Conversion Therapy Event at BYU-I Axed - The Daily Beast

Michael D. Williams, the Rexburg, Idaho-based counselor in question, told The Daily Beast “that I do not act on behalf of the [LDS Church], but as a member of the congregation who has taken a good look at much of the research regarding same-sex attraction [SSA], and who has assisted a number of young adults—male and female—to overcome unwanted SSA both here and in California.”

Williams did not immediately respond to further questions about the event, nor did he provide evidence of the supposed efficacy of his treatments. But a few hours later, he emailed to say, “Due to negative publicity the presentation has been called off.”

“I regret that the fears of some who’ve experienced repression and bigotry have resulted in others not being allowed to learn alternative viewpoints and options,” he said

No media outlets had reported on the event at the time of cancellation but The Daily Beast had made press inquiries to BYU-I and the Mormon Church. A BYU-I spokesperson later told The Daily Beast that the event was planned and subsequently cancelled by a local student congregation, not the university itself.


On his professional blog, Williams has authored several anti-gay and anti-transgender posts. In one, he refers to Leelah Alcorn—a transgender girl who committed suicide in December 2014, prompting the Obama administration to officially oppose conversion therapy—as a “troubled young man” and repeatedly uses male pronouns to refer to her. Williams predictably opposed President Obama’s new stance on conversion therapy.

In another post, in which Williams predicts that the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell will have “dire consequences,” he claims that “[h]omes with same-sex ‘parents’ are remarkably unstable” and that the term “same-sex marriage” is “a misnomer and oxymoron.”

Conversion Therapy Event at BYU-I Axed - The Daily Beast

Mark Regnerus Watch: Utah, Michigan | The Bilerico Project

Tuesday I posted concerning Regnerus and his flawed "sociological study." The one where data and conclusion don't exactly line up. This article again touches on the influence of said study but also delves into some of the other players in the Utah case (and Michigan as well).

Relying on information from Joe.My.God.:

Another familiar name on the Utah brief is Professor Douglas Allen, of Canada's Simon Fraser University. Allen sits on the board of directors of NOM's former hate-satellite, the Ruth Institute. Allen is a supporter of Regnerus and claims to have analyzed a 2000 census and come to the conclusion that "children being raised by same-sex couples are 35% less likely to make normal progress through school."

Also signing the brief is Professor Joseph Price from Utah's Brigham Young University. Last year Price and four other (presumably Mormon) members of the Brigham Young social sciences faculty filed an anti-gay SCOTUS brief against the overturn of DOMA. Their brief denounced the APA's position that gay people make fine parents. From the brief: "Boys who do not regularly experience the love, discipline, and modeling of a good father are more likely to engage in what is called 'compensatory masculinity' where they reject and denigrate all that is feminine and instead seek to prove their masculinity by engaging in domineering and violent behavior." In other words, lesbian parents produce violent boys.

What I, and by reading through various comments from JMG, and a few others have pondered: how is a widely discredited study continually cited in cases all the way up to the supreme court?

The answer simplified, "[t]he reason this study still carries weight in Court is because it does, to this day, remain Peer Reviewed and Published, although 2 out of 3 peer reviewers were CONCOMITANTLY paid consultants to the study." Unlike the Wakefield vaccine study which was rescinded, this study has not been.

Mark Regnerus Watch: Utah, Michigan | The Bilerico Project