Hispanic Evangelicals to Feature 'Ex-Gay' Speaker

A leader in the Christian ex-gay movement is slated to speak at a conference of Hispanic evangelical pastors later this month, where she'll present her thoughts on ministering to "LGBT individuals seeking to leave homosexuality."

Janet Boynes, who identified as a lesbian for 14 years and who now leads the anti-LGBT group Called Out Ministries, said in an interview with the The Christian Post that if ministers "don't sway from what the Bible says," gay people "will not remain the same" and can reject their sexual orientation.

She also believes that "true" Christians cannot be gay.

"To honestly believe oneself to be gay and to be living in or presumptuously practicing a homosexual lifestyle, the answer is no, a true born-again believer cannot be a gay Christian," she said. "To claim to be a gay Christian as opposed to one who struggles, would be equivalent to someone claiming to be a Christian Muslim or a Christian Satanist, it's oxymoronic."

She claims LGBT people reject God.

"Two conflicting identities cannot cohabit as one agreeable identity; that is schizophrenia. It is God's will that his born-again children be pure from sexual sin, and anyone who rejects this truth rejects God," she said.

Boynes will speak at the Una Voz conference in San Diego at the end of April. The event is sponsored by the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which calls itself "the largest Latino Christian organization in America," representing "40,118 evangelical congregations and 52 denominations."

The belief that sexual orientation can be altered through prayer is rejected by most mainstream Christian denominations.

So-called conversion therapy is a controversial and scientifically discredited movement that purports to alter one's sexuality. It is banned for use on minors in California and New Jersey.

According to the American Psychological Association, these therapies are "based on a view of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major mental health professions."

Last summer an ex-gay event in Washington, D.C., planned for thousands of participants. but fewer than a dozen actually participated, according to LGBTQNation.com.

Follow Michael O'Loughlin on Twitter at @mikeoloughlin.