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

Contents:

• SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)
• GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY
• DISGRACED EX-REP. AARON SCHOCK OUT AS GAY
• UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS
• THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT
• MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS
• COMG OUT AS GAY DON'T ABSOLVE YOU OF YOUR ANTI-LGBTQ+ HISTORY
• DC INTRODUCED ITS FIRST GAY SUPERHERO ON TV EARLIER THAN YOU THK
• ELECTRIC SHOCKS, RAPE AND SUBMERSN: 'GAY CUR' AND THE FIGHT TO END THEM
• THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• THIS GAY MAN WAS GIVEN REPEATED ELECTRIC SHOCKS BY BRISH DOCTORS TO MAKE HIM STRAIGHT

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

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? " 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 .

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.

Devic like the one below were ed by therapists treatg homosexual patients, and some of them were even available for e the nvenience of your own home.

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

In rercg heterosexual preference latent male homosexuals, male slis give a shock while the stimul relief slis of femal do not give shock. 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.

She lived the rt of her life serly disabled a private psychiatric hospal, along wh most of Freeman's homosexual patients, who were perfect health before the surgery. 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.

DISGRACED EX-REP. AARON SCHOCK OUT AS GAY

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. Banng nversn therapy In 2018, the UK ernment announced that "gay nversn therapi" were to be banned, as part of a plan to improve the liv of gay and transgenr people. Media ptn, Gareth went to gay nversn therapy for four years and says ma him 'feel broken' "You nnot cure beg LGBT, you nnot erase om society.

UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS

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. An earlier article on the e of aversn therapy to “shock the gay away” was published by HuffPost, wrten by then ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv Project Manager Jamie St 2013.

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.

THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT

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). ” 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.

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

Hadn speaks about his methods of reprsn as revolutnary, om disuragg “flntg gay clothg” to workg through “hostily toward [their mothers to] start datg girls. 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].

COMG OUT AS GAY DON'T ABSOLVE YOU OF YOUR ANTI-LGBTQ+ HISTORY

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.

DC INTRODUCED ITS FIRST GAY SUPERHERO ON TV EARLIER THAN YOU THK

This rerd of Farrall Instments’ FDA filgs dat the earlit patented vice to 1976, and the latt one to 1995, over 22 years after homosexualy was removed om the DSM II. Even after psychiatry disproved attempts to cure homosexualy/genr viance, was still Farrall Instments’ favor to ntue producg and sellg the unnecsary and dangero 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.

Keepg the materials an archival settg like ONE Archiv, giv touchable, physil perspectiv on LGBTQ history and the treatment of homosexuals. Static sr away the thugs, and when he asks Rick why they were attacked, Rick drops the bombshell that the skheads targeted the two boys bee they were gay. Beg so paranoid about others thkg he was gay too that he has to unnaturally police his affectn for not only Rick, but all of his other male iends.

” ma the brilliant cisn to put both the wrathful homophobia of the Sons of Od and the sual social homophobia of Virgil and his iends si by si. Big Lemon Party - A webse parody of another shock se, Lemon Party, wh gay pornographic imag, of which mostly featur old naked men.

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

The se displays multiple pop-ups of known shock imag acpanied by a loopg sound of a man shoutg "HEY EVERYBODY, I'M LOOKING AT GAY PORNO! “I am gay, ” wrote the 38-year-old ex-Illois pol who rigned om Congrs five years ago amid claims he mised ernment and mpaign funds, wh feral charg only dropped last year. When he was fally ready to nfi his fay last Easter, photographs that emerged of him shirtls wh other men at the Coachella ftival “ma clear” that he was gay, he wrote.

“I n live openly now as a gay man bee of the extraordary, brave people who had the urage to fight for our rights when I did not, ” he wrote.

KAMPALA, Uganda — Members of Uganda’s LGBTQ muny are shock and fear beg arrted after Parliament passed a measure that would make a crime to intify as gay and impose tough sentenc that clu the ath penalty certa s, an activist said “Anti-Homosexualy Bill, 2023” was passed wh a near-unanimo majory by lawmakers  the east Ain untry, where anti-gay sentiment ns ep. Ronald Kabuubi / APThe legislatn will next be sent to Print Yoweri Meveni, who has repeatedly nounced homosexualy, to be signed to Mugisha, one of a few Ugandans who live openly as gay, told Rters he was sred the measure would trigger “mass arrts of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer persons and mob vlence toward LGBTQ muni.

THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

There’s gog to be a lot of trma and s of mental health that will lead to a lot of suici, ” he relatns were already illegal Uganda, but supporters of the new law say is need to punish a broar array of LGBTQ activi, which they say threaten tradnal valu the nservative and relig East Ain measure clus steep sentenc that clu ath for “aggravated homosexualy” and life prison for same-sex relatns.

Aggravated homosexualy volv same-sex relatns wh people unr age 18 or when the perpetrator is HIV-posive, among other tegori, acrdg to the legislatn. Although homosexualy was eventually classified as a mental illns by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, many homosexuals still thought they were sick.

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

However, this did not mean that the patients were “cured, ” simply that some of them exprsed ls tert homosexual thoughts and activy after hypnosis. Through his anizatn, Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy, he ed psychoanalysis, which volved a number of c psychologil methods, to try to replace homosexual sir wh heterosexual on. Durg the boy’s first ssn, the so-lled therapist attempted to brawash Sam by fillg his head wh this type of garbage: “I want you to know that you’re gay, and all gay people have AIDS.

Tle page to Garrard Conley's workbook om the gay-nversn mp Love ActnIt is dangero to be different, and certa kds of difference are pecially risky. The mm recently llected materials to document gay-nversn therapy (also lled "reparative therapy")—and the objects allow curators like myself to explore how real people experience the risks.

Conley's memoir of his time there, Boy Erased, chronicl how the mp's nversn therapy followed the ia that beg gay was an addictn that uld be treated wh methods siar to those for abatg dg, alhol, gamblg, and other addictns. Smid eventually left Love Actn and married a the Uned Stat, rpons to gay, homosexual, queer, lbian, bisexual, transsexual, and genr non-nformg inti have fluctuated om "Y!