By the time victims of so-called “ex-gay” or conversion therapy reach me at TruthWinsOut.org, their self-esteem has been trampled and their self-worth is non-existent. These individuals were often betrayed by therapists who were supposed to be helping, but turned out to be the root cause of their enormous pain and suffering.
Sadly, such therapists have aligned themselves with religious organizations that send the detrimental message that if a gay client refuses to undergo sexual conversion or commit to a lifetime of celibacy he or she will be socially ostracized or will burn in Hell. From my experience, I have yet to see how such coercive and cruel treatment is conducive to good mental health.
Having studied the “ex-gay” movement for a decade and authored a book on the topic, “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the ‘Ex-Gay’ Myth,” I have found that conversion therapy is ineffective, harmful and anachronistic. These therapies don’t make clients heterosexual, nor do they help reconcile faith and sexuality. All that is accomplished, unfortunately, is enticing vulnerable clients to pay dearly for the identical shame and repression they previously received for free.
Regrettably, a well-financed cottage industry has arisen to deny reality and distort the lives of gay and lesbian people. This is evidenced by a group of politically motivated right wing counselors who filed a formal complaint in February with the American Counseling Association falsely claming that the ACA had violated its own polices and had stigmatized the beliefs of Christian counselors. It’s real goal, however, was to bully the ACA into allowing some practitioners to harm clients, while shielding this damage in the cloak of religious liberty.
In another example, last summer, right wing therapists wrote a letter to protest the American Psychological Association. They were expressing their outrage over an APA task force that will review current scientific research and stances on conversion therapy in a brazen attempt to intimidate the reviewers.
On behalf of the survivors of such therapy, I implore all mental health associations to withstand such political interference and resist the attempt to mainstream fringe therapies that harm gay and lesbian Americans.
There are three primary reasons why such therapy models should be definitively rejected. First, they confuse stereotypes with science. Secondly, they lack peer review studies and evidence that such therapies work – while there is a growing body of evidence that they hurt large numbers of people. Third, they rely on bizarre techniques that are a blight on the field of mental health. (Read More)
NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org (TWO) unveiled four new Internet videos today featuring prominent molecular biologist Dean Hamer, notable mental health expert and author Dr. Jack Drescher, ex-gay survivor Brent Almond and Nick Cavnar, who after decades left an ex-gay cult. This is the final week that the organization has released new educational videos addressing the “ex-gay” myth leading up to the March 3 launch of TWO’s updated website.
In today’s first video, molecular biologist Dr. Dean Hamer discusses biology, genetics and homosexuality. He also debunks the misinformation put forth by “ex-gay” organizations, such as Exodus and Focus on the Family.
In TWO’s second video, Dr. Jack Drescher, America’s foremost expert and scholar on GLBT mental health, answers questions on the efficacy of ‘ex-gay’ therapy. Drescher is a renowned scholar on issues of sexual orientation and a celebrated author.
Our third person featured is Brent Almond, who suffered through the ‘ex-gay’ ministries. In this video, he opens up to TruthWinsOut.org about his harrowing experience.
Finally, TWO interviews Nick Cavnar, a man who suppressed his sexuality, married and joined a Michigan cult that promised to cure him. This exclusive video details his long road to self-acceptance.
TruthWinsOut.org is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
Ken Hutcherson, a popular speaker on the Exodus conference circuit, gave a sermon on recent Sunday. Columnist Anthony B. Robinson writes:
[Seattle psychologist Valerie] Tarico, a former staffer at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, was raised in a fundamentalist church. In recent months, she has made it her business to attend services at many of the large, conservative churches in the Seattle area, including Hutcherson’s, to see what’s going on.
On a Sunday when Tarico was present, Hutcherson was preaching on gender roles. During his sermon, Hutcherson stated, “God hates soft men” and “God hates effeminate men.” Hutcherson went on to say, “If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”
“That was a joke,” Hutcherson said Friday, when I asked him about the comment. But it’s not really funny, is it?
Truth Wins Out has warned of Hutcherson’s recent ties to antigay violence in California and Europe. Yet, despite Hutcherson’s latest affirmation of violence against “effeminate” men, Exodus International stands by its man. There has been no official repudiation of Hutcherson nor of his statements and hate-group affiliations.
