Exodus Cofounder Disses "Ex-Gay" Programs

Michael Bussee, one of the founders of the "ex-gay" group Exodus International, discussed his experiences with the group in an interview with the Box Turtle Bulletin blog.

Bussee left Exodus in 1979 and has since been a vocal critic of the group and similar "ex-gay" programs.

"Never once has an ex-gay program I attended ever done any sort of follow-up," Bussee said. "I can't buy a soy latte these days without having to fill out a survey about my coffee experience. Yet folks can spend tens of thousands of dollars on reparative therapy and nothing — no aftercare, no reflections on what worked and what didn’t work."

Bussee said that many years after leaving Exodus, he met others who abandoned the program.

"I’m happy to report that most of them had actually gotten much better," Bussee said. "They had left too and gone through a period of struggle and then finally accepted themselves as gay or lesbian and were doing fine."

Video and a transcript of the interview can be found here.