Sober look at difficult topic

Chicago Sun-Times: There’s nothing like a dry research paper to help clear up the sexiest and most controversial of topics.

With a 138-page report to back them up, the American Psychological Association has declared that mental health professionals should not tell their gay clients that they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

We doubt this will dissuade die-hard proponents of “reparative therapy,” but we applaud the APA for taking a sober look at the topic — and for coming out strongly against it. The group has long espoused the view that homosexuality is normal. But this declaration, we hope, will reach gay people who are considering this discredited therapy and will lend more authority to the therapists who reject it.

Religious views

The association also gets credit for carefully examining the difficult conflict between a person’s sexual orientation and his or her religious views, which often leads gays to seek out such therapies. ... Therapists are urged to respect their client’s religious views and to help them explore ways to live a spiritually meaningful life, including choosing celibacy.

But the APA didn’t back down on the conversion question, urging therapists to first and foremost address “the reality” of a client’s “sexual orientation.”