Anecdotal observations on Reparative Therapy.
What a proper study might look like.

Dr. Jack Drescher, a medical doctor who works extensively with gays, commented:

"My own clinical experience with gay men who failed to change in reparative therapy is that they suffered damage to their self-esteem, experienced resultant anxiety and depression, and often felt a deep mistrust of mental health professionals. This mistrust and shame may explain why no good follow-up studies of these individuals exist." ₃

A representative of the Honolulu, HI Gay and Lesbian Education and Advocacy Foundation (at HawaiiGay1@aol.com ) wrote that over a 25 year period, hundreds of their members had tried reparative therapy groups. He commented:

"I can honestly say, I have never seen one of them claiming they were cured or felt better until they began to accept their goodness as a Gay person."

Investigative report of ex-gays: In 1995, reporter Justin Chin joined an ex-gay program which is affiliated with Exodus Ministries in California. His study was funded by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and was published in The Progressive. ₅He found that:

"Ex-gays are sexually celibate but homosexuality is still central to them: Everything in their lives revolves around homosexuality and avoiding it. Listening to Exodus conference junkies and ex-program members speak, it is easy to see how this subculture is maintained. Ultimately, the difference between gays and ex-gays is like the difference between cheese and cheddar. The ex-gays try to drown their homosexuality in Bible verses, marriage, family, and their own new subcultural niche, but their homosexuality remains."

The core of the survey letter asked:

"Considering all of the persons who have entered your program and who have made a sincere effort to change, please estimate what percentage of individuals fall into each of the following categories:

1. Entered the program with a homosexual orientation and left with a heterosexual orientation.
2. Entered the program with a homosexual orientation and left with a homosexual orientation, but committed to celibacy.
3. Entered the program with a homosexual orientation and left with a homosexual orientation, and open to future gay/lesbian sexual relationships.
4. Entered the program with a bisexual orientation and left with a heterosexual orientation.
5. Entered the program with a bisexual orientation and left with a bisexual orientation, but committed to pursuing only relationships with the opposite gender.
6. Entered the program with a bisexual orientation and left with a bisexual orientation, but open to gay/lesbian or heterosexual sexual behavior.
7. Don't know.
8. Other (please define)

We received 7 replies:

• Four stated that they had no results to report. Some of their reasons were:
  • They dealt with gays and lesbians only by Email or phone.
  • They met with clients only briefly.
  • They kept no records.
  • They dealt with clients anonymously.
• One group reported three successes over 7 or more years:
  • Two clients entered therapy with a homosexual orientation, and left with a homosexual orientation. Both decided to remain celibate.
  • One entered therapy with a bisexual orientation, and left with a bisexual orientation and has developed a committed relationship with a person of the opposite sex and is now open to marrying them.
• One group refused to reveal their results because they felt that our website is biased.
• One suggested that we contact NARTH for data.

Our survey produced very little meaningful data. The few results that we were able to extract support the concept that RT does not change a person's sexual orientation, but can occasionally motivate individuals' behavior, largely by choosing celibacy.