|
The
Supreme Court of Canada has entertained no doubts on this
issue. In Canada (Attorney General) v. Ward, 1993, it
unanimously decreed that sexual orientation is, "an
innate or unchangeable characteristic" like race,
sex, gender and colour.
In
a modified statement two years later in Egan v. Canada,
the Court said it had, "no difficulty accepting that
whether or not sexual orientation is based on biological
or physiological factors, which may be a matter of some
controversy, it is a deeply personal characteristic that
is either unchangeable or changeable only at unacceptable
personal costs."
The
court offered no medical evidence for such assertions.
In these ideologically driven decisions, it proceeded
on its own to read sexual orientation into the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a prohibited ground
of discrimination.
Regardless,
are our judicial masters right to insist that sexual orientation
is either unchangeable or changeable only at unacceptable
personal costs?
Dr.
Robert Spitzer has offered the best evidence yet on this
subject. He is a professor of psychiatry, Chief of Biometrics
at Columbia University and an internationally renowned
expert on homosexuality who led the taskforce that deleted
homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders
in the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association
in 1973.
In
an address to the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric
Association on May 9, Spitzer disclosed the results of
a study he led of 143 men and 57 women who had undergone
a significant shift from homosexual to heterosexual attraction
that had lasted at least five years. The men in this study
had rarely or never felt any opposite-sex attraction prior
to beginning the process of change, while the women had
been less extreme in their previous homosexual orientation.
Nonetheless,
66 per cent of the men and 44 per cent of the women had
managed to maintain a, "loving and emotionally satisfying
heterosexual relationship" for at least one year
prior to being interviewed by a member of Spitzer's study
team.
The
findings came as quite a surprise to Spitzer. He told
The New York Times: "Like most psychiatrists, I thought
that homosexual behaviour could be resisted--but that
no one could really change their sexual orientation. I
now believe that's untrue -- some people can and do change."
While
acknowledging that some homosexuals have been harmed by
failed attempts to change their sexual orientation through
therapy, Spitzer maintains that many of the subjects in
his study were despondent, and even suicidal, for the
opposite reason -- "precisely because they had previously
thought there was no hope for them, and they had been
told by many mental health professionals that there was
no hope for them, they had to just learn to live with
their homosexual feelings."
Parents,
teachers, supreme court judges and other citizens should
take note: Homosexuality, bisexuality and sexual promiscuity
are no more fated at birth than alcoholism. They are all
more or less willed behaviours subject to change.
What,
then, should parents do if they are told by a son or daughter
that he or she is troubled by homosexual feelings? First,
of course, these parents should remind their child that
he or she is loved unconditionally.
Second,
loving parents should make sure their child gets reliable,
scientifically sound information about the mutability
of sexual orientation and the lethal risks of taking up
a homosexual lifestyle. An excellent source of such information
is freely available on the web at www.freetobeme.com
Concerned
parents should also consult the web site of the National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality
at www.narth.com This is not a religious organization.
It's an association of medical professionals that maintains
a referral list of licensed therapists offering sexual
reorientation therapy in Canada, the United States, Europe
and Australia.
Of
course, many people are content to maintain a homosexual
or bisexual lifestyle. Therapy is not for them.
However,
many other homosexuals and bisexuals are deeply depressed.
They should not despair: The Spitzer study confirms that
effective therapies are available to help them achieve
a profound and enjoyable change in sexual orientation.
Rory
Leishman
836 Wellington St., London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3S7
Home/Office Phone: 519-439-2676
Home Page: http://www.roryleishman.com/
|
