Tomorrow's New York Times will have a story about the first court tests of gay conversion therapy. They come in the form of two separate state court cases--one in New Jersey, the other in California.
The California one comes as no surprise--several ex-gay therapists are trying to throw out the state's recent ban on the practice, saying it violates their free speech. However, the real shocker comes from new Jersey. Four gay men are suing a Orthodox Jew-oriented counseling center that they say ruined their lives.
In the spotlight in New Jersey are a counseling center called Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or Jonah; along with its co-founder, Arthur Goldberg; and an affiliated “life coach,” Alan Downing.
Mr. Goldberg helped found Jonah in 1999, after he finished serving a prison sentence and probation for financial fraud he committed in the 1980s. The group describes itself as “dedicated to educating the worldwide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors that lead to same-sex attractions,” and says it “works directly with those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions,” including non-Jews.
While many Orthodox Jews consider homosexual relations to be a violation of divine law, Mr. Goldberg’s group has no official standing within Judaism, and many Jews accept homosexuality.
Neither Mr. Goldberg nor Mr. Downing is licensed as a therapist, so they are not subject to censure by professional associations.
The four men say that Goldberg and Downing's "therapy" included humiliating and degrading practices such as stripping naked in front of their counselors and beating effigies of their parents. They plunked down thousands of dollars in fees, only to be told that when the "treatment" failed, it was their fault for not wanting to change their feelings.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is asking a court in Jersey City to shut Jonah down for violating New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Protection Act. They also want Jonah to reimburse the plaintiffs not only for the fees they paid, but for the mental damage it caused. Read the complaint here.
One of the plaintiffs is Chaim Levin, an Orthodox Jew who was referred to Jonah by his rabbi. He went to Jonah counseling sessions for a year and a half until Goldberg asked him to do something that should make any real therapist recoil in horror.
He quit, he said, after Mr. Downing had him remove his clothes and touch himself, saying it would help him reconnect with his masculinity. Mr. Goldberg has defended Mr. Downing’s methods as sometimes appropriate for men dealing with body image problems.
But Mr. Levin called the episode “degrading and humiliating.”
Mr. Levin said that he was sexually abused by a relative between the ages of 6 and 10 and that Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Downing blamed the abuse for his homosexual attractions. “Saying the abuse made you gay is terrible,” Mr. Levin said. “Once I accepted that I was gay, I was able to focus on the more serious problem of a history of sex abuse.”
According to the lawsuit, stripping naked in front of counselors and other patients was a common part of Jonah "therapy."
Another former patient, Michael Ferguson, got in touch with Jonah after being unable to reconcile his gay attractions to his Mormon faith (he's since left). Ferguson says Downing tried to make him think his parents made him gay.
One can only wonder how many other outfits there are out there like this. Hopefully the judge hearing this will drop the hammer on them--and serve notice to others who continue to peddle this bunko.