Genocidal Intentions: Social Death and the Ex-Gay Movement

Abstract

In this article, the authors contribute to the literature on predicting and preventing genocide in an international context, focusing on social death practices elaborated in articles II(b)-(e) of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG). Analyzing ex-gay movement texts, the authors apply James Waller's theoretical framework, which explains how ordinary people commit extraordinary acts of brutality, to the rhetoric and public policy advocacy of prominent ex-gay movement organizations and entrepreneurs. Further, they examine the extent to which this new religious movement promotes public policies in the United States and globally, and argue that these policies constitute social death as genocide of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender peoples based on the UNCG definition. The authors conclude that emphasizing mass murder at the expense of social death constricts our view of genocide at an enormous human cost, including predicting and preventing mass murder, and accentuating the aftermath of genocide, leaving articles II(b)-(e) diminished, understudied, and, therefore, discounted in comparison. They suggest that revitalizing scholarship on social death will broadly enrich the field of genocide studies and enhance collective efforts to forecast and avert genocide in all of its manifestations.

Putting Lesbians in Their Place: Deconstructing Ex-Gay Discourses of Female Homosexuality in a Global Context

“…Ex-gay leaders have lobbied to uphold the criminalization of consensual homosexual relations; prevent family recognition of same-sex couples; and prevent LGBT people from adopting or rearing their own children, serving as foster parents, or having access to medical technologies that would enable them to become parents. It has opposed hate crime and employment non-discrimination legislation [8] and laws banning reparative therapy on minors. We know far less about the movement's impact on sub-populations (for example, sexual minority women and transgender people) as well as its activities in countries beyond the U.S.…”

“…Janelle Hallman [49] cites discredited "researcher" and American hate group leader Paul Cameron as a credible source for this claim, which is rejected by the American Psychiatric Association [99]. Prior scholarship [7,8] documents how ex-gay movement experts, leaders, and organizations repeatedly reference discredited researchers and hate group leaders such as Cameron and Scott Lively for their "evidence". Several sub-themes emerge from this trope.…”

“…At the institutional level, the ex-gay movement not only seeks to defend the right of therapists and religious counselors to practice sexual conversion "therapies", it also seeks to legally codify and enforce the oppression of sexual and gender minorities as a matter of public policy, which is well documented [7,8]. Adrienne Rich [5] argued that to understand the oppression of lesbians, and women in general, heterosexuality should be examined as an ideology and as a political institution.…”

“…In the institutional dimension, ex-gay discourses of female homosexuality construct the heterosexual imperative as necessary for the well-being of a society, and consider lesbian families (even more so than those of gay men) as particularly threatening to the social order, rationalizing public policy advocacy aimed at institutionalizing it. As shown elsewhere [8], ex-gay representatives have advocated a range of anti-LGBT public policy positions in the United States and elsewhere, including criminalizing consensual adult sexual relationships and gay advocacy; opposing marriage equality, parental rights, hate crime legislation, and laws that would ban employment discrimination. Examining ex-gay discourse of female homosexuality reveals the movement's particular concern about the threat posed by lesbian sexuality.…”

“…Because lesbians are far more likely to become parents than gay men [145], this disproportionately affects them. EXODUS' policy explicitly stated support for legal prohibitions on parenting except by married, heterosexual couples [8]. In 2004, Matt Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, provided legal representation to Lisa Miller, an ex-gay woman who attempted to deny her former partner visitation rights to their daughter, claiming that a "lesbian lifestyle" was harmful to her daughter.…”