Kevin Kloosterman in The Advocate

Former LDS Bishop (and Peacewriter author) Kevin Kloosterman shared an op-ed piece in the The Advocate.  In the piece, he relates how a simple television show began to break down his preconceived opinions of LGBT people.  Wonderful read.
http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2012/07/13/former-mormon-bishop-says-queer-eye-changed-his-mind-lgbt-equality

When He Stopped Believing in the July Ensign

Please read this beautiful article.  I read this with tears, joyful tears that someone somewhere is listening.  The advice is simple: her spouse stopped believing.  The answer to her prayers came as "love him!  

I hope this is the beginning of a new climate of love and acceptance for mixed belief marriages in the Church.

This is a good day for the people struggling to make it work.   

LDS Therapists Should Abandon Harmful Ex-Gay, Conversion, Reparative and Re-Orientation Therapies

Paul’s story is not uncommon.  I have heard it dozens of times since I came out last year in support and advocacy of our LGBT sisters and brothers.  Paul did not choose to be gay.  In fact, he did everything that his church leaders counseled him to do including getting married.   He was told that getting married along with prayer and fasting, would take care of “the problem”.  Finding that marriage and “praying the gay away” did not turn him straight, Paul eventually had the heartbreaking talk that no spouse wants to hear.  His wife was understandably upset, shocked, and shaken.  She too had been conditioned to believe that these “tendencies” were a matter of will power and choice and could be simply corrected through referrals by leaders to marriage and family relations classes and “reparative therapy”.  As is most often the case, the result did not meet expectations and she blamed Paul for his inability to become heterosexual.  She began to withdraw her support, believing that he simply wasn’t motivated enough to change his sexual orientation.  They ended up divorcing and Paul began to be engulfed in feelings of self-hatred and self-loathing.  Feeling abandoned and increasingly isolated, depression escalated to the brink of Paul having suicidal thoughts and planning to take his own life.  Such is the case with many of our loved ones, friends, and neighbors who are LGBT.  Tragically many of them do end up taking their own lives.  In fact, LGBT individuals who face rejection from their families are shown to have significantly higher suicide rates.  Many LDS mental health professionals, such as myself, have come to realize that it is not the orientation of an individual that can cause depression and suicide but more often it is the rejection of family and community, as well as the homophobic rhetoric and actions of others that push many LGBT individuals to the brink.  But now new information has recently become available that has and will continue to radically change the therapeutic landscape.

A few weeks ago, Robert Spitzer, a prominent psychiatrist and researcher who authored a controversial study in 2001, apologized to the gay community.  His 2001 study on “reparative”, “conversion”, or so called “reorientation” models of therapy supported the notion of Paul, his wife, and many local church leaders, that LGBT individuals could indeed become straight through these models of therapy.  Although many researchers and therapists thought the study was already on shaky methodological ground to begin with, there were also many therapists, researchers, and authors on the subject of homosexuality and mental health who referred to this study as the definitive proof that such models were scientifically acceptable, ethical, and competent.  In many respects it was the keystone study that most non-affirming models of therapy relied on.   It turns out that Spitzer was wrong, his study was flawed, and in an unprecedented mea culpa he withdrew his support for his own study and has now apologized to the LGBT Community.  The last thread of competent scientific support for these models of therapy has been cut.

            To be fair to Spitzer, he is also notable for his bold efforts in 1973 to take homosexuality out of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) that mental health professionals use to diagnosis mental health disorders.  Spitzer should be credited for taking this important step.  However, many therapists and counselors were still slow to embrace this change and continued to see being LGBT as a mental health disorder that could be changed through counseling or as an addiction that could be managed.  With Spitzer’s notoriety and credentials as someone who clearly was not anti-gay, his 2001 study accelerated the use of “reparative” therapies.  Books were written.  Success stories were hailed.  Money was made off of the hope for a supposed cure or control for homosexuality.  Thankfully, Spitzer in the end did not want his legacy or his name tied to this movement.  Likewise, do we who are LDS mental health professionals want to be tied to a legacy of unfounded, non-evidence based models of treatment that are ineffective at best and at worst destructive to the mental and emotional well-being of LGBT individuals and their families?

