SCOTUS Rejects Challenge to Gay Conversion Ban

In my view, raising a LGBT child in a right wing Christian home is akin to child abuse.  The only thing worse is subjecting that child to bogus gay "conversion therapy" which claims that a gay child can be "changed" and made straight.  While I was never subjected to such therapy, being raised conservative Catholic and trying to "pray away" the gay for decades, I am well aware of the harm one suffers emotionally and psychologically from trying to change the unchangeable.   Every legitimate medical and mental health association in America has condemned "conversion therapy" and, in fact labeled the practice dangerous with suicide being one of the possible outcomes.  Two things keep the practice alive: (i) parents who have brainwashed by their churches - and want to avoid the "embarrassment" of a gay child - and (ii) quakes and "ministries" out to make a buck.   Several states have finally banned the practice for minors.  A case from California challenged the ban as an improper restraint on "religious freedom" - the Christofascists' new means of attack on anything that restricts their ability to mistreat others.  In a second appeal challenging California's ban, the Supreme Court yesterday rejected the specious claims of advocates of this form of abuse.  Bloomberg looks at the defeat for the forces of ignorance and bigotry:

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a California law that bans licensed therapists from working with children to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight, rejecting an appeal that said the measure violates religious rights.

The rebuff leaves intact a federal appeals court decision upholding California’s 2012 first-of-its-kind law. The measure prohibits the form of counseling known as “conversion therapy.”

The ban was challenged by three people, led by licensed therapist and minister Donald Welch, who said it interferes with their right to practice their religious beliefs.

California officials urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal, saying the law doesn’t restrict what religious leaders can say, except in the context of a state-licensed therapy session.

The law applies to licensed doctors, psychologists, family therapists and social workers, and it subjects violators to discipline by state licensing bodies. The law lets licensed providers refer minors to religious leaders.

The case is Welch v. Brown, 16-845.

The practice needs to be banned entirely nationwide, and should ban unlicensed religious groups from inflicting the abuse on both minors and adults.  No legitimate research supports the practice and many former supporters now denounce it. 

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.

White House Supports Efforts to Ban "Ex-Gay" Therapy

The Obama White House has given Christofascists and homophobes another reason to hate this president:  in response to a petition to a petition submitted to the White House, the Obama administration has announced that it supports efforts to ban "ex-gay" or "conversion" therapy, a form of voodoo like therapy that needs to be banned nationwide.  Despite being condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association in America, because of the ridiculous and undeserved deference give to so-called "religious belief" quacks and charlatans continue to be ale to inflict this poisonous, psychological - and sometimes physical abuse - on minors in all but a handful of states in America.   Here are highlights from the White House response:

The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.

As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.

The medical and mental health communities have long made clear that they reject the practice of conversion therapy, aimed at “changing” one’s sexual orientation. Recently, efforts to change an individual’s gender identity have also been shown in countless instances to have dangerous effects. More than 40 years ago, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and in 1998 released a statement “[opposing] any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy.” It asserted that “such directed efforts are against fundamental principles of psychoanalytic treatment and often result in substantial psychological pain by reinforcing damaging internalized attitudes.”[2]

Similarly, the American Psychological Association has repeatedly affirmed its stance against these practices, recently stating that efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation can pose serious health risks to LGBTQ+ individuals. Numerous other accredited medical and mental health organizations have echoed this sentiment, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Counseling Association.

As part of their duty to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens, several states have taken their own steps to protect minors from the potentially dangerous effects of conversion therapy. California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have all banned licensed professionals from using conversion therapy on minors. Since last year, lawmakers in 18 other states have introduced similar legislation.

In a 2013 signing statement for his state’s legislative ban, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie expressed that “exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of the benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate.”[3] In February 2015, a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled that advertising a service that could change a person’s sexuality is fraudulent and violates the state’s consumer protection laws.

While a national ban would require congressional action, we are hopeful that the clarity of the evidence combined with the actions taken by these states will lead to broader action that this Administration would support.

Submitting minors to "ex-gay" therapy is child abuse plain and simple.  Parents that force their children into such bogus therapy need to permanently lose custody of their children.  "Conversion" therapy needs to be seen to be no different than depriving a child of life saving medical treatment.  Parents that place their children in such programs need to be criminally prosecuted for child abuse.

Liberty Counsel Seeks to Bully Virginia Universities Into Providing "Ex-Gay" Propaganda

As the Christofascists see themselves rapidly losing the battle against LGBT equality they are becoming ever more shrill in their efforts to maintain the totally repudiated myth - manufactured, of course by the Christofascists - that sexual orientation is a "choice" and that gays can "change."  As noted many times on this blog, for many years duping legislators and judges into believing this cynical myth was a key component of the Christofascist jihad against LGBT individuals.  Now, despite the fact that every legitimate medical and mental health association condemns reparative therapy, the lunatics at Liberty Counsel are trying to force Virginia's universities to disseminate "ex-gay" propaganda.  Candidly, any university that is stupid enough to do so will likely be inviting lawsuits against it in the event these "ex-gay" efforts lead to suicides and other serious mental health damage.  The religious fanatics cite "unsafe zones" but the only truly unsafe zones are within the confines of "ex-gay" ministries.  The Washington Times looks at this deranged effort by those who themselves ought to be in mental institutions.  Here are highlights on the batshitery:

Arguing that some Virginia universities’ sexual-minority centers are engaging in “viewpoint discrimination,” a conservative law firm is taking steps to ensure materials on ex-gay services are offered to students this fall.

