It is often reported that two cofounders of Exodus, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, became lovers and left the organization. Bussee and Cooper appear together in the documentary One Nation Under God.
In his Amazon.com review of the ex-ex-gay video, pro-exgay pundit Warren Throckmorton tells a partial truth, even as he accuses the documentary of a partial truth:
[T]he movie begins with a half truth. The film introduces Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee as the co-founders of Exodus. This is not true. Cooper was a volunteer and never on the board of Exodus. Bussee was among those who were involved in the initial conference and on the first board but he was not the only member of that board. Three of the five ex-gay board members are still ex-gay. The movie never mentions this.
Throckmorton asserts that because Cooper was never an Exodus board member, he was not a co-founder of Exodus.
But the question of Gary Cooper’s role is subjective: What qualifies as a co-founder? You decide:
In Wayne Besen’s book, Anything But Straight, pages 81-89 quote Bussee at length from an interview dated April 20, 2002, discussing Cooper’s role in the formation of Exodus. Here’s a quick summary of Bussee’s recollections.
In 1974, Bussee became a volunteer hotline counselor for Melodyland Christian Center of Anaheim, Calif. Two more struggling homosexuals, one of them Cooper, became volunteers on the hotline, and the three created a monthly workshop to address the hotline counselors’ prejudices about gays being child molesters and other monstrosities. The trio also started a support group and prayer line, which Bussee dubbed “Ex-Gay Intervention Team” (EXIT). Exit became a model for other nascent exgay groups.
Bussee tells Besen that he and Cooper decided in 1976 to host a conference of exgay groups at Melodyland; at this conference, the groups chose to form Exodus.
Besen subsequently describes Bussee and Cooper as “the two Exodus cofounders”: Either Bussee or Besen seem to overlook some of the other conference attendees. Besen describes the pair as becoming very busy working together on exgay speaking engagements around the nation, until they acknowledged their love for one another, divorced their wives and left the exgay movement.
As a result of the length and depth of the Bussee-Cooper exgay collaboration, some say Cooper was a co-organizer of the conference.
But veteran exgay activists Bob Davies and Frank Worthen minimize Cooper’s role: Davies quotes Worthen asking, “Gary who?” about Cooper. Davies does not indicate whether Worthen’s tone was one of non-recollection or sarcasm. Davies then paraphrases and abbreviates a long-ago, undated conversation with Bussee, lacking any context, claiming that Bussee told him that Cooper was a conference volunteer, driving people to the airport.
Cooper died of AIDS in 1991, so unfortunately he is not around to defend his level of involvement. Nevertheless, Bussee made clear to Besen in the 2002 interview that he felt Cooper’s role was significantly greater than that of limo driver.
One Nation Under God looks back at the Bussee-Cooper collaboration, and XGW will review the video in March. (If you have seen the video, I invite your comments.)
In the meantime, we are left with Prof. Throckmorton’s review.
Based solely on his distaste for the opinion that Cooper was a co-founder of Exodus, Prof. Throckmorton tells Amazon.com shoppers that he declines to review the rest of the video:
It is difficult to know what else is true or false about the
remainder of the film since this is such a blatant distortion at the
beginning.
When you live in a glass house….
Hmmmm… Putting my lawyers hat on, all you have are two contraditory statements. Bussee says that Cooper was involved in the setting up of the ministry – Worthen says he was little more than the airport driver. The only evidence that you put forward is from Wayne Besen – well, let’s just leave that one there shall we.
What we need is a few more contemporaries of Cooper / Worthen et al from the period, who can tell us their understanding of Cooper’s involvement. Then we might be able to put together a clear picture – at the moment it’s just contradictory and both sides are simply plumping for the verion they prefer.
Peter, I agree that objective, politically independent observers of Exodus’ formation might be able to clear up the disagreement.
However, the very notion of an organization’s “co-founder” is vague and subjective. I believe Bussee is entitled to view Cooper as instrumental, given the facts laid out above. Whatever one thinks of Besen, I find no reason to disbelieve Bussee.
Instead of having each side acknowledge all the available facts, we have Besen telling one side of the story and Davies telling only the opposite side.
Throckmorton demonstrates considerable chutzpah in accusing one side of telling only half the story, considering that he is doing the same.
No matter what actually happened – certainly Bussee’s role is not questioned by anyone, and he also quite clearly left the “ex-gay” movement – so whether he left with a co-founder or a volunteer, either way the result is the same.
And….. AND….
Throckmorton, as quoted states:
“Three of the five ex-gay board members are still ex-gay.”
What of the other, besides Bussee? It seems that even among the founding board members, a sizeable percentage do NOT experience lasting change.
Throckmorton’s ‘taking his paper dolls and going home’ is a dodge. It is a transparent attempt to weasel out of addressing the truth contained in the remainder of the video (assumed, I have not seen it). Not a very compelling dodge, coming on such a technicality.
It would be as if a judge screamed, “You misspelled the word, ‘innocence’ once in your brief, therefore I do not have to rule on the legality of your pleading… GUILTY!”
Give me a break.
Since the review on Amazon.com I have written a better researched piece about the matter here:
https://www.drthrockmorton.com/article.asp?id=107.
No one I talked to (I could not find Bussee but I did watch the film mentioned above) viewed Cooper as more than Bussee’s friend. He was never on the board, etc.
