There are causes for homosexual attraction. Some of these causes can be controlled or removed.
******* As of this date, 05-07-30, this folder contains 2 items.
******* item 1 SAME-SEX ATTRACTION AS A SYMPTOM
******* item 2 HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT BIOLOGICALLY DETERMINED, SAYS LATEST RESEARCH
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******* item 1 SAME-SEX ATTRACTION AS A SYMPTOM
******* From: DFJosephMD@aol.com
******* Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 06:50:03 EST
******* In HOMOSEXUALITY AND HOPE: STATEMENT OF THE CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, SAME-SEX ATTRACTION AS A SYMPTOM notes,
******* Individuals experience same-sex attractions for different reasons. While there are similarities in the patterns of development, each individual has a unique, personal history. In the histories of persons who experience same-sex attraction, one frequently finds one or more of the following:
******* A· Alienation from the father in early childhood because the father was perceived as hostile or distant, violent or alcoholic (Apperson 1968[17]; Bene 1965[18]; Bieber 1962[19]; Fisher 1996[20]; Pillard 1988[21]; Sipova 1983[22])
******* B· Mother was overprotective (boys) (Bieber, T. 1971[23]; Bieber 1962[24]; Snortum 1969[25])
******* C· Mother was needy and demanding (boys) (Fitzgibbons 1999[26])
******* D· Mother emotionally unavailable (girls) (Bradley 1997[27]; Eisenbud 1982[28])
******* E· Parents failed to encourage same-sex identification (Zucker 1995[29])
******* F· Lack of rough and tumble play (boys) (Friedman 1980[30]; Hadden 1967a [31])
******* G· Failure to identify with same/sex peers (Hockenberry 1987[32]; Whitman 1977[33])
******* H· Dislike of team sports (boys) (Thompson 1973[34])
******* I· Lack of hand/eye coordination and resultant teasing by peers (boys) (Bailey 1993[35]; Fitzgibbons 1999[36]; Newman 1976[37])
******* J· Sexual abuse or rape (Beitchman 1991[38]; Bradley 1997[39]; Engel 1981[40]; Finkelhor 1984; Gundlach 1967[41])
******* K· Social phobia or extreme shyness (Golwyn 1993[42])
******* L· Parental loss through death or divorce (Zucker 1995)
******* M· Separation from parent during critical developmental stages (Zucker 1995)
******* In some cases, same-sex attraction or activity occurs in a patient with other psychological diagnosis, such as:
******* N· major depression (Fergusson 1999[43])
******* O· suicidal ideation (Herrell 1999)
******* P· generalized anxiety disorder
******* Q· substance abuse
******* R· conduct disorder in adolescents
******* S· borderline personality disorder (Parris 1993[44]; Zubenko 1987[45])
******* T· schizophrenia (Gonsiorek 1982) [46]
******* U· pathological narcissism (Bychowski 1954[47]; Kaplan 1967[48])
******* In a few cases, homosexual behavior appears later in life as a response to a trauma such as abortion, (Berger 1994[49]; de Beauvoir 1953) or profound
loneliness (Fitzgibbons 1999).
******* SAME-SEX ATTRACTION IS PREVENTABLE
******* If the emotional and developmental needs of each child are properly met by both family and peers, the development of same-sex attraction is very unlikely. Children need affection, praise and acceptance by each parent, by siblings and by peers. Such social and family situations, however, are not always easily established and the needs of children are not always readily identifiable. Some parents may be struggling with their own trials and be unable to provide the attention and support their children require. Sometimes parents work very hard but the particular personality of the child makes support and nurture more difficult. Some parents see incipient signs, seek professional assistance and advice, and are given inadequate, and in some cases, erroneous advice.
