Abstract
LGBTQ+ people in PCC churches often become involved in various forms of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts (SOGICE), a set of practices based on transformation discourse attempts to alter ‘aberrant’ sexual desire. SOGICE has evolved from the early ‘pray the gay away’ approaches, adapting to changing societal norms by reconfiguring intervention in the language of addiction and “unwanted same-sex attraction.” Gabriele relates her experiences as an enthusiastic PCC and ongoing participant in formal SOGICE, in stark contrast with Pax, whose involvement with Living Waters ended with him concluding that SOGICE and PCC were ineffective and damaging. Although Yazz never participated in formal SOGICE, she self-monitored her desires by “capturing thoughts,” confession, and accountability, demonstrating the embedded and adaptable nature of SOGICE.
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Notes
- 1.
“Sexual Orientation Change Efforts”
- 2.
Jill Stark, “When Faith and Sexuality Collide,” The Age, April 14, 2013, https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/when-faith-and-sexuality-collide-20130413-2hskc.html.
- 3.
Paul Karp, “Australia Says Yes to Same-Sex Marriage in Historic Postal Survey,” The Guardian, November, 152,017, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/15/australia-says-yes-to-same-sex-marriage-in-historic-postal-survey.
- 4.
The aforementioned ACL is one example of an overt supporter of SOGICE in Australia. In response to recently enacted legislation aimed at banning conversion therapy in the Australian state of Victoria, the ACL has claimed that such legislation “criminalises the truth, it takes those truths about marriage, about gender, about sex, about family … which Christians hold dear, which are part of creation itself … the expression of them, the living out of them, can become criminal acts” (“Opponents of Conversion Therapy Laws Fight to Stop Them in WA,” OUTinPerth, February 11, 2021, https://www.outinperth.com/opponents-of-conversion-therapy-legislation-fight-to-stop-it-being-introduced-in-wa/). The ACL’s language here is a particularly clear example of an affiliation to the transforming discourse, and a belief in the authority to declare the authoritative “truth”—God’s truth—of sex and gender.
- 5.
In addition to those already mentioned, see Simon LeVay, Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality, (Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 1996), 211–30; John Weaver, The Failure of Evangelical Mental Health Care: Treatments That Harm Women, LGBT Persons and the Mentally Ill (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 2015), 181–91.). For an overview from the Australian perspective, see Willett, “Psyched In;” Edser, Being Gay, Being Christian, 81–104.
- 6.
Robinson and Spivey situate the origins of faith based SOGICE in the “culture wars,” arguing SOGICE advocates joined forces with the American Christian Right to effect conservative, anti-gay public policy. (“The Politics of Masculinity and the Ex-Gay Movement,” Gender and Society 21, no. 5 (2007): 651–2.; see also Weaver, Evangelical Mental Health Care, 191.)
- 7.
Leanne Payne, The Broken Image: Restoring Personal Wholeness through Healing Prayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995), 30. Payne also attributes sexual neuroses to “repressed memory.”
- 8.
Weaver, Evangelical Mental Health Care, 203.
- 9.
LeVay, Queer Science, 76–8; Waidzunas, The Straight Line, 51–3; Robinson and Spivey, “The Politics of Masculinity,” 657.
- 10.
Waidzunas, The Straight Line, 80; Weaver, Evangelical Mental Health Care, 187; Robinson and Spivey, “The Politics of Masculinity,” 657–8.
- 11.
Jo Fjelstrom, “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts and the Search for Authenticity,” Journal of Homosexuality 60, no. 6 (2013): 812.
- 12.
Weaver describes Nicolosi’s work as “explicitly moralistic,” aligned with what Nicolosi regarded as “mainstream values” (Weaver, Evangelical Mental Health Care, 186.). Similarly, Socarides regarded homosexuality as a threat to “society’s gender order” (Robinson and Spivey, “The Politics of Masculinity,” 657).
- 13.
