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It's up to their choice. If they want to try, then go for it.
Maybe some of them want to have a traditional family and raise children; others want to do it for religious reasons, etc. As I said, it should be an option.
How is it not an option?
I feel sorry for them, but they are free to lie to themselves and others. My only issue is when they try to claim they have actually changed their orientation, not just their behaviour.
Even a study by motivated Christian evangelical researchers showed that the orientation doesn't change.
“Characteristics of Mixed Orientation Couples: An Empirical Study"
"While it was not a study of efforts to change, one could reasonably assume that if a group had participants who had shifted orientation very much, then this would be the group. However, that is not what they found"
Christian psychologist Dr Throckmorton says: "I think evangelicals need to face what evangelical academics are finding in research"
Yes, as long as they don't fake results and the products do not have serious side effects.
So-called 'conversion therapy' has been pushed by religiously motivated people like those from the anti-gay fringe group NARTH who HAVE faked the results and played down the serious side effects like depression and suicide when 'clients' who have been taught to hate who they are, realise this quack 'therapy' doesn't actually work.
The task force conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed journal literature on sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) and concluded that efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates.
"For years, Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and the International Healing Foundation have pushed the idea that ex-gays were a minority group like gays. They have mimicked the language of civil rights movements and yet very few people have seemed to buy it. Today, Chris Doyle’s group Voice for the Voiceless had a lobby day at the Supreme Court (even though you can’t really lobby the Supreme Court) and demanded their rights. Problem was only about 10 showed up.
After all is said and done, I can’t figure out what rights ex-gays lack or why they need protection.
The CBN interview is a surreal viewing experience"
I'd wager most of them are depressed and suicidal to begin with
Well duh. They have been raised by their families and churches to hate who they are. Then they are promised they can 'change' their orientation by these religious quacks with their 'hugging therapy' and doing 'manly things therapy' and 'pray-away-the-gay therapy'. It fails. They hate themselves even more, feel hopeless, then self-harm. Great huh?
Or they educate themselves, become ex 'ex-gays', fall in love with a partner of the same gender, learn to accept themselves and live happy productive lives.
What do people expect? A "former gay" pride week? I suspect most wouldn't want the press exposure highlighting them as former gays. They're settled in their lives and who they are and have no reason to be activists.
I suspect that even of the fewer than 10 people who showed up for this little demonstration, some were not even really gay.
What I mean to say is that I think it is possible some evangelistic Christian might have experimented with a single homosexual experience and is now full of guilt, but is repenting publicly.
Anyway, I expect to see organizations of "Ex-Christians" mimic this.
Who is judging? The only ones judging on this thread are those mocking these men and women who have turned away from homosexuality.
They have "turned away from homosexuality" about as much as a nun or voluntarily celibate person "turns away from heterosexuality."
Do you see why they are thusly mocked?
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdwardA
Also the Pope is still very clear that homosexual acts are a sin.
The Pope's opinion matters to the majority of this country about as much as the Mullahs of Iran. His opinion only matters to Catholics (25% of religious people in this country), and of those Catholics, the proscriptions of the church and Pope are largely ignored anyway on issues of birth control, wealth redistribution, etc.
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