Truth Wins Out Reflects on the
Passing of Rev. Jerry Falwell

by Wayne Besen
May 23, 2007

Televangelist's Career Defined By Opposition to GLBT Equality

WASHINGTON - Truth Wins Out reflected on today's passing of Rev. Jerry Falwell, a right wing televangelist who built his empire with staunch opposition to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

"It is with great regret that Rev. Jerry Falwell never moderated his position on homosexuality," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "While our hearts go out to his family, we can't help but to reflect on his life and think about all of the families he's torn apart and teenagers that committed suicide because he made them feel inferior. He never missed an opportunity to kick our better angels to the curb and capitalize on our lesser demons to advance his career."

Falwell began as a segregationist preacher that opposed interracial marriage. As with his opposition to homosexuality, he used the Bible to justify his prejudice and discrimination. In 1958 Falwell gave a sermon on segregation stating that, "The true Negro does not want integration...He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final."

In the late 1970's Falwell founded the Moral Majority, an organization that laid the groundwork for the modern Religious Right. When AIDS hit the gay community, Falwell remarked, "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals."

In 1998 Falwell embraced the ex-gay ministries and touted a cure for homosexuals. He teamed up with Michael Johnston, an HIV+ ex-gay leader. In 2003 Johnston was treated in a sex addiction facility in Kentucky after he allegedly had unprotected sex with men he met online.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks Falwell said on the 700 Club, "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen'."

"Unfortunately, the anti-gay infrastructure built by Falwell survives him," stated Besen. "With the founding of Liberty University and his legal arm, the Liberty Counsel, his legacy of intolerance will continue for quite some time.

Wayne Besen is a nationally recognized advocate for gay and lesbian rights. He has appeared as a guest on leading news and political talk shows including: NBC Nightly News, The Roseanne Show, CNN's Talk Back Live and The Point, Fox's O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes, Fox News and MSNBC News.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the "ex-gay" myth and educates America about gay life.