AlterNet: Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

[marmar]

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

By Sena Christian, AlterNet. Posted December 5, 2009.

Ted Cox posed as a gay man to infiltrate gay-to-straight therapy programs. What he found was equal parts shocking and tragic.




Over the course of the past two years, writer Ted Cox posed as a gay man. He attended weekly meetings for several months at two churches in California and a two-day camp at a ranch in northern Arizona in February, both geared toward one end: turning homosexual men and women straight. Last week, I sat down with my friend, Cox, to hear about his experience going undercover in Christian gay-to-straight therapy programs.

Sena Christian: What made you want to learn more about the Christian gay-to-straight movement?

Ted Cox: I was born and raised in the Mormon church and even after I became non-religious, I was still fascinated with religion. This was a cool intersection of religion, subculture, sex and equal rights.

SC: What exactly interested you?

TC: I first heard about gay-conversion therapy from a segment on The Daily Show, called Diagnosis: Mystery and Jason Jones interviews one of the most infamous names in ex-gay therapy who's Richard Cohen. What bothered me about the segment is that they didn't touch on the religious background behind these programs. There is no such thing as atheist, agnostic or non-religious groups trying to make gay people straight. Evangelical Christians, especially, tend to be heavily involved in this movement.

SC: Tell me about gay-conversion therapy.

TC: They promote this idea that they can make you straight. That's their public message. As you dig deeper, you find out that people are actually suppressing their sexuality. They tell people these programs will make you free from homosexuality through faith and prayer; the programs will help you find the strength to live a chaste, Christian life. That doesn't necessarily mean heterosexuality, or marriage and happy children; so what it means is leaving behind your urges, desires and actions.

(These programs) say homosexuality is the result of emotional or psychological scarring in childhood, where you don't properly identify with your parent of the same sex. They say you're not born that way, it's not genetic, but it is your choice as to whether or not you act on those feelings and attractions. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/sex/144390/going_undercover_in_the_crazy%2C_tragic_world_of_christian_gay-conversion_therapy

[Ukonkivi]

1. Heh, how cheap of them. What a lie.

They realize that sexuality is not a choice. They realize they can't force a man to like a pair of large breasts. They realize they can't stop a man from liking body hair and facial hair. They realize they can't stop a man from find tall attractive. They realize they can't make a man find wide hips as attractive as thin hips. They realize they can't make a man stop liking a v-shape figure instead of an hourglass one. They realize they can't make a man enjoy a high pitched voice and not enjoy a deep pitched one. They realize they can't stop a man from enjoying the look of muscular people. They realize they can't force a woman to not be attracted to larger breasts. They realize they can't stop a woman from being grossed out by body hair and facial hair. They realize they can't stop a woman from finding short attractive. They realize they can't stop a woman from finding wide hips attractive. They realize they can't stop a woman from being unattracted to a v-shaped body and attracted to an hourglass one. They realize they can't make a woman enjoy a low pitched voice and feel unattracted to a high pitched one. They can't make a woman attracted to muscular people. They realize they can't make a man attracted to vagina. They realize they can't stop a man from being attracted to penis. They realize they can't make a woman attracted to penis. They realize they can't stop a woman from being attracted to vagina. They realize that trying to take measures to make a person feel these attractions and lose the others, would go against the sexual mores of their religion.

So they just tell the homosexuals to suppress themselves. Completely.
But they say it's a choice.

[qb]

2. I wish someone could successfully sue the ex-gay groups for fraud

and force them to pay million$