Judge William Shubb

U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb, a George H. W. Bush appointee, ruled Monday that three California therapists can continue to provide harmful ex-gay therapy to minors while their suit challenging the state’s new ban on the treatment proceeds. Shubb argued that claims that ex-gay ministries can increase young people’s risk for depression or suicide are based on “questionable and scientifically incomplete studies” and that the law, “at minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech.”

Lawyers for the state argued that there are no studies whatsoever that validate ex-gay therapy and that without the law, minors have no protection from the possible harm of the shame-based treatment. The National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Shannon Minter expressed concern about the judge’s exception:

MINTER: We are disappointed by the ruling but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit. The judge stressed that he was willing to issue the ruling in part because it is temporary and applies only to three individuals. We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate health care professionals to protect patients. That is especially important in this case because the harms to minors are so serious, including suicide and severe depression. Every leading medical and mental health organization in the country has rejected these practices and warned that they are not only completely ineffective, but dangerous. California did the right thing by enacting this law, and we are confident the courts will find that it is not only constitutional, but vitally necessary.

Though the ruling only applies to the three plaintiffs in the Pacific Justice Institute’s (PJI) suit, the judge did invite other therapists to petition for similar relief. PJI President Brad Dacus also invited others to join the complaint as co-plaintiffs. In the suit, the plaintiffs make many dubious claims, including that they’d be “required to discriminate” based on sexual orientation, violate their professional ethics, violate their religious freedom, and violate parents’ rights.

A similar suit by NARTH and the Liberty Counsel has not yet been addressed in court.

Brian Sims (D) was set to become Pennsylvania’s first openly gay state lawmaker when he takes office in January, but now Republican Rep. Mike Fleck has beat him to it. Fleck, an Eagle Scout and Liberty University graduate, came out privately last year after years of trying to deny his sexual orientation and the end of his marriage to his wife. Now he’s gone public with his story, describing the long struggle to reconcile his Christianity with being gay:

FLECK: I sought out treatment from a Christian counselor, but when that didn’t work out, I engaged a secular therapist who told me point blank that I was gay and that I was too caught up in being the perfect Christian rather than actually being authentic and honest.

Through years of counseling, I’ve met a lot of gay Christians who have tried hard to change their God-given sexual orientation, but at the end of the day, I know of none who’ve been successful. They’ve only succeeded at repressing their identity, only to have it reappear time and time again and always wreaking havoc not only on themselves, but especially on their family.

Fleck says he has no plans to change the way he votes in the Assembly. Representing one of the most conservative districts in Pennsylvania, he has been criticized for only being a moderate Republican.

The Rabbinical Council of America, which represents 1000 Orthodox Rabbis, has released a statement distancing itself from the Jewish ex-gay ministry JONAH. Former JONAH patients filed suit this week accusing JONAH of “consumer fraud” for marketing the promise of changing their sexual orientation and instead of subjecting them to humiliating and shaming practices. RCA wants a letter it once printed removed from JONAH’s website:

As rabbis trained in Jewish law and values, we base our religious positions regarding medical matters on the best research and advice of experts and scholars in those areas, along with concern for the religious, emotional, and physical welfare of those impacted by our decisions. Our responsibility is to apply halakhic (Jewish legal) values to those opinions. [...]

Despite numerous attempts by the RCA to have mention of that original letter removed from the JONAH website, our calls, letters, and emails remain unanswered… We want it taken down. JONAH said it was a letter of support, but if you read the letter it is not. They took an informational statement and reprinted it, and the use of that as an endorsement is an error.

Though RCA points out that numerous Orthodox leaders have rescinded their support for ex-gay therapy, the letter in question does in fact read as supportive, encouraging rabbis to refer individuals from their congregation to JONAH:

Rabbis may refer any individuals within their congregations who are dealing with unwanted same sex attractions or any families who have a member thereof facing such an issue. Please contact them if you need referrals for therapists who specialize in working with this population or for programs that may be of assistance. JONAH’s numerous support groups may be of value to congregants, either for those struggling with the issue and/or for their families.

