Ex-Gay Watch

Direct link here. (JiM is second segment, about 6:30 in)

Patterned after the equally bizarre Mankind Project, Journey into Manhood is nothing new to those who keep up with pseudo-therapies which make wildly unscientific claims of success in changing people from gay to straight.  JiM’s founder, Richard Wyler, doesn’t even try to claim a professional background that would qualify him as a therapist or a researcher.  Claims made by the organization have as much factual weight as those made on behalf of “male enhancement” pills on late night cable — anyone can claim anything.

Yet in spite of all this, and the dearth of any credible evidence that sexual orientation can be changed as an act of will, gay men still pay the $650 to spend a weekend with the boys, chanting about manhood, elevating males to mythical positions, hugging and holding each other (while naked en masse according to former attendees).

Since JiM invited Nightline cameras into the normally secretive reunion weekend, things were probably less intense.  Also, this was a reunion, not an actual weekend — JiM refused entry to those.  Even so, it gets rather strange.  And inevitably the question arises, as it does with many of these groups, are these people — leaders included — simply fulfilling their needs for male intimacy through the activities created to drench the weekend in maleness?  Is this really a wink wink, nudge nudge farce, where most everyone knows what’s really going on, but uses the pretext because it is a safe way to experience the intimacy without guilt?

If so, not everyone plays along.  Nightline also talks to a couple of men, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, who were steered to JiM through JONAH, the group known mostly now for the criminal record of it’s founder, Arthur Abba Goldberg.  These two men expected some semblance of professionalism, and instead found themselves asked to do things they were unprepared for and unwilling to do.

And what of the “successes?”  The wife of the person they highlighted and who seemed most positive about his “change”  later said that they often look at men together, but his type is different than hers.

Update: The ABC piece isn’t really investigative journalism, as they took whatever JiM spooned out to them.  Check out a more thorough undercover piece here.

Edit 11/10: Replaced expired promo video with full version from Hulu.

Arthur Goldberg, the ex-gay leader exposed earlier this year as a convicted Wall Street felon, will speak at a conference in Northern Ireland in November.

Arthur Abba Goldberg was jailed in 1989 after being convicted of fraud. He later founded JONAH, the Jewish ex-gay ministry originally known as Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, but whose recent name change made it the confusing Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing. Goldberg appears to have deliberately hidden his identity, and stepped down from the highly anti-gay NARTH when the story became public in February. He subsequently blamed everyone but himself for the fiasco.

Evidently none of this has affected his standing among some conservative evangelicals, including the Northern-Ireland-based Core Issues, who have made him their main speaker at a November 1 event named for Goldberg’s anti-gay, ex-gay polemic Light in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Power to Change. (Actually, the book had the word “Torah” in the title, too.)

Goldberg will be joined by “gender wholeness” counselor Baxter Peffer, erroneously referred to as Baxter “Beffer” on the Core Issues website.

Core Issues joined Goldberg in hitting the headlines in February when gay activists criticized it for hosting a conference by Mario Bergner, an ex-gay Anglican priest who claims to have been miraculously healed of the “symptoms” of AIDS.

Update, October 15: The Core Issues website now says the event has been postponed, due to the untimely death of Matthew Davidson, the son of Core Issues director Mike Davidson. Hat tip: XGW commenter William.

It hasn’t been an easy year for JONAH. First, their co-founder Arthur “Abba” Goldberg was outed as a convicted felon. Then, a scandal broke about how two young Orthodox Jewish men were engaged in bizarre, naked therapy wherein it was reported a much older man, Alan Downing, instructed them to touch their genitals in front of a mirror while he watched. This scandal led to an awkward (though ironically more accurate) name change, “Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing.”

Now a statement has been signed by many Orthodox rabbis confirming their support for gay people, including their “religious right to reject” ex-gay therapy. But their hastily applied band-aid hardly covers a thing. As was noted in a previous article, JONAH’s web page title still reads “Homosexuality” instead of “Healing.” And the dozens of references to the old name have yet to be edited in the articles on the site. But the biggest proof that JONAH hasn’t even changed superficially is the continued support for the bizarre therapy that led to the Downing scandal in the first place.

