Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1998
TECHNIQUES TO `CHANGE' GAY PEOPLES' SEXUAL ORIENTATION AREN'T SUPPORTED BY
FACTS OR CLINICAL RESEARCH, ACCORDING TO STUDY BY HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
Ex-Gay Ministries in Particular Marked by Failure, Returns to Homosexuality
WASHINGTON -- Therapy and "ex-gay ministries" that purport to change gay
people to straight cannot substantiate their claims of "success" and are
well outside clinical research and thinking in the psychotherapeutic world,
according to a new report by the Human Rights Campaign.
"Mission Impossible: Why Reparative Therapy and Ex-Gay Ministries
Fail" examines the empty promises of these techniques, and points out that
their recent rise to prominence is the result of the agenda of the
religious political groups such as the Family Research Council, the
Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family.
"There has been no recent mad rush by gay people to change into
heterosexuals," said Kim I. Mills, HRC's education director and author of
the report. "These programs have been thrust into the spotlight recently
because James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, wants the Republican
Party to hew to his conservative agenda. Right after Dobson's highly
publicized meeting with top congressional GOP leaders in May, three things
happened: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott compared homosexuality to
kleptomania, Congress began to consider a raft of anti-gay legislation and
these techniques were showcased in a series of national newspaper
advertisements. These are not coincidences."
"Mission Impossible" points out that neither this type of therapy
nor these "ex-gay ministries" really deliver what they promise -- i.e., to
change gay people into heterosexuals.
"Ex-gay ministries dangle false promises before troubled people in
order to lure them into their programs." Mills said. "The clearest evidence
that these programs are not effective are the testimonials of people who
once participated in them -- and the fact that so many of the most
prominent ex-gay leaders returned to their former gay lives, only to be
replaced by people who were never gay themselves and therefore cannot
create new public relations disasters."
These programs make inflated claims of "success," but when
journalists or others ask for substantiation, they cannot provide it,
according to the report. For example, when the Public Broadcasting Service
made the documentary "One Nation Under God," in 1994, Exodus claimed a
"change rate" of 71.6 percent, yet could not provide documents to back up
this rather precise figure. Four years later, Exodus still could not
substantiate its claims to Newsweek magazine.
Both ex-gay ministries and reparative therapists refuse to confront
the underlying reasons for the apparent unhappiness of many of the gay
people who seek their help, the study found. They presume that all gay
people are mentally and emotionally unwell, ignoring the hundreds of
thousands of happy, well-adjusted, successful lesbians and gay men across
this nation.
Plus, not everyone they deal with is gay, yet they never make a
distinction when they claim to have altered peoples' most basic natures.
This is what reporter Justin Chin wrote after participating in an ex-gay
program affiliated with the Exodus Ministry: "Ex-gays are sexually celibate
but homosexuality is still central to them. Everything in their lives
revolves around homosexuality and avoiding it. ... The ex-gays try to drown
their homosexuality in Bible verses, marriage, family and their own new
subcultural niche, but their homosexuality remains."
"Mission Impossible" also examines the policy statements of the
pre-eminent professional associations in the psychotherapeutic world, all
of which warn against so-called reparative therapy. They report points out
that the chief proponent of this therapy -- an organization called the
National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, or
NARTH -- also cannot credibly substantiate the "change" rates they claim
for their clients.
"The results of the one NARTH study are suspect because 63 percent
of respondents were still undergoing `reparative therapy' at the time of
the survey, which certainly colored their thinking," Mills said. "Plus,
many were apparently bisexual. And, most important, the study did not
follow these people over a long period of time."
The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay
political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively
lobbies Congress, provides campaign support, and educates the public to
ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest, and safe at
home, at work, and in the community.
