Reparative Therapy Harmful to Gays, Lebian, Bisexual and Transgendered Individuals

Homosexuality may have been dropped from the DSM-IV as a disease that needs to be treated but many Fundamentalist Christian groups and denominations with a Fundamentalist outlook such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continue to treat it as a disease that one can overcome. Exodus and Evergreen - two of the largest groups involved in such efforts today, claim that they can help people overcome "same sex attraction" and transgendered feelings.

The effectiveness of such programs has often been brought into question. Instead of helping people overcome what they claim to be a lifestyle choice, they often end up as places where gay and lesbians meet up with others of their type. Evergreen gained some notoriety for being involved in attempts to cure homosexuality through electroshock therapy at BYU. While one Geocities site claims that such experiments were conducted well into the 1990s more reliable sources say that the practice stopped in the late 1970s.

While such organizations claim to be reaching out in love and compassion to help the GLBT segment of the population by using the gospel, such tactics are often founded on misguided and outdated beliefs. Further more, most people enrolled in them wind up in these program out of a guilt response usually initiated by growing up in these conditions. Groups like Affirmation for Gay and Lesbian Mormons and an opponent to Evergreen often criticizes the methods used by the group sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints and organizations it supports.

Both Exodus and Evergreen feel that the problem is one of identifying with the wrong gender in the case of homosexuality and attempt to make the people in the program feel more mascuiline or feminine depending on their gender. Ask Gramps, a site claiming to give moral advice on a gospel perspective even recommended enrolling a young transgendered person in the Boy Scouts to help him feel more masculine. The parody Molly the Mormon blog can give you a good idea of the position of the Faithful Mormon on the subject and the ideas of fundamentalist Christians are not far behind theirs.

Both groups however and other such programs ignore the psychologically damaging aspects of their approach. Science may not be one hundred percent certain of it yet, but research indicates that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is not a choice. In many cases, programs such as this lead to internalized feelings of homophobia, self-hatred and only lead to an inward cycle of depression. Some people may break out of it, for others it can lead to into a downward spiral of depression which might result in suicide or other self-destructive behaviors.

Ironically, many people who find themselves enrolled in reparative therapy programs seek the one thing that will get them out of the guilt and depression cycle - acceptance. Often they end up in Exodus or Evergreen at the insistence of a loved one or have been referred there by a clergy meber. Instead of looking towards themselves to find acceptance, they seek a way to change so society will accept them. The success rate of such programs is low and in most cases a waste of money and effort in those involved. Many of the people who run these programs may feel that they are doing the right thing but blind themselves to many forms of science and end up hurting the very people they claim to help.

Sources:

http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews23/page5.cfm

www.evergreeninternational.org

www.exodus-international.org