Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays

286 Pages·2012·1.75 MB·English

by  Bernadette C. Barton

Pray the Gay Away
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Pray the Gay Away
Te Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays
Bernadette Barton
a
N E W Y O R K U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2012 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for
URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barton, Bernadette.
Pray the gay away : the extraordinary lives of Bible belt gays / Bernadette Barton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-8637-6 (cl: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-6472-5 (ebook)
ISBN 978-0-8147-2442-2 (ebook)
1. Homophobia—Southern States. 2. Gays—Southern States. 3. Christianity and culture—
Southern States. I. Title.
HQ76.45.U52S683 2012
306.76’60975--dc23
2012026535
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For all the Bible Belt gays in my life,
especially Anna and Charles.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: “In the Eyes of the Lord” 1
1. Welcome to the Bible Belt 23
2. “My Parents Disowned Me”: Family Rejection 43
3. “God Would Tell on Me”: Losing their Religion 62
4. “Tey Don’t Know Who I Am”: Te Toxic Closet 87
5. “Going Straight”: Te Ex-Gay Movement 116
6. “Prepare to Believe”: Te Creation Museum 151
7. “Te Opposite of Faith Is Fear”: Destruction and Transformation 173
8. “God Can Love All of Me”: Living the Life 200
9. What the Future Holds 225
Notes 239
References 257
Index 267
About the Author 273
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Acknowledgments
I appreciate the opportunity to acknowledge all of the people who supported
this work and shaped the book you are reading. I concur with many other
authors who say that this simply would not be the book it is without the gen-
erous collaboration of dozens of people as well as time and resources from
my home institution, Morehead State University. I am very grateful for all the
support this study received, and will do my very best to recognize all of those
who contributed to it. First, I would like to thank the Bible Belt gays who
participated in formal audiotaped interviews with me. Teir willingness to
share deeply personal information and hunt within themselves to ofer cre-
ative insights from their life narratives is the substance of this book. I would
especially like to thank Misty Dyer and Joshua Taylor for giving so gener-
ously in this way.
Second, I am indebted to many scholars, colleagues, and students who
contributed intellectual feedback and support during diferent stages of this
project. Tese include Shondrah Tarrezz Nash, Jef Jones, Dawne Moon,
Clarenda Phillips, Charles Homer Combs, Ric Caric, Constance L. Hardesty,
Eric Swank, Patricia K. Jennings, Merri Lisa Haney-Johnson, Sharon Ros-
tosky, Verta Taylor, Leila Rupp, Rebecca Ropers-Huilman, Emily Askew, Ann
Andaloro, Ann Ciasullo, Daniel Phelps, Jason Rosenhouse, Glenn Branch,
Lynne Gerber, Royal Berglee, Lisa Hinkle, Jennifer Martin, Michelle Fiore,
Jessica Roe, Justin Clark, Danielle Story, Toni Hobbs, Kristy Hayes, Leslie
Weaver, Erika Shira, and all of the students from my Religion and Inequal-
ity class. I further appreciate the editors and anonymous reviewers with the
Journal of Homosexuality, Feminist Formations, and Qualitative Sociology for
their very helpful feedback. Special thanks to Kathleen M. Blee and Ashley
Currier for generously sharing substantive feedback on several chapters of
this book. I appreciate Kathy Blee for helping shape the research design of
Pray the Gay Away when it was just a nugget of an idea, and fnally for con-
tinuing to act as a scholarly mentor to me through several stages of my pro-
fessional career.
Tird, I am also grateful to the many individuals who invited me to pres-
ent a public lecture based on this work titled “Te Toxic Closet: Being Gay in
>> ix