PFLAG to counter ‘ex-gays’ at Palin church-supported conference

(Anchorage, Alaska) Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays intends to offer support Saturday outside an Anchorage conference of the controversial “Love Won Out” conference in Anchorage.

The conference, which claims homosexuality can be “cured” through prayer, is being promoted by Gov. Sarah Palin’s church. “Love Won Out” is part of Focus on the Family, the national Christian fundamentalist organization.

Mainstream psychiatrists and psychologists have discredited the group’s assertion that homosexuality is learned and can be reversed.

Gay rights advocates call the conference “dangerous.”

“Families never win at Love Won Out,” said Jane Schlittler, president of PFLAG’s Anchorage, Alaska chapter.

“The conference’s organizers maliciously target often well-meaning parents who are dealing with a difficult issue in their lives, and in the process put their kids’ well-being at risk. Make no mistake: There is far more ‘preying’ than ‘praying’ taking place at these meetings, and far more harming than healing in the doctrine of Love Won Out,” she said.
Critics of the so-called ex-gay movement say groups like “Love Won Out” use outmoded medical theories and radical religious beliefs.

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