Over 100 activists have pledged to join a protest in London on Saturday, when reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi (pictured) addresses conservative Christians at the Sex & the City Conference.
Nicolosi will be joined by NARTH colleague Jeffrey Satinover and JONAH President Arthur Goldberg for the weekend, organized by CARE and Anglican Mainstream, the Church of England group behind the egregiously homophobic 2008 publication God, Gays and the Church.
Among Nicolosi’s outmoded and offensive ideas are that lack of fatherly love leads to homosexuality (“If you don’t hug your sons, some other man will,” he tells fathers) and that being artistic is a warning sign of a gay child.
A major plank in the arguments of reparative therapy organizations like NARTH has been the 1979 study by Masters and Johnson, but as Warren Throckmorton reported this week, a new book suggests its findings were severely misleading, if not completely fabricated.
A tip of the hat to Peterson Toscano, who is currently touring the UK. (And this author will be sure to catch him if he can!)
A thought.
Does Alcoholics Anonymous go around protesting outside breweries?
Do they have lobbyists in Washington trying to get stricter drinking laws, if not an outright ban on the manufacture, sale, or possession of alcohol?
Do they hear that a new bar is opening down the street and hand around a petition?
Do they demand that children not be given comprehensive drug & alcohol abuse education because telling them about alcohol is promoting underage drinking?
Do they go on talk shows telling people how “change is possible” and that we don’t have to live with being a drinker?
Do they paint all non-sober folks as desperate, depressed, hopeless, helpless, evil, irresponsible, dangerous, misguided, perverted hell-bound sinners, who shouldn’t be allowed to adopt, let alone have anything to do with children?
If a news report is released about the death of someone who happened to be a drinker, do they instantly blame a “drinking lifestyle”, and are they front and center talking about stiffer alcohol enforcement, and national bans on drinking?
The reason I ask is because ex-gay groups DO ALL of that stuff, and yet try to paint themselves as some sort of nonchalant support group.
Dr Throckmorton has put up a page concerning the studies which falsify Nicolosi’s/Narth’s reparative drive ideas. It is on his page he calls Reparative Therapy Information. It’s somewhat rough right now but he promises to polish it up.
I’m not sure “falsify” would be the word Throckmorton would want to use, lol.
Good grief. And this is just after the Brits changed their last ex-gay organization to a more pro-gay stance. I hope this doesn’t re-start the ex-gay movement in Britian.
Well, David, my memory might be sketchy, but I think Dr T has used that word but likely in a probabilistic way. It is a scientific term when applied to any theory; so I might be putting the word in his mouth as I have a scientific background. And there are studies on that page which do pretty much render the ‘daddy-issues’ idea mute. I guess he did state one in terms that the study would “compromise the reparative drive notions.” Pretty much falsifying in my book.
I doubt that it will ever be possible for Nicolosi’s/NARTH’s reparative drive ideas to be falsified in the absolute sense. It’s a common feature of unscientific theories that they’re not capable of being proved or disproved. That’s why cranks like Nicolosi et al. can confidently keep on propounding them.
Not that I am complaining, but does anyone know why Dr. Thockmorton has (seemingly) become much more active in clarification of the ex-gay message?
Maybe I am out of the loop, but he seems to pushing for truth and clear understanding regarding sexual orientation and therapy in the last few months.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s a supporter, but it smells refreshingly like the “live and let live” stuff I vaguely remember hearing somewhere…
I think it is because Dr T has seen through the lies to touch on the truth. Don’t get too enamored though, Throckmorton still has his own therapeutic version of ‘dealing with one’s homosexuality’ called sexual identity therapy, which he believes should be open to anyone who should desire to live life …. differently.
A Catholic addressing conservative Christians (Protestants?)! – strange bedfellows.
I think a one-night stand.
You write that the idea that lack of fatherly love leads to homosexuality is outdated and offensive. I do not find it offensive, and it is not outdated – the book Freud Scientifically Reappraised by Seymour Fisher and Roger Greenberg shows that evidence supports the idea that a poor relationship with one’s father is a factor that can contribute to the development of homosexuality.
Richard L,
Unfortunately, Nicolosi’s favorite theory is outdated and undermined by all the straight men with poor relationships with their fathers, as well as all the gay men with great relationsihps with their fathers.
Just as I am sure that there are many gay men today who had parents who drove Fords, that does not mean that riding in a Ford at a young age increases one’s chance of being gay.
What!? My whole family drove Fords when I was young!! We even had Ford tractors! Then I grew up and bought an orange Datsun…. what’s that mean?
It means you are old enough to remember that Nissan used to be called Datsun, lol.
Not only remember that Nissan was Datsun but own one…. *sigh*
Lynn David,
If the Ford in question was a tractor, the macho cache of the tractor would drown out any residual effects of the exposure to the Ford nameplate.
I dunno…. those Fords were somewhat whimpy tractors compared to the John Deeres….