After backing an “ex-gay” group,
Maggie Gallagher, a co-founder of the National Organization for
Marriage (NOM), claims she's not qualified to express an opinion on
“ex-gay” therapy.
Last week, the 52-year-old Gallagher
praised lawyer Chuck Limandri as “brave” for defending JONAH, a
New Jersey-based Jewish “ex-gay” group, in a lawsuit filed by the
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
“Chuck Limandri, my old friend from
the Carrie Prejean, Prop 8 fights, is a heckuva a lawyer and one
brave man,” Gallagher wrote. “He's taking on the Southern
Poverty Law Center's massive legal machine to defend the right of
Jewish gay people to seek help.”
On Thursday, she backpedaled, saying
that she was not backing such therapies.
“My last NRO post on Chuck Limandri
and the ConscienceDefense.org case he will argue tomorrow in court in
Jersey City has generated predictable headline in the gay/left press
that I'm now backing 'conversion therapy,'” she
wrote. “I don't back something called 'conversion therapy.' I
don't even really know what conversion therapy is, and I'm not
qualified to express an opinion on a particular kind of therapy.”
“I back the right of gay people to
seek the kind of counseling help they want, not the kind the SPLC
lawyers want them to have, including help to live their sexual lives
with integrity, according to their own values, not the SPLC's values.
That's all.”
“Gallagher is lying,”
EqualityMatters.org's
Luke Brinker wrote in response.
“Her organization has consistently
trumpeted 'ex-gay' therapy, including urging supporters to oppose a
ban on the degrading practice.”
“This isn't the first time Gallagher
has lied about her support for 'ex-gay' therapy. In February 2012,
she appeared on MSNBC's Up with Chris Hayes, where she
asserted that despite NOM's frequent promotion of pro-conversion
therapy articles, neither she nor the organization backed the
practice,” Brinker added.