Why Science Doesn’t Support Orientation-Change Bans

First Things ^ | September 4, 2013 | Peter Sprigg

[rhema]

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently signed Assembly Bill 3371, which forbids licensed professional counselors in the state to “engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a person under 18 years of age.”

Christie indicated that in signing the bill, he was accepting the professional expertise of the American Psychological Association. It is true that the APA has been highly critical of “sexual reorientation therapy” or “sexual orientation change efforts.” It is unfortunate that both the legislature and the governor failed to recognize, however, that even professional organizations can fall prey to political pressure and ideological bias—as has certainly been the case with the APA on the issue of homosexuality.

Yet even despite the APA’s longstanding sympathy for the programs of groups like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, the APA’s actual statements on the subject of sexual reorientation therapy do a great deal to undermine the conclusion that the New Jersey legislature and Gov. Christie reached.

Christie’s press release reductively declared that “people are born gay.” Yet there is no firm scientific basis for this conclusion. The three studies in the early 1990’s which were hailed by the media as providing evidence for a “gay gene” (or at least for an innate and biological cause for homosexuality) have long since been discredited by the failure of any other researchers to be able to replicate those early results.

In fact, the American Psychological Association itself has actually moved away from asserting certainty about the origins of homosexuality, declaring in their most recent statement on this question that: “There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. . . . Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles.”

[DBeers]

Arguing that sex-change operations for the tiny population of so-called transgendered people may be unhelpful does nothing to prove that behavior modification strategies for the large population of gay people are good.

You do realize that 'transgendered' is a state of mind and that surgery is far more dangerous that behavioral therapy?

P.S. SCIENCE does not deal with 'good', that is a morality question. Science does deal with effectiveness RE: how effective behavior modification is. EVIDENTLY, the law banning treatments has no basis on science and is matter of faith, it is a leftist morality based IMPOSITION.

[exDemMom]

One needn't assume all reparative therapy is sadistic. Contemporary practitioners use insightful compassion to ease out the deep traumas and anxieties that often accompany orientation disorders. In some if not many cases, anxiety disorders are not merely the symptom, but the root cause of orientation confusion.

Interesting.

I can't say I know very much about gender disorders or their treatment. However, I recall several years ago seeing an HBO show highlighting lesbians (not my choice, but I was rooming with a couple of other women who wanted to watch it). It utterly convinced me that the lesbians were that way at least partially, if not completely, because they are scared of normal relationships. If they truly find other women desirable, then why do they engage in so much play-acting, with one pretending to be a man?

Your assessment fits right in with my previous observations.

[Mrs. Don-o]

“Natural”? “Healthy”? What are you, a hater?

[Tax-chick]

Hater, hater, I’m a hater. Hater of what? I forgot.

[DBeers]

And fag-haters have been trying to “cure” people for even longer, and it’s never worked.

'fag-haters' has nothing to do with the topic. Your attempt at an emotional appeal to support the GOV banning of behavioral therapy for those suffering from the homosexual disorder is simply more leftist propaganda.

[Vaduz]

Conclusion’ is a matter of science being born gay is like being born a felon.

[Vaduz]

Indeed

[DBeers]

Even if it could be proven that people are born predisposed and or oriented toward or against certain behaviors that does not do away with two natural realities.

1. People can choose or not choose to engage in activities.

2. Society can and does justly discriminate in support of or opposition to certain activities.

[DBeers]

P.S. RE: 1. People can choose or not choose to engage in activities.

I will add that the behavioral science based therapy is all about modifying behavior and has nothing to do with CURING the cause, much like alcoholics anonymous.

Alcoholics break away from alcohol by changing behavior, removing and or replacing habits NOT urges.

[Albion Wilde]

And fag-haters have been trying to “cure” people for even longer, and it’s never worked.

Love the sinner, hate the sin. It is not hatred of a person who thinks they are gay that leads a therapist to try to help; it is love for their profession and for the integrity of the body, heart and mind of the client.

It isn't fair to blame the people who try to help those who don't want to be helped, especially since the gay lobby has litigiously silenced, denounced and shunned any ex-gays who want to share their experience of recovery.

People who want to let go of the trauma or neglect that led them to homosexuality can succeed only if they are committed to some hard work, recognize they must gradually let go of some deeply-entrenched habits, exercise some control who and what they spend time with, and pick themselves up and keep going after a slip-up.

If they can't make this kind of a commitment to long-term goals instead of immediate gratification, lots of luck with "gay marriage" or "gay parenting."

[1010RD]

The APA isn’t a professional organization. It is a politicized organization and has been since the early 70s

[Vaduz]

Agree

[Vaduz]

Agree choose or not choose is the answer.

[WashingtonSource]

Bump