Debate Over Gay Reparative Therapy Heats Up

Comments

• Concerned

  Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:21 am : 2 : 1 Flag

  Sadly, people do not always attend of their own free will and many that do are not given information about the track record of the "treatment". Exodus International's oldest and largest ministry "Love in Action", for example, has regularly accepted teenagers sent against their will. Moreover, they have even accepted a client brought to their campus in handcuffs who was administered Prozac without prescription.

• ErickJ

  Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:00 pm : 5 : 4 Flag

  Speaking without opinion regarding homosexuality (or the cause of it), I cannot imagine how courts could allow a "ban" on people receiving treatment. These people come to these clinics on their own free will. If a decision is made that this treatment is "unfair" to homosexuals, that just goes to show how radical most of these pro-gay groups have become.

• Concerned

  Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:25 am : 4 : 6 Flag

  The issue is not one of religious belief. Whether or not homosexuality is a sin is an issue of religious belief. However, these organisations are not simply claiming this. They say that homosexuality is a disorder which requires therapy and resort to pseudo-science and carefully distorted statistics to support their claim. This takes them out of the religious realm and into the field of Health. As such, RT should be held accountable for any dishonest and misleading claims. Moreover, the effectiveness of the "treatment" and any risks involved should be made known to the counselee at the outset.

• Lynn David

  Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:31 am : 3 : 4 Flag

  RT theory says all gays are this way which is clearly not so. Many (most?) have no issues with their father. Among those who do RT theorists cannot say for certain if the "issues" were the cause of the homosexuality or and effect of homosexuality. In other word did dad react badly to a son who was somewhat overtly gender-nonconforming (such as claiming he were a girl). The RT theorists (Nicolosi and NARTH at that forefront) have not provided the scientific basis to prove RT works (following up on patients with questionaires). About the best guess is that about 25% of people seeking RT therapies say they now have a heterosexual outlook. But that's 25% of a highly motivated crowd seeking "change" which may not represent but 5% of all gay men. Likewise there is no information where these people are on the spectrum of sexuality, they could all be bisexuals who just ended up switch hitting. Taken together there is no evidence RT therapies really work nor does RT theory describe most (most all?) gays.

• crossfire

  Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:00 am : 10 : 3 Flag

  I seriously cannot believe this is being argued. You can't say all reparative therapy as harmful. It's like saying we should not allow Arabs into the country because there are a lot of Arabs who are terrorists. C'mon!! We live in America. The land of freedom. How can you ban a service that has helped (and could help) many people who want to change their lifestyle? Should we ban all drug rehab centers if there are some out there they use extreme measures to cure people of their addictions? I can understand banning the bad ones, but banning them all? Really now? What's happening to our nation?

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