My So-Called Ex-Gay Life - The Amerin Prospect

Contents:

• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT
• WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
• WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?
• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• WHY ARE HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS SO AAID OF “EX-GAYS”?
• THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
• NETFLIX’S “PRAY AWAY” CONONTS THE LI OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT
• OUT OF THE DARKNS: CONVERSN THERAPIST QUS ‘EX-GAY’ MOVEMENT
• THE DOWNFALL OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT
• EX-GAY MOVEMENT
• EXOD CLOS, MARKG OFFICIAL END OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENTPRI PARATHE LARGT CHRISTIAN EX-GAY GROUP IS CLOSG, MARKG THE END OF THE BELIEF THAT GAYS N GO STRAIGHT.DAVID SSNSUPDATED JUL. 11, 2017 10:28PM EDT / PUBLISHED JUN. 21, 2013 4:45AM EDT PHELAN M. EBENHACK/APIT MIGHT SEEM LIKE THE “EX-GAY” MOVEMENT END THURSDAY, WH THE CLOSG OF EXOD INTERNATNAL, THE EVANGELIL ANIZATN THAT ONCE PRACTICED “REPARATIVE THERAPY” FOR GAY CHRISTIANS, AND WH THE APOLOGY OF S PRINT, ALAN CHAMBERS, FOR THE HURT HE HAS ED. “I AM SORRY I DIDN'T STAND UP TO PEOPLE PUBLICLY ‘ON MY SI’ WHO LLED YOU NAM,” CHAMBERS SAID AN OPEN LETTER ADDRSED TO THE “LGBT MUNY.” “I AM SORRY I HAVE MUNITED THAT YOU AND YOUR FAI ARE LS THAN ME AND ME.” THE STATEMENT ANNOUNCED THE EXOD BOARD’S UNANIMO CISN TO CLOSE S DOORS.THE MOVE IS CERTALY SIGNIFINT, AND IS NO DOUBT TEND TO HAVE A POWERFUL SYMBOLIC EFFECT. BUT THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS ONLY THE PSTONE OF THE RAPID DISAPPEARANCE OF THE “EX-GAY MOVEMENT,” A NSTELLATN OF EVANGELIL MISTRI (AND A FEW JEWISH AND MORMON OFFSHOOTS) THAT EMBRACED PSDOSCIENTIFIC THERAPI TO CHANGE THE SEXUAL ORIENTATN OF GAY BELIEVERS. THE LIFE WAS SUCKED OUT OF EXOD BY BOTH THE MOMENTUM OF THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE NSTANT FECTNS OF PEOPLE PREVLY ASSOCIATED WH THE MOVEMENT. BUT PERHAPS MORE THAN ANYTHG, WAS CHAMBERS HIMSELF WHO HAD HAD ENOUGH.LARGELY UNNOTICED BY THE MASTREAM MEDIA, CHAMBERS HAD FOR SEVERAL YEARS BEEN DISTANCG EXOD OM THE DISCREDED IAS BEHD REPARATIVE THERAPY AND THE ANIZATNS’ PREV CLAIMS TO HAVE HELPED “THOANDS” OF PEOPLE OVERE THEIR HOMOSEXUALY. DURG HIS 11 YEARS AT EXOD, CHAMBERS GRADUALLY MORATED HIS CLAIMS ABOUT THE POSSIBILY OF CHANGG SEXUAL ORIENTATN, QUTNG THE ANIZATN’S TALK OF “CHANGE” AND REJECTG THE TERM “EX-GAY.” HIS 2009 BOOK, LEAVG HOMOSEXUALY, REVEALED SOME OF THE MSS OF HIS OWN MARRIAGE TO A WOMAN AFTER YEARS OF LIVG AN OPENLY GAY LIFE. A YEAR AGO CHAMBERS EXPLICLY NOUNCED REPARATIVE THERAPY AND SAID HE HAD NEVER MET ANYONE WHO CHANGED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN, SPARKG A FUROR AMONG MORE NSERVATIVE EX-GAY GROUPS. BUT CHAMBERS’S GRADUAL MAKEOVER OF EXOD SEEMS LARGELY DRIVEN BY THE NSTANT LUGE OF BAD NEWS ON EVERY POSSIBLE ONT. GAY MARRIAGE IS ASCENDANT, DRIVEN