Tonight's blog is all about Ted. Ted, a fantastic writer and all around pretty cool guy who I'm proud to call a friend, has been giving a talk called "What I Learned at Straight Camp" at various colleges and venues around California. I had the privilege of seeing the first of these speeches. See, Ted (who is straight) went undercover (posing as gay) to a Christian-based "straight camp" therapy program, which attempts to turn gay people into straight people. It's a pretty fascinating, and in some ways deeply troubling presentation, and he talks about not only his own experience there but also that of others who have gone through these programs in an attempt to change themselves, and what does (or doesn't!) result from that experience.
Ted has a blog.
Ted is also writing a book, and has part of it posted here.
Ted would like to give this presentation at locations outside of California. Interested in hearing the speech? Know a place that would be perfect? Contact him.
Rock on, Ted. :-)
[EDIT: here's some words from Ted himself!]
Hello,
I’m a straight atheist who went undercover in gay-to-straight conversion therapies. I spent a year attending weekly support groups, conferences and a 48-hour “healing touch” camp in Arizona.
I have created an 1-hour speech about my experiences. It includes videos, audience participation and a live demonstration of healing touch therapy.
Previously I have given the speech to crowds of over 300 at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Cal Lutheran. Next week I will address Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
I’m willing to speak to any group that will cover my travel, feed me a couple of sandwiches and give me a comfy couch to sleep on.
As you can imagine, my undercover project has generated lots of media attention. Here’s just some of the recent coverage:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/27/great-read-writer-goes-un_n_553803.html
http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/04/14/ted-coxs-journey-to-a-gay-deconversion-retreat/
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/straight_talk_about_straight_camp/
http://www.alan.com/2010/04/27/on-tuesdays-radio-show-116/
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-8896-writer-pretends-to-be-gay-at-seminar.html
http://blogs.965thebuzz.com/lazlo/2010/04/28/wednesday-april-28-2010/
http://twitter.com/PerezHilton/status/13027835364
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/08/27/14315
Thanks,
Ted Cox
ted.m.cox@gmail.com
3 comments:
There's actually a very funny movie about this topic - "But I'm a Cheerleader", with Ru Paul (not in drag) as a counsellor at such a camp. Also - interesting tidbit - the two founders of Exodus International (an "Ex-gay" group) later fell in love with each other and denounced the group as a load of crap. :-)
To hear people in everyday life talk, not many people have much of a real sex life, they're mostly wannabes. So what difference does it make what your label is? Why isn't there a third choice - nothing. Not abstinence - that's like passing up something if you have an abundance of it - just NOTHING.
Love and sex are separate things, you can be Nothing and love everyone. Or, you can be Nothing and be married, as many people seem to be, though that's still not an option for same-sex people.
Ted must be brave to mess with Christian zealots. They can be some pretty dangerous people.
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