M
Mystophilus
Guest
[skip list of psychological issues]
Correlation does not establish causality. Do many homosexual people have psychological issues because they are gay, or are they gay because they have these psychological issues, or are both their orientation and their pschological issues the result of a third factor?
According to the American Psychiatric Association, “Relative patterns of psychiatric illness and wellness among lesbian and gay people as compared to heterosexuals have yet to be completely understood.” The comment occurs during a commentary on the psychologically benefits to homosexual people of being allowed to marry each other, which also comments that “Legal marriage will provide important mental health benefits both to members, or same sex couples and to the wider community of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (Cabaj & Purcell, 1998). The majority of lesbians and gay men report being in a committed relationship (Bradford & Ryan, 1998; Kurdek, 1995).”
Note the source of both sets of information: NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. “Therapy” says that they work from the basis that homosexuality is a curable disease, which contrasts markedly with the statement by the American Psychiatric Assocition (idem) to the effect that “All major professional mental health organizations have gone on record to affirm that homosexuality is not a mental disorder” and, regarding ‘therapy’, “The American Psychiatric Association does not currently have a formal position statement on treatments that attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, also known as areparative or conversion therapy. There is an APA 1997 Fact Sheet on Homosexual and Bisexual Issues, which states that there is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of reparative therapy as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientation. The potential risks of reparative therapy are great…”
The American Psychological Association concurs.
Regarding depression, Dr. Niclas Berggren:“there is no reason to think that homosexuals are sadder, on the whole, than others.”
Berggren also quotes Dr. Gregory M. Herek, from the Psychology Department of the University of California at Davis:“The empirical research on adult sexual orientation and molestation of children does not show that gay men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to suggest that molestations of children by adult homosexual men never occur. They do. But molesting children has nothing to do with whether a man is heterosexual or homosexual.”
On related topics, only 5-10% of HIV infections worldwide are a result of male-male sexual contact, according to UNAIDS, which nevertheless directly links discrimination against homosexuality with the proliferation of HIV infection, because of the resultant concealment of homosexual activity and the concomitant difficulty of generating a safe-sex culture within an underground community.
For a range of further sources, look here (although some of the links no longer connect), and at the extensive bibliography here. It tends to be rather difficult to locate any information which is not either anti-homosexual, from various church or “family values” groups, or pro-homosexual, from various “gay rights” groups, although there is the interesting crossover of the Christian gays. If you want facts from a professional medical source, apart from the APA, there are also the NIH and Stanford.
