Press Release
"THERAPIES"
TO CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATION
LACK MEDICAL
JUSTIFICATION
AND
THREATEN HEALTH
Washington, D.C., 17
May 2012 (PAHO/WHO) — Services that purport to "cure" people with
non-heterosexual sexual orientation lack medical justification and represent a
serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people, the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a position statement launched on 17
May, the International Day against Homophobia. The statement calls on
governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to
expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity. Photo
Twenty two years ago, on May 17, the World Health Assembly removed
homosexuality from the list of mental disorders when it approved a new version
of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases
(ICD-10).
"Since homosexuality is not a disorder or a disease, it does
not require a cure. There is no medical indication for changing sexual
orientation," said PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago. Practices known
as "reparative therapy" or "conversion therapy" represent
"a serious threat to the health and well-being—even the lives—of affected
people."
The PAHO statement notes that there is a professional consensus
that homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality and cannot be
regarded as a pathological condition. However, several United Nations bodies have
confirmed the existence of "therapists" and "clinics" that
promote treatment intended to change the sexual orientation of non-heterosexual
people.
The document notes that no rigorous scientific studies demonstrate
any efficacy of efforts to change sexual orientation. However, there are many
testimonies about the severe harm to mental and physical health that such
"services" can cause. Repression of sexual orientation has been
associated with feelings of guilt and shame, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
As an aggravating factor, there have been a growing number of
reports about degrading treatments, and physical and sexual harassment under
the guise of such "therapies," which are often provided illicitly. In
some cases, adolescents have been subjected to such interventions involuntarily
and even deprived of their liberty, sometimes kept in isolation for several
months.
"These practices are unjustifiable and should be denounced
and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation," said
Dr. Roses. "These supposed conversion therapies constitute a violation of
the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are
protected by international and regional agreements."
To address the problem, PAHO makes a series of recommendations for
governments, academic institutions, professional associations, the media, and
civil society, including:
· “Conversion” or “reparative” therapies and the clinics offering
them should be denounced and subject to adequate sanctions.
· Public institutions responsible for training health
professionals should include courses on human sexuality and sexual health in
their curricula, with a focus on respect for diversity and the elimination of
attitudes of pathologization, rejection, and hate toward non-heterosexual
persons.
· Professional associations should disseminate documents and
resolutions by national and international institutions and agencies that call
for the de-psychopathologization of sexual diversity and the prevention of interventions
aimed at changing sexual orientation.
· In the media, homophobia in any of its manifestations and
expressed by any person should be exposed as a public health problem and a
threat to human dignity and human rights.
· Civil society organizations can develop mechanisms of civil
vigilance to detect violations of the human rights of non-heterosexual persons
and report them to the relevant authorities. They can also help to identify and
report people and institutions involved in the administration of “reparative”
or “conversion therapies.”
PAHO, which celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, is the
oldest public health organization in the world. It works with its member
countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the
Americas. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.
Read more:
World Health
Organization
“CURES” FOR AN
ILLNESS THAT DOES NOT EXIST
Purported therapies
aimed at changing sexual orientation lack medical justification and are
ethically unacceptable
"REPARATIVE THERAPY" or
"CONVERSION THERAPY"
Reported violations
of personal integrity and other human rights
As an aggravating factor, “conversion therapies” have to be
considered threats to the right to personal autonomy and to personal integrity.
There are several testimonies from adolescents who have been subject to
“reparative” interventions against their will, many times at their families’
initiative. In some cases, the victims were interned and deprived of their
liberty, sometimes to the extent of being kept in isolation during several
months.6 The testimonies provide accounts of degrading treatment, extreme
humiliation, physical violence, aversive conditioning through electric shock or
emetic substances, and even sexual harassment and attempts of “reparative
rape,” especially in the case of lesbian women. Such interventions violate the
dignity and human rights of the affected persons, independently of the fact
that their “therapeutic” effect is nil or even counterproductive. In these
cases, the right to health has not been protected as demanded by the regional
and international obligations established through the Protocol of San Salvador
and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Read complete
position statement - May 17, 2012
Spitzer Issues
Apology for Study Supporting REPARATIVE THERAPY - 6/15/12 - Robert Spitzer,
M.D. - has now RENOUNCED the findings that “REPARATIVE THERAPY” could help gay
people change their sexual orientation
Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing GAY
‘CURE’ – 5/18/12
Spitzer's Apology
Changes 'Ex-Gay' Debate – 5/21/12 – NPR -- …CONAN: Do you think homosexuality
is a choice? SPITZER: Is a choice? No,
for sure, that's the one thing I have no doubt about, it's no choice.
CONAN: And in a distinguished career, this has been, I guess, an unfortunate
last chapter. SPITZER: Well, it's unfortunate in one sense, but I feel very relieved and very grateful to the many people who
have told me or written to the New York Times that I Did The Right Thing, and I think I did.
GAY CONVERSION
THERAPY DEVASTATED MY FAMILY - CHANA WILSON – 6/25/12 - REPARATIVE
THERAPY, which attempts to make gay people straight, is not just futile -- It
often causes serious harm, including increased depression, self-hatred, and
even suicide. It can devastate not just a gay individual, but entire families…
Gay Baby Boomers Waiting for More
Apologies - Jeffrey Sharlach – 6/01/12
Facing the Truth
About Reparative Therapy and America's War on Gay Teens - Tomas Mournian –
5/22/12 …The reparative therapy described in "Hiding Out" and
my later related reportage chronicled torture practices that were coercive and,
in many ways, the same as what was happening in the Iraqi torture sites.
Reparative therapy or torture? Humiliation, isolation, extreme physical
positions, and forced confessions were as common at Teen Help (a now-defunct
umbrella organization that referred parents to reparative-therapy facilities
that has been exposed on WWASPS Survivors Network) as at Abu Ghraib…
California Senate Votes To Ban Gay
‘Conversion’ Therapy – 5/30/12
The Lies and Dangers of Reparative
Therapy – HRC - May 2012
Many right-wing religious groups promote the concept that an
individual can change his or her sexual orientation, either through prayer or
other religious efforts, or through so-called "reparative" or
"conversion" therapy. The limited research on such efforts has
disproven their efficacy, and also has indicated that they can be affirmatively
harmful. Beyond studies focused solely on reparative therapy, broader research
clearly demonstrates the significant harm that societal prejudice and family
rejection has on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people,
particularly youth. Furthermore, there is significant anecdotal evidence of
harm to LGBT people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation.
Based on this body of evidence, every major medical and mental health
organization in the United States has issued a statement condemning the use of
reparative therapy…
Research on the Impacts of Reparative
Therapy, Harms Caused by
Societal Prejudice
Organizational Positions on Reparative
Therapy
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for Marriage and
Family Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Medical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American School Counselor Association
National Association of Social Workers
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO): Regional Office of the World Health Organization
Gay Catholic Priest, Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, 1997 “Coming Out”
Threatened
by Vatican with
REPARATIVE THERAPY
WHISTLEBLOWING to protect gay
children from the Severity of Antigay Social & Religious Norms - FLEES
– Hostile Working Environment Incapacitating Retaliation - NOW – Vatican Twist
Flees to Refusing to Return – to remove from Clerical State - Gay Priest is
Defenseless has No Civil Protection
Read More:
Fr.
Marty Kurylowicz being attacked by Benedict XVI
I
am next in line to be one of Benedict XVI casualties. As a gay Roman Catholic - I have absolutely
no recourse regarding my situation – except to make mu case all public. This of
course will not stop the Benedict XVI and W. Hurley violent covert operations
against me. But it can become a small window into the cloak-and-dagger
routine of corruption that is now undeniably characteristic of Benedict XVI, his
hierarchy and all their accomplices. In this way Catholics and friends of
Catholic can help see that the likes of Benedict XVI’s clandestine
activities, child sexual abuse cover-ups, etc. are therefore prevented from ever
happening again. Also, I hope it will
bring out publically the true stories of all those bishops, priests, sisters,
academics, etc. who were on B16’s list to be secretly sabotaged into silence and
then later are removed without any public notice or recourse...
Read more:
Pope Blasts U.K. Anti-Discrimination Laws - February 2, 2010 – In Speech, Benedict Raises Fears that Vatican Could Be Prosecuted for Stances Against Gays
Gay
Catholic Priest, Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, 1997 “Coming Out” for “Protection of
Children From Antigay Social & Religious Norms” – Vatican Ordered REPARATIVE
THERAPY for the gay priest – August 2012
GAY
MARRIAGE – Propaganda Tactics|B16’s Naturalistic fallacy & Homosexuality -
Dehumanizing, Depriving Civil Rights, Silencing Gays - Covering Up B16 Crimes
Against Children 30+yrs? |PART 5
VATICAN:
GAY DISCRIMINATION Document Released - July
24, 1992
“…that
said homosexuals could legitimately be discriminated against in employment,
housing and the adoption of children.”
Vatican
attacked for opposing gay decriminalization - December 2, 2008
Vatican
OPPOSES UN Declaration on DECRIMINALISATION of HOMOSEXUALITY – December 12, 2008
Sister
MARGARET FARLEY - in St. Louis, at the CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA -
A
"profoundly important" question for Catholic theologians, Farley said, is:
"SHOULD POWER SETTLE QUESTIONS OF TRUTH?" …her students [at Yale]
asked…why she stayed in a church…Because the church "is still a source of real
life for me," she would tell them. "It's worth the struggle. It's Worth Getting
A Real Backbone That Has Compassion Tied To It." – Her book, "Just Love: A
Framework for Christian Social Ethics" - 61112
SR. MARGARET A. FARLEY -
emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School – defends her
book - “JUST LOVE: A FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN SEXUAL ETHICS” respecting
and supporting GAY MARRIAGE - from Benedict XVI Approved Homophobic Attacks made
by Vatican - 60412 Photo
GAY
MARRIAGE - An 8 Part Series Professionally providing Reliable Authoritative Data
& Research – that Challenges the Accuracy & Truthfulness of Benedict XVI
& Hierarchy – Public Antigay Attacks, Tactics –
2012
Benedict
XVI Anti-Gay Obsession | DISSOCIATIVE - HOMOEROTIC Feelings - NOT Catholic
Church DOCTRINE | Crackdown U.S. Nuns Gay Marriage & Permanent Removing Gay
Priest 1997 for his efforts to Protect Children
Gay
Marriage - No Mystery – Only TRUTH about Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups Will Set
Benedict XVI Free – not FOX NEWS NETWORK PR in an USA Presidential Election Year
– A 30 year Web of DECEIT & RUTHLESSNESS is Unending Expense & Global
Violence Against Children!
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