Why "Reparative Therapy" Is Bad

The Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum have tried to insist that the Montgomery County sex-ed classes should have something about "ex-gays" and about "reparative therapy" in them. The idea is that students should learn that you choose your sexual orientation, so if you feel like you might be gay, don't worry, you can go to a preacher, or in some cases a shrink, who will "repair" you. Of course, that's not true, but the CRC needs to believe this in order to bolster their assertion that sexual orientation is a moral choice. Then if you insist on staying gay, they can blame you and judge you for making a bad moral decision. Then they will be demonstrably, obviously, better than you, which is what this is all about.

Peterson Toscano describes himself as an "ex-gay survivor." He has a blog HERE. This week he did something really good. He posted a nicely organized review of the ways that reparative therapy has hurt people. Here's how he gets into it:

In the past 4.5 years I have been in contact with over 1000 ex-gay survivors. These are people who pursued ex-gay experiences, either on their own, or more often, assisted by others like a therapist, minister, ex-gay program. They attempted to change or suppress their sexual orientation and may have referred to themselves as ex-gays or simply strugglers or by some other name.

Through hearing their stories (some of which are posted on Beyond Ex-Gay--bXg) and in unpacking my own ex-gay journey, I have begun to understand the many ways people can be harmed by their ex-gay experiences. Many of us also received certain benefits from our ex-gay experiences, but in most cases the harm outweighs the good. Ex-Gay Harm--Let Me Count the Ways

So after talking to all these people, he's made a list. He's also asking visitors to his blog to suggest additions to the list, so you can figure it's going to get longer and fill out over time.

You should follow the link and read his text, but to lure you there I'm going to list just the category titles (Box Turtle Bulletin did the same thing):

• Emotional Harm
  
• Psychological Harm
  
• Spiritual Harm
  
• Relationship Harm
  
• Financial Harm
  
• Career Harm
  
• Physical Harm
  
• Sexual Harm
  
• Developmental Harm

Interesting post. The comments are good, too -- it's amazing to read about the experiences these guys have gone through, trying to make themselves over in a way that just wasn't meant to be. Like one guy says, "It's not simply the ministries that cause this harm, but the entire religious error that underpins the movement. Those of us who grew up in conservative anti-gay religions bear the scars and the wounds inflicted upon us for our entire lives."

Three years ago, when we started this TeachTheFacts thing, I had never heard of an "ex-gay" person. I didn't know if there was any such thing or not, and it seemed like a weird thing to fight about. But the shriller the nuts got about this, the more you saw that it's just a lie, just a hoax meant to spread ugliness in the world. It's an industry based on denial, really sad.