Here's the thing. I understand Dr. Mehmet Oz has gotten the seal of approval from Saint Oprah when it comes to someone she feels the world need to listen to, but personally I've never been a fan of his. I know plenty of women (my mother being one of them) who watch his show religiously, and he basically talks about the same thing over and over - how to find the best you. how you can look younger and how to shed those annoying pounds you've been trying to lose since birth.
Well he's come under fire by PFLAG for doing a show on the benefits of reparative therapy. I was watching Dr. Drew yeaterday where they had on a guy who is speaking out against a reparative group in New Jersey, who he says damn near killed him with their conversion therapy. I also recall the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) are trying to get a law passed where they can try to use their tactics on young people struggling with their sexuality.
Instead of having the common sense to debate and shit all over NARTH's claims that conversion therapy works, especially every medical organization including American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Social Workers have said you cannot cure people of homosexuality, Dr. Oz didn't say a word the entire time. I mean wasn't it removed from the medical books back in 1972 that homosexuality is a mental disorder? He should definitely know that. But then again, he's not a psychiatrist so he might not know everything there is to know about homosexuality. I just think being that it's November sweeps he needed some attention for his talk show. There's only so many episodes on weight loss you can do in a month.
Since he has been given the position to give actual medical advice to people who may not know otherwise (and who trust every word that comes out of his mouth), I think it is justified that PFLAG and other organizations take him to task for that bullshit episode.
Here is what Dr. Oz had to say about the episode on his blog:
I felt that we needed to include all parties who have considered reparative therapy to hear the stories of people who have tried these treatments. Although some viewers may disagree with this tactic, if we want to reach everyone who might benefit from understanding the risks of this therapy, you have to present multiple perspectives…
After listening to both sides of the issue and after reviewing the available medical data, I agree with the established medical consensus. I have not found enough published data supporting positive results with gay reparative therapy and I have concerns about the potentially dangerous effects when the therapy fails, especially when minors are forced into treatments.
I didn't see the episode, so did he have people on that tried reparative therapy that it didn't work on? If the episode was one-sided, then Dr. Oz may have some explaining to do. While I think this is a great debate to have, if you don't have someone with some common sense mediating the entire episode, it defeats the purpose of talking about something so controversial.
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