Ex-Gay?

Andrew Sullivan briefly looks at the ex-gay thing in his blog today, specifically the notion that if gays can chose to be straight through ex-gay therapy, then straights can go gay. An absurd notion, of course, as he points out: what straight man, given the overwhelming pressure to conform and which relentlessly  celebrates heterosexuality, would chose otherwise? But the point he makes - and with which I agree - is,

My view is that the point of the gay rights movement is not to force everyone to be gay, or even every gay person to be openly gay, it is to expand the possibilities for individuals to be themselves. That must include those gays who cannot bear to be who they are. Unhappiness, like happiness, is an option every free society should respect.

Yes, the movement has to be the freedom to be one's authentic self, even if that means the choice to conform and live an unhappy life. This sheds a different light on the subject, one which the religious and social conservatives neglect: that the real issue here is one of freedom in a free society - including the freedom to be different. This is a blow against those would demand conformity whatever the cost, and who only give lip-service to the notion of individual freedom.