A Northern Ireland-based Christian group called Changing Attitudes Ireland was scheduled to host Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out at an event aimed at educating people about the perils of the ex-gay movement and so-called reparative therapies, from a Christian perspective. It was scheduled for April 21st, but I haven’t heard back as to whether or not it went ahead.

You may remember that in February, a group called SCOTT (Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce) protested a conference in Ballynahinch, Co Down. It was hosted by the same group who are now planning a new event that was initially planned for tonight and tomorrow morning, but has been delayed due to the volcano.

Core Issues, the same group who hosted the February conference, are hosing a speaker from the Exodus “ministry”. Alan Chambers is the president of Exodus International, one of the primary groups responsible for the myth of “sexual reorientation”.

Exodus International was founded in 1976. Two of the five original founders left the group three years later to be with each other. The group, however, has survived and today functions in 19 different countries despite the dubious record of actual results.

Some quotes from those involved in Exodus:

Alan Chambers — I’m not ex-gay, I’m gay. I just pretend not to be, really really hard, because, you know, heaven.

Gradually, my will and then my desires changed. I no longer needed homosexual sex. I had pure relationships with men and women that far exceeded any encounter I had ever had. My hurt was real and a struggle-free life is not what I have found. What I have found is freedom in the hope that after this short life, God will fulfill His promise of healing to completion.
from ExodusInternational.org

Leslie Chambers — God wants us to be pretty.

Being a woman of God, being feminine, is not just about being beautiful. That is simply one aspect of it, but if I reject that aspect I am rejecting something of God Himself.  I don’t know the full extent of what this means but I do know I need to be okay with letting Him make me into a beautiful woman.

Melissa Fryrear — I was a butch lesbian until God told me how to be pretty.

During my years of restoration, I also began to learn about this thing called womanhood. Goodness! Who knew there was so much to learn: plucking eyebrows, hair bleaches, hair waxings, facial mud masks, eye lash curlers, manicures, pedicures, push-up bras, tummy tuckers, rear-end boosters, last year’s colors, and next year’s fashions?

I also began to learn about boys. Let me say that if anyone thinks puberty is tough at fifteen, try it in your thirties!

Studies have shown that those who consider their therapy a success universally still have same-sex attractions, but simply learn to  control them, while having relationships with the opposite sex. Somebody should tell them about bisexuality.

Exodus defines change as, “attaining abstinence from homosexual behaviors, lessening of homosexual temptations, strengthening their sense of masculine or feminine identity, correcting distorted styles of relating with members of the same and opposite gender.”

If you’ve seen the film “But I’m a Cheerleader” (and if you haven’t, you should), you would be forgiven if you thought the therapies depicted in it were as camped up as the film itself is. Unfortunately, it’s pretty accurate in many cases. So called “sexual-reorientation therapy” relies on strict teaching of traditional gender norms as well as reinterpreting one’s life to discover the cause of same-sex attraction (anything from having a distant parent to sexual abuse to divorce qualifies).

There is, however, hope. Plenty of Christian groups are starting to oppose this movement that has been shown time and time again to be not only ineffective, but harmful. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on the Vatican to join up, however.

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