A Survivor Of Gay Conversn Therapy Shar His Chillg Story | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• 5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
• THE CEL, DANGERO REALY OF GAY NVERSN THERAPY
• CELEBRI WHO HAVE SPOKEN OUT ABOUT THE INHUMANE PRACTICE OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TO CONVERSN THERAPY ARE SHARG THEIR TRMATIC STORI, AND IT'S A REMR WHY IT NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED
• ‘I REALLY WAS BROKEN’: SURVIVOR WEL DOMIC PERROTTET AGREEG TO BAN GAY NVERSN PRACTIC
• THEY/THEM REVIEW: A SLASHER GO TO GAY CONVERSN CAMP CLEVER HORROR MOVIE
• GAY NVERSN THERAPY: HUNDREDS OF RELIG LEARS LL FOR BAN
• ‘THE WORLD IS WATCHG’: QUEER MUNY PH NSW TO BAN GAY NVERSN PRACTIC ON EVE OF WORLDPRI
• MILO YIANNOPOULOS SAYS HE IS ‘EX-GAY,’ WANTS TO REHABILATE ‘NVERSN THERAPY’
• MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE
• ‘THEY/THEM’ FILM REVIEW: SHARP SCRIPT GIV BE TO GAY-CONVERSN CAMP HORROR STORY
• A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' IS A HUMANIZG LOOK AT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS
• ISRAEL BANS “GAY CONVERSN” THERAPY
• GROUP APOLOGIZ TO GAY MUNY, SHUTS DOWN ‘CURE’ MISTRY

5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

But mastream psychologists say the therapy is effective, uhil and often harmful, exacerbatg anxiety and self-hatred among those treated for what is not a mental 2013, two s volvg the therapy to nvert gay people to heterosexuals h the urts, wh one seekg to sue unselors who offer the therapy and the other seekg to fend are five thgs you need to know about the therapy and the current psychologists say nversn therapy don't workA diagnosis of major prsn do not evoke much rponse, eher a stigmatizg or supportive, om a person's social work, a study dited. His therapist blamed his parents for Arana's homosexualy, and urged him to distance himself om his female bt Lev, one of the men sug Jonah for ceptive practic, says that he qu nversn therapy after his therapist had him strip down and touch himself to "rennect wh his masculy, " acrdg to the New York 's happeng the urts? It didn’t of the most proment advot of nversn therapy the 1940s and 50s was Edmund Bergler, who saw homosexualy as a perversn and believed he uld "cure" gay people wh a punishment-based, nontatnal therapy the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn stopped classifyg homosexualy as a mental disorr 1973, nversn therapi lost support.

In 2003, famed psychiatrist Robert Spzer, who spearhead the removal of homosexualy om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's mental disorr list 1973, reported the journal Archiv of Sexual Behavr that terviews wh nversn therapy patients suggted that some people uld change their sexual paper was cendiary and highly cricized, given that relied on terviews wh patients stead of measurable benchmarks of same-sex sir. Their methods varied, and clud everythg om talk therapy to “gay nversn” mps and nferenc, LGBTQ people were isolated om fay and iends, hypnotized, told to pray until their homosexualy subsid, stcted to beat effigi of their parents, mocked, ached on “proper” genr rol, and told their sexualy was unnatural and And Anne Plk, both “formerly gay” pose wh their son, Timothy, a mpaign for Gay Conversn to Heterosexualy. But provirs, ually unlicensed, n often disguise the terms they e to avoid beg terms clu:Sexual attractn fluidy exploratn therapy (SAFE-T)Elimatg, rcg, or creasg equency or tensy of unwanted same-sex attractn (SSA)Reparative therapySexual reorientatn effortsEx-gay mistryPromotg healthy sexualyAddrsg sexual addictns and disorrsSexualy unselgEnuragg relatnal and sexual wholensHealg sexual brokennsConversn therapy techniqu n lead to feelg “ls than” or “damaged, ” impactg self-teem.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

A number of medil and mental health anizatns have issued public statements rejectg the e of nversn therapy bee of many provirs who claim to be qualified to provi nversn therapy are often not licensed mental health practners or medil study found that LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or qutng) people who are rejected or discrimated agast are:8 tim more likely to report havg attempted suiciAlmost 6 tim more likely to report high levels of prsnMore than 3 tim as likely to e illegal dgs3 tim more likely to be at high risk of HIV and other STDsAcrdg to rearch, nearly 700, 000 LGBTQ adults the U. ”Check out more imag om “Until You Change” throughout this article and learn more about the photographer’s relatnship wh the victims of the gay “nversn therapy” clics and what she hop the impact of this project will be by readg our terview wh Pares Pares PhotographyHuffPost: What spired the project?

