“Gay: The Uncomfortable Truth” – Nancy Carbonell
Date: October 31, 2009
Speaker: Dr. Nancy Carbonell
Position: Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology, Andrews University
Topic: “Gay: The Uncomfortable Truth”
Venue: Biology Amphitheater
Attendance: 92
Presentation: Carbonell explained 4 historic paradigms regarding gays (open defiance, an illness, innocent victims, celebrate diversity) and examined the studies by Kinsey (7-point scale, 1940s), Evelyn Hooker (male gays, 1957), the American Psychiatric Association (no longer an illness, 1973), Exodus International (RT or reparative therapy, 1976), NARTH (harmfulness of RT, 1991), various neuroendocrine, genetic, and body odors studies (1990s), Robert Spitzer (failure of homosexual behavior modification, 2001), and the APA Task Force Report (2009). Twelve mental health organizations oppose RT as ineffective & harmful, & homosexual behavior appears in 150 species.