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06/16/2006
'Concerned Intern' already learnin' the game
In yet another Concerned Women for America-based criticism of Wayne Besen's new "ex-gay"-challenging group, Truth Wins Out, "Concerned Intern" Sarah Kuziomko says of one speaker at Besen's recent press conference:
Stuart Stotsky, M.D., discussed the emotional impact of "ex-gay" therapies. Stotsky asserted that not only were these programs inefficient, but they actually hurt the participants and their families. He claimed that there are "no published studies" showing the efficacy of reparative therapy, ignoring the recent survey of hundreds of former homosexuals by the left-wing Dr. Robert Spitzer of Columbia University ('Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation' Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 32, No. 5, October 2003, pp. 403-417.)
Gee, funny you should mention one's ignoring of Dr. Spitzer, Sarah....
SPITZER: "Our sample was self-selected from people who already claimed they had made some change. We don't know how common that kind of change is. . . . I'm not saying that this can be easily done, or that most homosexuals who want to change can make this kind of change. I suspect it's quite unusual." [CNN, May 9, 2001]
SPITZER: "I did not conclude that all gays should try to change, or even that they would be better off if they did. However, to my horror, some of the media reported the study as an attempt to show that homosexuality is a choice, and that substantial change is possible for any homosexual who decides to make the effort." [Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2001]
SPITZER: "...I suspect the vast majority of gay people would be unable to alter by much a firmly established homosexual orientation. I certainly believe that parents with homosexually oriented sons and daughters should love their children -- no matter how their children decide
to live their lives -- and should not use my study to coerce them into unwanted therapy." [Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2001]
SPITZER: "...the kinds of changes my subjects reported are highly unlikely to be available to the vast majority [of gays and lesbians]... "[only] a small minority -- perhaps 3% -- might have a "malleable" sexual orientation." He expressed a concern that his study results were being "twisted by the Christian right." [Advocate, July 17, 2001]
Though I'm sure you meant to include these comments that Spitzer himself made about this, the one study that you guys routinely use to justify your position; right Sarah? No, probably not? It's more likely that you conveniently followed the "pro-family" handbook of leaving points like this out? Oh. Well, that's what internships are all about -- doing as your elders do. Stay the course and you might just make "Concerned Associate!"
Foe of Ex-Gay' Ministries Launches New Group [CWFA]
**And if you're wondering why the dates for Spitzer's comments were made two years before his questionable, at best, study (for which Spitzer is said to have struggled for a year and a half to find only 274 possible subjects) was published, his remarks were made upon the results' 2001 release, though the peer-reviewed study itself wasn't published until Oct. of '03.
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