”Sign up to Atralia WeekendHealg Spirual Harms, a new report om La Trobe Universy, Macquarie Universy, Brave Network and the Atralian LGBTIQ+ Multicultural Council, has found the harm ed by relign-based LGBTQA change and supprsn practic is more severe than prevly thought, leavg survivors wh plex thor Dr Timothy Jon says psdo-medil gay nversn that promot practic such as electroshock “treatment” have been overemphasised pared wh fah-based practic, which may be equally harmful. ”‘The toll is absolutely horrendo’Samuel, who asked that his surname not be ed, also took time to seek years of his Sunshe Coast Lutheran church attemptg to “pray the gay away”, a pastor wrote out a ntract mandatg celibacy and an avoidance of “earthly sful temptatns”, and threatened him wh losg his cherished church youth worker role.

FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY

”Nile Conner, an associate mister the Atralian Pentestal Church turned ally and unsellor of survivors, has seen both 55-year-old om Melbourne spends her days helpg nversn survivors procs their trma through narrative, as a mister the nservative church, she was surround by homophobia. The notor “ex gay” lear Sy Rogers was flown om the US to speak at s nferenc about how God changed his homosexualy, “provg” such change was, aged 30, now liv Melbourne and is a social workerConner grew unfortable wh the harmful msag she heard imparted to young qutng churchgoers: “Sudnly, the church that told them they loved them, treats them wh spicn, ” she says.

His mother, ncerned his life would be “too difficult” as a gay man, immediately booked an appotment wh a therapist, Joseph Nilosi, who promised to “cure” him of his, who later wrote about the experience for Amerin Prospect 2012, was experiencg what is often referred to as “gay nversn therapy” – therapy tend to get rid of same sex attractn.

It says provis a “space for dividuals to safely explore their sexual attractn fluidy issu” via “standard psychotheraptic practice”; s founr, Michael Davidson, said that “people have the right to choose the directn they want to go ” and that “mandatory gay jt won’t work”.

TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS

Wrg a 2011 piece that proved pivotal the movement to ban the practice, journalist Patrick Stdwick outled the therapy he received: prayer, non-evince based regrsn techniqu, and the amg of homosexualy as a ’s experience, the US, was siar, wh a foc on seemgly tradnal psycho-theraptic techniqu.

Nilosi suggted his attractn to other men was a projectn – Arana wanted to be like them, he argued, and he was mistakg that longg for acceptance for activist Vicky Beechg has also spoken and wrten extensively about her own experienc wh gay nversn therapy – hers culmated a public ‘exorcism’ ont of 4, 000 people at a relig nventn, aged 16.

THE CEL, DANGERO REALY OF GAY NVERSN THERAPY

”Md stead suggt that servic adopt LGBTQ+ affirmative practice approach – a procs which volv “learng, reflectn, analysis and planng, to ensure that a service monstrat s unrstandg of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and heterosexism, and of the impact the have on the experience of LGBTQ+ people accsg servic”. You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.

But what feels most accurate to say is that I’m gay – but I wasn’t born this people may fd their sir changg directn - and n't jt be explaed as experimentatn (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In 1977, jt over 10% of Amerins thought gayns was somethg you were born wh, acrdg to Gallup.

CELEBRI WHO HAVE SPOKEN OUT ABOUT THE INHUMANE PRACTICE OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

Throughout the same perd, the number of Amerins who believe homosexualy is “due to someone’s upbrgg/environment” fell om jt unr 60% to ias reached cril mass pop culture, first wh Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way and one year later wh Macklemore’s Same Love, the chos of which has a gay person sgg “I n’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to.

”People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backwardAs Jane Ward not Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men, what’s tertg about many of the claims is how transparent their speakers are wh their polil motivatns.

In fact, the homophobic and non-homophobic rponnts he studied shared siar levels of belief a Born This Way Samantha Allen not at The Daily Beast, the growg public support for gays and lbians has grown out of proportn wh the rise the number of people who believe homosexualy is fixed at birth; would be unlikely that this small change opn uld expla the spike support for gay marriage, for stance. The APA, for example, while notg that most people experience ltle to no choice over their orientatns, says this of homosexualy’s origs:“Although much rearch has examed the possible geic, hormonal, velopmental, social and cultural fluenc on sexual orientatn, no fdgs have emerged that perm scientists to nclu that sexual orientatn is termed by any particular factor or factors.

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

”Siarly, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn wr a 2013 statement that while the of heterosexualy and homosexualy are currently unknown, they are likely “multifactorial cludg blogil and behavral roots which may vary between different dividuals and may even vary over time.

” Acrdg to LeVay’s rearch, a specific part of the bra, the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH-3), is smaller homosexual men than is heterosexual as they might, scientists have stggled to inty any particular gen that nsistently predict the directns of our love and sire (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Read moreYou n spot the problem wh this study a e away: were the gay bras LeVay studied born that way, or did they bee that way?

Bis the dividual criqu leveled agast each new study announcg some gay gene disvery, there are major methodologil cricisms to make about the entire enterprise general, as Grzanka pots out: “If we look at the raveno pursu, particularly among Amerin scientists, to fd a gay gene, what we see is that the ncln has already been arrived at. “Limg our unrstandg of any plex human experience is always gog to be worse than allowg to be plited, ” he gay rights activists pared sexualy to relign - a ccial part of our life that we should be ee to practise however we like (Cred: Ignac Lehamann)So what are we to do wh the Born This Way rhetoric?

THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

*Government lays ban for five years*Prsure on Sunak to act*LGBTQ+ activists fear loophol*Campaigners divid over trans rightsBy Lucy MiddletonLONDON, July 20 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - When Alex me out as gay, the 15-year-old’s parents issued a stark ultimatum: unrgo nversn therapy or clear out of the fay home the northern English cy of chose optn one and unrwent multiple ssns wh elrs om the fay’s Jehovah’s Wns ngregatn, seekg a ‘cure’ for homosexualy. A ernment survey showed that more than half of Brons who had tried nversn therapy were offered through a relig group, almost 12% were signposted by a health re Ozanne, a gay evangelil her 50s who chairs the UK’s Ban Conversn Therapy Coaln, sought treatment her 20s and 30s, after fallg love wh a procs led to hospal admissn for a nervo breakdown. Promisg the ernment would implement the “vast majory” of Etherton’s remendatns, Wallace said he would fully update the Commons a formal bate about the issue after the about pensatn, Wallace said he hoped to fd “an elegant solutn that match the need and the requirements of those dividuals”, promisg to set this out after Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, was among mpaigners who weled the apology.

GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TO CONVERSN THERAPY ARE SHARG THEIR TRMATIC STORI, AND IT'S A REMR WHY IT NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED

For example, rearch on the issue of fay acceptance of LGBTQ youth nducted at San Francis State Universy found that "pared wh LGBTQ young people who were not rejected or were only a ltle rejected by their parents and regivers bee of their gay or transgenr inty, highly rejected LGBTQ young people were:.

Servic that purport to "cure" people wh non-heterosexual sexual orientatn lack medil jtifitn and reprent a ser threat to the health and well-beg of affected people, the Pan Amerin Health Organizatn (PAHO) said a posn statement lnched on 17 May, 2012, the Internatnal Day agast Homophobia.

