Homosexuality:  Can It Be Changed?

In the past, the Seventh-day Adventist church has been committed to the disease model of homosexuality and it has funded "treatment" programs for homosexuality.⁷⁴  These programs have been disastrous (to be addressed).  Unfortunately, vestiges of this "treatment" mentality remain within some institutional Adventist circles as recent Adventist books and affiliated publications suggest.^75,76  A more charitable view is struggling to emerge by membership consensus: homosexual orientation is real, is at best morally neutral, but lifelong celibacy remains required for church community acceptance and any possibility for personal salvation.^30,76,77  It is uncertain whether this view will survive or continue to evolve.  Therefore, it is understandable that many Adventists (particularly parents of gay and lesbian youth) still labor under the hope (false) that they might "change" the sexual orientation of a loved one.

Some Christian communities have continued to debate the possibility of "treating homosexuality" and some continue to support such treatment centers or "treatment support groups."  These so-called change therapies, also known as "reparative therapies" or "ex-gay therapies," have significant ties to Adventism.  As late as 1986, institutional Adventism financed the reparative therapy efforts of Colin Cook and Homosexuals Anonymous.  When it was discovered that Cook was involved in sexual relationships with many of the young men he was attempting to "help," the Adventist church withdrew its support.⁷⁸  Similar efforts by Cook a decade later in a different location resulted in similar improprieties.⁷⁹  Despite a pattern of abuse and unethical conduct, Colin Cook continues to reinvent himself and his so-called ministry.  He continues to be active in the Seventh-day Adventist church and has started his ex-gay program, FaithQuest, once again.⁸⁰  Colin Cook's work frames the issue of the legitimacy of "reparative therapies" and whether or not such efforts are routinely successful in changing a person's sexual orientation.

Even among people who are genuinely motivated to alter their sexual orientation  from a standpoint of either personal desire, religious convictions, or concerns of homophobic prejudice, accountable real change is nil.^81-88  "Ex-gay" change efforts may be helpful in redirecting a conflicted heterosexual or bisexual person who has experimented with homosexual activity back to heterosexual relationships.  Among homosexual oriented people motivated to "change," these "ex-gay" change programs may be successful in changing sexual behavior, but do not succeed in changing sexual orientation.

What does this mean?  It means that homosexually-oriented individuals will continue to be erotically stimulated by homosexual ideation, but may not necessarily act on it.  It also means that homosexually-oriented individuals will not be erotically stimulated by heterosexual ideation, but will make every effort to pretend otherwise.  And, it is this dishonesty which remains at the discredited core of all "change therapies."  On the whole, psychotherapy directs clients to live honest and fully integrated lives rather than dishonest and denial-laden fragmented lives.  While credible studies are admittedly few, five-year and longer independent follow up reviews of "change therapy" patients reveal that most remain homosexual or bisexually oriented and many return to homosexual behaviors.^89-91  Because these studies are still based on research subject self-reporting, bias and dishonesty remain problematic--and the studies need to continue for a longer period of time (many may be able to sustain "change" for a short period of time).

In a recent highly publicized oral report by Robert Spitzer, a psychiatrist at Columbia University, there has been a suggestion that some homosexuals can change.⁹²  Spitzer is noteworthy because he helped steer the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as an illness.  Spitzer interviewed 200 individuals referred to him by Christian organizations self-described as "changed."  Most of the research subjects had already been in change programs for more than ten years.  Spitzer announced that 66% of the men and 44% of the women interviewed had arrived at what he called reasonable "heterosexual functioning."⁹³

Several issues here are worth noting.  First, heterosexual functioning is about a behavioral shift and may not necessarily imply a genuine change in sexual orientation.  Second, because this study was based on a single telephone interview, Spitzer reminds his audience that he has no proof that participants were honest.⁹³  Third, Spitzer was very concerned about how his research might be misconstrued and "twisted by the Christian right."⁹⁴  In a series of follow up interviews, Spitzer said:  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.⁹⁵  I suspect the vast majority of gay people would be unable to alter by much a firmly established homosexual orientation.⁹⁶  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 three percent--might have a malleable sexual orientation.⁹⁴

Despite highly touted success rates claimed by some change therapy centers, it is notable that these centers have not shared, replicated or published a single study in an independent scientific peer reviewed journal forum.  Furthermore, even researcher Robert Spitzer, cooperating with Christian "ex-gay" groups, had "great difficulty" finding people who claimed to have changed their sexual orientation--this despite the fact that ex-gay groups claim that "thousands have left homosexuality."⁹⁷  It is also noteworthy that change programs can be very expensive (particularly if the "process" takes more than ten years) to say nothing of the harm some of these programs inflict.⁹⁸  Sensational claims do capture media attention, but scientific information is obtained by more reasonable methods.

Perhaps most daunting (and cruel) to the Christian homosexual as it relates to Christian-sponsored "change" or "reparative therapies" is that "success" of the therapy is dependent on the perceived moral commitment of the individual.  In other words, those who simply cannot overcome their sexual orientation (essentially all) are simply blamed for a poor, inadequate, or insufficient relationship to God which allows evil to continue invading their lives.  Descriptions of these hellish journeys have been published.⁸⁸  Within gay Adventist communities, the efforts to "change" sexual orientation have been extraordinarily cruel, and I know some of these battered survivors.  That some of these Adventist gay men and lesbian women survive at all is a testimony to grace.

It is worth reiterating that since the early 1970's, the "treatment" of homosexuality as a disease (unless conducted in a valid academic research setting) is not supported by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, or the American Medical Association (see Appendix B).  Should reparative therapy be advocated by licensed health care professionals outside of an academic research setting, local medical societies and state regulatory agencies should be notified for possible malpractice.