Cabler OWN will broadcast an interview
with “ex-gay” leader Alan Chambers.
In an upcoming episode of Our
America, host Lisa Ling talks with Chambers, the president of
Exodus International.
Chambers has been criticized by social
conservatives for announcing that his group would no longer support
therapies aimed at “curing” gay and lesbian people.
In June, Chambers said his group would
shift from promoting “reparative” therapy to emphasizing how gay
Christians can manage their same-sex attractions. For some gays that
could mean celibacy, he said.
Only a few years ago, Exodus promoted
the therapy in advertisements featuring Chambers and his wife,
Leslie, along with the slogan, “Change is possible.”
Chambers now calls such claims
“bizarre.”
The interview will be added to an Our
America episode on the “ex-gay” movement broadcast earlier.
“This is one of the most
controversial shows that we have ever done,” Ling told The
Huffington Post. “The original episode aired two years
ago. And it was during a time when the biggest 'ex-gay'
organization, Exodus International, was teaching or administering a
kind of therapy that they call 'reparative' therapy.”
“That same organization has made a
drastic change. They're not using 'reparative' therapy anymore
because they say it doesn't work.”
The updated episode will air Tuesday,
August 21 on OWN.