Hi everybody. I've been looking for some solid evidence that BYU practiced reparation "therapy" on homosexual individuals. I've heard the claim made on lots of online message boards, but I can't find any documentation to prove it. I'd like to find some evidence so I can show some Mormon friends the completely anti-human attitude the LDS church seems to foster. Any links or other help would be appreciated.

On a side note (a bit more about me, since this is my first post ever on this site). I've been an Atheist since I was 17 (I'm 23 in a month). I have always been inquisitive, and was raised (by my Mormon parents) to always ask questions and actively search for the truth. As I delved deeper and deeper into the BoM, Bible, and historical documentations, I began to have serious misgivings about the truthfulness of Mormonism (and religion in general). I also began to have serious philosophical issues with stances on homosexuality (and sexuality in general), and previous stances on race and marriage. After getting cancer 3 times, and seeing kids in similar situations die, while I lived, I decided that at the very least, there is not an omnipotent and fair God in existence.

Anyway, I have a few Mormon friends that are willing to listen to me when it comes to my religious opinions, and I'd like to provide them with some evidence (if there is any) that BYU used reparation (or specifically, aversion) therapy on homosexuals. Thanks for any help :)

8: the Mormon Proposition has interviews of people that went through the aversion therapy. The church would never keep records of such a horrific practice. However, it happened and for all I know it still happens.

I personally went through reparative therapy. Just google evergreen international. The church is proud of this cruel and ineffective therapy. I also went to reparative therapy at LDS Social Services. The church almost succeeded in ridding this world of one homosexual by getting me to almost pull the trigger on my own head. Maybe the program is effective after all. They are ridding the world of homosexuality one suicidal homosexual at a time.

Here is another site interviewing another victim of Mormon aversion therapy. Be warned, it will make you sick to your stomach. I have personally spoken with Connell O'Donovan. Sadly, this is all to real.

http://www.lds-mormon.com/legacies.shtml

Thanks for the replies. It's unfortunate (to put it mildly) that religions aren't required to properly record stuff like this. I've gotta say, I'm always appalled to hear stories like yours and those you linked too Shane (As far as I'm concerned, this type of physical and social abuse equates to "psychological rape", if that makes any sense). I think the stance the church has taken on this subject is going to be their downfall (or at least large push). It seems to me that anti-gay sentiment just doesn't hold a lot of water with most "millenials" (and their parents, to a lesser extent). Admittedly, I live in the Seattle area, which is a far cry from UT and ID, but still.

What a horrible ordeal for you. I'm so glad you are alive to tell us about it. It is so upsetting to think that this might still be going on. One thing we all know about is the Mormon cult's nasty attitude about gays. That is definitely still going on. Our neighbors just left the cult, because one of their children is gay. This issue is something that just can't be glossed-over, IMO.

Too horrible for words!

(((Hugs to you)))

Aversion therapy is thought to have been discontinued. It's the shock aversion therapy we hear about where they attached electrodes to the person and showed them gay porn, shocking them if they became aroused. Reparative therapy is what Evergreen does now. They try to reduce same sex attraction with group talk therapy meetings, reading material, etc. Reparative therapy is still really destructive. Evergreen sets people up for failure, because obviously there is no way to change what gender you're attracted to.

There was an MTV special about ten years ago with a man named Jace Cox who got into an aversion therapy situation on campus at BYU. He found his way into it through Evergreen. At the end of the show there was some text to the effect that BYU had admitted performing aversion therapy up until the 1970s, but that it had stopped the practice. Jace Cox's experience was in 1998. He even showed his scars from where he received the shocks. I don't have any link to this admission that BYU had performed aversion therapy in the 1970s, but that might be something to look for.

When I saw a LDS Social Services counselor for depression in 1991 on campus at BYU, he told me that years before the Church had even performed aversion therapy for straight people with masturbation issues. I felt that they were cranks and refused to see them anymore, and I think I dodged a bullet. They were talking about some really nutty stuff. Associating pain or images of feces with sexual urges. A person could really be screwed up by this stuff if this is what they're doing in reparative therapy.

Sorry I can't help more. I'm not gay myself, but my father was released from his calling on the stake high council and given a "special calling" as an Evergreen moderator in the 1990s. So, don't let them tell you that Evergreen isn't a church program, because it is.

Makurosu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I felt that they were cranks
> and refused to see them anymore, and I think I
> dodged a bullet.

They are.

You did.

I was at BYU 1995-1999 and went to counseling in 1999, for what the Mormons were calling same sex attraction. The entirety of what I experienced through BYU counseling consisted of talk therapy administered by a grad student in psych, to the best of my recollection from the University of Utah, under the direction of a BYU therapist. The suggestion to continue with an Evergreen chapter after graduation had been made, but that was the extent of my treatment.

Cox's experience supposedly happened in 1994-1995 (not 1999), but no one else has come forward in the decade and a half since then to state that their aversion therapy was contemporaneous with Cox's. Indeed, most accounts of such therapy refer to it happening over a decade earlier. Cox's statements are incongruously late.

Naturally, I'm inclined to want to believe Cox, because I believe that BYU and the Mormon Church are full of homophobic assholes, but I won't deny that his account is problematic vis-à-vis the overall BYU aversion therapy timeline.

I had misspelled his name, but I was sure it was 1998. I haven't seen the video in many years though. I had a VHS tape of the show but sent it to my father so he could see it and then I never saw the tape again, not surprisingly. It had not occurred to me that Jayce might have been fabricating the story, because he got so many other facts right. Honestly though, I hope he was lying.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2011 11:54PM by Makurosu.

I was expelled ("counseled out") of BYU in 1989 when I was outed as a lesbian. They just chucked me out, no attempts to reform me. I did know gay men at that time who were subjected to electroshock therapy - as late as 1989.

Many have questioned the authenticity of my experience. That however does not remove the emotional and very real physical scars. I stand by my words and have gained nothing in exchange for them.
Jayce Cox
Montana

This literally makes me feel sick. I had no idea this was going on. I am gay, and leaving for college soon. I was STRONGLY encouraged by a leader to go to byu and look into this program - I never gave it another thought. I am so horrified. I cannot even imagine.

I hate how they treat your sexuality like a disease. It isn't a disease. It's who you are, and I was raised to believe god loves each of his children, no matter who they loved.

I hope they are not doing shock therapy anymore, but LDSSS along with Evergreen do aversion therapy.

I was first sent to LDSSS in the 90s. I later went to a psychologist in Seattle that specializes in sexual issues. She was very, very helpful (Dr Ann Hastings). I had tried suicide while under the bish and LDSSS help.

My current bish brought up evergreen with me last year. They were doing a special fireside in our area. I wasn't sure if he new of my history or was recommending it to me & DW because of my gay son, but I told him I would see if DW wanted to go, but I had no interest.

There was a book called (I think) Peculiar People that was a compendium of personal stories. Several were first person accounts of aversion therapy at BYU. Don't remember the author. I personally knew well a fellow MTC teacher who had suffered through the program.

Google the topic also. I know there are a number of websites that document this as well (Affirmation??).

Don D. Harryman's experience with electric shock aversion therapy is Ch. 3. pp. 27-8


http://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-People-Mormons-Same-Sex-Orientation/dp/1560850469/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351637685&sr=1-2&keywords=peculiar+people+mormons

Trenton here...I must be honest as well informed as my family is , It is with great pain I know they in no way want to face this truth . Yes I wasn't given shock treatments or forced to vomit while others showed me photos or porn- but I have to ask why growing up as a gay Morman I see some hope in ending my life and this conflict every day. I guess I believed I was chemicaly imbalanced ? I want to be clear I have only love a god that made me special,kind and strong but one can take hearing how your like a murdering killer(my sister) or I'm so loved but why are you angry(my other sister) . You see my family asked me to leave my home for the streets at seventeen, I was forced to express I had feelings for men - never acted upon. The idea of being abandoned and hated while my sisters enjoyed dating and BYU was even more painfull as it was a deeper scar leaving confusion,the inability to be with a male partner long turm . If your looking for shocks you won't find them here though I know many men killed themselves in such mind games. I was just slowly starved to death hoping to find love from a church and family who considered me expendable. There is hope and I pray I will love and be loved . Emotional terrorism burns your heart and soul. I love and thank anyone who cared to read my story / Trenton Gregory

This is a quick link to the story about a lesbian fare of mine and the story she told... Nobody archived the orginal, but this is the story, and there are plenty here who remember my original post...

I'm still in contact occasionally with this woman (who looks to me to be in her early 30's now, which means this didn't happen all that long ago). I'm hopeful she'll come forward with her story, but I would also understand if she didn't...

I recommend a good shot of something strong in reading this, and possibly a barf bag as well...

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,89181,89273#msg-89273

I was horrified, and I wept. Not much brings me to tears these days, but this did. And I still get teary eyed thinking about it.

TG

Robert D. Card’s patent for his penis-shocking device:

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6050959/fulltext.html

Max Ford McBride’s Ph.D. dissertation in psychology documents his use of electric shock aversion therapy at BYU, “Effect of Visual Stimulation Electric Shock Therapy,” Ph.D., BYU 1976.