According to JONAH’s website, “Many who struggle with SSA experience touch deprivation, an issue often overlooked in therapy.” That’s why point number 10 of their FAQ endorses the practice that other ex-gay organizations have long shunned. At the Exodus and NARTH websites, damning references will disappear within hours of exposure on a gay-supportive blog. In the case of disgraced “sexual reorientation life coach” Richard Cohen, statements may even appear opposing the use of “touch therapy.” But JONAH is obviously not on the ball, and they clearly lack the self-awareness to recoop their image, even superficially.

JONAH can’t even prove “change is possible” in their own website content.

Dozens of Orthodox Rabbis have signed a statement of principles expressing support for the inclusion of gay Jews in their community, but still rejecting complete acceptance of same-sex partnering and marriage. One particular point stands out:

5. Whatever the origin or cause of homosexual orientation, many individuals believe that for most people this orientation cannot be changed. Others believe that for most people it is a matter of free will. Similarly, while some mental health professionals and rabbis in the community strongly believe in the efficacy of “change therapies”, most of the mental health community, many rabbis, and most people with a homosexual orientation feel that some of these therapies are either ineffective or potentially damaging psychologically for many patients.

We affirm the religious right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject therapeutic approaches they reasonably see as useless or dangerous. [emphasis added]

So while lip service is paid to those in the Orthodox community who see value in ex-gay therapy, it is made explicitly clear that such therapy can rightfully be avoided.

Also of note is the use of the phrase “homosexual orientation.” Ex-gay therapy is based upon the rejection of the existence of specific sexual orientations. Rather, only heterosexuals with “homosexual problems” exist. Said heterosexuals are simply “struggling with temptation.” But the rabbis who have signed on have acknowledged the existence of a unique group of people who have intrinsic non-heterosexual orientations.

This can also be considered just the latest of several blows to JONAH, the ex-gay organization that claims to cater to those in the Orthodox community.

Wayne Besen points out a bizarre change in the name of the ex-gay organization JONAH. Formerly Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, JONAH have apparently changed (most) references to their name on the website to Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing.

(As of writing this article, they have neglected to change it in their header, making the old name visible at the top of internet browsers and in search engines.)

It is no surprise that JONAH would try to revamp their image following two recent scandals, but it is a surprise that they have chosen a name that makes no sense. As an ex-gay outreach, they try to offer an alternative to homosexuality, but the alternative is healing — or so they claim. “Alternatives to Healing” makes no sense in this context. But then again, nor do the empty promises of ex-gay therapy, and even a shiny new logo and a name change will not alter that.

Two men have accused Alan Downing, a life coach with Richard Cohen’s ex-gay International Healing Foundation, of using sexually inappropriate therapy techniques, according to Truth Wins Out.

On separate occasions, Downing allegedly asked Ben Unger and Chaim Levin to undress in front of a mirror and fondle their genitals while he watched, saying this would help them affirm their masculinity.

Downing is a close associate of JONAH, the Jewish ex-gay organization whose leader Arthur Abba Goldberg was exposed as a convicted Wall Street felon earlier this year. He has also run courses and retreats for the controversial Mankind Project., and worked with the gay-to-straight outreach People Can Change and its affiliate Journey into Manhood.

Downing is ex-gay, but admits he is still attracted to men, according to TWO.

First Goldberg, then George Rekers, and now Downing–they’re falling fast this year.

See also Wayne Besen’s follow-up editorial at Huffington Post: Ex-Gay Therapy Is Scandalous.

The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has officially responded to Ex-Gay Watch on the matter of Arthur Abba Goldberg, the former NARTH Executive Secretary.

Goldberg, who is co-founder and co-director of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), was revealed last month to have been jailed and fined in 1989 for his part in a multimillion-dollar business fraud.

Goldberg responded to the reports by shifting the blame, and was duly followed by NARTH President Julie Harren-Hamilton, who attacked the gay media and bloggers for exposing Goldberg’s criminal past.

Last week, XGW reported that Goldberg was no longer listed as Executive Secretary of NARTH. Now NARTH Vice-President of Operations David C Pruden has spoken on the record about the situation.

