Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Saturday, February 25, 2006

"Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics and Culture," is an excellent new book co-edited by Dr. Jack Drescher. The book brings together for the first time a series of analytical essays, most of which are critical, about a 2001 study by Dr. Robert Spitzer that suggested some "highly motivated" gay men and lesbians can change their sexual orientation through "reparative therapy" with a counselor or religious group.

Obviously, Dr. Spitzer's research was highly flawed and essentially useless. The good doctor basically called up ex-gays - many who were political hack right wing lobbyists - and asked them if they had changed. Well, when the religious right is signing your paycheck, the answer is probably going to be "yes."

It is clear that Spitzer is somewhat regretful about the way the right wing has exploited his work and greatly exaggerated the results.

"I'm glad I did the study, [but] I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I wrote it up," Spitzer says. "I have given aid and comfort to the enemy. I suppose more people were hurt than might be helped [by reparative therapy], but I believe the study has some scientific value."

I have to disagree that it has any value. But, it is good to see Spitzer acknowledge that he has been used.

25 Comments:

I love the way "ex-gays" so openly illustrate their duplicity. When the psychological and psychiatric communities declare "ex-gay" therapy to be nonsense, thousands of professionals are dismissed out of hand as "biased" or "influenced by the gay agenda". But when they find one who supposedly sings their tune, in this case Dr. Spitzer (and even he is backing off), they suddenly jump up and start citing him as credible! It just goes to show the intellectual bankruptcy of the "ex-gay" charade. They are not interested in the truth.
posted by Chris L., at 2/25/2006 12:03 PM

Fascinating...in that link we have yet another ex-gay man who's married and with four kids.

Chris L., be careful about "duplicity"..."pro-gay" groups can be equally duplicitious. Some foolish people were duped in other ways at the time when Dr. Spitzer released his survey. Namely, it was reported nationwide that he was linked to being anti-gay marriage, against gay parents adopting and serving in the U. S. military.

Turns out the source of this story (which made it onto MSNBC's site) was a report in Outlines / The Windy City Times, a Chicago GLBT newspaper, which turned out to be completely false. The newspaper admitted as much a month or two later and indeed said that Spitzer was supportive of all three causes.

However, in some people's minds the damage to Spitzer's reputation had already been done. (And at the time I knew a GLBT activist (her daughter's a lesbian) who was quite supportive of Dr. Spitzer and didn't think he was at all malicious toward gay people. Always respected her for standing by him.
posted by Kurt W, at 2/25/2006 1:36 PM

Kurt, with all due respect, I have to disagree completely that "gay groups" are as duplicitous as the fundamentalist crowd. There is simply no comparison, my friend. And the example you site about the Chicago paper's misinformation is just that. Misinformation. Such doesn't fall into the category of being "duplicitous". You completely ignored THE point, which is that ex-gay groups will quote psychologists/psychiatrists when they manage to find one who agrees with their agenda (like Nicolosi) when, in the broader world, they condemn those social sciences.
posted by Chris L., at 2/25/2006 2:13 PM

Kurt: "fascinating...another ex-gay man who's married and with four kids". BFD kurt!! Anyone can stick his dick in a vagina and fantasize; how many straight guys will let thenselves be blown by another guy and fantasize that it's a woman's mouth. I have a gay friend who was married and yes has FOUR kids! He knew he was gay before he was married but wanted children and was raised in a southern state (family pressure). Their sex life was LOUSY and about the only 4 times they had sex is when she got pregnant. Needless to say the marriage broke up, she is re-married to a hetero and he's looking for a boyfriend. He screwed up his wife's life and put his children through the trauma of a divorce to please shmucks like you. Your arguments are, as usual, specious. And on the rare occasions when gay groups *may* be dublicitous, it's because we're defending ourselves from the attacks of others, including people like you. We're not the ones on the offensive We just want equal rights and to BE LEFT ALONE!
posted by Anonymous, at 2/25/2006 2:42 PM

Chris L., "misinformation"?

[b]Dis[/b]information was more like it...yet it ran.

Chris, Dr. Spitzer, in a press conference after his conversion therapy study came out, said that he didn't think it right for a psychologist to tell a person with unwanted same-sex attraction (and even with the best efforts of all the pro-GLBT forces around there are always going to be many of these people) "I'm sorry. As a psychologist I cannot help you. I can only try to help you feel comfortable with your gay identity."

Chris, some people with unwanted attractions just don't want to be gay, and they never will.

Dr. Spitzer didn't think such therapy should be called ex-gay therapy. He said it should be called "exploring one's heterosexual potential".

