Christian camp that "cures" homosexuality revealed: A reporter goes underground

[Bluebear]

It strikes me as slightly cruel that an event for people battling with their homosexuality should offer shared rooms with strangers of the same sex....

It could be comical were it not for the teenager shaking in the corner...

“You walk out on this cloud of ex-gay glory,” says Toscano, “but you end up intimate with no one, becoming more and more isolated until it's just you alone on this little ex-gay island ... so many people are hurting and living this half-life.”


...The first full day requires us to pick our classes. I sign up for “Journey Through Lesbianism”, a workshop addressing possible factors contributing to the development of lesbianism. These include, apparently, “unhealthy relationships with family members and peers, abuse, shame and self-hatred”. Loneliness, the media, and being deprived of affection as a baby in a hospital incubator will later be added to the list.

The lesson starts ominously. “What a bunch of fine-looking ladies we have here today,” the wiry, bespectacled lecturer says to the sullen women squeezed into tight rows of chairs.

“We're dealing with attraction here, and you're bunching us all up together?” snorts one redhead, before being calmed down by the woman sitting next to her. “I'm sorry,” she apologises, “but it has been an intense day.” It is 10.45am.

Next up is “Overcoming Guilt and Shame”, led by a sad, wearied and overweight woman named Bonnie who used to be a probation officer. “I still have same-sex attraction,” she sighs at one point, “but it's like elevator music to me now. I just don't pay attention to it.” A strange practical exercise follows, involving picking derogatory name tags out of a hat. A handsome youth with an American smile sticks “defiled” to his polo shirt. How this helps his internet porn addiction is anyone's guess, although he generously cedes that “we're all sexually broken”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4893735.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

[juno jones]

1. I have no words. K&R n/t

[Bigmack]

2. Remember the movie.."But I'm a Cheerleader" ? nt

[tavalon]

21. Yep, it's on my shelf

Hilarious movie but in reality, that shit is scary.

[MotorCityMan]

27. This shit really IS scary

I've met one guy who had spent years trying to "cure" his gayness with these so-called "Christian" programs. He was an emotional mess.

I was raised Catholic and practiced for 18 years. I am so glad I never had any problem with being gay (I was about 12 when I first realized it). In fact, when I found out how the church felt about homosexuals, I had a problem with the church, not myself.

[tavalon]

31. Of course he was!

That would be like me trying to be a lesbian. It wouldn't work and I would be miserable. That's just dumb.

[Kerrytravelers]

3. Thank you for the link. I will read this when I have time to read it carefully.

I find this just so upsetting.

[That Is Quite Enough]

4. That's so sad..

Repressing yourself does such miracles, right? :sarcasm:

[marmar]

5. What the fucking fuck?

I want to laugh, cry and break shit at the same time after reading that. ..... They're Nazis without the murder.

[amdezurik]

6. they just count on thier victims

uh I mean clients, yeah that's the ticket, to commit suicide...

[Bluebear]

17. --

Sad, isn't it?

[XemaSab]

7. I think an ex-straight camp would be a better sell

:bounce:

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Such an article would never, ever be published by the mainstream press here

Thank goodness for the foreign media.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. And this is considered a conservative paper in Britain

although it's more for upper-class, educated conservatives than for knuckle draggers.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. ABC News published a critical article about Exodus:

Woman Speaks Out About Gay 'Cure'
Renounced by Medical Community, Ex-Gay Ministries Have Increased 30 Percent Since 2002

April 23, 2007 —

"Ex-gay" ministries, which attempt to turn homosexual people into heterosexuals, say they've changed thousands of lives, but one program graduate says that gay people are fine just the way they are.

Growing up, Christine Bakke struggled to make sense of her homosexual impulses, confused by what she now calls a sheltered Christian perspective

"When I really did finally say, 'Oh, there's this word for what I think I'm feeling,' & I was terrified by what it meant for me," Bakke said. "I knew that I would immediately be going to hell."