Details of this effort are laid out in a lengthy report released Monday by Voice of the Voiceless, a group representing former homosexuals and people with unwanted same-sex attractions.

The report concludes, after visiting seven public Virginia universities, that campus centers are “unsafe zones” for students who aren’t sure they are gay or who want to escape homosexual thoughts and behaviors.

A spokesman for the University of Virginia declined to comment on the issue Friday, but provided The Washington Times with a relevant January letter from outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rita W. Beale to Liberty Counsel.

The letter said UVa’s sexual-minority center had been “repurposed” last year and is not a “limited public forum.” The university therefore “declines to display and/or distribute Voice of the Voiceless‘ materials.”

“Bullying and intolerance against the ex-gay community does exist,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, adding that her group’s efforts to provide information on campuses are often “met with resistance and intolerance.”

Mental health professionals warn that ex-gay therapies can cause serious problems, like depression, anxiety and self-destructive behaviors in people, Mr. Besen said. Universities would be “putting themselves in legal jeopardy” if they exposed students to materials that caused them to hurt themselves, he said.

The report’s proponents “are on the losing end of legal arguments,” said Hayley Gorenberg, deputy legal director for Lambda Legal, claiming that campus LGBT centers have not been created as public forums, so there’s no basis for a First Amendment challenge.

I hope the universities continue to rebuff these delusional efforts by Liberty Counsel and PFOX, a front group funded by a who's who of anti-gay hate groups and staffed by "ex-gays for pay."

Michigan's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Rests on "Expert" Scorned by Peers

Christofascists on parade in Michigan

When Mark Regnerus - who took hundreds of thousands of far right money to conduct a study to come to a pre-ordained anti-gay conclusion - took the stand yesterday as an alleged expert witness for the state of Michigan in defense of that state's same sex marriage ban, it was not pretty.  Either in the courtroom or outside it.  Among other things, Regnerus was force to admit that only two of his subjects were actually raised in same sex couple households and that they had turned out "pretty good."  He was also forced to admit that his religious beliefs form the framework of his opinions.  Equally bad for Regnerus, he was forced to concede that his "study" has been widely condemned - even his own university has distanced itself from him.  First, here are highlights from the Detroit Free Press:

On the day he debuted as the star witness in defense of Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, a University of Texas sociologist was denounced by his employer for peddling junk science.

Under cross-examination Tuesday, Regnerus stoically acknowledged the sting of his peers’ disavowal.

[F]ellow academics have taken issue with everything from the origins of Regnerus’ study (two conservative groups that oppose gay marriage paid the associate professor $785,000 to commission it) to his population sample (which was limited to children born long before same-sex marriages became legal anywhere in the U.S.).

The most damning criticism centers on Regnerus’ admission that he deliberately structured his study to compare children whose parents had a same-sex relationship with those who grew up in opposite-sex households undisturbed by separation or divorce.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case in which U.S. Supreme Court justices struck down a federal law barring recognition, the America Sociological Association charged that Regnerus had stacked the deck by comparing children of intact opposite-sex families with children whose families were distinguished mainly by their instability. In many cases, the association noted, those identified as children of gay or lesbian parents had never even lived with that parent.

Under cross-examination in Friedman’s courtroom Tuesday, Regnerus conceded that more than half of the respondents he classified as children of “gay dads” or “lesbian moms” were the offspring of failed heterosexual marriages, and that only two of the 3,000 respondents he interviewed had been raised by same-sex partners who remained together throughout their childhoods.

Like their peers in stable opposite-sex families, Regnerus conceded, both respondents who grew up in stable same-sex households “looked pretty good” in his study’s measures of adult outcomes.

The case before Friedman is the first in which any state has called Regnerus as an expert witness, and it’s likely to be the last. 

Ouch!  Aljazeera has an even longer and equally scathing account of Regnerus' testimony.  Here are excerpts:

The state of Michigan’s star witness opposing same-sex marriage acknowledged in court on Tuesday that children of gay couples could turn out just as well as any other kids.

What we’ve learned is that it’s possible to grow up in same-sex households and the children will be fine,” said Regnerus, who acknowledged in court he is a religious conservative. “We won’t know if it’s probable until we test it over time.”

Regnerus’ 2012 New Family Structure Study, which he acknowledged in court was funded and organized by conservative think tanks, has been the focus of the Michigan trial. The study examined the lives of 248 adults who said their parents had had a same-sex relationship during their childhood and found, he said, that they fared worse academically and behaviorally than children raised in intact homes with heterosexual parents.

Those findings have been cited by same-sex-marriage foes in several lawsuits around that nation, such as in Utah and Virginia, but have been ravaged by critics who say his conclusions were intentionally deceptive.