As one critic observed, Exodus’ admittedly effeminate executive vice president, Randy Thomas, should reconsider holding the door for Hutcherson at future Exodus speeches.
With Exodus promoting pro-violence activists such as “Hutch,” is it really surprising that Exodus leaders also campaign to exclude sexual orientation from existing state and federal hate-crime laws — and associate punishment of antigay violence with “thoughtcrime“?
Journey Into Manhood is a $650-per-person, ex-gay weekend boot camp for men who mistakenly believe that homosexuality is caused by inadequate masculinity. The retreat is operated by an ex-gay advocacy group called People Can Change.
In response to criticism by a pro-exgay pundit of the retreat’s controversial pro-gay origins and secret practices, PCC recently released a rigged customer-satisfaction survey which claimed overwhelming success — by excluding most of the retreat’s dissatisfied participants from the survey.
According to The Washington Blade, Doug Haldeman — a gay psychologist based in Seattle and a board member of the American Psychological Association — has joined public criticism of the survey. Haldeman said the name of the retreat, “Journey Into Manhood,” has an inherent bias presupposing that “anyone who is struggling with feelings of same-sex attraction is not a man.” Haldeman also criticized the survey for failing to identify why participants wanted to change their sexual orientation.
“Most of those groups use convenient sample surveys like that and try and call it research,” he said. “What they really are … just amounts to testimonials of people that I believe are pressured, either externally and internally, into something as difficult as trying to change your sexual orientation.”
Former ex-gays who gathered in Memphis, Tenn., on Feb. 23 have, with lightning speed, unleashed a series of new videos that could fill a small cineplex. Numerous survivors of Exodus ex-gay programs document the shame, deception, cynicism, hopelessness and family trauma that were sold to them and their families by Exodus International and Focus on the Family in the guise of “hope” and “family values.”
Former Love In Action participants Brandon Tidwell and Jacob Wilson and ex-gay survivor John Holm discuss the misunderstanding, rejection, denial, and sexual and religious shame that was vented upon them and their peers. Former ex-gay Christine Bakke tours the Ex-Gay Survivor Art Show. Ex-gay movement critic Jim Burroway attended the ex-gay roadshow Love Won Out last year and now reports on the heartbreak and blame that Focus dumped upon parents and relatives who comprise much of the roadshow’s audience. And ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano remembers the abuse suffered by his parents at the hands of a “Family and Friends Weekend” organized by Exodus’ flagship live-in program, Love In Action.
Two gay U.S. teenagers have been brutally killed since Feb. 12, apparently because of their sexual orientation or gender variance.
Exodus Youth — a Florida-based ex-gay project that claims to uphold the welfare of sexually struggling youths — has responded to the killings, thus far, with official silence. But in the meantime, an Exodus Youth staffer and Exodus executive have, on a personal blog, given their nod to legislation that would prevent public schools from acknowledging that gay youths even exist. And in Maryland, the ex-gay political group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays responded to the killings with silence while continuing to support a battle against local transgender-tolerance legislation.
Simmie Williams Jr., 17, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was shot and killed early on Feb. 22 in a location that is said to be a popular hang-out for transgender persons; the killers are being sought, their motives as-yet unknown. Williams was openly gay and was dressed in feminine clothing at the time of the shooting.
Previously, Lawrence King, 15, of Oxnard, Calif., was shot in the head in a classroom by an alleged bully Feb. 12 after reported altercations over King’s sexual orientation and gender-variant clothing. He was declared brain-dead two days later and his organs were harvested for donation. In the wake of that killing, pro-tolerance and anti-violence vigils were held locally and nationally.
Police are treating both incidents as possible hate crimes.
Focus on the Family denies the existence of former ex-gays — a growing movement of hundreds of people who have discovered through personal experience that ex-gay activists’ claims are not only false, but toxic to families and communities.
Former ex-gays gathered this weekend in Memphis, Tenn., at the same time as Focus’ ex-gay roadshow, Love Won Out, which appeals to antigay pastors and parents of gay persons with sales pitches for ex-gay propaganda and political appeals to deny equality to gay couples.
According to Peterson Toscano, a survivor of Exodus International’s flagship live-in program Love In Action: “They [Focus on the Family] basically tell parents of lesbian and gay kids that it’s bad to be gay, and they give testimonies about how awful people’s lives were while they were gay. They say they can change and save you.”
