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

Contents:

• GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY
• GAY MEN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS 'TO CURE HOMOSEXUALY' AT QUB
• MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS
• ELECTRIC SHOCKS, RAPE AND SUBMERSN: 'GAY CUR' AND THE FIGHT TO END THEM
• SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)
• 1505: DID DALL H. OAKS LIE ABOUT GAY ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY AT BYU?
• THIS GAY MAN WAS GIVEN REPEATED ELECTRIC SHOCKS BY BRISH DOCTORS TO MAKE HIM STRAIGHT
• DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?
• 5 THGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY

A gay man who went through months of electric shock "therapy" a universy psychology partment 50 years ago has mand an - not his real name - went to his GP for advice the 1970s, when he beme aware of his sexualy his doctor said he knew someone who uld "cure" him. 'Hefty electric shock'Homosexualy had only been -crimalised 1967, and mastream society was still eply disapprovg of the, now 74, remembers beg told that "even havg a sex change" would be better for him than ntug to live as a gay man, and so he mted to the prcribed treatment which he had been guaranteed would work.

Image source, Dr Tommy DicksonImage ptn, Dr Tommy Dickson said that e of electril aversn therapy had been almost totally abandoned by the mid-1970s the UK"When I was about 15, I realised I am one of the people who are homosexuals and who are reviled really by the society I grew up , so was a big shock to me. "John was also enuraged to date women while unrgog the a rearch paper published the Ulster Medil Journal 1973, amics om the partments of Mental Health, Social Studi and Psychology at QUB said their e of electril aversn therapy was rare by that they did still e evince treatment worked"We have a particular tert the e of methods for producg heterosexual tert exclive homosexuals, " they reported. "The most fluential factor rcg the e of the treatments was the growg gay liberatn movement as queer men and women were ung and refutg that sickns label that had been attributed to them, " he source, PAcemakerImage ptn, Thoands attend the Belfast Pri para 2019A spokperson for Queen's Universy Belfast said that, regrettably, aversn therapy was ed a number of suatns the past.

GAY MEN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS 'TO CURE HOMOSEXUALY' AT QUB

"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. 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.

"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. "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.

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

"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. He had heard om others the gay muny that the “therapy” uld “cure” him of homosexualy but his cursy turned to terror when he realised that the treatment volved gettg electrocuted, and he left before the ssn end.

He claims a full urse of 30 hour-long ssn, wh three or four electric shocks each, st 30, 000 yuan (£3, 126) and termed to expose the clic’s abe of gay men and women, Yang sought to sue the clic. Although Cha legalised homosexual relatns 1997 and removed om a list of mental illns 2001, is still nsired taboo wir society and many gay people feel prsured by their fai to get married and have while has been difficult to stop the clics offerg this abive practice, Yang claims the publicy surroundg the se is important to raise awarens of the issue and change public opn.

LGBT rights mpaign group All Out are askg people to report “gay cure” activi happeng around the world – whether they have had direct experience of nversn therapy their lol muny or seen reported the media – on the Gay Cure Watch webse.

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

The database of cinc will then be studied and All Out will lnch targeted mpaigns agast Out director Matthew Beard says the fdgs om the mpaign show “gay cur”, which have been found to lead to anxiety, prsn and suici, is enmic many velopg practice is a particular problem Lat Ameri where the church is hugely fluential. When he was 18 he beme a pastor, married a woman and had two formed a movement wh other members of the church that targeted gay people on the streets, outsi nightclubs and at pri events.

In 2013, he helped mpaign agast legislatn that would allow psychiatrists the untry to treat homosexualy as a disease and the bill was eventually applds the law’s feat ngrs but says the fight agast relig fundamentalism Brazil will ntue for many years to e. Tatiana Corro om the Urgent Actn Fund has led rearch on gay rights Ecuador and claims that although the ernment promised to shut down clics the untry 2012, ltle has changed and clics are still beg allowed to operate.

This theory led to tticle transplantatn experiments the 1920s durg which gay men were strated, then given “heterosexual” tticl.” Others theorized that homosexualy was a psychologil disorr stead. 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.

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

(Cred: Carl Purcell/Three Lns/Getty Imag)“Although proponents of aversn therapy claimed ‘cure’ rat as high as 50 percent,” not historian Elise Chenier, “the claims were never satisfactorily documented.” 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. This clud the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, which nsired homosexualy to be a psychiatric disorr.But 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. Their methods varied, and clud everythg om talk therapy to exorcisms.At “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 sful.John And Anne Plk, both “formerly gay” pose wh their son, Timothy, a mpaign for Gay Conversn to Heterosexualy.

