The closure of Exodus International is good news. Unfortunately it’s not the end of “reparative therapy.”
If we remember, reparative therapy these days is not really about attempting to change one’s sexual orientation. That is what it was up through the 1990s.
Last year, even Exodus attempted to distance itself from groups like NARTH who still advocate that you can “fix” the brain to not be gay. Nowadays, reparative therapy means “overcoming homosexual behavior, and taking control over one’s attractions.” Basically, Exodus had ruined its brand-name as a result of its earlier vision, causing a lot of pain in promising orientation change, and could never recover from that while this “new” paradigm emerged. The paradigm of “gay is okay, just don’t act on it” is still upheld by many organizations. So, don’t read too much into the end of Exodus. Just look to Mormonsandgays.org to see reparative therapy alive and well.
In the evangelical world, as NARTH puts in response to Exodus’s closure:
Most of the local Exodus affiliated ministries had started to reorganize into a new organization that began about a year ago, Restored Hope Network.
I just noticed that Evergreen International (the LDS version of Exodus) has a brand new URL: http://www.thessavoice.com/
Click here for a rundown on the 3 main LDS gay orgs: Evergreen, North Star and Affirmation.
Meanwhile, SCOTUS should be issuing its ruling on same-sex marriage mostly likely next Monday or Thursday. Most are predicting a limited ruling (i.e., one that does not apply to the whole country).
True, it’s not the end of reparative therapy, yet it still seems like a good sign that the large national organizations distancing themselves from the idea that people can change orientation through therapy.
Also, I had to click on new URL to figure out how to parse “thessavoice.com”. What? Thes Savoice? Thess-a-voice? lol
Supposed to be “The SSA (same-sex attraction) Voice.” Kind of a silly name, heh.
The notion that people can change their orientation through therapy, I think, has been mostly dead for probably the last decade or so.
Even those who called themselves “ex-gay” were mostly not arguing that they were becoming “straight,” per se, but that they were becoming “holy” (and that the gay identity need not apply to them).