Online activists Change.org has posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs which is accompanied by an online petition signature form that has currently garnered over 106,000 signatures.
The letter demands that Apple remove the dangerous Exodus International “ex-gay” iPhone app from the company’s iTunes App Store. Exodus International’s app endorses the use of “reparative therapy” to change the sexual orientation of their clients.
Change.org claims that the app “targets vulnerable, suicide-prone LGBT youth with the message that their sexual orientation is a ‘sin that will make your heart sick’ and a ‘counterfeit,’ contributing to and legitimizing the ostracism of these youth from their families.”
“Apple’s app guidelines released in September last year detailed rules on how the company decides what can and cannot be sold through its store: “Any app that is defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited, or likely to place the targeted individual or group in harms way will be rejected,” the company states,” Change.org writes. “Apple would never allow a racist or anti-Semitic app to be sold in the iTunes store, and for good reason. Apple’s approval of the anti-gay Exodus International app represents a double standard for the LGBT community with potentially devastating consequences for our youth.”
Currently, the Exodus App remains available for download from Apple’s iTunes App Store.
Related article:
Petition calls for Apple to pull ‘ex-gay’ app from iTunes App Store – March 18, 2011
@mick james
I completely agree! It’s simple. If the app offends you, don’t download it. There are many apps in the app store that offend me. I choose to not download them. Change.org has no argument or grounds to start a petition.
As an Apple employee, I will be upset if Apple decides to remove this app.
Where has common sense gone in this world…
It’s so nice to see common sense is not dead in this day and age…
*sigh* MDN should really just avoid posting anything related to gay subject matter. The ignorance of the readership is offensive and embarrassing.
Comment of the Day
I award thee 7 internets, 3 information superhighways, 2 worldwide webs, and a whole buncha tubes!
Worst. MDN thread. Ever
MDN is nothing if not a gross hitwhore. Towards the end of the month these political topics come up.
They’re just trying to make a buck, give ’em a break!
Just lay back and enjoy…
You just wrote “lay back and enjoy…” in a thread like this one 😀
I read through your drivel HandsomSmitty. I would be embarrassed to be associated with a person with your lack of basic human compassion and civility.
All I can say is thank god people don’t live forever. Then we would never be rid of the likes of you and your myopic views.
Sadly, ignorance and intolerance will never die. All we can do is speak out against the bigotry and show these d-bags that they are on the fringe, not in the general majority. Most people are liberal (i.e. free thinking) and hopefully through education and thoughtful dialogue we can make sure future generations have a backwards-thinking minority that will be further diminished over time.
Is this MDN or Red State?
Keep the App, don’t bendover to small vocal group!
If this app offends someone then they can simply not download it. If Apple is going to Ban this app then they should ban any and all Bible apps or other religious materials along with Wicca. I’m 100% positive one of those will offend more than 100,000 people, Heck… any christ believing new testament following church that does obey its commandments believe homosexuality is a sin along with adultery, getting drunk, drugs, etc. They should start a petition to remove all those apps as well.
The people who want this app gone don’t simply find it offensive; they worry it could cause real harm to young impressionable teens. Trying to change something which can’t really be changed can lead to depression and some times suicide. I think it would be appropriate to leave the app but give it a mature rating.
It is impossible to change the minds of those who think homosexuality is a choice and that it is somehow curable. I will not even try. Although, if it is merely a choice, why is a cure needed?
I will however state that I will base my conclusions on the choice versus nature arguments on the evidence of credible scientific investigation. Science currently tells us it is not a choice. But if it is a choice, I think people have the right to make that choice and not be persecuted for it.
Those who attack homosexuality do so on moral grounds based primarily on religious teachings. I will not base my conclusions on any religious scriptures as they have all been abused to justify tons of toxic nonsense. Even the Nazis said “Gott mit uns!” And that makes God, to my mind, a useless authority on any issue whatsoever.
I have a friend for whom I think an app like Exodus International would be perfect. He definitely needs help. He is afflicted with this terrible, terrible condition; I don’t know its official name, so I’ll call it the ‘Black Skin Condition’. All of the people around him have white skin, and he is the only one with the black skin. He is deeply troubled because of this, as a member of our community, and is suffering. If there were an app like EI, which could help him with guidance, love, care and compassion, I’m sure he would be able to recover from this disturbing affliction and eventually become white like the rest of us…
Is it possible that so many people really believe this is the matter of choice and will?
Sadly yes. There are still people who also believe that anyone who isn’t white is less of a person. I know this because they’re on my dad’s side of he family and live in several southern and Midwestern states. I don’t really talk to that side of the family anymore…
Are you stating unequivocally that there is absolutely no person in the world that identifies as gay and that chose to be that way? I’m willing to accept that for some it may not be a choice, but you have to be willing to accept that for some, it IS a choice.
“All of the people around him have white skin”
Including parents? siblings? relatives?
Take a black person and a gay black person. Stand them side by side. Which one is NOT black. RIGHT neither are not black. Which one is NOT gay…
This whole “gay as a race” thing falls apart on SO many levels… but I doubt folks will stop using it because it’s so darned handy!