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Summary: Anything but Straight
Review: "Anything But Straight: Exposing the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth" delivers on the promise of its title. This is everything that the ex-gay industry and sociocon advocates don't want you to know about their individual and collective failures. Although well researched and with ample footnotes and references, this is not a dry scientific tome. Wayne Besen presents a thoroughgoing yet easily readable perspective on the ex-gay phenomenon and the powers and personalities that keep it alive; yet he reserves a surprisingly compassionate concern for those that felt (or feel) it necessary to become involved in this failed experiment. Although sometimes heavy on rhetoric, Besen brings his enormous knowledge and experience (as well as documented an checkable facts) to bear and presents them with compelling wit, force, and persistence. Besen offers not just an exposé but also constructive suggestions and advice for all sides of the debate. "Anything But Straight" should satisfy anyone interested in the intersection of religion, politics, sociology, and sexuality; but it will also be a potent weapon against anti-gay propaganda and the false advertising of the ex-gay industry. Finally, if read and appreciated by those considering such "therapy," whether for themselves or for others close to them, this book could very well be a literal lifesaver.
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Summary: The author is right on the money!!!!!!
Review: After reading"anything but straight" I feel the author has done an incredible job in"telling it the way it is" I too was caught up in these sinister ministries as were many of my good friends. The only things these ministries did was to isolate us from the ones we loved for periods of time. These ministries are very devious and all they do is line the pockets of people like Falwell, Dobson, and James D. Kennnedy. Mr Besen has accurately portrayed these people for who they really are!!! This book should be read by every person who is considering these ministries to cure them of HOMOSEXUALITY. As Mr Besen has pointed out they dont work, never have worked, and never will work. The author has done his homework and then some!!!! I have to say this book was very hard to put down. It is easy reading, very accurate, and also humorous.
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Summary: I'm gay and thought this was vitriolic
Review: As a card carrying member of the gay community I have often found myself interested in this topic. Wayne Besen, who by the way has been called the Fred Phelps of our side, is not honest in his appraisal. While there have been failures in the ex-gay movement there are successes that have lasted for many years. A person can find exceptions to any rule - just like many in the heterosexual community do with us. But to write an entire book and give no credit where credit is due - well, its just not honest.
Rating: 
Summary: read this book
Review: As an expose of the ex-gay movement, this book is one of a kind - hopefully the first of many books on the subject. That alone makes it required reading for anyone with an interest in homosexuality, reparative therapy and the role the religious right has played in making ex-gays a political force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Besen lets his anger get the best of him. His cause would have been better served by a dispassionate survey of the facts, because they speak for themselves. What he's written is often shrill and vitriolic which undermines the validity of his work.
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Summary: Content: What the Author Left Out of His Book
Review: Besides being an independent review of "Anything But Straight...", this review was written to express what hasn't yet been addressed in other reviews.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.
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Summary: I can¿t think of a better ex-gay resource
Review: Despite years of hearing, reading, and writing about this topic, I can't think of a better ex-gay resource than Wayne R. Besen's book Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Besen not only gives an accessible and easy-to-follow history of the sham's path of destruction but also makes it clear why so many gays and nongays choose to believe its obvious lies. He also exposes the many people who profit monetarily, politically, or even sexually from ensnaring more ex-gay followers. 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.
