Fridae

A controversial Columbia University study suggests that some highly motivated gay people can turn straight.

Gay rights activists and mental health experts have attacked the conclusion saying sexual orientation is fixed and so-called reparative therapy may be harmful. Critics of the study also noted that many of the 200 "ex-gays" who participated were referred by church groups that condemn homosexuality.

Ironically, the study was led by psychiatry professor, Dr Robert Spitzer who in the 1970s spearheaded the American Psychological Association's (APA) 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

The APA says most scientists think sexual orientation probably comes from a complex set of factors including biological and environmental factors.

According to a Washington Post report, officials from the APA distanced the organisation from Dr Spitzer's study and said there will be no change in the association's conclusion that homosexuality is neither a mental disorder nor a condition in need of "treatment."

While Dr Spitzer said he cannot estimate what percentage of highly motivated gay people can change their sexual orientation, he believes that research "shows some people can change from gay to straight, and we ought to acknowledge that."

He conducted 45-minute telephone interviews with 143 men and 57 women who answered about 60 questions about their sexual feelings and behaviour before and after their efforts to change. They claimed they had changed their orientation from gay to heterosexual.

About half the subjects said the most helpful step was working with a mental health professional, most commonly a psychologist while about a third cited a support group, and fewer mentioned such aids as books and mentoring by a heterosexual.

He concluded 66% of the men and 44% of the women had arrived at what he called good heterosexual functioning.

That term was defined as being in a sustained, loving heterosexual relationship within the past year, getting enough satisfaction from the emotional relationship with their partner to rate at least seven on a 10-point scale, having satisfying heterosexual sex at least monthly and never or rarely thinking of somebody of the same sex during heterosexual sex.

The issue has been hotly debated among religious groups and in the scientific community for years. Religious groups and "ex-gay" ministries such as Exodus International contend gays can become heterosexuals through prayer and counselling.

David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, criticized the study because of the main sources of its participants. "The sample is terrible, totally tainted, totally unrepresentative of the gay and lesbian community," he said in a National Post Online report.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has called the study "unscientific and profoundly biased".

"The validity of the study is questionable because of the author's anti-gay views, close ties to right-wing political groups and lack of objective data," according to HRC's press statement.

"This study has little scientific value because the sample was largely drawn from organisations with strong anti-gay missions and appears to be a reflection of the researcher's personal bias," said HRC Associate Director of Communications Wayne Besen.

Dr Spitzer has also acknowledged he has no proof that participants were honest.

While he says he holds no anti-gay bias, he has publicly opposed gay adoption, gay marriage and allowing gays to serve openly in the military. He is slated to present his findings on Wednesday in New Orleans at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

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Ex-ex-gays

In September last year, John Paulk, an "ex-gay" poster boy and manager of religious right media powerhouse Focus on the Family's Homosexuality and Gender Department and chair of the board of Exodus International was spotted in Washington, DC's oldest gay bar, Mr. P's by Human Rights Campaign (HRC) staffer Daryl Herschaft.

Paulk's media credentials include a Newsweek cover feature, 60 Minutes, the series of religious right-sponsored ads that appeared in newspapers across the US and his 1998 autobiography, Not Afraid to Change: The Remarkable Story of How One Man Overcame Homosexuality.

The PlanetOut news report also said that Paulk was chatting and laughing with patrons, and even offered to buy Herschaft a drink. Paulk also said he was gay when asked by Herschaft.

Herschaft then called two fellow HRC staffers, one of them associate director for communications Wayne Besen, who had had a lot more contact with Paulk as editor of HRC's report on the religious right's claims for "conversion" programs. Besen arrived forty minutes later with a camera but was stopped by bar staff from taking pictures.

In March this year, the Exodus board of directors voted unanimously to reinstate John Paulk, as an active board member after he was removed as board chairman last October.

Less than five months later, Jeremy Marks, director of Courage, a reparative therapy ministry in the United Kingdom reached an agreement with parent organisation Exodus International giving Courage "sabbatical leave" for at least two years after coming to the conclusion that the process doesn't work.

Other prominent examples of "ex-ex-gays" include the two founders of Exodus, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper who left their wives to be together for well over a decade until Cooper's death.

Editor's Note: Have you been to therapy or religious counselling to 'cure' your gayness? Has it worked for you? Or do you know anyone who has gone through with it? What was the outcome?

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