Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi
(Weekly Column)One of the most successful techniques used by the right wing is creating shadow organizations designed to ape mainstream institutions in an effort to undermine them. By deceptively using scientific names and manipulating research, much of the public can't tell the difference between the reputable groups and the reputed ones.
One such mock organization is the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (
NARTH). It was co-founded in 1992 by Drs. Charles Socarides and Joseph Nicolosi as a fundamentalist foil to the American Psychiatric Association, which had taken homosexuality off the list of mental disorders in 1973. The group lobbies to re-label homosexuality a mental illness and promotes the myth that gay people can become heterosexual through therapy.
Although NARTH works mightily to present a veneer of respectability, its rhetoric always has a way of showing its true colors. In 1998, the now-deceased Socarides (whose own son, Richard, is gay and the former gay liaison to President Bill Clinton) told
The Washington Post that homosexuality is "a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender distinctions in society." This churlish rhetoric belied the scholarly facade the group tried to impart.
That same year, while millions of people mourned the gruesome murder of Matthew Shepard, Nicolosi crassly complained about people protesting NARTH's annual meeting by sneering, "A kid gets killed in Wyoming, and we can't even have a scientific meeting."
The theories promoted by NARTH are as bizarre as its insensitive rhetoric. Dr. Nicolosi has said factors in the causation of homosexuality include "fear of tall bridges" a "phobia of the phone" and once claimed that gay men are more likely to be "pee shy." He has encouraged his clients to become more masculine by drinking Gatorade and calling friends "dude." The good doctor also applauded a patient in one of his books as making progress toward heterosexuality after he didn't give a man his phone number at a bathhouse after they already had sex. Even more ludicrous is Nicolosi's notion that, "non-homosexual men who experience defeat and failure may also experience homosexual fantasies or dreams."
With such quack-like ideas, it is not surprising that Nicolosi does not keep track of his failure rate. When asked by a
Newsweek reporter why he kept no statistics, he blithely claimed, "I don't have time." More troubling is that Nicolosi does have the time to analyze children as young as three, telling the
Advocate magazine that, "It's my job to increase the possibility of a heterosexual future for these effeminate boys."
Holding such peculiar opinions, NARTH quickly attracted fringe psychologists. For example, a prominent member of the organization is Dr. Jeffrey Satinover who once reported that "Prozac" may be a cure for homosexuality. Another major
NARTH contributor is Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, co-author of
The Pink Swastika, a book that partially blamed gay people for the Holocaust. "The Pink Swastika will show that there was far more brutality, torture, and murder committed against innocent people by Nazi deviants and homosexuals than there ever was against homosexuals," wrote co-author Kevin E. Abrams in the preface describing the book.
Unfortunately, the sickening and revolting work propagated by NARTH now has a large audience thanks to Focus on the Family. The behemoth right wing organization, with an annual budget of more than $137 million, now features Nicolosi as a keynote speaker in its ex-gay road show
Love Won Out.
However, the sun may finally be setting on NARTH thanks to recent articles written on its website. In one polemic, Canadian doctor Joseph Berger, who serves on NARTH's "Scientific Advisory Board" said that gender variant children should be sent to school in opposite-sex clothing so they can be "ridiculed" into conforming.
Truth Wins Out, my organization, filed a grievance with The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and they will examine
the complaint on November 1.
A second article, written by "Scientific Advisory Board" member Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf, justified slavery and said that African-Americans taken away in chains on slave ships "were in many ways better off than they had been in Africa."
The National Black Justice Coalition quickly
called on NARTH to apologize and The Southern Poverty Law Center also turned up the heat by writing
an illuminating article on the brouhaha. As a result, some prominent members and supporters are defecting.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton canceled his appearance at NARTH's annual conference in November and former committee member David Blakeslee resigned.
Amazingly, NARTH has failed to apologize and Berger and Schoenewolf remain on the Board. Meanwhile, Nicolosi refuses to comment and continues to cower in his bunker, which may be a wise strategy considering what usually happens when he opens his mouth. But as the controversy metastasizes, the group that tried to ape the APA increasingly looks as ridiculous as a circus monkey.
13 Comments:
It is extraordinary that a supposed clinical methodology unsupported by any evidence base whatever of efficacy or safety is given the slightest credence by anyone in the medical profession.
