Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth [Hardcover]

Still, Besen also shows how most of the people who become involved with or lead these ministries probably mean well. More importantly, he shows how gays and their allies can expose these hurtful groups, which rely heavily on wild semantics, shaky statistics, pseudo psychology, and highly questionable science, all the while trying to appear Bible-based.

Besen also shows how gays can make their communities less vulnerable to ex-gay groups, while warning those communities about insidious new tactics that the increasingly media-savvy ex-gay leaders use to lure parents into forcing children to join the ex-gay circus. For groups that keep claiming that all of their members come there voluntarily, they certainly keep taking advantage of parental pressuring and other fears of rejection!

Best of all, Besen offers resources and alternatives for people who might want to join these groups. He even defends, to my satisfaction, his undercover efforts to capture all of the information that appears in this sometimes shocking but always fascinating volume. I suggest Besen's study for all gays, all of their allies, and anyone who thinks the ex-gay movement needs support or more recruits.

I also suggest Ronald L. Donaghe's scathing fictional treatment of the ex-gay movement, The Salvation Mongers, as well as the disturbing documentary One Nation Under God and-for some needed levity on the topic-the silly yet likable comedy But I'm A Cheerleader.

When I first purchased a copy of Wayne Besen's book, "Anything But Straight...." I was hopeful that finally somebody would provide a thorough, accurate picture of what has gone on and continues to go on within the Christian ex-gay and ex-ex-gay movement. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. When I finished the book I was left with the knowledge and feeling that half the story was still missing. If you really want to get a sense of what I'm talking about I encourage you to read and review all of the women's books that have come out on the subject of ex-gay ministries for the last twenty years. Don't get me wrong. I love men! But this is a book written by a man primarily about the male experience concerning ex-gay ministries. The women's experience is at best underrepresented. But that's not all the story that's missing!

From chapter one until the end of it, the book is littered with commentary, deductions, conclusions, and predictions about Christianity and ex-gays that seem more like opinion or even "flights of fantasy." For example, in Chapter 1 the author exposes a man as a phony and mocks him, and goes on to conclude that "I hope to sit down one day...and laugh about the incident, with him thanking me for helping him come to grips with reality." Now maybe it's just me. But ask yourself this question. If somebody were to show you acting like a jackass with mass media attention how likely would you be to sit down, say thank you and laugh about it? Grandiose moments like this in the book draw more attention to the author than the subject.

Another significant part of the story of the ex-gay and ex-ex-gay movement that is left out in "Anything But Straight" comes from the author pigeon holing ex-gays into "four types." No explanation is given as to how these "four types" are arrived at. So, apparently, they stem from the author's own biases be they spiritual or otherwise. Ironically, categorizing according to personal bias, is the same thing ex-gay author, Jeanette Howard did in her book, "Out of Egypt...Leaving Lesbianism Behind." The result of this in "Anything But Straight..." is a failure to recognize and explain how understanding faith based choices, & conservative Christian subculture "work" and are pivotal in understanding the ex-gay phenomenon.

Overall, while "Anything But Straight..." provides a history of the ex-gay movement, especially, "reparative therapy", it does so with a great deal of sarcasm. Mr. Besen makes fun of Christianity from the Holy Spirit to miracles to prayer while he makes fun of ex-gay Christians to the point where you may begin to wonder as I did, if he is capable of separating the two topics from each other. If you're into ex-gay bashing or Christian bashing this may be the book for you! If you're not, you may want to consider other reading choices.