Sy Rogers

200px

Sy Rogers (also known as Synclair or Sinclair Rogers II) (15 December 1956 - 19 April 2020[1]) was a charismatic American ex-gay Christian pastor with a dramatic story of success in changing his sexual orientation once and his gender identity twice. He shared his transformative experiences on 6 continents in numerous publications, media interviews, talks and sermons.

Rogers was also an international motivational and inspirational conference speaker and lecturer. His unique life and 3 decades of ministry inspired and encouraged audiences from London’s Royal Albert Hall to many of the world’s most influential pulpits.

In the United States, he hosted award-winning TV and radio programmes specifically dealing with conversion therapy. Regarded as a gifted, award-winning communicator and pastoral care specialist, Rogers was a leading Christian voice on the subjects of sexuality, cultural themes and God’s character.

100px

He became one of the earliest noted personalities associated with the ex-gay movement during the early 1980s and at the end of the decade, served as President of Exodus International, North America, the worldwide network of Christian agencies with an outreach to LGBT people struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. In 1987, he wrote a life-story testimony in a chapter entitled, "The Man in the Mirror"[2] which was published by Keith Green's ministry in a pamphlet-format periodical called "The Last Days" by Last Days Ministries of Lindale, Texas. Rogers was also selected as one of the Outstanding Young Men of America, as well as Who's Who in Human Services Professionals. On the other hand, media sources which stress the inefficacy and harmfulness of conversion therapy described Rogers as a "nutter" who left in his wake a trail of wrecked lives[3].

Citing emotional growth that enabled a new sense of gender security, Rogers eventually married his wife Karen in 1982. They had one daughter. He was a father, a father-in-law and a grandfather twice over.

Rogers founded the ex-gay ministry, Choices, at the Church of Our Saviour (COOS) in Singapore in 1991 and served as one of its pastoral staff. He resided in Singapore for over a decade before returning to the USA.

Early life

150px

Rogers described the first half of his life as an "emotional concentration camp"[4]. His alcoholic mother was killed in a car crash when he was four. Prior to that, he was sexually molested at the age of three by a family friend. The molestation left him deeply confused and imprinted with a powerful, perverted knowledge of sexuality. At the tender age of five years, he had lost the two most important ingredients in forming a healthy and secure identity - his mother and his father. After his mother's death, he was separated from his father for a year and was sent to live with relatives in an emotional vacuum. In the meantime, his father was piecing together a new life. In Rogers' young mind, he perceived that his dad had abandoned him. His father remarried when he was 11. He and his parents had had a stable relationship until his adolescence, when his already-damaged sexuality began to awaken. He lived a typical double life: active in church, school and the Boy Scouts. He even attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He played football and went out for track events and with the swimming team. But all this failed to make him “man enough.” His identity and security as a male was left unaffirmed and unnourished. Later in school, he was routinely ridiculed, rejected and physically abused due to his effeminate mannerisms. Even though he tried to "conform to the norm", he was continually labelled a homosexual and a failure as a man. It therefore came as no surprise that he had problems.

As a teenager, Rogers had yet to identify as homosexual. Nevertheless, he was certainly aware of his attraction to the same sex and he felt fear and shame. A few years later, when he eventually immersed himself in the gay scene, he felt a great sense of relief. He was accepted and understood at last. He finally had a place to belong. It was great for a while. Soon he was living in the fast lane, always surrounding himself with others who would reaffirm and reinforce his gay life.

Rogers joined the Navy in 1973 and was stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii[5]. By his account, he became active in the “gay scene,” spending his nights at the city’s clubs and discos, and also working on the streets as a prostitute. “Men found me young and pretty,” he recalled later. “I made love with them because I enjoyed it, and I pretended I was being loved. The little money I made was icing on the cake.”

