Dr. Robert Spitzer Retracts Own 2001 Study Supporting 'Ex-Gay' Therapy
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | April 12, 2012
Dr. Robert Spitzer has repudiated his own 2001 study which claimed that some gay people could alter their sexuality.
He made his retraction in a story published in the current issue of the American Prospect.
The highly-criticized study, which was published in the prestigious Archives of Sexual Behavior, alleged that “highly motivated” gay men and lesbians could alter their sexuality.
“In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct,” Spitzer, now 80, said. “The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.”
He added that such therapy “can be quite harmful” and asked the author to print a retraction of his 2001 study, “so I don't have to worry about it anymore?”
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a group devoted to debunking the myth that gay people can be “cured” of their sexuality, called Spitzer's repudiation “an earthquake that severely undermines the validity of 'ex-gay' programs.”
“Spitzer just kicked out the final leg from the stool on which the proponents of 'ex-gay' therapy based their already shaky claims of success,” Besen wrote in a blog post applauding Spitzer.
“Virtually every anti-gay organization in the country quotes Dr. Spitzer's work,” he added. “It will be an integrity test to see which groups remove citations of his work in the coming week.”