Alan Chambers And Exodus Show Us Their Theatrical Side: VIDEO

It's unclear why Alan Chambers and his anti-gay friends at Exodus International decided to release this "blooper reel" of Chambers' propaganda flubs from over the past year, but they did.

But after watching the video, one thing is clear: Exodus, a conservative Christian organization that no longer thinks you can pray the gay away but still claims same-sex attraction is sinful, is one big piece of performance art, and Chambers is the star.

It would make for a great mockumentary if they didn't take it so seriously.

Take a peek behind-the-scenes AFTER THE JUMP.

California Judges Halt Law Ending Ex-Gay Therapy For Minors

A three-judge panel in California yesterday put an injunction on the law prohibiting use of ex-gay on minors. Though the judges did not give a reason for their ruling, representatives from both sides of the debate of course spoke out about the decision.

Lynda Gledhill from the California Attorney General's office, which opposes ex-gay therapy for minors, vowed they will keep fighting those trying to "change" young gay Americans: "California was correct to outlaw this unsound and harmful practice, and the attorney general will vigorously defend this law."

Meanwhile, on the right, Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver said, "This law is an astounding overreach by the government into the realm of counseling and would have caused irreparable harm."

It's worth noting here two things. One, all major medical organizations have warned that ex-gay therapy, called "Reparative therapy" by its proponents, has negative side-effects, including depression and suicide. And there are no known positive effects. "There has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation (sometimes called reparative or conversion therapy) is safe or effective," said the American Psychological Association.

Second fact worth pointing out: Mat Staver has a history of wildly outrageous comments about the impact of progress. Just the other day he claimed marriage equality would lead to another civil war, so perhaps his sense of proportion vis a vis overreach is a bit skewed.

Anyway, this injunction comes after another judge blocked the law, meant to go into effect on January 1, earlier this month. He claimed opponents did not have sufficient proof that "ex-gay therapy" was harmful.

Stephen Colbert Applauds the Orange-Squeezing Technique for Curing Homosexuality: VIDEO

Stephen Colbert looks at California's recent ban on "ex-gay" therapy, applauding techniques used by reparative therapists, especially one that involves squeezing oranges and putting them in one's pants, because it can also provide healthy juice for the entire clinic.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Second Federal Court Ruling This Week on 'Ex-Gay' Therapy in California Brings Differing Conclusion

Yesterday I reported that U.S. District Court William Shubb placed a block on California's recently passed SB 1172, which bans harmful "ex-gay" therapy for minors but has limited his order to three people — "psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay" — until a trial can be held on the merits of their challenge.

Shubb ruled that the "First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in 'reparative' or 'conversion' therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people."

Another ruling came the same day, which I didn't report on.

Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed explains:

On Tuesday, however, Judge Kimberly Mueller, an Obama appointee, reached the opposite conclusion, finding that "Plaintiff therapists are not likely to prevail on the merits on their First Amendment claim."

The reasoning, primarily, revolved around what standard the court should use to resolve the claim, whether speech or conduct (or expressive conduct, which is a type of conduct that is intended to convey a message) was at issue. If speech is involved, "strict scrutiny" is applied and the state must show a compelling reason for regulating that speech.

In concluding that the plaintiffs were bringing a legitimate First Amendment claim, Shubb examined the law, shortened to "SOCE," and found "[w]hen applied to SOCE performed through 'talk therapy,' [the law] will give rise to disciplinary action solely on the basis of what the mental health provider says or the message he or she conveys."

Mueller, however, found that not only was speech not involved but that "the provision of healthcare and other forms of treatment is not expressive conduct." Specifically, she decided that the plaintiff therapists "have not shown that the treatment, the end product of which is a change of behavior, is expressive conduct entitled to First Amendment protection."

The rulings — and the appeal to the Ninth Circuit — were only in relation to requests for preliminary injunctions halting the enforcement of the new law while the underlying lawsuits can proceed.

More at Buzzfeed...

Said NCLR's Kate Kendell following Tuesday's ruling: "We are confident the courts will continue to uphold this life-saving law, which simply requires licensed mental health practitioners to follow professional standards and to refrain from using practices that have no basis in science or medicine."

Federal Judge Blocks California Ban on 'Ex-Gay' Therapy for Minors

A federal judge has placed a block on California's recently passed SB 1172, which bans harmful "ex-gay" therapy for minors but has limited his order to three people — "psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay" — until a trial can be held on the merits of their challenge.

The AP reports:

U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb (right) made a decision just hours after a hearing on the issue, ruling that the First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in "reparative" or "conversion" therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people.

"Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of (conversion therapy) that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech," Shubb wrote.

The judge also disputed the California Legislature's finding that trying to change young people's sexual orientation puts them at risk for suicide or depression, saying it was based on "questionable and scientifically incomplete studies."

NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter, Esq. released a statement in response to Shubb's ruling:

“We are disappointed by the ruling but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit. The judge stressed that he was willing to issue the ruling in part because it is temporary and applies only to three individuals. We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate health care professionals to protect patients. That is especially important in this case because the harms to minors are so serious, including suicide and severe depression. Every leading medical and mental health organization in the country has rejected these practices and warned that they are not only completely ineffective, but dangerous. California did the right thing by enacting this law, and we are confident the courts will find that it is not only constitutional, but vitally necessary. It is heartbreaking to think of the terrible damage that has been done to so many LGBT youth and their families, and of the lives that have been lost or destroyed because of these discredited practices.

We applaud Senator Ted Liu, the bill’s author, lead sponsor Equality California, the California Legislature, and Governor Brown for protecting these young people and their families. Governor Brown’s statement when he signed this bill is right on target: ‘This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide. These practices have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery.’”

The law, which was passed on September 29, goes into effect on January 1, 2013.

Filmmakers Weigh in on Lawsuit Against 'Ex-Gay' Org JONAH, Wonder if Founder's Gay Son Will Testify

BY BILL HUSSUNG and MISHARA CANINO

A first-of-it’s-kind lawsuit charging a prominent ex-gay leader with consumer fraud for offering to “cure” homosexuals will be settled in a New Jersey court. However the court may rule, we can state from personal experience that the allegations made in the complaint brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center match our own personal experiences with the man at the center of the lawsuit.

Arthur Goldberg is the founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, commonly known as JONAH. Goldberg has made no public comments about the substance of the lawsuit other than to issue a press release condemning the suit as an attack on free speech. But the issues at the heart of the lawsuit, the therapy practices he promotes as a “gay cure,” were the subject of hours of videotaped interviews we conducted with Goldberg several years ago. Those interviews ended up being featured in our documentary Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement.

In the lawsuit, four gay men claim that Goldberg’s organization charged them for phoney counseling sessions that involved pillow beating, trash talking their mothers, and nudity with other men to switch their sexual orientation. All of the claims match what Goldberg told us on camera, and showed us during the filming of our documentary. We can’t tell you if this amounts to consumer fraud, but we can tell you that the charges ring true.

We first met Goldberg at our apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan after he refused to give us the address of his organization, saying he had to get to know us before releasing such sensitive information. “We’re somewhat afraid of the gay activists, they can make things difficult for us, and that’s why the address isn’t listed,” Goldberg explained. Several hours later, satisfied we were really documentary filmmakers and not gay activists, Goldberg agreed to allow us access to his facility, therapists and some patients. It turns out the JONAH headquarters are inside a Jersey City building fronting as a Russian Jewish art museum.

In the consumer fraud lawsuit Benjamin Unger claims he was ordered to beat a pillow with a tennis racket while shouting “Mom! Mom! Mom!” That’s a practice Goldberg was eager to have us film when he put us in contact with Baltimore based conversion therapist Richard Cohen. Goldberg works closely with Cohen and refers many of his clients to him for counseling. Cohen had a patient demonstrate the practice for us. Goldberg told us the treatment was based on the idea that homosexuality comes out of family dysfunction, “there is a very clear pattern of what causes homosexuality, over involvement with the mother is a major factor.” In the lawsuit Unger says the treatment greatly damaged his relationship with his mom. No doubt. Goldberg listed other possible causes as, “child sex abuse, same sex peer abuse, body image wounding, and defensive attachment to the father.”

Richard Cohen is not named in the New Jersey lawsuit but a source says he was involved with treating the plaintiffs. Cohen practices a form of touch therapy that involves caressing and holding the patient on his lap. In the lawsuit against Goldberg it’s alleged that young men were instructed to remove their clothes and stand naked in a circle with an equally nude counselor. This tracks with what Goldberg and Cohen told us about the importance of male bonding and body image issues. “ Body image problems are confidence problems, a body wound is a sense of feeling different,” is the way Goldberg put it. It’s worth noting that Cohen is a former moonie who married his wife at a Unification Church mass wedding at Madison Square Garden. He was disciplined by the American Counseling Association and ultimately kicked out of the organization. Goldberg is a disbarred lawyer who was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and served six months in a federal prison.

At the heart of the potentially ground breaking lawsuit against Goldberg is the argument that conversion therapy promotes the idea that being gay is a choice, a position gay activists believe promotes anti-gay bigotry. ” There is no such thing as homophobia, homophobia is a made up term, a way of making the average American feel guilty,” was how Goldberg responded to a similar argument in our film. We’ll see if it’s the same argument he makes in court.

During the course of our filming with Goldberg he said a lot of surprising things. But perhaps nothing was as surprising as the revelation that he has an openly gay son, “I don’t want to embarrass my son, but yes, he doesn’t like to be publicly identified, it’s not just my son, it’s a lot of members of my family.” It will be interesting to see if any of them get called to testify.

Watch the trailer for their documentary Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement,
AFTER THE JUMP...

Bill Hussung and Mishara Canino are award-winning documentary filmmakers whose work has appeared on cable television and at film festivals across the country.  Their awards include the Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Journalism. Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement is distributed by IndiePix Films. Bill was co-creator of the MTV series, MTV Juvies.  Clips from Chasing the Devil are available at www.boompotatofilms.com.