Flipping the Script: Lesbian and Ex-Lesbian Child Sexual Abuse Survivors' Narratives, 1978–2003

Abstract:This article traces connections between child sexual abuse survivors' narratives written by lesbian feminists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and those written by Christian ex-lesbians in the 1990s and early 2000s. Many scholars have recognized the extent to which an anti-feminist countermovement led by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation stymied the gains of child sexual abuse survivor activists. But we have not yet examined the ways other opponents of feminism and lesbian feminism, in particular, weaponized child sexual abuse survivors' narratives in order to delegitimate lesbian identity. This latter response to the child sexual abuse survivors' movement was perhaps even more dangerous and effective in resisting feminist demands than the false memory movement's rejection. Embracing aspects of feminists' analyses of childhood sexual abuse crucially enabled Christian ex-gay and ex-lesbian leaders to portray their approach to sexual conversion as based in love, concern, and support for homosexuals and to frame lesbians as wounded, sympathetic, and in need of help. By couching their messages of conversion in therapeutic language that echoed earlier feminist arguments, ex-gay leaders increased the appeal and accessibility of their texts. As struggles against sexual violence have recently achieved a tremendous degree of public visibility, this history serves as a timely and sobering reminder that testimonies of sexual violence can serve conservative as well as liberating political purposes.