Leading 'Ex-gay' Group has tax exempt status revoked

IRS Revokes Tax Exempt Status Of Leading Ex-Gay Group

by David Badash on March 12, 2013

NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality has just had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS. In a move similar to what the IRS did with Peter LaBarbera‘s anti-gay hate group, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) the IRS gave NARTH several years to file the appropriate tax-exempt forms, and yet they did not. AFTAH had its tax-exemot status restored later. NARTH is a notorious purveyor of fraudulent or faulty so called “ex-gay” therapy, which practically every major medical association has labeled harmful.

An expert in documenting the ex-gay industry, Warren Throckmorton, via an email writes:

“At the same time NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) is using the lawsuits against the state of CA to solicit donations, they have lost their tax exempt status.”

Throckmorton’s website adds:

In September 2012, the tax exempt status of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) was revoked due to failure to file Form 990 for three consecutive years. The notice of revocation was yesterday according to the IRS website.

He concludes:

It is difficult to know what this means. NARTH has never been a wealthy organization and conference attendance has declined in recent years. Members are hoping to maintain their ability to conduct reparative therapy with minors in CA via lawsuits against the state to overturn SB 1172 (see this article for more on SB 1172 and thenNARTH’s perspective). NARTH has been actively soliciting donations to help support their legal actions. One would not be able to tell from the website that those donations are not deductible.

One of NARTH’s most famous members, George Rekers, resigned from NARTH’s board of directors after being discovered in a Florida airport having returned from a European vacation with a “rent boy.”

Throckmorton himself was a member of NARTH until his resignation in 2006.

Can straight porn change unwanted same sex attraction

Since Exodus International, the religious umbrella group for ex-gay ministries, said it would nolonger try to “cure” homosexuality it caused a split in the ex-gay world. In Australia, LibertyChristian Ministries  and Living Waters have sided with the old school approach and holding on to their guns preaching change is possible. "Look at me" the leaders say, "I am married, I have children".

One of the things that came out of the ex-gay “rift” was evidence that Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the pseudo scientific organisation NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) , usespornography in his “therapy”. This is used to supposedly help clients “imagine” having different attractions. This is quite feasible as I know of gay guys from Christian backgrounds who have tried to do the same themselves and also know of pastors and parents who suggested hiring a female prostitute would help them. Nicolosi  rebuffedthe claims  saying that he used gay porn to desensitize clients  and that he "uses pictures of women they find attractive in mainstream magazines and we work on developing a physical attraction to them, through their imagination".

NARTH also posted an article by Nicolosi about “overcominggay pornography” that demonstrates the organization’s twisted and unrealistic understanding of sexuality.

According to Nicolosi, gay men are drawn to gay porn because it fulfils three “emotional needs”. These emotional needs, Nicolosi claims, are the result of compromised masculinity which is causing them to be gay.

Firstly gay men watch gay porn because of "body envy", as they feel inadequate in comparison to the porn actors’ “muscularity, body hair, large build, and the archetypal image of masculinity, a large penis.”  

The second, Nicolosi proposes, is an assertive attitude, in which gay men are drawn to the “directness, non-inhibition, and bold aggression” of the porn actors. And thirdly he suggests “vulnerable sharing,” because gay men are attracted to the “open sharing of emotions” portrayed when two men are together.

Simply put, Nicolosi believes all gay men are emotionally weak, body-conscious cowards and are desperate for loving attention from other men. Nicolosi's  solution? Make some friends and those three needs will be met.

Nicolosi's twisted views on homosexuality produce weird theories and practices and misses the very simple fact. Gay men  are attracted to gay porn because they are same sex oriented.This is the way their brains and hormones are wired. Trying to desensitize them to their natural same sex attraction or showing them images of the opposite sex is crazy crazy stuff.

Nicolosi's clients are closeted, tormented people who are troubled by the same sex attraction because of either religious beliefs, family pressure or both. In the 50's, 60's and early 70's mental health professionals came up with all kinds of theories and therapies to try 'cure' people of their homosexuality. Aversion therapies, injections, electric shock treatments and lobotomies were just some. At that time, the pressure to change came from society who viewed homosexuality as an illness and crime. The draconian practices  of the 50's, 60's and early 70's never worked. All mental health professional organisations through to the World Health Organisation have not only moved on but rejected change/conversion/reparative type "therapies".

