Study: Some Gays Can Go Straight

An explosive new study says some gay
people can turn straight if they really want to… Gay rights activists attacked the study, and an academic critic noted that many of the 200
“ex-gays” who participated were referred by religious groups that condemn homosexuality.

The interesting thing is that this research comes from the venerable Dr. Robert Spitzer, known to all psychiatrists as the godfather of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. the ‘bible’ of all official, allowable diagnoses and their diagnostic criteria. Spitzer spearheaded the removal of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973 because it did not meet the requirements for being a psychiatric disorder (well, duh!) and called for more research on how fixed people’s sexual orientation is. He ended up doing the research himself, starting out as a self-described skeptic about the prospects for changing sexual preference through psychiatric treatment. Associated Press

BBC World Service to drop shortwave broadcasts to the North America and Australia as of July. The only way to listen will be via FM rebroadcasting (on your local NPR station, right?) or over the Internet. [Scroll down past the Angola material for the text of the BBC’s statement.]

James Fallows talks with Barbara Ehrenreich about her new book Nickel and Dimed: ‘(L)et me explain that your book is the account of three
month-long episodes of attempting to live entirely on earnings from
$7- or $8-per-hour jobs. You show up in low-wage cities and try to
get on your feet, like someone “graduating” from welfare to work.
One of many intriguing aspects is the juggling of three challenges:
landing a job (not that hard, in the “tight” economy of the late
nineties); doing the job (sometimes quite hard, as you make vivid);
and finding a place to live (nearly impossible, for reasons we will
get to). The account is realistic and sobering.’ The Atlantic [via MetaFilter]

Americans high on public TV, radio — poll: “A majority of Americans believe they get some of the best bang out of
their taxpaying buck from public television and radio, a poll released Monday showed… The poll, conducted by the respected Roper Starch Worldwide report, concluded that Americans
count public TV and radio among the five best deals when it comes to taxes, right alongside
military spending, medical research, law enforcement and highways.”