After Governor Jerry Brown passed a ban on so-called gay conversion therapy on minors, the ex-gay community (i.e., a bunch of dudes with Jesus issues) has been up in arms, fearing the lies they’ve been telling themselves (and paying shady therapists a sizable sum to corroborate) are now somehow invalidated.

The New York Times profiled a few of these men who are “fighting back against the view that homosexuality can’t be changed.”

One of them is Mark Smith, who said for most of his life, “every inch of my body craved male sexual contact.” That didn’t stop him from entering into a marriage of 17 years, during which he “fought his urges all day” and “dreamed about them all night.”

But because his religion does not agree with homosexuality, Smith spent years of counseling and attending men’s “weekend retreats” (with asinine, affirmative names like “People Can Change” and ”Journey Into Manhood”), to “cure” himself.

Smith, claiming that his “homosexual feelings have nearly vanished,” parlayed his newfound heterosexuality into another marriage eight years ago with a woman as delusional as he is.

Apparently there are thousands of “ex-gays” around the country – almost exclusively men who believe they have changed their basest, innate sexual proclivities and desires through a combination of prayer and therapy – though scientists argue that this is impossible and merely an illusion.

Reparative therapy has also been debunked not only by the American Psychiatric Association, but by the father of reparative therapy, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, who publicly repudiated his own 2001 study that has been widely cited by defenders of gay conversion.

Also, this summer, Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus International, the largest Christian ministry for people fighting the scourge of homosexuality, admitted that it was a futile fight after all.

When he signed the gay conversion therapy ban in September, Gov. Brown noted that these “nonscientific ‘therapies’” have “driven young people to depression and suicide.” However, the Times found a man who argues the opposite: that if he had had gay conversion therapy as a teen, he “could have avoided a lot of depression, self-hatred and suicidal thoughts.”

That man is Aaron Bitzer, who was so incensed with the new law that he hopped aboard a lawsuit challenging the ban as unconstitutional. After a few of those infamous men’s retreats and an online course in reparative therapy, Bitzer, who was, according to the Times, “tormented as a Christian teenager by his homosexual attractions,” now feels “glimmers of attraction” to women and is thinking about dating.

Bitzer is also planning on seeking a doctorate in psychology, so as to become a therapist himself.

There’s nothing wrong with doing what makes you happy (orwhat you think will make you happy), but don’t try and get other people to buy into your harmful bullshit. Gay conversion was born out of the guilt and self-hate homosexuals are forced into believing by religious extremists who use the Bible as a weapon. The law in California was an important step in stamping this pseudoscience out of existence.

Photo: Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays