I watched all but the final segment on the young boy wanting to be a girl.
Overall reaction: The show didn’t shed any new light, break any new ground and Dr. Phil only scratched the surface of what could have been done. Too much in too short a space. This is why I do not watch these shows. He set up the piece to make it appear that the disapproving view was outdated but more on that later.
1st segment – 30 year lesbian who wants her family to accept her. The lesbian does not just want her family’s (mom and sister) acceptance. She wants them to change their beliefs about morality. She wants to be able to talk about all sorts of sexual activities that her mom and sister find to be immoral. She could have been wiccan and this family would be having the same problems as now. This conflict was not much about sexuality and a whole lot about one family member wanting the other two to applaud her every move. To his credit, Dr. Phil came close to making that point, but he was pretty much overwhelmed by the guests.
2nd segment – David Kyle Foster and a gay Christian advocate and a representative of GLSEN I think (I will correct this if wrong, later) were on to “debate” if someone who is gay can become straight. This was so stereotyped I could not believe it. No reaction came from Dr. Phil. He seemed clueless to know how to deal with the issue or how to advance any dialogue.
See previous posts: There was an effort on the part of the show and GLAAD to pack the audience. A group of ex-gay proponents got in the show by mentioning this link.
More later…