First-Ever 'Ex-Gay Pride Month' to Be Held in D.C. in July

Religion Today | Updated: Jul 03, 2013

First-Ever 'Ex-Gay Pride Month' to Be Held in D.C. in July

Members of the ex-gay community are celebrating the first-ever "Ex-Gay Pride Month" and have asked President Obama to issue a proclamation to recognize the rights of the ex-gay community and commemorate their month, just as he's done for the LGBT community with "Gay Pride Month" in June, the Christian Post reports. In a June 18 letter to Obama, Christopher Doyle, co-founder of Voice of the Voiceless (VoV), requested a meeting with the president or a senior member of his civil rights staff to "discuss tolerance for the ex-gay community and how the White House can ensure equal access for ex-gays in the nation's capital, which is the only jurisdiction that recognizes ex-gays as a legally protected class." Doyle said the VoV had contacted the White House Office of Public Engagement several times to request a meeting, but said they'd been "given the run-around." But, he said: "We're not going to wait for any president or any Congress to give us our rights. We're declaring July as the first Ex-Gay Pride Month. If they want to support us, and get in this century and understand that people leave homosexuality and change every day, then they can do that. If they want to continue to live in the Stone Age and claim that people were born gay and they can't change, well, that's their choice, too, we're not going to wait for them." Ex-gay Americans will be on Capitol Hill on July 31 to meet with their representatives in Congress; Doyle said they hope to raise awareness of the ex-gay community and ensure that Americans who are struggling with same-sex attraction have the right to seek therapy in their state.



First-Ever 'Ex-Gay Pride Month' to Be Held in D.C. in July