Former 'Ex-Gay' Lears Denounce 'Conversn Therapy' In A New Documentary : NPR

Contents:

• THE GAY MAYOR SHAKG UP POLICS CATHOLIC POLAND
• MILO YIANNOPOULOS SAYS HE IS ‘EX-GAY,’ WANTS TO REHABILATE ‘NVERSN THERAPY’
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS
• JOSEPH NILOSI’S LIFE TRACED THE RISE AND FALL OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT
• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• DT ZO’S HOMOPHOBIA FLAR, IRONILLY; REAL WORLD PRODUCER DISCS DT’S GAY SEX PAST
• NETFLIX’S “PRAY AWAY” CONONTS THE LI OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT

THE GAY MAYOR SHAKG UP POLICS CATHOLIC POLAND

Image ptn, Robert Biedron was Poland's first openly gay MP before beg mayor of SlupskRobert Biedron is one of Poland's young, risg polil stars. I am gay and beg an atheist, wasn't easy for me, " says Mr Biedron, mayor of Slupsk, a cy about 18km (11 ) om the untry's Baltic Sea is beg talked about as one of the lears of a new progrsive polil movement that is beg anised.

A left-wg former gay rights activist, the 42-year-old beme Poland's first openly gay MP 2011 and then Slupsk mayor 2014.

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

"Image ptn, Robert Biedron has been wh his partner for years and has had an impact on how Pol view homosexualyPolish attus to homosexualy are evolvg but gay marriage is still outlawed, unlike many Wtern European untri. Image ptn, Officiatg at weddgs is an important part of Robert Biedron's role as mayorIs Poland ready for a gay lear?

They listened to him like they would listen to a prophet and this was for me a sign that homosexualy is beg a normal thg Poland. Right-wg provotr Milo Yiannopoulos has e out as “ex-gay” – announcg that he “would like to help rehabilate what the media lls “nversn therapy” over the next , acrdg to a report. The 36-year-old Brish polil mentator, whose speech and wrgs often ridicule polil rrectns, social jtice and femism, clared himself no longer gay and “sodomy ee, ” he told LifeSe an terview.

— and only leaned heavily to public bee drove liberals crazy to see a handsome, charismatic, telligent gay man rtoly celebratg nservative prcipl, ” Yiannopoulos ntued.

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

“As for the CHANGED movement, I gus bee they’re Californian they don’t see how funny their webse is, or maybe they’re dirty non-doms who thk God lov you more the gayer you act, but I was slightly makg fun of them wh that ptn, ” he said.

It's a movement that's born out of a larger culture of homophobia and transphobia that still persists the majory of Christian church today. It wasn't until the suici of his iend, who was also part of the "ex-gay" movement, that he reevaluated everythg. 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.

They also had a group for the gays, and unrneath all of that olns there was this toxic theology that said that you need to overe homosexualy.

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

Stolakis on what the ex-gay and nversn therapy movement looks like today Conversn therapy and the ex-LGBTQ movement has always been practiced lolly. It's bee very lennial-driven bee there are younger people who've grown up homophobic and transphobic environments who are ready and willg to take the place of people like Randy.

A group of people om across the untry who formerly intified as gay and transgenr have scend upon Washgton this week to share their stori and lobby agast two proposed LGBTQ-rights group is ma up of 15 members of Church Uned and Changed, two California-based anizatns that seek to provi muny for, and protect the rights of, “formers” — dividuals who formerly intified as lbian, gay, bisexual or bills the group is lobbyg agast are H. This, he said, is evinced by the fact that gays have achieved clout and succs as scientists, thors and Thoron, an LGBTQ rearcher at Human Rights Watch, lled the assertn of the “formers” unfound and said the bills they’re lobbyg agast are “long overdue.

Joseph Nilosi wouldn’t take gay for an was 2012, and Alan Chambers, Nilosi’s iend and a fellow lear the ex-gay movement, was g trouble by tellg the tth. While many the ex-gay movement were eher stgglg wh same-sex attractns or had a fay member who seemgly was, Nilosi was ostensibly heterosexual and profsed to e at reparative therapy om an tellectual and scientific unseled adults and teenagers om his office Enco, Calif., where the mahogany shelv featured several of his books, cludg “A Parent’s Gui to Preventg Homosexualy” and “Healg Homosexualy.

JOSEPH NILOSI’S LIFE TRACED THE RISE AND FALL OF THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT

”Some 15 years later, Arana — by then a journalist who had long accepted his sexualy — lled his former therapist for an article he was workg on about the ex-gay movement.

Nilosi exprsed surprise that Arana “went the gay directn” and then shocked Arana by askg if he wanted to try therapy aga. “When Nilosi’s out of the room, the guy says, ‘I’m here bee my parents want me to be here, and I’m gog to a gay bar later.

Psychology and was a founr of the Natnal Associatn for Rearch & Therapy of Homosexualy — bolstered the movement wh the veneer of scientific rpectabily. Most of s once-formidable anizatns (cludg Exod Internatnal, Love Won Out and Jonah) have closed, and several former ex-gay lears have apologized and accepted a gay inty.

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

Osborne told Time magaze Febary that he is gay and has known for years, but he kept a secret bee of untry mic's mostly nservative fan base. 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. 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.

Nilosi's rner office had emerald-green rpet and mahogany bookshelv led wh tl like Homosexualy: A Freedom Too Far and Homosexualy and the Polics of Tth.

DT ZO’S HOMOPHOBIA FLAR, IRONILLY; REAL WORLD PRODUCER DISCS DT’S GAY SEX PAST

" Although I might never feel a spark of excement when I saw a woman walkg down the street, as I progrsed therapy, my homosexual attractns would dimish. Until I had spoken wh Nilosi, I had rigned myself to the ia that, sirable or not, my life would have to acmodate the fact that I was gay.

The other men-four or five altogether-were their forti and fifti and talked about their years the "gay liftyle, " which had yield only unhapps. They were tired of the club scene, the dg e, the promiscuy; their relatnships didn't last; they plaed that gay culture was youth-obssed.

I left the office wh a py of Nilosi's most recent book, Healg Homosexualy, and a worksheet that tegorized different emotns unr the brics of "te self" and "false self.

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

Another sheet illtrated the "triadic relatnship" that led to homosexualy: a passive, distant father, an overvolved mother, and a sensive child. The woman, Anne Plk, said that moltatn durg adolcence led her to homosexualy, but that she had been healed through the power of J Christ.

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.