One of the principal excuses used by anti-gay bigots to justify promoting discrimination against LGBT people is their claim that we can "change" from gay to straight. (By this "logic," discrimination against religious minorities is also okay, since they too can change!)

The main political purpose of the so-called "ex gay" movement is to justify discrimination against us – their actual track record for "changing" LGBT people is predictably abysmal. People hoodwinked into joining the "ex-gay" movement find that no matter how much money they give the movement and no matter how much prayer and "Christian therapy" they get, their gay sexual desires remain intact -- they almost invariably "fall off the wagon" as their gay sexuality reasserts itself.

The largest of the "ex-gay" groups calls itself "Exodus International," and obnoxiously claims that it brings "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."

As Wikipedia notes, "Exodus International's first scandal occurred in 1979 when Michael Bussee (one of the five co-founding members who had helped organize the 1976 conference that led to Exodus' inception) left the group to be with Gary Cooper, a volunteer at the local Exodus ministry where they both worked, who was also volunteering for the first Exodus conference. Later they held a life commitment ceremony . . .

"Exodus International's most recent and damaging scandal involved John Paulk who became the public face for the organization in its 1998 marketing push to promote its programs. Paulk became active in Focus on the Family and was also the elected chairman of the board of Exodus International North America . . .

"On September 19, 2003 while on a speaking tour, Paulk was identified drinking and flirting at Mr. P's, a Washington DC gay bar. After identifying himself as 'John Clint,' a name that Paulk used in his days as a hustler in Ohio, a patron contacted Wayne Besen, an employee of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay political action organization. When Besen arrived at the bar forty minutes later and confronted 'John Clint,' he denied that he was in fact John Paulk. Upon exiting the bar, Paulk's picture was taken as documentation that he had been in the bar. When confronted by Besen about the incident and the photographs, Paulk admitted being in the bar, but stated that he didn’t know it was a gay bar and had simply stopped in for a moment to use the restroom. However, eyewitnesses reported that Paulk stayed for more than an hour, flirted with other men, and when questioned about his sexuality, said he was gay."

If it wasn't so psychologically damaging, Exodus would be a bad joke. Due to its manifest failure to permanently brainwash adults, Exodus has now begun focussing its recruitment on teenagers. As the documentary "Fish Can't Fly" shows, the danger this represents – damaging the self-esteem of LGBT kids already prone to suicide – can't be underestimated. All of the major professional psychological and psychiatric associations have denounced the "ex-gay" movement as damaging and based on pseudo-scientific quackery.

Help us expose the "ex-gay" fraud!

The Gay Liberation Network is calling on all who favor fairness for LGBT people to join us in a protest at the start of Exodus International's national convention, 7 PM, Tuesday, June 27 at the Philippe Performing Arts Center of Indiana Wesleyan University on Nebraska Street in Marion, Indiana (a little over 3 hours from Chicago).

We are organizing transportation from Chicago. If you need a ride, or can provide a ride(s), please email LGBTliberation (at) aol.com.

We shouldn't sit back and allow the "religious" bigots tell unanswered lies about LGBT people. The harm they do to our rights and our community, especially our youth, must be countered! Please join us on June 27th.