'Gay Conversn' Therapy Survivors Share Horrific Experienc In New Documentary | HuffPost Entertament

Contents:

• GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY
• GAY MEN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS 'TO CURE HOMOSEXUALY' AT QUB
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY
• DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?
• 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS SHARE HORRIFIC EXPERIENC IN NEW DOCUMENTARY
• MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS
• RNGAY NVERSN THERAPY SURVIVORS SHARE PAFUL LEGACY OF 'EX-GAY' TREATMENTS
• SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)
• 5 THGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• 1505: DID DALL H. OAKS LIE ABOUT GAY ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY AT BYU?

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.

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

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.

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.

"Luckily, fairly soon afterwards I did start to meet some gay people and my life changed pletely then and sce then thgs have been much better. In 1899, a German psychiatrist electrified the dience at a nference on hypnosis wh a bold claim: He had turned a gay man straight.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

This theory led to tticle transplantatn experiments the 1920s durg which gay men were strated, then given “heterosexual” tticl. 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. 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. ” 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 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.

A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY

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.

DID MIKE PENCE SUPPORT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY?

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. “I read books and listened to dtap about how to have a ‘rrective and healg relatnship wh J Christ, ’” wr Jam Guay, a gay man who attend weekly therapy and nversn semars as a teen.

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. 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.

Their goal was to get to hate ourselv for beg LGBTQ (most of were gay, but the entire spectm was reprented), and they knew what they were dog.... Robert Spzer, one of the most proment people who advoted for gay cur, actually apologized for his actns and the damage they flicted 2012. In October 2016, an image appeared on social media accg Indiana's ernor (and Republin printial nomee Donald Tmp's nng mate) Mike Pence of supportg "gay nversn" therapy, particularly the e of electric shocks as part of the practice:.

'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS SHARE HORRIFIC EXPERIENC IN NEW DOCUMENTARY

Although he didn't say so outright, the posn has been wily terpreted as signalg Pence's support for "gay nversn" therapy, which seeks to "cure" patients of beg attracted to members of the same sex. Acrdg to the Amerin Psychologil Associatn, electric shocks were one of the techniqu ed to addrs homosexualy through "aversn therapy" prr to the group's cisn 1973 to stop classifyg as a mental disorr.

The potential risks of reparative therapy are great, cludg prsn, anxiety and self-stctive behavr, sce therapist alignment wh societal prejudic agast homosexualy may rerce self-hatred already experienced by the patients who have unrgone reparative therapy relate that they were accurately told that homosexuals are lonely, unhappy dividuals who never achieve acceptance or satisfactn. The possibily that the person might achieve happs and satisfyg terpersonal relatnships as a gay man or lbian is not prented, nor are alternative approach to alg wh the effects of societal stigmatizatn discsed. Filmmaker Zach Meers is hopg to shed light on the vert and often adly methods volved so-lled gay nversn therapy wh a stirrg new documentary.

Harry Bailey, a leadg Atralian psychiatrist until his ath 1985, fend gay men urt by claimg that a bra operatn would “fix” their mental “disease.

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.

RNGAY NVERSN THERAPY SURVIVORS SHARE PAFUL LEGACY OF 'EX-GAY' TREATMENTS

"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.

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

"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. "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.

5 THGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

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.

"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. "That was Ron Smh's reactn to Health Mister Greg Hunt's refal to nmn a ntroversial plan by a sectn of Victoria's Liberal Party to bate gay nversn 71-year-old former Baptist mister is a survivor of electroshock therapy, a now discreded practice once believed to rid patients of their same-sex attractn. "When my body temperature rose when I saw the guys, which is natural for me, they livered high voltag of electricy through wir that were attached to punish me for beg gay and try to make me straight.

It was remend by his psychotherapist — a rpected member of the Baptist muny — who knew Mr Smh was gay, and promised this would change his sexual orientatn. (Supplied: Ron Smh)Treatg a 'mental disorr'The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed homosexualy om s official Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs acrdg to Kathy Baldock, LGBTIQ advote and thor of Walkg the Bridgels Canyon: Repairg the Breach Between the Church and the LGBT Communy, efforts were still ma to "fix" same-sex attractn. "I get very disappoted and very, very annoyed that people thk 's appropriate the days to treat gays for any reason like that, " Mr Smh says.

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

(Supplied: Ron Smh)'Ex-gay' therapy: a once-global bsThe world's biggt gay nversn therapy anisatn, Exod Internatnal, formally disband anisatn, which at s peak had more than 250 mistri the Uned Stat and Canada, and 150 other parts of the world, promoted "ex-gay" therapi, said to "cure" homosexualy. "There was not as much accs Canada to ex-gay therapi and reparative therapi, so I went to a 'live-' [gay nversn] mp North Carola, " he rells. "[Moberly] wr a book that tch fire the Christian movement jt as they're tryg to figure out how to fix gay people, " Ms Baldock says.

(ABC RN: Sbhan Hegarty)'Those srs are soft to touch'Mr Webb says his experience wh ex-gay mistri ma him feel "ashamed" of his same-sex orientatn. "They tell you that you are subordate to straight men, Christian or not — you are ls than them and you shouldn't be rol of learship eher, until you're healed of your homosexualy. 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.