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In today's Washington Post, there is an article on "ex-gay" therapy by writer Sandra G. Boodman that explores right wing efforts to turn gay people heterosexual. In the story, Dr. Robert Spitzer goes out of his way to distance himself from the far right who are distorting the results of his flawed work.
Remember, two years ago Dr. Spitzer published a controversial study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that angered many of his colleagues and earned him the praise of "ex-gay" therapists.
It took Spitzer 16 months to recruit 200 people who had undergone treatment. He conducted 45-minute telephone interviews and found that 66 percent of 143 men and 44 percent of 57 women, all of whom Spitzer described as "highly motivated" and almost all of whom were "extraordinarily religious," had achieved "good heterosexual function" lasting at least five years. They were in a committed relationship, had satisfying heterosexual sex at least monthly and said they were rarely or never bothered by homosexual feelings.
In an accompanying commentary, former APA president Lawrence Hartmann, a professor at Harvard Medical School, called Spitzer's study "too flawed to publish." Hartmann noted the study was retrospective, that it lacked controls or independent measurements, and was based entirely on self-reports by people who were motivated to say they had changed because of their affiliation with ex-gay or anti-gay groups.
While the ex-gay industry frequently cites the study as proof reparative therapy works, Spitzer said his results have been misrepresented.
"It bothers me to be their knight in shining armor because on every social issue I totally disagree with the Christian right," he said. "What they don't mention is that change is pretty rare," he added, noting that the subjects of his study were not representative of the general population because they were considerably more religious. And Spitzer calls "totally absurd" the twin hypotheses that everyone is born straight and that homosexuality is a choice.
While Spitzer's study remains essentially meaningless, since right wing political groups provided him with the subjects, many of whom were paid anti-gay lobbyists, it is good to see that he is distancing himself from the fringe. He is learning that these are immoral people who will twist the truth and fix the evidence to suit their ignoble goals. I urge Dr. Spitzer to continue speaking out about how ex-gay therapists are misusing his work and tarring his name in the process.
7 Comments:
Spitzer should repent. He is a snake who will rot in Hell unless he comes clean and admits his study was false.
I used to be gay. So I know it works. All things through the Lord, my friends. Just pray and it will all come true, like it did for me. Jesus is now my lover, and he will never leave me.
Well, Bruce, I bought Cohen's book, and tried his little plan to be straight. Guess what, after six years of living with straight guys and learning sports from them (we even played catch in the front yard, how "Daddy"-like is that?) I found out the following:
The Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots remain the two best teams to root for (particularly after 2004!).
I am a competitive freak on the playing field, and will run myself literally to exhaustion in order to win a game.
I can and have won league championships with my team, and am no "sissy."
I can eliminate all effeminate characteristics from my walk, gestures and speech.
I am still, after all that, a BIG FAG! The only thing different from coming out 5 years ago is that I am now proud of that fact.
I am the same person I was before I came out, just happier and better adjusted. In fact, until I was beaten in a possible gay-bashing last fall (it also could have been a mugging, it's hard to say), I remained a competitive nut on the playing field, although now the doctors don't want me to play because of concerns I'll reinjure myself.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/16/2005 10:01 AM
Bruce honey, if you're now sooo straight (what a joke) why are you still reading gay websites? You should spend some time praying to learn to accept the things you CANNOT change--like your sexual orientation! "Just pray and it will ALL COME TRUE." Do you realize BRuce how childish that sounds and IS!? I hope some day you will stop hating yourself and pretending to be something you're not---and never will be!
posted by Anonymous, at
8/16/2005 10:43 AM
Traditionally, the "ex-gay" industry has never been truthful. If they were truthful, they would examin the Bible on detail, and not only take bits and pieces that serve their own political/financial purposes.
It is painful to be gay, no because is evil, neither because is a sin (it is not a sin or a choice, like some claim) but because the ignorant parents or family members of some,that preffere no to have to deal with difficult issues, and it is easier to live in a convencional society, in which no one will question you or critizise you. Believe me, I know many guys that would change their sexual orientation if they could, because they would suffer less persecution and confission! but that is not possible, God made us gay, to learn to live and to put to a test the commitment of our brothers and sisters who call themselves believers. If they don't accept us and love us, they will have to answer to Christ, no to me, and that is enough for me.
Bruce, you can be who you are and still believe in God and Jesus as your Lord if you wish. He does not expect you to lie and pretend to be something you are not. I'm not religous by any stretch of the imagination but from what I do know about God, Jesus and spirtuality, there is no expectation that one lie about his or her character or about the way they inately express love and sexual desire towards their own gender. Whoever has ingrained in you to pray yourself into denial is wrong my friend. Spitzer did come clean Jill, he admitted that the religous right takes his information out of context to suit a diabolical and hateful agenda of wiping out those whom they view as different and unworthy of a happy life, ie gays. And please explain your rot in hell comments, where is hell and how do you determine who and when one rots in it? I've always been curious about how one human can make that determination for another. Am I missing something there? Tim W.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/17/2005 1:03 AM
