Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Saw this at BuzzFlash yesterday:

Child sex suspect once was in 'ex-gay' ministry

The former Summit Christian School teacher arrested last weekend after admitting having sex with a teen boy was enrolled in a controversial "ex-gay" ministry whose adherents believe people can change their sexual preference through the power of Christ.

Love in Action International in Memphis, Tenn., is the oldest and best known of the ministries that try to counsel people away from homosexuality through spirituality....

[Chad] Stoffel, 29, a popular teacher and coach at Summit Christian School for more than five years, resigned in December, according to school officials.

It's not clear when Stoffel went to Love in Action, but on Feb. 1 a counselor there called a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detective and told him Stoffel had confessed to molesting "numerous" boys in South Florida, according to Stoffel's arrest report....


Oops.

When I was poking around looking for other comments on this, I saw a post at The Republic of T that cited a report on the "ex-gay" movement from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. I haven't read the report, but there's a summary here and it has some creepy details:

... A key finding of the report shows that, in this third wave of ex-gay activism, ex-gay programs and their evangelical Christian right allies are focusing less on "curing" adults of homosexuality and more on preventing its development by targeting parents, children and adolescents. Whether through ex-gay teen programs or traveling ex-gay conferences like Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ex-gay programs are recommending that parents commit their children to treatment of "prehomosexuality" even if it is against their children's wishes. Heterosexual youth are also being recruited in schools and churches to spread the message that homosexuality is a treatable mental illness.

"One of the most disturbing accounts in this report is a case involving a 5-year-old boy who was subjected to conversion therapy to address 'prehomosexuality.' The case involves a psychologist who claims that his theories and treatments are scientific," said study co-author Jason Cianciotto, the Policy Institute's research director....


"Prehomosexuality"? "Curing" five-year-olds? Recruiting fellow teens to propagandize for this quackery? These people are disgusting.

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ALSO SEE this Alicublog post about the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, which "Dr. Helen" (Mrs. Instapundit) believes is being brutally mistreated by the fascist jackboot-wearers of the American Psychological Association.

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