An original work by Daniel Gonzales while writing for Ex-Gay Watch in 2007, this analysis of the flaws in the Spitzer study is as relevant today as it was then.  For while Dr. Spitzer has now formally denounced his own work and apologized to the Gay community for having put such a flawed study into the literature, there are still those using it to support the bankrupt idea that gays can and should become straight.

Daniel has remastered the original video in HD quality and added a prologue to recognize Spitzer’s recent retraction. He can be reached at exgaysurvivordan@gmail.com.

-NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn marries her partner.

-Two Ukrainian gay activists are savagely beaten by right-wing thugs.

- Dharun Ravi is sentenced for his actions that led to Tyler Clementi’s suicide.

-Dan Savage proposes a time and place for his debate with NOM’s Brian Brown.

-Actor Jim Parsons officially comes out of the closet.

-Adam Lambert becomes the first openly gay artist to hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

-The Ohio Republican Party’s new executive director is a lobbyist for Equality Ohio.

-Support for marriage equality among African-American voters rises dramatically.

-Another federal judge rules that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

How come in 2012 people are still overwhelmed with the idea of two men or two women together? Is it that people are held hostage to the Bible and the way they insist on interpreting it? Or is there some other big fat pink elephant in the room distracting them from an adult conversation? I am sure there are many reasons, but I must confess, I am partly to blame, or part of me.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Below, Channel 4′s Jon Snow interviews Mrs Pilkington:

Rightly or wrongly, the appeal verdict said nothing about the validity of conversion therapy or reparative therapy, per se. It focused on Lesley Pilkington’s misconduct entirely aside from the suggestion that therapy can change sexual orientation.

Pilkington’s Christian supporters disgrace themselves by condoning the blatant intrusion of highly questionable personal beliefs into therapeutic practice. Even conservative Anglican Peter Ould has harsh words for Christian Concern, the legal organization that continues to defend Pilkington, saying that CC is guilty of “wilful blindness to the clear evidence that LP is not a good counsellor” and that she showed a “basic disregard for the fundamentals of counselling practice.”

The conduct of journalist Patrick Strudwick continues to be an issue, as he clearly deceived Lesley Pilkington about his intentions. While accepting Strudwick as a legitimate client, the BACP nevertheless (in the original hearing) castigated him for his tactics.

But the ethical debate of “how far is too far” in investigative, undercover journalism aside, Strudwick’s conduct cannot be used to excuse Mrs Pilkington’s disgraceful behaviour. I can only wonder how much worse the situation would have been if a trusting client had received her advice and accepted, with no evidence, her insistence that a member of his own family had sexually abused him. I can only be thankful this therapist was outed before she could wreak real havoc with people’s lives.

Lastly, let’s lay to rest a widespread myth: This case had nothing to do Christian freedom, being biblical or upholding “traditional Christian teaching.” Ex-gay and anti-gay apologists have increasingly used this kind of rhetoric to justify extreme views and practices. Note how, in the interview, Pilkington even claims that the belief that Freemasonry encourages homosexuality is simply part of a “biblical framework.” It is not. Nor is conversion therapy a traditional Christian teaching, although as the BACP findings clearly state, the suspension was never about that issue anyway.

Read the BACP findings on Lesley Pilkington’s appeal hearing here.

The hearing that led to her suspension found her conduct “reckless,” “disrespectful,” “dogmatic” and “unprofessional,” and concluded that she let her “personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation … affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial.”

Although several high-profile Christian leaders rushed shamelessly to her defence, the facts of the case are clear. She told her client, undercover journalist Patrick Strudwick, his “same-sex attraction” could be traced to a family history of Freemasonry, which has “a spiritual effect on males … [which] often comes out as SSA.” Absolute quackery, and Strudwick denied any masonic connections anyway.

She told Strudwick that bullying and low self-esteem were part of his problem. He denied experiencing either.

Finally, she told him he had been molested as a child. He denied it at least twice, and she insisted he had repressed the memory. She prayed that his memories of childhood sexual abuse would “come to the surface.”  Eventually, she told him it had probably taken place within his family.

As the BACP rightly concluded, Pilkington’s behaviour was an outrageous abuse of her professional role as a therapist. Note that the suggestion Strudwick could change his sexual orientation didn’t even come into the verdict. Her ruthless and irresponsible peddling of pseudoscientific, religious claims about the origins of her client’s SSA were damning enough.

Image: Channel 4

Image: Truth Wins Out

In 2001, psychiatrist Robert L Spitzer claimed highly motivated gays could successfully change their sexual orientation. In 2003, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published his study — without peer-reviewing it. And in 2012, after over a decade of ex-gay groups such as NARTH, PFOX and Exodus International citing his research to prove their message that “change is possible,” Spitzer publicly apologized and announced he wanted to retract the paper.

