The controversial world of ‘ex-gay’ ministries

Save Me is a love story about Mark, a sex and drug addicted young man who after an accidental overdose finds he’s been checked into a Christian retreat for ‘ex-gays’. Gayle, the director of the ministry run together with her husband Ted, believes she can help cure young men of their ‘gay affliction’ through spiritual guidance.

The compassionate husband and wife team have made it their life’s mission to guide young gay men to convert to heterosexuality by offering spiritual guidance through a 12-step program. At first, Mark resists, but soon takes the message to heart. As Mark’s fellowship with his fellow ex-gays grow stronger, however, he finds himself powerfully drawn to Scott, another young man battling family demons of his own. As their friendship begins to develop into romance, Mark and Scott are forced to confront the new attitudes they’ve begun to accept, and Gayle finds the values she holds as an absolute truth to be threatened. Featuring powerful performances and even-handed direction, this acclaimed drama is a subtly nuanced and deeply sympathetic look at both sides of one of the most polarizing debates in America: the conflict and possible reconciliation between homosexuality and Christianity.

Save Me shines a fascinating light of compassion and understanding into the controversial world of ex-gay ministries. — Dan Karslake, Director of For The Bible Tells Me So

Though there is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed, the ex-gay movement has been at the polarizing center of religious and sexual debates in the US since the 1970s. In 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, religious leaders joined by a small group of mental health practitioners broke from the organization to continue treating gays and lesbians with“reparative” or “sexual conversion” therapy. Throughout the ’70s, treatment centers began cropping up across the country being led by Frank Worthen’s Love in Action centers, followed by Exodus International in 1976.

Over the next two decades, there was a marked increase in funding and support of Christian-run ministries, bolstered by support from Christian-right organizations like Focus on the Family among others. The movement became spearheaded by Exodus International, an umbrella organization that oversees hundreds of Christian-based ministries and is also expanding into non-Christian organizations like PFOX, Parents of Ex-gay People, and Jonah, a program for Jewish ex-gays. In 1992, they formed the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality in an attempt to legitimize the "clinical work" of such organizations. Since then the movement found new traction, bringing "ex-gay" centers solidly into the on-going debate over same-sex issues.

In 1998, many of the ex-gay groups and the religious right, led by Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council, launched a massive newspaper campaign highlighting the work of the ex-gay ministries. The campaign even landed then Exodus International presidents John and Anne Paulk on the cover of Newsweek. But in 2000, John Paulk was photographed inside a Washington DC gay bar, forcing him to step down from Exodus and plunging the organization into public embarrassment.

After quietly existing in over a hundred centers across the country throughout the turn of the century, the number of "ex-gay" ministries began to increase due to an increase in funding around the 2000 elections. Focus on the Family began pouring money into the creation of additional sites bolstering their numbers to over 200 including sites in Canada and around the world and in 2003 Love in Action introduced the first structured program specifically for teenagers. But in summer 2006, the national debate over "reparative" therapy, in particular the teen program, broke out again over the MySpace blogs of a teenager named "Zach". A 16 year-old boy in Memphis, Zach recently came out to him parents in the spring to which they sent him against his will to Refuge, an intensive Love in Action program. Before leaving home, Zach detailed several of the rules for clients such as reporting sexual fantasies, no eye contact for the first three days and having their belongings searched every morning. Zach’s entries quickly spread from friends, to filmmakers, to the media eventually leading to an investigation of Love in Action by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers all deny reparative therapy’s very premise. “We are finding that the number of people claiming to be harmed by reparative therapy are increasing, says Dr Jack Drescher, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues. The APA even went as far as endorsing gay marriage to help reverse the gay stigma, citing evidence that stable, monogamous relationships are beneficial for mental health. As recently as November 2006, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Reverend Ted Haggard, was exposed by a male escort who went to the media detailing their sexual encounters, forcing Haggard to step down from both his church and position within NAE. He is now being guided through a sexual conversion therapy by religious leaders. And in December 2006, Rev Paul Barnes, from the Grace Chapel, resigned from his post through a taped message to his congregation admitting to his long-standing “struggle with homosexuality”.

The APA’s concern about the positions espoused by NARTH and so-called conversion therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish. — American Psychological Association

As the country moves into the latter part of our decade, the debate over homosexuality and religion, from gay Epispical bishops, to same-sex marriage and the “ex-gay” movement, wages on.