Beach Towns to New York City Residents: Go Away

Today marks the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend and some beach resort towns do not want visitors from New York City.  Virginia Beach's beaches are open with restrictions - the rest of Virginia's beaches are not - as the City tourism industry hopes the weekend, traditionally when high summer revenues begin - will not be a total washout despite an improving weather forecast (this week has been wretched).  Meanwhile, in New Jersey and beach towns on Long Island are trying to make visits by residents of New York City difficult  through parking restrictions, bans on short term rentals and AirBnB rentals.  It may be a foreshadowing of a very different summer season for many resort towns that are in the catch-22 of needing revenues, but fearing visits from outsiders, especially those from Covid-19 hot spots.  Here are highlights from the New York Times:

In the Hamptons, the locals have put up barricades to limit parking and deployed enforcement officers to ticket outsiders. Jersey Shore towns have banned short-term leases and Airbnb rentals. The Suffolk County executive’s office taunted Mayor Bill de Blasio: “Do your job. Figure out a plan to safely reopen your beaches.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, tensions have repeatedly flared over whether too many New York City residents have decamped to outlying vacation areas, potentially taking the virus with them. But now the region appears on the brink of a full-fledged (and nasty) battle over beaches, touched off by the city’s decision to keep its shoreline closed.

In normal times, the Memorial Day weekend start of beach season sparks a mass migration from the city to Long Island, the Jersey Shore and, to a lesser extent, Connecticut. But the closings in New York City have led to a backlash from local officials in those areas, who say they fear that their shorelines will be overwhelmed by an exodus of sun-starved New Yorkers blocked from their own beaches, which can in normal times attract a million people a day.

To maintain social distancing, beaches across the region are moving to limit access to everyone. On the Jersey Shore, some towns are reducing parking and keeping their iconic boardwalks closed, with seaside restaurants providing takeout and delivery service only.

But special rules have also been adopted to keep outsiders away. Westchester County, just north of the city, has restricted its beaches at Playland in Rye and Croton Point Park to county residents. In Groton, Conn., only residents can use Eastern Point Beach on weekends and holidays.

The most sweeping rebuke of outsiders, however, seems to be coming from Long Island, many of whose beaches are convenient to New York City.

The Suffolk County executive, Steve Bellone, closed two county-run beaches — Smith Point, on Fire Island, and Cupsogue Beach, in the Hamptons — to nonresidents. He took to Twitter to chide Mr. de Blasio, who had earlier in the week said restrictions “should not be about any ill feeling toward people depending on where they come from.”

Oyster Bay, Hempstead and Brookhaven, all on Long Island, have also moved to limit access. Farther east, the Town of East Hampton suspended the sale of nonresident parking permits and began enforcing summer beach parking regulations early this year.

Mr. de Blasio, however, has warned that opening the city’s 14 miles of public beaches may pose risks to the strict social-distancing rules that city health officials have credited with helping to ease the peak virus infection rates seen in April.

It is part of a difficult balance Mr. de Blasio has tried to strike between providing critical cooling options without squandering the city’s hard-fought gains in bringing case numbers down.

New York City has had roughly 200,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 20,000 deaths, a toll that exceeds those in most countries around the world.

Long Island has also been a hot spot in the outbreak, with roughly 78,000 cases and roughly 4,400 deaths.

Corey Johnson, the New York City Council speaker, said the solution to the spat with Long Island was simply to open city beaches immediately.  “I’m not sure it’s realistic to believe that people will not attempt to swim this summer,” Mr. Johnson said, “and we don’t want to be arresting people in the midst of this pandemic.”

Under New State Laws, Catholic Church Could See Tidal Wave of Abuse Suits

Following up on this morning's post about the removal of the bishop of Buffalo, New York, the Insurance Journal is reporting that the Roman Catholic Church is likely facing a tidal wave of new lawsuits as 15 states have amended their laws to extend the time within which victims of abuse can file lawsuits.  Financially, the bill for the Church as a whole within the USA alone could exceed 44 billion. As I noted to some commentators on the cross posting of the blog post on Facebook, I am not necessarily advocating for believers to give up their faith, I merely believe (i) the Catholic Church hierarchy needs to be held accountable for its misdeeds and cover ups of crimes against children and youths, and (ii) that a thorough house cleaning of the hierarchy is needed.  For good measure, the Church needs to throw away its 12th century dogma and update its positions on modern science based knowledge.  Sadly, given the Church's history of making money (and control over its members) its true god, punishing monetary judgments are likely the best way to force these needed reforms.   Here are excerpts from the Insurance Journal piece:

A wave of new laws in 15 states that allow people to make claims of sexual abuse going back decades could bring a deluge of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church that could surpass anything seen so far in its clergy abuse crisis.

Associated Press reporting found it could result in thousands of new cases against the church and more than $4 billion in payouts.

It’s a financial reckoning playing out in such populous Catholic strongholds as New York, California and New Jersey, among the eight states that go the furthest with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old.

That has lawyers fighting for clients with TV ads and billboards asking, “Were you abused by the church?” And Catholic dioceses are considering bankruptcy, victim compensation funds and even tapping valuable real estate to stay afloat.

“It’s like a whole new beginning for me,” said 71-year-old Nancy Holling-Lonnecker of San Diego, who plans to take advantage of an upcoming three-year window for such suits in California. Her claim dates back to the 1950s, when she says a priest repeatedly raped her in a confession booth beginning when she was 7 years old.

AP interviews with more than a dozen lawyers and clergy abuse watchdog groups offered a wide range of estimates but many said they expected at least 5,000 new cases against the church in New York, New Jersey and California alone, resulting in potential payouts that could surpass the $4 billion paid out since the clergy sex abuse first came to light in the 1980s.

Some lawyers believe payouts could be heavily influenced by the recent reawakening over sexual abuse fueled by the (hash)MeToo movement, the public shaming of accused celebrities and the explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report last year that found 300 priests abused more than 1,000 children in that state over seven decades.

“The general public is more disgusted than ever with the clergy sex abuse and the cover-up, and that will be reflected in jury verdicts,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who was at the center of numerous lawsuits against the church in that city and was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight.”

This summer, when New York state opened its one-year window allowing sexual abuse suits with no statute of limitations, more than 400 cases against the church and other institutions were filed on the first day alone. That number is now up to more than 1,000, with most against the church.

New Jersey’s two-year window opens this week and California’s three-year window begins in the new year, with a new provision that allows plaintiffs to collect triple damages if a demonstrable cover-up can be shown. Arizona, Montana and Vermont opened ones earlier this year.

The church’s response weighs heavily on compensation funds and bankruptcy.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan set up the first fund in 2016, pitching it as a way to compensate victims without walloping the church and forcing it to cut programs. It has since paid more than $67 million to 338 alleged victims, an average $200,000 each.

The idea has caught on in other states. All five dioceses in New Jersey and three in Colorado opened one, as did seven dioceses in Pennsylvania and six in California, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the U.S.

More drastic and increasingly more common is the bankruptcy option. Less than a month after New York’s one-year lookback window took effect, the upstate Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy, the 20th diocese or religious order in the country to do so.

When a diocese files for bankruptcy, lawsuits by alleged abuse survivors are suspended and payments to them and others owed money are frozen while a federal judge decides how much to pay everyone and still leave enough for the diocese to continue to operate. It’s orderly and victims avoid costly and lengthy court cases, but they often get less than they would if they were successful in a trial.

Bankruptcy can also leave abuse survivors with a sense of justice denied because the church never has to face discovery by plaintiff lawyers and forced to hand over documents, possibly implicating higher-ups who hid the abuse. . . .  “It’s a different process in bankruptcy _ you don’t get discovery and you don’t get it in compensation programs. The truth never comes to light.”

Unfortunately, Pope Francis has been nowhere near aggressive enough in cleaning house and this failing, combined with insincere crocodile tears by bishops and cardinals has only increased victims' feeling of having been victimized twice.  One can only wonder if the Church's leadership will ever "get it" that they are the biggest obstacle. 

States Belatedly Take On Catholic Church

While there is plenty of blame to go around within the Catholic Church hierarchy for allowing the rampant, world wide rape of children and youths to go on for decades, if not centuries, civil authorities share much blame as well.  For many, many decades the Catholic Church and other denominations have been afforded undeserved deference due in part to the myth that churches do charitable works.  Secondly, rather than upset reactionary constituents, police officials and politicians turned a blind eye toward misdeeds within churches.  If any good comes out of the Pennsylvania grand jury report containing damning details on predators and their enablers within the hierarchy, it will because some state attorney generals are finally willing to take on the Church rather than turning a blind eye and pretending all church actions are for the good. I suspect that a detailed review of Catholic parishes - and other denomination operations as well - would show meager pennies on the dollar going to charitable works while the remainder goes to maintaining parasitic priests/pastors and spreading religious propaganda.  A piece in the New York Times looks at this welcome development.  Here are excerpts (note how some Republicans remain reluctant to investigae and potentially alienate right wing "Christian" voters):

Attorneys general across the United States are taking a newly aggressive stance in investigating sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, opening investigations into malfeasance and issuing subpoenas for documents.

On Thursday alone, the New York State attorney general issued subpoenas to all eight Catholic dioceses in the state as part of a sweeping civil investigation into whether institutions covered up allegations of sexual abuse of children, officials said. The attorney general in New Jersey announced a criminal investigation.

The new inquiries come several weeks after an explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed the abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests over decades. With Catholics clamoring for more transparency from their church, demanding that bishops release the names of accused priests, civil authorities are beginning to step up to force disclosure.

In the three weeks since the release of the Pennsylvania report, the attorneys general of Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and New Mexico have also said they will investigate sex abuse by Catholic priests in their states and have asked local dioceses for records. Most bishops have been saying they will cooperate. 

Attorneys general in some states said in statements Thursday that they were inspired to take action by the scathing Pennsylvania report, and said they were seeking to bring similar transparency to constituents in their states.

“The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover-ups in the dioceses,” the attorney general of New York, Barbara Underwood, said. “Victims in New York deserve to be heard as well — and we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve.”

New Jersey’s attorney general, Gurbir S. Grewal, announced Thursday that he had appointed Robert D. Laurino, the former acting prosecutor of Essex County, to lead a task force that will investigate clergy sex abuse and any effort to cover up claims of assault. The task force will have subpoena power through a grand jury in order to compel testimony and demand the production of documents.

“I was deeply troubled to read the allegations contained in last month’s Pennsylvania grand jury report,” Mr. Grewal said in a statement. “We owe it to the people of New Jersey to find out whether the same thing happened here. If it did, we will take action against those responsible.”

