This story appeared on Lifesite, a Catholic news site, but it wasn’t picked up by local or traditional media.

The Gays assualt Ex-Gays event supposedly occured at a fair in Virginia last week. PFOX (Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays) put out a breathless press release.

It appears, that’s about all it was, a breathless press release without enough credibility for media to investigate. To be fair, even Lifesite didn’t publish the full account.

If there was an altracation, it’s wrong, and if an assault occurred someone should be charged.
Someone would have seen this event, and the police would have a report and breathless exaggeration doesn’t help credibility.

Ex-Gay watch did some digging. So did the Arlington Police Department.

Oh. Focus on the Family also reported this er, event as fact. FotF Exodus director, Alan Chambers did an audio chat with the PFOX director.
Dismay all around.

Unless PFOX can offer hard evidence that such an incident occurred, one is hard pressed to conclude that it did, or at least that it happened the way they describe. One could speculate that a heated discussion with a fairgoer took place, as Daniel Hays seems to remember, and perhaps some literature was thrown away, but this is a long way from an attack. We challenge Regina Griggs to provide evidence to support her story. Certainly, it is in PFOX’s best interest that such evidence - if it exists - be made public.

Until such time, we must remain skeptical of this report. And we also have to ask why Focus on the Family and other Christian news organizations would report such an important story without some basic fact checking. If XGW can do this, why can’t they?

And what if it turns out this incident did not happen? Will PFOX make amends with the fair organizers, the “gay group” in the other booth, the Arlington PD, and even the public? Will Focus on the Family, LifeSite and Alan Chambers issue retractions and apologies? And what will it say about the veracity of such reports from PFOX in the past?