What did some students in Maryland bring home to their families along with their report cards? Oh, just a little literature from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, which wanted high school students to know that homosexuality can be cured through therapy. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
Unless you can convince a judge the fliers constitute “hate speech.” That’s because, based on a 2006 court ruling, public school districts are required to distribute, four times a year, any literature from a registered non-profit. Which makes PFOX’s material qualify for mandated distribution. Even if America’s leading psychological groups think such “therapy” isn’t just ineffective, but harmful.
(The one-sheet flier says “every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity.”)
And it sounds like it’s time to revisit that 2006 court ruling. Because any entity could register themselves a shell non-profit and begin distributing material that doesn’t qualify as hate speech, but is certainly harmful for students.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Think the National Council of Chain Restaurants — the trade group representing diabetes and obesity concerns including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., and KFC — can’t form a one-person 501(3)(c) and start forcing Maryland schools to bring home to parents a brochure about the healthy dining options available in the neighborhood? We’d be surprised if they haven’t already explored the possibility.
The school’s administrators and faculty have fought back in previous years, when PFOX also demanded its fliers be distributed to students. (The two parties have also sparred over Maryland’s sex education curriculum.) But that’s no match for the standing 2006 court ruling, and PFOX’s own proud efforts to distribute more materials.
(Note: Above graphic is not the one being distributed to schools.)
scott ny'er
oh, man. This is effed up.
We should start a non-profit and send out fliers stating, “As a Christian, I never thought I could change and find another religion or no religion. You too can choose.”
terrwill
Where the fcuk are the Gay orgs. submitting their flyers????
And please, please dear God, someone snap a photograph of that vile in denial self hating fag in the flyer getting barebacked at his usual spot at the cruise area…………..
Robert
Dear PFLAG, GLAAD, Trevor Project, Lambda Legal, HRC, NGLTF: please spend some money on fliers to counter this. This is the kind of thing we donate to non-profits for. Thank you.
terrwill
Now that I have self medicated after reading this trash..
I actually think this flyer can be a good thing for Gay students!!
How so? you may ask………In high school ones sexual urges are going into hyperdrive. There are thousands of Gay kids who are wanting to explore fellow peen and vag yet they are afraid for multiple reasons. I needn’t go into all the negative things that can enter the minds of a teen on the verge of dipping their toes into the Gay pool. But how bout this: If this message resonates and they think “I can try it, and if I don’t like it I can change back”. What these hateful vile in denial self hating fags never acknowledge is that being Gay is no more a choice than being born black or white, or having blue eyes or brown eyes. You are born Gay, you are Gay. But having this “I can change” nugget put in front of them the Gay teen may decide to embrace their Gay identity much sooner than the may have if not for the message they can “change” Once they have accepted they are Gay, they can then grow into their Gay skins and actually realize they are born that way and no group can make them change their born identity.
How ironic it is that the “ex-Gays” may very well be encouraging Gay kids to embrace their Gay identity sooner than they normally would and these schools will be populated with more out proud Gay students??…………
Fitz
This is not a threat to us. No one can change their sexual orientation. All this does is make them look stupid. Our job is to reach out in a positive way, so that some kids don’t repress themselves and end up depressed, self loathing republicans cruising airport bathrooms.
Other Libertarian
Come join the new Aryan Race! You too can be part of the ethnic cleansing movement sweeping America and support the full destruction of homosexuality. The Straight Master Race will prevail!!! Evangelical Christianity will rule the United States with an iron fist because after all it is CLEARLY what our Constitution dictates in the First Amendment.
Dan
PFOX is feeding our young people misinformation so they’ll waste years of their lives trying to go straight. Students shouldn’t be exposed to this during their formative years, but should be free to date and explore their sexuality regardless of their sexual orientation. Until we can get this nonsense out of the schools, we and our groups should be distributing flyers that will counter PFOX’s deceptions.
