school science teacher. he s working as an openly gay man. lisa ling spoke to allen chambers for the special on the own network. first, it s great to have you on the program. thank you. did it surprise you he s apologized and they shut their doors? it did surprise me when he wanted to apologize to all gay people and people harmed by exodus. it acknowledged thousands of people had their lives damaged by exodus. it begged the question, what now? last year, they stopped therapy. this year, he wants to apologize to people they have harmed. what now? we witnessed what now last night. what does it mean? he s not saying being gay is he saying being gay is okay? so, he won t say it, he
joining me is lisa ling who spoke with allen chambers for our america special on the own network. did it surprise you they shut it down? id did surprise me when he said he wanted to apologize to all gay people and all people harmed by exodus. it was essentially acknowledging that thousands of people have had their lives severely damaged by exodus, which becked the question, well, then what now? last year, they stopped conducting repairative therapy. this years ago he wants to respond to people, what now? we witnessed what now last night. but what does it actually mean? i mean, he s still not saying being gay, is he saying being gay is okay? so, although allen won t
culture war. he does say we lost the culture war. when you think about it, gay rights, the sifl supreme court be decide on proposition 8 in california i think anderson and the board of, sorry, allen and the board of exodus started to think, well, what side do we want to be on, on this civil rights issue? it s interesting that in one of his statement, he was sake he feels their world view has not been fire to our fellow human beings, to quote him andals has not been biblical. it sounds like he wants some sort of an organization that is more welcoming, whatever that may mean. so, allen, i don t know that they can even define what the next chapter is going to be for them, but he has mentioned to me that there is a place or there are people who are struggling who may want to remain sell celebate or work on relationships with their spouses even though they have same sex
christmas present. that s how i felt. i went to the closet and i prayed that prayer i prayed a million times. i said god, why will you not change me? i can t describe it but something from the outside, allen, told me not to take my life. i said god, why won t you change me? it said to me because there s nothing i need to change about you. amen. the idea of suicidal thoughts and people attempting suicide, it s something you have heard a lot. absolutely. so many of the people that i encountered said they had entertained suicidal thoughts because when you are told from a young age that you are a sinner for doing nothing but having same-sex attraction and you go through the programs and you try and you try and you can t change, what is your purpose? what is what are you here
next chapter is going to be for them, but he has mentioned to me that there is a place or there are people who are struggling who may want to remain sell celebate or work on relationships with their spouses even though they have same sex attractions. but, moving forward, they would like to have an organization that s much more inclusive that anyone can come to, he said. i look forward to speaking to him tomorrow night. thank you very much, thanks. as i mentioned, allen chambers has agreed to come on the program. we look forward to that. for that, let us know what you think. follow me on twitter@anderson cooper. after nine days of questioning, an all fe pail jury has been chosen to determine george zimmerman s fate. he said he is fine with the jury selection. it has a lot of people talking. also ahead, not just a boughtle, but how to fight for and against for politics in the years to come we ll be right back.