Walmart To Sell Book About Curing Gay People

by Michael A. Jones

Walmart is known for its falling prices. Turns out the mega retail chain is also about to be known for selling a book that says you can be delivered from homosexuality.

Staff members from QSaltLake bring this news, noting that over 100 Walmart stores are set to carry a book by Mormon author Janice Barrett Graham, where Graham champions ex-gay therapy and curing people of their homosexuality. The book, Chased By An Elephant: The Gospel Truth About Today's Stampeding Sexuality, is intended to "shed the clear light of truth on today's dark and tangled ideas about male and female, proper gender roles, the law of chastity, and the God-given sexual appetite."
One assumes it will be included in the fiction department?

Joking aside, it's actually serious business that Walmart would choose to sell a book that purports the wonders of ex-gay therapy. That's because every major medical and scientific association around the world has condemned ex-gay therapy as harmful and dangerous, going so far as to say that those who practice it contribute to depression, anxiety, confusion and suicide. Gee, thanks, Walmart.

What was Graham's motivation for writing the book? Let's allow her to take it away.
"The number of our young people involved in sexual sins has greatly increased in recent years. Some of the most stalwart-seeming youth find themselves involved in pornography, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and the like,” Graham said.
Graham's book also includes an introduction by her son, Andrew Graham, who has become a self-professed "cured" homosexual. Andrew says he was lured into homosexuality by older men at Brigham Young University, but that he was able to turn away from what he calls the "deceitful and predatory nature of the ‘gay’ lifestyle.”
Wow. Walmart has always had a shaky relationship with the gays, but the move to sell a book that views homosexuality as "deceitful and predatory" kind of takes the cake. Do the Walmart executives who approved this book for sale on their shelves really believe that their LGBT customers are predatory and deceitful? Talk about a terrible message to send.

Here's the facts. Ex-gay therapy and ministry, like the kind championed by the Grahams in this Walmart-approved book, contributes to rampant psychological confusion, shame, and despair. From the British Medical Association to the American Psychological Association, professional groups have widely condemned the practice and belief of ex-gay therapy. For Walmart to peddle the book as if it were a New York Times bestseller? That's not only an affront to the LGBT community; it's an affront to science.

Send Walmart a message that this book doesn't belong on their shelves. For one of the nation's top retailers to green light a book that calls gay people deviant, predatory and in need of a cure is simply not acceptable -- no matter how cheap their jars of pickles are.

Photo credit: mjb84