Rather than worry about a letter, RCA might consider simply making a clear condemnation of ex-gay therapy. This may be less likely, because the Orthodox community has traditionally been an unwelcoming place for LGBT people, Chaim Levin, one of the plaintiffs in the suit against JONAH, has frequently pointed out.

The Family Research Council remains bitter that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies it as a hate group. In yesterday’s “Washington Update,” FRC derided SPLC’s lawsuit against Jewish ex-gay group JONAH, defending the harmful therapy for bringing homosexuals “out of bondage” while trying to claim that the legal group is somehow manipulating the gay community for profit:

With its credibility drying up, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is determined to cement its status as the homosexual movement’s greatest ally. Desperate to regain its status in the civil rights debate, the group is following the money to the gay community, where it hopes the partnership will help SPLC regain some of the legitimacy it lost bullying mainstream conservatives. Their latest attempt to claw their way back into the spotlight is a lawsuit aimed at destroying the ex-gay movement. This week, SPLC announced that it is suing a Jewish organization called JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives of Healing) for consumer fraud. They allege that the therapy, which is designed to bring homosexuals out of bondage and into healthy behavior, failed. That’s as ridiculous as suing Weight Watchers because they promised you’d lose weight and you didn’t! The only people guilty of fraud are the ones who claim people with same-sex attractions can’t change. [...]

The bottom line is that SPLC doesn’t seem interested in helping people. Their actions and bank accounts show that the organization is more interested in profiting from them. If the Left truly had homosexuals’ best interest in mind, they would recognize that for many, these attractions are unwanted. For those who struggle, hope is not in limiting avenues for change–but encouraging them.

FRC prefers NARTH’s credibility on ex-gay therapy over the American Psychological Association and all other mainstream medical organizations. It is precisely because of descriptions of homosexuality as “bondage,” a “struggle,” and the antithesis of “healthy behavior” that SPLC categorizes FRC as a hate group. This lawsuit has incredible potential to save many people from shame and harm, while FRC would rather encourage family rejection and the many health consequences that come with it. Only in Tony Perkins’ mind has SPLC lost any credibility, but repeating such a lie doesn’t make it any truer.

NARTH's Dr. Julie Hamilton was introduced as an "expert."

Dr. Drew was not the only television doctor talking about ex-gay therapy on Wednesday. Dr. Oz dedicated his entire show to the “controversy,” providing ample time to those who profit from the harmful therapy to promote their quackery unchallenged. Representatives from NARTH and People Can Change were presented as “experts” who were offering one side of a debate that the medical community has already settled.

GLAAD, GLSEN, and PFLAG all condemned the episode, explaining how thoroughly the practice of ex-gay therapy had been debunked. GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard participated in the show, but explained that she and other LGBT advocates were not informed NARTH would be represented — let alone featured. During his final thought, Dr. Oz argued that he believed the sides needed to talk to each other, then followed up on his blog that only after the show did he have the epiphany that therapists should affirm gay identities:

Some guests argued that they have been changed thru these treatments, but I was overwhelmed by the pain of individuals hurt by the experience.  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.

My biggest epiphany occurred after hearing where the opposing groups found some common ground. The guests who appeared on my show on either side of this debate agreed that entering into any therapy with guilt and self-hate is a major error. Trying to change who you are instead of loving who you are leads to broken spirits and broken hearts. Encouraging self-acceptance is the only way to help alleviate the shame experienced by those who are struggling with their sexuality – and help them reach a place where who they are matches who they want to be.

It should not require an open, unchallenged airing of harmful lies to agree with the established medical consensus. There is no way for self-acceptance and ex-gay therapy to coexist; NARTH and others rely upon shame. Their business depends upon clients having “unwanted sexual attractions” and believing the faulty promise that the attractions can be treated. Because of the visibility of his show and the expertise entrusted in him by his viewers, Dr. Oz performed a massive disservice by treating the issue of ex-gay therapy as an open question.

