The American Psychological Association's move to conduct the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians to help them change their sexual orientation has attracted criticism from conservative groups who say they have no voice on the six-member review task force who will have its first meeting next Tuesday.
According to the Associated Press, APA spokeswoman Rhea Farberman said the group has not decided on when and how to reply to the letter.
Clinton Anderson, director of the APA's Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Office, had however been quoted as saying that the panel's policy review will be based on scientific research, not religious ideology.
Defending the decision to reject certain conservative applicants to the task force, he said, "We cannot take into account what are fundamentally negative religious perceptions of homosexuality - they don't fit into our world view."
Gay rights groups are meanwhile hopeful that the APA's review results in a denunciation of reparative therapy (also called conversion therapy) which is considered futile and harmful.
The current APA policy rules out any counseling that treats homosexuality as a mental illness, but it does not explicitly condemn reparative therapy.
The task force will submit a preliminary report to the APA's directors in December and the final report may be ready by March 2008.
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Reader's Comments
again...do any straight gay wanna marry an ex gay when there are so many straight men outside....these straight ppls r nuts sometimes
I mean, ok so fobidden fruit tastes sweeter, fair enough- i have my fair share of crushes on straight gals too lol...bt i NEVER, EVER, PESTERRED OR TRIED TO HIT ON THEM.
That's the difference.
Why not save the energy to pursue the heterosexual guy and let them touch here touch there? They will all the more be happy, satisfy and be satisfied?
I do have crushes on heterosexual guys....indeed, almost all. I have crush on 2 homosexual guys but they happen to be ex-homosexuals and marry women. It is tempting to seduce heterosexual guys but wait a minute. What if they eventually abandoned you and marry women? Can you take it? At most they treat you like a piece of meat for pleasure and that's about it.
Anyway women are much more lucky nowadays than guys lol. They have access to heterosexual guys and that is the envy of homosexual guys lol. So stop producing bisexuals but leave the homosexuals have their dreams fulfilled. Count your blessings babes.
The thing is people often get confused from the start when they can't find some ways to define themselves.
Some people just can't know what they CAN or MAY want until some experimentations can help them draw their own conclusions for what they may want.
Once, they understand themselves more, they'll know which way(s) to go for their goods.
Some people can be latent bisexual, and they may need experiments to learn their own nature(s). But, it doesn't mean they can't be loyal to a person. It can be just that their being able to fall in love and/or have sexual appetites for both sexes causes jealousy from those who only like 1 sex.
After all, when have most people start to believe monogamy and solid sexuality are the only possible and/or human lifestyles?
Have all human been having only monogamy and gay-or-straight?
Can it be that we got brain-washed by a culture, "education", "tradition", or else?
A culture can be changing. A tradition was once a new thing or doing. "education" is a way of thinking, but is it the only way to think? I hope not.
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