BY A RAPIDLY SHIFTG PUBLIC OPN. THE PILLARS OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT’S PRETENSNS TO SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILY WERE BEG MOLISHED. WARREN THROCKMORTON, AN EVANGELIL PSYCHOLOGIST WHO STUDI SEXUAL INTY, EVENTUALLY NCLUD THAT THERE WAS NO EVINCE REPARATIVE THERAPY WORKED AND BEME A STRONG CRIC OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT’S CLAIMS. THE WELL-KNOWN PSYCHIATRIST ROBERT SPZER PUBLICLY RENOUNCED AND APOLOGIZED FOR HIS NTROVERSIAL 2001 STUDY THAT HAD BEEN GREETED AS A HOLY GRAIL FOR THOSE LOOKG FOR EVINCE THERAPY ULD CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATN.AND THEN THERE WERE THE “EX-EX-GAYS.” BOTH FORMER EX-GAY LEARS AND PARTICIPANTS WERE A NSTANT PR NIGHTMARE FOR THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT AS THEY ME OUT, SOME S FOR THE SEND TIME, AND ANNOUNCED WHAT CHAMBERS WOULD EVENTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGE: THAT NO ONE THEY KNEW OF HAD EVER BEE STRAIGHT. IN 2007 THREE FORMER EXOD LEARS APOLOGIZED FOR THEIR VOLVEMENT THE ANIZATN. IN 2010 BAPTIST MISTER AND EX-GAY THOR GEE REKERS WAS UGHT AT THE AIRPORT WH A GAY “RENTBOY” WHO CLAIMED HE HAD GIVEN REKERS “NU BODY BS.” IN 2011 JOHN SMID, THE DIRECTOR OF A CALIFORNIA EX-GAY GROUP THEN KNOWN AS LOVE ACTN, APOLOGIZED ON HIS BLOG AFTER PARTICIPATG A DOCUMENTARY THAT FORCED HIM TO NONT THE HURT HE HAD ED.EVEN BEFORE EXOD EXPLICLY BEGAN S REBRANDG, THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT HAD BEEN CIMATED SI AND OUT. “WE’VE CEASED TO BE A LIVG, BREATHG ANISM,” CHAMBERS WROTE. THE THERAPI THAT HAD ONCE FORMED S BACKBONE, DISCREDED MASTREAM IAS OM THE MID-20TH CENTURY, HAD BEME FOSSILIZED PSDOSCIENTIFIC NSERVATIVE ANIZATNS THAT LACKED EVEN THE APPEARANCE OF CREDIBILY. HORROR STORI ABOUT PRSN AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS OM THOSE EX-GAY THERAPY WERE REPORTED THE MASTREAM MEDIA AND HAD AN EFFECT EVEN ON THE RELIG. LAST YEAR, ORTHODOX JEWISH RABBIS ME OUT AGAST THE THERAPY JT A FEW MONTHS AFTER CALIFORNIA BEME THE FIRST STATE TO BAN FOR TEENS UNR 18.BUT PERHAPS THE BIGGT FACTOR IS THE SHIFTG EXPERIENCE OF NSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS THEMSELV, WHO N NO LONGER SULATE THEMSELV OM THE REALY OF THE GAY PEOPLE THEY KNOW AND WHO HAVE BEGUN TO ACCEPT THAT SEXUAL ORIENTATN ISN’T A CHOICE. GAY CHRISTIANS ARE NO LONGER ISOLATED OM ACCURATE RMATN ON THE INTER, ALONG WH A HEALTHY DOSE OF LGBT CRICISM OF EX-GAY CLAIMS. WHATEVER THEOLOGIL BELIEFS EVANGELILS MAY HOLD, ’S BEG MORE AND MORE OBV THAT NVERSN THERAPY IS A RELIC OF A WORLD THAT’S ALL BUT DISAPPEARED. DAVID SSNS

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

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 Amerin documentarian Kriste Stolakis set out to make her but feature film, she knew she wanted to she a light on the “ex-gay” movement, which nsists of those that believe a person’s genr inty or sexual orientatn n be changed.

NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT

Shot before the Covid-19 panmic, the film chronicl the rise — and subsequent fall — of Exod Internatnal, a nversn therapy anizatn that, acrdg to the team behd the the film, began as a Bible study group the 1970s nsistg of five evangelil men who were lookg to help one another leave the “homosexual liftyle. Stolakis’ list of terviewe “Pray Away” clus Randy Thomas, the fal vice print of Exod Internatnal; Yvette Cantu Schneir, the former head of Exod’ women’s mistri; and John Plk, one of the most bt-known “ex-gay” people the world. “Somethg my team and I talked about a lot makg this film is, this really is a movement of hurt people hurtg other people, of what ternalized homophobia and transphobia looks like when is wield outward, ” said Stolakis, whose other directorial creds clu “The Typist” and “Where We Stand.

”While many former lears have renounced and spoken out agast the “pray the gay away” movement, Stolakis said “the larger culture of homophobia and transphobia, ” particularly relig muni, has allowed the movement to ntue wh younger lears, even wh the dissolutn of Exod Internatnal 2013 and the legalizatn of same-sex marriage the U.

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

Alone, nearly 700, 000 lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr adults have been subjected to some form of nversn therapy durg their lifetime, acrdg to a 2019 report om the Williams Instute at the UCLA School of Law. ”“As long as that larger culture of homophobia and transphobia exists — be our church, any relig muny, our polil sphere or our culture — some versn of nversn therapy and the ex-LGBTQ movement will ntue, ” she explaed. 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.

WHAT ABOUT EX-EX-GAYS?

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 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.

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

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. 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”?

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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. 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.

OUT OF THE DARKNS: CONVERSN THERAPIST QUS ‘EX-GAY’ MOVEMENT

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. ”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. 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.

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.

” And I was happy to do : Those stori gave me a natnal platform to advote for what is lled “gay reparative therapy”—basilly, nvcg gay people that they were sexually “broken” and uld be provid wh a way to change.

THE DOWNFALL OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT

The kd of ignorance revealed by those Perry’s Texas Republin Party who recently serted a plank their party platform clarg homosexualy to be a “chosen behavr” and regnizg the “legimacy and efficy” of gay reparative therapy. Luckily, ’s te that across our natn, life is dramatilly and rapidly improvg for gay people, and ’s enuragg that same-sex marriage has found favor urts across the land, and is g to be viewed as legimate by a majory of Amerins, acrdg to polls.

EX-GAY MOVEMENT

As long as this wispread misunrstandg the straight world about homosexualy persists, that is a choice or a “liftyle, ” as Perry put , not only will we never be fully accepted by society, some of will rema unable to accept ourselv.

The pastor found a book a lol Christian bookstore that scribed a special mistry for gay people California lled Exod, which was based on the ia that homosexualy uld be changed through strong termatn and a relatnship wh J Christ. 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.

