Peterson Toscano, a survivor of Exodus’ flagship residential ex-gay program called Love In Action, commended Exodus this week for what he perceives to be public gestures toward ethical and spiritual renewal.
But in doing so, Toscano accidentally discovered that what’s not happening may be more important.
In the past few years Exodus has intentionally shifted their focus to target youth with their own Exodus Youth MySpace page and of course Love in Action’s Refuge program.
As of this moment if you go to the Refuge site, www.asafeplace.org, it looks much more understated than I ever remember it. I cannot easily find a reference to Refuge on Love in Action’s pages. It is not listed as one of LIA’s current programs, and I can’t find a link on Exodus Youth. Has this program quietly ended? If so, this is a BIG shift.
Update: Since I posted this earlier today the Refuge page has been taken down. You can see a cached page of what I saw this morning.
Archive.org reveals a timeline of growth at the Refuge web site, followed by gradual change after a teen-ager named Zach revealed in mid-2005 that he was being forced against his will to reside in the LIA/R program.
Has Love In Action closed, or merely de-emphasized, its youth indoctrination project?
We’re trying to find out.
Love in Action Refuge: LIAR, hmm are they subtly admitting something here?
My hunch right now is that they’re either trying to place the thing somewhere behind the curtains and below the radar, because it became so controversial (and is only likely to become more so as more and more evidence comes forward on a biological basis to sexual orientation), or that they’re just going to re-package and re-brand it in some way they think will make it look less like a boot camp for straightening out gay kids. I’d offer my suspicions about what that last might possibly look like, but I don’t want to be giving anyone ideas. I’ll believe the program is dead when I see them put a stake in it and bury it. In a steel vault. About a mile down.