The Southern Poverty Law Center today filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey “ex-gay therapy” organization, claiming that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), its founder, Arthur Goldberg, and counselor Alan Downing violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by providing conversion therapy claiming to cure clients of their sexual orientation.
“JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken,” said Christine P. Sun, deputy legal director for the SPLC, in a prepared statement released today. “Despite the consensus of mainstream professional organizations that conversion therapy doesn’t work, this racket continues to scam vulnerable gay men and lesbians out of thousands of dollars and inflicts significant harm on them.”
The SPLC says conversion therapy propagates the myth that sexual orientation is a choice, a position the SPLC says encourages anti-gay bigotry.