Update:
Amazing! After more than 150,000 petition signatures from Change.org members and saturation media coverage, news outlets worldwide are reporting that Apple has pulled an iPhone application launched by Exodus International that claimed to help "cure" gay and lesbian people.
This is a huge, public victory against the dangerous myth that gay young people can and should be "turned straight" -- a falsehood that contributes to the plague of depression and suicide afflicting these kids and young adults. Our friends at Truth Wins Out, the organization that started the petition on Change.org, are absolutely thrilled.
Apple did the right thing because an incredible 151,125 Change.org members stood together to demand it. We spread the word on Facebook more than 55,000 times. And together we attracted the attention of media around the globe, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and hundreds of newspapers and blogs.
Thank you for making this victory possible.
having a convo on facebook about this i'd like your think on if can?
the primary reason i think gays should be allowed to marry is that it does not negatively affect anybody else, except the religious who seem determined to be offended. someone has pointed out that the primary problem with the app is that it offends me...but does me no harm.
what do you think?
....someone has pointed out that the primary problem with the app is that it offends me...but does me no harm.
I'd say that primary problem with the app is not that it "offends" anyone, but rather than it perpetuates the very real harms that occur to individuals who the target of the irrational bigotry of homophobia. The app essentially is a form of negative propaganda based on ignorance and/or outright lies used to dismiss and denigrate the human rights of a particular group of people.
It's not like the "reparative therapy" the Exodus group extols even works or has any basis in scientific fact. It's worse than selling snake oil because its has had the lethal consequences of being responsible for the suicide of misguided people who have been victims of its practice. True, the app does not directly push the therapy practice of Exodus, but it lays the ground work for it and appeals to the general religious anti-gay bigotry indoctrination unfortunately still so prevalent in many cultures.