What is Gay Affirmative Therapy?
“Gay-affirmative” was first used in an article by Alan Malyon where he described the most complete definition of "gay-affirmative therapy".
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In essence, Malyon coined the term by giving a name to a concept already used in journals and books when explaining using psychotherapy techniques with lesbians and gays without stigmatizing them.
This website will be a continuing exploration of how to use gay affirmative therapy with lesbians and gays. The article was published in Homosexuality and Psychotherapy edited by John Gonsiorek. Gay Affirmative Therapy (GAT) takes the position that there is nothing inherently wrong with being gay or lesbian. What’s wrong is what is done to gay men and lesbians by a homophobic, homo-ignorant society and heterosexist therapy. Living in a shame-based culture creates a variety of behavioral and psychological disorders. GAT focuses on repairing the harm done to these clients, helping them move from shame to pride. |
The two original books that were gay positive before the term "gay affirmative therapy" was use were "Loving Someone Gay" by Don Clark and "Positively Gay" by the late Betty Berzon.