Florida Agenda

Professor and Exodus International both claim misrepresentation

Photo: Jeff Buchanan, Senior Director of Church equipping & Student Ministries

Apple’s inclusion in its App Store of Christian group Exodus International’s “gay cure” app has caused controversy across the board. A petition on Change.org urging Apple to yank the app has nearly 130,000 signatures, and now a scientist whose work is cited in the app has written a letter to the company demanding the app’s removal.

Dr. Gary Remafedi, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and director of the Youth and AIDS Project, says his research is misinterpreted in the app. Remafedi said in a letter that the Exodus International app “erroneously cites my research in support of claims that homosexuality can be changed”. He continued, ‘Associating my work with that of the ex-gay ministry and other unfounded treatments is professionally injurious and grievous.”

Remafedi also said that the app twists his research to say that young people who are homosexual are just “confused” about their sexual orientation.

Exodus International responded to the controversy claiming that they, too, have been misrepresented.

“In no way, shape, or form is our message about trying to cure or do we try to promote that type of methodology or message,” said Jeff Buchanan, the organization’s senior director of church equipping and student ministries. “Really, the point of the application is to provide the material that is also on our Web site in smartphone format”, he went on to say. “We are helping those who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Those who are gay or identify themselves that way, in no way, shape, or form are we trying to speak to their position or trying to impose anything upon them.”

Exodus International describes itself as “the world’s largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality.” The group says the app “is designed to be a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders.” Its app, which carries the same name, has been given a 4+ rating from Apple, which means it has been found to contain “no objectionable content.”

There’s been a flood of disagreement with Apple’s assessment of the app. LGBT advocacy group Truth Wins Out (TWO), the organization behind the Change.org petition, said Exodus uses “scare tactics, misinformation, stereotypes, and distortions of LGBT life to recruit clients.” It calls Exodus’ message “hateful and bigoted.”

“If Apple does not respond, we will take steps to ensure that Apple meets with the victims of ex-gay ministries and learns how their lives were destroyed,” TWO executive director Wayne Besen said. “It is astounding that Apple would allow an app from an organization that promotes gay exorcisms, demonizes LGBT people, and is rejected by every respected mental-health association in America.”

Apple has been a strong ally to the LGBT community for years, even donating $100,000 to defeat California’s Proposition 8, the state’s ban on marriage equality. However, this isn’t the first time Apple has been caught in a skirmish over an app of this nature. Last year Apple removed an app based on the Manhattan Declaration, an anti-gay manifesto signed in 2009 by Christian and Catholic leaders that condemns same-sex unions as the “erosion of marriage.” Before its removal, this app also carried a 4+ rating. It was given the boot after a petition on change.org was signed by about 7,000 people.

So far, Apple has been silent on the matter and has not responded to several requests for comment.

Tuesday night, Apple complied with the request to remove the “gay cure” app. It is likely Apple felt the heat from the more than 150,000 people who signed the petition on change.org. An Apple spokesperson told PC Magazine “We removed the exodus international app from the App Store, because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people. Gawkers, Nick Denton pointed out “Every time Apple removes an app, it implies a moral endorsement of the content of that app.?Rejections, likewise, carry a moral condemnation. The right answer here is for Apple to support gay rights, but an even better answer would be if Apple could say it supports free speech and argument in the app store within the boundaries of the law and is not going to intervene in disputes over morality.”

By PATRICK MCALVEY

As a survivor of “ex-gay” therapy, I was mortified to learn that Exodus International is shifting its focus in 2011 to children and teens. These are the people most vulnerable and defenseless to Exodus’ attacks on healthy development and psychological well-being.

As I first became aware of my sexual orientation at the age of 12, I was drawn into the web of Mike Jones, one of Exodus International’s unlicensed, unqualified, untrained, unregulated and unsupervised counselors. For the next 10 years, a man who had no business counseling anyone, and who certainly should not have had access to children, set the tone for how I viewed my orientation and myself as a person.

Jones passed on to me the “facts” that my attractions were sinful, that no gay person was happy, and that every gay person was addicted to drugs, alcohol and random sexual encounters. I lived in a homogeneous religious world, didn’t know any LGBT people and had no reason to believe otherwise. I fully believed Mike Jones for years. He assured me that my sexual orientation could and should change, leading me to suffer through years of shame and self-hatred when no such change occurred.

Later, when I was 19, he subjected me to prolonged hugs and even “holding therapy,” where I was instructed to lay in his arms for a solid hour to “feel the strength of another man.” He asked me inappropriate questions about my genitals and suggested I use handyman tools to become more masculine.

Last year, Jones was largely discredited – his board of directors dissolved, many local churches ceased supporting his work, and he was removed as an “approved outreach group” with the Michigan Department of Corrections. But the entire time he was victimizing me, Exodus International supported Jones’ work and continued to refer people to his “ex-gay” operation.

Recently, Exodus International unveiled its plan to put targets on the backs of thousands of innocent children around the country, many who already sit in pews each Sunday feeling scared and alone. The “ex-gay” group plans to utilize social media, YouTube videos, booklets, an IPhone App, and a re-branding to make sure every one of these kids hates a part of themselves and believes their orientation is perverse and an abomination.

The reality is their orientation is a natural and beautiful part of who they are. Exodus International has proven they are content to sacrifice children’s identities, happiness, self-confidence and mental health, to further their lies and messages of intolerance.

I know because I experienced the Exodus International nightmare firsthand.

What is particularly insidious about Exodus’ ministry is that it hides behind the fallacy that it desires helping only those who face what they cynically call “unwanted same-sex attraction.”

The reality is the “ex-gay” industry works day and night to create cultures in families, churches, communities and governments when possible, where folks who are not heterosexual are left ostracized, alone, judged and condemned. When the lies spread by Exodus International and the “ex-gay” industry lead people to believe change is possible and necessary for God, their church or their family to love them, naturally their attractions become “unwanted.”

Thankfully, there is a happy ending to my story. I escaped the destructive lies of the “ex-gay” industry and with time, good friends, and therapy, came to love and accept myself the way I am. I have been an out and proud gay man for almost five years and have found healing through sharing my story and connecting with other survivors of the “ex-gay” industry.

But my heart breaks imagining other children naively falling for the same lies that ruled my life all those years. Children deserve to be loved and supported for who they are. Their young, fragile self-esteems deserve to be protected and their identities nurtured.

It is my sincere hope that more and more families and churches will see the real danger Exodus International represents and choose to distance themselves and their children from Exodus’ materials, counselors and programs.

Before the organization does enormous harm, it should abandon its disturbing plan to target children and teenagers in 2011.