into US in ten. Yeah, I'm not just gonna move on like that's all he really writes about. It is you can't have guns in some states. I think Organs listed as one of the states he speculates doesn't have guns anymore. A very good writer's not He's not. Um And according to um Dobson in two US in ten,

Obama will begin drawing troops from Iraq. Then later on Al Qaeda operatives from Syria and Iran poured in and overtook the Iraqi security forces. Further in bolding the terrorists, Obama caused UM. Obama ceased the mass wire tap ring of all alleged terrorists in the United States unless a warrant was first obtained. So that's that really emboldened the terrorist is that now you can't they can't. The government

can'ts wire tap any phone they want in the States. Yeah, that definitely never happened in Portland over the summer, because they certainly did not wire tap a bunch of activists phones for the crimes of modest to mine or property damage. Since two nine, there's been four terrorist bomba attacks in the United States. No rest has been made. Yeah, I I do remember that when the entire national security establishment said, well, what have we just stopped giving a ship about Islamic terrorism? Quote?

President Obama has moved to deep in US ties in US trade with communist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, regimes that have long enjoyed the favor of far left factions in the Democratic Party. I don't even know what he's trying to say. They're neither. Uh, it's it's it's a fantasy novel. I Ran dropped a nuclear bomb on an Israeli city, remember that, demanding Israel give huge amount

quote huge amounts of land back to Palestines. First off, Israel doesn't even have huge amounts of land like that to say they didn't take a lot of Palestines land, but the whole area is like the size of Jersey. Yes, um. Obama said he abhorred what Iran did in dropping a nuclear bomb Um. But he hoped that the U S would be part of an international peacekeeping force sanctioned by the u N. But the Muslim nations in the in the u N have so far prevented any action. That's

that's a quote from Dobson. The Muslim nations in the UN have prevented any action from from the UN assisting in peacekeeping. Yeah, that's yeah, that's why Obama didn't didn't take any actions in any foreign Muslim dominated countries um at at any point uh in his administration. That's why there were no military actions taken against Muslims at all by the Obama administration. You know more about this kind

of stuff than I do. Were like if Obama, you know, in two US and ten withdrew withdrawal troops from Iraq. This jobs talks about al Qaeda operatives and Syrian Iran pouring in and overtaking the Iraqi security forces. How how likely that what would that have been from al Qaeda

in overtaking Iraqi security forces? I mean it's ironic because we we pulled out and I think eleven shortly later, Yeah, by the at the demand of the Iraqi government and a large chunk of the country did get overtaken largely by Iraqis who were other angry and extremists. Uh, and yeah, I don't know, it's very like it's funny because they got aspects of that right, but in the wrong way, like Iran are the deadly enemies of isis um who

who despised them because they're they're shia um. And you did have a lot of iraq get taken over, but most of the paramilitaries doing it were either foreign fighters or other Iraqis. And the leadership CADRA that was in charge of the whole thing, We're all a bunch of people who had met because the United States, enter George Bush, threw them together in the same prison camp, which was basically a big college for terrorists, Camp BUCA. So yeah, that's that's pretty funny. I I would I would say,

good good. I'm glad someone was able to talk about that, who knew more that than I did. We we we now pivot to healthcare in in the letter, So I'm just gonna read off this great quote quote. The new Congress under President Obama passed a nationalized quote single payer health care system in which the US government is the provider of health care in the United States, following the pattern

of nationalized medicine in the United Kingdom and Canada. The great benefits So yeah, so for sounds great to me. I wish that had happened as someone who lived in Canada and got free health care for years, was it was pretty good. Yeah, but I bet they forced you not to have I bet you weren't allowed to have kids anymore because you're Christian. Oh yeah, and that was the one that was they stopped from It was unfortunate. So continue the quote, Um, the great benefit is that

the medical care is now free for everyone. But here it is if you can get it. Now that health Now that health care is free, it seems everyone wants more of it the wing. The waiting list for prostate cancer surgery is three years. The waiting list for overarian cancer is two years, just as the Canadian experience has shown prior to two thousand and eight with its own

nationalized healthcare. So in the US only a small number of m rs are performed, down from two thousand and eight, which isn't isn't true for how the Canadian health there's a whole section of our right wing lies about how the Canadian healthcare system works, which is very frustrating. That are important to know is that y'all live longer and

you have lower rates of physician related death. Yeah, and like prostate cancer surgery isn't three years waiting time like they just they come up with these ridiculous lies of the Canadian healthcare system that I know is untrue because I have a grandma who relies on it to keep living, so I understand what the wait times are and how they operate, and the way American right wing conservative media talks about it, it it is very frustrating. Yeah, it's it's

it's infuriating. Um. Yeah. And uh. Also about about m rs because they are so expensive and they discover more problems that need treatment, they're almost never authorized, which is how like it's a weird thought process, like thinking about them because they're too expensive, Like, no, they're expensive now because of the way our because of how the insurance

scam works. One of the people I love most in the world had to get an m R I last year and delayed it by months and almost didn't get it because it cost even with health insurance, cost her like a couple of thousand dollars. Meanwhile, my German friends go to the doctor if they just feel like something might be wrong. Maybe I'll just go get it checked. But I have a tummy ache, had to go to

the doc. Yeah, like the ridiculous nature. Like Dobson doesn't understand this at all, because like he's he still thinks that like mrs will be expensive under nationalized medicine, which you know, like the point of changing to a nationalized healthcare system is that no, it won't. It will be very cheap because the only reason it's expensive now is

because of the insurance scam. You know, Adam Conover did a really good episode on his television show dealing with this exact problem for how like this like whole price scam works and hospitals. Yeah, it's it's infuriating, very frustrating. Um. The letter then fearmongers about some boring tex stuff that I don't care about. I don't care about Dobson's tax nightmares. I'm just gonna skip over because it's just him being

scared of taxes whatever. Again, this this guy was on the tax advisory panel under Reagan, which he shouldn't have been, but he was. So I'm just gonna skip over because I don't. I don't care. Um, probably the most ridiculous and incorrect and incorrectly correct. Like it's correct and it's not. It's wrong, but it's kind of correct in this weird way.