More importantly, the basic reason for the claim that “the co-founders” reverted is to invalidate claims of lasting change. I reported that 20% of the founders bacame ex-ex-gay; now would Wayne Besen and others care to report that 80% of the founders are still ex-gay? I await that development.
Warren- thanks for the link. While your analysis was pretty pointed (and maybe it needed to be, I don’t fault that), I think it was well written and fairly accurate regarding the Exodus leaders and their change.
I wonder if you have similar numbers or analysis regarding all Exodus members or all members of other ex-gay groups. I think that would be very helpful in analyzing all of these issues.
Dr. Throckmorton,
As a scientist, even you must understand that the Bussee/Cooper story was anecdotal, and therefore the use of the rest of the “ex-gays” on the initial board of Exodus is meaningless, from a scientific perspective. After all, five people do not prove a thing.
More importantly, the roster of public “ex-gay” failures (e.g., Michael Johnson – whatever happend to him? or the closing down of Exodus in England), although commonly pointed to by myself and others like me, are in the end just as anecdotal.
But because the “ex-gay” movement does not collect any long-term data on its “clients,” and has never sponsored true clinical research into the “success rates” of its “treatments,” we are basically left with anecdotes.
In fact, the only even partially scientific assessment of the “ex-gay” movement has been Dr. Spitzer’s survey, but that of course has so many methodological problems that it cannot be relied on, nor was it ever intended as a cross-sectional analysis of “ex-gay” participants.
As one of the many anecdotal “ex-gay” failures out there, I certainly would also be interested in any truly scientific data culled from the modern “ex-gay” movement (e.g., after the declassification of homosexuality in 1973 – studies prior to that date, of course, are marred by the coercive effect of institutionalizations of gay people, not to mention the societal discrimination that was much more prevalent then, and would have been a huge incentive for people to claim “cures” that did not occur).
Warren–you mistated–it is 40% ex-ex-gay, 60% ex-gay.
Aaron:
From the article referenced above…
“The original board of Exodus included 5 formerly gay identified people, including Mr. Bussee. The incorporators of the group included Frank Worthen, Ron Dennis and Greg Reid. None of these men have returned to homosexuality and two of the three are still in ex-gay ministry. One other original board member, although still straight, requested his name not be included in this article. Let’s do the math: four out of five of the original board have not returned to a gay identity.”
You may have been looking at my amazon.com post. At that time I was not aware of the other person and made a conservative statement. I agree that these numbers don’t prove anything conclusively from a scientific point of view (sample too small) but they do respond to the claims of those who use Bussee and Cooper as a “gotcha” in the media. Narratives do not help us quantify the phenomenon of change but they should caution those who say “no one changes” that there is evidence to counter that claim.
RE: Other groups – no not at this time. I am in the process of doing a similar study and have a longitudinal study in the works that will follow people for the next 20 years.
Sorry, I was going off the Amazon post.
My understanding is that ‘founders’ includes those ‘present at the creation’, not solely those who assume official roles. I am counted as a founder of the Libertarian party even though I never had any official role in the organization. So, I feel that discounting someone because they never had a formal role in the subsequent organization is in part a subterfuge.
I also question including anonymous people. Someone who wishes not to be known but ‘still is exgay’ does not convince me of much of anything. Which would then bring the total down to four, of whom one is no longer exgay. Which gives a rate of 75%.
There seems to be no need to do long term studies with results off in the far future. Retrospective studies can be done. Probably a number of people here could recount the groups in which they participated, naming names. Then by contacting these folks, we could get a pretty firm notion of how many success cases there are and how many failures. The fact that there are a large number of people who claim to be exexgay strikes me as indicitive of a high failure rate. The further fact that no hard data is produced to counter these claims strikes me as supporting the thesis that exgay programs usually fail.
That is true about “founder”. If we speak of the Founding Fathers, we are speaking of many different people, not just those who wrote the founding documents.
I know of no one personally who considers themself exgay. I know a few who consider themselves celibate gays, but no successful exgays. That is not to say they do not exist, but finding measurements of success is difficult. Is it attraction? Is it sexual relationships? What is it? Also, it is difficult to know the honesty of the person who states they are exgay. I was encouraged in my therapy to consider myself exgay no matter what. I was penalized if I ever suggested I had gay feelings, so of course I was not going to say anything. Also, there is always exgay competition to prove who is the most butch or exgay. If there are political, religious, or social pressures, that can also lead someone to state they are exgay when they are not. Now, maybe there are exgays who have converted their feelings, but it is really hard to know or quantify. For me, therapy only made me realize it was not possible for me to change.
Again, I know no one in all my years of working with people from exgay therapies who stayed exgay. I have known some who committed suicide. I have known some who became very sick afterward (one friend actually became phobic of going to the bathroom because that means he would have to see himself naked–it also meant he would have admit to having an anus. He was institutionalized). Most are very happy, healthy, successful exexgays. I have even known some who were exgay for ten, twelve years, but they could not handle the pressure and came back out of the closet. The sad thing though–they were usually pressured into marriage and children (to prove they where straight) and they leave victims behind because of exgay therapy.
Personally, I have no problems with exgay programs or theraphy, but they have a high failure rate and should not be made political. It should be a private thing.