In a statement made to XGW, Pruden revealed that NARTH knew nothing of Arthur Abba Goldberg’s conviction for felony prior to last month’s investigative report. He also confirmed that Goldberg had resigned from the board of NARTH. The full statement reads:

In the past two weeks incidents that took place more than twenty years ago in the career and life of Arthur Goldberg first came to our attention. He has never taken the members of the NARTH Board into his confidence concerning these events and this information came as a complete shock to NARTH members and to our organization. Read more…

Arthur Abba Goldberg is no longer listed as a NARTH officer on the organization’s website.

There is no indication whether Goldberg resigned or was forced to leave. Either seems likely after last month’s revelation that the champion of reparative therapy and co-director of Jewish ex-gay ministry JONAH was a convicted felon. In 1989, Arthur Abba Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and fined $100,000 for his part in a mail fraud scam.

He appears to have deliberately concealed his identity since becoming a leader in the ex-gay movement, and when his past finally caught up with him, he tried to blame everyone but himself for his predicament.

NARTH President Julie Harren-Hamilton (who confusingly appears as both Julie Harren and Julie Hamilton on the NARTH website) gave a weak defense of NARTH and its officers following February’s reports, but without naming Goldberg.

Update: 03/03/10: NARTH’s Vice-President of Operations, David Pruden, has confirmed that Arthur Abba Goldberg is no longer a board member of NARTH.

NARTH President Julie Hamilton has responded to this week’s report that NARTH Executive Secretary and JONAH co-founder and co-director Arthur Abba Goldberg is a convicted felon.

On the NARTH website, Hamilton makes a number of assumptions and seems blind to the actual issues raised. She says that activists, “unable to silence NARTH’s message, resort to attacking NARTH’s members.”

I can only speak for Ex-Gay Watch, but when the story broke, it never occurred to me that Goldberg’s exposure was ipso facto a way to discredit NARTH as a whole. It discredited Goldberg, certainly, and by extension JONAH. It is primarily NARTH’s own response that will reflect on the organization – though admittedly, the omens in Hamilton’s article are not good.

Goldberg exposé part of coordinated strategy against NARTH?

Hamilton ties in the Goldberg story with a protest staged against NARTH in Florida last November:

[A] journalism student leading the November protest shouted into a megaphone that they had been unsuccessful in stopping the work of NARTH through counter conventions, so they would instead begin to target the individual members of NARTH. Following these threats, there have indeed been attempts to discredit both NARTH members as well as non-members who do similar work.

Again, I speak only for XGW in saying that we know nothing of the group shown in the video, or the identity of the media student speaking through the megaphone. TWO organized speaking and protesting events at the same conference, but XGW is not aware of a connection to the group in the video. Read more…

Arthur Goldberg’s damage-control campaign has begun. His strategy is to portray himself as an innocent man who made a mistake, and is now the victim of a ruthless personal attack by the purveyors of the much-feared gay agenda.

Arthur A Goldberg, Executive Secretary of NARTH and a co-founder and co-director of Jewish ex-gay group JONAH, was exposed earlier this week as convicted felon Arthur Abba Goldberg, the Wall Street investor fined $100,000 and sentenced to 18 months in 1989 on three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America.

Goldberg has yet to respond publicly to the reports. He appears, however, to have written to his fellow board members at NARTH, in a letter obtained by Ex-Gay Watch.

Goldberg: Allegations exaggerated, false, malicious

Goldberg begins by describing the charges made against him by the Truth Wins Out/South Florida Gay News investigation as “exaggerated and in many parts false and malicious.” He then says he will explain what happened “so that all of you may have some idea of what was involved.”

This suggests that he had not disclosed his criminal past to NARTH. This is further supported by XGW’s conversation with David Pruden, NARTH’s Vice President of Operations. While freely identifying Goldberg as Arthur Abba Goldberg, Pruden denied knowing anything of the charges made in Monday’s article.

This is very concerning. Who neglects to disclose criminal convictions – especially a felony of this nature – to organizations for which they work, unless quite deliberately? Most companies, organizations and workplaces require their employees and officers to disclose such matters, not least because it could open an organization like NARTH to liabilities of its own. The protocol applies even more so when an organization is professional, pastoral, financial or charitable in nature. Yet the evidence so far suggests Goldberg said nothing. Read more…