******* The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (APA 1994[50]) of the American Psychiatric Association has defined Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in children as a strong, persistent cross gender identification, a discomfort with one's own sex, and a preference for cross sex roles in play or in fantasies. Some researchers (Friedman 1988, Phillips, 1992[51]) have identified another less pronounced syndrome in boys -- chronic feelings of unmasculinity. These boys, while not engaging in any cross sex play or fantasies, feel profoundly inadequate in their masculinity and have an almost phobic reaction to rough and tumble play in early childhood often accompanied by a strong dislike of team sports. Several studies have shown that children with Gender Identity Disorder and boys with chronic juvenile unmasculinity are at-risk for same-sex attraction in adolescence. (Newman 1976; Zucker 1995; Harry 1989[52])
******* Early identification (Hadden 1967[53]) and proper professional intervention, if supported by parents, can often overcome the gender identity disorder. (Rekers 1974[54]; Newman 1976) Unfortunately, many parents who report these concerns to their pediatricians are told not to worry about them. In some cases the symptoms and parental concerns may appear to lessen when the child enters the second or third grade, but unless adequately dealt with, the symptoms may reappear at puberty as intense, same-sex attraction. This attraction appears to be the result of a failure to identify positively with one's own sex.
******* It is important that those involved in child care and education become aware of the signs of gender identity disorder and chronic juvenile unmasculinity and have access the resources available to find appropriate help for these children. (Bradley 1998; Brown 1963[55]; Acosta 1975[56]) Once convinced that same-sex attraction is not a genetically determined disorder, one is able to hope for prevention and a therapeutic model to greatly mitigate, if not eliminate, same-sex attractions.
******* AT-RISK, NOT PREDESTINED
******* While a number of studies have shown that children who have been sexually abused, children exhibiting the symptoms of GID, and boys with chronic juvenile unmasculinity are at risk for same-sex attractions in adolescence and adulthood, it is important to note that a significant percentage of these children do not become homosexually active as adults. (Green 1985[57]; Bradley 1998)
******* For some, negative childhood experiences are overcome by later positive interactions. Some make a conscious decision to turn away from temptation. The presence and the power of God's grace, while not always measurable, cannot be discounted as a factor in helping an at-risk individual turn away from same-sex attraction. The labeling of an adolescent, or worse a child, as unchangeably "homosexual" does the individual a grave disservice. Such adolescents or children can, with appropriate, positive intervention, be given proper guidance to deal with early emotional traumas.
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******* item 2 HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT BIOLOGICALLY DETERMINED, SAYS LATEST RESEARCH
******* by Dr. David van Gend
******* Homosexuality is not biologically determined, says latest research
******* By David van Gend http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2271
******* June 8, 2004 — The Titanic of Gay Rights, leaving all in its wake, is about to founder on a large and immovable fact. My concern is not for the glamorous first-class passengers — the prominent doctors and judges — or for the Mardi Gras exhibitionists leering and lurching across the deck — but for the unknown homosexuals down in their lonely cabins feeling sick. These are the ones who want to stop the ship and get off; the homosexuals who do not want to be homosexual but who are told that change is impossible, and that any talk of change is disloyal to the Gay crew, even mutinous.
******* The iceberg of clinical fact looming up in the dark is this: that homosexuals who want to become heterosexual can and do change, as authoritative medical research has now demonstrated. Given the will, and skilled therapy, there can be an end to the nightmare of same-sex attraction. That is the best news for our heartsick friends down below deck, but it is bad news for the complacent triumphalists of the Gay Titanic. Bad news for their tall tale that being gay is like being black, an immutable inborn identity. Bad news, in the debate on gay marriage, for their false analogies with apartheid and Aborigines, since blacks cannot stop being blacks, but gays can stop being gay.
******* Homosexuality emerges in its truer light, not as a minority "genetic identity" but as a complex conditioned behaviour, which can and does change.
******* As to the exact causes of homosexuality, the medical jury is still out. But the baseless claim, promoted by Justice Michael Kirby and others, that gays are just born that way, is given no support by the American Psychiatric Association. Their Fact Sheet on Sexual Orientation (2000) sums it up: "There are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality".
