Psychologists’ convention draws protest over gay policy

Associated Press/August 17, 2006

New Orleans — About two dozen protesters marched for an hour outside the American Psychological Association convention last week to protest the organization’s stand on homosexuality.

The group of protesters, which was sponsored by the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, was protesting what it sees as the psychological association’s views on the immutability of homosexuality.

“We disagree with the APA’s stand that people can’t change if they want to,” said Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a Los Angeles psychologist and president of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. “If someone wants to change, they say, ‘No, this is you, you must learn to accept it.’ We say people have self determination, they can make a choice.”

The protesters wanted the group to classify homosexuality as a mental disorder, as it did before 1974.

Dr. Clinton Anderson, a spokesman for the psychological association, said there is no need to cure homosexuality because it is not an illness.