As a psychologist with over 25 years experience working with gay and lesbian clients and being an ex-leader of the “ex-gay” program Exodus, I was alarmed when reading Margaret Court’s most recent comments about homosexuality.

Given my professional experience I am aware of the potential psychological damage her statements are likely to have on some of the most vulnerable people in the community. Margaret Court has publicly stated that homosexuality is a result of childhood trauma. “We have them in our church”, she said. “I help them to overcome. We have people who have been homosexual who are now married.” These comments are not only based in inaccuracies, but are also quite dangerous.

Exodus International the Fundamentalist Christian peak ‘ex-gay’ organisation states on their website that homosexuality is a disorder and that re-orientation is possible.

However the President, Alan Chambers, was recently quoted as saying: “The majority of people that I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation or have got ten to a place where they could say that they could never be tempted or are not tempted in some way or experience some level of same-sex at traction.”

This statement echoes the American Psychological Association that believes, “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.” In my professional experience, those who marry and state this as evidence of complete sexual re-orientation, are of ten in a deep state of denial. From what I saw when a leader of Exodus, there is a significant level of psychological pressure for its members to demonstrate ultimate success through marriage and children.

There are many examples of families who have broken up in highly distressing circumstances as a result of this situation. When someone like Margaret Court states that same sex at traction is a result of childhood trauma, it infers that it can therefore be ‘healed’. This strongly suggests that homosexuality is a disorder and there is no psychological evidence to support this. The American Psychological Association states: “Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and the APA opposes all portrayals of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as mentally ill and in need of treatment due to their sexual orientation.” The main problem with what Court has said is that the vulnerable same-sex-attracted people who hear this will feel that there is something wrong with them and start looking for the traumas that caused them to become gay or lesbian. This can lead to self loathing and the assumption they are defective at a deep level. This is particularly damaging given that no matter how much ‘reparative therapy’ they do, there is no evidence that they are ever likely to change their orientation.

In fact at tempts to do so can lead to psychological harm similar to someone believing that being white skinned is a sign of childhood trauma and labelling them as a failure if they can’t change this. I’ve worked with many same sex attracted people who have gone through ex-gay programs including reparative therapy and they are some of the most damaged people I have ever worked with. This is saying something given that I’ve worked in a maximum security prison.
I urge Margaret Court to read valid, scientific literature on sexual orientation, and do what she can to ameliorate the psychological damage that her words are doing.

It doesn’t appear she has any intentional malice towards gay and lesbians. However she is certainly ignorant of the facts. Unfortunately this ignorance can lead to many people unnecessarily suffering psychological harm which can include depression, guilt, self loathing, beliefs of defectiveness and social exclusion. For some, Court’s words may be the final step to suicide.

Paul Martin is one of Australia’s leading LGBTI psychologists and a regular QNews contributor.