Jury Decis Agast JONAH Landmark 'Gay Conversn' Therapy Case – The Forward

Contents:

• JONAH, THE LARGT JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, TAK S LAST BREATH
• GAY NVERSN THERAPY URT SE BEGS: 'JONAH LIED – THEY MA WORSE'
• THE BIGGT JEWISH GAY “NVERSN THERAPY” ANIZATN HAS BEEN OPERATG SECRET AFTER US URTS SHUT DOWN
• JURY FDS EX-GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS GUILTY OF FRD LANDMARK DECISN
• LANDMARK JONAH ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE GO TO JURY
• GAY MEN, MOMS SUE NJ JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS
• JONAH, GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, ORRED TO SHUTTER
• JURY DECIS AGAST JONAH LANDMARK ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE

JONAH, THE LARGT JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, TAK S LAST BREATH

The goal of that unselg was to turn Unger om gay to and all the people that Jersey Cy, New Jersey, urtroom were not shocked by what they were seeg, but they were clearly perplexed. Dpe that th rume, Arthur Goldberg, the man who started and still ns JONAH, often boasted that Downg was "an expert the field" of turng gay men straight.

Like many nversn therapists, Downg claims he has been "cured" of homosexualy, or, the jargon preferred by the dtry, he has "overe" his "unwanted SSA, " same-sex attractn.

Benjy Unger, now 28, was told to cut off ntact wh his mother while he was JONAH's gay nversn therapy, bee Alan Downg emed their relatnship "too close.

GAY NVERSN THERAPY URT SE BEGS: 'JONAH LIED – THEY MA WORSE'

When Dielli joed the Southern Poverty Law Center om a high-powered rporate law firm, he knew he would be workg to end gay nversn therapy—one of the firm's stated goals—but he had no ia how shoddy and sordid the practice was. Goldberg" emails to clients and their parents, as well as on the promotnal webse for his 2009 book, Light the Closet: Torah, Homosexualy, and the Power to Change. Berk regularly rpond to the men, issug remrs of the ramifitns of what she lled "the gay athstyle": AIDS, bowel disease, early ath, and, as she put one email, "liv based on soul-numbg promiscuy.

Its succs was due, large part, to the fact that the Jewish muni tered to believed that gay inty was simply a set of behavrs that uld be changed. He was there for a theraptic weekend retreat remend by Goldberg, where he would beg to rega his manhood—a key step turng om gay to retreats were n by People Can Change (PCC), a nversn anizatn found by Rich Wyler, a Mormon who says he's "ex-gay.

THE BIGGT JEWISH GAY “NVERSN THERAPY” ANIZATN HAS BEEN OPERATG SECRET AFTER US URTS SHUT DOWN

Downg attend the first one that year, while he was ex-gay therapy wh David Mathon, founr of The Center for Genr Wholens, a Mormon nversn therapy group that had an office JONAH's buildg Jersey Cy. In gay nversn therapy, sexual attractn is never jt sexual attractn; there mt be some sublimated drive, fic or trma to be alt Lev and Unger attend PCC's entry-level weekend: Journey Into Manhood. The psdo-profsnal language Goldberg and Downg ed mirrored that of the ex-gay therapy muny worldwi, an ternnected world where people, many whout psychology gre, wre books that borrow the language of psychology but none of s rigor, and tend to mostly ce one another, Dielli says.

Dozens of books wh tl like Growg to Manhood and Healg Homosexualy are available onle, and JONAH tailored the notns laid out the books for their Jewish clientele: As part of the "genr-affirmg" therapy, Unger says Downg told him to go to the rual Jewish bath, the mikvah, wh his father as much as possible "and to jt stare at his penis. " The big reveal began 2010, when Wayne Ben, a gay rights activist who ns the nonprof Tth Ws Out, shot a vio of Unger and Lev talkg about their therapy ssns wh Downg.

JURY FDS EX-GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS GUILTY OF FRD LANDMARK DECISN

In , Lev proudly announced he was gay, and cricized the Orthodox muny for buyg to " the worst kd of ratnalized homophobia " by sendg their children to therapy like that offered by 2012, Sam Wolfe, a senr staff attorney at the SPLC, met Lev at an Exod Internatnal nference for ex-gay practners and patients, where he was prottg.

