Can gays bee straight? | New Scientist

Contents:

• HOW TO LEAD A HETEROSEXUAL LIFTYLE IF YOU ARE GAY
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?
• SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS
• “HELP ME CHANGE FROM GAY TO STRAIGHT”
• AM I GAY?
• HOW TO COME OUT AS GAY OR LBIAN
• I TRIED TO NVERT MYSELF OM GAY TO STRAIGHT. IT DON’T WORK
• I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?
• CAN GAYS BEE STRAIGHT?
• HOW TO HAVE A GAY OR LBIAN RELATNSHIP
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

HOW TO LEAD A HETEROSEXUAL LIFTYLE IF YOU ARE GAY

Your fay is homophobic. Internalized homophobia. If they're "supportg" you but only if you choose to act like you aren't gay, that isn't te support and may be toxic.

Joseph Nilosi, a psychologist Enco, Calif., says he n rid adults, teens, and even children of homosexualy.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?

"If [a patient] n accept his bodily homoerotic experience while stayg nnected to the therapist, " he wrote The Paradox of Self-Acceptance, "the sexual feelg soon transforms to somethg else: the regnn of eper, pa-generated emotnal needs which have nothg to do wh sexualy. Both APAs have led that the therapi are unscientific and possibly harmful — not to mentn unnecsary, sce homosexualy was officially -classified as an illns 1973, and therefore n't be "cured.

The few that did have "high-qualy" evince "show that endurg change to an dividual's sexual orientatn is unmon, " and that treatments tend to change sexual orientatn may e harm, cludg prsn and mental Dark AgHomosexualy was officially labeled a mental illns the U. He was unsuccsful, and nclud that attempts to change homosexual orientatn were likely to fail.

Given that homosexual activy was also crimally prosecuted the U. Another method was satiatn therapy, which a subject was told to masturbate over and over while verbally scribg his homosexual fantasi, until they disappeared — or, at least, "therapi" were generally effective — the person remaed attracted to the same sex — or over-effective — the person was trmatized and lost all sexual aroal entirely. They "were ed whout people thkg about whether they were humane, " Glassgold all treatments were so gome: Lnel Ovey, a Columbia Universy psychoanalyst and thor of Homosexualy and Psdohomosexualy, created a behavral method the 1960s.

SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS

It was based on the ia that homosexualy origated om a fear of takg on the normal quali of one's genr. Ovey studied a clilly disturbed group of patients and summarized their unnsc mds as follows: "I am a failure = I am not a man = I am strated = I am a woman = I am a homosexual. " His view mirrored the belief of many clicians at the time: that homosexualy was based on a phobia of the oppose non-aversive treatments followg this theory foced on buildg "tnal skills" like datg techniqu, assertivens trag, and affectn achg to crease teractns wh women.

Cognive therapists, meanwhile, ma a few attempts to change homosexuals' thought patterns by reamg sir — redirectg thoughts away om homosexual activy — or through hypnosis. Still, SOCE is still beg practiced wh a small group of mental-health practners, most of whom ter to a populatn whose relig beliefs strictly bar homosexualy. (i didn't really bee gay till about 14 and was attracted to girls before that).

Her hband turned out beg gay about 5 years to there marriage. Sce you had sir for girls and then didn't as much, then the gay 'purists' are wrong believg that homosexuals are 'born' gay.

“HELP ME CHANGE FROM GAY TO STRAIGHT”

After a time, your homosexual sir will bee ls tertg and the heterosexual sir you were born wh will arise aga.

So, a man who has voked himself homosexual activi and who wants to get married and have children shouldn't be enuraged to do so bee you feel like c**p about ? I have yet to enunter an unselfish 'gay' man.

AM I GAY?

Can one pare watchg homosexual porn to homosexualy? When I ed to read homosexual novels, readg heterosexual novels was a bore. In fact, I loved homosexual novels.

But, now, I don't read homosexual novels aga, 'e I now prefer to read heterosexual novels. What I'm tryg to say is that, was difficult for me to, while readg gay novels, read straight novels.

HOW TO COME OUT AS GAY OR LBIAN

Now, I don't even feel like readg gay novels at all. Wow you have no ia what's is like to be gay, so homophobic- many people fd that their sexual orientatn isn't a sire and 's always been there sce birth jt people like you tell everyone that heterosexualy is normal so people mentally and emotnally even physilly tell themselv to love the oppose sex until they realise a plited and paful procs if who they really are: heterosexual or not... Ok no to your first statement the reason a 'gay' person would like girls more do not disprove the born gay theory, this day of age the straight liftyle is naturally phed apon everyone, so you would assume you like girls at first, until around when you h puberty, you start realizg you don't like the oppose genr, and those social nstcts fa off for the most part.

Gay is not how he feels, but how he orientated of urse feelgs of homosexually will follow through om his natural psychologil orientatn.

