Straightness 101

Illustration by Limbert Fabian

Related Content

• Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Founder, Comments on Involvement With Focus on the Family
  July 9, 2011
• A Special Gay Wedding Cake Recipe from Apocalypse Cakes
  July 21, 2011
• Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes Founder, Working With Christian, Anti-Gay Focus on the Family
  July 8, 2011
• Chick-Fil-A Protest Spawned on NYU Campus Over Opposition to Gay Marriage
  February 13, 2012
• October Baby
  March 21, 2012

More About

• John Paulk
• Focus on the Family
• GLSEN Inc.
• Sexuality
• Relationships

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: (Sent out every Thursday) Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Indeed, mainstream psychology dismisses make-them-play-football approaches like Nicolosi's as ridiculous. "They take us 30 years backwards," says Karen Anderson, director of the Center for Psychology in Schools and Education for the American Psychological Association.

Sexual-orientation conversion efforts are both futile and crushing, says Manhattan psychologist Ariel Shidlo, coauthor of a forthcoming study of 201 people who have been through conversion therapy. "It's equivalent to a black family trying to teach their child to pass as white," says Shidlo. "It teaches a child that an important part of them isn't desirable, and that's a very hard feeling to shake off."