El Brucio
Dear #5, Fitz : I think the greater concern is how this is going to affect individual gay teens, and not the gay community as a whole.
These “become straight” programs are actually quire psychologically damaging to the participants.
If you are a kid in an anti-gay household, and your parents are receiving this in official documentation from the school, it may cause them to enroll their child against his or her will in such a program.
Hell, if they were raised in a sufficiently self-loathing environment, the teens may be willing to enroll themselves in these kinds of programs. When I was 14 I know I would have.
They are lies designed to take advantage of susceptible people.
1EqualityUSA
From a legal standpoint, the more that they can get others to believe that being gay is a choice, the easier it will be to get America to vote our rights away. This is underhanded and recruiting the younger generation. They know that the younger generation will side with equality for all Americans. If anything, many of these pamphlets will generate conversations that will yield more for equality than oppression. Youngsters and their parents are being manipulated. Most foul.
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
Threat OR Opportunity?
Its a threat should LGBT in Maryland do nothing.
Its a major league opportunity for PFLAG – Maryland (can’t imagine it is not a non-profit) to provide, 4 times per year, flyers offering accurate information. Of course, Trevor Project and other groups, can also send their 4 flyers per year too!
PADude
Turn the law on its ear…put out posters for an ex-Christian organization. “I Choose To Change…”
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, after all.
1EqualityUSA
They are running scared if they feel the need to recruit young people. They want to support the notion that being gay is a choice. Misinformation has been a strategy of theirs forever. Hatred is being given a venue. What school official allows this?
Anne
This is disturbing. I hope those administrators and faculty who tried to stop the distribution of this flyer have explained to their students how PFOX is wrong in their ideas and that gay-to-straight “therapy” can be really harmful.
1EqualityUSA
Teachers should teach and parents should guide. The Tedious Right has lost credibility and and they have shown what they are. They visit offices and put pressure on politicians, media, and school administrators. That tells me that they are insecure in their own message, so insecure that what is resorted to is a manipulation of political powers. Their message is untrue and this will bear itself out over time.
David Ehrenstein
Of course there’s something you can do about it. You can toss these fliers in the garbage.
David Ehrenstein
You can also confront those who are handing them out tell them that respect but be earned — not automatically granted.
Lukas P.
Drowning out the haters by getting better info in the highschoolers’ hands is the best way to counteract the fundies’ misinformation and poison.
The “exLAX literature” seems to be targeted at the parents more than the students: “Is your kid a homo? There’s hope, but it’s gonna cost you big bucks. Trust us.”
Macca
Any student at this school, who is gay and in doubt of his or her self, if they take their own life out of frustration and fear because of this flier, their death will be forever etched on the hands and hearts of those who distributed this. My heart goes out to any teenager who is tormented by this.
Another Robert
@Robert: May I add GLSEN to your excellent list?
1EqualityUSA
#18 Macca, The Mormons witnessed some of their own commit suicide. There has to be a special sort of judge to deal with spiritual betrayals. Beliefs are so compelling. All forms of power will be judged, especially power that causes harm, in the name of God. It’s better to be loving and merciful. If words don’t heal, but opposite, causes a person to commit suicide, then the words need to be examined. The fruit is not only bitter, but rotten.
