PC crowd denounces new gay-straight study

By Jon Dougherty

It never fails. When a researcher finds evidence of something that goes against the current grain of politically correct thought, that researcher and his data are trashed like yesterday’s issue of Salon.com.

According to Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, the professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who has just authored a new study on gay-straight behavior, at least “some” people who used to be homosexuals have been able to “convert” themselves into heterosexuals.

Spitzer said he isn’t able to estimate what percentage of homosexuals can change their sexual orientation, but he did say that his research “shows [at least that] some people can change from gay to straight, and we ought to acknowledge that.”

Having been on his end of the anti-PC bandwagon, I pity Spitzer. He’s broken a cardinal rule: Questioning conventional PC wisdom in public and from a position of knowledge and authority while clouding a traditionally PC issue with annoying facts is strictly verboten.

His treatment at the hands of the PC police will be worse that it already has been after the results of his study are published — and they will be published somewhere, I guarantee it. He’ll be vilified and pilloried by the press, his colleagues, and the various gay groups out there who see his study as a threat to their existence, if not their way of life — though nowhere in his study does he call for a ban on homosexuality.

Spitzer even admitted going into this study that he was “skeptical” that homosexuals could change their sexual orientation. But he managed to change his point of view after proving, scientifically, what many of us have said for years — that homosexuality is not genetic, but is instead a chosen or adopted lifestyle.

The gay lobby is trying to discount Spitzer’s data because a number of his subjects were referred to him by so-called “anti-gay” religious groups.

That shouldn’t make any difference. Whether former gays are religious or not is irrelevant; Spitzer merely observed that it is possible for homosexuals to renounce that kind of behavior and become heterosexual.

Besides, by the homosexual lobby’s own estimates, only about 40 percent of Spitzer’s subjects were referred by religious groups. That should mean, then, that the other 60 percent of the nearly 200 subjects should be accepted as “legitimate” by the naysayers, but as you might guess, that’s not what’s happening. The homosexual lobby is rejecting all, not just part, of Spitzer’s study and all, not just part, of his subjects.

What does that tell you? It tells me that no matter who Spitzer interviewed; no matter how conclusive his data; no matter how bankrupt the gay lobby’s argument that being gay is “genetic”; the PC homosexual crowd will refuse to acknowledge the validity of Spitzer’s research.

The fact is, being heterosexual is “normal” and it always has been. It is a natural act for a man to desire a woman sexually and vice versa. Alternately, men who desire other men and women who desire other women sexually is not natural, so it follows that those who engage in homosexuality do so by choice.

Ultimately, few Americans will care about the results of this study because they have already made their sexuality choice.

But gays and lesbians will continue to fight its conclusions because as long as people believe gays are gay through no fault of their own, homosexuals will continue to get special treatment in American society, even though equality is supposed to be the order of the day.

Spitzer’s study should be publicized far and wide if for no other reason than to demonstrate the fallacy of treating some Americans better than most everyone else just because they made an unusual lifestyle choice.

Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.