Warren Throckmorton

Found this article recently by Daryl Bem. Not sure I agree with every point (I am not finished thinking about it) but this article may give some insight into the experience of some ex-gay men who report the experience of being attracted to their wives with some remaining same sex attraction. I think it addresses some of the discussion on this blog.

Did I mention that I really don't like moving? Moving offices yesterday, today and forever (it seems). How did all that stuff come out of my old office? I think my stuff multiplied from point A to point B. I may post again some day...

Here is the article called Remembering Brewster about Kevin Jennings of GLSEN. I am curious to see what blog readers think of the two stories concerning Brewster. Am I reading these correctly or making too much out of not much?

Some of y'all are going to focus on "Robert" Cohen in this FOTF piece, but I post it to follow up on some of the comments from the Anonymous posters regarding "the gay community." I just don't think this would fly if this were a program or club for underage straight kids. Where am I going wrong?

The Advocate posted a statement from the American Psychiatric Association regarding reparative therapy on its website. Here it is:

The American Psychological Association, in its Resolution on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation, which is also endorsed by the National Association of School Psychologists, states: “The American Psychological Association opposes portrayals of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and adults as mentally ill due to their sexual orientation and supports the dissemination of accurate information about sexual orientation, and mental health, and appropriate interventions in order to counteract bias that is based in ignorance or unfounded beliefs about sexual orientation.”

This basically says therapy that views homosexuality per se as signalling a disorder is discouraged. I do not view homosexuality as a disorder per se but I believe that some people may not want to be homosexual for reasons unrelated to mental illness. Usually this relates to religious beliefs. The APA statement in the Advocate goes on to say that some religious denominations do not view homosexuality as immoral. Thus, the APA seems to be saying some religious beliefs are better than others. Is this an appropriate role for a psychiatric association? Where is the respect for religious diversity?

In any event, I do not believe the APA statement applies to my work since I do not view or convey homosexuality per se to signal mental disorder.

New op-ed on the Drthrockmorton.com site.

I will comment more on this later, but this morning's Washington Post has a lengthy article on reparative therapy. Despite my frequent requests of the reporter not to do so, she still referred to me as a reparative therapist.

I am going to add to this post as I have time today.

The article quotes APA's Jack Drescher as follows: "Many people who try this treatment tend to be desperate, very unhappy and don't know other gay people," said Drescher, who has treated about a dozen men who previously underwent conversion therapy. (Men are far more likely than women to receive the treatment.)

A dozen!? That's all? He is an expert on conversion therapy after treating a dozen people who didn't like it? This may be one of the most telling admissions I have ever seen. How can the APA's lead point person on this issue make dogmatic statements with an N of 12?

Here is an interesting read in the Boston Globe regarding biological origins of sexual feelings. Nice they mentioned D. Bem, but he got little coverage.

In John Evans post on Wayne Besen's website, he says the following:

Lately, I've heard that some people are actually trying to claim that I never was one of the original people who started Love In Action. I'm sickened even hearing this. The truth is the truth. Even Kent's book tells the truth of how Love In Action was started: In the Preface, Kent Philpott says, "Clearly a new phase of counseling was beginning. I felt inadequate. Preliminary counseling was one thing, but in-depth therapeutic involvement with homosexuals was something else. I knew it would be costly. Thus it was we started a fellowship for homosexuals. Ted, [the false name that Kent used for me in the book], Bob, Eve, and Frank all helped. This book is our attempt to share good news with others." (From the Preface of The Third Sex?, Logos International, 1975.)

I have now reviewed the relevant sections from The Third Sex, Ex-gays? There Are None, Anything but Straight and all of the statements from John Evans, interviewed Kent Philpott and Frank Worthen. I cannot see how anyone could come away from all of these sources and conclude that John Evans and Kent Philpott were the sole co-founders of LIA. Every source concurs on the following story:

In the early 1970s, Kent Philpott owned a Christian book store with a Christian counseling office. Within one week (in either 1973 or 1974), Kent Philpott had three conversations with homosexual men: John Evans, Frank Worthen and another man who I am attempting to locate (he is Bob in The Third Sex?). Bob was seeking counseling, John Evans had previously had some conversations with Kent but that week had disclosed his homosexuality with prompting from Kent and Frank Worthen was already engaged in an outreach and wanted to make Kent aware of it. That weekend, Kent called all three men and asked them to meet together to consider how best to minister to homosexuals. Within two weeks, the group met with at least six and perhaps as many as 10 homosexually oriented men and women there along with Kent Philpott.