Wade macMorrighan
I just e-mailed their media constultant the following e-mail (with a hyperlink to an academic ref. denoting the APA’s position):
Good afternoon, Regina. It has come to my attention that you are distributing–and advocating for–fliers to area High Schools throughout Maryland that endorse demonstrable psychological harm, according to the American Psychological Association (APA)! Why was this position not disclosed by your somewhat polemical flier? Moreover, it seems–though is not discussed publicly–that is only the Christian tradition that seems to have any problem with what the APA has pronounced to be a natural and innate sexual orientation. nearly every ancient culture–from the Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Hindus, to the Nartive Americans and Chuckchi shamans–viewed homosexuals as a gift from the gods; they were highly revered in every non-Christian and pre-Christian culture on Earth, and esteemed as natural-born Shamans who maintained their respective authority as tribal spiritual leaders. To ignore this historical and ethnographic fact is simply naive, and hostile towards these powerful religious groups. Sadly, these groups are not generally in a position to socially compete with Christian dogma as a result that many even secular Americans have been convinced (through their own cultural naivete) that Christians and Christianity always equates to something beneficial or positive. But they forget that Hitler was a devout Christian, and most Christian and Evangelical religious groups are actively taking a page from his writings in attempting to have their personal religious views imposed upon the whole of society through an act of the political system, despite the fact that the Constitution clearly prohibits what one may vote on in an effort to abstain from a tyrannical majoritarian regime–which is what happened in California and Maine. It breaks my heart that so many Christians thoughtlessly want an American version of the Taliban.
Were you also aware of the demonstrable historical fact that, despite Christians’ declarations, and those of their Republican coevals, that “Traditional Marriage” has never been “one man and one woman for thousands and thousands of years”? According to nearly every culture on Earth, two men were allowed to get a legal marriages, such as in the cases of the Native Americans and Chuckchi shamans (they were greatly sought after as spouses by some of the other men), and in Rome Emperors (and other citizens) freely married males to the jubilation of their fellow citizens, such as in the case of Nero (who married a man named Spora) and Elagabalus (who married an athlete named Hierocles). This practice was stopped only by the barbaric Christian Emperor, Theodosus, who mandated that anyone who engaged or officiated over such a personal/ private union should be executed. These were, and are, real marriages despite those that I have run into in recent months who have been denying this evidence when they balk, “Those don’t count as real marriages!” This is obvious Christian supremacy, and cannot be tolerated!
Sincerely,
Wade White, Rev. H.P.
The Covenant of Morrighan
Wade macMorrighan
@El Brucio: Yeah, I know that I went through a phase in Middle School when I would have jumped at the chance, too–that’s what isolation does to people, when they don’t know anyone else like themselves.
Wade macMorrighan
OMGs!!! This group, PFOX, actually claims in an e-mail they sent me that they ARE pro-Gay, and that the Ex-Gay movement and Ex-gay movement are one-and-the-same!!!
1EqualityUSA
As long as benefits and social stature is given to one set of humans, then inequality will be like a pebble in a shoe. Eventually, equality will be realized. Could it be that our rights are being withheld so that we, passionate gays, spend our time, energy, and money on resolving inequity, rather than some other big thing, such as Ecology or Separation of Church and State? If we were freed up from this struggle, what would our community be hot under the collar about? When you find the answer to that, you will have found the real answer for this ongoing oppression.
Pete
This is incredible, since it is happening in one of the most LIBERAL counties in the nation. It is bond to increase some anti-gay prejudice among straight kids, informing them that their gay peers have “chosen” this life, and are not “choosing” to be straight.
How confusing this must be to gay kids who are just coming to terms with themselves. These pamphlets are abusive to the students, and should be removed. At best, they are ” junk science”.
Daniel
Simple. Ask the American Psychological Association to include information flyers for the schools. Or the American Counseling Association, or the American Medical Association, or the American Academy of Pediatrics, or the American Association of Family Physicians, or the American Psychiatric Association, or the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – any of these mainstream groups can set the record “straight” (pun intended).
A certain percentage of the population is mentally unstable – gay or straight. Many “ex”-gays are just the nutty bunch. Some are just bisexual people who want to remove the stigma of years of sleeping with guys, and others are just hiv-positives who are trying to get back into the good graces of their disapproving families. Still others belong to nutty fundie churches and are brainwashed into denying their true nature (remember some people put on tennis shoes and drank poisoned kool-aid to go to the “mothership” in the name of religious beliefs, folks can be totally wonkie). Lord knows straight people have lots of wonkie people and they’ll be the first to admit it, so no surprise the gay/bi community has a few wonkie idiots wandering around as well.
