Iowa Liberal

Richard A. Cohen bills himself as a “sexual orientation expert”. He works under the auspices of the International Healing Foundation, a nonprofit and tax-exempt organization founded by him in 1990 to “treat” same-sex attraction. His is not a licensed therapist. He avoids state licensing requirements by asking for donations to his foundations instead of payment. Cohen has been permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association after repeated ethics violations. To provide the illusion of authority he uses the work of Paul Cameron as “scientific” backing for his premises. If you haven’t already heard of him, here’s some information about expert Dr. Cameron:

• On December 2, 1983, the American Psychological Association sent Paul Cameron a letter informing him that he had been dropped from membership. Early in 1984, all members of the American Psychological Association received official written notice that “Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists” by the APA Board of Directors.
• At its membership meeting on October 19, 1984, the Nebraska Psychological Association adopted a resolution stating that it “formally disassociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality.”
• In 1985, the American Sociological Association (ASA) adopted a resolution which asserted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” and noted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research.” The American Sociological Association officially and publicly states that Paul Cameron is not a sociologist, and condemns his consistent misrepresentation of sociological research.
• In August, 1996, the Canadian Psychological Association adopted the following policy statement: The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality.

Cameron also runs a non-profit organization called the Family Research Institute that is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FRI receives funds via non disclosed private donations and refuses to allow peer review of their “research” which invariably concludes that homosexuality is a sickness and that homosexuals themselves are unrepentant pedophiles and disease carriers that should be isolated and even branded for identification purposes.

Maddow does a terrific job of detailing how beyond Cohen’s anecdotal statements about being a “cured” homosexual he has a complete lack of credibility or credentials and regardless of the “loving and caring” spin he wants to put on it, his junk science is lending credibility to those that wish to not only deprive homosexuals of their basic civil rights but actually kill them.

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-mg

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