Part Two: Focus on the Family: Love Won Out

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, audience. I'm not the audience. I'm the person who
makes things for the audience. Robert Evans. This is my
podcast Behind the Bastards, only this week. It's not because
this is part two of Garrison's armed coup against you know,
to usurp all of my powers. So um, once again,

(00:26):
who if you just say you don't know, somebody take over?
There's guns near him. Um, I'm Robert Evans. He brought
up Baton just wants eighteen because that statement was very sketchy. Yeah,
he's he's eighteen. It's fine. This is Behind the Bastards.

(00:46):
We talk about bad people, and this is part two
of the episode that Garrison wrote, which is the first
reversing of the status quo we've had on this show. Garrison,
what do we? What do we? What do we? What
do we talk about? Today? We last episode we were
talking about the history of Focus on the Family and
particularly James dubbson its founder. Today we're going to mainly

(01:09):
talk about gay conversion therapy. Uh yeah, a nice little light,
light topic. But we're gonna start off with something actually
a little bit more fun. Okay, We're gonna we're gonna
ease our way kind of into the less fun things. Um.
So yeah, last week we're talking about folks in the family.

(01:30):
How it started, You know, Dobson getting very politically active
during the Reggan years with getting put on a whole
lot of weird government boards that he was not qualified for. Um.
And then we learned about his media empire. And remember
that database that he was putting together. Yeah, yeah, the
gigantic mailing huge like millions and millions of people's mailing

(01:51):
lists that all the Republican lawmakers wanted to become friends
Dobson so that they could have access to the mailing list.
Yeah yeah, why else would you be friends with someone?
That's the only reason I know you is your incredible
mailing list. Um. So yeah, you know, anyone who communicated
with them was added to mailing was huge thing um
in uh in two thousand three. So like the last

(02:13):
time you heard about the mailing list was around like
nine five's when it had like four million names. So
it's only been added two cents. It's hard to come
up with exact numbers because they didn't they talk about
it that much because it's you know, they shouldn't like
for them, it's not in their best interests to really
publicly talk about it. Yeah, because then people will think
that they're just numbers on a list to these people
who are pretending to be spiritual advisors. Yeah, yeah, pretending

(02:33):
to be your friend. Yeah. So in two thousand three,
Dobson actually stepped down as acting president and the chief
executive officer focus on the family. He was still remaining
like the figurehead over the organization, just less involved in
day to day activities. Um. As we'll learn most of
the day to day activities in the two thousand's were
being extremely homophobic, um and campaigning against the gay agenda

(02:56):
and what is scarcely give me a heads up, what
is the gay agenda? Well, we'll find out what Dobson
thinks it is. Okay, what they think is the GA
because that's term. That's a term that they used. Okay,
it kind of got very popular for if I remember
being a conservative kid, well enough, the bulk of the
gay agenda had to do with the TV show Will
and Grace, but I don't remember much else from from

(03:18):
my Republican days. Yeah. Well, well we'll get into details
on what they think the gay agenda is. Um. But
before we get to that kind of depressing stuff. Um,
let's let's ease into the most funny homophobic thing that
Dobson and focus on the family ever ever did Oh good?
I love a little lighthearted homophobia from a man with
incredible wealth and power. Um so, this is this is

(03:41):
probably the best thing that's ever been done with this
database ever. In October two eight, about a month before
the eight presidential election, Dobson secretly wrote and sent out
this letter titled a Letter from a Christian in two
thousand twelve. I would love to just read this letter,
and it's piority do it, but because it's all because

(04:02):
it is absolutely magnificent, But it's it's over nine thousand words,
which is about as long as these two podcasts combined. Yeah,
that's that's about that's about two hours with commentary. Um
So I will have to go over some of the
highlights and kind of give just a general gist. Um,
the concept of this letter. It's spelled, it's pronounced gift,

(04:24):
gift generals. It's a general gift. That doesn't sound right.
I know because that was a lie. Garrison, Yeah, that
was a lie. It doesn't try to make you be
as bad at pronouncing things as I is. The concept
is that this letter was written by a Christian warning
those in what will happen if the then far left
radical Barack Obama was elected in two As an eight um,

(04:48):
I will just read off the opening of this letter
just you get kind of the mood of what the
piece is going to be. Here. Here's here's how it starts.
October twenty two, two thousand twelve. Dear friends, I can
hardly sing the star spangled banner anymore. When I hear
the words, oh, oh, say, does that star spangled banner
wave over the land of the Free? I get tears

(05:11):
in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Now
in October, after seeing what's happened the past four years,
I don't think I can still answer yes to that question.
We are not the land of the free, in the
home of the brave. Many of our freedoms have been
taken away by a liberal Supreme Court and a democratic
majority in both the House and the Senate, and hardly

(05:32):
any brave citizen dares to resist the new government policies anymore.
Election was closer than Anyoney expected, but Barack Obama still won.
Many Christians voted for Obama. Younger evangelicals actually provided him
with the needed margin to defeat John McCain, but they
didn't think he would really follow through with all the
far left policies that had made his career. They were wrong,

(05:55):
far left policies like doing everything or Republican would do
except for being shitty on abortion and to gay people. Well,
even in twenty eight, Obama wasn't even for game. No
he was not yeah yeah, like basically a Republican but
not as not big at it as much. So like

(06:18):
I wasn't around, but I wasn't paying attention to the
twenty eight election because I was like six, um, so
like I don't know, that's not let's not dwell too
long on that continue. So like I don't like I've
I've heard legends of what Obama's campaign was, Like I
heard it was like very progressive in nature, but didn't

(06:38):
actually get followed through. It's like I'm trying to understand
from a Republican perspective, like were they actually like did
it actually make sense? They were scared like this far
left radical or was that now with Biden were like no,
he's not at all, Like he's not even pretending to be.
He was a little more. He definitely was playing to
the progressive side, whereas Biden's playing to the conservative side.
But like the stuff he was talking about, like there

(06:59):
was talk of, you know, improving healthcare, he was going
to close GUANTANAMOBEI, he was gonna not get the US
into wars. But like, there wasn't a lot of there
wasn't a lot of Like he wasn't promising like social life,
full socialized medicine. He wasn't promising like he was promising
you know, improvements, but he wasn't promising like we're gonna

(07:21):
be like, you know, have an NHS like the UK.
And he wasn't promising like basic income or like he
was not he was running for the towards the progressive wing.
But like like you said, he wasn't even back in
gay marriage at that point. And here's the thing. Even
though for marijuana, even though Barack Obama is told it
as less progressive, in reality, Joe Biden is more progressive

(07:42):
than Barack Obama. Which you're looking at your face now,
you're like, hey, yeah, but if you're going off of records,
if you're going off have record, you're not in what
Biden is running on now is technically you could consider
more progressive than what Obama did and looking at like
their records except or etcetera. But if you're looking at

(08:02):
like the I guess social side of it or the
you know, pr side of it, you definitely people looked
at Barack Obama as this extreme liberal progressive movement when
it it really wasn't anything of that. It was so

(08:25):
he was just a Democrat. He has a Democrat after
like the worst Republican ever had been present for a
rob I don't know, I'm still I'm still giving the
edge to Bush because Trump has not started two new wars.
I'm sorry, Like we'll see Trump still has the chance

(08:46):
to be worse. But at this point in you're gonna
agree to disagree. Garrison finished your sentences because I've gone
an robber through the iPad. I mean, Trump got a
lot more Americans. I'll say this Trump got was a
worst president domestically because George W. Bush to the hell

(09:06):
of a lot more international day And so what what
this letter is going to be detailing for this far
left agenda is written by a conservative who was born
in the thirties, um who is again secretly wrote this
and send it out to everyone on his database. Right,
So like it's just they just receive a letter from
a Christian in God, right, Like this is the concept

(09:29):
of the letter, and he's going to describe all of
the things that he thinks is gonna be is going
to be doing. I bet these have all happened. Yeah,
these things are all all absolutely exactly what happened. So
the first, the main problem that the author secretly, James
Dobson writes about is the is the Supreme Court because

(09:50):
Obama makes a six to three far less Supreme Court
having one party with that kind of dominance of the
Supreme What a nightmare, What a nightmare that would be
if we had a six to three Supreme Court leaning
on one side. Yeah, yeah, it could never happen. Um.

