Gay Conversion Therapy: What You Should Know

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On Monday (Aug. 19), New Jersey became the second state, after California, to sign a ban on therapy that claims to convert gay people into heterosexual. The California law is held up in federal courts on first amendment grounds.

Two other states — Massachusetts and New York — have introduced similar bans in their state legislatures in 2013.


Here are five facts about the therapy and the current laws.

1. What's happening in the courts?

Prior to the ban that was signed into law today, gay conversion therapy was already facing legal challenge in New Jersey. In Michael Ferguson, et al., v. JONAH, et al., four former clients of a counseling group called Jonah (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) are suing in New Jersey civil court for deceptive practices. The patients argue they paid thousands of dollars for therapies that did not rid them of same-sex attractions, and that they then had to pay for mainstream therapy to repair the damage done by the conversion therapy. That case is still working its way through the courts. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]

Two cases challenged California's law banning conversion therapy for minors, which was signed into law in September 2012. The law is now on hold pending the outcome of those cases. In Welch v. Brown, a federal judge is hearing arguments by conservative groups that claim the law is a violation of the right to free speech, freedom of religion and privacy. In a separate case, Pickup v. Brown, therapist David Pickup joined several other conversion therapists, anonymous children and parents to argue that the state's law will deprive his clients of therapy. In April 2013, a federal appeals court judge granted an injunction against the law pending the decision in those cases.

2. What happens in conversion therapy?




Chaim Levin, one of the men suing JONAH for deceptive practices, says he quit conversion therapy after his therapist had him strip down and touch himself to "reconnect with his masculinity," according to the New York Times.            

3. Why psychologists say conversion therapy doesn't work






4. How did conversion therapy get started?




Once the American Psychiatric Association stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, conversion therapies lost support. But religious-right organizations such as Exodus International and Focus on the Family's Love Won Out took up the charge, promoting their own "ex-gay" therapies. A small group of psychologists, splitting with their peers, continue to promote the therapies, founding the conversion therapy organization NARTH, or the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality. The group has religious links; for example, one of its founders and former president, psychologist Joseph Nicolosi, is a one-time spokesman for Focus on the Family. In June 2013, Exodus International shut down and former President Alan Chambers publicly apologized for the harm he had caused to the gay community.  [The 10 Most Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]

5. What about the one study that found conversion therapies work?





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