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Taking a position contrary to that of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a newly formed anti-gay pediatrician group has sent a letter and "fact sheet" about youth sexuality to each of the United States' 15,000 school superintendents.
The group’s 15 members call their organization American College of Pediatricians. The stance taken by the group contradicts the official position of the 60,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics, in that it claims that GLBT youth are simply passing through a "transient phase," and that homosexuality can be reversed or "cured." Although it is not uncommon for heterosexual adolescents to experiment, their sexuality becomes clear soon enough; gay and lesbian youth go through the same process. There is no evidence, however, that "confused" youths can be "converted" in homosexuals--or that gay teens can be "cured." So-called "ex gays" claim that they have been "converted" to heterosexuality, but many of them also say that they continue to "struggle" with homosexual feelings and impulses, and others say that they have suppressed their same-sex urges--but only at the cost of suppressing their sexual desire completely.
Comments
Victims MUST Speak Out!
Many of us fell victim to ex-gay groups and later recovered. It’s time for survivors to speak out. I'm one of them. I was a victim of Aesthetic Realism and its homophobic, suicidal cult leader Eli Siegel. This was a man who believed that ethical failures were the cause of: homosexuality, insanity, epilepsy, cancer, and hemorrhoids. (You can’t make this stuff up!) In the 70s, when I was a young, shame-based gay man, AR tried to convince me that being gay was an ethical failure—the result of contempt for women and the world. It took courage to divorce myself from the cult and seek therapy. Today, I’m a healthy, happy queer parent and grandparent. We need to let young queers know that if they’re caught up in any sort of ex-gay group they can extricate themselves, find supportive communities and live happily.