(10:10):
So I'm going to read the first major change the
far left liberals enact. Um. So I'm gonna start. I'm
gonna quote from the letter here. The most far reaching
transformation of the American society came from the Supreme court
stunning affirmation in early that homosexual quote marriage was a
quote constitutional right that had to be respected in all

(10:33):
fifty states because laws barring same sexual marriage valid of
they broke the equal Protections clause in the Constitution. So
he he brought. He discusses how he thinks same sex
marriage is actually not constitutionally protected because of these dumb
things whatever. He gets very mad. He writes, suddenly homosexual

(10:54):
marriage was the law on the land in all fifty states.
No state legislator, no state Supreme Court, no state constitutional amendment,
not even Congress had any power to change it. The
Supreme Court had ruled and the discussion was over. This
was a plaintant example of the of of creating law
by the court instead of just interpreting it. For homosexual
marriage was mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, nor would any

(11:15):
of the office have imagined same sex quote marriage could
be derived from their words. So this is the first
huge change that happens in America. But I mean that
did happen and not but not happened much later on.
But so now, the fun part of this letter is
that we get to hear about all of the bad
things that have happened because of this ruling. This ruling

(11:37):
is very important excited if you remember from the last
episode in two US and four, Dobson wrote this whole
book called um Marriage under fire. Yeah maybe or not.
I mentioned in the last episode. I know I mentioned.
I mentioned it later, um, which is all about, you know,
what will happen to this country if homosexual marriage becomes
a thing. So now he gets to write this very

(11:57):
fun piece of fan fiction or excellence speculative fiction about
about what this change does. So the letter details far
reaching changes due to this decision. The first impact, the
letter writes, is that the Boy Scouts are no longer
an organization. This is the first thing. Yeah, okay, they
banned the Boy Scouts. So the Boy Scouts quote chose

(12:20):
to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme
Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual Scout masters,
which just sounds like good workplace discrimination laws to me.
You know, it's like, it's that one of the reasons
that's kind of wild to me. Just I guess it's
not surprising because again, I grew up in this world.
But the the first gay person that I ever like

(12:43):
knew personally was a kid about a year older than me,
who I was an academic to kathlon with in high school,
and we were both in the Boy Scouts and he
was about to finish his Eagle Scout and one day
we were like alone in this little classroom that we had,
and he just kind of blurted out that he was
and then asked me not to tell anybody because he
didn't want to lose his eagle. And that was like

(13:04):
I was still like very hardcore, like like right wing
at this point, but that was like my first that
was in retrospect, kind of one of the first cracks
in my worldview because it was like, well, okay, I
like this guy, this guy's a friend of mine, Like
why is he so scared of admitting this thing that
doesn't seem good? Yeah, that doesn't seem like a society.

(13:25):
It's a little off topic, but no, yeah, like that,
then that is it real? When I was when I
was growing up in the conservative circle, that was actually
a big fear is if if gays are allowed in
the boy Scouts, that's gonna that That was It was
a that was a hotly debated topic. Yeah it still is,
I think, Yeah, But stuff has changed since then without
without that voicecause as an organization operates where it's less

(13:46):
of a it's less of a big deal. But it
used to be really really a huge, big world. Oh, yeah, yeah,
I learned a lot of great stuff in the Boy Scouts.
I really enjoyed my time in the Scouts. Not to
whitewash the various significant problems that organization has, but um, yeah,
it was. It was a good experience for me. So
the letter also details about the Boy Scouts unquote, it

(14:06):
had became increasingly difficult for the Boy Scouts to find
a meeting place anyway, because in two thousand nine, Congress
and President Obama signed an expansion of the Civil Rights Act,
which extended federal civil rights protections to people engaging in
homosexual behavior. So the Proud Boys have been kicked out
of all public facilities. No, not Proud Boys. Sorry, I'm
thinking we have there's a big fascist rally tomorrow. I'm
thinking Proud Boys. No, the Boy Scouts had had been

(14:29):
kicked out of all public facilities because there's like, the
Boy Scouts have become public enemy number one under Obama's
justice system. So they've been kicked out of all public
buildings because they don't because of their homosexual rules. Think
of how much more fun today would be if the
government was going full bore after the Boy Scouts and
not Antifa just running down twelve year olds in the street,

(14:51):
throwing them into unmarked vans, cub Scout troops disappearing in
the night. Because they don't like gay people. That's why
they ever been putting them down. Yeah, yeah, maybe they
didn't tie one of their rope not Oh my god,
that would be funny. I'm so sorry. Please continue. Other

(15:12):
aspects of this far left failing state are that schools
now teach gender science and incorporate queer studies into their
sex set. As a result, quote, tens of thousands of
Christian teachers either quit or were fired, and many Christian
private schools were chose to shut down rather than be

(15:33):
forced to quote obey the law and teach that homosexuality
and heterosexuality are both morally good choices. So all these
Christians school shut down because they would have been forced
to teach that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are like okay
and is the intens of thousands of teachers quick rather

(15:53):
than that, then do that. Also, Dobson was very upset
that jet you talk about gender now in sex. I
don't think we should talk about gender at all. I
don't think there should be genders. I think everyone should
just I think when it's time to breed, you should
just have one large group of people ejaculate into a
pool and then another group of people swim around in it.

(16:15):
And if children happen, that's the only thought anyone ever
gives to it. If you can incorporate that into a
gender abolition argument, maybe you can get jobs on boards
on what he wrote. The key and I are allies
on this more gender. Yeah, we can, we can, we
can figure something out. We can. We can email him
he's still around. No, don't think about just a network

(16:36):
of semen pools all around the country. It's it could work, Sophie.
No more gender continue, just a bunch of warm, salty
swimming pools. Today, speaking speaking of speaking of getting children
with no homes, which I feel like the swimming pool
idea would probably get some kids with not with not
many homes. Um. All Christian adoption agencies have been shut

(16:59):
down because they refuse to let gay couples adopt people.
So that's a big thing in the Christian scene, is
Christian adoption agencies. I I know about this from experience
dealing with those adoption agencies. Um, yeah, they big. They
hate it when a gay person gets to get one
of the kids. Yeah, they try to avoid it at
all costs. Um, and stuff has changed now. But you

(17:22):
know dob Dobson's writing here when his family had to
like drive, like flee from a state or some ship,
they were like being chased or something. Yeah, so in
this fiction Dobson's rights here that they they just all
shut down instead of letting gay people adopt adopt. Um.
None of that is surprising. And one of my favorite

(17:42):
parts of this first section about the changes that like
gay rights made is that um in no one's allowed
to re allowed the Bible on TV and radio because
I remember when they banned the Bible. There's the letter
the Bible could no longer be freely preached over radio

(18:03):
or television stations when the subject matter includes such offensive
quote doctrines such as criticizing homosexual behavior or other offensive
other offensive sections. Uh. The Streme Court agreed that these
should be kept off the air, prohibited as quote hate
speech that is likely to incite violence and discrimination. These
policies followed broadcasting and print restrictions that were in place

(18:26):
prior Toy eight in Canada, which is a lie. Yeah,
it's just I don't know if you know said a lie.
It's a lie because like I was in I was
a Christian in Canada in a very conservative cultish environment.
And no, I had friends whose parents would like preach
hate speech on the radio. No, I'm pretty sure that
kill everybody who so much as looks at a Bible

(18:48):
nearer radio. That's Canadian law. It's right under the thing
about making it illegal to falsify maple syrup. Yeah, the
famous Canadian legal code. No Bible, lots of syrup. Also,
the other main thing Mounties do is hunt down Indigenous
people and beat them up. Yeah, those are the three
main things they if they see. If they see a Bible,
they lose it. They see faking maple syrup, they lose it.

(19:10):
If they see an Indigenous person, they freak out. The
three things everyone knows about the Mounties the thin reddish
thin line, the thin horse wearing line, the thin horse line.
So this does play into my theory that horses are
anyway you know, you know horses kill me right deathly
allergic to horses. I didn't know I get if I

(19:31):
get near one, it's bad. See everybody, like I was
right when I said we need horse genocide. Now human
beings need Sorry, all right, let's just go on speaking
of health related issues like not being around horses. Um.
Physicians and lawyers who reserved to who refused to serve
queer people lost their licenses. Um. If churches refused to

(19:53):
be used for LGBT weddings, they lose their tax exempt status. Um,
which is actually that's kind of an interesting idea. I mean,
I have quite I have my own opinions of churches
should be texed in any way, but like if a
lawyer and doctor like refuses to do their job on
someone because they're queer, maybe they should lose their license.
I agree with that with lawyers and doctors, like, I

(20:16):
don't think I think it's kind of a fake boogeyman
the idea that churches would be forced to marry anybody
like because it's never happened. Yeah, but yeah, I think
if you're a fucking doctor in somebody's like dying and
you're like, oh but gay, icky, like yeah, you shouldn't. Sorry,
I can't do this, Like I just as a guy

(20:36):
who carries a medical kid around it where like a rally,
and I see like a fucking proud boy get shot
and I have the ability to stop them from bleeding
to death. I'll try to stop them from bleeding to
death because it's just what you do. If you're not
going to do that, you have no right to call
yourself a fucking doctor. So here's another section about the church.
The church changes um quote. While churches are still free

(20:57):
to turn down homosexual applicants for the job of senior pastor,
churches and para church organizations are no longer free to
reject homosexual applicants for staff positions such as part time
youth pastor and and director of counseling. Those that have
rejected homosexual applicants have also had their tax exempt status revoked.
I love how granular they are about how much the

(21:19):
Obama administration was going to interfere with like the staffing
decisions local churches. Nine thousand words in the letter. They
get into a lot of detail. It's you couldn't even
get the website working for the shitty healthcare plan he
gave us, Like what do you do you think he's
gonna be like, no, you can't seen your staff are

(21:40):
allowed to you can? You can, you can refuse to
hire gay for them. But if you hire a youth pastor.
They have to be allowed to be like, how do
what are you imagining them sitting down and doing it's nine.
I'm cutting out so much like small details. He adds on,
it's astonished he would be here for two hours. It's
just a sta mishing. Ah, it's real. It's really a

(22:02):
great letter. Um. One of the few semi accurate predictions
he actually made was that um, don't ask, don't tell.
Got ended, yes, Um. But with the weird addition that
Dobson says new LGBT people enrolling the military are given
a special bonus for enlisting into military service to compensate
for past discrimination. I remember that the gay bounty that

(22:25):
the army gives up, so they get gay people get
paid extra for being in the military because they were
discriminated against in the past. So yeah, that sounds like
a thing that the army does. That that sounds like
the army. Um. So again here he he restates if
nurses refused to help patients with abortions, they'll lose their job,

(22:45):
and if doctors um refused, they lose their licenses to
deliver babies in any state, all mandated by federal law.
So as as as added onto like if you refers
to where people if you refused to help with an abortion,
if you're a nurse, you're fired. If you're a doctor,
or you lose your license to deliver babies, Like you
can still be a doctor, but you just can't assist
in the delivering of babies in any state, which is

(23:08):
a weird decision to speculate about. Yeah, I can. Like,
it's this thing that people who are it's this thing
that I see on the right, and on the religious
right in particular, where they imagine that all everyone but
them thinks about is how to hurt them. So like Obama,
who had a lot on his plate when he became president.