‘I REALLY WAS BROKEN’: SURVIVOR WEL DOMIC PERROTTET AGREEG TO BAN GAY NVERSN PRACTIC

The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, the Amerin Counselg Associatn, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn, the Natnal Associatn of School Psychologists, and the Natnal Associatn of Social Workers, together reprentg more than 477, 000 health and mental health profsnals, have all taken the posn that homosexualy is not a mental disorr and th there is no need for a 'cure. ” When he returned to the Catholic Church at age 36, his experience wh nversn therapy Pate said his Catholic therapist, like many who attempt to help patients change their sexual orientatn, believed that homosexualy was ed by childhood sexual abe or alienatn om one’s parents: what Mr. Brothers Road scrib self as “a non-prof, multi-fah, ternatnal fellowship primarily of men om bisexual or same-sex-attracted backgrounds who—for our own, eply personal reasons—typilly do not accept or intify wh the label ‘gay’ and prefer stead to explore and addrs unrlyg issu and embrace our thentic masculy.

Bob, as we all lovgly ll him” as “an amazg, lovg man, ” who nohels nvced him of what he now se as “misrmatn” about the nature and orig of homosexualy, attributg a “homosexual clatn” to problems fay relatnships, sexual trma cludg e of pornography, the lack of a proper velopment of masculy and other “wounds”—ias he later heard om prits the Schuchts, thor of the upg book Be Rtored: Healg Our Sexual Wounds Through J’ Merciful Love, disagreed wh the labelg of his work as of “misrmatn, ” statg that all of the materials om the John Pl II Healg Center have approval om the lol bishop and his books have obtaed an imprimatur.

The New South Wal ernment has been told “the world is watchg” s rponse to lls to ban gay nversn practic, at a lnch event for WorldPri Sydney on 17-day ftival celebratg LGBTQ+ pri kicks off on Friday and clus parti, a human rights nference and a march across the Harbour Bridge on 5 March that is tipped to attract half a ln Greenwich, the pennt MP for Sydney, said recently he would troduce a bill to end gay nversn practic NSW followg the upg electn and that would be cril for him any al to support a mory ernment. But early on Thursday eveng, a ernment spokman told Sky News that misters will not ban the practice but will stead review how existg law n be ed more effectively to prevent nversn therapy, which is outlawed several other more: Analysis by Jon Craig - Backtrack on gay nversn therapy U-turn looks shambolicHowever, about three and a half hours later, a Downg Street spokman told Sky News the ernment will fact ban nversn therapy.

THEY/THEM REVIEW: A SLASHER GO TO GAY CONVERSN CAMP CLEVER HORROR MOVIE

Nilosi remas NARTH's most visible are no reliable statistics for how many patients have received ex-gay treatment or how many therapists practice , but the late 1990s and early 2000s, ex-gay therapy enjoyed a legimacy hadn't sce the APA removed homosexualy om s diagnostic manual.

GAY NVERSN THERAPY: HUNDREDS OF RELIG LEARS LL FOR BAN

Among them were Alan Downg, the lead therapist of JONAH (Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy), who ma his patients strip and touch themselv ont of a mirror; NARTH member Christopher At, who was nvicted of "unlawfully, tentnally and knowgly [g] peratn of" a client; and Exod-affiliated Mike Jon, who asked a patient to take off his shirt and do ph-ups for movement also suffered several high-profile fectns. Article ntu below advertisementSource: InstagramOne reason some tend to believe Josiah is gay, or once showed signs of beg unterted eher women or jt the genr norms the Duggar fay stills their kids, is the fact that he was sent to Internatnal ALERT Amy for an extend perd of time when he was younger. 57, 000 youth (ag 13-17) across all stat will receive nversn therapy om relig or spirual advisors before they reach the age of UCLA Williams InstuteStatements by Natnal AssociatnsAmerin Psychologil Associatn:Affirms that same-sex sexual and romantic attractns, feelgs, and behavrs are normal and posive variatns of human sexualy regardls of sexual orientatn inty; reaffirms s posn that homosexualy per se is not a mental disorr and oppos portrayals of sexual mory youths and adults as mentally ill due to their sexual orientatn nclus that there is sufficient evince to support the e of psychologil terventns to change sexual orientatn; enurag mental health profsnals to avoid misreprentg the efficy of sexual orientatn change efforts by promotg or promisg change sexual orientatn when providg assistance to dividuals distrsed by their own or others’ sexual orientatn…Amerin Psychiatric Associatn:… In 1997 APA produced a fact sheet on homosexual and bisexual issu, which stat that “there is no published scientific evince supportg the efficy of “reparative therapy” as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientatn.

