Radio Interview: WFTL 850 AM – Monday 6:40AM

Just wanted to let you all know that Russ Morley from WFTL just called (at least I think it was Russ Morley – I could be wrong,) and it was a live interview. He led in with the ABC News quote from Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton where she said gays are “…free to live that way.” It was perfect for my talking points.

As soon as he got me on the phone he asked me how Stand Up Florida came into existence, so we talked for about 15 seconds on the National Equality March and the lack of support from the main LGBT organizations that should have been behind that march. I told him that Anthony Farver filled two buses from the other coast and Gainesville, and that my husband and I drove up from Fort Lauderdale because there was so little support from South Florida. I brought the conversation back by saying that it was on the drive home when we were already organizing the NARTH Protest and supporting the gay-straight alliances throughout the state.

When I indicated that I was “just another senior” at FAU I embarrassed myself by not knowing what he was talking about when he said, “Too bad about Troy.” I had no idea that the Owls were playing an out-of-town game, and apparently lost. I said, “You’re talking to a gay man and I don’t follow those sports.”

When he asked how many were at the protest I mentioned that about 140 showed up, mostly students, but with a great showing of support from PFLAG parents who had the message that the kids are just fine and the parents who cannot accept their gay children are the ones who need therapy, and that the best advice would be to walk across the street to find a better church.

The interview went from the “…live that way” and “ridding themselves of unwanted homosexual attraction” quotes by Harren Hamilton to the fact that she wants to start little boys into therapy before they start preschool if they are not “manning up” quick enough. I also indicated that the father is expected to start therapy with the child to help him be a better parent. It was at this point that the news guy said, in his very deep voice, “I’m a raging heterosexual and I remember playing with dolls as a kid.” He then added, “So, it is the parent who is taking these kids into therapy?”

I agreed with him on that and explained how it gets even worse for teenagers, when these parents are still taking their kids in with the expectation that they be “cured.” I mentioned how Dr. A. Dean Byrd and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson in Utah are NARTH members and that the suicide rate for gay teens in Utah is 8 times the national average, and that 52% of the homeless teens in Utah are gay.

I managed to state that the two APA’s (American Psychiatric Assoc. and the American Psychological Assoc.) and the ACA (the American Counseling Assoc.) are all pressuring the 158 NARTH practitioners to conform to their ethics codes, and how there are 480,000 professionals lined up against these 158 extremists. I mentioned that that number was a “best guess” because NARTH claims a much higher number, but that all of my sources support the 158 number.

The interview ended with me stating that these ethics guidelines are even supported by the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP,) and that there were two pediatricians as presenters at the conference. By tying it in back with the expectations on the part of the parents that the child be “cured,” these gay youth face rejection by the families if they fall short. The AAP came out in Dec 2008 saying that these youth are more than 8.4 times as likely to attempt suicide, 5.9 times more likely to suffer depression, and 3.4 times more likely to abuse drugs and engage in unprotected sex.