As long as there are out-dated religious beliefs, family and society pressures to conform and general ignorance about sexual orientation, ex-gay organisations will continue to promote their twisted theories that play on vulnerable people. Thankfully our societies are changing in western countries to more enlightened understandings of sexuality. Unfortunately, in the mean time, they cause untoldharm to people trouble believing they have unwanted same sex attraction. To say nothing of the wasted years and money.

© Anthony Venn-Brown 

Twitter: @gayambassador 

Facebook: Anthony Venn-Brown - A Life of Unlearning

Facebook: Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International 

Website: www.gayambassador.com 

Email:  info@gayambassador.com 

Anthony Venn-Brown is the co-founder and former leader of Freedom2b, Australia’s largest network of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people from Christian backgrounds. He is also an educator and consultant on LGBT/faith issues and leader in deconstructing the ‘ex-gay’ myth. Anthony’s autobiography 'A Life of Unlearning', details his journey from married, high profile preacher in Australia’s mega-churches to living as an openly gay man. Anthony has been twice voted ‘One of the 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians’ (2007 & 2009) and  was one of four finalists for the 2011 ACON Community Hero Award. He is also the founder and director of Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International.

‘Ex-gay’ researcher pulls study, admits he was wrong

Author // Serkan Ozturk

Apr13 2012

The US psychiatrist responsible for a controversial and much criticised 2001 study claiming that gay people could change their sexual orientation if they were “highly motivated” enough has disavowed the research in sensational fashion after admitting to a magazine that  “the critiques are largely correct”.

Dr Robert Spitzer, the psychiatrist responsible for the study, was ironically at the forefront of moves in the early 1970s to have homosexuality removed from the list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which eventually occurred in 1973.

In 2001 however, Spitzer (pictured) published a paper which included interviews with over 200 people who had gone through so-called ‘ex-gay’ programs.

The study did not make any claims about the success rate of ex-gay therapy but Spitzer concluded that the sessions, many with religious overtones, worked for a highly select group of motivated individuals.

In an interview with American Prospect magazine, Spitzer said it was wrong of him to publish the study and that he even contacted the Archives of Sexual Behavior – where the study was first published – to then publish a retraction which according to him was refused by the journal’s editor.

“In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques [of my study] are largely correct,” he said.

“The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.”

Spitzer told American Prospect he was encouraged to look at the issue of ex-gay therapy due to its controversial nature and to test the claim that no one had ever changed their sexual orientation through the programs.

Spitzer’s study has since been quoted widely as evidence by many anti-gay groups as well as fundamentalist religious organisations in the US and abroad that ex-gay therapies work.

Founder of Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International, Anthony Venn-Brown, an advocate for gay Christians and also a survivor of ex-gay programs run in Australia in the 1970s, told SX that it was not unusual for right wing Christian groups and ex-gay organisations to latch onto or “cherry pick” research.

“Christian groups claimed the study proved people could change but looking deeper into these studies demonstrate revealed that ‘change’ had not actually occurred.

“The claim was that 14 per cent did manage long-term to either greatly reduce or completely stop homosexual practices. Of these, a third were ‘struggling’, another third reported being reasonably happy but were celibate,” Venn-Brown said.  

“The other third (only eight patients out of the 200 participants) who reported a shift but not complete change in sexual orientation were people who made their living within the ‘ex-gay’ industry.”

Spitzer has also asked American Prospect to print a retraction of his original study so he wouldn’t “have to worry about it anymore”, saying that failed attempts to rid oneself of same-sex attraction were actually potentially extremely harmful.

“Looks like he will finally and definitely put this red-herring to bed,” Venn-Brown added.

AVB note: The video below was made in 2007 in response to Focus on the Family's misuse of interview material and also misrepresenting his study. The above article is about a total retraction of his 2001 study.

The Sissy Boy Experiment - Three Part Investigation

In 1970, a five-year-old boy named Kirk Murphy was subjected to an ex-gay experiment. Under the care of Dr Ivor Lovaas and George Rekers, then a doctoral student, of UCLA, he underwent therapy to eliminate supposed effeminate behaviours. In 1974, Lovaas and Rekers jointly published a paper about the boy they renamed "Kraig," heralding his treatment for "childhood cross-gender problems" a success and claiming he had been transformed from a gender-confused homosexual-in-waiting to a healthy, heterosexual young man. On the back of this study, Rekers built a career as an anti-gay activist and a supposed expert in childhood sexual development. He co-founded the Family Research Council and championed reparative therapy to turn gay men straight. In 2003, Kirk, aged 38 years old and gay, committed suicide. 

These video's contain interviews with George Rekers and Dr. Joseph Nicolosi from NARTH (caution required)

Part One


Part Two


Part Three