I Took A Gay Conversion Class for Christian Teens. It Was Awful.

“The Holy Sexuality Project” wants kids to stop being gay. Can they pull it off?

Dr. Christopher Yuan of Moody Bible Institute used to live as a gay man, but now no longer identifies as gay. He does not use the term ex-gay or ex-LGBT, but embraces what he calls Holy Sexuality. His curriculum for parents of LGBT kids explains why. Is this gay conversion therapy? How does gay conversion therapy work? Can you go from gay to straight? Can you stop being gay? Can Christians support LGBT people? Is being transgender anti-science? Here I answer all of those questions.

My video on LGBT psychology and healthcare:

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Chapters:
0:00 My Fundamentalist background
05:33 The gay conversion curriculum for kids
10:48 Lesson 1: Yuan’s story of “leaving homosexuality”
26:19 Lesson 2: Why identifying as LGBT is like being in a plane crash
32:49 All non-Christian ideas about identity are lies
39:59 Lesson 3: This poem proves you can’t be trans! (or LGBT)
46:06 Christian nationalism makes an appearance
49:38 Being gay is a disorder (of the spirit)
53:00 Lesson 4: Sexual desires are as bad as cheating on your spouse
56:06 Dr. Dan McClellan appearance 1
01:02:03 Gay romance is like incest, apparently
01:04:44 If you can’t change, it’s ALWAYS your fault
01:06:55 The Abuse Cycle of Sexual Sin
01:10:00 Lesson 5: Homosexuality Vs. Holy Sexuality
01:19:17 God can make you straight!
01:22:22 Lesson 6: Be single, make converts
01:26:05 Lesson 7: Gay marriage is idol worship! (and so are human rights)
01:35:17 Lesson 8: Why sexual sin is like r*ping god
01:39:02 Yuan’s solution to sexual sin (which leads to abuse)
01:47:42 Lesson 9: The McClellan Strikes Back
02:01:46 Lesson 10: Sex exists, so being trans is nonsense
02:24:52 Conclusion

This video contains 100% therapeutic grade skepticism.*

*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA

[wanda_walker]

these stories are always like "my parents threw me out of the house and called me a horrible wretched sinner. anyway, i went on to have shitty relationships and sell drugs after that, which of course was because I was gay and had absolutely nothing to do with the fact I was rejected by my lifetime caregivers who had promised to love and care for me no matter what".

[Augusto]

"so you like women now?"
"no"
the joke writes itself

[Milo-hpfw]

I've been told before that asexuality is a sin. You literally can't win.

It kinda sounds like this:
You can't have sex or sexual temptations! That's a sin! No sexual thoughts either!"
"Okay. I don't have any of those, and I never will"
You can't do that! God wants you to have sex! But the right kind! If you don't, you're sinning!!!"

They're not consistent.

[-wq]

Male therapy conversion survivor here: My parents are pastors. When they found out I was gay at 21 years old, they sent me to a conversion camp financed by various evangelical churches of the same denomination. I was subjected to mental & physical abuse: from electric shock, "corrective r*pe" and finally when all else failed, I got forced hormonal (Chemical) castration. That means I can no longer have intimacy with anyone. I managed to escape and a friend helped me to move abroad. They tried to search for me both at home and via the embassy but I dodged the bullet every time. That was 17 years ago. Until now, I'm thousands of miles away from home. Not a single family member knows where I am. I am happy where I am right now and with who I'm with. It's a totally different culture & language but they accepted me as I am and I was grafted to their welcoming, open minded, extended family.

[TheBearAspirin]

I have a friend who grew up in an evangelical household. He was forced to go to a conversion counseling summer camp. He met his first boyfriend there and they were wise enough to know that they needed to keep their relationship secret, go home and convince their families that they were now nice str8 boys who found god again so they'd have a roof over their heads. They each told their respective families the other guy was their best friend who brought them back to god.

They both went through two years of playing the charade until they left for college. I don't think either ever saw or spoke to their families again.

[magepunk]

His rhetoric about inmates being “human trash” is rather disgusting.

[royalfrost]

"I'm not going to let my sexuality define my entire identity, " said Yuan, proceeding to let his religion define his entire identity instead.

[RynThorn]

"My religion famously tells me to love my neighbor as myself and that's why I describe people in jail as literal garbage."

