Fake Ex-gay 'Charity' Claims: Homosexuality Can Be 'Overcome' & Deserves Tax Break from Canadians.
"Ex-gay" organizations, which exploit the most vulnerable members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community, must not enjoy registered charity status. The Québec Section of the NDP unanimously adopted this position on November 20th at its convention in Gatineau, Québec.
Research made public in September 2010 revealed that Exodus Global Alliance holds registered charity status in Canada. Mark McIntyre at Slap Upside The Head, quickly published this news and organized an action of protest against Exodus' tax status in Canada. This alliance is a subsidiary of a US organization with an international structure, (formerly known as Exodus International) that considers homosexuality a mental illness that can be cured by prayer and by so-called "reparative therapy."
This "therapy" involves taking advantage of vulnerable lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the grips of self-hatred and subjecting them to psychological abuse in order to make them reject their "homosexual behaviours" and return to heterosexuality.
However, the consensus of the medical and psychotherapeutic communities is that these supposed therapies are not only ineffective, as sexual orientation cannot be artificially changed, but also cause grave harm to the mental health of persons subjected to them.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency, (CRA), registered charities must offer a "tangible benefit to the public." Ex-gay organizations offer no such benefit, much to the contrary, according to the NDP. This view is shared by New Zealand's Charities Commission, who in August 2010, declined a request from Exodus to register as a charity. The commission found among a whole host of things that Exodus provided no semblance of charitable services and was harmful to the community wellbeing.
"These charlatans bully people who are already wounded by psychological violence and societal homophobia," said Matt McLauchlin, co-president of NDP- Québec's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual Affirmative Action Commission. "It's unacceptable for the government of Canada to offer any support to a group whose aim is the elimination of homosexuality and bisexuality. This status must be immediately withdrawn and the Canada Revenue Agency must be vigilant to ensure that ex-gay groups never again receive such advantages."
A CRA spokesperson declined to speak to the CBC recently on the subject and on Exodus' case specifically, preferring to "explain" by email, how organizations obtain charitable status.
The executive director of Exodus Global Alliance, Bryan Kliewer however was more than glad to spin his fable to the CBC for enjoying an unwarranted charitable tax status at the expense of Canadians.
