Is it possible to change one’s sexual orientation? The gay community would say no. So do major psychological organizations. And that’s the perception one gets from the media as well. You might be surprised to learn, however, that a lot of research has been done in the area of sexual orientation therapy, and many people have experienced a lasting change in their sexual orientation. When it comes to the question of whether change is possible, the data, not political correctness should be determinative. So what is the data?
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health followed ~10,800 adolescents between the ages of 16 and 22, recording various bits of information over time, including sexual attraction. The findings regarding sexual orientation were published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2007.[1] Researchers found that 81% of females who reported same-sex attraction at age 16 reported opposite-sex attraction at age 17. Similarly, 61% of males who reported exclusive same-sex attraction at age 16 reported opposite-sex attraction just one year later. Only 25% of those boys who continued to experience exclusive same-sex attraction at age 17 reported same-sex attraction at age 22. Seventy-five percent of them had gained opposite-sex attraction over that five year period. All of this without any therapy, faith-based or otherwise.
These findings were in line with an earlier study, conducted in 1992 by the National Health and Social Life Survey. They found that three out of four boys who self-reported as gay at age 16 no longer did so at age twenty-five.
When it comes to same-sex attracted adolescents, at least, one is more likely to gain heterosexual attractions than keep their same-sex attractions. Change is not only possible, but more likely than not. In fact, 3% of the United States heterosexual population claims to have experienced same-sex attractions in the past (either exclusive, or bi-sexual), which is roughly the same amount of people who presently describe themselves as gay or bisexual.[2] The likelihood of change is so great that, in the words of Dr. Whitehead, “Ex-gays outnumber actual gays.”
In their book, My Genes Made Me Do It[3] , Neil and Briar Whitehead cite many other studies indicating that same-sex attraction is not fixed, but amenable to change:
• Former president of the American Psychological Association, Nicholas Cummings, wrote in USA Today: “[C]ontending that all same-sex attraction is immutable is a distortion of reality.”[4] As chief psychologist for Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, Cummings oversaw hundreds of patients who were successful in changing their sexual orientations.[5]
• Rosario et al conducted a longitudinal study of homosexuals (1996, 2006) and found that 43% experienced lasting change of varying degrees.[6]
• A New Zealand longitudinal study of 1000 children followed from birth found that 1.9% of men age 21-26 with exclusive opposite-sex attraction moved to exclusive same-sex attraction, while 1% moved from exclusive same-sex attraction to exclusive opposite-sex attraction. For women, 9.5% with exclusive opposite-sex attraction moved to exclusive same-sex attraction, while 1.3% moved from exclusive same-sex attraction to exclusive opposite-sex attraction.[7]
• Kinnish et al found that the number of people who are moving from exclusive same-sex attraction to exclusive opposite-sex attraction outnumber those who are exclusively same-sex attracted and bisexuals combined.[8] A homosexual orientation is much more amenable to change than a heterosexual orientation. According to this study, “exclusive opposite-sex attraction is 17 times as stable as exclusive same-sex attraction for men, and exclusive opposite-sex attraction is 30 times as stable as exclusive same-sex attraction for women.”[9]
• Savin-Williams and Ream conducted a large USA ADD-Health survey with adolescents. They found that 75% of men who claimed same-sex attraction at age 17 reported exclusive opposite-sex attraction at age 22. Among girls, almost all of those who claimed initial same-sex attraction at age 17 moved to exclusive opposite-sex attraction by age 22.[10]
• After 20 years of researching the treatment of same-sex attraction and homosexuality, psychologist Gerard van den Aardweg concluded that “two thirds reached a stage where homosexual feelings were occasional impulses at most, or completely absent.[11]
• Jones and Yarhouse found that 15% of their study group experienced substantial change, while many others experienced significant change. While traces of same-sex attraction remained, the authors concluded that they were now “heterosexual in a real sense”.[12]
These are just a portion of all the available studies, but they clearly reveal that sexual attraction is not fixed and immutable. That doesn’t mean everyone will experience change. All researchers agree that the greatest change is seen most among those who are highly motivated to change, those who have not engaged in homosex, and those who are younger. Nor does it mean that everyone who experiences change will experience the same degree of change. Change comes in a spectrum. Some will only experiencing a lessening of the intensity of their same-sex desires; others will cease or nearly-cease experiencing same same-sex attraction, but not acquire opposite-sex attraction; others will cease experiencing same-sex attraction and acquire some level of opposite-sex attraction. One thing is for certain: even if some do not experience change, the notion that change is impossible for anyone with same-sex attraction is contrary to the evidence, and contrary to the experience of so many who claim to be ex-gay. Those who claim it cannot be possible because they tried to change and were not able to do so fall prey to the “my chimney” fallacy: “If it aint coming out of my chimney, it aint smoke.” While we may not be able to say why some do not experience change, that is no reason to doubt the experiences of so many who claim to have experienced genuine change, and no reason to cover up the multitude of scientific studies that show change is possible both with and without therapy. The facts, not political correctness, should inform this issue.
