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US: Head of gay ‘cure’ ministry says sorry for causing ‘pain and hurt’

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  1. Don’t know about others, but screw their apology – not accepted in the slightest. They did a lot of harm to a lot of people, propagated an insidious lie that did even ore harm and don’t get off the hook for that with some slimy double-talk apology.

    And, as I have said before, these “ex-gay” cures are just the modern equivalent of selling bits of the “true” cross to magic-boggled ignorant peasants. It doesn’t work, it isn’t needed, but they accepted money for it anyway and damned the consequences.

    Forgiveness? No chance

    1. They’ll be moving on to the next exploitative scam, you can bet on that.

  2. Godric Godricson 20 Jun 2013, 2:04pm

    Tosh. So many lives ruined and so many people harmed. It is unacceptable to simply say “Sorry!” They didn’t accidentally break a window. Organisations like this wreck the lives of indivduals and families and they know what they’re doing.

  3. Exodus President Alan Chambers: “Who, dear? Me, dear? Gay, dear? No, dear.”

  4. And just out of interest, I presume there would have been monies involved at some stage. What’s the story there?

  5. Religious nutjobs , dontcha love em. Even after causing so much damage he can still try to claim the moral highground because of his christianity. He could also apologised for being a hypocritical evangelical ass.

  6. There cannot be forgiveness until they accept that they are wrong in condemning gay people only “because that’s what my Bible says”. Their interpretations of this fable book are mere tools of oppression and institutionalised religion should dissapear for the good of humanity.

  7. Too little too late!

  8. If I can’t live my life as a gay man, I will spend 37 years making sure no other gay man can be happy either.

    You can take you apology and shove it in your bible. I was going to say where the sun doesn’t shine but something tells me he would enjoy that.

  9. I wonder how much money is in his pockets from 37 years of ‘curing’ people? Enough to compensate his victims I wonder?

  10. Without even beginning to look at the damage his organisation has done to people, his almighty God didn’t prevent him from making an almighty fool of himself. And still he clings to his “deeply held biblical beliefs”.


  11. Let them know what you think. Are they going to pay back the money they stole selling false promises?

    One of their websites is still working:

  12. They should be tried for crimes against humanity, there are a lot of dead gay men because of the abuse from people like this man and these ministries. One of my dear friends (an ex) has been completely wrecked, he suffers from a sort of PTSD now. He was a beautiful man before they got to him.

    Justice needs to be served, no apology could ever come close to being sufficient. I personally think these people should be prosecuted… I am not sure how and I am aware some people go to these people because of self-loathing, but I think of the minors who are forced into this.

  13. Jock S. Trap 20 Jun 2013, 3:24pm

    It’s all very well trying to apologise but for too many it is too late. Will he be explaining to the families of those that killed themselves directly because of this cruel, damaging crusade to discriminate against us.

    I for one don’t his apology. Too much damage has been done. Too little to late.

    He may be able to sleep at night but not those he have tortured with his practice.

  14. “We’re sorry” Well that’s alright then; a bit like Hitler or Stalin saying “sorry I killed all those people”

    Mr Chambers, please find a very tall building so you and your scum friends can test the theory of gravity.


    They say it takes a big man to admit when he is wrong. Shame it could have done this before he needed to apologise now.

    For his sorry’s he still refers to us as sinners!

  16. So, he’s admitting to being instrumental in many psychological traumas and deaths? I smell a humongous law suit arriving. A list of litigants longer than a queue at a London Gay club with 50p drinks on a Saturday night. You can’t apologize or pray your way out of this. Besides, are there people still watching the OWN network?

  17. Some people here are being very narrow-minded. Sexuality is highly fluid for some people and reversals are possible. Not complete or permanent reversals necessarily, as habit is refractory and people may fall off the wagon, so to speak. Nor is it a “cure” because people aren’t “sick” in the first place. But homosexuality is a sexual adaptation. For some people, patterns of sexual arousal become fixed in early childhood and are almost impossible to change; but this isn’t true of everyone. Ultimately, this is no-one’s business; people will have to make their own decisions.

