Mar. 6, 2006 – In the firestorm over "family values," queer America is confronting a movement that encourages self-rejection and, in the eyes of gay-rights activists, threatens to destroy individuals by invalidating their sexual identities.
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A new report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force scrutinizes the so-called "ex-gay movement," focusing on the organizations leading the charge to "change" lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people--particularly youth--into heterosexuals, purportedly for their own good.
"Tragically," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Task Force, "ex-gay and evangelical Christian Right leaders are using bogus theories and discredited research to frighten parents into doing something more likely to harm than help their children."
Drawing on media accounts as well as published program materials, the report analyzes several anti-gay organizations, which share an ideological mission of "conversion" but promulgate their beliefs through diverse methods.
For instance, Love In Action, a Tennessee-based therapy program for adolescents that describes itself as a nonprofit ministry, operates on a counseling model, using both one-on-one and family therapy sessions to facilitate "recovery" from homosexuality. Last year, the program came under the scrutiny of gay-rights activists, the media and state child-welfare authorities after a 16-year-old named Zachary Stark wrote on his blog about his parents forcing him into the program.
Other ex-gay organizations, like Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), have garnered political momentum by claiming to advocate on behalf of the "ex-gay community," launching public campaigns to promote the message that LGBT individuals can and should change who they are attracted to. Last summer, PFOX used a lawsuit to compel a Maryland school district to alter parts of its sex-education curriculum that criticized gay-conversion theories.
The new report also analyzed the ideological underpinnings of right-wing Christian groups that espouse "freedom from homosexuality," such as the national organizations Focus on the Family and Exodus International.
Parsing the arguments presented at Love Won Out, an ex-gay conference held last October in Boston, Massachusetts, the Task Force researchers found that ex-gay ideology draws from the clinically unproven assumption that homosexuality typically results from family dysfunction or childhood sexual abuse. In labeling homosexuality a psychological flaw warranting corrective action, the researchers wrote, "ex-gay activists and therapists were depicted as brave dissenters from conventional wisdom and political correctness."
Responding to the report’s charges of pseudo-science and deception, Focus on the Family and Exodus International issued a joint statement last Friday levying similar allegations against the Task Force.
Bill Maier, vice president of Focus on the Family, accused the researchers of trying to "silence a message that is not tolerated by America’s gay activist organizations– a message that change is possible." Pointing to what he sees as "evidence of changed lives" in the ex-gay movement, he said, "many gay men and women who have sought reorientation therapy have been able to achieve fulfilling, long-term heterosexual relationships."
But in an overview of existing academic research on so-called "conversion" or "reparative" therapy programs, the Task Force found that they often employ psychologically manipulative methods to induce shame and self-denial.
The main body of research cited is a seven-year study, published in 2002 by psychologists Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder, on over 200 former conversion-therapy participants, who underwent treatment about 12 years prior to the study, on average
Over three-quarters of the subjects reported long-term psychological harm, including low self-esteem and suicidal tendencies. Some reported having been subjected to electro-shock therapy and other forms of "aversive conditioning" to impose negative associations with homosexual feelings.
The Task Force also cited one recent case of a 5-year-old undergoing conversion therapy because he supposedly displayed "pre-homosexual" symptoms. The therapist, Joseph Nicolosi, also heads the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals, which encourages parents to seek professional help if their child exhibits "gender nonconformity," such as stereotypically effeminate behavior among boys.
Leading mental-health authorities have rejected theories of homosexuality as a mental illness. The official policy statement of the American Psychiatric Association reads, "The potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient."
"Parents are being lied to by ex-gay and religious leaders they trust," wrote the Task Force researchers. They argued that the use of distorted information to coerce participants is not only unethical but also potentially illegal, raising liability issues such as malpractice and child abuse. Though no such lawsuits have come to public light, the report advised people involved with these programs to be aware of potential criminal practices and to seek advice from the pro-queer legal organization Lambda Legal Defense.
The Task Force also addressed the fundamental question behind the ex-gay movement: can LGBT people be "converted" at all? In the 2002 study, 176 of the 202 participants reported that the therapy failed to alter their sexual preferences. And for many, the therapy had deeply disturbed their lives and social relations, leading to difficulty forming intimate partnerships, familial conflicts, and among religious participants, spiritual doubts and resentment.
Though organized, religiously tinted anti-gay campaigns have roiled since the 1970s, the researchers noted, ex-gay groups have over the past several years increasingly been gearing their promises of "treatment" toward youth and families.
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As targets of aggressive advertising and deceptive psychiatric theories, the Task Force warned, "young people are now being used as ammunition in the evangelical Christian and political right-wing’s war against equality for LGBT Americans."
