In a nutshell, one of the most dangerous anti-gay organizations in the world has changed its views. They used to believe that have attractions to the same-sex was wrong. Their new stance is that the act of homosexual sex is evil, not the attractions themselves.
Greg the Terran breaks it down.
BACKGROUND:
If your not familiar with Exodus International, they were, up until today, basically the largest driving force in homosexual reparative therapy. They were essentially the kings of the ex-gay movement (no queens allowed). I did a little work on them back in the day for a "gender and sexuality" class back in the day, I'm trying to dig it out.
Ah. There it is. If you're already familiar with exodus or the ex-gay movement, you should check this out.
What is homosexual reparative therapy? Basically, it's the attempt to change people from gay to straight through Christian based consoling. Young queers would go to visit a minister or a christian therapist, who would tell them that the Bible condemns their gayness, but luckily, WITH THE HELP OF JESUS, they could change.
Exouds International was the largest and most influential organization that used homosexual reparative therapy. They claimed, of course, not to hate gays, but to love Jesus so much that they wanted to get rid of all of us queers so as not to make baby Jesus cry anymore. They also claimed that they had cured tens of thousands of people from homosexuality, and that they could cure you too! (and me too!) if only we all just believed.
For years you could visit the Exodus website, and read from hundreds of testimonials from ex-gay people. These are people who claimed they were once gay, but had been cured. Mostly they would talk about how dissatisfying the gay lifestyle was, and how God didn't approve and how now they were happy, well-adjusted heterosexuals that hadn't had a dirty thought in years! (Oh Joy!)
THE FUCKED UP PART WAS:
As it turns out, telling little queers that "it's just a phase" and that if they really love God, their faggotry will go away is actually quite damaging to the human psyche. It doesn't work. It's very confusing. The problem with ex-gay therapy is that the "solution" is to pretend like gayness is just the devil trying to trick you.
So little Tommy is trying not to be gay anymore, but he's got this voice in the back of his head saying "Come on Tommy, if weren't gay, you wouldn't be driving to a clinic and paying someone to talk to you about your gayness, NOW WOULD YOU?"
And Tommy's therapist says "BUT WHAT ABOUT JESUS?!"
That's even more confusing, because Jesus has not-shit to do with any of this (Unless Jesus was the name of a mexican man that Tommy boned in a bathhouse).
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Allan, a former homosexual himself, now happily married with two children, used to claim that others could change their homosexual ways like he had, and that they would be happier. However, in a string of recent interviews, as well as speech at an Exodus annual meeting, Allan Chambers announced that his organization would no longer try to cure homosexuality. He admitted that ex-gay therapy offered false hope to a group of people who are already surrounded by misinformation, and was very potentially dangerous.
Only a few years ago, Mr. Chambers was featured in advertisements along with his wife, Leslie, saying, “Change is possible.” But now, he said in the interview, “Exodus needs to move beyond that slogan.”He even went so far as to admit that he himself still harbored sexual feelings for the same sex, and that basically every ex-gay he had ever met still did. The Exodus website has been revamped, and now there are only a select few of the ex-gay testimonials still lying around. The leftovers do less to condemn homosexuals as perverts and more to show people simply struggling with their homosexual sin.
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?
This is of course a MAJOR victory for homosexuals, but it is also oh so much more than that.
This shit is awesome. This is a victory for the whole friggin world. Up until now, Exodus International was the enemy of the homosexuals. They were snatching up our own kind and turning them against us. Many of them hated us, and many of us hated them right back. Could you blame us?
Allan has raised a white flag. He's calling a truce. I still don't agree with the man 100%. The man still thinks that the Bible condemns homosexuality and he still thinks its wrong to have sex with men.
I think the Bible is pretty much full of shit, and that everybody should be having sex with men, but you know what? At least I don't hate the guy anymore. He did the right thing, and if your a Christian, who is struggling with your own homosexual feelings, maybe Allan is the right man to talk to.
Again, I'd still recommend just accepting your queerness as something wonderful, but nowadays you can do worse than Exodus International.
Bravo. You intolerant bastards.
Good post but I'd like to point out something in "I think the Bible .... to talk to". The word "your" is possessive. For example: Your van, your speakers, your tongue. You're is a contraction of "you" and "are". "Your a christian" would mean that you own an "a christian" which makes little sense. I just get annoyed when people misuse your. Overall, good post but I needed to get my rant out.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteI try to keep my grammar in check you know, but there's just so much to remember.