But the probes announced in various states were not equally independent or combative. In Missouri, [Republican] Attorney General Joshua D. Hawley said last month that he will conduct an “independent review” of files that the archbishop of St. Louis, Robert J. Carlson, had just volunteered to make available to review. The two men each released letters about the arrangement on the same day, after survivors of sexual abuse by priests had organized protests calling for an investigation.

Mr. Hawley, a Republican running for the United States Senate, said in a telephone news conference that his power is limited because under Missouri law, he cannot convene a grand jury or issue subpoenas for documents.  But a lawyer for abuse victims called his claim a “half truth.” . . . . “He’s allowing the perpetrator to run the investigation,” Ms. Gorovsky said in an interview. “It’s exactly backwards.”

The potential scope of the investigations is huge. In the Archdiocese of New York alone, 315 victims of sex abuse by clergy have recently received compensation through an independent program sponsored by the church. In the Diocese of Brooklyn, some 250 victims have filed claims through a similar program. These programs did not offer compensation to victims abused by priests working for religious orders, so many more victims may reach out to report abuse through the hotline.

The Diocese of Buffalo has been swamped with abuse revelations in recent months. In February, a retired priest admitted to The Buffalo News that he had molested probably dozens of boys at multiple parishes from the late 1960s until the 1980s. Since then, abuse by other priests has also come to light, raising questions of why it was kept secret for so long.

“Little is known about clergy abuse of children in New York, because of the state’s antiquated and predator-friendly statute of limitations, and because the church has kept the evidence secret all these years,” Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said Thursday in a statement.
“Finally we will learn the truth in New York.”

Hillary Clinton Widens Delegate Lead; Sanders Remains in a Delusional Alternate Reality

With the projected results in for four of the six primaries taking pace today, Hillary Clinton is winning three, in particular delegate rich New Jersey.  For the other two, the results will not be in for a number of hours.  But even if he were to win both, Bernie Sanders cannot overcome the delegate count - or most likely, the number of votes won by Clinton.  Yet, the ego filled old crank continues to refuse to accept the reality and refuses to capitulate and end his campaign.  I am seriously beginning to believe that some how Sanders and Donald Trump are fraternal twins separated at birth.  Both live in their own manufactured reality.  A piece in Politico looks at Sanders' increasingly delusional denial of reality. Here are excerpts:

Hillary Clinton won New Jersey on Tuesday, kicking off a night in which she is set to declare victory as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party and the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major-party ticket, even as her last remaining rival Bernie Sanders resists growing calls to quit.

Clinton officially crossed the 2,383 delegate threshold to clinch the nomination in anti-climactic fashion on Monday, with the Associated Press spoiling her planned celebration by announcing its canvass of super delegates revealed she had hit the magic number. She had previously been expected to cross that threshold on Tuesday, when six states — New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and California — are voting. Clinton’s victory address will occur on exactly the eight-year anniversary of her famous 2008 concession speech, in which she declared that she had failed to "shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling" but that her voters had created “18 million cracks” in it. That speech represented her call for party unity. Now she turns to the urgent task of bringing together a Democratic Party whose progressive wing has resisted her ascent to the White House for almost a decade, first backing Barack Obama in 2008 and then Sanders in 2016.

Sanders has shown no interest in quitting even as Clinton has sewn up the nomination, arguing that superdelegates are not legally bound to support her and could still change their minds.
 “We’re on the phone right now,” Sanders told NBC News on Tuesday night, trying to flip those superdelegates.

In modern history there is no precedent for those superdelegates disagreeing with the will of the voters. Sanders trails Clinton badly in both total votes and pledged delegates won.

[L]argely the race has passed Sanders by, as Clinton has begun zeroing in on Trump, delivering a blistering speech last week calling him “temperamentally unfit” for the presidency.

Sanders needs to end his campaign immediately and put the best interests of the country against his huge ego.  All efforts now need to focus on defeating Donald Trump who represents everything Sanders claims to be against. 

SCOTUS Refuses To Hear Appeal Of New Jersey’s Ban On Ex-Gay "Therapy"

Click image to enlarge

Liberty Counsel - which has a record of losing equaled by that of the horrifically misnamed Alliance Defending Freedom - has suffered another loss.  The United States Supreme Court has denied certiorari on Liberty Counsel’s appeal seeking to overturn New Jersey’s ban on ex-gay torture "therapy."   It is the second loss on this issue for Liberty Counsel. Back in June 2014 when the Court rejected a similar appeal of California’s ban on ex-gay "therapy."  In both instances, the lower court's found that the bans were permissible and directed at protecting minors form harmful therapy condemned by medical and mental health care associations.   Not surprisingly, Staver whines that protecting minors from fraudulent, witch doctor like therapy tramples on religious freedom.  

This bogus therapy needs to be banned nationwide.

Fraudulent "Gay Conversion Therapy" Group to Shut Down

While the Roman Catholic Church and a host of fraudulent "ministries" run by anti-gay religious affiliated organizations continue to peddle the myth that gays can "change," after losing a consumer fraud case this past summer, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing ("JONAH") will be closing its doors permanently.  Would that similar lawsuits would be brought against similar charlatan run organizations.  One irony is that the founder of JONAH is a former felon who did prison time for securities fraud.  He went from one form of fraud to another, having discovered that money could be made by preying on religiously conflicted gays and their desperate families.  Mother Jones looks at the demise of this foul operation.  Here are article highlights:

A so-called "gay conversion therapy" group in New Jersey has agreed to permanently close its doors after losing a landmark court battle this summer.

