In honor of FlattopSF who suffered greatly because of the hateful teachings and actions of mormon church leaders and his family. On Monday he took his own life.

Time to repost this for all of the new people. Church leaders sent gay people to BYU for electric-shock "therapy". The idea was to "cure" them. What it did instead was mess them up emotionally. This began in the 1970s and continued until at least 1992. We know this because SLCabbie had a female fare a few years ago who told about her horrific experience in 1992 - they attached electrodes to her privates and shocked her.

High-up church leaders knew about this and approved.

I'm ashamed to claim myself a graduate of BYU. I had no idea this was going on in the basement of a building I had some classes in.

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

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

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

TG

I certainly hope not. I'm forever shocked by mormons who hear about this and can still stay mormon.

NO! Fortunately not! I guess I should have included that. Twice he was beat up by his brother trying to kill him, with his mother's approval. This was in response to the teachings of mormon leaders - beat them up, they're better off dead.

TG

Oh God! I'm physically ill!

Thank you for re-posting this. The is probably the single most damning thing I've ever seen regarding the church. Pure evil.

I can confirm a case of this as late as 1996. A good friend of mine from high school
was sent for "reparative therapy" around then. Not sure if
it
was at byu for sure though.

I know that one of the main psychologists who did this at BYU continued to practice it on his own after BYU stopped sponsoring it. I don't know the timing.

I saw these videos several years ago as we were exiting the church. I had a teenaged daughter who came out as bi-sexual at the same time that we left. As an adult convert, I never knew about Bishop's interviews behind closed doors - grilling the youth, and subsequently publicly shaming them, for their innate sexuality.

I pulled my daughter and my two other YW (along with my smaller primary children) from all youth programs *overnight* when I first became aware of this practice. My bi-sexual daughter is now struggling emotionally and behaviorally as a young adult. She blames me for ruining her life when she was a teen and yanking her from the safety and security of the only religion she ever knew.

She cannot, CANNOT, possibly grasp the horror that I protected her from enduring as a gay teen-aged Mormon.

I grieve for those boys in the films, for every closeted gay Mormon youth . . . and for FlattopSF. They endured scorn and disgust that I will never know in my lifetime.

RIP Kerry.

How?
How did they get away with this? OMFG.
The psychological damage, the cruelty, the evil of this...
I had read about it, but to see this: Horrific.
Does the rabbit hole never end?
And did xyz suffer through this as well?!

These are men of god, eh? Vile, so vile.

No,xyz did not have to endure this.

Vile indeed.

TG

CNN did a piece on this back right before the election. They tried to get the Evergreen people to come on camera but the pulled the classic "We're not official church h leaders" weasel maneuver.

I had no idea that it continued until 1992. I started reparative therapy (fully voluntary) in 1994, and no one ever subjected me to any such thing. I find it odd now that no one ever admitted to me that such a thing had been done at the school. Surely one or more of my therapists would have been clued in to that happening. I knew about the 70s and 80s, but now I wonder what my therapists knew and when they knew it.

This is quoted from A History of Homosexuality at Brigham Young University.

It was going on when I was there. You could get school credit for turning people in.

"Another tactic taken by BYU administration was the creation of extensive student spy networks. The BYU Honor Code of the 60s and early 70s mandated that students report any infractions of the Honor Code to the Standards Office, even if anonymously. This allowed the Standards Office and BYU Campus Security to engage in practices that were anything but honorable, in order to maintain the honor code. Campus security visited Gay bars in Salt Lake City, noting car license plate numbers with BYU parking stickers and turning that information over to the Standards Office. Decoys were used to entrap male students in bathrooms. Students could even gain credit for posing as Gay decoys by signing up for the Justice Administration 299R course."

Now, that WAS something that one of my therapists clued me in on. When I told him of the temptation that I had when reading a hook-up message on one of the bathroom stall walls, he told me that the university police were some of the people writing those messages, and that "they will not be nice to you like I am. They will turn you into the Honor Code office, arrest you..." etc. He didn't say it in a condescending or threatening manner; he meant it as a father figure. If I ever meet him again, I should thank him for that.

It turns out that, according to one of my gay friends at school, the message I had read was genuine. He claimed that the guy told him he had a lot of gay BYU students come over to his house for sex. So there's the church unintentionally encouraging anonymous and sometimes dangerous gay sex.

I lucked out by being too poor to afford on-campus parking. Who knew not having a BYU sticker on my car was going to save my ass? Because I was dancing my heart out at the gay bar in SLC my senior year every week-end.

I didn't even know all the rest was going on.

Thank heavens for dumb luck.

