The American
Civil Liberties Union is defending a heterosexual blogger
who received a cease-and-desist letter from Exodus
International after he parodied the group's
"ex-gay reparative therapy" billboards on his
Web site.
The Exodus
billboards, which Santa Rosa, Calif., blogger Justin
Watt viewed online, read, "Gay? Unhappy?
www.exodus.to." Watt responded by posting
"Straight? Unhappy? www.gay.com" on his site,
Justinsomnia.org. Though denounced by major medical
groups like the American Psychiatric Association and
the American Psychological Association, Exodus's
reparative therapy attempts to turn gay people straight.
"The
moment I saw the billboards last September, I was deeply
offended. The inspiration for the parody I created
came to me instantly. How would straight people feel
if their very being, their sense of self, was being so
overtly disparaged?" asked Watt. "[Exodus's]
response was to try to intimidate me into taking the
image down. It's troubling that an organization as big
as Exodus would go to such great lengths to silence
its critics."
Earlier this
month Watt received a letter from antigay legal group
Liberty Counsel--working on behalf of
Exodus--ordering Watt to take down the parody,
saying it violated Exodus's intellectual property rights and
threatening legal action if he didn't heed its orders. The
ACLU responded by sending a letter to Liberty Counsel
on Wednesday telling it to drop its attempts to censor
Watt, citing the Constitution's First Amendment
protection of parodies.
"Parodies
like Justin's are protected by the First Amendment as a form
of political commentary," said Ann Brick, staff
attorney with the ACLU. "Just as a group like Exodus
has a constitutionally protected right to say whatever
it wants to about gay people, even when that view has
been roundly condemned by every major psychological and
medical organization, Justin has a right to use parody
to voice his opposition." (The Advocate)
