Gay "conversion" therapy is idiotic

Gay conversion therapy will be tested in a New Jersey court case filed by four gay men who cry malpractice and deception against a prominent counseling group.
 
Maybe I’m a little behind, but the only thing I can think is: they have counseling for that?

I’ve heard stories about gay men who follow the straight and narrow now because they’ve been “saved” and about therapists who claim they can somehow wave their magic prescription pads, and poof, heterosexuality! I never took it seriously. How can you change the biological makeup of the brain and somehow become straight?

Sure, I understand the sentiment, however bigoted. Some people have lived through some pretty traumatizing stuff. There is a small percentage of psychologists, psychiatrists, life coaches, etc., who believe there’s still a clear and direct link between childhood trauma, sexual abuse or shock and homosexuality.

They believe “converting” a person to heterosexuality will help that person overcome the damage and emotional scarring and at the same time clean up their moral compass, as defined by the doctor.

But overcoming a traumatizing past by trying to rid a person of homosexuality is like trying to set a broken leg by giving a person sinus medication.

The majority of the time, it’s just nonsense — the counseling group being sued is the perfect example. The men would sometimes have to strip naked, and other times they would beat effigies of their mothers — all tactics that did more damage, and all tactics that cost the four men thousands of dollars.

But what’s more disturbing to me is the implication that homosexuality is a disorder. I can’t accept that, even with my conservative views and reservations, I wouldn’t ever be stupid enough to label it as a disease.

More should be done to protect patients. It’s astounding to me that this counseling was even allowed to take place and that more wasn’t done to investigate its tactics or stop its practices.

That it was allowed to prey upon vulnerable people scares me. What if this hadn’t been stopped? How many more men and women would be damaged because they believed they had a disorder? What would it have affected?

But above all else: really? Gay conversion therapy? Someone really thought that was a good idea?

­— ewenning@indiana.edu