Press can’t be trusted on homosexuality

The March 12 piece by Presbyterian Rev. Roger Powers on “Conversion Therapy” (SB121) is rife with misinformation. These are the same LGBT discredited arguments we have been hearing for the last 20 years. Rev. Powers probably means well, but he should be reminded that the Presbyterian Church still regards same-gender sex as a sin.

Columnist Cal Thomas, in one of his columns, said, “Increasingly, when it comes to homosexuality, the press cannot be trusted.” Nationally, there are now so many homosexual journalists that they have formed their own organization — the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. I sincerely hope the Journal has the integrity to publish this letter.

Rev. Powers’ most outrageous claim is that “one in 10 people are LGBTQ.” A recent Gallup poll revealed the national homosexual community population at 3.7 percent.

As to conversion therapy, there have been many studies showing that this protocol can be successful, contrary to advice of the American Psychiatric Association and others that these practices pose serious health risks. Clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Kronmeyer, in his 1980 book “Overcoming Homosexuality,” wrote that “with exceptions, homosexuality is neither inherited nor the result of some glandular disturbance or the scrambling of genes or chromosomes.” In May of 1997 the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality stated that most of its members consider homosexuality a developmental disorder, and released the results of a two-year study showing remarkable success in overcoming homosexuality. More recently, in 2001, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, led a study that concluded gay people can turn straight. Dr. Spitzer appears to have had an epiphany since 1973 when he spearheaded the American Psychiatric Association’s decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. After treatment, the Columbia study showed in post-interviews 89 percent of the men and 95 percent of the women said they were bothered only slightly, or not at all, by unwanted homosexual feelings.

It is not puzzling as to why the AMA and other psychogenic professional groups disavow conversion therapy. These groups all seek to normalize homosexuality and other sexual explorations including pedophilia for commercial purposes, it would seem. Sexually conflicted people, denied access to other known methods, would have no alternative but to rely on psychotherapy. Ca-ching!

As to safety, there is no evidence showing that suicide is more prevalent among the sexually conflicted, proportionally, than among the general population. In fact, conversion therapy may help alleviate suicidal tendencies. And speaking of safety, let’s not forget that gay men are responsible for 67 percent of the nation’s 50,000 new cases annually of AIDS/HIV . ... STEPHEN F. BACA Rio Rancho