Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation

1. Introduction
Laying the Foundation of the Report
Psychology, Religion, and Homosexuality

2. A Brief History of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts
Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis
Sexual Orientation Change Efforts.
Affirmative Approaches: Kinsey; Ford and Beach; and Hooker
Decline of SOCE.
Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Provided to Religious Individuals

3. A Systematic Review of Research on the Efficacy of SOCE
Overview of the Systematic Review
Methodological Problems in the Research Literature on SOCE
Summary

4. A Systematic Review of Research on the Efficacy of SOCE: Outcomes
Reports of Benefit
Reports of Harm
Conclusion
FULL PDF DOC HERE



also of interest: The Psychological Profession and Homosexuality: Lunatics Running the Asylum?
source:

Excerpt from article:
The American Psychological Association Perpetuates the Madness
In its most recent statement on the topic, the American Psychological Association (APA) has softened its tone somewhat against psychologists who do reorientation therapy for homosexuals. However it maintains that, "Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation".
The refusal of the organization to accept the increasingly strong evidence against its position is another reminder of how entrenched the sophistry of sexual hedonism has become among the leaders of the organization.
In recent years, a number of studies have been published in peer-reviewed psychology journals, indicating that significant numbers of patients who voluntarily participate in therapy to change their sexual orientation are successful and happy with the results. Combined with numerous individual testimonies by former homosexuals, evidence in favor of the practice is overwhelming.
However, in its new report, "Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation," the APA's leadership declares that all of those studies can be dismissed because, in its words, "None of the recent research (1999-2007) meets methodological standards that permit conclusions regarding efficacy or safety."
The report therefore conveniently disposes of the most recent studies on the topic -- the ones that undermine the APA's position. The only studies that remain are ones done before the resurgence of the reparative therapy movement, in the 1970s, when the APA declared that homosexual orientation and sodomy really weren't unhealthy after all. New research is rejected in favor of research that is now over 30 years old, applied to therapeutic practices that may no longer be in use.
However, the authors of Essential Psychotherapy and its Treatment, a standard text in medical schools, disagree with the APA's leadership, and say that the newer studies vindicate sexual reorientation therapy.
The newest edition (2009) notes on page 488 that, "While many mental health care providers and professional associations have expressed considerable skepticism that sexual orientation could be changed with psychotherapy and also assumed that therapeutic attempts at reorientation would produce harm, recent empirical evidence demonstrates that homosexual orientation can indeed be therapeutically changed in motivated clients, and that reorientation therapies do not produce emotional harm when attempted (e.g., Byrd & Nicolosi, 2002; Byrd et al., 2008; Shaeffer et al., 1999; Spitzer, 2003)."
The APA's latest report, done by a task force composed of psychologists with long records of homosexualist activism, also claims as "scientific facts" that "same-sex sexual attractions, behavior, and orientations per se are normal and positive variants of human sexuality-in other words, they are not indicators of mental or developmental disorders" and "no empirical studies or peer-reviewed research supports theories attributing same-sex sexual orientation to family dysfunction or trauma."
These unbelievable statements fly in the face of more than a century of scientific, peer-reviewed studies and clinical observation that indicate that much homosexual behavior originates in deficient family relationships and is associated with a wide range of diseases and pathological behaviors.
Studies have shown that homosexuals disproportionately come from families in which sons or daughters lack a healthy relationship with one or both of their parents, or in situations in which the homosexual was the victim of child sex abuse by a same-sex adult.
Homosexual behavior is also statistically associated with a host of diseases, disorders, and pathological behaviors, including venereal and other diseases, promiscuity and unstable relationships , anxiety disorders , depression and suicide , alcoholism and drug abuse , domestic violence , pederasty, and early death .
Even the homosexual Gay and Lesbian Medical Association admits that homosexuals suffer disproportionate rates of disease and self destructive beahviour.