One doesn’t hear much about ex-gays these days, but NBC recently profiled a group that traveled to the U.S. Capitol to protest some upcoming legislation that would criminalize conversion therapy. That is, counseling for gay people who wish to be celibate or straight.

The story appeared on the print portion of NBC’s site. Oddly, the network had no video of this group. It was a product of NBC Out, a branch of the newsroom that concentrates on news about homosexuality and, as I wrote last year, serves as a cheerleader for LGBTQ issues. And the reporting left out a huge angle; the name of the Christian ministry backing this ex-gay group, as well as a few other things.

NBC’s lede was straightforward enough.

A group of people from across the country who formerly identified as gay and transgender have descended upon Washington this week to share their stories and lobby against two proposed LGBTQ-rights bills.

The group is made up of 15 members of Church United and Changed, two California-based organizations that seek to provide community for, and protect the rights of, “formers” — individuals who formerly identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

The bills the group is lobbying against are H.R. 5, better known as the Equality Act, and H.R. 3570, or the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act. Both have been supported by the country’s major LGBTQ advocacy organizations, though neither is expected to become law anytime soon.

Several members of Changed, interviewed by NBC, said they didn’t buy the idea that gays are discriminated against.

Despite federal hate crimes data and academic research to the contrary — along with countless anecdotal news stories — the “formers” question the existence of anti-LGBTQ discrimination and thus the necessity of such bills.

“I live in Portland [Oregon] and I don’t see the discrimination that LGBTQ people talk about,” Kathy Grace Duncan, a member of Changed who formerly identified as a transgender man, told NBC News. “They’re asking for certain rights in this legislation, but these are rights that they already have.”

Jim Domen, founder of Church United, identifies as formerly gay. He said, “Sexual behavior should not be a protected right.”

After this, NBC interviews activist groups such as Human Rights Watch that politely say the Changed folks haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. This balance is, of course, basic journalism. It would be good to see similar interviews with religious conservatives in many stories about the work of groups on the cultural left.