(23:30):
I don't know, you don't remember this garrison, but like
the the entire United States was about to collapse financially,
um and even well maybe not as dire as the
place we are in now, but pretty fucking dire situation.
And like it was just a disaster area of a country. Um,
And they're thinking he's gonna be like super focus, like

(23:50):
laser focused on changing internal policy in a bunch of
like small local churches just to be evil. Obama. He's
very It's amazing, I mean, Obama was anti Christ. That's
what That's what I heard as a kid. Yeah, he
sure was. I remember that when he opened the Seventh
Seal and let loose the Hounds of Hell. Was the

(24:13):
October surprise? Yeah, Robert, did you know what? Won't release
the Seven Sins of Hell. I don't accept anyone to
advertise on this show unless I think there's a decent
chance they're the anti Christ? Do do you know who
will open the Seven Seals? Possibly, possibly, possible, allegedly allegedly
are some potentially some of these products and services onto

(24:36):
the show? What? Yeah? Yeah, products? Hi, we're back when
porn what Garrison, don't say porn apparently eighteen apparent everywhere everywhere.

(24:58):
This is not on me, This is no, this is Dobson. Yeah,
this is on James Dobson. Porn is everywhere. Now back
back back to the letter. Porn everywhere, huge problem in
America now, gas stations, grocery stores, news stands, all places
that kids can easily find. Porn magazines everywhere. If kids
could easily find porn, So like this is another thing

(25:20):
where Dobson was like right, but in the wrong way,
Like like he was imagining porn magazines on all these
grocery stores stands. This is this letter. I guess the
letter was written by Dobson eight from a Christian in right,

(25:41):
so it was it was written into into us and
eight in from the perspective of someone into twos and twelve. Um.
But yeah, he says, another big problem and now is
that porns everywhere because of because of new rulings under
the First Amendment. Is that now that porn can be
displayed in any anywhere, gas stations, grocery stores, news stands,
all places where kids can now find porn because of

(26:02):
the First Amendment. I mean, the funny thing about that
is that because of smartphones and access to stuff like that,
kids have more access to pornography than they ever have.
And your generation also has less sex than previous generations.
And we're kind of the generation that understands concepts of
consent kind of more than any other generation. The opposite

(26:25):
thing happened. Yeah, Like, you be fine when you provide
some information, even if it's bad. The kids will still
look up other information and then some of that will
be eventually good if they go to actually medical sites. Yeah,
and then it seems broadly speaking like we're fine, well
on that anyway, UM, besides on something less fun than porn. Um.
By by two thousand twelve, it's illegal for citizens to

(26:48):
own guns in eight states. The letter writes, quote inner
city violent crime has increased dramatically due to people not
allowed to have guns in eight states. Um in uh
into US in ten. Yeah, I'm not just gonna move
on like that's all he really writes about. It is
you can't have guns in some states. I think Organs
listed as one of the states he speculates doesn't have

(27:10):
guns anymore. A very good writer's not He's not. Um
And according to um Dobson in two US in ten,
Obama will begin drawing troops from Iraq. Then later on
Al Qaeda operatives from Syria and Iran poured in and
overtook the Iraqi security forces. Further in bolding the terrorists,

(27:32):
Obama caused UM. Obama ceased the mass wire tap ring
of all alleged terrorists in the United States unless a
warrant was first obtained. So that's that really emboldened the
terrorist is that now you can't they can't. The government
can'ts wire tap any phone they want in the States. Yeah,
that definitely never happened in Portland over the summer, because

(27:54):
they certainly did not wire tap a bunch of activists
phones for the crimes of modest to mine or property damage.
Since two nine, there's been four terrorist bomba attacks in
the United States. No rest has been made. Yeah, I
I do remember that when the entire national security establishment said, well,
what have we just stopped giving a ship about Islamic terrorism? Quote?

(28:18):
President Obama has moved to deep in US ties in
US trade with communist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia,
regimes that have long enjoyed the favor of far left
factions in the Democratic Party. I don't even know what
he's trying to say. They're neither. Uh, it's it's it's
a fantasy novel. I Ran dropped a nuclear bomb on

(28:40):
an Israeli city, remember that, demanding Israel give huge amount
quote huge amounts of land back to Palestines. First off,
Israel doesn't even have huge amounts of land like that
to say they didn't take a lot of Palestines land,
but the whole area is like the size of Jersey. Yes, um.
Obama said he abhorred what Iran did in dropping a
nuclear bomb Um. But he hoped that the U S

(29:02):
would be part of an international peacekeeping force sanctioned by
the u N. But the Muslim nations in the in
the u N have so far prevented any action. That's
that's a quote from Dobson. The Muslim nations in the
UN have prevented any action from from the UN assisting
in peacekeeping. Yeah, that's yeah, that's why Obama didn't didn't
take any actions in any foreign Muslim dominated countries um

(29:24):
at at any point uh in his administration. That's why
there were no military actions taken against Muslims at all
by the Obama administration. You know more about this kind
of stuff than I do. Were like if Obama, you know,
in two US and ten withdrew withdrawal troops from Iraq.
This jobs talks about al Qaeda operatives and Syrian Iran
pouring in and overtaking the Iraqi security forces. How how

(29:45):
likely that what would that have been from al Qaeda
in overtaking Iraqi security forces? I mean it's ironic because
we we pulled out and I think eleven shortly later, Yeah,
by the at the demand of the Iraqi government and
a large chunk of the country did get overtaken largely
by Iraqis who were other angry and extremists. Uh, and yeah,

(30:11):
I don't know, it's very like it's funny because they
got aspects of that right, but in the wrong way,
like Iran are the deadly enemies of isis um who
who despised them because they're they're shia um. And you
did have a lot of iraq get taken over, but
most of the paramilitaries doing it were either foreign fighters

(30:33):
or other Iraqis. And the leadership CADRA that was in
charge of the whole thing, We're all a bunch of
people who had met because the United States, enter George Bush,
threw them together in the same prison camp, which was
basically a big college for terrorists, Camp BUCA. So yeah,
that's that's pretty funny. I I would I would say,
good good. I'm glad someone was able to talk about that,

(30:54):
who knew more that than I did. We we we now
pivot to healthcare in in the letter, So I'm just
gonna read off this great quote quote. The new Congress
under President Obama passed a nationalized quote single payer health
care system in which the US government is the provider
of health care in the United States, following the pattern
of nationalized medicine in the United Kingdom and Canada. The
great benefits So yeah, so for sounds great to me.

(31:17):
I wish that had happened as someone who lived in
Canada and got free health care for years, was it
was pretty good. Yeah, but I bet they forced you
not to have I bet you weren't allowed to have
kids anymore because you're Christian. Oh yeah, and that was
the one that was they stopped from It was unfortunate.
So continue the quote, Um, the great benefit is that

(31:38):
the medical care is now free for everyone. But here
it is if you can get it. Now that health
Now that health care is free, it seems everyone wants
more of it the wing. The waiting list for prostate
cancer surgery is three years. The waiting list for overarian

(31:59):
cancer is two years, just as the Canadian experience has
shown prior to two thousand and eight with its own
nationalized healthcare. So in the US only a small number
of m rs are performed, down from two thousand and eight,
which isn't isn't true for how the Canadian health there's
a whole section of our right wing lies about how
the Canadian healthcare system works, which is very frustrating. That
are important to know is that y'all live longer and

(32:21):
you have lower rates of physician related death. Yeah, and
like prostate cancer surgery isn't three years waiting time like
they just they come up with these ridiculous lies of
the Canadian healthcare system that I know is untrue because
I have a grandma who relies on it to keep living,
so I understand what the wait times are and how
they operate, and the way American right wing conservative media

(32:43):
talks about it, it it is very frustrating. Yeah, it's it's
it's infuriating. Um. Yeah. And uh. Also about about m
rs because they are so expensive and they discover more
problems that need treatment, they're almost never authorized, which is
how like it's a weird thought process, like thinking about
them because they're too expensive, Like, no, they're expensive now

