New Study: Sexual Behavior Changes but Not Sexual Orientation

More bad news for Christofascists who peddle the ex-gay myth for political and financial profit - and, of course for lisping, mincing Marcus Bachman: A new study by of all people Mark Yarhouse at Regent University (not exactly a gay friendly institution) pretty much confirms what we in the LGBT community have always known. Namely, one can change their sexual behavior and try to pretend to be straight, but guess what. You're still GAY! One of the obvious fall outs ought to be that ZERO state or federal funds be paid to quacks like Marcus Bachmann who are fleecing the ignorant and religiously brainwashed by claiming to be able to turn them straight. Both Ex-Gay Watch and Warren Throckmorton (with whom I've had numerous e-mail exchanges in the past), a one time proponent of witch doctor like reparative therapy who has now seen the light, look at the new findings which cut charlatans like Bachmann and the folks at Exodus International off at the knee caps. First this from Ex-Gay Watch:
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[R]esearch has suggested that men in mixed orientation marriages — that is, married ex-gays — remain just as gay in orientation. And the data comes from an unlikely source: Mark Yarhouse, a social scientist at Pat Robertson’s Regent University and one of conservative evangelicalism’s foremost researchers into sexual orientation change.
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Yarhouse, best-known for the 2007 Jones-Yarhouse study with Stanton Jones, drew his latest conclusions from a survey of 106 husbands and 161 wives in mixed orientation marriages. The men had an average age of 45 and had been married 16 years. Conservative Christian therapist Warren Throckmorton summarizes the findings for us: [The data] demonstrates that the Kinsey scores shift more toward the heterosexual side when the participants were asked about their sexual behavior but when asked about their attractions, fantasies, and emotional attachments, there was no change. The Kinsey Expanded scale included an average of participant Kinsey assessment of behavior, attractions, fantasies and emotional attachments. … At any rate, the results are consistent with what I am finding as well. People adapt their behavior to their beliefs and commitments but their orientation does not shift, on average.
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Sexual orientation cannot be made to change; behavior can. (Incidentally, Throckmorton says his own research suggests that men in mixed-orientation marriages actually tend to become more gay over time.)
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The honesty of this research is welcome. It does, however, raise an ethical issue for Yarhouse, according to Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin. Yarhouse is something of a darling of the Christian Right for his previously published studies on sexual orientation change. So will he let himself continue to be used as a propaganda tool for anti-gay religious conservatives like Fischer and Quinlan? Or will he speak unambiguously to such ideologues about the reality of ex-gays and the myth of “change”?
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As for Throckmorton, here are brief highlights from his blog:
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Media have been all over the Bachmann clinic story this week with lots of related discussion about how much, if at all, sexual orientation changes. As a part of this discussion, I noted that a study I am writing up found that over all married gay people assess themselves as growing more same-sex attracted over time.
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Along the way, colleague Mark Yarhouse wrote to remind me that he found something similar in a study recently reported in the new issue of the Christian journal Edification . . .
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In all of the bluster about change therapies and clinics, I think evangelicals need to face what evangelical academics are finding in research. Also, a word to the media, both Christian and mainstream, quoting advocacy groups will get you two sides for dramatic tension, but if you want to know how research informs the questions you are asking, please consult those who, despite their religious loyalties, will report accurately.

The Pernicious "Choice Myth" and "Change Myth"

Two of the key elements utilized by Christianist enemies of gay equality are the myths that (1) sexual orientation is a "lifestyle" choice as opposed to an immutable aspects of GLBT individuals and (2) gays can "change" their sexual orientation and become heterosexual if they but want to. These myths bolster the efforts to spread the lie to the general populace that gays will recruit children to the "lifestyle" as was just seen in Maine with the repeal of same sex marriage. The Christianists also use these myths to argue to politicians that since being gay is a "choice," there is no need to grant GLBT citizen "special rights" and legal protections. There are numerous Christianist organizations that promote these myths such as Exodus International, Focus on the Family, and a host of others - often making lots of money preying upon religiously conflicted gays and their families in the process. Legitimate medical and mental health associations condemn these myths and just this past August, 2009, the American Psychological Association ("APA") formally condemned the practice of so-called "reparative therapy"to cure gays as basically unethical because there is no legitimate evidence that it works.

