A jury has ruled unanimously in that an ex-gay group, JONAH, was practicing fraud when it claimed it could change gay men into straight men.
JONAH, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, has just lost a civil case brought against it. Six men sued the so-called “ex-gay” group that practices conversion therapy of fraud, and won.
For the past three weeks the case, filed in 2012, has been heard by a New Jersey judge.
During the trial, defendants at one point called the plaintiffs “flat out liars.”Â
The plaintiffs, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, claim JONAH’s methods, as the AP reports, “included using a tennis racket to beat a pillow that was meant to represent one man’s mother and engaging in role play that included a locker room scene where gay slurs were used.”
The plaintiffs had alleged “that the group misrepresented homosexuality as a changeable mental disorder, advertised a strong gay-to-straight success rate, and assured the young men that after two to four years in the therapy, they’d be heterosexual,” The Forward reports.
In his closing arguments, the attorney for the gay men called JONAHÂ “amateurs using scalpels” on young gay men’s minds.
Among the plaintiffs are Michael Ferguson and husband Seth Anderson, as featured in this photo by Equality Case files. The couple were among the first to marry in Utah.
Nearly every major medical organization has called “ex-gay,” conversion, and reparative therapies harmful and dangerous. They have been linked to suicides, most notably in recent times of Leelah Alcorn, the transgender teen who died by suicide. She had accused her parents in a blog post of sending her to a Christian therapist.
Another New Jersey judge this year already ruled that conversion therapy is fraud and homosexuality is not a mental illness or disorder.
Â
Image: Plaintiffs’ attorney Jim Bromley addresses jury during closing argument.
Photo by Equality Case Files via Twitter
Â