As Mother Jones reported, a jury determined in June that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or JONAH, had violated state consumer fraud law by claiming it could help change clients' sexual orientations from gay to straight. It was the first case in the nation to challenge conversion therapy as consumer fraud.

Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. granted a permanent injunction after both sides reached a settlement requiring JONAH to cease operations, permanently dissolve as a corporate entity, and liquidate all its assets.

"The end of JONAH signals that conversion therapy, however packaged, is fraudulent—plain and simple," David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Michael Ferguson, one of the plaintiffs, added, "Gay conversion therapy stole years from my life, and nearly stole my life. My hope is that others can be spared the unneeded harm that comes from the lies the defendants and those like them spread."

Conversion therapy has been rejected by major health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, which in 1973 removed homosexuality from the list of disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Last year, a transgender teen committed suicide in Ohio after participating in conversion therapy, inspiring a campaign for a federal ban on the practice. New Jersey, California, and Washington, DC, have laws banning licensed conversion therapists from working with minors.

In a pretrial decision in February, Judge Bariso wrote, "The theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel—but like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it—instead is outdated and refuted."

Jury Finds "Ex-Gay" Ministry Guilty of Consumer Fraud

Just recently Christopher Doyle, an "ex-gay" who has makes a living peddling the "ex-gay" myth authored an article that appeared in the Christian Post that would have readers to have believed that the lawsuit against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) was going down in flames.  Like everything else that comes out of Doyle, the picture he depicted was utterly false and deliberately so.  To the contrary, JONAH lost the case and the jury found that it was guilty of fraud.  The same charge, of course, in reality equally applies to every other "ex-gay" ministry in America.  A piece in NJ.com details the historic win by the plaintiffs and counsel from the Southern Poverty Law Center.   Here are highlights:

A New Jersey jury on Thursday found a non-profit group that provides gay-to-straight conversion therapy guilty of consumer fraud for promising clients they could overcome their sexual urges by undressing in front of other men, pummeling an effigy of their mothers, and re-enacting traumatic childhood experiences.

In the first case in the nation to put the controversial practice on trial, the jury concluded that Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk, the founders of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing in Jersey City and life coach Alan Downing to whom JONAH referred patients, "engaged in unconscionable commercial practices" and misrepresented their services.

The verdict requires JONAH and Downing to refund thousands of dollars paid by former clients Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck, Chaim Levin, and parents Jo Bruck and Bella Levin for the individual and group counseling sessions and the "journey into manhood" weekends in the woods. Downing charged $60 to $100 for group and individual sessions but shared 20 percent with JONAH to help defray its administrative costs.

After three hours of deliberations, the jury found Unger was entitled to $17,950; Chaim Levin was entitled to $650; his mother, Bella, $4,000; and Bruck's mother, Jo, $500.

But the victory has broader implications. The national civil rights legal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center filed the case to take a stand against conversion therapy — a frequent target of public criticism since the passage of same-sex marriage laws and other LGBT legal protections.
"This is a momentous event in the history of the LGBT rights movement," said David Dinielli, deputy director for the law center and lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "The jury agreed not only is this based on lies, but it is an unconscionable business practice."

The legal battle is not over, Dinielli said they would be asking the court for an injunction to stop JONAH from operating. They will also seek the payment of their attorneys fees, which is permitted under the consumer fraud act.

"This is something brutal based on lies, and it needs to stop," he said.

James Bromley, one of the plaintiff's attorneys, accused Goldberg of lying to his clients - three orthodox Jews and a Mormon- who were desperate to conform to the expectations of their religious communities to marry and have children. They were lured by Goldberg's false promise of the program's two-thirds success rate, but Bromley reminded jurors Goldberg testified that estimate was based on counselors' opinions. 

He [Bromley] asked the jury to recall the testimony of Carol Bernstein, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, who compared conversion therapy counselors "to amateur surgeons operating on the minds of young gay men."  "You never want to go under the knife with an amateur surgeon," he said.

These "ministries" need to be shut down nationwide  and therapists who engage in the voodoo like practices need to lose their licenses.  Let's hope that this is the first of many such lawsuits.

New Jersey: SPLC Attorney Destroys Head Of "Ex-Gay Ministry"

ex-felon and municipal-bond fraud scheme mastermind Arthur Goldberg

The consumer fraud trial in New Jersey against JONAH - Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing - which fraudulently claimed that it could "cure" gays and make them heterosexual continues and, thankfully, continues to show the types of charlatans behind so many of these bogus ministries.  The irony is that even as the trial progresses, many Christofascists and right wing churches are launching new efforts to sell these snake oil peddling "ministries" to the ignorant and uninformed.  Among other things, at trial it came out that the founder of JONAH, Arthur Goldberg - which Wayne Besen and discovered a number of years ago - is a convicted felon.  Moreover, he lacks any of the credentials that he claims to hold in JONAH literature.  The New Jersey Jewish News has details:

On the trial’s second day, the plaintiffs’ lawyer Lina Bensman pointed out that Goldberg was a disbarred attorney who in 1989 was incarcerated for six months on federal tax fraud and conspiracy charges while heading a New York underwriting firm.