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But the APAaction doesn't stop the Christianists who still have their "experts" who seek to support the change myth. One such "expert" is Mark Yarhouse, a professor at Pat Robertson's nearby Regent University (pictured above). In anticipation of the likely APA action condemning reparative therapy, Yarhouse and his frequent partner in anti-gay propaganda, Stanton Jones, released a book that once again claimed that reparative therapy works. Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin did one of a number of stories on the APA action and an expose on the Yarhouse-Jones propaganda piece. Here are some highlights (Ex-Gay Watch has also covered the issue):
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This week the American Psychological Association released a report that said that while religion and its value in a patient’s life should be considered and respected, therapists should not encourage clients to seek a change in sexual orientation and that there was no evidence to suggest that such efforts are successful. This did not sit well with those organizations who build their existence on convincing their public that gay persons can “change” and that because such change is possible then public policy can be punitive to gay persons that do not submit themselves to such a change.
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So it was with great joy that those opposed to equality received news of evidence of change. The Baptist Press is crowing. Just “four days after an American Psychological Association task force released a 130-page report that said “gay-to-straight” therapies are unlikely to work”, they are trumpeting some amazing results of a study on Exodus International and their ex-gay ministries. In findings that directly contradict mainstream academic thought, 53 percent of subjects in a new seven-year study reported successfully leaving homosexuality and living happily as heterosexual or celibate persons.
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These “latest findings” are actually an update of the multi-year study of participants in Exodus ministries presented by Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse in their 2007 book, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. The authors were not pleased that the study which they proclaimed throughout Christian media as an evidence of change in sexual orientation did not convince the APA.
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When the Jones and Yarhouse book, was released in 2007, we hosted an exchange between Jim Burroway, BTB’s editor, and Stanton Jones. My synopsis of the results, as published in the book, was: the Jones and Yarhouse study revealed little to no statistically measurable change in orientation in the prospective sample. The much touted “successes” were either in recollection (which again were quite small) or were those who had decided to no longer call themselves “gay”. However, they still identified their orientation as homosexual (”I’m not gay but my attractions are”).
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In short, the Jones and Yarhouse study was funded and fully supported by Exodus and conducted by two researchers who were avid supporters of ex-gay ministries. They wanted to study 300 participants, but after more than a year, they could only find 57 willing to participate. They then changed the rules for acceptance in order to increase the total to 98. After following this sample for 4 years, 25 dropped out. Of the remainder, only 11 reported “satisfactory, if not uncomplicated, heterosexual adjustment.” Another 17 decided that a lifetime of celibacy was good enough.
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What the 2007 Jones and Yarhouse book revealed, and what this update further confirms, is that the “change” which NARTH and Exodus loudly proclaim is not a change in sexual orientation at all . . .

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A number of reviewers as well as the APA have rejected the Yarhouse and Jones "research." Yet sadly, Yarhouse and other Christianists continue to market the false change myth to church organizations and the uninformed who fall for the storyline without knowing the long history that Yarhouse and his allies at Exodus and other "ex-gay" ministries have in working to block gay equality. Because of Yarhouse and those like him, the pernicious choice myth and change myth continue to be used against GLBT citizens and politicans like Virginia's Governor elect Bob McDonnell are urged to vote against gay equality. Yarhouse is no friend to the GLBT community as his years of anti-gay writings and "research" confirms.

Regent University's Yarhouse: Don't Focus on Gay Conversion

A recent symposium on sexual orientation at Pat Robertson's Regent University seems to have displayed a possible back peddling by Regent researcher, Mark Yarhouse who for years has been one of the proponents of the "choice myth" on sexual orientation and has claimed that gays can be "cured." Since the Virginian Pilot article is not overly lengthy, follow up with Yarhouse will be needed. Nonetheless, as reported, this is a far different Yarhouse than what has been seen in the past. Perhaps the American Psychological Association's recent unequivocal condemnation of reparative therapy efforts is influencing those like Yarhouse that I suspect want to avoid being charged with unethical practices that could threaten their professional licenses. I haven't yet had a chance to talk with Philip Deal to get more of his reaction to the symposium. What would Taliban Bob McDonnell have to say about this apparently significant about face? Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Gay-rights blogger Philip Deal came to Regent University's symposium on sexual orientation Friday expecting to debate a pitchman for converting homosexuals to heterosexuality. Instead, he heard the Regent researcher, Mark Yarhouse, say that while same-sex attraction may be changeable in some individuals, not everyone can change. "For me, in my own practice, I would not focus on change of orientation," said Yarhouse, a psychologist and counselor who teaches at Regent, an evangelical Christian school.

