When I saw the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader," about a young girl sent to an ex-gay camp by her parents who suspected she was a lesbian, I was somewhat in disbelief that camps which tried to "repair" homosexuals actually existed, mostly due to the comic and satirical nature of the film. But then there was the more recent film Latter Days, about a Mormon missionary who is coming to terms with his same gender feelings. After being outed and removed from the church for kissing a boy, his parents also send him to an ex-gay institution. What followed was a graphic portrayal of the techniques used by these camps to reverse his homosexuality, not unlike the the real life treatment described in a recent blog by a gay Tennessee teenager.
Even though ex-gay movements have been around since the 70's, this real life story brought the issue of reparative therapy further into mainstream reality. So now we all know that ex-gay ministries and camps really do exist and continue to provide reparative therapy. But is being gay really a choice? Can same gender feelings be repaired?
Latest News
- Gay rights activist say that reparative therapy contributes to the gay suicide rate. According to the Center for Disease Control, gay youth suicide attempts are 4 times that of heterosexual youth. In Always My Child: A Parent's Guide to Understanding Your Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Questioning Son or Daughter, Kevin Jennings associates this statistic with the stressors gay youth face, such as self-awareness of their homosexuality and fears surrounding coming out to family and friends.
Background
What are ex-gay (or reparative therapy) ministries?Ex-gay ministries started in the early 1970's with a group called Love in Action, under the principle that through prayer gay people could be converted to heterosexuals. Shortly after, the co-founder of Love in Action, Rev. Kent Philpott, wrote the landmark book The Third Sex?, which described the conversion process of six gay people to heterosexuality.
This publication captured worldwide attention, resulting in the first ex-gay conference, of which the largest ex-gay ministry, Exodus was created. The ex-gay movement began to grow with the creation of several ex-gay organizations that all believe homosexuality could be repaired.
Ex-gay ministries haven't been without controversy themselves, however. Gay rights organizations have scrutinized these organizations stating that the queer feelings of people in these groups were suppressed and not "healed" as they claimed. Many of the leaders of nationally recognized groups like John Paulk from Exodus and Colin Cook from Homosexuals Anonymous have been caught living double lives and were eventually exposed for engaging in homosexual activity. This furthered the claim that reparative therapy was more about homophobia than healing.
What are "live-in" ministries?
Live in ministries are ex-gay camps run by organizations such as Exodus. For a fee, parents can send their children to these religion-based camps for reparative therapy. There they are taught techniques on how to suppress their queer feelings and how religion can help them make the transition. Adults struggling with same gender feelings can also attend.
