Tonight, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is scheduled to present a repeat showing of Lisa Ling's documentary God & Gays, which followed the complete change of heart by Alan Chambers, president of Irvine-based Exodus International, to “gay conversion therapy.” Ling hosts a private screening at Sony Pictures Theaters in Culver City with Darrell Steinberg, the California Senate president pro tem, state Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Redondo Beach), and CourageCampaign.org founder Rick Jacobs, who will dish on the film and the state of the LGBT movement after a pretty momentous couple of weeks.
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Chambers announced last week at an Exodus International gathering that he was shutting down the ministry, apologizing for the “pain and suffering” the nonprofit caused.
Exodus International, Christian Backers of Gay “Conversion Therapy,” Disbands, Apologizes
Then came the events Wednesday out of Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court made historical rulings concerning the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Prop 8.
Gods & Gays is actually a follow-up to Ling's 2010 report Pray the Gay Away, which featured Chambers saying he truly believed Jesus could change those attracted to members of the same sex.
Tonight's screening in Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theatre (quite fitting, no?) is invite-only, but don't let that stop you from hosting your own showing (check your local listings!) with lively discussion to follow.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.