The Straight Line: How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality

by Tom Waidzunas

To be taken seriously, therapies that claim to “cure” homosexuality wrap themselves in lab coats. Even though the fit is bad, and such therapies and their theorists now inhabit the scientific fringe, the science of sexuality has made some adjustments, too, Tom Waidzunas tells us in this provocative work. Intervening in the politics of sexuality and science, The Straight Line argues that scientific definitions of sexual orientation do not merely reflect the results of investigations into human nature, but rather emerge through a process of social negotiation between opposing groups. The demedicalization of homosexuality and the discrediting of reparative therapies, ex-gay ministries, and reorientation research have, Waidzunas contends, required scientists to enforce key boundaries around scientific expertise and research methods. Drawing on extensive participant observation at conferences for ex-gays, reorientation therapists, mainstream psychologists, and survivors of ex-gay therapy, as well as interviews with experts and activists, The Straight Line traces reorientation debates in the United States from the 1950s to the present, following homosexuality therapies from the mainstream to the margins. As the ex-gay movement has become increasingly transnational in recent years, Waidzunas turns to Uganda, where ideas about the scientific nature of homosexuality influenced the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. While most studies treat the ex-gay movement as a religious phenomenon, this book looks at how the movement, in its attempts to establish legitimacy, has engaged with scientific institutions, shaping virulent anti-gay public policy.

Genres: Sexuality

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2015

Reviews

[Anthony VENN-BROWN OAM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, insightful and challenging

Ex-gay/reparative/conversion therapy organisations and practices have been focus of mine for over fifteen years now as I’ve lead the charge to see an end of these practices in Australia. During this time I’ve read extensively on the topic both for and against as well as kept up with the endless media frenzies that have occurred with scandals when ex-gay leaders “fell” or new “research” emerged, supposedly proving people can change from gay to straight. I wondered what additional things I could learn from Tom Waidzunas’s “The Straight Line -How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality”.

One thing that stands out immediately is the depth of research the author has gone into to create this work. It’s impressive. Following his theme of the changing “straight line” (when a person is or is not gay) gives a fresh approach as well.

Commencing with the mental health professionals approach post war (1948-1972) we are taken on the journey through gay affirmative therapy in tandem with ex-gay organisations and practitioners along with the rise of the ex-gay survivor movement and its impact.

One of the things I enjoyed most was the section on Uganda. The proposed Anti-homosexual Bill or the Kill the Gays Bill, as it has become known, is covered in depth. Most LGBT people globally would be aware of this controversy that lingered on for several years (2009-2014). The authors on the ground research in Uganda is invaluable and most of all insightful. Most of us were getting westernised perceptions through the media and gay rights organisations but Waidzunas takes us right into the thick of the battle interviewing key players. Most westerners saw this as a human rights issue but as the author reveals it was an historical, political, religious and cultural minefield. Valuable lessons can be learned just from this section.

The authors summary in closing gives us understanding of the possible reasons for investing so much to create this work. His challenge reads:

“I join other queer scholars in the hopes of further opening the door to other ways of being and knowing perhaps not yet experienced. Within the cacophony of clashing experts all claiming to have the illusory objective truth about our sexual nature, it is worthwhile to consider cultivating sexual natures that are just as humane, developing concepts of sexual rights through dialogue, giving sexual minorities a seat at the table, and being respectful of people’s claims about themselves regardless of the direction they are taking. This does not mean “anything goes” but rather that we might come together to have discussions about the boundaries of human freedom and acceptable sexualities, without necessarily imposing strict binaries and universals, but making our justifications with substantive arguments. While this approach may not provide moral certainty, at least it “means that we will be cautious and deliberate in our sexual judgments. These judgments may help preserve the mystery and discovery that are part of living a sexual life complete with its own experiential evidence. In the end, we might learn to trust ourselves and each other.”

An observation, not a criticism, is that the author is an academic and the writing style thus inclined. This means some readers will struggle with the language. But if this topic is of interest to you, then you will be rewarded by your persistence.

Anthony Venn-Brown
Author of “A Life of Unlearning – a preacher’s struggle with his homosexuality, church and faith”

[Anna]

Today, reorientation therapies — a collection of practices that seek to shift a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual toward heterosexual — exist on the fringes of established scientific communities, broadly understood to be both ineffective and often also harmful to patients. Yet seventy years ago, in the postwar period, reorientation therapies were considered to be a cornerstone of treatment for those experiencing homosexual desires or engaging in homosexual acts. How, then, did a collection of practices once considered standard practice get pushed to the edges (if not off the edge) of legitimate scientific understanding? And, perhaps more importantly, how did the journey of reorientation therapy from the center to the margins of psychiatric care in the United States change how Americans understand the nature of human sexuality?

Waidzunas sets out to answer this question using a blend of sociological, historical, and queer theoretical methods. Drawing on archival research and interviews with key figures, he traces how the political agitation of gay-affirmative and anti-gay social movements struggled within and around the mental health professions succeeded over the course of half a century in redrawing the boundaries of accepted scientific knowledge. In response to the reorientation community’s belief that sexual orientation can be changed, gay-affirmative therapists and activists have increasingly relied on notions of fixity: the notion that one’s body carries an innate true orientation that can be measured and remains stable throughout one’s life even as personal identity and community affiliation may change. While effective in marginalizing reorientation practices hostile to homosexual desires, the notion of a fixed sexual orientation scientifically fraught (how to measure it?) and problematically male-centered (most assertions of sexual fixity are rooted in studies involving penises and porn). Ultimately — without discounting the harms done to individuals in ex-gay therapy — The Straight Line challenges gay-affirming readers to re-examine their assumptions that the demise of reorientation science is an untempered win for LGBT rights. Across four thematic and roughly chronological chapters, Waidzunas traces the rise and fall of the “reorientation regime” in the U.S., with a fifth chapter coda at the end that touches on reorientation’s enduring global relevance. ...

Read full review at: https://medhumdailydose.com/2016/08/2...