HALIFAX—Two LGBTQ advocacy groups are urging a church to cancel an event taking place at a religious camp in rural Nova Scotia next month, warning it is teaching principles that could put lives at risk.

Both the Halifax Pride Festival and the Youth Project, a Halifax group that supports queer and transgender youth, are cautioning that two guest speakers booked to appear at the conference apparently encourage LGBTQ people to adopt a heterosexual lifestyle and cisgender presentation, regardless of their feelings and identity.

The event is being hosted by the Maritime Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on a campground property owned by local church members in Pugwash, N.S., in northwestern Nova Scotia on the Northumberland Strait.

Danielle Harrison and Michael Carducci from Ohio-based Coming Out Ministries are scheduled to present at the event.

The organization describes itself as “a ministry which unites three individuals in sharing their testimonies of freedom from sexual sin and same-sex relationships.”

Carducci said in an interview that he rejects the term “conversion therapy,” and asserted that he will cause no harm.

Adam Reid, executive director of the Halifax Pride Festival, said he was alarmed when he read the bios of two speakers being flown in for the conference.

“They used terms and language that sort of hides what they’re up to,” he said.

Kate Shewan, executive director of the Youth Project, said “I just think it’s horrific this is still happening today.”

“There’s so much evidence that this ... is extremely harmful, and ineffective as well.”

The two organizations co-signed a letter addressed to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and asked them to consider cancelling the event.

Shewan said she also called the leader of the Maritime conference of Seventh-day Adventist church, Paul Llweellyn, urging him to cancel.

Llweellyn referred all of StarMetro’s questions to Stan Jensen, spokesperson for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada.

Jensen said the two guest speakers — who he said are not really “youth speakers” as they are named in the bios — are not the main features of the 10-day conference, which draws Seventh-day Adventists from across the Maritime provinces.

Additionally, Jensen said he is concerned about the impression any association with conversion therapy could wrongly provide.

“My fear is this: If this gets a lot of publicity, those who are gay haters will come out in droves,” Jensen wrote in an email. “Instead our Church needs more conversations.”

Carducci was resolute in his belief that his presentation will not cause harm.

“I think that conversion therapies — many of them — were very destructive,” he said. “I don’t promote them.”

Carducci said he will travel to Nova Scotia from Tennessee next month, to speak to a group of “families” who will attend the conference “voluntarily.”

“It’s not just a camp for kids,” he said. “It’s a camp for Seventh-day Adventist(s).”

Carducci said he was baptized as an Adventist in 2000. He said his presentation is all about sharing his personal experience leaving behind a life of “sexual addiction” and homosexuality, and finding God.

“That was a great discovery on my part,” he explained. “The love of God is for everyone.”

“I thought it was beautiful, in the Bible,” he went on to say. “It doesn’t condemn the homosexual, it just condemns the practice.”

Carducci rejects the interpretation that condemning the practice is akin to condemning the person. He said the ministry does not engage in counselling, and insists he himself is not trying to “coerce or pressure anyone.”

“We just tell our experience of how we want to live according to God’s word. We don’t tell people how to live. We allow people to make up their own mind.”

Those words rang hollow to Shewan.

“Whether it’s called conversion therapy, a discussion, or a ministry, the issue is the harm that is caused by cultivating shame, guilt, and self-hatred in (LGBTQ) youth,” Shewan said.

Additionally, Reid said after being exposed to this kind of thinking, youth are made to feel they have a “broken identity.”

“That they can fix it, and if they cannot then they have failed … and that they’re not worthy of being on this planet. Of continuing to live.”

Carducci said he only intends to share the message that “God loves the (LGBTQ) community” but repeats he believes the Bible condemns the act of homosexuality, as it does premarital sex and extramarital affairs.

Both Shewan and Reid would like to see the provincial government implement a ban similar to those in Manitoba and Ontario, making conversion therapy illegal.

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But that’s another conversation, for another day, said Reid, whose immediate concern is the safety of the youth who may end up attending the event.

“The most immediate need is that young people are not being exposed to this really harmful teaching,” he said.

Reid plans on reiterating calls to the church asking to cancel the sessions.

“Next, we need to let parents and those attending this gathering know there is considerable harm that could be done.”

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StarMetro asked for an estimate of how many people and youth would be attending the camp, but the church refused to provide that information.

Meanwhile, Jensen said he is setting up a fall meeting between members of an Adventist LGBTQ-friendly group called Seventh-day Adventist Kinship to meet with the leader of the church in Nova Scotia.

In a written statement, Seventh-day Adventist Kinship spokesperson Floyd Poenitz admonished Carducci’s group.

“SDA Kinship does NOT believe in conversion therapy in any shape or form and we are in NO way associated with Coming Out Ministries. While we respect the individual journeys of each person and their victories over abuse and self-loathing, we do not see the journeys of the speakers of COM as being something that should be modelled by someone who is LGBTQ.”

This controversy comes just one week after a summer retreat for the “sexually broken” was cancelled in Saint John, N.B., following public outcry.

Incidents of youth suicide following attempts of religious-led conversion therapy have been widely reported. In 2015, 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn ended her life after going through a conversion program, a subject she discussed in a suicide note posted online which was later taken down.

Queer and transgender youth face higher risks of homelessness, depression and suicide.

Research on conversion therapy has shown the programming can heighten these risks.

In 2015, Ontario became the first province to ban conversion therapy, when a bill proposed by NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo was passed unanimously by all three parties.

Within weeks, Manitoba’s government passed similar legislation.

The City of Vancouver is working on passing a bill that would ban businesses from selling conversion therapy as a service.

Meanwhile, no such bill has reached the floor of the Nova Scotia legislature. But the government says it doesn’t condone the practice.

“Although not legislated, Nova Scotia is against conversion therapy and the notion that members of the (LGBTQ) community require treatment because of their sexual orientation,” said Tracy Barron, spokesperson for the provincial health department.

Reid said it’s “ironic” the event will take place the same week as Pride celebrations in Halifax, but adds the timing really doesn’t matter.

“It’s a reminder of the need for constant vigilance. The rights we’ve won aren’t as entrenched as we might believe.”

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