While I applaud Alan Chambers' long over due honesty (and by extension the new found honesty of Exodus International) in finally - and many would say very, very belatedly - admitting that reparative therapy doesn't work and that claims that one can "pray away the gay" are fraudulent at best. Unfortunately, Chambers and Exodus have stopped short of a full and complete confession. First, no apology can compensate for the families that have been torn apart by the propaganda that Exodus and its affiliates have disseminated for years. Second, no apology can atone for the suicides that ex-gay "ministries" have promoted by their lie that being gay is a "choice" and something that can "change." Lastly, Chambers fails to own up to the real agenda of the "ex-gay" proponents from the beginning which is summarized well by Wayne Besen:
Ex-gay programs have never really been about converting gay people into heterosexuals. It has really been a gigantic marketing and public relations campaign used by anti-gay organizations to say, “Gay people don’t need equal rights, they need therapy and prayer instead.”
In exploiting the “ex-gay” industry, our opponents have positioned homosexuality as a sinful, unnatural behavior that could be altered, rather than being an integral and immutable part of a person. This message has either directly or indirectly been used as a club in which to bash LGBT people in referendums for the past fifteen years and serves as a wedge issue to fire up their base in election cycles. Embracing these groups also allowed the Religious Right to smarmily and cynically claim they “loved” LGBT people and were just trying to help them.
If religiously brainwashed and tortured gays want to be masochists and betray both their own integrity and lie to those they claim to love it's one thing. But the moment they take this lie and use it against others as "ex-gays for Pay," they truly deserve a special place in Hell. They have simply made themselves feel better about themselves at the cynical expense of others - while making a buck in the process. (see the image below for some of these lying frauds) Cheap whores have more integrity and virture than "ex-gays for pay" such as Chambers. I hope Wayne Besen is correct when he predicts:
Without holding out the magical promise of change, Exodus has little value to the Religious Right’s political ambitions. While some evangelical voters may see celibacy or sham marriages as reasonable options, most Americans will consider such demands as cruel, unrealistic, and potentially damaging to both the gay person and their spouse. In other words, pushing the impractical idea of turning millions of LGBT people into sexual ascetics won’t play beyond the extreme right’s base.
Just a couple of years ago, Exodus offered flashy ads that exploded with hope. One ad for their national convention confidently screamed: Revolution, radically change your world. Freedom from homosexuality is possible.
What is Exodus’ new message to teens? “Live a life of hell on earth so you can get to heaven when you die?” Or, maybe their new recruitment brochure might say: “A life of sexual frustration and loneliness has never been so fun!”
I can only wonder how many of the individuals in the image above have either (i) given up the lie, ( II) found themselves in sham marriages, or (iii) committed suicide.
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