Slate's Bizbox
hey, wait a minute: The conventional wisdom debunked.

Gay for GoodCan straight guys become happy homosexuals?

By Jefferson Morley
Posted Wednesday, May 30, 2001, at 9:00 PM ET
Illustration by Robert Neubecker

"Most mental-health organizations have passed resolutions discouraging the use of so-called reparative therapies intended to change homosexuals into heterosexuals, saying no scientific evidence exists to show they are effective."—New York Times, May 9, 2001

To people who say that psychotherapy cannot change a person's sexual orientation, Dr. Rafe Da Vinci of Miami Beach says, "Numbers aren't straight or queer, they're clear. And the numbers show that therapy can change orientation, especially among men."

Da Vinci, a veteran psychiatrist with a booming practice in a Collins Avenue high-rise, is attracting growing attention in the debate about so-called "reparative therapies" that seek to change a person's sexual orientation. Doctors, gay rights activists, and others who say that sexual orientation is determined early in life have questioned claims that people with homosexual tendencies can overcome them via psychotherapy. Da Vinci's practice focuses on an oft-neglected group at the heart of this debate: straight men who wish to become gay.

"Survey data from submarines, discos, and prisons show that anywhere from 9 to 23 percent of males say they have a desire to become gay," Da Vinci said in a recent interview. "I think we have shown that these same men, if they commit themselves to an intensive course of therapy, can become happy homosexuals."

Heterosexual rights activists have questioned Da Vinci's data and criticized his politics, saying that his practice stigmatizes perfectly normal straight people and exploits their feelings of shame and guilt. Critics also allege that Da Vinci supported a resolution at the 1978 American Congress of Psychotherapists defining heterosexuality as a "uniquely vexing condition." The motion was narrowly defeated. Da Vinci denies any intention of fomenting intolerance of the straight lifestyle, saying that he was married to his third wife at the time.

Bearded, avuncular, and outspoken, Da Vinci has attracted hundreds of clients from all over south Florida with a controversial counseling regimen that includes group discussions about how best to cope with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. There are also frequent trips to Dean & DeLuca and a reading list that includes Remembrance of Things Past, Dennis Rodman's memoirs, and The Seven Habits of Highly Homosexual People.

"In Freudian terms, we seek to reverse the Oedipal cycle, transferring the object identification with the unrealizable female Other into a more cognitive attachment to a responsible male, preferably one with a BMW," Da Vinci explained.

Originally a skeptic about reparative therapies, Da Vinci now says he is a believer.

"The non-straight heterosexual can reconcile his value system and his orientation," he says. "I've seen it happen in my office."

Da Vinci's latest book, Going Gay (Gomorrah Press), is now ranked 14,342 on the Amazon.com best-seller list and is climbing rapidly. His claims of success, while hotly disputed by heterosexual rights activists, are beginning to receive respectful coverage in professional journals. Last year Da Vinci published a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Gendered Genetics that is stirring debate on the Internet and on talk radio shows in some parts of Western Australia.

Out of 111 men who had undergone his "Gay for Good" course of therapy for at least a year, Da Vinci reported that 29 said that they no longer had sexual fantasies involving Rachel from Friends. An additional 21 men reported that while they still hoped to date Anna Kournikova someday, they were "somewhat happier" with their homosexual lifestyle. Da Vinci acknowledges that a slight majority of the men, 55 in total, reverted back to a straight lifestyle. Six of the reversion group, he noted, had committed suicide.

"Clearly, this therapy isn't for everybody," Da Vinci said.

The most common motivating factors cited by men who want to become gay, according to Da Vinci's survey, were "morality" (58 percent), "better clothes" (39 percent), and "more quality time at the gym" (28 percent).

"A lot of these guys say they deeply believe that it's just not right to get into a reproductive relationship in an era of dwindling natural resources," Da Vinci said. "Others want to uphold the moral values exemplified by Western thinkers from Socrates to Allan Bloom."

Da Vinci expressed surprise that among the motivations of those seeking to stay gay for good, "more sexual partners" only barely edged out "less watching of football" (22 percent to 21 percent). He said older patients in his study group most often cited "live like Cary Grant" (11 percent) and "a lot more sexual partners" (9 percent) as reasons for leaving the straight lifestyle. Younger clients spoke of "increased opportunities for meeting Ricky Martin in person" (5 percent).

Garth LeBouche, executive director of the Straight Support Network, a heterosexual activist group based in Arlington, Texas, decried Da Vinci's claims as "agenda-driven."

He criticized Da Vinci's reports about heterosexual suicide. According to published interviews, two of the men cited in Da Vinci's study had not committed suicide but had perished from heat exhaustion at a PTA meeting. A third fatality, LeBouche said, had strangled on a Happy Meal toy while playing with his 4-year-old son.

"Do those sound like men who died unhappy about their heterosexuality?" LeBouche said in a telephone interview. "Only an intolerant extremist would say such a thing."

