Two openly gay City Councilmembers joined several pastors June 15 at a press conference in opposition to a national conference that met in San Diego for gay conversion therapy that tries to change LGBT people into straights.
Christopher Ward, who represents the Third District, and Georgette Gomez, who represents the Ninth District, spoke out against the Restored Hope Network convention that met June 15-16 at City View Church in San Diego. The conference drew a number of protesters at the site as well as at the Mission Valley hotel where the conference leaders stayed.
“This convention is not welcome in San Diego,” said Gomez, at the press conference at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Hillcrest. “I’m proud to have a woman that I love.”
“Together lets send a strong message: conversion therapy brings harm,” said Gomez. “We must stand against such hateful tactics.”
“There is no hope in seeking dangerous and discredited practices (like) ‘pray away the gay’,” said Ward. “Sadly these practices are forced upon our youth.”
Ward cited the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed that makes conversion therapy illegal in California for minors.
Rev. Dan Koeshall, who is the senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church, said he went to a 20-week class in his 20s to try and change his sexual orientation. “When it was over, it was obvious I was still gay,” he said.
Koeshall said people in his conservative church laid hands on him and tried to “cast the demons of homosexuality out of him.” That didn’t work either. “It was very damaging. I didn’t choose to be gay. I was born this way,” said Koeshall.
“God loves you as you are. You don’t need to be healed from homosexuality,” said Koeshall. “I’m closer to God than I’ve ever been.”
Also speaking was Dwayne Crenshaw, who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in the 4th District. “I’m black, gay, Christian,” he said, pausing. “I’m Christian by choice.”
Crenshaw disclosed he also went to an ex-gay ministry group when he was younger, but it didn’t work.
“The so-called Restored Hope convention this weekend is the antitheses of love. It doesn’t restore hope. It destroys hope,” said Rev. Penny Bridges, at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“LGBT and non-gender conforming persons do not need to be cured. Rather, they enrich our common life and add to the beauty of creation,” said Bridges.
The Restored Hope conference’s Web site said there were 238 people who paid $175 each for both days. There were 27 students who paid $50. As part of the protest, a number of LGBT people had a dance contest outside.
Restored Hope Network is run by Anne Paulk, a woman who was bisexual before coming to Jesus, and remains bisexual by her own admission. She is divorcing her husband John Paulk, who was and is gay (he issued a public apology to the LGBT community for his role in ex-gay scams). This ‘ministry” has zero success at changing anyone’s sexual orientation and is simply a collection of a few folks who were in Exodus International before it closed its doors in 2013 because leaders admitted nobody had changed from homosexual to heterosexual after nearly 40 years of ‘change’ claims.