Wayne Besen

/ /

Truth Wins Out Outs ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapist Who Claims to Cure Gays, Yet Solicits Sex on Gay Dating Apps

Norman Goldwasser, by day, is an Orthodox Jewish therapist at Horizon Psychological Services who compares homosexuality to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and misleads clients by claiming that their sexual orientation can be changed with his special brand of quack therapy, which is rejected by every respected medical and mental health association. By night, an undercover investigation by Truth Wins Out has found, he solicits sexual partners on Manhunt, a gay dating App, using the profile “Hotnhairy72.” During our operation, Goldwasser, going by the pseudonym “Dave”, offered to meet for sex with our operative, “Brandon,” at a Fort Lauderdale motel room. Goldwasser also had a profile on Bear Nation by the same name.

This latest scandal comes as the new movie Boy Erased (Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe) has brought a renewed spotlight to the issue of the harm caused by “ex-gay” programs.

“Norman Goldwasser’s double life of unconscionable lies highlights the rank hypocrisy and predatory nature of the fraudulent ‘ex-gay’ industry,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We urge every state to ban the scourge of conversion therapy that attacks the mental health of LGBT youth and puts them in harms way.” Besen is the author of Anything Bust Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.

According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Born Perfect Campaign, 14 states and the District of Colombia have laws that prohibit conversion therapy for minors. Unfortunately, there is a loophole for religious groups to abuse minors with their companion “pray away the gay” programs.

Truth Wins Out does not engage in the outing of people participating in ex-gay programs unless there is overwhelming hypocrisy, exchange of commerce, and the threat of harm to LGBT youth. The Goldwasser outing passes all three tests.

“Goldwasser can’t claim his personal life is none of our business when trying to ‘cure’ LGBT people is his business,” said Besen. “Here is a case where a charlatan is committing consumer fraud by misleading clients and adversely affecting their mental health. We are particularly concerned when Goldwassser’s scam preys on young people susceptible to his charade.”

Linked to the disgraced and now defunct Jewish “ex-gay” organization, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), Goldwasser is controversial, once having a speaking appearance cancelled in Australia after people learned of his intolerant views. He is a signatory of the deeply homophobic “Declaration of the Torah Approach to Homosexuality,” which proclaims that recent acceptance of LGBT people is due to public relations efforts. According to the Declaration: “A propaganda blitz has been sweeping the world using political tactics to persuade the public about the legitimacy of homosexuality.”

A star of the conversion therapy movement, Goldwasser co-wrote a paper in 2006 with notorious conversion therapy proponent David Matheson, “Holistic Therapy: A Comprehensive, Clinical Approach to the Treatment of SSA.” The term SSA is used as shorthand in conversion therapy circles for “Same Sex Attraction.” The paper is gratuitously anti-gay and extremely offensive, habitually confusing crass stereotypes with actual science. In one section, homosexuality, which is not a mental health disorder or disease, is casually pathologized and compared to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

“Individuality/Uniqueness – Each person has his/her own unique individuality – there are no two person who are exactly alike. Two people with SSA can be completely different in every other aspect of their lives and psychological makeup and cannot be grouped solely based on their common challenge. Similarly, OCD can manifest itself in countless different variations, subtypes, and combinations. Describing a group of individuals only in terms of OCD compromises and distorts the comprehensive and accurate clinical picture of each individual.”

Goldwasser has also funneled clients into the predatory and ineffective Journey into Manhood (JIM) program, where gay men are taken into the woods to participate in what are considered “manly” activities to change their sexual orientation from gay to heterosexual. They are also falsely diagnosed as having become gay because of poor parental relationships or not participating in sports. The program is controversial, because some who have attended JIM say the program includes bizarre and inappropriate cuddling sessions. The fact that Goldwasser was caught on Manhunt, highlights why Truth Wins Out has frequently referred to the JIM program as “Journey into Manhunt.”

In a 2015 talk delivered by Goldwasser in Israel, he falsely conflated homosexuality and sexual abuse, and joked with the audience about a client who lived on gay-friendly Miami Beach saying, “…do you know what South Beach is? Do you know what the connotation of South Beach is?”

