Ex-Gay Torture Industry Group Files FTC Complaint Alleging “Fraudulent Testimony” By Their Own Victims

Back in early 2016 the SPLC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against the New Jersey-based ex-gay torture group People Can Change, alleging that the group’s practices constitute consumer fraud. It’s not clear why it’s taken them so long, but this week the ex-gay torture industry filed an answering complaint. From the anti-LGBT hate group C-FAM:

A complaint to the Federal Trade Commission denounces the “lies, deception, and fraud” of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights for their efforts to ban therapy for those who want to leave the homosexual life.

More than sixty licensed therapists, psychiatrists, and physicians who practice sexual orientation change therapy, alongside more than a thousand clients and their families, filed the complaint, entitled “In Their Own Words,” at the National Taskforce for Therapy Equality. They asked the Federal Trade Commission to act against the LGBT groups for engaging in “unfair and deceptive acts and practices” in violation of federal law.

“We have documented dozens of examples of fraudulent testimony in state legislatures, including videos of activists lying in court,” said Christopher Doyle, Co-Coordinator of the National Task Force for Therapy Equality.

LGBT groups have falsely accused mental health practitioners of torturing and shaming youths and adults who experience same-sex attraction, or gender dysphoria, through moral intimidation, electro-shock therapy, and other “aversion” therapies designed to coerce changes in behavior through pain or moral intimidation. Doyle says these charges are complete fabrications.

The SPLC’s complaint against People Can Change came because the group allegedly failed to change its practices despite a 2015 fraud ruling against New Jersey-based ex-gay torture outfit JONAH, which has since disbanded.