Salon.com > Conversion therapy

Conversion therapy advocate issues formal apology, renounces “ex-gay” past

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:35:00 +0000

Former Exodus International chairman and conversion therapy "success story" John Paulk has written a formal statement of apology for his role in promoting Focus on the Family's "ex-gay" ministry and for any harm his actions may have done to other gays and lesbians.

In the letter, Paulk admits that "many things" in his life changed during his time at Focus on the Family, though his sexual orientation did not.

He goes on to write:

So in 2003, I left the public ministry and gave up my role as a spokesman for the “ex-gay movement.” I began a new journey. In the decade since, my beliefs have changed. Today, I do not consider myself “ex-gay” and I no longer support or promote the movement. Please allow me to be clear: I do not believe that reparative therapy changes sexual orientation; in fact, it does great harm to many people.

I know that countless people were harmed by things I said and did in the past,

Parents, families, and their loved ones were negatively impacted by the notion of reparative therapy and the message of change. I am truly, truly sorry for the pain I have caused.

From the bottom of my heart I wish I could take back my words and actions that caused anger, depression, guilt and hopelessness. In their place I want to extend love, hope, tenderness, joy and the truth that gay people are loved by God.

N.J. lawmakers consider bill outlawing anti-gay “conversion” therapy

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:43:00 +0000

The New Jersey Senate Health Committee convened on Monday to consider a proposal outlawing the widely discredited practice of "gay conversion" therapy in the state.

Believers in reparative therapy think that being gay is a pathology, one that can be "cured" through counseling. The alleged treatment persists despite being discredited by many professional associations and other counseling groups.

As noted by the New York Times, "harsh aversion techniques" like using electric shock therapy and nausea-inducing drugs to counter "homosexual urges" have largely disappeared over the last three decades, only to be replaced by "kinder, gentler" reparative therapies that pathologize homosexuality and link same-sex attraction to emotional wounds and sexual abuse during childhood.

Jonathan Bier, an 18-year-old college student, testified to the Senate committee about his experience after he was told that he would be expelled from his yeshiva if he didn’t undergo conversion therapy.

Down with gay-healing quacks!

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:24:00 +0000

It's really hard to gain ground for acceptance and equality when so many people still think there's a reverse switch on human sexual orientation. It's just too helpful to bigots to believe that gay people are somehow misguided, or they're just being stubborn in their refusal to pair off with an appropriately opposite sex partner. That they can be talked into a whole other identity like it's a timeshare in Boca.

That's why it's significant that earlier this fall, California became the first state to ban gay "conversion" therapy on minors, because, as Gov. Jerry Brown explained, they have "driven young people to depression and suicide… These practices have no basis in science or medicine, and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery."

And that's why what's unfolding in New Jersey right now represents a similar blow against the absurd – and ridiculously lucrative -- industry of "healing" gay men and women. In a groundbreaking suit the Southern Poverty Law Center filed on their behalf Tuesday, four New Jersey men and two of their mothers charged a gay counseling group with deceptive practices under the Consumer Fraud Act. SPLC attorney Samuel Wolfe said Tuesday, "This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law."