After a six-year study, Dr. Jones reached the conclusion that some homosexuals can become heterosexuals. It is an idea that is deeply resented in the gay community, because it implies that homosexuality is a mental disorder, and almost universally dismissed in the world of psychology. Indeed, a report this week by the American Psychological Association (APA) said there was not a shred of evidence that homosexuals can be "converted."

Dr. Jones, and his research partner, Mark Yarhouse, base their findings on a study of about 98 men and women who sought help from Exodus International, a Florida-based evangelical ministry that provides sexual-orientation conversion therapy and counselling.

"I had met people in the religious community who claimed to have changed," said Dr. Jones, a professor of psychology at Wheaton College, an elite Christian school in Illinois. "And at the same time I saw a growing momentum behind the view that change is impossible. As a scientist it is an empirically interesting question when you see a growing momentum behind a view but you feel that you also see exceptions to that view. So I thought it would be an interesting thing to study."

The group was composed almost entirely of born-again Christians, the average age was 35, more than half were university educated and some had graduate training. Only a small percentage had been abstinent when they entered the study. Exodus paid for the study, but Dr. Jones said that he told the group he would report whatever he found.

Their study found two forms of success in their study group:

"[A]n embrace of chastity with a reduction in prominence of homosexual desire. ... [And] the second form of success was marked by a diminishing of homosexual attraction and an increase in heterosexual attraction, with resulting satisfactory, if not uncomplicated, heterosexual adjustment."

Dr. Judith Glassgold, a clinical psychologist who led the APA task force, said the paper was not written in response to Dr. Jones' work, though it did dismiss his findings.

"We don't believe the claims were proven, to be honest," said Dr. Glassgold in an interview. "In our looking at all the research we find that people don't change their underlying sexual attraction. What they do is figure out a way to control their attractions. And some learn to live a heterosexual life but mostly for religious motivation."

At best, the APA report said, psychologists can help their gay clients come to terms with the conflicts they face - especially when those clients are conflicted because of their conservative religious beliefs, the main reason homosexuals seek help to change their sexual orientation.

Dr. Jones said his findings are not cut and dried and no one is "cured" of their homosexuality completely.

"When people think of conversion they want to imagine a light switch that you're either heterosexual or homosexual and it's robust one way or robust the other way," said Dr. Jones. "But it's more complex than that."

The study showed that change is possible for some, but it does not mean it is possible for all, he said.

For example, of the people who started six years ago, about a third dropped out. Of those, some said that they had embraced their gay identity and wanted nothing more to do with the study or Exodus International. One left because he said he had been "cured," only to admit later that he had lied about his sexual transformation. Others said they did not trust the researchers because of their association with a Christian organization.

Of the 60 who stuck it out, Dr. Jones said 33 said they made positive changes, with half of that group opting for celibacy. But this is where the word transformation becomes elastic.

Those who reported making the change did not have the same heterosexual experience as those who had always been heterosexual.

"A typical hetero male finds himself attracted to a wide range of females. But among the successful people who reported conversion the typical response was I'm very happy with my sexual responses to my wife, but I don't experience much hetero attraction to other women. Also, when asked and pressed about whether they still find attraction to men, they will say: 'Yes, if I let my mind go in that direction.' "

Dr. Jones said that as an evangelical Christian, he takes the traditional moral view that "homosexual conduct is problematic and not what God intended for us" but he was not doing the research as part of a crusade to change homosexuals. Rather, he was presented with a pool of people who had made their own decision to seek change and as a scientist he wanted to study what they had gone through.

"Some religious people speak with great fervour that every person can change if they will just repent and turn to God. That's not very convincing to me; not everyone can change their orientation. But this claim that people can come out of the gay lifestyle and actually experience significant change to their orientation I find to be an interesting claim and one which as a scientist I was somewhat agnostic about."

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In 1980 a new diagnosis was created that included a "persistent lack of heterosexual arousal" and "distress from a sustained pattern of unwanted homosexual arousal." In 1986 the diagnosis was removed entirely.

"Homosexuality is a normal variation of human sexuality," said Dr. Glassgold. "That is why it is a potentially dangerous process to try to change it."

She said it is better to find ways that gays "can unite their sexuality and their faith. It's more stable solution than choosing one over the other. Especially choosing one's faith over one's sexuality."

Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, said his decision to change his own sexual orientation was motivated by his evangelical faith and his conservative Southern upbringing.

He spent years trying to reconcile the two, even attending a gay Christian Church for a time in Florida, before realizing he would have to choose one over the other.

"It takes years, no matter what struggles you have in life, to resolve these issues. People don't walk into one meeting of Weight Watchers and walk out a size two."

Now married with two children, he holds no animosity towards friends who are gay and thinks the world has improved by becoming more tolerant gay life. He does not expect the overwhelming majority of homosexuals to take his path. He knows for those who follow his way, it would be tough.

"Can I be tempted? Yes. There are things I stay away from. I don't go to certain movies, I don't look at certain things. I know what trips my trigger. As far as my desire to be sexually with a man, I don't have that. But I could. So I'm careful."

END