APA to members: Don't tell a gay person they can change.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090805/ap_on_re_us/us_psychologists_gays


OK, so I won't wear out an argument that one can change sexual orientation (though some have whether by clarity of confusion or that they were just experimenting, etc.). Some may not be able to.

But what I don't quite understand is this:


"Ex-gay therapy is a profound travesty that has led to pointless tragedies, and we are pleased that the APA has addressed this psychological scourge," Besen said.

What tragedies? Are they saying thousands kill themselves because of therapy? Let's see some malpractice lawsuit counts please.

 

The use of the plural form of the word "tragedy" does not mean that such things have occurred "thousands" of times. It could mean they have occurred as few as two times.

I think this advice strikes a good balance. If you're gay, and you don't want to be, you're well within your rights to seek psychological advice. But that psychologist should not be obligated to give you reason to believe that you can "change" your sexuality.

By the way, does not the fact that there are gay people who seek "treatment" for their "illness" offer an awful lot of credence to the idea that homosexuality is not a choice? Seems to me that if homosexuality were a choice, these folks wouldn't exist.

 

I believe most gay people are born gay. I don't discount the possibility that very few gay people turn gay via some significant event in their childhoods. Behaviors and proclivities of all kinds can be led down a different path by life experience, and I don't believe sexual behavior is exempt. I do not believe that someone can change his sexual orientation through sheer force of will or external therapy, and neither should he be asked to, whether by friends, family, church or psychiatrist.

 

It's not an argument. If you're gay, you're gay.

 

That's bullshit SPredictor because some bounce from one side to the other almost at random now. Not all, but some. I'm not offering blanket condemnation so don't offer blanket coverage.

 

Then they aren't gay.

 

Behavior, social conditioning or parenting, life events, AND genetics all are a part of the mix of determining one's identity.

The day they shut the door on debate that being gay is about genetics is the day they better shut the hell up about all the bitching about obesity since it too has a discovery linked to a "fat gene." Take kids born in the same family and let them eat the same meals growing up with the same exercise levels. One becomes fat, the other one has to walk carefully when crossing a drain cover. One parent is shaped one way, the other another.

But yet, we're fixing to try to put the heavy on the new health care plan on the backs of overweight people.

Maybe we should say some people can gain weight by lifestyle; some are born with the fat gene; some choose to be a certain way sexually and some are genetically predispositioned to it.

 

I was talking to the Sports Predictor and his gay is gay, end of argument post.

 

So what's the problem?

 

To quote you, if they're gay, they're gay. Some weren't born that way, as you seem in your last post to agree with.

So it is not exclusively forced upon the individual. If they choose, they can choose to change if they desire to or think they need to.

 

Why would there be a need?

 

Can I get a fucking pancake bunny up in this bitch?