Pray-Away-The-Gay And Ex-Gay Voodoo Get SHOKed By Rep. Jackie Spier ... And Sued by The SPLC

Is this the end of the Self-Loathing Industry?

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit today accusing a New Jersey organization of consumer fraud for offering conversion therapy services – a dangerous and discredited practice that claims to convert people from gay to straight.

I knew a man who, when he told his parents he was gay, his mother said "we'd rather be burying you today than hear this." For them he had already undergone shock treatments and intense psychological therapy. For them he had gotten married and had fathered five children. Yet he still could not deny who he was. 

He was honest with himself ... and lucky: he weathered the depression that comes with failure to change something innate.

The Self-Loathing Industry

Whether it's listed as legitimate "reparative therapy" or (more to-the-point) "pray away the gay" counseling, an attempt to "cure" a person's sexual orientation is part of an industry that is very real, very forceful, ... and very harmful. Like forcefully banging one's head repeatedly against a stone wall, it eventually results in damage that can be life-threatening. It can be fatal: attempts at suicide are common among people who undergo such therapy.

And yet there is irony in the damage: therapists often point to suicidal attempts as a "symptom" of being gay: the Family Research Council often cites depression as a part of homosexuality and that gays are "naturally" prone to depression because they know they are not right (with God). The Self-Loathing Industry promoted by "family values" groups can be self-sustaining, feeding upon the very depression it creates.

The kingpin of the Self-Loathing Industry is undoubtedly one Joseph Nicolosi, founder of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), while the wikipedia entry for Dr. Nicolosi has been considerably cleaned up in the last year, the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) has had some choice words for Nicolosi - "endlessly confrontational" - and roundly disputes NARTH's other "experts" and "researchers":

"In 1995, for example, NARTH featured Scott Lively, co-author of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, at its annual conference. Lively’s book argues that the Nazi Party recruited gay men because of their inherent savagery and that gay men largely orchestrated the Holocaust — a claim roundly rejected by all reputable historians. NARTH has also promoted the work of Paul Cameron, who remains director of the Family Research Institute despite being ejected from the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association (ASA). The ASA declared, “Dr. Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism.”Nicolosi's patent blaming of homosexuality on parents ("Fathers, if you don't hug your sons, some other man will") has caused the APA to chastise him repeatedly and he has had some time keeping his APA membership as well as memberships in other professional organizations. Like Paul Cameron, his approach is often referred to as 'junk science.'"

And like junk food, junk science can be harmful - even violent: some "therapies" involve confrontational beating of objects representing both parents. Beating your mother, it seems, has therapeutic value. 

Preventing More Damage

While the Self-Loathing Industry has been around a long time (remember all those "self-help" books?*), it did not reach its zenith until the Christian Right settled on it as a means to "eradicate" homosexuality while claiming that its concern was for the homosexual. Organizations like NARTH and Exodus sprang up, clinics like Marcus Bachmann's suggested that there was a "cure" through prayer and "cured" couples were advertised in all media. The web of fraudulent claims, however, began to unravel when "ex-gay" poster boy John Paulk was discovered in a gay bar. Then Exodus admitted that homosexuality is not a "choice" and that there was no "cure." Compounded with reports of increased client depression, suicides and warnings from the APA, the stance of the Self-Loathing Industry became rocky.

Now lawmakers are stepping in to prevent kids from going into dangerous therapy, egged on by their unaccepting, desperate parents: California recently passed a law that no one under 18 may be subjected to reparative therapy. And now:

"In response to tragic examples of the harmful psychological abuse inflicted on young people through dangerous sexual orientation conversion practices, also known as reparative therapy to convert or “repair” an individual’s sexual orientation, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) will introduce the Stop Harming Our Kids (SHOK) resolution on Wednesday, November 28. At a 10:00 a.m. press conference, she will discuss the resolution and her efforts to investigate whether taxpayer funds have been used to reimburse therapists for this discredited and ineffective practice through the federal Medicaid or TRICARE healthcare programs."

Along with the ground-breaking lawsuit brought on by the SPLC (above), it appears as if the Self-Loathing Industry may be on its last legs. But appearances in cases of social acceptance can be deceiving: the Christian Right is putting its full weight against such legislation and cries from the pulpit will be heard for a long time.

