What Ex-ExGays Can Teach Us About Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Rhetorics is an interview-based research project, where I assemble a gay, lesbian, and queer (GLQ) rhetoric grounded in what I call "gay, lesbian, and queer rhetorical responsibilities"--activist rhetorical practices related to interrupting historic homophobic forces. I locate my research at the virtual site, Ex-Ex-Gays--a Facebook community made up of gay men and lesbians, myself included, who participated in but ultimately oppose the ex-gay movement. This movement centers on a western phenomenon linked to conservative organizations that claim to assist gay men and lesbians with sexual conversion through ministry and therapy. From my data, I argue that research participants (whom I call participatory theorists) tell stories meant to inform, to persuade, and to enact change within particular audience networks, share difficult perspectives based on histories of violence, employ queer narrative practices intended to disrupt and to revise grand narratives about ex-exgay activism, and use stories as a way to mediate and reclaim shame.
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