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Sexual reorientation had traditionally been an evangelical idea found in ex-gay ministries, who preached that homosexuality could be prayed away. Their views didn't enjoy a great deal of credibility in the 1990s. Along with Drs Jeffrey Satinover, Richard Fitzgibbons and Irving Bieber, all have published or contributed to books about reparative therapy, and claim that at least a third of all clients can be completely cured of their homosexuality. Narth's membership includes a former president of the American Mental Health Counsellors' Association and university clinical professors of psychiatry Charles Socarides, Dean Byrd and Benjamin Kaufman. As president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (Narth), Nicolosi devised a programme of reparative therapy - sometimes known as conversion or reorientation therapy - and built up an international network of therapists who provide this treatment. Nearly 20 years later, Nicolosi founded an organisation for psychiatrists and psychologists who still rejected that 1973 decision, and believed homosexuals could and should be cured.
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It was removed from the national register of mental illnesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), in 1973, following pressure from gay activists. Homosexuality has not been classified as a mental illness in America for more than 30 years. This," he reminds them, "by the way, is non-religious, non-political information. 'Homosexual' is simply a description of a psychological disorder, prompted by an inner sense of emptiness. Some of you may have a homosexual problem. "There is no such thing as a homosexual," the chief speaker, a clinical psychologist called Dr Joseph Nicolosi, assures his audience.
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If you want to be saved, find a therapist. There are five Love Won Out conferences every year in the US and, although they are church-based, their message is expressed not in scripture but in the language of science.
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Throughout the day, a series of men and women introduce themselves on stage as "ex-gays" and tell of their personal journey out of homosexuality into heterosexual happiness, a transition they attribute to psychological insight and biological truth. It has a name - same-sex attraction disorder, or SSAD - and a cure - reparative therapy. They are told that homosexuality is not a sexual identity, but a developmental disorder. People have come from as far as New York and California, and what everyone wants to hear is Love Won Out's magical promise: that homosexuality can be cured. Others are here because - as one seminar title puts it - "Someone I Love Is Gay". Some are here because of the devastating incompatibility of their religious faith and their sexual feelings. It is a modern building of chocolate brown brick, closer in style and scale to a convention centre than a place of worship. The Love Won Out conference is taking place in a Baptist church beside a busy freeway. Together they have brought Drew all the way from Indiana to Nashville, Tennessee, because last October Drew - only 18 years old and the darling of the family - told them he was gay. So are his grandparents, Chuck and Carol. Drew's uncle and aunt, Rich and Susan, are here, too. Here are his father, Randy, and his mother, Shavon. Drew Sermon's family drove for seven hours to be here.