New York Post 22 July 2013
Oral arguments started Friday in New Jersey Superior Court in Ferguson, et. al. v. JONAH, et. al. — a landmark case in which the Southern Poverty Law Center is trying to shut down JONAH, a Jewish group that helps people with unwanted same-sex attraction live their lives in accord with Torah values.
It’s just the opening shot in a massive legal effort to ban help for gay people — a campaign I take personally.I’m one of those people the SPLC is out to harm — by substituting its judgment about what’s good for me for my own.
The client’s right to determine the course of his own therapy is a touchstone of modern psychotherapy. So the effort to deny people access to this therapy not only infringes on my right to self-determination, it violates the ethical standards of every major mental-health association.
Officially, it’s called Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, or SOCE. Therapists using it were a lifeline to my health and happiness.
I first came out to myself about my homosexual feelings at the age of 20, and soon sought out help for dealing with them constructively. I’ve done individual and group therapy, as well as experiential weekends, all aimed at helping me better manage my homosexual attractions within the context of my value system.
Jeff Bennion is a co-founder of North Star International, a support community for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who experience same-sex attraction. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/low_attack_on_same_sex_therapy_oivm1PGbeMkoh7KE7hMzPK