"Just Love" A Statewide Challenge to the Ex-Gay Movement

Saturday, March 6, 2010
9:00am - 5:00pm
St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral
2728 6th Ave, San Diego CA 92110

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On Saturday, March 6, 2010, a one-day event was held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego which confronted and challenged the "ex- gay movement" - a national movement to "convert" gay and lesbian people to heterosexuality through purported "reparative" therapy efforts.  The purpose of the conference was to educate people about the truth of such claims and the legacy of harm left in their wake.

“Just Love” coincided with another conference, called “Love Won Out,” sponsored by the largest ex-gay organization, Exodus International, and hosted at Skyline Church in La Mesa. Just Love featured authors, psychologists and experts in the field and focused on the genesis and subsequent history of the ex-gay movement, the nature of and harm done by reparative therapy, the impact of both on the struggle for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and the ex-gay movement’s connection to the looming human rights disaster in Uganda. The ex-gay movement has important implications globally as well.  In March 2009, three Americans, including representatives of two ex- gay organizations, addressed an anti-gay stadium rally in Kampala, Uganda. Their appearance is believed to have contributed to the introduction of a draconian bill, pending before the Ugandan parliament, that not merely criminalizes homosexuality with life imprisonment but also imposes sentences of death by hanging for repeat offenders and people living with AIDS.

The conference featured the former Co-Founder of the largest ex-gay organization, Exodus International, Michael Bussee; ex-gay therapy survivor and outspoken opponent of the movement, Daniel Gonzales; author, activist and Founder of Truth Wins Out, Wayne Besen; and Jim Burroway, Founder and Editor of Box Turtle Bulletin, the blog that first broke the story on the worsening situation for gay and lesbian Ugandans in February of 2009.

The afternoon consisted of workshops covering legal issues and strategies to contain and limit the damage inflicted by the ex-gay movement, recovery from ex-gay theology and propaganda, community activism to challenge the movement’s lies and distortions, and a session for leaders of the faith community led by Louise Brooks of California Faith for Equality and Human Rights Campaign.

For more information, contact Rev. Canon Albert Ogle at aogle@cox.net 
 

VIEW SPEAKERS FROM THE 2010 CONFERENCE:

(Click "Details" to download mp3 or mp4 files)