Can Sexual Orientation Be Changed?

Abstract

This paper was presented at a 2013 conference at the United Nations Church Center in New York City. The conference, “Selling the Promise of Change: International Health and Policy Consequences of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE),” was sponsored by the NGO Committee on Human Rights and the NGO Committee on HIV/AIDS. The paper begins with a review of the history of mental health attitudes toward homosexuality from the 19th century to the present. This is followed by a discussion of how SOCE shifted from a clinical debate to a culture war issue. The paper then reviews some research issues raised by the Spitzer (2003) study, some of the problematic clinical and ethical issues raised by efforts to change sexual orientation, and concludes with a summary of the position statements of the American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association.

KEYWORDS:

• American Psychiatric Association
• American Psychological Association
• conversion therapy
• ethics
• homosexuality
• reparative therapy
• sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE)
• Spitzer study

Notes

¹Approximately 10,000 of APA's 20,000 members voted in the referendum.

²Available online at http://www.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/197310.pdf

³The ad can be viewed on an “ex-gay” Facebook page at http://goo.gl/IfpWRf

⁴Referring to themselves as “ex-gay survivors,” these individuals have begun organizing themselves; see http://www.beyondexgay.com/