Protesters blast APA's position

They argue that therapy can "heal" homosexuals. The APA doesn't consider homosexuality a mental disorder.

By Mark Davis

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Anthony A. Falzarano was 17 when he acknowledged that he was gay. And so he remained, Falzarano said, until Christ and therapy changed him.

With formidable doses of counseling from a Christian psychiatrist, coupled with equally generous portions of scripture, Falzarano said he turned from homosexual to heterosexual, from male lovers to a wife. In two years, he went from cruising gay bars to living a straight life, he said.

"We are all healed homosexuals," Falzarano, 37, said yesterday, nodding at 25 pickets outside the Convention Center, site of the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention. The association is celebrating its 150th anniversary this week.

The marchers, standing in their own small shadows in the noonday sun, carried hand-drawn placards proclaiming, "God Heals Homosexuals," "Freedom To Be Straight" and "Recovery Is A Right."

"We want to tell the world that if you don't want to be gay, you can change," said Falzarano, who said he has been heterosexual for the last six years. "The APA should not oppose it."

There is no reason to treat gay people in an attempt to alter their sexual preference, said James P. Krajeski, a San Francisco psychiatrist who represents the Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Psychiatrists, a caucus of the APA.

The APA does not regard homosexuality as a mental disorder and has not since 1973, he said.

"Personally, I find it troubling that people who have never examined me say that I have a mental illness," said Krajeski, who is gay. "They would have it appear that sexual orientation is a readily changeable condition. I would say it is not."

Sexual preference can be changed, said Falzarano, executive director of the Washington chapter of Transformation Ex-Gay Christian Ministries. The association is an affiliate of Exodus International, which Falzarano described as a worldwide network of therapists who rely on biblical teachings and therapy to convert homosexuals to a heterosexual lifestyle.

The APA is trying to stop the treatment - its supports call it "reparitive therapy" - because it is bowing to pressure from gay-rights groups, said Falzarano.

Nonsense, said Greg Phillips, media coordinator for the 38,500 member organization. The APA never has taken an official position on the biblically based treatment for homosexuality, he said.

"If it's not a disorder, why would you treat it?" he asked. "We don't condemn it, but we certainly don't condone it, either."