She asked why he had occasionally identified himself as a “doctor,” although he was not a physician and had no PhD.  “I am a JD, a juris doctor,” he explained. 

Goldberg also acknowledged that he used the title “rabbi” on occasion, although he was not ordained.

“I was not a rabbi,” he said. “I have no formal religious training other than going to a yeshiva in grade school.”

Goldberg also testified, “I have never been a licensed counselor. I give advice.”  But after being shown a signed document projected on a video screen, Goldberg acknowledged he had applied to the American Psychotherapy Association to become a certified relationship specialist and a certified professional counselor.   “But these certifications were revoked?” asked Bensman.  “Yes, ma’am” he replied. 

“And the certifications read, ‘I certify I have not been convicted of a felony’?”  “That is correct,” he said.

The article also notes:

According to Bennett Zurofsky, a Newark attorney who handles employment, consumer fraud, and constitutional rights cases, the allegations against JONAH “are similar to all fraud cases in that representations were made that people would rely on in making the decision to make use of the product or service, and that the representations were false and you were injured as a result of their being false.”

Zurofsky said the New Jersey fraud statute is stronger than those in many other states because it permits winning plaintiffs to collect triple damages — three times the amount of the money they spent on the service. In addition, the losing party is required to pay the attorneys’ fees of the winning side.

“What makes the consumer fraud statute useful is if you bring it as an ordinary fraud case you have to pay your own attorney,” he said. “A case like this one can be very expensive to litigate.”

Obviously, if JONAH loses this case, it could be shut down permanently.  Sadly, in states with less  stringent consumer fraud statutes, these quack ministries may be able to dodge much needed litigation.   FYI - Equality Case Files is attending the trial and is posting transcripts of the court proceedings and testimony. JONAH is being defended by a legal group headed by anti-gay extremist and fat cow Maggie Gallagher.

Again what JONAH has in common with so many of these fraudulent "ministries" is that fact that  most of the "experts" are frauds and/or have no legitimate credentials.

Gay Conversion Therapy - Modern-Day "Snake Oil”

Plaintiffs

One of the most prevalent traits of today's conservative Christians is their patent dishonesty.  Anything that promotes their theocratic agenda is seemingly acceptable, including spreading deliberate lies and derogatory talking points and trashing anyone who does not conform to their hate and fear based religious beliefs.  Nowhere do we see this more than in the never ending attacks on gays and transgender individuals who by their very existence seem to threaten the house of cards belief system of the "godly folks."  I don't want to beat to death the ongoing trial in New Jersey where an "ex-gay" ministry is being sued for consumer fraud, but the trial is truly significant because of the scrutiny it is bringing on the totally discredited "ex-gay conversion" industry.  

These fraudulent ministries inflict so much harm and harm so many lives that they truly need to be shut down on a nationwide basis.  Yes, this is very personal to me.  Although I never was directly subjected to  "ex-gay" conversion therapy, I tried every way I could find to make myself straight and to "pray away the gay."  The experience was harmful and destructive and caused so much self-hate and so many thoughts of suicide.  At least in my case, no one was pocketing a lot of money while subjecting me to a form of torture.  The Atlantic looks at the bogus nature of such "ministries."  Here are highlights:

For 17-year-old Chaim Levin, despair came in the form of a persistent attraction to men—largely because his Orthodox Jewish community rejected homosexuality. After Levin confided to a friend that he was not interested in women, he says he was thrown out of his religious school.

Levin and his family hoped an organization called JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, could help him become straight. JONAH referred him to an unlicensed life coach named Alan Downing, who began treating him in weekly group and individual therapy sessions beginning in 2007 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

For one session that reportedly cost $100, Downing asked Levin to stand in front of a full-length mirror. According to court documents, Downing told Levin to say a negative thing about himself and remove an article of clothing with each criticism. When he was fully naked, Levin alleges that Downing told him to touch his penis and his buttocks. Eventually, Downing said “good,” and the session ended. Downing allegedly tried similar nudity-based methods on other JONAH clients. 

Now Levin and two  other young men who also underwent JONAH-affiliated treatment are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the organization. The case is being brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based civil-rights group, which is arguing that JONAH-style treatment—and other “gay conversion therapies” like it—amount to consumer fraud. Quite simply, the SPLC argues, conversion therapy doesn’t work. People can’t become ex-gay, and making promises to the contrary is a false bill of goods.

“These were very young men,” SPLC senior staff attorney Sam Wolfe told me. “They were from communities where they didn't know gay people, and they didn't know that much about it.”

New Jersey’s “Consumer Fraud Act protects people from lies or misleading statements,” Wolfe added. “It doesn't matter if our clients voluntarily signed up ... it was like candy to them, so of course they wanted to sign up for it. They believed and trusted the words and promises of the defendants, which turned out to be false. The defendants sold them modern-day snake oil.”

Three states, Oregon, California, and New Jersey, as well as Washington D.C., have already banned the practice for minors. Ultimately, the SPLC hopes a court victory will herald the end of ex-gay therapies nationwide. Last month, Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, introduced a bill to ban reparative therapy at the federal level. A map created by SPLC currently lists some 70 organizations across 20 states that practice conversion therapy in some form.

What mainstream experts agree on, though, is that homosexuality is perfectly normal. (Indeed, a New Jersey Superior Court judge has already granted the SPLC one victory, ruling that it is fraudulent to say that homosexuality is a disorder.)

