"I walk in, and right there at the front bar, I see John Paulk, I was floored," Besen said.
He became evasive, but he was good at it, he was very calm."Īfter the other HRC staffers arrived at the gay bar, they too recognized the man as Paulk. "He said his last name was 'Clint,' but he wanted to know why I was asking. "I asked him if he was gay," Herschaft recalled, "and he said 'yes.'" Herschaft then asked "John" his last name. According to Herschaft, the bar patron identified himself as "John" and later said he "was from Colorado Springs, Colo." While waiting for his colleagues to arrive, Herschaft engaged the man he believed to be Paulk in conversation. "I recognized him almost immediately, but I wanted to be absolutely sure, so I called Wayne." Herschaft also called another HRC colleague, Ryan Obermiller, a merchandise assistant for the organization. "He walked in and sat at the bar," Herschaft said. Paulk is well known not just for the Newsweek cover story on him and his wife Anne, a self-described ex-lesbian, but also dozens of advertisements placed in mainstream newspapers trumpeting "conversion" to heterosexuality through prayer.Īuthor of "Not Afraid to Change The Remarkable Story of How One Man Overcame Homosexuality," Paulk is also on staff with Focus on the Family, where he manages the organization's Homosexuality and Gender Department.ĭaryl Herschaft, an HRC staffer, first spotted Paulk in the bar at approximately 10 p.m.
P's, camera in hand, and confronted Paulk. Besen, who recently authored an HRC report on the ex-gay movement, rushed over to Mr. P's, a gay bar in Washington's DuPont Circle neighborhood, but said his only intention was to use the bathroom.Ī gay man who works for the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay political group, was at the bar on Tuesday night, recognized Paulk, and immediately called Wayne Besen, HRC's associate director of communications. John Paulk, board chair for the umbrella ex-gay group Exodus International, admitted in an interview with Southern Voice that he was in Mr. Southern Voice, Thursday, 21 September 2000Ī prominent ex-gay leader once featured as "going straight" on the cover of Newsweek magazine was confronted and photographed by activists Tuesday night patronizing a gay bar in Washington, D.C.