[Ozymadias]

This was a... difficult watch for me. When i was 16, my father (who is a Christian Pastor) had me go to conversion therapy under the guise of "therapy". After breaking down crying after every session, he gave up. When i was 17, he had me do this entire course, then asking me after every single video he asked me to prove it wrong. Soon after finishing the course, he realized i wasnt going to be "fixed". As soon as i was 18 and high-school was over, he gave me a ultimatum. Become a straight Christian, or leave the house. The way he phrased it was that i should either stop "hurting everyone arond me" or "leave so that i will stop damaging everyone". This broke, and has still hurt me. The day i left, he told me "i didn't think this would be so hard! Dont be a stranger!", I almost screamed when he told me this. The next few weeks were dark, and a lot of them still are. They still send me conversion videos weekly, and beg me to visit "because your little brothet misses you", and they use him to guilt me to visit them and make him ask me almost every day if i can come over. I never want to see them again, because ever since i was 13 I've been in and out of conversion "bible studies" with my dad and the other pastors of our church. As a last ditch effort, he made me sit in a room with the other pastors for *4* hours while they cried, screamed, begged, and blamed me for my sexuality. The amount of retoric thats been pumped into my head caused me to hate myself for my entire childhood. My mother still texts me that she had just cried for hours out to God to "fix" me. My father told me days before kicking me out that he was "saddened to call me his son" and that "I am a horrible person". He would tell me how he was broken that I had "no conscience". Thank you for covering this horrible course, and showing how everything he claims is simply hate.

Edit:
Thank all of you so much for the outcry of support! It means so much to me! A lot of you asked how I'm doing, and to be honest, I'm not great. I am doing a lot better then before, but life's still a struggle. A struggle I'd never quit, but a struggle nonetheless.

For those who mentioned that they're glad that their parents are super supportive, or that they hope I can find a better version of God then I was taught, don't feel bad! It brings joy to me to hear about those who don't have to suffer like me, or those who have a better purpose.

I still am in contact with my parents, but on a very sporadic schedule only so I can see my little brother (13) and my dog (who's the best boy in the whole world).

[thesuitablecommand]

Ah, yes. "Let us tell your kids how they should have sex. But don't worry, it's not grooming or anything. It's only grooming when someone else does it."

[TheHereticalOutcast]

"I don't identify as gay, or as straight"

So... you're saying there's a spectrum to human sexuality?

[eirgo_s]

Gay conversion class: ❌
Gay denial class: ✅

[johndodd]

I tried "my identity is in Christ". My fellow Christians saw me as gay. I was celibate like they said I had to be. Turns out I was still a 3rd class citizen.

[iammotanz]

I've known I was gay since I've had conscience. I was sent to one of these "retreats" when I was 16. I knew nothing would change who I am, so I just took it as a weird experimental vacation, with the idea of dismantling all that farce. I was a menace, I kissed all the boys I could and laughed at the things they were trying to teach, refusing to comply with their demands. This got me into a lot of trouble and I was punished with lots of forced labor (so cliché) and other "corrective" actions (not so fun, but I got into my Regan MacNeil fantasy).

I remember my father asking if "I learned how wrong I was" after that, and me saying "yes" because I couldn't care less and just wanted a place to live until I could figure out how to leave, which I eventually did a year later. Now, almost 20 years later, my parents are divorced, I don't talk to my father, my mother did the work and became my biggest ally. I have a husband and she loves us both. Everything is alright.

P.S. big capital F to these buffoons!

[robertschrader]

He left homosexuality, but homosexuality didn't leave him.

[Mr.Zilla]

"The worst kind of victim is one who creates another"

[taylor]

Yuan: “prisoners = human trash”
Also Yuan: “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect”

[costelinha]

"Gay behavior is raping god"


Not only is this a massive disrespect to actual rape victims, as it compares people merely existing and being who they are, to a criminal whose acts can literally traumatize a person for life, but also if this is "raping god", then that only proves that maybe god isn't that all powerful being christians make him out to be, I mean for a being who's supposedly omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, it should literally be impossible for mere humans to harm him in anyway, let alone RAPE HIM!

[bchristian]

I hate living in a reality where half the country thinks gay people should be forced to go through this kind of "therapy." My parents made me do conversion therapy and it ruined my life. It didn't make me straight but it broke my sexuality.

[slightlydiluted]

Couldn’t finish watching all of this because it’s to hard to relive. But thank you for bringing light to this topic. You are amazing and I appreciate your advocacy.