U.K. "Ex-Gay" Group Gives Up - an exodus from Exodus...
A British "ex-gay" leader admits he's never been able to change himself let alone anyone else, and announces an exodus from Exodus. The long-time leader of an "ex-gay" group in Britain has concluded that sexual orientation cannot be changed, Gay.com reported January 29.
Jeremy Marks' High Wycombe-based group Courage has been granted a two-year "sabbatical leave" by the umbrella group Exodus International "to explore its new direction and practice" and then report back. Courage had been pursuing a mission to help "those caught between homosexuality and Christianity" by supporting them to take "the road out of homosexuality" through prayer, and in Exodus' words to attain "sexual purity" through its renunciation.
But now Marks, a gay minister, is quoted as saying, "We are definitely wanting to be separated from the 'ex-gay' label and be more focused on supporting Christians who are gay." After fourteen years, he said, "None of the people we've counseled have converted no matter how much effort and prayer they've put into it. There is much more benefit to the honest view."
The American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association, among other professional groups, have issued warnings of the unproven effectiveness and possible harmfulness of "change" programs. Marks finds the harm of the "ex-gay" movement in the "internal war" fought by those who presume that as gays and lesbians they cannot be good Christians.
While Marks remains faithful to the vows he made to his wife of nine years, he admits -- distinguishing restraint from denial -- that, "In truth, my own orientation has not changed." Potential Paradigm Shift The news of Courage's conversion comes less than five months after Exodus International was embarrassed by the discovery of its "poster boy" John Paulk in a Washington, D.C. gay bar (see PlanetOut News of September 21, 2000).
The gay and lesbian Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which has made a study of the harm done to individuals by programs attempting to change gays and lesbians into heterosexuals, seized on the news to call on Exodus International members like Colorado-based Focus on the Family's "Love Won Out" seminars to advise their participants of the incident rather than being "guilty of willfully misleading those in attendance."
Marks says that Exodus leaders -- "in most cases, wonderful, caring people" -- "are facing the possibility that we could have been wrong" about changing homosexual orientation, and that, "The potential is a major paradigm shift after 25 years." HRC's Wayne Besen said, "This latest failure presents a wonderful opportunity for Exodus to reevaluate their mission and to begin an honest dialogue with themselves and the public."
However Marks has little expectation of that kind of change in "orientation" actually occurring either. The religious right has often used the notion that gays and lesbians can change their orientation as an argument against making them a protected category in human rights and hate crimes laws.