Truth Wins Out has won its battle to remove an app accused of promoting conversion therapy from the Apple Store.
The LGBT rights organization launched a petition against the “heinous” app constructed by Living Hope Ministries, an Arlington-based religious group. The free app reportedly promoted a “more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ” as a means of getting rid of homosexuality, and provided “one-on-one counseling, support groups, online forums.”
It only took one day for the app to be taken down from the store.
“We thank Apple for exemplifying corporate responsibility and taking swift action to remove a dangerous app that stigmatizes and demeans LGBT people,” Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen said in a statement. “Ex-gay programs are consumer fraud and cause significant harm to the people they purport to help.”
The app was targeting LGBTQ young people in order “to change [them] from gay-to-straight through prayer and therapy.”
It had been available to download on the platform for three years.
Conversion therapy is the discredited practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation.
The app is still available to download from Google and Amazon, and Bensen plans to petition them as well.
“Every minute this heinous product is available on these platforms, the potential exists for it to harm LGBT youth,” Besen said. “We demand that Google and Amazon immediately stop selling and promoting this app, which dehumanizes LGBT people.”
