For Some People, Homosexuality Is A Choice And It Is Changeable Via Counseling

by John Hawkins | July 12, 2011 4:29 am

The current politically correct line on homosexuality is that people are born that way and they have no real choice in the matter. For some people, that’s certainly true. From the time they’re young, they’re sexually attracted to people of their own gender the same way normal people are attracted to members of the opposite gender. People like that have a choice whether to be abstinent or not, but they certainly don’t have a meaningful choice about what gender they want sexually.

However, that’s not the case for everybody. In other words, there are people who CHOOSE to be gay. This is not some big historical secret. For example, if you look back at Greek history, it wasn’t unusual for Greek generals like Alexander, who thought of themselves as heterosexual, to have male lovers on the side. Spartan civilization even had institutionalized pedophilia/homosexuality that every Spartan male was required to participate in.

If you want a more recent, more specific example, I discussed this issue with Tammy Bruce when I interviewed her back in 2005[1].

John Hawkins: Let me ask a related question to this because I thought this was kind of fascinating because it’s so different from what you often hear. In the book, you were talking about how you came to decide that you wanted to be a lesbian and you pretty much framed it in those terms. It was a choice. You were attracted to men and women and you chose to — you just liked women better — would you say that’s common or….

Tammy Bruce: Well, it’s difficult to say because it’s so politically incorrect to ask these questions. It’s one of the reasons why — and I’ve made that discussion in the epilogue — so that…parents (could allow) their children (to read) at their discretion.

I felt that it was finally time in a book about individualism to discuss the two things that really differentiate me from a number of my listeners and readers and, of course, that’s one of those aspects. Normally it would be a very private part of my life, but since I’m public, it becomes important because of the nature of my position on issues and what I stand for.

In that regard, I thought being honest and this, of course, is key (to) that when it comes to homosexuality. There is such a variety, at least within the community itself, …about why women identify as lesbians, but even what that means.

There are a number of women who identify as lesbians, some of them, somewhat well-known, have regular liaisons with men. …There are some women in the community that you could get to know…who’ve experienced violence at the hands of men and have turned to women for that reason. There are other women who say that they’ve been gay since they’ve been born and that, of course, is also politically incorrect to question or to ask them how or why they know that.

…I challenge and suggest that the gay label is rejected by homosexuals who don’t want to be associated with left wing politics, which is also what it stands for these days. I’ve always taken issue with this demand and this comes into conformity again — the conformity demand by the left, that if you’re a homosexual you’d better identify as gay, you’d better say it is an orientation, that it’s not a preference, that all of these singular lines should be adhered to so that you have a united front.

Well, I say bunk with that and how absurd that the community that says that it is the most different and the most unique demands such serious conformity on its own members. So I think it’s certainly time for some level of honesty in that discussion about the nature of it…

This isn’t terribly unusual. I’ve personally known several women who have gone through phases where they were interested in and dated both men and women. If they had chosen to only date women, then they would have certainly been CHOOSING to be lesbians because they were attracted to men as well.

This line of reasoning makes a lot of liberal gay activists really uncomfortable because it opens up a lot of cans of worms. For example, if this is true, then parents do have to fear “gay recruiting” in schools and parents who encourage their gay kids to be straight MAY have success in some cases. There’s also a religious issue because gay marriage and the gay lifestyle are incompatible with Christianity. If you’re gay and Christian, your choices are be abstinent, find a way to become heterosexual, or live a lifestyle that contradicts your religious beliefs.

All this brings us to a related issue involving a clinic run by Michele Bachmann’s husband[2].

A former patient who sought help from the Christian counseling clinic owned by GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, told ABC News he was advised that prayer could rid him of his homosexual urges and he could eventually be “re-oriented.”

“[One counselor’s] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay,” said Andrew Ramirez, who was 17-years-old at the time he sought help from Bachmann & Associates in suburban Minneapolis in 2004. “And God would forgive me if I were straight.”

In the past, Marcus Bachmann has disputed the clinic has treated gay patients this way. But Ramirez’s account, which was first reported by The Nation, is similar to the counseling session that appears on new undercover video shot by a gay rights advocacy group last month. That footage shows another counselor at the Bachmann clinic telling a gay man posing as a patient that, with prayer and effort, he could eventually learn to be attracted to women and rid himself of his gay urges.

…The Bachmann & Associates counseling centers appear to offer a wide range of services to people in emotional distress and are clearly billed on the clinic’s website as a religious-based approach to mental health treatment.

…Questions about how the counselors at Bachmann’s clinic respond to patients who arrive seeking help with the tension between their sexual urges and their religious believes have long swirled in Minnesota. Marcus Bachmann was asked if his clinic tried to convert patients from gay to straight in an interview with a local newspaper in 2006, and said, “That’s a false statement.”

“If someone is interested in talking to us about their homosexuality, we are open to talking about that,” he is reported to have said. “But if someone comes in a homosexual and they want to stay homosexual, I don’t have a problem with that.”

The controversial practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation was roundly discredited by the American Psychological Association in 2009 as ineffective and potentially harmful. The first-hand accounts and video evidence surfacing Monday have rekindled questions about the Bachmann family business.

First of all, homosexuality used to be considered a mental disorder. Psychologists used to treat people for it and, yes, they did “cure” some people who went on to live out their lives as heterosexuals. The reason it’s not still considered a “mental illness” today has a lot more to do with political correctness than with psychology.

That being said, when psychology treated homosexuality as a “mental illness,” could they “cure” everybody? I really doubt it. Moreover, it’s worth noting that a lot of “mental illnesses” are only considered mental illnesses if they’re causing problems in a person’s life. If you’re gay, it’s not causing major issues, and you don’t want to be straight, from a psychological perspective, there’s really nothing to treat.

So, that statement Marcus Bachmann made rings true: “If someone is interested in talking to us about their homosexuality, we are open to talking about that, but if someone comes in a homosexual and they want to stay homosexual, I don’t have a problem with that.”

In other words, despite the politically correct propaganda you hear, if you’re gay and have some level of attraction to people of the opposite sex, it probably is possible for you to become really, legitimately, straight. Forty years ago, that wouldn’t have even been a controversial statement in the psychological community and had politics not become an issue, it still wouldn’t be controversial. So, while I’d agree that it’s probably useless and even counter-productive to try to “convert” unwilling homosexuals to heterosexuality, if there are homosexuals who do want to try to become straight, people should wish them luck instead of demanding that they be unhappy because it’ll upset someone’s politically correct applecart.

Endnotes:
  1. discussed this issue with Tammy Bruce when I interviewed her back in 2005: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/interviews/bruce.php
  2. Michele Bachmann’s husband: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/michele-bachmann-exclusive-pray-gay-candidates-clinic/story?id=14048691

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