It isn't the religious influences that are the problem. Only in our Brave New World does the choice between normal (natural) and abnormal (unnatural) have to be made in favor of the latter.
Posted on 02/20/2008 8:20:18 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A ruling by the American Counseling Association that members must not help homosexual clients change their sexual orientation is not sitting well with some in the professional organization who are seeking clarification to avoid “future legal actions.”
The official policy of the ACA is that counselors asked by clients for help in changing their sexual orientation must offer only "gay affirmative" arguments. If the client persists, counselors must explore the "religious influences that underpin homophobia that may be harming the client."
At issue is a ruling from the association concerning clients who seek help in clarifying their sexual orientation as that matching their physical characteristics.
Such questions from clients need to be met with that "gay affirmative" response, the organization's leaders have stated, and if a client insists on seeking such treatment, a counselor who even refers a client to anyone offering reparative counseling could be violating the association's ethical guidelines.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, an educator from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, assembled a coalition of about 400 counselors who are having difficulties with the pro-homosexual mandate from the association and have written to tell its chief, Brian Canfield, of their concerns.
Throckmorton noted a complaint had been filed with the ACA's executive committee months ago, and officials there have refused to respond.
"Thus, we, the undersigned are making a formal complaint to the American Counseling Association," he wrote.
The new pro-homosexual agenda, the letter said, "violates pre-existing ACA policy regarding Non-consensus Social Issues of Conscience."
That policy states that the ACA and its members "endorse the members' right to support social, political, religious, and professional actions groups whose values and positions on such issues are congruent with their own …. to truly celebrate diversity, we must be united in our respect for the differences in our membership.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
“Counselors ordered to argue for homosexuality (Can’t help gay clients
change sexual orientation) “
Liberals: The REAL Thought-Police
I wonder what they tell 8-year-old cross dressers?
There is some sort of contradiction here.
BTW, Dr. Warren Throckmorton is already being attacked by the gay lobby.
Here’s one particularly vicious article :
http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/ExGay_Quack_Therapists_D_0220.html
‘Ex-Gay’ Quack Therapists Declare War
by Wayne Besen
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, the shamelessly self-promoting “ex-gay” therapist, has stepped up his holy war against gay people. This week, he organized a pack of fundamentalist quacks to file a formal written complaint with the American Counseling Association. Throckmorton’s crew is upset because they believe the ACA is inhibiting their ability to destroy the mental health of gay and lesbian people in the name of religion. They also believe that they have the special right as fundamentalists to use bizarre techniques and ignore normal therapy guidelines.
What is so morally distasteful and ethically disgraceful about Throckmorton is that he is taking this measure without offering a shred of evidence that his shame-based therapy model works. What Chutzpah! How can he credibly complain to the ACA without offering multiple “success” stories by people other than those who get paid to say they have gone from gay to straight?
Indeed, the ACA should launch a full-scale investigation against the good doctor. He works at little Grove City College, a fundamentalist school in a rural Western Pennsylvania town of merely 8000 people. The truth is, you probably could not find 250 farmers, no less gay people in need of ex-gay therapy in this neck of the woods. To no ones surprise, this brain-twisting blowhard has yet to produce on-record accounts out of his large pool of supposed clients. Clearly, he is either exaggerating the number of clients or his therapy is a monumental failure.
With such a paltry and embarrassing record, why is Throckmorton attacking the ACA? The reason is simple: Throckmorton and his cohorts act more like ministers than mental health professionals. Instead of ethical counselors who just happen to be Christian, they are politically motivated fundamentalists who can’t separate church and couch. This is the same type of backwards, “intelligent design” promoting crowd that wears lab coats, yet disdains science and stealthily tries to slip their oddball theories into the mainstream.
Predictably, the signers of the letter are disingenuously claiming religious discrimination. They don’t seem to realize that their professional rejection stems from the objective reasoning that their theories are illegitimate garbage.
Most of these counselors still believe that a distant same-sex parent causes homosexuality. Their “cure” is making platonic friendships with same-sex friends and playing sports. Such nonsense might have seemed credible 35 years ago - when few gay people were out of the closet. In 2008, however, we now know that this simplistic cause and effect is false. Any counselor who suggests otherwise is incompetent, has an agenda or is too lazy to talk to real gay people.
Other counselors, such as Throckmorton, believe in what I call “Larry Craig Therapy.” These practitioners actually promote the peculiar notion that one can effectively separate sexual identity from attraction. The idea that one can spend an entire lifetime in such obvious denial is untenable and a recipe for inner-turmoil.
Still, Throckmorton cruelly peddles the mental health mirage of the happy celibate gay person living according to his or her values. In ten years of going to ex-gay conferences, the people I have met who are living in this state of love-limbo are hopelessly despondent and constantly on the verge of tears. How is this good for mental health and why should the ACA acquiesce to this damaging pseudoscience?
