Ha! That's exactly my point. There is no such statistic because there is no real definition of a "homosexual."
Well, that's a game you're playing--I put quotes around the term just so we wouldn't have to get into a tussle over terminology but we have to call it something.
You know exactly what I mean--people who stop being homosexual, stop practicing homosexuality, or whatever you want to call it. So please, enough with the word games.
Does a "former gay" include
You're not accomplishing anything with these word games. Come up with whatever definition you like and we can talk about it from there, but YOU are the one who brought up the topic--YOU are the one who posted the article titled "EX-GAY MOVEMENT"--not me. So you come up with the terminology you want to talk about instead of this tedious dancing around. If not, you are merely playing a game--you claim all kinds of "cures" are possible, and then say OF COURSE there's no way to track if they actually take or not because no one can define who has the problem. How convenient.
Even if you only count as "former gays" people who publicly identified with the "Gay" lifestyle (out of the closet) and then later joined groups labeled as "ex-gay," you would never be able to determine the recidivism rate. Most people who leave the homosexual lifestyle behind don't go around broadcasting their past. For one thing, they have their spouse's amd children's feelings to consider.
So you're in no position to deny my point because you have nothing to back it up. It works both ways--you can't say this method works, and then deny there's anything to be cured, and say there's no way to track it so there can be no proof of your assertion that it works.
This isn't a matter of faith, like religion, but one of behavior, so indeed it can be tracked. But I'm not surprised by the game you're playing, seeing how the founders of this whole movement subsequently left it and married each other.
But if one man has successfully left homosexuality behind, married and found happiness, I believe society should encourage it (or at a minimum not discourage and allow for change). Because of the potential for sparing people needless unhappiness, illness and premature death.
That's fine for that one man, but what about those others who it doesn't help but merely sidetracks into something that may lead them to start relationships with women who are subsequently heartbroken when this method fails? How about those women--don't they count as much as the (failed) opportunity for a gay man to deny his true nature?
I will tell you this much for free, if my daughter wanted to date one of these ex-gays I'd forbid it.
Forgive me for being a crusader, I watched my best friend from college who I loved (not a physical relationship, as a friend and brother) decide he was "Gay" and die from the fatal three letters (HIV) before he was thirty because of what would prove in my life to be a bunch of meaningless lies. I am a crusader on this topic because of him.
That's fine, but it doesn't address any facts, merely feelings. Feelings that get in the way of thought and facts--as opposed to what we WISH would be true--can have deadly consequences.