New Book: The Definitive Story of the ‘Ex-Gay’ Industry’s Implosion
Pre-Order Wayne Besen's Lies with a Straight Face Today.
“Wayne writes with the passion and skill of a novelist as he tells this story of so-called 'ex-gay' therapy. Lies with a Straight Face is a beautifully written, well-researched and up-to-the moment volume.”
--Frank Schaeffer, Author, Crazy for God
The Definitive Story of the ‘Ex-Gay’ Industry’s Implosion
Lies with a Straight Face tells the story of the precipitous rise and fall of the “ex-gay” conversion industry. This fast-moving, fact-based book is perfect or those who enjoy the marriage of politics, history, LGBTQ issues and current events.
The book features the riveting, and previously untold story of the 1998 Truth in Love ad campaign, where the Religious Right’s most prominent organizations joined forces to prove that LGBTQ people could be converted to heterosexuality through prayer and therapy. Their provocative national ad campaign created saturation media coverage, turned “ex-gay” into a household term and sparked innumerable water cooler conversations.
In this book, you’ll find out the shocking backstory of the Truth in Love campaign and learn about what happened to their outspoken “ex-gay” poster boys and girls. Lies with a Straight Face also discusses the contemporary con artists in the “ex-gay” industry and offers tangible ways for today’s leaders to fight back.
Lies with a Straight Face is a sequel published on the twenty-year anniversary of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, my original book documents the history of conversion “cure” programs from the early 20th Century to 2002. Lies with a Straight Face examines what happened from 2003 up to the present day.
My new book is a vital roadmap to stop the Religious Right’s insidious efforts to rebrand and reintroduce failed ‘ex-gay’ conversion programs. Tragically, we live in an age of renewed censorship, gaslighting and historical revisionism. Lies with a Straight Face ensures that today’s leaders and future generations know the truth.
All royalties from book sales benefit Truth Wins Out. So, each purchase is a donation to help Truth Wins Out fight the “ex-gay” industry.
“Wayne Besen has courageously, and at times almost single-handedly, led the effort to expose and destroy the ex-gay industry for more than 30 years and he knows its leading charlatans, grifters and con artists better than anyone. Lies With A Straight Face: Exposing the Cranks and the Cons Inside the Ex-Gay Industry is the definitive inside story of the greed, ambition, cruelty and self-hatred that has driven a movement that has inflicted immeasurable psychological pain and torture on LGBTQ people.”
--Sean Strub, Author, Body Counts: A Memoir of Activism, Sex and Survival
