Psychiatrist Denounces Media Coverage of "Ex-Gay" Study

by Chuck Franklin

Numerous national and local media outlets reported on May 9 that a Columbia University psychiatrist had determined gays and lesbians can become straight.

Dr. Robert L. Spitzer presented the findings of a study he had conducted on this issue to the American Psychiatric Associations annual meeting that day.

However, in a May 23 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Spitzer claimed these media reports were misleading.

“To my horror,” he wrote, “some of the media reported the study as an attempt to show that homosexuality is a choice, and that substantial change is possible for any homosexual who decides to make the effort.”

He went on to say in the op-ed that he suspected “the vast majority of gay people would be unable to alter a firmly established homosexual orientation.” He also said that parents should not use his study to try to coerce gay or lesbian children into unwanted therapy.

However, the media coverage of his initial May 9 announcement caused a ripple of responses from national GLBT organizations as well as many Vermonters. VTPRIDEnet, Mountain Pride Media’s e-mail listserv, suddenly came alive with e-mail after e-mail expressing mostly outrage about the study, as it was reported by the media.

National gay and lesbian organizations such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force all issued press releases condemning the study. Most focused on the methodology used by Spitzer, calling it biased and unscientific.

In his op-ed, Spitzer tried to make the point that, if an individual has a self-motivated desire to change his or her sexual orientation, then therapists should be allowed to honor that request, caveated by telling the individual the chances for success are extremely low.

“To my knowledge, there is no group willing to pay, literally, millions of dollars to fund such a study. These very ad hoc projects – like a lot of what passes for ëgay research’ these days – is content to get a nonsystematic sample having an impossible to estimate representation of the population at large,” said Larry Rudiger, who holds a Ph. D. in psychological research from UVM.

Rudiger said that even if a person did want to change his or her orientation, it was probably a bad idea because it ends up creating – not preventing – incredible suffering.

In another VTPRIDEnet e-mail, Jake Patterson, who identifies as bisexual, said that “bisexuality is completely and totally absent from any mainstream discussion about this sort of thing.”

“I would wager that no CNN newsdroid has ever even uttered the word ëbisexual’ on the air,” he claimed.

Patterson also pointed out the complexities involved in sexual self-identification when one is truly bisexual and how confusing it can become when someone who now considers him or herself an “ex-gay” might really be a bisexual in denial about the other half of his or her sexual orientation.

The e-mails on VTPRIDEnet came from as far away as Oklahoma. Larry Jones, from Lawton, Okla., wrote, “This is research? 45-minute PHONE calls? A population of 200 out of the millions of gay men and lesbians in this country alone. Was the paper porous enough to use in the toilet?”

Bobbi Cote-Whitacre from Colchester wrote, “These people felt highly motivated to ëchange’ yet 95 of them [out of 132 referred by ex-gay ministries] – a whopping 72% – can’t totally repress their feelings after 14 years???”

“Merciful heavens! Can you imagine their therapy bills???” she wrote.

Jeanne E. Hand-Boniakowski wrote in her post on VTPRIDEnet that “anti-queer pseudoscience is rampant in America.”

“Just look at all the ads put out by ëWho Woulda Thunk It’ last year with lots of legit-sounding stats from the Family Research Council (Gary Bauer’s thunk tank, Dr. Laura’s fave quote source).”

“Look at how roundly, soundly and repeatedly the Ex-Gay nonsense is trounced, and it still keeps on ticking, and keeps on tricking folks,” she wrote.

Millions of Americans who never read Spitzer’s Wall Street Journal op-ed got the message on May 9 that being gay or lesbian can be changed. The message does seem to keep on ticking.