Is Flirtg Between Gay and Straight Men Okay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• IS IT POSSIBLE TO SYSTEMATILLY TURN GAY PEOPLE STRAIGHT?
• CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?
• WHY SOME STRAIGHT PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE GAY SEX
• HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)
• IS FLIRTG BETWEEN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN OKAY?

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. "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.

CAN SCTN MAKE STRAIGHT MEN GAY?

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. 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.

WHY SOME STRAIGHT PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE GAY SEX

Cognive therapists, meanwhile, ma a few attempts to change homosexuals' thought patterns by reamg sir — redirectg thoughts away om homosexual activy — or through hypnosis.

HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)

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

IS FLIRTG BETWEEN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN OKAY?

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.