Steve
Numerous academic studies have found that the suicide rate among gay youth is much higher than that among non-gay youth. This is thought to be due to to the social stigma that is attached to being gay, and to the bullying and hazing that they receive.
Here are a few articles:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=gay+youth+suicide&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=5A7&num=20&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart
Anything that increases the stigma and bullying also increases the suicide rate.
I wonder how PFOX is going to defend the lawsuit after a gay youth tries to “change”, fails, and then commits suicide.
Brian NJ
One issue is that these fliers may embolden bullying of gay kids, and should be eliminated for that reason alone. Even though they are from an outside group, they still have the authority of the school district behind them. However, they may provoke discussion in the school, which may actually be a good thing.
It is a rapidly changing county on gay issues. These kinds of things today may have some good side-effects for our cause, because they show that hate and slander is still out there. Gay kids are not dumb. They have the internet and know it is not a choice. Some will see the fliers and realize that they have some work to do. They need to date, think about where to go to college or where to live. It kind of turns up the heat on kids to make them realize, “Hey, I am gay, and better start thinking about it and enjoying life.” So while the fliers should be removed because they have no basis in science and are potentially harmful to kids
1EqualityUSA
Research must have shown that Maryland is likely to let same-sex marriage pass in the near future, so the anti-gay wads are getting a jump on the youngins. It’s recruiting and manipulation of, both, young and their parents. If they gay community were free of this struggle, what would we, as a community, be impassioned about? When our hearts and minds are involved in attaining equality, what other issue is going without proper attention? This might have less to do with equality and more to do with getting 10 percent of the nation to avert eyes away from other burning issues.
romeo
As an interesting side note, heard that the drugs used in “conversion therapy” treatment, sedatives, psycho-tropics, etc., contribute greatly, and sometimes outright cause, the suicides associated with these attempts at mind-control (which is what they are). There would have to be MD’s involved to prescribe. Maybe we should start putting some spotlights on these guys as well. As far as I’m concerned, a trained doctor participating in all this would be the among the guiltiest.
Poster boy definitely looks sedated.
Steff
Here you go gentlemen:
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6996/spoofflyer.png
Use it, print it!
Steff
And if you can think of better spoof text, tell me and I’ll create a new one. 😉
romeo
Very cool, Steff.
Steff
And now I see the disclaimer that the poster in the article isn’t the one being handed around. Lame.
Wade macMorrighan
OMGs! According to an e-mail I just got from PFOX, “Former homosexuals are the last invisible minority group in America. The ex-gay movement is a civil rights movement to ensure the safety and inclusion of former homosexuals in all realms of society, and supports the ex-gay community’s equal access to all public venues. Ex-gays and their supporters should not have to be closeted for fear of other’s negative reactions or disapproval. They do not think something is wrong with them because they decided to fulfill their heterosexual potential. Nor do they believe others should condemn them for the personal decision they have made for their lives. Full diversity must include the ex-gay community.”
So, of course I responded with the following (even though they refused, time and again, to admit that religion is chiefly behind the so-called “ex-Gay” movement!):
Fact: studies have proven, again and again, that one cannot willingly change, or in any way alter their natural and innate sexual orientation; and that to attempt to do so would be psychologically damaging, and lead to depression, and perhaps (as has often been the case) suicide. Moreover, studies and investigations of so-called “ex-gays” have found, conclusively, that they are not actually heterosexual at all, but are simply repressing their innate and perfectly natural sexual orientation through personal celibacy (which, of course, Christo-Fascists’ likes to tell people is bad, despite the countless world religions that have elevated Gay people to the status of Shamans and other powerful spiritual leaders), and those that declare they are no longer Gay know full well that they still desire relationships with other men, but go on lying to themselves, and to the public, and that creates animosity towards Gay people by our peers who believe that if we *can* “change”, then we *should*! This, of course, leads to anti-gay violence, and even majoritarian rule on a tyrannical scale like what we’ve seen in California and Maine. I have even seen investigative reports where one has gone undercover to examine the claims made by so-called ex-Gays, and in the group about which I was reading, it was discovered that they were deceiving the men in attendance. Their claim was, “People have changed, and so can you, if you want to!” But, the man they paraded around the audience, it was found after the meeting, told the freelance journalist that he was just “pretending” to be heterosexual and that he was just on his way to a Gay bar!