Now the New York Times has profiled the story on its front page with the headline “Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing Gay ‘Cure’”:

The study — presented at a psychiatry meeting in 2001, before publication — immediately created a sensation, and ex-gay groups seized on it as solid evidence for their case. This was Dr. Spitzer, after all, the man who single-handedly removed homosexuality from the manual of mental disorders. No one could accuse him of bias.

But gay leaders accused him of betrayal, and they had their reasons.

The study had serious problems. It was based on what people remembered feeling years before — an often fuzzy record. It included some ex-gay advocates, who were politically active. And it did not test any particular therapy; only half of the participants engaged with a therapist at all, while the others worked with pastoral counselors, or in independent Bible study.

By almost any measure, in short, the study failed the test of scientific rigor that Dr. Spitzer himself was so instrumental in enforcing for so many years.

“As I read these commentaries, I knew this was a problem, a big problem, and one I couldn’t answer,” Dr. Spitzer said. “How do you know someone has really changed?” … It took 11 years for him to admit it publicly.

Spitzer has written to Kenneth J Zucker, the Toronto psychiatrist who published the study in Archives of Sexual Behavior. In a draft of that letter obtained by Truth Wins Out last month, Spitzer wrote:

I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals.

Update: An earlier version of this article gave the name of the journal that published the Spitzer study as the Journal of Sexual Behavior — it is the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

-A Republican strategist advises the party to evolve on gay rights issues.

-Croatia’s Prime Minister makes a push for marriage equality.

-Soap opera star Joanna Johnson comes out of the closet.

-Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee issues an order recognizing same-sex marriage licenses from other states.

-Colorado House Republicans kill civil unions again.

-An Iranian court sentences four men to death for sodomy.

-Over 50 employees resign from a Baptist university in protest of the school’s new lifestyle statement.

-The Lincoln, Nebraska city council passes a non-discrimination ordinance.

-David Pakman interviews anti-gay ‘researcher’ Paul Cameron.

-A Day Against Homophobia march is marred by violence in Tbilisi, Georgia.

-A gay pride event takes place in Myanmar.

-Malawi President Joyce Banda calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

-French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault promises marriage equality.

-A Catholic high school tells a senior he cannot accept the Matthew Shepard Scholarship at the school’s awards ceremony.

-Jeremy Hooper finds a historic parallel to North Carolina’s Amendment One.

-Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan voice their support for marriage equality.

-Maggie Gallager makes her case for why same-sex marriage is worse than straight divorce.

-Gay children’s author Maurice Sendak passes away.

-North Carolina voters pass Amendment One.

-San Diego names a street after Harvey Milk.

-Colorado House Republicans run out the clock to avoid a vote on civil unions.

-President Obama endorses marriage equality.

-Congressional Republicans respond by adding an anti-gay amendment to a spending bill.

-Representatives of the Family Equality Council ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

-Governor John Hickenlooper calls the Colorado legislature back for a special session to vote on the civil unions bill.

-Chris Matthews challenges Tony Perkins’ anti-gay talking points.

Truth Wins Out disputed Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) dishonest and immature portrayal today of a lawsuit filed against its President Greg Quinlan. The lawsuit was dismissed by the United States District Court in Richmond because Besen was deemed a “public figure,” which raises the bar on proving malice in defamation lawsuits. However, the outcome does not erase the fact that Quinlan is a liar who got successfully called out for lying by Truth Wins Out.

“Greg Quinlan clearly fabricated a story and continues to lie about it, showing he has deep character flaws and is unchristian,” said Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen. “I’m pleased that we were able to use our lawsuit to highlight his moral turpitude and unethical conduct. Our legal action hardly cost us any money, but it cost Mr. Quinlan his credibility and reputation.”

Read the full press release at Truth Wins Out.

-A North Carolina man posts a video of himself shooting a “No on 1” yard sign.

-Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill is dead, for now.

-A transgender woman is murdered in Oakland, CA.

-A Missouri legislator comes out of the closet to oppose that state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

-Romney advisor Richard Grenell resigns in the wake of concerted opposition from anti-gay conservatives.

-LGBT rights advocate Zach Wahls releases his autobiography, My Two Moms.

-The wife of the author of North Carolina’s Amendment One says it is needed “to protect the Caucasian race.”

-Evangelist Billy Graham publishes an ad condemning marriage equality.

-Civil unions pass the first of several hurdles in the Colorado House.

-Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev is fined under St. Petersburg’s new anti-gay law.

-Preserve Marriage Washington struggles to find signatures for its effort to repeal marriage equality.