Page 66 - Push Back

Rondeau explains Kirk and Madsen’s techniques of “desensitization,” “jamming,” and
“conversion” this way:

Desensitization is described as inundating the public in a “continuous flood of gay-related
advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible. If straights can’t shut off the
shower, they may at least eventually get used to being wet.” But the activists did not mean
advertising in the usual marketing context, but, rather, quite a different approach: “The main
thing is to talk about gayness until the issue becomes thoroughly tiresome.” They add, “Seek
desensitization and nothing more... If you can get [straights] to think [homosexuality] is just
another thing - meriting no more than a shrug of the shoulders - then your battle for legal and
social rights is virtually won...”

Jamming, explains Rondeau “is psychological terrorism meant to silence expression of or even
support for dissenting opinion...”

[P]erhaps the highest-profile example of jamming occurred after the 1998 murder of University
of Wyoming freshman Matthew Shepard. Lured from a bar, robbed, and savagely beaten by two
men, Shepard died five days later of head injuries. In the frenzied, saturation media coverage
that followed, the press and homosexual activists singled out conservative Christians as having
created a “climate of anti-gay hate” in which such a brutal act could happen.

NBC’s Today show took the lead, focusing on a Christian ad campaign running at the time that
offered to help homosexuals change their orientation. Reporter David Gregory narrated: “The
ads were controversial for portraying gays and lesbians as sinners who had made poor choices,
despite the growing belief that homosexuality may be genetic... Have the ads fostered a climate
of anti-gay hate that leads to incidents like the killing of Matthew Shepard? Gay rights activists
say the ads convey a message that gay people are defective.”

And in a now-infamous interview, Today’s Katie Couric asked Wyoming governor Jim
Gerringer: “Some gay rights activists have said that some conservative political organizations
like the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family are
contributing to this anti-homosexual atmosphere by having an ad campaign saying if you are a
homosexual you can change your orientation. That prompts people to say, ‘If I meet someone
who’s homosexual, I’m going to take action to try to convince them or try to harm them.’ Do you
believe that such groups are contributing to this climate?...”

As if to add even more shame to the whole-hog jamming of Christians after the Shepard murder,
in 2004 a comprehensive new investigation by ABC News 20/20 concluded that homosexuality
likely wasn’t a factor in Shepard’s murder, but rather that Shepard had been targeted for his
money.

So much for desensitization and jamming. But what about “conversion”? Here Kirk and Madsen
announce defiantly:

We mean conversion of the American’s emotions, mind, and will, though a planned