Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality

I am very grateful to Richard Cohen for clarifying what was, for me, a limited and sometimes inaccurate view of homosexuality. I read the entire book in two days. I appreciate the fact that he was strong in his stance that homosexuality needs to be healed and at the same time compassionate and nonjudgmental. I was especially moved by his own life story, which makes him an invaluable resource for those needing help. I will readily recommend this book to anyone who could benfit from it. Thank you, Richard Cohen...keep up this most noble work!

I have read Mr. Cohen's book from head to toe and have found it to be insightful, refreshing, and genuinely honest in how to come out of homosexuality. Cohen responds to homosexuality with such understanding and compassion. Simply, it offers a true response as to why one might find himself in this condition and how one can, as many have, come out of this condition if the desire is there. Cohen's own life is a testimony that this therapy does work. It has worked in many lives as testified to in the book. This book is nothing more than a genuine outreach to those who want to come out of homosexuality. It breaks down the process step by step. It shares the causes which helped manipulate a life toward homosexuality. I found this book to be so helpful as a sibling of one who is now in the homosexual lifestyle. It has taught me much, and my relationship with my brother is now flourishing. He knows I have read Cohen's book and applauds my effort to understand where he is in this lifestyle. One day he will read it too.

As a happily married man who knows what it is like to have struggled with unwanted homosexual attractions, I felt like Cohen's book was remarkably insightful, refreshingly sane and took a lot of guts to write, given the culture. His description of the underlying wounds and needs fit me to a T; I felt like Cohen really understood me. The path towards healing and maturity he described is not sugar-coated; he tells the hard but doable truth that I affirm based on what I have found, largely by trial and error, to be what works. Reading this book is like meeting a wise friend who has pioneered ahead of you the road you need to go and is willing to explain it and stand by you. A tremendously enlightening book, challenging yet comforting at the same time. Also a badly needed contribution to the whole homosexual conversation.

As a Christian minister I have often tried to help homosexuals who were desperate to "come out straight." Each of them wanted so much to experience normal heterosexual love, to form a loving family and to raise children. Now having read Richard Cohen's excellent book I realize how ignorant I was not just about homosexual problems, but about all kinds of problems which can be traced back to people's childhood. While reading, I sometimes had to put the book down for a moment just to absorb what I had read and to meditate about it. Several times, different parts brought tears to my eyes. Especially I could realize how terribly I failed to help many of those who came to me for help (and love) dealing with their homosexual problems. I can see that I often damaged them more than helped them. From now on, I will definitely act and react differently. I highly recommend this book to all those who struggle with homosexual feelings and to all those like myself who have made many mistakes counseling those who want to change.

Richard Cohen's book is not for everybody -- only the homosexual who is dissatisfied with his or her sexual orientation and wishes to change. Cohen's message is clear: change is possible, but it isn't easy; it requires time, effort, discipline, effective therapies, and a lot of motivation. Cohen knows firsthand about the struggle to overcome homosexuality since the terapies he advocates in his book are derived from the ones he used to heal his own same-sex attractions. Cohen's cogent instructions are offered in a manner that is compassionate, encouraging and non-judgmental. If you are a homosexual who is satisfied w/your sexual orientation, you have nothing to fear from Richard Cohen. If you want to change your same-sex attraction, however, Cohen's book offers you genuine hope for success. I'd like to thank Mr. Cohen for the courage it must have taken to write this book.