Ex-ex-gay

The term ex-ex-gay is used to describe people who at one time participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly accept that their sexual orientation falls under the LGBT umbrella. Ex-ex-gay people may publicly declare to have ended the attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexuality, and to have embraced their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer.

Organizations in the ex-gay movement such as Exodus International offer conversion therapy, with the claim that an LGBT person's involvement in the programming can change their sexual orientation to heterosexual. This type of programming is opposed by many major medical organizations, including The National Association of Social Workers, The American Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, The American Counseling Association, and The American Academy of Pediatrics. [ [http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel] 1999, American Psychological Association] The American Psychiatric Association describes conversion therapy as ineffective at changing sexual orientation, and as harmful to the LGBT person's well-being [http://www.psych.org/psych_pract/copptherapyaddendum83100.cfm Position Statement on Therapies Focused on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation.] [http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html American Psychiatric Association - Q and A format] Those who renounce the ex-gay movement often go one step further in describing these methods, referring to them as brainwashing.

Three publicly ex-ex-gay people are Günter Baum, 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 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.] In the span of eighteen years, eight of the Exodus International ministries have dissolved because the director realized they were still gay. 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.

ee also

*Ex-gay
*Conversion therapy
*Queer theology
*Soulforce (organization)
*Wayne Besen, gay rights activist and author of "Anything But Straight"

References

External links

* [http://www.beyondexgay.com/article/apology Former Exodus leaders' apology]
* [http://www.anythingbutstraight.com/ "Anything But Straight" official site]
* [http://www.ecwr.org/ Evangelicals Concerned - Western Region] , "Creating safe places for GLBT Christians." (National site at [http://www.ecinc.org/ Evangelicals Concerned] )
* [http://jgford.homestead.com/ J. G. Ford] , "Reparative Therapy -- A Pseudoscience"
* [http://www.exgaywatch.com/ Ex-Gay Watch]