How God new he would be before he created him, which is how they all seem to have the munal agreement (the try of god) that homosexually as well as heterosexualy or any other sexual orientatn is of equal value and qualy and all serve huy, bee tth be told if anythg matters then all thgs matters. And y others like you envy homosexually so you don't want anyone to have what you n't have. Let the man be gay.

I TRIED TO NVERT MYSELF OM GAY TO STRAIGHT. IT DON’T WORK

And you my ed don't hurt yoelf, don't build your happs om s of other people (they are as cluels as you are about the wrongs and rights between the two sexuali) some of are hetero and some of are homo 's natural nform and embrace yours and always rpect the one's your not. If you were born as a man, then you are a man unls the doctor prove the oppose, you are an Atheist، i dont know about Atheist but as a mlim my relign lead me to a straight path Healthily, mentally and spirually،So for s not an optn for people om the same genr to have sex wh each other This is the e of many diseas as disverd, now how we protect our selv as our relign tght ,, we simply dont watch porn, thats your half way to beg straight, i also advice you that you dont not have gay sex anymore, if you havnt tried yet stay that way? 14 straight 16 gay...

May 9, 2001 -- Can gay men and women bee heterosexual?

Crics, though, say the study's subjects may be ludg themselv and that the subject group was scientifilly valid bee many of them were referred by anti-gay relig Robert Spzer, a psychiatry profsor at Columbia Universy, said he began his study as a skeptic — believg, as major mental health anizatns do, that sexual orientatn nnot be changed, and attempts to do so n even e Spzer's study, which has not yet been published or reviewed, seems to dite otherwise. Spzer says he spoke to 143 men and 57 women who say they changed their orientatn om gay to straight, and nclud that 66 percent of the men and 44 percent of women reached what he lled good heterosexual functng — a staed, lovg heterosexual relatnship wh the past year and gettg enough emotnal satisfactn to rate at least a seven on a 10-pot said those who changed their orientatn had satisfyg heterosexual sex at least monthly and never or rarely thought of someone of the same sex durg also found that 89 percent of men and 95 percent of women were bothered not at all or only slightly by unwanted homosexual feelgs.

I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?

However, only 11 percent of men and 37 percent of women reported a plete absence of homosexual ditors.

Spzer argu that highly motivated gays n fact change that preference — wh a lot of Study, Old DebateBut crics have challenged the study, even before was formally unveiled at today's ssn of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's annual meetg New Orleans, which was jammed wh televisn meras reportg on the prentatn. Ariel Shidlo and Michael Shroer, two psychologists private practice New York Cy, found that of 215 homosexual subjects who received therapy to change their sexual orientatn, the majory failed to do so.

"Hurt by TherapySpzer don't qutn that many gay people have been hurt by therapy. "There's no doubt that many homosexuals who have been unsuccsful and, attemptg to change, bee prsed and their life be worse, " he said. "In fact, he said, many of his subjects had been sponnt and even suicidal themselv, for the oppose reason — "precisely bee they had prevly thought there was no hope for them, and they had been told by many mental health profsnals that there was no hope for them, they had to jt learn to live wh their homosexual feelgs.

CAN GAYS BEE STRAIGHT?

"He said some velop such tremendo strs that they bee chronilly prsed, socially whdrawn or even Spzer says his study shows that some homosexuals makg some effort, ually for a few years, make the change. "We found that women our sample moved om a ls extreme homosexual to a more heterosexual level than did men, " Spzer says. Halman, however, noted that some 43 percent of those sampled were referred by relig groups that nmn homosexualy.

Another 23 percent were referred by the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy, which says most of s members nsir homosexualy a velopmental disorr. "The sample is terrible, totally tated, totally unreprentative of the gay and lbian muny, " said David Ellt, a spokman for the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force Spzer says while the people his sample were unual — more relig than the general populatn — don't mean their experienc n be dismissed.

Rick McKnon, who is openly gay and works as an edor at the weekly Seattle Gay News, is ncerned the study rults n be ed to forward an anti-gay agenda.

HOW TO HAVE A GAY OR LBIAN RELATNSHIP

"Conservative, anti-gay, anti-diversy folks are gog to embrace and they're gonna e for their own agenda to ph their pot of view that, y, you don't need equaly Amerin society for gay people bee they n change, " he said. "But Spzer — who scribed himself as a "Jewish, atheist, secular humanist" wh no axe to grd — says maybe there are gays who are happy beg gay and ex-gays who are happy beg straight, and that both sis serve more rpect.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

Ironilly, Spzer had until now been somethg of a hero the gay muny. In the early 1970s, he spearhead the effort to get homosexualy removed om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's list of mental disorrs. LGBT is still a popular term ed to discs genr and sexual mori, but all GSRM are wele beyond lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who nsent to participate a safe space.