Rogers sometimes attended the island’s Metropolitan Community Church, which was at the time called “the gay church,” because the denomination founded in 1968 affirmed LGBT identities and blessed same-sex relationships. While he liked the idea of a religion that approved of his sexuality, he was not particularly interested in God or Jesus. It was not a matter or belief, for Rogers. Something else held him back. “Though I believed in the God of the Bible, maker of heaven and earth, and I believed in Jesus the redeemer, I also believed God didn’t love people like me,” he said. “I wonder where I picked that up?”

While living in Hawaii, his two gay roommates became husband and husband in that state's first non-official male gay wedding in the pro-gay church. He was their best man. In the spring of 1977, he completed his military obligation and moved to Washington, DC where he got a job as a telephone switchboard operator. However, a few months later, he received a letter from the “married” gay couple in Hawaii telling him that they had begun the effort to turn from their homosexual lifestyles. They said that he could find the truth about homosexuality for himself in the Bible. They explained God was helping them, and that they were praying for him. Rogers laughed in contempt, thinking they were traitors.

About this time he began attending a small college, where he became the focal point of intense prejudice. Though there were some Christians on campus who tried to reach out to him, they usually talked “at him” about sin. The rejection he experienced during this time was almost more than he could bear. Extremely depressed, he left college after two tortuous semesters.

Transgender phase

Following this crisis, Rogers concluded in 1977 that his only chance at finding love, acceptance and an end to his inner pain would be to shed his failed male self and start identifying as a transgender woman. In January 1978, he began a psychiatric evaluation process. His therapist officially diagnosed him as a transsexual eligible for sex reassignment surgery. A second specialist referred him to the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland - a hospital well known at that time for this particular operation. He would have to undergo continued therapy and live as a female for at least two years before he could be fit for surgery. Still, he was considered a good “reassignment candidate.”

Staring into the mirror, he saw that he had become the embodiment of a lie. Outwardly, he had been living as a woman for a year-and-a-half. Achieving much-desired acceptance in his role as a woman, he was popular in gay circles. Yet, in spite of his “success,” he was increasingly unhappy. He gradually realised the operation could only change his “packaging” but it would not change him. One evening, the song “Jesus Loves Me” and other Sunday School songs unexpectedly flooded his mind. As the words to these simple songs played in his head, he remembered being taught as a child that Jesus knew him and loved him. But that was before he was a homosexual and before he had failed as a man. He wondered how God could possibly love him now. Oddly, God's love began to matter very much to him. Through tears, he earnestly prayed, “God, please show me what to do. I'm so confused. If You don't want me to pursue this sex change, then show me. I'll do what You want.”

In the early 1980s, just before his sex reassignment surgery was scheduled to be performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he cried out to God to somehow intervene if he was not meant to have the operation. Three days later, God apparently heard him and answered his prayer. He read a news report on that would change his life - John Hopkins announced they would no longer be performing sex reassignment surgery. This was because Paul McHugh, the leading psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins, did a study that found that sex reassignment surgery had little impact on psychological well-being. McHugh shut down the program and Rogers could no longer get the surgery he thought would fix him. But he was still confused. He reckoned that if God did not want him to be a woman, He want him to be a man. “But how?” he complained to God. “I don't know if I can!” He was afraid of an unknown future as a man. But in spite of his fears, he felt irresistibly drawn to God. Though he did not get around to ever having the operation, he was on hormone therapy. Yet even then, he realised that surgery could not really solve his problems and would not procure the love he craved.

Conversion to Christianity

During a move in the autumn of 1978, he came across an old, neglected Bible and began “sneak reading” it. Though he was still living as a woman, he felt that the Holy Spirit was making inroads into his life. Knowing that he was approaching a crossroad in his life, he threw away his female hormones and stopped buying women's clothes. As Christmas approached, he began packing away all of his dresses. Then he purchased a few items of men's clothing. One night he dropped to the floor clutching his chest. He could not breathe properly and was beginning to black out. Terrified, he cried out to God, begging Him to spare him. “Please don't take me like this!” he pleaded with Him. “Let me live to know You first.” The crushing pain in his chest began to subside. Shaken, he saw his desperate need to get right with God. But how? He turned to the Bible, knowing he would find the answer there.