Even though you would obviously not endorse it, it is organizations such as yours that mislead parents into believing that homosexuality is a choice, and that if their kids are gay, than they can change–even to the point of forcing them into asylums (a practice that still goes on!) in order to undergo the most barbaric reperative therapy. More than a few years ago I was reading of one such facility that still practices this, and how some teenagers manages to escape being institutionalized and found a safe house where they could live with other Gay teens until they were 18. However, their emotional scars will haunt them for their entire lives.
Don’t you think that your organization and actions have consequences beyond what you might immediately see?
John
No, the answer isn’t to revamp the law or even to suppress the speech of those we don’t like. It’s to respond in kind, by forming our own non-profits and distribute our own literature. If PFOX (geeze are they related to, um FOX “News”? lol) is going to submit its fliers endorsing change why can’t PFLAG or GLAAD or the GLSEN?
Matt
I feel like those pamphlets should be rejected on the basis of just plain lying. I’m saying this as someone who is familiar with the research on so-called conversion therapy. The methodology used in the research which supports its efficacy is ridiculous and cannot support the claim that the therapy in any way connected to the change in a client’s sexuality (refer to Spitzer’s 2003 article in the Archives of Sexual Behavior for an excellent example of poor methods). So, if truth doesn’t matter in this matter then perhaps we can send out pamphlets about saving the endangered invisible unicorns, or about UFO abduction awareness.
dan j
Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights, said: “We know for certain that lesbian and gay individuals suffer harm to their physical and psychological health, and to their relationships and quality of life, as result of the shame, isolation and stigma accrued from their social and legal disenfranchisement.”
The false information in this ad is intended to stigmatize and reinforce the taboo that makes young gay people want to change in the first place. By continuing the taboo, it harms public health. If it cannot be stopped, it should be accompanied with a warning that it could be hazardous to your health.
Lukas P.
Who do we hate the most? The PFOX people have it all wrong: the MOST reviled people are the Ex Ex-gays. Those who return to the fabulousness of gaydom after having been though and failed at conversion therapy, have now pissed off the gays by leaving us, and by the exgays for showing that conversion voodoo doesn’t work. We don’t trust the ex-exes and the fundies feel oh so jilted and taken advantage of!
@Steff: Very funny! Nicely done:
Lukas P.
Sorry! Forgot to turn the BOLD off!
Endless Men
lol, there is no such thing as ex-gay, when youre gay, youre gay.
Stef
“fulfill their heterosexual potential”
What exactly does one do to “fulfill their heterosexual potential?” Like, if you manage to have sex with a woman (and you’re a gay man) and get off, does that constitute fulfilling your potential, even if you go back to being gay after?
Or for straight people, is it a certain number of people you sleep with? The more people you sleep with, the more potential you’re fulfilling?
This phrase seems ridiculous (though, coming from PFOX, it’s not like anything they say is normal or sane ANYWAY) to me. Since nuns and priests (in theory) take vows of celebacy, are they NOT fulfilling their heterosexual potential? Or do straight “thoughts” count?
What is this “potential” they speak of? They act like people learn to be straight and with practice, they get to a certain point of nirvana of straightness. This is not the case. I’ve had LOADS of straight sex, and the only thing I’ve learned is that sometimes it’s reallllllly bad, and sometimes it’s REALLLLY good…there’s no like, pinacle or point where you just decide “welp, can’t do any better, I’ve reached my potential as a straight person!”
