5 Reasons the 'Pray Away the Gay' Movement Is as Vile as Ever

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/gender/5-reasons-pray-away-gay-movement-vile-ever



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1. The public relations strategy. Toscano, who spent 17 years in the ex-gay world before co-founding a survivors group called Beyond Ex-Gay, tells AlterNet that announcements like Chambers’ should be met with some skepticism. He explains, “Here’s the dirty little secret. They’re only saying publicly what they always told us privately. In 1996, John Smid told Love in Action participants, ‘Changing your orientation from gay to straight is not a realistic goal…The reality is that you’re going to struggle with it for the rest of your life….’ Their PR material for so long said ‘change is possible,’ but they were elusive about what that really meant… What we have now is just transparency about what they’ve always said.”

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2. The “happily hetero-married gay” ideal. In his open letter, Chambers wrote that although he still experiences what he calls “same-sex attraction,” he is currently in a happy heterosexual marriage. Weed is also in a heterosexual marriage. He insists that honesty and intimacy in his marriage have “resulted in us having a better sex life than most people I personally know. Most of whom are straight.”

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3. The anti-gay politics. Toscano is adamant: “At its core, the ex-gay movement has been, and continues to be, an anti-gay movement.” Indeed, Exodus International was a prominent supporter of California’s Proposition 8. Chambers tells AlterNet, “Four years ago, we decided to leave public policy and anything related to it behind.” But in fact, Chambers lamented the judicial overturn of Proposition 8 just two years ago, saying, “It’s disappointing that a judge would rule against the will of the people. That’s the greatest tragedy.” Exodus also receives charitable donations from Chick-fil-A, whose president recently doubled down in his opposition to same-sex marriage.

4. The “sin” issue. Ex-gay leaders are still very straightforward in their belief that “homosexual behavior” (i.e., sex) is sinful. In his open letter, Chambers writes:

Exodus does not believe SSA [same sex attraction] is sinful. However, sexual expression resulting from SSA is. Making such clear distinctions has been a failure of the Church that is slowly being realized and changed. At Exodus International one of our primary missions is to communicate that we all have propensities that if indulged can lead us into sin, but those attractions or inclinations are not sinful.

[joeybee12]

1. They can go phuck themselves...knr