James Dobson, the late founder of Focus on the Family and an adviser to five U.S. presidents, became one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States from the late 20th century onward. Through his 70-plus books, radio broadcasts and political lobbying, he
A beacon of hope and a rallying cry for justice Dr. Lucas F.W. Wilson’s anthology, Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy, is an urgent and necessary work that sheds light on the dark truths of so-called “conversion therapy” — the pseudoscientific name for a
Note: This is the text of a letter sent by the author to the Parliament of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, Australia, in support of a bill banning sexual orientation / gender identity change efforts (SOCE/GICE). The state’s Premier, Chris Minns, has voiced his
Are you as tired as I am of all the hocus-pocus used to attack LGBTQ+ people by those who are just plain prejudiced? Are you sick of all the pseudo-science bigoted people spout to project their own issues on LGBTQ+ human beings? Then you’re not
A personal paradigm shift Walking home alone, after speaking at my first gay rights rally in 2005, I couldn’t understand why I felt so empty and deflated. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the skills to communicate with a crowd. As a high-profile preacher in
I have been watching the College of the Ozarks’ lawsuit against the Biden administration over protections afforded to LGBTQ+ persons and cannot in good conscience keep silent about this very personal matter. I am a queer, non-binary trans person who was born an hour away
Occasionally a seminal work appears that becomes a defining piece, a turning point, or a breakthrough in a particular area. Considering the religious LGBTQ+ conversion movement, the documentary “Pray Away,” released today on Netflix, could very well be that work. After mental health professional organizations
Powerful priest exposes Church hate speech Last autumn as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops actively lobbied Congress to kill a proposed national suicide hotline because it directed help to suicidal LGBTQ+ people, the Conference elected Jeffrey Burrill as their general secretary. He had worked as a
I read with great interest that Liberty University filed a suit against its former president, Jerry Falwell, Jr. Liberty says that he damaged its reputation after last year’s revelations of “a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell; his wife, Becki; and another man, Giancarlo Granda.” It’s
Oh, conversion therapy, how can we miss you if you won’t go away? Having witnessed to the ex-gay movement for a quarter century and counting, Whosoever has seen conversion therapy’s major institutions become hobbled, its principles discredited, and most of its founders now living out