UPDATED::8 boys removed from Burnet County boarding home amid abuse allegations

 UPDATE:: Conversion Therapy Ringleaders Arrested for Trafficking Boys

The former head of a conversion therapy camp in Alabama who allegely used a belt to beat the “the [gay] demon” out of boys who were sent there has been indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking through a new religious home he and his wife set up in Texas.

Gary Wiggins and his wife, Meaghan Wiggins, who ran the Joshua Home, an alleged “home for troubled boys” in Burnet County, Texas, are accused of trafficking underage boys and forcing them into labor services, according to Austin TV station KXAN.

A year ago, eight boys between the ages of 10 and 17 were removed from the home during a raid; theWigginses had relocated their operation from Pineville, Mo., before authorities there could investigate similar charges. At the time of the raid in May of 2018, the boys made no accusations against the couple that warranted criminal charges. The Wigginses left the state and returned to Alabama until recently, when investigators tracked them down and returned them to Burnet County.

Officials have removed eight boys from a boarding home in Burnet County as investigators look into whether it might have been using them illegally for a lawn care service and moving company, Sheriff Calvin Boyd said Friday.

The sheriff said that Gary Wiggins, the operator of the Joshua Home, has not been charged.

Officials had received allegations of abuse, fraud and human trafficking at the home near Bertram, the sheriff’s office said in a news release Friday morning, but Boyd declined to comment on those allegations in his afternoon news conference. The release said the home, which is affiliated with a nonprofit called the Joshua Home Ministries, “purports to be a residential home for troubled boys.”

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Wiggins moved the facility from Pineville, Mo., to the Bertram area in May, Shell said. The Kansas City Star reported in May that the McDonald County sheriff’s office was looking into whether there was anything illegal going on at the home that Wiggins ran in Pineville.

8 boys removed from Burnet County boarding home amid abuse allegations

See also::  Texas Authorities Shut Down Boys Camp Run By Baptist Minister Accused of ‘Ex-Gay’ Torture

TWO Outs ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapist Who Claims to Cure Gays, Yet Solicits Sex on Manhunt, a Gay Dating App | Truth Wins Out

Norman Goldwasser, by day, is an Orthodox Jewish therapist at Horizon Psychological Services who compares homosexuality to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and misleads clients by claiming that their sexual orientation can be changed with his special brand of quack therapy, which is rejected by every respected medical and mental health association. By night, an undercover investigation by Truth Wins Out has found, he solicits sexual partners on Manhunt, a gay dating App, using the profile “Hotnhairy72.” During our operation, Goldwasser, going by the pseudonym “Dave”, offered to meet for sex with our operative, “Brandon,” at a Fort Lauderdale motel room. Goldwasser also had a profile on Bear Nation by the same name.

This latest scandal comes as the new movie Boy Erased (Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe) has brought a renewed spotlight to the issue of the harm caused by “ex-gay” programs.

“Norman Goldwasser’s double life of unconscionable lies highlights the rank hypocrisy and predatory nature of the fraudulent ‘ex-gay’ industry,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We urge every state to ban the scourge of conversion therapy that attacks the mental health of LGBT youth and puts them in harms way.” Besen is the author of Anything Bust Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.

TWO Outs ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapist Who Claims to Cure Gays, Yet Solicits Sex on Manhunt, a Gay Dating App | Truth Wins Out

See also:: 'Ex-gay' therapist allegedly found soliciting 'hookups' on gay dating apps

Women Say A School For Troubled Teens Punished Girls For Being Gay

The idea of opening a private, Christian-based school appealed to Ludwig in large part because unlike group homes or rehab centers, it was not subject to state laws that required it to grant access to inspectors and to follow a specific curriculum. "And that's why I picked that," Ludwig said on his radio show in 2015, "so I could be faith-based and be uninterrupted in my pursuit of sharing the gospel with these kids." He wanted the freedom to be able to hire Christians, Ludwig said. "We don't want to have to bring in a Muslim teacher, we don't want to bring in someone who is not of our doctrine or conviction."

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It was around 5 a.m. when two strangers — a woman and a large man — entered Emilie Bachrach’s bedroom and told her to get dressed and come with them. On her way out of the house, Bachrach found a letter from her mom on the dining room table. "It is going to kill me to let you go away to a special program," it read.