Hence, as Shidlo and Schroeder point out, “conversion therapists argue that their approach is the treatment of choice for persons with a homosexual orientation” (Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder, “Changing Sexual Orientation: A Consumers’ Report,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 33, no. 3 (2002): 250.)
- 14.
Joseph Nicolosi, A. Dean Byrd, and Richard W. Potts, “Retrospective Self-Reports of Changes in Homosexual Orientation: A Consumer Survey of Conversion Therapy Clients,” Psychological Reports 86 (2000): 1071; 1078.
- 15.
Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse, “A Longitudinal Study of Attempted Religiously Mediated Sexual Orientation Change,” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy 37, no. 5 (2011): 404; 423–5.
- 16.
Further, the website states: “Only one study concluded that sexual orientation change efforts could succeed—although only in a minority of its participants, and the study has several limitations: its entire sample self-identified as religious and it is based on self-reports, which can be biased and unreliable” (“What Does the Scholarly Research Say About Whether Conversion Therapy Can Alter Sexual Orientation without Causing Harm?” Cornell University, accessed July 6 2022, https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-whether-conversion-therapy-can-alter-sexual-orientation-without-causing-harm/).
- 17.
Venn-Brown’s experiences are particularly useful here because they demonstrate the evolution of the transformation discourse, and thus instantiations of SOGICE. For more recent accounts of SOGICE in Australia, see Timothy W. Jones et al., Preventing Harm, Promoting Justice: Responding to LGBT conversion therapy in Australia, (Melbourne: GLHV@ARCSHS and the Human Rights Law Centre, 2018), 21–41; Timothy W. Jones, Jennifer Power, and Tiffany M. Jones, “Religious trauma and moral injury from LGBTQA+ conversion practices,” Social Science & Medicine 305 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115040.
- 18.
Venn-Brown, Life of Unlearning, 76–7; 82–3.
- 19.
Anthony Venn-Brown, “Conversion Therapy in Australia: The State of the Nation,” (Sydney NSW: Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International, 2018), 6.
- 20.
Venn-Brown, Life of Unlearning, 95–100. “Deliverance ministry” is the more common term for what might have been referred to as exorcism in other traditions and periods—prayer for “deliverance” from demon possession or influence.
- 21.
Venn-Brown, “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts,” 83.
- 22.
Venn-Brown, Life of Unlearning, 133.
- 23.
Ibid., 138–9.
- 24.
Venn-Brown, “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts,” 84.; Fjelstrom, “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts,” 813–4.
- 25.
Fjelstrom also remarks on the differences between 2001 and 2010 SOGICE expectations: “The claim that one could completely change sexual orientation was evolving into the idea that one would always have to manage same-sex attractions” (“Sexual Orientation Change Efforts,” 815.)
- 26.
“Homosexuality was often referred to as a sexual addiction, and was framed as compulsive, desperate, guilt-ridden, and unhappy.” (ibid., 811).
- 27.
Farrah Tomazin, “‘I Am Profoundly Unsettled:’ Inside the Hidden World of Gay Conversion Therapy,” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 9, 2018, https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-am-profoundly-unsettled-inside-the-hidden-world-of-gay-conversion-therapy-20180227-p4z1xn.html.
- 28.
Shirley Baskett, “Pastoral Practices in Relation to Same-Sex Attracted Christians: Response and Effects with ‘Welcoming but Not-Affirming Churches’” (D.Min diss., Harvest Bible College, 2017), 1.
- 29.
Ibid., 11–2.
- 30.
Ibid., 13–4.
- 31.
Ibid., 20–4.
- 32.
Baskett claims that “Only one study has been undertaken on the benefit or harm for those who have therapy for same-sex attraction” (Ibid., 28.) The study she refers to is a 2003 article by Robert L. Spitzer (“Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation?” Archives of Sexual Behavior 32, no. 5 (2003)). Whatever may be thought either of Spitzer’s paper or his later disavowal of it (see Dave Rattigan, “Spitzer: ‘I Owe the Gay Community an Apology,’” accessed July 11, 2022, https://exgaywatch.com/2012/04/spitzer-i-owe-the-gay-community-an-apology/), the claim that this is the only study on harms and benefits of SOGICE is demonstrably untrue.
