UPDATE: Since Ex-Gay Pride Month was a complete bust, Staver will now receive the award during Ex-Gay Awareness Month.
While Ex-Gay Pride Month organizers continue to search for a theme song , Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel is set to receive the Ex-Gay Pride Freedom Award. Staver is slated to speak at the Ex-Gay Pride Month’s reception later this month at the Family Research Council, and will receive the award from Christopher Doyle and Greg Quinlan.
As head of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University Law School, Staver represented ex-gay cause célèbre Lisa Miller, who kidnapped her daughter and fled to Central America in order to prevent her former partner from receiving custody. Some reports say he may have been involved in the kidnapping.
Staver has fought laws that try to limit the practice of ex-gay therapy on minors and likened homosexuality to alcoholism, pedophilia and kleptomania. He also defends laws criminalizing homosexuality and fears President Obama will impose “forced homosexuality.”
Voice of the Voiceless (VoV) and Equality and Justice for All (E&JA) are excited to announce that Mat Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel, will accept the 2013 Ex-Gay Pride Freedom Award when he addresses the First Annual Ex-Gay Pride Celebration on July 31, 2013 at the Family Research Council Action in Washington, D.C.
“We are thrilled to honor Dean Staver at the First Annual Ex-Gay Pride Celebration on July 31,” commented former homosexual Christopher Doyle, President & Co-Founder of VoV. “He has been a champion in defending the freedoms of clients who pursue counseling to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) and has tirelessly advocated for their God-given right of self-determination and Constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I can’t think of a better person to receive this award!”
Dean Mathew D. Staver is the Founder and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. Liberty Counsel is a litigation, education, and policy organization with hundreds of affiliate attorneys in all 50 states. Liberty Counsel was one of the first religious liberty litigation organizations in the country. In the early 1990s, Dean Staver was one of the first to pioneer a new legal strategy and theory in litigating religious liberty cases.
Dean Staver has been on the front lines in defending the rights of clients who pursue counseling to overcome unwanted SSA. Staver was the lead Counsel in Pickup v. Brown, which challengedthe California ban on change therapy (SB 1172) that would prohibit any counseling to minors seeking to diminish or eliminate unwanted SSA, behavior, or identity. Oral arguments were heard in April 2013 in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with a decision still pending.
“In honor of his heroic work on behalf of former homosexuals and clients who seek change, we are excited to congratulate Dean Staver with this award and express our deepest gratitude as he continues to advocate for our rights,” commented former homosexual Greg Quinlan, Board member of Equality and Justice for All, who is co-hosting the First Annual Ex-Gay Pride Celebration on July 31 at the Family Research Counsel Action in Washington, D.C.
