As gay organizations mark National Coming Out Day on Monday, a psychologist who believes gays and lesbians can choose to change is encouraging churches and schools to show his new film that suggests it's possible to become an "ex-gay."
"I Do Exist" features five people who once identified themselves as gay and now say they're straight. The producer, Warren Throckmorton, a counselor and professor of psychology at Grove City College, a Christian school in Pennsylvania, says he's seeking to raise awareness and provoke discussion about the possibility that people can alter—or reorient—their sexual preferences.
"That is a change many people in my profession and in the gay activist groups say isn't possible," Throckmorton said.
But critics say films such as "I Do Exist" and a number of religious groups that believe gays can change are operating with a darker agenda. Rather than simply seeking to help people who are fighting their same-sex desires, they say the ex-gay movement wants to deny legal rights for gays. The argument, they say, is that if being gay is a choice, homosexuals don't deserve special protections or rights.
http://www.newseum.org/media/dfp/pdf11/IL_RE.pdf
"I Do Exist" features five people who once identified themselves as gay and now say they're straight. The producer, Warren Throckmorton, a counselor and professor of psychology at Grove City College, a Christian school in Pennsylvania, says he's seeking to raise awareness and provoke discussion about the possibility that people can alter—or reorient—their sexual preferences.
"That is a change many people in my profession and in the gay activist groups say isn't possible," Throckmorton said.
But critics say films such as "I Do Exist" and a number of religious groups that believe gays can change are operating with a darker agenda. Rather than simply seeking to help people who are fighting their same-sex desires, they say the ex-gay movement wants to deny legal rights for gays. The argument, they say, is that if being gay is a choice, homosexuals don't deserve special protections or rights.
http://www.newseum.org/media/dfp/pdf11/IL_RE.pdf
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