Ben Levi:
1) “This was what you wrote
‘And to top it all off, the study was not peer-reviewed, as is standard, before being published. It’s no wonder Spitzer retracted’.
As I wrote that is a completely false statement.”
No, it’s not “completely false.” It is in fact true that the study was NOT peer reviewed before its initial publication. Yes, it was peer-reviewed AFTERWARDS and was then re-published…not that that helps your argument much, because a majority of the reviews were critical.
2) and 3) Yes, I understand what the goal of the study was, but when you set standards that are vague and employ methods that are not controlled, and then collect your “results” from asking people to remember things that they felt several years ago…well, you’ve so many variables in so many different categories that it’s hard to take any conclusions seriously. Also, I’m not sure what marriage therapy has to do with this, it’s a completely different field.
4) I don’t believe that you don’t know the meaning of “political agenda”. We’re not just talking about people who want help to treat a condition. We’re talking about people who are activists, who oppose gay marriage on principle, who are participating in the study not just because they’re hoping to find successful treatment, but because they want to make a statement to the world. Of course those people are going to take advantage of already shoddy methods of measurement (the subjects’ own thoughts, emotions, and memories, which are highly subjective and unreliable to begin with) and manipulate them to fit the conclusions they want, for the sake of the broader political agenda.
5) No, Zucker didn’t say that the therapies work. Read that Psychology Today article.
I’ll say it again: if all you’ve got is ONE study, which has been both a) retracted and b) discredited by the entirety of the rest of the scientific world, you’re grasping at straws. You can’t just ignore broad scientific consensus by bleating “But there’s a study!” Guess what, one study isn’t absolute proof of anything. That’s why you need to have good research methods, and even then, you need to have independent corroborating studies as well. Those don’t exist. So we’re back to the status quo, which is that conversion therapy DOESN’T work.