After attempting to brainwash gay people into renouncing their sexual orientation for 37 years, the “ex-gay ministry” Exodus International has seen the light and is turning it off.
GLAAD‘s Ross Murray, the group’s director of news and faith initiatives, alerted Queerty to the decision by Exodus president Alan Chambers. A statement posted on the Exodus website revealed that its board of directors had begun to find “‘ex-gay’ work more and more difficult, given their anti-gay words and actions.”
Today Chambers posted an apology on the site “for the harm that he had caused LGBT people and their families in his quest to make them match an anti-gay view of God.”
Chambers adds:
How about we take this to the next level?
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I am sorry for the pain and hurt that many of you have experienced. I am sorry some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.
I am sorry I didn’t stand up to people publicly ‘on my side’ who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality to Him, I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke your heart. I am sorry I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine.
Marcus Bachmann, you’ve been served.
randalaw
For the first time, I feel that I have read a genuine apology from a heart that has truly changed. Thank you, Mr. Chambers. Though I never experienced reparative therapy myself, I have known some young persons who suffered through that hell on earth. It sounds as if you realize the negative effect this kind of program has had on the souls who have gone through it. Again, thank you, from the depths of my soul. I pray that you will be blessed for this act of atonement.
1EqualityUSA
Is NOM next?
Ruhlmann
Fuck him. Figuratively, I meant figuratively.
EdWoody
It’s one thing to admit you were wrong. It’s quite another to actually do something about it. What are you going to do now to make up for the harm you’ve caused, Mr Chambers?
longpastdue
I’m sure it won’t be long before people are really trashing this whole thing as I have seen on other sights and I just think it’s a bad precedent to set. Even if it seems half-hearted and even if it (and I know it doesn’t) doesn’t begin to undo the damage they’ve done. Wouldn’t it be more encouraging for others to change their minds if doing so meant being met with acceptance on our side. I’m just saying I think as a whole accept the apology and move on, don’t forget by any means but try to start moving on. I mean come on, in the grand scheme of things I would have thought them saying anything positive would have been a milestone, much less this.
avesraggiana
@longpastdue:
I’m with you. It takes greater strength of character to admit one is wrong and to apologise, than it does to stubbornly cleave to a position that grows more untenable with each passing day. The harm has been done. Let the man begin to make his amends, let us be glad that he has seen the light, and let us, all of us, move on.
D P
@longpastdue: & @avesraggiana: – I agree with both of you. I also think it proper to be cautious with a former enemy turned friend while this is new. And, @longpastdue: : this situation is perfectly suited to apply to your profile name. Curiously, did you come up with it as a response to this?
Caleb in SC
This sounds a little too good to be true. Was their site hacked?
Harley
@Caleb in SC: ya think?
Alton
Oh, bullshit. All this is, is realizing that their days of making money off of self-loathing gay men and ignorant redneck parents are coming to end as homosexuality becomes accepted as natural, so now they’re going to switch to a new way to try and profit off the hatred that religion still has for gay people. Except now they’ll get tons of donations from stupid NON-self-loathing gays, who don’t realize that it’s still the same scam – using religious hatred of gay people to make a buck.
MMDD
@randalaw: Totally agree with you. Forgiving someone who wrongs you doesn’t do nearly as much for the person who’s hurt you as much as it does for yourself. I too am glad I never let myself become subjected to any kind of reparative therapy. Even at my lowest point, I always knew I was meant to be a homosexual man. If this apology is genuine, then I hope Chambers will take the next step and engage in some serious restorative justice.
Cam
Nice that they admitted they were wrong, but I didn’t see a full admission from him that the techniques etc… were ALWAYS B.S.
Lastly, I would like to point out the following.
One or Two people had some baggage they couldn’t deal with, and because of them for DECADES the gay movement was fought by them going on TV, giving legitimacy to the bigots who hated us and would use any excuse to deny us rights.
Remember that. Just a few queens with baggage helped stymie movement on our rights for YEARS. When people get on some of us for continually reminding people on here about NOM or the Mormon church funding anti gay activities or when we blasted Queerty when they were soft peddling the Mormons participation it was for the following reason.
Just one or two guys with baggage formed Exodus International and look at all the trouble they caused. Larger organizations like the Mormon Church or NOM have MILLIONS of dollars art their disposal so we just need to be aware.
That said, again, glad this guy grew a conscience.
rand503
I’ll happiy take the apology and the closing of Exodus. This is all good. And we know that because the real haters are very pissed at this.
Alan Chambers and other Exodus people are in a unique position to do some real good here — they can finally claim that the so-called techniques they used are useless at best and in fact harmful. Who better to testify to this than former practitioners? They can best say that sexual orientation cannot be changed. For years they were supported by the religious right as well, so if they were all about ‘the truth’, as they claim, they cannot forswear their previous support of Exodus without seriously understanding the change. (of course, they will not — which just helps expose the religious right as nothing more than a propaganda tool not at all interested in ‘the truth.’)
In fact, it would be great if Exodus teamed up with Truth Wins Out to jointly denounce reparative therapy — that would be a powerful statement. Exodus could reveal the lies that the religious right peddled for years, the false claims of Socarides & Co, and all that false testimony over the years. It could be a big expose.
I wish they would so that we can finally put the last nail in the coffin.
Cam
@rand503:
That would be great, however my guess is, they won’t get invited on any hows. The Media seems like to bigots MUCH more than people coming on and saying they were wrong for years.
Jackhoffsky
so… if i’m reading this correctly… he was caught doing meth with a male prostitute.
Spike
Nothing but str8t folk starting to realize how they are going to look having been on the wrong side of history.
http://www.alexarchuleta.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wrong-side.jpg
ouragannyc
I know some folks in that orginization and I’ve seen their stuff on youtube.
They’re are pretty radical and crazy/loco.
I find that 180 weird.
Has their website been hacked?
this looks too good to be true.
johnb123
I’m guessing here. If Mr Chambers dosn’t have a boyfriend yet, he will. He will write a book about all the guys he fooled around with while taking their money to “convert” them, and in that way he will rip them off all over again. I must quote the Golden Girls’ Sophia Petrillo: “The man’s as gay as a picnic basket!”
rcblue73
Con artists get busted? Move to another city to set up shop under another name?
Cee
@EdWoody: Exactly. I guess he is going to go back to getting butt Fuk’d and thinking everything is okay. He should do volunteer work at the local LGBT center or help LGBT teens. If he’s not going to do anything about the damage he has caused so many people and families I don’t too much care about his apology.
Gigi Gee
Too bad they destroyed thousands of lives before the finally came to their senses. The apology is the perfect example of TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE!
Gigi Gee
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE!
ChuckGG
@1EqualityUSA: Only if their funding runs out. As long as there is a dollar to be made to fund the 401k’s of NOM’s management, they will continue to stoke the fires of hate, innuendo, and dissent. I wonder if Brian Brown, 10 years from now, when NOM is dead and buried, will realize he will be remembered with other bigots in history – George Wallace standing at the entrance to a school, denying access to a black student, for example. I hope his 401k was worth it.
ChuckGG
The “I’m sorry” sounds a bit suspicious. I suspect they simply ran out of supporters and money. There is legislation in some areas banning conversion therapy, and it is expanding. I think they bailed out while the getting was good. Dissolving the organization and having the participants disperse makes it pretty difficult for follow-on lawsuits.
DirtyOleMan
Having talked to the same sex attraction crowd ad nauseum, I call Bull Sh#$t on Chambers.
I seriously doubt he will ever go off silently into the night.
This is just a name change and pitch for money.
ouragannyc
@ChuckGG:
I think if it were due to legislation banning conversion therapy, he would have been happy to play the victim of gays and liberal intolerence. It must be for something else.
ChuckGG
@ouragannyc: I don’t know… I think after conversion therapy is banned and recognized as a sham, the civil lawsuits will start flooding in. Dissolving the corporation (Exodus) now seems like something a good attorney would suggest. It comes down to money and with no money coming in that means no attorneys to defend against lawsuits. Of course, this is just a guess.
BigWoody
I watched a documentary on OWN “Our America with Lisa Ling, God and Gays” tonight (6/20/13) about Exodus. Filmed two months ago with former ex-gays and Alan Chambers. Seems Alan was throwing in the towel at that point and saying he is sorry.
“On a special episode of Our America, Lisa Ling will sit down for the third time with Alan Chambers, president of the controversial ‘ex-gay’ organization Exodus International. This time, he’ll reveal parts of his story never before disclosed until now.”
Link to timeline from 2010 to present announcement that Exodus is shutting down:
http://www.oprah.com/own-ouramericalisaling/blogs/God–Gays-Historical-Timeline-Infographic
Merv
It sounds more like a change of tactics than a repudiation of core beliefs. It’s just a slightly more subtle incarnation of “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Notice he never said anything about embracing homosexuality, because the have no plan to. They’re just “sorry” they made their victims feel bad about their “sin.”
DirtyOleMan
He said his decision will cost him half his donor base. That’s not quitting. I say he can make too much money of the same sex attraction crowd. Why should he quit?