Ex-Gay Group Looking to Sue D.C. over Reparative Therapy Ban
Even as same-sex marriage expands (36 states, as of last week) and even in the wake of numerous former leaders in the so-called ex-gay movement (including former Exodus vice president Randy Thomas, who 聽with 鈥渂isexual tendencies鈥� yesterday) and even after the , the largest ex-gay ministry in the country, a hardline fringe continues to push for reparative therapy, a pseudoscientific practice that claims to change homosexuals to heterosexuals.
Case in point.
The Christian Post that , an ex-gay group that claims to 鈥渄efend your rights and the rights of all who desire to fulfill their heterosexual dreams,鈥� is planning to sue the District of Columbia over its ban of so-called reparative (or conversion) therapy of minors.
Challenges to similar bans in California and New Jersey have also been mounted. The Supreme Court rejected the California challenge last summer while the ban in New Jersey was upheld by a federal appeals court in September.
But that hasn鈥檛 deterred Christopher Doyle, founder and president of Voice of the Voiceless (VoV), who told The Christian Post that the group is in the process of seeking a plaintiff to bring a lawsuit against the government of D.C. over , which became law in December. Upon the passage of that ban, Doyle, who is married to a woman and claims to be 鈥渆x-gay,鈥� that it was a 鈥渧ictory for gay pedophiles everywhere.鈥�
Doyle has a long history in the so-called ex-gay movement. In addition to his work with VoV, he is also the president of the , whose director emeritus, Richard Cohen, garnered a backlash after a 2006 CNN appearance in which he demonstrated 鈥渢herapy鈥� techniques that included beating a pillow with a tennis racket while yelling at his mother and holding an adult man as if he were a baby. Cohen from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for numerous ethics violations.
Doyle often works closely with anti-LGBT hate groups like the American Family Association (AFA) and the Family Research Council. The group named Mat Staver of the anti-LGBT hate group Liberty Counsel as the recipient of the 2013 鈥渆x-gay freedom award.鈥� VoV has also held two 鈥溾�� conferences that often feature virulently anti-LGBT activists. Last year鈥檚 speakers included Matt Barber, who founded the and Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, who once called for the deportation of LGBT people (he would ) but two years later that gay behavior should be outlawed. Sandy Rios of the AFA, who spoke at the 2014 conference, has and called Russia鈥檚 anti-LGBT laws 鈥�.鈥�
The majority of mainstream psychologists reparative therapy, saying that it鈥檚 ineffective and often harmful, further exacerbating anxiety and self-hatred. Some who have spoken out about their experiences in conversion therapy report being subjected to pseudoscientific theories, that claim childhood sexual abuse or an overbearing mother and distant father can cause a child to be gay (see , , and, for example).
The American Psychological Association (APA) (1960-2007) with regard to ex-gay therapy in 2009 and found to support it, stating that 鈥淎PA is concerned about ongoing efforts to mischaracterize homosexuality and promote the notion that sexual orientation can be changed and about the resurgence of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE).鈥� All professional medical organizations that attempts to change sexual orientation are ineffective.
The last three years have seen seismic shifts in public opinion regarding LGBT people and same-sex marriage, which may have dealt a blow to those who support therapy to change gay people to straight. In 2012, psychologist Robert Spitzer, whose 2001 study was touted by ex-gay and anti-LGBT groups as proof that reparative therapy works, that study while Alan Chambers, Exodus鈥� former president, at a conference the same year that, 鈥淭he majority of people I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation.鈥�
