I referred to this below, but now we have the video. In a pathetic attempt to appear “fair,” CNN decided to bring Richard Cohen, noted expert on nothing, on to spew his disproven nonsense. He claims that he’s helped “thousands” of men and women “overcome” their homosexuality, and change into heterosexuals, a specious claim that even most of the anti-science zealots on his own side have given up. He uses a “factsheet” [sic] from a group calling itself the American College of Pediatricians in order to lend credence to his claims that homosexuality is caused by Richard Cohen’s mom, whom he has forgiven through the holy power of tennis racket and pillow. Jeremy Hooper has done the legwork in exposing the “American College of Pediatricians” as a group of like-minded fringe anti-scientific, non-credentialed wingnuts attempting to pose as experts by using such a smarty-pants sounding name. Also, there’s a plug for NARTH, the group which lies and claims to be secular, while being wholly staffed by extremist gay-obsessed conservatives Christians. The dishonesty of these people is stunning, really.
Note, also, that the subject matter they brought Richard in to discuss has nothing to do with Richard’s for-profit business. Nothing.
(h/t Good-As-You)
God, Kyra. What on earth were you all thinking?
We CNN viewers should all be VERY concerned about CNN’s roll out of it’s new Tea Party support. In some vane hope to split the Republican party (as if it needed CNN’s help) there is an obvious move towards radicalism by CNN. Not only is the above story correct, CNN has also hired a red-wing radical named Eric who has a radio show and advocates pointing shotguns at Federal Census workers. He is now in the employ of CNN as a “Political Contributor”. Bill Press is thoroughly covering the issue today on his radio show. The point being, CNN is radicalizing AGAINST us, against the democratic party, placing their bets with the Tea Baggers. Turn to some other, like MSNBC. Keither has NEVER let us down and has always been for us.
Ah! And look… I must be pyschic. Just after I typed the above comment, CNN published a brand new “News Report”, Frontpage about how misunderstood and down home all those poor Tea Baggers really are… Aw… how friggin’ sweet!
Erick Erickson, who clarified that he only meant people should shoot the ACS workers contracted by the Census, and not the regular Census workers?
Erick Erickson, who referred to a Supreme Court Justice as a “goat-f*****g child molester”?
Oh yeah. We know all about him. If you want entertainment, follow him on Twitter. He’s a 24/7 buffoon.
We know full well by now that sexual orientation is hard-wired and cannot be changed. That being said, the point that we often miss here is that a person’s sexual activities with another consenting adult is NO ONE ELSE’S F—-G BUSINESS! Even IF it were a ‘lifestyle choice’, that’s no reason or excuse to discriminate, exclude, shame, bash, or persecute anyone. The ‘pursuit of happiness’ part of the Constitution should make this a no-brainer.
But I do understand that we still need to hammer home the scientific fact that it can’t be changed, in order to help dissuade self-hating glbt people from going down this path of misery, lost time and money and ultimate failure to ‘change’ into heterosexuals.
“pursuit of happiness’ part of the Constitution should make this a no-brainer.”
It’s not part of the constitution, but part of the Declaration of Independence, which has no legal standing.
Otherwise, I agree,
I tuned out CNN permanently some time ago when they hired a reporter from the Christian Broadcasting Network to blab on with his baloney.
I’ve never turned it back on.
[...] days after CNN uncritically aired the disbarred ex-gay therapist Richard Cohen as an expert on sexual orientation, the network [...]
oops–sorry about that Ben, I should have known better.
(maybe I should get a job in the research dept at CNN–hahaha)
I know personally that change is possible. I have changed from a homosexual to a heterosexual orientation. Why are you criticizing Richard Cohen so badly. Change is definitely possible. The gay rights movement is spreading lies to the world, claiming exactly the opposite which is not true. It is proven scientifically that homosexuality is not caused genetically and therefore no one is born homosexual. Homosexuality is caused my family , temperamental issues like Richard Cohen said in this video. It has something to do with male-bonding in early childhood. A boy being attached to his father. In addition to this many of us who were detached fro ourselves fathers and other same sex peers were sexually abused. So these factors caused us to experience Same sex attraction when we hit puberty. I am so sorry that there is no help for those who struggle with SSA in Europe. I pray that the International Healing Foundation receives huge amounts of donations ,so it may be able to expand this Organization to the whole world, especially in Europe. The world should start the accept the truth, rather than reject and suppress it. The whole concept is new to the world even though it exists for many decades. It may take some time like everything does. Gay rights took over three decades ago. It will certainly change .
