Australian religious organisations will continue using homosexual reorientation therapy, despite the closure of a leading US proponent, Exodus International, which has apologised for the "pain and hurt" it caused.

The Reverend Ron Brookman, the Australian director of Living Waters Ministries and a member of Exodus Global, said the organisation had acknowledged damage caused by treating homosexuality as something that could be "cured".

Gender and sexual minorities are known to be at high risk of suicide.

"We don't like to call it healing, we call it transformation," he said. "I minister to a lot of people struggling with same-sex attraction who never budge but we don't condemn them, we don't shame them. We stand with them and support them."

Exodus International dissolved last week with its president, Alan Chambers, issuing an apology for the "pain and hurt" caused. The 37-year-old acknowledges he still has homosexual urges.