Tag Archives: ex-gay torture

Salt Lake City’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Provo counselor who specialized in counseling gay men will spend at least 15 years and up to life in prison after admitting to nonconsensual sexual conduct during therapy, instructing the men that it was part of their treatment process. Scott Dale Owen, 66, of Spanish Fork, was sentenced to three terms of …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to law in Colorado that bans “conversion therapy” aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. The justices took up an appeal brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, who argued that the restriction violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment. …

The Kentucky Lantern reports: Kentucky lawmakers would endanger vulnerable minors by approving a bill to protect conversion therapy, warned a coalition representing psychologists, social workers and the LGBTQ community during a committee hearing. Rep. David Hale, R-Wellington, House Bill 495’s primary sponsor, dismissed opponents’ arguments, including personal testimony from speakers who told stories of experiencing abuse and harm from conversion therapy …

Columbus’s NBC affiliate reports: Westerville voted on Tuesday to become the 13th city in Ohio to ban anti-LGBTQ+ practices known as “conversion therapy” that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Westerville City Council passed the ordinance 5-2 to prohibit healthcare professionals in the city from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. While one speaker argued …

Kansas City’s NBC affiliate reports: A group of Christian counselors and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey have filed a lawsuit against the city of Kansas City and Jackson County over their conversion-therapy bans. In 2023, the Jackson County Legislature passed an ordinance banning the practice. The city of Kansas City banned conversion therapy in 2019, an effort led by KCMO …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Former Utah County therapist Scott Owen admitted in a Provo courtroom on Monday that he sexually abused several of his patients during sessions. Owen, 66, pleaded guilty to three charges of first-degree felony forcible sodomy, admitting that he sexually abused two male patients “using his position as a therapist” and led them to believe that …

The New York Times reports: The F.B.I. said in a statement on Friday that some recipients of the latest messages were told they had been selected for deportation. Others were instructed to report to a “re-education camp” for L.G.B.T.Q. people, the agency said, an apparent reference to conversion therapy or other coercive practices aimed at altering a person’s sexual orientation …

The Kentucky Lantern reports: Calling it a “dangerous practice,” Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Wednesday that bans conversion therapy on minors in Kentucky. Speaking in Frankfort, Beshear said such attempts to alter a young person’s gender expression or sexual attractions have “no basis in medicine” — a view supported by experts in medicine and mental health. Beshear’s move …

Michigan Live reports: A group of Catholic therapists is arguing in a federal lawsuit that Michigan’s recent ban on conversion therapy for minors limits their ability to counsel children who have questions about gender identity. Emily Jones, a Lansing-based Catholic counselor, and Catholic Charities filed the lawsuit. It claims the law banning conversion therapy – a widely discredited practice of …

The Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal reports: Why should “Pride” have the entire month of June? That’s a question Jennifer Roback Morse, president of the Ruth Institute, asked herself. She came to the conclusion that if so much of America’s culture is going to celebrate people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, she might as well highlight the Americans …

The Christian Post reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal filed by a Christian therapist against Washington state’s ban on “gay conversion therapy,” allowing the law to remain in effect. In an orders list released Monday morning, the high court declined without comment a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Brian Tingley …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Former Utah therapist Scott Owen was arrested Wednesday in connection with accusations that he sexually abused patients during sessions. Owen, 63, was booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of six counts of object rape and four counts of forcible sodomy. A Utah County judge has ordered that Owen remain in jail without the …

“It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There’s freedom to change if you want to. Our race, the size of our feet, the color of our eyes, these are things we’re born with and cannot change. But what these adult advocacy groups like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network are promoting is a type of behavior. Homosexual behavior is …

CNN reports: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson closely collaborated with a group in the mid-to-late 2000s that promoted “conversion therapy,” a discredited practice that asserted it could change the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian individuals. Prior to launching his political career, Johnson, a lawyer, gave legal advice to an organization called Exodus International and partnered with the group …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Three additional men have come forward to say a therapist recommended and paid for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints touched them inappropriately during counseling sessions related to struggles with their sexuality. The men’s statements follow allegations by three others, previously reported by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica, that clinical mental …

Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen reports: Critics have long deduced that Christopher Doyle is divorced from reality, but the ugly reality of his bitter divorce is what will likely cause the demise of America’s most notorious “ex-gay” conversion therapist. Doyle is a licensed therapist and the Executive Director of the Institute for Healthy Families, which is promoted as “a …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Andrew was feeling crushed by the cultural expectation to get married. Twenty-two years old, he had just returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was attending a singles’ ward in Provo — a local congregation of unmarried college students. But Andrew is gay. And marriage between a man …

The Associated Press reports: The scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy, which aims to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, is now banned for minors in Michigan under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Michigan becomes the 22nd state to outlaw conversion therapy, which state lawmakers defined as any practice or treatment by a mental …

Michigan Live reports: Bills banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors in Michigan passed the state legislature, Tuesday, June 27 and are headed for the desk of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Once signed by Whitmer, Michigan will join the 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, which have already enacted bans on administering conversion therapy to minors. “Michigan’s LGBTQ+ youth should be …

Bloomberg News reports: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should apologize for the UK’s treatment of gay and trans veterans, according to a government-commissioned review that details a “culture of homophobia” that pervaded the British military for decades. The study — slated for publication in the first half of June and seen by Bloomberg — details accounts of electric-shock conversion therapy, intrusive …