The ex-gay Christiany movement is makg a quiet eback. The effects on LGBTQ youth uld be vastatg. - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• 5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• HOW TO EX AN "EX-GAY" STUDY
• THE ASPECT OF 'EX-GAY THERAPY' THAT NO ONE IS TALKG ABOUT... AND SHOULD BE
• EXPERIENC OF EX-EX-GAY DIVIDUALS SEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY: REASONS FOR SEEKG TREATMENT, PERCEIVED HELPFULNS AND HARMFULNS OF TREATMENT, AND POST-TREATMENT INTIFITN
• WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
• EX-GAY THERAPY VIO
• WHAT IT’S LIKE TO EXPERIENCE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• WELL-KNOWN EX-GAY THERAPIST COM OUT AS GAY, SEEKS TO DATE MEN
• 'EX-GAY' THERAPIST ALLEGEDLY FOUND SOLICG 'HOOKUPS' ON GAY DATG APPS
• THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
• GAY THERAPY, GAY THERAPISTS, GAY TREATMENT

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

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. 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.

Interview highlights clu extend web-only answers and have been eded for length and clary: Interview Highlights Thomas on how he joed the "ex-gay" movement and Exod Internatnal I was out of the closet the '80s. When Samuel Brton read the headl about McKrae Game — a former lear wh the South Carola “nversn therapy” mistry Hope for Wholens — g out as gay and renouncg the “ex-gay” mistry he helped lead, Brton was anythg but surprised.

HOW TO EX AN "EX-GAY" STUDY

C., on a nstutnal amendment to outlaw gay marriage South Ann Chasta / AP fileConversn therapy, sometim lled “ex-gay therapy” or “reparative therapy, ” is the psdoscientific and often relig practice that purports to change a person’s sexual orientatn or genr inty. The ntent practice has been nmned by nearly every major medil associatn and has been associated wh creased rat of suici his g out story, Game told The Post and Courier that, havg grown up as a Southern Baptist South Carola, “homosexualy and Christiany didn’t go together, ” and he was tght that beg straight was a ticket to heaven, “and not hell.

”“So there is no qutn my md that bee of his work, he has tly srred, emotnally srred, many, many, many LGBTQ youth, ” Brton BrtonThe Trevor ProjectBrton said they, too, grew up a fah tradn that reacted wh horror when they me out, and that they, too, once intified as “ex-gay. In the past two years alone, there were Norman Goldwasser, the South Florida nversn therapist who was acced of g the screen name “hotnhairy72” to solic hookups on Manhunt and Gay Bear Natn, and David Mathon, a Mormon nversn therapist om New Jersey who renounced his work and wrote on Facebook that “ was time for me to affirm myself as gay. ”In 2014, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights published an open letter om ne former nversn therapists, cludg several om the now-shuttered ex-gay mistry Exod Internatnal, who lled for a ban on nversn ex-ex-gay activists wrote that they “once believed that there was somethg morally wrong and psychologilly ‘broken’ about beg LGBT, ” as per their unrstandg of Christiany.

“I had only known a very unhealthy party life after beg thrown out of the hoe for beg gay, and here were a bunch of sober people offerg me answers for everythg — and offered me my first groundg, whout realizg was killg off part of who I was.

THE ASPECT OF 'EX-GAY THERAPY' THAT NO ONE IS TALKG ABOUT... AND SHOULD BE

Eighteen stat pl the District of Columbia have banned the practice for mors, acrdg to the Movement Advancement Project, though a slim majory of Amerins still live jurisdictns where nversn therapy is still legal for bans n’t do all, acrdg to Brton, and eedom of relign will always grant some leeway for the vout to unsel their flock to reject homosexualy if that is their theologil LGBTQ advot mt also w the argument, and the bt way is to take a three-track approach, Brton said.

”“It feels like the worst Venn diagram of your life, that neher si wants to claim you, ” Brton said he n “personally relate to not beg Christian enough for Christians, not beg gay enough for the LGBTQ muny. But mastream psychologists say the therapy is effective, uhil and often harmful, exacerbatg anxiety and self-hatred among those treated for what is not a mental 2013, two s volvg the therapy to nvert gay people to heterosexuals h the urts, wh one seekg to sue unselors who offer the therapy and the other seekg to fend are five thgs you need to know about the therapy and the current psychologists say nversn therapy don't workA diagnosis of major prsn do not evoke much rponse, eher a stigmatizg or supportive, om a person's social work, a study dited.