Wanting desperately to stay connected spiritually, Bakke sought out what are called ex-gay ministries, religious-based therapy programs that aim to cure homosexuality.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3067569&page=1

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. US News & World Report covered this:

Faith-Based Therapies Aim to 'Cure' Gays
Sexual healing?
By Jeffery L. Sheler
Posted 7/19/98

Before he was 12 years old, John Paulk knew he was different from other boys. "I wasn't good at sports, and I was effeminate," he says. "They called me names like 'fag,' 'queer,' and 'sissy.' " At age 14, he began drinking alcohol to numb the pain, and when he was 18 he started frequenting gay bars. By 20, he was working as a male prostitute and a drag queen. He felt depressed and trapped in his homosexual lifestyle. "If you'd asked me back then," he says, "I'd have told you I was born that way."

Now, after years of therapy and Christian nurturing, Paulk describes himself as a "former gay"--one of thousands of Americans who say they have found "healing and deliverance" from homosexuality through faith in Jesus Christ. Married and a father, Paulk, 35, is the author of a new book, Not Afraid to Change. His wife, Anne, was featured in a New York Times ad last week as an "ex-lesbian" who is "living proof that Truth can set you free." Their story is helping rekindle a long smoldering debate over whether sexual orientation is determined by genetics, environment, or choice and whether it can or should be changed.

Biology as destiny. The weight of scientific research in recent years suggests homosexuality has biological roots, with highly publicized studies suggesting that a "gay gene" or differences in brain structure may determine sexual orientation. Since the 1970s, most mainstream psychotherapy has been aimed at helping gays accept their sexual identity.

"No matter how hard you pray, you can't change who you are," says the Rev. Brenda Moulton, a Baptist in Rhode Island who works for acceptance of gays. The Rev. Elder Darlene Garner of the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia argues that such therapy "does more harm than good." She says two congregants "were torn apart psychologically" after being told by a Christian therapist that "in essence, you must renounce your sexuality in order to correct God's error."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/980727/archive_004418.htm

[Freddie Stubbs]

24. The New York Times isn't part of the "mainstream press?"

ournal; Lott's Lesbian Ally
By FRANK RICH

In the latest volley in the escalating, Trent Lott-inspired culture war against gay Americans, 15 religious-right organizations have co-sponsored full-page ads in national newspapers, this one included, to promote the idea that Christian ''hope and healing'' can rid homosexuals of their sinful ways. The human face for this campaign is Anne Paulk, billed as ''wife, mother, former lesbian,'' but a far more credible poster boy would be Marshall Applewhite, the departed guru of Heaven's Gate.

Ms. Paulk represents Exodus International, an association of ''ex-gay'' ministries and agencies that purport to ''change'' gay people into straight. Yet the ads don't mention that two Exodus co-founders, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, not only failed to ''change'' but fell in love and exited Exodus to start a family they consecrated with a marriage ceremony. Exodus's unscientific boasts of ''success'' in general must be taken on faith, and even Ms. Paulk's status as a ''former lesbian'' has been questioned by Margaret Carlson in this week's Time. But of Applewhite's ''change,'' at least, there can be no doubt: with castration and suicide, he did successfully rid himself and some of his co-religionists of homosexuality.

Short of Applewhite's final solution, there is no sound research to suggest that a homosexual can be transformed into a heterosexual -- were that even a desired goal -- any more than a heterosexual can be turned gay. ''What really happens is a suppression process,'' says Doug Upchurch, 30, a computer trade-association executive in Austin, Tex., who spent 12 years being ''cured'' by ex-gay ministries and now proselytizes against them on the Web (mem bers.aol.com/exexgay). Though Mr. Upchurch had girlfriends and ''had experiences with the girlfriends physically,'' he couldn't change his sexual orientation and eventually realized he didn't want to. He now lives happily with a male partner.

Homosexuality is not a disease and needs no ''cure.'' For all the tough-love sentiments, the real agenda of this $200,000 Christian Coalition-Family Research Council media blitz is not to heal but to divide Americans for political advantage. By pushing the false premise that homosexuality is not an innate human condition but a sinful choice that can be reversed through prayer and counseling, the ad's sponsors are putting it in the same category as kleptomania and alcoholism, much as did Senator Lott (whose name is invoked in the ads). From there, it's only a small step to the argument that gay Americans who refuse to change are no more entitled to civil-rights protections than thieves are. The false premise that homosexuality is a choice also facilitates the ads' promotion of such gay-bashing canards as ''homosexual recruitment in public schools.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E1D81F30F931A15754C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Is the LA Times part of the 'Alternative Media?'

