Religious Leaders and Mental Health Professionals Affirm Support for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People

• WHEN: Thursday, September 11, 2008 – 7:15 p.m.
• WHERE: Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage, 7208 Duben Avenue, Anchorage
• WHO: Sara Gavit, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church; Rev. John Carey, Pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church; Rev. Beatrice Hitchcock, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Rev. Susan Halvor, Lutheran; Rev. Matthew Moak; Edie Bailey, Worship Coordinator for Metropolitan Community Church; Summer LeFebvre, Social Action Chair, National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter; Kaya Kade, President of the Alaska Counseling Association; Larry Michael, Psychologist; and Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out.

ANCHORAGE – On Thursday, September 11, an interfaith group of leaders from Anchorage’s religious community will participate in “God Loves You Just as You Are” a forum sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage to inform the parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and LGBT adults about the many welcoming and affirming religious denominations that celebrate the diversity of God’s creation.

The religious leaders along with mental health professionals will also discuss the harmful effects of so-called “therapies” that claim to “treat” same-sex attraction. All serious mental health organizations such as the American Psychological Association have long discredited the notion that homosexuality is a mental disorder or a problem that needs to corrected.

Some ultra-conservative, radical religious groups like Focus on the Family and Exodus International continue to promote the idea that same-sex attraction is something from which people need to be “freed,” or that can or should be “overcome.”

“Medical and psychological research shows that their whole agenda rests on false assumptions: that gay and lesbian persons choose their sexual orientation; that only heterosexuality is God’s plan for humankind; and that a person can be ‘converted’ to being heterosexual,” says Pastor John Carey of Immanuel Presbyterian Church. “This mindset leads to a damaging political perspective which results in destructive and sometimes deadly scapegoating.”

While “conversion therapy” groups purport to take a compassionate approach to dealing with same-sex attraction, most mental health professionals agree that their programs are largely ineffective and potentially harmful.

According to Randy Magen, a professor of Social Work at the University of Alaska Anchorage, there are at least seven studies which suggest reparative therapy is harmful. “One central tenet of all helping professions is, ‘do no harm.’ Advocates of reparative therapy are in danger of violating that ethical mandate,” Magen says.

On September 18, the Anchorage chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will hold a support meeting for parents and family members of gays and lesbians at Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

“We do not believe that ‘reparative or conversion’ therapy should be used to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian children of homosexuality,” says Jane Schlittler, current president of PFLAG-Anchorage. “There is nothing wrong with our children. They are not sick or evil. They are just fine the way God made them.”

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To arrange interviews in advance of the event, contact ACLU of Alaska.