Ex-Gay Watch

Exodus International’s Julie Neils, in 2010:

As for those mysterious gay-to-straight “boot camps,” they don’t exist.

Ex-gay survivor Kyle Luebke, in 2011:

Realizing that [being gay] was not just a “phase” that I was going through, [my parents] decided that more drastic action needed to be taken. They proceeded to contact Mr. Phillips, and took his advice to send me to the “Refuge” program, a program run by the ex-gay ministry Love In Action in Memphis, Tennessee. My parents told me that I had no option but to go, considering that I was underage and still under their authority. Thus, we packed our bags and moved to Memphis for two months, and on October 28, 2006 I was enrolled at Love In Action.

I was to go back to Love In Action on my eighteenth birthday, on May 5, 2007. But once again, I was not given much of a “choice” in the matter. They informed me that I would either go into the Love In Action program, or be kicked out of the house, because they could not have an unrepentant homosexual living under their roof. But this time there was a twist in their threat — they told all of my extended family, from my grandparents to my aunts and uncles — to not take me in if I decided against going into the program.

Love In Action is, in its own words, “the oldest established member ministry of Exodus International … [and] a referral ministry of Focus on the Family and the American Family Association.”

LIA’s Refuge was discontinued in 2007, following the public outcry over the treatment of Zach Stark, a gay Memphis teenager forced into the program in 2006. It was replaced by the similar Family Freedom Intensive. Neither was residential, though, contrary to Exodus’s denial, Refuge had all the worst characteristics of a bootcamp.

Read about Kyle’s experience in five parts, beginning with The Pain of Reparative Therapy: My Story — Part One. Links to the other parts can be found at the bottom of Part Five.

Hat-tip: Bene Diction.

Gay teens share their stories this week in the New York Times. The interactive series, which touches on issues of oppression, anti-gay bullying and the challenges of coming out in school, began this morning with 19-year-old John Albuquerque of the Bronx, and Thomas Miller, 17, of Mandeville, Louisiana.

In a piece called “Ministry to Gay Students,” Shawn Harrison of Exodus Youth goes the extra mile to portray condescension and religious supremacism as compassion. He also believes that the Bible is inerrant.

First we get the compassion part:

There is no question that high schools and middle schools across this nation are ground zero for students who face peer pressure, bullying, low self-esteem, depression, and the like. One of the most disturbing of these is bullying… …and occasionally ends with students getting beat up, receiving death threats, missing school, changing schools, and in some cases, even attempting suicide.

On his 611 ministries website/blog, he even shares that he attempted suicide:

I hated my high school years… …walking through the halls and enduring my new lifestyle was enough to bring me to suicide – which was attempted a few times.

Back to the EY article:

This article is not calling to accept behavior that clashes with Biblical beliefs, rather it’s calling for Christians (especially those who are youth workers) to take a stand against bullying, and start teaching the truth about sharing God’s unconditional love with those who think they are undeserving of such love.

The way that sentence is written, it seems unclear as to whether he thinks it’s the bullies who don’t feel they are worthy of God’s love, or gay students, or both. But as evidenced throughout the article, it becomes clear that it’s gay students who supposedly think they are ”undeserving” of God’s unconditional love.

Mr. Harrison then lifts two quotes—without giving credit or link—from of all places, GLSEN’S 2007 National School Climate Survey (PDF):

Read more…