Comments on: Exodus Co-Founder: We Were Abandoned When We Left Exodus

By: Michael Bussee

Michael Bussee — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:50:04 +0000

There was healing. My Mom eventually accepted Gary and stopped blaming herself — speaking out when “friends” or church-goers made anti-gay comments. My brother and sister love me and we are close.

My coming out meant they had to come out. It was not easy for any of us. They were vicitms of the same homophobia that I had internalized.

Thanks for posting the Beyond Exgay link. I also host a Facebook page for Ex-gay Survivors and their loved ones. It’s at “ex-ex-gay” on FB. Thanks, again, to Daniel and BTB.

By: Burr

Burr — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:23:16 +0000

These people have no faith at all if they think they’re in such perilous spiritual danger just standing in the same room as a gay relative.

By: Grant

Grant — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:20:43 +0000

Thank you for responding Dan. I sure hope his siblings have come to some level of acceptance and love, for all their sakes.

By the way – this has been a wonderful series, and very informative. Thank you for bringing it to us.

- Grant

By: Dan Gonzales

Dan Gonzales — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:08:17 +0000

Grant,

Sorry, the only unreleased video that mentions Michael’s family life is about his process of falling in love with his wife.

However Michael does frequent the comments here so perhaps he’ll chime in.

-Dan

By: Grant

Grant — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:04:38 +0000

Maybe there will be a further update, but I’m curious about whether relations improved between Michael and his family, especially his siblings. It seems his mother, despite her initial trauma, accepted him back to her home.

Thankfully Michael had Gary and was not totally alone, although being isolated from family, friends and associates is always shocking and traumatic.

Imagine the poor youths who come out (or are outed) to their parents and are tossed, literally all alone in the world, onto the streets. How people of faith can claim to be doing this as a function of their beliefs is something I cannot understand. Talk about conditional love.

By: Richard Rush

Richard Rush — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:14:52 +0000

Michael Bussee, you had enormous courage, and you deserve to be proud of that.

It takes no courage to live life to please bigoted brainwashers, but it takes enormous courage to defy them, especially in their faces as you did, Michael.

By: Jim Burroway

Jim Burroway — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:18:38 +0000

NARNC60AC. There is just such a group: http://www.beyondexgay.com/

By: NARNC60AC

NARNC60AC — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:39:06 +0000

since there doesn’t appear to be a group for those that want to leave exodus & live their lives as openly as they should, why doesn’t someone start something like that?
just a website where they can talk to other openly gay/lesbian Christians who have reconciled their Faith & sexuality would go a long way to assauging their fears of being abandoned if they leave exodus

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:34:56 +0000

“And my sister called and told me that she was going to pray that God would make me miserable the rest of my life.”

I think this says more than anything else about the sentiment behind the Christian anti-gay agenda. Urging gay people to stop having gay sex isn’t enough for them. They’ll do everything they can to ensure that gay people are miserable. Talk about playing God.