Critics said Regnerus’ 248-person study included just two who had been raised from birth to adulthood by gay couples. When asked Monday how those two fared, Regnerus replied, “Pretty good.” 

Part of the state’s and Regnerus’ argument has been that same-sex couples shouldn’t be permitted to marry if their children don’t fare as well as others. Cooper, a veteran gay rights attorney pivotal in cases that led to invalidating Florida’s ban on gay adoption, asked Regnerus if the state should also ban heterosexual marriage among the poor, the less educated and the remarried, given that those factors are statistically known to harm children.  Regnerus said no regarding the poor and less educated, but said he didn’t have an opinion about heterosexual remarriage.

Last week [Judge] Friedman heard from plaintiffs’ experts who said Regnerus’ study was flawed in part because almost all the 248 subjects were the products of divorce and other home-life disruptions known to harm child welfare. His results, they argued, don’t reflect the welfare of children born or adopted into households led by stable gay couples.

I'm sorry, but in my view  Regnerus is a religious extremist quack who structured his study to reach the conclusion his Christofascist financiers wanted.  One can only hope that he has as a result ruined his career and that he will soon find himself looking for work after the University of Texas finds a discrete basis to terminate his employment.  As noted before, perhaps he can get hired by the lunatics at Liberty University. 

The Christofascists' Obsession with "Porn Addiction"

If one peruses any number of Christofascist cites in addition to seeing numerous promotions of "ex-gay" conversion programs one also sees many promotions for programs that will "cure" porn addiction.  Here's a sample "ministry."  Here is another.   I guess it should come as little surprise that these repressive Christofascists organizations should be obsessed with porn because (i) the Internet has made it harder to control the private activities of their sheeple, (ii) Internet porn usage is highest in the Bible Belt, and (iii) there is LOTS of money to be made - just like with "ex-gay" conversion programs (just ask Marcus, a/k/a Marcia, Bachmann) - by marketing fraudulent programs.  A piece in Salon looks at the topic and finds that there is no proof that "porn addiction" exists.  But you will never hear that from the Christofascists.  In the last analysis, with these folks it is ALWAYS about control of others and money. Also note the pathologization of being gay.  Here are some article highlights:

Porn addiction is arguably the diagnosis of our time. The idea has thrived in a time of anxiety about the proliferation of free, ever-intensifying adult material — and how it might be changing our relationships, our sex lives and our (zombie voice) braaains. . . . . But a new study suggests there is no evidence that it actually exists.

With the help of an addiction specialist and an expert in neurophysiology, clinical psychologist David Ley did a survey of the existing investigations into porn addiction. The resulting paper is published in the scientific journal Current Sexual Health Reports and concludes that research on “porn addiction” is hindered by “poor experimental designs” and “limited methodological rigor.” Ouch. The burns don’t stop there: The authors argue that the porn addiction model ignores the real issues underlying compulsive smut-watching, and that the “lucrative” treatment industry that has arisen to address this new diagnosis has no evidence of effectiveness.

The literature is weighted with moral and cultural values. There are tons and tons of theoretical statements that are made but never evaluated. The exact same thing is true for what literature there is on porn addiction.

[W]e found what I expected to find, which is that the literature is so poorly organized and uncritically produced that there is not a lot of clinical or research usefulness to the concept of porn addiction. The overwhelming majority of articles published on porn addiction include no empirical research — it’s less than 27 percent. Less than one in four actually have data. In less than one in 10 is that data analyzed or organized in a scientifically valid way.

What we find is that individuals who are reporting or being reported as having problems with excessive porn use are likely to be male, gay or bisexual, have experienced negative life events in the past, have a high libido and a relationship mismatch around sexual desires.

Lastly, and this is one of the ones that is gonna be controversial, there is a large, lucrative industry that experiences tremendous secondary gain from the promulgation of this concept. As part of this paper we had a grad student call porn addiction facilities around the country and get an idea of the cost — and the costs were extraordinary. The average was $675 a day. These facilities were recommending or requiring stays anywhere between 15 and 90 days. Insurance doesn’t pay for this; it is cash only. The other thing that is really troubling is that there is no data to show that these very expensive programs generate positive results. There is an industry — and unfortunately I count the media in that as well, because the media makes lots and lots of hay by touting the issue of porn addiction, and even by raising the controversy of “is it real or not?” There is a lot of money to be made in keeping this thing alive.

What we’re finding more and more these days is that the claims of sex addiction are based on the pathologization of gay and bi males, . . . .  these are concepts that are turning being a gay or bi male into a disease again. Even with pornography, the research is very clear: gay and bi men use pornography much more than their heterosexual counterparts — but that use of pornography is not pathological, it’s part of their coming out process, their seeking out normative or consistent depictions of sexual behavior that meets and matches their internal desires, which isn’t present in the general media. Consistently, the research shows that gay and bi men are at far greater risk of being called porn addicts than are their heterosexual counterparts, and that is troubling.

