Monday, September 13, 2010

Gay On Gay Hate Takes TWO (Truth Wins Out)

Gay On Gay Hate Takes TWO

Since becoming a public figure in 2007, I’ve received hundreds of thousands of e mails from my fans. Most of them are kind letters of support for equality. Many of those letters have been from LGBT people who have a real problem, and have no where else to turn. Such was the case with a letter I received a few months ago from a man named David.

David wrote me to say that he had been in a relationship with another man who suffered from mental health issues. Having devoted himself to caring for his partner’s needs, David was shocked to discover that a “Christian” couple had been working behind his back to encourage his partner, in his weak mental state, to leave David and move in with them. Oh, and they wanted him to bring his disability check too! Had David and his partner been married, they would have been forced, by law, to resolve their differences, or get a divorce. David could have his partner admitted to a mental health facility to determine his state of mind, and receive counseling, possibly even couples counseling. Because they weren’t married, David lost his partner to a couple of right wing nuts. Plain and simple. David reached out for help.

David contacted TWO (Truth Wins Out) a prominent gay rights group, and requested legal advice. Initially, it seemed the organization was willing to help him, and advocate on his behalf. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, there was a breakdown. TWO could not help David after all. They tried to tell him, but he found it hard to believe that he had no option at all. The more David persisted with TWO and pleaded for their help, the less interested they became in helping him at all. In fact, by the time David was writing his letter to me, TWO had already taken the time and energy to publicly bash David in a blog on their official website. They questioned his own mental health, and referred to him with very derogatory terms. That’s when I got involved.

Truth Wins Out’s motto is, “Fighting Right Wing Lies”. Slandering a gay man who comes to you for help is not accomplishing that goal at all. In fact, it’s completely counteractive, and makes us all look like back biting bitches. TWO does not represent the gay community, and here’s why. I contacted the writer of the afore mentioned TWO blog (Michael Airhart) to confront him about the slanderous statements he’d made against David. The blog writer agreed with my assertion that he had overstepped a boundary with his insults, and agreed to remove them from his blog. I left the situation alone. Anyone can make a mistake, and this blogger was clearly overly emotional when he verbally bashed a gay guy who came to him for help. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there.

This morning I received an e mail from David with some links to various statements made about him online, very recently. Wayne Besen, the founder of TWO has taken it upon himself to publicly attack David. If Wayne wants to verbally berate a fellow gay man, he should do it in private. TWO is a non profit organization that relies on donations to function. I believe it’s only fair that everyone who has ever donated a cent to their organization becomes aware of the waste of resources exhibited in this blog. TWO enjoys tax free status, as a non profit. My gay tax dollars shouldn’t be going to support any group that claims to support gays, and then spends time, energy and web space bashing one of our own.

Since when did Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party homophobes stop mattering so much that leaders of “gay rights” organizations can turn their focus to eating our own movement from the inside out?

Below are a couple of excerpts from the TWO blog comments, which have angered me to the point of shining a spotlight on their hypocrisy. These statements were made by Wayne Besen, regarding David.

“In my view, you are insane”

“Yet, like a psychopath, you persist”

“Mr. Nahmod, please move on before you further embarrass yourself and damage your already diminished reputation. You are becoming a circus act and a laughingstock. No one takes you seriously.”

(You’re wrong Wayne Besen. I take David seriously, and you are a fucking sick joke on the gay community!)

“Obviously, you have access to the Internet, so please take some time to find a good team of well-trained doctors. Or, consider checking yourself into a secured, padded facility until you work things out.”

“In 20 years of activism, I have not met someone so fucked up as yourself. Not even in my travels in Religious Right circles while doing research have I encountered someone as crazy as you. Without apology, I can say that you are a bizarre, hate-filled individual who fixates on people with the goal of destroying them.”

You can view the entire posting at the following link:
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/07/9508/


For any gay rights organization to make such strongly worded, cruel and unusual statements about a gay man, in public, is a shame to us all.

And Wayne Besen, I hope you’re reading this, because I have a message for you. Are you a mental health professional Mr. Besen? Because if you are, you should know that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action, over and over again, and expecting a different result. When you continue to publicly bash David, while expecting him not to defend himself, it demonstrates a questionable mental state on your part. I have dealt with loved ones who suffered from mental illness, Mr. Besen, and it’s no fucking joke! If, indeed, David is as mentally ill as you want your donors to believe he is, then why the hell are you worsening his state with this horrendous bullying? You are an organization. David is one man. If you can’t use your web tools to delete his comments, the maybe you shouldn’t be running a fucking website to begin with. Back the fuck off of my friend, or I will point out your hypocrisy and bring TWO down for once and for all. If you’re not with us, you’re against us, and so far, you’ve only demonstrated the latter, in this case. You will not receive a cent from any of my tens of thousands of gay fans after this. You fucked up!