It's an accurate prediction in some ways, but I'm still wrong. Um. The SEC imposed its new policy called the Fairness Doctrine Quote which requires your quoting, which requires radio stations to provide quote equal time for alternative views on political or policy issues. As a result, all radio stations have to provide equal time to contrasting views for every political or

policy related program they broadcast. By talk radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, Seawan, Hanny, Dennis Prager, uh Hugh Hewitt, and broadcasters like Dr James Dobson, every conservative of individuals, every conservative talk show is followed by an instant rebuttal of the program by a liberal watchdog group.

So this is obviously very silly and very wrong. But what he got right is how YouTube works now for like all of these all this like this whole genre of YouTube where like you'll watch you know, it's like a lefty watching a right wing person's program, or a right wing person watching a lefties program and like pausing every ten seconds to give a rebuttal, yeah, which is a huge genre YouTube. It's the U S economy. Yeah.

But like the idea that like radio stations would pause in real time on Rush Limbaugh to have like a left wing for a singular rebuttle for every shows very fun as opposed to like what actually happened, which is right wing media has only has become like the most dominant media block in the country via substantial march after two years of Obama, it only got much too more powerful. And I like that Dobson like suddenly adds his name to the end of this list because again he wrote,

he like ghost through the letter. He like adds his name at the very end, Dr James Dobson. I mean, it's it's just self promotion that it's most slimy. That's just Dobson babing. So that was okay. So the FCC past ten two thousand nine. By twos and ten, conservative talk radio had all been shut down. Yes, I do remember that. I remember. I remember the nightmare when I couldn't hear Rush Limbaugh convinced my parents that it was okay to glass the entire Middle East from the sky

because some some dudes funked up a building. Um, I do remember that, so yeah, it doesn't end that shut down. Just in good news. The Justice Department filed criminal charges and civil charges against nearly all Bush Edmond Stration officials that that had involvement in the Iraq War. A thing that would have a knife, that would have massively improved the world we live in. That God, I desperately want

to live in. James Dobson's fantasy America. James Dobson's fantasy world in which there are consequences for committing war crimes. Oh the world. Um, Christian book publishers are all shut down because of anti LGPD hate speech. Yeah, okayport shutting down book publishers. But also yeah, it's stupid. It never happened. Um, churches can no longer meet in public schools or any public places because of the new quote separation of churches schools.

That is a problem. Actually, churches could longer be in public schools because of quote new separation of church and state laws. It does seem like that was always a violation of the separation of church and state, with the

operative word being separation separation. Okay, Christian homeschooling has effectively all been stopped, in part because parents were now forced to not teach their kids that homosexual conduct is wrong or that Jesus is the only way to God, since these ideas have been found to hinder students social adjustment and acceptance of other lifestyles and beliefs. That last part

was quoting the letter. There um, thousands of homeschooling parents had fled to Australia and New Zealand, the last bastion of Christianity, New Zealand. So a massive refuge of Christian homeschooling parents have moved to New Zealand. And I'll finally, I'll finish talking about this piece of speculative fiction with this quote from the end of the letter. Many people thought Obama sounded so thoughtful, so reasonable. During his campaign.

After he had won the Democratic nomination, he seemed to be moving to the center in his speeches, moving away from his far left record. No one thought he would enact such a far left, extreme liberal agenda. But the

record was all there for anyone to see. The agenda of the a c l U, the agenda of the liberal activist judges and their dissenting opinions, the agenda of the homosexual activists, the agenda of environmental activists of the National Board of Education, the global warming activists, abortion rights activists and control activists, um USE and Asia supporters, One World Government, pacifists, far left groups in Canada and Europe.

All these agencies, all all these agendas were in plain sight, and all these groups provided huge support for Senator Obama. The liberal agenda was there, but too many people just didn't want to see it. Heart heartwarming. The far left agenda of the a c l U. Yeah, who is actually doing really good stuff important right now? They're helping them. No, No, they're burning churches. And they're burning churches. That's what the it's the American Christian lighting fire. They're showing up the

homes of homeschooling parents and scaring them away to New Zealand. Yeah, yeah, that's what the tickets to a better country? How dare they so? Like? The point of this letter was like to scare young Christians who feel a little bit of hope that things can be better under a bomba to be like, no, you don't understand how bad Obama is. It's going to be really bad. Now, the letter didn't

do much because Obama is still one. So even though its sent off to like at least ten million people anonymously, it's a kind of a crazy thing to do, Like why would you listen to this letter? There's my anonymous fantasy about like like what the funk is this? I don't know. Yeah. Um, Now now that we've warmed up on that really great, really great heartwarming thing, the next half of the episode is going to be about the actual bad stuff, so focus on the family's active anti

LGBT activism. Really started in when they launched their quote ex gay ministry. UM in this mystery was called Love One Out. That was the title of what they So yeah, I remember making fun of that because it sounds like like like a restoration. It sounds like a restorating that's what it said. Yeah, right, So x GAG is just a more polite term for gay commersion therapy. Um, it's like, no, I'm not getting converted from being gay, just I'm X gay.