In addition to Spitzer’s historic and monumental announcement, another study by Renee Galliher, Ph. D., John Dehlin, M.S., and Bill Bradshaw, Ph.D. has also come out showing empirical support that LGBT Mormons typically do not benefit from reparative therapy and many of them have in fact been harmed by those models.  The research is well worth reading and may be one of the first of its kind to assess the efficacy of different treatment modalities with the LGBT Mormon population.   Preliminary results of that study can be found here:   http://ldshomosexuality.com/wp-content/uploads/USU-LDS-SSA-Newsletter-v1.pdf

The Church Handbook of Instructions wisely advises ecclesiastical leaders to encourage members not to “use medical or health practices that are ethically or legally questionable” and instead encourage members “to consult with competent professional practitioners who are licensed  . . .” (CHI 2010, 17.2.6, pg. 162).  I can’t think of more ethically questionable models of therapy than ones that attempt to change orientation and are sometimes developed and run by unlicensed individuals.  I believe it is up to us as LDS mental health professionals to help educate the LDS Community to know what is helpful, ethical, competent, safe, and evidence based practice in mental health treatment for our friends and family members.  Promoting orientation as an “addiction” or telling individuals and families that non-credible treatment models are effective should not continue.

I believe we need to turn our backs on these models, as well as the equally ineffective or destructive view that somehow orientation itself is an addiction.  It is not unusual for LGBT Mormons to be referred to church sponsored addiction recovery groups and programs due to their orientation.  Like many other Mormon therapists have come to realize, I have found that there are more affirming models that will promote the mental and emotional well being of LGBT Mormons that are scientifically sound and also consistent with Christ-Centered principles.   I believe that 20-30 years from now the practice of reparative therapy for LGBT individuals will be viewed with ethical abhorrence in a similar way as we now look back at the eugenics movements of the early and mid twentieth century.

Thankfully, more affirming and evidence-based models of care for LGBT individuals and their families are being developed.  One of the most promising is the Family Acceptance Project developed by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her colleagues.  Their family support work is based on rigorous research with LGBT youth, young adults and families. Their studies are published in peer reviewed journals starting with the first study on family rejection -- published in the distinguished journal Pediatrics in 2009 -- that showed a clear link between parental and caregiver rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth with negative health outcomes such as drug use, depression, and suicide and HIV risk in young adulthood.  Thus, to a greater extent than was previously understood, the critical work that must be done is with the family and the community to help educate them on interactions that will be supportive and affirming.  For more information on The Family Acceptance Project and Dr. Caitlin Ryan’s research, please visit:  http://familyproject.sfsu.edu/.

Recognizing that spirituality can be one of many important protective factors against suicidal ideation, Dr. Ryan has attuned her work and research into being culturally sensitive to the religious and spiritual milieu of LGBT individuals and their families.  Her work will soon generate the first evidence - based education materials for LDS families with LGBT children followed by an education program specifically targeted and customized to the needs of LGBT Mormons and their families.   It is expected that her materials for Mormon families of LGBT individuals will start to be released in July 2012.

Educating families and other crucial members of an LGBT individuals’ support system may be one of our most important challenges and opportunities as LDS mental health professionals.  Families, school officials, community and church leaders need to know what interactions are potentially harmful and what interactions are helpful with our loved ones, students, and neighbors.  Knowing this could be a matter of life and death.  Many LDS therapists have already changed course and become more affirming of orientation in their practice.  These pioneering Mormon therapists search for safe pathways through a homophobic wilderness and a polarizing political, cultural, and religious climate.  LGBT Mormons are particularly vulnerable.  On one hand they hear loud angry voices telling them to leave their “hate filled” religion, and on the other hand religious, cultural, and political extremists in the church continue to use the church to promote fear, long dispelled myths about being gay, and even hateful words and actions towards LGBT Mormons.  Dr. Ryan’s evidence – based, competent research and compassionate family intervention approach will only bolster those therapist’s conceptual models and effectiveness in helping their LGBT clients navigate these challenges as well as the essential component of educating family members how to become a safe and protective shield for their loved ones against these angry voices.

Now more than ever before, competent, fair-minded, LDS mental health professionals need to protect the emotional and mental health of our LGBT clients and educate families, community, and church officials in the LDS Community.  I am confident that as LDS therapists take these steps, not only will we be more competent and effective in helping individuals such as Paul and his family members, but we will also help save lives.

Kevin Kloosterman, LMFT is a mental health professional in Illinois who works in an outpatient mental health hospital setting and in private practice.  He has been a licensed marriage and family therapist for 12 years and is an advocate and ally for LGBT individuals in and out of the church.