The Montrose Center, along with numerous psycho-social professional organizations, has long held that so-called “reparative (ex-gay) therapy” is harmful to our community.

We applaud Exodus International’s evolution to not only accept that sexual orientation isn’t something that can be cured, but to go further and issue an apology for the harm that it has caused.

On June 19, 2013, Exodus International’s board of directors decided to shut down after operating for 37 years.

Montrose Counseling Center (now known as the Montrose Center) was founded 35 years ago specifically because of the harmful messages and stigmatization that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities endured when seeking mental health care. “When Exodus ministries was founded, Houston didn’t have a place where we could go where we didn’t feel marginalized or ‘less than,'” says Clinical Director Christopher Kerr, MEd, LPC.

Kerr, who also has a Master’s Degree in Theology, says that many of our clients struggle with internalized hatred because they cannot change their sexual orientation or gender identity through prayer or willpower.

The Montrose Center hopes other groups that profess to “pray the gay away” will reach the same conclusion and discontinue to practice “conversion therapy.”