Joseph Nicolosi is one of the those bigoted psychologists who think gay people can and should be “cured” of homosexuality. He was one of the founders of NARTH. He’s also a rather blatant liar, as demonstrated recently in his response to Exodus International director Alan Chambers admitting that homosexuality is not cured by such therapy. Chambers said this recently on Facebook:
As for Reparative Therapy, I do not support it. I don’t think it’s “fine.” They use pornography as a means of making people “100% straight.” We stopped allowing Joe Nicolosi to teach because he encouraged attendees to pick up heterosexual porn to encourage heterosexuality. Also, he and others have said that they can “cure” people 100% of SSA. That’s [not] within a human’s ability to state concretely.
And Nicolosi replied by saying that he has never claimed that reparative therapy could cure same-sex attraction completely:
Alan, what you are saying is untrue. I have never said I could cure someone completely from homosexuality. All my books make it quite clear that homosexual attractions will persist to some degree throughout a person’s lifetime.
But this was a lie. Not only has he claimed that, he’s claimed it directly to Chambers himself, promising that he could do exactly that. After an appearance by Chambers on the Dr. Drew show, during which he said that he still had same-sex attraction even though he was the leader of an ex-gay group and was now married to a woman, Nicolosi wrote him the following email:
Alan,
I have not seen yet your appearance on the T.V. show and of course, I always know how unfair and stressful these events are. But again, it is such a disservice to represent the alternative to gay but stating you are still struggling. It is not a very inspiring option to the many young people who may be hearing your message.
The point Alan is that you can get to a place where there is no more homosexuality. Really.
You can actually get to a place where you can willfully (sic) think of an SSA image and have no bodily sensation.Why stop half way? Why not do further work and finish the task and have it completely behind you. consider this invitation, not only for your sake but also as a testimony of complete healing to truly motivate others.
We have the therapeutic tools to get you over what ever SSA is remaining.
You know I am your friend. I am willing to help you. I’ll work with you personally if you like.
Please consider this invitation I offer you as a brother (O.K., a Catholic brother) in Christ.
Joe
Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D.
So was he lying when he said he could cure Chambers of all same sex attraction completely? Or is he lying now when he claims he never said that? Both, actually. Anything to keep his racket going.
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Zeno
August 2, 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Every year makes Nicolosi more of a transparent fraud. He and his NARTH colleagues are nostrum-hucksters who suffer by comparison with snake-oil salesmen. Remember Charles Socarides, Nicolosi’s old comrade-in-arms? (But not in a sexy way!) Socarides and Nicolosi both bragged that they could “cure” homosexuality, which made it all the richer when Richard Socarides (the former’s son) became a gay activist and took a job with the Clinton administration. Like his colleague before him, Nicolosi is a quack.
Modusoperandi
August 2, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s a good thing it doesn’t work. If it did, agents from Big Homo would eventually steal the program and run it in reverse, creating an Unstoppable Gay Army®.
slc1
August 2, 2012 at 11:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In a related development, guess which Asian nation may be the first to recognize same sex marriage. Wait for it: Vietnam!
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/us-marriage-equality-progress-falling-behindvietnam.html
Raging Bee
August 2, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
See? Our fight for freedom in Vietnam was not in vain.
John Hinkle
August 2, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
But he already likes it completely behind him.
Marcus Ranum
August 2, 2012 at 5:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Is he also interested in curing the gay rams? And every other species in which males occasionally mount eachother? Maybe he should start with rats and work up from there.
Raging Bee
August 3, 2012 at 9:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We stopped allowing Joe Nicolosi to teach because he encouraged attendees to pick up heterosexual porn to encourage heterosexuality.
Actually, this is about the most sensible idea ever to come out of the “ex-gay” movement (aside from the admission that none of it works, of course). At the very least, this is positive reinforcement, which is better than fear, guilt, hate, shame and lies; and if you want men to be attracted to the opposite sex, I’m thinking the best tool for this would be…the attractiveness of the opposite sex.
This particular fight is just more proof of how lame the whole scheme is. They’re trying to alter men’s sexual desires, but they can’t get a grip on the reality of how sexual desire really works, and they’re torn between using means they consider immoral, and sticking to their brain-dead prohibitions without regard to any consideration of what their “patients” really need.
All my books make it quite clear that homosexual attractions will persist to some degree throughout a person’s lifetime.
From what I’ve seen, this claim is actually kinda sorta true: they do admit, at least in the fine print, that a person who goes through their “program” will always have homosexual desires (thus the prohibitions they often place on exposing oneself to any books, art, information or entertainment that might put a crack in the brittle shell they call “therapy”). In other words, they’ve known all along, and quietly admitted here and there, that they know their whole scheme is bogus and homosexuality can never be “cured.”