(33:05):
because of the way our because of how the insurance
scam works. One of the people I love most in
the world had to get an m R I last
year and delayed it by months and almost didn't get
it because it cost even with health insurance, cost her
like a couple of thousand dollars. Meanwhile, my German friends
go to the doctor if they just feel like something

(33:25):
might be wrong. Maybe I'll just go get it checked.
But I have a tummy ache, had to go to
the doc. Yeah, like the ridiculous nature. Like Dobson doesn't
understand this at all, because like he's he still thinks
that like mrs will be expensive under nationalized medicine, which
you know, like the point of changing to a nationalized
healthcare system is that no, it won't. It will be
very cheap because the only reason it's expensive now is
because of the insurance scam. You know, Adam Conover did

(33:46):
a really good episode on his television show dealing with
this exact problem for how like this like whole price
scam works and hospitals. Yeah, it's it's infuriating, very frustrating. Um.
The letter then fearmongers about some boring tex stuff that
I don't care about. I don't care about Dobson's tax nightmares.
I'm just gonna skip over because it's just him being
scared of taxes whatever. Again, this this guy was on

(34:07):
the tax advisory panel under Reagan, which he shouldn't have been,
but he was. So I'm just gonna skip over because
I don't. I don't care. Um, probably the most ridiculous
and incorrect and incorrectly correct. Like it's correct and it's not.
It's wrong, but it's kind of correct in this weird way.

(34:28):
It's an accurate prediction in some ways, but I'm still wrong. Um.
The SEC imposed its new policy called the Fairness Doctrine
Quote which requires your quoting, which requires radio stations to
provide quote equal time for alternative views on political or
policy issues. As a result, all radio stations have to
provide equal time to contrasting views for every political or

(34:50):
policy related program they broadcast. By talk radio shows such
as Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, Seawan, Hanny, Dennis Prager, uh
Hugh Hewitt, and broadcasters like Dr James Dobson, every conservative
of individuals, every conservative talk show is followed by an
instant rebuttal of the program by a liberal watchdog group.

(35:13):
So this is obviously very silly and very wrong. But
what he got right is how YouTube works now for
like all of these all this like this whole genre
of YouTube where like you'll watch you know, it's like
a lefty watching a right wing person's program, or a
right wing person watching a lefties program and like pausing
every ten seconds to give a rebuttal, yeah, which is
a huge genre YouTube. It's the U S economy. Yeah.

(35:36):
But like the idea that like radio stations would pause
in real time on Rush Limbaugh to have like a
left wing for a singular rebuttle for every shows very
fun as opposed to like what actually happened, which is
right wing media has only has become like the most
dominant media block in the country via substantial march after

(35:57):
two years of Obama, it only got much too more powerful.
And I like that Dobson like suddenly adds his name
to the end of this list because again he wrote,
he like ghost through the letter. He like adds his
name at the very end, Dr James Dobson. I mean,
it's it's just self promotion that it's most slimy. That's

(36:19):
just Dobson babing. So that was okay. So the FCC
past ten two thousand nine. By twos and ten, conservative
talk radio had all been shut down. Yes, I do
remember that. I remember. I remember the nightmare when I
couldn't hear Rush Limbaugh convinced my parents that it was

(36:41):
okay to glass the entire Middle East from the sky
because some some dudes funked up a building. Um, I
do remember that, so yeah, it doesn't end that shut down.
Just in good news. The Justice Department filed criminal charges
and civil charges against nearly all Bush Edmond Stration officials
that that had involvement in the Iraq War. A thing

(37:04):
that would have a knife, that would have massively improved
the world we live in. That God, I desperately want
to live in. James Dobson's fantasy America. James Dobson's fantasy
world in which there are consequences for committing war crimes.
Oh the world. Um, Christian book publishers are all shut

(37:26):
down because of anti LGPD hate speech. Yeah, okayport shutting
down book publishers. But also yeah, it's stupid. It never happened. Um,
churches can no longer meet in public schools or any
public places because of the new quote separation of churches schools.
That is a problem. Actually, churches could longer be in
public schools because of quote new separation of church and

(37:49):
state laws. It does seem like that was always a
violation of the separation of church and state, with the
operative word being separation separation. Okay, Christian homeschooling has effectively
all been stopped, in part because parents were now forced
to not teach their kids that homosexual conduct is wrong
or that Jesus is the only way to God, since

(38:11):
these ideas have been found to hinder students social adjustment
and acceptance of other lifestyles and beliefs. That last part
was quoting the letter. There um, thousands of homeschooling parents
had fled to Australia and New Zealand, the last bastion
of Christianity, New Zealand. So a massive refuge of Christian

(38:35):
homeschooling parents have moved to New Zealand. And I'll finally,
I'll finish talking about this piece of speculative fiction with
this quote from the end of the letter. Many people
thought Obama sounded so thoughtful, so reasonable. During his campaign.
After he had won the Democratic nomination, he seemed to
be moving to the center in his speeches, moving away
from his far left record. No one thought he would
enact such a far left, extreme liberal agenda. But the

(38:58):
record was all there for anyone to see. The agenda
of the a c l U, the agenda of the
liberal activist judges and their dissenting opinions, the agenda of
the homosexual activists, the agenda of environmental activists of the
National Board of Education, the global warming activists, abortion rights
activists and control activists, um USE and Asia supporters, One
World Government, pacifists, far left groups in Canada and Europe.

(39:21):
All these agencies, all all these agendas were in plain sight,
and all these groups provided huge support for Senator Obama.
The liberal agenda was there, but too many people just
didn't want to see it. Heart heartwarming. The far left
agenda of the a c l U. Yeah, who is
actually doing really good stuff important right now? They're helping them. No, No,

(39:44):
they're burning churches. And they're burning churches. That's what the
it's the American Christian lighting fire. They're showing up the
homes of homeschooling parents and scaring them away to New Zealand. Yeah, yeah,
that's what the tickets to a better country? How dare
they so? Like? The point of this letter was like
to scare young Christians who feel a little bit of

(40:05):
hope that things can be better under a bomba to
be like, no, you don't understand how bad Obama is.
It's going to be really bad. Now, the letter didn't
do much because Obama is still one. So even though
its sent off to like at least ten million people anonymously,
it's a kind of a crazy thing to do, Like
why would you listen to this letter? There's my anonymous
fantasy about like like what the funk is this? I

(40:27):
don't know. Yeah. Um, Now now that we've warmed up
on that really great, really great heartwarming thing, the next
half of the episode is going to be about the
actual bad stuff, so focus on the family's active anti
LGBT activism. Really started in when they launched their quote
ex gay ministry. UM in this mystery was called Love

(40:48):
One Out. That was the title of what they So yeah,
I remember making fun of that because it sounds like
like like a restoration. It sounds like a restorating that's
what it said. Yeah, right, So x GAG is just
a more polite term for gay commersion therapy. Um, it's like, no,
I'm not getting converted from being gay, just I'm X gay.

(41:09):
It's an X gay program. So Love One Out, great
name is is different from other gay conversion therapy programs
because it's more because it's it's it's more of a
grift than any other one, which I mean, they're all
kind of grift, but this one specifically is more more
than a grift of anything because Love One Out isn't
actually a program, it's a it's a quarterly traveling conference. Um,

(41:32):
so it's here's here's our mission statement from one of
their conference guide books, quote, to provide a christ centered,
comprehensive conference which will enlighten, in power and equip families, churches,
youth leaders, educators, counselors, policymakers, and the gay community on
the truth about homosexuality and its impact on culture, family,

(41:54):
and youth. So that is their mission statement they put
in their little conference book. It's not good so as you,
as you may have been able to pick up on
only actually like a fraction of those who attend are gay.
A lot of the attendees are parents of teens quote
struggling with homosexuality or like youth pastors, among others. So

(42:16):
there's there is a fair there is a fair amount
gay people that that still go to the conference. One
way or the other. We'll get we'll get to details
for that later. But it's really a mix of like pastors,
people who think they're like counselors and then like concerned
parents who are like, oh no, my I think my
team could be gay. What can I do to stop this?
And then also you know, gay people were were brought
in against their world quite often, which will fear about

(42:37):
their remifications of later yeah not not not really great. Um,
So what love went out views as the cause of
homosexuality is also a little bit different from some of
the other gay like Christian version therapy programs, where where
other Christian organizations takes takes the position at homosexuality is
a choice or they'll say it's naturally feel feelings, you

(43:00):
just can't act on them. And there's like the very
classes just pray, pray the gay away type of stuff.
It's like there's always a classical kind of thing. It's
like it's the choice. It's not a it's not a choice,
but you can choose not to act on it, Like
it's okay to feel these things, just you can't act
um or just you know, pray a lot um. The
main position is that that that that love one out
is it takes is that homosexuality is socially caused, usually

(43:24):
by mistakes made in parenting or childhood trauma. Because again
this is an organization called Focus on the Family that's
only about giving very bad family and parenting advice. So
they're trauma like getting beaten, so that their pitch for
this is to parents like, hey, you were a crappy parent.
That's why your child is now gay. Let us teach

(43:45):
you how to be a better parent so your kid
can't be gay. No, your kid, your kid turned out
gay because you didn't hit him the way James Dobson
taught you to hit him. You gotta hit him a
different way. You can't hit him the way you were
hitting him. That's what makes him gay. You gotta hit
him him the Christian way. So remember, like James James
got a psychology degree in the sixties. In seventy three
was when they ruled that homosexuality wasn't an elious yeah.

