Does this say anything about sexual orientation?

I received this email from a trusted source. It describes a parent’s view of a daughter’s sexuality after a trauma. This appears to represent some kind of shift in behavior and even desire due to a life experience. With Lisa Diamond, I submit that some women may be more likely to experience such a shift than most males.

After our young adult daughter was raped, she went into counseling. Her counselor recommended a support group with women who had similar experiences. It was one of those groups that believed retelling the trauma of her experience was helpful. After awhile she began to really generalize her anger toward all men. After several weeks of this, after her anger toward men became generalized, her individual counselor suggested that she try dating women. Before her sexual assault, our daughter had no interest in women sexually. This was not our assumption; this is what she told us.

She believed she had decided carefully about a counselor so, she thought, ‘perhaps this is a good idea,’ since her feelings toward men were not accepting. Several of the women in her group were open to dating women in order to not feel lonely and learn to receive affection. An older woman who was a lesbian took her under her wing. During this time, our daughter never shared about what was happening, as she knew it was far from her Christian world view, but she was desperate to move on from her pain and her counselor suggested this as a means to do so.

Since then she has come to believe her counselor was right and being with women is the only safe way to give and get love. She sees herself as a bisexual but hasn’t had relationships with men recently.

PFLAG reaction to the Chicago Trib article

PFLAG president John Cepek today posted a particularly vigorous reaction on the Chicago Tribune’s blog regarding the June 11 Tribune article about sexual identity therapy.

In one sense, I can understand that he lumps me in with reparative therapists. The article was not particularly clear on that point. I made it a point to differentiate myself from reparative or conversion therapists. I referred to ACT as a therapeutic foundation for my work. These distinctions were not reported or were edited out.

Troubling though was Mr. Cepek’s reference to Shidlo and Schroeder’s 2002 study as follows:

The outcome that alleged Jeff had flies in the face of the peer-reviewed assessments of the practice. A 2002 study interviewed 202 participants in such treatments. Only 26 reported success – and of those, only eight reported not having “slips” into homosexuality. Even more disturbing were the reports from those who said that the treatment failed. Of the 176 who did not change, 155 had long-term harm from conversion – ranging from the physical effects of shock therapy to inability to maintain relationships with family and friends, to a loss of their faith.

I have written about the misuse of Shidlo and Schroeder before in relation to its reference on the Montel Williams Show by Alicia Salzer.

Exodus Position Statement on Bullying and Violence

Alan Chambers sent the following in an email this afternoon.

“Exodus Position Statement on Bullying and Violence

Exodus International affirms that gay-identified individuals and those who struggle with same-sex attraction are persons for whom Jesus Christ died and loves equally. Therefore, we strongly oppose bullying, name calling and acts of aggression against any individual or group of individuals for any reason. These actions have no place in our society and we must, instead, affirm behavior that validates the personal worth and dignity God bestows upon every human being.

“In addition, every individual deserves equal protection and every offender should receive equal punishment. We call upon other organizations concerned with preserving the essential equality of all individuals to exhibit impartiality in their policies, rather than singling out some for special treatment.”

Amen.

UPDATE – 6/12/07 – See Alan Chamber’s blog entry today for some context for today’s statement. I, for one, am very glad to see this statement.