The Ex-Gay Files

British investigative reporter Patrick Strudwick, an out gay man, went undercover in the UK’s network of “ex-gay” outfits to see how they pretend to pray the gay away. Here’s how just one of the “therapists” worked.

She begins her wound hunt by asking about my family. I tell her that I have a close relationship with my parents and that they always gave me huge amounts of love, so I didn’t understand why Nicolosi says that homosexuality is caused by inadequate parenting. “Well, there was something happening within your family dynamics that led to your depression,” she says. Lynne explains that people only identify as gay when they are already depressed. “There’s a confusion, there’s an anxiety, there’s a lot of pain,” she says. “Often the thought can be, ‘Oh I’m confused about my sexuality so I must be gay’.” She says that at the heart of homosexuality is a “deep isolation”, which is, she says, “where God needs to be”. “Did you have a difficult birth?” she asks. No, I say. Why? “It’s just something I have noticed. Often [with homosexuality] it is quite traumatic, the baby was put into intensive care and because of the separation from the mother there can be that lack of attachment.” She moves on. “Any Freemasonry in the family?” No, I say, again asking her to elaborate. “Because that often encourages it as well. It has a spiritual effect on males and it often comes out as SSA.”

Read the entire article, it’s a hoot.

RELATED: Last summer I reported about Ted Cox, a straight former Mormon reporter who also went undercover at an “ex-gay” retreat.