Via Ex Gay Watch…   Gabriel Arana, a graduate student at Cornell, Talks about his three years of therapy under NARTH guru Joseph Nicolosi.  What got him started was This Article from budding young student wing nut Mike Wacker.  No…seriously…that’s his name…

In fact, since the American Psychological Association says homosexuality is not a choice, some have even labeled sexuality an “undebatable” topic. While the APA did indeed make this claim, I prefer to go straight to the evidence itself rather than rely on the authority of the APA, the only professional institution to be censured by Congress by a unanimous vote.

He’s probably referring to This little bit of manufactured outrage…but never mind.  Science holds no sway that a reasoned and considered vote of the impartial members of congress cannot overrule.  If congress voted to make the value of Pi three exactly, then of course that would be its value…right? 

…let’s jump straight into the facts, starting with Spitzer.

No, not Eliot Spitzer, Dr. Robert Spitzer of Columbia University. Some may recognize him for his role in removing homosexuality as mental disorder in 1973, and while many have praised his willingness to reject the dogma of the day in the name of science, few know the sequel to his story. 30 years later, Spitzer published a surprising paper based on his research, one which suggested that therapy can change the orientation of an individual. Spitzer still had the same commitment to follow the evidence, but many of his colleagues who vigorously supported him in 1973 had a sudden change of heart. In fact, in the most ironic twist of fate, Spitzer, an atheist, interviewed with Christianity Today in April 2005, elaborating on the consequences of his rigorous and scientific studies. “Many colleagues were outraged,” said Spitzer, later adding, “I feel a little battle fatigue.”

"…his rigorous and scientific studies."  Sometimes you don’t know whether the winger children are laughing in your face or whether they’re really the gullible sheep they seem to be.  If anything about Spitzer’s study was rigorous it was how meticulously rigged it was.  In part and unforgivably with Spitzer’s willing consent, but also right under his nose, to produce a particular outcome.  And nobody understands better how the rigging was accomplished then participants like Arana…

In fact, I know Dr. Robert Spitzer’s study well. Dr. Nicolosi asked me to participate in it, but instructed me not to reveal that he had referred me; while he wanted his organization’s views represented, he did not want to bring into question the study’s integrity. Wacker must not have read Dr. Spitzer’s study, or perhaps he has a naïve understanding of scientific inquiry. Otherwise he would know that the study consisted of informal interviews with ex-gays and those still in therapy; it was merely a report of what they had said. The APA and the psychological community have criticized the ex-gay movement for not providing controlled, long-term studies — to date, none exist.

Arana went into ex-gay therapy willingly, and left it feeling cheated.  It’s a part of his life he says now that he does not revisit, "…not because it hurts especially but because it has become increasingly irrelevant."  Thankfully, he was willing to share some of it in his article.  For those of you who think the ex-gay movement isn’t about demonizing homosexuals so much as lovingly helping them with their same sex attraction disorder, read this:

Disgust with what was termed the “gay lifestyle” was implicit in therapy. I remember Dr. Nicolosi telling me, in response to the question of whether one could easily contract HIV from semen, that if this were the case then gays would be “jerking off in hamburgers all over” to infect people.

There’s the mindset right there that animates the pews in this particular congregation from one end to the other.  And it’s why the patients ultimately don’t matter, and why the leaders of this movement don’t give a good goddamn about what happens to the people they treat or to their families after they leave therapy.  You can’t harm someone who isn’t really fully human to start with.  And you can’t destroy a family where no Real family exists as far as you are concerned…

I learned to be a man: I was encouraged to play catch with my father, work out, watch football. At one point Dr. Nicolosi assigned me a therapy partner who was my age. Ryan and I used to speak by phone (he was in Colorado, I in Arizona), gossiping about school, at one point promising to send each other pictures of ourselves (the canker was already on the rose). After not hearing from him for a few weeks I called his family, who told me that Ryan had gone to court and emancipated himself from them. His father, in tears, told me this had ruined his life.

Presumably, that father didn’t get a refund on his son’s ex-gay treatments either.