Assholes. I hate them all.
Keith Kimmel
Wow, 40 replies and every single one of them missed the point. First off, I am going to say that I do believe, for some people, being gay IS a choice. I think for others its the way they are. This is a non-issue, intended to distract us from our equal rights campaign.
So what if its a choice? Christians can choose to be atheists. So fucking what? What the fuck is their point? I choose to be a fag, I choose to bend over and take it in the ass and I choose to suck cock. I like it. It feels better. And I don’t wind up with bloody goo all over me if its my partner’s first time.
As a citizen of the United States, its my RIGHT to CHOOSE to engage in whatever behaviors I want to. Period. End of the story!
Lukas P.
@Keith Kimmel: What point did we miss Mr Kimmel?
Your rights to, as you put it “engage in whatever behaviors I want” are NOT unlimited. Try consulting the US constitution, the legislative branch’s laws, your state/county/local laws. They limit a great deal. Violaters of said restrictions may be punished, and lose further rights.
I’m saddened that you’d not heard of these limits beforehand.
HINT: It’s not too smart to criticize ALL prior posters before launching into a spiel. You lost willing ears/eyes from the get go.
“Being” gay isn’t a choice. Engaging in gay sex typically is: the exceptions to that are called in English “rape.”
Tommy
@Steff: PFOES – Parents And Friends Of Ex-Straights and Straights. It’s easy to be gay. Just try it. They can’t say no after saying yes to PFOX. I think the students would find it hilarious.
Matt
Keith:
I’m not a fan of the argument that sexual orientation 100% genetic/biological (whatever that means). I don’t think the evidence is so clear, but I think the argument that someone choses their sexual orientation can easily fall into the pattern of “I choses to be gay. But why did I chose to be gay? Well, because I wanted to. Well, why did I want to?” What I’m trying to say is that it’s all very unclear.
The same argument can be used for the opposite “I chose to not be gay (to be ex-gay). Why did I chose to not be gay? Because I wanted to. Why did I want to?” This is why social scientists don’t trust self-report data, people aren’t the most reliable sources about their motivations and behaviors. So, it’s important to see what groups of people are “choosing” to be ex-gay. Again, I refer to the Spitzer (2003) article from the Archives of Sexual Behavior. The huge majority of his sample (from Exodus and other organizations like it) were (mostly fundamentalist) Christian people still active in their church. If it was simply a spontaneous decision to choose one way or the other, then individuals seeking their services shouldn’t be over-representative of one group of people. But that’s not the case. I think a good argument is that these individuals who do undergo so-called conversion therapy more typically grow up in homophobic and heterosexist environments which produce the motivation to change. If that is the case, then really it isn’t their own choice to be ex-gay but the choice of the family/system they live in.
romani
These groups and their need for attention.
I respect their choices, but I have no respect for manipulation and subversive propaganda.
1EqualityUSA
Misinformation serves the tedious Right’s oppressive endeavor well. To distribute, with report cards, promises of suppressing gay students’ orientations and treating them as though they were cases of uncontrolled diabetes, is misinformation. No change in strategy there. Manipulative. They must not believe in the Word, if they are resorting to this kind of juvenile manipulation. Politics is just that, nothing more.
Xtian99
Read Dawkins, Hitchens, Sam Harris…
religion should be outlawed..served its purpose and done now… bring back the lions!!!!!!!!!!
And I am sorry but as soon as I hear “I am a Christian” I think mental defective, intellectual midget person best avoided.
To all those waiting for the rapture….please take the bottle of pills and GO ALREADY so the rest of us do not have to indulges your idiocy and longer….
“God is Dead” – Nietzsche
“Nietzsche is a bitch” – God
1EqualityUSA
misinformation of any sort should be held up for thorough examination.
spindoc
This is bullshit, NO school district would force kids to take home pamphlets that say AIDS is a myth and that you don’t need to have safe sex because medical doctors have proven this isn’t the case. Well the American Psychiatric Association is COMPLETELY at odds with what these pamphlets say. The school could deny them access based on the fact that their pamphlets go against established medical/psychiatric determinations. Would they allow pamphlets saying that one race make better parents? No, no matter how nicely it’s worded it’s still an attack on a group of people.