I served for some years on the Board of a patient support charity for people with a certain longterm condition, and our view was always that medicine should be evidence-based. For NARTH's ideas, the clinical evidence base is ZERO.
I'd like also to remind Wayne's readers of the despicable attempt on the NARTH site just a couple of months ago, to support the view of some African political figure, that AIDS in Africa should be blamed on homosexuality.
This attempt by that politician was surely a blatant and execrable attempt to sidestep the issue of endemic irresponsible heterosexual promiscuity in many African countries. I can scarecely convey how much I despise NARTH for aligning itself with such egregious dishonesty.
If NARTH claims to be clinical and scientific, then it must be willing to be assessed and judged on the terms in which science and clinical methodology are judged. On such a basis, NARTH offers simply no evidence to judge.
posted by , at
10/11/2006 5:39 AM
Jeez--do you think it's a coincidence that NARTH is top-heavy with Mormons and other extreme right-wing bigots that make up their board of directors? Duh!!!
posted by , at
10/11/2006 9:04 AM
It boggles the mind that anyone would listen to or believe in anything spread by NARTH.
Signed by an 82-yr. old innocent babe.
Lloyd Thoms
Wilmington, Delaware
posted by , at
10/11/2006 12:28 PM
Having a shy bladder is in a lot of people. Puuuuleeeezzzee.
posted by , at
10/15/2006 11:38 PM
A片,A片,成人網站,成人漫畫,色情,情色網,情色,AV,AV女優,成人影城,成人,色情A片,日本AV,免費成人影片,成人影片,SEX,免費A片,A片下載,免費A片下載,做愛,情色A片,色情影片,H漫,A漫,18成人
a片,色情影片,情色電影,a片,色情,情色網,情色,av,av女優,成人影城,成人,色情a片,日本av,免費成人影片,成人影片,情色a片,sex,免費a片,a片下載,免費a片下載
情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣
A片,A片,A片下載,做愛,成人電影,.18成人,日本A片,情色小說,情色電影,成人影城,自拍,情色論壇,成人論壇,情色貼圖,情色,免費A片,成人,成人網站,成人圖片,AV女優,成人光碟,色情,色情影片,免費A片下載,SEX,AV,色情網站,本土自拍,性愛,成人影片,情色文學,成人文章,成人圖片區,成人貼圖
情色,AV女優,UT聊天室,聊天室,A片,視訊聊天室
UT聊天室,視訊聊天室,辣妹視訊,視訊辣妹,情色視訊,視訊,080視訊聊天室,視訊交友90739,美女視訊,視訊美女,免費視訊聊天室,免費視訊聊天,免費視訊,視訊聊天室,視訊聊天,視訊交友網,視訊交友,情人視訊網,成人視訊,哈啦聊天室,UT聊天室,豆豆聊天室,
聊天室,聊天,色情聊天室,色情,尋夢園聊天室,聊天室尋夢園,080聊天室,080苗栗人聊天室,柔情聊天網,小高聊天室,上班族聊天室,080中部人聊天室,中部人聊天室,成人聊天室,成人
posted by , at
1/21/2009 4:10 AM
posted by 說妳美美美睫美甲紋繡預約0915551807, at
4/10/2009 1:10 PM
beijing massageshanghai massage is very good
beijing massage too goodturntable bearingsslewing ringsslewing ring暑期赴美带薪实习费用赴美社会实践社会实践暑期实习暑期赴美带薪实践大学生社会实践slewing bearingslewing bearingsbeijing massagebeijing massagebeijing massage
posted by , at
11/25/2009 2:02 AM
posted by 說妳美美美睫美甲紋繡預約0915551807, at
1/15/2010 9:41 PM
posted by 說妳美美美睫美甲紋繡預約0915551807, at
6/25/2010 12:37 PM
shanghai massage
beijing massage
beijing massage
shanghai massage
beijing massage
shanghai massage
shanghai massage
posted by Unknown, at
9/19/2010 4:35 AM
posted by 說妳美美美睫美甲紋繡預約0915551807, at
8/13/2011 9:12 AM
posted by 新北接睫毛板橋美睫預約推薦 0915551807, at
4/04/2015 1:20 PM
posted by 新北接睫毛板橋美睫預約推薦 0915551807, at
5/26/2015 8:55 AM
<< Home
