Alan Chambers Spent Years “Curing” Gay Men. He’s Just Been Arrested For Allegedly Soliciting Sex From A 14-Year-Old Boy
Alan Manning Chambers, the former president of Exodus International, has been arrested in Orlando on child sex solicitation charges, according to reporting by Quispe López at The Advocate. The man who once headed up the world’s biggest “ex-gay” Christian ministry was picked up by Orlando Police on Tuesday, 19 May, after a months-long sting operation.
Chambers faces three charges: solicitation of a minor via computer, sending harmful material to a minor, and illegal use of a two-way communication device. Orange County court documents reviewed by Advocate confirm the charges.
What the affidavit says
According to an affidavit obtained by Orlando ABC affiliate Channel 9, a detective posing as a 14-year-old boy on Snapchat was contacted by a user calling himself “John David,” who claimed to be a 50-year-old man.
The conversation moved from Snapchat to the encrypted messaging app Telegram, and continued over several months. The affidavit states “David” repeatedly discussed meeting up for sex, and voiced concerns about the age gap and getting caught.
Police say “David” suggested a meet-up in April, then cancelled, claiming he had been pulled over by police. Instead, he reportedly told the boy to take an Uber to his office. Detectives traced the phone number, Telegram account and Snapchat profile back to Chambers.
When officers stopped Chambers on Tuesday, he admitted he had been talking to someone on Snapchat he believed to be 14, but refused to answer further questions, police said.
The hypocrisy is hard to miss
For years, Chambers led Exodus International, an umbrella group of “ex-gay” Christian ministries that pushed conversion therapy on queer people and claimed homosexuality could be “cured.” The organisation operated for nearly 37 years before shutting down in 2013, a year after Chambers publicly renounced the practice.
In 2012, Chambers told the Associated Press:
“I do not believe that cure is a word that is applicable to really any struggle, homosexuality included, for someone to put out a shingle and say, ‘I can cure homosexuality,’ that to me is as bizarre as someone saying they can cure any other common temptation or struggle that anyone faces on Planet Earth.”
After Exodus folded, Chambers went on to speak at LGBTQ+ events. He delivered two sermons at the Washington National Cathedral during Capital Pride in 2016.
A pattern, not an exception
The arrest lands the same week DNA reported on the everyday homophobia LGBTQ+ people are still up against. It also fits a depressingly familiar pattern. A widely cited 2012 study in the Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology by Weinstein and colleagues found that some of the most strident anti-gay voices privately harbour same-sex attractions they refuse to face. The names rack up easily enough: Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, George Rekers.
Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, and George Rekers are all prominent conservative public figures who built careers advocating against LGBTQ+ rights or promoting conversion therapy, only to be embroiled in high-profile same-sex scandals. Their stories are emblematic of political and religious hypocrisy regarding same-sex attraction.
Chambers has not yet entered a plea. The case is still developing.
What was Exodus International?
Exodus International was the largest umbrella organisation of “ex-gay” Christian ministries in the world. Founded in 1976, it promoted conversion therapy and claimed faith and counselling could change a person’s sexual orientation.
The American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, and dozens of medical and mental health bodies have since declared conversion therapy ineffective and harmful. Exodus closed in 2013, with Chambers offering a public apology to the LGBTQ+ community for the harm the group caused.
