Self-help book for gay community on the rise despite protests

Madrid, Spain, Jan 3, 2012 / 12:04 pm

A Spanish publisher says that protests demanding the self-help book “How to Understand and Be Cured of Homosexuality” be taken off the shelves have actually led to an increase in sales.

Alex Rosal of the Madrid-based publishing house Libros Libres said his company has received “an avalanche of orders” for the book written by American psychotherapist Richard Cohen.

Rosal called protests pushing for the book's removal an attack on freedom of expression, noting that gay and lesbian groups leading the charge have actually boosted interest in the work. 

Libros Libres “has been overwhelmed with orders from book stores and customers and has begun working on a new edition in order to meet the demand,” he said.

Rosal explained that author Richard Cohen experienced a homosexual orientation for a large part of his life “but found nothing joyful or fun about the gay lifestyle and he was searching for another path to the happiness he desired.”

Cohen details in his book how he was able to change his sexual orientation and for the last twenty years “has been helping thousands of men and women who, making use of their freedom, wish to change from homosexuality to heterosexuality,” Rosal said.

“I don’t think the gay and lesbian community has read the book,” he added. “The book doesn’t talk about illness but rather about healing emotional wounds, which is something common to every human being.”

“It is written from experience and therefore its pages are full of understanding and love for all persons who have a homosexual orientation,” he underscored.

Rosal said Libros Libres has even received the support of many with same-sex attraction who say they “do not feel represented by the gay community and do not share its intolerance of other points of view.”
 
Cohen was born in the U.S. in 1952 and later studied at the University of Boston. He has worked in centers for abused children and was an HIV/AIDS educator for the Red Cross. In 1990 he founded the International Healing Foundation to help homosexual individuals who wish to change their orientation. The first edition of his book was released in 2004.