August 15, 2012

In response to California State Senator Ted Lieu’s charge of widespread harm to minors from sexual orientation change efforts, NARTH president Christopher Rosik, Ph.D searched two science literature databases for evidence. One database PsycARTICLES searched journals related to psychology and the other MEDLINE searched 1470 medical journals. While Rosik found 15,806 articles under six search headings of children/adolescents/minors and cigarettes/alcohol, he only found four articles under eight headings of harm related to sexual orientation change efforts. Three of the four were not research related. The one article about harm was from two gay professionals whose research sought individuals who felt harmed by sexual orientation change efforts. That study did not distinguish between mental health professionals and unlicensed religious counselors. Rosik concluded that the Lieu’s charge of widespread harm represents rhetoric and not research. The full text can be found at “Complete Lack of a Scientific Basis.”