The conference at the Sheraton-Washington Hotel is, according to , to plan a national strategy for countering the belief that homosexuality is normal and should be protected under civil rights. Sheldon and his associates at the Traditional Values Coalition dispute the view that homosexuality is genetically determined and actively promote use of "reparative therapy" to make gays adopt a heterosexual life style.

Michael Bussee, 36, of Huntington Beach and his 37-year-old live-in partner, who asked to be identified only as Gary, said they both subscribed to Sheldon's belief in reparative therapy during the 1970s and eventually began counseling gays against homosexuality at the Melodyland Christian Center's Hotline Help Center. Later, they founded Exodus, an international coalition of Christian ministries "to help people come out of homosexuality."

Dr. Richard Ammond, a clinical psychologist who joined Bussee and Gary at the press conference, said that while sexual behavior can be changed, sexual orientation cannot. He added that "people like Sheldon who advocate reparative therapy are inflicting an enormous amount of damage on people."

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/59958222.html?dids=59958222:59958222&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+26%2C+1990&author=TONY+MARCANO&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Anaheim+Evangelist+Called+%60Dangerous%27+to+Gays&pqatl=google

[TechBear_Seattle]

26. I sit corrected then. Thanks!

This is the situation where crow actually tastes rather good. :hi:

[MadMaddie]

9. What are the statistics of these attendees committing suicide?

This is like the medicine man selling potions, this shit needs to be illegal!

[KamaAina]

10. "being deprived of affection as a baby in a hospital incubator "??

:rofl:



Mamma mia! That's a whole lotta lesbians!! :sarcasm:

[knitter4democracy]

11. There are no words for my rage at those people.

At least, not enough really great curse words in English.

I've personally known people that got that kind of treatment at our so-called Christian college, and I think there's a special place in hell for the straight people behind that evil shit.

They're gaslighting all of those people!!! I just learned that term at the therapist's this week, and it's when a person trains another person not to trust their own perceptions and emotions and all but instead to ignore them ("elevator music"!?) for the so-called reality of the controller. That's what this shit is, and it's full-on sick.

[Initech]

12. South Park had a great episode on this subject.

[Duncan Grant]

13. "...your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." - 2 Samuel 1:26

All straight Christian men should live up to David and Jonathan's example, imho.

[Edweird]

14. On one hand, I find the behavior of "christians" to be disgusting.

On the other hand, what kind of person would VOLUNTEER for that bullshit? Why? I would NEVER EVER go 'camping' with xtians like that. Maybe a class in resisting peer pressure would be more appropriate. A little self esteem wouldn't hurt, either.

[Kitty Herder]

18. I'm sure many were sent by their parents.

They probably had little choice in the matter.

[yardwork]

15. I know someone - a very powerful man - who sent his teenage son to one of these camps.

My heart breaks for all those young people being abused in this horrific manner. I pray that God will give them peace and the strength to love themselves for who they are, uncorrupted by the shameful behavior of those who attempt to destroy their souls.

[and-justice-for-all]

19. Social Dominist they are...

with the mentality that "You should be this way, because my silly religion says so."

[Solly Mack]

20. Damn

:(

[Selatius]

28. It's a recipe for increasing suicide rates. I fucking guarantee it.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This is just a modern symptom of the same problem that brought us Eugenics and the forced sterilization of Black people or the idea that poor people in general should be sterilized to "break the chain of poverty."

[noonwitch]

29. I have yet to find any place in the Bible where Jesus condemns gays

Paul and Yaweh don't count, as the anti-gay christians believe that Jesus and Yaweh are one.

He didn't say "Love your neighbor as yourself-except if they are gay". He said to love everyone. He talked to the woman at the well, saved a woman from a stoning, and obviously encouraged people to live in a way that honored their fellow human beings.

I do think some people who are gay have issues over being sexually abused as children-sometimes that may even have some influence over their overall orientation, but that's an issue for therapy, not politics or religion.


When parents send their underage kids to these programs, it is brainwashing. If an adult chooses to go, that's his or her choice-although sometimes they have to give up college financial assistance from their parents to make that choice.

[Mad_Dem_X]

30. That is some scary shit.

Holy cow.

[Kansas Wyatt]

32. When are the cult deprogrammers coming back?

This is an excellent opportunity for deprogrammers, since the economy has turned sour and there are masses of people out there screwed up because of Fundie Mega-Churches.