the AM I GAY tt (MEN ONLY!) | Rum and Monkey

Contents:

• SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS
• CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?
• IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT
• THE AM I GAY TT (MEN ONLY!)

SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS

• Could a straight guy get dnk enough to fool around wh another guy jt bee “felt good”, or is more likely that he has some gay/bi/cur feelgs that perhaps he’s been reprsg? Even acuntg for the fact that he might remember some of what happened, don't mean he's bisexual, secretly gay, or that you're his magil "exceptn." He was dnk out of his md. So until they fd themselv a siar suatn, they don’t see how n be possible for a straight person to have a sexual experience wh a person of the same sex and not be gay or at least bisexual.

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.

CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?

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.

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.

IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND

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. "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. "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.

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.

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

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.

"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. For nearly 30 years, he has offered a "psychodynamic" form of reparative therapy for people — mostly men — seekg to change their sexual orientatn."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."He c the followg se: A 43-year-old married acuntant was rellg another man that he had seen at the airport while on a bs trip.

THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT

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." As such, sexual orientatn change efforts (SOCE) are rarely practiced by mastream mental health practners, while many therapists are ncerned that anyone who do try to change through therapy may do themselv more harm than good.Still, practic like Nilosi's have persisted, as has the bate over whether sexual orientatn n — or should — be changed. 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 distrs.The Dark AgHomosexualy was officially labeled a mental illns the U.S. He was unsuccsful, and nclud that attempts to change homosexual orientatn were likely to fail.Experimental treatments were performed throughout the mid-century, sometim high profile s.

THE AM I GAY TT (MEN ONLY!)

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, dimished.The "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 says.Not all treatments were so gome: Lnel Ovey, a Columbia Universy psychoanalyst and thor of Homosexualy and Psdohomosexualy, created a behavral method the 1960s. 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 sex.Other 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."Changg" Sexualy TodayBeftg the tim, the mastream mental health muny no longer advot change treatments, but stead supports approach that help patients pe wh the strs and stigma of beg a sexual mory.