 |
'The Ex-Gay Files: Not Your Usual Gays' Released Critically Examines Personal Lives of Ex-Gay Leaders |
|
Compiled By GayToday
The author of the study, Dr. Mark E. Pietrzyk, an adjunct instructor at DePaul University in Chicago, says that although a large number of these "ex-gays" have blamed the unhappiness of their previous lives on homosexuality, the more fundamental difficulty was they had serious personal problems arising out of a lack of self-control and a deficient moral sense. Their lives in many cases were plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual compulsiveness, or other problems, which they came to associate with the "gay lifestyle" rather than their own bad choices and failings. Subsequently, they latched onto intense, sometimes fanatical religious belief as a way of coping with their out-of-control lifestyles and found comfort and purpose in ex-gay ministries. However, when one closely examines their claims of a conversion to heterosexuality, one finds little in the way of persuasive evidence that their actual sexual orientation has changed, as opposed to their behavior. Among the highlights of the study:
Colin Cook, a man touted by the religious right throughout the 1980s for his work as head of an ex-gay ministry, resigned from his ministry when it was revealed he had been engaging in sexual contact with male counselees. He later set up a new ex-gay ministry in the 1990s, which was again widely advertised by the religious right, only to be once again charged by his counselees with engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior toward them. Concludes Dr. Pietrzyk, "If ex-gay groups are successful in their expensive campaign of recruitment, we can expect to see more persons lured into unsuitable heterosexual marriages which prove unsatisfactory and eventually fail. Are 'pro-family' groups even capable of seeing the irony of such an outcome?" Contents of the study are posted on the internet at: www.indegayforum.org/articles/pietrzyk1.html |
