>> Therapists who say homosexuality can be cured are committing consumer fraud, N.J. judge says
Un juge américain a estimé que les thérapeutes qui prétendent « guérir » l’homosexualité vendent leurs prestations sur des mensonges. D’anciens patients de ces thérapies, traumatisés, avaient porté plainte.
Faire croire que l’on peut « guérir » les homosexuels via une thérapie pour les rendre hétérosexuels constitue une faute selon un juge de la Cour supérieure du New Jersey.
Au-delà de l’injure aux personnes que ces thérapies disent pouvoir changer, cette assertion constitue surtout une fraude, a estimé la semaine dernière le juge Peter F. Bariso Jr.
L’affaire opposait d’anciens patients (quatre jeunes hommes et deux de leurs parents) à l’organisation Jews offering new alternatives for healing (Jonah) , qui prétend orienter les personnes homosexuelles vers des thérapeutes capables de guérir ce qu’elle interprète comme une maladie mentale. Autrement dit, il y a tromperie sur la marchandise.
« Il s’agit d’une mauvaise interprétation et d’une violation de la loi de protection des consommateurs, car [cette organisation] fait la publicité ou vend des thérapies de conversion en présentant l’homosexualité non pas comme une variation normale de la sexualité mais comme une maladie ou un trouble mental », indique le magistrat dans son jugement. Il précise que les thérapeutes ne peuvent pas communiquer sur leur « taux de succès » puisqu’il n’existe « pas de base factuelle pour calculer ces statistiques ».
Charles S. LiMandri, l’avocat de l’organisation Jonah, estime au contraire dans le Huffington Post que les plaignants « étaient très contents du programme et se sont séparés de l’organisation en bons termes ». Pour lui, ces personnes sont ensuite « tombées entre les mains des militants homosexuels et ont porté plainte ». Et de souligner que ses clients « ne sont pas contre les homosexuels » mais veulent « aider ceux qui se sentent mal » à « demander de l’aide ».
Les six plaignants ont indiqué avoir subi des situations avilissantes et lourdes émotionnellement
Ils devaient notamment se mettre nus et frapper des photos de leurs mères.
David Dinielli, représentant de l’association Southern Poverty law center qui se bat pour les droits civiques et est à l’origine de la plainte, estime que cette décision de justice aura un impact au-delà de l’organisation poursuivie. « Elle est monumentale et dévastatrice pour l’industrie de la thérapie de conversion », a-t-il fait savoir. « Pour la première fois, un tribunal a jugé qu’il était frauduleux de dire à des clients qu’ils avaient un trouble mental qui était guérissable. C’est le principal mensonge utilisé par cette industrie pour colporter ses propos de charlatan à travers le pays ».
Par lexpress.fr
>> People who provide gay-to-straight conversion therapy are committing fraud if they describe homosexuality as a mental disorder that can be cured, a state judge said Tuesday in a ruling a civil rights group predicted would deal a serious blow to the treatment’s future across the nation.
The decision by Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr., sitting in Hudson County, gives an edge to the four men and two parents suing Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing or JONAH, accusing the Jersey City organization that promotes the treatment of violating New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
The decision is bound to have a far-reaching impact, said David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center which brought the lawsuit.
« This ruling is monumental and devastating to the conversion therapy industry, » Dinelli said. « For the first time, a court has ruled that it is fraudulent as a matter of law for conversion therapists to tell clients that they have a mental disorder that can be cured. This is the principal lie the conversion therapy industry uses throughout the country to peddle its quackery to vulnerable clients. »
In his Tuesday ruling Bariso said: « It is a misrepresentation in violation of the Consumer Fraud Act, in advertising or selling conversion therapy services to describe homosexuality, not as being a normal variation of human sexuality, but as being a mental illness, disease (or) disorder. » Barsio wrote on Tuesday.
The ruling also said conversion therapists could not advertise their « success rate » of turning people into heterosexuals because « there is no factual basis for calculating these statistics. »
This is Bariso’s second ruling in less than a week that favors the plaintiffs. On Thursday, the judge barred the defense from calling several of the controversial treatment’s proponents as witnesses because they had planned to offer scientifically refuted testimony that homosexuality is an illness. In that ruling, he said: « The overwhelming weight of scientific authority concludes that homosexuality is not a disorder or abnormal. »
Charles LiMandri, president and chief counsel for the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund that is representing JONAH, said he remains confident a jury will side with his clients « who were only trying to help people. »
JONAH never made money from the treatment, but rather referred clients to therapists who charged for their services, LiMandri said. At no time did they « advertise » success rates — estimated as one-third successful, one-third somewhat beneficial, and one-third unsuccessful, he said. « If they ask, they will be told. I don’t see that as a violation of the consumer fraud act. »
LiMandri said the therapists are not licensed and are often members of the clergy. They were not identifying being gay as a disorder « in a scientific sense, » he said.
« This is not a situation in which people are forced into something they don’t want to do. They are trying to deprive plaintiffs of freedom of choice. Americans want people to have the right to free self determination, » he added. « I believe when the jury hears all the facts. they will ultimately decide in favor of our clients. »
Arthur Goldberg, a co-director at JONAH who is also named in the lawsuit, declined to comment on the judge’s ruling. Alan Downing, a life coach and an unlicensed therapist who provides the treatment, is also named in the lawsuit.
Legal issues still remain when the case goes to trial this summer, Dinielli said.
« We also have alleged multiple additional violations of the Consumer Fraud Act — including that JONAH’s program taken as a whole is an unconscionable business practice, » according to an email from Dinielli. « We will go to trial to prove those additional violations and to obtain damages for our clients as well as an order preventing JONAH from continuing to offer its fraudulent program to the public. »
The plaintiffs in the case — Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck, Chaim Levin, Bella Levin and Jo Bruck — claim those went to the therapists were coerced into engaging in demeaning and emotionally damaging behavior, including having to strip naked and beat images of their mothers.