    1. Guglielmo Marinaro 20 Jun 2013, 3:58pm

      “Sexuality is highly fluid for some people…”

      Yes, for SOME people. For MOST people, and especially for most males, it isn’t. Furthermore, although spontaneous change of sexual orientation from gay to straight and vice versa is not unknown, there is no known means of making this happen. Either it will happen or it won’t. In all but a small number of cases, it won’t. Programs, whether religious or secular, to engineer a change of this kind are just hocus-pocus.

      There is no more reason to think that homosexuality is a mere “sexual adaptation” than to think that heterosexuality is. You are perfectly free to believe it, of course, but it is just a belief – like believing that being homosexual shows that you were a member of the other sex in a previous incarnation.

      1. Everyone is born heterosexual, Guglielmo. To put it bluntly, penis fits vagina!. In the majority of cases heterosexuality is the adult orientation. If you look at the literature on homosexuality, the origins of it tend to fall into certain patterns that are common to a lot of people – usually a failure to bond and identify with same-sex peers in childhood which can be extremely traumatic and painful. A lot of homosexuals do not have a strong masculine or feminine identification as adults, and can become very fearful of the opposite sex. There are of course other patterns as well.

        Now, if an adult wants to discuss all this with a therapist, what does it have to do with you, me, or anyone else? You are right – in many cases, perhaps most, change may prove impossible. Or it may prove to be only temporary. But again – so what? Maybe change isn’t what the person wants anyway. Maybe he just wants to understand himself a bit better. Again, why is this anyone’s business?

        1. Jon "maddog" Hall 20 Jun 2013, 5:27pm


          By saying “everyone is born a heterosexual”, you trivialize the issue, and that is your downfall.

          I have no issue with a consenting adult going to a trained, registered psychologist who helps them work through their feelings on sexuality. But all of the good psychologists and psychiatrists that I know tend not to start off with the proposition that your feelings are a sin and that you are going to go to hell for them.

          Secondly, from what I know of these organizations, because they believe that homosexuality is a choice, they do not accept it when they find people who can not change. When their “cure” does not work for every homosexual (even the ones that “want to be cured”) they then label the “sinner” as one that does not “want to change….not really”, which leads to the hurt and suicide that has been mentioned here.

          I consider these quacks on the same plane as someone who sells alcohol-based patent medicines in a traveling side-show, and we outlawed them long ago.

        2. you seem so very sure of this statement that everyone is born hetro but there isn’t any evidence for this in fact there is now lots of evidence to the contrary.

          to put it even more bluntly than you penis can fit in many places other than vagina quite nicely, thank you !

        3. Guglielmo Marinaro 20 Jun 2013, 5:55pm

          JohnE, I personally am inclined to the view that people’s sexual orientation is to a great extent biologically programmed, and that this applies as much to a fluid sexual orientation as to a fixed one, but that is just my tentative opinion: I have no actual proof of this. Certainly no heterosexual gene, homosexual gene or bi-sexual gene has been discovered to date, and it is now generally agreed that biological factors, if there are any, will almost certainly not be traceable to a single gene.

          That penis fits vagina is proof of what? Merely that penis fits vagina. It is no proof whatever that ANYONE is born heterosexual (although, as I have said, I think that most people probably are); still less is it proof that EVERYONE is. Heterosexual sex works superbly well for straight people, which is a very gratifying state of affairs. I am delighted to be able to tell you that homosexual sex works superbly well for gay people.

        4. JohnE, yours is what could be called the Reader’s Digest approach to sexuality. Have you read anything reputable that was published since the 1970s?

        5. Guglielmo Marinaro 20 Jun 2013, 6:22pm

          Similarly, the theories about homosexuality being caused by a failure to bond and identify with same-sex peers in childhood and/or by a lack of strong masculine or feminine identification as adults are purely speculative and are very poorly supported by evidence. Such factors are far more likely to be the cause of difficulty in accepting one’s natural homosexuality than to be the cause of homosexuality itself. No sensible person would dream of suggesting that childhood, adolescent or adult traumas are the cause of a person’s heterosexuality, even though they may be relevant to that person’s difficulties with his or her sexuality or sexual relationships.

