A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality

Rating:
Summary: Disgusting
Review: I can't believe one would want to actually, seriously, follow this book.
Things like this just help spread hate and discrimination. If you are a parent, just accept your kids, and don't bother with this.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to understand reviews.
Review: I'm having trouble understanding how many people reviewing this book are giving it 5 stars; saying it has helped their children etc... However, you go on to say that you would "Love your children regardless" and yet you use this "tool" to "prevent homosexuality." I'm having trouble understanding why you say its "OK" but would take so many steps to prevent homosexuality.
You try so hard to fit your child into the stereotypical "All American" boy. Life is not perfect. Reading this book will not adjust your family into that stereotype either.
Shame on you for trying to push your children into that stereotype as well.
What if it isn't a choice?
Just for a moment- imagine that, imagine that it is not a choice.
Then how much harder do you think you will make it for your son to come out?

Wisdom comes suddenly.

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: Haven't read the book, but if the author's theory is that: "We are gay because of a disruption in our relationship with our same-sex parent, which causes a gender dysphoria and incomplete sense of maleness/femaleness" then all I would have to say, is that would mean that everyone who comes from a one parent household where the parent is the opposite sex from the child, would have to be gay, which is, of course, utter rubbish....

Rating:
Summary: Acceptance, Acceptance, Acceptance!!
Review: Perhaps one should concentrate on accepting the children in this world regardless of their ethnicity, disabilities, sexual orientation,etc. rather than disguise homophobia in the form of a book aimed at "preventing" homosexuality. You can prevent homosexuality to the extent that you can prevent someone from being born of a particular ethnicity or of a particular gender. I can only hope that the author of this book has children or grandchildren that are homosexual.

Rating:
Summary: Treatment condemned by medical community
Review: The science behind this book is out of date at best; at worst, it is a misrepresentation which conflicts with the published, expert opinion of every major medical and mental health organization in the United States. In response to the confusion and lack of accurate information on the subject, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, Interfaith Alliance Foundation, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association formed the "Just the Facts Coalition." They developed and endorsed the publication "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel" in 1999.

The primer says, in part:

"The most important fact about 'reparative therapy,' also sometimes known as 'conversion' therapy, is that it is based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers, together representing more than 477,000 health and mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and thus there is no need for a 'cure.'

"...health and mental health professional organizations do not support efforts to change young people's sexual orientation through 'reparative therapy' and have raised serious concerns about its potential to do harm."

The primer includes a number of quotations from major professional organizations about reparative therapy and other methods of attempting to change individual's sexual orientation. One example is the American Academy of Pediatrics, which stated: "Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation."

This book perpetuates prejudice and bias under the guise of medical opinion. Readers should be warry of any expert whose opinions have been so strongly denounced by the major professional organizations of his field. I would suggest anyone looking into the subject check out the websites of any of the organizations listed above for more balanced information.


Rating:
Summary: A how-to guide for married misery
Review: First of all, I'm ashamed that so many of the one-star reviewers here don't seem to have actually read the book, but instead are relying on hearsay and name calling. I've read the book extensively, and it's quite easy to condemn on its own merits.

The bottom line of what Nicolosi theorizes: We are gay because of a disruption in our relationship with our same-sex parent, which causes a gender dysphoria and incomplete sense of maleness/femaleness.

And this is garbage. Yes, one might say my relationship with my father was not as warm and close as with my mother, and I did indeed turn out gay. Yet in the very same household, my sister was openly combative with my mother from an extremely young age, and she is a raging heterosexual.

Furthermore, my best male friend has a father who rarely, if ever spoke at the home, and spent 45 weeks a year out on the road as a traveling salesman. This friend turned out heterosexual, and maintains an excellent relationship with his very smart, with-it wife.

I know of very few men, gay or straight, who have warm'n'cuddly relationships with their fathers. Of all my friends, the two who have always been closest with their dads are both -- wait for it -- gay themselves.

Nicolosi has developed all his techniques with that unique subset of gay people who are so mentally anguished at their homosexuality that they would do anything to "get over" it. These self-selected subjects are in absolutely no way representative as a sample of the larger gay population.

This is the main reason his work is utterly invalid as science. You cannot develop a psychological treatment for such an amorphous condition as homosexuality, and you can't claim success when the people who came to you desperate for a treatment claim to be cured! There's no "gay test," and many prominent ex-gays have reverted back to their true nature. If the poster boys (John Paulk) can't keep on the straight and narrow, wouldn't you think this is darned good evidence that the "cure" doesn't work?

Who's to say your willowy, feminine son is going to be gay, or your tool-wielding daughter is going to turn out a lesbian?

The sleazy video booths and rest stops of this nation are crawling with homosexual men who have gotten married, then freaked out when they realize they're never going to have any of the physical components that every human being needs. They then go out for no-strings, anonymous gay sex...and often end up bringing bugs back home to the unsuspecting wife.

I went through Nicolosi-style treatment myself, which resulted in a 3-year marriage to a woman whom I genuinely did love intellectually...but who did nothing for me on a deep emotional and physical level. Luckily for me, my absolute inability to satisfy her physical needs led her to leave me. Yes, it was the most difficult time in my life, far worse than acknowledging my own homosexuality as a teenager. But it was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

You simply cannot imagine the feeling of being trapped in a sham marriage, especially when you actually have deep feelings for the woman you are binding to yourself.

Sorry, Mr. Nicolosi, but spending time playing football with your kid isn't going to help "fix" him. I skateboarded, rode BMX and climbed trees with the best of them when I was 7. Whatever caused it, it's still part of me, and this ridiculous "cure" isn't going to help.

Rating:
Summary: Genetic or Psychological?
Review: I commend Dr. Nicolosi for writing this book. It will be a huge help to many parents who wish to help their child discover their true sexuality and not be persuaded to follow the notion that homosexuality is valid.

Two recent studies have come out showing that there is truth in that homosexuality can be overcome. First, the original study that purported to show that homosexuality was genetic was flawed. The doctor conducting the study used a very small test group (I believe it was 13 candidates) which would not allow you to take an accurate statistical sampling. Secondly, another doctor recently followed his notes and testing procedures and came up with the conclusion that there is no basis for believing that a "gay" gene exists.

Secondly, the doctor who harranged the American Psychiatry Institution to remove homosexuality as a disorder, recently (roughly in May/June 2004) published a study he had just concluded that homosexuality reparitive therapy does work. It's not 100% affective, but then again, neither are most therapies when it comes to some addiction, for instance substance abuse. (No, I'm not comparing homosexuality to substance abuse, I'm trying to show the less than 100% affectiveness in therapies).

So read this book, learn it, use it with your children, regardless if they have "decided" they are homosexual now or to prevent it from happening in the future.

Above all, love your children. Regardless of the outcome, love them.

I would not condone nor accept their life style should they choose to head down that path, but they are still my children and deserving of my love. The old axium of "hate the sin, love the sinner" fits always.