Clips of the entire episode, as well as post-show reflections from the guests, are available online.

Many are familiar with Ryan Kendall’s story because of his testimony during the Proposition 8 trial. When his parents found out he was gay, they sent the teen to shame-driven ex-gay therapy, constantly rejecting him by telling him he’d burn in hell, that he was disgusting, and that he was hated. The “therapy,” performed by NARTH founder Joseph Nicolosi, drove him “to the brink of suicide,” leading to a decade of struggles with depression, homelessness, and drug abuse after he declared independence from his unaccepting family.

Kendall has since become an outspoken advocate against ex-gay therapy. When he agreed to discuss the topic with Dr. Drew on his HLN show yesterday, it was on the condition that he not have to appear with David Pickup, a NARTH spokesperson who claims homosexuality is caused by sexual abuse and who is part of a suit to overturn California’s ban on ex-gay therapy for minors (SB 1172). Unfortunately, Dr. Drew put them on together anyway, and Kendall in turn held no punches in decrying Pickup’s harmful distortions of reality:

KENDALL: Mr. Pickup is clearly lying, right? I mean, I did an interview on CBC radio where Mr. Pickup followed me and he said that homosexuality is caused by an emotional trauma… He’s also saying, “I’m not saying you can cure this, I’m not saying that it’s a mental illness,” but he’s framing it in that language. Something else I should point out: by saying that, as Mr. Pickup does, that this bill, SB 1172, will prevent the victims of pedophiles like those of Jerry Sandusky — which is exactly the words you’ve used sir — from getting appropriate mental health treatment, that goes back to a long line of LGBT people as a threat to children that has its roots in Anita Bryant and the Briggs Initiative.

Watch the first part of the segment:

During the second segment, Pickup claimed there is “credible evidence” that people have successfully changed their orientation, but his only citation was an ex-gay website with testimonies, not research.

Dr. Drew’s segment is problematic in numerous ways. First, it was inappropriate to invite Kendall onto a segment under circumstances that were then betrayed. Second, there is no justifiable reason to provide Pickup with unfettered airtime when the entire medical community has disavowed his methods as ineffective, his beliefs as unscientific, and his intentions as harmful. If that weren’t enough, Dr. Drew then treated the issue of ex-gay therapy as if it is still controversial, describing it as “something that science does not yet substantiate,” implying there someday may be a way to change a person’s orientation. This is journalistic malpractice — particularly for a television personality who identifies as a doctor with expertise — on par with inviting practitioners of blood-letting to discuss health policy.

Kendall should be applauded for creating visibility for ex-gay survivors, even when forced into situations of “false balance” on a question that isn’t up for debate.

This morning, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced the Stop Harming Our Kids (SHOK) resolution, which encourages states to follow California’s lead and protect minors from ex-gay therapy:

It is the sense of Congress that sexual orientation and gender identity or expression change efforts directed at minors are discredited and ineffective, have no legitimate therapeutic purpose, and are dangerous and harmful.

Congress encourages each State to take steps to protect minors from efforts that promote or promise to change sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, based on the premise that homosexuality is a mental illness or developmental disorder that can or should be cured.

The resolution notes that all mainstream medical organizations condemn ex-gay therapy as ineffective and harmful. Introducing it, Speier said that “any effort to change sexual orientation is not medicine, it’s quackery, and we should not be supporting it with taxpayer dollars.” In addition to advancing the resolution, Speier is also investigating whether federal taxpayer funds have been spent on conversion therapy with minors through Medicaid or TRICARE reimbursements. So far, she has found two instances of mental health professionals who advertise such services and who appear to be eligible for federal dollars.

Chaim Levin, ex-gay survivor and plaintiff.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ex-gay group JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), accusing it of consumer fraud for peddling a “cure” for homosexuality. The complaint features four young men and two of their parents as plaintiffs, including Chaim Levin, who has been very vocal about how the Orthodox Jewish community has mistreated him for being gay. The men and their families argue that JONAH lured them into paying for counseling with deceptive practices. JONAH relies on ex-gay professional group NARTH, specifically the repudiated techniques of Joseph Nicolosi.

