Fordham Study Provides ‘Empirical Evidence’ for Sexual Orientation Change Efforts
By Hilary White
April 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers at Fordham University in New York have published a study in the March edition of the Journal of Men’s Studies, showing that positive results can be gained by homosexual men seeking to change their “orientation” by developing healthy non-sexual relationships with other men.
According to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homoseuxality (NARTH), the study rovides “valuable empirical evidence” from the mainstream of psychological research supporting environmental factors as the cause of homosexuality.
The study, by Dr. Elan Y. Karten and Dr. Jay C. Wade, examined the “social and psychological characteristics” of men who experience unwanted homosexual attractions and who seek “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE).
Investigating these characteristics in cases of “self-reported change,” Karten and Wade found that clients reported that they experienced “a decrease in homosexual feelings and behavior, an increase in heterosexual feelings and behavior, and a positive change in psychological functioning” with SOCE.
The researchers discovered that the most significant factors correlating to successful orientation change were “reduced conflict in expressing nonsexual affection with other men, being married, and feeling disconnected with men prior to treatment.”
NARTH commented that the factors like “reduced conflict in expressing nonsexual affection with men,” provide “valuable empirical evidence” that homosexual thoughts and feelings are greatly influenced by social and psychological factors,” instead of being biologically pre-determined.
NARTH also noted that the study demonstrated that there is a growing body of mainstream literature that is “beginning to give voice” to the value of SOCE.
“Although such research may not be considered politically correct, Karten and Wade should be praised for their courage to investigate such issues, and Fordham University should be lauded for sponsoring it,” NARTH’s Benjamin Erwin wrote.
“The Journal of Men’s Studies should be commended for their integrity in publishing honest research regardless of popular political sentiment. Perhaps other journals and scholarly publications will follow suit,” Erwin added.
Efforts to help those who suffer from unwanted same-sex attraction are widely denigrated in the media and especially by homosexualist activist groups who claim that they are nothing more than religious bigotry, or “homophobia.” But some have pointed out the internal inconsistencies in the popularly held theory that homosexuals are “born that way” and that homosexuality is merely one variation of normal human sexuality.
U.S. conservative columnist and controversialist Ann Coulter, writing on the media’s reaction to the latest manifestation of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals, said that the accusation that it is the discipline of clerical celibacy that “causes” priests to sexually abuse young men and boys, contradicts the deterministic theory of homosexuality.
To hold water, Coulter said, those who attack the Catholic Church’s discipline of celibacy would have to believe that a commitment to celibacy creates such a psychological trauma that it changes a man’s sexual orientation, a possibility ruled out by the “born that way” homosexualist doctrine.
She wrote, “If celibacy is to blame, this is a show-stopping, Nobel Prize-winning discovery overturning years of liberal claptrap.
“In all other circumstances, it is punishable by death to suggest that sexual behavior is not determined at birth or that gays can be ‘cured’. Now liberals are hawking the idea that gay priests could have been cured by marriage!”