People and groups that promote and provide ex-gay treatments are almost always religious. While they may draw on debunked Freudian theories (Re-Fried Freud) and co-opt AA recovery methods, many ex-gay practitioners adhere to pastoral or Biblical counseling. Often it has been the Bible, interpreted by anti-LGBTQ clergy, that lured many of us into ex-gay treatment.

The oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people has been organized and funded by groups and individuals that use the Bible as a weapon wielded to not only deny us our equal rights, but our very humanity. In addressing these on-going attacks, a necessary step has been to take on the clobber passages, seven Bible excerpts that some have interpreted to condemn same gender love, sex, partnership, and desire.

As an Ex-Gay Survivor from a religious background, I have found it essential to unpack these texts that held me hostage for many years. Defensive Theology has helped me to take the teeth out out this handful of Bible excerpts, and to expand the way I view them. Below are examples of how I deconstruct two of the most often quoted clobber passages.

Genesis 19 The Sin of Sodom. Is it really man-on-man action?

Romans 1 The Bible, Lesbians, & worshipers gone wild.

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