Michael In Norfolk is an attorney in his forties. His blog is "Coming Out in Midlife." He discusses in this post how the denial of homosexual orientation as valid causes harm not only to people in denial about their sexuality but to their opposite sex partners, who feel betrayed.
I think that the late Anthony Perkins is a great example of how damaging the anti-homosexual propaganda is. Tony tried to be in a straight marriage. He was by all accounts a loving father and his wife described him as her best friend. But he ended up having numerous shame-filled one night stands with other men and contracted HIV. At the end of his life when his wife was asked why she didn't leave him, she said that he had always treated her kindly and respectfully and she would not leave him in his time of need. She understood what many people fail to understand. If he had been able to be true to himself, to find a same-sex partner that he resonated with, his shame wouldn't have led him to these promiscuous affairs.
You can't "pray away the gay" any more than a straight person can "turn gay overnight." Marcus Bachmann and his ilk are doing terrible harm to people who are already conflicted.
