Ex-Gay Watch

Last weekend saw the latest Love Won Out conference, the ex-gay roadshow which was once sponsored by Focus on the Family (with Exodus as partners) but is now completely run by Exodus International.  The latest locale was Sugarland, Texas (outside Houston) — firmly in the Bible Belt and where one might expect more than the usual number of sympathetic participants.

According to he Houston Chronicle, however, that doesn’t seem to have been the case.  They report 450 in attendance, for what we believe is the lowest figure yet — certainly in recent years.  That’s less than half the numbers reported in it’s heyday of just a few years ago.  Remember also that most attendees are repeat visitors, part of a small core who use the conferences to visit socially.  Even in such a venue, however, some ministries maintain rather strict requirements.  Living Hope Ministries, an Exodus affiliate in Arlington, Texas, (and old stomping ground of former Exodus VP Randy Thomas) requires their attendees to mark out the last names on their name tags lest they be tempted to contact each other by means not sanctioned by the group.

There would seem little doubt that Exodus is in decline.  Recent months and years have seen their pleas for funds become more dire, their staff and benefits cut, significant ministry partners disassociate, and now their main recruiting tool attract fewer attendees.  Some time ago they began combining the figures for their member groups with their stagnant church affiliates, perhaps to give the impression that they have grown (or at least not shrunk).  Their church affiliate network, which then VP Randy Thomas predicted would have 10,000 members by 2010 never got past about 100.

Exodus still has a presence and can do damage to those who mistake them for a safe harbor.  And they continue to export their untruths to countries less equipped to provide an informed opposition. Unfortunately, we have already witnessed what kind of fire can start from those sparks.

Christopher Jay Hall, a guest blogger at “Raging Pride,” attended Exodus’ Love Won Out conference in Pheonix, Arizona on February 19th and was horrified by the kind of information being given as “fact:”

Long after gays are given the equal rights they are due, and long after LGBTQ equality becomes a given, no matter the biological significance of homosexuality in nature, Exodus and their ilk will still cling to the “gay gene” canard. It’s much easier than trying to argue actual science – since they know it is not on their side.

Since a lesbian by definition is a woman who is exclusively attracted to other women, it wouldn’t surprise me if a relationship with a man “went sour.” But LWO here seems to say that when women get “tired of men” they’ll just flip a switch and go with women.

Additionally, Hall heard messages being delivered to queer and questioning youth in attendance that are extremely irresponsible, considering the rate of suicide among such young people:

Apparently, there [are] no such thing as homosexuals as we are all broken heterosexuals. They told the youth that homosexual behavior is always a sin. People who believe they are homosexual are not the sin itself. The person is not an abomination rather their behavior is the abomination they must seek help in overcoming.

There was, however, some hope.

[T]he youth were very intelligent and to some degree liberal. They were curious as to why our “sin” of homosexuality was a focus of the church when there are so many other sins within the church itself that are being ignored. The best question that left the presenters baffled was, “If it is bad to change one’s sex because it was god’s original intention to have us born the way we are, than why do we dye our hair, wear braces to “fix” our teeth, receive plastic surgery, etc. I was happy to see the amount of liberal individuals who attended, I am just saddened to see so many hurt souls who are forced to attend and the church feels they have no role in the high rates of suicide amongst our LGBTQ youth. What ignorance!

What ignorance, indeed. With all their talk of  “grace for the homosexual” and having compassion and “true tolerance,” the messages being delivered at the conference give quite a different image.

Dr. Michael Brown has a radio show called “In the Line of Fire.” On June 12th, 2009, the first hour (40 min.) of that program was entitled “Building a Bridge of dialog with the Homosexual Community.” (Transcript is here.)

This was mostly in response to Wayne Besen’s speech at Grand Valley University, and the panel discussion on the harm caused by the “ex-gay” industry—which was in response to the (then) forthcoming Love Won Out conference.

Wayne clarifies in a post called “‘Love Won Out’, What’s the Point?“:

Wayne Besen: I’m on my way to Grand Rapids, Michigan to give a presentation at Grand Valley State University on the harm caused by the “ex-gay” industry. My speech, followed by a panel discussion, is in response to Focus on the Family’s traveling road show, Love Won Out, which will be in town on Saturday. Having countered several of these conferences, I must confess, I still don’t understand what point they are trying to make…

Dr. Brown seemed to take the exclusion personally, and complained vociferously about his *unfair* treatment by those who claim to be “tolerant” and “inclusive,” and points out on quite a number of occasions that the university received more than “TEN THOUSAND” emails in support of his being included on the panel. No mention of the fact that Focus on the Family — The sponsor of the Love Won Out conference that he was speaking at — put out the call to have said emails sent to the university in a CitizenLink Action Alert.

(For the sake of reference, Dr Brown takes quite a fancy to the challenge of defending himself against what he considers to be unfair characterizations of him or his positions, as evidenced here at Ex-Gay Watch, 1, and 2, and also on Dr. Warren Throckmorton’s blog, 3.)

In this radio program, he vacillates between claiming persecution by the LGBT community, and pursuing the notion of dialogue with the LGBT community.

In the attempt to demonstrate the fundamentally corrupt nature of the event, he quotes from Besen’s book, Anything But Straight:

[5:08-5:50] Michael Brown: here’s one from Wayne in his book “Anything But Straight,” “Reparative therapists” — so these are people who help—psychologists, psychiatrists, or ministries who help people dealing with unwanted same-sex attractions. [Which now includes Dr. Brown]

“Reparative therapists are detestable, money hungry con-artists who lure and bamboozle susceptible people with misleading promises and false hope. One reason these quacks practice this chicanery is to cash in on this lucrative industry, but one cannot dismiss raw hatred as the primary motive that drives these charlatans to extreme lengths to denigrate lesbians and gay men.”

Delightful. That was the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that was put forward by Wayne last night. Read more…