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Report
A Response to Sullins’ “Absence of behavioral harm following non-efficacious sexual orientation change efforts”
October 2022
This article responds to critiques made by D. Paul Sullins of our 2020 study showing lifetime sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are associated with lifetime suicidality among sexual minority people. It appeared in Frontiers in October 2022.
Highlights
Sullins uses data on the last exposure to SOCE. But research shows that people typically undergo multiple and prolonged exposures to SOCE.
To measure suicidality, Sullins used 1-year suicidality (the year prior to the study interview) rather than lifetime suicidality.
Sullins argues that SOCE is not harmful because someone is not currently suicidal from exposure that likely happened 10+ years earlier.