Category: sexual orientation

PFOX revamps website

Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-gays has revamped their website with a more streamlined look. Much of the same content is in place formatted as a series of bulletin boards where it appears comments can be posted. PFOX also has a blog.

A flash video clip of Dr. Robert Spitzer is featured on the front page and loads automatically. I cannot tell from what video the clip is taken but it appears to be edited from a longer produced video. Anyone know from what this is taken? It seems to be a bit sparse to be included on the site without context. If you do not know who Dr. Spitzer is, then it won’t make much sense to you. If you know what Dr. Spitzer believes (change occurs but it is quite rare), then it will seem plucked out of context. I have a lengthy interview with Dr. Spitzer (pdf file opens in this window) where he covers the same ground in great detail.

Wayne Besen has a more recent clip of Bob Spitzer saying essentially the same thing he always does about his work although here he says he is not happy with how he believes Focus on the Family has used his study. I do not know what he is referring to exactly as he only mentions that he was unhappy that his broadcast with Dr. Dobson was distributed widely. If anyone has evidence of where Focus has misstated the study, please post it. I cannot recall where they have said more than what he says.

UPDATE: 2/19/07 – I spoke with Bob Spitzer by phone this morning. He does not know from what video the clip on the PFOX website comes. He said he is not a spokesman for PFOX and hopes that they will note a disclaimer on their site that he believes change in sexual orientation is infrequent.

Taiwanese study links parenting and adult homosexuality

This study from authors, For-Wey Lung and Bih-Ching Shu in Comprehensive Psychiatry (opens a pdf file in this window) assess adult ratings of parent-child relationships as correlated with sexual orientation. The authors find significant differences between the gay and straight groups in parental overprotection and parental concern. There appear to be significant issues with this study but I thought I would note it since it is quite appropos to discussions we have here. I have written the authors with questions regarding sampling, definitions and assessments of sexual orientation and the lack of non-clinical homosexual group. Readers: post any other questions or observations you have.

UPDATE – 2/15/07: In further review of the study, it appears that the flaws in design outweigh any conclusions that could be drawn from it. Not only was the homosexual group a clinical group (they were diagnosed with an adjustment disorder), they had much higher neuroticism scores than the other two groups which stacked the deck against them. In essence, the authors varied two independent variables (sexual orientation, & neuroticism) simultaneously and attributed all the effects to the homosexual variable. You can’t tell what predicts what and certainly not causes what. Without adequate controls, you cannot say how much of the variance in perceived parenting was related to being gay and how much was due to higher neuroticism.

About all you can say is that a small non-representative group of homosexual soldiers in Taiwan who have an adjustment disorder and are high in neuroticism perceive their parenting as worse than a larger group of heterosexual soldiers in Taiwan who have an adjustment disorder but are significantly lower in neuroticism. All of those who have an adjustment disorder perceive their parenting as worse than those soldiers who do not currently have an adjustment disorder. I am careful to say perceived parenting because neuroticism as a trait may impact recalled parenting. In other words, if you manifest the temperamental trait of neuroticism (negative, prone to depression and worry, generally unhappy), this is likely to color your recall of upbringing. Some research suggests that the relationship between perceptions of parenting and adult pathology are related in a bidirectional manner (children impact the parent’s relationship and vice versa – this essentially means that some kids are harder to parent than others and the quality of the parental relationship and hence the recollection of that relationship will be colored by the temperamental traits of the children).

New York Times covers sexual reorientation issue

Michael Luo has a story in the New York Times this morning titled, “Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy.” Intended to provide coverage of reorientation efforts in the greater New York City area, the article reviews some familiar ground.

The article focuses on Corey Larson, a young man who is seeking change through People Can Change and David Matheson, a student of Joe Nicolosi’s. At first read, it looks to me like a surface review of some issues that breaks little new ground.

Bob Spitzer is quoted sounding like he has changed his views on the prevalence of change. However, he has been saying that change is rare ever since the study came out.

In the audio accompanying the article (Part one, Part two), Mr. Larson described how he has reframed his attractions as being expressions of emotional neediness rather than sexual attractions. Specifically, he says he has emotional needs to connect with men at an emotional level but that these needs are not met through sexual contact. He also describes how change to become completely heterosexual is not now his objective but rather to live consistent with his beliefs is more it.

Mr. Larson speaks highly of the People Can Change group and the Journey Into Manhood weekend. A glance through the website reveals the heavy reliance on reparative drive theory to explain homosexual attractions. I am not sure the creators of this site would say all homosexuals are subject to a deficit in masculine identification but they are saying that their homosexuality was based on that dynamic.

Sexual identity therapy: An interview with Dr. Nicholas Cummings

This is a draft of an article that is looking for a home. Dr. Cummings related his experience in private practice working personally with an estimated 2,000 plus gay clients. The HMO (Kaiser-Permanente) where he was Chief of Mental Health used their experience with between 15,000 and 16,000 gay and lesbian people to form policies that were implemented while he was there. He discloses this information here in print for the first time. Having interviewed Dr. Cummings, I understand better why he is an enthusiastic supporter of our sexual identity therapy framework.

An excerpt:

Therapists at Kaiser developed means to help clients pursue their values and desires in an informed manner. “Over time, we were able to identify within 4 or 5 sessions which clients were likely to pursue change and which ones were not.” Cummings learned that clients most likely to change attractions either had a strong, internalized value system which contradicted homosexual behavior or they developed a homosexual adaptation through a childhood of abusive life experiences. Those with no prior heterosexual inclination and those with a longer history of same-sex attraction were not as likely to develop heterosexual adaptation.

NOTE: 3/8/07 – Inexplicably, a NARTH writer has plagiarized my interview with Dr. Cummings. It is here on the NARTH site and contains quotes that are verbatim from my article.

3/9/07 – Dave Pruden has written to say that the article has been removed. No explanation was given. Dave apologized for this but he said he does not know who is responsible.

NARTH adopts Leona Tyler Principle

February 8, 2007 – The Leona Tyler Principle, adopted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1973, has just been unanimously adopted by NARTH’s Governing Board on the advice of its Scientific Advisory Committee.

In essence, the principle states that when psychologists are speaking as members of their profession, any advocacy in which they engage should be based on scientific data and demonstrable professional experience. Perhaps Dr. Tyler, then APA’s president, was able to foresee the day when organized psychology would be influenced by activism, and she wanted to ensure that psychology as a profession would not be eroded.

Read the rest on the NARTH website…