APA's Homosexual Caucus Issues "Cheap" Document

Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Silodor Berk, JONAH

Political correctness reigns supreme in an unbalanced, scientifically flawed document that was prepared by six-gay identified therapists (all appointed as members of the six member "Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation") and approved by The American Psychological Association (APA). There was never any pretense of balance as to the make-up of the committee’s membership. The gay and lesbian caucus of the APA, originators of the study, consistently rejected for committee membership any number of qualified therapists either with neutral views or actual practitioners of therapies designed to assist sexual reorientation change.

The APA study also chose to totally ignore NARTH’s landscape review of over 600 studies (as compared to the APA’s citations of less than 100 selectively chosen studies.) The more detailed and definitive study was recently released by NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.) After providing a comprehensive review of the peer-reviewed literature that examined the ability of individuals with unwanted homosexuality to change, NARTH’s Scientific Advisory Committee (the authors of the NARTH study) concluded that those with unwanted homosexual feelings or behavior can indeed change their sexual orientation, disputed the contention that change therapies are harmful, (even the APA report had to concede "there is no clear evidence of harm") and stated their concern that homosexuals are at greater risk for medical, psychological, and relationship pathology than are members of the general population.

Interestingly, at the same convention where the resolution prepared by the gay-identified therapists was accepted, a symposium show-cased findings from a six year study (by Drs. Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse) of people who went through a Christian reorientation program. That study showed that a significant number of the subjects studied either successfully converted to full heterosexuality or dis-identified with their homosexuality and embraced chastity.