2008
ex-gays
I didn’t see this topic posted anywhere around the site, so if I missed it… sorry!
Glamour did an excellent story of Christine Bakke, an ex-ex-gay (lesbian therapied- straight…then lesbian again).
A couple quick excerpts from the article:
While taking the course, she left the auto parts store and took a higher-level job doing production at a small ad agency. And she used the opportunity to reinvent herself. She began introducing herself as Christine again, let her short hair grow and tried even harder to walk, talk and act like a “real” woman… Her mother loved her new look and told her daughter, “I feel like this is God sending you a message that you’re on the right path.” Christine agreed.
Months later, however, a letter to a friend revealed a tangle of confused feelings: “I’m 30 now, and I really want to be straight, married, and possibly have kids, and I guess I feel like I’m running out of time. I mean, I really really really (!) want to be married to a woman, but again, that’s not what…God intended.”
What I found most interesting was that she was the one to put herself through the sexual conversion process in her mid-late 20s, though I’m sure her parents pressured her amply. Typically I imagine the people in these groups are kids dragged away from their uber-Christian “loving” homes (think Saved or But I’m a Cheerleader), but I completely understand why an adult would feel inclined to go. I mean when my mom tells me that I will lose her because of a little girl action, I research different ways to reconcile our relationship too.
Fortunately this whole ex-gay movement thing isn’t doing so hot (re 2000 when their cover boy was caught at a gay bar) and this publicized blow certainly isn’t helping their cause (thanks Christine!). Regardless the leading resource only claims 30-50% success rate anyway, so I guess our lost souls were never meant to be “saved”.
Now that Christine is back on our team and you can find her blog here. More information on other ex-ex-gays here. And the best summary of the Glamour article ever made is here (on my blog).
yeah. I didn’t go quite as far as Christine to change, but far enough. Awful crap! But eventually you have a crush that’s so strong it brings you to your senses.