Reparative Therapy

Three of the nation's largest LGBT advocacy organizations on Wednesday denounced the syndicated "Dr. Oz" television show for airing an episode debating the merits of so-called reparative therapy, and for positioning a representative of the discredited National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) as an “expert.” [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) on Wednesday introduced the Stop Harming Our Kids (SHOK) resolution, co-sponsored by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.), aimed a protecting LGBT youth from psychological abuse caused by "gay to-straight" conversion therapy. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has announced that she will introduce a House resolution on Wednesday, Nov. 28, asking the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage states to take steps to prevent minors from being harmed by controversial and discredited gay-to-straight conversion therapy. [ Read more → ]

The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit accusing a New Jersey organization of consumer fraud for offering conversion therapy services – a discredited practice that claims to convert people from gay to straight. [ Read more → ]

Two LGBT advocacy groups, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Equality California, filed court papers late Friday seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the new California law protecting LGBT youth from "gay-to-straight" reparative therapy. [ Read more → ]

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) has introduced a bill that would ban mental health providers from offering "gay-to-straight" reparative therapy for minors. [ Read more → ]

Aubrey Levin, a Canadian psychiatrist and longtime proponent of so-called “ex-gay” therapy, will face charges in Calgary next week that he sexually assaulted male patients. A jury ruled Tuesday that he was fit to stand trial, despite Levin’s claims that he suffers from the early stages of dementia. [ Read more → ]

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Thursday, calling upon the department’s licensing board to investigate the practices of a Chicago-area social worker, who they say practices ”ex-gay” conversion therapy services. [ Read more → ]

Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver and Matt Barber said on the “Faith and Freedom” radio program Wednesday that banning therapists from seeking to turn gay kids straight is like requiring therapists to help people accept and embrace their alcoholism, pedophilia, or kleptomania. [ Read more → ]

If there is one thing that we learned by the Pacific Justice Institute’s lawsuit against California Gov. Jerry Brown, and anyone in his orbit remotely connected to a new law banning “ex-gay” therapy for minors, is that these lawyers are as logic challenged and convoluted as the industry they are poorly defending. [ Read more → ]

Therapists who purportedly counsel gay and lesbian patients into heterosexuality and two anti-gay organizations have filed lawsuits seeking an injunction against California's recently approved ban on reparative therapy for minors. [ Read more → ]

It was the 1970s reparative therapy for gays – you ignored who you were and tried to be what society, your church and your family wanted you to be. I did my best. I went to church, I sang in the choir, I had a job. I cooked, cleaned, did laundry and tried to be happy. The thing is – I wasted over 20 years of my life, and the life of my husband, trying to be someone I wasn’t... [ Read more → ]

Just two days after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill banning psychological therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian youth straight — often referred to as reparative therapy -- the anti-gay organization Liberty Counsel announced Monday it is preparing a lawsuit aimed at preventing the law from taking effect. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday made history by signing a landmark legislation banning psychological therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian youth straight — often referred to as reparative therapy. [ Read more → ]

Parents do not raise their children in a vacuum, but instead society has to deal with the repercussions of how that child was raised. Thus, though society cannot, and should not, dictate how a parent raises their child, there are limits – very few limits – to what a parent can do with their child. In my opinion, reparative therapy should fall into this limitation... [ Read more → ]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California state legislature on Thursday passed the nation's first law banning psychological therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian youth straight -- often referred to as reparative therapy -- sending the measure to Gov. Jerry Brown for approval. [ Read more → ]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California Assembly on Tuesday voted 52 to 21 in favor of a bill that will protect LGBT youth from treatments by mental health practitioners who falsely claim to be able change their sexual orientation or gender expression. [ Read more → ]

“Victims,” best describes those who participate (especially those forced to participate) in the macabre ritual of self-loathing that SOCE (sexual orientation change efforts) groups advocate. These are not institutions of healing. But are institutions of shame and degradation. They are not based in science, instead they’re based in ancient dogma, blind bigotry, and willful ignorance. [ Read more → ]

REEDVILLE, Va. -- A new bill making its way through the California state legislature that would ban "ex-gay" reparative therapy for minors, has been called "fascism and ex-gay bashing" by the head of an "ex-gay" advocacy group. [ Read more → ]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California State Senate today approved a bill designed to limit the ability of mental health providers in California to engage in dangerous sexual orientation change efforts (sometimes referred to as “ex-gay therapy,” “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy”). [ Read more → ]