voiceofthevoiceless@gmx.co.uk
Ph: 07857 230 882
Ex-Gays Question the
Validity of UK Channel 4 Programme: “Cure Me, I’m Gay”
United Kingdom
-- Voice of the Voiceless (VoV), the only anti-defamation league for former
homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their
families, today questioned the validity of the United Kingdom (UK) Channel 4
programme: “Undercover Doctor: Cure Me, I’m Gay” presented by Dr. Christian
Jessen that aired on March 18, 2014. In the programme, Jessen visits a number
of ex-gay conferences and interviews both religious counselors and secular
psychotherapists to discover if his own sexual orientation can change as a
result of these experiences.
Phelim McIntyre,
VoV Advisory Board member and UK representative, said the following in response
to the programme: “While Dr. Jessen has shown himself to be a valid presenter
on programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies,
VoV has serious concerns about his suitability to present a programme on
therapy for clients experiencing unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA). While
some might think that Dr. Jessen would be the perfect person to present such a
documentary, he is by his own admission, happy in his gay sexual identity. We
would therefore expect any ‘therapy’ for Dr. Jessen to undergo to have little
or no impact on his sexual orientation, since he obviously has no desire to
change. The whole concept of him undergoing therapy, as he purports to do in
this programme, is an absolute farce.”
Dr. Jessen
has, prior to the programme being recorded, made statements questioning the
validity of the ex-gay movement, something that points strongly to the fact
that he went into the programme with a set agenda rather than an open mind,
thereby violating the principles of sound documentaries – that the presenter is
unbiased in their reporting – a failure shared with the recent British
Broadcasting Company (BBC) documentary: Stephen
Fry: Out There.
Mr. McIntyre
continued: “While VoV allowed Dr. Jessen and his team to record the Ex-Gay
Pride lobbying event and press conference in front of the United States Supreme
Court, Christopher Doyle, President of VoV, was not informed of Dr. Jessen’s
gay sexual identity until half-way through his face-to-face interview,
something that the producers should have disclosed in advance, as it could
present a conflict of interest regarding the programme’s objectivity.”
After discovering
Dr. Jessen’s agenda, VoV representatives declined to take part in Dr. Jessen’s
sexual orientation “study” conducted by Cornell University. “The Cornell test
only measured one aspect of sexual orientation (arousal). Any valid sexual
orientation test must measure both sexual and non-sexual variables in order to come
to an accurate assessment. For example, according to renowned sex researcher
Fritz Klein, sexual orientation is a ‘dynamic, multi-variable process’ that is
composed of sexual and non-sexual variables, which differ over time. These
variables include sexual attraction, fantasy, and behavior, as well as
emotional and social preference, lifestyle choice, and self-identification. The test proposed at Cornell University
was fatally flawed and unable to accurately predict the sexuality of an
individual participant, and Dr. Jessen’s team was unwilling to work with
members of VoV to redesign the test so that it would be more valid and
reliable.”
Mr. McIntyre
also questioned the reported inclusion in the documentary of an aversion
therapy from the 1970’s. “None of the members of professional bodies, or
umbrella organizations within the ex-gay movement, use aversion therapies of
the type discussed about in the programme, and all of them, including VoV, have
spoken out against the use of such therapies in foreign countries.”
Finally, Mr.
McIntyre called on the media to do a proper independent programme on the issue
of homosexuality. “‘Cure Me, I’m Gay’ appears to be just one in a number of
documentaries that fail to take an honest and objective view on the subject of
homosexuality. There is a great need for a proper and objective look at the
science of homosexuality, and the research both for and against therapy, as
discussed about in this programme, especially with the recent actions and
statements from such bodies as the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and
British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy, which deliberately ignore
or misrepresent the research that exists on sexual orientation. Unfortunately, I
doubt that any UK broadcaster would be brave enough to take on such a project.”
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