The possibily that the person might achieve happs and satisfyg terpersonal relatnships as a gay man or lbian are not prented, nor are alternative approach to alg wh the effects of societal stigmatizatn discsed…Therefore, APA oppos any psychiatric treatment, such as “reparative” or “nversn” therapy, that is based on the assumptn that homosexualy per se is a mental disorr or is based on the a prri assumptn that the patient should change his or her homosexual of US anizatns that have nounced nversn therapy:. While certa therapi, like talk therapy, are also legimate forms of re for people who experience mental health problems, beg gay is, of urse, not a mental health, a 19-year-old gay man who spoke to The Huffgton Post anonymoly for this article orr to protect his safety, is a survivor of nversn therapy was subjected to nversn therapy 2012 when he was 15 years old after his parents disvered he was gay.

‘THE WORLD IS WATCHG’: QUEER MUNY PH NSW TO BAN GAY NVERSN PRACTIC ON EVE OF WORLDPRI

That’s part of the problem wh the SOCE webse, and also wh the reportg the newspaper, their scriptns of gay nversn therapy are vague, so much so that pendg on how one reads between the blurry l, preachg a sermon on Genis 1-3 or Romans 1:18-32 uld fall foul of the thori. It is a nebulo term, enpassg what n be a range of highly damagg practic om an app offerg a 60-day “gay cure”, available on iTun and Google Play as recently as 2013, to spirual terventns, talkg therapi, dgs and, more rarely, extreme physil measur such as electric shock treatment, aversn techniqu and “rrective rape”. “That we’re still havg this battle 45 years after the APA [Amerin Psychiatric Associatn] removed homosexualy om the diagnostic manual is credibly disturbg, ” says Carolyn Rey, ordator of the #BornPerfect mpaign to end nversn therapy, which was lnched the US 2014 by the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights.

Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia2018R1h 55mThe son of a Baptist preacher unwillgly participat a church-supported gay nversn program after beg forcibly outed to his son of a Baptist preacher unwillgly participat a church-supported gay nversn program after beg forcibly outed to his son of a Baptist preacher unwillgly participat a church-supported gay nversn program after beg forcibly outed to his productn, box office & pany Vios42More like thisReview Hard to watch but absolutely credibleAs a gay man myself, this movie ma me sooooo angry.

The film tells the story of how two unlikely iends — straight psychologist Davison and gay activist Charl Silverste — changed the psychology world for the better after first crossg paths 50 years ago at a nventn of the Associatn for Advancement of Behavral Therapi New York Cy. Rearch published this year found that more than 400, 000 people who are gay, transgenr or non-bary had been subjected to someone tryg to change, “cure” or supprs their sexual orientatn or genr a letter to Sunak seen by the Guardian, those phg for the ban to be enacted speedily said the ernment’s “moral failg” not yet publishg the legislatn “should ncern all”.

MILO YIANNOPOULOS SAYS HE IS ‘EX-GAY,’ WANTS TO REHABILATE ‘NVERSN THERAPY’

”There are equently relig overton to nversn therapy, which is often promoted by groups wh ti to nservative Christian anizatns like Foc on the Fay, which says on s webse that “homosexual stgglers” n “leave homosexualy” wh the help of support groups like Homosexuals Anonymo or by “beg more like J. 'Absolutely abhorrent' Any policy relatg to transgenr peopl' liv is always the subject of fierce public and polil bate, so the chanc that a send U-turn will quieten thgs down are ernment's natnal LGBT survey 2017 found transgenr people were twice as likely to have been offered nversn therapy than their gay and bisexual than 108, 000 people rpond to the nsultatn, which led Thera May's ernment to announce plans to ban nversn therapy promise was brought forward by Boris Johnson.

MY SO-CALLED EX-GAY LIFE

‘THEY/THEM’ FILM REVIEW: SHARP SCRIPT GIV BE TO GAY-CONVERSN CAMP HORROR STORY

A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY

NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' IS A HUMANIZG LOOK AT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS

ISRAEL BANS “GAY CONVERSN” THERAPY

GROUP APOLOGIZ TO GAY MUNY, SHUTS DOWN ‘CURE’ MISTRY