As he read Isaiah 1:18-20, which preached:

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”,

bitterness, guilt, and shame poured out of him. He admitted his failure and guilt before God as he knelt at the foot of his bed and cried out to Him, “God, I cannot change what I am, but I'm willing to be changed. I know You have the power. Make me the man You want me to be!” As he placed his life into His hands, there was immediate evidence of his spiritual regeneration - he felt that the power of immorality was broken. He could (and even wanted to) resist compulsions that had always enslaved him. He was not sure what had happened to him, but he felt confident that God would help him begin living a decidedly different life. In later years, he would say the transformation that happened to him in that moment was not primarily about his sexual orientation. “My need was for a Savior, not just a different sexuality,” Rogers said. “In that encounter, God did not say ‘Go be straight.’ He said, ‘Walk with me.’”

There were some rough times following his conversion. Seeking to establish himself in fellowship, he found that some people had a hard time relating to him. Though he dressed in men's clothing and had short hair, the residual effeminate mannerisms, high voice, and all the results of female hormones caused many people to mistake him for a girl. At first he was crushed with humiliation, but he was determined to live for God. He also experienced times of sexual temptation that alarmed and frustrated him. “If I'm still having sexual urges and temptations,” he reasoned, “then nothing has really changed.” His mistaken and unrealistic expectation was that God would just “zap” him into instant heterosexuality. However, in reading the Bible, he learned that temptation was to be expected as part of life - but his identity was not defined by his struggle. Perhaps his greatest discovery at the time was that he did not have to “pretend” to be free and straight, and he did not have to fight his weaknesses by himself. He could be honest and cry out, “I am weak - help me, Lord!”. By His grace, he withstood those difficult months of transition.

Rogers converted to Christianity in the late 1970s even though homosexuality had been removed from the list of psychological disorders and laws were changing that had classed gay men as criminals. There was still a great deal of ignorance and misinformation about sexual orientation. Nowhere was this more prevalent than in the Church.

Yielding to God

Grasping the fact that he had not managed his life very well on his own, he finally began sincerely seeking after God. It was his reignited faith in religion that led him down a new path he once thought impossible for him. It was not that he was trying to stop being gay. He did not know how to, or if it was even possible. He was willing to stop living life on his terms, though. He yielded to God on His terms instead. That was in January 1980.

At the time, his gay friends thought he was crazy. They said he would be back in the bars within a week, a month or a year. He never went back. But it was not easy. He did have a lot of struggles in the beginning, but like most worthwhile endeavours, perseverance paid off. During the summer of 1980, he joined a church where he was warmly accepted. For the first time, he was accepted, loved and valued as a man. And the miracle was that he was valued by other men apart from sex.

It was awkward, uncomfortable, but sometimes exhilarating for him to relearn appropriate ways of relating to men. But as he established healthy relationships with men, homosexual yearnings began dissolving. He also noted a marked decrease in temptation. He felt that after all, temptation was simply the exploitation of a real need. And his real needs were finally being met without impurity and within a caring, supportive community that offered him acceptance and accountability.

File:SyRogers005.jpg

Sy Rogers and his wife Karen, whom he met at a Bible-study group.

Growing beyond his fixation on men and his own needs enabled him to comfortably grow toward heterosexuality. He was behind schedule but not too late. During this time of working in ministry, he met Karen. They were friends and coworkers, but that was all. Still, he was very much attracted to her remarkable character, integrity and love for God. During a time of praying together, God's spirit revealed to Karen that she would become his wife. One year later, he too became aware of God's direction. At first, he balked at the idea of marriage as inner fears and deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy surfaced. But as Karen and him developed a transparent friendship, God brought much healing to him. He felt that their marriage in the summer of 1982 was not proof of his recovery from perversion and compulsion. Rather it seemed to him one of the most beautiful pieces of evidence of a human life made whole through the transforming love of Christ. In addition to being a husband, he also had the joy of being a father - one more blessing he felt that proved nothing was impossible with God.

