Ferguson v. JONAH , New Jersey High Court No. L-5473-12 (NJ Super.Ct. Law Div. 2015) is a prominent case of LGBT human rights at a New Jersey jury unanimously deciding that conversion therapy, also called "reparative therapy," "reorientation therapy," or "gay former therapy" is a consumer scam. The lawsuit accuses the Jews of offering a New Alternative to Homosexuality or JONAH (which changed its name to Jews offers a New Alternative to Healing) consumer fraud to sell services that they claim can turn someone from gay to straight. The lawsuit alleges that the two founders of JONAH, Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk, plus Alan Downing, a life coach working at JONAH's office, have violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. This case is the first law of its kind to use consumer protection legislation to legally challenge conversion therapeutic practices. The South Poverty Law Center filed the case in November 2012 and the case was heard on 3 June 2015. The Court's pretrial ruling states for the first time in American history that homosexuality is not a mental illness, a disorder, or an equivalent. as a matter of law. On June 25, 2015, after three weeks of trial, the jury unanimously found that the defendant was responsible for consumer fraud and irresponsible business practices, ordered JONAH to pay $ 72,400 to compensate the plaintiff plus an undisclosed amount for attorney's fees, ordering to keep JONAH permanently closed, and forbid the defendants to start a similar organization in New Jersey.
Video Ferguson v. JONAH
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Conversion therapy is also called Sexual Orientation Changes Efforts have a long history in the United States. Conversion therapy claims to help people, usually gay men, overcome unwanted homosexual attraction, thereby "transforming" them from gay to straight. At the end of the nineteenth century, doctors used castration and in some cases, testicular implantation, as a method to heal homosexuality. In the early twentieth century, doctors moved from body modification to psychotherapy as a form of treatment. In the mid-twentieth century, gay men were often institutionalized and experienced electroconvulsive shock therapy to turn them into gay or change their gender identity. Conversion therapy becomes discredited as a legitimate medical practice because the mental health profession begins to reassess its stand and understanding of homosexuality and gender identity. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association stopped classifying "homosexuality" as a mental disorder and a year later the American Psychological Association passed a resolution stating that homosexuality does not imply social destruction.
Currently, all leading medical, psychiatric, physiological, and professional medical counseling organizations discriminate and strongly criticize conversion therapies. Nevertheless, conversion therapy is still generally directed at LGBT individuals from a conservative religious and political background. The most famous and largest institution is NARTH and Exodus International is now dead. Other organizations include North Star, which appeals to Mormon, Joel 2:25 which appeals to Evangelical and Catholic Christians, and the People Can Change (now called Brother's Road) that appeal to Mormons and Evangelical Christians. JONAH appeals mainly, but not exclusively to Orthodox Jews in New York City.
Maps Ferguson v. JONAH
Plaintiff
Five plaintiffs are represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & amp; Hamilton LLP, and Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC. The named plaintiff, Michael Ferguson, grew up in a conservative Mormon household and has been a JONAH client. Two additional clients, Benjamin Unger and Chaim Levin, have grown up in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. All three are consumers of conversion therapy offered by JONAH. SPLC represents two additional plaintiffs, Bella Levin, Chaim's mother, and Jo Bruck, Sheldon Bruck's mother who went to JONAH when she was only 17 years old and therefore a minor. Both women are from the Orthodox Jewish community and have paid JONAH for conversion therapy services for their son.
Defendants
Charles LiMandri of the Freedom of Consciousness Defense Fund who was a one-time adviser to the National Organization for Marriage represented three defendants. The defendants were founders of JONAH, Elaine Berk and Arthur A. Goldberg, who had spent 18 months in jail for securities fraud in the early 1990s, and Alan Downing, life coach and Mormons who provided conversion therapy for three male plaintiffs.