          If a person wants to go to one of those charlatans who offer to change his sexual orientation, then you are right: that is his business, just as it is his business if he wants to get his hand read or his tea-leaves read. But he also has a right to be warned that these things are time-wasting trash. He can still go ahead if he chooses

  18. Robert in S. Kensington 20 Jun 2013, 3:37pm

    The loons at the Christian Institute and C4M won’t be happy. Perhaps this will now boost more support among MPs to legislate against it.

  19. My my, the past few years have really punctured some tyres on the bigotmobile haven’t they? The downfalls of Iris Robinson and Keith O’Brien, Michael Reid, Stephen Green and (in the US) Grant Storms each getting their comeuppance, John Paulk finally confessing he was never ex-gay and now Exodus International to close. Again and again and again it is revealed that those who make headlines for their verbal assaults on or wish to ‘cure’ gay people are self-destructive hypocrites and charlatans hiding behind morality crusader masks. Looking forward to the next one.

  20. I hope they get up a Class Action to sue the pants off this and the other idiots in Exodus for the immense damage they have caused. Americans seem to understand legal action.

  21. When are these religious homophobes going to realise that their hatred is driven, not by the fear of god but by the fear of their OWN same-sex attractions? My mantra has always been, ‘show me a homophobe; I’ll show you a closet case’. People who are comfortable with their sexuality are NEVER homophobic. The sooner they get this message (like the vile Phelps’ for instance) the sooner they may stop their hate-speech. I cannot fathom why those particular imbeciles haven’t been jailed for incitement to hatred. Ah – but wait. They do it in the name of ‘religion’ don’t they? So that’s OK then. Their’freedom of speech’ must be protected at ALL costs if religion is involved. Weird .. for the most powerful nation on earth to allow fairy-stories to have such command and control over the human rights of others …..

    1. floridahank 21 Jun 2013, 3:58am

      Truth…. when you say, “When are these religious homophobes going to realise that their hatred is driven, not by the fear of god but by the fear of their OWN same-sex attractions? My mantra has always been, ‘show me a homophobe; I’ll show you a closet case’.”…
      You are so “full of it” that it makes me laugh at your ignorant, “wishful thinking” remark. How did you come by this? Was it some scientific research you did or read about? I’d like to see your rationale for making such an inane remark. You paranoid homosexuals continue to use that comment when you’re at a loss for saying something intelligent.

      1. For someone who has claimed elsewhere to read widely you seem remarkably limited in your awareness, floridahank. I don’t agree with truth that what he speaks of is always the case, but it very often is. About 10 seconds’ googling came up with this:


        …These studies may also shed some light on gay hate crimes, according to the researchers. People in denial of their sexual orientation often perceive threats from homosexuals and are therefore more disposed to lash out at them, the researchers said. They mention the 1998 murder of Matthew Shephard and the 2011 shooting of Larry King as possible examples.

        The findings may also explain surprising cases in which prominently anti-gay activists are caught engaging in same-sex relations, such as when evangelical preacher Ted Haggard was caught in a 2006 sex scandal, the authors said….

        1. floridahank 21 Jun 2013, 6:15pm

          Hey Rehan. I looked at your site and found

          “In four separate experiments conducted in the U.S. and in Germany, each involving an average of 160 college students 1- (How about if we conducted a survey of 100,000 adults of all ages, not just college students, who can be very confused in their evaluating sexual behavior?)

          “Sometimes people are threatened by gays and lesbians because they are fearing their own impulses, in a sense they ‘doth protest too much,'” Ryan told LiveScience

          1- I think this guy is reading too much Shakespeare and not enough psychological research.


          I- Highly publicized people who are confused about their sexuality and play games hiding behind it with religion. Haggard probably is not really a Christian.

          1. How about if we conducted a survey of 100,000 adults of all ages

            Why not? Go ahead.

  22. Of course there was a mountain of money paid to them, mostly from the parents of teens they discovered were gay, and forced to go or face ejection from the family. And then those adult gays who also faced the same threat.

    As easy as it would be to lay all the blame on the organization, let us not forget that they wouldn’t have been there at all if it weren’t for the bigotry of their own families! Let’s ladle a heaping portion of that disgust on them, as well.

    Now, what will you bet that Exodus will shortly declare bankruptcy so any potential lawsuits against them will get the victims not one cent?

