Amazon Pulls Anti-Gay Books on Harmful ‘Conversion Therapy’ by NARTH Founder

“I believe that all people are heterosexual, but that some have a homosexual problem,” Joseph Nicolosi told The New York Times in 2012. “I don’t believe anyone is really gay.”

Nicolosi, who died in 2017, was the founder of NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. A psychologist, Nicolosi advanced a fake, damaging, and dangerous practice called “conversion therapy,” which falsely claims to make gay people straight.

Some who have been recipients of “conversion therapy” have called it torture. Some have noted it made it impossible for them to have emotionally intimate relationships. And it has been linked to depression and even suicide.

Finally, Amazon has reportedly decided to no longer sell books by Nicolosi. A quick search of the company’s U.S. site found no books by him.

Business Insider cites “sustained pressure from activists” as the reason for pulling “a bunch” on books on conversion therapy.

One activist, in particular, was a driving force behind the removal of Nicolosi’s books, which was first reported by Gay Star News. UK-based Rojo Alan became aware of Nicolosi’s works after a local church planned to screen a film promoting conversion therapy, although the screening was later cancelled due to protests.

Just days after Nicolosi’s death, The New Republic published an article on the pseudo-scientist, “The Abominable Legacy of Gay-Conversion Therapy.”

It begins with the quotes above, noting some of his book titles: Healing Homosexuality and A Parents’ Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.

What Nicolosi offered was a way for homophobic parents, patients, and psychologists to validate their anti-gay feelings as being legitimated by nature, science, and psychological evidence. He established NARTH in 1992 alongside Benjamin Kaufman and Charles Socarides, two other obsessively anti-gay psychologists, explicitly in reaction to the removal of homosexuality from the DSM.