One evening while he was preparing for bed, he heard the Lord speak to his heart saying, “Look in the mirror - tell Me what you see.” He looked for a moment and said, “I see a new creation!” He said, “Yes, but look again.” So he did, and then said, “I see a child of the King - a servant of Jesus - and beauty from the ashes of my old life.” Yet he knew these were not the answers He was looking for. What was the Lord trying to show him? He looked at in the mirror again. “What do you see, My son?” At last he understood. “I see that the man, the man in the mirror - is me.”

Rogers very much savoured the opportunity to live beyond his past problems. He enjoyed being a husband since 1982, a father and a grandfather. It was not proof that he was not gay, but it was evidence of a life he never thought possible. His recovery process took time and work and the encouragement and accountability of his supportive friends. More importantly, his recovery depended on his willingness to cooperate with God. Over the years and around the globe, he believed that everyone he personally knew, or knew of, that had overcome homosexuality had been enabled to do so as a direct consequence of a life yielded to God and committed to the way of Christ. Though he would never live his life as if he had never been homosexual, he was able to live beyond having been gay. And he was not unique. There were many thousands of ex-homosexuals, though most were not public about it. He had met many in Singapore and in Asia; in fact, all around the world.

Middle-aged years

Ex-gay movement

Rogers first gained recognition in the mid-1980's, at the crossroads of several social developments in the U.S., including the charismatic movement in church culture, emerging gay rights and the AIDS crisis. Rogers' inspiring story and pastoral work pointed to a compassionate God who embraced the marginalised. From 1988 to 1990, Rogers was a pioneer and leader of the fledgling ex-gay movement and served one term as president of Exodus International, a coalition of like-minded support groups for people with unwanted same-sex attraction. He also became the director of the now-defunct parachurch ministry in Orlando, called Eleutheros, a Greek word for freedom from bondage. He was widely quoted as a profound example that it was possible to change your sexual orientation.

During Rogers' involvement in the mid- to late 1980s, Exodus International had offices on five continents and declared that "all homosexual relationships are sinful." In a 1983 article entitled, 'Questions Gays Ask Me Most', he presented his view that "Heterosexuals don't go to Heaven, redeemed people do." In 1988, Rogers told a Miami reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times that the ex-gay movement was not anti-gay, "If you want to stay gay, that's your business,...But the bottom line is, you have a choice to overcome it. You can change. The goal is God - not going straight. Straight people don't go to Heaven, redeemed people do." Rogers said he thought that for every person who was happy as a homosexual, there were another 10 who wanted to be straight. That same year, 4,855 people died of HIV/AIDS, and a disproportionate number of them were gay men. The “gay plague,” according to Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell, was God’s judgement on homosexuals. Rogers said a homosexual could stop being a homosexual, but the transformation could take years and a lot of effort. He estimated about 80% were successful at reorientation, when they were really motivated and had a transformative religious experience.

In the documentary One of the Boys: The Sy Rogers Story[6], available on DVD, he stated that his goal at the time was the pursuit of God, not turning straight[7].

425px

Rogers was also featured in the 1993 documentary One Nation Under God by American cinematographer and director Teodoro Maniaci. The film dealt with the ex-gay movement, in particular Exodus International.

Residency in Singapore

In the late 1980s, Pastor Derek Hong of the Church Of Our Saviour in Queenstown, Singapore came to know about Rogers and invited him to move to Singapore in May 1989. The church was keen to institute an ex-gay programme to deal with gay Christians.

