Christian 'Ex-Gays' Brainwash Thousands

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/story/70491

Christian 'Ex-Gays' Brainwash Thousands

By Casey Sanchez, Intelligence Report. Posted December 15, 2007.

Can the anti-gay Christian Right's "sexual reorientation therapy" be stopped?

John Smid has a high school diploma, a minister's license and five acres of land outside Memphis, Tenn., where he "cures" homosexuals. For most of the past two decades, Smid's residential "ex-gay" program was known as Love in Action. The majority of the young men who entered the program came from the kind of conservative religious upbringing where being gay is a sin that will cast a person out of church, family and home. To rid themselves of "unwanted same-sex attractions" they paid $1,000 a month, with some staying at the facility for years.

At LIA, as it was known, staff would lead clients in group sessions to trace out childhood trauma alongside lessons in throwing footballs, changing motor oil and learning how to cross their legs in a manly fashion. In much of the world of ex-gay ministries, same-sex attractions are thought to result from childhood sexual abuse or parents who failed to instill masculinity in their sons. Since the goal is to rewire parent-child dynamics, LIA clients were forbidden to call their families. Those who worked in Memphis while living on the LIA compound had to navigate around a "forbidden zone" that covered nearly half the city, keeping them miles away from its handful of adult book stores. They were ordered to drive straight to and from work without speaking to strangers.

"On our way to work, we saw two cars get into an accident. We actually debated over whether we should stop," said Peterson Toscano, who lived at LIA for two years in the early 1990s and now helms an ex-gay survivors' movement. They didn't stop. "Looking back, I see how brainwashed we were. We were sick the whole day. We could have helped the people."

Toscano still has the 374-page LIA handbook that governed every day he spent trying to become heterosexual. Tom Otteson, another former client of Smid's, said he was told that "it would be better if I were to commit suicide than go back into the world and become a homosexual again." In 2005, Smid tried to clarify those comments to a reporter from the pro-gay Memphis magazine Family & Friends: "I said , 'It would almost be better if you weren't alive than to return back to the life that you have struggled so much to leave.'"

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[rAVES]

1. One born every minute.....

[Flatline]

2. I'm sick and tired of people thinking being gay is a Disease that can be cured AARRRGGG!!!!!!...n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. seconded.

[LostinVA]

15. And yet, you don't support equal rights for gay citizens

Baffling.

[terrya]

4. These "ex-gay" people are evil.

And to call the abuse that they heap on gay people "love in action" is an obscenity.

[NMMNG]

5. "Ex-gays": Repressed homosexuals for Jesus

So-called Reparative Therapy should be outlawed. It's nothing more than psycho-spiritual abuse cloaked as assistance. The damage it does to people is astounding and, in some cases, fatal.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. Yes. Fully agree.

What is occurring there is a malicious undermining of the value of the person. The repression is incredibly damaging and can only manifest itself in truly aberrant behavior. This type of false programming is inhuman.

[NMMNG]

10. I don't understand why some GLBT people *let* them do it

Well, I don't and yet I do. It's so frustrating and tragic. :banghead:

[uppityperson]

7. Shit. I change oil but am female. Am I gay? Maybe I should start a camp too...

Seems like an easy way to take money from suckers. What a bunch of nasty shit.

[readmoreoften]

8. An international anti-gay group that blames the Nazi Holocaust on homosexuals?

Leaders of Watchmen on the Walls, an international anti-gay group that blames the Nazi Holocaust on homosexuals, tell audiences that "one of the most important things you can do is start an ex-gay movement here."

This is what happens when folks don't study history. And why do they think Teh Gay killed 100,000 of its own?

[kevinbgoode]

9. So what happened to deprogramming camps for members of religious cults?

I might be wrong, but I thought I heard that they were put out of business because they violated the rights of others to choose their religious beliefs. Seems to me these ex-gay "ministries" should be subjected to the same kind of scrutiny - otherwise, I'd recommend that gays start organizing re-education centers for evangelicals "trapped" in their own sinful "lifestyle" of greed, hypocrisy, delusion, and inability to mind their own business.

[MrScorpio]

11. I call it Re-closetization

Gay out of sight is gay out of mind?

Yeah, right

[dbackjon]

12. Yup - and Barack Obama supports the movement

[bryant69]

13. THat seems slanderous.

Are you sure it's not slanderous?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[dbackjon]

14. Not at all - Barack has embraced one of the the leaders of the ex-gays

Had him MC one of his big rallies/fundraisers.

[Ediacara]

18. His actions speak for themselves

Obama's embrace of ex-gay mouthpiece Donnie McClurkin is exhibit A.

[bryant69]

20. By embrace, I assume you mean insufficient condemnation? n/t

[Ediacara]

21. By embrace I mean embrace

When he was faced with outrage for hiring him as an act at a fundraiser he said he didn't agree with his views, then hired him as the MC of the event. Actions speak louder than words and Obama's pathetically transparent pandering to bigots that won't vote for him anyway tells me he embraces the "ex-gay" movement.

[Johonny]

16. So let me get this "straight"

gay conservatives go to a gay camp where they go to cleanse themselves of gayness in a closed community of other gay men. "some staying at the facility for years." I wonder why? Gay men afraid to show who they really are because "being gay is a sin that will cast a person out of church, family and home." end up at gay camp where I imagine...

[gbate]

17. Love in Action?!

Not only is that a ridiculous name for a ridiculous concept, it could also be satorized as a name of a gay porn movie.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. For the best acronimity, it should be "Love In Action: Reach Sainthood."

[KamaAina]

19. He should reincorporate it as Love in Action Redux

or LIAR. :P

[TheWraith]

22. You know, I don't care if they try to do this to volunteers.

If a fully informed person chooses to subject themselves to this ridiculous farce, that's their psychological problem, and good luck to them. What drives me up the wall is parents who send their kids to these things to get them "fixed." Not only the arrogance of thinking that your child is some kind of project rather than a person who deserves your respect and love, but the sheer callous brutality of heaping your own bullshit and psychological shitstorm onto somebody who probably has quite enough problems coping on their own.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. I do. For this kind of thing, volunteer status is quite debatable. -nt

[qb]

25. My friend tried out an ex-gay ministry years ago...

After one day he realized it was a load of crap. That night he headed to the local gay bar where he saw the minister making out with another man.