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Exodus International, I Questioned Homosexuality

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Seattle-based Exodus is a network of ministries founded in 1976 that claims more than 100 ministries in the US, Canada, and 20 other countries. The ex-gay movement claims gay men and lesbians can be "converted" to heterosexuality through submission to Jesus Christ, or through secular (and damaging) "reparative therapy."

Exodus has had a shoddy history. In 1978, two of its founders, Gary Cooper and Michael Busee, left the ministry after falling in love with each other. Busee and Cooper repeatedly called ex-gay ministries a fraud that promote homophobia and self-hatred, telling stories of people who went through the Exodus program and had emotional breakdowns or committed suicide. The men said they hadn't met one person who successfully changed their sexual orientation from gay to straight. (More information can be found at Public Eye.)

More recently, John Paulk, board chair for Exodus, and a "poster boy" for ex-gays who was the 1998 cover story of a Newsweek article on the topic, was photographed in Mr. P's, a gay bar in Washington DC, in 2000 -- Paulk claimed he was merely using the toilet. Author of "Not Afraid to Change; The Remarkable Story of How One Man Overcame Homosexuality," Paulk was also on staff with anti-gay group Focus on the Family.

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