Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the
ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...
to
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...
, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a
non-heterosexual
Non-heterosexual is a word for a sexual orientation or sexual identity that is not heterosexual. The term helps define the "concept of what is the norm and how a particular group is different from that norm". ''Non-heterosexual'' is used in fe ...
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...
.
Organizations in the ex-gay movement such as
Exodus International offer
conversion therapy
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...
, with the claim that an
LGBTQ
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
person's involvement in the programming can change their sexual orientation to heterosexual. This type of programming is opposed by major medical organizations in the US, including The
National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is a professional organization of social workers in the United States. NASW has about 120,000 members. The NASW provides guidance, research, up to date information, advocacy, and other resources ...
, The
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
, The
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...
, The
American Counseling Association, and The
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of poli ...
. The American Psychiatric Association describes conversion therapy as ineffective at changing sexual orientation, and as harmful to the LGBT person's well-being. It is also opposed by the
United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy
The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional association of psychotherapy organisations and practitioners in the United Kingdom.
History
The UKCP exists to "promote and maintain the profession of psychotherapy and the ...
, who issued a joint leaflet with the
British Psychoanalytic Council, the
Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental healt ...
, the
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom.
History
It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the org ...
, Pink Therapy,
The National Counselling Society and
LGBTQ
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
rights group
Stonewall against such practices.
Three publicly ex-ex-gay people are
Günter Baum
Günter Baum (born 1960) is an openly gay man, who founded two Christian ministries in Germany.
The first organization which Baum founded was Wüstenstrom, which is part of the ex-gay movement. The organization's program was originally based o ...
,
Peterson Toscano and
Christine Bakke. In April 2007, Toscano and Bakke founded Beyond Ex-Gay, an on-line resource for ex-ex gays. In June 2007, together with
Soulforce and the LGBT Resource Center at
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, they organized the first-ever Ex-Gay Survivor Conference.
In 1979,
Exodus International's co-founder Michael Bussee and his partner, Gary Cooper, quit the group and held a life commitment ceremony together.
[Their story is one of the foci of the documentary ''One Nation Under God'' (1993), directed by Teodoro Maniaci and Francine Rzeznik.] On June 27, 2007, Bussee, along with fellow former Exodus leaders Jeremy Marks and Darlene Bogle, issued a public apology for their roles in Exodus. Exodus disbanded as an organization on June 20, 2013.
People who no longer support the ex-gay movement
*
Günter Baum
Günter Baum (born 1960) is an openly gay man, who founded two Christian ministries in Germany.
The first organization which Baum founded was Wüstenstrom, which is part of the ex-gay movement. The organization's program was originally based o ...
founded an ex-gay ministry in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Later he formed Zwischenraum, which helps gay Christians to accept their sexuality and to reconcile it with their beliefs.
*Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, co-founders of
Exodus International, left the organization and in 1979, held a
life commitment ceremony. Bussee went on to become an outspoken critic of Exodus and the ex-gay movement.
In June 2007, Bussee issued an apology for his part in the ex-gay movement.
* Ben Gresham is an Australian man who went through three years of ex-gay therapy starting at sixteen years of age. He does media appearances, including
ABC TV's ''The Hack Half Hour'', ''
SX News'' and ''Triple J'' (radio) regarding what he sees as the dangers of ex-gay programs and the psychological harm associated with them. Along with this, Gresham is a part of "
Freedom2b", which offers support to
LGBTQ
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
people from church backgrounds.
* Noe Gutierrez appeared in
Warren Throckmorton's ex-gay video ''I Do Exist'' in 2004. This garnered some notice, as Gutierrez had previously appeared in a video for gay youth known as ''
It's Elementary''. Gutierrez later left the ex-gay movement and wrote about his experience.
*
John Paulk, founder of
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is an American Christian fundamentalism, Evangelical Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of Evangel ...
's ex-gay ministry
Love Won Out and former chairman of
Exodus International North America, renounced his claim to ex-gay status, denied that sexual orientation change is effective, and apologized for the harm he had caused in a formal apology in 2013.
*
John Smid is the former director of the
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
ex-gay
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual re ...
ministry
Love In Action, a position in which he was a leading spokesman for converting
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...
s into
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...
s. In 2011, years after having left his Love In Action post, he stated that he was homosexual, and that he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual."
*
Peterson Toscano is an actor who was involved in the ex-gay movement for 17 years. He performs a related one-man
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
titled ''Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House'', and with
Christine Bakke runs Beyond Ex-Gay, a support website for people coming out of ex-gay experiences.
*
Anthony Venn-Brown is a former Australian evangelist in the
Assemblies of God
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...
and an author whose book, ''A Life of Unlearning'', describes his experience in Australia's first ex-gay program. Venn-Brown co-founded Freedom2b, which offers support to LGBT people from church backgrounds and who have been displaced from the ex-gay movement. In 2007 he co-ordinated the release of a statement from five Australian ex-gay leaders who publicly apologized for their past actions. Venn-Brown has been a leader in monitoring ex-gay activities in Australia, New Zealand and Asia and countering the "ex-gay myth".
* McKrae Game founded Hope for Wholeness, one of the largest conversion therapy programs in the United States. He came out as gay in June 2019, two years after being fired from the program.
*
David Matheson, a counselor who ran a weekend program offered by Rich Wyler's conversion therapy organization
Brothers on a Road Less Traveled, came out via Facebook in early 2019 after a different private Facebook message by Wyler was obtained by the LGBT non-profit
Truth Wins Out.
See also
*
Queer theology
*
Wayne Besen, gay rights activist and author of ''
Anything But Straight''
References
External links
Beyond Ex-gay
''Anything But Straight''- archive of defunct official website
Evangelicals Concerned "Creating safe places for GLBT Christians."
Reparative Therapy -- A by J. G. Ford - archive of defunct website
Ex-Gay Watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ex-Ex-Gay
*
Sexual orientation and psychology