The first thing he (Dr. THrockmorton) tells them is this: Your attractions aren’t a sign of mental illness or a punishment for insufficient faith. He tells them that he cannot turn them straight.

You go, Dr. T. Start with the truth.

Many clients, he said, learn to override sexual impulses, reminding themselves that what looks like an oasis will only “take me farther away from what I really want to be,” as he puts it.

That’s reasonable. They don’t have to think of themselves as gay or have gay sex if they don’t want to. It’s a free country.