Informal poll:
What are the 3 worst aspect of ex-gay “ministries”?
a) Political activity against constitutional rights and social equality
b) Counseling practices contrary to reputable mental-health guidelines
c) Dishonesty about “change”
d) Distortion or misuse of religion
e) Anti-scientific mindset
f) Stereotypes about GLBT people
g) Promotion of ostracism, misunderstanding, and schism in families and communities
What are your personal experiences with any of the above?
Worst aspect of ex-gay ministries?
Hatred in the name of love.
B, G and A.
Although you should add psychological bullying – making the ultimate, evil threat that lies at the very heart of Christianity, (matt 25:41) – follow my rules or go to hell. A disgusting, wicked preachment, which Exodus uses to leach money out of its so called patients and their families.
It is organizations like this that make it necessary for people to walk away from superstition. The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressors Is the minds of the oppressed – it should be Exodus’ motto….
The worst aspect of ex-gay “ministries” is the divorces and the destruction of families they cause by encouraging ex-gay members to marry an opposite-sex partner and to have children.
Next would be items g) and a) above.
a,b and g
But aren’t B and E the same thing?
B and E do overlap.
In writing #B, I was thinking about the movement’s intentional reliance upon uneducated, uncertified, and unlicensed “Christian counselors” who blame clients or Satan for depression, deny or discourage access to real doctors, and isolate and shame clients.
In writing #E, I was thinking about the movement’s false claims about the formation of sexual orientation, its deliberate acts of fraud against legitimate researchers (documented at respectmyresearch.org), its leaders’ efforts to promote creationism, and its battles against sex education.
b) Overcoming the devastating results of bad counseling was extremely difficult for me.
f) It took years for me to unlearn anti-gay stigma and rebuild my self image.
e) I found it very frustrating and confusing to make sense of the many bizarre ex-gay counseling and theology. Eventually, I realized that many of the ex-gay psychological and theological theories were made to fit predetermined ex-gay conclusions.
Sorry, I got the lettering wrong. This comes of trying to be too clever with my cutting and pasting. Let me have another try.
I would say that the worst aspects — and they’re all very bad — are (a), (c) and (g).
(a) tries to prevent gay people from living normal lives.
(c) gets people to desire and hope for a “change” which is almost certainly never going to happen, in the meantime encouraging them to put their lives on hold instead of forming appropriate relationships; this can in some cases swallow up years, even decades, of their lives.
(g) drives a wedge between gay people and their families: (1) by discouraging their families from accepting them as they are, and (2) by leading them to believe that their natural sexuality is a defect or disorder for which their family is to be blamed.
In short, these three aspects amount to a vicious attack on the lives of GLBT people. The other aspects are means towards this immoral end.
(a) It’s putting a friendly face on techniques used against homosexuals in the Nazi concentration camps. Even worse that America allows it – what would the reaction be if white “christians” tried to recruit blacks, “experiment” on them, and forcing them to “act and talk caucasian”?
(b) It’s a friendlier way of the bully stealing lunch money from the queers. If the “christians” can’t outright rob you, they can at least f**k with your mind while reaching into your wallet.
(c) It makes you parade around like you’re on drugs, smarmily informing everyone every few hours of how happy and hetero you are – even though you know as well as everyone else that you won’t be having the wife, kids, dog and white picket fence. WANTING those things and HAVING them are two different things. You take pride in informing openly gay people of how miserable they are and how happy you are, even though on the inside, you’re bitter, miserable and lonely.