aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Exodus wants to silence parody
Update: A good time to remember, would you want your daughter to marry one?
The American Civil Liberties Union is defending a heterosexual blogger who received a cease-and-desist letter from Exodus International after he parodied the group’s “ex-gay reparative therapy” billboards on his Web site.
The Exodus billboards, which Santa Rosa, Calif., blogger Justin Watt viewed online, read, “Gay? Unhappy? http://www.exodus.to.” Watt responded by posting “Straight? Unhappy? http://www.gay.com” on his site, Justinsomnia.org. Though denounced by major medical groups like the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, Exodus’s reparative therapy attempts to turn gay people straight.
“The moment I saw the billboards last September, I was deeply offended. The inspiration for the parody I created came to me instantly. How would straight people feel if their very being, their sense of self, was being so overtly disparaged?” asked Watt. “[Exodus’s] response was to try to intimidate me into taking the image down. It’s troubling that an organization as big as Exodus would go to such great lengths to silence its critics.”
Justin tells the tale on his blog.
Thanks Chelsea!
UPDATE: Exodus backs down.
