"Ex-Gays": The Big Threat to the LGBT Movement

Contents:

• GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY
• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• HOW A JAM FRAN MOVIE GOT AN 'EX-GAY' PASTOR'S 'CONVERSN' WRONG
• EX-GAY MARRIED, BEME A PASTOR
• WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?
• PASTOR: EX-HOOKERS’ ANOTED KE TURNED GAY MAN STRAIGHT
• WHY ARE HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS SO AAID OF “EX-GAYS”?
• ‘EX-GAY’ PASTOR N’T SUE VIMEO FOR REMOVG CHURCH'S ACUNT, APPEALS URT L
• AN EX- EX-GAY LBIAN PASTOR PREACH TOLERANCE BRAZIL
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS PASTO
• MOS-VA GAY AI TEMPI DI PUT
• THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• MILO YIANNOPOULOS SAYS HE IS ‘EX-GAY,’ WANTS TO REHABILATE ‘NVERSN THERAPY’

GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY

I never wrote the article but I have ntued to work wh our GLBT youth group and sadly I have learned that Benjie and Mike are not the only people wh our muny who thk nothg of takg advantage of gay teens who long for guidance and unndnal love and are stead given dgs and sex their place. The help that you need is not gog to be found the ex-gay movement, Mike, is gog to be found your g clean wh what you were really up to and tryg to repair the damage that you did to who knows how many young gay men. 2, 2010— -- The pastor of a Geia megachurch wh thoands of followers, who was twice married and is a father of four, is speakg out about his recent cisn to publicly clare he is gay.

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

I want to tell you that is not, " Jim Swilley said a vio shot the nonnomatnal megachuch Swilley found 25 years Swilley said g out was a cisn he's stggled wh sce childhood, he ma the announcement last month not for personal reasons -- he said he hop to save 52-year-old founr of Church the Now Conyers, Ga., said he's g out to help stem the recent ti of gay suicis Ameri and won't be swayed by some hateful msag that have been wrten about him onle. ""Hearg about the kids who are mtg suici, the reactn as a gay adult is, 'I wish I uld have jt talked to them for 15 mut or five mut and told them gets better, '" Savage said.

"Officials, Celebri Jo 'It Gets Better'Three weeks later, a cy uncil meetg Fort Worth, Texas, gay cy uncilman Joel Burns was moved to share his own emotnal story about how close he me to killg himself at age 13. Joseph Nilosi, a clil psychologist California who was then print of the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), the untry's largt anizatn for practners of ex-gay therapy. My mother might not have so easily found rmatn about ex-gay therapy had the Christian right not planted this stake the culture ad appeared 23 years after the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) classified homosexualy as a mental illns.

A small group of therapists ntued to practice talk therapy that enuraged patients to see homosexualy as a velopmental disorr, but they remaed on the ge until the Christian right took up their e. Foc on the Fay lled s new ex-gay mistry Love Won Out and talked about healg and rg for ex-gay movement turned the rhetoric of gay rights agast self: Shouldn't ex-gays be able to pursue therapy and live the liv they want whout facg discrimatn? Together wh the late Charl Soris, a psychiatrist who led the opposn to classifyg homosexualy as a mental illns, Nilosi formed NARTH 1992 as a "scientific anizatn that offers hope to those who stggle wh unwanted homosexualy.

HOW A JAM FRAN MOVIE GOT AN 'EX-GAY' PASTOR'S 'CONVERSN' WRONG

Nilosi remas NARTH's most visible are no reliable statistics for how many patients have received ex-gay treatment or how many therapists practice , but the late 1990s and early 2000s, ex-gay therapy enjoyed a legimacy hadn't sce the APA removed homosexualy om s diagnostic manual. Whether or not the Christian right's alliance wh the ex-gay movement had nstuted a D-Day the culture wars, had succsfully challenged the prevailg ia that the bt choice for gay people was to accept themselv. I read one of Nilosi's books, Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexualy, that he tri to posn himself as a supportive father figure, typifyg the sort of relatnship that he believ his patients never had wh their own father.

What translated to the larger culture was: The father of the 1973 revolutn the classifitn and treatment of homosexualy, who uld not be seen as jt another biased ex-gay csar wh an agenda, had validated ex-gay therapy. Richard Cohen, the founr of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays)-tend as the ex-gay unterpart to PFLAG (Parents, Fai, and Friends of Lbians and Gays)-was expelled om the Amerin Counselg Associatn for ethics vlatns. Among them were Alan Downg, the lead therapist of JONAH (Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy), who ma his patients strip and touch themselv ont of a mirror; NARTH member Christopher At, who was nvicted of "unlawfully, tentnally and knowgly [g] peratn of" a client; and Exod-affiliated Mike Jon, who asked a patient to take off his shirt and do ph-ups for movement also suffered several high-profile fectns.

