( September 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īside from achieving a degree of change in sexual orientation, the ex-gay movement pursues several broad goals and these include: Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Some people no longer identify as gay since they became Christians or with prayer, without going to conversion therapy. Some in mixed-orientation marriages acknowledge that their sexual attractions remain primarily homosexual, but seek to make their marriages work anyway. Some ex-gays advocate entering (or remaining) in a heterosexual marriage as part of the process. Mansell Pattison defined it as describing a person who had "experienced a basic change in sexual orientation".
When the term ex-gay was introduced to professional literature in 1980, E. People Can Change defines change as, "any degree of change toward greater peace, satisfaction and fulfillment, and less shame, depression and darkness", and emphasizes that for most people, heterosexuality is not the ultimate goal. Prior to disbanding and renouncing the idea of a cure, Exodus International described change as, "attaining abstinence from homosexual behaviors, lessening of homosexual temptations, strengthening their sense of masculine or feminine identity, correcting distorted styles of relating with members of the same and opposite gender". Various ex-gay organizations have working definitions of change. 5.2 People who no longer support the ex-gay movement.5.1 People associated with the ex-gay movement.Because of this, major mental health professional organizations discourage and caution individuals against attempting to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, and warn that attempting to do so can be harmful. There have been various scandals related to this movement, including some self-claimed ex-gays having been found in same-sex relationships despite having denied this, as well as controversies over gay minors being forced to go to ex-gay camps against their will, and overt admissions by organizations related to the movement that conversion therapy does not work.Ī large body of research and global scientific consensus indicates that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment. The movement's ongoing impact on conservative religious discourse can be seen in an aversion to use of the term "gay" to refer to sexual orientation and its substitute with the language of "same-sex attraction". It relies on the involvement of individuals who formerly identified themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual but no longer do these individuals may state either that they have eliminated their attraction to the same sex altogether or that they abstain from acting on such attraction.Īfter the collapse of Exodus International in 2013, a small number of ex-gay ministries continue as the Restored Hope Network.
Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship.