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Troubled Souls, Fooled Again
Book
Review
Troubled Souls, Fooled Again
by Robert William Wolff
Ex-gay
and so-called reparative therapies are major concerns for LGBTQ people
everywhere. These organizations and individuals are connected to, or part
of, a right-wing Christian anti-gay political movement that aggressively
challenges LGBTQ efforts to become full, first class citizens. Wayne Besen
has written a must-read book about these groups for diverse audiences,
including Christians, youth counselors, lgbt community members and anyone
who wants to know the dirty political truth.
Besen had guts to research this ugly material
for four-plus years and to birth a powerful, humorous, well-written book
revealing these false prophets for profits. From his triumphant (and gloating)
account of his "gotcha" photograph of self-proclaimed "ex-gay"
icon John Paulk in a Washington, DC gay bar to the eventual defection
of
Exodus cofounders Michael Busee and Gary Cooper, Besen uncovers the truth
that this movement wants to deny: the best they can do is exist in limbo,
denying their true sexual feelings, and in some cases living as celibate.
His book, however, has one flaw that takes attention from his otherwise
excellent research: the vexing habit
of describing, in disparaging terms, the personal flaws he perceives in
the people he met at support groups and on other occasions.
If you have been the victim of the fundamentalist
right-wing religious teachings described in Anything But Straight, be
advised to quickly get yourself to one of the organizations in the resources
section on page 275. Some of the entries there provide sources for Christian
theology that fully accepts people as they are, and at least one will
explain that God did not make a mistake when creating you. Besen
suggests plenty of measures for LGBTQ people who want to defend the community
against these right-wing activities.
Besen investigated people who are:
- earning a living by attempting (unsuccessfully) to change others when
they might better be looking to themselves;
- raising money for right-wing fundamentalist causes;
- raising the hopes of innocent people who have been systematically taught
to hate themselves;
- teaching these same people that they can remove their pain by becoming
heterosexual;
- claiming innocence when their "client" victims fail to become
heterosexual and too frequently commit suicide; and,
- using the mistruth that people can change their sexual attraction from
homosexual to heterosexual to fuel political actions aimed at keeping
LGBTQ people from being first class citizens with the full rights of heterosexuals.
The only things the victims of these right-wing
ideologues can be "guilty" of is being turned on sexually by
members of their gender and seeking to establish intimate relationships
with them. The reasons for the victims' pain are what many of today's
theologians think are misinterpretations of Bible passages.
Right-wing Christians who staff these anti-gay
activities appear to believe that people are not gay because they were
born gay, but because they related inadequately to their same-sex parent,
they have not prayed enough, and have not exercised sufficient willpower
to break the "bondage" of homosexuality. Bensen uses the input
of Tim Bergling, author of Sissyphobia, to disprove the concept of same-sex
parent distance as predictor of homosexuality. The research of Bergling
and psychiatrist Richard A. Isay (Becoming Gay and Being Homosexual) shows
that long before their sons are aware of sexuality or sexual attraction,
fathers often move away from their gay sons because of their discomfort
with the gay sons' interests and behavior. Other researchers demonstrate
that heterosexual men also have had distant fathers. Besen believes that
this "cart before the horse" belief of ex-gay and reparative
therapy advocates is yet another place where they are incorrect and treacherous.
Besen also points out that waving the flag
about being born gay, rather than nurtured into being gay, is a double-edged
sword. Scientific evidence indicates that there are reasons to believe
that lesbian and gay individuals are born gay, disproving major teachings
of ex-gay and reparative groups. But if gay people are born attracted
to their own gender, then science can probably find a way to ensure that
queer children are not born. Besen creates an opening to identify some
negative results of ridding the world of queer children, but he leaves
this alone. The author misses an opportunity to make this essential point:
if the birth of queer children is prevented at some point in the future,
where will we get the beautiful diversity the world provides - or some
would say, "God has provided." Queer people have essential things
to teach and to do in this world. We don't voice this enough!
The author takes us through the history
of the ex-gay, reparative therapy movements, identifying the leaders and
telling enough of their stories to show them as the quacks and frauds
they are. At each turn it is clear that the self-destructive feelings
suffered by these bisexuals, lesbians, and gay males originate in fundamentalist
families and their houses of worship. Further it is these same Christian-right
circles that seek to "repair" these feelings by getting rid
of the natural sexual attraction that bisexuals, lesbians, and gay males
experience. We read of the contributions to this evil movement by Moberly,
Bergler, Bieber, Socarides, Nicolosi, Kaufman, Cohen and others.
The leaders of the ex-gay movement continually
come up against the truth, switch course slightly and are back in operation,
using the same unsuccessful techniques to "change" - or more
accurately to suppress - sexual attraction to same-gender partners. And
through the decades this has been going on, Besen says not a single instance
of real change of sexual desire has been proven. Plenty of people in the
"ex-gay" movement are living frustrated lives full of suppression,
depression and suicidal feelings.
Robert William Wolff is a theatrical and performance space designer
and potter who lives in Randolph. He is also involved in an effort to
establish a Metropolitan Community Church in Vermont.