Founded in 2006, Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit think tank and advocacy organization that fights against right wing extremism and anti-LGBT prejudice and discrimination.

/

Free Speech Demonstrators Subjected to Intimidation, Threats of Violence, and Homophobic Taunts

A successful protest, where several dozen people rallied in favor of free speech, was marred on Saturday, when a belligerent group of counter protesters, including two from what appeared to be a motorcycle gang, crashed the demonstration and threatened those in attendance, including a 14-year old boy arrested for “desecrating” a Jesus statue and Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. Incredibly, there was not a single police officer on-hand to prevent potential violence and this left the protesters vulnerable to thugs and forced them to fend for themselves.

“The Bedford police placed us directly in harms way and their inaction nearly caused a full-blown melee,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “This is the first time in two decades of protesting that I’ve been put directly in harm’s way by town officials. We call on Bedford to immediately review its policies for protecting the free speech rights of those who demonstrate in their town.”

From the moment event organizers –Truth Wins Out, American Atheists, and Pennsylvania Nonbelievers – arrived in Bedford, PA, they were greeted by hostile counterdemonstrators. This included homophobic epithets lobbed at American Atheists President David Silverman. (9:12 and 9:25 on a You Tube video). A military veteran who was participating in our protest was called a “disgrace” to his country. (9:40)

Unfortunately, the local media covered a sanitized version of our protest – without highlighting the harassment. Check out a television report HERE and a newspaper report HERE. Given how menacing the bikers were, it is possible that media representatives were cowed by their glowering presence.

The fourteen year-old teenager, at the center of the controversy, joined our event with his mother. There was an attempt to accost him by the counterdemonstrator’s lead instigator. To protect the young man, Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director, Wayne Besen, stood between one of the black-clad motor bikers and the teenager. This led to a near fistfight, where Besen and the thug were standing toe to toe with the biker repeatedly challenging Besen to “take your best shot ‘slick,'” which was an apparent reference to the fact Besen was from Chicago. Pennsylvania Nonbelievers President Brian Fields soon joined and helped Besen block the hooligan from bullying the teen and his mother.

This entire episode was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube at roughly 2:25 PM (EST) on Saturday. Within 10 minutes the video was taken down. A new video that omits this incident was placed online later that evening — in what appears to be a deliberate effort to conceal and cover-up the confrontational words, clear threats, and near violence that occurred as we stood up to protect the teen.

The police were called and they arrived shortly to disperse the escalating confrontation. However, the question remains why they were not at the event from the beginning to keep the protest free of intimidation and violence?

“I am still greatly worried for the safety of the teenage boy and his family,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The young man was portrayed by the hooligans as a troublemaker, and they made it crystal clear that they intended to harass him or do harm. Additionally, the District Attorney, Bill Higgins, has stigmatized the teen as a ‘troubled young man’ and appears to have a vendetta against him. Make no mistake: If anything happens to this teenager or his family the town of Bedford is to blame and should be held legally accountable.”

Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins decided to prosecute the child under an obscure Pennsylvania law which states that “desecration” includes “physically mistreating [objects] in a way that the actor knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the action.”

While Higgins maintains that he is simply an upstanding district attorney who wishes to uphold Pennsylvania law, his own statements on the case undermine that claim. In an interview with local media, Higgins stated:

“This troubled young man offended the sensibilities and morals of our community. His actions constitute a violation of the law, and he will be prosecuted accordingly. If that tends to upset the ‘anti-Christian, ban-school-prayer, war-on-Christmas, oppose-display-of-Ten-Commandments’ crowd, I make no apologies.”

“By making this incendiary statement, it is clear that Higgins is more of a frustrated right-wing ideologue than a responsible district attorney,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Instead of fighting real crime, Higgins is fighting a culture war at the expense of an innocent teenager.”

The youth’s actions may have been in poor taste, but religious freedom does not include the right never to be offended by a teenager’s prank. Moreover, prosecution of this action is a clear violation of the teen’s own First Amendment rights. Additionally, the teenager acknowledged to TWO’s Besen at the event that he “regretted” his actions.