Exodus International announces that it’s getting out of the whole “curing gays for Jesus” thing:
The head offered a real apology, though it looks like he still argues that gay sex is a sin.
Apologies don’t change the pain and suffering they caused, but it’s better than not apologizing at all.
An apology is good, but will there be any restitution? Ex-gay therapy has harmed or destroyed lives. Just saying you’re sorry doesn’t make it go away. Some sort of personal apology to the people who received the therapy would be good. Maybe offer shelter or support for people who are kicked out of their families for being gay.
The best thing to do would be to try to pressure other ex-gay groups to close or change their missions. Exodus was the largest ex-gay group, but there are plenty of smaller ones that are still around and still trying to convert gays to ex-gays. The people at the other organizations ignore the mainstream telling them that what they are doing isn’t helpful, but maybe they’ll listen to people who used to think like them.
Maybe they’ll be doing these things, and that would be great. Hearing an apology and that they’re stopping ex-gay therapy is good, but I’m not going to be too enthusiastic until I hear that they’re going to try to fix things that they messed up.