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Most gay and lesbian groups and professional mental health organizations believe that the only healing required is to help some homosexuals restore the damage that homophobia has done to their self esteem.
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"HEALING" HOMOSEXUALITY?
GROUPS PROMOTING "HEALING" 02/16/2011
Most gay and lesbian groups and professional mental health organizations believe that the only healing required is to help some homosexuals restore the damage that homophobia has done to their self esteem. However, there are a number of groups in North America which believe that homosexuality is an unnatural disorder that needs healing. They are often called "ex-gay" ministries. Some are:
* Exodus International was founded by Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper in 1976. It includes many ministries, churches, agencies and individuals as members. Exodus currently has about 75 ministries in the US, and has a presence in Asia and Europe. * Courage a Roman Catholic group with about 15 centers in North America.
* Evergreen International Inc. is a Mormon treatment centre, founded in 1989, which has 13 branches in the US, Australia and Canada. They claim a 30% success rate.
* HA Homosexuals Anonymous has chapters throughout North America. They have a 14 step program that is similar to Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 step recovery program.
* L.I.F.E. is a New York City based group.
* NARTH (The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) is an association of about 500-member therapists and social workers who hold these beliefs.
* Transforming Congregations is a ministry within the United Methodist Church.
Their long-term successes appear to be in two areas:
* convincing bisexuals to restrict their sexual activities to members of the opposite sex
* convincing homosexuals to become celibate.
We suspect that none or essentially none of their clients have ever had their sexual orientation (i.e. their feelings of sexual attraction) changed through prayer, contact with a ministry or therapy.
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RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF EX-GAY MINISTRIES
Most of the groups are from the conservative wing of Protestant Christianity (i.e. Fundamentalists and other Evangelicals). The exceptions are:
* a United Methodist Church ministry which we believe is composed of UMC members with very conservative theological views.
* a Roman Catholic group which mirrors Protestant Evangelical views on homosexuality
* a professional organization whose members are essentially all Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics
Generally speaking, their theology is quite conservative. They believe that:
* the Bible is inerrent (without error)
* the anti-Homosexual verses in the Bible should be interpreted at face value; i.e. read literally
* God is omnipotent (all powerful)
* God will always answer prayer
From these fundamentals, the following beliefs are logically derived:
* God hates Homosexuality.
* Homosexuality is unnatural and sinful
* God will help a repentant homosexual convert to a homosexual orientation; to believe otherwise would put limits on God's power - an unthinkable thought to an Evangelical.
Many conservative Christians and Christian groups believe that homosexuality is a matter of choice, and use the term "sexual preference" rather than "sexual orientation". Many agree with the authors of the Bible that everyone is basically heterosexual, but that some people engage in homosexual acts. Many ignore the phenomenon of bisexuality and imply that a person is either totally gay or straight. Their views are essentially unchangeable because they are rooted in fundamental religious beliefs. Exodus International's statement of belief describes heterosexuality:
"as God's creative intent for humanity, and subsequently views homosexual expression as outside God's will.....Exodus upholds redemption for the homosexual person as the process whereby sin's power is broken, and the individual is freed to know and experience true identity as discovered in Christ and His Church. That process entails the freedom to grow into heterosexuality".
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PSYCHOLOGICAL BELIEFS OF EX-GAY MINISTRIES
Early psychoanalytic theories held that male homosexuality was "caused" by an emotionally distant father and an aggressive mother. These theories have long been discredited and abandoned by the mental health community and by human sexuality researchers. However, Dr. Elizabeth Moberly revisited this concept in the early 1980's. It is her belief that homosexuality is caused by a defective bonding between a child and their same-sex parent. This "defensive detachment" in turn causes the child (and later the adult) to seek reattachment to a member of the same sex. The "cure" to homosexuality is for the adult to enter into a close, intimate, but non-sexual relationship with a same-sex adult, perhaps a therapist or counselor. The client can then go on to overcome the deficiencies in their childhood. Becoming attracted to members of the opposite sex naturally follows. Similar views have been promoted by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi more recently. But most specialists in the field believe that sexual orientation is determined before kindergarten age by a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors that are only vaguely known at this time. And they have reached a consensus that sexual orientation in an adult cannot be changed:
* The American Psychiatric Association has stated "There is no evidence that any treatment can change a homosexual person's deep-seated sexual feelings for others of the same sex".
