Dozens of Orthodox Rabbis have signed a statement of principles expressing support for the inclusion of gay Jews in their community, but still rejecting complete acceptance of same-sex partnering and marriage. One particular point stands out:
5. Whatever the origin or cause of homosexual orientation, many individuals believe that for most people this orientation cannot be changed. Others believe that for most people it is a matter of free will. Similarly, while some mental health professionals and rabbis in the community strongly believe in the efficacy of “change therapies”, most of the mental health community, many rabbis, and most people with a homosexual orientation feel that some of these therapies are either ineffective or potentially damaging psychologically for many patients.
We affirm the religious right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject therapeutic approaches they reasonably see as useless or dangerous. [emphasis added]
So while lip service is paid to those in the Orthodox community who see value in ex-gay therapy, it is made explicitly clear that such therapy can rightfully be avoided.
Also of note is the use of the phrase “homosexual orientation.” Ex-gay therapy is based upon the rejection of the existence of specific sexual orientations. Rather, only heterosexuals with “homosexual problems” exist. Said heterosexuals are simply “struggling with temptation.” But the rabbis who have signed on have acknowledged the existence of a unique group of people who have intrinsic non-heterosexual orientations.
This can also be considered just the latest of several blows to JONAH, the ex-gay organization that claims to cater to those in the Orthodox community.
I think this is the best outcome we can expect from some religious groups. If they’re not going to accept that gays can have healthy sexual and romantic relationships, at least they can be realistic about sexual orientation and the likelihood of change.
Advocating celibacy as the only realistic option for gays far from ideal, but it is miles ahead of advocating ex-gay therapy.
I agree, for some this will be it — at least for now. In the end it probably won’t be bans that kill ex-gay therapy, but the general loss of favor just as ice pick lobotomies fell out of favor in the 1960s. It’s hard to believe that just a few decades ago we were punching ice picks in the frontal lobes of people who felt depressed, or kids who were “too spirited.”
Fewer people will seek such a thing out and no one who cares for their professional reputation will suggest it. Working in this venue I sometimes tend to forget just how marginal ex-gay therapy is in the first place. It will fade away and at an accelerated rate I suspect. The idea that someone would want to enter the profession at this time with such quackery is probably professional suicide.
The orthodox – well, I guess t hey can’t stand being identified with their peers in the Knesset in Israel who said in Jan 2009, that gays were worse then bird flu.
That is a call for the extermination of gay people by those who close relatives shared hitlers ovens with the Gays of germany.
MY wife went to visit israel, in a once in a lifetime trip. I refused to go, and gave the $5000 to several gay political groups. I said “something terrible is going to happen” And it did, when an ortjhpdpx Jew went into the Gay and Lesbian community center in Tel Aviv and killed 2 women, and wounded 11.
And then a member of the hareidim (ultra-orthodox) community in Israel said “that is just the beginning, the next one will be worse. At least he got tossed in Jail.
If Israel finds and convicts the killer, he should get special treatment – to be only the second person that Israel has ever executed. The other was Adolph Eichman.
And for me, seeing how religion can be so corrupted, when my wife goes occasionally to the temple on Friday nights we call it widows night. And once or twice a month I go to the gay bar to celebrate the progress America and the world is making re ending the evil perpetrated against gay people.
I should comment on the EX gay people. Don Schmierer, one of the heads of Exodus, is a key figure in driving the genocide of gays bill in Uganda. While one of his partners in his organization, a few years ago left the group, saying the whole thing is a hoax. And he married his boy friend.
And I’ve met a couple ex gays. If you remember the vicious murder of Matthew shepard, one of the ex gays said that “matthew got what he deserved. Another said “His parents should have fixed him”. And then denied he said it, because he actually seems to be a pathological lair. which is what these groups create.
its time that people who practice medicine with out a license from the state, be thrown in jail, and there is no exemption for religious free speech.
Religious free speech which gave teh world the hatred of the Jews over a millenia. Which Hitler , a Catholic, leveraged to power in Germany, and 55 million died
And his church has yet to EXcommunicate him