News that the Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the 'ex-gay' group JONAH for consumer fraud has literally sent the Family Research Council into orbit.
The organization made the following statement its Washington Update on Wednesday:
. . . In its lawsuit, SPLC says that reorientation therapy "has no basis in
scientific fact." As FRC's Peter Sprigg will tell you, there's an
abundance of scientific and anecdotal evidence that the therapies do
work--although critics are reluctant to acknowledge it. NARTH (National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) has cited "600
reports of clinicians, researchers, and former clients--primarily from
professional and peer-reviewed scientific journals" which show that
"reorientation treatment has been helpful to many." The left-leaning
American Psychological Association (APA) says there is "no sufficiently
scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed."
But the APA isn't claiming that there's no evidence change is
possible--only that the evidence out there is "not sufficiently
scientifically sound." In other words, it doesn't meet all the criteria
for "gold standard" social science research: random samples, a
prospective and longitudinal design, and use of a control group. Of
course, a lot of pro-homosexual social science research doesn't meet those standards! And even when studies do meet that criteria (like Mark Regnerus's recent homosexual parenting study),
the Left races to discredit them. More and better research would be
great--but the same people who say the research is inadequate also
adamantly oppose doing more studies on the topic! In this lawsuit, SPLC
also strongly suggests that reorientation therapy is not only
ineffective, but harmful. What's their evidence for that? Well, it's
entirely anecdotal--the same kind of evidence they refuse to accept with
regard to the effectiveness of the therapy!
The bottom line is that SPLC doesn't seem interested in helping
people. Their actions and bank accounts show that the organization is
more interested in profiting from them. If the Left truly had
homosexuals' best interest in mind, they would recognize that for many,
these attractions are unwanted. For those who struggle, hope is not in
limiting avenues for change--but encouraging them.
FRC's statement is full of distortions and misrepresentations. Let's break them down in a simple fashion:
1. According to FRC, its spokesman, Peter Sprigg, can point to an abundance of "scientific and anecdotal" evidence that "ex-gay" therapy works. I've never heard of anyone grouping scientific work with that of the "anecdotal" nature. But more to the point, where are the links to Sprigg pointing out this supposed evidence. For that matter, where is the evidence of FRC's claim that NARTH (
an organization with NO credibility) has provided proof that "ex-gay" therapy works
2. FRC claims that a "lot of pro-homosexual social science research" does not meet the standards of credible social science research. Fair enough, but a classic misdirection. Not only does FRC neglect to mention said studies, but also does not mention just what does these alleged studies have to do with the lack of credibility of "ex-gay" studies.
3. FRC claims that the recent study regarding gay parenting by Mark Regnerus does in fact meet the criteria of credible of social science research. Not true. Regnerus' study has been blasted as
faulty and
flawed - not by "the Left" - but by credible researchers for its
myriad of errors, particularly its definition of what constitutes a "same-sex" household.
4. Lastly, FRC omits the simple fact that SPLC is pushing this lawsuit on the behalf of
four ex-clients of JONAH, all of whom were the victims of the faulty belief that their sexual orientation needed to be changed:
The complaint outlines some of the bizarre treatment the men were subjected to in sessions with JONAH counselor Alan Downing and others:
- remove all clothing during both individual and group therapy
sessions including an instruction to Levin to hold his penis in front of
Defendant Downing,
- cuddle and intimately hold others of the same-sex including between young clients and older counselors,
- violently beat an effigy of the client’s mother with a tennis racket,
- go to the gym more as well as bath houses in order to be nude with father figures, and
- be subjected to ridicule as “faggots” and “homos” in mock locker room and gym class scenarios.
Michael Ferguson, one of the four young men SPLC is representing in the case, recalled his own experiences under JONAH’s care:
I watched as grown men were frenzied into fits of
emotional rage against their mothers and encouraged to act out physical
violence against their parents, in order to access their so-called ‘true
manhood’ and become more heterosexual.
… In another exercise, a man had to break through a human
barricade that I was a part of in order to seize two oranges that were
meant to symbolize his testicles. He was then frenetically instructed to
squeeze the juice from them and drink it and to put the oranges in his
pants in order to represent ‘gaining his testicles’ the symbolic absence
of them supposedly being the cause of his homosexuality.
Full story here: http://www.queerty.com/nj-reparative-group-jonah-forced-clients-into-stripping-beating-effigies-of-moms-other-bizarre-therapies-20121128/#ixzz2Da26LFYi
Someone should ask FRC just how does the above help anyone regardless of what their sexual orientation may be.