But the sprg of my sophomore year, the disparate parts of myself I had managed to hold together-the part of me that thought beg gay was wrong, the part that slept wh men anyway, the part of myself I let the world see, and the part that suffered silence-me undone.

EX-GAY MARRIED, BEME A PASTOR

While took years of unselg to disabe myself of the ias I had learned while unrgog therapy wh Nilosi, was the first time I enuntered profsnals who were affirmg of my sexualy, and the first time I allowed myself to thk was all right to be gay. He looked like he do his Facebook pictur: solid and short, wh a shaved head and large brown had iated penncy-and-neglect proceedgs agast his parents at age 16 to pe ex-gay therapy.

WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?

After votg most of his life to gay activism, Glatze publicly nounced homosexualy on a right-wg webse 2007, left his partner of nearly a , and beme an "ex-gay" pastor wrote he was "repulsed" by homosexualy and s "pornographic" nature. If you look at the ex-gay movement and the power has over people, wh nversn therapy and those kds of thgs, 's ighteng to have a movie out there that tells people this kd of story about a nversn. On the other si you might thk this is the moment for him to start the journey back—not to beg gay—but a journey back to where he uld exist a healthy way society whout makg problematic posts on a blog, or givg an terview to some Christian right fundamentalist anizatn that really wanted to tell his story of nversn.

We started our own webse Young Gay Ameri, went on the road, and terviewed kids to show you don't have to move to New York or San Francis, or some big cy to be out and gay. Porém, as mensagens firam arquivadas, so el precisassem registrar um boletim orrê mais'Achava impossível mudar', diz ex-travti que hoje é pastor em MTEx-travti, pastor diz que 'cura gay' é possível na Marcha para J em MT.

But if out that Croe was told of the st advance and that the Cy of Worcter has charged gay groups for siar events, Croe may fd that this is attentn that he do not want. “But what if you are able to help te the church on how to rpond to the homosexual muny, ” the pastor untered, “how to share the love of Christ and stand for tth at the same time.

PASTOR: EX-HOOKERS’ ANOTED KE TURNED GAY MAN STRAIGHT

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. 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. 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.

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

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.

‘EX-GAY’ PASTOR N’T SUE VIMEO FOR REMOVG CHURCH'S ACUNT, APPEALS URT L

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 “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. ”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.

AN EX- EX-GAY LBIAN PASTOR PREACH TOLERANCE BRAZIL

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.

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.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS PASTO

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. 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. 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. (Photo: Flickr Commons/Joe Gratz)A feral appellate urt has led that an ex-gay Southern California pastor and his Christian mistry nnot take legal actn agast the onle vio hostg platform Vimeo after his acunt was removed for promotg “sexual orientatn change efforts.

” The word "sodomy" origated om the eponymo Old Ttament cy, which, as some terpretatns have , was stroyed by God retributn for homosexual acrdg to Lanna Holr, the lbian pastor behd the Cida Refúg evangelil church São Plo, this is all a big misunrstandg—the rult of a shoddy translatn eons ago. ”Th, “ is possible to live unr God's will and be homosexual, ” as Cida’s webse to a strip mall São Plo’s Santa Cecilia neighborhood, the church buildg looks more like a 70s-era youth rec center than a tradnal hoe of upstairs of the technilor space n f 200 people, and there’s an overflow room where hundreds more n follow Holr’s teachgs on a projector. Many have been phed out of other church that view homosexualy as a grievo knew om a young age that she was gay, but wasn’t until she was stgglg to rever om alhol and dg abe at age 21 that she nverted to Christiany.

MOS-VA GAY AI TEMPI DI PUT

A small church library is packed wh DVDs and books on Christian homosexualy, many emblazoned wh Holr’s and Rocha’s grng uple now disavows their history wh the ex-gay movement.

”Theirs is a small but ccial piece of Brazil’s relig jigsaw puzzle, reprentg both the charismatic Prottantism that’s gag ground here and the untry’s historic progrsivens on gay rights.

