Ex-gay rhetoric and the polics of sexualy: the Christian antigay/pro-fay movement's "tth love" ad mpaign - PubMed

Contents:

• WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?
• WHY ARE HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS SO AAID OF “EX-GAYS”?
• EX-GAY RHETORIC AND THE POLICS OF SEXUALY: THE CHRISTIAN ANTIGAY/PRO-FAY MOVEMENT'S "TTH LOVE" AD MPAIGN
• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• ‘EX-GAY’ MEN FIGHT BACK AGAST VIEW THAT HOMOSEXUALY CAN’T BE CHANGED
• NETFLIX’S “PRAY AWAY” CONONTS THE LI OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT
• EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS

WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?

First, for every well-known ex-ex-gay, there are 10 or 100 or 1, 000 unknown ex-gays—meang people who formerly lived as homosexuals but no longer do. Send, the term "ex-gay" has lots of different meangs (some lears like the term, while others don't), rangg om, "I ed to be volved same-sex relatnships, and I am no longer am, " to, "My romantic and sexual sir have changed om homosexual to heterosexual, " along wh everythg between.

WHY ARE HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS SO AAID OF “EX-GAYS”?

I know some ex-gays who are thrilled to be ee om their old liftyl spe the fact that they have not bee heterosexual, and they are overflowg wh ntentment, livg for God as celibate sgl. I know others who, through unselg or a ep spirual enunter wh the Lord, lerally went om homosexual to heterosexual (this is more mon than you might realize), and they have lived like this for s now.

EX-GAY RHETORIC AND THE POLICS OF SEXUALY: THE CHRISTIAN ANTIGAY/PRO-FAY MOVEMENT'S "TTH LOVE" AD MPAIGN

The only fully documented, book-length, longudal study of the qutn of ex-gays, entled Ex-Gays?, by Stanton Jon and Mark Yarhoe, me to very posive nclns, spe beg ridiculed by gay activists.

But if we foc on changg someone om homosexualy to heterosexualy rather than om homosexualy to hols, there is the possibily of great tratn and even disappotment and backslidg. That's why we mt jo together grace and tth when reachg out to those who intify as gay or lbian, monstratg passn and longsufferg whout promisg the tth of the gospel. The bottom le is that homosexual practice, unr all circumstanc, is sful, and nothg n possibly change that fact, but is equally te that there is liberty and new life J, and those willg to take up the cross and follow Him will never need to look back.

Sce I expect gay bloggers and ex-ex-gays to rpond to this article crilly, if you are one of the many who, by God's grace, have e out of homosexualy, please take a moment to rpond here as well. The 19th century wrer Osr Wil is revered by many the gay and lbian muny but, believe me, if he were alive now, he’d be totally exasperated wh the whg, hysteril malntents who domate today’s gay lobby. If n be proved that homosexual people n “nvert” to heterosexualy, then the theory that “gays are born that way” is cisively exposed as junk science.

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

If “ex-gays” exist, this means that people n change their sexual orientatn — and this means that the foundatn the homosexual rights movement, the ia that they are “born that way” and th nnot help themselv, go right out the wdow. Many ex-gays are aaid to e out of the closet bee of the harassment they will receive — their nam, phone numbers and personal rmatn posted on gay webs, attacked at ex-gay exhib booths, prs releas issued agast them, etc.

The tactics of gay activists are to go after anyone who out publicly as ex-gay, force them back to the closet, and then claim that ex-gays don’t exist bee there aren’t any out public. The more-or-ls “official” posn of the homosexual rights movement is that “there has never been a sgle documented se of change sexual orientatn. ”3 This is an odd assertn, sce a tailed review of homosexual obuari showed several exampl of men who were happily married, who had children, and who nsired themselv “straight” sudnly abandong their fai and embracg the homosexual “liftyle.

For example, Nicholas Cummgs, a former Print of the Amerin Psychologil Associatn, has stated that he knows of hundreds of homosexuals who have succsfully changed their orientatn.

‘EX-GAY’ MEN FIGHT BACK AGAST VIEW THAT HOMOSEXUALY CAN’T BE CHANGED

He should know, sce he and his staff have treated over 2, 000 homosexual people wh mental problems, many of whom sired to change their orientatn. But the “scientific” methods ed this study would make any legimate rearcher crge; the “study” managers did not terview a large group of “ex-gays;” they simply sought out people who claimed that they had been harmed (an tensive procs that took a full five years) and then nmned such therapy.

Robert Spzer of Columbia Universy surveyed a wi range of ex-gays and found that 1% of the men and 4% of the women had been clilly prsed durg the prev twelve months. Regardls of the half-baked ratnalizatns and “studi” they may posss, homosexual activists are simply aaid of ex-gays, the same manner that ancient Greeks were aaid of the basilisk. Now may be impractil to “nvert” totally om homosexualy to heterosexualy, but if unselg n allow a gay man to rpond sexually to women, should be enuraged and appld, not lambasted or lampooned.

NETFLIX’S “PRAY AWAY” CONONTS THE LI OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT

In natns where “nversn therapy” has been banned, homosexual activists have liberately approached Christian unselors pretendg to want to bee straight, and have lied to them orr to strip them of their licens.

EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS

As one leadg English homosexual activist said, “We want to root out therapists and psychiatrists who are practicg the techniqu and ultimately brg an end to them through exposg them, as well as disptg their meetgs. Psychologists and unselors the jurisdictns are forbidn to unsel homosexuals their attempts to bee straight — even if they want this unselg — but are perfectly ee to tell a straight person all about the many alleged benefs of homosexualy. It is morally repugnant and downright dangero the way the extremists monize young people and prey on the fears of parents through their so-lled ex-gay programs.

This report expos the extent to which the zealots will go, cludg reformulatg their ex-gay snake oil at the expense of vulnerable children and young adults. The leadg anizatn that advot for the nstutnal rights of the dividual to terme for themselv what help they need is Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX). Spzer, who had been vicly attacked by homosexuals for years, and who was sufferg om Parkson’s disease, fally gave to the prsure and announced that he was repudiatg the rults of his studi this field.

For more rmatn, see the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force 2006 report entled “March 2, 1996 Youth the Crosshairs: The Third Wave of Ex-Gay Activism. This discursive ntt had the potential to impact activist polics greatly, but this impact was migated signifintly by a siar set of ads produced rponse by an opposg movement: the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr movement. My mom is a problem solver, and the next day she hand me a stack of papers she had prted out om the Inter about reorientatn, or "ex-gay, " therapy.