No, the ‘pray the gay away’ conversion therapy never works
Earlier tonight, GMA 7 aired a Lenten special titled “It’s UnPair: Pramis, trulalong labstory itoh” which was produced by The 700 Club Asia. The story is about a gay man who eventually fell in love with a hunchback woman.
We admit that gender is really fluid, and that someone’s sexual orientation can really change repeatedly throughout a person’s lifetime. However, its premise that gays can reconfigure their sexual orientation through prayers and counseling is problematic.
Scientific research have conclusively proven that “Pray the gay away” never works. Exodus International, the primary US-based organization that promoted this approached actually ceases operations way back 2013. In fact, its leaders made a public apology for the LGBT community, including those who identified themselves as “ex-gays.”
“There are things that you can’t undo. There are wounds that won’t be healed in this life. And that’s a hard thing. The only thing I can do is say I’m sorry,” leader Alan Chambers said in a documentary.
And it has also been established that suppressing one’s sexual orientation can actually be detrimental to a person’s physical and mental well-being. The American Psychological Association (APA), for its part, has steadfastly criticized against those promoting the notion that homosexuality is an abnormality.
“The idea that homosexuality is a mental disorder or that the emergence of same-sex attraction and orientation among some adolescents is in anyway abnormal or unhealthy has no support among any mainstream health and mental health professional organizations,” the APA said in its 2008 publication titled “Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and the Youth.”
PS: It is worth pointing out that Pat Robertson, the founder of 700 Club Asia, has a long history of making bigoted remarks against the LGBT community. Check out this compilation from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
About Author
