Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyA multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 25th, 2010
Leading up to now we’ve had videos discussing Michael’s fear of the gay community and fears about what would happen if he left Exodus.
Today Michael talks about what actually happened when he finally did renounce Exodus and came out as a gay man. What did Michael’s church do? What did his relatives do? What did his wife do? What did his fellow leaders at Exodus do?
One person in Michael’s life even graphically warned him of the flames of hell that await him.
Lastly Michael closes with a warning that even today people still fear the consequences and rejection when they try to leave Exodus.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 24th, 2010
Yesterday Michael talked about how he perceived what it meant to be gay, which was based largely on his own experiences with being closeted.
Today Michael talks about Exodus’ early interaction with gay activists who not long after the group’s founding became a concern. Surprisingly at the speaking event where Michael announced he was leaving Exodus there happened to be a group of gay activists in the back of the audience. I’ll let Michael take it from here and tell the rest of the story.
On Monday we’ll look at what happened in Michael’s life when he finally renounced his attempts to change and came out as a gay man to his family, friends and fellow ministry leaders.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 21st, 2010
I expected my interview series with Michael to generate a lot of emotion, but in recent days the reader comments have taken a dramatic shift to questioning why Michael did not come out publicly against or make amends for his involvement in Exodus sooner. One expression that’s particularly common in YouTube comments is that Michael somehow has “blood on his hands,” hence the title for this post.
In today’s video Michael explains his delay in speaking out against Exodus. Of all the things Michael wanted to address on the day I interviewed him, this was foremost on his mind.
But before we get to the video let me personally address all the work I believe Michael has done for the ex-gay survivor community:
But enough of my opinion. Here’s Michael on the delay in speaking out against Exodus:
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 20th, 2010
One of the most common reasons people go ex-gay is because they don’t believe a meaningful community exists in the gay world and fear losing their current church community. In today’s video I ask Michael how he viewed “the gay community” while he was still at Exodus.
Don’t miss the part where Michael talks about how Exodus viewed the Metropolitan Community Church. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing when he surprised me with that during filming.
(transcript after the jump)
May 19th, 2010
Alan Chambers, thanking God for the end of a 22 year relationship.
Earlier today Ex-Gay Watch posted on a statement made by Exodus president Alan Chambers on his Facebook fan page:
Heard from a couple this morning who have been praying for their daughter and her partner to come to Christ for 22 years. Both accepted Jesus, broke off their relationship and are pursuing a life in Christ. God is faithful and answers prayers. Be encouraged no matter your circumstances!
Unfortunately celebrating misery and tragedy in the lives of gay and lesbian people is nothing new for leaders in the ex-gay movement. A while back I found, but didn’t post about, a passage from Mike Haley’s 2004 book “101 Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality.” Appearing on pages 46 & 47:
[Question #] 12. My son just told me he’s gay. He says he’s finally accepted who he is and that he’s never been happier. Can this really be true?
Mike Haley starts off his response with explaining how gay people often feel elated at coming out so let’s jump to the end of his response where he issues actual advise:
The key for your son in the weeks and months to come is for him to realize it’s not too late to turn back. This is where the church and loved ones like you come in. If he hears that change is possible, that he was not “made” this way, and that he is loved within godly boudaries even if his lifestyle choices don’t change immediately, there is hope that when the feeling of relief wears off and the emptiness sets in, he will try to live his life in line with God’s will.
In the meantime, I advise you to pray that he becomes as miserable as possible, as soon as possible, and that God will protect him through it. [emphasis added]
Mike Haley of Focus On The Family, advising you to pray God will make your gay child miserable.
As I said before, I discovered that passage years ago when I first read the book and in all that time have been unable to formulate a response to something so wicked and ugly. However with Ex-Gay Watch bringing light to Alan’s celebration I realized this sadly is not a unique case and that attention needed to be brought to it.
I should add the first page of Haley’s book is filled with endorsements by Alan Chambers, Jeff Konrad, Joe Dallas, and Dr. Joseph Nicolosi. I’m curious if they too wish for misery and tragedy to fall upon the lives of gay and lesbian people.
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 18th, 2010
Yesterday we looked at Michael’s regret for teaching the idea that if you worked hard enough in an ex-gay program you would be changed.
Today Michael shares his other regret, teaching that bad parenting causes a person to be gay. Michael talks about the division in families that can cause and his own process of later reclaiming the belief his father was actually loving, giving, encouraging and self-sacrificial.
(transcript below the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 17th, 2010
My question to Michael, is there anything specific you regret teaching, produced an answer with two separate and distinct parts. (We’ll have a video up tomorrow of the other half of his answer.)
First we look at the idea that if you worked hard enough in an ex-gay program you would be changed. Michael now believes the only thing being a loyal Christian guarantees in life is sharing in Christ’s sufferings. To teach otherwise Michael says is heresy.
Yes, heresy, you don’t hear that word thrown around on this blog very often.
