"Therapy" stategies that can supposedly change gay people to straight are 100% wrong

[ck4829]

And I mean that in every way possible...

Morally
Medically
Logically
Legally
Scientifically

Here are just some of the things they use:

* Giving out rubber bands to patients to wear around their wrists and pull and release on it when they have "gay thoughts".
OK, let's see here. This sounds stupid. End. And even patients say it doesn't work.

* Healing touch. Men giving each other hugs for all night.
I've got nothing against hugs, but a hug is not going to change you from gay to straight, or vice-versa.

(Now notice, it seems like the therapies don't work. But to say they do nothing would be inaccurate. It doesn't take a psychologist to see that these failed therapies can create a vicious circle, because the patients are convinced that they need to change and/or they have family members who want them to change. This will cause increasing amounts of instability and stress in the patient when they don't "change" as expected. And that will lead to things like mental disorders and suicide. Where is the poster boy for George Alan Rekers' therapy in the 1980's now? He's in and out of mental facilities, sometimes on suicide watch. But it's not over, it gets worse.)

* Richard Cohen's muscle therapy. Take an effigy of your mother (Because she is responsible for you being gay), and beat her to death with a blunt object, like a baseball bat or a tennis racket. Now, the reason for this gets bizarre. According to Cohen, your memories aren't actually stored in your brain, but in your muscles, and beating your mother will stimulate your muscles and erase the "gay thoughts".
No comment needed.

* Torture. That's right. Torture. Applications of ice, heat, and electricity to patients whenever pictures of same-sex couples were shown. Brutal, inhuman, and ineffective.
To think. Some families would tolerate this than rather have their children be gay and happy. Let that sink in for a second.

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/147945/6_heinous_ways_religious_frauds_try_to_make_gays_and_lesbians_straight/?page=3

The APA and other psychological and medical organizations have tried to take a middle road on "reparative therapy" in order to not offend conservative and Christian Right organizations and individuals. This should not be tolerated. Every individual opposed to homophobia needs to stand up, tell these organizations that this therapy is not only ineffective, but also savage, and urge these medical organizations to expel and work against any professional who advocates these so-called therapies.

[louis-t]

1. Jeez, barbarians.