And Exod Internatnal, an umbrella group that nnected var nversn therapy groups and gay mistry anizatns, closed down 2013 after nearly 40 years of operatns after s print, Alan Chambers, cid ’s impossible to change someone’s sexual orientatn. “The practic have no basis science or medice and they will now be relegated to the dtb of quackery,” said California ernor Jerry Brown as he signed a bill banng gay-to-straight therapy the state 2012.

1505: DID DALL H. OAKS LIE ABOUT GAY ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY AT BYU?

This article tak a closer look at the mechanics and history of the vic and anti-gay aversn therapy, where mach like the were ed on homosexual patients to “cure” them by means of “shockg the gay away. Popular portrayals of humane attempts at “treatg” homosexualy have been sensatnalized film, tv, and news stori—often terchangeably g the the terms aversn therapy, nversn therapy, and electro-nvulsive therapy. In our se of the Farrall Instments AV 5 Visually Keyed Shocker, shocks were to be livered to the patient when a projected sli showed homosexual (or otherwise genr/sexualy-viant) behavr.

This mo of anti-gay aversn therapy, then, gets s name om s sired oute of creatg aversn to homosexualy through aversn to pa, so tensely that homosexual behavr is rced, or avoid entirely. A 2016 study on ECT film and pop culture showed that the most popular portrayals of ECT—across 52 movi, 21 TV programs, and two animated ss—ed shock therapy as reprsn of [homosexual] inty. A cut-and-dry example of anti-gay shock therapy up lbian classic But I’m a Cheerlear as homosexual boys and girls are given tasers to shock themselv every time they have an impure, gay thought (a sort of DIY aversn therapy, if you will).

THIS GAY MAN WAS GIVEN REPEATED ELECTRIC SHOCKS BY BRISH DOCTORS TO MAKE HIM STRAIGHT

” The pathologizatn of shock therapy, and s nnectn to homosexualy, not only further nstcts homosexualy as dangero but nstcts genr and sexual viants as servg/ need of dangero and humane "treatment". The (now scientifilly-disproven) psychiatric claim of homosexualy as a “psychosocial maladjtment” has not jt rulted an ongog legacy of pathologizg genr and sexual viance, but also left a legacy of clil attempts to cure homosexualy. A TIME Magaze Febary 1965 article “Homosexuals Can Be Cured” c the notor Samuel Hadn—an often-quoted primary source—and his multi-year group psychotherapy “treatments” for gay men.

As the psychiatric beliefs—popularized by psychiatrists like Hadn, Irvg Bieber, and Charl Soris—and their associated behavral therapi grew more and more popular, the late-1960’s and 70’s turned to electric shock aversn therapi as the next velopment “curg” the gay away. While many of the products are foced on anti-gay-specific aversn therapy, the manuals advertise Farrall Instments’ treatment of child molters, alholics, certa unsirable phobias [cludg elevators], dg addictn, transvtism, and even igidy [referrg to difference/distert sex, women of urse]. The marketg and bs of Farrall Instments aversn therapy vic was pennt on the wispread belief that homosexualy need to and uld be cured—and ultimately, that genr and sexual viance were diseas.

However, what is remarkable this history is that even after the official pathologizatn of homosexualy the DSM of 1973, Farrall Instments ntued patentg not only some, but all of s vic. That penile plethysmography [electroshock therapy to the genals] is nsired humane cludg prisons–s where a “fate [we thk of as] rerved for others, a fate rerved for the "evildoers, [a space] to which unsirabl are posed”—but enmhed both our iologil unrstandgs and rporeal treatment of homosexuals, emphasiz the extremi of how pathologizg homosexualy/transvtism has materialized our legal, psychiatric, and relatnal systems. Wh the recent announcement om Exod Internatnal that is closg s doors, and wh s lears offerg apologi for their actns, the LGBT muny is now left wonrg, "Can this really be the end of ex-gay reparative therapy?

DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?

" While the dt settl on all of this, we have to remd ourselv that wasn't too long ago that reparative therapi had ls to do wh prayg the gay away and more to do wh physilly removg .

5 THGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

Before the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) classified homosexualy as a mental disorr 1973, aversn therapy was ed routely hop that would prevent or elimate homosexual behavr.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

The patient is given a "sli change" hand button which enabl him to pe or avoid a shock by rejectg a shock cue the 1940s, homosexuals were also voluntarily mted to psychiatric facili by their fai, wh the hospals promisg that the patient would eventually leave the facily cured of their "sexual illns. This cisn occurred agast the backdrop of great cultural shifts brought on by the civil rights movements of the 1950s to the 1970s, begng wh the Ain-Amerin civil rights movement and then ntug on wh the women's and gay rights the late 1960s, Christiany Today began prtg articl and edorials ncerned wh the growg homosexual movement. What we at ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv do know for sure is that the LGBT muny has persevered, regardls of what was hurled at physilly, psychologilly, or spirually, then and now.