- 33.
Jones et al., Preventing Harm, 3.
- 34.
Ibid., 4–5.
- 35.
Several of the authors have compiled further research, containing more survivor narratives, to support these conclusions: see Jones et al., “Religious Trauma.”
- 36.
Jones et al., Preventing Harm, 15–9.
- 37.
Ibid., 72. This is a more subtle argument than it first appears, as the authors do reference the extensive attempts to pathologise and regulate homosexuality (ibid., 72–3), yet argue (unpersuasively, in my view) that this should be understood as something other than SOGICE.
- 38.
Recent Australian examples on the side of the transformation discourse beyond academe include James Parker, “A Gay’s Conversion,” Spectator Australia, September 12, 2020, https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/09/a-gays-conversion/; John Whitehall, “Banning Alternatives to Child Gender Experiments,” Quadrant Online, January 3, 2020, https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/01/banning-alternatives-to-child-gender-experiments/. Similarly, representatives of the reverse discourse include Chris Csabs, “I had gay conversion therapy in Australia — it nearly destroyed me,” Herald Sun April 3, 2019, https://www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/i-had-gay-conversion-therapy-in-australia-it-nearly-destroyed-me/news-story/a6d42194df383f8d5e224eeb4900117c; and Tomazin, “Profoundly Unsettled.”
- 39.
Marriage equality was passed into Australian law in 2017, after this interview was recorded.
- 40.
Exodus International was a SOGICE organisation founded in the United States in 1976. It officially ceased operations in 2013, when then-CEO Alan Chambers apologised to the LGBTQ+ community for the organisation’s promotion of conversion therapy had caused (Ed Payne, “Group Apologizes to Gay Community, Shuts Down ‘Cure’ Ministry,” CNN.com, July 8, 2013).
- 41.
Jennings, “Impossible Subjects.”
- 42.
Heather Corkhill, “The Cure Documentary,” (Australia: Ramblingwomenmedia, 2012).
- 43.
Both Exodus and Living Waters had officially ceased operations at the time of my interview with Gabriele (Timothy Jones, “Gay ‘Cure’ Renounced by World’s Largest ‘Ex-Gay’ Group,” The Conversation (2012), https://theconversation.com/gay-cure-renounced-by-worlds-largest-ex-gay-group-8456; Anthony Venn-Brown, “Living Waters Australia to Close,” abbi: Ambassadors and Bridge Builders International (2014), https://www.abbi.org.au/2014/03/living-waters-australia/). It was unclear from the interview whether Gabriele’s participation in SOGICE was ongoing. Regardless of the closure of some of the larger SOGICE organisations, Tomazin’s report demonstrated that SOGICE was still readily accessible in Australia as recently as 2018 (“Profoundly Unsettled”).
- 44.
A study based on responses to “ex-gay” (as well as “ex-ex-gay”) internet forums includes a number of participants who expressed gratitude for the support and experience of identification they received from others in the same situation (Elizabeth M. Weiss et al., “A Qualitative Study of Ex-Gay and Ex-Ex-Gay Experiences,” Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health 14, no. 4 (2010): 307).
- 45.
Douglas-Meyer, You Shall Walk, 108. This positive experience does not outweigh Douglas-Meyer’s condemnation of the practice of SOGICE, and the “psychological damage that is done to a person in trying to crush and rewrite such a deep and integral part of who they are as a person” (ibid., 106–7.).
- 46.
Barton, Pray the Gay Away, 131.
- 47.
The Association of Vineyard Churches is a PCC denomination that began in the United States in 1974, most often associated with the ministry of John Wimber, an Evangelical Christian who believed in the continuation of charismatic phenomena such as healing. At the time of writing, there are 16 Vineyard churches in Australia (“Our Story,” Vineyard Churches Australia, accessed July 11, 2022, https://vineyard.org.au/about/our-story/).
