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On ‘Up w/ Chris Hayes,’ Richard Kim Challenges NOM’s Maggie Gallagher on Her Support for Ex-Gay Therapy

Gallagher, an opponent of same-sex marriage, denies she ever supported ex-gay therapy—but a look at her record proves otherwise.

Press Room

February 13, 2012

Richard Kim, executive editor of TheNation.com, and fellow panelists appear on MSNBC’s Up w/ Chris Hayes to discuss the issues of same-sex marriage (top clip) and Obama’s recent compromise on contraception access (bottom). The first section features a heated debate in which Kim confronts conservative columnist Maggie Gallagher, formerly of the National Organization for Marriage, about her support for gay reparative therapy and for her comments pathologizing homosexuality as a dysfunction. In the segment, Gallagher denies those charges, saying, “I have not done any of those things!”

In the second segment, Kim returns and reads the text of an article Gallagher wrote in 2001 called “Fixing Sexual Orientation,” in which Gallagher praises a study on “ex-gay” therapy, calls homosexuality a “sexual dysfunction” and pleads for more research and support (including federal money) for “human beings seeking help overcoming sexual dysfunctions.”

—Elizabeth Whitman

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