* A pamphlet by the American Psychological Association states "Scientific evidence does not show that conversion therapy works....It can do more harm than good."
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Conversion Therapy "Success" Rates
Many ex-gay ministries do not claim specific success rates. A few estimate that 30 to 50% of their clients make a transition from homosexual to heterosexual orientation. But data on conversion rates should be considered suspect, because:
* many of the groups do not perform actual studies
* many of studies that are conducted are short term
* many of their clients continue to have exclusively homosexual feelings
but, for religious reasons, choose to remain celibate.
* many of their clients are bisexuals who make a decision to restrict their sexual partner(s) to members of the opposite sex
Some studies shed light on the meanings of conversion rates:
* Two outside psychiatrists, were allowed to interview members of Exodus
International in 1978. Of the ministry's 800 members at the time, 30 were picked by the ministry staff as having changed from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual in orientation. The researchers interviewed the 30 and determined that only 11 had really been largely "cured" of their homosexual orientation. Eight of the 11 still reported homosexual dreams, fantasies and/or impulses. Two of the 11 were Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, the founders of Exodus, who fell in love and were united in a commitment ceremony after this study was completed. As shown in the documentary movie One Nation Under God they fell in love three years later, and criticized their own organization and other ministries for gays as fraudulent. One can safely conclude from this study that essentially no clients were able to change their sexual orientation.
* Masters and Johnson claimed an impressive conversion rate of 50 to 60% which was maintained for 5 years after treatment. But there were a number of unusual factors in this study:
o the conversion rate refers to behaviour, not orientation or feelings
o the 67 clients were not randomly selected; they had to be highly motivated to change their behaviour
o all subjects had to have a partner of the opposite gender with whom to attempt heterosexual sex during the program
o 40 of the clients were already married to persons of the opposite sex
o all clients were given a test to determine their sexual orientation, ranging from 0 (purely heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual). Only five of the subjects (7%) were given the latter classification. Presumably there were no "0's" in the study. This means that 93% of the subjects were bisexual. 55 (82%) were rated 2, 3 or 4 and were more or less equally attracted to men and women.
o the client's own definition of success was used to determine how many subjects changed behavior. Some of the clients had very limited objectives.
This study basically concluded that many bisexuals are capable of confining their sexual activity to members of the opposite sex.
* The National Lesbian & Gay Health Association is studying the outcome experience of people who have been treated by both ex-gay ministries and individual therapies in an effort to convert them from homosexuality. The NLGHA study is being conducted by Drs. Michael Schroeder & Ariel Shidlo, 412 6th Ave., Suite 602, New York, NY 10011; telephone: (212)353-2558; Email: gayconvert@aol.com Persons who have engaged in this form of therapy might wish to contact the researchers.
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What Does the Future Hold?
Most ex-gay ministries will probably continue to follow the theories promoted by Moberly and Nicolosi because they appear to be the only specialists who offer a theory which is compatible with Evangelical Christian belief. As knowledge of sexual orientation increases, it is expected that conservative Christians will begin to recognize that adult sexual orientation is unchangeable, and that only bisexuals can decide to change their sexual activity from one gender to the other. Hopefully, the ministries will in time drop attempts to convert people's sexual orientation. It is expected that they will begin to alter their focus towards convincing homosexuals that God wishes them to abstain from all sexual activity and be celibate forever.
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References
1. Exodus International of San Rafael, CA, has a "Christian Resources about Homosexuality and AIDS" page with articles on homosexuality from a conservative Christian perspective, a book list, lists of organizations, list of local chapters of Exodus International and Homosexuals Anonymous. See: http://www.messiah.edu/hpages/facstaff/chase/h/index.htm
2. Elizabeth Gilbert, "Queer and Loathing", Spin Magazine, 1996-JUN (a profoundly sad article describing an Exodus International convention)
3. Masters and Johnson, "Homosexuality in Perspective", 1979
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