The UCLA “Sissy Boy Experiment”

Tonight (6/9/11) at 10pm EST, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 will air Part I of “The Sissy Boy Experiment”, a videography that catalogues the life of Kirk Murphy and the dangerous anti-gay therapy that drove him to suicide.

Unfortunately, fringe religious groups — and associated so-called scientists and doctors that endorse them — continue to espouse and propagate the lies that sexual orientation is learned and can be changed. Many lives have been destroyed at their hands yet they pummel onward with their deadly crusade. An example of their misinformation campaign can be found in my post, Fraudulent Representation of Medical Opinion by Fundie Quacks. The truth is that the bulk of scientific evidence continues to demonstrate that sexual orientation is innate and

“The nation’s leading professional medical, health, and mental health organizations do not support efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation through therapy and have raised serious concerns about the potential harm from such efforts.”
-American Psychological Association

For more information, check out my simplified introduction to gender and sexuality, What everyone should know about gender and sexuality. If you are someone like Kirk who feels tormented by your gender identity or sexual orientation, please know that you are not alone, that you do not have suffer alone and that things will get better. Please, please, PLEASE reach out for help if you are feeling depressed or suicidal. I highly recommend the following resources:

The Trevor Project – 24 hour help line, phone # 866.4.U.TREVOR (866.488.7386), http://www.thetrevorproject.org

The It Gets Better Project – Autovideography collection created to remind LGBT teenagers that they are not alone — and it WILL get better, http://www.itgetsbetter.org

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