Facts and Experiments
Pre-Trial Rules
On January 30, 2015, JONAH's lawyers signaled to exclude the overall testimonies of plaintiffs. These expert witnesses are Carol Bernstein, MD.; Janja A. Lalich, Ph.D,; and A. Lee Beckstead, PhD. The court rejected this request. The lawyer for the plaintiff moves to exclude expert testimony from the witnesses of the accused. These witnesses are Joseph Berger, MD,; Christopher Doyle, MA, LCPC,; Joseph Nicolosi, PhD.; James E. Phelan, MSW, PhD.; John R. Diggs,; Rabbi Avrohom Stulberger. The court granted the plaintiff's claim.
In Judge Bariso's order wrote, "the existence of a minority of supporters of conversion therapy is not and can not exclude the fact that DSM and homosexuality exceptions are generally accepted in the field of mental health.Furthermore, a group of some closely related experts can hardly validate each other as a means to establish the reliability of their theory together... Every JONAH expert believes that homosexuality is a disorder or not a normal variation of human sexuality.Because generally accepted scientific theory is that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and not an abnormality, this opinion is unacceptable. " continued writing, "the theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not new but, as the assumption that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it, is outdated and refuted Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in DSM until its abolition in 1973. Although DSM has added a newly recognized disorder as a result of a growing understanding of the medical field, the case presents the opposite situation: WHAT removed homosexuality from DSM after concluding that it was not a nuisance. JONAH has not identified any case that provides a standard for acceptance of obsolete and discredited scientific theories. By definition, the theory is unreliable and can not offer help to the jury, but presents only confusion and prejudice. "
Trial
The trial begins with the jury selection on 1 and 2 June 2015 with the opening argument starting on 3 June 2015. The plaintiff's lawyers argue that JONAH violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, while the defense argues that the First Amendment and religious freedom are permitted. they sell conversion therapy services to people who want it.
The plaintiffs presented evidence of one-on-one counseling sessions and group counseling sessions involving nudity and one instance where a client was told to strike his mother's statue with a tennis racket. They also present evidence of a Journey Into Manhood weekend involving a "healthy touch" that sometimes involves nudity embraced with other clients or life coaches and "courage" that sometimes require participants to revive past harassment. The plaintiffs also present evidence on JONAH's listserv, the primary means through which JONAH communicates with his client. The plaintiffs prove how Berk sends answers to questions about homosexuality that say gays are "sick", "disorganized", and "broken" and that gay people tend to become alcoholics, child abuse, and dying of AIDS.
The plaintiffs called several nationally recognized experts to testify including Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist specializing in the study of coercive influences and Dr. Carol Bernstein, director of the psychiatric residency program at New York University medical school and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. Bernstein testified that JONAH's treatment methods involving nudity in individual therapy, an extension between the therapist and client, the re-creation of traumatic experiences including sexual harassment, and anger removal exercises are not acceptable by the professional ethical standards of psychiatric conduct. If there are licensed professionals found using such methods, it will ensure disciplinary action up to and including expulsion.
The evidence produced by the plaintiff indicates that Goldberg assures his client that the JONAH Program has a successful "two-in-three" chance, or "a substantial opportunity," or a "70 to 75% chance" for someone to change their sex. But when asked by the plaintiff's lawyer to show how he calculates these statistics, Goldberg can not do it because JONAH does not keep client records. The statistics cited by Goldberg are entirely fictitious or based on his own recollections of past clients and the selective retraction of studies of the subject.
Defenders named Downing, Berk, and Goldberg to testify about their work at JONAH. Defense also calls Jeremy Schwab, founder of the former gay organization Joel 2:25 International, Rich Wyler, founder of People Can Change, and Dr. Joseph Berger. They called a series of what they consider to be witnesses of "success stories", including Preston Dahlgren and Jeffrey Bennion who appeared on the reality show TLC "My Husband's Not Gay." At the time Bennion was Chairman of the Mormon Council's conversion therapy organization known as North Star International. The defense called these seven "witnesses of success stories" to show that the treatments offered by JONAH could work. These people claim to have successfully completed a course of conversion therapy. Witness first success story, Jeffrey Bennion, testified that although he married and considers himself successful, he is still dominated by men. The remaining "success stories" are similar; none of the witnesses testified that he is now having an affinity with the opposite sex on a regular basis. During cross examination Bennion confirmed that he and Dahlgren were part of an advanced secret group known as the "Electrical Workers Brotherhood." He explained that the group consisted of other people who had gone on the weekend of Journey Into Manhood and that the group met twice a month at his home in Utah. Part of their "therapy" includes massage and hugging each other and sometimes nudity plays a role in their activities. On cross examination, Dahlgren testified that she sometimes had a "slip up" which meant that she continued having sex with other men.
