Electric shocks, rape and submersn: 'gay cur' and the fight to end them | Workg velopment | The Guardian

Contents:

• MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• ELECTRIC SHOCKS, RAPE AND SUBMERSN: 'GAY CUR' AND THE FIGHT TO END THEM
• DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?
• GAY MAN GIVEN ELECTRO SHOCK THERAPY TO ‘CURE’ HIM OF SEXUALY
• SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)

MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS

"I was never actively gay, never had any enunters wh men -- never had moments when I failed and actually had sex wh other men, " he his unrcurrent of feelgs put him direct nflict wh the Church of J Christ of the Latter-day Sats (LDS) and s prcipl. "I thought he was my savr, " said Cameron, who enrolled wh 13 other willg subjects, all Mormons who thought they might be gay, for a three- to six-month urse of therapy. Psychologists nfirm those harsh experiments were ed a variety of medil settgs by scientists of all officials say they no longer support aversn therapy, but a generatn who grew up the 1970s say they have been srred for life bee of well-tentned attempts to change their sexual, the church still steadfastly oppos homosexualy, as wnsed by the lns of dollars support gave to pass California's Proposn 8, which would amend the state's nstutn to outlaw gay P.

"The BYU Counselg Center never practiced therapy that would volve chemil or duced vomg, " she, therapi are all "male theraptic approach, " acrdg to Jenks, and all faculty are expected to be licensed and programs universy, which is owned by the Mormon Church, said s policy on homosexualy is le wh Mormon doctre -- today's stunts are not discipled unls they engage sexual activy, and that clus heterosexual sex before marriage. "BYU will rpond to homosexual behavr rather than to feelgs or attractn, and wel as full members of the universy muny all whose behavr meets universy standards, " said Jenks. "Play About 1976 Shock Therapy OpensCameron, who is now openly gay, wrote a play about his shock therapy experience, "14, " which clus much of McBri's ntroversial dissertatn.

But now that they are ted, now we know homosexualy is not a choice, people are born this way. "Connell O'Donovan, who now works at the Universy of California, Santa Cz, told he was sent to BYU 1976 for vom therapy, but uldn't go through wh said s unselg servic never nducted such treatment, but O'Donovan unters that he was evaluated by Joseph Smh Fay Livg Center, another service on 1986, he said he volunteered for "extremely bilatg hypnotherapy" through another Utah unselg center, He said a Mormon tern hypnotized him, spltg him to "Gay Connell" and "Straight Connell. ""He then had me visualize J g down through the ceilg and utterly stroyg Gay Connell to dt and then 'a mighty wd' blowg all the dt away, " said O'Donovan.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

"This is a sensive topic for all parti volved, " said Jsi Moody, an LDS public affairs associateShe referred to official statements on homosexualy on their web stat: "The Lord's law of moral nduct is abstence outsi of lawful marriage and fily wh marriage. Silverste was recently given the Amerin Psychologil Associatn Lifetime-Achievement Award for helpg to remove "homosexualy" om the list of illns psychiatry's "Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs" 1973. "All of them are on the rerd as sayg that homosexualy is wh the normal range of human behavr.

ELECTRIC SHOCKS, RAPE AND SUBMERSN: 'GAY CUR' AND THE FIGHT TO END THEM

"Play About 1976 Shock Therapy OpensDavid Melson, print of the advocy group Affirmatn: Gay and Lbian Mormons, said anecdotal rmatn suggts suici rat among gay Mormons may be higher than the general populatn. Progrsn pends on fay relatnships and procreatn and gay people n terpt that pattern of procreatn.

"Jason Conner, 26, said he stggled wh gay feelgs while servg a learship role on his Mormon missn Florida 2006. "Sce then, he has e out and works for Soul Force, an LGBT group that fights relig and polil homophobia.

DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?

It is equally applied to ss of heterosexualy as homosexualy, and is the behavr that is judged, not the thoughts, he said. In 1899, a German psychiatrist electrified the dience at a nference on hypnosis wh a bold claim: He had turned a gay man straight.

Homosexualy, pecially same-sex relatnships between men, was nsired viant, sful and even crimal for centuri. This theory led to tticle transplantatn experiments the 1920s durg which gay men were strated, then given “heterosexual” tticl.

Sigmund Frd hypothized that humans are born nately bisexual and that homosexual people bee gay bee of their ndng. But though Frd emphasized that homosexualy wasn’t a disease, per se, some of his lleagu didn’t agree. Robert Galbrah Heath, a psychiatrist New Orleans who pneered the technique, ed this form of bra stimulatn, along wh hired prostut and heterosexual pornography, to “change” the sexual orientatn of gay men.

GAY MAN GIVEN ELECTRO SHOCK THERAPY TO ‘CURE’ HIM OF SEXUALY

But though Heath ntend he was able to actually turn gay men straight, his work has sce been challenged and cricized for s methodology. An offshoot of the techniqu was “aversn therapy, ” which was found on the premise that if LGBTQ people beme disgted by homosexualy, they would no longer experience same-sex sire. Others were given electril shocks—sometim to their genals—while they looked at gay pornography or cross-drsed.

” LGBTQ people had long protted the cel and scientifilly dub forms of “treatment, ” but the ncept that homosexualy was a disease was accepted by the majory of the medil tablishment.

SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)

This clud the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, which nsired homosexualy to be a psychiatric the 1960s and 1970s, as a vol gay rights movement took to the streets to mand equaly, the profsn began to turn s back on the ncept that people uld be “nverted” to heterosexualy. In 1973, the APA removed homosexualy om the DSM, s fluential manual of psychiatric disorrs, and medil profsnals began to distance themselv om techniqu they had once embraced. They lled their techniqu “nversn” or “reparative” therapy, or advertised themselv as “ex-gay” mistri.