Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520245822)

Every year, hundreds of gay men and lesbians join ex-gay ministries in an attempt to convert to non-homosexual Christian lives. In this fascinating study of the transnational ex-gay movement, Tanya Erzen focuses on the everyday lives of men and women at New Hope Ministry, a residential ex-gay program, over the course of several years. Straight to Jesus traces the stories of people who have renounced long-term relationships and moved from other countries out of a conviction that the conservative Christian beliefs of their upbringing and their own same-sex desires are irreconcilable. Rather than definitively changing from homosexual to heterosexual, the participants experience a conversion that is both sexual and religious as born-again evangelical Christians. At New Hope, they maintain a personal relationship with Jesus and build new forms of kinship and belonging. By becoming what they call "new creations," these men and women testify to religious transformation rather than changes in sexual desire or behavior. Straight to Jesus exposes how the Christian Right attempts to repudiate gay identity and political rights by using the ex-gay movement as evidence that "change is possible." Instead, Erzen reveals, the realities of the lives she examines actually undermine this anti-gay strategy.

Author: Tanya Erzen
ISBN-10: 0520245822
ISBN-13: 9780520245822
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 06/27/2006
Pages: 293
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.89lbs
Size: 8.92h x 5.96w x 0.72d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/27/2006 pg. 55
Lambda Book Report 11/01/2006 pg. 28
Multicultural Review 12/01/2006 pg. 73
Christian Century 05/15/2007 pg. 34