Social media giants have decided that evangelical group Anchored North contravened social media rules in order to target LGBT+ youth with videos which at first seem to celebrate homosexuality before offering a ‘gay cure’.

One of the most viewed videos, with the deceptive title of ‘Powerful Coming Out Story! Love Is Love!’ features images of partying, happy millennials intercut with a young woman who at first seems to be comfortable in her homosexuality and faith. She says, “Love is not necessarily between a man and a woman, the problem is backwoods thinking. God being love meant God was nice and God was chill with what you were cool with”.

The sunny video suddenly changes halfway through, and so does the young woman’s outlook: “People say to me all the time ‘I was born this way’, I say, ‘That’s ok me too, you’re not born with right affections’. If you feel a desire for sin, that proves you need grace just like me.” She continues, “It’s not gay to straight, it’s lost to saved.” 

One commenter said, “I don’t think it’s acceptable to try and draw in people with that lie of a title. This is one of the most subtly creepy and disgusting attempts to get inside the heads of young people I have ever seen.”

The group has also targeted anti-abortion videos towards young women, including titles such as ‘Do Aborted Babies Go To Heaven’. One of the most complained about is ‘I Forgave My Rapist’, featuring a young woman who decides to keep her rapist’s baby by saying: “This man is a rapist but he’s also made in God’s image. He’s a sinner, I’m a sinner, how can you not forgive? How am I in a place to not forgive – I’ve sinned.”

The founder of Anchored North, Greg Sukert, announced how the group “pay to reach secular world views” as it “really allows us to be missionaries – not just in the United States but all over the world”. He stated how they focus heavily on online advertising to “really relentlessly follow people with the Gospel, with stories of hope and redemption” adding how the targeting options available were amazing opportunities.

When contacted about the groups actions, Facebook and YouTube decided that the gay cure and anti-abortion videos broke rules put in place for targeted content which discriminates against social media users. At present, Facebook is not featuring any of their videos, but while Youtube has removed some of their videos, others are still available.