In promoting its roadshow, Focus on the Family on Feb. 20 described former ex-gays (who were to come from as far away as California and Connecticut) as “local activists” who advocate “a revisionist view of the Bible.” Focus concealed the central fact that the “activists” included former ex-gays.
Love In Action has similarly shielded its participants from survivors and allies who have held vigils nearby. Jacob Wilson, now 22, was an ex-gay participant in LIA in 2005. According to the Memphis Commercial-Appeal:
After Wilson left LIA, he found out what the protesters had wanted him to know.
“These people weren’t doing it to be activists, they were doing it to show that we weren’t alone, that we were loved … It crushes me that that message was cut from us.”
‘Ex-gay’ survivor Jaylen Braiden discusses his time in Desert Stream and Portland Fellowship ministries as a teenager. While in Desert Stream, Jaylen was taken advantage of by an Exodus team leader, who later got in trouble for sexually abusing other minors. Exodus has yet to come clean and publicly discuss the Desert Stream scandal.
First, I want to thank the American Counseling Association for supporting ethical standards in its work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. Your organization has helped many people and allowed them to live openly and honestly with dignity and respect. The ACA has been a model for proper treatment and I applaud you for your commitment to assuring a superb standard of care for all people.
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that a group of politically motivated right wing counselors are working to undermine the ACA’s effective guidelines for dealing with GLBT clients. This group recently filed a formal complaint falsely claming that the ACA has violated its own polices. It’s real goal, however, is to bully the ACA into allowing unscrupulous practitioners to harm clients, while shielding its damage in the cloak of religious liberty.
As the leader of an organization that represents victims of ex-gay therapy, I urge you to soundly reject this stealth attempt to inject bad policies and biased practices into ACA guidelines. My organization, TruthWinsOut.org, offers its support and would gladly supply you with testimonials – video or in person – of people who have been severely damaged as a result of so-called ex-gay therapy. These survivors represent the psychological carnage that often accompanies attempts to either change or repress one’s natural sexual orientation.
In addition to my work with TruthWinsOut.org, I have studied “ex-gay” therapy for a decade and authored the book, “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.” My research concluded that the therapy promoted by the counselors who filed this complaint is harmful, ineffective and based on outdated psychological theories. (Read More)
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, the shamelessly self-promoting “ex-gay” therapist, has stepped up his holy war against gay people. This week, he organized a pack of fundamentalist quacks to file a formal written complaint with the American Counseling Association. Throckmorton’s crew is upset because they believe the ACA is inhibiting their ability to destroy the mental health of gay and lesbian people in the name of religion. They also believe that they have the special right as fundamentalists to use bizarre techniques and ignore normal therapy guidelines.
What is so morally distasteful and ethically disgraceful about Throckmorton is that he is taking this measure without offering a shred of evidence that his shame-based therapy model works. What Chutzpah! How can he credibly complain to the ACA without offering multiple “success” stories by people other than those who get paid to say they have gone from gay to straight?
Indeed, the ACA should launch a full-scale investigation against the good doctor. He works at little Grove City College, a fundamentalist school in a rural Western Pennsylvania town of merely 8000 people. The truth is, you probably could not find 250 farmers, no less gay people in need of ex-gay therapy in this neck of the woods. To no ones surprise, this brain-twisting blowhard has yet to produce on-record accounts out of his large pool of supposed clients. Clearly, he is either exaggerating the number of clients or his therapy is a monumental failure.
With such a paltry and embarrassing record, why is Throckmorton attacking the ACA? The reason is simple: Throckmorton and his cohorts act more like ministers than mental health professionals. Instead of ethical counselors who just happen to be Christian, they are politically motivated fundamentalists who can’t separate church and couch. This is the same type of backwards, “intelligent design” promoting crowd that wears lab coats, yet disdains science and stealthily tries to slip their oddball theories into the mainstream. (Read More)
With a gift of $35 to Truth Wins Out, you can receive an autographed copy of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
Op-ed by Wayne Besen
In response to criticism by a pro-exgay pundit of the retreat’s controversial pro-gay origins and secret practices, PCC recently released a 
Simmie Williams Jr., 17, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was 
