Ex-Gays Draw Criticism

For years, gay rights groups have struggled for social and political equality. Now, a campaign is underway to raise awareness and support the rights of those who have chosen to abstain from homosexual lifestyles, and they are being met with criticism from the gay community.“I don’t put any credit in the ex-gay movement,” Harmony president, sophomore Matt Winer, said. Winer, who is gay, said the ex-gay movement is an attempt by a homophobic society to change homosexuals for its comfort.Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is a national secular nonprofit organization providing outreach, education and public awareness in support of the ex-gay community and families touched by homosexuality.

The organization upholds that people have a right to self-determination and that with information and support, individuals can overcome “unwanted homosexual attractions” said Regina Griggs, the executive director of PFOX.PFOX has joined forces with Liberty Counsel — a Florida-based litigation organization — to launch the “Change is Possible” campaign. The coalition recognizes tolerance and diversity are popular ideals in today’s society, but that “there has been a corresponding increase in discrimination and intolerance toward those who have made the decision to leave homosexuality,” according to an April 12 press release from PFOX.In response to the commonplace institution of “Safe-Zone” stickers and diversity days that promote the message that homosexuals are born gay, the “Change is Possible” campaign encourages high school and college students to hang fliers and make announcements on their campuses about the existence of ex-gays.

The campaign also encourages students to start gay to straight clubs, insist on the ex-gay viewpoint, and to contact Liberty Counsel if they are prevented from doing so.“Schools adopt nondiscriminatory policies and curriculum and give teachers diversity training, but the ex-gay perspective is left-out,” said Rena Lindevaldsen, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel.Lindevaldsen claims that hundreds of thousands of people have successfully left homosexuality.“If you want to change, you can,” she said.According to Griggs, PFOX does not encourage change among homosexuals who are comfortable with their identity, but rather people who do not want to experience homosexual attractions.

Griggs said major opposition to this idea comes from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Questioning community, which denies the existence of ex-gays.Kristen Brady, sophomore vice president of Harmony said, “Harmony feels sexual orientation is something you can’t change. Fundamentalist Christian groups want [homosexuals] to suppress it. We want people to be who they are.”According to its Web site, Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization “dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.”

A self-proclaimed Christian legal organization, supporters include conservative activist Jerry Falwell, the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg.Both PFOX and Harmony offer support free from religious influence to people who question their sexual orientation. Neither group assumes individuals choose homosexual attraction. The groups differ, however, in their understanding of the inherency and permanence of sexual attraction.

“It would be very discouraging to tell you that you couldn’t overcome [homosexual attraction],” Griggs said.

Winer said, “For them to say we never explored the idea that we could be straight is laughable.”Supporters of former gays believe that unwanted homosexual attractions can be overcome. GLBTQ claims sexual orientation is inherent, and although it can be ignored, it cannot be changed. Neither group recognizes the position of the other and Winer, Brady and Lindevaldsen agree that this discrepancy is key in each group’s explanation for why they simply cannot work together.from The Breeze