By BRIAN CLOWES
(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For electronic copies of previous articles on homosexual “marriage,” the special rights agenda, and the role of homosexuality in the Church crisis, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.)
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Major homosexual activist groups march in lockstep as they declare that “gays” were born that way, and that there is therefore nothing they can do to change their orientation. The media, of course, follow obediently along. Things have gone so far that even homosexuals who want to live “straight” lives are being denied counseling by law in a growing number of states.
Of course, the media studiously ignore the leading experts in the field of human sexuality, who are almost unanimous in their opinions that homosexuality is, in large part, an acquired or chosen orientation.
If we eventually accept the idea that sexual orientation is genetically inherited, the homosexual lifestyle loses all of its moral implications. It will become absolutely neutral in content, like a person’s sex or skin color. This would naturally relieve homosexuals of any responsibility for their actions.
Unfortunately for the homophile activists, the world’s leading experts on human sexuality agree that homosexuality is not a hereditary orientation.
Alfred Kinsey, who originated both the “ten percent” and the “born that way” myths, eventually admitted after much further study that “there is little evidence of the existence of such a thing as innate perversity. . . . I have myself come to the conclusion that homosexuality is largely a matter of conditioning.”
Dr. John Money, one of Kinsey’s fellow researchers, asserted that “whatever may be the possible unlearned assistance from constitutional sources, the child’s psychosexual identity is not written, unlearned, in the genetic code, the hormonal system, or the nervous system at birth.”
The most famous sexologists in the history of the science, husband and wife team William Masters and Virginia Johnson, said 30 years ago:
“We’re born man, woman, and sexual beings. We learn our sexual preferences and orientations. . . . The genetic theory of homosexuality has been generally discarded today. Despite the interest in possible hormone mechanisms in the origin of homosexuality, no serious scientist today suggests that a simple cause-effect relationship applies.”
Leading psychologist Robert Kronemeyer, who probably had more experience in this field than any of his peers, said:
“With rare exceptions, homosexuality is neither genetic nor the result of some glandular disturbance. Homosexuals are made, not ‘born that way.’ From my 25 years’ experience as a clinical psychologist, I firmly believe that homosexuality is a learned response to early experiences and that it can be unlearned.”
Finally, psychiatrist Dr. Charles W. Socarides, the leading expert on conversion therapy, stated:
“Homosexuality, the choice of a partner of the same sex for orgiastic satisfaction, is not innate. Such an object choice is learned, acquired behavior; there is no inevitable genetically inborn propensity toward the choice of a partner of either the same or opposite sex. . . . Establishing the psychosexual institution of homosexuality alongside the sexual institution of heterosexuality could well produce a massive social disruption without parallel in medical and social history.”
We have not heard such straightforward denial of the “born that way” theory from any leading sexologists for the past 25 years. However, we do hear from a parade of people with little or no experience or education in any relevant field that homosexuals absolutely cannot change their orientation under any circumstances. The science has not changed, but the social atmosphere has. Anyone with influence who speaks out against any element of the special rights agenda — especially the “born that way” aspect of it — will witness their professional and personal lives ruthlessly destroyed by people who have no regard for science or facts.
But what do homosexuals think? It is interesting to debate about scientific studies and scholarly opinions regarding the homosexual orientation, but nothing is more revealing than what homosexuals actually think about themselves.
The radical homosexual activist has two faces: One is for public display, and the other, which is more truthful, finds its expression in the homosexual media and in certain isolated segments of the scientific community.
Several studies have shown that homosexuals generally don’t believe that their orientation is genetic or inborn. Alfred Kinsey conducted a survey of 979 homosexuals in 1970, long before the special rights movement had gathered significant momentum. He found that less than ten percent of all of his homosexual respondents believed that they were “born that way.”
Twenty-two percent attributed their orientation to “early homosexual experience with adults or peers”; 16 percent said “around homosexuals a lot, have a lot of homosexual friends”; 31 percent said that they had a poor relationship with either their father or their mother; 15 percent said they had an “unusual development (labeled sissy, tomboy, etc.).” Twelve percent said that “heterosexual partners were unavailable”; and nine percent said that they were “socially inept.” Only nine percent asserted that “I was born that way.”
This means that more than 90 percent of homosexuals attributed their sexual orientation to childhood trauma or other environmental influences.
Other studies on orientation conversion show that many homosexuals become heterosexual. Williams and Weinberg found that 61 percent of homosexuals agree that they could be “converted” to exclusive heterosexuality, and 58 percent agreed that “people are homosexual only if they want to be.”
Masters and Johnson reported that 79.1 percent of their clients who attempted to discontinue homosexual behavior were successful immediately, and 71.6 percent remained successful after an elapsed period of five years.
Bell and Weinberg found that about a quarter of all homosexuals believe that their condition is a disorder, and 37 percent believe that they themselves are “psychologically disturbed” because of their sexual orientation.
Finally, another study reported that, when asked the question: “If a teenager who was just starting [homosexual activities] came to you and asked your advice, what would you tell them?,” 80 percent of all homosexuals recommended cessation over continuation.
One step further. Even if society were to grant that homosexuals have no control over their sexuality, the homophiles would not be satisfied. They have gone one step further and now, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, assert that it is impossible to turn away from homosexuality. They even vigorously resist any attempts to prove otherwise by censoring media presentations of “ex-gays,” and by attacking anyone who assists homosexual in turning away from their orientation.
In other words, in the eyes of the homosexual agitators, “ex-gays” simply do not exist. They are “non-persons,” not worth even acknowledging.
The already-compromised American Psychological Association has jumped on the “no ex-gays” bandwagon, because if homosexuals can change their orientation, it is obviously not genetic after all.
Rejecting Logic
Homosexual literature and pornographic fiction are replete with the strange theme of heterosexuals who, when seduced by homosexuals, suddenly “convert” into homosexuals. It is therefore reasonable to assume that homosexuals can be “reconverted” back to heterosexuality. However, homophiles do not accept this logical argument; they insist that changes in “sexual orientation” can only go one way.
Several studies have confirmed that many or most male homosexuals can overcome their desire for other men. One of these studies found that 30 to 50 percent of homosexuals can actually overcome their sexual orientation to a certain extent, and the remainder can be helped to achieve greater self-control and a higher degree of self-esteem.
Many homosexuals not only change their behavior, they change their orientation to the point where they become appalled by their previous activities. If homosexuality were innate, this would not be possible. Scientists now recognize that alcoholism is probably genetic and that there is no such thing as a fully recovered alcoholic: The urge to drink will always be there, even if it is latent. Recovered homosexuals, by contrast, often have no desire whatever to re-enter the lifestyle they left behind.
It is obvious that homophiles realize that this fact is a great threat to their “born that way” myth. This is why they vigorously attack any research proving that homosexuals can be “converted.”
The critical point to remember is this: If homosexuality is genetic or innate, then environmental influences would not greatly affect the incidence of this characteristic. However, as we have seen, environmental influences do indeed have a profound impact on the number of people who become homosexuals.
The most effective of these influences, of course, is religion: Those persons raised in households without religious values are 450 percent more likely to become homosexual than those raised in homes where religion is important.
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