Bay Windows - National News , September 8, 1999
Scott A. Giordano, Bay Windows staff

But national gay activists are disgusted by what they call FalzaranoÆs ôcircusö presentation that was filled with contradicting statements and what they believe to be inaccuracies.

As Bay Windows reported last week, Falzarano was fired on Aug. 7 from his job as national director and board member of PFOX (Parents and Friends Of Ex-Gays), an organization he co-founded in 1996. This week, it was learned that PFOX has addressed and mailed an Aug. 17 letter to all its supporters announcing FalzaranoÆs termination and requesting all donations to the group to be made directly to PFOX and sent to its address ù not a post office box that Falzarano opened under its name in order to solicit money for a group he is now calling Parents & Friends Ministries.

At the Sept. 1 press conference ù held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. ù Falzarano failed to note that his dismissal from PFOX was finalized and also failed to mention that he had solicited money under the groupÆs name even after he was officially removed from his job at the organization.

In a phone interview with Bay Windows prior to the Sept. 1 meeting, Falzarano confirmed that he had opened a new P.O. box in Washington, D.C. under the PFOX corporate name, from which he continued to solicit donations. But he said the P.O. box is now under the name of Parents and Friends Ministries, while his attorney and those from PFOX fight over the legal access to the PFOX corporate name.

Calls to PFOX were not returned at Bay Windows press time. PFOX currently works out of the offices of Transformation Christian Ministries, another æex-gayÆ group co-founded by Falzarano in 1978. And FalzaranoÆs newly-named group ù which he claims consists of the former leaders from PFOX, with a staff of four people including himself ù also operates from the same site, as the lease for the building is in FalzaranoÆs name.

ôMy attorney is looking at the corporate by-laws. I was the founder of PFOX and its national director. ... Basically [the PFOX board] owns the name PFOX now, but they donÆt own me. I will continue to minister to the repentant homosexual community, so we had to open up our own mailbox to solicit funds from the donors ... The new organization is called Parents and Friends Ministries and it consists of the same people. [The board] can fire the pastor, but they canÆt take away his flock, so we are basically just reorganizing,ö Falzarano said. ôWe are in the same space, but our phone number and address are not the name. ... My landlord and staff are supporting me and the PFOX chapter leaders are supporting me. All [the PFOX board] has is a name and a phone number.ö

The Aug. 17 letter ù signed by Jerry A. Brown, president of the PFOX Board of Directors ù confirmed that Falzarano officially was dismissed by the PFOX Board and relieved of all his responsibilities with the organization as of Aug. 7 and that he has been replaced by Regina Griggs, who is now the groupÆs interim national director until the position is permanently filled.

ôWe are heartbroken over this decision [to dismiss Falzarano], but it was necessary,ö reads the letter that fails to detail the reasons behind the dismissal. ôWe believe that we have made a difficult and painful decision that is in the best interest of this ministry.

ôRegina is a parent of a child who is currently in the homosexual lifestyle. She brings an extensive background of business experience and a heart for parents of the homosexual struggler to this ministry,ö continues the letter. ôShe has been serving in an administrative support capacity with PFOX for almost two years and is also a member of the Board of Directors of both PFOX and [TEM] We are confident that the Board and Regina can guide this ministry through the current transition period.ö Public criticisms

Falzarano has long been one of the nationÆs most visible and notable æex-gayÆ leaders, and activists first became suspicious of a growing rift between the æex-gayÆ movement and the religious Right after Falzarano was barred from a July conference held by the nationÆs largest æex-gayÆ organization, Exodus International.

Leaders from Exodus would not comment on the specific reasons that Falzarano was barred from the conference, but Falzarano told Bay Windows it is because people are upset by his vocal criticisms of the Religious Right and certain æex-gayÆ organizations that are failing to meet their missions to help convert homosexuals to heterosexuality.

ôOur complaint is that the religious Right claims it wants to help homosexuals heal, but the entire æex-gayÆ movement has about a $2 million budget, and we have ministries closing their doors because they canÆt afford to help because the Right is not putting forth their money,ö he said.

Falzarano told Bay Windows he has attended the Exodus conference for the past 11 years, but he has seen some ôunhealthyö things going on [at Exodus] right nowö and ô[people from Exodus] are literally upset that I am speaking out, so I am now considered persona non grata.ö

At the Sept. 1 press conference, Falzarano condemned Exodus International, saying it had lost nine ministers who returned to the ôhomosexual lifestyleö in the last six years because of its ôweak, under-funded and under-staffed leadership.ö Yet he then asked people and the religious Right to contribute more and much-needed money to Exodus later in his public remarks.

alzarano also contradicted himself when he condemned the Right for politicizing the æex-gayÆ movement and then mentioned a specific scenario last year in which he and Alveda King successfully helped to overturn a statewide gay-rights bill in Maine.

ôThe Christian Coalition asked me to go up to Maine in the last year because they wanted me to overturn [the stateÆs gay-rights bill.] So I took an æex-gayÆ team up there with Alveda King, the niece of the late Martin Luther King, to speak to the governor and to get the word out that homosexuals can heal. We really went all over the state,ö he said ù then claiming the Christian Coalition refused to provide money for advertising.