The strangers drove Bachrach, then 15, from her home in a Los Angeles suburb to a private boarding school in the California mountains, where she lived from August 2005 to March 2007. When she arrived, Bachrach said school staff strip-searched her, gave her a uniform, and told her she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone for the first week. None of the 40 other students could speak to or look at her, either. The girls at this place were like Bachrach — supposedly troubled teens who needed an intervention that their parents couldn't provide. The school promised to fix their problems using biblical principles in a tightly controlled environment.

Bachrach, alone and in a state of shock, managed to make a friend in Rosemary Donahue, then a 17-year-old student at the school. "She was the only friend I had there," Bachrach said. But the girls’ closeness quickly drew the attention of staff, who disapproved. Bachrach and Donahue said they were ordered not to speak to each other, a rule called "no talk." If they so much as looked at each other, they'd lose points from the system the school uses to determine each student’s eligibility for various privileges and eventual graduation. Donahue said staff told her the “no talk” rule was necessary because her bond with Bachrach was "preventing our progress in the program," but she believes it was because of the school’s anti-gay prejudice and its efforts to crush same-sex relationships. "I didn't come out as queer for 10 years because of it," Donahue said.

Women Say A School For Troubled Teens Punished Girls For Being Gay

Gospel Singer Donnie McClurkin Accused Of Leading "Gay Cure Cult" | NewNowNext

Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is being accused of running a gay conversion group, according to one of his purported victims.

After news of a Toronto psychiatrist having sex with a young male patient he was attempting to cure of homosexuality surfaced, a Twitter user accused McClurkin of being connected to Exodus International, an ex-gay organization that’s shuttered its U.S operations but continues overseas.

“In the ’90s Donnie McClurkin formed a religious gay cure cult,” wrote Achmat X in a series of tweets. “My mom naively enrolled me.”
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McClurkin, a multiple Grammy winner with more than 10 million albums sold worldwide, claims to have been cured of homosexuality himself. He pinned his same-sex attractions on being molested by an uncle as a boy.


Gospel Singer Donnie McClurkin Accused Of Leading "Gay Cure Cult" | NewNowNext

Hershey School house parents showed anti-gay video to a student (w/ update)

I missed this story during my recovery,

A year ago, when a former student accused the Milton Hershey School of forcing him to watch a video meant to convert him from homosexuality, the school called the allegation “outrageous” and said it would never condone such behavior.

Now in court documents, the school’s lawyers admit that such a video was used by Hershey house parents and that it was shown to at least one student. The school maintains it doesn’t know whether the tape was shown to Adam Dobson, the former student who is now suing the private school in federal court.

Dobson contends that he was forced to watch the hour-long gay conversion tape as punishment, and that it was followed by a campaign of prayer sessions and other efforts to get him to change his sexual orientation.
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The Dobson suit is the latest problem at the Hershey School, the nation’s richest private school and largely financed by Hershey chocolate and Reese’s peanut butter cup profits, and part of a widening legal battle over student care. Also in 2016, the parents of another student, Abbie Bartels, sued the Hershey School, which banned the eighth-grade girl from the school’s campus after she was treated in a short-term psychiatric facility for suicidal thoughts. She hanged herself two weeks later in June 2013.

Hershey School house parents showed anti-gay video to a student

Update:  A 2nd former Hershey School student says he was forced to watch gay conversion film

TWO Praises New York For Banning Conversion Therapy for Minors and Cracking Down on Insurance Providers | Truth Wins Out

Truth Wins Out praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today for using his Executive Authority to prohibit the destructive practice of “conversion therapy,” a fraudulent and ineffective attempt to combine prayer and discredited psychobabble to change teenagers from gay to straight. According to CNN, “Saturday’s announcement bans public and private health care insurers from covering the practice in New York State. It also prohibits New York mental health facilities from conducting the practice on minors.”

From the NYTimes, a bit more detail,

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Saturday announced a series of measures intended to eliminate so-called conversion therapy, a practice that claims the ability to reverse same-sex attraction in some people but that has been widely discredited by scientists and criticized by gay-rights groups.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan relies on economic incentives meant to discourage conversion therapy’s use on young people. Insurers in New York, for instance, will now be prohibited from covering the cost of such therapy for anyone under 18.

That action — issued through the State Financial Services Department — would be combined with a new regulation from the State Health Department that would prohibit the use of Medicaid to pay for conversion therapy. Centers overseen by the State Office of Mental Health would also be barred from providing conversion therapy to minors, according to the governor’s office.