The dissertation is listed in BYU’s online catalog. Hard copy is available from UMI http://il.proquest.com/brand/umi.shtml

Facsimiles of some of the pages of the dissertation are available at the following link near the bottom of the site along with further information about electrical shocks being administered to Gay male BYU students at BYU. Footnotes are included.

http://connellodonovan.com/abom.html

As of this writing, Max McBride is clinical psychologist at 1055 N 300 W # 414, Provo, UT 84604 (801) 357 7757.

Electric shocks were also administered to Gay men by Robert D. Card, Ph.D., he is now retired.

In the early 1980s, I met personally with Card. I was in my 20s and finally coming out of the closet. Having been through two (2) church courts, I was desperate to “not be gay” and be a Mormon. I also had been through the LDS Social Services "we can make you straight" program of the day. It didn’t work.

Having grown up in rural Utah as a TBM and being a returned missionary, Mormonism was the only life I knew. Homosexuality was the sin next to murder and in that time and location an embarrassment to me as well as my family.

I saw Card on a program on KUED where he talked about his electric shock “treatment” for gay men. I made an appointment and met with him. Did I mention I paid him for the privilege? He explained how he would have me place a monitor on my penis and then show me gay dirty movies. If I became aroused, I would be given an electrical shock.

I think someone would have to be a real pervert to devise such a system.

As desperate as I was to “not be gay,” I came out of the meeting convinced that God did not require me to receive electrical shocks. In the prior 3 years I had no success at remaining celibate and decided that the only other option was to leave the Mormon church which I believed in and loved.

I suppose I should be grateful.

I started attending Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons. Sometimes making a 4 hour round trip on a week night after work. It saved my life.

These are interviews with men who were subjected to this electro-torture. Truly a horrific practice. Sadly, I know someone who doesn't want to know anything about it. He just shuts down his mind to anything disturbing regarding his blessed cult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwUTVQ4mfNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-8BmFwGIc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeMKmnMfNUo&feature=related

TG

and re-post the story about his fare.

Like someone else said--most mormons I tell this to don't want to hear it. Even ex's of gays don't want to hear this.

I'd just like to thank everybody one more time for the replies. I was able to follow some of the links to a wealth of cited information (something that is very important to me). If anybody is curious, the sources I found most helpful were from a book that is freely available online (http://connellodonovan.com/abom.html), and affirmation.org (which is loaded with info). I'm going to try compiling the most noteworthy material into something that's easy to understand, provides links to citations and original sources, and is succinct enough to keep people's attention (especially the attention of my LDS friends). If I like the final product enough, I might get it printed out as a booklet or something (if not to give to others, than for others to use as a "talking points" reference). I'll be doing this in my free-time, so it might be a while, but if anybody is interested I can post it on the forum when I'm done. thanks again! :)

For those with a strong stomach: "Latter Days" the film saga of a missionary who is sent home and subjected to "therapy". I understand it is based on real events.

Can you believe this horrible "treatment" happened after the movie "Clockwork Orange" had already dealt with precisely this issue years before? The movie exposed the same kind of procedure as torture and fraud. Mormon ignorance reaches astounding depths.

Try this as well...

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mormon-gay-cures-reparative-therapies-shock-today/t/story?id=13240700

This is a link to an ABC news story wherein BYU admits to having performed the shock therapy.

http://www.affirmation.org/news_2011/2011_043.shtml

The program was called 'Evergreen' and they used electrodes to shock people and/or delivered emetics IV until they puked their guts out as 'aversion therapy'...

(Whomever started the IVs violate the primary principle of medicine: First, do no harm. Incredibly unethical.)

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mormon-gay-cures-reparative-therapies-shock-today/story?id=13240700&page=1#.UJB3ZrR_wXc

There is an exmormon.org forum thread on this at:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,151733

This is the morg's bullshit:

http://www.evergreeninternational.org/aversion_therapy.htm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2012 08:59PM by John_Lyle.

Dude,

I am glad you have had a great response. A good friend of mine from BYU that I thought was straight has since told me he went through this process as well.

I hope the evidence you have will be persuasive to your target audience, but I am suspicious that they do not truly care and are just complicating the matter for you as they are prepared to believe one of Smith's many First Vision accounts that happened almost 200 years ago without any evidence (it didn't happen)while challenging the easily confirmed abuse of LDS homosexuals at BYU by LDS licensed professionals which is easily confirmed and widespread.

They don't care about truth, they care about fantasy. If it does persuade even just one to act differently please share that story here for our betterment.

I thought I remember reading about this therapy in the miracle of forgiveness book.