In findings that directly contradict mainstream academic thought, 53 percent of subjects in a new seven-year study reported successfully leaving homosexuality and living happily as heterosexual or celibate persons.
The study by psychologists Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University is a follow-up to one released two years ago in the form of a book, “Ex-Gays?” That study was called groundbreaking, and the latest set of data is no less significant, the researchers say.
The men followed 61 subjects over a span of six to seven years, recording their failures and successes in their attempt to leave homosexuality. Experts in the field call it the first attempt to follow subjects who are undergoing Christian counseling over a series of years. Such a time-consuming study is called “longitudinal.”
Among their findings:
• 23 percent reported a successful conversion to heterosexual attractions.
• 30 percent reported living a celibate life and were content with their reduction in homosexual attractions. Altogether, those latter two categories were combined for a 53 percent success rate, the researchers said.
• 16 percent of subjects had modest decreases in homosexual attractions and weren’t satisfied with their degree of change but were committed to continuing the process.
• 7 percent had seen no decrease in homosexual attractions but had not given up trying to change.
• 25 percent of subjects were considered “failures,” either because they gave up on the process and once again identified as a homosexual (20 percent) or because they had not yet embraced a homosexual identity but nevertheless had given up (5 percent).
All the subjects were going through programs set up by Exodus International, a Christian ministry that seeks to help those who want to leave homosexuality. Although Exodus funded the study, Jones and Yarhouse agreed to conduct it only if all sides agreed that they would report the results no matter the outcome — in other words, even if the findings embarrassed Exodus.
The latest findings were released four days after an American Psychological Association task force released a 130-page report that said “gay-to-straight” therapies are unlikely to work. That report got mixed reviews from conservatives, although APA’s position on the issue is well-known: It believes homosexual attractions are “normal and positive variants” of human sexuality. The APA’s website still states, “[T]here has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation (sometimes called reparative or conversion therapy) is safe or effective.”
“The APA has previously asserted, with absolute clarity, that sexual orientation change is not possible — that it simply doesn’t occur,” Jones, of Wheaton College, told Baptist Press. “The best way to test that is to study people as they’re attempting change and follow them over a long period of time. Our study found that a significant portion of that population reported very significant change.”
He added, “My sense is that our study is a good sample, and so I think that people can pursue the Exodus process with a cautious sense of optimism about the possibility of change, but we can’t make absolute predictions.”