You know, when it comes right down to it, these people are just bullies. Some of them seem to even understand that sexual attraction is innate and not subject to much conscious change.

But they condemn us, anyway, if we have the audacity to do something natural and human like fall in love, express ourselves sexually, or create families.

The other side of the coin of their so-called therapy is there political activism. They want to stop our relationships, keep us in closets, and even criminalize us.

The fact that this conference is taking place in Poland is kind of instructive. Until a couple years ago, Poland was run by a reactionary government tightly allied with the Catholic Church, that viciously suppressed queer people.

Encouraged by Catholic priests in bishops, Polish mobs descended on LGBTQ Pride parades on many occasions, terrorizing and beating participants.

The Catholic Church teaches formally that we are disordered, that we are broken, that's something is wrong with us.

Sometimes, they admit that our attractions are innate, but they call us broken anyway and they insist that we must not express our humanity. We must not live in loving relationships. We must commit to celibacy, because of their religious beliefs, or in my opinion their superstitious delusions.

Then, according to Pope Francis, Even if gay men choose to be celibate, they're not fit to train for the priesthood, because (his words), "there's already too much fagotry in the Vatican."

I'm thinking of Alana Chen, the young woman in the Denver area who committed suicide after years of Catholic conversion therapy failed to change her attractions.

Her conversion therapy started when she was still in high school, without the knowledge of her parents, who oppose such things and who accepted her fully for who she was.

Alana turned to the church, which convinced her that she was defective in immoral. When she couldn't change, she killed herself.

That's what happens.

Clearly, Catholic priests, bishops, and nuns are evil and twisted. They're committed to treating us like shit, Even if we die because of their disgusting teachings. They're among the very worst of humanity.

The Evangelical Protestant World is just as bad. I'm thinking of Living Waters Ministries, which partners with both Catholic and Evangelical Protestant churches to train members of congregations to do conversion therapy.

They're not particularly concerned with the exact religious beliefs of the people they train. They're just committed homophobic bigots who will spread their evil wherever they can.

And the people they train aren't subject to most conversion therapy bans (in the U.S., anyway), because their religious motivation exempts them. Note that conversion therapy had already been banned in Colorado, but that didn't save Alana Chen from these disgusting Christian monsters. The Catholic Church in Colorado proudly conducts conversion therapy and trains members of congregations to conduct conversion therapy. Despite the law.

Yes, the fight is going to be long and hard. But maybe the fact that this nauseating conference is being held in Poland is some cause for optimism.

I'd like to think the conference organizers understood that if they tried to do this in the United States or somewhere in Western Europe, they would have been met with extraordinary protest.

Maybe.

But whatever the reason, they're meeting in Poland, we're respect for the sickening, evil, brutal Catholic Church runs very high.