Jun 24, 2005  |  By: KEVIN NAFF  | COMMENTS     

GAY ADULTS LEARN from an early age to develop a thick skin. From playground taunts to inappropriate jokes in the boardroom, many of us have endured the hurtful anti-gay prejudice of our peers for a long time and, as a result, acquired the armor and perspective necessary to protect ourselves.

I can endure hours of evangelical Christian diatribes about the evils of the “gay agenda.” Or quietly suffer the barbs of pandering politicians looking to win elections on our backs. Or turn the other cheek when a gaggle of ministers calls a news conference to announce their support for a ban on gay marriage.

Even the Washington Times’ practice of putting the words gay marriage in quotation marks has ceased to send my blood pressure soaring.

There remains just one assault on the dignity of gay men and lesbians that still drives me into fits of rage: the “ex-gay” movement. The quotation marks are deliberate — and appropriate, because there is no such thing as “ex-gay.” There is “repress-my-inate-immutable-characteristics-and-deny-their-existence,” but no such condition as “ex-gay.”

The “ex-gays” usually make headlines only when their leaders are caught emerging from a gay bar at 2 a.m. But they are everywhere these days.

LAST WEEK, THE tale of Zach, a 16-year-old gay Tennessee high school student who was sent to a reparative therapy camp by his impossibly naïve parents, made its way into the blogosphere. Zach’s story serves as a reminder that the zany, funny film “But I’m a Cheerleader” was not entirely a work of fiction.

Last month, the “ex-gay” crowd made headlines in Maryland, where they joined a lawsuit to block implementation of an updated sex education curriculum that included discussion of homosexuality and a condom demonstration. The “ex-gays” are actually demanding that their views be included in health classes, which are ordinarily based on that quaint concept known as science.

The “ex-gays” also caused a stir in Florida this month, after commissioning billboards in Orlando that read, “Gay? Unhappy?” and included a Web site address, www.exodus.to. The site for Exodus International offers various services to those seeking escape from the “homosexual lifestyle” and testimonials from self-described “ex-gays.”

In his testimonial, someone identified as Alan Chambers writes, “Disillusioned and desperate, I remember going into my parent’s room nightly to see if they had been raptured, taken to heaven, without me.” He recounts his addiction to anonymous gay sex and how he turned to the Bible to be saved.

The Exodus site even offers a prayer request page, complete with a drop-down box of prayer options: “for me to overcome homosexuality,” “for my child,” “for my spouse,” “for a family member.”

The “ex-gays” got some ink in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. The cover story, about a group of Christian activists in Maryland desperate to protect the sacred institution of marriage from gays, references the “ex-gay” movement as the antidote to gay marriage.

And the “ex-gay” debate comes to the Seattle area this weekend, with two competing conferences. The first conference, sponsored by Focus on the Family, is titled “Love Won Out,” and bills itself as “promoting the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable.”

The second conference, “Love Welcomes All,” is intended to counter the “ex-gay” confab and is sponsored by PFLAG and other pro-gay groups.

AT A TIME when conservative Christians are resurrecting the debate over evolution, pesky details like science matter little to the “ex-gays.”

Every reputable medical institution, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association, has repudiated reparative therapies as dangerous. As the Times story points out, the American Psychiatric Association actually endorsed gay marriage in the interest of promoting mental health.

In light of all the evidence that these reparative techniques are ineffective and, in fact, dangerous to the mental health of young gays, it’s time for these camps to be shut down.

An enterprising gay lawyer ought to step forward and, as at least one blogger following Zach’s story put it, find grounds to sue these bastards out of existence.

In an ironic twist, the ex-gay ministry at the center of Zach’s story is now asking for “tolerance.” The request from Love in Action, which sponsors the camp called Refuge, came during a June 16 ...