# Whatever happened to the "movement"  to convert gay people to heterosexuality?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 12, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475 "2002-08-12T03:10:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475/1 "2002-08-12T03:10:42Z")

</div>

Groups claiming to do this successfully were big in the news a few years ago but have seemingly falen off the current media radar screen. What happened to this “movement”. Did they all give up and go home or what?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475/2 "2002-08-12T03:39:44Z")

</div>

Weren’t a few of the leaders of these movements “caught” in gay bars or whathaveyou? I seem to recall a Pit thread about this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475/3 "2002-08-12T04:02:03Z")

</div>

Yep.  
[http://content.gay.com/channels/news/heads/001006\_exodus.html](http://content.gay.com/channels/news/heads/001006_exodus.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Exodus disciplines ex-gay board chairman found in D.C. gay bar
> 
> by Judy Gerber  
> [Gay.com](http://Gay.com) Network
> 
> The chairman of the board of Exodus International has been removed from his position and placed on probation. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the president of a legal foundation that supports conservative causes has resigned after an arrest for public indecency.
> 
> John Paulk, who has been the public face of Exodus, was photographed and confronted by gay activists from the Human Rights Campaign in a Washington, D.C., gay bar last month.
> 
> \< snip \>
> 
> Matthew Glavin, the 47-year-old president of Southeastern Legal Foundation, resigned his post Wednesday one day after appearing in court on public indecency charges for the second time.
> 
> In this case, police say Glavin was masturbating in front of a federal undercover officer and tried to fondle the man at a Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area trail. A park official says 45 people have been arrested for public indecency in the area, known for gay cruising, in the past year.

To address the OP:

“Reparative” or “conversion therapy” is still around, but I think it’s mostly been relegated to the “pseudo-science” back burner, since AFAIK nobody’s ever been able to come up with any real solid clinical proof that it actually works.

[http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom\_exod.htm](http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_exod.htm)  
[http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom\_repar.htm](http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_repar.htm)  
[http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom\_0051.htm](http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_0051.htm)  
[http://www.metrokc.gov/health/glbt/exgay.htm](http://www.metrokc.gov/health/glbt/exgay.htm)

The Spitzer study, which generated a fair amount of hooplah last year.  
[http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/sexualorientation010508.html](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/sexualorientation010508.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-the-movement-to-convert-gay-people-to-heterosexuality/123475/4 "2002-08-12T04:15:52Z")

</div>

Per your Spitzer Study link DDG

> [@](#):
>
> Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer has performed a study saying some highly motivated gays can change their sexual orientation. ([ABCNEWS.com](http://ABCNEWS.com))

All I can say if that’s the case ex-gay media mogul Barry Diller must be the most motivated man who ever lived now that that he’s married Diane Von Furstenberg. 😉

[The ‘inning’ of Barry Diller?](http://content.gay.com/channels/news/signorile/010206_diller.html)