Can gays change and become straight? Are there available proof or studies if this is really plausible?
A controversial new study says yes — if they really want to. Critics, though, say the study's subjects may be deluding themselves and that the subject group was scientifically invalid because many of them were suspected of being untruthful. Unfortunately, there are no proofs presented to support the allegations that there was indeed an intent to undermine the results.
It all started in 1995 when the preliminary results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add health) rocked the media and human sexuality circuit when they found that 5 to 7 percent of young Americans self-reported as homosexual or bisexual. Previous studies had indicated only 1 percent of high schoolers were gay or bisexual.
The landmark study was cited across academia, spawning over 1900 peer-reviewed publications, and became one of the largest longitudinal surveys on the psychological and physical well being of 7-12th graders. The Add Health study's homosexuality jump was significant enough to call into question rapidly evolving social norms of the mid-'90s, but for human sexuality researchers it should have been an alarm bell.
Fast-forward to 2008 and in follow-up interviewers with the same individuals who had said they were gay or bisexual as teens, the teens, who were now ages 24-32, weren't as gay as they once claimed they were. A shocking 70 percent of the self-reported non-heterosexual teens had gone straight somewhere between their PSATs and their first student loan.
Why did 70 percent of gay or bi teens suddenly become straight as adults?
Instead of answering the question straight, some gay activist presented a study, "The Dubious Assessment of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents of Add Health", which concludes that the data was skewed by teens trying to play a prank on science. Did they provide any proof of this allegation aside from mere personal conjectures, perception and observations? Nope.
For a study that generated nearly 2K citations, it is very hard to swallow that the high school joke had one helluva life span and legacy.
Meanwhile, further studies were published that supports the assumption that there is high probability that say gays can become straight. For instance, Dr. Robert Spitzer, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University, said he spoke to 143 men and 57 women who say they changed their orientation from gay to straight, and concluded that 66 percent of the men and 44 percent of women reached what he called good heterosexual functioning — a sustained, loving heterosexual relationship within the past year and getting enough emotional satisfaction to rate at least a seven on a 10-point scale.
A controversial new study says yes — if they really want to. Critics, though, say the study's subjects may be deluding themselves and that the subject group was scientifically invalid because many of them were suspected of being untruthful. Unfortunately, there are no proofs presented to support the allegations that there was indeed an intent to undermine the results.
It all started in 1995 when the preliminary results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add health) rocked the media and human sexuality circuit when they found that 5 to 7 percent of young Americans self-reported as homosexual or bisexual. Previous studies had indicated only 1 percent of high schoolers were gay or bisexual.
The landmark study was cited across academia, spawning over 1900 peer-reviewed publications, and became one of the largest longitudinal surveys on the psychological and physical well being of 7-12th graders. The Add Health study's homosexuality jump was significant enough to call into question rapidly evolving social norms of the mid-'90s, but for human sexuality researchers it should have been an alarm bell.
Fast-forward to 2008 and in follow-up interviewers with the same individuals who had said they were gay or bisexual as teens, the teens, who were now ages 24-32, weren't as gay as they once claimed they were. A shocking 70 percent of the self-reported non-heterosexual teens had gone straight somewhere between their PSATs and their first student loan.
Why did 70 percent of gay or bi teens suddenly become straight as adults?
Instead of answering the question straight, some gay activist presented a study, "The Dubious Assessment of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents of Add Health", which concludes that the data was skewed by teens trying to play a prank on science. Did they provide any proof of this allegation aside from mere personal conjectures, perception and observations? Nope.
For a study that generated nearly 2K citations, it is very hard to swallow that the high school joke had one helluva life span and legacy.
Meanwhile, further studies were published that supports the assumption that there is high probability that say gays can become straight. For instance, Dr. Robert Spitzer, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University, said he spoke to 143 men and 57 women who say they changed their orientation from gay to straight, and concluded that 66 percent of the men and 44 percent of women reached what he called good heterosexual functioning — a sustained, loving heterosexual relationship within the past year and getting enough emotional satisfaction to rate at least a seven on a 10-point scale.