LeBouche praised the recent decision of the Bush administration to reverse an executive order issued by President Clinton on his last day in office that would have included "Gay for Good" on a list of reparative therapies paid for by the U.S. Navy's health plan.

"This crazy notion that we can talk people into loving someone else should not be financed by the U.S. taxpayer," LeBouche said.

Da Vinci, a registered Republican who voted for McCain, says he regrets the administration's decision but will not contest it.

"Ending coverage will most likely hurt unit morale. On those submarines where the presence of straight people may be perceived by homosexuals as incompatible with tradition, the Gay for Good program helped some sailors fit in. Now, unhappy heterosexuals, who I suspect voted overwhelmingly for Bush, will have nowhere to turn. It's sad."

The tanned and buff doctor scoffs at published reports in the gay press that he is a closet heterosexual. He says that he and his longtime spiritual companion of three weeks, physical trainer Ferdinand Mateo of Brazil, are now seeking to develop conversion therapy for women.

"Our research," Da Vinci says, "suggests that up to 72 percent of all adult females say that heterosexual men are either emotionally unavailable, financially untrustworthy, sexually selfish, hygienically challenged, prone to illusions of grandeur, or all of the above. If we can help millions of women to become lesbians, we think that would probably be a net plus for human happiness."

Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Jefferson Morley is a Washington writer.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Reader Comments From The Fray:



[Notes from the Fray Editor: Whit, in a post titled "Swift-Wells Syndrome," said: "After reading some of the posts responding to this piece, I can see how War of the Worlds and A Modest Proposal could have caused such outrage." Some of the posters who understood the article still had serious points to make--or jokes in a few cases--and some great threads developed from the following posts:]





The central conceit is wrong. We're supposed to think: "Let's be fair, and turn the tables! Imagine if straights tried to become gay! How silly! Those silly Christians really should think what this 'conversion' stuff implies!"



But of course, people 'convert' from straight to gay all the time. Many people live seemingly comfortable heterosexual lives, then come to believe that their sexual identity is quite different. Perhaps we want to say that these people were gay 'all along'--but surely it would be churlish to assume that all their prior heterosexual attractions were insincere or false. Moreover, some people change orientation more than once. I don't understand the drive to dogmatically assert that sexual orientation is inevitably fixed from birth. Many people may indeed be wired this way, but there are clearly others for whom sexual orientation remains remarkably plastic. Why is this such a problem?



--Daily Analyst



(To reply, click here.)





The real forgotten group are those people who hover near the middle. Many of these people venture back and forth between heterosexual sex and homosexual sex (sex and sexuality are the animus and anima). A person might not be "totally straight", or "totally gay", yet still prefer one sex over the other. Or a person may prefer not to have any preference, opting to take whatever good comes along, and be Happy for Life.



--Tony Adragna



(To reply, click here.)





As a supporter of gay rights, I'm totally exasperated with the gay rights community for its reliance on the supposed biologically deterministic nature of sexual orientation. Elevating this to something that acts as a fundamental justification for a moral position is a critical error… In fighting these battles, gay rights activists are ceding a great deal of moral ground to the enemy. Pushing for tolerance on the basis of biological determinism, fighting against the reactionary conversion movement on the basis of biological determinism--both are rather weak attacks on the periphery. Let's go to the heart of the matter: there's nothing wrong with gay sex.



--Keith M. Ellis



(To reply, click here.)







I liked the article, but I'm shocked that the author left out the ground-breaking work of the chairman of Pepperdine's Department of Conservative Anthropology, Dr. Isadore Korinsky. Korinsky, as we all know, postulated a link between loud denunciations of the gay life style and secret fantasies about it. By applying this theory, he was able to assist numerous straight people on the road to a fulfilling gay lifestyle by simply encouraging them to engage in hypocritical and obsessive posturing about its purported sinfulness.



--Thrasymachus



(To reply, click here.)





That was humorous but overdone. The point I suppose is to turn the question around in an attempt to make the concept look foolish…[But] I think it possible but not common for Gays to become Straight and vice versa. I think it shows something we already know (people and behavior can change but such change is often difficult without reinforcement). I also think none of this matters one whit to public policy. Gay or Straight, changeable or not, all Americans have the same rights and those same rights deserve the same protection. Such subjects regarding human behavior are interesting but simply don't matter to public policy



--Michael Murray



(To reply, click here.)





I was recently involved in a "dyke comedy" student film called Jayne's World, in which the protagonist runs a lesbian cable-acess show like Wayne's World. In one installment, the protagonist dresses up like a psychiatrist and interviews a dog who has undergone reparative therapy so that he could give up his doggy lifestyle and live the life of a bunny rabbit. The dog (sporting bunny ears) was fabulous! It was a biting criticism, softened with humor.



--Mangar



(To reply, click here.)



(5/31)



Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
A Grand Tour
David Broder | While the stars align for Obama, McCain is looking like the odd-man-out on foreign policy.
Annette Heuser: A Honeymoon