Do you think that you can live as a devout Christian/Catholic and be gay?
No. You can't be, it's incompatible.
You cannot be Christian and gay
You can't
You can be a homosexual and Christian
but you can't be gay and Christian.
There is no question anymore, of course you can be gay
and you can be a Christian. Of course
and if anybody really thinks through what their theology is about
their faith. That answer
is easy to come to
I'm John Smid, and I worked for 22 years on staff at Love In Action International
I was the executive director from 1990 through 2008
Love In Action was a ministry that was
motivated to help people leave behind their homosexual behavior.
We attempted all through the years to help people find that
freedom in their life.
Today, I am very offended at the concept of "change therapies"
for homosexuality
because the message that someone who is gay
has something intrinsically wrong with them
is a shame-producing negative message
that hits at the core of a human life
And I'm offended that that message is still in any way communicated.
I don't feel guilt for having been a part of reparative therapy
and the reason for that is not because
I don't feel bad about the message that we put out, but
we were on a journey
and you have to put it in the cultural context at the time.
There was a huge cultural war between the church and the LGBT community
and we were caught in that just like everybody else, so
being involved in the church community the way that is was
we thought that this was the right thing to do.
We were wrong.
I am a religious man. I'm a Christian man
and so that'll certainly inform some of my lifestyle choices.
and values.
I don't knwo if all of the men who come to us
are religious.
Then at the sound of the drum beat
take one step to your left
Look at the outside of this man.
Look at his physical appearance.
Look into this man's heart.
Look into his soul.
Now look more deeply.
-I know that I didn't choose to have the feelings that I had
but i think that
how I react to that or how I respond to that is still...
you know, that's where
I can make a choice about that and so,
sexual acting out and things like that wasn't really
compatible with my values.
It kind of came to the point where I just wanted to see what other alternatives there were.
I started to come back into my Catholic faith as well,
about that time.
After coming into this and finding a lot of healing
and I think this weekend even though it's not a religious weekend.
There's a real emphasis on surrendering to a higher power,
that starting leading me, in my life, back to
to the church, back to what I found, where I found the most peace.
So groups like Journey Into Manhood or Love in Action
or any kind of group
that tries to change the sexual orientation
or gender identity of people from what's natural for them.
I find to be very damaging.
Do you now believe that it's possible to change your sexual orientation?
No, I don't
There's a lot of history of people coming out
after they've, you know
created these organizations
these ex-gay organizations or reparative therapy movements,
to say that, in fact, it wasn't helpful.
Exodus International was the largest ex-gay organization
for over 30 years
and their leader of over 10 years finally at the end of it
came out to say that 99 plus percent of people
that he knew, including himself
never actually changed their internal-felt sense of their attractions towards other people.
I know that there are people
who have taken their life because they felt so ashamed
of who they are
felt like God couldn't love them as they are
and that's something that will haunt me
until the day I die.
It wasn't until I left the ex-gay movement that I actually
heard the damage
and I am grieved
that I didn't hear it before.
The collateral damage I think is something we've not been willing to listen to
We're here today to talk about conversion therapy.
There's a lot of different names for this topic
There's a lot of different perspectives on this topic.
-It is really hard for me to be in the same room sometimes with
people who led the programs
currently or in the past
because i know that my friends
lost their lives because of the
the pain that they endured at the hands of these men.
I am a recent graduate of MIT
Just did two graduate degrees in nuclear engineering and technology policy.
I now work a few different think-tanks there
in Washington, DC
Third Way and the Bipartisan Policy Center,
working on educating Congress on advanced nuclear reactor physics
which is pretty much awesome. It's a great job.
I also serve as the co-chair for the Born Perfect campaign
to end conversion therapy
so this is my, this is my outlet to make the world a little bit better place
in the non-nuclear realm, I guess is the best way of putting it.
-I'm gonna give you some facts, that's what I do.
I'm a lawyer, I work in facts.
-What we are doing is we are going around the country
trying to pass laws
that protect kids under 18
from having conversion therapy practiced on them
by licensed mental health professionals.
-Good afternoon
I'm here to request your help in ending conversion therapy.
-So we recently went to Geneva, Switzerland to talk to the United Nations
Committee Against Torture
about the practice of conversion therapy in the United States
and Sam Brinton one of our incredible survivors
we work with a lot, testified before that committee.
Now these are folks who have spent their lives
talking about torture
and by the end of his testimony
there were very few dry eyes in that house.
-Then the physical abuse began
he tied down my hands
and placed ice on them while showing me erotic pictures of men.
He wrapped my hands in hot coils
stuck needles in my fingers and shocked me with electricity.
Through all of this
I remained gay
but became suicidal.
I found that forgiveness for me is something really really important
it's a way for me to get past all that pain.
I shed that love back toward those
Nick Calosi's and Allen Chamber's, hoping that they were doing it out of love.
And I just need to make my message and my voice loud enough to help them
understand that it is not helping.
-I learned to lie
and through that survived
but many aren't so lucky.