Ex-Gay Treatment--Doin' it for Jesus???

Yes, yes, yes, I know I have been negligent in my blogging duties. Just too darn busy at the moment. Let’s see It’s been almost two weeks, and I have been in Selinsgrove, PA (with my honey), Atlanta, GA, Highlands, NC, Nashville, TN, Cookeville, TN, Chattanooga, MD and today I am in Baltimore (Towson State University). Later this week I will be in Washington, DC and then off to Phoenix for the TransForm Arizona event!

I have not been completed out of touch. I have updated Twitter and answered 30% of my e-mails–that’s something, right?

Tonight I will give a talk at Towson State University–Homo No Mo?!? Gender, Orientation and the Ex-Gay Movement.

Interjecting scenes from his one-person comedy Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House—How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement, along with video clips, personal narrative, and the most current information about the ex-gay movement, Peterson’s interactive and interesting academic presentation leaves his audience enlightened and better equipped to address false claims of the Ex-Gay Movement.

I would like to discuss with the people who come to the talk the reasons why an adult would elect to put herself/himself into an ex-gay program. The myth out there is that the ex-gay movement primarily targets young people who are forced against their will. Although many young people have been negatively affected by the faulty and dangerous ex-gay teachings and treatments, and some have even been forced to received “treatment,” the vast majority of people who have endured ministries and treatments to “de-gay” lesbians, bisexuals and gays have been adults who for the most part have willingly attempted to annihilate their sexual orientation and gender differences. Even some transgender people elected for a time to attend ex-gay programs in order to alter their gender identity and what they viewed as non-conformity. WHY?

I believe there are many reasons why one goes ex-gay, and I outline some of them in the video below. But I would love to hear from more people. Why do you think people would choose to go ex-gay? What are the subtle and not so subtle pressings influencing this decision?

Devin Hamberger from he Towson University daily paper, The Towerlight, interviewed me about my own ex-gay experiences.

The therapy sessions that Toscano attended tried to, according to him, correct sexual desire and transform their patients into gender normative men and women.“The women sat through Mary Kay makeovers and bread baking lessons, while the men played football and learned how to change the oil in [their] cars,” he said.

All his life, Toscano said he saw queer people being verbally and physically attacked, and he feared similar negativity and rejection toward himself. He went to therapy because he heard over and over that he could not be both gay and Christian.

“[I] chose [to be] Christian and decided to destroy anything queer,” he said. Toscano often wondered if he was a Christian struggling with homosexuality, or a homosexual struggling with Christianity.

You can read the whole article here. The talk is tonight at 7:00 PM. Check out my schedule for details for this talk and upcoming presentations in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.