2015

Following the death of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide after forced “conversion therapy,” President Barack Obama called for a nationwide ban on psychotherapy aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. The administration argued that because conversion therapy causes substantial psychological harm to minors, it is neither medically nor ethically appropriate. We fully agree with the President and believe that this is a step in the right direction. Of course, in addition to being unsafe as well as ethically unsound, current conversion therapy approaches aren’t actually effective at doing what they claim to do – changing sexual orientation. But we also worry that this may be a short-term legislative solution to what is really a conceptual problem. The question we ought to be asking is “what will happen if and when scientists do end up developing safe and effective technologies that can alter sexual orientation?”

In 2012, the US actress Cynthia Nixon was quoted in New York Times Magazine as having stated that “for me, it [being gay] is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me”. The interview attracted international media attention and public criticism by lesbian and gay activists. This paper suggests a rhetorical approach to understanding etiological beliefs and provides a discursive analysis of 198 online comments by readers of Pink News, a gay news website which reported on Nixon’s controversial interview. This paper explores common arguments used in readers’ comments about Nixon and examines the rhetorical construction of sexuality. The analysis examines three themes within the data. Firstly, biological essentialism was treated by many readers as common knowledge; secondly readers suggested that only bisexuals have ‘choice’; and thirdly it was suggested by both Nixon’s critics and her supporters that counter arguments colluded with homophobia. The paper suggests that there is an ideological dilemma whereby both ‘born-this-way’ and ‘choice’ arguments can be understood as colluding with anti-gay prejudice.

Our understanding of the neurochemical bases of human love and attachment, as well as of the genetic, epigenetic, hormonal, and experiential factors that conspire to shape an individual’s sexual orientation, is increasing exponentially. This research raises the vexing possibility that we may one day be equipped to modify such variables directly, allowing for the creation of “high-tech” conversion therapies or other suspect interventions. In this paper, we discuss the ethics surrounding such a possibility, and call for the development of legal and procedural safeguards for protecting vulnerable children from the application of such technology. We also consider the more difficult case of voluntary, adult “conversion” and argue that in rare cases, such attempts might be permissible under strict conditions.

AJOB Neuroscience, 2014

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uabn20 1. Simon Rippon (2012) recently developed this notion in the context of donor markets. 2. Ann Cudd (2006) analyzes oppression by choice in the context of women's decision to leave the workforce and take care of their children.

Longstanding debates have occurred in the mental health fields on the issues surrounding sexual reorientation therapy. Both sides agree that a subset of individuals with same-sex attractions seeks help or a “cure” for their homosexual attractions. However, each position tends to respond with a limited, exclusionary choice to be an “out” gay or an “ex”-gay. These dichotomized options may not serve all clients with same-sex attractions who are seeking help in dealing with religious conflicts. The perspectives of 20 individuals (2 women, 18 men) who reported benefiting from reparative/conversion therapy are described. In contrast to previous imprecise claims of change, a more complex conceptual framework is presented regarding the definitions of a successful outcome from such treatments. Research and political implications are discussed as well as the need for more effective clinical strategies that integrate conservative social identities with same-sex attractions.

Sexualities, 2012

This article analyzes the current dichotomy in American political and popular culture between pro-gay biological determinism, which is used to argue for LGBTQ rights, and anti-gay social constructionist ideas. This pro-gay biological determinism results in a politics of exclusion that renders queer identities falling outside a biological, lifelong model invisible. Building on Lisa Duggan’s notion of homonormativity, the author describes this discursive production as biological homonormativity, illustrated through an analysis of three key sites: an exchange between lesbian music icon Melissa Etheridge and Governor Bill Richardson during an LGBT political forum; the legal proceedings of Perry v. Schwarzenegger ; and the gay cult film But I’m a Cheerleader!

In our current society, we believe that men and women must behave in a certain manner and adhere to social expectations of masculinity and femininity. If an individual does not properly perform his or her gender—male masculinity and female femininity—he or she sacrifices his or her status as a heterosexual, regardless of his or her actual sexual orientation. This phenomenon, known as the conflation of gender and sexual orientation, refers to the infusing of one’s gender performance—that which is masculine or feminine— with sexual orientation. By equating gender and sexuality, we can draw conclusions about an individual’s behavior based on whether he or she is homosexual or heterosexual; on the other hand, we also believe that we can judge and evaluate an individual’s current or eventual sexual orientation based upon his or her behavior. This study investigates whether or not gay individuals engage in cross-sex-typed behavior at a higher rate than straight individuals and determines if sexual orientation correlates with gender performance. Two hundred respondents completed a written survey examining the gender of a list of forty-one behaviors, and another two hundred respondents completed a second written questionnaire investigating how often different groups engage in the same forty-one behaviors. After relating men and women’s sexual orientations with frequency of behavior, this study found that there was no significant relationship between an individual’s sexual orientation and his or her performance of gender in seventy-two out of eighty-two of the cases examined. Of the remaining ten cases, only three cases demonstrated a moderate or strong relationship between sexuality and behavior. The data confirms that sexuality and behavior are largely independent from one another.

Technological measures meant to change sexual orientation are, we have argued elsewhere, deeply alarming, even and indeed especially if they are safe and effective. Here we point out that this in part because they produce a distinctive kind of ‘clinical collective action problem’, a sort of dilemma for individual clinicians and researchers: a treatment which evidently relieves the suffering of particular patients, but in the process contributes to a practice that substantially worsens the conditions that produce this suffering in the first place. We argue that the role obligations of clinicians to relieve the suffering of their patients put them in a poor position to solve this problem, though they can take measures to avoid complicity in the harms that would result from widespread use of individually safe and effective reorientation biotechnology. But in the end the medical community as a whole still seems obligated to provide these measures, if they become technologically feasible. Medical researchers are in a better position to prevent the harms that would result if reorientation techniques were safe, effective and widely available. We argue that the harms attendant on the development of safe and effective re-orientation techniques give researchers reason to avoid ‘applied‘ research aimed at developing these techniques, and to be careful in the conduct of basic orientation research which might be applied in this way.

Homosexuality consists of individuals having a romantic attraction to the same sex. It has been taboo for hundreds of years. The stigma surrounding same sex attraction includes being ousted out of families, name calling, being looked upon as mentally unstable and labeled as immoral individuals. 4 Population Description and Interview Psychosocial Stressors Meyer's (2003) minority stress model posits that lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals are at an increased risk for mental health distress because of their stigmatized sexual identity.