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"Where is the emperical data for your assertion?"

Some psychologists have also tried to deny that schizophrenia is a mental disorder.

One strong indication that SSAD is a mental disorder is that it can be cured, through outside intervention and with great difficulty, but it cannot with success just be sworn off, as, for instance, a normal person could swear off golf or aloha shirts.

Another strong indication is the commonality of etiology. Far and away most (I won't say "all," because you can never prove the absence of a single exception) cases of SSAD are triggered by molestation or seduction in the pre-adult years. As one indication of the efficacy of such in inducing SSAD, I would point to NAMBLA's motto: "Eight is too late." The experts in recruiting new victims know quite well that molestation of a child has a good chance of inducing SSAD.

Then, too, we can look at symptoms such as compulsive behavior, coprophilia, inability to form lasting attachments, self-loathing (and no, that doesn't result from social opprobrium), sadism (boning a person in the rectum is a sadistic act), masochism (inverse of the foregoing), poor impulse control, and a very high incidence of violence, drug abuse, and suicide.

Once you look at the whole clinical picture, it becomes not merely unreasonable but irrational to deny that SSAD is a mental disorder. This is why its deletion from the DSM was achieved not through persuasion, but through threats and intimidation.

"It is a sinful style of life"

It is indeed sinful, but I wouldn't call it a "style of life." A style of death, perhaps, as it generally takes decades off the sufferer's lifespan.

"and homosexual people need to be confronted with that reality."

Rebuking sinners is one of the seven spiritual acts of mercy, but that's not going to cure anyone of SSAD. If the confrontation is part of getting them into treatment, great. If there's no followup, I doubt that there will be any lasting change in behavior.

"As long as it is called a "mental disorder," or something that is "genetic," there will be no reversal of lifestyle."

Those two things are lightyears apart. Some mental disorders are treatable, SSAD among them. The "genetic" thing is just an excuse for not seeking a cure.

Facing the fact that it is a mental disorder, a treatable mental disorder, is a first step toward (1) reducing the incidence of SSAD by denying sufferers access to the vulnerable; and (2) encouraging sufferers to get treatment that will actually change their behavior permanently.

"Yes, it will take time, but the journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first step."

I don't know how much truck you've had with people suffering from mental problems. Very little, I hope, because it's not a pleasant thing. There are two things about mental problems: (1) because it is the thinking itself that is disordered, the sufferer is usually unable to recognize that he has a problem; and (2) even if he does realize that he has a problem, he's unable to think his way out of it because his thinking *is* the problem.

The first step in dealing with a mental problem is to get help.