There is no plete tally of nversn therapy outfs, but several stutns ntue operatn, like Joseph Nilosi's Thomas Aquas Psychologil Clic Enco, California, and Dert Stream, a Christian ex-gay mistry wh chapters across the untry. (Bariso led their ttimony admissible, bee, he wrote, "the theory that homosexualy is a disorr is not novel but—like the notn that the earth is flat and the sun revolv around —stead is outdated and refuted. ")One of Wyler's major plats is that the platiffs and the urt misterpreted the weekends he still aniz eight tim a year: "Why is that our homoerotic culture we' so any male touch is now sexual?

But he still liv heavily ultra-Orthodox Crown Heights, and has no problem wh puttg on a yarmulke now and aga; he's tryg to normalize beg gay Crown Heights—walkg through the neighborhood on the Sabbath wh his head unvered would only alienate his neighbors. He spects some his muny still ll him "faygeleh, " the yiddish lloquialism for "faggot, " behd his back, but he's seeg small chang Crown Heights; a Hasidic synagogue there asked him to help anize a panel for January on how to better engage gay walk past his childhood yhiva, and past the stately brick apartment buildg where his once lived. A platiff the untry’s first nsumer d lawsu agast so-lled gay nversn therapy shared wh a New Jersey jury on Wednday his feelgs of elatn the moment he was told eight years ago that he uld be “cured” and turned to a straight man.

LANDMARK JONAH ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE GO TO JURY

Benjam Unger told the urt Jersey Cy how he relled the light he felt 2007 when, as a nfed gay 19-year-old who had grown up a strict Orthodox Jewish fay Brooklyn, he was assured by the gay-nversn group Jonah that there was a solutn to his prediment. The landmark trial that opened urtroom 908 of the state’s superr urt marks the first time the US that nsumer protectn laws have been ed to challenge gay nversn – otherwise known as reparative, reorientatn or ex-gay – therapy, which participants are told they n be cured of their sexual orientatn. Usg Jonah’s theraptic techniqu, found science wh statistics to prove , his wounds uld be healed and he would cease beg gay, Unger said he was promised.

Goldberg, a former Wall Street executive who was nvicted of mail d 25 years ago, set up Jonah, then lled Jews Offerg New Alternativ for Homosexualy, 1998 as a nversn service ially tailored to Jewish muni the regn.

GAY MEN, MOMS SUE NJ JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS

They are married to women, or datg women, and some of the men are jt happy to be gay but still thankful to Jonah for removg the shame and huiatn they were feelg. They were d – they paid money to the fendants to change them om gay to straight but all they got was junk science and discreded so-lled ‘cur’.

There is a long-standg scientific nsens that homosexualy is not a disease or disorr but a normal variatn of human sexualy, ” Dielli judge pridg over the se, Peter Bariso, has already led pre-trial heargs that should be proven that Jonah scribed homosexualy as a medil or mental – as opposed to relig – disease or disorr, that would be a vlatn of the state’s nsumer d act.

JONAH, GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, ORRED TO SHUTTER

In 2015, Chaim Lev thought his long legal nightmare was was one of several young men who succsfully sued JONAH that year, the only Jewish gay-nversn therapy anizatn the US. JONAH (an acronym for Jews Offerg New Alternativ for Healg, and formerly for Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy) operated out of an office Jersey Cy, New Jersey. They were also brought to mp-like retreats the woods, where they were told to shower naked together, wear bldfolds while others shouted scripted ephets at them, and recreate their own births by wrigglg out of swaddlg blankets, Amerin Psychologil Associatn, Amerin Medil Associatn, the Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, and virtually all other major US health-profsnal groups say gay nversn therapy is psychologilly harmful and effective.

JURY DECIS AGAST JONAH LANDMARK ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE

”The current JIFGA webse clus a page tled “Fundg Moraly, ” which says the anizatn advot for a “Juo-Christian worldview, ” which prohibs “sexual viatns, ” cludg homosexualy. In s March motn (pdf), the SPLC noted that the se also lked to a crowdfundg page for a documentary about Joseph Nilosi, the ceased founr of a Christian ex-gay mistry wh chapters across the untry; Earlier this week, the page said was “unr nstctn, ” at the time of publitn appears to have been taken down Goldberg and Berk are found vlatn of the origal orr, they would owe the platiffs $3.

A group of gay men brought the lawsu, allegg that the ex-gay nonprof and s therapists—Jews Offerg New Alternativ for Healg, or JONAH—mted d when claimed uld uld turn gay people straight. The lg might mean the end of so-lled “nversn therapi” for Grdano / The AtlanticFor 17-year-old Chaim Lev, spair me the form of a persistent attractn to men—largely bee his Orthodox Jewish muny rejected homosexualy.