Remember two weeks ago when ex-gay group Voice of the Voiceless tried to start up an Ex-Gay Pride Month? (Presumably, their chant is “We’re here! We’re queer! We’d much rather we weren’t though.”) Well, it’s been cancelled.
(*Insert sad trombone sting here*)
According to a statement from Voice of the Voiceless, the event was cancelled due to “anti-ex-gay extremism,” because sure, that sounds vague enough to work. They also go on to announce that they’ll be going through with a similar event at a different time in a different location, because . . . Well, logic kinda went out the window about two sentences ago.
Due to some anti-ex-gay extremism that has occurred since we first announced Ex-Gay Pride 2013, the July 31 Lobbying Day on Capitol Hill and Evening Dinner/Reception at the Family Research Council has had to be moved and postponed to an undisclosed location in September. The harassment has caused several security threats which has forced us to change plans, and that is unfortunate. However, we are committed to holding an alternate event in late July as well as supporting some other initiatives that our allies and fellow ex-gays are planning for July. These events are still in development and will not be announced until late next week. For all of our supporters that have made travel plans to attend the July 31 event, we sincerely apologize for having to change plans, but we thought it was in the best interest to ensure the safety and security of all participants and speakers.
If someone’s actually threatening an event like this: not fucking cool. You can make fun of it and point out the logic loopholes in their mission statement, but threats cross the line no matter what your cause is. So in that respect, I’m just going to point out why an Ex-Gay Pride Month is logically unsound.
Number one, it celebrates being proud of the fact that you’re not proud of yourselves. If you were honest to god proud of who you are, would you really have let someone trick you into thinking you could change your sexual orientation by having a chat with your deity of choice? Which brings me to my second point: reparative therapy has been proven about as scientifically sound as snake oil and Pokemon. Unlike religion, science doesn’t magically stop being real because you don’t believe in it.
And finally, if your Pride can be undone by vague “extremism,” you don’t really understand the point of Pride. When Russia was passing its “gay propaganda bill,” gays in Moscow held a Pride rally where 30 people were arrested for celebrating. They looked extremism in the face and said, “Fuck it, we’re going to celebrate Pride anyway because we are proud.” That’s the basic fault behind what you’re trying to accomplish: you can’t have a Pride if you’re not proud of who you are.
Why you can trust Xtra
