For Immediate Release
June 02, 2008
Contact: Steve Ralls
(202) 467-8180, ext. 214 / sralls@pflag.org
PFLAG Parents and Clergy to Greet "Ex-Gay" Conference Attendees in Orlando
June 7 Event to Send Message that Parents Love Their LGBT Children "Just the Way They Are"
WHAT: Parents, family members, clergy and allies from across the Gulf Coast region will greet attendees entering the Orlando, Florida “Love Won Out” conference. The conference, organized by the American Family Association, endorses so-called “reparative therapy” for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Members of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will greet attendees with donuts, coffee and information on embracing lesbian and gay loved ones.
WHO: PFLAG parents will be joined by supportive members of the clergy from around Orlando, as well as PFLAG National executive director Jody M. Huckaby and Lance Helms, Gulf Coast Regional Director for PFLAG.
WHY: So-called “ex-gay ministries,” such as “Love Won Out,” use out-moded medical theories and radical religious beliefs to justify trying to alter gay and lesbian people's natural sexual orientation. In 1990, the American Psychological Association (APA) stated that scientific evidence does not show that conversion therapy works and that it can do more harm than good.
WHEN: Saturday, June 7, 2008
7:00am
WHERE: First Presbyterian Church
106 E. Church Street
Orlando, FL 32801
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PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. For more information, visit www.pflag.org.