"This was a David-and-Goliath story," said Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

"The pro-life movement and its allies in Congress went up against the combined resources of Hollywood celebrities, the research establishment, and a wealthy for-profit biotechnology industry, and fought them to a standstill," he said.

"As we indicated on the application, our purpose at the National PTA exhibit is to distribute educational publications promoting inclusive school environments for ex-gay students and educators," said Regina Griggs, PFOX's executive director. "We fit right in because one of the themes of this year's National PTA convention is diversity. Ex gays are people, too. And it's about time the National PTA recognized that fact of life," she added.

Their tactics are familiar. I encountered them more than 20 years ago as President Reagan's secretary of the interior, when I clashed with extreme environmental groups adept at taking out of context -- or in some cases creating -- statements that, once twisted, were attributed to me as if they were my religious views.

In the long term, the charity wants to work with secular groups to help sex addicts such as chronic masturbators or heavy users of hardcore pornography.

'We're trying to get in to speak at youth conferences', said Lisa Guinness, the charity's smiley, silver-haired director. 'We'd love to take our stuff out to non-Christians, so we're going to develop some materials which could do that.'