Psychiatrist behind controversial 'ex-gay' study retracts original claims
Staff Reports
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/04/psychiatrist-behind-controversial-ex-gay-study-retracts-original-claims/In a move that serves as a significant blow to "ex-gay" programs and anti-gay organizations, Dr. Robert Spitzer has repudiated his much-criticized 2001 study that claimed some "highly motivated" homosexuals could go from gay to straight.
Spitzer's retraction occurred in an American Prospect magazine article that hit newsstands on Wednesday.
Spitzer's rejection of his own research, which was originally published in the prestigious Archives of Sexual Behavior, is a devastating blow to "ex-gay" organizations because it decisively eliminates their most potent claim that homosexuality can be reversed through therapy and prayer, according to Truth Wins Out, a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism and the "ex-gay" myth.
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Posted on
Advocate.com April 11, 2012 02:05:00 PM ET
Psychiatrist Retracts 2001 Claim That Ex-Gay Programs Can Work
By Neal Broverman
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/04/11/Psychiatrist_Retracts_2001_Claim_That_ExGay_Programs_Can_Work/Quoted in an April 11 American Prospect article, Dr. Robert Spitzer repudiated his infamous 2001 study that claimed some people can change from gay to straight.
Spitzer, who helped push the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality from their list of mental disorders in 1973, shocked many when he appeared to back the veracity of some "ex-gay" programs in 2001. Now 80, Spitzer tells writer Gabriel Arana, who suffered through such programs, that his 11-year-old claims were taken out of context.
"In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques [of his study] are largely correct," Spitzer told Arana. "The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more."