Taken as a whole, the new regulations would severely restrict conversion therapy, which Mr. Cuomo called “a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice” in a statement.

Why it has come to Executive Authority,

Last year, the New York State Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, passed a bill that would have banned mental health practitioners from performing conversion therapy on minors, labeling the practice a form of professional misconduct that could put medical licenses at risk. The bill stalled in the State Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

TWO Praises New York For Banning Conversion Therapy for Minors and Cracking Down on Insurance Providers | Truth Wins Out

Gay Conversion Therapy Group Targeted In Historic Consumer Fraud Complaint

A group of civil rights organizations are filing a historic consumer fraud complaint with the federal government on Wednesday, charging that a group purporting to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity is engaging in deceptive business practices.

The Federal Trade Commission complaint comes from the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and it goes after People Can Change. These so-called "conversion therapy" businesses try to make people "free from the constant pull of homosexual desires," as the PCC website says.

"Anecdotal evidence that change is possible is abundant. ... But the evidence is even much more than anecdotal. In more than 50 years of research, including 48 studies we will reference here, there are data and published accounts documenting easily more than 3,000 cases of change from homosexual to heterosexual attracting, identity and functioning," reads the site.

But as the groups' complaint notes, there is no reliable scientific evidence backing up these claims. Major mainstream medical groups have, however, found that there is evidence demonstrating that conversion therapy can be harmful to an individual. And the entire practice stems from the once accepted -- but now discredited -- belief that homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured.

Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, said the groups chose PCC because it's one of the most prominent organizations of this kind. They hope that by filing this first-of-its-kind complaint against PCC, it could lead to an industry-wide rule forbidding false claims about sexual orientation and gender identity far beyond this one business.

Gay Conversion Therapy Group Targeted In Historic Consumer Fraud Complaint

Hawaii lawmakers: Ban gay conversion therapy for minors – LGBTQ Nation

Hawaii lawmakers have introduced a bill banning a hotly disputed treatment that aims to turn gay teens heterosexual on the basis that being gay is an illness.

The proposed law, which was introduced in both the Senate and the House, says being gay is not a disorder. Supporters of the ban on gay-conversion therapy say it would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens from serious harm caused when parents force them into therapy to become heterosexual.

The bill would make it illegal for teachers or professional counselors to try to change someone’s sexual orientation. It would also ban advertising that promotes changing sexual orientation.

“These children, these teenagers are quite vulnerable,” Democratic Rep. Della Au Belatti said. “This is an issue because we don’t want them to be subject to further pressure and stigmatization during their formative years in school.”
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Republican Rep. Bob McDermott, who took the state to court to challenge the same-sex marriage law, said he does not support the ban on conversion therapy and expects the bill to be contentious in the community.

Hawaii lawmakers: Ban gay conversion therapy for minors – LGBTQ Nation

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

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

Finish the Job: Ban Conversion Therapy for Minors | Advocate.com

When I founded Truth Wins Out in 2006, the myth that one could “pray away the gay” was a central part of the Religious Right’s strategy to demonize and legislate against LGBT people. In less than a decade, this elaborate hoax is in ruins — with only hard-core dead-enders peddling this manufactured lie.

In 2006 my organization was battling Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out program, which was a traveling road show that featured “ex-gay” activists. This program dissolved years ago after it stopped making money and attendance dwindled. We were also at war with Exodus International, which is now defunct after the group’s leader admitted that conversion therapy does not work and that 99.9 percent of clients were not changing their sexual orientation.

I am still in periodic contact with the “ex-gay” antagonists of yesteryear. Usually it is in the form of randomly stumbling upon their Facebook posts. One former “ex-gay” leader writes about how he is in love with the man he married. Another emotes on the joy he had when he came out to his son and found acceptance. Yet another posts on his journey coming out of the closet and his entrance into the world of dating.

The “ex-gay” industry is a shambles — albeit one that has left a trail of blood, pain, tragedy, and tears. No serious person promotes this charade — and those who do are viewed as as backward and delusional. The future is bleak for practitioners of this psychological voodoo.

Finish the Job: Ban Conversion Therapy for Minors | Advocate.com

ADDENDUM::Survivors Open Up About Trauma Of Gay Conversion Therapy (VIDEO)

After a recent federal report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration called for an end to conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth, survivors of the practice joined HuffPost Live last week to discuss their traumatic experiences.