Marc said “It is proven scientifically that homosexuality is not caused genetically and therefore no one is born homosexual.”.
You lied about that, so why should anyone believe you’ve changed from gay to straight? How about we hook you up to a plethysmograph and test your response to images of naked males? Would you be willing to do that?
Marc: It is possible you have changed. In a world where carpenters can be resurrected, anything is possible. However, you must answer this question: Do you EVER look at other men in you might say a gay sort of a way?
If so, you’re not heteorsexual, you’re bisexual.
There’s no gay gene YET discovered, which is quite a bit different than saying it has been scientifically proven that there genetic basis for homosexuality. In fact, there is a great deal of evidence indicating a genetic link. BTW, There is no heterosexual gene, either.
However, don’t tkae our word for it. here’s Francis X. Collins, head of the human genome project and an evangelical Chrstian, on This Very Subject:
“It troubles me greatly to learn that anything I have written would cause anguish for you or others who are seeking answers to the basis of homosexuality. The words quoted by NARTH all come from the Appendix to my book “The Language of God” (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.
The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality — the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.
Your note indicated that your real interest is in the truth. And this is about all that we really know. No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.”
But hwatever you want to believe.
Marc:
You have not changed and Richard Cohen is a quack that was expelled from the American Counseling Association for life for multiple ethics violations.
If you think Cohen’s work is “helping” you, then you are kidding yourself. We will be here to help and support you when reality sinks in.
Best of luck.
It’s so cute how they all latch onto the “distant father” myth. My brother and I had the same father, and yes, he was sort of distant, yet my brother is straight and I am gay. But what’s hilarious about that myth is that, really, who among us with parents who are Boomers or older didn’t have a slightly distant father? I mean, there are exceptions, obviously, but culturally, we were brought up in a time when Father Knows Best and goes off to work and Mother is the Nurturer and all that s**t.
Not that you’ll read this, Marc, but there are no heterosexual men who had distant fathers?
The vast majority of gay men whom I know were NOT sexually abused (that is not to say that there are no gay men who weren’t). I certainly wasn’t.
I detached myself from my same-sex peers because I didn’t want to play baseball/football/etc., on the playground. I found I had little in common with their interests – I detached myself from them because I wanted to, not because of any fear/ridicule/ostracism (which I didn’t experience). I was much more comfortable playing on the monkey bars and swings. Playing flag football (mandatory) in 7th-9th grade PE still didn’t make me straight. :-)
And every few days I thank the Creator for making me gay, for giving me this awesome gift. I WANT my “same-sex attractions”! :-)
I wish you well on your path, Marc.
And see my father was the exact opposite. We were and still are close. He was always there and was never afraid to show affection to us. Love the whole distant father theory. What a bunch of hoooey.
I am also very close to my father. The distant father theory is a load of anti-gay garbage with no scientific basis in fact.
It is sad that they promote such obvious lies with mountains of evidence disproving it — starting with my own family.
Sorry — back to the drawing board on causation…
I changed orientation too. I changed from a Republican Housewife to a Democratic Lesbian! I also quit having to take Xanax to fight my depression.
Although, honestly, it’s not that I changed I just stopped fighting the truth.
Change is possible idiots dont live in a lie its like living with a devil.you people dont have any shame thats why the people of prophet lut was destroyed.hence you will see after you die and you all will be resurrected one day.you just dont wanna believe the truth because you heart is evil.thats why god sent the ugliest HIV for wrong doers.There are a lot of people who changed from gay to straight.you people will never like to believe even if your friend will tell you that he is changed.
Next time, use English grammar rules.