American Psychiatric Association Cancels Forum on Homosexuality and Religion

APA Session on Homosexuality ‘Therapy’ Canceled in Acrimony
By John Gever, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: May 02, 2008

WASHINGTON, May 2 — A symposium on the ethics of “therapies” for homosexuality was canceled on the eve of next week’s American Psychiatric Association meeting after a key participant withdrew.

“The organizer of this symposium discussed the session with the APA and decided to withdraw because a key participant who would have brought balance to the discussion had withdrawn,” said the APA in a statement issued today.

“In addition, misinformation and rhetoric surrounding this event had risen to a level that would hinder the kind of open dialogue and interaction that was originally anticipated.”

The symposium was titled “Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension” and was to have taken place Monday. In 1973, the APA dropped homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. Its current position is that there is no clinical need or scientific basis for therapies aimed at changing people’s sexual orientation.

According to the APA Web site, the association “is concerned about such therapies and their potential harm to patients.”

Harvard psychiatrist John R. Peteet, M.D., who first suggested the symposium and was to have served as moderator, said APA officials had taken part in the decision to cancel.

The symposium had been organized by David Scasta, M.D., of Princeton, N.J., a former president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists.

Dr. Scasta had recruited prominent figures with starkly opposing views on homosexuality to serve as panelists. The point, he said in a statement explaining the cancellation, “was to open a dialogue, to share views, to see where we are, treating each other with respect, looking for where there is common ground.”

The panelists included Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D., of Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., a psychological counselor who is closely identified with therapies to “cure” homosexuality, and Robert Mohler, Ph.D., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a leading intellectual among conservative Christians.

Also slated to speak was V. Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal bishop from New Hampshire.

Triggering the cancellation of the symposium was Robinson’s last-minute decision not to participate. He said he believed conservative groups would tout the event as legitimizing reparative therapy.

“It became clear to me in the last couple of weeks that just my showing up and letting this event happen … lends credibility to that so-called therapy,” he told the Washington Blade, a gay newspaper.

Dr. Peteet said he and Dr. Scasta thought Robinson was mistaken. “We didn’t see it that way,” he said. “We were disappointed in his decision to withdraw.”

Dr. Scasta could not be reached directly, but he issued a statement through Dr. Peteet.

In it, Dr. Scasta said Robinson’s pull-out made it impossible to have the reasoned discussion that he had hoped for.

“The hype ... has reached the point that it is becoming a proverbial circus, making it very difficult to achieve the goal of the symposium,” according to the statement.

Articles in gay publications and blogs this week had blasted APA and Dr. Scasta for giving a platform to Drs. Throckmorton and Mohler.

“There is too much intensity and angst for an educational forum to function,” Dr. Scasta’s statement said. “I have asked the APA to withdraw the symposium to give us time to regroup, reconsider, and re-present next year, hopefully in a saner atmosphere,”

Dr. Peteet said he had organized a workshop at the 2006 APA meeting in Toronto on same-sex relationships, also featuring panelists from opposite ends of the spectrum. It had gone well, prompting him to suggest a follow-up to Dr. Scasta.

He suggested the problem this year may have been that the panelists recruited by Dr. Scasta are more prominent and are lightning rods for criticism.

Because their opposing views are so well known, he said, “maybe made it seem like it could become a debate.”

A spokeswoman for APA did not know whether the organization’s leadership had recommended to Dr. Scasta that he withdraw the symposium.

Dr. Peteet said he had seen emails suggesting that APA officials were concerned that Bishop Robinson’s withdrawal made it more likely that the symposium’s purpose would be misinterpreted.

Robinson’s office said he declined further comment on the issue.

I’m glad “Bishop” Gene Robinson made it out of his second stint of alcohol rehab, I’m sure his husband was a wonderful support during his time of trial and testing...

"But when gay activists learned about it, they felt my views on homosexuality are conservative and they didn't agree with them. So they threatened to protest."

I guess he didn't get the memo that you have to listen to liberals, not discuss anything with them.

I’m not surprised about this. The psychiatric profession does not consider homosexuality as a mental / emotional disorder. At one time they did, but now they don’t. So, if a condition is not a disorder, then, logically, how can psychiatrists treat homosexuality?

Changing the DSMV in 1973 was not enough, now Pediphilia and Cross Dressing are no longer mental illnesses either, they only have societal costs involved with them...

The last thing gays want is any discussion of “therapies” for homosexuality. They insist you believe that they were just born that way.

GOD MUST HAVE MISSED THIS ONE, I AM SURE HE WILL FIX IT ONE DAY

bump

Maybe they saw this....http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2011246/posts

This is just the old liberal “the debate is over” tactic. Just declare a dogma that is supposedly settled forever and immutable.

We’ve seen it before with global warming, and with Roe v. Wade declared as “settled law”.

We’ll see it again in other contexts in the future, I’m sure.

You mean the thread that has been pulled?

Whats wrong with a few repeat posts. Some of us miss the first one as we have jobs.

Dr. Scasta said Robinson’s pull-out made it impossible to have the reasoned discussion that he had hoped for.

Ignoring the fun we could have with the phrase "Robinson's pull-out", it's not as if Vicki Gene is the only openly gay clergyperson available these days for a conference.

Didn’t know it had been pulled....and, you’re right I’d never seen it before......

Actually, I don’t think it was a duplicate....the mod just decided they didn’t want it here.....

This same kind of pressure forced the APA in the early 70s to claim,with no research done whatsoever,no empiracal proof presented at all,that Homosexuality was “no longer” a mental illness.
The Clinton staffer who praised Bubba’s arbitrary executive orders with,”Stroke of the pen,law of the land—cool!” would have made a fine liberal academic or physician

'The pro-homosexual speakers — Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual Episcopalian in New Hampshire, and Dr. David Scasta, past president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists — had sought “common ground and new perspectives” with two conservatives:...'

Bishop Robinson needs to take the cellophane off his Holy Bible so that he can read the following passages.

Romans 1:25-27 tells us that same-sex sexual relationships are a consequence of idolatry. In other words, such relationships are a consequence of disobeying the 1ST COMMANDMENT, a major aspect of the GREATEST COMMANDMENT, to love the jealous God with all your being.

Homosexuals need to keep in mind, however, that the good news of the gospel is not about how God despises same-sex sexual relationships. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 indicates that certain members of that church had been slaves to such relationships but had been cleansed in Jesus' name. So these former homosexuals had evidently repented and accepted God's grace to straighten their lives out.

John 3:16
Revelation 3:20

Intellectual cowards.

Triggering the cancellation of the symposium was Robinson’s last-minute decision not to participate. He said he believed conservative groups would tout the event as legitimizing reparative therapy.

It is useful to realize that a person seeking to change his/her behavior is ordinarily welcome in counseling whether they have a "mental illness" or not. Most office practices depend on seeing what was traditionally called "the worried well" patient, just as fifty percent of "patients" visits to primary care physicians are made by basically healthy but worried people.

But this argument is a red herring. The entire issue here is political, not scientific. The homosexual lobby has a vested interest in suppressing the quietly mounting evidence that their proclivities would be as changeable as many other behaviors, if they were inclined to pursue it

Every day people go to counselors to modify their sexual response patterns of behaviors, thoughts and feelings. It never occurs to them that they are "repairing" their "orientation." They just want to live life in a way that works better for them.

If a homosexual doesn't like being homosexual, and wants help changing that part of his life, it is cruel and unethical to deny him assistance in resolving the conflict.