By funding an enormous advertising campaign touting so-called "Ex-Gay" ministries, the Religious Right has renewed its attack on human dignity. Fundamentalist religious organizations such as Exodus International claim to be able to "convert" or "change" homosexuals through "the healing love of Jesus Christ."

The advertising campaign, which apparently cost Exodus over half a million dollars, prominently featured Anne and John Paulk, an ex-gay couple. John, a former drag queen, freely admits that he still has homosexual feelings but believes that Jesus has enabled him to cease acting on them. Apparently not, however: he was recently sighted in a Washington, DC gay bar by Human Rights Campaign members.

Anne, on the other hand, was apparently never really a lesbian in the first place. She admits that she has previously had "close relationships" with women but that those relationships "were more emotional than physical."

The validity of these "Ex-Gay" ministries has been repeatedly shot down by authoritative and credible scientific groups. The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association have all issued strongly worded admonitions combating the idea that homosexuality is "treatable." Even before 1973, when the American Psychological Association deprecated homosexuality as a mental disorder (in DSM-III), repeated studies confirmed it was veritably impossible to change someone’s sexual orientation, even through Behaviorist measures such as electric shock treatments and pain therapy.

The American Psychological Association passed a 1997 resolution stating that "that there is no sound evidence on the efficacy of 'reparative therapy', which seeks to 'cure' homosexuals."

In response to the "Ex-Gay" advertising campaign, the APA also released a December 1998 statement. "The potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient."

Furthermore, none of these ex-gay groups follow up with any of the participants in the therapy, eliminating any statistics on their success ratio. Exodus admitted, "People ask for that all the time, but we don't keep records. We probably should."

The best evidence that the "Ex-Gay" movement is not motivated by human concern but instead by political power comes from ex-"Ex-Gays." These are people who have gone through one of the "Ex-Gay" ministries, were "healed" by the Shining Magical Power of Jesus Christ, and subsequently "returned" to being gay.

Several founders of "Ex-Gay" ministries have since renounced their behavior, and denounced the ministries and their "methods."

Jeffry G. Ford, M.A., a licensed psychotherapist, was formerly the director of Outpost, a Minnesota-based ex-gay ministry. After years of traumatically forcing others, already unfairly stigmatized by society, through his program, Ford quit his job, came out of the closet, and debunked Outpost.

"In a society that denies basic human rights and allows the heterosexual majority power to determine our validity," Ford stated, "it is understandable that people would want to escape that kind of persecution. It saddens me deeply to watch as people deny their true nature and strive to find love and acceptance by conforming to the conditions and demands of those who hate and fear that very part of them that is the core of their being.

"In the five years I was directly involved with the change movement, I do not believe that I saw one genuine change or shift in sexual orientation."

A more comical - and telling - example is what happened to the Exodus International founders. Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, who began the prominent "Ex-Gay" ministry in the mid-1970s, left their jobs as co-Chairmen, divorced their respective wives, and celebrated a Queer marriage ceremony. Until Cooper's untimely death in 1991, they were amongst the "Ex-Gay" movement’s most vocal opponents. Their ex-wives now run Exodus.

The US government is happy to extract valuable tax dollars from its citizenry, even whilst it refuses to afford the same rights and privileges to all members of society. Through veiled rhetoric and right-wing propaganda, conservative politicians try to justify their prejudice. In the process, they confer public legitimacy on Exodus, Outpost, and similar groups.

Scientific and anecdotal evidence is overwhelmingly against these ministries. Furthermore, the "graduates" have universally dispelled any shred of evidence that these programs really work. The credibility of "Ex-Gay" ministries dwindles as a result.