November 27, 2012

Excerpt from the article on the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) website: “The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit today accusing a New Jersey organization of consumer fraud for offering conversion therapy services – a dangerous and discredited practice that claims to convert people from gay to straight. … ‘People who are told repeatedly that they are innately defective are being abused and traumatized,’ said Laura Booker, a licensed clinical social worker who helps people recover from conversion therapy’s devastating effects. …‘They may spend years recovering from the trauma inflicted upon them.’ Conversion therapy also promotes the idea that gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation, a position that encourages a climate of anti-gay bigotry.” [Editor’s note: I have not found any professional sexual orientation therapists or ex-gay ministries who tell their clients they are “innately defective” or who “promote the idea that gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation.”]