In a reality TV format, Thursday’s MTV’s True Life featured two young people, a man and a woman, who are attempting to change their sexual orientation.
Both Melanie and Kevin describe ongoing struggles with their feelings of attraction to others of the same sex. It is interesting to hear friends and family speak in favor and opposition to being gay. The pressure seems to run both ways, for and against affirming gay identification. Both people seem to acknowledge that their attractions are a part of them but they are moving behaviorally to an adjustment they seek.
I would say that the male, Kevin, is more in line with an Exodus model of seeing same-sex attraction as a spiritual struggle. His therapist, Mitch Whitman, operates as a Christian counselor, speaking of same-sex attraction as temptations. Kevin describes a frequent theme that his life was a mess and saw his homosexuality as the cause of that.
I don’t know if these episodes will be online, but others are which may signal that these will be soon. On balance, I suspect that change ministries will see these segments as more friendly to their perspective than will gay advocates.
Category: Religion and sexuality
Politifact rates Tim Pawlenty's views on sexual orientation
On the July 10 Meet the Press program, Tim Pawlenty was asked by David Gregory whether or not homosexuality is a choice and if it is genetically caused. Politifact rated Pawlenty’s answers and overall did a pretty good job of it.
They rated Pawlenty as mostly true on the genetics question but false on the question of choice. Go give it a read. Also, what do you think of this money quote from Michael Bailey?:
“If you can’t make a male attracted to other males by cutting off his penis, castrating him, and rearing him as a girl, how likely is any social explanation of male homosexuality?” Bailey asks.
The fuss over Michele Bachmann and reparative therapy
Been writing away on my book while current events come and go. One big story which I posted about here is about whether or not reparative therapy is conducted at Michele and Marcus Bachmann’s therapy clinic.
I am writing about same-sex attracted people who marry heterosexually. In addition to clinical experience, I conducted several in depth interviews of men and women in what are termed, “mixed orientation marriages,” and I surveyed over 300 same-sex attracted men and women who are or have been married to someone of the opposite sex.
The survey was not a pre and post examination of therapy or even change efforts. However, many people disclosed change efforts and many of the participants were involved in member ministries of Exodus. I figure if change in orientation happens a lot, I would find it in this group.
That is not what I found. On the whole, the group assessed themselves as more gay in their attractions and fantasies than when they were 18 and when they were married. Most of the people were still married, but it would not be accurate to say that their orientation had changed.
The therapist quoted in the hidden camera report appeared to say that it was possible to change orientation completely. Saying this is not consistent with research and clinical experience, nor is it consistent with the APA’s recent task force report. It is also is not of necessity an indicator that reparative therapy is taking place. Reparative therapy is a subtype of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) which acts on the premise that being gay is the result of poor parenting. Find some way to address the parenting problems and with time and effort, the same-sex attractions fade a lot or a little.
As I have discussed here many times before, there is little evidence for the reparative drive theory and even less that such approaches actually have potency for orientation change.
On the other hand, some (many?) people who are evangelical find ways to maintain commitments to their marriages or to remain chaste to the degree that they feel loyal to their faith. A recent New York Times magazine article provided an in depth look at that approach to situations when religious belief and sexual attractions seem to conflict.
Nuance often goes out the window when a political, especially presidential, campaign is a part of the mix. In this case, that seems to be happening. Given the reporting about the Bachmann’s statements about homosexuality, there seems to be little doubt that they have aligned with the political side of the ex-gay movement. On the other hand, I doubt that Marcus Bachmann and his associates operate like Joe Nicolosi’s Thomas Aquinas Clinic, as a reparative therapy office, subjecting large numbers of patients to fables about how the past and present relate. I suspect the Bachmann’s interest in ex-gays is because the change is possible narrative reinforce their biases about homosexuality in general. Let me add that I am pretty sure I am right about that last statement, although I could be wrong about the one before it.
Politically, the matter is unlikely to hurt Michele Bachmann in Iowa or among rank and file religious conservatives. It may however, help illustrate why she cannot win the nomination. Whatever they are doing at Bachmann and Associates, it is not transparent, nor state of the art. Trust is not inspired by incompetence or a lack of transparency. The Bachmanns will need to face the issues deliberately, spell out their beliefs and let people decide what it means for their support. It may not need to be before the Iowa caucus, but it will be some time after that.
Romney rejects the Iowa marriage pledge; Pawlenty on the fence?
Today, Mitt Romney called the Iowa Family Leader marriage pledge “undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.” He is, of course, correct.
Meanwhile, Tim Pawlenty has not decided about his support for it.
UPDATE: Gov. Pawlenty refused to sign the pledge.
Reports: Bachmann & Associates provides change therapy
So says The Nation and Truth Wins Out.
The Nation found a former patient and TWO sent a person in undercover to look for evidence of change therapy. The material seems pretty tame — the therapist involved indicated that change might not happen — but there is evidence here that Marcus Bachmann was either unaware that his therapists did not seek orientation changes or candid when he said his clinic did not provide the therapy.
No comment from Michele Bachmann’s campaign as yet.
There are many issues raised by these reports; let’s make this an open forum about the statements of the Bachmanns, about the undercover nature of the revelations, or anything else on the current report. I don’t want to rehash whether change is possible; we have been over and over that here. Please stick to this report and possible political implications.