Publicity

See also: Archive of "Ex-homosexual to share experience", The New Paper, 18 March 1989

See also: Archive of "Gays 'are made not born'", The New Paper, 31 May 1989

See also: Earliest cases of HIV/AIDS in Singapore

Rogers' arrival and activities were accorded great publicity in the local press. This was encouraged by the Singapore Government in the wake of the discovery of the first cases of HIV infection on the island in 1985 and the first reported death from full-blown AIDS in 1987. Presumably, the Government decided that a good way to combat the epidemic of HIV/AIDS especially amongst gay and transwoman Singaporeans was to subject them to conversion therapy.

750px

750px

Choices ministry

Main article: Choices

Rogers helped to globalise the ex-gay movement and officially set up the ex-gay ministry Choices, a part of the Church Of Our Saviour, in 1991. Choices promised to help people “discover life beyond the control of homosexuality.” It grew to become the headquarters and motive force of the ex-gay movement in Singapore.

The name ‘Choices’ was Rogers' brainchild. Clients who attended his 14-week lecture series, divided into 3 modules, realised its significance and pertinence when they were clearly told that regardless of the situation that led them to be gay, they could still, at any time, make a choice to say ‘No’ to it[8]. It was also Rogers who came up with the aphorism, "Freedom is when you are able to say ‘No’".

He also had regular speaking engagements at City Harvest Church. A young woman, Mabel Sim, who had just experienced the breakup of her 5-year same-sex relationship learned about the existence of the Choices ministry after hearing Rogers share his testimony during a sermon entitled “Love thy Neighbour” on Sunday, 1 December 1996 at Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC)[9]. Sim was later to become a notable figure in Singapore's ex-gay movement.

Owing to his background and experience at Choices, and with the Government's blessing, Rogers became the de facto authority on young Singaporeans' problems with their sexuality (see Archive of "Straight talk about homosexuality" in "TEENS" magazine, 1994). He was once invited to be a panel member in a televised forum on Channel 5 which discussed homosexuality and HIV in Singapore. Many viewers were struck by his androgynous appearance, voice and mannerisms.

One of Rogers' most famous protégés who attended his ex-gay programme at Choices was Leslie Lung, who became an ex-transgender and who later founded Liberty League, a non-profit group which aimed to promote "healthy gender identity", a specious euphemism for ex-gay ideology.

Rogers resided for over a decade in Singapore before returning to the United States.

Singapore's LGBT community generally resented the anti-gay and anti-transgender messages that he propounded with evangelical zeal during his stay in the republic.

Treatment failures

While both the Church of Our Saviour and its Choices ministry offer no reliable statistics or qualitative case studies, incidences of treatment failure have surfaced across the Internet. Alex Au's Yawning Bread website featured the testimony of Patrick Lee, an ex-member of the Church of Our Saviour, who suffered a nervous breakdown due to the treatment.[10]

Another teenager, Jeremy Kwok, who was sent there by his school recalled that his experience with the effeminate ex-gays there talking about their wives and children was so surreal that he figured that there was nothing wrong with himself and that the problem lay with the gay men living in self-denial instead.

Many gay men who left Choices' conversion therapy programme in its early years later joined the LGBT-inclusive Free Community Church and became gay activists in their own right.

Late middle-aged years

In the early 1990s, Rogers continued to work with Exodus, traveling to South America, Australia, and New Zealand, to establish groups there. He stopped working with Exodus in 1997. The following year, he moved to New Zealand and became a traveling teacher on sexual brokenness. In conducting a speaking tour in 2008 his message included, "Homosexuality is out of tune with religion; it is not what God planned for human sexuality." Writing in The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, gay rights advocate Wayne Besen argued that during the AIDS epidemic, "some men were literally scared straight - or at least into making the futile attempt," thereby bringing a degree of momentary success to Exodus International.

