We were wrong, admits 'gay cure' group In perhaps the most startling example of the recent advances by the gay rights movement in America, one of the nation's most prominent religious opponents of homosexuality has dissolved itself, issuing a long and detailed apology for the harm it caused during its 37 years of existence. Exodus International was formed in 1976 after a conference of Christian ministries and since then has been a proponent of what the group has called "conversion therapy," which it claimed could "cure" people of homosexuality through prayer and psychotherapy. During annual conferences sponsored by the evangelical group Focus on the Family and via local churches, Exodus recruited gays with the message that "the sin of homosexual behaviour, like all sins, can be forgiven and healed by the grace revealed in the life and death of Christ." The group was never without critics who said the so-called therapy caused confusion, distress and often despair. Studies found time and again that only a very small minority of those that sought to change succeeded - about 15 per cent, in one longitudinal study. Exodus was embarrassed in 1979 when senior members Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper divorced their wives and left the group to be together. They eventually shared a commitment ceremony in 1982. It now appears that for more than a year Exodus International's leadership has been suffering a crisis of conscience. In January 2012 its president, Alan Chambers, told a Gay Christian Network conference that 99.9 per cent of conversion therapy participants did not undergo a change in their sexuality. Then in July he told The New York Times that virtually every "ex-gay" he has ever met still harbours homosexual cravings, himself included. On Wednesday, after a unanimous vote during its annual meeting, the group's leadership decided to dissolve, with Mr Chambers telling the gathering: "I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn't change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatised parents. In an interview with The Atlantic magazine on Thursday, Mr Chambers said he still believed the organisation had done some good: "Exodus saved my life. I was vulnerable and I had no other place to go. I didn't know what the gay community was or how to find it. It was a safe haven for this little kid of faith who needed an option. But he also said he understood why so many people were angry with Exodus. It's been traumatic for many people. It's been horrific," he said. And it's not just Exodus. It's the church. It's a religious system that has taught us how to be contrary to the heart of Christ, to treat people who are sinners in ways that God himself wouldn't ever treat them. Response to the apology has been mixed. "This is a welcome first step in honestly addressing the harm the organisation and its leaders have caused," Sharon Groves, director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program, said. Now we need them to take the next step of leadership and persuade all other religious-based institutions that they got it wrong. One person commenting on a Los Angeles Times online report wrote: "Thirty-seven years spewing lies, dealing in the commerce of guilt and self-loathing and the shame that comes from failing is more than a generation of ruined lives. Someone who went to Exodus International 37 years ago at 18, for example, would now be 55, with the best years of his or her life lost. There is no amount of apology that can repair those countless numbers of lives. The US Supreme Court is expected to make two crucial decisions on gay marriage. In one it will rule on whether or not the federal Defence of Marriage Act, which forbids federal agencies from recognising gay marriage, is constitutional. In the other it will consider a ban on gay marriage in California.