It's an X gay program. So Love One Out, great name is is different from other gay conversion therapy programs because it's more because it's it's it's more of a grift than any other one, which I mean, they're all kind of grift, but this one specifically is more more than a grift of anything because Love One Out isn't

actually a program, it's a it's a quarterly traveling conference. Um, so it's here's here's our mission statement from one of their conference guide books, quote, to provide a christ centered, comprehensive conference which will enlighten, in power and equip families, churches, youth leaders, educators, counselors, policymakers, and the gay community on the truth about homosexuality and its impact on culture, family, and youth. So that is their mission statement they put

in their little conference book. It's not good so as you, as you may have been able to pick up on only actually like a fraction of those who attend are gay. A lot of the attendees are parents of teens quote struggling with homosexuality or like youth pastors, among others. So there's there is a fair there is a fair amount gay people that that still go to the conference. One way or the other. We'll get we'll get to details

for that later. But it's really a mix of like pastors, people who think they're like counselors and then like concerned parents who are like, oh no, my I think my team could be gay. What can I do to stop this? And then also you know, gay people were were brought in against their world quite often, which will fear about

their remifications of later yeah not not not really great. Um, So what love went out views as the cause of homosexuality is also a little bit different from some of the other gay like Christian version therapy programs, where where other Christian organizations takes takes the position at homosexuality is a choice or they'll say it's naturally feel feelings, you just can't act on them. And there's like the very classes just pray, pray the gay away type of stuff.

It's like there's always a classical kind of thing. It's like it's the choice. It's not a it's not a choice, but you can choose not to act on it, Like it's okay to feel these things, just you can't act um or just you know, pray a lot um. The main position is that that that that love one out is it takes is that homosexuality is socially caused, usually by mistakes made in parenting or childhood trauma. Because again this is an organization called Focus on the Family that's

only about giving very bad family and parenting advice. So they're trauma like getting beaten, so that their pitch for this is to parents like, hey, you were a crappy parent. That's why your child is now gay. Let us teach you how to be a better parent so your kid can't be gay. No, your kid, your kid turned out gay because you didn't hit him the way James Dobson taught you to hit him. You gotta hit him a different way. You can't hit him the way you were

hitting him. That's what makes him gay. You gotta hit him him the Christian way. So remember, like James James got a psychology degree in the sixties. In seventy three was when they ruled that homosexuality wasn't an elious yeah. I mean, I imagine a psychology degree in the sixties was mostly learning how to punch, yeah, And it was learning that gays gays a disease and it should be

stopped right. That was only changed in the seventies just so very very recent um, you know, in in comparison, at the same time, women got the ability to have their own check their own chet books, which is why there was a massive divorce spike in the seventies because they were had economic control, which is why there was a huge divorce spike, which is very funny to me. It's sad, but you know, because I don't think that the trauma. Actually no, it's it's sad that there was.

It was sad that you were trapped into the views of marriages is sad and then had to you know, like get out only when they could allow, you know, have an economic life. Very supportive of the fact that they very very sad that they were in that position, said that it had to happen in the first place. Um,

so love. When out advocates at homosexuality is quote preventable and treatable, most of these offerences talk about prevention and the causes of gayness because obviously, despite their claim, there actually isn't an effective way to treat being gay, which they kind of they kind of know that, but they still try to lie about it a little bit. But

you know, it's it's tricky. Um. The most the most effort they made on the treatment side is talking about prayer, you know, as one does, uh, mixed in with vaguely kind of trying to address underlying childhood traumas that cause gayness. Um. So like it's like a mix of like psychotherapy, like trying to like, you know, you need to address the problems that cause the gayness, then the gainness will go away.

Also pray a lot, but they really underscore the treatment side of things because they know it's all b Yes, They're more focused on the pseudoscience of how to prevent it from happening because they can make more money off of that. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a massive grift, a griff that resulted in people getting you know, killed and died. Um yeah, um, is is it time for It's a time for an at break? Speaking of grifts, you know, dioge is grift ng Okay, Sophie, I can't call myself

a grifter. I can't openly threaten the heads of social media companies. I feel like, couldn't openly threaten social heads of social media companies. Robert, you're right, you're right, You're right. I usually am continue. I was going to make a joke where I threatened the head of TikTok, but I don't know who it is, so we'll just actually some guy in China, some some guy in China, We're coming

for you. We are back talking about gay conversion therapy. UM. One of my favorite things to talk about now because I've done a lot of reading on it. Yea, yea. And part of the reason why my family escaped the cult to escape from Canada, from the cult so that I wouldn't have to go to a gay confession therapy when I got older, because they thought like me or my siblings could be gay. Well, kudos to your parents. I'm good and have to go through that. That's uh god,

damn it. Yeah, what a fucked up planet. Yeah yeah, Okay, I am not going to think too much about that one, Garrison, because it's gonna bought me out too much. Ye as, yea, all right. The blame that that loved one out talks about for someone struggling homosexuality is split between the parents fault and society's fault. They go into a whole bunch of like pseudo Freudian bullshit about like a strong dominant mother and quite distant fathers or hostile aggressive fathers all

being causes of this. It's like like which is weird because like Dobson often talks about like a dominant mother in his life, because you know, remember the thrashing with the girdle, yes, that is dominant. It also sounds like a kind of yeah, I know, maybe dobs know other things going on. I don't know. Um, frankly, it's all quite boring, like like Freudian bullshit. They get into for

lots for most of the causes. Um. A choice quote from one of the speakers who spoke at these conferences, who who claims to be a reparative therapist, and this is them addressing parents, quote, if you don't hug your son's then some other man will, which is I think it's very funny. Damn it. This is a reparative therapist. Yeah, you know, there should be a German word for like thaying I want to laugh at but I know was responsible for like more too much human misery for it

to actually be funny. But it's like I have to laugh at this because I got very close to this in my life. The speaker also remarks, quote, there's no such thing as a homosexual, just misbehaving heterosexuals who can reclaim their identity through prayer and therapy. It's like a weird a weird stance that love one out takes is like there's no gay people being the gay people don't exist. One can choose to identify as gay, but that that's

