Sexual Reorientation Do or Die

Promotion for 37th Annual Exodus Freedom Conference

The recent report of the closing of Exodus International, a group devoted to curing homosexuality and lesbianism, is another nail in the coffin of “the ex gay” movement. The Times reported that that “on the opening night of the group’s 38^th annual conference…Exodus International announced that the organization would disband, amid  growing skepticism among its top officials and board members that sexual attractions can be changed,” (“After 37 Years of Trying to Change People’s Sexual Orientation, Group Is to Disband, “ NYT, 6/20/13). Apart from the complex issue of if and how sexuality can be changed (do you deprogram a homosexual in the way you do a kid who has joined a cult?), the biggest question that remains is why call a convention, in which people ostensibly have to spend money on hotel rooms, only to announce the termination of the very thing for which the convention is going to be called? Wouldn’t that lead to having a a lot of unhappy people milling around the hotel, not to speak of the disgruntled attendees from other parts of the country and abroad who’d had to expend considerable sums on air fare? Why not simply announce that that the convention was cancelled on the internet so that potential attendees could make other plans or seek out other organizations whose leadership was not filled with quitters, but with the kind of do or die types that would give sexual reorientation the old college try?