Josh Sanders told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani about taking classes at Exodus International, a large purveyor of ex-gay therapy that was shut down in 2013. There, Sanders underwent reparative therapy, which the report from SAMHSA called dangerous and baseless.

"There are a lot of different extremes when it comes to this form of therapy as well. I've had friends that have experienced electrocution," Sanders said, who himself experienced a "gay exorcism."

"It's not like 'The Exorcist.' It's not like what you see on TV, but a very intense time of prayer, holy water, a dark room with candles," Sanders explained. "It's traumatic and so for me, I experienced religious trauma syndrome ... it's similar to PTSD, so there's triggers that I would have."

Survivors Open Up About Trauma Of Gay Conversion Therapy

ADDENDUM::What Is Conversion Therapy, Exactly?

"It is not therapy; it is quackery, pure and simple, often legitimized in the name of religious freedom.”

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At its core, conversion therapy assumes incorrectly that sexual orientation and gender identity are caused by environmental factors within the family. “Conversion therapy is a pseudoscience that blames homosexuality on bad parenting. Specifically, the practice claims — without evidence — that a rift between a child and a same-sex parent can lead to a child rejecting that parent and his or her gender role. At puberty this leads to sexualizing the same sex,” says Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit group that speaks out against the ex-gay movement and anti-gay messages.

“Conversion therapy seeks to reverse this alleged process through a combination of prayer, talk therapy, and creating non-sexual same-sex friendships. It also includes masculinity exercises for men, such as touch football and drinking Gatorade, and lipstick seminars for girls,” Besen tells Yahoo Health.

Experts agree that the practice is not only ineffective — it can be dangerous, especially for children and teens, who are still developing their sense of self and trying to figure out their place in the world, Pettus says.

“Young people perceive conversion therapy as a form of family rejection. Family rejection of LGBT youth has been demonstrated to greatly increase their risk for depression, HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, drug use, and suicide,” Gill says. “Family acceptance, on the other hand, is a critical protective factor that helps LGBT youth to grow and thrive.”

Conversion therapy can also have lasting negative effects into adulthood, Haldeman explains. “Adults who have been through some form of this so-called ‘treatment’ as youngsters often become depressed and suicidal due to inner conflict about sexual orientation — and guilt over the inability to change it. Such survivors of conversion efforts often become unable to form intimate relationships in adult life,” he says.

What Is Conversion Therapy, Exactly?

SAMHSA report shows conversion therapy not appropriate for minors, offers methods to support LGBTQ and gender non-conforming children | SAMHSA

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is releasing “Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth,” a comprehensive report that provides an in-depth review of research and clinical expertise related to conversion therapy.  This important new resource makes it clear that conversion therapy is not an appropriate therapeutic approach based on the evidence, and explores alternative ways to discuss sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression with young people.

This report includes the first publication of consensus statements developed by an expert panel held by the American Psychological Association in July 2015.  The expert panel included researchers and practitioners in child and adolescent mental health with a strong background in gender development, gender identity, and sexual orientation in children and adolescents.  Experts with a background in family therapy, ethics, and the psychology of religion also participated.

Through a collaborative process, this panel found that variations in sexual orientation and gender identity are normal, and that conversion therapies or other efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity are not effective, are harmful, and are not appropriate therapeutic practices.  The report provides an overview of existing efforts to eliminate the practice of conversion therapy.

SAMHSA report shows conversion therapy not appropriate for minors, offers methods to support LGBTQ and gender non-conforming children | SAMHSA

See also:  Feds: 'Harmful' Conversion Therapy Must Be Stopped

Peter LaBarbera Furious At Evangelical Leader For Acknowledging That Homosexuality Exists | Right Wing Watch

First off Mr. "I feel like a Jew", there are many things in the world today "that are not biblical".  You know like the the email system you so like or the inter-web that "hosts" your despicable lies.  But seriously dude, you may want to consider finding a more powerful god to worship as it seems us "homo-homo-sexuals" wield so much more power.  Apparently "we" cause hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts. Maybe its time you stopped fucking with us!