Ending "Gay Conversion" Therapy for Good

As noted yesterday, a former prominent "ex-gay" leader has joined the ranks of those former "ex-gays for pay" who have belatedly admitted that the claims of "curing" homosexuality are untrue and nothing more than a myth that the far right hate groups seek to keep alive for profit and political purposes.  Several states have pending legislation which would ban the practice for those under age 18.  Such a bill was introduced even here in Virginia only to be killed in the GOP controlled House of Delegates that is in some ways little more than an arm of the heinous theocrats at The Family Foundation.  An op-ed in the New York Times looks at additional methods beyond legislation to work towards completely ending this fraudulent and harmful type of "therapy."  Here are column excerpts:

THERAPY programs that purport to “convert” lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender kids have caused immeasurable harm since they became prominent in the 1970s. Rigorous studies have shown again and again that efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation not only fail, but are also linked to suicidal behavior, depression, anxiety, drug use and risky sexual behavior. 

So it’s tempting to support the model of California and New Jersey, the first states to ban conversion therapy. Under their bans, a licensed therapist who tries to subject minors to such “treatment” can lose his license and face other penalties. Similar bills have been introduced in Massachusetts, New York and Ohio. 

Legislative condemnation is a powerful public statement. But if the goal is shutting down as many practitioners as possible, this strategy has its limitations. For one thing, it’s unlikely that conservative states, where conversion therapists are most active, will follow suit. More important, such bans are likely to lead to costly and time-consuming legal battles.

There is a more promising way to put pressure on, or even shut down, conversion programs: existing state laws that forbid businesses and professionals to engage in deceptive practices. 

Despite the nearly universal consensus — including the professional associations that represent America’s pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, school counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists — that “conversion” or “reparative” therapy is ineffective, harmful or both, its practitioners, many of them affiliated with religious groups, continue to advertise messages like “change is possible.” 

Under commercial law, this is the very definition of a deceptive trade practice. Victims could sue practitioners for damages in state courts. With support from the Southern Poverty Law Center, several former patients did just that in 2012, seeking damages under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act from an “ex-gay” group called Jonah (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing). The plaintiffs cited Jonah’s false promise that it could “cure” their homosexuality — for which it charged $100 per individual therapy session. Last July, a state judge refused Jonah’s request to throw out the case, which could soon go to trial. 

Litigation isn’t the only recourse for victims. State regulators are responsible for ensuring that therapists and other mental health professionals abide by standards of professional conduct. States like New York, Minnesota and California have laws that forbid state-licensed professionals from using deceptive practices; in New York, for example, such professionals may not use “advertising or soliciting that is false, fraudulent, deceptive or misleading” or make claims that cannot be “substantiated by the licensee.” Violations can result in fines and the loss or suspension of one’s license.

While conversion therapists would have to be targeted one at a time, the cumulative effect could be powerful. Many of the remaining practitioners are affiliated with “ex-gay” organizations that provide training and educational materials. A handful of successful suits and regulatory crackdowns could destabilize this network by bankrupting these organizations, raising malpractice insurance rates for individual conversion therapists, and leaving practitioners to reconsider the value of persisting in practices that are deceptive under the law.

Parents confused or distressed about their children’s sexual orientation will continue to fall prey to counselors who either promise what they cannot deliver (turning kids straight) or, without scruples, try to profit from these families’ anxieties. Their practices are despicable, but litigation and regulatory action have more potential than new legislation, in the long run, to put these snake-oil salesmen out of business.

Wayne Besen and I have talked about this strategy for some years.  The big issue is getting plaintiffs to come forward who are willing to launch such lawsuits.  A few big verdicts and insurers will cease insuring these charlatans.

Initial Attempts to BlockCalifornia Ban On Reparative Therapy Fail

Two rulings were handed down by federal judges in California in response to separate law suits filed by anti-gay "Christian" organizations and "ex-gay" therapy quacks.  The anti-gay forces are desperate to stop this law which bars therapists from inflicting fraudulent reparative therapy on individuals under the age of 18 and, to my view is necessary to prevent nothing less than a form of child abuse.  Just as legislation and courts have intervened to require needed medical treatment of minors over the often bizarre religious based objections of parents, so too, the courts and legislation should prevent harmful treatment that claims religious belief as its only real justification.  The National Center for Lesbian Rights has a summary of yesterday's rulings.  Here are highlights:

(San Francisco, CA, December 4, 2012)—Today, Judge Kimberly Mueller of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California denied a request by an anti-LGBT group to postpone the January 1, 2013 start of the state’s new law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from psychological abuse at the hands of state-licensed therapists who use dangerous practices to try to change their clients’ sexual orientation or gender expression. The ruling means that the law will go into effect as scheduled.

The court also granted a motion by Equality California to intervene in the lawsuit in order to defend the law alongside California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who represents the State of California defendants. Equality California was the lead sponsor of the law and is the state’s leading political advocacy group representing LGBT people and their families.

The Court’s decision was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality that challenges the new law protecting LGBT youth from practices—including the use of shame and aversion therapy—that are known to lead to depression and suicide attempts. The group is represented by Liberty Counsel, an anti-LGBT legal group. In rejecting the groups’ request to temporarily prevent the statute from going into effect on January 1, Judge Mueller concluded that the California law “prohibits a therapeutic practice deemed unproven and potentially harmful to minors by ten professional associations of mental health experts.”

