Posted on 09/25/2007 9:01:21 PM PDT by scripter
From the book My Genes Made Me Do it - a scientific look at sexual orientation by Dr Neil Whitehead. Please use with acknowledgement. See www.mygenes.co.nz.
One of the strongest arguments against homosexuality as an inborn, unalterable condition is change in sexual orientation. In this chapter we describe how the scientific literature shows that sexual orientation is anything but fixed and unalterable; rather, it shows that sexuality is fluid. People move around on the homosexual-heterosexual continuum to a surprising degree in both directions, but a far greater proportion of homosexuals become heterosexual than heterosexuals become homosexual. Some of the change is therapeutically assisted, but in most cases it appears to be circumstantial. Life itself can bring along the factor that makes the difference. This chapter looks at change and its proponents and opponents.
The Implications of Change
Changes either to or from OSA (Opposite Sex Attraction) have implications for genetic control. Kitzuger and Wilkinson 59 in their survey of changes towards lesbianism remark that there were so many different psychological paths to exclusive SSA (Same Sex Attraction) that it was impossible they were genetically controlled, a point rarely made. But it is supported by the long list of SSA causes important to various people given in chapter 10.
For some reason people find it far easier to believe a person could move from OSA to SSA than the reverse. So we will concentrate mostly on surveying SSA to OSA.
Spontaneous Change Homosexual to Heterosexual
Bob is a former gay man whose father was sick most of his childhood and early teenage life. He grew up feeling homosexual attraction toward other men and had a lover for two years as a teenager. Two years after that relationship, he suddenly realized he wasn't struggling anymore with homosexual feelings. "As I look back now I see that part of the reason was that I was working with my father and having regular time with him for the first time in my life. I didn't realize what was going on, but a need was being met in my life, that I didn't know was there. I didn't struggle with homosexuality at that point."
Bob believes that his homosexuality was a search for male affection and connection that had its roots in the lack of a childhood relationship with his father. He was much closer to his mother. When he began in his late teens to work and relate with his father for the first time, he believes he gained something from the relationship that led to a diminution of his need for other men.
One homosexual man found that when he joined the Air Force, he began to notice women. The man was a self-identified homosexual - not seeking to change his orientation. "Being in a totally masculine environment I started to relate to men more spontaneously and feel better about my own masculinity. I felt I bridged a gap between me and the straight males ... like being one of the guys and trusting each other. And as a result, all sorts of blocks broke down. I seemed to start to notice women ... for the first time in my life I started having sex dreams with women in them. I was still mostly turned on by men, but suddenly, women too. It surprised the hell out of me."
Being able to trust straight males and become .one of the guys. seemed to bridge a gap between himself and heterosexual men that took him some distance along the continuum toward heterosexuality. He became, in effect, bisexual. The change led the authors of the paper to remark on "the malleability and temporal unpredictability of sexuality and sexual identity."
The sexology literature reports a huge number of examples of change of all degrees from homosexuality to or toward heterosexuality. These studies have been so numerous that West (a gay man) in 1977 took an entire chapter in his classic book, Homosexuality Re-examined, to review them, and commented: "Although some militant homosexuals find such claims improbable and unpalatable, authenticated accounts have been published of apparently exclusive and long-standing homosexuals unexpectedly changing their orientation."
West mentions one man who was exclusively homosexual for eight years, then became heterosexual. Straight, a book written by a man with the pseudonym Aaron, in 1972, describes Aaron.s thorough immersion in the gay scene, his decision to leave it, and his arousal of feelings for women and subsequent marriage. i
Nichols says some life-long female homosexuals spontaneously develop heterosexual interests and become bisexual in mid-life. She even thinks there is evidence (uncited) that this may be getting more frequent.
Another well known author in the field, Hatterer, who believes in sexual orientation change, said, "I've heard of hundreds of ... men who went from a homosexual to a heterosexual adjustment on their own."
Among the Sambia, a Papua-New Guinean tribe in which homosexual sex was culturally prescribed for growing boys until marriageable age (when they were expected to be exclusively heterosexual), there was a significant change toward heterosexuality. Herdt,12 who has intensively researched the Sambia, graded individual males on the Kinsey scale for those two periods: before and after marriage. He found that the change from adolescent to married man in attitudes and behavior equated to a move from Kinsey homosexual classes five and six to Class two, predominantly heterosexual. Herdt believed the change was a real change in sexual orientation.
Heterosexual to Homosexual
Exclusively heterosexual women can, in mid-life, develop lesbian feelings and behavior. This is a well known clinical feature of lesbianism. It often occurs during marriage or after marriage break-up, with no clinically observable hint of prior existence - not even lesbian fantasy, as reported by the following two therapists. Nichols found among married bisexual women that .many appeared to make dramatic swings in Kinsey ratings of both behavior and fantasy over the course of the marriage. in ways that "cast doubt upon the widely held belief in the inflexibility of sexual orientation and attraction over a lifetime."
Dixon surveyed fifty women who became bisexual after the age of thirty. They were exclusively heterosexual before, having had no earlier significant sexual fantasy about females, and quite heterosexually satisfied. They continued to enjoy promiscuous sexual relationships with both sexes.
