Author Ted Cox’s last gig saw him going undercover at a “furry” camp.  His next assignment brought him to Phoenix, Arizona, and “Journey into Manhood,” a Christian-backed weekend retreat designed to help gay men go straight.

In the guise of an SSA (same-sex attracted Christian man), Cox, who’s both straight and an atheist, experienced everything from the “Motorcycle” position, to having erections pressed into his back.

He also happened to witness a fellow retreater taking a baseball bat to a dummy of his own father and beating the shit out of it.  Cox’s motivations for going incognito were, to say the least, complicated:

First, I was raised in the Mormon church, which has taken the lead against equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians.  It’s been ten years since I left Mormonism, and I feel a particular need to stand up against the church’s well-funded opposition to marriage equality.

Second, while the ex-gay movement has publicly declared that they can bring “freedom from homosexuality,” there’s no evidence that someone can change his or her orientation through these religiously motivated programs.  Rather than turning straight, the men and women that I met throughout this project dealt with a cycle of repression, backsliding into sin, then shame, guilt, and repentance.

Third, these programs are dangerous.  Ex-gay watchdog groups document the stories of men who, after years of failed attempts to become straight, resort to suicide.

As reads go, it’s long, but definitely worthwhile.  A short segment with Cox on Fox News follows below:

 
What Happened When I Went Undercover at a Christian Gay-to-Straight Conversion Camp