APA: Insufficient evidence that sexual orientation change efforts work

Source

August 5, 2009

TORONTO—The American Psychological Association adopted a resolution Wednesday stating that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients that they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments.

The “Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts” also advises that parents, guardians, young people and their families avoid sexual orientation treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and instead seek psychotherapy, social support and educational services “that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth.”

More On The AWARE Affair

Source

29 April 2009

Just an appendix to yesterday’s first entry. Christian ministries and organizations claiming that homosexuals need ‘curing’ and that they can be ‘cured’ through faith and prayer, have been around for a while. But as with so many other things, the gap between their galloping optimism and the reality, is a wide one. Take Exodus International, which seeks to convert homosexuals, both religiously and behaviorally. Three years after it started, two of its original founders ‘reverted’. In 2000 its long-term chairman, John Paulk, was removed for ‘engaging in behavior which has negatively impacted on the credibility of Exodus’; which is another way of saying that he had been caught visiting gay bars. In the 1990’s in the US a man named Michael Johnston, who was HIV positive, was widely promoted by the American Family Association as a sterling example of a homosexual ‘transformed by the Lord’. He spoke widely on radio and TV and in churches. In 2002 it was revealed that he had been having unprotected sex with other males. Another Christian ministry called Love In Action started in 1973 by Frank Worthen, John Evans, and Kent Philpott, claimed that homosexuals could become heterosexual if only they would pray hard enough. McIntyre eventually committed suicide in despair over his inability to change and Evans left the project and denounced it as dangerous. He was quoted as saying: ‘They’re destroying people’s lives. If you don’t do their thing, you’re not of God, you’ll go to hell. They’re living in a fantasy world’. The third of the three founders, Kent Philpott, wrote a book called The Third Sex? in which he claimed that he had ‘cured’ hundreds of gays. Some of these ‘cured’ gays, including Evans, filed a suit against Philpott for misrepresentation (i.e. lying) and he was forced to remove his book from the market. Until 2006 Pastor Ted Haggard was head of the 14,000 member congregation New Life Church in Colorado in the US, and leader of the powerful National Association of Evangelicals. He was also well-known for his strong condemnation of homosexuality. In 2006 Haggard was forced to resign when confronted with evidence that he had been taking drugs and engaging in sex with other men. A year later Haggard announced that he had been ‘completely cured through the Lord’s grace’ and almost immediately new evidence emerged of his homosexual behavior.

SMH: Virginity pledge no guarantee

Source

December 30, 2008

TEENAGERS in the United States who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control, a study published yesterday says.

Feature article on homophobia in Malaysian newspaper

Source: New Straits Times, (Malaysia)
16 Nov 2008

ISSUES: Why do you want to hurt me?

When we fear, can’t understand or accept something, we may try to ignore, change or lash out at the very thing or person we fear, often without thinking of the consequences, writes TAN CHOE CHOE

JAY was hospitalised for two weeks last year after he was attacked by a group of Mat Rempit at a public park that was fast gaining the reputation as a notorious gay-haunt.

It was around 10pm when he stepped out from his parked car for a smoke and saw three men heading towards him. His partner remained in the car.

Suddenly, they were all over him — bashing him with helmets and fists. He heard curses and he could smell the rank odour of alcohol on his assailants.

But that was all he could gather before he lost consciousness. His partner escaped the assault by locking himself in the car.

Indonesia: Anti-gay campaign sweeps Jakarta

Source:  Website – Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific
Date: Not precisely dated, probably July 2008

Indonesia: Anti-gay campaign sweeps Jakarta

According to Rido Triawan, the chairperson of Arus Pelangi (“Rainbow Current”), an Indonesian LGBTI rights organisation, a new anti-gay and lesbian campaign is sweeping Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in the wake of hysterical media coverage about a so-called “Gay mutilation murder case”.

Verry Idam Henyansyah, better known as “Ryan” confessed to the murder and mutilation of a gay man, Heri Santoso, in Jakarta a few weeks ago. He has subsequently confessed to 10 other murders.

DSM controversy could overshadow opportunities

Source: Edge Boston
2 June 2008

DSM controversy could overshadow opportunities

by Zak Szymanski

When Julia Serano first heard of psychologist Kenneth Zucker’s appointment to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) revisions group, she saw it as an opportunity to strategize.

Zucker’s work at Toronto’s Clarke Institute for Psychiatry (now the Centre for Addiction and Recovery) has been hailed by ex-gay groups for his claims that too-tolerant parents enable gender disorders in children and that gender-conforming therapies – forbidding boys from playing with dolls, for instance – are effective treatments for young people.

Catholic forum part 4: Paul Goh’s presentation

Editor’s note: This is Gwo Yinn’s personal report of a talk presented by Father Paul Goh at a Catholic forum on homosexuality, held on 29 May 2008.

Source: Live today as if there’s no tomorrow – blog
30 May 2008

Fr Goh’s presentation is entitled Counselling and Psychotheraphy to Homosexuals.

He started by saying he’s not there to pass judgement on anyone. He said his presentation is based on his professional experience. He didn’t say whether it’s as a priest or as a clinical psychologist.

His first slide is on rapport and relationship building which requires empathy, genuinenness and positive regard, caring and acceptance. According to him, a person can be trained to be empathetic. Genuineness requires consistency between the words, feelings, expressions and gestures. In the case of a person whose parents do not show unconditional positive regards, the person shows psychological problems. I think he quoted a study by a Karl Roger on this.

Do children of gay parents develop differently?

Source: Los Angeles Times
30 October 2006

Do children of gay parents develop differently?

Research suggests there’s no distinction. But the field is a young one, and studies are often colored by politics.
By Kevin Sack, Times Staff Writer

Despite three decades of research on gay parenting, social scientists cannot conclusively determine whether children raised by homosexuals develop differently, for better or worse, than those raised by heterosexuals.

Though the early consensus is that they do not, even the investigators acknowledge the field is too young, the numbers too few, the variables too many and the research too values-laden to qualify as definitive.

As gay marriage and parenting have moved to the forefront of national discourse, what has emerged, some experts say, is a political debate masked as a sociological one.

The kids are all right

Source: Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association)
11 December 2005

The kids are all right

Research shows that families headed by gay and lesbian parents are as healthy as traditional families, but misperceptions linger.

By Sadie F. Dingfelder / Monitor Staff / Print version: page 66

Most of the parenting challenges Steven James, PhD, faces are pretty ordinary. For one, James’s usually studious son Greg, 9, has recently been refusing to do his geography homework. “He’s just not that interested in memorizing states and capitals,” says James, who chairs the psychology and counseling program at Vermont’s Goddard College.

However, as gay parents, James and his partner, Todd Herrmann, PhD, have some fears that don’t keep most other parents up at night. The biggest one, says James, is that their sons, Greg and Max, 4, might be taken away from them if they travel to a hostile place. James and Herrmann’s adoption of the two boys is not legally recognized in 11 states and many countries, and as a result they can’t safely visit one set of grandparents.

Teens With same-sex parents well-adjusted

Source: SexualHealth.com
15 November 2005

Teens With Same-Sex Parents Well-Adjusted

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDayNews) — Adolescents who have two moms as parents are no different from teens growing up with a mother and a father, a new study finds.

On measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors, the teens with same-sex parents were as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents. The authors found very few differences between the two groups. A more important predictor of teens’ psychological and social adjustment, they found, is the quality of the relationships they have with their parents.