Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute

The Pacific Justice Institute, a California-based Christian legal defense organization, has partnered with groups that promote ex-gay therapy like NARTH to oppose a California bill that would limit how the dangerous treatment could be provided in the state. In an interview on Friday, the Institute’s Brad Dacus told talk show host Janet Meffered that discredited ex-gay therapist Joseph Nicolosi has been effective in over 80 percent of cases, arguing that homosexuality is a “path of death and destruction”:

MEFFERD: Brad, is there overwhelming evidence that reparative therapy is a fraud?

DACUS: Actually it’s contrary, there’s overwhelming evidence that reparative therapy actually works. It’s not 100% because you have individual will and every person has their own issues. But Dr. [Joseph] Nicolosi and other famous psychiatrists who have treated this, thousands and thousands of patients, report a very high success rate, I know it’s at least over 80 percent, I believe it’s 80-85 percent success rate. These are people who leave the lifestyle, get married to people, have children, and enter heterosexual relationships. It’s a big mass of deception that they are trying to carry out at the expense of many hundreds of thousands or millions of youths who will be led down a path of death and destruction, unfortunately, if they get away with this.

Listen to it:

Dacus, an attorney, went on to explain that “the homosexual lifestyle gives…boys an average lifespan of the age of 40″ and is “worse than being a chain cigarette smoker.” He also suggested that being gay is the consequence of sexual abuse or poor bonding with their father.

Equating homosexuality with “death and destruction” presents a hefty bias to Dacus’ other claims, and it’s unsurprising that his “evidence” carries no weight. When the American Psychological Association resolved that ex-gay therapy is ineffective and harmful, it was only after a systematic review of the available literature. One of the most prominent studies used to support ex-gay therapy was just disavowed by its primary researcher, who apologized to the gay community for promoting its faulty results. Even anti-gay researchers at Pat Robertson’s Regent University admitted in their research that the “ex-gays” they studied who were now in opposite-sex marriages still had the same same-sex orientation as before their therapy.

There is no data to support any claim of sexual orientation change success, let alone 80-85 percent. Such “results” are likely hearsay from Nicolosi himself, who is probably afraid that the California legislation will impede his ability to continue profiting off of internalized anti-gay stigma.

Earlier this week, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told students at his alma mater, Pennsylvania State University, that the American Psychological Association’s support for marriage equality and same-sex families is immaterial. He suggested the APA is made up only of people who support what the APA believes, and that the organization’s statements are “not evidence of benefit to society.”

Here’s how APA spokeswoman Kim Mills responded:

MILLS: The American Psychological Association’s position in support of same-sex marriage is based on a body of empirical research concerning sexual orientation and marriage. APA believes that it is unfair and discriminatory to deny same-sex couples legal access to civil marriage and all its attendant benefits, rights and privileges.

Indeed, the various resolutions and amicus briefs APA has issued on behalf of marriage equality, same-sex couples, and their children cite multitudes of studies that inform their conclusions. It is unknown whether the former senator read any of APA’s publications or the decades of research that inform them before dismissing its 154,000 members for having a “point of view.”

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has no shortage of arguments against marriage equality, particularly with his new “a marriage is a marriage” talking point, where he compares random objects to somehow suggest a same-sex marriage is not a marriage. Yesterday, during a question and answer session at his alma mater, Penn State University, Santorum spoke at length about his views on why same-sex couples should not marry. He made a new random object comparison (“a napkin is not a projector”), a comparison to incest (“My relationship with my aunt is a very nice relationship, but we’re not going to say we’re married”), and suggested that “every civilization that has gone in that direction” has “destroyed marriage.”

When a student challenged Santorum that his belief system is “archaic” and “out of date,” he suggested that equality advocates are trying to refashion “the moral ecology” and “destroy faith,” and that the burden of proof is on them to prove the change and he “sees no data.” He even asked, “Is it beneficial to change the marriage laws and then say to two-year-olds that we’re going to teach you about gay sex in 2nd grade?” and suggested that Catholic Charities were being told they were not allowed to provide adoption services.

Santorum’s comments led students to interrupt him and make it clear there are plenty of studies that show that children do just as well with married same-sex parents as with married opposite-sex parents. He dismissed the studies by saying, “The American Psychological Association is made up of people who belong to the American Psychological Association… All these associations prove is that they have a point of view and the people who join them agree with that point of view. It’s not evidence of benefit to society.”

Watch the full exchange, courtesy of The Daily Collegian: