In what could be called a stunning reversal, Dr. Lisa Diamond, a top researcher of the American Psychological Association (APA) and avowed lesbian activist, states that viewing sexuality as exclusively two types — heterosexual and homosexual — that are rigid and unchangeable no longer applies. California psychologist Laura A. Haynes writes in the essay below that “the battle to disprove ‘born that way and can’t change’ is now over, and [Diamond] is telling LGBT activists to stop promoting the myth.”
Haynes says:
In the APA Handbook, Dr. Diamond states, “Hence, directly contrary to the conventional wisdom that individuals with exclusive same-sex attractions represent the prototypical ‘type’ of sexual-minority individual, and that those with bisexual patterns of attraction are infrequent exceptions, the opposite is true. Individuals with nonexclusive patterns of attraction are indisputably the ‘norm,’ and those with exclusive same-sex attractions are the exception” (v. 1, p. 633). Most people who experience same-sex attraction also already experience opposite-sex attraction.
What this means in plain English is what many of us have known all along: Sexuality desire is fluid, homosexual desire is not “hard-wired;” that “born that way and can’t change” is a myth; feelings don’t overrule volition (behavior is a choice, one does not need to act on every feeling — especially sexual feelings); the “born that way” argument is political, not scientific; sexual orientation is subject to change among others.
No doubt Diamond’s conclusions causes alarm in the ranks of Gay INC. Haynes writes:
Dr. Diamond tells LGBT activists near the end of her YouTube lecture, “I feel as a community, the queers have to stop saying, ‘Please help us. We’re born this way, and we can’t change’ as an argument for legal standing. I don’t think we need that argument, and that argument is going to bite us in the ass, because now we know that there’s enough data out there, that the other side is aware of as much as we are aware of it.” In other words, Dr. Diamond says, “Stop saying ‘born that way and can’t change’ for political purposes, because the other side knows it’s not true as much as we do.”
Closer to home apologists for retooling the Orthodox moral tradition such as Fr. Robert Arida and Fr. Christopher Calin need to reconsider their positions.
Diamond reveals what the Orthodox moral tradition has always known: sexuality can be a struggle but the idea that what a person feels defines who he is — who God created him to be — is false. If a person feels homosexual desire it does not mean he is created homosexual. If a person decides to engage in homosexual behavior, that decision is freely chosen even if the desire is not. If a person person experiences homosexual desire and wishes to change into more normative heterosexuality, abundant evidence exists that such a change is may indeed be possible.
Haynes’ essay follows.
American Psychological Association Makes New Statement About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Is Silent About Important Research
By Laura A. Haynes, Ph.D., California Psychologist. 9/27/2016. Contact: www.laurahaynesphd.com.
Following the article on sexuality in the fall, 2016, issue of The New Atlantis, this article is another blow to the homosexualist political agenda for forcing on society the acceptance and normalisation of sexual aberrations (feelings, behaviour and identity). Dr. Diamond’s honesty and integrity are to be applauded.
This article has very serious implications for the political actions of recent years, basically invalidating any appeals to science to justify recent legislation in areas of sexuality such as the recognition of ‘gay’ marriage, the imposition of restroom access based upon individuals’ self-identification or ‘feelings’ about their sex and the restriction of the freedom of choice of therapeutic options, especially for minors, in the areas of unwanted same sex attraction or sexual confusion or dysphoria.
These recent developments give powerful support to the defenders of the traditional understanding of human sexuality and actually offer a way out of the false dichotomy of the ‘born that way & can’t change’ school of thought versus the ‘ungodly abomination deserving only of annihilation’ school of thought (which, incidentally, grips Islam far worse than it grips even the most extremely ‘homophobic’ Christianity, as even the most extreme Christian opponents of ‘homosexuality’ aren’t going around throwing gay-identified people off buildings and stoning them to death). The former only made people with SSA more vulnerable to persecution and suffering in the name of the latter. The emerging reality offers hope for many, the hope to escape social approbation, ostracism and persecution and the hope to move beyond an unwanted condition.
Perhaps we’re reading two different conclusions here.
From what I’m gathering, Dr Diamond is simply acknowledging that many people fall somewhere along a spectrum in terms of sexual orientation. This isn’t news, though, since Kinsey essentially said the same thing in his studies.
For those who fall in that middle of the spectrum (and there may be more of these folks than previously thought), they can probably successfully live as heterosexuals.
She’s not saying that their orientation itself has fundamentally changed or that the causes of any sexual “dis”-orientation can be somehow undone. At least not from what I’m reading.
Personally, I am wary of trying to explain away these deep psychological impulses and drives by trying to read too much into one’s upbringing. People sometimes have strained relationships with one or both of their parents, or sometimes they are mistreated by someone of the same or opposite sex. There’s no way to conclusively say this “causes” one’s sexual orientation, and even if one could, I wouldn’t: it’s not like these things can be somehow undone.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the causes are, anyhow. The question is: what are our values? If our drives are leading us into behaviors that contradict those values, then the answer seems to be to learn how to align our actions with those values through discipline and the support of others … not pretending that these unwanted desires no longer exist.
Has Kinsey’s research been replicated? If so, where?
Let’s hope not. The man was a pedophile. Paid other pedophiles to abuse children.
Religion, objective reality, empiricism and common sense aside, by endorsing this nonsense the APA is flagrantly violating the scientific method by adopting the position of a flagrantly biased–and self-confessed flagrantly biased– researcher.
The APA first compromised its status as a sound source of data years ago, when it declared the Christmas classic, “It’s a wonderful life” as “harmful, setting unrealistic expectations.” Since then they have issued knee-jerk responses in favor of advocates of every personally-destructive perversion in their (no longer actually credible) revisions of the DSM.
They use the language of science, but violate its basic principles. They have thus obsolesced themselves as scientists, having chosen instead to become partisans.
Now, I’m a partisan, and I gladly welcome them to the club. Their arguments hold no epistemological water, and I am pleased to respond to them, given the opportunity, one partisan to another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_M._Diamond
Dr Diamond herself is very clear that sexual orientation is not a choice and that conversion therapy does not work.
Dr Haynes is being dishonest here.
Dr. Haynes said, “Therapists who are open to change agree people generally do not just choose their sexual attractions, otherwise these therapists would not bother to offer therapy.” And she acknowledged, “Dr. Diamond has publicly gone on record that she opposes psychotherapy that is open to sexual attraction change.” There’s no deception here. Dr. Haynes is just presenting an opposing view about therapy.
When my children were at university Wikipedia wasn’t considered to be a valid source.
The academically acceptable articles in Wikipedia are footnoted. In environments where Wikipedia still isn’t acceptable, alla student needs to do is isolate the footnotes and use them, instead. I always allowed my students to cite Wikipedia, as long as the articles were as well-cited as one would expect from any other article, and the student’s own paper reflected a good personal grasp of the subject matter.
Did Dr. Diamond factor in the studies coming out of the DES Daughter and Sons groups to reach her conclusions on gender identity.
A recent French study on DES (an estrogen given to prevent miscarriages in the 1940’s to the 1980’s) was done on groups of children to see what the effects were on their psychological well-being. Group 1 (n=180), firstborn children without DES exposure in the uterus, and Group 2 (n=740), children with DES exposure in the uterus. No psychiatric disorders were reported for the Group 1 unexposed children, but 83.8% of the DES-exposed children experienced psychiatric disorders. For children exposed to estrogen in the uterus, 85% attempted suicide, 34% suffered depression, bipolar disorder or anxiety; 23% were schizophrenic.
Another study found men whose mother took DES while pregnant had a 30% rate of gender identity disorders.
The bottom line is that exposing the developing fetus to hormones such as estrogen, either via “the pill” or HRT may cause a disconnect between a developing child’s biological sex and gender identity.
Dr. Haynes is being honest, and the above Wikipedia article is badly out of date. Dr. Diamond’s Cornell video (with its transcript) is up to date.
Lesbian psychologist Dr. Lisa Diamond has done much research and has received awards from the American Psychological Association and other organizations. According to Dr. Diamond, sexual fluidity (the ability to love and be sexually attracted to both sexes) is not rare. Her LATEST research and other large-scale scientific studies demonstrate that everyone is capable of sexual fluidity. Here is a transcript of part of her Cornell video.
(37:30) “So what are the implications of all this? I’ve started to come to see fluidity, not as something that’s just specific to women, but as a general feature of human sexuality. [If] you read anthropological reports, you find plenty of evidence of fluidity… FLUIDITY IS A GENERAL FEATURE OF HUMAN SEXUALITY.”
(39:05) …The truth is that, at a political level, we have advocated for the civil rights of LGBT people, on the basis of them being LGBT, right? We’ve used categories as a part of our strategy for social policy and for acceptance. THAT IS REALLY, REALLY, TRICKY, NOW THAT WE KNOW IT’S NOT TRUE.”
http://www.cornell.edu/video/lisa-diamond-on-sexual-fluidity-of-men-and-women
Who cares, why do homosexuals always want to turn their way of life into a handicap. Born this way, can’t change it. There is no direct proof of any gene, birth defect, mutation etc. that causes homosexuality, and there might never be. I’ve always found that the certain homosexuals who cling to the “born this way” defense, and not the “I choose to live like this” are turning their lifestyle into a condition, a handicap, a twist of fate that caused them to be attracted to their own gender. And now unto the other side of the coin, lets say you can convince a gay person, that they aren’t born this way, will that cause them to go straight? Will the sudden epiphany of realizing they have a choice convince homosexuals to switch? No. This is all just political fodder, so two sides can continue to fight over a contrite, and useless topic, while other things are going wrong in the world, and going unnoticed.
Individuals who experience same-sex attraction will decide for themselves what they want to do about it, but this deceptive use of science has been used to prevent those who want therapeutic assistance to change from getting that help. Five states, Washington, D.C., and some major cities have passed laws prohibiting therapy that is open to change for minors. So far, 20 states and the US Congress have rejected such laws or allowed them to die. But every year, these laws are reintroduced and have to be battled again at great effort and cost by individuals who have to pay their own expenses to go testify before legislatures, while the big gay activist organizations raise hundreds of millions of dollars and pay full time attorneys and lobbyists. Under a different US Congress and president, the law that is repeatedly re-introduced could quickly pass, and then therapy would be illegal for adults as well as minors and in all states, whether provided by professional therapists, coaches, lay counselors, or pastoral counselors. Freedom of religion and freedom of choice are at stake, along with the right to heal and to chose ones own sexual life. And that is not trivial. That is why lots of people care.
Besides the matter of legal persecution, control, and attacks on basic freedoms, there is the matter that people come to terms with their sexuality and make life decisions based on misinformation they are given by authorities they think they should be able to trust, such as the American Psychological Association, their legislatures, and their therapists. A friend of mine went to a therapist to get help to change his same-sex attraction and behavior. He was told he couldn’t change and should leave his family and go live a gay lifestyle. In despair, not relief, he did that for a decade, lived a life he did not want to live. Finally he went to a church support group, got help, and remarried to a woman. But he and his daughter lost all the years that he did not live with her full time and raise her. That loss can never be made up to them. He grieves! He cares about this deception, because it cost him years of his life and the only years he had to raise his daughter. So people do care about the harm of this deception in their lives.
I think you missed the gist here.
“Individuals with nonexclusive patterns of attraction are indisputably the ‘norm'” actually means: “if you feel attraction to the same sex the same way as to the opposite sex—it’s totally normal”. In no way she implies that orientation could be changed or that conversion therapy works. In other words, she is saying that it’s okay to be gay. What else could you expect from an LGBT activist? And BTW, the fluid sexuality concept was expressed by Freud already in 1905.
There’s a huge amount of evidence (e.g. Krafft-Ebing’s clinical archive) that homosexual inclinations are determined by tainted heredity and/or prenatal maldevelopment. Whether such inclinations will manifest or not depends mostly on environmental factors. In addition to that, several researches revealed structural cerebral differences between homo- and heterosexuals, as well as other physiological distinctions (e.g. ,body odor). Therefore, ignoring congenital biological basis at least in certain part of homosexuals is obscurant and unscientific. One thing is certain: a sound individual will never feel attraction to the same sex, no matter the environment.
What it really all boils down to is that we’re all created straight and might later be turned by some trauma, such as being raped by man while still a little boy. It is the shock/trauma or PTSD of that experience that induces a psychosis of self-hatred/shame. The self-hatred/shame establishes homosexuality/pedophilia. It replicates by subsequent rape. At least that seems to be the case for males. As for women, I tend to see it as a separate phenomenon having to do with ideology and the absence of alpha males in the girl or woman’s experience.
Yeah, that’s the bottom of it.
Perhaps the victim’s superego becomes hypercharged, abusive and violative and the victim begins to enjoy the humiliation, self-hatred and shame. That would be Betty. Bruce would be the one in whom the full psychosis develops where one becomes one’s superego, enjoying inflicting the humiliation, self-hatred and shame on a victim.
Listen to Dr. Diamond as she talks about how her research got completely distorted by anti-gay groups.