The organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gay’s and Gays (PFOX) has decided that GLSEN’s annual Day of Silence is the perfect opportunity for their supporters to pass around flyers promoting “ex-gay” therapy.
In an interview with the far-right “news” organization World Net Daily, the president of PFOX – Greg Quinlan – said,
“Since members of these gay affirming clubs agree to remain silent for the day, April 20 is the time to distribute ex-gay information without interference or harassment from any gay activist faculty or GSA clubs”
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The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.They are encouraging supporters to distribute flyers that say that “there are no scientific studies to support that a person can be born gay” and that “sexual orientation is based upon feelings and is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration.”
Such is the tactic of organizations like PFOX. Instead of providing an environment where LGBT students can feel supported and free to be themselves, they are instead spreading the message that “for many youth, homosexual attraction develops due to traumatic experiences, such as sexual abuse.
These students need therapy for the trauma, not affirmation of a gay identity” that “sexual re-orientation therapy has been proven effective for those with unwanted same-sex attractions” and that “it is not the schools role to treat any students medical condition”.
The information in the last paragraph is not in the flyer that PFOX has said that they want to distribute on school grounds, the latter quotes are in this flyer, yet the usage of the first flyer is purposeful.
Instead of focusing upon the idea that LGBT students have a “medical condition” or that “sexual reorientation therapy has been proven effective” PFOX is purposefully attempting to lure those children who are struggling with societal and religious pressures about their sexuality, into participating in a psychologically harmful activity (reorientation therapy).
Organizations like PFOX do not care that their words and actions have consequences. Instead, they care only about ensuring their own validity within their religious community, to hell with the well-being of LGBT children. And the fact that they are attempting to sneak in their harmful message on the Day of Silence, a day which is supposed to show support for those who are forced into silence by outside pressures, shows just how deceptive their message truly is.
You can read my own experiences with “Ex-Gay” therapy here.