“Al Mohler has given credence to the idea of homosexual sexual orientation,” LaBarbera said. “And we know that sexual orientation is a political construct, it’s something that’s helped the homosexual movement advance. Because if people feel that people who struggle with homosexuality have a natural so-called orientation, they of course believe that they’re not really responsible for their behavior as much as they would be for any other sin. So, once again, we start treating this particular sin as a special sin needing all sorts of special terminology and semantics and caveats that are not biblical. And I think he’s starting to go down that route and it troubles me, because he’s probably regarded as the leading intellectual, one of them, in the evangelical Christian movement."

A second point, a bit more nuanced - which explains why Mr. "I feel like a Jew" - may have missed it. Mohler et al did a very good job of veiling their true message.  They may sound all loving, but 'ya' still gotta change'. So I'm not sure why Peter's panties are in such a twist:

In other words, for Southern Baptists — the largest Protestant body in the United States — the theology hasn’t changed. Homosexuality is still a sin, and gay people are still expected to renounce their sexuality, even if they spend their whole life “struggling” in that “battle.” The result, a celibate ex-gay life, if not a man-woman marriage, is the same. They’re just skipping the therapy step. Transgender people are expected to find the same kind of change through faith.

Mohler’s position isn’t new; he made the same rejection of reparative therapy at a conference on homosexuality last year hosted by the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). And at this year’s ACBC conference, like last year’s ERLC conference, the rest of the messaging contradicts this progress by promoting “change” and highlighting “change” narratives.
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This message that “change” is possible was particularly evident in Tuesday’s keynote address by Stuart W. Scott, associate professor of biblical counseling at SBTS. Describing the Bible as a “command,” not an “invitation,” Scott spoke in generalities about all of the ways Christians can change to suggest that changing homosexuality is no different. “To say a person is a gay Christian is an affront to the Gospel,” he explained, “or a Christian alcoholic or a proud Christian.”
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Condemning conversion therapies doesn’t change the fact that Southern Baptists are still teaching that LGBT youth should be condemned and rejected unless they change. The only difference is that they now expect that change to come through “Biblical counseling” instead of psychological therapy. As a recent study found, family acceptance is the biggest factor for determining positive outcomes for LGBT youth.

Peter LaBarbera Furious At Evangelical Leader For Acknowledging That Homosexuality Exists | Right Wing Watch

WATCH: Shock Therapy Used to 'Cure' Chinese Gays, U.K. Journalist Reports | Advocate.com

Electroshock therapy was once commonly administered to gay people in the U.S. in an attempt to “cure” them — and it’s still being used in some countries, including China, as documented in a report that aired tonight on U.K. television.

Shaunagh Connaire of Britain’s Channel 4 reported on the distressing situation in an episode of the foreign affairs series Unreported World.

Connaire went from a part of the world that is embracing LGBT equality to one where the situation of LGBT people “is somewhat darker,” she told Elle U.K. She saw “clinics that offer gay conversion therapy, sometimes even electroshock therapy, as a ‘cure’ for homosexuality,” she said. This practice continues even though the Chinese Psychiatric Association stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001.

John Shen (pictured above with Connaire), a leader of the Beijing LGBT Centre, and his colleagues are seeking to expose those clinics, but it’s dangerous work in a nation “whose intelligence simply cannot be outmaneuvered,” Connaire noted. Filming was difficult too.

WATCH: Shock Therapy Used to 'Cure' Chinese Gays, U.K. Journalist Reports | Advocate.com

Pray the Gay Away | National | News | SFGN Articles

The next thing Brinton remembers, he woke up in the commune’s emergency room – his father had knocked him out cold. The beatings continued for the next two months whenever he talked about his feelings towards boys, but he never understood why. Finally, seeing that the beatings weren't working, his parents took him to see a therapist who promised he could cure him of his homosexual thoughts.

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“I can walk away from the exorcism and say, ‘That was so weird and the most ridiculous thing ever,’” Prentiss said. “But when I think back it’s mostly the talk therapy stuff that’s really the most damaging…it gets in your head and it cultivates that self hatred.”

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As Besen so eloquently notes, you can not change the core of one's being; the essence of who one is as a person.  Anyone one who tells you they can "fix" you is a fool, a lair, or both. They ignore one of the simplest, and oldest  principles in life, in order to love and accept others, one most love and accept self.  But you see within the Reich, that will never happen.  It can't happen:

https://www.facebook.com/WEAREUAA/photos/a.200085766695305.42584.200082823362266/905695336134341/?type=3

The whole charade is predicated on demonizing an "other" to gain power and fuck all who get in their way.

