There is currently an app available in the iTunes store which is from Exodus International, an anti-gay organization which promotes the fallacious notion that you can cure homosexuality by praying it away. The app, for those of you who have iTunes, can be found here.
There is a fairly well written and reasoned diary about this, recommending that Apple delete the app from the store. It contains links to a petition to remove the app and a little commentary.
I have a lot of respect for this approach, but I suggest something different.
Exodus does a lot of harm with its anti-gay agenda. It deceives vulnerable people into thinking they can be helped by an organization which, at best, gets them to repress themselves. This is damaging. Aside from the inherent bigotry in the notion that homosexuality needs to be cured, attempts to do so are considered by the American Psychological Association to be useless at best:
Some therapists who undertake so-called conversion therapy report that they have been able to change their clients' sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Close scrutiny of these reports, however show several factors that cast doubt on their claims. For example, many of these claims come from organizations with an ideological perspective that condemns homosexuality. Furthermore, their claims are poorly documented; for example, treatment outcome is not followed and reported over time, as would be the standard to test the validity of any mental health intervention.
The American Psychological Association is concerned about such therapies and their potential harm to patients. In 1997, the Association's Council of Representatives passed a resolution reaffirming psychology's opposition to homophobia in treatment and spelling out a client's right to unbiased treatment and self-determination. Any person who enters into therapy to deal with issues of sexual orientation has a right to expect that such therapy will take place in a professionally neutral environment, without any social bias.
But the problem is that a lot of young kids who are struggling with homosexuality don't know about the odious of this organization. If they come across its web site, there's no negative press about it, but there is advertising from them for the new smartphone app.
But if you go to the app store itself, you get reviews. Lots of reviews. Scathing reviews, outlining just what is bad about Exodus and the harm it does.
And if you have an Apple account, you can vote on these reviews. You can make sure that the ones which are most clear and direct about Exodus are the ones that are listed on top by clicking "yes" next to "was this review helpful."
In effect, we are getting Exodus to send people directly to a link that trashes them: mercilessly; relentlessly; brutally.
I'm all for campaigning to remove the 4+ rating (suitable for all audiences) from this application but I'm going to go on record as opposing the elimination of it. As usual, I believe the answer to hostile speech is more speech which exposes it for what it is. Exodus gets away with what it does by operating under the radar.
Let's shine some sunlight on them and make it clear to everyone who goes looking for their "app" just who and what they are.