that you can't be gay. Actually, what you have is you experience homosexual thoughts and if you can and if you can adjust those thoughts, then you can actually be your true self, which is a heterosexual. They get into a who bunch of like wow, that makes that makes that is impressively nonsense, Like you have to give it to them. You couldn't. You couldn't make less sense if you tried. Yeah, they get into a whole bunch of

like dumb psych psych pop kind of stuff. They really try to worm their way around a lot of a lot of this um. At least seven predominant social scientists have publicly called out and disowned Focus on the Family for deliberately misinterpreting their research to bolster kind of the homophobic claims that Focus on the Family makes so like they try to appropriate people's like gender research and like

parenting research, and they use it very badly. And these scientists are like, no, that's not what we're saying at all. You're very bad at what you're trying to do and really harmful. We disown you and stop using our research because they're using it very poorly. Yea, that needs to be some sort of crime. I don't know, that's not freedom of speech. No, because you're trying to make grifts

and make money off of the endangerment of human beings. Yeah, and using like social science as a cover kind of slandering the scientists. Yeah in a way. Yeah, I don't know, they're like misappropriating their work in a way that you know, they're making money off it, so you you could you know, yeah,

they got a few things could happen. So when when they're not talking about weird Freudian gender identity kind of stuff but like to masculine mothers and bad parenting nonsense stuff, when then we're not doing that, they're they're discussing the other causes of the object and homosexual behavior. The Advancing Quote Gay Agenda part of their mission statement reads, uh quote, we cannot escape the onslaught of gay prop again that

seeks to influence our churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. That was written to it two us in five. So like they were really they were on this gay agenda thing. They were, they were on it. They were like the first people really nervous. And two has and five about the schools and businesses and neighborhoods or this onslaught of

the gay propaganda advancing. The conference guide states that mainstream science's assisting the gay agenda in three main ways normalization through desensitization, undermining parental moral authority, and equating homosexuality to heterosexuality. So three three main ways the science is helping advance the gay agenda does by pushing these things into the society. Okay, yep.

And the reason why, you know, as all these gay people are such a problem kind of besides the whole biblical interpretation of homosexuality being a sin, which means even some Bible scholars even questioned that um for what was actually being written back at the time. A lot of a lot of modern Bible scholars believe they're talking about gay rape or an older man of using a child.

That's usually what most scholars look at it now. Um. But besides the whole biblical interpretation thing, um, the fact that if gayness is so widely accepted as normal, um, the reason, the reason why it's reason why it's bad is then kids of Christian parents will feel more comfortable coming out as gay and will probably be more likely to not be Christians um because of the homophobia in the church, And of course the evangelic evangelicals don't want that,

But there's that aspect that also a big, a big extential fear for them. It was gay marriage at the time that was really the thing that they would have and the repercussions that gay marriage would have, like what they laid out in the speculative fiction letter from two US and eight, the fear that gay marriage and possible resulting anti discrimination laws could threaten what they believe to

be their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Jobs aboute the whole book Marriage under Fire, which we don't even have time to get into, but it's it's a whole, whole, big, huge book that I was very popular in two thousand four and the conference guy that we've been reading from has a chapter called addressing the pro gay Agenda in your School. In this chapter, there's checklist that's supposed to

determine the level of homosexual promotion in your school. So like, yeah, a lot of their fears are like if kids are gay, then they're gonna not want to be Christians anymore, which isn't great for for profit well technically nonprofit, but you know, it's a media empire. It's it's not good for churches and Christian kind of publishers if there's less Christians. And also you know they are really terrified at gay marriage

and what's going to happen. Those are kind of the two things that are they're really trying to push through this conference, and that's what all their fear moongering about the gay agenda really is. But these these twelve things listed as red flags. So like in this chapter called addressing the pro pro gay Agenda in your School, there's there's these twelve red flags to look for in your own schools, and it's really good. It's it's a really

fantastic list. Um Number one, A safe School's non harassment policy. Save Schools is like a brand that teaches like that has like um, they do like they do like discrimination training in schools and stuff. So like if if if a school has posted a safe a safe schools non harassment policy, first red flag, if there's if there's guidelines against harassment, first red flag, that the gay agenda is being infected into your school. If you can't harass people,

it is a red flag. Yeah. Number two a homosexual student club. I mean that's you know, that's a fair red flag coming from the perspective, that makes more it makes more sense. Um Number three non discrimination policy based on sexual orientation. So again more discrimination stuff being red flags. Yeah, if you can't discriminate, it's definitely that's a red flag, right there. Number four programs to stop homophobia, hate or bias just yeah, you wouldn't want to stop home just generally,

not even just homophobia, but hating bias too. Those are it's the liberal gay agenda is getting injected in like a vaccine, big problem and like X big problem. Yeah. Number five is pro homosexual literature added to the curricula and libraries, and a pro family material quote pro family material being bypassed or discarded. So I don't really know what they mean by that, but I'm sure I'm sure it was scary. Numbers Number six aids and sex said programs as Yeah, so if they teach you about AIDS

and sex said, that's a problem. Not even gay sex said, just sex said. In general, that's the advancing gay agenda in your school. Number seven teachers that are homosexual. Of course, that's huge problem. You can't can't have that. UM. Remember eight involvement in your school by the by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network or the Parents and Friends of Lesbian Gays, which are two organizations that help for gay rights. So if there, if they have any involvement in your

school or whatever, huge issue. Uh. Number nine celebrating Gay Pride Month or National Coming Out Day, Big big problem there. That's that's the gay agenda advancing have to be careful UM. Exhibits or films on families by homosexuals. So exhibits or films about family that are made by homosexual filmmakers, which again I don't even know what they're really saying there. It's kind of underscertainable. No, it's it's complete. But we have two more no red flags UM, students students UM

and parents with concerns being silenced. So so that's that's good UM. And number twelve a teacher in service meanings promoting diversity to teach meetings that promote diversity. That's the final red flag that if if you see these twelve things in your school or even you know a few of them. This is this is means the gay agenda is advancing. Sound right, Yeah, that sounds like how the

gay agenda. I was very happy looking through this conference manual and looking looking at and I found this page like, yes, I have a few paragraphs to right now. It was great this and the manuals poorly designed to like this. The graphic design is terrible. It's like the worst era of two US and five like manual design. It's really bad and ugly to look at. It's it's a magnificent piece that I glorious. Internet. Are their stock photos of people?

