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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Hoaxes and the Hoaxing Hoaxers Who Hoax Them

posted by on March 13 at 10:54 AM

So about Eunicure, that organization I wrote about yesterday

Allegedly based in Topeka, Kansas, Eunicure describes itself as “a network of volunteer medical professionals… providing the only one-hundred percent effective treatment for curing homosexuality.” Eunicure’s treatment is castration-based, so I’m thinking it’s not all that effective where female homosexuality is concerned. But as we see with religious groups and other gay haters, it’s really the buttsex that fascinates ‘em. (Lesbians and heterosexuals, for the record, have buttsex too.) Well, late yesterday afternoon I managed to get a hold of Eunicure’s media liaison, Andrew Johnson, and we had a very pleasant phone conversation. But I must say that Mr. Johnson, hoax or no hoax, had to be the least informed media liaison in the whole sordid history of media liaisoning.

Can you tell me about the service?

The idea is that, if you’re gay, and if you’ve tried everything else, and you want to be straight, or if you can’t be straight but want to get right with God, after you get a full physical, and a full psychological battery of tests, we can refer you to one of the places around the country where a surgeon would be wiling to perform the service. We’re a referral service. We don’t do medical work ourselves. We refer and fund.

So you guys pick up the tab for these castrations?

Yes. It can run anywhere from $1,600 to $2,600. Depending on location, mostly. Everything in New York City is more expensive than in Kansas City, obviously. And we don’t pay for cosmetic implants, just for taking the testicles out.

How many of these procedures has Eunicure paid for?

Since 2004… it’s been… let me see… let me see… I can’t give you an exact number… between 150 paid for in full… and 150 we paid for in part.

Can you put me in touch with men you’ve Eunicured?

No. We have to respect patient confidentiality.

Your area code is 913—that’s Kansas City, not Topeka.

I’m a media liaison and I work for a lot of different companies. My office is in Kansas City.

How long have you worked with Eunicure?

Three weeks now.

The mailing address listed on Eunicure’s website is the street address of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Are you guys affiliated with Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps?

We’re inspired by their teachings. We don’t see eye to eye on everything. But we have the same goals. We are not affiliated though.

If you’re not affiliated, why do you share offices?

Because Dr. Timothy Feathertree is part of the organization.

Where is Dr. Feathertree, Eunicure’s medical director, licensed to practice medicine? I can’t find him on any databases in Kansas or anywhere else.

He’s not licensed right now. He’s not working as a physician. Right now. Or I’m not sure if he is. I’m not up on everything right now. But what was explained to me is, if you’re working as a medical director, you don’t actually have to be licensed to practice medicine.

Your website was registered only a month ago.

Eunicure has been in existence since mid-2004, but it was just a word of mouth thing. People these days seem to think that you can’t exist until the moment you went on the web.

Eunicure is soliciting for donations. Is it a charity?

I haven’t checked out what their filings are, but they tell me they’re a nonprofit.

Is Eunicure registered with the IRS? Is it a registered 501(c)3?

I honestly don’t know.

For a spokesman, you don’t seem to know much.

[Laughs.] Frankly, we only went live two weeks ago. We registered the website a month ago, we’ve been working on it for a bit. We had it out for a very little while. Only Monday we started to let people know we were here on the web.

Before we got off the phone, Mr. Johnson promised to get back to me about where exactly Dr. Feathertree is licensed to practice medicine and where he went to medical school. He e-mailed me later…

I have reached Dr. Feathertree’s wife, Jennifer, and she tells me that I misunderstood—Dr. Feathertree is a Doctor of Biology, not of Medicine. He is South African (no, not Nigerian) and graduated in ‘85 from the University of Cape Town. He has never practiced medicine anywhere let alone in the U.S. As I noted, Eunicure does not perform any medical procedures itself, it just refer people to surgeons willing to perform the procedure. Dr. Feathertree limits himself to reviewing the qualifications of the doctors he refers patients to.

I suppose the University of Cape Town was chosen because it’s so very far away, and calling to check up on Mr. Johnson’s claim might prove logistically difficult. (What time zone is it in? It’s in Africa—do they even have phones?) But the University of Cape Town actually has a zippy little website and I was able to blast an e-mail off to the student-records office. “I have checked our records correctly and could find NONE under the name below,” writes Sipho Masha in the student-records office.

Of course, I thought this was a hoax all along—come on—but it’s a great idea for a hoax, and it’s really a shame that it wasn’t better done. The dead giveaway? When I was speaking with Andrew Johnson about why Eunicure shared a mailing address with Westboro Baptist Church, he said…

If Dr. Feathertree was going to get hate mail, he might as well get it at that address.

RSS icon Comments

1

Univerity of Cape Town is an amzing university in the same league as UW or Seattle University--if not superior. They have computers there and everything! This doctor might be another story, but the there is nothing shady about the university itself.

Posted by Jason | March 13, 2008 11:05 AM
2

Hmmm. And I'll bet you $10 that all those "donations" end up with Westboro Baptist Church. Wonder if that isn't tax fraud? Maybe the IRS would be interested in hearing about this.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 13, 2008 11:11 AM
3

I wonder if Dr Feathertree is any relation to Mrs Featherbottom?

Posted by michael strangeways | March 13, 2008 11:55 AM
4

SCHWEET!

Posted by DanFan | March 13, 2008 11:57 AM
5

Speaking of hoaxes, Dan, that Conservapedia top ten list you linked to was a hoax as well.

Posted by julia | March 13, 2008 11:58 AM
6

If the Conservapedia thing is a hoax, why does it so closely match the current top 10 they have listed on their own website?

http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Statistics

Posted by Jerry | March 13, 2008 12:32 PM
7

Also, checking the charitable organizations and business entities on the Kansas Sec. Of State site doesn't show anything. On the other hand, for $27, someone could make this real.

http://www.accesskansas.org/srv-corporations/index.do

Posted by Robert | March 13, 2008 3:22 PM
8

Hi,

www.guidestar.org lists all of the 501(c)(3) charitable organizations and , and Eunicure isn't listed.

They claim to be a non-profit in their FAQs (but don't claim to be a 501(c)(3), and are soliciting donations, so they may well have some tax fraud problems.

Being an idiot isn't a crime, but tax fraud is!

Ivan

Posted by Ivan Ptizelov | March 13, 2008 5:54 PM

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