Update on the Empty Legal Threats from Exodus International Over Billbaord Parody

Posted on | March 16, 2006

It has been about two weeks since the Exodus International parody cease-and-desist letters were received by Justin Watt, author of Justinsomnia, and the blog Ex-Gay Watch from right-wing law firm the Liberty Council. The letters demanded that images that parodied a photo of a billboard that Exodus International, a supposed ex-gay organization with apparent problems with math and a former chairman caught hitting on men in a gay bar, had erected and photographed be removed from their respective websites. While Ex-Gay Watch did take the image down Justinsomnia did not and numerous blogs, including this one, posted the picture in support of Justinsomnia and in protest of the attempts of Exodus International and the Liberty Council to infringe on the free speech rights of their critics. Jason Griffy posted the image on his blog, Pattern Recognition, along with other parodies including one that mocked the the Liberty Council using the same billboard background. Griffy, in a post entitled "Religious? Litigious?" encouraged others to make their own parodies.

Apparently nothing else has come of it. In spite of a threat from the Liberty Council, nothing else seems to have happened as of yet. Neither myself nor any of the other bloggers who posted Justin’s parody, at least to my knowledge, have received cease-and-desist letters from Exodus International via the Liberty Council. The Liberty Council has not sent any follow-ups to Justin either. Friday marks the second week since the cease-and-desist letters were received so I hope Exodus International and the Liberty Council have wised up to the fact that they have no case and are walking the line of malicious prosecution should they decide to take action against any of the bloggers who posted the image parodies.

For fun I have decided to post some of the new ones along with Justin’s original one:

Justinsomnia Parody of Exodus International Billboard