The Battle For The Self Loathing Industry may have just begun. 

* The most classic response to self-help mania came from Calvin & Hobbes:

Calvin: "I'm writing a self-help book! There's a huge market for this stuff. First, you convince people there's something wrong with them. That's easy because advertising has already conditioned people to feel insecure about their height, their weight, looks, social status, sex appeal and so on.
Next, you convince them that the problem is not their fault. Finally, you convince them that with your expert advice they can conquer their problem.
Hobbes: Ingenious. What problem will you help people solve?
Calvin: Their addiction to self-help books! My book is called "Shut Up And Stop Whining: How To Do Something With Your Life Besides Think About Yourself." The trouble is...if my program works, I won't be able to write a sequel.

The Monday Sermon: Should Certain Prayers Come With A Warning Label?

Reparative Therapy 

or 

"Re-prayer-a-tive" 

Therapy?

What is the purpose of prayer? Is it to cure or condemn? To acquire or release? One cynic has said that prayer is doing nothing while thinking you're helping. For some people, that is probably true. And when the prayer is for yourself, that maybe merely self-delusion: the power of prayer lies not only in intensity but purpose. Purpose, in fact, can define intensity, and the more minds share the purpose and intensity, the greater the power, the greater the possibility that something may happen.

Something. But not necessarily what is prayed for.

There are , of course, many different kinds of prayer - especially in today's societies and one could argue that "imprecatory" prayer is used more often than not, since whole nations under Islam are praying for the destruction of the U.S. And there's individual prayer; but is praying in a quiet corner of one's house, as Jesus suggested, just as powerful? Again, the intensity and purpose delineate the power, and in the case of self-change, the results can be good, bad ...or non-existent.

Reparative therapy - today commonly known as "pray-away-the-gay" or "re- prayer-a-tive" therapy is now under scrutiny by the California legislature.

The bill would make it illegal for psychologists in the state of California to provide gay and lesbian conversion or reorientation therapy to teens. The controversial conversion therapy, sometimes also known as reparative therapy, attempts to change the sexual orientation of a person from homosexual (or bisexual) to heterosexual.
The bill would also require adults who submit to the therapy to sign a release saying they know what they're getting into.

Most of reparative therapy involves some kind of prayer and many clinics are affiliated with faith-based organizations. Clinics like NARTH - the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality - routinely use prayer as a means of confession to the "sin" of homosexuality and instillation of hope that through prayer and following the methods of the therapist the person will be "cured." It's not as bogus as faith healing, but it deals with fearful and confused people who suffer self-loathing and will doing anything to stop the torment of being considered "vile" and "sinful" in their orientations.

It also deals with children and teens forced by their parents to seek therapy.

The stories of harm caused by reparative therapy far outweigh the stories of "cures.": most patients suffer even more depression and the number of subsequent suicides is alarming. Some of the clinics, like the one run by Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus Bachmann are unlicensed. NARTH is licensed, but the stories of its techniques and its therapists abound. For example, the author of A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality, Joseph Nicolosi has (jokingly?) stated: “If the father drops the kid and the kid gets brain damage, at least he’ll be straight. Small price to pay.”

NARTH has also been plagued with incidents of hypocrisy and scandal: one of its founders is George "rent boy" Rekers* who was paid $300 an hour for "expert" testimony against gay adoption in Florida. Joseph Nicolosi has been at odds with the American Psychological Association, and his membership has been jeopardized several times.

And in an "alert" email sent to donors about the proposed California legislation, NARTH effectively admits to "pray away the gay":

While this is a direct assault on everyone’s freedom it is also a not so subtle attack on religious liberty. Individuals of faith often seeking to live lives congruent with their religious convictions are often motivated to seek help for their homosexual attractions. This type of legislation would in effect criminalize those formerly ethical relationships between a client and their therapist unless those interactions were supervised by agents of the state.

The State of California has never criminalized prayer, but the intent to promote a potentially harmful mode of therapy - one using prayer - is certainly criminal.

Maybe certain prayers and therapies should come with a warning label. Then again, so should some therapists.


*Rekers was spotted with a male escort in an airport, after which the escort stated that he was hired to do more than help Rekers with his luggage.