Gay man was forced to have 'conversion therapy' for FIVE YEARS to turn him straight | Daily Mail Online

'It was extremely difficult to come home from school and not talk to them. The word uncomfortable doesn't even describe it.'

Mr Shurka, who is currently single, said: 'The therapists tried to teach me that there was no such thing as homosexuality and that it was a psychological condition that's routed from some sort of childhood trauma.

'One of the psychotherapists I saw believed we are born innately heterosexual, but a childhood trauma we have been holding on to can become sexualised, or that your feelings are a response to that trauma.

'He said the trauma can be something really subtle or something dramatic.

'Therefore, it's believed you have to heal this trauma through therapy and the attraction for the opposite sex will return because it's "natural".

'They believed that, through therapy, you could 'work on it.'

Gay man was forced to have 'conversion therapy' for FIVE YEARS to turn him straight | Daily Mail Online

Will this be the year that ex-gay therapy on minors gets banned in Virginia? – LGBTQ Nation

With bills in the House and Senate, advocates, legislators and survivors gathered at the General Assembly building in Richmond Sunday to decry the practice of ex-gay therapy and approach a long passed-over topic with new hope.

The practice, which aims to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity through controversial psychological means, was called “dangerous” by Delegate Patrick Hope (D-43), the sponsor of HB 427. The senate versions of the bill are  SB 262 and SB 267.

Hope, who has supported similar legislation for three years in a row, said conversion therapy stems from the false idea that “LGTBQ people, particularly children, are broken and some how need to be fixed.”

“There’s not an on/off switch [for sexuality],” he said.

Senator Scott Surovell (D-44), who has championed pro-LGBTQ bills in the past, joined Hope in submitting a Senate version of a bill which also aims to ban the practice on youth.
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The argument that ex-gay therapy is a kind of consumer fraud is something other sates, like New Jersey, have used to pass legislation banning the practice, but the bills discussed today didn’t include those concerns. This fraud angle is something Hope suggested the Attorney General’s office could look into and get behind, and AVP President Scott Price said fraud language might be included in future versions depending on the AG’s interest.

Other senator’s who have co-signed onto this legislation include Favola (who was in attendance for today’s event), McEachin, Dance, Lucas, and Ebbin.

Will this be the year that ex-gay therapy on minors gets banned in Virginia? – LGBTQ Nation

Breaking: DC Passes Bill Banning Conversion Or Ex-Gay 'Therapy' For Children - The New Civil Rights Movement

Washington, D.C. is about to follow in the footsteps of California and New Jersey in protecting children from the dangers of dangerous reparative, "ex-gay," or conversion "therapy." These practices, often embraced by the religious right, employ tactics deemed both ineffective and harmful by nearly every major medical association in the U.S., and many round the world.

The D.C. City Council just voted protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children and teens by banning the practice.

“Today, the DC Council sent a powerful message to LGBT youth and their families that they are accepted, supported, and loved,” Samantha Ames, a staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and coordinator of the #BornPerfect campaign said in a statement. “The Council has used its authority to protect our most vulnerable youth from dangerous and discredited pseudoscience that tells them who they are is wrong, and reaffirmed the consensus of every major medical and mental health organization that all children are born perfect, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Breaking: DC Passes Bill Banning Conversion Or Ex-Gay 'Therapy' For Children - The New Civil Rights Movement

ADDENDUM::How A Former Advocate Of Ex-Gay Therapy Is Working To Protect Others From Harm | ThinkProgress

Earlier this year, a group of former ex-gay leaders — individuals who made a career at some point in their lives promoting or administering ex-gay therapy — published an open letter decrying all forms of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE). “It is our firm belief,” they wrote, “that it is much more productive to support, counsel, and mentor LGBT individuals to embrace who they are in order to live happy, well-adjusted lives.” The letter helped launch the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ #BornPerfect campaign, which calls for more laws protecting people from the harms of reparative therapy.

Among the signatories was Tim Rymel, who at one point in his life was an evangelical Christian minister and a vocal advocate for ex-gay therapy, offering his own personal testimony to support his cause. From 1991 to 1996, Rymel served as Outreach Director for Love in Action (LIA), a residential facility for ex-gay therapy based in Memphis, Tennessee. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because after Rymel’s time there, LIA began a youth program called Refuge that in 2005 became the center of a big controversy after a young man named Zach Stark blogged on MySpace about how he was treated in the facility, which he was forced to attend by his parents. Love In Action eventually closed its youth program, but still serves adults under the new name “Restoration Path.”

Rymel now identifies as gay and is working against the harms of ex-gay therapy. He details his journey of self-acceptance in a new book called Going Gay, and he spoke with ThinkProgress about what he learned along the way and what he’s now trying to teach others about homosexuality and Christianity.

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Rymel is now connecting with people who attended Love In Action while he worked there to tell “Ex-Gay 25 Years Later” stories. Of the 15 he’s reached out to, only three of them still identify as ex-gay, and only one of those three has been willing to talk to him on the record. What he’s already found is that those who now identify as gay are doing well, while those who still identify as ex-gay continue to struggle with their identities. He’s combining their stories with a meta-analysis of the available research to try to paint a picture of what the ex-gay movement actually looks like and debunk the myth that there are thousands of ex-gays out there. “The thousands do not exist,” he told ThinkProgress.

How A Former Advocate Of Ex-Gay Therapy Is Working To Protect Others From Harm | ThinkProgress