Some Guys Are Normal

Ex-Gay According to the APA

The American Psychiatric Association has written an article for The Advocate online that deals with the term ex-gay.

It's a pretty clear-cut article about where they and all of the other major professional health and mental health organization in the country stand on the issue.

A couple of good clips:

"The most important fact about “reparative therapy,” also sometimes known as “conversion” therapy, is that it is based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers, together representing more than 477,000 health and mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, and thus there is no need for a “cure.” "

"the idea that homosexuality is a mental disorder, or that the emergence of same-gender sexual desires among some adolescents is in any way abnormal or mentally unhealthy, has no support among health and mental health professional organizations."

"As these statements make clear, health and mental health professional organizations do not support efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation through “reparative therapy” and have raised serious concerns about its potential to do harm."

So, the APA and all of the others do not support change, are concerned about the possibility that trying to change can do harm, and are concerned that practicioners of conversion therapy, reparative therapy, or ex-gay types of organizations disseminate false or misleading information about gay people.

Sounds pretty clear to me. Somehow people like NARTH and Warren Throckmorton seem to find wiggle room in these types of statements though.

posted by Brady @ 11:47 AM