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-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
The Big Easy proved to be quite difficult for the so-called "ex-gay" industry earlier this month. At the American Psychological Association's annual convention in New Orleans, anti-gay forces choreographed an expensive protest designed to pressure the APA into endorsing "ex-gay" therapy. However, instead of succor, "conversion therapy" leaders got sucker punched with the APA forcefully reiterating that being gay is not a mental illness and efforts to "treat" homosexuality can be dangerous.
"The APA's concern about the position's espoused by the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and so-called conversion therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish."
This statement was unambiguous and all but said that the "ex-gay" hoax was the biggest lie to hit New Orleans since President Bush swooped in following Hurricane Katrina promising to rebuild the city. In addition to the punishing policy statement, Focus on the Family reported in its online magazine, CitizenLink, that the "ex-gay" contingent was denied a booth inside the convention hall and was refused ad space in The Monitor, an APA publication.
Trying to save face in light of this professional disgrace, "ex-gay" groups are now desperately trying to spin their New Orleans boondoggle as if it were actually a boon for their cause. Their historical revisionism starts with their failed petition asking the APA to endorse conversion therapy. NARTH gathered a paltry 75 signatures out of an APA membership of 155,000, with an embarrassing number of the signatories actually belonging to NARTH. This floundering flop had the side benefit of placing NARTH's claim of 1,000 members under deep suspicion, considering they were unable to round up even one-tenth of their membership to sign their ballyhooed document.
Nonetheless, in the typical serial-exaggerating and comically hyperbolic style that defines the "ex-gay" myth, Alan Chambers, the leader of Exodus International, celebrated this petition disaster and claimed that the vast majority of APA members were supportive of conversion therapy.
"What we found at the protest, is that 80 percent of the attendees - people that were coming off of the buses and walking into the convention center - were supportive of what we said," Chambers told CitizenLink.
I'm not a rocket scientist, but 80 percent of 155,000 does not equal 75. It seems the only busload of people Chambers may have talked to, was one he rolled in on, filled with professional "ex-gay" lobbyists.
The real joke, however, is the cynical spinning of an off-the-cuff remark made by APA President Gerald P. Koocher at a Town Hall meeting only one day after the APA released its scathing statement blasting conversion therapy. After a NARTH member asked a question regarding patient autonomy, Koocher stated, "APA has no conflict with psychologists who help those distressed by unwanted homosexual attraction."
The "ex-gay" industry took this quote grotesquely out of context by hailing it as a groundbreaking policy shift. "This is a historic step for client autonomy and self-determination," quacked NARTH member Dr. Dean Byrd.
Well, actually it is neither historic nor is it new. It simply reaffirmed the APA's long-standing principle that patients have the right to seek virtually any type of therapy they want, so long as the therapist explains the APA's current position and warns the patient of the potentially harmful consequences such therapy may produce.
His words distorted and appropriated for propaganda, Koocher was forced to make a clarifying statement which may place NARTH members at risk for malpractice. The APA President stressed that it is "absolutely essential" that conversion therapists are in strict accordance with APA guidelines, including "informed consent" and the obligation to "carefully explore how patients arrive at the choices they make."
The evidence suggests that NARTH practitioners may be flagrantly violating these rules by downplaying the harm done by conversion therapy, while misstating the facts on homosexuality. "I do not believe that any man can ever truly be at peace in living out a homosexual orientation," NARTH's leader, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, has written. Last week, he told the Australian Broadcasting Company that, "There is no such thing as a homosexual."
These statements mock the APA's guidelines and fail to adequately explore whether societal pressure is responsible for a patient seeking to "change." These charlatans also appear to wink at "informed consent" by glibly glossing over the very real consequences of "conversion therapy" and inventing phony repercussions for coming out.
If anything, by forcing Koocher to clarify himself, NARTH highlighted how its mind games have run amok of established APA guidelines and why the group should be thoroughly investigated. While "ex-gay" leaders pretend to be drunk on their supposed success in New Orleans, one wonders what they were drinking on Bourbon Street to reach conclusions so dramatically at odds with reality.
25 Comments:
I never understood why some people are so vociferous in their opposition to homosexual orientation until I began studying the scriptures. Now I know that their antagonism comes from a Satanic place. Lesbians and Gay men are truly God's children. We resemble God more than ordinary men and women do. Even though this fact has scriptural support (right in the book of Genesis, in fact), most heterosexual folk don't know it. Yet, you'd think they did; some of them appear to be jealous of us! They want to force us to become the same as they are.
Shame on those who evoke God's name in order to defy God's will! Using androgyny as His tool, God causes Gay people to be born as spiritual eunuchs and virgins in order to serve His kingdom and validate His Covenant with mankind. If there were no androgynous human beings on earth, the Covenant would be broken, and wouldn't Satan would love for that to happen! That's why he agitates so relentlessly against homosexuality, but he and his hatemongering minions (Exodus Ministries, NARTH, etc) are wasting their time!
Sure, they can intimidate a handful of LesBiGay folk into denying their true natures, but they can never achieve the fundamental change they claim to achieve. They'd have to know how to change a person's gender, and only God can do that! Religious bigots can manipulate the media all they like. They can march themselves dizzy. All in vain! When the Lord joins male and female spirits together in His Holy Wedding Chamber and places them inside a LesBiGay person's soul (a procedure described in Christian Gnostic scripture), no mortal can hope to separate them.
posted by DC HAMPTON JACOBS, at
8/29/2006 6:36 PM
"APA has no conflict with psychologists who help those distressed by unwanted homosexual attraction."