1EqualityUSA
The tedious right must be running scared if they are distributing misinformation to high schools. They must know that the end is near, the writing is on the wall, the bell tolls for inequality. Why else would they fall back onto their usual style of peddling misinformation. They hear the drumbeat.
B
Why can’t the school include its own blurb stating that
according to the APA, such “therapy” is almost always harmful and incapable of changing sexual orientation?
And why not provide wastepaper baskets for any kid who wants to throw the stuff out? Wouldn’t forcing the kids to take the stuff home qualify as involuntary servitude, aka slavery? Its one thing to give the pamphlets to the kiddies and another to tell them what they have to do with the stuff.
Dr. Jallen Rix
As an ex-gay survivor I can tell from personal experience that their propaganda is purposefully misleading and sly. They know that changing one’s actual orientation is futile, so they get around it by saying “gay identity.” In psychological terms identity is different from orientation. Identity is what you project on the outside, not who you are on the inside. So, sure, you can behave like any masculine or feminine stereotype that they uphold as superior to any kind of gender variance, but the guys still get a boner when they think about men.
Further, they can suppress any part of their sexuality, but all too often those squelched desires find their way out somehow, be it, ulcers, heart, disease or any number of mental conditions. Believe me, I’ve experience first hand.
As a sexologist, I’ve also helped a lot of other ex-gay survivors deal with all the damaging fall out that comes from putting oneself through such an ordeal.
They can lie all they want about the “thousands” of people who have “changed,” but even they admit that their programs work for only a very small percentage (they will say 30 – 15 percent) and that’s not accounting for all of the “successes” that then “fall back into sin.” Well then, what about all the people for whom it does not work? If they have thousand of people who have changed (which they have yet to show any proof of such), then there are tens of thousands of people who have left their groups feeling like failures. The vast majority of the people who go through their organizations come out feeling worse than they went in. What about them? All of these people the ex-gay movement ignores. There will come a time that ex-gay leaders will have to account for all the devastation they have caused in the name of change. As it is now, they simply deny it.
Much of my work is helping those who are picking up the pieces after such emotional and spiritual harm. Unfortunately, people have even committed suicide as a result of feeling rejected by family, church and even God, and they were told this by the ex-gay movement. The only way I know how to fight the lies is with the truth and that’s why those of us who have been damaged by this movement need to stand up and make themselves known.
If you’d like to know more about my journey (it’s being published), click on my name to go to my website…
1EqualityUSA
Dr. Jallen Rix, What you went through in this life to try to appease others is immense. Thank you for writing your story down and shedding light on this bogus practice. I suspect these flyers has less to do with “healing” and more to do with politics. If the tedious right can plant notions that being gay is a choice, it takes away from our immutability argument. I wouldn’t be surprised if they supplement the incomes of those coming forward to say, “I’m cured.” A certain Colorado mega-church man comes to mind. Did an understanding take place, that should mega-church man renounce his gay identity in many public forums, his income would be handsomely supplemented ? Politics.
terrwill
Once upon a time someone said that the way a person becomes an “ex-Gay” is when they become “un-alive”. Meaning you are until you die…….stop the bogus physco babble……..And once again please someone find a photo of poster boy on that flyer getting barebacked………..
1EqualityUSA
Boob, you sound made up. Nice try tedious Right.
Derek
What is with this obsession of locating photographs of people being barebacked?
It’s more telling about the person doing the asking than it does anything else.
Creepy x 100
Brutus
After all the trouble we’ve had—and still have—trying to get LGBT associations recognized and permitted in schools, it’s hypocritical of us to get totally up in arms about this.