help with letter to editor

[revcobb]

I don't know if this is the right forum to ask for help with a letter to the editor. It the thread belongs in another place, I'm comfy moving it.

Our local ABC affiliate is airing a story tonight on ex-gay ministries. I'd like to get something in the paper asap as a follow up, and I'd like your help. I don't want to say anything that's flat-out wrong, and you've been activists far longer than I have, so this is a call for help.

Here's what I've got so far:

How sad that so-called “ex-gay” or “reparative” ministries are still in business and making news. First, there’s no scientific evidence that sexual orientation is any more of a choice than skin color. None. Zero. Second, such “ministries” are based on the false assumption that there’s only one healthy sexual orientation. Nothing in modern medicine or psychology suggests that sexual orientation is a choice. That any ministry would be based on bad, misleading, or discredited science is a blemish on all ministry. No wonder gays and lesbians think the churches hate them.

There’s a reason the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association all oppose such “reparative” therapy. It’s because there’s nothing there to be repaired, except of course, the emotional trauma of being beaten up physically, mentally, emotionally, and pastorally, for being who God made you to be.

The church I serve is committed to doing its best to say to people damaged by such anti-gay attitudes, “God loves you as you are, for who you are.” It’s surely true that most glbt Christians believe in a better church than they know. We’ve started a community-wide dialogue on race and racism in Lynchburg. Maybe it’s time to start one on homophobia and heterosexism and become that better church, and that better community.

Any suggestions, especially you who write more letters ot the editor than I do?