You know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely absolutely stock photos of like people with their families, Like have you seen much like Christian Have you seen much Christian like propaganda from the era? Oh? Yeah, you know, all the same stuff. Um, so okay kind of now. The saddest part of this is that parents would often force their gay children to attend this convention against their will. Um, these kids can be stuck with the choice of either going to this anti gay conference or losing the love

and financial support of their parents. That was really what a lot of kids talked about for this conference is like I was forced to go or else I would be kicked out of the house or I would you know, my parents would disown me. And the thing about this, this thing is like, this isn't just this isn't just like a game of conversion therapy program you go to. This is a traveling conference, so it can go to your town. You're like, oh no, if it goes to

my town, I know my parents gonna take me there. Right. It's like because like it's like it's like an active threat. It's not just like, oh no, I'm not gonna get driven to Texas to go to this program that you don't know where it's going to come to you into

your life. Horrible, It's really bad. Um. Yeah. In NPR article from two US and seven talks with a sixteen year old kid named Brett, um, Brett told NPR quote, I did not want to come at all, but I guess, you know, I have no choice because my parents, you know, control my entire life. Um. His His parents drove three hundred and fifty miles from San Diego to Phoenix to attend this conference fucking Arizona. Yeah. And and and the parents said in hopes that it will quote plant the

seeds that quote, one day their sun will become straight. So, after Brett was forced to listen to idiots, I'm, yeah, it doesn't it's not how it works, but that's what they thought. They thought it's how it works. Like they even knew, like, oh, even if he's not going to get fixed here, at least maybe plant the seeds that he'll be able to be not gay later. It's real,

real sad kind of stuff and like this is not uncommon. Um, after Brett was forced to listen to all those speeches and testimonials and please from these quote therapists that his quoted disorder can be treated, Brett said to MPR, quote, don't tell my parents, but no, I know I'm gay, and like their stories are really inspiring, but I know this is me and I don't really want to change. So like again this is from like a Christian kid.

He's like, yeah, I understand their viewpoints, like even like that's sad and in point, but he's like, yeah, I understand, it's kind of inspiring, but no, like this is who I am. Yeah, I can't not be this. And another really sad part is that the MPR article talked to Brett's dad and he said, um, he said quote the conference taught him that he needs to learn to love

his son unconditionally. So like this is the kind of thing where it gets We'll talk about this more later, but like what the conference did is like because like these things are very bad, but like one of the things that was teaching is like, no, if you have gay if you have gay children, you still need to like love them as your children, which is like something that like these people needed to get taught like this, this is what Brett's dad, right, Like Brett's dad learned

at the convention. I guess I still have to love my son. That's the thing that he like took away from and talked to NPR about, which is really like me, like as bad, like this conference is terrible and abusive, but still that's like a net good from it. That's what stuff going to this thing that was less fucked up than him helped. Yes, yeah, that's really that's just I mean this everything it's bad. Tragedy um on Love wre notes old website which has been like since deleted.

Like you know, it's it takes a while to dig ford in like the way back machine, but every every time you change the page on the website. It has a little testimonial from from an attendee, which is a great source for terrible and sad quotes. Keep in mind, these are quotes that they're putting up on their websites to make themselves look good, right, feel like advertisements. Yeah, here's um, here's a quote quote. I've been struggling for twenty months with the fact that my son tells me

he is gay. I've gone through all the first three stages of grief. I found this conference on the internet. We drove from Orange, Texas last night the conference in Atlanta to begin on the reconstructive phase of our grief. Thank you for giving me hope for a loving relationship with my son, which is real bad. Yeah. Yeah, So again it's like yeah, like, and I guess from the way that's written, I think it sounds like the hope that my son will be straight again so I can

have a loving relationship with them. That's the way that I kind of read that as Um, it could also mean, you know, I hope that I can still love and still have a relationship with my son even though it's gay. But I kind of doubt that. If they drove from Texas to Georgia. For this, it sounds more like hoping my son will be straight one day so then I

can love him. Yeah, not great. Um from a sixteen year old they said, quote gay identified boy, because again, you can't be gay, you could identify as gay, you know, actually gay, it's that you're dealing with these homosexual feelings, so they right from a sixth year old gay dentified boy who came because quote my mom dragged me into this quote. There were some things that did not agree with, but it was all presented with love, which I get really sad reading um, which really kind of messes me

up on a fundamental level. Who as someone who kind of discovered they were queer after being in a very hateful conservative environment for so long, including with like whole bunch of like self hating in my younger teens, that really gets me kind of angry reading stuff like that because like dealing with realizing things about myself well, having such like toxic bad viewpoints. It's not it's not great,

And yeah, this kind of stuff really makes me upset. Um. Here's here's here's one I actually I like reading because it's gonna be we can maybe laugh at this one and you know, um quote. I was one of the police officers that worked at the Loved One Out conference. I thought that that's such a sentence right there. God, what a sentence. Okay, sorry, I thought the testimonials were awesome. I was trying to be a tough guy, but I could not keep the tears from running down my face.

The three other officers who were there with me said the same thing. It was a very moving testimony to the power of God and how he pursued you. As police officers, we're we're often pretty rough on gay lesbian issues, mostly making jokes and expressing disgust. The conference made all four of us more sensitive to homosexuals. Oh my god, everything about that is as bad as it could be.

