After today's disappointing news regarding Prop 8, at least there is something to feel good about. Apple has pulled the controversial iTunes app developed by Exodus, International (the organization devoted to "curing" homosexuality with religion).
Link
It took considerable doing to accomplish this: when Apple permitted an app promoting the "Manhattan Declaration" (which opposed marriage equality), less than 10,000 petioners was all it took for the app to be withdrawn. For some reason, the "Exodus" app required 150,000 complaints.
More below (if you please)
A good deal was written, both here and elsewhere, about the wisdom of efforts to get this application removed from the market. I personally received some surprisingly negative feedback from people on my Facebook page when I highlighted a story on the issue a few days ago. Over the weekend, Julie Waters posted a very thoughtful diary discussing the downsides of pleas for the app to be withdrawn; she made some excellent points as well as suggesting alternate ways of objecting to its existence (specifically by uprating negative reviews on the iTunes site).
The entire discussion was certainly a legitimate one to have as it brought out a good deal of sensitivity with respect to certain freedom of speech issues.
I certainly understand that there is not only more than one perspective to take on many issues and that there's also more than one way to combat something most of us here would find objectionable.
I both signed the petition urging that the app be removed, and took Julie's suggestion of uprating the negative reviews on the iTunes site so that those would be the first to be visible to anyone searching.
There are always serious questions to answer when it comes to what some would consider to be censorship. A couple of aspects of the situation however seemed to point me more in the direction of wanting the app removed. The app was somehow rated by Apple as being "suitable for all users" (or words to that effect). There is reason to believe that those most likely to avail themselves of such a resource would be adolescents struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. The overwhelming majority of mainstream research seems to indicate the sexual orientation cannot be altered by any legitimate form of treatment and that attempts to force a change of orientation can do devastating psychological harm.
In addition, it's arguable that the nature of an iTunes app does not really rise to the level of free speech. Just as is the case with this site, where the administrators have final say as to what constitutes acceptable discussion, Apple has final say as to which applications will be made available to iTunes users. Then too (as I understand it) the app consisted mainly of links to other websites. Nobody, so far as I know, was suggesting that the owners of those sites didn't have the right to make their views known on those sites, no matter how objectionable those views might be. It was merely a matter of removing one way of accessing those sites. From what I could glean by reading the reviews, the app didn't even function very well on its own terms.
Finally, a number of reviewers noted that, despite downloading and installing the app on their phones or iPads, they were just as gay after doing so as they had been before.
To come to a conclusion, which of course people are free to debate (hopefully in a somewhat civil tone of voice), it's better that Apple realized that they'd made a mistake and withdrew the app after being subjected to withering criticism.