Matt – Haldeman made that quote in 2000; not sure what he would say now.

However, your point is respected and if reparative therapists operated in accord with advanced informed consent, I would have little problem with them. The fact is that most of them don’t. They tell clients why they are gay and fail to inform them of studies which contradict their theories. They use techniques which are not mainstream and have evidence against them without informing the clients of this.

In part, I blame the Christian community for this. Instead of insisting on professionally validated treatments, Christians have bought into every crazy notion about homosexuality for decades. If it make gays look bad or sick, then they are all for it. Beat pillows and scream? Sure, if it links gay to repressed memories of child abuse. Grab oranges and say you are taking your balls back? Sure, that must be ok because gay males aren’t real men. Coerce clients to strip naked or use porn as a part of therapy? Sure, it sounds strange but the end surely justifies the means.

I don’t blame licensing boards and others when they go after these things. At best, they are questionable and more likely they are harmful and reflect the worst of those using the techniques.

Teresa: The OCD is the problem with these folks, usually men. They are straight men who might have a gay friend, or are called gay by someone or many other triggering events. Their OCD thinking process latches on to a worry and it grows from there. Some men talk themselves into trying gay sex and they never like it but they worry they don’t dislike it enough or the thought sticks with them that since they tried it they must have liked it (even though they didn’t). Treat the OCD and the preoccupations disappear. Some of the success stories are probably due to this phenomenon. I have worked with several men like this over the years.

January 6, 2013 at 4:34 pm

“SB1077: is it a violation of the First Amendment? I think it may be a bridge too far, yes. Simply, for the impact it has on other clinicians in other areas. ”

What “other clinicians” in what “other areas” are you referring to? The law was specifically targeted at orientation change therapy. And the wording makes it very clear about that (despite the claims of the law’s opponents).

It also may be that some OCD patients who have fixated on being gay are treated for their OCD and then they stop preoccupying about it. This is a surprising number of people who present for sexual reorientation.

Gosh, the things one learns from this Blog.

Warren, would the OCD fixation for some persons with same sex attraction be a result of non-acceptance of same sex attraction? Is this, again, another manifestation of internalized shame for being gay?

Well, the only “other ways” I know about come from parents disowning their children for being gay, and peers bullying their peers into suicide for being gay. All of these have to do with outside factors of non-acceptance, not inherent to being gay. And having never experienced parental rejection, nor been bullied for my orientation, I haven’t experienced these things.

But do tell, since you seem to know me better than I know myself.

“You can’t actually believe children at the youngest ages with their malleable, neural plasticity brains watching TV shows, movies that extol the wonderful life of gays, au contraire to much of reality, won’t be affected in some significant ways”

And what “reality” would this be? That being gay comes with an inherent misery caused from within, separate from the shame heaped upon them from religious and political external forces?

The reality is that, today more than ever, gays DO live happily married lives. They DO live lives free from misery about their orientation. And if a child should see that, What would be the harm? Do you SERIOUSLY think that a child seeing that some people are gay, AND perfectly happy, is harmful and will create more gay children? And, furthermore, what would be the harm, since they see that being gay isn’t an automatic ticket to desperation and suicide, but rather contingent on whether or not the people around you bully you or shame you into such things (and without any good reason)?

And for the record, I wouldn’t want to be straight given the choice. I love who I am, and I can’t imagine myself living in any other skin.