Some Christian groups still promote 'gay nversn therapy' – but their fluence is wang

Contents:

• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• UNRVER AT A CHRISTIAN GAY-TO-STRAIGHT CONVERSN CAMP
• 'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
• CHRISTIAN GAY CONVERSN CAMPS
• HOW CHRISTIANS TURNED AGAST GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• SETTG THE RERD STRAIGHT ON 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY FOR MORS
• RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

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. 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. Somewhere the room, a man sobbed over the sound of the was the first night of “Journey to Manhood, ” or JiM, a 48-hour weekend retreat signed to help gay men bee straight. They do, they jt might be harr to the film, Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is forced to go to God's Promise, a Christian mp that tri to "turn" gay teens straight.

In the trailer, Cameron is told, "The first step is for you to stop thkg of yourself as a homosexual, " to which she repli, "But I don't thk of myself as a homosexual. Stark was a teen boy who gaed attentn 2005 after he posted about his fay planng to send him to "a fundamentalist Christian program for gays" on "gay nversn" — be through a mp or otherwise — still exists today. And even though the late twentieth century, the LGBT muny started gettg the right to live and love as they chose, there was also the birth of an opposg movement the form of gay nversn Browse profil of sgle gay men your cy lookg for activy partners and nversn mps, cludg Christian on, are an example of sexual orientatn change efforts which subscribe to the view that homosexualy is a symptom of velopmental fect or a moral failg and hence n be ‘treated’.

UNRVER AT A CHRISTIAN GAY-TO-STRAIGHT CONVERSN CAMP

Acrdg to Exod Internatnal, one of the largt of ex-gay groups, reparative therapy is pecially eful creasg same-sex sir and gradually leadg to nversn om homosexualy to of the most powerful sourc of motivatn such sexual orientatn change efforts is relig fah. Homosexualy has always shared an unfortable equatn wh mastream relig teachgs, probably bee separated sexual choice om ncerns of propagatn and hence enlargement of the relig muny. As a rult of this opposg stance om all major religns, homosexuals were forced to a posn of relig and social isolatn and felt alienated om the mastream muny.

What fah-based sexual orientatn change efforts like Christian gay nversn mps now do is to buffer and unteract this mory strs and margalizatn by offerg social support, role mols and adoptg a new relig disurse or worldview.

Many Christian gay nversn mps for stance no longer emphasize homosexualy as a rdal s but rather view as an ordary s which n be repented agast. In 1971 four stunts of a group named Athetic Realism Foundatn claimed that they had been able to give up homosexualy by followg certa prcipl of Athetic Realism which was actually a philosophy propound by Eli Siegel 1941. The umbrella anizatn Exod Global Alliance is today one of the largt ex-gay anizatns cludg around 120 mistri North Ameri and more than 150 mistri another 17 untri.

'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS

" The group do not claim to pletely remove all trac of homosexualy om a human beg but believ that "reparative therapy - a holistic, unselg approach to addrsg unwanted same-sex attractn” - n be a beneficial tool rcg homosexual sire. Treatments unr the reparative therapy clu abstence, strengtheng of genr inti like beg more mascule or feme and rrectg unsirable styl of relatg to members of the same or oppose other Christian gay nversn mps Uned Stat are those anized by ex-gay mistri belongg to specific nomatns like Courage for Catholics, Evergreen Internatnal for Mormons, Transformatn Congregatns for Methodists and OneByOne for Prbyterians. The European chapter of Exod cid to break away om the Exod Global Alliance 2007 followg which the ex-gay mistri Europe beme part of an anizatn named LINC or Lked In recent tim sexual orientatn change efforts like those rried out Christian gay nversn mps has e unr cril scty om the scientific and medil muny almost all veloped natns.

CHRISTIAN GAY CONVERSN CAMPS

This is bee ex-gay mistri ually explo guilt and anxiety orr to motivate nversn which turn may lead to prsn and even suici an dividual unrgog the nversn therapy. Most mental health experts appear to be unanimo believg that such sexual nversn therapi do more harm than good by dissematg rrect notns like homosexualy beg a symptom of velopmental or moral fect and hence liable to treatment. Such notns, claim mental health profsnals, unrme the abily of gays and lbians to lead happy and healthy liv even while exercisg their dividual sexual choice.

In fact the US, neher the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn nor the Amerin Psychologil Associatn approve of sexual orientatn change efforts and believe that the so lled reparatn therapy is not only unhelpful but most likely harmful Christian gay nversn mps follow a procs of persistent orientatn on s members, pecially the young tellg them that they are an abomatn to their fay, iends, society and God and that if they tried hard enough they uld change their homosexualy and turn to normal straight human begs. Such young men are not exposed to the diversy of gay life by their church which urps the role of teachg them what means to be gay and what they teach is anythg but a pretty picture. So no wonr that a lot of young men succumb to prsur of their church at the gay nversn mps and clare that they are ready for straight relatnships even though they may ntue to be gays at what is the way out for gays who are keen to follow their fah?

