Dr. Warren Throckmorton is an unlicensed psychologist who has never been a member of the American Psychological Association. Throckmorton works at Grove City College, a small conservative Christian school in western Pennsylvania. According to the school’s website, its goal is to ensure, “inspired Scripture be presented to all” and it boasts of, “rejecting relativism and secularism.”
Throckmorton’s resume is thin. He has not written a book, nor has he conducted any major studies. His main “scientific” achievement is a daily blog that criticizes the work of genuine scientists, but provides little original work of his own. He does claim to have counseled 250 patients, but he is unable to bring any success cases forward.
Indeed, in a June 11, 2007 Chicago Tribune story, Throckmorton finally brought forth a client - but the man was a relatively new patient, would not be identified by his last name and had not changed his sexual attractions. If this was Throckmorton’s best example of success, he has set the bar rather low.
Throckmorton also produced a defamatory ex-gay video entitled, “I Do Exist.” The movie’s opening scene was a wide shot of New York pornography shops that supposedly represent gay life. His film featured Joanne Highley, a known exorcist, who in a previous video that appeared on PBS (One Nation Under God) discussed how she extracted the demon of homosexuality from the orifices of gay men.
Throckmorton has also shown callousness towards ex-gay survivors. In 2003, Michael Johnston stepped down after it was discovered the HIV+ ex-gay leader was having unsafe sex with multiple partners he met on the Internet.
In response to Johnston’s failure, Throckmorton wrote an op-ed in American Daily on August 7, 2003 that said, “These gentlemen (activists) wanted to make sure the world knew about the private pain of Mr. Johnston and those touched by his failings.” Instead of having sympathy for his victims, Throckmorton blamed gay activists for revealing Johnston’s behavior.
In a similar manner, Throckmorton mocked the claims of former ex-gays who say they were hurt by ex-gay therapy. “Where’s the evidence for the contention of harm?” he once wrote.
In a disturbing paper, “Is Sexual Re-orientation Possible?,” written for the Mormon ex-gay organization Evergreen International, Throckmorton dismissively brushes off the pain experienced by those who have been through electroshock therapy by saying, “I have never found evidence of electroshock treatment being used anyway.”
Sadly, Throckmorton also seemed to minimize the experiences of GLBT people who have committed suicide or tried to take their own lives because they could not change.
“The last issue that has been advanced to prove conversion therapy is harmful is the supposed link between youth suicide and conversion therapy,” Throckmorton wrote. “Let me say this clearly: there are no data supporting any such link.”
The doctor also compared homosexuality to unhealthy habits, such as smoking. “Most people who stop smoking report cravings but don’t give into them,” Throckmorton wrote in his controversial paper. “Does this minimize their status as former smokers?”
Additionally, in the Evergreen International paper, Throckmorton claimed that he “healed” a gay client after teaching him “self-understanding and assertiveness.” Even more bizarre, Throckmorton backed his case that gay people could go straight by suggesting that homosexuals could be “cured” by taking anti-anxiety drugs.
On August 17, 2007 at the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Throckmorton unveiled his new creation, “Sexual Identity Therapy. (SIT)” In this paradigm, sexual attractions no longer matter. According to SIT, men and women could be attracted to the same sex, with no opposite gender attraction, but are still encouraged to identify as “straight.”
The theory behind SIT is that sexuality is a “construct” that can be altered and aligned with religious beliefs. Of course, there is no evidence to support this view, while there are countless examples that such repression can be harmful. In Throckmorton’s presentation he called this process “synthesized sexual identity,” which hardly sounds natural.
SIT was conveniently unveiled just as the American Psychological Association is reviewing its policy on counseling GLBT people and will address the issue of ex-gay therapy. Throckmorton is spearheading the opposition with the goal of pressuring the APA into carving out a religious exception to ethical therapy, where ex-gay therapists can harm religious clients without repercussions.
While Dr. Throckmorton has worked hard to present himself as mainstream, his record tells a different story.
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