As far back as Kinsey, but more recently others as well have hypothesized a sort of "grey area" in which gender orientation is somewhat wavery. Not quite the same as "AC/DC" perhaps, but where the person can swing either way. Here, a "cure (?)" may be possible. But I posted a link on the Prop 8 thread (can't find the post where the link is right now, but I'll keep trying) to an article about a thoroughly peer-reviewed attempt to cure homosexuality through psychotherapy. It involved counseling, along with a lot of aversion therapy (electrically shocking the subject when they viewed "inappropriate" sex objects).

Results? I don't remember the exact figures, bit the study included 202 self-proclaimed homosexual men who, incidentally, said they wanted to be cured (self-selecting sample, perhaps?). Anyway, after treatment, the recidivism rate was something like 68%, some like 20% gave up sex entirely in favor of celibacy, none entered a heterosexual relationship, a substantial percentage of them (including some overlaps) became clinically depressed or developed other psychological problems, and six of them committed suicide.

The experiment was declared an abject failure.

I'll keep searching for the link (even if that is interpreted as my being "obsessed," but truly open, inquiring minds do want to know).

Don Firth

P. S. By the way, in my checkered but long career, I've met two people, one who said he had been gay, and another "ex-lesbian," who both claimed they were now cured ("being Saved" had something to do with it). If you think that ex-smokers are rabidly opposed to smoking, you ought to have met these folks! They absolutely raged and screamed and frothed at the mouth if the subject of homosexuality ever came up!

What was that Shakespeare quote about protesting too much?