On the opening day of the American Psychiatric Association's annual conference
held in Washington D.C. on May 16th, a group of ex-gays staged a demonstration
demanding the right to sexual reorientation therapy.
The group's actions were prompted by the A.P.A.'s recent resolution discouraging
reorientation therapy.
Led by Anthony Falzarano of Transformation Christian Ministries (TCM), the group
of about 20 protesters met the A.P.A. conference participants in front of the
hotel as they stepped out of their buses.
"Thousands of psychiatrists from around the world attend this meeting," said Mr.
Falzarano, "yet we met with outright hostility from only five or six." TCM
protesters said they distributed about 800 NARTH brochures to the psychiatrists
as they arrived. A few tore up the brochures and made disparaging comments, he
said, but others had sympathetic words for TCM's efforts.
"Some people said, 'Yes, I do believe homosexuality is a disorder and it should
still be in the psychiatric manual,'" Mr. Falzarano said. "Others said, 'I know
there's no 'gay gene,' and I believe the APA decision to remove homosexuality was
political."
TCM protesters carried placards saying, "Homosexuals Can Change--We Did--Ask Us,"
and "Don't Affirm Me into a Lifestyle that was Killing Me Physically and
Spiritually." Other placards read, "The APA Has Betrayed America with Politically
Correct Science," and "APA--How Do You Explain 20,000 Former Homosexuals?"
News media covering the protest included Family News in Focus, The Washington
Times, the Human Rights Campaign (a gay group monitoring the action),
conservative columnist Mike McManus, and a religious radio station. CBS
television also interviewed Mr. Falzarano on the 4:30 news. He was originally
scheduled to debate an APA representative, but that person declined to debate Mr.
Falzarano directly, and instead spoke to the interviewer separately.
Mr. Falzarano conducted other interviews with radio stations in Baltimore and
Chicago, and with the Washington Times Weekly Magazine. "But most of the liberal
media pulled the plug on us," he said.
"During the picketing," said Mr. Falzarano, "I noticed Dr. Robert Spitzer on the
sidelines. He played an important role in the 1973 removal of homosexuality from
the diagnostic manual, and I thought he seemed genuinely moved by the picketing,
so I walked up to him and told him, 'Dr. Spitzer, you need to hear the other
side.'
"The following day he came to our press conference," Mr. Falzarano said, "and
told us he would work on putting together a forum presenting both views on
sexual-orientation change for next year's American Psychiatric Association
meeting. I think Dr. Spitzer is beginning to see the very real options that are
out there."
At the time of this writing, a panel was forming on the possibility of
sexual-orientation change, with two panelists speaking from the perspective that change is possible, and
others opposing. Invited participants from the perspective that change is possible are Warren
Throckmorton, Ph.D. of Grove City College (author of "Attempts to Modify Sexual
Orientation: A Review of Outcome Literature and Ethical Issues," in the October
1998 issue of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling); and Wheaton College
professor G.E. Zuriff, Ph.D., author of "Psychology's Sexual Dis-Orientation,"
published in the April 1997 issue of The World and I. (Both articles have been
reprinted in previous NARTH Bulletins.)
