Therapy to change 'feminine' boy created a troubled man, family says

[Jefferson23]

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Kirk Andrew Murphy seemed to have everything to live for.

He put himself through school. He had a successful 8-year career in the Air Force. After the service, he landed a high profile position with an American finance company in India.

But in 2003 at age 38, Kirk Murphy took his own life.

A co-worker found him hanging from the fan of his apartment in New Delhi. His family has struggled for years to understand what happened.



Gallery: UCLA's Gender Identity Clinic

Male escort and Baptist minister "I used to spend so much time thinking, why would he kill himself at the age of 38? It doesn't make any sense to me," said Kirk's sister, Maris Murphy. "What I now think is I don't know how he made it that long."

After Kirk's death, Maris started a search that would uncover a dark family secret. That secret revealed itself during a phone conversation with her older brother Mark, who mentioned his distrust of any kind of therapy.

"Don't you remember all that crap we went through at UCLA?" he asked her. Maris was too young to remember the details, but Mark remembered it vividly as a low point in their lives.

in full and videos at link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/07/sissy.boy.experiment/index.html


The reprehensible study:
BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT OF DEVIANT SEX-ROLE
BEHAVIORS IN A MALE CHILD' ( 1974)

GEORGE A. REKERS AND 0. IVAR LovAAs

PDF, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1311956/pdf/jaba00060-0003.pdf

[dsc]

1. He is just a few years younger than I

poor guy. I watched the segment on tonight's show there will be three. Kind of depressed to be honest.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Watching this on Anderson Cooper right now.

How very very sad.

[ruggerson]

3. Recommended n/t

[Newest Reality]

4. This could be considered as the

effect of culture upon us all.

We are all unique individuals, no two exactly alike. We come out of, (not into) this world as a cherry comes from a cherry tree. We are part of it, in that sense, feel it or not, know it or not.

Culture creates norms for its own sake. Those norms are purportedly for our own good, yet, we can see that there is so much persecution and suffering that is inflicted in the enforcement of such a model.

We could, once and for all, throw tha, and with it, the hierarchy, (pyramid) that creates the conditions we face, off, for good. We could live more in a way that we say, let it be. That way of life might even shimmer with the reflection of true liberty and freedom where organic beings, (with multi-million-year-old, evolving bio-computers) live in a form of homeostasis with the planet and environment in which they dwell.

We are on the verge of something now that transcends boundaries and conventions. That is only because the act of suggesting the potential is still allowed and it can be expressed. We could think about how and why we are hear and, knowing more about that, find out, from there, what kind of courage we then have to grapple with our circumstances in ways that make our lives more valuable and enriched in a multitude of ways.

Right now, we are just getting the news of a very bad, nightmare-like revelation that tells us just how deeply we have been enmeshed in the matrix of control while believing that it was real and the be-all and end-all of what we came here for.

[Maru Kitteh]

10. You use this family's tragedy to spew a bunch of nonsense and make it about you.

:thumbsdown:

Nightmare revelations and shimmering million year-old evolving bio-computers? JEEZUS.

[Newest Reality]

11. Really?

And you read that?

Wow. That's an interesting conclusion and I would like to know how that is about me and not about you.

Thanks for your response, though. You are unique.

[ChrisBorg]

5. DUH

[tishaLA]

6. Reker's a fucking creep, no doubt, but

how did the parents agree to go along with this, even in the early 70s? Beating their son if he played with "girl" toys wasn't exactly state of the art parenting then, either.

[ruggerson]

7. sure it was

and emotional torture can be just as destructive:

http://www.loveinaction.org/

[nolabear]

15. It happened. It still happens.

I wish it wasn't true, but it is.

[RobinA]

21. This Was My

reaction. I was a young teenager in the early '70's, and it wasn't the flippin' Dark Ages.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. What's that saying about the pavement on the road to hell?

I believe that Rekers really did want to help. I believe his desire came from his own tormented experience. And so he paved a special road to hell for Kirk. I hope some day Rekers understands what in his life should be repented. This. This. This.

[aikoaiko]

9. Between George Rekers and John Money a lot of harm was done.

The boys (and girls) who suffered from their work, either directly at their hands or by the hands of therapists who believed the published research reports, suffered greatly.


Gender is not just a matter of reinforcement and punishment. In the 60s and 70s, it was really popular to think that gender was plastic and that biology was not a determinant.

[kickysnana]

12. This was going on in 1959/60 to a boy in my grade school

His crime was that when he was nervous he giggled, he was 9 years old. They pulled 7 of the brightest third graders into a mixed 3rd/4th grade because of class size problems, all girls and then him. I think that that teacher agreed with the program. He was subjected to punishment and humiliation (wearing bows in his hair, threatening to make him wear a dress) and in the 4th grade his folks transferred him to a tough Catholic Boys Academy.

We were pretty naive back then and didn't have a clue as to why he was being treated much more harshly than anyone else in the school. We started running interference so he would not be punished as often, such as laughing high and loud so his laugh could not be picked out.

It was one of those school years you would rather forget. I got in trouble because I was so angry about it and had no way to safely vent so I wrote an "I hate Mrs Magilacutty" note and put it in the linen closet, I thought far enough back that nobody would ever find it but my Mom did and instead of asking me about it she took it to the school first. I felt I had to lie about what was bothering me because I thought if I said anything they would take it out on that boy. So for the first time I lied at school. I was sent to a counselor for two months which of course only made things worse because I couldn't be honest and felt guilty for lying and was still angry. So these things not only affected the boys involved but siblings, friends, and classmates. Sorry Mom.

[nolabear]

14. Ah, M'Dear.

You did your best. You were a child. I'm sorry.

As a therapist these stories break my heart. One of the joys of this profession is the giving up of trying to change anyone into anything, but only to help them to be who they are with joy. To see it perverted is so, so sad.

[Jefferson23]

16. What a brave kid you were and not to ignore, such a noble act..kudos.

I posted this as we all have seen and heard groups still today selling a cure for gays. The price
the children pay is like you said so well, beyond the targeted victim, but society in general.

Thank you for posting your story.

[Initech]

13. How is this not torture?

[Le Taz Hot]

17. I've got a cousin who is currently

trying to "man up" her 5-year-old son. He likes to dress in pretty clothes and often dresses up in his sisters' clothes. He's 5. Who the hell knows if this is a long-term trend or a phase but I know one thing for sure, if they keep scolding him and trying to "man him up" (their words) they are certain to have a troubled young man on their hands when it was entirely avoidable.

[Jefferson23]

20. A 5 year old scolded for expressing himself, it sounds like fear when I read

responses from parents like this. Maybe pass along the article to the parents?

[NC_Nurse]

18. horrible. these people should be prosecuted for abuse.

[FLPanhandle]

19. The dad in this story was abusive

The whole family was traumatized by the beatings he gave his son.

The clinic comes off sounding good compared to him and they were assholes in their own right.