I am fascinated by the fact that this quote is almost verbatim to a post in one of your blogs, Wayne. Very interesting indeed. Sounds like you definately have at least one spy in your midst.
posted by jekelhyde, at
8/29/2006 6:52 PM
I got into a very lengthy debate on NARTH's blog about this very issue. It is mindblowing how they are trying to make it seem as though Koocher SUPPORTS their views when in fact he said the exact opposite.
There is no reasoning with those people.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/29/2006 9:34 PM
Someone buzz the nurses' station. Stuffed Animal appears to be having another episode.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/29/2006 9:35 PM
Why are the health care professionals associated with NARTH not being charged with professional misconduct. It is not hard to postulate that the APA position is very clear against what NARTH is attempting to do. Why are professional licences not being pulled from the likes of Nicolosi who distorts psychological research and makes connections where connections do not exist, ie, homosexuality being a form of narcissism and the fact that homosexual people do not exist. Both of these statements are completely false. NARTH is made up of people who distort the truth for political gain and to appease the religious right (wrong?).
posted by Anonymous, at
8/29/2006 9:56 PM
I'd like to offer this link for your consideration. http://www.freeingthespirit.org/CommentariesJS.htm A UFMCC minister explores homosexuality in the Jewish and Christian bibles. There are 20 pages in this commentary so it might serve to bookmark the site to be read over several days. It offers a reasoned, rational discourse on the problems in translating Aramaic and Hebrew which are written without vowels. Inserting different vowels in the words can completely reverse the meanings. It is an eye opener.
Take the word eunich as used in the bible. It can mean a male who is castrated, who is sterile, or is not interested in reproductive sex (gay). She notes how often an eunich is described as a chamberlain, a royal minister, or a trusted emissary of the ruler.
I think this Koocher guy is some kind of sadic, he knows there´s an intense ideological guerilla goin, was ambiguous on purpose, and now he´s probably laughing at both sides!
Ex-gay groups in Brazil (from where i´m writing) are already using Koocher´s quote to pressure the brazilian psychological association into "legalizing" conversion therapy...
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 12:57 AM
NARTH may well have 1000 members. Its membership is open to lay people (insert obvious pun), not just shrinks. Most of their members are probably clergy or homophobic parents of gays, looking for support of their fantasy of turning their kids straight.
-Tara, Antisocial SocialWorker
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 3:37 PM
There are different levels of membership. Some are gay activists who want to hear what they have to say.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 7:32 PM
Tara, that is a good point. It seems very likely that the majority of NARTH members may be people buying "therapy", i.e. NARTH CUSTOMERS, not "THERAPISTS" I recall reading the blog of someone in the UK who was attempting to change his sexual desire, and he wrote about how he had taken out Membership of NARTH.
It would be interesting indeed to know how many NARTH Members are properly qualified health professionals of any sort.
The questions being raised in this thread about what Jospeh Nicolosi is allowed to get away with without being struck off professional bodies is an important one.
A shameful example in addition to what we are reading here, was the recent attempt on the NARTH web site, to blame AIDS deaths in africa on homosexuals.
That particular outrageaous misrepresentation and "spin", turned my disbelief in them into scathing contempt.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 7:32 PM
If you don't already hate NARTH enough, check out their article about a school in Oakland, CA which caters to non-gender conforming elementary school kids. A NARTH scientific advisor states that gender nonconforming elementary school kids need to be teased in order to "cure" them. He encourages their parents to send them to school dressed as the opposite sex, and he emphasizes that other students not be disciplined for teasing them. He says this teasing will help the child realize he can't live in a "fantasy land".
In fact, here's the link to the above-mentioned NARTH article:
http://www.narth.com/docs/oakland.html
Here is the quote from Dr. Joseph Berger, NARTH's "scientific" advisor:
"I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex -- but not counseling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings.
On the contrary, don't interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world. Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.
It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant, and biased busybodies to try to "counsel" the other children into accepting the abnormal. It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick."
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 8:38 PM
They're just kids. Jesus fucking christ, are there no lines these jerkoffs won't cross?
posted by jekelhyde, at
8/30/2006 10:15 PM
"'What we found at the protest, is that 80 percent of the attendees - people that were coming off of the buses and walking into the convention center - were supportive of what we said,' Chambers told CitizenLink. I'm not a rocket scientist, but 80 percent of 155,000 does not equal 75. [Besen]"
Wayne, 155,000 is the APA's total membership, not the actual number in attendence at the convention. But, anyhow your point is valid that Alan's comment is a generalization, because not all attendees came off the buses. Jim
posted by Anonymous, at
8/30/2006 10:44 PM
Jim:
My point is equally valid about the 155,000. With technology and the budget of these groups, NARTH can surely reach the majority of APA members across the nation with an online petition. The fact they have only 75 (23 which are confirmed NARTH members, Board members, staff, or seminar speakers) means they basically didn't accomplish very much accept talking to themselves.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
8/31/2006 12:53 AM
Did you post Nicolosis's statement about disagreeing with Berger? Or do you just report the bad things people do?
posted by Anonymous, at
9/04/2006 1:16 PM
Would you sign a petition if you thought it would ruin your business?? I wouldn't. Even if I did believe. Sort of like no protesting the Nazi's. Some people are scared of retaliation. But of course, gays would not retaliate. They are mostly reasonable people with true and kind motives.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/04/2006 1:34 PM
