One constant of the human condition is that we're always trying to work out what we agree

on as a culture. Those things that are left over, that we obviously cannot agree on, end

up being the things that divide us up into tribes. One of these is homosexuality. Some

of us consider it natural and perfectly okay, and some of us find that it violates our

particular religious principles. And it's from this battlefield that has arisen the

specter of programs designed to quote, cure homosexuality as if it's a disease. What

does the science have to say on these? Curing gaze is today unskeptoid.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. Curing gaze. Today

we're going to point the skeptical eye at therapies designed to convert homosexuals

into heterosexuals. Such programs make headlines pretty frequently for their controversial

nature, with proponents positioning it as an important spiritual or psychological healing,

and opponents charging it with being misguided, unscientific, insulting, ineffective, and

completely unnecessary. Some of the answers depend on your point of view, but others can

be answered for certain with sound science. This is one of those issues that has all

sorts of philosophical moral and religious facets. Those are all valid debates, but here

on Skeptoid, we leave those to others. Today, we're going to focus on just the science.

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