Two Pulse survivors are now ‘ex-gays’ running a conversion therapy organization

Author: Ryan Adamczeski

Two survivors of the Pulse massacre are now self-proclaimed “ex-gays” who have started a conversion therapy organization.“The enemy had its grip, and now God has taken me from that moment and has given me Christ Jesus. I’ve grown to know His love in a deeper level,” Ruiz said. “Two out of the 49 were my close friends and are no longer with us. They lost their life that night. I should have been number 50 but now I have the chance to live in relationship and not religion — not just loving Christ but being in love with Christ and sharing His love.”, American Medical Association, and every other major medical organization. The World Health Organization concludes that the practice “lacks medical justification and represents a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people,” including significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, self-destructive behavior, suicidal idealization, and suicide attempts.

Beyond the severe negative impacts on LGBTQ+ people, there is also no evidence showing that conversion therapy is even effective. To the contrary, all research on the subject found it is overwhelmingly unsuccessful in changing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Ruiz and Colon have previously claimed not to condone conversion therapy, as Ruiz told NBC in 2019: “We are not all all advocates for conversion therapy or shock therapy. We stand with the gay community, and our main message is about falling in love with Jesus.”

The pari’s work has been widely condemned by LGBTQ+ groups, which consider Fearless identity a conversion therapy organization. The executive director of QLatinx, Christopher Cuevas, pushed back against Ruiz’s claims in a statement at the time, saying that “while we honor the freedom for expressions of faith, and hold the beauty of religiosity in our community, we cannot condone the gross misuse of religious text and faith to exploit LGBTQ+ people or support conversion therapy.”

“The expressions of our queer and transgender identities are the embodiment of divinity and grace, because we are living our most radical truth by celebrating and centering our LGBTQ+ identity,” Cuevas said.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Ryan Adamczeski