# Can homosexuality be cured? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 14, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173 "2015-07-14T22:01:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/21 "2015-07-15T01:14:09Z")
Of course there are ways to make a gay person straight, but they’re all felonies. Don’t let the small minority of extremely loud religious types make you think that 37 states didn’t allowed gay marriage before the SCOTUS made the other 13. I think gays who are closet straights would just simply “come out of their closet”, there’s no real social hardship to this. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/22 "2015-07-15T01:18:17Z")
Can heterosexuality be cured? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/23 "2015-07-15T02:17:58Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > Can heterosexuality be cured? Marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Stravinsk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@Stravinsk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stravinsk)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/24 "2015-07-15T02:33:31Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > If we disregard the question of whether it should be, are there any methods, psychological or medical, which have shown to be effective in turning gay people straight? Certainly the only I thing one hear from the faith based programs you have in the USA, is that they’re totally bogus – but again that may by confirmation bias. With regard to one individual, if they believe the following things: ``` - Their attraction is innate to their person - Their sexual thoughts are innate to their person - Their choices of what thoughts to act on are innate to their person ``` ie: If it is all genetics, DNA, auto determined and has nothing to do with choices, an individual’s past relationships with the same and opposite genders, any sexual abuse and so forth… Then no. ``` I don't personally believe that. But a lot of people do. The comparison to real genetic attributes that cannot be self determined at birth (skin color, gender, ethnicity etc) has gone some distance in convincing people that it is so. I find the comparison spurious and reaching at best. ``` ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/25 "2015-07-15T02:34:13Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Conversion therapy is [banned](http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/01/us/california-gay-therapy-ban/) in Californial. No, it has not. It is legal for adults, but not for children. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/26 "2015-07-15T02:40:07Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > No, it has not. It is legal for adults, but not for children. So far. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/27 "2015-07-15T03:36:04Z")
Could I not have sex or a relationship with a woman? Yes, though I’d still be thinking about it. Could I have a relationship with a man? Yes, the same way a heterosexual person could have a relationship with a same-sex partner. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/28 "2015-07-15T03:44:56Z")
> [@Stravinsk](#): > > I find the comparison spurious and reaching at best. When did you choose to be straight? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/29 "2015-07-15T03:49:36Z")
How is it possible for Homosexuality to be passed generationally? I always thought that gays would be less well represented in the gene pool. But lately it’s posited that there is a genetic factor to it, and it’s backed up by some studies. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/30 "2015-07-15T03:58:21Z")
What about this idea: people who were “cured” of homosexuality in the past were simply bisexual and do to intervention choose to adhere to one sex, the opposite sex. Does that idea have any validity? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/31 "2015-07-15T04:14:41Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > So far. Do you think that conversion therapy should be illegal for adults, too? If so, why? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/32 "2015-07-15T06:19:39Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > How is it possible for Homosexuality to be passed generationally? I always thought that gays would be less well represented in the gene pool. But lately it’s posited that there is a genetic factor to it, and it’s backed up by some studies. Recessive genes. Same reason most Deaf peo people have hearing parents. > [@Robert163](#): > > What about this idea: people who were “cured” of homosexuality in the past were simply bisexual and do to intervention choose to adhere to one sex, the opposite sex. Does that idea have any validity? Probably a whole lot, but then, I think almost everyone is bisexual to a degree. Of course, that’s probably personal bias-- I’m bisexual, and can no more understand saying an entire gender does nothing for you anymore than I can understand someone saying, for example, they are not attracted to right-handed people. I think people are probably each somewhere on a continuum, so there are probably extreme heterosexuals, and extreme homosexuals, but I think most people are bisexual to some degree, and just suppressing that part of themselves. This is why you get situational homosexuality-- people express their gay side when there is nothing else, but go back to conforming to society when they can, especially if they happen to tip toward the “straight” end of the continuum. Anyway, this means sexuality is flexible. So some convetsion programs can appear to work in that they convince people through both conditioning and intimidation to express only their heterosexual urges. It’s sad, because the people in those programs are people who would tend to be more toward the gay end of the continuum, and therefore will probably have unfulfilling and incomplete sex lives. If they tended more toward heterosexual, they would probably be voluntarily suppressing non-straight feelings already. Conversion programs do not change anything fundamental about a person. They are essentially operant conditioning meets method acting. ---