(44:06):
I mean, I imagine a psychology degree in the sixties
was mostly learning how to punch, yeah, And it was
learning that gays gays a disease and it should be
stopped right. That was only changed in the seventies just
so very very recent um, you know, in in comparison,
at the same time, women got the ability to have
their own check their own chet books, which is why
there was a massive divorce spike in the seventies because

(44:30):
they were had economic control, which is why there was
a huge divorce spike, which is very funny to me.
It's sad, but you know, because I don't think that
the trauma. Actually no, it's it's sad that there was.
It was sad that you were trapped into the views
of marriages is sad and then had to you know,
like get out only when they could allow, you know,
have an economic life. Very supportive of the fact that
they very very sad that they were in that position,

(44:51):
said that it had to happen in the first place. Um,
so love. When out advocates at homosexuality is quote preventable
and treatable, most of these offerences talk about prevention and
the causes of gayness because obviously, despite their claim, there
actually isn't an effective way to treat being gay, which
they kind of they kind of know that, but they
still try to lie about it a little bit. But

(45:12):
you know, it's it's tricky. Um. The most the most
effort they made on the treatment side is talking about prayer,
you know, as one does, uh, mixed in with vaguely
kind of trying to address underlying childhood traumas that cause gayness. Um.
So like it's like a mix of like psychotherapy, like
trying to like, you know, you need to address the

(45:34):
problems that cause the gayness, then the gainness will go away.
Also pray a lot, but they really underscore the treatment
side of things because they know it's all b Yes,
They're more focused on the pseudoscience of how to prevent
it from happening because they can make more money off
of that. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a massive grift, a
griff that resulted in people getting you know, killed and died.

(45:56):
Um yeah, um, is is it time for It's a
time for an at break? Speaking of grifts, you know,
dioge is grift ng Okay, Sophie, I can't call myself
a grifter. I can't openly threaten the heads of social
media companies. I feel like, couldn't openly threaten social heads

(46:21):
of social media companies. Robert, you're right, you're right, You're right.
I usually am continue. I was going to make a
joke where I threatened the head of TikTok, but I
don't know who it is, so we'll just actually some
guy in China, some some guy in China, We're coming
for you. We are back talking about gay conversion therapy. UM.

(46:52):
One of my favorite things to talk about now because
I've done a lot of reading on it. Yea, yea.
And part of the reason why my family escaped the
cult to escape from Canada, from the cult so that
I wouldn't have to go to a gay confession therapy
when I got older, because they thought like me or
my siblings could be gay. Well, kudos to your parents.

(47:12):
I'm good and have to go through that. That's uh god,
damn it. Yeah, what a fucked up planet. Yeah yeah, Okay,
I am not going to think too much about that one, Garrison,
because it's gonna bought me out too much. Ye as, yea,
all right. The blame that that loved one out talks
about for someone struggling homosexuality is split between the parents

(47:35):
fault and society's fault. They go into a whole bunch
of like pseudo Freudian bullshit about like a strong dominant
mother and quite distant fathers or hostile aggressive fathers all
being causes of this. It's like like which is weird
because like Dobson often talks about like a dominant mother
in his life, because you know, remember the thrashing with
the girdle, yes, that is dominant. It also sounds like

(47:59):
a kind of yeah, I know, maybe dobs know other
things going on. I don't know. Um, frankly, it's all
quite boring, like like Freudian bullshit. They get into for
lots for most of the causes. Um. A choice quote
from one of the speakers who spoke at these conferences,
who who claims to be a reparative therapist, and this

(48:19):
is them addressing parents, quote, if you don't hug your
son's then some other man will, which is I think
it's very funny. Damn it. This is a reparative therapist. Yeah,
you know, there should be a German word for like
thaying I want to laugh at but I know was

(48:40):
responsible for like more too much human misery for it
to actually be funny. But it's like I have to
laugh at this because I got very close to this
in my life. The speaker also remarks, quote, there's no
such thing as a homosexual, just misbehaving heterosexuals who can
reclaim their identity through prayer and therapy. It's like a
weird a weird stance that love one out takes is

(49:03):
like there's no gay people being the gay people don't exist.
One can choose to identify as gay, but that that's
that you can't be gay. Actually, what you have is
you experience homosexual thoughts and if you can and if
you can adjust those thoughts, then you can actually be

(49:23):
your true self, which is a heterosexual. They get into
a who bunch of like wow, that makes that makes
that is impressively nonsense, Like you have to give it
to them. You couldn't. You couldn't make less sense if
you tried. Yeah, they get into a whole bunch of
like dumb psych psych pop kind of stuff. They really
try to worm their way around a lot of a

(49:44):
lot of this um. At least seven predominant social scientists
have publicly called out and disowned Focus on the Family
for deliberately misinterpreting their research to bolster kind of the
homophobic claims that Focus on the Family makes so like
they try to appropriate people's like gender research and like
parenting research, and they use it very badly. And these
scientists are like, no, that's not what we're saying at all.

(50:07):
You're very bad at what you're trying to do and
really harmful. We disown you and stop using our research
because they're using it very poorly. Yea, that needs to
be some sort of crime. I don't know, that's not
freedom of speech. No, because you're trying to make grifts
and make money off of the endangerment of human beings. Yeah,
and using like social science as a cover kind of

(50:28):
slandering the scientists. Yeah in a way. Yeah, I don't know,
they're like misappropriating their work in a way that you know,
they're making money off it, so you you could you know, yeah,
they got a few things could happen. So when when
they're not talking about weird Freudian gender identity kind of
stuff but like to masculine mothers and bad parenting nonsense stuff,
when then we're not doing that, they're they're discussing the

(50:49):
other causes of the object and homosexual behavior. The Advancing
Quote Gay Agenda part of their mission statement reads, uh quote,
we cannot escape the onslaught of gay prop again that
seeks to influence our churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. That
was written to it two us in five. So like
they were really they were on this gay agenda thing.

(51:09):
They were, they were on it. They were like the
first people really nervous. And two has and five about
the schools and businesses and neighborhoods or this onslaught of
the gay propaganda advancing. The conference guide states that mainstream
science's assisting the gay agenda in three main ways normalization
through desensitization, undermining parental moral authority, and equating homosexuality to heterosexuality.

(51:32):
So three three main ways the science is helping advance
the gay agenda does by pushing these things into the society. Okay, yep.
And the reason why, you know, as all these gay
people are such a problem kind of besides the whole
biblical interpretation of homosexuality being a sin, which means even
some Bible scholars even questioned that um for what was

(51:53):
actually being written back at the time. A lot of
a lot of modern Bible scholars believe they're talking about
gay rape or an older man of using a child.
That's usually what most scholars look at it now. Um.
But besides the whole biblical interpretation thing, um, the fact
that if gayness is so widely accepted as normal, um,
the reason, the reason why it's reason why it's bad

(52:13):
is then kids of Christian parents will feel more comfortable
coming out as gay and will probably be more likely
to not be Christians um because of the homophobia in
the church, And of course the evangelic evangelicals don't want that,
But there's that aspect that also a big, a big
extential fear for them. It was gay marriage at the
time that was really the thing that they would have

(52:34):
and the repercussions that gay marriage would have, like what
they laid out in the speculative fiction letter from two
US and eight, the fear that gay marriage and possible
resulting anti discrimination laws could threaten what they believe to
be their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Jobs
aboute the whole book Marriage under Fire, which we don't
even have time to get into, but it's it's a whole, whole, big,
huge book that I was very popular in two thousand

(52:55):
four and the conference guy that we've been reading from
has a chapter called addressing the pro gay Agenda in
your School. In this chapter, there's checklist that's supposed to
determine the level of homosexual promotion in your school. So like, yeah,
a lot of their fears are like if kids are gay,
then they're gonna not want to be Christians anymore, which
isn't great for for profit well technically nonprofit, but you know,

(53:18):
it's a media empire. It's it's not good for churches
and Christian kind of publishers if there's less Christians. And
also you know they are really terrified at gay marriage
and what's going to happen. Those are kind of the
two things that are they're really trying to push through
this conference, and that's what all their fear moongering about
the gay agenda really is. But these these twelve things
listed as red flags. So like in this chapter called

(53:39):
addressing the pro pro gay Agenda in your School, there's
there's these twelve red flags to look for in your
own schools, and it's really good. It's it's a really
fantastic list. Um Number one, A safe School's non harassment policy.
Save Schools is like a brand that teaches like that
has like um, they do like they do like discrimination
training in schools and stuff. So like if if if

(54:01):
a school has posted a safe a safe schools non
harassment policy, first red flag, if there's if there's guidelines
against harassment, first red flag, that the gay agenda is
being infected into your school. If you can't harass people,
it is a red flag. Yeah. Number two a homosexual
student club. I mean that's you know, that's a fair
red flag coming from the perspective, that makes more it
makes more sense. Um Number three non discrimination policy based

