With respect to your article on gay college students berating the intolerance shown on campus towards their gay affirming posters (“Defaced posters are campus barometer”), I hope that their concern over tolerance also extends to ex-gays and ex-lesbians.

Each year, thousands of men and women with same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave homosexuality by means of reparative therapy, ex-gay ministry or group counseling.

However, there are some who refuse to respect that choice. As a result, ex-gays are subject to an increasingly hostile environment where they are reviled or harassed simply because they dare to exist.

For example, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) spent thousands of dollars in publishing and distributing a booklet condemning ex-gays (“Just the Facts”) to most of the public school districts in this country.

The Human Rights Campaign demanded that a contributor (AOL’s Mrs. Steve Case) reconsider her sizable donation to a children’s school merely because it had indirect ties to an ex-gay ministry.

Tim Wilkins was fired from his job as supervisor at the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper for daring to “come out” as a former homosexual.

Prominent ex-gay author Richard Cohen received death threats from gay activists for publishing his new book “Coming Out Straight.”

The annual “Coming out of Homosexuality Day” Conference resulted in assault and battery charges against gay activists for harassing ex-gay speaker Michael Johnston. Police were forced to escort former lesbian Yvette Schneider off the Dartmouth University campus when angry homosexuals disrupted her speech.

The harassment of ex-gays by gays themselves is a sad end to the long struggle for tolerance by the gay community.

That ex-gays and their supporters are now oppressed by the same people who until recently were victimized themselves, demonstrates how far the gay rights movement has come. Indeed, a new chapter in the movement has begun – the right of homosexuals and lesbians to leave that lifestyle.

We need to face the other side of sexual orientation – intolerance of ex-gays. Please remember that former homosexuals and lesbians are also worthy of respect.

Regina Griggs

National director

Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays

Fort Belvoir, Va.