Unconscionable Practice. This court ruling could mean the end of gay conversion therapy.
By Mark Joseph SternChaim Levin prayed to God to cure his homosexuality—and Alan Downing promised to answer his prayers. Levin, an 18-year-old orthodox Jew and a victim of childhood sexual abuse, believed his attraction to men was a disorder; Downing, a gay conversion “therapist,” said he could heal him. At one therapy session, for which Levin’s parents paid $100, Downing told Levin to remove a piece of clothing, say something bad about himself, then repeat the process. Levin complied until he was naked. Downing instructed Levin to touch his penis, then his buttocks, while Downing watched. This, Downing said, would help Levin become straight.
Today, Levin is one of four gay men suing Downing and his colleagues for subjecting them to humiliating and discredited treatments. Their lawsuit posits that Downing and his fellow counselors violated a New Jersey consumer protection statute by claiming, falsely, that their services would actually work. That is, Levin and his fellow victims are suing them for being quacks. Downing assured Levin he could cure his homosexuality. Now Levin is suing to prove that assurance was a lie. And if he wins, gay conversion therapists around the country could find their jobs at risk.
The legal theory behind Levin’s lawsuit is surprisingly simple. New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act bars any organization from advertising a good or service that doesn’t work by pretending that it does. Downing and his organization, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, offer gay conversion therapy—a service that, licensed psychologists almost unanimously agree, does not work at all. Yet JONAH’s counselors routinely insisted that, through bizarre and often sexually charged activities, they could stifle same-sex desire and ignite opposite-sex attraction. Levin and his co-plaintiffs, who are represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, gave JONAH a good chunk of money to receive these worthless services, then paid even more money for real therapists to help them process the trauma they underwent at JONAH. Under New Jersey law, they’re suing to get that money back—with damages.
The SPLC assumed that much of the court battle would revolve around the question of whether homosexuality can, in accordance with current scientific knowledge, be deemed a disorder. JONAH’s entire practice revolves around this presumption, as well as the idea that, as a disorder, homosexuality can be “cured.” If the judge allowed JONAH to argue that part of the scientific community views same-sex attraction as a fixable flaw, the jury might hesitate to find that the promise of a gay cure constituted false advertising.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/02/new_jersey_gay_conversion_therapy_case_blocked_expert_testimony_could_be.html?
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Almost as sad is when people try to "cure" themselves.
I had a childhood friend who killed himself because he couldn't "pray the gay away." His religious family couldn't accept homosexuality. He never told them, but he "knew" it. His religion was clear, gay was wrong.
As a young man I had a catastrophic relationship with a religious woman who was using me to prove to herself and her family she wasn't a lesbian.
It was the David Lynch version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I was left bleeding on the curb, literally, permanently scarred, although some of that was maybe my fault. We were fighting after she'd checked her true love into rehab, having invited me along under false pretenses as extra muscle, not that she needed any extra muscle. I just stood outside of the restroom door claiming "rough sex" as she beat the shit out of her true love's pimp-boyfriend-dealer-sociopath until he talked. I may have participated in a felony, but I don't want to know.
What kind of idiot opens the door of a rapidly moving car and steps out? An idiot like Hunter. That was the last we've ever talked, and she sent all my stuff back to me in a cardboard box without a note.
As adults I believe marriage, love, and "public displays of affection" are a human right that ought to be celebrated by everyone, in both law and in ordinary secular life. A couple holding hands and kissing in the park, church, or courthouse always ought to make you smile.
This is not any couple I know, just a picture I found on google, but like this:
Staff Sgt. Aisha McClain, left, and Shannelle Williams kiss after getting married at the Doña Ana County Government Center on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013, in Las Cruces, N.M. The New Mexico's highest court declared it was unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. ((AP Photo/The Las Cruces Sun-News, Robin Zielinski) )
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24764115/nm-same-sex-marriage-ruling-comes-amid-long
Love is all you need.
