Jul 10, 2009  |  By: Amy Cavanaugh  | COMMENTS     

When the American Psychological Association updated its brochure regarding homosexuality, the change was intended to be benign.

The original statement inside the “Answers to Your Questions for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality” had said there is “considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person’s sexuality.”

A revised and expanded statement notes, “there is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation.

“Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors,” says the revised brochure. “Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.”

Clinton Anderson, director of the APA’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns office, said the change was so subtle that “from our perspective, there really hasn’t been any change.”

But some conservative groups have hailed the wording change as apparent affirmation that sexual orientation is not genetically defined.

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuali-ty, said the reason “so many people in the pro-family movement are delighted by this is that it seems to confirm our doubts that there’s a gay gene, that homosexuality is inborn.”

“A lot of gay activists have used the idea of genetic homosexuality as a convenient argument to further their case,” he said. “This makes it harder for them to do that, because they can chastise the religious right, but it’s harder for them to chastise the APA.”

Anderson, however, said the wording change does not represent a change in position for the APA.

He noted that in both brochures, “our position has been that there is not a definite scientific understanding of where sexual orientation comes from and why some people have a heterosexual versus homosexual orientation.”

“I think that folks who have an investment in the idea that homosexuality is a choice are trying to attack — I hate to use that word, but attack — the APA’s credibility on these issues and have tried to make the revision of our public information brochure into an issue that doesn’t really exist,” he said.

Jim Kennedy, a social psychologist and APA member who lives in Rockville, Md., agreed.

“This doesn’t really affect anything,” he said. “The APA modified their pamphlet — not a scientific paper, just a pamphlet — for public consumption, to show that nobody really knows why anybody is a particular sexual orientation. There’s no consensus on it, and that’s true. There’s lots of research going on and nobody’s sure.”

Anderson said the first APA brochure was published in the mid-1990s, and at that time there had been “a series of very well publicized scientific findings around brain structure, around genetics, that subsequently were not replicated.”

“When we wrote the brochure, it was in a context in which there was a lot of public attention to biological explanations for homosexuality,” he said. “When we worked on the revision, which we started two to three years before we finished it in early 2008, the context had somewhat changed, and those scientific results had not been replicated.”

Anderson said it’s important to note that the APA “has always taken the basic position that the issue is people being discriminated against.”

“There’s nothing in the research in looking at lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people that justifies discrimination,” he said. “That has always been our position.”

The new APA brochure goes on to report that, “lesbian, gay and bisexual orientations are not disorders. Research has found no inherent association between any of these sexual orientations and psychopathology. Both heterosexual behavior and homosexual behavior are normal aspects of human sexuality. Both have been documented in many different cultures and historical eras.

“Despite the persistence of stereotypes that portray lesbian, gay and bisexual people as disturbed, several decades of research and clinical experience have led all mainstream medical and mental health organizations in this country to conclude that these orientations represent normal forms of human experience. Lesbian, gay and bisexual relationships are normal forms of human bonding. Therefore, these mainstream organizations long ago abandoned classifications of homosexuality as a mental disorder.”