“People's sexual orientation is something that they feel is a very central part of their being,” said Gregory Herek, a psychology professor at the University of California in Davis. “When you have the idea of people trying to change it in therapy, it's attempting to change something that's a very core part of the person.”

“Enduring change to an individual’s sexual orientation is uncommon,” the American Psychological Association wrote in a 2009 report on the topic after reviewing studies on the effectiveness of conversion therapies. “The participants in this body of research continued to experience same-sex attractions following [sexual-orientation change efforts]. Compelling evidence of decreased same-sex sexual behavior ... was rare.”

The SPLC complaint, meanwhile, alleges that the JONAH co-founder Arthur Goldberg told one of the plaintiffs, Benjamin Unger, that “change is absolutely possible,” and that Unger could essentially stop being gay within two to four years.

People who seek out conversion therapy often do it because of extreme stigma in their communities, and not because of some intrinsic desire to be straight. The problem is the discrimination, not the sexuality.

New Jersey Gay Conversion Therapy Court Case Begins

Anyone who has seriously looked into "conversion therapy" and "ex-gay ministries" knows that they are fraudulent, but for years they have dogged  accountability and liability by hiding behind religious belief and typically not using licensed therapists who might be held accountable by state licensing authorities.  The main purpose of the "ministries" has been to rake in money - some charge $10,000 or more per year - and to maintain the myth for political purposes that gays can "change."  The sad reality is that one is as likely to be cured of metastasized cancer by an African witch doctor as they are to be made "straight" by one of these "ministries."  Hence why the case pending in New Jersey is unique because it is based on consumer fraud.  The Guardian has details on the opening statements.  Here are excerpts:

[I]in his opening statement for the plaintiffs, David Dinielli, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center that has spearheaded the lawsuit, said that all three men named in the action had been deceived. “The young men are all gay. They were defrauded – they paid money to the defendants to change them from gay to straight but all they got was junk science and discredited so-called ‘cures’.”

He added: “Jonah lied – they made it worse.”

In addition to Unger, the plaintiffs include Chaim Levin who was 18 when he sought the help of Jonah and Michael Ferguson who was 25.

Dinielli outlined in court the multiple lies he said Jonah’s founders and contractors had told the plaintiffs about their services. They included the claim that homosexuality was a disease or disorder. “This is false. There is a long-standing scientific consensus that homosexuality is not a disease or disorder but a normal variation of human sexuality,” Dinielli said.

The judge presiding over the case, Peter Bariso, has already ruled in pre-trial hearings that should it be proven that Jonah described homosexuality as a medical or mental – as opposed to religious – disease or disorder, that would be a violation of the state’s consumer fraud act.

Dinielli went on to say that Jonah had claimed falsely:

• that its therapy was based on science;
• that it had successfully cured a third of the men who had been through its program – a figure that it boasted despite having kept no records of past cases;
• and that the conversion could be effected within three or four years.

Dinielli described aspects of Jonah’s activities that he implied to the jury were peculiar or irregular. One such activity – or “process” as Jonah calls it – was “healthy touch” where younger clients and older counselors held each other for long periods of time.

“They turn the lights down low, play soft music and cuddle. The theory is that gay men missed out on father physical affection when they were young and that’s one of the reasons they are gay. The theory is that old men possess ‘golden father energy’ that they can transmit to the younger participants,” Dinielli said.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Hopefully the plaintiffs win and the case set set the template for suing other of these quack ministries run by Charlatans like Michele Bachmann's closeted husband "Marcia" Bachmann.  These scam artists need to be shut down nationwide.

The New Jersey "Gay Cure" Trial Begins This Week

I have been a vocal critic of so-called "conversion therapy" for years, partly because my own "pray away the gay" efforts over decades accomplished nothing by self-hate, and partly because most of the "ex-gays" paraded by the Christian Right are frauds.  Michael Johnston, who I help expose as a fraud back in 2003, is but one of the many examples of charlatans pretending to be "cured" while still totally gay in exchange for a pay check.  This week,  a jury in Jersey City will consider the case of four young men and two of their parents, who have accused a conversion therapy center - Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or JONAH - of fraud. The lawsuit, filed in 2012  is the first of its kind.  Perhaps not coincidentally, the founder of JONAH is a former felon convicted of securities fraud.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at the coming trial which, if decided in favor of the plaintiffs has the potential to seriously curtail fraudulent "clinics" and "ministries" operated by supposed religious organizations.  Here are highlights:

This week, the so-called gay cure goes to trial in New Jersey. 

The practice has been widely condemned in recent years by the medical and mental health communities, and it's been banned in a number of states. Nevertheless, practitioners of conversion therapy, as the practice is sometimes called, continue to promise patients that it is possible to change sexual orientation through therapy. 

The plaintiffs, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, argue that JONAH violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by claiming that its counseling services could cure clients of being gay.

Before the trial begins later this week, Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York City and one of the most vocal critics of conversion therapy, did an email Q&A with The Huffington Post about the case. In his view, a win for the plaintiffs would have a "chilling effect" on conversion therapists around the country.

