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American Psychological Association Pressured to Ban Reparative Therapy

By Hilary White

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activists are pressuring the American Psychological Association to denounce so-called reparative therapy aimed at helping gays overcome their psychosexual disorders. The APA is about to review its policies regarding therapy for those who counsel clients seeking to leave the homosexual lifestyle, and some pro-family advocates are anticipating that steps will be taken against reparative therapy for homosexuals.

While homosexuals suffer from much higher than average rates of psychological and social disorders, the mainstream medical organizations have remained in lockstep with the gay movement's explanation. The establishment position is that high rates of suicide, substance abuse and depression are exclusively the result of "discrimination" and lack of acceptance by the greater society. Critics strongly dispute that conclusion and state that it is the nature of the unnatural, often promiscuous lifestyle itself that leads to these problems.

The APA's current policy opposes any counselling that treats homosexuality as a mental illness, but does not specifically denounce reparative therapy.

In June, at the request of the APA's own in-house Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Concerns Office, the APA appointed five homosexual activists to monitor reparative therapy clients.

The most prominent US organization offering reparative therapy, National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), has long criticized the APA for what it identifies as the organization's heavily politicised pro-gay biases. In a recent paper, NARTH researcher Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, pinpoints the heavy influence of homosexual political ideology on organizations such as the APA, that have been highly influential with the courts and legislatures in the attacks on traditional marriage.

Satinover writes, "The APA and others have so often repeated the same falsehoods that the public and even the Supreme Court now take for granted that science has demonstrated that homosexuality is a perfectly normal variant of human sexuality if it is fixed early in life and does not change."

"This presumption is false," he wrote, "yet the recent Supreme Court decisions pertaining to same-sex marriage have taken it for granted."

Satinover cites the publication in 1957 of a single study, "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual," as the wellspring of this now widely held view. Authored by a hard-left political activist, Evelyn Hooker, the study, along with the now-discredited Kinsey Report, is acknowledged as the principal weapon in what has become a massive effort to convince the public that homosexuality is merely a standard "normal variant" on human sexuality.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
APA Appoints Gay Activists to Monitor Homosexual Reorientation Therapy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07062201.html

APA Ignored Evidence that Homosexual Behaviour is Part of Psychiatric Disorder Says Noted Psychiatrist
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05072502.html

Read Satinover's paper:
The "Trojan Couch": How the Mental Health Associations Misrepresent Science
http://www.narth.com/docs/TheTrojanCouchSatinover.pdf

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