How is 'Ex-Gay' a Sexual Orientation?

February 16, 2012 by Matt Kailey

http://tranifesto.com/2012/02/16/how-is-ex-gay-a-sexual-orientation/

I don't care for the current labels that we have for sexual orientation. I think they are confusing and confining, and I don't think they truly represent the broad range of sexual and romantic attractions that actually exist in the species.

While labels such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, and even pansexual, omnisexual, and queer can help with self-definition and the formation of communities, they can also result in shame, guilt, or concern when someone's attractions happen to fall outside of the label that the person has adopted, or when someone is told that his, her, or hir attractions are wrong.

Regardless, it appears that these labels are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, and I am willing to go along with both their intended meanings and the meanings that each individual ascribes to them as he, she, or ze defines his/her/hir own sexual identity. However, I simply can't accept the notion that "ex-gay" is a sexual orientation.

My first thought on this was someone who has transitioned, who before they transitioned were gay but now they're hetero, therefore ex-gay. But even that does not make any sense because they really are not gay in the first place, they're just in the wrong body, therefore still hetero. It's all so confusing.