Like the fact that this conference again helped people who were even more bigger than the conference be slightly maybe less big or at least less dangerously bigger than like, is still incredibly fucked up. It's that's so bad. As police officer who's assigned as security, It's like I used to joke about gay people killing themselves, and now I

think that's wrong. They should just be forcibly converted. I've improved as police officers were pretty tough on gay let's be in issues, making jokes and expressing disgust like what a great club as police officers like, of course all cops do this. Oh buddy, Uh, someone should have gone to his That shouldn't be You shouldn't get to be a cop and say that. And they advertised it on their website. Is a good thing. He was proud of that.

He was willing to be like like all cops, I used to habitually make fun of homosexuals, but now I don't. Last last person will hear about who attended? Is from an article in the in the Denver Post. In fight UM, Christina Blake, thirty six year old Denver artists moved moved to Colorado ten years ago, so in UM for the States, she moved to Colorado for the state's X gay programs UM and underwent more than four years and two of them.

She also underwent psychological counseling, so she moved to Colorado. This is where focusing on the families based a lot of like in person stuff there like all the time as well, these as well as these traveling conferences Jesus and she tended to like multiple programs, not just focus on the families, um. Quote. I threw my whole heart and soul and life into changing. There was a period of time where I actually believe that I was changing,

but then there would be reminders, Oh no, still gay. Um. The whole time she suppressed her sexuality, her creativity disappeared, she gave up on transforming herself into her headterseexual. She said, after serving many gay people leaving leading healthy, happy, vibrant lives. Quote, I still had to deal with a lot of a lot of feelings of shame, brokenness, and the failure that I had internalized from from the ES gay programs, um,

Christina said. And the article ends by saying she no longer considers us consider herself herself a Christian, but like, you know, a person who was like lived in these programs for ten years trying desperately to change yourself because you think that's the only way to connect with God and just you know, it doesn't work. And it left a lot of people dead, a lot of people killed themselves.

Well we'll talk more about that at the end. For the kind of the stats on all those sad things, UM, I think I think would be a little bit good to learn about the guy who kind of ran a whole operation, because this is actually very important UM, so love one out as the program was funded by someone named John pulk Um. John's story is not unique in anyway from the people that run these types of operations. According to John, he came out as gay when he was eight team. This was in UM. He came out

to an accept to an accepting family. He was he was, you know, he was. He was fine at the time. UM. In his mid twenties he found himself becoming despondent and even the suicidal um in college. He at the time he attributed his unhappiness to homosexuality. Many years later he would say it was actually because he was tremendously insecure and lonely. Around the same time, a university campus pastor

introduced John to Christianity. So it's like in his mid twenties he first kind of got introduced to Christianity when he was severely depressed in suicidal. So, trying to reconcile his depression, gayness and new potential path for with Christianity, John signed up for a year long residential conversion therapy program, which that means is you live in this It's it's like it's like a you'd like live in this spot. They have like houses and dorms and you live in

this program. Sounds like it's real. It's real bad. A lot of people died there. Yeah, So he signed up for this year long program. Eventually he he he's stay there for more than actually year. He eventually got a job. They're working at the same conversion therapy business that that he attended. Him and a quote former lesbian that he met at the program got married. UM. They wrote a

book together. In the nineties, John got put in charge to focus on the Famili's quote homosexuality and gender division, the whole division dedicated Yeah you gotta you gotta have a division UM. In ninety eight, he founded and lad

Loved One Out under focus on the family UM. In two thousand, while on a speaking tour in Washington, d C. Unclear if this was for a Loved One Out conference or was just if it was just another speaking arrangement uh, John was seen and photographed sitting in a predominant popular gay bar by a known gay activist. When approached, John said his name was John Clint, which is his name is John Polk. But this guy calling himself John Clint

said said he was gay. Um. After news of this spread around, John told the media that he was just there because he was walking around and needed the place to goose the bathroom him. And he said he didn't know it was a gay bar until until you went in. However, are the people there, um, you know saw him for like an hour talking intimately with other men. It was

kind of a quote, people said. Um. John later admitted to knowing it was a gay bar and has said yeah, yeah, and it said quote, at a low point in my life, I went back to a place where I felt comfortable. Um. No matter what his intentions were, he was um. No matter if he was actually going in knowingly to get sex or whatever, or if he was just lonely and kind of actually said and needed up like a familiar

place whatever, um he whatever it was. He was forced to resign as a board chairman at the Conversion at the conversion therapy place that he attended. UM, but he still continued to work and focus on the family and lad Love one out until two US and three. Two US and three, he suddenly quit his job at Focus and dropped out of the spotlight of becoming like a very famous x G speaker. UM John and his family moved to Portland, Oregon. Oh, Um John went to town.

This is this is Yeah, you don't know. We get tear gas. This is the time we get t guests. John, maybe getting tear guests too. Actually, m Um John went. John went to culinary school and became a chef, soon opening up a successful catering business. UM of his time in Portland, John wrote, on the outside, it was a happy life, but inside I was torn. I deeply loved my wife, An who still believed in like the XTA movement, but I knew it would be extremely scandalous to embrace

some sexuality after the career I've had. It was, but it was more and more apparent to me that it was what I had always been. I was. I was gay. Um, the older I got, the lonelier I was becoming. In two In two thousand and eleven, I was driving down a suburban street and I saw two men holding hands. I burst into tears, realizing that I wanted to be one of those men. So John got out of focus in the family because he realized he couldn't keep doing this work anymore, but he still was married to his

wife for like a decade afterwards. Um, you know, just kind of slowly disengaging, because like, after you're in this for so long, you can't just pop out very easily. You have. It's it's kind of it can be a slow for some people. Yeah, it's deep programming yourself. Yeah. Um, John describes his time where I can't focus on the family like this. I was an utter torment. I struggled on and off with addiction and wanted to take my life.

I wanted to believe I wasn't gay so badly that not only did I lie to other people, but I primarily lied to myself. I wanted my homosexuality to change. But the truth is, for all the public rhetoric, I was not one bit less gay behind closed doors, behind many of us in the X gay leadership and focus on the family, but even admitness to each other. Um, we had this conversation many times. Quote, we know our

orientation hasn't really changed. What has changed our behavior, our way of life, how we see ourselves, Our sexuality has not changed. More and more, when I had to go when I had to go up and speak to crowds of people about my gay conversion. I felt like a wind up toy. I'd go back to my hotel room, fall in the bed and start weeping. Yeah, which is isn't That isn't uncommon for a lot of these people who are gay that ran these programs. A lot of them have since come out and said, no, this is

all bullshit. I'm so sorry for causing the deaths of so many people. I am kay, and I want to kind of live a quiet life now. I'm really sorry for what I have done, but I don't know how to deal with like the trauma of like not only me, but also the trauma I've caused. Like it doesn't sound like a great environment. And then there's a lot of brainwashing going on and cult like stuff, so like it's it's hard to really I'm not sure what consequences for

the actions should be. Besides if people should just like be able to live alone for the rest of their like like live by themselves and try to find happiness. I I don't know. It's it's tough. Um into us and thirteen John made a public apology for all the harm him and the x gay movement. He was a part of caused, saying quote, I do not believe in reparative therapy. I don't believe it changes sexual orientation. In fact,

it does great harm too many people. I know that countless people were harmed by things I said and did in the past. Parents, families, and their loved ones were all negatively impacted by the notion of reparative therapy and the message of change. I'm truly, truly sorry for the pain I have caused. Now, I don't want to focus on John Pauk too much because he isn't the primary

He isn't the primary victim here. The primary victim are victims are like the teens and adults that killed themselves as a result of the rhetoric John and people like him, you know, spread. But I also know that like John knows that he he knows that as well. Um, And I'm sure it's awful to live with. And I kind of do wish him the best. He's living as a gay person. I don't think he's Christian anymore, just living

in Portland running a very successful caring business. I kind of wish him well, but I don't want to focus on him too much do to financial restraints work coming to the end here thankfully, because I'm I'm kind of done with all of this. UM do to financial illustraints and to US and eleven and to US and nine, Focus on the Family sold Love one out to Exodus International, of a huge conversion therapy umbrella organization that that had

worked with Focus in the Family in the past. Later on in Exodus totally shut down UM ending Ending Love went out as well, stating that conversion therapy does not work and apologize for the pain they've caused. And this was like the place which was this was like a massive conglomerate of gay conversion therapy programs, Like this is

actually huge news when the shutdown like this was massive. UM, Like I know, I know people that have been sent to Exodus International pros Christ Exodus to like what a what a yeah, what a nightmare? All of that news is. It's bad. It's all terrible. UM. Also in two US and nine, John, you know, James Dobson left Focus on the Family amid philosophical conflicts with his successor, Jim Daily. UM. Focus on the Family has under since UM went down

a hiss. Underson has gone down to downsizing and has dialed back its political activism mainly kind of focusing on their media division. Now UM it's year it's yearly operating budget still hovers around ninety million dollars, So like they're still they're still very active. UM, They're just not like the massive political force they were in the nineties where they had like a hundred and fifty million dollars. But like still they're they're still they're there's still there's still

a notable organization. UM. Despite Dobson being gone and Love went out defunct. Uh, not much has changed on the rhetoric focus in the family spreads regarding homosexuality. They currently have like over thirty live articles that I could find through scrolling in like ten minutes about the prevention slash treatment of homosexuality UM, with many other articles about adjacent gay issues and stuff, plus selling countless books on the

subject on their website. UM. One article opens up with the imagined question prompt saying, uh, what can we say to our teenage son who who just told us he's gay? I'm devastated one but I'm so angry I could scream the next I could just sit and cry. We love our son, we don't want this influence in our home, so that that's how they start an article. Um, yeah, articles offer helpful advice um for interacting with friends and

family members that quote identify as gay and such. Such helpful advice that they list is a see a person not not a homosexual. Just this is just like the sheer notion that they need to like establish that people are still humans like theirs. The fact they need to say that really shows what their audiences and and what

they're actually doing. Ye. Well that I hate yea. Um, although I'm pretty sure that the understanding, um uh, that this is now a failing cultural battle, right like they understand that this is now kind of a losing battle, um, because they've turned their attention most more recently towards transgenderism as a new thing that's going to destroy America. Okay, because it makes sense because they're too accepted, and it didn't destroy America. We have a gay marriage and everything

is still be the same, all right now. I will say America has been kind of destroyed. But I don't play game marriage. I don't play gay marriage or the or the four left Supreme Court. I do blame the Supreme Court for some but not not the six to three far left leftist communist. Yeah, they didn't do that. Yep. Uh uh. Mostly I blame not Drudge, the Drudge Report, I bring. I blame Matt Drudge, that Drudge I know, Glenn Beck was very popular at the time. Yeah, but

they all got popular. All of these guys that we're dealing with now, like including Alex Jones, got their their first initial like really big national exposure thanks to Um to Matt Drudge, who now was kind of anti Trump. Um. Yeah, it's been a weird journey from Matt Um. I mean he's still I think, pretty conservative, but he just doesn't like Trump. But he was like he was, he was

the We'll talk about Matt Dredge someday maybe. Yeah. So they're selling lots of books written in the past five years about transgenders, and on their website there's there's countless articles um, whereas the articles about home sexuality have taken like a dip, and I think they're not they're not writing as many new ones. They're mainly focusing on transgender stuff.