And when you've got real-life either self-proclaimed (or described by GLBT others as) uber-gays like this guy and this guy and these guys and even this guy who find themselves with (unwanted, in many cases) opposite-sex attractions, it's impossible for me not to agree with Dr. Spitzer.

Anonymous, as for your concerns...leave the ex-gays alone and then let's talk. Most of them who've left their gayness want nothing more than to live their lives, love and raise their families and be left alone as well.
posted by Kurt W, at 2/25/2006 3:26 PM

NO THEY DONT want to be left alone nor to leave us alone, they campaign against marriage equality and constantly smear us in the press, and sorry, anyone who is truely gay doesnt leave it behind, because they cant, i dont care how much they whine to a psychologist that they dont want their same-sex attractions. Tough shit, spitzer or anyone else who sells them false hope and snake oil 'therapies' for a temporary feel good fix is doing them more of a disservice than by leveling with them--even if it's something they dont want to hear.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/25/2006 10:16 PM

Not true...there are a lot of ex-gays, more than you, I or Exodus Internatinal will ever know, who leave their gayness and just go on with their lives...it's not a part of them any more.
posted by Kurt W, at 2/26/2006 10:44 AM

Kurt, that is otherwise known as the closet.
posted by BC WaterBoy, at 2/26/2006 10:49 AM

Kurt,
read and heed...

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him"-John Morley

If you don't know where they (ex gays) are and who they are, you DON'T KNOW anything.
Our world isn't even certain of how man GAY people there are!

I swear, some people's lack of common logic and simple reason is unbearable.
posted by Regan, at 2/26/2006 11:44 AM

Regan, if you want to understand why ex-gay ministries are flourishing in the face of all this opposition,
read and heed...

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him"-John Morley

or;

"A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."

(Regan, that very sentence is the reason why no one who is a true evangelical Christian would EVER advocate forced reparative therapy - it would be wrong, and it wouldn't work.)
posted by Kurt W, at 2/26/2006 1:47 PM

According to Mr. Besen, ''The good doctor basically called up ex-gays - many who were political hack right wing lobbyists - and asked them if they had changed. Well, when the religious right is signing your paycheck, the answer is probably going to be "yes."'

Does anyone really think that if you need money, pretending to be an ex-gay is the way to get it? There are many ways of getting money in this world, but that would have to be a pretty unlikely one.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 2:58 AM

Yes I do think some people make money off being "ex-gay". During my own ex-gay days I personally knew John and Annd Paulk, Phil Hobizal and Jason Thompson of Portland Or's Portland Fellowship. In Ca. I personally knew Andrew Comisky and others from Desert Stream Ministeries. All of these people made their living from the ex-gay ministeries. It's just like any church or para-church "ministry" where the ministers live off of donations and contributions from their supporters and participants.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 7:08 PM

Ex-gay ministries are really no different than the Swaggart/Falwell/Bakker crowd. It is a licence to print money and is done so through the manipulation of the fears of people. It is all a big scam and unfortunately, unscrupulous people have made vast sums of money by freeing people of "unwanted same sex attractions", the latest buzzword that is circulating. Being ex-gay is no more or no less than going into the closet. All gays know full well what the closet is: it is an attempt to present a false facade to the world to fit in or go with the norm, knowing full well you are lying to the world and yourself. I especially don't buy the Jesus aspect of this because countless gays are also christians. Spitzers work has long been misused by the christian right and ex-gay crowd as a way to justify their dishonesty. Just twisting the facts at the outset is dishonest enough, let alone the use of a false premise, that one can change a innate characteristic.
posted by BC WaterBoy, at 2/27/2006 11:37 PM

It makes no difference that Andrew Comisky or any of the other people the other anonymous mentioned made their living from ex-gay ministeries, because that isn't something anyone would do unless they already had an ideological commitment to the ex-gay point of view.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/28/2006 2:04 AM

Yes, of course those involved in ex-gay ministeries already have an idealogical commitment to the ex-gay point of view. However being intrenched in such a point of view pubically while "working" for the cause brings an enourmous ammount of pressure to bear on such people causing them to be less than intellectually honest with themselves or others. When I was involved in (ex-gay) ministry in Oregon I was encouraged to take on more responsibility just for that reason: the pressure on me with others looking up to me as an example would keep me from "falling" into homosexual "sin". Or so the theory goes. I knew myself better than that and did not take on more responsibilities in the ministry because I felt I would actually crack under the pressure. But certainly there are people who "thrive" under that kind of pressure-especially when their financial security in thrown into the mix. when your identity becomes wraped up in being "ex-gay" and your paycheck also is dependent on it you have very compelling reasons to keep up the charade. And I am not suggesting that most people do this consciously. This is just what I have observed.
Jaylen
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