Today, Dr. Robert Spitzer repudiated his much-criticized 2001 study that claimed some “highly motivated” homosexuals could go from gay to straight.
Now it is up to anti-gay and so-called “ex-gay” organizations to show some dignity and class by expeditiously removing all citations of Dr. Robert Spitzer’s study from their web pages. This is nothing short of a major integrity test to show which groups are honest and decent enough to do the right thing.
PFOX should be the first to act. This group has relentlessly and shamelessly flogged Spitzer’s study, even when he first began to inch away from the findings and upbraid right wing groups for distorting and exaggerating his findings. Here is a video TWO shot of Spitzer in 2007 urging such groups to stop twisting his work.
Here are a few more examples of how Spitzer’s work is being used to harm LGBT people. We hope these groups will act quickly. The world is watching:
Family Research Council (Peter Sprigg)
http://www.frc.org/op-eds/censoring-the-ex-homosexual-message
Focus on the Family
http://www.citizenlink.com/2010/06/14/are-people-really-born-gay/
PFOX (They need to remove this video from front page)
www.pfox.org
Evergreen International (LDS ex-gay group)
http://www.evergreeninternational.org/Myths.htm
Maggie Gallagher
http://townhall.com/columnists/maggiegallagher/2001/05/10/fixing_sexual_orientation/page/full/
Conservapedia
http://www.conservapedia.com/Ex-homosexuals
NARTH
http://www.narth.com/docs/evidencefound.html
http://www.narth.com/docs/fullpage.html
Ryan Sorba – “The Born Gay Hoax”
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/TheBornGayHoax.pdf
Christianity Today (‘Ex-Gays Are Real, Says Study)
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/mayweb-only/5-7-32.0.html
Stanton L. Jones and mark A. Yarhouse (Pg. 89)
“Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation”
“Perhaps the highly publicized recent study in which participants reported successful change of sexual orientation was authored by research psychiatrist Robert L. Spitzer. Spitzer could be construed to be the most qualified person in the world to conduct this sort of research; in addition to a distinguished research career, he was the lead scientist responsible for revision of the DSM of the APA.”