The ex-gay movement started to falter in the 2000s. There were increasingly serious questions about whether reparative therapy worked and concerns about the cruelty of the practices. A number of prominent leaders renounced the movement and apologised. “I’ve heard story after story of changes that have occurred as men and women find the grace of God in their lives as homosexual people,” one ex-ex-gay leader said in 2011. “I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.” Exodus International moved away from reparative therapy and then folded in 2013. The president, Alan Chambers, apologized for what the organisation had done “trying to impose its will on God's promises, and make judgments on who’s worthy of his kingdom.”

Rogers did not repudiate the teachings of the ex-gay movement, but he did shift his rhetoric and change the emphasis of his teaching. When Anthony Venn-Brown, one of Australia’s foremost commentators on faith and sexuality, met with Rogers in 2007, one of the first things he said was “I no longer preach a re-orientation message”[11]. As their meeting was confidential, Venn-Brown did not feel at liberty to share this publicly. It was up to Rogers to make this known. Over the years, a number of ministers had told Venn-Brown that Rogers made the same statement to them. There had been repeated, respectful requests for Rogers to publicly make known his new belief but these were ignored. Perhaps he was more concerned about the impact this “turn around” would have on his preaching ministry. Rogers also began to speak of "sexual brokenness" more broadly, focusing on how feelings of shame separate people from God. He said his goal was not to teach a code of ethics. He wanted to help people “always run to God, and let his opinion prevail over others, even your own.” Rogers continued to testify to his own change, but he also said people were missing the point if they thought the most significant thing was his sexual orientation. “The blood of Jesus washes away your guilt, not your humanity,” he told a church audience in 2014. “You have to learn to reckon with that...Can I just make this point? People do not go to hell because they’re gay. There’s only one reason why anybody goes to hell. People go to hell when they are not reconciled to God through the Christ. Everything else is a symptom of being a human.”

Preaching at Hillsong Church in 2007, Rogers appeared to admit that he still had gay thoughts regularly[12]. He said: “Look at what I’m thinking God, I love it and I want it. But I love you and want you too, help me. “This thing calls my name and wants to be my master, but you call my name and want to be my master, help me. Don’t get into the pretentious trap of ‘I’m a Christian now, I don’t have those thoughts.'”

In 2012, Rogers finally settled in Auckland, New Zealand where he became a teaching pastor with the multi-campus Life Church & College (Life Church NZ) and continued to travel around the globe with his teaching ministry. He moved back and forth from New Zealand and the US after his visa was not renewed in the late 2010s.

In 2016, The Daily Beast reported that Rogers' ministry had moved away from the ex-gay focus of many years earlier. Although he did not state it publicly, pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church informed a blogger that Rogers probably regretted his involvement with Exodus International. Rogers cited that he countered pray-the-gay-away expectations in some church cultures with pastoral advocacy and universal Christian discipleship goals, emphasising responsible conduct combined with ongoing engagement with God. Rogers' enduring popularity derived from his vulnerability and versatility as a communicator of inspirational and life skills subjects.

Death

In 2014, Rogers was diagnosed with kidney cancer which was initially successfully treated. He enjoyed five years of complete remission before the malignancy returned in the autumn of 2019. As a result, he canceled his speaking calendar and shut down all his social media accounts so he could focus on his health. He eventually passed away after an 8 month-long battle with the relapsed cancer on Monday, 19 April 2020 at the age of 63 in Winter Park, Central Florida where he lived with his family[13],[14],[15]. Private services were held at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Monett. Memorial services were announced at a later date. Arrangements were entrusted to Buchanan Funeral Home[16],[17].

News of his death was first posted by fellow pastor Paul de Jong from Life Church NZ on Instagram who commented: “Such a sad day with the news of the passing of Sy Rogers today. He was truly a loved, trusted, loyal and faithful friend. Our prayer is with you Karen and all the family and we ask God for profound peace in this deep valley. Sy’s legacy will echo through eternity.”[18]

Rogers is survived by his wife Karen, daughter Grace, son-in-law Steve, and his grandchildren aged 8 and 4 in 2020.