Journey Into Manhood
The main element of the case involves a weekend retreat of Into Manhood experience that the three plaintiffs have attended at least once. The retreat costs $ 650 and is often managed by Alan Downing and others associated with JONAH and other conversion therapy organizations. People Can Change, founded by Rich Wyler and now known as the Brothers Way, organizes retreats at a location in Pennsylvania that is the goal of JONAH's clients.
The plaintiffs testified that upon arrival at the camp their personal belongings, including the phone, had been taken from them. Over the weekend the plaintiffs testified that they were encouraged by staff including Downing and Wyler to do "courage work." "Guts" stands for "Getting Under The Surface." Wyler explained at the trial that the Guts Work is a psychology worker to be solved to find past injuries that have placed them on the path of homosexual development.
Ferguson, Levin, and Unger testified that one practice required them to be blind folded while other participants bounced basketball and shouted slurs like "fagot" and "weird" to them. Ferguson had previously detailed the exercises he had followed in which clients took turns standing at one end of the room while others held hands to the human end of the chamber and an additional person standing behind a chain holding two oranges representing the testicles.. The individuals in the chain blocked the subject from "testicles" and taunted him with statements such as "you're gay," "gay," and "weird boy." The subject usually expresses his anger and aggressively attempts to break the chain to catch two oranges, sometimes biting and squeezing them to drink juice and sometimes put oranges in his trousers.
In the pulpit, Ferguson testified about Guts Work activities that involved rolling participants into blankets, which Ferguson and others then wrapped in masking tape. A group leader instructed Ferguson and others to shout slurs like "fagot," "queer," "you fucker," "homo," and "pussy." They were instructed to use the word "shrimpy" because the particular participant was ridiculed in his youth for being short. When asked by lawyers what happened to young men during this exercise, Ferguson stated, "at that point he started to get very emotional and the leader told us not to stop, keep walking, keep walking and then that's when he told us to start using shrimp, so we stood around and started chanting shrimp and prawns and shrimp and pointed it out, things like that.He started crying harder and harder finally.we were told not to quit.This is good, she needs this "Do not stop. She needs to get in touch with his masculinity. We kept shouting louder and harder to him. "
Ferguson, Levin, and Unger all testify that they have been encouraged to engage in a "healthy touch." Unger testified that Downing had encouraged him to find someone in the group he was interested in and then lay on the floor and hugged. Other drivers are told to do the same. When they were all on the floor, the lights were dimmed and the staff turned on a song by Shaina Noll entitled How Could Anyone . "There's some very, very, very slow music playing in the background and Alan Downing is sitting there looking at us and leading a healthy touch group session embraced." At other times, Journeyers was told to have a "healthy touch" with older volunteers so they could receive from his older man "Golden Father Energy."
Journey Beyond
According to Wyler, "Journey Beyond is a much more advanced weekend for men who have done Journey into Manhood and have done additional therapies, weekend additional experiences, other types or work, and are now looking to advance their work further, especially to explore embrace other types of opponents. "$ 850 weekend fee.
Although no plaintiff participated in the Journey Beyond program, the defense showed a long deposition video of their witness, Jonathan Hoffman, a young man who had participated in the Journey Into Manhood weekend before being part of the staff. The weekend Hoffman's detailed events include a process of rebirth, broad nudity with other participants and staff, and often close the eyes of the participants.