EXOD CLOS, MARKG OFFICIAL END OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENTPRI PARATHE LARGT CHRISTIAN EX-GAY GROUP IS CLOSG, MARKG THE END OF THE BELIEF THAT GAYS N GO STRAIGHT.DAVID SSNSUPDATED JUL. 11, 2017 10:28PM EDT / PUBLISHED JUN. 21, 2013 4:45AM EDT PHELAN M. EBENHACK/APIT MIGHT SEEM LIKE THE “EX-GAY” MOVEMENT END THURSDAY, WH THE CLOSG OF EXOD INTERNATNAL, THE EVANGELIL ANIZATN THAT ONCE PRACTICED “REPARATIVE THERAPY” FOR GAY CHRISTIANS, AND WH THE APOLOGY OF S PRINT, ALAN CHAMBERS, FOR THE HURT HE HAS ED. “I AM SORRY I DIDN'T STAND UP TO PEOPLE PUBLICLY ‘ON MY SI’ WHO LLED YOU NAM,” CHAMBERS SAID AN OPEN LETTER ADDRSED TO THE “LGBT MUNY.” “I AM SORRY I HAVE MUNITED THAT YOU AND YOUR FAI ARE LS THAN ME AND ME.” THE STATEMENT ANNOUNCED THE EXOD BOARD’S UNANIMO CISN TO CLOSE S DOORS.THE MOVE IS CERTALY SIGNIFINT, AND IS NO DOUBT TEND TO HAVE A POWERFUL SYMBOLIC EFFECT. BUT THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS ONLY THE PSTONE OF THE RAPID DISAPPEARANCE OF THE “EX-GAY MOVEMENT,” A NSTELLATN OF EVANGELIL MISTRI (AND A FEW JEWISH AND MORMON OFFSHOOTS) THAT EMBRACED PSDOSCIENTIFIC THERAPI TO CHANGE THE SEXUAL ORIENTATN OF GAY BELIEVERS. THE LIFE WAS SUCKED OUT OF EXOD BY BOTH THE MOMENTUM OF THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE NSTANT FECTNS OF PEOPLE PREVLY ASSOCIATED WH THE MOVEMENT. BUT PERHAPS MORE THAN ANYTHG, WAS CHAMBERS HIMSELF WHO HAD HAD ENOUGH.LARGELY UNNOTICED BY THE MASTREAM MEDIA, CHAMBERS HAD FOR SEVERAL YEARS BEEN DISTANCG EXOD OM THE DISCREDED IAS BEHD REPARATIVE THERAPY AND THE ANIZATNS’ PREV CLAIMS TO HAVE HELPED “THOANDS” OF PEOPLE OVERE THEIR HOMOSEXUALY. DURG HIS 11 YEARS AT EXOD, CHAMBERS GRADUALLY MORATED HIS CLAIMS ABOUT THE POSSIBILY OF CHANGG SEXUAL ORIENTATN, QUTNG THE ANIZATN’S TALK OF “CHANGE” AND REJECTG THE TERM “EX-GAY.” HIS 2009 BOOK, LEAVG HOMOSEXUALY, REVEALED SOME OF THE MSS OF HIS OWN MARRIAGE TO A WOMAN AFTER YEARS OF LIVG AN OPENLY GAY LIFE. A YEAR AGO CHAMBERS EXPLICLY NOUNCED REPARATIVE THERAPY AND SAID HE HAD NEVER MET ANYONE WHO CHANGED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN, SPARKG A FUROR AMONG MORE NSERVATIVE EX-GAY GROUPS. BUT CHAMBERS’S GRADUAL MAKEOVER OF EXOD SEEMS LARGELY DRIVEN BY THE NSTANT LUGE OF BAD NEWS ON EVERY POSSIBLE ONT. GAY MARRIAGE IS ASCENDANT, DRIVEN BY A RAPIDLY SHIFTG PUBLIC OPN. THE PILLARS OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT’S PRETENSNS TO SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILY WERE BEG MOLISHED. WARREN THROCKMORTON, AN EVANGELIL PSYCHOLOGIST WHO STUDI SEXUAL INTY, EVENTUALLY NCLUD THAT THERE WAS NO EVINCE REPARATIVE THERAPY WORKED AND BEME A STRONG CRIC OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT’S CLAIMS. THE WELL-KNOWN PSYCHIATRIST ROBERT SPZER PUBLICLY RENOUNCED AND APOLOGIZED FOR HIS NTROVERSIAL 2001 STUDY THAT HAD BEEN GREETED AS A HOLY GRAIL FOR THOSE LOOKG FOR EVINCE THERAPY ULD CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATN.AND THEN THERE WERE THE “EX-EX-GAYS.” BOTH FORMER EX-GAY LEARS AND PARTICIPANTS WERE A NSTANT PR NIGHTMARE FOR THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT AS THEY ME OUT, SOME S FOR THE SEND TIME, AND ANNOUNCED WHAT CHAMBERS WOULD EVENTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGE: THAT NO ONE THEY KNEW OF HAD EVER BEE STRAIGHT. IN 2007 THREE FORMER EXOD LEARS APOLOGIZED FOR THEIR VOLVEMENT THE ANIZATN. IN 2010 BAPTIST MISTER AND EX-GAY THOR GEE REKERS WAS UGHT AT THE AIRPORT WH A GAY “RENTBOY” WHO CLAIMED HE HAD GIVEN REKERS “NU BODY BS.” IN 2011 JOHN SMID, THE DIRECTOR OF A CALIFORNIA EX-GAY GROUP THEN KNOWN AS LOVE ACTN, APOLOGIZED ON HIS BLOG AFTER PARTICIPATG A DOCUMENTARY THAT FORCED HIM TO NONT THE HURT HE HAD ED.EVEN BEFORE EXOD EXPLICLY BEGAN S REBRANDG, THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT HAD BEEN CIMATED SI AND OUT. “WE’VE CEASED TO BE A LIVG, BREATHG ANISM,” CHAMBERS WROTE. THE THERAPI THAT HAD ONCE FORMED S BACKBONE, DISCREDED MASTREAM IAS OM THE MID-20TH CENTURY, HAD BEME FOSSILIZED PSDOSCIENTIFIC NSERVATIVE ANIZATNS THAT LACKED EVEN THE APPEARANCE OF CREDIBILY. HORROR STORI ABOUT PRSN AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS OM THOSE EX-GAY THERAPY WERE REPORTED THE MASTREAM MEDIA AND HAD AN EFFECT EVEN ON THE RELIG. LAST YEAR, ORTHODOX JEWISH RABBIS ME OUT AGAST THE THERAPY JT A FEW MONTHS AFTER CALIFORNIA BEME THE FIRST STATE TO BAN FOR TEENS UNR 18.BUT PERHAPS THE BIGGT FACTOR IS THE SHIFTG EXPERIENCE OF NSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS THEMSELV, WHO N NO LONGER SULATE THEMSELV OM THE REALY OF THE GAY PEOPLE THEY KNOW AND WHO HAVE BEGUN TO ACCEPT THAT SEXUAL ORIENTATN ISN’T A CHOICE. GAY CHRISTIANS ARE NO LONGER ISOLATED OM ACCURATE RMATN ON THE INTER, ALONG WH A HEALTHY DOSE OF LGBT CRICISM OF EX-GAY CLAIMS. WHATEVER THEOLOGIL BELIEFS EVANGELILS MAY HOLD, ’S BEG MORE AND MORE OBV THAT NVERSN THERAPY IS A RELIC OF A WORLD THAT’S ALL BUT DISAPPEARED. DAVID SSNS

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. 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.

”When I prsed her, the thor of “Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been” said that she has never met anyone who has experienced a plete change sexual orientatn, but she add that she has read stori about people who have. At least not claims that his parents’ divorce and an experience of sexual asslt created same-sex sir him at a young age, but he preach that J is helpg him overe his homosexual I spoke to him, he said he “had to make a choice of my fah over my feelgs.

Many Amerins believed at the time that homosexualy was a mere matter of choice, and worse, a s that would endanger one’s eternal their mds, same-sex-attracted Christians who wanted to live a life of hols uld supprs their sexual sir through some mixture of prayer, spirual disciple and therapy.