Judge Mueller’s decision follows another decision yesterday by Judge William B. Shubb, also of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, in another case brought by a different set of plaintiffs who are also challenging the California law. Judge Shubb issued an order temporarily exempting three plaintiffs in that case from being subjected to enforcement of the law while the case proceeds in his court. Judge Shubb’s order applies only to the three plaintiffs in the case before him and does not prevent the state from enforcing the law against other licensed mental health professionals. Judge Mueller’s decision today clears the way for the law to go into effect on January 1, 2013.

Senate Bill 1172 was authored by Senator Ted Lieu and sponsored by Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Gaylesta, Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal, and Mental Health America of Northern California, and supported by dozens of organizations including the California Psychological Association, the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the California Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. California Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law on September 29, 2012.

The reparative therapy myth has long been a tool used by the anti-gay far right to dupe some in the larger public into believing that sexual orientation is a choice and something that can be change because they realize that if sexual orientation is immutable and not something that can be changed, then courts and legislatures will be more inclined to grant LGBT protections.  The basis for reparative boils down to anti-gay animus and psychotic religious extremist who are threatened by the reality that God, nature, etc. makes some us gay.   Then of course, there is lots of money to be made preying on tormented gays who have been religiously brainwashed and their parents. 

Exporting Lies and Hatred

Click image to enlarge.

Few things make my blood boil like the deliberate lies promulgated by "ex-gay" organizations such as Exodus International - which has published the ad set out above in newspapers in Jamaica and Trina dad - and its Christianist hate group financial backers. Despite the staggering medical/mental health evidence that debunks and outright condemns "ex-gay" change "ministries" and reparative therapy as false and even harmful, these organizations continue to knowingly and deliberately disseminate lies. What's even more distressing is that they are increasingly preying upon ignorant and relatively uneducated populations overseas as targets of their lies and falsehoods as the market for such trash diminishes in America. Candidly, the "ex-gays" for pay at Exodus and a host of similar Christianist financed "ex-gay" ministries make the most vile and nasty prostitutes look down right virtuous and upstanding in comparison. Sadly, these "ex-gays" - many of who have been subjected to fraudulent religious based brainwashing and/or were total dysfunctional losers in life before becoming "ex-gay" whores - have been cynically used by their "godly Christian" paymasters.

As for the Christianists who fund these fraudulent organizations are even worse than the "ex-gay" whores they support financially. They either support these bogus programs for political purposes or because they are so mentally damaged by their religious indoctrination that they cannot accept that the Bible is wrong on the issue of homosexuality - I'd go so far as to describe them as suffering from a form of mental illness - that they will spread all kinds of hatred and slanderous information about LGBT individuals.

The sooner that organizations like Exodus are stomped out of existence and exposed for the frauds and liars that they are, the better off the world will be. I began my activist journey helping to expose "ex-gay" poster boy Michael Johnston as a total fraud back in 2003 and I continue to believe that ending the "ex-gay" myth is vital to securing full equality for LGBT individuals. Think Progress commented on the ad as follows:

A full-page ad promoting ex-gay therapy has appeared in the leading Trinidad newspaper Sunday Express, titled “What You Should Know About Homosexuality.” A similar advertisement was also recently published in a Jamaican newspaper, LGBTQ Nation reports. As one equality activist put it, “They looked at this…and thought it was okay to publish? Not that something is wrong with publishing a religiously slanted ad, but one that openly discredits a community, questions their movement towards rights and even, in a sense, undermines their actual existence is definitely a problem.”

I continue to support a total boycott of nations like Jamaica where the government continues to support the kind of lies, hatred and outright bullshit that are the norm with Exodus and which are embodied in this ad. I would encourage readers to contact the Jamaica Tourism Board and make it clear that as long as homophobia is official policy, your tourist dollars will go elsewhere and that in addition you will encourage everyone you know to boycott the island as well. Here is where where you can send a message to the Jamaica Tourist Board: http://www.visitjamaica.com/contact-us.aspx. A similar message can be sent to the Trinidad tourism bureau here.

The other thing that needs to happen is that the American Psychological Association needs to become aggressive and push state licensing agencies to revoke the licenses of therapist who engage in this kind of bogus quackery - and yes, I do mean Minnesota among other states. Similarly, states need to shut down "Christian counseling" clinics if they don't meet state licensing requirments. Lastly, we need to see more victims of "ex-gay" ministries and/or their families suing these for the harm that they do.

Reality Denying Michele Bachmann Disputes Kinsey Report

Lunatic GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann just can't seem to keep her mouth shout and avoid babbling anti-gay batshitery. Of course, the irony is all the greater since Bachmann's husband "Marcia" has to be the most visible closeted gay in the country at the moment. Yes, he's in deep, deep denial but as one commenter on an Advocate story remarked, when he "opens his mouth... chiffon spills out." Bachmann's latest anti-gay drivel came out when a woman confronted them with information about the size of the gay population based on the Kinsey Report at a campaign event in north central Iowa. Rather than running for president, both Bachmann and "Marcia" ought to be seeking treatment from legitimate mental health care experts as opposed to some quack clinic like the one they own that peddles lies and religious hocus pocus "cures." Here are highlights from The Advocate on the encounter:

Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus dismissed a woman who confronted them with information about the size of the gay population at a campaign event in north central Iowa on Sunday.

