Psychiatrists Oppose Illinois SSA Therapy Ban

 

Caring Clinicians
P.O. Box 5517
Glendale, AZ 85312
 
March 23, 2014
 
Dear Committee Member:
 
May we respectfully suggest that the efforts of some to ban SOCE therapy in Illinois are:
 
  • An unfounded overreach without support in scientific research. (Even the APA’s task force made up of gay activists and gay affirming professionals – without one professional who actually does SOCE(!), said there wasn’t enough research to say whether it was harmful or beneficial)
 
  • Based on the false notion that same sex attraction or homosexuality is innate.  The multiple large identical twin studies show that this is clearly false.  For example the 2008 Santilla et al study involving thousands of identical twins found, that if one of a twin pair was gay the other was gay only 10% of the time, and if one was lesbian the other was only 14% of the time. 
 
  • Even the APA no longer supports this false notion that homosexuality is innate, and suggests the causes are mixture of environmental and genetic influences. Dr. Francis Collins MD, PH.D., the former head of the human genome project, and a very caring individual of gays on a personal level, says it is “not hardwired”.  We know of no credible scientific source that still holds to the false notion that homosexuality is hardwired or innate.
 
  • While we respect the rights of those who want to live a gay or lesbian lifestyle, we would strongly affirm that it is only fair and reasonable that those who want to live a heterosexual lifestyle also be given the rights and freedom to do so.
 
  • There has been research available for decades which clearly shows, that change is possible for those who want to change their sexual orientation.  For example in February 1984, in The American Journal of Psychiatry, Master and Schwartz, from the then world famous Master and Johnson Institute, were able to change a large majority of those who sought change.  They had only a 20% failure rate (or 80% success rate) in their efforts to change patients from a homosexual orientation to a heterosexual lifestyle.  Five years later their failure rate was still only 28% or a 72% success rate.  More recently Jones and Yarhouse in 2007 found success rates for those wanting help to change their same sex attraction similar to those for antidepressant treatment of depression in the STAR*D study.
 
  • Those who are wrongly forced to live with unwanted same sex attraction will unfortunately face the same documented medical and psychological problems faced by those in the gay lifestyle which include:
                       -Increased rates of depression, drug abuse, suicidal ideation and behavior              
                – Tremendously increased rates of HIV infection and AIDS
                – Increased rates of Hepatitis B and C  
                – Increased rates of anal and colon cancer
 
If the goal is to get rid of aversion therapies in the treatment of minors why limit it just to SOCE?   Why not ban it as a therapy regardless of the treatment goal, and if the goal is truly to protect the health of minors, then banning SOCE therapy is a huge step in the wrong direction and will clearly lead to extreme harm and even death in some if not many minors over the years. 
 
For those who are willing to be open minded and intellectually honest we recommend viewing the 32 minute documentary  “Understanding Same-sex Attraction”.
 
Please feel free to share this information with colleagues, as some will not have received it or may have had their screeners set it aside.
 
Respectfully,
John H. Raney, M.D., ABPN
Anthony Duk, M.D. ABPN
John Raney

Anthony Duk