Gay Conversn Therapy's Disturbg 19th-Century Origs | HISTORY

Contents:

• A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT OVER ATTEMPTS TO 'CURE' GAY PEOPLE
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY – REAL OR HOAX?
• WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
• I WAS 19, GAY AND READY TO BE ‘CURED’ BY NVERSN THERAPY
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY - PART 1

A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT OVER ATTEMPTS TO 'CURE' GAY PEOPLE

” The article reported that male homosexuals rpond well to group psychotherapy, unr the re of 64-year-old Universy of Pennsylvania profsor and psychiatrist Samuel Hadn.

Throughout the 1960s, psychiatrists Irvg Bieber and Charl Soris were regularly quoted newspapers and magaz, argug that homosexual sire was a form of psychosocial maladjtment, rultg om childhood.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY – REAL OR HOAX?

Frd himself had explicly stated by 1935 that homosexualy was not an illns and strongly disuraged attempts to treat ; neverthels, by the 1950s, his theori were wily misappropriated by nservative Amerin and émigré psychiatrists vted reaffirmg the heterosexual, breadwner-homemaker hoehold the wake of World War II. Wh the popularizatn of behavral therapi the 1960s and ’70s also me new attempts to treat homosexualy, the form of “aversn” therapi, cludg electric shocks.

WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.

Already by the 1960s, such cur had provoked ristance: April 1965, jt months after that TIME article ran, the Philalphia-based gay rights anizatn Jan ved Hadn to give a lecture on his rearch, only to surprise him wh fierce ristance om the dience. In June 1969, the Dorian Society of Seattle worked wh a Universy of Washgton pediatrics profsor to found the Dorian Counselg Service for Homosexuals—the first center of s kd the untry. Siar centers would be found across the untry the years to e, cludg the Gay Communy Servic Center Los Angel, Inty Hoe New York, and the Erom Center Philalphia.

I WAS 19, GAY AND READY TO BE ‘CURED’ BY NVERSN THERAPY

Gay activists would also claim a major victory December 1973, when the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn voted to remove “homosexualy” om the send edn of the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM-II), which meant that homosexualy was officially no longer nsired a disorr self. The sense of victory many gay activists felt may have obscured persistg ambivalence and bias among psychiatrists and other mental health profsnals. The diagnosis of homosexualy was immediately replaced by “sexual orientatn disturbance, ” renamed “ego-dystonic homosexualy” DSM-III, which was released 1980 unr the learship of Spzer and social worker Ja Williams.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

” Ego-dystonic homosexualy was specifilly aimed at patients who exprsed ongog distrs or sadns about their sexual orientatn, even if homosexualy uld no longer be nsired a mental illns.

THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT

Sce the 1970s, reparative therapi have been reborn through “ex-gay” Christian mistri, cludg the umbrella group Exod Internatnal, found Anaheim, Calif., 1976. Mixg pastoral unselg, Bible study, dividual and group psychotherapy, and aversn treatments, ex-gay mistri have promised a cure om—or at least avoidance of—homosexualy to thoands of men and women. The urt refed to hear claims that homosexualy uld be cured om JONAH’s experts, who clu a social worker and clil stctor at Oh State Universy; a psychiatrist and preceptor at Massachetts College of Pharmacy and Health Scienc; and a former Universy of Toronto profsor of psychiatry.

The recent storm of ntroversy surroundg the hband of Michele Bachmann, Republin printial ntenr, and whether his Christian mistri try to "cure" homosexualy, has brought wele attentn to ex-gay mistri and the reparative therapy they claim n change a person's sexual orientatn. A powerful article The Natn last month, "Michele Bachmann's Hband's Clics Practiced Ex-Gay Therapy (While Pocketg $161, 000 of Your Tax Money), " drew on reports om Marc Bachmann's patients and footage of group unselg they were given to unrsre jt how close the Bachmanns' relatnship is to the wir ex-gay movement and the so-lled reparative therapy on which draws very heavily. It also sheds new light on the Bachmanns' embrace of the ntroversial ex-gay movement and related psychologil approach [that] try to cure homosexualy.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY - PART 1

" The sle of the ntroversy rapidly lated, Blake adds, after ments by Marc Bachmann surfaced last month likeng gays to "barbarians" who "need to be ted" and "discipled. The article draws on one of Bachmann's former patients, Andrew Ramirez, as well as om John Becker, an vtigative journalist at Tth Ws Out, who says he was "repeatedly assured" by one of Bachmann's therapists "that homosexualy uld be overe.