+one billion:)

blueorchid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is quoted from A History of Homosexuality at
> Brigham Young University.
>
> It was going on when I was there. You could get
> school credit for turning people in.
>
> "Another tactic taken by BYU administration was
> the creation of extensive student spy networks.
> The BYU Honor Code of the 60s and early 70s
> mandated that students report any infractions of
> the Honor Code to the Standards Office, even if
> anonymously. This allowed the Standards Office and
> BYU Campus Security to engage in practices that
> were anything but honorable, in order to maintain
> the honor code. Campus security visited Gay bars
> in Salt Lake City, noting car license plate
> numbers with BYU parking stickers and turning that
> information over to the Standards Office. Decoys
> were used to entrap male students in bathrooms.
> Students could even gain credit for posing as Gay
> decoys by signing up for the Justice
> Administration 299R course."


I realize I'm sharing a second-hand anecdote, but a friend of mine went to BYU and was made to undergo the electroshock therapy "conversion" business. He was also told that, unless he basically tattled on every single other BYU student who was or might be gay, based on the "honor code," that he was not demonstrating adequate repentance. :-/

Showing your repentance was part of the deal. According to what I have read as far as the shock treatments went, there was a dial of some sort to set the shock on high or low. This was left to the subject to control.

If a student/victim set the electricity on low, it was determined that he was not sufficiently repentant and was not showing motivation to change and his recovery was questioned, whereas those who set it on high were more likely to not be expelled or have their grades frozen or whatever blackmail was being used at the time.

Sickening.

I am horrified and shocked by these videos. I had no idea they subjected suspected young gay people to porn then injected chemicals to make them vomit or feel happy. Holy Shmoley, those were some Nazi's!
This has to be one of the worst crimes ever, and in the 1970's to 1990's in USA. Creepy beyond belief.
Thanks for posting this, and know that I believe this happened. I was at BYU in early 70's and it was very Fascist. Not being gay, I was unaware of that particular prejudice on their part.

I am one small voice in the middle of morgville speaking out for tolerance, but we all have to do what we can.

And don't forget, those barbaric sessions involved gay pornography, which had to be purchased and brought in by someone.

They had to violate their own "so-called" morals by paying for and distributing porn. Then they tortured, which has to be some kind of sin.

When a close mo-friend (RM) of mine told me he was gay in the mid-'80s, he also said he still believed in the church and would be going through "therapy" so he wouldn't be gay anymore. For seven years, my sweet friend went through hell (and never told me exactly what happened) but came out of it and said, "I have the capacity to love women but I'm naturally attracted to men; I always have been, from the time I can remember, and I'm fine with that now."

He's been openly gay for a long time and has a fabulous long-term relationship (and hoping to get married). I hope he never had to go through this treatment; it was too much for him to go through the emotional turmoil. No one should have to endure that. I'm so sad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2013 07:15PM by toto.

This makes me sick. I am crying.

How can we as a human species do these types of horrible things?

I am so sad for anyone made to suffer this atrocity.

The bad part about this is that they were basically blackmailed. They had to do the therapy or be expelled from the university and be ratted out to parents and probably ward and stake leaders. No wonder suicides were the result. Here we have actual deaths of people, induced by policies that were specifically approved by the highest leadership of the church. They have blood on their hands.

I learned about this on my mission in Oz in the 80's when their 60 minutes did a whole segment on it. We were all horrified and sickened, many members and elders just decided not to believe it could be true. But at least I was warned and escaped this sort of torture when I was later at BYU and heard the rumors.

This wasn't just done by shrinks in Utah or at BYU. When I later lived in AZ and was really struggling against just accepting my homo self, my bishop referred me to a very highly regarded head doctor used by TBMs throughout the whole area, a guy who was considered an 'expert' on this particular 'problem'. During the first visit, he wanted already to get me prepared to be hooked up and electrified, he was so sure it would work. That moment was one of those pivotal moments when sanity and anger saved me, I left that office absolutely determined that no matter what, nobody was going to electrify any of my junk!

I'm going to bookmark this thread, I want access to those videos to send my parents, its time they really faced what it was they wanted for me. Its horrifying, but nobody should really be okay with looking away.

This smacks of the techniques used on Hitler Youth groups. SCARY!!

This makes me loathe TSCC so much that I wish its immediate demise.....and the disappearance of COB into a sinkhole!

So let me get this straight....the way to holiness and the cure for your deviancy is.....wait for it.....hetrosexual porn! I'm sorry, but that in itself is just whacked, torture and blackmail aside.

I hope more continue to show the horror that many gays and lesbians have been subjected to and shine a bright spotlight on this vile "therapy."

http://www.back2stonewall.com/2013/02/criminal-minds-exposes-ex-gay-therapy-serial-killer-storyline-hate-groups-lose-minds.html

http://www.afterelton.com/2012/11/groundbreaking-american-horror-story-qu eer-storyline (you'll have to put the qu and eer back together, then copy and paste)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629607/

Learning about Evergreen while I was at BYU is one of the many proverbial straws for me regarding TSCC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 12:22PM by Itzpapalotl.

I know many people that were sent to similar "therapy" by religious authorities from all sorts of religious backgrounds. It wasn't limited to just religious leaders, but in most all cases, it tracked back to religions values.