Five former
leaders of "ex-gay" ministries Down Under have
publicly condemned converstion/reparative therapy, according
to the Sydney Star Observer.
The Aussie
leaders said they were inspired to make their
comments by the recent apologies of three former
"ex-gay" leaders at an "ex-gay" survivors conference
in Los Angeles.
"There was not
one person that I met or worked with who, in any
genuine way, achieved the fundamental transformation from
homosexual to heterosexual," Paul Martin, former
leader of Exodus in Melbourne, told the
Observer.
According to some
of the former "ex-gay" leaders, conversion therapy
teachers in Australia believe men become gay because
they had emotionally distant fathers. Their therapy
included "minders," who would follow the enrollees to
make sure they were behaving themselves.
"Some people have
suicided," Anthony Venn Brown, who spent 22 years
trying to be straight, told the newspaper. "But most people
have now come to terms with their sexuality. There is no
success rate [with conversion therapy]." (The
Advocate)