In front of a standing-room-only crowd in the Rockefeller Center this Friday, Ted Cox presented his work as an undercover journalist in Christian gay-to-straight conversion programs.
Halfway through his presentation, Cox asked a male audience member to lean and sit between the outstretched legs of another male volunteer while four others sat nearby with their hands on other volunteers' arms, chests and legs. As part of this demonstration of the "safe-healing touch" preached by the therapy programs which encourages ex-gay program participants to familiarize themselves with male non-sexual physical touch Cox crouched down and spoke words of comfort to the audience member. A dreamy relaxation song with the lyrics, "How could anyone ever tell you/you were anything less than beautiful?" played in the background.
The demonstration was just one of the numerous examples Cox gave in his humorous and often wry presentation on ex-gay therapy programs titled, "What I Learned at Straight Camp." Cox opened his talk with a few suggestive jokes about his last name before delving into his experience as an undercover participant in Christian gay-to-straight conversion programs.
A freelance writer and ex-Mormon, Cox said he had never heard of ex-gay programs until watching a segment on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" in 2007. Interested in seeing what the programs offered, Cox who is both straight and an atheist attended meetings, conferences and weekend camps for two years.
Ex-gay programs are an outgrowth of a campaign that dates as far as the 1950s, Cox said. Beginning in the decades during which homosexuality was considered a mental illness, various groups formed in an attempt to heal homosexuality, with several using electroshock therapy. Despite the American Psychiatric Association's removal of homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973, organizations such as Exodus International, the International Healing Foundation and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality were established with the goal that its gay members would be led by Christ into heterosexuality, Cox said.
"Science has shown and has proved that it's not something that can be cured by therapy," Cox said.
Cox said ex-gay meetings emphasized that God would never make someone gay and there must be other causes for an individuals' "confused" sexual orientation.
"A counselor said that we're all attracted to the opposite sex, just some are confused by which is the opposite sex," Cox said.
The conversion programs most often cited sexual abuse during childhood as the biggest reason for homosexuality, Cox said. Cox derided the programs as he showed the audience a list of suspected "causes," including hypersensitivity, neglect, artistic nature, non-athleticism, a lack of hand-eye coordination and being a "teacher's pet."
Ex-gay program participants were taught to snap themselves with a rubber band every time they caught themselves inappropriately watching someone of the same sex, according to Cox.
Individual therapy sessions which can cost $650 per session are often used in the ex-gay programs, according to Cox.
Program participants also learned how to deal with "the overbearing women in our lives that lead us to be gay," Cox said, implying that counselors encouraged using violence in order to deal with women if they get to be "too much."
All of these techniques are not enough to convert members, Cox said. Individuals whom Cox interviewed revealed that the straight-to-gay programs had a small success rate and even backfired, according to Cox.
"It turns out these ex-gay programs end up being great for coming out," Cox said. "A lot of people said that trying to change their orientation was a major proponent [in helping] them come out."
Cox made fun of the hypocrisy of various male founders and poster boys for the conversion programs because several of them later married their male partners or were caught "fleeing gay bars," he said.
One of the most damaging effects of these programs is the exploitation of vulnerable populations, Cox said. He cited an Australian father who forced his son to have sex with a prostitute in order to cure him, young adults being gang raped to take away their homosexuality and parents forcing their children to go to ex-gay programs. In the closing minutes of his lecture, Cox urged the audience to stand up for their gay friends and the gay population.
Cox has contributed to the Silicon Valley Metro magazine, the Good Men Project magazine and AlterNet blog. He also runs God Hates Protestors, a blog that features different protest and counter-protest signs.
