Fired Lawyer Blames 'Gay Conversion' Therapy

A Sacramento psychiatrist who practices gay conversion therapy defamed a gay attorney-prison guard to his employer after confining him with "a large dog under compelled coercion," the lawyer claims in court.
Calvin Chang says he was referred to Dr. Benjamin Kaufman after filing a discrimination complaint against his employer, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Chang, who'd complained that he was denied promotion because of his sexual orientation, claims there were "no facts or lawful basis whatsoever" to justify his referral to Kaufman. Chang says he is a licensed attorney with more than 20 years of law enforcement experience.
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Chang says in the lawsuit that Kaufman is "a nationally recognized and outspoken critic of gay men, whom he views as having a mental disorder[;] he describes as 'the homosexual condition' as a 'self-destructive behavior,' a 'sexual deviation,' deeply disturbing and a threat."

Kaufman co-founded the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in 1992, a group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist organization, and believes that "behind every homosexual person or gay person is a heterosexual person that has not emerged,'" according to the complaint.
Chang claims Kaufman disclosed private information to the prisons department, including false allegations that Chang was a threat to specific law enforcement officials, and that these lies cost him his job.
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Chang says Kaufman subjected him to "reparative therapy" without his consent and threatened to have him fired if he didn't accept the prisons department's offer of demotion.

He says Kaufman subjected him to discriminatory and threatening behavior because of his sexual orientation. Among other things, he says, he "was subjected to confinement in a room with a large dog under compelled coercion and behind numerous locked doors."


Fired Lawyer Blames 'Gay Conversion' Therapy

SPLC files groundbreaking lawsuit accusing conversion therapy organization of fraud | Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit today accusing a New Jersey organization of consumer fraud for offering conversion therapy services – a dangerous and discredited practice that claims to convert people from gay to straight.

The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, charges that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), its founder, Arthur Goldberg, and counselor Alan Downing violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by providing conversion therapy claiming to cure clients of being gay.

It is the first time a conversion therapy provider has been sued for fraudulent business practices. The lawsuit describes how the plaintiffs – four young men and two of their parents – were lured into JONAH’s services through deceptive practices.

“JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken,” said Christine P. Sun, deputy legal director for the SPLC. “Despite the consensus of mainstream professional organizations that conversion therapy doesn’t work, this racket continues to scam vulnerable gay men and lesbians out of thousands of dollars and inflicts significant harm on them.”

The lawsuit describes how the underlying premise of conversion therapy – that a person can “convert” to heterosexuality – has no basis in scientific fact. Conversion therapy has been discredited or highly criticized by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations. It is the longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences that homosexuality is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation.

SPLC files groundbreaking lawsuit accusing conversion therapy organization of fraud | Southern Poverty Law Center