Decision
On June 25, 2015, after a three-week trial, the jury negotiated for only three hours before returning a unanimous verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. After the decision, a juror told Equality Case Files that JONAH's program was not a therapy and his decision was "cut and dried." In addition to the country's first verdict, a pretrial ruling by the Court declared for the first time in American history that homosexuality is not a mental illness, a disorder, or an equivalent as a matter of law. David Dinielli, deputy legal director of SPLC, said: "This decision is a monumental moment in the movement to ensure the rights and acceptance of LGBT people in America... Conversion therapy and homophobia are based on the same lie - that gay people are corrupted and need to be improved. Conversion therapist, including the defendant in this case, selling fake drugs that are not working but can seriously endanger the unsuspecting people falling into this trap.We are proud of our clients, these survivors to be the so-called treatment and have the courage to call people- people who deceive them with their false promises. "
Legal Analysis
In a lengthy analysis published at Northwester University Law Review Online, lawyer Peter R. Dubrowski reviewed the strength of the case and provided a fifty-nation survey of state consumer protection laws that could be used to construct claims similar to those in JONAH. case. Dubrowski writes that "a judgment of a state court court in New Jersey does not create a binding precedent or guarantee success in future clothing on the conversion therapist, but the case is envisioned as - and is - a powerful model to consider in establishing lawsuits in future. "
A verdict of evidence in which the court ruled that as a matter of homosexuality not a disease means that a core error is made every time a conversion therapist receives payment for "treatment" and every time a therapist gives what is called "therapy". Dubrowski states that conversion therapy is not successful because conversion therapy can not work, in the sense that it can not "cure" homosexuality. Mistaken representation in the conversion therapy center is that homosexuality is abnormal and fickle. This is the position held by leaders in the conversion therapy movement. "To recognize that homosexuality is not a disease or mental disorder, and that it is not a condition subject to care and change, is implicitly acknowledging that the only basis for continuing to invade the LGBT community is not in science, but in bigotry - based on religious intolerance or irrational prejudices. "Dubrowski argues that current litigation is the best route to the cessation of national conversion therapies. Attempts to change sexual orientation have proved ineffective, and at worst dangerous. Litigation puts the face on victims who have suffered physical and mental disorders. If the public comes to see conversion therapy as a fraud perpetrated against sincere religious individuals and not just as a legal-if-unpleasant option, then politicians seeking to pass a ban on conversion therapy will be supported in their efforts to protect religious minorities from scam artists.
Dubrowski concluded that, "Conversion therapists ruin life, they convince men and women that they are sick when they are healthy, and that they can be cured when nothing can be cured." They use unethical and dangerous treatment methods such as nudity and ' healthy touch "that is unscientific at the best and almost no disguised opportunity for erotic contact between the therapist and the worst patient. They fail to deliver the promised results - because they can not do it. This is a fraud. There is no room for their conversion therapists, their services, or their misinterpretations in the American market. For now, at least one jury in New Jersey agrees. In time, with JONAH functioning as a model, many more will surely reach a similar verdict. "
See also
- Ferguson's decision v. JONAH and the road to national cessation of "gay-to-straight conversion therapy"
- In Cast Court that can terminate "Called Conversion" So For Good
- JONAH, the largest Jewish gay conversion organization, takes its last breath
- Truth Wins Out Celebrating Legal Historical Victory Over the Conversion Therapy Group
References
External links
- Ferguson v. JONAH Complaint
- Claim for Defendant to be Dismissed
- The Plaintiff's Opposition to Movement to Dismiss
- Defendant's answer to Motion to Opposition to Dismiss
- The command to reject Motion to Dismiss
- Ordered to Deny Partition of Partial Judicial Explanation
- Opinions 5 February 2015
- Accepting the Plaintiffs' Movement to exclude the Defendant's Expert Witness
- Commands Giving the Plaintiffs Movement for Partial Summary
- Final Decision
- Permanent Indemnification Message
- Determination of the Final Judgment Settlement
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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