Lies with a Straight Face

Wayne Besen is an author and LGBTQ Rights Advocate. He spent almost three decades researching, monitoring and debunking the "ex-gay" myth. He exposed their key leaders as frauds, helped shut down leading conversion groups and created a robust record documenting how the "ex-gay" industry is toxic and harms the very people it claims to help.In 2006, Besen founded Truth Wins Out to help put "ex-gay" programs out of business. He is a former spokesperson for The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ political organization. Besen has appeared on leading news and political talk shows: NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, CNN's AC360, Fox's O'Reilly Factor and The Sean Hannity Show, and Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.He has been quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Advocate, Newsweek, The Washington Blade, TIME, The Nation, and Mother Jones. Besen graduated from University of Florida in 1993.