- 48.
Frank Houston confessed to abusing one boy, and was accused of abusing another eight, in 2000. Houston was stood down by his son, then Hillsong Church senior pastor Brian Houston, but the abuse was not reported to the police (Janet Fife-Yeomans, “Hillsong Church Leader Slams Paedophile Father William Francis ‘Frank’ Houston as ‘Repulsive’ at Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission,” The Daily Telegraph, October 7, 2014, https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/hillsong-church-leader-slams-paedophile-father-william-francis-frank-houston-as-repulsive-at-child-sex-abuse-royal-commission/news-story/91fe52109bbe3201a70b648ccc2c557e).
- 49.
Tiffany Jones et al., “Supporting LGBTQA+ peoples’ recovery from sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts,” Australian Psychologist 57, no. 3 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1080/00050067.2022.2093623.
- 50.
Jones et al., “Religious Trauma.”
- 51.
“Sexual Orientation Change Efforts,” 805.
- 52.
Bethel Church is a Charismatic church in California that strongly emphasises divine healing and charismatic gifts (Martyn Wendell Jones, “Inside the Popular, Controversial Bethel Church,” Christianity Today, April 24, 2016, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/may/cover-story-inside-popular-controversial-bethel-church.html).
- 53.
I employ my usual practice of referencing the line numbers of the original transcript in this chapter, but as there are two documents for Yazz I have altered this approach. When referencing the first-received document, I include only the page and line numbers, but when referring to the shorter (two paragraph) second response to the further questions, these are cited with a “B.”
- 54.
FIFO is an abbreviation, and frequently used Australian slang, for “Fly-In, Fly-Out” labourers, who as the name suggests are flown into their workplaces (typically in country towns) and flown out again in rotating shifts. FIFO workers would typically work a number of weeks “on” and then have a week “off” back home, hence Yazz was staying with her cousin when the latter’s partner was “on” shift and away from home.
- 55.
Youth with a Mission (YWAM) was founded in 1960 by Loren Cunningham, who at the time was associated with the Assemblies of God in Los Angeles. Although officially nondenominational, YWAM has “adopted a charismatic stance by promoting an individualized religious experience beyond denominational labels” (Yannick Fer, “Youth with a Mission,” ed. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof, Encyclopedia of Global Religion (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2012)).
- 56.
The Apostolic Church is the name of a PCC denomination that began as an offshoot of the Welsh Revival. They are known in Australia as “Acts Global Churches” (“Home,” Acts Global Churches, accessed July 11, 2022, https://actsglobal.church/Public/Home/Public/Default.aspx?hkey=e909cd8c-73c5-40da-9b63-788a5f85f46f.
- 57.
“For gay people, the dominant experience of the closet is silence and the dominant emotion is shame” Barton, Pray the Gay Away, 88–9.
- 58.
See Yule’s account in chapter five.
- 59.
Foucault, Will to Knowledge, 21.
- 60.
Shidlo and Schroeder, “Changing Sexual Orientation” 252.
- 61.
Misty Farquhar and Duc Dau, “Real, Visible, Here: Bisexual+ Visibility in Western Australia,” Critical Social Policy (2020): 3.
- 62.
Notwithstanding this, and not long before this book was completed, a bill banning conversion therapy came into force in the Australian state of Victoria. This legislation was designed after extensive consultation with SOGICE survivors and others, and is intended to “capture” informal SOGICE practices, including many which take place in religious settings (Carly Otter, “Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020,” Melbourne: Parliamentary Library and Information Service, 2021, 14). Similar bans already exist in other juridstictions in Australia, and are in the research and planning stages in South Australia and Western Australia.
- 63.
James V. Brownson, Bible Gender and Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013), 144.
- 64.
Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships (New York, NY: Convergent Books, 2014), 17.
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Jennings, M. (2023). Turbulent Waters: Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts. In: Happy: LGBTQ+ Experiences of Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20144-8_7
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