Ex Gay Group to oversee Day of Truth

A nationwide school event launched by religious conservatives to counter the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's annual Day of Silence will be promoted and overseen for the first time next month by Exodus International, an "ex-gay" organization with extensive ties to so-called conversion or reparative therapy.

Created in 2004 by the conservative legal organization Alliance Defense Fund, the Day of Truth is scheduled for April 15, one day before GLSEN's Day of Silence event. According to its website, Day of Truth seeks "to affirm every student's constitutional right to free speech and to provide an opportunity to have an honest conversation about sexuality." Last year the ADF announced that Exodus would oversee implementation of the event in 2010, though the ADF's legal team remains involved.

GLSEN representatives see the competing event differently. "We find it unfortunate that the ADF and now Exodus International tries to spin a message counter to ours, that anti-LGBT bullying is wrong," GLSEN spokesman Daryl Presgraves said. "Students today feel more welcome and accepted, and have a sense of belonging that didn't exist 20 years ago. Part of the Day of Truth is to take away from that, to spread the mistruths about 'conversion therapy.'"

Presgraves added that "it doesn't look like [Exodus] is saying that bullying is OK. However, the fact that they have this counterevent a day before the Day of Silence on April 16 is telling."

The Day of Silence was founded in 1996 at the University of Virginia by Maria Pulzetti, with 150 students participating. GLSEN became the event's national sponsor in 2001, with the goal of illustrating "the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT."

Speaking to The Advocate, Jeff Buchanan, senior director of church equipping for Exodus International, said that the Day of Truth is not an explicit endorsement of reparative therapy, which has been criticized by most major health organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of School Psychologists. "We're not coming from a therapeutic perspective," Buchanan said. "Reparative therapy is one of many therapeutic approaches, and we feel that there is value in it. But we're not publicly endorsing it."

Whether or not Exodus explicitly endorses conversion therapy, the group's website features an extensive referral list of conversion therapists, including Joe Dallas, a former gay rights activist and founder of Genesis Counseling; and Joseph Nicolosi, a former executive director of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Nicolosi was the subject of recent testimony in the federal Proposition 8 lawsuit Perry v. Schwarzenegger from Ryan Kendall, a 26-year-old gay man from Colorado who was forced into conversion therapy as a teenager by his parents. "At NARTH, I was being told that I had to reject who I was on the most fundamental level because what that was was dirty and bad," Kendall said during his January 19 testimony.

While on the stand, Kendall also recounted meeting Nicolosi's "perfect patient," a man named Kelly who "had been cured of his homosexuality."

"I remember once, when Nicolosi stepped out of the room, [Kelly and I] were talking amongst ourselves," Kendall said. "And Kelly told me that later that night he was going to a gay bar and that he was, essentially, just pretending to be cured for the sake of his family."

Buchanan of Exodus asserted that the purpose of Day of Truth is not to counter any message denouncing anti-LGBT violence but rather "to help students engage in conversation while we support an antibullying message. At Exodus we stand against any type of bullying."

A review of Day of Truth's website finds it doesn't specifically address violence against LGBT students. "Unlike the Day of Silence, the Day of Truth does not encourage students to engage in activities that are likely to disrupt the school's academic mission," the website reads, though it adds that those who are "gay-identified" shouldn't be "stigmatized or treated any differently."

Buchanan of Exodus asserted that the purpose of Day of Truth is not to counter any message denouncing anti-LGBT violence but rather "to help students engage in conversation while we support an antibullying message. At Exodus we stand against any type of bullying."

A review of Day of Truth's website finds it doesn't specifically address violence against LGBT students. "Unlike the Day of Silence, the Day of Truth does not encourage students to engage in activities that are likely to disrupt the school's academic mission," the website reads, though it adds that those who are "gay-identified" shouldn't be "stigmatized or treated any differently."