CNN reports on the exchange at a pizza restaurant, where the candidate was approached by a woman wearing a Bachmann sticker and holding a sign that said, “Gay-friendly Iowan.”

Schnell then said, "I wonder if you're aware that 10% of the population is gay. And if you have 28 children, then 2.8 of those kids are very likely gay." Bachmann seemed to ignore her, but then replied after Schnell commented that she was not listening.

"Well, that's according to the Kinsey Report," said Bachmann, in a reference to the sex researcher. Marcus Bachmann, who has been accused of offering therapy to “change” gay people at his clinic in Minnesota, said, "Your facts are wrong.”

"That's not valid?" asked Schnell. "No, it isn't," said the congresswoman before she moved to the next table. Her husband added, "No, it's not at all. It's been a myth for many years."

[T]he event also drew other gay rights activists, including a college student who wanted to ask Bachmann about gay teen suicides but was told she would not be taking questions.

If the Bachmann's want to talk about myths, then they need to come clean on the myth that "Marcia" isn't a huge closeted queen. He makes most drag queens look ultra-butch.

Throckmorton Demolishes NARTH's Anti-Gay Honoree

If you want to listen to liars if listening to Herman Cain's endless denials isn't more than enough for you, then you might check out the faux scientific organization NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) where lies, falsehoods and deliberate distortions of research is the norm. In fact, dishonesty - and claimed religiosity - seems to be a prerequisite for involvement in NARTH. As Warren Throckmorton points out at its recent conference NARTH honored not only a non-scientist but an individual that has a track record of distorting the research of others or hanging his hat on bogus research. While the topic is not titillating, it's important to understand the tactics used by NARTH and its allies in the Christian Right in order to e able to respond to and demolish their fake research on sexual orientation. Warren provides a great blue print on how to do this. Here are some highlights:

During the recent NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) conference in Phoenix, organization President Julie Hamilton gave an award to Michel Lizotte, a Canadian journalist. The award was given because Lizotte has been “clearly presenting the research and providing hope and help to those who are seeking such help” in Canada.

[W]hat says a lot about NARTH is the type of “education” Mr. Lizotte has been presenting. A look at Lizotte’s website (translated from the French via Google translation) indicates that he promotes the reparative drive theory of homosexuality. On this page, Lizotte posted videos of Joseph Nicolosi explaining the reparative theory. Lizotte claims research on homosexuality supports his views . . .

Examining the footnotes tells you a lot about his efforts and NARTH’s decision to promote Lizotte’s work. . . . . Stekel, Bieber, Rubenstein* and Ovesey were psychoanalysts who developed their theories about homosexuality, not from studies, but from a limited number of psychoanalytic cases. Bieber’s study has recently been compromised by revelations that one co-author, Cornelia Wilbur, conspired with a journalist to distort at least two case reports, including the famous case of Sybil. Bieber’s methods had been discredited because he relied on psychoanalysts who already believed homosexuality derived from deficient parenting.

Van Den Aardweg’s 1986 book reports the results of his cases treated with “Anticomplaining therapy.” He reports lots of successes but essentially these are his claims with no independent verification or peer review. Birk’s 1974 report comes the closest to a credible report of change but adds no new information about the “origins of homosexuality.” If anything, however, behavioral psychotherapist Birk would disagree with most of what is on Lizotte’s website about causes. In 1980, Birk reported that those who wanted to gain heterosexual capacity had some success but they were not free of homosexual behavior or feelings.

In short, Lizotte makes claims about homosexuality, supports the claims with old, poorly designed and/or irrelevant citations, fails to cite conflicting and/or newer research and then says that “the latest research” supports his position. No wonder NARTH gave him an award.

NARTH's award yet again underscores that there are few people less honest and deceitful that the "godly Christian" set and their gay hating allies. When all is said and done, they continue to demonize gays and disseminate fraudulent information to make a buck and to aid the political agenda of the hate groups that stand behind a good chunk of NARTH's funding.

"Marcia" Bachmann Demands Payment for Fraudulent "Ex-Gay" Therapy

As many may recall, earlier in the year Wayne Besen's Truth Wins Out exposed Michele Bachmann's husband Marcus - a/k/a "Marcia" because he lisps like the biggest flaming queen one could ever meet - Bachmann as promoting "ex-gay" therapy at his "clinics." These "clinics" which appear to be masquerading as religious ministries - Christian counseling centers to be exact - to circumvent licensing requirements. Oh, and then there's that little issue of the American Psychology Association defining "ex-gay" reparative therapy as being unethical. Truth Wins Out exposed the fraud taking place at the Bachmann "clinics" by sending in the very cute John Becker with a hidden video camera. The rest is history - or so we thought. "Marcia" is in a snit and demanding payment for two fraudulent sessions that Becker failed to attend. Truth Wins Out's attorney's have written Marcia a letter dated November 17, 2011, basically telling her to put her demands where the sun doesn't shine. Here are some highlights:

Dear Dr. Bachmann:

The undersigned is personal counsel for John Becker of Burlington, Vermont.