The group was viewed differently by different participants. Kent and Frank and perhaps Bob viewed the group as a encouragement to gays and lesbians to live within a traditional Christian sexual ethic. John and perhaps the women there seemed to see the group as a way for the conservative church to welcome and affirm homosexuals without reference to behavioral conformity to a traditional ethic. The group wanted a name and one of the women suggested Love in Action. This name was agreeable to all concerned and so it was adopted for the support group.

I will leave it to the reader to determine founderhood. I think a case could be made for all those at the original meeting being considered co-founders, in the sense that they were all there at the first meeting. This description does not make for a pithy soundbite, but apparently it is what happened.

It does not appear to me that there was much that was founded. The group was a loosely organized support meeting with very little structure. John Evans envisioned a gay affirming group and Kent and Frank envisioned a support group to encourage people to remain consistent with traditional morality. After awhile John Evans had a car accident and was in the hospital for nearly a year. During his recovery, he began to meet with pro-gay Christians (he called himself and the others LIA "dropouts") but apparently maintained some LIA contacts at the same time. Eventually he transitioned to Evangelicals Concerned.

When I think of a founder of something, I think of someone (or several someones) who conceptualizes it, organizes it and shepherds it to reality. Frank Worthen was already doing ministry and continued to do it through the support group which evolved into more of an organized ministry. I can understand how Frank Worthen saw LIA as a continuation of what he was already doing through the distribution of his audio tapes. Very quickly, Frank was the leader of the new group.

I have found some interesting discrepancies. One relates to John Evans' year long hospitalization due to a car accident. He has said that this occured after Kent Philpott told him to leave Ron Morano, his partner. (More on this later, but Kent Philpott disputes the account of John Evans.)

From the post on Wayne Besen's website, Mr Evans says: Shortly after leaving Ron, I was so distressed that I could barely function. My mind was on Ron all the time. One day, while driving on the freeway, I was thinking about the holiest love I had ever known from another human being.

This love was from Ron. Knowing I had given up the most precious love of my life, I really didn't care if I lived or died. Suddenly, I lost control of my vehicle, and was involved in a devastating automobile accident. I was unconscious for several days and spent almost a year in the hospital in recovery. I broke most of the bones in my back. I've had several surgeries every since, along with debilitating chronic pain.

However, in the Pennington book, Evans said the car accident was in another man's car as they were on their way to the other man's home for a sexual encounter. He did not say what happened to the other man. Either way, it appears that Mr. Evans was pretty distraught at the time. But these are disparate accounts and might call for some caution in interpreting the accuracy of other recollections and perceptions as well.

I am going to continue with my explorations but I am convinced that it is misleading to say that Kent Philpott and John Evans were the sole co-founders of LIA.

Been having a big time discussion stimulated by the post just previous to this one regarding the nature of sexual orientation and change. I want to thank those who have been posting. The posts are worth the read. I want to keep it going with a more focused question. Is human sexual orientation a discrete or continuous variable/trait?

From the article regarding David Akinsanya, the BBC correspondent who is pursuing reorientation but also consulted Qazi Rahman, British researcher: "Akinsanya underwent a number of tests (at Rahman's lab), including measurement of his response to sudden loud noises and assessment of such spatial skills as his ability to rotate cubes conceptually. Both types of tests differentiate strongly between heterosexual and homosexual subjects. Akinsanya says he came out as "gay, gay, gay!" in every test."

Now I wonder if Dr. Rahman also felt the bumps on David's head?

I was interviewed over two days for this documentary. Alas, citing time limitations, the producers did not include the footage in the piece. I am anxious to see it however and review the "lab work" from Qazi Rahman. I talked with David Akinsanya for over 2 hours here in Grove City and then a couple of times afterwards by phone. I am supposed to receive a copy of the documentary soon. I will provide a review once I get it. If anyone reading this sees where it will be shown in the US, please post it.

Just caught David Parker on Fox News. His story is pretty amazing. For wanting to be notified when the subject of homosexuality would be discussed in school, he was arrested for trespassing in the Lexington (MA) schools. His son is 5 years old and going into first grade. If the school wins this, anyone who has a issue with the school may need to take counsel when attending a meeting.

John Evans says in his recent letter to Wayne Besen: "Now to actually claim that I was never a part of the original group that founded Love In Action boggles my mind."

I am not claiming Mr. Evans was not there. I am exploring the roles people who were there played and I am exploring the spin surrounding the issue. My curiosity was piqued by Wayne Besen's claims that none of the ex-gay organizational founders ever changed or remained straight. I have learned that the claim is not true as it relates to Exodus and I am now looking into that claim about Love in Action and may do so about other groups (for instance I have recently learned that there were two founders of Homosexuals Anonymous and one of them is still straight after 30 years).

