Judge Rules in Favor of Conversion Therapy Victims

In my view, so-called therapists who subject patients to ex-gay conversion therapy make witch doctors look like the height of medical competence in comparison.  They need to not only have their licenses revoked, but need to face civil damages for the harm they inflict on patience as a result of religious based insanity and bigotry.  Happily, that's what happened in a New Jersey court case brought against the quake organization Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) and its co-defendants.  EVERY legitimate medical and mental health association in America has condemned"ex-gay" therapy and those who continue to engage in it need to bear the consequences of their greed and batshitery.  The Southern Poverty Law Center looks at the ruling.  Here are highlights:

A judge has ruled that a New Jersey conversion therapy organization is potentially liable for the costs to repair the damage it inflicted on four young people by using dangerous and discredited efforts it claimed can convert people from gay to straight.

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. ruled today that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) and its co-defendants may be liable for three times the amounts the four men paid for subsequent, legitimate therapy to repair the psychological damage caused by JONAH’s conversion therapy program. JONAH’s program included nude sessions with counselors and “father-son holding.”

“These self-proclaimed experts inflicted grave damage upon our clients, who believed JONAH’s claims that it could ‘cure’ them of being gay,” said David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director. “These young men were left with guilt, shame and frustration. No amount of money can fix the damage JONAH caused, but recognizing that JONAH can be held accountable for the cost of repairing that damage is an important step.”

In its ruling, the court held that costs for legitimate therapy to repair damage caused by conversion therapy constitute an “ascertainable loss,” a prerequisite to seeking damages under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. The court also ruled that such costs can be recovered as “damages sustained” under the CFA, potentially allowing the SPLC’s clients to recoup three times the costs they incurred. 

The type of services offered by JONAH – known as conversion therapy – have been discredited or highly criticized by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations.

The SPLC filed this first-of-its-kind lawsuit against JONAH in 2012 for fraudulent practices. It charges that JONAH, its founder, Arthur Goldberg, and counselor Alan Downing violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act through misrepresentations including the contention that their counseling services could cure clients of being gay. The case is expected to go to trial early next year. 

It should be noted that JONAH founder Arthur Goldberg is a former convicted felon who did prison time for securities fraud (Wayne Besen and I were able to document this a few years back).  By founding JONAH, he simply went into the business of perpetrating a different kind of fraud.  One can only hope that insurance carriers are watching and will start cancelling liability coverage of therapists who engage in conversion therapy.