If you didn't grow up in the evangelical Christian scene in the eighties, nineties or two thousand's, the first time you may have heard of Focus in the Family is probably from John oliver segment on when he on his segment about Mike Pence because into Us in seventeen, Mike Pence spoke at Focus on the Families anniversary. He did, Yeah, fences of Pences called Dobson a close personal friends. Yeah. Then the Pence said these words about Focused on the

Family the organization quote. The truth is that Focused on the Family has been a force in American families, a force for good for the past forty years. Millions of families and families like mine are indebted to your work. And let me assure you, there's one other family that's truly grateful for your work and for this great ministry. And I promise you Focused the Family. You have an unwavering ally in President Donald Trump. Of course he does. Yep, real,

real good. During this episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver talked about Pence speaking and Focus on the Famili's fourth anniversary event and highlighted both Pences and Focused on the Families history promoting gay conversion therapy, which has Pence did too. He ran on that platform in the nineties. Um, yeah, which is why it really can learning about him for

gay issues even even more than Trump. I that's my thing. If, like, if Trump every gotten Peach and Pence was put in, I'm kind of more scared of him for queer stuff, because Pence is legitimately terrifying on like the on the like, on the religious front, Mike Pence is It's like my Donald Trump is the guy who I think is capable of wooing Americans into authoritarianism, but he's not a competent authoritarian.

Mike Pence I don't think is capable of wooing, but he would be a competent authoritarian because Pence is called Dobson, like his greatest mentor and close friends, those kind of stuff that's very scary, Like Dobson helped him get elected initially. There's a strong case to be made that the most frightening thing about Trump is not Trump himself or even his MAGA people, but the degree to which he has empowered the dominionist Christian move Yeah, absolutely, which is which

Dobson was a huge part of pioneering. So because of John Oliver segment Um, this prompted a response from the head of Focus on the Family of the Now had Who's Jim Daily quote the satirical late night talk show hosts secreed was not just vicious in tone, but also vulgar and vile in every sense of the word and way. So that was the response Focus on the Family had

to John Oliver's segment about them, which I think was great. Um. But then also in the same statement further confirming the organization's continue to support a conversion therapy in a press statement saying quote, we support the counseling and availability of professional therapy options for unwanted homosexual attractions or behavior. So that's what they said to press statement in response to

the last Last Week Tonight episode of Yeah. In the last between the episode, John Oliver unveiled a new book his team had written about the Vice President's bunny Martlin Bundo Um, who of course is actually gay. Um. With all the profits going to the charities of AIDS United and the Trevor Project. The book sold more than uh told about two copies in the first two days, massively successful, A lot of money was donated. It was really good.

The Trevor Project does a fantastic work. Um. Yeah, it was was a very good thing that John Oliver and his team did there. At the time of this episode's publication of twenty states currently banned conversion therapy for miners, including Colorado, which was a very recently in the past. In the past, I think a year Colorado bandit for for miners, and that that's where focused on the family

is based. Around twenty of US LGBT youth who have been to conversion therapy have has attempted suicide within the past year, so like in the past twelve months, that's that's happened, compared to twelve percent of of LGBT youth who had not gone through conversion therapy, So it more than doubles your chances of committing suicide if you attend l g FVVU ten conversion therapy as as a queer person or as a as a queer youth specifically, it's morally identical to just firing a gun and do a

crowd of children. According to the San Francisco State University um UH, because according to their their their study on conversion therapy and and used to a queer youth um LGBT youth that goes through conversion therapy can be eight point four times more likely to report of having attempted suicide.

God Good God. Yeah, that's uh. That is five almost six times more likely to report higher levels of depression, uh, three and a half times more likely to report the use of like illegal drugs for coping, and three and a half times more likely, uh more likely to have HIV and STDs for you know, all of those. It just sounds to me, Garrison, like you're saying, all of these are all the benefits of God's love. And yeah, that's all I've written because that's all that's all I

could write before I started breaking down. Yeah, becoming unhealthy out of mental Well yeah, well, enjoy this fun episode everybody that Garrison wrote for you. It is he had his chance to make a behind the Bastards episode and he made it. Made me very sad. Um And normally I make people sad while laughing manically because I've had to deal with the depressing thing. And now I'm just sad and Garrison's laughing. Yeah, and I understand the harm that I've brought to the word now that I'm not

going to stop. Yeah, no, more of this, more of this anyway. Um, Yeah, that's the episode. You're plugable, Actually do not. First, I'm gonna I'm gonna plug the Trevor Project. They do very good work on assistant queer used in times of crisis. Um. Also, if you're in Britain, the Mermaids Foundation is great for trans issues. I know there's a few new trans hotlines in the States that I need to I need to learn their numbers for them

because they're they're relatively new. Yeah, the Trevor Project is great. Mermaids in the UK is great. Um, a whole bunch of stuff that you can, you know, help for. There's oftentimes you'll see legislation going around to help ban conversion therapy for minors. UM in your state, get involved with that. It's one of the few things where legislation actually is possible. I know there's a whole you know about voting or

not voting. If you're you should vote for that if you see it happening, vote for that because it can save a lot of kids lives. Yeah, that's the episode real fun. Where can people follow you if you want to see me talk about crowd boys and the FEDS and to your gas And I'm on Twitter on Twitter several days ago tomorrow. I have an Instagram account, but

I've never used it. It's very it's completely blank. See I told you only the youths have Instagrams and they don't like to use them on Instagram, it's it's Nuckerberg. I don't I don't want to go on that. The only social media apps or Twitter and the TikTok TikTok, I mean, I don't have TikTok. Guys, it sounds like it's a healthier social media platform than any of a lot of great queer youth expressing themselves in healthy ways. Yeah, thank god, we're banning it all. Alright, the episode is done.

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