Content area
Full Text
The Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (Alliance) and NARTH Institute are greatly dismayed by the recent statement from the World Medical Association (WMA, 2013). The WMA statement is not so much a reflection on human sexuality as it is a clear attempt to discredit any and all professional attempts to assist clients who wish to modify same-sex attractions and behaviors. The Alliance and NARTH Institute observe that the WMA's statement in many places lacks scientific integrity, sometimes makes conclusions that are no more supportable than speculation, and at times fails to provide adequate scholarly context. Given these serious shortcomings, the Alliance and NARTH Institute believe it is necessary to provide the public with information that the WMA irresponsibly neglected in its statement.
The WMA states without equivocation that homosexuality is "without any intrinsically harmful health effects." This contention is exceedingly difficult to reconcile, for example, with a recent comprehensive review that found an overall 1.4% per-act probability of HIV transmission for anal sex and a 40.4% per-partner probability (Beyer et al, 2012). These authors noted that "The 1.4% per-act probability is roughly 18times greater than that which has been estimated for vaginal intercourse" (p. 5). In the United States in 2009, men having sex with men accounted for 61% of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses despite the fact that gay men are estimated to represent only 2^1% of the general population (Prejean et al, 2011; Savin-Williams & Ream, 2007). While such statistics may be influenced somewhat by stigma and discrimination, they appear to be ultimately grounded in biological reality. The Alliance and NARTH Institute are perplexed as to how the WMA could not consider such tragic medical effects as an intrinsic and harmful risk of male homosexual behavior.
While stigma and discrimination against gay and lesbian persons are important concerns with which mental health professionals ought to be concerned, the link between perceived discrimination and mental health outcomes is real, but the strength of this relationship is small (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). This means there is a great deal more to be understood, and more moderating factors that may challenge current viewpoints need to be identified. For example, research into what influences the association between perceived discrimination and health outcomes has typically found no...