American Psychological Association to Revisit Gay Conversion Therapy

The American Psychological Association has announced the formation of a task force to review current scientific trends and its ten-year old stance on "gay conversion therapies".  Given the contentious nature of the subject and the growing focus on forcing adolescents to undergo sexual conversion, the six-person task force will review the current APA policy and make recommendations for the future.

In a press release dated May 21, 2007, APA president, Dr. Sharon Stephens Brehm welcomed the new task force as its work will " help inform all mental health practitioners about appropriate and effective therapeutic responses to sexual orientation".  The issue of sexual conversion of adults and adolescents will be addressed separately and the final report is expected to cover the following points:

1. The appropriate application of affirmative therapeutic interventions for children and adolescents who present a desire to change either their sexual orientation or their behavioral expression of their sexual orientation, or both, or whose guardian expresses a desire for the minor to change;
2. The appropriate application of affirmative therapeutic interventions for adults who present a desire to change their sexual orientation or their behavioral expression of their sexual orientation, or both;
3. The presence of adolescent inpatient facilities that offer coercive treatment designed to change sexual orientation or the behavioral expression of sexual orientation;
4. Education, training, and research issues as they pertain to such therapeutic interventions; and
5. Recommendations regarding treatment protocols that promote stereotyped gender-normative behavior to mitigate behaviors that are perceived to be indicators that a child will develop a homosexual orientation in adolescence and adulthood

A preliminary report is expected in December of this year but the date for final completion has yet to be determined.

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Comments

[LC]

I strongly feel that the committee that has been formed will be biased in the their final report opsoing change for gays and any time of therapy. This committee should be evenly balanced in order to reach an undiased opinion on all issues mentioned above.

[Romeo Vitelli]

It remains to be seen what their conclusions will be. It is to be expected that the final report will be based on actual empirical research rather than the opinions of the committee members. One trusts that the same will hold true for those who oppose their findings.

[LC]

Everyone is debating the issue of reparative therapy which is promoted by various religious groups.
The focus for APA should be putting together a recommended therapy carried out by qualified psychologists for those adult individuals who desparately want this and are committed to change.
If an individualy wants to remain gay, then that is their right.If an individual wants to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, that is their right.
APA has to address both issues!
One can try to say it is harmful to change, but, if an person is committed to change to heterosexual and wants this, it is just as harmful not to this person not to help this person achieve their goal. Yes, the road my be difficult but with proper help they can achieve their goal.
Again, the APA has to address both sides of the issue.
For the APA to reach the decision that change is wrong, is not the right answer for some people!

[Romeo Vitelli]

I believe the question that APA is debating is whether or not changing one's sexual orientation is even possible. In the decades before homosexuality was dropped from the DSM (and decriminalized), numerous extreme treatments were tried ranging from behavioural modification to psychoanalysis to various types of medical therapies (hormonal, ECT, etc). The success rate for these types of treatment has always been abysmal and seemed to focus more on getting the homosexual in question to say the right things, i.e. that the cure worked and everything was fine. Most "success stories" that have been publicized seem to be spread by those with an ideological axe to grind. For the record, bisexuals who suppress their same-sex leanings do not become heterosexual, they are just bisexuals who suppress their same-sex leanings.

[LC]

It is absolutely wrong for the APA to say that it is impossible for anyone person to change their sexual orientation.
There are individuals who have gone through this, and are living happy, normal, heterosexual lives. They have not spoken or written publically about their experiences. For most individuals, this is a very private matter.
YOU ARE WRONG TO MAKE A GENERALIZED STATEMENT REFERRING AN "IDEOLOGICAL AXE TO GRIND", NOT EVERY HAS AN AXE TO GRIND.
Agin, there are private success stories out there. People who have successfully achieved their own personal need to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual
without going through extreme treatment measures as you noted above.
Again, the APA needs to look at this and not just give a blanket statement saying that it is impossible for anyone to change there sexual orientation and that it is harmful to try.

[Romeo Vitelli]

Until these "private success stories" come forward, we are not in a position to evaluate the methods that they used to change their orientation (or even whether such a change has actually happened). Like it or not, the only public advocates of reparative therapy most definitely do present as having an ideological axe to grind and the entire question of reparative therapy has become politicized as a result.

[lc]

This should not have become a politicized issue. Privacy is an important issue to many. I respect that deeply. Everything about one's personal life does not have to be made public.
Again, there are so many people who do not want to make any publically about their personal life and things they have gone through. I can understand this and respect this.
Groups and individuals who have made this a politicized issue are the ones screaming the loudest.
You are still making very generalized assumpations about everything.