See also

• Choices
• Leslie Lung
• Ex-gay movement in Singapore
• Archive of "Ex-homosexual to share experience", The New Paper, 18 March 1989
• Archive of "Gays 'are made not born'", The New Paper, 31 May 1989
• Archive of "Straight talk about homosexuality" in "TEENS" magazine, 1994
• Archive of the article, “The Choices Ministry” by Patrick Lee
• Patrick Lee

External links

• Sinclair Rogers, "Questions I'm Asked Most about Homosexuality", Christian Resources about Homosexuality and AIDS, freeministry.org[19].
• Sinclair Rogers' website, "Sy Rogers Communications":[20].
• Sinclair Rogers' Facebook page:[21].

References

• "God's cure for gays lost in sin". smh.com.au. March 19, 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2017.[22]
• "Change is Possible: Sexual Conversions and Imperial Aspirations in the Americas". NACLA. Retrieved 11 July 2017.[23]
• Venn-Brown, Anthony (March 6, 2017). "Sy Rogers – is his message homosexual re-orientation?". abbi.org.[24]
• White, Russ (1 August 1987). "If I Can Change, You Can, Former Transsexual Tells Gays". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 4 March 2019.[25]
• Kennedy, Dana (14 January 1988). "Helping gays go straight". Chicago Sun-Times. ProQuest 257259079.[26]
• Maraghy, Mary (24 November 2001). "Ministries reaching sexually 'broken' But gay pastor says they teach people to live in denial". Florida Times Union. ProQuest 414208878.
• "Transgender Agenda Finds 'Father Knows Best'- Style Poster Child". Charismanews.com. Retrieved 28 February 2019.[27]
• Rogers, Sy. "The Man In The Mirror". www.exodusglobalalliance.org. Though I did not get around to ever having the surgery, I was on hormone therapy and lived as a woman for about a year and a half.[28]
• "Did Pat Robertson Really Endorse The Transgender Movement?". charismanews.com. Retrieved 28 February 2019.[29]
• The Gay Gospel? By Joe Dallas[30].
• Russell, Candice (14 June 1994). "GOING STRAIGHT DOCUMENTARY FOCUSES ON EFFORTS TO 'CURE' HOMOSEXUALS". Sun Sentinel. ProQuest 388682062.
• Pollard, Ruth (19 March 2008). "God's cure for gays lost in sin: FACING THEIR DEMONS - A HERALD INVESTIGATION". Sydney Morning Herald. ProQuest 364377547.
• Bruce, Clara. (2017-03-01). "Sy Rogers' Message of Grace for Sexual Brokenness, at Colour Conference". Hope 103.2. Retrieved 2019-02-28.[31]
• "Youths flock to Queenstown for conference". Southland Times. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2019-03-04.[32]
• Besen, Wayne (July 2007). "The Politics of the Ex-Gay Movement". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. 14 (4). ProQuest 198678084.
• Zadrozny, Brandy (January 16, 2016). "Sex Abuse & Gay Conversion Therapy: The Dark Past of Justin Bieber's Megachurch Hillsong". The Daily Beast.[33]
• Sinclair, Harriet (10 July 2017). "U.S.'s Richest Boarding School Admits It Showed Anti-Gay Videos To Students". Newsweek. Retrieved 4 March 2019.[34]
• "Sy & Karen Rogers". Hillsong Channel NOW. Retrieved 2019-04-03.[35]
• "Sy Bio | Sy Rogers". Retrieved 2019-04-03.[36]
• Ashcroft, Nerida. "Sy Rogers chats with Andrew". www.rhema.co.nz. Retrieved 2019-04-03.[37]
• "Guest Speaker: Sy Rogers". thelifechurch.com. Retrieved 2019-04-03.[38]
• "Obituary for Sinclair "Sy" Rogers II at Buchanan Funeral Home".[39]*www.buchananfuneralhomemonett.com.
• https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Mon-hgoJv/

Acknowledgements

This article was written by Roy Tan.