AP Dispatch Spikes Conservatives in Gay Therapy Story (Updated)

August 8th, 2009 8:04 AM

Associated Press reporter David Crary reported on Wednesday that the American Psychological Association voted 125 to 4 to repudiate "reparative therapy" to reorient homosexuals as unscientific and even harmful. But that was a more balanced vote than the AP article that appeared in many papers and websites, in which Crary couldn't find a single conservative voice -- even if the losing opinion was repeatedly identified as conservative, and the winning side drew no label at all.

In a resolution adopted by the APA's governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of "reparative therapy" — a concept espoused by a small but persistent group of therapists, often allied with religious conservatives, who maintain gays can change.

Crary explicitly set up the conflict as religious conservatives versus "mental health professionals," which would suggest the conservatives aren't professionals, they're quacks:

Judith Glassgold, a Highland Park, N.J., psychologist who chaired the task force, said she hoped the document could help calm the polarized debate between religious conservatives who believe in the possibility of changing sexual orientation and the many mental health professionals who reject that option.

Crary also failed to balance the story with the recent case of  Kerry Pacer, the lesbian Person of the Year now living with a man.

CORRECTION: My original draft suggested David Crary excluded all conservatives and ex-gay therapists from his story. That's what I saw online and in the Rockford newspaper I read on vacation. Ironically, more thorough Googling finds a more thorough, slightly more balanced story at -- the blog Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida.