Gay Conversion Therapy Needs to Stop, Like Yesterday.

"Members Of Congress Urge Ban On Gay Conversion Therapy"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congress-ftc-gay-conversion-therapy_us_56bb6402e4b0c3c5504f9574

My response to the above article:

It's 2016, four years after Exodus, the infamous ex-gay Christian organization, apologized for the harm they had caused and closed their doors.

I was also just reading about the promoter of ex-gay therapy, experimental psychologist, George Rekers. Rekers was the co-founder of The Family Council Research and partner with Focus on the Family's promotion of reparative therapy. Rekers resigned after found going on holiday with a rent boy in 2010.

Understandably, the question remains: "But what if someone really wants to change?" 

I will grant putting aside the biblical theology of the six verses, the main source of hindrance, as annoying in its seeming dismissiveness. Those six verses are viewed weighty enough to tip the scales for self-hatred and isolation. And I would love to speak to those in a different post, because people are dying. Reparative therapy only adds to the despair. That's why the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy do not support conversion therapy. Numerous reports show not only its lack of success but also harm. And the truth needs to be shared.

Truly helping those who want to change is to understand the reasoning for wanting to change, taking into account their age as well as culture. Empathize with the disparity of the tension they feel they live in. Join them in acknowledging the difficulty of accepting life without definitive answers to the questions they seek, and that none of us would survive without some acceptance of that fact. Refrain from giving advise that suggests embracing one aspect of their identity over the other. Rather, think of the world as a beautiful place with its dynamic and complex contrasts and dichotomies. When we look with a "both/and" vs. "either/or" mindset, the question of how is this even possible? allows for a sense of awe and wonder rather than despair.

This is not to say people's sexual orientation absolutely does not or cannot change, which is a different discussion on romantic relationships and sexuality. But such changes have little to no link to conversion therapy, which is based on both bogus theories and flawed approaches, at best. Here is a list of reparative/conversion approaches, many of which are still attempted today in America and around the world:

• Aversion therapy (e.g. electroconvulsive (shock) therapy)
• Asceticism
• Genital mutilation
• Feminizing/Masculizing 
• Prostitution
• Physical abuse
• Rape
• Pornography
• Overdosing on gay sex
• Heterosexual marriage
• Exorcism
• Praying
• Isolation/abandonment/threat of relational cut-off