I thought I had seen it all in terms of grotesque lies from “ex-gay” activists.
But today, National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and International Healing Foundation charlatan Christopher Doyle surprised me by launching the most cynical and dishonest “ex-gay” effort to date. Not only is he engaging in stealth evangelism of the most degrading and dehumanizing kind, he is targeting vulnerable LGBT youth with a special brand of quack-therapy. And he is concealing his true goal — converting these kids to heterosexuality through prayer and therapy.
On the Day of Silence, which is a campaign to counter anti-LGBT bullying, Doyle writes an insincere op-ed in the Christian Post, that makes him appear sympathetic to LGBT youth and an opponent of bullying. At the end of his trashy piece, he directs readers to a new website he created called Acception. According to Doyle:
Acception is a new groundbreaking, national campaign featuring a solutions-based educational film and classroom curriculum. Our mission is to help educators provide solutions to the nation’s bullying epidemic while empowering students to become change agents so they can step up and “Be A Hero” in their own schools to prevent bullying.
Wow, it sounds like this “ex-gay” culture warrior has turned over a new leaf.
That is until you read the copious “ex-gay” links on his ostensibly LGBT anti-bullying page. It takes you to a whose-who of the “ex-gay” industry’s mad men, where quacks routinely scar the minds of youth if their parents are willing to cough up the hefty fee for ineffective and detrimental therapy. The most cynical part, is that other parts of the site hide links to notorious “ex-gay” organizations in between good links of pro-gay groups that legitimately help youth. The result is that Doyle is assisting kids get into the clutches of discredited hucksters such as the International Healing Foundation’s Richard Cohen. Do loving parents really want their teenagers going to “therapy” with this clown? Because that is where Doyle is sending them.
To fool parents, educators, and youth, Doyle even has a slick new video. Stealing a page from Invisible Children, another stealth evangelical outfit, Doyle has an online store that sells a cool “Be a Hero” bracelet.
When a creep like this makes his living by exploiting children, he is the worst of the worst, the dregs of society and a stomach turning slime ball. Quite frankly, I prefer Fred Phelps, the Kansas preacher who holds up “God Hates Fags” signs. At least he is honest about where he is coming from and tells you exactly how he feels. It takes a special kind of snake, one with no morals or scruples, to lure kids who are getting beat up in school into “ex-gay” therapy by setting up a fake program that looks like a “safe space” but is instead a potentially life-destroying trap.
Make no mistake about it, Doyle is a committed, hardcore NARTH guy. In Nov. 2010, I joined Joe Jervis to protest the NARTH convention in Philadelphia. Joe took his camera and got right up in Doyle’s face, capturing this shot of him slithering away from the conference:
I am writing this blog post in the hopes that every LGBT organization that deals with youth will read it. Don’t be fooled by this bogus campaign and Trojan Horse website. Far from opposing school violence, Doyle’s work and that of his friends is significantly worse than school bullying — because they are adults who should know better. And the scars created by so-called reparative therapy can last a lifetime.
On a final note, this is not the first fake attempt of “ex-gay” therapists to rebrand themselves hoping to tap into new markets. Recently, Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation, which Doyle works with, also softened its rhetoric.
Don’t be foolish and buy their poison. Stay away at all costs. The techniques used by this unsavory crowd of self-loathing reprobates is harmful and outright dangerous.
Christopher Doyle is not a hero – he is a zero.
