Wayne Besen is the Executive Director of Truth Wins Out, an organization that monitors the Religious Right, fights for LGBTQ equality and debunks the “ex-gay” conversion industry (TruthWinsOut.org).

He the author of Lies with a Straight Face: Exposing the Cranks and Cons Inside the ‘Ex-Gay’ Industry (2023), Bashing Back: Wayne Besen on GLBT People, Politics and Culture (2007), and Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the ‘Ex-Gay’ Myth (2003).

A former talk radio host at Chicago’s Progressive Talk, WCPT 820-AM, Besen has appeared on leading news and political talk shows including: 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 USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Advocate, Newsweek, TIME, The Washington Blade, Metro Weekly, The Sun-Sentinel, The Nation, and Mother Jones.

Prior to founding Truth Wins Out, Besen served as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ organization. He worked for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, and served as a press secretary on a U.S. Senate race in Maine. Besen graduated from University of Florida in 1993. Besen’s recent social commentaries can be seen at TikTok @thewaynebesenshow.

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