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Summary: The Grand Uncovering of Covering Up
Review: For the past few years, the ex-gay movement has started to take it's hold on the United States. Several prominent people have lined up to say that under therapy, with a distinct desire to change, homosexuals can honestly wake up one day to find out they are straight. Wayne Besen disagrees with that thought. Besen loads up his ammunition and fires at pointblank range at the ex-gay movement with his powerhouse of a book called "Anything But Straight". Besen, employed by the Human Rights Campaign, spent four years examining this strange turn of events in American politics, the end result being this book. Dividing up the topic into four distinct sections, Besen starts with a frontal assault on nationally t outed ex-gay John Paulk, and his infamous "bathroom break" at Mr. P's, a local gay dive in Washington, D.C. He uses that incident as a spring board into the ex-gay ministry movement itself, revealing all of its ugly flaws in the process. He then moves into the practice of reparative therapy, and how it developed with the support of psychiatrists in the field. Next, Besen bashes the political movement behind the ex-gay myths, ripping down the religious right as a primary motivator in bringing to light this fallacy. He ends the book talking about the future of this movement, writing both hopeful and frightening predictions. Originally, I purchased this book wanting to get a more well-rounded viewpoint on the ex-gay theories. One way to combat them with your family, friends, and in society, is to be able to honestly understand where the other side is coming from. Besen's book is more of an assault on this movement, which at first turned me off, but then, as his rhetoric died down a bit, made for some interesting reading. At first, Besen would liberally interject his own opinions about what he was writing, sometimes with a cutting remark or a put-down. We as readers are fully aware of the insanity of some of the things he writes, and don 't need an author to point that out for us. Perhaps some self-editing in that area would improve the book a bit. However, the information that Besen presents is incredibly horrible in and of itself. What he presents is an incredibly thorough book, bringing to light all the negative, nasty things this movement has brought to people's lives. The ex-gay movement is essentially a house of cards built on a pile of lies, and exposure of that will help bring ruin to it eventually. In the meantime, a bunch of people, many of them struggling with their own identity, will be run over by this machine and destroyed. Besen's book is an honest, real attempt to give those people hope and some information to save themselves. "Anything but Straight" is very much a one-sided look at this contentious issue; but when only the other side is presented in the media, in advertisements, commercials, and television, our country needs books such as these to balance out the hateful damage they do.
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Summary: EX-cellent!!
Review: I have read hundreds of articles and books on reparative therapy and ex-gay movements. Many are written so academically that I cannot get through it. Or it is written through the words of Christianity that they lose me being the Jewish man that I am. This is the first book I have ever read that was engaging and kept my interest. The author is smart, well-researched and funny. He absolutely exposes the ridiculousness of the Reparative therapies and ex-gay movements. BRAVO!!!
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Summary: Who is the intended audience?
Review: I've been looking forward to this book's appearance for a long time, ever since I found the Human Rights Campaign's "Finally Free." It must have been satisfying to write, and in many ways it was satisfying to read. But I am a happy gay man, and I was looking for something to make a serious case to people who find that impossible to believe -- including many people of the kind who would find themselves on the sharp end of Besen's somewhat self-indulgent rapier wit (if that sounds like a shop-worn metaphor, so, unfortunately, do many of the author's own tropes). I would second the reviewer who suggested that the author do some editing of the gratuitous "see how evil/stupid/foolish these people are" pointers that frequently intrude on his presentation of compelling facts and details. Uh, yes, Wayne, I already noticed that, I always wanted to say. On page 187 he says, "One reason I wrote this book is to help those struggling with their sexual orientation make informed decisions about whether to enter reparative therapy." I fear that many such struggling persons would have put the book down in dismay before they reached that page. The author offers balancing self-deprecation along with assurances that he does understand that there are good people involved in these programs, but often not until he has fired off yet another dollop of sarcasm. Especially confusing is the way, in the last chapters, he suddenly turns around and offers advice to the same "ex-gay ministries" he has effectively savaged in the first chapters -- here's what you need to do, folks, is unlikely to be kindly received by someone who has just been told how appalling they are. I hope I am wrong. Perhaps if some of these struggling people the author wishes to reach can be handed the book with a little forewarning, a little guidance in getting past the invective, it can be useful. Certainly the solid information that is presented is invaluable -- although I had the same reaction as another reviewer to the startling assertion that a $300,000 house with a pool in southern California betokens a lavish and profiteering lifestyle. I have little doubt that greed drives much of the reparative therapy scam, but if this is the best datum the author can come up with as proof, he would be better off not even mentioning it. (Likewise, a $125 per-session fee is, sad to say, not out of line in the world of psychotherapeutic practice.) The most valuable parts of the book are those that expose the machinations of the political right, naming names and supplying dates and exposing who is in bed with whom. As a handbook to the history of how such forces exploited antigay prejudice for their own ends, it is worth the price and then some. If Amazon offered the option of half stars, I would like to restore half of the fifth star I took away to acknowledge Besen's ingratiating habit of turning his gift of sarcasm on himself at times. But it seems to me that this book will be much better received by the glbt reading public and their friends than by the people the author wants to reach.
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Summary: Take that, Religious Right
Review: In their attempts to villify and deny equal rights to gays and lesbians, Republicans and Religious leaders often like to point to people whom they claim have changed their orientation. Thank God there are books like this out there that expose the REAL truth, not the truth that these other people want you to believe. This should be required reading for all gay people, their friends and families, and most of all, for all those people who sing the praises of "ex-gay" ministries. Their secret is out now.
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