It has come to my attention that Bachmann & Associates has wrongfully billed my client Mr. Becker, representing the organization Truth Wins Out, for therapy sessions that he never attended.

More so, you have personally called my client demanding he remit immediate payment to Bachmann & Associates in the amount of $150.00 for cancelled appointments. In truth and in fact, these so called appointments were timely canceled pursuant to and in compliance with your clinic’s stated procedures.

According to Bachmann & Associates’ no-show policy, patients are assessed a $75 fee for each appointment that they miss without giving prior notification. Becker’s telephone records indicate that he called the clinic in early July to cancel his remaining sessions, giving Bachmann & Associates ample time to schedule appointments with other clients.

However, if you are persistent in this claim, and attempt to employ the collection agency you have threatened to, you should know that my firm and our associates in your jurisdiction would take legal action against you.

Specifically, and you should make no mistake about the same, we consider your therapy and practices fraudulent. We have concluded your services are dubious and questionable, not worthy of any billing at all. We consider your fees and charges part of a larger civil conspiracy to defraud vulnerable individuals.

As you know, the American Psychiatric Association says that attempts to alter one’s sexual orientation can lead to “anxiety, depression, and self-destructive behavior.” Truth Wins Out has conclusively documented your office engaging in this discredited “therapy” while masquerading it as treatment.

If you go forward with your claim, we are prepared to show that your clinic’s presentations and practices are specious and surreptitious, unworthy of financial compensation. In furtherance of our assertion, we are going to ask the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General to investigate your policies, practices, and procedures. Specifically, we are going to ask them to evaluate the purported ‘scientific’ basis for your patently false representations that your clinic offers ‘therapeutic’ services.

We are gravely concerned that you contacted my client out of spite, because he disclosed the truth about the discredited and outmoded techniques practiced in your office, instead exposing the way you misled the public- by denying that this “therapy” was even taking place.

Please advise me that Bachmann & Associates will summarily dismiss this claim within 72 hours, or we will necessarily engage counsel and institute appropriate legal actions of our own against your firm, premised on the three legal arguments I have outlined above:

First, that my client was compliant with your business practices, albeit questionable though they are;

Second, that because your services involve a conspiracy to defraud otherwise innocent parties they constitute fraud in the inducement; and

Third, that your attempt to facilitate the collection of an unjustified debt constitutes a retaliatory and malicious prosecution, warranting attorney’s fees and court costs.

It should also be noted that some serious questions exist concerning Marcia's purported degree that would justify addressing him as "Doctor." The man, like his "clinics" is a fraud and he (with his business partner, Michele Bachmann) needs to be put out business.

French Protest American Ex-Gay Program

I've noted many times in the past the efforts of the American Christian Taliban to export the ex-gay myth overseas, particularly to largely uneducated populations in Africa. But the effort is not limited to third world nations. Even countries like France are seeing the effort to import lies and false "experts" in order to denigrate gays and promote the myth that sexual orientation is changeable. Fortunately, the Christianist efforts are meeting with considerable opposition and outcry as recently demonstrated in Toulouse, France. Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has details. Here are highlights:

Organizers of Rainbow Toulouse had hoped that maybe a hundred people at the most might to show up in front of a small Evangelical church to protest a planned ex-gay seminar. Instead, they were pleasantly surprised to see between 200 and 300 protesters turning out.

The scheduled seminar, scheduled for last weekend, is affiliated with Andrew Comiskey’s Living Waters program in the U.S. Comiskey, a former president of Exodus International, has been aggressively expanding his Desert Stream Ministries and its Living Waters program in Canada and Europe. Former ex-gay leader Vonnie Pits issued an apology for her role in a Living Waters-based program she set up in New South Wales, Australia.

In 2005, DSM moved to Kansas City where Comiskey announced he was partnering with Dominionist theologian Mike Bickle (organizer of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s crusade in Houston) and the International House of Prayer. DSM reportedly uses “extreme methods that involve forms of exorcism (deliverance/healing prayer) and rely on teachings that believe that people become gay through demonic influences and the sins of ancestors.”

You can see a video testimony of an ex-gay survivor of Living Waters here.

These "ex-gay" ministries and the quacks who make a comfortable living peddling lies need to be shut down. State regulators need to start revoking licenses and/or instituting prosecution against the quacks who are knowingly defrauding the desperate and vulnerable.

Quote of the Day - Michele Goldberg Takes Down the Bachmanns

Some may think that I've focused far too much on the Michele/Marcus Bachmann reparative therapy story. However, the myth that sexual orientation is a "choice" and the myth that gays can "change" are the lynch pins to the Christianist message in opposition to LGBT equality on all fronts. Once the public at large realizes that being LGBT is an unchangeable and immutable characteristic, Christianist anti-gay efforts begin to crumble and all they have left in their arsenal is unadulterated religious based discrimination. Moreover, if sexual orientation is immutable, it then falls within constitutional equal protection rulings and analysis. This fact terrifies the Christianists. Michele Goldberg has some powerful statements in the Daily Beast. Here are some of the best:

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But reparative therapy is dangerous no matter how good the intentions behind it. It doesn’t work, and it exacerbates the self-loathing that leads gays and lesbians to seek it out in the first place. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “The potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.” The American Psychological Association condemned reparative therapy in a 1997 resolution, affirming the principle that “psychologists do not make false or deceptive statements concerning...the scientific or clinical basis for...their services.”
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So Bachmann’s clinic, which has received $137,000 in Medicaid funds, is subjecting people to psychologically damaging techniques with no scientific basis. Wiertzema’s approach is not unique there. Indeed, the clinic sells copies of Janet Boynes book Called Out: A Former Lesbian’s Discovery of Freedom, which argues, “Homosexuality, like any sin, separates us from God, for He cannot tolerate sin in His presence.”
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Neither Bachmann nor many of his therapists, it’s important to note, have serious psychological training. His Ph.D. comes from the Union Institute, a Cincinnati-based correspondence school; in 2002, it was cited by the Ohio Board of Regents, which said, “Expectations for student scholarship at the doctoral level were not as rigorous as is common for doctoral work.” As Politico has reported, he’s not licensed with any of the boards that certify mental-health professionals in Minnesota, one of the few states that allows unlicensed people to practice mental-health care. Similarly, Wiertzema’s M.A. comes from Argosy University, a for-profit diploma mill.
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Why does any of this matter? Bachmann may be dishonest about his practice, but he’s not the one running for president. Yet in describing herself as a small-business owner, Michele Bachmann clearly takes partial credit for Bachmann & Associates, and so its activities reflect on her. Besides, she’s made it clear that Marcus exerts authority over her, telling one church audience that she bowed to her husband’s instructions to study tax law because “the Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.” That means his character and beliefs are more germane to her candidacy than those of other political spouses. He’s the head of the woman who wants to be the head of country. He’s also a man with dubious qualifications running a clinic whose counseling techniques can ruin lives.

The Choice Myth: A Century of Ex-Gay Treatments Have Ranged from Horrifying to Horribly Unscientific

Despite the latest report by the American Psychological Association Condemning ex-gay and reparative therapy, various quacks and Christianist "ministries" continue to claim that they can turn gays straight. The claims are simply put and actually motivated by two things: (1) the money to be made off of individuals, or more typically, their families who due to religious brainwashing cannot except being gay and (2) the political need to continue to claim that since gays can change if they but want to, no legal protections should be granted. Discover Magazine has an article that looks at the bogus "cure" programs and some of the horrific things done to gays to make them "change." If you believe these therapies work, you might just as well go hire yourself and African witch doctor or voodoo practitioner. Here are some highlights:

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All the major psychiatric organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have warned against therapies that try to change sexual orientation. Both APAs have ruled that these therapies are unscientific and possibly harmful—not to mention unnecessary, since homosexuality was officially de-classified as an illness in 1973, and therefore can't be "cured." As such, sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are rarely practiced by mainstream mental health practitioners, while many therapists are concerned that anyone who does try to change through therapy may do themselves more harm than good.
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Still, practices like Nicolosi's [and NARTH] have persisted, as has the debate over whether sexual orientation can—or should—be changed. So on August 5, the APA's Council of Representatives took the strongest stand yet, passing a near-unanimous resolution urging mental health professionals not to tell clients that they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or any other methods.
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Homosexuality was officially labeled a mental illness in the U.S. in the 1950s. The debate over same-sex attraction was not new: Sigmund Freud reported on one deliberate attempt to change the sexual orientation of a young woman who'd been brought in for involuntary treatment by her parents. He was unsuccessful, and concluded that attempts to change homosexual orientation were likely to fail.

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Experimental treatments were performed throughout the mid-century, sometimes in high profile cases. In 1952, renowned mathematician Alan Turing was convicted of gross indecency in the U.K. after admitting to a sexual relationship with a man . . . Two years later, he committed suicide.

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One of the most popular aversion techniques was "orgasmic reconditioning"—men would be shown erotic pictures of other men, and if they became aroused, th ey would receive an electric shock on their genitals. Therapists also gave patients drugs that induced vomiting or paralysis, or exposed them to noxious chemicals like ammonia, whenever they were aroused by same-sex photos.

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These "therapies" were generally ineffective—the person remained attracted to the same sex—or over-effective—the person was traumatized and lost all sexual arousal entirely. They "were used without people thinking about whether they were humane."

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Befitting the times, the mainstream mental health community no longer advocates change treatments, but instead supports approaches that help patients cope with the stress and stigma of being a sexual minority. Still, SOCE is still being practiced within a small group of mental-health practitioners, most of whom cater to a population whose religious beliefs strictly bar homosexuality.

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Then there's the larger question of whether science should study treatments for a condition that is not, in mental health terms, a problem. "All the major mental health organizations have concluded that homosexuality is not an illness, and there's no reason to try to change it or treat it," Miller says. "So whether it's appropriate, or ethical, to do such an experiment is a serious consideration."

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I hope the day comes when these bogus "cure"programs are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, those driven by a lust for money and the cynical use of gay lives for political power are unlikely to care about whether or not what they do is ethical. The APA and state licensing authorities need to go on the offensive and close down these horrible practices once and for all.