HUFFINGTON
07.14.13
STRAIGHT TALK
dark days in the ‘50s and ‘60s,
when homosexuality was considered a mental illness and the
catalogue of “cures” included the
sorts of torments made famous
by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest — electric shock, forced lobotomy, castration.
More recently, the rise of the
religious right has provided a
base of political support for the
handful of right-leaning therapists who continue to insist that
people can change their sexual
orientation through counseling.
In one particularly cozy example,
Marcus Bachmann, a psychologist
and the husband of Republican
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, reportedly offers conversion therapy at the counseling
center that he runs. While his
wife and her colleagues on the
Christian right use their roles as
elected officials to rail against homosexuality in Congress and on
cable news, Marcus uses his role
as a psychologist to provide an
intellectual framework for the argument that being gay is a choice.
Conversion therapy has attracted growing scrutiny in recent
years. Just last month, the head
of the largest so-called “ex-gay”
group in the world, Exodus International, announced that his
organization was ceasing operations, and offered an apology for
ever promoting the therapy. The
American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric
Association have also cautioned
against the practice. A group of
former patients and their parents
have brought a consumer-fraud
lawsuit against Jews Offering New
Alternatives To Healing (previously known as Jews Offering New
Alternatives To Homosexuality, or
JONAH), a New Jersey counseling center that offers conversion
therapy. And lawmakers in several states have taken measures to
ban it. In September of last year,
California became the first state