Well, it is better than nothing. John Evans has commented about the beginnings of LIA through Wayne Besen's website. I am still comparing time lines from all three men, Frank Worthen, Kent Philpott and John Evans but it appears there are some differences.

I think this whole issue is confounded by the use of the word founder. As it appears from both this post from Mr. Evans and what I am hearing from Mr. Worthen and Rev. Philpott, there were possibly as many as ten founders, if by founder we mean those who were at the meeting when the name "Love in Action" was suggested. Love in Action as such did not exist before that meeting. John Evans in this post makes it sound like everyone dropped out. Frank Worthen didn't, and there is at least one other "founder" who is still ex-gay although I do not have permission to use his name.

As the reference to the Third Sex? makes clear, there were multiple organizers and participants who helped make these early LIA meetings go. Statements such as: "Former ex-gay John Evans, who co-founded Love In Action with Rev. Kent Philpott in 1973..." are misleading.

I think a more accurate description would be, "one of several founding members," or "one of several original participants." Mr. Evans' post makes it even more clear that LIA at the beginning was little more than people gathering in a group for Bible study and or mutual encouragement. Furthermore Mr. Evans says in this most recent post that he didn't envision a change ministry when he came to the first LIA meeting. This does not sound like he and Kent Philpott were on the same page, as one would expect with co-founders. A participant yes, a founder? I guess maybe this is in the eye of the beholder.

Here's an example of "an expert is only someone who agrees with me" kind of thinking. This opinion piece mentions the book Destructive Trends in Mental Health edited by Rogers Wright and Nick Cummings but then seems to damn it because it was reviewed by Dean Byrd on the Narth website. Does this guy even know who Wright and Cummings are?

This look backwards is interesting to say the least.

For example, there are conflicting reports on the internet about when Jack McIntyre committed suicide. One source says 1975 and the best sources say 1977. I have found a death notice that places his death in early 1977 and can find nothing in 1975. This is relevant to the story for a variety of reasons, one of which is the frequent claim that John Evans left Love in Action after his friend Jack McIntyre's suicide. A corollary to that claim is the one that Jack McIntyre spent 4 years in Love in Action and was driven to suicide by that group.

I continue to look for contact information for John Evans to get his perspective on these matters. Without that, there is reason to doubt these claims. According to a note by Rembert Truluck on his webpage, the first Evangelicals Concerned chapter was started in Marin county with Ralph Blair making a trip to see John Evans. This is consistent with Frank Worthen's recollections that John Evans and Jack McIntyre and several other people left Love in Action about three months after the name Love in Action was adopted to join with Ralph Blair. This would have been late 1974 or early 1975, which is also given on the EC website as the founding year of EC. Since Jack McIntyre committed suicide in 1977, he would have been away from LIA and with EC for about two years. Also, John Evans would have left LIA before the suicide, not after as has been claimed. He may waited until after McIntyre's death to denounce the ministry but he and McIntyre seem to have left LIA long before the suicide.

Most of these claims about LIA and Exodus seems to come from a common source but the claims are never sourced. I continue to explore and talk to people...

Strange as it may seem, my sincere effort to listen to those asking me to consider other views of the founders of ex-gay ministries has taken an interesting turn. I asked Wayne Besen for the contact information of John Evans who was involved in Love in Action early on and here is the response I received. Must have struck some kind of nerve.

Zach Stark has spoken out on a new blog (he took the old one down). He generally has good things to say about Love in Action and he now wants to be left alone. I am impressed with the generally mature responses he is giving to those posting on his blog.

No comment as yet from the Queer Action Coalition, the folks who broadcast Zach's original blog to the world.

From Wayne Besen's news release regarding John Evans:

Evans, a gay man, founded what may be the first modern ex-gay group in San Raphael, Calif. in 1973, along with a heterosexual preacher Kent Philpott. Evans left his life partner of ten years to start the gay conversion group. He later dropped out after he realized it didn't work and his best friend committed suicide because he could not turn heterosexual.

I have had contact with Kent Philpott and Frank Worthen, both of whom convened the first meeting of Love in Action. Both deny these statements. Evans was being mentored by Philpott and came along to a joint meeting of Philpott's mentoring group and Frank Worthen's group. At that meeting, the approximately 15 people present decided together that Love in Action was a better name for the ministy than the previous name (Brother Frank's Tape Ministry). With all due respect to Frank Worthen, I agree.

John Evans left the group several months after it started. He formed a pro-gay group. The suicide referred to in the Besen release occurred after Mr. Evans left Love in Action.

More to come...

Transcript of the CNN interview.