EXPERIENC OF EX-EX-GAY DIVIDUALS SEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY: REASONS FOR SEEKG TREATMENT, PERCEIVED HELPFULNS AND HARMFULNS OF TREATMENT, AND POST-TREATMENT INTIFITN

Instead, societal ignorance, prejudice and prsure to nform to heterosexual sir are the real dangers to gay people's mental health, acrdg to a 1997 statement on "nversn" or "reparative" therapy by the APA. [7 Absolutely Evil Medil Experiments]More recently, people who have been through nversn therapy report talk therapy that emphasiz psdoscientific theori, such as the ia that an overbearg mother and a distant father make a child gay.

WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.

His therapist blamed his parents for Arana's homosexualy, and urged him to distance himself om his female bt Lev, one of the men sug Jonah for ceptive practic, says that he qu nversn therapy after his therapist had him strip down and touch himself to "rennect wh his masculy, " acrdg to the New York 's happeng the urts? It didn’t of the most proment advot of nversn therapy the 1940s and 50s was Edmund Bergler, who saw homosexualy as a perversn and believed he uld "cure" gay people wh a punishment-based, nontatnal therapy the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn stopped classifyg homosexualy as a mental disorr 1973, nversn therapi lost support. In 2003, famed psychiatrist Robert Spzer, who spearhead the removal of homosexualy om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's mental disorr list 1973, reported the journal Archiv of Sexual Behavr that terviews wh nversn therapy patients suggted that some people uld change their sexual paper was cendiary and highly cricized, given that relied on terviews wh patients stead of measurable benchmarks of same-sex sir.

EX-GAY THERAPY VIO

Arana reports speakg to Robert Spzer, a psychiatrist who played a crilly important role the removal of homosexualy om the list of mental disorrs the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO EXPERIENCE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

The abstract of Spzer’s 2003 article reported, “The majory of participants gave reports of change om a predomantly or exclively homosexual orientatn before therapy to a predomantly or exclively heterosexual orientatn.

WELL-KNOWN EX-GAY THERAPIST COM OUT AS GAY, SEEKS TO DATE MEN

He claims to have been cured of his homosexualy, but rather than startg a new life of avoidg homosexualy altogether, he now seeks to be a therapist to discs and listen to other men's gay experienc. Vulnerable participants seekg out this therapy, prsured by external or ternalized homophobia, should not be subjected to dividuals who are likely to be g them for some subnsc or even nsc self-gratifitn. This qualative study ed an ductive ntent analysis strategy (Patton, 2002) to exame the experienc of thirty-eight dividuals (31 mal and seven femal) who have been through a total of 113 episos of reorientatn therapy and currently intify as gay or lbian.

'EX-GAY' THERAPIST ALLEGEDLY FOUND SOLICG 'HOOKUPS' ON GAY DATG APPS

As Stott wrote Issu Facg Christians Today back 1982, “In every discsn about homosexualy we mt be rigoro differentiatg between this ‘beg’ and ‘dog, ’ that is, between a person’s inty and activy, sexual preference and sexual practice, nstutn and nduct.

In a statement, the lears clared, “We repent of the cripplg ‘homophobia’ … which has loured the attus toward homosexual people of all too many of , and ll our fellow Christians to siar repentance. Church historian Richard Lovelace’s 1978 book Homosexualy and the Church garnered hearty endorsements om evangelil lumari Ken Kantzer (a former CT edor), Elisabeth Ellt, Chuck Colson, Harold Ockenga, and Carl F.

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

First, would require profsg Christians who are gay to have the urage both to avow [acknowledge] their orientatn openly and to obey the Bible’s clear junctn to turn away om the active homosexual life-style.

The church’s sponsorship of openly avowed but repentant homosexuals learship posns would be a profound wns to the world ncerng the power of the Gospel to ee the church om homophobia and the homosexual om guilt and bondage.

GAY THERAPY, GAY THERAPISTS, GAY TREATMENT

Yet this was the Christian visn of Lovelace and Henry, Ockenga and Ellt, Kantzer and Colson, Lewis and Graham, Schaeffer and Stott, and a young gay evangelil Anglin who felt too aaid to e his own name, even though he was still a virg. As I watch evangelil church and nomatns fumble their way through discsns of sexual orientatn and inty, often enforcg the language and tegori of a failed ex-gay movement, we’re missg the real battle: The surroundg culture has nvced the world that Christians hate gay people.

They are already send-gusg their fah bee they hear all around them that Christians hate gay people, and they n’t pot to anyone their ngregatn who is gay, is fahful, and is loved and accepted as such.