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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Once again, a gay man trying to go from gay to straight was sexually abused under the auspices of "touch therapy." Such therapy is not only ineffective, but a gateway for conflicted therapists to sexually victimize their clients. This latest example occurred in Winnipeg, where a minister and former Christian college instructor was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young man who sought ex-gay counseling. A jury returned with the guilty verdict early last night after only a few hours of deliberations. The therapist, Terrance Lewis, 60, will be sentenced at a later date.
Lewis' erotic therapy sessions included kissing, fondling and engaging in sexual role-playing. Many of these touch therapy sessions took place inside the therapists car. "He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would understand," the victim testified.
"The use of so-called 'touch therapy' creates an ideal situation for abuse to occur, because you have sexually repressed therapists who can take advantage of vulnerable clients," said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. "We call on all 'ex-gay' therapists to repudiate and abandon this bizarre practice before more victims are damaged."
24 Comments:
it owuldbe funny if it weren't so tragic. Don't tell anyone? Heeheeeheehee
posted by Ben in Oakland, at
2/15/2008 2:41 PM
That's not touch therapy - that is sexual abuse. That's not an ex gay - that's a man posing as an ex gay and taking advantage of amother man. Like any sexual predator (whether he claims to be ex gay, gay man who loves boys, father who really loves his children and expresses it so sexually etc.. whatever you call him/her) he is a sexual predator.
posted by Anonymous, at
2/15/2008 3:23 PM
I see how this man has taken the fear of "ex gay therapy is not understood by those in the main stream" and turned it into a real tragedy for someone. Do all ex gay therapists do this??
posted by Anonymous, at
2/15/2008 3:24 PM
I do want to comment that the "victim" is not entirely a victim. He is a victim of the whole anti-ex-gay hoohah, of course. But I don't buy for a moment that he was not perfectly aware of what was going on, and how inappropriate it was. I would guess that he was willing to suspend his disbelief in order to be touched by another man, no matter how inappropriate it was, because he's a human being.
His trust was abused, but not his credulity.
posted by Ben in oakland, at
2/15/2008 4:05 PM
Sorry Anonymous, EVERY "ex-gay" is a man/woman posing as an ex-gay.
Do you know if all ex gay therapists are like the one in this article?
posted by Anonymous, at
2/15/2008 8:12 PM
I thought it was a cardinal rule for all psychotherapists that they NOT touch their patients. Are there any clinical psychologists reading this (REAL ONES), who can answer this?
posted by Anonymous, at
2/16/2008 10:21 AM
Not all ex-gays practice touch therapy...
Because there are no broad standards or regulations in the ex-gay industry. Because ex-gay "therapy" isn't real therapy, it is cult brainwashing, and just like all cults/religions (same thing, different scale), the nonsense being spewed and practiced will vary from one group to the next.
Licensed and legitimate psychotherapists typically do not touch their patients. But not being legitimate science, the ex-gay movement is not burdened by the oversight that real therapists are subjected to - which includes such things as credentials, regulations, ethics, etc.
posted by Eshto, at
2/16/2008 5:21 PM
Do all ex gay therapist do this? Are there other therapist who are not ex gay therapist who use touch therapy?
Are all ex gay therapist unlicensed? Are all ex gay therapist ex gay?
posted by Anonymous, at
2/17/2008 3:18 AM
Doesn't anyone have this answer?
posted by Anonymous, at
2/17/2008 6:30 PM
Yes, anon - all "ex-gay therapists" are unlicensed, because "ex-gay therapy" is religion-based, not scientific. Pretty much any old MacDonald's fry cook or Wal-Mart stocker could drop everything and say "I want to be an 'ex-gay therapist', and can set up shop anytime.
It also doesn't help that all "ex-gay therapist" are lunatics. Can you say "James Phelon" and "Richard Cohen"?
And no, not all "ex-gay therapists" are "ex-gay". Whatever their sexual orientation is, they have one thing in common - they're crooks and frauds.
posted by Scott, at
2/18/2008 11:52 AM
Wow. So a licensed therapist would never be practicing as someone who would help another person overcome that?
posted by Anonymous, at
2/18/2008 7:24 PM
No 'wow' because there's nothing that needs to be 'overcome'!
posted by Anonymous, at
2/18/2008 10:39 PM
In any field of work there are douchebags who slip through the cracks and manage to get degrees despite being incompetent, bigoted assholes. So there might be one or two crazies who made it through college and got psychology degrees who, for whatever dumb reason, believe gay people can and should change (most likely this would be a deeply religious person).
But if that person were to attempt to change the sexual orientation of a client, they would be going against every scientific and ethical standard established by mainstream psychology. They would probably put themselves in real danger of losing their license and getting sued into the ground.
I have heard of people encountering homophobic licensed psychologists who thought their gay patient should attempt to suppress their homosexuality. But rather than risk their own careers, they all referred those patients to "ex-gay" programs such as Exodus International, which as someone already said, are religious groups and are not subject to any of the oversight or accountability that mainstream scientists and health professionals are subjected to.
posted by eshto, at
2/18/2008 11:35 PM
No self-respecting and intelligent psychologist would go into "ex-gay therapy", because all that is, is something made up by the evangelicals, to rip off gay people.
And I'm sure no sane person with a psychology degree would want to waste their time trying to change gay people like how these "ex-gay therapists" do: touch therapy, cuddling, sucking them off, beating a pillow with a tennis racket while screaming "NO DADDY!! NO!!!", asking the gay person about their sexual experiences in great detail, and all of this other "ex-gay therapy" BS.
Evangelicals are cultists, and anyone involved with "ex-gay" and "ex-gay therapy" is part of that nutty cult.
posted by Scott, at
2/19/2008 7:46 AM
Anonymous, I suspect that you're just trolling but just in case you are sincere, by all means, check out the ex-gay industry for yourself. Spend your money, your time and your energy with them and make your own conclusions.
If you're not gay then I don't know why you are so concerned about this.
Everyone should be concerned about the misuse of psychology. And there are alot out there who are licensed and they don't act like Cohen, Nicolosis etc...
You don't hear about them because they did not abuse their clients (they id their job), they don't get involved in politics, and they don't get media attention.
Yes, I was just trying to see what kind of response was out there. And it seems very one sided. I really don't care either way what someone thinks about the efficacy of such therapy. In my opinion, being gay is what a person makes out of it as well as being straight. In other words, do with your body whatever yolog to give you want to. I have no investment in what gays do.
Just a thought - do your own research. Don't rely on this blog to give you a well researched article.
posted by Anonymous, at
2/20/2008 1:01 AM
I'm sure several people here are speaking from experience, including myself.
I spent a few sessions in an outpatient "ex gay clinic", and all he wanted to do was talk about sex - MY experiences. That's it.
And judging from everyone else's experiences, it's safe to assume "ex-gay therapists" are all kooks, crooks and perverts.
posted by Scott, at
2/20/2008 8:47 AM
People writing here do not include everyone. There's nothing safe in having only part information.
posted by Anonymous, at
2/25/2008 8:03 PM
