8. If homosexuality is a learned preference, does this prove that homosexuals can change their sexual orientation to heterosexuality?
 

    Gay men and women are not born homosexual, and change if possible. Studies prove that homosexuals themselves often switch their own sexuality. In their 1970 report, the Kinsey Institute noted that 84 percent of gays shifted or changed their sexual orientation at least once. Further, 32 percent of the gays reported a third shift, and 13 percent of gays reported at least 5 changes. In 1982 Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith also reported similar figures.
    If it can be shown that practicing "lifetime" homosexuals do, in fact, change their sexual orientation, this is a devastating blow to the claims of the homosexual movement. Here is what research revealed about homosexuals changing to heterosexuals:

* Schwartz and Masters (of the Masters and Johnson Institute Report) revealed a 79.9 percent success rate of homosexuals changing their sexual orientation to heterosexuality. Their six year follow up rate was a highly impressive 71.6 percent.

* Dr. Van de Aardweg (1986) reported a 65 percent success rate.

* Dr. Nicolosi told Dr. Ankerberg the following when Ankerberg interviewed him in 1992: "I have worked with about 175 men to date, and I can say in terms of claims of cure that when the men stay with me, in a matter of months they begin to experience change in their life."
 

    Even liberal activist Phil Donahue, a former believer in the biological theory, told homosexuals, "If you want to change, you can change" Thus, it cannot be denied that homosexuals who want to, regularly do change their sexual orientation. Change can be more difficult for some than for others due to factors of motivation, will, and circumstance. But in actual therapy, with proper motivation and help, it would seem that change is possible, in theory, for all: "Abandoning homosexual habits, like quitting drinking, can be done and is done by tens of thousands each year."
    A press released dated May 9, 2001 reported that Robert L. Spitzer, chief of biometrics research and professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, announced the results of his research regarding homosexuality at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Spitzer stated, "Contrary to conventional wisdom, some highly motivated individuals, using a variety of change efforts, can make substantial change in multiple indicators of sexual orientation."
    Dr. Spitzer, a leading figure in the 1973 APA decision that removed homosexuality from the official diagnostic manual of mental disorders, said that he began the study as a skeptic. "Like most psychiatrists, I thought that homosexual behavior could only be resisted, and that no one could really change their sexual orientation. I now believe that to be false. Some people can and do change."
    Spitzer's study was "based on 45 minute telephone interviews with 143 men and 57 women who had sought help to change their sexual orientation"..."Spitzer and his colleagues found that 66 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women had achieved' good heterosexual functioning."
    "Due to a combination of therapy and prayer, 17 percent of the men and 55 percent of the women reported they have had no sexual attractions whatsoever. Twenty-nine percent of men and 63 percent of the women reported 'minimal' same-sex attractions"....
 

    ABC News confronted Spitzer with claim by some gays that "change therapy" causes damage, depression and even suicide among clients who are not successful in finding change. "There no doubt that many homosexuals have been unsuccessful and, attempting to change, become depressed and their life become worse." Dr. Spitzer responded, "I'm not disputing that. What I am disputing is that is invariably the outcome."
 

    Dr. Irving Bieber pointed out in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, "We have followed some {homosexual} patients for as long as 10 years who have remained exclusively heterosexual."
    Describing two books he edited, The Homosexualities: Fantasy, Reality and the Arts (1990) and The Homosexualities and the Therapeutic Process (1991), Dr. Socarides observed, "These two books contain the work of over 30 psychoanalysts-eminent teachers and psychoanalysts and medical men throughout this country-and they all attest to the fact that homosexuality is a psychopathological condition that can be altered if someone knows how to alert it."
    If scores of different therapists and researchers over the years have been seen thousands of homosexuals change to heterosexuality, and if this has been personally attested to by the homosexuals themselves and their spouses, on what basis can any individual claim that homosexuals can never change? What are the implications if, as a society, we officially promote the non-changed concept?
 

Taken from The Facts On Homosexuality, by John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Published by Harvest House Publishers

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