CNN: Is there a need for a gay cure?

In a controversial segment [1] aired Tuesday, news anchor Kyra Phillips explores the question of whether there is a need to cure homosexuality.

Rep. Bonnie Lowenthal, the California assemblywoman advocating for the repeal of a law requiring health professionals to seek a cure for gays, debated the issue with ex-gay Richard Cohen. Interesting fact: Neither guest is gay.

[2]

Lowenthal mentions the law was created at a time when homosexuality was officially a mental disorder. “It has been on the books for 60 years and is quite useless and rather offensive to many, including myself,” she said on CNN.

Cohen is the author of “Coming Out Straight” and claims to be a psychotherapist. He was expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for what the Washington Post [3]called “multiple ethics violations.”

Cohen argues that California’s existing law seeking to cure homosexuals actually is a good thing because it forces studies of sexual predators which he sites as a reason people go gay.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHgJbjIXw8g&feature=player_embedded
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-gay-cure-top.jpg
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/15/AR2005081501063.html

Why women are leaving men for other women

Lately, a new kind of sisterly love seems to be in the air. In the past few years, Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon left a boyfriend after a decade and a half and started dating a woman (and talked openly about it).

Actress Lindsay Lohan and DJ Samantha Ronson flaunted their relationship from New York to Dubai. Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” topped the charts. “The L Word,” “Work Out,” and “Top Chef” are featuring gay women on TV, and there’s even talk of a lesbian reality show in the works.

Certainly nothing is new about women having sex with women, but we’ve arrived at a moment in the popular culture when it all suddenly seems almost fashionable — or at least, acceptable.

Statistics on how many women have traded boyfriends and husbands for girlfriends are hard to come by. Although the U.S. Census Bureau keeps track of married, divorced, single, and even same-sex partners living together, it doesn’t look for the stories behind those numbers.

But experts like Binnie Klein, a Connecticut-based psychotherapist and lecturer in Yale’s department of psychiatry, agree that alternative relationships are on the rise.

“It’s clear that a change in sexual orientation is imaginable to more people than ever before, and there’s more opportunity — and acceptance — to cross over the line,” says Klein, noting that a half-dozen of her married female patients in the past few years have fallen in love with women. “Most are afraid that if they don’t go for it, they’ll end up with regrets.” http://CNN.com

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-women-are…

Healthy Gay Relationships: Ken Howard Gives Tips for Relationship Success at Annual Gay Men’s Forum

With over 17 years of experience providing gay men with couples counseling, gay-specialist, psychotherapist Ken Howard, LCSW will be taking care of his own in his home town this weekend as a featured therapist who will discuss various topics of interest to gay men living in the City of West Hollywood. The second-annual City-sponsored Gay Men’s Forum will be held on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at Plummer Park.
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West Hollywood, CA — The Gay Men’s Forum is a free, day-long event will focus on the theme: “Where We’ve Been. Where We Are. Where We’re Heading” and will include contemporary experiences of gay men, panel discussions featuring a range of perspectives from the gay community, special performances and interactive workshops.

Ken Howard, LCSW will be participating in the discussion: “Love & Its Opposite: A Discussion on the Differences Between Healthy & Unhealthy Relations” with fellow colleagues including, Tyrone Carter, Ian Stulberg, LCSW and Andrew Susskind, LCSW; the Q&A will be moderated by Christian Antonio Calle of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center.

Howard has extensive experience in counseling the gay male community (and lesbian and straight couples) on how to achieve healthy and satisfying relationships. Throughout the years he has worked with a variety of couples who have sought his guidance on topics including “how to have an open relationship without hurt feelings”, “being serodiscordant (one HIV-positive, one HIV-negative), managing stress, and older-younger relationships. He teaches communication skills using the Imago Couples Dialogue, pioneered by Harville Hendrix. His long-list of testimonials from happy couples provides countless examples of those who have turned his philosophy and guidance into real-life skills and solutions, often preventing breakups.

The forum is being held in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, community organizations and the City’s Social Services Division.

The GAY MEN’S FORUM: Dialogue and Workshops will be held at Fiesta Hall at Plummer Park on Saturday, May 2, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood. The event is free.

To RSVP, please call (323) 848-6381. For more information, please contact Corey Roskin, Hernan Molina or Larissa Fooks at (323) 848-6460. For the deaf and hard of hearing, please call (323) 848-6496.

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Transexual lesbian loses party bias case

A TRANSEXUAL lesbian banned from attending an all-female party has had her discrimination case thrown out.

Dr Tracie O’Keefe lost her three-year battle this week, after the Equal Opportunity Tribunal ruled the organisers of “Sappho’s Party” – an all-lesbian event held in Adelaide – were within their rights to refuse her entry.

The Sydney psychotherapist wrote to organisers in 2005 after she was handed a flyer advertising the Adelaide Hills party.

“I am someone who has lived as a woman for 35 years and considered in my country of origin, England, and my adopted country, Australia, as legally female,” Dr O’Keefe wrote.

“Although initially I was raised as a boy, I have lived as a female since I was 15 years old, where I was still legally a child, therefore I was raised both male and female. I would like to come to your event with my long-term female partner of 12 years.”

But a reply sent to Dr O’Keefe refused her request. “. . . this event is specifically being organised for those lesbians raised female from birth who feel the need to meet as a specific group,” organisers wrote.

“Our intention is affirmative action for this group. Therefore it is not appropriate for you to attend.”

See Transexual lesbian loses party bias case

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