Is It Possible to Systematilly Turn Gay People Straight? | Disver Magaze

Contents:

• SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS
• HOW TO LEAD A HETEROSEXUAL LIFTYLE IF YOU ARE GAY
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?
• THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT
• IS YOUR MAN GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL?
• AM I GAY?
• “HELP ME CHANGE FROM GAY TO STRAIGHT”
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS

"My random roommate durg sophomore year happened to be gay. ' His buddi got all homophobic on him, so he asked, 'You guys have never msed around wh another guy? I'm gay, but I hooked up wh a handful of men and women my 30s.

HOW TO LEAD A HETEROSEXUAL LIFTYLE IF YOU ARE GAY

In the end, they're still straight, and I'm still gay and happily married to my hband of 12 years. 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.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?

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.

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

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

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. "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.

IS YOUR MAN GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL?

"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.

AM I GAY?

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.

Ironilly, Spzer had until now been somethg of a hero the gay muny.

“HELP ME CHANGE FROM GAY TO STRAIGHT”

In the early 1970s, he spearhead the effort to get homosexualy removed om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's list of mental disorrs. Wh theater doors bolted shut for the next…foreeable future, we’re thrilled to see some Broadway talent pop up the pilot episo of Boy•Friends, a new edy based off the My Gay Boyiend web-seri.

The show centers around two llege roommat, one gay and one straight, and their “journey through llege and to adulthood to bee the homo-hetero power uple of the ag. 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. 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.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

Wh every new generatn of gay and bisexual men a new generatn of cisers. (This is large part why gay bathho are shuttg down across the U. ) But if you are one of the gay/bi men out there, like many of , who don't get that same sh om Grdr that you do om furtive eye glanc the sna -- which turn to so much more -- then this article is for you: the 5 do's and 5 don'ts of gay cisg.

Don't take your Rolex or that rg your grandma gave you when she passed away to the gay sna. Joseph Nilosi, a psychologist Enco, Calif., says he n rid adults, teens, and even children of homosexualy. "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.