In this segment, Ryan Kendall, former reparative therapyclient, alleges that he was mistreated by Joseph Nicolosi. For his part, Nicolosi can’t remember Kendall. CNN’s Randi Kaye produces bills and documentation from the clinic but Nicolosi can’t recall the sessions. This is a component of the segment that I wanted to know more about.
Month: June 2011
Column at HuffPo: Experts and Homosexuality: Don't Try This at Home
Huffington Post just published my op-ed about the Kirk Murphy story featured at Box Turtle Bulletin and CNN. Part 3 of the series on CNN wraps up tonight with former reparative therapy client, Ryan Kendall, and his former therapist (according to Kendall) Joseph Nicolosi.
Here is the first few paragraphs, go on over to HuffPo and give the rest a read:
Last week, Chuck Colson used his Breakpoint radio show and column to promote the theory that one can prevent homosexuality by altering parent-child relations. To prevent male homosexuality, Colson wrote, “early intervention, in which the boy’s father learns how to be both strong and caring, will interrupt an unhealthy mother-son bond.” In other words, according to Colson, troublesome parent-child relationships are at the root of homosexuality.
Colson based his program on a book by Joseph and Linda Nicolosi, titled A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. In their book, the Nicolosis assert that gender norms should be reinforced and fathers should help boys develop a strong sense of masculinity. In his talks on the subject, Nicolosi says that fathers and mothers play differently with their children and he lauds the rougher manner of fathers. For instance, in a 2006 talk on the roots of male homosexuality, I heard Nicolosi describe how some fathers playfully toss their infant sons in the air. Nicolosi then joked that if the father did not catch his son and the infant fell and cracked his head, that the son might have brain damage, “but at least he won’t be gay.”
CNN: Sissy Boy Experiment, Part 2; Nicolosi to be on tonight
At the end of Part 2 posted below, Ryan Kendall was on giving a preview of his appearance in Part 3 of the Sissy Boy series, on tonight. After Kendall was on, Anderson Cooper said that Kendall’s therapist would also be on. According to Kendall, his therapist was Joe Nicolosi. We’ll see…
Here is Part 2 of the series:
You can read some of Kendall’s testimony in the Prop 8 CA gay marriage case here.
CNN: Efforts to change feminine boy created a troubled man
Here is part one of Anderson Cooper’s series on the Sissy Boy Experiment involving UCLA and George Rekers.
A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality refers to George Rekers work with Kirk Murphy
As noted earlier today, CNN and Box Turtle Bulletin today broke the story of a former child patient of George Rekers who was treated to prevent homosexuality. According to the family, the results were not as portrayed by Rekers and some of the details are so discrepant that I wonder if UCLA will conduct an investigation. Clearly, the situation was not as portrayed in the 1974 report.
Rekers went on from this graduate level research to make a name for himself in gender identity treatment. He became a mainstay at NARTH and a go to guy for those seeking to demonstrate validity of reparative therapy.
In their book, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, Joe and Linda Nicolosi refer to Kirk as an illustration of Rekers success story. The following description is from Rekers 1974 paper on Kirk’s treatment:
When we first saw him, the extent of his feminine identification was so profound (his mannerisms, gestures, fantasies, flirtations, etc., as shown in his “swishing” around the home and clinic, fully dressed as a woman with long dress, wig, nail polish, high screechy voice, slovenly seductive eyes) that it suggested irreversible neurological and biochemical determinants. At the 26-month follow-up he looked and acted like any other boy. People who view the videotaped recordings of him before and after treatment talk of him as “two different boys”.
A Parent’s Guide refers to Rekers over 20 times. This case should cause a serious re-examination of the reparative theory and efforts to prevent homosexuality via manipulation of gender roles.