Gay Men and Straight Men as Friends | Psychology Today

Contents:

• IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?
• CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?
• CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?
• GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS
• CAN GAYS BEE STRAIGHT?

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?

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

CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?

"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.

CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?

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. 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.

GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN AS FRIENDS

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. Can sctn make straight men gay?

J Homosex. The article rais the qutn of changg sexual preference: Can a man whose past sexual practice has been almost exclively heterosexual change his practice to homosexual after beg sced by another man? To those who believe that homosexual preference is homosexual orientatn, an nate blogil predisposn, the answer is a roundg "no.

" Contrary to this rponse, the thor prents three s which the men swch om heterosexual to homosexual relatnships (exclively two s) by means of a sexual enunter iated by another man. The thor creds part of the change to the gay liberatn movement which rcued homosexual sire om the hidn, forbidn, and shameful.

CAN GAYS BEE STRAIGHT?

The evince that the men experienced a genue change sexual preference, shows that life-long, exclive homosexualy, as articulated by gay rhetoric, is more a statement about the culture which occurs than the "sence" of homosexualy. Gay liberatn and g out Mexi. AIDS knowledge and sexual behavr among Mexin gay and bisexual men.

The Frdian nstctn of sexualy: the gay foundatns of heterosexualy and straight homophobia. Youth, inty, and homosexualy: the changg shape of sexual life ntemporary Brazil.