To view a blog that is entirely dedicated to persecuting David Nahmod click the following link. Check out the comments and statements made by these right wing nuts about how they are conspiring with a gay rights group to mentally harm a gay man. These facts are undeniable.

http://protectfamilies.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-are-not-anti-semitic-and-strongly.html

6 comments:

  1. This past summer, I asked Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center to declare Truth Wins Out as a hate group.

    I presented this evidence via e-mail.

    All of it - Invoking pedophillia and NAMBLA, anti-semitism, mocking people with AIDS and HIV, their blacklist campaigns, they're threats and intimidations, how they're supporting anti-gay christian extremists, and how they're now whitewashing the history of those involved in ex-gay ministries, many of whom should be in jail for manslaughter or sex abuse.

    But ever since a black man was elected President Of The United States - you might have read about it or seen it on the news - Mr. Potok has been understandably busy and hasn't considered my request.

    Nonetheless, I consider this a no-brainer. Hate is hate, and it's something not exclusive to just heterosexuals.

    Because truth be told – pun, intended - Truth Wins Out isn’t about combating religious mandated hate or exposing the ex-gay agenda. They never were. And the notion, that in a few days, there are people in Washington, DC going to be holding a cocktail fundraiser for these quack frauds is inexcusable.

    Thank you for speaking out.

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  2. Here's what caused this whole matter to escalate: in March & June of this year, my ex's housemates sent me anti-semetic slurs behind his back.
    When I tried to tell Wayne Besen, who is Jewish, about this, he responded by posting jokes about mental illness at the Truth Wins Out site.
    Is this how our "equality advocates" should behave?

    Besen may finally have bitten off more than he can chew: the Anti-Defamation League has agreed to look into this, and, on Oct 7th, I have an appointment with Rabbi Sydney Mintz, an out lesbian, to further discuss this.

    One of the issues I hope to raise is Truth Wins Out's non-profit status: no organization that behaves like this should be exempt from paying taxes.

    I'm a gay man who turned to Truth Wins Out for help in resolving a conflict with a Christian identified family whose behavior makes a mockery out of Christianity's message.
    That Truth Wins Out was even more abusive than this family is shocking.

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  3. If I have anything to say about it, the people attending that fundraising cocktail party will have read this blog before they walk in the door. What Besen is doing to a fellow gay man, and the stigma he's perpetuating against those with the misfortune of being mentally ill, should not be worth a penny to anyone with a heart.

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  4. I know that TWO has read this blog and I am still waiting for a response. This thread will appear in their google results for years to come, so it's in their best interest to defend themselves, even though the overwhelming evidence strongly indicates that there is no defense.

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  5. You know, I haven't always put my best foot forward in dealing with this. There have been moments when I lashed out, and when I ranted & raved.
    But I've been subjected to a lot of abuse. Wayne Besen is not the only one to subject me to jokes about mental illness. Total strangers have contacted me to make fun of the fact that Beecher & I are not together.There was those anti-semetic slurs. I've repeatedly been accused of stalking the individuals who've subjected me to these abuses--they've all lied about their own behavior.
    So yes, I've lashed out on occasion, but there's only so much abuse that one person can take.

    Beecher's housemates notwithstanding, most of this has come from within the gay community.
    This is the same conduct that went on in the gay community during the Prop 8 campaign & during the height of the AIDS crisis.

    No community is perfect, and every community has it's bad apples. And I understand that all organizations can't be all things to all people.
    But when you can't get help from anyone, ever, when all you get is years of the kind of abuse that I subjected to, then something is wrong.

    Something has been deeply & profoundly wrong with the gay community for a long time now.

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  6. David, to me, it doesn't matter what foot you put forward. If these bastards think you're stalking you, then they should get a restraining order, but they can't, because you're not. If they think you are mentally ill, then they shouldn't be trying to drive you crazy, on their official blog. If they think you have nobody looking out for you, then they should go to chazonator.com and if they think they are going to get away with it, and that nobody can stop them, they are the ones who need their heads checked!

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