Quote of the Day - The Sad Truth About "Ex-Gays"

Every legitimate medical and mental health association in America deems sexual orientation as something that unchangeable and condemns so-called reparative therapy peddled by "ex-gay ministries" and unethical therapist who are either out to make a quick buck off of religiously tormented gays and/or their families.  These "ministries" always have what I call "ex-gays for pay"  who will claim that they have "changed" and are no longer homosexual.  It's usually the same small group of tortured self-loathing individuals who were losers in their lives, often falling into drug and alcohol abuse, who are willing to lie for money.  These sick individuals without exception blame their sexual orientation for their problems when, in truth, most of their psychological damage stems from religious brainwashing they received in childhood or from family rejection.  As noted many times on this blog, there are far more former "ex-gays" than those who continue to sell their souls and integrity to these foul ministries.  Now, PFOX, a totally Christofascist financed organization, has brought the ex-gay lie to Richmond, Virginia by placing a billboard sign - the image is above - next to busy I-95.  The billboard distorts actual scientific research as noted by the New York Daily News:

The nonprofit’s president is Greg Quinlan, who claims to be a former gay man who renounced his sexual identity in 1993. His group frequently touts their belief that homosexuality is not a biological trait, but an emotional disorder, according to Qinlan’s biography on PFOX’s website.

In a statement shared to PFOX’s blog, a spokesperson stood by their billboard and cited a Northwestern University Department Of Psychology study interpreted to show that if identical twins shared the same genes, they would either both be gay or not at all. The study’s author, J. Michael Bailey has even argued against PFOX’s intepretation in an interview with LGBT Science.

 If anyone has an emotional disorder, it is Quinlan who, like most ex-gays and Christofascists is pretty much lying whenever his lips/their are moving.  In a Playboy interview, Dan Savage summed these people up well.  Here are a few on target quotes:

Judaism, Christianity, Islam and almost every other faith have constantly tried to insert themselves between your genitals and your salvation, because then they can regulate and control you. Then you need them to intercede with God, so they target your junk and stigmatize your sexual desire. If you have somebody by the balls or the ovaries, you’ve got them.

Look at Marcus Bachmann, Michele Bachmann’s husband. Anybody who has gaydar—anybody who has eyes—looks at him and sees a tormented closet case who has externalized his internal conflict and is abusing other people, doing his reparative-therapy bullshit. It’s so sad and pathetic. A lot of the self-destructive behaviors gay people are prone to drifting into are directed inward, and then you have these shitbags like Marcus Bachmann for whom it’s all directed outward. Marcus Bachmann is the photo negative of the guy on the last bar stool in the gay bar, drinking and smoking himself to death, except instead of destroying himself, he’s destroying other vulnerable queer people in an effort to destroy the queer inside himself.

You can’t beat the gay out of a kid, but you can kill that gay kid trying. One result is that once you’ve assembled yourself to appease your sports-obsessed father, to fool your peers, your girlfriend…once you put that together, it creates a cognitive bifurcation. The pride you take when you do fool people, when you put together this bullshit version, this Potemkin kid who isn’t you, and people buy it and you’re like, Oh wow—there’s power in that. There was for me. But some kids are crushed by it. The guys I knew who were self- or otherwise destructive were guys who believed they were terrible, that there was something wrong with them. The guys who were healthier believed there was something wrong with everybody else. I was that guy. I thought, I’m fine. My church is crazy. My parents are crazy. Everyone in my Catholic grade school is crazy. Everyone in this neighborhood I live in is fucking nuts. But I’m fine.

[W]hen I realized I was gay, it brought me into conflict with what my church was telling me. I didn’t just move two steps over and find the affirming Lutherans. I looked at the whole religion racket and it kind of fell apart, especially when I saw how much it was torturing gay kids.

As always, Savage holds no punches and the entire interview deserves a read.  Unlike Savage, I did "just move two steps over" and became a Lutheran after belatedly coming out in mid-life, although now I am more of a mindset that religion - even gay friendly faiths - is a racket.  If you want "fellowship" join the Moose Club, a country club, a yacht club or even a non-church affiliated charity group (it'd probably be cheaper!).  As for helping the sick, poor and the hungry, I say do that rather than build huge church buildings and related complexes that only serve members of the church "club."