(54:24):
on sexual orientation. So again more discrimination stuff being red flags. Yeah,
if you can't discriminate, it's definitely that's a red flag,
right there. Number four programs to stop homophobia, hate or
bias just yeah, you wouldn't want to stop home just generally,
not even just homophobia, but hating bias too. Those are
it's the liberal gay agenda is getting injected in like

(54:44):
a vaccine, big problem and like X big problem. Yeah.
Number five is pro homosexual literature added to the curricula
and libraries, and a pro family material quote pro family
material being bypassed or discarded. So I don't really know
what they mean by that, but I'm sure I'm sure
it was scary. Numbers Number six aids and sex said

(55:09):
programs as Yeah, so if they teach you about AIDS
and sex said, that's a problem. Not even gay sex said,
just sex said. In general, that's the advancing gay agenda
in your school. Number seven teachers that are homosexual. Of course,
that's huge problem. You can't can't have that. UM. Remember

(55:31):
eight involvement in your school by the by the Gay
Lesbian Straight Education Network or the Parents and Friends of
Lesbian Gays, which are two organizations that help for gay rights.
So if there, if they have any involvement in your
school or whatever, huge issue. Uh. Number nine celebrating Gay
Pride Month or National Coming Out Day, Big big problem there.

(55:51):
That's that's the gay agenda advancing have to be careful UM.
Exhibits or films on families by homosexuals. So exhibits or
films about family that are made by homosexual filmmakers, which
again I don't even know what they're really saying there.

(56:12):
It's kind of underscertainable. No, it's it's complete. But we
have two more no red flags UM, students students UM
and parents with concerns being silenced. So so that's that's
good UM. And number twelve a teacher in service meanings

(56:32):
promoting diversity to teach meetings that promote diversity. That's the
final red flag that if if you see these twelve
things in your school or even you know a few
of them. This is this is means the gay agenda
is advancing. Sound right, Yeah, that sounds like how the
gay agenda. I was very happy looking through this conference

(56:55):
manual and looking looking at and I found this page like, yes,
I have a few paragraphs to right now. It was
great this and the manuals poorly designed to like this.
The graphic design is terrible. It's like the worst era
of two US and five like manual design. It's really
bad and ugly to look at. It's it's a magnificent

(57:15):
piece that I glorious. Internet. Are their stock photos of people?
You know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely absolutely stock
photos of like people with their families, Like have you
seen much like Christian Have you seen much Christian like
propaganda from the era? Oh? Yeah, you know, all the
same stuff. Um, so okay kind of now. The saddest
part of this is that parents would often force their

(57:38):
gay children to attend this convention against their will. Um,
these kids can be stuck with the choice of either
going to this anti gay conference or losing the love
and financial support of their parents. That was really what
a lot of kids talked about for this conference is
like I was forced to go or else I would
be kicked out of the house or I would you know,
my parents would disown me. And the thing about this,

(57:59):
this thing is like, this isn't just this isn't just
like a game of conversion therapy program you go to.
This is a traveling conference, so it can go to
your town. You're like, oh no, if it goes to
my town, I know my parents gonna take me there. Right.
It's like because like it's like it's like an active threat.
It's not just like, oh no, I'm not gonna get
driven to Texas to go to this program that you
don't know where it's going to come to you into
your life. Horrible, It's really bad. Um. Yeah. In NPR

(58:24):
article from two US and seven talks with a sixteen
year old kid named Brett, um, Brett told NPR quote,
I did not want to come at all, but I guess,
you know, I have no choice because my parents, you know,
control my entire life. Um. His His parents drove three
hundred and fifty miles from San Diego to Phoenix to
attend this conference fucking Arizona. Yeah. And and and the

(58:48):
parents said in hopes that it will quote plant the
seeds that quote, one day their sun will become straight. So,
after Brett was forced to listen to idiots, I'm, yeah,
it doesn't it's not how it works, but that's what
they thought. They thought it's how it works. Like they
even knew, like, oh, even if he's not going to
get fixed here, at least maybe plant the seeds that

(59:10):
he'll be able to be not gay later. It's real,
real sad kind of stuff and like this is not uncommon. Um,
after Brett was forced to listen to all those speeches
and testimonials and please from these quote therapists that his
quoted disorder can be treated, Brett said to MPR, quote,
don't tell my parents, but no, I know I'm gay,

(59:32):
and like their stories are really inspiring, but I know
this is me and I don't really want to change.
So like again this is from like a Christian kid.
He's like, yeah, I understand their viewpoints, like even like
that's sad and in point, but he's like, yeah, I understand,
it's kind of inspiring, but no, like this is who
I am. Yeah, I can't not be this. And another

(59:53):
really sad part is that the MPR article talked to
Brett's dad and he said, um, he said quote the
conference taught him that he needs to learn to love
his son unconditionally. So like this is the kind of
thing where it gets We'll talk about this more later,
but like what the conference did is like because like

(01:00:13):
these things are very bad, but like one of the
things that was teaching is like, no, if you have
gay if you have gay children, you still need to
like love them as your children, which is like something
that like these people needed to get taught like this,
this is what Brett's dad, right, Like Brett's dad learned
at the convention. I guess I still have to love
my son. That's the thing that he like took away
from and talked to NPR about, which is really like me,

(01:00:36):
like as bad, like this conference is terrible and abusive,
but still that's like a net good from it. That's
what stuff going to this thing that was less fucked
up than him helped. Yes, yeah, that's really that's just
I mean this everything it's bad. Tragedy um on Love
wre notes old website which has been like since deleted.

(01:00:59):
Like you know, it's it takes a while to dig
ford in like the way back machine, but every every
time you change the page on the website. It has
a little testimonial from from an attendee, which is a
great source for terrible and sad quotes. Keep in mind,
these are quotes that they're putting up on their websites
to make themselves look good, right, feel like advertisements. Yeah,

(01:01:21):
here's um, here's a quote quote. I've been struggling for
twenty months with the fact that my son tells me
he is gay. I've gone through all the first three
stages of grief. I found this conference on the internet.
We drove from Orange, Texas last night the conference in
Atlanta to begin on the reconstructive phase of our grief.
Thank you for giving me hope for a loving relationship

(01:01:42):
with my son, which is real bad. Yeah. Yeah, So
again it's like yeah, like, and I guess from the
way that's written, I think it sounds like the hope
that my son will be straight again so I can
have a loving relationship with them. That's the way that
I kind of read that as Um, it could also mean,
you know, I hope that I can still love and

(01:02:02):
still have a relationship with my son even though it's gay.
But I kind of doubt that. If they drove from
Texas to Georgia. For this, it sounds more like hoping
my son will be straight one day so then I
can love him. Yeah, not great. Um from a sixteen
year old they said, quote gay identified boy, because again,
you can't be gay, you could identify as gay, you know,

(01:02:22):
actually gay, it's that you're dealing with these homosexual feelings,
so they right from a sixth year old gay dentified
boy who came because quote my mom dragged me into
this quote. There were some things that did not agree with,
but it was all presented with love, which I get
really sad reading um, which really kind of messes me
up on a fundamental level. Who as someone who kind

(01:02:44):
of discovered they were queer after being in a very
hateful conservative environment for so long, including with like whole
bunch of like self hating in my younger teens, that
really gets me kind of angry reading stuff like that
because like dealing with realizing things about myself well, having

(01:03:04):
such like toxic bad viewpoints. It's not it's not great,
And yeah, this kind of stuff really makes me upset. Um.
Here's here's here's one I actually I like reading because
it's gonna be we can maybe laugh at this one
and you know, um quote. I was one of the
police officers that worked at the Loved One Out conference.
I thought that that's such a sentence right there. God,

(01:03:26):
what a sentence. Okay, sorry, I thought the testimonials were awesome.
I was trying to be a tough guy, but I
could not keep the tears from running down my face.
The three other officers who were there with me said
the same thing. It was a very moving testimony to
the power of God and how he pursued you. As
police officers, we're we're often pretty rough on gay lesbian issues,

(01:03:51):
mostly making jokes and expressing disgust. The conference made all
four of us more sensitive to homosexuals. Oh my god,
everything about that is as bad as it could be.
Like the fact that this conference again helped people who
were even more bigger than the conference be slightly maybe

(01:04:11):
less big or at least less dangerously bigger than like,
is still incredibly fucked up. It's that's so bad. As
police officer who's assigned as security, It's like I used
to joke about gay people killing themselves, and now I
think that's wrong. They should just be forcibly converted. I've
improved as police officers were pretty tough on gay let's

(01:04:34):
be in issues, making jokes and expressing disgust like what
a great club as police officers like, of course all
cops do this. Oh buddy, Uh, someone should have gone
to his That shouldn't be You shouldn't get to be
a cop and say that. And they advertised it on
their website. Is a good thing. He was proud of that.

