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Identity Work and the New Christian Right: How Focus on the Family Rhetorically Constructs the “Ex-Gay” Self

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Identity Work and the New Christian Right: How Focus on the Family Rhetorically Constructs the “Ex-Gay” Self IDENTITY WORK AND THE NEW CHRISTIAN RIGHT: HOW FOCUS ON THE FAMILY RHETORICALLY CONSTRUCTS THE “EX-GAY” SELF By HELENA LOUISE ALDEN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Helena Louise Alden 2 To my Mum, my Nan and To Liz, always 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my wonderful committee; Milagros Peña, Kendal Broad, Gwynn Kessler, Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox, and Barbara Zsembik. They generously offered their time, support and expertise. Milly has been an inspiration. A better chair and mentor I could not have imagined. She was a constant source of encouragement despite what must have seemed like a never-ending project! She has continued to be supportive over the years, and also provided the occasional spark when I wandered off. Kendal has been both mentor and friend, and also a continual inspiration since I started graduate school. I feel honored and privileged to have worked with her, and am truly grateful for the opportunity. I am also very thankful to have continued working with Barb Zsembik who mentored and encouraged me through both the masters and the doctoral program. I would like to thank my friends from graduate school who made the grad school experience fun; Sara Crawley, Susan Eichenberger, Lara Foley, John Reitzel, Melanie Wakeman and the many others too numerous to mention. Sara, in particular, showed me how to enjoy grad school and served as friend, mentor, and role model. I would like to thank Danaya Wright for being such a good friend. I would also like to thank my friends in Wisconsin–especially those who helped me survive my first winter! My thanks also go to Rhonda Sprague for making a home away from home. I would especially like to thank Sheila Sullivan for the love and support she has shown me. This project would also not have been possible without the encouragement of my family. My mum, Marcia Alden, has been at my side since the beginning. She instilled in me a love of education which has served to guide through the thicket of graduate school life. And as she would say, it’s about time! I would also like to thank my brother, Galen Alden, and this is for him–“zig-a-zig-ah!” 4 Finally, I would like to thank my partner, Liz Fakazis. She has been with me the whole time and shown me a depth of love and understanding I did not dream possible. To her, I am truly, truly grateful and thankful she now does not have to go the Bahamas by herself! 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1 ROOTS OF THE EX-GAY IDENTITY ................................................................................10 Introduction.............................................................................................................................10 Background and Literature Review........................................................................................14 The Evolution of the New Christian Right......................................................................14 The Development of Lesbian and Gay Sexual Identity...................................................30 Where Religion and Sexuality Meet: The Ex-Gays ......................................................47 2 ANALYZING INSTITUTIONAL SELVES: THEORY AND METHOD............................52 The Development of the Social Self.......................................................................................52 From the Social Self to a Narrative Self.................................................................................61 Data and Methods...................................................................................................................67 3 PRODUCING THE GAY SELF ............................................................................................82 Gays and Lesbians Can Change ............................................................................................83 The "Whats" of Change...................................................................................................83 The "Hows" of Change....................................................................................................91 Gays and Lesbians Must Change............................................................................................94 4 BECOMING EX-GAY.........................................................................................................101 Sin and Salvation ..................................................................................................................102 Reparative Therapy...............................................................................................................109 The "Hows" of Being Ex-Gay ..............................................................................................115 5 BEYOND LOVE WON OUT: EXPANDING THE DISCOURSE ......................................130 Society Under Threat............................................................................................................134 Saving Society ......................................................................................................................147 Saving Souls .........................................................................................................................159 6 DOES LOVE WIN OUT? ....................................................................................................168 Importance of Institutional Selves at Love Won Out............................................................170 Theoretical Importance of Institutional Selves.....................................................................175 Love Won Out in the Wider Sociopolitical Climate .............................................................176 6 APPENDIX LOVE WON OUT CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS ...................178 LIST OF REFERENCES.............................................................................................................179 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................194 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy IDENTITY WORK AND THE NEW CHRISTIAN RIGHT: HOW FOCUS ON THE FAMILY RHETORICALLY CONSTRUCTS THE “EX-GAY” SELF By Helena Louise Alden August 2008 Chair: Milagros Peña Major: Sociology My study examined where the discourses of evangelical religion, sexuality and self intersect. The Love Won Out conferences of Focus on the Family, an evangelical religious organization, promote the message that homosexuality is both preventable and treatable. In so doing, Focus on the Family actively endorses a specific kind of sexual identity, that of an “ex- gay.” My study I asked how Focus on the Family defines the conditions of possibility for an ex- gay self. I drew on the theory of institutional selves to interrogate how the Love Won Out conferences put on by Focus on the Family narratively construct sexual identity. Institutional selves are defined as those selves produced in the service of an organization and I examined those selves produced by Love Won Out to further the political goals of Focus on the Family. My study analyzed the transcripts of the Love Won Out conferences I attended in St. Louis and Ft. Lauderdale in 2006. In addition, I examined the textual material promoted by the conference speakers, including a number of books, pamphlets, and supporting materials. Results show that to successfully promote sexual identity transformation, Love Won Out must first produce a mutable, troubled gay self. Having done so, Love Won Out supply the narrative resources necessary to recognize the causes of homosexuality, and then to manage the 8 transformation from a troubled gay self to a healed ex-gay self. More specifically, Love Won Out draw upon discourses of religion, psychotherapy and self-help. They further reinterpret the nature of the healing process such that it becomes more of a spiritual transformation than a sexual one. Focus on the Family also empowers the audience to be active agents of change themselves, and provide the interpretive tools to advocate for social change across a variety of social institutions. I argue that the ex-gay self identity has political utility outside the discursive boundaries of the Love Won Out conferences since to embrace a heterosexual identity would mean being subsumed into wider culture and thus rendered politically and socially invisible. Ex- gay keeps the message that sexuality is mutable at the forefront and therefore becomes important in the fight against the claims of gay and lesbian civil rights groups. 9 CHAPTER 1 ROOTS OF THE EX-GAY IDENTITY The homosexual activist movement … have been working to implement a plan that has as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. (Dobson 2004:19) [Homosexuality] is a prison that leaves many individuals feeling hopeless and abandoned … many of these individuals desperately want to be free of this same-sex attraction. (Dobson 2004:72) Prevention is effective. Change is possible. Hope is
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