TEXAS: "Ex-Gay" Plank Was Proposed By Man "Cured" With The Help Of NARTH

Lone Star Q reports that the "ex-gay" plank inserted in into the Texas GOP party platform last week was proposed by a local man who renounced his homosexuality with the help of NARTH.

His name is Jeremy Joel, according to his Facebook page, and he’s the founder of an ex-gay ministry called Joel 2:25 International. Joel, who lives in Dallas, isn’t using his full name in media interviews — due to fear of retaliation, according to KRLD — but it’s readily available online. Joel tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Bud Kennedy that the GOP platform amendment he initially proposed to Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, is being distorted by the media. In a post on his “My Journey” blog on Tuesday, he explains further. “There are many of us who experience Same-Sex Attraction, but do NOT want to embrace the modern ‘Gay’ label and have moral beliefs that mean Gay Relationships are NOT an option for us at all,” Joel writes. Joel goes on to argue that reparative therapy is not harmful and can be effective — despite the conclusions of the American Psychological Association.

Joel claims that NARTH founder Joseph Nicolosi referred him to the infamous Journey Into Manhood retreat, where he reduced his attraction to men by 50% in just one weekend. Uh huh. Here's how straight reporter Ted Cox reported the "touch therapy" at his undercover visit to Journey Into Manhood:

At one point, the staff members all sang out in unison, their voices filling the high walls of the camp lodge. Somewhere in the room, a man sobbed over the sound of the music. It was the first night of “Journey into Manhood,” a 48-hour weekend retreat designed to help gay men become straight. In that room, about fifty men — some thirty “Journeyers” and fifteen staff members — sat on the carpeted floor of a ranch lodge two hours outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the men, except for a few of the staff members, struggled to overcome their attraction to other men. Sometime during all that holding and touching and singing, while I was cradled in the Motorcycle position, I felt it: the unmistakable bulge pressing through his tight jeans. It was the first time in my life I had a felt another man’s erection.

Jeremy Joel's website is here.