“Being gay is not a disorder. Being transgender is not a malady that requires a cure. Had I been Leelah Alcorn’s physician, I would have told her exactly that,” Dr. Murthy said.

Conversion therapy is nothing new – when simply threatening the wrath of God on people was no longer working, churches took a new approach, said Wayne Besen, the founder of Truth Wins Out (TWO), an LGBT advocacy group working to eliminate anti-gay bias.

“Conversion therapy is the hijacking of medical language to justify religious persecution and beliefs,” said Wayne Besen, the founder and executive director TWO. “The ministries use the medical language and the therapists use the religious language. It’s the same damn thing.”

TWO made waves in 2011 when it took down Bachmann and Associates for practicing reparative therapy even though its founder, Marcus Bachmann, the husband of former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, claimed they did no such thing. TWO conducted an undercover investigation into the practice for a week with cameras. During the investigation, a TWO staffer went through reparative therapy and was promised that he could be turned straight and that they had done it before.

The report came out in the midst of Michele’s run for president.

“It takes the most beautiful part of one’s life and turns it into something ugly, and when you do that, you’re destroying the person spiritually and emotionally and physically,” Besen said. “When you turn it into something painful, you destroy the very essence of the person.”

Pray the Gay Away | National | News | SFGN Articles

Ex-Utahn's journey from Mormon counseling to 'abusive' reparative therapy and, ultimately, a happy gay marriage | The Salt Lake Tribune

During his freshman year at Brigham Young University, Michael Ferguson began bargaining with God.

The pledges of sacrifice came during hours of feverish prayer that a dressed-for-church Ferguson offered from his knees, while locked inside his dormitory room on each monthly Mormon fast Sunday. 

In exchange for heaven's merciful aid, Ferguson would give more — more hours of service in his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints priesthood assignments, more time performing ritual ordinance work in the Provo LDS Temple, more devotion, more faithfulness, more obedience.

"One of [the bargains]," Ferguson said, "was that I would not tell a single person until I was on my deathbed that I had experienced same-sex attraction if he would help lift that off of me."

That struggle led Ferguson on a painful, sometimes desperate, journey through a decade of efforts to change his sexuality — from prayer and talk therapy to 12-step programs and psychodrama workshops — culminating with his exit from Mormonism and a landmark New Jersey lawsuit that became the first courtroom challenge to commercial conversion-therapy programs.

In June, a jury found the nonprofit group JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) guilty of consumer fraud for promising it could help clients with same-sex attractions overcome their sexual urges.

Ferguson and three Orthodox Jewish men had sued after seeking help from JONAH programs, some developed by Mormons. The four had wrestled to reconcile their sexuality with their conservative religious upbringings.

Ex-Utahn's journey from Mormon counseling to 'abusive' reparative therapy and, ultimately, a happy gay marriage | The Salt Lake Tribune

Protecting Children From Ex-Gay Therapy Is A Matter Of 'Liberty,' Republican Argues | ThinkProgress

Kudos to State Rep. Eric Schleien (R) of New Hampshire!!

New Hampshire could be the next state to pass a ban on ex-gay therapy for minors, but it will be because a conservative Republican proposed it.

State Rep. Eric Schleien (R) announced on his Facebook page this past week that he would be introducing a bill “relative to conversion therapy seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation.” He openly admitted that he was inspired by the Obama administration’s call for an end to all forms of “reparative” or “conversion” therapy, treatments that try to change — or more often, reject — a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Though he is still polishing the bill’s language, he hopes to not only ban providing conversion therapy to minors, but to establish in law that it is considered fraud — that it is deceptive to advertise the therapy as useful or successful. Similarly, in New Jersey, separate from the passage of a similar ban there, a state court ruled that the Jewish ex-gay organization JONAH violated the state’s Consumer Fraud Act by marketing the supposed benefits and success stories of ex-gay therapy.

Schleien told ThinkProgress that he sees it as a liberty issue. If minors are forced into treatment programs that are “abusive and fraudulent,” that is a violation of their liberty, he explained. He applies the same “liberty” reasoning to defend his support for marriage equality. Though he’s partial to the vision of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that the government should get out of the business of recognizing marriages entirely, Schleien believes that as long as the government is recognizing one kind of couple’s relationship, it should recognize other couples the same way.

Protecting Children From Ex-Gay Therapy Is A Matter Of 'Liberty,' Republican Argues | ThinkProgress