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About "ex-gays"

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Thunderlane, Oct 11, 2014.

  1. Thunderlane

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    I know that people who want you to become straight are douche but I still wonder if such conversion therapy actually works and how.
    Do you think that "ex gays", like Michael Glatze or Richard Cohen really successfully managed to reject their homosexuality and become 100% straight or are they lying to people (or themselves)?

    While I don't want to become straight, I'm a bit stricken by all the ex gay testimonies.
     
  2. Hexagon

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    It doesn't work, it's just a mixture of abstinence and repression.
     
  3. Yossarian

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    It used to semi-legitimize claims of conversion, until it was debunked by various psych studies. If a person claimed to have gone through this "cleansing" process and then stopped overt homosexual behavior, it would create the appearance of a miraculous cure. This would actually be someone going back into the closet and acting like they were straight. From external appearances, they would have been "cured" of homosexuality because of the "treatment", but in reality, they have simply been given a cover story so that there is the appearance of a cause for change, when no real change has occurred. No miracle cures here; move along; nothing new to see.
     
  4. Tightrope

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    This is exactly it. Not only that, the toll it takes on the people involved in such movements is well documented and it is often traumatic.

    Way more than the person who attempts it or goes through it (huge cultural issues, extreme religiosity, etc.), I think the people who are to blame are those who run such organizations.
     
  5. lukeluvznicki13

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    I don't believe you can all of a sudden change your sexuality...I agree with some of the above who believe that it is probably a mixture of abstinence and repression.
     
  6. PatrickUK

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    In answer to both parts of your question, no and no. Conversion therapy is totally discredited and unethical. A reputable, licensed therapist or psychiatrist would have nothing to do with coversion therapy. Homosexuality/bisexuality is not a mental illness.
     
  7. ChameleonSoul

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    Despite what those in the radical right say, homosexuality and bisexuality cannot be "cured". Anyone of repute in either medicine or psychology will tell that feeling attraction for the same sex is not a mental illness, is most likely determined before birth and is unable to be altered.
     
  8. asdfghjk

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    People that once thought they were gay or bi or etc may come to realize they are not, it happens, but not through conversion therapy which studies have repeatedly shown is ineffective and damaging.
     
  9. Tightrope

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    True. A reputable mental health professional wouldn't touch it. My thought is that the vast majority of the mental health community does not think much of the likes of Nicolosi and Van Den Aardweg. They have fused what they think are mental health issues with their right-wing religious beliefs when it is really about their personal outlook on morals.

    True again. Taken "off the books" as an "issue" by the American Psychiatric Association (I believe that's their name) 41 years ago. However, some of the conditions which may be associated with what LGBT people encounter, and could be experienced by anyone, really, still remain among the diagnosis codes.
     
  10. gravechild

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    They're free to believe what they want, but do they have to be so obnoxious to everyone else?
     
  11. Tightrope

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  12. PatrickUK

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    The American Psychiatric Association was ahead of the World Health Organisation then.. they took until the early 90's to do the same.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the WHO's shameful delay allowed some of these charlatan therapists to establish the practice of 'conversion therapy' behind a mask of credibility. Even the UK NHS continued to offer 'treatment' until the 1980's. :***: outrageous that British taxpayers money was used to no effect whatsoever.
     
  13. MintberryCrunch

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    If someone claims they've been cured, I'm not going to sit there and tell them they're lying. If it makes them happy, it doesn't bother me. And unfortunately since we can't get inside these people's heads, it's not really easy to tell if it works or not.
     
  14. Thunderlane

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    So do you think that Richard Cohen and other people who claims they've been "cured" from homosexuality are liars?
     
  15. Chiroptera

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    They may be lying to themselves or just lying to others, in my opinion.

    In any way, there is no scientific proof that this "therapy" works.
     
  16. Hexagon

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    Two things: Those administering gay cures often have a different view of homosexuality, and are likely to pass these onto their victims. It isn't uncommon to think homosexuality is descriptive of behaviour, rather than attraction, and thus once a person stops having sex with people of the same gender, they are no longer gay.

    Secondly, many techniques used in gay cures can cause victims to employ defence mechanisms about their sexuality. They clearly aren't comfortable with being queer in the first place, or they wouldn't have sought out 'treatment'.

    So no, I don't think most of them are lying. I think they believe they have been 'cured', however false that belief is.
     
  17. PatrickUK

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    Some people might use that word. I prefer deluded, or in denial. They are not 'cured'.

    The thing that keeps these idiots in business is the refusal of LGB people to accept their orientation (for whatever reason). I don't mean to sound harsh or critical towards anyone who is genuinely struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, but there is zero mileage in seeking a cure for something that is not curable. To actually go down this route could be very harmful. It is a fact that failed treatments have resulted in suicides.
     
    #17 PatrickUK, Oct 11, 2014
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2014
  18. stocking

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    The truth is their still gay, and repressing it.
     
  19. MintberryCrunch

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    I don't think they are lying.

    I think they believe they have been cured. Whether or not they actually have is another matter.
     
  20. MrK21

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    I don't like saying ex-gay. It's like calling a transman an FTM. Some of us team switchers would rather just live our lives in peace. I do not try to judge anybody, and I don't even know if I can even go back to being gay. I actually tried and I just can't. But as I mentioned in a different thread what worked for me might not exactly work for everybody. I also realized that whatever I become in the future, I will just have to learn to accept myself.