Prottants, meanwhile, grew om 15 percent to 22 percent, propelled largely by the spread of Pentestal church favelas and other workg-class Rearch CenterAnd though discrimatn is still mon the untry’s ral areas, Brazilian gay upl have most of the same legal rights that straight upl societal forc are startg to meld: One study found that there are at least 10 gay-centric evangelil church Brazil, mostly ncentrated R Janeiro and São not all of the untry’s Prottant superstars are as open-md as Holr and Rocha are. One proment evangelil polician, Mar Feliciano, served as human rights missner 2013, but his tenure was marred by racist and homophobic statements that he posted on Twter, cludg that the "rot of homosexual feelgs leads to hatred, crime, rejectn, ” and that AIDS is “gay ncer.

THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.

” Silas Malafaia, a proment televangelist, has past electns mailed out hundreds of thoands of DVDs advotg agast legalizg abortn or improvg gay and others at the Cida church said policymakers like Feliciano don’t reflect their versn of Christiany, Khazan“Feliciano don't reprent the Christian people, ” Fernanda Dias, 23, a Cida prs reprentative, told me. But Holr isn’t worried that a rise of Prottants ernment will roll back any of the gay rights she embrac om the proliferatn of evangelil church the world’s largt Catholic untry, to her, is only a rapturo sign. Partecipa al ro domenile l Propaganda, il club stori di Mos, sempre alla moda e n "orientamento to", ma dove l’ultimo grno lla settimana entrano solo maschi gay, n rare viagg di Panorama nella movida omosex ssa parte da qua: un quartiere limrofo alla piazza Rossa, Kaj Gorod, uno spaz arredato stile New York Soho: muri di mattoni, tavoli legno grezzo, sle metallo.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Quta sera volevamo fare qualsa a tema, ma ci pa di rado di andare loli solo gay, perché molti i nostri amici e amiche non potrebbero entrare" va ben tegrata, n servizi specifici.

Vieta di far pire che non c’è bisogno di pensare al suicid: sere gay può sere una variante di va felice" Tolik la legge è stata una scelta malstra e "se ne è parlato talmente tanto che anche chi non lo era, ci ha fatto un pensiero.

For two s, McKrae Game was a top-tier figure among ex-gay Christians and a leadg advote for nversn therapy, a unselg practice wh the goal of helpg LGBTQ people supprs their homosexualy and bee “straight. ” But Game, 51, now disavows the movement and acknowledg he has been gay all told the Post and Courier that nversn therapy proved to be trimental, a “lie” and “false advertisg.

FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY

The most proment ex-gay anizatns have shnk or shuttered; lears have fected; and many church now fear that beg associated wh such wily discreded techniqu will st them as unwelg or bigoted.

Addnally, the Inter is rife wh stori of LGBTQ people who have reported sufferg psychologil harm as a rult of participatg the programs and proment Christians are quietly tryg to rurrect ex-gay Christiany, and the new rnatn is hipper and perhaps more evolved. Yet beneath the smetic tweaks ss the same msage that has damaged many liv over many s: If you’re a Christian wh same-sex attractns, change is both possible and first wave of Amerin ex-gay Christiany the 1970s alced around mistri and anizatns specifilly voted to the e. But the current wave is far more centralized, beg led by pennt thors and personali who are embedd the nservative Christian world rather than segregated to an issue-specific views differ ever so slightly om the next while orbg tightly to siar them, such as the possibily of “former homosexuals” havg a healthy heterosexual marriage, differentiatg between one’s behavr and inty, and a ubiquo, if obligatory, nod to church’ historil failur to love people who intify as of the movement’s most articulate lears is Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, a former women’s studi profsor at Syrace Universy who says she “adopted a lbian inty” her 20s as a rult of beg fluenced by femist philosophy.

MILO YIANNOPOULOS SAYS HE IS ‘EX-GAY,’ WANTS TO REHABILATE ‘NVERSN THERAPY’

”When I spoke wh her, I asked if she nsirs herself “ex-gay, ” and she said she do not e that label to scribe herself but then proceed to scribe how she was once, but is no longer, a lbian. But then Butterfield add that she disurag the age of the term “gay Christian” and even oppos “Si B” Christians who accept their LGBTQ inty but are mted to celibacy for relig reasons. But she prents a msage that will rg faiar to the many LGBTQ people who have survived ex-gay mistri and therapy: Through the power of J, same-sex sir n and should be overe.

For Butterfield, homosexualy is not an inty that scrib who a person is but, rather, a sful actn that a person do — but n stop preach her gospel of change through her popular books, speech at Christian nferenc and church, and is the unmistakable msage of the life she now liv. Butterfield left her female partner after her nversn and is now married to her hband, artist Jackie Hill Perry is another risg ex-gay star who formerly intified as a lbian and is now married to a man.