Having been in the closet for 37 years before coming out and struggled to be "straight" during a more than two decade long marriage, I know full well that one's sexuality doesn't change no matter how much you lie to yourself and others whom you love. Thus, I refrained from writing about Josh Weed a Mormon who admits he's gay but claims he's happily married to a woman. Someone is lying and I suspect it's Weed and his wife who are lying to themselves and to each other because of the religious brainwashing that both of them suffered growing up. And none of this is intended to say that Weed doesn't love his wife. All those years in the closet, I DID love my wife. I just could not be what she really wanted or deserved. And despite Weed's unspoken claim that "one can have it all" if one decides to follow his path, the truth is that you cannot. No matter how "robust" he claims his sex life is with his wife, the cynic in me cannot help but wonder what/who he's really thinking about when he's having sex. I suspect that he's lying to himself out of religious based guilt. And his wife's lying to herself that she's not being cheated somehow. Some like Andrew Sullivan gushed that one should be free to live their life however they want be it gay or straight. That's true so long as you do not then take the next step and try to force others to follow your route or the route that others are pushing upon them.
Having reviewed the website for Life STAR Washington where Josh Weed is employed as a therapist, it looks like Weed has lied about other things. This clinic and its treatment of "pornography addiction and unwanted sexually compulsive behaviors" looks strikingly like Marcus Bachmann's "Christian counseling" clinic that pushes reparative therapy. And note the shame language. Yes, that form of therapy that the APA condemns and which the State of California may make illegal for those under the age of 18 years. What's really frightening is that Life Star Washington is gearing up to launch a full blown youth division. One can only wonder how many LGBT youth will be damaged by such a program.
Oh, and did I mention, the costs for this "12 step" witch doctor like therapy? It's quite lucrative for the therapists: to take the full blown treatment program over a course of a year or two equates to thousands of dollars per patient - or should I say victim. Here's the discretely worded language of how Life STAR Washington describes itself:
LifeSTAR Washington is a three-phase treatment program aimed at helping individuals who struggle with pornography addiction and unwanted sexually compulsive behaviors. The phases of treatment build on one another providing a long-term and comprehensive approach to eliminating addictive/compulsive sexual behaviors.
LifeSTAR Washington provides participants with a combination of group therapy, education, tools, and resources to help overcome unwanted sexually compulsive behaviors. Partners receive strong support and guidance as to how they can best manage their life as they live with someone struggling with sexual addiction.
While homosexuality is never explicitly mentioned, the coded language would seem to have it as one f its targeted "compulsive behaviors." Wee may claim that he takes a "live and let live" approach to sexual orientation, but his clinic seems to tell a different story and seems to be peddling the same old "ex-gay" snake oil.
1 comment:
Reparative Therapy that's huge; knowing this makes one think Josh Weed is just drumming up business for himself. Driving more young people towards shame and guilt. I think of the "Kinsey Scale" and wonder if maybe Josh is somewhere in the middle of the scale. I know when I was in a heterosexual relationship I loved my husband but it did not make sex any less painful to my physical self or my emotional and psychological self. I served a mission for the Mormon church, graduated from BYU, married in the Mormon Temple and after ten years of marriage and three children came out and started my very difficult journey towards an honest, authentic and happy life. At 53 I can say it does get better!
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