(transcript below jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 13th, 2010
As notable ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano wrote in 2007, ex-gay programs and Exodus have absolutely no sort of after-care or follow-up when a participant leaves a program:
Never once has an ex-gay program I attended ever done any sort of follow-up. I mean I can’t buy a soy latte these days without having to fill out a survey about my coffee experience. Yet folks can spend tens of thousands of dollars on reparative therapy and nothing–no aftercare, no reflections on what worked and what didn’t work.
I’m admittedly curious about what goes through the mind of an ex-gay leader when a participant stops coming. Do they assume the person is cured? Have they gone back in the closet? Are they living the dreaded homosexual lifestyle?
It’s not an easy thing to confront as you can tell by Michael’s body language in this segment and that I had to ask the question three times before we got into the meat of the issue.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 11th, 2010
Modern day Exodus and president Alan Chambers provide a near non-stop supply of illogical and bizarre statements that keep watchdog sites like Truth Wins Out, Ex-Gay Watch, and BoxTurtleBulletin busy documenting and analyzing them. My personal favorite is Alan’s claim that he might never have come to Jesus and become straight if gay marriage had been available to him when he was young and gay.
I thought I’d ask Michael Bussee what he thought of Alan’s statement.
Hat tip to Ex-Gay Watch for capturing video of Alan’s appearance at the Prop 8 rally.
(transcript below the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
May 10th, 2010
One of my favorite questions to ask former ex-gays is how in their own minds they came to the realization change isn’t possible. In today’s video Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee talks about the convergence of factors that lead him to abandon his attempts to change.
Even today when someone in the ex-gay movement finds their sexual orientation is not changing they are told that a lifetime of celibacy is the best they can hope for. Michael concludes the video by discussing celibacy and why it wasn’t a viable path for his life.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
April 27th, 2010
Today’s video is short and concise. I asked Michael point blank if he believed anyone in his program at Exodus ever changed.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
April 26th, 2010
Ex-gay Mike Haley showing off pictures of his wife and family while speaking at the Love Won Out ex-gay conference. Love Won Out is primarily attended by Christians who are unable to accept a gay friend of family member and wishes they would enter an ex-gay program. The message Mike's photos send is, "there's still hope for your gay loved one to turn straight and get married."
Some people in the ex-gay movement become so deeply involved they make the drastic step of getting married. Michael Bussee took that step and talks today about his inner conflict in doing so. Michael recognized he wasn’t a heterosexual when he got married but chose to anyway because he believed God would reward him with heterosexuality if he truly committed himself to God and took his vows as a leap of faith.
Once married Michael found himself in an uncomfortable position as a role model at Exodus and privately tried to discourage his own clients from marrying.
Lastly Michael talks about the damage caused by using marriage as proof of change and the collateral damage that occurs when mixed orientation (ex-gay) marriages come to an end.
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
April 21st, 2010
In today’s video Michael talks about an evening in New York City with another ex-gay leader that caused him to begin to question if anyone in the ex-gay movement was really changing. After talking to other Exodus leaders Michael finally came to the conclusion:
“[T]here were very few of us, if any, who were completely celibate, and we were all still silently struggling with out own sexuality, at the very same time we were promising change. And that lack of integrity, that psychological and spiritual split just got wider and wider and wider until I couldn’t take it any more.”
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
April 19th, 2010
As we learned earlier this month the thinly veiled ex-gay front group “American College of Pediatricians” issued a letter to school officials across the country advocating ex-gay therapy for teens questioning their sexual orientation.
Prior to the 2005 controversy where 16 year old Zach Stark was sent to the Love In Action residential ex-gay program against his will few people were aware that children are forced and coerced into exgay programs against their will.
However as this video interview with Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee shows, children have been victims of the ex-gay movement since it first began. The details are in many ways even more upsetting than Zach’s experience:
(transcript after the jump)
A multi-part video interview series with Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International turned critic.
April 15th, 2010
Dawson McAllister
Last Sunday gay blogger Greg Kimball pretended to be a questioning 16 year old teen and called the syndicated radio talk show “Dawson McAllister Live” and was directed to Exodus International for “help.” This is little surprise as McAllister’s “partners” page includes a link to Exous’ website. A support operator at McAllister’s program told Kimball’s fictitious 16 year old “They [Exodus] will talk to you, they will counsel you, they will not condemn you, they will not make you feel little or anything.”
Convincing supporters of exgay programs that said programs can cause harm is one of the greatest hurdles ex-gay survivor activists like myself face. Like McAllister’s operator, supporters believe they are truly doing their God’s work and the idea that exgay programs are inherently harmful is often too much to comprehend.
When survivors of exgay programs like myself and Michael Bussee tell our stories of harm we’re often met with the response that no, exgay programs aren’t harmful, our individual program was just in need of a minor correction.
In the first of my video series, Exodus co-founder Michael Bussee addresses that common misconception:
(Video transcript after the jump)
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