ôSo at a fund-raising luncheon, I asked for donations to run a commercial and we raised $4,000, which is actually enough to run a commercial in Maine. The commercial ran all weekend and when the election came that Tuesday, we did overturn the [gay-rights bill,] 51 percent to 49 percent,ö Falzarano continued. ôThe Christian Coalition called me to say æThank you for helping us.Æ I said æDo me a favor. We have an æex-gayÆ ministry in Portland. The director of that ministry is a single father with two children. He has had to sell his house to keep his ministry going there in Portland. Why donÆt you take a $1,000 check, blow it up real big, have a press conference and present it to him to let him know that the Christian Coalition supports the æex-gayÆ movement and does not hate homosexuals.Æ He said, æThatÆs a good idea.Æ They never followed up, and he never received even a $5 check in the mail, and that is disgusting,ö Falzarano said.

Much of FalzaranoÆs presentation was spent detailing the RightÆs alleged lack of commitment to the æex-gayÆ movement, while continuing to use the æex-gayÆ movement to promote its anti-gay agenda.

Falzarano said the Family Research Council (FRC) is one of the only organizations that was putting its money where its mouth is, and called Robert Knight and presidential candidate Gary Bauer ôfriendsö of the æex-gayÆ movement. But he then continued to slam other prominent religious-Right organizations and individuals. Among FalzaranoÆs specific allegations:

òHe was asked to appear on Dr. James DobsonÆs TV show two years ago, and had to have Robert Knight ôgo to batö for him in order to have his travel expenses paid, even though he claims Dobson was operating from a $115 million budget compared with $100,000 for PFOX.

òHe spoke at a national conference for Concerned Women for America about four years ago and was never paid an honorarium.

òHe claims that the religious Right pumped millions into its ongoing anti-gay media campaign ù that resulted in thousands of calls to æex-gayÆ organizations ù and then failed to follow through by helping the æex-gayÆ groups meet the increased needs for their services.

òFalzarano called for groups like Focus on the Family, with what he claims to be a $115 million budget, to provide at least $1 million to Exodus and other æex-gayÆ organizations. And he called for the FRC, which he claims to have a $16,000 million budget, to contribute at least $100,000. Attacks on the gay community

Falzarano also attacked segments of the gay community that he believes are failing to adequately address the HIV/AIDS crisis. He mentioned a specific incident in which he and others allegedly entered a gay pornographic bookstore in Washington, D.C. in which he claims he videotaped people practicing unsafe public sex.

He also criticized gay people who he claims have broken into æex-gayÆ meetings and disrupted them, when he claims æex-gayÆ organizations are trying to help gay people. And he said ôItÆs much easier to be gay and get a job in the White House than it is to æex-gay.Æö

Gay activists respond

Gay activists responded to the Falzarano developments and his public comments with both amusement and disgust.

ôI think he has gone off the deep end. [The press conference] was the most rambling, incoherent spectacle I have seen in some time and I am appalled that C-SPAN chose to air his circus act live. ItÆs almost a joke,ö said David Smith, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) ù the nationÆs largest gay and lesbian political organization based in Washington, D.C. ôHis diatribe was peppered with irrational inconsistencies and peppered with hypocritical statements, and his comments are not even worth legitimizing any serious analysis because it was so ridiculous.ö

Smith believes Falzarano is simply trying to exploit money to support his organization.

ôAnthony has his own twisted agenda. I bet he is trying to extort money from [the Right] in some way, shape or form to continue his payroll check. He is trying to keep a justification for a job and trying to extort money from these groups to support his operation. HeÆs turned gay bashing into a business,ö he said.

Many people who have been tracking the emerging rift between some æex-gayÆ leaders and the religious Right say the tensions were always present and are now being brought to the surface as a result of the RightÆs ongoing multi-million advertising campaign that promotes the æex-gayÆ movement, while the Right fails to provide money to struggling æex-gayÆ ministries themselves.

Surina Khan ù a research analyst for the Somerville, Mass.-based Political Research Associates (PRA), which tracks the national religious Right ù said she believes the religious Right and the æex-gayÆ movement are suffering from ônatural growing painsö that are common to any new partnership.

ôI think the Right will use the æex-gayÆ movement as long as itÆs a political opportunity for them. As soon as it ceases to be one, they will find another opportunity to promote their anti-gay agenda. The Right has had an anti-gay agenda to roll back civil rights for gay and lesbian people and [using] æex-gayÆ people is a way for them to do that. But certain [æex-gayÆ] leaders are now seeing the Right is not real sincere in their support of the æex-gayÆ movement and are political opportunists, but the partnership will stay as long as it continues to be a political opportunity for the Right,ö said Khan, who believes the RightÆs advertising campaign has helped pronounce the division.

ôI think there are people within the æex-gayÆ movement who are really sincere in their belief that it is possible for gay people to change and then there are those people are only really interested in rolling back rights for gay and lesbian people. ... I think the advertising campaign brought it to the surface because we saw millions of dollars pumped into this advertising campaign that clearly was political, and some people in the æex-gayÆ movement were able to see the political agenda behind the ad campaign. At first, they didnÆt really pay much attention to it because it brought them so much visibility, but I can understand the frustration that these organizations are doing multi-million-dollar ad campaigns and not supporting the æex-gayÆ organizations with the resources they have available to them.ö

Smith suspects the Falzarano developments are ôa personnel squabbleö resulting from the ômorally bankruptö concept of an æex-gayÆ movement.
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