wfn.org | Homosexuality starts as developmental disorder that can end with

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Note #6010 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

therapy
27-June-2000
GA00064

  Homosexuality starts as developmental disorder that can end with therapy

	Speaker says poor relations with parents contribute to gay condition

	by Evan Silverstein

LONG BEACH, June 27 -- Homosexuality is an acquired developmental disorder
that starts early in life and often can be corrected through "reparative
therapy," according to the leader of a non-profit, educational organization
dedicated to the research, therapy and prevention of homosexuality.

	"There is no such thing as a homosexual person," said Joseph Nicolosi,
executive director of the National Association for the Research and Therapy
of Homosexuality (NARTH). "We are all heterosexuals. Homosexuality is a
description of a condition. It is not a description of the intrinsic nature
of the person."

	Nicolosi addressed about 75 people during the OneByOne luncheon on Monday
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. OneByOne is a ministry founded five years ago by
Presbyterian pastors and lay leaders that educates and equips congregations
in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to minister to individuals in conflict
with their sexuality. The group provides educational materials and helps to
create and/or support local church-based ministries.

	Nicolosi, a licensed psychiatrist and psychologist, has treated more than
400 men in connection with homosexuality over the past 15 years. He said he
is convinced that everyone would be heterosexual, except that some become
homosexual due to disturbances early in life.

	"The development of the male homosexual is basically someone who did not
develop that strong sense of masculine identity and he is trying to fulfil
that sense of masculine deficit by connecting with a man," Nicolosi said.
"But the only way he knows how to do it is sexually. What feels right and
natural is the sex drive that is being displaced onto a person of the same
sex for emotional needs."

	Nicolosi said homosexuality is often caused by early sexual abuse. He said
one-third of his clients that consider themselves homosexuals reported being
sexually molested at an early age by older males.

	"It's really not about sex," he said. "It's about attention, affection,
approval. But when you link that to the power of sex, that hooks the person
in. And it's very easy to therefore conclude, especially in our society
today, that ‘I must be gay.'"

	NARTH, an eight-year-old non-ecumenical organization with more than 1,000
mental-health professionals, is becoming widely accepted among Evangelical
Christian ministries because it proclaims homosexual orientation as being a
developmental disorder that can be reversed through therapeutic efforts.
NARTH believes that homosexuality is preventable in childhood and treatable
in adulthood.

	"If we understand what homosexuality is," Nicolosi said, "then we will know
how to respond to it as a society and as a church."  "The healing process is
a realization of your natural heterosexual nature," Nicolosi said. "And
that's what we do in therapy."

	He said distinct differences exist between the terms homosexual and gay. He
called homosexuality "a description of a condition" that involves an
attraction to members of the same sex. He said the term gay applies to a
"social, political identity."

	Nicolosi said that homosexuality is probably the most misunderstood "sexual
disorder" and that scientific study of homosexuality has been eroded by the
gay/lesbian movement.

	"Gay activists would like us to believe that they are speaking for all
homosexuals -- wrong," he said. "There's a big population of people out
there who are not being represented by the gay movement and we're just
beginning slowly to hear about these people."

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