Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Richard A. Cohen (Author), Laura C. Schlessinger (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this self-help book, which contains a foreword by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, ex-gay therapist Cohen (the author of Alfie's Home, a children's book about a sexually abused boy) writes for gays and lesbians who want to transition to heterosexuality. His comprehensive, well-written, well-organized, and heavily referenced guide views homosexuality as a symptom of disrupted affiliation with the same-sex parent and incomplete feelings of maleness/femaleness, building on the psychological theories of Joseph Nicolosi and Elizabeth Moberly. At least 30 ex-gay platform books are in print, most religious but some primarily psychological see the web site of Exodus/Regeneration Books (www.exodusnorthamerica/org/resources) and NARTH, Nicolosi's organization (www.narth.com). Cohen's approach is sympathetic and rational and leans mostly on psychosocial factors, but he also assumes nondenominational religious affiliation. The ex-gay movement is highly controversial and its activities considered both damaging and misleading by many medical and psychological professional groups and by most gay/lesbian rights proponents. This book is thus recommended for libraries with large gender collections covering different perspectives, which should also stock Calculated Compassion: How the Ex-Gay Movement Serves the Right's Attack on Democracy (a report from Political Research Associates, 1998), Finally Free: Personal Stories; How Love and Self-Acceptance Saved Us from "Ex-Gay" Ministries (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2000), and Mel White's Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America (S. & S., 1994). Martha Cornog, Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gay activists' remonstrations have made therapy intended to make homosexuals heterosexual newsworthy and, they hope, notorious. To read ex-gay counselor Cohen is to wonder why they don't adopt a live-and-let-live stance. Yes, Cohen believes homosexuality is not inborn but the result of emotional traumas and developmental miscues in childhood that can be countered effectively by the therapeutics he lays out in the book's big second part and endorses with patient success stories. But in the third, concluding part, he writes that homophobia must be healed, too, and that homosexuals who don't want to shouldn't be coerced to change; rather, families and friends should continue in loving relationship with them, hoping for change. As an ex-gay, he acknowledges the truth in many homosexual advocates' complaints, and as a Christian, he pleads personal and social compassion for gays. Call this stance mistaken, especially since it is based in part on social science as dubious as the gay-supportive studies Cohen debunks. It isn't malicious. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: OakHill Press; illustrated edition edition (April 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886939411
• ISBN-13: 978-1886939417
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (172 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #624,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars false advice from someone who's not a doctor, November 23, 2008

By	Jo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality (Paperback)

He's not a doctor, he's not licensed, and he has no real qualifications. The assertions he makes in this book are not based on science, they're based on his disturbed view of the world.

Some of his advice, including holding the gay "sufferer" around his lap and cuddling with them, are um......just a little bit gay.

Other advice includes punching a pillow like a 3 year old.

This man is just completely unqualified to make the statements he does about sexual orientation, and most of the statements go against all the available science out there.

54 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tons of Assumptions Undermine Credibility, July 9, 2000

By	Tim Myrrh (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality (Hardcover)

I think that this book can be interesting for those who are curious about homosexuality, but the book is subject to a ton of assumptions that make it necessary to keep your wits about you as you read.

If you're reading it for yourself or because of someone else, be sure to read a copy of "Stranger at the Gate" by Mel White as well: if you really want information on all sides of the question, White's book is an important component to keep in mind.

Like many people, I have heard press reports and read longer studies about the genetic factor in homosexuality. No one has found a "gay gene" per se--but keep in mind that there are very few human characteristics that have *one* gene associated with them. Even something as simple-seeming as eye color is determined by at least ten different genes. Thus, while no published study has actually identified a "gay gene," *all* the studies point to a strong genetic factor. Cohen and pro-Cohen reviewers of this book make claims like "researchers have shyed away from a genetic factor": this is meant to confuse you. It's true that researchers shy away from a *single* "gay gene," but no scientific researcher looking at evidence out there would say that there no genetic component. I have to say that Cohen's skewed presentation of the facts on this issue is disturbing and makes me wonder why he's trying to hide obvious and readily accessible information.

Cohen's counterexplanations for the origins of homosexuality, explaining why people are gay, are even more poorly supported by scientific research out there. Again, he presents the information in such a way as to confuse the reader--it would have been more honest to admit that his anecdotes and explanations lack the same rigorous testing that other more widely accepted explanations do.

I have been a Christian counselor for over fifteen years. I read this book hopeful it would provide insights, but I have been extremely disappointed in the skewed nature and evasive tactics Cohen uses to "support" his points. This is not as much a guide to therapy or counseling as it is a personal biography of Cohen's experience--which by all accounts has been *highly* unusual. His guidelines for the self-therapy he proposes will not work for the vast majority of people (if not all people): and that's the voice of experience. His assumptions are in many cases faulty.

Cohen is tackling a controversial subject, indeed, but he has been less courageous than evasive. His appearances in interviews on TV, etc., indicate to me that he has ulterior motives in publicizing this book (money? notariety?).

His faulty reasoning, evasive content, and dishonest presentation about the status of scientific research on homosexuality all have lead me to the conslusion that this book is "quacky." My final recommendation: not worth reading.

37 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gutsy and insightful, July 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality (Hardcover)

As a happily married man who knows what it is like to have struggled with unwanted homosexual attractions, I felt like Cohen's book was remarkably insightful, refreshingly sane and took a lot of guts to write, given the culture. His description of the underlying wounds and needs fit me to a T; I felt like Cohen really understood me. The path towards healing and maturity he described is not sugar-coated; he tells the hard but doable truth that I affirm based on what I have found, largely by trial and error, to be what works. Reading this book is like meeting a wise friend who has pioneered ahead of you the road you need to go and is willing to explain it and stand by you. A tremendously enlightening book, challenging yet comforting at the same time. Also a badly needed contribution to the whole homosexual conversation.