These right wing therapists are central to the problem, not the solution. They do absolutely nothing to make clients heterosexual or reconcile faith and sexuality. All these therapists accomplish is enticing vulnerable clients to pay dearly for the identical shame and repression they previously received for free.
Conspicuously absent in the letter to the ACA are examples of how these “therapists” supposedly help their clients. They are coy about their reliance on controversial and unconventional methods. Ex-gay therapists or ministers routinely endorse exorcisms and tell clients that they may have demons in their bodies. They sometimes instruct clients to wear rubber bands on their wrists and snap them whenever they find a person physically attractive. Other times, “touch therapy” is employed, where the counselor caresses (sometimes abusively) a client sitting on his or her lap.
Finally, those who wrote the letter arrogantly suggested that they represent Christianity. They are but a few misguided sects of the religion - and ones that give the faith a bad name. These therapists would be infinitely more helpful if they would explain to suffering clients that many theologians disagree with their rigid worldview.
Attorneys from the right wing Alliance Defense Fund also sent a letter to the ACA, in an attempt to bully the organization. But, all the high-priced lobbying and lawyering in the world can’t hide the growing army of ex-gay counseling victims. The ACA would do well to listen to these survivors and then throw the right wing letter in the trash - where it can be reunited with the outlandish theories and screwy techniques that constitute so-called “ex-gay” therapy.
More from activist, author and public speaker Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, can be found at WayneBesen.com.
Seriously.
A 14-year old “homosexual” boy was shot at school in our county last week. The boy was from foster families, living in a group home for troubled kids, with a ton of problems. How the hell do they call him “homosexual” as if that’s even true. How does a 14-year old kid from that troubled background even know/decide he is homosexual?
Worse yet, the principal was quoted as saying he wore make-up and high heels to school. All I could think was, WHAT KIND OF FREAKING MORALLY BANKRUPT SPINELESS CRAPMONGERS let a 14 year old BOY wear makeup to school?
Unbelievable. Do they think they are innocent? He got himself killed and they are partly responsible.
They “Rule” the same way the APA rules that psychiatric disorders are no longer disorders, even though they are.
It isn't the religious influences that are the problem. Only in our Brave New World does the choice between normal (natural) and abnormal (unnatural) have to be made in favor of the latter.
Further to the post I made ( see #7),
Truth Wins Out (abbreviated TWO) is an organization formed by Wayne Besen to counteract what it refers to as the “ex-gay” myth. TWO states that religious groups claiming that they have “cured” individuals of homosexuality are a hoax, and in fact, dangerous to society.
Opposing his view is Dr. Warren Throckmorton (mentioned in the WorldnetDaily article ) who is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the College Counseling Service at Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania. He is also a Fellow for Psychology and Public Policy at Grove City College’s Center for Vision and Values. He is a nationally known counselor and psychology professor, best recognized for his research concerning sexual orientation and change — specifically, his belief that homosexuals have the ability to leave that lifestyle and the right to seek help in doing so.
See his own blog and research work here :
http://www.drthrockmorton.com/default.asp
While I tend to hesitate on conspiracy theories, I think in this case it’s pretty clear.
Homosexuals as a group tend to be comprised by more intellectuals, introverted people, at a higher percentage than the general population. (That makes sense to me, in the sense that I think it would take a lot of introverted self-obsession and narcissism to drive yourself to that lifestyle CHOICE). Those people end up in higher acedemics, positions of influence, at a higher rate as well. (Higher academics, liberal universities, touchy feely job areas like counseling etc) So, they end up ruling for themselves.
TV is a great example. Homos, who make up MAYBE 1% and probably less of the general population, are over-represented in “reality” shows and other tv shows, by a factor of 10.
I encouraged them to sue the schools, but so far as I know, they are still interested only in keeping the boys, (now men) out of it. Being they are grown it is now up to them.
That guy is seriously disturbed!
I have read a lot of the good doctors papers. I is awesome in his intellegence!
I agree.
Connect the cord in the bottommost section ("I don't think so") and you have what is known as a "suicide cord".
Considering the medical consequences of such BEHAVIORS the term is quite applicable here!
All you say is true. Except that homosexuals are drawn to professions where they can infiltrate, and that is well documented. In other words, these professions are deliberately sought in order to change the organizations they then change. Churches, academia (all levels) politics, and medical, specifically psychiatry. These things have been listed on their “missions” for years.
[ The official policy of the ACA is that counselors asked by clients for help in changing their sexual orientation must offer only “gay affirmative” arguments. If the client persists, counselors must explore the “religious influences that underpin homophobia that may be harming the client.” ]
A person who goes to treatment for alcohol or drug addiction, and has ANY misgivings about his sexual orientation (a standard question asked), will be counseled that he is in fact gay.
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