The complaint outlines some of the bizarre treatment the men were subjected to in sessions with JONAH counselor Alan Downing and others:

• remove all clothing during both individual and group therapy sessions including an instruction to Levin to hold his penis in front of Defendant Downing,
• cuddle and intimately hold others of the same-sex including between young clients and older counselors,
• violently beat an effigy of the client’s mother with a tennis racket,
• go to the gym more as well as bath houses in order to be nude with father figures, and
• be subjected to ridicule as “faggots” and “homos” in mock locker room and gym class scenarios.

The men were also encouraged to replicate personal trauma, such as reenacting scenes of childhood sexual abuse. Another JONAH counselor instructed one of the men to snap himself on the wrist with a rubber band every time he felt attracted to a man. JONAH claimed that “gay people are all generally lonely, suicidal, and have or will contract HIV/AIDS.”

The suit seeks a revocation of JONAH’s business license and a permanent injunction against all JONAH staff from further offering ex-gay therapy through a trial by jury. In addition to achieving justice for these young men, this suit will hopefully help other ex-gay survivors step forward to challenge the harmful ministries plaguing young people across the country.

David Pakman sat down with the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer to discuss the recent marriage equality wins and other LGBT issues. Fischer claimed he is “for homosexuals, but against homosexuality,” wanting to help them “leave that lifestyle.” He compared homosexuality to drug use — an addiction that people can escape — and he agreed that exorcism could assist in that process:

FISCHER: I think there’s no question that there are spiritual factors at work in this —

PAKMAN: Are they demons?

FISCHER: — that using spiritual weapons of our warfare according to the New Testament can be effective. We know that people can get delivered from homosexual behavior. The former president of the American Psychological Association, Nathan Cummings — he’s seen that happen in his own private clinical practice. He’s seen people get free of homosexual behavior and change their sexual orientation, so it certainly is possible. There may be spiritual factors at work. If there are, then the power of the Gospel, the name of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit can be of enormous help.

PAKMAN: And an exorcism might be a way to do that?

FISCHER: Well we believe in the reality of spiritual forces just like Jesus did. [If] you got a problem with demons, David, your problem’s not with me, it’s with Jesus Christ, because he believed in them.

Watch it:

Exorcisms or other forms of spiritual warfare against LGBT people are one of the most extreme forms of ex-gay ministry. Unfortunately, their provocative nature often distract from the psychological abuse of more common forms of ex-gay “therapy” that target vulnerable young people (and their parents).

Fischer went on to cite the fraudulent Regnerus study to claim that same-sex couples can never be good parents. When asked when he decided to be straight or if he could change his attractions, Fischer refused to answer, choosing instead to simply erase the experiences of millions of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals by reducing their lives to “sexual behavior.”

British Health Minister Norman Lamb

British Health Minister Norman Lamb has issued the following condemnation of ex-gay therapy on behalf of the government’s health programs:

The Department of Health does not condone the concept of therapists offering ‘cures’ for homosexuality. There is no evidence that this sort of treatment is beneficial and indeed it may well cause significant harm, to some patients.

It is incumbent on professionals working in the National Health Service to ensure that treatment and care, including therapy, is provided to every patient without any form of discrimination.

If someone is suffering a mental health problem, clinicians will try to help patients with whatever is causing them distress. This could involve helping someone come to terms with their sexuality, family arguments over their sexuality, or hostility from other people.

We know from research that the incidence of depression, anxiety and suicide within the gay community is significantly higher than within the heterosexual community and this is why ‘No health without mental health’ identifies lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as a specific group for whom a tailored approach to their mental health is necessary.

Just last month, the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy came out against ex-gay therapy, pointing out that it had “no basis in science or medicine” and advising members not to offer it to clients.