**Author:** ![Stravinsk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@Stravinsk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stravinsk)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/33 "2015-07-15T07:31:32Z")
> [@andros](#): > > When did you choose to be straight? I don’t “choose” to be straight in the sense you probably mean, but being so goes naturally in hand with not warming to, thinking of, or engaging in homosexual thoughts and behavior. If that in fact constitutes a choice (the choice of rejection of certain thoughts and behaviors), I suppose I do it every time the idea, whether it be in concept form or whatever, comes to mind. Much like the idea of having sex with my pillow or a stuffed animal, those thoughts don’t come to mind because I haven’t made them a mental habit and don’t see them as being useful or satisfying to me. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/34 "2015-07-15T09:46:05Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Recessive genes. Same reason most Deaf peo people have hearing parents. > > Probably a whole lot, but then, I think almost everyone is bisexual to a degree. Of course, that’s probably personal bias-- I’m bisexual, and can no more understand saying an entire gender does nothing for you anymore than I can understand someone saying, for example, they are not attracted to right-handed people. I think people are probably each somewhere on a continuum, so there are probably extreme heterosexuals, and extreme homosexuals, but I think most people are bisexual to some degree, and just suppressing that part of themselves. > > This is why you get situational homosexuality-- people express their gay side when there is nothing else, but go back to conforming to society when they can, especially if they happen to tip toward the “straight” end of the continuum. > > Anyway, this means sexuality is flexible. So some convetsion programs can appear to work in that they convince people through both conditioning and intimidation to express only their heterosexual urges. It’s sad, because the people in those programs are people who would tend to be more toward the gay end of the continuum, and therefore will probably have unfulfilling and incomplete sex lives. If they tended more toward heterosexual, they would probably be voluntarily suppressing non-straight feelings already. > > Conversion programs do not change anything fundamental about a person. They are essentially operant conditioning meets method acting. I think the closest relation would be handedness. Most people clearly have a dominant hand, but almost all are able to adjust when the need is there, either due to injury, social pressure or desire… lost of sportspeople play differently to their official handedness; Nadal in tennis, Mickleson in golf. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/35 "2015-07-15T11:19:33Z")
> [@Stravinsk](#): > > I don’t “choose” to be straight in the sense you probably mean, but being so goes naturally in hand with not warming to, thinking of, or engaging in homosexual thoughts and behavior. But at some point, as a child or adolescent, presumably you began having romantic/sexual feelings sometimes from certain cues (seeing an attractive person move in a certain way, hearing someone’s voice, seeing a love scene in a movie, etc.). Were these ‘cues’ were solely from the opposite sex or opposite sex pairings? They were for me, and I was taught from a young age that homosexuality existed and was not sinful (this was the '80s, and I was not raised religiously). In my mind this means I am inherently heterosexual. And in my mind, people who as children or adolescents had same sex ‘cues’ for romantic and sexual feelings are inherently homosexual (or bisexual if they had such cues from both sexes). ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/36 "2015-07-15T11:36:04Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Do you think that conversion therapy should be illegal for adults, too? If so, why? Not sure about illegal. It should be treated like other forms of fraud. If you sell snake oil you may not be breaking the law depending on the harm done but you can certainly be sued and deserve to lose. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/37 "2015-07-15T12:29:40Z")
Rather than changing someone to be straight, I believe it should be possible to develop a therapy (some might call it brainwashing or torture) which turns someone against his or her own (preferred) gender, and to be repulsed by the idea, so that even if they didn’t take up a heterosexual lifestyle, they wouldn’t be pursuing a homosexual one. Note: Not a fan of this type of therapy. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/38 "2015-07-15T12:58:40Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Rather than changing someone to be straight, I believe it should be possible to develop a therapy (some might call it brainwashing or torture) which turns someone against his or her own (preferred) gender, and to be repulsed by the idea, so that even if they didn’t take up a heterosexual lifestyle, they wouldn’t be pursuing a homosexual one. > > Note: Not a fan of this type of therapy. I’m sure CIA doctors can come up with something for that, as well. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/39 "2015-07-15T14:02:29Z")
> [@Stravinsk](#): > > I don’t “choose” to be straight in the sense you probably mean, but being so goes naturally in hand with not warming to, thinking of, or engaging in homosexual thoughts and behavior. If that in fact constitutes a choice (the choice of rejection of certain thoughts and behaviors), I suppose I do it every time the idea, whether it be in concept form or whatever, comes to mind. > > Much like the idea of having sex with my pillow or a stuffed animal, those thoughts don’t come to mind because I haven’t made them a mental habit and don’t see them as being useful or satisfying to me. Well, if you have homosexual thoughts and desires that you actively repress, I’d argue you’re not exactly a 6 on the ol’ Kinsey scale. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173/40 "2015-07-15T14:32:17Z")
I’m sure that if we were to discard all relevant concepts of ethics that we could come up with SOME way of convincing gay people that they _really_ prefer heterosexuality. But would we want to? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homosexuality-be-cured/725173.md?page=3)