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1. Savin-Williams et al., “Prevalence and Stability of Sexual Orientation Components during Adolescence and Young Adulthood,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2007. The abstract can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17195103/.
2. Kinnish KK, Strassberg DS, Turner CW. 2005. “Sex differences in the flexibility of sexual orientation: a multidimensional retrospective assessment.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 34:175-83. Quoted in Alan Shlemon, “Once Gay, Always Gay?”; available from http://www.str.org/articles/once-gay-always-gay#.Uq8jEuLxQnh; Internet; accessed 16 December 2013.
3. Neil and Briar Whitehead, My Genes Made Me Do It (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House Publishers, 2013), 231. E-book version available online at http://www.mygenes.co.nz/download.htm. Chapter 12, “Can Sexual Orientation Change,” is available at http://www.mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch12.pdf; Internet; accessed 08 January 2014.
4. Nicholas Cummings, “Sexual reorientation therapy not unethical”; available from http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/07/30/sexual-reorientation-therapy-not-unethical-column/2601159/; Internet; accessed 07 January 2014.
5. Robert Carle, “When Government Keeps Teens from Seeing the Therapist”; available from http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/11/11181/?utm_source=RTA+Carle+Therapy+Ban&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email; accessed 17 December 2013.
6. Rosario M, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Hunter J, Exner TM. 1996. The psychosexual development of urban, gay and bisexual youths. Journal of Sex Research 33:113-26. Rosario M, Schrimshaw EW, Hunter J, Braun L. 2006. Sexual identity development among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths: consistency and change over time. Journal of Sex Research 43:46-58.
7. Dickson N, Paul C, Herbison P. 2003. Same-sex attraction in a birth cohort: prevalence and persistence in early adulthood. Social Science and Medicine 56:1607-15.
8. Kinnish KK, Strassberg DS, Turner CW. 2005. Sex differences in the flexibility of sexual orientation: a multidimensional retrospective assessment. Archives of Sexual Behavior 34:175-83.
9. Neil and Briar Whitehead, My Genes Made Me Do It (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House Publishers, 2013), 231. E-book version available online at http://www.mygenes.co.nz/download.htm. Chapter 12, “Can Sexual Orientation Change,” is available at http://www.mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch12.pdf; Internet; accessed 08 January 2014.
10. Savin-Williams RC, Ream GL. 2007. Prevalemce and stability of sexual orientation components during adolescence and young adulthood. Archives of Sexual Behaviour 36:385-394.
11. van den Aardweg G. 1986. Homosexuality and Hope: A Psychologist Talks about Treatment and Change. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Books.
12. Jones SL, Yarhouse MA. 2007. Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. Downer’s Grove, Illinois: IVP. Jones SL, Yarhouse MA. 2011. A longitudinal study of attempted religiously mediated sexual orientation change. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 37(5):404-427.
Thinking to Believe 
April 1, 2014 at 10:01 am
I reject the foundational premise that such a thing as “sexual orientation” exists. I would argue that humans have sexual preferences, not sexual orientations.
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April 1, 2014 at 10:35 am
I suppose it depends on how we define the term. If one means something that is fixed at birth, then I would reject it. But if it means to describe one’s natural sexual attractions in the present, then I am fine with it. My sexual desires are naturally oriented toward members of the opposite sex, so I could say that this is my sexual orientation. How do you define the term? Perhaps a better question is how you think it is being defined by the professionals.
Jason
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April 1, 2014 at 4:58 pm
What a fantastic misreading of the facts.
First, let me explain that most people during puberty/adolescence experience some degree of confusion. That in no way changes the FACT that some are straight and others are gay.
That human beings better understand their sexual impulses with time is to be expected.
Another FACT is that in the post-adolescent stage there are zero studies which demonstrate that attraction changes.
This means you’re attempting to mislead your readers by manipulating the data and focusing on the most narrow of points. It’s dishonest to say the least.
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April 1, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Dear pinkagendist, I don’t think Jason misread anything. I think he presented some pretty straightforward results from very large and lengthy studies, the kind you would be quoting were they amenable to your views.
The studies referred to do not change the fact that some who self-identify as gay remain gay. Jason is not questioning the self-identification of the adolescents in the studies, he’s letting their self-identification speak for itself, which you do not.
I’m assuming that you are suggesting that those who changed their self-identification from gay to straight were never gay in the first place. And I would suggest that you the one bringing an outside presupposition and forcing it on the data, your presupposition being that “true” sexual identity can’t be changed. Are you for some reason bigoted against adolescents and their ability to decide who they think they love? How prejudicial.
