How churchies went from ‘pray the gay away’ to ‘gay without the lay’

Professor Wesley Hill

Australia’s ex-gay movement is almost dead, but out of the ashes have risen those who believe they can live a celibate life, free of all that gay sex, for Jesus.

For decades, Christian groups ran so-called “ex-gay” or “gay conversion” organisations aimed at turning people straight through therapy that at best involved praying very hard and at the very worst involved self-harm or exorcism on the (often unwilling) participants in an effort to get them to stop being gay. In the face of public opposition to gay conversion therapy due to the mental health problems and suicide risk associated with it (when it doesn’t “work”), many of the groups have now shut down or shifted focus.