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About 100 people, mostly Regent students but some local gays and lesbians, attended the two-hour presentation and question-and-answer period. Lesbians and gays frequently say their orientation is innate and natural, while many conservative Christians say homosexuality is a sin and can be reversed with therapy. Yarhouse's study focused on those who said their same-sex attractions collided with their religious beliefs. He said his research found that there was "modest" movement away from homosexuality among some Exodus participants, but categorical conversions to heterosexuality were rare.

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Yarhouse recommended that counselors avoid uniformly steering struggling gays toward heterosexuality and focus instead on the best outcome for the individual. That could include celibacy or exploring different faith groups with various attitudes toward gays and lesbians, he said. Deal, who lives in Norfolk, faulted the research project for not scrutinizing other orientation conversion treatments that he said left gays psychologically scarred. He said Yarhouse's research was "a little more moderate than what I thought it would be... but it was still pretty right in terms of its conservative agenda."

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It will be interesting to see if Yarhouse continues to moderate his statements as has been the case with Warren Throckmorton, another one of the high priests of the change myth in the past and with whom I've had my share of e-mail debates.

Christianists and "Ex-Gay" Myth Promoters Ignore New APA Report

I guess it is to be expected that those who have made a lucrative living off of promoting the "ex-gay myth" and "choice myth" would not quietly accept the conclusions of the American Psychological Association that "change therapies" do not work and that there is no evidence to support claims that they do work. But then one must also remember that these are the same folks who believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed on Earth. They live in a bizarre alternate universe where objective facts and reality are of no consequence if they counter their whacked out religious beliefs. Among those who are still claiming that gays can change their sexual orientation are a licensed counselor in El Paso, Texas - who hopefully will soon be up on ethical charges for her violation of the APA standard - and homophobes extraordinaire, Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University. For those unfamiliar with Wheaton College, it is a evangelical Christian college that has a statement of faith and requires applicants to have recommendations from their pastors for admission. As for Regent University, it was founded by Pat Robertson which eliminates the need for any further explanations. Thus, anyone who expects an unbiased report from faculty at either college is delusional. First some highlights from KFOX 14 in El Paso:

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EL PASO, Texas -- The American Psychological Association adopted a resolution this week denouncing the use of therapy to convert gay people to become straight, a process called reparative therapy. Despite the resolution, El Paso doctor and pastor Becky Personett, said she will not stop counseling those who want to convert to heterosexuality.
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Personett claims just five years ago, she was gay. "It's been five years now that I've been on my journey,” Personett said. "I don't feel denied, don't feel put off, I just know that I am the woman that God originally wanted me to be." Now Personett considers herself an ex-gay and counsels other local El Pasoans that are quote looking to “get out of homosexuality.”

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For Personett, the APA’s findings are not going to change anything for her. "No, I won't change. I'm going to stay with a process that if there is hope and if there is help, why wouldn't we offer that? Why would we let these people go on in their misery?” Personett said.
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As for Jones and Yarhouse, the Baptist Press - I know, no surprise there - is promoting their work and a "study" they claim flies in the face of the APA's analysis. Besides involving only a tiny study group, the Jones/Yarhouse study - which claims a 53% success rate - has a very bizarre definition of "success." In fact only 23% claimed to have changed to straight, and all of the remaining "success" stories involved total celibacy. Of course, after 37 years in the closet pretending that I was straight, I take the claims of the 23% claiming to have changed with a grain of salt. It is amazing what religious belief and religious induced self-hate can get one to believe about themselves. Here is some of the whining coming from Jones and Yarhouse:

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Jones expressed frustration that the APA task force didn't take their 2007 study seriously."They selectively apply rigorous scientific standards," he said. "So when it comes to examining the evidence that sexual orientation change can occur, they apply extraordinarily rigorous standards, and those standards allow them to disregard significant evidence that sexual orientation change can occur. That's what happens with our study. They, I think, invalidly applied several methodological concerns to dismiss our study.

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To ask the APA to accept the Jones/Yarhouse results is akin to asking the American Medical Association to accept studies by witch doctors as valid research. Only Kool-Aid drinkers will believe their storyline and one can only hope that lazy reporters for the MSM will read and heed the APA statement that programs like those espoused by Jones and Yarhouse are - certainly in my opinion - utterly fraudulent.