(01:04:57):
He was willing to be like like all cops, I
used to habitually make fun of homosexuals, but now I don't.
Last last person will hear about who attended? Is from
an article in the in the Denver Post. In fight UM,
Christina Blake, thirty six year old Denver artists moved moved
to Colorado ten years ago, so in UM for the States,

(01:05:22):
she moved to Colorado for the state's X gay programs
UM and underwent more than four years and two of them.
She also underwent psychological counseling, so she moved to Colorado.
This is where focusing on the families based a lot
of like in person stuff there like all the time
as well, these as well as these traveling conferences Jesus
and she tended to like multiple programs, not just focus
on the families, um. Quote. I threw my whole heart

(01:05:43):
and soul and life into changing. There was a period
of time where I actually believe that I was changing,
but then there would be reminders, Oh no, still gay. Um.
The whole time she suppressed her sexuality, her creativity disappeared,
she gave up on transforming herself into her headterseexual. She said,
after serving many gay people leaving leading healthy, happy, vibrant lives. Quote,

(01:06:05):
I still had to deal with a lot of a
lot of feelings of shame, brokenness, and the failure that
I had internalized from from the ES gay programs, um,
Christina said. And the article ends by saying she no
longer considers us consider herself herself a Christian, but like,
you know, a person who was like lived in these
programs for ten years trying desperately to change yourself because

(01:06:26):
you think that's the only way to connect with God
and just you know, it doesn't work. And it left
a lot of people dead, a lot of people killed themselves.
Well we'll talk more about that at the end. For
the kind of the stats on all those sad things, UM,
I think I think would be a little bit good
to learn about the guy who kind of ran a
whole operation, because this is actually very important UM, so

(01:06:48):
love one out as the program was funded by someone
named John pulk Um. John's story is not unique in
anyway from the people that run these types of operations.
According to John, he came out as gay when he
was eight team. This was in UM. He came out
to an accept to an accepting family. He was he was,
you know, he was. He was fine at the time. UM.

(01:07:08):
In his mid twenties he found himself becoming despondent and
even the suicidal um in college. He at the time
he attributed his unhappiness to homosexuality. Many years later he
would say it was actually because he was tremendously insecure
and lonely. Around the same time, a university campus pastor
introduced John to Christianity. So it's like in his mid
twenties he first kind of got introduced to Christianity when

(01:07:29):
he was severely depressed in suicidal. So, trying to reconcile
his depression, gayness and new potential path for with Christianity,
John signed up for a year long residential conversion therapy program,
which that means is you live in this It's it's
like it's like a you'd like live in this spot.
They have like houses and dorms and you live in
this program. Sounds like it's real. It's real bad. A

(01:07:52):
lot of people died there. Yeah, So he signed up
for this year long program. Eventually he he he's stay
there for more than actually year. He eventually got a job.
They're working at the same conversion therapy business that that
he attended. Him and a quote former lesbian that he
met at the program got married. UM. They wrote a
book together. In the nineties, John got put in charge

(01:08:15):
to focus on the Famili's quote homosexuality and gender division,
the whole division dedicated Yeah you gotta you gotta have
a division UM. In ninety eight, he founded and lad
Loved One Out under focus on the family UM. In
two thousand, while on a speaking tour in Washington, d C.
Unclear if this was for a Loved One Out conference

(01:08:35):
or was just if it was just another speaking arrangement uh,
John was seen and photographed sitting in a predominant popular
gay bar by a known gay activist. When approached, John
said his name was John Clint, which is his name
is John Polk. But this guy calling himself John Clint
said said he was gay. Um. After news of this
spread around, John told the media that he was just

(01:08:57):
there because he was walking around and needed the place
to goose the bathroom him. And he said he didn't
know it was a gay bar until until you went in. However,
are the people there, um, you know saw him for
like an hour talking intimately with other men. It was
kind of a quote, people said. Um. John later admitted
to knowing it was a gay bar and has said yeah, yeah,
and it said quote, at a low point in my life,

(01:09:18):
I went back to a place where I felt comfortable. Um.
No matter what his intentions were, he was um. No
matter if he was actually going in knowingly to get
sex or whatever, or if he was just lonely and
kind of actually said and needed up like a familiar
place whatever, um he whatever it was. He was forced
to resign as a board chairman at the Conversion at
the conversion therapy place that he attended. UM, but he

(01:09:39):
still continued to work and focus on the family and
lad Love one out until two US and three. Two
US and three, he suddenly quit his job at Focus
and dropped out of the spotlight of becoming like a
very famous x G speaker. UM John and his family
moved to Portland, Oregon. Oh, Um John went to town.
This is this is Yeah, you don't know. We get
tear gas. This is the time we get t guests. John,

(01:10:00):
maybe getting tear guests too. Actually, m Um John went.
John went to culinary school and became a chef, soon
opening up a successful catering business. UM of his time
in Portland, John wrote, on the outside, it was a
happy life, but inside I was torn. I deeply loved
my wife, An who still believed in like the XTA movement,
but I knew it would be extremely scandalous to embrace

(01:10:21):
some sexuality after the career I've had. It was, but
it was more and more apparent to me that it
was what I had always been. I was. I was gay. Um,
the older I got, the lonelier I was becoming. In
two In two thousand and eleven, I was driving down
a suburban street and I saw two men holding hands.
I burst into tears, realizing that I wanted to be
one of those men. So John got out of focus

(01:10:41):
in the family because he realized he couldn't keep doing
this work anymore, but he still was married to his
wife for like a decade afterwards. Um, you know, just
kind of slowly disengaging, because like, after you're in this
for so long, you can't just pop out very easily.
You have. It's it's kind of it can be a
slow for some people. Yeah, it's deep programming yourself. Yeah. Um,

(01:11:02):
John describes his time where I can't focus on the
family like this. I was an utter torment. I struggled
on and off with addiction and wanted to take my life.
I wanted to believe I wasn't gay so badly that
not only did I lie to other people, but I
primarily lied to myself. I wanted my homosexuality to change.
But the truth is, for all the public rhetoric, I
was not one bit less gay behind closed doors, behind

(01:11:23):
many of us in the X gay leadership and focus
on the family, but even admitness to each other. Um,
we had this conversation many times. Quote, we know our
orientation hasn't really changed. What has changed our behavior, our
way of life, how we see ourselves, Our sexuality has
not changed. More and more, when I had to go
when I had to go up and speak to crowds
of people about my gay conversion. I felt like a

(01:11:43):
wind up toy. I'd go back to my hotel room,
fall in the bed and start weeping. Yeah, which is
isn't That isn't uncommon for a lot of these people
who are gay that ran these programs. A lot of
them have since come out and said, no, this is
all bullshit. I'm so sorry for causing the deaths of
so many people. I am kay, and I want to
kind of live a quiet life now. I'm really sorry
for what I have done, but I don't know how

(01:12:04):
to deal with like the trauma of like not only me,
but also the trauma I've caused. Like it doesn't sound
like a great environment. And then there's a lot of
brainwashing going on and cult like stuff, so like it's
it's hard to really I'm not sure what consequences for
the actions should be. Besides if people should just like
be able to live alone for the rest of their
like like live by themselves and try to find happiness.

(01:12:25):
I I don't know. It's it's tough. Um into us
and thirteen John made a public apology for all the
harm him and the x gay movement. He was a
part of caused, saying quote, I do not believe in
reparative therapy. I don't believe it changes sexual orientation. In fact,
it does great harm too many people. I know that
countless people were harmed by things I said and did
in the past. Parents, families, and their loved ones were

(01:12:46):
all negatively impacted by the notion of reparative therapy and
the message of change. I'm truly, truly sorry for the
pain I have caused. Now, I don't want to focus
on John Pauk too much because he isn't the primary
He isn't the primary victim here. The primary victim are
victims are like the teens and adults that killed themselves
as a result of the rhetoric John and people like him,
you know, spread. But I also know that like John

(01:13:07):
knows that he he knows that as well. Um, And
I'm sure it's awful to live with. And I kind
of do wish him the best. He's living as a
gay person. I don't think he's Christian anymore, just living
in Portland running a very successful caring business. I kind
of wish him well, but I don't want to focus
on him too much do to financial restraints work coming

(01:13:27):
to the end here thankfully, because I'm I'm kind of
done with all of this. UM do to financial illustraints
and to US and eleven and to US and nine,
Focus on the Family sold Love one out to Exodus International,
of a huge conversion therapy umbrella organization that that had
worked with Focus in the Family in the past. Later
on in Exodus totally shut down UM ending Ending Love

(01:13:48):
went out as well, stating that conversion therapy does not
work and apologize for the pain they've caused. And this
was like the place which was this was like a
massive conglomerate of gay conversion therapy programs, Like this is
actually huge news when the shutdown like this was massive. UM,
Like I know, I know people that have been sent
to Exodus International pros Christ Exodus to like what a

(01:14:12):
what a yeah, what a nightmare? All of that news is.
It's bad. It's all terrible. UM. Also in two US
and nine, John, you know, James Dobson left Focus on
the Family amid philosophical conflicts with his successor, Jim Daily. UM.
Focus on the Family has under since UM went down
a hiss. Underson has gone down to downsizing and has

(01:14:33):
dialed back its political activism mainly kind of focusing on
their media division. Now UM it's year it's yearly operating
budget still hovers around ninety million dollars, So like they're
still they're still very active. UM, They're just not like
the massive political force they were in the nineties where
they had like a hundred and fifty million dollars. But
like still they're they're still they're there's still there's still