Let’s talk about the JONAH trial. First of all, how significant is this case in the overall movement to ban conversion therapy?
I think this case is highly significant, as it focuses on consumer fraud. A win by the plaintiffs will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on practitioners of SOCE beyond the borders of New Jersey. For example, it may also provide other states with models for laws of their own that will protect the public from practitioners of conversion "therapy" in those states. A win would also expand the ban on SOCE embodied in existing legislative bans in CA, NJ, OR and DC: They only apply to licensed professionals who do SOCE with minors. Consumer fraud laws can be used against non-licensed practitioners and protect adult patients as well. As I said, that's significant.

Is there anything in particular that you will be watching for in this trial?
No.  I have no idea what to expect, although I was heartened to hear the judge ruled out testimony from most of their "expert" witnesses.

I do believe that individuals have a right to seek counseling to live their lives as they choose. However, licensed professionals and unlicensed quacks do not have a right to sell the public snake oil. In such cases, the state has a compelling interest to protect the public, even if members of the public choose to seek out "treatments" that don't work and that may be harmful.  

I see an analogy with laetrile, a quack treatment for cancer that was touted in the 1970s. After studies showed it was ineffective (and harmful in that people who sought out laetrile often failed to seek out conventional, more effective treatments), you couldn't get laetrile in the U.S., and doctors were not allowed to prescribe it.. . ..Perhaps after a few more consumer fraud lawsuits, conversion therapies will only be permitted for those who travel to Mexico to seek it out as well.

The first federal bill to ban the practice was proposed last month. What do you think it will take to end conversion therapy entirely? And are we close to that moment?
I don't think the practice will ever end entirely. I think in terms of a harm reduction model: The best we can hope for is to educate the public about the harm and when harm has been done, hold the practitioners to account.

Conversion therapy doesn't work and these fraudulent ministries need to be shut down.

SCOTUS Rejects Liberty Counsel's Appeal Challenging New Jersey "Ex-Gay" Therapy Ban

Mat Staver has to rank among the most hysterical homophobic bigots of the far right "godly Christian" fringe and his organization, Liberty Counsel, is in reality little more than a hate group despite its almost laughable efforts to depict itself as a "Christian law firm."   Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly recognizes that both Staver and Liberty Counsel live in an alternative universe crazy land where facts, expert medical and mental health care opinions, and so forth mean nothing, and everything is instead ruled by a sick selective reading of the Bible.  The result is that the Court rejected Liberty Counsels appeal challenging New Jersey's legislation barring the use of "ex-gay" or "reparative" therapy on those under age 18.   The rejection continued Liberty Counsel's track record of losing every case challenging "ex-gay therapy" bans.  Gay Star News has these highlights:

The US Supreme Court has upheld New Jersey's ban on gay conversion therapy for minors.  The court refused to hear a challenge to the law today, which means that a ruling made last September by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in place.

The Court of Appeals said that the ban, which was signed into law in 2013, didn't violate the the free speech or religious rights of those who offer conversion therapy to minors in the state.

This is the second time the Supreme Court has refused to hear an argument on such a law, following the court's dimissal of a similar argument against Florida's ban in 2014.

Conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy, is rejected by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations.

Earlier this year, a New Jersey judge ruled misrepresenting homosexuality as a disorder in marketing conversion therapy services is consumer fraud.

The Christofascists relentlessly defend "ex-gay" conversion therapy because it is critical to their effort to maintain that sexual orientation is a choice and, therefore, not worthy of non-discrimination protections.   

New Jersey Court: "Ex-Gay" Ministry's Claims ViolateState Consumer Protection Laws

This blog has long attacked the fraudulent lies of "ex-gay" therapists and "ministries" that prey upon distraught parents and often self-loathing gays for the purpose of raking in cash and fostering anti-gay propaganda.  I've put my money where my mouth is so to speak by helping expose "ex-gay" frauds such as Michael Johnston who was once a protege of Jerry Falwell and featured in a national anti-gay campaign funded by a who's who of the far right.  Now, a court in New Jersey has ruled that ex-gay ministries that depict homosexuality as curable disorder violate that state's consumer protection laws.  The Court's ruling can be found here.  Here are highlights from a Southern Poverty Law Center press release:

A New Jersey Superior Court judge has ruled misrepresenting homosexuality as a disorder in marketing conversion therapy services violates the state’s consumer protection laws – a devastating ruling for the conversion therapy industry, which claims to “convert” people from gay to straight, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced today.

The ruling marks the first time a court in the United States has found that homosexuality is not a disease or a disorder and that it is fraudulent for conversion therapists to make such a claim. Superior Court Judge Peter F. Barsio Jr. found that it “is a misrepresentation in violation of [New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act], in advertising or selling conversion therapy services, to describe homosexuality, not as being a normal variation of human sexuality, but as being a mental illness, disease, disorder, or equivalent thereof.”

The ruling is part of the consumer fraud lawsuit filed by the SPLC against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a New Jersey-based conversion therapy provider. The suit claims the group used deceptive practices to lure plaintiffs into their costly services for gay-to-straight therapy that can cost in excess of $10,000 a year.

“For the first time, a court has ruled that it is fraudulent as a matter of law for conversion therapists to tell clients that they have a mental disorder that can be cured. This is the principal lie the conversion therapy industry uses throughout the country to peddle its quackery to vulnerable clients. Gay people don’t need to be cured, and we are thrilled that the court has recognized this.”

The judge also ruled that JONAH is in violation of the Consumer Fraud Act if it offers specific success statistics for its services when “client outcomes are not tracked and no records of client outcomes are maintained” because “there is no factual basis for calculating such statistics.” Evidence at the upcoming trial this summer will show that JONAH has misrepresented that their conversion therapy works based on bogus statistics.

