Exodus calls them “live-in ministries” and helps market them.
Critics call them “ex-gay camps” or compulsory “brainwashing” facilities.
Whatever one calls them — we’d like to know where more of them are.
Exodus boasts of four — in Georgia, Kansas, Montana and Tennessee.
Where are others — the ones nearest you? Let us know, via the comments.
I find it interesting that none of these are places with major gay communities. Witchita comes closest. In my experience, Witchita Kansas has the most regularly scheduled elaborate drag presentations going. Being there on a drag night, which is pretty much every night, overwhelmed me. I did not know there were dozens of drag queens willing to be part of long drawn out elaborate shows every night of the week. Let alone that these wonderful people all lived around Witchita.
Little Rock AR comes in second in this contest.
Off topic question. Why do butch numbers tend to live in cities while drag queens rule the small city and countryside/
getting all avant-garde with the line spacing eh?
…I did not know there were dozens of drag queens willing to be part of long drawn out elaborate shows every night of the week….
I’m not completely sure what the point of this post is, but I’ll just let you know that female impersonation (I use that term intentionally) is considered high art in at least Germany. There is a wonderful performer, who goes by the stage-name “Mary” whose performances have been broadcast over German television numerous times.
From what I have observed of “drag queens,” they are often better at “female impersonation” than more than a few females. I’ll leave it at that.
Uhh, point of post. Yes, there is one. Witchita is a lovely city, filled with very nice people. It has a small gay community. In this community are a number of the very best drag queens, which was the term those involved used, going. They did not call themselves ‘female impersonators’.
So, my question or point is: why would Exodus place one of the live-in ministries there? Instead of say, Manhattan which has hundreds of thousands of gay men. It seems that Exodus ministries have very little relationship to the gay community. The geography of the two does not mesh.
To answer your question, Dalea: because smaller cities and towns usually have less resources and positive support systems for people who are gay than larger cities. Thus, it is easier to attract people who are needing something and have nowhere to go.
also, I think the ex-gay ministries place their homes in places without a strong gay community because it’s easier to control the influences on their attendees. In the Zach case we learned that there were sections of town in which the ex-gays-in-training were not allowed.
They don’t want the attendees to come in contact with views that differ from the ministries efforts. They also want to minimize “temptations”.
If they were located in Manhattan it would have to be the whole island. In West Hollywood you can’t go to the grocery store or get your oil changed without meeting a cute guy or seeing a happy couple.
Looks like the state of Tennessee is investigating LIA now over Zach.
https://www.houstonvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=1264
When I was in Love in Action when it was just outside of San Francisco, the joke was…when you see that red light on top of the Golden Gate Bridge…you’ve gone too far!
The Bay Area was too liberal for LiA. Remember Tom Ottosen? He was secretly consulting a gay counseling support agency within the city of San Rafael where LiA was…it only made sense that they would move to…the Bible Belt!
New article:
https://www.houstonvoice.com/2005/6-24/news/national/lia.cfm
Personally? the kid should be removed from the parents, the parents sterilised to ensure that they can’t abuse any more children, and ensure they don’t go near any places which have children below the age of 18.
Too extreme? no, for people who think that having children is some sort of joke, it isn’t. This is a human they’re toying with, and this chaps parents prove that they don’t have the maturity to be his parents – they’re mentally unstable, and thus unsuitable for the parenting responsibilities required of them.