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April 1, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Pinkagendist,
I did pretty good in math when I was in school, and I can assure you that the several studies cited here do not add up to zero.
Please point out the manipulation here.
Why is the gay community so fragile that they can’t admit that some people experience change? Do you see heterosexuals up in arms over people who claim to have been straight all their life, and then in their 30s or 40s developed same-sex attraction? Do you see us making accusations that they are lying, or that they must have never been straight? So why is it that the gay community cannot acknowledge that some people who had same-sex attraction can change their sexual orientation?
Jason
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April 1, 2014 at 11:13 pm
I think you are spot-on Chad. Many in the gay community have desired change, but did not find it. Some even sought therapy, but did not experience change. So they are convinced that it must be biologically fixed and immutable (despite the fact that no clear biological link has been found, and despite that fact that those who are looking for biological links admit that biology is only part of what causes same-sex attraction). It is a presupposition based on their own experience. But why think their experience is determinative? Perhaps others have had different experiences. And if we listen to the host of people who claim to have experienced varying degrees of change, I think we have good reason to discard any presupposition that sexual desire is immutable.
Jason
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April 6, 2014 at 3:36 pm
Great article……….will finish it this evening after church. Have been reading your articles on Oneness. Do you know Peter LaBarbera? (americansfortruth.org). He is a good personal friend of mine and came to NC to assist us in passage of our marriage amendment. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge and zeal on the issue. I am a gringo Spanish pastor here in Fayetteville at Bro. Williams’s church.
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April 14, 2014 at 6:17 am
“BEING GAY” is not a scientific fact, there is only the “I HAVE GAYS EMOTIONS” and there are many reasons. The only reason that is not true is you be born “gay.”
“People believe sexuality is a biological event, which concerns genitalia and is regulated by the istinct: genitalia produce pleasure and pleasure cause emotions. This is a wrong idea, produced by our conscious-ness. Instinct does not exist in humans. Sex is learned from the first relationalship. Sexuality is due to a complex neural structuring in our Emotional Brain, which is progressively constructed along the individual life, from the infant attachment, through several interpersonal experiences, till adulthood. Emotional Brain works in a quite unconscious way: the subjectivity of an individual depends from it, but a person may feel only few misleadind feeling from his/her emotional brain working. Some of these feeling may be felt as sexual when he/her come to have any behaviors that may be called sexual. Pleasure is not produced by genitalia through specific neural pathways, but by a “lecture”, by our unconscious emotional brain. It occurs when some environmental, interpersonal and intrapsychic situations are organized in that neuropsychic structure built in our emotional brain, that constitute our individual sexual dimension. When his unconscious work occurs, our emotional brain gives orders to our body and genitalia.
This “lecture” is transformed and this transformation is transmitted to consciousness as a particular sensorial pleasure. Physical functioning of organs is not the cause, but the effect of an emotion. Its arousal is quite individual. Nobody has same brain as another person, nobody has a sexuality as another person. A concept like “normal sexuality” does not make sense. Therefore, sexuality represents an unconscious aspect of personality – that regards mind and life experiences – that is presented as a bodily automatic functioning. The misleading ideas that people have about sexuality are due to the unconscious functioning of sexuality, which can be otherwise perceived by our consciousness.
In the book the Authors describe neuroscience, psychoanalysis and experimental psychological researches, which occurred in the last decades, in order to underline how current opinion and literature about sex may be far from a scientific view of sexuality.
Psychoanalisis, in its most recent development concerning Relationship and Attachment Theory, is used to explain, both the variety of sexual behaviors, and cultural historical, mythological, anthropological literature, which was produced worldwide in the past and in the present time.
Neurosciences and experimental and clinical psychology sciences demonstrated that human sexuality does not function by physiological automatisms like stomach or liver. It is instead the somatic expression of an emotion, which happeans in the brain and which is primarily unconscious. Human sexuality origins in the emotional brain when it reads some external or internal circumstances as erotic according with its individual memories (“implicit memory”). Each brain developed its functional maturation by its learning from individual experiences, chiefly that neonatal and infant ones: so nobody has a brain equal to another, nobody has the same mind and each person has its own sexuality.
Notwithstanding scientific progress popular culture is still quite different, nor medical culture is updated. Our book may be useful to sexuologists, psychologists, physicians, educational and social workers, and students, or other scholars who are interested in the topic. Many psychological, anthropological, social and educational considerations can arise if we compare what we now scientifically known about human sexuality and what popular (and sometimes medical) culture thinks and conwequently people behave.”
http://www.imbasciati.it/en/home.aspx?codice=0000000112
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August 30, 2015 at 10:08 pm
[…] of sexual orientation. And sexual orientation is not something that is fixed and unchanging, but changes over […]
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