“The judge’s determination today that it is a misrepresentation to tell consumers that homosexuality is a disorder is an important step forward in this case and also a victory for showing that conversion therapy proponents lack any valid basis to continue to promote their abusive practices,” said SPLC co-counsel James L. Bromley, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

It should also be noted that one of JONAH's founders is a convicted felon who went to prison for fraudulent securities claims.   I hope more lawsuits of this type are filed against the charlatans who engage in these bogus "ministries."  A suit against "Marcia" Bachmann's clinic would be too fun!!

Federal Court Knocks Down Last Challenge to New Jersey "Ex-Gay" Therapy Ban

As noted many times on this blog, the "ex-gay" myth is something carefully crafted by far right Christofascists to achieve several goals.  Perhaps the most important has been to claim that "gays can change" and that, therefore, no legal protections are needed for the LGBT community.  If they want to be sinners, fine, but let them be inferior under the law and open to abuse and discrimination.  A second motivation has been purely monetary: parents of gay youths - and some gay adults - will pay lots of money to quack "ex-gay" therapists who promise to "change" gays into straights.  The "therapy," of course doesn't work and at times drives patients to suicide  or worsens their mental/emotional state.  California and New Jersey have banned "ex-gay" therapy and the Christofascists have lost court cases claiming the ban infringes on their "freedom of speech" and/or "freedom of religion."  Last week a federal court threw out the last remaining of these case.  Here are details via Think Progress:

After New Jersey passed its ban on ex-gay therapy for minors last year, two lawsuits were filed challenging the law, one by therapists wishing to continue to practice the harmful treatment and one by a family seeking to continue the treatment for their son. In November, a federal judge ruled against the therapists, and on Thursday, the same judge dismissed the family’s challenge, again upholding the ban.

The case had been stayed back in March while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to take up an appeal in a similar case in California. Last month, the Supreme Court announced it would not be hearing the case, allowing the Ninth Circuit’s ruling upholding California’s similar ban on ex-gay therapy to stand. With that settled, Judge Freda Wolfson now felt it appropriate to issue a decision in this second case. The plaintiffs in this case made the same arguments that the therapists made in theirs; in fact, they were represented by the same lawyer — Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) affiliate Demetrios Stratis.

One claim was that the ban on ex-gay therapy infringes on their freedom of speech, but Wolfson noted that because the treatment consists of talk therapy, the law only regulates the conduct of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) and not anybody’s right to free speech.

According to the family, the law also infringes upon their free exercise of religion, specifically their belief that changing same-sex attraction or behavior is possible. Wolfson countered that, just as she concluded in the therapists’ case, the ban is “facially neutral with respect to religion” and “does not suppress, target, or single out the practice of any religion because of religious conduct.”

The only new argument put forth in this case was the claim that the law infringes upon the parents’ “due process rights to care for the mental health of their child as they see fit.” Wolfson rejected this claim outright. “Surely, the fundamental rights of parents,” she wrote, “do not include the right to choose a specific medical or mental health treatment that the state has reasonably deemed harmful or ineffective. To find otherwise would create unimaginable and unintentional consequences.”

A similar case in New Jersey state court, in which survivors of ex-gay therapy are suing a Jewish ex-gay ministry for consumer fraud, is ongoing.

No doubt, with this ruling we will hear more bleating that Christians are being "persecuted."  

U.S. Supreme Rejects Challenge To California’s Ban On Conversion Therapy

While two of the major opinions released by the U.S. Supreme Court were victories for Christofascists and those in the GOP who seek to return America to the Gild Age, including all the abuse of workers and the unfortunate that were the flip side to the opulent wealth of the robber barons, one move by the Court did strike a victory for the forces of reason.  What happened?  The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of proponents of witch doctor like "reparative therapy" who sought to strike down California's ban on the discredited "therapy" favored by Christofascists and charlatans who desperately want to maintain the myth that sexual orientation is a "choice" and "changeable."   The appeal was brought after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban.  Bloomberg.com has details:

The U.S. Supreme Court let California ban therapists from working with children to change their sexual orientation, as the justices turned away contentions that the measure violates the First Amendment. 

Rejecting two appeals, the high court today left intact a federal appeals court ruling upholding California’s 2012 law banning sexual-orientation conversion therapy. The measure, the first of its kind in the nation, had been on hold during the court fight and can now take effect.

Counselors and patients argued in the appeals that the law will censor their discussions and interfere with parental rights. New Jersey has a similar law, which is also being challenged in court.

The California law applies to licensed doctors, psychologists, family therapists and social workers. Violators are subject to discipline by state licensing bodies. 

The measure doesn’t bar unlicensed providers, such as religious leaders, from administering the therapy. Licensed providers can refer minors to religious leaders.

In upholding the law, a San Francisco-based federal appeals court said it regulates conduct, not speech. The three-judge panel said licensed professionals can discuss the pros and cons of conversion therapy, as long as they don’t actually provide treatment to someone under age 18.

It goes without saying that there is much whining and wailing  among the Christofascists and professional Christian set.  Sadly, the ban does not reach to unlicensed "therapists" who will continue the dangerous practice through fraudulent "ministries."   A similar ban for New York State was killed by Republicans in the  New York Senate.