(01:14:54):
a notable organization. UM. Despite Dobson being gone and Love
went out defunct. Uh, not much has changed on the
rhetoric focus in the family spreads regarding homosexuality. They currently
have like over thirty live articles that I could find
through scrolling in like ten minutes about the prevention slash
treatment of homosexuality UM, with many other articles about adjacent

(01:15:14):
gay issues and stuff, plus selling countless books on the
subject on their website. UM. One article opens up with
the imagined question prompt saying, uh, what can we say
to our teenage son who who just told us he's gay?
I'm devastated one but I'm so angry I could scream
the next I could just sit and cry. We love
our son, we don't want this influence in our home,
so that that's how they start an article. Um, yeah,

(01:15:36):
articles offer helpful advice um for interacting with friends and
family members that quote identify as gay and such. Such
helpful advice that they list is a see a person
not not a homosexual. Just this is just like the
sheer notion that they need to like establish that people

(01:15:58):
are still humans like theirs. The fact they need to
say that really shows what their audiences and and what
they're actually doing. Ye. Well that I hate yea. Um,
although I'm pretty sure that the understanding, um uh, that
this is now a failing cultural battle, right like they
understand that this is now kind of a losing battle, um,

(01:16:19):
because they've turned their attention most more recently towards transgenderism
as a new thing that's going to destroy America. Okay,
because it makes sense because they're too accepted, and it
didn't destroy America. We have a gay marriage and everything
is still be the same, all right now. I will
say America has been kind of destroyed. But I don't

(01:16:42):
play game marriage. I don't play gay marriage or the
or the four left Supreme Court. I do blame the
Supreme Court for some but not not the six to
three far left leftist communist. Yeah, they didn't do that. Yep.
Uh uh. Mostly I blame not Drudge, the Drudge Report,

(01:17:04):
I bring. I blame Matt Drudge, that Drudge I know,
Glenn Beck was very popular at the time. Yeah, but
they all got popular. All of these guys that we're
dealing with now, like including Alex Jones, got their their
first initial like really big national exposure thanks to Um
to Matt Drudge, who now was kind of anti Trump. Um. Yeah,

(01:17:25):
it's been a weird journey from Matt Um. I mean
he's still I think, pretty conservative, but he just doesn't
like Trump. But he was like he was, he was
the We'll talk about Matt Dredge someday maybe. Yeah. So
they're selling lots of books written in the past five
years about transgenders, and on their website there's there's countless
articles um, whereas the articles about home sexuality have taken
like a dip, and I think they're not they're not

(01:17:46):
writing as many new ones. They're mainly focusing on transgender stuff.
If you didn't grow up in the evangelical Christian scene
in the eighties, nineties or two thousand's, the first time
you may have heard of Focus in the Family is
probably from John oliver segment on when he on his
segment about Mike Pence because into Us in seventeen, Mike
Pence spoke at Focus on the Families anniversary. He did, Yeah,

(01:18:09):
fences of Pences called Dobson a close personal friends. Yeah.
Then the Pence said these words about Focused on the
Family the organization quote. The truth is that Focused on
the Family has been a force in American families, a
force for good for the past forty years. Millions of
families and families like mine are indebted to your work.

(01:18:31):
And let me assure you, there's one other family that's
truly grateful for your work and for this great ministry.
And I promise you Focused the Family. You have an
unwavering ally in President Donald Trump. Of course he does. Yep, real,
real good. During this episode of Last Week Tonight, John
Oliver talked about Pence speaking and Focus on the Famili's
fourth anniversary event and highlighted both Pences and Focused on

(01:18:52):
the Families history promoting gay conversion therapy, which has Pence
did too. He ran on that platform in the nineties. Um, yeah,
which is why it really can learning about him for
gay issues even even more than Trump. I that's my thing. If, like,
if Trump every gotten Peach and Pence was put in,
I'm kind of more scared of him for queer stuff,
because Pence is legitimately terrifying on like the on the like,
on the religious front, Mike Pence is It's like my

(01:19:17):
Donald Trump is the guy who I think is capable
of wooing Americans into authoritarianism, but he's not a competent authoritarian.
Mike Pence I don't think is capable of wooing, but
he would be a competent authoritarian because Pence is called Dobson,
like his greatest mentor and close friends, those kind of

(01:19:39):
stuff that's very scary, Like Dobson helped him get elected initially.
There's a strong case to be made that the most
frightening thing about Trump is not Trump himself or even
his MAGA people, but the degree to which he has
empowered the dominionist Christian move Yeah, absolutely, which is which
Dobson was a huge part of pioneering. So because of
John Oliver segment Um, this prompted a response from the

(01:20:00):
head of Focus on the Family of the Now had
Who's Jim Daily quote the satirical late night talk show
hosts secreed was not just vicious in tone, but also
vulgar and vile in every sense of the word and way.
So that was the response Focus on the Family had
to John Oliver's segment about them, which I think was great. Um.
But then also in the same statement further confirming the

(01:20:22):
organization's continue to support a conversion therapy in a press
statement saying quote, we support the counseling and availability of
professional therapy options for unwanted homosexual attractions or behavior. So
that's what they said to press statement in response to
the last Last Week Tonight episode of Yeah. In the

(01:20:45):
last between the episode, John Oliver unveiled a new book
his team had written about the Vice President's bunny Martlin
Bundo Um, who of course is actually gay. Um. With
all the profits going to the charities of AIDS United
and the Trevor Project. The book sold more than uh
told about two copies in the first two days, massively successful,
A lot of money was donated. It was really good.

(01:21:06):
The Trevor Project does a fantastic work. Um. Yeah, it
was was a very good thing that John Oliver and
his team did there. At the time of this episode's
publication of twenty states currently banned conversion therapy for miners,
including Colorado, which was a very recently in the past.
In the past, I think a year Colorado bandit for
for miners, and that that's where focused on the family

(01:21:27):
is based. Around twenty of US LGBT youth who have
been to conversion therapy have has attempted suicide within the
past year, so like in the past twelve months, that's
that's happened, compared to twelve percent of of LGBT youth
who had not gone through conversion therapy, So it more
than doubles your chances of committing suicide if you attend
l g FVVU ten conversion therapy as as a queer

(01:21:49):
person or as a as a queer youth specifically, it's
morally identical to just firing a gun and do a
crowd of children. According to the San Francisco State University
um UH, because according to their their their study on
conversion therapy and and used to a queer youth um
LGBT youth that goes through conversion therapy can be eight

(01:22:10):
point four times more likely to report of having attempted suicide.
God Good God. Yeah, that's uh. That is five almost
six times more likely to report higher levels of depression, uh,
three and a half times more likely to report the
use of like illegal drugs for coping, and three and
a half times more likely, uh more likely to have

(01:22:30):
HIV and STDs for you know, all of those. It
just sounds to me, Garrison, like you're saying, all of
these are all the benefits of God's love. And yeah,
that's all I've written because that's all that's all I
could write before I started breaking down. Yeah, becoming unhealthy
out of mental Well yeah, well, enjoy this fun episode
everybody that Garrison wrote for you. It is he had

(01:22:52):
his chance to make a behind the Bastards episode and
he made it. Made me very sad. Um And normally
I make people sad while laughing manically because I've had
to deal with the depressing thing. And now I'm just
sad and Garrison's laughing. Yeah, and I understand the harm
that I've brought to the word now that I'm not
going to stop. Yeah, no, more of this, more of

(01:23:14):
this anyway. Um, Yeah, that's the episode. You're plugable, Actually
do not. First, I'm gonna I'm gonna plug the Trevor Project.
They do very good work on assistant queer used in
times of crisis. Um. Also, if you're in Britain, the
Mermaids Foundation is great for trans issues. I know there's

(01:23:34):
a few new trans hotlines in the States that I
need to I need to learn their numbers for them
because they're they're relatively new. Yeah, the Trevor Project is great.
Mermaids in the UK is great. Um, a whole bunch
of stuff that you can, you know, help for. There's
oftentimes you'll see legislation going around to help ban conversion
therapy for minors. UM in your state, get involved with that.

(01:23:55):
It's one of the few things where legislation actually is possible.
I know there's a whole you know about voting or
not voting. If you're you should vote for that if
you see it happening, vote for that because it can
save a lot of kids lives. Yeah, that's the episode
real fun. Where can people follow you if you want

(01:24:17):
to see me talk about crowd boys and the FEDS
and to your gas And I'm on Twitter on Twitter
several days ago tomorrow. I have an Instagram account, but
I've never used it. It's very it's completely blank. See
I told you only the youths have Instagrams and they
don't like to use them on Instagram, it's it's Nuckerberg.

(01:24:39):
I don't I don't want to go on that. The
only social media apps or Twitter and the TikTok TikTok,
I mean, I don't have TikTok. Guys, it sounds like
it's a healthier social media platform than any of a
lot of great queer youth expressing themselves in healthy ways. Yeah,
thank god, we're banning it all. Alright, the episode is done.

(01:25:03):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Part Two: Focus on the Family: Love Won Out