******* As to the ability for homosexuals to change, late last year a remarkable research paper was published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour (October 2003) by one of America's senior psychiatrists, Dr Robert Spitzer. Significantly, this was the same Spitzer whose reforming zeal helped delete homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's manual of mental disorders back in 1973. Now he has published a detailed review of "200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual
orientation". He writes of his research: "Although initially skeptical, in the course of the study, the author became convinced of the possibility of change in some gay men and lesbians."
******* In his structured analysis of homosexuals who claimed to have changed their orientation through "reparative therapy", he concluded that the therapy had been genuinely effective: that "almost all of the participants reported substantial changes in the core aspects of sexual orientation, not merely overt behaviour". Against critics who say that attempts to change sexual orientation can cause emotional harm to homosexuals, he notes: "For the participants in our study, there was no evidence of harm".
******* So our seasick travellers down below in the Titanic can take heart: the desire to shake off sexual disorientation can be, in this eminent and gay-friendly doctor's opinion, "a rational, self-directed goal", and for some it can be successful. The enforcers amongst the ship's crew who accuse you of desertion, of "irrational internalised homophobia", are wrong. To our shame, some of these enforcers are health professionals. To them Spitzer says: "Mental health professionals should stop moving in the direction of banning therapy that has as its goal a change in sexual orientation. Many patients can make a rational choice to work toward developing their heterosexual potential and minimizing their unwanted homosexual attractions."
******* Spitzer, once a medical darling of the Gay Rights movement, may now have to walk the plank, because his stubborn telling of the clinical truth has political implications. The success of Gay activism has been due to portraying Gays as a persecuted minority group, identifying with historically persecuted minorities like blacks, women, Jews. This illusion cannot survive Spitzer's findings, that being Gay is a treatable psychological condition like any other, not an inborn identity.
******* In the current political debate about same-sex marriage, all talk is of persecuted minorities and human rights, while Spitzer's truth of a treatable condition is nowhere to be heard.
******* Gay activist Rodney Croome thinks back to the Aborigines and accuses the Prime Minister, who opposes same-sex marriage, of denying gays "the full humanity of a disadvantaged group". In The Australian, Former AMA President Dr. Kerryn Phelps likewise accused the Prime Minister of "apartheid" against the gay "minority" in denying them marriage rights. But turning from that bogus racial minority model to Spitzer's therapeutic model, we see that gays can in fact marry, and in Spitzer's study many were married — but first they had to become biologically marriageable by successfully reorientating from homosexual to heterosexual.
******* The titanic illusion of homosexuality as a fixed inborn identity will take time to sink, but Spitzer's therapeutic iceberg will be more liberating than destructive. Below decks are the passengers I care about, and they need to know that it is OK to want to escape the suffering of same-sex attraction, and possible to do so. And our health professionals, who alone can man the life rafts, owe them a duty of care in aiding that escape.
******* Dr. David van Gend is a family doctor in Toowoomba, Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of Queensland, and a medical advisor to the
Australian Family Association.
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Links to other sites on the Web
(YF1a) parental and other advice
(YF1b) helpful organizations
(YF1c) children of same sex parents
(YF1d) helpful persons
(YF1f) (YF) home page
Who are your true friends: those who tell you what you want to hear or those who tell you what they really think?
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The following warning is a prophetic message given to me (Frank Wagner) in November of 1974.
******* LISTEN TO THE CRY OF THE ABORTED CHILDREN. THEIR CRY IS NO. THEIR CRY IS A CRY OF TERROR. HEED THEIR CRY.
******* This prophecy is now being fulfilled.
******* For details about the source, meaning and fulfillment of this prophetic message go to
******* http://www.oocities.org/abortedchildren/index.html
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Check out some of my other sites:
******* http://www.oocities.org/fwagner12/index.html (Vancouver Youth Alliance)
******* http://www.oocities.org/fwagner6/index.htm (Vancouver ex-gay alternatives club)
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email me (Frank Wagner) at friendsofexgays@yahoo.ca