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

Contents:

• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• 11 RIDICULO, STRANGE, AND TERRIFYG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY METHODS FOR 'CURG' HOMOSEXUALY
• 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.
• THE TTH ABOUT NEW STUDY CLAIMG EX-GAY NVERSN THERAPY WORKS
• EX-GAY THERAPIST PROMIS TO TURN GAY BRAS STRAIGHT
• SUCCSFUL TREATMENT TOOLS FOR WORKG WH GAY MEN THERAPY
• SEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALS
• MY HELLISH YOUTH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY AND HOW I GOT OUT

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

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. 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. 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.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

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.

11 RIDICULO, STRANGE, AND TERRIFYG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY METHODS FOR 'CURG' HOMOSEXUALY

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.

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

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.

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

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. " In 2007, Exod -founr Michael Bsee apologized for his role startg the as a rponse to the rurgence of ex-gay therapy, mastream profsnal anizatns also took a harr stance. 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. 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. Robert Galbrah Heath, a psychiatrist New Orleans who pneered the technique, ed this form of bra stimulatn, along wh hired prostut and heterosexual pornography, to “change” the sexual orientatn of gay men.

An offshoot of the techniqu was “aversn therapy, ” which was found on the premise that if LGBTQ people beme disgted by homosexualy, they would no longer experience same-sex sire. ” LGBTQ people had long protted the cel and scientifilly dub forms of “treatment, ” but the ncept that homosexualy was a disease was accepted by the majory of the medil tablishment.

THE TTH ABOUT NEW STUDY CLAIMG EX-GAY NVERSN THERAPY WORKS

This clud the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, which nsired homosexualy to be a psychiatric the 1960s and 1970s, as a vol gay rights movement took to the streets to mand equaly, the profsn began to turn s back on the ncept that people uld be “nverted” to heterosexualy. In 1973, the APA removed homosexualy om the DSM, s fluential manual of psychiatric disorrs, and medil profsnals began to distance themselv om techniqu they had once embraced. Their methods varied, and clud everythg om talk therapy to “gay nversn” mps and nferenc, LGBTQ people were isolated om fay and iends, hypnotized, told to pray until their homosexualy subsid, stcted to beat effigi of their parents, mocked, ached on “proper” genr rol, and told their sexualy was unnatural and And Anne Plk, both “formerly gay” pose wh their son, Timothy, a mpaign for Gay Conversn to Heterosexualy.

EX-GAY THERAPIST PROMIS TO TURN GAY BRAS STRAIGHT

“I read books and listened to dtap about how to have a ‘rrective and healg relatnship wh J Christ, ’” wr Jam Guay, a gay man who attend weekly therapy and nversn semars as a teen. And Exod Internatnal, an umbrella group that nnected var nversn therapy groups and gay mistry anizatns, closed down 2013 after nearly 40 years of operatns after s print, Alan Chambers, cid ’s impossible to change someone’s sexual orientatn. “The practic have no basis science or medice and they will now be relegated to the dtb of quackery, ” said California ernor Jerry Brown as he signed a bill banng gay-to-straight therapy the state 2012.

SUCCSFUL TREATMENT TOOLS FOR WORKG WH GAY MEN THERAPY

Though same-sex attractn was once nsired a dangero, unwanted ndn by medil profsnals, pecially the 19th and 20th centuri, today doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists all agree that not only is homosexualy not an illns, but there is no proven method to relieve a person of his or her sexual orientatn (nor is there any reason to attempt ), believe or not, there are many anizatns alive and well (and well fund) the world who enavor to nvert gay men and women to heterosexualy and seems hardly a week go by whout some new report on victims of "repairative therapy" -- or ex-gay lears, like former Love In Actn Director John Smid, admtg that the entire movement is a sham.

SEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALSSEXUAL REORIENTATN THERAPY INTERVENTNS: PERSPECTIV OF EX-EX-GAY INDIVIDUALS

Earlier this year Marc Bachmann, hband of printial hopeful Michele Bachmann, was acced of nng a nversn therapy clic and jt last week the Atralian newspaper the Brisbane Tim reported on a group known as Exod Global Alliance that reli on "exorcisms, huggg, behavural management and marriage, " to treat homosexualy. From bicyclg to tticle transplants, below fd 11 ridiculo, strange, and terrifyg methods for "curg" homosexualy:Ridiculo 'Cur' For HomosexualyBefore You GoPopular the CommunyYou May Like.

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.

MY HELLISH YOUTH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY AND HOW I GOT OUT

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.