  23. Michael Stevens 20 Jun 2013, 9:52pm

    I’m not interested in his apology. The work he and his organisation did was evil. He should feel ashamed for the pain and death he has helped spread.

  24. There is a long interview with Alan Chambers in The Atlantic
    It’s worth reading. Chambers has been very bold in reforming and now shutting down Exodus International. He makes the point that he understand some won’t be able to forgive right now, perhaps never, but he is trying to move on to an inclusive project without judgmental religious beliefs.

    We should be happy that this day has come and anti-gay therapy is coming to and end in many places. When someone is so passionate about their apology and wants to bring about such a new inclusion we should slap them down without listening carefully first.

    1. “should” = “should not”

      1. There is an alternative theory.


        where they may have chosen this because they are unable to continue due to lacks of funds, and/or shuttering now because there could be massive fraud cases on the horizon, given that so many people involved with Exodus have admitted it doesn’t work and that 99% of all people who were involved in programmes are still gay.

        Flip a coin and see which you find the most believable. But there is no doubting that Alan Chambers does come across as very genuine – whether he’s just charasmatic / a good presented, or is genuine you have to decide.

  25. This piece at Patheos tells how Exodus Internationals lies propped up the white evangelical movement’s treatment of people who are gay


    it allowed them to claim it was a “lifestyle choice” and thus deny us rights, and get away with mistreating us for 30 years.

  26. They even acknowledged that only 7.5 % of the people that came to them actually became straight and married an opposite sex partner. Out of those 7.5, how many are actually living a lie. How many are bisexual ?
    In either case, conversion therapy is huge bonkers. And now the behemoth admitted it.

  27. floridahank 21 Jun 2013, 4:20am

    In the article, Alan Chambers, president of Exodus said many things. He is confused and has a distored view of how Jesus Christ can change homosexuals. Chambers was not the right person to represent this organization’s proceedure to help homosexuals who want to change. Chambers basically is still emotionally and psychologically homosexually inclined and is a hypocrite in whatever he was trying to promote. Some of his comments were.
    “The 41-year-old admitted that he was still attracted to men and acknowledged his organisation had caused others to suffer because of their own same-sex attractions”.
    “….as part of a special programme on so-called “pray away the gay” therapies.(THIS IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS STATEMENT I EVER HEARD)
    “At the time, he said the therapy allowed LGBT individuals to live a life in accordance with their Christian faith.” (HE HAS NO IDEA OF WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT!)

    1. floridahank 21 Jun 2013, 4:22am

      Additional comment to be added:

      “But last June he said homosexuality cannot be “cured” and that people can be damaged by therapy designed to turn them heterosexual.” ( Does Chambers have any medical/scientific credentials to make such a statement?) I think not.

      It’s obvious that Chambers was insincere in his work and doesn’t know the power of Jesus Christ. Perhaps he needs to do much more studying of the Holy Scriptures to find the Truth that is offered. He’s a very confused individual himself and needs help

      1. I think it’s probably more the case that anyone who talks about “the power of Jesus Christ” is a very confused individual and is in desperate need of help. Especially if that individual spends his time trying to proselytise on a gay news website (the psychological implications of which are obvious to many).

        1. floridahank 21 Jun 2013, 6:30pm

          Jesus Christ’s power is not limited but available to all sinners worldwide for all manner of sins. Most of His offerings are unfortunately not able to be understood by most of mankind. Instead, the people created their own gods and live for themselves — and we can see what kind of world we live in today. There is no peace for most — only pleasure without any depth. People who deny a spiritual life are lacking something psychologically — a denial that there is more than earthly delights. Some of the greatest scholars and thinkers have found truths that secular individuals cannot see because it is denied to them and only to those who seek knowledge and truth — not simply watching TV, stupid movies, porno sites, etc.
          Time is short, don’t waste a minute Rehan. Most people have no knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is, don’t care, and will only find out too late after death.

          1. I am happy for you if you feel you ‘know’ someone of whom there is no conclusive evidence that he even lived (“faith”). Some would consider you deluded but, so long as you don’t harm people, you’re entitled to believe whatever you choose. It’s a shame you mistake a fairly hysterical devotion to reported sayings for spirituality but, again, that’s your right. However, if I were you I’d examine my motivations behind your posts here – I refer you to what I said above.


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