The work of Kinsey on male and female sexuality in the forties and fifties is probably classic in the field in its conclusions that sexual orientation is fluid and subject to spontaneous change. At an early stage in his research Kinsey (as cited by Kinsey researcher Pomeroy) discovered "more than eighty cases of [previously homosexual] men who had made a satisfactory heterosexual adjustment." This was 2% of his sample. Small amounts of homosexual fantasy remained; these men only just failed to make his Category Zero-exclusive heterosexuality. Kinsey also found that most of the changes were as adults.
Commenting particularly on the work of Kinsey et al., Texas researcher Ross says, "Given these data ... sexuality can thus be seen as a fluctuating variable rather than as a constant."
Tanner reported that about half the lesbians she knew were heterosexual before midlife.
A survey by the well known research team Bell, Weinberg and Hammersmith4 published in 1981 also claimed that 2 percent of the heterosexual population said they had once been exclusively homosexual. Independently, Colorado researchers Cameron et al. in 1985, reported an identical figure. Both these studies also put the incidence of homosexuality at 4 percent. In other words nearly half the homosexual sample moved significantly towards heterosexuality. But change was occurring in both directions. About 2 percent of the heterosexual group became homosexual (Figure 21). More data are available from the comprehensive study by Laumann et al. (1994), who reported that about half those males homosexually active as young adults were no longer active later. Granted, only one or two incidences of activity were recorded in each case, and questions were directed at activity rather than identity, but, as far as it goes, the survey supports the other studies. Rosario et al. (1996) similarly reported in a longitudinal study that 57% of their gay/ lesbian subjects remained exclusively gay/lesbian, but that the remainder had changed to varying degrees. Fox reported various degrees of change among bisexual people.
Excerpted from a PDF document. Read the entire chapter 12 online here: http://www.mygenes.co.nz/Ch12.pdf. The source contains footnotes and graphs.
Indeed. The radicals pushing the homosexual agenda have gained political power based on discredited and misrepresented science. Every year more homosexuals become former homosexuals.
Here are some links offering help and hope to homosexuals seeking to leave the homosexual lifestyle.
Ex-Gay 'Groundbreaking' study shows 'gays' can change
APA Has No Disagreement With the Treatment of Unwanted Homosexual Attraction
How a 'gay rights' leader became straight
Charlene Cothran's Venus Magazine
Michael Glatze ‘Comes Out’ of Homosexuality: former ‘Young Gay America’ Magazine Co-founder
I Do Exist
People Can Change
Root Causes, Homosexual Consequences
Factors Contributing to the Development of Their Homosexual Feelings
Homosexuality and the possibility of change
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If I remember correctly, you're familiar with Dr. Whitehead's work.
Can an alcoholic stop drinking?
Indeed.
Every year and perhaps every day, homosexuals become former homosexuals.
So homosexuality is an addiction?
I’ve been too busy to keep up and just concentrate on former homosexual/ex gay articles. Catch you later.
How Might Homosexuality Develop? Putting the Pieces Together
"Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired," Dr. Francis S. Collins, Head Of The Human Genome Project
The Three Myths About Homosexuality
New Evidence Found for Childhood Family Factors Influencing Sexual Orientation
Environmental factors may influence sexual orientation
The Study The Media Ignored
How Might Homosexuality Develop? Putting the Pieces Together
Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth
Born or Bred? Science Does Not Support the Claim That Homosexuality is Genetic
The Importance of Twin Studies
The Gay Gene?
The Fading "Gay Gene"
The Innate-Immutable Argument Finds No Basis in Science
The Gay Gene: Going, Going...Gone
I’m not the type to understand fudge packing. I probably won’t find that of interest.
It may be difficult to grasp how genes, environment, and other influences interrelate to one another, how a certain factor may "influence" an outcome but not cause it, and how faith enters in. The scenario below is condensed and hypothetical, but is drawn from the lives of actual people, illustrating how many different factors influence behavior.
The lack of Spiritual Guidance allows for this thought process. That is why the attack on the Church has lead to more personal destruction in our society. God Bless.
The most hetero men in the world become homo in prison. That should be enough said, but consider also that evolutionists are unlikely to support a theory where a hypothetical genetic variation like homosexuality would produce NO offspring. How does a self-defeating gene like homosexuality perpetuate itself?
The lack of Spiritual Guidance allows for this thought process.
What thought process?
Most gay men have had at least one heterosexual exxperience which, before Stonewall and the free-love sixties, would have remained in that camp.
The absence of God in their life. Homosexuality is a sin and expressed so in the Bible. If you adhere to Scripture the mis-leading of Satan will not infiltrate your life.
My problem with that is the fluidity of sexuality which we see in various forms. For example, you listed homosexuality in prison which tends to demonstrate the fluidity of sexuality. We see heterosexuals engaging in same sex, sexual behavior, and homosexuals engaging in opposite sex, sexual behavior.
Genes, recessive or not, do not cause same sex attraction. IMO, sexuality is really more complicated than most realize and cannot be fully understood without years of delving into the details.
It would be great if those who think homosexuals are born that way would spend more time reading studies instead of misrepresentations of studies...
If you read testimonies of those who left the lifestyle, you'll see a common pattern including but not limited to missed relationships, abuse, etc.
“Can an alcoholic stop drinking?”
I thought that is when you became an Alcoholic.
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