Unrver at a so-lled gay nversn mpABC News' Brian Ross tak to plac that many claim no longer exist -- Christian mistri or mps where gay teens are sent by parents who want their children to change their 10, 2017. ” When he returned to the Catholic Church at age 36, his experience wh nversn therapy Pate said his Catholic therapist, like many who attempt to help patients change their sexual orientatn, believed that homosexualy was ed by childhood sexual abe or alienatn om one’s parents: what Mr. Catholics will ever seek nversn therapy, the assumptns unrlyg that therapy often fluence the msage many gay Catholics hear at home, the nfsnal and om iends and mentors.

HOW CHRISTIANS TURNED AGAST GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

Brothers Road scrib self as “a non-prof, multi-fah, ternatnal fellowship primarily of men om bisexual or same-sex-attracted backgrounds who—for our own, eply personal reasons—typilly do not accept or intify wh the label ‘gay’ and prefer stead to explore and addrs unrlyg issu and embrace our thentic masculy. ”Catholic InfluencThe Catholic media personaly Milo Yiannopoulos recently began llg himself “ex-gay” and announced plans to open a “reparative therapy” clic Florida.

Fzgibbons -thored Homosexualy and Hope, a pamphlet published by the Catholic Medil Associatn, which advot theraptic “preventn and treatment” of same-sex attractn.

Another Catholic, Joseph Nilosi, who died 2017, was a -founr of the Natnal Associatn for the Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy, a secular group formed 1992 that is now lled the Alliance for Theraptic Choice and Scientific Integry. Nilosi said of young people experiencg same-sex attractn: “So when a 15-year-old boy go to a prit and says, ‘Father, I have the feelgs, I have the temptatns, ’ that prit should say, ‘You have a choice; if you don’t want to be gay, there are thgs that you n do.

SETTG THE RERD STRAIGHT ON 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY FOR MORS

” A group prottg the nference hung a banner on archdcan property that featured a quote attributed to the Dert Stream/Livg Waters founr, Andrew Comiskey, and that read part, “There is no such thg as a ‘gay’ is a popular myth.

The people I terviewed said Catholic stutns may not wily promote nversn therapy, but the msag gay believers hear Catholic spac help promote the ia that nversn is possible. Many gay Catholics have heard, over and over, that nobody is “born gay”; that homosexualy is typilly ed by trma; that beg gay is a purely negative experience om which they have nothg to learn, and om which the broar church has nothg to learn.

The specific theori and practic of nversn therapy draw on a ep well of silence and shame that affects all gay Catholics, cludg those who never step si a therapist’s office. Tristan did not thk of her sexualy as the only issue she was alg wh, but when she raised other ncerns, she said, her therapist seemed to thk beg gay was the central problem.

RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY

Bob, as we all lovgly ll him” as “an amazg, lovg man, ” who nohels nvced him of what he now se as “misrmatn” about the nature and orig of homosexualy, attributg a “homosexual clatn” to problems fay relatnships, sexual trma cludg e of pornography, the lack of a proper velopment of masculy and other “wounds”—ias he later heard om prits the Schuchts, thor of the upg book Be Rtored: Healg Our Sexual Wounds Through J’ Merciful Love, disagreed wh the labelg of his work as of “misrmatn, ” statg that all of the materials om the John Pl II Healg Center have approval om the lol bishop and his books have obtaed an imprimatur. But livg wh men who didn’t know he was gay, and who often exprsed homophobia (at which Kent tried to lgh rponse), proved so gelg that he beme physilly ill.

”As he began to leave nversn therapy behd, Kent read gay narrativ like The Velvet Rage: Overg the Pa of Growg Up Gay a Straight Man’s World, by the psychologist Alan Downs. How Christians Turned Agast Gay Conversn TherapyObama's ll to ban the practice reflects a tectonic shift wh the muny that once champned Kelly/RtersThroughout the 1980s and 90s, the Christian right poured money and mcle to promotg the msage that homosexualy was a curable disorr. Mistry lears promised her that if she ntued prayg, readg the Bible, attendg meetgs, and of urse, refg to intify as gay, her sexual orientatn would eventually change and she uld even marry a man.

Acrdg to Kenh Lew, his book, Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexualy, some began to view same-sex erotic behavr ls as s than as a mental-health disorr as early as the 19th century. This was te of other “sful” behavrs as well—for example, dnkenns morphed to alholism and mon posssn beme schizophrenia or a personaly shift was spurred on by the work of Sigmund Frd the early 1900s, even though the inic nrologist was psimistic about eher the possibily or sirabily of changg homosexual orientatn to heterosexual. Frd’s belief that human begs are born bisexual and n move along a ntuum of sexualy formed the basis of the belief that homosexuals uld be “cured.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

By the start of the Amerin cultural revolutn the 1960s, many mental-health profsnals, clergy, and policians supported the ia that homosexualy was a mental-health disorr that uld be cured through some batn of prayer and “therapy, ” which clud electroshock therapy, masturbatory rendng, and givg patients nsea-ducg dgs while forcg them to view homosexual eroti.